INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To assess long-term safety and immunogenicity of collagenase clostridium histolyticum (collagenase) and characterize curvature deformity over time in patients previously treated with collagenase for Peyronie's disease (PD). METHODS: Follow-up study of patients who received collagenase in 2 large, 12-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (IMPRESS I/II) or one of two 9-month, open-label studies. Eligible patients were followed yearly for up to 5 years after initial collagenase injection. Adverse events (AEs) were collected throughout the study. Penile curvature characterization and PDQ were compared to Reference data (measurements obtained at last visit in 1 of the prior studies). RESULTS: Of 280 patients enrolled, 204 completed the study. From baseline to last visit (Reference) of the prior studies (n=247), mean ± SD penile curvature decreased from 51.8 ± 15.0 degrees to 31.0 ± 16.1 degrees (improvement of 20.9 ± 16.2 degrees; 39.5%). At Year 5 follow-up (n=180), there was an additional 9.1% improvement in mean penile curvature versus Reference data (4.3 degrees; 95% CI, 2.3-6.2 degrees; P=0.02). Twenty-nine patients were excluded from the 5-year analysis of curvature characterization: 9 who received additional collagenase injection(s), 2 with penile implants, and 18 with prior surgery for PD. There was a significant mean reduction of PDQ bother score at Year 5 from Reference (n=123; mean reduction (± SD), 0.9 ± 2.5 , P=0.0003). Additional improvements were seen in PDQ pain and psychologic and physical symptoms domains at Year 5 visit versus Reference scores. There was a mean increase of 0.5 ± 1.29 cm in penile length from Baseline to Reference in prior studies, and the length was maintained to Year 5. AEs were reported in 17.5% (49/280) of patients; none were considered treatment related. No long-term safety issues were identified. There was a trend toward a decrease in the number of anti-AUX-I and anti-AUX-II seropositive patients at Years 4 and 5 (100% in Year 2 to ∼98% at Year 4 and 90.9% at Year 5). Mean log antibody titer levels for anti-AUX-I decreased from 4.9 at maximum in previous studies to 3.8, 3.8, and 3.7, in Years 3, 4, and 5, respectively; anti-AUX-II decreased from 4.5 to 3.6, 3.5, and 3.4 in Years 3, 4, and 5, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This 5-year study did not reveal additional long-term safety or tolerability signals. Most patients continued to have improvement in PD curvature and bother through 5 years of follow-up without additional treatment. Source of Funding: Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.


To predict the progression in patients with IgA nephropathy, we analyzed glomerular lesions except for sclerosis, adhesion and/or crescents in 34 patients with this disease by morphometric analysis. Levels of urinary protein excretion (UP), creatinine clearance (Ccr), serum creatinine (sCr) and mean blood pressure (MBP) at the time of renal biopsy were used as the clinical parameters. The slope of 1/sCr was also used as a prognostic parameter. Renal specimens were obtained by echo-guided biopsy. In PAS-stained light microscopic renal sections, three midsections of open glomeruli were selected and photographed. Stereologic estimation was performed as follows: absolute values of glomerular volume (VG), glomerular surface area (SG), podocyte and nonpodocyte cell number per glomerulus (NG(pod) and NG(Non-pod)), glomerular surface area covered by one podocyte SG/NG(pod)) and glomerular volume occupied by one nonpodocyte cell (VG/NG(Non-pod)). There was a significant correlation between the levels of UP and the change of podocyte injury parameters (NG(pod) and SG/NG(pod)) or NG(Non-pod). NG(pod) was negatively but SG/NG(pod) and NG(Non-pod) were positively correlated with UP. SG/NG(pod) or NG(Non-pod) was correlated with MBP. NG(pod), SG/NG(pod), NG(Non-pod), UP or MBP was significantly correlated with the slope of 1/sCr. High specificity was observed for NG(pod), SG/NG(pod) and MBP. High sensitivity was also observed for NG(Non-pod) and UP. It appears that podocyte injury might provide additional prognostic information in patients with IgA nephropathy.


The total of 181 students in Seoul were made up questions to analysis hand washing awareness from 2007 to 2008. And their hands were sampled to isolate Staphylococcus aureus for testing antibiotic resistance. The average of hand washing frequency was 2.8±2.6 per day in their schools. The rates of the students washing hands before eating food, after outdoor activity and after using bathroom were 22.2%, 24.4% and 49.4%, respectively. The rate of students washing hand less than 20 seconds was 64.4%. The students of 43.3% answered that they thought they were washing hands well. The middle school students were worse than elementary and high school students were aware of the frequency, duration and activity of hand washing. The isolation rate of S. aureus on the hands was 29.4%. The isolates were resitant to ampicillin (28.6%), chloramphenicol (6.1%), erythromycin (31.0%), gentamycin (2.0%), penicillin (79.6%) and tetracycline (6.1%) of 17 antibiotics tested. They were all sensitive to oxacillin and vancomycin.


A simple and practical strategy for intermolecular aminohalogenation of quinone with alkyl amines and NXS was developed, in which haloamines generated in situ were employed as bifunctional reagents. The reaction system is reliable, efficient and wide in substrate range, which is suitable for the two-fold aminochlorination of 1, 4-benzoquinones, large-scale reaction and late-stage modification of pharmaceuticals.


Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) is the preferred raw material for the production of pasta worldwide and some speciality bread common in parts of Italy and the Mediterranean region. The quality of such foods in terms of texture, colour, flavour and appearance are determined by raw material quality, processing methods and other ingredients. This review focuses on the raw material composition and how these influence the dough characteristics and the end product quality. Protein has been known as an important component having an influence on the quality of pasta and bread. The glutenin and gliadin proteins, the types present and their ratio have been shown to influence dough properties. Attempts to increase the number of high molecular weight glutenin subunits to obtain more varied dough properties has the potential to improve the breadmaking properties of durum flour. Starch is more than an inert filler and recent research has shown the affect of varying the amylose content and ratio of large to small starch granules on pasta quality can be significant. Potentially new durum germplasm could be created and used in new food products. Other minor components like non-starch carbohydrates and lipids have received less attention. The former can have a large impact on the water absorption of durum flours and alter dough properties. Enzymes like lipoxygenase and polyphenol oxidase together with the lipid yellow pigments strongly impact the appearance of pasta foods. The results of recent research about these components on both pasta and bread quality using durum wheat are discussed.


Abstract. A better understanding of the hydrological functioning of
irrigated crops using remote sensing observations is of prime importance in semi-arid areas where water resources are limited. Radar
observations, available at high resolution and with a high revisit time since the launch
of Sentinel-1 in 2014, have shown great potential for the monitoring of the
water content of the upper soil and of the canopy. In this paper, a complete
set of data for radar signal analysis is shared with the scientific community
for the first time to our knowledge. The data set is composed of Sentinel-1
products and in situ measurements of soil and vegetation variables collected during
three agricultural seasons over drip-irrigated winter wheat in the Haouz
plain in Morocco. The in situ data gather soil measurements (time series of
half-hourly surface soil moisture, surface roughness and agricultural
practices) and vegetation measurements collected every week/2 weeks
including aboveground fresh and dry biomasses, vegetation water content
based on destructive measurements, the cover fraction, the leaf area index, and plant
height. Radar data are the backscattering coefficient and the
interferometric coherence derived from Sentinel-1 GRDH (Ground Range
Detected High Resolution) and SLC (Single Look Complex) products,
respectively. The normalized difference vegetation index derived from
Sentinel-2 data based on Level-2A (surface reflectance and cloud mask)
atmospheric-effects-corrected products is also provided. This database,
which is the first of its kind made available open access, is described
here comprehensively in order to help the scientific community to evaluate
and to develop new or existing remote sensing algorithms for monitoring
wheat canopy under semi-arid conditions. The data set is particularly
relevant for the development of radar applications including surface soil
moisture and vegetation variable retrieval using either physically based
or empirical approaches such as machine and deep learning algorithms. The database is archived in the DataSuds repository and is freely accessible
via the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.23708/8D6WQC (Ouaadi et al., 2020a).


ABSTRACT A method for isolation of coupled mitochondria isolated from the liver of adult Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus is described for the first time. They were metabolically active, able to sustain oxidative phosphorylation, as shown by respiratory control ratio values, which were about 5.8±0.8 and 3.3±0.4 when respiring on malate/piruvate (complex I) or succinate (complex II), respectively, as substrate. Membrane potential exhibited a value of approximately 197±4mV for malate/piruvate or succinate. The procedure now described for the isolation of O. niloticus mitochondria is an important new tool, allowing the study about the effect of xenobiotics on mitochondrial bioenergetic, being evaluated the effect of oxyfluorfen (0.6mgL -1 ) in the liver mitocondrial bioenergetic. These results showed that phosphorylation was significantly affected by oxyfluorfen which contributed to the decrease on the liver cell energy charge and consequently led to the fish dead. Keywords: tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, oxyfluorfen, mitochondria, liver


Siponimod is a fluorinated drug approved for treatment of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. We detect 19F-MR signal in the liver, brain, kidneys, and thymus, and achieve the first 19F-MR images of a disease modifying drug, both in the liver and brain ex vivo and in a proof-of-concept in vivo experiment. Clear concentration differences between lobes of the liver or regions of the CNS can be observed. We have demonstrated the feasibility of using 19F-MRI to study the distribution of disease modifying drugs and improve our understanding of pharmacokinetics or guide therapeutic decisions.


Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based polymer films for synthetic leather applications. Synthesized by a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, BC is a three-dimensional structure composed of cellulose microfibrils. However, pure BC lacks certain desirable properties such as high tensile strength. Previous studies have shown that loading BC with nanoparticles to form nanocomposites has improved BC's mechanical properties. However, this was not studied as a function of particle size. This study focuses on using silica/BC nanocomposites to model the impact that particle size and silica soaking concentrations have on the uptake efficiency of these particles into BC. Silica particles are incorporated into the BC hydrogel by diffusion, where 100 nm and 1300 nm silica particles at varying concentrations were tested. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to visually analyze the silica loading in the samples. The samples soaked with 1300 nm silica particles showed no visible particles on the film surface, while the samples soaked with 100 nm silica particles display a textured surface possibly attributable to silica particles on the surface of the BC. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the samples soaked with 1300 nm silica particles across all concentrations show no increase in silica weight percent, confirming our observations from SEM. However, the samples soaked with 100 nm silica particles showed an increase in inorganic residue of 2.23%, 4.11%, and 11.10% with increasing silica soaking concentration via TGA. Despite these findings, the data was not statistically significant to conclude successful increase in silica content with increasing soaking concentrations.


The purpose of this research to proof and analyze the influence of work environment, work mottivation, and compensation on employees performance at University of Muhammadiyah Surakarta. This resarch using 36 employees for sampel and taken by covenience sampling method.Convenient sampling is choosing sampel freely accordingencountered. The data analysis in this reasherch uses SPSS version 22.To examine and prove the research hypothesis so The analysis method that is used is multiple linear regression.result of this reserch show that work environment,work mottivation,and compensation didn't have influence on employee persormance.This can be seen from the value tcount< ttabel.


The present study was undertaken to determine whether or not spironolactone could induce drug-metabolizing enzymes in patients with ascites due to alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. The disposition of antipyrine was therefore studied in 15 patients with cirrhosis before and after 13 days of spironolactone treatment (200 mg/day) and in 15 comparable patients not treated by spironolactone. In spironolactone-treated patients, a 40% increase in elimination rate constant of antipyrine (P less than 0.01) was due both to a decrease in apparent volume of distribution by 11% (P less than 0.01) and to a 20% rise in metabolic clearance rate (P less than 0.01). In control patients treated with furosemide or by paracentesis no significant change in metabolic clearance rate of antipyrine was found. As with spironolactone, furosemide decreased the apparent volume of distribution (9%, P less than 0.05) in proportion to the loss in body weight. Since spironolactone treatment was not associated with improvement in the fractional clearance of bromosulfophthalein, nor in serum albumin, prothrombin time, and factor V, the data are compatible with the idea that even in cirrhosis the hepatic drug-oxidizing enzymes were induced by spironolactone. Thus, the consequences of enzyme induction should be considered when spironolactone is associated with other drugs for the treatment of cirrhotic patients.


Isoxazole (2a-l) and cyanopyridine (3a-l) derivatives have been prepared by condensing chalcones (1a-l) with hydroxylamine hydrochloride and malononitrile respectively. While compounds 1a-l have been synthesized by the reaction of p(3'-chloro-2'-benzo(b)thiophenoylamino)-acetophenone with different aldehydes. All the compounds were screened for their antitubercular and antimicrobial activities. The structures of newly synthesized compounds were established on the basis of elemental analyses, IR, 1 H NMR and Mass spectral data.


A hydrogen-bonding interaction between phenobarbital or pentobarbital with phosphatidylcholine in chloroform is indicated by the effects of added phosphatidylcholine on the infrared and proton magnetic resonance spectra of these barbiturates. The nitrogenbound proton of the barbiturate and the orthophosphate moiety of the phosphatidylcholine molecule appear to be involved. The more pronounced effect with the two barbiturates occurs in the proton magnetic resonance spectra of phenobarbital with increased amounts of phosphatidylcholine. A plot of the chemical shift of phenobarbital N-H against the concentration of phosphatidylcholine is linear and gives an extrapolated shift of 260 Hz (2.6 ppm) at 35 degrees C for a phosphatidylcholine-phenobarbital ratio of unity, pure 1:1 complex. It is suggested that the general depressant nature of barbiturates may be accounted for by their association in a similar fashion with a number of other phosphate-containing molecules.


To investigate the properties of thermal sprayed glass-composite coatings, experimental measurements have been carried out. The coating demands such as thermal, electrical or mechanical resistance need to be optimised along with stress-minimizing procedures in order to reach high-quality surface coatings. The relevant properties aging, oxidation resistance and bond strength to the substrate are evaluated. Different material combinations were sprayed using the VPS, LPPS and HVOF processes, which combine several parameter sets and substrates. The results of the investigations show that coating properties such as conductivity, thermal expansion, porosity and surface roughness can be well directed influenced by controlling the mixture of the powder material, the pretreatment of the powder and particle size distribution.


It is now commonplace to speak of the 'triumph of liberal democracy'; since 1970, it has become the dominant political system in over 120 states. In many established democracies, however, democratic governance is withering; turnout is falling, party supporters are becoming rarer and democratic trust is declining. Marsh and Miller's extensive case study-based analysis on this democratic decay in Britain, Australia and New Zealand argues that mainstream parties' embrace of neoliberalism and disregard for their memberships is largely responsible. Parties are no longer key players in 'the public conversation', but populist observers of it. Voters see little difference and substance in them, feel powerless to influence their agenda, and so see little interest in engaging with politics. Marsh and Miller suggest a solution to this problem through two institutional changes. The first is electoral reform to facilitate a multiparty system, allowing a wider array of ideologies and interests to be represented. This also paves the way for the second change – a significant enhancement in the role of select committees. The authors suggest that well-resourced committees, with the power to engage with a range of political actors and to influence the political agenda, could fill the gap left by traditional parties and restore voters' faith in democratic engagement. The distinctive strength of Marsh and Miller's work is its institutionalist perspective; they suggest that institutional change caused democratic decay, and institutional change can cure it. They bring a refreshingly distinct focus to the study of the changing nature of democracy – which often focuses on the changing behaviour of individuals – through examining the changing behaviour of political parties. This institutionalist focus, however, is also the study's weakness. Marsh and Miller understate how those changes in individuals might have contributed to the changing behaviour of parties. Voters today are very different from those of the 1970s; they engage with politics in different ways, and view political institutions differently. Parties have had to respond to changing voters just as voters have had to respond to changing parties. The authors give little account of this, and how it might have affected democratic governance. Nonetheless, Marsh and Miller have laid the groundwork for further research into democratic evolution from the thus far undervalued perspective of the conduct of political parties. Their approach suggests a novel solution to democratic decay, and should form an integral component of future studies of the evolution of democratic governance and engagement.


Abstract : Voice command and control systems have been proposed as a potential means of off-loading the typically overburdened visual information processing system. However, prior to introducing novel human-machine interfacing technologies in high workload environments, consideration must be given to the integration of the new technologists within existing task structures to ensure that no new sources of workload or interference are systematically introduced. This study examined the use of voice interactive systems technology in the joint performance of two cognitive information processing tasks requiring continuous memory and choice reaction wherein a basis for intertask interference might be expected. Stimuli for the continuous memory task were presented aurally and either voice or keyboard responding was required in the choice reaction task. Performance was significantly degraded in each task when voice responding was required in the choice reaction time task. Performance degradation was evident in higher error scores for both the choice reaction and continuous memory tasks. Performance decrements observed under conditions of high intertask stimulus similarity were not statistically significant. The results signal the need to consider further the task requirements for verbal short-term memory when applying speech technology in multitask environments.


SUMMARY (1) Ramets of Trifolium repens were sampled from sites in a field of permanent pasture dominated by a mosaic of Lolium perenne, Holcus lanatus, Cynosurus cristatus and Agrostis tenuis. After multiplication of the ramets in a glasshouse, they were transplanted back into the original swards in all combinations of clover 'type' and site of origin. The pre-existing vegetation on the sites was either destroyed by herbicide or left as a control. (2) Clover 'types' were also transplanted into experimental sown swards of the four grass species. (3) Differences were found in aggressiveness of the grass swards and species, and between the clover 'type', and these were most clearly expressed in the growing swards. Most striking was a 'principal diagonal effect', in which each clover 'type' made most growth when transplanted back into its sward of origin-or into a pure stand of the grass that had dominated that sward. (4) This is interpreted as a micro-evolutionary response of clover to the diversifying selection imposed by a variety of grass neighbours, and is discussed in relation to the ecological significance of the outbreeding habit and 'Sisyphean fitness'.


Transmission blocked by drug resistance Resistance to the antimalarial drug atovaquone might prove to be this parasite's weak spot. Resistance develops rapidly via mutations in the drug's target: the parasite's mitochondrial cytochrome b complex. Goodman et al. have discovered that although resistant Plasmodium berghei parasites persist in mice, in blood-sucking malarial mosquitoes, the mutations disable female parasites too much for them to reproduce. The human-specific Plasmodium falciparum can only be investigated experimentally in mosquitoes, but a similar effect was seen. Thus, atovaquone-resistant parasites cannot be transmitted to another mammal or person. Science, this issue p. 349 Atovaquone-resistant Plasmodium berghei do not reproduce in mosquitoes and, hence, are not transmitted. Drug resistance compromises control of malaria. Here, we show that resistance to a commonly used antimalarial medication, atovaquone, is apparently unable to spread. Atovaquone pressure selects parasites with mutations in cytochrome b, a respiratory protein with low but essential activity in the mammalian blood phase of the parasite life cycle. Resistance mutations rescue parasites from the drug but later prove lethal in the mosquito phase, where parasites require full respiration. Unable to respire efficiently, resistant parasites fail to complete mosquito development, arresting their life cycle. Because cytochrome b is encoded by the maternally inherited parasite mitochondrion, even outcrossing with wild-type strains cannot facilitate spread of resistance. Lack of transmission suggests that resistance will be unable to spread in the field, greatly enhancing the utility of atovaquone in malaria control.


In this article the author provides perspective on user experience, usability and user-centered design. User experience is a broad collection of user-centric issues that cut through the full extent of a project. The author points out new developments in the user experience world that are opening up new opportunities for research and projects. The author also discusses how good user experience processes can be built into the kinds of system development projects that many of us are involved in.


Outside Waco, Texas, on 19 April 1993, a 51-day standoff between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and David Koresh and the Branch Davidians concluded with a devastating fire. Despite the fact that FBI negotiators talked on the telephone with Koresh or his main spokesman almost every day, the negotiators were unable to bring the standoff to a peaceful end. A frustrating yet persistent aspect for the FBI negotiators was the Davidians' talk about the Bible and their religious beliefs, what agents dismissively described as `Bible babble'. In this study, we analyze several exchanges between Koresh and one of the FBI agents. The analysis shows how the FBI's identifying their problem as `Bible babble' contributed to the negotiation failure. Through their talk, Koresh was positioned as a biblical expert and the FBI agent as a novice. The FBI's talk also supported Koresh's face (not challenging the reasonableness of his beliefs). These two conversational patterns, we argue, legitimated God as a key party and Koresh as the person who could best speak for him. In the conclusion, we suggest how a renaming of the problem might have reshaped the FBI's moves.


Objectives To estimate COVID-19 infections and deaths in healthcare workers (HCWs) from a global perspective. Design Scoping review. Methods Two parallel searches of academic bibliographic databases and grey literature were undertaken. Governments were also contacted for further information where possible. Due to the time-sensitive nature of the review and the need to report the most up-to-date information for an ever-evolving situation, there were no restrictions on language, information sources utilised, publication status, and types of sources of evidence. The AACODS checklist was used to appraise each source of evidence. Outcome measures Publication characteristics, country-specific data points, COVID-19 specific data, demographics of affected HCWs, and public health measures employed Results A total of 152,888 infections and 1413 deaths were reported. Infections were mainly in women (71.6%) and nurses (38.6%), but deaths were mainly in men (70.8%) and doctors (51.4%). Limited data suggested that general practitioners and mental health nurses were the highest risk specialities for deaths. There were 37.17 deaths reported per 100 infections for healthcare workers aged over 70. Europe had the highest absolute numbers of reported infections (119628) and deaths (712), but the Eastern Mediterranean region had the highest number of reported deaths per 100 infections (5.7). Conclusions HCW COVID-19 infections and deaths follow that of the general world population. The reasons for gender and speciality differences require further exploration, as do the low rates reported from Africa and India. Although physicians working in certain specialities may be considered high-risk due to exposure to oronasal secretions, the risk to other specialities must not be underestimated. Elderly HCWs may require assigning to less risky settings such as telemedicine, or administrative positions. Our pragmatic approach provides general trends, and highlights the need for universal guidelines for testing and reporting of infections in HCWs.


The molecular understanding of cellular processes requires the identification and characterization of the involved protein complexes. Affinity-purification and mass spectrometric analysis (AP–MS) are performed on a routine basis to detect proteins assembled in complexes. In particular, protein abundances obtained by quantitative mass spectrometry and direct protein contacts detected by crosslinking and mass spectrometry (XL–MS) provide complementary datasets for revealing the composition, topology and interactions of modules in a protein network. Here, we aim to combine quantitative and connectivity information by a webserver tool in order to infer protein complexes. In a first step, modeling protein abundances and functional annotations from Gene Ontology (GO) results in a network which, in a second step, is integrated with connectivity data from XL–MS analysis in order to complement and validate the protein complexes in the network. The output of our integrative approach is a quantitative protein interaction map which is supplemented with topological information of the detected protein complexes. compleXView is built up by two independent modules which are dedicated to the analysis of label-free AP–MS data and to the visualization of the detected complexes in a network together with crosslink-derived distance restraints. compleXView is available to all users without login requirements at http://xvis.genzentrum.lmu.de/compleXView.


NAKAGAMI, Kinkei's Seiseido Rogosetsu is one of his main works. It has been handed down merely as a manuscript copy. It conveys the contents regarding Kinkei's own understanding of the phrases in the Rongo, his inquiry on those sentences based on the shapes of characters, and his will for revolution. He wrote this volume because he was influenced by OGYU Sorai's commentary and he wanted to clarify his own profound medical view based on the idea that Confucianism and medicine were derived from one common origin. Accordingly, his understanding of the Rongo is above the level of a mere commentary and it has a profound philosophy of medicine.


In this article we describe EANT, Evolutionary Acquisition of Neural Topologies, a method that creates neural networks by evolutionary reinforcement learning. The structure of the networks is developed using mutation operators, starting from a minimal structure. Their parameters are optimised using CMA-ES, Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy, a derandomised variant of evolution strategies. EANT can create neural networks that are very specialised; they achieve a very good performance while being relatively small. This can be seen in experiments where our method competes with a different one, called NEAT, NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies, to create networks that control a robot in a visual servoing scenario.


X-ray computed microtomography (microCT) is a powerful nondestructive and noninvasive technique for 2D and 3D structure analyses. However, the parameters used in the image acquisition process have a direct influence on the qualitative and quantitative results, such as porosity, and on the characterization of samples, such as carbonate rocks, due to the spatial resolution of the image. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of these parameters on the results through tests in which these parameters are changed in different scenarios and system characterizations. In addition, with the optimum parameters, the whole sample image was acquired for characterization and compared to the homogeneity and representativeness of one part of the sample. The results demonstrate that the pixel size and detector matrix are the main parameters that influence the spatial resolution and that the use of additional filters for better image quality is essential. Microtomography is considered an excellent technique for rock characterization by using the best image spatial resolution possible.


Abstract Seed-eating birds in temperate deserts must cope with great variation in the availability of their food resources. We studied the trophic ecology of Ringed Warbling-Finches (Poospiza torquata) in semi-arid scrublands of the Monte Desert, Argentina. We assessed seasonality in the availability of seed and in the consumption of arthropods and seeds at a regional scale, and evaluated the composition of the granivorous component of the diet and the seed dietary breadth. Ringed Warbling-Finches had a granivorous-insectivorous diet consisting largely of arthropods in summer and seeds and arthropods in winter. The granivorous component of the diet consisted mainly of grass seeds, but with low breadth of the winter seed diet. To deal with seasonal variation in the availability of food resources, Ringed Warbling-Finches switched opportunistically between different resources, exploiting alternating seasonal patterns of food abundance. This seasonal switching is a well-established strategy in the behaviour of the species and was observed in all Ringed Warbling-Finch populations studied across the Monte Desert. Our results show the flexibility of foraging strategies of Ringed Warbling-Finches, an opportunist species that adjusts their relative consumption of seeds and arthropods in response to the spatial and temporal variations in these food resources.


In the case of exterior walls, the outdoor surface heat transfer
coefficents could be variable according to the change of wind
velocity. In this study focused on the variation of outdoor surface
heat transfer coefficients, then comparedand analyse the results
using the following unsteady-state heat analysis method, and
examined the feasibility of each heat analysis method for walls.
1. ASHRAE method 2. Response Factor Method 3. Finite Difference
Method


This research note introduces the Initial Participation Model, which theorizes continued participation in a activity or group before individuals make commitment is a function of: enjoyment, feeling of inclusion, and/or involvement opportunities. The specific focus of this research is investigating how deficiency in enjoyment, feeling of inclusion, and involvement opportunities may discourage continuing participation in competitive swimming by underrepresented populations such as African American, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander and low-socioeconomic communities. Details explain how initial participation differs from other sport stages by emphasizing participation; relating to program instead of sport; and resetting each time an individual joins a new activity or group. Two examples are offered illustrating how the model may be used for identifying points of intervention that stimulate continued initial participation. Also included are specific factors constructing the model and future testing plans for validation.


Nature does not negotiate, and COVID-19 proved it by triggering a real-time experiment on a self-confined civilization trying to cope with its effects over our most densely inhabited environments: cities. Just within weeks, South Korea shifted the world's attention from its "Parasite" film's satire on urban social inequality and modern isolation, to become one of the most virus-affected territories, ending up as a top reference on flattening the curve. Yet, Korean cities' resiliency did not only rely on a trace, test and treat system, but on an emerging technology-based and human centered urbanism. This article aims to analyze the South Korean urban experiences which allowed them to overcome the current crisis and how this can guide the way for other cities in the post-COVID world.


The main purpose of this paper is to develop the on-board generator (named "GENSET"), equipped on the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) in Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. Based on the developed electric power components such as battery integration, DC/DC converters, traction motor and control units, ITRI hybrid powertrains were thereby established by combining above items and existing engine technologies. Therefore, a power-assist 100kW powertrain for a SUV and an 18 kW fullhybrid powertrain in a light-duty vehicle were built. Several techniques of key subsystems such as a 50 kW PMSM traction motor, a GENSET, enhanced vehicle controllers, an 8 kWh/150A battery module, and battery management systems (BMSs) from the powertrains mentioned were utilized to integrate the prototype PHEV. From the experimental results, the 20 kW generator with a 1.2L 4-cylinder engine integrated into a GENSET can reach 20 kW output power and has a good performance in the narrow domain. Finally, we raised briefly several directions for future study.


In a DAB-hepatoma organic tumor, Ga-67 accumulated markedly in the hepatocellular carcinoma with scant stroma but not in the cholangioma that was rich in connective tissue. No granulation tissue was formed around the tumor. In transplanted tumors (Ehrlich's tumor and Sarcoma 180), Ga-67 accumulated in the granulation tissue within the fibroblasts, leukocytes and capillaries surrounding the tumor, rather than in the tumor. In inflammatory lesions, Ga-67 uptake was similar in granulation tissue with large numbers of phagocytes, such as leukocytes and histiocytes, and capillaries. There was a very good correlation between the degree of Ga-67 uptake and of cellular infiltration and the proliferation of capillaries. Ga-67 uptake, both in inflammatory lesions and in transplanted tumors, was observed in the granulation tissue. This result implies that the mechanisms of Ga-67 uptake in tumor and inflammatory tissues are not the same, because Ga-67 accumulated in the DAB-hepatoma that had no inflammatory granulation tissue. This study indicates that a non-transplanted tumor is required to study Ga-67 accumulation in tumors, as different results may occur in tumors with and without inflammatory granulation tissue.


Bleeding asacomplication ofliver disease can occur intheabsence ofrecognised haemostatic defects. It is nowpossible tomeasurethe concentration ofendogenous heparinoid substances intheblood using acompetitive bindingassay. One suchsubstance, heparan sulphate (normal range<600ng/ml) was assayed intheplasma of49patients admitted because ofoesophageal varices. In27patients with recent upper gastrointestinal bleeding the medianplasma heparan sulphate value was 1700nglml (interquartile (IQ) range 900-3900) compared with 390nglml (IQrange 256-800) in 22patients withnorecent bleed (p<0-01). As heparan sulphate ismetabolised bythesame routeasexogenous heparin, anattempt to establish acausefortheraised heparan concentrations wasmadebymeasuring theclearanceofexogenous heparin in10portal hypertensive patients and10controls. The medianhalf life ofheparin inplasma inthe portal hypertensive patients (25.5 minutes; IQ range 22-34) wassignificantly longer (p<0.007) thanthemedian half life inthecontrols (18.7 minutes; IQrange17-21.5). Thus,there is evidence ofraised concentrations ofendogenous heparin like substances inportal hypertensive patients after gastrointestinal bleeding. Thesehighconcentrations mayresult from reduced hepatic clearance. (Gut 1992; 33:1549-1552)


ABSTRACT Conventional cancer treatments remain insufficient to treat many therapy-resistant tumors.1 Cancer vaccines attempt to overcome this resistance by activating the patient's immune system to eliminate tumor cells without the toxicity of systemic chemotherapy and radiation. Nanoparticles (NPs) are promising as customizable, immunostimulatory carriers to protect and deliver antigen. Although many NP vaccines have been investigated in preclinical settings, a few have advanced into clinical application, and still fewer have demonstrated clinical benefit. This review incorporates observations from NP vaccines that have been evaluated in early phase clinical trials to make recommendations for the next generation of NP-based cancer vaccines.


The absence of a consistent link between parasitoses and skin allergic symptoms in the clinical investigations contrasts to the fact that some parasites are the most potent inducers of immunoglobulin E that exist in nature. To shed some light into this question, this review is focused on the actual knowledge regarding parasites life cycle, interactions with host immunity, the influence on host behavior, and finally the role of all these factors on the skin allergy. The collected data demonstrate that parasites could manipulate the host behavior for its own benefit in different ways, altering its (epi)genetic, biochemical, immunologic or physiologic functions as well as altering its behavior and activity. In this context, skin allergy may be associated with certain stages of the parasites' life cycle and migration into biological barriers, but not necessarily with presence of the parasitosis in the host organism. As compared to T helper (Th) 1 response, the Th2 one, the eosinophilic infiltration and the complement inhibition could assure better conditions for the development of some parasites. Taken together, the suggested hypotheses could be a plausible explanation for the epidemiological puzzle regarding urticaria occurrence, Th2 response and parasitoses, but further studies are necessary to provide better-based conclusions. Keywords Eosinophilic Infiltration; Host behavior; Parasites life cycle; Skin allergy; Th1/Th2 response


One of the cornerstone principles of deep models is their abstraction capacity, i.e. their ability to learn abstract concepts from `simpler' ones. Through extensive experiments, we characterize the nature of the relationship between abstract concepts (specifically objects in images) learned by popular and high performing convolutional networks (conv-nets) and established mid-level representations used in computer vision (specifically semantic visual attributes). We focus on attributes due to their impact on several applications, such as object description, retrieval and mining, and active (and zero-shot) learning. Among the findings we uncover, we show empirical evidence of the existence of Attribute Centric Nodes (ACNs) within a conv-net, which is trained to recognize objects (not attributes) in images. These special conv-net nodes (1) collectively encode information pertinent to visual attribute representation and discrimination, (2) are unevenly and sparsely distribution across all layers of the conv-net, and (3) play an important role in conv-net based object recognition.


Purpose
Physician stewardship towards cost control is potentially important in enhancing the financial sustainability of health care systems.

Objective
Aim of this study was to identify the level of stewardship of cost containment of primary care physicians (PCPs) and to assess the associations between stewardship and characteristics of PCPs and health care systems.

Methods
Secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional survey among 10 countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA. Participants were a random sample of 33312 PCPs with 11547 responses (34.7%). Outcome measure was a stewardship scale addressing cost-awareness and cost-consideration.

Results
Across countries, 41.6% and 45.7% of the PCPs responded that they often were aware of treatment costs and considered cost, respectively. Female PCPs were less aware of costs (OR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.69-0.81) and considered costs less frequently in making treatment decisions (OR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.76-0.89). Older PCPs were more aware of the costs than younger PCPs for all age categories compared to those <35 years (P < 0.001). PCPs older than 65 years (OR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.54-0.78) and 55-64 years (OR: 0.84; 95%CI: 0.73-0.97) were less likely to consider costs than the youngest age group. Cost-consideration of PCPs residing in countries with a single payer system was lower (OR: 0.58; 95% CI 0.35-0.95) than their colleagues in multiple payer systems.

Conclusion
PCPs show moderate stewardship of health care resources with large intercountry differences. Cost-awareness may not be a necessary precondition for cost-consideration, and policies aimed at raising cost-consideration may be more important.


As organization`s success depends on how much employees are active in recognizing new knowledge and transform into organization`s value, this study is to examine the influence of employees` self-directed learning capacity on organizational absorptive capacity, organizational commitment and job involvement. The study has shown that managerial level employees have high level of self-directed learning capacity, and employees who have such high level capacity also shown to have high level of absorptive capacity and organizational affective commitment and job involvement. There were static correlations between all the variables, and absorptive capacity has a complete meditated effect on each variables. Hence, in order to enhance absorptive capacity, organizations should put their effort to develop employees` self-directed learning capacity, which will not only improve individual competency but also lead to organization`s success in this competitive global market.


This study aims to produce a clean and durable pelletized fuel from palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) utilizing the combination of the hydrothermal treatment technology (HTT) and washing treatment. The EFB demerits in its energy extraction involves the moisture content, its bulk and energy density and shape that has negative effect on the combustion efficiency and transportation, in addition to its high content of potassium that often causing severe deposition problem in the biomass-fired plants. The HTT becomes key technology in improving the fuel characteristics as well as enhancing the washing and pelletization performance. The combination of the pelletization, HTT, and the washing co-treatment is promising for upgrading biomass into clean, energy dense, homogenous, friable, durable, and hydrophobic solid fuel. Key-Words: Hydrothermal treatment, pellet, EFB, low-potassium, washing, combustion


The R package robusTest offers corrected versions of several common tests in bivariate statistics. We point out the limitations of these tests in their classical versions, some of which are well known such as robustness or calibration problems, and provide simple alternatives that can be easily used instead. The classical tests and theirs robust alternatives are compared through a small simulation study. The latter emphasizes the superiority of robust versions of the test of interest. Finally, an illustration of correlation's tests on a real data set is also provided.


PURPOSE
The occurrence of a hypervascular period during healing after orthognathic surgery has not been investigated rigorously in human pulpal and gingival tissues. This study used laser Doppler flowmetry to investigate the effects of Le Fort I osteotomy on maxillary pulpal and gingival blood flow between the first and third week after surgery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Pulpal blood flow was recorded in maxillary incisors, and gingival blood flow was assessed from a site slightly apical to the interdental papilla of the maxillary central incisors in 10 patients who were undergoing a Le Fort I osteotomy, 10 patients who were undergoing a mandibular osteotomy, and 10 nonsurgical control subjects who were not undergoing orthodontic treatment. Blood flow measurements were made before surgery and at intervals between 7 and 10 days, 14 and 17 days, and 21 and 24 days after surgery. The nonsurgical control subjects were tested at similar intervals.

RESULTS
Baseline gingival and pulpal blood flow values did not differ significantly for the 3 groups. In addition, gingival and pulpal blood flow did not change in the nonsurgical control group. Analysis of the postsurgical change from baseline blood flow values indicated a significant increase in pulpal blood flow in the maxillary surgery patients relative to the patients treated with mandibular surgery. However, no significant group difference was found for gingival blood flow.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that pulpal blood flow is increased between the first and third week after Le Fort I osteotomy, but it did not find a significant change in gingival blood flow.


Of these four, the injection machine and the mold are the most varied and mechanically diverse. Most injection machines have three platens. Newer models use just two platens and may be electrically operated as opposed to the traditional hydraulic models. They can range in size from table top models to some the size of a small house. Most function horizontally, but there are vertical models in use. All injection machines are built around an injection system and a clamping system.


Results of the first formal perceptual study of jet crackle are presented. Prior studies examined noise waveform properties believed to be linked to the jet crackle percept from a physics perspective or using signal processing and informal subjective evaluation. This investigation involves 31 listeners that rated 15 jet noise waveforms with a category subdivision scaling test. Results reveal a strong log-linear correlation between the pressure waveform time derivative's skewness and crackle rating. A regression analysis establishes practical derivative skewness bounds for a five-point categorical crackle scale and results in the suggested definition of the crepit as the unit of crackliness.


The intensity distribution in the focal region of a laser beam is calculated for a Gaussian profile truncated by a circular aperture. The results give the theoretical ionization volume as a function of the laser intensity and this allows calculation of the multiple ionization of atoms by an intense laser. As an example, the yields of multiply charged ions of xenon are calculated for focused intensities in the range 1013 to 1016 W cm-2. Oscillations in the yield curves are produced, with an implication that this behaviour may explain some experimental observations.


OBJECTIVE
This review discusses the current status and progress in studies on fulminant Clostridium difficile colitis (FCDC), including the definition, risk factor, diagnostic role of CT, surgical treatment, postoperative mortality, and new therapeutic strategy.

DATA SOURCES
A literature search was conducted mainly in Medline and PubMed published in English between January 2000 and May 2011. The search terms were "ulminant Clostridium difficile colitis" "reatment", "urgery" and "ortality"

RESULTS
Recent studies show that the overall mortality rate for FCDC remains high despite early surgical intervention. It has been difficult to identify the real value for surgical intervention in patients with FCDC due to the absence of prospective, randomized studies. Early recognition of patients with FCDC will help a clinician decide the need for treatment in an intensive care setting, multi-disciplinary consultation, and appropriate therapeutic selection. Some studies emphasize the importance of early recognition and emergent surgery at a less severe stage. Monoclonal antibody therapy and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment may be useful for the treatment of FCDC.

CONCLUSIONS
Present studies do not provide strong evidence for guiding the surgical treatment of FCDC; hence, creation of collaborative research networks is crucial in order to undertake large prospective multi-center studies for improvement in overall survival.


We describe the prevalence, assessment, and treatment of, as well as characteristics associated with, depression in residential care/assisted living and nursing home residents with dementia. Overall, 25% of the participants were depressed. Depression was related to severe cognitive impairment, behavioral symptoms, pain, and for-profit nursing home residence.


Two new irregular hexagons (6 and 7) were synthesized from a pyrazine motif containing an organometallic acceptor clip [bearing platinum(II) centers] and different neutral donor ligands (4,4'-bipyridine or pyrazine) using a coordination-driven self-assembly protocol. The two-dimensional supramolecules were characterized by multinuclear NMR, mass spectrometry, and elemental analyses. Additionally, one of the macrocycles (6) was characterized by single-crystal X-ray analyses. Macrocycles are unique examples of [2 + 2] self-assembled ensembles that are hexagonal but irregular in shape. These hexagon frameworks require the assembly of only four tectons/subunits. The cytotoxicity of platinum(II)-based macrocycles was studied using various cell lines such as A549 (human lung carcinoma), KB (human oral cancer), MCF7 (human breast cancer), and HaCaT (human skin keratinocyte) cell lines, and the results were compared with those of cisplatin. The smaller macrocycle (7) exhibited a higher cytotoxic effect against all cell types, and its sensitivity was found to be comparable with that of cisplatin for A549 and MCF7 cells. Cell cycle analysis and live propidium iodide staining suggest that the macrocycles 6 and 7 induced a loss of membrane integrity that ultimately might lead to necrotic cell death.


OBJECTIVEHistones and resulting nucleosomes occur within DNA regulating gene expression by slowing, pausing, or halting transcriptional machinery. Positions within the genome have been found with higher affinity for the histone octamer than others. Histone/nucleosome repositioning is adjusted via energy dependent remodeling complexes, and a harmonizing array of constellation proteins and molecules. The energy required to create transcriptional environments is created through oxygen intake, nutrient presence, and extracellular movement. In this paper we aim to help facilitate an in silico framework for further experimentation into how partial pressures of oxygen and other gases impact genetic transcription along with extracellular movement and nutrient delivery.RESULTSCell and tissue culture experimentation with biomechanical strain and variable partial pressures of oxygen and other gases can be made into the expression levels of genes such as PH domain leucine-rich repeat-containing protein phosphatase 1 (PHLPP1), and Neuroligin 1 (NLGN1). These genes show in silico to have a higher affinity for a histone octamer binding motif, needing adequate cellular energy to be expressed. Extracellular movement and adequate cellular oxygenation are required to properly reposition nucleosome sequences for transcription.


Data is very important nowadays for almost all organizations for their existence as well as for their growth. The Internet has become the major source of data for individuals and almost all organizations. Authentic Websites are a major source of reliable data for many individuals and organizations. Extracting Data from websites is commonly referred as Web Scrapping, which refers to both manual and automated process.  Extracting large amount of meaning full data from the websites manually is very difficult, tedious and redundant task. Automated Scrapping is done by writing specific programs to extract the required data from the websites. These programs are usually called as web scrappers. Web scrappers are written using many programming languages like Python, Node.js, Ruby, C++, PHP etc. Each language has its own unique features and built in libraries for performing data extraction. There are many web scrapping tools like Beautiful Soup, Octoparse, Parsehub etc. In this article we are going to analyses few recent Web Scrappers tools used in scrapping the Web.


Introducing the notion of a pseudoloxodrome, we generalise a single-heading navigation to conformally flat Riemannian manifolds, under the action of a perturbing vector field (wind, current) of arbitrary force. The findings are applied to time-optimal navigation with the use of the Euler–Lagrange equations. We refer to the Zermelo navigation problem admitting space and time dependence of both a perturbation and a ship's speed. The necessary conditions for single-heading time-optimal navigation are obtained and the pseudoloxodromes of minimum and maximum time are discussed. Furthermore, we describe winds which yield the pseudoloxodromic and loxodromic time extremals. Our research is also illustrated with the examples in dimension two emphasising the single-heading solutions among the time-optimal trajectories in the presence of some space-dependent winds.


To compare the anti-tumor effects of transmembrane TNF-alpha (TM-TNF) and secreted TNF-alpha (S-TNF) in vivo, mouse fibroblasts NIH3T3 were transfected separately with three types of retrovirus containing wild type TNF-alpha (Wt-TNF), TM-TNF mutant (TM-TNFm), S-TNF mutant (S-TNFm). Southern blot, RT-PCR, FACS and bioassay were used to investigate TNF-alpha gene integration, expression and its biological activity. It was found that both fixed cells and supernatant of NIH3T3/Wt-TNF, the fixed cells of NIH3T3/TM-TNFm and the supernatant of NIH3T3/S-TNFm could express high level of TNF-alpha or its mutants and effectively kill H22 in vitro. The transfected NIH3T3 were separately injected into the mice at the sites of H22 tumor cell inoculation according to a ratio of 5:1 or 1:1 (effector/target cells, E/T) after the third day of H22 challenge, respectively. At the E/T = 5:1, the NIH3T3/TM-TNFm induced the highest tumor regression, while NIH3T3/S-TNFm exerted the strongest tumor depressing effect at the E/T = 1:1 in vivo. No obvious side effects were noted throughout the course of treatment. The results suggest that both TM-TNF and S-TNF could cause tumor regression. The anti-tumor effect of TM-TNF would be more powerful and safe than that of S-TNF at the proper E/T ratio.


Nanoporous carbons represent well defined materials with large surface area, defined porosity, high electrical conductivity and fast heterogeneous electron transfer rates. These materials are seldom used for sensing and even more rarely for biosensing. We for the first time show the application of nanoporous carbon using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique to detect DNA hybridization and polymorphism. Our findings demonstrated the proof of concept of using nanoporous carbon in nucleic acid analysis, being able to detect the presence of a single nucleotide polymorphism.


Abstract Introduction: A significant part of the professional activity of physiotherapists and occupational therapists who assist people with motor disabilities is the prescription and sometimes the construction of adapted seats for wheelchairs. This is a complex task that involves practice, continued education, and material and technical resources. These work together to provide the patient's access to the adapted product. Objective: To understand how the prescription and adaptation of wheelchair seats occur in practice in a public institution. Methods: This study had a qualitative approach, applied nature, and exploratory objective. We utilized the case study strategy, conducted through semi-structured interviews, with seven professionals from a public state institution. The data obtained and analyzed were professionals' practical experiences on seat adaptation for their patients. Results: We found divergences between practice and theory in the institution. The context in which the professionals operate, issues related to the institution, the production capacity of the adaptations, financial and time limitations, custom, lack of protocols and training in the area, and social and patient pressure are some of the causes of these divergencies. Conclusion: On the basis, we drew an overview of the prescription and construction of adapted seats by the institution and described the main elements that influence this practice. We believe that the training and updating of professionals, providing more resources, and a better process planning can reduce the divergences between practice and theory.


A commercially available treatment planning system contains several functions that allow for the automation of missing tissue and optimized compensators, where the former retracts the bolus toward the source, and the latter attempts, by iteration, to establish a uniform dose at some user defined depth. The intent of this paper is to report on the compensators designed by the system and to compare them to those devised through conventional techniques. It is demonstrated that the system can model the dosimetric effects of compensators with a high degree of accuracy; measured and predicted doses agree to within 3%. Optimized compensators show slightly improved dose uniformity over thickness reduced compensators. Both show significantly improved uniformity over compensators that simply retract the bolus geometry. In cases where internal inhomogeneities exist, however, the dose uniformity from the optimized compensators vary by as much as 6% at the target depth. These deviations are comparable to the errors of the inhomogeneity algorithm itself. The pathlength reduction technique has been applied to both missing tissue and inhomogeneity compensation, and it has been found that for inhomogeneity compensation, the pathlength reduced compensators produce more uniform distributions than those generated by the optimization algorithm.


Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) obtained by mechanical grinding of porous silicon have been used for visualization of living cells in vitro. It was found that SiNPs could penetrate into the cells without any cytotoxic effect up to the concentration of 100 μg/ml. The cell cytoplasm was observed to be filled by SiNPs, which exhibited bright photoluminescence at 1.6 eV. SiNPs could also act as photosensitizers of the singlet oxygen generation, which could be used in the photodynamic therapy of cancer. These properties of SiNPs are discussed in view of possible applications in theranostics (both in therapy and in diagnostics). (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Visual functions for bin picking are realized fast by utilizing a sparse range image. The functions are composed of (1) detection of a necessary part from a lot of parts piled on each other, and (2) measurement of its three dimensional position and orientation. Framework of the vision system is discussed on the assumption that a shape model of the necessary part is given. Method of fast segmentation of a sparse range image is presented for the part's detection. Four kinds of shapes: polyhedra, cylinder, cone and sphere are chosen as important shapes for industrial bin-picking, and for each shape, examination if a segment of a sparse range image is the shape, and measurement of its three dimensional position and orientation are shown. Experiments with a real fast range sensor and a personal computer show that the presented vision system is fast: total process time is less than 1.5 s for multiple piled cylinders.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether family members (FMs) remaining with pediatric patients during invasive procedures interfere with delivery of care.

METHODS
The authors conducted a prospective observational study of consecutive patients <18 years of age undergoing invasive procedures in the emergency department (ED) over a one-year period. Behaviors of FMs remaining during invasive procedures were recorded as any of six categorical descriptions (stood quietly, asked questions, soothed patient, helped restrain patient, interfered with care, other). All observations were made through direct observation by two study attending physicians on FMs of patients under their direct care, or during their supervision of resident care.

RESULTS
Fifty-four FMs were observed during the ED care of 37 patients [mean age 1.5 years (+/-0.25), median age 0.4 years]. Invasive procedures included: lumbar puncture (n = 28), endotracheal intubation (n = 5), fracture reduction (n = 2), shoulder reduction (n = 1), and tube thoracostomy (n = 1). Seventy-one FM activities were recorded: stood bedside, 22 (31%); soothed child, 21 (30%); asked questions, 11 (16%); helped restrain, 5 (7%); interfered with care, 2 (3%); and other, 10 (15%). The two "interfered with care" events were minor and did not significantly alter patient management. One mother experienced a near-syncope event standing during a lumbar puncture of her child and was seated without further incident. One mother stopped reduction of a shoulder dislocation because she felt the pain control was inadequate even though the child was deeply sedated with propofol. Expected patient behavior was described to the mother and reduction was completed.

CONCLUSIONS
In this study, family members remaining with children during invasive procedures were not a risk for disruption of patient care.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have unique characteristics which constrain them; including small energy stores, limited computation, and short range communication capability. Most traditional security algorithms use cryptographic primitives such as Public-key cryptography and are not optimized for energy usage. Employing these algorithms for the security of WSNs is often not practical. At the same time, the need for security in WSNs is unavoidable. Applications such as military, medical care, structural monitoring, and surveillance systems require information security in the network. As current security mechanisms for WSNs are not sufficient, development of new security schemes for WSNs is necessary. New security schemes may be able to take advantage of the unique properties of WSNs, such as the large numbers of nodes typical in these networks to mitigate the need for cryptographic algorithms and key distribution and management. However, taking advantage of these properties must be done in an energy efficient manner. The research examines how the redundancy in WSNs can provide some security elements. The research shows how multiple random delivery paths (MRDPs) can provide data integrity for WSNs. Second, the research employs multiple sinks to increase the total number of duplicate packets received by sinks, allowing sink voting to mitigate the packet discard rate issue of a WSN with a single sink. Third, the research examines the effectiveness of using multiple random paths in maintaining data confidentiality in WSNs. Last, the research examines the use of a rate limit to cope with packet flooding attacks in WSNs.


The Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) specification is a new computing platform for the next century that will provide for improved trust in the PC platform. Improving information security is an important and timely goal, but not at the cost of further weakening fair use doctrine, encouraging anticompetitive behavior, or eliminating privacy. Unfortunately, the current specification does not meet this standard.


In this thesis quality of care and monitoring of chronic kidney disease - mineral bone disorder (CKD-MBD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is assessed. Practices and policies with regards to transplantation, growth hormone and hypertension are inventories and compared with current guidelines and literature. Since end stage renal disease (ESRD) in childhood is rare, large scale studies are scarce. Differences in policies might be caused by a lack of evidence based guidelines, possibly affecting health outcome. More research on the outcome of children with end stage renal disease seems warranted in order to produce uniform guidelines enabling the same treatment and outcome for each child, independently of where the child is being treated. Next, current methods of imaging of CKD-MBD and CVD are evaluated. Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) seems unreliable for detecting and predicting CKD-MBD in patients with childhood onset ESRD. Children with ESRD show an impaired function of the left ventricle measured with Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE), without abnormal function as assessed with conventional echocardiography, showing that STE could be a reliable method to detect CVD. Finally, the effect of a quality improvement collaborative on quality of care (QOC) is assessed. A ceiling might have been reached with regards to QOC. This is possibly due to the fact that certain factors are present which cannot be influenced by the doctors or nurses.


The outdating of cartographic products affects planning. It is important to propose methods to help detect changes in surface. Thus, the combined use of remote sensing image and techniques of digital image processing has contributed significantly to minimize such outdating. Mathematical morphology is an image processing technique which describes quantitatively geometric structures presented in the image and provides tools such as edge detectors and morphological filters. Previous studies have shown that the technique has potential on the detection of significant features. Thus, this paper proposes a routine of morphological operators to detect a road network. The test area corresponds to an excerpt Quickbird image and has as a feature of interest an avenue of the city of Presidente Prudente, SP. In the processing, the main morphological operators used were threshad, areaopen, binary and erosion. To estimate the accuracy with which the linear features were detected, it was done the analysis of linear correlation between vectors of the features detected and the corresponding topographical map of the region. The results showed that the mathematical morphology can be used in cartography, aiming to use them in conventional cartographic updating processes.
Keywords: Mathematical morphology, cartography, features detection, cartographic updating.


With the explosive growth of vehicle applications, vehicular networks based on millimeter wave (mmWave) bands have attracted interests from both academia and industry. mmWave communications are able to utilize the huge available bandwidth to provide multiple Gbps transmission rates among vehicles. In this paper, we address the content distribution scheduling problem in mmWave vehicular networks. It has been challenging for all vehicles in the same network to complete content downloading due to the limited communication resources of roadside units (RSUs) and the high mobility of vehicles. We propose a joint vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) scheduling scheme to minimize the total number of content distribution time slots from a global optimization perspective. In the V2I phase, the RSU serially transmits integrity content to vehicles, which are selected according to the vehicular network topology and transmission scheduling scheme. In the V2V phase, full-duplex communications and concurrent transmissions are exploited to achieve content sharing between vehicles and improve transmission efficiency. Performance evaluations demonstrate that our proposed scheme reduces the number of time slots and significantly improves system throughput when compared with other schemes, especially under large-size file transfers and a large number of vehicles.


The traditional method applying to solve continuous variable optimization problems is not suit for flume structural optimization design with mixed discrete variable. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm was employed to flume structural optimization design. At the same time, linear inertia weight and chaos variation operator are employed to improve basic PSO algorithm global searching capacity. Dynamic penalty function, to transform the constrained problem to unconstrained one, was adopted. The mathematical model of structural optimum design of the prestressed U-shell flumes is built. The result shows that, compared with the original design scheme, the optimization design scheme can greatly reduce the amount of prestressed reinforcement. The construction cost of both the flume and the whole project can be reduced accordingly.


Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) is widely used in whole-genome/transcriptome amplification. However, template-independent amplification (TIA) in MDA is a commonly observed phenomenon, particularly when using high concentrations of random hexamer primers and extended incubation times. Here, we demonstrate that the use of random pentamer primers with 5´ ends blocked by a C18 spacer results in MDA solely in a template-dependent manner, a technique we have named tdMDA. Together with an optimized procedure for the removal of residual genomic DNA during RNA extraction, tdMDA was used to profile circulating RNA from 0.2 mL of patient sera. In comparison to regular MDA, tdMDA demonstrated a lack of quantifiable DNA amplification in the negative control, a remarkable reduction of unmapped reads from Illumina sequencing (7 ± 10.9% versus 58.6 ± 39%, P = 0.006), and increased mapping rates of the serum transcriptome (26.9 ± 7.9% versus 5.8 ± 8.2%, P = 3.8 × 10-4). Transcriptome profiles could be used to separate patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection from those with HCV-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We conclude that tdMDA should facilitate RNA-based liquid biopsy, as well as other genome studies with biological specimens having ultralow amounts of genetic material.


One of the greater problems arising from the reunification of Germany has been the privatization of land in eastern Germany. Initially, the principle that shaped the privatization policies was restitution, the idea that land unlawfully taken by the former East German government should be returned to its rightful owner. A second goal of the privatization program was to stimulate investment in the economy of eastern Germany. These two goals, however, have conflicted. The result has been a policy that has created confusion with regard to the ownership of property and clear title. This Article examines two series of amendments, in 1991 and 1992, that attempted to facilitate investment in eastern Germany. Despite amendments to the major privatization laws in 1991, the investment in eastern Germany has remained anemic. The 1992 amendments expressly placed the goal of investment before restitution. However, the author concludes that the 1992 amendments have been helpful in only a limited number of cases. The absence of a clear mechanism for compensation of rightful owners continues to impede investment. Legislation proposing such a mechanism has yet to be adopted; more importantly, the legislation may not pass constitutional muster. Accordingly, the author concludes that Germany should employ other short-term remedies until it drafts a constitutionally sound law.


According to the increasing competition, companies are moving towards cooperative relationships in an effort to make the supply chain as a whole more competitive. But, currently most logistics information system aims to optimize an enterprise's logistics management. It leads to be unable fully obtaining the competitive advantage which the modern logistics brings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of soft-agent to construct SCM-wide LIS. Through analyzing characteristics of cooperative LIS and its three kinds of cooperative requirements, it is considered as a cooperative and distributed system. Two questions are distinguished in building cooperative LIS, about cooperative processing and heterogeneous functional components integrating. Then, architecture of LIS based on multi-agent system is proposed. At last, an example is used to illuminate its cooperative processing flow and indicate the MA-LIS can realize cooperative processing in SCM-wide.


Original Research Article Oxidative stress acts as a vital mediator in the pathophysiology of urolithiasis. Renal calculi formation is one of the most general urological disorders. Urinary stone disease is a common disease which affects 10-12% of the population in developed countries. The objective of the present study is to investigate the antiurolithiatic and antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of Thunbergia laurifolia flowers on ethylene glycol-induced urolithiasis in Wistar albino male rats. Twelve male rats weighing 152-204 were used for this study. Urolithiasis was produced in Wistar albino rats by adding 0.75% v/v ethylene glycol (EG) to drinking water for 28 days. The methanolic extract of Thunbergia laurifolia flowers (TBL) was assessed for its preventive action in urolithiasis. In preventive treatment, the TBL given from 1st day to 28th day, various renal functional and injury markers such as urine volume, calcium, phosphate, uric acid, magnesium, urea and oxalate were evaluated using urine, serum and kidney homogenate. Antioxidant parameters such as DPPH radical scavenging activity, reducing power assay, lipid peroxidation, superoxide dismutase and Glutathione were also determined. The TBL treatment increased the urine output significantly compared to the control. The TBL treatment significantly reduced the urinary excretion of the calcium, phosphate, uric acid, magnesium, urea and oxalate and increased the excretion of citrate compared to EG control. The increased deposition of stone forming constituents in the kidneys of calculogenic rats were significantly lowered by treatment with TBL. It was also observed that alcoholic extract of TBL produced significant (P < 0.001) increased in lipid peroxidation (LPO), and decreased GSH, SOD. The results of the present study suggest that Thunbergia laurifolia has a strong antiurolithiatic and antioxidant activity.


Within the broader framework of the EU-H2020 EdiCitNet project—a large-scale collaborative project with a multi-stakeholder approach—there is the opportunity to observe participatory planning approaches to mainstream nature-based, edible solutions to solve specific social urban problems in an international group of six cities—Berlin (Germany), Carthage (Tunisia), Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Spain), Letchworth (United Kingdom), Šempeter pri Gorici (Slovenia), and Lomé (Togo). One year after the project started, the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to transfer most participatory planning processes to online platforms. This new format presented challenges to planning and voluntary stakeholder engagement due to different capacities regarding technical requirements as well as location-specific social circumstances. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the potentials and trade-offs in shifting to online participation and who gets to participate under digital Participatory Action Research (PAR) circumstances. We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the planning progress and the transition to working online in the six cities during the first wave of the pandemic. The study identifies critical implications of COVID-19 on participatory planning processes, the challenges for online participation, and the effectiveness of measures applied to tackle those challenges. The transition to online participatory planning described in this paper emphasizes organizational rather than technical remedies. While the planning progress in all cities was delayed, some faced significant challenges in the transition to online due to the lack of technical or community capacities. This was fostered through the diverse and new realities of the stakeholders ranging from meeting existential needs to adapting to alternative forms of working and caring. The reflections in this paper offer learnings from the disruptions caused by COVID-19 to better understand how participatory planning processes can be managed online along the lines of equity, access, and participation. The findings demonstrate how participatory processes in the ongoing crisis can be maintained, with relevance to future waves of this and other pandemics.


A new method of calculating 3-m site attenuation is described. To obtain an accurate site-attenuation curve, the problem of coupling between antennas is formulated in the form of coupled integral equations for the antenna currents, and solved by the method of moments (MOM). The site-attenuation curve thus obtained shows about 1.3-dB larger attenuation than that given in an IEC document. The deviations in the site-attenuation curve due to the impedance mismatch between the coaxial cable and the measuring equipment, and the influence of the antenna conductor radius on the attenuation curve are also considered. Finally, the calculated site attenuation is compared with the measured attenuation data available in the literature.


In this letter we characterise IRAS12556-7731 as the first lithium-rich M-type giant. Based on its late spectral type and high lithium content, and because of its proximity in angular distance to the ChamaeleonII star-forming region, the star was misclassified as a young low-mass star in a previous work. Based on HARPS data, synthetic spectral modelling, and proper motions, we derive the astrophysical parameters and kinematics of the star and discuss its evolutionary status. This solar-mass red giant (Teff=3460+/-60K and log(g)=0.6+/-0.2) is characterised by a relatively fast rotation (v sin(i)~8km/s), slightly subsolar metallicity and a high-lithium abundance, A(Li)=2.4+/-0.2dex. We discuss IRAS12556-7731 within the context of other known lithium-rich K-type giants. Because it is close to the tip of the red giant branch, IRAS12556-7731 is the coolest lithium-rich giant known so far, and it is among the least massive and most luminous giants where enhancement of lithium has been detected. Among several possible explanations, we cannot preclude the possibility that the lithium enhancement and rapid rotation of the star were triggered by the engulfment of a brown dwarf or a planet.


Artificial intelligence (AI) in the fourth industrial revolution is a key building block and is becoming more significant as digitization increases.AI implementation in enterprises is increasingly focused on the technological and economic aspects, disregarding the human factors. In this context, the implementation and success of AI technologies depend on employee acceptance. Low employee adoption can lead to poorer performance as well as dissatisfaction. To ensure the expected added value through AI, it is necessary for companies to increase AI acceptance. People see AI as a machine with human intelligence that surpasses employees' capabilities and acts autonomously. Moreover, workers therefore fear that AI will replace humans and that they will lose their jobs in this way. This aspect leads to a distrust of the new technology. This results in a negative attitude towards AI. Since the research field of AI acceptance and its influencing factors have not been sufficiently investigated so far, the aim of this study is to analyze the development of AI acceptance in the industrial environment.In order to achieve the goal of this study, the systematic literature review according to Tranfield et al. (2003) is chosen as the research method, as it draws on previous results and in this way the development of acceptance can be investigated. After discussing the relevance of the topic and the resulting problem, an explanation of the terms that are considered important for the understanding of this study follows. Thereupon the systematic literature research is planned, in which different search terms and databases are determined.In order to analyze the development of the individual aspects, these were then compared with the factors from existing technology acceptance models from earlier years. This provides the insight that the workers without AI experience tend to reject the AI technologies due to the fear of consequences and other factors, therefore, an increase in AI understanding through improved expertise is required. In addition, this work shows that insufficient infrastructure in enterprises slows down AI adoption, which is one of the main problems. Based on the results, a model is established for this purpose, which is compared with the technology acceptance models and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model to show the similarities and differences of the factors of technology acceptance.


: The antigenic composition was studied among the cells of four variants of Bacillus brevis var. G.-B. (R, S, P+, P-). The variants have a common antigen. Each variant has also an additional antigen. These data confirm that the variants of Bac. brevis var. G.-B. are related.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the role of physician and patient characteristics in determining risk perceptions and decision making in a hypothetical case where confidentiality may need to be broken to protect the partner of a patient who is infected with HIV. To identify if risk perceptions mediate the relation between physician and patient characteristics and confidentiality decisions.

DESIGN
Analysis of a sample of 207 Irish general practitioners (GPs) randomly assigned to one of four experimental vignette conditions.

METHODS
A single vignette scenario was presented to each GP within which a hypothetical male HIV patient was depicted as unwilling to disclose his HIV status to his partner. The hypothetical patient's use of protection (used, not used) and sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual) were varied systematically. GPs then estimated the risk the patient posed to the partner and the likelihood that they would break confidentiality to inform the partner of the patient's HIV status.

RESULTS
Less experienced GPs and those who had broken confidentiality in the past were likely to indicate they would break confidentiality in response to the presented scenario. GPs were more likely to inform the partner when protection was not used during intercourse and when the relationship was heterosexual rather than homosexual. Risk perceptions partially mediated the relationship between the patient's use of protection and confidentiality decision ratings but did not explain the association between GP characteristics or patient sexuality and decision making.

CONCLUSION
Physician background characteristics and HIV patient sexual practice and orientation are associated with hypothetical partner notification decisions. The perceived risk to the partner only partially explained the relation between patient use of protection and decision making.


The objective of the paper is to develop an proficient and economical method for Hard Disk Drive(HDD) Security. The task is implemented using Full Disk Encryption (FDE) with Advanced Encryption Standards(AES) for data security of Personal Computers(PCS) and Laptops . The focus of this work is to authenticate and protect the content of HDD from illegal use. The paper proposes a novel approach for protecting a HDD based on Partial Disk Encryption(PDE) which one of the flavour of FDE. The proposed method is labelled as DiskTrust. FDE encrypts entire content or a single volume on your disk. Symmetric key uses same key for encryption as well for decryption. DiskTrust uses these two technology to build cost effective solution for small scale applications. Finally, the applicability of these methodologies for HDD security will be evaluated on a set of data files with different key sizes.


The ability of botulinum neurotoxin and its isolated subunits, the heavy and light chains, to bind to a lipid membrane and to form channels in the membrane was examined. At pH 4.0, the neurotoxin caused aggregation of calcein-containing liposomes, providing evidence of binding of the neurotoxin to the surface of the outer lipid membrane. Aggregation was followed by the release of calcein, as a result of the formation of channels. The heavy chain evoked the same responses as those of the neurotoxin. The light chain did not cause aggregation of the liposomes but did evoke the release of calcein. The channel-forming ability of the light chain appeared to be higher than that of the neurotoxin or the heavy chain. This novel property of the light chain may help us to understand the mechanism of action of botulinum neurotoxin.


In the comment on Ruefli and Wiggins (2003), a number of points are made supporting the variance component analysis approach to determining the importance of industry, corporate, and business segment factors on business segment performance. This response addresses in more detail the nature of the methodological and statistical assumptions made by variance components analysis or ANOVA and their implications for the 'puzzling' results obtained when these techniques are employed. The response then contrasts the variance-based methodologies with a non-parametric approach used in Ruefli and Wiggins (2003) that makes fewer and weaker assumptions and yields more robust and more internally consistent results. The response also examines the limitations of employing an autoregressive approach to measuring persistence of abnormal profits and contrasts it with a non-parametric methodology presented in the article. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Key Points MDSCs were identified as CD11b+Gr1lo-int in HSV1-infected mice. In vitro–generated MDSCs controlled the severity of HSK lesions. MDSCs promoted endogenous Treg response that also included a de novo conversion. Visual Abstract In this study, we investigated the response of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) during the pathogenesis of an immunoblinding disease of the cornea caused by HSV type 1 infection. We also measured the anti-inflammatory potential of in vitro–differentiated MDSCs in dampening herpetic stromal keratitis resulting from primary ocular HSV1 infection in mice. In the lymphoid organs and inflamed corneal tissues, MDSCs were phenotypically characterized as CD11b+Gr1lo-int cells. Sorted CD11b+Gr1lo-int cells, but not CD11b+Gr1hi cells, suppressed the proliferation and cytokine production by stimulated CD4+ T cells. In vitro–generated MDSCs inhibited the activity of stimulated CD4+ T cells in a predominantly contact-dependent manner. An adoptive transfer of in vitro–generated MDSCs before or after ocular HSV1 infection controlled herpetic stromal keratitis lesions. The transferred MDSCs were primarily recovered from the lymphoid organs of recipients. Surprisingly, MDSCs recipients expanded their endogenous Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). We further demonstrated the MDSCs mediated stabilization of Foxp3 expression in already differentiated Tregs and their ability to cause an efficient de novo conversion of Foxp3+ Tregs from stimulated Foxp3−CD4+ T cells. These effects occurred independent of TGF-β signaling. Therefore, the therapeutic potential of MDSCs could be harnessed as a multipronged strategy to confer an infectious tolerance to the host by activating endogenous regulatory mechanisms.


CXCL10 is an interferon-inducible chemokine that can recruit CXCR3+ leukocytes to the central nervous system, leading to neuroinflammation, demyelination, and neuronal losses. How CXCL10 promotes leukocyte extravasation and diapedesis across the blood-brain barrier – formed by brain endothelial cells – is poorly understood. Here, we report that CXCL10 mediates CD4+ T cell migration through the brain endothelial cell cytoplasm (transcellular), but not cell-cell junctions (paracellular), via the vesicular trafficking protein Caveolin-1. Caveolin-1 promotes CXCL10 aggregation into cytoplasmic stores in brain endothelial cells in vitro to provide the local, high concentration necessary for recruitment of CXCR3+ leukocytes. This process also requires LFA-1 activity. In the absence of Caveolin-1, endothelial CXCL10 is secreted, and the local signaling cues are lost. Consistent with our in vitro data, genetic ablation of Caveolin-1 in endothelial cells reduces the severity of active experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a murine model for multiple sclerosis, by decreasing the infiltration of CXCR3+ T cells into the CNS. Moreover, loss of Caveolin-1 protects against the adoptive transfer of autoreactive T cells. Our findings establish a novel mechanism by which brain endothelial cells utilize Caveolin-1 dependent CXCL10 intracellular stores to license T cells for transcellular migration across the blood-brain barrier.


Many complex statistical mechanical models have intricate energy landscapes. The ground state, or lowest energy state, lies at the base of the deepest valley. In examples such as spin glasses and Gaussian polymers, there are many valleys; the abundance of near-ground states (at the base of valleys) indicates the phenomenon of chaos, under which the ground state alters profoundly when the model's disorder is slightly perturbed. In this article, we compute the critical exponent that governs the onset of chaos in a dynamic manifestation of a canonical model in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang [KPZ] universality class, Brownian last passage percolation [LPP]. In this model in its static form, semi-discrete polymers advance through Brownian noise, their energy given by the integral of the white noise encountered along their journey. A ground state is a geodesic, of extremal energy given its endpoints. We perturb Brownian LPP by evolving the disorder under an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck flow. We prove that, for polymers of length $n$, a sharp phase transition marking the onset of chaos is witnessed at the critical time $n^{-1/3}$. Indeed, the overlap between the geodesics at times zero and $t > 0$ that travel a given distance of order $n$ will be shown to be of order $n$ when $t\ll n^{-1/3}$; and to be of smaller order when $t\gg n^{-1/3}$. We expect this exponent to be shared among many interface models. The present work thus sheds light on the dynamical aspect of the KPZ class; it builds on several recent advances. These include Chatterjee's harmonic analytic theory [Cha14] of equivalence of superconcentration and chaos in Gaussian spaces; a refined understanding of the static landscape geometry of Brownian LPP developed in the companion paper [GH20]; and, underlying the latter, strong comparison estimates of the geodesic energy profile to Brownian motion in [CHH19].


Maintenance approaches for Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) systems focus on a single CBR system and mainly on a single knowledge container like the case base, the adaptation knowledge or the similarity. There are a few approaches that deal with shifting knowledge between knowledge containers, especially between the case base and adaptation knowledge. These approaches have been successfully applied to CBR systems in the past. In many systems, especially multi-agent systems, the knowledge is distributed among several homogenous or heterogeneous knowledge sources. Therefore, a maintenance approach has to consider the dependencies between these knowledge sources as well as high-level maintenance goals. An example is removing one or more cases from a case base. Cases in other CBR systems could depend on one of the removed cases, so they may become inconsistent (to some degree). The system should suggest an appropriate maintenance action like removing the depending cases to keep the system's correctness/consistency. To address these dependencies between CBR systems and their knowledge containers, a new maintenance approach for distributed CBR systems is required. In the following, I will describe the idea of an integrated


In this work, transcoding of pre-encoded MPEG-1, 2 video into lower bit rates is realized through altering the coding algorithm into H.261/H.263 standards with lower spatio-temporal resolutions. For this heterogeneous transcoding, we extract and compose a set of candidate motion vectors, from the incoming bit stream, to comply with the encoding format of the output bit stream. For the spatial resolution reduction we generate one motion vector out of a set of input motion vectors operating on the higher spatial resolution image. Finally, for the temporal resolution reduction we compose new motion vectors from the dropped frames motion vectors. Throughout the paper, we discuss the impact of motion estimation refinement on the new motion vectors and show that for all cases a simple half-pixel refinement is sufficient for near-optimum results.


Estimates of demand elasticities are crucial for the development of a range of energy policy studies, especially in countries of continental dimensions like Brazil. The paper explores the class of cointegration models as a provider of competing methods to estimate income, electricity price, and equipment price elasticities for the residential demand of electricity in Brazil from 1974 to 2016. We compare two cointegration methods: the well-known Johasen's (1988) approach and the autoregressive distributed lag model of Pesaran et al. (2001). The use of the latter is novel in the electricity demand literature regarding Brazilian studies. The results show that the two models produce similar elasticities and indicate that the residential demand is stable. The long-run elasticities are much larger than the short-run elasticities. In the long run, we find that income is the main determinant of demand, while variations in electricity price and electric equipment price show modest effect on demand.


This paper presents a system‐of‐systems architecture model for a Decentralized Carbon Emissions Trading Infrastructure (D‐CETI) with focus on privacy and system security goals. The structure and behavior are implemented as a solution to the problem of trading carbon emissions anonymously among the trading agents. Privacy and security of the trading agents and their carbon credits are the main requirements behind the architecture of D‐CETI. The decentralized structure of multiple systems and distributed behavior are the two main features of D‐CETI that distinguish it from the traditional carbon trading schemes and protocols. D‐CETI is based on Bitcoin, a peer‐to‐peer digital currency with no central authority, and Open Transactions, a system that simplifies the use of cryptography in financial transactions. The architecture of D‐CETI is evaluated and compared with the architecture of five other carbon emissions trading platforms.


Medicine today relies on palpation as a first line of investigation in the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Tissue stiffness (e.g. a lump found in breast tissue) can signal the growth of a potential life threatening cell mass. As such, elastographic imaging techniques (i.e. direct imaging of tissue stiffness) have recently become of great interest to scientists. In this paper, a new method called Modality Independent Elastography (MIE) will be investigated within the context of a mammographic imaging alternative/complement. This new approach uses measures of image similarity in conjunction with computational models to reconstruct images of tissue stiffness. The real strength in MIE is that any imaging modality (e.g. magnetic resonance, computed tomography, ultrasound) in which the image intensity data remains consistent from a pre- to a post-deformed state could be used in this paradigm. Results illustrate: (I) the encoding of stiffness information within the context of a regional image similarity criterion, (2) the methodology for an iterative elastographic imaging framework and (3) successful elasticity reconstructions.