AUTOMATED IDENTIFICATION OF NOUN CLAUSES IN CLINICAL LANGUAGE SAMPLES Britney Richey Manning Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Master of Science The identification of complex grammatical structures including noun clauses is of clinical importance because differences in the use of these structures have been found between individuals with and without language impairment. In recent years, computer software has been used to assist in analyzing clinical language samples. However, this software has been unable to accurately identify complex syntactic structures such as noun clauses. The present study investigated the accuracy of new software, called Cx, in identifying finite whand that-noun clauses. Two sets of language samples were used. One set included 10 children with language impairment, 10 age-matched peers, and 10 language-matched peers. The second set included 40 adults with mental retardation. Levels of agreement between computerized and manual analysis were similar for both sets of language samples; Kappa levels were high for wh-noun clauses and very low for that-noun clauses. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to especially thank Dr. Ron Channell for his help in every aspect of this thesis, especially for being willing to work with me long-distance for several months. He was my advocate and role-model throughout the process. His support, guidance, and patience allowed me to achieve my goal. He helped me to keep things in perspective and to move forward. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Christopher Dromey and Dr. Shawn Nissen, for helping me to make this thesis as complete as possible. All of these men took extra time out of their lives to help me learn and develop during this experience. I would like to thank Dr. Martin Fujiki for edits on my prospectus and for allowing me to use language samples from two of his earlier studies. I would also like to thank my husband, Matthew Manning, for never giving up on me and for giving me the strength to complete this assignment. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Jonathan and Marilyn Richey, for proofreading and for being my "cheerleaders." This thesis is truly a collaboration of efforts from many important


The optimum end clearance of a gear pump has been given from the standpoint that the maximum shearing stress caused on the boundary planes is minimum. The shearing stress acting at any fixed point changes periodically for the rotating boundary but is unchanged for the fixed boundary, and it is not clear whether or not the shearing stress plays a part for abrading the surface and if it does it is due to either its magnitude or its variation, but they seem to have, at least, some relation. In this paper, it was tried to determine the amount of clearance from viewpoint stated above. The result shows that (1) The diameter of shaft has little effect on the optimum value. (2) The optimum clearance becomes smaller as the inlet and outlet are nearer to the gearing part. (3) The direction of rotation does not change the result.


Antibodies, immunotoxins, molecules with binding structure BSP receptor natural BSP or factor H molecules and aptamers or Spiegelmer® based on DNA or RNA which bone sialoprotein or fragments thereof in serum or plasma bind for use as active principle in the treatment of bone metastases and BSP-expressing tumors that preferably colonize bone tissues.


Analytical investigations of the test tools reveal in the most heavily stressed parts of the bolt signifi cantly different wear patterns for the tested variants also in microsections (Fig. 2). Data for a wear analysis evaluation regarding adhesion (positive values) and abrasion (negative values) have been obtained by using a 3-D coordinate measuring machine to compare the contour after stress to the starting contour (left graph).


Food allergy is an immune reaction that occurs frequently in pediatric age, its prevalence is higher in industrialized countries, affecting 8% of the population, the most frequently involved foods are milk, hen's egg, soybeans, peanuts, fish, wheat, seafood and tree nuts. Food allergy can be divided into three groups: IgE-mediated, non-IgE-mediated, and mixed food allergy. The symptoms will depend on the immunological mechanisms and can be divided into immediate or no immediate, the immediate symptoms appear in the first two hours of intake and the no immediate symptoms after the second hour and up to 72 hours. Diagnosis of food allergy requires a medical history, physical examination and laboratory tests; misdiagnosis can lead to unnecessary elimination diets. The gold standard is the double-blind placebo controlled oral food challenge. The main treatment is food restriction, the nutritional and psychological implications that this entails must be taken into account; Another treatment option is oral immunotherapy, it is recommended in patients who cannot carry out an elimination diet and it has a significant impact on quality of life.


This paper presents an adaptive feedforward control scheme using the least mean square (LMS) algorithm combined with sliding mode control for a flexible beam using piezoceramic actuator. A finite element model of the dynamic response of flexible beam system with PZT patches is derived and analyzed. Implementation of an adaptive LMS feedforward controller has the advantages of inherent stability and simplicity in design. The proposed adaptive LMS feedforward control system maintains the basic structure of the adaptive feedforward controller, but incorporates reference model in the system. Discrete sliding mode controller is added in the feedback loop to enhance the robustness of control system subjected to the variation of system parameters and external disturbances. Simulation results from flexible beam model verify the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive LMS feedforward with sliding mode control scheme and good disturbance rejection properties.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


The archetype of geometrically frustrated compounds ${\mathrm{SrCr}}_{9p}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{12\ensuremath{-}9p}{\mathrm{O}}_{19}$ is a kagom\'e bilayer of Heisenberg ${\mathrm{Cr}}^{3+}$ ions $(S=3/2)$ with antiferromagnetic interactions. We present an extensive gallium nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study over a broad Cr-concentration range $(0.72l~pl~0.95).$ This allows us to probe locally the susceptibility of the kagom\'e bilayer and separate the intrinsic properties due to geometric frustration from those related to site dilution. Compared to the partial study on one sample, $p=0.90,$ presented in Phys. Rev. Lett. $85,$ 3496 (2000), we perform here a refined study of the evolution of all the magnetic properties with dilution, with a great emphasis on the lowest diluted $p=0.95$ sample synthesized for this study. Our major findings are the following (1) The intrinsic kagom\'e bilayer susceptibility reaches a maximum at a temperature of $\ensuremath{\approx}40\ensuremath{-}50 \mathrm{K},$ which we show here to be robust up to a dilution as high as $\ensuremath{\approx}20%;$ this maximum is the signature of the development of short-range antiferromagnetic correlations in the kagom\'e bilayer. (2) At low T, a highly dynamical state induces a strong wipeout of the NMR intensity, regardless of dilution. (3) The low-$T$ upturn of the macroscopic susceptibility is associated with paramagnetic defects, which stem from the dilution of the kagom\'e bilayer. The low-$T$ analysis of the $p=0.95$ NMR line shape, coupled with a more accurate determination of the nuclear Hamiltonian at high T, allows us to discuss in detail the nature of the defect. Our analysis suggests that the defect can be associated with a staggered spin response to the vacancies of the kagom\'e bilayer. This, altogether with the maximum in the kagom\'e bilayer susceptibility, is very similar to what is observed in most low-dimensional antiferromagnetic correlated systems, even those with a short spin-spin correlation length. (4) The spin-glass-like freezing observed at ${T}_{g}$ $\ensuremath{\approx}2\char21{}4 \mathrm{K}$ is not driven by the dilution-induced defects.


What impact does access to the rights associated with formal permanent residency status have on immigrants' sense of integration in their country of residence? I explore this question with a focus on 'affective integration', an original measure developed to refer to immigrants' sense of belonging, recognition, equality, optimism and loyalty in, or to, their country of residence. Original data are drawn from an online survey and a series of in-depth interviews with New Zealanders resident in Australia. As some survey respondents were affected by 2001 changes that withdrew New Zealanders' entitlements to welfare and citizenship in Australia and others were not, levels of 'affective integration' among the two groups were able to be compared. The data reveal that many New Zealanders without access to the welfare and citizenship entitlements associated with permanent resident status had a highly ambivalent sense of affective integration in Australia. Many reported being economically, socially and culturally well integrated in Australia but also reported strong feelings of exclusion, rejection, exploitation and discrimination. They identified these feelings as being the result of their ineligibility for welfare assistance and citizenship acquisition. For some such migrants, these feelings have led to a decision to migrate back to New Zealand in the near future. For others, however, a high degree of structural integration into Australian society has deterred return migration, creating a significant population of long-term residents whose generally favourable structural integration into Australia is undermined by their growing sense of disadvantage, marginalisation and exclusion. These findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship between access to the rights of permanent residency and affective integration. They also contribute empirical data to policy debates about the consequences of treating those who move under human mobility regimes as temporary migrants.


An attempt has been made to predict gas–gas immiscibility using the Guggenheim and van der Walls equations of state. The stability conditions have been solved, using a digital computer, for the van der Waals one fluid model. The computational aspects have been discussed in previous papers in this series.The Guggenheim equation of state successfully predicts gas–gas immiscibility of the correct kind for most of the systems which have been studied experimentally. In contrast the van der Waals equation of state predicts the correct kind of gas–gas immiscibility in only a very few cases.The applicability of the model is briefly discussed.


In this issue of Blood, Chan et al report on an innovative study using molecular dynamics and mapping to identify and produce a promising bioengineered clone of Escherichia coli asparaginase (ASNase), mutated at Q59L position (Gln59Leu). The Q59L variant ASNase has undetectable glutaminase coactivity, while retaining its ASNase activity.1


Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an inherited red blood cell disorder that leads to hemoglobin polymerization when it deoxygenates. Lung function abnormalities are observed in up to 90% of adults with SCA (PMID: 16556694) and both the prevalence (PMID: 20644948) and rate of FEV1 decline (PMID: 18383325) are greater in SCA adults compared to the general population. Furthermore, low FEV1 is an independent predictor of early mortality in SCA (PMID: 26261241). Understanding the risk factors and mechanisms for abnormal lung function, which can impact blood oxygen and pH levels, is especially important in SCA.
 We evaluated the clinical, laboratory, and genetic risk factors for abnormal pulmonary function in a retrospective cohort of SCA patients. Pulmonary function test (PFT) abnormalities were categorized based on the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society Guidelines. Alpha-thalassemia and BCL11A rs1427407 status were determined by PCR. Continuous and categorical variables were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-square test, respectively, and Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare survival patterns. Median and interquartile ranges (IQR) are provided.
 Between 12/2004 and 12/2015, 90 SCA adult patients had PFTs performed as part of their routine medical care. The median age of the cohort was 37 years (IQR, 24-47years), 46% were male, 59% were on hydroxyurea, and 28% were cigarette smokers. Abnormal pulmonary function was observed in 56 (62%); 32 (35.6%) had obstructive, 15 (16.7%) had restrictive, and 9 (10%) had mixed lung defects. SCA patients with abnormal PFTs were more anemic (8.4 vs. 9.0g/dL, P=0.004), had higher LDH (441 vs. 306U/L, P=0.002) and urine albumin concentrations (180 vs. 29mg/g creatinine, P=0.004), and a lower hemoglobin F% (4.2% vs. 8.0%, P=0.004) compared to SCA with normal PFTs. SCA patients who inherited the BCL11A rs1427407 T allele had a lower prevalence of abnormal PFTs (G/G: 67%, G/T: 55%, T/T: 50%; P=0.2), but this was not statistically significant, and we did not observe any patterns between co-inheritance of α-thalassemia and abnormal PFTs (αα/αα: 60%, α-/αα: 64%, α-/α-: 60%; P=0.9). On logistic regression analysis, LDH (natural log OR 8.2, P=0.03) was independently associated with abnormal pulmonary function after adjusting for age, gender, and hydroxyurea use. SCA patients with abnormal pulmonary function had earlier mortality compared to those with normal pulmonary function (Figure 1) (log-rank P=0.03; age-adjusted HR 6.1, P=0.09).
 Next, we analyzed clinical and laboratory risk factors associated with obstructive or restrictive lung disease. Lower hemoglobin F% and a greater prevalence of tricuspid regurgitant velocity (TRJV) > 3.0m/s were associated with both restrictive and obstructive pulmonary function compared to normal pulmonary function (Table 1). In addition, lower hemoglobin concentration and higher LDH were associated with restrictive lung disease while less common treatment with hydroxyurea and higher urine albumin concentration were associated with obstructive lung disease compared to SCA patients with normal PFTs (Table 1). SCA patients with restrictive lung disease had a lower oxygen saturation, determined by pulse oximetry, compared to those with normal PFTs (P=0.02) while no difference in oxygen saturation was observed between those with obstructive versus normal PFTs (P=0.6) (Figure 2). Mortality risk was significantly increased for SCA patients with restrictive (age-adjusted HR 2.0, P=0.01) but not obstructive lung disease (age-adjusted HR 1.6, P=0.4) compared to those with normal PFTs (log rank P=0.006) (Figure 3).
 In conclusion, we demonstrate that increased hemolysis is associated with abnormal pulmonary function based on a lower hemoglobin concentration and lower hemoglobin F% and higher LDH. We also demonstrate that restrictive-type lung disease is associated with a lower oxygen saturation and increased mortality risk compared to those with normal PFTs. Future studies investigating the role of hemolysis in lung disease and therapies to improve pulmonary function, particularly in those with restrictive lung disease, are warranted in SCA.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The aim of the present talk is to focus on the characterization of biomedical materials in-situ by using a modified Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM) with a home-built tuning fork head that enables concurrently optical and topographic imaging. The first example involves micropatterned substrates used for neuronal outgrowth. We have imaged in-situ the adsorption of two proteins, Laminin and Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). Characterization of the orientation of micropatterned proteins is crucial for obtaining cell growth (such as neuron cells) in the desired configuration. The second example is related to the characterization of bone cements prepared with functionalised methacrylates. Bone cements act as fasteners and elastic buffers between a metallic prosthesis and bone. They exhibit improved biocompatibility, which reduces 'aseptic loosening', one of the main reasons for revision surgery after Total Hip Replacement. It is expected that calcium phosphate precipitation occur when these novel bone cements are exposed to simulated body fluid. By using the NSOM we can study in-situ the precipitation kinetics at short times and the changes induced after the bone cement is exposed to simulated body fluid. INTRODUCTION Characterization of materials using high-resolution in-situ techniques has become a very important subject in the past few years. In several areas of science (including electrochemistry, biology, chemistry, physics and medicine), the development of new methodologies and materials relies on the imaging of nanometer size features. More importantly, several preparation methods have to be performed within a liquid, since the solution plays a significant role in the whole process. In the present investigation, we focus on the characterization of biomedical materials insitu by using a modified Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscope (NSOM). The NSOM used in this work has been adapted with a home-built tuning fork head that enables concurrently optical and topographic imaging. In this case, all the images had been obtained by using an optical fiber that is used to concurrently obtain the topography and the optical images. Full experimental detail on the setup of these experiments can be found in reference 3; a configuration setup diagram is shown in figure 1. Characterization of the protein pattern both topographically and chemically is critical to engineering specific cellular responses. In the present study, NSOM was used to obtain simultaneous optical and topographical images of protein-micropatterned glass substrates. This technique allows direct observation in aqueous solutions of surface topography and light reflection without perturbation of the system, yielding images with nanometer resolution. Additionally, because NSOM is a non-contact imaging method, it enables non-destructive imaging of proteins in their natural, hydrated, configuration. Low modulus bone cements have been suggested to reduce aseptic loosening in implants, one of the main causes of revision surgery after Total Hip Replacement (THR). Bone Cements


Aplastic Anemia (AA) arises due to specific failure of bone marrow precursor cells or stem cells to produce adequate amount of mature hematopoietic cells. Erythropoiesis utilizes majority of iron in humans. Erythropoietic activity is fine-tuned with iron regulation since they are both intrinsically regulated. Hepcidin, the main iron regulator is the target of erythropoietic regulators like GDF15, TWSG1 and erythroferrone. Even though the dysregulation of iron balance is well understood in beta thalassemia where ineffective erythropoiesis is the main cause, regulation of iron is poorly elucidated in bone marrow failure where erythropoiesis is minimal. In this study, we analysed several iron regulatory molecules in a cohort of patients with AA and tried to understand iron regulation in bone marrow failure.
 The current study investigated 77 patients with newly or recently diagnosed AA and had received less than ten transfusions from the year 2016 to 2018. Their haematological parameters were documented. Serum hepcidin was assessed using ELISA kit (DRG Diagnostics) and serum ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) was measured by chemiluminescent immunoassay. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and telomere length was measured using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) using relative quantitation method. The association between different iron regulators were analysed using SPSS Software.
 The median age of AA patients was 38 (5-72) years and the number of males and females were 49 (64%) and 28 (36%) respectively. Patients were grouped based on severity into non severe AA (NSAA) (n=17, 22%), Severe AA (SAA) (n=51, 66%) and Very Severe AA (VSAA) (n=9, 12%). Out of 77 AA patients, 50 had not received any red cell transfusion in the last one month prior to the sample collection; twenty seven had received transfusions ranging from 1 to 9. The mean haemoglobin was 7.6±1.87g/dL, with a median WBC count of 2900 (100-8400)/cu.mm and a median platelet count of 9000 (2000-66000)/ul. Serum ferritin levels ranged from 12.8 to 5728ng/ml (Median- 1208ng/ml). The median soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) levels were 1.29mg/L (0.52-6.34). Fifty four patients (54/77, 70%) had sTfR values less than the lower limit of normal (Normal range 1.8-4.6 mg/L). Median serum hepcidin was 40.66ng/ml (1.15-81.2). Serum ferritin levels positively correlated with serum hepcidin (r=0.61, p=0.000) whereas it correlated negatively with sTfR (r=-0.408, p=0.000). No significant association was observed between the number of transfusions and ferritin levels (r=0.087, p=0.453). There was no significant difference in the ferritin levels when patients were grouped according to severity (Median Ferritin, Range - 1208, 12.8-2984ng/ml in NSAA; 1099, 61.8-5728ng/ml in SAA; 1288, 268-3824; p= 0.83). Significantly higher hepcidin levels were observed in VSAA as compared to NSAA (Figure.1, p= 0.014). There was no significant association observed between response and biochemical parameters. A quartile analysis based on ferritin values was carried out to study the effect of iron overload on haematological parameters and iron regulators (Table.1). With increasing ferritin values, hepcidin levels significantly increased (p=0.001) whereas sTfR levels were reduced (p=0.002).
 In AA, decrease in erythropoietic activity as evidenced by reduced sTfR levels leads to minimal iron utilization and accumulation of iron in the tissues as ferritin. This stimulates the production of hepcidin and further exacerbates iron loading and leads to dysregulation of iron homeostasis. Increased iron in the marrow can lead to oxidative stress and may further be detrimental to the limited intrinsic haematopoiesis. Hence better understanding of iron regulation in AA may advance to effective therapeutic options.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Multiscale distributed fusion estimation is the algorithm of multisensor system, which uses the multiscale analysis establishing the multiscale dynamic models. The result at one given scale is got by observation systems at different scales. Estimating the result to the thinnest scale, the optimal estimation is obtained based on the overall observations and the estimation is the optimal in the sense of the least variance. The algorithm is used in integrated navigation system. The estimates are more accurate than the results at the thinnest scale. The simulation results show that the accuracy is improved.


In this article the quality management system of education as the basis of management by integration processes in educational field at the present time is presented and grounded. In the article it is defined that integrity and stability of the educational system, efficiency of its functioning can be kept only when the certain complex of conditions of educational field formation exists. The authors make the conclusion that innovative development of educational field has to be provided with the high level of administrative activity. In these conditions there is a need of perfecting the culture of analysis, the expert ways of the activity assessment, the coorganization of the management team, the improvement of the university management system in the integrity of all its aspects.


This paper analyzes the use of cash in the Euro area. It attempts to give at least a partial answer to the question of whether cash is predominantly used in the shadow economy and whether, consequently, the behavior of cash balances is useful in monitoring changes in the shadow economy. The paper shows that – contrary to what is often assumed – recent developments in cash demand (including changes in denomination structure) can be fairly well explained by certain economic and institutional factors. Changes in cash demand do not seem to correspond to changes in existing measures of the shadow economy, nor do cross-country comparisons reveal close correspondence.


The atomic force microscope (AFM) tapping mode is a highly sensitive local probing technique that is very useful to study and measure surface properties down to the atomic scale. The tapping mode is mostly implemented using the resonance of the first bending mode of the cantilever and therefore provides sensitivity mainly along the direction of this oscillation. Driven by the semiconductor industry, there is an increasing need for accurate measurements of nanoscale structures for side wall characterization by AFM that requires additional sensitivity in the lateral direction. The conventional tapping mode has been augmented by various authors, for example by tilting the cantilever system (Cho et al 2011 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 82 023707) to access the sidewall or using a torsion mode (Dai et al 2011 Meas. Sci. Technol. 22 094009) of the cantilever to provide additional lateral sensitivity. These approaches however trade lateral sensitivity for vertical sensitivity or still lack sensitivity in the remaining lateral direction. We present an approach towards true 3D sensitivity for AFM cantilevers based on simultaneous excitation and optical detection of multiple cantilever resonance modes along three axes. Tuning the excitation of the cantilever to specific frequencies provides a mechanism to select only those cantilever modes that have the desired characteristics. Additionally, cantilever engineering has been used to design and create a substructure within the cantilever that has been optimized for specific resonance behavior around 4 MHz. In contrast to the conventional approach of using a piezo to actuate the cantilever modulation, we present results on photo-thermal excitation using an intensity modulated low-power laser source. By tightly focusing the excitation spot on the cantilever we were able to attain a deflection efficiency of 0.7 nm µW−1 for the first bending mode. The presented approach results in an efficient all optical excitation and deflection detection scheme where both the position of the spot to excite the cantilever and the spot position of the read-out beam provide additional parameters to fully control and optimize the multi-mode structure required for 3D AFM measurements.


Polyphase Y-α/β-Sialon powders were prepared by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis method, with Si, Al, Y 2 O 3 and Si 3 N 4 (80wt% a phase) as raw materials under high nitrogen pressure. The effect of nitrogen pressure and the amount of the diluent on α-Sialon, β-Sialon phase composition and free silicon content of the products were studied in detail.


Since the second half of the 19th century, the figure of Mikhail Glinka has become the dominant one for constructing the total history of Russian music and understanding the significance of other Russian composers. Among the multitude of historical and theoretic research works pertaining to Russian musicology, especially noteworthy is the publication of the musician's biography in the popular scholarly series "The Lives of Wonderful People" for the period of 1892– 2019. A long-term analysis of the author's narratives in the historical and cultural context revealed the mechanisms of cultural recycling in the interpretation of Glinka's personality and work: the phenomenon of "forgetting" and the effects of "double recycling" and the "personal approach." Several models of biography are traced, the features of which resonate with the historical, cultural, and political guidelines of the era as well as with the professional preferences of the authors of these books. The book about Glinka written during the Silver Age of Russian culture presents a kind of a "life guide," which peculiarly conflates the Victorian biographical canon and the psychological essay bearing a positivist accent. The Soviet image of the composer was being formed gradually, becoming fixed in the 1940s and 1950s. In its case, both the tendency to visualize narratives associated with the influence of the cinematograph (from the "novel about the composer" to the "movie plot for the young generation") and the ideological partisanship in Glinka's biography (the maximal approach to the canons of socialist realism) become characteristic feature. In the 21st century the leading principle in designing the image of the composer is the demythologization of the Soviet canon and the fundamental orientation towards the Internet public consisting primarily of the generation of millennials.


The world container transportation industry has grown significantly over the past few decades. Large numbers of containers are transported everyday over long distances via a single or combinations of different modes of transportation (road, rail, water and air). Many of these containers contain hazardous materials (hazmat) whose transportation is regulated by governments due to the related risks. In contrast to other areas of transportation, operations-research-based models for intermodal transportation of containers, specifically hazmat ones, is still a young domain.
The purpose of the thesis is to provide analytical approaches to planning intermodal transportation for regular and hazmat freights. Planning of intermodal transportation can be addressed at the strategic, tactical or operational level. In this regard, this thesis contributes to the current literature in the following three ways. First, at the operational level, we study crane scheduling at an intermodal terminal, such that the unloading of inbound vessels and the loading of outbound vehicles could be completed in minimum weighted time. The approach calls for a multi-processor multi-stage scheduling methodology, where each crane has availability time windows. Second, at the tactical level, we propose a routing framework for transportation of hazmat and regular containers in a congested network to minimize two objectives: total cost and total risk. The model considers congestion as a source of exposure and makes a trade-off between congestion exposures and capacity costs. Third, at the strategic level, we study the regulation of intermodal transportation for hazardous materials. A bi-level network design model and a bi-level bi-objective toll-setting policy model, which consider government and carrier at two levels of administration, are proposed to mitigate the transportation risk.
The thesis concludes with comprehensive remarks. We summarize the contributions of this thesis, show the overall results obtained, and present the possible directions that this research may take in the future.


Summary form only given. Single-frequency, high power, diode-laser pumped continuous-wave (CW) solid-state lasers with excellent beam quality are required for demanding applications including the interferometric detection of gravitational waves. We present the continuing development of a power scalable 100 W injection-locked slave laser.


The conventional method of device implantation requires fluoroscopic guidance. With the guidance of three‐dimensional (3‐D) navigation systems, devices can be implanted with minimal use of fluoroscopy. To date, this technique has been reported in several case reports in young, pregnant patients. However, this technique has not been widely utilized by electrophysiologists, despite offering several benefits, including reduced radiation exposure for the patient and the operator.


Our discovery that the perinatal period involves nucleotide modifications and gene overexpression in mouse lung prompted us to evaluate whether mice may become more susceptible to cigarette smoke when exposure starts immediately after birth. We previously showed that mainstream cigarette smoke is a quite potent carcinogen in neonatal mice. Further on, we showed that exposure of mice to environmental cigarette smoke (ECS), starting at birth, results in alterations of a variety of intermediate biomarkers. However, after 4 months of exposure to ECS followed by 7 months of recovery in filtered air, the lung tumor yield was rather low. In the present study, we evaluated the protective effects of the glucocorticoid budesonide and of the dietary agent phenethyl isothiocyanate in mice exposed to ECS for 9 months followed by 2 months of recovery. After weanling, the mice exposed to ECS since birth underwent a variety of alterations of molecular and cytogenetical end points, and 11 months after birth, they exhibited significant histopathologic changes, such as pulmonary anthracosis, emphysema, hemorrhagic areas, alveolar bronchiolarization, bronchial hyperplasia, and tumors, both benign and malignant. The carcinogenic response was less evident in dams exposed to ECS under identical conditions. Both phenethyl isothiocyanate and budesonide, administered daily with the diet after weanling, attenuated several alterations of ECS-related biomarkers and moderately protected the lungs from histopathologic alterations, including tumors. Thus, although not as efficiently as the bioassay in mainstream cigarette smoke–exposed mice, the model in neonatal mice is suitable to evaluate both ECS carcinogenicity and its modulation by chemopreventive agents. Tobacco smoke is the major risk factor for human cancer, being responsible for the 85% to 90% of lung cancer, the most important death cause among neoplastic diseases in the world population, and for cancers in several other anatomic sites (1). Environmental cigarette smoke (ECS) or secondhand smoke, which is inhaled by involuntary smokers (or passive smokers), is mainly composed of sidestream smoke, released from the smoldering distal part of the cigarette, and, in minor proportion, of that portion of mainstream cigarette smoke (MCS) that is exhaled by active smokers. ECS, which is diluted in ambient air and undergoes aging processes, is classified as a lung carcinogen to humans (1, 2). The most obvious way to prevent lung cancer and other smoke-related diseases is either to refrain from smoking or to quit smoking or not to live in ECS-contaminated environments. The decline of smoking habits has already had a favorable public health effect in the male population of several countries (3). Growing importance is ascribed, as a complementary approach, to the possibility of preventing cancer by means of dietary and pharmacologic agents capable of reinforcing the host defense machinery. This strategy, which is referred to as cancer chemoprevention, has several targets in smoke-related carcinogenesis, such as (a) addicted active smokers who are unable to quit smoking; (b) ex-smokers, representing a broad proportion of the population where half of all new lung cancer cases are nowadays diagnosed (4); (c) passive smokers living in ECS-contaminated environments; and (d) transplacentally exposed individuals, in whom a variety of smoke-induced molecular alterations are detectable (5). Twenty chemical components of cigarette smoke have been shown to induce lung tumors (6). Some of them, such as benzo (a)pyrene, as a prototype of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), as a prototype of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, have extensively been investigated in laboratory animals (1, 6). Unfortunately, Authors' Affiliations: Departments of Health Sciences and Surgical and Morphological Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; National Center of Oncology, Sofia, Bulgaria; and National Cancer Institute, Rockville, Maryland Received2/16/09; revised3/31/09; accepted4/17/09; publishedOnlineFirst 6/2/09. Grant support: National Cancer Institute contract N01-CN53301. Requests for reprints: Silvio De Flora, Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, Via A. Pastore 1, I-16132 Genoa, Italy. Phone: 39-010-3538500; Fax: 39-010-353-8504; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. ©2009 American Association for Cancer Research. doi:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-08-0235 546 Cancer Prev Res 2009;2(6) June 2009 www.aacrjournals.org American Association for Cancer Research Copyright © 2009 on April 7, 2011 cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org Downloaded from Published OnlineFirst June 2, 2009; DOI:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-08-0235


By performing simulations of clusters of MgO using a non‐empirical potential we investigate the fundamental physics of melting, the effects of pressure, melt and crystal structure, and themodynamic properties along the melting curve from zero pressure to 300 GPa. We find the surprising result that melting occurs when r.m.s. displacements of the ions reach about 18% of the near‐neighbor distance over the entire pressure range, in agreement with Lindemann's predictions of 1910, contrary to previous studies which indicate failure of Lindemann's law for non‐monatomic substances. The present results indicate clearly that melting is related to intrinsic instability of crystals similar to lattice instabilities that lead to solid‐solid phase transitions.


48 January 2001 his column will be a brief detour from the series on the Human Genome Project to discuss some recent results that expand on a previous focus of the column—the problems posed by the patient who is on multiple medications. This column then is another in the clinical pharmacology case conference (CPC) series.1–4 Following the CPC format, this column begins with a reallife case. The reader will then be asked a series of questions. Finally, the "take home" messages of the case will be discussed.


In this paper, the optimal power flow analysis is carried out using bacterial foraging algorithm for multi-objective function by considering security constrained and non-smooth cost function. The available capacities of transmission lines are considered for wheeling transactions in the restructured electrical network and the transmission lines are checked for congestion. If there is any congestion then power producers is rescheduled by proposed approach. The proposed method is used to alleviate the congestion, improves the loadability and voltage stability, and reduces the line losses and cost of production by controlling the power flow in the network. And also congestion cost is calculated from the adjustments bids. The proposed method is demonstrated on IEEE 30 bus system and the results are to be compared with other optimization methods.


Econ 740 is the capstone requirement for students pursuing the Master of Arts in Applied Economics. The seminar is an introduction to economic research and will build upon your course work in research methods, applied econometrics, and economic theory. This course will be different from other required courses in the MA program in that it will not be a " toolbox " course, but rather a course in which students are expected to use tools to evaluate, replicate, and extend existing empirical research. In addition, this course will give you a more extensive look at peer-reviewed applied microeconomics papers using " advanced " econometric methods such as natural experiments, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity techniques, and explore the advantages and disadvantages of difference-indifference estimation strategies. Careful attention will be paid to the appropriateness of inferring causality across various econometric techniques. Readings Reading assignments will be given week-to-week in class or via email. You are responsible for completing the readings prior to the class in which they are discussed. I will be handing out or providing links to many of the articles discussed in class. Note: The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.


Firstly,the teaching-research-production cooperative education mode is defined,the significance of cultivation of advanced electronically applied talents based on this mode is specified,and the main types of current teaching-research-production cooperative education modes are compared.Furthermore,the main research contents are analyzed,the solution program and technology project are detailed.Finally,the implementation results and effects of the research project are given.


In this paper, a four-axis ultra-precision lathe for machining large-scale drum mould with microstructured surface is presented. Firstly, because of the large dimension and weight of drum workpiece, as well as high requirement of machining accuracy, the design guidelines and component parts of this drum lathe is introduced in detail, including control system, moving and driving components, position feedback system and so on. Additionally, the weight of drum workpiece would result in the structural deformation of this lathe, therefore, this paper analyses the effect of structural deformation on machining accuracy by means of ANSYS. The position change is approximately 16.9nm in the X-direction(sensitive direction) which could be negligible. Finally, in order to study the impact of bearing parameters on the load characteristics of aerostatic journal bearing, one of the famous computational fluid dynamics(CFD) software, FLUENT, is adopted, and a series of simulations are carried out. The result shows that the aerostatic spindle has superior performance of carrying capacity and stiffness, it is possible for this lathe to bear the weight of drum workpiece up to 1000kg since there are two aerostatic spindles in the headstock and tailstock.


The available bibliographic sources on the study of distal limbs diseases in cows were analyzed. The causes and factors that contribute to limb pathology risk in cows at milk production enterprises are emphasized. Lack of active exercise, inadequate feeding rations, insufficient veterinary hygiene, high contamination of premises and low or insufficient level of preventive medical care have an increase in the incidence of animals up to 40% of the herd. Therefore, the problem of cows' distal limbs pathology treatment and prevention is currently of great importance. In the complex preventive and medical care against the disease of the distal limbs in cows, functional trimming of the hoof horn has an important veterinary hygienic value. The beginning of therapy at an early stage reduces the risk of developing more severe pathologies of the limbs. The use of "EMS-I type A" for the treatment and prevention of distal limb lesions, depending on the degree and size of tissue damage, provides recovery after 2-3 bandages and disease containment in the study groups.


The purpose of this research is to know the influence of variable Debt Equity Ratio (DER), Earning Per Share (EPS), a systematic Risk (β), and the Dividend Poyout Ratio (DPR) against stock prices on companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI). In this study the population is the successive LQ45 company has been listed on the BEI in the period of 2010-2012 as many as 45 companies. The techniques used in this research is the saturated sample or census whereby all members of the population used as samples. So the sample in this research is all Jsx LQ45 as much as 23 companies. Test the hypothesis in this study using multiple linear regression analysis. The test statistic t is used to find out the magnitude of the effect of each independent variable on an individual basis (partial) of the dependent variable. Statistical tests are used to determine the influence of F are jointly the dependent variable to the independent variable. The results of this research show that simultaneously, using Test-F, variable DER, EPS, Systematic Risk (β), and the Dividend Payout Ratio (DPR) have an effect on the price of shares in companies listed on the BEI. While based on Test-t only variable EPS influence partially against stock prices on companies listed on the BEI. The dominant influence of EPS variables to stock price. This research resulted in coefficients of determination adjusted (Adjusted R2 ) of 0,424. Those results show variations in share prices that are described by variables DER, Systematic Risk, EPS, Dividend Policy and the regression equations in only amounted to 42.4%, whereas the rest of 57.6% explained by variables other than the equation model. Keywords: DER, EPS, Systematic Risk, and policy Dividends, stock price, Multiple Linear Regression.


The use of antibiotics during treatment of infectious diseases of chickens causes the release of their residues with manure and entry into the environment, which creates a risk of antibiotic resistance pathogenic and conditionally pathogenic microorganisms and violates the microbiocenosis of the digestive system of chickens. The purpose of research was to determine the effect of doxycycline as one of the most common antibiotics used in poultry on the microbial composition of chicken manure. Ingestion of doxycycline solution to the laying hens in therapeutic doses for 7 days caused a decrease of the number of gram-negative rodshaped bacteria, which include most strains of E. coli, by 43.5 %. The use of an aqueous solution of doxycycline to laying hens at therapeutic concentrations caused a 5.2-fold decrease of the number of Citrobacter colonies and a 4.4-fold decrease in Proteus mirabilis colonies in the laying hens manure, indicating a certain sensitivity of these microorganisms to doxycycline. Doxycycline at therapeutic concentrations did not affect to the number of microorganisms of the enterobacteria family: Klebsiella, Enterobacter and E. Faecalis, which were not sensitive to doxycycline. The effect of doxycycline in therapeutic concentration on the number of Staphylococcus in the chickens manure, including the opportunistic S. epidermidis, and the pathogenic species S. aureus, has not been established either. After stopping the use of doxycycline in the therapeutic concentration to the chickens of industrial herd on day 10, it was found that the number of E. coli bacteria in the manure was restored almost to the level of the control group. Microorganisms belonging to the genus Klebsiella, their numbers in the chickens manure 10 days after cessation of use of doxycycline in therapeutic concentration, recovered 4 times slower than the control.


With accelerating global warming, understanding the evolutionary dynamics of plant adaptation to environmental change is increasingly urgent. Here we reveal the enigmatic history of the genus Cochlearia (Brassicaceae), a Pleistocene relic that originated from a drought-adapted Mediterranean sister genus during the Miocene. Cochlearia rapidly diversified and adapted to circum-Arctic regions and other cold-characterized habitat types during the Pleistocene. This rapid change in ecological preferences was accompanied by a highly complex, reticulate polyploid evolution, which was apparently triggered by the impact of repeated Pleistocene glaciation cycles. Our results illustrate that two early diversified arctic-alpine diploid gene pools contributed differently to the evolution of this young polyploid genus now captured in a cold-adapted niche. Metabolomics revealed ancestral central carbon metabolism responses to cold in diverse ecotypes, likely due to continuous connections to cold habitats that we hypothesize facilitated widespread parallel adaptation to alpine and subalpine habitats, and which we speculate were coopted from existing drought adaptations. Given the growing scientific interest in adaptive evolution of temperature-related traits, our results provide much-needed taxonomic and phylogenomic resolution of a model system as well as first insights into the origins of its adaptation to cold.


This book contains a selection of papers presented at the nineteenth
meeting of Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands (CLIN). The
meeting took place at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands
on 22 January 2009 and featured 58 oral presentations and 9 posters.
Of these 67 presentation nine papers have been selected for
publication in these proceedings. The papers in these proceedings deal
with a variety of topics in computational linguistics, like corpus
linguistics, computational lexicography, event processing and modeling
child language.


My showcase will introduce the interactive DVB-H movie developed for handheld devices.We engage the user to explore and communicate the new challenging ways of an interactive experiment. This hybrid activity, where we believe in the artist as an actor in the innovation process, we are creating an autonomous experience, a mutual communication where the User becomes the Author and the Author become the User.I hear and I forgetI see and I rememberI (inter) act and I understand--- ConfuciusThe expanding usage of mobile high-end devices and the start of UMTS demand new applications dealing with multimedia and its data services. Especially with the launch of DVB-H and DMB as the leading formats, mobile TV will become a reality. Together with artists, industry partners as well as media and design researchers we are looking at ways of how to interact and represent moving images on handheld devices.


Quantum computing based on Josephson junction technology is considered promising due to its scalable architecture. However, decoherence is a major obstacle. Here, we report evidence for improved Josephson quantum bits (qubits) using a single-crystal Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} tunnel barrier. We have found an {approx}80% reduction in the density of the spectral splittings that indicate the existence of two-level fluctators (TLFs) in amorphous tunnel barriers. The residual {approx}20% TLFs can be attributed to interfacial effects that may be further reduced by different electrode materials. These results show that decoherence sources in the tunnel barrier of Josephson qubits can be identified and eliminated.


Actinomycosis is an uncommon chronic suppurative bacterial infection. Clinical manifestations include cervicofacial, thoracic, abdominal, pelvic, and cutaneous forms. Primary cutaneous actinomycosis is extremely rare and is usually associated with external trauma. We report an unusual case of a 9-year-old boy who developed primary cutaneous actinomycosis of the scalp 5 years after cranial trauma. (Infect Dis Clin Pract 2008;16:201Y203) Human actinomycosis is a rare, chronic, suppurative, and granulomatous bacterial infection first described by Israel in 1878. Actinomycosis is characterized by abscesses, tissue fibrosis, and draining sinuses that may discharge sulfur granules. Actinomyces species are gram-positive anaerobic filamentous commensal organisms.1,2,5Y7 Six species of Actinomyces are responsible for human disease; however, most cases of human actinomycosis are due to Actinomyces israelii. The 5 major clinical manifestations of actinomycosis in order of frequency are cervicofacial, thoracic, abdominal, pelvic, and cutaneous. Primary cutaneous actinomycosis is an exceedingly rare infection in children and is usually related to external trauma. We present the case of a 9-year-old boy who developed primary cutaneous actinomycosis of the scalp 5 years after cranial trauma related to a motor vehicle accident.


Appel a contributions Deadline: Dec 15, 2013 Constructions of the Exotic in Europe and North America, 18th-21st Centuries Material Culture Review solicits articles for a special issue on the theme of constructing the exotic. We are looking for articles that examine the question of how a person, an object or a work of art comes to be seen as exotic. How is "foreignness" constructed? How is one culture appropriated and domesticated by another? The goal here is not to show the constructed natu...


In this paper the results are documented which derived from the Perception and Attitudes towards Ageing and seniors (PATAS) survey completed in early 2014. These results delve into respondents beliefs about achieving successful ageing – what it constitutes how it can be achieved and respondents' appraisal of their preparation to age successfully. The respondents' experience of age in terms of quality of life, integration within the community and their experience and attitudes towards ageism. Perceptions about lifelong learning and employability, especially what motivates older persons to consider such pursuits, are also reported.


Coal industry methane is a fossil raw material that can serve as an energy carrier for the production of heat and electricity, as well as a raw material for obtaining valuable products for the chemical industry. To ensure the safety of coal mining, rational environmental management and curbing global warming, it is important to develop and improve methods for capturing and utilizing methane from the coal industry. This review looks at the scientific basis and promising technologies for hydrogen production from coal industry methane and coal production. Technologies for catalytic conversion of all types of coal industry methane (Ventilation Air Methane – VAM, Coal Mine Methane – CMM, Abandoned Mine Methane – AMM, Coal-Bed Methane – CBM), differing in methane concentration and methane-to-air ratio, are discussed. The results of studies on the creation of a number of efficient catalysts for hydrogen production are presented. The great potential of hybrid methods of processing natural coal and coal industry methane has been demonstrated.


Gaussian frequency shift keying modulation has been chosen as the modulation technique for the physical layer of Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a standard for low cost and low power wireless communications between various mobile devices. The optimal demodulation of a GFSK signal involves an extremely complex Viterbi decoder. Therefore designers have opted for the noncoherent detection of GFSK which uses a frequency discriminator, followed by symbol by symbol detection. We describe a decision feedback equalizer to be added after the discriminator. The DFE receiver gives gains in excess of 2 dB. We also describe how to increase the current data rate of a Bluetooth system by increasing the symbol rate and not the alphabet size.


Among the causes of current economic problems in the European Monetary Union (EMU), the increasing differences in the competitiveness among the members of EMU play an important role. The real wages e.g. in Germany grew in the last years very slowly, significantly behind the growth of the labor productivity and consequently the competitiveness of Germany was rising stronger than in the other economies. Recent studies deal mostly with aggregated models and overlook structural changes behind this phenomenon. In this paper, we analyze the changes in labor productivity and wages, and the cost-push effects, in different countries of the European Union, based on World input output tables nad Price input-output model. Using the structural decomposition we identify the impact of changes in average hourly wage and in hourly labor productivity on the prices.


Jacobi, M. (1991). Mentoring and undergraduate academic success: A literature review. Review of Educational Research, 61, 505-532. Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., Brenner, B., Chopra, S. B., Davis, T., Talleyrand, R., & Suthakaran, V. (2001). The role of contextual supports and barriers in the choice of math/ science educational options: A test of social cognitive hypotheses. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48, 474-483. doi:10.1037/0022-022.214.171.1244 Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79-122. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027 Lundberg, C. A., & Schreiner, L. A. (2004). Quality and frequency of faculty–student interaction as predictors of learn ing: An analysis by student race/ethnicity. Journal of College Student Development, 45, 549-565. doi:10.1353 /csd.2004.0061 McDonald, R. P., & Ho, M. R. (2002). Principles and practice in reporting structural equation analyses. Psychological Methods, 7, 64-82. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.7.1.64 McMahon, W. W., & Wagner, A. P. (1982). The monetary returns to education as partial social efficiency criteria. In W. W. McMahon & T. G. Geske (Eds.), Financing education: Overcoming inefficiency and inequity (pp. 150-187). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Oreopoulos, P., & Petronijevic, U. (2013). Making college worth it: A review of the returns to higher education. The Future of Children, 23(1), 41-65. doi:10.1353/foc.2013.0001 Schreiner, L. A., Noel, P., Anderson, E., & Cantwell, L. (2011). The impact of faculty and staff on high-risk college student persistence. Journal of College Student Development, 52, 321-338. doi:10.1353/csd.2011.0044


Using the wind hodograph of 3 selected case that have high helicity values, we have checked possibility of tornado occurrence. It turns out that hodographs of Cases 8 and C are weakly associated with the typical supercell hodograph. Hodograph of Case A, however, is quite similar to the typical hodograph of tornado-producing supercell. For Case A, it has been reported that a very violent gust occurred as if a level A typhoon had passed, inflicting severe losses in Jeollabuk-do. Although the hodograph analysis demonstrates possibility of tornado occurrence for a gusty wind case, a further study is necessary to confirm our results, especially using a high-resolution numerical model. However, the hodographic analysis seems to be a useful tool for forecasting a tornado-like gusty wind system in Korea.


We give a proof of the monodromy conjecture relating the poles of motivic zeta functions with roots of b‐functions for isolated quasihomogeneous hypersurfaces, and more generally for semi‐quasihomogeneous hypersurfaces. We also give a strange generalization allowing a twist by certain differential forms.


Climate has a defining role in growth, composition and distribution of plant populations and communities of natural as well as manmade ecosystems of the world. Changing climatic variables such as -increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, rising global temperature, altered precipitation patterns and significant increase in 'extreme' weather events, such as drought, floods, cyclones, fires or storms variably affects different ecosystems plant populations and communities. The effects of climate change on plant populations and communities are assessed through various approaches - controlled field experiments, modeling and correlation between long term climate data and associated changes etc. The manuscript is an attempt to report the direct or indirect effects of the increase or shift in temperature, alteration in precipitation in different regions on plants population and community ecology attributes such as growth, phenology, composition, distribution range, incidence of pest, productivity etc. Therefore, the manuscript emphasizes that ecological understanding of plant populations and communities responses to climate change from a holistic and pragmatic perspective is critically important to address the issues pertaining to plant biodiversity, global food security, poverty elevation and sustainable development.


Recent evidence has demonstrated the ability of dietary fatty acid composition to influence postprandial endotoxemia in humans and swine. However, the mechanism(s) by which fatty acids affect transport of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) across the intestinal epithelium has not yet been fully elucidated. To study this, we utilized non‐transformed porcine jejunum‐derived IPEC‐J2 cells. This cell line is well‐recognized to form confluent polarized monolayers with apical and basolateral regions, allowing for an in vitro model of the intestinal epithelium. The present study investigated the effect dietary fatty acids and inflammation had on intestinal permeability of LPS and barrier integrity in IPEC‐J2 monolayers. We hypothesized that treatment of IPEC‐J2 monolayer with saturated or n‐6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) would enhance fluorescein‐isothiocyanate (FITC)‐LPS apical‐to‐basolateral permeability and reduce transepithelial resistance (TER); whereas n‐3 PUFA would attenuate this response. Secondly, we hypothesized that lauric acid would amplify the reduction in monolayer integrity associated with pre‐treatment with LPS. IPEC‐J2 cell monolayers were grown to confluency (>1kΩ) on 0.4 μm Transwell® inserts. In experiment 1, these monolayers were treated with either 50 or 100 μM of docosahexaenoic acid, lauric acid, arachidonic acid or vehicle for 48 hours before TER and FITC‐LPS determination of barrier integrity. In experiment 2, monolayers were treated with either 5 μg/mL LPS, LPS plus 100 μM lauric acid or saline vehicle for 24 hours and then TER and FITC‐LPS determination of barrier integrity assessed. In experiment 1, TER and FITC‐LPS permeability was not altered by fatty acid type or concentration. For experiment 2, compared to the saline control, LPS caused a significant time‐dependent reduction in TER (p<0.001); however, the co‐inclusion of lauric acid fatty acids did not have any additive effect on TER (p>0.05). Although TER was reduced, surprisingly we reported no treatment differences in apical to basolateral FITC‐LPS permeability. In conclusion, fatty acid treatment did not modulate barrier inflammation and permeability in in vitro IPEC‐J2 monolayers. However, live Gram‐negative bacteria or their bacterial cellular membrane fragments may be a better model to study the effects of fatty acids on LPS permeability.


Tokio, Japan, Sept. 27, 1901. To the Editor: —We are in this far away country and suppose a few observations might interest your numerous readers. Tokio, the present capital of Japan, is an interesting combination of the ancient and the modern; its foundations were laid before Columbus discovered America, and it was a great city in the beginning of the 17th century. Its population to-day is about two million. Some of its streets are as broad, as well paved and lighted as the boulevards of Chicago, and others as narrow and dark as in medieval days; tall brick and stone buildings that would do credit to any western capital have thatched roofs of a thousand years ago. The new Japan of to-day is a marvel; our own Commodore Perry held the magic wand that gave her the awakening, and her rapid strides to a higher civilization is the wonder of


We present numerical calculations of lamellar phases of diblock copolymers (BCP) confined between two surfaces, where the top surface is flat and the bottom one is corrugated. The corrugated substrate is assumed to have a single q-mode of lateral undulations with a wavenumber qs and amplitude R. We focus on the effects of substrate roughness, parametrized by the dimensionless quantity, qsR, on the relative stability between parallel and perpendicular orientations of the lamellar phase. The competition between film confinement, energy cost of elastic deformation, and gain in surface energy induces a parallel-to-perpendicular transition of the BCP lamellae. Employing self-consistent field theory (SCFT), we study the critical value, (qsR)*, corresponding to this transition. The (qsR)* value increases as a function of the surface preference toward one of the two BCP components and as a function of film thickness. But, (qsR)* decreases with increasing values of the Flory–Huggins parameter, NχAB. Our findings a...


Changes in the court抯 functions are the most fundamental focus in court law. The functions have moved from judgement to adjustment, which includes judicial legislation and policy-making. Postmodern functions of the court are only an extension and supplement of the society ruled by the law, and it is not possible for them to become the dominant trend.


Objective To analyze the local expression levels of miR-82 in lung cancer and studying its correlation with clinical characteristics of lung cancer.Methods From March 2012 to May 2013,we selected 62 patients who hospitalized in our department with non-small cell lung cancer patients.Tumor tissue was separated and extracted for miR-182.We detected the expression level of miR-182 by RT-PCR method and analyzed the correlation between lung cancer clinical characteristics and miR-182.Results The miR-182 express level in patients with different age and gender had no difference(P0.05);miR-182 express in lung cancer was great related with degree of infiltration,lymph node metastasis,distant metastasis and tumor stage.The expression level of miR-182 in adenocarcinoma tissue was higher than IN squamous carcinoma tissues,but the increase tendency was the same.Conclusion Lung cancer tissue expression high levels of miR-182 and has certain relevance with clinical characteristics of lung cancer.It can be used in the clinical diagnosis of lung cancer,have good clinical application prospects.


In Foucault's late work his research turned towards providing a genealogy of the subject. To this end for Foucault: "[i]t seemed appropriate to look for the forms and modalities of the relation to self by which the individual constitutes and recognizes himself qua subject."2 Foucault therefore begins to explore technologies or practices which make up the care of self, and which are carried out on the self by the self. Such practices allow the self to purify, correct and transform itself.3 This project, focusing on thought from Classical to Late Antiquity, and early Christian literature, while marking a change in the topic and period of Foucault's research, is a development of his previous research. Foucault had already explored the practices of government exerted on the self by others, which included the constitution of a particular kind of subject.4 He subsequently began to explore the practices of self-government which allow self-constitution. The possibility, therefore, arises of whether an understanding of ancient technologies of the self can provide a resource for resisting the constitution of our subjectivity according to the power strategies of our contemporary disciplinary society. However, given Foucault's recognition that technologies of the self, whilst concerning our relationship to ourselves, involve relationships with others, the problem also presents itself as to how forms of self-creation that do not reproduce a subjugated subject are possible in the context of the power strategies that constitute our interactions with others. In this article, I will argue that if technologies of control are creative, as Foucault understands them to be, there exists the possibility for self-creation within a network of power relations, and there is thus scope to establish a non-subjugated self. Technologies of the self play an important role in the critical process which creates the space for the formation of new subjectivities that in turn contribute to the critical process of destabilisation. It is possible to transform who we are in ways which challenge existing power orders from inside these orders. I will show that harnessing technologies of the self in these ways depends on a critical awareness of the operation of power strategies which we can never be entirely liberated from. Various discussions of the subject's self-constitution through technologies of the care of the self overlook the problem of how self-creation is possible given the subject's constitution through power strategies.5 Alan Schrift, C. Colwell, and Benda Hofmeyr clearly present this problematic, and have an awareness


Morphology and size controllable rhodium nanoparticles stabilized by a nitrogen-rich polyoxyethylenated derivative have been prepared by reduction of RhCl3 with NaBH4 in water at room temperature and fully characterized. The flower-like Rh NPs are effective and recyclable catalysts for the stereoselective hydrosilylation of challenging internal alkynes and diynes, affording the (E)-vinylsilanes in quantitative yields for a wide range of substrates. The insolubility of the nanocatalyst in diethyl ether allows its easy separation and recycling.


OBJECTIVE: To study the utilization of antibacterials in a hospital.METHODS: Drug consumption data from Jan.1,2004 to Dec.31,2005 were collected from hospital Drug Control System database and analyzed statistically by Excel software.RESULTS: The DDDs of antibacterial increased in 2005 over the previous year;in terms of DDDs value,leading the first 3 places were penicillins,cephalosporins and quinolons,with DDDs of certain antibacterial showing a big fluctuation.CONCLUSION: The use of antibacterials in this hospital is basically rational yet it is far from rational,its control remains to be tightened and the related measures should be carried out as early as possible.


Abstract Background: Little is known about how in-hospital supplementation with water, infant formula, or sugar water affects the relationship between breastfeeding intentions and duration, and whether this differs by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) history. Our study objectives were to assess the associations between GDM and exclusive breastfeeding intentions, hospital supplementation, and breastfeeding duration, including whether hospital supplementation mediates the association between exclusive breastfeeding intentions and breastfeeding duration. Study Design and Methods: Using data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II (2005–2007), we included women with GDM (n = 160) and women without GDM or prepregnancy diabetes (no diabetes mellitus [NDM]) (n = 2,139). We used multivariable logistic and linear regressions to determine the associations between GDM history and exclusive breastfeeding intentions, and between breastfeeding intentions, hospital supplementation, and breastfeeding duration, by G...


The task of image captioning aims to automatically generate descriptive sentences for a given image. Most existing works use recurrent neural network as language decoder. In this paper, we use a transformer structure to generate descriptive captions. When applied in the task of image captioning, the transformer network exists two problems. The first is the disappearance of the query vector information in stacking network. The second is the lacking of spatial information between objects in the decoding process. To solve these problems, we propose an improved Transformer with IoU Position encoding model, i.e., TIP. We improve the transformer from two aspects. First, we pro-pose an intra-modal attention mechanism to alleviate the problem of vanishing query vectors. Second, we propose an Intersection-over-Union (IoU) spatial position encoding method to enhance the semantic information of images. Extensive experiments on MS-COCO datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our model.


In the Summer of 1971 a project was initiated at CMU to design the hardware and software for a multi-processor computer system using minicomputer processors (i.e., PDP-11's). This paper briefly describes an overview (only) of the goals, design, and status of this hardware/software complex, and indicates some of the research problems raised and analytic problems solved in the course of its construction.


SU Shi's family has a close contact with Ouyang Xiu's family for three generations.SU Shi showed respect to Ouyang Xiu all his life for various reasons.From public interests,Ouyang Xiu served as a good example for SU Shi in being a true man,a poet laureate,and a politician;from private interests,Ouyang Xiu provided Su Shi and his father with opportunities to develop their talents.While Ouyang Xiu spared no effort to Guide and support the SUs,SU Shi showed gratitude to him for help in time of difficulty.Their sincerity of making friends is of realistic significance even today.


Antibody light chain amyloidosis is a devastating protein misfolding disease where mostly light chain variable (VL) domains aggregate to amyloid fibrils, resulting in organ dysfunction and death. It is unclear which amino acid residues play a key role in governing VL fibrillation. In this work, the conserved residue 2 of VLk domains was identified to be crucial for controlling its thermodynamic stability, with hydrophobic side chains stabilizing the domain whereas charged residues destabilize and lead to amyloid formation.


This research is a quantitative research that aims to (1) examine the differences of students 'mathematical critical thinking ability in terms of  self regulated learning which gain learning with metacognitive approach and students who only get ordinary learning (2) examine the influence of self regulated learning on students' mathematical critical thinking ability and (3) to describe students' mathematical critical thinking skills in terms of self regulated learning. Subjects in this research were students of class XI in MAN 1 Cimahi with the subject amounted to 64 students consisting of the control class and experimental class. Subjects were divided into three groups based on self-regulated learning level,  specifically high level, medium level, and low level. Based on the results of the research, it's found that (1) the ability of mathematical critical thinking in the experimental class is better than the mathematical critical thinking ability of the control class (2) the students' self-regulated learning of the experimental group positively influences the critical thinking skills of mathematics (3) The students of high level already able the indicators of critical thinking ability. The students of medium level are still experiencing errors in the algorithm resulting in incorrect results and conclusions. The Students of low level have not been able to meet the indicators of critical mathematical thinking ability.


According to the topology of four-leg SAPF(Shunt Active Power Filter),a compound control strategy is put forward,which combines the generalized integrators with the abc-coordinates-based 3-D SVPWM(3-Dimensional Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation).The generalized integrator compensates the specified harmonic without static error while the 3-D SVPWM has higher DC voltage utilization ratio,better DC voltage stability and easier digital realization.The simulation model of four-leg SAPF is built and analyzed,and results show that it compensates the three-phase network harmonic currents,negative-sequence fundamental current,zero-sequence fundamental current and neutral current effectually and order-specifically,with both faster dynamic response and smaller static error,which verifies its validity and feasibility.


Amplification of seismic waves due to surface topography and subsurface soils has often been observed to cause intensive damage in past earthquakes. However, due to its complexity, topographic amplification has not yet been considered in most seismic design codes. In this study, we simulate ground-motion amplification based on 3D Spectral Element Method, using Hong Kong island as a local testbed site. The analyses revealed that topography amplification of ground motions is frequency dependent. By assuming the site is made of homogenous rock, the amplification factor can be parameterized using a scale-dependent topographic feature -the smoothed curvature. Amplification of high frequency wave is correlated with curvature smoothed over a small length scale. On the other hand, amplification of long-period waves is correlated with large-scale topography features. The maximum topography amplification generally ranges from 1.6 to 2.0 in the protruded areas. Moreover, the influence of subsurface soils on the ground-motion amplification is studied. It is found that the ground-motion amplification pattern is significantly influenced by the thickness of the soil layer. Compared with the homogeneous rock case, the amplification pattern becomes closely correlated to smaller-scale topographic features as well as slope angles. Finally, a unified prediction model is proposed to account for different soil depths and input wave frequencies. Out study shows that the prediction model can give accurate results with a standard deviation of residuals less than 0.15.


This paper extends the fuzzy set theory to a dynamic finite element analysis of engineering systems which have uncertainties in material properties. A general algorithm which resolves the uncertain eigenvalue problem by using a reanalysis approach is considered. This algorithm is applied to the study of the modal behaviour of structures presenting uncertain material properties. Some indexes which determine the more sensitive eigenvalue to several uncertainty sources are also put forward. Finally, a plate structure as numerical path-test is analysed. The results of such a calculation determine the sensitivity of the modal behaviour to multiple simultaneous material parameters.


What triggers the pragmatic enrichment? How to locate the direction for the pragmatic enrichment? How does the enrichment process work in detail? When should the process draw to an end? Based on Relevance Theory,an attempt has been made to expound the processes of pragmatic enrichment by resorting to its utterance comprehension procedure.


In this paper, we show how a Portuguese BERT model can be combined with structured data in order to deploy a chatbot based on a finite state machine to create a conversational AI system that helps a real-estate company to predict its client's contact motivation. The model achieves human level results in a dataset that containts 235 unbalanced labels. Then, we also show its benefits considering the business impact comparing it against classical NLP methods.


The reactions of cobalt acetates with tetrachloroterephthalic acid (H2BDC-Cl4) in different solvents gave two polymeric and one mononuclear CoII complexes. X-ray single-crystal structural determination revealed that the ligand BDC-Cl4 displays a reliable bridging tecton to construct diverse supramolecular architectures through coordinative bonds or secondary hydrogen-bonding interactions. The complexes [Co(BDC-Cl4)(DMF)2(EtOH)2]n (1) and {[Co(BDC-Cl4)(DMF)2(MeOH)2]·2DMF}n (2) demonstrate a one-dimensional (1D) coordination motif with infinite CoII-tetrachloroterephthalate chains, which are tuned by different binding solvent systems of DMF/ethanol (EtOH) and DMF/methanol (MeOH). [Co(DMF)2(H2O)4]·(BDC-Cl4) (3) represents a two-dimensional (2D) metallosupramolecular network by hydrogen-bonded bridging between the aqua ligand of the mononuclear complex with the uncoordinated BDC-Cl4 solvates. The spectroscopic, thermal, and fluorescent properties of 1–3 were also investigated.


Saving deposit, recorded as an important indicator of GDP, has important effects on the national macro-control. For a long time, China's saving deposit occupies an important place in the total GDP, which is different from the economic model in developed countries where consumption and investment are dominant. So, analyzing savings has important significance to the national economy. This article selects the residents savings data from 1992 to 2009, tries to analyzes the influential factors of residents in our country empirically, and presents corresponding policies with the specific model.


: On the bottoms of the intermontane depressions of the Baikal rift zone (from Muya-Kuanda on the northeastern flank to the system of Tunka depressions in the southwest), fluvial and lacustrine accumulation of deposits prevailed during the Pleistocene. The sedimentary complexes of high terraces (VII-IV) were formed mainly in the alluvial-lake environment,


A series of BST (Ba_(0.65)Sr_(0.35)TiO_3) sol with different concentration were prepared by us- ing barium acetates[Ba(CH_3COOH)_2],strontium acetates[Sr(CH_3COOH)_2]and titanium-tetrabutoxide [Ti(OC_4Hg)_4]as raw materials and some BST thin films were fabricated in Sol-Gel and spin-coating processes successfully.The effect of sol concentration on the properties and microstructures of the BST thin films were analyzed in detail by using a X-ray diffractometer,a scanning electron microscope and an impendance phase analyzer respectively.The results show that at the same annealing temperature,the crystallization degree,grain growth and dielectric constant of the films become better and the dielectric loss decreases with the increase of the concentration of the precursor solution.The film formed by the sol with a concentration of 0.5mol/1 has a better crystallization degree.Its grains grew well and were ranged very compactly.The grain size is about 60nm to 80nm.Their dielectric properties are optimal.


Abstract Certain past presidential addresses have focused on differences that exist within our geography profession while others have concentrated on research results from particular subdisciplinary areas of our field. Serious financial vicissitudes over the past few years have brought clearly to the forefront our need to emphasize those aspects that bind us together rather than separate us. My purpose then is to illustrate, by means of three examples, how many of our subdisciplines are interconnected. More specifically, useful roles that climatology may play in cultural, historical, and medical geography are examined. A call is made for all geographers to evaluate how their own subdisciplines can contribute to problem solving in other areas of our field. Such intradisciplinary efforts should serve to bind us more closely together and provide us with a more unified image as a profession.


The invention discloses a rigid rack device of dynamic rail detection equipment for a medium and low speed maglev vehicle. The rigid rack device comprises a crossbeam, a left connecting arm and a right connecting arm which are used for installation of sensors, and a left elastic bearing component and a right elastic bearing component which are respectively fixed at two ends of the vehicle body, wherein the crossbeam is connected on the tops of the left elastic bearing component and the right elastic bearing component; the left connecting arm is connected to the lower left of the crossbeam; and the right connecting arm is connected to the lower right of the crossbeam. The rigid rack device has the advantages of simple and compact structure, low cost, small volume, light weight, wide application range, high reliability and the like.


Theory of Oscillations and Stability of a Semiconductor Plasma with Low Carrier Density in a Strong Electric Field.- I. Homogeneous Semiconductor Plasma in a Strong Electric Field.- 1.1. Physical Meaning of the Instability Associated with a Negative Current-Voltage Characteristic.- 1.2. Basic Equations Describing a Seminconductor Plasma with Low Carrier Density.- 1.3. Oscillation Spectra of a Homogeneous Semiconductor Plasma in a Strong Electric Field.- 1.4. Effect of Diffusion on the Instability of a Semiconductor Plasma with Negative Current-Voltage Characteristic.- II Spatially Inhomogeneous Solid-State Plasma in External Fields.- 2.1. Equation of Small Oscillations of an Inhomogeneous Plasma with Low Carrier Density.- 2.2. Spectrum of Short-Wave Oscillations of an Inhomogeneous Solid-State Plasma.- 2.3. Surface Waves in a Solid-State Plasma in the Absence of a Magnetic Field.- 2.4. Surface Waves in a Bounded Magnetized Plasma with Current.- Literature Cited.- Nonlinear Theory of the Interaction of Waves in a Plasma.- Preface.- Notation.- I. Fundamentals of the Nonlinear Electrodynamics of a Medium with Time and Spatial Dispersion.- 1. The Electromagnetic Field Equations and the Material Equation..- 2. Multi-Index Permittivity Tensors and Truncated Equations of the Electromagnetic Field.- 3. Averaging of the Truncated Equations of the Electromagnetic Field with Respect to the Statistical Ensemble.- 4. Discussion of Results. Equation for the Frequencies of Interacting Electromagnetic Waves.- II Multi-Index Permittivity Tensors of a Homogeneous Isotropic Plasma.- 5. Solution of the Kinetic Equation for an Isotropic Plasma as a Power Series in the Self-Consistent Field.- 6. Permittivity Tensor of an Isotropic Plasma as the Simplest Example of the Multi-Index Tensor ?ij1...jn for n = 1. Spectra and Polarization of the Characteristic Oscillations of an Isotropic Plasma.- 7. Three-Index Tensor Sijs (?, k ?', k') in an Isotropic Plasma.- 8. The Four-Index Tensor Viajb (?, k ?', k') in an Isotropic Plasma.- III. Examples of Nonlinear Processes in an Isotropic Plasma.- 9. Nonlinear Interaction of Longitudinal Oscillations of an Isotropic Plasma.- 10. Nonlinear Interaction of Longitudinal and Transverse Oscillations in an Isotropic Plasma.- 11. Nonlinear Interaction of Transverse Characteristic Oscillations of an Isotropic Plasma.- 12. Effective Cross Sections of Various Scattering Processes in an Isotropic Plasma.- 13. Corrections to the Spectra of the Characteristic Oscillations of an Isotropic Plasma due to Nonlinear Interaction.- 14. Nonlinear Interaction of Characteristic Oscillations of a Plasma and the Theory of the Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves on Fluctuations of the Plasma.- IV. Multi-Index Tensors of the Complex Permittivity of a Homogeneous Magnetoactive Plasma.- 15. Solution of the Transport Equation for a Magnetoactive Plasma in the Form of a Power Series in the Self-Consistent Electric Field.- 16. Permittivity Tensor of a Magnetoactive Plasma as the Simplest Example of the Multi-Index Tensor for n = 1.- 17. The Inverse Tensor (3.17) and the Spectral Function of the Electric Fields of the Characteristic Oscillations of a Magnetoactive Plasma.- 18. Quasilongitudinal Oscillations of a Magnetoactive Plasma. Spectra and Spectral Functions.- 19. Three-Index Tensor Sijs (?, k ?', k') in a Magnetoactive Plasma.- 20. Four-Index Tensor Viajb (?, k ?', k') in a Magnetoactive Plasma.- 21. Conservation Laws in the Nonlinear Interaction of Plasma Oscillations as a Consequence of the Symmetry of the Multi-Index Tensors.- V. Specific Nonlinear Processes in a Magnetoactive Plasma.- 22. Decay of Quasilongitudinal Characteristic Oscillations of an Isothermal Magnetoactive Plasma.- 23. Decay of Quasilongitudinal Characteristic Oscillations of a Nonisothermal Magnetoactive Plasma.- 24. Induced Combination Scattering of High-Frequency Transverse Waves in a Cold Magnetoactive Plasma.- 25. Induced Scattering of Low-Frequency Quasilongitudinal Characteristic Oscillations of Magnetoactive Plasma on the Plasma Particles.- 26. Induced Scattering of Quasilongitudinal Characteristic Cyclotron Oscillations of a Magnetoactive Plasma on the Plasma Particles.- Conclusions.- Appendix. Multi-Index Complex Permittivity Tensors of a Cold Plasma in the Framework of the Hydrodynamic Description.- Literature Cited.


[Purpose] We investigated the suitability and usefulness of range of motion exercises (ROM-ex) utilizing humeral neck axis rotation (ROTH) for elderly patients with shoulder joint contracture. [Subjects] The subjects were 20 females with an average age of 86.6 ± 7.2 years. [Method] We conducted conventional ROM-ex and ROM-ex with ROTH, 20 times each, and measured the angles of flexion, abduction, adduction, and external rotation (position 1). [Results] After conventional ROM-ex, significant differences were not found; however, we found significant increases in all ROM values following ROM-ex with ROTH. [Conclusion] The results suggest that ROMex with ROTH is useful as a method for improving ROM limitation due to immovability.


Background: Student's perception of the learning environment where they study has shown significant impact on their behavior level and academic level. The aim of the study was to find out the student's perception of their learning environment in an Indian medical school of South Kerala and to study differences in perceptions between years of study, gender.Methods: In this study we used the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) inventory which was administered to undergraduate medical students of first (N=100), second (N=92), third (N=62) and fourth years (N=75) of Travancore Medical College, Kollam. Scores obtained were expressed as mean±standard deviation (SD) and analyzed using one-way ANOVA and post hoc test was used.Results: A total of 400 students were studying in our medical college. Among them 330 students became participants of the study. Males comprised of 116 (35.2%) and females 214 (64.8%). Students less than 21 years was 200 (60.6%) and above 21 years 130 (39.4%). Final year MBBS students scored well when compared with the first years and second years. Post hoc analysis also showed same results. Significant relation between Student's Perception of Learning, SPoT (value=0.001); Student's Academic Self-Perception, SPoA (p value=0.022), SPoA (p value=0.010); and SSSP                            (p value=0.016) between batches has been observed. There was significant difference between males and females in the perception of atmosphere and was found to be statically significant.Conclusions: In this study the student's perceptions of educational environment showed that the student's enthusiasm improved as they move across years and was statically found to be significant. In the sub category student's perception on atmosphere there was significant difference between males and females and it was statically found to be significant (p value less than 0.05).


This paper introduces method of the bulk conversion between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 with function of formula editing and function setting of Excel in order to check the same books rapidly in library when purchasing,and convert between old and new bibliographic data smoothly.


The embodiment of the invention discloses a multi-carrier different-frequency measurement gap configuration method, system, base station and terminal. The multi-carrier different-frequency measurement gap configuration method comprises the steps that the base station acquires different-frequency measurement gap requirement capability information of the terminal, and determines the measurement capability of the terminal based on the different-frequency measurement gap requirement capability information; and a measurement gap is configured for the terminal based on the measurement capability according to a preset configuration rule.


Bladed disks of engine rotors usually operate at harsh conditions of high rotating speeds, which may lead to nonnegligible rotordynamic effects, including Coriolis force, spin softening, and stress stiffening effects. These effects on the vibration of mistuned bladed disks are seldom discussed in available investigations. In this paper, the vibration characteristics of rotating mistuned bladed disks are addressed by considering these rotordynamic effects. First, finite element (FE) models of bladed disks are used to obtain the governing equations of motion, and an efficient method for getting the stress stiffening matrix of sector model is developed. Then, the effective component-mode mistuning method (CMM) is employed to create compact, yet accurate, reduced-order models (ROMs). Finally, the models are validated and used to study the influences of Coriolis force, spin softening, and stress stiffening effects on the vibration of bladed disks with frequency mistuning factors. Numerical results show that these rotordynamic effects could significantly affect the vibrations of mistuning bladed disks, especially in the ranges of high speed, and should be carefully considered during analysis.


Abstract "Mucopurulent Cervicitis—The Ignored Counterpart in Women of Urethritis in Men," Robert C. Brunham, et al. Among 100 randomly selected nonmenstruating women attending a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases, we assessed objective criteria for the clinical diagnosis of mucopurulent cervicitis. Visualization of yellow mucopurulent endocervical secretions on a white swab and the presence of 10 or more polymorphonuclear leukocytes per microscopical field (at a magnification of 1000) in satisfactory gram-stained endocervical smears were independently correlated with cervical Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Neither finding correlated with gonorrhea or genital herpes, although herpes caused characteristic cervical ulcerations. C. trachomatis was isolated from the cervix of 20 of 40 women with mucopurulent cervicitis but of only 2 of 60 without it. The overall prevalence of mucopurulent cervicitis among women attending the clinic (40 per cent) exceeded that of nongonococcal urethritis among men in th...


Silicon‐based complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) transistors have achieved great success. However, the traditional development pathway is approaching its fundamental limits. Magnetoelectronics logic, especially magnetic‐field‐based logic, shows promise for surpassing the development limits of CMOS logic and arouses profound attentions. Existing proposals of magnetic‐field‐based logic are based on exotic semiconductors and difficult for further technological implementation. Here, a kind of diode‐assisted geometry‐enhanced low‐magnetic‐field magnetoresistance (MR) mechanism is proposed. It couples p‐n junction's nonlinear transport characteristic and Lorentz force by geometry, and shows extremely large low‐magnetic‐field MR (>120% at 0.15 T). Further, it is applied to experimentally demonstrate current‐controlled reconfigurable magnetoresistance logic on the silicon platform at room temperature. This logic device could perform all four basic Boolean logic including AND, OR, NAND and NOR in one device. Combined with non‐volatile magnetic memory, this logic architecture with unique magnetoelectric properties has the advantages of current‐controlled reconfiguration, zero refresh consumption, instant‐on performance and would bridge the processor‐memory gap. Our findings would pave the way in silicon‐based magnetoelectronics and offer a route to make a new kind of microprocessor with potential of high performance.


The bi‐directional relationship between sleep and stress has been actively researched as sleep disturbances and stress have become increasingly common in society. Interestingly, the brain and underlying neural circuits important for sleep regulation may respond uniquely to stress that leads to post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and stress that does not. In stress that does not lead to PTSD, the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis (HPA) pathway is activated normally that results in sympathetic nervous system activation that allows the brain and body to return to baseline functioning. However, exposure to stress that leads to PTSD, causes enhanced negative feedback of this same pathway and results in long‐term physiological and psychological changes. In this review, how stress regulates glucocorticoid signaling pathways in brain glial cells called astrocytes, and then mediates stress‐induced insomnia are examined. Astrocytes are critical sleep regulatory cells and their connections to sleep and stress due to disturbed glucocorticoid signaling provide a novel mechanism to explain how stress leads to insomnia. This review will examine the interactions of stress neurobiology, astrocytes, sleep, and glucocorticoid signaling pathways and will examine the how stress that leads to PTSD and stress that does not impacts sleep‐regulatory processes.


We start by taking into reconsideration the available data on the metallurgy of the Baioes/Santa Luzia Late Bronze Age culture group, namely the results obtained during the development of the research project "Metallurgy and Society in Central Portugal Late Bronze Age - METABRONZE". Then, we discuss the role of tin procurement and production in the development of inter-regional relationships. We then discuss the Mediterranean connexions of the two Portuguese Beiras Late Bronze Age culture groups during the pre-Phoenician, Phoenician and Punic periods. Finally, we take into account possible interpretations of these two regional culture groups' metallurgy and societies' role on the origin and development of Cabeco das Fraguas "Sanctuary".


With the Covid-19 pandemic dominating the agenda, it seems almostnatural that it be associated with another buzzword: populism. As thepandemic advances, it seems that the prediction of populism surviving thepandemic due to its own diversity has been proved right, given thevariation in responses by populists around the world. One commondenominator stands out though: populists across the political spectrumunderstood the benefits of performing the Covid-19 crisis as a tool tostrengthen their political positions. They tried to politicize the pandemic toincrease the antagonism between the people and the elites. In this article, Iintroduce the notion of crisis as both a construct and a performance, and asa useful concept to analyze populist reactions to the pandemic. I argue thatnotwithstanding the attempts to politicize the pandemic, the Covid-19 crisisended up imposing its own reality. In other words: the crisis could not beowned by politics.


A non-expandable intravaginal pessary device capable of providing varying pressure along the length of a woman's urethra when inserted into the woman's vagina. The device has a top, a bottom, and a sidewall that extends between the top and the bottom, and the sidewall, top and bottom form an enclosed outer periphery defining a total area of the device. The sidewall has a convex bottom portion, a mid-section, and a convex top portion. The convex bottom portion connects the bottom to the mid-section, the convex upper portion connects the top to the mid-section, and the convex bottom portion and the convex upper portion are capable of providing pressure to two distinct locations on a woman's urethra when inserted into a woman's vagina.


Th rombocytosis is a common feature in chronic myeloproliferative diseases, and contributes to an increased incidence of thrombotic and hemorrhagic events during the course of the disease. In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), however, hemorrhagic and thrombotic complications, even with marked thrombocytosis, are rare (3% and 1%, respectively) [1]. Th e incidence of thrombocytosis in CML is reported to be around 30 – 50%. Extreme thrombocytosis, defi ned as