Background : Idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis is an infrequent process of unknown aetiology characterised by fibrous tissue proliferation in the retroperitoneum. Even less frequent is a localized form of this disease by a proliferation of fibrous tissue around single or both kidneys. Case report : We describe a case of 46-year old man in whom medical management was started for accidentally discovered arterial hypertension, which turned out to be difficult to control. During diagnostic work-up of hypertension, an abdominal ultrasound was obtained a year later demonstrating slight bilateral caliectasis without obvious visible cause for it. Laboratory exams have shown significantly impaired renal function, normocytic anaemia, slightly higher sedimentation rate, increased CRP and normal urinalysis. Nephrologist has decided for hospitalisation during which magnetic resonance imaging was performed showing a few mm wide tissue coats surrounding both kidneys with fluid lying between the coat and kidney capsule. A biopsy of perirenal mass has confirmed a dense cellular lesion consisted of interweaved fascicles of spindle-shaped cells. After exclusion of tumours and other causes, a diagnosis of retroperitoneal fibrosis was confirmed. Clinical picture and laboratory data corresponded to idiopathic form of this disease. A treatment with tamoxifen was started after patient refused treatment with methylprednisolone. During tamoxifen monotherapy, there was gradual significant improvement of general symptoms, notable decline in inflammation markers, improvement of anaemia, normalisation of kidney function, and normalisation of blood pressure. Conclusion : Retroperitoneal fibrosis is still an obscure and multifaceted disease. A proper selection of diagnostic methods is the key to correct and fast diagnosis as well as good grounding for proper treatment.


Successful joining of heat conducting materials, to high-temperature components is of significant importance for heat management in nuclear power plants and liquid propellant launch vehicles. Solid-state processes are considered for joining such dissimilar materials. Diffusion bonding of a copper alloy (C18150) to a Ni-based superalloy (GH4169) was investigated in this work. The bonding trials at 900°C for 60 min under a constant 10 MPa pressure led to formation of sound joints free from intermetallic, pores, voids and discontinuities. Conventional tensile testing led to the failure within the copper alloy and away from the joint. Due to the softening of the copper alloy during the bonding process, the maximum tensile strength of the as-bonded copper alloy was only 48% of its as-received strength. Post-bonding solution treatment at 960°C for 60 min followed by ageing at 450°C for 3.5 h, restored the tensile strength of the copper alloy up to 77%.


The first promising results from "streamlined," minimal genomes tend to support the notion that these are a useful tool in biological systems engineering. However, compared with the speed with which genomic microbial sequencing has provided us with a wealth of data to study biological functions, it is a slow process. So far only a few projects have emerged whose synthetic ambition even remotely matches our analytic capabilities. Here, we survey current technologies converging into a future ability to engineer large‐scale biological systems. We argue that the underlying synthetic technology, de novo DNA synthesis, is already rather mature – in particular relative to the scope of our current synthetic ambitions. Furthermore, technologies towards rationalizing the design of the newly synthesized DNA fragment are emerging. These include techniques to implement complex regulatory circuits, suites of parts on a DNA and RNA level to fine tune gene expression, and supporting computational tools. As such DNA fragments will, in most cases, be destined for operating in a cellular context, attention has to be paid to the potential interactions of the host with the functions encoded on the engineered DNA fragment. Here, the need of biological systems engineering to deal with a robust and predictable bacterial host coincides with current scientific efforts to theoretically and experimentally explore minimal bacterial genomes.


Historically, managing harvested mountain lion populations was confounded by the lack of a method to affordably, accurately, and repeatedly estimate a population's size, make rigorous predictions about the effect of future harvest prescriptions, and monitor population trends over time. Managers were unable to fully implement an adaptive mountain lion harvest management program because they lacked the necessary objective monitoring and modeling information. Disagreement about the past, and potential, effects of management decisions led to conflict among stakeholders and with FWP. Montana has now developed a draft mountain lion Management Strategy that will allow FWP to actively monitor statewide mountain lion populations using new genetic spatial capture-recapture field techniques and to routinely extrapolate those local estimates across discrete mountain lion ecoregions using a statistical resource selection function. Managers will then be able to input these population estimates, along with lion demographic parameters (described by regional field research), into a web-based mountain lion integrated population model in order to predict the likely effect of future harvest prescriptions on managed lions across the State.  These new monitoring and modeling methods will enable FWP to fully implement an adaptive harvest management program through which population objectives are set, management alternatives are objectively evaluated, a preferred harvest prescription is applied, the effect of that harvest is directly monitored over time, and management is adjusted based on new information and changing objectives. FWP believes that this strategy will help reduce contention among stakeholders, optimize harvest and pursuit opportunity, reduce conflicts, and ensure that robust lion populations are conserved across their Montana habitats.


Purpose Delayed radiation enteritis is a frequent side effect of abdominal radiotherapy. Recent studies reveal bone marrow (BM) cells repopulate damaged tissue and contribute to repair in non-hematopoietic tissues. Fusion between BM and somatic cells is enhanced by chronic inflammation. Furthermore, BM cells (BMC) can trigger fibrotic response in damaged organ. The role of cell fusion in the development of chronic intestine fibrosis after radiotherapy needs further investigation. Materials and Methods To evaluate cell fusion and fibrosis, gender-mismatched BM transplantation (BMT) were used. Immunoblots of macrophage fusion receptor (MFR), CD47 and fibronectin, connective tissue growth factor (CCN2) were measured. BMT with CD11b (+), CD3 (+) or B220 (+) enriched BMC were applied. The mice were treated with macrophage depleting agents, clodronate liposome, after radiotherapy and BMT. In vitro co-culture study of human intestine stromal and mouse BMC was established. Furthermore, we used Rac 1 inhibitor, MMP9 neutralizing antibody and siRNA of MFR within co-culture system and animal model. Results Using triple stains of Y chromosome fluorescence in situ hybridization, GFP and hematopoietic cell markers including F4/80, CD3, B220, we found BM derived macrophages contributed majorly to cell fusion (63.4%, 47.5% and 9.6%, respectively, p=0.033) within intestine of mice after radiotherapy and BMT. The fusion within intestine decreased 57% after treatment with clodronate liposome. BMT from CD11b(+), CD3(+) or B220(+) enriched donor BMC also revealed prominent fusion only in mice receiving CD11b(+) one. The level of intestine fibrosis was decreased by clodronate liposome or BMT of CD11b(-) BMC. In vitro study showed the rate of fusion decreased from 12.8% to 6.8% between intestine stromal cells with CD11b (-) compared to that with whole mouse BMCs. Fusion rate could be increased by increasing CD11b(+) BMCs (3.5% to 19.7%). Using Rac1 inhibitor, MMP9 antibody or MFR siRNA, the fusion rate decreased (19.7% to 4.6%; 11.8% to 5.6%; 31% to 19.6%, respectively). The expression of fibronectin, CCN2, MFR and CD47 paralleled the findings of fusion. Using MMP9 neutralizing antibody in mice receiving radiotherapy and BMT, we found decreased cell fusion and fibrosis within intestine. Conclusions BM derived CD11b(+) myelomonocytic cells or macrophage contribute majorly to cell fusion and fibrosis within intestine of mice after radiotherapy Depleting macrophage or targeting cell fusion machinery of macrophage suppresses intestine fibrosis after radiotherapy. Our study impacts not only for developing novel therapies to prevent radiation enteritis but also to avoid fibrosis after BM cell therapy in organ dysfunction. Citation Format: Ya-Hui Chang, Hui-Ju Ch9ang, Li-Mei Lin. Depleting macrophage or blocking cell fusion machinery ameliorates intestine fibrosis after radiation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3959. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3959


We address the problem of band bending in a metal oxide thin film/electrode layer and derive equations relating the voltage drop across the oxide to the oxygen activity of the ambient in equilibrium with the oxide. Applied to the case of oxygen vacancies, the results predict situations where the vacancy charge is strongly localized adjacent to the metal interface. Comparing predictions to experimental results for the specific case of HfO2, we find that the free energy of formation of the oxygen vacancies are of the order of ∼3eV, significantly smaller than the numbers theoretically predicted for bulk HfO2.


This book offers a crisp and thoughtful account of political phenomena still fresh in the minds of Canadians, and with continuing relevance to policy-making processes. As the first major work on the origins, strategies, and activities of movements and coalitions that arose in Canada and spread across North America to oppose free trade, it captures an important developmental period in Canadian political life. Focusing on an analysis of the Action Canada Network, Jeffrey Ayres adopts a political-process model to link the emergence of popular sector movements and transnational networks to constraints posed by the Canada-US FTA and NAFTA. His extensive use of popular writings and interviews highlights the personal reflections of coalition members and provides an intimate perspective on their strategies and actions. As a contribution both to the study of recent developments in Canadian politics and to our understanding of emerging transnational contention in North America, Defying Conventional Wisdom will appeal to readers across a wide spectrum of interests and backgrounds. University of Toronto Press gratefully acknowledges that this book was sponsored in part by the Association for Canadian Studies in the U.S. and by the Government of Canada.


We develop an equilibrium model of the monetary policy transmission mechanism that highlights information frictions in the market for money and search frictions in the labour market. The information friction increases the persistence in the response of interest rates following monetary policy regime shifts. This occurs because agents have incomplete information about the nature of the shifts and optimally update their inflation forecasts using an `adaptive' expectations rule. The search friction transmits the interest rate movements to the labour market by affecting job creation activities; together, the two frictions imply that unemployment reacts very gradually to monetary policy shocks.


51Cr-labelled lymph node cells were injected into syngeneic or non-syngeneic mice and their relative tissue distribution was compared under conditions where, for the reason of either timing or genetic combination, the host-versus-graft response could be neglected. The immigration of injected lymphoid cells to lymph nodes was markedly reduced when the recipients were non-syngeneic or when the level of glycosaminoglycans in their blood was artificially increased. In contrast, the homing affinity to the spleen was inhibited only for a relatively short period of time following stress. In the various tested situations in which the migration of cells to lymph nodes was inhibited, it seemed to be the relationship of the cell surfaces of the sessile and circulating cells which played an important role in the outcome of their interactions. This relationship may be influenced both by certain genetic differences and experimentally, for example, through adsorption.


The disappearance of bodies in today's society is redistributing the cards of living together. If social distancing allows a certain rationalisation of human activities (work, care), does it not paradoxically lead to physical and psychological isolation? Moreover, does the dissociation it leads to between the subject and the "e-mage" given of him or her not tend to transform social relations into an infinite game where half-truths, lies and illusions produce new rituals and artifices depending mainly on technology.


Abstract This essay examines the notion of Narrentum (foolishness) in Franz Kafka's writings, reflecting Walter Benjamin's engagement with the legacy of Kafka's fools. The Narr, associated with playfulness, irony, and resistance, provides a comic perspective on the question of being-Jewish. Alongside its Germanic, mostly Baroque, heritage, the Narr incorporates traditional Jewish tropes, primarily rooted in Aggadic traditions. However, in Kafka's world, the Narr embodies performative skills also linked to Yiddish theatre. In Benjamin's readings, Kafka's Narr is associated with the crisis of modern Judaism and with different modes of wisdom. The Narr signifies particular sorts of nihilistic freedom, which Benjamin refers to as redemptive.


The purpose with this thesis is to understand the relationship between a square's design and its function as a public meeting place, were Sundstorget in the city of Helsingborg is used as a study object.

The architect Jan Gehl developed a theory of people's outdoor activities in his book Livet mellem husene (1996). He divides the activities in three categories; 1) necessary activities, 2) optional activities and 3) social activities, which are differently affected by the place's design.

For a square to work as a public meeting place, its shape, design and function must invite people to stay and take part in its recurring activities.

The dominant square called Sundstorget functioned as a public meeting place between 1901-1966. During that time Sundstorget contained a covered market where the citizens went to buy their food but which also contributed to that optional and social activities developed.

In 1966 Sundstorget went through a drastical change, similar to what many other Swedish squares did at the same time. Instead of functioning as a public meeting place for the citizens, the square now had to supply the growing need of parking places, that was a consequence of the motoring era. After 1966 Sundstorget only functioned as a public place rather than a public meeting place, something which would last until the beginning of the 21st century.

In 2004 Sundstorget was given new possibilities to once again function as a public meeting place when it was redesigned. The landscape architect Sven-Ingvar Andersson who was responsible for the idea of the new square, thought that Sundstorget should function as a front towards Dunkers Kulturhus and that the museum should use the square for cultural events. However this idea does not seem to have worked. Instead Sundstorget is used as a path, where no optional or social activities occur. The reason to this is that the square's design don't invite people to actually remain on the square to take part in activities.

The study of Sundstorget makes me believe that the square has a potential to once again become a public meeting place. If the service along the square's corners use the entire square and not just the corners, as they do today, the possibility for optional and social activities to develop, increases.


This study analyzes men's and women's wages in the manufacturing sector on Mexico's northern border, with a specific focus on the years 2005, 2009, and 2017. Salary profiles are estimated with spline regressions corrected for selection bias, based on disaggregated data from various issues of the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE). The findings explain how women on the border enjoy an advantage over those from the rest of the country in terms of human capital. However, their wages are subject to certain glass ceilings. Men are resilient in this process and their wages recover faster than women's.


Interaction of multiple entities and receptors, or multivalency is widely applied to achieve high affinity ligands for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. However, lack of knowledge on receptor distribution in living subjects remains a challenge for rational structure design. Herein, we develop a force measurement platform to probe the distribution and separation of the cell surface vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFR) in live cells, and use this to assess the geometry of appropriate linkers for distinct multivalent binding modes. A tetravalent lead ZD-4, which was developed from an antitumor drug ZD6474 (Vandetanib) with combined hybrid binding effects, yielded a 2000-fold improvement in the binding affinity to VEGFR with IC50 value of 25 pm. We confirmed the improved affinity by the associated increase of tumor uptake in the VEGFR-targeting positron emission tomography (PET) imaging using U87 tumor xenograft mouse model.


Alpha(1)-adrenoceptor stimulation (alpha(1)ARS) shows a positive inotropic effect in most mammalian myocardium. In mouse myocardium, however, alpha(1)ARS showed the negative inotropic effect, of which intracellular mechanisms are not fully clarified. The purpose of this study is to investigate the intracellular mechanism of the negative inotropic effect by alpha(1)ARS in C57BL/6 mouse myocardium. We used isolated ventricular papillary muscles of C57BL/6 strain mouse which is widely used for genetic manipulation. We simultaneously measured isometric tension and intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)](i)) using the aequorin method. In twitch contraction, phenylephrine concentration-dependently (1-100 microM) decreased tension without significant changes in the Ca(2+) transient, and these effects were completely blocked by prazosin (3 microM) or calphostin C (a PKC inhibitor, 1 microM). Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) (a PKC activator, 1 microM) decreased tension as observed in phenylephrine. After PMA application, the negative inotropic effect of phenylephrine disappeared. To estimate the Ca(2+) sensitivity, tetanic contraction was produced, and the relation between [Ca(2+)](i) and tension at a steady state was measured. Phenylephrine (10 microM) decreased the Ca(2+) sensitivity, and PMA showed a similar Ca(2+) desensitizing effect. These results suggest that the negative inotropic effect of phenylephrine in mouse myocardium can be explained by the decrease in the Ca(2+) sensitivity through the activation of PKC. The present result indicates that the effect of alpha(1)ARS differs among species and strains of experiment animals. Thus, we should be careful about using the results of mouse myocardium to understand the functions of the human heart.


Several studies undertaken in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 crises found a relatively small impact of an increase in capital requirements on lending and real activity both in the short- and long-run. The calibrations of some recent equilibrium models deliver a significantly larger impact of changes in capital requirements on lending and real activity than these earlier studies. This paper revisits the issue reviewing the recent literature and providing novel evidence using international data panels at a firm and country level. This new evidence and the counterfactual experiments of some calibrated equilibrium models suggest that the negative short-run and long-run impact of an increase in capital requirements on bank lending and real activity is significantly larger than previously thought.


Through continuous observation and modelling of normal behavior in networks, Anomaly-based Network Intrusion Detection System (A-NIDS) offers a way to find possible threats via deviation from the normal model. The analysis of network traffic based on time series model has the advantage of exploiting the relationship between packages within network traffic and observing trends of behaviors over a period of time. It will generate new sequences with good features that support anomaly detection in network traffic and provide the ability to detect new attacks. Besides, an anomaly detection technique, which focuses on the normal data and aims to build a description of it, will be an effective technique for anomaly detection in imbalanced data. In this paper, we propose a combination model of Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) architecture for processing time series and a data description Support Vector Data Description (SVDD) for anomaly detection in A-NIDS to obtain the advantages of them. This model helps parameters in LSTM and SVDD are jointly trained with joint optimization method. Our experimental results with KDD99 dataset show that the proposed combined model obtains high performance in intrusion detection, especially DoS and Probe attacks with 98.0% and 99.8%, respectively.


Protecting sensitive data from theft, exfiltration, and other kinds of abuses by malicious insiders is a challenging problem. While access control mechanisms cannot always prevent the insiders from misusing sensitive data (since, in most of the cases, authorized users within organizations are granted access permissions), malicious outsiders also pose severe threats due to different security vulnerabilities in the systems, e.g., phishing attacks, memory corruptions, etc., which enable them to steal the credentials of the authorized users who have access to the data. To protect sensitive data from such attackers, anomaly detection techniques are often combined with other existing security measures, e.g., access control and encryption. An anomaly detection technique for identifying anomalies in file system accesses is based on the key idea that there should be significant differences between the file access behaviors of a benign user and an attacker. In this article, we propose an approach to create fine-grained profiles of the users' regular file access activities while extensively analyzing the timestamp information of the file accesses. According to our observation, even if a user's access to a file seems benign, only a fine-grained analysis of the access (such as the size of access, the timestamp of access) can determine the original intention of the user. We exploit the users' file access information at the block level to model their regular file access behaviors (user profiles) which are then securely stored and used for identifying anomalous file system accesses in the detection phase. We are also able to automatically profile new files and new users added to the system dynamically. Finally, our performance evaluations demonstrate that our proposed approach has an accuracy of 98.7 percent in detecting anomalies while incurring an overhead of only 2 percent.


Regional cerebral blood flows (rCBF) were studied in 6 patients with lateral medullary infarction and 4 patients with pontine infarction, using stable xenon computed tomography method. In lateral medullary infarction, the rCBF and acetazolamide reactivity were decreased in the ipsilateral cerebellum and the rCBF was decreased with normal acetazolamide reactivity in the contralateral frontal lobe in one patient accompanying ipsilateral cerebellar infarction. rCBF was decreased with normal acetazolamide reactivity in the cerebellum in 3 patients, and both rCBF and acetazolamide reactivity were decreased in the whole brain in 2 patients. In pontine infarction, rCBF was decreased in ipsilateral frontal lobe and contralateral cerebellum in one patient, rCBF was decreased in the cerebellum with normal acetazolamide reactivity in the other patients. The hypoperfusion with normal acetazolamide reactivity was considered to be due to diaschisis. The rCBF decrease in the remote areas in patients with brainstem infarction was considered to be due to diaschisis or underlying arteriosclerosis.


Athletes with microtrauma or overuse injuries resulting from an accumulation of repeated small forces may differ from athletes with macrotrauma or acute injuries in their psychosocial responses because of the unique challenges presented by these insidious-onset and often chronic injuries. Our purpose was to use narrative inquiry to examine the psychosocial experiences and responses of 10 long-distance runners who had experienced microtrauma injuries. Qualitative data analysis of interview data led to a chronological timeline of the injury experience and an assessment of the meaning attributed to these injury experiences using a variation of Mishler's core-narrative approach. Participants reported distinct thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during each phase of the injury—pre-injury, injury onset, and outcome. In the pre-injury period, participants indicated specific running-related goals and attributed their injuries to overtraining or a change in training. During the injury onset phase, participants consistently indicated two themes: self-diagnosis and treatment, and not taking time off. Within the outcome phase of injury, participants acknowledged changed training because of the injury, and lessons learned from their injury experiences. The narratives of microtrauma-injured runners revealed psychosocial distress and behavioral tendencies post-injury that have important implications for runners, coaches, and healthcare professionals.


The main channel of information dissemination for initial public offerings (IPO) in the pre-listing stage is the prospectus. Auditor fee and director emoluments are two types of information that investors know about in advance through the prospectus. Industry and media publicity are also in the focus of investors in the pre IPO stage. This study inquires whether such information can be used to form successful trading strategies in the long run. IPO stock portfolios have been constructed based on the above four types of information and their returns have been tested using four popular asset pricing models to answer the above question. The findings confirm that long only strategies are successful with regard to all four types of information while long and short strategies are proved to be a failure. The findings also reveal that portfolios consisting of non-finance stocks, stocks with high media coverage, high audit fees and high director fees tend to provide the highest returns compared to other IPO stock portfolios. Hence, this study provides useful insights to investors, regulators and other professionals in the Sri Lankan capital market.


A Ku-band transceiver chip (TR chip), which can be used for the phased array system, is presented in this paper. It includes a high power amplifier (HPA), a low noise amplifier (LNA) and two switches. The transmitting chain can provide over 2 watt (W) RF output power and 14 dB gain, meanwhile the receiving chain shows less than 3 dB noise figure and 25 dB gain in the frequency range of 15 to 17.5GHz. A novel switch based on GaAs pHEMT process is also proposed, which can handle over 2W RF output power without sacrificing the performance of the receiving chain. The size of the TR chip is 3mm × 3mm.


Multiply charged Xe ions produced through photoionization of a 3d electron have been measured using the coincidence technique. The coincidence measurement between the energy-selected Auger electron and ions specifies the individual Auger decay channels for the various multiply charged ions. It has been found that only quadruply charged ions are formed through the Auger decays of M45N45N45 type. The M45N23N45 Auger decays predominantly yield Xe5+. These findings indicate that most Xe ions produced through the initial M45 Auger transitions turn into the highest charge state between energetically accessible states through subsequent successive Auger decays. However, in the M45N1N45 and M45N23N23 decays the intensity ratio of Xe5+ with Xe6+ depends on the energy level of the Auger final states. The highly charged ions, Xe7+ and Xe8+, are produced through the initial Auger shake processes from the 3d hole states. Dedicated to the distinguished contributions to soft x-ray photochemistry research by Professor Inosuke Koyano of the Himeji Institute of Technology on the occasion of his 65th birthday.


ABSTRACT Newly synthesized proteins are sorted into COPII-coated transport carriers at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Assembly of the COPII coat complex, which occurs at ER exit sites (ERES), is initiated by membrane association and GTP loading of SAR1, followed by the recruitment of the SEC23–SEC24 and SEC13–SEC31 subcomplexes. Both of these two subcomplexes stimulate GTP hydrolysis and coat disassembly. This inherent disassembly capacity of COPII complexes needs to be regulated to allow sufficient time for cargo sorting and transport carrier formation. By performing fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and mathematical modeling, we show that p150glued (also known as DCTN1), a component of the dynactin complex, stabilizes the COPII pre-budding complex on ER membranes in a microtubule-independent manner. Concentration of the secretory marker ts-O45-G at ERES is reduced in the presence of a C-terminal p150glued fragment that prevents binding of endogenous p150glued to SEC23. A similar cargo reduction is observed upon p150glued knockdown. Taken together, our data suggest that cargo concentration at ERES is regulated by p150glued to coordinate protein sorting and transport carrier formation with the subsequent long-range transport towards the Golgi complex along microtubules. Summary: p150glued stabilizes COPII pre-budding complexes on ER exit sites in a microtubule-independent manner, and it coordinates protein sorting, carrier formation and long-range transport events.


Cultural heritage understanding and preservation is an important issue for society as it represents a fundamental aspect of its identity. Paintings represent a significant part of cultural heritage, and are the subject of study continuously. However, the way viewers perceive paintings is strictly related to the so-called HVS (Human Vision System) behaviour. This paper focuses on the eye-movement analysis of viewers during the visual experience of a certain number of paintings. In further details, we introduce a new approach to predicting human visual attention, which impacts several cognitive functions for humans, including the fundamental understanding of a scene, and then extend it to painting images. The proposed new architecture ingests images and returns scanpaths, a sequence of points featuring a high likelihood of catching viewers' attention. We use an FCNN (Fully Convolutional Neural Network), in which we exploit a differentiable channel-wise selection and Soft-Argmax modules. We also incorporate learnable Gaussian distributions onto the network bottleneck to simulate visual attention process bias in natural scene images. Furthermore, to reduce the effect of shifts between different domains (i.e. natural images, painting), we urge the model to learn unsupervised general features from other domains using a gradient reversal classifier. The results obtained by our model outperform existing state-of-the-art ones in terms of accuracy and efficiency.


Earth system models (ESMs) have been widely used for projecting global vegetation carbon dynamics, yet how well ESMs performed for simulating vegetation carbon density remains untested. We compiled observational data of vegetation carbon density from literature and existing data sets to evaluate nine ESMs at site, biome, latitude, and global scales. Three variables—root (including fine and coarse roots), total vegetation carbon density, and the root:total vegetation carbon ratios (R/T ratios), were chosen for ESM evaluation. ESM models performed well in simulating the spatial distribution of carbon densities in root (r = 0.71) and total vegetation (r = 0.62). However, ESM models had significant biases in simulating absolute carbon densities in root and total vegetation biomass across the majority of land ecosystems, especially in tropical and arctic ecosystems. Particularly, ESMs significantly overestimated carbon density in root (183%) and total vegetation biomass (167%) in climate zones of 10°S–10°N. Substantial discrepancies between modeled and observed R/T ratios were found: the R/T ratios from ESMs were relatively constant, approximately 0.2 across all ecosystems, along latitudinal gradients, and in tropic, temperate, and arctic climatic zones, which was significantly different from the observed large variations in the R/T ratios (0.1–0.8). There were substantial inconsistencies between ESM‐derived carbon density in root and total vegetation biomass and the R/T ratio at multiple scales, indicating urgent needs for model improvements on carbon allocation algorithms and more intensive field campaigns targeting carbon density in all key vegetation components.


Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a rare indolent B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder that presents wide heterogeneity at the clinical level. The behavior of this disease ranges from indolent (IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, IgM-MGUS, and asymptomatic WM) to highly symptomatic forms. Causes underlying this clinical heterogeneity, as well as the physiopathological mechanisms leading the disease progression remain to be clarified. In this work, we have observed that the recently identified MYD88 L265P somatic mutation is a highly characteristic marker of the disease, but is present equally in WM and IgM-MGUS (86% and 87% of patients, respectively), therefore not being responsible for the clinical heterogeneity. In contrast, we have found that the frequency of other genetic alterations progressively increased from IgM-MGUS to asymptomatic WM and symptomatic WM, meaning that, unlike MYD88 L265P, present from the beginning of the pathogenesis, most of these mutations would be acquired as the disease evolves. In addition to the higher number of mutations, data from gene expression profiling revealed significant differences between indolent and symptomatic patients, regarding genes involved in WM pathogenic mechanisms (TLR/MYD88, CXCR4 and BCR pathways). This profile provided some clues about the heterogeneity of this disease and had an impact on the clinics. Finally, we focused on WM transformation to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), an event that occurs in up to 10% of patients and is associated with an adverse outcome. We performed a whole-exome sequencing study comparing tumor DNA of patients at diagnosis (WM) and transformation to DLBCL. Analysis showed extensive genetic heterogeneity with a large number of alterations, reflecting the complexity associated with the transformation process. Although we could not identify a unique genetic event, certain genes were frequently mutated at diagnosis in patients who suffered an histological transformation (i.e. CD79B), suggesting their potential role as biomarkers for predicting the risk of transformation.


By presenting the hero Theseus and his mythic Athens Euripides created a model of heroism in "Supplices". Theseus' polis has some prominent features which are strongly suggestive of the real 5th century polis democracy. There is no doubt that the poet tends to show Athens in a favourable light, but there are considerably critical issues, too. "Supplices" covers a broad spectrum of success and failure, exceeding politics and visions of a peaceful solution which, however, have no chance. The tragic consequences have to be borne by the suppliant Argive mothers who have lost their sons at war.


Several strategies that comprise an overall blueprint for a winning proposal strategy are described. They are the will-to-win strategy, the customer development strategy, assessing the competition, the pricing strategy, tactics and themes, the proposal presentation strategy, and the review strategy. It is shown that the methods presented offer a deliberate and thoughtful scheme for planning a proposal development effort so that customer-critical issues are identified and addressed using an overall strategy translated into detailed sub-strategies. >


This study examines equal opportunities for women employees in two four retail companies in Hong Kong; two of the companies Japanese-owned (Tairo and Okadaya) . Research conducted in Hong Kong shows that gender inequality persists in the workplace. This paper initially examines various explanations for gender inequality put forward by scholars. Since EO legislation the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO) was introduced in Hong Kong in 1996, little research has done to explain why gender inequality persists after SDO has been implemented. It can be understood though by examlnlng the gendering processes experienced by individual employees. Concealed gendering processes (re )producing gender segregation and inequality based on hegemonic power, institutional, structural, interaction and identity -arrangements are identified. Several gendering processes 'sticky floor' and glass ceiling, token positions in top management, passive adherence to equal employment opportunities legislation, a dominant perception of gender equality, and gendered career paths are identified in the case organisations.


How to cite this article: Goswami A, Bhattacharya D, Mandal M, Esquinas AM. Is the mNutric Score, the Only Independent Risk Factor for Abdominal Muscle Thickness Influencing Weaning? Indian J Crit Care Med 2023;27(9):686–687.


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to measure the evidence-based practice (EBP) beliefs and implementation among Saudi nursing students enrolled in the bridge program. It also sought to identify the factors that influence EBP beliefs and implementation.

METHODS
A convenience sample of 188 nursing bridge program students at a university in Saudi Arabia was surveyed in this descriptive, cross-sectional study. The EBP Beliefs Scale (EBP-B) and the EBP Implementation Scale (EBPI) were employed to collect data regarding the respondents' beliefs and implementation of EBP, respectively. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS
All of the items in the EBP beliefs scale received good endorsement rate (60.6 - 89.4%). A very low overall mean score of 22.57 was reported by the respondents in the implementation of EBP. The EBP beliefs of the respondents was primarily influenced by awareness on EBP (β = 0.26, p <0.001), followed by gender (β = -0.20, p<0.001), age (β = 0.17, p<0.05), and attendance at EBP trainings/seminars (β = 0.16, p<0.05). Attendance to EBP training and seminars (β = 0.19, p<0.01), gender (β = 0.18, p<0.05) and awareness on EBP (β = 0.15, p<0.05) were identified as factors that influence EBP implementation.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the positive responses on the belief scale, the implementation of EBP by the respondents is very poor. Education and training courses should be initiated to increase the implementation of EBP among the nursing bridge program students.


This study examines the construct validity of creative potential and practised creativity, two overlooked aspects of creativity that may be useful for identifying untapped creative resources in organizations. Results of an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) utilizing structural equation modelling techniques provide some initial evidence in support of the construct validity of these concepts. These findings appear to have important managerial implications for increasing creativity and overall organizational effectiveness. The results presented here also suggest some directions for future research aimed at examining the relationships between creative potential, practised creativity and other variables of interest.


There is no generally applicable technique for finding the position of an autonomous mobile robot operating in an un structured or varying environment. This article describes a project to investigate the use of short-lived navigational mark ers consisting of olfactory chemicals to guide mobile robots and to help them search and explore efficiently. Such a method of laying a trail to mark the path of a robot provides differ ential navigational information relative to the starting point and starting direction. Many insects employ olfactory cues as navigation aids and to improve their efficiency when searching for food. Three scenarios are proposed in which navigational markers can be of assistance to a mobile robot. The design and characteristics of an adsorbed mass olfactory sensor are described. This sensor was designed to be mounted on a mo bile robot and is suitable for detecting and tracking olfactory chemicals. The performance of this sensor is described together with preliminary results of using it to track an odor trail.


This study empirically analyzes the relationships among the road traffic experts` personal characteristics, the driving behavior and factors being expected to have an effect on the satisfaction about roundabout operation. The factors are drawn and grouped through the principle component analysis to clarify driving environment satisfaction on roundabout operation. Each group is named as personal attribute, driving behavior attribute, and satisfaction. After the variables are refined by confirmatory factor analysis, satisfaction model is developed with personal attribute and driving behavior attributes as exogenous variables and roundabout driving awareness and emotion attributes as endogenous variables. As a result, driving satisfaction of roundabout operation is directly influenced by delay reduction, safety improvement, capacity increase, sight improvement, severity accident reduction, and bicycle convenience and indirectly gender, age, driving time, and driving experience. Law obeyance, driving concession, traffic sign obeyance, and interposition do not statistically shows significant on satisfaction. As a result of Analytical Hierarchy Process(AHP), the turning radius of geometry and the driving behavior are important elements for roundabout safety.


Lipopolysaccharide plus interferon gamma stimulated the L-arginine-.NO pathway of murine, but not human pulmonary alveolar macrophages. Pneumocystis carinii induced .NO production by both murine and human pulmonary alveolar macrophages suggesting that the parasite stimulates L-arginine oxidation in these cells. The potential anti-Pneumocystis activity of .NO warrants further study.


The paper demonstrates the role of mineral tax in the overall sum of tax revenues in the budget. Problems of tax computation and payment have been reviewed; taxpayers and taxation basis of the amount of extracted minerals have been clearly defined. Issues of rental content of natural resource taxes are reviewed, as well as problems of right definition of the rental component in the process of mineral tax calculation for liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons. One of important problems in mineral tax calculation is a conflict between two laws – the Subsoil Law and the Tax Code of Russian Federation (26 th chapter). There is an ambiguity in the mechanism of calculating amounts of extracted mineral resources – from the positions of the Tax Code and the Subsoil Law. The second problem is in the necessity to amend the mineral tax for oil extraction the same way as it has been done for gas extraction, when characteristics of each field are taken into account. This will provide a basis for correct computation of the natural resource rent for liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons. The paper offers recommendations for Russian authorities on this issue.


The fluctuation of *OH concentration in Tubifex tubifex exposed to copper was investigated by Fluorospectrophotometry using terephthalic acid (TA) as *OH trapping agent. Catalase (CAT) activity in T. tubifex was quantified after 30 minutes contact with copper. Inactivation effect and lipid peroxidation produce malondialderhyde (MDA) of T. tubifex were also studied. Results showed that copper had significant inactivation effect on T. tsubifex. 100% inactivation efficiency was obtained when copper levels was 1 mg x L(-1). One of the inactivation mechanisms is inducing *OH increase in T. tubifex, which results in oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. The increment of *OH concentration was 69.2% when copper lever was 0.05 mg x L(-1). The significant decrease of CAT activity showed copper could inhibit CAT activity to increase its oxidative stress to T. tubifex. Between 0.05-0.25 mg x L(-1), copper induced significant MDA increase, which meant lipid peroxidation. The changes of inactivation efficiency, *OH, CAT and MDA showed that the inactivation effect of copper on T. tubifex did not result only from oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation induced by *OH itself. Feasibility analysis of using copper to inactivate T. tubifex for water plant showed when sand filter was immersed by 1 mg x L(-1) copper for 30 min and then began backwashing, residual copper concentration was only 4.3 microg x L(-1).


ABSTRACT Searching the sequence databases has revealed two novel cytokines: interleukin-23 (IL-23) and IL-27. These cytokines are quite similar to, but clearly distinct from IL-12 in their structures and T-cell stimulatory fashions. In contrast to IL-12, however, little is known about the roles of IL-23 and IL-27 in the immune regulation. Previously, we evaluated the prime-boost immunization consisting of priming and the first boosting with the hepatitis C virus (HCV)-core expression plasmid, followed by a second boosting with recombinant adenovirus expressing HCV core for induction of HCV core-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in BALB/c mice. The present study demonstrates that HCV-specific CTL induction was greatly enhanced by coinoculation of an IL-12 expression plasmid in the prime-boost immunization, indicating the potent adjuvant activity of IL-12. We investigated whether similar adjuvant effects could be exerted by either IL-23 or IL-27 in a prime-boost immunization with HLA-A*0201 transgenic mice. Coadministration of either an IL-23 or an IL-27 expression plasmid, as well as an IL-12 expression plasmid, in a prime-boost immunization enhanced induction of HCV-specific CTLs and led to dramatic increases in the numbers of gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-producing, HCV-specific CD8+ cells. Further, preinjections of IL-12, IL-23, or IL-27 expression plasmids before immunization resulted in great increases in the number of IFN-γ-producing, HCV-specific CD8+ cells in response to immunization with recombinant adenovirus. These data revealed that both IL-23 and IL-27, as well as IL-12, are potent adjuvants for epitope-specific CTL induction. The two novel cytokines might offer new prophylactic and therapeutic strategies against infectious pathogens such as HCV.


A novel method is presented to experimentally quantify evolving surface profiles. The evolution of a surface profile is quantified in terms of in-plane and out-of-plane surface displacements, using a Finite Element based Global Digital Image Correlation procedure. The presented method is applied to a case study, i.e. deformation-induced surface roughening during metal sheet stretching. The surface roughness was captured in-situ using a confocal optical profiler. The Global Digital Image Correlation method with linear triangular finite elements is applied to track the three-dimensional material movement from the measured height profiles. The extracted displacement fields reveal the full-field kinematics accompanying the roughening mechanism. Local deviations from the (average) global displacements are the result of the formation, growth, and stretching of hills and valleys on the surface. The presented method enables a full-field quantitative study of the surface height evolution, i.e. in terms of tracked surface displacements rather than average height values such as Root-MeanSquare or height-height correlation techniques. However, the technique does require that an initial surface profile, i.e. contrast, is present and that the contrast change between two measurements is minimal.


Neutrophil-activating peptide ENA-78 is a novel chemotactic cytokine isolated from a human type II pulmonary epithelial cell line. It is a member of the chemokine family of proinflammatory polypeptides and exhibits structural homology to interleukin-8 (IL-8) and GROalpha. The immunohistochemical identification of ENA-78 in pulmonary alveolar leukocytes of bovine pneumonic lungs supports a role for ENA-78 in the pathogenesis of pulmonary inflammation. Although ENA-78 is able to stimulate polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN), neither its binding specificities nor its expression in human pulmonary disease states have been determined. 125I-labeled ENA-78 binds with high affinity to human PMN. Its actions on PMN appear to be mediated by the IL-8 type B receptor, to which it binds with a K(d) of 2.2 nM. Human IL-8, GROalpha, and murine KC compete with high affinity for 125I-ENA-78 binding to the human IL-8 type B receptor. In contrast, 125I-ENA-78 does not bind to the IL-8 type A receptor nor does it compete significantly for 125I-IL-8 binding to this same receptor. ENA-78 is a potent upregulator of Mac-1 cell surface expression. In addition, ENA-78 mRNA is detected in cystic fibrosis lung but is not detected in normal donor lung. Thus, ENA-78 mRNA levels appear to be increased in human pulmonary inflammation and its stimulatory activities on PMN appear to be a function mediated primarily by the IL-8 type B receptor.


The article reveals the origins, methodological features and the process of institutionalization of Italian geopolitical school, place and role of the journal "Geopolitica" in this process. The article analyzes the characteristics of Italian geopolitical perception of the world and its geostrategic priorities, formulated by the representatives of the Italian geopolitical schools in the period of its formation in 20— 40-ies of the XX century (the Mediterranean — Mare nostrum, Euroafrica). The source of the formation of the Italian geopolitical school was the intellectual influence of irredentism un the age of the Risorgimento. The process of its formation was correlated with the formation of the modern national school of geographical science, in which was dominated the perception of geography as "utilitarian science" and developed the direction of "dynamic political geography". Its specifical features was the "antideterminism" and "geographic humanism", the recognition that the environment does not have absolute power over society, but political will is a determining factor in anthropogeographical area. The institutionalization of Italian political school promoted the creation of several research centres in the 20—30-ies and publishing from January 1939 to December 1942 magazine "Geopolitica". The draft edition of this magazine received support from the minister of national education Giuseppe Bottai, it was headed by Professor Giorgio Roletto and his disciple, Ernesto Massi. Italian geopolitics maintained close ties with their German colleagues, but they were theoretically justified differences between "Latin" and "German" geopolitical worldviews. Unlike the German geopolitics, the concept of "living space" was used primarily in the economic sense, but it was not used in a racial-demographic sense. Italian geopolitics acted against the world order enshrined in the Treaty of Versailles, because it was protected only a "rich nation" and discriminated "the proletarian nation", which include Italy. They considered England as the main enemy of Italy, as "new Carthage". For fighting against England was proposed to build friendly relations with Spain, Turkey and the Arab world, which should create conditions for the implementation of an ambitious project Euroafrica as a large space under the auspices of Italy. This project was considered as the Italian version of the "Monroe doctrine". First of all, italian geopolitics sought to regain control of Italy over the North—Eastern Africa and on Terra irredenta (both shores of the Adriatic with Dalmatia and Albania, Malta, Corsica, Nice, Savoie and the Swiss Canton of Ticino, where many Italian compatriots was lived).


There is evidence that native pentameric C-reactive protein (CRP) and its nonmitogenic monomeric subunits compete with IL 2 at the level of lymphocyte proliferation triggering and block IL 2 receptors due to structural and antigenic similarities between CRP and IL 2. The mechanisms of mitogenic action of CRP and evolutionary bases of the CRP-cytokine system relationship are discussed.


In this paper we report rovibrational energy levels, transition frequencies, and intensities computed for H2O-HF using a new ab initio potential energy surface and compare with available experimental data. We use the rigid monomer approximation. A G4 symmetry-adapted Lanczos algorithm and an uncoupled product basis are employed. The rovibrational levels are computed up to J = 4. The new analytic 9-D potential is �t to 39771 counterpoise corrected CCSD(T)(F12*)/augcc- pVTZ energies and reduces to the sum of uncoupled H2O and HF potentials in the dissociation limit. On the new potential better agreement with experiment is obtained by re-assigning the R(1) transitions of two vibrational states.


Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) sensors are commonly utilized to detect defects in oil and gas pipelines and determine their depths and sizes. As a preprocessing step, MFL data are often reduced into a representative feature set that is capable of accurately estimating pipeline defect depths. However, this estimation capability may vary depending on the features used, which necessitates the need for selecting the most relevant ones. In this paper, self-organizing maps (SOMs) are used as feature visualization tool for the purpose of selecting the most appropriate features. First, a self-organizing map (SOM), i.e., A two-dimensional discretized representation of the input space of the training samples for the features, is produced. The SOM weights for each individual input feature (weight plane) are displayed then visually analyzed. Irrelevant and redundant features can be efficiently spotted and removed. The remaining "good" features (i.e., Selected features) are then used as an input to a feed forward neural network for defect depth estimation. Experimental work has shown the effectiveness of the proposed approach. For instance, within ±5% error-tolerance range, the obtained estimation accuracy, using the SOM-based feature selection, is 93.1%, compared to 74% when all input features are used (i.e., No feature selection is performed), and within ±10% error-tolerance range, the obtained estimation accuracy, using the SOM-based feature selection, is 97.5%, compared to 86% when all the input features are used (i.e., No feature selection is performed).


Code-switching deals with alternative languages in communication process. Training end-to-end (E2E) automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems for code-switching is especially challenging as code-switching training data are always insufficient to combat the increased multilingual context confusion due to the presence of more than one language. We propose a language-related attention mechanism to reduce multilingual context confusion for the E2E code-switching ASR model based on the Equivalence Constraint (EC) Theory. The linguistic theory requires that any monolingual fragment that occurs in the code-switching sentence must occur in one of the monolingual sentences. The theory establishes a bridge between monolingual data and code-switching data. We leverage this linguistics theory to design the code-switching E2E ASR model. The proposed model efficiently transfers language knowledge from rich monolingual data to improve the performance of the code-switching ASR model. We evaluate our model on ASRU 2019 Mandarin-English code-switching challenge dataset. Compared to the baseline model, our proposed model achieves a 17.12% relative error reduction.


The aim of this article is to analyze the scientific developments in public sector decision making during the period 2010–2020, to identify which decision-making methods are preferred in different sectors of the public sector, and to determine which integrated methods are applied in this sector. In total, 468 scholarly articles were selected covering a near comprehensive review of the literature, as described below in the search process. We found that 271studies utilized a single method, whereas 180 studies utilized integrated methods. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was the most common, used by 97 studies. However, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was utilized by 178 studies when counting both simple and integrated methods. It was shown that single methods were more commonly used in education, environment, health, and public services, and integrated methods were relatively favored in economics/finance, energy, site selection, and waste management. We conclude that multiple decision-making methods are used in the public sector, and during2010–2020, there has been a tendency to use unified methods in decision-making processes.


Background Machine learning (ML) methods have shown great potential in predicting colorectal cancer (CRC) survival. However, the ML models introduced thus far have mainly focused on binary outcomes and have not considered the time-to-event nature of this type of modeling. Objective This study aims to evaluate the performance of ML approaches for modeling time-to-event survival data and develop transparent models for predicting CRC-specific survival. Methods The data set used in this retrospective cohort study contains information on patients who were newly diagnosed with CRC between December 28, 2012, and December 27, 2019, at West China Hospital, Sichuan University. We assessed the performance of 6 representative ML models, including random survival forest (RSF), gradient boosting machine (GBM), DeepSurv, DeepHit, neural net-extended time-dependent Cox (or Cox-Time), and neural multitask logistic regression (N-MTLR) in predicting CRC-specific survival. Multiple imputation by chained equations method was applied to handle missing values in variables. Multivariable analysis and clinical experience were used to select significant features associated with CRC survival. Model performance was evaluated in stratified 5-fold cross-validation repeated 5 times by using the time-dependent concordance index, integrated Brier score, calibration curves, and decision curves. The SHapley Additive exPlanations method was applied to calculate feature importance. Results A total of 2157 patients with CRC were included in this study. Among the 6 time-to-event ML models, the DeepHit model exhibited the best discriminative ability (time-dependent concordance index 0.789, 95% CI 0.779-0.799) and the RSF model produced better-calibrated survival estimates (integrated Brier score 0.096, 95% CI 0.094-0.099), but these are not statistically significant. Additionally, the RSF, GBM, DeepSurv, Cox-Time, and N-MTLR models have comparable predictive accuracy to the Cox Proportional Hazards model in terms of discrimination and calibration. The calibration curves showed that all the ML models exhibited good 5-year survival calibration. The decision curves for CRC-specific survival at 5 years showed that all the ML models, especially RSF, had higher net benefits than default strategies of treating all or no patients at a range of clinically reasonable risk thresholds. The SHapley Additive exPlanations method revealed that R0 resection, tumor-node-metastasis staging, and the number of positive lymph nodes were important factors for 5-year CRC-specific survival. Conclusions This study showed the potential of applying time-to-event ML predictive algorithms to help predict CRC-specific survival. The RSF, GBM, Cox-Time, and N-MTLR algorithms could provide nonparametric alternatives to the Cox Proportional Hazards model in estimating the survival probability of patients with CRC. The transparent time-to-event ML models help clinicians to more accurately predict the survival rate for these patients and improve patient outcomes by enabling personalized treatment plans that are informed by explainable ML models.


At the turn of the twentieth century, American Indians defended their communities by challenging the racial and moral assumptions that buttressed Euro-American claims of superiority. Native writers understood how the rhetoric of civilization and progress cast American Indians as backward, helping to justify the federal government's violation of tribal sovereignty, the division of tribal lands, and the suppression of Native cultures. American Indians were fully cognizant of the deleterious consequences of permitting critiques of Native societies and peoples to remain unchallenged. Even Native writers who seemingly embraced the concepts of civilization and progress resisted the denigration of American Indians as they understood how anti-Indian prejudices prevented Native peoples from fully participating in American society. These Native writers recast American Indians as civilized and the equals of Euro-Americans. Previous scholarship examined the parallels in the racial discourses and governmental policies applied to American Indians, African Americans, and colonial populations. This dissertation takes a new approach by placing American Indian conceptions of the American empire at the center of the study in order to demonstrate how Native writers utilized their understanding of the American empire to frame their interpretation of federal Indian policies. In order to bolster their critiques of the United States, Native writers referred to the newly-created overseas American empire in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Native critics of the American empire pointed to the treatment of newly-colonized peoples in the Pacific to condemn the United States as uncivilized and immoral. Native proponents of accommodation drew upon the creation of an American empire to convince other American Indians of the futility of resisting the United States. In addition, Native proponents of accommodation did not use the discourse of civilization and progress in the same manner as Euro-American proponents of assimilation. Instead, these American Indians drew on the language of civilization to urge Euro-Americans to treat Native communities humanely.


The study on farmers perception and awareness of crop insurance was conducted in North Eastern parts of Karnataka because region receives very less rainfall compared to other part of Karnataka and people of this region always suffering from drought, they continue to suffer. The study revealed that average size of family among borrowers and non borrowers was seven. Most of them (44%) are illiterate and 25% were education up to primary level. Level of education, family size and experience in farming did not show any significant difference between among the district selected for study. However, farm size and crop income, which generally corresponds to farm size, were significantly higher in Gulbarga district compared to Koppal and Raichur districts. Though NAIS crop insurance scheme is operating since 2002-03 in the study area majority of respondent (>80%) are not aware that who is implementing agency and who pay's compensation. Almost all respondents are in the wrong perception that banks will pay compensation and are the implementing agency. More than three fourth of the insurance beneficiaries mentioned that bank compulsion was the motivation for opting insurance. Financial security, good experience from others was the region for opting crop insurance. Further more than 80% of respondents are not aware of extent of coverage premium paid, last date, procedure for insuring crops and method of loss determination and compensation worked out by agriculture insurance company.Respondent farmers were suggested for improving existing scheme and they want quick settlement of claims which is usually taking more than one year. Around three fourth of the beneficiaries suggested to consider adverse weather condition prevailed during flowering and pod formation stage. National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) in operation needs to be continued with modification and simplification of modalities of indemnity, loss assessment, settlement of compensation and disbursement procedure.


Recent studies of the human brain have brought about a new understanding of the structural and algorithmic property of the neocortex. This understanding gave birth to the Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) which holds a lot of promises in the area of time-series prediction and anomaly detection problems. This paper demonstrates the behaviour of an HTM model with respect to its learning and prediction of online credit card fraud. The model was designed using the object oriented analysis and design methodology. Java programming language was used for implementation and Matlab was used to carry out simulations. The resulting model demonstrated learning like that of the human brain using sparse data, hence, the model required less resources to evaluate big data. The model recorded higher accuracy of 92.3% compared to Artificial Neural Network model that recorded 89.6%, hence reducing cases of misclassification. Keywords: Duty Cycle, Boost Value, Synapses, Learned Index


The mitochondrial proteome and differences associated with salt tolerance have been investigated in Australian commercial varieties of wheat. Mitochondria isolated from shoots were used to generate a wheat mitochondrial reference map; 68 unique wheat mitochondrial proteins were identified from 192 gel spots using 2D PAGE and LC-MS/MS. This analysis also provided MS/MS spectra for 199 proteotypic peptides as a foundation for the development of targeted proteomics to study the respiratory apparatus in wheat. Using this reference map and 2D DIGE, we have found quantitative differences in the shoot mitochondrial proteomes of v. Wyalkatchem and v. Janz, two commercially important wheat varieties that are known from a range of experiments to differ in salinity tolerance. These proteins included Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), cysteine synthase, nucleotide diphosphate kinase, and the voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC). Antibodies to the mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX), previously linked to reduced ROS formation from the electron transport chain and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis, also showed a commensurate higher abundance in v. Wyakatchem in both control and salt-treated conditions. Together, the data presented here suggest that differences in mitochondrial ROS defense pathways in the mitochondrial proteomes of key Australian wheat varieties correlate with whole-plant salinity tolerance.


Bioengineered in vitro models of the kidney offer unprecedented opportunities to better mimic the in vivo microenvironment. Kidney-on-a-chip technology reproduces 2D or 3D features which can replicate features of the tissue architecture, composition, and dynamic mechanical forces experienced by cells in vivo. Kidney cells are exposed to mechanical stimuli such as substrate stiffness, shear stress, compression, and stretch, which regulate multiple cellular functions. Incorporating mechanical stimuli in kidney-on-a-chip is critically important for recapitulating the physiological or pathological microenvironment. This review will explore approaches to applying mechanical stimuli to different cell types using kidney-on-a-chip models and how these systems are used to study kidney physiology, model disease, and screen for drug toxicity. We further discuss sensor integration into kidney-on-a-chip for monitoring cellular responses to mechanical or other pathological stimuli. We discuss the advantages, limitations, and challenges associated with incorporating mechanical stimuli in kidney-on-a-chip models for a variety of applications. Overall, this review aims to highlight the importance of mechanical stimuli and sensor integration in the design and implementation of kidney-on-a-chip devices.


ABSTRACTThis paper describes the development, reliability, and validity of five scales designed to measure perceived freedom in leisure. The scales are based on attribution theory and the concepts of flow, arousal theory, and playfulness. Scales appear to have acceptable levels of both alpha and test-retest reliability. Initial indications of validity based on interscale correlations, factor structure, and correlation with other variables are also acceptable. The value of the scales for assessment and basic research on the state of mind view of leisure are discussed.


Dynamic compensation of low-frequency gain fluctuations in saturated erbium-doped fiber amplifiers is demonstrated. This compensation, based on a simple feedback-loop scheme makes it possible to reduce transient gain fluctuations efficiently across the whole amplifier bandwidth using only a low-power optical feedback signal. Such an, automatic gain control technique could be applied to suppress data packet interference due to traffic bursts in multiple-access networks, as well as in the implementation of long-haul fiber systems using erbium fiber amplifiers.<<ETX>>


Tubulin from the central nervous system of the Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) was analysed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Either in soluble extracts or in tubulin enriched fractions, tubulin of forebrain, cerebellum and spinal cord is resolved into 3 components alpha, beta' and beta, characterized by their electrophoretic coordinates (alpha: pI = 5.4, MW = 54 kd, beta: pI = 5.2, MW = 52 kd; beta': pI = de mapping, by comparison with mouse brain alpha, beta and beta'-tubulin components. With highly resolutional isoelectric focusing 6 alpha isotubulins and 14 beta isotubulins are found in enriched-tubulin fractions of Quail forebrain and cerebellum.


User interface design, as a crucial part of software design, is complex. Current micro task crowd sourcing workflows do not support its complexity well. The difficulty particularly relates to the process to decompose an interface design task into micro tasks. In order to make micro task crowd sourcing more supportive for interface design, we need a workflow that can help task owners to break down interface design tasks more easily. This paper briefly describes three experiments that help inform various aspects of workflow design for interface design through micro task crowd sourcing.


Multimedia related research and development has evolved rapidly in the last few years with advancements in hardware, software and network infrastructures. As a result, multimedia has been integrated into domains like Healthcare and Medicine, Human facial feature extraction and tracking, pose recognition, disparity estimation, etc. This survey gives an overview of the various multimedia technologies and algorithms developed in the domains mentioned.


Neurodegenerative monogenic diseases often affect tissues and organs beyond the nervous system. An effective treatment would require a systemic approach. The intravenous administration of novel therapies is ideal but is hampered by the inability of such drugs to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and precludes efficacy in the central nervous system. A number of these early lethal intractable diseases also present devastating irreversible pathology at birth or soon after. Therefore, any therapy would ideally be administered during the perinatal period to prevent, stop, or ameliorate disease progression. The concept of perinatal gene therapy has moved a step further toward being a feasible approach to treating such disorders. This has primarily been driven by the recent discoveries that particular serotypes of adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene delivery vectors have the ability to cross the BBB following intravenous administration. Furthermore, safety has been demonstrated after perinatal administration mice and non-human primates. This review focuses on the progress made in using AAV to achieve systemic transduction and what this means for developing perinatal gene therapy for early lethal neurodegenerative diseases.


Abstract Background Antimicrobial inappropriateness is highly contextual and dynamic, depending not only on the patient's disease condition but also the information available at the time. To estimate the extent to which antimicrobials could theoretically be decreased with antimicrobial stewardship, we sought to capture unnecessary inpatient antimicrobial use in context over time as manifested in the electronic health record in Veterans Affairs (VA). Methods We extracted antimicrobial use, administrative, admission, and laboratory data from all acute care VA medical centers between 2010 and 2016. Information present during Choice (hospital day [HD] 1–3), Change (HD 4–5), Completion (HD 6–7), and Post-completion (thereafter) was used to determine context. All antimicrobial use without any documented infection was considered unnecessary (admission, discharge, or otherwise). Choice Anti-MRSA agents were considered unnecessary in cellulitis without history of or current positive culture for MRSA. Choice HOMDR agents were unnecessary in cellulitis without history of positive culture for ceftriaxone-resistant Gram-negative rods. Also unnecessary were broad-spectrum antimicrobials (anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] and hospital-onset multidrug-resistant [HOMDR] organisms antimicrobials as defined by the National Healthcare Safety Network) administered without evidence of multidrug-resistant organisms existed during Change and Completion time frames. Results Figure 1 demonstrates the distribution of facility proportions of unnecessary antimicrobials of different classes over time. Table 1 illustrates the percentage of unnecessary antimicrobials administered during choice, change, completion, and post-completion time-frames. Conclusion By this measure, unnecessary anti-MRSA and HOMDR use has been decreasing in VA over time. The bulk of unnecessary use is empiric but there is a substantial proportion that is used for longer stays, during which time more information was likely present. More research is necessary to determine how well these simple rules correlate with clinical determinations of appropriateness. Also ICD-10-CM was implemented in October 2015, which may have introduced an ascertainment bias. Disclosures V. Stevens, Pfizer, Inc.: Grant Investigator, Research grant.


For patients with hormone-receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer, the addition of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors to endocrine therapy improves disease control and overall survival. Despite growing experience with CDK4/6 inhibitors— including palbociclib, ribociclib, and abemaciclib—suboptimal use in eligible patients and intrinsic and acquired drug resistance are persistent clinical challenges. Several studies presented at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting focused on gaining a better understanding of these barriers, with a focus on potential biomarkers of resistance to CDK4/6 inhibition [1–3].


One possible solution to the oil shortage in our country is to substitute either completely or partially traditional with non-traditional oils. Blending of groundnut oil with other oils would take care of the consumer's acceptance of its nutty flavour, while ensuring shelf life and nutritional quality. The present study was planned to evaluate various oil blends by studying the acceptability of a daily diet prepared using blended oils, the acceptability and shelf life of mango pickles prepared using blended oil by periodic organoleptic, physical and chemical evaluation and the chemical and physical changes taking place in these oil blends during intermittent frying


Looking for the best places to cross-country ski and snowshoe in Ontario? The Ulysses Cross-Country Skiing and Snowshoeing in Ontario guide has them covered! In this unique guide, you'll find clear directions, detailed descriptions and a list of the author's favourite trails. Cross-Country Skiing and Snowshoeing in Ontario covers more than 200 skiing and snowshoeing areas all across the province, from the Greater Toronto Area and the Niagara Peninsula to the great expanses of Northern Ontario. Several long-distance multi-region trails are also covered, including the Bruce Trail, the Voyageur Trail, the Trans Canada Trail and the Waterfront Trail. Clear indications of difficulty levels are provided, and some 20 detailed maps will help you get around. You'll even get a quick Ontario geography lesson and a winter-bird checklist to help you better appreciate your surroundings, as well as advice on off-season training, what to wear, trail etiquette and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing techniques. All this, plus the art of ski waxing demystified!


In synthetic biology, precise control over protein expression is required in order to construct functional biological systems. A core principle of the synthetic biology approach is a model-guided design and based on the biological understanding of the process, models of prokaryotic protein production have been described. Translation initiation rate is a rate-limiting step in protein production from mRNA and is dependent on the sequence of the 5′-untranslated region and the start of the coding sequence. Translation rate calculators are programs that estimate protein translation rates based on the sequence of these regions of an mRNA, and as protein expression is proportional to the rate of translation initiation, such calculators have been shown to give good approximations of protein expression levels. In this review, three currently available translation rate calculators developed for synthetic biology are considered, with limitations and possible future progress discussed.


Benefit transfer has been an important, practical policy tool appealing to government agencies, especially when time or budget is constrained. However, the existing literature fails to support convergent validity of benefit transfer using the stated-preference method. This empirical study examines the convergent validity of benefit transfer using the choice modeling method, a potentially promising technique compatible with the heterogeneity of the transfer contexts. Based on a survey designed for Rhode Island (RI) and modified only slightly for Massachusetts (MA), regarding coastal land management, four convergent validity tests were conducted on the benefit transfer from RI to MA. Although results fail to support convergent validity in all aspects, the empirical tests show benefit transfer using the choice modeling method maybe acceptable, and even empirically reliable depending on the policy objectives and the context.


In this work, we present ab initio calculations for the potential energy surfaces of C(3) in different electronic configurations, including the singlet ground state [X (1)Sigma(g) (+),((1)A(1))], the triplet ground state [a (3)Pi(u),((3)B(1), (3)A(1))], and some higher excited states. The geometries studied include triangular shapes with two identical bond lengths, but different bond angles between them. For the singlet and triplet ground states in the linear geometry, the total energies resulting from the mixed density functional--Hartree-Fock and quadratic configuration interaction methods reproduce the experimental values, i.e., the triplet occurs 2.1 eV above the singlet. In the geometry of an equilateral triangle, we find a low-lying triplet state with an energy of only 0.8 eV above the energy of the singlet in the linear configuration, so that the triangular geometry yields the lowest excited state of C(3). For the higher excited states up to about 8 eV above the ground state, we apply time-dependent density functional theory. Even though the systematic error produced by this approach is of the order of 0.4 eV, the results give different prospective to insight into the potential energy landscape for higher excitation energies.


HIV transmission via genital and colorectal mucosa are the most common routes of dissemination. Here, we explored the effects of free and complement-opsonized HIV on colorectal tissue. Initially, there was higher antiviral responses in the free HIV compared to complement-opsonized virus. The mucosal transcriptional response at 24 hr revealed the involvement of activated T cells, which was mirrored in cellular responses observed at 96 hr in isolated mucosal T cells. Further, HIV exposure led to skewing of T cell phenotypes predominantly to inflammatory CD4+ T cells, that is Th17 and Th1Th17 subsets. Of note, HIV exposure created an environment that altered the CD8+ T cell phenotype, for example expression of regulatory factors, especially when the virions were opsonized with complement factors. Our findings suggest that HIV-opsonization alters the activation and signaling pathways in the colorectal mucosa, which promotes viral establishment by creating an environment that stimulates mucosal T cell activation and inflammatory Th cells.


While the private radio communications field has grown in recent years, the communication method known as spread spectrum name has gained much prominence. A spread spectrum method can be combined with multiple access method CDMA for dividing sequences to create multi-user communication systems with very good performance of interference between symbols.The production of the chaotic sequence in scanning system and the information system according to DS-CDMA remains a hot research problem in this study to supervise in the knowledge wireless communication. This fact is still a question in establishing the secret code random spread sequence between the transmitter and the receiver.In DS-SS's spreading is important to embed security information.It can avoid many problems in the complex calculation of the true circle. Furthermore the pseudo chaotic is reconstructed in the conventional gold to change shape with the logical operator "XOR" the results in simulation result shows in progress.It improves also the computing speed as this can solve the new equation of the problem in the original logistic map.There certainly has a kind in design: spreading chaotic sequence, chaos with gold code; including the number of users.So these are less in number and also limit the security and to can improve the ameliorate the quality of the transmissionand performance in terms of allowable number of users.The Bit error rate (BER) performance of the system is evaluated in multi-user environment under AWGN and reveals that the DS-SS system using new binary code combined with new logistic mapand gold code to ameliorate the quality of the transmission.


Objective: To characterize muscle activity and muscle strength in patients with atypical swallowing (AS; n = 88) and competent lips (CL) or incompetent lips (IL) versus a control group (Ctrl; n = 90) Methods and materials: an analytical case-control study was conducted using surface electromyography (sEMG) of the orbicularis oris, mentalis and masseter muscles. Compression forces of the orbicularis oris, right and left masseters muscle (Cfrmm, Cflmm)) , tongue tensile strength (Tts) via myoscan analysis and resistance of the orbicularis oris (Roo) via dynamometry were determined. Comparisons were made with the Mann-Whitney U test under a 95% confidence interval. Results: The amplitude of the sEMG record of the orbicularis oris muscle, in maximal contraction, was lower (p<0.01) in the atypical swallowing group (596.40 ± 175.83) compared to controls (659.83 ± 203.79). The muscle strength studied in the experimental group was lower (p<0.01) than in controls (CFo: AS: 0.31 ± 0.13; Ctrl: 0.38 ± 0, 11; Cfrmm: AS: 0.40 ± 0.08; Ctrl: 0.50 ± 0.11; Cflmm: AS: 0.41 ± 0.08; Ctrl: 0.58 ± 0.59; Tts, AS: 0.52 ± 0.14, Ctrl: 0.65 ± 0.14, and Roo: AS: 2.47 ± 0.61; Ctrl: 2.73 ± 0.60). Patients with incompetent lips had a greater muscle activity of the orbicularis oris in swallowing (AS of IL: 197.01 ± 85.84; AS of CL: 160.54 ± 97.03; Ctrl: 147.18 ± 80.10). Conclusion: Patients with atypical swallowing showed differences in the strength of studied muscles and the muscle activity of the orbicular oris muscle compared to controls.


Historians tend to assume that in pre-modern Europe people avoided the water, as too unsafe, risky and generally unhealthy to drink. This assumption is clearly flawed: early modern Europeans knew, through experience, which waters were 'best' and to take certain precautions when it came to the consumption of water. Town councils enacted legislation to ensure water quality as well as more pro-active measures to keep water sources clean. Extensive and expensive water works in many larger towns and the presence of water-carriers suggests a demand for drinking water. And yet the history of both water control measures and drinking practices before the onslaught of Asian cholera and the bacteriological revolution in the nineteenth century have yet to be written.
 As a contribution towards filling this gap, this study seeks to understand the radically changing nature of medical advice on water consumption between 1450 and 1750, and what it can tell us about the place of water in early modern society. To do this, we consider printed dietary regimens and guides to good health and long life, a successful, varied and changing genre. They offer privileged access to the circulation of knowledge regarding water, in the context of the everyday regulation of food and drink in the maintenance of health. We explain why water went from being considered 'the vilest of beverages' in the mid-fifteenth century, the consumption of which, though necessary, had to be carefully regulated, to a 'universal medicine' three hundred years later, able to prevent and cure disease. In the process, wine gave way to water as the preferred healthy drink—at least, for medical authors. We relate the medical advice to the different local conditions (such as river water quality), practices (use of cisterns, boiling or filtering) and fashions (cold-drinking) discussed in the medical literature. If water's very banality means that it is often invisible in the written evidence, the regimens provide ample evidence of the importance of drinking water and of changing attitudes and practices over the course of the early modern period.


The three positions of decodings proposed by communication theorist Stuart Hall have become a starting point for contemporary cultural studies. He insists that receivers of cultural products are not necessarily passive but can be 'oppositional'. Media scholar John Fiske has further advanced the theory, suggesting that receivers can turn to be 'producerly' in their reception of cultural products. The present paper sheds light on the possibility of a more active, even creative position on the part of receivers, particularly in relation to popular songs and other interactive texts. Receivers of cultural products are powerful others to the 'producing elite'. Jürgen Habermas's idea of 'com-subjectivity' provides a theoretical foundation for the validity and desirability of such 'creative decoding'.


A nonmetallic optical fiber cable waterproofed with absorbent polymer was developed. Methods are proposed for evaluating the reliability of absorbent polymer in order to apply it as a waterproofing material, and a type of polyacrylic acid is selected. In addition, a waterproofing design is established based on a theoretical estimate of the water penetration length in the cable space. Among other findings, it was shown that the optical fiber loss of water-penetrated cable increases due to freezing. The allowable penetration length of waterproof cables can be determined so as to suppress this loss increase. Cables manufactured using this new design and absorbent polymer showed performance sufficient for practical application. >


Molecular mechanics (MM) force field models have been demonstrated to have difficulty reproducing certain potential energy surfaces of π-stacked complexes. Here, we examine the performance of the AMBER and CHARMM models relative to high-quality ab initio data across systematic helical parameter scans and typical B-DNA geometries for π-stacking energies of nucleobase dimers. These force fields perform best for typical B-DNA geometries (mean absolute error < 1 kcal mol(-1)), whereas errors typically approach ∼2 kcal mol(-1) for broader potential scans, with maximum errors > 10 kcal mol(-1) relative to high-quality ab initio reference interaction energies. The adequate performance of MM models near minimum energy structures is accomplished through cancellation of errors in various energy terms, whereas large errors at short intermolecular distances are caused by large MM electrostatics errors due to a lack of explicit terms modeling charge penetration effects.


In this study we have explored the potential of PUVB (8‐MOP + UVB) therapy for the reduction of luminal narrowing after arterial injury. In 15 rabbits, balloon dilation of iliac arteries was performed. In 20 arteries, dilation was combined with the delivery of pulsed ultraviolet light B (UVB) irradiation with 10 arteries being previously subjected to sensitizer infusion. Changes in vessel diameter, proliferation and extracellular matrix protein content at 6 weeks were evaluated by means of angiography and histomorphometry–immunohistochemistry. We found that PUVB, applied at the time of dilation, induced reduction in late loss (LL) at 6 weeks (percutaneous transluminal angioplasty vs UVB vs PUVB: 0.64 ± 0.15 mm vs 0.61 ± 0.05 mm vs 0.29 ± 0.05 mm; p= 0.018). The same holds true for constrictive remodeling (0.53 ± 0.15 mm vs 0.45 ± 0.06 mm vs 0.15 ± 0.05 mm; p= 0.016). In the irradiation groups, LL was independent of acute gain (AG), as opposed to the control. Collagen content increased significantly after PUVB in media and adventitia, without increased cellular proliferation in all vessel layers. Thus, PUVB at the time of dilation reduced luminal narrowing at follow‐up without effecting proliferation. This effect was independent of AG and was associated with increased collagen content in media and adventitia.


Whether they occur due to natural triggers or human activities, landslides lead to loss of life and damages to properties which impact infrastructures, road networks and buildings. Landslide Susceptibility Map (LSM) provides the policy and decision makers with some valuable information. This study aims to detect landslide locations by using Sentinel-1 data, the only freely available online Radar imagery, and to map areas prone to landslide using a novel algorithm of AB-ADTree in Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. A total of 152 landslide locations were detected by using integration of Interferometry Synthetic Aperture RADAR (InSAR) technique, Google Earth (GE) images and extensive field survey. However, 80% of the data were employed for training the machine learning algorithms and the remaining 20% for validation purposes. Seventeen triggering and conditioning factors, namely slope, aspect, elevation, distance to road, distance to river, proximity to fault, road density, river density, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), rainfall, land cover, lithology, soil types, curvature, profile curvature, Stream Power Index (SPI) and Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), were extracted from satellite imageries, digital elevation model (DEM), geological and soil maps. These factors were utilized to generate landslide susceptibility maps using Logistic Regression (LR) model, Logistic Model Tree (LMT), Random Forest (RF), Alternating Decision Tree (ADTree), Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost) and a novel hybrid model from ADTree and AdaBoost models, namely AB-ADTree model. The validation was based on area under the ROC curve (AUC) and statistical measurements of Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV), sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The results showed that AUC was 90%, 92%, 88%, 59%, 96% and 94% for LR, LMT, RF, ADTree, AdaBoost and AB-ADTree algorithms, respectively. Non-parametric evaluations of the Friedman and Wilcoxon were also applied to assess the models' performance: the findings revealed that ADTree is inferior to the other models used in this study. Using a handheld Global Positioning System (GPS), field study and validation were performed for almost 20% (30 locations) of the detected landslide locations and the results revealed that the landslide locations were correctly detected. In conclusion, this study can be applicable for hazard mitigation purposes and regional planning.


Advancement in storage of patient record is changing in today's world and the art of secretly hiding the patient's medical information in the medical image is called as medical image watermarking. In case of medical images embedding of data in it can cause distortions and it may lead to misdiagnosis. Distortions in medical images are not acceptable and hence a secured hybrid prediction based reversible watermarking technique is used for complete restoration of the original image and the also the patient record embedded in it without any distortion. In this paper a secured hybrid prediction based technique along with hashing algorithm is used to enlarge the payload capacity of the medical images and also data authentication has been used for protecting the integrity of the message and validating the identity of the originator. Message authentication is provided by using MD5 hashing algorithm. The simulation results shows that this technique is robust and in the presence of noise, upto 99.76% of data can be recovered.


Alanine scanning mutagenesis of a recently reported prostate cancer cell-selective Protein Transduction Domain (PTD) was used to assess the specific contribution each residue plays in cell uptake efficiency and cell-selectivity. These studies resulted in the identification of two key residues. Extensive mutagenesis at these key residues generated multiple mutants with significantly improved uptake efficiency and cell-selectivity profiles for targeted cells. The best mutant exhibits ~19-fold better uptake efficiency and ~4-fold improved cell-selectivity for a human prostate cancer cell line. In addition, while the native PTD sequence was capable of delivering functional fluorescent protein to the interior of a prostate cancer cells, only modest functional enzyme delivery was achieved. In contrast, the most potent mutant was able to deliver large quantities of a functional enzyme to the interior of human prostate cancer cells. Taken together, the research described herein has significantly improved the efficiency, cell-selectivity, and functional utility of a prostate cancer PTD.


Probabilistic context-free grammars (PCFGs) are a widely known class of probabilistic language models. The Inside-Outside (I-O) algorithm is well known as an efficient EM algorithm tailored for PCFGs. Although the algorithm requires inexpensive linguistic resources, there remains a problem in its efficiency. This paper presents an efficient method for training PCFG parameters in which the parser is separated from the EM algorithm, assuming that the underlying CFG is given. A new EM algorithm exploits the compactness of well-formed substring tables (WFSTs) generated by the parser. Our proposal is general in that the input grammar need not take Chomsky normal form (CNF) while it is equivalent to the I-O algorithm in the CNF case. In addition, we propose a polynomial-time EM algorithm for CFGs with contextsensitive probabilities, and report experimental results with the ATR dialogue corpus and a hand-crafted Japanese grammar.


Hybrid laminates typically consist of alternate layers of fibre reinforced plastic and aluminium alloy. Developed for fatigue critical aerospace applications i.e. fuselage and lower wing skins, the hybrid laminates are orthotropic materials with lower density and higher strength compared to the alloy monolith. A remote sensing system reliant upon fibre optic technology has been developed to monitor the strain field encountered across composite laminae. This fibre optic system has been applied initially to the problem of characterising delamination zone development about a fatigue crack initiated at a through thickness fastener hole. Delamination measurements obtained using an in-situ ultrasonic C-scanner have been utilised in numerical simulations of the fatigue failure process and the data compared with measured strain profiles.


For the 3D brain MRI parameterized statistical model segmentation method, the pre-processing method of brain image is brought forward for the model. First the DWM(directional weighted median) filter and Gaussian template are used to de-noise the brain MRI image. Then the Laplacian operator is used to sharpen the image, and the Robert operator is used to realize the edge detection, which can improve the measurement accuracy. And the MIP (maximum intensity projection) algorithm is applied to extract the largest connected component. The image of only brain vessel and part brain tissue can be obtained and the influence of background and no brain vessels like tissue to the images is eliminate. After pre-processing stage, the brain image is analyzed as the input to the parameterized statistical model. The small branches of the brain vessel can be segmented. Keywords-DWM median filter; Gaussian template; Laplacian operator; Robert operator; MIP algorithm;