Aims This audit aimed to quantify the number of smokers attending two general dental practices. It also aimed to establish the demographic characteristics of these smokers in terms of age, gender and deprivation status, and to raise the awareness of practice staff about smoking cessation. Methods Data were collected from consecutive patients (aged over 16 years) attending two general dental practices over a period of one month. The information collected included smoking status, number of cigarettes smoked, age, gender, and postcode. A deprivation score (derived from the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation [WIMD] for 2008) was appended to each patient record in order to provide a measure of deprivation based on the postcode of the patient. Staff at both practices were involved in the audit. Staff were given a brief pre- and post-audit questionnaire to test their knowledge on smoking cessation. The audit standard was that no more than 29% of patients should be smokers. Where relevant, data were statistically tested using the chi-square test. Results Five hundred and sixty-one patients provided data on their smoking habits. It was found that 159 (28.3%) were smokers, smoking on average 12 cigarettes per day. The average age of the sample was 46 years and 242 (43.1%) were male. Forty-eight per cent of the sample was shown to be resident in a postcode considered to be deprived. Older patients were more likely to be non-smokers (P=0.0001). Following the final audit meeting, correct answers among staff for knowledge of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines regarding effective smoking-cessation practices improved from 6% to 71%. Conclusion The issue of smoking cessation has been highlighted for two dental teams. Whether the audit will result in the delivery of smoking-cessation procedures within the dental practice settings cannot be established. It is clear that the desired smoking-cessation behaviours can now be contemplated by the dental teams. Further monitoring is required to establish outcomes as a result of the actions of the teams.


This paper presents an energy efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol exhibiting intelligent switching among optical network unit (ONU) transceiver power levels. This is implemented by introducing a new methodology at the ONU ActiveFree state of next generation passive optical networks (NG-PONs) based on the adaptation of standard local sleep and local doze queue indicators (LSI and LDI) to a more comprehensive grated mode selection policy. In particular the mode selection is not only based on Qlow and Qhigh traffic conditions, representing the absence or presence of traffic. Dense mode selection thresholds are applied instead that grate queue traffic providing fine switching between cyclic sleep and doze. Performance evaluation figures such as transceiver power consumption percentage, delay, and queue size were drawn under different network loads and varying sleep intervals. Computer simulations have shown transceiver power consumption levels of 44%, following the application of only cyclic sleep, a power consumption of 63% with only doze mode and a reduced consumption down to 25% in the presence of the proposed grated mode selection policy.


Malaria in Nigeria is treated blindly in most cases and where diagnostic measures exist, efficacies of several are still in doubt. This study evaluated performance of microscopy and rapid (RDT) methods in confirming prevalence of malaria parasites (MP),parasite species and percent parasitized red blood cells in 384 persons systematically selected from seven primary healthcare facilities in Ogun State, Nigeria from October to December 2012. Giemsa thin and thick film techniques and RDT (SD Bioline Ag P.f/Pan kit) were employed on the blood samples. Data were analysed using SPSS version 16. Demographic results showed that females were 61% and males 39%,but of varying age groups. Seventy-one percent of the blood samples were positive for MP by microscopic blood films, and only 24% samples were positive by RDT. Paired sample T-test showed a significant difference (P=0.000)between microscopy and RDT methods. Of the 273 positive blood samples,95.6%were P. falciparum,3.3% were P. malariae, 0.7% was P. ovale and P. vivax (0.4%). For RDT, P. falciparum was 74% while mixed infections were 26%. Prevalence in risk groups 0–10 and 11–20 age groups was observed to be higher with significant differences (p=0.011, p=0.023) for both microscopy and RDT respectively. RDT sensitivity and specificity were 23.4% and 74.7% compared to microscopy. Positive Predictive Value and Negative Predictive Value were 69.6% and 28.4%. The efficiency of the RDT was 38.3%. The low sensitivity of RDT observed means that malaria diagnosis by microscopy method remains the gold standard.


In this thesis we model and analyze several environmental policies in an existing mathematical representation of a perfectly competitive electricity market. We contribute to the literature by theoretically and numerically establishing a number of effects of environmental policies on investment strategies and prices. We provide a theoretical benchmark for environmental regulators aiming to achieve certain policy goals, and present a way to use numerical tools in case a complete theoretical analysis cannot be obtained. Two policies that charge firms for their carbon emissions, namely cap-and-trade and carbon taxation, are modeled into both a stylized deterministic and a two-stage stochastic framework. In the former we characterize equilibria, leading to key results on the dispatching order of technologies and identification of unused technologies. The latter framework is analyzed through a sampling study and focuses on the effectiveness of the policies in the presence of network limitations. We successively study a renewable energy obligation, which indirectly subsidizes electricity production from renewable resources through green certificates. We additionally explore the effects of technology banding, meaning that different renewable technologies are eligible for a different number of certificates. To account for some of the drawbacks of the existing UK technology banding system, we introduce an alternative banding policy. Finally, a feed-in tariff (FIT) is a direct subsidy on electricity production from renewable resources. In a stochastic framework we derive analytically that under linear cost assumptions, this price based instrument cannot guarantee that quantity based policy targets are met. Assuming non-linear convex cost, we find that the opposite holds and that a regulator has the freedom to set FITs in such a way that any desired mixture of renewable technologies can be attained at equilibrium. These FITs are derived analytically or, when necessary, estimated using the numerical tools that we propose.


The progress in bone cancer surgery and multimodal treatment concept achieve only modest improvement in the overall survival, due to failure in clearing out residual cancer cells at the surgical margin and extreme side-effects of adjuvant postoperative treatments. Our study aims to propose a new method based on cyclodextrin polymer (polyCD) functionalized hydroxyapatite (HA) for achieving a high local drug concentration with a sustained release profile and a better control of residual malignant cells via local drug delivery and promotion of the reconstruction of bone defects. PolyCD, a versatile carrier for therapeutic molecules, can be incorporated into HA (bone regeneration scaffold) through thermal treatment. The parameters of polyCD treatment on the macroporous HA (porosity 65%) were characterized via thermogravimetric analysis. Good cytocompatibility of polyCD functionalized bioceramics was demonstrated on osteoblast cells by cell vitality assay. An antibiotic (gentamicin) and an anticancer agent (cisplatin) were respectively loaded on polyCD functionalized bioceramics for drug release test. The results show that polyCD functionalization leads to significantly improved drug loading quantity (30% more concerning gentamicin and twice more for cisplatin) and drug release duration (7 days longer concerning gentamicin and 3 days longer for cisplatin). Conclusively, this study offers a safe and reliable drug delivery system for bioceramic matrices, which can load anticancer agents (or/and antibiotics) to reduce local recurrence (or/and infection).


Isomers Isomers are compounds with the same molecular formula but different structural formulas. Isomers do not necessarily share similar properties, unless they also have the same functional groups. There are many different classes of isomers, like stereoisomers, enantiomers, geometrical isomers, etc. (see chart below). There are two main forms of isomerism: structural isomerism and stereoisomerism (spatial isomerism).


management of short-term hypertension and tachycardia, such as is often observed in association with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In 1995, we reported the comparative hemodynamic effects of esmolol and labetalol in patients presenting for ECT (1). After IV administration immediately before ECT, equivalent decreases in peak systolic pressures were documented with esmolol (1.3 and 4.4 mg/kg) and labetalol (0.13 and 0.44 mg/kg). Thus, in adult patients, to attenuate the systolic blood pressure increases after ECT by 50%, 90 mg of esmolol was comparable to 9 mg of labetalol, and 300 mg and 30 mg of the respective drugs were required to nearly abolish the hypertensive response. This equivalency is useful to determine the comparative cost of the two drugs. In all patients presenting for ECT, vital sign observations and clinical annotations are recorded and stored by computer at the bedside, allowing analysis of clinical data and determination of the total amount of labetalol administered. In the years 1994-1996, there were 3,172 ECTs, during which time a total of 21,330 mg of labetalol was used; the cost to the pharmacy was $3,440. Because the clinical effects of 10 mg of labetalol are comparable to those of 100 mg of esmolol (l), we would have used 21,330O mg of esmolol, and the pharmacy cost would have been $17,064. In the time span of 3 yr, therefore, we saved $13,500. Such a cost reduction may be substantial when applied to short-acting /3-adrenergic blocking drugs in other clinical settings. Important in the calculation of true savings is that labetalol may be obtained in multipledose vials, eliminating the expense of discarding vials that still contain unused drug. There were no adverse effects with either drug.


Lungs of 20 rats flown aboard Cosmos-936 for 18.5 days and sacrificed within 5-13 hours (8 weightless and 4 centrifuged rats) and 25 days (4 weightless and 4 centrifuged rats) after recovery were studied histologically. An identical number of lung specimens were withdrawn from rats of synchronous and vivarium controls. Lungs of the flight rats did not show any pathological changes or morphological signs of prolonged congestion, thus indicating the lack of hypertension in pulmonary circulation. Lungs of the flight rats exhibited an increased leukocyte count, which was more marked in the weightless rats killed 8-13 hours postflight. The elevation in the count of neutrophilic leukocytes in the flight rats was due to peripheral neutrophilia which is a manifestation of an acute stress-reaction. An exposure of rats to artificial gravity was responsible for a lesser increase in the count of neutrophilic leukocytes.


Asiatic wild ass, or kulan (Equus hemionus kulan) were once a key species of the Eurasian steppes and deserts. In Kazakhstan they went extinct by the 1930s. Early reintroductions have reestablished the species in two protected areas, but the species has reclaimed <1% of their former range and remained absent from central Kazakhstan. To initiate restoration in this vast region, we captured and transported a first group of nine wild kulan to a large pre-release enclosure in the Torgai region in 2017, and two more in 2019. We used direct observations and post-release movement data of four kulan equipped with GPS-Iridium collars to document their adaptation process in a vast novel habitat without conspecifics. For comparison with movements in the source populations, we additionally equipped two kulan in Altyn Emel National Park and six in Barsa Kelmes State Nature Reserve. The nine transported kulan formed a cohesive group with very high movement correlation in the enclosure. After release, the group initially stayed tightly together but started to break up by mid-May and all kulan travelled independently by mid-August. With 48,680–136,953 km2, the 95% Autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimation ranges of the reintroduced kulan were huge and about 10–100 times larger than those in the source populations. The reintroduced mares never reconnected, there was no evidence of successful reproduction, and two of the four collared mares were killed by poachers and one died of natural causes. At least one stallion survived in the wild, but the fate of the other uncollared animals remains unclear. We speculate that the fission-fusion dynamics and low movement correlation of kulan societies and the need for migratory movements harbours the risk that animals released into a novel environment loose contact with each other. This risk is likely enhanced in steppe habitats where movement constraining factors are absent. Further kulan reintroductions to the steppes and deserts of central Kazakhstan should aim to release larger groups and build up the free-ranging population quickly to reach a critical mass, increasing the chance of kulan encountering conspecifics to successfully breed and increase their chances of survival.


The concept of individual behavioural consistency has received a great deal of attention in the past 2 decades. However, the fitness benefits of being consistent in varying environmental conditions remain poorly explored. Such information is strongly relevant to our understanding of ecological processes, but also for predicting how some individuals and populations cope with environmental changes. We investigated short-term consistency in foraging behaviours of African penguins Spheniscus demersus at population and individual levels on Bird Island (Algoa Bay, South Africa) between 2015 and 2017, and related individual levels of consistency to reproductive outputs. Short-term overall consistency in foraging behaviour across individuals of the same population (population level) was generally moderate, although it was high for bearing (i.e. direction) towards the furthest point of the foraging trip. At the individual level, foraging consistency differed between years and was higher when environmental conditions were less profitable. Females were more flexible in their foraging behaviours than males. Overall, these results suggest that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors are responsible for inter-individual differences in foraging consistency in African penguins. Chicks of parents that were consistent in their foraging trip duration had higher growth rates than those of more flexible individuals when conditions were poor. It is not clear whether penguins adapt their level of short-term consistency at sea to the changing conditions or maintain their strategy across years. However, our results have revealed a reproductive advantage of individual foraging consistency during a year when resources were poor. For the first time, we have identified a potential mechanism to explain why some African penguins may cope better than others during poor environmental conditions.


The paper want to explore the major meanings of an airport. It is a territorial infrastructure that increases the spatial accessibility and the economic potential of a territory; in this sense, it is also a port to boost tourism and cultural exchanges. It is also an infrastructure bringing with it investment in other areas of mobility. Since the sixties, finally, it has also become an architectural icon and a symbol of urban level. Objective limitations remain; in particular for the position, outside the city, and for the service, that can be ordered and tidy. The airports have an important role for the move of people. As the international transport statistics the number of passengers in the main airports is growing, also if has suffered the blows of the international economic crisis. The expansion of air passenger traffic is related with the tendency to the specialization of travels, according to the range of movement of persons. The actual changing economic world coincides with a process of continuous growth of passenger flows, partly independent from that of economic growth; the combination of these two processes has multiplied the number of connections and has produced new phenomena. The transport system isn't a neutral system, also if it is sectorial; it, rather, is linked very strongly with the territorial system in which it operates and with the location's choices of firms and individuals. This reflection has value for all the transport's infrastructures, although with different degrees. In this ranking the airports are located in a great importance position, as they can be a strategic asset in the territorial economic growth processes, contributing directly or indirectly to the development of local enterprises. An airport operates whether as a supplier of infrastructure or as a business reality in itself, operating in a highly competitive market with an high speed of change. Airports are an architectural and urban typology typically lacking of physical and spatial integration with their urban context; for this the airports have evolved into semi-autonomous spaces. For their dimensional characteristics and for the incidence of pollutants factors, must be placed outside the city, often at significant distances from the same: their fundamental role in the urban structure is expressed, therefore, in external spaces from the city. As defined above, the airport is an urban infrastructure. But it is other things also: it is an ordered place, because its management requires defined actions and sequences of activities that are the true opposite of the urban disorder. Both the structures are complexes but the airport is a side where the hierarchical roles are well defined, more than in other sides, and it is the side where the authority is recognized and well accepted. The building of new airports, or the modernization of existing structures are a sign of the sectors' vitality and of the necessity to offer better services to an expanding custom. But the airports have created a lot of imagines around their presence and use. The several roles of an infrastructure


This thesis provides an in-depth examination of accounting conservatism, which is one of the oldest and most important principles of accounting (Sterling, 1967;Watts, 2003a). Two main questions relating to accounting conservatism are extensively studied in this thesis: (1) How to measure accounting conservatism? (2) Why do firms adopt accounting conservatism? This thesis consists of three main chapters that answer these two questions from  three different perspectives. The first chapter studies the existing empirical measures of accounting conservatism from a construct validity perspective and concludes that construct validity of the existing measures is mixed to low. The second chapter examines the validity and bias in the Basu (1997) measure of accounting conservatism - one of the most widely used measure of conservatism in the accounting literature. The second chapter shows, analytically and empirically, that the Basu (1997) measure is biased upwards by the default risk of a firm, and proposes a new measure of conservatism that is free from this bias. This new measure of conservatism is called the "Default-Adjusted-Basu" measure. The third chapter investigates the economic rationale for accounting conservatism, and proposes a signalling theory for accounting conservatism. In a debt market characterized by information asymmetry, a borrower firm's degree of conservatism can serve as a credible signal about that borrower firm's level of operating  risk to the lenders in the debt market. Thus, one potential benefit of accounting conservatism is that it can reduce the degree of information asymmetry in the debt market.


Because testicular biopsy can cause hemorrhage, inflammation, degeneration, adhesion, and fibrosis, especially if using the incisional or open biopsy techniques, the present study evaluated if testicular biopsy with Tru-Cut needle (a less invasive technique) in rams provides enough material for histology, and followed the subsequent testicular lesions. Thirty rams were evenly assigned to three groups: 1) control, no biopsy; 2) biopsy + fibrin glue on biopsy sites and skin incisions; and 3) biopsy + scrotal skin suture after biopsy. Ultrasonographic examinations were performed before and after biopsy. Orchiectomy was carried out on day 100 and the testicles were examined for gross and microscopic lesions. Ultrasonography permitted to map testicular alterations and to follow the evolution of the lesions. Small areas of calcification were observed in 55 and 70% of testicles from groups 2 and 3, respectively. Testicular biopsy with Tru-Cut needle provided enough material for histology but induced small and focal areas of testicular lesions close to the biopsy site. In spite of the potential occurrence of calcification and other minimal lesions, it was shown that testicular biopsy with Tru-Cut needle in rams is safe because did not significantly compromise the functional and structural testicular characteristics.


Aims and method To examine the association between the use of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) and time to care home placement. We compared patients who were prescribed ChEIs in 2006 with those who were not with respect to their placement in care homes over a 4-year period, using survival analysis. Results During the first 30 months of follow-up there was a delay in care home placement by a median of 12 months in those who took ChEIs compared with those who did not. However, at the end of the follow-up there was no significant reduction in the probability of being in a care home setting between those who had taken ChEIs compared with those who had not (hazard ratio 0.75, 95% CI 0.25-6, P = 0.1). Clinical implications The study provides some evidence to suggest that prescribing ChEIs may be associated with a delay in the timing of care home placement as observed in the first 2.5 years of treatment. However, based on purely observational data, no conclusion can be made as to whether such association is causal.


Flow past a cylinder is one of the things that is very applicable in everyday life. But behind those facts, there is a problem in it namely the drag force which is adverse and needs to be reduced. This research was conducted to find solutions to reduce drag by using a mix of passive flow control of inlet disturbance body and active flow control from plasma actuators. This research uses a test model in the form of a cylinder of a diameter of 120 mm with Reynolds Number 15000, 41000, 62000 and was expected to reduce drag after a given combination of flow control. From the results shown, either inlet disturbance of body and plasma actuators as well as a combination of both the flow of control is capable of performing the reduction coefficient of drag up to 70,22% on a variation of the Reynolds Number 62000.


Abstract. The problem of facial appearance reconstruction (or facial approximation) basing on a skull is very important as for anthropology and archaeology as for forensics. Recent progress in optical 3D measurements allowed to substitute manual facial reconstruction techniques with computer-aided ones based on digital skull 3D models. Growing amount of data and developing methods for data processing provide a background for creating fully automated technique of face approximation.The performed study addressed to a problem of facial approximation based on skull digital 3D model with deep learning techniques. The skull 3D models used for appearance reconstruction are generated by the original photogrammetric system in automated mode. These 3D models are then used as input for the algorithm for face appearance reconstruction. The paper presents a deep learning approach for facial approximation basing on a skull. It exploits the generative adversarial learning for transition data from one modality (skull) to another modality (face) using digital skull 3D models and face 3D models. A special dataset containing skull 3D models and face 3D models has been collected and adapted for convolutional neural network training and testing. Evaluation results on testing part of the dataset demonstrates high potential of the developed approach in facial approximation.


This research has the aim to analyze the German bond market for small and medium sized com-panies regarding their default risk. The background is that in 2012 and 2013 many companies went bankrupt and defaulted on their issued bonds. In order to predict the default probability and to develop ratings, this research uses two models, namely the Logit model and the Merton model. The outcomes of the applied models differ from the ratings given by the agencies. Over-all the obtained results are more negative. Some results are completely contrary among both ap-plied models. Therefore, it is concluded that the models have explanatory power to a certain point, but they need improvements and humans who incorporate soft factors to assure an accu-rate rating.


This study is aimed to investigate potential antimicrobial activity of endophytic fungi isolated from ripened fruit of Capsicum frutescence L. Endophytic fungi (AVNR-1, AVNR-2, AVNR-3, AVNR-4, AVNR-5) isolated from red fruit of chill were screened for antimicrobial activity. Ethyl acetate extract of five isolates showed antimicrobial activity against two Gram positive and two Gram Negative bacteria. Five endophytic fungi showed variation in their antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus pyogenes (ATCC 12344), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC14028) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) in terms of Zone of inhibition (mm).AVNR-2 isolate showed higher antimicrobial activity followed by AVNR-3,AVNR-1, AVNR-4 and AVNR-5.AVNR-1, AVNR-2, AVNR-3, AVNR-4, AVNR-5 were tentatively identified as Aspergillus melleus AVNR-1 (KM389203)Emericella sp AVNR2 (KM389204),Aspergillus flavus AVNR3 (KM389202),Aspergillus flavus AVNR4 (KM389205),Penicillium capsulatum AVNR5 (KM389207)by 18s rRNA partial sequence and deposited in GENBANK of NCBI with respective accession numbers. Ethyl acetate extracts of five endophytic fungi were screened for antimicrobial against two Gram positive and two Gram Negative bacteria.).Further investigation of identification of lead molecule by fractionation will be needed for exploration of novel antibiotic principle from endophytic fungi.


This paper examines the relationship between elected minority representatives, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and health worker visits in rural India. We estimate the effect of minority representation on the frequency of visits to villages by health workers by exploiting the state variation in the share of seats reserved for the two groups in state legislative assemblies mandated by the Constitution of India. Using data from state and village level surveys on fifteen major Indian states, we find that Schedule Tribe representatives increase the frequency of visits by both doctors and mobile medical units. On the other hand, Scheduled Caste representatives have a tendency to decrease the frequency of visits by mobile medical units. Potential explanations for the differential impact of SC and ST representatives are also explored, including geographic isolation, support for the Congress Party, and relative population shares.


STUDY DESIGN
Medical economic model with multi-way sensitivity analysis.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the direct costs of growing rod (GR) versus Magnetic Expansion Control System (MG) from a payer's perspective. We hypothesized that over time the MG will become more cost-effective.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
Traditional GRs provide effective treatment, but require periodic lengthening surgery. MG allows rod lengthening in clinic, but the implant is expensive. The cumulative cost savings are not well understood.

METHODS
Index surgery, implant cost, lengthening procedure, and revision surgery due to implant failure or infection were identified as major parameters contributing to the cumulative cost. The "base," "low," and "high" values for the cost and the incidence of each parameter were determined by literature reports, health care database search, or expert consultation. The cumulative cost was compared annually during 5 years of follow-up. Marginal cost was defined as the cost of (GR-MG) for each cumulative year. Final cumulative cost and extreme case scenario at year 5 were assessed by deterministic sensitivity analysis.

RESULTS
MG resulted in higher cumulative cost at years 1 and 2, and became lower cost at years 3 through 5. The marginal cost at year 1 was a negative value of $16K, and trended toward positive values of $12K at year 3 and $40K by year 5. Sensitivity analysis revealed that in extreme case, MG could cost more, shown by a marginal cost of $26K by implementing the extreme values of the 3 parameters carrying highest variance: MG-infection management, GR-revision surgery, and GR-lengthening procedure.

CONCLUSION
MG achieved cost neutrality to GR at 3 years after index surgery. This is the first medical economic study in the United States comparing the cost of GR versus MG and demonstrates potential cost-effectiveness of MG from payer's perspective if in place for more than 3 years.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
2.


This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of high loss on ignition content cement kiln dust on the stabilization of highway expansive soils. Laboratory tests were performed on the natural and stabilized soil samples in accordance with BS 1377 (1990) and BS 1924 (1990), respectively. The preliminary investigation carried out on the expansive soil (also known as black cotton soil) found in Deba, Gombe State, Nigeria shows that it falls under Silt-Clay material of Group A-7-6 (16) using AASHTO classification and inorganic clay material CL according to Unified Soil Classification System (USCS). The maximum dry density (MDD) for British Standard Light (BSL) and British Standard Heavy (BSH) compactive efforts increased to peak values of 1.66 and 1.91 Mg/m 3 at 6% and 4% cement kiln dust (CKD) contents respectively. The MDD for West African Standard (WAS) compactive effort increased with higher CKD content. The Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) for BSL and BSH compactive efforts increased up to 6% CKD content then decreased with higher CKD content. For the WAS compactive effort, the OMC generally decreased with higher CKD content. The unsoaked California bearing ratio (CBR) values of 3, 5 and 7% for the natural soil compacted with BSL, WAS and BSH compactive efforts, respectively, increased to 7, 10 and 19% at 10% CKD content. The 24 hour soaked CBR values of the natural soil of 3% for BSL, 3% for WAS and 5% for BSH compactive energies, respectively increased to their peak values of 5%, 6% and 8% respectively at 10% CKD content . http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v33i2.1


Market drivers to deliver software-based business solutions faster and cheaper have promoted the evolution of software system architectures toward assemblies of encapsulated components offering well-defined services - a service-oriented architecture. Software vendors are eager to adopt and exploit new technologies, such as XML and Web services, to meet the market demands, but face significant challenges due to their existing software asset base and entrenched development processes. This paper presents a case study of the use of a methodology and toolset, known as CAIDE (Computer Aided Interface Design Environment), developed to address these challenges for a complex family of telecommunications applications. Our main objective was to provide a simple but expressive high-level meta-model for specifying system interfaces, and to automatically generate XML schemas for the interfaces consistently across the application family, constraining the use of schema constructs according to enterprise-wide policies, and promoting reuse by composition.


Landfills have historically been seen as the ultimate solution for storing waste at minimum cost. It is now a well-established fact however that such deposits have related implications such as long-term methane emissions, local pollution concerns and limitations on urban development. Landfill mining has been suggested as a strategy to address such resource and pollution problems and in principle means the excavation, processing, treatment and/or recycling of deposited materials. This study involves a literature review on landfill mining covering an analysis of trends, objectives and research topics in 39 papers published during the period 1988–2008. The results show that so far landfill mining has primarily been seen as a way to solve traditional waste management issues such as lack of landfill space or facilitation of final closure and remediation of waste deposits. Although most initiatives also have involved some effort to recover deposited resources (primarily cover soil material), such constituents have been largely secondary. Typically, simple soil excavation and screening equipment have therefore been applied, often demonstrating moderate performance in obtaining marketable recyclables. Several worldwide changes and recent research findings however indicate the emergence of a new perspective on landfills as future reservoirs for resource extraction. Although the potential of this approach appears gigantic, it is argued that facilitating implementation also involves a number of challenges in terms of technology innovation, concepts for realization and frameworks for evaluating economic and environmental performance.


Interactive evolutionary computation is a technique that performs optimization based on human evaluation, and we have proposed an image retrieval method based on the emotion using interactive genetic algorithm. This approach allows to search images not only with explicitly expressed keyword but also abstract keyword such as "cheerful impression image" and "gloomy impression image". It searches the goal with a small population size and generates fewer number of generations than that of conventional genetic algorithm to reduce user's burden. But this property may derive local minimum and sometimes more poor solution than random search method owing to relatively small size population. In order to solve this problem, we suggest an idea of sparse fitness evaluation method using clustering method and fitness allocation method. This aims to allow not only to keep the advantages of interactive GA but also to improve the performance by utilizing large population.


A video quality module receives data indicating a visibility status of a tab of a web browser running on a user device. The video quality module determines, based on the data indicating the visibility status of the tab whether the tab of the web browser is currently visible to a user of the user device, the tab of the web browser comprising a streaming media player. If the tab of the web browser is not currently visible to the user, the video quality module decreases a quality of a video component of a streaming media file playing in the streaming media player.


This study analyzed the effect of thermal stress on erythrocytes of Notothenia rossii and Notothenia coriiceps, abundant notothenioids in Admiralty Bay, Antarctic Peninsula. In both species, the antioxidant defense system enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione-S transferase, glutathione reductase were punctually altered (8°C for 1, 3 and 6 days) in erythrocytes, indicating that these markers are not ideal for termal stress. However, under the influence of thermal stress, morphological changes in Notothenia coriiceps erythrocytes were observed at all exposure times (1, 3 and 6 days at 8°C), and in Notothenia rossii occurred in 6 days. These results suggest that Notothenia corriceps presents a lower tolerance to thermal stress at 8°C for up to 6 days, since the cellular and nuclear alterations recorded are pathological and may be deleterious to the cells. Among the morphological markers analyzed in this work, we believe that the shape change and nuclear bubble formation may be good stress biomarkers in erythrocytes of Notothenia rossii and Notothenia coriiceps.


Background: This single-site nursing home study is part of a larger cluster-randomised controlled trial that aimed to reduce staff use of restraint. The cluster-RCT study involved 24 nursing homes, and investigated the effect of a standardised education intervention to reduce restraint in dementia care with a person-centred care approach. This article draws on empirical data from one of the nursing homes in the control group of the trial, at which the education intervention was tailored to better account for contextual circumstances. Aim: To explore how a tailored education intervention can reduce the use of restraint in a nursing home. The study aims to investigate what local contextual circumstances influenced the process of facilitation of the intervention. Methods: The study was theoretically informed by the Promoting Action Research Implementation in Health Services (PARiHS) framework, with practice development principles to address local learning needs and contextual issues. External facilitators tailored the education intervention in collaboration with the nursing home leader and staff. A participatory design with data collection based on principles of critical ethnography was used to evaluate the intervention. Results: Fluctuation emerged as the core theme from the evaluation: fluctuating enthusiasm among staff, fluctuating nursing home culture and fluctuating responses by nursing home residents. Conclusion: The study offers insights into the interplay between a tailored facilitation intervention and fluctuating contextual circumstances in a nursing home. Implications for practice: • A successful education intervention requires facilitators who can take into consideration and adapt to fluctuations in the context • Facilitation skills must include the ability to value team experiences, recognise learning needs, provide feedback and participate in finding solutions in the moment • Flexibility is important in terms of how new knowledge can be used in person-centred ways, notably in attempts to reduce the use of restraint in dementia care


Focal cerebral ischemia is accompanied by inflammation, which further exacerbates injury. CD73 is an ectoenzyme with 5'-nucleotidase activity, which generates anti-inflammatory adenosine, from precursor AMP. In the CNS, CD73 is located on the choroid plexus cuboidal epithelium and on leptomeninges, two critical entry ports for anti- (M2) and pro-inflammatory (M1) macrophages, respectively. We previously showed that acute brain ischemia (48h) in CD73
 -/-
 mice resulted in larger infarct volumes related to greater influx of M1 macrophages.

 Netrin-1 (Ntn-1) is secreted protein with leukorepulsive and neurite outgrowth- promoting properties. We hypothesized that macrophage influx is regulated by CD73 through its modulation of Ntn-1 expression after stroke.

 We examined the Ntn-1 expression in acute (24h) and delayed phases (7days) after induction of brain ischemia in wild type (WT) and CD73
 -/-
 mice after photothrombotic middle cerebral artery occlusion.

 We demonstrated that Ntn-1 mRNA and protein expression was induced during the acute phase of brain ischemia, and suppressed in the delayed phase in WT compared to CD73
 -/-
 mice. Netrin-1 mRNA expression at the 24 hr time point was higher in WT vs CD73
 -/-
 mice (2.7 ± 0.2 vs 1.4 ± 0.4, respectively, p<0.05). However, 7 days following brain ischemia, Ntn-1 protein expression was suppressed in WT compared to CD73
 -/-
 mice (0.4 ± 0.1 to 0.9 ± 0.2; p<0.03 respectively). In CD73
 -/-
 mice, mRNA for CCR2 and IRF5 , were upregulated at day 7, whereas IRF4 the major polarization transcription factor for anti-inflammatory macrophages, was downregulated.

 These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that in acute stroke, CD73 acts to suppres influx of pro-inflammatory macrophages through induction of chemorepulsive Ntn-1 protein, but promotes influx of reparative macrophages by suppressing Ntn-1 expression at delayed phase of stroke. Our data are the first to identify a potential link between CD73 and Ntn-1 expressions in the ischemic brain, underscoring CD73 as an important modulator of the immune inflammatory response in stroke.


ABSTRACTMainstream development economics has typically concentrated on the contents of public policy, such as GNP per capita and investment rates, to the virtual exclusion of the processes that shape those contents and the people who are affected by public policies. This preoccupation with content has in turn translated into an inordinate focus on "hard indicators" of development, such as Gross Domestic Product and exchange rates, at the expense of "soft indicators" like citizens' satisfaction with the contents and the process, a satisfaction which ideally should be part of the overall measure of the material and non-material progress of a nation. After more than 50 years of hard-indicator development economics, during which social disaffection with public policy appears to have risen alongside growing and widespread poverty, perhaps it is time to incorporate soft indicators into development discourse and thus offer society a more complete view of its development efforts - a view that would not only enrich the policy process but help it to yield outcomes that at the very least reflect the aspirations and satisfactions of the citizenry. This dissertation represents a modest attempt to foster such a complementarity in the development process, using Ghana's Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative (SAPRI) as a case study.Held in Accra in 1997, SAPRI was an effort by civil society organizations to gain a greater role in the policy process, after nearly 20 years of structural adjustment, during which public policy was formulated by a technocratic few and at the end of which social conditions had deteriorated not improved. Advocates of this "new participation," or citizen engagement in development at the national rather than local level, argued that a participatory approach to national policy making was the surest way to "intercept" flawed policies at the national level before they become programs and projects at the local level. The success of such participation, as viewed by the participants, not organizers, was defined in terms of inclusiveness, voice, and impact. Questionnaires were sent to them and the data analyzed with non-parametric statistics. Among other things, participants' perceptions of inclusiveness were found to be conditioned significantly by such factors as the sex of respondent, despite efforts by organizers to promote "gender balance." Female respondents, for example, were less likely than male respondents to view SAPRI as adequately inclusive of women and especially children's issues, despite claims of representativeness by organizers. Voice - the ability of citizens to make policy demands unhindered- was, as anticipated, associated more with the organizational arrangements of the process than any other postulated factors, such as analytical capacity of the participants' organizations. Overall, respondents' views of the impact of their participation in SAPRI on public policy were surprisingly found to reflect existing hard indicators of development. The view by majority of respondents, for example, that children's issues received less attention at the forum was borne out by findings in the Ghana Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (2004) that the nutritional status of children under five years deteriorated severely between 1997 and 2003.The findings are situated within the context of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, the localized version of the IMF-World Bank-inspired Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, which considers "widespread civil society" participation as one of its strongest features.


Leather industry is one of the leading sectors of the Turkish economy in terms of industrial production and employment. The gradual transformation of leather companies towards automation in their production processes, and towards transferring a portion of the company and product promotions to the Internet via computers can be considered as the early steps of e-commerce entrepreneurship in this regard. This paper attempts to analyze the Turkish Leather Industry in the light of e-commerce and e-marketing practice issues.

 Key words: E-commerce, e-marketing, leather industry, Turkey.


Abstract This experiment demonstrates principles of decision-making in dynamic oligopolies, especially the difficulties in forming and maintaining cartels. As an illustration of firm behavior under imperfect competition, the game distinguishes between procedurally rational choices and substantively rational decisions in the context of collusive, Cournot, and competitive equilibria. The paper discusses results from an actual classroom exercise and suggests some additional variations in institutional details. Instructions for students and a spreadsheet program for producing payoff tables are provided in the appendices.


I investigate the relationship between children´s endowment and parental investment using a rich dataset on a cohort of children from Ethiopia, who were surveyed at ages eight, twelve and fifteen. Children´s endowment is measured by scores on tests of cognitive skills/ability. A child´s enrollment in school, participation in work and work hours are employed as measures of parental investment in human capital. The results provide strong evidence of reinforcing parental investment–higher ability children are more likely to be enrolled in school and less likely to work and, conditional on participation, also work fewer hours. These results are mostly robust to addressing potential feedback effects between schooling and test scores, especially for the latter ages, and household heterogeneities. On the policy front, the results suggest that the seeds of inequality in human capital and earnings capability during adulthood may be sown quite early in childhood, and thereby underscore the importance of interventions that, among others, attempt to improve prenatal and early life health and nutrition, which are often cited as the sources of deficiencies in children´s cognitive ability.


Our work consists in finding, through the application of the cost-effectiveness analysis method, the optimal investment sequence, that would cover, with a lower cost, the future water demand in the Algerian coastal basin 02a, by the horizon 2030. Eight supply management and demand management measures were studied and the results show that demand management measures, which promote water saving and the rational use of this resource, have better cost effectiveness ratios than supply management measures. The ranking of these cost-effectiveness ratios allows us to stagger and prioritize the different investment projects in the water sector, with the aim of achieving the dual objective, social (meeting the water demand) and economic (minimize public spending).


In modern society, diet and nutrition are very complex issues and are known to be closely related to oral health and disease. A number of product-related factors are known to determine the eff ect a food may eventually have in the mouth. One common recommendation given to patients by the dental profession, when it comes to both dental caries and plaque formation, is to avoid "sticky foods". In this context, this means that the patient should limit consumption of food products that are retained in the oral cavity for a long period, as the stickiness of these products prolongs contact with the teeth. Foods and their metabolic end-products may adhere to soft tissues, dental hard tissues, dental plaque, carious lesions and probably also calculus, which may in turn have a negative infl uence on several of these. Th e amount of residue and the effi ciency of its removal are closely related to the chemical and physical characteristics of the product.


Heller's esophagomyotomy relieves dysphagia but does not restore esophageal peristalsis. The myotomy may induce reflux and the addition of a 360 degrees fundoplication may be hazardous with regard to the remaining aperistaltic esophagus. The aim of this prospectively randomized clinical trial was to compare the outcome for patients with uncomplicated achalasia who underwent an anterior Heller's esophagomyotomy (H group) with or without an additional floppy Nissen fundoplication (H + N group). Between 1984 and 1995, 20 patients were prospectively randomized to one or other of the performed operations, 10 patients per group. Esophagitis including Barrett's esophagus (n = 2) was seen under medical treatment, in 6 of 9 in the H group but none in the H + N group. No patient in the H + N group required postoperative continuous acid-reducing drugs. Twenty-four-hour esophageal pH-studies in median 3.4 years after surgery showed pathological reflux expressed as a percentage of time below pH 4 of 13.1% in the H group compared to 0.15% (P < 0.001) in H + N group. One patient with recurrent dysphagia in the H + N group later had an esophagectomy. The remaining patients reported significant improvement of dysphagia without symptoms of reflux at 8.0 years follow-up. Heller's esophagomyotomy eliminates dysphagia, but can induce advanced reflux that requires medical treatment. The addition of a 360 degrees fundoplication eliminates reflux without adding dysphagia in the majority of patients and can be recommended for most patients with uncomplicated achalasia.


Background The intentional and accidental poisoning by various modes are common in India. Nearly 1 million people die each year globally due to poisoning. Vasmol is an external preparation that contains para-phenylenediamine as major ingredient, used as hair dye. There were no much studies on Vasmol(PPD) poisoning. Our study mainly focused on Vasmol(PPD) poisoning, as its incidence is more in our region. Purpose To detect and evaluate the prevalence of different poisoning cases and to analyse the clinical symptoms, causes, their outcome and finally to assess the effectiveness of supportive therapy for Vasmol(PPD) poisoning. Materials and methods A prospective observational study was conducted on different poisoning cases over 5-months period(March-2011 to July-2011) in general medicine and ICU departments of a tertiary care teaching hospital. A specially designed patient data collection proforma was used to collect the information and various parameters were analysed. Results Out of 680 poisoning cases, Vasmol(PPD)-419, Organophosphorous-90, Tablets-62, Others-109 were observed. In Vasmol(PPD) poisoning 126(30%)-male and 293(69%)-female with most cases between the age-group of 12-25. The clinical features were Cervicofacial oedema-163(40%), Stridor-102(24%), Myalgia-79(19%), Gastrointestinal disturbances-37(9%), Seizures-5(1%), Vertigo-56(13%) and Rhabdomyolysis-135(32%). Tracheostomy is the most commonly used supportive therapy which was done for 71(17%) cases where 52 recovered and 19 died. Deaths were mainly due to Cardiorespiratory failure-11(58%), Myocarditis-5(26%), Cardiac-arrest-2(11%) and Acute renal failure-1(5%). Rest of the results were categorised based on socio-demographic status, volume consumed, reasons for poisoning and laboratory findings. Conclusions Vasmol(PPD) hair dye intoxication is a life threatening condition. Clinical outcomes rely on early recognition, prompt referral and supportive therapy. This study has shown that Vasmol(PPD) poisoning mortality was 5%, due to Cardiorespiratory failure, Cardiac-arrest, Myocarditis and Acute renal failure. Tracheostomy is the life-saving measure in reducing mortality. Community should be educated about handling of poisonous substances which endanger their life and there should also be a proper control over sale of Vasmol.


In Sweden, youths who commit very serious offences are sentenced to youth custody. This article addresses issues relating to how these children experience being incarcerated, the significance of custodial openness for their everyday institutional lives, and how the experience of more open custodial forms during youth custody sentences is related to re-offending. The empirical data provide support for the significance of more open custodial forms as a means of both providing incarcerated youths with a less destructive environment and increasing the likelihood of more positive re-offending outcomes following their release.


In a wireless video sensor system, encoder and transmitter parameters should be jointly adjusted for the optimal tradeoff between video quality and energy consumption under variable channel conditions. The optimization of the system can be further enhanced by exploiting relative importance of moving objects in remote surveillance applications. This paper presents an energy-efficient wireless video sensor node for remote surveillance using content-aware pre-processing and an energy- and content-aware feedback control scheme. A low-overhead pre-processing engine detects the region of interest (ROI) in a frame defined as the macroblocks with moving objects, and an encoder selectively processes ROI macroblocks, resulting in reduction of both computation and transmission energy with minimum quality degradation of the ROI. We also propose an energy- and content-aware control scheme that jointly tunes the system parameters to maintain target transmission energy with minimum degradation of the ROI quality under varying wireless channel conditions. Compared to conventional encoding approaches, the proposed design consumes up to 56 percent less energy at the same quality.


The need for "information anywhere anytime" has been a driving force for the increasing growth in Web and Internet technology, wireless communication, and portable computing devices. The field of mobile computing is the merger of these advances in computing and communication with the aim of providing seamless and ubiquitous computing environment for mobile users. Mobile computing environments are characterized by severe resource constraints and frequent changes in operating conditions. This has motivated research in many challenging problems which span several areas of computer science, computer engineering and electrical engineering, such as network protocols to support mobility, efficient and adaptive resource management techniques for wireless bandwidth and battery power, predicting mobility patterns, performance modeling and simulation of mobile applications, and supporting mobile real time multimedia applications. The paper describes the experience of the authors in designing and teaching a senior/graduate level mobile computing course at Colorado State University. This course was designed for students in computer science, electrical engineering and computer engineering. The goal was to provide an in-depth understanding of the fundamental problems in the area of mobile computing and present the existing and proposed solutions for these problems from both research and development perspectives. In addition to regular homework and exams, students did term projects/papers to explore topics of their interest in more depth. Several mid-term and end-of-semester evaluations were done to gauge student satisfaction and shortcomings of the course and these evaluations were very positive.


Abstract Tourism has become a common phenomenon, very important for various reasons, especially for developing regions and countries, and which in consequence has been perceived as positive. However, increasingly commonly works have cast a slightly different look. Tourism leads to a temporarily increased number of people in a relatively small area, and contributes to the introduction of 'strangers' to local communities which can lead to problems such as crime. On the other hand, a higher risk of being a victim may lead to the reduced attractiveness of a given destination. A small number of studies in this field draw attention to this, concentrating on a general outline of their interdependence but specific urban tourist areas are rarely the subject of research. This review covers various works on the relationship between tourism and crime.


This article evaluates the various longitudinal studies of third-party logistics (3PL) usage and proposes methods and approaches to improve the rigor of future research in this area. Three well-established methodologies for combining the results of multiple studies are reviewed (literature reviews, meta-analysis, and repeated survey analysis), and then considered in application to the findings of the various 3PL usage studies since 1991. Beginning with an overview of the results that emerge from simply combining and comparing the key longitudinal data, the article moves on to a more detailed analysis of the measurement scales, data collection methods, and samples utilized in the different 3PL surveys. The article ends with concrete recommendations for reorienting the ongoing surveys to increase their rigor and validity, and thus increase their predictive value to both academics and logistics managers.


A market survey was made at the Zamboanga City public market to determine the diversity of economic macrobenthic algae sold by the local population. Interviews were conducted to obtain information on local names, uses, stock distribution, method of harvest, seasonality, and some aspects of marketing practices.


Motivated by the great success of dynamic time warping (DTW) in time series matching, Gaussian DTW kernel had been developed for support vector machine (SVM)-based time series classification. Counter-examples, however, had been subsequently reported that Gaussian DTW kernel usually cannot outperform Gaussian RBF kernel in the SVM framework. In this paper, by extending the Gaussian RBF kernel, we propose one novel class of Gaussian elastic metric kernel (GEMK), and present two examples of GEMK: Gaussian time warp edit distance (GTWED) kernel and Gaussian edit distance with real penalty (GERP) kernel. Experimental results on UCR time series data sets show that, in terms of classification accuracy, SVM with GEMK is much superior to SVM with Gaussian RBF kernel and Gaussian DTW kernel, and the state-of-the-art similarity measure methods.


Blastocystis sp. is ubiquitous in avian, mammalian and human hosts and propagates in either neutral or slightly alkaline conditions within the host's gastro-intestinal tract. Of the few previous studies on this enteric protozoan parasite in feline and canine hosts, prevalence values have been shown to range between 0 to 70.8%. In view of the close association between humans, and canine and feline hosts as companion animals, faecal samples of 180 Felis catus and 82 Canis lupus, collected from Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were initially screened by in vitro cultivation followed by molecular characterization. No positive isolates were identified in culture but in 12 feline samples DNA barcoding detected a zoonotic subtype Blastocystis ST1 for the first time. Consequently, avian and human isolates, which had previously been successfully cultured, were used to investigate the impact of pH on the viability and morphology of Blastocystis sp. The use of Trypan blue showed that the number of viable cells increased when exposed to pH 4 and a significant increase in viability occurred in pH values of 5 to 7. Development of Blastocystis cells in both isolates was suppressed in media less than pH 5 followed by the disappearance of viable cells from avian isolates in more acidic media below pH 4. Morphologically at pH 4 cells from avian isolates were less rounded, and with wrinkled / shrunken surfaces, than the more normal rounded cells from human isolates. On the other hand, at values below pH 3, no viable cells in human isolates were visible. The present findings therefore confirm that gastro-intestinal pH is an important determinant of Blastocystis viability and consequently influences the epidemiology of infection within avian, mammalian and human hosts.


In this paper, we consider the problem of detecting object under occlusion. Most object detectors formulate bounding box regression as a unimodal task (i.e., regressing a single set of bounding box coordinates independently). However, we observe that the bounding box borders of an occluded object can have multiple plausible configurations. Also, the occluded bounding box borders have correlations with visible ones. Motivated by these two observations, we propose a deep multivariate mixture of Gaussians model for bounding box regression under occlusion. The mixture components potentially learn different configurations of an occluded part, and the covariances between variates help to learn the relationship between the occluded parts and the visible ones. Quantitatively, our model improves the AP of the baselines by 3.9% and 1.2% on CrowdHuman and MS-COCO respectively with almost no computational or memory overhead. Qualitatively, our model enjoys explainability since we can interpret the resulting bounding boxes via the covariance matrices and the mixture components.


Advance care planning rates remain low, indicating a need to identify an approach that promotes acceptance of, and participation in, high-quality advance care planning by clinicians, patients, and families. A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a nurse-led advance care planning intervention in primary care, comparing 4 advance care planning decision aids to help patients consider options; a 4-arm, prospective, comparative design was used with scripted discussions between 4 nurses and 40 patients in a large Midwestern clinic. The study procedures were determined to be feasible and acceptable. Most invited patients agreed to participate (40 of 66, 60%); 38 of 40 completed the intervention. Overall, patients and nurses were satisfied with the intervention. Changes in scores on the engagement survey were positive, indicating improvement across all groups. According to these preliminary data, 124 patients would be required in each group for a fully powered study. In addition, 34 of 40 patients (85%) completed an advance directive; all 40 patients identified a healthcare agent. The use of nurses to facilitate advance care planning with patients may be an opportunity to improve healthcare and patient outcomes and support full-scope nursing practice in primary care settings.


In longitudinal settings, causal inference methods usually rely on a discretization of the patient timeline that may not reflect the underlying data generation process. This article investigates the estimation of causal parameters under discretized data. It presents the implicit assumptions practitioners make but do not acknowledge when discretizing data to assess longitudinal causal parameters. We illustrate that differences in point estimates under different discretizations are due to the data coarsening resulting in both a modified definition of the parameter of interest and loss of information about time‐dependent confounders. We further investigate several tools to advise analysts in selecting a timeline discretization for use with pooled longitudinal targeted maximum likelihood estimation for the estimation of the parameters of a marginal structural model. We use a simulation study to empirically evaluate bias at different discretizations and assess the use of the cross‐validated variance as a measure of data support to select a discretization under a chosen data coarsening mechanism. We then apply our approach to a study on the relative effect of alternative asthma treatments during pregnancy on pregnancy duration. The results of the simulation study illustrate how coarsening changes the target parameter of interest as well as how it may create bias due to a lack of appropriate control for time‐dependent confounders. We also observe evidence that the cross‐validated variance acts well as a measure of support in the data, by being minimized at finer discretizations as the sample size increases.


We present a type reconstruction algorithm for SCIR [10], a type system for a language with syntactic control of interference. SCIR guarantees that terms of passive type do not cause any side effects, and that distinct identifiers do not interfere. A reconstruction algorithm for this type system must deal with different kinds (passive and general) and different uses of identifiers (passive and active). In particular, there may not be a unique choice of kinds for type variables. Our work extends SCIR typings with kind constraints. We show that principal type schemes exist for this extended system and outline an algorithm for computing them.


Cannabis has been used medicinally for centuries and numerous species of this genus are undoubtedly amongst the primeval plant remedies known to humans. Cannabis sativa in particular is the most reported species, due to its substantial therapeutic implications that are owed to the presence of chemically and pharmacologically diverse cannabinoids. These compounds have long been used for the palliative treatment of cancer. Recent advancements in receptor pharmacology research have led to the identification of cannabinoids as effective antitumor agents. This property is accredited for their ability to induce apoptosis, suppress proliferative cell signalling pathways and promote cell growth inhibition. Evolving lines of evidence suggest that cannabinoid analogues, as well as their receptor agonists, may offer a novel strategy to treat various forms of cancer. This review summarizes the historical perspective of C. sativa, its potential mechanism of action, and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic aspects of cannabinoids, with special emphasis on their anticancer potentials.


The Epstein-Barr virus-encoded nuclear antigen EBNA-1 gene promoter for the restricted Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latency program operating in group I Burkitt lymphoma (BL) cell lines was previously identified incorrectly. Here we present evidence from RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) cloning, reverse transcription-PCR, and S1 nuclease analyses, which demonstrates that the EBNA-1 gene promoter in group I BL cell lines is located in the viral BamHI Q fragment, immediately upstream of two low-affinity EBNA-1 binding sites. Transcripts initiated from this promoter, referred to as Qp, have the previously reported Q/U/K exon splicing pattern. Qp is active in group I BL cell lines but not in group III BL cell lines or in EBV immortalized B-lymphoblastoid cell lines. In addition, transient transfection of Qp-driven reporter constructs into both an EBV-negative BL cell line and a group I BL cell line gave rise to correctly initiated transcripts. Inspection of Qp revealed that it is a TATA-less promoter whose architecture is similar to the promoters of housekeeping genes, suggesting that Qp may be a default promoter which ensures EBNA-1 expression in cells that cannot run the full viral latency program. Elucidation of the genetic mechanism responsible for the EBNA-1-restricted program of EBV latency is an essential step in understanding control of viral latency in EBV-associated tumors.


The uptake of Pb2+ and Sr2+ ions from aqueous solutions by calcite was studied at various initial concentrations and pH conditions using the batch method under ambient conditions. XRPD, SEM/EDS, AAS/AES, and DRIFT techniques were used in characterizing the sorption process. The results indicated that the retention mechanism of Pb2+ and Sr2+ ions ranged from ion incorporation to precipitate overgrowth (cerussite, hydrocerussite for Pb, strontianite for Sr) depending on the concentration and pH conditions. The calcite structure seemed to be entirely vanishing upon formation of cerussite and hydrocerussite while partial dissolution of calcite occurred upon strontianite formation. The formation of precipitates showed rapid kinetics, and equilibrium seemed to be reached within about an hour from the start of mixing. SEM analysis showed that cerussite, hydrocerussite, and strontianite had columnar prismatic-like, tabular hexagonal-like, and needle-like morphologies. Based on a nine-month observation period, dry samples of hydrocerussite seemed to show more morphological stability than cerussite. EDS analysis indicated that Pb2+ sorption is more favored than that of Sr2+, particularly in the phase of precipitate overgrowth. DRIFT analysis indicated a change in the symmetry of the carbonate groups in calcite matrix upon uptake of Pb2+ and Sr2+ cations.


Lifestyle changes are important when it comes to reducing the risk factors for cardiovascular complications. There is evidence that these changes are more successful if counselling is conducted in a patient-centred way. The purpose was to analyse how nurses used patient-centred counselling with hypertensive patients after video-recorded consultation training. Nineteen nurses from nurse-led clinics in hypertension care at Swedish health centres participated in residential counselling. Two audio-recordings with hypertensive patients in regular practice were made before and after the training and analysed with the emphasis on patient centredness. Weighing up the pros and cons, the identification of beliefs about treatment and negotiations about the reasons for and where to begin behavioural change increased. A slight increase in reflections and pauses was observed. Expansive and provocative questions and the identification of goals or goal-setting were used sparsely. As a result of the training, the nurses gave individually-adapted information more frequently.


Background The influence of preparation time on ankle joint biomechanics during highly dynamic movements is largely unknown. In addition, limited time to prepare dynamic movements may be a factor in the aetiology of ankle joint injuries. Objective To evaluate the impact of limited preparation time on ankle joint loading during highly dynamic run-and-cut movements. Design Cross-sectional study with repeated measures (3 time conditions). Setting University biomechanics laboratory. Participants Thirteen male athletes from a high risk sport for ankle sprains (basketball). Interventions Participants performed 45°-sidestep-cutting and 180°-turning manoeuvres on a force plate in reaction to light signals which appeared during the approach run. Both movements had to be executed under three different time conditions: (1) an easy condition, in which the light signal appeared very early, (2) a medium condition and (3) a hard condition in which the participants had very little time to prepare the movements. Main outcome measurements Maximum ankle inversion angles, moments and velocities during ground contact were evaluated. In addition, EMG signals of three lower extremity muscles were analysed. Results In 180°-turning movements, reduced preparation time led to significantly increased maximum ankle inversion velocities (p = 0.03; η2 = 0.246). In addition, maximum ankle inversion moments increased in the medium condition when compared to the easy condition (p = 0.03). Muscular activation levels did not change. Ankle joint loading was not affected by preparation time in 45°-cutting movements. Conclusions The increased inversion velocities and moments, without accompanying changes in muscular activation, are likely to put the ankle joint at a higher injury risk during turning movements. Preparation time should be considered in ankle injury research, ankle stability training programs and in the aetiology of ankle sprains.


This chapter deals with the implementation of our own monitoring system with home security. The system is designed using IoT modules and uses ESP32 microcontrollers. The chapter describes the design of the system, its hardware components, software implementation, security solutions, communication, the collecting and monitoring of processed data, as well as the quantification of costs for the production and deployment of this system. The proposed system secures a house by detecting an intruder in the building, triggering an alarm and capturing it all with camera images, and then sending data to the owner's smart mobile phone. The secondary task of the system is to collect data from sensors for monitoring the temperature of an object and presenting it via a web server.


This paper aims to assess via CFD the feasibility of using acoustic treatments over the Outlet Guide Vanes (OGVs) surfaces in a turbine. The CFD solver to be used is Mu2 s 2T that is an in-house suite of codes. In absence of a dedicated experiment, the capability of Mu2 s 2T for assessing this novel technology is investigated in two parts. First, CFD predictions of turbine tones are compared with measurements for a state of the art turbine including OGV. Second, the CFD liner prediction capability is assessed in two test cases: straight duct with uniform flow and fan noise test with a lined OGV. Once the CFD capability is assessed and uncertainties understood, the treated OGV technology is investigated for a state of the art Low Pressure Turbine (LPT). The optimum liner characteristics are chosen by the construction of the usual cell depth vs porosity charts for a straight duct. Selected candidate is simulated over the suction or pressure OGV sides and the differences are discussed. Overall tone noise reduction deltas are provided and compared with existing technology consisting in having acoustic treatments over the hot nozzles downstream the OGV.


This paper evaluates the performance of several reduced-rank, adaptive matched field processing (AMFP) algorithms for passive sonar detection in a shallow-water environment. Effective rank reduction improves the stability of adaptive beamformer weight calculation when the number of available snapshots is limited. Here, rank-reduction techniques with various criteria for subspace selection are evaluated within a common framework and compared to the full-rank conventional and minimum-variance (MVDR) beamformers. Results from real data demonstrate that rank reduction, properly applied can improve AMFP detection performance in practical system implementations.


This thesis considers how an assessment method for reinvestments in the distribution grid can be designed and implemented. The assessment method was created to give long-term estimations of the amount overhead lines that could be substituted with underground cables and how to prioritize between different areas. The regulation of power grid companies was reviewed to highlight important factors for profitable reinvestments. The assessment method was implemented for overhead lines in Ellevio´s distribution grid using the database program FME and validated against real reinvestment decisions in a case study area called Sinntorp. The resulting reinvestment proposals mainly consist of replacing older grid sections and sections where expensive maintenance is planned in the future. The script show similar results as real reinvestment decisions but small differences are noticed related to the script's hard focus on older grid sections. The script has potential to be used on Ellevio´s entire overhead line network but this requires work to complete essential data. Further validation on new areas are also desired to see if results are reasonable and if the script can be developed to consider more reinvestment factors.


The book will cover the introduction to the Topic and can be used as a very useful study material for those who want to learn the topic in brief via a short and complete book. We hope you find this book useful is shaping your future career, Visual Basic Theory and Practice is one of the books covering various topics of science, technology and management published by London College of Information Technology. Please feel free to send us your enquiries related to our publications to [email protected]


Limited battery capacity seriously restricts the usage of wireless devices in wireless communication networks. Power saving MAC layer protocols put wireless network interface into sleep mode in order to conserve energy. However, increased energy savings may sacrifice delivery performance and consequently the user perceived Quality of Service (QoS). This paper introduces Slow-sTart Exponential and Linear Algorithm (STELA), a novel battery saving mechanism which saves up to 70% energy compared with the algorithms employed by IEEE 802.11 while preventing the delivery performance from degrading significantly and consequently reducing the negative impact on user Quality of Experience (QoE).


This paper reported a facile method to synthesize ZnO nanorods for immunosensor application. The ZnO nanorods were synthesized by hydrothermal reaction. Synthesis time affecting on morphology of nanorods was also studied. The immobilization of anti-rotavirus onto ZnO nanorod-deposited sensor was performed via absorption method. The electrochemical responses of the immunosensor were studied by cyclic voltammetry (C-V) method with [Fe(CN) 6 ] 3−/4− as redox probe. A linear decreased response in C-V for cell of rotavirus concentration was found in the range of 7.8×10 5 CFU/mL to 7.8×10 8 CFU/mL. The detection limit of the immunosensor was 7.8×10 5 CFU/mL. The results indicated application of ZnO nanorod sensor for label-free real-time detection of a wide dynamics range of biological species.


The paper has used eleven indicators relating to the education, health and water supply sectors to rank districts of Pakistan in terms of the level of social development. It also seeks to explain regional variation in the development of social infrastructure across districts. The paper demonstrates the importance of education indicators in determining the overall level of social development, especially in terms of female literacy and enrolment rates. Also, the ranking demonstrate a close correlation between levels of social and economic development spatially with Pakistan. Other important determinants of regional variations in the level of social development include the extent of urbanisation, the administrative development of the district (location of provincial headquarters), and the geographical/economic significance (indicated by the presence of the sea port). Overall, Punjab appears to have the highest level of social development followed by NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan. However, the results indicate substantial variation among districts within a province in the level of social development. Least developed districts within each province are identified as targets for special development allocations within SAP.


The integrated stress response is regulated by kinases that phosphorylate translation initiation factor 2α and phosphatases that dephosphorylate it. Genetic and biochemical data indicate that the eIF2α-directed holophosphatase - a therapeutic target in diseases of protein misfolding - is comprised of a regulatory, PPP1R15, and a catalytic, Protein Phosphatase 1 (PP1), subunit. However, differing reports have appeared regarding the requirement for an additional co-factor, G-actin, in enabling substrate-specific de-phosphorylation1-3. An additional concern relates to the sensitivity of this PP1 holoenzyme to the [(o-chlorobenzylidene)amino]guanidines (Sephin1 or Guanabenz) small molecule proteostasis modulators3,4. We find that in the absence of G-actin, PPP1R15A regulatory subunit fragments were unable to accelerate eIF2α dephosphorylation beyond that affected by a catalytic subunit alone, whether PP1 was purified from rabbit muscle or from bacteria. Furthermore, we did not observe Sephin1 or Guanabenz inhibition of eIF2α dephosphorylation by any PPP1R15A-containing holophosphatase.


The landforms of the Earth's surface ranging from large-scale features to local topography are factors that influence human behavior in terms of habitation practices. The ability to extract geomorphological settings using geoinformatic techniques is an important aspect of any environmental analysis and archaeological landscape approach. Morphological data derived from DEMs with high accuracies (e.g., LiDAR data), can provide valuable information related to landscape modelling and landform classification processes. This study applies the first landform classification and flood hazard vulnerability of 730 Eneolithic (ca. 5000–3500 BCE) settlement locations within the plateau-plain transition zone of NE Romania. The classification was done using the SD (standard deviation) of TPI (Topographic Position Index) for the mean elevation (DEV) around each archaeological site, and HEC-RAS flood hazard pattern generated for 0.1% (1000 year) discharge insurance. The results indicate that prehistoric communities preferred to place their settlements for defensive purposes on hilltops, or in the close proximity of a steep slope. Based on flood hazard pattern, 8.2% out of the total sites had been placed in highly vulnerable areas. The results indicate an eco-cultural niche connected with habitation practices and flood hazard perception during the Eneolithic period in the plateau-plain transition zone of NE Romania and contribute to archaeological predictive modelling.


Advanced myoelectric prosthetic hands are currently limited due to the lack of sufficient signal sources on amputation residual muscles and inadequate real-time control performance. This paper presents a novel human–machine interface for prosthetic manipulation that combines the advantages of surface electromyography (EMG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to overcome the limitations of myoelectric control. Experiments including 13 able-bodied and three amputee subjects were carried out to evaluate both offline classification accuracy (CA) and online performance of the forearm motion recognition system based on three types of sensors (EMG-only, NIRS-only, and hybrid EMG-NIRS). The experimental results showed that both the offline CA and real-time performance for controlling a virtual prosthetic hand were significantly (p $<$  0.05) improved by combining EMG and NIRS. These findings suggest that fusion of EMG and NIRS is feasible to improve the control of upper-limb prostheses, without increasing the number of sensor nodes or complexity of signal processing. The outcomes of this study have great potential to promote the development of dexterous prosthetic hands for transradial amputees.


This paper studies the dynamic effects that the recent growth in supply of Distiller Dried Grains (DDGs), due to the ethanol production surge from corn consumption, has had in relation to other market feeds, specifically corn, grain sorghum and soybean meal. Prior to the U.S. ethanol surge, more than a half of corn's production was consumed as feed for livestock. This amount has dropped to around 40%, as corn is increasingly being used – about 1/3 of U.S. supply - for ethanol production. Ethanol's by-product for feed, DDGs, contains more proteins than corn and serves as substitute in feed rations for livestock, and may likewise affect soybean meal, a protein feed component. In addition, increased corn demand may impact grain sorghum (milo), a similar carbohydrate substitute. A multivariate regime-switching model is applied to two different periods, pre and post- ethanol mandates (Energy Acts of 2005 and 2007), to gauge the dynamic correlations among these markets. Results are consistent with previous literature regarding increasing relationship (correlation) between DDGs and corn, among others. More importantly, an improved characterization of the dynamic inter-relationships between these feed markets not only empirically identifies ethanol surge effects, but serves to assess cross-hedging potential with current corn and soybean meal futures markets. Implications for agricultural price levels, risk management and policy analysis are discussed.


The failure modes during steam cycling between 110 o and 1316oC of silicon-ytterbium silicate EBC systems applied to silicon carbide substrates have been investigated. Premature delamination failure at silicon-ytterbium monosilicate (YbMS) interfaces is shown to result from thermal expansion mismatch driven channel cracking of the YbMS layer. These coating penetrating cracks enabled water vapor and oxygen to reach the silicon bond coat layer outer surface from the start of the thermal cycling process, and resulted in the rapid growth of an upper (b-phase) cristobalite thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer on the silicon surface. This silica layer suffered rapid edge erosion followed by thermal contraction mismatch induced delamination crack extension from the edge of the samples during cooling. Replacement of the steam erosion resistant monosilicate by its dislicate counterpart eliminated the channel crack oxidizer pathways to the silicon surface and delayed the growth of the silica TGO. The eventual failure of this coating architecture was governed by the development of a significant delamination driving force at the silicon ytterbium dislicate interface as the TGO thickness exceeded ~5 mm. Coating failure life was then governed by the rate of permeation of oxidants through the ytterbium dislicate and by the very large thermal stresses developed during the upper to lower cristobalite transformation. Interestingly, the oxidant permeation is likely to increase during prolonged cycling as the diffusion barrier dislicate layer thickness was decreased by steam erosion. Preliminary results from investigations of several concepts for extending the coating system life will be described. One sought to utilize a thermal barrier coating to reduce the EBC temperature and water vapor flow rate at the ytterbium dislicate outer surface. A second has investigated the use of thin hafnia layers applied to the silicon bond coat outer surface to induce the formation of a composite silica/hafnium silicate TGO to reduce the thermal strain energy for delamination.


One of the obstacles that has caused agricultural sector not to reach significant and expected growth is shortage of short, medium and long–term funds to finance various activities of this sector. This study aims at investigating the economic impacts of credits granted by Agricultural bank on farmers on Hirmand region. The statistical population of the survey included 4691 farmers of Hirmand region and the sample size were 117 farmers who had received loan from agricultural bank at least once during 2006-2011. The Sample was selected using simple random sampling and questionnaires were distributed among them. The results from t-Test showed that significant level for income manufacturing variants was 0.000 and for investment and livelihood variants were 0.014 and 0.077, respectively. This significantly levels suggest that received loan from bank has increased income and production, the living conditions of borrowers, economic profitability and increased productivity.


Anatomy questions are asked in all parts of the FRCA examinations, and for many trainees it is a particularly daunting part of the exams. This important new book provides a comprehensive, exam-orientated clinical anatomy book for anaesthetists preparing for all parts of the FRCA. It covers all body regions, relating underlying anatomy to practical procedures and anatomical principles, spanning the breadth of the curriculum and comprising exam-style questions: a chapter of SAQ questions, one of OSCE stations, one of SOE questions and one of MCQs. The text is highly illustrated in full colour with ultrasound images, diagrams and photographs of cadaveric material and models. This is the first anatomy book specifically orientated for the FRCA exam, making it an essential resource for anaesthetists preparing for all parts of the FRCA examination.


Low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets are recommended by various scientific bodies for the prevention
of coronary heart disease. However, these diets increase postprandial lipaemia and so
their net benefit for coronary heart disease risk has been the subject of vigorous debate. Exaggerated
postprandial lipaemia has been implicated in the development of atherosclerosis. Previous
research suggests that physical exercise improves triacylglycerol metabolic capacity.
The present thesis investigated whether exercise, when simultaneously adopted with a high-carbohydrate
diet, could prevent the augmentation of postprandial lipaemia observed with this
dietary change. [Continues.]


The Western world has experienced extraordinary economic progress throughout the last six decades, a prosperous period so extended that continuous economic growth has come to seem normal. But such an era of continuously rising living standards is an historical anomaly, economist Stephen D. King warns, and the current stagnation of Western economies threatens to reach crisis proportions in the not-so-distant future. Praised for the "dose of realism" he provided in his book Losing Control, King follows up in this volume with a plain-spoken assessment of where the West stands today. It's not just the end of an age of affluence, he shows. We have made promises to ourselves that are only achievable through ongoing economic expansion. The future benefits we expect - pensions, healthcare and social security, for example - may be larger than tomorrow's resources. And if we reach that point, which promises will be broken and who will lose out? The lessons of history offer compelling evidence that political and social upheaval are often born of economic stagnation. King addresses these lessons with a multifaceted plan that involves painful - but necessary - steps toward a stable and just economic future.


This paper presents the open source content management system (CMS) Drupal and examples that illustrates how Drupal may be used to build a Library 2.0 Website.
Have you been in Helsinki? Then you surely noticed all those wonderful Web 2.0 tools that help librarians to
communicate with their users and create community around their library. But all those tools – weblogs, wikis,
forums, tagging, social networks – are located at different places and each requires a specific login and password.
Would it be possible to have the same functionalities at one place? Some Open source content management systems
could help in some way, and among them, Drupal.


Part and parcel to the civil rights movements of the past thirty years has been a sustained, coordinated effort among disabled Americans to secure equal rights and equal access to that of non-disabled people. Beyond merely providing a history of this movement, Sharon Barnartt and Richard Scotch's Disability Protests: Contentious Politics, 1970-1999 offers an incisive, sociological analysis of thirty years of protests, organization, and legislative victories within the deaf and disabled populations. The authors begin with a thoughtful consideration of what constitutes "contentious" politics and what distinguishes a sustained social movement from isolated acts of protest. The numbers of disability rights protests are meticulously catalogued over the course of thirty years, revealing significant increases in both cross-disability actions as well as disability-specific actions. Political rancor within disability communities is addressed as well. Chapter four, "A Profile of Contentious Actions" confronts the thorny question of who is "deaf enough" or "disabled enough" to adequately represent their constituencies. Barnartt and Scotch conclude by giving special attention to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the 1988 Deaf President Now protest, focusing on how these landmark events affected their proponents. Disability Protests offers an entirely original sociological perspective on the emerging movement for deaf and disability rights.


Monkey kidney epithelial cells of the nontransformed BSC-1 line were used as a model system with which to search for biological responses to urinary crystals commonly found in renal stones. Calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM), the most common urinary crystal, was avidly internalized, initiated DNA synthesis, and stimulated cell multiplication. The increase in DNA synthesis observed after exposure to COM crystals was equivalent in magnitude to that of 10% calf serum, but occurred 8 h later. Maximal stimulation of DNA synthesis by COM was associated with crystal endocytosis by 50% of the cell monolayer. COM crystals also stimulated DNA synthesis and multiplication of canine kidney epithelial cells (MDCK line). As COM stimulated growth of both monkey and canine renal cells but not fibroblasts, the mitogenic effect of this crystal appeared cell-type specific. Hydroxyapatite also enhanced multiplication of BSC-1 cells, whereas brushite, another calcium-containing urinary crystal, did not. In the presence of nephrocalcin (NC), a glycoprotein in normal human urine that inhibits nucleation, aggregation, and growth of COM crystals, the capacity of these crystals to initiate DNA synthesis was blocked. This is the first demonstration that specific calcium-containing urinary crystals can induce proliferation of renal epithelial cells and that NC can inhibit this effect.


Indexing is a fundamental technique used by the administrator to reduce the cost of processing complex queries defined on a data warehouse. However, selecting a suitable configuration of indexes is a difficult problem to solve. The problem is classified as NP-hard. Automatic index selection has received significant attention in the databases field. Most works have focused on providing tools and algorithms to help data bases administrators in the choice of a configuration of indexes. Some of these works have been adapted for the data warehouse context. The idea, recently introduced, of using data mining techniques to resolve this problem remains a promising approach. In this paper, we propose a maximal frequent pattern based approach to generate a configuration of indexes from a given workload. The proposed approach was tested on APB-1 benchmark under Oracle. The results obtained show that the proposed approach generates indexes that improve the performance of the workload.


Planning under uncertainty is a frequently encountered problem. Noisy observation is a typical situation that introduces uncertainty. Such a problem can be formulated as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). However, solving a POMDP is nontrivial and can be computationally expensive in continuous state, action, observation and latent state space. Through this work, we consider a restricted POMDP problem, where we alleviate the dependency of the latent state on the controllable action. Our proposed approach involves using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for latent state estimation and a Particle Filter for goal estimation in conjunction with an iterative Linear Quadratic Regulator (iLQR) to find an optimal trajectory that minimizes the cumulative model cost. As a means to evaluate the feasibility and optimality of our solution, we compare this approach against the naive strategy of planning to only the goal rolled out from the immediate observation made by the agent.


New in the 2004 edition of the NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) was the condition where unsupervised adaptation of speaker models is allowed. Despite the promising results on development test material, hardly any beneficial results were obtained in the Evaluation itself. An analysis is made why this was the case, and it appears that a mimimum level of performance is essential to obtain results using adaptation that improve on the performance without adaptation. Further, the system should be well calibrated. For the conditions with 8 conversation sides we have been able to find improvement using unsupervised adaptation using the NIST 2004 evaluation, both for an UBM/GMM adaptation methodology, and a novel SVM adaptation methodology. The minimum DCF for a fused system drops from 0.259 for the unadapted condition to 0.231 for the adapted condition.


Let X be a compact connected Riemann surface equipped with an anti-holomorphic involution \sigma. Let G be a connected complex reductive affine algebraic group, and let \sigma_G be a real form of G. We consider holomorphic principal G-bundles on X satisfying compatibility conditions with respect to \sigma and \sigma_G. We prove that the points defined over $\mathbb R$ of the smooth locus of a moduli space of principal G-bundles on X are precisely these objects, under the assumption that {\rm genus}(X) > 2. Stable, semistable and polystable bundles are defined in this context. Relationship between any of these properties and the corresponding property of the underlying holomorphic principal G-bundle is explored. A bijective correspondence between unitary representations and polystable objects is established.


Energy storage is a potential alternative to conventional network reinforcement of the low voltage (LV) distribution network to ensure the grid's infrastructure remains within its operating constraints. This paper presents a study on the control of such storage devices, owned by distribution network operators. A deterministic model predictive control (MPC) controller and a stochastic receding horizon controller (SRHC) are presented, where the objective is to achieve the greatest peak reduction in demand, for a given storage device specification, taking into account the high level of uncertainty in the prediction of LV demand. The algorithms presented in this paper are compared to a standard set-point controller and bench marked against a control algorithm with a perfect forecast. A specific case study, using storage on the LV network, is presented, and the results of each algorithm are compared. A comprehensive analysis is then carried out simulating a large number of LV networks of varying numbers of households. The results show that the performance of each algorithm is dependent on the number of aggregated households. However, on a typical aggregation, the novel SRHC algorithm presented in this paper is shown to outperform each of the comparable storage control techniques.