Small fruit size is a common problem in Salustiana oranges. Many reports exist on the use of synthetic auxins to enhance citrus fruit size. Few of these studies delve on the effect of auxins on carbohydrate metabolism and its relationship with enzyme activity. Sugar balance is an important trait for fruit quality and depends on the enzymatic metabolism at different tissue levels. The effect of 2,4Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) applications on fruit growth, sugar content, and invertase activity was studied on sweet orange fruit on 20-year-old trees of Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck cv. Salustiana. Carbohydrates were quantified via High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and the sugars released by the invertase activity with the Somogy–Nelson method. Then, the growth variables of the fruit were characterized (diameter and fresh and dry weight). The results showed that application of 2,4-D (20 mgL, 3.6 L per tree) increased fruit size at maturity (5 mm). Application of 2,4-D increased sugar levels in the fruit and influenced the activity of the different invertase isoforms. The increased activity of the acid invertase isoform suggests a direct effect of 2,4-D on the increased fruit sink strength; it is also related to increased consumption of sugars during the initial fruit development stage.


This report explores the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (41R) on the future of the job market in Viet Nam. It assesses how jobs, tasks, and skills are being transformed, particularly in logistics and agro-processing. These two industries are important for the country's employment, economic growth, and international competitiveness and are also highly relevant for 4IR technologies. The report is part of series developed from an Asian Development Bank study on trends in skills demand in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam.


In recent years, mobile data gathering in wireless sensor networks has attracted much interests in the research community. However, despite extensive efforts, many of previous work in this area lies only in theory and evaluates network performance with computer simulations, which leaves a large gap from reality. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a general purpose, flexible platform for mobile data gathering in wireless sensor networks to evaluate network performance and algorithms in a practical setting. Instead of relying on hand-crafted theoretical models, our platform integrates both mobile data collector and sensor nodes to provide realistic performance evaluations. In addition, the platform adopts a modular design in mobile data collector and sensor nodes, and equips the mobile data collector with advanced computing capability, which makes it versatile for evaluating the performance of a wide-range of applications. Finally, as a case study, weimplement a wildlife monitoring system on our platform. Our experimental results demonstrate that real implementations can evaluate many practical performance factors which would have a great impact on the sensing results and are very difficult to fully capture by theoretical models and simulations. We expect that this platform can become a very powerful general tool for more accurate network simulations and facilitate performance optimization in wireless sensor networks.


Fast growing COTS support of converging service oriented architecture (SOA) and business process modeling (BPM) standards provide the DOD with an excellent opportunity to improve its process to develop integrated operational and system architectures for net centric warfare capabilities. Mission threads, widely identified as a desirable method to capture DOD acquisition requirements, modeled in a machine- executable form, can validate and verify (V&V) operational performance early in the acquisition process. Available cost effective COTS solutions automate the integration of executable mission models providing agility and speed to that V&V process. This enables mission thread collaborative development, successive simultaneous refinements (by various stakeholders), and early simulation based verifications of innovative information flow strategies, which are now implementable via Global Information Grid (GIG) capabilities. Mission threads currently use various non-executable (static) documents such as Microsoft Officereg products, Microsoft Visioreg files, Unified Modeling Language (UML) sequence diagrams and/or DoDAF (DOD Architecture Framework) products. These documentation methods served well for Threat Based Acquisition, where the mission threads were primary defined early in the acquisition process. However, thes e methods are not adequate in dealing with the evolving net centric mission thread complexities arising from concurrent execution of operational activities, systems, and communication channels. Additionally, the acquisition process requires constant improvement and refinement to the mission threads developed in the beginning of the process. The GIG provides an opportunity to push and/or pull data, information, and knowledge to/from various data producers and consumers and enables valuable information to get to the right place at the right time. The GIG allows altering information strategies based on the situation awareness of mission and the infrastructure and allows the commander to post his intent. Data sources can respond by providing relevant information to the commander. These alternative information flow strategies must be evaluated and validated prior to the material acquisition by the DOD. This case study experiments were performed with the BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) standard, developed for B2B (Business-to-Business) Enterprise interactions, to model and simulate information flow in the GIG mission threads. The experiments used inexpensive BPMN standards-based COTS tools to model and analyze alternative F2T2 (Find, Fix, Track, Target) information flow strategies for a well known DOD TST (Time-Sensitive-Targeting) mission thread. The case study concludes that COTS tools, such as iGraFx Process 2006 for Six Sigma, are cost effective implementations of the BPMN standard and have reached the maturity level required to meet the technology needs of DOD net centric mission thread modeling and simulation-based quantitative analysis. Other COTS tools, such as Minitab, can readily be applied for statistical analysis at the mission level. The case study analysis also offers a means to project the operational capacity of the current operational and system architecture in terms of the maximum number of targets that can be engaged within the TST time constraints. Dr. Prem Jain is supporting Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) to Research and Develop new methods and technologies, needed to support GIG Test and Evaluation (T&E). He joined MITRE in October 2005 from BAE Systems "Center for Transformation". He has spent over 20 years in Electronic Design Automation industry and was the CEO of the company"Cynergy System Design/ CAE Plus", which developed "System on a Chip" architecture analysis and architectural synthesis tools using its patented graphical executable language, synthesis algorithms and synchronous time sliced simulation. During 1988-1992, he was a faculty member in the Computer Science department of University of Texas in Austin. He received his B. Tech in EE from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, Masters and PhD is in EE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.


The chronotropic effects of digoxin and deslanoside were studied in canine atria cross-perfused with heparinized arterial blood from donor dogs. Intravenous injections of either drug (100 micrograms/Kg) into the donor dog produced bradycardia followed by ventricular tachyarrhythmia, with or without hypertension, in the donor dog. A significant increase in the developed tension was observed in the isolated atria, with or without slight sinus acceleration. These effects continued over 150 min after the injection. Digoxin (200 micrograms/Kg, i.v.) caused an immediate bradycardia followed by ventricular tachycardia. In addition, ventricular fibrillation occurred in 3 out of 5 donor dogs within 20 min of the drug administration. In isolated atria, there was a marked increase in the developed tension, usually with a little sinus tachycardia. Deslanoside (200 micrograms/Kg, i.v.) caused almost the same response patterns as digoxin. However, this dose of deslanoside caused ventricular fibrillation in all 6 experiments. Drug concentrations in the donor's arterial blood decreased rapidly for 15-20 min and then decreased slowly in all experiments. It is concluded that digoxin and deslanoside have no significant direct accelerating action on the SA node in doses which produced marked increases in the developed tension; only extremely high doses cause a direct, slight sinus acceleration.


Practical methods to compute dipole strengths for a three-body system by using a discretized continuum are analyzed. New techniques involving Green's function are developed, either by correcting the tail of the approximate wave function in a direct calculation of the strength function or by using a solution of a driven Schrodinger equation in a summed expression of the strength. They are compared with the complex scaling method and the Lorentz integral transform, also making use of a discretized continuum. Numerical tests are performed with a hyperscalar three-body potential in the hyperspherical- harmonics formalism. They show that the Lorentz integral transform method is less practical than the other methods because of a difficult inverse transform. These other methods provide in general comparable accuracies.


Abstract The geologic part of a seismic safety investigation of San Andreas Dam focused on a two mile reach of the fault between the dam and Crystal Springs Reservoir. Historical documents and detailed mapping revealed that the 1906 faulting caused 7 to 9 ft of right shear in the left (eastern) abutment and occurred on nearly straight traces that experienced a maximum of 9 ft of slip, 90 per cent of which was concentrated within a zone 100 ft wide. Radiocarbon dates on detrital charcoal from two sites of ponded alluvium established that the 1906 traces have been active for at least the last 3,000 yr. Deflected stream channels further indicate that the 1906 traces have been the locus of right slip for the last 6500 yr and perhaps for all of Holocene time. Detailed geomorphic and stratigraphic analyses of one site showed that five 1906 magnitude slip events have occurred within the last 1130 ± 160 radiocarbon years from which a minimum strain rate of 1.2 cm/yr and an average recurrence frequence of 224 ± 25 yr can be calculated. Trenches excavated across the 1906 traces of the San Andreas fault revealed that the zone of active faulting is marked by a slow upwelling of highly sheared rock materials. This apparent vertical movement of fault gouge, when coupled with right shear and differential stream erosion, has produced most of the distinctive landforms of the rift valley.


Public speaking acts as a bridge to change: change in knowledge, change in attitudes or beliefs, change in values and behaviors. Creating change is a complex task, and communicating to get change is also daunting. It is affected by experiences, needs, culture, expectations, ethics, and the ability to think critically. This book addresses all these issues and promotes public communication as a task that should not be feared.The book begins with an overview of the traditions of public speaking and lays out a communications model that stresses diversity, ethics, and critical thinking skills. New chapters on speech anxiety, stress, and the first speech help continue the tradition of this well-organized, well-written book. Readers will also learn how public speaking can impact their professional careers as they hone their body language and diction.


While the computational processing of Kurdish has experienced a relative increase, the machine translation of this language seems to be lacking a considerable body of scientific work. This is in part due to the lack of resources especially curated for this task. In this paper, we present the first large scale parallel corpus of Central Kurdish-English, Awta, containing 229,222 pairs of manually aligned translations. Our corpus is collected from different text genres and domains in an attempt to build more robust and real-world applications of machine translation. We make a portion of this corpus publicly available in order to foster research in this area. Further, we build several neural machine translation models in order to benchmark the task of Kurdish machine translation. Additionally, we perform extensive experimental analysis of results in order to identify the major challenges that Central Kurdish machine translation faces. These challenges include language-dependent and-independent ones as categorized in this paper, the first group of which are aware of Central Kurdish linguistic properties on different morphological, syntactic and semantic levels. Our best performing systems achieve 22.72 and 16.81 in BLEU score for Ku$\rightarrow$EN and En$\rightarrow$Ku, respectively.


There is a growing interest in using methods such as liquid biopsies to assess genomics of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in patients with advanced cancer. Liquid biopsies are non-invasive, may provide access to shed DNA from multiple metastases, and the dynamic results of genomic evolution can be followed with repeat blood sampling. We report our initial experience using ctDNA testing in 168 consecutive patients with diverse cancers. Testing was performed using a panel of 54 cancer-related genes (digital sequencing), examining mutations (in all 54 genes) as well as amplifications in ERBB2, EGFR, and MET (Guardant Health, Inc. (Guardant360 test)). Fifty-eight percent of patients (98/168) had ≥ 1 alteration(s) identified in their plasma. In a multivariable analysis, gastrointestinal cancer (N = 13) was an independent predictor of a higher number of alterations (median = 2 alterations/patient; P = 0.001), while primary brain tumors (N = 56) correlated with fewer alterations (median = 0 alterations/patient; P = 0.019) detected in the plasma. Even so, 16 of 56 patients (28.6%) with primary brain tumors had discernible ctDNA alterations. Of the 98 patients with alterations, 71.4% had ≥ 1 anomaly potentially actionable by an FDA-approved drug. When comparing results of patients (N = 63) who had both a tissue and ctDNA test performed (and had aberrations in the tissue biopsy that were detectable by the ctDNA panel), 22 individuals (35%) had ≥ 1 alteration in common between the tissue and ctDNA test (median time interval between the tissue biopsy and the blood draw = 2.7 months for these 22 patients). In contrast, 41 patients had no alterations in common between tissue and ctDNA, and in these 41 individuals, the median time between tissue biopsy and blood draw was 14.4 months (P = 0.006). Overall concordance rates were 70.3% for TP53 and EGFR, 88.1% for PIK3CA, and 93.1% for ERBB2 alterations. In addition, we observed a strong correlation between cases with ≥ 1 alteration reported with ctDNA ≥ 5% and shorter overall survival (median = 4.0 months versus not reached; P Taken together, ctDNA testing via liquid (blood) biopsies demonstrated frequent potentially actionable aberrations, including in primary brain tumors. The longer the time elapsed between tissue and ctDNA procurement for testing, the less chance that genomic alterations would be consistent between the two specimens. Higher percentage of ctDNA was an independent predictor for shorter survival. Finally, preliminary results suggest that patients matched to cognate targeted treatments based on ctDNA can achieve clinical benefit. Overall, these observations indicate that ctDNA genomic analysis may be a valuable tool for evaluating patients with cancer. Citation Format: Maria C. Schwaederle, David E. Piccioni, Santosh Kesari, Hatim Husain, Sandip P. Patel, Razelle Kurzrock. Use of liquid biopsies in clinical oncology: the UCSD Moores Cancer Center experience in 168 patients with diverse malignancies. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2015 Nov 5-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(12 Suppl 2):Abstract nr C19.


The objective of this report is to summarize knowledge about contracts used in the turkey industry which may be helpful in initiating contracts in other agricultural enterprises. Characteristics common to all Minnesota contracts are described. Contracts are divided into three main categories and similarities of contracts within those categories are described. Budgets developed at the University of Minnesota were used to calculate the return to labor and management (RLM) for each type of contract. Feed costs were set at six levels to show how risk and return are shared as feed costs change. Historic wholesale prices were used to establish a probability distribution for effective prices paid to growers. The Agricultural Risk Management Simulator (ARMS) program used this price distribution to calculate cumulative distributions of returns to labor and management (RLM) for each level of feed costs. Contracts were evaluated at each level of feed costs using stochastic dominance techniques.


Abstract Cancer is on the increase globally. Cancer could be associated with hazards from anthropogenic activities. This study attempted to determine the site-specific potential human risks from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sites of different socioeconomic human activities from soils across Lagos metropolis in Nigeria by including a geographic information system (GIS) approach. A Human Simulation Test method was used to determine bio-accessibility for 16 priority PAHs. This was then spatially modelled using a GIS. The spatial vulnerability index for cancer developed show some variation within the study area from 0.2 – 0.0002 all falling below the normal exposure risk level of 1.0. The vulnerability to cancer based on different anthropogenic activities assessed were within the acceptable risk levels. However, it is important to reduce human exposure to even low concentrations of bio-accessible PAHs due to their tendency to bio-accumulate in plants, humans and other organisms.


This paper describes the relationship between the development of skeletal open-bite malocclusion and the tooth-to-denture base discrepancy. The cases which have a severe skeletal open-bite malocclusion are presented to evaluate the causing factor of the anterior open-bite. The anterior open-bite was associated with inferiorly positioned maxillary molars caused by the squeezing out effect of the tooth-to-denture base discrepancy, especially those in posterior part of dentition (posterior discrepancy), which provided a less steep maxillary occlusal plane in the denture frame. It was suggested that the posterior discrepancy induced a descending movement of the posterior teeth followed by a change of the occlusal plane and this effect of the posterior discrepancy was important factor in developing anterior open-bite malocclusion.


CORROSION STUDIES OF STAINLESS STEEL BLADES by Dhruv Shrenikkumar Kothari Corrosion is a subject of interest to interdisciplinary research communities that includes fields of materials science, chemistry, physics, metallurgy and chemical engineering. In order to understand the mechanisms of corrosion and the function of corrosion inhibitors, the reactions at the interfaces between the corrosive electrolyte and a steel surface, particularly at the initial stages of the corrosion process, need to be described. Naturally, these reactions are strongly affected by the nature and properties of the steel surfaces. It is however seen that the majority of recent corrosion and corrosion-inhibition investigations are limited to electrochemical testing, with ex situ analysis of the treated steels (post-exposure analysis). The characterization of materials and their surface properties, such as texture and morphology, are not being considered in most of the studies. Similarly, in situ investigations of the initial stages of the corrosion reactions, using advanced surface characterization techniques, are scarce. In this thesis, attention is brought to the importance of surface features of carbon steels, such as texture and surface energy, along with defects and dislocation related to mechanical processing of carbon steels. This work is extended to a critical review of surface analytical techniques that are used for characterization of carbon steels in corrosive media with particular focus on examining steel surfaces treated with corrosion inhibitors. Further, emerging surface analysis techniques and their applicability to analyses of carbon steels in corrosive media are discussed. Due to their good corrosion resistance, favorable mechanical properties, and reasonable price regarding their excellent properties, martensitic stainless steels have, over recent decades, become one of the alloys that are increasingly used in blade manufacturing industry. Architects often design stainless steel exterior elements with higher polished surface, which are resistant to corrosion processes. The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of different types of surface finishes to stainless steel of quality AISI 440 on the corrosion properties of this steel. In order to achieve this goal, tests are performed on surface finishes in two different environments: in an NaCl aqueous solution, and in Acetic Acid. In addition to the methods used, surface roughness is also measured, and SEM-EDS surface analyses are performed. Based on the results of the performed analyses, it is found that, in the NaCl solution, the pitting potential depends strongly on the surface roughness and the surface finish. The evolution of the passive films on Martensitic 440 stainless steel in seawater and in pure 3.5 % NaCl and 3.5% acetic acid is studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). This thesis describes and evaluates the comparison of the effects of pure 3.5 % NaCl with acetic acid through surface and corrosion measurements. CORROSION STUDIES OF STAINLESS STEEL BLADES


The advances in hydraulic fracturing technology and horizontal well completions have led in recent years to rapid rise in exploitation and development of tight gas and shale plays all over the world, and particularly in North America. The popularity of new field technology has in fact raised many new questions. In particular, for forecasting the productivity and EUR of multifractured horizontal wells, it is not clear if conventional reservoir simulation concepts can be adapted for modeling or if extra physics must be included to obtain realistic solutions. This paper presents various methods to model multifractured horizontal wells in tight gas sands using a conventional reservoir simulator coupled with geomechanics. Two actual wells in the same formation but with different fracturing techniques (i.e., X-link gelled water fracs and un-gelled water (slick water) fracs) are studied. detailed investigation of the role of fracture conductivity, effects of initial permeability level, net pay thickness, assumed size of the stimulated reservoir volume (SRv), and pressure or stress dependent permeability of the SRv and virgin reservoir were carried out by history matching the rate and cumulative production. It was established that i) history match is not possible without use of stress or pressure dependent permeability and ii) permeability dependence of pressure inside stimulated reservoir volume must be larger than in the rest of the reservoir. It was also observed that the standard method for using the same geomechanical data both in uncoupled reservoir and coupled geomechanical model will give incorrect results in terms of cumulative production. A new method based on uniaxial deformation theory is proposed to more accurately approximate the geomechanical effects in conventional reservoir simulators without running a fully coupled geomechanical simulator. The results from uncoupled reservoir modeling using the new method for correcting the permeability data for poroelastic effects were remarkably similar to rigorously coupled geomechanical modeling. This work will be of importance to engineers in analyzing and forecasting production performance of multifractured horizontal completions using numerical models. It will allow engineers to use uncoupled (conventional) reservoir modeling as a practical approximation of more complex coupled geomechanical models. To order the full paper, visit https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/SPE-162793-MS


A primary purpose of performance assessment of geologic repositories for radioactive waste is to predict the extent to which radioactive species are released from the waste solids and are transported through geologic media to the environment. Reliable quantitative predictions must be made of rates of release of radionuclides from the waste into the rock, transport through the geologic media, cumulative release to the accessible environment, and maximum concentrations in ground water and surface water. Here we review theoretical approaches to making the predictions of near-field release from buried waste solids, which provide the source terms for far-field release. The extent to which approaches and issues depend on the rock media and on regulatory criteria is discussed. 53 refs., 2 figs.


Large amounts of radioactive waste await final disposal worldwide. Repository facilities that will host this waste must be capable of ensuring very long-term isolation to protect the environment and ensure the safety of the future generations. Because of this need, the concept of geological disposal of radioactive waste emerged in the late 1950s and is now considered, in many countries, to be the best option to ensure safe, long-term containment of radioactive waste. A combination of waste overpacks (e.g. metal canisters, concrete), engineered barriers such as bentonite, and natural barriers such as clay rocks, constitutes the elements of the so-called "multiple-barrier system" between the waste matrix and the biosphere. These barrier properties will evolve with time in response to the physical and chemical interactions between the various constituents of the barriers and the surrounding environment. Consequently, predicting how these properties evolve is important for performance evaluations of the repository concepts. In recent decades, reactive transport modeling codes have become more and more efficient and are used as a bridge between current process knowledge and predictive capabilities. After describing the basic principles that have guided how these reactive transport models are constructed, their usefulness will be exampled on the modelling of clay-concrete interaction. The complexity of the multispace and temporal-scale issues will be tackled by modelling a ten years in-situ experiment and reviewing predictive modelling that have been carried out for timescales that are not accessible to experimentation.


The novel mixed ionic-electronic conductors Sm 0.9 Ca 0.1 Al 1- x Mn x O 3 (SCAM, x = 0.1—0.5) were prepared by the organic gel method combined with solid state sintering technology. The thermal decomposition and phase inversion process of the gel precursors, crystal strucutres and phase stability of the sinters were studied by using thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and X-ray diffraction. The electrical conductivities of sintered ceramics in both air and 5%H 2 /Ar were measured by the direct current four-wire method. The experimental results show that the well-crystallized nanopowders with tetragonal perovskite structure can be obtained after calcining the gel precursors at 900℃ for 5h, the phase stability of SCAM ceramics decreases with increasing Mn content under reduction atmosphere. The electrical conductivity of SCAM ceramics is dominated by p-type electronic conduction and increases with Mn content and temperature. The mechanism of electronic transport is the hopping of p-type small polaron. With increasing calcination temperature and prolonging holding time, both the electrical conductivity and relative density of SCAM9155 become large initially and then decrease. The SCAM9155 sample sintered at 1600℃ for 10h has the highest relative density of 98.2% and electrical conductivity reaching 7.30S/cm in air and 1.91S/cm in 5%H 2 /Ar at 850℃. The apparent activation energies for SCAM9155 in air and in 5%H 2 /Ar were calculated to be 0.273 and 0.371eV, respectively. The Ca- and Mn-substituted SmAlO 3 with relatively high conductivity may be used as a potential anode material for solid oxide full cells (SOFCs).


Advances in neuromedicine have emerged from endeavors to elucidate the distinct genetic factors that influence the changes in brain structure that underlie various neurological conditions. We present a framework for examining the extent to which genetic factors impact imaging phenotypes described by voxel-wise measurements organized into collections of functionally relevant regions of interest (ROIs) that span the entire brain. Statistically, the integration of neuroimaging and genetic data is challenging. Because genetic variants are expected to impact different regions of the brain, an appropriate method of inference must simultaneously account for spatial dependence and model uncertainty. Our proposed framework combines feature extraction using generalized principal component analysis to account for inherent short- and long-range structural dependencies with Bayesian model averaging to effectuate variable selection in the presence of multiple genetic variants. The methods are demonstrated on a cocaine dependence study to identify ROIs associated with genetic factors that impact diffusion parameters.


Experimenting with custom-programming of cameras can be difficult. Most consumer cameras are protected to prevent users from reprogramming them. Industrial cameras can be flexibly controlled by an external computer, but are generally not standalone programmable devices. However, various inexpensive camera modules, designed largely to be used for building IoT (Internet of Things) devices, combine extensive programmability with a camera in a compact, low-power, module. One of the smallest and least expensive, the ESP32-CAM module, combines a 2MP Omnivision OV2640 camera with a dual-core 32-bit processor, 802.11 WiFi and BlueTooth as well as wired I/O interfaces, a microSD slot, low power modes, etc., all supported by the Arduino programming environment and a rich collection of open source libraries. Why not use it for programmable camera research? This paper describes how the ESP32-CAM had to be adapted to enable use in a variety of experimental cameras. For example, some of these cameras do not use the lens screwed and glued onto the OV2640, and replacing this lens revealed a number of issues ranging from spectral response to adjustment of lens corrections. There are numerous strange interactions between different functions that end-up sharing the same I/O pins, so work-arounds were needed. It also was necessary to devise ways to handle various higher-level issues such as implementation of a live view and synchronization across cameras. However, the key problems have been resolved with open source software and hardware designs described here.


In the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE), muons are cooled by passing through material, then through RF cavities to compensate for the energy loss; which reduces the transverse emittance. It is planned to demonstrate longitudinal emittance reduction via emittance exchange in MICE by using a solid wedge absorber in Step IV. Based on the outcome of previous studies, the shape and material of the wedge were chosen. We address here further simulation efforts for the absorber of choice as well as engineering considerations in connection with the absorber support design.


The development of communication technology and Internet-based information encourage the emergence of
new changes in the marketing world. Customer-oriented makes it an effective medium for the activities of Word-of-
Mouth (WOM). In this information era, Word-of-Mouth becomes credible resource in the community. To harness the
power of electronic Word-of-Mouth (e-WOM), the company must first identify and understand effectively users of the
web to spread their opinions. By using 60 respondents as a source of information and data collection, results of the
study found various types of Foursquare users and various motivations that drive them. The first finding of this study
revealed six types of Foursquare users, namely: The Gamers, The Existence, The Need Help, The Mayor, The Showoff,
and the Angels. The second finding was the type of motivation that Foursquare users are distinguished by category
Feature Involvement, Self Satisfaction, Seeking Advice, Economic Incentives, Self Enhancement, and Concern for
Other Users. From this study, Self Satisfaction, Self Enhancement, and Concern for Other Users are the motivation
type of Foursquare users that give positive contribution to the activities of e-WOM because the three types directly do
some sort recommendations or promotions of the places they check-in. Furthermore, Feature Involvement, Seeking
Advice, and Economic Incentives are the types that less provide positive contribution to the activities of e-WOM.
Advice Seeking and Economic Incentives are the types that the most feel benefits of e-WOM activities through
Foursquare. Feature Involvement is the type that does not contribute the most to the activities of e-WOM and do not
feel the most benefits of e-WOM activities through Foursquare. This research is expected to help companies that use
Foursquare to establish the right business strategy in encouraging e-WOM among Foursquare users.


Purpose: To investigate the expressions of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), IFN-γ (IFN- gamma), interleukin 2 (IL-2), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients with tuberculosis (TB) infection. Methods: Two groups of HIV patients (68 in each group) were used for this study. These were HIV with TB (HIV/TB) group and HIV without TB group. A third group (68 healthy people) served as control. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was adopted to measure TLR-2 and TLR-4 expressions in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), while the serum levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-6 and IL-10 were determined by ELISA. Results: The △Ct values of TLR-2 and TLR-4 in HIV/TB and HIV groups were significantly lower than those in the control group ( p < 0.05). Compared to control group, the serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10 significantly increased, while IFN-γ and IL-2 in HIV/TB and HIV groups significantly decreased ( p < 0.05). However, IFN-γ and IL-2 decreased significantly in HIV/TB group ( p < 0.05). Expression of TLR2 correlated positively with serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10, but negatively with IFN-γ and IL-2 ( p < 0.05). Conclusion: TLR2 signal pathway plays a role in HIV patients with TB infection by promoting the expressions of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10, while inhibiting IFN-γ and IL-2 cellular factors, and thus may provide a new pathway for the treatment of patients with HIV/TB. Keywords: HIV, Tuberculosis, Toll-like receptor, Cellular factors, Tumor necrosis factor, Interleukin


Glycolysis is the central axis of cellular metabolism. The cancer cell bioenergetic status heavily relies on high glycolytic rates, even in aerobic conditions, thus sustaining the expensive processes of cell growth and proliferation. Growing evidences show that signaling aberrations - especially those involving PI3K/Akt/mTOR, HIF1a, Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK - are strictly connected to the establishment of a pro-glycolytic metabolism, through a multi-level crosstalk between proteins and metabolites that contribute to the acquisition of an energetic background granting a proliferative advantage. Here we investigated the glycolytic rate of resting and activated normal peripheral blood lymphocytes (NPBLs) and of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines. In an attempt to modulate the cellular metabolism for therapeutic intervention, we tested the following compounds that directly interfere with major metabolic or signaling pathways: dichloroacetate (DCA), a glycolysis inhibitor; aminooxyacetate (AOA), a glutaminolysis inhibitor; ST1326 (kindly given by Sigma-Tau), a fatty acid oxidation (FAO) inhibitor; and the MEK inhibitor PD0325901 (Selleck Chemicals). The cytotoxic drug effects were evaluated on two human leukemia cell lines, U937 and OCI-AML3, characterized by PI3K/Akt/mTOR and Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK hyperactivation, respectively. Cell counts, apoptosis (AnnexinV), glucose and lactate levels (GEM4000, Instrumentation Laboratory, UK) were measured. The glucose consumption rate (GCR) and lactate production rate (LPR) were calculated according to Li et al. (Biotechol. Appl. Biochem., 2005, 42, 73-80). Resting NPBLs were characterized by a very low glycolytic rate, according to their quiescent state, while cultured phytohemagglutinin-activated NPBLs displayed a remarkable increase in glycolytic rate: the GCR calculated over 72 hours showed a 25 fold-increase, while LPR had a of 10 fold-increase. Acute myeloid cell lines showed a high glucose catabolism: at 24h the U937 cell line, compared to activated NPBLs, had a 6.7 fold higher GCR, while the OCI-AML3 cell line showed a 4-fold increase. DCA exposure showed at 24h no detectable effect on GCR, LPR and apoptosis at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 0.5mM on the U937 cell line. Apoptosis effects were detected only at higher concentrations: AnnexinV positive cells increased from 4.3 ± 1.5 (control) to 62.8 ± 16.4 (5mM) and 88.1 ± 16.8 (10mM). Exposure to AOA (24h at 1000µM) slightly increased GCR (1.23-fold) and LPR (1.22-fold) on U937 cells, followed by apoptotic effects at 72h: from 6.24 ± 4.2 (control) to 10.4 ± 0.8 at 100µM to 83.5 ± 0.7 at 1000µM. The FAO inhibitor ST1326 (10µM at 24h) induced a 3-fold increase of GCR in the U937 cell line. Apoptotic effects were seen in the U937 cells at 72h, from 5.0 ± 2.3 (control) to 35.9 ± 5.7 at 5µM to 64.1 ± 20.5 at 10µM. Conversely, GCR, LPR and apoptosis did not change on the OCI-AML3 line following ST1326 exposure. The MEK inhibitor PD0325901 caused a reduction of GCR and LPR on OCI-AML3 cells (6-fold GCR decrease, 2-fold LPR decrease at 100nM); apoptosis at 72h ranged from 6.3 ± 1.1 (control) to 15.5 ± 3.9 at 10nM to 45.3 ± 0.1 at 100nM. The U937 cells proved resistant to this compound, showing no metabolic perturbation and absence of apoptotic effects. In summary, this study indicates that exploiting the metabolism as a target for therapeutic intervention appears to be a promising new strategy. In fact, the inhibition of glycolysis by blocking either the activity of the enzymes that directly participate to the metabolic pathway or key components of cell signaling has proven to be effective in inducing apoptosis in AML cells. Interestingly, the opposing response to the various compounds observed in the two AML models may likely reflect their divergent signaling network, prompting further studies to evaluate the correlation between aberrant signal transduction pathways and peculiar metabolic profiles.

Disclosures: Nicolai: Sigma Tau Pharmaceuticals: Employment.


In high throughput computing environments, an opportunistic scheduling policy is used for placement of batch jobs on idle workstations for execution. In this paper, we propose a new opportunistic scheduling policy with the aim of exploiting the idle resources provided by systems such as Condor in an opportunistic manner. We compared the performance of the proposed scheduling policy with three policies namely the scheduling policy used in Condor, job rotate and round robin policies through simulation. The results show that the proposed scheduling policy offers substantial performance improvements over the exiting approaches. Furthermore, this improved performance is achieved without loss of throughput and it results in a more interactive nature of the system thus increasing its appeal.


High-performance clusters have been widely deployed to solve challenging and rigorous scientific and engineering tasks. On one hand, high performance is certainly an important consideration in designing clusters to run parallel applications. On the other hand, the ever increasing energy cost requires us to effectively conserve energy in clusters. To achieve the goal of optimizing both performance and energy efficiency in clusters, in this paper, we propose two energy-efficient duplication-based scheduling algorithms-Energy-Aware Duplication (EAD) scheduling and Performance-Energy Balanced Duplication (PEBD) scheduling. Existing duplication-based scheduling algorithms replicate all possible tasks to shorten schedule length without reducing energy consumption caused by duplication. Our algorithms, in contrast, strive to balance schedule lengths and energy savings by judiciously replicating predecessors of a task if the duplication can aid in performance without degrading energy efficiency. To illustrate the effectiveness of EAD and PEBD, we compare them with a nonduplication algorithm, a traditional duplication-based algorithm, and the dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) algorithm. Extensive experimental results using both synthetic benchmarks and real-world applications demonstrate that our algorithms can effectively save energy with marginal performance degradation.


Cyclin E and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) have been observed as a multifaceted factor in many cancers, and the assessment of microvascular density (MVD) and micro-lymphatic vessel density (MLVD) has been used to quantify tumor angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis. The aim of this study was to explore the association between expression of cyclin E, HGF, MVD, and MLVD, and clinicopathologic parameters in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The expression of cyclin E, HGF, MVD, and MLVD were detected using immunohistochemically anticyclin E, HGF, CD34, and lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor 1 in 168 surgically resected ESCC cases and 30 normal esophageal mucosal samples. The expression levels of cyclin E, HGF, MVD, and MLVD were higher compared to controls. High cyclin E and HGF expression was found more frequently in the tumors larger than 5 cm (P < .001), with poorer differentiation (P = .034) and higher tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging (P = .009) compared to their counterparts. Both MVD and MLVD values were found to be higher in the tumors larger than 5 cm (P < .001), with poorer differentiation (P < .001) and higher TNM staging (P < .001) compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, the expression of MVD and MLVD in both the high cyclin E and high HGF expression groups was significantly higher compared to the low cyclin E and HGF expression groups (P < .001). This study demonstrated that high cyclin E and HGF expression is closely correlated with tumor size, tumor differentiation degree, and TNM stage in patients with ESCC. These findings proposed that cyclin E and HGF could serve as novel molecular markers for preoperational evaluation of ESCC.


A Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) was used to establish that the substructure of press formed (PF) 21-6-9 stainless steel toroids was characterized by a dislocation cell size finer, about 0.16 ..mu..m, than that of about 0.29 ..mu..m, of high-energy-rate-formed (HERF) processed toroids. In addition, HERF processed material showed areas of a coarser, well-developed subgrain structure characteristic of hot work deformation. The formation of the substructures, as-well-as the grain size and carbide distributions of the toroids produced by the two processing techniques, are discussed in terms of the various operations, temperatures, and strain rates associated with the two different processing schedules. The Press-Formed toroid had a higher yield strength than the HERF processed toroid which was attributed to the finer cell size of the PF processed toroid.


Small cell overlay combined with unitary frequency reuse is one of the most promising deployment options to satisfy the ever increasing rate demand in beyond 4G cellular networks. It has been shown that cooperation between small base stations and macro base stations has a great potential in these hierarchical deployments. However, a significant number of cooperation strategies require that small base stations be reached through low latency and high speed backhaul links. The latency of this backhaul is often an obstacle to efficient cooperation between macro cell and small cell layers. To answer this problem we provide a protocol based on hybrid ARQ procedure combined with a parsimonious use of over-the-air communications between small base stations and macro base stations. The proposed protocol is compatible with latency figures that are observed on affordable digital subscriber links. The performance of this protocol are assessed and compared to conventional LTE hybrid ARQ strategy using theoretical derivations and numerical experiments. Significant gains are observed on the reverse links in 3GPP LTE context.


In this study, reactive dyes having different chromophore and reactive groups were used to dye polyamide fabric such as C.I. Reactive Blue 4 (Basilen Blue MR–BASF–chromophore group of anthraquinone, a reactive dye in the structure of dichlorotriazinel), C.I. Reactive Blue 15 (Cibacron Turquoise GF–CGY–chromophore group of phtalocyanine, a reactive dye in the structure of monochlorotriazinel),C.I. Reactive Blue 52 (Drimarene Blue X3LR-S–chromophore group of disazo-formazon metal complex, a reactive dye  in the structure of trichloroprimidin) and C.I. Reactive Blue 69 (Lanasol Blue 3G–CGy–chromophore group of,  a- boromoacrylamide of reactive group). The samples were dyed with conventional and ultrasonic method. After the dyeing process, the dye exhaustion rate, dye remova after washing, % fixation values were compared in terms of the methods. Besides, the washing, light, rubbing and perspiration fastness values and ΔE*, ΔL*, Δa* and Δb* values were analysed in terms of type of reactive dye and dyeing method.


What possibilities do civil society actors have in contributing to peace in violent conflicts fought along identity lines? What are the problems involved in civil society peace work? This thesis takes on these questions, applying a critical, interpretative and constructivist approach. It draws the attention to actors who are often not visible in war and peace processes, given that a focus on outside intervention has dominated peace and conflict research. The case of Sri Lanka is used to scrutinise the underlying assumptions and possible contributions of civil society peace work, and to highlight and analyse how identification processes form part of peace work in violent conflicts in ethnically divided societies. The thesis makes its point of departure in the lack of problematisation in current literature about civil society peace work in identity conflict. It argues that civil society and NGOs have often been treated as unitary actors, and that the conflicting struggles in the civil society sphere and the inner dynamics of peace movements have been overlooked. Moreover, the issue of peace work impact, and link between small-scale work and the ending of wars, have often been ignored or treated in vague terms. Additionally, while recognising the importance of identity in contemporary civil wars, peace researchers commonly have a simplistic understanding of the processes of creating a "self" in relation to an "other" at work in ethnic conflict, as well as in the mobilisation of protest and in peace work. This study explores these issues through a theoretical discussion and an in-depth case study of civil society peace work in Sri Lanka. The study builds primarily on qualitative interviews conducted from 1999-2002 with peace movement leaders, participants in peace work and key actors outside the peace movement. The thesis points to the contradictory forces and struggles in the civil society sphere, and the varied peace definitions and experiences present in the peace movement. The thesis concludes that civil society peace work mainly contributes indirectly to ending wars, by placing pressure on or lending support to key actors, providing small-scale examples of dialogue and pointing to the possibilities of structural change. The role of peace movements endorsing alternative discourses and challenging the normalisation of war and ethnic divides was emphasised. Although actors for peace often claim to promote inclusive identities and defy ethnic polarisation, boundary-making between "self" and "other" are also at play within peace movements and organisations. The ethnic, party political, urban-rural and class divides in Sri Lankan society were echoed in the peace movement. However, peace actors were simultaneously engaged in attempts to rise above and to deconstruct the logic of ethnic polarisation.


The standard cosmological model assumes a homogeneous and isotropic universe as the background spacetime on large scales called the cosmological principle. However, some observations suggest the possibility of an inhomogeneous and anisotropic universe at large scales. In this paper, we investigate a model of the universe with random inhomogeneities and anisotropies on very large scales, motivated by the supercurvature dark energy model in Nan et al. [Phys. Rev. D 99, 103512 (2019)]. In this model, the authors introduced a scalar field with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ inhomogeneities on a scale sufficiently larger than the current horizon scale (superhorizon scale), and the potential energy of the scalar field explains the accelerating expansion, with slight deviations from the cosmological principle. We aim at clarifying the theoretical prediction on the large-scale structure (LSS) of the matter component in this model. Based on the work on the superhorizon scale fluctuations (superhorizon mode) presented in Nan and Yamamoto [Phys. Rev. D 105, 063518 (2022)], we derive the equations that the perturbative components to the LSS obey as a generalization of the cosmological perturbations theory, which is solved to find the influence of the dark energy inhomogeneities on the formation of the LSS. Finally, we show that the model can be consistent with observations by comparing the $\sigma_8$ predicted by the numerical solution of the model with the $\sigma_8$ indicated by observations such as Planck and SDSS.


Belief in a "healthy mind, healthy body" is as relevant to twenty-first-century honors students as it was to their ancient counterparts. The ancient Greek athlete and the honors student-athlete both share the dedication and discipline needed to excel, and our culture still finds praiseworthy those who exhibit excellence in both mind and body. At the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the library is sponsoring a poster series promoting literacy by featuring student-athletes reading their favorite books. An honors college student athlete will be featured in the near future, a symbol of distinction somewhat akin to Myron's Discobolos (Discus Thrower). Yet we should examine the phrase in its literary context. The line comes from the Satires of the Roman poet Juvenal, known for his biting and bitter verses about the foibles and injustices of life during the Pax Romana. In his tenth Satire, Juvenal ponders the correct use of prayer--not for wealth, power, or revenge, but for a sound mind in a sound body (10.356). However, considering Juvenal's cynical views, he might also be commenting on the rarity of a sound mind in a sound body. one thing is certain: Juvenal was not discussing the scholar-athlete. Although mens sana in corpore sano is a Latin phrase, it evokes in our culture the Classical Greek ideal of the scholar-athlete. As the perfect combination of brains and brawn, the idealized image was held up for emulation by founders of the modern Olympics (Young, 22). Many in the nineteenth century considered the ancient Greek athlete with a mixture of awe and nostalgia, mistakenly viewing the Archaic and Classical ages of Greece as times of harmony between mind and body, when the gymnasium was a place to study philosophy and when Plato wrestled and competed at the games. Athletic competition was an integral part of Greek society and identity. The Olympic games are traditionally thought to have begun in 776 BCE, just as Greece was climbing out of its Dark Ages. At nearly the same time, the first written accounts of the Iliad were published. In Book 23, Achilles organizes an athletic competition to honor his beloved fallen companion Patroclus. From the beginning of the epic, Achilles has been outside the community of warriors, but through athletics he restores his humanity and becomes reconciled to the community. Ancient Greek society valued success and competition--on the battlefield, in the political arena, the courts and at the games--and awarded winners many accolades. The lyric poet Pindar is known for his poems exalting the accomplishments and skills of winning athletes. Success at the games meant more than simply being memorialized by words; triumphant athletes might receive cash prizes and free meals for life as well as see their image replicated in bronze or marble and placed prominently in the polis. Such adulation also brought criticism. A contemporary of Pindar, poet and philosopher Xenophanes, proclaimed that "the current custom of honoring strength more than wisdom is neither proper nor just" (qtd. in Miller, 183). Later, the provocative playwright Euripides wrote his famous diatribe on the cult of athletes: "Of the thousands of evils which exist in Greece, there is no greater evil than the race of athletes. . . . What man has ever defended the city of his father's by winning a crown or wrestling well or running fast or throwing the discos far or planting an uppercut on the jaw of an opponent" (qtd. in Miller, 183). Separated by more than two millennia, the modern college athlete receives both the exaltation and the fierce criticism of the ancient competitor. Like Greek athletics, college sports were once the realm of the elite. Individual and team sports began in the Ivy League schools. Richard Davies asserts that Yale invented football in the late nineteenth century (Davies, 66), and prior to World War II the biggest college weekend event was the Harvard-Yale football game. …


In the aftermath of natural disasters, governments frequently provide financial aid for affected households. This policy can have adverse effects if individuals anticipate it and forgo private precaution measures. While theoretical literature unequivocally suggests this so called "charity hazard", empirical studies yield ambiguous results. Drawing on rich survey data from German homeowners, we analyze charity hazard for different flood precaution strategies, namely insurance uptake and non-financial protection measures, and different flood risk areas. Our results indicate a substantial charity hazard in the insurance market for individuals residing in flood-prone areas. In contrast, we find a positive correlation between governmental aid and non-financial protection measures. Moreover, our results suggest that insurance and non-financial protection measures are rather complements than substitutes. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that status-quo bias might play an important role for insurance uptake.


In the precursor to this book, "The Wines of the Rhone Valley and Provence", first published in 1987, Robert Parker began a campaign to share with the wine consumer the wealth of wines to be found from this under-appreciated region. He believes that the finest wines of the Rhone Valley rival the greatest first-growths of Bordeaux and the grand crus of Burgundy. Although wine has been produced in the Rhone Valley for 2000 years, and many of today's wines come from the oldest vineyards in France, in recent centuries these wines have been misunderstood, ignored and consequently undervalued. In this revised edition of "Wines of the Rhone Valley", updated and greatly expanded to reflect changes in the region, new personalities and the latest vintages, Parker provides the key to enjoying the winemaking world's best-kept secret. The book is divided into two main sections - the lush valleys of the northern Rhone and the sunbaked hillsides of the southern - profiling each appellation. A handy summary box provides information at a glance, including types of wines produced, grape varieties planted and number of acres under vine. The price range of the wines is listed, along with an assessment of their quality and ageing potential. The description of each appellation that follows - its history and personalities, successes and failures - is accompanied by a rating of recent and older vintages using Parker's 50-100 point scale. He provides his classification of the growers of each appellation, explaining how the wines are vinified and bottled and advising how long to cellar and when to serve the wines. He also provides guidelines on what a visitor travelling in the Rhone Valley can expect to pay for a meal as well as recommending restaurants and lodgings. This is a resource for every wine lover, highlighting both the greatest wines of the Rhone Valley and the region's finest wine values.


Abstract Canada thistle and dandelion are troublesome weeds found throughout the northern United States. Carbohydrate concentrations in roots of these plants change in response to freezing temperatures as plants prepare to overwinter. Herbicides applied in the fall provide more effective control of these weeds than does treatment applied in early spring. Experiments were conducted near Scottsbluff, NE, from 1999 to 2001 to examine changes in glucose, fructose, sucrose, and fructans in roots of Canada thistle and dandelion in response to the fall-applied herbicide. Dicamba applied 10 d after the first fall frost reduced the quantities of low degree-of-polymerization (DP) fructans and provided better control of Canada thistle and dandelion than did dicamba applied 11 d before the first frost. Dicamba and dicamba plus SAN 836H fall-applied were more effective in controlling Canada thistle and dandelion than was 2,4-D fall-applied. As the rate of dicamba and dicamba plus SAN 836H increased, the quantities of low-DP fructans in plant roots declined, and plant control increased. Activity of fructan 1-exohydrolase in roots of Canada thistle was increased by dicamba fall-applied and was closely associated with decline in the quantities of low-DP fructans. Nomenclature: Dicamba; SAN 836H, 2-(1-[([3,5-difluorophenylamino]carbonyl)hydrazono]ethyl)-3-pyridinecarboxylic acid, 2,4-D; Canada thistle, Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. CIRAR; dandelion, Taraxacum officinale Weber in Wiggers TAROF.


The article substantiates the principles and foundations of the system-logical approach to the organization of the educational process using distance learning in a military educational institution. The need for defense reform is due to the fact that against the background of many dynamic changes in modern society, which are characterized by uncertainty and instability along with hybrid warfare, digitalization of society, many problems arise in certain sectors of life and security, and, first of all, in such an important sector. as education in general and military education in particular.
That is why the task is to update the military education system in order to prevent the consequences of possible negative events and develop appropriate countermeasures. One of the measures to preserve the stable functioning of the military education system is the introduction and further development of distance learning. This requires specific approaches to the organization of the educational process. The role, place and principles of the system-logical approach to the organization of the educational process by distance learning in a military educational institution have been substantiated. It is shown that the essence of a systematic approach to the problem of the formation of a distance learning system lies in the understanding of the educational process and the management system of educational and educational activities as components of an integral complex system of military education. At the same time, as subsystems, linked by a common goal and objectives of training and education, taking into account their role and place among other systems. A logical approach to the analysis of complex systems should form the basis of a systemlogical approach to the formation of the educational process in military educational institutions. The tasks of the logical approach are to recreate the essence or the main content of the research subject and present it in the form of mental abstractions. In this case, the logical method is based on the laws and requirements (categories) of formal and dialectical logic. It has been substantiated that a rational, truly scientific system of organizing the educational process for distance learning in a military educational institution should be based on a systematic and logical approach, ensure a high level of professional competencies of military specialists of the corresponding educational level and resist possible external and internal threats.


This paper describes a novel speech plot display approach that extracts combined time-frequency-energy feature as a new feature vector to present speech signal. The combined feature is displayed on CRT by plot patterns and the deaf-mute can make use of their own brain to identify speech for training their oral ability effectively. Firstly, speech signal undergoes a series of preprocessing course. Secondly, we make use of a filter group to process spectrum analysis for speech signal. The output of each band-pass filter generates a time-frequency-energy value. Thirdly, we calculate that the feature value through band-pass filter lies in which place in full array and obtain the combined feature value. Finally, we generate speech plot through coordinates partition, area computation and coordinates calculation of combined feature value.


Immune effector mechanisms are central to the disease process in inflammatory bowel disease, but it is not clear whether the mucosal or systemic immunological abnormalities are primary phenomena, or are secondary to disease activity. Corticosteroid drugs remain the most effective treatment for active disease, but there is no evidence that they are useful for maintenance therapy. Some patients, however, are dependent on low-dose corticosteroids, and relapse when the drug is withdrawn. These drugs have widespread actions on the immune response, and monocytes are particularly sensitive to corticosteroids. In contrast, sulphasalazine and 5-aminosalicylic acid are effective in maintenance therapy, but do not act primarily by immunosuppressive mechanisms. They are effective in maintenance therapy of ulcerative colitis, and mild relapses of ulcerative colitis and colonic Crohn's disease. New preparations of 5-aminosalicylic acid have reduced side effects, many of which are due to sulphapyridine. Azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine are used less widely: in Crohn's disease there is reasonable evidence for benefit in chronic active disease unresponsive to corticosteroids, and maintenance of remission. In ulcerative colitis, the position is less clearcut. Overall, trials favour an effect in chronic active disease, and there are pointers to an effect in maintenance of remission. Because of their side effects, in particular marrow suppression, these drugs should be reserved for second-line therapy. Similarly, other cytotoxic drugs are not used because of their side effects. More recently, cyclosporin A, with its selective action on interleukin-2 release and/or synthesis, and inhibition of helper T cell function, has been shown to be helpful in Crohn's disease. At present it should only be used in controlled trials, for patients with unresponsive disease in whom surgery is contraindicated. Renal toxicity may limit long term use. There is little data for cyclosporin A in ulcerative colitis. On the basis that there may be an underlying immune defect in Crohn's disease leading to mucosal inflammation, immunostimulant therapy has been used, but there is no evidence for benefit from treatment with BCG or levamisole in active disease or in maintenance therapy. 7S-Immunoglobulin, plasmapheresis or T-lymphocyte apheresis have been used in acute relapse, but evidence is anecdotal, and does not support their use except as a desperate measure to avoid surgery. Further well-designed controlled trials are needed to define the role of all these drugs, and further research into the mechanism of action on the immune response may shed light on the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease.


This paper gives some sufficient conditions for a given polyhedral set which is represented as a set of linear inequalities to be positive D-invariant for uncertain linear discrete-time systems in the case such that the systems matrices depend linearly on uncertain parameters whose ranges are given intervals. Further, the results will be applied to uncertain linear continuous systems in the sense of the above by using Euler approximation.


The contraposition of the notions of «social norm» and «rationality» divides sociologists and economists into two confronting camps, which are different in the way of describing the human behavior. These two notions are placed in 1) the established order of social behavior and 2) the equilibrium resulting from rational choice. The author tries to reconsider the initial confrontation in the understanding of rationality and social norms through the analysis of the local relations dynamics and ways of coordination in these relations.


This work is a continuation of a study of the antigenic properties of these organisms previously reported (1). The forms used were Euglena gracilis, Stichococcus sp., Chlamydomonas sp., and two species of Chlorella . In spite of the low agglutinin and precipitin titers obtained, experiments were carried out to determine whether it might be possible to sensitize guinea pigs to these organisms, either actively with a protein extract, or passively with the serum of the treated rabbits. The Dale test was carried out with 33 virgin guinea pigs. Table 1 summarizes the results with certain of these selected to report upon here. In the case of active sensitization to Euglena gracilis clearly positive reactions were obtained with the majority of living horns. Immune rabbit serum with a sedimentation titer as previously described did not passively sensitize. With the other antigens ten to twelve daily injections were necessary for sensitization.


BACKGROUND
As genital chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) notifications have increased in Australia, time trends in hospitalisations for ectopic pregnancy and female infertility between 2001 and 2008 in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and their relationship to trends in chlamydia notifications in women were assessed.

METHODS
Annual rates of chlamydia notification, and hospitalisations for female infertility or ectopic pregnancy in women aged 15-44 years in NSW were calculated using routinely collected data. Chlamydia notifications and hospital separations occurring within each year belonging to the same woman were linked using probabilistic linkage of identifiers so that multiple notifications and admissions for one woman in each calendar year were only counted once.

RESULTS
From 2001 to 2008, the annual rate of chlamydia diagnoses in women increased from 157 to 477 per 100000 population (P(trend)<0.001). Over the same period, the annual hospitalisation rate for women with an ectopic pregnancy decreased from 14.3 to 12.6 per 1000 births (P(trend)<0.001). This decrease was mostly in women aged 25-44 years, with no appreciable fall in women aged 15-24 years (P(trend)=0.8). Meanwhile, the hospitalisation rate for women with infertility of female origin did not follow a consistent trend: between 2001 and 2008, it fluctuated between a low of 479 and a high of 554 per 10000 women who were seeking pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS
These trends in ectopic pregnancy and female infertility suggest that the large increase in chlamydia notifications may not reflect hospitalisations for these two proposed chlamydia-related sequelae.


A survey of 90 randomly selected subjects indicated raw mixed-vegetable salad as a popular accompaniment to cooked rice sold by street-food vendors in the Kokomlemle municipality of Accra, Ghana, but the salad was generally considered unwholesome and a potential cause of diarrhoea. A survey of 15 vendors of cooked rice indicated that the sources of raw vegetables, method of transportation from the sources to the kitchens, and methods of storing the raw vegetables before processing, as well as the methods of processing and sale, made the raw mixed-vegetable salad accompaniment a potential source of food poisoning from microbial contamination. Microbial analysis of samples of the salads obtained from five randomly selected vendors in the mornings and afternoons, over 15 days, indicated that bacterial counts for all samples exceeded the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) standard of Log10 3.0 cfu/g. Levels of Pseudomonas, Salmonella typhi, Shigella sp., and Streptococcus faecalis did not show any significant difference (P<0.05) among vendors and did not differ significantly (P<0.05) over the 15 days. Significantly, higher levels of microbial contamination (P<0.05) occurred in the afternoon, than in the morning samples. The results confirm that the raw mixed vegetable salads which are sold as accompaniment to street vended cooked rice in the Kokomlemle municipality contain S. faecalis from fecal contamination, Pseudomonas, Shigella sp., and S. typhi which could cause gastrointestinal infections and the highest risk was from the afternoon samples.


This study aims to describe the guidance of parents of MTs students. in Malangke District in instilling character. This study uses a qualitative research that uses a pedagogical approach. Sources of data are primary data from parents, school principals, PAI teachers through interviews, while secondary data is taken from documents related to research. The instrument used in data collection is the researcher himself whose function is to determine and select informants as data sources, analyze data, interpret data, and instruments in collecting data are observation, interviews, and documentation. The results of the research and analysis concluded that in parenting in the formation of the character of MTs. Malangke 1) The pattern of parents in coaching in instilling character a. MTs. Cappasolo, the parenting style used by the community is a democratic pattern. B. MTs. Tokke, the parenting style used by the community is an authoritarian pattern, 2) The basic development of religion in MTs. Cappasolo and MTs. Tokke applied by parents in Malangke sub-district tends to be the same, the way to instill character and character at home is to set an example. 3) Many things can hinder the formation of character so that students do not show character such as education level, cultural environment, age, socioeconomic level.


The authors report rotationally unresolved vibro-electronic cross sections and branching ratios associated with the X 1 Sigma +g to d 3 Pi u electronic transition in H2, using the distorted-wave approximation within the adiabatic-nuclei framework. The present study shows that the Franck-Condon approximation (FCA) can provide reliable cross sections. The calculated branching ratios associated with the vibro-electronic transitions exhibit some oscillations at low energies; however, their magnitudes agree well with the FCA predictions.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between physical activity level and sexual function in middle-aged women.

METHODS
A cross-sectional study with a sample of 370 middle-aged women (40-65 years old), treated at public health care facilities in a Brazilian city. A questionnaire was used containing enquiries on sociodemographic, clinical and behavioral characteristics: the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), short form, and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI).

RESULTS
The average age of the women studied was 49.8 years (± 8.1), 67% of whom exhibited sexual dysfunction (FSFI ≤ 26.55). Sedentary women had a higher prevalence (78.9%) of sexual dysfunction when compared to active (57.6%) and moderately active (66.7%) females (p = 0.002). Physically active women obtained higher score in all FSFI domains (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and pain) and total FSFI score (20.9), indicating better sexual function than their moderately active (18.8) and sedentary (15.6) counterparts (p <0.05).

CONCLUSION
Physical activity appears to influence sexual function positively in middle-aged women.


An indirect two-trace method to determine interfaces between two crystals with a uniquely defined interface plane is proposed. It involves preparation of only one sample surface, instead of the two perpendicular sample surfaces required by the traditional two-trace method. By making use of two independent interface trace vectors from one uniquely defined interface and the orientations of their adjacent crystals, the interface plane normal and thus the interface plane in the two correlated crystal systems can be determined through numerical calculations concerning coordinate system change. The new method is widely applicable to identify any uniquely defined and reproducible interfaces between crystallographically correlated crystals, even slip systems, provided that they are microscopically visible and crystallographically of the same nature. It can simplify the experimental procedure, increase the determination accuracy and broaden the scope of interface studies.


X-ray photoelectron and Auger spectra involving N sub 1, N sub 2, and N sub 3 vacancy states of Pd, Ag, Cd, In, and Sn were measured and compared with results of free-atom calculations. As previously observed in Cu and Zn Auger spectra that involve 3d-band electrons, free-atom characteristics are found, with regard to widths and structure, in the Ag and Cd M sub 4-N sub 4,5 N sub 4,5 and M sub 5-N sub 4,5 N sub 4,5 Auger spectra that arise from transitions of 4d-band electrons. Theoretical N sub 1 widths computed with calculated free-atom Auger energies agree well with measurements. Theory, however, predicts wider N sub 2 than N sub 3 vacancy states (as observed for Xe), while the measured N sub 2 and N sub 3 widths are nearly equal to each other and to the average of the calculated N sub 2 and N sub 3 widths. The calculations are made difficult by the exceedingly short lifetime of some 4 p vacancies and by the extreme sensitivity of super-Coster-Kronig rates, which dominate the deexcitation to the transition energy and to the fine details of the atomic potential.


This note provides a theoretical explanation for the empirical observation that more unequal economies tend to have larger informal sector. In contrary to the general belief, it shows that informal sector does not necessarily expand at the time of recession acting as a buffer for the unemployed pool.


Evidence is presented for the existence of a pomeron flip-non-flip interference term in elastic polarisations. This might be understood to arise from absorptive corrections to a pomeron with small positive flip-non-flip ratio.


Intrigue, prestige, debauchery: Dark Diversions by acclaimed author John Ralston Saul is a black comedy of international proportions. From aristocrats and the privileged circles of New York and Paris to military dictators and the political infighting, double-dealing and corruption or their regimes in Morocco and Haiti, welcome to the world where money and power reside. Through a series of encounters with its inhabitants, at once beguiling and grotesque, our investigative narrator uncovers bizarrre and disturbing stories of secret lovers, exiled princesses, religious heresies and murder. But as he becomes further enmeshed in this savage realm, his ambiguous status becomes increasingly unsettling: is he the impartial observer of priviliged foibles and fundamental inequity he appears to be? Or is he, perhaps, an embodiment of the dark diversions he chronicles? Laced with scathing wit, Dark Diversions is a novel that inveigles its reader on a picaresque journey of depravity. "A delightful novel, invigoratingly wicked". (Le Monde). "Saul has the eye, the aloofness, the killer turn of phrase of a Truman Capote". (Le Figaro). John Ralston Saul is Canada's leading public intellectual. Declared a 'prophet' by Time magazine, Saul has received many awards and prizes, including Chile's Pablo Neruda Medal. He is president of PEN International, and his thirteen works have been translated into twenty-two languages in thirty countries. Dark Diversions is his sixth novel.


I review the notion of the quark-hadron duality from the modern perspective. Both, the theoretical foundation and practical applications are discussed. The proper theoretical framework in which the problem can be formulated and treated is Wilson's operator product expansion (OPE). Two models developed for the description of duality violations are considered in some detail: one is instanton-based, another resonance-based. The mechanisms they represent are complementary. Although both models are rather primitive (their largest virtue is their simplicity) they hopefully capture important features of the phenomenon. Being open for improvements, they can be used "as is" for orientation in the studies of duality violations in the processes of practical interest.


This study investigated the effects of Enterococcus faecalis on digestive enzyme activities and short‐chain fatty acid production in fish intestine, resistance against Aeromonas hydrophila and humoral immunity response by 3 experiments on Javanes carp (Puntius gonionotus). The experiment 1 revealed that diet supplemented with E. faecalis significantly (P 0.05) in acetic acid production was observed. In the challenge study (experiment 2), fish were injected (intraperitoneal) with 107 A. hydrophila per ml and survival was significantly improved when fish were fed diet supplemented with E. faecalis compared to control fish. In experiment 3, dietary E. faecalis affected immune system response as fish fed the probiont and exposed to 106 A. hydrophila per ml displayed significantly elevated antibody levels compared to control fed fish. Fish fed diet supplemented with E. faecalis but not exposed to the pathogen revealed significantly higher antibody level than control fish (P < 0.05). Therefore, E. faecalis can be used as a probiotic in Javanese carp farming.


This paper has been prepared to document key contribution of co-operatives to socio economic development of Tanzania during fifty years of its independence. The paper is based on library research and the experience of the author on cooperative development and its role in economic development in Tanzania. Tanzania commemorated its fifty years of independence in 2011 and it was necessary to establish and document some of the contribution of cooperatives in economic development during that period of independence so as to create awareness to the government, cooperative stakeholders and scholars and motivate other people to conduct more studies. The historical background of cooperatives goes back to 1925 where small holder coffee farmers in Kilimanjaro started cooperatives and rapidly spread to other areas of Tanganyika. The performance of co-operatives was fairly good during the period of 1960 to 1976. Cooperative in Tanzania were abolished in 1976 and were reestablished in 1982 and its performance after its re establishment was not on the earlier successful footing. Until their abolition in 1976, co-operatives had played a great role in economic development in Tanzania. Ever since their abolition in 1976 and subsequent re establishment in 1982, co-operatives have faced a myriad of challenges including those arising from financial, structural, governance and policy framework. Fifty years of independence have witnessed poor management, corruption, embezzlement, inadequate capital, weak support institutions, inappropriate policies, poor members' education and stiff competition from the liberalized market economy of the 1990's. With the advent of the 21 st century, co-operatives were given new life. The 2000 Special Presidential Committee on co-operatives was followed by the 2003 Cooperative Societies Act. Later on, a key strategic document- The Cooperative Reform and Modernization Programme (2005- 2015) was produced as a blue print for cooperative revival in Tanzania. To achieve their goals, co-operatives need to be commercially viable enterprises, able to compete in the liberalized market and prosper in the marketplace so as to achieve its purpose of fulfilling the members' economic and social needs. Keywords: co-operatives, economic development, marketing, savings and credit, members' needs


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
Bladder cancer, a common tumor of urinary system, is related to genetic mutations that deregulate cell cycle and render tumor cells resistant to apoptosis. Survivin, a new member of the inhibitor-of-apoptosis (IAP) family, participates in the genesis of several human cancers, including bladder cancer, through inducing cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis. This study was to explore the effects of small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting survivin on the biological behaviors of bladder cancer T24 cells.

METHODS
A pair of survivin siRNA were designed and synthesized, and transfected into T24 cells with increasing concentrations (50-200 nmol/L) and injected in tumor-bearing mice at different doses (5 and 50 microg). The effects of survivin siRNA on the biological behaviors of T24 cells were assessed.

RESULTS
Survivin siRNA efficiently down-regulated the expression of survivin mRNA. Its maximal effect was achieved at the concentration of 100 nmol/L, at which survivin expression level was down-regulated by 75.91%, the inhibition rate of cell proliferation was 55.29% (P<0.01), and the apoptosis rate was significantly higher in siRNA-transfected cells than in control cells (45.70% vs. 2.8%, P<0.01). Intratumoral injection of 50 microg survivin siRNA significantly inhibited the growth of bladder cancer in mice (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Survivin siRNA could markedly inhibit survivin expression in T24 cells, induce cell apoptosis and inhibit the growth of transplanted tumor in mice. It might be a new gene therapy tool for bladder cancer.


Upstream damming has profoundly impacted downstream channel morphology by altering inflowing water and sediment conditions, which can mostly be ascribed to variations in the flow hydrograph and sediment supply regime. In this paper, channel erosion and deposition during different flow-sediment processes are quantified using a 2D hydro-morphodynamic model. Our results revealed that the net erosion mainly occurred during the flood season when the flow discharges were above 15,000 m3/s. Together, larger peak discharges and less sediment supply could produce greater net erosion. Flow hydrograph variations could alter the inundation extent, thus creating a more widespread redistribution of channel deposition and erosion and possibly causing a shift in the active channel adjustment area, where more channel scouring and siltation occurred. The channel adjustments caused by the sediment supply regime variations underwent a gradual downward propagation process, and most of the riverbed thalweg profile variations could first be observed at a very short distance from the studied reach entrance. A larger cross-sectional area and channel depth as well as a lower width-depth ratio could result from larger floods and less incoming upstream sediment load. We found that a comprehensive flow-sediment combination coefficient with a value of m ranging from 2 to 4 most appropriately reflected the post-dam flow-sediment imbalance regime at the studied reach, which implied the leading role of flow hydrograph variations in shaping channel morphology. In summary, the combined results presented herein for the Shashi Reach of the Yangtze River can provide a better understanding of the downstream morphological impacts of different flow-sediment processes caused by dam operation.


For years researchers have tried to determine if there is a relationship connecting a firm's performance to a Chief Executive Officer's compensation. The bulk of studies have been done in the United States and yielded results that indicated a numerically low, positive correlation between performance and remuneration. Using a sample of 168 Canadian publicly listed companies for the year 2003 and looking first at a wide array of industry sectors, this paper partially corroborates past research by finding a positive statistical relationships connecting salary to performance. It differentiates itself by finding a high sensitivity level connecting the CEO's salary to a company's performance. The results held true for different compensation structures and for four distinct measures of performance. Furthermore, to try to distinguish if the sensitivity levels between wage and company performance would change when focusing on specific markets, similar tests were applied to a subgroup composed of raw material, industrial product, and public service sectors. While the sensitivity levels between salary and performance were still positive, the coefficients for wage were smaller, which indicated less responsiveness on performance. In either case, it appears that theories regarding incentive contracts are working well to counter the agency problem and that CEO's are in fact operating in the best interest of the shareholders.


A 200-fs pulsed Ti: Sapphire laser was used to micromachine Type Ila single crystal diamond. The effects of the pulse energy and exposure time were investigated. Both blind and through holes were generated by trepanning and percussion modes. Trenches were produced by the direct-writing mode. Scanning electron and atomic force microscopy analysis revealed that the holes are in the range 0.65-100 μm and are free from taper. In addition, there was little recast layer around the holes. The damage threshold was approximately 4 J/cm, which is smaller than those obtained from other lasers. A twotemperature model was used to establish the electron temperatures and to predict the ablation depth per pulse. It is evident from this work that femtosecond lasers are capable of producing microand sub-micron structures with very high precision. 1 Pnmary researcher and author. 2 Major Professor and author for correspondence.


OBJECTIVE Neopterin is released mainly by macrophages during immune system activation. Therefore, the production of neopterin should be increased by infections and its levels in blood and urine are perhaps in relation to the type of infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS Neopterin levels in urine were determined in 194 healthy children to obtain normal values. Levels of neopterin were also studied in 91 children with viral and 41 with bacterial infections by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results are expressed by means of the neopterin/creatinine quotient (neopterin factor = NF). RESULTS NF significantly increased in 95.6% of the viral infections (sensitivity of 95.6% and specificity of 92.7%) and in 40.4% of the bacterial infections (sensitivity of 40.4% and specificity of 92.7%). CONCLUSIONS NF rises more frequently in viral than in bacterial infections, reaching higher levels earlier in the former.


In the present work, we studied the controlled growth of MoO3 nanostructures and their gas sensing performance. MoO3 NS were synthesized using thermal evaporation method. FE-SEM (LEO 1525) and XRD were used to characterize the morphology and crystallinity of MoO3 NS. Sensing devices were mounted on TO packages using electro-soldered gold wires, and they were tested toward some chemical compounds. These NS give reversible response to Acetone, Ethanol and H2 in a temperature range of 300–550 °C. MoO3 sensors exhibit a high response ∆G/G = 45 towards 50 ppm of Ethanol at 450 °C.


For a week, a 36-year-old Marine had clusters of localized papular lesions on the right forearm; he had no systemic symptoms. The patient had been inoculated 20 days earlier in the United States with the vaccinia virus (smallpox vaccine) to the ipsilateral shoulder just before deployment. He had no history of eczema, psoriasis, or drug allergies.


Examining women's magazines and lifestyle coaching, the article explores how positivity imperatives in contemporary culture call forth a happy, confident, hopeful, and vibrant subject during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis shows how these positivity imperatives acknowledge stress and difficulty, and at times highlight their gendered impacts, yet nevertheless systematically figure responses and solutions in individual, psychological, and often consumerist terms. The discussion demonstrates how positivity imperatives operate not only through verbal advice but also through visual, embodied, and affective means and through an emphasis on developing new social practices—from holding one's body differently, to keeping gratitude journals, to cultivating a new virtual persona for online work meetings. The article highlights a profound paradox: in times of a global pandemic that has affected women disproportionally, and when structural injustices and inequalities have been made ever more visible, positivity and individualized self-care interpellations to women flourish, anger is muted, and critiques of structural inequality are largely silenced. Thus seemingly benign and often undoubtedly well-meaning messages of confidence, calm, and positivity during the pandemic work to buttress a neoliberal imaginary and persistent social inequalities.


Sialorrhea is common in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) and is reported in >40% of children with cerebral palsy (CP). It causes a range of complications, including significant respiratory morbidity. This single-center retrospective chart review aims to document sublingual atropine (SLA) utilization to guide further study in establishing its role in secretion management for children with NDD. A chart review was completed for patients with NDD ≤ 22 years of age treated with SLA at a free-standing children's hospital between 1 January 2016 and 1 June 2021. Descriptive statistics were generated to summarize findings. In total, 190 patients were identified, of which 178 met inclusion criteria. The average starting dose for SLA was 1.5 mg/day, or 0.09 mg/kg/day when adjusted for patient weight. Eighty-nine (50%) patients were prescribed SLA first line for secretion management while 85 (48%) patients tried glycopyrrolate prior to SLA. SLA was used after salivary Botox, ablation, and/or surgery in 16 (9%) patients. This study investigates SLA as a potential pharmacologic agent to treat sialorrhea in children with NDD. We identify a range of prescribing patterns regarding dosing, schedule, and place in therapy, highlighting the need for further evidence to support and guide its safe and efficacious use.


This study aimed to investigate the protective effect of family functioning, social capital, and civic engagement on mental health in adolescents with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Parents of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (N = 20,708) who participated in the 2015-2016 National Survey of Children's Health were surveyed about their children' ACEs (e.g., parental divorce, being a victim of violence, living with anyone who had substance abuse) and current mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems. Parents were further asked about their family functioning, perceived social capital, and adolescents' civic engagement. Structural equation modeling was conducted to test the hypothesized pathways using Mplus 8.0.Based on parents' report, about 55% of adolescents have experienced at least one kind of ACE. The final structural model proved an excellent fit to the data (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.009, WRMR = 1.12). A significantly positive relationship was found between adolescents' ACEs and current mental disorders (β = 0.13, p < 0.05), and the effect was partially mediated by family functioning (β = 0.10, p < 0.001) and civic engagement (β = 0.01, p < 0.05), but not by social capital (β = 0.01, p = 0.12). Low household income (β = -0.24, p < 0.001) and low parent education (β = -0.05, p < 0.05) significantly increased adolescents' likelihood of having ACEs. Early assessment and interventions for children with ACEs are necessary to prevent the development of mental disorders in adolescence, especially for minority adolescents and those of low socioeconomic status. Safe, nurturing, and supportive home and social environments can help mitigate the detrimental impact of childhood


Fine-Pitch BGAs and underfills have been used in benign office environments and wireless applications for a number of years, however their reliability in harsh environments is not well understood. In this work, the design guidelines development effort for deployment of fine-pitch ball-grid array packages in the harsh environments have been presented. Guidelines are targeted towards government contractors, OEMs, and 3rd party contract manufacturers who intend to select part architectures and board designs based on specified mission requirements. The guidelines are intended as an aid for understanding the sensitivity of component reliability to geometry, package architecture, material properties and board attributes in different thermal environments in order to quantitatively evaluate the impact of these parameters on the component reliability. The intent is to develop a tool for doing trade-offs between geometry, materials and quantitatively evaluating the impact on reliability. Sensitivity relations for geometry, materials, and architectures based on statistical models and failure mechanics based closed form models have been developed. Convergence between statistical model sensitivities and failure mechanics based sensitivities has been demonstrated. Predictions of sensitivities have been validated against experimental test data.


The interaction between inertial oscillations generated by a storm and a mesoscale eddy field is studied using a Southern Ocean channel model. It is shown that the leakage of near‐inertial energy out of the surface layer is strongly enhanced by the presence of the eddies, with the anticyclonic eddies acting as a conduit to the deep ocean. Given the ubiquity of the atmospheric storm tracks (a source of near‐inertial energy for the ocean) and regions of strong ocean mesoscale variability, we argue that this effect could be important for understanding pathways by which near‐inertial energy enters the ocean and is ultimately available for mixing.


Although patients undergoing complete resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma have been known to carry a poor prognosis due to recurrent disease, experience with combined chemoradiotherapy is relatively sparse. This is due to the fact that this situation is sufficiently rare and a single institution is unable to obtain a significant number of patients for such a study. The only major randomized study comes from the Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group (GITSG) who showed that median survival following relatively mild chemoradiotherapy (40 Gy in a split course with 5FU 500 mg/m2 on the first three days of each 20 Gy) showed an advantage over radical surgery alone of twenty months versus eleven months (p = 0.03). The GITSG continued to register patients for the treatment arm and the median survival of this group was comparable to that of the untreated patients. In other experience, the results from Tokyo reported a three year survival of fifty-seven percent with intraoperative irradiation and hepatic arterial or portal Mitomycin C. The results from the University of Pennsylvania showed a fifty-nine percent two year survival with patients receiving 45 to 48.6 Gy and infusion 5FU.


It is well known that surface energy and the associated properties such as surface stress and surface elasticity have a significant effect on the physical behavior of nanostructures. In this letter, using a combination of atomistic simulations and a simple continuum model, we elucidate the role of surface roughness on the renormalization of surface stress, surface elastic constants, as well as the (generally ignored) term that represents the curvature dependence of surface energy (crystalline Tolman's length). We find, consistent with a recent theoretical prediction and in sharp contrast to few others, that the surface stress is negligibly impacted by roughness. However, even moderate roughness is seen to dramatically alter the surface elasticity modulus as well as the crystalline Tolman's length. We illustrate a simple application on the impact of roughness on nanosensors.


A skin-stretching device that is designed to harness the elastic properties of the skin using incremental traction is presented. In using this device, the skin is stretched from its edges by direct linear traction. The device produces extra skin tissue rapidly, and no undermining is necessary to loosen skin, so as to close large areas of skin shortage that would otherwise have required more complicated procedures for their repair. It can be employed for a duration of 20-640 minutes, and be applied preoperatively, intraoperatively or postoperatively. 52 patients have undergone the treatment since March 1994. Six months to one year's follow-up of 27 cases demonstrated satisfactory results. The method has following advantages: easy in manipulation, saving time, safe and fewer complications.