The majority of heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension (HPAH) cases are associated with mutations in bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (BMPR2). BMPR2 mutation carries about a 20% lifetime risk of PAH development, but penetrance is approximately three times higher in females. Previous studies have shown a correlation between estrogen metabolism and penetrance, with increased levels of the estrogen metabolite 16α-hydroxyestrone (16αOHE) and reduced levels of the metabolite 2-methoxyestrogen (2ME) associated with increased risk of disease. The goal of this study was to determine whether 16αOHE increased and 2ME decreased penetrance of disease in Bmpr2 mutant mice and, if so, by what mechanism. We found that 16αOHE:2ME ratio was high in male human HPAH patients. Bmpr2 mutant male mice receiving chronic 16αOHE had doubled disease penetrance, associated with reduced cardiac output. 2ME did not have a significant protective effect, either alone or in combination with 16αOHE. In control mice but not in Bmpr2 mutant mice, 16αOHE suppressed bone morphogenetic protein signaling, probably directly through suppression of Bmpr2 protein. Bmpr2 mutant pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells were insensitive to estrogen signaling through canonical pathways, associated with aberrant intracellular localization of estrogen receptor α. In both control and Bmpr2 mutant mice, 16αOHE was associated with suppression of cytokine expression but with increased alternate markers of injury, including alterations in genes related to thrombotic function, angiogenesis, planar polarity, and metabolism. These data support a causal relationship between increased 16αOHE and increased PAH penetrance, with the likely molecular mechanisms including suppression of BMPR2, alterations in estrogen receptor translocation, and induction of vascular injury and insulin resistance–related pathways.


The tick-borne protozoan parasites Theileria spp. (related to the malaria parasites, Plasmodium spp.) cause a cancer-like disease in cattle that is of major economic importance in Africa and Asia. Heussler et al. show how this pathogen subverts its host's signaling pathway for its own good. The schizont stage of the parasite infects the B and T cells of the immune system and immortalizes them into tumor-like cells capable of metastasis. Transformation seems to occur because the parasite activates the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway and prevents apoptosis. This activation cannot be blocked by treatment with drugs that affect steps in the NF-κB signaling pathway upstream of multisubunit IκB kinase (IKK). The authors show that the intracellular foci of Theileria are associated with recruitment and aggregation of the IKK signalsome complex. Such aggregation seems to be sufficient to activate the kinase and subsequently activate NF-κB. V. T. Heussler, S. Rottenberg, R. Schwab, P. Küenzi, P. C. Fernandez, S. McKellar, B. Shiels, Z. J. Chen, K. Orth, D. Wallach, D. A. E. Dobbelaere, Hijacking of host cell IKK signalosomes by the transforming parasite Theileria. Science 298, 1033-1036 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In the global South, local markets are among the settings where children's everyday life experience unfolds. Children participate in various forms of work in local markets and make valuable economic contributions. This study was an attempt to get an insight on the everyday life experiences of boys and girls who work in three open local markets. It looked at children places and social relationships in local markets. It has also examined the influence of different types of local markets on boys and girls life circumstances, in particular the effect of the changes in national economic processes such as the growing significance of Khat on boys and girls local contexts and livelihood options. Qualitative research approach was employed to get an in-depth insight on nuances of boys and girls everyday life experiences. The empirical data of this studywas collected using a range of techniques, which includes observation, time recall, photograph and photo elicitation, in-depth interview and focus group discussions. Children engagement in various forms of work in each market evidenced the significant diversity of their work and the strong link between children's everyday experiences with places withinwhich it happened. Children were engaged in competitive and collaborative relationships in different market settings. These collaborative and competitive relationships shape the everyday life experiences of children in different market settings. Children acquired and used combinations of informal and practical knowledge by working in the market, which they considered as an alternative livelihood options in future adulthood. Working in local markets gave children not only economic independence but also a sense of self-reliance and self-respect.Boys and girls usually combine trading activities with formal school and household responsibilities. Thus, children face with a dilemma on their choices between life here and now and the future. Moreover, the dynamics involved in national economic process, in particular the increasing production and marketing of Khat, affected children's local careers and livelihood options differently. Therefore, understanding children's everyday life experiences requires situating their social practices within diverse local contexts in which they work.


Organizations now routinely collect information about the needs of their consumers/users, but this information is not sufficiently utilized. This research investigates how encapsulating the user needs in a persona affects the resulting design decisions. Personas put a face on the target users and create a vivid design target by using a narrative, picture, and name. In our study, we examine whether personas help designers make more effective design decisions. We also focus on the roles of empathy and memory, and investigate whether personas introduce greater empathy into product design. The results suggest that personas lead to more effective designs when empathy for the persona is created. On the other hand, when the user needs are summarized in a tabular format, the participants must rely on memorization of the user information. The implications of the results and how follow-up studies will tackle unanswered questions are explored.


The article sought to understand public perceptions on city landscaping during the outbreak of COVID-19. The research aimed to discuss the theoretical aspects related to restrictions on travel during the pandemic and city landscaping and to conduct an empirical study of experiences of the Vilnius Pop-up Beach, Lithuania. The thematic analysis selected for the empirical study is not limited and flexible, allowing for revealing the experiences and public opinion, including that expressed in the media, relating to the Vilnius Pop-up Beach. The analysis resulted in the identification of several themes: "Nostalgia for heroic landscape", "Changing memory landscape", and "Enjoying the landscape of freedom", which demonstrated the controversy surrounding the changing city landscape. Analysis showed the interaction of public perceptions on city landscaping. The results of this research highlight the importance in future sustainable landscape development of paying attention to the different city experiences. Public perceptions should be heard and respected when considering the unique landscape of the past, present, and future and its impact on city memories. Thus, possible directions for future research should include more in-depth explorations on alternative travel experiences, looking for possible uncovered, unforeseen, sensitive, and meaningful travel experiences, which emerged during the outbreak of COVID-19.


States have long taken exception to the notion of humanitarian intervention because it threatens to undermine a bedrock principle of international order: national sovereignty. In the case of Kosovo, however, NATO's nineteen member states chose not only to put aside their concerns for national sovereignty in favor of humanitarian considerations, but also to act without UN authorization. This essay examines the ways in which states – European states in particular – are rethinking historic prohibitions against humanitarian intervention in the wake of the Kosovo war. It focuses on two approaches: Efforts to reinterpret international law so as to demonstrate the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention and Efforts to build a political consensus regarding when and how states may use force for humanitarian ends While efforts to weaken prohibitions may succeed, thereby facilitating future interventions, resolution of the tension between legitimacy and effectiveness in defense of human rights will continue to elude the international community unless a political consensus can be achieved.


Many efforts have been undertaken in past decades to minimize pollution from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWI FA). This residue is toxic, because of its high concentration of heavy metals, mainly Pb and Zn. A new method for heavy metals entrapment with MSWI FA was proposed recently. The method is based on the use of colloidal silica and it was applied to other FA typologies (flue gas desulfurization and coal fly ashes). The first results, in terms of material recovery, are very promising. The present paper is dedicated to the study of the mechanism of entrapment of heavy metals as promoted by the use of colloidal silica in the inertisation process by means of X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and by synchrotron-based XRD. Only XAS allowed focussing on the local environmental changes for Pb and Zn atoms on a molecular level. Chemical equilibrium calculations predict that, without silica, water-soluble Pb and Zn salts form stable phases, such as carbonates. XAS analysis showed that, despite carbonation of alkaline earth metals such as Ca, colloidal silica promotes the stabilisation of major heavy metals in phases other than carbonates and most likely in the more inert silicate form.


The surface integral formalism is used to derive the integral equations for the scattering of diffusive waves, which account for the contribution of object boundaries and interfaces between media and which are numerically solved without approximations. The extinction theorem and other surface integral theorems for diffusive waves are introduced to obtain the boundary values of both the photon density wave and the photon density current. We present this theory and apply it to the simulation of diffusive objects buried in diffusive media in the presence of rough interfaces.


The "(re)turn to history" in Romantic Studies in the 1980s marked the beginning of a critical orthodoxy that continues to condition, if not define, our sense of the Romantic period twenty-five years on. Romantic New Historicism's revisionary engagements have played a central role in the realignment of the field and in the expansion of the Romantic canon. In this major new collection of eleven essays, critics reflect on New Historicism's inheritance, its achievements and its limitations. Integrating a self-reflexive engagement with New Historicism's "history" and detailed attention to a range of Romantic lives and literary texts, the collection offers a close-up view of Romanticism's hybrid present, and a dynamic vision of its future.


This project developed from CfDR's relationship with UK Haptics, a technology company developing Haptic or 'virtual environments with physical feedback' for training nurses. The company use a 'Haptic Pen' to enable student nurses to control virtual medical instruments such as cannular needles and a 'space mouse' to position the virtual patient's hand. The system can monitor the accuracy, force and angle when the cannular is inserted, giving the trainee more information than current training products. Watson led a research project which identified the potential barriers facing adoption of the technology and subsequently went on to deliver a human-centred design for the human/haptic system interface. Hewitt provided Industrial Design Input to the project, which was funded by the InSTeP initiative; a collaboration between Northumbria University and the Centre of Excellence in Life Sciences (CELS), to provide multidisciplinary design, technology and healthcare expertise to regional businesses in the NE of England (research funding £1.2m). Watson project manages the Initiative and liaises with a broad range of stakeholders in the NHS, the Regional Development Agency and the business community: http://www.celsatlife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=57 The haptic interface combined with an innovative method for training nursing staff in minor surgical procedures, will revolutionise the early stage training of all healthcare professionals. The system replaces the 'rubber' patient's arms which are currently used, and provides accurate and quantifiable data on the technique used by the student nurse: http://www.ukhaptics.co.uk/VirtualVeins.aspx. UK Haptics Virtual Veins was used as a case study during a presentation by Watson on the benefits of a multidisciplinary design team, at the Medical Innovation Forum, Olympia, London on 13th June 2007.


Predictions from a gyrokinetic toroidal plasma model reproduce for the first time the evolution of Alfven eigenmode (AE) dampings over a range of discharges. The coupling between shear-and kinetic-Alfven waves is responsible for the main source of damping through Landau interactions and can be an order of magnitude larger than fluid predictions neglecting global kinetic effects. Strong stabilization occurs when the wave field gets localized radially by a rise in the edge magnetic shear, explaining why global AEs have never been detected in the Joint European Torus [Rebut, Bickerton, and Keen, Nucl. Fusion 25, 1011 (1985)] in the presence of an X point and suggesting how global Alfven instabilities could be avoided in future reactors.


The genomes of bacteria derived from the gut microbiota are replete with pathways that mediate contact-dependent interbacterial antagonism. However, the role of direct interactions between co-resident microbes in driving microbiome composition is not well understood. Here we report the widespread occurrence of acquired interbacterial defense (AID) gene clusters in the human gut microbiome. These clusters are found on predicted mobile elements and encode arrays of immunity genes that confer protection against interbacterial toxin-mediated antagonism in vitro and in gnotobiotic mice. We find that Bacteroides ovatus strains containing AID systems that inactivate B. fragilis toxins delivered between cells by the type VI secretion system are enriched in samples lacking detectable B. fragilis. Moreover, these strains display significantly higher abundance in gut metagenomes than strains without AID systems. Finally, we identify a recombinase-associated AID subtype present broadly in Bacteroidales genomes with features suggestive of active gene acquisition. Our data suggest that neutralization of contact-dependent interbacterial antagonism via AID systems plays an important role in shaping human gut microbiome ecology.


Trace Alignment is a prominent problem in Declarative Process Mining, which consists in identifying a minimal set of modifications that a log trace (produced by a system under execution) requires in order to be made compliant with a temporal specification. In its simplest form, log traces are sequences of events from a finite alphabet and specifications are written in DECLARE, a strict sublanguage of linear-time temporal logic over finite traces (LTLf ). The best approach for trace alignment has been developed in AI, using cost-optimal planning, and handles the whole LTLf . In this paper, we study the timed version of trace alignment, where events are paired with timestamps and specifications are provided in metric temporal logic over finite traces (MTLf ), essentially a superlanguage of LTLf . Due to the infiniteness of timestamps, this variant is substantially more challenging than the basic version, as the structures involved in the search are (uncountably) infinite-state, and calls for a more sophisticated machinery based on alternating (timed) automata, as opposed to the standard finite-state automata sufficient for the untimed version. The main contribution of the paper is a provably correct, effective technique for Timed Trace Alignment that takes advantage of results on MTLf decidability as well as on reachability for well-structured transition systems.


This paper considers the aggregate performance of the banking industry, applying a modified and extended dynamic decomposition of bank return on equity. The aggregate performance of any industry depends on the underlying microeconomic dynamics within that industry -- adjustments within banks, reallocations between banks, entry of new banks, and exit of existing banks. Bailey, Hulten, and Campbell (1992) and Haltiwanger (1997) develop dynamic decompositions of industry performance. We extend those analyses to derive an ideal dynamic decomposition that includes their dynamic decomposition as one component. We also extend the decomposition, consider geography, and implement decomposition on a state-by-state basis, linking that geographic decomposition back to the national level. We then consider how deregulation of geographic restrictions on bank activity affects the components of the state-level dynamic decomposition, controlling for competition and the state of the economy within each state and employing fixed- and random-effects estimation for a panel database across the fifty states and the District of Columbia from 1976 to 2000.


Matrix reduction by eliminating some terms in the expansion of a matrix has been applied to a variety of numerical problems in many different areas. Since matrix reduction has different purposes for particular problems, the reduced matrices also have different meanings. In regression problems in statistics, the reduced parts of the matrix are considered to be noise or observation error, so the given raw data are purified by the matrix reduction. In factor analysis and principal component analysis (PCA), the reduced parts are regarded as idiosyncratic (unsystematic) factors, which are not shared by multiple variables in common. In solving constrained convex optimization problems, the reduced terms correspond to unnecessary (inactive) constraints which do not help in the search for an optimal solution.
In using matrix reduction, it is both critical and difficult to determine how and how much we will reduce the matrix. This decision is very important since it determines the quality of the reduced matrix and the final solution. If we reduce too much, fundamental properties will be lost. On the other hand, if we reduce too little, we cannot expect enough benefit from the reduction. It is also a difficult decision because the criteria for the reduction must be based on the particular type of problem.
In this study, we investigate matrix reduction for three numerical optimization problems. First, the total least squares problem uses matrix reduction to remove noise in observed data which follow an underlying linear model. We propose a new method to make the matrix reduction successful under relaxed noise assumptions. Second, we apply matrix reduction to the problem of estimating a covariance matrix of stock returns, used in financial portfolio optimization problem. We summarize all the previously proposed estimation methods in a common framework and present a new and effective Tikhonov method. Third, we present a new algorithm to solve semidefinite programming problems, adaptively reducing inactive constraints. In the constraint reduction, the Schur complement matrix for the Newton equations is the object of the matrix reduction. For all three problems, we propose appropriate criteria to determine the intensity of the matrix reduction. In addition, we verify the correctness of our criteria by experimental results and mathematical proof.


Julie Watson A nurse aide position in the local maternity annexe at the age of sixteen gave Julie a love for being with women during labour and birth and caring for mothers and their babies. Life could not have been happier until the tragic death of her own baby in the first hour of life led to depression, loneliness and despair. This true story tells of Julie's struggle to triumph over adversity and follows her journey to fulfil her dream and become the midwife she was born to be.


Same-Sex Unions and the Spectacles of Recognition Evan Gerstmann, Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xii + 222 pp. $60.00 cloth; $21.99 paper. Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, The Limits to Union: Same-Sex Marriage and the Politics of Civil Rights. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. x+290 pp. $60.00 cloth. Yuval Merin, Equality for Same-Sex Couples: The Legal Recognition of Gay Partnerships in Europe and the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. xvi+397 pp. $66.00 cloth; $25.00 paper. The boundary between homo- and heterosexuality once stood solidly in our cultural imagination, marked off by a set of assumed differences that were purportedly made manifest in real, material ways. Gays and lesbians, so the story went, were verifiably different from straight people, but gradually, the perceived boundary between the two sexualities has eroded. It has been 30 years since the American Psychological Association cured us of our homosexuality with the stroke of a pen. Despite the enthusiastic application of scientific and statistical technologies, the efforts of researchers such as Dean Hamer, Peter Copeland, and Simon LeVay (just to name a few), have failed to show conclusively that our ears, fingers, brains, or genes actually reveal anything concrete about our choices of sexual partners. Lawrence v. Texas (2003) has knocked down Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) as well as the remaining sodomy laws, expanded the right of privacy to include same-sex sex, and in the wake of Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health (2003) Massachusetts has begun allowing same-sex couples to marry. In contrast to many European nations, gay and lesbian parents in the United States are winning legal victories with increasing frequency, gaining greater access to adoption and child custody despite jurisdictional variation. For that diminishing segment of the population that still desperately wants a clear marker of its sexual superiority the news is not good. Fortunately for them, heterosexuals still have one clearly identifiable social sanctuary where they can remind themselves that they have something that non-heterosexuals do not: marriage. With a minimum of effort and expense, one man and one woman can enter into a relationship with the state that brings about numerous legal benefits, obligations, and privileges. Despite some advances, marriage thus stands as one of the last clearly exclusive, forcefully bounded, brightly illuminated enclaves where gays and lesbians may not tread; it remains for heterosexuals only (or at least, for those who want to appear that way). The books reviewed in this essay all engage the same-sex marriage debate, but each approaches the subject from a slightly different point of entry. Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller's The Limits to Union maps the political aftermath of the 1993 Hawaiian Supreme Court case that nearly allowed same-sex unions in that state. His analysis emphasizes the discourses of civil rights and sovereignty, and he artfully demonstrates that civil rights advances by gays and lesbians are seen as a threat to sovereignty. Specifically, he shows how the possibility of same-sex marriage was successfully depicted as a portent of economic damage, a threat to Hawaiian ethnic identity, and contrary to the goals of labor unions and other organized groups. In Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution, Evan Gerstmann mines the Supreme Court's jurisprudence in order to develop a constitutional framework that would require same-sex marriage. He relies primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment-although the First and Ninth Amendments also figure prominently-to argue that marriage, including same-sex marriage, is a fundamental liberty interest. Yuval Merin's Equality for Same-Sex Couples focuses on statutory protections offered to same-sex couples and surveys the different legal forms offered in jurisdictions across the United States and Europe. …


The topic of recording real estate transactions and the documentation of the rights of all parties is a controversial topic under the Iranian recording system. One of the functions of the recording system is "assuring security" regarding the stability of real estate property transactions, which can affect the rights of third parties as well. "Security" in transactions requires establishing priority for recorded transactions and observing rights concerning unrecorded ones. This means that the developed form of the recording system must move from "static security" to "dynamic security" in order to protect public interests instead of private ones. In reviewing the Iranian legal system, the bases of "Dynamic Security" can identified in various laws related to the recording of real estate transactions that legally recognize formal deeds and recorded rights. However, since these bases have not been theorized yet, there is not enough sanction to guarantee the enforcement of this theory. In addition, judicial procedure has issued a lot of sentences implying the acceptance of "Static Security", so that private interests are considered much more important than public interests. The lack of any formal and legal "Dynamic Security" theory has even led legislators to adopt rules against this theory by granting the authority to judges to give effect to informal documents as well. All this has resulted in a lack of security and stability in the recording system, which has led to a lack of trust by all parties in trusting the information and the content of a registration book, because any kind of transaction can be nullified by a judicial decision. In applying a qualitative method and content analysis, it can be concluded that "Dynamic Security" can provide very useful tools for guaranteeing the security and stability of real estate transactions. Consequently, it is essential to theorize this security and consider it in the law and practical procedures relating to it.


Before immigrating to Israel, first-generation Iraqi Jews were deeply attached to their identity as Mizrahi Jews. Their mother tongue was Arabic and they had grown up in an oriental environment. Therefore, it was not easy for them to adopt the Euro-Israeli identity that the dominant Ashkenazi-European stratum in Israel compelled them to accept. Despite strong Westernizing tendencies in Israeli society, the first generation of Iraqi Jewish immigrants maintained strong links to the Iraqi customs and traditions they had acquired in Iraq, particularly with regard to the musical folklore and oriental cuisine. On the other hand, second-generation Iraqi Jews were more familiar with Israeli society than their parents; they grew up in Israel and learned Hebrew in Israeli schools along with Ashkenazi Jews and other ethnic groups. This paper establishes connections between the historical realities of Iraqi Jewish immigrants and the literary representation of their world in the trilogy Tel-Aviv Mizrah (Tel Aviv East) written in 2003 by the Iraqi Jewish author Shimon Ballas, through a comparison of Ballas's literary vision with the historical realities of Iraqi Jewish identity in Israel over the course of two generations.


Although Bultmann responded favorably to Barth's call for a return to a theological exegesis of Scripture in the tradition of the Reformers that moved beyond modern historicism without relapsing into premodern biblicism, he criticized Barth for not following through on the necessity of subjecting biblical texts to theological criticism according to the criterion of the Bible's subject matter ( Sachkritik ). What accounts for their disagreement on this issue? At the root of their conflict over Sachkritik is the confessional difference between Lutherans and the Reformed. Whereas Luther was willing to criticize Scripture on the basis of the gospel, Calvin did not follow Luther in this respect. This article examines the differing understandings of Luther (and thus Bultmann) and Calvin (and thus Barth), arguing that Protestants today must decide what is the genuine legacy of the Reformation heritage regarding the proper understanding of biblical authority, since nothing less than the integrity of the Protestant church and its ministry is at stake.


The development of the geological and medical sciences shows overlap through numerous historical threads, some of which are investigated here by an international authorship of geologists, historians and medical professionals. Some of the medical men considered here are the relatively well known Steno, Parkinson, William Hunter and Peter Duncan, as well as several more obscure individuals such as Sperling, Hodges, Lemoine, Siqués and a number of Italians. Their work included foundational geological studies, aspects of hydrogeology and the nature of fossils. The therapeutic use of geological materials has been practised since ancient times. A suite of magico-medicinal stones, some purportedly harvested from the bodies of fabulous animals, have ancient folklore roots and were worn as protective amulets and incorporated into medicines. Medicinal earths were credited with wide-ranging medicinal properties. Geology and Medicine: Historical Connections will be of particular interest to Earth scientists, medical personnel, historians of science and the general reader with an interest in science.


Recent years have seen a lot of work in moving distributed MIMO from theory to practice. While this prior work demonstrates the feasibility of synchronizing multiple transmitters in time, frequency, and phase, none of them deliver a full-fledged PHY capable of supporting distributed MIMO in real-time. Further, none of them can address dynamic environments or mobile clients. Addressing these challenges, requires new solutions for low-overhead and fast tracking of wireless channels, which are the key parameters of any distributed MIMO system. It also requires a software-hardware architecture that can deliver a distributed MIMO within a full-fledged 802.11 PHY, while still meeting the tight timing constraints of the 802.11 protocol. This architecture also needs to perform coordinated power control across distributed MIMO nodes, as opposed to simply letting each node perform power control as if it were operating alone. This paper describes the design and implementation of MegaMIMO 2.0, a system that achieves these goals and delivers the first real-time fully distributed 802.11 MIMO system.


An optimistic fair exchange (OFE) protocol is an effective tool helping two parties exchange their digital items in an equitable way with assistance of a trusted third party, called arbitrator, who is only required if needed. In previous studies, fair exchange is usually carried out between individual parties. When fair exchange is carried our between two members from distinct groups, anonymity of the signer in a group could be necessary for achieving better privacy. In this paper, we consider optimistic fair exchange of ring signatures (OFERS), i.e. two members from two different groups can exchange their ring signatures in a fair way with ambiguous signers. Each user in these groups has its own public-private key pair and is able to sign a message on behalf of its own group anonymously. We first define the security model of OFFERS in the multi-user setting under adaptive chosen message, chosen-key and chosen public-key attacks. Then, based on verifiable encrypted ring signatures (VERS) we construct a concrete scheme by combining the technologies of ring signatures, public-key encryption and proof of knowledge. Finally, we show that our OFERS solution is provably secure in our security model, and preserving signer-ambiguity of ring signatures. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first (formal) work on this topic.


Prior studies suggest that increased urine albumin is associated with a heightened fracture risk in women, but results in men are unclear. We used data from Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS), a prospective cohort study of community‐dwelling men aged ≥65 years, to evaluate the association of increased urine albumin with subsequent fractures and annualized rate of hip bone loss. We calculated albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) from urine collected at the 2003–2005 visit. Subsequent clinical fractures were ascertained from triannual questionnaires and centrally adjudicated by review of radiographic reports. Total hip BMD was measured by DXA at the 2003–2005 visit and again an average of 3.5 years later. We estimated risk of incident clinical fracture using Cox proportional hazards models, and annualized BMD change using ANCOVA. Of 2982 men with calculable ACR, 9.4% had ACR ≥30 mg/g (albuminuria) and 1.0% had ACR ≥300 mg/g (macroalbuminuria). During a mean of 8.7 years of follow‐up, 20.0% of men had an incident clinical fracture. In multivariate‐adjusted models, neither higher ACR quintile (p for trend 0.75) nor albuminuria (HR versus no albuminuria, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.65 to 1.20) was associated with increased risk of incident clinical fracture. Increased urine albumin had a borderline significant, multivariate‐adjusted, positive association with rate of total hip bone loss when modeled in ACR quintiles (p = 0.06), but not when modeled as albuminuria versus no albuminuria. Macroalbuminuria was associated with a higher rate of annualized hip bone loss compared to no albuminuria (–1.8% more annualized loss than in men with ACR <30 mg/g; p < 0.001), but the limited prevalence of macroalbuminuria precluded reliable estimates of its fracture associations. In these community‐dwelling older men, we found no association between urine albumin levels and risk of incident clinical fracture, but found a borderline significant, positive association with rate of hip bone loss. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


How networked structures of collaboration and competition within a community of researchers led to the invention, spread, and commercialization of scanning probe microscopy. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has been hailed as the "key enabling discovery for nanotechnology," the catalyst for a scientific field that attracts nearly $20 billion in funding each year. In Instrumental Community, Cyrus Mody argues that this technology-centric view does not explain how these microscopes helped to launch nanotechnology-and fails to acknowledge the agency of the microscopists in making the STM and its variants critically important tools. Mody tells the story of the invention, spread, and commercialization of scanning probe microscopy in terms of the networked structures of collaboration and competition that came into being within a diverse, colorful, and sometimes fractious community of researchers. By forming a community, he argues, these researchers were able to innovate rapidly, share the microscopes with a wide range of users, and generate prestige (including the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics) and profit (as the technology found applications in industry). Mody shows that both the technology of probe microscopy and the community model offered by the probe microscopists contributed to the development of political and scientific support for nanotechnology and the global funding initiatives that followed. In the course of his account, Mody charts the shifts in U.S. science policy over the last forty years-from the decline in federal basic research funding in the 1970s through the rise in academic patenting in the 1980s to the emergence of nanotechnology discourse in the 1990s-that have resulted in today's increasing emphasis on the commercialization of academic research.


Carbonate ooze in Bahamian troughs displays cyclic variation in the content of aragonite. A 10 m core devoid of turbidites shows 3.5 cycles, each defined by a sharp increase, followed by a gradual decrease of aragonite. The aragonite curve matches closely the oxygen-isotope curve of planktic foraminifera from the same core. Aragonite highs correspond to light oxygen-isotope values and thus to interglacial stages. Content of terrigenous material is low during interglacials and higher during glacial periods. Intermittent flooding and exposure of the Bahama Banks is most probably not the cause of the cycles, because the latest increase in aragonite precedes bank flooding by 8,000 yr and because the cycles are distinctly asymmetric, with rapid increase and gradual decrease of aragonitic content. Carbonate dissolution cycles tied to the glacial rhythm of Earth9s climate are a more likely explanation of the variations in aragonite content.


Al-Samaw'āl (with the complete name Al-Samaw'āl Ibn Yahyā Al-Maghribī), born
around 1130 in Baghdad, Iraq, is best known in the History of Mathematics for his seminal work the Al-Bāhir fī Al-Jabr (literally The Splendid Book of Algebra) which
he composed at the prodigious age of nineteen. In this work, following the Euclidean tradition, Al-Samaw'āl put together and advanced many key algebraic rules formulated by his predecessors, notably Al-Khwārizmi, Ibn Turk, Ibn Qurra, Al-Kūhī,
Al-Uqlīdīsī, Abū'l-Wafā, Al-Karajī, Ibn Aslam, Al-Sijzī, Ibn Al-Haytham, Qustā Ibn Lūqā, and Al-Harīrī.
Al-Bāhir is a large work and consists of four sections. Section one provides an
account of operations on polynomials in one unknown with rational coefficients, section two deals essentially with second-degree equations, indeterminate analysis, and
summations, section three concerns irrational quantities, and section four presents the application of algebraic principles to a number of problems. In this thesis, we
give close attention to book four from the second section in which Al-Samaw'āl discusses mathematical relations which amount to the binomial theorem and the
Pascal triangle and lays out a table of binomial coefficients and demonstrates how to generalise the entries in the table for any desired value. Our main contribution
is a complete translation of the Arabic text, the first time this has been done in a European language. We will then provide a detailed mathematical commentary and
offer a careful analysis of the status and impact of this work in the History of Mathematics, paying due attention to the historical context in which it was produced.


Cyanobacteria operate under a circadian clock unlike those found in other organisms. It is driven by periodic phosphorylation of a core clock protein rather than by periodic transcription or translation. Nakajima et al. now show that this oscillator can be reconstituted in vitro with only three clock proteins and a phosphate source, adenosine triphosphate. This supports the notion that biological time measurement in this simple organism is not rooted in the control of gene or protein expression, but in the dynamics of a complex of three proteins in a mechanism that requires little energy. M. Nakajima, K. Imai, H. Ito, T. Nishiwaki, Y. Murayama, H. Iwasaki, T. Oyama, T. Kondo, Reconstitution of circadian oscillation of cyanobacterial KaiC phosphorylation in vitro. Science 308, 414-415 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Bayesian estimation is presented for the stationary rate of disappointments, D∞, for two models (with different specifications) of intermittently used systems. The random variables in the system are considered to be independently exponentially distributed. Jeffreys' prior is assumed for the unknown parameters in the system. Inference about D∞ is being restrained in both models by the complex and non-linear definition of D∞. Monte Carlo simulation is used to derive the posterior distribution of D∞ and subsequently the highest posterior density (HPD) intervals. A numerical example where Bayes estimates and the HPD intervals are determined illustrates these results. This illustration is extended to determine the frequentistical properties of this Bayes procedure, by calculating covering proportions for each of these HPD intervals, assuming fixed values for the parameters.


Named Entity Recognition (NER) aims to classify each word of a document into predefined target named entity classes and is now-a-days considered to be fundamental for many Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks such as information retrieval, machine translation, information extraction, question answering systems and others. This paper reports about the development of a NER system for Bengali and Hindi using Support Vector Machine (SVM). Though this state of the art machine learning technique has been widely applied to NER in several well-studied languages, the use of this technique to Indian languages (ILs) is very new. The system makes use of the different contextual information of the words along with the variety of features that are helpful in predicting the four different named (NE) classes, such as Person name, Location name, Organization name and Miscellaneous name. We have used the annotated corpora of 122,467 tokens of Bengali and 502,974 tokens of Hindi tagged with the twelve different NE classes , defined as part of the IJCNLP-08 NER Shared Task for South and South East Asian Languages (SSEAL) . In addition, we have manually annotated 150K wordforms of the Bengali news corpus, developed from the web-archive of a leading Bengali newspaper. We have also developed an unsupervised algorithm in order to generate the lexical context patterns from a part of the unlabeled Bengali news corpus. Lexical patterns have been used as the features of SVM in order to improve the system performance. The NER system has been tested with the gold standard test sets of 35K, and 60K tokens for Bengali, and Hindi, respectively. Evaluation results have demonstrated the recall, precision, and f-score values of 88.61%, 80.12%, and 84.15%, respectively, for Bengali and 80.23%, 74.34%, and 77.17%, respectively, for Hindi. Results show the improvement in the f-score by 5.13% with the use of context patterns. Statistical analysis, ANOVA is also performed to compare the performance of the proposed NER system with that of the existing HMM based system for both the languages. Keywords—Named Entity (NE); Named Entity Recognition (NER); Support Vector Machine (SVM); Bengali; Hindi.


The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects the central nervous system (CNS), causing symptoms in most persons with AIDS-related complex (ARC) and AIDS, and in a significant proportion of those classified as asymptomatic seropositive. The most common clinical syndrome secondary to CNS infection is known as HIV encephalopathy. When sufficiently disabling, HIV encephalopathy is known as AIDS dementia, and must be reported to the Centers for Disease Control as a case of AIDS. AIDS dementia is a complex of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and motor symptoms which varies widely in its presentation. In some persons, cognitive impairment predominates, manifesting in a loss of intellectual capacities such as short-term memory, information processing, and abstract thinking. When mood disturbance predominates , it may present as irritability, anxiety, depression, or mania. Behavioral complications are most often due to confusion or psychosis, and may render the patient difficult for caretakers to manage. Motor impairments include slowing, gait abnormalities , incontinence, and paralysis. AIDS dementia presents a significant challenge to the public health system. Physicians, other health providers, and policymakers must be educated so that they may tackle the problems of diagnosis, acute and chronic care, and public safety which are related to this illness.


Drug-related intimidation is a pervasive and pressing issue negatively impacting the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities and the functioning of local agencies that serve them. The aim of this evidence review is to critically appraise the national and international evidence to identify best practice, community-based responses to DRI to inform: a) DRI action points within the upcoming National Drugs Strategy, 2017–2026, and b) Drugs Task Force action plans for implementing responses to DRI in their local communities.


This paper proposes a new control approach for a robotic walking support system to adapt a user's controlling characteristic. The control approach will be implemented by changing the kinematic structure of the robotic walking support system based on a variable center of rotation. This new control approach aims to help users who have difficulties in controlling their walking support system. In this study, we have a training stage to evaluate and adapt user's controlling characteristics. This will be implemented by allowing the user to follow some training paths. In the event a large path error occurs, a learning algorithm will vary the center of rotation of the support system until the user can successfully follow the training path. The relationship between the user intent in the form of applied force/torque and the new center of rotation will be taken by considering several training paths. This relationship will be used in actual control of the robotic walking support system. Experimentation and evaluation are presented to show the validity of the proposed control algorithm


Objectives:To estimate neuropathic sign/symptom rates with initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in HIV-infected ART-naive patients, and to investigate risk factors for: peripheral neuropathy and symptomatic peripheral neuropathy (SPN), recovery from peripheral neuropathy/SPN after neurotoxic ART (nART) discontinuation, and the absence of peripheral neuropathy/SPN while on nART. Design:AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Longitudinal Linked Randomized Trial participants who initiated cART in randomized trials for ART-naive patients were annually screened for symptoms/signs of peripheral neuropathy. ART use and disease characteristics were collected longitudinally. Methods:Peripheral neuropathy was defined as at least mild loss of vibration sensation in both great toes or absent/hypoactive ankle reflexes bilaterally. SPN was defined as peripheral neuropathy and bilateral symptoms. Generalized estimating equation logistic regression was used to estimate associations. Results:Two thousand, one hundred and forty-one participants were followed from January 2000 to June 2007. Rates of peripheral neuropathy/SPN at 3 years were 32.1/8.6% despite 87.1% with HIV-1RNA 400 copies/ml or less and 70.3% with CD4 greater than 350 cells/μl. Associations with higher odds of peripheral neuropathy included older patient age and current nART use. Associations with higher odds of SPN included older patient age, nART use, and history of diabetes mellitus. Associations with lower odds of recovery after nART discontinuation included older patient age. Associations with higher odds of peripheral neuropathy while on nART included older patient age and current protease inhibitor use. Associations with higher odds of SPN while on nART included older patient age, history of diabetes, taller height, and protease inhibitor use. Conclusion:Signs of peripheral neuropathy remain despite virologic/immunologic control but frequently occurs without symptoms. Aging is a risk factor for peripheral neuropathy/SPN.


Hair shaft analysis is becoming increasingly important in several applications of forensic science. Keratin is the key component of human scalp hair and is composed of all 21 known amino acids, albeit in very different proportions. The method for the amino acid determination included protein acid hydrolysis followed by trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatization of the amino acids, and the subsequent quantitation using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The amino acid composition of scalp hair of 64 Jordanian subjects (33 males and 31 females) with ages ranging from 1 to 77 years have been analyzed. Statistical comparisons between classification groups were based on the abundance of 14 abundant and acid-resistant amino acids, and included classification of hairs with a fuzzy rule building system (FuRES). Using leave-one-individual-out cross-validation, the FuRES classification rate was 94% for sex, 83% for age group, and 61% for the region of origin. For predicting sex from amino acid concentration in hair, the essential amino acids Phe and Thr gave the most significant differences with respect to their F statistic (i.e., ratio of between-group to within-group variation), so they are the most discriminating for sex. Based on the same hair analyses, the non-essential amino acids Gly and Ala provide the largest loading scores classifying the subjects into two arbitrary age groups, 49 years. For region of origin classification, the amino acids Cys and Tyr had the highest loading scores in the classification rules and were therefore most discriminating. The techniques developed through this paper could complement the current methods of hair analysis, which include physical examinations and genomic or mitochondrial DNA analysis.


This paper considers the problem of the mixed H2/H∞ control of uncertain continuous singular systems with state time delay. We present a kind of H2/H∞ mixed controller that can minimize the H2 performance measure satisfying a prescribed H∞ norm bounded on the resulting closed-loop systems, and guarantee that the systems is regular, impulse free, and stable. The sufficient conditions for the existence of controller are presented using a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), and all solutions including controller gain and upper bound of performance measure are also obtained simultaneously. To illustrate the effectiveness of the given scheme, two numerical examples are given.


Search engines essentially rely on the structure of the graph of hyperlinks. Although accurate for the main trend, this is not effective when some query is ambiguous. Leveraging semantic information by the mean of interest matching allows proposing complementary results that are tailored to the user's expectations. This paper proposes a collaborative search companion system, CoFeed, that collects user search queries and that considers feedback to build user‐centric and document‐centric profiling information. Over time, the system constructs ranked collections of elements that maintain the required information diversity and enhance the user search experience by presenting additional results tailored to the user's interest space. This collaborative search companion requires a supporting architecture adapted to large user populations generating high request loads. To that end, it integrates mechanisms for ensuring scalability and load balancing of the service under varying loads and user interest distributions. Moreover, collecting the recommendation data poses the problem of users' privacy, and the bias one peer can induce to the system by sending fake recommendations. To that end, CoFeed ensures both publisher anonymity and rate limitation. With the former, the origin of the data is never known by the server that processes it, even if several servers collude to spy on some user. The latter, combined with decoupled authentication, allows to minimize the influence of cheating peers sending fake recommendations. Experiments with a deployed prototype highlight the efficiency of the system by analyzing improvement in search relevance, computational cost, scalability and load balancing. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The ability to construct C-N bonds is of great importance to organic chemists as exemplified by the vast number of natural products, pharmaceutical agents and fine chemicals that contain such linkages. An atom efficient C-N bond forming reaction namely hydroamination has attracted much interest to date due to its ability in forming amine, imine and enamine functionality. The scope of this project involved the attempted synthesis of a biologically active and nitrogen containing pyrrolizidine alkaloid isolated from cryptic thief ants and poison dart frogs namely 223H (xenovenine). The method of hydroamination was utilized as the pivotal ring forming step and was established as being a valuable synthetic tool towards the construction of 223H (xenovenine). The stereoselective synthesis resulted in the successful formation of ethyl (3R)-5-heptyl-3methyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrrolizine-7-carboxylate 74, a novel, and structurally analogous precursor to 223H (xenovenine) over 10 synthetic steps from (S)-pyroglutamic acid. The following research also resulted in the synthesis of two other novel compounds namely ethyl 3-[(2R)-2-methyl-5-thioxotetrahydro-1H-pyrrol-1-yl]propanoate 86 and ethyl 3{(5R)-2-[(E)-2-ethoxy-2-oxoethylidene]-5-methyltetrahydro-1H-pyrrol-1-yl}propanoate 87. A catalytic hydroamination study on the conversion of C-propargyl vinylogous amides into pyrroles demonstrated that transition metal salts of groups 11 and 12 serve as effective hydroamination catalysts. The oxide, acetate, chloride and nitrate derivatives of group 11 and 12 metals namely Cu(II), Ag(I), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) were employed as potential hydroamination catalysts in the oxidation states provided. The Zn(II) catalyst series with the exception ZnO provided the greatest hydroamination yields under mild reaction conditions owing to their high Lewis acidities however the Ag(I) and Hg(II) catalyst series also provided excellent yields of product under more forcing reaction conditions.


Awareness and Understanding of a College Active Shooter Crisis Plan by Christopher Brian Williams MEd, University of Phoenix BA, University of West Georgia Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University July 2017 Abstract Gun violence on college campuses has gained the attention of campus leaders, leading to an active shooter policy and procedure development and implementation. There was little awareness within the campus leadership of a college in the Southeast United States on the college's active shooter policy and procedures. Guided by Coomb's crisis management plan model, the purpose of this case study was to explore how information was provided to students, faculty, and staff regarding how to respond to an active shooter on campus. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 16 participants (6 students, 5 faculty, and 5 administrator/staff) who were interviewed in person. Data analysis included content analysis for the documents and open and axial coding for the interview data, followed by identification of emergent themes. The outcomes included significant variations and inconsistencies among students, faculty, and staff regarding awareness and understanding of how to respond to an active shooter crisis. Overall, students demonstrated the least awareness and understanding. Based on the findings, a project was developed consisting of recommendations to augment the current active shooter procedures and to develop a comprehensive active shooter policy. The results of the study could promote increased awareness, understanding, and preparation for students and employees of technical and community colleges regarding an active shooter policy and procedures, thus increasing safety and confidence on campus.Gun violence on college campuses has gained the attention of campus leaders, leading to an active shooter policy and procedure development and implementation. There was little awareness within the campus leadership of a college in the Southeast United States on the college's active shooter policy and procedures. Guided by Coomb's crisis management plan model, the purpose of this case study was to explore how information was provided to students, faculty, and staff regarding how to respond to an active shooter on campus. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 16 participants (6 students, 5 faculty, and 5 administrator/staff) who were interviewed in person. Data analysis included content analysis for the documents and open and axial coding for the interview data, followed by identification of emergent themes. The outcomes included significant variations and inconsistencies among students, faculty, and staff regarding awareness and understanding of how to respond to an active shooter crisis. Overall, students demonstrated the least awareness and understanding. Based on the findings, a project was developed consisting of recommendations to augment the current active shooter procedures and to develop a comprehensive active shooter policy. The results of the study could promote increased awareness, understanding, and preparation for students and employees of technical and community colleges regarding an active shooter policy and procedures, thus increasing safety and confidence on campus.


Background— Blood lead levels above 0.48 &mgr;mol/L (10 &mgr;g/dL) in adults have been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular, cancer, and all-cause mortality. The objective of the present study was to determine the association between blood lead levels below 0.48 &mgr;mol/L and mortality in the general US population. Methods and Results— Blood lead levels were measured in a nationally representative sample of 13 946 adult participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey recruited in 1988 to 1994 and followed up for up to 12 years for all-cause and cause-specific mortality. The geometric mean blood lead level in study participants was 0.12 &mgr;mol/L (2.58 &mgr;g/dL). After multivariate adjustment, the hazard ratios (95% CI) for comparisons of participants in the highest tertile of blood lead (≥0.17 &mgr;mol/L [≥3.62 &mgr;g/dL]) with those in the lowest tertile (<0.09 &mgr;mol/L [<1.94 &mgr;g/dL]) were 1.25 (1.04 to 1.51; Ptrend across tertiles=0.002) for all-cause mortality and 1.55 (1.08 to 2.24; Ptrend across tertiles=0.003) for cardiovascular mortality. Blood lead level was significantly associated with both myocardial infarction and stroke mortality, and the association was evident at levels >0.10 &mgr;mol/L (≥2 &mgr;g/dL). There was no association between blood lead and cancer mortality in this range of exposure. Conclusions— The association between blood lead levels and increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality was observed at substantially lower blood lead levels than previously reported. Despite the marked decrease in blood lead levels over the past 3 decades, environmental lead exposures remain a significant determinant of cardiovascular mortality in the general population, constituting a major public health problem.


Microstructural growth increments within the shells of numerous Recent and fossil molluscs are interpreted as reflections of alternating periods of shell deposition and dissolution, occurring during aerobic and anaerobic respiration, respectively. The acidic end products of anaerobic metabolism are neutralized by calcium carbonate from the shell, leaving a relatively insoluble organic residue at the mantle-shell interface. With the return of oxygenated conditions and resumption of aerobic respiration, this organic material is reincorporated within the shell. Inasmuch as metabolic changes are often synchronized with lunar or solar cycles (or both), we are led to the nearly paradoxical conclusion that, as a result of shell destructive processes, a relatively complete and detailed record of both short- and long-term growth is often preserved within the molluscan exoskeleton. Analyses of relationships between ambient oxygen concentrations and shell structural types may eventually prove useful, in paleoecological studies, for determination of dissolved oxygen gradients in Phanerozoic marine environments.


This study looks at the hosting of the 2014 Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup in Rio de Janeiro and, based on research drawing on environmental psychology and studies of liminality, hypothesizes that the perceived celebrative atmosphere in the city increases subjective well-being of host city residents (cariocas). Data were collected via in-person intercept surveys from 221 and 218 cariocas before and during the event, respectively. There was an increase in subjective well-being from before the event to during the event. The results of two-group path modeling revealed further that there was a positive impact of the perceived celebrative atmosphere in the host city on residents' subjective well-being during the event; the effect was weaker (though still positive) for the time period when the event was not being hosted. Initiatives may build upon the atmospheric elements in a city to increase subjective well-being of residents, particularly in the context of event hosting.


This study evaluates implementation of society empowerment program in the East Java Province. that program is called KDP (Kecamatan Development Program). It is found that PPK has hit the target, that is poor district. The target precision is measured from physical condition oh respondent house, which is connected positively with respondent income. It means that the more lower the respondent income, the more worse their house condition. At micro level, PPK through its micro credit, enables to create average additional income 10% per year for its borrower. This study observes a success of woman group in making use credit micro, and there is a strong Spearman relationship between frequency of the group meeting and the group default in credit. In the culture of rural society, many women are strongly demanded to take care of their domestic problems, so that they feel expensive to leave their house (let alone their village) for a long time. This role enables rural women to interact each other intensively within their group, so that social coordination within them could be realized. For a rural women with debt, running away from her group is more expensive than thinking seriously to pay her debt to her group.


Even though the number of Candida infections due to non-albicans species like C. parapsilosis has been increasing, little is known about their pathomechanisms. Certain aspects of C. parapsilosis and host interactions have already been investigated; however we lack information about the innate cellular responses toward this species. The aim of our project was to dissect and compare the phagocytosis of C. parapsilosis to C. albicans and to another Candida species C. glabrata by murine and human macrophages by live cell video microscopy. We broke down the phagocytic process into three stages: macrophage migration, engulfment of fungal cells and host cell killing after the uptake. Our results showed increased macrophage migration toward C. parapsilosis and we observed differences during the engulfment processes when comparing the three species. The engulfment time of C. parapsilosis was comparable to that of C. albicans regardless of the pseudohypha length and spatial orientation relative to phagocytes, while the rate of host cell killing and the overall uptake regarding C. parapsilosis showed similarities mainly with C. glabrata. Furthermore, we observed difference between human and murine phagocytes in the uptake of C. parapsilosis. UV-treatment of fungal cells had varied effects on phagocytosis dependent upon which Candida strain was used. Besides statistical analysis, live cell imaging videos showed that this species similarly to the other two also has the ability to survive in host cells via the following mechanisms: yeast replication, and pseudohypha growth inside of phagocytes, exocytosis of fungal cells and also abortion of host cell mitosis following the uptake. According to our knowledge this is the first study that provides a thorough examination of C. parapsilosis phagocytosis and reports intracellular survival mechanisms associated with this species.


Serial quantitation of BCR-ABL mRNA levels is an important indicator of therapeutic response for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but there is substantial variation in the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction methodologies used by different testing laboratories. To help improve the comparability of results between centers we sought to develop accredited reference reagents that are directly linked to the BCR-ABL international scale. After assessment of candidate cell lines, a reference material panel comprising 4 different dilution levels of freeze-dried preparations of K562 cells diluted in HL60 cells was prepared. After performance evaluation, the materials were assigned fixed percent BCR-ABL/control gene values according to the International Scale. A recommendation that the 4 materials be established as the first World Health Organization International Genetic Reference Panel for quantitation of BCR-ABL translocation by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was approved by the Expert Committee on Biological Standardization of the World Health Organization in November 2009. We consider that the development of these reagents is a significant milestone in the standardization of this clinically important test, but because they are a limited resource we suggest that their availability is restricted to manufacturers of secondary reference materials.


BACKGROUND
Ecthyma is an invasive, ulcerated skin infection. Four ecthyma outbreaks occurred in different infantry units in the Israeli Defense Force from October 2004 through February 2005. Morbidity attack rates in the first 3 outbreaks were 89% (49 of 55 soldiers), 73% (32 of 44), and 82% (37 of 45). In the fourth outbreak, in which early intervention (antimicrobial treatment and improvement of hygiene) was applied, the attack rate was 25% (10 of 40 soldiers). In the first outbreak cluster, 4 soldiers experienced poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis, and 5 cases of systemic sequelae were recorded (1 case of severe septic shock, 3 cases of pneumonia, and 1 case of septic olecranon bursitis).

METHODS
Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from ecthyma sores, oropharynx, and anterior nares of affected and unaffected soldiers involved in all 4 outbreaks.

RESULTS
Although the S. aureus isolates had different genomic profiles, >90% of S. pyogenes isolates were identified as belonging to a single clone, emm type 81, T type 8. Epidemiological investigation revealed that the hygiene levels of the soldiers and their living conditions were probably the most important cause for the difference in attack rates, wound severity, and systemic sequelae found between and within the units.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrates the possible ramifications of the combination of a virulent and highly infective S. pyogenes strain and poor living conditions, and it emphasizes the importance of early intervention in such conditions.


This report presents a national synthesis of rural expressway, two-way stop -controlled (TWSC) intersection safety strategies and intersection designs and an analysis of Iowa expressway TWSC intersection crash characteristics. A rural expressway is a multi-lane highway with a divided median and with mostly at -grade intersections, although some intersections may be grade separated. The synthesis of intersection strategies is conducted in two parts. The first is a literature review and the second part is a national survey of strategies currently being applied by state transportation agencies. The characterization of crash patterns at TWSC expressway intersections is examined through the analysis of 5 years of crash data at 644 intersections.


Background: In 2005, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) extended the duration of the internship programme to ensure that all young medical graduates are adequately prepared to work at a district hospital during their year of community service. King Edward VIII hospital (KEH) is an HPCSA accredited training hospital, which has been training interns for many years. The aim of this study was to assess intern perceptions of their training at the hospital. Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted at KEH in November 2016. A questionnaire was used to collect data, which were analysed descriptively. Results: Only 53% of interns completed the questionnaire. Although teaching and supervision were provided in all domains, perceptions of the quality ranged from excellent to poor. The majority of interns worked the 64–80 hours per month commuted overtime as required by the HPCSA. However, less than 10% expressed positive views regarding the condition of the facilities and infrastructure. Discussion and conclusions: The findings of this study were generally positive with regard to teaching, supervision and hours worked, mostly in accordance with the requirements of the HPCSA. However, a response rate of 53% as well as the single location of the study may limit generalisability and a larger study involving interns across the country is recommended.


"This paper investigates the impact of climate variability on maize yield in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa using the Generalized Maximum Entropy (GME) estimator and Maximum Entropy Leuven Estimator (MELE). Precipitation and temperature were used as proxies for climate variability, which were combined with traditional inputs variables (i.e., labor, fertilizer, seed, and irrigation). We found that the MELE fits the data better than the GME. In addition, increased precipitation, increased temperature, and irrigation have a positive impact on yield. Furthermore, results of the MELE show that the impact of precipitation on maize yield is stronger than that of temperature, meaning that the impact of climate variability on maize yield could be negative if the change increases temperature but reduces precipitation at the same rate and simultaneously. Moreover, the impact of irrigation on yield is positive but with a lower elasticity coefficient than that of precipitation, which supposes that irrigation may only partially mitigate the impact of reduced precipitation on yield. " from authors' abstract


Background: Undoubtedly regular physical activity has a crucial role in the prevention of many diseases, especially osteoporosis and also increasing mental and physical efficiency. Considering the importance of physical activity education for school age children, this study was performed to determine effect of health education on knowledge, perceptions and practice of the second grade middle schools' girl students in Isfahan related to osteoporosis preventive physical activity. Methodology: This is a quasi-experimental interventional study was conducted in Isfahan (2010). The research population encompasses 130 students that were randomly divided to groups, experimental (n = 66) and control (n = 64). The instruments for data collection were standard health belief model (HBM)-based scale and physical activity questionnaire. The standard scale was completed 3 times (before, immediately and 2 months after education) and physical activity questionnaire was completed 2 times (before and 2 months after education) by students of both groups. After pre-test, 4 educational sessions were performed in an experimental group. Finally, data collected and analysed by SPSS 16 software. Participation of individuals in this research was voluntary and with informed consent. Results: Findings showed that demographic characteristics of studied population in two groups were similar before intervention (P > 0.05). Before intervention, there were no significant differences between the scores of HBM structures in two groups (P> 0.001). After the intervention, it was observed significant differences in the levels of knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and behaviour between experimental and control groups (P < 0.001). Conclusion: According results, intervention has a positive impact on the pattern of physical activity and it can be concluded that intervention is effective in increasing/improving the knowledge, individual perceptions and practice of the students.


Abstract. Accurate multi-point monitoring systems are required to derive atmospheric measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations both for the calculation of surface fluxes with inversion transport models and for the estimation of non-turbulent components of the mass balance equation (i.e. advection and storage fluxes) at eddy covariance sites. When a single analyser is used to monitor multiple sampling points, the deployment of buffer volumes (BVs) along sampling lines can reduce the uncertainty due to the discrete temporal sampling of the signal. In order to optimize the use of buffer volumes we explored various set-ups by simulating their effect on time series of high-frequency CO2 concentration collected at three Fluxnet sites. Besides, we proposed a novel scheme to calculate half-hourly weighted arithmetic means from discrete point samples, accounting for the probabilistic fraction of the signal generated in the averaging period. Results show that the use of BVs with the new averaging scheme reduces the mean absolute error (MAE) up to 80 % compared to a set-up without BVs and up to 60 % compared to the case with BVs and a standard, non-weighted averaging scheme. The MAE of CO2 concentration measurements was observed to depend on the variability of the concentration field and on the size of BVs, which therefore have to be carefully dimensioned. The optimal volume size depends on two main features of the instrumental set-up: the number of measurement points and the time needed to sample at one point (i.e. line purging plus sampling time). A linear and consistent relationship was observed at all sites between the sampling frequency, which summarizes the two features mentioned above, and the renewal frequency associated with the volume. Ultimately, this empirical relationship can be applied to estimate the optimal volume size according to the technical specifications of the sampling system.


Respiratory diseases are common in young horses but little is known about such infections in mule foals. This study aimed to characterize Escherichia coli and Klebsiella sp. isolated from tracheal wash (TW) and fecal samples (FS) of mule foals, with or without cytological evidence of respiratory disease. Strains were analyzed against 13 antimicrobials, for presence of Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), and virulence genes. Phylogrouping and Randomic (RAPD)-PCR profiles were used to evaluate their genetic relatedness. E. coli strains from TW and FS showed greatest resistance to tetracycline, while Klebsiella strains were mainly resistant to ampicillin; multidrug resistance and ESBL production were also detected. The blaCTX gene prevailed among the E. coli isolates, while the blaSHV gene was more frequently found in K. pneumoniae. The fimH gene was detected in most of the isolates and multiple virulence factors were identified in three E. coli isolates. Most of the E. coli isolates belonged to the B1 phylogroup, but B2 strains displayed more virulence genes. The RAPD assay revealed genetic diversity among strains and was able to distinguish FS isolates from TW isolates. Knowledge of the bacteria associated with the respiratory tract of mule foals is important in the treatment of sick animals.


The elastic photoproduction of J/psi vector mesons at large values of the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy 135GeV<W_{gamma p}<305GeV is studied. The elastic photoproduction cross section sigma(W_{gamma p}) is measured as a function of W_{gamma p}. The differential cross section dsigma/dt is determined in the range |t|<=1.2GeV^2/c^2. This analysis extends the measurements of sigma(W_{gamma p}) and dsigma/dt using H1 data up to highest W_{gamma p} near the kinematic limit given by the parameters of the accelerator of approx. 318GeV.

Data for two different event topologies were collected with the H1 detector at the ep-collider HERA during the years 1999 and 2000 resulting in an integrated luminosity of 30.26pb^-1 and 26.90pb^-1 for the analysed data. The level 2 neural network trigger and the backward silicon tracker are important components of the H1 experiment which make this analysis possible.

From the W_{gamma p} dependence of the elastic cross section sigma(W_{gamma p})~W_{gamma p}^delta the parameter delta is extracted to be delta=1.17+-0.11+-0.16 for the high W_{gamma p} results of this analysis alone and delta=0.76+-0.03+-0.04 including data of the complete kinematic range of the H1 experiment. The exponential slope b of the differential cross section dsigma/dt~e^{-b|t|} is determined in the high W_{gamma p} regime: b( =180.6GeV)=(5.1+-0.3+-0.2)GeV^-2c^-2, b( =250.7GeV)=(5.4+-0.4+-0.2)GeV^-2c^-2. The intercept alpha_0 and slope alpha' of an effective pomeron trajectory are determined. The W_{gamma p} dependence of the b-slope gives alpha'_b=(0.17+-0.04+-0.01)GeV^-2c^-2. The W_{gamma p} dependence of the differential cross section dsigma/dt yields both parameters: alpha_0=1.21+-0.01+-0.01 and alpha'=(0.14+-0.03+-0.03)GeV^-2c^-2. The two determined slope parameters alpha'_b and alpha' are compatible within errors.

Different theoretical approaches are compared to the data. The single pomeron model based on Regge theory does not describe the strong rise of sigma(W_{gamma p}) as a function of W_{gamma p}. The two pomeron model is able to describe the W_{gamma p} dependence of the cross section sigma(W_{gamma p}) within the kinematic regime of HERA, but is not able to describe the combined results of HERA and of fixed target experiments at low values of W_{gamma p}.

QCD predictions using different parameterisations of the gluon distribution in the proton are also compared to the measured cross section sigma(W_{gamma p}). The predictions show a strong dependence on the gluon distribution, since the gluon distribution enters the cross section quadratically. The comparison to the measured cross section sigma(W_{gamma p}) is therefore a sensitive test for the gluon distributions, which are determined in an indirect way from inclusive measurements. While some of these analyses result in gluon distributions consistent with the J/psi measurements presented here, others can definitely be excluded.


In this paper, we investigate the performance of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) with incremental redundancy (IR) and with code combining (CC) from an information-theoretic perspective over a point-to-point free-space optical (FSO) system. First, we introduce new closed-form expressions for the probability density function, the cumulative distribution function, the moment generating function, and the moments of an FSO link modeled by the Gamma fading channel subject to pointing errors and using intensity modulation with direct detection technique at the receiver. Based on these formulas, we derive exact results for the average bit error rate and the capacity in terms of Meijer's G functions. Moreover, we present asymptotic expressions by utilizing the Meijer's G function expansion and using the moments method, too, for the ergodic capacity approximations. Then, we provide novel analytical expressions for the outage probability, the average number of transmissions, and the average transmission rate for HARQ with IR, assuming a maximum number of rounds for the HARQ protocol. Besides, we offer asymptotic expressions for these results in terms of simple elementary functions. Additionally, we compare the performance of HARQ with IR and HARQ with CC. Our analysis demonstrates that HARQ with IR outperforms HARQ with CC.


Background— Ras signaling regulates a number of important processes in the heart, including cell growth and hypertrophy. Although it is known that defective Ras signaling is associated with Noonan, Costello, and other syndromes that are characterized by tumor formation and cardiac hypertrophy, little is known about factors that may control it. Here we investigate the role of Ras effector Ras-association domain family 1 isoform A (RASSF1A) in regulating myocardial hypertrophy. Methods and Results— A significant downregulation of RASSF1A expression was observed in hypertrophic mouse hearts, as well as in failing human hearts. To further investigate the role of RASSF1A in cardiac (patho)physiology, we used RASSF1A knock-out (RASSF1A−/−) mice and neonatal rat cardiomyocytes with adenoviral overexpression of RASSF1A. Ablation of RASSF1A in mice significantly enhanced the hypertrophic response to transverse aortic constriction (64.2% increase in heart weight/body weight ratio in RASSF1A−/− mice compared with 32.4% in wild type). Consistent with the in vivo data, overexpression of RASSF1A in cardiomyocytes markedly reduced the cellular hypertrophic response to phenylephrine stimulation. Analysis of molecular signaling events in isolated cardiomyocytes indicated that RASSF1A inhibited extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 activation, likely by blocking the binding of Raf1 to active Ras. Conclusions— Our data establish RASSF1A as a novel inhibitor of cardiac hypertrophy by modulating the extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 pathway.


In the function computation problem, certain nodes of an undirected graph have access to independent data, while some other nodes of the graph require certain functions of the data; this model, motivated by sensor networks and cloud computing, is the focus of this paper. We study the maximum rates at which function computation is possible on a capacitated graph; the capacities on the edges of the graph impose constraints on the communication rate. We consider a simple class of computation strategies based on Steiner-tree packing (so-called computation trees), which does not involve block coding and has minimal delay. With a single terminal requiring function computation, computation trees are known to be optimal when the underlying graph is itself a directed tree, but have arbitrarily poor performance in general directed graphs. Our main result is that computation trees are near optimal for a wide class of function computation requirements even at multiple terminals in undirected graphs. The key technical contribution involves connecting approximation algorithms for Steiner cuts in undirected graphs to the function computation problem. Furthermore, we show that existing algorithms for Steiner tree packings allow us to compute approximately optimal packings of computation trees in polynomial time. We also show a close connection between the function computation problem and a communication problem involving multiple multicasts.


Introduction. Labor market is a major component of any economy and is intricately tied in with markets for capital, goods and services. At a time of immense challenges to sustainable development, employment, unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, gender inequalities are major concerns and key challenges.
Purpose. The article aims is to research the national peculiarities and tendencies of the labor market and determine the directions of the state policy of Ukraine for regulating the asymmetries of its development on the basis of foreign countries experience.
Method (methodology): the methods of structural and logical analysis were used to implement theoretical generalizations and formulation of mechanisms for regulating them in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; the methods of detailing and synthesis were used to study the employment, unemployment, wages, and labor migration. The statistical methods were used to study the labor market asymmetries and the trends of labor market.
Results. The actual trends of development of labor market have been investigated. There are a number of problems that affect the efficiency of state policy and achieving the Global goals of sustainable development. These are problems such as employment opportunities, especially for young people; inequalities across regions, age groups and genders; informal employment; labor migration.
Particular importance is attached to core indicators for reporting on contribution towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals as annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person; proportion of informal employment, by sex; average hourly earnings of female and male employees, by occupation, age and persons with disabilities; unemployment rate, by sex, age and persons with disabilities; proportion of youth (aged 15-24 years) not in education, employment or training.
The mechanisms of regulation of asymmetries of development of labor market in Ukraine are proposed. For example, labor market reform and revision of labor law; investing in education; development of cognitive and social skills; job creation, cooperation of all parties of social-labor relations and others.


In networking research, the simulation is often the single way to overcome the lack of equipment needed for laboratory setup of complex experimental topologies, with diverse traffic pattern scenarios. Even for simpler topologies and traffic scenarios, the simulation remains attractive due to the available facilities on data collection, graphics generation and step by step analysis of different protocol machines.

Inter-domain multicast scenarios, where heterogeneous QoS requirements should be considered, is a particular example where both complexity and resources availability justify the use of simulation.

This paper reports the experience gained by the usage of simulation tools in multicast routing with QoS. It is not focused on the real simulation results reported but on the process used to obtain them. NS-2 has been used as the base of this work.


There are a plethora of evaluation methods that aid the selection and assess the impact of IS. Whilst they have merit individually they are incongruent when viewed holistically and can be seen as micro tools that are not sufficiently related to macro organisational characteristics. It is particularly important to relate these evaluation methods to business context when strategically assessing IT, as an incorrect or a poorly related set of methods may hinder rather than enable an organisation. This paper seeks to relate the prevalent categories of evaluation methods, and the many types of evaluation within those, to the business context of product and resourced based organisations. The resultant framework shows evaluation methods for IT projects, e-business and IT infrastructure directly related to business strategy and IT management practices.


Patient: Female, 49 Final Diagnosis: Essential thrombocythemia with CML Symptoms: Decreased appetite • fatigue • weight loss Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Hematology Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is one of the BCR-ABL gene fusion negative chronic myeloproliferative disorders (MPDs), which also include polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis. Few clinical cases have reported the progression of ET to chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) with the expression of the BCR-ABL gene. This report describes such a case and includes a review of other reported cases of CML co-occurring with BCR-ABL-negative chronic MPDs. Case Report: A 49-year-old woman was diagnosed with ET in 2007. Cytogenetic testing was negative for expression of the JAK2 or BCR-ABL1 genes. Eight years later, in January 2015, she presented with excessive fatigue, poor appetite, unintentional weight loss, a white blood cell (WBC) count of 24,700 per mL, hemoglobin of 9.9 g/dl, and a platelet count of 557,000 per mL, with blasts and basophils in the blood film. Cytogenetic analysis with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) confirmed a 9: 22 chromosomal translocation (Philadelphia chromosome), and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) detected the expression of the BCRABL gene, confirming a diagnosis of CML. In February 2015, first-line therapy commenced with nilotinib, which was changed to imatinib after three months. During the following nine months, qRT-PCR confirmed a trend to deep molecular remission (MR5). However, she developed early myelofibrosis, and myelosuppressive therapy was resumed. Conclusions: This rare case highlights the importance of cytogenetic testing in cases of CMPD that transform to CML, not only to confirm the diagnosis but to plan treatment, as Philadelphia chromosome-positive and -negative cases differ in their management.


This paper describes how a conventional Pulfrich refractometer can be modified for use with laser light sources for the precise determination of the refractive index of liquids. Measurements carried out on water, several organic liquids, and KCI solutions are reported. The performance as a differential refractometer in view of determinations of specific refractive-index increments (∂n/∂c) at laser wavelengths is also presented.


In this paper, we propose a long-term motion model for visual object tracking. In crowded street scenes, persistent occlusions are a frequent challenge for tracking algorithm and a robust, long-term motion model could help in these situations. Motivated by progresses in robot motion planning, we propose to construct a set of 'plausible' plans for each person, which are composed of multiple long-term motion prediction hypotheses that do not include redundancies, unnecessary loops or collisions with other objects. Constructing plausible plan is the key step in utilizing motion planning in object tracking, which has not been fully investigate in robot motion planning. We propose a novel method of efficiently constructing disjoint plans in different homotopy classes, based on winding numbers and winding angles of planned paths around all obstacles. As the goals can be specified by winding numbers and winding angles, we can avoid redundant plans in the same homotopy class and multiple whirls or loops around a single obstacle. We test our algorithm on a challenging, real-world dataset, and compare our algorithm with Linear Trajectory Avoidance and a simplified linear planning model. We find that our algorithm outperforms both algorithms in most sequences.


Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach integrating insights from conversation analysis, narrative analysis, and narratology, this book theorizes teaching around narrative prose in each level of education, with a focus on a new framework of Pedagogic Literary Narration which emphasizes the practice of shared novel reading and the importance of the role of the teacher in mediating this practice. With insights taken from a comprehensive set of transcripts taken from actual classrooms, the volume focuses on the convention in native-tongue literary study in which teachers and students read a novel shared over lessons, combining periods of reading aloud with those of questioning and discussion. In so doing, Gordon seeks to extend existing methodologies from literary and social science research toward informing teaching practice in literary pedagogy and address the need for a theorization of literary pedagogy which considers the interrelationship between text-in-print and text-through-talk. Transcripts are supported with comprehensive analyses to help further explicate the research methodology and provide guidance on implementing it in the classroom. This book is a valuable resource for scholars in language and education, literary studies, narrative inquiry, and education research.


We report on the first demonstration of a diode-pumped, gas cooled, cryogenic multislab Yb:YAG amplifier. The performance was characterized over a temperature range from 88 to 175 K. A maximum small-signal single-pass longitudinal gain of 11.0 was measured at 88 K. When amplifying nanosecond pulses, recorded output energies were 10.1 J at 1 Hz in a four-pass extraction geometry and 6.4 J at 10 Hz in a three-pass setup, corresponding to optical to optical conversion efficiencies of 21% and 16%, respectively. To our knowledge, this represents the highest pulse energy so far obtained from a cryo-cooled Yb-laser and the highest efficiency from a multijoule diode pumped solid-state laser system.


Amongst film audiences in Thailand, there is a group that follows the new releases enthusiastically. They watch many films in the course of a week and do not only focus on films in the cinema but also search for places to watch alternative movies. Forming in the 1970s, these people are now known as "Thai Cinephiles". They started off as regular audiences at screening events before becoming film critics, programmers and curators. This practice significantly expands the awareness of alternative cinema in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand. This paper traces the activities of Thai cinephiles from the late of 1970s when they first met each other at cultural institutions that screened alternative cinema, to the 1990s when conversations evolved around video shops and film festivals at shopping malls. The age of digital also saw Thai cinephiles took into writing, promoting and creating diverse content across various platforms from blogs, message boards to Facebook. Their practice/activism across different generations shared through interviews reveals the principle of sharing the good stuff they found and building new generation of directors and audiences. This historiography provides an alternative history on Thai film culture that bridges existing writings on the Thai new waves and limited research in the Thai language on audience motivations and cinema going.


Efpeglenatide (efpeg), a long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist in development for type 2 diabetes, induces weight loss through satiety and reduced food intake. Studies in Sprague Dawley rats investigated how peripheral and central mechanisms contribute to the anorectic effects of efpeg. Tissue distribution of efpeg was assessed by whole-body autoradioluminography with 14 C-efpeg. The contribution of vagal nerve signaling to food intake control was assessed in vagotomized rats treated with exenatide (0.15 or 0.45 nmol/kg twice daily) or efpeg (0.71 or 2.1 nmol/kg every 2 days). Pharmacokinetic parameters and mean radioactivity of 14 C-efpeg in selected organs/tissues are shown in Figure. Peak concentration (C max ) of 14 C-efpeg was highest in the kidney cortex; C max at all other sites was similar to/lower than in blood, relatively high in the intestine and pituitary, with below-quantifiable levels in the cerebellum/cerebrum. Inhibition of food intake was not attenuated in vagotomized vs. sham-operated rats at higher doses of efpeg (3-day cumulative intake: 47.4 vs. 49.4 g) or exenatide (54.9 vs. 60.7 g), suggesting a non-vagal mechanism for these anorectic effects. These findings suggest that central mechanisms are involved in the anorectic effects of efpeg in this animal model; potential cell-signaling effects of efpeg in the intestine and pituitary need to be investigated further. Disclosure Y. Park: Employee; Self; Hanmi Pharmaceutical. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Hanmi Pharmaceutical. I. Choi: Employee; Self; Hanmi Pharmaceutical. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Hanmi Pharmaceutical. M.E. Trautmann: Consultant; Self; ProSciento. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. Consultant; Self; Hanmi Pharmaceutical, CeQur Corporation, Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc., Servier. M. Hompesch: Other Relationship; Self; Hanmi Pharmaceutical. C.H. Sorli: Employee; Self; Sanofi.


Dendritic or branching structures are commonly seen in natural phenomena such as lightning, cracking and vegetal growth. They are also often used for artistic or decorative purposes, ranging from ornamentation to decorative ceramics. Existing procedural methods for modeling these structures remain very limited in terms of control and flexibility. As a result, these objects tend to be modeled individually, which is a painstaking and costly process. We present a new procedural method for modeling dendritic structures based on a path planning approach. Our method includes the implementation of a partial non-scalar distance metric that gives us effective and flexible control handles over the evolving dendritic structure. These control handles are demonstrated by guiding the growth of dendritic structures using input images, allowing us to create a form of stylistic dendritic halftoning and to embed hidden images in dendritic trees to create pareidolia effects. These applications demonstrate the vast diversity of structures that can easily be modeled by our process – a flexibility that existing methods definitely lack. We also demonstrate the application of the partial non-scalar distance metric to the context of texture synthesis from example, and show how it holds promise for many other contexts.


The aim of this note is to attract attention of the quantum foundational community to the fact that in Bell's arguments one can not distinguish two hypotheses: a) quantum mechanics is {\it nonlocal}, b) quantum mechanics is {\it nonergodic.} Therefore experimental violations of Bell's inequality can be as well interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that stochastic processes induced by quantum measurements are nonergodic. The latter hypothesis was discussed actively by Buonomano since 1980th. However, in contrast to Bell's hypothesis on nonlocality it did not attract so much attention. The only experiment testing the hypothesis on nonergodicity was performed in neutron interferometry (by Summhammer, in 1989). This experiment can be considered as rejecting this hypothesis. However, it cannot be considered as a decisive experiment. New experiments are badly needed. We point out that a nonergodic model can be realistic, i.e., the distribution of hidden (local!) variables is well defined. We also discuss coupling of violation of the Bell inequality with violation of the condition of weak mixing for ergodic dynamical systems.