Background: There is evidence that the bronchial microcirculation has the potential to contribute to the pathophysiological mechanisms of exercise induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in asthmatic subjects. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is highly expressed in asthmatic airways, increases vascular permeability. The relationship between VEGF levels in induced sputum and the severity of EIB in asthmatic subjects was studied. Methods: The concentration of VEGF in induced sputum was examined in 23 asthmatic subjects and 11 normal controls. The asthmatic subjects performed an exercise test and the % maximal fall in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was measured. Beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) 400 μg twice daily was administered to the asthmatic subjects for 8 weeks and the exercise test and sputum induction were repeated. Results: The concentration of VEGF in induced sputum was significantly higher in asthmatic subjects than in normal controls. There was a significant correlation between the concentration of VEGF and the % maximal fall in FEV1 (r=0.826, p=0.0001) and between the concentration of VEGF and airway vascular permeability index (r=0.621, p=0.0037). After treatment with inhaled BDP there was a significant decrease in the concentration of VEGF in the asthmatic subjects (before treatment: 7051 (2361) pg/ml, after treatment: 4498 (2135) pg/ml, p<0.0001). The change in the concentration of VEGF was significantly correlated with the change in the % maximal fall in FEV1 (r=0.463, p=0.031). Conclusions: Excessive production of VEGF in asthmatic airways may contribute to the pathogenesis of EIB via increased airway vascular permeability.


The South Pacific superswell has been defined as a large region of anomalously shallow bathymetry, low Love wave velocities, and low effective elastic thicknesses relative to those predicted for its age. These phenomena have been interpreted as reflecting a combination of lithospheric reheating and thinning, and dynamic uplift due to mantle flow. We use heat flow data to better constrain the thermal structure of this region and examine the predictions of various possible models. The average heat flow for the superswell region does not differ significantly from that for lithosphere of similar ages elsewhere on the Pacific plate. Given their uncertainties, the heat flow data imply that thermal lithospheric thickness exceeds 60 km, but cannot discriminate between greater thicknesses. The lack of observed high heat flow appears not to be explained by biases due to water circulation in the thin sediment cover, since the superswell heat flow is not higher than for sites elsewhere with similar sedimentary environments. The Darwin Rise has been proposed as a fossil superswell in the Cretaceous, on the basis of the many similar characteristics to the South Pacific superswell. We find that the Darwin Rise heat flow values do not exceed those for similar ages elsewhere in the Pacific and Atlantic. This observation suggests that any thermal effects associated with the formation of the Darwin Rise are no longer present, and it is consistent with the idea of a fossil superswell. The surface heat flow data thus provide no evidence that the temperatures in the uppermost portion of the lithosphere; are significantly higher in the entire superswell region than in other areas of comparable age. This observation is intriguing given the suggestion that the thin effective elastic thicknesses inferred from seamount loading may reflect reheating of the lithosphere. Models in which the plate thicknesses and/or the basal temperatures are increased to yield temperatures high enough to explain the low effective elastic thicknesses predict surface heat flow much higher than observed. Reheating the lithosphere, as is proposed for hot spots, yields temperatures adequate to explain the effective elastic thicknesses only if reheating occurs at very shallow depths, and again implies a surface heat flow much greater than observed. Hence, unless shallow reheating is somehow localized beneath the seamounts, the thinner elastic thicknesses may reflect mechanical, rather than thermal, weakening of the lithosphere.


Abstract Beneficial arthropods provide important ecosystem services in terms of arthropod pest and weed management, but these services can be adversely affected by farming practices such as tillage. This study investigated the impact of two tillage operations (zone tillage and moldboard plow) on the activity density of several beneficial, epigeal arthropod taxa, and postdispersal weed seed and prey removal in sugar beet agroecosystems. In addition, four omnivorous ground beetle species were selected for a weed-seed choice feeding assay, whereas a single species was selected for a weed-seed age preference assay. Ground beetles were the most commonly collected taxon (via pitfall sampling), with only a few dominant species. Tillage operation did not affect ground beetle activity density; however, spider, centipede, and rove beetle activity densities were higher in the reduced-tillage treatment. Live prey consumption was similar between tillage practices, with more prey consumed during nocturnal hours. More weed seeds were consumed in the reduced-tillage treatment, whereas weed-seed preference differed between the four weed species tested [Setaria pumila (Poir.) Roem. & Schult., Echinochloa crus-galli (L.), Kochia scoparia (L.), and Chenopodium album (L.)]. In the weed-seed choice feeding assay, significantly more broad-leaf weed seeds (C. album and K. scoparia) were consumed compared with grassy weed seeds (E. crus-galli and S. pumila). No preference for seed age was detected for E. crus-galli, but Harpalus pensylvanicus (De Geer) preferred old C. album seeds over fresh seeds. Zone tillage is compatible with ecosystem services, providing critical habitat within agricultural ecosystems needed to conserve beneficial, edaphic arthropods.


From a first-hand perspective, the author reviews the mechanisms by which Delaware creates its corporate law, and identifies various explanations for Delaware's prominence and its corporate lawmaking ("race" theories, Roe's identification of active or dormant federal power as a limiting influence, and Kahan and Rock's description of "symbiotic federalism"). Although finding support for all of these accounts, the author maintains that none fully expresses the considerations that are actually salient for Delaware corporate law policymakers. The author suggests, rather, that the following considerations are dominant: (1) enhancing flexibility to engage in private ordering, (2) deferring to case-by-case development of the law, and avoiding legislation that is prescriptive and proscriptive, (3) avoiding impairment of preexisting contractual relationships and expectations, and (4) most importantly, avoiding legislative change in the absence of clear and specific practical benefits. Because of the dominance of these considerations, the author suggests that Delaware is unlikely to expand materially the regulation of corporate actors by means of either statutory or common law change. While additional federal regulation of corporate governance will emerge sporadically in response to political crises, any effort by Delaware to anticipate or respond to such additional federal regulation will involve small steps that will not significantly alter the existing allocation of power and authority among corporate constituencies.


A preliminary study of the manufacture of sulfur dyes was conducted to determine if process waste streams might contain hazardous material. The study first identifies the dyes and pigments that belong to this segment of the industry, the amounts produced, and the known U.S. producers. The chemistry of these dyes is discussed as well as the overall production process and waste treatment practices. Several waste streams that could contain hazardous material are identified and two companies that produce representative dyes are recommended for a sampling program to confirm the composition and amounts of these waste streams.


Cells react to diverse stimuli by expressing specific receptors that recognize these stimuli and initiate specific signaling pathways that enable a cell to change with the environment. Downregulation of these signaling receptors represents the most direct method for limiting the magnitude and duration of downstream signal transduction. For cell surface transmembrane receptors, ligand-stimulated endocytosis is a major mechanism by which the ability of a cell to react to a ligand is restricted. In order to investigate the downregulation of the prolactin receptor (PRLr), we investigated the mechanism and key determinants in the endocytosis and downregulation of PRLr. In Chapter 2, we show that the endocytosis of PRLr is a ligand-induced process which requires the catalytic activity of the constitutively bound Janus kinase Jak2. In Chapter 3, we show that PRLr is internalized by a clathrin-dependent mechanism which requires phosphorylation of the conserved phosphodegron motif (DS349GRGS) at Ser 349 and an active SCFβ-TrCP E3 ligase complex. Optimal PRLr endocytosis is shown to be achieved via K63-linked polyubiquitination of the receptor. In Chapter 4, we show that PRL signaling promotes cell growth in 2-D and 3-D culture systems where PRLr levels are increased/ stabilized. In Chapter 5, we identify pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), a glycolytic enzyme whose role in tumorigenesis has been described, to be a novel interactor of PRLr. We show that prolactin (PRL) signaling works to inhibit PKM2 activity by the propagation of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins. This inhibition of PKM2 prevents progression through glycolysis and allows PKM2 to take a pro-tumorigenic role. We show that the interaction between PRL signaling and PKM2 is required for optimal prolactin-dependent cell growth. In this thesis (model shown in Model 1), we show that there is a defined mechanism of PRLr downregulation which works to limit PRL signaling. If this mode of receptor downregulation is not properly executed, it can result in aberrant signaling whereby prolactin-mediated inhibition of pyruvate kinase M2 mediates the pro-tumorigenic effect of prolactin. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Dr. Serge Fuchs


STUDY OBJECTIVES
The Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) has been used to define insomnia symptoms in individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, whether distinct ISI profiles exist in individuals with OSA is unclear. The aims of this study were to determine (1) empirically-based ISI profiles in veterans with OSA and (2) predictors of these ISI profiles.

METHODS
Participants were 630 veterans with a new diagnosis of OSA over a 12-month period. Individuals completed the ISI and other questionnaires on the polysomnography (PSG) night. Latent profile analysis was performed to detect ISI subgroups based on individual ISI items. Age, Charlson Comorbidity Index, apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), mood disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain diagnoses were used to predict between ISI profiles.

RESULTS
Latent profile analysis identified five ISI subgroups in veterans with OSA. The "asymptomatic" group (12% prevalence) had low scores across all ISI items. The "moderate insomnia" (30% prevalence) and "severe insomnia" (44% prevalence) groups had elevated scores for all ISI items but differing in severity. Last, the "moderate" (6% prevalence) and "severe daytime symptoms" groups (8% prevalence) were characterized by absence of nocturnal complaints but high scores on daytime impairment items. Age, AHI, mood disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and chronic pain diagnoses discriminated between ISI profiles.

CONCLUSIONS
We describe data-driven ISI profiles in veterans with OSA. Older age was associated with lower insomnia and daytime symptom complaints whereas psychological comorbidities were related to more severe insomnia. Caution should be used in interpreting the ISI score in individuals with OSA because a subset had elevated total scores without insomnia.


A package of legislation aiming at enhancing the resilience of the EU economy to future financial crises entered into force in the European Union in December 2011. One of the most important elements of the new economic governance framework is the establishment of the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP). The MIP is created to complement the system of surveillance of Member States' economies because enhanced surveillance in the existing framework existed only in the area of fiscal indicators, in accordance with the provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact. Since there was no surveillance mechanism for other variables, Member States that recorded other types of macroeconomic imbalances were not obliged to conduct any corrective measures with regard to the identified imbalances. The establishment of the MIP should thus improve the resilience of the EU economy since its consistent implementation would decrease the probability of unwanted events of the kind that occurred after the last financial crisis. A total of 11 indicators are monitored within the MIP and they assist in identifying macroeconomic imbalances. In addition to indicators of external vulnerabilities and internal imbalances, the MIP encompasses also indicators that can imply the weakening of the competitiveness of an economy. When an excess over the threshold for a certain indicator is identified for an individual Member State, the European Commission initiates an in-depth review of its economy in order to identify possible macroeconomic imbalances, and if there are some, assesses whether they are excessive or not. Starting with the MIP for 2014 Croatia is also covered by this monitoring of macroeconomic imbalances in the EU, so this paper serves to further assess Croatia's performance with regard to individual indicators, and it discusses the possible consequences of participation in such a procedure for the Croatian economy.


Concentrations of arsenic that reach values of 2.35 mg L-1 have been identified in potable water sources in Mexico. Such concentration is above to the maximum permissible limit of 0.025 mg L-1 set by the Mexican Standard. It has been estimated that nearly 500,000 people living in rural areas are exposed, through their water intake, to concentrations of arsenic in excess of 0.05 mg L-1. The objective of this study was to evaluate the removal of arsenic present in the water for human consumption in the town of Huautla, Morelos, Mexico using electrochemical technology. This technology was developed in Canada and it is based in the principle of capacitive deionization, as an electrostatic charging system formed by carbon electrodes. The electrodes are supplied with direct current (~1V, 0-375A), which produces surfaces with positive and negative charge. The ionic compounds that contain arsenic are thus electrostatically adsorbed onto the electrodes, and the water obtained reached concentrations below 0.005 mg L-1 as total arsenic. The average percentage of arsenic removal was 98.51% and the volume of reject water was 3%. The results of this study indicate that this technology is more efficient and potentially more economical than conventional technologies.


The chasm between knowledge and practice decried by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is the result of other chasms that have not been addressed. They include the chasm between what we know and what we need to know to improve care; the chasm between those who provide primary care and those who do not fund, study, support, or publish practical primary care studies; and the chasm between research and quality improvement (QI). These chasms are a result of problematic concepts, attitudes, traditions, time frames, and financing approaches among the various participants. If we are to facilitate the production and use of the knowledge needed for primary care to cross IOM's chasm, major changes are needed. These changes include the following: (1) admission by all primary care professions that we have quality problems that require our unified attention and action; (2) conversion of the paradigm from "translate research into practice" to "optimizing health and health care through research and QI"; (3) development and facilitation of more partnerships among clinicians, researchers, and care delivery leaders for engaged scholarship in both research and QI; (4) modification of the agendas and methods of funders and researchers so they emphasize the problems of patients and patient care and support practical time frames and research designs; and (5) facilitation by funders and journals of the dissemination and implementation of lessons from QI and practical research.


A color-mapping method for 4D-CTA is presented for improved and enhanced visualization of the cerebral vasculature hemodynamics. This method was applied to detect cranial AVFs. Thirty-one patients were included, 21 patients with and 10 without an AVF. Arterialization of venous structures in AVFs was accurately visualized using color-mapping. There was high sensitivity (86%–100%) and moderate-to-high specificity (70%–100%) for the detection of AVFs on color-mapping 4D-CTA, even without the availability of dynamic subtraction rendering. Arterialization of venous structures can be visualized using color-mapping of 4D-CTA and proves to be accurate for the detection of cranial AVFs. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: 4D CT angiography is increasingly used in clinical practice for the assessment of different neurovascular disorders. Optimized processing of 4D-CTA is crucial for diagnostic interpretation because of the large amount of data that is generated. A color-mapping method for 4D-CTA is presented for improved and enhanced visualization of the cerebral vasculature hemodynamics. This method was applied to detect cranial AVFs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients who underwent both 4D-CTA and DSA in our hospital from 2011 to 2018 for the clinical suspicion of a cranial AVF or carotid cavernous fistula were retrospectively collected. Temporal information in the cerebral vasculature was visualized using a patient-specific color scale. All color-maps were evaluated by 3 observers for the presence or absence of an AVF or carotid cavernous fistula. The presence or absence of cortical venous reflux was evaluated as a secondary outcome measure. RESULTS: In total, 31 patients were included, 21 patients with and 10 without an AVF. Arterialization of venous structures in AVFs was accurately visualized using color-mapping. There was high sensitivity (86%–100%) and moderate-to-high specificity (70%–100%) for the detection of AVFs on color-mapping 4D-CTA, even without the availability of dynamic subtraction rendering. The diagnostic performance of the 3 observers in the detection of cortical venous reflux was variable (sensitivity, 43%–88%; specificity, 60%–80%). CONCLUSIONS: Arterialization of venous structures can be visualized using color-mapping of 4D-CTA and proves to be accurate for the detection of cranial AVFs. This finding makes color-mapping a promising visualization technique for assessing temporal hemodynamics in 4D-CTA.


Two challenges in algebraic coding theory are addressed within this dissertation. The first one is the efficient hard- and soft-decision decoding of Generalized Reed--Solomon codes over finite fields in Hamming metric. The motivation for this more than 50 years old problem was renewed by the discovery of a polynomial-time interpolation-based decoding principle up to the Johnson radius by Guruswami and Sudan at the end of the 20th century. First syndrome-based error/erasure decoding approaches by Berlekamp--Massey and Sugiyama--Kasahara--Hirasawa--Namekawa for Generalized Reed--Solomon codes were described by a Key Equation, i.e., a polynomial description of the decoding problem. The reformulation of the interpolation-based approach in terms of Key Equations is a central topic of this thesis. This contribution covers several aspects of Key Equations for Generalized Reed--Solomon codes for both, the hard-decision variant by Guruswami--Sudan, as well as for the soft-decision approach by Kotter--Vardy. The obtained systems of linear homogeneous equations are structured and efficient decoding algorithms are developed. The second topic of this dissertation is the formulation and the decoding up to lower bounds on the minimum Hamming distance of linear cyclic block codes over finite fields. The main idea is the embedding of a given cyclic code into a cyclic (generalized) product code. Therefore, we give an extensive description of cyclic product codes and code concatenation. We introduce cyclic generalized product codes and indicate how they can be used to bound the minimum distance. Necessary and sufficient conditions for lowest-rate non-primitive binary cyclic codes of minimum distance two and a sufficient condition for binary cyclic codes of minimum distance three are worked out and their relevance for the embedding-technique is outlined. Furthermore, we give quadratic-time syndrome-based error/erasure decoding algorithms up to some of our proposed bounds.


Since the serendipitous discovery of the first antibiotic, the "wonder drug" penicillin by Alexander Fleming, bacteria over time have slowly developed resistance to most antibiotics through three well coordinated processes. Firstly, bacteria can evolve their genetic makeup to become resistant against antibiotics; Secondly, bacteria can relay the modified antibiotic resistant genes to other bacteria and other species through a process called conjugation. Thirdly, bacteria quickly give up their individuality to become a part of a team to form surface attached multicellular communities known as biofilms. Bacteria residing within biofilms are protected by a layer of slime which renders the bacteria one thousand fold more resistant to the action of antibiotics. Nearly eighty percent of bacterial infections are associated with biofilms and therefore understandably, biofilms are considered as one of the seven most important health issues facing mankind in the 21 century. The focus of research work presented here is to discover small molecules that can control multiple microbial multicellular behaviors. The fundamental approach was to deploy small molecules that do not kill the bacteria (nonmicrobicidal), but are able to modulate bacterial multicellular behaviors, like biofilm formation and swarming motility, which are not essential for bacterial survival but are critical for infections. Consequently, the use of such nonmicrobicidal agents is less likely to induce evolution of bacterial genes. The use of two different kinds of nonmicrobicidal agents, maltose derivatives and brominated furanones, as modulators of different bacterial multicellular behaviors has been demonstrated. Rhamnolipids secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa are biosurfactants that are known to be essential for at least three multicellular behaviors of P. aeruginosa, biofilm formation, biofilm dispersion and swarming motility. Maltose derivatives, which are structurally related to rhamnolipids were synthesized and found to be nonmicrobicidal to the growth of P. aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Maltose derivatives were effective at inhibiting the initial adhesion, biofilm formation and at dispersing pre-formed biofilm of P. aeruginosa. Maltose derivatives were capable of both modulating the swarming motility of wild type P. aeruginosa (PAO1) and activating swarming of a nonswarming P. aeruginosa mutant, rhlA. Although, the maltose derivatives were able to inhibit the biofilm formation, these agents were not effective at either inhibiting the initial adhesion or dispersing the preformed biofilms of both E. coli and S. aureus. Brominated furanones are known to disrupt bacterial chemical communication process known as quorum sensing (QS). Here the mechanism of action of brominated furanones on both E. coli and P. aeruginosa was explored. The presence of a methyl substituent either on the furanone ring or on the exocylic vinyl bond was identified as an important structural element for maintaining nonmicrobicidal action. The protein SdiA of E. coli was found to be critical for antibiofilm activities of brominated furanones against E. coli. The lasI protein on P. aeruginosa is a known homologue of the E. coli SdiA protein. It was found that the brominated furanones were antagonistic to the las QS system but were agonistic to the rhl QS system of P. aeruginosa. The nonmicrobicidal agents presented here, maltose derivative and brominated furanones offer new approaches for controlling biofilm and bacteria-related problems. Discovering the Biological Activities of Maltose Derivatives for Controlling Bacterial Multicellular Behaviors


This report details a programme of research undertaken on behalf of IOSH
and intended to investigate the critical factors which control the effectiveness
of checklist-based risk assessments. Through five research phases, partner
companies from UK manufacturing industries provided case examples of
current practice and a resource of participants to conduct user trials.
An extensive literature review revealed that previous research had focussed
on the effectiveness and reliability of checklists in risk assessment. However,
very little research had been conducted in assessing the effectiveness of the
actual design of checklists and the level of accompanying training that is
required to ensure they are used correctly.
A questionnaire survey of 88 companies of more than five employees revealed
the state of current practice and a wide diversity of resources and application
of safety practices. From these companies 15 were selected to undertake an
in-depth walk through involving a site inspection, interviews with Health and
Safety professionals and an audit of the health and safety practices.
From the audited companies four were selected to take part in user trials
involving the provision and evaluation of control checklists and accompanying
training. This provided a large data set which could be scrutinised to identify
the effective features of checklists and the benefits training may offer.
The results reveal a complex picture with numerous confounding influences.
Specific features of checklists and training offer benefits in some
circumstances and limitations in others. A lack of clear patterns suggests that
the high degree of variability in companies and staff make prescriptive
solutions unreliable as safety interventions.
Recommendations are made for assessing the content of checklists but
reservations remain over the effectiveness of a single solution for use in any
specific company.


Intraoperative periprosthetic fractures are becoming more common given the increased prevalence of revision total hip arthroplasty and increased use of cementless fixation. Risk factors for intraoperative periprosthetic fractures include the use of minimally invasive techniques; the use of press-fit cementless stems; revision operations, especially when a long cementless stem is used or when a short stem with impaction allografting is used; female sex; metabolic bone disease; bone diseases leading to altered morphology such as Paget disease; and technical errors at the time of the operation. Appropriate treatment of intraoperative periprosthetic fractures does not compromise the long-term results of total hip arthroplasty unless the bone damage precludes stable fixation of the implant.


Palm oil is the world's most widely used vegetable cooking oil. Indonesia and Malaysia produce 57% and 27% of palm oil available in the global market, respectively. In addition to being a popular source of cooking oil, palm oil is also processed into biodiesel and used as an ingredient for processed foods, detergents, and cosmetics. In Indonesia, palm oil is used for food (48.59%), biodiesel (39.85%), and oleochemical (11.51%) with a total crude palm oil (CPO) and crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) production of 51.3 million tons in 2021, which is projected to increase to 51.8 million tonnes by the end of 2022 according to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association or GAPKI. Though food use is still dominant, palm oil consumption for biodiesel shows an increasing trend throughout the years, growing at a rate of 26.40% in the last 5 years due to the government's mandatory B30 policy. The policy stipulates that 30% palm-oil based fuel goes into its biodiesel to lower the country's fuel imports and boost domestic production of palm oil. On the other hand, most palm oil derivatives (CPO, palm kernel oil (PKO), and their derivatives) produced in Indonesia are exported (65%), while only 35% are intended for domestic use. This situation creates tensions between alternative uses of palm oil, supplies for the global market, and domestic consumers.


Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome is a potentially life-threatening complication of nephrotic syndrome in pediatric patients. It is characterized by the presence of vasogenic edema in the parietal and occipital region of the brain that leads to the acute and sudden onset of unconsciousness, epileptic episodes, headache and visual disturbances. Multiple factors can predispose an individual with nephrotic syndrome to PRES such as- uncontrolled hypertension, administration of drugs (cyclosporine, tacrolimus), reduced serum albumin levels, anascara, disturbed body fluid status and renal insufficiency. PRES in pediatric patients with the nephrotic syndrome has been rarely reported. Here, we report a case of a 13-year-old boy with nephrotic syndrome who was presented with cellulitis in left knee and developed acute proteinuria and review of literature on PRES occurrence in nephrotic syndrome. Key words: Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, Nephrotic syndrome, Pediatric, Tacrolimus, Calcineurin inhibitor.


Spondylometaphyseal dysplasia (SMD) is characterized by developmental changes in long bones and vertebrae. It has large phenotypic diversity and multiple genetic causes, including a recent link to novel variants in the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein fibronectin (FN), a regulator of ECM assembly and key link between the ECM and proper cell function. We identified a patient with a unique SMD, similar to SMD with corner fractures. The patient has been followed over 19 years and presents with short stature, genu varum, kyphoscoliosis, and pectus carinatum. Radiography shows metaphyseal changes that resolved over time, vertebral changes, and capitular avascular necrosis. Whole exome sequencing identified a novel heterozygous FN1 variant (p.Cys97Trp). Using mass spectroscopy, mutant FN was detected in plasma and in culture medium of primary dermal fibroblasts isolated from the patient, but mutant protein was much less abundant than wild‐type FN. Immunofluorescence and immunoblotting analyses show that mutant fibroblasts assemble significantly lower amounts of FN matrix than wild‐type cells, and mutant FN was preferentially retained within the endoplasmic reticulum. This work highlights the importance of FN in skeletal development, and its potential role in the pathogenesis of a subtype of SMD.


Pyrexia is an elevation of body temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the hypothalamic thermoregulatory set point. Hyperpyrexia is an extreme elevation of body temperature equal to or greater than 41.5°C (106.7°F). (1) Malignant hyperpyrexia is a rare and idiopathic extreme elevation of core body temperature above 42°C characterized by the acute onset of hyperthermia, coagulopathy and shock. (2) It is potentially life-threatening and can rapidly progress to severe liver and renal impairment, acidosis and encephalopathy. Reported here is a case of malignant hyperpyrexia in a patient with injury of the cervical spine.


To examine the consequences of nigrostriatal denervation and chronic levodopa (l-DOPA) treatment on functional activity of the basal ganglia, we analyzed, using in situhybridization, the cellular expression of the mRNA encoding for cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI mRNA), a molecular marker for functional neuronal activity, in the basal ganglia. This analysis was performed in monkeys rendered parkinsonian by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) intoxication, some of which had been receiving l-DOPA, and in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In MPTP-intoxicated monkeys compared with control animals, COI mRNA expression was increased in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) and in the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, i.e., the internal segment of the globus pallidus and the substantia nigra pars reticulata. This increase was partially reversed by l-DOPA treatment. COI mRNA expression remained unchanged in the external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe). In PD patients, all of whom had been treated chronically by l-DOPA, COI mRNA expression in the analyzed basal ganglia structures was similar to that in control subjects. These results are in agreement with the accepted model of basal ganglia organization, to the extent that the output nuclei of the basal ganglia are considered to be overactive after nigrostriatal denervation, partly because of increased activity of excitatory afferents from the STN. Yet, our results would also seem to contradict this model, because the overactivity of the STN does not seem to be attributable to a hypoactivation of the GPe.


Rubber is one of the agricultural commodities that are abundant in Indonesia. One alternative to utilizethe rubber seed is using it's oil as cooking oil. The oils must be purified by adsorption process using zeolite. This is because rubber seed oil can not be consumed directly due to high toxiccyanide compound. The aim of this study was to obtain quality cooking oil from rubber seed in accordance with quality standard of cooking oil and a low cyanide acid content. This study was conducted experimentally by using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 4 treatments, namely Z 1 (25% zeolite with long adsorption 8 hours), Z 2 (25% zeolite with long adsorption 10 hours), Z 3 (25% zeolite with long adsorption 12 hours) and Z 4 (25% zeolite adsorption time 14 hours) with 4 replications. Data obtained were analyzed statistically using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and if F count is greater than or equal to F table then continued with DNMRT test at 5% level. The results show that the longer the time of adsorption in the refining rubber seed oil significantly decreased the contents of cyanide and acid number as well as density but increased saponification. It can be concluded that the best treatment was Z 4 treatment (25% zeolite for 14 hours adsorption) with the content of cyanide1,97 ppm, acid number 2,61 mgKOH/g, saponification 143,62 mgKOH/g and density 0,898 g/ml. Keywords : Purification, rubber seed, cooking oil, zeoliteandadsorption.


Purpose: Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is increasingly recognized as liquid biopsy to profile tumor genome. Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is a highly sensitive and easily operable platform for mutant detection. Here, we tried to detect ctDNA in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients using ddPCR. Methods: Studies sequencing the genome of HCCs and COSMIC (Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer) database were reviewed to identify hotspot mutations. Circulating cell-free DNAs (cfDNAs) extracted from 1 ml preoperative plasma sample were analyzed to detect circulating mutants using ddPCR. The DNAs from matched tumor and adjacent liver tissues or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were sequenced to identify the origin of circulating mutants. Results: Forty-eight HCC patients were enrolled and four gene loci, TP53 (c.747G>T), CTNNB1 (c.121A>G, c.133T>C), and TERT (c.1-124C>T) were chosen as targets for ddPCR assay. Serial dilution demonstrated the detection limit of ddPCR to be 0.01%. Twenty-seven patients (56.3%, 27/48) were found to have at least one kind of circulating mutants, with the mutant allele frequency ranging from 0.33% to 23.7%. Six patients (22.2%, 6/27) also had matched mutants in tumor tissues while none of the mutants were detected in adjacent liver tissues or PBMCs in all patients, which excluded the nonneoplastic origin of these circulating mutants and qualified them as ctDNA. Conclusions: ctDNA could be readily detected in HCC patients by targeting hotspot mutations using ddPCR and might reflect intratumoral heterogeneity. ctDNA detecting may serve as a promising liquid biopsy in HCC management.


Topiramate is a commonly prescribed medication in the adult and pediatric population. It is most commonly used in migraine prophylaxis. This case report focuses on an uncommon but potentially dangerous side effect of topiramate use, and how it affects the ocular system of the patients that use it. This case increases awareness of Topiramate usage in the pediatric population. It also demonstrates need for high degree of clinical awareness, so treatment can be initiated promptly to lower risk of long-term squeal.


The human brm (hbrm) protein (homologue of the Drosophila melanogaster brahma and Saccharomyces cervisiae SNF-2 proteins) is part of a polypeptide complex believed to regulate chromatin conformation. We have shown that the hbrm protein is cleaved in NB4 leukemic cells after induction of apoptosis by UV-irradiation, DNA damaging agents, or staurosporine. Because hbrm is found only in the nucleus, we have investigated the nature of the proteases that may regulate the degradation of this protein during apoptosis. In an in vitro assay, the hbrm protein could not be cleaved by caspase-3, -7, or -6, the "effector" caspases generally believed to carry out the cleavage of nuclear protein substrates. In contrast, we find that cathepsin G, a granule enzyme found in NB4 cells, cleaves hbrm in a pattern similar to that observed in vivo during apoptosis. In addition, a peptide inhibitor of cathepsin G blocks hbrm cleavage during apoptosis but does not block activation of caspases or cleavage of the nuclear protein polyADP ribose polymerase (PARP). Although localized in granules and in the Golgi complex in untreated cells, cathepsin G becomes diffusely distributed during apoptosis. Cleavage by cathepsin G removes a 20-kDa fragment containing a bromodomain from the carboxyl terminus of hbrm. This cleavage disrupts the association between hbrm and the nuclear matrix; the 160-kDa hbrm cleavage fragment is less tightly associated with the nuclear matrix than full-length hbrm.


VisIVO is an integrated suite of tools and services specifically designed for the Virtual Observatory. This suite constitutes a software framework for effective visual discovery in currently available (and next-generation) very large-scale astrophysical data sets. VisIVO consists of VisiVO Desktop, a stand alone application for interactive visualization on standard PCs; VisIVO Server, a grid-enabled platform for high performance visualization; and VisIVO Web, a custom designed web portal supporting services based on the VisIVO Server functionality. The main characteristic of VisIVO is support for high-performance, multidimensional visualization of very large-scale astrophysical data sets. Users can obtain meaningful visualizations rapidly while preserving full and intuitive control of the relevant visualization parameters. This paper focuses on newly developed integrated tools in VisIVO Server allowing intuitive visual discovery with three-dimensional (3D) views being created from data tables. VisIVO Server can be installed easily on any web server with a database repository. We discuss briefly aspects of our implementation of VisiVO Server on a computational grid and also outline the functionality of the services offered by VisIVO Web. Finally we conclude with a summary of our work and pointers to future developments.


Abstract:Russell discovered the classes version of Russell's Paradox in spring 1901, and the predicates version near the same time. There is a problem, however, in dating the discovery of the propositional functions version. In 1906, Russell claimed he discovered it after May 1903, but this conflicts with the widespread belief that the functions version appears in The Principles of Mathematics, finished in late 1902. I argue that Russell's dating was accurate, and that the functions version does not appear in the Principles. I distinguish the functions and predicates versions, give a novel reading of the Principles, section 85, as a paradox dealing with what Russell calls assertions, and show that Russell's logical notation in 1902 had no way of even formulating the functions version. The propositional functions version had its origins in the summer of 1903, soon after Russell's notation had changed in such a way as to make a formulation possible.


We look for correlated changes in stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) along filaments in the cosmic web by examining the stellar masses and UV-derived SFRs of 1799 ungrouped and unpaired spiral galaxies that reside in filaments. We devise multiple distance metrics to characterize the complex geometry of filaments, and find that galaxies closer to the cylindrical centre of a filament have higher stellar masses than their counterparts near the periphery of filaments, on the edges of voids. In addition, these peripheral spiral galaxies have higher SFRs at a given mass. Complementing our sample of filament spiral galaxies with spiral galaxies in tendrils and voids, we find that the average SFR of these objects in different large-scale environments are similar to each other with the primary discriminant in SFR being stellar mass, in line with previous works. However, the distributions of SFRs are found to vary with large-scale environment. Our results thus suggest a model in which in addition to stellar mass as the primary discriminant, the large-scale environment is imprinted in the SFR as a second-order effect. Furthermore, our detailed results for filament galaxies suggest a model in which gas accretion from voids on to filaments is primarily in an orthogonal direction. Overall, we find our results to be in line with theoretical expectations of the thermodynamic properties of the intergalactic medium in different large-scale environments.


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Knowledge Engineering was in the past primarily concerned with building and developing knowledge-based systems, an objective which puts Knowledge Engineering in a niche of the world-wide research efforts at best. This has changed dramatically: Knowledge Engineering is now a key technology in the upcoming knowledge society. Companies are recognizing knowledge as their key assets, which have to be exploited and protected in a fast changing, global and competitive economy. This situation has led to the application of Knowledge Engineering techniques in Knowledge Management. The demand for more efficient (business to) business processes requires the interconnection and interoperation of different information systems. But information access and integration is not an algorithmic task that is easy to solve: much knowledge is required to resolve the semantic differences of data residing in two information systems. Thus Knowledge Engineering has become a major technique for information integration. And, last but not least the fast growing World Wide Web generates an ever-increasing demand for more efficient knowledge exploitation and creation techniques. Here again Knowledge Engineering technologies may become the key technology for solving the problem. In this paper we discuss these recent developments and describe our view of the future.


When, if ever, are clinical sociologists justified in accepting the directives of employers and management sponsors as setting the parameters within which they proceed with their work? In particular, is it ever permissible for clinical sociologists to accept an employer's or a manager-sponsor's definition of a problem to be studied, even though they may not view it as the more fundamental problem needing study in the situation? These questions are important for understanding the professional role and moral responsibilities of practitioners in the still-coalescing profession of clinical sociology. They also have increasing practical importance at a time when job opportunities for sociologists are shifting from academia to industry and government-both within organizations as employees and as external organizational consultants.


Long Term Evolution (LTE) is being widely deployed to support real-time applications, such as voice over IP and video games. These power consuming applications create new challenges for resource allocation. Therefore, providing efficient resource allocation as well as extending user equipment's (UE) battery lifetime are two important goals in LTE network. Maximum Largest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF) algorithm is one of the primary downlink scheduling mechanisms currently used for real-time applications. The Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mechanism, which is widely adopted in LTE to conserve the mobile phone's battery resources, results in higher latency and higher packet loss rate due to its sleep mode. The impact of DRX mechanism on downlink scheduling by using M-LWDF algorithm was studied comprehensively for the first time. Then a novel scheme, utility based scheduling scheme (USS), was proposed to reduce packet loss which was caused by DRX sleep mode by considering the remaining DRX awake time at UE and adjusting the DRX parameters. The simulation results show that by using this proposed scheme, significant performance gain will be achieved when compared with traditional scheduling algorithms, such as Proportional Fairness (PF) and M-LWDF. Packet delay and packet drop rate will be decreased by 23.5% and 59.5% respectively.


We present an efficient rigorous computational method which is an extension of the work Analytic Estimates and Rigorous Continuation for Equilibria of Higher-Dimensional PDEs (M. Gameiro and J.-P. Lessard, J. Differential Equations, 249 (2010), pp. 2237--2268). The idea is to generate sharp one-dimensional estimates using interval arithmetic which are then used to produce high-dimensional estimates. These estimates are used to construct the radii polynomials which provide an efficient way of determining a domain on which the contraction mapping theorem is applicable. Computing the equilibria using a finite-dimensional projection, the method verifies that the numerically produced equilibrium for the projection can be used to explicitly define a set which contains a unique equilibrium for the PDE. A new construction of the polynomials is presented where the nonlinearities are bounded by products of one-dimensional estimates as opposed to using FFT with large inputs. It is demonstrated that with this approac...


BACKGROUND
Patterns of early outcomes in peritoneal dialysis (PD) are not well studied and dialysis providers need to establish a baseline of key outcomes for continuous quality improvement initiatives.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
Incident PD patients from Fresenius Medical Care, North America from January 1 through December 31, 2009.

FACTORS
Case-mix, comorbid illness, and baseline laboratory values.

OUTCOMES
Death, hospitalization, peritonitis, and switch to hemodialysis (HD) within the first year on PD therapy.

MEASUREMENTS
Event rates and outcome predictors.

RESULTS
Of 1,677 incident PD patients, 1,313 started on PD therapy and 367 switched from HD therapy within the first 90 days. Normalized first-year event rates for mortality, switch to HD therapy, peritonitis, and hospitalization were 10, 27, 42, and 128 per 100 patient-years, respectively. 336 of 463 (72.6%) first peritonitis episodes and 637 of 939 (67.8%) first hospitalizations occurred within the first 6 months of PD treatment. Black race, higher body mass index, non-Hispanic ethnicity, peripheral vascular disease, and low weekly Kt/V associated with peritonitis risk. Dialysis vintage, female sex, diabetes, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and history of limb amputation along with lower laboratory values for albumin, hemoglobin, and phosphorus and weekly Kt/V associated with hospitalization. Switchers to HD therapy (n=350) used central venous catheters 81.4% of the time as initial access (still 78.3% at 90 days later) because of lack of permanent access.

LIMITATIONS
Residual confounding from unmeasured variables and exclusion of patients with a training day but who never started home PD therapy.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite low first-year mortality, incident PD patients had high morbidity, particularly within the first 3-6 months. Increased focus to identify patients at greatest risk for peritonitis and hospitalization, as well as evaluation of care processes and implementation of preventive strategies, is required. Access planning for transition to HD therapy needs more attention, even during the first PD year.


Clouds and aerosols have a large, yet highly uncertain, effect on changes in Earth's climate. A factor of particular note is the role played by ice-nucleating particles, which remains poorly understood. The mineral K-feldspar (Kfs) has recently been shown by a number of independent studies to nucleate ice in mixed-phase cloud conditions far more efficiently than other common minerals. Here, global atmospheric Kfs flux through geologic time is estimated; constrained by records of secular continental crust and biosphere evolution, plate tectonics, volcanism, glaciation, and attendant trends in land surface stability. The analysis reveals that Kfs flux today is at neither extreme of the range estimated across geological time. The present-day Kfs flux, however, is likely to be among the most spatially and temporally variable due to land surface change. The concept of an ice-nucleation efficiency factor that can be calculated from rocks, and also eolian sediments and soils, is proposed. This allows the impact of paleo-atmospheric dust to be estimated through the rock record alongside meteorological and atmospheric composition considerations. With the reasonable assumption that the ice-nucleating properties of Kfs are themselves independent of the background climate state, a better understanding of Kfs flux across a range of spatial and temporal scales will advance understanding of climate processes and interactions.


Successful robotic operation in stochastic environments relies on accurate characterization of the underlying probability distributions, yet this is often imperfect due to limited knowledge. This work presents a control algorithm that is capable of handling such distributional mismatches. Specifically, we propose a novel nonlinear MPC for distributionally robust control, which plans locally optimal feedback policies against a worst-case distribution within a given KL divergence bound from a Gaussian distribution. Leveraging mathematical equivalence between distributionally robust control and risk-sensitive optimal control, our framework also provides an algorithm to dynamically adjust the risk-sensitivity level online for risk-sensitive control. The benefits of the distributional robustness as well as the automatic risk-sensitivity adjustment are demonstrated in a dynamic collision avoidance scenario where the predictive distribution of human motion is erroneous.


Following the end of World War II, Japanese interpreters faced unique andcomplex opportunities and hardships. In occupied Japan, thousands of localinterpreters (and translators) were recruited to assist in a variety of occupation operations led bythe US forces. In war crimes trials, Japanese linguists played an important roleas interpreters in court proceedings against their former superiors and compatriots.At the same time, some interpreters who had served in the JapaneseArmy were prosecuted as war criminals. Wartime interpreters were also tappedas witnesses to testify for the prosecution during trials. Thesediverse experiences of Japanese interpreters during the occupation period shinelight on some issues and risks faced by wartime interpreters and local interpretersserving foreign military occupiers.


The centennial of Alois Alzheimer's original description of the disease that would come to bear his name offers a vantage point from which to commemorate the seminal discoveries in the field. To identify the breakthroughs, we used citation analysis, milestone papers identified by current researchers, and our own suggestions. Our process took into account the perspectives of individuals who recall the impact of findings at the time they were made, as well as of scientists today who have the advantage of hindsight in weighing the lasting influence of these findings. Because modern Alzheimer disease research was triggered by the seminal work of Tomlinson, Blessed, and Roth some four decades ago, we are especially fortunate that the vast majority of these milestone authors are still with us. Each contributor was invited to discuss what made their particular article a milestone in the context of its time. Furthermore, contributors were asked to provide a highly personal perspective, by recounting the tale of how each discovery unfolded and by frankly describing the contradictions among studies and the debates that once took place in whispered tones in remote corners of seminar rooms and conference halls. These writings bring to the practitioner, student and interested lay person a perspective not only on the past but also on where the Alzheimer disease field is likely to go in the future. Only time will tell whether these milestones have charted the future accurately, but they are unquestionably the foundation upon which the future will be built.


The aim of this study was to assess attitudes of intensive care nurses to selected ethical issues related to end-of-life decisions in paediatric intensive care units. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed in 2005 to intensive care nurses at two different scientific occasions in Turkey. Of the 155 intensive care nurse participants, 98% were women. Fiftythree percent of these had intensive care experience of more than four years. Most of the nurses failed to agree about withholding (65%) or withdrawing (60%) futile treatment. In addition, 68% agreed that intravenous nutrition must continue at all costs. In futile treatment cases, the nurses tended to leave the decision to parents or act maternalistically. The results showed that intensive care nurses could ignore essential ethical duties in end-of-life care. We suggest that it is necessary to educate Turkish intensive care nurses about ethical issues at the end of life.


Regularization of linear prediction based mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) extraction in speaker verification is considered. Commonly, MFCCs are extracted from the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) spectra of speech frames. In our recent study, it was shown that replacing the DFT spectrum estimation step with the conventional and temporally weighted linear prediction (LP) and their regularized versions increases the recognition performance considerably. In this paper, we provide a thorough analysis on the regularization of conventional and temporally weighted LP methods. Experiments on the NIST 2002 corpus indicate that regularized all-pole methods yield large improvements on recognition accuracy under additive factory and babble noise conditions (e.g. 10% relative improvement over standard DFT method for 0 dB SNR factory noise) in terms of both equal error rate (EER) and minimum detection cost function (MinDCF).


Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate whether the internal (session rating of perceived exertion [sRPE] and Edwards heart-rate-based method) and external training load (jumps) affect the presession well-being perception on the day after (ie, +22 h), according to age and tactical position, in elite (ie, Serie A2) female volleyball training. Methods: Ten female elite volleyball players (age = 23 [4] y, height = 1.82 [0.04] m, body mass = 73.2 [4.9] kg) had their heart rate monitored during 13 team (115 individual) training sessions (duration: 101 [8] min). Mixed-effect models were applied to evaluate whether sRPE, Edwards method, and jumps were correlated (P ≤ .05) to Hooper index factors (ie, perceived sleep quality/disorders, stress level, fatigue, and delayed-onset muscle soreness) in relation to age and tactical position (ie, hitters, central blockers, opposites, and setters). Results: The results showed a direct relationship between sRPE (P < .001) and presession well-being perception 22 hours apart, whereas the relationship was the inverse for Edwards method internal training load. Age, as well as the performed jumps, did not affect the well-being perception of the day after. Finally, central blockers experienced a higher delayed-onset muscle soreness than hitters (P = .003). Conclusions: Findings indicated that female volleyball players' internal training load influences the pretraining well-being status on the day after (+ 22 h). Therefore, coaches can benefit from this information to accurately implement periodization in a short-term perspective and to properly adopt recovery strategies in relation to the players' well-being status.


Internal fields in fused couplers have been investigated for the first time by measuring the near field and far field patterns at different cross sections of the couplers. Detailed information concerning the internal fields in the couplers provides experimental evidence for the validity of the hybrid mode theory of fused couplers.


OZPINAR, S., 2009. Tillage and cover crop effects on maize yield and soil nitrogen. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 15: 533-543 Tillage and spring kill cover crop may affect crop N-accumulation and subsequent N release to the soil, thereby influencing maize (Zea mays L.) uptake and yield. We examined the influence of three tillage practices [conventional tillage with mouldboard plough (MP) as using traditionally tillage, chisel tillage (CT), shallower rototiller tillage (ST)], one cover crop management systems [common vetch (Vicia sativa L.)] on cover crop N accumulation, soil N, and maize biomass yield and N uptake. An experiment was conducted on a clay-loam soil from 2005 to 2008 in a semi-arid region in Mediterranean conditions. Cover crop N accumulation was higher with MT than ST and CT due to increased biomass yield over all year average. However, maize biomass yield and N uptake were found higher in ST than in MT and CT. Soil N at 0-30 cm depth at maize planting was higher in ST followed by CT and MT. Similarly, soil N was determined higher in ST at the end of establishment year followed by MT and CT, respectively. The results can be applied in regions where cover crops can be grown in the winter to reduce soil erosion and N leaching and where tillage intensity and N fertilization rates can be minimized to reduce the costs of energy requirement for tillage and N fertilization while optimizing crop production.


This thesis is primarily based on three core chapters, focused on the fundamental issues of trade secrets law. The goal of this thesis is to come up with policy recommendations to improve legal structure governing trade secrets. The focal points of this research are the following. What is the optimal scope of trade secrets law? How does it depend on the market characteristics such as degree of product differentiation between competing products? What factors need to be considered to balance the contradicting objectives of promoting innovation and knowledge diffusion? The second strand of this research focuses on the desirability of lost profits or unjust enrichment damage regimes in case of misappropriation of a trade secret. A comparison between these regimes is made and simple policy implications are extracted from the analysis. The last part of this research is an empirical analysis of a possible relationship between trade secrets sharing and misappropriation instances faced by firms.


For a variety of reasons the notion of the smart city has grown in popularity and some even claim that all cities now have to be 'smart'. For example, some digital enthusiasts argue that advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are ushering in a new era in which pervasive electronic connections will inevitably lead to significant changes that make cities more liveable and more democratic. This paper will cast a critical eye over these claims. It will unpack the smart city rhetoric and show that, in fact, three competing perspectives are struggling for ascendancy within the smart cities discourse: 1) The digital city (emphasising a strong commitment to the use of ICT in governance), 2) The green city (reflecting the growing use of the US phrase smart growth, which is concerned to apply sound urban planning principles), and 3) The learning city (emphasising the way in which cities learn, network and innovate). Five digital danger zones will be identified and discussed. This analysis will suggest that scholars and policy makers who wish to improve the quality of life in cities should focus their attention on wisdom, not smartness. Civic leaders need to exercise judgement based on values if they are to create inclusive, sustainable cities. It is not enough to be clever, quick, ingenious, nor will it help if Big Data is superseded by Even Bigger Data. Universities can play a much more active role in place-based leadership in the cities where they are located. To do this effectively they need to reconsider the nature of modern scholarship. The paper will show how a growing number of universities are doing precisely this. Two respected examples will be presented to show how urban universities, if they are committed to engaged scholarship, can make a significant contribution to the creation of the wise city.


The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate and interrogate a design technique based on deep learning. The discussion includes aspects of machine learning, 2D to 2D style transfers and generative adversarial processes. The paper examines the meaning of agency in a world where decision making processes are defined by human/machine collaborations (fig.1), and their relationship to aspects of a Posthuman design ecology. Taking cues from the language used by experts in AI such as Hallucinations, Dreaming, Style Transfer and Vision, the paper strives to clarify the position and role of Artificial Intelligence in the discipline of urban design .


Automated fringe-pattern processing is important in a great number of industrial applications, such as optical data testing and quality control. One of the main problems that arises with these processes is the automated phase unwrapping of the phase map associated with the fringe pattern. Usually the phase map presents problems such as noise, and low-modulation areas. A new phase-unwrapping algorithm with high noise immunity is presented. The algorithm is easily implemented and can process arbitrary shapes. The main features of this algorithm are the use of a queue for the processing of arbitrary shapes and a selection criterion that determines which pixels are going to be processed.


Cerebellopontine angle (CPA) ganglionic hamartomas are rare. We present a case of a 49-year-old woman who presented with left-sided hearing loss of more than 4 years' duration and vertigo since childhood. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass on the intracanalicular segment of cranial nerve VIII on the left side, consistent with acoustic schwannoma. She opted for observation of the tumor. The patient returned 21 months after the initial evaluation with new-onset left facial weakness. At this time, a working diagnosis of facial nerve neuroma was made. The lesion was excised, and pathology confirmed a diagnosis of left-sided CPA ganglionic hamartoma. Otolaryngologists should be familiar with this uncommon tumor and include it in the differential diagnosis of CPA lesions.


This book presents the principles and the tools for participatory evaluation of sustainable development--growth that does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It is intended for any citizen or group that may be concerned with protecting or recovering a cultural heritage, assessing the impact of a project or of plans that impact an environment or ecosystem.The authors describe participatory evaluation processes that will empower all interested "stakeholders"--anyone impacted by a proposed venture--to determine and control what is to be evaluated and how it is evaluated, to articulate and define their community s vision, and to ensure that development plans meet their community s needs sustainably. Acknowledging that the specific concepts, challenges, opportunities, and circumstances surrounding sustainable development differ significantly from one place or group to another, the authors provide an adaptable framework for developing an evaluation plan, as well as the tools for collecting, analyzing, interpreting and presenting data. They explain how to use and communicate findings to ensure a full and appropriate debate about the issues, and finally how to implement the evaluation plan.An important and practical book for anyone concerned with the impact of planning and development issues and who wants to ensure that all sectors of their community are given a voice in decisions that affect them."


Background: While the role of the right hemisphere (RH) in prosodic processing is prominent, research on the perception of lexical tones has shown that left hemisphere damaged (LHD) patients are more impaired than right hemisphere damaged (RHD) patients. Dichotic listening and imaging studies with healthy speakers of tone languages demonstrate that at least at the phonemic and lexical level, prosody is processed in the left hemisphere (LH) when the variations in pitch are phonemically distinctive. There is no report available yet on the perceptual discrimination of a Bantu language in patients after unilateral brain damage. Aims: We addressed the question of how well Shona aphasic patients and right hemisphere damaged patients perceive pitch contrasts in Shona lexical words and also in their homologous low-pass filtered counterparts. We also sought to discover the validity of the current hypotheses on hemispheric lateralisation particularly the hypothesis on hemispheric lateralisation based on language function to account for the Shona data. Methods & Procedures: A total of 7 LHD and 7 RHD patients and 14 healthy controls participated in two discrimination tasks that examined perception of lexical tone in (a) bisyllabic Shona words and (b) low-pass filtered stimuli. In both tasks the participants were tasked with judging the pitch as the same or different in 120 bisyllabic words and 120 low-pass filtered stimuli. Outcomes & Results: The results demonstrated that the tonal discrimination of the LHD group was more reduced in comparison to the RHD group and control participants. However, the performance of the RHD patients was not error free relative to the control participants, although significantly better than the LHD patients in both tasks. Conclusions: At least for the phonemic and lexical levels, brain damage to the dominant hemisphere results in lexical tone impairment for LHD patients, and cognitive load processing results in a subdued but good performance for RHD patients. The LH is therefore dominant for processing tone when it is lexically distinctive.


Anchu Ashok*, Arya Arackal, George Jacob, Gargi Raina Centre for Nanotechnology Research, VIT University, Vellore, India - 632014 * firstname.lastname@example.com Keywords: Surface Plasmon, Localization, Propagating surface plasmon, Coupling. Surface Plasmons (SPs) are collective electron oscillations at metal dielectric interface. They are often categorized into localized surface plasmon resonance and propagating surface plasmon resonance (PSPR). LSPR are non propagating electromagnetic waves and PSPR are propagating. In this work, we have carried out a study of Electric Field Intensity variation for different isolated and array structures of Au and Ag for corresponding plasmonic wavelength. Double plasmon resonance peak are observed, which is the combined effect of localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) and propagating surface plasmonic resonance (PSPR). Shape, size and thickness of the structures affect Localized surface plasmonic resonance while as propagating surface plasmonic resonance (PSPR) is dependent on the 1D and 2D arrangements of the patterns. Depending on the sharp and confined corners, density of the hot spot in structures changes. Hence, triangular structure gives more excitation when compared with circle, square and ellipse. This work followed triangular patterns to find the coupling effect of LSPR and PSPR depend on the arrangement of patterns. Incident TM polarized plane wave of wavelength from 300 nm to 1000 nm with electric field intensity 1V/m was given for finding the enhancement of electric field in the patterns. Sharper the corners, more is the electric field enhancement. Another important factor affecting the enhancement of electric field is the grating period. If distance of two adjacent corners decreases, the coupling between the localized surface plasmons increases. This increase in coupling leads to the propagating electromagnetic wave called propagating surface plasmons (PSPs). This coupling distance depends on the propagation length of electric field from one structure to another. If the second structure is placed at a distance less than that of the propagation length there is an effective coupling of the electric field from one structure to another. This work discusses about simulation of electric field intensity for three types of patterns with the variation on their period and confinement employing Finite Element Method (FEM). Double resonance peak are noticed in all structures is due to the coupling effect of field from one structure to another and there is change in field enhancement and resonance wavelength with different patterns. Resonance wavelength due to the PSPR is at longer range and that of LSPR is at shorter range. Propagating surface plasmon resonance wavelength is same for a particular structure irrespective of number of structures in the array. Spectral separation between the LPSR peak and PSPR peak can be modified by changing the period and confinement in the structures. Silver patterns show better enhancement than gold patterns. The enhancement of Gold patterns is in near IR range and that of Silver is in visible range. Combined effect of this LSPR and PSPR give drastic field enhancement which makes these patterns as good substrate candidate for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and biosensors.


The Life of Abraham Lincoln: From His Birth to His Inauguration as President. By Ward H. Lamon. Introduction to the Bison Books Edition by Rodney 0. Davis. (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. Pp. xxviii, 547. $22.00.) On the evening of April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln attended the performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. In the play's third act, John Wilkes Booth entered the unguarded presidential box and fatally shot the president in the back of the head with a palm-size derringer, Laid out in a nearby home, Lincoln clung to life through the night, finally expiring early in the morning, attended by a crowd of shocked and horrified government officials. In the wake of Lincoln's death, Secretary of State William H. Seward mused that if Ward Hill Lamon had been present, the tragedy would never have occurred. An old Illinois friend and fellow lawyer who had practiced law with Lincoln in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, "Hill" Lamon had personally assumed the role of protector of Lincoln's person upon his election as president. Lincoln in turn appointed Lamon marshal of the District of Columbia, where he promptly alienated congressional radicals by enforcing the fugitive slave act. An immense bear of a man, barrelchested, with a stem visage that glares out from daguerreotypes as though about to reach out and throttle you, Lamon looked the part of the forbidding bodyguard. He is habitually described as bristling with weaponry: machete-like bowie knives, brass knuckles, pistols. He kept Lincoln safe throughout the war, repeatedly lecturing the fatalistic president on the necessity of precautions, warnings that Lincoln typically ignored. Lamon was in Richmond, Virginia on April 14 and thus was not on duty when most needed. Having failed in the end to protect his friend's life, Lamon, in the eyes of many, had the further ill-grace to assassinate Lincoln's character by writing a critical biography of his deceased patron. Settling at the Washington law firm of Jeremiah Black, a former Buchanan administration cabinet member, Lamon struck up a friendship with Jeremiah's son Chauncey. The two young men decided to win fame and riches by writing a two volume Lincoln biography, with Black doing the writing, and Lamon providing the Lincoln material. To better accomplish that purpose, Lamon acquired William Herndon's "Lincoln Record," a fund of Lincolniana he had elicited after the war. Black took Herndon's material and molded it into the first volume, which takes Lincoln's life up to the presidency A new paperback edition of this work has just been published by the University of Nebraska Press, with an introduction by Rodney 0. Davis. Black had imbibed the Democratic partisanship of his father, and he eagerly seized upon the more controversial elements of Herndon's research. As Albert V. House, Jr. put it: "too much space was devoted to Lincoln's love affairs, questionable ancestry, and lack of conventional religious beliefs." Black wrote "in a belligerent fashion." Rodney Davis notes Black's "overdone realism" and tendency to "emphasize the unattractive and disreputable in Lincoln's early life. …


Coal combustion can lead to emissions of organic compounds to the atmosphere, if the combustion system is inefficient. International protocols on emissions of some organic species have been established due to concern with respect to their role in ground level ozone formation and potential human health effects. These protocols acknowledge that efficient coal combustion in large coal-fired power plants is a negligible source of organic emissions. However, coal use in less efficient sectors such as residential stoves and some industrial practices can be a significant source of local emissions. Evaluating emissions of organic compounds from sources such as coal combustion can be difficult due to the low concentrations and the large number of different compounds released. Emission inventories are commonly based on emission factors. This report reviews data on emissions from coal combustion from large-scale pulverised units down to small residential stoves. Emissions from industrial coal use such as for coke manufacture, metal production and cement kilns are also included. The effects of parameters such as fuel type, combustion conditions and pollution control systems are summarised. Best practices, many of which concentrate on increasing efficiency, are reviewed for all coal-related sources.


This study provides an empirical test of a model of antecedents and consequences of psychological contract violation (PCV) caused by the experience of downsizing. A longitudinal survey method was used to collect data at two different points in time (a month after downsizing, and eight months later) from a sample of 281 survivors from a large Malaysian organization going through downsizing. Respondents were from the headquarters (HQ), factories and subsidiaries located across the country and were employed across hierarchical positions including managers, supervisors, technical, operating and administrative staff. A causal model is proposed and tested. The model proposes that the perception of justice and negative affectivity at time 1 (T1) predict PCV, which in turn predicts three attitudinal and behavioural outcomes of commitment, organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) and turnover intentions at time 2 (T2). Three variations of the model (fully-mediated, partially-mediated and unmediated) were tested with structural equation modelling. The results show that both the perception of justice and negative affectivity significantly predict PCV, and that there is a direct effect between PCV and commitment, an indirect effect between PCV and OCBs, and both direct and indirect effects between PCV and turnover intentions. The findings demonstrate the utility of psychological contact framework in explaining survivor reactions to downsizing.


Lorenz–Mie multiple-scattering theory is used to perform semi-analytical calculations of the lossy dispersion relations of propagating modes in infinite chains of metallic spheres. Lossy modes are described by allowing the projection of the wavevector along the chain axis to be a complex number rather than the more common complex frequency description. We show that even when the constituent particles are much smaller than the wavelength, one generally needs to go well beyond the coupled dipole approximation to achieve stable predictions.


Abstract:Photographic archives are a potential source of knowledge in industrial heritage. This paper deals with the case of the main mining sites developed in Francoist Spain to produce energy. Historic photographs are not only a description of the original forms, dispositions, and uses of an industrial complex, nor are they only a register of social implications of labor. They contribute to recognition of a more complex understanding of the heritage significance of obsoletes landscapes nowadays. This paper analyzes the photographic archives as an aesthetical footprint related to the narration of meanings, symbols, and identity.After World War II, Spain was politically and economically isolated. In 1944, the government established four main industrial complexes that would guarantee the national electricity and oil supply—three of them made use of large new mines of coal and oil sands. This paper assesses the evolution of the visual discourse in these three case studies. First, the paper explains the planning strategy and the construction process of these key places through primary sources from the National Institute of Industry. Although these images were not taken with an artistic intention, the photographers tried to bring to light some aesthetic qualities and give meanings to the technical phenomenon. Which concepts, categories, or aesthetic discourses did the most celebrated photographers use? These images are closely related to the "technological sublime" and allow us to study some variations in the emotional relationship of the individual with his surroundings.The second stage of this paper analyzes the multidirectional deviation of the visual discourse since the seventies. The photographers progressively identified the value of these landscapes of energy obsoletes at that time. Some artists represented the outdated landscape through romantic views, and some of them even disguised it with a natural cover. How is the transition from the "technological sublime" to the "technological ruin" produced? Are the cultural meanings voided by the heritagization process? Looking at the reminiscences that emerge nowadays when these landscapes are reactivated, we can hypothesize that meanings are always being reinvented.


Abstract|A miniaturized ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna based on Sierpinski square slots is reported. The antenna has a compact dimension of only 0:32�l � 0:32�l (28 � 28mm2), at a lower frequency of 3.4 GHz. Antenna miniaturization is achieved by etching Sierpinski square slots in the radiating
decagonal shaped monopole, and UWB operations are accomplished by utilizing double truncations in the ground plane. The designed antenna has a fractional bandwidth of about 127.3% (3.41{15.37 GHz) in simulation and about 124.7% (3.50{15.1 GHz) in measurement. The time domain characteristics of the designed antenna are discussed in detail. Good radiation characteristics and impedance matching are exhibited by the designed fractal antenna in the entire UWB range.


We use a natural experiment that relaxed class attendance requirements for one school year to explore students' marginal propensity to skip class, and to examine the effects of their absences on scholastic outcomes. We exploit exogenous variation resulting from a one-time policy Greece implemented allowing high school students to miss 30 percent more class hours without penalty during the 2009-10 academic year, a period when officials feared outbreaks of swine flu. Using a new dataset, we analyze which students missed more classes, and the effect of these absences on scholastic outcomes across the distribution of student ability, income, and peer quality. We find that while the swine flu itself did not affect the student population, the relaxed class attendance policy caused an increase in absences of roughly 10 hours per student, with more absences taken by those who had higher academic performance records, have academically weaker peers in their classes, or who live in poorer neighborhoods. End-of-year exam results show a positive effect of the relaxed attendance policy on grades across the ability distribution. The magnitude of the positive effect of absences on grades increases as we move to right of the ability distribution. Our results suggest that students who may have the resources or the human capital accumulation to learn outside the classroom may have lower performance when a strict attendance policy forces them to stay in class.


Marine invertebrates such as soft corals are important sources of secondary metabolites with promising biomedical applications and commercial value. RNA isolation in conjunction with reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) are valuable tools utilized to study the molecular elements involved in secondary metabolite production and functional genomics. Two total RNA extraction protocols were compared using fresh tissue and flash frozen preparations from the coral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae and from its symbiont Symbiodinium sp. isolated using RNeasy minicolumns ( Qiagen ® ) and Trizol reagent ( Invitrogen ® ). In general, higher yields were obtained by using Trizol reagent when compared to RNeasy. No significant differences were observed in RNA yield when live or flash frozen tissue was used. However, flash frozen holobiont tissue isolated by Trizol resulted in the highest RNA yield of all preparations analyzed. To conclude, both protocols are suitable for RNA isolation. Trizol is recommended if higher yields are the primary concern, but RNeasy is recommended if time is an issue.


With the increased global awareness of the negative impact of scientific, technological and industrial activities on the environment and copious examples of sustainable practices existing in many an indigenous community, the new South African science curriculum statement has called on science teachers to integrate school science with the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). In response to this call, this study used an Argumentation-Based course (A-B course) to enhance teachers' understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and IKS and their ability to integrate science and IKS in their classrooms. Nine teachers participated in the course over a six-month period. Using questionnaires and interviews, the teachers' conceptions of, and awareness about the NOS and IKS were assessed before and after the course. Altogether, five of the teachers were interviewed and three of them completed a delayed questionnaire nearly two years after the course. After participating in the course, the teachers were: 1) more willing to accept IKS as a potentially legitimate aspect of a science curriculum; 2) more able to distinguish between science and IKS; and 3) more aware of the appropriate context to use the scientific or IKS worldview than was the case before the course. Although the teachers were enthusiastic about the value of the course as part of their training at the tertiary level, they were less optimistic about its success at the primary or secondary school level.


Objectives Early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an unmet medical need in the field of rheumatology. Previously, we performed high-density transcriptomic studies on synovial biopsies from patients with arthritis, and found that synovial gene expression profiles were significantly different according to the underlying disorder. Here, we wanted to further explore the consistency of the gene expression signals in synovial biopsies of patients with arthritis, using low-density platforms. Methods Low-density assays (cDNA microarray and microfluidics qPCR) were designed, based on the results of the high-density microarray data. Knee synovial biopsies were obtained from patients with RA, spondyloarthropathies (SA) or osteoarthritis (OA) (n = 39), and also from patients with initial undifferentiated arthritis (UA) (n = 49). Results According to high-density microarray data, several molecular pathways are differentially expressed in patients with RA, SA and OA: T and B cell activation, chromatin remodelling, RAS GTPase activation and extracellular matrix regulation. Strikingly, disease activity (DAS28-CRP) has a significant influence on gene expression patterns in RA samples. Using the low-density assays, samples from patients with OA are easily discriminated from RA and SA samples. However, overlapping molecular patterns are found, in particular between RA and SA biopsies. Therefore, prediction of the clinical diagnosis based on gene expression data results in a diagnostic accuracy of 56.8%, which is increased up to 98.6% by the addition of specific clinical symptoms in the prediction algorithm. Similar observations are made in initial UA samples, in which overlapping molecular patterns also impact the accuracy of the diagnostic algorithm. When clinical symptoms are added, the diagnostic accuracy is strongly improved. Conclusions Gene expression signatures are overall different in patients with OA, RA and SA, but overlapping molecular signatures are found in patients with these conditions. Therefore, an accurate diagnosis in patients with UA requires a combination of gene expression and clinical data.


In its Preface the WOORDEBOEK/WÖRTERBUCH claims to be suitable for both native and foreign speakers of Afrikaans and German. This study presents an evaluation of WOORDEBOEK/ WÖRTERBUCH to determine to what extent the dictionary can be regarded as a helpful and up-to-date tool for the user, whether he or she is a native or foreign speaker of the language pair treated in this dictionary. This ultimate aim is to determine to what degree WOORDEBOEK/WÖRTERBUCH can serve as a helpful tool in translation. Theoretically and methodically the study is based on the dictionary usage research by HE Wiegand, with the genuine purpose of the dictionary as the main principle. The genuine purpose of the dictionary forms the basis of the theoretical and practical analysis. The study contains a short overview of the development of WOORDEBOEK/WÖRTERBUCH from when it was first published as a monolingual dictionary for native speakers of Afrikaans who wanted to learn German in 1925 to the publication of the eighth edition in 1983, which claims to be a new and more effective source of information for both languages, to enable closer relations between South Africa and Germany. This is followed by a lexicographic discussion on the concepts underlying the planning of a dictionary, with the emphasis on lexicographic processes and lexicographic functions. The problematic issue of active and passive dictionaries is discussed, concluding with the preference for a dictionary orientated towards text production in the case of WOORDEBOEK/WÖRTERBUCH, which would enable translation from Afrikaans into German and vice versa. The problematic nature of equivalent relations is discussed in detail and forms the main focus of the empirical study and the practical study. The evaluation of WOORDEBOEK/WÖRTERBUCH is continued in the practical study, where the genuine purpose of the dictionary and the lexicographic functions are the main criteria. The empirical study analyses the actual problems target users have when consulting the dictionary in the context of the genuine purpose of the dictionary. The study is concluded with the statement that WOORDEBOEK/WÖRTERBUCH should be revised thoroughly and that this revision can only be successful if it is based on an up-to-date, representative corpus of both Afrikaans and German; and when the lexicographer is steered by the lexicographic functions and the needs of the target user, which determine the genuine purpose of the dictionary.


We report on an inversion tool for a class of oriented conditional constructor term rewriting systems. Four well-behaved rule inverters ranging from trivial to full, partial and semi-inverters are included. Conditional term rewriting systems are theoretically well founded and can model functional and non-functional rewrite relations. We illustrate the inversion by experiments with full and partial inversions of the Ackermann function. The case study demonstrates, among others, that polyvariant inversion and input-output set propagation can reduce the search space of the generated inverse systems.


In the most important ruling ever on causation and standard-setting, In re Rambus, the D.C. Circuit made it unnecessarily difficult to demonstrate causation. It erected roadblock after roadblock in front of legitimate cases alleging monopolization in the standard-setting context. The primary hurdle took the form of a dichotomy. The court reasoned that Rambus's nondisclosure of its patents was responsible for the standard-setting organization (SSO) either (1) adopting its technology or (2) failing to obtain reasonable-and-nondiscriminatory (RAND) royalties. But its reasoning on each prong of the dichotomy cut off legitimate claims. The first prong, of adoption, received a strict "but for" causation standard that is essentially impossible for a plaintiff to show. The FTC was punished for not "eliminating the possibility" that the SSO might have included Rambus's technology even if it had been disclosed. But the difficulties of proving a sole cause and predicting a counterfactual setting are extremely difficult. The challenges are even higher in the standard-setting context, in which there are numerous potential technologies, including many that are unpatented and less expensive. The second prong, addressing RAND royalties, suffered from an excessive reliance on the case of NYNEX Corp. v. Discon, Inc., which presented a far different factual scenario than Rambus. The D.C. Circuit imbued one line in the case, on monopoly pricing, with far more weight than was warranted. In addition, unlike Rambus, the case dealt with the conduct of a party that already had monopoly power.


Periodontal disease is one of the most common health care problems. The type of treatment of periodontal disease depends on the diagnosis. The treatment plan should also focus on managing the risk factors and modifying factors which affect the periodontal disease and treatment. The evidence-based advancements have given a success predictability level to the periodontal diagnosis and treatment plan. The level of specialty education is limited in the curriculum for undergraduates. Patients should receive the same quality of treatment whether administered by a specialist or general practitioner. Therefore, general dentists need to be well informed about how to make timely and appropriate referrals to periodontists when necessary. An online literature search was done through PubMed, PMC, and open access journals to understand the referral process. Articles pertaining to referral process were selected. Based on the search, it was found that knowledge of elements of the referral process, conditions (general and periodontal) requiring referral, and selection of periodontist are important aspects of the referral process. This short communication will help the general dentist to understand the referral process that will enable them to provide the timely periodontal referral and treatment to the patients.


Conflicting results on children's understanding of advertising may stem from differences in research methods. Most studies are conducted using interviewing techniques, employing only verbal questioning. In the present study, 136 children of two age groups (7 and 10 years) were first asked what advertising was for and, after responding, shown depictions of possible reasons. The results indicate that although older children are more likely than younger ones to understand that advertising seeks to promote selling, pictorial cues allow a much larger proportion of all children to indicate their understanding than verbal questioning does on its own, with younger children especially showing improvement. Thus, seven-year-olds seem to have an implicit understanding of the persuasive intent of advertising that they are unable to articulate in response to investigators' questions. Multiple methods appear to offer a means of evaluating the level of sophistication in children' understanding of advertising.


The paper was written for the 1st international workshop on complexity and real world applications focusing on using the tools and concepts from the complexity sciences to support real world decision-making activities, Held at Southampton, Uk,in july 2010. what the paper wished to demonstrate was that tools and methods by themselves are necessary but not sufficient either to support decision making or to make fundamental change in an organization. By contrast understanding organizations as complex social systems and co-creating enabling environments using the principles of complexity can bring about fundamental change. There is no 'black box' or magic in this process; It is simply a matter of addressing complex challenges in an appropriate way. However to do this effectively implies a shift in perspective and a different way of thinking. This is what can bring about changes in relationships, In behavior, and in organizational culture. The paper uses five different studies to argue that such understanding is essential; While at the same time illustrating some tools and methods used to identify the problem-space And that complex problems can only be addressed effectively by creating multi-dimensional enabling environments, Which address all the inter-related dimensions at the same time.


Modeling heterogeneous data sources remains a fundamental challenge of acoustic modeling in speech recognition. We call this the multi-condition problem because the speech data come from many different conditions. In this paper, we introduce the fundamental confusability problem in multi-condition learning, then discuss the problem formalization, the taxonomy, and the architectures for multi-condition learning. While the ideas presented are applicable to all classifiers, we focus our attention in this work on acoustic models based on deep neural networks (DNN). We propose four different strategies for multi-condition learning of a DNN that we refer to as a mixed-condition model, a condition-dependent model, a condition-normalizing model, and a condition-aware model. Based on the experimental results on the voice search and short message dictation task and the Aurora 4 task, we show that the confusability introduced when modeling heterogeneous data depends on the source of acoustic distortion itself, the front-end feature extractor, and the classifier. We also demonstrate the best approach for dealing with heterogeneous data may not be to let the model sort it out blindly, even with a classifier as sophisticated as a DNN.


OBJECTIVES
For many years, extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) was the operation of choice for the radical management of pleural mesothelioma in the UK. However, doubts surrounding the efficacy of EPP, and the change in demographics of the affected population, have prompted a transition in our practice towards extended pleurectomy/decortication (EPD). The aim of this study was to determine the effects an intentional transition from EPP to EPD has had on patient outcome.

METHODS
Data from 362 patients undergoing radical surgery (229 EPD, 133 EPP) during 1999-2014 were included. Demographics and outcome were compared between the two groups; EPP versus EPD.

RESULTS
The median age of patients undergoing EPD was significantly higher than those undergoing EPP [57 years (range 14-70 years) vs 65 years (range 42-81 years), P < 0.001]. There was a significantly higher proportion of patients with performance status ≥1 in the EPD group (46.3 vs 35.4%, P = 0.047). There was no difference in the median length of hospital stay between the two groups [14 days (range 1-133 days) vs 13 days (range 0-93 days), P = 0.409]. There was also no difference between the groups in terms of in-hospital mortality (EPP 5.3% and EPD 6.6%, P = 0.389), 30-day mortality [EPP 8 (6.0%) and EPD 8 (3.5%), P = 0.294] or 90-day mortality [EPP 18 (13.5%) and EPD 21 (9.2%), P = 0.220]. There was a significantly higher early reoperation rate in the EPP group (15.0 vs 6.2%, P = 0.008) but a significantly higher late reoperation rate in the EPD group (0.8 vs 5.3%, P = 0.037). There was no significant difference in overall survival or disease-free interval between the two groups (P = 0.899 and P = 0.399, respectively). However, overall survival was significantly greater in patients over the age of 65 undergoing EPD (12.5 vs 4.7 months, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION
The transition from EPP to EPD in our standard practice has enabled us to operate on more elderly, frail patients with no significant increase in use of hospital resources, and without detriment to overall survival.


We outline a method for the determination of the unknown wave-front aberration function of an optical system from noisy measurements of the corresponding point-spread function. The problem is cast as a nonlinear unconstrained minimization problem, and trust region techniques are employed for its solution in conjunction with analytic evaluations of the Jacobian and Hessian matrices governing slope and curvature information. Some illustrative numerical results are presented and discussed.