To build an open-domain multi-turn conversation system is one of the most interesting and challenging tasks in Artificial Intelligence. Many research efforts have been dedicated to building such dialogue systems, yet few shed light on modeling the conversation flow in an ongoing dialogue. Besides, it is common for people to talk about highly relevant aspects during a conversation. And the topics are coherent and drift naturally, which demonstrates the necessity of dialogue flow modeling. To this end, we present the multi-turn cue-words driven conversation system with reinforcement learning method (RLCw), which strives to select an adaptive cue word with the greatest future credit, and therefore improve the quality of generated responses. We introduce a new reward to measure the quality of cue words in terms of effectiveness and relevance. To further optimize the model for long-term conversations, a reinforcement approach is adopted in this paper. Experiments on real-life dataset demonstrate that our model consistently outperforms a set of competitive baselines in terms of simulated turns, diversity and human evaluation.


Internal migrations are a growing problem in multiethnic societies. Indonesia is one of the most diverse countries in the world and home for hundreds of ethnic groups united under the main idea – national identity. But this concept remains unclear for many Indonesians, especially those living outside the central, overpopulated Java and Madura. To achieve the utopian unity, President Suharto (1967–1998) introduced the "transmigration" program, which moved people from overcrowded territories to the so-called "outer islands". The official plans emphasised its economic and development importance, but I argue that transmigration was also a political tool for introducing the processes of Indonesianisation and Islamisation. Using Michael Hechter's theory of internal colonialism, I support my argument with reports and documents referring to the case of West Papua in Eastern Indonesia. The territory with separatist experience and a strong desire for a great autonomy serve as a good example of attempts of deliberate Indonesianisation and Islamisation. An overwhelming number of internal migrants, Javanese Muslims, gradually diluted the unity of Christian Papuans. The lack of balance between these groups creates a constant tension in a changing society. Based on the argument, I explain the influence of internal migration in a wider context. I pay attention to the dynamism of religious and ethnic structure before and after the fall of the New Order regime. I argue that processes of Indonesianisation and Islamisation are crucial for the further existence of Papuans and solutions adopted by the Indonesian state.


Thyroid hormones are important for neurogenesis and gliogenesis during brain development. We have previously demonstrated that triiodothyronine (T3) treatment induced proliferation in primary culture astrocytes derived from the cerebellum of neonatal rats. Conditioned medium obtained from those T3‐treated astrocytes (T3CM) mimicked the effect of hormonal treatment on these cells. Because neuron–glia interaction plays an important role in brain development, we tested the ability of such T3‐glial CM to influence neuronal physiology. With that aim, neurons from 19‐day embryonic cerebella were cultivated for 24 h in the presence of CM obtained from T3‐treated cerebellar astrocytes. Interestingly, the cerebellar neuronal population increased by 60–80% in T3CM. Addition of 5 μM forskolin enhanced the responsiveness of cerebellar neurons to astrocytes T3CM, but it did not interfere with neuronal survival in control medium. Conversely, inhibition of adenylate cyclase by its specific inhibitor, SQ22536, reversed the T3CM effect on neurons. These data strongly suggest that cAMP signal transduction pathways might be implicated in such an event. Analysis of bromodeoxyuridil incorporation revealed that the increase in neuron number in T3CM was partially due to neuron proliferation, because the proliferation index was three times higher in T3CM than in control medium. Neutralizing antibody assays demonstrated that T3CM effects on neurons are due, at least in part, to the presence of tumor necrosis factor‐β and epidermal growth factor. Thus, we report here a novel molecular mechanism of action of thyroid hormone on cerebellar neuronal cells: Thyroid hormone induces astrocytes to secrete growth factors that can interfere with neuronal proliferation via a paracrine pathway. GLIA 25:247–255, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper examines the main EU-level initiatives that have been put forward in the weeks following the attacks in Paris in January 2015, which will be discussed in the informal European Council meeting of 12 February 2015. It argues that a majority of these proposals predated the Paris shootings and had until that point proved contentious as regards their efficacy, legitimacy and lawfulness. The paper finds that EU counterterrorism responses raise two fundamental challenges:

A first challenge is posed to the freedom of movement, Schengen and EU citizenship. Priority is being given to the expanded use of large-scale surveillance and systematic monitoring of all travellers including EU citizens, which stands in contravention of Schengen and the free movement principle.
A second challenge concerns EU democratic rule of law. Current pressures calling for the adoption of measures such as the EU Passenger Name Record challenge the scrutiny roles held by the European Parliament and the Court of Justice of the EU on counterterrorism measures in a post-Lisbon Treaty setting.

The paper proposes that the EU adopts a new European Agenda on Security and Liberty based on an EU security (criminal justice-led) cooperation model that is firmly anchored in current EU legal principles and rule of law standards. This model would call for 'less is more' concerning the use, processing and retention of data by police and intelligence communities. Instead, it would pursue better and more accurate use of data meeting the quality standards of evidence in criminal judicial proceedings.


Fresh water supply and its security encounter a high level of fluctuating variability under global climate changes. To address these concerns in catchment water management, a good understanding of land use/cover impacts on the hydrological cycle affecting water supply is crucial. The objective of this study is to define a model to investigate the impact of existing land use/cover on water yielding in Mish-khas catchment of Zagros region, Ilam province, Iran. In this research, a water yield model of Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) was employed to estimate annual water yield in the catchments as a basic foundation for policy and decision making. The input data set included land use/cover layers of the region produced in 2016, average annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration from 1986-2016, soil depth, plant available water content and land use/cover bio-physical database. Based on the results, total annual water yield was estimated 30.2 million m3 for the whole Mish-khas catchment. The annual water yield percent for rangeland, forest, farmland and orchards land uses was 57%, 31%, 8.6% and 3.4% of the total water yield of the catchment, respectively. In addition, the results showed that the farmland had the highest water yield (2449 m3/ha) followed by forests (2269 m3/ha), orchards (2254 m3/ha) and rangeland (2196 m3/ha) land uses. In terms of water distribution, the northern regions with a volume of 2315 m3/ha had higher water yield than the southern regions (2210 m3/ha). The results also indicate that a GIS-based InVEST model is a useful instrument to identify more suitable areas for water-table recharge.


The rat heart is an excellent model for the investigation of cardiac physiology and metabolism. It has been used extensively for ex vivo studies of the normal heart as well as for the study of various heart diseases. With the advent of dedicated high-resolution small animal PET scanners, it is now possible to transpose many of the cardiac studies routinely used in humans to the rat. These include the in vivo measurement of myocardial blood flow, metabolism, and function. Because these techniques are noninvasive, the same animal can be imaged repetitively, thus allowing for follow-up studies of disease progression and for the assessment of new therapeutic methods. In this work, we report on cardiac studies performed in normal and diseased rats using the Sherbrooke avalanche photodiode PET scanner, a small animal PET imaging device achieving 14 /spl mu/l volumetric spatial resolution with excellent image signal-to-noise ratio. The system also features flexible list-mode data acquisition, which allows dynamic studies to be resampled as desired for kinetic modeling. These cardiac PET imaging methods were used for the follow-up of infarcted rats submitted to experimental intramyocardial revascularization therapy.


A renewed analysis of the H.E. Ives and G.R. Stilwell's experiment on moving hydrogen canal rays (J. Opt. Soc. Am., 1938, v.28, 215) concludes that the spectral emission of a moving atom exhibits always a redshift which informs not the direction of the atom's motion. The conclusion is also evident from a simple energy relation: atomic spectral radiation is emitted as an orbiting electron consumes a portion of its internal energy on transiting to a lower-energy state which however has in a moving atom an additional energy gain; this results in a redshift in the emission frequency. Based on auxiliary experimental information and a scheme for de Broglie particle formation, we give a vigorous elucidation of the mechanism for deceleration radiation of atomic electron; the corresponding prediction of the redshift is in complete agreement with the Ives and Stilwell's experimental formula.


The authors have produced transform-limited pulses ranging from 100 ps to 40 fs duration from a Ti:sapphire laser. Output powers in excess of 1 W and peak powers of 0.5 MW have been observed. They describe the technique of regenerative mode locking and present evidence that a transient with a peak power of more than 10 kW is required to initiate mode locking. The role of group velocity dispersion is highlighted and a value of -750 fs/sup 2/ is measured for the group delay dispersion in an operating laser. The authors describe the limits on both the power and pulsewidth obtainable from this laser and present pulse compression experiments which produce 17 fs pulses with 70 mW of average power. >


Tasks and objects are two predominant ways of specifying distributed problems where processes should compute outputs based on their inputs. Roughly speaking, a task specifies, for each set of processes and each possible assignment of input values, their valid outputs. In contrast, an object is defined by a sequential specification. Also, an object can be invoked multiple times by each process, while a task is a one-shot problem. Each one requires its own implementation notion, stating when an execution satisfies the specification. For objects, linearizability is commonly used, while tasks implementation notions are less explored. The article introduces the notion of interval-sequential object, and the corresponding implementation notion of interval-linearizability, to encompass many problems that have no sequential specification as objects. It is shown that interval-sequential specifications are local, namely, one can consider interval-linearizable object implementations in isolation and compose them for free, without sacrificing interval-linearizability of the whole system. The article also introduces the notion of refined tasks and its corresponding satisfiability notion. In contrast to a task, a refined task can be invoked multiple times by each process. Also, objects that cannot be defined using tasks can be defined using refined tasks. In fact, a main result of the article is that interval-sequential objects and refined tasks have the same expressive power and both are complete in the sense that they are able to specify any prefix-closed set of well-formed executions. Interval-linearizability and refined tasks go beyond unifying objects and tasks; they shed new light on both of them. On the one hand, interval-linearizability brings to task the following benefits: an explicit operational semantics, a more precise implementation notion, a notion of state, and a locality property. On the other hand, refined tasks open new possibilities of applying topological techniques to objects.


Background: Cancer of the uterine cervix is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. More than three fourths of these patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, leading to poor prospects of long term survival and cure. Introduction of Papanicolaou (Pap test) cytological screening for cervical precancerous lesions has significantly reduced the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing has been recently demonstrated to be efficient to be integrated into screening programs, so it can be used to triage women with equivocal cytological abnormalities and also identifies women at risk of residual or recurrent disease after treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. However, it fails into triage low grade lesions. HPV DNA test confirms infection by the virus, present in 99% of cases. However, it does not discriminate between transient and persistent infection as it is crucial because it is the persistent infection which progresses to neoplasia. Histological assessment of cervical biopsy that is considered as "gold standard" can be hampered by intra and inter observer variability. A more specific triage marker is required to identify women who would need colposcopy. Hence, p16INK4a has emerged as a new diagnostic and prognostic biomarker. Aims and objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the utility of staining of p16INK4a on conventional Pap smears and its comparison with corresponding biopsies. Material and Methods: 50 cases of conventional Papanicolaou stained cervical smears cases were randomly selected from the archive of cytopathology laboratory. The cervical smears were re-evaluated for adequacy, preservation of cells, cytomorphology and various lesions were categorized according to The Bethesda system 2001 (TBS) classification. Consecutive such cases were selected for which both cytological and histological material were available. Immunostaining of cervical cytological specimens for p16 was performed using monoclonal murine antibody, clone 16P04, JC2. Ready to use antibody was used for immunostaining as per manufacturer's protocol. Results: Out of the 50 smears of preneoplastic and invasive lesions, ASCUS was seen in 5 cases, LSIL in 10 cases, HSIL in 20 cases, SCC in 20 cases and AGUS in 5 cases. Of the 5 cases of ASCUS, histopathology showed 3 chronic cervicitis and 1 each in CIN-1 and CIN-2. Histopathological diagnosis of 10 cases of LSIL showed 6 CIN-1 and 2 each in CIN-2 and chronic cervicitis. Similarly, for 10 cases of HSIL, 3 were CIN-2, 5 CIN-3 and 2 SCC. All 20 cases of carcinoma showed SCC while 5 cases of AGUS showed 4 chronic cervicitis and one adenocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical staining of p16INK4A showed weak positivity in 3 cases of chronic cervicitis and 4 cases of CIN-1. In CIN-2 cases, 66.67% showed strong positivity, CIN-3 showed 80% while both carcinoma and adenocarcinoma showed 100% strong positivity. The sensitivity of immunohistochemical staining of p16INK4A was 77.5%, specificity was 100%, PPV 100% and NPV 52.6%. The relation between histological and cytological immunostaining of p16INK4A. Conclusion: p16INK4A is a reliable marker for dysplastic squamous and glandular cervical cells both in tissue sections and in cervical smears. p16 immunostaining can be easily performed on CPS, and there is high concordance of positivity on smears and tissue sections.


Different raw materials including twenty one date palm varieties grown in Pakistan were analyzed for their physico-chemical characteristics to assess their suitability for the preparation of date bars. All date varieties are good source of sugars like fructose, minerals like potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron, phenolic compounds indicating their antioxidant capacity but are low in anti-nutritional factors and thus are suitable for consumption and processing. On the basis of results of physico-chemical analysis, best suited date variety (Karblain), gram flour (roasted), corn flour (roasted), peanuts and almonds were found suitable to contribute towards nutritional requirements including energy and protein for the preparation of date bars. Protein level in date bars was optimized using Response Surface Methodology. Whey protein concentrate and vetch protein isolates were used for protein supplementation. Date bars were found suitable for storage at ambient conditions upto three months without any deterioration in quality attributes and stability.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Recent proof-of-principle studies have demonstrated potential utility of sequencing cell-free DNA in cancer diagnostics. However, little is understood about the effect of fragment size distributions in plasma DNA on the performance of sequencing-based assays. We developed a multiplexed assay to perform one-step analysis of DNA quantity and integrity from minute amounts of cell-free DNA using picoliter droplet digital PCR. Primers were designed to amplify 5 short PCR products (67-71 bp) and 4 long PCR products (439-522 bp) from independent quiescent regions of the human genome. Oligonucleotide probes targeting each of the short and long products were labeled with fluorescent dyes FAM and TET respectively. We evaluated the performance of our assay using control human genomic DNA sheared using sonication to an average of 150 bp, 300 bp, 500 bp and 1000 bp fragment sizes. We observed that relative quantities of short and long PCR products reflect integrity of sheared input DNA. We further observed that accurate quantification and assessment of integrity could be achieved using picogram amounts of cell-free DNA (as few as 200 pg in current assessments). Finally, our results were predictive of diversity and obtainable depth-of-coverage in next-generation sequencing libraries made from cell-free DNA samples.

Citation Format: Tania Contente-Cuomo, Muhammed Murtaza. Quality assessment of circulating cell-free DNA using multiplexed droplet-digital PCR. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 2404. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2404


A rare case of subretinal migration of an intravitreal dexamethasone implant in a vitrectomized eye, and the surgical outcome performed to remove the implant and restore vision. Purpose: To report a rare case of subretinal migration of an intravitreal dexamethasone implant to treat macular edema secondary to diabetic retinopathy in a vitrectomized eye and the surgical outcome. Observations: A pars plana vitrectomy and a retinotomy were performed to remove the implant and restore vision. Conclusion and Importance: Subretinal dislodgement of intravitreal implants is a rare and preventable complication. In the current case, we speculated that this complication might have been related to the injection technique, a possible unrecognized retinal perforation before the injection of the implant, or delayed treatment with the implant. Because a retinal detachment and vitreoretinal proliferation were observed, surgical management was required. Increasing widespread application of any technology may lead to a more significant risk of complications, and ophthalmologists should be aware of this potential risk.


Recently, a prominent role for CD8+ T cells in immunity against pathogens has emerged. The mode of action of CD8+ T cells in murine visceral leishmaniasis and their contribution to the clearance of the parasite has been addressed in the present study. We showed that during the course of experimental infection cytotoxic clones specific for Leishmania infantum antigens developed in the spleen of susceptible BALB/c mice, showed an activated phenotype and became susceptible to apoptotic cell death late in the course of the disease. CD8+ T cells exhibited considerable cytotoxic activity against cells expressing Leishmania antigens. This activity was mediated by both the perforin and the Fas/FasL pathway, as judged from in vitro and in vivo assays. The CD8+ T cells also up‐regulated mRNAs for cytokines (IFN‐γ and TNF‐α) and C‐C chemokines (RANTES and MIP‐1α), which have a major role in immunity against the pathogen. CD8+ T‐cells thus displayed a Tc1 pattern of differentiation. In conclusion, CD8+ T cells appear to play multiple roles in an experimental model of visceral leishmaniasis comprising both cytotoxic activity and secretion of cytokines and chemokines.


The research deals with phonological awareness and initial reading in children of 5 years of age, has the purpose of determining the relationship between phonological awareness and initial reading in children under six years of age. It is based on the quantitative approach, the basic and substantive methodology of a cross-sectional correlational descriptive level; In this understanding, a test of phonological awareness and initial reading was applied to 100 students of the last year of the initial level, the application of the instrument was in 5 peripheral educational institutions of the city of Abancay, thus achieving the result that no more than 78.5 % of the students have considerable mastery about the two study variables. In this understanding, it is concluded that there is a significant relationship between phonological awareness and initial reading in the evaluated preschool students. In turn, it is found that they need to be attended with regard to the development of phonological awareness, which takes time and requires attention from professionals, to have successful results in reading comprehension and all areas of learning. Therefore, the increase of competence within communication is proposed, called "developing phonological awareness," which is considered in the curricular design of the initial level of the second cycle. In that understanding, it could be considered as a contribution to education.


The aim of this scientific study was to obtain a new physical formula for determining the refractive indices of light as a function of wavelength, which can be applied to the widest range of transparent substances. This study was based on the hypothesis of the dependence of the speed of propagation of photons inside matter on the density of electron clouds of atoms of matter. In the course of research on the basis of Einstein's relativistic formula, this dispersion formula was obtained. The new physical formula was used to calculate 26 refractive indices of light in 5 transparent substances in three states of aggregation. Comparison of the obtained indicators with laboratory indicators showed the high accuracy of the new dispersion formula, which amounted to T10 -7h10 -5 in the calculated wavelength ranges of more than 100 nm. The successful application of the relativistic formula to processes occurring at the atomic level allows us to look at the nature of the interaction of light and matter from a new angle.


Mohmmadhiwa Abdekhoda Associate Professor, Department of Medical Library and Information Sciences, School of Health Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Iranian Center of Excellence in Health Management (ICEHM), School of Management and Medical Informatics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. ORCID: 0000-0002-1797-8916. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Results are presented of an analysis of the prebreakdown current of a Townsend discharge in a planar gas discharge system with a GaAs semiconductor cathode for a gap thickness of 45 µm and gas pressures of 6.9, 8.9, 34.2 and 36.9 kPa. IR radiation excites the cathode in the system, thus controlling the current density in the gas discharge layer. It is shown that the prebreakdown current is caused by electron emission from the semiconductor surface. The present experimental investigations show that the prebreakdown current decreases anomalously with increase of the feeding voltage and that it also decreases under the illumination of a semiconductor cathode. Both these anomalies depend on gas pressure. The current density change through the cross-section of the discharge gap, i.e. the appearance of the spatio-temporal self-organization of non-linear dissipative systems, causes these observed effects. These characteristics of the system can be applied for fast IR imaging and a high speed UV light source.


A grave prognosis is usually associated with leukemic skin infiltrates (leukemia culis). However, some leukemia skin infiltrates are clinically similar to reactive non‐leukemic infiltrates in paetients with leukemia; thus it is of great importance to distinguish them. Fifty‐four cases which were thought clinically to be leukemia cutis underwent immunophenotyping with a panel of nine T, B, monocytic, and macrophagc markers using paraffin sections. Immunohistochemistry helped identify 44 cases with leukemia cutis and 10 with reactive infiltrates. In all cases of leukemia culis, the staining patterns of skin infiltrates were concordant with cell type in the bone marrow. Furthermore, the panel of markers was usually helpful in distinguishing reactive from leukemic infiltrates, especially in cases with chronic lymphatic leukemia. Immunohistochemistry is a valuable adjunct in histopathologic differentiation of skin infiltrates in most cases of leukemia. With formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded biopsies, we recommend that CD45 (LCA), CD45RO (UCHL‐1), CDS, CD20 (L‐26), CD43 (Leu‐22), CD68 (KIM), lysozyme, and chloroacetate estcrase be considered in cases of systemic leukemia with cutaneous papules and nodules that prove difficult to interpret with routine section.


Within linguistic theory, very little effort has been devoted so far to a comprehensive theory of the syntax and semantics of modifiers. It is predominantly assumed that modifiers make a constant semantic contribution to the meaning of the constituent that is modified, irrespective of any conceivable syntactic differentiations. This account cannot cope with a multitude of empirical data and should therefore be replaced by a theory of modification that pays more attention to the exact nature of a given syntactic configuration and its impact on semantic composition. The approach advocated here is illustrated with locative modifiers of verb phrases. It will be shown that these expressions have a large range of meaning variability. Using German data, it is argued that differences in meaning can be correlated with differences in syntactic structure. On this basis, a compositional semantics for locative modifiers is proposed.


We review the recent attempts of unifying inflation with quintessence. It appears natural to join the two ends in the framework of brane world cosmology. The models of quintessential inflation belong to the class of {\it non-oscillatory} models for which the mechanism of conventional reheating does not work. Reheating through gravitational particle production is inefficient and leads to the excessive production of relic gravity waves which results in the violation of nucleosynthesis constraint. The mechanism of {\it instant preheating} is quite efficient and is suitable for brane world quintessential inflation. The model is shown to be free from the problem of excessive production of gravity waves. The prospects of Gauss-Bonnet brane world inflation are also briefly indicated.


Artificial intelligence (AI) models are increasingly finding applications in the field of medicine. Concerns have been raised about the explainability of the decisions that are made by these AI models. In this article, we give a systematic analysis of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), with a primary focus on models that are currently being used in the field of healthcare. The literature search is conducted following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) standards for relevant work published from 1 January 2012 to 02 February 2022. The review analyzes the prevailing trends in XAI and lays out the major directions in which research is headed. We investigate the why, how, and when of the uses of these XAI models and their implications. We present a comprehensive examination of XAI methodologies as well as an explanation of how a trustworthy AI can be derived from describing AI models for healthcare fields. The discussion of this work will contribute to the formalization of the XAI field.


: The purpose of this study is to identify macroeconomic factors affecting the risk of liquidity of Islamic banks in Indonesia. The method of this research is explanatory research. This study uses secondary data derived from Islamic bank financial statements and statistical center in Indonesia. The result of the research shows that there is no significant influence on GDP, Inflation and Unemployment on liquidity risk. This means that macroeconomic conditions in Indonesia do not affect liquidity risk in Islamic banks in Indonesia. The results of this study is different from the results of previous research, this is due to differences in sample data. Previous research was conducted on conventional banks, while in this study conducted on Islamic banks. This proves that liquidity risk in Islamic banks in Indonesia is more resistant to macroeconomic factors than conventional banks.


The caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, function as central regulators of cell death. Recently, caspase activity and caspase substrates identified in the absence of cell death have sparked strong interest in caspase functions in nonapoptotic cellular responses; these functions suggest that caspases may be activated without inducing or before apoptosis, thus leading to the cleavage of a specific subset of substrates. This review focuses primarily on the caspase enzymatic activity. Detailed genetic analyses of caspase‐deficient Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, and mice have shown that caspases are essential, not only for controlling the number of cells involved in sculpting or deleting structures in developing animals, but also for dynamic, nonapoptotic cell processes, such as innate immune response, tissue regeneration, cell‐fate determination, stem‐cell differentiation and neural activation. Our understanding of the spatio‐temporal caspase activation mechanisms has advanced, primarily through the study of Drosophila developmental processes. This review will discuss current findings regarding caspase functions in cytoskeletal modification, morphogenetic regulation of cell shape, cell migration and the production of mechanical force during embryogenesis.


In this paper, we propose a scotogenic model of neutrino masses with flavor dependent $U(1)_{B-3L_\alpha}(\alpha=e, \mu, \tau)$ gauge symmetry, in which neutrinos are generated at one-loop level and a fermion dark matter is naturally accommodated. In this model, three one-zero-texture structures of neutrino mass matrix, denoted as pattern A, B and C, are successfully realized by appropriate charge assignment for inert fermions and scalar fields. For each predicted textures, a detailed numerical analysis is carried out to find the allowed regions of neutrino mixing and masses. We find three scenarios (A for normal mass hierarchy, B and C for inverted mass hierarchy) favored by latest data of neutrino oscillation experiments and Planck 2018 limit on the sum of neutrino masses. Other phenomenologies such as lepton flavor violation, dark matter and collider signatures are also discussed.


We quantified the genetic influences affecting the liability to nightmares, and the association between nightmares and psychiatric disorders in a community-based sample. In 1990, 1,298 monozygotic (MZ) and 2,419 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs aged 33-60 years responded to a questionnaire study in the Finnish Twin Cohort. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate genetic and environmental components of variance in the liability to nightmares. Records on hospitalization and long-term antipsychotic medication were used to estimate the period prevalence of serious psychiatric disorders. Nightmares were reported more frequently in females both in childhood and as adults. The correlation between occurrence in childhood and as adults was 0.69 in males and 0.71 in females. Polychoric correlations of occurrence within the twin pairs were 0. 45 in MZ and 0.21 in DZ pairs in childhood, and as adults 0.39 and 0. 18, respectively. The best fitting genetic model was that specifying additive genetic and unshared environmental effects. The estimated proportion of genetic effects in childhood was in males 44% (95% confidence interval [CI] 35-52%) and in females 45% (95% CI 38-52%) of the phenotypic variance. As adults the values were in males 36% (95% CI 27-44%) and in females 38% (95% CI 31-45%). Nightmare frequency and psychiatric disorders were linearly associated. Among those with the most frequent nightmares odds ratios (95% CI) were 3. 67 (2.48-5.42) for childhood and 5.87 (4.08-8.45) for adults compared with those never having nightmares. Nightmares are quite a stable trait from childhood to middle age. There are persistent genetic effects on the disposition to nightmares both in childhood and adulthood. Nightmares are significantly associated with psychiatric disorders.


Honeydew melons are climacteric fruits showing a typical rise in respiration at the onset of ripening. Using tissue discs it is shown that at the time of the climacteric peak the major part of respiration is accounted for by the tissue adjacent to the internal cavity. Respiratory activity of tissue near the rind is not maximal until after the climacteric. The rate of oxygen uptake by tissue discs is increased by the addition of succinate and ADP indicating respiration to be limited by a shortage of substrate. Mitochondria are more active when isolated from postthan from preclimacteric fruit, although the degree of coupling of oxidative phosphorylation is similar in both cases. Mitochondria are largely insensitive to cyanide.


Pronunciation is truly important in English speaking activity since it can highly influence the meaning of utterances. If someone makes error in pronouncing some words in a sentence, it can disturb the communication, even it can be one of the factors which can lead to the conversation breakdown. In fact, there are many Indonesian students who find difficulties in comprehending English pronunciation because the words they have heard or spoken are often different with their written form. To cope those problems, the writer uses Tongue Twister as a technique to improve students' pronunciation skill. By using this technique, it hopefully can make the students more enthusiastic and easier to master pronunciation of English. This research was classroom action research done through two cycles. The participants of this research were the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Kalitidu Bojonegoro in the academic year of 2021/2022. The data were obtained by interviewing the english teacher, interviewing the students, observation, test, and documentation. The result of the study showed that there was improvement of students' pronunciation after being taught by using Tongue Twister technique. This was proven by the students' score that improved in every cycle, In the pre-cycle, the students' average score was 57,85 and in the last cycle, there is cycle 2 students got 77,57. Based on the observation checklist result showed that students gave their positive responses by becoming more enthusiastic and actively.


The post-transcriptional regulation of factors involved in the maintenance of cellular iron homeostasis is exerted by iron regulatory proteins (IRPs), which bind to mRNA structures known as iron regulatory elements (IREs). The IRP-IRE interactions are regulated by the intracellular iron level by affecting the binding affinity, synthesis and stability of the IRPs. A model of this homeostasis phenomenon is described and analysed within a methodological framework specifically designed for handling complex systems with steep sigmoidal input/output relationships between the state variables. According to the analysis there is only one threshold regulated homeostatic point. Approximate values for its coordinates, and the conditions ensuring its existence, may be given in terms of parameters. The analysis also provides some tentative insight into the evolution of the regulatory system. A comparison between analytical and numerical estimates of the position of the stationary point as a function of the steepness of the sigmoidal interactions show that the analytical approximations agree quite well with the numerical ones. The results show that we are able to obtain a deeper analytical insight by this methodological framework than what is achievable by most alternative approaches. We find this type of insight to be of considerable heuristic value in connection with the numerical simulation work which normally must be done to unfold the predictive potential of a complex model.


Water resources are diminishing in many (semi) arid regions, thus becoming a concern in the (near) future. Desalination of brackish or salt water can be a good solution to provide water for agriculture and human consumption. The Watergy project proposes an integrated system in which plants and fresh water are produced. The system is closed and air is being cooled during the day with a central heat exchanger in a chimney. Since this heat exchanger is a vital part for the functioning of the system, it was decided to test its characteristics such as heat transfer and air velocities in a controlled environment. A chimney was built with a heat exchanger installed inside with a surface of 11 m2. Several experiments were conducted with varying layout of the heat exchanger, varying conditions and excitation signals. This paper describes the results of steady state situation with five baffles during heating and cooling. The measured air velocities are in the range of 0.72 0.6 m/s. The measured heat exchange coefficient is in the range of 25 28 W/m2K. The efficiencies of all the presented experiments are in the range of 70 ? 80%. The results of the experiments are compared to a simple physics based, steady state model that describes the convection, conduction and condensation processes. The model results are quite close to the experimental results; the maximum temperature deviation between model and observations on the water-side is 0.5?C (at 40?C) and on the air side 2.5°C. The accuracy of the model is sufficient to use it for design purposes and, later on, as a starting point for model based control of the greenhouse. Finally, the results of the experiments show that the heat transfer in the proposed design can be sufficient to cool and heat the Watergy greenhouse.


Side-channel attacks are performed on increasingly complex targets, starting to threaten superscalar CPUs supporting a complete operating system. The difficulty of both assessing the vulnerability of a device to them, and validating the effectiveness of countermeasures is increasing as a consequence. In this work we prove that assessing the side-channel vulnerability of a software implementation running on a CPU should take into account the microarchitectural features of the CPU itself. We characterize the impact of microarchitectural features and prove the effectiveness of such an approach attacking a dual-core superscalar CPU.


A new engineering practice in modern buildings is to use beams with web openings to allow the passage of services within the depth of the beam instead of underneath the beam. As the web post failure may occur before the section reaches the limiting temperature, usually an increase in the fire protection may be required for members with web openings in comparison to its equivalent solid section. The aim of this work is to present an experimental study of unloaded solid and cellular beams with circular holes in fire conditions with and without intumescent fire protection. These preliminary tests results are the basis for generating an elemental multi-temperature analysis needed to assess cellular beams with intumescent protection and give experimental results for calibration of further numerical simulations. The experimental results show that, considering the same nominal fire protection thickness, one can obtain a higher fire resistance time for solid beams when compared with cellular beams. The tests performed, with different hole diameters and web-post widths, points that to achieve the same fire resistance time, a cellular beam will need a higher fire protection compared to an equivalent solid beam. Also, a special care is needed when the intumescent coating is applied around the hole to avoid the intumescent contraction, applying for example an over coating.


Background: The aim of this study was to compare epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations between primary tumors and corresponding bone metastases (BMs) in lung adenocarcinoma. Materials and Methods: In total, 115 paired primary lung adenocarcinoma and corresponding BM tumors were analyzed for EGFR mutations by Amplification Refractory Mutation System. Results: EGFR mutations were detected in 61 primary lung adenocarcinomas (53.04%) and in 67 corresponding metastases (58.26%), respectively. The EGFR mutation rate was significantly higher in female and in never-smoker patients. The consistency of EGFR mutations between the 115 matched BMs and primary tumor tissue samples reached to 80.87%, and the disparity was 19.13%. Mutations in exons 19 (19-del) and 21 (point mutation L858R) were the predominant mutation type. Conclusions: The concordance rate demonstrated the feasibility of EGFR mutations in corresponding metastases using Amplification Refractory Mutation System when the primary tumor tissue is unavailable in the lung adenocarcinoma patients, and the inconsistency indicates that corresponding metastasis being screened simultaneously with the primary tumor samples may present some supplementary information for the patients.


Physical activity plays an important role in the maintenance of functions and the milieu interieur. There are many types and intensities of physical activity and their impact on the organism and its parts is varied. However, exercise must always be consistent with the state of the organism at a given moment. Inadequacy of the form and type of physical activity becomes always manifest after different time intervals, as a process of maladaptation and finally as a pathological adaptation. It is important for every age group and every health status but differs markedly as regards quality and quantity. Objective evaluation of the load and state of the organism and capacity of a physiological response is one of the basic principles of prevention as well as therapy.


Abstract The production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies (Mab) to the white pine blister rust (WPBR) fungus (Cronartium ribicola) were described by Ekramoddoullah and Taylor (1996). One of the monoclonal antibodies, Mab 7, detected a major mycelial antigen on blister rust This monoclonal antibody did not cross-react with proteins from the white pine host or with proteins from other fungal species that were known to infect western white pine. As part of our ongoing work on the potential use of Mab 7 as a plantibody for engineering WPBR-resistant white pine, we report here on the cloning and characterization of cDNA encoding the antigen reactive to Mab 7. Five rounds of immunoscreening of a Uni-ZAP expression cDNA library from poly (A) + mRNA of C. ribicola mycelia with Mab 7 led to the identification of three positive clones. One of them was completely sequenced. Sequence analysis indicated an open reading frame of 2010 bases encoding a protein (designated as Cro r II) of 669 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 72.9 kDa and a predicted isoelectric point of 5.0. Two-dimensional silver-stained gels and 2-D Western analyses detected multiple spots with the same molecular mass and slightly different pI around pH 5.0, suggesting isoforms of Cro r II. A BLAST search of the NCBI database with the deduced Cro r II protein sequence indicated homology with a group of 70-kDa heat shock proteins. Southern blot hybridizations indicated that the C. ribicola genome contained at least one copy of the Cro r II gene. Western immunoblot analyses revealed that the Cro r II protein was present in mycelial culture, in the infected white pine tissues, in the alternate infected Ribes stage, and in the five different spore stages, suggesting a constitutive role for Cro r II in the fungus.


Corresponding author : Ik Jae Lee Department of Radiation Oncology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 211 Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06273, Korea Tel: +82-2-2019-3152, Fax: +82-2-2019-4855 E-mail: email@example.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7165-3373 Abbreviations: cGAS, cyclic GMP-AMP synthase; CTLA-4, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4; DCs, dendritic cells; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; ICIs, immune checkpoint inhibitors; ICV, inferior vena cava; PD-1, programmed cell death protein 1; SBRT, stereotactic body radiotherapy; STING, stimulator of interferon genes; TDLNs, tumor-draining lymph nodes


Multiple day-to-day chronologies track the Stones' roller-coaster career, shedding new light on band members, concert dates, venues, unreleased recordings, rare film appearances, albums and illegal bootlegs. Rare photographs, album covers and advertisements transport you to the scenes of the Stones' most turbulent and creative days. Exclusive set lists from their earliest gigs, reconstructed through careful research and interviews, capture the flavor of the Stones' live performances as a club band and detail their evolution from playing covers of classic rhythm-and-blues tunes to pounding out their own rock 'n' roll hits. If you've ever wondered what songs the Stones liked to play in the early days, or where Mick Taylor made his debut as a member of the band, here are the answers to those questions and many more.


OBJECTIVE
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common malignant tumor of salivary glands with a widely diverse biologic behavior that is correlated with the histological grade of the tumor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of MEC of minor salivary glands in a group of 16 patients, who were treated in our clinic, and to discuss the management of this carcinoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Between 1985 and 2000, 16 patients with MEC of minor salivary glands were treated in the Clinic of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the 'G. Papanikolaou' General Hospital, in Thessaloniki. The age range was 16-65 years. The distribution of the primary sites was: hard plate (one), soft palate (two), hard and soft palate (three), hard and soft palate with spread in paranasal sinus and nasal cavity (one), buccal mucosa (three), hard palate, alveolar process and buccal mucosa (two), and retromolar triangle (our). The tumors were clinically staged according to the tumor nodes metastase (TNM) system (Seifert, 1991). All patients were treated radically with surgery. The surgery was combined with radiotherapy in nine patients. Radiotherapy was delivered using Co-60. Doses ranged from 50 to 60 Gy and the duration of the therapy ranged from 25 to 35 days. Immunohistochemical assay of the expression of the Ki-67 antigen was performed on a subset of 15 cases.

RESULTS
The mean follow-up range was 4-14 years. From the 16 patients with MECs 10 (62.5%) were alive and five (35.6%) had died from the disease. Four patients were free of the disease for more than 5 years (range 8-14), five patients were free of the disease for 5 years and one patient was free of the disease for 4 years. One patient lived more than 10 years and died from another cause. Local recurrence developed in one patient 10 years after the initial treatment. Lymph node metastases occurred in one patient within the first year after the initial surgical treatment. Distant metastases (two in bones and one in lungs) occurred in three patients within 2 years after completing the treatment. The Pearson chi-square statistical analysis was used for comparing the Ki-67 values in correlation with histological grade of the tumors. The Ki-67 expression was only 1% in low-grade MECs, while in intermediate-grade tumors it was estimated between 3 and 4%. The high-grade tumors had increased expression (10%) of tumor cells.

CONCLUSION
Complete surgical excision is the treatment of choice for MECs. Adequate excision is important in all grades of tumors. Prognosis of MECs is a function of the histological grade, adequacy of excision and clinical staging. The immunohistochemical study of Ki-67 expression may provide additional prognostic information for this tumor.


The Campylobacter lipooligosaccharides (LOS) can stimulate membrane-bound innate immune receptors in human macrophages. However, the association of Campylobacter LOS in the stimulation of cytosolic receptors or the inflammasome remains poorly characterised. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of Campylobacter LOS in the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent signalling in a human monocytic cell line. The induction of NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1β and Caspase-1 secretion in THP-1 supernatants was quantified using ELISA following co-culture of THP-1 cells with LOS extracts from wild type C. jejuni 11168, mutant C. jejuni 11 168 with reduced LOS and two wild type C. coli strains (RM1875 and 76339). Our results demonstrate that LOS purified from both C. jejuni and C. coli can induce Caspase-1 and IL-1β production in human macrophages. However, C. jejuni 11 168 mutant LOS with modified lipid A and lack of core oligosaccharides stimulated significantly reduced Caspase-1 and IL-1β. This result was also replicated in co-culture of live wild type and mutant C. jejuni with THP-1 cells. This study provides new insight into the interaction of Campylobacter with human macrophages and suggests that variation in LOS structure may alter NLRP3 inflammasome activation.


The objectives of this research were to; (i) determine mentors" perspectives on their communication skills, teamwork skills, problem solving skills and social responsibility after joining the Mentor-Mentee Programme for STEM Education; (ii) identify the differences between the assessment of STEM mentors" perspective on their personal qualities before and after joining the program; and (iii) identify the problems or challenges that the mentors experienced in mentoring activities compared to classroom teaching, opinions before and after participating in the program, and the challenges faced in the program. Based on the objectives, a survey research was conducted to collect data from 53 students (mentors) in the targeted population through questionnaire. Paired sample t-test was conducted to compare various skills of mentors before and after joining the program. For Communication Skills, the mean score for pre-test is 5.50, while mean score for post-test is 5.00. There was a significant difference in the scores for communication skills in pretest (M=5.00, SD=.86) and posttest (M=5.50, SD=.68); t (58) (=-3.785, p = 0.000). Teamwork skills also show significant difference in the scores in pretest (M=5.59, SD=.89) and posttest (M=6.06, SD=.67); t (58) (=-3.325, p = 0.002). Besides, Problem Solving Skills shows significant difference in the scores in pretest (M=5.00, SD=.99) and posttest (M=5.74, SD=.68); t (58) (=4.897, p = 0.000). However, in the social responsibility skills, there is no significant difference between pretest (M=5.48, SD=1.11) and posttest (M=5.67, SD=0.85), t (58) (=1.086, p = 0.282). These results suggest that the program increases the communication skills, teamwork skills and problem-solving skills of mentors. However, the social responsibility skills do not show a significant difference although the mean score of posttest is higher than the pretest. This can be caused by the high social responsibility skills of mentors prior to the programs they have already been dealing with small kids. The sense of responsibility is higher than handling adults or students in primary or secondary school. In addition to this, some mentors mentioned they are not confident and worried about the STEM program. Nonetheless, positive findings were elicited from the interview. Mentors felt that they gained positive improvement and the program helped them increase their creativity. The mentors also suggested that the quality of module to be improved, competency of mentors to be upgraded, and duration of the intervention be extended. Quality in service instruction over STEM pedagogy best practices is a recommendation for practice.


Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are complex systems interacting with the physical world where instant external changes and uncertain events exist. The Internet of Things is a paradigm that can interoperate with a CPS to increase the CPS's network and communication capabilities. In the literature, software agents, particularly belief–desire–intention (BDI) agents, are considered options to program these heterogeneous and complex systems in various domains. Moreover, fuzzy logic is a method for handling uncertainties. Therefore, the enhancement of BDI with fuzzy logic can also be employed to improve the abilities, such that autonomy, pro-activity, and reasoning, which are essentials for intelligent systems. These features can be applied in CPSs and IoT interoperable systems. This study extends the CPSs and IoT interoperable systems using fuzzy logic and intelligent agents as symmetric paradigms that equally leverage these domains as well as benefit the agent & artifact approach. In this regard, the main contribution of this study is the integration approach, used to combine the CPS and IoT augmented with fuzzy logic using BDI agents. The study begins with constructing the design primitives from scratch and shows how Jason BDI agents can control the distributed CPS. The study then performs the artifact approach by encapsulating a fuzzy inference system, utilizing time-based reasoning, and benefiting from symmetric fuzzy functions. Lastly, the study applies the self-adaptiveness method and flexibility plan selection, considering the run-time MAPE-K model to tackle run-time uncertainty.


BACKGROUND The PAM50 gene expression signature for identifying intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer has been shown to add significant clinical information beyond standard molecular biomarkers (ER, PR, Her2). Previous studies with the PAM50 have focused primarily on retrospective clinical trials in which the drug regimens and enrollment criteria are relatively homogenous. We assess the prognostic significance of subtyping within the community setting using therapies appropriate at the time of diagnosis. METHODS Two prospective studies of breast cancer survivors, Life After Cancer Epidemiology (LACE) and Pathways, were subtyped by the PAM50 using quantitative RT-PCR. LACE participants were diagnosed from 1997-2000 with tumors ≥1 cm; while Pathways enrolled subjects at time of diagnosis (2006-2008) with tumors ≥0.5 cm. Both studies included AJCC stages I-III. LACE participants were enrolled on average 2 years post-diagnosis, such that early recurrences were excluded. In addition, women in Pathways were diagnosed after 2006 when Herceptin treatment was available. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor blocks were centrally reviewed by a pathologist and 1mm directed punches of invasive cancer were taken for RNA extraction and expression profiling. A published algorithm was used for subtyping and provided a continuous gene expression score for proliferation, ESR1/ER, PGR/PR, and ERBB2/Her2 (Bastien et al, BMC Med Genomics. 2012 Oct 4;5:44). Subtype classification was correlated with disease-free survival, estimated using Kaplan-Meier plots and log-rank testing. Multivariable delayed entry Cox regression analyses determined the prognostic significance of subtypes in the context of standard clinical indicators of survival. RESULTS The PAM50 subtype distribution for the cohort was Luminal A (52%), Luminal B (20%), HER2-E (14%), Basal-like (10%), and Normal-like (4%). Approximately 7% of Luminal tumors (A and B) were called ER negative by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Luminal A tumors were more likely to be PR positive (82%) compared to those classified as Luminal B (61%). Only 2% of Luminal B tumors were low proliferation. The HER2-E subtype contained 66% clinically Her2+ tumors and the Basal-like tumors were 90% triple negative. In univariate analyses, women with non-Luminal A subtypes were all at higher risk of recurrence. Controlling for tumor size and positive nodes, those with Basal-like subtype still had a significantly higher risk of recurrence (HR=2.34, 95% CI 1.37, 3.98). CONCLUSIONS There are proportionally more Luminal A patients within the population-based studies compared to clinical trials that have focused on higher risk patients. The PAM50 subtype remains a significant prognostic indicator of recurrence in the context of standard therapies used in community practice today. Citation Format: Philip Bernard, Erin Weltzien, Inge Stijleman, Candyce H. Kroenke, Carole Davis, Marilyn L. Kwan, Charles Quesenberry, Adrienne Castillo, Laurel Habel, Rachel Factor, Larry Kushi, Carol Sweeney, Bette Caan. PAM50 breast cancer subtyping and risk of recurrence in a population-based cohort. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3650. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3650


Existence of PNS become keyword from taking place an state especially in service of public. Big role which is accountability this civil servant make civil servant required by society and have to domicile strategic in life of have state and go into society. But along with the role of strategic of civil servant confronted by various problem embosoming, of low performance storey;level, and ethics of morality which not yet been woke up, low prosperity storey;level, ill defined career ladder, and reward , construction and observation . Various this problems become bureaucracy reform starting point to improve;repair performance of aparatur bureaucracies. One other primal are how to apply ashamed culture in bureaucracy. Role of humanist a leader needed especially to give example to his him. Beside that in improve;repairing performance of civil servant this is needed stages;steps, like repair of system of rekruitmen, punisment and reward the fairness, clear and coherent law, slogan civil servant , correcting political system. Keyword : performance, cultural of shame, leader.


The Hospital Nurse Practitioner Program in Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, prepared staff nurses for a new and expanded role as health care providers in hospital settings. With the use of their increased skills and greater decision-making responsibilities, hospital nurse practitioners admitted patients to the hospital, assessed both the initial clinical status and subsequent changes in the patient's condition, wrote relevant orders, performed a variety of technical procedures (including many previously reserved to house staff and other physicians), ordered and interpreted laboratory studies, counseled patients and families, discharged patients, and provided other traditional nurse practitioner skills. Hospital nurse practitioners had an improved collaborative relationship with physicians. This program showed that hospital nurse practitioners can be as significant in affecting the health care that patients receive on the general units of hospitals, as are nurse practitioners who deliver care and services to ambulatory patients.


We investigate the pure gauge sector of Super-QCD, i.e. Super-Yang-Mills (SYM) theory, with focus on the bound states. To improve chiral symmetry as well as supersymmetry at finite lattice spacing, we use a deformed SYM lattice action. It contains a twist term, similar to the lattice formulation of twisted mass QCD. We present the status of our theoretical and numerical investigation.


Following the development of online sites dedicated to the preservation of individuals' photographic and textual memorialisation of cities, a number of archiving sites using Facebook have been developed that cater to the interactive and co-creative practice of memorialising LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) city-based communities, events and public spaces (e.g. Lost Gay Perth and Lost Gay Melbourne). Such minority community practices of memorialisation invoke deeply felt and affective attachments to 'past' in ways which have implications for identity, belonging, ageing and agency. This article utilises a critical approach to archiving, temporality, identity and attachment to interrogate some of the ways in which digital cultural practices related to archiving social networking sites are implicated in the memorialisation of community belonging through notions of past, networks of knowing, and the temporal and historical production of ways of thinking about and knowing minority sexuality, particularly LGBTQ subjectivity.


We analyze with NS simulations the aggregated packet arrival process into a bottleneck queue generated by multiplexed TCP flows. We explain qualitativel- y the shape of the packet interarrival time distribution. In particular, we provide conditions under which the distribution of the inter packet arrivals is close to exponential and show how this condition scales when the network capacity becomes large. In addition, we analyze the structure of the autocorrelation function of times between packet arrivals. For the case of a packet arrival process close to Poisson, we develop a Fixed Point based model that allows us to compute the packet loss probability and the utilization of the bottleneck link.


An EC Green Paper in 2005 asked for comments on an array of possible reform measures aimed at encouraging private antitrust damage actions in the national courts of the EC's member states. One of the questions the Green Paper raised was "how should damages be defined?" Should they be measured by "the loss suffered by the claimant as a result of the infringing behaviour" or by "the illegal gain made by the infringer:" should courts be able to award "[d]ouble damages for horizontal cartels" automatically, conditionally, or at the courts' discretion; and should prejudgment interest should be permitted "from the date of the infringement or date of the injury." In this short paper, presented at an OECD Working Party in 2006 and published recently, I examine the issues raised by this section of the Green Paper from the perspective of the American experience over a century of private antitrust litigation. I begin with a brief history of the American treble damage remedy. In part II, I describe the theoretical measure of an optimal antitrust penalty. In part III, I show how the model of the optimal penalty can influence choices that affect the measure of damages. In part IV, I draw on the earlier discussion to respond to the Green Paper's questions.


Saddle (baroque) dolomites are characterized by curved crystal faces and sweeping extinction patterns. They are associated with hydrocarbons, sulfates, and base-metal mineralization, and occur as void-filling cements or replacement minerals. Most described saddle dolomites are from carbonates and are interpreted as a diagenetic product that formed under high temperatures during deep burial. Saddle dolomites are present as nodular, poikilotopic cements in sandstones from a core of the Tuscaloosa Formation in southern Mississippi. The Tuscaloosa, a major oil producer in the area, consists of a series of fluvial/deltaic sands and shales. The sandstone is a fine to medium-grained lithic arenite whose grains are coated with isopachous layers of authigenic chlorite, which petrographic evidence indicates was precipitated at relatively shallow depths. The interrelationships of the chlorite rims and the saddle dolomite cements indicate that some of the dolomites were precipitated before the chlorite rims and that others formed shortly after the chlorite. This suggests that the saddle dolomites grew concurrently with the chlorite during a relatively early, shallow diagenetic event and not during deep burial.


Abstract. A prototype infrared (IR) acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF)-based point spectrometer has been designed for examining and analyzing potential biological samples collected in situ from the planets or other solar system objects. The reflectance spectrometer operates at a wavelength range of 1.6 to 3.6 μm, which is diagnostic of minerals and organics, and inspects a 1-mm sized spot on the sample. The tuning component is the AOTF that has been utilized in a variety of spectral detection applications. The instrument's specification and design approach including the selected components is described. The data acquisition system, the electronic components, and their interconnections are presented. The instrument's radiometric performance is examined and described by a noise equivalent reflectance value of 0.13% that is obtained from the laboratory measurements. The device has been demonstrated by measuring the reflectance spectra for a variety of geological samples and comparing the results with the United States Geological Survey data.


The methyltransferase portion of the N-methyl-peptide-synthetase gene, synthesizing enniatin from Fusarium sambucinum, was amplified with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers derived from the highly conserved sequences of the flanking peptide synthetase domain. The deduced amino acid sequence of the product shares high similarity to the 430 amino acid methyltransferase portion of enniatin synthetase of Fusarium scirpi and the corresponding portions of another fungal peptide synthetase catalyzing the biosynthesis of the N-methylated cyclopeptide cyclosporin. As the methyltransferase portions show only local similarity to motifs apparently conserved within methyltransferases, the segments of peptide synthetases involved in the biosynthesis of bioactive peptides represent a new class of S-adenosyl-L-methionine dependent methyltransferases.


Adaptive multilevel QAM (M-QAM) modulation can increase throughput in a wireless packet data network. A technique is discussed for efficiently realising M-QAM modulators on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) using 'multiplierless' finite impulse response (FIR) filters with carry-save addition and canonic signed-digit coefficients. An adaptive M-QAM modulator supporting 4, 16, 64 and 256-QAM is presented.


This paper reports on an experimental study of donkey pronouns, pronouns (e.g. it) whose meaning covaries with that of a non-pronominal noun phrase (e.g. a donkey) even though they are not in a structural relationship that is suitable for quantifier-variable binding. We investigate three constraints, (i) the preference for the presence of an overt NP antecedent that is not part of another word, (ii) the salience of the position of an antecedent that is part of another word, and (iii) the uniqueness of an intended antecedent (in terms of world knowledge). We compare constructions in which intended antecedents occur in a context such as who owns an N / who is an N-owner with constructions of the type who was without an N / who was N-less. Our findings corroborate the existence of the overt NP antecedent constraint, and also show that the salience of an unsuitable antecedent's position matters. Furthermore, our findings show that uniqueness only matters in the Nless type construction and not in the N-owner type construction; we conclude that this supports a potential approach in terms of dynamic semantics over a competing e-type approach.


Two functional covalent organic frameworks (COFs), constructed from 3-connected triazine-based amine or hydrazine with linear dialdehyde, are decorated with molecular docking sites to showcase their solvatochromic decoding behavior toward volatile solvent molecules (VSMs). These luminescent and crystalline COFs, namely, COF-N and COF-NN, are characterized by numerous analytical techniques. After accommodation of different VSMs as guests, the inclusion compounds of COF-N and COF-NN display solvatochromism. More fascinatingly, the singlet energy, band gaps, and lifetime of these VSM-accommodated COF-N and COF-NN are linearly correlated with the properties of VSMs. Density functional theory (DFT) and Monte Carlo simulation studies further support the interaction of VSMs with COF-N and COF-NN. The presence of an extra amine functionality in COF-NN leads to the better interaction with VSMs and, therefore, results in different modes of interaction and correlation. Considering their inestimable chemical diversity, this study introduces a new path for finely tuned solvatochromic properties by COFs.


Bank Muamalat as one of the national private banks faces the same challenges as other banks. Namely increasingly fierce competition between banks in attracting third party funds (TPF) from customers or customers. One way to collect third party funds is through savings. To attract banking customers must know the characteristics and desires of the community. That way the products offered can be accepted by prospective customers. Banks must identify how consumers decide to choose savings products. Then formulate the right marketing strategy. This study aims to determine how much influence the behaviour of consumers on savings decisions. Second, knowing the effect of brand equity on saving decisions. And find out the influence of consumer behaviour and brand equity together on saving decisions. The study was conducted on customers at Bank Muamalat Indonesia, XXXXX Branch through a descriptive analytic survey using a Likert scale model. The results showed that there was an influence of consumer behaviour on the decision to save. Likewise, it can be concluded that promotion or band equity by banking marketing has the most significant influence on consumers' decision to save.


High reliability is one of the key requirements for a power grid device. The reliability of a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) largely depends on the reliability of its cryogenic system. An open cryogenic system was designed and fabricated for a 220 kV/300 MVA saturated iron-core SFCL, which was composed of a Dewar, heat insulation pipelines, a liquid nitrogen tank, a control circuit, and a vacuum pump. In its configuration, a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) dc bias coil is immersed with liquid nitrogen inside the Dewar. The control circuit constantly monitors the liquid nitrogen level and controls the supply of liquid nitrogen in accordance with the liquid nitrogen level. Nitrogen vapor is directly released into the environment. The SFCL including the cryogenic system was installed in the Shigezhuang substation of Tianjin, China. There are three operation modes for the cryogenic system. The first is the ac coil and the HTS coil being loaded with current. The second is the HTS coil being loaded with current, while no current in the ac coil. The last mode is no current loading in both the coils. Operation data of the cryogenic system are analyzed to compare thermal load, pressure, and supply cycle of liquid nitrogen in the three operation modes.


As-cast Al–20wt.% Si alloys were processed via laser rapid solidification (LRS) techniques to create eutectic microstructures with nanoscale interconnected, nanotwinned Si fibers. LRS morphologies exhibit higher flow stress, exceeding 800 MPa and uniform plastic deformation above 20% com- pared to as-cast alloy that fractures at strains below 8% at flow strength of approximately 200 MPa. The strengthening mechanisms of LRS morphologies are interpreted in terms of the interfacial con- straints: increase in yield strength as well as strain hardening rate due to nanoscale confined slip in fibrous Al–Si eutectic, and load transfer and eventual plasticity in the nanoscale Si fibers. Interconnected, nanotwinned Si fibers in hypereutectic Al–Si alloy achieved by LRS increase the flow stress to over 800 MPa while maintaining homogeneous plastic deformation to over 20% strain, due to confined slip in nanoscale eutectic that increases yield strength and strain hardening with reducing size and promotes plastic co-deformability between disparate phases.


After the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) introduced the Basel III framework in 2010, individual countries confronted the question of how best to implement the framework given their unique circumstances. Switzerland, with a banking industry that is both heavily concentrated and very large relative to the size of its overall economy, faced a special challenge. It ultimately adopted what is sometimes referred to as the "Swiss Finish" to Basel III – enhanced requirements applicable to Switzerland's "too-big-to-fail" banks Credit Suisse and UBS that go beyond the base requirements established by the BCBS. Yet the prominent role played by relatively new contingent convertible capital (CoCos) in the Swiss Finish, coupled with the fact that banks are allowed to use their own internal models in determining whether requirements are met may call into question the extent to which the Swiss Finish to Basel III represents a meaningful enhancement to the risk-based capital requirements of the Basel framework.


The circadian rhythms are daily oscillations in various biological processes, and generated by the feedback loops of eight core circadian genes. These eight genes are, Clock, casein kinase I e (CKI e), cryptochrome1 (Cry1) and cryptochrome2 (Cry2), Period1 (Per1), Period2 (Per2) and Period3 (Per3), Bmal1. Recent studies have suggested that the circadian genes participate in the growth and development of various cancers. This study examined the relations of the circadian genes expression to clinicopathological factors and prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer. We studied surgical specimens of cancer tissue and adjacent normal mucosa obtained from 202 patients with untreated colorectal cancer. The relative expression levels of the circadian genes in the specimens were measured by quantitative real-time, reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Expressions of Clock and CKI e in cancer tissue were significantly higher than those in adjacent normal mucosa. Expressions of Per1 and Per3 in cancer tissue were significantly lower than those in adjacent normal mucosa. Analysis of the relations between clinicopathological features and expressions of the eight circadian genes showed that high expression of the Bmal1 and low expression of the Per1 correlated with liver metastasis. In the analysis of the relations between prognosis and expressions of the eight circadian genes, the prognosis of high expression of the Per2 was significantly better than that of low expression of the Per2. Our results suggest that over-expression of the Bmal1 and reduced expression of the Per1 might promote liver metastasis, and reduced expression of Per2 might shorten prognosis in colorectal cancer. Thus over-expression of the Bmal1 gene and reduced expression of the Per1 gene may be a useful predictor of liver metastasis. And reduced expression of Per2 may be useful as prognostic factor in patients with colorectal cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1735.


The article is devoted to existential motives and symbolic varieties of images, heroes and objects in the novel «Lord of the flies».


PURPOSE
Color images are being used more in medical imaging for a broad range of modalities and applications. While in the past, color was mostly used for annotations, today color is also widely being used for diagnostic purposes. Surprisingly enough, there is no agreed upon standard yet that describes how color medical images need to be visualized and how calibration and quality assurance of color medical displays need to be performed. This paper proposes color standard display function (CSDF) which is an extension of the DICOM GSDF standard toward color. CSDF defines how color medical displays need to be calibrated and how QA can be performed to obtain perceptually linear behavior not only for grayscale but also for color.

METHODS
The proposed CSDF algorithm uses DICOM GSDF calibration as a starting point and subsequently uses a color visual difference metric to redistribute colors in order to obtain perceptual linearity not only for the grayscale behavior but also for the color behavior. A clear calibration and quality assurance algorithm is defined and is validated on a wide range of different display systems.

RESULTS
A detailed description of the proposed CSDF calibration and quality assurance algorithms is provided. These algorithms have been tested extensively on three types of display systems: consumer displays, professional displays, and medical grade displays. Test results are reported both for the calibration algorithm as well as for the quantitative and visual quality assurance methods. The tests confirm that the described algorithm generates consistent results and is able to increase perceptual linearity for color and grayscale visualization. Moreover the proposed algorithms are working well on a wide range of display systems.

CONCLUSIONS
CSDF has been proposed as an extension of the DICOM GSDF standard toward color. Calibration and QA algorithms for CSDF have been described in detail. The proposed algorithms have been tested on several types of display systems and the results confirm that CSDF largely increases the perceptual linearity of visualized colors, while at the same time remaining compliant with DICOM GSDF.


Abstract Soybean seeds are prone to flooding injury just after planting if they are exposed to excess moisture. We investigated the flooding tolerance of soybean seeds to clarify the relationship between flooding injury and imbibition, to identify factors that could provide fundamental information for the breeding of flooding-tolerant cultivars. Seven cultivars were used for this study. The seeds were geminated in a paper towel after a flooding treatment and then evaluated for survival. The imbibition of submerged seeds (passive imbibition) was evaluated as the seed fresh weight change during the flooding process. The imbibition of seeds with capillary effect (capillary imbibition) was measured by the bottom water supply method. Furthermore, the conductivity of the seed coat and seed osmolarity were measured. After 3 h of flooding, significant differences in survival were detected among cultivars. In addition, the passive imbibition during 10–30 min of flooding, and the capillary imbibition during 0–10 min of flooding were caused by significant differences in the imbibition rate among cultivars. Although neither imbibition showed a significant correlation with the survival directly, the ratio between the passive and the capillary imbibition rate was significantly correlated with survival. Factors affecting imbibition included the hydraulic conductivity of the seed coat and seed osmolarity, which were significantly correlated with the passive and the capillary imbibition rate, respectively. Thus, the balance between the capillary and passive imbibition behaviour of seeds, affected by the hydraulic conductivity of the seed coat and seed osmolarity, was closely correlated with the occurrence of flooding injury in soybean seeds.


We present DiffusionBERT, a new generative masked language model based on discrete dif- fusion models. Diffusion models and many pre- trained language models have a shared training objective, i.e., denoising, making it possible to combine the two powerful models and enjoy the best of both worlds. On the one hand, dif- fusion models offer a promising training strat- egy that helps improve the generation quality. On the other hand, pre-trained denoising lan- guage models (e.g., BERT) can be used as a good initialization that accelerates convergence. We explore training BERT to learn the reverse process of a discrete diffusion process with an absorbing state and elucidate several designs to improve it. First, we propose a new noise schedule for the forward diffusion process that controls the degree of noise added at each step based on the information of each token. Sec- ond, we investigate several designs of incorpo- rating the time step into BERT. Experiments on unconditional text generation demonstrate that DiffusionBERT achieves significant improve- ment over existing diffusion models for text (e.g., D3PM and Diffusion-LM) and previous generative masked language models in terms of perplexity and BLEU score. Promising re- sults in conditional generation tasks show that DiffusionBERT can generate texts of compa- rable quality and more diverse than a series of established baselines.


Metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors represent the largest family of glutamate receptors in mammals and act as fine tuners of the chemical transmission in central nervous system (CNS). In the last decade, results concerning the expression and the subcellular localization of mGlu receptors further clarified their role in physio-pathological conditions. Concomitantly, their pharmacological characterization largely improved thanks to the identification of new compounds (chemical ligands and antibodies recognizing epitopic sequences of the receptor proteins) that allowed to decipher the protein compositions of the naive receptors. mGlu receptors are expressed at the presynaptic site of chemical synapses. Here, they modulate intraterminal enzymatic pathways controlling the migration and the fusion of vesicles to synaptic membranes as well as the phosphorylation of colocalized receptors. Both the control of transmitter exocytosis and the phosphorylation of colocalized receptors elicited by mGlu receptors are relevant events that dictate the plasticity of nerve terminals, and account for the main role of presynaptic mGlu receptors as modulators of neuronal signalling. The role of the presynaptic mGlu receptors in the CNS has been the matter of several studies and this review aims at briefly summarizing the recent observations obtained with isolated nerve endings (we refer to as synaptosomes). We focus on the pharmacological characterization of these receptors and on their receptor-receptor interaction / oligo-dimerization in nerve endings that could be relevant to the development of new therapeutic approaches for the cure of central pathologies.


The finite field multiplier is mainly used in many of today's state of the art digital systems and its hardware implementation for bit parallel operation may require millions of logic gates. Natural causes or soft errors in digital design could cause some of these gates to malfunction in the field, which could cause the multiplier to produce incorrect outputs. To ensure that they are not susceptible to error, it is crucial to use a finite field multiplier implementation that is effective and has a high fault detection capability. In this paper, we propose a novel fault detection scheme for a recent bit-parallel polynomial basis multiplier over GF(2m), where the proposed method aims at obtaining high fault detection performance for finite field multipliers and meanwhile maintain low-complexity implementation which is favored in resource constrained applications such as smart cards. The proposed method is based on BCH error correction codes, with an area-delay efficient architecture. The experimental results show that for 45-bit multiplier with 5-bit errors the proposed error detection and correction architecture results in 37% and %49 reduction in critical path delay with compared to the existing method in [18]. Moreover, the area overhead for 45-bit multiplier with 5 errors is within 80% which is significantly lower than the best existing BCH based fault detection method in finite field multiplier [18].


In recent years, the use of stimuli-sensitive interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels for the encapsulation and controlled release of protein drugs has received significant attention. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the release of bovine serum albumin (BSA), a model drug, from a series of thermosensitive silk sericin (SS) poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and pH-responsive SS poly(methacrylic acid) IPN hydrogels. The effect of the chemical architecture of the IPN was investigated on the percentage loading of BSA and its subsequent release from the loaded devices. The temperature and pH of the release medium were studied for their impact on the release of BSA. The pulsatile releasing behavior of IPN hydrogels revealed that they can be made into microcapsules or thermo-valves, which act as an on–off release control. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry


CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The role of subclinical inflammation in the pathophysiology of diabetic macular oedema (DME), which is known to be quite complex, is of much interest. Serum ferritin level, which is an indicator of body iron stores, is both an inflammatory marker for various neurodegenerative diseases and an important indicator in the evaluation of iron-induced oxidative stress.

BACKGROUND
Iron metabolism indicators play a role in the formation and development of diabetic retinopathy, which is known to be associated with subclinical inflammation, and may also play a role in the pathogenesis of DME. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of serum iron metabolism markers in the pathogenesis of DME.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The files of all nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) patients who were scheduled for the first intravitreal injection for DME in the eye clinic between January 2019 and January 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. By examining the files of all diabetes mellitus patients who attended the outpatient eye clinic on the same dates, those without retinopathy and those with NPDR but not DME were recorded. All results, including a comprehensive ophthalmological examination, laboratory data of fasting blood tests, and an internal medicine outpatient examination were collected for analysis.

RESULTS
Of the 157 participants, 44 were NPDR patients with oedema, 50 were NPDR patients without oedema, and 63 were patients without retinopathy. There was a significant difference between the groups in respect of creatinine, high-density lipoprotein, mean corpuscular volume, serum iron and ferritin, total iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation (p < 0.050). Ferritin values were found to be significantly higher in patients with macular oedema. Other iron status markers were found to be significantly lower (p < 0.050).

CONCLUSION
Evaluation of serum iron status indicators in the routine follow-up of diabetic patients may be of diagnostic and/or prognostic benefit in terms of DME.


Background: The focus of the medical device industry and regulatory bodies on cyber security parallels that in other industries, primarily on risk assessment and user education as well as the recognition and response to infiltration. However, transparency of the safety of marketed devices is lacking and developers are not embracing optimal design practices with new devices. Achieving cyber safe diabetes devices: To improve understanding of cyber safety by clinicians and patients, and inform decision making on use practices of medical devices requires disclosure by device manufacturers of the results of their cyber security testing. Furthermore, developers should immediately shift their design processes to deliver better cyber safety, exemplified by use of state of the art encryption, secure operating systems, and memory protections from malware.


Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data were used to map water level (WL) and hydraulic gradients (δH/δx) in the Mackenzie Delta. The LiDAR WL data were validated against eight independent hydrometric gauge measurements and demonstrated mean offsets from − 0·22 to + 0·04 m (σ< 0·11). LiDAR‐based WL gradients could be estimated with confidence over channel lengths exceeding 5–10 km where the WL change exceeded local noise levels in the LiDAR data. For the entire Delta, the LiDAR sample coverage indicated a rate of change in longitudinal gradient (δ2H/δx) of 5·5 × 10−10 m m−2; therefore offering a potential means to estimate average flood stage hydraulic gradient for areas of the Delta not sampled or monitored. In the Outer Delta, within‐channel and terrain gradient measurements all returned a consistent estimate of − 1 × 10−5 m m−1, suggesting that this is a typical hydraulic gradient for the downstream end of the Delta. For short reaches (<10 km) of the Peel and Middle Channels in the middle of the Delta, significant and consistent hydraulic gradient estimates of − 5 × 10−5 m m−1 were observed. Evidence that hydraulic gradients can vary over short distances, however, was observed in the Peel Channel immediately upstream of Aklavik. A positive elevation anomaly (bulge) of > 0·1 m was observed at a channel constriction entering a meander bend, suggesting a localized modification of the channel hydraulics. Furthermore, water levels in the anabranch channels of the Peel River were almost 1 m higher than in Middle Channel of the Mackenzie River. This suggests: (i) the channels are elevated and have shallower bank heights in this part of the delta, leading to increased cross‐delta and along‐channel hydraulic gradients; and/or (ii) a proportion of the Peel River flow is lost to Middle Channel due to drainage across the delta through anastamosing channels. This study has demonstrated that airborne LiDAR data contain valuable information describing Arctic river delta water surface and hydraulic attributes that would be challenging to acquire by other means. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Let $K$ be a closed convex cone with dual $\dual{K}$ in a finite-dimensional real Hilbert space. A \emph{positive operator} on $K$ is a linear operator $L$ such that $L\of{K} \subseteq K$. Positive operators generalize the nonnegative matrices and are essential to the Perron-Frobenius theory. It is said that $L$ is a \emph{\textbf{Z}-operator} on $K$ if % \begin{equation*} \ip{L\of{x}}{s} \le 0 \;\text{ for all } \pair{x}{s} \in \cartprod{K}{\dual{K}} \text{ such that } \ip{x}{s} = 0. \end{equation*} % The \textbf{Z}-operators are generalizations of \textbf{Z}-matrices (whose off-diagonal elements are nonpositive) and they arise in dynamical systems, economics, game theory, and elsewhere. In this paper, the positive and \textbf{Z}-operators are connected. This extends the work of Schneider, Vidyasagar, and Tam on proper cones, and reveals some interesting similarities between the two families.


To write about the religious situation in East Asia within the context of a book on 'secularization and the world religions' presupposes that the reader understands a number of points. I would like to begin by reflecting briefly on these. East Asia is taken here to mean China, Japan and Korea. China will be a key focus of attention because it represents the largest and most influential cultural area in East Asia. The term 'religious' covers both major global religious traditions and specifically national and local religious forms that dominate the religious situation of individual regions. Alongside older religious traditions such as Daoism, Confucianism and Shintoism, this includes the new religious movements. The opposite of religiosus is saecularis . Secularization presupposes an original unity and subsequent separation of religious and non-religious spheres. Otherwise, there is no room for this movement from one to the other that constitutes the meaning of the term. The concept of secularization highlights the relationship between modern European history and the Christian tradition. The separation of church and state and the development of a plurality of perspectives and worldviews, which ended the state's monopoly on orthodoxy, and the emergence of a civil society, are key components of secularization within the process of European modernization. In countries in which religion and the state have for centuries had a very different kind of relationship, it is not meaningful to speak of a process of secularization.


Currently, the issue of the company's innovative development is relevant in all areas of activity. Railway transport, which has one of the development vectors such as an innovative component, poses for itself the task of achieving high competitiveness through active innovative developments and implementations. This direction is influenced by external and internal factors, which should be taken into account while developing and implementing the company's innovative development strategy.Nowadays, there is increase in the development of global competition and in the transfer of innovations in all areas of service industries, including the railway sector. In recent years, the countries of the Asian region have adopted a strategy for developing the competitiveness of the transport sector through innovative development and the transfer of technology.The study aims at investigating environmental factors which influence innovative development of transport company and evaluating their interdependence using correlation-regression analysis.The correlation-regression analysis and comparative approach were used to develop the model.Two Rail corporations from Asian region were investigated. External and internal factors influencing innovative development of these corporations were found; significant in explaining the factors' interdependence was discussed.Different groups of factors influence innovative development of transport companies in Asia. These findings can be used as information for managers to develop strategic programs to improve innovative development process in Asian transport companies.


INTRODUCTION
During the past decade, using serum biomarkers and clinical decision rules for early prediction of rhabdomyolysis-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) has received much attention from researchers. This study aimed to broadly review the value of scoring systems and urine dipstick in prediction of rhabdomyolysis-induced AKI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was designed based on the guidelines of the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology statement. Search was done in electronic databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Google Scholar by 2 independent reviewers. Studies evaluating AKI risk factors in rhabdomyolysis patients with the aim of developing a scoring model as well as those assessing the role of urine dipstick in these patients were included.

RESULTS
Of the 5997 articles found, 143 were potentially relevant studies. After studying their full texts, 6 articles were entered into the systematic review. Two studies had developed or validated scoring systems of the "rule of thumb," and the AKI index, and the Mangled Extremity Severity Score. Four studies were on the predictive value of urine dipstick in risk prediction of rhabdomyolysis-induced AKI, with favorable results.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this systematic review showed that based on the available resources, using the prediction rules and urine dipstick could be considered as valuable screening tools for detection of patients at risk for AKI following rhabdomyolysis. Yet, the external validity of the mentioned tools should be assessed before their general application in routine practice.


We report experimental observations and theoretical modeling of an unusual photoelectric effect in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) thin-film devices, under visible and near-infrared illumination. The devices also show diode-type rectifying current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. An equivalent circuit model was constructed that fits the experimental data, and physical processes likely to arise in the devices are discussed. We envisage the formation of a Schottky barrier at the DNA film-metal interface and infer that the photoresponse arises from photoinjection of electrons from the metal into the DNA film.


Objective Patients with primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) tend to be young, tall, and thin, as do those with pectus excavatum (PE). Notably, the Haller index, which measures the severity of PE, tends also to be higher in patients with PSP, further suggesting a potential predisposing factor for the development of PSP in individuals with PE. This study aimed to share clinical experiences with case series of concomitant PSP and PE and to emphasize the importance of evaluating these two conditions together. Methods In this single-center study, we conducted a retrospective records review to identify patients who were diagnosed and treated (including surgical or conservative treatment and follow-up observation) for the diagnosis of PE between July 2011 and February 2023. From these, we selected patients who were diagnosed with both PE and PSP and analyzed their clinical presentations. Results Among a total of 139 patients with PE, there were 8 (5.76%) who had concurrent diagnoses of PE and PSP and who underwent surgery for PSP, PE, or both. The average age of these 8 patients (male:female = 7:1) was 19.38 years. The 8 patients were grouped into four categories based on their clinical scenarios. Group A had 1 patient with PE diagnosed first, followed by the discovery of PSP during evaluation; Group B included 2 patients initially presenting with PSP and subsequently diagnosed with PE during evaluation; Group C consisted of 1 patient who had PSP before undergoing surgical PE correction; and Group D comprised 4 patients who developed PSP after PE correction. Conclusions The incidence of PSP in patients with PE was 5.76% (8 out of 139 patients), indicating the importance of vigilant monitoring for PSP prior to PE surgery, and vice versa. Furthermore, the authors recommend close observation for PSP independent of PE surgery, even in the absence of postoperative complications.