The performance of an identifier-based adaptive controller depends on the properties of its certainty equivalence control law and the choice for the design parameters of its estimator. The adaptive control literature has largely focused on model-following and pole-placement control objectives, which may not capture the true control objective as effectively as LTI robust control designs, e.g., µ-synthesis. Moreover, the rigorous analysis of adaptive systems have focused on qualitative results of signal boundedness and convergence, not on how to choose the design variables. In this paper we focus on these practical issues of designing adaptive controllers. The recently proposed adaptive mixing control approach addresses the first issue, in so much as the entire suite of LTI tools are available to design the underlying parameterized control law, assuming the unknown plant parameter belongs to a compact set.We examine the factors that dictate the choice of design variables. We also examine a modification of the adaptive mixing scheme that is capable of maintaining stability for cases when none of the off-line designed candidate controllers can. This is done by mixing in a conventional adaptive controller. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results.


varied'' lives of businessmen in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ''The patriarchal family and kinship networks coexisted with possessive individualism. The capitalist ethos surfaced in traditional families alongside conventional social ambitions.'' Mr. Grassby's iconoclasm pursues the ''facts'' so intently that, with the refreshing candor of an ''independent scholar,'' he sometimes vindicates the work of his targets. As part of his argument that, ''Marriage in the business community did not just transfer power over women from father to husband,''he asserts that ''Companionate marriage'' flourished during his period of study, a position that vindicates Stone's Family, Sex and Marriage. His work in ''apprenticeship registers'' finds women joining ''the cutlers, pewterers, drapers, glasssellers, girdlers, basketmakers, scriveners, gunmakers, weavers, clockmakers, goldsmiths, carpenters and stationers.''However, thepercentage of women apprentices was so ''tiny,'' and the ''disadvantage'' they suffered from ''lack of capital''so great, that he, like any good gender theorist, concludes, ''Apprenticeship brought women into the economy without changing the patriarchal character of society.'' Perhaps most revealing, as Mr. Grassby moves through the topics of marriage, family, men in business, and women in business, he repeatedly corroborates the demographic analysis that underlies much of Stone's recent work. Although a period of scientific advancement and increasing material wealth, 1580–1740 also was a time of demographic crisis. ''In the early eighteenth century 45 percent of . . . [London] aldermen had no male issue.'' ''Of the 1,226 baronetcies created (1611–1800), 55 percent were extinct by 1800, and only 295 existed by 1928; only fourteen of ninety-three families achieved succession in single direct male line, often through grandsons.'' Whether we find it in Nancy Armstrong's comments upon the ''dismantling''of the ''aristocratic body'' or in Michael McKeon's upon ''categorial instability,'' the claim that patrilineal succession failed in early modern England underlies many of the cultural, gender, and literary studies of which Mr. Grassby is so suspicious. That he unwittingly spreads the ''virus'' of which he is so contemptuous hardly diminishes his achievement. Rather, it betokens the purity of his method. This book is a ''must-read''for any historian or literary critic who wishes to attempt (or rely upon) generalizations about marriage, family, and property in eighteenth-century England. Its great lesson is that such generalizations always risk being ''anachronistic'' and must be offered cautiously, charily—even by Mr. Grassby himself. Brian McCrea University of Florida


The Mercedes-Benz W221-S350(M272) engine fault light lit often problem-solving process: special diagnostic computer by Mercedes-Benz star2000 read fault codes,the initial diagnosis because of problems caused by the electronic control failure,but eventually found the real fault Because the engine mechanical part is a result of wear,replace the timing chain so after successfully solved the problem.


The paper analyses the traditional administrative culture resistance from three aspects: administrative subject,administrative object and administrative system in building a service-oriented government in the transitional period of social development,and it suggests that in building a service-oriented government process,the transformation of the traditional administrative culture is the key,and it is urgent to create a new administrative culture.It is not only important guarantee of deepening reform of the administrative system,but also necessary avenue of building public service-oriented government.


Instant e-Teaching is a new concept that supplements e-Teaching and e-Learning environment in providing a full and comprehensive modern education styles. The e-Learning technology depicts the concept of enabling self-learning among students on a certain subject using online reference and materials. While the instant e-teaching requires 'face-to-face' characteristic between teacher and student to simultaneously execute actions and gain instant responses. The word instant enhances the eTeaching with the concept of real time teaching. The challenge to exercise online and instant teaching is not just merely relying on the technologies and system efficiency, but it needs to satisfy the usability and friendliness of the system as to replicate the traditional class environment during the deliveries of the class. For this purpose, an instant e-Teaching framework is been developed that will emulate a dedicated virtual classroom, and primarily designed for synchronous and live sharing of current teaching notes. The model has been demonstrated using a teaching Arabic recitation prototype and evaluated from the professional user profession's perspectives.


Based on the background of tunnels constructed on high-intensity earthquake zone in southwest China,the large-scale shaking table tests were accomplished for studying the seismic capability of the entrance of double track tunnels.The seismic mitigation effect was discussed through the comparison tests of models with and without seismic absorption layer.The effect of damage accumulation caused by multi-loading scheme was analyzed.The propagation process and damage patterns of cracks on surrounding rock and tunnel lining were described.Results show that a seismic absorption layer covered between surrounding rock and tunnel can reduce the dynamic interaction between the surrounding rock and lining structure effectively,meanwhile,the effect of damage accumulation and cracks due to multi-loading scheme should be considered under the evaluation on the seismic capability of tunnels.The results provide a reference for cracking analysis of tunnels under seismic action.


The Uncertainty assessment aspect of HPLC determination for benzoic acid content in Harpadon nehereus Hamilton(Bombay duck) has been established,with dispersibility of observed value has been reasonably endowed.In accordance with the criterion JJF1059—1999,instanced by the HPLC determination for benzoic acid content in the fish,factors producing uncertainty during the measurement procedure were analyzed,the uncertainty component were evaluated,the uncertainty of synthesis criterion was assessed,2 factors contained(P=95%) were taken,to calculate the expansion uncertainty,and report the measurement result by uncertainty.The relative expansion uncertainty of the method was 2.6%.The sample measurement expansion uncertainty was 0.022 g/kg,with a measurement result of 0.87±0.02 g/kg.The assessment aspect is also workable for the uncertainty assessment of HPLC determination for other ingredient contents in edibles.


A new surgical technique for the excision of intertriginous soft corns with advancement of the floor of toe webs is presented.


Liver, being one of the most fundamental and vital organ existing in human body and performing significant role in regulation of enormous number of biological processes including metabolism of biomolecules, secretion, storage, detoxification and excretion of xenobiotics from body. Accomplishment of all these processes leads to acute or chronic hepatic injuries and liver dysfunctions, which sequentially contributes to global health care threat as well as it is a concern for pharmaceutical industry as despite all advancements in medicine there is still a lack of completely assured hepato-protective drugs which stimulate and enhance liver function. However, nature full fills these vacant spaces by providing a number of plant derived hepatoprotective phytochemicals, which are comparatively less toxic and this leads to introduction of an alternative phytotherapeutic approach i.e., the use of poly herbal formulations for treatment of liver diseases. Throughout the world, herbalists claim the use of a number of remedial plants for treatment of hepatic dysfunctions. Nevertheless, recent research also reveals that not only phytochemicals, but also regulatory microRNAs are being transferred from plant to animal kingdom. Thus, this leads to an alternative concept of cross-kingdom gene regulation by non-coding tiny molecules i.e. orally consumed plant derived xeno-MIRs play a chief role in human health regulation. The abilities of microRNAs to regulate cross-kingdom gene regulation have prompted the hopes to explore this novel concept in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment as potential therapeutic and dietary supplements. The present review is aimed to compile the available data of promising hepatoprotective plants and introduce the cross-kingdom gene regulation approach as potential therapy for human health care.


Conventionally, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been prepared by using either physical methods such as electron beamand photo-reductions or chemical methods with various reducing agents and organic stabilizers. Many researches have been conducted previously in the following areas: tailoring of particle size, polydispersity, geometric shape, and nucleation. Low-molecular-weight surfactants or functional polymers such as poly(vinylpyrrolidone) have also been commonly employed for stabilizing the generated AgNPs. The presence of organic stabilizers may provide soft templates for controlling the growth of the AgNPs with different shapes such as spherical, triangular, and fibrous. In this review, various syntheses involving the applications of inorganic supports such as alumina and aluminosilicate clays in place of organic stabilizers are discussed; in this manner, the synthesis of AgNPs supported on inorganic substrates is reviewed. The function of inorganic supports is primarily to stabilize the homogeneity of colloidal Ag0. In the absence of contamination by organic components during the synthesis, the prepared AgNPs were found to exhibit unique properties such as catalytic performance, high stability for longterm storage, low-temperature Ag melting, and high efficacy for antimicrobial properties. This new class of AgNP nanohybrids on inorganic supports is expected to have considerable impact on biomedical fields and on several applications such as optoelectronic devices.


Using variational Monte Carlo and the explicitly‐correlated wave function forms optimized by Schmidt and Moskowitz, we compute a number of properties for the atoms He–Ne. The expectation value of the Hamiltonian using these wave functions contains between 70.0% and 99.8% of the correlation energy for the neutral atoms (17 parameters), 60.8% and 99.1% for selected cations (9 parameters), and 73.9% and 89.4% for selected anions (17 parameters). For those properties which sample the valence region, our results are in good agreement with previous calculations (where available). Because of a defect in the wave function form, a substantial error is found in those properties which two electrons that are in close proximity.


The current scenario of continuous and increasing production of energy from renewable sources and the progressive increase of interties between different countries, gives the high voltage direct current transmission lines (HVDC) a role of present and future protagonist in the electrical power transmission. One of the main issues concerning the HVDC systems is the effect of the transient overvoltages (TOV) which occur during fault conditions on the DC side of a HVDC link. In fact, even if power cables are tested in order to withstand overvoltages with standardized characteristics, the real TOV phenomena do not have standard features. In this paper, the analysis of the TOVs of a HVDC symmetrical monopolar configuration is carried out, by studying the TOV propagation along the cable line and by defining step by step the overvoltage trend for different fault sections. Moreover, by means of a probability study, the most stressed points along the cable are identified by taking into account all the possible fault positions, so to highlight which are the more critical positions of the cable system irrespective of the fault section.


A 56-year-old Korean female patient developed generalized morphea over three months. We focused on imbalance of the neuroendocrine-immune axis, mainly using Jiawei-Renshengyangrong-tang and Jiawei-Siqi-tang. Moxibustion on LU9 was conducted for skin symptoms. The patient's modified localized scleroderma skin severity index score decreased from 22 to 6 over 22 weeks of treatment and to 4 during a 3-month follow-up. Her verbal rating scale score for general symptoms decreased from 17 to 1 during the 22-week treatment.


Abstract The Galactic structure and composition remain as one of the greatest open problems in modern astrophysics. We show here that there are chemical similarities between the Galactic bulge and local thick disk red giant stars. This finding puts strong constraints on the IMF, SFR and chemical enrichment timescale of the bulge and thick disk. Our results are based upon a detailed elemental abundance analysis of 80 high S/N and high resolution optical spectra of giant stars, in the range −1.5 < [Fe/H] < +0.5.


Sea-borne British invaders struck repeatedly at the exposed coastline of the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812, causing tremendous property damage and a general disruption of the region's society and economy. One aspect of the Chesapeake campaign that has received little attention is the role of the large slave populations of Virginia and Maryland.l A study of the slave response to the invasion provides an interesting opportunity to test several of the broad assertions about slavery that scholars have made in recent years. The behavior of large numbers of Chesapeake slaves during 1813 and 1814 casts doubt on the thesis that most plantation slaves fitted the "Sambo" image, that is, of being irresponsible, docile, loyal, dependent, and with a "childlike attachment" to their masters.2 On the other hand, the record of slave desertions and of slave assistance to the enemy seems to support the idea that many slaves did not passively accept the system, that they harbored a profound desire for freedom, and that given an opportunity they could be very "troublesomeproperty" indeed. As the war progressed, escaping slaves increasingly appeared as spies, guides, messengers, and laborers for the British. A small group of perhaps two hundred donned British uniforms and fought a number of engagements with American militiamen. Because of these activities white Americans in the Chesapeake were forced to contend with two enemies, a task that severely strained the limited resources of the area. Interestingly, even when confronted with overwhelming evidence that substantial numbers of slaves were not only fiercely determined to escape but also willing and able to join a foreign enemy in fighting their former masters, white southerners did not abandon their faith in the institution of slavery or their conceptions about the character of slaves. These facts would appear to confirm


Nanopatterned porous thin films of bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) with porosity perpendicular to the plane are prepared by an evaporation-induced self-assembly methodology using nitrate metal salts and a commercial block copolymer as a structure-directing agent.


There are numerous advantages to using simulation when investigating the effectiveness of novel traffic control strategies at signalised intersections. If the level of detail required for the investigation is not too demanding, a commercially available traffic simulation model may suffice. If, however, a high level of realism (such as the incorporation of explicit vehicle accelerations and decelerations, vehicle turning parameters and heterogeneous vehicle sizes) is required, it may be necessary to build a purpose-made traffic simulation model satisfying the specific requirements of the investigation. In this paper, a microscopic traffic simulation modelling framework is presented which may be employed as a stand-alone and customizable traffic simulation tool for testing the effectiveness of existing and novel traffic control algorithms, some of which require individual vehicle characteristics, such as vehicle speed and their positions on road segments as input data.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore different units of analysis applicable to the analysis of healthcare service supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a literature review, conceptual analysis and two case studies based on process mapping and longitudinal analysis of patient episodes.Findings – Process management is appropriate in situations where there is a structured flow with a sufficient volume of similar repetitions. In the case where there are significant amounts of exceptions, a process can be decomposed into service events that can be defined and managed as part of a supply chain.Research limitations/implications – The cases are based on data sets that do not allow empirical generalization.Practical implications – The use of longitudinal patient episode data elicits problems in the process flow, such as delays and variable sequences. The use of events as a unit of analysis enables routinization in situations with exceptions and irregular sequences.Originali...


Translation scholars have been applying the Gricean maxims as analytical tools to handle pragmatic issues in translation. Not always this genuine application is successful regarding that the maxims are culture-bound in nature and may not have the same utility in a different culture and/or in translation. Rarely any attempts have been done to adjust these maxims to the needs of translation. The present article, while does not intend to criticize the basic applicability of the maxims in translation, aims at reformulating them, within a framework of faithfulness, to be more flexible and responsive to the needs of translation. To illustrate this and evaluate the maxims, examples are analyzed and re-analyzed.


The paper presents an analysis of the design features of turbines for low-power electricity generation systems (up to 10 kW). The specifics of the working process of this type of turbines is described. The basic requirements for the design are presented. The description of the stand for experimental research is given. The obtained experimental results are presented.


Rodent's food habit is an important component in the study of population ecology,and also,a reference index commonly used in constituting rat pest control strategies.Many convenient and practical methods are adopted to study the rodent's food habit,and significant achie-vements are gained.This paper introduced the related research methods,summarized the related research results in recent 40 years,and analyzed the prospects of this research area,aimed to provide some useful ideas for the future study.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a display part structure which simplifies the shape of a front panel and reduces the unit price of parts and an influence upon degradation of the sensitivity. SOLUTION: An LCD window 31 and a frame 11 are formed into one body, and a front panel 21 is provided with a hole for display window, and the periphery of the hole is formed like a plane because it is unnecessary to support the LCD window. This front panel 21 is attached onto the frame 11 with which the LCD window 31 is formed into one body, and a color sheet 4 is laminated on the front panel 21, thus a display part is assembled and constituted.


—In political contexts, it is known that people act as "motivated reasoners", i.e., information is evaluated first for emotional affect, and this emotional reaction influences later deliberative reasoning steps. As social media becomes a more and more prevalent way of receiving political information, it becomes important to understand more completely the interaction between information, emotion, social community, and information- sharing behavior. In this paper, we describe a high-precision classifier for politically-oriented tweets, and an accurate classifier of a Twitter user's political affiliation. Coupled with existing sentiment-analysis tools for microblogs, these methods enable us to systematically study the interaction of emotion and sharing in a large corpus of politically-oriented microblog messages, collected from just before the 2012 US presidential election. In particular, we seek to understand how information sharing is influenced by the political affiliation of the sender and receiver of a message, and the sentiment associated with the message.


The value of experiential learning in STEM education is well documented and affirmed by accrediting bodies and computing learning societies. Similarly, industry-academic partnership models that provide real-world experiences have been successfully implemented by many institutions of higher learning. Today, unique challenges exist for blending real-world, industry-based learning experiences in computing curriculum for online learners who may be underserved, lack access to transportation, are geographically dispersed or located in a rural area with limited access to industry sites. This paper presents a pilot study to address a key limitation involved in integrating experiential learning in online programs.


Information system risk assessment, an essential aspect of information security management, assists organizations in identifying and analyzing critical information system assets and reducing potential risks. Internal control and risk management are two systems that complement each other in controlling an organization's activities. As a result, internal control activities, critical for controlling and managing risks, should be carried out with a risk focus. Institutions should first analyze the risks that may emerge in business processes before evaluating the steps that should be taken to secure their information assets. Many risk assessment methods are complicated and expensive, and qualified professionals should only carry them out. The OCTAVE Allegro method is a comprehensive assessment of an organization's operational risk environment to get better results without requiring considerable risk assessment information. Risk assessment can be completed in a short period and at a low cost using this method, and the effectiveness of internal control can be improved. The study's objective is to give information about the OCTAVE Allegro method, which can help prevent the risks of ensuring information security as information technologies advance and explain the method's application areas.


The selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors rofecoxib (Vioxx) and valdecoxib (Bextra) were withdrawn from the market after they were shown to be


Scientific interest in how residential patterns affect both people's subjective sense of safety and their behavior is increasing. The surge of gated communities in the world has changed the way we live to a great extent. Research on the gated development trend in postmodern cities is still limited; therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between residents' attitudes toward gated enclaves and their sense of safety. At the same time, the relationship between a sense of security and active leisure behavior was also investigated. Using data collected from 350 college students in Fuzhou University Town, this study introduces a conceptual model to test the relationship between closed enclaves, campus security, and active leisure behavior while controlling population and community characteristics. The results of structural equation model analysis show that gated enclaves positively correlate with campus safety and positively correlate with active leisure behavior, and a safe campus positively correlates with active leisure behavior. The results of this study focus on the importance of gated enclaves as a living environment, and the discovery of functional characteristics of gated enclaves supports future interventions. In other words, when promoting active leisure behavior and increasing the sense of safety in the neighborhood environment, attention must be paid to the characteristics of these gated enclaves. In addition, the simultaneous measurement of these structures provides a dynamic observation of the existing environment, as well as information for future research and construction. Decision makers and urban planners can use these results to promote interaction and healthy behavior in the community under the multi-angle development of the existing access control, thereby improving residents' sense of security, and increasing leisure participation.


Study Design. A cluster randomized controlled trial and economic evaluation with a 12-month follow-up and with work department as the unit of randomization. Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of a prevention program for low back pain (LBP) in an occupational setting with an economic evaluation. Summary of Background Data. LBP accounts for high economic costs in Western societies. Little is known on the effectiveness and related costs and savings of prevention programs for LBP. Methods. The study population consisted of workers in physically demanding jobs from 9 large companies located throughout The Netherlands. In each company, 2 comparable work units were randomly allocated, resulting in 18 clusters with 258 workers assigned to the intervention group and 231 workers to the control group. Results. Results in our study did not show significant differences in effects or costs savings of the program. Indirect costs related to work absence and productivity losses accounted for the majority (84%) of total costs due to LBP. Conclusions. This study provides no evidence for the adoption of this worksite prevention program for LBP.


A low power column parallel single-slope ADC with power supply noise suppression for CMOS image sensors is proposed. The ADC is composed of a dynamic bias comparator and a novel up/down double-data-rate (DDR) counter in the column. The column ADCs are divided into groups and several control signals are delayed by groups to avoid transient large current from source. A 12-bit current steering DAC with 2-dimension gradient error tolerant switching scheme is adopted as the ramp generator to improve the linearity of the ADC. The proposed techniques are experimentally verified in a prototype chip fabricated in the TSMC 180nm CMOS process. A single-column ADC consumes a total power of 63.2μW and occupies an area of 4.48μm × 310μm. The measured DNL and INL of the ADC are −0.43/+0.46 LSB and −0.84/1.95 LSB.


Ten grams of PVC powder contained in a tray-type sample holder were pyrolyzed in the nitrogen atmosphere in order to investigate the HCl evolution and the hydrocarbon product generation. Most of HCl could be removed from PVC without starting degradation of hydrocarbon backbone in appropriate isothermal conditions, but at low temperatures HCl evolved to slowly. Removing HCl raised the gross calorific value near 10,000kcal/kg. But further degradation of HCl-removed residue yielded small amount of oil and even smaller amount of hydrocarbon gas. Not only was the heavy oil fraction high in the recovered oil but the fixed carbon fraction including free carbons exceeded 10%.


For the 1995 1m prototype data it was observed that particles escaping the calorimeter can produce light in the PMT/light guide region [1]. Using both test beam and laboratory data, evidence for this effect was found and the mechanism behind it identified as ionisation or Cherenkov light in the photocathode. For Module 0 this effect is expected to be smaller because of the use of smaller photomultipliers, light guides and fibre bundles. This note reports on a study done with Module 0 testbeam data from september 1996. For muons it is found that the effect is at least an order of magnitude smaller than what was found for the 1m prototypes. Moreover, it is also shown how pions which have longitudinal leakage also produce extra signals.


Adult persons had right and absolute freedom to bequeath or devise their properties to persons or institutions of their choice as they wished in Wills without let or hindrance. They could go to the extent of disinheriting family members and dependants. That was the position under the common law of England and the Wills Act of 1837. The hardship occasioned on family members and dependants of testators and testatrixes led to enacting local Wills Laws in Nigeria with provisos qualifying the absolute testamentary freedom of section 3 of the Wills Act 1837. This paper seeks to examine the effects of testamentary restrictions on validity of Wills. In other words, it examines the legal consequences failure to compliance with the restrictions placed on the freedom of individuals to make devises or legacies in Wills. In doing this, both doctrinal and empirical methods of research were used in collating materials, principally, statutes, judicial authorities, learned textbooks and journals; interviews and practical experiences based on cultural practices. These were critically analysed, compared and contrasted where appropriate. The paper concludes that statutes, customs, and religion restrict testamentary freedom of individuals to give out their properties in Wills as they choose. The aim is to ensure that the family members and other dependants of testators or testatrixes are not denied provisions in their Wills and to ensure that the Wills do not offend customary and religious rules of succession. Wherever these statutory, cultural and Islamic restrictions on testamentary freedom are violated, the net effect is not to impugn the whole Will but the devises or legacies offending the rules are affected, and therefore, made null. However, the paper observes that the restrictions are not generally adequate or non-existent in some States. The study proffers some key recommendations.


Pygopus (Pygo) is a new discovered component of Wnt signaling, which is located in the downstream of its core protein β-catenin and can mediate β-catenin into nucleus and activate target gene transcription. Pygo plays an important role in mammalian embryonic development and tumor formation. Recent studies show that Pygo regulates stem cells, tumor cells and tumor stem cells by epigenetic mechanisms such as histone interpretations and modifications. Further insights into Pygo's functions and mechanisms will extend our knowledge of the Pygo-related tumors.

Key words:
Neoplastic stem cells; Epigenesis, genetic; Pygopus


Conventional machining of composite material was challenging due to delamination, tool wear, fiber pull-out, spalling, fiber fraying, heat generation, and excessive stresses. The non-conventional machining process was preferred for high-strength materials to produce complicated shapes with a better surface finish. This research describes an experimental analysis of abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) on flax/wire mesh/hemp reinforced epoxy composite. In addition, recycling of waste carbon fiber composite (WCFC) was also practiced and reused as a filler particle along with the fabricated hybrid composite. The hybrid composite was fabricated using the hand layup technique with 20.3 wt% of fiber, 10.5 wt% of wire mesh, and 2 wt% of WCFC. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of standoff distance, traverse speed, and abrasive mass flow rate on the output responses such as kerf angle (θ) and surface roughness (Ra). The design of experiments found that surface finish was improved with optimum process parameters. It was detected that spalling defects, wear track, and micro-cutting were noteworthy in the machined hybrid composite concerning high standoff distance and abrasive mass flow rate. Morphological study in the cut surface of the hybrid composite was analyzed through a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the fiber characterization was done through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).


Ultrasound can cause various responses in tissue from the stimulation of the immune system to ablation (heat or mechanical cavitation). Among them, the growing interest in the response of ultrasound in the cellular level study has led to active research into mechanical high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). However, the existing low frequency $(< \mathbf{5} \mathbf{MHz})$ transducers are not ideal for the cellular level study due to the limited accuracy of generated ultrasound beam. To solve this limitation, we present a high-frequency ring-shaped transducer using lithium niobate that has high spatial resolution and high efficiency.


When it comes to gender equality, Japan lags behind other advanced countries despite the introduction of Equal Employment Opportunity Act in 1985. This article discusses institutional conditions that promote gender quality in the market place, and shows those conditions are largely lacking in Japan. Generally speaking, many consider Scandinavian countries as vanguards of gender equality. These countries have adopted extensive policy support enabling mothers to balance work and family. This article argues that mother-friendly policies are not the only factors that explain the relative economic position of men and women. It uses the US and Spain in order to highlight different institutional scenarios to promote gender equality. The economic position of Spanish women used to be as low as that in Japan. More specifically, this article discusses the equalizing effects of the following institutional conditions: (i) strong anti-discrimination laws matched with class action suits, (ii) the presence of professionally-oriented educational systems that allow women with academic abilities entry into high status occupations; (iii) market conditions that enable women to outsource their unpaid domestic work; and (iv) availability of contraceptive methods that give women control over their reproductive decisions.


Nonadherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) may cause virologic failure and disease progression has been associated with switch of viral coreceptor usage from CCR5 to CXCR4. We aimed to assess the association between patient‐reported non‐adherence and HIV tropism. This is a cross‐sectional analysis. HIV‐tropism was performed within routine clinical practice either at start of ART or at virological failure. Adherence questionnaire includes: how many times ART has been taken during the last month, missed doses in the last week, timing deviation, refill interruption, drug holidays. Demographics, epidemiological data, HIV and ART history, CD4 and HIVRNA were collected. To assess co‐receptor tropism, env V3 genotyping from viremic plasma HIVRNA was performed. For the analysis, dual/mixed viruses were considered as X4. We included 102 individuals: 76% males; median age 42 y (IQR, 37–46); transmission was heterosexual 37%, homosexual 31%, intravenous drug use 29%. Median nadir of CD4 154/mmc (IQR, 53–274), median zenith of HIVRNA 5.26 (4.72–5.70), 46% had AIDS. 124 tropism tests were: 78% R5, 17% X4, 5% dual/mixed. In cases with previous ART, mono/dual ART was found in 26%, median number of regimens was 5 (IQR, 2–10), median time on triple‐ART was 54 months (IQR, 0–123) with median time of HIVRNA <50 c/ml of 16 months (IQR, 6.5–34.9). At HIV‐tropism, median CD4 and HIV RNA were 321/mmc (IQR, 210–436) and 2.65 (IQR, 2.65–4.91), respectively. Median time between adherence questionnaire and HIV‐tropism was 68 days (IQR, 23–116). At adherence questionnaire, median percentage of ART taken during the last month was 100% (IQR, 90–100), 39% reported missed doses in the last week, 40% timing deviation, 7% refill interruption, 17% drug holidays. At univariate analysis, no statistically significant association between non‐adherence and dual/mixed‐X4 viruses was found (p>0.1). Also gender, age, HIV transmission, AIDS, CD4 nadir, HIVRNA zenith, mono/dual ART, and number of ART regimens were not associated with type of tropism. Only longer time with undetectable HIVRNA before tropism test showed a lower probability of dual/mixed‐X4 viruses (OR for each month 0.95; 95% CI 0.90–1.00; p=0.06). No significant association between adherence and HIV‐tropism was found in this preliminary analysis. It is possible that patient self‐reported adherence is not able to capture nonadherence behaviors that underlie more pronounced viral replication which may be necessary for tropism switch.


STATCOM technology has experienced a significant degree of market diffusion over the last years. This is largely due to the technological advancement of the modular multilevel converter topology. This paper presents the basic aspects of this topology and provides three case studies for existing multilevel STATCOM references that underline the advantages of this technology — namely: modularity, low interaction with the network through low generation of harmonics and less primary equipment resulting in a small footprint.


Discussion of protection gaps relating to cross-border displacement in the context of disasters and the adverse effects of climate change often takes place at the relatively abstract level of provisions of international legal instruments. Less attention has been paid to the practicalities of securing protection for individuals at risk of disaster-related harm both in terms of how the law can be interpreted against specific factual scenarios and in terms of the roles that academics, NGOs, lawyers and courts can play in addressing individual protection needs and clarifying the scope of host state obligations.


All published articles on autism use the term ''autism spectrum disorders'' abbreviated as ASD. However, the term ''atrial septal defect'' abbreviated as ASD antedates autism by 50 years. There are even some sentences in a few of the articles on autism in which ASD as atrial septal defect or as autism spectrum disorders could be used equally well. I know that an invited comment will not bring about a change, but if Journal Editors themselves require this term not be allowed in future submissions, it will stop. I suggest that the abbreviation required for future submission should be changed to ASDs because the term ''autism spectrum disorders'' is always pleural in contrast to ''atrial septal defect,'' which is always singular (ASD). There is a precedent for this type of change that has been implemented by Editors. When the gene for patched was identified in Drosophila, it was abbreviated as ptc. When it became evident that the nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (Gorlin syndrome) and some isolated basal cell carcinomas were caused by the same gene, the human symbol in upper case would have been PTC. In 2003 and again in 2010, I pointed out [Cohen, 2003, 2010] that PTC had referred to the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide a great many years before ptc was identified in Drosophila and that the PTC gene had been identified. Since it would have been unprecedented to have two different human genes with the same symbol, I suggested that the human term for PATCHED should be changed to PTCH, and this has been implemented by Journal Editors ever since.


The meta-analysis has been an invaluable tool in the evaluation of adjuvant therapy for breast cancer and has supported the use of tamoxifen, anthracyclines, and taxanes via the compilation of results from small trials that individually yielded less than dramatic results. Indeed, recent results of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group (EBCTCG) meta-analysis demonstrated the enduring benefit in 15-year recurrence-free and overall survival for 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen for women of any age with earlystage steroid receptor–positive breast cancer (1). It also confirmed an age-related increase in the risks of thromboembolic events and endometrial cancer without an excess in non-breast cancer–related deaths. In recent years, the use of tamoxifen in postmenopausal women has been eclipsed by enthusiasm about aromatase inhibitors. Multiple studies have documented a greater reduction in breast cancer recurrence and a seemingly more favorable toxicity profile with aromatase inhibitors compared with tamoxifen, which has led to their widespread use over tamoxifen, despite the fact that an overall survival benefit with this approach has not been observed. These results have led to guidelines by entities such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (2) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (3) stating that aromatase inhibitors should be considered in place of or in sequence with tamoxifen for most postmenopausal women with early-stage hormone receptor–positive breast cancer. The emergence of data from large trials of adjuvant aromatase inhibitors has enabled several meta-analyses to be performed, one of which is reported by Amir et al. (4) in this issue of the Journal. The authors hypothesized that the relative toxicity of aromatase inhibitors compared with tamoxifen could explain the discordant observation of their improved benefit in disease-free survival without enhanced overall survival benefit. Their meta-analysis was restricted to seven randomized controlled trials that enrolled 30 0 23 patients and compared 5 years of aromatase inhibitor, 5 years of tamoxifen, or a switch from one to the other as primary endocrine therapy. In addition to conventional breast cancer endpoints, they focused on six prespecified serious adverse events —cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, bone fracture, thromboembolic events, endometrial carcinoma, and other non-breast cancers. In large part, the analysis confirmed what we already know: Compared with tamoxifen, the use of aromatase inhibitors was associated with a statistically significant increase in bone fractures and decrease in endometrial cancer and thromboembolic events and no difference in the risks of second cancers. What we learned, however, was that there was no difference in the risk of cerebrovascular disease with tamoxifen compared with aromatase inhibitors, and the risk of cardiovascular disease was statistically significantly higher with aro matase inhibitors compared with tamoxifen, although the magnitude of the difference was small—an absolute difference in risk of 0.8% and a number needed to harm of 132. It is notable that use of up-front aromatase inhibitors was also associated with a nonstatistically significantly higher odds of death without breast cancer recurrence compared with the use of tamoxifen alone or switching from tamoxifen to aromatase inhibitors (odds ratio = 1.11, 95% confidence interval = 0.98 to 1.26, P = .09). Of particular interest was the finding that those treated with a switching strategy had a statistically significant reduction in the odds of death without breast cancer recurrence compared with those treated with 5 years of tamoxifen or 5 years of an aromatase inhibitor alone (odds ratio = 0.87, 95% 95% confidence interval = 0.77 to 0.99, P = .03). In absolute terms, the difference is exceedingly small—a 0.2% difference in absolute risk of death without breast cancer recurrence. From these findings, Amir et al. ( 4) concluded that the switching strategy allows patients to reap the positive benefits of the aromatase inhibitors while limiting potential toxicity.


The barnyardgrass (Echinochloaσω'-gali Beauv. var. formosensis Ohwi) is one of the worst weeds in the paddy fields of ]apan. Therefore, the possibility of predicting the number or size of the weed in the crop field early in the growing stage is very valuable for surveying weed loss. Chisaka (1966) mentioned that the estimation of weed loss with the density (number) of weeds in the crop field is difficult due to its fluctuation by various conditions. Estimation of weed loss from dry matter weight or ratio of the weight of the community is better than estimation from the density or number of weeds. Aldrich R. ]. (1984) also mentioned that the linear relationship between weed weight and crop yield suggests that weed weight has more value in predicting the losses from these weeds than the number because a unit change in weed weight results in approximately a unit change in crop yield over the entire weight range. A unit change in number (density) of weeds, however, results in either more or less than a unit change in crop yield, depending upon the actual density being considered. Therefore, estimation of the dry matter weight of weeds at an early stage would be very valuable. Dry matter weight of barnyardgrass is varied every year by environmental conditions (Nishi 1981). Here the dry matter weight of barnyardgrass at maturity was estimated from the size of this weed in the early stage using the data of plant height and number of tillers obtained in experiments performed over several years. Using the allometry method, Yoda (1971) explained that dry matter weight of the trunk could be estimated from the product of the diameter and height of the trunk. U sing this allometry method, the dry matter weight of barnyardgrass in the harvesting stage was estimated from the product of plant height and number of tillers early in its growing stage. Plant height and number of tillers were measured easily in the crop field. The same survey was also conducted on the rice plant.


Designs involving sequences of treatments (also called changeover, crossover, or repeated measurements designs) balanced for first and second residuals available in literature are usually large even for a moderate number of treatments. Besides, most of these designs require number of periods at least equal to the number of treatments. In this paper a class of variance balanced circular designs for prime or prime power number of treatments, v (= mp + 1; m, a positive integer) using p ( 4, < v) periods and only mv experimental units has been proposed. A simple method of analysis of these designs is given and the efficiency factors relative to the orthogonal designs have been tabulated for v 31 and p 4, 12.


Lead-ethanol interaction has been reported both in human and experimental animals. The present study was planned to investigate the influence of low dietary protein on lead-ethanol interaction in rats. The results indicate that animals fed a low dietary protein and coexposed to lead and ethanol are more susceptible to hepatotoxic effects and systemic toxicity of lead compared to animals on normal protein diet. Lead concentrations in blood and other soft tissues were also more pronounced in lead-ethanol coexposed animals maintained on low dietary protein than on normal diet. Result suggests deleterious effects of low dietary protein on lead-ethanol interaction.


Jans et al. (2010). Visual spatial attention to multiple locations at once: The jury is still out. Cave et al. (2010). Split attention as part of a flexible attentional system for complex scenes. Can you direct your spatial selective attention to two or more noncontigu-ous locations at the same time? Much ink has been spilled on this topic over the past few decades, and it seems very timely given our ever-increasing interest in the ability to multitask. The April 2010 issue of Psychological Review contains a massive contribution to this discussion in the form an article by Jans et al. and a response from Cave et al. (and a round of responses to each other). Jans et al. argue that convincing evidence for split attention requires experiments that meet four criteria: (1) The task has to be difficult enough to demand attention, (2) stimuli need to be brief enough to preclude serial shifts of attention, (3) ISIs from cue to target need to be in the right range, and (4) you need to measure the effects of attention in enough locations to assure that no oddly shaped but single-attended region could account for the data. When Jans et al. apply these criteria to a very large set of experiments (their Table 1, listing experiments, runs to 2.5 pp.), they find that none satisfy their requirements and conclude that there is no solid evidence for split attention. Moreover, they think that splitting attention, if it can be done, is a bit of a laboratory parlor trick, requiring extensive training, rather than a routine part of attention. Cave et al. take a different view. They find the four criteria to be somewhat arbitrary and the requirement that experiments meet all four to be overstrict. Moreover, they argue that Jans et al. apply their criteria more strictly to one side of the debate than to the other. Cave et al. see attention as a much more flexible tool that can be used to select one thing, more than one thing, or potentially everything, although they concede that splitting attention will incur costs. The debate occupies 60 pages, because what seems like a straightforward question about the unity of attention is not straightforward at all. Consider a situation in which you are told to attend to the red letters in a display. Everyone agrees that it is possible to give some sort of boost …


For a slowly tapered vacuum chamber with confocal elliptical cross-section, results obtained with the ABCI and GdfidL electromagnetic simulators are compared with analytic estimates for the transverse impedance at zero frequency. In the limits of round and flat chambers, we discuss the conditions for validity of the analytic approximations of Yokoya and Stupakov.


This semester thesis deals with the dynamic modelling of a Voltage Source Converter based High Voltage Direct Current (VSC HVDC) system. The objective of the work is to expand an existing dynamic model of a two-terminal VSC HVDC system. The new model has to be capable to incorporate multiterminal HVDC grids with a meshed topology. Different case studies should be simulated to show the working principles and to derive interpretations of the different observations. A model is first derived for the different parts of the VSC HVDC system, namely an Alternating Current (AC) side model, a Direct Current (DC) side model and a simplified converter model. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is used for the VSC and makes rapid and independent control of the active and reactive power possible. As the control structure of the VSC HVDC system plays a major role for the dynamic modelling, a well defined model of the control system needs to be derived as well. This model consists of certain control parameters, tuned according to some predefined properties of the dynamic response. Efficient parameter tuning is achieved by first deriving a linear control model. A substantial part of the work focuses on this tuning procedure, mainly done according to the performance of an ABB HVDC Light Model. Once all parameters of the control system and the VSC HVDC system are identified and assigned to numerical values, a non-linear dynamic VSC HVDC model is proposed for a chosen Multi-Terminal Direct Current (MTDC) test grid. The MATLAB based modelling and simulation software Simulink is utilized for dynamic simulations of this non-linear VSC HVDC model. By applying a step input to the reference signal of different controllers, the dynamic response of certain system variables is studied and conclusions are drawn.


Purpose

The study aims to propose reverse processing solution to improve the performance of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS) initial alignment and SINS-/global positioning system- (GPS) integrated navigation. The proposed scheme can be well applied in the fields of aircraft and aerospace navigation.

Design/methodology/approach

For the SINS alignment phase, a fast initial alignment scheme is proposed: the initial value of reverse filter is determined by the final result of forward filter, and then, the reverse filter is carried out using the stored data. Multiple iterations are performed until the accuracy is satisfied. For the SINS-/GPS-integrated phase, a forward–reverse navigation algorithm is proposed: first, the standard forward filter is used, and then, the reverse filter is carried out using the initial value determined by the forward filter, and the final fusion results are achieved by the weighted smoothing of the forward and reverse filtering results.

Findings

The simulation and the actual test results show that in the initial alignment stage, the proposed reverse processing method can obviously shorten the SINS alignment time and improve the alignment accuracy. In the SINS-/GPS-integrated navigation data fusion stage, the proposed forward–reverse data fusion processing can, obviously, improve the performance of the navigation solution.

Practical implications

The proposed reverse processing technology has an important application in improving the accuracy of navigation and evaluating the performance of real-time navigation. The proposed scheme can be not only used for SINS-/GPS-integrated system but also applied to other integrated systems for general aviation aircraft.

Originality/value

Compared with the common forward filtering algorithm, the proposed reverse scheme can not only shorten alignment time and improve alignment accuracy but also improve the performance of the integrated navigation.


The zinc-air battery with high energy, no pollution, stable discharge voltage and other unique advantages(Li et al. ,2011), in order to solve the problem of zinc electrode self-discharge, the zinc-air battery based on continuous device control system is designed, and the experimental study is carried out. The control device is composed of an unwinding mechanism, a rolling mechanism, transmission mechanism, positive and negative polar terminations and other mechanical structure, after analyzing the functional requirements of power generation device and determining the controlled objects, the overall control scheme of the experimental device is established. Using PIC16F877A microcontroller, stepper motor and its drive, relay, photoelectric encoder, the MCGS touch screen, etc. Stepper motor control drive system based on position feedback and speed feedback based of microcontroller is constructed. For stepper motor at low speed running state, study the control algorithm. By collecting and recording the battery discharge voltage, discharge current and the electrolyte temperature, the speed of the coil is adjusted, the steady control of the stepper motor is realized, and the purpose of stable power generation is achieved(Lu et al., 2012).


: Lying on one of the world's most active seismic faults, Japan faces the continuous threat of natural disasters. The earthquake that struck east Japan on 11 March 2011, and the devastating tsunami, raised many very serious questions about this country's land and its disaster prevention and disaster reduction strategies for resilience. Disaster-related losses cause short-as well as long-term adverse effects on economy, society, health, culture and the environment. In Japan, the events of 11 March 2011 highlighted the need for the related government agencies, municipalities, research organisations and universities to work together in formulating and implementing a holistic and comprehensive policy approach for damage reduction countermeasures. In this paper, damage reduction countermeasures for short span bridges are presented focusing on the restorability of structural joints, with a view to earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and deterioration.


One-step process surface modifications of AlN ceramics have been obtained by UV laser irradiation ((lambda) equals 248 nm). Results concerning some physical and chemical property modifications of AlN surface are here reported. Characterizations by optical microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and grazing X-ray diffraction (XRD) have lead to show the `metallization' process induced by the laser irradiation under particular conditions, due to the AlN decomposition and the Al metal formation. Grazing XRD has clearly shown the Al presence into the laser impacted zones. Electrical resistance measurements have confirmed this surface `metallization' by the highlighting of a very sharp transition zone between the insulator substrate (R > 20 M(Omega) ) and an Al-rich conductive path (R approximately equals 10 - 20 (Omega) ) on only a few 10 micrometers . These last measurements have allowed to easily define efficient laser conditions regarding to this `metallization' process: about 20 laser pulses of 20 ns under a fluence of about 2.0 J/cm2 seems to lead to an homogeneous conductive path on insulator AlN substrate.


To assess the frequency of atypical chromosomal and submicroscopic anomalies, as well as fetal structural abnormalities, observed on first‐trimester ultrasound scan in fetuses with nuchal translucency (NT) thickness > 99th centile, in order to evaluate the suitability of using standard cell‐free DNA (cfDNA) testing as the sole screening test in these pregnancies.


In the process of economic development, it is noticed that most of the economies follow a definite and distinguished pattern of sectoral structural transformation. The specific objectives of the study are, to study the growth pattern of Indian service sector of its sub sector, to investigate the factors, which affect the growth of service sector in India? To achieve the objectives of the study secondary data from 1990 to 2010 were collected from the different published sources. To study the factors response toward the service sector in India multivariate analysis was carried out. Keywordsgrowth, factors etc.


Among the recent and most important additions to the curriculums of the colleges of liberal arts are the special arrangements made for the training of teachers. Several important circumstances help to explain the work which the colleges are offering to do. First, there has been a great increase in the number of students graduating from college. In order that these graduates might be placed in positions in which they would be happy and would do honor to the colleges, the colleges have been forced to study the opportunities open to their graduates and the kind of training necessary to fit their graduates for those positions. Since a very large number of graduates enter teaching, the preparation of students for this work so they may do it creditably became a problem of much concern. Second, various agencies have in recent years made important demands of teachers. State certification requirements have become more and more definite, the tendency being to include among the standards special training for teaching. Accrediting associations have also had an important part in this development since they demanded that recognized secondary schools employ teachers with at least a specified minimum of professional training in education. Graduates from recognized high schools have preferential status in the admission lists of the better colleges and universities. This condition sets a requirement of professionally trained teachers which no high school can afford to ignore. Consequently, since the graduate of a college is not eligible for the better high school teaching positions without having had the required amount of professional training in education, the liberal arts colleges have been forced to incorporate this form of training in their curriculums, although it has not in all cases been a welcome addition.


ABSTRACT Bone marrow chimeras were used to determine the cellular target(s) for the antiviral activity of gamma interferon (IFN-γ). By transfusing such mice with high numbers of naive virus-specific CD8+ T cells, a system was created in which the majority of virus-specific CD8+ T cells would be capable of responding to IFN-γ, but expression of the relevant receptor on non-T cells could be experimentally controlled. Only when the IFN-γ receptor is absent on both radioresistant parenchymal and bone marrow-derived cells will chimeric mice challenged with a highly invasive, noncytolytic virus completely lack the ability to control the infection and develop severe wasting disease. Further, the study shows that IFN-γ receptor expression on parenchymal cells in the viscera is more important for virus control than IFN-γ receptor expression on bone marrow-derived cells.


Structurally well-defined heteronanoparticles have received a great attention because their distinct structural features can be altered to achieve unprecedented properties. The cation exchange reaction, one of the most powerful techniques to synthesize heteronanoparticles, can tune the regiospecific composition of nanoparticles, while maintaining the overall morphology of the template. Herein, we demonstrate that the nascent interface between the cation-exchanged region and the unchanged template can induce a significant tensile or compressive strain on the lattice of the template so that the cation exchange process at the interface can be greatly facilitated. The fate of the overall cation exchange reaction can be dictated by placing the initial cation exchange sites on the template regioselectively. Via a careful kinetic and thermodynamic control of the cation exchange, we could prepare two completely different nanostructures of Cu5FeS4/Cu2-xS/Cu5FeS4 nanosandwich and Cu5FeS4/Cu2-xS Janus nanoparticle. ...


Disease recurrence is the major cause of treatment failure and mortality in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A small fraction of leukemic cells that withstand chemotherapeutic insult can rewire cellular processes to re-emerge with lethal disease. Approaches to decipher drug resistance mechanisms in these drug persister cells can pave the way for newer therapies and improve survival in patients. To uncover drug resistant mechanisms that are clinically relevant, we generated in-house Cytarabine (AraC) and Arsenic trioxide (ATO) resistant cells from naïve MV4-11 AML cell line by incremental dose exposure method. Single cell clones were generated from AraC (MV411-AraC-R)/ATO (MV411-ATO-R) drug tolerant cells. Both the AraC-R and ATO-R clones were resistant to AraC (600-fold) and ATO (2-fold) respectively compared to the naïve cells. AraC-R cells were marginally cross resistant to daunorubicin (DNR) and ATO. Interestingly, the ATO-R cells were highly cross resistant to both AraC (600-fold) and DNR (4-fold) demonstrating altered drug resistance mechanism. We next subjected the AraC-R, ATO-R and the naïve cells to RNAseq analysis to identify transcriptomic changes post resistance development. 1218 transcripts in AraC-R cells and 7654 transcripts in ATO-R cells were differentially expressed compared to the naïve cells, suggesting ATO exposure alters the transcriptome drastically compared to AraC. We performed gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) with these differentially expressed gene signatures. AraC-R gene signatures were highly enriched (NES-2.8 & 2.0 FDR-0.00) for oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial related signatures, consistent with previous report suggesting AraC exposed residual cells are highly enriched for oxidative phosphorylation and are not enriched for stemness gene signatures (Farge et al). ATO-R gene signatures were positively enriched (NES- 2.0 & 1.4 FDR 0.005 & 0.03) for Leukemic stem cell gene signatures (Eppert_LSC and Gentles_LSC) and relapse (NES- 2.0 & 1.5 FDR 0.0 & 0.01) gene signatures (CALCRL_RIC and Hackles_relapse) and negatively enriched for mitochondrial gene signatures showing reduced reliance on mitochondrial metabolism. Since AraC-R cells showed high dependency on mitochondrial metabolism, we treated these cells with venetoclax (VEN) a known oxphos inhibitor for 48 hours and assessed the viability. Ven markedly sensitized the AraC-R cells compared to naïve cells (IC50 13nM and 323nM), while ATO-R cells were markedly resistant to Ven (IC50 8049nM) corroborating our transcriptomic findings. These finding suggest transcriptome profiling of in-vitro modelled drug resistant cell lines can mimic clinically relevant drug resistant mechanism and could aide in identifying alternate therapies to circumvent disease relapse. Further metabolomic characterization and mechanistic studies are ongoing to substantiate these findings.
 Citation Format: Raveen Stephen Illangeswaran, Daniel Zechariah Jebanesan, Kezia Kanimozhi Sivakumar, Rakhi Thalayattu Vidhyadharan, Vikram Mathews, Shaji Ramachandran Velayudhan, Poonkuzhali Balasubramanian. Transcriptomic profiling of in-vitro modelled drug resistant AML cell lines unravel metabolic and stemness gene signatures [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 3973.


The concept of shadow education may be unfamiliar, but should hold no terrors. This is a review of a book about private tuition. The book has been co-published by the Asian Development Bank and the Comparative Education Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong. It can be downloaded free of charge from www.hku.hk/cerc The book uses the metaphor of the shadow because much private supplementary tutoring mimics the mainstream. As the curriculum of the mainstream changes, so does the curriculum in the shadow. And as the mainstream expands, so does the shadow. The important role of education in economic and social development has long been recognised by policy makers. However, they have concentrated on mainstream schools and universities and have neglected the role of shadow education. Shadow education refers only to tutoring in academic subjects that are assessed for advancement in education systems. This tutoring is provided for a fee and takes place outside standard school hours. The focus excludes tutoring in sports, music or other non-examined activities. It also excludes free tutoring by teachers, family members or others. The book provides a comprehensive coverage of the scale and nature of shadow education. Professor Mark Bray has researched the subject over a long period. Each of his books has added new knowledge and insights, to the extent that he easily merits recognition as the world's foremost authority in this field. Chad Lykins also has significant experience in connected fields.


An antenna array containing two or more radiating elements, 2013 with nearest neighbor radiating elements connected together with a non-Foster circuit at terminals of the radiating ele Related U.S. Application Data ments such that mutual reactance of the elements is reduced (60) Provisional application No. 61/620.384, filed on Apr. over a wider bandwidth than which would be obtained if the 4, 2012. non-Foster circuits were omitted.


We examine the extent to which cash flows into the Australian superannuation funds are affected by the past performance of the fund, the riskiness of the fund, the choice of superannuation fund legislation, and the global financial crisis. Both retail and wholesale investors base their investment decisions on the past performance of the funds. There is little evidence that the riskiness of the fund returns has any significance effect on the flow of funds. Legislation has resulted in more inflows into managed funds. There is more inflow into managed funds and equity funds since the period of the global financial crisis.


Energy increment factors of MHD shock for magnetic,internal and kinetic energy have been derived from Rankine-Hugoniot relations.They depend on the shock angle,plasma β value in the up-Stream and Shock Strength.By analysing these factors,the results demonstrate that:1.The energy transfer rates are different in different regions on a shock front,because there are large scale magnetic field in interplanetary Space,which results in an intensive magnetic region in the west part of a shock wave;2.The transfer of magnetic and internal energy are indepedent of the flow speed,while that kinetic energy Shows a linear relation with the flow speed;3.The energy input into the interaction region between forward-reverse shock through reverse shock while being driven;4.The kinetic energy transfer is dominant in interplanetary shock,the plasmaβvalue increases and the normal kinetic energy increment factor decreases with the shock propagating out-ward,which results in the interaction weakened between the shock and solar wind plasma.


Biostromes and low‐relief bioherms, some of which are characterized by exceptionally large, flat specimens of larger benthic foraminifera, are common in Palaeogene and Miocene carbonates, most notably those deposited along the Neotethys Seaway and tropical Pacific islands. By incorporating insights from palaeoceanographic research and the biology of living larger benthic foraminifera, a scenario is proposed that can account for palaeontological and sedimentological features while augmenting previous interpretations. Sexual reproduction by gamete broadcasting is common in foraminiferal taxa, including extant Nummulitidae and Amphisteginidae. Resultant zygotes can develop into tiny, resistant, easily dispersed propagules that recruit in suitable benthic‐environmental conditions. The role of algal symbiosis in the biology of larger benthic foraminifera is well‐documented. Palaeoceanographically, such taxa proliferated during times of reduced thermal stratification of the oceans. In regions with exceptionally clear, nutrient‐depleted waters, 'twilight‐zone' light penetration was sufficient, at least intermittently, to support some photosynthesis. On outer‐shelf or promontory sites at depths of ca 100 to 200 m, the tiny propagules of larger benthic foraminiferal species, incorporating algal symbionts with the lowest light requirements, could have settled and recruited, growing very slowly, nourished by feeding on bacteria and the limited photosynthate produced by their algal symbionts. Under such conditions, thin microspheric individuals of one or two larger benthic foraminiferal taxa could have survived and grown slowly over several years to very large shell diameters, seldom reproducing asexually. Resulting carbonate accumulation rates would have been very slow, such that even rare disturbances by currents, major storms or internal waves could have produced evidence of winnowing and sedimentary structures. The fossil evidence of such habitats should include biostromes or possibly low‐relief bioherms of low diversity assemblages characterized by abundant, exceptionally large, flat, microspheric larger benthic foraminifera.


As nowadays all the information is available online, a large number of users are accessing it, some of them use this information for gaining knowledge and some use it to know how to use this information to destroy or steal the data of websites or databases without the knowledge of the owner. The purpose of this paper is to tell what is hacking, who are hackers, what is ethical hacking, what is the code of conduct of ethical hackers and the need of them. A small introduction of Linux Operating System is given in this paper. All the techniques are performed on the Linux operating system named Kali Linux. After this some basic hacking attacks covered in the paper are MiTM Attack (Man in The Middle Attack), Phishing Attack, DoS Attack (Denial of Services Attack). Further what is Wi-Fi, what are the techniques used in the Wi-Fi protection and the methods used by the hackers to hacks Wi-Fi passwords is covered in the paper.


Transdermal drug delivery system(TDDS) with its unique advantages has become a research hotspot in recent years.How to promote percutaneous absorption of drugs is a key RD task due to the natural barrier function of skin.Many factors are thought to influence percutaneous absorption of drugs,but the critical factors can be divided into three parts:skin,drug and dosage form.This paper reviews the physiological characteristics of skin and physicochemical properties of drugs that affect the percutaneous absorption of drugs with a view to provide some reference for the design of TDDS.


Abstract Purpose The aim of the present study is to determine the relationship between loneliness and depression felt by adolescents during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Design and Methods The study sample consisted of 423 adolescents who volunteered to participate in the study. All participants had internet access and the cognitive ability to express themselves. The participants filled out the Google Documents form that included the "Socio‐demographic Data Form," "Children's Depression Inventory," and "Short‐form UCLA Loneliness Scale" to collect data. Findings It was determined that the depression inventory total mean score of the adolescents participating in the study was 55.15 ± 2.88 (high) and the loneliness scale total mean score was 16.43 ± 4.93 (medium). A statistically positive high correlation was found between the depression total mean scores and the loneliness total mean scores of the adolescents (p < 0.05). As the loneliness levels of the adolescents increased, their depression levels increased. Practice Implications Adolescents were more likely to experience mental disorders such as loneliness and depression during and after the pandemic. Governments should focus on the mental health of adolescents in the management of COVID‐19. Clinical services should plan and implement prevention activities, support programs, and services to replace early diagnosis and intervention.


We examine the feasibility of a collaborative recommender system in the exercise domain targeted specifically at runners. By using a large dataset of over 600000 runners' finish times we explore the contrasts between casual and elite runners and hypothesise how a recommender system may be used to mitigate some of these differences. We also briefly discuss some of the challenges faced by such a recommendation task and suggest how these challenges could be addressed.


OBJECTIVE
People living with HIV (PLWH) have a higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms than people without HIV. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been associated with worsened airflow limitation. This study assessed respiratory health impairment among PLWH and its association with protease inhibitor (PI) use.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study of Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) study visits from 04/01/2017 to 03/31/2018.

METHODS
Participants completed the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea scale, spirometry, and diffusion capacity measurement. Visit data were compared among PI users, non-PI users, and men without HIV. Binary and ordinal logistic models were used to determine the associations between HIV status, PI use, and covariates with primary outcomes of dichotomized SGRQ and mMRC dyspnea scores.

RESULTS
57/177 (32.2%) of PI users self-reported pulmonary disease compared with 132/501 (26.4%) of non-PI users and 105/547 (19.2%) men without HIV. 77/177 (45.3%) of PI users had SGRQ scores ≥ 10 while 171/501 (34.7%) of non-PI users and 162/549 (29.9%) of people living without HIV had SGRQ scores ≥ 10 (p=0.001). Adjusted models found an association between PI use and SGRQ score ≥ 10 [OR 1.91 (95% CI 1.29-2.82), ref: HIV negative and OR 1.50 (95% CI 1.01-2.22) ref: non-PI users]. A similar association was found with mMRC scores and PI use [OR 1.79 (95% CI 1.21-2.64), ref: HIV negative and OR 1.53 (95% CI 1.04-2.25), ref: non-PI users].

CONCLUSIONS
PI use is associated with worse respiratory health status, increased dyspnea, and an increased prevalence of self-reported pulmonary disease.


Deep learning methods for image analysis have shown impressive performance in recent years. In this paper, we present deep learning based approaches to solve two problems in skin lesion analysis using a dermoscopic image containing skin tumor. In the first problem, we use a fully convolutional-deconvolutional architecture to automatically segment skin tumor from the surrounding skin. In the second problem, we use a simple convolutional neural network and VGG-16 architecture using transfer learning to address the two different tasks in skin tumor classification. The proposed models are trained and evaluated on standard benchmark datasets from the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) 2017 Challenge, which consists of 2000 training samples and 600 testing samples. The result shows that the proposed methods achieve promising performances. In the first problem, the average value of Jaccard index for lesion segmentation using fully convolutional-deconvolutional architecture is 0.507. In the second problem, the values of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) on two different lesion classifications using VGG16 with transfer learning are 0.763 and 0.869, respectively; the average value of AUC in two tasks is 0.816.


Combined with the actual situation of China's higher vocational and technical education, this paper has carried on the preliminary research and exploration on the teaching reform of mechanical drawing course. The problems existing in the teaching process of mechanical drawing course was introduced and the scheme that the mechanical drawing teaching reform ought to cultivate the students' professional ability as a starting point has been proposed. Based on the practice training, the curriculum assessment could be combined with the identification of professional qualification and technical level, which also has broadened the students' employment. For students major in mechanical engineering, the training of engineering drawing recognition ability in practical teaching content should be strengthened. The actual production patterns in the manufacturing enterprise are advised to be adopted during the training process of engineering drawing recognition aiming at enriching students' knowledge, strengthening practical application and expanding quality structure.


Pedestrian protection has been an important issue to get a high NCAP rating and to satisfy enhanced regulation. These days, many advanced industries are striving for a better protection of pedestrians by using an active hood lift system. In this research, the mechanical active hood system is designed to down the hood and a sensor and electrical parts do not used. Hinge and latch can be reversible by spring and locking unit. The result of headform impact test shows a decrease to reduce head injury criteria (HIC). And this system have cost and weight lower than active hood system.


Abstract Spiral bevel gears can transmit motion between two rotors, which are commonly perpendicular to each other. In this paper, the dynamic analysis of a spiral bevel-geared rotor-bearing system is studied. Firstly, the constraint equation describing the relationship between the generalized displacements of spiral bevel gear pairs is derived briefly. Then the modelling of coupled axial–lateral–torsional vibration of the rotor system geared by spiral bevel gears is discussed. Finally, the mechanism of coupled vibration of the spiral bevel-geared rotor system is analyzed theoretically and the dynamic behavior of the system is investigated numerically. The conclusions are characterized as follows. The influences of the critical speeds in rigid journal supports, stability threshold speed and unbalanced responses in hydrodynamic journal bearings are not remarkable in comparison with the spur bevel-geared system under the same conditions. However, the critical speeds and stability threshold speed are essentially affected by boundary conditions such as the torsional stiffness, and meanwhile the effect of the unbalanced responses is not prominent under the concerned rotating speeds except that around the resonance peaks. The steady state response due to torsional excitation is also analyzed, and the results show that it cannot be neglected either in the torsional direction or in the lateral and axial directions in the spiral bevel-geared rotor system.


The bachelor thesis is focusing on spirometric screening. Nowadays, an increase of allergic diseases. For a doctor to obtain valid information about a child's health, it is necessary to stay focused during all steps of examination and diagnosis. Only a trained nursing staff is capable of reducing the possible risks that lead to inaccuracy. Communication with a child patient is always crucial. Therefore, if a child is afraid, cooperation is difficult.


Data gathering is a fundamental operation in various applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where sensor nodes sense information and forward data to a sink node via multi-hop wireless communications. Typically, data in a WSN is relayed over a tree topology to the sink for effective data gathering. A number of tree-based data gathering schemes have been proposed in the literature, most of which aim at maximizing network lifetime.A specific characteristic of sensor network applications is that the major traffic consists of data collection from various sensor source nodes to a sink via a unidirectional tree.Since the reliability of a link is highly related to its signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), the SINR of all the currently used links on the data gathering tree should be greater than a threshold to guarantee high reliability. We formulate the joint problem of tree construction, Our simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve much lower data gathering latency than existing data gathering strategies while guaranteeing high reliability. Moreover, the algorithms also have a comparable energy efficiency and network lifetime to other algorithms.


This paper deals with the processing of ISAR raw data for the purpose of automatic target recognition. The recognition method described is based on a correlation procedure applied to a database containing highly quantized templates of measured targets. The method and its application to suitable pre- processed ISAR images of our data discussed.


Evolutionary computation algorithms (EC) and swarm intelligence have been widely used to solve global optimization problems. The optimal solution for an optimization problem is called by different terms in EC and swarm intelligence. It is called individual in EC and particle in swarm intelligence. Self-adaptive differential evolution (SaDE) is one of the promising variants of EC for solving global optimization problems. Adapting self-manipulating parameter values into SaDE can overcome the burden of choosing suitable parameter values to create the next best generation's individuals to achieve optimal convergence. In this paper, a fully informed particle swarm (FIPS) is hybridized with SaDE to enhance SaDE's exploitation capability while maintaining its exploration power so that it is not trapped in stagnation. The proposed hybrid is called FIPSaDE. FIPS, a variant of particle swarm optimization (PSO), aims to help solutions jump out of stagnation by gathering knowledge about its neighborhood's solutions. Each solution in the FIPS swarm is influenced by a group of solutions in its neighborhood, rather than by the best position it has visited. Indirectly, FIPS increases the diversity of the swarm. The proposed algorithm is tested on benchmark test functions from "CEC 2005 Special Session on Real-Parameter Optimization" with various properties. Experimental results show that the FIPSaDE is more effective and reasonably competent than its standalone variants, FIPS and SaDE, in solving the test functions, considering the solutions' quality.


Metal rubber is a kind of functional structurematerial, which has important application value in military equipment and civil machinery. The preparation process of metal rubber blanks plays a key role in the performance and structure of metal rubber and is the foundation of metal rubber research. In this paper, the research status of metal rubber blank preparation technology is described, and the preparation technology of metal rubber blank is classified and summarized. The development trend and research direction of the preparation process of metal rubber blank are discussed.


"Turbocapsula costata(Wu)"——the index taxon of the Aptian radiolarian "costata subzone"(O'Dogherty, 1994) in western Mediterranean regions originated from Tricapsula costata Wu of the Cenomanian Chongdui Formation in southern Tibet. In 2002, Matsuoka et al. correlated their uppermost radiolarian zone of the Xialu Chert in southern Tibet with the "costata subzone" and called it "Turbocapsula costata Zone". Therefore, the Aptian age of the Chongdui Formation was also considered by them. However, although the test outline of "Turbocapsula costata(Wu)" from the western Mediterranean regions and Tricapsula costata Wu of the Chongdui Formation is similar, some important differences exist in their structure. They are not of one same species, or even same genus. The former needs to be renamed. Meantime, the "Turbocapsula costata(Wu)" from the Xialu Chert should be Tricapsula costata Wu based on the characters shown in its picture. The top part of the Xialu Chert is, therefore, as young as Cenomanian.


This article addresses the challenges of selecting robust classifiers with increasing noise levels in real-world scenarios. We propose the WB Score methodology, which enables the identification of reliable classifiers for deployment in noisy environments. The methodology addresses four significant challenges that are commonly encountered: (i) Ensuring classifiers possess robustness to noise; (ii) Overcoming the difficulty of obtaining representative data that captures real-world noise; (iii) Addressing the complexity of detecting noise, making it challenging to differentiate it from natural variations in the data; and (iv) Meeting the requirement for classifiers capable of efficiently handling noise, allowing prompt responses for decision-making. WB Score provides a comprehensive approach for classifier assessment and selection to address these challenges. We analyze five classic datasets and one customized flooding dataset in São Paulo. The results demonstrate the practical effect of using the WB Score methodology is the enhanced ability to select robust classifiers for datasets in noisy real-world scenarios. Compared with similar techniques, the improvement centers around providing a visual and intuitive output, enhancing the understanding of classifier resilience against noise, and streamlining the decision-making process.


Conventional authentication mechanisms routinely used for validating communication devices are facing significant challenges. This is mainly due to their reliance on both 'spoofable' digital credentials and static binary characteristic, and inevitable misdetection in physical layer authentication using time-varying attributes, leading to the cascading risks of security and trust. To circumvent these impediments, we develop an adaptive trust management based soft authentication and progressive authorization scheme by intelligently exploiting the time-varying communication link-related attribute of the transmitter to improve wireless security. First of all, the trust relationship between the transmitter and receiver is established based on the evaluation of selected physical layer attribute for fast authentication and multiple-level authorization. Through the designed trust model, the transmitter is authorized by the specific level of services/resources corresponding to its trust level, so that soft security is achieved. To dynamically update the trust level of the transmitter, we propose an online conformal prediction-based adaptive trust adjustment algorithm relying on the real-time validation of its attribute estimates at the receiver, thus resulting in progressive authorization. The performance of our scheme is theoretically analyzed in terms of its individual risk and individual satisfaction. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly improves the security performance and robustness in time-varying environments, and performs better than the static binary authentication scheme and existing physical layer authentication benchmarker.


Objective:To explore the protective effects of Yangyin Yiqi Huoxue infusion (YYYQHXI,养阴益气活血冲剂) on the cerebral ischemiareperfusion injury (CIRI).Methods:The rat models with CIRI were prepared and randomly divided into shamoperative group,CIRI group,ischemia group,treated group with different dosage of YYYQHXI,and venoruton control group.The changes in following parameters,including the contents of prostacyclin I 2 (PGI 2) and thromboxin A 2 (TXA 2) in brain tissue,the activites of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the contents of malonyldialdehyde (MDA) in even pulp of brain and the activities of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and its inhibitor (PAI) were observed.Results:YYYQHXI was able to increase the contents of PGI 2 and decrease the contents of TXA 2 in brain tissue obviously,to regulate the activities of plasma tPA and PAI,to reduce the content of MDA obviously,and to heighten the activity of SOD in brain tissue.Conclusions:YYYQHXI possesses anticoagulative,increasing fibrolytic,promoting antioxidative,and additional effects so that it has significantly protective actions on CIRI.


The objective of this research was to create a structural model able to explain the profile of student leaders during their youth stage, by implementing the pedagogical model form national university organization, in order to develop skills from a cognitive approach using an event-based learning trend. The research had a quantitative methodological approach, addressing differences in the students' cognitive abilities for oral expression and textual production, along with a correlational method of factorial design analysis, as a field type. The beneficiary population was made up of students from private educational institutions with an average age of 17 years. According to the model, it was found that among the factors associated with leadership are, the ability to lobby, strategies, critical reading, intensity of the debate, discourse analysis, quality of presentation, decision making, characteristics that determine the profile of a ruler.


A power transformer is protected against internal faults using a differential protection which is sensitive and a fast. However, during transformer magnetization (inrush current or over-excitation), the differential relay may operate unnecessarily. This phenomenon appears only when a transformer is first energized or after clearing external fault. During periodic magnetization condition due to over-excitation, the third and fifth harmonic components are largely noticed; however, during the normal apperiodic inrush conditions, the second harmonic is relatively high. In the conventional techniques, these harmonic components have been used to block differential protection to operate. However, in smart power transformer, these harmonic components are small even during the transformer magnetization; they cannot be used as block protection functions. The differential protection security has to be improved so that it can distinguish between differential current produced by magnetization and that produced by internal fault using the most advanced computer with most improved DSP algorithms.


The future of open fractures is "played" in the first six hours, so they must be considered "emergencies of traumas". Special nursing care in open fractures should be applied according to the patient's general status, local state of the traumatized limb and the type of bracing used before surgery. Special nursing goals are the rehabilitation of joint mobility and muscle strength and recommendations for certain interdictions, designed to educate posture, static and gait, in safe conditions and performances as close to normal as possible.


In this paper, we consider the temporal pattern in traffic flow time series, and implement a deep learning model for traffic flow prediction. Detrending based methods decompose original flow series into trend and residual series, in which trend describes the fixed temporal pattern in traffic flow and residual series is used for prediction. Inspired by the detrending method, we propose DeepTrend, a deep hierarchical neural network used for traffic flow prediction which considers and extracts the time-variant trend. DeepTrend has two stacked layers: extraction layer and prediction layer. Extraction layer, a fully connected layer, is used to extract the time-variant trend in traffic flow by feeding the original flow series concatenated with corresponding simple average trend series. Prediction layer, an LSTM layer, is used to make flow prediction by feeding the obtained trend from the output of extraction layer and calculated residual series. To make the model more effective, DeepTrend needs first pre-trained layer-by-layer and then fine-tuned in the entire network. Experiments show that DeepTrend can noticeably boost the prediction performance compared with some traditional prediction models and LSTM with detrending based methods.


ABSTRACT Objective: Despite several government initiatives aimed at improving public healthcare services, private-sector has been a dominant player in most of the Indian states. Limited evidence is available on the factors that influence the choice of using public or private health services, which assume significance in the present context, when the government is willing to purchase care from the private providers. This subject is further explored in the paper by using the 71st round of National Sample Survey, 'Key Indicators of Social consumption in India Health', 2014. Data sources/study setting: The analysis included 15 major states of India, dividing them into three groups: low-, middle- and high-income, using average GSDP per capita. We further used multi-variate regression to examine the factors explaining the utilization of either public or private facility. Findings and conclusion: The utilization of public facilities for outpatient and inpatient services was found to be very low, except Assam and Odisha, which attributed to the poor quality of care and long waiting hours. Caste, education and wealth quintiles were the main factors explaining the choice of either public or private facility and strength of association between socio-economic variables and their utilization that varied across 3-categories of states.