Primary Cardiac Tumor Identified as the Cause of Seizure

A 65-year-old woman presented to the emergency department after a seizure. An unexplained bradycardia and heart murmur were detected and an emergency bedside echocardiography was performed. This revealed a mass in the left atrium. The provisional diagnosis of left atrial tumor was later confirmed by formal echocardiography and ultimately by histology. The first presentation of primary cardiac tumors can be misleading and sometimes presents with neurological manifestations. An early echocardiography can be diagnostic and could lead to early surgical intervention with better prognosis

Ordered low-temperature structure in K4C60 detected by infrared spectroscopy

Infrared spectra of a K4C60 single-phase thin film have been measured between room temperature and 20 K. At low temperatures, the two high-frequency T1u modes appear as triplets, indicating a static D2h crystal-field stabilized Jahn-Teller distortion of the (C60)4- anions. The T1u(4) mode changes into the known doublet above 250 K, a pattern which could have three origins: a dynamic Jahn-Teller effect, static disorder between "staggered" anions, or a phase transition from an orientationally-ordered phase to one where molecular motion is significant.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures submitted to Phys. Rev.

How does corporate internationalisation, undertaken from the economies of nation-states at the European and global periphery, ameliorate their long-standing strategic rivalries? The case of the Greek strategic rivalry with Turkey.

This thesis aims to examine the impact of internationalising corporations of peripheral nationstates on their strategic rivalries. Although corporations from an increasing number of peripheral countries have internationalised their operations in the last fifteen years, the implications of this process for their interstate relations and -in particular- their relations with their strategic rivals, have yet to be systematically addressed. The thesis's hypothesis is that in the context of such corporate internationalisation for a state in the semi-periphery, the large-scale acquisition by a domestic firm of a foreign enterprise, reconfigures conceptions of economic nationalism. This is especially the case where the enterprise acquired is located in a state with which there is a longterm and significant foreign policy rivalry. The interests and strategies of key domestic socioeconomic actors are reconfigured within the new nationalism, with incentives to support and sustain such corporate internationalization. This thesis will review the scholarship on New Economic Nationalism which provides the most suitable analytical perspective to evaluate the impact of corporate internationalisation on strategic rivalries. It will also identify the corporate internationalisation process and those of its features that are particular to peripheral countries. It will also examine the challenges posed to its hypothesis by the scholarly debates which liberal institutionalism, realism and Europeanization, have generated. The thesis's hypothesis will be tested through the country case of Greece, and its strategic rivalry with Turkey. The thesis will examine the wider role of Greek corporations prior to their internationalisation in Southeastern Europe, and at the height of Greece's strategic rivalry with Turkey. It will then access the prominence that Greek corporations achieved due to their internationalisation and the conflation, by Greek policy makers and governing parties, of the corporate internationalisation process with national prestige and prowess. By scrutinising a particular FDI transaction, the acquisition of a major Turkish bank by Greece's leading bank, the thesis will evaluate whether corporate internationalisation, by redefining economic nationalism, can indeed have an significant impact on Greece's strategic rivalry with Turkey

Polaritonic Enhancement of Near-field Scattering of Small Molecules Encapsulated in Boron Nitride Nanotubes

Near-field spectroscopy has been extensively applied recently to analyze collective optical properties of materials at the nanoscale. However, vibrations of small molecules were only recognizable in close proximity to a metallic resonator. We show that encapsulation in boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) enhances the near-field vibrational spectra of C$_{60}$ fullerene, reaching a sensitivity limit of a few hundred molecules. Furthermore, products of chemical reactions inside the tubes can be identified, so long as their vibrational signatures lie in the polariton gap of the BNNT.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

News production in Greece : journalists, newspapers and the Internet

In this work, the various factors influencing the production of news analysed in the international news theory writings acted as a base for in-depth examination of the Greek newspaper and news Internet market. Influences on news writings were found to range from politics, economics and news media ownership, to newsroom organisation, journalistic practices and routines, ethics, journalist-sourcer elations and social stereotypes. From the history of the Greek newspaper market, it is made clear that the evolution of journalism and the newspaper market was directly affected by political developments in which party politics always played a dominant role. Similarly, the evolution of the human factor was marked by the country's particularities, some of which are deeply associated with today's distortions and inefficiencies in the journalism profession. The close examination of Greek newspaper journalists brought into surface particular aspects of the profession, such as daily professional tasks, routines and practices, which along with the analysis of newspapers internal organisational environmental s well as of external pressures, have offered a valuable insight of the major influences on news and its making. The primary aim was to approach journalists and newsroom processes in order to define the degree to which the quality of human resources and the power of news organisations influence the way journalism is practiced in Greece.I n this framework, the extensive analysis of economic and business reporting offered a view of how Greek journalists actively participated in the bull-bear situation in the Greek stock exchange in the late 1990s. Finally, analysing news making processes in some of the largest Greek Internet news sites revealed significant drawbacks towards the creation of a new type of journalism. The limited will and ability of local digital newsrooms to explore the particular aspects of web journalism, in combination with the traditional deficiencies of professional journalism in the country synthesise an environment that lacks innovation and dynamism

Path Planning for incline terrain using Embodied Artificial Intelligence

Η Ενσώματη Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη στοχεύει στο να καλύψει την ανάγκη για την αναπαράσταση ενός προβλήματος αναζήτησης, καθώς και την αναπαράσταση του τι συνιστά “καλή” λύση για το πρόβλημα αυτό σε μια έξυπνη μηχανή. Στην περίπτωση της παρούσας πτυχιακής, αυτή η έξυπνη μηχανή είναι ένα ρομπότ. Συνδυάζοντας την Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη και την Ρομποτική μπορούμε να ορίσουμε πειράματα των οποίων ο χώρος αναζήτησης είναι ο φυσικός κόσμος και τα αποτελέσματα κάθε πράξης συνιστούν την αξιολόγηση της κάθε λύσης. Στο πλαίσιο της πτυχιακής μου είχα την ευκαιρία να πειραματιστώ με την ανάπτυξη αλγορίθμων Τεχνητής Νοημοσύνης οι οποίοι καθοδηγούν ένα μη επανδρωμένο όχημα εδάφους στην ανακάλυψη μιας λύσης ενός δύσκολου προβλήματος πλοήγησης σε εξωτερικό χώρο, όπως η διάσχιση ενός εδάφους με απότομη κλίση. Επιχείρησα να αντιμετωπίσω το πρόβλημα αυτό με τρεις διαφορετικές προσεγγίσεις, μία με αλγόριθμο Hill Climbing, μία με N-best αναζήτηση και μία με Εξελικτικό Αλγόριθμο, καθεμία με τα δικά της προτερήματα και τις δικές της αδυναμίες. Τελικά, δημιούργησα και αξιολόγησα επίδειξεις, τόσο σε προσομοιωμένα σενάρια όσο και σε ένα σενάριο στον πραγματικό κόσμο. Τα αποτελέσματα αυτών των επιδείξεων δείχνουν μία σαφή πρόοδο στην προσέγγιση του προαναφερθέντος προβλήματος από μία ρομποτική πλαρφόρμα.Embodied Artificial Intelligence aims to cover the need of a search problem’s representation, as well as the representation of what constitutes a “good” solution to this problem in a smart machine. In this thesis’ case, this smart machine is a robot. When we combine Artificial Intelligence and Robotics we can define experiments where the search space is the physical world and the results of each action constitute each solution’s evaluation. In my thesis’ context, I had the opportunity to experiment with the development of artificial intelligence algorithms that guide an unmanned ground vehicle to discover the solution of a tough outdoor navigation problem, like traversing a terrain region of steep incline. I attempted to face the problem with three different approaches. A Hill Climbing algorithm approach, a N-best search approach and an Evolutionary Algorithm approach, each one with its own strengths and weaknesses. In the end, I created and I evaluated demonstrations, both in simulated scenarios and in a real world scenario. The results of these demonstrations show a clear progress in the approach of the aforementioned problem, by the robotic platform

Reform paradoxes: Academic freedom and governance in Greek and Turkish higher education

This study evaluates the impact of higher education reforms, implemented in the early 1980s in Greece and Turkey, due to preceding student and wider political radicalization, on academic freedom. It highlights a paradox, namely that authoritarian corporatism in Turkey inadvertently facilitated academic freedom in higher education, whereas in Greece participatory majoritarianism ended up stifling academic freedom. Authoritarian corporatism in Turkey mandated the introduction of private universities. These expanded academic freedom within the wider national goal of the country's European Union membership. Participatory majoritarianism in Greece conversely mandated student organisation participation in the governance of Greek higher education. These acquired powerful rent-seeking interests, which have progressively constricted academic freedom. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC