An affine motion model provides better motion representation than a translational motion model. Therefore, it is a good candidate for advanced video compression algorithms, requiring higher compression efficiency than current algorithms. One disadvantage of the affine motion model is the increased number of motion vector parameters, therefore increased motion vector bit rate. We develop and analyze several simulation based approaches of entropy coding for orthonormalized affine motion vector (AMV) coefficients, by considering various context-types and coders. In our work we expand the traditional idea of a context type by introducing four new context types. We compare our method of contexts-type and coder selection with context quantization. The best of our contexts-type and coder solutions produces 4% to 15% average AMV bit-rate reductions over the original VLC approach. For more difficult content AMV bit rate reduction up to 26% is reported.


Social organization and cognitive function are both driven by dynamic interactions within and between complex networks of particular importance is the manner in which information is shuttled back and forth between such non-physical networks and whether there exist a general principle that guides the flow of information, in the same way that energy flow determines forces in physical networks. Such a principle has been identified and is discussed herein. One consequence of the existence of this principle is a new kind of force; a force based on the relative complexity of the interacting networks. This information force reduces to the entropic force in physical networks. On a social stage Karl Marx talked about class conflict as the driver of social evolution, whereas in economics Adam Smith invoked an invisible hand to visualize the unintended social benefit resulting from individual actions of self-interest and Freud argued that instinct is the primary driver of human behavior. At both the level of the individual and the collective, these exemplify what could be included under the general heading of information forces; non-physical forces resulting from gradients in the complexity of the phenomenon being studied.


[reaction: see text] We introduce all stereoisomers of a bis-amino acid building block derived from trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline. This small library of monomers allows arbitrary stereochemical configuration at any chiral center within our spiro-ladder oligomers. Three tetramer oligomers containing several combinations of the monomers 1-4 were synthesized; we explored the effect of monomer sequence on scaffold conformation by NMR.


In the recent works Alexey Komech and Oleg Ioannisian consider the architecture of Pereyaslavl' (Juzhny/Southern, or Russian), dated from the late 11th to the mid-12th century, as the continuous process and even an architectural school. Earlier in 1980s, Pavel Rappoport in his latest works firmly divided the Pereyaslavl' buildings into two groups, erected separately by metropolitan Efrem and Prince Vladimir Monomach in the late 11th century, and by the Kievan builders in the mid-12th century. Th is concept was based on the considerable differences in the constructional and stylistic features of the monuments. The research on the bricks carried out by
 the author has provided new evidence for Rappoport's concept. After the latter, the Pereyaslavl' builders workshop had been consolidated under the direction of a Byzantine architect in the course of the building program of the metropolitan Efrem and existed no longer than 3 decades, exerting almost no infl uence on the architecture of the neighboring Russian principalities. The author calls in question the validity of the concept of "architectural school" in this specific case.


Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura(ITP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by increased platelet destruction caused by anti-platelet autoantibodies, which mainly target a platelet surface antigen, GP IIb-IIIa. CD4+ T cells reactive with GP IIb-IIIa play a primary role in the disease process, since these autoreactive T cells are involved in the production of pathogenic anti-platelet autoantibodies. GP IIb-IIIa-reactive T cells mainly recognize 'cryptic' determinants on the amino-terminal extracellular domains of both GP IIb alpha and GP IIIa, and are activated primarily in the spleen. These findings are particularly useful for clarifying the pathogenic process in ITP patients and for developing a therapeutic approach that blocks pathogenic anti-platelet antibody production.


Weaponry is one of the most widespread categories of metalwork from the European Bronze Age. Different lines of evidence point out that violent encounters and martial values played a significant role both in communities' lives and ideologies. Hence, reconstructing the practices surrounding Bronze Age weaponry is pivotal for the understanding of many aspects of coeval societies. Nevertheless, the study of the functionality and use-life of such items has developed rather late compared to other categories of objects (e.g. flint implements). Currently, experimental archaeology and use-wear analysis concerning metalwork are facing the challenge of leaving the stage of 'infancy' to become fully developed fields of study. This paper aims at contributing to such a development by illustrating the potential and the results of an experimental framework for the investigation of combat with bronze weaponry (swords in this paper) which offers a viable compromise between actualism and variable control. We provide an in-depth account of the results by describing both the morphology and the formation mechanics of the features obtained supported by extensive photographic documentation. Furthermore, we discuss our observations regarding the relationship between specific combat movements and the type of marks produced on weapons. Finally, the results of a pilot use-wear study on Bronze Age swords are presented in order to assess the validity of our approach.


This article draws upon insights from discursive psychology to examine how participants in an Internet forum on veganism orient to the relationship between food choice, health and accountability. First, we explore the ways in which participants ascribe responsibility for health problems like vitamin deficiency to individual recipients. By suggesting individual practices as a cause for problems, speakers undermine the notion that problems arise through veganism as a matter of principle. Second, we show how participants construct solutions to individual health problems as involving mundane and simple actions. Both discursive procedures enable speakers to resist negative assumptions about the potentially complicated nature of veganism in relation to health protection.


e present a strategy for the improvement of wireless sensor data transmission latency, implemented in two current projects involving gesture/control sound interaction. Our platform was designed to be capable of accepting accessories using a digital bus. The receiver features a IEEE 802.15.4 microcontroller associated to a TCP/IP stack integrated circuit that transmits the received wireless data to a host computer using the Open Sound Control protocol. This paper details how we improved the latency and sample rate of the said technology while keeping the device small and scalable.


Predicting creep crack growth (CCG) of flaws found during operation in high-temperature alloy components is essential for assessing the remaining lifetime of those components. While defect assessment procedures are available for this purpose in design codes, these are limited in their range of applicability. This study assesses the application of a local damage-based finite-element methodology as a more general technique for the prediction of CCG at high temperatures on a variety of structural configurations. Numerical results for stainless steel 316H, which are validated against experimental data, show the promise of this approach. This integration of continuum damage mechanics (CDM) based methodologies, together with adequate inelastic models, into assessment procedures can therefore inform the characterization of CCG under complex operating conditions, while avoiding excessive conservatism. This article shows that such modeling frameworks can be calibrated to experimental data and used to demonstrate that the degree of tri-axiality ahead of a growing creep crack affects its rate of growth. The framework is also successfully employed in characterizing CCG in a realistic reactor pressure vessel geometry under an arbitrary loading condition. These results are particularly relevant to the nuclear power industry for defect assessment and inspections as part of codified practices of structural components with flaws in high-temperature reactors.


Near a magnetic neutral line, where the magnetic field vanishes, the adiabatic invariants of charged particle motion are destroyed, and hence the number of degrees of freedom increases. When a radio-frequency electric field is applied to the system, the particle motion becomes strongly chaotic. This effect can be used to produce heat in a plasma in the absence of any collisional process. The kinetic entropy of an electron orbit increases very rapidly by the mixing effect. The velocity distribution is approximated by a Gaussian function, so the thermodynamic entropy production can also be estimated. This collisionless heating mechanism enables high-efficiency plasma production at a low gas pressure.


A wide-area time authentication algorithm is proposed to compute the Global Positioning System (GPS) timing that is resilient against spoofing attacks. The considered wide-area network consists of multiple GPS receiving systems, each comprising of the innovative distributed multiple directional antennas (DMDA) setup triggered via a common clock.Based on the communication infrastructure of the grid, the single-difference pseudorange residuals across the antennas are processed using the wide-area belief propagation-based extended Kalman filter (BP-EKF) algorithm in a distributed manner. To detect spoofing, a KL-divergence-based threshold is used to estimate the dissimilarity in the antenna-specific timing errors. Thereafter, the pseudoranges are corrected using the BP estimates of timing error and processed via adaptive EKF to compute the GPS timing, which is given to the phasor measurement units (PMUs). We have demonstrated the successfully detection and mitigation of the external timing attack, by subjecting one receiving system to a simulated meaconing attack that induces a 60 micro second time delay. Thereafter, by analyzing the voltage stability index of a critical node in the simulated grid, we have also validated the compliance of the proposed wide-area BP-EKF estimated timing with the IEEE-C37.118 standards.


Teenagers who are overweight and have poor sleep quality will increase
the risk of obesity. Earlier studies suggest the correlation between poor sleep
quality the risk of overweight. This study explained factors that correlated of sleep
quality in teenagers who were overweight in Senior high school 1 Gresik. The
research used descriptive corelative design. Population was student of Senior high
school 1 Gresik in 2016. Fifty respondents involved using total sampling
technique. The data were collected with questionnaires and were then analyzed
using Spearman"s Rho test (α<0.05). The results show that stress and diet have
show correlation with sleep quality (pstress =0.020, pdiet= 0.000). However, phyical
exercise and fatigue, environment, illness, drug and subtance and habits before
sleep (p>0.05) are not explainable because the respondents do not have the habits
and conditions that may be correlated with their sleep quality.Further research are
required to overcome the sleep quality problems so that did not cause overweight
among teenagers.


Decades of research have informed our understanding of how stress impacts the brain to perturb behavior. However, stress during development has received specific attention as this occurs during a sensitive period for scaffolding lifelong socio-emotional behavior. In this review, we focus the developmental neurobiology of stress-related pathology during infancy and focus on one of the many important variables that can switch outcomes from adaptive to maladaptive outcome: caregiver presence during infants' exposure to chronic stress. While this review relies heavily on rodent neuroscience research, we frequently connect this work with the human behavioral and brain literature to facilitate translation. Bowlby's Attachment Theory is used as a guiding framework in order to understand how early care quality impacts caregiver regulation of the infant to produce lasting outcomes on mental health.


Epidemiological studies have shown an inverse association between intake of fruit and vegetables and the risk of cancer. Some 10 years ago, the evidence for many tumour types was regarded as convincing. However, results from recent cohort studies have prompted a downgrading of the evidence. The food ingredients with potentially chemopreventive activity include vitamins, dietary fibre, and minerals, but also sulfur-containing natural products, polyphenols, and carotenoids. Current studies are investigating the carcinoprotective potential of individual phytochemicals. A preventive effect for breast cancer has already been shown for xanthohumol from hops; the polyphenols in apple juice probably reduce the risk of bowel cancer by reducing oxidative stress in the bowel. Test results from an individual phytochemical can, however, not be translated to complex foods. Animal models, for example, have shown that glucosinolate-derived sulforaphan, as an individual substance, had a preventive effect on prostate cancer. However, the use of kale sprouts as a source of glucosinolate did not affect tumour growth.


In this study it was aimed to determine the microbial diversity and level of antibiotic resistance patterns of Gram-negative bacterial isolates from the hospital sewages. The 219 Gram-negative bacterial isolates to 16 different antibiotics (belonging 10 classes), was investigated by agar diffusion method. A total of 18 species of bacteria were isolated: the most common strains isolated from all samples were Klebsiella oxytoca (27.4%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (20.5%) and Escherichia coli (20.1%). There was a high incidence of resistance to ampicillin (98.6%), streptomycin (95.9%) and erythromycin (90.0%), and a low incidence of resistance to cefepim (13.2%), imipenem (5.0%) and meropenem (3.2%). 35.6% of all bacteria isolated from hospital sewage were resistant to 9 different antibiotics. The multiple antibiotic resistances (MAR) index ranged from 0.25 to 0.94. Results show that hospital sewages have a significant proportion of antibiotic resistant Gram-negative bacteria, and these bacteria constitute a potential risk for public health.


An optical communication device includes a one-chip light receiving element having a plurality of light receiving sections having light receiving sensitivity to different wavelength ranges in a visible light spectrum. The photodiode has a light receiving surface, which is divided into nine blocks. For each light receiving section group in which light receiving sections have the light receiving sensitivity to an identical wavelength range, the light receiving sections are dispersedly placed in corresponding ones of the blocks.


Machine learning advances in electrochemical detection have recently produced sub-second and concurrent detection of dopamine and serotonin during perception and action tasks in conscious humans. Here, we present a new machine learning approach to sub-second, concurrent separation of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. The method exploits a low amplitude burst protocol for the controlled voltage waveform and we demonstrate its efficacy by showing how it separates dopamine-induced signals from norepinephrine induced signals. Previous efforts to deploy electrochemical detection of dopamine in vivo have not separated the dopamine-dependent signal from a norepinephrine-dependent signal. Consequently, this new method can provide new insights into concurrent signaling by these two important neuromodulators.


—Temperature logging furnishes the essential part of geothermal data. Its applications are progressively expanding due to advanced temperature loggers and data acquisition systems that ensure precise and stable measurements at high spatial and temporal resolution. However, it may be hard to achieve the full effect of the available logging facilities because of noisy temperature oscillations produced by natural convection in water-filled boreholes. A new laboratory method is suggested to study the structure of convection flows and their thermal effect by infrared thermography at conditions close to those of real temperature logging. Thermographic cameras image temperature anomalies on the outer wall of a water-filled pipe which are imprints of the convection processes in the water column. The temperature gradient on the pipe wall maintains flow of warm air ascending from a toroidal heater. It is shown experimentally using a pipe of 20 mm inner diameter that convection of fluid in the pipe forms a helical system rotating around a vertical axis at Rayleigh numbers in a range of 280 to 2800. As the Rayleigh numbers increase from 280 to 2800, the helical pitch decreases from 270 to 130 mm while the angular velocity increases from 0.7 × 10–2 to 3.4 × 10–2 rad/s. The experiment confirms the theoretically predicted dependence of standard deviation of temperature fluctuation on the temperature gradient and inner radius of the logged borehole: σT = 3G·r.


Unilateral temporal lobe ablations have become a common treatment procedure for intractable epilepsy. Five children, ranging in age from 11 to 16 years, received a battery of tests to evaluate possible postoperative changes in central auditory processing functions. Children were tested before surgery and at 1 year following surgery. Tests included the SCAN test for central auditory processing, the duration pattern and dichotic digits tests, and the P300 event-related potential. With each test, some children exhibited postoperative improvement, while others exhibited either no changes or poorer postoperative performances. These results indicate that temporal lobectomies, while controlling seizures, may not always result in improved central auditory processing.


Although many studies have documented the use of macro invertebrates in aquatic biomonitoring, far fewer have explored the involvement of local communities in monitoring at Lake Bosomtwe. As an indirect yet relevant consequence, data availability remains a constant challenge in modeling spatio-temporal variability of water quality at Lake Bosomtwe and many other community water sources. This article therefore seeks to present the methodologies, lessons and best practices from the application of participatory GIS in monitoring water quality in near real-time scales. It assesses the water quality parameters that were used and the observed mean variations in point pollution levels around the lake. Multivariate techniques and nonlinear estimation models were combined to assess biological quality. This method allowed us to classify sites according to increasing levels of contamination, after the probabilities of occurrence of taxa along a gradient of contamination taking into account the reference condition. It was observed that distribution of macro invertebrates did not indicate a consistent variation or trend. However, the study showed a consistent relationship between the distribution of macro invertebrates and water temperature and air temperature. Also while Pouch snail showed high temporal consistency, its spatial distribution across the lake is quite poor. The distribution also indicates a R 2 value of 0.1798 . The results suggest that the method used is sensitive to organic pollution, easy to interpret by ranking species according to their tolerance, and could be a good framework for monitoring near real-time water quality in lakes especially where there is a lack of relevant ecological information.


Manuscript Type: Empirical. Research Question/Issue: Prior evidence suggests that investor protection enhances corporate valuation. Focusing on a key investor protection measure, namely, self-dealing regulations, this study examines whether and to what extent the private and public control components of that measure affect firm value. Private control of self-dealing regulations emphasize disclosure and shareholder approval mechanisms, while public control of self-dealing regulations imply enforcement through prison terms, fines, etc. Our analysis takes into account potential agency problems resulting from an ownership wedge, i.e., situations in which cash flow rights are not consistent with control rights. Such situations are quite common in many countries outside of the United States. Research Findings/Results: Based on 4,634 firms from 22 countries, our empirical evidence indicates that private control of self-dealing regulations enhances firm value, while public control regulations lower firm value. In addition, a high ownership wedge, which proxies for agency problems between controlling shareholders and minority investors, dampens the positive association between private control of self-dealing regulations and corporate valuation. However, ownership wedge has no impact on the negative association between public control of self-dealing regulations and corporate valuation. Theoretical Implications: This study represents a refinement and extension of prior work on the value implication from investor protection regulations. It seeks to better define the implications of investor protection regulations by focusing on some of its key components, thus leading to a better understanding of the relations between investor protection regulations, ownership, and firm value. Moreover, the study contributes to the current debate about the importance of country-level institutions (versus firm-level governance as proxied by ownership wedge) in determining firm outcomes such as value. Practitioner Implications: The paper's empirical findings may help policy markers better understand how investors react to regulations about private and public control of self-dealing, thus enhancing their capability to enact more effective regulations.


Objective Patients with advanced renal insufficiency are at high risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and complex lesions. Treating complex calcified lesion with rotational atherectomy (RA) in these patients might be associated with higher risks and poorer outcomes. This study was set to evaluate features and outcomes of RA in these patients. Method Consecutive patients who received coronary RA from April 2010 to April 2018 were queried from the Cath Lab database. The procedural details, angiography, and clinical information were reviewed in detail. Results A total of 411 patients were enrolled and divided into Group A (baseline serum creatinine <5 mg/dl, n = 338) and Group B (baseline serum creatinine ≥ 5 mg/dl through ESRD, n = 73). Most patients had high-risk features (65.7% of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), 14.1% of ischemic cardiomyopathy, and 5.1% of cardiogenic shock). Group B patients were significantly younger (66.8 ± 11.4 vs. 75.2 ± 10.7 years, p < 0.001) and had more RCA and LCX but less LAD treated with RA. No difference was found in lesion location, vessel tortuosity, bifurcation lesions, chronic total occlusion, total lesion length, or total lesion numbers between the two groups. Less patients in Group B obtained completion of RA (95.9% vs 99.1%, p=0.037). There was no difference in the incidence of procedural complication or acute contrast-induced nephropathy. Group B patients had more deaths and MACE while in the hospital. The MACE and CV MACE were also higher in Group B patients at 180 days and one year, mostly due to TLR and TVR. Multivariate regression analysis showed that ACS, age, peripheral artery disease (PAD), advanced renal insufficiency, ischemic cardiomyopathy/shock, and high residual SYNTAX score were independent risk factors for in-hospital MACE, whereas ACS, advanced renal insufficiency, ischemic cardiomyopathy/shock, triple-vessel disease, and PAD independently predicted MACE at 6 months. Conclusions Rotablation is feasible, safe, and could be carried out with very high success rate in very-high-risk patients with advanced renal dysfunction through ESRD without an increase in procedural complication.


OBJECTIVE
The aim was to investigate why cardiac hypertrophy causes increased vulnerability to arrhythmias during myocardial ischaemia.

METHODS
The electrophysiological basis for this increased vulnerability was studied in isolated perfused guinea pig hearts obtained 50 and 150 d after aortic constriction, and in sham operated controls. Cellular electrophysiology, conduction, and refractory periods were examined during control perfusion and during low flow (coronary flow reduced to 10% of control) and zero flow ischaemia. ECGs in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy and in controls matched for age and heart rate were also studied.

RESULTS
Aortic constriction increased heart weight:body weight ratio by 33% at 50 d and by 69% at 150 d. Action potentials were unchanged in hypertrophied hearts. Significant conduction delay occurred in 150 d hypertrophied hearts [conduction time index 23(SEM 4) ms v 18(3) ms, p < 0.001; QRS width 40(1) ms v 35(1) ms, p < 0.01], but not in 50 d hypertrophied hearts. Conduction delay was also present in humans with left ventricular hypertrophy [QRS width 96(13) ms v 87(8) ms, p < 0.01]. Although the QTc interval was increased in humans, at 422(23) ms v 411(17) ms in controls, p < 0.05, this could be explained by the increased QRS duration. During ischaemia, ventricular arrhythmias tended to occur earlier in hypertrophied hearts. Hypertrophy was also associated with a greater increase in conduction delay. Ischaemia reduced action potential duration and refractory periods; the reduction in action potential duration was attenuated by hypertrophy (p < 0.01), although the reverse was apparent during low flow ischaemia at 50 d.

CONCLUSIONS
Delayed conduction is an important feature of severe cardiac hypertrophy in guinea pigs and man. Hypertrophy is associated with accentuated conduction delay and altered repolarisation during ischaemia.


Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems rely on large-scale antenna arrays to combat large path-loss at mmWave band. Due to hardware characteristics and deployment environments, mmWave large-scale antenna systems are vulnerable to antenna element blockages and failures, which necessitate diagnostic techniques to locate faulty antenna elements for calibration purposes. Current diagnostic techniques require full or partial knowledge of channel state information (CSI), which can be challenging to acquire in the presence of antenna failures. In this letter, we propose a blind diagnostic technique to identify faulty antenna elements in mmWave large-scale antenna systems, which does not require any CSI knowledge. By jointly exploiting the sparsity of mmWave channel and failure pattern, we first formulate the diagnosis problem as a joint sparse recovery problem. Then, the atomic norm is introduced to induce the sparsity of mmWave channel over continuous Fourier dictionary. An efficient algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is proposed to solve the formulated problem. Finally, the performance of the proposed technique is evaluated through numerical simulations.


Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disease of unknown aetiology characterized by infiltration of non caseating granulomas in multiple organ systems. Sarcoidosis can have a plethora of cardiac manifestations which can mimic many other cardiovascular conditions ranging from asymptomatic electrocardiographic manifestations to life threatening arrhythmias resulting in sudden cardiac death. Even more than a century after the first description of the disease by Norwegian dermatologist Caeser Boeck in 1899 [1], the aetiology of the disease remain elusive.


As part of the Kyoto agreement on limiting carbon emissions, from 2008 onwards an international market in auction able carbon permits will be established. This raises the issue of whether trading should be simply between governments or between companies, or in the latter case how such permits should be allocated. Our paper uses the British section of a CGE model of the European energy sectors to evaluate the economics of various methods of allocating permits within a country, as discussed in Lord Marshall's recent report to the British government. The option of allocation entirely by auction is similar to the setting of a carbon tax, and the recycling of revenues to reduce or offset other economic distortions could produce a potential net benefit to incomes and employment. 'Grandfathering' some of the permits free to large firms, according to their base year carbon emissions, would mean loss of the benefits of recycling auction revenues. This might be exacerbated if it created windfall profits repatriated by foreign shareholders. The third major alternative is to review the allocation regularly, awarding permits to all firms according to a 'benchmark' allocation, based on 'best practice' as estimated by outside experts. This would be similar in practice to recycling the revenue as an output subsidy to the industry, though it could be complicated to implement. Such a system could allow much of the potential 'double dividend' to be realized, though it might still be preferable to auction permits, with the revenues used to offset taxes across a wider spread of industry


Until recently, imaging evaluation of osteoarthritis (OA) has relied primarily on conventional radiography. Using radiography in clinical practice or clinical research, however, has been fraught with difficulty. Techniques for reproducibly acquiring serial radiographs of joints have improved considerably over the past several years. However, the greatest promise for advancing knowledge about OA and its treatment lies in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its unique ability to examine the joint as a whole organ. In contrast to conventional radiography, MRI can directly visualize the articular cartilage, synovium, menisci, and other intra-articular structures important to the functional integrity of joints. There have been considerable advances in MRI of articular cartilage in particular over the past several years. However, much of this has come from small cross-sectional studies, and published longitudinal studies remain quite scant. The following discussion reviews the current status of imaging in OA and points to where changes might be anticipated in the future.


BACKGROUND
There is growing support in the literature that patient outcomes are adversely affected by physician fatigue in operator-dependent cognitive and technical tasks. Recent increases in total joint arthroplasty caseloads have resulted in longer operative days and increased surgeon fatigue. We sought to determine if time of day predicts perioperative complications and outcomes in total joint arthroplasty.

METHODS
The records of all total hip and knee arthroplasties (THA; TKA) performed for primary osteoarthritis in one calendar year at one large university hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic data, surgery start time and duration, intraoperative complications, radiographic component alignment and functional outcome scores (SF-12 and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index) were collected and analyzed using linear and nonparametric rank correlation statistics. Data were corrected for sex, body mass index, surgeon and postcall operating days.

RESULTS
In the THA cohort (n=341), a later surgery start time was significantly related to duration of surgery (p= 0.004, mean difference -7.1 min). There was a trend toward significance between a later surgery start time and intraoperative femur fracture (p= 0.05). Postoperative complications, component alignment and functional outcome scores were not significantly affected by surgery start time. There were no significant findings for any of the intraoperative or postoperative outcomes in the TKA cohort (n=292).

CONCLUSION
Duration of surgery and incidence of intraoperative complications for THA may increase with later surgery start time; however, the relatively small statistical differences observed imply that they likely are not clinically significant.


Nanoscale cerium oxide is of increasing interest in catalysis, biomedicine, renewable energy, and many other fields. Its versatility derives from the ability to form nonstoichiometric oxides that include both Ce3+ and Ce4+ ions. This work describes oxidation and reduction reactivity of colloidal cerium oxide nanocrystals, termed nanoceria, under very mild solution conditions. For instance, the as-prepared nanoceria oxidizes hydroquinone to benzoquinone, with reduction of some of the Ce4+ ions. Highly reduced nanoceria, prepared by UV irradiation in the presence of ethanol, oxidize hydroquinone back to benzoquinone. This and related reactivity allow tuning of the average cerium oxidation state in the nanocrystals without changes in size or other properties. The amounts of Ce3+ and Ce4+ in the nanoceria were determined both by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and from the stoichiometry of the reactions, measured using 1H NMR spectroscopy. The results demonstrate, for the first time, that the optical absorbance of nanoceria is linearly related to the percent Ce3+ in the sample. The decrease in absorption (blue-shift of the band edge) is due to increasing amounts of Ce3+, not to a quantum confinement effect. These findings demonstrate the facile solution reactivity of nanoceria and establish UV-visible spectroscopy as a powerful new tool for in situ determination of Ce oxidation states in ceria nanomaterials.


ABSTRACT:Jean Cocteau's adaptation of his controversial play Les Parents terribles for the screen stands out in his oeuvre as an attempt to reconcile theatre and cinema. It also presented a challenge in preparing a soundscape for a work that did not have any music in its original form. Parents occupies a unique, Janus-like position in the history of French film music, as forward-looking in its anticipation of New Wave treatment of music as material as it is representative of the turn to adapting stage plays for the screen that started in the 1930s. Drawing on production sketchbooks and testimonies, this article considers the development of Cocteau's working method and his collaboration with Georges Auric, fuelled by the director's desire to take control of sonic matters. The resulting employment of a monothematic score was not only a new solution to the famous problem of filmed theatre, 'detheatricalizing' Parents sonically and visually, it contributed considerably to the development of Cocteau's status as film auteur–one whose role now extended to adapting musical material. Furthermore, the effect of this compositional technique in Parents suggests that it can be fruitfully situated in relation to recent work in film music studies on issues of anempathetic scoring practices.


Background In 2009 a tgHD Minipig was created, driven by a human huntintin promoter carrying a truncated human N-terminal part of htt (548aa) with 124 Q. This model was especially designed to fit the needs of future pre-clinical translational studies in Huntington's disease. Meanwhile, it is known that the F0, F1 and F2 generations express uniform genetic characteristics (copy number of insert, localisation of transgene, length of polyQ stretch) and expression levels of mutant human htt. Aim Our aim is to assess the potential of this model for pre-clinical translational studies by investigating the development of a phenotype and identifying the most suitable and reliable endpoints for proof-of-concept studies. Methods and Techniques A battery of tests has been developed with five control animals (male, castrated). Based on the human UHDRS-TMS a "Large Animal UHDRS-TMS" was created. It explores a wide range of motor and cognitive functions. For example, physically and mentally challenging tasks performed in an obstacle course. Quantitative motor assessments will deliver objective measurements of motor dysfunction, for example, using automated gait analysis (GAITRite). A colour differentiation test is applied to assess cognition. Furthermore a protocol for MR Imaging has been developed and tested. Outcome Preliminary data of the GAITRite carpet has been collected in n=25 Libechov Minipigs (m-wt=5, m-tg=10, f-wt=5, f-tg=5) at a baseline and a 6 months follow-up assessment showing feasibility to perform the tests. In order to verify these results and further investigate feasibility the same group of animals will be assessed under the same conditions at future 6 months intervals. So far 16 MRI scans have been performed in 10 different animals. 5 wt Minipigs have been scanned once (age: 5, 6, 8, 12 and 25 months), 1 wt has been scanned twice (age: 12 and 24 m.), 1 wt has been scanned four times (age: 5, 18, 28 and 28 m.), 1 tg has been scanned once (age: 25 m.) and 2 tgs have been scanned twice (both age: 12 and 24 m.). All animals survived the procedure which lasted up to 4 h. VBM Volumetry, DTI/Fiber tracking and NMR Spectroscopy were applied. Conclusions Feasibility to repeatedly perform all assessments with the Libechov Minipig and to obtain reproducible data were shown. Future investigations of an increased number of Minipigs will be performed.


Cell adhesion is of vital importance for a number of cellular functions. Several molecular families of cell adhesion proteins are known, among which the most important are the integrins and their cellular and soluble ligands. Currently, 24 different integrins have been described. They are complex heterodimeric molecules and need activation to become adhesive. They are commonly grouped in subfamilies according to their chains. Blood cells express at least members of the 1, 2, 3, and 7 integrin families, but none are found on mature red cells. The primary cellular ligands for the leukocyte-specific 2 integrins are the intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM); 5 have been described. Platelets are known to adhere through the IIb 3 integrin to fibrinogen. Among the ICAMs, ICAM-4 is unique due to its expression on erythroid cells. This molecule was originally described as a member of the LandsteinerWiener (LW) blood group of antigens, but subsequent cloning and adhesion assays showed that it is a member of the ICAM family of adhesion proteins.1 Its physiologic function has remained unknown, but it shows an interesting relationship to the Rh antigens.2 Thus, Rhnull cells lack the ICAM-4 molecule and they may be part of a large membrane protein complex. Whereas the other ICAMs specifically bind to 2 integrins, ICAM-4 has recently been found to interact with several types of integrins expressed on blood and endothelial cells. In this issue, Mankelow and colleagues (page 1503) have used mutational analysis to map the binding site on ICAM-4 for V integrins and visualized the binding site using a structural model based on the structure of ICAM-2. Interestingly, the binding site is located in the first immunoglobulin (Ig) domain adjacent to but partially separated from those previously described for L 2 and M 2. The binding site for L 2


In any communication system noise always had been a major area of concern. Noise signals affect the transmitted signals during transmission. Every signal that we acquire at the receiver end of any communication system is somehow affected by noise. Noise is the unwanted part of the signal. Signals can be of various types in communication systems depending upon the requirement of the system. Signals carrying information during transmission of voice or speech or image or video. Each of these signals gets affected during transmission. So for de-noising of these signals of deferent types we need different noise cancellation mechanism. We have adopted a noise cancellation mechanism for signals carrying information in voice communication. In voice communication the recorded speech data signal transmitted will be useless until and unless proper noise cancellation mechanism is adopted at the receiver end. There are so many mechanisms for such noise cancellation. In this paper, we have adopted a new adaptive filtering with averaging algorithm for noise cancellation. This algorithm, we have proposed is based by using averages of both data and correction terms to find the updated values of the tap weights of the ANC controller of the speech signal.


This study forms part of a research project seeking to develop a standardized questionnaire by which clinicians can assess the impact of growth hormone (GH) deficiency and its treatment on the "perceived health" or health-related quality of life of adults. The specific aim of this study was to translate and adapt for French patients the AGHDA (Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency Assessment) a standardized health-related quality of life measure for use with GH-deficient adults, initially developed in the United Kingdom, and to collect data which could be used to assess the main psychometric characteristics of its French version the ISPA-HC (Indicateur de Santé Perceptuelle Adulte-Hormone de Croissance). The main properties analyzed are: 1/ The scale's acceptability, as determined by means of face-to-face interviews with a small number of subjects, then by an ad hoc questionnaire administered during a test-retest study; 2/ The scale's reliability, as determined by a test-retest study (with a 15-days interval between tests); 3/ The scale's concurrent validity, as expressed by comparison with scores obtained by means of a generic quality of life scale, the ISPN (the French version of the Nottingham Health Profile). The results of this first trial with the ISPA-HC are conforming to what one can expect from a good instrument. The ISPA-HC has been shown to have very good levels of reliability and internal consistency. Its scores show a close correlation with those of the ISPN (the French version of the Nottingham Health Profile). This instrument can be used to measure variations in the perceived health of subjects with growth hormone deficiency. Its responsiveness to change is to be examined in subsequent studies.


Using the experimental data on contact melting of polycrystalline indium, tin and lead - based solid solutions with low-melting alloys we show that besides the diffusive, adhesive and low - dimensional mechanisms of contact melting it is necessary to take into account the segregational mechanism as well. The surfaces of a contact between the polycrystalline solid solutions and low - melting metals enrich in lower melting components due to the grain-boundary and surface segregation. One can influence on the kinetics of contact melting using alkali metals as impurity additives and applying the direct electric current. For example, the sodium addition to indium results in 3 times expansion of contact layer in the (In + 0.1 at. % Na) - Bi system, but in 2 times shrinking of that layer in the (In + 0.1 at. % Na) - Cd system in comparison to experiments without impurities.


Fuel cell electric vehicles have some noise problems due to its air processing unit which is required to feed the ambient air into the fuel cell stack. Discrete-frequency noises are radiated from a centrifugal blower due to rotor-stator interaction. Their fundamental frequency is the blade passing frequency, which is determined by the number of rotor blades and their rotating speed. To reduce such noises, multi-chamber perforated muffler has been designed. In this paper, in order to improve the transmission loss of a perforated muffler, the relationship between the impedance model of a perforated hole and its noise reduction performance is studied, and the applicability of a short-length perforated muffler to air processing unit of fuel cell system is described using acoustic simulation results and experimental data. The acoustic velocity vector across the neck of a perforated hole is very important design factor to optimize the transmission of an intake muffler. The suggested short-length perforated muffler is effective on discrete-frequency noises while keeping the volume of intake muffler minimized.


South Florida has a large number of water bodies, including rivers, lakes, and canals. Many of these water bodies are separated by manmade structures that allow water managers to control the flow throughout the region. These water managers are tasked with meeting a variety of objectives related to flood control, water supply, recreation, and the well-being of the ecosystem. Computer models are used to assist in meeting these objectives. In particular, the South Florida Water Management District employs simulation models that aim to describe the flow of water throughout the region. Simulation models allow managers to use computers to test the effects of changes to the system. In South Florida, the flow of water is governed by the hydrological characteristics of the region, as well as the actions of the individuals operating the flow control structures. In order to produce an accurate representation of the system, the simulation models in South Florida must incorporate both sets of characteristics. For this project, a Linear Programming (LP) model has been developed in cooperation with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). The model contains the major water bodies and connecting structures in South Florida. The purpose of this program is to model the actions of the operators of the flow control structures. Given targets on the water levels in the various water bodies, the LP model allocates flows in a way that most closely meets the targets, subject to a variety of constraints. These constraints include physical characteristics of the system, as well as constraints imposed by the water managers. As an optimization model, our contention is that the LP model can be used to simulate the actions of optimizing agents (i.e., the water managers in South Florida). We compare the results of the LP model to those from the Object Routing Model (ORM), a computer program that has been developed and used by the SFWMD for the same purpose. The purpose of the comparison is to determine if the LP model can produce results similar to those of ORM, thereby giving support to the possibility of incorporating a linear programming component within the simulation model currently under development at the SFWMD.


ABSTRACT
 The description and comparison of the posterior braincase of Nothronychus mckinleyi (MSM P-2117) from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) Moreno Hills Formation of east-central New Mexico is updated. As a result of the enlarged basicranial pneumatic system, this region of the skeleton has undergone extensive rearrangement of the cranial nerves and blood vessels from the plesiomorphic theropod condition. Nothronychus and Falcarius possessed a number of avian-associated characters or avian-trending characters in the braincase and endocranium characteristic of highly derived coelurosaurs. These traits, in some cases hypothesized, include the posterior endocranium nearly filled with nervous tissue, a laterally directed enlarged optic tectum, an enlarged flocculus, an intracranial trigeminal ganglion, and the abducens canal entering the endocranium separate from the infundibulum with no associated cavernous sinus. The angle of the occipital plate with the basal plate of the basicranium appears to be perpendicular and, therefore, intermediate between more basal theropods and extant birds. However, the posterior endocranial cavity does not appear flexed, which would result in a posteroventral rotation of the endocranial cavity in Nothronychus, a character also seen in the Cretaceous hesperornithiform bird Enaliornis and in contrast to extant birds. Therefore, the evolution of the coelurosaurian brain and braincase was trending in an avian direction before the rest of the skeleton. The results presented here support the model that therizinosaurs possessed weak bite forces as compared to obligatory carnivorous theropods.


When students first study expected utility, they are inclined to interpret it as a theory that explains preferences for lotteries in terms of preferences for outcomes. Knowing U($100) and U($0), the agent can calculate that the utility of a gamble of $100 on a fair coin coming up heads is U($100)/2 + U($0)/2. Utilities are indices representing preferences, so in calculating the utility of the gamble, one is apparently giving a causal explanation for the agent's preference for the gamble.


CARBONIZATION OF STRATA IN UPPER SILESIAN COAL BASIN In their paper the authors present a brief characteristic of the sedimentary and tectonic development of the Upper Silesian Basin, and data on the carbonization of the individual beds  (particularly of seam Prokop in the Ostrava-Karvina region, and of seam Reden, Pochhamer - 510 in the Polish part of the Basin). The authors are of the opinion that there exists a remarkable number of factors causing carbonization, and that these factors assume different features in various regions. Generally speaking, the process of carbonification is based upon the geographical situation of the given seam horizon within the area of sedimentation (more intensive carbonification occurs in geosynclinal areas). In contemplating the degree of carbonization the influence of volcanic action should not be left out of consideration. In the authors' opinion there does not exist any direct interrelation between degree of carbonification and depth·of a seam - similarly as there is no such relation with regard to the effect of tangential pressures. Hilt's law may be considered fully valid in the vertical profile only (younger horizons seams are less carbonized than older ones), whereas it is not valid in a horizontal profile. In this latter direction there appear marked changes in the features of individual coal seams and in entire beds complexes, depending on the geographical situation of the seams within the range of the area of sedimentation.


BACKGROUND: In their working life, airline pilots are exposed to particular risk factors that promote nonspecific low back pain (LBP). Because of the varying incidence internationally, we evaluated the point prevalences of acute, subacute, and chronic nonspecific LBP, as well as the current prevalences in German airline pilots. Furthermore, we compared the prevalence to the general German population and to European counterparts.METHODS: An anonymous online survey of 698 participating German airline pilots was evaluated. The impairment between groups was analyzed. Prevalences from our data were compared to existing data.RESULTS: The following point prevalences were found: 8.2% acute, 2.4% subacute, 82.7% chronic LBP; 74.1% of all individuals were suffering from current LBP when answered the questionnaire. A total time spent flying greater than 600 h within the last 12 mo was significantly related to acute nonspecific LBP. Individuals with any type of LBP were significantly impaired compared to those unaffected. It was found that German airline pilots suffer more often from current LBP than the general population and have a higher point prevalence of total LBP than their European counterparts.CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation showed a surprisingly high, previously unidentified, prevalence of nonspecific LBP in German airline pilots. Why German airline pilots suffer more often from LBP remains uncertain. The number of flying hours appears to have a negative effect on developing acute low back pain, but causation cannot be concluded. Other risk factors could not be confirmed.Albermann M, Lehmann M, Eiche C, Schmidt J, Prottengeier J. Low back pain in commercial airline pilots. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(12):940947.


MHC class I and CD8+ cell deficiency have either prevented systemic lupus erythematosus-like disease in mice or enhanced type I diabetes in nonobese diabetic mice. To study the involvement of MHC class I and class I-restricted CD8+ T cells in the induction of a classical Ab-mediated disease, experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG), we immunized beta 2 microglobulin (beta 2-m) gene-disrupted (beta 2 m-/-) C57BL10 (B10) mice, deficient in class I gene expression and CD8+ cells, and heterozygous (beta 2-m+/-) B10 mice with normal expression of class I molecules and sufficient CD8+ cells with Torpedo acetylcholine receptor in CFA, and assessed them for clinical and immunopathologic manifestations of EAMG. Despite MHC class I and CD8+ cell deficiency, beta 2-m-/- mice developed EAMG. Moreover, the incidence of EAMG in the beta 2-m-/- mice was higher than that of beta 2-m+/- heterozygous mice with normal class I expression and frequency of CD8+ cells. The finding provided direct genetic evidence against a pathogenic effector role in C57BL10 mice for MHC class I molecule and class I-restricted CD8+ T cells in EAMG pathogenesis.


Using molecular dynamics simulations and nonequilibrium thermodynamic-integration techniques we compute the Helmholtz free energies of the body-centered-cubic (bcc), face-centered-cubic (fcc), hexagonal close-packed, and fluid phases of the Uhlenbeck-Ford model (UFM) and use the results to construct its phase diagram. The pair interaction associated with the UFM is characterized by an ultrasoft, purely repulsive pair potential that diverges logarithmically at the origin. We find that the bcc and fcc are the only thermodynamically stable crystalline phases in the phase diagram. Furthermore, we report the existence of two reentrant transition sequences as a function of the number density, one featuring a fluid-bcc-fluid succession and another displaying a bcc-fcc-bcc sequence near the triple point. We find strong resemblances to the phase behavior of other soft, purely repulsive systems such as the Gaussian-core model (GCM), inverse-power-law, and Yukawa potentials. In particular, we find that the fcc-bcc-fluid triple point and the phase boundaries in its vicinity are in good agreement with the prediction supplied by a recently proposed corresponding-states principle [J. Chem. Phys. 134, 241101 (2011)JCPSA60021-960610.1063/1.3605659; Europhys. Lett. 100, 66004 (2012)EULEEJ0295-507510.1209/0295-5075/100/66004]. The particularly strong resemblance between the behavior of the UFM and GCM models are also discussed.


We report the relation between hip fracture and intake of calcium and dairy products in postmenopausal women age 45 years or over. We conducted a case-control study in northern Italy. We interviewed a total of 241 cases of hip fracture and 719 controls in hospital for acute, nonneoplastic, nontraumatic, nondigestive, non-hormone-related diseases during their hospital stay. We derived odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI), according to intake of calcium, milk, and cheese from multiple logistic regression equations, including terms for age, education, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol drinking, and estrogen replacement therapy. Cutoff points for extreme quintiles of calcium intake were 443 and 1,026 mg per day. Compared with the lowest quintile of calcium intake, the multivariate ORs were 1.2 (95% CI = 0.7-2.0), 1.1 (95% CI = 0.6-1.7), 1.1 (95% CI = 0.6-1.7), and 1.2 (95% CI = 0.8-2.0) for subsequent quintiles of intake. Similarly, there was no appreciable association with milk (compared with less than 7 drinks per week, ORs were 1.2 and 1.0, respectively, for 7 and more than 7 drinks per week) or cheese intake (compared with less than 4 portions per week, ORs were 1.2 for 4-6 portions and 1.0 for more than 6 portions per week). OR estimates for calcium intake (tertiles) were consistent across strata of age, education, smoking status, and alcohol drinking. Thus, within the range of variation of intake of the main sources of calcium in this population, there was little association between hip fractures in women and intake of calcium, milk, and cheese.


"Roma Barocca" comprises a complete history of building activity in Rome from about 1600 to 1750. But it acquires a far broader interest because of the critical method which it applies to one of the key periods and centers in the history of architecture and urbanism. The discussion includes a broad summary of the urban policies and building programs of the popes as well as an analytic history of the artistic culture of Rome as documented by the theoretical writings and architectural publications of the period. Against this historical background the basic formal principles and compositional methods of the Baroque are verified through critical and technical analyses of the monuments themselves. In this way the author is able to define those great themes which held the attention of the artistic world in the complex period known as Baroque: "the themes of infinity, of the relativity of perceptions, of the popular and vernacular artistic expression and the communicative force of art, of history conceived as a continual development, of technology as a factor of independence and autonomous authority for the arts, and the theme of nature interpreted as a dynamic process."The three great masters Bernini, Borromini, and Cortona are treated in individual chapters. The dynamic eruption of creative energy manifest in the works of these architects, whose contributions comprised the revolutionary use of light, the unification of all the arts, and above all the ability, on both the architectonic and urban scales, to operate directly on space, is here analyzed with penetrating perspective. But the lesser architects who worked contemporaneously with the masters are also fully discussed. Architects of the generation following that of the masters, such as Carlo Rainaldi and Carlo Fontana, are studied critically in light of the rich legacy to which they fell heir and which they seriously undermined through their essentially regressive and conservative positions.An integral part of the author's analyses are the many fascinating detailed photographs, in great part executed by the author himself. The illustrative-analytical material is still further enriched by drawings inserted in the text or contained in the drawing appendix.


To establish high-pH anion-exchange chromatography with fluorometric detection (HPAEC-FD) for the sensitive oligosaccharide analysis, the system for HPAEC with pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) was modified by placing the anion micromembrane suppressor between PAD and fluoromonitor to neutralize the alkaline eluate and connecting the flow path. N-Linked oligosaccharides were released from various glycoproteins by hydrazinolysis followed by labeling with 2-aminobenzamide, and their asialooligosaccharides were analyzed by HPAEC-FD using an isocratic elution with 0.3 M NaOH solution. The results indicated that the new system using FD offers fine separation of oligosaccharides at the subpicomole level. Coinjection of reduced dextran oligomers as internal standards which are detected by PAD permits us to express elution positions of the fluorescent oligosaccharides as glucose units, resulting in a much more reliable analysis. The system was also effectively used for structural analysis of oligosaccharides by sequential glycosidase digestion. Thus, HPAEC-FD promises to be an alternative tool for the sensitive analysis of oligosaccharides.


High-density cage-shaped proteins with inorganic cores were selectively adsorbed as a monolayer onto a 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTES) layer on a Si substrate. The electrostatic interaction between the protein and substrate surface was studied and it was proven that protein adsorption density depends on the quantitative balance of surface charge on the substrate and protein. The combination of a highly positive APTES layer and moderately negative ferritin, Fer-4, achieved an adsorption density of 7.6×1011 cm-2 and the combination of the APTES layer and Listeria ferritin (Lis-fer) reached an adsorption density of 1.3×1012 cm-2. The adsorption process including the reduced charge of Lis-fer due to denaturation further enhanced the adsorption density up to 1.5×1012 cm-2, whereas no Lis-fer was adsorbed onto the SiO2 surface under the same conditions. This new technique makes it possible to produce a nanodot monolayer with a density higher than 1×1012 cm-2, which can be applied to floating nanodot gate memories.


Multimedia application and storage technology development have presented many problems to modern database system. How to place the video data efficiently in the tertiary storage library is a critical issue in that the video data is different from the traditional textual data. The video data placement based on hierarchical storage system with tape library as tertiary storage is discussed. It takes two steps to place the video data in the three-level hierarchical architecture. The first step is to layout the data to the proper level and position them according to their visiting frequencies and sizes. The second step is to address the tertiary storage workload balance that has been neglected now. This placement aims at improvement of capacity utilization and minimizing the storage cost. With this placement policy we can get a cost-effective hierarchical storage system with a workload balance tape library.


Inward FDI to the middle-income countries has the evidence as a major stimulus to the economic growth; conventionally at export-oriented manufacturing sector. In point of fact, basic macro fundamentals like as growth of gross domestic capital formation, foreign reserve, infrastructure etc. accelerates the FDI inflows. This study reviews the long-run trend on the time scale of FDI to Bangladesh over the period 1975- 2006 and major factors determining foreign companies' decisions to invest, in associated with economic growth. Contents of the paper describe the theoretical development and extensive literature review to find out the appropriate variables to deter the foreign direct investment from time series data. On the basis of intricate link between foreign direct investment and growth, all explained determinants enhance the facilitation, turnover, and return in FDI concentrated sectors that promote long-term sustainable growth with specific shortcomings, directly or indirectly, in our labor-intensive economic activity. Reduced government's ineffectiveness along with supporting policy framework makes Bangladesh as an attractive destination of FDI, that has a positive spillover and significant impacts affect over time through dynamic effects on economic growth.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Background and Aims. In recent years we have demonstrated that progastrin peptide (PG) exerts anti-apoptotic and proliferative effects on normal and cancerous epithelial cells, in vitro and in vivo, and increases risk of colon carcinogenesis in transgenic mice overexpressing PG (Cancer 2004; Oncogene 2007; CanRes 2007; Oncogene 2008; JBC 2009). In vivo studies with PG overexpressing hGAS mice suggest that there is an increase in the census of DCAMKL+1 and CD44 positive colonic crypt cells (Jin, et al, JCI 2009). It is, however, not known if PG can directly induce an increase in the number of stem/progenitor cells, in vitro, and if this increase translates into transformation of the cells. To address this novel possibility, we used PG responsive HEK-293 cells, which are incompletely transformed with negligible clonogenic/tumorigenic potential. Methods and Results. Mutant-hGAS-HEK293 clones (HEK-PG) were generated and confirmed to overexpress full-length (9KDa) PG. HEK293 clones transfected with empty vector (HEK-C) served as controls. A significant increase in proliferation of HEK-PG vs HEK-C cells was measured in vitro. Cells, stained for either the putative stem cell marker (DCAMKL+1) or progenitor cells marker (CD44), were examined by fluorescense confocal microscopy and quantified by Western Blot analysis. Expression of DCAMKL+1/CD44 increased 2-3 fold in HEK-PG clones vs HEK-C clones, suggesting for the first time, that PG directly enhances the number of stem/progenitor cells. Significant increase in DCAMKL+1/CD44 cells was confirmed in colonic crypts of Fabp-PG mice, overexpressing PG in colons. The most surprising finding was that overexpression of PG in HEK-PG clones imparted a clonogenic/tumorigenic/metastatic potential to the cells, in vitro and in vivo (using SCID mouse model). However, IEC-18-PG clones were not rendered clonogenic/tumorigenic, suggesting that overexpression of PG in the background of HEK-293 cells, represented the second hit required for transformation. IEC-18 cells are immortalized but apparently lack the first hit (initiating events) and thus remain non-transformed in the presence of PG over-expression. In associated studies we have measured activation of two powerful transcription factors, NFκB/β-catenin, in response to PG, which may represent the second hit for transformation of cells, in response to autocrine PG, in pre-initiated cells (such as HEK-293). Since a large % of GI cancers express autocrine PG, down-regulation of PG and/or its receptor (Annexin2), and/or its mediatory signaling pathways (NFκB/β-catenin) should prove to be a powerful method for reducing stem cell/progenitor cell populations and attenuating tumorigenic/metastatic potential of PG-expressing cancer cells.

Supported by NIH grants R01CA114264 and R01CA097959 and a Sealy Center grant to P. Singh

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4259.


Recently, consumer applications have dramatically created the demand for low-cost and compact gyroscopes. Therefore, on the basis of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, many gyroscopes have been developed and successfully commercialized. A MEMS gyroscope consists of a MEMS device and an electrical circuit for self-oscillation and angular-rate detection. Since the MEMS device and circuit are interactively related, the entire system should be analyzed together to design or test the gyroscope. In this study, a MEMS vibratory gyroscope is analyzed based on the system dynamic modeling; thus, it can be mathematically expressed and integrated into a circuit simulator. A behavioral simulation of the entire system was conducted to prove the self-oscillation and angular-rate detection and to determine the circuit parameters to be optimized. From the simulation, the operating characteristic according to the vacuum pressure and scale factor was obtained, which indicated similar trends compared with those of the experimental results. The simulation method presented in this paper can be generalized to a wide range of MEMS devices.


Orwell's essay 'Such, Such Were the Joys' amounts to an excoriating condemnation of the preparatory school system. The young Eric Arthur Blair graduated from his prep school by scholarship to Eton– regarded as the preeminent elitist institution in British private education. Orwell further denounced many aspects of the private education system of the 1920s and 1930s in his novel A Clergyman's Daughter. He also took up teaching and private tutoring during the early 1930s. Biographers and writers have reported on what it was like to be taught by him. In this paper, Tim Crook investigates the significance of Orwell's adventures in education. How credible were his views on teaching and the nature of the education that he received? How good a teacher was he in the context of the professionalisation of teaching at the training colleges of the time? To what extent was his writing on education tantamount to another development of his self-fashioning and transformation from Eric
Arthur Blair, child of imperialism, to the democratic socialist writer George Orwell?


Hydrothermal systems, including terrestrial hot springs, contain diverse and systematic arrays of geochemical conditions that vary over short spatial scales due to progressive interaction between the reducing hydrothermal fluids, the oxygenated atmosphere, and in some cases seawater. At Jinata Onsen, on Shikinejima Island, Japan, an intertidal, anoxic, iron- and hydrogen-rich hot spring mixes with the oxygenated atmosphere and sulfate-rich seawater over short spatial scales, creating an enormous range of redox environments over a distance ~10 m. We characterized the geochemical conditions along the outflow of Jinata Onsen as well as the microbial communities present in biofilms, mats, and mineral crusts along its traverse via 16S amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. The microbial community changed significantly downstream as temperatures and dissolved iron concentrations dropped and dissolved oxygen rose. Near the spring source, primary productivity appears limited, and is fueled primarily by oxidation of ferrous iron and molecular hydrogen by members of the Zetaproteobacteria and Aquificae, while downstream the microbial community is dominated by oxygenic Cyanobacteria. At Jinata Onsen, Cyanobacteria are abundant and productive even at ferrous iron concentrations of ~150 μM, which challenges the idea that iron toxicity limited cyanobacterial expansion in the Precambrian oceans. Several novel lineages of Bacteria are also present at Jinata Onsen, including previously uncharacterized members of the Chloroflexi and Caldithrichaeota phyla, positioning Jinata Onsen as a valuable site for future characterization of these clades. Importance High temperatures and reducing conditions allow hot springs to support microbial communities that are very different those elsewhere on the surface of the Earth today; in some ways, these environments and the communities they support can be similar to those that existed on the early Earth and that may exist on other planets. Here, we describe a novel hot spring system where hot, iron-rich but oxygen-poor water flows into the ocean, supporting a range of unique microbial communities. Metagenomic sequencing recovered many novel microbial lineages, including deep-branching and uniquely thermotolerant members of known groups. Comparison of the biological productivity of communities in the upstream part of the hot spring, supported by biological iron and hydrogen oxidizing metabolisms, to downstream microbial mats, supported by oxygenic photosynthesis, provides insight into the potential productivity of life on the early Earth and other planets where oxygenic photosynthesis is not possible.


GSTE (Generalized Symbolic Trajectory Evaluation) is an industrially proven high capacity model checking technology for hardware verification. It combines the efficiency and flexibility of the original STE with the expressiveness of classical model checking. This paper explains the three key aspects of GSTE through a simple example and show how they work together to make GSTE more powerful than the classical approach based on language containment. Real life verification results are provided to demonstrate the strength of GSTE.


The liver is known to increase in size in the mouse during pregnancy; however, the mechanisms behind this are not fully understood. There are inconsistencies in the literature, which argue whether hyperplasia or hypertrophy is responsible. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the possible mechanisms and to explain some of the molecular processes, which bring these adaptations about. To address this, virgin female C57Bl/6 mice were mated and culled at 3 time points during pregnancy and their livers analysed. Non-pregnant, age matched mice were analysed as controls. Phenotypic measurements of the mice were taken in order to make sure the model represented known changes seen during mouse pregnancy. Haemotoxylin and eosin staining showed that there is an increase in cell size from day 14 of gestation. Staining for Ki67, a cell cycle marker, suggested that cell proliferation was also increased at day 14 and day 18 of gestation. This was further supported by gene expression analysis of Ki67 and cyclin B1. Transcriptome analysis was carried out on the livers at both day 14 and day 18 of gestation. Pathway analysis predicted an increase in cell proliferation at both time points and a decrease in apoptosis at day 18 of gestation. These pathways were further validated by analysis of a previously published array data set, showing the same pathway changes at all time-points measured. Gene expression of the apoptosis markers p53, Fasand Casp6 were used to strengthen the evidence for down regulation of apoptosis in pregnancy. Fas and p53 expression was supressed at all pregnancy time points measured and Casp6 was down regulated at both day 14 and day 18 of gestation. It was hypothesised that changes in expression may be regulated by changes to DNA methylation. Global methylation measurements and expression of DNA methylation associated enzymes (Dnmt1, 3a, 3b, Tet1, 2 and 3) initially suggested a decrease during pregnancy, supporting this hypothesis. However, methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing showed that there were only 6 differentially methylated regions in the liver during pregnancy and only one of these corresponded to a change in gene expression. This suggests that DNA methylation was unlikely to be the mechanism responsible for the changes in gene expression observed. It was thought that the changes in the mouse liver during pregnancy might be brought about by exposure to pregnancy-associated hormones. To test this, mouse Hepa1-6 liver cells were exposed to a range of concentrations of oestrogen, mouse prolactin, human prolactin and human placental lactogen. No change was found in global DNA methylation and the expression of the Dnmt and Tet genes showed large variation. However, treatment with specific concentrations of the hormones reduced the variation seen in expression in these genes. As Dnmt expression has been shown to vary with the cell cycle, it was hypothesised that exposure of the cells to hormones at these concentrations led to an alignment of the cell cycle and, therefore, reduced the variation in expression. Flow cytometry was used to identify the proportion of cells at each stage of the cell cycle. It was found that treatment with human prolactinreduced the proportion of apoptotic cells and altered the distribution of cells at other points in the cell cycle. Having observed the response of the mouse liver to normal pregnancy, showing increased proliferation and decreased apoptosis, it was hypothesised that changing the maternal diet may disrupt this response. Female mice were fed increasing fat content diets (with reciprocal decrease in carbohydrate) and the expression of Ki67, cyclinB1, Fas, p53 and Casp6 measured. There were no significant changes in the expression of these genes. Phenotypic analysis of the mouse liver showed that both hypertrophy and hyperplasia play a role in the increase in size seen during pregnancy. Gene expression analysis added strength to this, as well as showing that a reduction of apoptosis provides an additional mechanism suggesting how this tissue growth is maintained. Use of an in vitro cell model showed that stimulation with prolactin may cause the decrease in apoptosis and at least contribute to the stimulation of cell proliferation. Together, these findings provide novel insights into the mechanisms that underlie the expansion of the mouse liver in pregnancy. The findings may also have implications in identifying targets for treatment in diseases such as hepatocellular carcinoma and obstetric cholestasis.


The first part of the study provides a situation analysis of Hungarian agriculture on the basis of data from the General Agricultural Survey of 2000, followed by the presentation of positive and negative phenomena experienced by post-socialist rural society. The second major part is devoted to the specifics of differentiated development patterns of rural areas and the emergence of integrated rural development. The study also contains a detailed analysis of the SAPARD programme. Hungary experienced a strong migration flow in the era of post-socialism from cities towards villages. Migration was differentiated: members of the urban middle class migrated to suburban areas, while poor urban dwellers moved to remote lagging villages. Lagging villages have become major destination points of foreign (mostly retired) immigrants.


Using a periodic microfield approach a micromechanical study is presented, which is capable to describe the ductility losses due to a film like ferrite precipitation in the high temperature region of iron based alloys by considering the two phase microstructure close to phase transformation temperatures and explicitly accounting for the elasto-plastic materiai properties of each present phase. For the temperature range close to the A*3 temperature it will be demonstrated that the hot ductility behavior is directly corre]ated to the volume fraction of ferrite which develops a:ong the austenitic grain boundary and the global strain rate of the specimen.


Volume is one of important issues in the production and processing of food product. Traditionally, volume measurement can be performed using water displacement method based on Archimedes' principle. Water displacement method is inaccurate and considered as destructive method. Computer vision offers an accurate and nondestructive method in mea suring volume of food product. This paper proposes algorithm for volume m asurement of irregular shape food product using computer vision based on M te Carlo method. Five images of object were acquired from five different views and then processed to obtain the silhouettes of object. From the silhouet tes of object, Monte Carlo method was performed to approximate the volume of o bject. The simulation result shows that the algorithm produced high accur acy and precision for volume measurement.


Removing noise from data is often the first step in data analysis. De-noising technique should not be only reduce the noise, but do so without blurring or changing the location of the edges. Many approaches have been proposed to accomplish this; in this paper, we have compared three recently developed techniques for image enhancement and denoising. These methods are based on the use of partial differential equations, including second order, fourth order, and the complex partial differential. We consider various well-known measuring metrics used in image processing applied to standard images in this comparison. In this study, it is shown that the capability of the PDE-based approaches depends highly on the neighboring structure. Our investigations show that in an image where the energy of noise is low, the complex diffusion method offers a better result in image denoising compared to other methods. However, when the energy of the noise increases, performance of the complex diffusion method declines. In general, for the case when the energy of noise in an image is unpredictable, using the heat equation for image denoising is recommended.


Some azole and azine series compounds are ubiquitous components both of physiologically active products and of important pharmaceuticals, among them the 4H-1,4-benzothiazine nucleus, known to chemists as azine, is the parent member of a broad spectrum of nitrogen heterocyclic biochemicals commonly found in nature, some of these are highly effective anti-cancer agent, blocking carcinogenic substance, before they reach their cellular targets and eliminating DNA damage in cell nuclei. It may turn out to be a good tranquilizers, anti-inflammatory, antivirals, antibacterial, antimalarial and anti-fungal. 4H-1,4-benzothiazines are nitrogen and sulphur containing heterocyclic compounds, which are analogous to phenothiazines and possess similar structural specificity the presence of a fold along N-S axis, which is important factor for imparting a wide spectrum of pharmacological and biological activities. The molecule has an –(CH=CH)- group replacing phenylene group -(C6H4)- from the phenothiazines. Structural resemblance to these two compounds and their pharmacological and industrial applications have stimulated our interest to construct microwave induced fused benzothiazines libraries on solid phase to find novel hit compounds towards multiple biological targets and better medicinal agents. During the past decades azine series have been developed via substitution patterns, but their oxidation behavior has not yet very popular. So keeping in mind all the industrial and medicinal applications. Our interest to extend studies of benzothiazines with 30% hydrogen-peroxide in glacial acetic acid to study the oxidation of benzothiazines to their sulphones, with a hope to obtain new compounds for therapeutic testing and better medicinal agents. The purity of the synthesized compounds was checked by thin-layer chromatography. Their biological activities along with the physical studies have been done to continue the new research area.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

The selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) tamoxifen (TAM) is the gold standard used in the treatment of estrogen-dependent breast cancer. Although it significantly benefited women with breast cancer, time-dependent tumor resistance and the risk of endometrium cancer are associated with it. Consequently, there is an urgent need for alternative treatments. PURPOSE: Incorporating the oxime moiety in conjunction with various basic side chains associated with the pharmacophore of the SERMs into estrone may yield various estrone derivatives with antiestrogenic activity. The estrone derivatives were compared to 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen (4-OH-TAM) and raloxifene (RAL). METHODS: The estrone derivatives were synthesized using established chemical procedures. The Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama carried out the cytotoxicity studies in MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and Ishikawa cancer cells. They tested different concentrations of the six different estrone derivatives ranging from .01 nM to 100,000 nM on 5000 MCF-7 cells/well, on 5000 MDA-MB-231 cells/well and on 5000 Ishikawa cells/well. Cells pre-treated with the various estrone derivatives were incubated at 37°C for 3 days followed by MTS assay. Their IC50 values were generated using GraphPad Prism 5.0. RESULTS: Our compounds demonstrated anti-proliferative activity in MCF-7 cells but they were not as potent as 4-OH-TAM(2µM) or RAL (3µM). Compounds 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 (31µM, 29µM, 30µM, 30µM, and 29µM respectively) were comparable in potency to RAL (28µM) in MDA-MB-231 cells but all were not as potent as 4-OH-TAM (22µM). Compounds 3, 6, and 7 (20µM, 20µM, and 17µM respectively) were comparable or greater in potency to 4-OH-TAM (20µM) in Ishikawa cells and compounds 2, 3, 6, and 7 (24µM, 20µM, 20µM, and 17µM respectively) were comparable or greater in potency to RAL (23µM). CONCLUSION: Applying the oxime moiety in conjunction with the pharmacophore of the SERMs to estrone produced agents with antiproliferative activity. They also showed antiproliferative activity in estrogen-receptor negative MDA-MB-231 cells. These results suggest that several of the estrone derivatives show promise as potential anti-breast cancer agents.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3238. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3238


Background Increasing evidence suggests that some antidiabetic medications may improve markers of abnormal liver structure and function in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. We investigated this association in older people with type 2 diabetes. Methods 474 participants, aged 63–79 years, from the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study, a large, randomly-selected population of patients with Type 2 diabetes, underwent assessment on two occasions. At baseline, liver ultrasonography was undertaken and antidiabetic medications (metformin, sulphonyureas and thiazolidinediones) were recorded. Liver ultrasonography was repeated approximately 3 years later. Hepatosteatosis was graded as either normal or "fatty", and the change between examinations as regression, no change or progression. χ2 for trend was used to analyse the association. Results Mean follow-up was 2.7 years. 9.5% (n=45) of participants progressed, 13.9% (n=66) regressed and 76.6% (n=363) remained the same. Thiazolidinedione use was significantly higher among participants whose hepatosteatosis regressed (5.0%, 11% and 19.7% in participants with progression, no change and regression respectively, p=0.02). Similar figures for metformin use were 55.0%, 67.0% and 67.2% respectively (p=0.28) and for sulphonyurea use were 15.0%, 34.9% and 31.1% respectively (p=0.19). Conclusion In a large sample of patients with type 2 diabetes representative of patients with type 2 diabetes in general, thiazolidinedione use was associated with regression of hepatosteatosis. This is consistent with emerging evidence from clinical trials suggesting that there may be a role for thiazolidinediones beyond glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Further analyses are warranted to explore the potential mechanism underlying this association.


Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and malignant primary brain tumor. The recently described stem cell component of malignant gliomas is biologically critical, yet mechanisms that underlie its regulation are not understood. Mutations in Drosophila Brain tumor (brat) result in a massively enlarged fly brain that consists of a neuroblast cell population with neoplastic growth properties that has lost the ability to divide asymmetrically. Brat has been shown to promote asymmetric cell division and direct neural differentiation at least partially through its translational suppression of Myc. Here we investigated the role of brat homologs for their regulation of glioma behavior, especially as related to asymmetric division of glioma stem cells. We found that the human brat homolog, Trim3, is highly expressed in normal brain and that a substantial subset of GBMs (25-30%) show loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of chromosome 11p15.5, the site of Trim3. Trim3 expression was markedly reduced in human GBM cell lines compared to human astrocytes and reduced in human GBMs specimens compared to normal brain, consistent with results from mining existing gene expression data sets (oncomine). Since Drosophila brat is critical to neural differentiation and regulates Myc, we explored whether human Trim3 might regulate glioma stem cell properties by its regulation of Myc. We found that the forced expression of Trim3 in human GBM cell lines led to reduced Myc protein expression. This inverse relationship between Trim3 and Myc also held true in GBM samples. We used a lentiviral system to stably express Trim3 in GBM cell lines and neurospheres and found that Trim3 expression reduced glioma proliferation and colony formation in vitro and also led to smaller and less frequent neuropheres. In vivo, Trim3 suppressed tumor growth in an orthotopic xenograft model and led to prolonged survival. Trim3 expression was associated with reduced expression of nestin and CD133 by GBM neurosphere cultures, suggesting that its loss may enrich the stem cell compartment. Moreover, Trim3 expression by neurosphere stem cells favored a pattern of asymmetric cell division in GBM. Thus, Trim3 appears to direct asymmetric cell division in glioma stem cells and its loss is associated with stem cell enrichment and greater biologic potential. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3305. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3305


The presence of vibrationally excited oxygen in the active medium of a chemical oxygen — iodine laser is discovered using the emission technique. Using the analysis of the luminescence spectra of oxygen molecules on O2(b1Σg+, v=i)→O2(X3Σg-, v'=i) (i=0, 1, 2) electronic vibrational — rotational transitions, it is shown that ~22 % of O2(b1Σg+) molecules are at the first vibrational level and ~10 % are at the second one. Moreover, due to the fast EE energy exchange, a mean number of vibrational quanta per one molecule in each of the O2(X3Σg-), O2(a1Δg) and O2(b1Σg+) components is approximately the same and amounts to 30 % — 40 %.


Scintillation gamma cameras based on low-noise electron multiplication (EM-)CCDs can reach high spatial resolutions. For further improvement of these gamma cameras, more insight is needed into how various parameters that characterize these devices influence their performance. Here, we use the Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) to investigate the sensitivity of the energy and spatial resolution of an EM-CCD-based gamma camera to several parameters. The gamma camera setup consists of a 3 mm thick CsI(Tl) scintillator optically coupled by a fiber optic plate to the E2V CCD97 EM-CCD. For this setup, the position and energy of incoming gamma photons are determined with a maximum-likelihood detection algorithm. To serve as the basis for the CRLB calculations, accurate models for the depth-dependent scintillation light distribution are derived and combined with a previously validated statistical response model for the EM-CCD. The sensitivity of the lower bounds for energy and spatial resolution to the EM gain and the depth-of-interaction (DOI) are calculated and compared to experimentally obtained values. Furthermore, calculations of the influence of the number of detected optical photons and noise sources in the image area on the energy and spatial resolution are presented. Trends predicted by CRLB calculations agree with experiments, although experimental values for spatial and energy resolution are typically a factor of 1.5 above the calculated lower bounds. Calculations and experiments both show that an intermediate EM gain setting results in the best possible spatial or energy resolution and that the spatial resolution of the gamma camera degrades rapidly as a function of the DOI. Furthermore, calculations suggest that a large improvement in gamma camera performance is achieved by an increase in the number of detected photons or a reduction of noise in the image area. A large noise reduction, as is possible with a new generation of EM-CCD electronics, may improve the energy and spatial resolution by a factor of 1.5.


Megakaryocyte colony-stimulating factor (Meg-CSF) in urinary extracts from patients with aplastic anemia was partially characterized and purified. Using Meg-CSF-enriched fractions, we established that the moiety has the following characteristics: 1) portions of the molecules having Meg-CSF activity have sialic acid, probably with a biantennary structure, and beta-galactose residues as the terminal and penultimate sugars; 2) disulfide residues are an essential chemical group of the molecule and are located on its surface; and 3) Meg-CSF activity is stable in n-propanol, but not in acetonitrile with trifluoroacetic acid. Partial purification of Meg-CSF by a four-step procedure of ethanol precipitation, CM Affi-Gel Blue chromatography, wheat germ agglutinin-sepharose chromatography, and high-resolution hydroxyapatite chromatography, yielded a concentrate with a 430- to 630-fold increase in specific activity. The partially purified Meg-CSF fractions stimulated both human and murine megakaryocytopoiesis in vitro (CFU-meg). When analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under nonreduced conditions, Meg-CSF activity was recovered in the 29-34 kDa molecular weight fractions. We have also shown that Meg-CSF, purified from the urine of aplastic anemia patients, stimulated murine megakaryocytopoiesis and platelet production in vivo. Final purification of human urinary Meg-CSF is currently in progress.


Finding out the computational redundant part of a trained Deep Neural Network (DNN) is the key question that pruning algorithms target on. Many algorithms try to predict the model performance of the pruned sub-nets by introducing various evaluation methods. But they are either inaccurate or very complicated for general application. In this work, we present a pruning method called Fast Neural Network Pruning (FNNP), in which a simple yet efficient evaluation component called adaptive-BN-based evaluation is applied to unveil a strong correlation between different pruned DNN structures and their final settled accuracy. This strong correlation allows us to fast spot the pruned candidates with the highest potential accuracy without actually fine-tuning them. FNNP does not require any extra regularization or supervision introduced to a common DNN training pipeline but still can achieve better accuracy than many carefully-designed pruning methods. In the experiments of pruning MobileNet V1 and ResNet-50, FNNP outperforms all compared methods by up to 3.8%. Even in the more challenging experiments of pruning the compact model of MobileNet V1, our FNNP achieves the highest accuracy of 70.9% with an overall 50% operations (FLOPs) pruned. All accuracy data are Top-1 ImageNet classification accuracy. Source code and models are accessible to open-source community1.


We present herein two patients with bilateral vocal cord paralysis that occurred during the subacute phase of brain infarction. Patients were a 73-year-old man and an 82-year-old woman who suffered from infarction of the basilar artery and the right middle cerebral artery, respectively. The former was diagnosed as atherothrombotic infarction, but the patient experienced repeated aggravation. The latter was diagnosed as cardioembolic infarction. After both patients took clopidogrel and warfarin for the secondary prevention of stroke, upper airway obstruction developed at Day 29 and Day 19, respectively. Vocal cords in Case 1 did not show any movement on laryngoscopy, and were fixed together nearly closed. In Case 2, vocal cords were again almost fixed together. Bilateral vocal cord paralysis is a common complication of cervical operations, but is rare after ischemic stroke. As patients who have suffered from bilateral vocal cord paralysis are often facing death, we must be careful of wheezing with ischemic stroke.


Seafloor imagery is an important tool for scientists engaged in quantifying geological and biological processes operating on the deep-ocean floor. Large-scale mosaics of seafloor imagery have significant advantages over individual still photographs and video footage as they are able to capture large areas while retaining sufficient resolution to identify small-scale features. However, the process of constructing a mosaic is usually limited to a single panorama or transects from still imagery, and often requires manual control by the user. The goal of this paper is to describe a methodology that allows for utilization of navigation data for robust automatic construction and geo-referencing of video mosaics. This methodology is designed specifically for the submersible Alvin, but our methodology may be modified for use with other underwater vehicles and is broadly applicable to the creation of mosaics in a variety of seafloor settings


The planned new railway station in Holmestrand whose location will be inside a basalt plateau poses challenges concerning the grouting and water and frost protection. Based on grouting works in adjacent tunnels Snekkestad and Sjoskogen as well as the entrance tunnels of the station hall, a loosely attempt to predict the grouting sitatuation for the station hall will be made. Pre-construction investigations including CPTU, oedometer, piezometers and ERT tomography have hardly revealed any signs of inflows. The precipiation pattern causes seasonal fluctuations in the groundwater. Hydrologically, the Holmestrand plateau is naturally drained by the existing Holmestrand road tunnel. The Holmestrand plateau consists of column basalt and various soil masses cover its top. There exists a weakness zone that may cause problems for the station hall, meaning that grouting will have to be extensive to maintain the inflow criterion. By the aid of a formula of calculating the expected inflow for the station hall, a strict requirement emerges when comparing this to a standard double-lane railway. Grouting works will take place at an inflow criterion of 5 L/(min/(100 m)) by pre-grouting fans. Should difficult geological conditions occur, control fans, extra fans and post-grouting fans may be applied. Measuring water loss and inflow may happen, both by construction of dams in the tunnel and directly measuring the inflow from boreholes. Alternatives to grouting include concrete lining, etc. Likely water and frost protection solutions are PE foam plates, concrete elements, sprayable membranes such as the BASF masterseal 345, etc. The latter has been tested in a frost laboratory and the Gevingasen tunnel, where the most important conclusions are that the freezing index has no effect of how deep the zero-degree isotherm penetrates into the rock mass and that the temperature pattern is not cumulative. The tunnel results show no significant leakages. Also, the BASF masterseal 345 shows high deformation load capacities. Results from the grouting show highly varying trends according to the difference in geology, both when studying the distribution of grout amounts and the pressure per borehole per grouting fan and the total amounts of grout mass and the average pressure per grouting fan. In areas of the cross-section with low-quality rock the pressure seems to decrease and the amounts of grout mass increase. Also, the inflow criterion does not always control the amounts of injected mass, as the overburden and surface installations, as well as the rock mass and joint system situation play an important role. 3D measurements giving the rock stress distribution may also serve as guidelines for the grouting works, as will the vertical joint situation of the station hall. The water and frost protection solution is likely to be either the PE foam plates or the concrete elements. The author argues that the BASF masterseal 345 shows decent qualities but requires more testing before being applied at such a project.