Evaluating the causal effect of recommendations is an important objective because the causal effect on user interactions can directly leads to an increase in sales and user engagement. To select an optimal recommendation model, it is common to conduct A/B testing to compare model performance. However, A/B testing of causal effects requires a large number of users, making such experiments costly and risky. We therefore propose the first interleaving methods that can efficiently compare recommendation models in terms of causal effects. In contrast to conventional interleaving methods, we measure the outcomes of both items on an interleaved list and items not on the interleaved list, since the causal effect is the difference between outcomes with and without recommendations. To ensure that the evaluations are unbiased, we either select items with equal probability or weight the outcomes using inverse propensity scores. We then verify the unbiasedness and efficiency of online evaluation methods through simulated online experiments. The results indicate that our proposed methods are unbiased and that they have superior efficiency to A/B testing.


Knowledge of root traits associated with drought tolerance is important for further understanding drought tolerance mechanisms of the whole plant. The experiment was designed to investigate effects of drought stress on root physiological activities of six cultivars (Kentucky.31, Falcon II, Houndog V, Phoenix, Rebel Jr., and Bonsai) of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) varying in drought resistance. Grasses were grown in well-watered or drying (nonirrigated) soil for 35 d in a greenhouse. Drying reduced root length and dry mass in the 0- to 20-cm layer for all six cultivars. Root length and dry mass in the 40- to 60-cm layer was enhanced for Houndog V, Falcon II, and Kentucky-31; was not affected for Phoenix and Bonsai; and was reduced for Rebel Jr. by soil drying. Water uptake rates for Falcon II and Kentucky-31 decreased with soil drying in the 0- to 20cm layer but increased in the 40- to 60-cm layer. Soil drying limited water uptake by Rebel Jr. in both layers. Drought stress increased root mortality in the 0- to 20-, 20- to 40-, and 40- to 60-cm layers, but the increase was most dramatic in the surface soil layer. The increase in root mortality in each soil layer was most severe for Rebel Jr. and least severe for Kentucky-31. Root death of tall fescue cultivars during drought was positively correlated with root desiccation, as evidenced by severe leakage of organic solutes from roots in drying soil. Carbohydrate supply to roots was not a contributor to root death during drought stress. This was supported by the increased or unaffected total nonstructural carbohydrates in both shoots and roots, and the increased C allocation to roots under soil drying conditions.


Aim . To study gender and age aspects of epilepsy in patients with localization-related and generalized forms of epilepsy in the village of Mashtaga, Baku city. Material and methods . The gender structure of epilepsy in the village study was conducted simultaneously with a cohort pro- and retrospective research of its epidemiology at the United City Hospital (OGB) No. 7 in the village of Mashtaga and at the Department of Neurology of the Educational and Therapeutic Corps of AMU during the period from 2016 till 2019. Psychoemotional state (Ziqmond scale), severity of seizures (NHS3 scale), quality of life (QOLIE-10 questionnaire) were studied. For statistical processing, Fisher LSD and Pearson's rank correlation coefficient were used at the level of significant results — p < 0.05. Results and discussion . Among 197 patients with epilepsy, 121 (61.4%) men and 76 (38.6%) women were examined. Most of them were accounted for localization-related epilepsy — 129 people (65.4%). 68 patients (33.5%) suffered from generalized epilepsy. The indigenous (37,505 people) and nonindigenous (8295 people) population were represented mainly by Azerbaijanis. The number of male patients with SPE exceeded the number of females (χ 2 = 8.515; p = 0.004), (p < 0.05). There were more male patients with HE (41 (60.3%)) than females (27 (39.7%)). The severity of seizures, evaluated with the use of the NHS3 scale, was higher in male patients than in females. The psychoemotional state according to the Ziqmond scale in female patients from non-indigenous inhabitants was lower (9.05 ± 0.30; m = 6, M = 13) than in those of indigenous (8.83 ± 0.21; m = 5, M = 12), (p = 0.046). Assessment of the quality of life of patients with epilepsy according to QOLIE-10, did not reveal any gender diff erence. Conclusions . A gender-specific approach to the condition of patients with epilepsy will contribute to the improvement of both, clinical and psychoemotional parameters, thereby having a positive effect on the quality of life.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of a high-protein (HP) weight loss diet compared with a lower-protein (LP) diet on fat and lean tissue and fasting and postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
Replacing dietary protein for carbohydrate (CHO) during energy restriction and weight loss has been effective in sparing lean mass and improving insulin sensitivity in obese subjects but has not been tested in subjects with type 2 diabetes. We compared an HP diet (28% protein, 42% CHO, 28% fat [8% saturated fatty acids, 12% monounsaturated fatty acids, 5% polyunsaturated fatty acids]) with an LP diet (16% protein, 55% CHO, 26% fat [8% saturated fatty acids, 11% monounsaturated fatty acids, 5% polyunsaturated fatty acids]) in 54 obese men and women with type 2 diabetes during 8 weeks of energy restriction (1,600 kcal) and 4 weeks of energy balance. Body composition was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at weeks 0 and 12.

RESULTS
Overall, weight loss of 5.2 +/- 1.8 kg was achieved independently of diet composition. However, women on the HP diet lost significantly more total (5.3 vs. 2.8 kg, P=0.009) and abdominal (1.3 vs. 0.7 kg, P=0.006) fat compared with the women on the LP diet, whereas, in men, there was no difference in fat loss between diets (3.9 vs. 5.1 kg). Total lean mass decreased in all subjects independently of diet composition. LDL cholesterol reduction was significantly greater on the HP diet (5.7%) than on the LP diet (2.7%) (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Both dietary patterns resulted in improvements in the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile as a consequence of weight loss. However, the greater reductions in total and abdominal fat mass in women and greater LDL cholesterol reduction observed in both sexes on the HP diet suggest that it is a valid diet choice for reducing CVD risk in type 2 diabetes.


PURPOSE
We evaluated the effect of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibition by using 1,5-isoquinolinediol (ISO) on corneal epithelial innervation in diabetic rats.

METHODS
ISO (3 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) or vehicle was administered to rats with diabetes induced by streptozotocin for 4 weeks. Epithelial innervation, epithelial wound healing, and corneal sensation were evaluated in diabetic rats (DM rats), diabetic rats treated with ISO (DM-ISO rats), and nondiabetic (non-DM) rats. The density of epithelial innervation was calculated separately as nerve terminals and sub-basal nerve plexus by analyzing the images of whole-mount corneas. Healed areas of epithelial defect were measured at 0, 18, and 36 hours after creating a 4-mm wound on the cornea. Corneal sensitivity test was conducted using a Cochet-Bonnet handheld esthesiometer. Additionally, PARP1 and poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated polymers (pADPr) as its products, were identified in trigeminal ganglions (TGs) by Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence staining.

RESULTS
In DM rats, the density of nerve terminals (5.57% ± 0.94%) and sub-basal nerve plexus (22.08 ± 1.78 mm/mm(2)) was significantly reduced in comparison with that in DM-ISO rats (8.64% ± 1.42%, 30.82 ± 2.01 mm/mm(2), respectively) and non-DM rats (9.02 ± 1.14%, 34.77 ± 4.45 mm/mm(2), respectively). The percentages of healed area of the epithelial defects at 18 and 36 hours were significantly smaller in DM rats (23.8 ± 5.2%, 53.2 ± 4.6%, respectively) than in DM-ISO rats (43.2 ± 1.4%, 75.8 ± 2.2%, respectively) and non-DM rats (48.1 ± 8.6%, 86.1 ± 3.3%, respectively). Corneal sensitivity decreased in DM rats (51.1 ± 0.3 mm) but not in DM-ISO rats (57.8 ± 0.2 mm). There were no differences between parameters in DM-ISO rats and those in non-DM rats.

CONCLUSIONS
Diabetic corneas showed loss of epithelial innervation, resulting in delayed epithelial healing and decreased corneal sensitivity. Inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) with 1,5-isoquinolinediol alleviated these diabetes-induced alterations in the corneal epithelium in the diabetic rats.


All important theories of impurity resistivity each give one of two results. These two results coincide for zero temperature but differ for higher temperatures. The electron-electron scattering does not give a direct contribution to the resistivity. However, it has a indirect effect. It affects the occupation numbers of the electron states and thereby modifies the impurity scattering. The two results discussed are both obtained in the absence of explicit electron-electron scattering. The solution of the Boltzmann equation in absence of electron-electron scattering gives one of two results. In the limit of strong electron-electron scattering the second result is obtained; strong electron-electron interaction leads to full thermalisation in the centre-of-mass system of the carriers. Thus the two results are the extreme limits of the results from the Boltzmann equation for varying strength of the electron-electron scattering. The authors make a realistic estimate of the electron-electron scattering-rate and calculate the Boltzmann result for doped GaAs.


The article argues that the productive discussion of the nature of democracy is impossible without defining the concept of power. The author states that the power is a set of possibilities, which allows to determine its own destiny. All types of power elites are primarily the power over their own destiny, which includes the power over the destiny of others. The power of elite in the sense of "power over their own destiny" always includes power over other social groups and individuals, and finally over the "people". Therefore, the power of elites, especially in traditional societies includes a clear element of what is called the "dominance", i.e. the relationship, in which the power of one affect the interests of others, limiting the ability of the latter to conduct a truly human life. In addition, "people's power" – is not the people's power over there selves, but is a power over their own destiny, which implies constant challenging the right of the elites to determine the destiny "of the masses". "Demos" has to fight for power over its destiny with those who believe by default that they should have power over the destiny of the people with lower origin or social status. This struggle takes place in a broad scale – from the constant resistance towards "cultural hegemony" of the elites (the struggle for the mental independence) up to open ideological and armed confrontation. Therefore, the struggle for democracy is always a struggle for the recognition of one more group for not formal but real equality, i.e. for possessing the complex of possibilities, which provide power in a broadest sense. This is a fight for the denial of the power in one's favor by those who include the right over one's destiny in their understanding of power. Thus, democracy is created not by the elite (for which such result is unexpected and unintentional), or, at least, not only by the elite, but by the elite together with the citizens when all parties pursue different goals.


Thin overlayers of Na, K. Rb, and Cs on different sp-metal substrates have been investigated using photo-electron spectroscopy. The alkali core levels show clearly resolved binding-energy shifts between the surface layer, the intermediate layer(s), and the interface layer. The magnitude of these shifts depends on sp metal and on alkali metal. The layer-resolved core-level binding-energy shifts are well reproduced by models based on a thermodynamical description. For three-layer alkali films the core-level binding energy of the intermediate layer is found to exhibit a small but significant shift between different sp-metal substrates. A simple relationship between the core-level binding-energy shift for the interface layer and the difference in rs value between the sp substrate and the adsorbate is shown to exist. (Less)


T lymphocytes are thought to cooperatively interact with monocytes to produce colony-stimulating factors (CSF). However, little is known about monocyte-mediated signals leading to CSF-secretion by T lymphocytes, although soluble monocyte products have been implicated. We have employed monoclonal antibody anti-T3B covalently coupled to CnBr-activated Sepharose 4B beads, to show that multimeric ligation of T cell antigen receptor leads to T cell receptiveness to interleukin 1 (IL-1), as indicated by T cell production of CSF, which induces growth of myeloid progenitor cells into neutrophil, eosinophil, and monocyte colonies. To investigate the molecular basis of these findings, total RNA was extracted from T3B Sepharose-primed and IL-1-stimulated T lymphocytes and probed for granulocyte-monocyte-CSF (GM-CSF), granulocyte-CSF (G-CSF), and monocyte-CSF (M-CSF) mRNA. GM-CSF, but not G-CSF or M-CSF, messages were detected. Nuclear "run on" assays revealed that IL-1 action is effective primarily at the level of GM-CSF gene transcription. These results suggest a previously unrecognized role of IL-1 in the regulation of GM-CSF secretion by T cells.


This paper presents an innovative method, called the mode-exciting method, to solve Lamb wave-scattering problems in an infinite plate. In this method, a set of Lamb wave modes is excited by appropriate boundary conditions given on the virtual edges of a finite plate. After solving numerically the elastodynamic problem defined in the finite domain, the numerical solution is decomposed into Lamb wave modes. The Lamb wave modes constitute a system of equations, which can be used to determine the scattering coefficients of Lamb waves for the original problem in an infinite plate. The advantage of the mode-exciting method is that a well-developed numerical method such as finite-element (FEM) or boundary element (BEM) can be used in the elastodynamic analysis for the finite region without any modification like coupling with other numerical techniques. In numerical examples, first the error estimation of the mode-exciting method is discussed by considering three types of error indicators. It is shown that among them, the power ratio of nonpropagating modes to propagating modes is the most suitable for the error estimation. Numerical results are then shown for scattering coefficients as a function of nondimensional frequency for edge reflection and crack scattering problems.


Aorta–right atrial tunnel is a rare entity characterized by a iatrogenic vascular fistula, which connects aortic root and right atrium. It is frequently associated with congestive heart failure (HF).

 A 54 y female with an history of atrial septal defect (ASD) type ostium secundum closure and a recent mitral and tricuspid annuloplasty surgery, presents to the hospital with significant decrease in exercise tolerance and progressive shortness of breath. At the presentation, physical examination was significant for tachycardia, continuous murmur over precordium and lower extremity edema. ECG showed right ventricular pressure overload with repolarization abnormality. TTE showed moderate systolic flattening of the septum and dilated right sections. Non coronary cusp of aortic valve demonstrated a perforation extending to the right atrium (RA). ETE confirmed the connection between non–coronary aortic cusp and RA, furthermore revealed unkown sinus venosus type ASD. TC angiography showed a marked dilation of the pulmonary artery trunk (egg and banana sign) and a connection between aorta and RA. She was treated with surgical closure of aorta– right atrial tunnel and ASD through detached and pledget stitch closure. Follow–up reveals significant functional recovery of shortness of breath and exercise tolerance.

 Aorta– right atrial tunnel is a rare entity characterized by a vascular fistula, which connects one of the sinuses of Valsalva and the RA. It is a rare complication of tricuspid plastic surgery. It is classified according to its relation to the aorta to anterior or posterior. The clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic continuous murmur to the symptoms of right sided HF. In our case, the presence of ASD accelereted and worsened the manifestations of right HF. It is usually diagnosed by TTE or ETE, TC angiography and aortography. The treatment of this condition is important even in asymptomatic cases due to the risk of aortic valve dysfunction, likely regurgitation, congestive right sided HF followed by left sided HF, calcification, infective endocarditis, aneurysmal dilatation and pulmonary hypertension.

 The possibility of complications of aorta–right atrium fistula necessitates early therapy, even in asymptomatic patients or those with a hemodynamically insignificant shunt. Available treatment is surgical closure. It has a high mortality rate if it is not diagnosed adequately and surgically treated without delay.


A number of literary groups existed in Latvian literature at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. The literary groups had at least two of the following elements: literary manifestos or programmatic articles, media publications, and a definite circle of authors. The defender of the leftist ideas in the political and aesthetic respect was the literary group "Trauksme" ("Alert"). The magazine was irregularly published from November 1928 until January 1931; however, the group actively existed until May 1930. The editorial board of the magazine consisted of Pēteris Ķikuts, Jānis Grots, and Jānis Plaudis. In the first issue of the magazine they published a programmatic article "We Exist". In this article it was aggressively declared what the members of the group were for or against. They were in favour of the social function of literature. The most important theoreticians of the group were Pēteris Ķikuts, who stressed the affiliation of the group with constructivism, and Jānis Plaudis, who examined the issue of the present. The poetry of the "Trauksme" group members was characterised by an opposi tion of criticism and utopia. They took over the sharp contrasts of expressionism; however, they made these contrasts socially and sometimes also politically concrete. In order to reveal a new reality, the group "Trauksme" chose to depict the city. The authors turned to suburbs and port areas, factories and working-class dwellings. The favourite images of their poetry were the beggars and the poor. Their utopian ideas were connected with the ideas of industrialisation of the world, a working-class state and the East as a space for the birth of a new and creative culture. The members of the group made the East concrete by the concept of China and the socially lowest classes of its society.


Steps and terraces on GaAs (001) vicinal surfaces misoriented towards (111) or (11̄1) are studied after MBE growth for a large range of misorientation angle (0.2° to 2°) using ex situ contact mode AFM. The terrace width distribution and correlation length are well explained by thermodynamical equilibrium of interacting steps. The step-step interaction is much larger than in elemental materials and is dominated by dipole rather than elastic interaction. Step bunching is never observed on clean surfaces for any misorientation. However, for Si-doped layers, the surface disorder increases and formation of macrosteps occurs at very high doping.


ABSTRACT A continuation method, accompanied with a linear stability analysis, is employed to investigate the bi-furcation diagram of the flow solutions, as well as the multiple flow states in a cavity with different aspect ratios for parallel motion of two facing lids. The Reynolds number proportional to the wall velocity is used as the continuation parameter, and the evolution of the bifurcation diagrams in cases with different aspect ratios is illustrated. The induced flow patterns are highly dependent upon both the aspect ratios and the moving velocity of the walls. Three different types of bifurcation diagrams and their corre-sponding flow states are classified according to the aspect ratios. One stable symmetric flow state and one stable asymmetric flow state are identified. The stable asymmetric flow state is obtained at a high aspect ratio and a low Reynolds number. Meanwhile, the regions of stable and unstable flows are dis-tinguished according to the different aspect ratios.


Augmented tactile and performance feedback has been used to (re)train a modified lifting technique to reduce lumbar spine flexion, which has been associated with low back disorder development during occupational repetitive lifting tasks. However, it remains unknown if the presence of trunk extensor neuromuscular fatigue influences learning of this modified lifting technique. Therefore, we compared the effectiveness of using augmented tactile and performance feedback to reduce lumbar spine flexion during a repetitive lifting task, in both unfatigued and fatigued states. Participants completed repetitive lifting tests immediately before and after training, and one-week later, with half of the participants completing training after fatiguing their trunk extensor muscles. Both groups demonstrated learning of the modified lifting technique as demonstrated by increased thorax-pelvis coordination variability and reduced lumbar range of motion variability; however, experiencing trunk extensor neuromuscular fatigue during lift (re)training may have slight negative influences on learning the modified lifting technique.


Objective: To evaluate the role of hepatitis B and C in the pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis.
Design: An observational study.
Place and Duration of Study: The present study was conducted in the medical wards of Military Hospital, Rawalpindi from Ist January 2002 to 24th September 2004.
Patients and Methods: Six hundred and fifty patients admitted in the medical wards of Military Hospital Rawalpindi were evaluated for seromarkers of Hepatitis B and C. Viral markers studied were anti HCV, HBs Ag anti HDV, anti HBcIgG, anti HBs, and HBeAg.
Results: One hundred and eighty two out of 650 patients were positive for HBsAg positive and 468 patients were negative for HBsAg. Anti HBcIgG was positive in 345 and anti HBs in 322 of HBsAg negative patient. HBeAg was present in 45 and anti HDV in 26 of HBsAg positive patients. Anti HCV was positive in 455 (70%) patients and no seromarkers were seen in 52 patients.
Conclusion: It was evident from the seromarkers that exposure to hepatitis B and C had occurred but which one was responsible for cirrhosis was hard to determine. In as much as vaccine against hepatitis B is available, mass vaccination in the population may be consideration to prevent cirrhosis due to hepatitis B virus.


While attending university is a conceivably stressful situation, there is growing evidence that a sizable proportion of students suffer from mental health issues. The present study aims to observe the mental health issues, perceived stress, and personality traits among Bangladeshi university students well as to identify whether personality traits are associated with mental health status or perceived stress among university students. 300 conveniently sampled university students participated in a web-based cross-sectional survey that collected demographic information as well as results from the Bangla GHQ-12, Bangla PSS-10, and Bangla BFPT-44 scales. The average score of mental health-related issues and perceived stress was 15.91 and 20.20, respectively. Neuroticism was significantly associated with mental health issues (B = .473, AR2 = .423, 95% CI: .450 to .690) as well as with stress (B = .401, AR2 = .222, 95% CI: .211 to .382). Agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness were also found to be significantly associated with mental health issues and stress (p<.001). Since neuroticism is associated with a higher risk of mental health issues and higher levels of perceived stress in students, and extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness are associated with a lower risk, this information can be used to design preventative and educational programs that focus on these specific personality traits.
Dhaka Univ. J. Biol. Sci. 32(2): 233-241, 2023 (July)


Introduction: Streptomycin and Kanamycin, an aminoglycosidic antibiotic, is known to destroy the ventral cochlear nuclei of brainstem in man. Ototoxicity is well known side effect of kanamycin, the effect on central nervous system in general and central auditory pathway in particular is still unclear. Subjects and Methods: Thirty albino rats were divided into three groups I, II and III of ten animals each. Group III was control. Group I and II received Streptomycin (30mg/Kg body weight) and kanamycin (400mg/kg body weight) intramuscular injections, daily for 3 weeks. Paraffin embedded sections of cerebellum, spinal cord, dorsal cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus nucleus and auditory cortex were stained with haematoxylin and eosin stains and perikarya measured using slide and ocular micrometres. Results: Size of cerebellar Purkinje cells increased significantly in control rats for streptomycin and kanamycin intoxicated animals respectively. Ventral horn cells of spinal cord are affected highly significantly only by streptomycin. Vestibular nucleus also showed similar results i.e. neuronal body. Neurons of dorsal cochlear nucleus is affected significantly by both the drugs i.e. streptomycin and kanamycin. Conclusion: Streptomycin causes an increase in diameter of auditory cortical cells on other hand kanamycin led to highly significant decrement in size of cells of same region. Preferential affinity and differential effects were noticed. The latter throws some clues about mechanism of action.


Distribution of the power between engine and motor is an important issue for parallel hybrid electric vehicles. A lot of studies have been carried out for the conventional passenger hybrid car's control logic. However, it still needs more studies for the parallel hybrid bus control logic. In this study, we developed a control logic based on the optimal control theory for the parallel hybrid bus. To verify the control logic, a forward simulator was developed. The control logic was applied to the forward simulator and the simulation was conducted. Backward simulation of which result is the global optimal was conducted for the comparisons of results from simulations. Consequently, similarity of forward and backward simulations was found.


One of the most robust stylized facts in macroeconomics is the forecasting power of the term spread for future real activity. We propose a possible causal mechanism for the forecasting power of the term spread, deriving from the balance sheet management of financial intermediaries and the risk-taking channel of monetary policy. Monetary tightening leads to the flattening of the term spread, reducing net interest margin and credit supply. We provide empirical support for the risk-taking channel.


Philosophy, it would seem, always comes on the scene after the fact, when it is too late, yet the contribution of philosophy is useful and needed in order to sort out the complexities of real life situations. In the case of human suffer ing and its highlighting in the media, the author proposes a 'poetry of compassion", largely lacking in the media and indeed in society today. Whereas modernity placed the accent on action, postmodernity seems to be heralding the convenience of developing a passive conscience of human finitude, to show the world that success gained at the cost of individual sacrifice is not a universall shared concept.


The development of biofuel production in Burkina Faso, raises high expectations regarding the development of rural energy access and the substitution of imported fossil fuels. Several initiatives for biofuel production from Jatropha oilseeds were launched in recent year by NGOs and private operators.The government is planning to define a policy framework to support the development of this sector. To this end, the potential benefits from this activity needs to be carefully investigated in regard to sustainable development objectives.The goal of this work was to investigate these opportunities by determining the technical possibilities regarding the context and in what conditions and to what extent they can contribute to sustainable development objectives. The approach was based on the modelling and simulation of production processes coupled with environmental and economic assessment tools. Specific experiments were also led whenever data were not available, as for the determination of the oil yield of a screw press. Economic efficiency was assessed using value chain analysis, which consists in calculating the value added generated by the different activities involved in a supply chain, and the distribution of this value in the form of income to the employees, the supply chain players, the state and the banking institutions. Environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions and fossil energy consumption, are evaluated using a partial life-cycle assessment. The production of three different final products was investigated, i.e. straight vegetable oil (SVO), refined oil aimed to be used for stationary applications (power generation, shaft power, pumping…) and biodiesel dedicated to transportation. The analysis of individual processes allowed to identify the most sensitive parameters at a local level. As a general trend for all processes, the price of feedstock dramatically affects the production cost. For SVO production, the oil recovery and the seeds oil content are of paramount importance. The economic performances of the refining and transesterification processes are largely conditioned by the processing capacity, due to economies of scale, and to a lesser extent by the solution employed for energy supply. In the case of biodiesel production, the price of methanol is also a crucial factor. The developed assessment method was applied to several prospective biofuel supply chains, all relying on the production of Jatropha seeds by smallholders. The results have shown that the method can bring crucial information to policy makers. Based on a seed market price of 100 FCFA/kg, any type of biofuel can be produced in a cost effective way. In some cases, the implementation of advanced technologies for energy supply and by-product valorisation is needed to reach the required production cost. This could also be a solution to increase the price of seeds so as to provide higher incomes to farmers. The production of refined oil for power generation appears to be rather expensive relatively to the target, which imposes large processing scales. Supply chains involving a biodiesel plant supplied by several decentralised SVO plants constitute a solution for addressing at the same time rural energy access and the substitution of fossil fuels. Then the income perceived by the State is directly determined by the value and the profits generated by biofuel producers. Eventually, the environmental impacts related to seed processing, in terms of GHG emissions and fossil energy consumption, is relatively low especially when energy requirements are supplied from a renewable resource. By contrast, the impacts of biodiesel production are systematically impaired by the use of methanol of fossil origin in the process.


Positive stabilizability of a continuous-time linear system x = Ax+ Bu means that for all initial conditions there exists a positive L2-input function resulting in an L2-state trajectory. In this paper, easily verifiable necessary and sufficient conditions for positive stabilizability are presented. Moreover, attention will be paid to a feedback variant of this stabilization problem.


Issue: Mar-Apr 2021
This paper reviews India's experience with the free trade agreements (FTAs) that it signed over the last two decades. The trade outcomes under the agreements are found to be quite modest: The trade shares of India's FTA partners stayed nearly constant over the past decade, and trade deficits with FTA partners, as a share of the overall deficit,  did not increase over time. These findings challenge the assertion that India's trade agreements have led to a widening of trade deficits and that they were responsible for the stagnation of the Indian manufacturing sector.


This article describes how the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) responded to the September 11 tragedy, as an organization. Also included are anecdotes from APNA members who participated individually in the aftermath of this tragedy. Because such a traumatic event can result in psychiatric disorders, a brief synopsis of these disorders is included. The economic effects of emotional difficulties for our nation are explored, especially those related to the most serious disorder resulting from such a traumatic event, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Strategies that APNA is focusing on for the future, as a result of this tragedy, are presented.


Background and aims Febrile seizures are the most common form of seizures in children. They occur in 2%–5% of children aged 6 months to 5 years. They are classically associated with a positive familial history of febrile seizures and high fever occurring during various acute infections. The aim of this study is to establish if febrile seizures are significant correlated with certain acute febrile diseases. Methods A retrospective study was initiated including all the children admitted in 'Dr.Victor Gomoiu' Children's Hospital for an acute febrile infection from January 2016 till January 2017; we have found a total of 4577 children. Among them those admitted for upper respiratory infection, lower respiratory infection, urinary tract infection, viral gingivostomatitis and viral enterocolitis were counted individually. Further in each category mentioned above those who also had a febrile seizure during the present acute febrile disease were counted. Finally the statistically significance of the correlation between each category of acute febrile disease listed above and the occurrence of febrile seizures was assessed (statistically significant: p<0,05). Results Among those 4577 children admitted in our clinic 841 (18.37%) had upper respiratory infection, 2695 (58.88%) had lower respiratory infection, 160 (3.49%) had urinary tract infection, 75 (1.63%) had viral gingivostomatitis and 806 (17.6%) had viral enterocolitis. A total of 125 (2.73%) children had a febrile seizure; 70 (56%) of them had upper respiratory infection (p<0,01), 22 (17.6%) had lower respiratory infection (p<0,01), 5 (4%) had urinary tract infection (p=0,903), 6 (4.8%) had viral gingivostomatitis (p<0,05) and 22 (17.6%) had viral enterocolitis (p=0,99). Conclusions Respiratory tract infections are the most frequent causes of fever in children admitted in our clinic for febrile seizures with a rate of 73.6%, followed by viral enterocolitis (17.6%),viral gingivostomatitis (4.8%), and urinary tract infection (4%). These results are in concordance with those from the most recent studies published in medical literature.


For both Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease and Myxomatosis viruses, vaccination is made in order to increase the specific humoral and/or cellular immune response of the animals and protect against disease. The aim of our work is to detect the humoral immune response, using competition ELISAs (cELISA) as diagnostic tests, in breeders and fattening rabbits vaccinated with different types of vaccines and by variable route of administrations against myxomatosis and RHDV. Difference in serological response were analysed by mixed model on a logaritmic transformation of titres. In all the vaccinated groups a specific seroconversion was observed. As expected the highest average values were detected among multiparous breeders, which had been previously vaccinated several times. For breeders, the linear mixed models for serological responses show a very important interaction effects between "Day of Sampling" and "Kind of Vaccination" group. The most relevant difference in fattening rabbits vaccinated for the first time against myxomatosis was, as expected, the absolute lower levels of antibodies detected. The linear mixed model for Myxomatosis serological response in fattening rabbits show a significant interaction between "Day of Sampling" and "Kind of Vaccination". Moreover, by using RHDV serological methods (cELISA and anti-isotype IgG-IgA-IgM ELISAs) all the rabbits tested at 28 days of age showed passive antibodies of maternal origin against RHD. Therefore we cannot exclude that the presence of antibodies at different titres at the moment of first vaccination could have conditioned the effect of immunization. The results obtained in this study demonstrate that serological methods could be a valid aid in monitoring the efficacy of vaccination for both Myxomatosis and RHD. Using methods having a high level of specificity, it was possible to detect seroconversion in groups of rabbits vaccinated with different type of vaccines. Indeed, serology and particularly the combination of RHDV anti-isotypes ELISAs could help to improve the quality of vaccination by determining the more convenient moment to administrate the first vaccination in relation to the disappearance of maternal antibodies.


In this paper we propose a method for matching the scales of 3D point clouds. 3D point sets of the same scene obtained by 3D reconstruction techniques usually differ in scales. To match scales, we propose a {\em keyscale} that characterizes the scale of a given 3D point cloud. By performing PCA of spin images over different scales, a keyscale is defined as the scale that gives the minimum of cumulative contribution rate of PCA at a specific dimension of eigen space. Simulations with the Stanford bunny and experimental results with 3D reconstructions of a real scene demonstrate that keyscales of any 3D point clouds can be uniquely found and effectively used for scale matching.


In this paper the theory of the differential front photopyroelectric technique is developed. The thermal effusivity measurements of a sample through photopyroelectric direct (no-differential) experiments do not have sufficient resolution and accuracy to detect small changes in the thermal effusivity. To assess minor variations in this thermal magnitude, differential methods should be used. These methods compare properties of a reference sample and another unknown sample, which are placed separately in both halves of the differential cell. It is shown that in order to achieve better metrological properties of the differential measurement and electromagnetic interference immunity, the signals of both halves must be subtracted directly at the output of the two parallel connected pyroelectric sensors. The thickness of the samples should have the maximum possible value, at least 10 times higher than the thermal diffusion length for minimum frequency. The results of numerical simulations for the amplitude, phase, real and imaginary parts with water as a reference sample and the other sample with a thermal effusivity very close to that of water (contaminated water) are presented. These results show that measurements should be made in the nearly ideal voltage mode, which ensures a better signal-to-noise ratio than the ideal current mode.


In October 1984, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, directed that each of the company's major components establish a competitive intelligence organization to improve its understanding of the competition. One premise behind this directive was that an assessment of the competition in the marketplace was essential, and that the company's current informal methods of competitive‐intelligence gathering were inadequate. Another premise was that only ethical and legal data‐gathering techniques were to be used, especially since there was so much information available from a wide variety of public sources. The directive specified that the overall process must be action oriented with a focus on analysis, assessment, and communication.


In this paper, we will present the collaboration between Malardalen University and the local industry in the context of our two master programs in computer science, Master in Software Engineering and Master in Intelligent Embedded Systems. Within both programs, there is an extensive cooperation with national giants such as ABB, Bombardier, Ericsson, SAAB and Volvo, as well as strategically important, high competence, SMEs. We will describe how we use our industrial partners to assure the quality and industrial relevance of our educational master programs. For example, they provide us sharp industrial equipment, give guest lectures at our courses, organize industrial visits, provide internships and theses for our students, and, whenever possible, give employment to our students. The education method that we use is Problem-Based Learning (PBL), which implies that large parts of the programs are performed in project form. The projects are supplied by our industrial partners, and are solved in collaboration with them. The aim with sharp industrial projects is to prepare students for work in industry directly after the completion of their education, and to make our students are highly competitive on the national and international job market, both in the industry as high-skilled expert and in the academia as researchers or PhD students.


Background: the concept of Healthy Work Environments is part of the context of professional training in nursing as a reference for promoting the health of the subjects of this process. Objective: to identify how professors and students of undergraduate courses in Nursing perceive the "Healthy Work Environments" in the teaching-learning process. Method: scoping review performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, LILACS and BDENF, considering studies regardless of type, language and year of publication. The guiding question was guided by the mnemonic strategy: Population, Concept, Context. The data underwent descriptive, bibliometric and exploratory analysis. Results: 386 references were identified, 83 were selected to be read in full, of which 56 were part of the final sample. Thus, two categories were created: "Healthy Work Environments: spaces for teaching and health services" and "Strategies for promoting a Healthy Environment". Conclusion: the concepts under analysis show the experiences of students in environments of educational institutions and health services. Regarding the teachers' practices, working conditions emerged in areas of infrastructure, subjectivities and institutional organization and work policies.


["The story of Apollonius of Tyre is the only ancient romance that was known to the medieval West, where it was remarkably popular. Its narrative principle of random contingency served to differentiate it from dominant narrative assumptions in western medieval literature. Without the context of the Greek romances, medieval readers understood the story's provocative randomness in terms of other generic categories, and thus the way various late antique and medieval cultures reponded differently to this same story provides clues about the operations of several distinct literary systems." Chapter 4 treats the OE version; chapter 5 contrasts Antonio Pucci's Apollonio di Tiro with Boccaccio's use of the story in the Filocolo. "Chapter 6 argues that in John Gower's Confessio Amantis the story of Apollonius stages a confrontation between two temporal logics of narrative — romance and exemplum — which governs the poem's engagement with its readers." [JGN 15.2]


Abstract : The investigation completed the development process to establish a technique to obtain holographic recordings of particulate behavior during the combustion process of solid propellants in a two-dimensional rocket motor. Holographic and photographic recordings were taken in a crossflow environment using various compositions of metallized propellants. The reconstructed holograms are used to provide data on the behavior of aluminum/aluminum oxide particulates in a steady state combustion environment as a function of the initial aluminum size cast into the propellant. High speed, high resolution motion pictures were taken to compare the cinematic data with that available from the holograms. (Author)


Herding defines a deterministic dynamical system at the edge of chaos. It generates a sequence of model states and parameters by alternating parameter perturbations with state maximizations, where the sequence of states can be interpreted as "samples" from an associated MRF model. Herding differs from maximum likelihood estimation in that the sequence of parameters does not converge to a fixed point and differs from an MCMC posterior sampling approach in that the sequence of states is generated deterministically. Herding may be interpreted as a"perturb and map" method where the parameter perturbations are generated using a deterministic nonlinear dynamical system rather than randomly from a Gumbel distribution. This chapter studies the distinct statistical characteristics of the herding algorithm and shows that the fast convergence rate of the controlled moments may be attributed to edge of chaos dynamics. The herding algorithm can also be generalized to models with latent variables and to a discriminative learning setting. The perceptron cycling theorem ensures that the fast moment matching property is preserved in the more general framework.


Globalization has led to a significant increase in the information flow between geographically remote locations with the realization of a common global market. When building a web site for use by various industries, developers need to deal with a wide range of users from different countries. Thus, a multilingual system must be implemented in order to provide the proper environment for those applications. Different languages can be produced by using the same script such as English, Malay, Spanish, etc., that uses Roman script. The issue is how to produce the reliable features of a web page that is to undergo language identification. Incorrectly identifying the language will results in garbled translations, faulty and incomplete analyses. The aim of this study is to enhance the effectiveness of feature selection method of web page language identification. A letter weighting method as feature selection embedded with fuzzy Adaptive Resonance Theory Map (ARTMAP) and simplified entropy embedded with decision tree are proposed to identify the language belonging to a web page. The methodology contains four major stages, namely; data preparation, data preprocessing, feature selection and identification. Data is collected from news website and then fed into preprocessing to filter out the noises. Feature selection reduces unnecessary attributes of the data in a proper feature representation. Language identification is to determine the predefined language of data. The scripts of languages such as Arabic, Hanzi, Roman, Indic and Cyrillic were used for the performance evaluation of web page language identification. Standard measurements such as T-test, f -fold cross validation, precision, recall and F1 measurements were used on results of the analysis. From the experimental analysis, it is observed that the simplified entropy outperforms the N-grams, entropy and letter weighting feature selection with an accuracy of 98.90%, 81.35%, 96.08% and 93.16%, respectively. The finding concludes that the proposed letter weighting and simplified entropy feature selection methods of web page language identification give promising results in terms of accuracy and retrieval performance at the letter representation level of web pages.


We assessed whether the presence of a Rapid Access Heart Failure Clinic (RAHFC) had an impact on the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor prescribing habits of primary care physicians. We selected 10 general practices (GP) that referred and 10 practices that did not refer patients to the RAHFC. The study covered a period of two years immediately preceding the commencement of the RAHFC and about 1.5 years afterwards. A total of 309 patients, divided into two groups, were studied. Cohort 1 consisted of 198 patients (103 from referring and 95 from non-referring GP) with a new diagnosis of chronic heart failure (CHF) made by the GP pre-RAHFC. Cohort 2 consisted of 111 patients (48 from referring and 63 from non-referring GP) diagnosed as having CHF post-RAHFC. In cohort 1, 27.1% of patients in the referring practices were on ACE inhibitor versus 40.0% in the non-referring practices (p=0.056). ACE inhibitor prescription was reassessed 1.5 years post-RAHFC: it had significantly increased to 51.4% (p<0.001) in the referring practices, but not in the non-referring practices (43.1%, p=0.659). Interestingly, the increase in ACE inhibitor prescription among referring practices was predominantly due to initiation by the primary care physicians themselves (76% of cases) rather than by the RAHFC. The baseline trend of lower ACE inhibitor prescription rate in cohort 1 in the referring practices compared to non-referring practices was not seen in cohort 2 (54.1% vs. 50.7%, p=0.844). Using ACE inhibitor prescription status as an indicator of diagnostic certainty of CHF by primary care physicians, it has sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of 45.5%, 52.9%, 38.5% and 60.0%, respectively, for the presence of CHF as confirmed by the RAHFC.


This paper sums up the main results from a research project focusing on prolonged work with head mounted displays and the effect on physiological and mental strain.


This paper proposes an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) algorithm by Direct Load Control (DLC) programs to optimize the operational cost of smart grids considering various scenarios based on different constraints. The cost function includes active power production cost of available power sources and a novel flexible load curtailment cost associated with DLC programs. The load curtailment cost is based on a virtual generator for each load (which participates in DLC program). To implement the load curtailment in the objective function, we consider incentive payments for participants and a load shedding priority list in some events. The proposed OPF methodology is applied to IEEE 14, 30-bus, and 13-node industrial power systems as three examples of the smart grids, respectively. The numerical results of the proposed algorithm are compared with the results obtained by applying MATPOWER to the nominal case by using the DLC programs. It is shown that the suggested approach converges to a better quality solution in an acceptable computation time.


32pts&1/2 (TreintaYDosPuntos ; YMedio) is a project that offers new ways in dance research using new languages through technology and design in order to analyze and to understand the movement and the motion of the body in the dynamic space,. It gives to directors, teachers and dancers new tools to see, to understand and to explore contemporary work in choreography, dance and visual arts. Design, body and technology are used in equal measure to think the time and the space, having always the human as the center element.


Obesity affects a growing fraction of the population and is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Even in the absence of hypertension and coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes can result in a heart disease termed diabetic cardiomyopathy. Diminished glucose oxidation, increased reliance on fatty acid oxidation for energy production, and oxidative stress are believed to play causal roles. However, the progression of metabolic changes and mechanisms by which these changes impact the heart have not been established. Cardiac pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), the central regulatory site for glucose oxidation, is rapidly inhibited in mice fed high dietary fat, a model of obesity and diabetes. Increased reliance on fatty acid oxidation for energy production, in turn, enhances mitochondrial pro-oxidant production. Inhibition of PDH may therefore initiate metabolic inflexibility and oxidative stress and precipitate diabetic cardiomyopathy. We discuss evidence from the literature that supports a role for PDH inhibition in loss in energy homeostasis and diastolic function in obese and diabetic humans and in rodent models. Finally, seemingly contradictory findings highlight the complexity of the disease and the need to delineate progressive changes in cardiac metabolism, the impact on myocardial structure and function, and the ability to intercede.


Abstract Necrophagous insect studies have shown that decomposing vertebrate remains are an important ephemeral resource within an ecosystem. However, the microbes (e.g., bacteria and archaea) that were a part of the once living organism and the exogenous taxa that colonize this postmortem resource remain largely underexplored. Also, it is not well understood how these two kingdoms interact to recycle decaying biomass, an important mechanistic question for ecosystem function ecology. To better understand microbial community dynamics throughout decomposition, we used swine carcasses (N = 6) as models for mammalian postmortem decomposition to characterize epinecrotic microbial communities from: the abdominal skin of replicate carcasses; the internal microbiome of individual necrophagous dipteran larvae (maggots); and the microbiome of dipteran larval masses that had colonized the carcasses. Sampling occurred every 12 h for the duration of the decomposition process. We characterized these microbial communities over time using high-throughput 16S amplicon sequencing. The relative abundance of microbial taxa changed over decomposition as well as across sampling locations, suggesting significant interactions between the environment, microbes, and insect larvae. Maggot masses were represented by multiple blow fly species in each mass: Phormia regina (Meigen), Lucilia coeruleiviridis (Macquart), and Cochliomyia macellaria (F.). Relative abundance of these species within the mass also changed as decomposition progressed, suggesting the presence of certain Calliphoridae species within a mass may be associated with temporal shifts of the microbial communities. These results provide new insight into the community ecology of carrion decomposition by providing new data on interactions of microbes and dipteran larvae over time.


In this paper, a simplified model to represent variable speed wind turbines in power system dynamics simulations is presented. This model is based in the use of controls-oriented model for permanent magnet synchronous generator supplying voltage-stiff bus system, including intrinsic torque/load properties. First, the modeling approach is commented upon and models of the subsystems of which a variable speed wind turbine consists are discussed. Then, time-domain simulations have been performed for one study case in order to demonstrate the suitable use of the model proposed in this paper. Results have shown that the model developed performs satisfactorily for slow dynamic when compared with the results obtained from simulation considering the detailed model.


This study demonstrates a new nonlinear controller design methodology applicable to
automotive suspension systems. It enhances the ability of the designer to tackle the
complex design problem of a controller for a computer-controlled suspension. Based
on the principles of optimal control, it permits the use of more general system models
and cost functions than the standard linear optimal design techniques and hence,
increases the freedom of the designer. It implements the control with an optimal,
nonlinear feedback law and is shown to have the potential to improve vehicle
performance. [Continues.]


We find a pricing error profitability pattern for well-known asset pricing models: the CAPM, Fama-French, Hou-Xue-Zhang, Stambaugh-Yuan, and Daniel-Hirshleifer-Sun. A trading strategy that buys low pricing error stocks and sells high pricing error ones earns significant average and risk-adjusted returns, and it performs similarly across all the models. This fact applies to a large set of models with factors extracted from 105 anomalies. The profitability is unexplained by investor sentiment, limits-to-arbitrage, prospect theory, and expectation extrapolation, suggesting that new factors are needed to better understand the cross section of stock returns.


Language models are generally estimated using smoothed counting techniques. These counting schemes can be viewed as non linear functions operating on a Bernoulli process which converge asymptotically to the true density. The rate at which these counting schemes converge to the true density is constrained by the training data set available and the nature of the language model (LM) being estimated. In this paper we look at language model estimates as random variables and present an efficient relative entropy (R.E) based approach to study their convergence with increasing training data size. We present experimental results for language modeling in a generic LVCSR system and a medical domain dialogue task. We also present an efficient recursive R.E computation method which can be used as a LM distance measure for a number of tasks including LM clustering.


Latex is a well-known sensitizer. Prospective studies in apprentices beginning to be exposed to latex have not been carried out. We wanted to determine the incidence of skin reactivity, cutaneous symptoms, rhinoconjunctivitis (RC) symptoms, respiratory symptoms, probable occupational RC, and asthma in apprentices in dental hygiene. A total of 122 students starting a program in dental hygiene technology were recruited between 1993 and 1995. A questionnaire, skin-prick tests with common aeroallergens and latex, and assessment of spirometry and responsiveness to methacholine were carried out on entry and at follow-up visits at 20 and 32 months after the start of exposure. Of the 110 subjects who participated for at least 1 follow-up visit, skin reactivity to latex developed in 7. Cutaneous symptoms developed in 6 of the 7, RC symptoms developed in 2, and respiratory symptoms developed in 1. Five of the 7 subjects had significant changes in methacholine responsiveness and fulfilled the definition of probable occupational asthma. Sensitized subjects were more likely to be atopic and to have a previous history of asthma and respiratory symptoms on exercise than were nonsensitized subjects. Three subjects at the 20-month assessment and 4 subjects at the 32-month visit showed skin reactivity. The cumulative incidences for skin sensitization, probable occupational RC, and occupational asthma to latex were 6.4%, 1.8%, and 4.5%, respectively.


Three‐dimensional ionospheric tomography is effective for investigations of the dynamics of ionospheric phenomena. However, it is an ill‐posed problem in the context of sparse data, and accurate electron density reconstruction is difficult. The Residual Minimization Training Neural Network (RMTNN) tomographic approach, a multilayer neural network trained by minimizing an objective function, allows reconstruction of sparse data. In this study, we validate the reconstruction performance of RMTNN using numerical simulations based on both sufficiently sampled and sparse data. First, we use a simple plasma‐bubble model representing the disturbed ionosphere and evaluate the reconstruction performance based on 40 GPS receivers in Japan. We subsequently apply our approach to a sparse data set obtained from 24 receivers in Indonesia. The reconstructed images from the disturbed and sparse data are consistent with the model data, except below 200 km altitude. To improve this performance and limit any discrepancies, we used information on the electron density in the lower ionosphere. The results suggest the restricted RMTNN‐tomography‐assisted approach is very promising for investigations of ionospheric electron density distributions, including studies of irregular structures in different regions. In particular, RMTNN constrained by low‐Earth‐orbit satellite data is effective in improving the reconstruction accuracy.


Get going on the Fast Track to a successful career Whether you're gearing up for interviews, or deciding where to start your job search, this book is packed with the no-nonsense stats and critical information you need to launch your career. Based on BusinessWeek's famous rating system, this at-a-glance guide answers all your questions, including: How can I stand out to top companies? Tips, anecdotes, and up-to-date information on interview killers Who's got the best internship and full-time positions for recent graduates? Resume-building opportunities each employer offers What kinds of experience are employers looking for? Ways to make even your summer life guarding job work in your favor What's it worth? Starting salaries, signing bonuses, and more With Web links, phone numbers, company profiles, and insights from new employees, this guide is all you need to find the perfect fit for your career-and get started on the fast track for life.


We develop a differentiated productivity model of knowledge sharing in organizations that proposes that different types of knowledge have different benefits for task units. In a study of 182 sales teams in a management consulting company, we find that sharing codified knowledge in the form of electronic documents saved time during the task but did not improve work quality or signal competence to clients. In contrast, sharing personal advice improved work quality and signaled competence but did not save time. Beyond the content of the knowledge, process costs in the form of document rework and lack of advisor effort negatively affected task outcomes. These findings dispute the claim that different types of knowledge are substitutes for each other and provide a micro-foundation for understanding why and how a firm's knowledge capabilities translate into performance of knowledge work. keywords: knowledge sharing, capabilities, teams, resource-based view


Without controlled loading, the failure of early loaded oral implants is higher than in delayed loading, unless loading regimens can be identified that stimulate bone formation. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether controlled early loading optimizes osseointegration. Six series of guinea pigs received percutaneous implants in both tibiae. One implant was stimulated, the contra-lateral served as the control. The strain rate amplitude varied from 1,620 to 12,000 microstrain s(-1). In vivo microfocus computed tomography (micro-CT) was used to study the peri-implant bone at three time points: 1 wk after implantation, but before starting stimulation (V1); 2 wk after stimulation (V2); and 4 wk after stimulation, after the guinea pigs were killed (PM). Bone implant contact and bone mass [BM (%) bone occupied area fraction] were analyzed. The implant failure was 5.9% (six control/one test). Although bone implant contact did not significantly differ, bone mass in the distal half peri-implant marrow cavity was significantly higher around test implants. Strain rate amplitude and the difference in bone mass between test and control implants were inversely correlated. A strain rate amplitude of 1,620 microstrain s(-1) in the cortical bone at a distance of 1.3 mm from the implant showed the highest effect. Based on these results, early loading did not negatively affect the implant outcome. On the contrary, an improved bone reaction in the marrow cavity around early loaded implants was achieved.


The high incidence of breast cancer makes it a major social-health problem in Spain. Over the last three decades, survival rates have improved markedly thanks to the introduction of mammographic screening campaigns and new treatments. Despite the optimistic data, we should not forget that there some patients still relapse after their breast cancer treatment (about 20%), some of whom die from the disease. It is therefore important to continue breast cancer research efforts until a relapse rate of zero is achieved. In this article, we review various aspects of this disease such as its signs and symptoms, diagnosis, chemoprevention, as well as the treatment of localised and metastatic breast cancer.


Prolonged survival following diagnosis of lipid-rich carcinoma of breast is unusual1. We report on a patient in whom lipid-rich carcinoma of one breast, invasive ductal carcinoma of the other breast and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia were diagnosed simultaneously; she survived 14 years without breast tumour recurrence and died with atypical mucormycosis.


The proteomic response of Prochlorococcus marinus MED4, subjected to extended phosphate (P) starvation, was measured utilizing the quantitative technique isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation. Seventeen proteins were identified as significantly more abundant in MED4 cultures grown under P-stressed conditions than the nonstressed cultures, while 14 proteins were observed to be significantly less abundant. Proteins involved in P acquisition, and membrane-associated functions such as protein folding, export and recycling as well as a protein putatively associated with maintaining DNA integrity were found to be higher in abundance than the nonstressed cultures. The effect of P starvation was also noticeable on the photosynthetic apparatus, whereby important proteins involved with light harvesting were reduced in abundance directly affecting the metabolism. This is expected, as the cell is starved of an essential nutrient; however, proteins involved in maintaining structural integrity in the photosystems are more abundant, which was not expected. We conclude that MED4 is capable of acclimating to long periods of P deprivation through a suite of processes including activating P transport and acquisition mechanisms, general stress responses, reduction of energy-related metabolic processes and importantly maintaining structural integrity in vital cell mechanisms.


Epigenetic-mediated gene activation/silencing plays a crucial role in human tumorigenesis. Eliciting the underlying mechanism behind certain epigenetic changes is essential for understanding tumor biology. An important epigenetic process that is implicated in mammalian development is the methylation of cytosine within the context of a simple dinucleotide site, CpG. Deregulated DNA methylation can be a major driver of pathologic conditions such as neurological and autoimmune diseases, as well as cancers Previous studies in human cancers revealed an unrecognized interplay between Angiogenin (ANG)-MAPK/ERK- matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2) leading to pronounced tumorigenesis. Specifically, we showed that forced ANG expression in a benign human bladder UROtsa cell line induced cellular survival, proliferation, endothelial tube formation and xenograft angiogenesis and growth by mediating the MAPK/ERK-MMP2 axis. Here we provide multiple lines of evidence indicating ANG oncogenic potential and how ANG regulates MMP2 expression. Here we have shown that deletion and site-directed mutagenesis analysis of the MMP2 promoter demonstrated that the p53-binding site is critical for ANG-induced MMP2 promoter activity. To further determine whether ANG facilitates the recruitment of p53 to its targets in cells, we used a ChIP assay to examine p53 binding to the promoter region of the MMP2 gene in UROtsaEmpty, UROtsaANG, RT112 Scr and RT112 KD-ANG. Overexpression of ANG greatly enriched p53 association with the MMP2 promoter and ANG depletion decreased enrichment of p53 with MMP2 promoter. To further explore the mechanism by which ANG regulates MMP2 expression, we investigated whether ANG is also functionally linked to DNA methylation-based transcriptional repression. First, we quantitatively assessed the methylation status of the MMP2 promoter. Overexpression of ANG was associated with a reduction in methylation status of the MMP2 promoter, which led to increased gene expression of MMP2. The alteration of genome-wide DNA methylation in these cells was then analyzed using Illumina whole genome methylation array. ANG expression was noted to be associated with a change in global DNA methylation levels compared to control cells. Mechanistically, ANG negatively regulated DNA methyltransferase 3b (DNMT3b) enzymatic activity by down-regulating its expression and inhibiting its recruitment to the MMP2 promoter. To further define the role of ANG, p53 and MMP2 in tumorigenesis, we collected 78 fresh bladder cancer samples from bladder cancer patients and extracted DNA and RNA for analysis. Muscle invasive bladder cancer specimens had increased levels of ANG, p53 and MMP2 compared to non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. More importantly, disease free survival was adversely and significantly effected if ANG, p53 and MMP2 were overexpressed. In this study we demonstrate that ANG is overexpressed in approximately 45% of bladder tumors resulting in overexpression of p53 and MMP2, a reduction in DNMT3b and deep changes in the methylation status genome wide. Such molecular alterations are associated with higher rates of muscle invasive bladder cancers as well as a reduction in disease specific survival, thus attesting to ANG, p53 and MMP2 ability to further risk stratify patients that may require a more aggressive, even personalized, management plan. Therefore, the study provides novel evidence that ANG plays an important role in the promoter activation of the tumor oncogenic gene MMP2, which likely contributes to ANG oncogenic activity. Citation Format: Rafael Peres, Hideki Furuya, Ian Pagano, Yoshiko Shimizu, Kanani Hokutan, Joanna Gawecka, Charles Joel Rosser. Angiogenin contributes to bladder cancer tumorigenesis by facilitating p53/DNMT3b-mediated activation of MMP2. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Chromatin and Epigenetics in Cancer; Sep 24-27, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(2 Suppl):Abstract nr A05.


Development planning requires an effective approach to achieve the desired goals and objectives, evaluate alternative as well as control development programs that are in line with current and future prospects. In the quest toward urban sustainability planning, a support tool in the form of an information system is required for enhancing analyses and deriving rational decisions. Planning support system (PSS) and decision support system (DSS) are among the tools for achieving quality planning for optimum development. They support the tasks of plan formulation, monitoring and review which inevitably involve the assembly and integration of geographic information and are known to be widely used in considering alternative spatial development strategies as well as assessing development potentials involved in land use planning. This article discusses various uses of DSS with a focus on its functionalities in supporting development planning and management at various levels


The puppose of this paper is to derive a nonlinear partial differential equation for which given by (1.3), is one value of the solution. In Section 2, we derive this equation using a straightforward dynamic programming approach. In Section 3, we discuss some computational aspects of derermining the solution of this equation. In Section 4, we show that the same method may be applied to the nonlinear characteristic value problem. In Section 5, we discuss how the method may by applied to find the higher characteristic values. In Section 5, we discuss how the same method may be applied to some matrix problems. Finally, in SeCtion 7,


Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Nematoda, Strongylida) lives in the terminal respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts of cats. The infection may present with respiratory signs of varying severity and can be life threatening. Despite the importance of A. abstrusus in feline medicine and recent reports of clinical cases of aelurostrongylosis in Italy, epidemiological data are sparse and molecular information available on the parasite are lacking. The present work reports recent insights into the epidemiology of feline lungworm infection in Italy and contributes to the molecular knowledge of A. abstrusus. Individual stool samples were collected from 100 animals and examined with flotation and Baermann methods. The risk factors were analyzed by binary logistic multiple‐regression models. All positive fecal samples (n= 16) were subjected to the PCR‐coupled sequencing of the rDNA internal trancribed spacer 2 (ITS2). The detected infection rate differs significantly from data reported in the literature, and stray and free‐ranging cats and the presence of respiratory symptoms were risk factors for the infection. The molecular characterization showed that the ITS2 sequence is a promising genetic target for a holistic approach to the study of cat lungworm infection. Epidemiological and molecular insights and avenues are discussed.


Background : The hemophilia treatment landscape has evolved substantially in the last several years with the approval of extended half-life (EHL) products which reduce the burden of prophylaxis. Data reported from the American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network (ATHN) as of June 2017 indicate that 21% of patients with moderate or severe hemophilia A, and 42% of patients with moderate or severe hemophilia B, receive prophylaxis utilizing an EHL. As new treatments become available and are adopted into practice, it is important to recognize the need for evaluation of efficacy, safety, and economic impact of their use outside of the clinical trial setting. We aimed to characterize the real world impact of EHL products by collecting detailed information on bleeding rates, joint health and quality of life amongst patients cared for at ATHN-affiliated Hemophilia Treatment Centers. We hypothesized that use of EHL products were utilized in at least 30% of patients and would lead to decreased ABRs and improved joint health. To date 67 of a planned 135 subjects have been enrolled, constituting this interim analysis.
 Methods:Subjects were recruited from seven U.S. Hemophilia Treatment Centers. Subjects with severe hemophilia A or B ≤ 30 years of age on prophylaxis or demand therapy were eligible for enrollment. Subjects excluded from study were those with a recent joint bleed (within the last 2 weeks) or those unwilling to complete all elements of the study. Data were collected during a one-time encounter concurrent with an appointment for clinical evaluation, including demographic information, treatment regimen, product type, frequency, location and severity of all bleeds, Hemophilia Joint Health Scores (HJHS), and Quality of life (QoL).
 Bleeding rates in subjects receiving prophylaxis were compared with those receiving on demand therapy by type treatment, EHL vs standard half-life (SHL), and by hemophilia type. Severity of bleeding events (mild, moderate, or severe) and HJHS were compared by prophylaxis groups.
 Results: A total of 67 patients were enrolled and eligible for analysis. This included 58 subjects with severe hemophilia A, and 9 subjects with severe hemophilia B. The mean age of the cohort was 15 years (median 12 years, IQR 8 - 21 years). For these patients whose race information was known, 89.1% were Caucasian, 3.3% African-American, 3.3% Asian, and 4.7% were of mixed or 'other' race. Eleven out of 61 (18.0%) subjects with known ethnicity were Hispanic. Among 59 patients whose treatment type were available, the majority were on prophylaxis (n=53; 89.8%) as compared to on demand therapy (n=6; 10.2%).
 The average annualized bleeding rate (ABR) was 2.8 amongst all individuals. As expected, the ABR was substantially lower in those receiving prophylaxis (ABR=1.0) as compared to on demand therapy (ABR=18.6) (p<0.001). Additionally, HJHS in those receiving prophylaxis was lower (mean HJHS= 3.9), meaning less evidence of joint damage, than in those receiving demand therapy (mean HJHS= 8.8) (p=0.162).
 For patients with severe hemophilia A, the ABR was lower in those individuals receiving EHL (ABR= 0.5) versus SHL (ABR= 1.5), although this did not reach statistical significance (p=0.136). All subjects with severe hemophilia B enrolled to date receive EHL products (n=9) therefore no comparison of ABR could be made between EHL and SHL products; the ABR in this group was 0.9. In patients with severe hemophilia A, there was a higher HJHS for those receiving EHL (mean HJHS= 7.0) versus those receiving SHL (mean HJHS = 2.1) (p=0.053). For patients with severe hemophilia B, all of whom received EHL, the mean HJHS was lower than in the hemophilia A cohort (mean HJHS=1.2).
 Conclusions: We report real-world bleeding events and joint health in patients with severe hemophilia A and B utilizing EHL and SHL products across a wide U.S. geographic distribution. As anticipated, there is substantial bleed reduction with prophylaxis versus on demand therapy. In our severe hemophilia A cohort, the ABR for patients receiving EHL products was similar to ABRs reported in clinical trials, suggesting clinical trial data may be reflective of real world use. Patients with severe hemophilia A receiving EHL for prophylaxis had a lower ABR than those receiving SHL, although the early impact is not reflected in the HJHS score. Longer follow-up will be necessary to determine the impact of EHL on HJHS.

 Malec: Bioverativ: Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy; Bioverativ: Consultancy; Shire: Consultancy. Jaffray:Octapharma: Consultancy; Bayer: Consultancy; CSL Behring: Consultancy, Research Funding. Kouides:UniQure: Other: DSMB; Octapharma: Research Funding. Sidonio:Octapharma: Other: Advisory Board; Genentech: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; CSL Behring: Other: Advisory Board; Shire: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Novo Nordisk: Other: Advisory Board; Kedrion: Research Funding; Biomarin: Other: Advisory Board; Grifols: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Bioverativ: Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding; Uniqure: Other: Advisory Board. Abshire:CSL: Consultancy; Shire: Consultancy; Novo Nordisk: Other: DSMB. White:Asklepios: Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Novo Nordisk: Consultancy; Shire: Other: Physician Leadership Group; Bayer: Other: GRAC; Bioverativ: Other: DSMB; Biomarin: Other: DSMB; Invitrox: Other: Scientific Advisory Board; Pfizer: Equity Ownership. Ragni:CSL Behring: Research Funding; Biomarin: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; SPARK: Consultancy, Research Funding; Shire: Research Funding; Bioverativ: Consultancy, Research Funding; Alnylam: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novo Nordisk: Research Funding; Sangamo: Research Funding; MOGAM: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


Background and Purpose— Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is recommended within 14 days after carotid artery stroke to prevent recurrence. However, the optimal timing of CEA after intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) remains unclear. We studied the safety of CEA after IVT while taking into account both stroke recurrence and CEA-related complications. Methods— Patients who underwent IVT followed by CEA in Helsinki University Hospital 2005 to 2016 were withdrawn from prospectively collected registers. The incidence of stroke recurrence during the time between IVT and CEA, peri/postoperative stroke, hyperperfusion syndrome or drug-resistant high blood pressure, and 3-month outcome measured by modified Rankin Scale was recorded. Stroke patients treated with CEA without preceding IVT were used as controls. Results— Altogether 128 CEAs with preceding IVT and 777 CEAs for stroke without IVT were identified. The median time from IVT to CEA was 9 days (range, 0–349 days; interquartile range, 16). Seven patients (5.5%) underwent CEA within 24 hours, 20 (15.6%) within 48 hours and 87 (68.0%) within 2 weeks from IVT. Stroke recurrence in IVT-CEA patients was 5.5% at median 4 days after IVT (range, 0–8 days). Outcome from CEAs performed within 48 hours from IVT did not differ from CEAs performed later with respect to peri/postoperative ischemic strokes (5.0% and 3.7%), hemorrhagic strokes (5.0% and 1.9%), neck hematomas (5.0% and 8.3%), myocardial infarctions (0.0% and 0.9%), or 3-month modified Rankin Scale. There was a tendency toward higher incidence of hyperperfusion syndrome in the patients operated within 48 hours from IVT (20.0% versus 6.5%; P=0.070). The CEA-related stroke rate was similar to that of the operation without thrombolysis. Only smoking was significantly associated with peri/postoperative stroke (odds ratio, 21.82; 95% confidence interval, 1.08–439.58). Conclusions— Time between IVT and CEA was not associated with CEA-related complications. The high rate of stroke recurrence during the waiting time for CEA underscores the importance of shortening surgery delays.


Though graphs are flexible enough to model any kind of data structure in principle, for some structures this results in a rather large overhead. This is for instance true for lists, i.e., edges that are meant to point to an ordered collection of nodes. Such structures are frequently encountered, for instance as ordered associations in UML diagrams. Several options exist to model lists using standard graphs, but all of them need auxiliary structure, and even so their manipulation in graph transformation rules is not trivial. In this paper we propose to enrich graphs with special ordered edges, which more naturally represent the intended structure, and define how lists can be manipulated. We show that the resulting category satisfies sufficient HLR properties to apply standard algebraic graph transformation. We believe that in a context where lists are common, the cost of a more complicated graph formalism is outweighed by the benefit of a smaller, more appropriate model and more straightforward manipulation.


SUMMARY Social integration of migrants and related social work with this target group is increasingly becoming a focus of the enlarged conception of social policies in advanced economies. While immigration policy is often defined and shaped at a national level, its effects influence the lives of migrants and, consequently, also the host society, particularly at the regions and localities, where this policy is confronted with the specifics of the measures in other policy areas. Integration policies at the local level are created and implemented by a wide range of stakeholders, which places considerable demands on the mutual coordination and co-operation to achieve maximum efficiency of services provided. In the Czech Republic, coordination among different actors is still under-developed. Non-governmental organizations, which are oriented towards specific needs of foreigners, are generally considered to be the principal actors in the delivery of services to and social work with migrants. Public institutions' competences are usually limited to the exercise of specific services defined by the legislation. Yet the cooperation between actors from among representatives of government and nonprofit organizations is not based on equal partnership. Based on qualitative interviews with the key stakeholders of social integration in the Czech Republic, this study aims to provide some insight into strategies for the integration of foreigners charged with activities of local actors with special emphasis on the role of NGOs in this process. Moreover, the authors try to highlight some barriers of collaboration between the actors, and the risk of inefficient allocation of resources to support social services for migrants.


Context. Coagulation theory predicts that micron-sized dust grains grow into pebbles, which drift inward towards the star when they reach sizes of mm−cm. When they cross the orbit of a planet, a fraction of these drifting pebbles will be accreted. In the pebble accretion mechanism, the combined effects of the planet's gravitational attraction and gas drag greatly increase the accretion rate. Aims. We calculate the pebble accretion efficiency ε2D – the probability that a pebble is accreted by the planet – in the 2D limit (pebbles reside in the midplane). In particular, we investigate the dependence of ε2D on the planet eccentricity and its implications for planet formation models. Methods. We conduct N-body simulations to calculate the pebble accretion efficiency in both the local frame and the global frame. With the global method we investigate the pebble accretion efficiency when the planet is on an eccentric orbit. Results. We find that the local and the global methods generally give consistent results. However, the global method becomes more accurate when the planet is more massive than a few Earth masses or when the aerodynamic size (Stokes number) of the pebble is larger than 1. The efficiency increases with the planet's eccentricity once the relative velocity between the pebble and the planet is determined by the planet's eccentric velocity. At high eccentricities, however, the relative velocity becomes too high for pebble accretion. The efficiency then drops significantly and the accretion enters the ballistic regime. We present general expressions for ε2D. Applying the obtained formula to the formation of a secondary planet, in resonance with an already-formed giant planet, we find that the embryo grows quickly due to its higher eccentricity. Conclusions. The maximum ε2D for a planet on an eccentric orbit is several times higher than for a planet on a circular orbit, but this increase gives the planet an important headstart and boosts its following mass growth. The recipe for ε2D that we have obtained is designed to be implemented into N-body codes to simulate the growth and evolution of planetary systems.


Statistical discrimination occurs when distinctions between demographic groups are made on the basis of real or imagined statistical distinctions between the groups. While such discrimination is legal in some cases (e.g., insurance markets), it is illegal and/or controversial in others (e.g., racial profiling and gender-based labor market discrimination). First moment statistical discrimination occurs when, for example, female workers are offered lower wages because females are perceived to be less productive, on average, than male workers. Second moment discrimination occurs when risk averse employers offer female workers lower wages based not on lower average productivity but on a higher variance in their productivity. Empirical work on statistical discrimination is hampered by the difficulty of obtaining suitable data from naturally-occurring labor markets. This article reports results from controlled laboratory experiments designed to study second moment statistical discrimination in a simulated labor marker setting. Since decision-makers may not view risk in the same way as economists or statisticians (i.e., risk=variance of distribution), we also examine two possible alternative measures of risk: the support of the distribution, and the probability of earning less than the expected (maximum) profits for the employer. Our results indicate that individuals do respond to these alternative measures of risk, and employers made statistically discriminatory wage offers consistent with loss-aversion in our full sample (though differences between male and female employers can be noted). If one can transfer these results outside of the laboratory, they indicate that labor market discrimination based only on first moment discrimination is biased downward. The public policy implication is that efforts and legislation aimed at reducing discrimination of various sorts face an additional challenge in trying to identify and limit relatively hidden, but significant, forms of statistical discrimination.


Introduction: Graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) is a severe complication in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and one of the major causes of death in patients receiving HSCT despite immunosuppressant drug and intensive therapy. GVHD is a rare disease characterized by excessive activation of T and B cell pathways and drugs such as Ibrutinib and steroids are used to improve the survival rate of GVHD patients by controlling immune cell signaling, yet the use of these drugs is limited due to toxicity. It is necessary to develop new treatment agents for GVHD, because of the limitations of these existing treatment agents. Interleukin-2-inducible T-cell kinase (ITK) and Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) are critical for T and B cells activation, and dysregulation of this process has been known to increase proinflammatory cytokines and cause various inflammatory diseases. Since ITK and BTK signaling pathway play a major role in T and B cell regulation in GVHD, we thought that ITK and BTK selective dual inhibition may act as a promising agent that have beneficial effects on GVHD. So, we developed a novel ITK and BTK selective dual inhibitor, DWP213388, to modulate both T and B cell pathways without any significant off-target effects, thus to ultimately improve survival rate in GVHD without any serious side effect.
 Methods: Inhibition of ITK and BTK enzyme activity and selectivity against Cys-family kinase group were evaluated by biochemical activity assay. Target occupancy in human T and B cells was measured by quantifying unbound ITK or BTK in ELISA-based assay using biotinylated-DWP213388. To measure occupancy, mouse spleen and thymus were extracted after oral administration of DWP213388. Cellular assays for BCR or TCR stimulation-dependent activation and cytokine secretion were determined in human PBMC. In vitro mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assay, CD4+ T cells were purified from spleens of B6 mice and were co-cultured with irradiated Balb/c splenic APCs as stimulators that were incubated in the presence or absence of DWP213388. In vivo MLR test, recipient BDF1 mouse was lethally irradiated and reconstituted by intravenous injection of splenocytes with B6. The efficacy of DWP213388 was investigated in mouse GVHD model; Recipient BDF1 mouse was lethally irradiated and reconstituted by intravenous injection of T cell depleted bone marrow (TCD-BM) and splenocytes with B6. In CMV study, DWP213388 was administered orally and an inoculum of 1 x 104 PFU/head MCMV in PBS was injected intraperitoneal. into each mouse on day 0. Five and ten days after the MCMV infection, the liver was removed. The NK cell and CD8 T cell was measured by FACs and virus titration was measured by RT-PCR.
 Results: We developed a novel, potent dual target inhibitor, DWP213388, with ITK and BTK IC50 values of 1.0 nM and 0.4 nM, respectively. More importantly, this compound is highly selective against ITK and BTK, yet has low affinity toward EGFR. DWP213388 potently occupied both of its targets at low concentration, which shows successful inhibition of TCR/BCR-dependent CD69 expression. DWP213388 suppressed T and B cell subsets such as Th1, Th2, Th17 and plasma cells and inhibited T cell proliferation in both in-vitro and in-vivo MLR assays. In mouse GVHD model, DWP213388 at 10 mg/kg improved clinical symptoms and maintains 100% survival rate (vs Ibrutinib 85%). It showed 73% and 62% occupancy of BTK and ITK. To address any potential compromising immune response due to dual inhibition of T, B cell by DWP213388, we conducted a CMV study to evaluate the effects on infection. DWP213388 does not reduce the number of NK cells and CD8+ T cells, and it does not affect virus killing. Therefore, it has a low risk of infection. These results suggest that DWP213388 may serve as a next generation therapeutic agent for GVHD.
 Conclusion: We developed a novel, highly potent, and selective dual inhibitor of ITK and BTK, DWP213388. We demonstrated that DWP213388 has potent pharmacological activities compared to Ibrutinib in various cellular models and a mouse GVHD model. DWP213388 intends to improve efficacy and safety by specifically inhibiting ITK and BTK without inhibiting EGFR, which is known to cause severe side effects. Therefore, DWP213388 may serve as a next generation therapeutic agent for GVHD.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


We propose a search-matching model of the marriage market that extends Shimer and Smith (2000) to allow for labor supply. We characterize the steady-state equilibrium when exogenous divorce is the only source of risk. The estimated matching probabilities that can be derived from the steady-state flow conditions are strongly increasing in both male and female wages. We estimate that the share of marriage surplus appropriated by the man increases with his wage and that the share appropriated by the woman decreases with her wage. We find that leisure is an inferior good for men and a normal good for women.


With the introduction of resource-rich mobile elements into wireless sensor networks, the energy-efficiency of such network can be enhanced. In this paper, we study the deployment problem of these mobile elements. A novel potential-field-based coordination protocol, named aggregator deployment protocol for energy conservation (ADPEC) for wireless sensor networks is proposed. The proposed protocol is aimed to move the mobile aggregators to the desired locations in a distributed and cooperative way, where the energy dissipation of individual sensor will be balanced and the energy efficiency of the network will be maximized. Our experiment results show that ADPEC improves the energy efficiency and prolongs the lifetime of network compared to static or random deployment protocols.


This paper presents a test chip and infrastructure IP (I-IP) solutions to accelerate process development of interconnects on new advanced technology and to improve the back-end-of-line (BEOL) yield on products. The test chip and the I-IP use the same architecture which is described in using a bottom-up approach with emphasis on its scalability. Using this test chip, the specifications of process back-end critical parameters can be quickly and easily analyzed. Using the dedicated infrastructure IP, the defect density tracking as well as the test and diagnosis of process back-end critical parameters can be rapidly and simply performed. To reach this goal, the test flow and its related signature extraction are given. Moreover, each extracted signature is merged in a database which are used to diagnose defected back-end parameters in the I-IP. Thus, the use of the test chip and the I-IP allows us to improve the manufacturing process from the beginning of a new technology development and integration to the end of ramp-up production and product manufacturing.


Abstract STUDY QUESTION Is the risk of high-grade precancerous cervical lesions and/or is the risk of lesion progression increased in users of a hormone-containing intrauterine device (HIUD) compared with users of other contraceptive methods. SUMMARY ANSWER Women starting use of HIUD had the same subsequent risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3+ (CIN3+) as copper IUD (CIUD) users, and both groups tended to have lower risks than oral contraceptives (OC) users. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY HIUDs may cause inflammatory and immunosuppressive changes that may potentially affect the risk of persistent human papillomavirus infection and precancerous cervical lesions. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION A Danish population-based cohort study was conducted using register data from 2008 to 2011 on 26–50-year-old users of HIUD (n = 60 551), CIUD (n = 30 303), or OC (n = 165 627). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Within each user group, women were divided into two groups; normal cytology or abnormal diagnosis before start of contraceptive use (baseline). Follow-up histology and cytology diagnoses were registered during the 5 years after baseline. Adjusted relative risks (aRR) and 95% CI were calculated for precancerous cervical lesions in HIUD users compared with CIUD and OC users. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Women with normal cytology at baseline: at follow-up HIUD users had the same risk of CIN3 or higher (3+) as CIUD users; aRR 1.08 (95% CI 0.94–1.22). For the HIUD and CIUD groups compared with OCs, the risks of CIN3+ were lower: aRR 0.63 (95% CI 0.57–0.69) and aRR 0.58 (95% CI 0.52–0.65), respectively. The same was observed for CIN2 risks: aRR 0.86 (95% CI 0.76–0.96) and aRR 0.68 (95% CI 0.58–0.79) for HIUD and CIUD groups, respectively. Women with abnormal diagnosis at baseline: a lower progression risk, except for CIN2+ at baseline, was observed in HIUD users compared with OC users. Similar progression risks were found in HIUD and CIUD users. There were no differences between the three contraceptive groups in persistence or regression of present lesions. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION We adjusted for age, education, and region of residence as a proxy for socio-economic factors. Data on smoking and sexual behavior were not available thus we cannot exclude some differences between the three user groups. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS These findings suggest that women may safely use HIUDs. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) A.P. Møller Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Science, Else and Mogens Wedell-Wedellborgs Fund, Direktør Emil C. Hertz og Hustru Inger Hertz Fund, and the Fund for Development of Evidence Based Medicine in Private Specialized Practices. EL is principle investigator for a study with HPV-test-kits provided by Roche. The other authors have nothing to declare. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A.