The study was conducted to observe and compare the phenotypic characteristics of ISA brown and Hisex brown commercial layer strains. A total of 200 birds were examined out of 36000 in a commercial layer farms at Chandonysh upazila (sub-district) of Chittagong district, Bangladesh during the period of July to December, 2013. Observable difference was found in several phenotypic characteristics like plumage, beak, shank, egg, comb color and comb type between ISA brown and Hisex brown. In ISA brown shank length (cm), egg weight (gm) and body weight (gm) was 3.32±0.01, 59.44±0.47 and 1846.60±11.18 respectively where in case of Hisex brown it was 3.11±0.00, 55.82±0.45 and 1769.10±33.90. Significant (P 0.05) difference between the strains in respect of shank length, egg weight and body weight. Some innate characteristics of studied strains differentiate them and any improvement program of commercial layer strains should be incorporate production objectives and trait performance of the society. International Journal of Natural Sciences (2015), 5(2) 41-45


In this paper the digester house process variables are first studied to identify the process variations in different time perspectives. The focus is on the perspective of controlling the process on-line for the next 24 hours. With a mathematical model first the cook and the flows associated with the digester house are modelled. From this different scenarios with different "faults" are implemented in the model and compared to the process data. From this the performance can be predicted for different conditions. Key numbers are determined from this and these are used together with suitable objective functions to make optimal production planning for model based control. The set points are sent to the control system. By determining the reactivity of different qualities of wood chips by measuring NIR and measuring final kappa, a tool for feed forward control is developed.


We show that the deterministic decision tree complexity of a (partial) function or relation $f$ lifts to the deterministic parity decision tree (PDT) size complexity of the composed function/relation $f \circ g$ as long as the gadget $g$ satisfies a property that we call stifling. We observe that several simple gadgets of constant size, like Indexing on 3 input bits, Inner Product on 4 input bits, Majority on 3 input bits and random functions, satisfy this property. It can be shown that existing randomized communication lifting theorems ([G\"{o}\"{o}s, Pitassi, Watson. SICOMP'20], [Chattopadhyay et al. SICOMP'21]) imply PDT-size lifting. However there are two shortcomings of this approach: first they lift randomized decision tree complexity of $f$, which could be exponentially smaller than its deterministic counterpart when either $f$ is a partial function or even a total search problem. Second, the size of the gadgets in such lifting theorems are as large as logarithmic in the size of the input to $f$. Reducing the gadget size to a constant is an important open problem at the frontier of current research. Our result shows that even a random constant-size gadget does enable lifting to PDT size. Further, it also yields the first systematic way of turning lower bounds on the width of tree-like resolution proofs of the unsatisfiability of constant-width CNF formulas to lower bounds on the size of tree-like proofs in the resolution with parity system, i.e., $\textit{Res}$($\oplus$), of the unsatisfiability of closely related constant-width CNF formulas.


In order to investigate the different mechanical behavior of column-bracing system between fixed-ended and pin-ended column base, a large number of column-bracing systems with fixed-ended and pin-ended column base were studied using the ANSYS program, in which random combination of the initial imperfections between columns and braces was well considered by the Monte Carlo method. Based on the above comparative study, probability density function of the bracing force was found through probability statistics and the design bracing force is obtained. The results show that the ultimate load-carrying capacity and the bracing forces of the mid-height horizontal braces of column-bracing systems with pin-ended column base are higher than that of column-bracing systems with fixed-ended column base, and the higher ultimate load-carrying capacity of the former more significantly increases the bracing forces of the mid-height horizontal braces; that the bracing forces of the mid-height horizontal braces in compression or in tension have also randomness because of the randomness of the initial imperfection of both columns and braces.


Biological systems generate crystalline materials with properties and morphologies that cannot be duplicated using synthetic procedures. Developing strategies that mimic the control mechanisms found in nature would enhance the range of functional materials available for numerous technological applications. Herein, a biomimetic approach based on the mechano-dynamic chemistry of silicone surfaces was used to control the rate of heterogeneous CaCO3 nucleation. Specifically, stretching the silicone surface redistributed functional groups, tuning interfacial energy and thus the rate of CaCO3 crystal formation, as predicted by classical nucleation rate laws. We extended this procedure using microrelief patterns to program surface strain fields to spatially control the location of nucleation. The strategies presented herein represent a fundamental departure from traditional bottom-up crystal engineering, where surfaces are chemically static, to them being active participants in the nucleation process controlling the outcome both spatially and temporally.


Recent studies indicate that Neanderthal and Denisova hominins may have been separate species, while debate continues on the status of Homo floresiensis. The decade‐long debate between "splitters," who recognize over 20 hominin species, and "lumpers," who maintain that all these fossils belong to just a few lineages, illustrates that we do not know how many extinct hominin species to expect. Here, we present probability distributions for the number of speciation events and the number of contemporary species along a branch of a phylogeny. With estimates of hominin speciation and extincton rates, we then show that the expected total number of extinct hominin species is 8, but may be as high as 27. We also show that it is highly unlikely that three very recent species disappeared due to natural, background extinction. This may indicate that human‐like remains are too easily considered distinct species. Otherwise, the evidence suggesting that Neanderthal and the Denisova hominin represent distinct species implies a recent wave of extinctions, ostensibly driven by the only survivor, H. sapiens.


The method of density matching between the solid and liquid phases is often adopted to effectively eliminate the effect of sedimentation of suspensions in studies on dynamic behaviour of a colloidal system. However, the associated changes in the solvent composition may bring side effects to the properties investigated and therefore might lead to a faulty conclusion if the relevant correction is not made. To illustrate the importance of this side effect, we present an example of the sedimentation influence on the coagulation rate of suspensions of 2 μm (diameter) polystyrene. The liquid mixtures, in the proper proportions of water (H2O), deuterium oxide (D2O) and methanol (MeOH) as the liquid phase, density-matched and unmatched experiments are performed. Besides the influence of viscosity, the presence of methanol in solvent media, used to enhance the sedimentation effect, causes significant changes (reduction) in rapid coagulation rates compared to that in pure water. Without the relevant corrections for those non-gravitational factors it seems that gravitational sedimentation would retard the coagulation. The magnitude of the contribution from the non-gravitational factor is quantitatively determined, making the relevant correction possible. After necessary corrections for all factors, our experiments show that the influence of the sedimentation on coagulation rates at the initial stage of the coagulation is not observable.


To the Editor.— In the July 1989 issue of theArchives, Martin et al 1 reported improvement of memory in patients with Korsakoff's psychosis (KP) by treatment with fluvoxamine maleate, a specific serotonin (5-HT) uptake inhibitor. This observation by itself is of interest, but the authors' interpretation of the data deserves comment. Are data available showing the effects of fluvoxamine treatment on memory test performance and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in normal persons? The statistical analyses supporting the conclusions made for subjects with KP should be viewed with considerable caution. Three variables were analyzed: plasma levels of fluvoxamine, degree of improvement on tests of memory, and amount of reduction of CSF 5-HIAA. A total of 15 data points (5 for each variable) were reported; too few to provide a reliable multivariate analysis. Ideally, 20 data points per variable are needed for a sound multivariate analysis, and


Purpose. The purpose of this research was to elucidate the ministry of lay elders as it is suggested in the New Testament and to construct a model for the ministry of local church elders in the Inca Union Mission. Method. This study was documentary and theological. The primary source was the New Testament, specifically the gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles. Secondary literature was employed to support the biblical findings of the elders' tasks. Conclusions. In harmony with the teaching of the Scriptures regarding early church organization and leadership, elders are selected by the local church and ordained to function primarily as shepherds, leaders, and teachers in their local communities. Selection by the church is on the basis of character and appropriate spiritual gifts. The proposed model of elders' ministry includes: a selection process, training for specific ministry, organization into a Board of Elders, implementation of ministry, all within a professional pastoral supervision. This model is proposed as the formalization of the process of training modeled by Jesus Christ and the apostles. It is proposed that the implementation of this model will facilitate church growth in two ways: first by slowing the present rates of apostasy in the Inca Union Mission through nurture and second by increasing the effectiveness of outreach with the community.


(3.6%), flutter (8.9%), focal (7.7%) and full collapse (67.3%). Focal to full arterial collapse was observed in the M2 regardless of catheter size and perfusion pressure. The likelihood and severity of collapse was positively correlated to size of aspiration catheter and negatively correlated to arterial size and perfusion pressure. OCT detected collapse of the aortic lumen during aspiration thrombectomy in rabbit. Conclusion Arterial collapse occurs with current aspiration thrombectomy technologies in validated human brain models and in vivo in the aorta of rabbit. Disclosures Y. Liu: 2; C; Endovascular Engineering. D. Gebrezgiabhier: None. J. Arturo Larco: None. S. Madhani: None. A. Shahid: None. R. Kadirvel: None. W. Brinjikji: None. D. Kallmes: None. L. Savastano: 4; C; Endovascular Engineering.


BACKGROUND
Blood loss during liver resection is considered one of the most important factors affecting the peri-operative outcomes of patients undergoing liver resection.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the benefits and harms of cardiopulmonary interventions to decrease blood loss and to decrease allogeneic blood transfusion requirements in patients undergoing liver resections.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Science Citation Index Expanded until January 2012 to identify randomised trials.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included all randomised clinical trials comparing various cardiopulmonary interventions aimed at decreasing blood loss and allogeneic blood transfusion requirements in patients undergoing liver resection. Trials were included irrespective of whether they included major or minor liver resections of normal or cirrhotic livers, vascular occlusion was used or not, and irrespective of the reason for liver resection.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two authors independently identified trials for inclusion and independently extracted data. We analysed the data with both the fixed-effect and the random-effects models using RevMan Analysis. For each outcome we calculated the risk ratio (RR), mean difference (MD), or standardised mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) based on intention-to-treat analysis or available case analysis. For dichotomous outcomes with only one trial included under the outcome, we performed the Fisher's exact test.

MAIN RESULTS
Ten trials involving 617 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria. The interventions included low central venous pressure (CVP), autologous blood donation, haemodilution, haemodilution with controlled hypotension, and hypoventilation. Only one or two trials were included under most comparisons. All trials had a high risk of bias. There was no significant difference in the peri-operative mortality in any of the comparisons: low CVP versus no intervention (3 trials, 0/88 (0%) patients in the low CVP group versus 1/89 (1.1%) patients in the no intervention group); autologous blood donation versus no intervention (1 trial, 0/40 (0%) versus 0/39 (0%)); haemodilution versus no intervention (2 trials, 1/73 (1.4%) versus 3/77 (3.9%) in one of these trials); haemodilution with controlled hypotension versus no intervention (1 trial, 0/10 (0%) versus 0/10 (0%)); haemodilution with bovine haemoglobin (HBOC-201) versus haemodilution with hydroxy ethyl starch (HES) (1 trial, 1/6 (16.7%) versus 0/6 (0%)); hypoventilation versus no intervention (1 trial, 0/40 (0%) versus 0/39 (0%)). None of the trials reported long-term survival or quality of life. The risk ratio of requiring allogeneic blood transfusion was significantly lower in the haemodilution versus no intervention groups (3 trials, 16/115 (weighted proportion = 14.2%) versus 41/118 (34.7%), RR 0.41 (95% CI 0.25 to 0.66), P = 0.0003); and for haemodilution with controlled hypotension versus no intervention (1 trial, 0/10 (0%) versus 10/10 (100%), P < 0.0001). There were no significant differences in the allogeneic transfusion requirements in the other comparisons which reported this outcome, such as low CVP versus no intervention, autologous blood donation versus control, and hypoventilation versus no intervention.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
None of the interventions seemed to decrease peri-operative morbidity or offer any long-term survival benefit. Haemodilution shows promise in the reduction of blood transfusion requirements in liver resection surgery. However, there is a high risk of type I (erroneously concluding that an intervention is beneficial when it is actually not beneficial) and type II errors (erroneously concluding that an intervention is not beneficial when it is actually beneficial) because of the few trials included, the small sample size in each trial, and the high risk of bias in the trials. Further randomised clinical trials with low risk of bias and random errors that assess clinically important outcomes such as peri-operative mortality are necessary to assess any cardiopulmonary interventions aimed at decreasing blood loss and blood transfusion requirements in patients undergoing liver resections. Trials need to be designed to assess the effect of a combination of different interventions in liver resections.


DIGITAL pulse volume studies have proved of great value in the study of the peripheral circulation. The methods most commonly used have the disadvantage that they necessitate placing the digit in an airtight or watertight cylindrical compartment. In most of them the tracings are recorded on photographic paper, and analysis of data must wait until the film is developed. The present study is concerned with a method of recording pulse volume changes by alterations in electrical impedance of the digit under study. This method requires only the attachment of electrodes to the digit and utilizes a direct-writing recorder. The biophysical background of tissue impedance and impedance plethysmography has been summarized extensively by Nyboer and his associates.1Impedance plethysmograms are recordings of variations in the electrical resistance and reactance of segments of the body to intermediate and high frequency alternating currents. The impedance pulse tracings reflect the mechanical pulse volume


The cytoskeletal lesions associated with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli adhering to cultured HeLa epithelial cells were examined by immunofluorescence microscopy. The microfilament-associated proteins actin, alpha-actinin, talin, and ezrin were localized with adherent enteropathogenic E. coli, whereas tropomyosin, keratin and vimentin (intermediate filaments), tubulin (microtubules), and vinculin were not localized. These cytoskeletal structures differed significantly from those associated with Salmonella typhimurium internalization (invasion).


Injuries to the lower jaw in cats occur frequently in the area of the temporomandibular joint. In most of these cases, successful treatment necessitates a temporary surgical occlusion of the jaw. After a brief survey of various occlusion methods, a simple technique is opted for in which labial reverse sutures of non-absorbable material are threaded through buttons. This is the preferred method of treatment employed by the University of Munich Department of Animal Surgery. During the past ten years, 107 cats were treated using this method. It was possible to check the healing process via clinical and radiological examinations in 72 of these patients. In a further 21 cases, information was obtained through questioning the owners. The collected data revealed that the method described above, which originally had been intended to temporarily occlude the jaw in polytraumatized cats, has proven to be an effective final therapy in most cases. Of the total of 93 patients with a known case history, 81 cats (87%) showed no need for rigid fixation. Over all, 94% of treated patients were free of discomfort, while 68% of the fractures and luxations radiographically reevaluated had healed anatomically.


Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disorder that can affect all the neuroaxes in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Myelopathy in systemic lupus erythematosus is one of the least common neuropsychiatric syndromes accounting for 1%–2% of cases. Myelopathy has long been diagnosed based on clinical findings, laboratory tests, and gold-standard gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI-negative myelopathy is a recently described subset of myelopathies. Here, we report the case of a young woman from rural West Bengal, India, who presented with overlapping features of white-matter and gray-matter myelopathy associated with peripheral neuropathy and bilateral asymmetric lower motor neuron-type facial paresis. The historical analysis yielded clues toward an etiological diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus, further substantiated by seropositivity of lupus-specific autoantibodies. Her neurological disabilities responded poorly to oral administration of hydroxychloroquine, bolus intravenous administration of methylprednisolone, and high-dose cyclophosphamide therapy but eventually responded remarkably well to cyclical rituximab therapy. This case adds to the tally of cases of MRI-negative lupus myelopathy. MRI-negative myelopathy in systemic lupus erythematosus can be easily missed if not meticulous attention is paid during clinical history taking and examinations.


Natural ways such as herbal medicine was the main mean used to preserve health in the past before the appearance of modern medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) followed the concept of holism, which studies the relationship between the surrounding nature and the whole organ. The classical theories of TCM focused on the concepts of holistic energy balance which mentioned the five-element theory and explained the five main colors that concern the five organs. Each one plays a different role, supporting the energetic function of an organ. Since the main focus of one's being is to preserve and improve the state of health, this research focuses on the sufficient use of each color according to the principle of TCM theory aiming to support the organs' function, their relation to emotions and their resonate colors in healing, via creating different colored designs with the aim to expose color irradiation in certain areas in the body aiming to activate different chakras, related body organs, and systems that needs a healing boost. The research methodology is based on an inductive approach which relies on the collection of information to build a theoretical framework of the research and to a descriptive, analytical method for different designs.


The overall aim of this project is to investigate adaptive mechanisms involved in the evolution of Neanderthal and Modern Human face morphology. This is done by using a new method to summarise tooth wear patterns in a large collection of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hominins. This pattern is interpreted as an indicator of the forces habitually placed on different parts of the dentition. As the characteristic Neanderthal facial morphology is often interpreted as an adaptation to strong bite force between the anterior teeth, it is hypothesised that they should be particularly heavily worn in Neanderthals, relative to the rest of the dentition. The results presented here show that all Late Pleistocene hominins had heavily worn anterior teeth and that this was more pronounced in the Modern Humans than in the Neanderthals. There was, however, a characteristic Neanderthal pattern with wear more evenly spread between anterior teeth, whereas in Modern Humans it was more strongly concentrated in the incisors. In recent hunter-gatherers teeth were an integral part of the toolkit, strongly reflected in tooth wear. Both Neanderthals and the Skhul-Qafzeh Modern Humans shared a Middle Palaeolithic technology, with a small range of tool types and heavy anterior tooth wear, but the much more variable Upper Palaeolithic toolkit did not result in a reduction. Variation between different regions however suggests that the differences are complex Epipalaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic jaws showed a reduction in the contrast between anterior and cheek tooth wear, as might be expected with the large technological changes they represent. A preliminary study was made of dental casts from Canadian Inuit whose ages and sexes were recorded. They showed much heavier anterior tooth wear than any archaeological groups. This pattern was established early in life and women had much stronger anterior wear than men. This was related to sexual division of labour and it is striking that in Neanderthals the situation seems to have been replicated.


In recent decades, we have witnessed the evolution of information technologies from the development of VLSI technologies, to communication and networking infrastructure, to the standardization of multimedia compression and coding schemes, to effective multimedia content search and retrieval. As a result, multimedia devices and digital content have become ubiquitous. This path of technological evolution has naturally led to a critical issue that must be addressed next, namely, to ensure that content, devices, and intellectual property are being used by authorized users for legitimate purposes, and to be able to forensically prove with high confidence when otherwise. When security is compromised, intellectual rights are violated, or authenticity is forged, forensic methodologies and tools are employed to reconstruct what has happened to digital content in order to answer who has done what, when, where, and how. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview on what has been done over the last decade in the new and emerging field of information forensics regarding theories, methodologies, state-of-the-art techniques, major applications, and to provide an outlook of the future.


Hypothalamic-pituitary gonadal function is commonly altered in dialysis patients. Even though an improvement in general status and well-being has been noted after recombinant human erythropoietin supplementation, no significant changes were observed in the sex hormone profile. Pituitary gonadal axis as well as &-reduced androgen glucosiduronates (i.e. 5a-androstane,3a,l7/%diol and androsterone) profiles were studied in 23 young male stable dialyzed patients and compared to an age-matched group of healthy subjects. 5cY-Reduced androgen glucosiduronates are products of peripheral testosterone (T) metabolism and seem to be a useful tool in assessment of the male androgen status. Their polarity facilitates their urinary excretion, and their clearance is similar to the glomerular filtration rate in healthy men. We observed 1) a pituitary-Leydig cell dysfunction supported by normal serum estradiol and T levels, low free T, and increased LH levels; 2) an alteration of the dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) sulfate-DHEA interconversion, reflected by a dramatic decrease in DHEA while DHEA sulfate levels remained in the normal range; 3) an accumulation of 5a-reduced androgen glucosiduronates, whose removal was impaired as shown by their very low sieving coefficients (<0.012). Taken together, the above observations are consistent with alteration of spermatogenesis with respect to dialysis duration in which earlier elevated baseline serum LH levels indicate a primary defect in Leydig cell function. (J


ABSTRACT The literature on financial regulation has typically emphasized the role of the powerful financial industry in shaping regulatory outcomes. However, capture theories cannot explain the prominence of financial consumer protection in post-crisis reform agendas. By contrast, this article argues that, despite their collective action disadvantage, a polymorphous network of civil society organizations was able to gain momentum after the financial crisis and to influence the financial reform process. In this policy window, where decision-makers were looking out for an alternative source of expertise, a transnationally connected civil society (TCS) network successfully mobilized to place consumer protection on reform agendas in tandem with public entrepreneurs and on the back of a popular backlash against big finance. This argument will be explored through a comparative study of the impact of transnational pressures on policy-makers in Europe and the US in the immediate aftermath of the crisis. In the conclusion, the article shortly discusses the substance of the financial reforms that have been undertaken.


stratified by weeks, statistically significant differences were found beginning at 7 weeks, while GSV measurements were not significantly different between the normal and abnormal pregnancies at 6 to 6 + 6 weeks. Conclusion: GSV in missed abortion and anembryonic pregnancies is significantly smaller than in normal pregnancies, starting at 7 weeks of gestational age. This finding may be helpful in the diagnosis of missed abortion or anembryonic pregnancies in selected cases, or to further clarify the diagnosis in some cases.


Importance
Understanding cardiovascular outcomes of initiating second-line antidiabetic medications (ADMs) may help inform treatment decisions after metformin alone is not sufficient or not tolerated. To date, no studies have compared the cardiovascular effects of all major second-line ADMs during this early decision point in the pharmacologic management of type 2 diabetes.

Objective
To examine the association of second-line ADM classes with major adverse cardiovascular events.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Retrospective cohort study among 132 737 insured adults with type 2 diabetes who started therapy with a second-line ADM after taking either metformin alone or no prior ADM. This study used 2011-2015 US nationwide administrative claims data. Data analysis was performed from January 2017 to October 2018.

Exposures
Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, thiazolidinediones (TZDs), basal insulin, and sulfonylureas or meglitinides (both referred to as sulfonylureas hereafter). The DPP-4 inhibitors served as the comparison group in all analyses.

Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcome was time to first cardiovascular event after starting the second-line ADM. This composite outcome was based on hospitalization for the following cardiovascular conditions: congestive heart failure, stroke, ischemic heart disease, or peripheral artery disease.

Results
Among 132 737 insured adult patients with type 2 diabetes (men, 55%; aged 45-64 years, 58%; white, 63%), there were 3480 incident cardiovascular events during 169 384 person-years of follow-up. Patients were censored after the first cardiovascular event, discontinuation of insurance coverage, transition from International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) to end of ICD-9 coding, or 2 years of follow-up. After adjusting for patient, prescriber, and health plan characteristics, the risk of composite cardiovascular events after starting GLP-1 receptor agonists was lower than DPP-4 inhibitors (hazard ratio [HR], 0.78; 95% CI, 0.63-0.96), but this finding was not significant in all sensitivity analyses. Cardiovascular event rates after starting treatment with SGLT-2 inhibitors (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.57-1.53) and TZDs (HR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.76-1.11) were not statistically different from DPP-4 inhibitors. The comparative risk of cardiovascular events was higher after starting treatment with sulfonylureas (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.23-1.49) or basal insulin (HR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.81-2.27) than DPP-4 inhibitors.

Conclusions and Relevance
Among insured adult patients with type 2 diabetes initiating second-line ADM therapy, the short-term cardiovascular outcomes of GLP-1 receptor agonists, SGLT-2 inhibitors, and DPP-4 inhibitors were similar. Higher cardiovascular risk was associated with use of sulfonylureas or basal insulin compared with newer ADM classes. Clinicians may consider prescribing GLP-1 receptor agonists, SGLT-2 inhibitors, or DPP-4 inhibitors more routinely after metformin rather than sulfonylureas or basal insulin.


During low infusion rates of methotrexate (1.0 microng/hr/mouse; plateau plasma concentration, 2 X 10(-8) M), [3H]deoxyuridine incorporation into DNA was inhibited to a significant degree in small intestine and femur marrows. However, incorporation of [3H]thymidine into intestinal DNA was stimulated at this low infusion rate. During high infusion rates of methotrexate (10 microng/hr/mouse, plateau plasma concentration, 4 X 10(-7) M), inhibition of the incorporation of [3H]deoxyuridine at the steady state levels of plasma methotrexate in both the small intestine and femur marrow was significant. In contrast to stimulation at the low infusion rate, incorporation of [3H]thymidine into intestinal DNA at this high infusion rate was inhibited to a significant degree. Inhibition was not statistically significant in femur marrow DNA. The inhibition of [3H]thymidine into intestinal DNA could be reversed by the simultaneous infusion of inosine. Thus, in the in vivo system, an antipurine effect on DNA Synthesis at high methotrexate plasma concentration in the small intestine was observed. This antipurine effect was not apparent at the lower concentrations. The lower concentration, however, could still inhibit [3H]deoxyuridine incorporation into intestinal and femur marrow DNA to a significant enough degree that, if prolonged, it would resultin lethality to the mice. The thymineless state can be maintained for at most 60 hr in mice without lethal toxicity, whereas the antipurine state can be maintained for no longer than 18 hr in mice without some lethal toxicity. These data have important implications in rescue studies using thymidine or leucovorin.


The spectral region around 10 μm, showing prominent emission bands from various dust species is commonly used for the evaluation of the chemical composition of protoplanetary dust. Different methods of analysis have been proposed for this purpose, but so far, no comparative test has been performed to test the validity of their assumptions. In this paper, we evaluate how good the various methods are in deriving the chemical composition of dust grains from infrared spectroscopy. Synthetic spectra of disk models with different geometries and central sources were calculated, using a two-dimensional radiative transfer code. These spectra were then fitted in a blind test by four spectral decomposition methods. We studied the effect of disk structure (flared versus flat), inclination angle, size of an inner disk hole, and stellar luminosity on the fitted chemical composition. Our results show that the dust parameters obtained by all methods deviate systematically from the input data of the synthetic spectra. The dust composition fitted by the new two-layer temperature distribution method, described in this paper, differs the least from the input dust composition and the results show the weakest systematic effects. The reason for the deviations of the results given by the previously used methods lies in their simplifying assumptions. Due to the radial extent of the 10 μm emitting region there is dust at different temperatures contributing to the flux in the silicate feature. Therefore, the assumption of a single averaged grain temperature can be a strong limitation of the previously used methods. The continuum below the feature can consist of multiple components (e.g., star, inner rim, and disk midplane), which cannot simply be described by a Planck function at a single temperature. In addition, the optically thin emission of "featureless" grains (e.g., carbon in the considered wavelength range) produces a degeneracy in the models with the optically thick emission of the disk. The effect of different noise levels on the results has also been tested. We find that for a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 100 one can expect an absolute uncertainty in the value of the crystallinity of about 11% using ground-based observations (8–13 μm). For space-based observations (7–17 μm) the expected uncertainty is about 5% for the same S/N value. Moreover, the average value of the estimated crystallinity increases toward lower S/N in general. On the basis of our results, we propose a recipe for the analysis and interpretation of dust spectroscopy data in the mid-infrared which should be especially valuable for analyzing Spitzer spectroscopy data and ground-based infrared spectroscopy data in the 10 μm window.


For the Love of Anne: The True Story of an Autistic Child, James Copeland, London, Arrow Books, pp. 155, 35 pence, 1973. The third is only available in German. It is written anonymously about a ten-year-old girl (born in England in 1911) who by some would be called a schizophrenic and by others very severely hysterical. Her frightened withdrawal from life, her sleep walking and nightmares were treated from the age of ten to twelve in England by a layman by what would perhaps now be called a type of nude-encounter. Thirty years ago I was told of her further history: her marriage and the successful rearing of a family.


matter, and perfume.' It has been found that both the quaternary ammonium compounds and the amido-amines give positive results with tests for proteinuria using tetrabromophenolphthalein and tetrabromophenol blue (Albustix). Since our health visitors have advised the mothers to place the filterpaper in nappies not treated with fabric softeners the incidence of false positive tests has markedly fallen.


Recent work on the application of turbo decoding techniques to partial response class 4 (PR4) channels has focused on parallel concatenation systems that require three a posteriori (APP) detectors. A simplified serial concatenation system is presented that uses as its outer code a single convolutional code and as its inner code the partial response channel. An extension of this serial concatenation system is also presented that combines a second code with the channel, forming a more powerful inner code. Both proposed systems require only two APP detectors, offering significant savings in complexity and computation time. These serial concatenation systems are shown to perform as well as the more complicated parallel concatenation systems, offering substantial gains over uncoded systems. Additionally, the effect of precoding is investigated. Simulation results comparing the parallel and serial concatenation systems are also presented.


This study aimed to assess the performance, carcass traits, and non-carcass components of feedlot finished Texel crossbred lambs from different residual feed intake classes (RFI). Forty-seven uncastrated male Texel crossbred lambs (¾ Texel + ¼ Pantaneira) tested here were 4-month-old with an initial weight of 29.9 ± 5.5 kg. The lambs were confined for 70 days for individual dry matter intake (DMI) and average daily gain (ADG) assessment. The diet containing corn silage was provided as roughage, while the concentrate consisted of corn grain, soybean meal, urea, and mineral mixture with a 40:60 roughage to concentrate ratio and 76.34% total digestible nutrients (TDN). After confinement for 70 days, the lambs were slaughtered to assess carcass traits and non-carcass components. Based on the RFI, lambs were divided into three classes according to the standard deviation (sd): Positive RFI (inefficient, 0.5 above the mean), Negative RFI (efficient, 0.5 below the mean), and Medium RFI (intermediate). Classes with Negative (efficient) and Positive RFI (inefficient) showed no differences in ADG (0.321 vs 0.306 kg; P > 0.05). Dry matter intake (g d-1), and percentage of body weight (BW) differed significantly between the RFI classes (P < 0.05). Compared to lambs in the inefficient class, those in the efficient class (Negative RFI) showed a 9% reduction in DMI and had the same ADG. The lambs in either Positive or Negative RFI classes showed no weight differences between non-carcass components (P > 0.05). The RFI classes showed no differences in shrunk body weight, hot carcass weight, hot dressing, and weight of commercial cuts (P > 0.05). They showed no differences in neck, shoulder + shank, loin, rack, flank steak, rack cap off, and leg weights (P > 0.05). Our results indicate that improvement in feed efficiency, as a function of the RFI index, does not compromise performance and carcass traits of Texel crossbred lambs.


The accuracy of harmonic contribution assessment is severely affected by the fluctuation of utility harmonic. This study proposes an adaptive method for harmonic contribution assessment of the distribution system with multiple harmonic loads based on hierarchical clustering and regression analysis. First, the utility harmonic impedance is determined by the dominant fluctuation filtering. Then, the utility harmonic voltage data are automatically clustered into different segments based on the hierarchical K
-means clustering, which does not require a given clustering number of harmonic data. Subsequently, the harmonic contribution of each data segment is calculated with the Bayesian partial least squares regression, hence providing an adaptive estimation of the optimal principal components. Finally, the total harmonic contribution of the concerned period is obtained by weighted summation according to the length of each harmonic data segment. Simulations are carried out on the IEEE 13-bus and 69-bus systems. The results confirm that the approach can adapt to the fluctuation of utility harmonic and produce assessment outcomes more accurately compared with some other methods.


Two children with acute rheumatic fever had concurrent liver disease which obscured their diagnosis. One patient had evidence of viral hepatitis and the other apparently had liver toxicity from high doses of aspirin. The differential diagnosis of arthritis with liver disease must include acute rheumatic fever.


A starch-hydrolyzing enzyme from Schwanniomyces occidentalis has been reported to be a novel glucoamylase, but there is no conclusive proof that it is glucoamylase. An enzyme having the hydrolytic activity toward soluble starch was purified from a strain of S. occidentalis. The enzyme showed high catalytic efficiency (k cat⁄K m) for maltooligosaccharides, compared with that for soluble starch. The product anomer was α-glucose, differing from glucoamylase as a β-glucose producing enzyme. These findings are striking characteristics of α-glucosidase. The DNA encoding the enzyme was cloned and sequenced. The primary structure deduced from the nucleotide sequence was highly similar to mold, plant, and mammalian α-glucosidases of α-glucosidase family II and other glucoside hydrolase family 31 enzymes, and the two regions involved in the catalytic reaction of α-glucosidases were conserved. These were no similarities to the so-called glucoamylases. It was concluded that the enzyme and also S. occidentalis glucoamylase, had been already reported, were typical α-glucosidases, and not glucoamylase.


The structure and bio-activity of an endogenous cholesterol oxidase from Brevibacterium sp. was compared to the same enzyme exogenously expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) with and without N- or C-terminal his-tags. The different proteins were purified with affinity and subtractive protocols. The specific activity of the natural enzyme from Brevibacterium sp. was 17.5 ± 0.2 U/mg, while the activities of the exogenously expressed forms were 16 ± 0.3 U/mg for non-tagged enzyme from E. coli , 12 ± 0.1 U/mg for the N-terminal his-tagged enzyme, and 4 ± 0.3 U/mg for C-terminal his-tagged enzyme. Circular dichroism revealed that the added histidine residues altered the natural folding of the enzyme. The natural cholesterol oxidase was composed of 39% α-helix, 40% β-sheet, and 20% random coil, while the non-tagged enzyme was composed of 40% α-helix, 35% β-sheet, and 24% random coil. In contrast, the N-terminal his-tagged enzyme was composed of 45% α-helix, 29% β-sheet, and 25% random coil, and the C-terminal his-tagged enzyme was composed of 55% α-helix, 16% β-sheet, and 28% random coil. Hydrophobic fluorescence analysis revealed that the hydrophobicity of the enzyme was reduced by his-tags. Coenzyme-like fluorescent probe binding analysis indicated that the coenzyme binding site should be blocked by his-tags. The his-tag method for protein isolation can disrupt the catalytic activity of the cholesterol oxidase. Key words : Cholesterol oxidase; Brevibacterium sp.; Escherichia coli; structural disruption, His-tags.


This paper examines the rainfall and runoff characteristics in a karstic basin of China. The results indicated that the inner-annual distributions of rainfall and runoff were uneven and slightly different, as the concentration period of rainfall (from April to October) was earlier; there was a delay of about a month before the runoff (from May to September), and the concentrated volume accounted for 87% of annual precipitation or annual streamflow. Interannually, rainfall changed more significantly than runoff, the wet years lasted longer than the dry years (rainfall), while the high and low flow years were equal for runoff. In addition, judging from the value of the Mann-Kendall test, the average annual change of rainfall (−2.36) was more significant than that of runoff (−2.05), and the seasonal pattern of runoff maintained an opposite tendency in autumn and winter before 1990. The changes in runoff were mainly associated with rainfall and the formation conditions in the karstic area, and the reservoir in this basin should be operated with different flood limiting water levels, and the vegetation coverage should be improved.


We present a case of metabolic acidosis ina man, recently diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus under treatment with metformin. Metformin (along with Fenformin and Butformin) is an oral antihyperglycemic agent belonging to the biguanide group employed in the treatment of non insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM). Its main use is in associattion with other oral agents in obese diabetic patients with difficult metabolic control. In some of these patients, clearly beneficial developed lactic acidosis, specially in those who have predisposing factors (respiratry failure, liver disease or cardiovascular disease) and/or those who require high


Drastic groundwater resource depletion due to excessive extraction for irrigation is a major concern in many parts of India. In this study, an attempt was made to simulate the groundwater scenario of the catchment using ArcSWAT. Due to the restriction on the maximum initial storage, the deep aquifer component in ArcSWAT was found to be insufficient to represent the excessive groundwater depletion scenario. Hence, a separate water balance model was used for simulating the deep aquifer water table. This approach is demonstrated through a case study for the Malaprabha catchment in India. Multi‐site rainfall data was used to represent the spatial variation in the catchment climatology. Model parameters were calibrated using observed monthly stream flow data. Groundwater table simulation was validated using the qualitative information available from the field. The stream flow was found to be well simulated in the model. The simulated groundwater table fluctuation is also matching reasonably well with the field observations. From the model simulations, deep aquifer water table fluctuation was found very severe in the semi‐arid lower parts of the catchment, with some areas showing around 60 m depletion over a period of eight years. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


CO2 methanation is a well-known reaction that is of interest as a capture and storage (CCS) process and as a renewable energy storage system based on a power-to-gas conversion process by substitute or synthetic natural gas (SNG) production. Integrating water electrolysis and CO2 methanation is a highly effective way to store energy produced by renewables sources. The conversion of electricity into methane takes place via two steps: hydrogen is produced by electrolysis and converted to methane by CO2 methanation. The effectiveness and efficiency of power-to-gas plants strongly depend on the CO2 methanation process. For this reason, research on CO2 methanation has intensified over the last 10 years. The rise of active, selective, and stable catalysts is the core of the CO2 methanation process. Novel, heterogeneous catalysts have been tested and tuned such that the CO2 methanation process increases their productivity. The present work aims to give a critical overview of CO2 methanation catalyst production and research carried out in the last 50 years. The fundamentals of reaction mechanism, catalyst deactivation, and catalyst promoters, as well as a discussion of current and future developments in CO2 methanation, are also included.


Following the discovery of kisspeptin (Kiss) and its receptor (GPR54 or KissR) in mammals, phylogenetic studies revealed up to three Kiss and four KissR paralogous genes in other vertebrates. The multiplicity of Kiss and KissR types in vertebrates probably originated from the two rounds of whole-genome duplication (1R and 2R) that occurred in early vertebrates. This review examines compelling recent advances on molecular diversity and phylogenetic evolution of vertebrate Kiss and KissR. It also addresses, from an evolutionary point of view, the issues of the structure-activity relationships and interaction of Kiss with KissR and of their signaling pathways. Independent gene losses, during vertebrate evolution, have shaped the repertoire of Kiss and KissR in the extant vertebrate species. In particular, there is no conserved combination of a given Kiss type with a KissR type, across vertebrate evolution. The striking conservation of the biologically active ten-amino-acid C-terminal sequence of all vertebrate kisspeptins, probably allowed this evolutionary flexibility of Kiss/KissR pairs. KissR mutations, responsible for hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in humans, mostly occurred at highly conserved amino acid positions among vertebrate KissR. This further highlights the key role of these amino acids in KissR function. In contrast, less conserved KissR regions, notably in the intracellular C-terminal domain, may account for differential intracellular signaling pathways between vertebrate KissR. Cross talk between evolutionary and biomedical studies should contribute to further understanding of the Kiss/KissR structure-activity relationships and biological functions.


Structural transformation can influence employment creation and poverty reduction through direct and indirect channels. For instance, productivity growth in one sector stimulates employment and wage growth in that sector. It can also impact other sectors through increased demand for labour with similar skill profiles. Higher output in one sector can further spillover to other sectors through increased input demand from other sectors through production linkages thereby increasing incomes. The benefit of such spillovers will be limited if the growing sector does not have strong backward and forward production linkages with other sectors. However, it is not clear whether Asia-Pacific LDCs have been able to harness the potential backward and forward linkages between sectors to the extent that productivity growth in one sector indirectly stimulates demand for goods and services of other sectors. For a country to fully benefit from such indirect impacts, structural transformation should be accompanied by strong backward and forward linkages.


BACKGROUND--Failure of the donor (graft) heart is the main cause of mortality in the first month after orthotopic cardiac transplantation. In a preliminary study marked downregulation of cardiac beta adrenoceptor density was found in apparently normal donor hearts of recipients who developed severe cardiac failure soon after implantation. Cardiac beta adrenoceptors are an important factor in the development of cardiac failure in the human heart. The aim of this study therefore was to determine whether fatal graft failure in the first month after transplantation is associated with downregulation of beta adrenoceptor density in the donor heart. PATIENTS AND METHODS--Right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy specimens were taken from consecutive adult donor patients immediately before implantation. A previously described radioligand binding method was used to determine beta adrenoceptor density in consecutive patients who developed fatal graft failure and died within 1 month of transplantation and in a group of control donors transplanted during the same period. RESULTS--Perioperative fatal graft failure developed in 13 patients. Forty one specimens from donor hearts that were transplanted into recipients who did not develop fatal graft heart failure formed the control group. There were no systematic differences in donor or recipient characteristics between the graft heart failure and control groups. In particular donor catecholamine requirement and recipient pulmonary vascular resistance did not differ between groups. Total beta adrenoceptor density was reduced in the fatal graft heart failure group compared with that in the controls (13.4 (7) fmol/mg v 21 (7) fmol/mg; P < 0.01). There was a positive correlation between beta adrenoceptor density in the donor heart and time to death in the graft heart failure group (r2 = 0.3, P < 0.05). The beta adrenoceptor binding affinity (Kd) did not differ between the graft failure group and the controls (47 (6) pM v 44 (7) pM). CONCLUSION--The development of perioperative fatal cardiac failure after orthotopic cardiac transplantation is associated with downregulation of beta adrenoceptors in the donor heart before implantation.


ABSTRACT Patients with NHL vary in response to current therapies. Early identification of the non-responders is of utmost importance in order to maximise their chances of a successful second-line therapy. In the search for a predictor of outcome to distinguish responders from non-responders, FDG-PET interim response assessment has been identified as a very promising tool. It provides an excellent basis for 'personalized medicine', whereby patients whose tumour is not responding may be shifted early during treatment from the ineffective to an another therapy. Even though the value of FDG-PET for post-treatment response assessment in DLBCL is well established nowadays, its value as a tool for interim response assessment is highly debated. In clinical practice PET scans are typically interpreted by visual methods. The well-established International Harmonization Project) criteria dichotomize PET results into positive and negative relative to the intensity of tracer uptake. These criteria have been designed to assess end-of-therapy response and should not be used to evaluate interim-PET scans. A new visual approach to PET scoring in lymphoma include a 5-point scale, the so-called Deauville criteria. At any observation time during induction chemotherapy, FDG uptake reflects a metabolic state which is a balance between tumour cell kill of chemosensitive components and re-growth of resistant components. When interim-PET is performed after one or two cycles, it evaluates the response of the cells with the highest mitotic index, thereby providing an early evaluation of chemosensitivity. In studies that have been conducted on the predictive value of interim PET, timing of interim PET varies considerably, both between and within studies, ranging from PET having been performed after 1 to 4 treatment cycles. To maximise therapy effectiveness and to minimise delays, toxicity and costs, early response assessment seems an attractive way to go. Interim-PET seems a promising tool but important issues as impact of timing, criteria, therapies on test performance need to be clarified. Randomized clinical trials with interim PET-CT based treatment modifications must ultimately demonstrate whether this strategy will improve patient outcome. Disclosure: The author has declared no conflicts of interest.


Starting with Rene Descartes and Albrecht Durer, Europeans obsessively contemplated, registered and expressed their being-in-the-world and assigned those self-expressions a universal cognitive value. Such generalized personal accounts as Cartesian cogito ergo sum or John Locke's memory- based theory of personal identity formed the basis of sweeping statements about nations and epochs. For instance, the turn-of-the-century decadent deconstruction of subjectivity brought to life the myth of a smooth transition from the 19th century individuated ('I'-based) Self to the 20th century shared ('We'-based) Self. To correct this uninformative and factually inaccurate social description of personal identity, I suggest searching for social identities beyond the realm of self-reflection. In this light, a cursory survey of first-person statements found in books, journals and newspapers published in major European languages between the First and the Second World Wars, is subjected to various kinds of discursive analysis in the light of the chosen topic. As a result, a few politically and aesthetically privileged self-identifications of Europeans give way to a diverse social hierarchy, providing a possible strategy for linguistic description of social identity beyond the European terrain.


The evolution of radiation-induced carbon-related defects in low temperature irradiated oxygen containing silicon has been studied by means of Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR) and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). FTIR measurements have shown that annealing of interstitial carbon atom Ci, occurring in the temperature interval 260-300 K, results in a gradual appearance of a number of new absorption bands along with the well known bands related to the CiOi complex. The new bands are positioned at 812, 910.2, 942.6, 967.4 and 1086 cm-1. It has been found that the pair of bands at 910 and 942 cm-1 as well as another set of the bands at 812, 967.4 and 1086 cm-1 display identical behavior upon isochronal annealing, i.e. the bands in both groups appear and disappear simultaneously. The disappearance of the first group occurs at T = 285-300 K while the second group anneals out at T = 310-340 K. These processes are accompanied by an increase in intensity of the bands related to CiOi. It is suggested that intermediate states (precursors) are formed upon the transformation from a single (isolated) Ci atom to a stable CiOi defect. The results obtained in DLTS studies are in agreement with the FTIR data and show unambiguously the formation of CiOi precursors with slightly lower activation energy for the hole emission as compare to that for the main CiOi state.


The rodent genera Neoreomys and Scleromys Ameghino from the late Early Miocene Pinturas For-mation (Ameghino´s «Astrapothericulan» beds) of Patagonia are here studied. A new species for each genus are recognized: Neoreomys pinturensis sp. nov., Scleromys quadrangulatus sp. nov. They are recorded exclusively in this unit and represent the oldest record of these genera. Both species differ from the typical Santacrucian species N. australis and S. osbornianus, respectively, by having less hypsodont cheek teeth with more persistent and larger flexi and flexids. These characters indicate a more primitive condition of their dentitions, and sug-gest they are their potential structural ancestors. Neoreomys australis and Scleromys osbornianus are also recorded in the Pinturas Formation, but they mostly occur in higher stratigraphic levels than their «Pinturan» counterparts.


A study was conducted on chip production from logging residue left after a cable yarder operation. The logistics were managed with tractor and trailer units (shuttles). The study specifically dealt with a very difficult case of space constrained operations, further expanding the knowledge about chip supply in extreme work conditions. The focus of the investigation was also extended to the shuttles. The study tested a production chain, in which only 3 machines (1 chipper, 2 shuttles) were used to minimize operational costs. The use of 2 shuttles was decisive, reducing shuttle delays. The chips produced had an average moisture content of 40.2 ±3.1%. Particle size distribution shows an unfavorable composition. The content of accepts is as low as 72%, while oversized particles get up to 5.4% and fines rise to a maximum of 24%. The estimated net productivity of the whole system was 11.5 t PMH, corresponding to a gross productivity of 11.1 t SMH. The cost of the whole operation amounted to 21.2 €t.


The improvement of global Internet access and the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated mass testing of online teaching methods, have forwarded the competition between higher education institutions from the regional level and the struggle for the rich student into the competition for students in all countries. The paper aims to determine the influence of the rating of higher education institutions on the interest of Internet users by conducting a comparative analysis of the popularity of the official names of higher education institutions in search queries in Ukraine and Poland. To do this, a comparative analysis of the change in the interest in leading higher education institutions in Ukraine and Poland in search queries in the Google search engine is carried out. The analysis is performed using the Google Trends web application. As a result, it is found that a high position of the university in the national ranking does not guarantee more search queries about it on the Internet by both national Internet users and users from the neighboring country. In general, Internet users continue to be most interested in universities located in their region at the time of the search.


The mass extinction events during human prehistory are striking examples of ecological regime shifts, the causes of which are still hotly debated. In Australia, human arrival approximately 50 thousand years ago was associated with the continental-scale extinction of numerous marsupial megafauna species and a permanent change in vegetation structure. An alternative stable state persisted until a second regime shift occurred during the late Holocene, when the largest two remaining marsupial carnivores, the thylacine and devil, disappeared from mainland Australia. These extinctions have been widely attributed to the human-assisted invasion of a competing predator, the dingo. In this unusual case, the simultaneous effects of human "intensification" (population growth and technological advances) and climate change (particularly increased ENSO variability) have been largely overlooked. We developed a dynamic model system capable of simulating the complex interactions between the main predators (humans, thylacines, devils, dingoes) and their marsupial prey (macropods), which we coupled with reconstructions of human population growth and climate change for late-Holocene Australia. Because the strength of important interspecific interactions cannot be estimated directly, we used detailed scenario testing and sensitivity analysis to identify robust model outcomes and investigate competing explanations for the Holocene regime shift. This approach identified human intensification as the most probable cause, while also demonstrating the potential importance of synergies with the effects of climate change. Our models indicate that the prehistoric impact of humans on Australian mammals was not limited to the late Pleistocene (i.e., the megafaunal extinctions) but extended into the late Holocene.


Automated valet parking (AVP) is a service which potentially releases the driver from the burden of parking the vehicle manually and saves his valuable time. However, the integration of AVP systems into today's parking facilities may result in a mixed traffic of manually driven and automated vehicles. Thereby, function modules to execute the AVP Service can be placed inside the vehicle and/ or inside the infrastructure. The two yet unresolved research questions in such a scenario are the definition of necessary minimum criteria for a safe AVP service and the distribution of functions between the infrastructure and the automated vehicle. In particular, the definition of minimum criteria is required to ensure the necessary safety by design in the early system development phase. This thesis specifies such minimum criteria for AVP systems to minimize the risks of harm for future deployed AVP systems. The necessary safety design is derived for different topologies of parking garages by considering the needed cooperation between the infrastructure and the automated vehicle. In the first step, the lack of minimum criteria and the lack of possible AVP configurations is identified in the state-of-the-art. The methodology to identify minimum criteria is divided in three parts: minimum safety requirements, minimum required perception zone and minimum functional requirements. Minimum safety requirements define the parameters and corresponding thresholds that are required to be investigated. They prevent the AVP-system to cause potential hazards and critical situations. A minimum required perception and safety zone describe technology-independent, geometric-based and minimum safety-relevant areas around the ego-vehicle. The determination of necessary parameters for a collision-free stop is required in the minimum required perception zone. Additionally, minimum functional requirements are derived from defined scenarios. The functional requirements are assigned to function modules and form as system building blocks modular AVP system architecture. Minimum safety requirements, the minimum required perception zone and minimum functional requirements form the minimum criteria for the elaborated checklist. In the scope of this work, minimum criteria and impacts on costs, time efficiency, safety as well as availability serve as a justification to derive needed AVP configurations. Distributed functions range from the perception to the execution. A tradeoff exists between overall costs, time efficiency, safety and availability of AVP systems with today's vehicles. AVP configurations and minimum criteria ease the migration of AVP systems in today's existing and in newly constructed parking garages. Minimum criteria lay the foundation for the development of a necessary safety design.


Well-being is a preventive factor in mental health. The present study discovered what children find important to their well-being by analyzing 106 positive future projections of elementary school children. A content analysis was executed to provide an overview of what constitutes the children's best future projections. Subsequently, the data was analyzed for autonomy, competence and relatedness, which act as indicators of children's well-being. The findings revealed that the majority of children described their future projections in a positive light. While relatedness was the most common element followed by competence, autonomy was found in markedly fewer statements. Additionally, sub-elements were discovered which provide a deeper inside into the essence of children's well-being. The future projections seem to be a good method to discover competence and relatedness as indicators of children's well-being. Against expectations, autonomy was not part of all future projections for reasons either relating to the children's development or to limitations in the task description. The results revealed a potential fourth element, defined as "personal happiness", as an indicator of well-being in children's future projections. Adaptations and opportunities for further research are proposed. The present study discloses new information on children's well-being, which broadens current understanding in this field.


Pro-inflammatory activation of vascular endothelium is implicated in pathogenesis of severe conditions including stroke, infarction and sepsis. We have recently reported that superoxide dismutase (SOD) conjugated with antibodies (Ab/SOD) that provide targeted delivery into endothelial endosomes mitigates inflammatory endothelial activation by cytokines and agonists of Toll-like receptors (TLR). The goal of this study was to appraise potential utility and define the mechanism of this effect. Ab/SOD, but not non-targeted SOD injected in mice alleviated endotoxin-induced leukocyte adhesion in the cerebral vasculature and protected brain from ischemia-reperfusion injury. Transfection of endothelial cells with SOD, but not catalase inhibited NFκB signaling and expression of Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 induced by both cytokines and TLR agonists. These results affirmed that Ab/SOD-quenched superoxide anion produced by endothelial cells in response to proinflammatory agents mediates NFκB activation. Furthermore, Ab/SOD potentiates anti-inflammatory effect of NO donors in endothelial cells in vitro, as well as in the endotoxin-challenged mice. These results demonstrate the central role of intracellular superoxide as a mediator of pro-inflammatory activation of endothelium and support the notion of utility of targeted interception of this signaling pathway for management of acute vascular inflammation.


SUMMARY: Gastric carcinoma is unusual during pregnancy. Aggressive nature of the disease and its unexpected presence lead to worse prognosis. We report a case of gastric carcinoma in a 27-year-old women at 6 weeks gestation. Diagnosis was correctly made by means of gastroscopy and biopsy taken this procedure. Radical treatment was refused and the patients died 3 months after the birth of a healthy baby.


This longitudinal study over a 23-year time span examined predictive associations between self-control development in adolescence and love and work outcomes in adulthood. Participants were 1,527 adults aged 35 years (48.3% female). The predictor variable self-control was measured yearly at the ages of 12 to 16 years. Adult outcome variables were measured at the age of 35 years. Three important results stand out. First, the measure of adolescent self-control functioned equivalently across the adolescent years. Second, adolescents showed a mean-level increase in self-control across the adolescent years and significant individual differences in level and change of self-control. Finally, individual differences in change in adolescent self-control predicted better intimate relationships in terms of higher relationship satisfaction and lower conflict; and more satisfaction and engagement in work-life in adulthood independent of the initial levels of self-control in early adolescence. These findings demonstrate that developmental self-regulatory processes reveal long-term consequences in important life domains beyond the adolescent years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).


A weakly focused laser beam can exert sufficient radiation pressure to manipulate microscopic particles over a large depth range. However, depth-resolved continuous measurement of radiation-pressure force profiles over an extended range about the focal plane has not been demonstrated despite decades of research on optical manipulation. Here, we present a method for continuous measurement of axial radiation-pressure forces from a weakly focused beam on polystyrene micro-beads suspended in viscous fluids over a depth range of 400 μm, based on real-time monitoring of particle dynamics using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Measurements of radiation-pressure forces as a function of beam power, wavelength, bead size, and refractive index are consistent with theoretical trends. However, our continuous measurements also reveal localized depth-dependent features in the radiation-pressure force profiles that deviate from theoretical predictions based on an aberration-free Gaussian beam. The combination of long-range radiation pressure and OCT offers a new mode of quantitative optical manipulation and detection with extended spatial coverage. This may find applications in the characterization of optical tractor beams, or volumetric optical manipulation and interrogation of beads in viscoelastic media.


This deliverable describes the methodology that will be used for the HUWY evaluation process in all 4 participating countries. It records the basis of the model, in terms of established eParticipation evaluation techniques, and the triangulation of evaluation instruments to gather meaningful data. These are aligned to the specific objectives of the project and the preferences of our two main user groups. The deliverable has two nested goals: 1. To describe the HUWY evaluation methodology in detail: its provenance and evolution, choice and design of evaluation instruments, framework for analysis and results. This evaluation methodology is based on the project objectives. 2. Within this methodology is nested the derivation of young people and policy-makers preferred evaluation factors. This derivation includes the processes (methods and instruments) that were used to gather input from young people and policy-makers and to convert this input to evaluation factors that could be integrated into the project objectives.


In the last few years, the use of gestural data has become a key enabler for human-computer interaction (HCI) applications. The growing diffusion of low-cost acquisition devices has thus led to the development of a class of middleware aimed at ensuring a fast and easy integration of such devices within the actual HCI applications. The purpose of this paper is to present a modular middleware for gestural data and devices management. First, we describe a brief review of the state of the art of similar middleware. Then, we discuss the proposed architecture and the motivation behind its design choices. Finally, we present a use case aimed at demonstrating the potential uses as well as the limitations of our middleware.


When one eliminates all the market factors that active managers deliver (and that are available almost for free through index funds), what remains is the pure alpha. The cost of seeking this alpha is that one is forced to take on active risk. The authors draw on these observations to argue that building portfolios of active managers is an optimization problem that may be solved separately from the asset mix optimization problem (because pure active risk is uncorrelated with policy risk). They suggest that portfolios constructed using this approach emphasize index and risk-controlled active funds, while giving lighter allocations to traditional active funds and almost none to highly concentrated funds. For investors who are allowed to sell short, market-neutral long-short funds also have a place in the optimal solution.


The different tasks supporting the operations of ESO telescopes in Chile are carried out at widely separated locations, with some taking place at the observatory site and others in Europe at ESO's headquarters. A fundamental requirement to make such an operations scheme viable is the need for a stable way of transferring the large amounts of data generated by the telescopes to Europe on the shortest possible timescale. We review technical progress that has allowed ESO in the last years to move from the transfer of data on physical media, with delays of up to two weeks, to the current transfer of most of the data stream through the internet within hours. We also describe the possibilities that will be open in the near future with EVALSO, an European Union co-funded project to provide full-fiber connectivity from the ESO observatory site on Paranal, and the nearby Cerro Armazones hosting the telescopes of the University of Bochum, all the way to Europe. Given the recent choice of Cerro Armazones as the future location of the European Extremely Large Telescope, upgrades in the communications infrastructure of Paranal and Cerro Armazones are very relevant to the ability to operate the current and future facilities there.


X-ray findings and the result of microradiographic examinations of hyperostotic processes of the skull (Osteomas, Meningioma, Fibrous Dysplasia, Morbus Paget) are described. The films permit a reliable diagnosis statement only in a few cases, because similar findings can be seen in different diseases. Microradiographic investigations demonstrate the microstructure of the tissue of hyperostotic processes. There are no specific findings typical for one disease alone, but there are qualitative and quantitative variations in the different diseases mentioned above. Microradiography gives information about morphology and dynamics in the transformation of the calvarium in the observed pathologic conditions.


The escalating manufacturing cost of ordinary Portland cement has led to the search for less energy intensive materials. One such material is condensed silica fume (CSF) which is an industrial by-product and until recently was discarded as waste. Research has shown that the addition of CSF to concrete can have the dual benefits of increased strength and improved durability. In the present study experimental and numerical techniques were employed to investigate the mechanical and fracture characteristics of CSF concrete wet cured at 20° C and 50° C. Whereas the high temperature curing resulted in increased compressive strength at early age, the specimens cured at 20° C exhibited higher strengths beyond 28 days. It was also found that increasing the CSF content did not significantly increase the tensile strength and, in fact, as with the compressive strength, a small decrease was obtained when the CSF content was increased from 16% to 20%. Furthermore, curing temperature did not appear to have a major influence on the tensile strength, nor did it affect the relationship between the static modulus of elasticity E and the compressive strength. However, a reduction in E was obtained for compressive strengths beyond 90 N/mm^. Several geometries, namely the Compact Compression Specimen (CCS) and the Singly and Doubly Notched Axial Splitting Specimens (SNASS and DNASS), were employed in the fracture studies. Detailed finite element analyses for these geometries were carried out using triangular and rectangular isoparametric elements. The results for the stress distributions demonstrated the existence of large tensile stresses at the root of the notch, thus confirming that failure is of the opening (mode 1) type. In evaluating the fracture toughness, both the stress intensity factor and the energy approaches were used. As no allowance was made for the tortuosity of the fracture surface, the former approach was considered to be more reliable in the present work. This was subsequently used to assess the degree of brittleness of the concrete. It was found that beyond a compressive strength of about 90 N/mm^, increased brittleness was obtained with increasing strength. Some of the fracture tests were conducted on concrete reinforced with polypropylene fibres. The post cracking performance of such concrete was assessed using a toughness index evaluated from the area under the load-displacement relationships.


This paper compares three candidate large-scale propagation path loss models for use over the entire microwave and millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio spectrum: the alpha-beta-gamma (ABG) model, the close-in (CI) free-space reference distance model, and the CI model with a frequency-weighted path loss exponent (CIF). Each of these models has been recently studied for use in standards bodies such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and for use in the design of fifth-generation wireless systems in urban macrocell, urban microcell, and indoor office and shopping mall scenarios. Here, we compare the accuracy and sensitivity of these models using measured data from 30 propagation measurement data sets from 2 to 73 GHz over distances ranging from 4 to 1238 m. A series of sensitivity analyses of the three models shows that the four-parameter ABG model underpredicts path loss when relatively close to the transmitter, and overpredicts path loss far from the transmitter, and that the physically based two-parameter CI model and three-parameter CIF model offer computational simplicity, have very similar goodness of fit (i.e., the shadow fading standard deviation), exhibit more stable model parameter behavior across frequencies and distances, and yield smaller prediction error in sensitivity tests across distances and frequencies, when compared to the four-parameter ABG model. Results show the CI model with a 1-m reference distance is suitable for outdoor environments, while the CIF model is more appropriate for indoor modeling. The CI and CIF models are easily implemented in existing 3GPP models by making a very subtle modification - by replacing a floating non-physically based constant with a frequency-dependent constant that represents free-space path loss in the first meter of propagation. This paper shows this subtle change does not change the mathematical form of existing ITU/3GPP models and offers much easier analysis, intuitive appeal, better model parameter stability, and better accuracy in sensitivity tests over a vast range of microwave and mmWave frequencies, scenarios, and distances, while using a simpler model with fewer parameters.


Introductions: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) occasionally demands conversion to open cholecystectomy (OC) because of multiple risk factors. This study was conducted to find out whether male gender is a stand-alone risk factors for conversion of LC to OC.
Methods: This was a comparative analysis of conversion of LC to OC in patients operated for symptomatic cholelithiasis during June 2017 to May 2018 at Bir hospital, National Academy of Medical Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal. The patients were divided into two groups: male (group 1) and female (group 2). Study variables included gender, America Society of Anesthesiologist class, history of upper abdominal pain within six weeks prior to surgery, upper abdominal surgery, emergency department visit due to upper abdominal pain, adhesion of gallbladder to adjacent structure and body mass index. Binominal logistic regression analysis of risk factors for conversion was conducted. Odds ratio (95% CI) was calculated. The p value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Among 151 patients (male 39, female 112), 7 (4.6%, male 3 and female 4) had conversion from LC to OC. Male gender itself as an isolated risk factor had no significant association to conversion (p=0.303). There was no significant difference found for age, operating time and hospital stay. Previous emergency visit (p=0.020) and adhesion (p<0.030) were associated with conversion.
Conclusions: Male gender had no significant association for conversion of LC to open. Previous emergency visit due to upper abdominal pain and adhesion of gallbladder were associated risk factors for conversion.


The global climate change require human production and life must go into the low carbon times of low energy consumption,low emission and low pollution objectively, and now the low carbon development of electric power industry becomes the important link to realize the aim of energy saving and emission reduction. With the necessity analyses of carbon emission reasonable control in electric power production, this paper first proposed the thought of regional electric power overall low carbon,then comprehensive summary origin measures from generation side, transmission side and consuming side. This paper set up the optimization system of regional electric power low carbon, proposed the development degree and combination weight model to empirical study,which provide the effective theoretical basis for low carbon concrete measures.


Estimating technical losses is fundamental to the planning and economics of electric power networks. This paper surveys the evolution of the ideas behind energy loss estimation and focuses on the development of the concepts of the loss factor and equivalent hours. The paper next identifies difficulties in using maximum demands and the loss factor to estimate energy losses. Based on this analysis, this study proposes an alternative loss estimation approach that relies on the "loss coefficient" as the fundamental parameter for describing load variations in loss estimation. A large load-curve data bank from Brazilian utilities is used to characterize load-curve parameters and provide perspective on the old and new concepts. Practical applications put the proposed ideas into perspective, showing how the use of average demands and loss coefficient can help to make better cable choices, increase accuracy in loss estimation for distribution transformers, and enhance the quality of information in loss estimation analysis.


In spite of the prominence of research on social responsibility teaching as a skill for today, managing social responsibility in foreign language teaching settings is still not a very well explored territory, and the ESP classroom is not an exception. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that examined the ways social responsibility is integrated into ESP classrooms as perceived by the teachers, with a particular focus on their considerations of socially responsible pedagogy that can potentially contribute to students' linguistic and socio-cultural advancement. The study used qualitative interviews with 43 English language teachers from Oman's higher education institutions who shared their understanding of social responsibility and how it is incorporated and addressed in their credit and foundation ESP courses. Data analysis was conducted using a method of rhizo-textual analysis (Honan, 2007). Findings reveal that teachers place social responsibility high in terms of its ethical value and importance for students' future employability. They also indicate that despite the perceived importance, administrative support, ESP curriculum content development, and implementation, social responsibility is on average moderately managed in the ESP classrooms due to a lack of social responsibility perspective in some pre-service teaching courses and in-service professional development, perceived issues with time, design and implementation of in-class and extra-curricular activities. The findings of this research contribute to the literature about the importance of social responsibility and direct further developments, leading to effective social responsibility teaching and learning.


The Lost Boys of Sudan were separated from their families by civil war and subsequently lived in 3 other countries-Ethiopia, Kenya, and the United States. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 refugees who located surviving family members in Sudan after an average separation of 13.7 years. The interviews probed their experiences of ambiguous loss, relationships in the refugee camps, the search for family, and reestablishing relation ships with family members living on another continent. With guidance from elders, peer groups functioned as sur rogate families until the youth reestablished relationships with surviving members of their biological families.


Scholars have hotly debated the structure of group engagement in policymaking. Two aspects of this conversation are examined here. First, some claim that the "explosion†of organised interests brings with it increasing fragmentation but also policy "balkanisation†. Others suggest increasing fragmentation, but with overlap between subsectors. A second area of this debate concerns the existence and number of "central†or "core†groups. Although existing studies show that, in aggregate, there is no more policy specialisation among United Kingdom organised interests, we do not know whether this means that there are fewer or more central groups. In this article, we utilise public policy consultations in Scotland over a continuous 25-year period, and the tools of network analysis, to examine the above propositions. We find that the expanding system of policy consultation is not associated with more balkanisation or with a decline of central policy actors that span policy communities.


In 1979, John Richards and Larry Pratt published Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West. The book's discussion of the political and economic development of two western provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, attracted a good deal of attention and it was subsequently adopted by many academics as an undergraduate text.1 Twenty-five years later I was using the text in a class and I was struck by two things. The book still seemed relevant as a way to understand developments in western Canada, but at the same time few scholars had continued to ask the sorts of questions that Richards and Pratt had posed at the end of the 1970s. This led me to wonder what the authors might have to say today about their book and how they came to write it.

Twenty-five years after it was published, Prairie Capitalism remains relevant for understanding political and economic developments in western Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan). It is still adopted today by academics as an undergraduate textbook. The authors talk about the book, how they came to write it, and offer some thoughts on contemporary prairie capitalism.


The Romanian healthcare system is financed through public and private resources, the main source of public income for healthcare being the healthcare social insurance contribution, and the healthcare expense has grown constantly in the last decades. The highest costs in the health care system are those with primary, secondary and tertiary health care, affective disorders being treated in all these levels. Depression, the most common major psychiatric disorder, has an important burden of disease, involving a wide spectrum of disabilities and huge social and economic costs. Bipolar disorder leads also to an important impact on quality of life and a considerable economic burden. Our research analyzed, on a period of three years, the economic impact represented by direct cost of affective disorders, and efficiency indicators of the Romanian health-care system in this field on a sample of 236 health care institutions. Both number of patients and hospitalization days for affective disorders were decreasing, but these diseases still cause significant human and long-term costs. The direct cost per patient exceeds the national average every year. These costs associated with affective disorders and their impact contribute to the estimation of the health determinants.


Zrinka Stahuljak reevaluates, in Old French literature and art, two concepts fundamental for the medieval period: genealogy and translatio. She argues that literary criticism has inherited the definition of genealogy developed by historians, wherein genealogy is defined as a bloodline linking fathers and sons from generation to generation. Similarly, she maintains, literary criticism has interpreted medieval translatio, a concept fundamental for understanding all forms of intellectual and political transmission in the Middle Ages, as a genealogy. Through an analysis of the romances of antiquity, Arthurian prose romances, the Charlemagne window at Chartres, and the iconography of the Tree of Jesse, covering the period between 1150 and 1250, she challenges both these notions at the core of medieval scholarship. Because she addresses such basic concepts of medieval literature and culture that transcend national and linguistic boundaries, Stahuljak's study, drawing on literary, historical, and visual sources, has implications well beyond French medieval studies. Her examination of canonical texts and traditional, long-held notions of how genealogy works in literature and of the medieval theory of translation will provide interesting, fresh analysis and methodology for the classroom and a significant contribution to our understanding of the relationship of linguistics, history, and anthropology in the 12th century.


This study is a qualitative study of the production of finite verb errors made by the high school students in their compositions. The data were collected from 30 writings which were written by the second year students of Petra 1 High School. The errors were analyzed in term of grammatical errors of the finite verbs (Strang, 1964), and in term of error analysis types (Littlewood, 1984). The results showed that in terms of grammatical errors, the majority of the students made errors in tenses, and in terms of error analysis types, many of the errors belong to the ambiguity type. In conclusion, the findings show that the students? ambiguity in understanding tense is responsible for their errors in producing finite verb tenses.


Abstract Context. Shooting is used to reduce the abundance of kangaroo (Macropus sp.) populations in many peri-urban areas in Australia, but there is uncertainty surrounding the animal welfare outcomes of this practice. Aim. We assessed the animal welfare outcomes of night shooting for peri-urban eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus). We quantified the duration of stress for: (1) shot animals; (2) euthanased pouch young; and (3) other animals in the same social group. Methods. An independent observer collected thermal imagery data, enabling four key animal welfare parameters to be quantified: instantaneous death rate, median time to death, wounding rate and flight duration of conspecifics. The duration between pouch removal and insensibility was recorded for pouch young. Post-mortem data were recorded to confirm the location and extent of pathology from shooting. Key results. Of the 136 kangaroos that were shot at, two were missed. The wounding rate was zero, with a 98% instantaneous death rate. The median time to death for the three animals not killed instantaneously was 12 s. For pouch young considered sentient, the median stress time was 4 s. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed that the median flight duration of conspecifics was 5 s. Conclusions. Our results indicate that night shooting produces a very short duration of stress to shot kangaroos, their pouch young and their conspecifics. Implications. When compared to other wildlife shooting methods, night shooting is a humane method for culling peri-urban kangaroos.


This paper proposes a framework for the extract-transform-load (ETL) of the Chinese style cross-tab. It makes a reverse engineering process for the Chinese style report. That is to say, converting the report to its original scheme of relational database table, and then making an ETL processing on the two-dimensional table. And ultimately load the data into the fact tables. Finally, we discuss implementation issues and we present the design and experiment of the system based on our framework.


The thesis reconstructs the cinema's experience of Italian missionaries during the XX
century in a historical-pragmatic key. Italian missionaries, who started producing movies
around the Twenties, have used cinema as a helpful instrument for religious propaganda.
They have considered the rules of the Catholic Church, the political and social context and
the audience's expectations. Each chapter (1-4) analyses the phenomenon inside the
context constituted by the Italian colonial experiences, the relationship between Catholic
Church and images during the Evangelization, the history of cinema and the history of
missions. A specific chapter (chapter 5) is dedicated to the archives of missionary's cinema
and to the value to be assigned to this film production (in terms of social memory and
archive's memory). At the end of the first part, the thesis presents a proposal about the
relationship between missionary's cinema and visual anthropology. The second part of the
thesis includes the film cards of the missionary's movies preserved in Italy: 339 cards of
Italian movies and 149 cards of foreign movies placed in different archives and bureaus.


. Recent High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques extend the capabilities of current cameras where scenes with a wide range of illumination can not be accurately captured with a single low-dynamic-range (LDR) image. This is generally accomplished by capturing several LDR images with varying exposure values whose information is then incorporated into a merged HDR image. While such approaches work well for static scenes, dynamic scenes pose several challenges, mostly related to the difficulty of finding reliable pixel correspondences. Data-driven approaches tackle the problem by learning an end-to-end mapping with paired LDR-HDR training data, but in practice generating such HDR ground-truth labels for dynamic scenes is time-consuming and requires complex procedures that assume control of certain dynamic elements of the scene ( e.g . actor pose) and repeatable lighting conditions (stop-motion capturing). In this work, we propose a novel self-supervised approach for learnable HDR estimation that alleviates the need for HDR ground-truth labels. We propose to leverage the internal statistics of LDR images to create HDR pseudo-labels. We separately exploit static and well-exposed parts of the input images, which in conjunction with synthetic illumination clipping and motion augmentation provide high quality training examples. Experimental results show that the HDR models trained using our proposed self-supervision approach achieve performance competitive with those trained under full supervision, and are to a large extent superior to previous methods that equally do not require any supervision.


On-body device position awareness plays an important role in providing smartphone-based services with high levels of usability and quality. Traditionally, the problem assumed that the positions that were supported by the system were fixed at the time of design. Thus, if a user stores his/her terminal into an unsupported position, the system forcibly classifies it into one of the supported positions. In contrast, we propose a framework to discover new positions that are not initially supported by the system, which adds them as recognition targets via labeling by a user and re-training on-the-fly. In this article, we focus on a component of identifying a set of samples that are derived from a single storing position, which we call new position candidate identification. Clustering is applied as a key component to prepare a reliable dataset for re-training and to reduce the user's burden of labeling. Specifically, density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is employed because it does not require the number of clusters in advance. We propose a method of finding an optimal value of a main parameter, Eps-neighborhood (eps), which affects the accuracy of the resultant clusters. Simulation-based experiments show that the proposed method performs as if the number of new positions were known in advance. Furthermore, we clarify the timing of performing the new position candidate identification process, in which we propose criteria for qualifying a cluster as the one comprising a new position.


ABSTRACT The Triassic Calcare Rosso limestone, in the Southern Alps, was deposited in a semi-arid peritidal environment. Intervals of subaerial exposure produced repeated tepeeization by mudcracking, and the sediments were occasionally flushed by storm tides of hypersaline brines. These alternated with episodes of solution by fresh water and cavern formation. The rocks are a bizarre mixture of pisolitic, fenestral mother rock, with cavity fillings of inwashed marine sediment and red terrigenous slit. The fluctuating chemical environment produced paleospeleothems of aragonite flowstone; large aragonite ray-crystals (raggioni) often 10 cm long; aragonite hemispheres and cement crusts; fibrous, length-slow "coconut-meat" calcite; and cavities filled with white, twisted baroque dolomite. Diageneti history was exceedingly complex, with alternations of hypersaline and fresh water, vadose vs. phreatic episodes, and periods of solution alternating with precipitation.