Cloud computing provides outsourcing of resources bringing economic benefits. The outsourcing however does not allow data owners to outsource the responsibility of confidentiality, integrity and access control, as it still is the responsibility of the data owner. As cloud computing is transparent to both the programmers and the users, it induces challenges that were not present in previous forms of distributed computing. Furthermore, cloud computing enables its users to abstract away from low-level configuration such as configuring IP addresses and routers. It creates an illusion that this entire configuration is automated. This illusion is also true for security services, for instance automating security policies and access control in cloud, so that individuals or end-users using the cloud only perform very high-level (business oriented) configuration. This paper investigates the security challenges posed by the transparency of distribution, abstraction of configuration and automation of services by performing a detailed threat analysis of cloud computing across its different deployment scenarios (private, bursting, federation or multi-clouds). This paper also presents a risk inventory which documents the security threats identified in terms of availability, integrity and confidentiality for cloud infrastructures in detail for future security risks. We also propose a methodology for performing security risk assessment for cloud computing architectures presenting some of the initial results.


The need for managing massive attributed graphs is becoming common in many areas such as recommendation systems, proteomics analysis, social network analysis or bibliographic analysis. This is making it necessary to move towards parallel systems that allow managing graph databases containing millions of vertices and edges. Previous work on distributed graph databases has focused on finding ways to partition the graph to reduce network traffic and improve execution time. However, partitioning a graph and keeping the information regarding the location of vertices might be unrealistic for massive graphs. In this paper, we propose Parallel-GDB, a new system based on specializing the local caches of any node in this system, providing a better cache hit ratio. ParallelGDB uses a random graph partitioning, avoiding complex partition methods based on the graph topology, that usually require managing extra data structures. This proposed system provides an efficient environment for distributed graph databases.


Background Early prediction of cardiovascular (CV) events in the general population remains an important issue. The T-wave morphology restitution (TMR), an ECG marker quantifying ventricular repolarization dynamics, is strongly associated with CV mortality in heart failure patients. Our objective was to evaluate the CV prognostic value of TMR in the general population and identify any genetic contribution. Methods ECG recordings from 56,780 healthy individuals undergoing exercise stress testing in the UK Biobank study (EST-UKB) were analyzed. TMR was computed for exercise (TMRex) and recovery from exercise (TMRrec). The primary endpoint was CV death or hospitalizations for CV reasons. The secondary and tertiary endpoints were (1) all-cause mortality or hospitalizations for CV reasons and (2) arrhythmic mortality or hospitalizations for arrhythmic reasons. The median follow-up time was 70.7 months. Genome-wide association studies for TMRex and TMRrec were also performed and genetic risk scores (GRSs) were derived and tested for association with endpoints in the full cohort (FULL-UKB; N=402,746, median follow-up time of 85.3 months). Results 1,727 (3.0%) individuals met the primary endpoint in EST-UKB, and 2,326 (4.1%) and 120 (0.2%) met the secondary and tertiary endpoints, respectively. TMRrec was significantly associated with the primary endpoint (hazard ratio (HR) 1.15, P=2 × 10–10, table 1), and both secondary and tertiary endpoints (HR 1.13, P=2 × 10–11 and HR 1.28, P=1 × 10–4, respectively) independent of resting QTc, and resting and recovery heart rate. Despite relatively low heritability (∼5%), we identified 12 genetic loci associated with TMRex and TMRrec, of which nine had been previously associated with other ECG markers. Individuals meeting the primary and secondary endpoints in FULL-UKB (21,328, 5.3% and 28,536, 7.1%, respectively) had higher GRS for TMRrec than unaffected individuals (P=0.026 for both endpoints). No association was found between TMRex or TMRrec and the tertiary endpoint. Individuals in the top 20% of the GRS had significantly higher risk of meeting the primary and secondary endpoints than those in the bottom 20% (HR 1.04, P=0.048, HR 1.04, P=0.024, respectively).Abstract 21 Table 1 Association with CV risk * Abbreviations: CI = Confidence interval; HR = Hazard ratio; SD = Standard Deviation; TMR = T-wave morphology restitution Conclusion TMR and TMR GRSs are significantly associated with CV events and all-cause mortality, supporting the hypothesis that increased spatio-temporal heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization identifies a high-risk substrate for CV events. This work provides support for inclusion of clinical variables, non-invasive markers and GRSs to improve personalised treatment decisions. Conflict of Interest None


graphic Changes in the Knee After Meniscal Transplantation : An Experimental Study in a Sheep Model&dquo; by Edwards et al. in the March/April 1996 issue (pages 222 to 226). This article discusses and attempts to clarify the controversy concerning the efficacy of meniscal transplantation. The authors suggest that &dquo;meniscal allograft transplantation does not protect the knee against degenerative changes.&dquo; I have several questions about the study. 1. These sheep were sacrificed to perform radiographic studies. Were any pathologic studies performed at that time to further identify degenerative change? 2. Before testing, the joints were preserved in formalin. Does the use of formalin cause biomechanical changes to the soft tissues about the knee, which may affect the testing? 3. Do the authors clarify the procedure for the use of allografts? Were these menisci taken from other sheep or


DTU Orbit (28/02/2019) Experimental investigations on solar heating/heat pump systems for single family houses In the period 2013-2017 the project "Experimental investigations on solar heat pump systems for single family houses" is carried out at Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark. The aim of this project is to increase the knowledge of the heat and mass transfer in the combined solar heating/heat pump system type when the heat pump makes use of a horizontal ground source heat exchanger. The knowledge is gained by experimental investigations on a solar heating/heat pump system and forms the basis for improved marketed combined solar heating/heat pump systems.


When a dynamical system can be modeled as a sequence of observations, Granger causality is a powerful approach for detecting predictive interactions between its variables. However, traditional Granger causal inference has limited utility in domains where the dynamics need to be represented as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) rather than as a linear sequence, such as with cell differentiation trajectories. Here, we present GrID-Net, a framework based on graph neural networks with lagged message passing for Granger causal inference on DAG-structured systems. Our motivating application is the analysis of single-cell multimodal data to identify genomic loci that mediate the regulation of specific genes. To our knowledge, GrID-Net is the first single-cell analysis tool that accounts for the temporal lag between a genomic locus becoming accessible and its downstream effect on a target gene's expression. We applied GrID-Net on multimodal single-cell assays that profile chromatin accessibility (ATAC-seq) and gene expression (RNA-seq) in the same cell and show that it dramatically outperforms existing methods for inferring regulatory locus-gene links, achieving up to 71% greater agreement with independent population genetics-based estimates. By extending Granger causality to DAG-structured dynamical systems, our work unlocks new domains for causal analyses and, more specifically, opens a path towards elucidating gene regulatory interactions relevant to cellular differentiation and complex human diseases at unprecedented scale and resolution.


In this study, large-eddy simulations (LESs) were performed to investigate the effects of changing wind direction on the turbine wakes and associated power losses in the Horns Rev offshore wind farm. In the LES framework, the turbulent subgrid-scale stresses are parameterized using a tuning-free Lagrangian scale-dependent dynamic model, and the turbine-induced forces are computed using a dynamic actuator-disk model with rotation (ADM-R). This dynamic ADM-R couples blade-element theory with a turbine-specific relation between the blade angular velocity and the shaft torque to compute simultaneously turbine angular velocity and power output. A total of 67 simulations were performed for a wide range of wind direction angles. Results from the simulations show a strong impact of wind direction on the spatial distribution of turbine-wake characteristics, such as velocity deficit and turbulence intensity. This can be explained by the fact that changing the wind angle can be viewed as changing the wind farm layout relative to the incoming wind, while keeping the same wind turbine density. Of particular importance is the effect of wind direction on the distance available for the wakes to recover and expand before encountering other downwind turbines (in full-wake or partial-wake interactions), which affects the power losses from those turbines. As a result, even small changes in wind direction angle can have strong impacts on the total wind farm power output. For example, a change in wind direction of just 10° from the worst-case full-wake condition is found to increase the total power output by as much as 43%. This has important implications for the design of wind farms and the management of the temporal variability of their power output.


Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been proposed as a promising technology that is capable of improving the spectral efficiency of fifth-generation wireless networks and beyond. However, in practical communication scenarios, transceiver architectures inevitably suffer from radio frequency (RF) front-end related impairments that cause non-negligible performance degradation. This issue can be addressed by analog and digital signal processing algorithms, however, inevitable aspects of this approach such as time-varying hardware characteristics and imperfect compensation schemes result to detrimental residual distortions. In the present contribution we investigate the physical layer security of NOMA-based amplify-and-forward relay systems under such realistically incurred residual hardware impairment (RHI) effects. Exact and asymptotic analytic expressions for the corresponding outage probability (OP) and intercept probability (IP) of the considered setup over multipath fading channels are derived and corroborated by respective simulation results. Based on this, it is shown that RHI affects both the legitimate users and eavesdroppers by increasing the OP and decreasing the IP. For a fixed OP, RHI generally increases the corresponding IP, thereby reducing the secure performance of the system. Further interesting insights are provided, verifying the importance of the offered results for the effective design and deployment of secure cooperative communication systems.


The first example of the 3-position-selective C(sp2)-H trifluoromethylation of pyridine rings was established. 3-Position-selective trifluoromethylation was achieved by the nucleophilic activation of pyridine and quinoline derivatives through hydrosilylation and successive electrophilic trifluoromethylation of the enamine intermediate. This reaction was applicable to perfluoroalkylation at the 3 position of the pyridine rings and late-stage trifluoromethylation of a bioactive molecule. Mechanistic studies indicated that the reaction proceeds via the formation of N-silyl enamine and trifluoromethylated enamine intermediates.


A signal validation methodology to improve the reliability of the information displayed to the operator of a nuclear power plant is presented. The general design methodology is developed and then applied to the steam generator and feedwater subsystem of a typical pressurized water reactor. Using steady-state and transient simulations of this subsystem, including realistic additive sensor noise, the developed algorithm successfully isolates a variety of injected sensor faults and demonstrates its inherent capability to isolate common-mode sensor failures and plant component failures.


We extend randomized path planning algorithms to the case of articulated robots that have closed kinematic chains. This is an important class of problems, which includes applications such as manipulation planning using multiple open-chain manipulators that cooperatively grasp an object and planning for reconfigurable robots in which links might be arranged in a loop to ease manipulation or locomotion. Applications also exist in areas beyond robotics, including computer graphics, computational chemistry, and virtual prototyping. Such applications typically involve high degrees of freedom and a parameterization of the configurations that satisfy closure constraints is usually not available. We show how to implement key primitive operations of randomized path planners for general closed kinematics chains. These primitives include the generation of random free configurations and the generation of local paths. To demonstrate the feasibility of our primitives for general chains, we show their application to recently developed randomized planners and present computed results for high-dimensional problems.


Abstract We designed our study to investigate the efficacy of a new therapeutic approach to late onset hypertension in patients after surgical repair of aortic coarctation. Several studies have shown a higher incidence of hypertension during daily activities, and during exercise, in patients after surgical correction of coarctation. To the best of our knowledge, however, no data exists concerning haemodynamics, the response of arterial pressures, and the effects of medications for lowering blood pressure during exercise or during daily activities. We studied 128 patients, aged 15.6 ± 4.3 years, to determine the response of blood pressure as we administered treatment in the attempt to achieve a normotensive state. We excluded patient with associated cardiac abnormalities, apart from those with bicuspid aortic valves. We evaluated blood pressure at rest in both the right arm and leg to establish presence of any gradient, as well as the blood pressure in the arm during exercise testing, and by 24-hour ambulatory monitoring. Atenolol was prescribed for those with elevated values of blood pressure but with a normal increment of heart rate during exercise. We prescribed Candesartan for those with elevated levels of blood pressure but with reduced increments of heart rate, specifically maximal heart rates of less than 85% of their predicted value. Both drugs were used when one alone was not effective. We found that, in young patients, candesartan provided better control of blood pressure with no side-effects, especially as demonstrated using 24-hour ambulatory monitoring, while atenolol was less effective, with more side-effects. Our experience suggests that both drugs should be used in patients who are non-responsive to monotherapy.


ABSTRACT The study presented here, theoretically framed at the crossroads of sociocultural and decolonial perspectives, draws attention to the sudden proliferation of two specific neologisms in the area of language, education and identity across time and space. It particularly highlights concerns regarding the ways in which these are deployed within scholarship and in schools and teacher education currently in the nation-state of Sweden. The analysis presented in this paper throws critical light on the ways in which the emergence and proliferation of neologisms like translanguaging and nyanlända (newly-arrived) contribute towards (or confounds) issues related to communication and diversity in the educational sector. This is done by juxtaposing the trajectory and deployment of neologisms in relation to social practices across institutional spaces. Such an enterprise is important, given recent calls for flexibility against the backdrop of concerns regarding heterogeneous populations in schools in geopolitical spaces like Sweden. Here expectations regarding both inclusion and learning goals for all students are prioritised agendas. We draw upon data from ethnographical projects at the CCD research group (www.ju.se/ccd) to make our case. This includes naturally occurring interactional data and textual data, for instance, current scholarship, directives from the national bodies in charge of schools and teacher education in Sweden.


Deep learning has been successfully applied to image super resolution (SR). In this paper, we propose a deep joint super resolution (DJSR) model to exploit both external and self similarities for SR. A Stacked Denoising Convolutional Auto Encoder (SDCAE) is first pre-trained on external examples with proper data augmentations. It is then fine-tuned with multi-scale self examples from each input, where the reliability of self examples is explicitly taken into account. We also enhance the model performance by sub-model training and selection. The DJSR model is extensively evaluated and compared with state-of-the-arts, and show noticeable performance improvements both quantitatively and perceptually on a wide range of images.


Introduction: PH in IPF portends a poor prognosis. Although included in WHO class 3 (hypoxia-associated PH), it has been postulated that shares pathogenic features with IPH. Aims: To study in vitro the pulmonary artery reactivity from patients with PH complicating IPF, and how the PDE5 inhibitor sildenafil modulates this vascular reactivity Methods: Peripheral pulmonary arteries were obtained from: 1) Patients with IPF with PH and without PH who underwent lung transplantation, 2) Patients with PH without IPF transplanted and 3) Controls. We studied the cumulative increasing relaxant response to sildenafil after maximal contraction with 5-HT, and the inhibitory effect of sildenafil on the contractile response of cumulative doses of 5-HT in the different study population. Results: Sildenafil concentration-dependently relaxed pulmonary arteries from control and IPF patients with similar maximum effect, reaching 41.3±11.6% and 37.2±15.5% of relaxation respectively, but in patients with severe PH, sildenafil only reached a low % relaxation of 5.3±5.4% as occurred with IPF + PH (9.8±9%). In pulmonary arteries from IPF, and with more efficacy in pulmonary arteries from IPF + PH and PH, sildenafil inhibited contraction curves of 5-HT reaching 36.3±4.7%, 24.6±8.6% and 21.2±3.9% of contraction. Conclusions: 1) Sildenafil has a lower relaxant effect on 5-HT pre-contracted arteries from IPF+PH and PH patients compared with normal and IPF pulmonary arteries. 2) Sildenafil dose-dependently inhibited pulmonary artery contraction induced by 5-HT with more efficacy in IPF+PH and PH patients than in IPF patients.


In all over the world, mining is considered as a high-risk activity that is pregnant with serious disasters not only for miners, engineers, and other people into it, but also for people who live near the mines. In this article, our main purpose is to examine some major mine disasters and safety in mines and the case study is a coal mine in Turkey. Safety in mines is one of the most important issues that need attention. Therefore, it is suggested that existing deficiencies in mines should be removed by continuous monitoring in all devices, equipments, control of Methane and safe separation of coal from a mine. Moreover, we recommend that early warning systems should be installed to alert some explosions, fires and other dangerous events to the fire departments, hospitals, Red Crescent and other major reliefs. Experiences from previous events in mines can help managers and miners. With some plans and projects related to disasters in mines and solution for them, some diseases such as black lung disease or other problems in mines such as carbon monoxide poisoning can forestall a danger. Before Mine owners begin their activity, they must research about the environmental and social effects of their activities. Therefore, they should identify some important hazards and determine some essential tasks to remove them or control risks via collaboration with other scientists.


A new kind of latent curing agent (LCA) for epoxy resin was synthesized by the reaction of Ethylenediamine with Butylacrylate in equal molar ratios, and the chemical structure and thermal property of the LCA were studied with FTIR and TGA, respectively. Moreover, LCA was also used to modify the epoxy sizing agent for high modulus carbon fiber. The results show that the wettability of sized carbon fiber tends to increase due to the increase of the polymer film on the surface of the carbon fiber, and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of the sized high modulus carbon fiber/epoxy composites is improved to 78MPa, which is increased by 8.6% compared with the composites reinforced by high modulus carbon fiber with unmodified sizing agent, indicating that using LCA modified epoxy resin as polymer coating for carbon fiber is a feasible method to improve the interfacial performance of high modulus carbon fiber/epoxy composites.


Northeast Asia is the greatest area in the world where continental extension is documented, from Transbaikalia to the Pacific coast. The major extensional events occurred during Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous times and are marked by rift basins filled with continental sediments and volcanic rocks, metamorphic core complexes, and extensive magmatism. Here, we review the different types of extensional structures in the region using our own examples from eastern Mongolia, including new data from the Gobi area, and those previously documented in the adjacent regions. We further provide a compilation of available ages, including new data from Transbaikalia, to constrain crustal stretching throughout northeastern Asia. Our analysis shows that extension is not correlated to orogenic collapse, but is coeval with two major changes in plate kinematics that occurred at ca. 140 Ma: the closure of the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean and a major change in the subduction direction of the Izanagi oceanic plate towards northeast Asia, from high-angle to low-angle convergence. These major changes in plate kinematics combined with an abnormally hot pre-extension state of the continental lithosphere might have triggered spreading in northeast Asia.


Objective – Evidence of remission without specialized treatment for BPD is accumulating. The authors investigated whether specialized treatments are particularly indicated for patients at high levels of clinical severity. They examined the impact of clinical severity on outcomes of a randomized controlled trial of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) contrasted with supportive clinical management (SCM). Method – 134 patients were randomly allocated to MBT or SCM. The primary outcome was the absence of crisis events (including suicidal and severe self-injurious behaviors and hospitalization) in the last 6 months. Secondary outcomes included symptom distress and social and interpersonal function. Severity indicators were defined as (a) severity of comorbid psychiatric syndromes (number of Axis I diagnoses); (b) severity of BPD (number of positive criteria met); (c) severity of personality disturbance (number of comorbid Axis II diagnoses); and (d) severity of symptom distress as indicated by SCL-90 GSI scores. Logistic regressions were used to predict the likelihood of recovery at 18 months. Mixedeffects regressions were applied to examine rates of change across time on the primary outcome and a selective subset of secondary outcomes. Results – Of the four severity criteria, only one was significantly associated with superior outcomes from specialized treatment. Greater numbers of Axis II diagnoses predicted increasing differences in rates of improvement between MBT and SCM. Three or more diagnoses precluded significant improvement without specialist therapy. Conclusions – Patients with BPD with significant Axis II comorbidity do better with specialist treatment. Patients whose only PD diagnosis is BPD do equally well with supportive clinical management.


Recently, there have been significant discussions regarding government crackdowns on tax havens related to multinational organizations moving profits offshore. From a tax perspective, any financial planning that involves moving profits offshore by multinational organizations is justifiable if the corresponding functions, assets, and risks borne to earn these profits are also shifted offshore. The incentive to minimize taxes by shifting these functions, assets, and risks to low tax jurisdictions are to be expected. After all, the world economy has become increasingly globalized and the need to minimize after-tax profits is not only advantageous to improving corporate profits, but is also necessary in order to stay competitive. While implementing such a framework is a long and complex process, if done correctly, it is beneficial for all involved. However, we often find that companies are too quick to decide on migrating intangibles without fully understanding the economic environment that these low tax jurisdictions provide. Yet, it may be the case that migrating intangibles to low tax countries could result in a fall in a company's after tax profits. Understanding whether or not the jurisdictions to which the assets are being migrated can protect multinational corporations' legal ownership and consequently their ability to exploit profits from assets protected, must be evaluated. There is not much use in migrating intangibles to a foreign jurisdiction unless the jurisdiction has the ability to protect the asset. Otherwise, anyone could infringe on the asset and reduce the profits associated with it.


OBJECTIVE
To identify and review evidence relating to the measurement properties of published multi-item outcome measures for the conservative management of lateral ligament injuries of the ankle.

METHODS
Systematic literature searches were used to identify measures, which were then assessed against pre-defined criteria relating to development, item content, reliability, validity and responsiveness.

RESULTS
Seven disease-specific measures of ankle status [Ankle Joint Functional Assessment Tool, Clinical Trauma Severity Score, Composite Inversion Injury Scale, Kaikkonen Functional Scale (KFS), Karlsson Ankle Function Score (KAFS), Olerud and Molander Ankle Score (OMAS), and the Point System] and two generic measures of health (McGill Pain Questionnaire, Sickness Impact Profile) met the review inclusion criteria. While all measures had been used in acute injuries, only two had also been applied during later stages of recovery (>6 months). The studies covered a comprehensive range of graded ligament injuries. Expert opinion dominated item generation for all measures. All measures lack evidence of test-retest or internal consistency reliability in patients with ankle sprain. Several measures were assessed for validity through comparison with other measures, but there was limited evidence of construct validity and no formal assessment of responsiveness for any measure.

CONCLUSION
The disappointing lack of evidence for measurement properties suggests that any measure should be used with caution until appropriate evidence is provided. On the basis of limited evidence, the KFS offers the most promising approach to a combined clinician- and patient-assessment of ankle function, and the KAFS or OMAS if a patient-assessed evaluation of function is required.


Small flexible disk drives have developed in a few years from 48 TPI (tracks per inch) single density, 125 kbyte products to 96 TPI double density, two-sided drives with 1 megabyte of capacity. The trend is toward more tracks per inch, with the industry goal currently at 144 TPI. The paper describes the technology that has been developed to make 144 TPI possible. This paper will discuss the evolution of drive technology, and point out some of the areas that still need work in order for 144 TPI to become a reality.


It is shown that if A is a separable, exact C*-algebra which satisfies the Universal Coefficient Theorem (UCT) and has a faithful, amenable trace, then A admits a trace-preserving embedding into a simple, unital AF-algebra with unique trace. Modulo the UCT, this provides an abstract characterization of C*-subalgebras of simple, unital AF-algebras.
As a consequence, for a countable, discrete, amenable group G acting on a second countable, locally compact, Hausdorff space X, C_0(X) \rtimes_r G embeds into a simple, unital AF-algebra if, and only if, X admits a faithful, invariant, Borel, probability measure. Also, for any countable, discrete, amenable group G, the reduced group C*-algebra C*_r(G) admits a trace-preserving embedding into the universal UHF-algebra.


Silent data corruption (SDC) poses a great challenge for high-performance computing (HPC) applications as we move to extreme-scale systems. Mechanisms have been proposed that are able to detect SDC in HPC applications by using the peculiarities of the data (more specifically, its "smoothness" in time and space) to make predictions. However, these data-analytic solutions are still far from fully protecting applications to a level comparable with more expensive solutions such as full replication. In this work, we propose partial replication to overcome this limitation. More specifically, we have observed that not all processes of an MPI application experience the same level of data variability at exactly the same time. Thus, we can smartly choose and replicate only those processes for which the lightweight data-analytic detectors would perform poorly. In addition, we propose a new evaluation method based on the probability that a corruption will pass unnoticed by a particular detector (instead of just reporting overall single-bit precision and recall). In our experiments, we use four applications dealing with different explosions. Our results indicate that our new approach can protect the MPI applications analyzed with 7-70 percent less overhead (depending on the application) than that of full duplication with similar detection recall.


Chronic inflammatory disorders are associated with an increased risk of patients developing anaemia. There is some evidence that cytokines released during cell‐mediated immune responses are capable of inhibiting bone marrow haematopoiesis. In vitro, interferon gamma and tumournecrosis factor alpha inhibit growth of erythroid precursor cells. The mode of action of these cytokines is probably associated with their antiproliferative capacity. Decrease of serum iron and increase of storage iron in patients appears to be a consequence of the defense strategy of macrophages during long‐lasting inflammatory disorders. Decreased serum iron correlates to decreased haemoglobin concentrations. In view of this, the development of anaemia seems likely to result from the altered iron metabolism induced by stimulated macrophages. Low haemoglobin levels and associated hypoxia up‐regulate the release of erythropoietin, which can explain why increased circulating erythropoietin is usually found in patients with anaemia.


The Minneapolis Upper Harbor is almost 1800 miles upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. To go the last 20 miles from St Paul to the head of navigation at the Minneapolis Upper Harbor, tows are limited to two barges and have to go through 3 small locks to pass the St Anthony Falls. In contrast, below St Paul tows consist of 15 barges and the distances between the 26 large locks on the Upper Mississippi River average over 35 miles. The Upper Harbor has a small number of private shippers but the largest land parcel is the 42 acres that contains the public barge terminal (Upper Harbor Terminal) owned by the City of Minneapolis. A number of proposals contemplate closing the Minneapolis Upper Harbor so that the Mississippi River Corridor area above the St. Anthony Fall Locks and Dams can be converted to housing, light industry, and recreational uses, which proponents consider the "highest and best use" for prime waterfront land. Depending on the ultimate mix land of uses, it is assumed that tax revenues and economic activity will dramatically increase. These proposals generally assume that that the barge traffic of relatively low value freight (such as cement, aggregate, construction materials and scrap) is of little economic consequence and can be relocated at little cost to the community. However, this study demonstrates that displacing many of these movements will cause monetary and environmental costs that previously had not been studied or quantified. There would still be a need to move materials such as sand and gravel, cement, steel products, and other construction materials into Minneapolis; and scrap metals from Minneapolis. Truck movements of grain, fertilizer and other commodities from and to northwest of Minneapolis would need to be rerouted to downstream harbors. This study estimates the monetary and public externality costs imposed by the 'modal shift', from barge to truck, that would occur if barge traffic to and from above the St. Anthony Dams was eliminated. These include haulage costs, differences in fuel consumption, changes in air emissions, highway congestion impacts, highway accident impacts, and changes in highway maintenance requirements. Coefficients from the FHWA Highway Cost Allocation Study (HCAS) are used to monetize the estimated public costs. Results from the "most likely" scenario indicate an addition of 66,000 truckloads traveling 1.2 million miles in the metro area each year. Increases in transport costs to shippers or customers exceed $4 million annually, while public cost increases, estimated with the HCAS coefficients, exceed $1 million annually


Abstract This article addresses the conservative opposition to Iceland's recently liberalised abortion laws. It argues that the opposition belongs to a long and rich history of conservatives willing to employ diverse measures to oppose progress. It further claims that the rhetoric employed has strong roots in the conservative tradition. This is demonstrated by the fact that the discourse in Iceland fits within Hirschman's analytical framework, through which he analyses the main arguments of conservatives in the past. Icelandic conservatives argued that the proposed legislation would lead to the perverse effect that healthy foetuses would be aborted, that the legislation was futile, as the system was already well-functioning, and that it would jeopardise women by giving them the sole responsibility of deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy. The article sheds light on the underlying resistance to women's bodily autonomy and right to self-determination. It also illustrates the importance of hierarchy and conservatism's opposition to equality that is perceived to be taken too far. In light of global trends, where conservatives have tried to implement policies that are hostile towards women and women's interests, it is important to explore national contexts where legislative success has been achieved despite global backlash.


: Mites have been found to contribute to the etiology of some allergic diseases most common in Uzbekistan. The economic losses caused by atopic dust-borne asthma have been estimated. The losses due to damage to the national income, which are done by disability and to the direct and indirect expenses on treatment and disability allowance have been calculated and compared. Such an attempt is useful to calculate the profitability of prevention of domestic dust mite-caused diseases and of the mite control measures.


Background: Other than the in vitro erythrocyte hemolysis test, no valid biomarkers of vitamin E status currently exist. Objective: We hypothesized that the urinary vitamin E metabolite a-carboxyethyl hydroxychroman (a-CEHC) could serve as a biomarker. Design: The relations between urinary a-CEHC, plasma a-tocopherol, and vitamin E intakes were assessed by using a previously validated multipass, Web-based, 24-h self-administered dietary recall, and we concurrently collected plasma and 24-h urine samples from 233 participants of both sexes. Results: Median vitamin E intakes were 9.7 mg a-tocopherol/d. Intakes were correlated with plasma a-tocopherol (R = 0.40, P , 0.001) and urinary a-CEHC (R = 0.42, P , 0.001); these correlations were essentially unchanged after multivariate adjustments. On the basis of multiple regression analysis, urinary a-CEHC excretion increased by w0.086 mmol/g creatinine (95% CI: 0.047, 0.125) for every 1-mg (2.3-mmol) increase in dietary a-tocopherol. Urinary a-CEHC excretion remained at a plateau (median: 1.39 mmol/g creatinine) until dietary intakes of a-tocopherol exceeded 9 mg a-tocopherol/d. The inflection point at which vitamin E metabolism increased was estimated to be at an intake of 12.8 mg a-tocopherol/d. Daily excretion of .1.39 mmol a-CEHC/g creatinine is associated with a greater than adequate a-tocopherol status, as evidenced by increased vitamin E metabolism and excretion. Conclusion: Thus, urinary a-CEHC is a valid biomarker of a-tocopherol status that can be used to set a value for the Estimated Adequate Requirement of vitamin E. Am J Clin Nutr doi: 10.3945/ajcn. 112.038620.


In 1934 Nakano Shigeharu (1902–79), a Marxist writer and key figure in the Japanese proletarian literature movement since the mid-1920s, renounced his ties with the Japan Communist Party by way of vowing not to participate in social movements, an act known in Japanese as tenkô. It was a time when a large number of Marxists committed tenkô under increasingly heavy state suppression of leftists. The most common English rendering of the term tenkô is "ideological conversion." While apt for many cases, this does not adequately describe Nakano's case because he did not convert to an alternate ideological position. Through a close reading of two of his works, "Suzuki, Miyakoyama, Yasojima" (1935) and "The Novelist Who Cannot Write a Novel" ("Shôsetsu no kakenu shôsetsuka," 1936), this article investigates the "position" Nakano turned "to" and the critical potency of his thinking and writing from there.


Effects of artificial substrate on aquatic insect density were studied in Haines Branch, Lancaster County, Nebra~ka. Treatments consisted of small, medium,large, and mixed (mixture of small and medium) concrete substmtes in modified basket samplers. Three replicates of each treatment were removed at 14 and 28 days and aquatic insects were then enumerated. Insects collected were chironomid~ (63%), mayflies ( 19% l, caddisfl ies (15%), and beetles (3%). Mean mayfly densities, avemged over all substrate treatments, were higher on day 28 than on day 14, while the reverse was observed for chironomid densities. Mean densities for mayflies and chironomids were higher in medium and large than in small substrate samplers. Chironomid densities were higher in large substmte treatments versus medium and in uniform versus mixed substrate treatments. No significant treatment effects were found for the remaining taxa. It is concluded that neither substmte size nor heterogeneity are good predictors for' insect densities in this stream.


A three-dimensional coupled physical-biogeochemical model is applied to simulate and examine temporal and spatial variability of circulation and biogeochemical cycling in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The model is driven by realistic atmospheric forcing, open boundary conditions from a data assimilative global ocean circulation model, and observed freshwater and terrestrial nitrogen input from major rivers. A 7 yr model hindcast (2004–2010) was performed, and validated against satellite observed sea surface height, surface chlorophyll, and in situ observations including coastal sea level, ocean temperature, salinity, and dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) concentration. The model hindcast revealed clear seasonality in DIN, phytoplankton and zooplankton distributions in the GoM. An empirical orthogonal function analysis indicated a phase-locked pattern among DIN, phytoplankton and zooplankton concentrations. The GoM shelf nitrogen budget was also quantified, revealing that on an annual basis the DIN input is largely balanced by the removal through denitrification (an equivalent of ~ 80% of DIN input) and offshore exports to the deep ocean (an equivalent of ~ 17% of DIN input).


Access to accurate, comprehensive, and timely relevant cancer data for study the causes of cancer, detect cancer earlier, prevent or determine the effectiveness of treatment, specify the reasons for the treatment ineffectiveness, and cancer control programs is necessary. Physicians find it difficult to make accurate decisions when overwhelmed with hundreds of data. Intelligent data analysis (IDA) has benefits in different types of cancer for physicians, patient such as: cancer detection, classification of cancer, prediction of clinical outcome of patients after cancer surgery, prediction of survival in types of cancer and has advantages for managers, policymakers and researchers like benefits in epidemiology and assess healthcare resource utilization. Intelligent data analysis because of diversity of health data and specific circumstances of health domain confront enormous challenges. Lack of physician's trust on facts that generated by software, limits the number of disease-related data , lack of electronic guidelines and expert system that helps to physician in decision making, difficulties in mining methodology, user interaction, and efficiency and scalability areas are some of these challenges. IDA with potential benefits definitely have significant role in improve cancer care, prevention, treatment, increase speed and accuracy in diagnosis and treatment, reduce costs, clinical outcomes assessment, design and implementation of clinical guidelines. The aim of this review article is to survey application, opportunities and barriers of intelligent data analysis as an approach to improve cancer care management.


Simple path tracing tools such as traceroute allow malicious users to infer network topologies remotely and use that knowledge to craft advanced denial-of-service (DoS) attacks such as Link-Flooding Attacks (LFAs). Yet, despite the risk, most network operators still allow path tracing as it is an essential network debugging tool.

In this paper, we present NetHide, a network topology obfuscation framework that mitigates LFAs while preserving the practicality of path tracing tools. The key idea behind NetHide is to formulate network obfuscation as a multi-objective optimization problem that allows for a flexible tradeoff between security (encoded as hard constraints) and usability (encoded as soft constraints). While solving this problem exactly is hard, we show that NetHide can obfuscate topologies at scale by only considering a subset of the candidate solutions and without reducing obfuscation quality. In practice, NetHide obfuscates the topology by intercepting and modifying path tracing probes directly in the data plane. We show that this process can be done at line-rate, in a stateless fashion, by leveraging the latest generation of programmable network devices.

We fully implemented NetHide and evaluated it on realistic topologies. Our results show that NetHide is able to obfuscate large topologies (> 150 nodes) while preserving near-perfect debugging capabilities. In particular, we show that operators can still precisely trace back > 90% of link failures despite obfuscation.


Heart disease in infants and children may often lead to rapid decompensation. Early recognition by the primary physician is essential, since modern medicine and surgery can cure many heart defects. Main clinical signs are cyanosis, heart failure and/or abnormal auscultatory findings. Cyanosis appears shortly after birth or in small infants. In the newborn, cyanosis due to heart disease must be differentiated from pulmonary problems, sepsis or persistent pulmonary hypertension. Heart failure occurs more often in non cyanotic heart defects, mainly with left to right shunts. The main symptoms and signs of heart failure in the infant are briefly discussed. Abnormal auscultatory findings, usually murmurs, are the most common reason for referral to the paediatric cardiologist. However, most murmurs are "innocent" or "functional"; clues to their recognition are given. The present short review should help the primary physician to recognize signs of heart defects in infants and children so as to proceed with timely referral to the specialist.


Poisson distribution is a common distribution for modelling count data with assumption mean and variance has the same value (equidispersion). In fact, most of the count data have mean that is smaller than variance (overdispersion) and Poisson distribution cannot be used for modelling this kind of data. Thus, several alternative distributions have been introduced to solve this problem. One of them is Shanker distribution that only has one parameter. Since Shanker distribution is continuous distribution, it cannot be used for modelling count data. Therefore, a new distribution is offered that is Poisson-Shanker distribution. Poisson-Shanker distribution is obtained by mixing Poisson and Shanker distribution, with Shanker distribution as the mixing distribution. The result is a mixture distribution that has one parameter and can be used for modelling overdispersion count data. In this paper, we obtain that Poisson-Shanker distribution has several properties are unimodal, overdispersion, increasing hazard rate, and right skew. The first four raw moments and central moments have been obtained. Maximum likelihood is a method that is used to estimate the parameter, and the solution can be done using numerical iterations. A real data set is used to illustrate the proposed distribution. The characteristics of the Poisson-Shanker distribution parameter is also obtained by numerical simulation with several variations in parameter values and sample size. The result is MSE and bias of the Proceeding of ICSA 2019, p: 108-120 ISBN 978-979-19256-3-1 (PDF) 109 estimated parameter θ will increase when the parameter value rises for a value of n and will decrease when the value of n rises for a parameter value.


Objectives To assess potential compliance costs and socio-economic benefits of potential future changes to the Carcinogens Directive for 25 substances. Methods Drawing upon estimates of occupational exposure and health impact assessment, economic impacts of exposure due to disability and death were estimated under a 'do nothing' scenario. The value of disability and deaths avoided through possible reduced workplace concentrations were estimated based on value of life years lost, cost of illness and willingness to pay to avoid cancer. Compliance costs of meeting possible amendments to the directive (stricter occupational exposure limits) based on the likely risk management measures needed in the workplace, were estimated for each relevant industry sector. This allowed key costs and benefits to be compared. Results It was possible to quantitatively estimate both compliance costs and benefits in terms of reduced cancer impacts for around half of the 25 substances. These, along with other socio-economic indicators of the potential impacts of further controlling workplace exposure were presented in a form intended to be compatible with an EU "Impact Assessment", which is required for any major new change in policy. There are substantial uncertainties in any assessment such as this, including in approaches and data for valuing health impacts; numbers of people/firms affected; compliance methods and associated costs; amongst others. Conclusions Assigning monetary values to the avoidance of cancer (and other health and environmental impacts) remains a controversial area. Nonetheless, the data developed during this study at least provide indications of the relative merits of targeting certain substances over others for possible future workplace exposure limits, based on a comparison of cancer avoided (and associated socio-economic benefit) with the compliance costs for affected industry. Given the large methodological uncertainties involved, the results are of most use in cases where the difference between costs and benefits is most pronounced.


Graphene and three-dimensional topological insulators are well-known Dirac materials whose bulk and surface states are governed by Dirac equations. They not only show good transport properties but also carry various quanta related to the geometrical phase such as charge, spin, and valley Hall conductances. Therefore, it is a great challenge to combine the two Dirac materials together, realizing multiple Dirac fermions. By using first-principles density-functional-theory calculations, we demonstrate such a system built from topological insulator-band insulator-graphene superlattice structures. Hexagonal boron nitride is proposed as an ideal band-insulating material in gluing graphene and topological insulators, providing a good substrate for graphene and a sharp interface with a topological insulator. The power factors for p -type doping are largely enhanced due to the charge-conducting channels through multiple Dirac cones. The systems characterized by the coexistence of the topologically protected interfacial and graphene Dirac cones can pave the way for developing integrated devices for electronics, spintronics and valleytronics applications.


SELENIUM DISTRIBUTION AND CYCLING IN THE EASTERN EQUATORIAL PACIFIC OCEAN Zoe Wambaugh Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. Gregory Cutter Oxygen minimum zones in oceanic waters have become increasingly important to the marine environment and society. Low oxygen waters affect not only the distribution and abundance of marine organisms, but also impact the solubility and transport of trace elements that are of biological importance, with the chemical speciation and solubility depending on the actual redox poise of the waters. One redox sensitive trace element of interest is selenium, which can be both toxic and essential for organisms, depending on its chemical speciation. In 2013, the US GEOTRACES program completed the GP16 transect from Peru to Tahiti, going through the oxygen minimum zone off Peru. Dissolved selenate, selenite, and organic selenide, as well as particulate elemental selenium, were determined in water column samples. Nitrate and nitrite data were used to determine where denitrification was occurring and thus approximately where dissimilatory reduction of selenium should be occurring. Deficits in dissolved selenite+selenate showed that dissimilatory reduction of selenium (bacterial utilization of an oxidized metal as the terminal electron acceptor during respiration) occurred within the oxygen minimum zone at slightly deeper depths than where denitrification was found. The observed selenium deficits can be the result of dissimilatory reduction occurring in situ or can be laterally advected from anoxic coastal sediments. However, using a combination of advection/diffusion modeling, particulate Se(0) data, and Th-derived flux rates, the dissimilatory reduction of selenium was shown to mainly occur in situ, rather than via advection/diffusion from coastal sediments.


The article discusses a trial undertaken in a LIS education program to help prepare students from different cultural backgrounds to work in virtual, multicultural work places.  The focus of the trial was developing teamwork, which may now involve global, multicultural and virtual components, for which students need to be prepared, given work place changes of recent years. The trial took place in a school of information studies at a large, multi-campus rural university in Australia.  The lecturer grouped students from an off-shore campus, with a different cultural background, with local students to work online on a group assignment. Evaluation involved an anonymous, web-based survey after all group assignments were completed. The survey explored the experiences of students regarding their group work in multicultural teams. The findings highlight the challenges of group work in fully online environments.  They include language and cultural diversity, time zone spread and lack of face-to-face communication.  Some of these challenges are likely to be replicated in the work place where multicultural team work is involved.  Some of these challenges are likely to be replicated in the work place where multicultural team work is involved.  Some suggestions to overcome these challenges are included at the end of the article.


After a single injection of calcitonin (20 M.R.C. units/kg body wt.) marked decreases in both Ca2+ and free tryptophan in plasma were observed, during the initial period of the treatment (up to 1 h). However, 5-hydrotryptamine contents of the whole brain and the cerebral acetylcholinesterase activity were greatly enhanced. The cerebellar acetylcholinesterase activity was not influenced by calcitonin.


Successful marketing strategies depend very much on an organisation's ability to implement them. As the role of technology grows apace in marketing, it is important to understand how IT and organizational processes impact on the implementation of marketing strategies. This paper attempts to show how technology is changing the nature of marketing and then shows its interaction with people and processes. It also offers organisations an opportunity to undertake a self‐evaluation exercise to determine how well integrated are their implementation policies. In general, the argument outlined indicates that for successful implementation of strategies an organisation has to integrate people, processes and IT.


This study investigated newlywed reports of social support during the engagement period via qualitative, in-depth interviews with 36 recently married heterosexual couples (N = 72 total interviews). Specifically, the study examined what worked and what failed in the social support process for engaged couples. Overall, results revealed that helpful support is generally more plentiful during the engagement period than unhelpful support, and emotional support is the most prevalent of the various types of social support. The most common providers of social support to engaged individuals were family members and friends. Finally, the study revealed that most people felt a sense of perceived support in their social networks if they were in need of it at any point during their engagements.


The aim of this work is the elaboration of methodology for prediction, prevention, diagnostics and individual treatment of cardiovascular pathology relevant to the molecular-cellular mechanism disturbances of membrane receptors functioning in the adenylate cyclase system (ACS) and cytoskeleton complex. The authors use dielectrometry data in the region of free water dispersion in acute cardiac infarction (ACI) and cardiomyopathy. Dielectrometry at extremely high frequencies (EHF-dielectrometry) along with biochemical technology enables the authors to conduct cellular level screening when acting upon various control complexes of a cell with biologically active agents in real time, under conditions which avoid object destruction. For the analysis the authors use the modification of cell water environment conditions, resulting from component conformational transformations on the specific binding of biologically active substances. The integration of modern biochemical and radiophysical methods has allowed the development of a new methodological approach to the analysis of cell regulating systems using nondestructive monitoring conditions and operating in real time.


There is a need for new Energy transmission lines (ETL) in order to meet the energy demand that has been increasing from past to present. Finding the optimum route and drawing the project is a time consuming and a complex problem for engineers. There are many studies for optimization of ETL's routing in the literature. However it is seen that there is a need for an interface that will facilitate the ETL routing by bringing together all the processes for ETL routing and preparing the project of the ETL by drawing the profile of the route. In this study, an interface using the Geographical information systems (GIS) is designed for finding the optimum route of ETL's, a project drawing program that can draw the profile and make all the other project processes is written. Also, controlling the project on the real terrain model by the users is ensured by the visualization of the ETL's projects on three-dimensional terrain model and satellite image.


With forty-two extensively annotated maps, this atlas offers novel insights into the history and mechanics of how Central Europe's languages have been made, unmade, and deployed for political action. The innovative combination of linguistics, history, and cartography makes a wealth of hard-to-reach knowledge readily available to both specialist and general readers. It combines information on languages, dialects, alphabets, religions, mass violence, or migrations over an extended period of time. The story first focuses on Central Europe's dialect continua, the emergence of states, and the spread of writing technology from the tenth century onward. Most maps concentrate on the last two centuries. The main storyline opens with the emergence of the Western European concept of the nation, in accord with which the ethnolinguistic nation-states of Italy and Germany were founded. In the Central European view, a "proper" nation is none other than the speech community of a single language. The Atlas aspires to help users make the intellectual leap of perceiving languages as products of human history and part of culture. Like states, nations, universities, towns, associations, art, beauty, religions, injustice, or atheism—languages are artefacts invented and shaped by individuals and their groups.


Context. Phyllosilicates were definitely identified on Mars by the OMEGA (Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activite) instrument onboard the Mars Express spacecraft. The identification, characterization, and mapping of deposits of these minerals hold clues to the potential past habitability. They also constitute a key element in planning for future landing sites. Aims. To infer the environmental conditions that existed at the time of the formation of these minerals, it is critical to determine if and how the composition of the deposits vary in space and time. Methods. We applied radiative transfer modeling to the OMEGA reflectance spectra to derive the modal mineralogy (mineral abundances) of some phyllosilicate-rich deposits. Results. In many outcrops, including the large areas in Nili Fossae, the surface mineralogy is dominated by primary non-altered minerals, with minor fractions of phyllosilicates. These assemblages could result from hydrothermal alteration. By contrast, deposits in the Mawrth Vallis region exhibit a large content of hydrated phyllosilicates, which suggests that the rocks may be mature sedimentary rocks or altered volcanics. Evidence of alteration resulting from metamorphism due to an impact is reported in the central peak of a crater.


A population replacement experiment has been devised to test the ability of a challenge virus to replace the resident virus in a persistently infected cell culture. BHK-21 cells persistently infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus of serotype C (clone C-S8c1) were challenged with a large excess of either the parental foot-and-mouth disease virus C-S8c1, genetically marked variants differing in their degree of virulence, or a mutant rescued after prolonged persistence in BHK-21 cells. After challenge, the composition of the resident virus population in the carrier culture was analyzed by reverse transcription-PCR amplification and nucleotide sequencing. The dominance of the initial persisting virus was seen in all cases, except when virulent viruses were used in the challenge. The experiments document that, paradoxically, virulence can be a positive factor in the reestablishment of a virus population in a persistently infected cell culture. A model based on the selection of virus-resistant cell variants during persistence is proposed to interpret these observations. Implications about the persistence of viruses in their host cells and organisms are discussed.


Lasso selection tends to be inefficient in many circumstances such as selecting spatially large clusters. ICE-Lasso is a novel technique that infers likely target clusters during an ongoing lasso gesture. It provides efficient gesture-based interaction techniques as shortcuts to select partial, complete, and multiple clusters. Additionally, it is overloaded on the traditional lasso via automatic mode switching. A comparative user study show that ICE-Lasso is significantly more efficient than lasso and also well-liked by users.


This is a case report of a 38-year old female seen in the emergency department after ingesting a total of 99 alprazolam tablets amounting to approximately 50 mg of alprazolam over the previous two days. The patient admitted to taking between 7.5 mg and 15 mg of alprazolam on a daily basis over the last three months. Though formally diagnosed with bipolar I disorder in her early twenties, she had never consistently taken the mood stabilizers prescribed for her condition as the associated weight gain made her feel fat and unattractive. Alprazolam in increasing doses was needed by the patient to quieten her symptoms, and in an effort to accumulate large numbers of same, she obtained the drug by visiting numerous physicians or by purchasing it illegally. The patient has a strong family history of both suicide and bipolar I disorder. The patient admitted to three suicide attempts, two of which involved the drug alprazolam.


Etude Books for Horn Published from 1985 to 2011: An Annotated Guide Joseph David Johnson The purpose of this project is to provide an annotated guide of etude books for the horn that were newly written or published between 1985 and 2011. This document lists sixty-eight different etude books written for the horn, and provides annotations for fifty-six of these publications. The annotations include the following information: publisher, publication date, range, transposition, number of etudes, and difficulty rating. In addition, the annotations describe performance problems that may be encountered, such as extended techniques and issues concerning technical facility or flexibility. Since the goal of this document is to promote the use and acceptance of new horn literature, recommendations for further study are included in the summary. The majority of current university professors tend to use etude books that are known as standards of the repertoire and have stood the test of time. This list normally includes the volumes of books written by Maxime-Alphonse, who died in 1930, and Georg Kopprasch, who died in 1832. Even popular etude books that are considered newer and are widely used, such as John Shoemaker's Legato Etudes for French Horn, for which the copyright was renewed in 1971, are actually older and were written well before 1985. There are dissertations that catalogue and offer annotations for all of the horn etude books written and published before 1985, but none that deal with more recent literature. This document continues the work begun by previous dissertations, and provides students and teachers with a resource that will introduce them to new and important etude literature.


Three representative test areas, which are dominated by a stiff mineral, a blob of organic matter and clay layers, respectively, are selected in a terrestrial shale sample from Yanchang Formation. Micro cantilever beams are manufactured using micro fabrication method in each test area, and in situ fracture experiments are performed to investigate the crack propagation under a scanning electron microscope. The crack propagation process is characterized at micrometer scale. The crack paths and the load-displacement curves are presented side by side. Through the analysis of the test results, various fracture mechanisms are summarized. Crack defection and crack branching owing to mechanical contrast, toughening in organic matter, and crack bridging of clay layers together influence crack propagation in shale.


Abstract Ecosystem management assumes that management practices based on natural disturbance patterns are likely to preserve both natural biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Ecosystem management thus combines traditional natural resource management and forestry practices together with classical notions of protection that are focused on sustaining a naturally evolving ecosystem. Increased knowledge and understanding of natural disturbance dynamics in boreal forest ecosystems allow for the creation of a template for sustainable forest management that is based on mimicking disturbances that are thought to contribute to the biodiversity of the ecosystem. The observed trends of natural development are discussed in this paper. Permanent sample-plot data are used to develop a conceptual model of stand succession following natural disturbance. The distinctive characteristics of disturbances that are relevant to forest management planning are identified and modelled.


Anticoagulation during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is necessary to prevent catastrophic circuit clotting, but significant morbidity and mortality continue to be attributed to hemorrhagic and thrombotic complications. Due to the inflammatory response from the extracorporeal circuit and developmental hemostasis, anticoagulation can be challenging particularly for pediatric patients. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) is the gold standard anticoagulant used in ECMO, but there is an expanding area of research evaluating other anticoagulants, such as direct thrombin inhibitors. This chapter provides an overview of anticoagulant options for pediatric patients on ECMO as well as describes the various tests used to monitor and titrate anticoagulation.


öderlund, Maud (2002). The purpose of this article is to show the distinctive features of three different qualitative approaches of research. To be able to reach a deeper understanding of the three scientific approaches chosen, I will start a methodological discussion by presenting three different approaches: the phenomenological, the hermeneutical and the phenomenographical approach and then examine them in order to clarify what kind of scientific knowledge they can generate with regard to caring science. The author's opinion is that the patients' perceptions of care depend on the unique educational process which is present in every culture and which influences people in each and every aspect of life. It makes caring a cultural matter and it calls attention to the processes of socialization and learning which traditionally would remain hidden or invisible. A case-study will be demonstrated. Than, I shall compare the approaches with one another in order to point out their similarity and difference. Lastly, I will argue for a way to describe what it can mean to a patient to be a patient in care giving settings.


The paper analyses the problem of beer bottles detection techniques on the beer bottles production line, uses digital image processing technique on the beer bottles online defect detection. The paper puts forward the designing ideas of the hardware, developing flow of the software and the algorithm of beer bottles detection. TMSDM642 is used to set up the real-time video processing system of the hardware .The hardware system is mainly composed of three parts: the part of memory, the part of the input and the part of the output. When beer bottles are put into the work area, the video images of the bottle-mouth and bottle-bottom will be gained by the CCD camera, firstly, preprocessing is used to eliminate video image noise. Secondly, the image segmentation algorithm is used to detect defects in video images. Lastly the goal of extracting defects will be accomplished. The experimental result indicated that this system may effectively exam the flaw or the unqualified beer bottles.


In this paper we present the OOP-Anim learning environment. It was developed to help our students to learn the basic concepts of object oriented programming and to develop their programming capabilities using this paradigm. To achieve those goals students must practice intensively the development and debugging of programs. We believe this environment can help, since it uses animation to facilitate program understanding and error detection/correction. This debugging process has a lot of educational potential, as students can learn when correcting their own mistakes. When they reach a working solution, their experience and confidence normally improves, facilitating further learning. In the paper we describe the environment main features, some possible uses and the educational advantages associated with that utilization.


The research results of stress-strained condition of constructional sheet materials are given in the article. The strength dependence on type, configuration and sizes of adhesive joints is analyzed. The research of the strength dependence was made on the samples from bakelite plywood with the main types of adhesive joints. The research results in the specified range of the bonding lengths of the adhesive joints are determined by the equation, which was derived by using the settlement of the problem of the tenses in the symmetric adhesive joints of different materials. The features of stress-strained condition of the specified adhesive joints, which were made from orthotropic material by stretching the samples, are shown in the article. The obtained results can be used for design of adhesive joints with two plates, overlapping and with one plate in the sheet structures. Keywords : adhesive joint; stress-strained condition, orthotropic material, bakelite plywood


As the market for biofortified seed and food grows, farmers increasingly market their excess production to consumers. To develop a global strategy for consumer marketing of biofortified crops, research is needed to understand consumer perceptions, insights, and behaviors around food, agriculture, nutrition and biofortification. Findings from some unpublished research on these topics are reported here. In regions of Nigeria, most farmers and consumers feel positively about biofortification and are interested in consuming a more nutritious diet. In Kampala, Uganda awareness of biofortified vitamin A orange sweet potato is very high, and more than half of survey respondents had purchased it at least once. In Rwanda, farmers and consumers like biofortified high iron beans, but challenges to biofortification include limitations of word-of-mouth communication and the difficulty of obtaining policymaker support for nutrition interventions. The use of behavior change communication and social marketing, tailored to the specific product and market context, can be used to increase awareness and overcome some of these limitations. Several forms of marketing have proven effective in encouraging trial and adoption of biofortified staple crops by farmers and consumers alike. Keywords: Behavior Change Communication, Social Marketing, Biofortication, Marketing, Orange Sweet Potato, Iron Bean, Vitamin A Cassava


Here, a systematic study is made of the leakage current in huge-area SiGe-Si p+-n junctions. As will be shown, both the perimeter and area leakage current density are a sensitive function of the S/D etch depth, whereby a higher leakage is obtained for deeper trenches. This can be explained by the presence of dislocations at the SiGe-Si interface, as revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and their relative distance to the electrical junction


In order to deeply study the influence of ultrasonic assistance on material removal characteristics of hard and brittle materials, a series of ultrasonic assisted single-point scratch experiments have been carried out in this paper. Experimental results show that the assisted ultrasonic vibration is benefit to increase the critical cutting depth and enlarge the ductile regime of material removal. The main reason can be explained as the influences of blank cutting phenomenon, the decrease of the normal cutting force under the same depth of cut, the decrease of the material hardness under ultrasonic excitation and the shielding effect of lateral crack.


Quantum computing aims to harness and exploit the quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition, entanglement and contextuality in order to encode and process information. In this context, quantum walks, which has been suggested as the quantum counterpart of classical random walks, is an emerging topic in quantum computing that provides powerful techniques for developing new quantum algorithms, quantum simulation and quantum state transfer. This thesis intends to investigate the properties of quantum walks which may potentially promote further work in such techniques in quantum computation. We first propose a novel method for transferring arbitrary unknown qubit state between two points in space with quantum walk architecture. We determine the cases providing perfect state transfers over both finite and infinite lattices with different boundary conditions and we introduce recovery operators assisting the transfer process. Next, by modeling the incoherent and coherent transport with classical random walks and quantum walks, respectively, we calculate the transport efficiencies over an explosive percolation lattice. We show that the minimal correlation between discrete clusters leads to maximal localizations which originating from random scatterings. These localization effects, however, are rather small when compared to the supportive effect of the abrupt growth of the largest cluster on transport efficiency, which eventually allows us to obtain more efficient transports in case of minimal correlations. We support our results with further calculations on whether the eigenstates of the systems we study are localized or not. Lastly, we turn our attention to the spreading dynamics and the coin-position entanglement for two-dimensional quantum walks under an artificial magnetic fields by introducing Peierls phases to the system. In particular, we show that the spreading of the quantum walk is diffusive rather than ballistic when the ratio of the magnetic flux through unit cell - where the walk takes place - to the flux quantum is an irrational number. On the contrary, the walk recovers its original ballistic behavior when this ratio is chosen to be a rational number. Furthermore, we demonstrate that coin-position entanglement is nearly maximum under an artificial magnetic field, even for large number of steps.


Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1) belongs to a family of proteins that contain the Zα domain, which binds specifically to left-handed Z-DNA and Z-RNA. Like all vertebrate proteins in the Zα family, it contains two Zα-like domains and is highly inducible by immunostimulation. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy and electrophoretic mobility shift assays we show that both Zα domains can bind Z-DNA independently and that substrate binding is greatly enhanced when both domains are linked. Full length ZBP1 and a prominent splice variant lacking the first Zα domain (ΔZα) showed strikingly different subcellular localizations. While the full length protein showed a finely punctate cytoplasmatic distribution, ZBP1ΔZα accumulated in large cytoplasmic granules. Mutation of residues important for Z-DNA binding in the first Zα domain resulted in a distribution comparable to that of ZBP1ΔZα. The ZBP1ΔZα granules are distinct from stress granules (SGs) and processing bodies but dynamically interacted with these. Polysome stabilization led to the disassembly of ZBP1ΔZα granules, indicating that mRNA are integral components. Heat shock and arsenite exposure had opposing effects on ZBP1 isoforms: while ZBP1ΔZα granules disassembled, full length ZBP1 accumulated in SGs. Our data link ZBP1 to mRNA sorting and metabolism and indicate distinct roles for ZBP1 isoforms.


Mobilizations and divisions of the scientific community in wartime.This paper has a triple objective. On the one hand, it pretends to give an overview of the links between science, war and university during three key moments of contemporary history: the French Revolution, the Great War and the Second World War. Furthermore special attention is paid to the mobilization of actors, to changes in the organizational processes of science and to the creation of technical artifacts in each of the above warmongers situations. Thirdly we consider the fact that the scientific community tends to split at critical junctures. During the French Revolution the revolutionary messianism politicized science and it divided scientists within their country. A century later, in the early twentieth century, the nationalist messianism dominated the political scene. This messianism raised controversy among scientists, not only within their respective states, but also between the various states of the international community.


This article is about a green product in the ceramic industry that is not mature in the context of production. we make use of new neural network approach to the accurate classification of general building ceramics, to facilitate the construction of ceramic materials to handle the production line of various ceramic the proportion of environmental factors, so the decision on the most environmentally friendly way of energy production technology. To this end, we have introduced a BP neural network model and parameters proposed the concept of porcelain, porcelain shape parameters from the correlation analysis, discussing the porcelain the determination of parameters. Finally, we create the required network, and it trained until getting the training error of the training requirements.


We use the Planck LFI 70 GHz data to further probe point source detection technique in the sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The method developed by Tegmark et al. for foreground reduced maps and the Kolmogorov parameter as the descriptor are adopted for the analysis of Planck satellite CMB temperature data. Most of the detected points coincide with point sources already revealed by other methods. However, we have also found nine source candidates for which still no counterparts are known.


Migration always played an important role in Dutch society. However, little quantitative evidence on its effect on economic development is known for the period before the 20th century even though some stories exist about their effect on the Golden Age. Applying a new dataset on migration and growth for the period 1510-1900 in a system of equations, we find that in the Golden Age, the 18th century, and the 19th century there was a direct positive effect of migration on productivity. However, when taking account of indirect effects via humanand physical capital, only during the Golden Age the net effect of migration on per capita GDP was positive. This seems to confirm those studies that claim that the Golden Age at least partially benefitted from immigration.


Abstract The flow pattern in the grooves plays a major role for the homogeneity of refining as well as for the transfer and loading of fiber flocs in refining position on the bar edges. However, it is an area where very little information is available. In the present study, flow conditions in the grooves in a Low-Consistency (LC) - disc refiner were studied both experimentally and numerically. The experimental study involved high-speed imaging through a 3 cm peephole into a commercial refiner. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation focused on the flow condition in a radial groove, considering both Newtonian and non-Newtonian flows. Flow conditions for stator and rotor grooves were modeled along the groove at different angular speeds and pressure differences over the refiner. Both the experimental and the modeling results show a dual flow pattern in the grooves; a rotational/spiral movement at the top of the groove and a flow in the direction of the groove at the bottom, which to the authors knowledge has not been reported in literature. The strong vortical motion at the top of the grooves observed both for the rotor and the stator are believed to be important for placing the fibers onto the bar edges and to induce shear forces in such a way that the fibers get treated. Moreover, a large sensitivity to suspension properties in terms of the development of flow pattern was detected.


Viscoelasticity is an inherent property of the soft biological tissue and is increasingly used as a diagnostic parameter, e.g. in characterizing Brain disease, liver fibrosis and breast tumors or tissue-mimicking phantoms preparation. MR elastography (MRE) enables the noninvasive determination of the viscoelastic behavior of human internal organs. In this study, multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography was used to investigate and validate the numerical simulation of human brain viscoelasticity generated by ABAQUS. The dynamic behavior of storage modulus (G') and loss modulus (G") obtained by MRE at different frequency ranges were used to generate viscoelastic FE model of brain tissue. Then, shear modulus (µ) and shear viscosity (η) were compared to experimental data. MRE validate the finite element as an effective technique for measurement of rheological material properties. Results indicate the capability of FEM to simulation and comparison of experimental results.


Three murine monoclonal antibodies (I-35/67, II-190/30, III-160/18) produced by immunization against total epimastigote extract or component 5-enriched fractions of Trypanosoma cruzi (Tehuantepec strain) have been demonstrated to recognize the component 5 specific for T. cruzi. By immunofluorescence studies, one of these monoclonal antibodies (I-35/67) was shown to bind to the epimastigote cell surface, and the two others (II-190/30 III-160/18) were preferentially directed against internal subcellular organelles. Immunoprecipitation using these monoclonal antibodies followed by SDS-PAGE analysis, has led to identification of four molecules with apparent molecular weights of 72 Kd, 51 Kd, 43 Kd, and 24 Kd in T. cruzi epimastigotes. Potential uses of these monoclonal antibodies in serological tests and immunochemical analysis of target antigens are discussed.


Patterns of childhood lead poisoning have changed substantially in the United States. The mean blood lead level has declined, and acute intoxication with encephalopathy has become uncommon. Nonetheless, between 1976 and 1980, 780,000 children, 1 to 6 years of age, had blood lead concentrations of 30 µg/L or above. These levels of absorption, previously thought to be safe, are now known to cause loss of neurologic and intellectual function, even in asymptomatic children. Because this loss is largely irreversible and cannot fully be restored by medical treatment, pediatricians' efforts must be directed toward prevention. Prevention is achieved by reducing children's exposure to lead and by early detection of increased absorption.
 Childhood lead poisoning is now defined by the Academy as a whole blood lead concentration of 25 µg/L or more, together with an erythrocyte protoporphyrin level of 35 µg/dL or above. This definition does not require the presence of symptoms. It is identical with the new definition of the US Public Health Service. Lead poisoning in children previously was defined by a blood lead concentration of 30 µ/dL with an erythrocyte protoporphyrin level of 50 µg/dL.
 To prevent lead exposure in children, the Academy urges public agencies to develop safe and effective methods for the removal and proper disposal of all lead-based paint from public and private housing. Also, the Academy urges the rapid and complete removal of all lead from gasoline.
 To achieve early detection of lead poisoning, the Academy recommends that all children in the United States at risk of exposure to lead be screened for lead absorption at approximately 12 months of age by means of the erythrocyte protoporphyrin test, when that test is available. Furthermore, the Academy recommends follow-up erythrocyte protoporphyrin testing of children judged to be at high risk of lead absorption. Reporting of lead poisoning should be mandatory in all states.


Recent advances in nanotechnology have revolutionized nanomedicine to concurrently deliver multiple drugs for combination chemotherapy. Despite some improvements in drug delivery systems, the accommodation of combination chemotherapeutics in hybrid nanostructures with tunable chemistry remains a challenge. Here, we have made a hypothesis and designed a new platform for the accommodation of curcumin and doxorubicin in surface engineered liposomes. The liposome surface is engineered by one-step polyelectrolyte (poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS)) coating to accommodate curcumin (CUR) in the phospholipid bilayer and doxorubicin (DOX) on the polymeric liposomal surface (DOX-PSS@lipo-cur). Infusion of CUR drug molecules between the phospholipid bilayers is visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy images. The conjugation strategy of DOX with and without the polymeric platform can be distinguished from fluorescence measurements. The quenching mechanism of PSS@lipo-cur with DOX is intricately studied and the nature of the quenching process evaluated from fluorescence lifetime measurements which show the effective binding based on static quenching rather than dynamic. The stability of the nanoformulation and engineered liposomal surface is validated through the zeta potential and TEM micrographs. The hemolysis assay revealed that the nanoformulation ameliorates the toxicity of DOX which paves the way for in vivo applications. Further, in vitro studies reveal the effective inhibition of cellular proliferation, cellular internalization and apoptosis which evidences high therapeutic efficacy in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The decoration of DOX on PSS@lipo-cur has empowered a new strategy to improve the therapeutic efficacy. The present findings provide an insight into the design of various conjugation strategies on a liposomal surface for combination chemotherapy.


Seymour's second neighborhood conjecture states that every simple digraph (without digons) has a vertex whose first out-neighborhood is at most as large as its second out-neighborhood. Such a vertex is said to have the second neighborhood property (SNP). We define "good" digraphs and prove a statement that implies that every feed vertex of a tournament has the SNP. In the case of digraphs missing a matching, we exhibit a feed vertex with the SNP by refining a proof due to Fidler and Yuster and using good digraphs. Moreover, in some cases we exhibit two vertices with SNP


Male gender was recently reported as an adverse prognostic factor in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone). We conducted a retrospective study of adult patients with DLBCL initially treated with rituximab containing regimens between 2001 and 2007. Patients were identified from the clinical archives of 43 Italian and Brazilian institutions. The principal endpoint was overall survival (OS). One thousand seven hundred and ninety-three patients were fully eligible for the study. Thirty-eight percent, 27%, 22% and 12% of patients had an International Prognostic Index (IPI) score of 0–1, 2, 3 and 4–5, respectively; 53% were males. After a median follow-up of 36 months (1–106), the 5-year OS was 76% (95% confidence interval 74–78%). In univariate analysis, male gender was an adverse prognostic factor with a hazard ratio of 1.52. In multivariate analysis, when adjusted by IPI, again gender maintained its prognostic relevance, showing an independent additive effect. In conclusion, in patients with DLBCL treated with rituximab containing regimens, gender may increase the predictive power of the IPI. Based on these results, given possible differences in blood clearance of rituximab between males and females, the benefit of higher doses of rituximab in males should be explored.


In view of events such as the public denial of climate change research by well-known politicians, the effects of postfactual disinformation and emotionalisation are discussed for science. Here, so-called 'fake news' are of focus. These are considered problematic, particularly in a high-choice media environment as users tend to show selective behaviour. Much research has demonstrated this selective exposure approach, which has roots in the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957). However, research on the processes of coping with dissonance is still considered sparse. In particular, communication scholars have overlooked emotional states and negotiations. This article analyses the affects that are aroused when users are confronted with opinion-challenging disinformation and how they (emotionally) cope by using different strategies for online information. For this, we used the context of climate change that is widely accepted in Germany. The innovative research design included pre- and post-survey research, stimulus exposure (denying 'fake news'), observations, and retrospective interviews (n = 50). Through this, we find that perceptions and coping strategies vary individually and that overt behaviour, such as searching for counter-arguments, should be seen against the background of individual ideas and motivations, such as believing in an easy rejection of arguments. Confirming neuroscientific findings, participants felt relieved and satisfied once they were able to dissolve their dissonant state and negative arousal. Dissatisfaction and frustration were expressed if this had not been accomplished.


Objectives: This paper presents a neural network based non-invasive diagnostics methodology of asthma using gas sensors array working as artificial olfactory. Methods/Statistical Analysis: A series of invasive clinical trials are recommended by international bodies to justify the diagnosis of asthma. So during these tests the patient has to undergo a lot of physical trauma. To ease the suffering of the patient, in this paper, a non-invasive method for asthma detection has been proposed. Findings: In this paper, an array consisting of five semiconductor gas sensors has been developed. The sensor array along with the data acquisition system has been developed for the non-invasive detection of the asthma. Five data sets of asthma related toxic gas in different concentrations are obtained by a signal acquirement system having tin oxide gas sensor array. Obtained data are put for training and analysis on Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Proposed neural network has been trained using back propagation algorithm. From the results obtained, it can be seen that the developed model ensures the proper accuracy and consistent results. Application/Improvements: Experimental results show good classification of asthma associated exhaled toxic gas with the ambient air using only few samples and also presents the efficiency of Feed Forward Back Propagation Neural Network on the data driven from different gas sensors.


The perceptual organization of two-tone sequences into auditory streams was investigated using a modeling framework consisting of an auditory pre-processing front end [Dau et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 102, 2892-2905 (1997)] combined with a temporal coherence-analysis back end [Elhilali et al., Neuron 61, 317-329 (2009)]. Two experimental paradigms were considered: (i) Stream segregation as a function of tone repetition time (TRT) and frequency separation (Δf) and (ii) grouping of distant spectral components based on onset/offset synchrony. The simulated and experimental results of the present study supported the hypothesis that forward masking enhances the ability to perceptually segregate spectrally close tone sequences. Furthermore, the modeling suggested that effects of neural adaptation and processing though modulation-frequency selective filters may enhance the sensitivity to onset asynchrony of spectral components, facilitating the listeners' ability to segregate temporally overlapping sounds into separate auditory objects. Overall, the modeling framework may be useful to study the contributions of bottom-up auditory features on "primitive" grouping, also in more complex acoustic scenarios than those considered here.


This article extends research on the consequences of parental incarceration for child well-being, the effects of mass imprisonment on black-white inequalities in child well-being, and the factors shaping black-white inequalities in infant mortality by considering the relationship between imprisonment and infant mortality, using individual- and state-level data from the United States, 1990 through 2003. Results using data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) show that parental incarceration is associated with elevated early infant mortality risk and that partner violence moderates this relationship. Infants of recently incarcerated fathers who are not abusive have twice the mortality risk of other infants, but there is no association if the father was abusive. Results from state-level analyses show a positive association between the imprisonment rate and the total infant mortality rate, black infant mortality rate, and black-white inequality in the infant mortality rate. Assuming a causal effect, results show that had the imprisonment rate remained at its 1990 level, the 2003 infant mortality rate would have been 3.9 percent lower, black-white inequality in the infant mortality rate 8.8 percent lower. Thus, results imply that imprisonment may have health consequences that extend beyond ever-imprisoned men to their social correlates and that these health spillover effects are not limited to infectious disease.


Today, Global warming is a major dilemma facing our globe that has changed the world concerns to reconsider the pollution sources affecting planet earth. This along with the tremendous increase in carbon dioxide emissions all over the world in the last decade has simulated the EDRG (Environmental Design Research Group, at the Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design Department) at the AAST (Arab Academy for Science and Technology) to setting the Environmental awareness campaign in the Schools of Alexandria, Egypt. The campaign is run mainly by Architecture professors, and both graduates and postgraduates of the architecture department and this is where the novelty of this campaign mainly lies and will be discussed in this paper. Environmental issues are not properly integrated in curricula of secondary schools in Egypt, and attract quite a little attention there. Continuous research carried out by the EDRG founded by the authors of this paper highlighted the problem of local environmental awareness in Egypt and that it was one of the main obstacles behind lessening pollution rates in this region and saving the environment. Therefore, this campaign has set this awareness program as today's kids are the aim of proper development in Egypt. This project has two main objectives to fulfil; one is to engage the architectural students in raising sustainable and environmental awareness in our non-sustainable societies and second is to raise environmental awareness of school children and the youth by using artistic means, and to encourage them to participate in solution of environmental problems in their communities. Theatre, movie, painting and social role-plays are perceived as an interactive method to speak up global environmental problems in understandable and creative way. The campaign promotes and aware students within all education levels about the main reasons behind global warming, climate change and pollution and the proper use of renewable energy technologies, ecological and sustainable approaches to decrease carbon dioxide emissions all over the world and save our planet earth. The paper considers the role of environmental awareness at an early stage in the proper application of alternative energy sources in our built environment. The environmental awareness campaign is discussed along with its main aims and outcomes in this paper. The paper also contemplates the role of Architects and Architecture students in social interaction and in awareness of their communities.


Progestogen hypersensitivity (PH) is a cyclical dermatosis that occurs in fertile women during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The clinical presentation is variable and non-specific. We report the case of a 42-year-old woman with a 10-year history of itchy skin lesions that recurred monthly. Determined with her basal body temperature chart, her skin symptoms were related to progesterone surges. Skin examinations revealed multiple and extensive monomorphic red papules, mainly on her arms and legs, as well as on her chest and back. She had no history of associated fever or dyspnea. Her hair, nails and mucous membranes were normal. A blood test at the time of the worst skin eruption revealed mild elevation of serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokines and eosinophilia. Her total serum IgE level was normal. She showed a delayed skin reaction to progesterone. Ultra-low-dose combined oral contraceptives (COCs) improved her symptoms by suppressing ovulation. Accordingly, a diagnosis of progestogen hypersensitivity was made. A T-helper (Th)2 response rather than a Th1 response was suggested to be involved in this case. Atopic dermatitis (AD) can be classified into the major extrinsic type with high serum IgE levels and the minor intrinsic type with normal IgE levels. PH and AD share similarities in that they present with eczema, IgE-mediated sensitization and delayed hypersensitivity responses, and their pathophysiology remains to be fully elucidated because of their heterogeneous aspects. The symptoms of this case were in line with IgE-low AD rather than IgE-high AD, which implicates endogenous progesterone as a trigger.