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The WhoLoDancE project was a three-year EU-funded project that bridges dance with research in movement computing. One of the outcomes of this project was a web-based Movement Library that includes a large number of motion-captured sequences of contemporary dance, ballet, Greek folk and flamenco, and allows the users to annotate the content by selecting predefined tags or writing new ones. During the different stages of the project, such as defining specific movement sequences to capture, developing the conceptual framework for the analysis, and designing interfaces for learning, language applied to dance was a key aspect to drive research. In this paper, we reflect on how the annotation tool and the whole process provides an instrument to study the contexts and procedures for conceptualising dance. We envision that dance annotation based on language, creates new opportunities for ethnographic and practice-based participatory research. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Masting and regeneration dynamics were investigated in a long-term perspective using Abies cephalonica as a study tree species. Extensive fieldwork was implemented in Parnitha National Park, Greece, following a large-scale wildfire. Annual cone production was monitored for a 5-year period in 130 tagged trees, in 13 plots with 10 individuals each, established both within the unburned part of the forest and in surviving fragments of the burned area. In the most recent masting year, a high percentage (88%) of cone-bearing trees was recorded, along with a sizeable, average cone production (40.8 cones per tree). In the intermediate, non-masting years, the corresponding values ranged from 2% to 55% and 0.08 to 5.9 cones per tree, respectively. The reproduction process is affected by both tree density and regional climatic conditions, in particular temperature during spring of the maturation year and precipitation during spring and summer of the previous year. For the first time according to our knowledge, natural regeneration was recorded for a 4-year period, in 13 permanent transects within the monitoring plots, in relation with a masting event and the additional implications of a preceding wildfire. Highest mean density of seedlings and saplings (11.4 per m2) was observed during the first spring after masting. In the non-masting years, the corresponding value ranged from 2.1 to 2.9 per m2. Seedling survival during their first summer was considerable (30-76%) but stabilized afterwards (1-3 years) at a lower level (10-20%). The particular post-masting seedling flush was followed by an extremely high mortality rate (88.6%) and cannot represent a major recruitment event. © 2019 Cambridge University Press.

This declaration, signed by an interdisciplinary task force of 234 experts from 83 different countries with different backgrounds, highlights the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance and the need for appropriate use of antibiotic agents and antifungal agents in hospitals worldwide especially focusing on surgical infections. As such, it is our intent to raise awareness among healthcare workers and improve antimicrobial prescribing. To facilitate its dissemination, the declaration was translated in different languages. © Copyright 2017, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

The neutron-induced fission cross section of Np237 was experimentally determined at the high-resolution and high-intensity facility n-TOF, at CERN, in the energy range 100 keV to 9 MeV, using the U235(n,f) and U238(n,f) cross section standards below and above 2 MeV, respectively. A fast ionization chamber was used in order to detect the fission fragments from the reactions and the targets were characterized as far as their mass and homogeneity are concerned by means of α spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy respectively. Theoretical calculations within the Hauser-Feshbach formalism have been performed, employing the empire code, and the model parameters were tuned in order to successfully reproduce the experimental fission cross-sectional data and simultaneously all the competing reaction channels.

The neutron-induced fission cross section of U234 has been measured at the CERN n-TOF facility relative to the standard fission cross section of U235 from 20 keV to 1.4 MeV and of U238 from 1.4 to 200 MeV. A fast ionization chamber (FIC) was used as a fission fragment detector with a detection efficiency of no less than 97%. The high instantaneous flux and the low background characterizing the n-TOF facility resulted in wide-energy-range data (0.02 to 200 MeV), with high energy resolution, high statistics, and systematic uncertainties bellow 3%. Previous investigations around the energy of the fission threshold revealed structures attributed to β-vibrational levels, which have been confirmed by the present measurements. Theoretical calculations have been performed, employing the talys code with model parameters tuned to fairly reproduce the experimental data. © 2014 American Physical Society.

The neutron-induced fission cross section of U234 has been measured at the CERN n_TOF facility relative to the standard fission cross section of U235 from 20 keV to 1.4 MeV and of U238 from 1.4 to 200 MeV. A fast ionization chamber (FIC) was used as a fission fragment detector with a detection efficiency of no less than 97%. The high instantaneous flux and the low background characterizing the n_TOF facility resulted in wide-energy-range data (0.02 to 200 MeV), with high energy resolution, high statistics, and systematic uncertainties bellow 3%. Previous investigations around the energy of the fission threshold revealed structures attributed to β-vibrational levels, which have been confirmed by the present measurements. Theoretical calculations have been performed, employing the talys code with model parameters tuned to fairly reproduce the experimental data.

Band erosion is a rare complication of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) with a reported prevalence varying from 0.3% to 14%. Intraluminal colonic erosion of the connecting tube is very rare, as only isolated cases have been described. Consequently, simultaneous gastric band erosion and connecting tube colonic erosion is an extremely rare event. Herein, we present a case of a woman with morbid obesity, who submitted to LABG 4 years ago. The patient presented with symptoms and signs of right lower quadrant peritonitis. Computed tomography (CT) demonstrated migration of the band into the gastric lumen, inflammation around the intra-abdominal course of the connecting tube and an inflammatory mass surrounding the tube at the right lower quadrant. Laparotomy revealed the eroded band, the eroded transverse colon from the connecting tube, a gastrocolic fistula along the course of the tube and a right lower quadrant phlegmon. The connecting tube was mobilized from the surrounding adherent tissues, the gastric band removed, the stomach and colon walls closed, and the gastrocolic fistula excised. To our knowledge this is the second case of concurrent band erosion and connecting tube colonic erosion along with gastrocolic fistula formation in a patient with morbid obesity treated with LAGB.

In this paper, we discuss the challenges that we have faced and the solutions we have identified so far in our currently on-going effort to design and develop a Dance Information System for archiving traditional dance, one of the most significant realms of intangible cultural heritage. Our approach is based on Description Logics and aims at representing dance moves in a way that is both machine readable and human understandable to support semantic search and movement analysis. For this purpose, we are inspired by similar efforts on other cultural heritage artifacts and propose to use an ontology on dance moves (DanceOWL) that is based on the Labanotation concepts. We are thus able to represent dance movement as a synthesis of structures and sequences at different levels of conceptual abstraction, which serve the needs of different potential users, e.g., dance analysts, cultural anthropologists. We explain the rationale of this methodology, taking into account the state of the art and comparing it with similar efforts that are also in progress, outlining the similarities and differences in our respective objectives and perspectives. Finally, we describe the status of our effort and discuss the steps we intend to take next as we proceed towards the original goal. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

Suppression of the polarization drift of optical fiber ring resonators is investigated both theoretically and experimentally by employing anisotropy in a polarization maintaining fiber ring. A general analytic expression for the transmission of the device is derived allowing the fiber modes to exhibit any combination of polarization crosstalk, differential loss or differential coupling. The analysis shows that a moderate level of ring anisotropy, such as that of 10 dB in line polarizer or polarization selective coupler, is sufficient to greatly suppress the drift of the eigenstates of polarization (ESOPs), finesse and resonant point, restoring the device's suitability for most practical applications. An inevitable consequence of introducing ring anisotropy is the loss of orthogonality of the ESOPs. This effect limits the anticipated benefit in high sensitivity applications. A practical anisotropic PMRR is demonstrated by inserting a thin film of nematic liquid crystal between the two halves of the polished coupler of the ring. This resonator demonstrates a polarization response immune to environmental perturbations.

Aim To evaluate the specific alterations in tooth colour with white and grey MTA when used to fill pulp chambers. Methodology Forty-five fully developed, intact, mandibular third molars were sectioned 1 mm below their cemento-enamel junction (CEJ). Their pulp chambers were chemo-mechanically debrided, and the specimens were randomly assigned into three groups: Group 1–white MTA (Angelus™), Group 2–grey MTA (Angelus™) and Group 3–negative control (unfilled). During the experimental period, specimens were immersed in vials containing distilled water up to the CEJ (37±1 °C). Spectral reflectance lines were recorded by utilizing a UV–vis spectrophotometer equipped with an integration sphere in the visual spectrum, at baseline, 1 week and 1, 2 and 3 months after placement of the materials. Data were transformed into values of the CIE L*a*b* colour system, and the corresponding ΔE values were calculated. The results were analysed using two-way mixed anova models, whilst pairwise comparisons were conducted with Bonferroni's method at P

In this paper, we present a Knowledge Based System for describing and storing dances that takes advantage of the expressivity of Description Logics. We propose exploiting the tools of the Semantic Web Technologies in representing and archiving dance choreographies by developing a Dance Ontology in OWL-2. Description Logics allow us to express complex relations and inference rules for the domain of dance movement, while Reasoning capabilities make it easy to extract new knowledge from existing knowledge. Furthermore, we can search within the ontology based on the steps and movements of dances by writing SPARQL queries. The constructing elements of the ontology and their relationships to construct the dance model are based on the semantics of the Labanotation system, a widely applied language that uses symbols to denote dance choreographies. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A novel configuration for single-mode all-fiber optic, liquid crystal based intensity modulation is suggested. The electrodes have the form of two thin indium tin oxide films, one of which is directly deposited on top of the polished face of the optical fiber. Intensity modulation using nematic and ferroelectric liquid crystal is demonstrated showing that the device offers the potential for low loss (0.5 dB), high modulation depth (20 dB), and moderate drive voltages for frequencies up to several megahertz at 633-nm wavelength.

On-line analytical processing (OLAP) typically involves complex aggregate queries over large datasets. The data cube has been proposed as a structure that materializes the results of such queries in order to accelerate OLAP. A significant fraction of the related work has been on Relational-OLAP (ROLAP) techniques, which are based on relational technology. Existing ROLAP cubing solutions mainly focus on "flat" datasets, which do not include hierarchies in their dimensions. Nevertheless, as shown in this paper, the nature of hierarchies introduces several complications into the entire lifecycle of a data cube including the operations of construction, storage, indexing, query processing, and incremental maintenance. This fact renders existing techniques essentially inapplicable in a significant number of real-world applications and mandates revisiting the entire cube lifecycle under the new perspective. In order to overcome this problem, the CURE algorithm has been recently proposed as an efficient mechanism to construct complete cubes over large datasets with arbitrary hierarchies and store them in a highly compressed format, compatible with the relational model. In this paper, we study the remaining phases in the cube lifecycle and introduce query-processing and incremental-maintenance algorithms for CURE cubes. These are significantly different from earlier approaches, which have been proposed for flat cubes constructed by other techniques and are inadequate for CURE due to its high compression rate and the presence of hierarchies. Our methods address issues such as cube indexing, query optimization, and lazy update policies. Especially regarding updates, such lazy approaches are applied for the first time on cubes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of CURE in all phases of the cube lifecycle through experiments on both real-world and synthetic datasets. Among the experimental results, we distinguish those that have made CURE the first ROLAP technique to complete the construction and usage of the cube of the highest-density dataset in the APB-1 benchmark (12 GB). CURE was in fact quite efficient on this, showing great promise with respect to the potential of the technique overall. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

Aluminium alloys containing additions of iron and cerium are among the alloys being developed as potential replacements for titanium based alloys for moderately high temperature applications. Development of these alloys is possible using rapid solidification technology, which results in a very fine distribution of dispersoids in the aluminium matrix. The microstructures of two rapidly solidified high temperature alloy powders of composition (wt-%) Al–6·7Fe–5·9Ce (alloy A) and Al–6·2Fe–5·9Ce–1·63Si (alloy B) have been characterised using transmission electron microscopy and the results are explained on the basis of some of the major solidification parameters, such as nucleation undercooling and recalescence. It was observed that most of the powder particles in the +10 to −20 μm size range contained both microcellular and cellular regions, which could be explained in terms of an initial large undercooling followed by recalescence. The decomposition of the powder microstructure after exposing the pow...

An Al-5% Cr-2% Zr (wt%) alloy for elevated temperature service has been rapidly solidified (RS) by gas atomization and planar flow casting (PFC). A comparative study of the atomized powder and the planar flow cast ribbon has been performed during consolidation by extrusion. Particular attention has been given to the microstructural changes during fabrication and the influence of RS particulate type on extrusion performance, microstructure and mechanical properties. Microstructurally it has been shown that the more homogeneous PFC ribbon has advantages over the atomized powder and can improve mechanical properties. However, optimization of the thermomechanical processing of the PFC ribbon is necessary to achieve significant performance benefits in comparison to the atomized powder.

The transmission characteristics of a polarization-maintaining optical-fiber ring resonator are examined. The resonator’s response is found to be strongly dependent on the differential phase delay between the fiber birefringence axes. Large cross talk of as much as 40% between the fiber modes and splitting of the resonance notch can occur, even for very good (better than −35-dB) isolation between the fiber polarization modes.

An analysis of the dynamic response of a single-mode all-fiber ring resonator is presented in which a time-varying phase shift is induced in the ring by a phase modulator. In particular, the deviation of the response from that expected from the steady-state analysis is discussed.

Three Al-Cr alloys containing additions of Zr and Fe have been fabricated via cold compaction and hot extrusion. The decomposition of the powder microstructure and the subsequent coarsening during thermomechanical treatment have been studied. Detailed electron microscopy investigations were performed at different locations of partially extruded billets at 450 °C. The microstructure of the dead metal zone reflects the effect the induction heating exerts on the as-atomized powder microstructure. In the low Cr alloys, Al-4Cr-1 Fe and Al-5Cr-2Zr, decomposition of the rapidly solidified microstructure commences at the rich intercellular network, whereas the microstructure of the Al-6.43Cr-1.67Zr alloy remains relatively unaffected. Within the deformation zone the precipitation kinetics are affected by the shearing and the temperature rise. The cells and the powder particles are aligned along the extrusion direction. Precipitation is taking place within the primary segregation-free areas, observed in Al-4Cr-1 Fe and Al-5Cr-2Zr alloys, whereas in the Al-6.43Cr-1.67Zr alloy, decomposition of the powder microstructure starts at the Cr-rich intermetallic particles. The as-extruded microstructure is fibrous and heterogeneous. The heterogeneity of the as-extruded microstructure is a result of the microstructural variation observed within different size powder particles and within individual ones.

Paniculate alumina reinforced Al-4Cr-1 Fe alloys were fabricated from rapidly solidified aluminium alloy powder and commercially purchased alumina powder by traditional powder metallurgical techniques involving powder mixing and cold compaction followed by hot extrusion. The tensile tests at ambient temperature indicated a considerable improvement in the mechanical strength at the expense of ductility and modulus. Poor values of modulus were explained by the presence of porosity in the composites. The high temperature mechanical properties of the matrix, tested at 350 °C after prolonged exposure to the test temperature under static air conditions, were intrinsically poor. Additions of the filler material, alumina particles, up to a weight fraction of 15% did not improve the high temperature performance of the matrix substantially. Possible causes for this are discussed and alternatives proposed.

The lifecycle of a data cube involves efficient construction and storage, fast query answering, and incremental updating. Existing ROLAP methods that implement data cubes are weak with respect to one or more of the above, focusing mainly on construction and storage. In this paper, we present a comprehensive ROLAP solution that addresses efficiently all functionality in the lifecycle of a cube and can be implemented easily over existing relational servers. It is a family of algorithms centered around a purely ROLAP construction method that provides fast computation of a fully materialized cube in compressed form, is incrementally updateable, and exhibits quick query response times that can be improved by low-cost indexing and caching. This is demonstrated through comprehensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets, whose results have shown great promise for the performance and scalability potential of the proposed techniques, with respect to both the size and dimensionality of the fact table. © 2006 Springer-Verlag.

The effect of ramipril (an angiotensin [AT]-converting enzyme inhibitor), telmisartan (an AT-II type 1 receptor blocker), or their combination on inflammation and lipid peroxidation was assessed in 37 patients with type 2 diabetes who were free of coronary artery disease. All regimens were associated with a significant reduction of C-reactive protein and oxidized low-density lipoprotein cholesterol serum levels (p < 0.001). These results further enlighten the mechanisms underlying the cardiovascular beneficial effect of renin-AT system inhibition. (c) 2005 by Excerpta Medica Inc.

Source anisotropy is a very important factor in the brachytherapy quality assurance of high-dose rate (HDR) 192Ir after-loading stepping sources. If anisotropy is not taken into account then doses received by a brachytherapy patient in certain directions can be in error by a clinically significant amount. Experimental measurements of anisotropy are very labour intensive. We have shown that within acceptable limits of accuracy, Monte Carlo integration (MCI) of a modified Sievert integral (3D generalization) can provide the necessary data within a much shorter time scale than can experiments. Hence MCI can be used for routine quality assurance schedules whenever a new design of HDR or PDR 192Ir is used for brachytherapy after- loading. Our MCI calculation results are compared with published experimental data and Monte Carlo simulation data for microSelectron and VariSource 192Ir sources. We have shown not only that MCI offers advantages over alternative numerical integration methods, but also that treating filtration coefficients as radial distance-dependent functions improves Sievert integral accuracy at low energies. This paper also provides anisotropy data for three new 192Ir sources, one for the microSelectron-HDR and two for the microSelectron-PDR, for which data are currently not available. The information we have obtained in this study can be incorporated into clinical practice.

The laparoscopic management of adnexal masses is still controversial. The main problems are preoperative diagnosis, operative technique and the possibility of compromising the prognosis by spillage of cancer cells when operating on a hitherto unrecognized early stage ovarian cancer. We report on our experience with minimal invasive surgery of adnexal masses.From June 1989 to July 1992, 375 patients underwent surgery for adnexal tumors at the University Hospital, Zurich. In 112 cases a laparoscopic operation was performed. The indications were unilateral or bilateral masses in the adnexal region with or without clinical symptoms. The preoperative workup included patient's history, clinical examinations, vaginal sonography and intraoperative evaluation of the tumor.In 72% (83) of cases the organs were preserved by the laparoscopic procedure while in 28% (32) salpingo-oophorectomy, ovariectomy or salpingectomy was performed. The histopathologic findings included cystadenomas, cystadenofibromas, benign cystic teratomas, simple and functional cysts, mesothelium cysts, tubo-ovarian abscesses, endometriomas, and torqued tubes and/or ovaries. In no patient was a malignant process found. Only one postoperative complication was noted in a patient who had to be relaparoscoped due to adhesions to the operated ovary. One recurrence occurred in a hydrosalpinx.Adnexal masses may safely be managed laparoscopically, with all the advantages of minimal invasive surgery, provided that strict diagnostic and therapeutic rules are observed.

Of 147 patients operated by endoscopy, 86 (59%) were treated conservatively by linear salpingotomy or tubal aspiration and 61 (41%) were treated by salpingectomy. One patient with a history of bilateral salpingectomy had a cornual implantation and was also successfully treated by laparoscopic technique. There were no intraoperative complications. In eight patients (4.5%) with postoperative complications, a second operation was performed because of persistent trophoblast and/or hemorrhage. Six patients were treated by laparoscopic salpingectomy. All complications were associated with conservative treatment and typically occurred with a delay of up to 23 days. In six of these instances, the surgeon was rather inexperienced in laparoscopic operation. After an average follow-up time of 22 months, the pregnancy rate was 68%, of which 73% were intrauterine pregnancies. Laparoscopic treatment of ectopic pregnancies has proven to be an effective and safe procedure even at a teaching hospital. Since all complications occurred after conservative treatment this data suggests that salpingectomy should be the treatment of choice in ectopic pregnancy, whereas linear salpingotomy should only be performed when specially indicated.

A study of the structural changes occurring during the processing of a rapidly solidified powder aluminium alloy has been performed. Considerable microstructural differences have been noted from among different powder particles and from within the same particle. Three typical microstructures were observed; small particles exhibited a microcellular structure, medium-sized particles a dual morphology of microcellular and cellular structure, whilst in the large particles coarse intermetallics were formed during solidification, acting as nucleation sites for a cellular aluminium structure. Apart fromα-Al three other phases were detected in the powder microstructure, Fe4Al13, (Fe, Mn)Al6 and an unidentified phase termed “F”. The formation of both spheres and needle particles was promoted at high temperatures irrespective of the type of phase (Fe4Al13 or (Fe, Mn)Al6). It has been shown that the heterogeneity of the microstructural features was maintained during subsequent consolidation via extrusion. The influence of heating and deformation modifies the microstructures but was insufficient to produce a uniform microstructure. The decomposition behaviour of the different microstructures has been examined in detail and the heterogeneities in the extrudate could be related to the powder microstructure and ultimately the solidification behaviour during atomization. The microstructural heterogeneity of the extrudates was characterized by the formation of long bands which normally contained two types of structure. Bands with a high volume fraction of needle-like precipitates and bands with a high volume fraction of spheroids originated from the microcellular and coarser cellular structure, respectively.

A comparative study of three rapidly solidified Al–Mg powder alloys containing additions of chromium, iron, and manganese has been performed. Fine, air atomized powder of the three compositions was cold compacted and extruded after preheating, using an induction heater, to temperatures in the range 300–500°C. The Al–Mg–Cr alloy exhibited the best hot working characteristics: the iron and manganese bearing materials were less satisfactory because the extrudates exhibited surface cracking owing to hot tearing. The data from the Al–Mg–Cr alloy showed that the extrusion pressure can be related to the extrusion ratio and the temperature compensated strain rate. During extrudate tensile testing, discon-tinuous yielding was observed in the iron and manganese bearing alloys. All three alloys exhibited improved Young's modulus, but over the range of temperatures studied (20–300°C) the chromium and iron alloys displayed the best combination of strength and ductility. PM/0359

Experiments have been carried out to determine the relationship between processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties of an Al–6Mg–3Cr powder alloy consolidated by extrusion. Attention is focused on the microstructure of the powder and the subsequent changes that occurred during thermomechanical consolidation to a fully dense product. The powder microstructure was composed of aggregates of three equilibrium phases (Al18Mg3Cr2, Al3Mg2, and Al13Cr2) which were uniformly distributed within an Al matrix. Preheating to the extrusion temperature by induction had very little effect on the microstructure. However, consolidation of the powder accompanied by significant structural changes occurred during passage through the extrusion shear zone. The extruded microstructure was found to be inhomogeneous with coarse and fine bands of precipitates throughout. The inhomogeneities of extrudate microstructure have been related to the original powder and were caused by the wide range in powder particle siz...

Optical model potentials with various forms of energy-dependent geometry have been considered for the description of $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ + $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ elastic scattering. It is shown that the variation with energy of the imaginary radius leads to a reasonable fit of the cross-section data, throughout the energy range.

An all-fibre polariser is demonstrated utilising the birefringent properties of a nematic liquid crystal having refractive indices compatible to that of fused silica. The polariser exhibits an extinction ratio in excess of −45dB and a loss of 0.2dB over a temperature range between 10 and 50°C. Design considerations to achieve a desired extinction ratio are also discussed.