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\"At the time of Ludwig van Beethoven's death, it was a common practice to take a lock of hair from the deceased as a remembrance, a sacred remnant of the person who meant so much when alive. One such lock of Beethoven's hair survived through the years and eventually became the joint property of two men who, in 1995, opened the sealed frame that encased the hair and began the process of unlocking the mysteries of Beethoven's life, death, and possibly his genius\"--Amazon.com.

Previous studies have shown that the accuracy of sound localization is improved if listeners are allowed to move their heads during signal presentation. This study describes the function relating localization accuracy to the extent of head movement in azimuth. Sounds that are difficult to localize were presented in the free field from sources at a wide range of azimuths and elevations. Sounds remained active until the participants' heads had rotated through windows ranging in width of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64° of azimuth. Error in determining sound-source elevation and the rate of front/back confusion were found to decrease with increases in azimuth window width. Error in determining sound-source lateral angle was not found to vary with azimuth window width. Implications for 3-d audio displays: the utility of a 3-d audio display for imparting spatial information is likely to be improved if operators are able to move their heads during signal presentation. Head movement may compensate in part for a paucity of spectral cues to sound-source location resulting from limitations in either the audio signals presented or the directional filters (i.e., head-related transfer functions) used to generate a display. However, head movements of a moderate size (i.e., through around 32° of azimuth) may be required to ensure that spatial information is conveyed with high accuracy.

The aim of this trial was to compare dose-escalated conformal radiotherapy with control-dose conformal radiotherapy in patients with localised prostate cancer. Preliminary findings reported after 5 years of follow-up showed that escalated-dose conformal radiotherapy improved biochemical progression-free survival. Based on the sample size calculation, we planned to analyse overall survival when 190 deaths occurred; this target has now been reached, after a median 10 years of follow-up. RT01 was a phase 3, open-label, international, randomised controlled trial enrolling men with histologically confirmed T1b–T3a, N0, M0 prostate cancer with prostate specific antigen of less than 50 ng/mL. Patients were randomly assigned centrally in a 1:1 ratio, using a computer-based minimisation algorithm stratifying by risk of seminal vesicle invasion and centre to either the control group (64 Gy in 32 fractions, the standard dose at the time the trial was designed) or the escalated-dose group (74 Gy in 37 fractions). Neither patients nor investigators were masked to assignment. All patients received neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy for 3–6 months before the start of conformal radiotherapy, which continued until the end of conformal radiotherapy. The coprimary outcome measures were biochemical progression-free survival and overall survival. All analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. Treatment-related side-effects have been reported previously. This trial is registered, number ISRCTN47772397. Between Jan 7, 1998, and Dec 20, 2001, 862 men were registered and 843 subsequently randomly assigned: 422 to the escalated-dose group and 421 to the control group. As of Aug 2, 2011, 236 deaths had occurred: 118 in each group. Median follow-up was 10·0 years (IQR 9·1–10·8). Overall survival at 10 years was 71% (95% CI 66–75) in each group (hazard ratio [HR] 0·99, 95% CI 0·77–1·28; p=0·96). Biochemical progression or progressive disease occurred in 391 patients (221 [57%] in the control group and 170 [43%] in the escalated-dose group). At 10 years, biochemical progression-free survival was 43% (95% CI 38–48) in the control group and 55% (50–61) in the escalated-dose group (HR 0·69, 95% CI 0·56–0·84; p=0·0003). At a median follow-up of 10 years, escalated-dose conformal radiotherapy with neoadjuvant androgen deprivation therapy showed an advantage in biochemical progression-free survival, but this advantage did not translate into an improvement in overall survival. These efficacy data for escalated-dose treatment must be weighed against the increase in acute and late toxicities associated with the escalated dose and emphasise the importance of use of appropriate modern radiotherapy methods to reduce side-effects. UK Medical Research Council.

The world-renowned Pergamon Museum in Berlin houses three collections under a single roof: the Museum of the Ancient Near East, the Museum of Islamic Art and parts of the Collection of Classical Antiquities. Treasures spanning several millennia, most notably the unique full-scale reconstructions of ancient architecture - the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way of Babylon, the Mshatta Facade as well as the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate from Miletus - draw 1.5 million visitors every year. In 1999 the Pergamon Museum and the Museum Island were added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage sites. With its concise texts and richly illustrated pages, this volume guides the reader through the magnificent collections. --Page 4 of cover.

Exoskeletons that assist the hip, knee, and ankle joints have begun to improve human mobility, particularly by reducing the metabolic cost of walking. However, direct comparisons of optimal assistance of these joints, or their combinations, have not yet been possible. Assisting multiple joints may be more beneficial than the sum of individual effects, because muscles often span multiple joints, or less effective, because single-joint assistance can indirectly aid other joints. In this study, we used a hip–knee–ankle exoskeleton emulator paired with human-in-the-loop optimization to find single-joint, two-joint, and whole-leg assistance that maximally reduced the metabolic cost of walking. Hip-only and ankle-only assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 26 and 30% relative to walking in the device unassisted, confirming that both joints are good targets for assistance ( N  = 3). Knee-only assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 13%, demonstrating that effective knee assistance is possible ( N  = 3). Two-joint assistance reduced the metabolic cost of walking by between 33 and 42%, with the largest improvements coming from hip-ankle assistance ( N  = 3). Assisting all three joints reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 50%, showing that at least half of the metabolic energy expended during walking can be saved through exoskeleton assistance ( N  = 4). Changes in kinematics and muscle activity indicate that single-joint assistance indirectly assisted muscles at other joints, such that the improvement from whole-leg assistance was smaller than the sum of its single-joint parts. Exoskeletons can assist the entire limb for maximum effect, but a single well-chosen joint can be more efficient when considering additional factors such as weight and cost.

A long-awaited new translation of Giorgio Vasari's \"Life of Leonardo da Vinci,\" illustrated for the first time, that preserves Vasari's compelling narrative and respects his meaning with a new precision. Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550 and 1568) is a classic of cultural history. In his monumental assembly of artists' lives, no life is more vivid than that of Leonardo da Vinci, a near-contemporary of Vasari. Illustrated with the works of art discussed by Vasari, and including a selection of Da Vinci's studies of science and technology, The Life of Leonardo da Vinci paints an intriguing picture of the progress of art in the hands of the master. Succinct notes also provide new insights in light of modern knowledge of Da Vinci's career. This beautiful gift edition offers a literary translation by eminent scholar Martin Kemp that respects the sixteenth-century Italian, transposing Vasari's vocabulary into its modern equivalent. Translated in partnership with Lucy Russell, the text will be the first to integrate the 1550 edition and the expanded version of 1568. This fascinating and accessible read coincides with the five hundredth anniversary of Da Vinci's death.

Habitat loss from land-use change is one of the top causes of declines in wildlife species of concern. As such, it is critical to assess and reassess habitat suitability as land cover and anthropogenic features change for both monitoring and developing current information to inform management decisions. However, there are obstacles that must be overcome to develop consistent assessments through time. A range-wide lek habitat suitability model for the lesser prairie-chicken ( Tympanuchus pallidicinctus ), currently under review by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for potential listing under the Endangered Species Act, was published in 2016. This model was based on lek data from 2002 to 2012, land cover data ranging from 2001 to 2013, and anthropogenic features from circa 2011, and has been used to help guide lesser prairie-chicken management and anthropogenic development actions. We created a second iteration model based on new lek surveys (2015 to 2019) and updated predictors (2016 land cover and cleaned/updated anthropogenic data) to evaluate changes in lek suitability and to quantify current range-wide habitat suitability. Only three of 11 predictor variables were directly comparable between the iterations, making it difficult to directly assess what predicted changes resulted from changes in model inputs versus actual landscape change. The second iteration model showed a similar positive relationship with land cover and negative relationship with anthropogenic features to the first iteration, but exhibited more variation among candidate models. Range-wide, more suitable habitat was predicted in the second iteration. The Shinnery Oak Ecoregion, however, exhibited a loss in predicted suitable habitat that could be due to predictor source changes. Iterated models such as this are important to ensure current information is being used in conservation and development decisions.

\"Thor must deal with the escalating war of the Realms! To face Malekith, Loki and an all-new Kurse, she'll need a team of her own. Prepare for the triumphant return of the League of Realms! Far across the galaxy, though, another conflict is brewing--as the most powerful super-army in the cosmos prepares a surprise attack on the city of the gods! The Shi-ar Empire will lay siege to Asgardia--and their target is the Goddess of Thunder! But why? And what does the fate of Midgard have to do with it? And where the Shi'ar go, the Phoenix Force tends to follow--which is bad news for Thor! Maybe the returning Odinson could lend a hand--or perhaps the rebel X-Man known as Quentin Quire?!\" -- cover

We define a general model of stochastically-evolving graphs, namely the edge-uniform stochastically-evolving graphs. In this model, each possible edge of an underlying general static graph evolves independently being either alive or dead at each discrete time step of evolution following a (Markovian) stochastic rule. The stochastic rule is identical for each possible edge and may depend on the past k ≥ 0 observations of the edge’s state. We examine two kinds of random walks for a single agent taking place in such a dynamic graph: (i) The Random Walk with a Delay (RWD), where at each step, the agent chooses (uniformly at random) an incident possible edge, i.e., an incident edge in the underlying static graph, and then, it waits till the edge becomes alive to traverse it. (ii) The more natural Random Walk on what is Available (RWA), where the agent only looks at alive incident edges at each time step and traverses one of them uniformly at random. Our study is on bounding the cover time, i.e., the expected time until each node is visited at least once by the agent. For RWD, we provide a first upper bound for the cases k = 0 , 1 by correlating RWD with a simple random walk on a static graph. Moreover, we present a modified electrical network theory capturing the k = 0 case. For RWA, we derive some first bounds for the case k = 0 , by reducing RWA to an RWD-equivalent walk with a modified delay. Further, we also provide a framework that is shown to compute the exact value of the cover time for a general family of stochastically-evolving graphs in exponential time. Finally, we conduct experiments on the cover time of RWA in edge-uniform graphs and compare the experimental findings with our theoretical bounds.