The article has been proven by the comparative analysis of long-term research results in the Karabakh region in the lowlands of the Lesser Caucasus, as well as comparative analysis of current research, as well as to the extent that these areas have been subjected to various forms of erosion. The productivity of self-cultivated agricul-tural crops has adversely affected the quality indicators and reduced productivity. At the same time, the complex physical and geographical conditions of the area, ever-increasing exogenous and anthropogenic pressures create favorable conditions for the development of all types of erosion processes in a wide range. The scientific and practi-cal application of advanced microstructure technology, as well as traditional backwatering, as well as traditional wetland irrigation, along with other complex measures in irrigated soil erosion soils, to improve fertility in erosional soils.


In the present study, we reported the interactions at the molecular level of a series of compounds called Bisindolylmaleimide, as potential inhibitors of the calmodulin protein. Bisindolylmaleimide compounds are drug prototypes derived from Staurosporine, an alkaloid with activity for cancer treatment. Bisindolylmaleimide compounds II, IV, VII, X, and XI, are proposed and reported as possible inhibitors of calmodulin protein for the first time. For the above, a biotechnological device was used (fluorescent biosensor hCaM M124C-mBBr) to directly determine binding parameters experimentally (Kd and stoichiometry) of these compounds, and molecular modeling tools (Docking, Molecular Dynamics, and Chemoinformatic Analysis) to carry out the theoretical studies and complement the experimental data. The results indicate that this compound binds to calmodulin with a Kd between 193–248 nM, an order of magnitude lower than most classic inhibitors. On the other hand, the theoretical studies support the experimental results, obtaining an acceptable correlation between the ΔGExperimental and ΔGTheoretical (r2 = 0.703) and providing us with complementary molecular details of the interaction between the calmodulin protein and the Bisindolylmaleimide series. Chemoinformatic analyzes bring certainty to Bisindolylmaleimide compounds to address clinical steps in drug development. Thus, these results make these compounds attractive to be considered as possible prototypes of new calmodulin protein inhibitors.


A fabrication process was developed to realize lateral surface superlattice (LSSL) devices on high-mobility modulation-doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostruc-tures for low-temperature transport studies. The process involved the use of high-resolution electron beam lithography to define an interdigitated array of metal gates, with periodicities down to 230 nm and a 1:1 mark space ratio. The two sets of interdigitated gate arrays, defined by metallization and liftoff, could be independently biased so that an independent control of the the average electrostatic potential and of the periodic potential amplitude was possible. Two different heterostructures were used: a conventional HEMT GaAs/AlGaAs layer, where the 2DEG was formed 90 nm below the surface and a novel, delta-doped heterostructure where the 2DEG was only 28 nm deep. The devices were characterized at low temperatures (~ 70 mK) by means of magnetoresistance measurements. The effect of the periodic gate potential on the 2DEG was reflected in oscillations of the magnetoresistance due to commensurability resonances between the cyclotron orbit and the period of the superlattice potential. A strong first harmonic of the commensurability oscillations was observed in the magnetoresistance traces measured on the shallow-2DEG device, suggesting an enhanced contrast of the superlattice potential due to the proximity of the gates to the 2DEG. The strength of the harmonic signal was quantified using Fourier analysis and it was found that the high first harmonic contents could not be explained by simple electrostatic models. An alternative source of modulation, involving the strain field caused by the differential contraction of the metal gates, is discussed. The potential profile obtained from the strain model is in better agreement with experimental results and confirms that the enhanced contrast of the potential is due to the proximity of the gates to the 2DEG. An identical device fabricated on conventional HEMT material exhibited purely sinusoidal commensurability oscillations A study of the commensurability oscillations as a function of gate bias was carried out, and some information on the causes of device performance degradation was extracted. In particular, it was found that a parallel sheet of parasitic charge in the shallow-HEMT layer was responsible for its relatively high mobility but also for strongly reducing the electrostatic modulation of the 2DEG by the gate potential. Nevertheless, some indication of period doubling due to differential bias was observed in the Fourier tranform of the experimental data. In this work we demonstrated the feasibility to fabricate laterally gated devices on shallow HEMT layers and the enhanced contrast of the potential at the 2DEG, achieved because of the proximity of the gates to the 2DEG. However, other problems have been identified that limit the advantages of the increased potential contrast: o an important component of the potential modulation arises from the strain field generated by the differential contraction of the metal gates on the surface of the semiconductor; the strain couples to the 2DEG via the deformation potential and gives rise to a residual potential modulation that cannot be controlled by the gate bias. o the presence of a parasitic sheet of electrons in the novel shallow-HEMT layer strongly reduces the efficiency of the gates in electrostatically modulating the 2DEG potential Further work should be directed to improve the design of the shallow-HEMT layers so that its full potential in relation to laterally gated devices could be achieved.


It has been found that recent results on forward jet production from deep inelastic scattering can neither be reproduced by models which are based on leading order $\alpha_s$ QCD matrix elements and parton showers nor by next-to-leading order calculations. The measurement of forward jet cross sections has been suggested as a promising probe of new small $\xbj$ parton dynamics and the question is whether these data provide an indication of this. The same question arises for other experimental data in deep inelastic scattering at small $\xbj$ which can not be described by conventional models for deep inelastic scattering. In this paper the influence of resolved photon processes has been investigated and it has been studied to what extent the inclusion of such processes in addition to normal deep inelastic scattering leads to agreement with data. It is shown that two DGLAP evolution chains from the hard scattering process towards the proton and the photon, respectively, are sufficient to describe effects, observed in the HERA data, which have been attributed to BFKL dynamics.


The textile industry produces large volumes of wastewater that requires appropriate treatment before being released into the environment. Research globally has focused on advanced desalination technologies to augment the limited freshwater resources. Forward osmosis (FO) technology has gained substantial interest as a possible lower-energy desalination technology. However, challenges such as the availability of effective draw solutions (DS) have limited its implementation. This study evaluated alternative feed water resources and assessed the potential of dye solutions as DS. The aim is to dilute a concentrated dye DS to a target concentration for direct dye-batch use, thereby reclaiming water resources. The measured osmotic pressure (OP) of the alternative feed solutions (synthetic brackish water; syntethic seawater; seawater from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; and wastewater from two textile factories) were 414, 2 761, 2 580, 2 614; 1 716 and 7 822 kPa, respectively. Three basic dyes (Maxilon Turquoise, Red and Blue) and three reactive dyes (Carmine, Olive Green and Black) were selected based on common use in the South African textile industry. The dye samples were prepared without and with salt at different concentrations and different dye-to-salt mass ratios ranging from 1:10 to 1:60. The OP trends for the basic dyes followed Blue >> Red > Turquoise and for the reactive dyes Black >> Olive > Carmine. The overall OP trend was Black > Olive > Carmine > Blue > Red > Turquoise. The OP at different dye concentrations and different dye-to-salt ratios was mostly influenced by the dye chemistry and molecular weight (Mw) rather than the type of dye, i.e., reactive vs basic.The OP trend for the dye-to-salt ratios was 1:60 > 1:50 > 1:40 > 1:30 > 1:20 > 1:10. For both the basic and reactive dyes a linear relationship exists between OP and dye concentration; as well as between OP and Mw. The dye DS exhibited larger OP compared to that of the FS evaluated, thus rendering them suitable DS. Keywords : draw solution; dyes; feed solution; forward osmosis; osmotic pressure; textile industry; textile wastewater


In this chapter, we synthesize our understanding of auditors' responsibility for fraudulent financial reporting (i.e., fraud). The prevention and detection of fraud is an important priority for the profession, and thus we explore ways to improve auditors' fraud investigations in the future. We broaden our understanding of this issue by documenting auditors' and regulators' responses to major fraud scandals throughout history, and then build on this by developing a model to summarize the current state of the academic literature in the area. We also identify the significant unresolved issues related to fraud that require the attention of researchers, regulators, and auditors. Accordingly, this chapter contributes to the literature by incorporating the perspectives of research and practice to provide insights that are informative to academics, auditors, and the profession at large, as well as to standard setters, regulators, and policy makers.


Organ donation after circulatory death [DCD] has the potential to reduce the shortage of kidneys available for transplantation. However, many DCD grafts are discarded because of long warm ischemia times. Strategies reducing oxygen demand may minimize damages caused by ischemia/reperfusion injury. Ex-vivo, Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) reduces oxygen and ATP consumption of the isolated perfused kidney, reduces inflammation and improves renal function following ischemia reperfusion injury in rodents. However, the benefits and applicability of H2S in clinically relevant model remain unknown.

 To mimic DCD, pig kidneys underwent 0 or 60 min of warm ischemia, before oxygenated hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP). NaHS (100µM), an H2S donor, was added to the perfusion media or injected as an intra-arterial bolus before warm ischemia. After 2 hours of HMP, kidneys were transplanted and reperfused for 1 hour before harvest. Kidney function was assesses before, after and during ex vivo perfusion by measuring energy metabolites, Gadolinium elimination by pMRI and histopathological scoring.

 Warm ischemia (60 min) induced significant histological damages, delayed cortical and medullary Gadolinium elimination (perfusion), and reduced ATP levels, but not its precursors (AMP). As expected, ATP levels and kidney perfusion both inversely correlated with the severity of kidney histological injury. NaHS reduced metabolism during warm ischemia, and seemed to increase kidney ATP levels and viability after reperfusion.

 Our preliminary data suggest that the H2S donor NaHS reduces kidney metabolism and protects from warm ischemia. Further experiments will identify the best administration protocol and the clinical relevance of H2S supplementation in the context of organ preservation.


The reappearance of Dr. Anesaki's illuminating volume is surely welcomed by students of Japanese history and culture. With penetrating insight and scholarship, the author guides us through the complex developments of Japanese spiritual culture. The author is particularly sensitive to the interplay of social and cultural forces and religion, as well as the interaction of the various religious strands such as Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity. The book divides Japanese religious history into six major periods. The earliest period is taken up mainly with consideration of Shinto, while the periods of Nara, Heian, and Kamakura are devoted largely to the role of Buddhism. Discussion of the Shinto revival and appearance of Christianity provides the background for the period of Tokugawa seclusion. Confucianism, the developments in popular education, and the progress of Shinto are the focus of attention in this period. After the downfall of Tokugawa and the opening of Japan to the forces of Western civilization in Meiji, many new problems confront Japanese society. The study of this period, which comes almost to contemporary times, highlights two problems which still exist in Japan as the nation seeks spiritual orientation in the modern world. One problem is that of relating its own spiritual traditions to the development of a fully industrialized state with all its implications. The second problem is the fact that in adopting Western civilization, Japan comes to share in the crisis confronting that cultural complex. Thus it is presented the difficult task of assessing its own spiritual tradition, and that of the West which Japan is adopting. JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES


Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEPNETs) are a relatively rare, heterogeneous group of diseases in which important advances have been observed in the diagnosis and treatment as well as in our understanding of the biology and genetics of the disease in recent years. Given the insufficient scientific data available on evidence-based management of GEPNETs and the differences in circumstances in individual countries, a multidisciplinary study group was established to provide guidelines for the management of GEPNETS. This study group consisted of a medical oncologist, endocrinologist, surgeon, pathologist, gastroenterologist, and a nuclear medicine specialist, who aimed to prepare a practical guide in the light of existing scientific data and international guidelines, to be used in common clinical practice.


Writing a paper can seem to be an insurmountable problem for many junior doctors. This is especially so when there is a high degree of expectation placed upon them to 'publish' in order to gain entry to specific training programs. Yet all too frequently, there is little in the way of supervision to guide them through this process. It's 'publish or perish'. Thankfully, I think that this book can help. It is only 155 pages long, and of this, only the first half of the book addresses the issue of 'How to write a paper'. The second half addresses issues such as 'the role of the editor' and 'what a publisher does' etc. The authors all have extensive experience in both writing and editing scientific papers, and what they provide is overall a clear and concise framework to follow. It is very pragmatic and easy to follow. The introductory section deals with issues of overall manuscript structure, and then the subsequent chapters describe in detail how to deal with the introduction, methods, results and discussion. There are then further sections on titles, abstracts, authors and references. Each chapter provides a clear and logical approach to the material, and there are numerous examples given to provide further guidance. As someone with moderate experience in scientific writing, I still found many useful ideas in this book, especially in how to deal with the results. Of special interest to registrars, there are sections that cover case reports and letters. This book is a useful resource on how to write a paper. I would strongly recommend it as a guide to any junior doctors who are considering or struggling with crafting a scientific article.


Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a disease of surfactant clearance in which functional abnormalities in alveolar macrophages lead to accumulation of surfactant within alveoli in mammals. Histologic examination of 6 avian autopsies, including 4 chickens, a turkey, and a cockatiel, revealed accumulation of hypereosinophilic densely arrayed lamellar material in the lungs that was magenta by periodic acid–Schiff stain and diastase resistant. Transmission electron microscopy of the proteinaceous material in 2 cases demonstrated alternating electron-dense and electron-lucent lamellae that formed whorls and had a regular periodicity of 6–14 nm, consistent with pulmonary surfactant. Given the anatomic differences between avian and mammalian lungs, we designated the presented condition "pulmonary proteinosis," which can be observed as both an incidental finding or, when severe, may be a contributing factor to death through respiratory failure.


S' Division of General Bacteriology G 1-6. Test Methods and Miscellaneous. G 36. Protein Metabolism and ImG 7-12. Physiology. munity. G 13-23. Nutrition and Metabolism. G 37. Physical Methods and BacteriG 24-30. Taxonomy. ology. G 31-35. Induced Resistance. G 38-45. Morphology and Cytology. Division of Agricultural and Industrial Bacteriology A 1-8. Sanitary Bacteriology. A 27-32. Miscellaneous Studies. A 9-17. Antibiotics. A 33-41. Disinfection and Chemotherapy. A 18-26. Industrial Processes. Division of Medical Bacteriology, Immunology, and Comparative Pathology M 1-5. Antibiotics: streptomycin. M 29-36. Immunization Problems. M 6-15. Miscellaneous Studies. M 37-44. Comparative Pathology. M 16-28. Viruses. M 45-51. Miscellaneous Studies. Round Tables and Symposia RT 1-6. Problems of Teaching. RT 26-31. Taxonomy. RT 7-14. Michigan History. RT 32-33. Food Processing. RT 15-21. Influenza. RT 34-38. Air Disinfection. RT 22-25. Streptomycin. RT 39-46. Immunizing Fractions. Gl. The Development of Quick Microtechniques for the Identification of Cultures. R. H. WEAVER, W. M. ARNOLD, JR., AND JOHN HANNAN, University of Kentucky, Department of Bacteriology, Lexington, Ky. The use of small tubes, large inocula, and preheating of media makes it possible to determine the biochemical characteristics of bacteria quickly. An indole test, based on these principles, has yielded positive results, in some cases, after six minutes' incubation. It gives reliable results with members of the Enterobacteriaceae and with some other organisms within approximately two hours. Acid and gas production from glucose has been obtained in less than one hour, although it usually requires between one and two hours. The disaccharides are fermented somewhatmore slowly. Other tests are under study. It is hoped that a system of techniques can be developed by the use of which it will be possible 1 This number of the Journal has been edited by the Chairman of the Program Committee. Authors of abstracts have not seen proof due to restrictions of time imposed by the printing schedule. 565 on Jauary 1, 2018 by gest http/jb.asm .rg/ D ow nladed fom FORTY-SIH GENERAL MEETING tentatively to identify bacteria which multiply quickly within a few hours after


The biology, ecology and distribution of Pennant's swimming crab (Portumnus latipes) along the coast of Portugal in 2015 was studied. Females dominated the catches and the highest percentage of berried females was recorded between February and April. Mean fecundity values were 7711, 10 004 and 4838 eggs for development stages I, II and III, respectively. Estimated Von Bertalanffy growth parameters L∞, K and t0 were 34.83 mm, 0.52 year−1 and −0.41 year for males, and 27.16 mm, 0.74 year−1 and −0.39 year for females, respectively. P. latipes is widely distributed along the Portuguese coast on sandy bottom to a maximum depth of 20 m, with the highest relative abundances from the south coast near estuaries and coastal lagoon inlets. Size distributions differed significantly (p<0.05) between the south and the southwest and northwest regions, with larger crabs in the south. Abundance was generally correlated with abundance of Donax trunculus and Donax vittatus, supporting the hypothesis of a predator-prey relationship.


Small-molecule drug design is a complex and iterative decision-making process relying on pre-existing knowledge and driven by experimental data. Low-molecular-weight chemicals represent an attractive therapeutic option, as they are readily accessible to organic synthesis and can easily be characterized.1 Their potency as well as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties can be systematically and rationally investigated and ultimately optimized via expert science behind medicinal chemistry and methods of computer-aided drug design (CADD). In recent years, significant advances in molecular modeling techniques have afforded a variety of tools to effectively identify potential binding pockets on prospective targets, to map key interactions between ligands and their binding sites, to construct and assess energetics of the resulting complexes, to predict ADMET properties of candidate compounds, and to systematically analyze experimental and computational data to derive meaningful structure-activity relationships leading to the creation of a drug candidate. This Perspective describes a real case of a drug discovery campaign accomplished in a relatively short time with limited resources. The study integrated an arsenal of available molecular modeling techniques with an array of experimental tools to successfully develop a novel class of potent and selective androgen receptor inhibitors with a novel mode of action. It resulted in the largest academic licensing deal in Canadian history, totaling $142M. This project exemplifies the importance of team science, an integrative approach to drug discovery, and the use of best practices in CADD. We posit that the lessons learned and best practices for executing an effective CADD project can be applied, with similar success, to many drug discovery projects in both academia and industry.


— Traditionally uncooperative rate control schemes have implied open loop protocols such as UDP, CBR. In this paper we show that closed loop uncooperative rate control schemes also exist and that the current AQM proposals cannot efficiently control their mis-behavior. Moreover, these proposals require that AQM be installed at all routers in the Internet which is not only expensive but requires significant network upgrade. In this paper we show that management of uncooperative flows need not be coupled with AQM design but can be viewed as edge based policing question. In this paper we propose an analytical model for managing uncooperative flows in the Internet by re-mapping their utility function to a target range of utlity functions. This mapping can be achieved by transparently manipulating congestion penalties conveyed to the uncooperative users. The most interesting aspect of this research is that this task can be performed at the edge of the network with little state information about uncooperative flows. The proposed solution is independent of the buffer management algorithm deployed on the network. Thus the framework presented in this paper not only works on a network of Drop-Tail queues but also with any AQM scheme. We have analyzed the framework and evaluated it on various single and multi-bottleneck topologies with both Drop-Tail and RED. Our results show that the framework is robust and works well even in presence of background traffic and reverse path congestion.


Ocean warming has a severe impact on oxygen distribution because it reduces oxygen solubility and increases stratification in the upper ocean. Models predict a decline of the global oxygen inventory of about 1-7% over the next century and data show a decrease of more than 2% since 1960 (Schmidtko et al., Nature, 2017). Quantifying global as well as regional changes of oxygen will improve the understanding of chemical, biological and physical processes, especially in Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZ) where consistent trends of intensification and spatial expansion exit (e.g., Stramma et al., Science, 2008). Although optical sensors, so-called optodes, are available to accurately measure changes in ocean oxygen levels, users still wish to obtain better spatial and temporal resolution on profiling observation platforms than can be currently achieved. Here we demonstrate the utility of a novel and fast, commerciallyavailable optode for in-situ and autonomous oxygen measurements, potentially closing this gap. This novel oxygen optode shows a temperature-dependent response time (t63%) of about 4 seconds and is thereby at least 50% faster compared to other optical oxygen sensors. We aim to fully characterize this optode with regard to accuracy, precision, pressure dependence, long-term stability and drift, response time as well as aircalibration compatibility. Results build on data from extensive laboratory experiments and field deployments in the Tropical North, South and Southern Atlantic (underway, mooring, float and CTD-cast applications). This promises high quality observations for detecting oxygen level changes on small and fast-changing scales in this ocean region. This novel optode could be used on a wide range of autonomous observation platforms such as ships for Repeat Hydrography, time-series stations and wave gliders, yet is especially promising on floats, gliders and fast-moving ships. In a changing ocean those applications eventually will contribute valuable information to the global oxygen budget.


In this article, we show the importance of both social and economic imperatives for authors and printers active in the genre of wedding poetry, and the interaction between these imperatives. The lack of systematic evidence and the fragmented nature of previous research has led to the dominance of tentative interpretations in studies of wedding poetry. Necessary, therefore, is a broader and more inclusive approach of the genre as a whole. We have thus combined a literature review with a quantitative analysis, exploring metadata of over 3,500 publications of wedding poetry (year of publication, names of brides, grooms, printers and authors) in the Dutch Republic between 1600-1760.


: Memory Studies have examined the impact of the historical events of 1989 on (German) memory culture from multiple perspectives since the 1990s. The literary historian must ask whether the transnational opening that pressed the politics of remembrance after 1989 is also reflected in fictional texts of the same period. This contribution is particularly interested in changes in narratives of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II as presented in books published by eight German authors before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain: Johanna Anderka, Gerold Effert, Peter Härtling, Bruno Herr, Gudrun Pausewang, Erica Pedretti, Ilse Tielsch, Gustav Wiese. Czech and German char-acter constellations are examined in these texts to reveal a transformation from nationally related homogenization and particularization in the self-determina-tion of both ethnic groups in early works (initially assumed for texts of the pre-vious period) to a more differentiated representations of characters in later texts. The study's main aim is to reveal both constants and changes in these narratives of the expulsion over time, thus offering an overview of narratives typical for each period and their modifications during the given decades.


This paper proposes an efficient content-based image retrieval scheme based on Semantic Object Detection (SOD). The feature extraction process uses quantized discrete cosine transform (DCT) blocks where the retrieval of the query image is performed using a histogram-based similarity measure. SOD aims to reduce the size of the database from which the retrieval of similar images is conducted. The use of SOD has been shown to improve the retrieval performance and outperform related work in the literature.


Recharge dams in Oman detain floods to recharge groundwater. The impact of sedimentation on recharge at Wadi Sahalanowt Recharge Dam, in Salalah, Oman, was evaluated using field data and numerical modelling. Analysis of the thickness of sediments after flood events shows that maximum depositions were at the same locations after each event, coinciding with the lowest positions in the wadi. Numerical modelling suggests that the current practice of periodic removal of sediments will restore the storage capacity of the reservoir, but that ploughing or raking of the underlying native sedimentary rocks could be required to significantly improve infiltration rates.


The most important aspect of multi-channel instruction is the fact that it telescopes two years of college language–elementary and intermediate levels—into one year without increasing the number of contact hours. Knowing that he can do it twice as fast, the student is more willing to learn a second language. This approach to language teaching makes the learning process an exciting, intellectually challenging, and gratifying experience, thus eliminating another psychological obstacle to language learning—boredom. For its effectiveness, instruction depends on the latest findings of psycholinguistics and on systematic use of television. Television is used in each lesson to add a visual dimension to audiolingual methodology, to simulate the cultural environment, and to provide a powerful motivation reinforcement. As a result, the usual gap between active and passive language skills is overcome and the learning process is expedited.


The scintillation radiation detection community is on the cusp of a major breakthrough with the potential deployment of Europium-activated Strontium Iodide (SrI2:Eu) detectors for medical imaging and homeland security applications. Compared to the traditional scintillators (such as NaI), SrI2 provides much better energy resolution and light output. The crystal growth of SrI2:Eu has been impaired for a long time due to cracking problems, which makes it highly unreliable and nonreproducible. This significantly increases the cost of the material which in turn impedes wide-scale deployment and limits its advantages over other scintillators. In this paper, we demonstrate a technique of growing crack-free SrI2:Eu crystals by monitoring the stoichiometry of the melt atmosphere during processing and crystal growth. Using the feedback information from the in situ monitoring technique, the stoichiometry of the melt was corrected and multiple crack-free SrI2:Eu crystals of diameters 1.5 inches were repeatedly grown using Bridgman configuration with no visible inclusions, bubbles or defects whatsoever.


Viking observations suggest abundant silt and clay particles on Mars. It is proposed that some of these particles agglomerate to form sand size aggregates that are redeposited as sandlike features such as drifts and dunes. Although the binding for the aggregates could include salt cementation or other mechanisms, electrostatic bonding is considered to be a primary force holding the aggregates together. Various laboratory experiments conducted since the 19th century, and as reported here for simulated Martian conditions, show that both the magnitude and sign of electrical charges on windblown particles are functions of particle velocity, shape and composition, atmospheric pressure, atmospheric composition, and other factors. Electrical charges have been measured for saltating particles in the wind tunnel and in the field, on the surfaces of sand dunes, and within dust clouds on earth. Similar, and perhaps even greater, charges are proposed to occur on Mars, which could form aggregates of silt and clay size particles. Electrification is proposed to occur within Martian dust clouds, generating siltclay aggregates which would settle to the surface where they may be deposited in the form of sandlike structures. By analog, siltclay dunes are known in many parts of the earth where siltclay aggregates were transported by saltation and deposited as 'sand.' In these structures the binding forces were later destroyed, and the particles reassumed the physical properties of silt and clay, but the sandlike bedding structure within the 'dunes' was preserved. The bedding observed in drifts at the Viking landing site is suggested to result from a similar process involving siltclay aggregates on Mars.


The design of WDM optical networks is an issue for telecom operators since the spreading of this technology will not occur unless enough performance guarantees are provided. Motivated by the quest for efficient algorithms for the Routing and Wavelength Assignment problem (RWA), we address approximations of the fractional multicommodity flow problem which is the central part of a complex randomized rounding algorithm for the integral problem. Through the use of dynamic shortest path computations and other combinatorial approaches, we improve on the best known algorithm. We also provide directions for further improvements.


In this article Dominika Laster examines the embodied-memory work undertaken by the Polish theatre director and performance researcher Jerzy Grotowski. While Grotowski approached work with memory – which in his practice necessarily implied body-memory – in a variety of ways, it was often as a mode of inquiry. For Grotowski, there were at least two different types of memory work, which emerge in two distinct phases of his research. The first was the use of body-memory undertaken during the Theatre of Production phase. Here, the work with body-memory was used as a tool in the actor's process of self-penetration and opening, serving as an instrument in the rediscovery of impulses and intentions of a past moment. This process of rediscovery is integral to the freeing of creativity and tapping into the obstructed internal resources of the actor. Another use of memory work, which became articulated in the phase of Grotowski's research known as Art as Vehicle, is that which facilitates the rediscovery of essence. Grotowski's practice of 'active remembering' functioned as a tool in the search for one's essence, understood as the most intimate, pre-cultural aspect of the self, which precedes difference and is at once the most singular and universal aspect of being. Dominika Laster is a Lecturer in Theatre. Her book A Bridge Made of Memory: Embodied Memory, Witnessing, and Transmission in the Grotowski Work and her edition of Loose Screws: Nine New Plays from Poland, are forthcoming from Seagull Press (distributed globally by the University of Chicago Press).


The city is an architectural structure and its visual impression is accomplished through visual pictures that are subjected in its arrangements to values originating from the feel of urbanism alongside with utilitarian, social, and social values that are all founded on arranging thought and urban thinking. And when one or more of these values is missing, the city's visual scene gets befuddled and shaken. Paying consideration to the city's highlights, shape, character and excellence isn't an extravagance in urban life, but instead a natural civilizational express that goes with the degrees of edified advancement of social orders, And the open territories are one of the fundamental parts of urban communities, where they are considered as a principle lung for picnics and recreation, and an indication of arriving at a superior level of life and performance. Sculpture is one of the most important arts which had the ability to express human nations cultures ,and throughout the ages sculpture art was associated with architecture and its function, as it is one of the oldest arts that accompanied , as the architectural idea began originally from sculpture, so the relationship between sculpture and architecture arts is complementary, not sculpture complements the architecture but each was the basis for the other. Sustainable architecture is considered one of the recent trends of architectural thought who is interested in the relationship between the building and its environment. Environmental architecture is a process to ensure that the building be designed in a style that respects the environment, taking into account the reduction of energy consumption, materials and resources and maximizing harmony with nature .And for art sculpture and spread in sustainable architecture of great importance for the functional and aesthetic role elevates and what happens from an activity, it is not only a cosmetic, but a real mirror for the society culture and an indication of the extent and progress of civilization., In the presence of the problems of population increasing and the narrowing of the spaces of housing units, the external spaces become the only outlet for the society, but these spaces lack the elements of attraction that would meet the needs of society .The research problem was represented in ignoring the importance of Holographic sculpture in ornamentation external urban spaces to suit the human requirements, which affected the aesthetic image and functional values of these spaces .This study comes as a result of the urgent need to make the external spaces in sustainable architecture meet the human requirements using sculpture art and the study aims to clarifying the relationship between sculpture, architecture and aesthetic sustainability by using sculptures to embellish the external architectural spaces and producing of sculptures used to assortment external spaces to achieve visual quality in sustainable architecture.and the research is based on the experimental method , and the most important results were : Emphasizing the cultural role of sculptural works through direct interaction between the audience and the sculpture , sculpture which based on the interwoven linear relationships that were difficult to implement with another material. The current aesthetic status of most cities lacks aesthetic formation and aesthetic identity, which makes Holographic sculpture a role in confirming the integration of aesthetic identity with its functional identity. Sustainable cities as an architectural design that repels sculpting, hence the role of the sculptor in setting up formative solutions that allow field sculpting to perform its multiple functions in their architectural voids in a manner that is compatible with their architectural design .The clarity of the functional role of sustainable architectural buildings and the lack of clarity of the aesthetic role. Hence, the sculpture should have an important role in highlighting the aesthetic role of sustainable architecture to add an aesthetic value that may affect the architectural form .


The development of noninvasive methods of extracranial carotid artery evaluation over the past decade has led to questions as to their usefulness in daily clinical practice. They have generally been proposed for use in screening asymptomatic patients with bruits or those about to undergo major operative procedures. Since patients with focal symptoms are considered candidates for arteriography, noninvasive tests in this situation may be redundant. However, as the accuracy of the imaging and pulsed Doppler methods has improved, it is appropriate to re-examine this question. Based upon our experience, it is our current feeling that initial screening using ultrasonic Duplex scanning does have a place in symptomatic patients and can be shown to be cost effective.


Cognitive function and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were studied in 26 patients (mean age 77.9) who showed bilaterally an ill-defined diffuse periventricular hyperintensity (PVH) on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) spin-echo sequence. Diffuse PVH was classified into two groups according to severity, group A (more severe) and group B (less severe); their cognitive impairment was classified into three stages, stage 1 (mildly impaired) through stage 3 (severely impaired). rCBF was assessed by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The result showed that 6 of 7 MRI-group A patients were stage 3, but the stages of 19 group B patients varied. Five of 7 MRI-group A patients showed severe hypoperfusion, but rCBF of group B patients also varied. Nineteen patients had a hypertensive history, but only 10 patients complained of cerebrovascular incidents before admission. All 3 younger patients (one in his fifties and two in their sixties), however, showed hypertension, stepwise neurological deterioration as in Binswanger's disease. These results suggest that there might be various pathogenesis of diffuse bilateral PVH in the elderly and they are different from that of the classical "Binswanger's disease".


Understanding the relationship between brain structure, function and self-reports has hardly been addressed until now in meditation research. Here we demonstrate such relationship, using Mindfulness meditation (MM). MM aims to reduce thought-related processes and enhance bodily awareness, thereby reducing identification with thought content and deconstructing maladaptive self-schema. We thus hypothesized that structure of the default mode network (DMN) regions, associated with spontaneous thoughts and self-representation, would negatively correlate with MM experience and self-reported positive affect, while positively correlating with DMN resting-state function. Cross-sectionally comparing a unique group of adept MM practitioners and meditation-naïve matched controls using voxel based morphometry revealed that gray matter (GM) density of the left precuneus (L-Prc) was negatively correlated with MM expertise. Furthermore, GM density of the L-Prc was positively correlated with resting state and task related functional (fMRI) measures within the L-Prc in the MM practitioners, but not in the controls. Finally, the L-Prc's GM density negatively correlated with positive affect across all participants. Our findings may shed light on understanding structure-function-self reports relationship. While our approach enables studying suggestive correlations in expert MM practitioners, longitudinal studies are required for direct insights concerning the question of causality. Significance statement Understanding the relationship between brain structure and function, individual differences and self-reports, is an important goal of neuroscience. Yet, these factors were hardly investigated together in meditation research. The precuneus is part of the default mode network (DMN) involved in thought related processes. Mindfulness meditation (MM) is a mental practice aiming to reduce thought related processes. Here, by cross-sectionally comparing adept meditators and controls, we found that in the precuneus of MM practitioners, structure associated with function. Overall, structure negatively correlated with practice length, as well as with positive affect scores. The structure-function correlation was only significant in the meditators group, possibly implying that prolonged meditation improved structure and function attunement in the DMN. More generally, this study demonstrates that mental practice can be related to conjoint structural and functional effects, as well as to affective self-reports.


The goal of this study is to investigate whether and how fast Swedish women returned to work after their first birth and what were the incentives and constraints for their decisions during the latest decades when Sweden was experiencing significant fluctuations both in its economy and in its level of fertility. The analysis is conducted at individual level based on a longitudinal data set from the latest two waves (1991 and 2000) of a long-time running panel survey of "The Swedish Level-of-Living survey" (LNU). We employ the methods of event-history analysis. The findings suggest Swedish women delayed their return to paid work after the first birth in the 1990s due mainly to the gradual extensions in the parental leave benefits in the 1990s, although the economic crisis in the 1990s might result in a faster return for young mothers. In addition to the strong influences of personal and family characteristics such as age at first birth, eligibility for parental leave and father's share of parental leave, whether a woman worked or not prior to the first birth strongly influences the outcomes of her after-birth labour force participation. The study seems to suggest convergences in the timing of return to work in terms of women's education, the sector (public or private) of employment and the size of the company, but an enlarged gap between women with high job positions and the others.


This dissertation reports some first steps towards a compositional account of active inference and the Bayesian brain. Specifically, we use the tools of contemporary applied category theory to supply functorial semantics for approximate inference. To do so, we define on the `syntactic' side the new notion of Bayesian lens and show that Bayesian updating composes according to the compositional lens pattern. Using Bayesian lenses, and inspired by compositional game theory, we define fibrations of statistical games and classify various problems of statistical inference as corresponding sections: the chain rule of the relative entropy is formalized as a strict section, while maximum likelihood estimation and the free energy give lax sections. In the process, we introduce a new notion of `copy-composition'. On the `semantic' side, we present a new formalization of general open dynamical systems (particularly: deterministic, stochastic, and random; and discrete- and continuous-time) as certain coalgebras of polynomial functors, which we show collect into monoidal opindexed categories (or, alternatively, into algebras for multicategories of generalized polynomial functors). We use these opindexed categories to define monoidal bicategories of cilia: dynamical systems which control lenses, and which supply the target for our functorial semantics. Accordingly, we construct functors which explain the bidirectional compositional structure of predictive coding neural circuits under the free energy principle, thereby giving a formal mathematical underpinning to the bidirectionality observed in the cortex. Along the way, we explain how to compose rate-coded neural circuits using an algebra for a multicategory of linear circuit diagrams, showing subsequently that this is subsumed by lenses and polynomial functors.


Narrative of untangled lands  Timothy Snyder's  Bloodlands  is an extremely ambitious project not only of historiography but also, we dare say, of historiosophy. Snyder seeks originality in shaping both the geography and the narrative of what he considers to be the central occurrence of contemporary history – mass killings of the Nazi regime and Stalinist Russia. He claims that in order to comprehend the logic of the killings we need to put emphasis on the (intentional and unintentional) collusion (interaction) of the two regimes. I believe that this interpretation is trivial if we take its weak interpretation, and wrong if we want to understand it in a strong way. Snyder is widely praised for adopting or giving justice to the Central European (namely Polish) perception of the WWII, but in doing it he gladly succumbs to its lacunas and deliberate misinterpretations. He not only downgrades the importance of the Shoah but also downplays the role of Eastern European anti-Semitism and its interaction with the Nazi "messianic" anti- judaismus  as the key factor in successful execution of the Final Solution.


Understanding market competition and consumer preferences are important first steps in developing a business. In a competitive market, the effectiveness of the various elements of a firm's marketing mix depends not only on the absolute value of each element but also on the relative values of the elements with respect to the firm's position in the market. In this paper, we analyze the demand structure and market positions of a variety of seafood products in the French retail market. We used a labeled choice experiment to analyze 12 seafood species. The choice options were labeled by the names of the seafood, providing researchers the opportunity to analyze the competitive interactions among the species. Competitive clout and vulnerability measures were estimated for each species as summary measures of species competition. These measures were calculated from cross†and own†elasticities and reveal that salmon and cod have the strongest market position, while monkfish and pangasius have the weakest. In general, the demand for seafood is moderately sensitive to price (market elasticity of −1.31). Large size and low†income households, female consumers, people in the age range 35–44 years, and self†employed consumers are the most sensitive to price. Four segments were identified and described in terms of both consumer characteristics and preferences. Our results are meaningful for producers and retailers to develop marketing strategies and production plans. [EconLit citations: D12, M21, Q13].


The aim of this study was to determine the comparative value of routine or selective ordering of preoperative tests. 400 ASA I, II, III patients were enrolled in the study. Two periods were considered: a retrospective period where the patients (n = 200) underwent routine preoperative tests and a prospective period where the patients (n = 200) had only preoperative tests according to the results of questioning and clinical examination. During the retrospective period 1.408 tests were effected with 44 abnormal results. During the prospective period, the abnormal results among 855 prescribed tests were: 0.8% in ASA I patients, 7.5% in ASA II and 5.9% in ASA III patients. The ASA I patients had an average of 3.47 +/- 1.28 tests each, ASA II patients 4.50 +/- 1.21 and ASA III 7.50 +/- 1.50. No complication inducing sequelae or death could be linked to lacking tests. The mean cost of tests was reduced by 50 percent.


Abstract We establish new local and global estimates for evolutionary partial differential equations in classical Banach and quasi-Banach spaces that appear most frequently in the theory of partial differential equations. More specifically, we obtain optimal (local in time) estimates for the solution to the Cauchy problem for variable-coefficient evolutionary partial differential equations. The estimates are achieved by introducing the notions of Schrödinger and general oscillatory integral operators with inhomogeneous phase functions and prove sharp local and global regularity results for these in Besov–Lipschitz and Triebel–Lizorkin spaces.


The operation of an inverted-pendulum thrust stand designed to directly measure the applied-field thrust component of a steady-state applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is presented. This measurement, which is necessary for improving and validating thrust models, is achieved by mechanically isolating the solenoid from the thruster so that the solenoid can move independently. The deflection of the solenoid is compared to deflection by known forces to determine the applied-field thrust component. The thrust stand is found to be accurate to ±9 mN over a total range of 1200 mN. Two measurement methods are implemented to account for tare forces resulting from azimuthal currents to the thruster electrodes and are shown to agree with one another. As a proof-of-concept, the first direct measurements of the applied-field component of the thrust from a 30 kW lithium Lorentz force accelerator operating at 400 A, 8 mg/s lithium mass flow rate, and 0.056 T applied-field strength give a measured force of 108 ± 14 mN. This measurement agrees with the value predicted by measuring the total thrust and subtracting out all other thrust components.


Metabolomics has increasingly been applied in addition to other "omic" approaches in the study of the pathophysiology of different gastrointestinal diseases. Metabolites represent molecular readouts of the cell status reflecting a physiological phenotype. In addition, changes in metabolite concentrations induced by exogenous factors such as environmental and dietary factors which do not affect the genome, are taken into account. Metabolic reactions initiated by the host or gut microbiota can lead to "marker" metabolites present in different biological fluids that allow differentiation between health and disease. Several lines of evidence implicated the involvement of intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Also in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a role of an abnormal microbiota composition, so-called dysbiosis, is supported by experimental data. These compositional alterations could play a role in the aetiology of both diseases by altering the metabolic activities of the gut bacteria. Several studies have applied a metabolomic approach to identify these metabolite signatures. However, before translating a potential metabolite biomarker into clinical use, additional validation studies are required. This review summarizes contributions that metabolomics has made in IBD and IBS and presents potential future directions within the field.


Although in vitro biomechanical tests are regularly performed, the definition of a suitable reference frame for hemipelvic specimens is still a challenge. The aims of the present study were to: (i) define a reference frame for the human hemipelvis suitable for in vitro applications, based on robust anatomical landmarks; (ii) identify the alignment of a hemipelvis based on the alignment of a whole pelvis (including right/left and male/female differences); (iii) identify the relative alignment of the proposed in vitro reference frame with respect to a reference frame commonly used in gait analysis; (iv) create an in vitro alignment procedure easy, robust and inexpensive; (v) quantify the intra‐operator repeatability and inter‐operator reproducibility of the procedure. A procedure to univocally identify the anatomical landmarks was created, exploiting the in vitro accessibility of the specimen's surface. Through the analysis on 53 CT scans (106 hemipelvises), the alignment of the hemipelvis based on the alignment of a whole pelvis was analyzed: differences between male/female and right/left hemipelvises were not statistically significant To overcome the uncertainty in the identification of the acetabular rim, a standard acetabular plane was defined. An alignment procedure was developed to implement such anatomical reference frame. The intra‐operator repeatability and the inter‐operator reproducibility were quantified with four operators, on male and female hemipelvises. The intra‐operator repeatability was better than 1.5°. The inter‐operator reproducibility was better than 2.0°. Alignment in the transverse plane was the most repeatable. The presented procedure to align hemipelvic specimens is sufficiently robust, standardized, and accessible. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1645–1652, 2018.


This article describes the process of developing a learning needs assessment. The process includes developing a tool, collecting data, and analyzing results. Understanding the needs assessment process and the pitfalls to avoid may assist educators in implementing their own learning needs assessments.


&NA; The Safe Medical Devices Act (SMDA) of 1990 (Public Law 101–629) is a federal law that became effective November 28, 1991. The SMDA mandates all facilities that use medical devices (referred to as device user facilities) to report serious injuries, serious illnesses, and deaths to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the manufacturer. The purpose of the act is to protect the public by ensuring that medical devices are not unsafe for their intended use.


Based on viscoplastic Anand's model, the structural stress of 8×8 InSb infrared focal plane array (IRFPA) detector is systemically analyzed by finite element method, and the impacts of design parameters including indium bump diameters, heights and InSb chip thicknesses on both Von Mises stress and its distribution are discussed in this manuscript. Simulation results show that the maximum stress existing in InSb chip reaches minimum with indium bump diameter 32μm. Under this condition, for the fixed indium height, as the InSb chip thickness reduces from 21µm to 9µm in step of 3µm, Von Mises stress maximum values of InSb chip seems increases gradually, and when the indium bump height reduces from 21µm to 9µm in step of 3µm, its maximum Von Mises stress increase at random increment, do not show certain rules, and indium bump height seems to have a comparable effect on stress value with InSb chip thickness. When indium diameter, height and InSb chip thickness are set to 32µm, 15µm, and 12µm, respectively, the maximal Von Mises value existing in InSb chip reaches minimal value 628MPa, simultaneously the stress distribution at the contacts areas is uniform and concentrated, and this structure is promising to avoid device invalidation.


The results of studies on the mechanism of the adsorption of water molecules by nonporous and microporous carbon adsorbents carried out using various physicochemical methods are surveyed. The influence of the chemical state of the surface and the porous structure of adsorbents on the heat of adsorption and the mechanism of filling of the carbon surface and micro- and mesopores of carbon adsorbents are analysed. The nature of primary adsorption sites and the influence of the adsorption of water molecules on the X-ray diffraction parameters (microcrystalline structure) of carbon adsorbents are studied. The methods of investigation of the porous structure and chemical state of the surface of carbon adsorbents based on the analysis of water vapour adsorption isotherms are considered. The bibliography includes 80 references.


The dependences of drift implant and layout parameters on electrostatic discharge (ESD) robustness in a 40-V CMOS process have been investigated in silicon chips. From the experimental results, the high-voltage (HV) MOSFETs without drift implant in the drain region have better transmission line pulsing (TLP)-measured secondary breakdown current (It2) and ESD robustness than those with drift implant in the drain region. Furthermore, the It2 and ESD level of HV MOSFETs can be increased as the layout spacing from the drain diffusion to polygate is increased. It was also demonstrated that a specific test structure of HV n-type silicon-controlled rectifier (HVNSCR) embedded into HV NMOS without N-drift implant in the drain region has the excellent TLP-measured It2 and ESD robustness. Moreover, due to the different current distributions in HV NMOS and HVNSCR, the dependences of the TLP-measured It2 and human-body-model ESD levels on the spacing from the drain diffusion to polygate are different.


Hamster sperm hyperactivation is enhanced by progesterone, and this progesterone-enhanced hyperactivation is suppressed by 17β-estradiol (17βE2) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Although it has been indicated that melatonin also enhances hyperactivation, it is unknown whether melatonin-enhanced hyperactivation is also suppressed by 17βE2 and GABA. In the present study, melatonin-enhanced hyperactivation was significantly suppressed by 17βE2 but not by GABA. Moreover, suppression of melatonin-enhanced hyperactivation by 17βE2 occurred through non-genomic regulation via the estrogen receptor (ER). These results suggest that enhancement of hyperactivation is regulated by melatonin and 17βE2 through non-genomic regulation.


High-purity aluminum (99.9999%) was irradiated with 600-MeV protons with a damage rate of 3.5 x 10 - 6 dpa/s and a helium generation rate of 214 atomic parts per million (appm) per dpa. The irradiation experiments were carried out at temperatures in the range 120 to 140°C to doses up to 5 dpa. Transmission electron microscopy on irradiated specimens showed that voids are formed only in a narrow band in the vicinity of the void denuded zone along grain boundaries. Both the density and the size of voids in this band vary as a function of distance from the denuded zone. Changes in irradiation dose and temperatures do not seem to affect the spatial distribution of voids in the band. These results are compared with the results obtained on high-purity aluminum irradiated with fast neutrons. The bubble formation behavior in the grain interior and in the band containing voids is briefly described. The effect of bubble formation on the growth behavior of voids is discussed.


Dr. Juan Fernandez-Miranda is Professor of Neurosurgery and Surgical Director of the Stanford Brain Tumor, Skull Base, and Pituitary Centers. He is internationally renowned for his expertise in minimally invasive brain surgery, endoscopic skull base and pituitary surgery, open skull base surgery, and complex brain tumor surgery. He has performed nearly 3,000 cranial operations including over 1,500 endoscopic endonasal operations for pituitary tumors and other skull base lesions. He is highly regarded for his innovative contributions to the development and refinement of endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery, for his ability to select the most effective and less invasive approach to each individual patient, and for his precise knowledge of the intricate anatomy of the white matter tracts required to maximize resection and minimize morbidity on high and low grade glioma patients. He has been recently ranked by Expertscape as World-Expert (top 0.05%) on Skull Base Surgery and #1 Neurosurgeon Expert on Skull Base Tumors (pituitary adenomas, meningiomas, craniopharyngiomas, chordomas, chondrosarcomas, schwannomas and esthesioneuroblastomas) on the US Pacific Region. He is co-founder and vice-president of the International Rhoton Society and executive member of the Board of Directors of the The Neurosurgical Atlas, the largest nonprofit organization for neurosurgical education


Network traffic analysis has been increasingly used in various applications to either protect or threaten people, information, and systems. Website fingerprinting is a passive traffic analysis attack which threatens web navigation privacy. It is a set of techniques used to discover patterns from a sequence of network packets generated while a user accesses different websites. Internet users (such as online activists or journalists) may wish to hide their identity and online activity to protect their privacy. Typically, an anonymity network is utilized for this purpose. These anonymity networks such as Tor (The Onion Router) provide layers of data encryption which poses a challenge to the traffic analysis techniques. Although various defenses have been proposed to counteract this passive attack, they have been penetrated by new attacks that proved the ineffectiveness and/or impracticality of such defenses. In this work, we introduce a novel defense algorithm to counteract the website fingerprinting attacks. The proposed defense obfuscates original website traffic patterns through the use of double sampling and mathematical optimization techniques to deform packet sequences and destroy traffic flow dependency characteristics used by attackers to identify websites. We evaluate our defense against state-of-the-art studies and show its effectiveness with minimal overhead and zero-delay transmission to the real traffic.


In recent years, the active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays have been greatly required. A voltage compensation pixel circuit based on an amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistor is presented for AMOLED displays. The circuit is composed of five transistors–two capacitors (5T2C) in combination with an OLED. In the circuit, the threshold voltages of both the transistor and the OLED are extracted simultaneously in the threshold voltage extraction stage, and the mobility-related discharge voltage is generated in the data input stage. The circuit not only can compensate the electrical characteristics variation, i.e., the threshold voltage variation and mobility variation, but also can compensate the OLED degradation. Furthermore, the circuit can prevent the OLED flicker, and can achieve the wide data voltage range. The circuit simulation results show that the OLED current error rates (CERs) are lower than 3.89% when the transistor's threshold voltage variation is ±0.5V, lower than 3.49% when the mobility variation is ±30%.


The incidence of tissue and organ damage caused by various diseases is increasing worldwide. Tissue engineering is a promising strategy of tackling this problem because of its potential to regenerate or replace damaged tissues and organs. The biochemical and biophysical cues of biomaterials can stimulate and induce biological activities such as cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation, and ultimately achieve tissue repair and regeneration. Micro/nano materials are a special type of biomaterial that can mimic the microstructure of tissues on a microscopic scale due to its precise construction, further providing scaffolds with specific three-dimensional structures to guide the activities of cells. The study and application of biomimetic micro/nano-materials have greatly promoted the development of tissue engineering. This review aims to provide an overview of the different types of micro/nanomaterials, their preparation methods and their application in tissue regeneration.


Urticaria is an inflammatory skin disorder that may occur in isolation or associated with angioedema and/or anaphylaxis. Clinically, it is characterized by the presence of smooth, erythematous or blanching, itchy swelling, called wheals or hives, which greatly vary in size and shape and last less than 24 h before fading to leave normal skin. Urticaria is the consequence of mast-cell degranulation that can be caused by immunological or non-immunological mechanisms. From a clinical point of view, many skin conditions can mimic urticaria and their recognition is mandatory for a correct management and therapeutic approach. We have reviewed all of the main relevant studies which addressed differential diagnosis of urticarial, published until December 2022. The National Library of Medicine PubMed database was used for the electronic research. The present review offers a clinical narrative overview, based on the available literature, of the principal skin disorders that can be misdiagnosed as urticaria (mainly autoinflammatory or autoimmune disorders, drug-induced reactions, and hyperproliferative diseases). The aim of this review is to provide clinicians a useful tool for correctly suspecting and identifying all of these conditions.


Psychoeducational models have been found to be effective interventions for people with schizophrenia. However, a unifying theoretical basis for these models has not been articulated. This article explicates the sense of coherence theory developed by A. Antonovsky (1987) and demonstrates its utility as a framework for conceptualizing the basis for the effectiveness of psychoeducational programs.


Among the many parameters needed to optimize a polymer flood is the choice of polymer viscosity, mobility ratio and polymer slug size that should be injected to maximize oil recovery. In this paper, a new polymer flooding experimental study is addressed to answer two questions. Firstly, considering a given crude oil, what optimal polymer solution viscosity should be injected? And secondly how much polymer solution should be injected during the polymer flood to maximise recovery?
 Experiments were carried out using 1D homogeneous Bentheimer cores of similar properties. The cores were oil flooded using crude oil (µo = 120cP at T=60°C) and aged to obtain intermediate wet conditions. The polymer was a partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM) dissolved in a moderate salinity brine. The polymer solutions were prepared at different concentrations (from 1500ppm to 3000ppm) to cover a large range of viscosity ratio (Rμ=μoμp from 2 to 18) which correspond to end-point mobility ratios of 0.5 and 5.4, respectively.
 Corefloods results show as expected, that the polymer is more efficient in terms of oil recovery when viscosity ratio is low. In line with polymer flooding theory, we observed at intermediate wettability conditions, that a maximum oil recovery is reached at M =1 (Rµ = 5) and that oil recovery did not increase when reducing the ratio to M = 0.5 (Rµ= 2). However, when considering aspects such as polymer mass required, injectivity concerns and flow stability, we observe two favorable conditions, corresponding Rµ= 5 and Rµ = 10, for a mobility ratios of 1 and 7, respectively.
 Different polymer slug sizes were injected in the cores at the above conditions (Rµ = 5 and Rµ = 10) followed by water flooding (chase water). Both injections (polymer and water injection) were carried out at same flow rate to minimize miscible viscous fingering at the rear of the polymer slug. Results show that an optimal polymer slug size exists for which one can obtain the same microscopic oil recovery than that of continuous polymer injections at Rµ=5 and Rµ=10, an important finding that can impact the economic viability of the process.
 In conclusion, our experimental study shows that at 1D scale, optimal values of viscosity ratio, polymer slug size and polymer mass injected lead to the same maximum oil recovery obtained by continuous polymer injection. A necessary starting point before upscaling a polymer flood and studying the impact of heterogeneities.


In the context of the current financial crisis, when more companies are facing bankruptcy or insolvency, the paper aims to find methods to identify distressed firms by using financial ratios. The study will focus on identifying a group of Romanian listed companies, for which financial data for the year 2008 were available. For each company a set of 14 financial indicators was calculated and then used in a principal component analysis, followed by a cluster analysis, a logit model, and a CHAID classification tree.


Introduction Previous studies have shown that putative pheromones 4,16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol (EST) cause activation in the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus in men and women. Sex differences in neural activation patterns have been demonstrated when participants are subject to pheromone stimulation; however, whether other compounds give rise to similar neural activity has not been completely investigated. Methods Twenty-nine young adults [16 female (21.3+/−0.54; mean yrs+/−SE), 13 male (22.85+/−0.42)] participated in a 3-block design, where participants were exposed to a scent (lavender), a synthetic male pheromone (4,16-androstadien-3b-ol; ALD), and a synthetic female pheromone (1,3,5(10),16-Estratetraen-3-ol; EST) via an automated olfactometer. Whole-brain, high-resolution (1.8mm3) functional MRI data from a Siemens Trio 3T MRI scanner were collected during all blocks. Five adults were excluded due to excessive movement. MANOVA analysis, a 2 × 3 multivariate model and analysis of 2×2 effects between sex and subsets of stimuli was done for activation over the whole brain and small volumes involved in olfaction. Results Exploratory analysis of 2×2 effects between sex and subsets of stimuli exhibited significant interactions when assessing activations over the whole brain, and small volumes involved in olfaction. The left and right frontal poles (LFP, RFP) shows significant interaction when assessing sex with lavender and EST for whole brain analysis. For small volume analysis, the right orbitofrontal cortex (ROFC) exhibited a sex with lavender and ALD interaction, and a sex with lavender and EST interaction was observed in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). Main effects of sex, stimulus, or interaction show no differences analyzed using a 2 × 3 multivariate model. Conclusion The study shows there is a sexually dimorphic response in the olfactory system to pheromones not previously studied. Scents like lavender do not have this same response. These distinct functional differences in activation patterns may be a result of neural development and maturation differences between sexes. Future studies should expand this pilot study and involve a younger demographic to accurately determine the age at which the olfactory response differentiates between males and females.


Living in the age of the digital media explosion, the amount of data that is being stored increases dramatically. However, even if existing storage systems suggest efficiency in capacity, they are lacking in durability. Hard disks, flash, tape or even optical storage have limited lifespan in the range of 5 to 20 years. Interestingly, recent studies have proven that it was possible to use synthetic DNA for the storage of digital data, introducing a strong candidate to achieve data longevity. The DNA's biological properties allows the storage of a great amount of information into an extraordinary small volume while also promising efficient storage for centuries or even longer with no loss of information. However, encoding digital data onto DNA is not obvious, because when decoding, we have to face the problem of sequencing noise robustness. Furthermore, synthesizing DNA is an expensive process and thus, controlling the compression ratio by optimizing the rate-distortion trade-off is an important challenge we have to deal with. This work proposes a coding solution for the storage of digital images onto synthetic DNA. We developed a new encoding algorithm which generates a DNA code robust to biological errors coming from the synthesis and the sequencing processes. Furthermore, thanks to an optimized allocation process the solution is able to control the compression ratio and thus the length of the synthesized DNA strand. Results show an improvement in terms of coding potential compared to previous state-of-the-art works.


Fed-batch simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) enables production of lignocellulosic ethanol with high content of water insoluble solids (WIS), and therefore high cellulose loadings (the major sugar source in lignocellulose). The viscosity of the SSCF broth and the mass/heat transfer efficiency, depend on the feeding frequency of solid substrates and the hydrolytic activities of the added cellulases. An ideal feeding scheme should avoid over-feeding which leads to mixing problems, while feeding as much substrates as possible to shorten the process time and increase the final ethanol titer.
A previously developed kinetic model [1] was modified to predict the performance of cellulases on steam pre-treated wheat straw, and to decide when and how much WIS to feed in the next feeding event. With this approach, mixing problems could be completely avoided up to 22.2% WIS in lab scale stirred tank reactors, and ethanol concentrations reached 56 g/L within 72 hours of SSCF. The process was tested at demonstration scale in 10 m3 reactors, and a similar fermentation performance as that in lab scale was observed.

Further feeding of solid substrate (>20% WIS) did not lead to increases in the ethanol concentration, while a substantial loss of yeast viability (colony forming unit) were observed in SSCF medium at high WIS contents. This was likely due to toxic compounds retained in the pre-treated lignocellulose. We are currently investigating different xylose fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains in the SSCF process to increase the ethanol titer further.

[1] Wang et al. Bioresour. Technol., 2014


Abstract An outline is given of a preliminary attempt to apply the methods which have proved serviceable in the treatment of small-scale turbulence to the wider problem of large-scale turbulence in the atmosphere. In particular, application is made of theoretical results giving the form of the correlation function for velocity fluctuations in the inertial range according to the theory of Kolmogoroff. It appears that some of these results may be valid over a considerably greater range of eddy sizes than might at first have been anticipated. Some attempt is also made to apply these methods to the determination of the cprrelation functions for larger-scale fluctuations of pressure and temperature in the atmosphere. Actual data taken at the earth's surface and in the free atmosphere are used to test the validity of these deductions.


In this work, we address the problem of reducing the vibrations in the case of a thin flexible beam, with an Euler-Bernoulli configuration thanks to a new type of feedback controller based on a delayed proportional action. The flexible structure is equipped with two piezoelectric patches: one of them works as a sensor and the other as an actuator. Each one of them is bonded on one side of the beam and both are collocated. The model of this system is obtained from a finite element analysis, leading to a linear state space model. The purpose of this work is to investigate the properties of the proposed output feedback controller in terms of vibration damping and of robustness. This controller is based on a rightmost-characteristic root assignment approach. Simulation results show the effectiveness of this method of controller design.


An overview of the chemical strategies developed in our laboratories to obtain welldefined BiVO4 particles is presented. The methods rely on the thermal treatment (including hydrothermal conditions) of aqueous solutions containing bismuth(III) cations, vanadium(V) species and organic ligands. The use of distinct polyaminocarboxylates and cyclodextrins as possible morphological modifiers was investigated. NMR spectroscopic techniques were applied to the distinct chemical baths in order to have a better insight on the nature of the solute precursors.


Fish sauce production is a very long process and there is a great interest in shortening it. Among the different strategies to speed up this process, the addition of external proteases could be a solution. This study focuses on the effect of two commercial enzymes (Protamex and Protex 51FP) on the proteolysis of two fish species traditionally converted into fish sauce: sardine and anchovy, by comparison with classical autolysis. Hydrolysis reactions were conducted with fresh fish at a temperature of 30 °C and under different saline conditions (from 0 to 30% NaCl). Hydrolysis degree and liquefaction of the raw material were used to follow the process. As expected, the proteolysis decreased with increasing amount of salt. Regarding the fish species, higher rate of liquefaction and higher hydrolysis degree were obtained with anchovy. Between the two proteases, Protex 51FP gave better results with both fish types. This study demonstrates that the addition of commercial proteases could be helpful for the liquefaction of fish and cleavage of peptide bonds that occur during fish sauce production and thus speed up the production process.


Rates of recurrent depression peak among women in their childbearing years, yet a large number of these women are not treated or do not seek maintenance treatment between episodes. Barriers to treatment include time constraints, demands of child care, and finances. A method for improving access to treatment of depression may be delivery of psychotherapy over the telephone. A 12‐week pilot controlled clinical trial with random assignment was conducted to test the feasibility and efficacy of Interpersonal Psychotherapy delivered over the telephone (IPT‐T) for depression in women (N=15 IPT‐T and N=15 no treatment) with a life‐time history of recurrent depression and low rates of previous treatment. Patients were interviewed at baseline and at 12 weeks by a blind and independent clinical evaluator to assess their symptom level and social functioning. IPT‐T as compared to no treatment was significantly better in lowering symptoms of depression as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (p<.02), improving global functioning (GAS) (p<.02), and improving work and social functioning (p<.03–.05, respectively). These preliminary findings support the feasibility and helpfulness of IPT‐T in preventing an increase in depressive symptoms among women with recurrent depression but current mild to moderately levels of depression. Depression and Anxiety 16:114–117, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The spin-magnetic moment of the electron is revisited. In the form of the relativistic quantum mechanics, we calculate the magnetic moment of Dirac electron with no orbital angular-momentum. It is inferred that obtained magnetic moment may be the spin-magnetic moment, because it is never due to orbital motion. A transition current flowing from a positive energy state to a negative energy state in Dirac Sea is found. Application to the band structure of semiconductor is suggested.


Objectives The amount and diversity of measurement instruments in the Dutch physiotherapy guidelines is too extensive: in total 111 instruments. Many of these instruments are too long and concern identical domains and concepts. The aim of this bottom-up project is to develop a framework and criteria that will guide the structure, selection and reduction of instruments for application in daily practice. Methods The project consist of the next steps: 1. Defining the aim of the framework and review the (inter)national literature; 2. Developing a concept framework; 3. An inventory of domains and overlap of instruments in the Dutch guidelines; 4. An inventory made by professionals of domains and concepts relevant for musculoskeletal functioning in physiotherapy and instruments used; 5. Consensus meetings with representatives of professionals and guideline developers; 6. Processing results and preparation of field tests: sorting, selection and reduction of instruments for domains and concepts by using the framework and criteria for feasibility and use in daily practice; 7. Implementation- and dissemination planning. Results A Conceptual framework based on the structure of clinical reasoning and International Classification of Functioning. An inventory of domains that are relevant for physiotherapy and feasibility criteria for the selection of instruments. A guide for the selection and reduction of recommended instruments in guidelines and use in daily practice. Conclusions The framework gives professionals and guideline developers the same structure and a clearer understanding about the selection of instruments for daily practice. It helps professionals to learn when to use which instrument for what patient.


BACKGROUND
Although antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) has been long recognized as a leading cause of allograft failure after kidney transplantation, the cellular and molecular processes underlying the induction of deleterious donor-specific antibody (DSA) responses remain poorly understood.

METHODS
Using high-dimensional flow cytometry, in vitro assays, and RNA sequencing, we concomitantly investigated the role of T follicular helper (TFH) cells and B cells during ABMR in 105 kidney transplant recipients. There were 54 patients without DSAs; of those with DSAs, ABMR emerged in 20 patients, but not in 31 patients.

RESULTS
We identified proliferating populations of circulating TFH cells and activated B cells emerging in blood of patients undergoing ABMR. Although these circulating TFH cells comprised heterogeneous phenotypes, they were dominated by activated (ICOS+PD-1+) and early memory precursor (CCR7+CD127+) subsets, and were enriched for the transcription factors IRF4 and c-Maf. These circulating TFH cells produced large amounts of IL-21 upon stimulation with donor antigen and induced B cells to differentiate into antibody-secreting cells that produced DSAs. Combined analysis of the matched circulating TFH cell and activated B cell RNA-sequencing profiles identified highly coordinated transcriptional programs in circulating TFH cells and B cells among patients with ABMR, which markedly differed from those of patients who did not develop DSAs or ABMR. The timing of expansion of the distinctive circulating TFH cells and activated B cells paralleled emergence of DSAs in blood, and their magnitude was predictive of IgG3 DSA generation, more severe allograft injury, and higher rate of allograft loss.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients undergoing ABMR may benefit from monitoring and therapeutic targeting of TFH cell-B cell interactions.


Direct imprinting of metals is predominantly achieved by using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) molds to pattern metal nanoparticles and subsequently melting them to form continuous structures. Although such a combination can successfully imprint metals, the yield and reproducibility are usually low when sub-100 nm features over large areas are desired. In this work, we demonstrate a simple method involving the addition of a cross-linker ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) to a palladium metal precursor, and its in situ free radical polymerization during imprinting, which not only dramatically increases the yield to ∼100% but also enables high reproducibility. Palladium mercaptide resist was formed by dissolving acetoxy(benzylthio)palladium, EDMA and azobis-(isobutyronitrile) in an organic solvent mixture. The resist underwent polymerization when imprinted using a silicon mold at 120 °C with pressures as low as 30 bar. Polymerization rigidly shapes the imprinted patterns, traps the metal atoms, reduces the surface energy and strengthens the structures, thereby giving ∼100% yield after demolding. Heat-treatment of the imprinted structures at 330 °C resulted in the loss of organics and their subsequent shrinkage without the loss of integrity or aspect ratio and converted them to palladium nanostructures as small as ∼35 nm wide, over areas >1 cm × 1 cm. With suitable precursors, our technique can potentially be extended to pattern noble metals such as platinum, gold and silver.


5124 Angiogenesis is a key aspect of cancer progression and patient survival. We have produced three-dimensional spheroid co-cultures of breast cancer and melanoma cell lines with microvascular endothelial cells (MVECs). Numerous obstacles had to be overcome in the development of these models, which are homogeneous and reproducible in both size and shape. Different methods of producing spheroids were explored, ranging from a hanging drop model to methylcellulose to agar matrix models. Additionally, nutritional requirements for all co-cultured cell-types had to be satisfied, leading to a comparison of various media. In these models, lumen-like structures made up of MVECs penetrate the tumor spheroid, thereby creating a model of angiogenesis. Whereas numerous models for angiogenesis exist, few allow for the direct analysis of MVEC-cancer cell interactions. Our model of vascularized spheroids makes it possible to examine how cell lines of differing phenotypes modulate MVEC-mediated lumen formation. Another advantage of our model is based on its spherical shape, which leads to radial gradients in nutrient exposure, hypoxia, and drug concentrations. Such gradients produce hypoxic and non-hypoxic populations that mimic in vivo tumor growth. These models were developed in part to test our hypothesis that spheroids derived from tumor cell lines expressing low levels of Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) would have greater endothelial cell invasion than those with high TSP-1. TSP-1 is the natural inhibitor of neovascularization and tumorigenesis in healthy tissue. It activates the CD36 receptor on endothelial cells, which can induce apoptosis. TSP-1 expression by various tumor cell lines was characterized using western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Endothelial cell invasion was measured by staining MVECs with CD31 and CD105 reagents, and the cells were enumerated using light microscopy at a 200x field. The cytotoxic activities of anti-angiogenesis and chemotherapeutic agents on vascularized tumor spheroids are also evaluated to determine if TSP-1 levels modulated the apoptotic response of MVECs to therapy.


In the United Kingdom, recent investigations into child sexual abuse occurring within schools, the Catholic Church and the British Broadcasting Corporation, have intensified debate on ways to improve the discovery of child sexual abuse, and child maltreatment generally. One approach adopted in other jurisdictions to better identify cases of severe child maltreatment is the introduction of some form of legislative mandatory reporting to require designated persons to report known and suspected cases. The debate in England has raised the prospect of whether adopting a strategy of some kind of mandatory reporting law is advisable. The purpose of this article is to add to this debate by identifying fundamental principles, issues and complexities underpinning policy and even legislative developments in the interests of children and society. The article will first highlight the data on the hidden nature of child maltreatment and the background to the debate. Secondly, it will identify some significant gaps in knowledge that need to be filled. Thirdly, the article will summarise the barriers to reporting abuse and neglect. Fourthly, we will identify a range of options for, and clarify the dilemmas in developing, legislative mandatory reporting, addressing two key issues: who should be mandated to report, and what types of child maltreatment should they be required to report? Finally, we draw attention to some inherently different goals and competing interests, both between and within the various institutions involved in the safeguarding of children and the criminal prosecution of some offenders. Based on this analysis we offer some concluding observations that we hope contribute to informed and careful debate about mandatory reporting.


Identification of genes that are differentially expressed in rats bidirectionally selected for alcohol preference might reveal biological mechanisms underlying alcoholism or related phenotypes. Microarray analysis from medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a key brain region for drug reward, indicated increased expression of glutathione‐S‐transferases of the alpha (Gsta4) and mu (Gstm1–5) classes in ethanol‐preferring AA rats compared with nonpreferring ANA rats. Real‐time RT polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) analysis demonstrated ∼2‐fold higher Gsta4 transcript levels in several brain regions of ethanol‐naive AA compared with ANA rats. Differences in mRNA levels were accompanied by differential levels of GSTA4 protein. We identified a novel haplotype variant in the rat Gsta4 gene, defined here as var3. Allele frequencies of var3 were markedly different between AA and ANA rats, 52% and 100%, respectively. Gsta4 expression was strongly correlated with the gene dose of var3, with ∼60% of the variance in expression accounted for by genotype at this locus. The contribution of glutathione S‐transferase expression to the ethanol‐preferring phenotype is presently unclear. It could, however, underlie observed differences in life span between AA and ANA lines, prompting a utility of this animal model in aging research.—Björk, K., Saarikoski, S. T., Arlinde, C., Kovanen, L., Osei‐Hyiaman, D., Ubaldi, M., Reimers, M., Hyytiä, P., Heilig, M. Sommer, W. H. Glutathione‐S‐transferase expression in the brain: possible role in ethanol preference and longevity. FASEB J. 20, 1826–1835 (2006)


In recent years there has been a considerable amount of interest on the part of road authorities and their residents in stopping the progressive erosion of residential quality of life caused by street traffic. High traffic volumes and speeds, especially on local streets, potentially impact residents in terms of safety, noise, and pollution. Road authorities have expressed interest in implementation of speed management strategies (as a means of decreasing the cars' dominance) that are relatively low-cost in nature and easily implemented in the short-term periods (within 1-5 years). Speed management strategies aim at reducing the frequency of vehicle with speed too fast for the prevailing conditions and increase compliance with the posted speed limit. These speed management strategies encompass a wide range of measures that include enforcement, education, and engineering. It is critically important for road authorities to understand the effectiveness of these measures on operating speed of vehicles. This paper involves evaluation of three speed management engineering measures: (1) installation of the speed limit signs, (2) peripheral traverse bars, and (3) gateways where speed limit zones and land-use change. An observational before and after study with comparison group is used to evaluate the effects of these measures on speed. The data used for this study were collected from Trafalgar Road in the Regional Municipality of Halton, Ontario where these speed management measures were implemented. The results of the before and after study suggested that implementation of the speed management strategies resulted in the reduction of the average operating speeds, in the range of 4 to 8 percent; however these results were not statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval. The results of this study will assist road authorities in the decision making process for potential implementation of these measure in their jurisdiction for speed management purposes.


Multi-view clustering is an important yet challenging task due to the difficulty of integrating the information from multiple representations. Most existing multi-view clustering methods explore the heterogeneous information in the space where the data points lie. Such common practice may cause significant information loss because of unavoidable noise or inconsistency among views. Since different views admit the same cluster structure, the natural space should be all partitions. Orthogonal to existing techniques, in this paper, we propose to leverage the multi-view information by fusing partitions. Specifically, we align each partition to form a consensus cluster indicator matrix through a distinct rotation matrix. Moreover, a weight is assigned for each view to account for the clustering capacity differences of views. Finally, the basic partitions, weights, and consensus clustering are jointly learned in a unified framework. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on several real datasets, where significant improvement is found over other state-of-the-art multi-view clustering methods.


In 2011-2012, the European ICT research priorities are focused on a set of Challenges with mid-to-long term goals that require trans-national collaboration. Each Challenge is addressed through a limited set of objectives that form the basis for Calls for Proposals and lead to EU-funded research projects. One of the Challenges addresses "Alternative Paths to Components and Systems", it covers nanoelectronic devices and components, photonics, integrated micro/nanosystems, multicore computing systems and embedded systems.


This paper proposes a novel method for the incremental design and optimization of first order Tagaki-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy controllers by means of an evolutionary algorithm. Starting with a single linear control law, the controller structure is gradually refined during the evolution. Structural augmentation is intertwined with evolutionary adaptation of the additional parameters with the objective not only to improve the control performance but also to maximize the stability region of the nonlinear system. From the viewpoint of optimization the proposed method follows a divide-and-conquer approach. Additional rules and their parameters are introduced into the controller structure in a neutral fashion, such that the adaptations of the less complex controller in the previous stage are initially preserved. The proposed scheme is evaluated at the task of TSK fuzzy controller design for the upswing and stabilization of a rotational inverted pendulum. In the first case, the objective is a time optimal controller that upswings the pendulum in to the upper equilibrium point in shortest time. The stabilizing controller is designed as a state optimal controller. In a second application the optimization method is applied to the design of a fuzzy controller for vision-based mobile robot navigation. The results demonstrate that the incremental scheme generates solutions that are similar in control performance to pure parameter optimization of only the gains of a TSK system. Even more important, whereas direct optimization of control systems with more than 35 rules fails to identify a stabilizing control law, the incremental scheme optimizes fuzzy state-space partitions and gains for hundreds of rules.


A semi-infinite elastic cylindrical shell is rigidly bonded to a semi-infinite cylindrical rigid duct; the whole being totally immersed in an inviscid, compressible fluid. The system is forced by means of a plane acoustic wave incident along the duct. An exact solution for the resulting sound field is obtained by using the Wiener-Hopf technique. The asymptotic limit of heavy fluid loading and short waves is used to interpret this.


BACKGROUND
A new pregnancy is usually discouraged in patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), particularly when there is persistent left ventricular dysfunction. This study was undertaken to evaluate left ventricular systolic function after a new pregnancy in patients with PPCM.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Nine of 44 patients with PPCM became pregnant and were selected for this study. Two patients were lost to follow-up, 1 immediately after the new pregnancy diagnosis, and the other 1 after the latest delivery, and, thus, were excluded. The remaining 7 patients had regular clinical and obstetric examinations until delivery, continued follow-up, and were submitted to echocardiography 6 to 12 months thereafter. Pregnancy was relatively well tolerated in the patients, and they gave birth to 7 healthy newborns. After this latest pregnancy, 4 patients with heart failure functional class II and 2 patients with functional class III remained unchanged. A patient, initially in functional class III, improved and was then in functional class II. Although left ventricular end-diastolic diameter did not change (61 to 58 mm), left ventricular end-systolic dimension decreased (50 to 47 mm, P =.008), resulting in a significant increase in left ventricular fractional shortening (19% to 23%, P =.02).

CONCLUSION
Although based only in a small number of patients, the present results suggest that cardiac function does not deteriorate during a new pregnancy in patients with PPCM.