Background: Tumor mutation loads are a strong predictor of immunotherapy benefit. This is evidenced by studies on skin, lung, and colon cancer, where well-defined processes elicit high mutation burdens and checkpoint therapies often provoke strong anti-tumor immune responses. In comparison, only a small number of breast cancer patients have responded to checkpoint therapies such as anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies. Approximately one-fourth of primary breast cancer and one-third of metastatic tumors have a significant APOBEC mutation burden defined as C-to-T and C-to-G mutations in TCA or TCT trinucleotide motifs, and many tumors have >10,000 of these APOBEC signature single base substitution mutations. However, to our knowledge, systematic immunotherapy studies focusing on this unique, hypermutated subset of breast cancers have yet to be done. Methods: To address the potential relationship between different checkpoint therapies and APOBEC mutation burden, we created a panel of >30 mammary tumor cell lines derived from fully immune-proficient C57BL/6 animals. At least 6 of these cell lines are immortalized, readily engineered using standard molecular biology procedures, and capable of re-engraftment and tumor formation in immune proficient C57BL/6 animals. Two lines were engineered to inducibly express human APOBEC3A, subjected to 1- to 20-rounds of sublethal mutagenesis, and tested systematically for checkpoint therapy responsiveness. Results: Two cell lines were engineered to inducibly express APOBEC3A or a catalytic mutant (E72A). Clones were characterized for inducible APOBEC3A expression and associated DNA damage responses. After varying rounds of mutagenesis, clones were engrafted into the subcutaneous flank or mammary fat pad of C57BL/6 animals. Immunohistochemical and flow cytometry analysis revealed a robust intratumoral CD8 T cell population including a subset with PD-1 expression. Additionally, engrafted tumor cells expressed high levels PD-L1. Experiments are ongoing and immunotherapy responses will be presented. Conclusions: We have isolated a panel of C57BL/6 mammary tumor-derived cell lines and demonstrated re-engraftment into immunocompetent animals. These cell lines constitute a platform for studying the relationship between different mutagens including APOBEC and immunotherapy responses.
 Citation Format: Jordan Naumann, Michael Carpenter, Prokopios Argyris, William Brown, Reuben Harris. A panel of murine mammary tumor cell lines to study immune responses to epitopes created by different mutagens including human APOBEC3 enzymes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-01-10.


The sociology of law looks at the substance and processes of law as they relate to other social and political institutions. It employs multiple theories and examines a wide scope of issues, ranging from interactions within the US criminal justice system to America as a legal state or to international courts.

Keywords:

Law;
Law and Society;
Sociology;
Sociology of Law


The Child and Adolescent Team of the Top End Mental Health Service (TEMHS), based in Darwin, services Darwin and surrounding regions and a monthly outreach service to Nhulunbuy (1.5 hour flight each way) and Katherine (3 hour drive each way). As a rural and remote child and adolescent mental health service, the clientele is varied and the presenting issues are diverse. This makes for a challenging, yet rewarding work environment.


An antenna that works at high frequencies, specifically in the microwave region, is called an MPA, which stands for "Microstrip Patch Antenna." MPA is appropriate for electronic and wireless communication devices operating on 4G and 5G. This research presents the design and fabrication of a 1X2 and 1X4 circular form MPA-Array for a 5G wireless communication system. It is possible to get three distinct resonant frequencies of 4.5GHz, 5.4GHz, and 6.4GHz, with a value of gain 7.22dBi and a bandwidth of 2012MHz. The concept uses a cutting-edge layout for a patch antenna with a circular form and a partial ground. The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) constructed of copper with two sides is used to create the hardware design. An FR-4 epoxy substrate is used to fabricate the MPA-A, which is then put through an experimental test where its findings are compared to those generated by a simulation


The objective of present study was to examine the role home education concept plays in children's personal transformation and how it can affect their growth in the long run. We developed a comparative study of two conflicting home education concepts presented in Afghanistan American writer Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner and explored their totally different effects on protagonist Amir and how they contributed to Amir's different choices and destinies. Our findings indicate self-centered education concept firmly practiced by Amir's father—Baba posed a great restraint to Amir's personality development and induced distorted moral values, which consequently made Amir end up in sin. On the contrary, man-oriented home education concept followed by Rahim Khan, both a mentor and a moral guide was conducive to Amir's personality development and helped Amir accomplish selfredemption eventually. The results show the significance of manoriented home education concept to one's personality development and personal transformation. Keywords—The Kite Runner; Khaled Hosseini; Amir; home


This article introduces Project RAISSE: Reading Assistance Initiative for Secondary School Educators and shares the findings of a study into those factors found to motivate study group participants at two rural high schools in the southern USA. The research team collected qualitative data over a two-year period, including interviews, artifacts, observations, blogs and surveys. Data were analyzed for any indication of that which positively or negatively impacted participants using a content analysis approach. The inquiry yielded the following four categories found to motivate study group participation in a secondary school setting: creating an environment for adult learning; translating new literacy learning into practice; providing and developing materials and resources; and blogging to continue conversation. The article offers a detailed framework for developing and implementing a network of onsite study groups designed to motivate teachers' ongoing learning that impacts instructional improvement. The conceptual framework underpinning Project RAISSE offers insight into how we might address systemic professional development for secondary schools that has a good chance of improving instructional practice and positively affecting student achievement.


Objective To develop a sensitive and specific in situ assay for detecting HBV cccDNA in biopsy specimens,to detect intrahepatic in situ HBV cccDNA of patients with liver transplantation and to explore its clinical significance.Methods Intrahepatic in situ cccDNA and HBsAg,HBcAg,pre-S1 in liver biopsy specimens of 25 patients with HBV re-infection and 10 patients without HBV re-infection after liver transplantation were detected by in situ polymerase chain reaction(in situ PCR)and immunohistochemistry,respectively.Results In all 35 cases detected by in situ PCR,22 showed HBV cccDNA positive(62.9%).Positive signal presented as purple blue block or granules located in affected hepatocyte nuclei rather than cytoplasm or membrane.The positive rate of cccDNA in HBV re-infection group was greatly higher than that in control group(84% vs 10%,P0.01).Detection of HBV cccDNA and HBcAg in liver biopsy specimens had shown high consistency(Kappa=0.755,P0.01).Conclusion The expression of HBV cccDNA in liver biopsy specimens from the patients after liver transplantation may be closely associated with HBV re-infection.


The Holy Scriptures can be considered a specific kind of
 normative texts, whose use to assess practical moral cases requires
 interpretation. In the field of ethics, this interpretative problem results in
 the necessity of bridging the gap between the normative source – moral
 precepts – and the specific cases. In the history of the Church, this problem
 was the core of the so-called casuistry, namely the decision-making practice
 consisting in applying the Commandments and other principles of the Holy
 Scriptures to specific cases or moral problems. By taking into account the sin
 of lying, this paper argues that casuistic texts reveal an extremely
 sophisticated interpretative method, grounded on "pragmatic" contextual and
 communicative considerations and argumentative structures that resemble the ones
 used in legal interpretation. These works show how the underspecified biblical
 text expressing an abstract norm was enriched pragmatically by completing it and
 modulating its meaning so that it could be used to draw a conclusion in a
 specific context on a specific case. The mutual interdependence between biblical
 interpretation, pragmatics, and argumentation sheds light on a much broader
 phenomenon, namely the pragmatic nature of argumentation.


Under the second phase of the National Oil Palm Project, the Government of Uganda plans to extend the oil palm project to Northern Uganda. According to the Final Project Design Report (2017) of the National Oil Palm Project, and based on the rainfall, soil and temperature of the region, areas in Northern Uganda have already been mapped for the project. However, no detailed information on the degree of suitability of the areas has been provided. In this research, other parameters such as land cover, elevation and slope were identified through the literature review. Furthermore, on the basis of the reclassify tool in ArcMap 10.8, the data were then reclassified into four classes, namely, highly suitable (S1), moderately suitable (S2), marginally suitable (S3) and unsuitable (N.) With the aid of the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP), pairwise comparison matrices were constructed and the weight of each parameter was computed. The suitability map obtained from a weighted linear combination identified 38.18%, 35.54%, 21.41% and 4.87% of the land area as highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable and unsuitable, respectively. A geospatial assessment of the suitability of the land for oil palm growing was carried out. It was based on only the soil types, but excluded the chemical properties of the soil. Therefore, further research on the chemical properties of the soils at suitable sites should be carried out. In-depth research should be carried out While considering social and economic factors among the criteria to determine the willingness and financial capability of the people to venture into oil palm growing as a source of income, Oil Palm Uganda Limited should conduct in-depth research into this issue.


Credibility,as a universal ethical values and a traditional Chinese virtue,is the code of conduct followed by contemporary college students.However,in the Chinese institutions of higher learning,it becomes a common problem that should not be ignored.So the educators and administrators in Colleges should corrctly face the problem and try to work out some solutions to it.And it is of importance and necessity to reconsider and reconstruct the moral integrity of college students.


Rationale-Adult human cardiomyocytes (CMs) do not complete cytokinesis despite passing through the S-phase of the cell cycle. As a result polyploidization and multinucleation occur. In order to get a deeper understanding of the mechanisms surrounding division of CMs there is a crucial need for a technique to isolate CMs that complete cell division/cytokinesis. Objective-Markers of cell cycle progression based on DNA content cannot distinguish between mitotic CMs that fail to complete cytokinesis from those cells that undergo true cell division. With the use of molecular beacons (MB) targeting specific mRNAs we aimed to identify truly proliferative CMs derived from hiPSCs. Methods and Results-Fluorescence activated cell-sorting combined with molecular beacons was performed to sort CM populations enriched for mitotic cells. Expressions of cell-cycle specific genes were confirmed by means of RT-qPCR, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). We further characterized the sorted groups by proliferation assays and time-lapse microscopy which confirmed the proliferative advantage of MB-positive cell populations relative to MB-negative and G2/M populations. Gene expression analysis revealed that the MB-positive CM subpopulation exhibited patterns consistent with the biological processes of nuclear division, chromosome segregation, and transition from M to G1 phase. The use of dual-MBs targeting CDC20 and SPG20 mRNAs (CDC20+SPG20+) enabled the enrichment of cytokinetic events. Interestingly, cells that did not complete cytokinesis and remained binucleated were found to be CDC20−SPG20+ while polyploid CMs that replicated DNA but failed to complete karyokinesis were found to be CDC20−SPG20−. Conclusions-This study demonstrates a novel alternative to existing DNA content-based approaches for sorting CMs with true mitotic potential that can be used to study in detail the unique dynamics of CM nuclei during mitosis. Together with high-throughput scRNA-seq, our technique for sorting live CMs undergoing cytokinesis would provide a basis for future studies to uncover mechanisms underlying the development and regeneration of heart tissue.


Tropocyclops bopingi n.sp. is a 0.4 mm cyclopoid found in Liuxi He Reservoir, Guangdong, South China. It is probably widespread in South China, and appears in the Fauna Sinica under the name T. parvus. True T. parvus is a Central American species that is here redescribed from its type locality, Lake Peten Itza in Guatemala. T. bopingi is related to T. tenellus from the limnetic zone of Lake Tanganyika and other lakes in Central Africa, and all of them live under climatic conditions that are transitory between subtropical and tropical. T. tenellus is even smaller and more buoyant than T. bopingi and, at least in Lake Tanganyika, it tends to occur closer to the water surface than other zooplankton during the daytime. It does not carry egg balls, but extrudes eggs one at a time. T. tenellus and T. bopingi appear morphologically closer to each other than to T. parvus, but all three are ecologically similar: extremely small, pelagic species that presumably feed on small particles in the water. I hypothesize that environmental conditions in subtropical-tropical transition zones combine with predation and competitive pressure to offer a selective advantage to such omnivorous species in the open water of large lakes or reservoirs.


Mexico, one of the world's largest economies and an increasingly relevant actor in international affairs, is at a crucial point in defining its future policy course. Given the uncertainty surrounding the global economy, as well as the political situation in Mexico, it is important to have a clear vision for policy going forward. This thesis offers a foundation for a national economic strategy with a long-term vision, upon which future administrations can build as appropriate to maximize on the country's economic potential. The task is undertaken through a three-part approach. First, a thorough and analytical overview of the country's economic history provides context and lessons from which to learn. Second, key economic issues to be addressed are identified through an evaluation of the current context and economic outlook. Finally, an evaluation of successful policy implementation, domestically and abroad, provides a basis that can be adapted to address the issues identified as they affect Mexico. The result is a series of six policy recommendations along two axes aimed at tackling the aforementioned key issues. These recommendations are by no means exhaustive, nor are they meant to be. The expectation is that they may serve to align national policy to global economic trends, underlying a plausible strategy to realize Mexico's productive potential.


What kinds of assignments allow prospective teachers to truly learn sophisticated theoretical frameworks as well as research-based approaches for teaching so these approaches will not be overlooked in favor of invention or trial-and-error1 when they enter the classroom? How can assignments be designed so they require positive interdependence among prospective teachers so they learn how to work as collegial professionals? What kinds of assignments allow prospective teachers to develop technology skills they can use with their students once they begin to work in public schools? How can reflection be meaningfully included in teacher education assignments? The search for answers to these questions led to the development and refinement of the Professional Handbook, a teacher education assignment that allows preservice teachers to use technology to develop reflective skills and professionalism while also connecting theory and practice. The assignment is pragmatic because it abstract


Maize is an essential food crop in Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted to establish and select adaptable maize variety/ies with better agronomic performance and to familiarize farmers with improved agronomic practices for moisture stress within the study area. The experiment was conducted on agro-pastoralists' land by the researcher together with some selected members of agro-pastoralists. Three maize varieties that included (MH140, MHQ138, and MH130) were used for the experiment on selected pieces of land. A total of twenty-five farmers were selected from the following Peasant Association for this experiment for both years based on their interest. Five groups were formed based on their closer areas. Each group planted all maize varieties on 10 × 10 m plot size for each variety with a gross area of 100 m2 after the land was prepared in good manner with the help of expert. Recommended spacing of 75 and 25 cm between rows and plant, respectively was used. Analysis of variance showed significant difference among varieties in days to physiological maturity, plant height, biomass, grain yield, and harvest index. The highest grain yield was obtained from MH130 (6.55 ton/ha) followed by MHQ138 (5.88 ton/ha), while the lowest grain yield was recorded for MH140 (5.02 ton/ha). Based on agro pastoralists perception and selection criteria, MH130 was the first followed by MHQ138. This study states how the pastoralist perceptions were obtained. Therefore, since MH130 is relatively a high yielder and early maturing variety, it is recommended for adoption in Dugda Dawa district and other areas with the same agroecology.

 Key words: Participatory, agro-pastoralist, Dugda Dawa, maize variety, perception.


Intranasal ectopic tooth, which can be derived from either supernumerary, deciduous or permanent tooth, is generally a rare event. Their existence can cause a wide array of complication such as epistaxis, nasal blockage, nasal pain, rhinosinusitis, septal deviation, septal abscess as well as oronasal fistula. We highlight a case of a canine supernumerary tooth that erupted at floor of nasal cavity, causing an acute unilateral nasal blockage, and managed successfully with an endoscopic nasal tooth extraction.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 03 No. 04 October'19 Page : 235-237


Although much has been written on declines and turnarounds, virtually no research has examined stakeholders' influence in an existence threatening crisis of an organization. This paper provides a theory and a historical case study that show how the most influential stakeholders can be identified and managed during an organizational survival. The proposed model demonstrates how stakeholders' influence in organizational survival consists of both direct resource dependence- and structure-based forms of power. The case analysis then describes an examination of actual stakeholder influences and changes in them during the decline and turnaround process. Finally, based on the findings of the case analysis and the influence identification, propositions are developed. They relate specific types of behaviours of influential stakeholders to the probability of organizational survival, showing how stakeholder management can be operationalized in an organizational turnaround.


In this paper an intellectualized and integrated testing system of FM broadcast is devised and exploited to satisfy with the requirement of digital video broadcast development.Using high speed DSP processing system,it realizes automatic testing of eleven running technology indexes according to different configuration of system,such as the frequency response of broadcast transmitter,distortion degree,SNR,and so on.the real testing results show that the technology indexes of the system achieve domestic one-up level.What′s more,the repeating quality and reliability is favorable.


Neutralized, lactose-hydrolyzed, fluid cottage cheese whey was used to supply 53% of the total ingredient arrays in ice cream-type frozen dairy desserts. Eight mix formulations from a 23 factorial experimental design evaluated the effect of neutralizer type [KOH or Ca(OH)2], extent of whey acid neutralization (pH 6.5 or pH 6.8) and extent of whey lactose hydrolysis (50% or 75%). A ninth or control conventional ice cream containing fluid whole milk instead of whey was used as the standard for comparison. Based on chemical, physical and sensory analyses the study demonstrated that neutralized, hydrolyzed, fluid cottage cheese whey can be successfully utilized as the major bulk-supplying ingredient in ice cream-type frozen dairy desserts. Composition parameters were within existing or proposed standards of identity for such foods. Analysis of sensory panel test data by theory of signal detection (TSD) indicated that whey acidity neutralization to pH 6.8 with KOH together with 50% lactose hydrolysis gave a dessert equally as acceptable as a conventional ice cream.


The present invention includes (A) a (meth) acrylic acid ester monomer having a C1-C14 alkyl group as a main monomer, and (B) an allyl ester, vinyl ester, unsaturated ester group as a submonomer. Or one or more monomers selected from the group consisting of a mixture thereof, a monomer containing a cyano group, a monomer containing an amine group, and a styrenic monomer having a vinyl group; (C) Latex particles in which three or more types of anionic emulsifiers are coated with polymer fine particles containing a monomer having a carboxy group and / or a hydroxyl group as a functional monomer and (D) a crosslinking agent. And the latex particles have an average particle size of nano size and a monomodal particle size distribution, and are excellent in stability of high solid content. The present invention relates to a marble adhesive composition and a method for producing the same.


Boarding schools are complex institutions that encompass many spheres of life and subunits, each characterized by different modes of conduct, or "codes. " They may be classified on the basis of the intensity of each code and the patterns that link the codes in each institution. Six types of boarding schools are delineated in this article. The ideal, hybrid type maximizes the pedagogical potential because it is based on the fusion of codes and the institutionalization of conflict among them. Consequently, it provides students with a high degree of freedom and the opportunity to experiment with various kinds of roles and rules and fosters the emergence of a commitment to universal values and responsible elite orientations. Examples are given from Israel, Britain, and the United States.


By examining the history of the legal regulation of union actions, this fascinating book offers a new interpretation of American labor-law policy-and its harmful impact on workers today. * Provides a unique interpretation of labor law from a multidisciplinary perspective that encompasses history, politics, economics, culture, and psychology * Considers the role organized labor played in creating the American middle class and what role it might play in the future * Shows the adverse consequences of the contemporary right-to-work movement * Examines the politicized nature of law in America * Offers recommendations for political action to restore union vitality


A study was undertaken to determine whether bone invasion is an independent prognostic factor in oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) after taking into account the extent of bone invasion.


Readily available 5,6-dihydrobenzo[b]thiophen-7(4H)-one has been used as a convenient intermediate for the synthesis of several condensed heterocyclic systems and substituted benzo[b]thiophenes.


Author's Summary.— The author regrets the feverish haste with which elementary students are hurried through the early stages of foreign language studies; and he suggests that teachers return to the old ideals of scholarly thoroughness, and direct all their efforts to assist their students to acquire a sound knowledge of fundamentals.)


RFID is a rapid-developing technology for wireless identification lately. There are many related products and systems for various applications. However, most of them only deal with logistic management or business management without involving users' concerns for personalized services. Therefore, it motivates us to develop a mobile personalized RFID system with an event processing model focusing on the characterization of identification for personalized services. In this paper, we show how the proposed system prototype works as well as demonstrate a system implementation for movie DVD rentals.


The following study addresses the analysis of the illuminated manuscripts that belonged to the library of Charles of Aragon and Evreux, Prince of Viana, based in two master lines traced after reading the inventory of his belongings -which was made after his death on 21st September 1461. The first one studies the illuminated codices related to his private chapel and the second makes an attempt to approach Charles's library, Prince of Viana, emphasizing the illuminated manuscripts that have survived to this day. The participation of certain illuminators, such as Guillermo Hugo de Luseyo, who joined the princes's entourage in Sicily, allows to assess the viability of the artistic routes established between Naples, Sicily and Barcelona during this period.


The author clearly outlines these stages, but perhaps for personal reasons, he neglects to discuss the last stage which began with Imam Khomeini's reinterpretation and application of the concept of walaya (authority) of the jurist {faqlh) to himself as the representative (na^ib) of the Imam. Such analysis would have made this timely study even more relevant to the situation of the largest Shii state. The discussion in Chapter four of the theological and juristic aspects of the imamate of the hidden Imam is most useful. Little has been written on this subject with such clarity and comprehensiveness. Here again, however, there is not, as the author suggests there is, a clear distinction in time or vocation between traditionists and theologians: most scholars were both at one and the same time. There was a shift, to be sure, in emphasis from hadith to kalam but this was due in large measure to the late development of Shii kalam as a distinct discipline. These few minor criticisms are meant only to put into focus more sharply the excellent introduction which this book provides to Shii thought and piety. It is a unique study and thus a welcome contribution to an area of Islamic thought and piety long neglected by Western scholars.


Village communities in Uttarakhand hill state in India have been involved in community forestry management known as Van Panchayats (VPs) are a unique example of community forestry in partnership with government for environmental governance at local levels. People in Uttarakhand depend highly on Van Panchayats forest to draw fodder, fuel-wood, timber, NTFPs etc. Considerable effort has been made to study the historical evolution, organisational structure, management resource utilisation, and enforcement of rules and regulations of three Van Panchayats. Here, we had compared the conservation and management practices across three Van Panchayats in Uttarakhand, as we had chart out the differences in use and management that had existed even within the same agro-climatic zone. All the Van Panchayats studied have indigenous management practices throughout the year. The rules and regulations devised by the Van Panchayat Village Committee for management of forests are unique from one Van Panchayat to another and are responsible for internal management and grazing, collection of fuelwood, fodder, timber and protection. It can be noticed that people had devised a variety of well thought practice of conservation, management and equitable use of products within their village communities. © 2013 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved


Through coating calcium acrylate and cement on the surface of aggregates,the compact interface transition zone with certain strength is formed between aggregates and cement pastes to improve the former weak interface transition zone.The results indicate that adding calcium acrylate can not only optimize the mechanical property but also improve the corrosion resistance of interface transition zone.When the content of calcium acrylate is 0.5%,the flexural strength of 1 day can improve 71.75% and compressive strength of 28 days can improve 13.44%.When the content of calcium acrylate is 2.0%,the corrosion resistance coefficient can rise to 1.184.


A naive storage of a Huffman model on a text of length n over an alphabet of size σ requires O(σlog n) bits. This can be reduced to σ logσ + O(σ) bits using canonical codes. This overhead over the entropy can be significant when σ is comparable to n, and it also dictates the amount of main memory required to compress or decompress. We design an encoding scheme that requires σlog log n+O(σ+log2 n) bits in the worst case, and typically less, while supporting encoding and decoding of symbols in O(log log n) time. We show that our technique reduces the storage size of the model of state-of-the-art techniques to around 15% in various real-life sequences over large alphabets, while still offering reasonable compression/decompression times.


South Africa is committed to reducing under-5 mortality rates in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. Policymakers and healthcare service managers require accurate and complete data on the number and causes of child deaths to plan and monitor healthcare service delivery and health outcomes. This study aimed to review nationally representative data on under-5 mortality and the cause of deaths among children under 5 years of age. We also reviewed systems that are currently used for generating these data. Child mortality has declined substantially in the past decade. Under-5 mortality in 2015 is estimated at 37 - 40 deaths per 1 000 live births, with an estimated infant mortality rate of 27 - 33 deaths per 1 000 live births. Approximately one-third of under-5 deaths occur during the newborn period, while diarrhoea, pneumonia and HIV infection remain the most important causes of death outside of the newborn period. The proportion of deaths owing to non-natural causes, congenital disorders and non-communicable diseases has increased.  However, many discrepancies in data collected through different systems are noted, especially at the sub-national level. There is a need to improve the completeness and accuracy of existing data systems and to strengthen reconciliation and triangulation of data.


FERREIRA, J.G.P. Organization of the ventral tegmental area projections to the VTAnigral complex and to the hypothalamus in the rat and VTA neurons projecting to the accumbens express insulin receptor substrates. PhD thesis (Physiology) Biomedical Sciences Institute, the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 2009. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is involved in reward mechanisms and, more recently, has been identified as an additional center detecting peripheral metabolic signals. In the first part of this work, the projections from the VTA to the VTA-substantia nigra complex were investigated using the anterograde tracer Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (PHA-L). The results suggest that the dorsolateral VTA projects to itself and to the dorsal portion of the substantia nigra compacta and retrorubral nucleus. The ventrolateral VTA innervates mainly the interfascicular nucleus. The components of the caudomedial VTA (interfascicular, caudal linear and paranigral nuclei) are interconnected. The caudal pole of the VTA sends robust and bilateral projections to almost the entire VTA-substantia nigra complex, ending in both the dorsal and ventral tiers of the substantia nigra compacta. Appositions between PHA-L immunoreactive varicosities and neurons immunoreactive to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH+) were often observed. In the second part of this work, the VTA projections to the hypothalamus were investigated. The importance of dopaminergic mechanisms in the lateral hypothalamus has long been acknowledged, they are involved in food intake, conditioned place preference, acquisition of appetitive conditioned responses and locomotor activity. The present results suggest that: 1) the VTA projects mainly to the lateral preoptic area and lateral hypothalamic area, the posterior subfornical region as well as to the dorsomedial and posterior hypothalamic nuclei. The lateral hypothalamic area is more densely innervated at rostral levels than at tuberal or caudal levels. The VTA also provides modest inputs to the medial preoptic area, the perifornical area and to the supramammillary region; 2) VTA projections to the hypothalamus display some topographical organization. In particular, projections to the dorsomedial nucleus and posterior subfornical region originate primarily from the caudomedial VTA, whereas the rostrodorsal VTA avoids these hypothalamic districts; 3) Appositions between PHA-L immunoreactive varicosities and neurons immunoreactive to orexin or melanin-concentrating hormone were observed, but they are uncommon; and 4) In double labeling experiments with injections of anterograde biotin dextran amine into the accumbens and PHA-L into the VTA, an extensive overlap of these projections was observed in the lateral preoptic area and anterior part of the lateral hypothalamic area. In the third part of this work, we have investigated the co-localization of the insulin receptor substrate type I (IRS-1), IRS-1 phosphorylated and phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) with TH or cholera toxin B subunit (CTb) injected into either the accumbens or the caudate-putamen. Our data suggest that: 1) The vast majority of dopaminergic neurons of the VTA-substantia nigra complex express IRS-1; 2) Injections into the shell or core of the accumbens resulted in a similar percentage of double-labeled cells for CTb/IRS-1. A significant number of cells were double-labeled for CTb/PI3K and 3) Injections in the dorsal striatum resulted in cells that were double-labeled for CTb/PI3K and CTb/IRS-1 phosphorylated, 4) The IRS-1 immunolabeling was localized in the nucleus of cells, unlike the cytosolic labeling observed by Folli and colleagues (J. Neurosci. 14: 6412-6422, 1994).


Large-scale synthetic data is needed to support the deep learning big-bang that started in the recent decade and influenced almost all scientific fields. Most of the synthetic data generation solutions are task-specific or unscalable while the others are expensive, based on commercial games, or unreliable. In this work, a new rendering engine called Silver is presented in detail. Photo-realism, diversity, scalability, and full 3D virtual world generation at run-time are the key aspects of this work. The photo-realism was approached by utilizing the state-of-the-art High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) of the Unity game engine. In parallel, the Procedural Content Generation (PCG) concept was employed to create a full 3D virtual world at run-time, while the scalability of the system was attained by taking advantage of the modular approach followed as we built the system from scratch. Silver can be used to provide clean, unbiased, and large-scale training and testing data for various computer vision tasks.


TiC strengthened high chromium stainless steel is fabricated by in-situ reaction technology during high temperature melting.The results show that TiC particles present nubby morphology and uniform distribution,the size of which is between 3~10 μm.There is no reunited appearing in the microstructure.Compared with the microstructure of stainless steel,the dendrite can not be observed and there are martensite and undissolved carbides with TiC additions.Under the water-lubricated condition,the wear resistance of TiC strengthened high chromium stainless steel has been improved 3 times compared with that of industrial high chromium stainless steel.


The invention relates to a method for synthesizing ceramsite by coal slurry, ardealite and metallurgical slag. The method comprises the following steps of: mixing the coal slurry serving as a main raw material and the ardealite and the metallurgical slag serving as auxiliary materials; pelletizing the mixture; baking the particles; and naturally cooling the baked particles to the room temperatureto obtain the ceramsite. The water absorption rate of the finished ceramsite is less than or equal to 15 percent, the bulk density range is less than or equal to 500 kg/m and the cylinder compressive strength is more than or equal to 0.3 MPa. The technical index of the ceramsite can reach the standard of GBT17431.1-1998 Lightweight Aggregates and Its Test Methods.


In this work, a synthesis of reduced graphene oxide using Hibiscus Sabdarriffa L extract was investigated. This way is operationally easy and environmentally friendly at compared with the reduction methods of graphene oxide using chemical agents. The prepared GO and reduced GO were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transition Electronic Microscope (TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Photoluminescence (PL)and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) provide a good indication of the removal of oxygen-containing groups from GO and the formation of RGO.It is found that the graphene sheets possess a frizzy morphology consisting of a thin wrinkled paper-like structure, fewer layers and large specific surface area (506.6m2 g−1) and good thermal stability. Measurements show that the use of a natural agent is more likely to reduce functional aggregates in the graphene oxide than hydrazine. Moreover, it is less toxic, less volatile and safer than others.


This article proposes a (partial) reading of G. Dustan's third novel Plus fort que moi (1996), which interrogates the transgressive education in (homo)sexuality of Guillaume, the protagonist. More particularly, this reading is interested in delineating his reconfiguration (as sur/vival) of several (s)existential limits (and the modalities they define in the regime of a certain "ideal heterosexuality"). It thus sketches, first, the (his)story of Guillaume's sexual Bildung , then further concentrates on his multiplication of (possible) bodily pleasures (sometimes helped by specific technologies), as well as his alternative ways of modulating and modelising time (that becomes elastic, plastic) and space (by remapping public-private frontiers). The article finally focuses on Guillaume's re-evaluation of his relation to the world and partners once (potentially) imminent death has been inscribed in his body with/by HIV. This article introduces the first instalment of a larger study that would approach the polymorphous "notion" of what is (going to be) called here (and elsewhere) sexistence , and more globally TRANS– .


Control systems are vulenrable to faults in control loops where faults may cause abrupt and damaging responses. These systems with fault accomondation are becoming more and more important while appearing in ight control, robots control and nuclear reactor control etc, and call for more rigorous development approach. A formal approach is explored in this paper, based on Extended Duration Calculus, for the development of such kind of systems. A typical example of control system with fault accomondation, a two-level control system is used for illustrating our approach. Its high level consists of an event-driven supervisor which reacts to the change of plant due to faults occurance, and its low level consists of normal controller, recon gured controller and other components with FDI(Fault Detection and Isolation) mechanism. Firstly performance speci cations and system speci cation of the case are formulated in EDC; then they are re ned stepwisely into speci cations of the supervisor and the low level components. Finally the whole system performance is veri ed in EDC framework.


This overview looks at both the history of Spanish in Louisiana and also the resurgence of the language due to new immigration.


Abstract. The identification of ginkgo is of great importance for the intelligent use and management of ginkgo resources. A texture and spectrum time series analysis (TeSTA) model was used to identify and map ginkgo trees as the vegetation spectral and textural properties change regularly during the growing period. The texture and spectrum time series were constructed from temporal remotely sensed images and then projected into a multidimensional measurement space in which the vector difference was used to determine the threshold to identify ginkgo trees. Using this approach, ginkgo trees in Beijing's Olympic Forest Park were extracted using six Gaofen-2 satellite images. In order to assess the accuracy of this method, two other classification methods were used for ginkgo identification. One method uses only the spectrum time series and the other method uses the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. The results showed that the TeSTA model performed better than the SVM and spectrum time series model with lower commission errors and higher user's accuracy. Thus, the TeSTA model can be used for identifying ginkgo trees and providing an important tool for forestry management.


Coffee seedling is one of the most important agents which disseminate nemathodes causing serious hazard to Brazilian coffee plantation. Traditionally, coffee seedlings are grown in polyethylene bags containing soil as substrate which is a source of nemathodes and other soil pathogens. An experiment was carried out in Universidade Estadual de Londrina , State of Parana, in 1993, to investigate the growing of coffee seedlings in polyethylene tubules, which has been successfuly employed in Eucaliptus sp. seedling production. The treatments were obtained by the combination of NPK doses, diluted in water, and frequencies of fertirrigation. The earthworm compost with 20% of carbonized ricestraw was used as substrate. The statistical results showed that it is possible to produce coffee seedlings with the following advantages: reduction up to 90% of substrate volume; reduction of costs with sanitary treatments of substrate; savings in the acquisition of sterile substrate, as well as practicability in transport and handling of the seedlings.


Excerpt To the Editors:I appreciate the efforts of the American College of Physicians Ethics Committee in developing the position paper (1) on physicians and the pharmaceutical industry. I think, h...


Genetic variability in existing germplasm is mandatory before commencement of a successful breeding program. To estimate genetic variability and correlations among mungbean genotypes, an experiment was conducted at The University of Agriculture, Peshawar during 2014. Fourteen mungbean genotypes were sown in RCB design with three replications. Data were recorded on days to maturity (days), plant height (cm), pod length (cm), pods plant(no.), grains pod(g), 1000 grain weight (g), biological yield (tons ha) and grain yield (tons ha). Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences (P≤0.01) among mungbean genotypes for all the studied traits. Mean value for the said traits ranged between 67-76.3, 48.7-105.7, 7.2-9.7, 15.2-22.5, 9.312.0, 42.6-55.6, 8.888-13.111 and 2.022-3.401 for days to maturity, plant height, pod length, pod plant, grains pod 1000 grain weight, biological yield and grain yield, respectively. Genotype Mung NM11 performed better for yield and yield associated parameters under agro-climatic conditions of Peshawar. Significant negative phenotypic correlation for grain yield was observed with pods plant (r =-0.51) whereas, significant positive correlation was observed with 1000 grain weight (r = 0.60). Based on the results of current study, genotype "Mung NM11" could be disseminated directly among growers for the commercial production of mungbean or may be included in a cultivar development program to produce transgressive segregants.


Since World War II physicists have played a prominent role in developing weapons policy and science policy for our country. This interaction with the government has been carried out largely behind the scenes, beyond the public view, by an elite group of established and renowned physicists working through such institutions as the President's Science Advisory Committee, the National Academy of Sciences and the JASON program of the Institute for Defense Analyses. By and large most physicists have had no role in this process. In the past the physics profession has not encouraged physicists to involve themselves in public policy. It has not provided reward and recognition for this kind of activity.


Because of the increase in cyberattacks in the Internet era, cybersecurity is a crucial area that still requires many more human resources. Security handson training plays an important role in educating a skilled workforce. However, delivering hands-on training with a large number of participants during the COVID-19 pandemic was a big challenge. In this paper, we discuss differences between onsite and online penetration testing hands-on training, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. We share our teaching experiences and lessons learned and provide recommendations for preparing and delivering online hands-on training efficiently.


: We belong to a world that rapidly upgrades itself in terms of innovation and technology. Organizations have to keep up with the changing times and thereby started using agile and lean development techniques in their operations for increased process pace and quality. The umbrella term used to describe the portmanteau of development and operation is called DevOps. In this paper we shall delve into the various Multi-cloud adoption tools and techniques. We initially summarized the results of a Systematic Literature Review to explore the advantages of DevOps. Then we described the results of an exploratory survey based study involving eight devops tools and how they contribute to various technologies in the organization. We observed Multi-Cloud DevOps adoption is accepted all over the world as it posed very few challenges against the wide array of services it offers.


This study was initiated to establish whether inhibition of growth of yeasts by medium-chain fatty acids resembled that caused by weak-acid preservatives or uncouplers. Unlike sorbic acid and 2,4-dinitrophenol, decanoic acid caused rapid cell death at its inhibitory concentration. This suggested a mode of action by medium-chain fatty acids, distinct from both weak-acid preservatives and uncouplers. Sorbic acid and 2,4-dinitrophenol both increased lag and doubling times, reduced cell yields and inhibitory concentrations of both were highly pH sensitive. The possibility is discussed as to whether weak-acid preservatives and uncouplers share common modes of inhibition.


The first mapuche students were war hostages, they transformed themselves in teachers for their own people and, after that, in the first leaders of the mapuche contemporaneous political movement. This could be the first page of the educational history of the mapuche people. The following pages speak about their needs, winnings and dreams. About these issues will be, briefly, this paper, specifically about the educational demands that the first mapuche organizations of the XXth century expressed. Demands in order to learn the alphabet of the chilean nationality, to enjoy what other enjoys, to survive.


Abstract Numerical calculations have been made for the formation process of rotating black holes. It is suggested that Kerr black holes may be formed for wide ranges of initial conditions if q (=| total angular momentum |M2) is smaller than unity. For q > 1, an expanding disk or a jet appears.


The physical and chemical properties exhibited by per- and polyfluorinated ethers are unique, and make this class of compounds useful in a wide range of applications. In this study, we apply siloxane derivatives of various fluoroalcohols to the preparation of fluorinated ethers containing fluorinated aromatic moieties, e.g., C6F5CF3 + (CH3)3SiOCH2(CF2)2CH2OSi(CH3)3 → [CF3C6F4OCH2CF2]2. The thermal stabilities of these polyfluorinated aromatic ethers are compared as a function of structure in the presence (or absence) of selected metals.


This study investigates government quality determinants of ICT adoption using Generalised Method of Moments on a panel of 49 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries for the period 2000-2012. ICT is measured with mobile phone penetration, internet penetration and telephone penetration rates while all governance dimensions from the World Bank Governance Indicators are considered, namely: political governance (consisting of political stability and "voice & accountability"); economic governance (entailing government effectiveness and regulation quality) and institutional governance (encompassing the rule of law and corruption-control). The following findings are established. First, political stability and the rule of law have positive short-run and negative long-term effects on mobile phone penetration. Second, the rule of law has a positive (negative) short-run (long-term) effect on internet penetration. Third, government effectiveness and corruption-control have positive short-run and long-term effects on telephone penetration. Institutional governance appears to be most significant in determining ICT adoption in SSA.


The utility model discloses a belt-drive tension device, belonging to the field of mechanical drive, and solving problems that a belt is still easy to slip or be excessively tensioned after a traditional belt tension device is tensioned, and a load of a device is excessively increased. The belt-drive tension device comprises a lug base, an air cylinder and a pair of swing stems of L-shaped structures, wherein the cylinder end of the air cylinder is hinged on the lug base, one end of each L-shaped swing stem is hinged with a mandril of a driven wheel, the other end of each L-shaped swing stem is hinged with a piston rod of the air cylinder; and a corner of each L-shaped swing stem is hinged on a swing stem fixing frame. The belt-drive tension device has a simple structure; a tension force is adjustable along with the extension and lengthening of the belt by regulating a pressure of the air cylinder; in addition, the constant of the tension force of the belt in a working state is met, the running precision of the belt-drive tension device is ensured, the service life of the belt-drive tension device is prolonged, and the operation efficiency is also improved.


The roles Small and Medium Scale Enterprises play in the development and growth of any economy cannot be over emphasised. In the past, it has always been said that enough funds given to SMEs in Nigeria hasn't always been enough to drive growth in the sector. Even the ones given are not properly managed to achieve the desired result.


Optical manipulation of nanosheet liquid crystals prepared by exfoliation of inorganic layered crystals realizes local and on-demand orientation control of nanosheets. Although a tightly focused laser beam by using an objective lens with a high numerical aperture (NA) is typically employed for the optical manipulation to enhance the gradient force of an irradiated laser beam, the dominant driving force of the optical orientational manipulation of nanosheets has recently been attributed to the scattering force, suggesting that an objective lens with a high NA is not indispensible for the nanosheet manipulation. In this study, we carried out optical orientational manipulation of nanosheets using an objective lens with low NA, 0.4, and compared the results with those obtained by a lens with high NA, 1.2. Orientational manipulation was realized with both of the lenses, and the size of the manipulated domain using a lens with NA=0.4 was smaller than that obtained by using a lens with NA=1.2. The domain size increased with the irradiated laser power, reflecting the dominant contribution of scattering force to the optical manipulation of nanosheet liquid crystals.


The combination of irradiation and biological technique was chosen to study COD, BOD 5 and colour removal from textiles effluent in the presence of food industry wastewater.  Two biological treatments, the first consisting a mix of non irradiated textile and food industry wastewater and the second a mix of irradiated textiles wastewater and food industry wastewater were operated in parallel. Reduction percentage of COD in textiles wastewater increased from 29.4% after radiation  to 62.4% after further undergoing biological treatment. After irradiation, the BOD 5 of textiles wastewater was reduced by 22.1%, but reverted to the original value of 36mg/l after undergoing biological treatment. Colour had decreased from 899.5 ADMI to 379.3 ADMI after irradiation and continued to decrease to 109.3 ADMI after passing through biological treatment.


The Effectiveness of Palate-less Versus Complete Palatal Coverage Dentures. R. Akeel, M. Assery and S. Al-Dalgan. European Journal of Prosthodontics ABSTRACTS and Restorative Dentistry 2000; 8 (2): 63–66.


Using a mild insult to induce endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms is known as preconditioning. When followed by a severe insult, or challenge, preconditioning results in a state of tolerance in which the injury inflicted by the challenge is mitigated. Tolerance is observed in ischemia, seizure, and infection and can be induced when the severe insult is preceded by a mild insult of the same or different type. Classical tolerance requires new protein synthesis and confers delayed and temporary neuroprotection, taking hours to develop, peaking over the course of 1–3 days, and then abating (Barone et al., 1998).


A novel method of fast face detection algorithm based on Harr feature cascade strong classifier and skin color model was proposed.By using cascade strong classifier,human faces were detected rapidly based on the characteristics of the face Haar.The face region to sentence was selected by using skin color clustering model.The experiment led up to the fact that false detection rate is low and the speed for detection is fast and the algorithm is valuable in practical use.


Although exposure to physical environmental stressors poses risks for all human beings, African Americans, and particularly African American children, are disproportionately exposed to such stressors. This paper primarily reviews representative literature on the impact of various physical environmental stressors upon African American children. Future research directions and recommendations for environmental intervention at the community, legislative and governmental levels are discussed.


A new s-triazine derivative modified graphene composite, in which 2,4,6-tri(2,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TDTA) was attached onto reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via the noncovalent functionalization approach, named TDTA/rGO, was reported. And the TDTA was synthesized via a Friedel-Crafts reaction. FTIR and NMR spectroscopic characterizations were carried out to confirm the synthesis of TDTA. UV-Vis, XPS and TEM revealed that TDTA molecules were successfully loaded onto graphene sheets by π-π stacking, and the composite is found to improve greatly the dispersity of rGO in DMF and to be a good UV-absorber.


A stratosphere-resolving configuration (HIGH-TOP) of the EC-EARTH global climate model (GCM) is used to characterize the El Ni˜no-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and compare it to observations. Despite the state of the art stratosphere, HIGH-TOP still presents some biases in the seasonal cycle and in the ENSO spatial pattern common to other GCMs. The interannual peak in the Ni˜no3.4 index power spectrum is broadly captured, but the model is biased towards lower frequencies. To assess the effects of a well-resolved stratosphere in the tropical Pacific and, in particular, on ENSO, HIGH-TOP is compared with a low-top version of the model (LOW-TOP). HIGH-TOP displays systematic and statistically significant higher interannual variability in the central-eastern Pacific, along with an improvement in the ENSO pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. The comparison of the ENSO-induced tropospheric circulation anomalies reveals a strengthening of the eastern Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in HIGH-TOP with respect to LOW-TOP. Additionally, in the equatorial eastern Pacific, HIGH-TOP correctly simulates anomalous upward motion, while LOW-TOP simulates anomalous downward motion that enhances the climatological Walker circulation. The stronger ITCZ and the anomalous ascent in the eastern equatorial Pacific in HIGH-TOP are consistent with the higher total interannual variability in SST and precipitation in HIGH-TOP. Hence, incorporating a well-resolved stratosphere in the EC-EARTH model yields a more realistic representation of the variability in the central-eastern Pacific and tropical ENSO pattern.


We present correspondence sets involving word-initial consonants and including all known members of the Yeniseian language family. The data can be used for a systematic application of the comparative method, implying both the reconstruction of proto-phonemes and subsequent phylogenetic research questions (intrafamilial subdivisions among the Yeniseian languages according to shared phonological innovations). Key findings include (I) the discovery of an isogloss which separates Ket, Yugh and Pumpokol from Kott, Assan and Arin in terms of word-initial labial and dental plosives (voiced in the former group, voiceless in the other) and (II) the inference that Proto-Yeniseian (PY), i.e., the last common ancestor of all Yeniseian languages, probably had a two-layered system of plain voiced and plain voiceless stops. We do not see evidence for the postulation of lateral affricates. In addition, there are three correspondences of sibilants and uvulars, respectively, but we cannot, as yet, plausibly posit proto-phonemes in these cases.


Diamond microgears with tip diameter about 1.55 mm and thickness 10 μm were fabricated over silicon structrue using the process combined with silicon etching at inductively coupled plasma(ICP) and selective growth of diamond deposited by hot filament chemical vapour deposition(HFCVD).The surface morphologies of microstructured silicon and diamond gears were characterized by scaning eletron microscopy(SEM),respectively.The investigation indicated that both microstructrues were fine and that the diamond microgears were duplicated precisely over the silicon microstructures etched at ICP.Then,laser Raman spectroscopy characterization demonstrated that the high-quaility polycrystalline diamond microgears were obtained.The results shown that this process can pattern precisely diamond thin films and it may offer a feasible approach to fabricate diamond components in batches at low-cost for diamond devices for micro-machine applications.


OBJECTIVE
To clarify whether the various subtypes of serous cystic neoplasms (SCNs) of the pancreas can be distinguished from each other by marker profiles.

METHODS
The immunoprofiles of 13 SCNs were defined by using antibodies against cytoskeletal, neuroendocrine, hormone receptor, and mucin markers. In addition, we examined the expression of calrentinin and alpha-inhibin.

RESULTS
SCN included 7 cases of serous microcystic adenomas (SMA), 3 cases of serous oligocystic ill-defined adenomas (SOIA), 1 case of solid serous adenoma (SSA), 1 case of von Hippel-Lindau-associated cystic neoplasm (VHL-CN), and 1 case of serous cystadenocarcinoma (SCC). These neoplasms are histologically similar, but differ in their localization, gross appearance, gender distribution, and biological behavior. The various types of SCNs showed a very similar immunoprofile, characterized by positivity for cytokeratins (100%) and negativity for vimentin and synaptophysin. Other markers that were commonly expressed in the SCNs were alpha-inhibin (85%), MUC1 (69%) and MUC6 (77%).

CONCLUSION
The results suggest that, despite their biologic differences, the various types of SCNs have the same (or a very similar) cell type and may therefore have a common direction of differentiation. A centroacinar origin is supported by the finding that a number of SCNs share MUC1 and MUC6 expression with pancreatic centroacinar cells. Alpha-inhibin, and MUC6 may be regarded as new markers for this type of pancreatic tumor.


Molecular analyses of large numbers of patient samples are increasingly used for diagnostic applications as well as for understanding cancer biology. Their accuracy depends on the quality and quantity of nucleic acids extracted from human cells or tissues. To optimize these preanalytical steps, we evaluated several automated technologies for nucleic acid purification from clinical samples. Three automated platforms were compared. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes from five normal individuals, and its quality was assessed by D-HPLC and sequencing after PCR. Clinical samples from acute leukemia patients were used for automated RNA extractions; results were compared to our standard manual technique. RNA qualification was done using capillary gel electrophoresis and analysis of the Abelson gene transcript by real-time PCR. One robot produced higher total output for both DNA and RNA. While the quality of DNAs obtained from the three workstations allowed implementation of their analysis for det...


Ninety lactating mothers and their infants less than 3 months of age were selected from different areas of Ludhiana city. Based on feeding practices subjects were divided into three categories i.e. breast + bottle fed (Group A) bottle fed (Group B) and breast fed (Group C). The data regarding feeding practices adopted by lactating mothers was collected by pre-tested questionnaire. Feeding practices revealed that majority of the respondents in A and C group, gave colostrum to their baby and started breast feeding from the first day of delivery. Prelacteal feed mostly given to their infants was honey. Intervals of feeding were 2–3 hrs and number of feeding ranged from 4–11. Atleast one night feeding was given by majority of the subjects. Artificial feeding (AF) was started at 1–2 months in A and B group whereas at fourth month in C group. Feeding at fixed hours was most commonly practised. More than 5 feedings were given to bottle fed infants. Majority of the subjects in A and C group gave 1–3 feedings of 50–100 ml while 50% in B group gave 150–200 ml of top milk and sugar was added as sweetening agent. Bottle was most commonly used as mode of feeding which was sterilized for 10 minutes. Weaning was started at 3rd month in A and B group whereas at fourth month in C group and cerelac was most commonly used. Diarrhoea was less prevalent in breast fed group whereas morbidity rate was more in breast + bottle fed group. Maximum gain in weight was observed in B group and CHL in C group. Increase in circumference of head, chest, MUA and SFT was maximum in B group whereas calf circumference in C group.


This paper relates to a gene-engineered bacteria strain - Escherichia coli JM109 (pGEX-AZR), and its application to degradation of pharmaceutical wastewater with respect to color of an azo dye. The experiment shows the very efficient in both color and COD removals of the strain which plays a vital part in strengthening EPS and enzyme activity of biomass in the sequence MBR.


The yield behaviour of a series of melt-mixed polyethylene-modified montmorillonite nanocomposites has been studied as a function of temperature and strain rate and compared to the behaviour of the base polymer. The processing conditions used gave an intercalated structure as assessed by X-ray diffraction. Although there was a modest improvement in stiffness with clay content, the yield behaviour was insensitive to the addition of the clay. Both the base polymer and the nanocomposites showed double yield points. These were analysed as activated rate processes, with the activation energies consistent with the low strain yield point being associated with the alpha(2) molecular relaxation and the higher strain yield point with W axis slip. (C) 2003 Society of Chemical Industry.


This paper presents two nested input saturation control schemes for a special class of multiple vector integrators with bounded additive disturbances. The considered systems originate from the motion control of rotary‐wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The first scheme is based on a feedforward form, which requires state transformation and can be applied to stabilize arbitrary order vector integrator systems. The second scheme is constructed with original state variables using a new approach, applied here to double vector integrator systems. The capability of handling external disturbance using the two schemes is also analyzed. The two schemes are applied to design motion controllers for rotary‐wing UAVs and simulation results are provided to show the performances of two controllers.


Objective To analyze the maxillofacial soft tissue defect treated with fat granule or/and dermal-fat tissue grafting.Methods The deformity was divided into two groups: congenital and acquired defect according to the pathogenesis. Congenital deformity was filled with fat granule, occasionally with dermal-fat flap in some patients whose defect was large. Hemi-facial atrophy and defect induced by operation or injury were corrected with dermal-fat flap and/or fat granule after deep scar was relaxed. Defect induced by vein vascular malformation was filled with dermal-fat flap.Results Most of the patients with these deformity were corrected, the appearance looked approximately symmetric. The appearance of hemi-facial atrophy changed markedly and good results were achieved. Perfect effects were acquired in traumatic/post-operation and vascular malformation patients. But the effect wasn't very good in some congenital deformity which was often with skeletal dystrophy. Therefore, only was soft tissue correction insufficient in these cases, skeletal deformity must be corrected too.Conclusion The treatment of maxillofacial defect must depend on pathogenesis/ defect size and patient's age, fat granule was usually used in shallow defect, and dermal-fat flap was used in deep and large defect. Defect induced by vascular malformation must be filled with dermal-fat flap.


Presented studies were concern on antioxidant (AO) and anti-radical (AR) properties of a number spices widely used in the Azerbaijani cuisine. In our experiments, 70% ethanol –water extracts of clove (Syzigium aromaticum), black caraway seeds (Nigella sativa), сumin (Cuminum cymin) and saffron (Crocus sativus), were used. The studies were carried out using two methods based on the ability of quenching the stable free radical DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and on the chemiluminescence emission quenching ability models. The IC50 analysis for spice samples against the IC50 of a standard Trolox quencher (analogue vitamin E) and chemiluminescence emission showed AO and AR activity of the samples in the following line order: saffron> clove> cumin> black caraway.


Current mobile robot motion accuracy has not been yet achieved to full satisfaction. This paper presents a novel technique of dual feedback & feedforward synchronized cross-coupled motion control (DFFSCCC) for two-wheel mobile robot to achieve higher accuracy. previous cross-coupled motion control techniques are based on the consideration of only internal disturbances. The technique presented in this paper is based on the consideration of both internal and external disturbances. Similarly, previous cross-coupled motion control techniques used only feedback signals to correct the errors of the system. DFFSCCC has employed feedback and feedforward signals at the same time to achieve more accurate results. DFFSCCC has been mathematically modeled and simulated by using MATLAB-SIMULINK. The achieved results show that the suggested technique is robust and yield zero transient response and zero steady state errors. Hence, DFFSCCC can yield zero position and orientation errors which can keep the mobile robot on the same trajectory path, either straight or curve, despite of continuous disturbances that may affect either of motors


Panic disorder is a relatively common anxiety disorder that is often disabling. It may or may not be associated with agoraphobia. Panic disorder can be imitated by various medical illnesses, which, even when treated, can get cued with panic symptoms. It is also frequently comorbid with other psychiatric disorders including depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and substance use disorders. Although often initially seen in early adulthood, panic disorder can also present in childhood or in the geriatric population. Clinicians should thus be aware of the variability in clinical presentations that may be associated with both the pediatric and geriatric age groups. This article provides a broad overview of various screening and assessment tools used to evaluate panic disorder across the lifespan. The article also highlights some of the developmental differences and variability in the clinical presentation of pediatric and geriatric panic disorder.


Abstract : Precise, smooth aerodynamic models are required for implementing adaptive, nonlinear control strategies. Accurate representations of aerodynamic coefficients can be generated for the complete flight envelope by combining computational neural network models with an Estimation-Before-Modeling paradigm for on-line training information. A novel method of incorporating first-partial-derivative information is employed to estimate the weights in individual feedforward neural networks for each aerodynamic coefficient. The method is demonstrated by generating a model of the normal force coefficient of a twin-jet transport aircraft from simulated flight data, and promising results are obtained.


Browning of the white adipose tissue is beneficial in treatment and prevention of the obesity and metabolic diseases. Exercise is known to induce browning genes in adipose tissues and improve insulin sensitivity. However, the browning effect of exercise depending on the sites and types of adipose tissue has not been determined. We investigated exercise-induced browning effects on different adipose tissues by analysis of histology and thermogenesis-related gene expression. Male and female CD1 mice were exercise with treadmill running with a speed of 12m/min at 10 degree incline for 30 minutes per day for 6 weeks. There was no significant difference in total body weight of male mice after 6 weeks of exercise, although significant decrease in body weight was observed in exercise groups for 2 and 4 weeks of female mice. The weights of the male genital and inguinal adipose tissues were significantly decreased after 2 weeks of treadmill training, whereas no significant difference was observed between the control and exercise groups of female mice. RT-PCR analysis revealed that expressions of UCP-1 and Cidea increased in both male genital and inguinal adipose tissues after exercise, with earlier onset of UCP-1 expression in genital adipose tissue. Hematoxylin-eosin stain and immunohistochemistry showed a decrease in the size of the lipid droplets in white adipocytes with increased number of capillaries after exercise, which was observed earlier in genital than inguinal adipose tissue. These results suggest that exercise of moderate intensity induces browning as early as 2 weeks with male and visceral fats more prone to browning by exercise.


The Globalization of Healthcare The healthcare (HC) industry3 has been transformed in recent years from what was traditionally an entirely domestic industry into one that has now become a global industry increasingly defined by market-oriented principles. Against the forces that have driven the globalization of the industry others are arrayed that have resisted globalization and anchored the industry in national systems of HC delivery and consumption. This interplay between the global and the local is emerging as a predominant feature of the industry that is shaping its contemporary dynamics and will likely have significant consequences in the years to come. In this paper, I seek to explicate this development and examine the opportunities and challenges that it holds for New York City healthcare providers and the policymakers who oversee the industry.


There has been a vast amount of research dedicated to the positive benefits of reading aloud to students. However, lacking in the current research is the effect of repeated read-alouds on student comprehension. This action research attempts to answer the question "How does the level of reading comprehension change with repeated read-alouds?" This research focused on three 3 rd grade students in a suburban school. Methodology included reading picture books multiple times and analyzing student's oral and written responses. Data analysis indicates that as a student's familiarity with the story increased, so does their level of understanding. This implies that an effective method for increasing student's comprehension is to expose students to repeated readings. Document Type Thesis Degree Name MS in Literacy Education Department Education First Supervisor Gloria E. Jacobs Subject Categories Education This thesis is available at Fisher Digital Publications: http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/education_ETD_masters/4 Elevating Student Comprehension through Repeated Read-Alouds


This technical-art historical study sets out to clarify central questions about the relationship of US-American artist Jay DeFeo (1929–89) to materiality, in particular the role media choices played in the development of her visual vocabulary. To that end, the essay traces distinct stages of DeFeo's experimentation and maturation through a wide array of documents, many of which have, to date, gone unpublished: color charts, photographs of works in progress and studio contents, interviews, lectures, letters, and journals. We discuss the insights yielded by these archival sources alongside results of scientific analysis of fifty-eight samples from paintings representative of her entire oeuvre.


This paper presents design and development of an affordable vehicle tracking system using restricted sources. The current high cost conventional GPS tracking system is not affordable by all sectors. With a custom made software to cater to the project demand of low cost, this project is able to use a simple tracking device and plot a series of latitude, longitude, speed and time of the path of a vehicle using the personalized software within a 15 KM radius. An option of capturing the path of the vehicle can be done live or it can be stored in a data logger file and viewed at a later time. The uniqueness of this work is its affordability and ability to offer the same features of an expensive conventional GPS System at a mere RM416 as compared to RM 6500 of the existing ones. Mobile cellular with SMS technology used for obtaining standard GPS related details and C# programming with Google Map API are used in plotting the complex data numbers in order to capture the parameters such as speed and movement of a vehicle and so on.


[This abstract is based on the author's abstract.] Shewhart created the X and R charts in the late 1920s, and these charts have been popular with practitioners for dealing with variables data to detect changes in a process. A major application for the ..


Ostrich (Struthiocanelus) was used as a new source of animal fats. Some physical and chemical properties for the ostrich oil, fatty acid composition and unsaponifiable matter were determined. Ostrich oil was fractionated to liquid and solid fractions and some characteristics of two fractions were determined. Ostrich oil and two fractions (olein and stearin) were feeding to rats for 8 weeks. The liver and kidney (aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase and alkaline phosphatase activities) function testes and serum contents (total lipids, total cholesterol and low and high density lipoproteins) were measured. The data of the aforementioned measurements indicated that the feeding of ostrich oil did not cause any changes in liver and kidney function and serum contents. Ostrich stearin was used to replace fat in biscuit manufacture at ratios (0.00, 25.00, 50.00 and 75.00%). A sensory evaluation of biscuit was determined. Data revealed that replacements of fat with ostrich stearin improved sensory characteristics of baked biscuit.


Well prepared traffic scenarios contribute greatly to the success of controller-in-the-loop simulations. This paper describes each stage in the design process of realistic scenarios based on real-world traffic, to be used in the Airspace Operations Laboratory for simulations within the Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration 1 effort. The steps from the initial analysis of real-world traffic, to the editing of individual aircraft records in the scenario file, until the final testing of the scenarios before the simulation conduct, are all described. The iterative nature of the design process and the various efforts necessary to reach the required fidelity, as well as the applied design strategies, challenges, and tools used during this process are also discussed.


The burden of external debt affects the wellbeing of an economy (or a country) by making the economy vulnerable to external shocks and crowding out investment. When dealing with debt management in indebted poor countries like Nigeria, the rational approach is to allocate a portion of export earnings for debt service payments. Along this line, there is a need to identify the link between debt servicing and export earnings. Hence, the current and long-run effects of export earnings on debt service payments is modelled as a single-input-single-output discrete-time dynamical system within the framework of Autoregressive Moving Average Explanatory Input model of the Koyck-kind (KARMAX). The KARMAX model is identified for Nigeria, using data from the World Bank database from 1970 to 2018 based on the maximum likelihood (ML) method, and the obtained results are compared to the prediction error and the instrumental variable methods. From a theoretical perspective, the KARMAX specification identified by the ML method is more ideal and inspiring. By doing so, this article contributes to the literature on the econometrics of public debt management.


The as-deposited and annealed Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were obtained by magnetron sputtering. The structural information and surface morphologies were examined by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The film morphologies were further analyzed by the grayscale fractal study, which could offer full perspectives about the cluster change (like cluster size, cluster amount, cluster height, and so forth) of GZO films with different annealing temperatures. Consequently, the change of cluster amount and size on/in films could be obtained by the fractal spectra. Furthermore, the stress of prepared thin films is also calculated to investigate the relationship between stress and surface morphology after annealing process. For example, it was found the film annealed at 200 °C exhibited the slowest change of fractal spectrum (changes with grayscale) and consequently the smallest value of in-plane stress.


The invention discloses a scheduling, organization and cooperation system and a scheduling, organization and cooperation method for a multi-robot system. By adoption of distributive mode architecture, the information interaction is reduced, the systematic resources are used fully, the activity and the problem solving level of the overall system are enhanced, and the ability of intelligent coordination and flexible cooperation among a plurality of robots is enhanced. The method and the system intelligently perform scheduling and cooperation, reduce the communication traffic, reduce the systematic consumption, well adapt to a dynamic environment and complicated dynamic tasks, and enhance the problem solving capability by employing a dynamic decision maker scheme, namely every robot may be atask decision maker. According to the invention, a bulletin is used, a method of making a robot actively check the bulletin to acquire task information in an active free (capability) state is adoptedand the selection of the best can be finished during checking, so that the information interaction is reduced, the information processing and comparison process is simplified, the communication traffic is greatly reduced and problems of information blocking and wastes of the systematic resources are solved.


Michel Foucault,the French postmodernist,has been hugely influential in shaping understandings of power and discourse.In his opinion,social groups,identities and positions do not pre-exist and somehow determine their own and other cultural meanings. They are produced within discourses which defines what they are and how they operate. In other words,the world is constructed within language. Aided by Foucault's theory of discourse and power,this paper is to present a critical examination of the Greek film Dog Tooth and explore the strength of discourse in making and remaking the world in a particular way.


Gas Leakage and its fatal effects are a great concern throughout the world, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. Every year lots of people died and countless damages to assets occur due to the fire caused by the gas leakage. Not only that but gas leakage and explosion are also very harmful to the climate. Thus, a system to detect gas leakage and preventive measures is of utmost importance. In this project, we design and implement an intelligent IoT prototype to detect gas leakage, and the fire caught by gas leakage. Our goal is to minimize the effect of gas leakage by taking some protective measures. When the gas sensor, detects the gas leakage, the solenoid valve shuts off the gas line, and the exhaust fan starts to run. Again, when the flame sensor detects a fire, the sucker throws the fire extinguisher balls to the fire. The GSM SIM module notifies the user by sending a message to his smartphone. The buzzer sounds when a mishap occurs and the LCD monitor always shows the status of the system. In this way, we have efficiently designed and implemented a low-cost and intelligent gas leak detection and fire suppression system.


1. The Nature of International Law and The International System 2. The Sources of International Law 3. The Law of Treaties 4. International Law and National Law 5. Personality, Statehood and Recognition 6. Jurisdiction and Sovereignty 7. Immunities from National Jurisdiction 8. Law of the Sea 9. State Responsibility 10. The Peaceful Settlement of Disputes 11. The Use of Force 12. Human Rights


Based on the analysis of distribution characteristics of initial rock stress observed at -300 m level of No.6 colliery of Hebi, the regionalinitial rock stress field is simulated by applying displacement discontinuity method and iteration calculating method. The influence of complex faults on the initial rock stress status is inquired through analyzing the distribution characteristics of maximum and minimum horizontal stresses. In addition, influence of faults on the stability of underground opening and gas extrusive is discussed by comparing the regional characteristics of ground pressure with ones of initial rock stress. It is shown that regional distribution characteristics of stress field depends upon the superposition of complex faults. And then, it causes notable regional difference of stability of underground openings and gas sudden extrusive.


A luminous flash lamp watch comprises an electronic timer, a watch case and a battery, which is characterized in that: the luminous flash lamp watch also comprises a cyclic flashy control circuit and an electroluminescent sheet; the electroluminescent sheet is arranged at the position close to the upper part inside the watch case; the output of the cyclic flashy control circuit is transmitted to an EL panel; the EL panel and the electroluminescent sheet are arranged integrally. The utility model has a unique structure, luminous twinkling animation effect as well as great fun, which is suitable to be worn and used by juvenile and children.


Optical and electronic techniques have been combined in a precise automatic instrument which rapidly measures and simultaneously records small deviations from the ideal in structures intended to be perfectly periodic. The instrument was primarily developed for measuring pitch uniformity in twt helices where the location of each helical turn must be determined to an accuracy of about ±2 microns. It is, however, readily adaptable for measuring other periodic structures such as ladder lines, grids, and precision screws. The speed and accuracy with which measurements are made have opened up new possibilities in fabrication control. For example, it is now practicable, for the first time, to precisely measure every helix destined for traveling-wave tube use at several different stages in its processing. Where each individual helix measurement formerly required nearly 2 man-days, it is now accomplished in less than 5 minutes. The instrument utilizes a beam of light and an optical grating system to obtain a very accurate scale of distance. The location, with respect to this distance scale, of the salient petiole features in the structure being measured is established through the interception of a second light beam by the structure. Electronic circuitry automatically stores and processes the position information and feeds the processed information, in the form of deviations from the corresponding ideal structure, to a pen recorder.


In order to realize real-time object detection and collaborative control of multi pan-tilts for unmanned platform, a scheme of visual object detection and tracking system based on MobileNet-SSD algorithm is proposed. This scheme can realize real-time visual object detection of people and vehicles in mobile platform without GPUs. First, objects are detected based on MobileNet-SSD algorithm. Second, the result of object detection is used for calculating attitude variation matrix for controlling multi pan-tilts. Finally, the multi pan-tilts can equip with different equipment, namely, three two-axis pan-tilts tracking objects to complete a various of tasks together. The experimental results show that the real-time performance of object detection is feasible, and the two-axis pan-tilts can track objects effectively.


BACKGROUND
Macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles with microRNAs can cause and develop colon cancer.

OBJECTIVE
We investigated M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles and colon cancer.

DESIGN
A prospective and experimental study of M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles in colon cancer.

SETTING
This study was completed at The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University.

PATIENTS
Colon cancer patients who had undergone surgical resection.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3, miR-501-3p, SET domain-containing 7, and DNA methyltransferase 1 were measured in colon cancer samples. Multiple experiments determined suppressor of cytokine signaling 3, miR-501-3p, SET domain containing 7, and DNA methyltransferase 1 binding affinity. M2 macrophages were cultivated from M0 macrophages isolated from healthy donor PBMCs and polarized to produce extracellular vesicles. Gain- or loss-of-function tests using colon cancer cells and M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles revealed cell biological processes. Finally, animal models were created to test how miR-501-3p from M2-extracellular vesicles affects tumor growth via the SET domain containing 7/DNA methyltransferase 1/suppressor of cytokine signaling 3.

RESULTS
Colon cancer increased miR-501-3p and DNA methyltransferase 1 and downregulated suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 and SET domain containing 7. miR-151-3p inhibited SET domain-containing 7, upregulating DNA methyltransferase 1. Increased promoter methylation by DNA methyltransferase 1 decreased suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 expression. M2-EVs with miR-501-3p regulated the SET domain containing 7/DNA methyltransferase 1/suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 axis to induce apoptosis and colon cancer cell growth, invasion, and migration. M2-EV-delivered miR-501-3p also regulated the SET domain containing 7/DNA methyltransferase 1/suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 axis to promote tumor growth in animals.

LIMITATIONS
Further research is needed in clinical application of M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles containing miR-501-3p as a biomarker of colon cancer.

CONCLUSIONS
M2 macrophage-derived extracellular vesicles with miR-501-3p regulate the SET domain containing 7/DNA methyltransferase 1/suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 axis to promote colon cancer.


This paper describes theoretical and experimental work carried out in the Admiralty Signal Establishment, and at the same time includes all the relevant material that the authors have been able to extract from German reports. It was decided to carry out this investigation when it became known that considerable importance had been attached to dielectric-rod aerials in Germany during recent years. The material of German origin is taken mainly from a translation by the authors of a paper by Mallach of the Vierjahresplan Institut fur Schwingungsforschung, Berlin.The fundamental principles governing the radiation characteristics of dielectric rods are considered, and brief reference is made to other dielectric aerials.


A method for sharing network information includes the following steps of acquiring network information submitted by users; extracting characteristic property of the network information; and judging whether the network information is accordant with the set property or not according to the characteristic property, and if yes, displaying the network information screened. According to the method and the system for sharing network information, the network information submitted by the users are screened according to the characteristic property so as to obtain pre-published network information which can be displayed to the users, manual checking and screening for the massive network information by editors on the background is omitted, and operable convenience is improved.


INTRODUCTION
Macular hole is a common and treatable cause of central visual loss. Classic macular hole surgery consists of vitrectomy, posterior vitreous cortex removal and intraocular gas tamponade, but during the past decade focus has especially been on internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling as adjuvant therapy for increasing closure rates.

OBJECTIVE
To determine and evaluate anatomical and visual outcome of macular hole surgery.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Retrospective analysis of all cases of macular hole surgery done by single surgeon between 2014 -2015.

RESULTS
16 eyes were analysed with follow up of 3 months. Macular hole closure after vitrectomy was 75% with visual improvement of two or more line in 62.5%.Post surgical complication included cataract 18.8%, Increased IOP 12.5% and retinal detachment 6.2%.

CONCLUSION
Vitrectomy along with ILM peeling and Gas Tamponade with effective positioning improves in visual acuity and achieve hole closure in people with macular hole.


http://jpst.ripi.ir Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology 2017, 7(3), 33-46 © 2017 Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) ABSTRACT Reservoir formations exhibit a wide range of heterogeneity from micro to macro scales. A simulation that involves all of these data is highly time consuming or almost impossible; hence, a new method is needed to meet the computational cost. Moreover, the deformations of the reservoir are important not only to protect the uppermost equipment but also to simulate fluid pattern and petroleum production strategy. In this regard, multiscale multiphysic mixed geomechanical model (M3GM) is recently developed. However, applications of petroleum reservoirs through gas or water injection in the depleted reservoir are in concern. In the present paper, a multiscale finite volume framework and a finite element method are employed to simulate fluid flow and rock deformation respectively. The interactions of solid and fluid phases are instated through the M3GM framework. Then, its application in the petroleum reservoir through injection process is validated. The numerical results are compared with the fine scale simulations and reasonable agreement with high computational efficiency is obtained.


Seasonal freeze-thaw cycles in cold regions are a key factor leading to pavement damage. The duration and penetration depth of freeze-thaw cycles in the foundation layers can significantly influence the pavement performance. Frost heaves and loss of support conditions are two direct results due to pavement freezing and thawing. Current research has brought great interests in this topic, which may benefit pavement design, construction, and maintenance. Sufficient freezing depth, continuous water supply, and frost susceptible geomaterials are the three factors required resulting in pavement freeze-thaw related damage. When these factors are satisfied, stiffness and support conditions can be significantly affected due to the phase change of moisture within pavement structures. In various current pavement design guides, seasonal variation in foundation layers is taken into consideration by empirically adjusting the foundation layer moduli values. As various QC/QA testing methods is used in practice, different mechanistic properties can be derived. Even though only a few particular parameters are considered in current pavement design guides, empirical correlations were reported for transferring different properties. Values of these measurable properties change seasonally, which may differ from the values of design parameters after correlations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate if the seasonal mechanistic property values meet the design values and if the empirical correlations match to the in situ measurements. This study focused on investigating the frost actions of pavement foundations that may affect pavement designs, such as frost penetration depths, number of freeze-thaw cycles, moisture conditions, and geomaterial frost susceptibility. QC/QA tests were conducted to assess the influences and performance on reconstructed and rehabilitated pavement


Purpose: To identify perceived benefits of IV biologic therapy among patients with IBD who are currently treated with an IV biologic medication. Methods: In August to September 2010, 190 patients diagnosed with IBD and currently receiving IV biologic therapy participated in semi-structured telephone interviews about their experience with IV therapy. Study protocol and questionnaire were approved by an independent institutional review board. Patients rated their level of satisfaction with their current IV medication on a 7-point Likert scale, where 1=not at all satisfied and 7=very satisfied. Patients were asked to allocate U.S. $100 across six features of IV administration and services. Patients also discussed reasons for IV preference. Results: Mean satisfaction of IV therapy/medication was 6 out of 7, and 73% of patients rated satisfaction as a 6 or 7. A mean of $27 out of $100 was allocated to the value of receiving treatment in a healthcare facility where healthcare professionals can assess and monitor the patient. Patients valued having a healthcare professional administer medication ($25) and infrequent dosing ($25). Of current IV users, most (81%, n=154) preferred an IV medication to a subcutaneous medication. The most common reasons for IV preference were not wanting to give self-injections or not liking needles (47%), less frequent dosing (34%), and preference for healthcare professional administration (23%). Additional sub-analyses demonstrated that these results varied by patient demographics and factors related to treatment. Conclusion: Individuals with IBD currently using IV biologic therapy reported high satisfaction with their medication. Patients perceive the additional opportunity for healthcare provider interaction at infusion facilities as a benefit of this mode of administration. These results support the importance of access to the IV mode of administration for patient satisfaction and highlight the need for shared decision making between patients and physicians when choosing a biologic medication for IBD. Disclosure: J Vanderpoel, S Bolge, J Lofland, H Eldridge, SH Mody This research was supported by an industry grant from This study was sponsored by Centocor Ortho Biotech Services, LLC.


Systematic research was done on the unknown parameter estimation of the system. The sufficient condition of the existence of the parameter estimator was given. The plain text signal was modulated into the system parameter in the emitter. In the receiver, the proposed parameter estimation method was used for the demodulation. Then, the super chaos secure communication was realized. Finally numerical simulations were given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.