Myeloma precursors (monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) and smoldering myeloma (SMM)) precede the development of active multiple myeloma. Understanding the genomic and immune mechanisms that underlie transformation to MM may be key to identifying a successful therapy. To this end, we designed a prospective observational study of MGUS/SMM patients to identify genomic, immunological, and clinical parameters that may predict disease progression, and to recognize potential therapeutic targets for MGUS and SMM patients at high-risk of progression.
 From December 2015 until April 2019, 132 patients were consented, 100 patients were eligible for the study (41 MGUS, 59 SMM) and included in this analysis. Patients met the current definition of MGUS/SMM per IMWG criteria and were followed at a minimum of every 6 months with standard blood work and urine studies. All patients had advanced imaging/bone marrow biopsy at baseline and after 3 years of follow up. Median follow up time is 24 months (12-48 months). As of 07/01/2020, ten patients (17%, 10/59 SMM and 0%, 0/41 MGUS) progressed to MM and two patients progressed to systemic AL amyloidosis (3%, 2/59 SMM and 0%, 0/41 MGUS). Eight pairs of CD138+ bone marrow samples at baseline and at progression were available and analyzed by flow cytometry using a pre-designed antibody panel. Whole exome sequencing has been performed on 76 samples (matched germline and tumor) from 38 patients (15 MGUS, 17 SMM without progression and 6 SMM that progressed). A total of 24/39 (62%) tumor samples were covered at >100x and 20/37 (54%) germline samples were covered at >50x. After quality control analysis, bulk RNASeq of 144 samples from tumor and microenvironment (TME) cells from 90 patients (38 MGUS and 52 SMM) were included in the analysis.
 Flow analysis showed upregulation of inhibitory ligands (PD-L1/PD-L2) and B7-H3, CD200, HLA-E, HLA-G and CD59 at progression compared to baseline in 8 paired tumor samples from SMM patients that progressed. (Figure 1A). WES data analysis showed mutations in KMT2C/E (6/38, 4 SMM, 2 MGUS), NRAS/KRAS (5/38, 2 SMM progressors, 1 SMM, 2 MGUS), and FOXO3 (5/38, 1 SMM progressor, 2 SMM, 2 MGUS). Notably, 5/6 mutations in KMT2C/2E were deleterious mutations, all FOXO3 mutations were truncating, and mutations in KMT2C/2E, FOXO3, and NRAS were mutually exclusive. Unsupervised clustering of CD138+ tumor cells RNAseq at baseline identified 3 distinct clusters (C1-C3). All SMM that progressed (n=6) belonged to C2. CD138- TME RNAseq baseline samples were separated into 4 clusters (C1-C4) and 9/11 progressed patients belonged to C2 with distinct expression profiles (Figure 1 panel B/C). Immune deconvolution of TME samples showed lower baseline counts of CD8+ and CD4+ memory resting T cells and higher CD4+ memory activated, gamma delta T cells and dendritic cells in patients with PD (n=11) vs no PD (n=73)(p<0.05). In progressors (n=11), monocytes and NK cells were increased whereas CD4+ naïve, gamma delta T cells, endothelial cells and fibroblasts were decreased at progression compared to baseline (p<0.05). In tumor cells at baseline (n=6 PD; n=27 non-PD), the expression of immune checkpoint genes CD80, CD40, CD70, IL-2, OX40, IFIT1/2/3 was lower and of CCL5 was higher in patients with PD vs stable disease (SD). At baseline in TME cells, PD patients (n=11) had lower expression of immune checkpoint genes CD44, IL7R, CL5 and higher expression of CD276, CD70, CXCL9 compared to non-progressors (n=73) (p<0.05). In progressors (n=11), increased expression of ICOS, CD80, TGFB1, GZMA, GZMB, CD86, HLA-E, HLA-F, CCL5 was observed at progression vs baseline (figure 1 panel D).
 Overall, we found extensive changes in the TME composition, in the expression of genes in immune pathways, and in the expression of immune checkpoints, both in tumor and TME samples at baseline and during disease progression. The results of clustering analysis suggest that the features of both tumor and TME at baseline could be possibly used to predict risk of disease progression. Larger studies and validation are needed. Treatment that targets changes in the cell composition and expression of immune checkpoints in myeloma precursor disease may be entertained as a possible therapeutic option.

 Manasanch: Novartis: Research Funding; Sanofi: Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria; JW Pharma: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Honoraria; GSK: Honoraria; Sanofi: Honoraria; BMS: Honoraria; Quest Diagnostics: Research Funding. Lee:Genentech: Consultancy; Regeneron: Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Research Funding; Sanofi: Consultancy; GlaxoSmithKline: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding. Patel:Cellectis: Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Nektar: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Oncopeptides: Consultancy; Precision Biosciences: Research Funding; Poseida: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding. Kaufman:Janssen: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Karyopharm: Honoraria. Bashir:Celgene: Research Funding; KITE: Other: Advisory Board; Amgen: Other: Advisory Board; Purdue: Other: Advisory Board; Takeda: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Acrotech: Research Funding; StemLine: Research Funding. Nieto:Novartis: Other: Grant Support; Astra Zeneca: Other: Grant Support; Affimed: Consultancy, Other: Grant Support; Secura Bio: Other: Grant Support. Qazilbash:Angiocrine: Research Funding; Bioline: Research Funding; Bioclinica: Consultancy; Amgen: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding. Berry:Berry Consultants LLC.: Other: Co-owner. Thomas:BMS: Research Funding; Ascentage: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; X4 Pharma: Research Funding; Xencor: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Other: Advisory Boards; Genentech: Research Funding. Orlowski:STATinMED Research: Consultancy; Founder of Asylia Therapeutics, Inc., with associated patents and an equity interest, though this technology does not bear on the current submission.: Current equity holder in private company, Patents & Royalties; Sanofi-Aventis, Servier, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen, Inc., AstraZeneca, BMS, Celgene, EcoR1 Capital LLC, Forma Therapeutics, Genzyme, GSK Biologicals, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Janssen Biotech, Juno Therapeutics, Kite Pharma, Legend Biotech USA, Molecular Partners, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Laboratory research funding from BioTheryX, and clinical research funding from CARsgen Therapeutics, Celgene, Exelixis, Janssen Biotech, Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.: Research Funding. Neelapu:Cell Medica/Kuur: Other: personal fees; Legend Biotech: Other; Calibr: Other; Incyte: Other: personal fees; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Other: personal fees, Research Funding; Merck: Other: personal fees, Research Funding; Kite, a Gilead Company: Other: personal fees, Research Funding; Takeda Pharmaceuticals: Patents & Royalties; Unum Therapeutics: Other, Research Funding; Karus Therapeutics: Research Funding; Novartis: Other: personal fees; N/A: Other; Precision Biosciences: Other: personal fees, Research Funding; Cellectis: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; Allogene Therapeutics: Other: personal fees, Research Funding; Poseida: Research Funding; Celgene: Other: personal fees, Research Funding; Pfizer: Other: personal fees; Adicet Bio: Other.


The construction of subways, hydroelectric stations and water substations is exposed to stray currents, which can accelerate concrete corrosion. The influence of stray currents on reinforced concrete structures is unclear. In this paper, the influence of concrete strength grade, reinforcement diameter and stray current intensity on the extent of reinforcement corrosion and calcium ion dissolution were investigated, and the damage of reinforcement and calcium ion corrosion to concrete strength was investigated by simulating a stray current environment and conducting an electrified acceleration test. The test results show that the higher the strength grade of concrete, the lower the stray current intensity and the smaller the corrosion rate and calcium ion dissolution rate of reinforcement; with the increase in the diameter of reinforcement the corrosion rate decreases, but the calcium ion dissolution rate is not affected by reinforcement diameter. The damage effect of reinforcement corrosion on concrete compressive strength is more obvious than that of calcium ion corrosion.


RFID(Radio Frequency IDentification) is appearing by point technology by Ubiquitous environment of new paradigm and Logistics` application But, RFID chip of this is high price and short bandwidth, low power and interference etc. can become technological problem This is getting into obstacle in common use. Reader and tag, Embedded software etc.. that are accomplishing standardization are imported paying most expensive royalty. This paper deals with a RFID cognition system that use PDA under ubiquitous environment to apply to Logistics system A RFID cognition system processes input/output of fundamental information attaching a tag onto products. And a RFID cognition system supports quick, correct and sqfe synthetic Logistics managerial system through construction of database. This can minimize logistics costs and improve the quality of customer service. A RFID cognition system has advantage that can widen range of application to area that cognition system of existent fixing style can not do. Also, it can expect economical effect through inexpensive system construction.


Research on which this report is based was financed in part by the U. S,
Department of Interior as authorized by the Water Resources and Development Act of 1978, (P. L. 95-467).


Potassium (K+) is an essential physiological element determining membrane potential, intracellular pH, osmotic/turgor pressure, and protein synthesis in cells. Nevertheless, K+ homeostasis remains poorly studied in bacteria. Here we describe the regulation of potassium uptake systems in the oligotrophic α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus known as a model for asymmetric cell division. We show that C. crescentus can grow in concentrations from the micromolar to the millimolar range by essentially using two K+ transporters to maintain potassium homeostasis, the low affinity Kup and the high affinity Kdp uptake systems. When K+ is not limiting, we found that the kup gene is essential while kdp inactivation does not impact the growth. In contrast, kdp becomes critical but not essential and kup dispensable for growth in K+-limited environments. However, in the absence of kdp, mutations in kup were selected to improve growth in K+-depleted conditions, likely by improving the affinity of Kup for K+. In addition, mutations in the KdpDE two-component system, which regulates kdpABC expression, suggest that the inner membrane sensor regulatory component KdpD works as a kinase in early stages of growth and as a phosphatase to regulate transition into stationary phase. Our data also show that KdpE is not only phosphorylated by KdpD but also by another non-cognate histidine kinase. On top of this, we determined the KdpE-dependent and independent K+ transcriptome as well as the direct targets of KdpE. Together, our work illustrates how an oligotrophic bacterium responds to fluctuation in K+ availability.


A collection of five memoiristic essays arranged about themes of family, womanhood and the African-American community with a preface. Among the experiences the memoirs recount are childhood abandonment; verbal and emotional child abuse; mental illness; poverty; and social and personal change. Essays explore the lasting impact of abandonment by a father on a girl as she grows into a woman; the devastation of family turmoil and untreated mental illness; generational identity in the African-American community. One essay describes the transition from the identity-forming profession of journalism to academia. The last essay is about complicated and conflicting emotions toward patriotism and flag-waving on the part of a black woman who has lived through riots, little known police shootings of students on black campuses, and many other incidents that have divided Americans.


BACKGROUND
The use of impression copings to make the final impression results in a master cast in which the soft tissue configuration around the implant platform is circular. Therefore, any soft tissue sculpting developed clinically by the provisional restoration is squandered.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this report was to present a method for the precise transfer of the peri-implant soft-tissue developed by a customized provisional restoration to an emergence profile cast.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The emergence profile cast is obtained from an impression of the implant-supported provisional restoration and poured with a soft tissue model material. It is used for the fabrication of the emergence profile of the implant abutment and the cervical section of the crown.

CONCLUSION
The technique described is simple, accurate, predictable, and does not require additional chair time for the customization of the impression coping or the fabrication of a new provisional restoration.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
This article describes a technique that results in an implant restoration that mimics accurately in its emergence profile that of the carefully crafted and customized provisional restoration. The reproduction of the soft tissue contour from the provisional to the final restoration results in an improved esthetic outcome of the final restoration.


Memetic algorithms arise as very effective algorithms to obtain reliable and high accurate solutions for complex continuous optimization problems. Nowadays, higher dimensional optimization problems are an interesting field of research, that introduces new problems for the optimization process, making recommendable to test the scalable capacities of optimization algorithms. In particular, in memetic algorithms, a higher dimensionality increases the domain space around each solution, requiring that the local search method must be applied with a high intensity. In this work, we present a preliminar study of a memetic algorithm that assigns to each individual a local search intensity that depends on its features, by chaining different local search applications. This algorithm has obtained good results in continuous optimization problems and we study whether, using this intensity adaptation mechanism with the scalable LS method MTS-LS2, the algorithm is scalable enough for being a good algorithm for medium and high-dimensional problems. Experiments are carried out to test the ability of being scalable, and results obtained show that the proposal is scalable in many of the functions, scalable and non-scalable, of the benchmark used.


This paper tests the hypothesis that different ethical belief systems are unrelated to the attitude an individual takes towards the environment. More specifically, the neoclassical economic approach is seen to require a belief in utilitarianism while many individuals may operate on the basis of a deontological or rights-based approach to decision-making. The concern with this relationship arises from the use of the cost–benefit analysis approach to environmental policy and the specific application of the contingent valuation method. Evidence is found to support the view that environmentalists choose to operate on a rights-based approach which rejects the relative welfare arguments of economics and positively attributes compensation to future generations for environmental damages. This implies that the contingent valuation of environmental attributes will lead to values which are biased towards technocentric optimists and against the environmental movement. In terms of policy, environmental management on the basis of totalling economic values is liable to be undemocratic because of the systematic exclusion of a section of the general public.


Managing extracranial arteriovenous malformations is challenging. Sirolimus (rapamycin) is increasingly being used when surgery and embolization are not advised. Because of its anti-angiogenic properties here we report all extracranial arteriovenous malformation cases treated with sirolimus in 2 French tertiary centers for vascular anomalies. The outcomes were efficacy (complete, partial, no response) based on arteriovenous malformation volume and necrosis/hemorrhage and side effects. We retrospectively included 10 patients (7 children). The sirolimus dose ranged from 0.6 to 3.5 mg/m2. Median (interquartile range [IQR]) treatment time was 24.5 (4.5; 35) months. Five patients showed no response and 5 showed partial response at a median (IQR) of 3 (1; 5) months followed in 2 cases by therapeutic resistance (i.e., progressive disease after 9 and 24 months of treatment). The most frequent side effect was mouth ulcers. This study shows poor efficacy of sirolimus for treating extracranial arteriovenous malformations.


The purpose of the study. The article covers the issues of genotyping of listeria by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its epidemiological significance. It is known that molecular genetic methods allow to detect specific microbial pathogens, virulence markers, antimicrobial resistance genes faster and with greater sensitivity than traditional culture methods. Therefore, the development of detection methods and genotyping by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is relevant. Materials and methods. For the detection and genotyping of Listeria, the technology of DNA chips is becoming increasingly important, which can significantly expand the possibilities of molecular detection. Chip technology can be used to simultaneously identify a whole range of pathogenic microorganisms, to determine genetic virulence markers, the relationship to antibiotics, subtyping, as well as to determine the quality of microorganisms in samples. A simplified version of DNA chip technology is multiplex (numerical) PCR, which is used to detect and genotype listeria. Studies have shown that to detect Listeria spp. using a polymerase chain reaction, it is advisable to use the gene iap (invasive associated protein), known for 6 species of listeria, which encodes a protein P 60 that is common to all species of listeria, including L.murrayi. Computer analysis revealed areas with 100% homology, from which primers were selected for PCR detection of all types of listeria. Areas of genomes characterized by 100% homology were selected for further analysis and labeling of primer sets. The sequences of the constructed primers List 1 and List 2 allowed to identify 6 species of Listeria (L. monocytogenes, L. innocua, L. ivanovii, L. grayi, L. seeligeri, L. welshimeri). Increasing the length of the primer leads to the increasing of specificity of PCR analysis. The greater the length of the primer, the smaller the specific gravity of one error of the unpaired nucleotide. The degree of primer homology is a key parameter that indicates the "quality" of a set of primers. Results and discussion. It is established that a significant disadvantage of the vast majority diagnosed using PCR test systems is the lack of internal control of amplification. The negative result of PCR analysis may be due to the absence in the clinical material of a fragment of the Listeria genome, and the fact that the PCR product was not synthesized for other reasons. They may be as the following ones: operator errors, erroneously determined reaction mixture concentrations and PCR temperature parameters. False-negative results can also be caused by factors that inhibit thermostable DNA polymerase. In its turn, such inhibition of the enzyme responsible for amplification is caused by a very large amount of DNA - template, pre-treatment of clinical samples. It has been shown that 80% of clinical specimens contain a substance that inhibits DNA polymerase. Therefore, it is necessary to use internal control, the positive result of the reaction of which indicates the successful amplification, that is the absence of false positive results. Conclusion. There are several reasons why the accuracy of PCR analysis does not reach 100%. Accuracy depends on the technology (variety) of PCR - the method used (ordinary or fluorescent), detection of amplicons, PCR homogeneous or nested, nested in one test tube or in two test tubes, as well as the level of quality of the survey (primarily on the technical parameters of the amplifier). The test systems used can be used for PCR detection and are recommended as standard primer sets for the detection and cross-species testing of listeria, which is important for the timely implementation of appropriate anti-epidemic measures in listeriosis


A touch input device (11) is provided with a touch sensor (10) and a control unit (60). The touch sensor (10) is provided with a substrate (101), a piezoelectric film (102), a plurality of first detection conductors (103), and a plurality of second detection conductors (104). The substrate (101) is a flat plate. The piezoelectric film (102) comprises PLLA that is uniaxially stretched, and is arranged on one main surface of the substrate (101). The first detection conductors (103) are arranged on the surface of the piezoelectric film (102) that is on the opposite side from the substrate (101). The plurality of second detection conductors (104) are arranged on the surface of the substrate (101) that is on the opposite side from the surface that comes into contact with the piezoelectric film (102). The control unit (60) uses a detection signal that is output via the first detection conductors (103) and the second detection conductors (104) to detect an operation position and pressing force.


A dual-mode (CDMA/AMPS) power amplifier has been successfully implemented by using a monolithic SiGe/Si heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) foundry process for cellular handset (824-849 MHz) applications. The designed two-stage power amplifier satisfies both CDMA and AMPS requirements in output power, linearity, and efficiency. At V/sub cc/=3 V,the power amplifier shows an excellent linearity (first ACPR<-44.1 dBc and second ACPR<-57.1 dBc) up to 28 dBm of output power for CDMA applications. Under the same bias condition, the power amplifier also meets AMPS handset requirements in output power (up to 31 dBm) and linearity (with second and third harmonic to fundamental ratios lower than -37 dBc and -55 dBc, respectively). At the maximum output power level, the worst power-added efficiencies (PAEs) are measured to be 36% for CDMA and 49% for AMPS operations. The power amplifier also tolerates severe output mismatch (VSWR>12:1) up to V/sub cc/=4 V, with spurs measured to be <-22 dBc in CDMA outputs at two specific tuning angles, but with no spur in AMPS outputs at any tuning angle.


Previous studies have found that the activation of stromal cell‑derived factor‑1 (SDF‑1)/CXC chemokine receptor‑4 (CXCR4)/β‑catenin signaling is associated with biological malignant potential in cancers. However, its function has been rarely reported in the progression of bladder cancer (BCa). The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of SDF‑1/CXCR4 signaling and β‑catenin in regards to BCa cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion. The methods used were MTS, colony formation, and Transwell migration and invasion assays which were performed in SW780 cells following treatment with the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3465, SDF‑1, the β‑catenin antagonist FH535, AMD3465+SDF‑1 or FH535+SDF‑1. The mRNA and protein levels were assayed by RT‑qPCR and western blotting, respectively. The effect of AMD3465 on SW780 cell xenograft growth in vivo was evaluated using a nude mouse model. According to our results, human BCa SW780 cells were identified as having high expression of CXCR4 and β‑catenin. Subsequently, we found that both CXCR4 and β‑catenin antagonists could significantly inhibit the proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion of SW780 cells. Notably, SDF‑1 could reverse the inhibitory effects of AMD3465 and FH535 on proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in SW780 cells. In AMD3465‑treated SW780 cells, the expression of c‑myc was significantly upregulated, and E‑cadherin was downregulated in the presence of SDF‑1. Furthermore, the tumor volume and average weight in the AMD3465‑treated group were evidently less than these parameters in the control group, indicating that AMD3465 can inhibit SW780 cell growth in vivo. In conclusion, targeting the SDF‑1/CXCR4/β‑catenin axis may be a potential therapeutic target for suppressing BCa progression.


A critical part of the national economy is small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SME owners are vital contributors to the overall economy. Due to their limited capital and assets, they are more vulnerable. In comparison to their contribution, the value of assessing SME owner's depression, anxiety, and mental stress has been very minimal during the COVID-19 outbreak. Firms were forced to close due to lockdown, and they faced substantial business losses. Thus, this study aims to investigate SME owners' psychological distress due to business losses during this pandemic. The study used psychological parameters: Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to examine SME owners' psychological distress. A total number of 217 owners were surveyed through a judgmental sampling technique using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed employing partial least square-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings showed that DASS-21 parameters and fear of business loss affected psychological distress. Besides, fear of business loss increases psychological distress, whereas government support lessens the distress. Theoretically, this study extended the scope of DASS-21 scale and contributed to the literature of psychology. In terms of policy implications, this study provides useful information for government, policymakers, and SME owners about the effects mentioned above.


There have been several attempts made in literature to develop access control techniques to stem data security problems. Many of these techniques had been found to have one deficiency or other. Hence, this study developed a Symbolic Attribute-Based Access Control (SABAC) system for data security in the cloud service environment. SABAC system was implemented by developing Hash-tag Symbol Authentication (HSA) algorithm using the Message Digest-5 encryption. SABAC utilizes a 3-Tier continuous authentication method by combining the use of username and password, HSA code, and real-time image monitoring and verification. HSA code is generated by combining 5-tuple user attributes and the string generated from the user's image using Obfuscation Technique. The concatenated string is converted to hexadecimal which serves as input to MD5 to produces a unique HSA code. SABAC was evaluated using three major security metrics of confidentiality, integrity, and avail-ability. The result of security metrics tests showed a confidence level of 99.993%, integrity threshold of 99.998%, and availability throughput of 150 users/second. This implies that SABAC is highly efficient for cloud data security. It shows that hackers would find it impossible to match any fake identity with valid HSA in the database. The study concluded that SABAC could be used for access control in a cloud environment for assuring data security. It was recommended that the SABAC system should be adopted by Cloud Solution Providers and Security Specialists.


A search for a neutrino flux difference between weekdays and weekend days was undertaken for the average week of the Super-Kamiokande-I (SK-I) Experiment, using the 5-day period version of the SK-I data taken from May 31st, 1996 to July 15th, 2001. Arbitrarily uneven distributions of live time during the run time periods were considered before rejecting the null hypothesis. Such live time distributions were built into a robust method that calculated time-weighted neutrino flux means. The purpose was to show that the calculated results were unaffected by any distribution of live time, and thus that live time had no role in rejecting the null hypothesis. A significant (p << 0.001) difference was found and the most obvious neutrino flux change from weekdays to weekend days can be summarized as follows: "Some neutrinos took the weekend off, especially on Saturday".


The bacteriological study of the middle ear effusion of one hundred cases of serous otitis media was performed. Results are discussed and compared to those reported in the literature.


The essence of the problem in this paper has been recognized in deterioration of public and residential space in the city, after deregulation of architecture in neoliberal context. This field is marked by increasing lack of rules-especially spatial standards in the architectural practice. Therefore, re-exploring the application of space standards in modern context is needed. The paper, thus, tries to give the answer to the following question: why contemporary architectural practice does not insist on standards for the design and planning any longer? Since the production of space in neoliberal context is powered by mighty individuals who tend to be unique and to manifest power, using the spatial standards in architecture is not welcome. However, neo-Marxist orientation tries to revive the critical reflection of reality, and its main task is to define the standards and types derived from the spatial context. Different approaches, both theoretical and practical ones are necessary requirements in profession. A clear visibility of method is required for problem solving. The wider population should influence the architectural theory and practice by common set of criteria/standards. Finally, both ideological orientations mentioned are based on those who produce urban space and not on those who speculates with it. University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture original scientific article approval date 06 04 2012


A non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism in the human SLC24A5 gene is associated with natural human skin color variation. Multiple sequence alignments predict that this gene encodes a member of the potassium-dependent sodium-calcium exchanger family denoted NCKX5. In cultured human epidermal melanocytes we show using affinity-purified antisera that native human NCKX5 runs as a triplet of ∼43 kDa on SDS-PAGE and is partially localized to the trans-Golgi network. Removal of the NCKX5 protein through small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown disrupts melanogenesis in human and murine melanocytes, causing a significant reduction in melanin pigment production. Using a heterologous expression system, we confirm for the first time that NCKX5 possesses the predicted exchanger activity. Site-directed mutagenesis of NCKX5 and NCKX2 in this system reveals that the non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism in SLC24A5 alters a residue that is important for NCKX5 and NCKX2 activity. We suggest that NCKX5 directly regulates human epidermal melanogenesis and natural skin color through its intracellular potassium-dependent exchanger activity.


The nuclear receptor liver X receptor (LXR) plays an important role in the metabolism and homeostasis of cholesterol, lipids, bile acids, and steroid hormones. In this study, we uncovered a function of LXRα (NR1H3) in regulating the human hydroxysteroid sulfotransferase SULT2A1, a phase II conjugating enzyme known to sulfonate bile acids, hydroxysteroid dehydroepiandrosterone, and related androgens. We showed that activation of LXR induced the expression of SULT2A1 at mRNA, protein, and enzymatic levels. A combination of promoter reporter gene and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that LXRα transactivated the SULT2A1 gene promoter through its specific binding to the −500- to −258-base pair region of the SULT2A1 gene promoter. LXR small interfering RNA knockdown experiments suggested that LXRα, but not LXRβ, played a dominant role in regulating SULT2A1. In primary human hepatocytes, we found a positive correlation between the expression of SULT2A1 and LXRα, which further supported the regulation of SULT2A1 by LXRα. In summary, our results established human SULT2A1 as a novel LXRα target gene. The expression of LXRα is a potential predictor for the expression of SULT2A1 in human liver.


Since the publication of the last Lebanese and Syrian classical flora, the only complete work on Lebanese flora is an illustrated book based on the same taxonomy and nomenclature with a few exceptions and some additions. Specifically on the Lebanese orchids, one book has illustrated orchids in the field with an unusual taxonomic point of view. Several Euro-Mediterranean monographs propose a conflicting taxonomy that is not always useful in identifying living specimens. Several years of exploration throughout Lebanon allowed the authors to build considerable knowledge of the orchid flora and its taxonomy. Other works made on adjacent areas completed the investigations and provided some useful indications to build taxonomic understanding and compile a preliminary checklist of Orchidaceae. Historical nomenclature was reanalysed from a modern point of view; recent critical appellations were confronted with biogeography and integrative evolutionary taxonomy, and some poorly known taxa are highlighted and their taxonomy is reinvestigated. A total of 51 species and subspecies are listed for Lebanon. Two new chorological records for Lebanon (Epipactis helleborine "subsp. praecox" nom. provis.; Ophrys alasiatica) and four new nomenclatural combinations (Androrchis × ehdenica, Epipactis helleborine subsp. turcica, Ophrys episcopalis subsp. libanotica, Serapias vomeracea subsp. levantina) are presented. At least 14 taxa are regionally endemic, seven of which are limited to two border countries, the other seven being too poorly known for conclusions about their biogeography.


As trade barriers are lifted in the Single European Market, the level of contact between European lawyers is certain to increase. A basic understanding of each other's technical and legal terminology is therefore essential and this dictionary is designed to fulfil this need. This dictionary of English, French and German legal terms is arranged in three sections to facilitate the finding of the appropriate entry. It includes basic legal terminology plus the most frequently-used law-related terms from banking, finance, insurance, industry and taxation as well as Latin and EC abbreviations. It should be useful not only to lawyers, but also to a wide range of others in commerce and industry, such as auditors, accountants and insurance company executives. The author heads the Swedish Ministry of Finance's translation and processing of EC directives, regulations and administrative provisions. He was formerly a member of the Belgian Translator's Association in Luxembourg.


In this paper the Evolutionary Method (EM) and the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), which are based on competitiveness and collaborative algorithms respectively, are investigated for plasmonic design. Actually, plasmonics represents a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field with numerous devices for physical, biological and medicine applications. In this study, four EM and PSO algorithms are tested in two different plasmonic applications: design of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based biosensors and optimization of hollow nanospheres used in curative purposes (cancer photothermal therapy). Specific problems-in addition of being multimodal and having different topologies — are related to plasmonic design; therefore the most efficient optimization method should be determined through a comparative study. Results of simulations enable also to characterize the optimization methods and depict in which case they are more efficient.


Heat transfer in solids provides an opportunity for students to learn of several boundary conditions: the first kind for specified temperature, the second kind for specified heat flux, and the third kind for specified convection. In this paper we explore the relationship among these types of boundary conditions in steady heat transfer. Specifically, the normalized third kind of boundary condition (convection) produces the first kind condition (specified temperature) for large Biot number, and it produces the second kind condition (specified flux) for small Biot number. By employing a generalized boundary condition, one expression provides the temperature for several combinations of boundary conditions. This combined expression is presented for several simple geometries (slabs, cylinders, spheres) with and without internal heat generation. The bioheat equation is also treated. Further, a number system is discussed for each combination to identify the type of boundary conditions present, which side is heated, and whether internal generation is present. Computer code for obtaining numerical values from the several expressions is available, along with plots and tables of numerical values, at a web site called the Exact Analytical Conduction Toolbox. Classroom strategies are discussed regarding student learning of these issues: the relationship among boundary conditions; a number system to identify the several components of a boundary value problem; and, the utility of a web-based resource for analytical heat-transfer solutions.Copyright © 2016 by ASME


noted that this artificial technique involves a large number of complications related to its use (metabolic and mechanical). Purpose To estimate the prevalence of metabolic and mechanical complications depending on the hospitalisation services requesting total parenteral nutrition (NPT). Material and methods Descriptive study of the nutritional complications of patients undergoing treatment with NPT in 2015. Patients older than 18 years who were in full follow-up by the endocrinology or pharmacy service of the hospital were selected. Mechanical complication is defined as that derived from catheter placement (phlebitis, septic,phlebitis, incorrect catheter placement, involuntary catheter leakage, extravasation, pneumothorax, haemothorax, haemomediastinum and venous thrombosis), and as a metabolic complication that is attributable to an excess or deficit of nutrients (sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, glucose, triglycerides and cholestasis). The main variable of the study was the percentage of metabolic and mechanical complications according to the requesting service. A descriptive analysis was performed through the percentage (%) for the qualitative ones. In addition, the Chi-square test was used to observe if there were differences between the groups. The analyses were performed using the statistical program SPSS/PC (version 24.0 for Windows, SPSS,Inc., Chicago, IL). Results NPT was prescribed for 346 patients, of which 140 had some type of nutritional complication. There was at least one type of metabolic complication in 131 patients and at least one type of mechanical complication in 41 patients. Surgical services (n=79) presented 97% of metabolic complications and 21% of mechanical complications; medical services (n=38), 87% of metabolic complications and 42% of mechanical complications; the oncological services (n=18), 100% of metabolic complications and 17% of mechanical complications; and medical-surgical services (n=5), 60% of metabolic complications and 100% of mechanical complications. Conclusion The hospitalisation service that presented the highest percentage of metabolic complications was oncology. However, the unit that presented the highest percentage of mechanical complications was the medical-surgical unit. The differences observed in the services were statistically significant, which means that it would be advisable to perform analytical controls and a closer monitoring of the patients of the medical-surgical and oncological services under treatment with TPN.


Hypothyroidism is a highly prevalent disorder and can substantially impact the well-being of an individual. Till date there is no single accurate optimal target zone for thyroid stimulating hormone concentration that exists in the context of replacement of thyroid hormone. Due to the gradually progressive nature and insidious onset of disease, it often remains unrecognized


'Alternative' medicines are becoming increasingly popular, and in this paper we describe our experience with alternative approaches to orthodox diabetes management. Four patients with insulin‐dependent diabetes reduced or stopped their insulin in favour of therapeutic approaches including prayer, faith healing, unusual diets, and supplements of vitamins and trace elements. This resulted in ketoacidosis in three, in one case life‐threatening; and weight loss and hyperglycaemia in the other. One patient developed serious retinopathy. Additionally, eight other types of alternative diabetic treatment are described, not as far as we know associated with such serious complications. These include homeopathy, reflexology, meditation, herbal treatment, 'cellular nutrition', 'subconscious healing', 'pearl therapy' (drinking milk in which pearls have been boiled) and 'astrotherapy' (tying pieces of coral around the arm). Diabetes is a chronic incurable disease, for which modern treatments remain somewhat unsatisfactory. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that some patients seek alternative treatments with more attractive claims. Diabetes health professionals need to be aware of the potential dangers associated with some of these treatments.


Detecting factual errors in summaries has been an important and challenging subject in summarization research. Inspired by the emergent ability of large language models (LLMs), we explore evaluating factual consistency of summaries by directly prompting LLMs. We present a comprehensive empirical study to assess the ability of LLMs as factual consistency evaluators, which consists of (1) analyzing different LLMs such as the GPT model series and Flan-T5; (2) investigating a variety of prompting methods including vanilla prompting, chain-of-thought prompting, and a sentence-by-sentence prompting method to tackle long summaries; and (3) evaluating on diverse summaries generated by multiple summarization systems, ranging from pre-transformer methods to SOTA pretrained models. Our experiments demonstrate that prompting LLMs is able to outperform the previous best factuality systems in all settings, by up to 12.2 absolute points in terms of the binary classification accuracy on inconsistency detection.


Background and Aims
Cannabinoid receptor stimulation may have positive symptomatic effects on inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] patients through analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. The cannabinoid 2 receptor [CB2R] is expressed primarily on immune cells, including CD4+ T cells, and is induced by active inflammation in both humans and mice. We therefore investigated the effect of targeting CB2R in a preclinical IBD model.

Methods
Employing a chronic ileitis model [TNFΔARE/+ mice], we assessed expression of the CB2R receptor in ileal tissue and on CD4+ T cells and evaluated the effect of stimulation with CB2R-selective ligand GP-1a both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, we compared cannabinoid receptor expression in the ilea and colons of healthy human controls with that of Crohn's disease patients.

Results
Ileal expression of CB2R and the endocannabinoid anandamide [AEA] was increased in actively inflamed TNF∆ARE/+ mice compared with controls. CB2R mRNA was preferentially induced on regulatory T cells [Tregs] compared with T effector cells, approximately 2.4-fold in wild-type [WT] and 11-fold in TNF∆ARE/+ mice. Furthermore, GP-1a enhanced Treg suppressive function with a concomitant increase in IL-10 secretion. GP-1a attenuated murine ileitis, as demonstrated by improved histological scoring and decreased inflammatory cytokine expression. Lastly, CB2R is downregulated in both chronically inflamed TNF∆ARE/+ mice and in IBD patients.

Conclusions
In summary, the endocannabinoid system is induced in murine ileitis but is downregulated in chronic murine and human intestinal inflammation, and CB2R activation attenuates murine ileitis, establishing an anti-inflammatory role of the endocannabinoid system.


Undoubtedly, managing student discipline is one of the concerns of higher education institutions in the Philippines nowadays.  However, despite the so many strategies to alleviate serious and not so serious offenses in EAC-Cavite, there have never been any established guidelines to evaluate student discipline occurrences and intervention as the basis for continual improvement.  This study evaluates the major types of student discipline and analyzes its kind of offense incurred by students for Academic Year 2018-2019 from the 14 schools in EAC-Cavite which are categorically divided into five (5) clusters.
This study uses the mixed methods of research using the data gathered daily by the Discipline Officers. The data were summarized using frequency and percentage or according to the number of offenses recorded each month and the recorded incidents per cluster. The Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was also conducted among 20 student offenders who voluntarily provide reasons of such occurrences.  The students analyzed and gave their possible solutions to improve their habits. Although this study is a nonexperimental, this implies that this evaluation documents the college-wide intervention and the role of the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) to improve their reporting technique on student discipline. Findings show that there were fewer occurrences per cluster after the intervention; however, for continual improvement purposes, this study recommends a continuous evaluation of the OSA's disciplinary procedures, intervention guidelines, and reporting strategies to enhance student services at EAC-Cavite.


Modern data and information systems usually contain considerable amounts of data and documents and thus provide a large amount of information. The automatic extraction of domain-specific information is all the more important in order to improve work with such systems. If information is available as free text information, machine processing can prove to be a difficult technical hurdle. State-of-the-art approaches use modern Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to solve such tasks. In this paper, we want to introduce a data-driven approach, applying an XML data model to an application-specific scenario, using different NLP methods, which are combined into a multidimensional pipeline. It is important to understand how certain NLP methods can be used and what their limitations are. Individual modern NLP methods are often not sufficient and resilient enough to solve complex information extraction tasks. Therefore, it has to be examined how such problems can be alleviated or circumvented by a combination of different NLP methods. As a distinction to categorical grammar models, all cases considered here should be available as free text. The approach presented in this paper is still a work in progress, yet first evaluation results will be given.


There has been considerable growing international concern with illegal forest activities over the last decade or so. Illegal forest activities are said to cause massive environmental destruction, deprive governments of billions of dollars in lost revenues and generally undermine the rule of law. The concern for illegal activities in forest that have resulted in deforestation has, in turn, led to increased studies in the existing forest laws. These studies have recently suggested that many forestry laws and regulations can discriminate against small producers and that a large number of people depend on small-scale illegal forestry activities to survive. It has, therefore, been postulated that enforcing these laws might potentially harm poor people. It is also feared that some government authorities would selectively target small producers, truck drivers and forestry workers rather than the big players who are responsible for most of the real problems. As a result of these concerns, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) commissioned exploratory studies drawn from six countries (Bolivia, Cameroon, Canada, Honduras, Indonesia and Nicaragua) to help think through these legal issues in practice and in different contexts. The studies were coordinated and reports synthesized into the present final report. The findings of the report can be summarized in the following thematic areas:


Network traffic analysis needs a lot of data which include much information. Predominating pattern state of traffic true and roundly has been an active and difficult research topic in the field of traffic analysis for many years. Up to now, simplex data analyzed, requirement of high dependence to analyst and the distortion of analyzed result because of some noisy data in the complicated network still make it not perform as well as expected in practice. In view of the situation, this paper proposes the distribution of traffic feature parameters as researching object and making a clustering with an improved algorithm to realize changing tendence and state of traffic. This method is used by making a test with much real data captured by SNMP agent, and the result of experiment indicates that it can eliminate disturbance in the fact of person basically and make a non- supervised analysis furthest. This analysis method is sensitive to changes of traffic pattern and the analysis result is effective with a general real-time requirement.


1 A method is described by which a car simulator can be used to measure, simultaneously, motor‐perceptual performance and physiological responses of human subjects under different levels of task difficulty or stress. 2 Motor‐perceptual performance was measured in terms of reaction times taken by subjects to carry out steering, braking and operation of traffic indicators in the simulator. Subjects were instructed to carry out the different driving manoeuvres by means of a command panel containing five coloured lights. Three levels of task difficulty or stress were devised. In level 1 only the light signals were used. In level 2 the driving simulator film was shown and all of the light signals reinforced the movements of the car in the film. Level 3 was similar to level 2, with the exception that whilst some of the light signals reinforced the movements of the car, others deliberately conflicted with it. 3 Physiological responses measured were heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and calf blood flow. Personality was also measured by means of the Cattell 16 personality factor questionnaire. 4 Analysis of variance of the performance of 15 subjects showed significant variation between the three task levels (P = <0·001 for steering reaction times; P = <0·01 for brake and indicator reaction times). In all cases the reaction times were longest for level 3, indicating that this was the most difficult task. The number of anticipated responses to steering, braking and traffic indicator signals was highest in level 2, while the number of corrections to steering and braking responses was lowest in level 2. None of these differences was statistically significant. 5 Of the physiological variables, the heart rate showed a progressive increase from task levels 1 to 3 but only those between levels 1 and 3 were statistically significant (P<0·05). 6 The results are discussed in relation to the validity of the method. It is concluded that by means of this method it is possible to produce controlled and reproducible degrees of stress and under conditions which are also suitable for the investigation of pharmacological agents upon it.


Code reuse attack (CRA) is a powerful attack that reuses existing codes to hijack the program control flow. Control flow integrity (CFI) is one of the most popular mechanisms to prevent against CRAs. However, current CFI techniques are difficult to be deployed in real applications due to suffering several issues such as modifying binaries or compiler, extending instruction set architectures (ISA) and incurring unacceptable runtime overhead. To address these issues, we propose the first deep learning-based CFI technique, named DeepCheck, where the control flow graph (CFG) is split into chains for deep neural network (DNN) training. Then the integrity features of CFG can be learned by DNN to detect abnormal control flows. DeepCheck does not interrupt the application and hence incurs zero runtime overhead. Experimental results on Adobe Flash Player, Nginx, Proftpd and Firefox show that the average detection accuracy of DeepCheck is as high as 98.9%. In addition, 64 ROP exploits created by ROPGadget and Ropper are used to further test the effectiveness, which shows that the detection success rate reaches 100%.


Humans divide themselves up into separate cultures, which is a unique and ubiquitous characteristic of our species. Kinship norms are one of the defining features of such societies. Here we show how norms of marital residence can evolve as a frequency-dependent strategy, using real-world cases from southwestern China and an evolutionary game model. The process of kinship change has occurred in the past and is also occurring now in southwestern China. Our data and models show how transitions between residence types can occur both as response to changing costs and benefits of co-residence with kin, and also due to the initial frequency of the strategies adopted by others in the population: patrilocal societies can become matrilocal, and neolocal societies can become duolocal. This illustrates how frequency-dependent selection plays a role both in the maintenance of group-level cultural diversity and in cultural extinction.


The combined use of electron microscopy and of selected area diffraction (SAD) has been applied to the study of montmorillonites from Wyoming and from Camp-Berteaux, of nontronite, and of hectorite. The study shows that only the elementary layers of the Wyoming montmorillonite and of the nontronite are single two-dimensional crystals. The elementary layers of the montmorillonite from Camp-Berteaux are formed by edge-to-edge associations of very small elements with mutual orientations of about 60° or multiples of 60°. The layers of hectorite are formed by edge-to-edge association of laths with fluctuations of orientation of the order of 10° rotation around adjoining edges. The SAD patterns of Wyoming montmorillonite show that the single layer plane symmetry group of this mineral is c1m1; nontronite layers belong to the symmetry group c2mm. The study of thick particles shows that in turbostratic smectites the layers are stacked with mutual rotations around the perpendicular to their plane. This mode of stacking explains the absence of hkl reflections. High resolution diffraction (HRD) patterns obtained with sample inclined to the electron beam show that only the structure of hectorite approaches the ideal model; nontronite and montmorillonite exhibit appreciable distortions with respect to the ideal model. HRD diagrams provide precise information for the refinement of the crystal structures of smectites


The position and speed estimation performance of the sliding mode observer (SMO) for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives under low carrier ratio degrades, due to the inherent chattering and enlarged control delay. To improve estimation performance, this paper proposes a quasi-proportional-resonant (QPR) based adaptive observer to obtain back electromotive force with adaptive harmonics cancellation. In this observer, the QPR controller is employed to eliminate errors between the observed currents and the actual ones in the αβ reference frame, replacing sign function and low pass filter (LPF) of the SMO to cancel the chattering, and harmonics immune performance can also be achieved thanks to frequency selection characteristic of the QPR controller. Besides cancelling the chattering, the proposed observer can also eliminate phase shift produced by the LPF, since the QPR controller is a zero phase-shift amplifier at the resonant frequency. Comparative experiments are carried out in a 3-kW PMSM drive, and the results validate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive position observer.


Background. Y-box binding protein-1 (YBX1) influences the onset and progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) remains unknown. The present study therefore sought to explore the mechanistic role of YBX1 in LSCC. Methods.Analyses of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and associated bioinformatics analyses revealed that YBX1 was upregulated in LSCC, and we further confirmed this result using primary LSCC patient samples. We additionally explored the impact of siRNA-mediated YBX1 knockdown on LSCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion using CCK8, wound healing, and Transwell assays. We then conducted interrogated miRNA databases and conducted subsequent luciferase reporter assays to confirm that miR-382-5p binds to YBX1. Additional studies of the mechanisms downstream of this miR-382-5p/YBX1 axis focused on detecting the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) signaling-related genes via qPCR and Western blotting. Results.We detected significant upregulation of YBX1 in LSCC tumors that was significantly correlated with advanced TNM stage and poor patient prognosis. Knockdown of YBX1 markedly impaired the proliferative, invasive, and migratory activity of Tu212 cells in vitro. From a mechanistic perspective, miR-382-5p was found to bind to the YBX1 3'-untranslated region and to thereby inhibit LSCC progression. We further confirmed that miR-382-5p negatively regulated YBX1 to inhibit proliferation via the MAPK/ ERK signaling axis in LSCC. Conclusion.Together, our results indicated that YBX1 is an important promoter of LSCC progression, and that miR-382-5p can suppress YBX1 expression and inactivate MAPK/ERK signaling. These findings may thus highlight novel and promising prognostic and therapeutic targets in the context of LSCC.


We present observations of low-energy O+ ion distributions obtained by the Freja satellite at altitudes between 1100 and 1600 km in the dayside high-latitude magnetosphere. The particle observations are obtained by the Freja ion mass spectrometer designed to observe ion energies up to several keV. We show that such instruments can also be used to accurately measure temperatures less than 1 eV, by operating the instrument at a fixed energy level of a few eV. When the mass spectrometer is operated at an energy approximately equal to the energy of O+ ions moving with the satellite velocity (several km/s), the satellite motion and the detector viewing directions become important. The idea is that the satellite ram effect together with different instrument viewing directions related to the satellite spin can allow sampling of different regions of ion velocity space. We find that isotropic O+ energization dominates at mean energies below about 0.4 eV, while energization perpendicular to the geomagnetic field dominates at higher energies. The isotropic ion distributions may exhibit a bulk motion up or down along the geomagnetic field, while the perpendicularly heated distributions are moving upward. The perpendicular energization occurs in the dayside auroral region including the cusp/cleft, the source region of the so-called cleft ion fountain. The perpendicular heating to a few eV can be associated with weak broadband low-frequency electric wave fields, similar to the stronger emissions causing O+ energization to hundreds of eV. However, at low energies other mechanisms may also be important.


In 60 patients with a morphologically ascertained chronic liver disease and 40 hepatologically examined patients with a healthy liver of a control group the quantitative determination of the immunoglobulin and the immunofluorescence-serological determination of antibodies against nuclei, smooth musculature and mitochondria were carried out. Only in one female patient with a chronic active hepatitis out of 51 patients with morphologically ascertained liver cirrhosis or chronic active hepatitis antibodies against nuclei and smooth musculature in a level of the titre of more than 1 : 40 and only in 2 female patients with a primary biliary cirrhosis antibodies against mitochondria could be proved in a level of the titre of more than 160. Titres of antibodies lying below were found in the group of patients with liver diseases and the control group in the same frequency, so that an autoimmune form of the cryptogenic cirrhosis could not be differentiated. The proof of antibodies against nuclei and smooth musculature of a high titre in connection with an isolated increase of the IgG is of special diagnostic importance for the autoimmune form of the chronic active hepatitis; the same is the case in the proof of antibodies against mitochondria of a high titre in connection with an isolated increase of IgM.


Interest continues to grow in alternative transport protocols to the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). These alternatives include protocols designed to give greater efficiency in high-speed, high-delay environments (so-called high-speed TCP variants), and protocols that provide congestion control without reliability. For the former category, along with the deployed base of dasiavanillapsila TCP - TCP NewReno - the TCP variants BIC and Cubic are widely used within Linux: for the latter category, the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) is currently on the IETF Standards Track. It is clear that future traffic patterns will consist of a mix of flows from these protocols (and others). So, it is important for users and network operators to be aware of the impact that these protocols may have on users. We assess the performance of DCCP CCID2 relative to TCP NewReno, and variants BIC and CUBIC, all in ldquoout-of-the boxrdquo configurations. We use a testbed and end-to-end measurements to assess overall throughput, and also to assess fairness - how well these protocols might respond to each other when operating over the same end-to-end network path. We find that DCCP CCID2 shows good fairness with NewReno under our test conditions, while BIC and CUBIC show unfairness above round-trip times of 25 ms.


: Metastatic tumors to the jaws and oral cavity account for 1% to 2% of all oral cancers. We report the clinical characteristics of the tumors in 11 patients among a total of 697 cases of oral cancer treated in the Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kyushu University Hospital from 1985 through 2010. At the first visit, 9 of the 11 patients had a history of primary tumor, while the primary cancer sites were uncertain in the other 2 patients. Six of the 9 patients had recurrence or metastasis of their primary tumors, and in the other 3 patients tumor spread was controlled. The tumor was detected in mandibular and maxillary bones in 9 patients and 2 patients, respectively. Ten of the 11 patients had metastases in the molar region. Five of the 8 patients with mandibular molar metastasis had symptoms of hypoesthesia in the lower lips and chin. Seven of the 11 cases were adenocarcinoma. Regardless of treatment such as surgical resection, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy, alone or combined, all patients had poor outcomes, and the average survival time from the first visit was 3.2 months.


The book begins with boulders. Whether dumped along access roads to Irish Traveller halting sites, or pitched at the threshold of a Palestinian refugee camp, these blockades are not just introduced as materials that restrict mobility, but also as materials that enforce nomadism. The nomadism that is paradoxically propelled by these inert objects signals not just placelessness, but also a task as Sisyphean as the boulders that prompt it: the formulation of a 'new' politics. This identifies Maurya Wickstrom's ambition in Performance in the Blockades of Neoliberalism: to move beyond political relativism and identitarian politics in the search for something else, an Idea, not so much of what politics is, but what it might be – what it could be. Neoliberalism is understood in the book as an increasingly hegemonic political force to be resisted through idealism and engagement with the creative playing spaces of performance. Economic imperatives are framed throughout as a defining and pivotal feature of neoliberal power that impacts on how governments and their citizens in Western democracies engage with their constitutions, freedoms and interactions. Wickstrom is particularly critical of a shift in terminological emphasis among governments and international organizations in the mid-1990s from so-called 'structural adjustment' programmes to 'Poverty Reduction and Growth' that seems to position 'developing' countries and the global poor 'as part of a consensus, as partners in agreement that the IFI [International Financial Institutions] were doing positive work' (5). It seems to me that the 'newness' of Wickstrom's politics lies in its aim to work outside of neoliberal contexts that thrive on the image of there being no alternative: an image that is supported by the alignment of neoliberalism with the palliative effects of humanitarianism. Her politics seeks to change the political terms in a way that is no longer governed by the principles of helping or empowering 'victims', such as Palestinian refugees. This is why she is distrustful of mixing humanist values and the economy, as attempts to distribute opportunity and equality imply a distributor and, therefore, one who gives and one who is given to: that is, one who has the power to give and one who does not (as Jacques Rancière underscores throughout his oeuvre).1 What is erased in this process is a notion of equality that exists before such distribution takes place. The fact that Wickstrom's politics borrows from a strong and influential legacy of political thinkers that includes Rancière, Giorgio Agamben and Alain Badiou also suggests that her mode of thinking the political is not new in itself; rather, Wickstrom's interest in 'thinking the political anew' might instead be interpreted as a circumstantial 'newness', rooted in particular contexts that are suffering the ill-effects of neoliberal hegemony. However, for Wickstrom, this particularity does not do away with accessing a shared, common and hopeful space for imagining other political possibilities. Although she enters into a lengthy philosophical and artistic heritage of thinking the political anew, her borrowing from that heritage is not where the innovation lies. The innovation, the newness, is framed as arising in particular material contexts that, despite their particularity, preserve the possibility of investing in immaterial, 'eternal' and imaginative spaces of possibility (34). This emphasis on the eternal is why Wickstrom, influenced by Badiou, chooses to capitalize the term 'Idea': to underscore the commonality that can be read into an imaginative and creative zone for 'thinking' politics differently. These contexts are described in a series of case studies, in both the Introduction and over four chapters, that are broadly grouped around theatre in Palestine, Theatre for Development, Irish Traveller theatre and, in a surprising, but enriching concluding chapter, Gunther von Hagens' anatomical exhibitions, Bodies: The Exhibition and Body Worlds – the latter pitched, controversially, as 'a place for a re-envisioning of the human through spectacle' (188). The 1 See, for instance, The Ignorant Schoolmaster (Rancière 1991). Performance in the Blockades of Neoliberalism


Over-activation or under-regulation of hemostasis plays a central role in the onset of diseases that represent leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the developed world. Current diagnostic technologies have had limited success in characterizing hemostasis due to several limitations including reagent variability, complicated sample preparation, and a disregard for contributions of cellular components of the blood. In this paper, we describe a novel technique, termed sonorheometry, which uses acoustic radiation force to monitor the dynamic changes in mechanical properties of whole blood during clot formation and dissolution in vitro. An adaptive force technique was used to adjust the pulse repetition frequency during each experiment, which improved the dynamic range of stiffness measurements to approximately five orders of magnitude. Experiments were performed to test the sensitivity of sonorheometry to platelet function, fibrinogen function, and fibrinolytic activity by titrating samples of whole blood with platelet inhibitor, Reopro (0–12 ∞g/mL); fibrinogen inhibitor, Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro (GPRP) peptide (0–8 mM); and plasminogen activator, Urokinase (0–200 Units). When 12 ∞g/mL of Reopro was added to samples of whole blood, clot stiffness, SMAX decreased by over an order of magnitude. Similarly, clotting times (TC1 and TC2) were increased and clotting stiffness decreased with additional GPRP. Clot lysis times (TL1 and TL2) decreased with additional Urokinase. These results indicate that sonorheometry is sensitive to all phases of hemostasis.


In 2004, van Camp et al 1 published the first large observational study describing cardiac valve dysfunction in patients receiving the dopamine agonist (DA) pergolide for Parkinson's disease. Non-calcific restrictive valvular heart disease was seen in 33/78 patients treated with pergolide but in none of the 18 control patients (who had never received ergot-derived DAs). In most cases, only mild valvular regurgitation (grade 2/4 or less) was detected but one patient required mitral and aortic valve replacement with repair of the tricuspid valve. Valve lesions were assessed using two-dimensional echocardiographic measurement of tenting distance and tenting area, which are methods of estimating the degree of tethering and restriction of valve leaflets previously validated in patients with ischaemic mitral regurgitation.2 Change in tenting distance correlated with cumulative dose of pergolide.1 Subsequent evidence further increased the strength of association between the DA agonists pergolide and cabergoline with restrictive valve dysfunction. In a large nested case-control study of 11 417 subjects aged 40–80 years prescribed antiparkinsonian drugs and listed in the UK General Practice Research Database, Schade et al 3 reported an incidence rate ratio of 4.9 with cabergoline and 7.1 with pergolide for new valvular regurgitation. No increased risk was noted with other antiparkinsonian medication (levodopa, selegeline, bromocriptine, lisuride, pramipexole and ropinirole). In an echocardiographic prevalence study, Zanettini et al 4 reported that valvular regurgitation was significantly increased in patients taking pergolide or cabergoline but not increased in subjects taking the non-ergot-derived dopamine agonists pramipexole and ropinirole. All 155 patients had Parkinson's disease, while the 90 controls were selected from relatives of patients, acquaintances of medical staff or from referrals for echocardiography to evaluate fitness before participation in …


Fungal keratitis is a leading cause of ocular morbidity. The incidence of keratomycoses and systemic mycoses is rising. Due to a large agrarian population and environmental factors in our country, fungi contribute largely to the environmental list of infectious intruders of the cornea. The present study was undertaken to find out various fungi causing keratomycosis. A total of 110 corneal scrapings from patients with corneal ulcers were included in the study. Samples were processed for direct examination using KOH mount as well as for culture on Sabouraud's dextrose agar (SDA). The isolates were then identified using standard microbiological procedures. Incidence of fungal corneal ulcers was maximum in the age group of 20-50 years (76.31%). Agriculturists constituted the largest group (71.05%). History of trauma was present in 73.7% of the patients. Fusarium sp were the commonest isolate (33.3%) followed by Alternaria spp.(23.3%), Aspergillus sp, Candida albicans.(16.66% each), Curvularia spp. (6.7%) and Penicillium spp. (3.3%). Fungal keratitis is an important cause of microbial keratitis with injury to the cornea being a leading predisposing factor. Early diagnosis and accurate identification of the pathogenic organism should be mandatory to initiate appropriate therapy and thereby reduce morbidity.


The purpose of this study is to illustrate the characteristics of soil organic matter (SOM) and partition coefficient . Humic substances (HS) from eight soils of varying properties were extracted by two different methods. The dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration was stabilized in 22hrs. The ratio of UV absorbance at 465nm and 665nm (E4/E6 ratio) for HS were similar pattern for 8 soils. The extraction with increasing pH increased dissolution of SON. The ratio of organic carbon (OC) associated with HA and FA (the HA:FA ratio) was varied widely in accordance with the soils and was highly correlated to OC of the soils. in modeling metal speciation in soils and soil solutions, assumptions that all DOC in soil solution is associated with FA and that HA:FA ratio in SOM is constant have been made. The results of this study indicate that the validity of these assumptions is questionable. By sequential pH extraction, the showed in a linear correlation with pH.


Objectives: To identify the effect of variations in power-liquid ratio and post-set temperature on water absorption and residual monomer concentration on growth of Candida albicans on self-cure denture base resins. Methodology: 60 self-cured acrylic discs (39 x 4mm) were made and divided into 3 groups each having 20 specimens. Group 1 consisted of discs fabricated at a powder-liquid ratio of 5.1:2.8 as recommended by the manufacturer. Groups 2 and 3 constituted specimens with variations in post-set temperatures and powder-liquid ratios respectively. Specimens from group 2 were soaked in four water baths at temperatures of 37°C, 47°C, 57°C and 67°C for 24 hours. Specimens from the temperature-controlled group 3 were fabricated at four different powder-liquid ratios by increasing monomer liquid volume by 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. The acrylic discs from control groups 1 and 3 were soaked at a constant temperature of 37°C for 24 hours. Residual monomer leeched out from disc into water was analyzed using Ultraviolet spectrophotometer. The variations in water absorption and Candidal growth were recorded. Results: Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the results. A moderately positive correlation was calculated for the association between powder-liquid ratio and Candidal growth (r = 0.67, p < 0.001) suggesting Candidal growth is higher at increased powder-liquid ratios having low monomer content. The correlation between the Candidal growth and the post-set temperatures was found to be moderately negative (r = -0.41 p < 0.001), indicating a decrease in Candidal cells on increasing post-set soaking temperatures. Conclusions: Candidal growth follows a positive linear relation with a decreasing powder-liquid ratio having cells increasing with an increase in liquid monomer content. Candidal growth follows a negative linear relation with post-set temperature soaking with cells decreasing with an increase in temperature.


We describe the case of an 81-year-old man with an acute anterior myocardial infarction (MI), complicated by anoxic encephalopathy, respiratory, and acute renal failure, who developed gradually marked reduction in the QRS complexes of his electrocardiogram (ECG) in the process of gaining 44 pounds, due to anasarca. Such ECG pattern has been recently associated with marked peripheral edema in the context of critical illness of varying etiologies. Our patient did not have a pericardial effusion, and his gradually increasing weight values correlated strongly with the corresponding sums of the amplitudes of the QRS complexes of the 12-lead ECGs (r =.92, P =.0029). The mechanism of this ECG phenomenon is attributed to a reduction of the overall transfer impedance of the conducting volume surrounding the heart, which leads to an attenuation of the potentials recorded on the body surface, due to a shunting effect of the edematous subcutaneous connective tissues. This reduction of the composite transfer impedance of the conducting medium is being mediated by the low resistivity of the water of the retained anasarca fluid.


Mixture of experts (MoE) has a well-principled finite mixture model construction for prediction, allowing the gating network (mixture weights) to learn from the predictors (explanatory variables) together with the experts' network (mixture component densities). We investigate the estimation properties of MoEs in a high-dimensional setting, where the number of predictors is much larger than the sample size, for which the literature lacks computational and especially theoretical results. We consider the class of finite MoE models with softmax gating functions and Gaussian regression experts, and focus on the theoretical properties of their $l_1$-regularized estimation via the Lasso. We provide a lower bound on the regularization parameter of the Lasso penalty that ensures an $l_1$-oracle inequality is satisfied by the Lasso estimator according to the Kullback--Leibler loss. We further state an $l_1$-ball oracle inequality for the $l_1$-penalized maximum likelihood estimator from the model selection.


Background: Neonates with abdominal wall defects are at an increased infection risk because of the defect itself and prolonged neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stays. Antibiotic prophylaxis until closure of the defect is common. However, infection risk and antibiotic use have not been well quantified in these infants. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of infants with abdominal wall defects (gastroschisis and omphalocele) admitted to a single-center NICU from 2007 to 2018. Demographic and clinical information, including microbiologic studies, antibiotic dosing and surgical care, were collected. Antibiotic use was quantified using days of therapy (DOT) per 1000 patient-days. Sepsis was defined as culture of a pathogen from a normally sterile site. Results: Seventy-four infants were included; 64 (86%) with gastroschisis and 10 (14%) with omphalocele. Median day of closure was 8 days [interquartile range (IQR) 6–10, range 0–31]. All infants received ≥1 course of antibiotics; median antibiotic DOT/infant was 24.5 (IQR 18–36) for an average of 416.5 DOT per 1000 patient-days. Most antibiotic use was preclosure prophylaxis (44%) and treatment of small intestinal bowel overgrowth (24%). Suspected and proven infection accounted for 26% of all antibiotic use. Skin and soft tissue infection (13/74, 18%) and late-onset sepsis (11/74, 15%) were the most common infections; 2 infants had sepsis while on antibiotic prophylaxis. All infants survived to discharge. Conclusions: Most antibiotic use among infants with abdominal wall defects was prophylactic. Infection on prophylaxis was rare, but 35% of infants had infection after prophylaxis. Improved stewardship strategies are needed for these high-risk infants.


In this paper, a novel technique based on magnetic field sensing is proposed for underground power cable detection and inspection. In this technique, the current sources of the underground power cables are reconstructed based on a set of measured magnetic field values at the ground surface level emanated by the electric currents carried by the underground power cables. The stochastic optimization technique developed with an artificial immune system algorithm is applied to realize the reconstruction. The principle of this method was proved and verified experimentally by our laboratory setup. Application of this method was demonstrated on the simulation models of 11- and 132-kV underground power cables. The reconstruction results of the electrical and spatial parameters of the cables match accurately with the actual source parameters of the cables in the models. This paper shows that the proposed method is able to remotely detect the horizontal locations and vertical depths of underground power cables with high accuracy at the ground surface level requiring no prior knowledge about the exact locations of the cables. Thus, it can be potentially used to develop a portable locator for providing a map of the underground electrical cables by simultaneous detection of multiple power lines. This method can also enable engineers to correctly inspect the operation states of the target cables during onsite maintenance. This technique is applicable to various laying conditions and cable configurations (three core or single core) of the underground power cables. In addition, this is an entirely passive method and does not need any signal injection into the cables.


Generative pre-trained models have achieved remarkable success in various domains such as natural language processing and computer vision. Specifically, the combination of large-scale diverse datasets and pre-trained transformers has emerged as a promising approach for developing foundation models. Drawing parallels between linguistic constructs and cellular biology — where texts comprise words, similarly, cells are defined by genes — our study probes the applicability of foundation models to advance cellular biology and genetics research. Utilizing the burgeoning single-cell sequencing data, we have pioneered the construction of a foundation model for single-cell biology, scGPT, which is based on generative pre-trained transformer across a repository of over 33 million cells. Our findings illustrate that scGPT, a generative pre-trained transformer, effectively distills critical biological insights concerning genes and cells. Through the further adaptation of transfer learning, scGPT can be optimized to achieve superior performance across diverse downstream applications. This includes tasks such as cell-type annotation, multi-batch integration, multi-omic integration, genetic perturbation prediction, and gene network inference. The scGPT codebase is publicly available at https://github.com/bowang-lab/scGPT.


Today's speech and audio coding and transmission systems are either analogue or digital, with a strong shift from analogue systems to digital systems during the last decades. In this paper, both digital and analogue schemes are combined for the benefit of saving transmission bandwidth, complexity, and of improving the achievable quality at any given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on the channel. The combination is achieved by transmitting pseudo analogue samples of the unquantized residual signal of a linear predictive digital filter. The new system, mixed pseudo analogue-digital (MAD) transmission, is applied to narrowband speech as well as to wideband speech and audio. MAD transmission over a channel modeled by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is compared to the GSM adaptive multi-rate speech codec mode 12.2 kbit/s (enhanced full-rate codec), which uses a comparable transmission bandwidth if channel coding is included and to PCM transmission in the case of audio signals


OBJECT
Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) induces neurological symptoms in intervertebral disc herniation (IDH). Recently, the existence of a positive feedback loop of IL-1beta, which encourages an inflammatory reaction or degeneration in the cells of tendon, has been reported. The authors hypothesized that there is a positive feedback loop of IL-1beta in the cells of IDH.

METHODS
Eight human intervertebral disc specimens were harvested during spinal surgery for lumbar disc herniation. The cells were stimulated in serum-free medium with or without exogenous IL-1beta. The messenger RNA (mRNA) was extracted for reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR to quantify the mRNA of endogenous IL-1beta, IL-6, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The cells were then stimulated in serum-free medium with or without exogenous IL-1beta, and then exogenous IL-1beta was removed. After 2, 4, and 6 days, the medium was collected, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the protein concentration of endogenous IL-1beta. The mRNA expressions of endogenous IL-1beta, IL-6, COX-2, and MMPs were increased significantly depending on the concentration of exogenous IL-1beta. The protein concentration of endogenous IL-1beta was increased over time.

CONCLUSIONS
There was a positive feedback loop of IL-1beta in the cells of IDH. Furthermore, the productions of IL-6, COX-2, MMP-1, and MMP-3 were upregulated as a result of the increasing concentration of IL-1beta in a positive feedback loop of IL-1beta. The authors concluded that this positive feedback loop of IL-1beta upregulated the production of mediators and thus can cause cessation of symptoms in IDH.


Thermal control of satellite propellant tank is achieved by patch heaters enabled by thermostat's behavior. It is important to attach the thermostat on the appropriate position of the propellant tank. However its position cannot be given with exact numerics because tank is spherical. In practice, the thermostat position is designated approximately in a relevant drawing approximately, thereby an engineer practices depending on his own experience and intuition. The sensitivity analysis for the position of thermostat is performed such that the influence on the thermal behavior and control of tank is examined quantatively. When assembling tank module, the reasonable performance on the thermal control is believed with possible human errors if the uncertainty in the position of thermostat is not quite large.


This is a brief bibliographical essay which surveys the literature published in Japanese during the past decade on various aspects of the Tokugawa economy. The purpose of the essay is twofold: the first is to present an annotated bibliography of selected books and a list of relevant articles for the convenience of scholars interested in sources relating to economic changes in Tokugawa Japan. The second is to present in summary form what appears to the authors to be the newly emerging consensus in the interpretation of these changes. The emerging consensus is an acceptance of the hypothesis that the Tokugawa economy and its institutions steadily developed, resulting in a rise in the standard of living for most of the population during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. A majority of Japanese economic historians now seem to agree that the peasant class also benefitted from the economic growth, and numerous scholars through exacting case studies have produced evidence to show that agricultural productivity was rising faster than effective tax rates. Other research has documented the rapid development of economic institutions, including the market, credit mechanisms, and guilds. The old theme of stagnation and demise for the late Tokugawa economy has been discharged in favor of a new theme of continuous growth and development.


This paper presents numerical and experimental results of heat transfer by radiation, convection and conduction in hybrid microelectronic circuits. We chose a heat source with a non-uniform temperature distribution, which agrees with typical cases frequently met in electronics. In this work we evaluate a complex heat transfer coefficient including the non-linear phenomenon for radiative and convective heat dissipation. We apply thermography to confirm the correctness of the simulation.


The present meta-analysis investigates the relationship between social-cultural right-wing attitudes and objective measures of cognitive style on a set of 124 unique samples, with a total of 29,209 participants. Intolerance of ambiguity and cognitive ability yielded relationships of moderate strength with right-wing attitudes, whereas only mixed evidence was obtained for rigidity, complexity, and field dependence. In the discussion, we compare the present weak to moderate relationships with a meta-analysis conducted by Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway (2003b), included predominantly self-report measures of cognitive style, reporting moderate to strong relationships between conservatism. The need to study cognitive ability as a basis of ideological attitudes is also discussed.


Abstract A crack identification method for beam type structures under moving vehicle is proposed. The basic of the method is to formulate damage detection as an inverse problem, and solve for damage locations and extents. With respect to this, an objective function is defined based on the difference of damaged beam dynamic response and the response calculated by the mathematical model of the beam. The optimization problem is solved by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) with linearly increasing inertia weight to obtain crack locations and their depths. By the numerical simulations, it was observed that cracks with depth ratio of 0.1 can be identified with reasonable error by the present method in spite of noise interference of 3 %.


Biomass of a mercury‐resistant strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa PU21 (Rip64) and hydrogen‐form cation exchange resin (AG 50W‐X8) were investigated for their ability to adsorb mercury. The maximum adsorption capacity was approximately 180 mg Hg/g dry cell in deionized water and 400 mg Hg/g dry cell in sodium phosphate solution at pH 7.4, higher than the maximum mercury uptake capacity in the cation exchange resin (100 mg Hg/g dry resin in deionized water). The mercury selectivity of the biomass over sodium ions was evaluated when 50 mM and 150 mM of Na+ were present. Biosorption of mercury was also examined in sodium phosphate solution andphosphate‐buffered saline solution (pH 7.0), containing 50mM and 150 mM of Na+, respectively. It was found that the presence of Na+ did not severely affect the biosorption of Hg2+, indicating a high mercury selectivity ofthe biomass over sodium ions. In contrast, the mercury uptake by the ion exchange resin was strongly inhibited by high sodium concentrations. The mercury biosorption was most favorable in sodium phosphate solution (pH 7.4), with a more than twofold increase in the maximum mercury uptake capacity. The pH was found to affect the adsorption of Hg2+bythe biomass and the optimal pH value was approximately 7.4. The adsorption of mercury on the biomass and the ion exchange resin appeared to follow theLangmuir or Freundlich adsorption isotherms. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Abstract This study aimed to evaluate intrarater and interrater reliability when measuring hip abductor strength in the supine position using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) (Study 1), and to elucidate the relationships between measured values and examiners' physical characteristics (Study 2). Three healthy examiners (1 female, 24 y.o. and 2 males 23 and 27 y.o) and 12 subjects (6 females, 24.5 ± 2.8 years and 6 males, 27.7 ± 3.5 years) participated in Study 1, and 20 healthy examiners (7 females, 22.3 ± 1.3 years and 13 males, 29.4 ± 8.2 years) and 2 subjects (1 female, 24 y.o. and 1 male 27 y.o) participated in Study 2. All healthy examiners were hospital employees. Hip abductor strength was measured by HHD with hand fixation and with belt fixation, and examiner age, sex, height, weight, BMI, and dominant hand grip strength were evaluated. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (1,1), a measure of intrarater reliability, was 0.89–0.95 with hand fixation and 0.96–0.97 with belt fixation. ICC (2,1), a measure of interrater reliability, was 0.76–0.79 and 0.90–0.93, respectively. In subjects with high muscle strength (the examiner's hand was moved), the examiner's dominant hand grip strength affected muscle strength values with hand fixation (standardized partial regression coefficient = 0.78, determination coefficient R2 = 0.61, p < 0.01). In subjects with low muscle strength (the examiner's hand was not moved), no variables had effect. When the muscle strength of the subject is weak, both methods can be used. When the muscle strength of the subject is strong, it is necessary to adjust the value obtained by the examiner's dominant hand grip strength in the hand fixation method.


The research paper establishes that the efficient resolution of a situation of uncertainty is achieved due to the motivational mechanisms for the manifestation of professional competencies. The psychological essence of the condition of uncertainty, the role of needs, intentions and professional goals in the restructuring of energy in the mental apparatus of a person, the place of motive as a conscious impetus of a person to specific actions are revealed. The author proposed the concept of the relationship of psycho-physiological and motivational mechanisms for the actualization of professional competencies in a situation of unexpected changes in the professional goals and objectives of the activity. The topicality of the work is due to the need to study the effect of motivation to act on the manifestation of professional competencies in a situation of uncertainty. An important goal of the research paper is assessed a theoreticalpsychological analysis of the motivational mechanisms for the expression of professional competencies of a subject of activity internally motivated for success in an unexpected professional situation, taking into account his personal, professional skills. The theoretical significance of our work is in the theoretical-methodological substantiation of the motivational model for the manifestation of the abilities of an extreme profession specialist's personality to apply professional competence in the conditions of uncertainty. It has been proved that the motivational factor of actualization of professional competencies in a situation of risk is fundamental in deciding to cope with unforeseen difficulties.


In Reply. —Dr Rosner and Drs Clancy and Brody 1 observe that the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs failed "to come to terms" in its report with "the inherent tension between caring for individual patients and populations of patients and the physician's role in resource allocation." 1 Clancy and Brody further state that the Council "fails to articulate a basic truth" that when physicians use resources for their patients, they are depriving other patients of those resources. 1 The Council's report directly acknowledged and responded to these concerns. First, the Council observed that, "[w]hen deciding whether to order a test or procedure for a patient," physicians in managed care are expected to "consider whether the slot should be saved for another patient or not used at all to conserve the plan's resources." However, as Rosner points out, this expectation can seriously undermine the physician's traditional role as patient advocate.


The segmentation of moving object in video sequence is a core technique of intelligent image processing system such as video surveillance, traffic monitoring and human tracking. A typical method to segment a moving region from the background is the background subtraction. The steps of background subtraction involve calculating a reference image, subtracting new frame from reference image and then thresholding the subtracted result. One of famous background modeling is Gaussian mixture model (GMM). Even though the method is known efficient and exact, GMM suffers from a problem that includes false pixels in ROI (region of interest), specifically shadow pixels. These false pixels cause fail of the post-processing tasks such as tracking and object recognition. This paper presents a method for removing false pixels included in ROT. First, we subdivide a ROI by using shape characteristics of detected objects. Then, a method is proposed to classify pixels from using histogram characteristic and comparing difference of energy that converts the color value of pixel into grayscale value, in order to estimate whether the pixels belong to moving object area or shadow area. The method is applied to real video sequence and the performance is verified.


A rare case of multiple small intestinal stromal cell tumours is described in a 79 year old woman who presented with melaena and anaemia. At surgery, about 40 lesions were noted on the serosal surface of the small intestine, the largest of these tumours being located in the mid-jejunum. This lesion showed central necrosis and haemorrhage with a sinus opening into the jejunal lumen. Histological examination of this jejunal tumour showed epithelioid and spindle shaped cells. A smaller biopsied tumour was a pure spindle cell lesion. Both lesions fitted the criteria for benign stromal cell tumours. Although skenoid fibres were identified, the immunophenotype was characteristically heterogeneous. Multiple benign small intestinal tumours can raise the spectre of metastases when seen at surgery, although their presence in this case does not seem to indicate this.


The poly(styrene)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (SEO) amphiphilic block copolymer, with two different molecular weights, has been used as a structure directing agent for generating nanocomposites of TiO2/SEO via the sol–gel process. SEO amphiphilic block copolymers are designed with a hydrophilic PEO-block which can interact with inorganic molecules, as well as a hydrophobic PS-block which builds the matrix. The addition of different amounts of sol–gel provokes strong variations in the self-assembled morphology of TiO2/SEO nanocomposites with respect to the neat block copolymer. As confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), TiO2/PEO-block micelles get closer, forming well-ordered spherical domains, in which TiO2 nanoparticles constitute the core surrounded by a corona of PEO-blocks. Moreover, for 20 vol% sol–gel the generated morphology changes to a hexagonally ordered structure for both block copolymers. The cylindrical structure of these nanocomposites has been confirmed by the two-dimensional Fourier transform power spectrum of the corresponding AFM height images. Affinity between titanium dioxide precursor and PEO-block of SEO allows us to generate hybrid inorganic/organic nanocomposites, which retain the optical properties of TiO2, as evaluated by UV–vis spectroscopy.