Low wall shear stress (WSS) is commonly implicated in endothelial dysfunction and atherogenesis. The accumulation of macromolecules is also considered as an important factor contributing to the development of atherosclerosis. In the present study a fluid-wall model, incorporating shear-dependent endothelial transport properties, was developed and used to study the transport of albumin from blood to and within the wall in a realistic human right coronary artery (RCA). Numerical simulations were performed at both steady and pulsatile flow conditions, and results were compared to evaluate the effect of flow pulsatility.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Objective. To assess the effect of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 6 (PCSK6) in the synovial fibroblasts of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). PCSK6 is a proteinase implicated in the proteolytic activity of various precursor proteins and involved in the regulation of protein maturation. Methods. PCSK6 expression was detected in the synovial tissue of 10 patients with RA, 10 controls with osteoarthritis, and 10 controls with ankylosing spondylitis using Western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR. Genotyping of 67 tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) was performed using an Illumina VeraCode (Illumina) microarray in a case-control study including 267 patients with RA and 160 healthy controls. Genotyping of 4 other tag SNP was performed using a TaqMan probe genotyping assay in 1056 healthy controls and 1151 patients with RA. Cultured RA synovial fibroblasts (RASF) were transfected with PCSK6 small interfering RNA to study changes in the proliferation, invasion, migration capacity, secretion of inflammatory cytokines, cell cycle, and expression profiles of the RASF. Results. Expression of PCSK6 mRNA and protein was significantly higher in the synovial tissues of individuals with RA than in control tissues. One SNP, rs8029797, was significantly associated with RA (p = 0.011). Knockdown of PCSK6 by RNA interference significantly decreased proliferation, invasion, and migration of RASF. These changes in RASF appeared to be related to reduced tumor necrosis factor-α secretion, G0/G1 arrest, and altered expression of various proteins including those involved in angiogenesis (matrix metalloproteinase 9, nitric oxide synthase trafficking), hypoxia (hypoxia-inducible factor-α, thioredoxin domain containing 5), proliferation (chromosome 10 open reading frame 116), and inflammation [CCL7, chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9, interleukin 26]. Conclusion. PCSK6 is upregulated in the synovial tissues of patients with RA and has a genetic effect on the risk of RA. Inhibition of PCSK6 may play a protective role in the development of RA.


A search for resonant diboson production using a data sample corresponding to 4.7 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV is presented. The search for a narrow resonance in the WW or WZ mass distribution is conducted in a final state with an electron or a muon, missing transverse momentum, and at least two jets. No significant excess is observed and limits are set using three benchmark models: WW resonance masses below 940 and 710 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for spin-2 Randall-Sundrum and bulk Randall-Sundrum gravitons, respectively; WZ resonance masses below 950 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a spin-1 extended gauge model W' boson.


UFO Robo Grendizer, a Japanese anime character produced in 1975, was immensely popular in Arab countries. Adapted into Arabic in Lebanon as it was enduring a devastating civil war, the program was broadcasted in 1979, then during the 1980s across many Arab audiences (mainly Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf). The cartoon's narrative of alien invasion and heroic resistance, using cutting-edge technology in the form of Grendizer the super-robot, mirrored the harsh reality of war and occupation that so many Arab populations endured during the same period. This paper aims at uncovering why Grendizer struck such a profound echo in the minds and hearts of the generation of children who found in the character a super hero figure as an escape route to their world's problems. It will also address the impact of this Japanese cultural reference onto Arabic audiences and highlight how the cartoon came to be domesticated for an Arab context, thus leaving its original universe and encompass the mindset, reflections and expectations of many Arab generations.


We describe an open source GPU implementation of a hybrid symplectic N-body integrator, GENGA (Gravitational ENcounters with Gpu Acceleration), designed to integrate planet and planetesimal dynamics in the late stage of planet formation and stability analyses of planetary systems. GENGA uses a hybrid symplectic integrator to handle close encounters with very good energy conservation, which is essential in long-term planetary system integration. We extended the second-order hybrid integration scheme to higher orders. The GENGA code supports three simulation modes: integration of up to 2048 massive bodies, integration with up to a million test particles, or parallel integration of a large number of individual planetary systems. We compare the results of GENGA to Mercury and pkdgrav2 in terms of energy conservation and performance and find that the energy conservation of GENGA is comparable to Mercury and around two orders of magnitude better than pkdgrav2. GENGA runs up to 30 times faster than Mercury and up to 8 times faster than pkdgrav2. GENGA is written in CUDA C and runs on all NVIDIA GPUs with a computing capability of at least 2.0.


The design of a good representation scheme is an important step towards facilitating the construction of casebased reasoners. The paper presents a design case representation scheme based on a conceptual CBR model for architectural design re-use, and discusses relevant lessons from case representation in other CBR models. The model presented decomposes a house design, and uses relative room positioning, co-ordinates and orientation to represent the basic spaces within the house. The author considers cases stored as memory of the design field. These cases are treated with a retrieval process (selection and adaptation) from the memory. The originality of this process is in the dynamic cycle of selection and adaptation. This paper uses the conceptual model to introduce and present a process of the dynamic cycle of selection and adaptation of design cases.


An essential resource for practitioners in infectious diseases and microbiology, studying for the new FRCPath Part 1 infection examination accredited by the Royal College of Pathologists, and trainees sitting the membership exams of the Royal College of Physicians. Including over 300 multiple choice questions in an exam-style Q&A format, this guide provides an invaluable revision platform for domestic and international trainees alike, with scope to present infection-based support for other medical specialties, where infection forms a core component, including intensive care. Authored by leading specialists in infectious diseases and microbiology, this invaluable training guide is the first of its kind to cover both undergraduate and postgraduate material in infectious diseases. Mapping directly from the FRCPath and RCP infection curricula, students are able to explore areas of curriculum to gain knowledge and optimise decision-making skills, under pressure.


Background/Aims In some cases, chronic diarrhea is unexplained, and small bowel disorders may be one of the causes. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic yield and clinical impact of video capsule endoscopy (VCE) in patients with chronic diarrhea. Methods We retrospectively analyzed records from October 2002 to August 2013 in the VCE nationwide database registry (n=2,964). Ninety-one patients from 15 medical centers (60 males and 31 females; mean age, 47±19 years) were evaluated for VCE as a result of chronic diarrhea. Results The duration of chronic diarrhea was 8.3±14.7 months. The positive diagnostic yield of VCE was 42.9% (39/91). However, 15.4% (14/91) exhibited an inconsistent result, and 41.8% (38/91) were negative. Abnormal findings consistent with chronic diarrhea included erosions/aphthous ulcers (19.8%), ulcers (17.6%), mucosal erythema (3.3%), edema (1.1%), and luminal narrowing (1.1%). The most common diagnoses were functional diarrhea associated with irritable bowel syndrome in 37 patients (40.7%) and Crohn's disease in 18 patients (19.8%). After VCE examination, the diagnosis was changed in 34.1% of the patients (31/91). Hematochezia (odds ratio [OR], 8.802; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.126 to 36.441) and hypoalbuminemia (OR, 4.811; 95% CI, 1.241 to 18.655) are predictive factors of a positive diagnostic yield. Conclusions VCE had a favorable diagnostic yield and clinical impact on the management of patients with chronic diarrhea.


Recent declines in biodiversity have increased interest in the link between biodiversity and the provision and sustainability of ecosystem services across space and time. We mapped the complex network of interactions between herbivores and parasitoids to examine the relationship between parasitoid species richness, functional group diversity and the provision of natural pest control services. Quantitative food webs were constructed for 10 organic and 10 conventional farms. Parasitoid species richness varied from 26 to 58 species and we found a significant positive relationship between parasitoid species richness and temporal stability in parasitism rates. Higher species richness was associated with lower variation in parasitism rate. A functional group analysis showed significantly greater parasitoid species complementarity on organic farms, with on average more species in each functional group. We simulated parasitoid removal to predict whether organic farms experienced greater robustness of parasitism in the face of local extinctions. This analysis showed no consistent differences between the organic and conventional farm pairs in terms of loss of pest control service. Finally, it was found that the different habitats that make up each farm do not contribute equally to parasitoid species diversity, and that hedgerows produced more parasitoid species, significantly more so on organic farms.


The paper examines 1832 papers in Indian mouth cancer, as covered in Scopus database during 2003-2012, experiencing an annual average growth rate of 14.37% and citation impact of 4.51. The world mouth cancer output (37,049 papers) came from several countries, of which the top 10 (United States, Japan, UK, Germany, India, China, etc.) accounts for 75.59% share of the global output during 2003-2012. In terms of relative citation index (RCI), only five countries registered the value above 1: France (1.74), USA (1.33), Germany (1.21), UK (1.16) and Italy (1.06). India′s global publication share was 4.94% and hold 7 th rank in global publication output during 2003-2012. India′s accounts for 2.29% share and 9 th rank in global citations output. Its average citation per paper and RCI was 4.51 and o. 46 and hold 10 th rank among top 10 countries in both of them. The Indian mouth cancer output came from several organizations and authors, of which the top 15 contributed 43.39% and 21.89% share, respectively during 2003-2012. India′s international collaborative share in mouth cancer was 14.85%, which decreased from 15.34% during 2003-2007 to 14.70% during 2008-2012. Medicine accounted for the largest share (73.96%) of output in mouth cancer, followed by biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (30.08% share), dentistry (17.36% share), pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics (12.34% share), chemistry (2.73% share), immunology and microbiology (1.42% share) and health profession (1.09% share). Diagnosis, surgery, pathology and radiotherapy together account for 53.71% publications share among treatments methods used in Indian mouth cancer research during 2003-2012. Tongue, slavery gland, buccal mucosa and gingival reported the largest number of papers by cancer site with publications share of 12.17%, 9.28%, 8.79%, and 6.28% respectively during 2003-2012. Only four states, namely Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Tamil Nadu together contributed 61.74% share in Indian publications output in mouth cancer during 2003-2012. The medical colleges contributed the highest publications share (36.68%) to Indian publications in mouth cancer during 2003-2012, followed by hospitals (19.81%), universities (18.45%), research institutes (12.66%), institutes of national importance (11.74%, industrial units (0.49%), etc., during 2003-2012.


Obstructive jaundice is not uncommon in this area certainly with what is reported in the literature, malignant jaundice is more common than choledocholithiasis. The pre-operative management followed the international guidelines; most of the surgery done to the malignant jaundice was palliative because of the late presentation. Endoscopic service in management of obstructive jaundice is important and shall be utelized after completion of the new GIT Centre-Wad Medani Hospital. This study was a prospective cross sectional descriptive study, conducted in Wad Medani hospital - Gezira state – Sudan from March 2014 to March 2015. Wad Medani Teaching Hospital is a tertiary hospital with 600 beds serving all Gezira state and nearby states Material and Method: 124 patients admitted to hospital with symptoms and signs of obstructive jaundice including; yellow coloration of the sclera, dark urine,pale stools, itching, with or without the association of vomiting, abdominal pain, abdominal mass and weight loss. Diagnosis was confirmed by history, examination and biochemical and radiological investigations.The data was analyzed by computer using SSPS. Results: 52(41.9%) were males and72 (51.8%) were females, with male to female ratio of 1:1.3. The cases of obstructive jaundice were found to be distributed among their age groups from 18-40yr (15.3%),41-60yr(31.5%) , 60yr and above (53.2%). Definitive diagnosis after completion of investigations results showed that cases due to common bile duct (CBD) stone and carcinoma of the head of pancrease were 55 (44.4%) and 52 (41.9%) respectively. The relation between the diagnosis and sex results showed CBD stone in females was 37(51.4%) where as in males  carcinoma of the head of pancrease was 25(48.11%), ERCP was used in 67(54%) patients both for diagnostic and therapeutic indications. The operative intervention was also studied for all patients with obstructive jaundice and the results showed that 48(38.7%) patients underwent surgical intervention with 7(5.6%) CBD exploration and 41(33.1%) by pass surgical operation. Conclusion: ERCP has a promising role in the study area in managing patients with obstructive jaundice. The family physicians   have an important role to play in early detection and referral of patients with obstructive jaundice to hospitals to avoid delayed presentation and minimize the harmful effects of hyper bilirubinemia on the   liver so the step should start with how to detect the case and after that what to do for the case before referral to nearby hospital.


Aim: To determine if there is a relationship between the amount of increase in IOP following dilatation with a cycloplegic agent and the future course of glaucoma. Method: A retrospective chart review of 100 eyes from 55 subjects with open-angle glaucoma who had had IOP measured before and after pharmacological pupillary dilatation was performed to establish the rate of progression of glaucoma, based on serial evaluation of the visual fields using the glaucoma staging system 2 (GSS 2), and optic discs using the disc damage likelihood scale (DDLS). Progressive visual field loss was defined as an increase of two or more stages with the GSS 2 and progressive deterioration of the disc was defined as an increase of two or more stages with the DDLS. Mean follow-up time was 7.2 years. Results: A total of 26 eyes showed glaucomatous progression. The likelihood of progression of glaucoma was related to the amount of IOP increase after pharmacological pupillary dilatation. For every 1 mmHg increase in IOP, the odds of progression increased 24% (p = 0.008). The likelihood of progression of glaucoma, however, was not related to the baseline IOP, which was 20.63 mmHg (SD = 4.59 mmHg) in those showing deterioration of disc or field and 19.72 mmHg (SD = 5.32 mmHg) in those not worsening according to our definition. Conclusion: In patients with open-angle glaucoma, the amount of increase in IOP caused by pharmacological pupillary dilatation is related to the likelihood of future progression of glaucoma.


The cost of textbooks has continued to impact students in higher education. Students have reported that they make decisions on which courses to take based on the specific cost of textbooks. Faculty have reported willingness to use open textbooks to help ease the burden on students but are unsure where to find viable options. We examined the responses of 676 students and 573 faculty from a large private university (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah) to understand the real impact of textbooks costs to students and how they are dealing with this ongoing problem. We found that 66% of students at this institution have not purchased a textbook due to cost. We also discovered that 91% of faculty at this institution would be willing to use OER alternatives and that 53% of them would welcome assistance identifying and adapting materials for their course.


This study investigated whether aerobic capacity (AC) in tethered swimming corresponds to maximal lactate steady state (MLSS) and its correlation with 30 min (V30) and 400m (V400) free swimming velocity. Twenty-five swimmers were submitted to an incremental tethered swimming test (ITS) with each stage lasting 3 minutes, initial load 20N, with 10N increments and a 30s interval to collect blood samples and lactatemia ([La-]). The abrupt increase in [La-] against force (F) corresponded to AC (ACBI). The points obtained for [La-] against force (N) were adjusted with an exponential curve model to determine AC corresponding to 3.5mmol.l-1 (AC3.5) and 4.0mmol.l-1 (AC4.0). Later swimmers performed maximum exercise for 30 minutes (V30) and 400m (V400) in free swimming. After one week, nine swimmers performed three random 30 minute tethered swimming exercises with 90%, 100%, and 110% intensity ACBI MLSS. Comparisons between ACs (AC3.5, AC4.0, and ACBI) were made by the one-way Anova test. Pearson correlation was used for possible correlations between ACs and between ACs and V30 and V400 (p 0.91) and V400 (r>0.63). We can conclude that ACBI corresponds to MLSS and both individually determined. AC and from the fixed lactate concentrations (3.5 and 4mM) can be used to predict mean 30 minute and 400m free swimming velocity.


Aim/Purpose: To examine how positive/negative message framing – based on peripheral cues (regarding popularity, source, visuals, and hyperlink) – affects perceptions of credibility of scientific information posted on social networking sites (in this case, Facebook), while exploring the mechanisms of viewing the different components.

Background: Credibility assessment of information is a key skill in today's information society. However, it is a demanding cognitive task, which is impossible to perform for every piece of online information. Additionally, message framing — that is, the context and approach used to construct information— may impact perceptions of credibility. In practice, people rely on various cues and cognitive heuristics to determine whether they think a piece of content is true or not. In social networking sites, content is usually enriched by additional information (e.g., popularity), which may impact the users' perceived credibility of the content.

Methodology: A quantitative controlled experiment was designed (N=19 undergraduate students), collecting fine grained data with an eye tracking camera, while analyzing it using transition graphs.

Contribution: The findings on the mechanisms of that process, enabled by the use of eye tracking data, point to the different roles of specific peripheral cues, when the message is overall peripherally positive or negative. It also contributes to the theoretical literature on framing effects in science communication, as it highlights the peripheral cues that make a strong frame.

Findings: The positively framed status was perceived, as expected from the Elaboration Likelihood Model, more credible than the negatively framed status, demonstrating the effects of the visual framing. Differences in participants' mechanisms of assessing credibility between the two scenarios were evident in the specific ways the participants examined the various status components.

Recommendations for Practitioners: As part of digital literacy education, major focus should be given to the role of peripheral cues on credibility assessment in social networking sites. Educators should emphasize the mechanisms by which these cues interact with message framing, so Internet users would be encouraged to reflect upon their own credibility assessment skills, and eventually improve them.

Recommendation for Researchers: The use of eye tracking data may help in collecting and analyzing fine grained data on credibility assessment processes, and on Internet behavior at large. The data shown here may shed new light on previously studied phenomena, enabling a more nuanced understanding of them.

Impact on Society: In an era when Internet users are flooded with information that can be created by virtually anyone, credibility assessment skills have become ever more important, hence the prominence of this skill. Improving citizens' assessment of information credibility — to which we believe this study contributes — results on a greater impact on society.

Future Research: The role of peripheral cues and of message framing should be studied in other contexts (not just scientific news) and in other platforms. Additional peripheral cues not tested here should be also taken into consideration (e.g., connections between the information consumer and the information sharer, or the type of the leading image).


ERISA: Fiduciary Decisions in ERISA Subject to Abuse of Discretion Review-- Booth v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.1-The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that abuse of discretion, not arbitrary and capricious, was the appropriate standard of review for a fiduciary's discretionary decision of an employee welfare benefit plan regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).2 The court clarified the abuse of discretion standard by articulating relevant factors to be considered in determining whether a fiduciary had abused its discretion.3 Barbara Booth, an employee of Wal-Mart Stores, enrolled in its self-funded employee benefit plan (the Plan). Four months after subscribing to the Plan, she sought reimbursement for a coronary angioplasty and related medical treatment. Booth's claims were denied under the pre-existing condition exclusion because of evidence of coronary heart disease. Booth appealed the decision to the Plan's Administrative Committee. After a review of Booth's file, which included statements by Booth's physicians as well as medical reviews by two physicians selected by Plan administrators, the Administrative Committee denied reimbursement of the benefits at issue. Booth brought this action in Virginia state court to recover benefits under section 502(a)(1)(B) of ERISA. Wal-Mart removed the case to federal court. At a bench trial, the district court held that the Plan had abused its discretion by denying Booth's claims, and remanded to the Plan's Administrative Committee for reconsideration.4 On appeal, the Fourth Circuit noted that there was ambiguity within the circuit as to whether the appropriate standard of review for a fiduciary's discretionary decision was arbitrary and capricious or abuse of discretion.5 The court recognized that the arbitrary and capricious standard was more deferential to the fiduciary than the abuse of discretion standard. The court held that, under ERISA, abuse of discretion was the appropriate standard of review for a discretionary decision by a plan or adminstrator.6 The court stated that under the abuse of discretion standard, a court should not disturb a fiduciary's discretionary decision provided it is reasonable.7 The Fourth Circuit articulated eight factors that a court may consider, but is not limited to, in determining the reasonableness of a decision: (1) the language of the plan; (2) the purposes and goals of the plan; (3) the adequacy of the materials considered to make the decision and the degree to which they support it; (4) whether the fiduciary's interpretation was consistent with other provisions in the plan and with earlier interpretations of the plan; (5) whether the decision-making process was reasonable and principled; (6) whether the decision was consistent with the procedural and substantive requirements of ERISA; (7) any external standard relevant to the exercise of discretion; and (8) the fiduciary's motives and any conflict of interest it may have. …


This work describes the characterization of a PTR-ToF-MS and results from laboratory
experiments as well as in-situ measurements of VOC during a field campaign.
Initially, the fragmentation of organic compounds in the drift tube of the instrument
was investigated. Organic compounds of different classes were analysed to determine the
different fragments and their ratios. Some typical fragment patterns were confirmed such
as the loss of H 2 O from aldehydes, a fragment of mass 81 for monoterpenes, protonated
benzene as a fragment from substituted aromatics and NH 4 + for some amines.
A signal of the same mass as protonated toluene was identified as a fragment from monoterpenes.
The consideration of the fragmentation for the analysis of all following measurements is
described step by step.
The relative transmission for protonated analytes depending on the mass was determined
by measuring two gas standards covering the mass range from 33 to 181. Several
correction terms were included. The investigations showed that the temperature of the
gas standard influences the steepness of the transmission curve while the relative humidity
of the sample does not.
For each compound (methanol, acetaldehyde, acetone/propanal, toluene, ethylbenzene/
xylene, pinene) the best conditions to determine the normalized sensitivity were
defined and long-term measurements showed a good overall stability. Under laboratory
conditions the lower limit of detection ranged from 8 pptV for ethylbenzene/xylene to
180 pptV for methanol.
The advantages of PTR-ToF-MS such as high mass and time resolution are presented
using the example of two product studies at reaction chambers. It was found that 70% of
toluene was removed at a TiO 2 surface under radiation with UV-light. Some oxygenated
VOC were identified as products, but only in amounts close to the lower detection limit
of the PTR-ToF-MS. In a photooxidation study of 3-methyl-2-nitrophenol one primary
(C 7 H 7 NO 2 ) and one secondary (C 7 H 5 NO 4 )
product was identified. In combination with cAPECI the structure of the secondary product could be determined.
The PTR-ToF-MS was used to perform continuous real time measurements of VOC
at Kleiner Feldberg, Taunus, Germany, during the PARADE campaign in 2011. Varying
meteorological conditions influenced the mixing ratios. Oxygenated VOC were found to
be mainly of biogenic origin with some anthropogenic influence. Compared to measurements
in 2000 the mixing ratios of methanol and acetaldehyde increased by a factor of
10 and 20, respectively. As well as the OVOCs, monoterpenes showed a good agreement
with modelled mixing ratios by a simple temperature dependent emission modell. In
contrast to the OVOCs 80% less toluene was measured on average in 2011 compared
to 2000. In comparison with the wind directions a source apportionment of toluene and
ethylbenzene/xylene became apparent.


Many severe ship accidents in the past were caused by a large water ingress followed by the progressive flooding of the watertight integrity of the ships and finally resulted in the sinking and total loss of the vessels. These accidents show a high demand for a better understanding of the flooding of ships with the help of numerical methods. This would allow to avoid such accidents in the future and to find new designs with an increased capability to withstand flooding. The circumstances of the accidents, which involve flooding are difficult to understand due to the complexity of the inner subdivision and the large number of resulting flooding paths. Hence, a fast numerical simulation method is developed in this thesis to analyse and predict such flooding events. The validation of the method comprises the comparison with experimental results from three test cases of a model test and the re-investigation of three severe ship accidents, which have been carefully investigated before: The accident of the gateway, the Heraklion and the Estonia. The results obtained with the new method in these applications are very promising. A quasi-static approach in the time domain is chosen to compute the flooding of the inner subdivision and the resulting equilibrium floating position at each intermediate time step. The flooding paths are modelled with the help of directed graphs. The water fluxes through the openings are computed by a hydraulic model based on the Bernoulli equation. Large and partly flooded holes are taken into account, as well as conditional openings like breaking windows or the flooding through completely filled compartments. The effect of air compression can be taken into account as well if this is required for a certain case. After the determination of the new flood water distribution and the corresponding filling levels in each compartment, the resulting equilibrium floating position is computed. The simulation ends, either if the intermediate floating position does not change any more or if all buoyancy reserve is lost and the ship starts to submerge below the sea surface. The method is developed within the ship design system E4, which ensures a consistent data model and allows the direct coupling with existing and new methods. All essential effects are taken into account without unnecessarily increasing the complexity of the model as this would lower the performance of the simulation method. The method enables the user to study many flooding scenarios within a short period, for example to investigate the influence of watertight doors that were left open.


Human noncollagenous domain 1 of the α1 chain of type IV collagen [α1(IV)NC1], or arresten, is derived from the carboxy terminal of type IV collagen. It was shown to inhibit angiogenesis and tumor growth in vivo; however, the mechanisms involved are not known. In the present study we demonstrate that human α1(IV)NC1 binds to α1β1 integrin, competes with type IV collagen binding to α1β1 integrin, and inhibits migration, proliferation, and tube formation by ECs. Also, α1(IV)NC1 pretreatment inhibited FAK/c-Raf/MEK/ERK1/2/p38 MAPK activation in ECs but had no effect on the PI3K/Akt pathway. In contrast, α1(IV)NC1 did not affect proliferation, migration, or the activation of FAK/c-Raf/MEK1/2/p38/ERK1 MAPK pathway in α1 integrin receptor knockout ECs. Consistent with this, α1(IV)NC1 elicited significant antiangiogenic effects and tumor growth inhibition in vivo but failed to do the same in α1 integrin receptor knockout mice. This suggests a highly specific, α1β1 integrin–dependent antiangiogenic activity of α1(IV)NC1. In addition, α1(IV)NC1 inhibited hypoxia-induced expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α and VEGF in ECs cultured on type IV collagen by inhibiting ERK1/2 and p38 activation. This unravels a hitherto unknown function of human α1(IV)NC1 and suggests a critical role for integrins in hypoxia and hypoxia-induced angiogenesis. Collectively, the above data indicate that α1(IV)NC1 is a potential therapeutic candidate for targeting tumor angiogenesis.


Because e-health is a core resource for healthcare systems, every country needs good policies, strategies and plans, both for information and communication technology (ICT), and for the associated organisational changes that support improved health and healthcare. E-health is this combination of ICT and organisational change. This book will help health system decision-makers identify key policy issues in developing an e-health strategy and make the right decisions about the way forward. It is designed to be used in workshops with a team of people from many different backgrounds, such as senior civil servants responsible for health, ICT and finance, doctors, nurses, healthcare managers, ICT managers and suppliers. A team like this often has different views and ideas and using the workbook can help to put these together. Readers can use the workbook in many different ways: as a checklist for the agenda and topics for the team. They can use the parts that are most important to them and their work, and can add to the templates so they fit their precise needs better. Because e-health is not a single project with a fixed timescale and permanent solution, the effort and investment needed has many parts. It is complex, it changes constantly, and it is continuous. The workbook covers all the topics that will need to be addressed.


We currently live in a world filled with videos. There are videos on YouTube, feature movies and even videos recorded with our own cameras and smartphones. These videos present an excellent opportunity to not only explore physical concepts, but also inspire others to investigate physics ideas. With video analysis, we can explore the fantasy world in science-fiction films. We can also look at online videos to determine if they are genuine or fake. Video analysis can be used in the introductory physics lab and it can even be used to explore the make-believe physics embedded in video games. This book covers the basic ideas behind video analysis along with the fundamental physics principles used in video analysis. The book also includes several examples of the unique situations in which video analysis can be used.


Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), whose species name means "of the marsh," has been locally referred to as longstraw, yellow, southern yellow, swamp, hard or heart, pitch, and Georgia pine. In presettlement times, this premier timber and naval stores tree grew in extensive pure stands throughout the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. At one time the longleaf pine forest may have occupied as much as 24 million ha (60 million acres), although by 1985 less than 1.6 million ha (4 million acres) remained. Habitat


The Professional Guinea Pig belongs to a social science growth area investigating the pharmaceutical industry in contemporary health care. This literature is united by a prevailing consensus that views the drug industry as the villain du jour in health policy. After focusing on unbridled professional power and the for-profit insurance industry, the critical social gaze is turned to Big Pharma. Consequently, most social scientists see it as their job to expose the scientific manipulation, the chase of profit margins, the dehumanization, the ethical transgressions, and the inequities that flow from drug industry involvement. In engaging prose, Roberto Abadie delivers the expected social science message. Abadie conducted an eighteen-month ethnography of a group of healthy people who made a living as research subjects in Phase One clinical trials in Philadelphia. Most trial participants are African-American and Latino, but Abadie spent time with a group of young, non-Hispanic white anarchists who enrolled in clinical trials. He compares these trial participants with people enrolling in HIV trials. The book examines the motivations, reflections, and practices of professionalized clinical trial participation. What does Abadie make from this data? He highlights the ''commodification'' (p. 15) of the trial subjects' bodies in a ''slow torture economy'' (p. 46). He pays attention to the ''revolt'' (p. 54) of the professional research subjects when they felt underpaid and threatened to walk out. Instead they received an $800 bonus. He notes the ''resistance of the weak'' (p. 60), when ''guinea pigs'' (p. 21) smuggle in forbidden foods or engage in other acts of ''sabotage'' (p. 61). Abadie also examines the risk-management strategies of the trial subjects: they weigh money against potential long-term effects but tend to believe that drugs wash out of their bodies in a couple of days. He then compares the professional trial participants to those involved in HIV trials and argues that the latter are motivated by deeper existential concerns but, of course, they also have a disease and participate in different kinds of trials. In a final empirical chapter, Abadie examines the professional trial subject's limited understanding of informed consent procedures, and argues that the drug industry deliberately uses the consent form to obfuscate the commodified relationship with research subjects. Abadie's book has two glaring weaknesses. First, he brings much rhetorical bluster to his study but the interview quotes and observations do not bear out the core themes of ''alienation'' (p. 6) and ''exploitation'' (p. 154). The fascinating empirical puzzle of his study is that anarchists are willing to swallow their principles and vegan diet to take money from this most controversial industry. In the conclusion, Abadie pays attention to the paradox between anarchist politics and pragmatics, but throughout most of the book he tries to rationalize the anarchists' justifications for the blood money that sustains their lifestyle of leisure. Some of his friends even minimize the trial risk because they assume that strong government oversight protects them from harm! Abadie writes: ''[these] views of governmental regulation are not totally at odds with their radical [anarchist] beliefs'' (p. 143). Really? Rather than reconcile the dissonance between what anarchists do and belief in theoretical constructs of exploitation, the explanation seems more mundane. People end up in trial after trial by choice or circumstances because it is easy money. Compared to flipping burgers, cleaning toilets, or being homeless, testing pills is extremely attractive. The job stinks, but the money is good. Abadie also wrote the wrong book. While he lived in the anarchist community, he never participated along with his research subjects in the trials. Abadie's information comes largely from casual conversations


BACKGROUND
Pachyonychia congenita (PC) is a genodermatosis caused by mutations in 1 of 4 known keratin genes, including KRT6A, KRT6B, KRT16, or KRT17. The most common mode of inheritance is autosomal dominant. Families with an affected parent are routinely counseled about the 50% transmission risk to each offspring. In some cases, families with a rare disorder like PC can initially present with an affected child while both parents are unaffected. This is usually the result of a spontaneous in utero mutation, and the risk of subsequent offspring being affected with the same condition is negligible (but may be increased above the general population's risk, although the exact risk is not currently known for PC).

OBSERVATIONS
We discuss a case of 2 affected children born to unaffected parents. We performed mutational analyses of all 4 individuals in the family on DNA extracted from lymphocytes. Owing to the unusual presentation of 2 affected siblings, we also extracted DNA from the father's sperm cells for keratin gene mutational analysis. We describe the first case, to our knowledge, of germ cell mosaicism in PC.

CONCLUSION
Counseling of unaffected parents with a first child diagnosed as having PC should entail a discussion of the possibility of germ cell mosaicism contributing to an increased risk of having subsequent affected children.


The move to "infrastructure-as-a-service" cloud computing brings with it a new risk: cross-virtual machine side channels through shared physical resources such as the L2 cache. One approach to this risk is to rewrite sensitive code to eliminate the signal. In this paper we consider another approach: weakening malicious virtual machines' ability to receive the signal by eliminating fine-grained timers. Such "fuzzy time" was implemented in 1991 in the VAX security kernel, but it was not clearly applicabile to modern virtual machine managers such as Xen on platforms such as the x86, which exports a cycle counter through the RDTSC instruction.
 In this paper, we demonstrate that it is possible to modify the RDTSC instruction on Xen-virtualized x86 machines, making the timer provided by this instruction substantially more coarse. We perform a thorough evaluation of the impact of modifying this timer on the usability of the system, and we evaluate the limiting point of the timer coarseness.
 Our findings open the way to a specific research program for mitigating cloud computing side channels through fuzzy time: (1) What other sources of fine-grained time are available to a malicious VM, and is it possible to degrade them? (2) What distribution of noise should be introduced to RDTSC and other timing signals to maximize the effect on malicious VMs while minimizing the effect on legitimate ones? (3) What timing resolution is actually needed to make use of L2 cache side channels?


Valuation-based market timing demonstrates greater potential to improve risk-adjusted returns for conservative long-term investors than given credit by Fisher and Statman (2006). On a risk-adjusted basis, market-timing strategies provide comparable returns as a 100 percent stocks buy-and-hold strategy but with substantially less risk. Meanwhile, market timing provides comparable risks and the same average asset allocation as a 50/50 fixed allocation strategy, but with much higher returns. Also, defining market timing as either 100 percent stocks or 100 percent Treasury bills does not provide a hedge against the possibility that valuations may depart from their historical averages for extended periods.


Solutions to the problem of international bankruptcy are generally framed as either universalist (arguing that international bankruptcies should be administered in a single forum) or territorialist (arguing in favor of multiple local bankruptcies). This article seeks to expand this debate by using traditional conflicts theory to examine the problem of cross-border bankruptcy. It analyzes the current regime under which cross-border bankruptcies are administered in U.S. courts, concluding that this regime operates as a multilateralist (jurisdiction-selecting) regime. Concluding that multilateralism is an appropriate method for resolving choice-of-law issues in international insolvency, the article analyzes some possible refinements to the current system. It argues that a more pointedly multilateralist approach would better serve the goals of the international bankruptcy regime.


Introduction Tephrochronology in its original sense is the use of tephra layers as time-stratigraphic marker beds to establish numerical or relative ages (Lowe and Hunt, 2001). Tephra layers have been described and studied in New Zealand for more than 160 years (the German naturalist and surgeon Ernst Dieffenbach described 'recognizable' tephra sections in his 1843 book Travels in New Zealand), and the first isopach map, showing fallout from the deadly plinian basaltic eruption of Mt Tarawera on 10 June 1886, was published in 1888 (Lowe, 1990; Lowe et al., 2002). More recently, a wide range of tephra-related paleoenvironmental research has been undertaken (e.g., Lowe and Newnham, 1999; Newnham and Lowe, 1999; Newnham et al., 1999, 2004; Shane, 2000), including new advances in the role of tephra in linking and dating sites containing evidence for abrupt climatic change (e.g., Newnham and Lowe, 2000; Newnham et al., 2003). Here we focus on the use of tephrochronology in dating the arrival and impacts of the first humans in New Zealand, a difficult problem for which this technique has proven to be of critical importance.


Medical researchers are coming to appreciate that many diseases are in fact complex, heterogeneous syndromes composed of subpopulations that express different variants of a related complication. Time series data extracted from individual electronic health records (EHR) offer an exciting new way to study subtle differences in the way these diseases progress over time. In this paper, we focus on answering two questions that can be asked using these databases of time series. First, we want to understand whether there are individuals with similar disease trajectories and whether there are a small number of degrees of freedom that account for differences in trajectories across the population. Second, we want to understand how important clinical outcomes are associated with disease trajectories. To answer these questions, we propose the Disease Trajectory Map (DTM), a novel probabilistic model that learns low-dimensional representations of sparse and irregularly sampled time series. We propose a stochastic variational inference algorithm for learning the DTM that allows the model to scale to large modern medical datasets. To demonstrate the DTM, we analyze data collected on patients with the complex autoimmune disease, scleroderma. We find that DTM learns meaningful representations of disease trajectories and that the representations are significantly associated with important clinical outcomes.


ABSTRACT We studied 198 macrolide-resistant S. pneumoniaeisolates obtained from adults and children to evaluate whether 2-μg clindamycin disks can distinguish between isolates manifestingermB- versus mefE-mediated resistance to clarithromycin and to determine the relative frequency with which each resistance mechanism occurred in these populations. ThemefE gene was predominant among 109 isolates from children, occurring in 73.4% versus 50.6% of 89 isolates from adults. Three isolates (1.5%) did not amplify either gene. Among 125mefE+ isolates, the MIC of clarithromycin at which 90% of the isolates tested were inhibited, determined by Etest, was 32 μg/ml versus >256 μg/ml in 70 ermB+isolates. All ermB+ isolates were highly resistant to clindamycin (MICs >256 μg/ml), whereas all mefE+ isolates were susceptible to clindamycin using the 2-μg disk. Testing S. pneumoniae from the respiratory tract for susceptibility to clindamycin by agar disk diffusion is an easy and inexpensive method to estimate the frequency of resistance mediated by ermB in specific patient populations. Macrolide resistance mediated by ermB is usually of greater magnitude than that due to mefE. Clinical studies are needed to determine the significance of high- versus low-level macrolide resistance in S. pneumoniae.


The main route of administration for drug products is the oral route, yet biologics are initially developed as injectables due to their limited stability through the gastrointestinal tract and solubility issues. In order to avoid injections, a myriad of investigations on alternative administration routes that can bypass enzymatic degradation and the first-pass effect are found in the literature. As an alternative site for biologics absorption, the buccal route presents with a number of advantages. The buccal mucosa is a barrier, providing protection to underlying tissue, but is more permeable than other alternative routes such as the skin. Buccal films are polymeric matrices designed to be mucoadhesive properties and usually formulated with permeability enhancers to improve bioavailability. Conventionally, buccal films for biologics are manufactured by solvent cas ting, yet recent developments have shown the potential of hot melt extrusion, and most recently ink jet printing as promising strategies. This review aims at depicting the field of biologics-loaded mucoadhesive films as buccal drug delivery systems. In light of the literature available, the buccal epithelium is a promising route for biologics administration, which is reflected in clinical trials currently in progress, looking forward to register and commercialize the first biologic product formulated as a buccal film.


Object apprehension and article acceptance are capital apparatus of every computer eyes system. Despite the top computational complication and added problems accompanying to after adherence and accuracy, Zernike moments of 2D images (ZMs) accept apparent animation if acclimated in article acceptance and accept been acclimated in various angel assay applications. In this work, we adduce a atypical adjustment for accretion ZMs via Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Notably, this is the aboriginal algorithm that can accomplish ZMs up to acutely high orders accurately, e.g., it can be acclimated to accomplish ZMs for orders up to 1000 or even higher. Furthermore, the proposed adjustment is as well simpler and faster than the added methods due to the availability of FFT software and hardware. The accuracies and after adherence of ZMs computed via FFT accept been confirmed using the orthogonality property. We as well acquaint normalizing ZMs with Neumann agency if the image is anchored in a beyond grid, and blush angel about-face based on RGB normalization of the reconstructed images. Astonishingly, higher-order angel about-face abstracts appearance that the proposed methods are superior, both quantitatively and subjectively, compared to the q-recursive method.


The authors welcome a constructive debate on the future of community-centred health services. Therefore, we have written this piece in response to an article published by Cunningham in the previous edition of the Australian Health Review (Cunningham, Australian Health Review 2012; 36: 121-124), which was a very limited analysis and misleading critique of our previous contribution to this journal (Rosen et al. Australian Health Review 2010; 34: 106-115). The focus here is necessarily brief and does not stand in for a detailed analysis of the evidence base. The aim instead, is to draw attention back to the broader political economic and social dimensions of how the retreat from community health services has affected clinical care. We also outline a response to a longstanding assumption, or belief, that too many hospital beds are not enough and may never be enough. How we understand the problem of resource allocation in healthcare shapes the remedies that are considered realistic. We explain that the reasons for the systematic underdevelopment of community health services are complex, historical, and largely relate to political and economic factors, but they are still amenable to change.


The Journal of Applied Communications ( JAC) has been a primary outlet of agricultural communications research and professional scholarship—a claim validated by a survey of professionals in the field. The purpose of this study was to assess ten years of JAC to determine primary and secondary research themes, frequent primary and secondary research themes by year, prolific authorship, and research methods and types reported, using a mixed-methods design. Analyzed in the study were 91 research and/or professional articles with research methodologies published from 1997 through 2006. The research identified twenty-one primary research theme areas and 28 secondary research theme areas. A compiled list of primary and secondary research theme areas and frequent themes identified by year are reported. JAC authors were identified totaling 222 contributors; Tracy Irani and Ricky Telg (13.2%) were the most prolific authors. A majority of the articles (65.9%) employed quantitative research methods, and survey methodology (47.3%) was the most common data collection measure. Research themes appear cyclic, with specific themes moving in and out of primary and secondary areas, which may contribute to research theme diversity. Research must continue to determine whether cycles exist; if cycles do indeed exist then focus should be placed on determining cycle depth and the influence on research in agricultural communications as an integrated specialization area of agricultural education. This research should be used comparatively with priority areas identified in the National Research Agenda: Agricultural Education and Communication, 2007–2010, to determine where future research might be focused.


The effect of nitrogen on the growth of vertically oriented graphene nanosheets on catalyst-free silicon and glass substrates in a plasma-assisted process is studied. Different concentrations of nitrogen were found to act as versatile control knobs that could be used to tailor the length, number density and structural properties of the nanosheets. Nanosheets with different structural characteristics exhibit markedly different optical properties. The nanosheet samples were treated with a bovine serum albumin protein solution to investigate the effects of this variation on the optical properties for biosensing through confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectrophotometry.


Metal cutting is one of the most widely used manufacturing techniques in the industry and there are lots of studies to investigate this complex process in both academic as well as industrial world. Predictions of important process variables such as temperature, cutting forces and stress distributions play significant role on designing tool geometries and optimizing cutting conditions. Researchers find these variables by using experimental techniques which makes the investigation very time consuming and expensive. At this point, finite element modelling and simulation becomes main tool. These important cutting variables can be predicted without doing any experiment with finite element method. This covers a study on modelling and simulation of orthogonal metal cutting by finite element method. For this purpose, orthogonal cutting simulations of steel are performed and model used in simulations is validated. At first step, effects of work piece flow stress and friction models on cutting variables such as cutting forces, chip geometry and temperature are investigated by comparing simulation results with experimental results available in the literature. Then, mechanical and thermal analyses are performed. Lastly, effects of rake angle and tool tip radius on strain, temperature and stress distributions are investigated.


We consider the problem of recovering a signal x in R^n, from magnitude-only measurements, y_i = |a_i^T x| for i={1,2...m}. Also known as the phase retrieval problem, it is a fundamental challenge in nano-, bio- and astronomical imaging systems, astronomical imaging, and speech processing. The problem is ill-posed, and therefore additional assumptions on the signal and/or the measurements are necessary. In this paper, we first study the case where the underlying signal x is s-sparse. We develop a novel recovery algorithm that we call Compressive Phase Retrieval with Alternating Minimization, or CoPRAM. Our algorithm is simple and can be obtained via a natural combination of the classical alternating minimization approach for phase retrieval, with the CoSaMP algorithm for sparse recovery. Despite its simplicity, we prove that our algorithm achieves a sample complexity of O(s^2 log n) with Gaussian samples, which matches the best known existing results. It also demonstrates linear convergence in theory and practice and requires no extra tuning parameters other than the signal sparsity level s. We then consider the case where the underlying signal x arises from to structured sparsity models. We specifically examine the case of block-sparse signals with uniform block size of b and block sparsity k=s/b. For this problem, we design a recovery algorithm that we call Block CoPRAM that further reduces the sample complexity to O(ks log n). For sufficiently large block lengths of b=Theta(s), this bound equates to O(s log n). To our knowledge, this constitutes the first end-to-end linearly convergent family of algorithms for phase retrieval where the Gaussian sample complexity has a sub-quadratic dependence on the sparsity level of the signal.


The first anthology of its kind in the West, "Contemporary Iraqi Fiction" gathers work from sixteen Iraqi writers, all translated from Arabic into English. Shedding a bright light on the rich diversity of Iraqi experience, Shakir Mustafa has included selections by Iraqi women, Iraqi Jews now living in Israel, and Christians and Muslims living both in Iraq and abroad.While each voice is distinct, they are united in writing about a homeland that has suffered under repression, censorship, war, and occupation. Many of the selections mirror these grim realities, forcing the writers to open up new narrative terrains and experiment with traditional forms. Muhammad Khodayyir's surrealist portraits of his home city, Basra, in an excerpt from Basriyyatha and the magical realism of Mayselun Hadi's "Calendars" both offer powerful expressions of the absurdity of everyday life. Themes range from childhood and family to war, political oppression, and interfaith relationships. Mustafa provides biographical sketches of the writers and an enlightening introduction chronicling the evolution of Iraqi literature.


The Japan Society for Occupational Health (JSOH) recommends the Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) as reference values for preventing adverse health effects on workers caused by occupational exposure to chemical substances, continuous or intermittent noise, impulsive or impact noise, heat stress, cold stress, whole-body vibration, hand-arm vibration and time-varying electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields.


A detailed sensitivity analysis was conducted to help to quantify the impacts of various emission control options in terms of potential visibility improvements at class I national parks and wilderness areas in the southeastern United States. Particulate matter (PM) levels were estimated using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, and light extinctions were calculated using the modeled PM concentrations. First, likely changes in visibility at class I areas were estimated for 2018. Then, using emission projections for 2018 as a starting point, the sensitivity of light extinction was evaluated by reducing emissions from various source categories by 30%. Source categories to be analyzed were determined using a tiered approach: any category that showed significant impact in one tier was broken into subcategories for further analysis in the next tier. In the first tier, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides, ammonia, volatile organic compound, and primary carbon emissions were reduced uniformly over the entire domain. During summer, when most class I areas experience their worst visibility, reduction of SO2 emissions was the most effective control strategy. In the second tier, SO2 sources were separated as ground level and elevated. The elevated sources in 10 southeastern states were differentiated from those in the rest of the domain and broken into three subcategories: coal-fired power plant (CPP), other power plant, and other than power plant [i.e., non–electric generating unit (non EGU)]. The SO2 emissions from the CPP subcategory had the largest impact on visibility at class I areas, followed by the non-EGU subcategory. In the third tier, emissions from these two subcategories were further broken down by state. Most class I areas were affected by the emissions from several states, indicating the regional nature of the haze problem. Here, the visibility responses to all of the aforementioned emission reductions are quantified and deviations from general trends are identified.


The availability of facile methods for targeted gene knockout and gene replacement based on homologous recombination in bacteria and yeast systems has driven rapid progress in understanding many of the complex metabolic and regulatory networks in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The lack of such tools in other organisms is a major impediment to progress both in fundamental research and in research that is directed toward practical economic and societal outcomes. For example, the current goal to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources produced by plants and algae is hampered in both the short term and the long term by our limited knowledge of their metabolic systems and how they can be modified to create organisms that produce more and better energy-rich molecules. Thus, the report in PNAS by Kilian et al. (1) of efficient and reliable genetic transformation of the commercially important alga, Nannochloropsis, via homologous recombination is a significant step forward.


This paper introduces a platform for online Sensitivity Analysis (SA) that is applicable in large scale real-time data acquisition (DAQ) systems. Here, we use the term real-time in the context of a system that has to respond to externally generated input stimuli within a finite and specified period. Complex industrial systems such as manufacturing, healthcare, transport, and finance require high-quality information on which to base timely responses to events occurring in their volatile environments. The motivation for the proposed EventTracker platform is the assumption that modern industrial systems are able to capture data in real-time and have the necessary technological flexibility to adjust to changing system requirements. The flexibility to adapt can only be assured if data is succinctly interpreted and translated into corrective actions in a timely manner. An important factor that facilitates data interpretation and information modeling is an appreciation of the affect system inputs have on each output at the time of occurrence. Many existing sensitivity analysis methods appear to hamper efficient and timely analysis due to a reliance on historical data, or sluggishness in providing a timely solution that would be of use in real-time applications. This inefficiency is further compounded by computational limitations and the complexity of some existing models. In dealing with real-time event driven systems, the underpinning logic of the proposed method is based on the assumption that in the vast majority of cases changes in input variables will trigger events. Every single or combination of events could subsequently result in a change to the system state. The proposed event tracking sensitivity analysis method describes variables and the system state as a collection of events. The higher the numeric occurrence of an input variable at the trigger level during an event monitoring interval, the greater is its impact on the final analysis of the system state. Experiments were designed to compare the proposed event tracking sensitivity analysis method with a comparable method (that of Entropy). An improvement of 10 percent in computational efficiency without loss in accuracy was observed. The comparison also showed that the time taken to perform the sensitivity analysis was 0.5 percent of that required when using the comparable Entropy-based method.


This article explores the extent to which health, employment, family, or finances are associated with earlier-than-planned retirement using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The importance of any shock that drives early retirement depends both on its effect on those experiencing it and its prevalence in the population; therefore, the analysis proceeds in two steps. First, a probit regression is used to determine the strength of the relationship between the shocks and earlier-than-planned retirement, controlling for individual characteristics. Second, to incorporate the prevalence of the shock, counterfactual experiments are run to determine how much early retirement would be reduced in the population if these shocks did not occur. Our results indicate that health—both health "shocks" and initial poor health—is the most important factor in earlier-than-planned retirement, followed by involuntary job loss, and then changes within the family, especially a spouse's retirement and having a parent move into the house. Changes in financial wealth do not have a significant impact on early retirement, but other, idiosyncratic factors may have some influence.


The experimentally measured resonance frequencies of a thin annular plate with a small ratio of inner to outer radii and clamped on the inner boundary are compared to the predictions of classical thin-plate (CTP) theory and a finite-element (FE) model. The results indicate that, contrary to the conclusions presented in a number of publications, CTP theory does not accurately predict the frequencies of a relatively small number of resonant modes at lower frequencies. It is shown that these inaccuracies are attributable to shear deformations, which are thought to be negligible in thin plates and are neglected in CTP theory. Of particular interest is the failure of CTP theory to accurately predict the resonance frequency of the lowest vibrational mode, which was shifted approximately 30% by shear motion at the inner boundary.


I am currently in my fifth year as a law professor at Drexel University, where I teach Civil Procedure, Jurisprudence, and a Literature & the Law seminar. While Jurisprudence and Literature & the Law are fields arising directly out of the humanities, Civil Procedure - what with its heavy reliance on the Federal Rules and frequently unambiguous statutes - appears at first blush to exist in a separate realm, one of cold calculation and indifference to the human condition. It is perhaps for this reason that I had dispirited memories of Civil Procedure when I first set out to teach it five years ago. But as I have grappled with the material and evolved as a teacher over time, I have come to believe that the humanities can offer Civil Procedure a great deal, not only in terms of making this notoriously dry subject more engaging for my students, but in helping them to master the material as well.Though I teach all three of my courses through a humanistic lens, I would like to highlight two humanities-inspired techniques that I have found to be particularly useful in teaching Civil Procedure. The first pedagogical technique is "close reading," the method of pausing over and examining selected words, phrases, sentences, and syntax in order to reveal subtextual meanings that might not initially be apparent. I have found this technique particularly useful in teaching personal jurisdiction, perhaps the most vexing of the topics customarily covered in an introductory Civil Procedure course. The second pedagogical technique I would like to highlight relates to my broader framing of Civil Procedure. Instead of teaching the course piecemeal, as a series of discrete topics, I endeavor to frame the whole of Civil Procedure as a clash of two competing grand narratives-the quest for justice versus the desire for courts to adjudicate disputes as quickly and inexpensively as possible. These two objectives are often at odds, and as we read cases, Rules, and statutes, I go to great lengths to underscore the struggle judges, drafters, and legislators necessarily face in resolving tensions between the two.In this Essay, I will elaborate on how I employ these humanities-based techniques-one derived from literary criticism and the other aimed at establishing the humanistic struggle that I believe lies at the core of Civil Procedure-and the positive effects they have had on my students' understanding of this challenging subject.


Without the protection of the atmosphere, the soils on lunar surfaces undergo a series of optical, physical, and chemical changes during micrometeorite bombardment. To simulate the micrometeorite bombardment process and analyze the impact characteristics, four types of rocks, including terrestrial basalt and anorthosite supposed to represent lunar rock, an H‐type chondrite (the Huaxi ordinary chondrite), and an iron meteorite (the Gebel Kamil iron meteorite) supposed to represent micrometeorite impactors, are irradiated by a nanosecond pulse laser in a high vacuum chamber. Based on laser irradiation experiments, the laser pits are found to be of different shapes and sizes which vary with the rock type. Many melt and vapor deposits are found on the mineral surfaces of all the samples, and nanophase iron (npFe) or Fe‐Ni alloy particles are typically distributed on the surfaces of ilmenite, kamacite, or other minerals near kamacite. By analyzing the focused ion beam ultrathin slices of laser pits with a transmission electron microscope, the results show that the subsurface structures can be divided into three classes and that npFe can be easily found in Fe‐bearing minerals. These differences in impact characteristics will help determine the source material of npFe and infer the type of micrometeorite impactors. During micrometeorite bombardment, in the mare regions, the npFe are probably produced simultaneously from lunar basalt and micrometeorites with iron‐rich minerals, while the npFe in the highlands regions mainly come from micrometeorites.


Portrait is a full body shot of an unidentified woman. She has her left arm leaning on a column. She is wearing a dark colored dress with a light collar and a necklace with a cross. It is matted on a light mat. The photograph company's address is printed on the back. Also "Mai 1870" is handwritten under the address.


We propose a new concept for surface plasmon sensing using a surface plasmon interferometer. The high field enhancement of surface plasmons near the metallic interface makes them ideal for use in bioand chemical sensors where a very small change in refractive index should be detected. To our knowledge this is the first time that the SOI material system has been combined with the SPR technique for sensing purposes. The device is two orders of magnitude smaller than current integrated SPR sensors. We obtain a theoretical limit of detection of 10−6 RIU for a component of length 10 μm.


Security features are often hardwired into software applications, making it difficult to adapt security responses to reflect changes in runtime context and new attacks. In prior work, we proposed the idea of architecture-based self-protection as a way of separating adaptation logic from application logic and providing a global perspective for reasoning about security adaptations in the context of other business goals. In this paper, we present an approach, based on this idea, for combating denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Our approach allows DoS-related tactics to be composed into more sophisticated mitigation strategies that encapsulate possible responses to a security problem. Then, utility-based reasoning can be used to consider different business contexts and qualities. We describe how this approach forms the underpinnings of a scientific approach to self-protection, allowing us to reason about how to make the best choice of mitigation at runtime. Moreover, we also show how formal analysis can be used to determine whether the mitigations cover the range of conditions the system is likely to encounter, and the effect of mitigations on other quality attributes of the system. We evaluate the approach using the Rainbow self-adaptive framework and show how Rainbow chooses DoS mitigation tactics that are sensitive to different business contexts.


Palladium (Pd) catalyzed copper (Cu) films were produced by forming films of Cu(II) compound (Cu(hfac)2·H2O) and Pd(II) compound (Pd(hfac)2) on silicon oxide (SiOx) and titanium nitride (TiN) substrates using a Displacement from two Immiscible Supercritical Phases (DISPs) technique followed by reduction of the organometallic compounds films in hydrogen at 200 °C. The morphology of Cu films was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In the absence of Pd(hfac)2, Cu particles in the range of 60–95 nm formed on SiOx or TiN during the 5 min reduction period. As the Pd(hfac)2 concentration increased to 5 mol% (relative to the amount of Cu(hfac)2·H2O), a morphology transition from particle formation to film formation was observed. When the Cu(hfac)2·H2O concentration varied from 0.1 wt% to 3 wt% at a fixed Pd(hfac)2 concentration of 5 mol%, highly uniform, dense and adherent films with 10–40 nm in thickness were produced. Root mean square (rms) roughness of these films, estimated by AFM images, is in the range of 1.7–5.8 nm. Chemical composition analysis of 5 mol% Pd catalyzed Cu film by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that approximately the ratio of Pd to Cu incorporated into the film was two times larger than the initial Pd(hfac)2 to Cu(hfac)2·H2O ratio.


The two judgments of the Lesotho Court of Appeal in the case of MokoIo Ramone v Rex (sic), delivered on the 14th of April, 1 967, and the 1 8 th of September, 1967, respectively, involve a number of important and interesting questions regarding extenuating circumstances in a murder trial and the powers and practice of the Court of Appeal in appeals from decisions which negative the existence of extenuating circumstances. The questions become all the more interesting when compared with the law of the Republic of South Africa.


We discuss a reformulation of QED in which matter and gauge fields are integrated out explicitly, resulting in a many-body Lorentz covariant theory of 0+1 dimensional worldlines describing super-pairs of spinning charges interacting through Lorentz forces. This provides a powerful, string inspired definition of amplitudes to all loop orders. In particular, one obtains a more general formulation of Wilson loops and lines, with exponentiated dynamical fields and spin precession contributions, and worldline contour averages exactly defined through first quantized path integrals. We discuss in detail the attractive features of this formalism for high order perturbative computations. We show that worldline S-matrix elements, to all loop orders in perturbation theory, can be constructed to be manifestly free of soft singularities, with infrared (IR) divergences captured and removed by endpoint photon exchanges at infinity that are equivalent to the soft coherent dressings of the Dyson S-matrix proposed by Faddeev and Kulish. We discuss these IR structures and make connections with soft theorems, the Abelian exponentiation of IR divergences and cusp anomalous dimensions. Follow-up papers will discuss the efficient computation of cusp anomalous dimensions and universal features of soft theorems. 1 ar X iv :2 20 6. 04 18 8v 1 [ he pth ] 8 J un 2 02 2


The Indian perspective says that the aim of human life is to grow by inner and outer experience till man lives in god, realises his spirit, becomes divine in knowledge, in will and in the joy of his being. In the course of achieving this transforming experience, the guru holds a special place. The guru-disciple interaction touches deep and regressed layers of the two main features of the relationship, surrender of the shishya and intimacy with the guru. Real teaching is believed to occur when the disciple has disciplined himself and is tuned to the wavelength of the guru. Teaching, example, and influence play significant roles in mentoring. One very distinctive characteristic of guru-shishya relationship is its poly-variant nature. It indicates the all encompassing quality of this relationship. Dynamics of the relationship indicate that its basis was a complete transformation of the shishya by the guru.


Israel still maintains the personal status system (millet) that it inherited from the Ottoman Empire under which the courts of fourteen ethno-religious communities are granted exclusive jurisdiction over matters of marriage and divorce and concurrent jurisdiction with the civil courts in regard to such matters as maintenance and inheritance. But, why Israel, as a highly centralized and democratic polity, has maintained the old millet system which applies different laws to people from different ethno-religious backgrounds and holds men and women to different legal standards? And, how has such a plural application of law affected fundamental rights and freedoms of Israeli citizens? In brief, the Article argues that Israel utilized the old millet system in the nation-building process as an instrument of vertical segmentation and horizontal homogenization. However, the system has encountered with some serious challenges in producing its intended goals. This becomes particularly visible when we take a closer look at the field of human rights where individuals constantly challenge the legitimacy of Stateimposed religious laws, and seek to advance rights and liberties which are denied to them under the current system by engaging in various strategies of resistance.


This specification describes the use of Hashed Message Authentication
Mode (HMAC) in conjunction with the SHA-256, SHA-384, and SHA-512
algorithms in IPsec. These algorithms may be used as the basis for
data origin authentication and integrity verification mechanisms for
the Authentication Header (AH), Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP),
Internet Key Exchange Protocol (IKE), and IKEv2 protocols, and also as
Pseudo-Random Functions (PRFs) for IKE and IKEv2. Truncated output
lengths are specified for the authentication-related variants, with
the corresponding algorithms designated as HMAC-SHA-256-128, HMAC-
SHA-384-192, and HMAC-SHA-512-256. The PRF variants are not truncated,
and are called PRF-HMAC-SHA-256, PRF-HMAC-SHA-384, and PRF-HMAC-
SHA-512. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


The already huge number of blogs in existence is increasing rapidly, and many users are struggling to find a way to keep up with the expansion. A number of existing tools aim to capture the general topics of all currently popular topics among the entire blogosphere, while others allow individuals to read a fixed list of blogs. However, few personalized tools exist to help the individual get an overview of the specific blogs he or she reads. This paper presents the concept of social topic extraction via the Smarter Blogroll, which displays current topics for a selection of blogs. While there was little difference in users' ability to identify topics using the smarter blogroll, the results of our user study point to design recommendations for improving the use of metadata within blogroll entries, thereby facilitating blog reading. The paper concludes with implications for the design of tools to aid in blog navigation and reading, as well as recommended directions for future research.


Rudra Chaudhuri's book examines a series of crises that led to far-reaching changes in India's approach to the United States, defining the contours of what is arguably the imperative relationship between America and the global South. Forged in Crisis provides a fresh interpretation of India's advance in foreign affairs under the stewardship of Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and finally, Manmohan Singh. It reveals the complex and distinctive manner in which India sought to pursue at once material interests and ideas, while meticulously challenging the shakier and largely untested read- ing of 'non-alignment' palpable in most works on Indian foreign policy and international relations. From the Korean War in 1950 to the considered debate within India on sending troops to Iraq in 2003, and from the loss of territory to China and the subsequent talks on Kashmir with Pakistan in 1962-63 to the signing of a civil nuclear agreement with Washington in 2008, Chaudhuri maps Indian negotiating styles and behaviour and how these shaped and informed decisions vital to its strategic interest, in turn redefining its relationship with the United States.


Tightly synchronizing transmissions of the same packet from different sources theoretically results in constructive interference. Exploiting this property potentially speeds up network-wide packet propagation with minimal latencies. Our empirical results suggest the timing constraints can be relaxed in the real world, especially for radios using lower frequencies such as the IEEE 802.15.4 radios at 900 MHz. Based on these observations we propose PEASST, a topology-free protocol that leverages synchronized transmissions to lower the cost of end-to-end data transfers, and enables multiple traffic flows. In addition, PEASST integrates a receiver-initiated duty-cycling mechanism to further reduce node energy consumption. Results from both our Matlab-based simulations and indoor testbed reveal that PEASST can achieve a packet delivery latency matching the current state-of-the-art schemes that also leverages synchronized transmissions. In addition, PEASST reduces the radio duty-cycling by three-fold. Furthermore, comparisons with a multi-hop routing protocol shows that PEASST effectively reduces the per-packet control overhead. This translates to a ~10% higher packet delivery performance with a duty cycle of less than half.


The paper examines the determinants that influence the environmental innovation behaviour of companies in Germany in a multivariate context by using data from the Mannheimer Innovations Panel 1993, which was part of the Community Innovation Survey. The objective is to analyse the general structures of the determinants of environmental innovation, as well as the specific impact of environmental policy instruments as an integral part of this framework. The pressure of environmental policy instruments on the innovation behaviour of companies is reproduced by indicators, which are investigated in a written survey at the level of the German Chambers of Commerce.


We compare five sub-grid models for supernova (SN) feedback in adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) simulations of isolated dwarf and L-star disc galaxies with 20–40 pc resolution. The models are thermal dump, stochastic thermal, 'mechanical' (injecting energy or momentum depending on the resolution), kinetic and delayed cooling feedback. We focus on the ability of each model to suppress star formation and generate outflows. Our highest resolution runs marginally resolve the adiabatic phase of the feedback events, which correspond to 40 SN explosions, and the first three models yield nearly identical results, possibly indicating that kinetic and delayed cooling feedback converge to wrong results. At lower resolution all models differ, with thermal dump feedback becoming inefficient. Thermal dump, stochastic and mechanical feedback generate multiphase outflows with mass loading factors β ≪ 1, which is much lower than observed. For the case of stochastic feedback, we compare to published SPH simulations, and find much lower outflow rates. Kinetic feedback yields fast, hot outflows with β ∼ 1, but only if the wind is in effect hydrodynamically decoupled from the disc using a large bubble radius. Delayed cooling generates cold, dense and slow winds with β > 1, but large amounts of gas occupy regions of temperature–density space with short cooling times. We conclude that either our resolution is too low to warrant physically motivated models for SN feedback, that feedback mechanisms other than SNe are important or that other aspects of galaxy evolution, such as star formation, require better treatment.


This report describes a new application of the Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) technique. This technology based on the amplification of regions between microsatellites was applied to different calli from the same cauliflower mother plant. One of the tested ISSR primers, (GATA) 4 , generated great polymorphism. Twelve different markers were detected on polyacrylamide gels. After sequencing, one sequence showed homology with a predicated A. thaliana gene closely related to genes involved in the regulation of cell proliferation in mammalians. This marker is characterised by three microsatellites and a palindromic sequence. Possible causes of mutations in this marker are discussed and will be investigated. ISSR amplification appears as a reliable method in the determination of genetic instability at early stages in in vitro culture.


1. Psychological Services under the Extended Health Plan increased to $1200 per calendar year and was expanded to include counselling services provided by counsellors with a Master of Social Work, psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, marriage and family therapists, or clinical counselors provided they are licensed and registered by a recognized provincial governing body as defined by the benefits provider.


At its core, copyright is an innovation policy, a competition policy, and a free expression policy. Copyright seeks to balance incentivizing a public good with providing a private interest. Copyright's purpose to catalyze creative expression and innovation is canonical; creativity and innovation are synergetic. Copyright is a means of promoting progress; copyright is not an end in itself. Much like freedom of expression and new innovations are not ends in themselves, copyright protection is not for its own sake. Freedom of expression is often heralded as a means of fostering democratic self-governance, truth, and happiness. Innovation is seen as a means of fostering economic growth, prosperity, development, and happiness. Similarly, copyright is a means of fostering human progress and enriching the public domain from which others can freely draw. The ultimate beneficiary of copyright policy should be the public interest. This Article offers a broad-minded assessment of copyright policy's effects on innovation and free expression before offering some sensible areas for reform.


Background Autistic spectrum disorder encompasses a wide variety of behavioural and communicative problems. Both the core features and non-core features of autism have been targeted in a variety of therapies. Atypical antipsychotic medications, including risperidone, have been used for symptom and behaviour improvement and have shown beneficial outcomes, particularly in certain aspects of the disorder. However, given the nature of the condition presenting in young patients, the risks of these potentially long term therapies must be weighed against the benefits. Objectives To determine the eGicacy and safety of risperidone for people with autism spectrum disorder. Search methods Electronic databases: CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) 2006 (Issue 3); MEDLINE (1966 to April 2006); EMBASE (1980 to April 2006); PsycINFO (1887 to April 2006); CINAHL (1982 to April 2006); LILACS (1982 to April 2006 ); Clinicaltrials.gov (USA) (accessed April 2006); ZETOC (1993 to April 2006); National Research Register (NRR) (UK) 2006 (Issue 1) were searched. In addition further data were retrieved through contact with pharmaceutical companies and authors of published trials. Selection criteria All randomised controlled trials of risperidone versus placebo for patients with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. All trials had to have at least one standardised outcome measure used for both intervention and control group. Data collection and analysis Data were independently evaluated and analysed by the reviewers. Data were evaluated at the end of each randomised controlled trial. Unpublished data were also considered and analysed. Main results Only three randomised controlled trials were identified. Meta-analysis was possible for three outcomes. Some evidence of the benefits of risperidone in irritability, repetition and social withdrawal were apparent. These must however be considered against the adverse eGects, the most prominent being weight gain. Risperidone for autism spectrum disorder (Review) Copyright © 2010 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1 Cochrane Library Trusted evidence. Informed decisions. Better health. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Authors' conclusions Risperidone can be beneficial in some features of autism. However there are limited data available from studies with small sample sizes. In addition, there lacks a single standardised outcome measure allowing adequate comparison of studies, and long-term followup is also lacking. Further research is necessary to determine the eGicacy pf risperidone in clinical practice. P L A I N   L A N G U A G E   S U M M A R Y Risperidone for autism spectrum disorder Risperidone is an antipsychotic medication that has been used for symptom relief and behavioural improvement in autism. This review encompasses three randomised controlled trials and concludes that risperidone may be beneficial for various aspects of autism including irritability, repetition and hyperactivity. However, all studies were relatively small and used diGerent ways to assess eGectiveness, making comparisons diGicult. In addition, side eGects were identified, notably weight gain. Further studies are therefore necessary to determine the long term benefits, if any, compared with the potential risks. Risperidone for autism spectrum disorder (Review) Copyright © 2010 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2 Cochrane Library Trusted evidence. Informed decisions. Better health. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews


In this thesis, Multi-Objective method is used for optimal placement of Collocated Sensors and Actuator, using integrated Genetic Algorithm. Optimal placement of piezoelectric sensors and actuators in a cantilever beam is found out by maximizing the controllability index and also observability index. First mode vibration is only considered for the present case. Finite element formulation for shell structure was used for the beam analysis by making the radius infinite, which results to the formulation for plate analysis. The cantilever beam was divided into twenty equal sections, where the piezoelectric material can be placed. In the present study four sensors and four actuators has been considered for collocated system. For non-collocated system four sensors was only considered. Results obtained from the work shows that the location for placement of piezoelectric material for non-collocated system is same as that obtained from multi-objective collocated system. Hence it can be deduced, it is not needed to find out the location for sensors and actuators separately rather controllability index for both can be found out together by using multi-objective collocated formulation.


Embodied Evolution (EE) is an evolutionary strategy based on natural evolution in which the individuals that make up the population are embodied and situated in an environment where they interact in a local, decentralized and asynchronous fashion. It has been successfully applied in collective problems showing its validity to perform on-line evolution both in simulated and real agents. A key feature of EE is that of emergent specialization, that is, this strategy is able to autonomously generate a distribution of individuals into species if that is advantageous in the scenario. This paper goes in the line of studying such feature in more depth, analyzing how the complexity of the task (fitness landscape) and the complexity of the individuals (control system) affect the emergence of specialization. The analysis is carried out using a canonical EE algorithm in a real problem consisting in a collective surveillance task with simulated Micro Aerial Vehicles.


Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gut disorder with high prevalence. Because of various factors involved in its pathophysiology and disappointing results from conventional IBS medications, the treatment of IBS is challenging and use of complementary and alternative medicines especially herbal therapies is increasing. In this paper, electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane library were searched to obtain any in vitro, in vivo or human studies evaluating single or compound herbal preparations in the management of IBS. One in vitro, 3 in vivo and 23 human studies were included and systematically reviewed. The majority of studies are about essential oil of Menta piperita as a single preparation and STW 5 as a compound preparation. Some evaluated herbs such as Curcuma xanthorriza and Fumaria officinalis did not demonstrate any benefits in IBS. However, it seems there are many other herbal preparations such as those proposed in traditional medicine of different countries that could be studied and investigated for their efficacy in management of IBS.


Recent usage data suggest job applicants are completing online selection assessments using mobile devices (e.g., Smartphones) in greater numbers. Advancements in mobile technology's functionality, affordability, and mobility have quickly made mobile devices the medium of choice for accessing the Internet. Thus, these devices offer logistical advantages for organizations looking to extend their recruiting and selection efforts to a demographically and geographically wider range of potential job applicants. However, organizations must determine that the constructs predictive of future job performance are being measured similarly when applicants complete assessments using mobile devices. In an effort to replicate and extend previous findings on the utility of this new technology in a selection context, this study used two large, applied samples of job applicants in a hospitality organization to examine the measurement equivalence of selection assessments delivered on mobile and non-mobile devices (e.g., personal computers). Measurement invariance tests conducted with multi-group confirmatory factor analysis suggest that mobile versions of a cognitive ability-type assessment, two biodata assessments, a multimedia work simulation, and a text-based situational judgment test are equivalent to non-mobile versions at the configural, scalar, and residual variance level. The results also found that mobile device user latent means are approximately half a standard deviation lower than their non-mobile counterparts for the situational judgment test. Implications for technology-enhanced selection assessment at the practitioner and organizational levels are discussed. INDEX WORDS: Measurement equivalence, Measurement invariance, Mobile devices, Selection and assessment, Internet-based testing, Technology-enhanced assessment, Cognitive ability, Biodata, Work simulations, Situational judgment test, Computerized testing ESTABLISHING THE MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE OF ONLINE SELECTION ASSESSMENTS DELIVERED ON MOBILE VERSUS NON-MOBILE DEVICES


An optimal power distribution analysis for an all-optical sampling orthagonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme with multiple modulation formats including differential phase shift keyed (DPSK), differential quadrature phase shift keyed (DQPSK), and non-return-to-zero (NRZ) is proposed. The noise tolerances of different modulation formats are analyzed, and the optimal input power ratio between phase and intensity modulation formats for the best overall receiving performance is investigated under unchanged total input power. Moreover, this scheme can seamlessly coexist with the traditional WDM channel.


The metalation of the tetradentate molecule pyrphyrin by copper substrate atoms on a Cu(111) surface is studied. Pyrphyrin, in contrast to porphyrin, consists of four fused pyridine groups instead of pyrrol groups. Using thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and N 1s X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), we show that metalation of the monolayer of pyrphyrin with Cu adatoms from the Cu(111) surface occurs at 377 K. The formation of an extended two-dimensional (2D) network is observed with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). A honeycomb-like lattice of metalated pyrphyrin molecules is formed by intermolecular connection via the two cyano groups at the periphery of pyrphyrin as well as Cu adatoms. Dehydrogenation at the periphery of the molecule is observed during annealing at 520 K. The surface adsorbed metal-pyrphyrin has the potential to serve as a molecular catalyst.

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Since 2003, the EU and the US have conducted a vibrant regulatory dialogue on financial regulation, but domestic priorities seem to have taken precedence in response to the financial crisis. This ECMI Policy Brief compares the institutional and regulatory changes occurring on both sides of the Atlantic. On the institutional side, it compares macro- and micro-prudential reforms. On the regulatory side, it compares four key areas: bank capital requirements, reform of the OTC derivative markets, and the regulation of credit ratings agencies and hedge funds. It concludes with some implications for the regulatory dialogue.


Background The relationship between shoulder pain and shoulder flexibility has not been clarified because of different views regarding differences in age or competition level among research-targeted swimmers. Studies to date have hardly examined junior (aged 12 to 17) competitive swimmers. Objective To determine the risk factors related to shoulder pain and its prevention in junior competitive swimmers. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting Four swimming clubs belonging to the Hiroshima Prefecture Swimming Federation. Participants Eighty-one competitive swimmers (45 male and 36 female). Assessment of Risk Factors A self-administered questionnaire was used to investigate injury history with or without shoulder pain, years of swimming experience, and stroke specialty. To assess the effect of flexibility on shoulder pain, shoulder rotation width, latissimus dorsi flexibility, and internal rotation (IR) and external rotation (ER) angles in the second position were measured. Main Outcome Measurements Preliminary bivariate logistic regression analyses identified the aforementioned variables associated with shoulder pain, and variables with p values<0.15 were retained for the multivariate analyses. The independent predictors of shoulder pain as well as odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated from the final logistic regression model. Results Of the 81 participants, 57 (70.4%) had competitive swimming–related pain. Among them, 28 (49.1%) had shoulder pain, the most prevalent pain type. Male swimmers with low IR angles and fewer years of swimming experience were at 1.06 and 1.42 times greater risk of shoulder pain, while female swimmers with low IR and wider shoulder rotation widths were at 1.02 and 1.07 times greater risk of shoulder pain, respectively. Conclusions This study showed that low shoulder flexibility were significantly associated with shoulder pain. To apply these findings practically to identify swimmers who may be at increased risk of developing shoulder pain and the use of proper preventive programs may prevent shoulder pain.