Eight of 69 (12%) healthy adult volunteers vaccinated with monovalent live-attenuated dengue virus (DENV) vaccine candidates had atypical antibody responses, with depressed IgM:IgG antibody ratios and induction of high-titer hemagglutination-inhibiting and neutralizing (NT) antibodies to all four DENV serotypes. These features suggested flavivirus exposure prior to DENV vaccination, yet no volunteer had a history of previous flavivirus infection, flavivirus vaccination, or antibody to flaviviruses evident before DENV vaccination. Moreover, production of antibody to DENV by atypical responders (AR) was not accelerated compared with antibody responses in the 61 flavivirus-naive responders (NR). Further evaluation revealed no differences in sex, age, race, DENV vaccine candidate received, or clinical signs and symptoms following vaccination between AR and NR. However, viremia was delayed at the onset in AR compared with NR. A comparative panel of all AR and five randomly selected NR found flavivirus cross-reactive antibody after vaccination only in AR. Unexpectedly, six of eight AR had NT antibodies to yellow fever virus (YFV) > 1:10 before vaccination while NR had none (P = 0.04). The AR also universally demonstrated YFV NT antibody titers > or = 1:160 after DENV vaccination, whereas four of five NR failed to seroconvert (P = 0.02). Yellow fever virus priming broadens the antibody response to monovalent DENV vaccination. The effect of flavivirus priming on the clinical and immunologic response to tetravalent DENV vaccine remains to be determined.


In this paper, we present a scalable architecture in silicon that allows synthesis and dynamic waveform shaping of periodic mm-wave signals, either generated on-chip or quasi-optically through radiation in free space capable of producing pulse trains with picosecond time signatures. This is achieved through an architecture that allows extraction of multiple harmonics above  $f_{\mathrm {max}}$  with simultaneous amplitude and phase control. Signal synthesis is achieved through controlled interference of multiple traveling waves with rich harmonic components and delays. The first example, presented in this paper, is where the signal synthesis is achieved on-chip demonstrating a pulse train at the output with a measured pulsewidth of 2.6 ps and a 0.46-mW output power. The second example is a four-element array with integrated antennas, which allows signal synthesis in space and is demonstrated to show reconfigurable radiation of pulse trains with a 2.6-ps pulsewidth, pure tones at a fundamental frequency of 107.5 GHz with an effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 4.6 dBm and a second harmonic of 215 GHz with EIRP of 5.0 dBm, as well as any combination of these two harmonics with arbitrary amplitudes and delays. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper demonstrates the sharpest on-chip and radiated pulses with dynamic waveform shaping in any integrated circuit technology. This can open the door to innovations in broadband terahertz imaging, sensing, and spectroscopy.


OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to examine the prevalence and comorbidities of personality disorders among incarcerated juveniles and to investigate the validity of these results.

METHOD
A sample of 790 incarcerated youth (650 boys and 140 girls; mean age = 16.8 years) completed an assessment of Axis II diagnoses (Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality). Subjects also completed secondary questionnaires assessing anger-irritability (Youth Self-Report (YSR)), aggression (YSR), delinquency (Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2), and distress and restraint (Weinberger Adjustment Inventory).

RESULTS
Personality disorders can be found among incarcerated youth at high rates. Many meet the criteria for more than one personality disorder. Those with personality disorders have significant elevations of anger-irritability, aggression, delinquency, and distress and reduced restraint compared with incarcerated youth without a personality disorder.

CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that personality disorders can be found in incarcerated youth at high rates. These findings further our understanding of chronic psychiatric illness and possibly criminal recidivism in this at-risk population. Addition of personality measures in the assessment of delinquents may assist in the development of more effective interventions. Furthermore, the supportive convergent validity of these findings in a population younger than 18 years may indicate a need to reassess the current rationale for the diagnosis of Axis II disorders.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are well-known by its advantages in several applications such as surveillance and monitoring for instance in agricultural applications or fire control among others. These missions can be associated to the robotics area due to the smart applications and tasks that can be performed by these systems autonomously.
Although its designs and developments are in most of the cases joined to the applications, currently it is possible to design or acquire a UAV for specific applications by defining features about the task to perform. One of the problems with the use of UAV is attached to the variations of the operational conditions which can produce some damages during
operation, landing and de-landing tasks. Since several damages can affect the structural state of these vehicles, the use of a Structural Health Monitoring system is a necessity to provide an automatic monitoring system. This work includes a description of a preliminary
damage detection and classification system for a UAV. The system includes the description of the data analysis from a piezoelectric sensor network with independent component analysis and machine learning approaches. Some tests are available to validate the system with data from a wing of the UAV called VANT Solvendus from the
Fundacion Universitaria Los Libertadores. Tests and the application of the methodology for detecting and classifying damage are performed to a part of the UAV wing skin and results show the advantage of the methodology.


The organisation and dynamic behaviour of a copolyelectrolyte monolayer is discussed A linear diblock copolymer of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(4-viny ethylpyridinium bromide) (QP4VP) has been the main focus of the study, although films of both the unquaternised copolymer, PMMA-P4VP and a PMMA homopolymei have also been examined for comparative purposes. The polymers were spread or subphases of water and potassium chloride solutions of varying concentrations to determine changes in structure and dynamics with polymer surface concentration and subphase salt concentration. Monolayer behaviour has been characterised from surface pressure isotherms and the use of Brewster angle microscopy. It has been demonstrated that the shape of the isotherm is dependent on the potassium chloride concentration of the subphase. Information on the organisation of the system has been determined by neutron reflectometry. A systematic variation in organisation occurs as both polymer surface concentration and subphase potassium chloride concentration change. The polyelectrolytic QP4VP block stretches more into the subphase with increasing surface concentration or decreasing salt concentration. The results have been compared to scaling laws for polymer brushes. Dynamic behaviour has been studied by the use of surface quasi-elastic light scattering (SQELS) and resonance between the capillary and dilational waves of the system is observed. The phenomenon of mode mixing and the application of viscoelastic models to the system have also been examined. It has been discovered that an accurate description of the surface viscoelastic properties of the system could not be obtained by the use of standard viscoelastic models. Mode mixing was not observed, even in those systems where negative dilational viscosities were found.


This thesis considers the question of justification of belief in a comprehensive metaphysical system, through an exposition and evaluation of the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre. It defines a comprehensive metaphysical system as a set of ontological and ethical presuppositions which are taken to encompass and explain the nature of the universe, and which provide a framework for human practical reasoning and action. The thesis argues that such a system is primarily a way of interpreting the world and the place of humanity within it, rather than a speculative theory. It considers the extent to which the notion of justification can be applied to such comprehensive systems, drawing on MacIntyre's account of tradition-constituted rationality (TCR) and George Lindbeck's account of religion as a cultural-linguistic system. It outlines the development of MacIntyre's Aristotelian ethics and argues that the further development of that position in Dependent Rational Animals should be given a central role in the interpretation of his mature philosophy. The thesis illuminates the concept of TCR by applying Lindbeck's rule theory of doctrine to the question of the identity of different traditions. The account of tradition that emerges from this exercise provides greater specificity to the concept of epistemological crisis, which is central to MacIntyre's account of the superiority or inferiority of rival traditions. The account of superiority that emerges by linking MacIntyre and Lindbeck's work provides a retrospective measure of the extent to which one tradition can be held to be (provisionally) justified or (absolutely) unjustified as a comprehensive metaphysical system, and provides a rebuttal to the claim that MacIntyre's position is relativist. I argue that while Lindbeck's original account of the nature of religion as a cultural-linguistic system is vulnerable to the charge of relativism, it can be strengthened against this claim by the incorporation of a notion of TCR derived from MacIntyre.


In this paper, the August spoken dialogue system is described. This experimental Swedish dialogue system, which featured an animated talking agent, was exposed to the general public during a trial period of six months. The construction of the system was partly motivated by the need to collect genuine speech data from people with little or no previous experience of spoken dialogue systems. A corpus of more than 10,000 utterances of spontaneous computer- directed speech was collected and empirical linguistic analyses were carried out. Acoustical, lexical and syntactical aspects of this data were examined. In particular, user behavior and user adaptation during error resolution were emphasized. Repetitive sequences in the database were analyzed in detail. Results suggest that computer-directed speech during error resolution is increased in duration, hyperarticulated and contains inserted pauses. Design decisions which may have influenced how the users behaved when they interacted with August are discussed and implications for the development of future systems are outlined.


The lesser auger beetle, Heterobostrychus aequalis (Waterhouse), is a serious pest of seasoned hardwood timber throughout the Oriental region and several areas beyond. Some early collection records of H. aequalis from Australia in the 1950s and 1960s indicated that the insect was present in northern Queensland, but no confirmed breeding population has been found in the past few decades suggesting either that it may have not established permanently or it is difficult to detect. The ambiguity about the breeding status of the pest in Australia has caused confusion for regulating authorities needing to respond to each new post‐border detection. We examined records of H. aequalis in Australian insect collections and from intensive plant pest surveillance activities in Queensland and northern Australia over the past 48 years to resolve this confusion. Until very recently, available evidence suggested that H. aequalis was not established in Australia, despite multiple introductions and apparently suitable climate and hosts. Collection records of the pest are predominantly linked to intercepted items or are recorded as of unknown origin, and no established populations have been found during many years of targeted surveillance. However, a detection of H. aequalis in suburban Cairns, north Queensland, in late 2013 and two more in mid‐2015 in the same general locality do not appear to be linked to any imported material, indicating that there is at least a tenuously established local population. Investigations are underway to confirm this, but the insect is not widely established in Australia and, if present, remains elusive. Our recommended response to any future detection of H. aequalis is to fumigate or destroy the infested material, conduct tracing enquiries and limit surveys to the immediate vicinity of the detection.


Abstract Background The current coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges to surgical training across the world. With the widespread cancellations of clinical and academic activities, educators are looking to technological advancements to help 'bridge the gap' and continue medical education. Solutions Simulation-based training as the 'gold standard' for medical education has limitations that prevent widespread adoption outside suitably resourced centres. Virtual reality has the potential to surmount these barriers, whilst fulfilling the fundamental aim of simulation-based training to provide a safe, effective and realistic learning environment. Current limitations and insights for future The main limitations of virtual reality technology include comfort and the restrictive power of mobile processors. There exists a clear developmental path to address these restrictions. Continued developments of the hardware and software set to deepen immersion and widen the possibilities within surgical education. Conclusion In the post coronavirus disease 2019 educational landscape, virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology may prove invaluable in the training of the next generation of surgeons.


Objectives: To describe functional status at hospital discharge for neonatal and pediatric patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and identify factors associated with functional status and mortality. Design: Secondary analysis of observational data collected by the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network between December 2012 and September 2014. Setting: Eight hospitals affiliated with the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network. Patients: Patients were less than 19 years old and treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Interventions: Functional status was evaluated among survivors using the Functional Status Scale. Total Functional Status Scale scores range from 6 to 30 and are categorized as 6–7 (good), 8–9 (mildly abnormal), 10–15 (moderately abnormal), 16–21 (severely abnormal), and greater than 21 (very severely abnormal). Measurements and Main Results: Of 514 patients, 267 (52%) were neonates (⩽ 30 d old). Indication for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was respiratory for 237 (46%), cardiac for 207 (40%), and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 70 (14%). Among 282 survivors, 89 (32%) had good, 112 (40%) mildly abnormal, 67 (24%) moderately abnormal, and 14 (5%) severely or very severely abnormal function at hospital discharge. Among neonates, development of renal failure and longer hospitalization were independently associated with worse Functional Status Scale. Chronic conditions, prematurity, venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, increased red cell transfusion in the first 24 hours of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and longer extracorporeal membrane oxygenation duration were independently associated with mortality. Among pediatric patients, chronic neurologic conditions, tracheostomy or home ventilator, extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hepatic dysfunction, and longer ICU stay were independently associated with worse Functional Status Scale. Chronic cardiac conditions, hepatic dysfunction, and neurologic or thrombotic complications were independently associated with mortality. Achieving blood lactate concentration less than or equal to 2 mmol/L during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was independently associated with survival in both neonatal and pediatric patients. Conclusions: In this study, about half of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation patients survived with good, mildly abnormal, or moderately abnormal function at hospital discharge. Patient and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation-related factors are associated with functional status and mortality.


The need for low-power alternatives to digital electronic circuits has led to increasing interest in logic devices where information is stored in nanomagnets. This includes both nanomagnetic logic, where information is communicated through magnetic fields of nanomagnets, and all-spin logic (ASL), where information is communicated through spin currents. A key feature needed for logic implementation is nonreciprocity, whereby the output is switched according to the input but not the other way around, thus providing directed information transfer. The objective of this paper is to draw attention to possible ASL-based schemes that utilize the physics of spin-torque to build in nonreciprocity, as in transistors, that could allow logic implementation without the need for special clocking schemes. We use an experimentally benchmarked coupled spin-transport/magnetization-dynamics model to show that a suitably engineered single ASL unit indeed switches in a nonreciprocal manner. We then present heuristic arguments explaining the origin of this directed information transfer. Finally, we present simulations showing that individual ASL devices can be cascaded to construct a ring oscillator circuit, which provides a clear signature of inbuilt directionality.


Plumbago indica  Linn . (Rose-colored Leadwort) has been used in Thai traditional medicine as anthelminth, appetite stimulant, rubefacient, and abortifacient. Plumbagin,an active constituent of  P. indica ,has beenreported to be anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, abortifacient, and anti-cancer agents. In this study, methanolic crude extract of  P. indica  and plumbagin were examined for their effects on hepatic cytochrome P450 2e1 (Cyp2e1) and lung cytochrome P450 2f2 (Cyp2f2) in mice. The 7-week-old male ICR mice were daily intragastrically adminsiteredplumbagin (1, 5, and 15 mg/kg/day) or  P. indica  extract (20, 200, and 1,000 mg/kg/day)consecutively for 14 days. At 24 hoursafter the last treatment, total RNA was prepared form liver and lung. The expression of Cyp2e1 and Cyp2f2 mRNA was determined using RT real-time PCR.The expression of hepatic Cyp2e1 mRNA was significantly increased by plumbagin in a dose-dependent pattern whereas it was slightly increased by P. indica  extract. The influence of plumbagin and  P. indica  extract on the expression of lung Cyp2f2 mRNA was nearly similar to those of hepatic Cyp2e1, though it was at the less extent. Plumbagin significantly induced the lung Cyp2f2 expression whereas  P. indica  extract slightly did. These observations suggested that plumbagin and the  P. indica  extract caused excessive ROS formation and mediated oxidative stress in the mouse livers and lungs. Therefore, the use of plumbagin and/or  P. indica  contained product as alternative medication is of caveat due to its hepatotoxicity and lung toxicity via the induction of oxidative stress-related Cyp2e1 and Cyp2f2.


Background This study aimed to improve on previous modelling work to determine the health gain, cost-utility and health equity impacts from home safety assessment and modification (HSAM) for reducing injurious falls in older people. Methods The model was a Markov macrosimulation one that estimated quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained. The setting was a country with detailed epidemiological and cost data (New Zealand (NZ)) for 2011. A health system perspective was taken and a discount rate of 3% was used (for both health gain and costs). Intervention effectiveness estimates came from a Cochrane systematic review and NZ-specific intervention costs were from a randomised controlled trial. Results In the 65 years and above age group, the HSAM programme cost a total of US$98 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI) US$65 to US$139 million) to implement nationally and the accrued net health system costs were US$74 million (95% UI: cost saving to US$132 million). Health gains were 34 000 QALYs (95% UI: 5000 to 65 000). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was US$6000 (95% UI: cost saving to US$13 000), suggesting that HSAM is highly cost-effective. Targeting HSAM only to older people with previous injurious falls and to older people aged 75 years and above were also cost-effective (ICERs=US$1000 and US$11 000, respectively). There was no evidence for differential cost-effectiveness by gender or by ethnicity (Indigenous New Zealanders: Māori vs non-Māori). Conclusions As per other studies, this modelling study indicates that the provision of an HSAM intervention produces considerable health gain and is highly cost-effective among older people. Targeting this intervention to older people with previous injurious falls is a promising initial approach before any scale up. Trial registration number ACTRN12609000779279.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis with renal vein and inferior vena cava (IVC) tumor thrombus is extremely rare. METHODS: We report a 58-year-old female who suffered from left chest pain initially. Gross hematuria developed later. Abdominal CT and renal MRI disclosed diffusely infiltrating right renal tumor with right renal vein and level II IVC thrombus. Chest CT revealed a left lung tumor then the pathology report of the lung biopsy disclosed metastatic urothelial carcinoma. We performed robot-assisted palliative nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff excision and IVC thrombectomy. RESULTS: The peri- and postoperative periods were uneventful. The final pathology was poorly differentiated variant of urothelial carcinoma which invaded the renal parenchyma, renal vein and IVC. CONCLUSIONS: We would like to share this unusual variant of urothelial carcinoma with even rare IVC tumor thrombus and the feasibility with safety of robotic IVC thrombectomy. Source of Funding: none


Mortgages provided by Canadian banks impose prepayment charges of at least three months' interest if the mortgage is paid off before it expires. That charge is imposed even if the bank profits from the mortgage being repaid early, as would be the case when market interest rates have risen. This is a one-sided term that appears to reflect an imbalance of bargaining power between lenders and borrowers.The most common reason for prepaying a mortgage is that the property is being sold. The standard mortgage terms also include a "due on sale" clause that frequently triggers prepayment charges. The bank purports to be able to prevent the borrower from selling the property without first paying off the mortgage. The existing mortgage cannot be assumed by a new purchaser without the lender's approval, and it can arbitrarily withhold that approval. Given their large diversified portfolio of mortgages, and the other remedies available, banks do not require this degree of control from a risk perspective. Their main motivation for inserting the clause is likely to be the increased profits generated by prepayment charges.Even though almost all mortgages contain this clause, there has not been a single reported case in Ontario, since 1960, of a lender attempting to sue a borrower for breaching this term. This raises a suspicion that they have overlooked breaches because they are not confident of its enforceability. Applying the principles of equity to the mortgage contract suggests that it ought not to be enforceable. Legislation should be amended to clarify this situation for the benefit of borrowers.


Symptomatic obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has been proven to be a risk factor for hypertension and vascular dysfunction, and has been proposed to be causally related with cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Searches of bibliographical databases revealed that several mechanisms seem to underpin the association between OSA and cardiac arrhythmias: intermittent hypoxia associated with autonomic nervous system activation and increased oxidative stress, which may lead to cardiac cellular damage and alteration in myocardial excitability; recurrent arousals, resulting in sympathetic activation and coronary vasoconstriction; and increased negative intrathoracic pressure which may mechanically stretch the myocardial walls and, thus, promote acute changes in myocardial excitability as well as structural remodelling of the myocardium. Findings from cross-sectional studies suggest a high prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with OSA and a high prevalence of OSA in those with cardiac arrhythmias. Preliminary evidence from uncontrolled interventional studies suggests that treatment of OSA may prevent cardiac arrhythmias. In conclusion, there is preliminary evidence that OSA is associated with the development of cardiac arrhythmias. Data from randomised controlled studies are needed to definitively clarify the role of OSA in arrhythmogenesis.


We propose a novel conservative visibility culling technique based on the Prioritized-Layered Projection (PLP) algorithm. PLP is a time-critical rendering technique that computes, for a given viewpoint, a partially correct image by rendering only a subset of the geometric primitives, those that PLP determines to be most likely visible. Our new algorithm builds on PLP and provides an efficient way of finding the remaining visible primitives. We do this by adding a second phase to PLP which uses image-space techniques for determining the visibility status of the remaining geometry. Another contribution of our work is to show how to efficiently implement such image-space visibility queries using currently available OpenGL hardware and extensions. We report on the implementation of our techniques on several graphics architectures, analyze their complexity, and discuss a possible hardware extension that has the potential to further increase performance.


The main scope of the paper is determining the effectiveness of these techniques for plummeting rate of software defects produce failures. The quality of software will be found based on the quality, cycle time, effort, product size, product complexity and schedule pressure. Developing software to meet functional needs with acceptable levels of quality, within budget, and on schedule, is a goal pursued by every software development organization. Many organizations are adopting the best practices in software development, such as those based on Capability Maturity Model


Abstract A variety of factors have contributed to China's recent recovery in elite swimming in particular its success in the London Olympiad. The poor performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was a 'wake-up call', which in conjunction with Beijing's successful Olympic bid in 2001, opened policy windows prompting large-scale review and reform from which a broad range of 'heavyweight' policy actions were introduced and implemented. However, the road to recent success has been 'bumpy' during which there were other key events that have left an indelible imprint on Chinese swimming. Therefore, the multiple streams framework in general and the concept of policy windows in particular afford a theoretical gateway to structure policy analysis of elite swimming in China. Moreover, as a Western-derived theory the application of which to a sports context has been very sporadic, the multiple streams framework is evaluated regarding its applicability, or 'compatibility'. Five semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders were conducted, accompanied by comprehensive document analysis of official documents and website information of associated sports-governing bodies and associations, and influential domestic and foreign media.


First paragraphs: I am often asked why so few agricultural economists seem interested in sustainable agriculture or sustainable community development. Perhaps it's because unlimited growth is one of the foundational assumptions of neoclassical economics. If there are no limits to economic growth, questions of sustainability are needless or pointless. Ecological economists challenge this assumption and call for a  steady-state economy,  meaning one "that develops qualitatively without growing quantitatively... maintained at a level that is both sufficient for a good life and within the assimilative and regenerative capacities of the [natural] ecosystem" (Daly, 2013). However, most economists seem to believe that human imagination and creativity is capable of finding a substitute for any natural resource we may deplete and finding a technological solution for any problem we might create — given adequate economic incentives. One argument for unlimited economic growth is limitless dematerialization, meaning an infinite ability to extract more economic value from fewer natural and human resources. As ecological economists point out, this conflicts directly with the law of entropy, which is the second law of thermodynamics. Everything of any use to us, including everything of economic value, ultimately depends on the usefulness of energy. According to the law of entropy, whenever energy is used to do anything useful, some of its usefulness is lost. Accepting the law of entropy, there are physical limits to dematerialization and thus limits to economic growth. Unlimited economic growth would require ephemeralization,  a term coined by Buckminster Fuller, meaning the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing" (Ephemeralization, 2013, para. 1). It doesn't seem reasonable to bet the future of humanity on this possibility....


This article explores some of the core concepts that underlie contract law. It rejects the feasibility of a uniform theory of contract law including a critique of the economic analysis of contract law. The importance of efficient contract rules and efficient contracts is not disputed, but efficiency's explanatory power is limited due to the breadth of contract law, as well as the complexity and dynamism of modern contracting. Behavioral law and economics is introduced as a method for making law and economics more predictive of real world contracting. The article selects three core principles for analysis—justice, fault, and efficiency that help explain the essence of contract law. It also reflects on the tension between freedom of contract and paternalism.


We develop a theory of rational self-medication. The idea is that forward-looking individuals, lacking access to better treatment options, attempt to manage the symptoms of mental and physical pain outside of formal medical care. They use substances that relieve symptoms in the short run but that may be harmful in the long run. For example, heavy drinking could alleviate current symptoms of depression but could also exacerbate future depression or lead to alcoholism. Rational self-medication suggests that, when presented with a safer, more effective treatment, individuals will substitute towards it. To investigate, we use forty years of longitudinal data from the Framingham Heart Study and leverage the exogenous introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). We demonstrate an economically meaningful reduction in heavy alcohol consumption for men when SSRIs became available. Additionally, we show that addiction to alcohol inhibits substitution. Our results suggest a role for rational self-medication in understanding the origin of substance abuse. Furthermore, our work suggests that punitive policies targeting substance abuse may backfire, leading to substitution towards even more harmful substances to self-medicate. In contrast, policies promoting medical innovation that provide safer treatment options could obviate the need to self-medicate with dangerous or addictive substances.


In Europe, the criteria for designing new buildings are regulated by a set of European Directives and national laws having as a goal the creation of net zero energy buildings by the year 2020. Moreover, according to 2010/31/EU Directive after 31 December 2018, new buildings occupied and owned by public authorities must be nearly zeroenergy buildings. The low energy consumption must be accompanied by well-defined thermal characteristics of the building envelope (both opaque and transparent components) and HVAC systems, and must ensure acceptable internal thermal comfort conditions. An interesting case study, proposed in this work, is represented by the elderly nursing building "RelaXXI" which hosts dependent people who require 24-hour special assistance and medical care. Designers focused on the indoor environmental quality as the main goal of the project and the HVAC system has been designed pursuing the maximum integration with the building and its architecture. The aims of this paper are to (1) describe the main design characteristics of the RelaXXI building, (2) analyze the results obtained by dynamic simulation of heating and cooling energy demands, and (3) present the results of performance monitoring completed to date.


Maritime radar image may be a basis for a perspective ship position fixing system. Images obtained from navigational radars possess usually great amount of information. Using all of these information is usually practically impossible. It is necessary to compress information imbedded in each image to the size acceptable from the practical point of view. Such an effect may be obtained by application of feature extraction methods. This article presents one of such methods that is based on capabilities of modified self-organizing Kohonen neural network.


This study uses the global climate–economy–biosphere (CoCEB) model formulated in Part 1 to investigate economic aspects of deforestation control and carbon sequestration in forests, as well as the efficiency of carbon capture and 15 storage (CCS) technologies as policy measures for climate change mitigation. We assume — as in Part 1 — that replacement of one technology with another occurs in terms of a logistic law, so that the same law also governs the dynamics of reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emission using CCS technologies. In order to take into account the effect of deforestation control, a slightly more complex description of the carbon cycle than in Part 1 is needed. Consequently, we add a biomass equation into the CoCEB model and analyze the ensuing feedbacks and their effects on per capita gross domestic product (GDP) 20 growth. The paper indicates that an increased investment in CCS will not suffice to reduce CO2 emissions, and that a reduction of deforestation would be as effective as investment in lowand zero-carbon or CCS technologies for reducing climate damage. This study also demonstrates that a combined mitigation regime — investment in low-carbon and CCS technologies, as well as deforestation control— enables the most ambitious climate policy scenario considered here to limit warming throughout the 21st century to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels without a temporal overshoot, as well as 25 reduces impacts to the global per capita GDP by 21.8 % by 2100 relative to the "business-as-usual" pathway which reaches 4.9 °C.


We studied in this thesis the critical behaviours of percolation and directed percolation models using Monte Carlo simulations, including estimating percolation thresholds, critical exponents, and various universal amplitudes. In addition, we examined the geometric structure of percolation clusters, and verified the critical behaviours of a leaf-excluded percolation model belong to the standard percolation universality class. Finally, we rigorously studied an n-component face-cubic model on the complete graph, by a large deviations analysis. We proved limit theorems for the standard face-cubic model, and studied phase diagrams for the general face-cubic model.


Background Autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) application appears to improve tendon healing in traumatic tendon injuries, but basic knowledge of how PRP promotes tendon repair is needed. Hypothesis Platelet-rich plasma has a positive effect on cell proliferation and collagen production and induces the production of matrix-degrading enzymes and endogenous growth factors by human tenocytes. Study Design Controlled laboratory study. Methods Human tenocytes were cultured 14 days in 2% fetal calf serum medium complemented with 0%, 10%, or 20% vol/vol platelet-rich clot releasate ([PRCR] the active releasate of PRP) or platelet-poor clot releasate (PPCR). At day 4,7, and 14, cell amount, total collagen, and gene expression of collagen Iα1 (COL1) and Mod (COL3), matrix metalloproteinases ([MMPs] MMP1, MMP3, and MMP13), vascular endothelial-derived growth factor (VEGF)-A, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 were analyzed. Results Platelet numbers in PRP increased to 2.55 times baseline. Growth-factor concentrations of VEGF and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB were higher in PRCR than PPCR. Both PRCR and PPCR increased cell number and total collagen, whereas they decreased gene expression of COL1 and COL3 without affecting the COL3/COL1 ratio. PRCR, but not PPCR, showed upregulation of MMP1 and MMP3 expression. Matrix metalloproteinase 13 expression was not altered by either treatment. PRCR increased VEGF-A expression at all time points and TGF-β1 expression at day 4. Conclusion In human tenocyte cultures, PRCR, but also PPCR, stimulates cell proliferation and total collagen production. PRCR, but not PPCR, slightly increases the expression of matrix-degrading enzymes and endogenous growth factors. Clinical Relevance In vivo use of PRP, but also of PPP to a certain extent, in tendon injuries might accelerate the catabolic demarcation of traumatically injured tendon matrices and promote angiogenesis and formation of a fibrovascular callus. Whether this will also be beneficial for degenerative tendinopathies remains to be elucidated.


Disambiguating named entities is an important problem in natural language processing, knowledge base, question answering systems. In the paper, we propose a Markov logic network knowledge graph solution for solving entity resolution problem. First, we employ knowledge graph to represent the entity relationship between linked entities in the knowledge base. Then, we utilize MLN to inference the inconsistent relationship in the knowledge graph, and disambiguate the entities in the process of entity disambiguation. As far as we know, inferencing with MLN is a first attempt for entity disambiguation in the knowledge graph. We evaluate the proposed solution with three real world knowledge bases and compare it with four baseline solutions. The experimental results demonstrate that our solution is 7% higher than other baseline methods with F1 measure. We also test our scheme and compare entity resolution systems on four datasets with three knowledge base corpora. Extensive experiments show that our solution achieves higher precision and recall than baseline solutions.


Mouse Behavioral Testing: How to Use Mice in Behavioral Neuroscience provides detailed explanations of how to conduct an experiment on mouse behavior from the initial planning of the research design through every step of the process until the data analysis phase. The book discusses the practical matters that need to be considered carefully when working with any species of animal, such as how many animals need to be tested. It describes the tests and techniques devised specifically for work with mice. Every step of the research process is illustrated with real situations encountered in previous studies. All examples are based on real experiments, and extensive details of several published experiments are provided. The essential features of a behavioral test protocol are outlined, and several complete protocols are provided. Methods to balance the order of tests and determine throughput are described, then a completely balanced order of tests in a complex experiment is presented. The book will be useful for those already familiar with the general principles of research but are new to the realm of behavioral testing of live mice. It will also serve as a text for a formal course, most likely at the graduate level. * A guide to running a behavioral testing lab, including the many aspects of mouse research beyond the confines of the specific test* Diagrams and photographs are shown for many kinds of apparatus and test situations with sufficient details such as dimensions to enable building of replicas* Provides step-by-step instructions on planning and executing behavioral experiments in order to run them successfully* A companion website will provide access to statistical utilities in Excel and test protocols, examples of real documents used for published studies, and video clips of the mice behaviors resulting from various tests


Blind beamforming is an important technique that is used to determine signal sources from the original signals mixed with additive noise and to estimate their direction of arrival (DOA). Before recovering the DOA information, it is necessary to preprocess the data matrix to decorrelate and normalize the mixed sources before applying nonlinear algorithms for the signal separation. A popular choice for the preprocessor has been based on the singular value decomposition (SVD). In this paper we propose an alternative preprocessor based on the ULV decomposition (ULVD). We compare both in an algebraic beamformer in terms of performance and accuracy.


The COVID-19 pandemic in the UK was accompanied by excess all-cause mortality at a national level, only part of which was accounted for by known infections. Excess mortality has previously been described in people who had received care from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), a large mental health service provider for 1.2m residents in south London. The SLaM Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) data resource receives 24-hourly updates from its full electronic health record, including regularly sourced national mortality on all past and present SLaM service users. The SLaM urban catchment has high levels of deprivation and is ethnically diverse, so the objective of the descriptive analyses reported in this manuscript was to compare mortality in SLaM service users from 16th March to 15th May 2020 to that for the same period in 2019 within specific ethnic groups: i) White British, ii) Other White, iii) Black African/Caribbean, iv) South Asian, v) Other, and vi) missing/not stated. For Black African/Caribbean patients (the largest minority ethnic group) this ratio was 3.33, compared to 2.47 for White British patients. Considering premature mortality (restricting to deaths below age 70), these ratios were 2.74 and 1.96 respectively. Ratios were also high for those from Other ethnic groups (2.63 for all mortality, 3.07 for premature mortality).


Objective: To examine the effects of smoking on cartilage loss and pain at the knee in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Methods: 159 men with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis who participated in a 30-month, prospective, natural history study of knee osteoarthritis were examined. The more symptomatic knee was imaged using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline, and again at 15 and 30 months of follow-up. Cartilage was scored using the Whole-Organ MRI Score semiquantitative method at the medial and lateral tibiofemoral joints and at the patellofemoral joint. At baseline and follow-up visits, the severity of knee pain was assessed using a Visual Analogue Scale pain score (0–100 mm). Results: Among the 159 men, 19 (12%) were current smokers at baseline. Current smokers were younger (mean (standard deviation (SD)) age 62 (9) v 69 (9) years) and leaner (mean (SD) body mass index (BMI): 28.9 (3.2) v 31.3 (4.8) kg/m2) than men who were not current smokers. When adjusted for age, BMI and baseline cartilage scores, men who were current smokers were found to have an increased risk for cartilage loss at the medial tibiofemoral joint (odds ratio (OR) 2.3, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0 to 5.4) and the patellofemoral joint (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.1 to 5.7). Current smokers also had higher adjusted pain scores at baseline (60.5 v 45.0, p<0.05) and at follow-up (59.4 v 44.3, p<0.05) than men who were not current smokers. Conclusions: Men with knee osteoarthritis who smoke sustain greater cartilage loss and have more severe knee pain than men who do not smoke.


Over the last 15 years, Portugal and the United States have had the same average unemployment rate, about 6.5%. But behind these similar rates hide two very different labor markets. Unemployment duration in Portugal is more that three times that of the United States. Symmetrically, the flow of workers into unemployment in Portugal is, in proportion to the labor force, less than a third of what it is in the United States. Relying on evidence from Portuguese and U.S. micro data sets, we show that these lower flows come in roughly equal proportions form lower job flows, and from lower worker flows relative to job flows. We then argue that these differences plausibly come from high employment protection in Portugal. We finally show how, looking across countries, higher employment protection is associated with lower flows and higher unemployment duration. In short, high employment protection makes economies more sclerotic; but because it affects unemployment duration and flows in opposite directions, it has an ambiguous effect on the unemployment rate.


BACKGROUND
General practitioners are aware of the need to provide easily accessible health promotion information for their patients. Although many practices use health promotion posters in their surgeries, there appears to have been no formal evaluation of their effectiveness.

AIM
A study was undertaken to investigate whether patients read and remembered waiting room posters, and if so, what factors influenced this.

METHOD
A short questionnaire was distributed to patients in one practice following their consultation. It asked what they remembered of the poster display in the waiting room.

RESULTS
Of 319 patients attending a doctor during the study period 82% said they had noticed the posters, 95% of whom reported they had also read them. Patients over 50 years of age were significantly more likely to say they had read the posters than younger patients, but significantly fewer showed interest in further information. The sex of patients did not influence their reading of posters or their interest in further health promotion literature. The longer patients had to wait for the doctor, the more likely they were to remember the subject of the posters correctly. Some subjects appeared to attract more patients' attention than others, in particular the displays about smoking cessation and about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Overall 53% said they would be interested in more information.

CONCLUSION
Patients say they read and remember the subject of waiting room posters. Posters in the waiting room can increase awareness of health promotion issues.


This is a study on trap shyness and trap avoidance in the kangaroo rat species Dipodomys heermanni arenae. This species is being studied as a surrogate for the critically endangered Dipodomys heermanni morroensis. This is an ongoing study that has been continuing for the past three years, with four three-day session per year. The study is a specific look at the effects of the use of Sherman traps on kangaroo rat behavior between individual session days. Capture proportions for each of the three days of each session were calculated and compared through a t-test. The current results of this data set display no support for a significant effect of trap shyness and avoidance on this species of kangaroo rats.


Forest management generally, as well as forest research and forestry assistance, have long been within the jurisdictions of the Agriculture Committees. Although most forestry programs are permanently authorized, forestry has usually been addressed in the periodic farm bills to reauthorize many agriculture programs. The 2008 farm bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, P.L. 110-246) contained a separate forestry title, with provisions establishing national priorities for forestry assistance; requiring statewide forest assessments and strategies; providing competitive funding for certain programs; creating new programs for open space conservation and for emergency reforestation; reauthorizing four existing programs; and prohibiting imports of illegally logged wood products, among other provisions. Forestry provisions were included in other titles as well—the conservation title revised the definition of conservation actions to include forestry activities for all conservation programs; the trade title required special reporting on softwood lumber imports; the energy title established two woody biomass energy programs; and the tax title included three provisions altering tax treatments for forests and landowners. Additional forestry issues have been suggested by various interests for inclusion in the next farm bill. Protocols for measuring, monitoring, and verifying forest carbon sequestration projects, which might qualify as offsets under existing or proposed regulatory schemes (e.g., regional programs or a national cap-and-trade system) or in voluntary carbon markets, could be included in the farm bill. Other ecosystem services—forest values that have not traditionally been sold in markets, such as clean air and water, wildlife habitats, and scenic beauty—were addressed in the 2008 farm bill, and Congress could extend, expand, alter, or terminate the existing ecosystem services program. Protecting communities from wildfire continues to be a priority for some, while controlling invasive species that threaten native forests is a priority for others. Congress could address programs for these purposes in the next farm bill. Also, use of woody biomass for renewable energy could be combined with wildfire protection and invasive species control, and the next farm bill could extend, expand, alter, or add to the woody biomass energy programs created in the 2008 farm bill and in other legislation. Funding to assist landowners to implement sustainable forestry practice is another issue; while forestry was included for all agriculture conservation programs in the 2008 farm bill, the previous sole forest-specific assistance program was not reauthorized. Finally, assisting forest-dependent communities in diversifying their economies has also been debated.


The present paper analyzes two important aspects in the amplification process of the recent financial crisis to the real economy, that is the securitisation of financial assets (and in particular of loans and mortgages) and the growth of bank off-balance sheet activities, for instance through the development of Special Purpose Vehicles, with specific attention to the US context. In particular, this work aims to examine whether and how the increase in off-balance sheet credit exposure to credit derivatives, mainly due to loan securitisation, may have affected the growth rate of loans over the past few years, also by distinguishing different categories of loans. For this purpose, we present the results of a panel fixed-effect estimation and of a panel VAR analysis, using quarterly data from the balance sheets of 39 US commercial banks and for a period between 1998 and 2008. The results show that a rise in off-balance credit exposure may have – after some time lags - a negative impact on the growth rate of bank lending, due to the potential and actual losses related to the off-balance sheet activities. However, the effects on the single categories of loans depend on their maturity: the negative effect due to an increase in off-balance sheet exposure is stronger for long-term loans, like mortgages or real estate loans, while some positive impact on bank lending may arise for short-term loans, such as commercial and industrial loans, because of the liquidity/maturity transformation function associated with securitisation activities. The results of the paper regarding the impact of an increase in off-balance sheet exposures on bank deleveraging process may have some relevant policy implications for the design of financial regulation, particularly in the area of shadow banking, supporting the current policy initiatives for the revision of risk weights in securitisation exposures as well as for the implementation of consolidation regimes concerning bank off-balance sheet activities.


Clearance of herpes simplex virus (HSV) from spinal ganglia of experimentally infected mice is known to be dependent on CD8+ T-cells but not on destruction of infected neurons, consistent with a non-cytolytic Tc2 response in the peripheral nervous system. Here, we demonstrate the striking rapidity of such a response in C57BL/10 mice. The number of neurons containing viral DNA and viral antigens increased until 136 h after inoculation of virulent HSV type 1 (strain SC16) into flank skin. Subsequent disappearance of HSV DNA and antigens from infected ganglia was virtually complete only 8 h later. A consistent and unexpected observation was detection of viral antigens in sensory nerve axons for at least 8 h after their disappearance from neuronal somas, raising the intriguing possibility that virus or viral proteins may be transported distally after infection has been terminated.


We built a virtual machine monitor for the Linksys WRT54GL wireless router to run Embedded Xinu as a guest OS within OpenWrt. The system uses a kernel module and signal handlers to support the virtualization of the guest OS. Sufficient support is provided to allow Xinu to startup, handle timer interrupts, provide I/O, and execute processes in the Xinu shell. The virtual machine performance for processor and memory intensive tasks is similar to the execution time when running the two operating systems alone. Network throughput is unaffected by the VMM.


The irreversible loss of crown gall-inducing ability of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C-58 during growth at 37 C is shown to be due to loss of a large plasmid (1.2 X 10-8 daltons). The gene responsible for this high rate of plasmid loss at elevated temperatures seems to be located on the plasmid. In addition, another spontaneous avirulent variant, A. tumefaciens strain IIBNV6 is shown to lack the virulence plasmid which its virulent sibling strain, IIBV7, possesses. Deoxyribonucleic acid reassociation measurements prove that the plasmid is eliminated, not integrated into the chromosome, in both of the avirulent derivatives. Transfer of virulence from donor strain C-58 to avirulent recipient strain A136 results from the transfer of a plasmid, which appears identical to the donor plasmid by deoxyribonucleic acid reassociation measurements. The transfer of virulence in another cross, K27 X A136, was also shown to result from the transfer of a large plasmid. These findings establish unequivocally that the large plasmid determines virulence. Two additional genetic determinants have been located on the virulence plasmid of A. tumefaciens strain C-58: the ability to utilize nopaline and sensitivity to a bacteriocin produced by strain 84. The latter trait can be exploited for selection of avirulent plasmid-free derivatives of strain C-58. The trait of nopaline utilization appears to be on the virulence plasmid also in strains IIBV7 and K27.


Introduction: Most colonic injuries are due to penetrating abdominal trauma. Colon injury rarely occurs after blunt abdominal trauma. Colonic trauma is usually associated with other intra-abdominal and extra-abdominal injuries. The low incidence of colon injury due to blunt abdominal trauma and the lack of a definitive diagnostic method for the same can lead to delays in diagnosis and treatment, subsequently resulting in high morbidity and mortality. Case presentation: a 25-years-old man who present after seven days of blunt abdominal trauma with clinical evidence of peritonitis, on laparotomy isolated sigmoid colon perforation was found which was managed with end colostomy. Conclusion: Isolated colon injury after blunt abdominal trauma is rare and difficult to diagnose. Delay in diagnosis increases the morbidity and mortality rates. Therefore it is important for the trauma surgeon to keep high index of suspicion colonic perforation, to facilitate its timely diagnosis and management.


Among the many water quality indices which influence fish distribution, water temperature is one of the most important parameter (Richter and Kolmes, 2005). In lake and coastal ecosystems, diurnal temperature cycles are regularly disturbed by seasonal and anthropogenic changes in the environment (Konecki et. al, 1995). Seasonal changes such as strong summer solar radiation can cause lakes, streams, and ponds to heat up; anthropogenic changes such as deforestation of streamside vegetation can as well increase radiation incident on surface waters (Konecki et. al, 1995). One of the many concerns associated with hotter summer weather is thermal stratification, a phenomenon which is known to negatively affect species assemblages at the population level (Carter, 2005). In order to protect native fish species from thermal stratification in Stoney Creek's pond, this appraisal's purpose is to predict summer epilimnion temperatures so that mitigative actions may be taken beforehand. From 6 hours of semi-continuous air-water temperature monitoring in the off-channel pond, three linear equations representing the air-water interface were derived from simple regression. The three models were based off of three individual sites along the pond, each varying in shade and depth. Results indicated that shade and depth are negligible variables when considering surface water temperatures, thus two of the three models were disregarded. Model 1 found that air temperatures of 27.3C or higher above the off-channel pond correlate with dangerously warm pond temperatures (in respect to salmonids). 7 years of climate records were then sifted through to find the proportion of summer days exceeding the predicted critical air temperatures. Climate records expect 2.6 days in June, 6.1 days in July, and 6.3 days in August to have dangerously warm water temperatures (Glenayre Climate Station 2004-2010).


This thesis is focused on examining drug resistance mechanisms in an aggressive form of breast cancer. In particular, this work investigates how loss of the tumour suppressor gene PTEN, a common genetic disruption in breast cancer, influences the response to anti-cancer therapies. To achieve this, experimental investigations were combined with mathematical modelling. Research into this area is important as drug resistance is a major challenge and unmet medical need in many cancers, including breast cancer.


Subdivision surfaces are a convenient representation for modeling objects of arbitrary topological type. In this dissertation, we investigate the analysis of a piecewise smooth subdivision scheme, and we apply the scheme to reconstruct objects from non-uniformly sampled data points.
Defined as the limit of repeated refinement of a mesh of 3D control points, subdivision surfaces require analysis to establish convergence to a well-defined, tangent plane smooth $(G\sp1)$ surface. Recent research has focused on analyzing smooth surface schemes in which the rules are symmetrical about each vertex and edge. However, a scheme for creating surfaces with sharp features has rules that do not exhibit this symmetry. In this dissertation, we extend the use of eigenanalysis and characteristic maps to analyze a piecewise smooth subdivision scheme that generalizes quartic triangular B-spline surfaces.
Subdivision surfaces are suitable for optimized surface fitting and have been used in the reconstruction of objects from 3D data. Previous methods have created accurate representations of objects from dense and uniform data samples. As a practical low cost alternative, we present an algorithm for creating a subdivision surface from data sampled uniformly along closed curves and non-uniformly within the regions they enclose.


Make It 0 is the Lifebox Foundation's global campaign to ensure that surgery is safer in low-resource settings. We are thrilled to welcome SASA as the newest campaign member. We know that your support will be crucial in helping us to deliver essential equipment and education to the anaesthesia providers who need it most. Your contribution will, without a doubt, save lives.


Complex and risky technologies--technologies such as new drugs for the treatment of AIDS that promise great benefits to our society but carry significant risks--pose many problems for political leaders and the policy makers responsible for overseeing them. Public agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration are told by political superiors not to inhibit important technological advances and may even be charged with promoting such development but must also make sure that no major accidents occur under their watch. Given the large costs associated with catastrophic accidents, the general public and elected officials often demand reliable or failure-free management of these technologies and have little tolerance for the error.Research in this area has lead to a schism between those who argue that it is possible to have reliable management techniques and safely manage complex technologies and others who contend that such control is difficult at best. In this book C. F. Larry Heimann advances an important solution to this problem by developing a general theory of organizational reliability and agency decision making. The book looks at both external and internal influences on reliability in agency decision making. It then tests theoretical propositions developed in a comparative case study of two agencies involved with the handling of risky technologies: NASA and the manned space flight program and the FDA's handling of pharmaceuticals--particularly new AIDS therapies.Drawing on concepts from engineering, organizational theory, political science, and decision theory, this book will be of interest to those interested in science and technology policy, bureaucratic management and reform, as well as those interested in health and space policy.C. F. Larry Heimann is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. The breast is a rare site for metastases, and their molecular characteristics have not been studied yet. Intrinsic molecular genetics, cancer characteristics, and breast tissue immune responses in diverse metastases to the breast have not been previously studied. We identified 64 patients with cancers metastatic to the breast: 51 carcinomas and 13 melanomas. Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), steroid receptors, and HER2/neu expressions were evaluated using immunohistochemistry. Gene sequencing, copy number alterations, microsatellite instability, and tumor mutational burden were performed using next-generation sequencing platforms. The 3 most common primary sites for metastatic carcinomas were lung (37%), ovary (29%), and fallopian tubes/peritoneum (14%). TP53 mutations were commonly (50%) observed among the carcinoma cases, while other mutations were characteristic for the primary cancers (VHL in renal, BRCA1 in the fallopian tube, and BRAF in melanomas). High tumor mutational burden was detected in 5/14 carcinomas and 3/7 melanomas. Tumor cell PD-L1 expression was detected in 6 carcinomas, but not in any of the melanomas, whereas immune cells' expression of PD-L1 was seen in 17 carcinomas and 6 melanomas. Estrogen receptor status was positive in 13/49 carcinomas including 12 adenocarcinomas originating from the ovary and fallopian tube or peritoneum and 1 duodenal neuroendocrine carcinoma. No carcinoma was HER2/neu positive. Intrinsic genetic characteristics of the metastases to the breast followed the pattern commonly seen in primary tumors. Biomarkers of potential benefit to immune checkpoint inhibition therapy were limited to PD-L1-positive non–small cell lung cancer. No common characteristics of the heterogeneous group of tumor metastases to this organ were identified.


We investigate the 30 year increase in the level and dispersion of house prices across U.S. metropolitan areas in a calibrated dynamic general equilibrium island model. The model is based on two main assumptions: households flow in and out metropolitan areas in response to local wage shocks, and the housing supply cannot adjust instantly because of regulatory constraints. Feeding in our model the 30 year increase in cross-sectional wage dispersion that we document based on metropolitan-level data, we generate the observed increase in house price level and dispersion. In equilibrium, workers flow towards exceptionally productive metropolitan areas and drive house prices up. The calibration also reveals that, while a baseline level of regulation is important, a tightening of regulation by itself cannot account for the increase in house price level and dispersion: in equilibrium, workers flow out of tightly regulated towards less regulated metropolitan areas, undoing most of the price impact of additional local supply regulations. Finally, the calibration with increasing wage dispersion suggests that the welfare effects of housing supply regulation are large.


ABSTRACT Components of resistance to the faba bean rust (Uromyces viciae-fabae) were studied at the histological level in seedlings and adult plants of nine faba bean (Vicia faba) lines differing in their level of resistance. Resistance of these lines was previously shown to be characterized macroscopically by an increased latent period, a decreased colony size, and a relatively decreased infection frequency. In some lines, the resistance also was associated with macroscopically visible necrosis. Histological investigations revealed few differences in spore germination and appressorium formation. Significant levels of aborted stomatal penetration by the rust fungus were found on all resistant lines. However, differences among lines were more evident once the stomata were penetrated by the infection structures. Resistance was mainly due to a restriction of haustorium formation with varying levels of early abortion of the colonies, a reduction in the number of haustoria per colony, and smaller colony size. In addition, necrosis of the host cells associated with infection hyphae was detectable in some lines from the beginning of colony development. This microscopically visible necrosis became stronger from 4 days after inoculation, resulting in a reduced growth of the colony. Differences in resistance levels were more marked in adult plants than in seedlings.


This paper explores the question how far "letters" as one specific text type can be subdivided into smaller groups of texts (i.e. subtypes such as "requests", "orders", or "reports") on the basis of socio-psychological and pragmatic dimensions and factors, including speech act and accommodation theory. This paper argues that this differentiation into socio-pragmatic subtypes actually can be made and that these subtypes materialize in significant systematic morphosyntactic variability. The idea is explored and illustrated on the basis of pronoun and relativizer variation in the late Middle English Paston Letters. In particular, it is shown how authors use their individual stylistic freedom to pursue specific communicative purposes in different types of letters.


The purpose of this study was to assess the beliefs and attitudes college women hold towards their hair and other women's hair. Previous literature has found that women are the most likely to be dissatisfied with their appearances and have lower self-esteem compared to their male counterparts. However, research has not focused on particular characteristics of appearance that may account for differences in self-esteem. The purpose of this study was to understand the beliefs and attitudes college women hold towards their hair and other women's hair. Participants (n=35) in the current study were asked to take a survey that assessed their self-esteem, hairesteem, personality, hair type, reflected appraisals of hair as well as demographic information. Results indicated that there are ethnic differences in reflected appraisals of hair with Asians, most often, rating a straight-haired model as attractive and African-Americans rating the same model as least attractive. For a model with short kinky hair, Asians were more likely to find her more attractive compared to other racial groups. Results indicated slight hair type differences in self-esteem across the 10 different hair types, with women with type 2b hair reporting the lowest self-esteem out of all other hair type groups. Female participants with type 4b reported the highest levels of self-esteem, however this data was not significant (p =.91). The current research added to the knowledge base about the beliefs and attitudes that college women have towards hair and how those beliefs and attitudes can be influenced by a women's hair type, personality, self-esteem, or ethnicity. Future research should include a close reexamination of ethnic differences in relation to appraisals of hair.


A case study of an organic food company in the Slovak Republic involved in producing and sourcing inputs, food processing and distribution is presented. The case is based on a June 2014 "live†case study prepared for students in International MBA in Agribusiness programs at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Warsaw University of Life Sciences and the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev. The company was established in 2001 with the objective to bring organic food to health conscious consumers. The company grows organic spelt grain, wheat, rye, buckwheat, herbs and apples on its 156 ha and 400 ha of owned and rented farmland. The company further processes these crops into more than 40 finished products. Students are presented with company information and summaries of a company visit and discussions with management. Students perform PEST and SWOT analyses, identify a shortage of owned and leased land as a problem the company must address, conduct research and analysis,and recommend product specification contracts as a solution to the problem.


Currently, the treatment of prostate cancer under open MRI at the University of Geneva Hospital, applying high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, involves three main steps : needle implantation, dosimetric calculations and irradiation. As such, there is no pre-planning of the treatment, the experience of the physician providing the sole basis for deciding upon the number and position of the needles. Moreover, since the implantation and the dosimetry are performed at different places and at different times, it is not possible to modify the needle configuration, in case it is found that the entire tumour volume cannot be sufficiently irradiated. The present research aims at achieving a significant improvement of the cancer treatment by introducing new methods for HDR brachytherapy involving inverse planning procedures and three dimensional dosimetric databases. Thereby, the possibility is offered to the radio-oncologist to define the regions to be treated, to express the desired values for the dose to be imposed or tolerated for each organ, to propose a specific needle configuration and to verify the relevance of the proposition before proceeding to implantation. Finally, a guiding system, coupled to the MR imaging, serves to ensure correspondence between virtual and real treatment. Such possibilities require the development and validation of appropriate routines for dosimetric calculations and the accurate and rapid optimisation of irradiation conditions, for various source types, both gamma and beta emitting. The final product of the present research is a programme called PROTON. Other necessary developments, which are being implemented by a collaborating organisation, viz. the Signal Processing Laboratory at EPFL, concern the graphical interface of the programme, the volume segmentation tools and the implantation guidance. The dosimetric problem is solved by applying detailed Monte Carlo simulations to generate 3-dimensional databases, which are large enough in extent to cover a standard treatment volume with a single source placed at its centre. The dose map corresponding to location of several sources can then be obtained via a linear combination of dose values from the database of the specific source. The chosen sources for the simulations are the 192Ir model microSelectron of Nucletron B. V., two HDR prototypes with 169Yb and 144Ce and the LDR implants 6711 with 1251 from OncoSeed and 200 with 103Pd from TheraSeed. The next step taken is to verify the accuracy and pertinence of the databases, via experimental studies involving a single source and by comparisons with numerical results obtained applying other methods. The experimental verification carried out has been for the 192Ir and 144Ce sources. Radial dose rate distributions were measured in a water phantom employing accurately calibrated detectors of several different types, both active and passive. For 192Ir, a 0.22 cm3 ionisation chamber, cylindrical lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) of 1 mm diameter and 3 mm length, and metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) were used. In the case of 144Ce, only the ionisation chamber was employed. The targeted accuracy for the experimental verification of the Monte Carlo simulations has been 5 and 15 % for 192Ir and 144Ce, respectively. It has been shown that this goal is achieved for 192Ir with the ionisation chamber and the MOSFETs, a systematic experimental error resulting in a somewhat larger discrepancy in the case of the TLDs. The 144Ce measurements are found to match well with the simulations, the calculation/experiment differences being generally within 10 %. For the comparison of the dosimetric calculations with other numerical results, choice has been made of the commercially available programme PLATO BPS, routinely used at the University of Geneva Hospital for treatment planning with 192Ir, as also a mathematical interpolation based on the TG-43 formalism. The comparisons with PLATO BPS, for both a single source and for the actual treatment of twelve patients treated between December 2003 and July 2004, show good agreement. The same conclusion results from the comparison with the mathematical interpolation, demonstrating thereby the correctness and pertinence of the dosimetric databases. As regards the optimisation of source dwell times at each position, the routine developed is based on application of a simulated annealing algorithm that minimises an objective function while associating, to each optimisation point, a larger penalty if the dose is further from the prescription for the considered organ. Minimal, maximal doses can thus be specified for the tumour and the organs at risk, respectively (the latter being notably the urethra, the rectum and the bladder). The validation of the optimisation routine has involved, once again, the treatment characteristics for the twelve patients treated using PLATO BPS. In this context, it has been shown that PROTON can follow imposed prescriptions much more efficiently. Moreover, if an appropriate database is available, one has the possibility to proceed with the treatment employing a different type of source. In the present study, we have used 169Yb, which provides treatment conditions very similar to those obtained with 192Ir, and 144Ce, which shows certain advantages over 192Ir, e.g. for the case of a small tumour close to an organ at risk. Finally, for the case of an 192Ir treatment, a presentation is made of the integration of the dosimetry and optimisation programme PROTON with the graphical interface currently under development at the Signal Processing Laboratory. The principal steps of the treatment are illustrated, from the visualisation of tomographic planes to the shape definition of the organs, as also from the treatment verification to the display of results. In conclusion, it has been shown that the developed dosimetry and optimisation routines are appropriate and applicable to source dwell time calculations during a HDR interstitial brachytherapy treatment of the prostate. Integrated into a suitable graphical interface, they allow performing a pre-planning of the treatment. It does appear, however, that a mathematical interpolation of the 3-dimensional dosimetric databases would permit notably a significant gain in time during the optimisation procedure. This is an aspect suggested for future development in the context of the present research.


the paper reviews the available information on soil degradation which is a major agricultural and environmental problem in the Philippines. soil erosion appears to be the most widespread process of soil degradation and is also the most studied. Other important but less studied soil degradation processes include loss of nutrients and organic matter, salinization, acidification, pollution, compaction, and subsidence. studies reviewed have shown that the widespread degraded upland soils possess chemical and physical constraints for crop growth like acidic or calcareous chemical condition, low organic matter and nutrient contents, shallow solum, presence of toxic substances and compaction. there is a need for more data on the physical and socioeconomic characteristics of degraded lands to aid in the formulation of appropriate soil management strategies to support biodiesel production in these unproductive lands which is now being promoted by the Philippine government.


I study endogenous learning dynamics for people expecting systematic reversals from random sequences -- the "gambler's fallacy." Biased agents face an optimal-stopping problem, such as managers conducting sequential interviews. They are uncertain about the underlying distribution (e.g. talent distribution in the labor pool) and must learn its parameters from previous agents' histories. Agents stop when early draws are deemed "good enough," so predecessors' histories contain negative streaks but not positive streaks. Since biased learners understate the likelihood of consecutive below-average draws, histories induce pessimistic beliefs about the distribution's mean. When early agents decrease their acceptance thresholds due to pessimism, later learners will become more surprised by the lack of positive reversals in their predecessors' histories, leading to even more pessimistic inferences and even lower acceptance thresholds -- a positive-feedback loop. Agents who are additionally uncertain about the distribution's variance believe in fictitious variation (exaggerated variance) to an extent depending on the severity of data censoring. When payoffs are convex in the draws (e.g. managers can hire previously rejected interviewees), variance uncertainty provides another channel of positive feedback between past and future thresholds.


At the Energy Department's Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, scientists are trying to accomplish what was once considered the realm of science fiction: create a star on Earth. The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is a magnetic fusion device that is used to study the physics principles of spherically shaped plasmas -- hot ionized gases in which, under the right conditions, nuclear fusion will occur. Fusion is the energy source of the sun and all of the stars. Not just limited to theoretical work, the NSTX is enabling cutting-edge research to develop fusion as a future energy source.


Abstract. Spatial data infrastructure No mapping agency can expect to capture and process entirely by itself, all the geospatial data needed for its products. The agency needs data sets from elsewhere and workflows and protocols for creating its various products. Unsurprisingly, such workflows and inter-institutional arrangements have evolved into broader collaborations, particularly as spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). An SDI is an evolving concept about facilitating and coordinating the exchange and sharing of geospatial data and services between stakeholders from different levels in the geospatial data community. The Commission on SDI & Standards (and its predecessors) of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) has developed formal models of an SDI, using the viewpoints of the Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) for the detailed modelling. The Commission described an SDI from the Enterprise Viewpoint (purpose, scope and policies for an SDI), Information Viewpoint (semantics of information and information processing in an SDI) and Computational Viewpoint (functional decomposition of the SDI into a set of services that interact through interfaces) (Hjelmager et al., 2008, Cooper et al., 2012). The ICA Commission did not investigate the Engineering and Technology Viewpoints of an SDI, because they are implementation-specific and the Commission has aimed at providing technology-independent models for an SDI. Other researchers have used the Engineering and Technology Viewpoints for specific SDIs.SDI stakeholdersThe Enterprise Viewpoint model (Hjelmager et al., 2008) included six types of stakeholders in an SDI: Policy Maker, Producer, Provider, Broker, Value-added Reseller and End User. Any one person, group, committee or organisation can have multiple stakeholder roles, which could be simultaneously. Each stakeholder can have an active or passive relationship with any activities or components in an SDI. A stakeholder in an SDI could also be considered to be an actor (Oliveira and Lisboa-Filho, 2015). Various trends are increasing the number of stakeholders in the SDI, their associated diversity and heterogeneity, and the resources at their disposal.Subsequently, the ICA Commission assessed whether or not these SDI models catered for volunteered geographical information (VGI), that is, user-generated geospatial content, or user-generated content with geospatial components. The models are sufficiently robust to do so, though it was then realised that the SDI stakeholders needed to be described in more detail as subtypes of the general roles of the six types of SDI stakeholders. The Commission then identified 24 subtypes for the stakeholders, with several of these subtypes having further sub-subtypes. For example, a Producer could have a subtype Status, which in turn could have the subtypes Official Mapping Agency or Commercial Mapping Agency (Cooper et al., 2011). However, a better term than subtype might be specialization, special case, attribute, activity or role. Collectively, these Enterprise, Information and Computational Viewpoints and the detailed stakeholders form what is known colloquially in the literature as the ICA model or ICA's formal model of an SDI, such as by (Oliveira et al., 2016). The ICA SDI model is not meant to be a prescriptive model of an SDI, but rather a descriptive one. The ICA SDI model is also implementation-independent and hence somewhat abstract.Issues with the stakeholders While all the stakeholder subtypes in an SDI were given definitions, some of the types and subtypes were confused with one another by other researchers. Further, it became clear that not all stakeholders have benevolent relationships with SDIs, whether the stakeholders be malevolent, or just too idle or incompetent to help the SDI succeed. Hence, it is necessary to update the ICA SDI stakeholder model.We have reviewed the literature and several authors have proposed improvements to the ICA SDI stakeholder model and have highlighted parts of the model that are not well understood. Further, the ICA Commission itself has also revisited the model at previous meetings. The key contributions concerning the stakeholder model are summarised in this paper. They include: Making it clear that any contributor to an SDI should control their assets in the SDI and can withdraw them when they see fit. Catering explicitly for a contact or representative for any community. Including an educator role, and by extension, a researcher role. Including a role for those who fund the SDI itself and fund all of the relevant stakeholders so that they can function effectively. Catering for how stakeholders could be assembled together, such as in special-interest groups. Catering for oversight explicitly, such as through an ombud. Making it clear that a subtype of a stakeholder is not necessarily subordinate to that stakeholder. Characterising the maturity of a stakeholder. Including a subtype for public-sector producers that are not official mapping agencies. Whether or not agency, contracting or representation roles or functions should be deemed to be separate stakeholders in the model. Improving the End User, which has only two subtypes. Catering for shifts in the roles and characteristics of SDI stakeholders over time. Including service producers explicitly. Catering for representatives of the SDI who liaise with other organisations or other SDIs. Including explicitly some of the roles within the Secretariat, such as systems administration, technical support and quality assurance. Some attributes could be common across all or most of the six types of stakeholders in an SDI, such as their motivation for contributing to, or using, any particular SDI; their authority or ability to contribute; whether or not they are liable for their contributions and any consequences thereof; and the ethics related to the contribution, including invasion of privacy, arbitrary restrictions or mischief. The SDI stakeholder model needs to cater for both the top-down and the bottom-up approaches to an SDI. This paper proposes some revisions and expansions on this ICA model of the stakeholders in a spatial data infrastructure. While updating the model has not yet been completed, we believe that it will be appropriate to present our findings now to the ICA community to obtain feedback.


This thesis articulates a novel interpretation of Heidegger?s explication of the being (Seins) of gear (Zeugs) in �15 of his masterwork Being and Time (1927/2006) and develops and applies the position attributed to Heidegger to explain three phenomena of unreflective action discussed in recent literature and articulate a partial Heideggerian ecological metaphysics. Since �15 of BT explicates the being of gear, Part 1 expounds Heidegger?s concept of the ?being? (Seins) of beings (Seienden) and two issues raised in the ?preliminary methodological remark? in �15 of BT regarding explicating being. �1.1 interprets the being (Sein) or synonymously constitution of being (Seinsverfassung) of a being (Seienden) as a regional essence: a property unifying a region (Region), district (Bezirk), or subject-area (Sachgebiet) ? a highly general (?regional?) class of entities. Although Heidegger posits two components of the being of a being, viz. material-content (Sachhaltigkeit, Sachgehalt) and mode-of-being (Seinsart) or way-of-being (Seinsweise, Weise des Seins, Weise zu sein) (1927/1975, 321), the unclarity of this distinction means that it does not figure prominently herein. �1.2 addresses Heidegger?s distinction between ontological and ontic investigations and his notion of ?modes of access? (Zugangsarten, Zugangsweisen). Part 2 expounds �15 of BT?s explication of the being of gear. �2.1 analyses Heidegger?s two necessary and sufficient conditions for being gear and three core basic concepts (Grundbegriffe) enabling comprehension of these conditions and therewith a foundational comprehension of gear. Heidegger explicates the being of gear through content of unreflectively purposeful, non-intersubjective intentional states. I term such states ?mundane concern?, which is almost synonymous with Hubert Dreyfus?s term ?absorbed coping? (1991, 69). Heidegger?s explication highlights around-for references (Um-zu-Verweisungen) as the peculiar species of property figuring in mundanely concernful intentional content. �2.2 clarifies Heidegger?s position on the relationship between to-hand-ness (Zuhandenheit) and extantness (Vorhandenheit) in the narrow sense: two of Heidegger?s most widely discussed concepts. I reject Kris McDaniel?s recent reading of Heidegger as affirming that nothing could be both to-hand and extant simultaneously (McDaniel 2012). Part 3 develops and applies Heidegger?s phenomenology of mundane concern. �3.1 explains the phenomena of situational holism, situated normativity, and mundanely concernful prospective control. �3.2 undertakes the metaphysical accommodation of around-for references, which �3.1 posited as featuring prominently within mundanely concernful intentional content. This thesis thus contributes not only to Heidegger scholarship, but also to contemporary debates within the philosophy of action and cognitive science.


Composable data centers have been a strong topic of research interest, with potential benefits including higher resource utilization, faster and independent refresh cycles, flex-ible/optimum resource allocation and better capital and oper-ational costs. In this paper we use a discrete event simulation model to provide a quantitative assessment of the utilization ben-efits for a composable system versus conventional. We consider a simple multi-server loss queue situation as well as two more realistic scenarios: a mixed memory size demand and a mixed ratio CPU-GPU demand. In all these scenarios, composable systems can provide many tens of percent utilization advantage over more conventional hardware deployments. We also explore the impact of size of the composable resource pool on utilization.


Abstract The number of English language learners (ELLs) in early childhood regular and special education services has increased dramatically in the past decade. A survey was conducted with 141 early childhood administrators and teachers to examine their beliefs and practices concerning the special education referral, evaluation, and placement process for preschool ELLs and their families. Survey questions were designed to gather information about: 1) how cultural and language differences were addressed, 2) what strategies were used to ensure parent participation of ELL children, and 3) what training was available and being used by early childhood professionals. Data were coded and percentages of similar responses calculated to understand participants' beliefs, attitudes, and practices. Results indicate that inconsistencies in methods are used to determine home language and English proficiency, a lack of clarity regarding the purpose of instruments used for screening and evaluating ELL children, a need for reliable and valid screening and assessment tools in a variety of languages, a need for interpreters who are trained in early childhood terms and the special education referral, evaluation, and placement process, and a need for more teacher training on meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse families.


Purpose: Pediatric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are rare and occur preferentially in females as multifocal gastric tumors, typically lacking mutations in KIT and PDGFRA. As KIT oncoprotein is consistently overexpressed in pediatric GIST, we sought to investigate the activation of KIT downstream targets and alterations of KIT/PDGFRA gene copy number, mine novel therapeutic targets by gene expression, and test tyrosine kinase receptor activation by proteomic profiling. Experimental Design: Seventeen pediatric GISTs were investigated for KIT/PDGFRA genotype and biochemical activation of KIT downstream targets. The transcriptional profile of 13 nodules from 8 pediatric patients was compared with 8 adult wild-type (WT) GISTs, including 3 young adults. The drug sensitivity of second-generation kinase inhibitors was tested in murine Ba/F3 cells expressing human WT KIT, as well as in short-term culture of explants of WT GIST cells. Results: A KIT/PDGFRA WT genotype was identified in all 12 female patients, whereas two of five males had either a KIT exon 11 or PDGFRA exon 18 mutation. KIT downstream targets were consistently activated. Pediatric GISTs showed a distinct transcriptional signature, with overexpression of BAALC, PLAG1, IGF1R, FGF4, and NELL1. In vitro studies showed that nilotinib, sunitinib, dasatinib, and sorafenib are more effective than imatinib against WT KIT. Conclusions: Rare cases of pediatric GIST may occur in male patients and harbor activating KIT/PDGFRA mutations. Pediatric GISTs show distinct transcriptional signature, suggesting a different biology than WT GIST in adults. In vitro drug screening showed that second-generation kinase inhibitors may provide greater clinical benefit in pediatric GIST.


Abstract This study examines temporal organization for interaction in a specific work setting: the airline cockpit. It is generally concerned with precise timing for turn taking as a feature of competent conduct in collaborative professional work, and for creating an acceptable orderly flow of talk for tasks. Specifically, it pursues an observation that moments of overlapping talk, when two or more parties talk simultaneously, are rare in cockpit interaction. Pilots are instructed in training not to speak simultaneously; however, cockpit talk is highly conducive to overlap. Mostly pilots know who will say what to whom, and when, because they are legally required to use scripted procedural wordings. The trajectories of turns are predictable and projectable, and therefore are vulnerable to terminal overlap, when a recipient starts talking just as a current speaker is completing a turn. This does not happen, because airline pilots precisely time next talk to start at the actual, not projected, end of current talk. Pilots allow talk to emerge complete. Pilots orient to the strictly sequential nature of their work to accomplish conflicting setting-specific demands for talk, in situ and in real time. The paper uses transcriptions from audio and video recordings of pilots on actual passenger flights.


BACKGROUND
Frailty is a relatively new area of study for patients with cervical deformity (CD). As of yet, little is known of how operative intervention influences frailty status for patients with CD.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate drivers of postoperative frailty score and variables within the cervical deformity frailty index (CD-FI) algorithm that have the greatest capacity for change following surgery.

METHODS
Descriptive analysis of the cohort were performed, paired t-tests determined significant baseline to 1 yr improvements of factors comprising the CD-FI. Pearson bivariate correlations identified significant associations between postoperative changes in overall CD-FI score and CD-FI score components. Linear regression models determined the effect of successful surgical intervention on change in frailty score.

RESULTS
A total of 138 patients were included with baseline frailty scores of 0.44. Following surgery, mean 1-yr frailty score was 0.27. Of the CD-FI variables, 13/40 (32.5%) were able to improve with surgery. Frailty improvement was found to significantly correlate with baseline to 1-yr change in CBV, PI-LL, PT, and SVA C7-S1. HRQL CD-FI components reading, feeling tired, feeling exhausted, and driving were the greatest drivers of change in frailty. Linear regression analysis determined successful surgical intervention and feeling exhausted to be the greatest significant predictors of postoperative change in overall frailty score.

CONCLUSION
Complications, correction of sagittal alignment, and improving a patient's ability to read, drive, and chronic exhaustion can significantly influence postoperative frailty. This analysis is a step towards a greater understanding of the relationship between disability, frailty, and surgery in CD.


In 2011, the Taiwan government expanded its support of school-district/university partnership programs that promote the implementation of the evidenced-based Health Promoting Schools (HPS) program. This study examined whether expanding the support for this initiative was effective in advancing HPS implementation, perceived HPS impact and perceived HPS efficacy in Taiwan. In 2011 and 2013, a total of 647 and 1195 schools, respectively, complemented the questionnaire. Univariate analysis results indicated that the HPS implementation levels for six components were significantly increased from 2011 to 2013. These components included school health policies, physical environment, social environment, teaching activities and school-community relationships. Participant teachers also reported significantly greater levels of perceived HPS impact and HPS efficacy after the expansion of support for school-district/university partnership programs. Multivariate analysis results indicated that after controlling for school level, HPS funding and HPS action research approach variables, the expansion had a positive impact on increasing the levels of HPS implementation, perceived HPS impact and perceived HPS efficacy.


Virtual worlds seek to provide an online setting where users can interact in a shared environment. Popular virtual worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, however, rely on share-nothing data and strict partitioning as much as possible. They translate a large world into many tiny worlds. This partitioning conflicts with the intended goal of a virtual world by greatly limiting interaction and reducing the shared experience. We present Meru, an architecture for scalable, federated virtual worlds. Meru's key insight is that, compared to traditional distributed object systems, virtual world objects have the additional property of being embedded in a three-dimensional geometry. By leveraging this geometric information in messaging and caching, Meru can allow uncongested virtual world objects to pass messages with 800 times the throughput as Second Life while also gracefully scaling to handle the congestion of ten thousand active senders. Unlike virtual worlds today, Meru achieves this performance without any partitioning, maintaining a single, seamless world.