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145156110 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-06T14:06:07.318Z | 1999-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Appraisal of the Homogeneity of Error Variance Assumption and Alternatives to Multiple Regression for Estimating Moderating Effects of Categorical Variables
Homogeneity of within-subgroup error variance is a necessary condition for using multiple regression to estimate moderating effects of categorical variables. A 12-year review of Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology indicates that the assumption is violated in 40% to 60% of cases. The authors reanalyze published research to illustrate how violating the assumption may change substantive conclusions. To remedy this situation, they develop and present a computer program (i.e., ALTMMR) that (a) assesses whether a data set suffers from heterogeneity of error variance and (b) computes alternative inferential statistics to the traditional multiple regression F test when heterogeneity exists. ALTMMR, which can also be used as a teaching tool, was written in Java and is executable using an Internet Web browser or as a standalone application. |
203059520 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-09-27T06:33:33.033Z | 2017-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Assessment within ILP: A journey of collaborative inquiry
Abstract Innovative Learning Pedagogies (ILPs) have given rise to much focus on the pedagogical changes required to ensure students work collaboratively, apply knowledge, create outcomes and communicate these outcomes effectively. One key element that has had much less focus is how students are assessed when working in an Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) and how this assessment information might be communicated to all stakeholders. As a school, we commenced our collaborative inquiry using action research-based Professional Learning to enable us to assess and track students who might not be in our assigned class and reflect upon whether traditional written reports to parents fitted the new pedagogies. Key findings from collaboration with teachers, students and parents demonstrated the desire for a system of assessment that was online and allowed: Higher levels of student voice and agency On-going review so that the most current information about achievement and goals was available Parents to share in the richness of their child’s learning journey A holistic profile of the students, rather than one which purely focussed on academic achievements. We believe that the outcomes of this assessment inquiry will have a significant impact on all teaching and learning in our ILEs. |
25599170 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:53:03.354Z | 2006-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Long-term effects of isopropyl unoprostone monotherapy on intraocular pressure and visual field for normal-tension glaucoma and primary open-angle glaucoma patients].
We retrospectively investigated the long-term effects of isopropyl unoprostone monotherapy on intraocular pressure and visual field for normal-tension glaucoma and primary open-angle glaucoma patients. Among 80 eyes of 49 subjects receiving isopropyl unoprostone monotherapy for 2 years or more, 32 eyes of 32 subjects were analyzed because of the good reliability of their visual acuity and visual field (age, 68.1 +/- 10.1 yrs, follow-up period 47.8 +/- 14.7 months). The mean values of intraocular pressure and visual field indices were compared with baseline data before medication. The visual field changes were also analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier life-table method. The mean intraocular pressure decreased for 4 years from 14.7 +/- 4.3 mmHg (mean +/- SD) at baseline, to 12.7 +/- 4.4mmHg at 4 years. The global index of visual field (mean defect, loss variance) did not change significantly during the 4 years. The accumulative probability of survival was 80.7 +/- 8.0% after 4 years when the endpoint was defined as 3dB progression in mean defect. Isopropyl unoprostone might have the possibility of stabilizing the visual field for a long period of time. |
202699470 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-09-21T13:38:15.990Z | 2019-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Quantum Data Encryption as a Service on Demand: Eindhoven QKD Network Testbed
The widespread acceptance and deployment of quantum key distribution (QKD) for data encryption requires a better understanding of the technology concerning device-to-system interfacing and network performance from current vendors. Despite the existence of a few QKD testbeds worldwide, they are neither open-access nor capable of validating components from different system and component vendors business cases. User trials in testbeds have yet to yield a robust, open business case. This paper introduces the open-access QKD testbed currently being developed in the Eindhoven region which will focus on the creation of an open environment for end-to-end validation of distinct business cases, QKD security proofs, and technology certification and standardization. At this site, a quantum-to-the-home network scenario for providing quantum encryption as a service on demand, for end-to-end security to end-users, is also proposed. It is expected that this testbed will lead to a better understanding of what further developments are required for current networks to be augmented with QKD. |
216136170 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-18T05:23:42.441Z | 2012-05-01T00:00:00.000Z | 287(g) and the Politics of Interior Immigration Control in the United States: Explaining Local Cooperation with Federal Immigration Authorities
This paper aims to improve our understanding of emerging patterns of interior immigration control in the United States by examining local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities under the 287(g) Program. While several recent studies have drawn attention to the shifting terrain of immigration enforcement away from borders into the interior, few have attempted to systematically explain reasons for this shift. Using a county-level dataset of all counties in the United States, this study finds that, despite the purported links between the 287(g) Program and public safety, county crime rates are not significantly related to local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Rather, the results indicate that local decisions to engage in immigration control efforts are driven by political factors, particularly a county's partisan composition, and demographic pressures related to increases in the Hispanic/Latino population. Demography is not, however, destiny, as new immigration in localities with established foreign-born populations does not significantly increase the likelihood of cooperation under 287(g). This suggests that the partisan composition of the places where immigrants settle mediates the extent to which the demand for tighter immigration enforcement exceeds the political influence immigrant communities have in their efforts to contest restrictive immigration control policies. |
234626420 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-08-06T09:06:48.395Z | 2020-08-04T00:00:00.000Z | Rapid Evolution of Plant-Bacterium Mutualism in the Rhizosphere
Plant roots are associated with a diverse microbial community that consists of antagonistic, commensal and mutualistic organisms. While beneficial plant-microbe interactions are important for plant performance, direct evidence for the evolution of rhizosphere mutualism remains elusive. Here we experimentally show that initially plant-antagonistic Pseudomonas protegens bacterium can rapidly evolve into a mutualist in the rhizosphere of Arabidopsis thaliana only within six plant growth cycles (6 months). Using an in vivo experimental evolution system, we observed that P. protegens rapidly diversified into distinct phenotypes, with some having clearly positive effects on the plant performance. Crucially, this evolution of plant facilitation was also accompanied with increased bacterial fitness indicative of a mutualistic interaction. At the genetic level, P. protegens mutualism was associated with mutations in the GacS/GacA two-component global regulator system, which is known to affect several aspects of bacterial physiology including carbon metabolism, host-microbe signalling, and downregulation of phytotoxic secondary metabolites. At the phenotypic level, the evolution of mutualism could be explained via two mechanisms: improved competition for root exudates and enhanced capacity for activating the root-specific transcription factor gene MYB72, which is essential for the production and excretion of the antimicrobial scopoletin for which the mutualists evolved enhanced tolerance. Together, these results show that plant-bacteria mutualism can rapidly evolve at an agriculturally relevant evolutionary timescale in the rhizosphere. |
4644970 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-06T00:10:27.382Z | 2017-09-14T00:00:00.000Z | Contactless mapping of thoracic and abdominal motion: Applications for seismocardiography
Seismocardiography has been well studied in terms of analysis, applications, and methods of measurement. However, there remains a lack of research into the explanation and modelling of the involved phenomena. We propose a new contactless method to measure thoracic and sternal movements, demonstrate that it is adequate for typical seismocardiogram use. An ultrasonic diagnostic tool called ICARE (CArdio REspiratory Imager) was designed to perform non-contact ultrasonic waves imaging on the thorax and abdomen. In addition to ICARE measurements an accelerometer was placed above the xiphoid of 3 participants (male, age 39±11). Both ICARE and accelerometer measurements were performed concurrently. Experimental results show the ability of the ICARE system to obtain 3D seismocardiographic images with high frequency frame rate. Furthermore, this technology could potentially be used to obtain cardio-vascular information in and out of clinical environments, significantly lowering the required time and effort. |
30775720 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:45:24.111Z | 2006-04-01T00:00:00.000Z | Environmental exposures, genetic predisposition and allergic diseases: one size never fits all
A remarkable increase in the prevalence of allergic diseaseappears to parallel the postindustrial lifestyle changes inwesternized societies. Insufficient microbial exposureduring infancy and early childhood is one of the proposedexplanations for the increase in prevalence of atopicsensitization and associated clinical phenotypes (asthma,allergic rhinitis, eczema). Within this context, childhoodvaccination may be associated with an increased risk ofallergies [e.g. children whose parents refuse the vaccin-ation have less atopic diseases (1)]. However, it has to beemphasized that major benefits of childhood vaccinationprogrammes and successes in the prevention and treat-ment of infectious diseases (with global reduction inmortality and morbidity) clearly outweigh the risk of thepossible promoting effect on allergic disease.There is growing evidence that one of the inadvertentconsequences of the fight against infectious diseases andour obsession with cleanliness might have been theinterference with the immune system development. Thechanging pattern of microbial exposure, with the declinein some infectious diseases, may lead to a slowermaturation of the immune system, with a delayeddevelopment of the optimally balanced immune re-sponses. This notion forms the immunological basis ofthe hygiene hypothesis. However, the hygiene hypothesisoriginated from epidemiological studies.Searching for the cause of allergy: the link between epidemiologyand immunologyFamily size. The pioneering proposal by David Strachanthat a decrease in family size reduced the possibility ofcross-infections, facilitating the clinical expression ofallergic rhinitis had lead to intense interest in this area(2). His findings were confirmed in a number of studies(3), and within the same context, exposure to otherchildren in day-care centres was found to be protectiveagainst asthma and atopy (4). Yet, the effects of familysize, position in sibship or day-care arrangements maynot be mediated by the exposure to infectious agents,but some other underlying aspect of immune response(5).Helminths. Children in developing countries who areinfested with helminths are less likely to develop atopyand allergic disease. Furthermore, long-term treatment ofintestinal helminths in infested children increases specificsensitization to house dust mite (6). In addition, thereappears to be an inverse dose-response relationshipbetween the burden of infestation by helminths andexpression of allergic disease (7). However, helminthsmay only be a marker of environmental exposure to othermicrobial agents and/or endotoxin.Helminthic infections enhance the secretion of T |
17198770 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-03-01T03:19:46.873Z | 2008-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | What makes some city districts so dangerous ? It ’ s not just the criminals , says Mark Buchanan Sin cities
If you thought getting an answer to that question would mean getting inside the mind of the criminal, then you haven’t met Kate Bowers. She is less interested in the psychology of criminality than in the mathematics of crime itself, and is convinced that this can shed light on patterns of crime. Take burglary at people’s homes. Although the pattern of burglaries in a neighbourhood may appear random, Bowers and her colleagues at the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, University College London, have found through computer simulations that burglaries actually spread in a predictable way, similar to a contagious disease. It may seem odd to look at the crime rather than the perpetrator, but Bowers believes crime often has less to do with deviant |
14016670 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-05-03T02:53:33.766Z | 1998-12-17T00:00:00.000Z | Solid-Phase Synthesis and Encoding Strategies for Olefin Polymerization Catalyst Libraries.
Active polymerization catalysts, novel resin-bound diimine complexes of nickel(II) and palladium(II) are obtained by combinatorial synthesis and combined in a catalyst library. By tagging with fluorescent markers, the catalysts can be coded. Therefore, after cleavage of the tag from the polymer-coated resin, HPLC can be used to determine the pathway along which the products were formed. |
129488470 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-24T13:07:03.944Z | 2012-05-01T00:00:00.000Z | Buried and Submerged Greek Archaeological Coastal Structures and Artifacts as Gauges to Measure Late Holocene Seafloor Subsidence off Calabria, Italy
This synthesis integrates recently acquired archaeological and geological data with earlier documented observations to shed light on the subsidence of ancient Greek coastal facilities in southern Italy. These are now positioned between former shorelines and inner shelf sectors at five Calabrian margin localities. Submergence of coastal to inner shelf facilities has resulted in part from sea‐level rise by about 2 m associated with glacio‐hydro‐isostatic factors since archaic to classic Greek time. This phenomenon alone, however, does not explain the wide variation of measured subsidence rates from site‐to‐site. The marked lowering of coastal site substrates by seismo‐tectonic activity (including extensional fault motion), stratal readjustments at depth, and compaction of underlying sediment sequences is significant. Four of the subsided facilities are positioned near emerged Calabrian areas where prevailing Holocene average annual land uplift rates range to ˜1.0 mm/yr; at the fifth, near Hipponion, terrains have risen by nearly 2 mm/yr. In marked contrast, submerged and/or buried structures record the following late Holocene long‐term average rates of coastal margin subsidence: Sybaris‐Thuri on the Taranto Gulf margin (˜0.5–1.0 mm/yr); Hipponion‐Vibo Valentia along the Tyrrhenian coast (˜0.8 to ˜3.2 mm/yr); and Locri‐Epizefiri, Kaulonia, and Capo Colonna on Calabria's Ionian margin (˜1.6, ˜1.6–2.4, and ˜4.0 mm/yr, respectively). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
119272320 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2013-10-11T02:02:52.000Z | 2013-01-22T00:00:00.000Z | Zonal Flow as Pattern Formation
Zonal flows are well known to arise spontaneously out of turbulence. We show that for statistically averaged equations of the stochastically forced generalized Hasegawa-Mima model, steady-state zonal flows, and inhomogeneous turbulence fit into the framework of pattern formation. There are many implications. First, the wavelength of the zonal flows is not unique. Indeed, in an idealized, infinite system, any wavelength within a certain continuous band corresponds to a solution. Second, of these wavelengths, only those within a smaller subband are linearly stable. Unstable wavelengths must evolve to reach a stable wavelength; this process manifests as merging jets. |
16676120 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-10-26T03:31:20.546Z | 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Rational preference shifts in multi-attribute choice: what is fair?
Rational preference shifts in multi-attribute choice: What is fair? Pradeep Shenoy (pshenoy@cs.washington.edu) Microsoft AdCenter, Bangalore, India Angela J. Yu (ajyu@ucsd.edu) Department of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. MC 0515 La Jolla, CA 92093 USA Abstract In the attraction effect (Fig. 1A), given two similarly preferred options, A and B, the introduction of a third option Z that is similar to B, but also clearly inferior to B in one or both attribute dimensions, results in an in- crease in relative preference for B over A (Huber, Payne, & Puto, 1982; Heath & Chatterjee, 1995). In the com- promise effect (Fig. 1B), when B > A in one attribute and B < A in another attribute, and Z has the same tradeoff but is even more extreme than B, then B be- comes the “compromise” option and becomes preferred relative to A (Simonson, 1989). In the similarity effect (Fig. 1C), the introduction of a third option Z, that is very similar and comparable to B in both attribute di- mensions, shifts the relative preference away from B to A (Tversky, 1972). Keywords: multi-attribute decision-making; preference shift; context effects; attraction effect; compromise effect; similarity effect Attraction A B B Compromise A B Introduction Everyday decision-making often involves choosing among options that differ in multiple attribute dimen- sions. For example, should you buy a house that is more spacious or one that is better located? Understanding how humans make these multi-attribute decisions, and how their choices depend on the context, is an important problem in cognitive science. Multi-attribute decision-making is particularly chal- lenging because there is often no universal or intrinsic way to assign relative values to the different attributes. This is especially true in contexts where the decision- maker has limited experience (and thus significant uncer- tainty about market conditions), such as with big-ticket items like houses, or new technology like smart phones. Human choice behavior in multi-attribute problems ex- hibits certain systematic shifts due to context changes, such as when the relative preference between two op- tions shift or even reverse when a third option, known as a decoy, is added, leading to suggestions of underly- ing irrationality or suboptimality (Kahneman & Tver- sky, 1979; Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982; Tversky & Simonson, 1993). Similarity A B Z Z Z Attr 1 C Attr 2 Attr 2 A Attr 2 Humans exhibit certain systematic context-dependent preference reversals when choosing among options that vary along multiple attribute dimensions. For instance, the attraction, similarity, and compromise effects each involves a change in relative preference between two op- tions when a third option is introduced. Previously, such effects have been attributed to irrationality or sub- optimality in decision-making, or to specific architec- tural or dynamical constraints on cognition. We use a Bayesian model of multi-attribute choice to demon- strate that these effects naturally arise from three ba- sic assumptions: (1) humans assess options relative to “fair market value” as inferred from prior experience and available options; (2) attributes are imperfectly substi- tutable, and scarce attributes are relatively more valu- able; (3) uncertainty about market conditions and op- tion values contributes to stochasticity in choice behav- ior. This work provides both a novel normative explana- tion for contextual modulation of choice behavior, and a means to predict choice as a function of past experiences and novel contexts. Attr 1 Attr 1 Figure 1: Three classical contextual effects in multi- attribute choice: (A) attraction effect, (B) compromise effect, (C) similarity effect. A and B are two equally preferable choices that differ in two attribute dimensions. The introduction of a third option Z induces a prefer- ence shift between A and B (indicated by arrows). Solid and dashed lines illustrate model-inferred “fair value” indifference curve before and after introducing Z. Two broad classes of models have previously been proposed for contextual effects in multi-attribute choice behavior: (1) normative models (Marr, 1982) that are built on behavioral constraints/goals and delineated in terms of internal beliefs and assumptions (Luce, 1959; Thurstone, 1954; Luce, 1965; Tversky, 1972; Tversky & Simonson, 1993); (2) algorithmic or implementational models that explain behavioral phenomena as arising from specific architectural and dynamical constraints on neural processing (Busemeyer & Townsend, 1993; Usher & McClelland, 2004; J. S. Trueblood, 2012). The first class of models are related to bounded ra- tionality (Simon, 1955), but have so far been unable to explain all three contextual effects, leading to sugges- |
95984520 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-05T03:37:07.609Z | 2010-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Photopolymerizable Hydrogels Made from Polymer‐Conjugated Albumin for Affinity‐Based Drug Delivery
As a drug delivery vehicle, biodegradable albumin hydrogels can combine the high binding capacity of albumin with the structural stability of a polymeric hydrogel network to enable controlled release of small molecules based on both binding affinity and physical interactions. In the present study, we report on the development of a hybrid hydrogel composed of albumin conjugated to poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) for drug delivery applications where controlled release is accomplished using the natural affinity of the drugs to the serum albumin. Bovine serum albumin was conjugated to PEG‐diacrylate having a molecular weight of 1.5, 4, or 10 kDa to form a PEGylated albumin macromolecule (mono‐PEGylated or multi‐PEGylated). Biodegradable hydrogels were formed from the PEGylated albumin using photopolymerization. Two model drugs, Warfarin and Naproxen, were used for equilibrium dialysis and release experiments from the hydrogels, both having relatively low molecular weights and a known high affinity for albumin. Equilibrium dialysis experiments showed that multi‐PEGylation of albumin significantly decreased the drug affinity to the protein compared to non‐PEGylated controls, irrespective of the PEG molecular weight. However, the results from drug release experiments showed that mono‐PEGylation of albumin did not change its natural affinity to the drug. Comparing the release profiles with a Fickian diffusion model provided strong evidence that hydrogels containing mono‐PEGylated albumin exhibited sub‐diffusive drug release properties based on the affinity of the drug to the tethered protein. |
250674170 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-06-28T05:40:39.742Z | 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Comparison of numerical and experimental results of the flow in the U9 Kaplan turbine model
The present work compares simulations made using the OpenFOAM CFD code with experimental measurements of the flow in the U9 Kaplan turbine model. Comparisons of the velocity profiles in the spiral casing and in the draft tube are presented. The U9 Kaplan turbine prototype located in Porjus and its model, located in Älvkarleby, Sweden, have curved inlet pipes that lead the flow to the spiral casing. Nowadays, this curved pipe and its effect on the flow in the turbine is not taken into account when numerical simulations are performed at design stage. To study the impact of the inlet pipe curvature on the flow in the turbine, and to get a better overview of the flow of the whole system, measurements were made on the 1:3.1 model of the U9 turbine. Previously published measurements were taken at the inlet of the spiral casing and just before the guide vanes, using the laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) technique. In the draft tube, a number of velocity profiles were measured using the LDA techniques. The present work extends the experimental investigation with a horizontal section at the inlet of the draft tube. The experimental results are used to specify the inlet boundary condition for the numerical simulations in the draft tube, and to validate the computational results in both the spiral casing and the draft tube. The numerical simulations were realized using the standard k-e model and a block-structured hexahedral wall function mesh. |
12489870 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:31:46.739Z | 1998-04-28T00:00:00.000Z | Solution structure of SpoIIAA, a phosphorylatable component of the system that regulates transcription factor sigmaF of Bacillus subtilis.
The establishment of differential gene expression in sporulating Bacillus subtilis involves four protein components, one of which, SpoIIAA, undergoes phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. We have used NMR spectroscopy to determine the solution structure of the nonphosphorylated form of SpoIIAA. The structure shows a fold consisting of a four-stranded beta-sheet and four alpha-helices. Knowledge of the structure helps to account for the phenotype of several strains of B. subtilis that carry known spoIIAA mutations and should facilitate investigations of the conformational consequences of phosphorylation. |
6185710 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-05-08T17:56:54.787Z | 2012-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Classification of Sculpture images
Recognizing smooth objects, such as sculptures, is an unsolved problem in computer vision and pattern recognition. We study the sculpture features and aim to design a scalable classification of sculpture images. This paper serves as a design, implementation and result evaluation document, illustrating that the classification we implemented has a simpler structure and comparable matching performance. The classification we built can be used in a larger image retrieval system, as well as has potential extension on classifying other smooth objects. |
27938610 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:05:05.460Z | 1993-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Power of 'phase 0' chronobiologic trials at different signal-to-noise ratios and sample sizes.
Clinical trials would gain from incorporating 'Phase 0' chronobiologic pilot designs both from the viewpoint of (statistical) power and cost-effectiveness. Herein, this statement is documented by power computations and is further illustrated by clinical examples answering specific questions. Power computations show the merits both of chronobiologic designs (that assign samples at equidistant intervals to cover one full cycle of anticipated pertinent rhythms) and of chronobiologic analyses (the cosinor versus the analysis of variance). Randomized clinical trials would gain from incorporating a concern for timing as well as dosing in all three stages of clinical trials (Phase I, II and III focusing on toxicity, efficacy and a comparison with the current best treatment, respectively) and could be cost-effectively preceded by 'Phase 0' trials so as to detect, sooner and with smaller sample sizes, desired or undesired effects that may otherwise be missed. |
72502610 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-10T13:06:45.490Z | 1993-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Guest Editors' Note: Global Drug Development
THE SCOPE OF DRUG discovery and development has expanded and accelerated in recent years. Research efforts in drug discovery have broadened to include start-up biotechnology companies, research institutes within major domestic and international pharmaceutical companies, and useful collaborations between industry and academia. Development programs are no longer limited to one country or even one continent, but are conducted simultaneously in multiple countries geared to multiple regulatory agencies. The Cornell Symposium on Global Drug Development at which the following articles were presented was convened as a forum to exchange concepts and ideas about the worldwide nature of drug development. Topics of interest were selected to provoke education and controversy. Strategic planning and coordination of multistate trials is a major focus of activity within the industry and received substantial discussion at the symposium. Current and newer techniques for information tracking and dissemination were described. The symposium devoted considerable attention to a detailed consideration of regulatory and quality assurance issues. Of particular interest was the continuing evolution of the European Community’s approach to drug registration and marketing authorization. Finally, industry experts provided a perspective on the business ramifications of the global development process as manifest by mergers, acquisitions, and co-development planning. The symposium was among the first efforts of industry to address the opportunities, challenges, and specific issues which are associated with global scientific efforts. There is no doubt that as the pace of drug development efforts increase in the setting of a world made smaller by technological advances such as high speed data transfer through optical fibers, all of the parties involved in the drug development process will need to adapt. Research scientists will routinely collaborate with colleagues on another continent. Clinical programs will be conceived in one nation and implemented and monitored in many others. Regulatory agencies of many nations will review filings for new agents and deal with issues of worldwide safety and efficacy reporting. The global nature of the drug development process has become a reality, with a more rapid and broader development process bringing therapeutic benefit to increased numbers of patients. |
229471010 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-11-26T09:03:19.324Z | 2020-11-20T00:00:00.000Z | A Mathematical Approach to Modeling Physics for the Vertical Position in Synchronized Swimming
In Synchronized Swimming, arguably the most demanding sport known to man, one of the most basic positions is called a vertical. In this position a swimmer’s upper body is submerged in water and their legs are held above the surface while their body is kept in a straight line. Along with the buoyancy forces of the surrounding water and the air in the lungs, swimmers must also support themselves by making movements called sculls with their arms that propel them upwards. This additional force is the applied force. The goal of this research is to use physics principles to create a mathematical model that will help assist synchronized swimmers in maximizing their scores for the vertical position. The math done in this model confirmed that the amount of applied force inversely correlates with the buoyancy force needed to lift the synchronized swimmer out of the water. Additionally, the total force pushing the synchronized swimmer upwards is the same at each level. When the collected data is fitted to a second-order polynomial comparing applied sculling force to desired score, the graph shows that the data had an R2 fit of 0.984. This knowledge could ultimately inform athletes about how to use buoyancy and other forces to their advantage which could increase their performance levels. |
52071510 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-08-24T21:51:17.524Z | 2018-08-01T00:00:00.000Z | When should the driver with a history of substance misuse be allowed to return to the wheel? A review of the substance misuse section of the Australian national guidelines
Assessing fitness to drive in applicants with a historical or current substance use disorder presents a specific clinical challenge. The Australian guidelines require evidence of remission and absence of cognitive change when considering applications for re‐licensing driver or individuals applying to reengage in safety‐sensitive work. This paper reviews some of the clinical and biochemical indicators that determine whether a particular person is in ‘remission’ and meets the criteria for return to driving or other safety‐sensitive occupation. It provides an overview of the challenges in establishing an evidence‐based approach to determining fitness for safety critical activities. There is no internationally accepted definition of ‘remission’. Review of the literature and examination of assessment protocols from other national jurisdictions are available for alcohol and the more important drugs of interest in road safety. Assessing fitness to drive when there is a history of substance misuse and/or substance use disorders is a complex issue that requires assessment of biomarkers, clinical findings and clinical assessment before the person returns to driving. We propose that hair testing provides a reliable and reproducible way to demonstrate remission and provide cost‐effective monitoring. Standardised psychological tests could provide a reproducible assessment of the cognitive effects of drug use and suitability to resume driving. We recommend that AustRoads amend the national guidelines to reflect an evidence‐based approach to assessing fitness to drive after conviction for offences related to alcohol and drug use. |
237497360 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-09-13T21:05:23.310Z | 2020-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Immunomodulatory Efficacy of Phyllanthus Emblica and Costus Speciosus Aqueous Extracts for Immunosuppressive Rats.
The immune system helps in eliminating toxic or allergenic substances that enter through mucosal surfaces. The immune system’s ability to mobilize a response to an invading pathogen, toxin or allergen is its ability to distinguish self from non-self. This investigation aimed to study the immunomodulatory efficacy of phyllanthus emblica and costus speciosus aqueous extracts for immunosuppressive rats. Forty two mature male albino rats weighing 150-200 g were used in this work. Rats were divided into 6 equal groups (n=7 rats); one group kept as a control negative, while the rest five groups were once injected intraperitoneally with a single dose (200 mg/kg body weight) of cyclophosphamide for immunosupprission, then devided to five equal groups, one of them left as control positive group (C +ve) while the rest four groups orally ingested with two doses (250 and 500 mg/kg) of phyllanthus emblica and costus speciosus aqueous extracts for each of them. At the end of experimental period (45 days), blood samples were collected and CD4, CD8, CD16 and CD19 were analyzed by flow cytometric El-Sayed H. Bakr and Mona. E.M.Naga 102 analysis. IgM, IgA and IgG were determined using indirect enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The levels of serum albumin and globulin were determined. The obtained results concluded that phyllanthus emblica and costus speciosus enhanced immunomodulatory efficacy by increasing blood levels of CD4, CD8, CD16, CD19, IgM and IgG, moreover, increasing serum levels of albumin and globulins. The group of costus speciosus at a dose of 500 mg/kg. b.wt., declaired the best significant results to boost immunity compared to all experimental groups. The present investigation revealed that Phyllanthus emblica and costus speciosus aqueous extracts possess immunomodulatory efficacy with regard to immunosuppressive animals. |
35042060 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:47:13.543Z | 1996-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Secondary structure, membrane localization, and coassembly within phospholipid membranes of synthetic segments derived from the N‐ and C‐termini regions of the ROMK1 K+ channel
The hydropathy plot of the inwardly rectifying ROMK1 K+ channel, which reveals two transmembrane and a pore region domains, also reveals areas of intermediate hydrophobicity in the N terminus (M0) and in the C terminus (post‐M2). Peptides that correspond to M0, post‐M2, and a control peptide, pre‐M0, were synthesized and characterized for their structure, affinity to phospholipid membranes, organizational state in membranes, and ability to self‐assemble and coassemble in the membrane‐bound state. CD spectroscopy revealed that both M0 and post‐M2 adopt highly α‐helical structures in 1% SDS and 40% TFE/water, whereas pre‐M0 is not α‐helical in either 1% SDS or 40% TFE/water. Binding experiments with NBD‐labeled peptides demonstrated that both M0 and post‐M2, but not pre‐M0, bind to zwitterionic phospholipid membranes with partition coefficients of 103–105 M−1. A surface localization for both post‐M2 and M0 was indicated by NBD shift, tryptophan quenching experiments with brominated phospholipids, and enzymatic cleavage. Resonance energy transfer measurements between fluorescently labeled pairs of donor (NBD)/acceptor (rhodamine) peptides revealed that M0 and post‐M2 can coassemble in their membrane‐bound state, but cannot self‐associate when membrane‐bound. The results are in agreement with recent data indicating that amino acids in the carboxy terminus of inwardly rectifying K+ channels have a major role in specifying the pore properties of the channels (Taglialatela M, Wible BA, Caporaso R, Brown AM, 1994, Science 264:844–847; Pessia M, Bond CT, Kavanaugh MP, Adelman JP, 1995, Neuron 14:1039–1045). The relevance of the results presented herein to the suggested model for the structure of the ROMK1 channel and to general aspects of molecular recognition between membrane‐bound polypeptides are also discussed. |
19679360 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:35:58.486Z | 1994-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Alkaline hydrolysis of cefotaxime. A HPLC and 1H NMR study.
A kinetic study on the alkaline hydrolysis of cefotaxime at pH 10.5 and 37 degrees C has been carried out by using HPLC and 1H NMR. The main resulting degradation products have been isolated and identified. These include, apart from the well-known deacetylcefotaxime, the exocyclic methylene derivative, the 7-epimer of cefotaxime and the 7-epimer of deacetylcefotaxime. The kinetic constants involved in the process have been determined and according to the experimental results the attack of the hydroxyl group on the ester function bonded to the 3'-carbon is the fastest step in the proposed kinetic scheme. It should be emphasized that the base-catalyzed epimerization of the hydrogen at the 7 position clearly depends on the presence of a good electron-withdrawing group at C(3'). On the other hand, no hydrolysis of the amide at position 7 was detected. |
23797460 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T06:20:17.196Z | 2015-05-04T00:00:00.000Z | Early-life adversity programs emotional functions and the neuroendocrine stress system: the contribution of nutrition, metabolic hormones and epigenetic mechanisms*
Abstract Clinical and pre-clinical studies have shown that early-life adversities, such as abuse or neglect, can increase the vulnerability to develop psychopathologies and cognitive decline later in life. Remarkably, the lasting consequences of stress during this sensitive period on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and emotional function closely resemble the long-term effects of early malnutrition and suggest a possible common pathway mediating these effects. During early-life, brain development is affected by both exogenous factors, like nutrition and maternal care as well as by endogenous modulators including stress hormones. These elements, while mostly considered for their independent actions, clearly do not act alone but rather in a synergistic manner. In order to better understand how the programming by early-life stress takes place, it is important to gain further insight into the exact interplay of these key elements, the possible common pathways as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms that mediate their effects. We here review evidence that exposure to both early-life stress and early-life under-/malnutrition similarly lead to life-long alterations on the neuroendocrine stress system and modify emotional functions. We further discuss how the different key elements of the early-life environment interact and affect one another and next suggest a possible role for the early-life adversity induced alterations in metabolic hormones and nutrient availability in shaping later stress responses and emotional function throughout life, possibly via epigenetic mechanisms. Such knowledge will help to develop intervention strategies, which gives the advantage of viewing the synergistic action of a more complete set of changes induced by early-life adversity. |
236398910 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-07-27T00:06:05.087Z | 2021-05-20T00:00:00.000Z | Heterogeneity between core needle biopsy and synchronous axillary lymph node metastases in early breast cancer patients: Comparison of HER2, estrogen and progesterone receptor expression profiles during primary treatment regime.
e12565 Background: Therapeutic decisions for the primary treatment of breast cancer is commonly based on the expression profiles of estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and the human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) receptors. However, breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease, and receptor changes were manifold reported during progression. Little is known about receptor discordance in the primary setting. Here, we compared receptor expression profiles between core needle biopsy (CNB) of the breast tumor tissue and synchronous axillary lymph node metastases (LNM) not at recurrence, but at the primary treatment. Methods: In a German single center study, we retrospectively analyzed 175 breast cancer patients with axillary synchronous LNM. 69,7% of our patients were without any upfront therapy. Profiles of ER, PR and HER2 were immunohistochemically analyzed using the common cut-off at 10% positive tumor cells vs. the controversially discussed low-positive cut-off at 1%. Receptor status was compared between CNB specimens of the primary tumor tissue and axillary LNM. Further, clinicopathological characteristics were correlated to receptor changes. Results: The discordance rates between CNB and axillary LNM were 12.7% for HER2, 6.9% for ER and 22.6% for PR using the ≥1% cut-off, respective 7.5% for ER and 25.6% for PR when using the ≥10% cut-off-level. The most frequently occurring change was a PR loss. Analysis of clinical parameters revealed a significant association of ER change between CNB and LNM in younger patients (p < 0.01) with increased proliferation marker Ki-67 (p = 0.04). Conclusions: Receptor discordance between CNB and synchronous axillary LNM appears to exist at the primary setting already. Hence, receptor profiles of the tumor tissue and the synchronous axillary LNM should be considered for treatment decision. |
596510 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-06-18T13:35:37.217Z | 1969-12-31T00:00:00.000Z | Worker life tables, survivorship, and longevity in colonies of Bombus (Fervidobombus) atratus (Hymenoptera: Apidae).
Survivorship curves and longevity of workers were studied in two queenright and two queenless colonies of Bombus (Fervidobombus) atratus. Survivorship curves for workers of all colonies were, in general, convex, indicating an increasing mortality rate with increasing age. The mean longevity for the workers from queenright colonies, 24.3 days and 17.6 days, was not significantly different from that in queenless colonies, 21.2 days and 20.2 days. In all colonies workers started foraging activities when aged 0-5 days, and the potential forager rates rose progressively with increasing age. Mortality rates within each age interval were significantly correlated with the foraging worker rates in all colonies. Only in two of the colonies (one queenright and one queenless) longevity was significantly correlated with worker size. The duration of brood development period seems to be one of the most important factors influencing adult worker longevity in bumble bee species. |
225367620 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-08-27T09:06:11.746Z | 2020-08-17T00:00:00.000Z | The Role of Sensor Based Insole as a Rehabilitation Tool in Improving Walking among the Patients with Lower Limb Arthroplasty: A Protocol for Systematic Review
Objectives: The purpose of this review protocol is to assess the role of sensor based insole in improving walking in patients with lower limb arthroplasty and to rule out the demand and advantage of sensor based insole in utilizing such types of problems at clinical setup. Methodology: A systematic review will be conducted by two independent reviewers who will search articles using electronic search for publications in seven databases: Google Scholar, Index Copernicus, JSTOR, PubMed/Medline, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science. After applying the selection criteria, study papers published between the years 2001 to 2019 will be selected. Studies of human participants of 45-75 years of age having history of lower limb arthroplasty will be Systematic Review Article Raghav et al.; AJMAH, 18(9): 22-27, 2020; Article no.AJMAH.60203 23 eligible. All the study papers will be analyzed using Modified Downs and Black scale and scores will be awarded for the items selected on a 27 point scale. Findings: The findings of this review will be disseminated through presentations and peerreviewed publication. The systematic review will direct the attention of the physiotherapists to assess and evaluate the patient’s walking pattern, as alterations in the biomechanics of joints of lower limb can produce far-reaching effects in the ideal or normal gait. The results of this review will provide evidence regarding changes in gait parameters in patients with lower limb arthroplasty and this information will be useful in planning for rehabilitation in improving walking of patients after lower limb arthroplasty. Novelty: Many studies have been carried on sensor insole technology for monitoring gait. However, there is scarcity of literature based on the systematic reviews on the use of smart sensor insole in improving walking among patients with lower limb arthroplasty. |
75831470 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-13T13:29:32.324Z | 2013-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | THU0303 The efficacy and safety of ibandronic acid for intravenous administration for treatment of severe systemic osteoporosis in patients with juvenile arthritis
Background Juvenile arthritis (JA) is one of the most common and disabling rheumatic disease in children. Severe manifestation of juvenile arthritis is a systemic osteoporosis. There is currently no developed approaches to the treatment of children with systemic osteoporosis. In adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis the first-line treatment drug for osteoporosis is bisphosphonates Objectives To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ibandronic acid for intravenous administration for treatment of severe systemic osteoporosis in patients with juvenile arthritis. Methods The study included 25 patients with juvenile arthritis at the age of 7 to 17 years (10 girls, 15 boys), including 20 patients with systemic arthritis, 3 - with polyarthritis, 2 - with ankylosing spondylitis. The mean age was 12.5 (10.5, 14.0) years. Was allocated to 2 groups: 17 children treated with glucocorticoids (GC) and 8 - not receiving GC.Children of the first group had 12 vertebral fractures and patients of the 2-d group - 1. Ibandronic acid was administered intravenously at a dose of 3 mg every 12 weeks. Evaluation of treatment efficacy was conducted by a combined index of bone mineral density of tissue Z-score, assessing the patient/parent to the severity of pain on a visual analog scale, serum markers of bone resorption C-terminal telopeptide. Results The treatment of ibandronic acid in children of both groups increased the bone mineral density. In patients treated with GC, a statistically significant increase was registered in 76 weeks of therapy (p<0.01), while the second group of children - through 46 and 76 weeks (p<0.05). Within 6 months of treatment in both groups of ibandronic acid was a statistically significant reduction in pain index (p<0.05), after a year of treatment with this trend persisted (p<0.001). In both groups, reducing the concentration of C-terminal telopeptide in serum were detected through 52 weeks of reatment (p<0.05). After 76 weeks of treatment new vertebral fractures and fractures of the peripheral skeleton are not fixed. Tolerability of therapy ibandronic acid in patients was satisfactory. Conclusions In the course of the study has identified high efficacy and an acceptable tolerability ibandronic acid for treatment of severe systemic osteoporosis in patients with juvenile arthritis Disclosure of Interest None Declared |
216105970 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-04-24T13:15:42.791Z | 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Mathematics Achievement of Grade VIII Students Based on International Standardized Test (TIMSS) in an Urban Context of Sindh, Pakistan
The purpose of the study was to check how students of grade VIII in Urban Sindh, Pakistan performed on mathematics subject based on Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assessment framework. The study used a descriptive design from quantitative research methods. The data were collected from three different educational sectors of urban Sindh. The study used a mathematics test based on the TIMSS framework and 60 items (44 MCQs & 16 CRQs) were adapted from released items. Purposive sampling was used to select the schools (n=6) and random sampling was followed to recruit the research participants (n=180) from grade VIII. There were 38% female and 62% of male research participants. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analyses technique. The results indicate that the research participant’s average score is below 30%, indicating an overall low performance of all schools in mathematics tests based on the TIMSS 2011 assessment framework. Some important recommendations for reducing the gap between the proposed and the achieved expertise level in mathematics are given. |
10133670 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-02-24T08:38:05.773Z | 2015-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Choice he hydration structure of dissolved carbon dioxide from X-ray bsorption spectroscopy
The dissolution of carbon dioxide in water and its subsequent hydrolysis reactions comprise one of the most central processes in all of science, yet it remains incompletely understood despite enormous vailable online 3 June 2015 effort. We report the detailed characterization of dissolved CO2 gas through the combination of X-ray spectroscopy and first principles theory. The molecule acts as a hydrophobe in water with an average hydrogen bond number of 0.56. The carbon atom interacts weakly with a single water at a distance of >2.67 Å and the carbonyl oxygens serve as weak hydrogen bond acceptors, thus locally enhancing the tetrahedral water hydrogen bonding structure. |
24156420 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:50:20.781Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Dilated Pupil during Endoscopic Sinus Surgery: What does it Mean?
Endoscopic sinus surgery has become the standard of care for the surgical management of chronic sinus disease. Sinus disease and its surgical treatment carry the risk of orbital complications, irrespective of the approach. Orbital complications associated with sinus surgery include nasolacrimal duct damage, extraocular muscle injury, intraorbital hemorrhage/ emphysema, and direct optic nerve damage, resulting in blindness. The finding of an unequal pupil at the end of a procedure would be a cause of considerable concern, but it is most likely due to the topical contamination of the eye with a mydriatic pharmacological agent commonly used in endoscopic sinus surgery. |
1386920 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2006-12-03T00:00:00.000Z | Vissim: A Multi-Parameter Sensitivity Analysis
Traffic microsimulation is increasingly a preferred method of traffic analysis for today's transportation professionals. The importance of properly calibrating these traffic simulations is evidenced by the adoption of microsimulation calibration standards by several state and federal transportation authorities. A component of the calibration process is the calibration of the simulation for capacity. Capacity is a high-level measurement that is a function of many lower level user-defined input parameters. VISSIM utilizes psychophysical car-following models that rely on ten user-defined parameters to represent freeway driving behavior. Several VISSIM driver behavior parameters have been shown to have a significant impact on roadway capacity. This paper seeks further understanding of the performance of the VISSIM traffic microsimulator by investigating the impact of driver behavior parameter combinations on a measure of freeway capacity. This paper is intended to provide insight useful for manual calibration of VISSIM microsimulation or the development of calibration algorithms |
244219270 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-11-18T00:02:29.758Z | 2022-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Anxiety and depression among university students during the lockdown: their protective and risk factors
Anxiety and depression among university students were reported to be increased during the outbreak of CoVid-19. Various studies indicated that the phenomenon was triggered by the sudden enforcement of the studying-from-home (SFH) policy. Accordingly, we hypothesized that the students’ online learning efficacy (OLE) predicted the upsurge of the two mental health issues. However, SFH also elevated the students’ inclination towards social media (SM), and it brought further changes in some socio-psychological factors. We recruited 435 university students to respond to demographic items and the scales to measure factors such as perceived social support (PSS), societal mattering, and fear of missing out (FOMO) to test the hypothesis that OLE would no longer be a significant predictor of anxiety and depression when all the aforementioned variables are controlled for. The results of the hierarchical regression analyses supported our hypothesis on anxiety, while in predicting depression, OLE was still significant after controlling for the rest of the predictors. Societal mattering was the strongest protective factor against depression, whereas FOMO was the strongest risk factor of anxiety. Implications, limitations, and suggestions are discussed. |
16465970 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-12-07T19:30:58.999Z | 2013-04-04T00:00:00.000Z | Reduction of out-of-band power and peak-to-average power ratio in OFDM-based cognitive radio using alternating projections
Non-contiguous OFDM technique can be used for the cognitive radio systems. The sidelobes of the OFDM-modulated tones cause the out-of-band power which can induce large interference to the incumbent communication systems. Another major drawback of OFDM-based systems is the high peak-to-average power ratio. In this paper, we propose a scheme to jointly reduce the out-of-band power and the peak-to-average power ratio of the OFDM transmission. A subset of the frequency tones do not carry any data but are weighted and the time-domain OFDM symbol is expanded at both edges with a few adjusting chips. The joint reduction scheme is developed based on the low-complexity method of alternating projections onto convex sets. In a few iterations, the transmitter removes the large peaks of the time-domain OFDM signal and reduces the out-of-band power. The receiver detects the data on the subcarriers with little performance degradation. |
32596220 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-10-04T18:44:28.856Z | 1976-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | X-ray diffraction of actively shortening muscle.
Low angle x-ray diffraction patterns were obtained from resting and activated frog sartorius muscles by means of a position-sensitive detector. Although the intensity ratio I10/I11 decreased many-fold upon activation, it was nearly the same during isometric and isotonic contraction. Thus, motion has a much smaller effect on the low order equatorial pattern than the transition from rest to activity. Analysis of the 10 and 11 reflections separately showed that I10 and I11 change reciprocally upon activation, and that they both increase by a small amount in the transition from isometric to isotonic contraction. If the intensity ratio can be taken as a measure of cross-bridge number, the results provide evidence that the drop in force in an actively shortening muscle is due primarily to the influence of motion on the configuration, rather than the number, of cross-bridges. |
193515670 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-19T13:15:37.163Z | 2015-01-27T00:00:00.000Z | Metonymies don’t bomb people, people bomb people
Abstract In the cognitive linguistic literature, sentences like Nixon bombed Hanoi have long been explained in terms of metonymy, either ‘referential’ (i.e. the NP Nixon metonymically refers to the bomber pilots controlled by President Nixon), or ‘predicative’ (i.e. the verb bomb metonymically refer to the ordering of the bombing). More recently, it has been suggested that such sentences may be better analyzed as slightly untypical literal instances of the transitive construction. In this paper, a corpus-based analysis of the verb bomb is presented, which shows that the usage of this verb is very different and much more heterogeneous than the constructed examples cited in the literature suggest. It is argued that this heterogeneity cannot be coherently analyzed in terms of referential or predicative metonymy. Instead, a non-metonymic account is sketched out based on a general characterization of causative transitives and verb frames from which logical subjects are selected based on salience. This account provides a unified analysis of the phenomenon that even allows us to recognize additionally the existence of referential metonymies in certain cases. The paper contributes to a growing body of research literature that takes the idea of a ‘usage- based’ cognitive linguistics seriously by attempting to test and develop analyses empirically on the basis of authentic usage data. |
27093410 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:51:50.385Z | 2013-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Optimizing the Combination of Acoustic and Electric Hearing in the Implanted Ear
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine an optimal approach to program combined acoustic plus electric (A+E) hearing devices in the same ear to maximize speech-recognition performance. Design: Ten participants with at least 1 year of experience using Nucleus Hybrid (short electrode) A+E devices were evaluated across three different fitting conditions that varied in the frequency ranges assigned to the acoustically and electrically presented portions of the spectrum. Real-ear measurements were used to optimize the acoustic component for each participant, and the acoustic stimulation was then held constant across conditions. The lower boundary of the electric frequency range was systematically varied to create three conditions with respect to the upper boundary of the acoustic spectrum: Meet, Overlap, and Gap programming. Consonant recognition in quiet and speech recognition in competing-talker babble were evaluated after participants were given the opportunity to adapt by using the experimental programs in their typical everyday listening situations. Participants provided subjective ratings and evaluations for each fitting condition. Results: There were no significant differences in performance between conditions (Meet, Overlap, Gap) for consonant recognition in quiet. A significant decrement in performance was measured for the Overlap fitting condition for speech recognition in babble. Subjective ratings indicated a significant preference for the Meet fitting regimen. Conclusions: Participants using the Hybrid ipsilateral A+E device generally performed better when the acoustic and electric spectra were programmed to meet at a single frequency region, as opposed to a gap or overlap. Although there is no particular advantage for the Meet fitting strategy for recognition of consonants in quiet, the advantage becomes evident for speech recognition in competing-talker babble and in patient preferences. |
32384010 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:06:59.225Z | 2013-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Temperature-Dependent Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Raman Mapping Spectroscopy of Phase-Separation in a Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)–Poly(l-Lactic Acid) Blend
Variable-temperature Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopic mapping measurements were applied to study the phase separation of a poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB)–poly(l-lactic acid) (PLA) (50:50 wt.%) polymer-blend film as a function of temperature between 25 and 175 °C. Because of the better band separation compared with the fundamental absorptions, the first overtones of the v(C=O) bands of PHB and PLA were used to evaluate the temperature-dependent FT-IR images as PLA–PHB and PHB–PLA band-ratio contour plots, respectively. From the visualization of the band-ratio FT-IR images, it could be derived that even beyond the melting point of PLA (145 °C), the lateral position and the geometry of the PHB-rich and PLA-rich phases were retained up to 165 °C. Furthermore, the FT-IR images derived during and after the melting of PHB (174 °C) provided an interesting insight into the homogenization process of the polymer melt. By exploiting its higher lateral resolution, valuable additional information became available from the Raman mapping measurements. Based on the Raman data, the scenario of phase-separated PHB-rich and PLA-rich domains of about 50 iμ size, based on the FT-IR imaging measurements, had to be revised. Instead, the originally interpreted PHB-rich and PLA-rich domains are actually clusters of much smaller grains. Additionally, the Raman images measured in the same temperature interval revealed that the clusters of small PHB-rich grain structures aggregated as a function of temperature increase. These investigations prove that FT-IR and Raman imaging in combination with variable-temperature measurements can provide new (and so far unavailable) insights into structural phenomena of phase-separated polymer blends. |
210992710 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-02-01T14:36:01.303Z | 2019-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Compact Microstrip Bandpass Filter using Stepped-Impedance Resonators and Stepped-Lumped Resonators for 5G Wi-Fi and WLAN Applications
This article presents a novel and compact microstrip bandpass with enhanced upper stopband characteristics to fulfil the requirements of the WLAN/5G Wi-Fi. The proposed bandpass filter (BPF) uses the stepped-impedance resonators and the stub-loaded resonators to achieve the desired BPF response for 5G Wi-Fi and WLAN applications. The rectangular slots on both sides of the microstrip are used to improve the stopband performance and eliminates the spurious response. The designed BPF covers the frequency band of sub-band 6 GHz that is useful for released FCC’s band for WLAN/ 5G Wi-Fi and the free use of the microwave spectrum in the range of 5150-5250 MHz band, 5250-5350 MHz, 5470-5725 MHz, and 5725-5875 MHz permitted by the Indian government. The proposed BPF is designed on an RT/Duroid 5880 Substrate with the thickness of 0.508 mm and surface area of 31×27 mm2. |
248647610 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-05-10T15:30:47.382Z | 2022-05-06T00:00:00.000Z | Copper Adsorption Using Hydroxyapatite Derived from Bovine Bone
Mining and smelting effluent have resulted in heavy metal-contaminated groundwater. Copper-polluted groundwater poses a severe threat to human health and the ecological environment. Permeable reactive barrier (PRB) has been rapidly developed as the in situ remediation technology to control toxic copper migration. Low cost, seepage stability, and great longevity are considered within PRB reactive media. In this paper, hydroxyapatite derived from bovine bone was proven to be a suitable adsorbent owing to cost-effectiveness, great adsorption capacity, and longevity. Batch experiments were carried out to determine the copper adsorption behavior as a function of copper concentration and contact time. Adsorption isotherm was represented by the Langmuir isotherm model, and the adsorption capacity of 25.7 mg/g was superior to most of the adsorbents. A kinetic study was accurately fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model interpreted as a chemical reaction. In addition, the column study confirmed hydroxyapatite has excellent hydraulic performance with no clogging phenomenon happened. At C/C0 = 0.5, the number of pore volume (PV) reached 450. The batch and column experiments also revealed that the overall adsorption process followed up the monolayer chemisorption. Furthermore, systematic analyses demonstrated that surface adsorption was responsible for the copper removal by hydroxyapatite based on experimental analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This work provides an alternative strategy as filling material for in situ remediation of copper-contaminated groundwater and enriches relevant theoretical references. |
73733660 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2002-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT
This project supported an in-depth review of the technologies and processes used in the small scale sector which lead to the up-take of coal/boiler waste fired clamp technology in Zimbabwe. These informed the detaile ddevelopment of project work in Latin America and identified gaps in existing knowledge and practise. For example, the project team determined that the technology which was due to be transferred from Africa to Latin America was not suited to local conditions. Subsequently a process of development of local alternatives that would increase energy efficiency using alternatives to fuelwood begun. |
16562310 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-03-22T00:56:01.885Z | 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Tax Credit Incentives for Residential Solar Photovoltaic in Hawai ‘ i
© 2013 uhero.hawaii.edu Solar photovoltaic (PV) tax credits are at the center of a public debate in Hawai‘i. The controversy stems largely from unforeseen budgetary impacts, driven in part by the difference between the legislative intent and implementation of the PV tax credits. HRS 235-12.5 allows individual and corporate taxpayers to claim a 35% tax credit against Hawaii state individual or corporate net income tax for eligible renewable energy technology, including PV. The policy imposes a $5,000 cap per system, and excess credit amounts can be carried forward to future tax years. Because the law did not clearly define what constitutes a system or restrict the number of systems per roof, homeowners have claimed tax credits for multiple systems on a single property. In an attempt to address this issue, in November 2012, temporary administrative rules define a PV system as an installation with output capacity of at least 5 kW for a single-family residential property. The new rule does not constrain the total number of systems per roof, but rather defines system size and permits tax credits for no more than one sub-5 kW system. In other words, it is possible to install multiple 5 kW systems and claim credits capped at $5,000 for each system. There is an additional 30% tax credit for PV capital costs at the federal level. There is no cap for the federal tax credit and excess credits can be rolled over to subsequent years. This study assesses 1) the household “payback” as a result of investing in PV, and 2) the maximum amount of PV capacity that might be installed on owner-occupied single-family homes based on household size and income. We provide estimates of the upper bound in state tax expenditures for PV tax credits, under both the previous and current rules. |
5518810 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-08T08:45:43.730Z | 1985-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Appearance of systemic amyloidosis in a chronic hemodialysis patient.
Dr. D. Hillion, Department of Nephrology, Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Poissy, 10, rue du Champ Gaillard, F-78303 Poissy (France) Dear Sir, Since 1977, amyloid deposits in the transverse carpal ligament of patients on regular dialysis treatment (RTD) were reported. Two unanswered questions persist: (1) Are they localized deposits of a systemic amyloidosis? (2) What is the type of the amyloid? We report a case of systemic non-immunoglobulin-induced (AA) amyloidosis in a patient on RTD. In 1951, Mme C. was 30 years old when a proteinuria was found during her third pregnancy. In 1967, renal failure was diagnosed during a preoperative workup: high blood presssure, urea nitrogen 12mmol/l, proteinuria 1 g/24 h, Addis count: 300 H/min, 2,000 L/min. IVP showed two regular atrophied kidneys. In 1968, subtotal hysterectomy was performed for endometriosis. Regular hemodialysis was started in 1972. From 1972 to 1981 the principal events had been hepatitis and hyperparathyroidism. In 1981, removal of a sacrococcygeal cyst led to the discovery of subcutaneous deposits with the histochemical behavior of amyloid: positive Congo red staining and green berefringence. There were no clinical signs of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), nor systemic amyloidosis. Gamma-pathy exploration was negative. In 1982, bone biopsy and parathyr-oidectomy were performed: no amyloid deposits were found in the tissues. In 1983, during a routine examination a stage I cancer of the cervix uteri was found and treated by irradiation. In 1983, spontaneous hemarthrosis of the knees, ankles, wrists and shoulders occurred. In the synovial biopsy specimen, amyloid deposits disrupting the synovial membrane but respecting the underlying vessels were found. In 1984, a massive digestive hemorrhage necessitated a laparotomy: there were no metastases, the bleeding originated in the terminal ileum which was resected, a liver biopsy was performed. Large amyloid deposits were found in the level of ileal submucosa and submucosa vessels, smaller deposits in the hepatic arterioles and sinusoid capillaries. Using the Wright’s technique, potassium permanganate treatment eliminated Congo red stainability. The patient died postoperatively. No autopsy was performed. The successive discovery of the amyloid deposits over a period of 4 years led us to relate them to the duration on RTD. |
19512260 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:12:30.526Z | 2010-01-20T00:00:00.000Z | Vascular risk associated with meniscal repair using Rapidloc versus FasT-Fix: comparison of two all-inside meniscal devices.
Eight fresh-frozen cadaver legs (average age 72 years) were used to evaluate the risk to the popliteal artery related to the use of two all-inside meniscal repair devices, the Mitek RapidLoc (12.5 mumudegrees) and the Smith & Nephew FasT-Fix (curved). The lumen of the femoral artery was injected with barium. Anteroposterior (AP) and lateral radiographs were obtained to ensure visualization of the popliteal artery and its anatomic location. Both devices were inserted into the posterior horn of the lateral meniscus up to the hub of the needle under direct arthroscopic visualization. The distance between the needle and the artery was measured on the radiographs using calipers. The average distance from the needle to the popliteal artery was 0.5 mm (0.5 +/- 0.8 mm, range: 0-2 mm) on the lateral radiograph and 6.0 mm (6.0 +/- 6.2 mm, range: 0-19 mm) on the AP radiograph using the FasT-Fix system without the penetration limiter. None of the RapidLoc needles were within 20 mm of the popliteal artery on either of the radiographs. The FasT-Fix device came within 3 mm of the artery on both AP and lateral radiographs in 43% of the specimens. The risk to the popliteal artery was significantly greater using the FasT-Fix device compared to the RapidLoc device (P < .05). Although both instruments appear safe when used properly, the RapidLoc device seems to be safer with less risk to the popliteal artery than the current FasT-Fix meniscal repair device. When using the FasT-Fix device, the penetration limiter must be used to avoid the complications found in this study. |
31043610 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:49:36.687Z | 2000-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Effect of systemic penicillin on pain in untreated irreversible pulpitis.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this prospective, randomized, double-blind study was to determine the effect of penicillin on pain in untreated teeth diagnosed with irreversible pulpitis.
STUDY DESIGN
Forty emergency patients participated, and each had a clinical diagnosis of an irreversible pulpitis. Patients randomly received a 7-day oral dose (28 capsules, 500 mg each, to be taken every 6 hours) of either penicillin or a placebo control in a double-blind manner. No endodontic treatment was performed. Each patient also received ibuprofen; acetaminophen with codeine (30 mg); and a 7-day diary to record pain, percussion pain, and number and type of pain medication taken.
RESULTS
The administration of penicillin did not significantly (P >.05) reduce pain, percussion pain, or the number of analgesic medications taken by patients with untreated irreversible pulpitis. The majority of patients with untreated irreversible pulpitis had significant pain and required analgesics to manage this pain.
CONCLUSION
Penicillin should not be prescribed for untreated irreversible pulpitis because penicillin is ineffective for pain relief. |
84089210 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-03-20T13:04:54.759Z | 2012-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Increase trend of social hymenoptera (wasps and honeybees) in urban areas, inferred from moving‐out case by 119 rescue services in Seoul of South Korea
The number of social hymenoptera have decreased due to accelerated urbanization in Seoul, Korea, during the 1970s–1990s. However, recent changes in environmental conditions have brought distinct re‐growth of their colonies. In this study, we analyzed the re‐colonization trend of social hymenoptera in Seoul with moving‐out reports submitted to 119 rescue services from 2000 to 2009. A total of 14 253 social hymenoptera findings and treatment cases were reported during that time, and the reported numbers increased continuously every year. Among them, 87% of the cases were related to social wasps and 13% were for honeybees. Social wasps peaked from July to September, when the colonies matured, whereas honeybees peaked from April to July when colonies divided. As observed by geographical information system (GIS), moving‐out cases formed hotspots in low‐story buildings around green areas such as nearby forests or city green parks in Eunpyeong‐gu and Gwanak‐gu in Seoul. Among the social wasps, the most frequent species that caused a nuisance and direct stinging was Polistes rothneyi koreanus, the majority of which nested under eaves (63%). Among the honeybees, Apis mellifera was a nuisance while attaching to buildings and walls in the city (60%) during hive splitting. We present herein the situation of the return of social hymenoptera to Seoul and discuss the possible reasons for the recent increase in social wasps in urban areas, including enlarging the green space in urban areas and stable nesting places, which benefited colony development due to the relatively higher urban temperature and the few natural predators and parasitoids. |
17228370 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2010-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Clafer : a Unified Language for Class and Feature Modeling
This paper presents Clafer, a class modeling language with first class support for feature modeling. In the work we identify key differences between class and feature models and show how to unify the two notations. Our language offers simple, yet powerful constraint notation to restrict models and define mappings between features and classes. In the paper, we describe how to use Clafer to express problem and solution spaces and specify mappings between them. We also present a Clafer-to-Alloy translator, our primary tool that gives precise semantics to Clafer. |
236583570 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-08-02T00:05:44.993Z | 2021-05-12T00:00:00.000Z | Holographic Feature Learning of Egocentric-Exocentric Videos for Multi-Domain Action Recognition
Though existing cross-domain action recognition methods successfully improve the performance on videos of one view (e.g., egocentric videos) by transferring the knowledge from videos of another view (e.g., exocentric videos), they have limitations in generality because the source and target domains need to be fixed aforehand. In this paper, we propose to solve a more practical task of multi-domain action recognition on egocentric-exocentric videos, which aims to learn a single model to recognize test videos from either egocentric perspective or exocentric perspective by transferring knowledge between two domains. Though previous cross-domain methods can also transfer knowledge from one domain to another one by learning view-invariant representations of two video domains, they are not suitable for the multi-domain action recognition task because they always suffer from the problem of losing view-specific visual information. As a solution to the multi-domain action recognition task, we propose to map a video from either egocentric perspective or exocentric perspective to a global feature space (we call it holographic feature space) that shares both view-invariant and view-specific visual knowledge of two views. Specially, we decompose the video feature into view-invariant component and view-specific component, where view-specific component is written into memory networks for saving view-specific visual knowledge. The final holographic feature combines view-invariant feature and view-specific features of two views based on the memory networks. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method with extensive experimental results on two public datasets. Moreover, the good performances under the semi-supervised setting show the generality of our model. |
27019820 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-01-24T17:25:33.048Z | 2009-05-20T00:00:00.000Z | Neoadjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy (CT) for triple-negative locally advanced breast cancer (LABC): Retrospective analysis of 125 patients.
625 Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), defined by lack of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, accounts for 15-20% of all breast cancers and is associated with poor prognosis. There is no consensus regarding optimal CT for treatment of such patients. Preclinical data suggests TNBC may be sensitive to platinums because of deficiencies in BRCA-associated DNA repair. The aim of this study was to evaluate pathologic complete response (pCR) and overall survival (OS) in patients with TNBC treated with neoadjuvant platinum-based CT.
METHODS
We identified 674 patients with LABC who received neoadjuvant CT between January 1999 and June 2008 at University of Miami. Of these, 125 (18.5%) had histopathologic confirmation of TNBC. All patients received neoadjuvant platinum salts + docetaxel. 76 (61%) also received neoadjuvant AC, while 42 (34%) received adjuvant AC. pCR was defined as no residual invasive disease in breast and axilla. OS was calculated according to Kaplan-Meier.
RESULTS
Demographics: median age 50 (28-86 years). 60% premenopausal. TNM stage distribution: T1 0.9%, T2 5.2%, T3 53.4%, T4 40.5%, N0 25.0%, N1 36.2%, N2 35.4%, N3 3.4%, M0 100%, inflammatory 11%, median tumor size = 9.5 cm. Follow up duration ranged from 0.3 to 8.9 years. pCR was observed in 42 of 125 patients (34%; 95% CI 26-43%). Among patients receiving neoadjuvant AC, 30 of 76 (40%; 95% CI 28-51%) had pCR, while amongst those receiving adjuvant AC, 12 of 42 (29%, 95% CI 16-45%) had pCR at the time of definitive surgery. Patients achieving pCR had significantly higher OS (5-yr rate = 73% in pCR, vs. 49% in non-pCR; p < 0.001). OS in TNBC patients receiving cisplatin/docetaxel was significantly superior to those receiving carboplatin/docetaxel (11 mortality events out of 78 patients receiving cisplatin based CT vs 24 out of 47 receiving carboplatin based CT logrank p = 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
To date, this is the largest single institution cohort of locally advanced TNBC uniformly treated with platinum+docetaxel-based CT regimens. Platinum/docetaxel-based neoadjuvant CT provided high rates of pCR and excellent OS for women with locally advanced TNBC. No significant financial relationships to disclose. |
35374070 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:52:11.872Z | 2016-01-11T00:00:00.000Z | Freestanding Flag-Type Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Harvesting High-Altitude Wind Energy from Arbitrary Directions.
Wind energy at a high altitude is far more stable and stronger than that near the ground, but it is out of reach of the wind turbine. Herein, we develop an innovative freestanding woven triboelectric nanogenerator flag (WTENG-flag) that can harvest high-altitude wind energy from arbitrary directions. The wind-driven fluttering of the woven unit leads to the current generation by a coupled effect of contact electrification and electrostatic induction. Systematic study is conducted to optimize the structure/material parameters of the WTENG-flag to improve the power output. This 2D WTENG-flag can also be stacked in parallel connections in many layers for a linearly increased output. Finally, a self-powered high-altitude platform with temperature/humidity sensing/telecommunicating capability is demonstrated with the WTENG-flag as a power source. Due to the light weight, low cost, and easy scale-up, this WTENG-flag has great potential for applications in weather/environmental sensing/monitoring systems. |
109627370 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-03-14T22:51:50.573Z | 2006-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Supply chain management for fast-moving products in the electronic industry
The objective of this Thesis was to strategically redesign and transform the supply chain of a series of detonators in a leading Company serving the oil and gas industry. The scope of the Thesis included data gathering and analysis, and the proposal and implementation of possible solutions. The issues addressed included sourcing and partnership strategies and development of systemic inventory management policies. We optimized the inventory policies to minimize the ordering and holding costs while improving the customer service level. For this purpose, we considered the entire supply chain starting from the Company's internal and external suppliers and Subcontractors all the way to the end-customers. By considering all these players we were able to globally optimize the supply chain. The inventory policy used was a periodic review policy for which we optimized the reorder, order-up-to level and Safety Stock levels. We analyzed the effects of the forecasting error and the potential benefits of risk pooling. We also identified and recommended a new push-pull boundary for the Company's detonator products and provided a generic platform to identify this boundary for other products within the Company. The supply chain management system and managerial insights developed from this project can potentially be extended to other products and divisions within the Company. Thesis Supervisor: David Simchi-Levi, Ph.D. Title: Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems Co-director, LFM and SDM Programs |
15779370 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-18T08:57:17.513Z | 2009-09-24T00:00:00.000Z | Symbol Synchronization Capture Method on SFH-GMSK - PART II: The Capture Method
this paper applies the theoretical analysis result about the SFH-GMSK signal in the Part I companion paper that the differential demodulation GMSK signals and their phases both are periodic, and the period is integer multiple of symbol interval Tb during switching-frequency protecting code. Based on these, this paper as the Part II companion paper puts forward one symbol synchronization capture method based on SNR using the switching-frequency protecting code, and the capture time and probability of it are also particularly analyzed in this paper. The analysis indicates that this capture method is not only simple and convenient for digital realization, but also is rapid and effective. So the SFH communication can be established effectively |
56362870 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-18T14:01:46.084Z | 2018-10-10T00:00:00.000Z | SMART COMPANIES: How to reach sustainability during a digital transformation
These are difficult times! Almost every industry is facing a real risk of disruption from cutting-edge technologies in the digital world. This reality drives companies to change and adapt their business models to remain competitive. They must succeed in transforming their business through technology, or they'll face destruction at the hands of their rivals that do. Furthermore, the search for sustainability continues to be one of the main matters that companies are investing in. This paper is an attempt to discuss how to seize the opportunity of digital transformations in order to reach sustainability. It starts by defining the concepts of digital transformation and sustainability. After, it answers, through real world examples, how companies, during a digital transformation, could increase profitability and their social footprint while reducing their impacts on environment. The paper discuss after, a survey, in the Moroccan context, of the relationship between digital transformation and sustainability among 15 companies (from 40 companies contacted) from different sectors. It also explains the Moroccan actual context using a game theory approach. |
14497220 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-04-07T00:00:00.000Z | 2011-06-26T00:00:00.000Z | Semantically annotating research articles for interdisciplinary design
Biologically inspired design is an important emerging movement in engineering design. Finding relevant biological sources of inspiration from existing biology literature is one of the important challenges of this activity. We conjecture that annotating biology articles with lightweight Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) models is one way to address this challenge. We present Biologue, a social citation cataloging system that allows its users to gather, organize, share, and most importantly, annotate scholarly articles with SBF models. This feature not only allows the implementation of search mechanism that is more targeted to the needs of designers seeking bio-inspiration, but also helps designers make sense of the articles returned by the search mechanism. |
201393820 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-08-23T01:04:13.704Z | 2019-08-07T00:00:00.000Z | English for Secretarial Program: Target and Learning Needs of 'Cinta Kasih Tzu Chi' Vocational School Students
English is one of compulsory subjects in vocational high schools. It is a required school subject as students of vocational school graduates are prepared to work based on their major and skills. In addition, in the workplace context, English is the common foreign language used in and among divisions in the workplace. To help the students use the language appropriately, schools need to prepare them with adequate learning materials. Thus, reliable sources of learning, one of which is English coursebooks, should incorporate appropriate language input for the students specifically devised for vocational school students. Unfortunately, most of the coursebooks contain materials which do not meet target and learning needs of the students who study in vocational schools. Therefore, this study aimed at examining their target and learning needs of English, particularly for those taking secretarial program. In order to achieve the objective of the study, a questionnaire consisting of target and learning needs items was distributed to the subjects of the research. The findings of this research revealed that the target needs of the students who majored in the secretarial program are to be able to communicate in English both in oral and written texts, vocabulary enhancement related to the workplace, and to pass the national exam. As for the learning needs, most of the students are keen on learning English from authentic materials integrated in all language skills.Keywords: materials development, target and learning needs, ESP |
123884760 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2015-03-06T19:42:58.000Z | 1998-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Statistical Inference for Lorenz Curves with Censored Data
Lorenz curves and associated tools for ranking income distributions are commonly estimated on the assumption that full, unbiased samples are available. However, it is common to find income and wealth distributions that are routinely censored or trimmed. We derive the sampling distribution for a key family of statistics in the case where data have been modified in this fashion. |
1259210 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2006-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Optimal Exercise of Executive Stock Options and Implications for Firm Cost
This paper conducts a comprehensive study of the optimal exercise policy for an executive stock option and its implications for option cost, average life, and alternative valuation concepts. The paper is the first to provide analytical results for an executive with general concave utility. Wealthier or less risk-averse executives exercise later and create greater option cost. However, option cost can decline with volatility. We show when there exists a single exercise boundary, yet demonstrate the possibility of a split continuation region. We also show that, for constant relative risk averse utility, the option value does not converge to the Black and Scholes value as the correlation between the stock and the market portfolio converges to one. We compare our model's option cost with the modified Black and Scholes approximation typically used in practice and show that the approximation error can be large or small, positive or negative, depending on firm characteristics. |
2770360 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2014-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | The L 1 – Norm Density Estimator Process
The notion of an L1–norm density estimator process indexed by a class of kernels is introduced. Then a functional central limit theorem and a Glivenko–Cantelli theorem are established for this process. While assembling the necessary machinery to prove these results, a body of Poissonization techniques and restricted chaining methods is developed, which is useful for studying weak convergence of general processes indexed by a class of functions. This should be of independent interest. None of the theorems impose any condition at all on the underlying Lebesgue density f . Also, somewhat unexpectedly, the distribution of the limiting Gaussian process does not depend on f. AMS Subject Classifications: 60F05, 60F15, 60F17, 62G07 |
247597460 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-03-23T06:19:05.745Z | 2022-03-21T00:00:00.000Z | WT1 transcription factor impairs cardiomyocyte specification and drives a phenotypic switch from myocardium to epicardium.
During development, the heart growths through addition of progenitor cells to the poles of the primordial heart tube. In the zebrafish, wilms tumor 1 transcription factor a (wt1a) and b (wt1b) are expressed in the pericardium, at the venous pole of the heart. From this pericardial layer, the proepicardium emerges. Proepicardial cells are subsequently transferred to the myocardial surface and form the epicardium, covering the myocardium. We found that while wt1a/b expression is maintained in proepicardial cells, it is downregulated in those pericardial cells contributing to cardiomyocytes from the developing heart. Sustained wt1 expression in cardiomyocytes reduced chromatin accessibility of specific genomic loci. Strikingly, a subset of wt1a/b-expressing cardiomyocytes changed their cell adhesion properties, delaminated from the myocardium and upregulated epicardial gene expression. Thus, wt1 acts as a break for cardiomyocyte differentiation and ectopic wt1 expression in cardiomyocytes can lead to their transdifferentiation into epicardial like cells. |
208212460 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-11-22T14:32:09.734Z | 2019-09-01T00:00:00.000Z | Enhanced Vendor-managed Inventory through Blockchain
Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a commonly used collaborative inventory management policy in which manufacturers/vendors manage the inventory of retailers and take responsibility for making decisions related to the timing and extent of inventory replenishment. Several prerequisites exist for successfully implementing a VMI strategy like information sharing, trust, systems integration and long-term collaboration. However, in nowadays supply chain networks are becoming more complex, highly disjointed and geographically spread. As a consequence, the implementation of a VMI strategy may be a difficult task. In this paper, we propose a new interaction mechanism between retailers and vendors, which aims to improve their supply chain strategy and inventory policies based on a trustless and distributed mechanism. In particular, we use an autonomous trustless framework based on smart contracts and blockchain technology for governing the relationship between multiple vendors and multiple retailers. Finally, a use-case VMI scenario is presented along with several functional smart contracts. Tests performed using a local private blockchain illustrate the applicability of the proposed architecture along with the significant benefits for each participant. |
41217010 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:00:56.058Z | 2011-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | β-catenin expression in benign and malignant pleural disorders.
Benign and malignant pleural processes display a large and overlapping spectrum of morphological appearances, and can be difficult to distinguish, histologically, from each other. β-catenin, a participant in the wingless-type (Wnt) transduction pathway, is involved in the pathogenesis of malignant mesothelioma and has received limited evaluation for its ability to serve as a diagnostic aid for distinguishing between individual pleural disorders. We performed immunohistochemistry for β-catenin on 10 pleural malignant mesotheliomas, 10 examples of mesothelial hyperplasia and 18 cases of organizing pleuritis. Although differences were noted in staining intensity between the mesothelioma and mesothelial hyperplasia groups, extensiveness and cellular location were similar. Staining intensity (mean +/- s.d.) in mesotheliomas (2.00 +/- 0.67) was significantly less intense than in mesothelial hyperplasia cases (3.00 +/- 0.00) (p=0.0005). Stromal cell staining was cytoplasmic in all cases, and endothelial cell staining was membranous, submembranous and cytoplasmic. Nuclear expression of β-catenin was not observed in any of the cases studied. This lack of nuclear staining in the stromal cells of organizing pleuritis differs markedly from the previously reported high frequencies of nuclear β-catenin expression in other pleural spindle cell proliferations (desmoid tumors and solitary fibrous tumors). In summary, the current study adds to previous work indicating a role for β-catenin in the genesis of pleural conditions including organizing pleuritis, mesothelial hyperplasia and malignant mesothelioma. Although IHC for β-catenin does not appear to be conclusive for separating benign from malignant mesothelial proliferations, it may be valuable for assisting in the differential diagnosis of mesothelial and spindle cell proliferations in the pleura. |
145787510 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-06T14:07:24.018Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | What's in a Name When It Isn't a Word? 17-Month-Olds' Mapping of Nonverbal Symbols to Object Categories.
Infants begin acquiring object labels as early as 12 months of age. Recent research has indicated that the ability to acquire object names extends beyond verbal labels to other symbolic forms, such as gestures. This experiment examines the latitude of infants' early naming abilities. We tested 17-month-olds' ability to map gestures, nonverbal sounds, and pictograms to object categories using a forced-choice triad task. Results indicated that infants accept a wide range of symbolic forms as object names when they are embedded in familiar referential naming routines. These data suggest that infants may initially have no priority for words over other symbolic forms as object names, although the relative status of words appears to change with development. The implications of these findings for the development of criteria for determining whether a symbol constitutes an object name early in development are considered. |
237712470 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-09-09T20:50:41.748Z | 2021-07-26T00:00:00.000Z | The Vulnerability Effect of International Tourism on a Destination’s Economy
ABSTRACT This study investigates how international tourism influences economic vulnerability for 69 economies, consisting of 36 low- and lower-middle-income economies (LMEs), and 33 upper-middle-income and high-income economies (UHEs). By applying assorted panel data estimations, the study finds that, first, international tourism increases the economic vulnerability of destination countries, and second, an analysis of two subsamples confirms the increasing effect of international tourism on economic vulnerability for UHEs. Surprisingly, the ratio of visitor spending to GDP impacts economic vulnerability negatively in LMEs, while the effect of the ratio of visitor spending to exports is positive. Some important policy implications have been raised. Lastly, the results have been checked for robustness by different estimators and strategies. |
51725320 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-08-06T13:47:41.916Z | 2018-07-25T00:00:00.000Z | Trophic interactions among vertebrate guilds and plants shape global patterns in species diversity
Trophic interactions play critical roles in structuring biotic communities. Understanding variation in trophic interactions among systems provides important insights into biodiversity maintenance and conservation. However, the relative importance of bottom-up versus top-down trophic processes for broad-scale patterns in biodiversity is poorly understood. Here, we used global datasets on species richness of vascular plants, mammals and breeding birds to evaluate the role of trophic interactions in shaping large-scale diversity patterns. Specifically, we used non-recursive structural equation models to test for top-down and bottom-up forcing of global species diversity patterns among plants and trophic guilds of mammals and birds (carnivores, invertivores and herbivores), while accounting for extrinsic environmental drivers. The results show that trophic linkages emerged as being more important to explaining species richness than extrinsic environmental drivers. In particular, there were strong, positive top-down interactions between mammal herbivores and plants, and moderate to strong bottom-up and/or top-down interactions between herbivores/invertivores and carnivores. Estimated trophic interactions for separate biogeographical regions were consistent with global patterns. Our findings demonstrate that, after accounting for environmental drivers, large-scale species richness patterns in plant and vertebrate taxa consistently support trophic interactions playing a major role in shaping global patterns in biodiversity. Furthermore, these results suggest that top-down forces often play strong complementary roles relative to bottom-up drivers in structuring biodiversity patterns across trophic levels. These findings underscore the importance of integrating trophic forcing mechanisms into studies of biodiversity patterns. |
210439670 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-10-24T09:12:02.384Z | 2019-10-17T00:00:00.000Z | An integrated African pastoral care approach to unaccompanied refugee minors based on Verryn’s Child interventions
The African proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ has been compromised and exposed by the migration of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URMs) from Zimbabwe to South Africa. Written from African women’s perspective, this article explores the response and approach of Bishop Paul Verryn to URMs. The article theologises Verryn’s response to URMs in conversation with African values, themes or sayings that relate to childcare, mainly from a Zimbabwean Ndebele context, and through the lens of the African saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. In the findings, three crucial socio-ecclesial themes emerge from Verryn’s response which I refer to as the three Cs, namely, collaboration, consultation and contextuality. These are discussed through the lens of African women’s theology in relation to African values of childcare and its implications for pastoral care in a context of displaced children, and accompanied or unaccompanied minors (child migrants). |
18664920 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-04-07T00:00:00.000Z | 1989-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Alpha du centaur: a prototype environment for the design of parallel regular alorithms
We describe Alpha du Centaur (ADC), a prototype environment for the design of parallel regular algorithms. In ADC, a program is specified using the Alpha language, using system of parameterized linear recurrence equations. The goal of ADC is to make it possible to transform the initial specifications into a parallel algorithm, that is to say, another system of recurrence equations, in which the time and the space index are separated.
The first section of the paper is devoted to a presentation of the model underlying ADC, i.e., system of recurrence equations. The second section summarizes briefly the knowledge we have on this formalism, and presents some open problems. In the third section, we describe the architecture of ADC, which is based on the CENTAUR environment, and we present an example of utilization of ADC for designing a simple algorithm. |
225966320 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2020-10-30T13:14:32.366Z | 2020-10-30T00:00:00.000Z | Calorimeter for Real-Time Dosimetry of Pulsed Ultra-High Dose Rate Electron Beams
An aluminum calorimeter was investigated as a possible real-time dosimeter for electron beams with an ultra-high dose per pulse (DPP), as used in FLASH radiation therapy (a few Gy/pulse). Ionization chambers, the most widely used active dosimeter type in conventional external beam radiation therapy, suffer from large ion recombination losses at these conditions. Passive dosimeters, such as alanine, are independent of dose rate but do not provide real-time read-out. In this work it is shown that the response of alanine is independent of the DPP in the investigated ultra-high DPP range (up to 2.3 Gy/pulse). Alanine dose measurements were then used to determine the ion recombination correction for an Advanced Markus plane-parallel ionization chamber at ultra-high DPP. Ion collection losses larger than 50% were observed. Therefore, ionization chambers are not considered suitable for accurate dosimetry in FLASH radiation therapy. As an alternative, in a second (independent) experiment an aluminum open-to-atmosphere calorimeter, operated in the quasi-adiabatic mode was investigated at ultra-high DPP electron radiation. The beam pulse charge, and thus the DPP, was varied to evaluate the linearity of the calorimeter response in the DPP range between 0.3 and 1.8 Gy/pulse. On average, the standard deviation of the calorimeter response was 0.1%. The response was proportional to the DPP in the investigated range. The average deviation of the linear fit of the calorimeter dose as a function of the beam pulse charge was <0.5%. This preliminary investigation suggests that a simplified calorimeter design is suitable as a dosimeter with real-time read-out for clinical FLASH radiation therapy beams. |
45577960 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-10-14T04:58:50.393Z | 1994-05-01T00:00:00.000Z | Prevalence of Corynebacterium urealyticum in urine specimens collected at a university-affiliated medical center
Corynebacterium urealyticum (formerly Corynebacterium group D2) has been implicated as a cause of alkaline-encrusted cystitis and urinary tract struvite calculi. Despite preselecting urine specimens with neutral and alkaline pHs and using prolonged incubation on a selective medium, isolation of this organism was rarely observed in a population of hospitalized patients. We do not recommend routine cultures for this organism unless the urine is alkaline and struvite crystals, leukocytes, and erythrocytes are present. |
13703010 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T02:11:56.109Z | 1995-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | A Large‐scale, Hospital‐based Case‐Control Study of Risk Factors of Breast Cancer According to Menopausal Status
We conducted a large‐scale, hospital‐based case‐control study to evaluate differences and similarities in the risk factors of female breast cancer according to menopausal status. This study is based on a questionnaire survey on life style routinely obtained from outpatients who first visited the Aichi Cancer Center Hospital between January 1, 1988 and December 31, 1992. Among 36,944 outpatients, 1,186 women with breast cancer detected by histological examination were taken as the case group (607 premenopausal women and 445 postmenopausal women) and 23,163 women confirmed to be free of cancer were selected as the control group. New findings and reconfirmed factors of breast cancer were as follows. 1) The risk of at least one breast cancer history among subjects’ first‐degree relatives was relatively high among pre‐ as well as post‐menopausal women. 2) A protective effect of physical activity against breast cancer was observed among both pre‐ and post‐menopausal women. 3) Dietary control decreased the risk of premenopausal breast cancer. 4) Current smoking and drinking elevated the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women. 5) Decreasing trends of breast cancer risk were associated with intake of bean curd, green‐yellow vegetables, potato or sweet potato, chicken and ham or sausage in premenopausal women, while in postmenopausal women a risk reduction was associated with a more frequent intake of boiled, broiled and/or raw fish (sashimi). Further study will be needed to clarify the age group‐ and/or birth cohort‐specific risk factors for breast cancer among the young generation in Japan. |
116682610 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-16T13:27:50.794Z | 2017-11-03T00:00:00.000Z | Acoustic Diagnostics Applications in the Study of the Oscillation Combustion in Lean Premixed Pre-Evaporation Combustor
The paper presents an experimental investigation of the thermoacoustic oscillations detection in a lean premixed pre-evaporation (LPP) combustor using acoustic signals. The LPP model combustion chamber oscillation combustion test platform was designed and built; the thermal parameters signal, the acoustic signal, and the dynamic pressure signal were collected under the steady condition and the transition condition, and been analyzed comparatively. The experimental result shows that, at the same inlet air speed, the dominant frequency of the combustion chamber is proportional to the thermal load, while at the same fuel flow, the main frequency of the combustion chamber does not change with the changing of air speed. In addition, the doubling frequency of the acoustic signal is more obvious than the pressure signals, which show that the interference of the acoustic signal is less. In the transition condition, the pulse energy of the acoustic signal is obviously increased after ignition. The dominant frequency energy increases when the working condition begins to change in the stable to oscillation combustion condition. The dominant frequency energy decreases when the working condition begins to change in the oscillation to stable combustion condition. During the flameout condition, the oscillating energy begins to decay from the high frequency region. For the acoustic signal is less disturbed than the pressure signal and it can obtain the same result with the pressure signal in the oscillation condition and the transition condition, acoustic diagnostic is an auxiliary method for combustion oscillation in LPP combustor. |
33571470 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-02-11T04:44:33.048Z | 2007-10-29T00:00:00.000Z | Tunable Resonant Cavity Enhanced Detectors using Vertical MEMS Mirrors
Highly sensitive photodetectors for the mid infrared have been obtained by placing a photodiode inside a Fabry Perot cavity. These resonant cavity enhanced detectors (RCED) are sensitive at the resonances only, which depend on the distance between the two mirrors of the cavity. Displacing one of these mirrors allows changing the cavity length and thus selecting the detection wavelength. The design, simulation and fabrication of a MEMS mirror and its integration with the counter mirror and the photodiode grown by molecular beam epitaxy are presented. First results with external mirrors moved by piezoactuation are described, too. |
28296370 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T01:10:10.890Z | 2016-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Collecting Validity Evidence for the Assessment of Mastery Learning in Simulation-Based Ultrasound Training.
PURPOSE
To collect validity evidence for the assessment of mastery learning on a virtual reality transabdominal ultrasound simulator.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We assessed the validity evidence using Messick's framework for validity. The study included 20 novices and 9 ultrasound experts who all completed 10 obstetric training modules on a transabdominal ultrasound simulator that provided automated measures of performance for each completed module (i. e., simulator metrics). Differences in the performance of the two groups were used to identify simulator metrics with validity evidence for the assessment of mastery learning. The novices continued to practice until they had attained mastery learning level.
RESULTS
One-third of the simulator metrics discriminated between the two groups. The median simulator scores from a maximum of 40 metrics were 17.5 percent (range 0 - 45.0 percent) for novices and 90.0 percent (range 85.0 - 97.5) for experts, p < 0.001. Internal consistency was high, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.98. The test/retest reliability gave an intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.62 for novices who reached the mastery learning level twice. Novices reached the mastery learning level within a median of 4 attempts (range 3 - 8) corresponding to a median of 252 minutes of simulator training (range 211 - 394 minutes).
CONCLUSION
This study found that validity evidence for the assessment of mastery learning in simulation-based ultrasound training can be demonstrated and that ultrasound novices can attain mastery learning levels with less than 5 hours of training. Only one-third of the standard simulator metrics discriminated between different levels of competence. |
208017820 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-11-15T14:09:26.988Z | 2019-11-13T00:00:00.000Z | Expression and Clinical Significance of POLR1D in Colorectal Cancer
Purpose: RNA polymerase I subunit D (POLR1D) is involved in the synthesis of ribosomal RNA precursors and small RNAs, but its mechanism in the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) remains ambiguous. Thus, this research aimed to investigate POLR1D’s expression and significance in human CRC patients and evaluate its association with clinicopathological characteristics. Methods: Matched fresh-frozen cancerous and non-cancerous tissues were collected from 100 patients diagnosed with CRC. Immunohistochemical, Western blot, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses were adopted to validate the correlation between POLR1D expression and clinicopathological parameters in CRC tissues and adjacent normal tissues (ANTs). Results: POLR1D expression in CRC tissues was significantly higher than in the ANTs. χ2 test and Spearman’s correlative analysis showed that a high POLR1D expression is significantly associated with clinical stage, Dukes stage, tumor differentiation, depth of invasion, and metastasis (p < 0.05). It is not correlated with gender, age, and tumor location and size (p > 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that the overall survival (OS) time for the low expression group is remarkably longer than for the high expression group (p < 0.0015). Univariate and multivariate analyses indicate that a high POLR1D expression is an independent prognostic factor for poor OS (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The findings of this study strongly indicate that POLR1D plays a pivotal role in the occurrence and progression of CRC. It might be an independent adverse prognostic factor for CRC patients and could serve as a potential therapeutic target for clinical diagnosis in CRC and anticancer drug development. |
38230320 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-06-17T12:15:41.156Z | 2000-07-01T00:00:00.000Z | Intestinal blood loss during cow milk feeding in older infants: quantitative measurements.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the response, in terms of fecal hemoglobin excretion and clinical symptoms, of normal 9 1/2-month-old infants to being fed cow milk.
DESIGN
Longitudinal (before-after) trial in which each infant was fed formula for 1 month (baseline) followed by 3 months during which cow milk was fed.
SETTING
Healthy infants living in Iowa City, Iowa, a town with a population of about 60,000.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Hemoglobin concentration in spot stools, 96-hour quantitative fecal hemoglobin excretion, stool characteristics, feeding-related behaviors, and iron nutritional status.
RESULTS
Fecal hemoglobin concentration during formula feeding (baseline) was higher than previously observed in younger infants. Nine of 31 infants responded to cow milk feeding with increased fecal hemoglobin concentration. Fecal hemoglobin concentration (mean +/- SD) of the 9 responders rose from 1,395 +/- 856 microg/g of dry stool (baseline) to 2,711 +/- 1,732 microg/g of dry stool (P=.01). The response rate (29%) was similar to that in younger infants, but the intensity of the response was much less. Quantitative hemoglobin excretion was in general agreement with estimates based on spot stool hemoglobin concentrations. Cow milk feeding was not associated with recognizable changes in stool characteristics, nor were there clinical signs related to fecal blood loss. Iron status was similar, except that after 3 months of cow milk feeding responders showed lower (P= .047) ferritin concentrations than nonresponders.
CONCLUSIONS
Cow milk-induced blood loss is present in 9 1/2-month-old infants but is of such low intensity that its clinical significance seems questionable. Nevertheless, infants without cow milk-induced blood loss were in better iron nutritional status than infants who showed blood loss. |
18301660 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-02-01T17:59:50.645Z | 2003-06-08T00:00:00.000Z | A 4.9mW 270MHz CMOS frequency synthesizer/FSK modulator
A 270 MHz frequency synthesizer/FSK modulator for low-rate WPAN is implemented. It consumes only 4.9 mW, adopting a current re-use technique, self-DC biasing scheme, and appropriate divider architecture. The 3/sup rd/-order feedback type DSM and the high performance charge pump are designed for wide loop bandwidth, which enables the design of a low power and low noise frequency synthesizer. The implemented prototype offers 500 kHz-loop bandwidth and -104dBc/Hz in-band noise. It also plays a role as an FSK modulator which shows only 1.1 dB degradation at 10/sup -3/ symbol BER compared with the ideal FSK-modulator. |
249201360 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2022-06-01T06:26:09.995Z | 2022-05-30T00:00:00.000Z | Supporting newly qualified nurses to develop their leadership skills.
Leadership is not expected solely of managers. At any stage of their career, nurses are expected to be able to demonstrate leadership in their day-to-day role. However, newly qualified nurses, who often experience a challenging transition from nursing student to registered nurse, may lack the confidence to demonstrate leadership. Nurse managers can support junior nurses to develop their leadership skills, notably through training, mentoring, reflection and action learning. By guiding newly qualified nurses in the use of different leadership approaches, experienced nurses can contribute to enhancing the quality of patient care. This article discusses how nurse managers can support newly qualified nurses to develop their leadership skills. |
244809210 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-12-03T16:17:07.527Z | 2021-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Stability Analysis and Molecular Description of Some Promising Sorghum Lines Tolerant to Salt Stress.
Background and Objective: Salt stress is considering the biggest environmental obstacle to crop productivity, especially sorghum. So, it was necessary to develop new sorghum lines tolerant to salt stress and high yielding to participate in bridging the large gap in the Egyptian bread industry and also as an important feed for animals. This is the biggest goalie this investigation. Materials and Methods: Some promising sorghum genotypes were evaluated under the control experiment and two salinity stress locations to test their stability and its salinity stress tolerance during two years. Some agro-morphological and physiological traits were the most important parameters tested under all conditions besides, 11 SCoT primers for comparing among the seven sorghum genotypes and Identification of molecular genetic markers responsible for salt stress tolerance. Results: The final results revealed that the five promising sorghum lines were recorded highly rank of salinity stress tolerance in all studied traits and a higher level of genetic stability during the two years. Conclusion: Results of agro-physiological traits, salinity tolerance indices and SCoT primers succeed in determining salt stress tolerance mechanisms in sorghum and which an important taxonomic tool is for plant breeder that helps him in sorting the tolerant genotypes from the sensitive ones. |
169213850 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-30T23:44:01.542Z | 2019-06-10T00:00:00.000Z | The impact of product presentation on decision-making and purchasing
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how apparel product presentation influences consumer decision-making and whether there are any differences between age groups.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed methodology was used including eye-tracking and qualitative in-depth interviews, with a purposive sample of 50 participants between age 20 and 70.
Findings
A higher number of product presentation features resulted in increased positive visual, cognitive and affective responses as consumers wanted as much visual information as possible to aid decision-making. Images of models attracted the most attention and were the most influential product presentation feature, followed by mannequin images and the zoom function. The 20 s spent much less time viewing and interacting with the product presentation features than middle age groups (30 s-50 s), had minimal fixations on mannequin images and had a much quicker decision-making process than other age groups.
Practical implications
The research informs retailers which product presentation features are the most effective for their target market to aid consumer decision-making with the aim of reducing returns.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature by providing more in-depth insights than previous studies into the impact of online product presentation on consumer decision-making by using qualitative research and eye-tracking. The research also explores more product presentation features than previous research and investigates the presentation of apparel products, which are notoriously the most difficult products for consumers to assess online. The research is unique in its exploration of age differences in relation to product presentation features.
|
234518650 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-01-07T09:11:41.277Z | 2020-12-17T00:00:00.000Z | Study of Water and Sediment Quality in the Bay of Dakhla, Morocco: Physico-Chemical Quality and Metallic Contamination
The present study contributes to the evaluation of the impact of the various activities developed around the Bay of Dakhla in Morocco through the study of the physico-chemical quality of the waters and sediments of the Bay. For this purpose, a spatial and temporal monitoring of the physicochemical and metallic pollution indicator parameters was conducted between May 2014 and March 2015. The main physicochemical descriptors of water quality were monitored, namely: temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved O2, nutrients (ammonium, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates) and chlorophyll (a). A qualification of the waters of the Bay was drawn up based on water quality assessment grids. The quality of the sediments was assessed through the determination of granulometry, the total organic carbon content and the contents of the main metallic trace elements (cadmium, lead, mercury, chromium, copper and zinc). The results of the present study show the beginning of nutrient enrichment of the water bodies of the bay, especially the stations located near the urban area, where 1.83 mg l−1 of nitrates, 0.37 mg l−1 of phosphate and 7.42 μg l−1 of chlorophyll (a) were recorded. For the sediment, the maximum concentrations of metallic trace elements were recorded in the station near the harbour basin. These results allowed to establish a quality grid for the waters of the bay, generally qualified as “Good”, except for the sites located near the urban area for which the quality is qualified as “Average”. The sediment quality of the bay was assessed according to the criteria established by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. The levels of metallic trace elements remain below the toxicity thresholds, except for the sediments taken from the harbour basin. |
1416510 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:14:53.322Z | 2017-03-01T00:00:00.000Z | Neurobehavioural Changes in a Hemiparkinsonian Rat Model Induced by Rotenone.
INTRODUCTION
Rotenone, a mitochondrial complex I inhibitor is used as a neurotoxin agent to reproduce the neuropathological, and behavioural feature of Parkinson's Disease (PD) in rat. Due to acute and chronic exposure of rotenone with various doses through different routes of administration, mortality is being reported. Low dose takes a longer duration to produce PD symptoms in animals. This present study was designed to create hemiparkinsonian 'partial' lesion model by rotenone at a single moderate dose in two sites of striatum in albino rats and also to assess its toxicity by behavioural parameters and by microscopic study.
AIM
To assess all the motor deficits in lesioned animals that are due to the depletion of dopaminergic neurons or its terminals, the lesioned animals were administered with anti-parkinsonian drug, Levodopa which should counteract motor deficits in rats.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The unilateral partially lesioned PD model was induced by rotenone stereotaxically into two sites of striatum of male Wistar albino rats at a dosage of 25 μg of rotenone/site. Rats were tested for its neurobehavioural activity on 7th day, 14th day, 21st day and on 30th day after rotenone infusion and compared with the sham group and sacrificed on 21st and 30th day for microscopic studies. L-DOPA was administered from 21st day to 30th day after lesion and compared with the lesioned group for the motor performance and sacrificed on 30th day for histology. Statistical analysis using One-way Analysis of variance followed by Tukey's test was applied for behavioural studies.
RESULTS
Statistical analysis showed that the signs and symptoms like motor in-coordination and postural disturbances are highly significant (p<0.05) on 14th and 21st day after administration of rotenone when compared to sham group. In L-DOPA treated rats, all the motor deficits were reversed. The neuronal cell death was minimal and sprouting of nerve terminals was detected. In lesioned group, the degeneration of nerve terminals and striatal neurons were in progressive manner.
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that intrastriatal infusion of rotenone at a moderate dose could be used for producing hemiparkinsonian partially lesioned animal model without any mortality. Hence, this model is suitable for evaluating behavioural studies and in drug screening programs even for a long term study. |
35980810 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:03:05.187Z | 1984-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | [Ambiguous action of splenocytes from tumor-bearing mice on the formation of metastases in the lungs of mice in an adaptive transfer system].
The growth of the syngeneic tumor MMT1 in C3H of mice was accompanied by significant changes in the spleen weight and in the number of nucleated cells in the spleen. Tumor excision led to the reduction of these indicators to the initial level. Adoptive transfer of splenocytes from tumor-bearing to intact mice exerted an inhibitory (on days 5, 14) or stimulatory (on day 25) action on the development of experimental metastases in intact animals depending on the tumor growth time. The result of splenocyte transfer from the operated on mice depended on the presence or absence in donors of tumor growth relapses (the development of lung metastases was inhibited only by splenocytes from donors with tumor relapses). Splenocyte transfer from mutant nude mice, both tumor-bearing and intact, produced an equipotent inhibitory effect. It is suggested that different mechanisms may be responsible for the development of metastasis inhibition in normal tumor-bearing mice and in tumor-bearers with T-cell system immunity deficiency. |
10848510 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T00:17:55.837Z | 2014-03-04T00:00:00.000Z | [Cpx two-component regulatory system in gram-negative bacteria--a review].
Bacteria predominantly adapt to environmental changes to ensure their growth and proliferation through one-component, two-component and three-component regulatory systems. Conjugative pilus expression (Cpx) system is one of the two-component regulatory systems in gram-negative bacteria. It is composed of the membrane-anchored sensor kinase CpxA, the cytosolic responding regulator CpxR and the accessory protein CpxP in the periplasm. In this review, the components of the Cpx system and their structural characteristics were introduced and the latest research on Cpx signal integration was summarized. Further attempts to better understand the mechanisms were also proposed. |
14611660 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-01-11T18:29:14.669Z | 2014-01-02T00:00:00.000Z | Automated Essay Scoring Using Incremental Latent Semantic Analysis
Writing has been increasingly regarded by the testers of language tests as an important indicator to assess the language skill of testees. As such tests become more and more popular and the number of testees becomes larger, it is a huge task to score so many essays by raters. So far, many methods have been used to solve this problem and the traditional method is Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). In this paper, we introduce a new incremental method of LSA to score essays effectively when the dataset is massive. By comparison of the traditional method and our new incremental method, concerning the running time and memory usage, experimental results make it obvious that the incremental method has a huge advantage over the traditional method. Furthermore, we use real corpora of test essays submitted to the MHK test (Chinese Proficiency Test for Minorities), to demonstrate that the incremental method is not only efficient but also effective in performing LSA. The experimental results also show that when using incremental LSA, the scoring accuracy can reach 88.8%. |
9206310 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-14T09:59:22.712Z | 1987-08-15T00:00:00.000Z | Characterization of cell lines derived from xenografts of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma.
Three human rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines (Rh10, Rh18, and Rh28) have been established from three independently derived xenografts. These lines have been characterized as mesenchymal in origin (reactivity to desmin and vimentin antibodies) and as expressing a human fetal muscle surface antigen recognized by monoclonal antibody 5.1 H11. Measurable levels of creatine phosphokinase have been detected in the cell lines. Rh10 and Rh28 exhibit the same chromosomal translocation and express an atypical lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme which may be homologous to those previously reported in other tumor types. The karyotype analysis has confirmed that each cell line was derived from its respective tumor and thus provides a unique model for future investigations. |
2516650 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:18:51.125Z | 1996-10-15T00:00:00.000Z | Acyclothymidine alleviates intestinal toxicity of 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine without loss of antitumor activity in mice.
To reduce the intestinal toxicity of orally administered 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5'-DFUR) in mice, we co-administered 5'-DFUR with acyclothymidine [AcyT, 5-methyl-(2'-hydroxyethoxymethyl) uracil], a potent inhibitor of pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase (PyNPase). Orally administered 5'-DFUR alone caused intestinal toxicity and severe damage to the intestinal villi, while 5'-DFUR with AcyT reduced the intestinal toxicity, and prevented damage to the intestinal villi. This toxicity arising from orally administered 5'-DFUR could not be reduced by intravenous administration of AcyT, but was alleviated by oral administration. Orally co-administered AcyT showed little effect on antitumor activity of 5'-DFUR toward subcutaneously implanted Lewis lung carcinoma, though the intestinal toxicity was reduced in the tumor-bearing mice. This finding suggests that orally co-administered AcyT may prevent the undesirable conversion of 5'-DFUR to 5-FU by PyNPase during the process of absorption in the intestinal tract. |
153153750 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-14T14:04:01.169Z | 2003-12-01T00:00:00.000Z | Credit cards and interest rates: theory and institutional factors--a critical view
When the government issues its own nonconvertible currency--also known as a flexible exchange rate policy--the central bank, as monopoly supplier of net reserves to its member banks, is the (exogenous) source of the risk-free yield curve. Furthermore, in the case of government member bank deposit insurance, the banking system is in no case reserve-constrained. In the context of Professor Stauffer's paper, this renders his entire analysis of available funds and demand for balances inapplicable. Only with a fixed exchange rate regime, such as a gold standard, a currency board, or government "peg" of some sort, are interest rates endogenous and subject to the forces Stauffer alludes to. |
136438250 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-29T13:17:04.153Z | 2017-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | Shear Failure of Patched Reinforced Concrete Beam without Web Reinforcements
Degradation of reinforced concrete (RC) element could lead to a reduction of its strength and serviceability. The degradation may be identified in the form of spalling of concrete cover. For the case of RC beam, spalling of concrete cover could occur at the web of the shear span due to corrosion of the web reinfocements. The shear strength of the damaged-RC beam possibly will become less conservative compared to the corresponding flexural strength with a risk of brittle failure. Patch repair could be a choice to recover the size and strength of the damaged-RC beam. This research investigates the shear failure of patched RC beam without web reinforcements with a particular interest to compare the shear failure behaviour of patched RC beam and normal RC beam. The patch repair material used in this research was unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) mortar. The results indicate that the initial diagonal cracks leading to shear failure of patched RC beam occur at a lower level of loading. However, the patched RC beam could carry a greater load before the diagonal crack propagates in length and width causing the beam to fail in shear. |
122882800 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-20T13:08:57.877Z | 2010-01-22T00:00:00.000Z | Cavity-hollow cathode-sputtering source for titanium films
Abstract A cavity-hollow cathode was investigated as low-cost sputtering source for titanium. An argon discharge is produced inside a hollow cathode consisting of two specifically formed disks of titanium. An additional cavity further enhances the pendulum effect of the electrons. Measurements with small Langmuir probes yielded evidence for the formation of a space charge double layer above the cathode. The sputtered atoms form negatively charged clusters. After further acceleration by the double layer the clusters impinge on the substrates. Titanium thin films were produced on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The films were investigated by a scanning tunnel microscope and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. |
37192700 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:57:07.641Z | 2010-06-01T00:00:00.000Z | A case of frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome combined with Perthes disease.
Orally-administered steroids often induce osteonecrosis of the femoral head. In cases of Perthes disease, osteonecrosis of the femoral head occurs in children due to an unknown cause. Our subject was a 4-year-old boy who had to be given large amounts of steroids because of frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome (FRNS) developed after the onset of Perthes disease. One month earlier, he would limp with his right leg, but his radiographs were normal. Later, facial edema appeared and he was brought to our hospital with heavy proteinuria. He was diagnosed with NS and prescribed prednisolone for 2 months. As he would limp occasionally during the treatment, he had an orthopedic examination at our hospital, and shrinkage of the right femoral head was disclosed. Perthes disease was diagnosed on the basis of his MRI and clinical history. Meanwhile, NS relapsed twice over a half year, and he was diagnosed as having FRNS. Cyclophosphamide was administered for 12 weeks. Four years later, MRI indicated that the femoral head slowly improved and he was able to walk without prosthetic support. These results suggest that in the course of healing from Perthes disease, the conventional method of using prednisolone has little impact on the femoral head. |
205649350 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T05:31:51.421Z | 2013-02-01T00:00:00.000Z | Resection or transplant-listing for solitary hepatitis C-associated hepatocellular carcinoma: an intention-to-treat analysis.
OBJECTIVES
The relative roles of liver resection (LR) and liver transplantation (LT) in the treatment of a solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unclear. This study was conducted to provide a retrospective intention-to-treat comparison of these two curative therapies.
METHODS
Records maintained at the study centre for all patients treated with LR or listed for LT for hepatitis C-associated HCC between January 2002 and December 2007 were reviewed. Inclusion criteria required: (i) an initial diagnosis of a solitary HCC lesion measuring ≤ 5 cm, and (ii) Child-Pugh class A or B cirrhosis. The primary endpoint analysed was intention-to-treat survival.
RESULTS
A total of 75 patients were listed for transplant (LT-listed group) and 56 were resected (LR group). Of the 75 LT-listed patients, 23 (30.7%) were never transplanted because they were either removed from the waiting list (n = 13) or died (n = 10). Intention-to-treat median survival was superior in the LR group compared with the LT-listed group (61.8 months vs. 30.6 months), but the difference did not reach significance. Five-year recurrence was higher in the LR group than in the 52 LT patients (71.5% vs. 30.5%; P < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
In the context of limited donor organ availability, partial hepatectomy represents an efficacious primary approach in properly selected patients with hepatitis C-associated HCC. |
244839400 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2021-12-03T07:42:01.576Z | 2021-11-28T00:00:00.000Z | “Are You One of Us?” Points of Social Exclusion amongst Youths of Diverse Religious Groups in Indonesia
Deriving from basis of the social identity theory and its development, the research aimed to explore the points of exclusion and how individuals and groups perceived themselves as experiencing victimhood of social injustice. The rise of intolerance in Indonesia was alarming and threatened the diversity and inclusivity of the nation. Throughout several political milestones such as gubernatorial and presidential elections, identity had been used as one of the most efficient ways to segregate and discriminate against people belonging to different groups. Applying a qualitative approach, data were mined from two focus group discussions of university student respondents with various religious and ethnic backgrounds representing the majority and minority groups in Indonesia. Groups sessions were strictly differentiated between majority and minority representatives to minimize the risk of potential conflict. The findings suggest that both groups’ initial perceptions towards members of outgroups are heavily influenced by transferred stereotypes and prejudices from the older generations. While the majority group struggles to counter the prejudices and perceived victimhood through direct exposure, the minority group, on the other hand, takes language into account as a subtle gesture of exclusion. |
150582300 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-13T13:09:10.945Z | 2014-11-01T00:00:00.000Z | Into the Abyss of Standard-Setting: An Analysis of Procedural and Substantive Guarantees within ISO
Continuous innovation and a growing consumer demand for better and safer products has led to an increase of technical standards in recent years. The World Trade Organization (WTO) exercises a high level of deference towards international standards, requiring their use. However, practice shows that several international standards are adopted through opaque and exclusionary processes. In line with this observation, in its recent US-Tuna II ruling, the Appellate Body adopted a more critical approach regarding international standards. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on an analysis of the properties and mechanics of international standard-setting processes within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), discussing procedural and substantive guarantees regarding transparency, openness, deliberation and participation. As the WTO becomes the de facto arbiter of the legitimacy of international standards, much-needed institutional reform in international standard-setting is bound to occur, in line with emerging demands for a more inclusive global legal order. |
6758150 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-04-03T03:34:09.691Z | 2002-11-07T00:00:00.000Z | Flexible redundancy insertion in a polyphase down sampling multiple description image coding
In this paper we address the problem of image transmission over unreliable networks. The system is based on multiple description coding, that introducing redundancy in the produced stream is able to guarantee a useful quality reconstruction also in presence of high percentage of packet losses. The target of this work is providing a flexible redundancy insertion in order to make the system robust for any packet loss situation over different networks (the Internet or mobile). The simulation results show the capability of the system to achieve the optimal image quality reconstruction according to network behavior. |
27085150 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2016-10-26T03:31:20.546Z | 2011-10-03T00:00:00.000Z | Insight into the heterogeneity of breast cancer through next-generation sequencing.
Rapid and sophisticated improvements in molecular analysis have allowed us to sequence whole human genomes as well as cancer genomes, and the findings suggest that we may be approaching the ability to individualize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This paradigmatic shift in approach will require clinicians and researchers to overcome several challenges including the huge spectrum of tumor types within a given cancer, as well as the cell-to-cell variations observed within tumors. This review discusses how next-generation sequencing of breast cancer genomes already reveals insight into tumor heterogeneity and how it can contribute to future breast cancer classification and management. |
190890500 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-06-14T13:46:36.484Z | 2019-05-26T00:00:00.000Z | Cost-effectiveness of PD-L1 testing and tumor mutational burden testing of immune checkpoint inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer.
e20689 Background: Immunotherapy that targeted programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1)–programmed death 1 (PD-1) pathway showed great benefit on survival compared with other therapies, especially with certain assessments before. However, the high costs limit its use. This cost-effectiveness analysis aimed to measure the significance of various assessments in immunotherapy. Methods: A decision-tree model was established based on the data of OAK study, we compared the economic benefit between immunotherapy and chemotherapy in no test group, PD-L1 test group and tumor mutational burden(TMB) test group respectively with a willingness-to-pay threshold of 3× the per capita gross domestic product ($29307/quality-adjusted life year [QALY]). Besides, we also balanced the benefit of immunotherapy among different groups. Furthermore, we also considered different costs of TMB tests due to the various methods of detection. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to evaluate the stability. Results: Immunotherapy was cost-effective compared with chemotherapy in all groups. Immunotherapy with PD-L1 test achieved economic benefit when comparing with both TMB test group and no test group. However, TMB test group was not cost-effective compared with no test group. The results from average CE and net benefit were consistent. Tissue-based TMB test was the most cost-effective TMB detection methods. One-way sensitivity analyses reflected the impact of utilities. Conclusions: Immunotherapy was cost-effective compared with chemotherapy. PD-L1 test was the most cost-effective immunotherapy test. [Table: see text] |
174650 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2017-04-15T10:58:24.729Z | 2001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z | Decline of the relative risk of death associated with low employment grade at older age: the impact of age related differences in smoking, blood pressure and plasma cholesterol
STUDY OBJECTIVE To explore whether the observed age related decline in the relative risk of death associated with low employment grade can be explained by the profiles of smoking, blood pressure and plasma cholesterol changing differently with age between the employment grades. DESIGN Prospective cohort study with 25 years of mortality follow up. SETTING Whitehall study. PARTICIPANTS There were 16 984 men aged 40 to 69 years at baseline with complete information on smoking, blood pressure and plasma cholesterol. MAIN RESULTS The relative risk of death associated with low employment grade decreased from 2.1 at 55–59 years of age to 1.3 at 85–89 years of age. Adjustment for smoking status and blood pressure, attenuated the age related decline of the relative risk by 18% and 3% respectively; adjustment for plasma cholesterol increased the decline by 3%. Taken together, these risk factors explain 20% of the observed age related decline. CONCLUSIONS A small part of the observed age related decline in the relative risk of death associated with low employment grade can be explained by differential changes in the profiles of smoking, blood pressure and plasma cholesterol with age between the employment grades. |
109861600 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-04-12T13:58:44.682Z | 2009-05-20T00:00:00.000Z | Three Series-Connected Transistor Model for a Recess-Channel-Array Transistor and Improvement of Electrical Characteristics by a Bottom Fin Structure
A three series-connected transistor model is introduced to understand the electrical characteristics of conventional recess-channel-array transistors (RCATs) and modified RCATs. An RCAT is considered to be a serial connection of three transistors consisting of one bottom transistor and two vertical transistors. The electrical characteristics of a cell transistor are explained by a balance of those transistors. A newly modified fin-RCAT which has a fin structure at the bottom of a silicon recess is proposed to improve cell transistor characteristics. This design improves cell current by 70% while maintaining retention characteristics. |
141493450 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2019-05-01T13:07:08.963Z | 2005-10-01T00:00:00.000Z | Suppressed Pedophilia in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Little Annie's Ramble"
In his 1840 review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, Edgar Allan Poe imposed a distinction between tales and essays which has haunted Hawthorne scholarship for more than a century and a hale Now we rarely discuss Hawthorne's "essays," and one of the reasons that we don't is Poe's emphasis on "their discrepancy with that marked precision and finish by which the body of [Twice-Told Tales] is distinguished" (133). In the essays ... [Poe continues] the absence of effort is too obvious to be mistaken, and a strong under-current of suggestion runs continuously beneath the upper stream of the tranquil thesis. In short, these effusions of Mr. Hawthorne are the product of a truly imaginative intellect, restrained, and in some measure repressed by fastidiousness of taste, by constitutional melancholy, and by indolence" (134). For Poe the "strong under-current of suggestion" that escapes repression is like the pathetic remnants of what could have been a tale if only Hawthorne wasn't so lazy. But I feel that the strong undercurrent of suggestion that escapes repression is the essence of Hawthorne's art, and I'd like to suggest that Poe is making three mistakes here. First, he doesn't seem to appreciate how important suggestion is to art. Hawthorne does--or at least Hilda in The Marble Faun does. "Nobody [she says] ought to read [poems] who cannot find in them a great deal more than the artist has expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness" (4:379). Not only is Poe unable to appreciate the merit of suggestiveness, he is also unable to appreciate the distance between Hawthorne and Hawthorne's narrators. It's not Hawthorne who restrains and represses; it's Hawthorne's narrators. And that's why Poe's wrong again when he suggests that repression restricts Hawthorne's art. "Little Annie's Ramble," for example, is not the "pure essay" that Poe dismisses it as; it's a complexly crafted psychological tale of narrative repression and suggestion--neither an essay nor pure. Nor studied. The few critics who haven't shied away from such an "imprecise" work, still end up sounding too much like Poe. Mary M. Van Tassel's "Hawthorne, His Narrator, and His Readers, in 'Little Annie's Ramble,'" the only detailed study of Hawthorne's tale, is paradigmatic. Even though Van Tassel is well aware of Hawthorne's narrators, she still, like Poe, doesn't realize their capacity for suppression: "Hawthorne's suppression of visual detail [she says] throws the weight of his sketches onto the narrative persona" (169). But in "Little Annie's Ramble," the very sketch Van Tassel focuses on, the visual detail which is suppressed is suppressed by the narrative persona so that he can assume the weight of his tale. Van Tassel also seems appreciative of the tale's suggestions: she advocates "close reading" (170), and she herself looks closely at Hawthorne's imagery, concluding, for example, that "[f]ood is the object of an almost sexual fantasy--the pastry shop displays 'sweet' little circlets, sweetly named kisses [...]' "(174). But Van Tassel still misses many of Hawthorne's suggestions, especially those of a deeper darkness. We will soon see that since Annie herself is frequently called little and sweet, and since the narrator goes out of his way to introduce Little Red Riding Hood's wolf, "sweet little circlets, sweetly called kisses" makes suggestions much darker than "food is the object of an almost sexual fantasy." But first we must note that while Van Tassel laments the lack of psychological insight in "Little Annie's Ramble,"--"whereas we admire the psychological insight of 'Roger Malvin's Burial,' we deplore the moral prosings of 'Little Annie's Ramble'" (168)--, it is her own focus on morality and the brighter realms of allegory which keep her from the dark psychological insights of "Little Annie's Ramble." Even when she touches on the horror, she retreats to--and reduces Hawthorne's tale to--an allegory depicting the frustrations of the creative writer. … |
55801750 | s2ag/train | v2 | 2018-12-11T11:26:42.644Z | 2018-06-06T00:00:00.000Z | THERE IS NO SINGLE SOLUTION TO THE ‘INSIDER’ PROBLEM BUT THERE IS A VALUABLE WAY FORWARD
The threat posed by insiders deliberately or inadvertently misusing their knowledge and access to sensitive information is a major security challenge. Finding effective, acceptable and affordable ways to manage the insider threat is non-trivial, involving the use of controls that range from technical to procedural. To make matters worse, insider activities range from inadvertent or accidental disclosure, through deliberate damage caused by disgruntled employees, to the pre-positioned mole who may undermine the organisation’s viability or purpose. The same controls will have different levels of effectiveness for each of these insider types. Based on these factors, attempting to find a single, optimised, universal solution to insider threats is illogical. However, the literature still contains statements such as ‘deterrence is the best approach for insiders’. There are dangers for security managers in drawing broad conclusions across the insider threat spectrum based on statements like these. Insider threats typically have a distribution of incidents where there are many of small consequence coexisting with a small number of incidents with very large consequences. This suggests that risk management techniques are a relevant, and arguably the most appropriate, framework for insider management. We have developed and applied a risk-based framework to model the spectrum of insider threat types, to enable the decision maker to determine the relative security effectiveness of alternative solutions. It allows decision makers to prioritise security investment to achieve the greatest benefit-cost using residual risk as the performance metric. Our framework provides a traceable and accountable method for organisations to balance their investments in controls, according to the complex spectrum of insider activity they are dealing with. They may also extend the approach, using robust analysis, to manage their uncertainties. Our framework supports security managers in customising security for their organisation based on its unique requirements. |