Nowadays, the exploitation of augmented reality in education is linked to a multitude of pedagogical subjects, including history, geography, natural sciences and arts. The extensive use of computers in the educational process in recent years, in addition to learners' familiarity with the use of Internet and applications associated with its operation, have led to a search for creative methods, which will enhance interaction in the pedagogical approach. As a result, a digital learning environment has emerged in which trainees gain access to knowledge in an entertaining and interactive way by making use of innovations and gaining the ability to control their knowledge. The purpose of this thesis is to feature the role of new technologies in the educational process by studying the use of augmented reality applications in teaching history. Designing such applications requires direct involvement of the teacher and, as established by the case study, the benefits are extremely important; students acquire a particular interest in the learning object and achieve higher performance, as compared to conventional forms of teaching.


Obesity and metabolic dysfunction are on the rise in the United States. Hyperinsulinemia, frequently seen in these conditions, correlates with an increased risk of development and mortality from estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer. Expression of components of the insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family of proteins promote cancer cell growth in vitro, link to shorter progression-free survival, and is associates with an increased risk of metastatic disease and death in breast cancer patients. Previously our lab found that development of resistance to the commonly used ER-targeting drug tamoxifen (Tam) in vitro is associated with a loss of the type I IGF receptor expression with an increased dependence on the homologous insulin receptor (IR). These data argue for targeting IR in breast cancer, but concern has been raised due to the potential of disrupting glucose homeostasis in patients with or without existing metabolic disease. To address this concern, a novel insulin-Fc fusion protein (AKS-130) was developed to lower blood glucose levels without causing clinical hypoglycemia with a potential to target tumor IR. AKS-130 was found to downregulate IR expression in models of colorectal cancer (HCT-116) and malignant melanoma (WM266.4). Further, AKS-130 suppressed xenograft growth in fed and fasted states. We examined if AKS-130 had similar effects on ER positive breast cancer cells. To test the hypothesis that resistance to endocrine therapy increases the reliance of ER positive breast cancer cells on IR signaling, we utilized the ER positive breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7L, T47D) and their Tam resistant derivatives (MCF-7L TamR, T47D TamR). Similar to in HCT-116 and WM266.4 cells, we found that AKS-130 is a modest agonist of IR in ER+ breast cancer cells. Exposure to AKS-130 led to a marked reduction in IR expression in both parental and TamR cell lines, and was associated with partially suppressed downstream signaling to Akt. Interestingly, AKS130 induced IR downregulation was inhibited by pretreatment of BMS 536924, a dual IGF1R/IR kinase inhibitor. In vivo, AKS-130 treatment by itself scaled down MCF7L parental xenograft growth as compared to vehicle group, and AKS-130 in combination with Tam trended toward extending time to a tumor size of 500mm3. In MCF7L TamR xenografts, addition of AKS-130 to Tam treatment also trended toward delaying xenograft growth, though it was not statistically significant. Importantly, prolonged treatment with AKS-130 did not lead to significant changes in weight or blood glucose. Taken together these data show that novel agents, such as AKS-130, may serve as way to disrupt IR signaling in cancer cells without affecting host glucose metabolism. Addition of AKS-130 to Tam treatment trended toward delaying xenograft growth though further studies are needed, especially animal model systems of insulin resistance. These data indicate that IR signaling may represent a target to overcome or delay endocrine therapy resistance in breast cancer.
 Citation Format: Jingran Cao, Lynsey M. Fettig, Kelly LaPara, Xihong Zhang, Sylaja Murikipudi, Andrea R. Delpero, Thomas M. Lancaster, Todd C. Zion, Douglas Yee. Targeting insulin receptor in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-02-01.


The present work discusses the impact of vacancy defects in solid high-order harmonic generation. The total energy cutoff of the high-order harmonic spectrum increases as a function of concentration of vacancy defects, and the total spectrum gradually turns into a single slanted spectrum without having an abrupt transition between primary and secondary plateaus. The spectral intensity of the below-band-gap harmonics in a solid with vacancy defects is enhanced significantly in comparison to the harmonics in a pristine solid. The changes in the harmonic spectra are understood in terms of their effective band structures. The presence of vacancy defects breaks the translational symmetry of the unit cell locally. As a consequence of this, new defect states appear, which open additional paths for the electron dynamics. The ill-resolved electron trajectories in the Gabor profile confirm the interference of additional paths. Moreover, the single slanted high-order harmonic spectrum carries a unique signature of vacancy defects in comparison to the high-order harmonic spectrum corresponding to solids with defects such as underdoping or overdoping.


At present, fundamental principles are being rethought. Specialists in the sociology of knowledge have shown that all oppositions that function as principles of perception and division or that establish hierarchies and assessments are actually concealed references to the opposition male/female. As Pierre Bourdieu remarks, "when you hear theoretical/practical, bourgeois/national, or dominating/dominated, you do not think male/female. Nonetheless, that is what this means" [1, p. 16]. The same may be said of such categories as quality/quantity, reason/intuition, sacred/profane, spirit/flesh, and vastness/triviality, pleasure/pain, and orientation toward the future/orientation toward the moment. The first part of the opposition is taken to be stronger and purer relative to the weak and impure. The first is dominating, the second is dominated. Feminine qualities are implicitly attributed to the latter.


55 patients (15 subjects in whom a special cardiac disease could be ruled out and 40 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation) were investigated by means of the extrastimulus method at a driving rate of 80 min-1. In 32 of the 40 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation occurred signs of atrial vulnerability. When compared with the healthy subjects and the remaining 8 patients who did not fulfil the criteria for vulnerability, there were significant shorter effective and longer relative refractory periods of the right atrium in the vulnerability group. These findings suggest that the re-entry phenomenon may be the underlying mechanism of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in the group with atrial vulnerability.


Dyslipidemia is universal but hypercholesterolemia per se is present in around 50% of dialysis patients. Although dietary therapy is of benefit in some, the majority require drug therapy. We compared the efficacy and safety of simvastatin plus an optimized lipid-lowering dialysis diet with placebo plus diet in a randomized, double-blind trial stratified for dialysis modality. Patients treated with hemodialysis (HD) or continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) for at least 9 months and with serum non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol greater than 135 mg/dL, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) greater than 116 mg/dL, and triglyceride less than 600 mg/dL after a 6-week dietary treatment phase and an 8-week diet plus placebo run-in phase, were enrolled in the 24-week double-blind treatment phase. Fifty-seven patients (16 men, 41 women, median age 63 years, range 22-75 yr) were randomized 2:1 to diet plus 5 mg/day simvastatin (n = 38: 22 HD, 16 CAPD) or diet plus placebo (n = 19: 12 HD, 7 CAPD) for 24 weeks. Dose was doubled bimonthly (maximum 20 mg/day) if non-HDL cholesterol was greater than 135 mg/dL. Forty-two patients (73.7%) completed the trial. Comparing baseline and 24 weeks, simvastatin (median 10 mg/day) was significantly more effective than placebo in reducing serum non-HDL cholesterol concentrations. For HD, the median percentage changes for total cholesterol (TC) (simvastatin versus placebo) were -21.4% and -12.1% (P = 0.011), respectively; for LDL cholesterol, -33.0% and -8.8% (P = 0.023); for non-HDL cholesterol, -25.2% and -14.0% (P = 0.008); and for TC:HDL, -17.65% and -1.67% (P = 0.008). For CAPD, changes for TC were -22.1% and -1.5% (P = 0.003), respectively; for LDL, -36.4% and 0.0% (P = 0.001); for non-HDL cholesterol, -24.9% and -3.6% (P = 0.002); and for TC:HDL ratio, -21.49% and +9.74% (P = 0.045). Changes with CAPD in apolipoprotein (Apo) A1 were -4.7% and +4.0% (P = 0.031); and for ApoB, -19.9% and +2.6%, respectively (P = 0.031). There were no significant changes in ApoA1 or ApoB with HD. Compared with placebo, triglyceride levels fell 10.2% with HD and 6.2% with CAPD. HDL cholesterol was unchanged with HD but rose 8.5% with CAPD. These trends, however, did not reach statistical significance (P > 0.05). There was no effect on Lp (a). The incidence of clinical and laboratory adverse experiences were not increased in the simvastatin-treated patients compared with placebo. Simvastatin appears to be a safe and effective treatment for the reduction of serum non-HDL cholesterol levels in both HD and, particularly, CAPD patients.


Autoantibodies to phospholipid antigens can be characterized using solid phase immunoassays to detect anticardiolipin antibodies (ACA) or in phospholipid‐dependent clotting tests where lupus anticoagulant (LA) activity can be demonstrated. It has not been established whether each activity is due to the same or separate antibody subgroups. Plasma from two patients with high levels of both activities were used for purification of ACA and LA using sequential ion‐exchange, gel‐filtration, and anti‐Ig affinity chromatography. Plasma could be separated into fractions containing each activity in the absence of the other. In these fractions, antibodies responsible for LA activity do not bind to isolated phospholipids in solid phase immunoassays, and conversely antibodies binding in these assays (ACA) do not possess LA activity, suggesting LA are directed against a more complex lipid epitope. In addition, in one patient ACA was of IgG isotype only, whilst LA was due to IgG and IgM isotypes. In this patient, the IgG‐ACA was heterogenous with three peaks clearly separated on ion‐exchange chromatography. Affinity purified antiphospholipid antibodies have been previously prepared from a number of patients using a phospha‐tidyl‐serine column and antibodies purified in this manner possess ACA but not LA activity. Taken together, these data indicate that tests for ACA and LA define separable subgroups of phospholipid binding antibodies, thus explaining the discordance often seen between the two activities.


No self-respecting political scientist will accept the cliche that demography is destiny; nevertheless, as a country's demography changes, if the politics do not change in accord with the circumstances or desires of the new residents, one sees greater and greater strain and even disruption in governance. A crucial question is whether the political effects of native-borns' anxiety about immigration will slow migration or keep migrants out of the social, economic, and political mainstreams, or conversely, whether migrants and their allies will become strong enough to create political dynamics in their favor. This paper examines those two plausible trajectories. I first review the politically most salient demographic features of mass migration. I then use the conceptual framework of policy feedback - the idea that policies change politics, which in turn reinforce, change, or undermine the initial policy for the analysis - to consider the conditions in which a country changes in response to the demographic pressures of immigration, and those in which political resistance to further immigration or to immigrants' incorporation into the receiving country's mainstream might carry the day. The paper concludes with a brief case study of what happens when the forces of change and inclusion are balanced against those of resistance and exclusion. I focus primarily on the United States, but to some degree refer to other countries as well.


Thesis of Doctor's Degree Post-Graduation in Food Science and Technology Program Universidade Federal de Santa Maria EFFECT OF SEASONALITY AND TECHNOLOGICAL LEVEL IN QUALITY AND NUTRACEUTICAL POTENTIAL OF MILK COW Author: Diego Prado de Vargas Adviser: Prof. Dr. José Laerte Nörnberg The effect of technological levels of production systems and seasons in the microbiological (somatic cell count and total bacterial count) and chemical quality of milk (fat, protein, nutraceutical potentiality in relation to the fatty acids profile and pesticides) was evaluated. Through multivariate statistical techniques, it was reduced dimensionality of 1,541 units producing milk (UPM) for the 15 municipalities in the Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 15 homogeneous groups and evaluated three UPL per quadrant of the Cartesian plane, in different seasons, which were characterized in four levels of specialization: highly specialized, specialized, partially specialized, and not specialized. After, milk samples from each farm were collected for analysis of microbiological quality and milk chemistry, including the fatty acid profile and index for evaluating the quality lipid fraction, especially the index proposed by the study, called nutraceutical index (NI); and also, the safety of the milk in respect of 93 pesticide residues and efficacy of degradation or elimination of these pesticides front of industrial heat treatments. The production systems and the seasons jointly interfere in the fatty acids profile, and singly interfere in chemical and microbiological quality of the milk. The lowest somatic cell count and the highest protein content were observed in summer, and the specialization level of production units had inverse relationship with total bacterial count. During winter, not specialized systems produced milk with the best nutraceutical index, with the highest values of polyunsaturated fatty acids, rumenic acid (CLA, 18:2n7 c9, t11) and t10, c12 – octadecadienoic acid (CLA, 18:2n6 – t10, c12). In addition, with increasing levels of specialization of UPM and especially in the spring, summer and autumn were increased agrochemical residue levels in the milk. However, the industrial heat treatments were effective to degrade or eliminate the pesticides present in refrigerated raw milk, highlighting the importance of these different binomials of time and temperature for the safety of the milk consumed.


Transports and net fluxes of surface wave energy and momentum inside tropical cyclones (TCs) are analyzed with wave spectra acquired by hurricane hunters. Previous analyses of dominant wave properties show a primary feature of sinusoidal azimuthal variation. Transports calculated from directional wave spectra are also primarily sinusoidal, which is modeled as a harmonic series. The result reveals that forward transport peaks are in the right-front quarter relative to the TC heading, and somewhat weaker valleys of backward transports are in the left-back quarter. Rightward transport peaks are in the right-back quarter and stronger leftward transport valleys are in the left-front quarter. Net fluxes are derived analytically from the gradients of transports. Their azimuthal variations are primarily biharmonic with forward trend confined in a slightly left-tilted parallel channel about a width two to three radius of maximum wind (RMW) on each side of the TC center. Leftward net fluxes are in a parallel channel of similar size and normal to that of the forward net fluxes. In vectors, the right-back quarter is a region of net influxes of energy and momentum. The TC central region has strong local fluxes that lead to bifurcation of the flux lines into leftward and forward paths. This may play a role in stabilizing the TC propagation. The net fluxes are a small fraction of the expected energy and momentum inputs from local wind except near the eye region. Within about 30 km from the TC center the local wind speed may exceed 30 m s−1 and the net fluxes can exceed 50% of the expected local wind input.


This research contributes to the detailed discussion about the approach to secure, hygienic water and cleanliness in Uganda and its pastoral regions. The relationship between the sanitation and clean water access with destitution is also discussed. Although this document is not leading towards the policy recommendation but it is an overall idea of how Uganda progressed because of the provisions adopted by the government, local and international organizations, and NGOs, and how the country lacked before these steps taken. Most of the data mentioned is taken from the house surveys of a decade 2002-2013 alongside the qualitative data. Literature review is also considered and is divided in two sections: first included researches related to water accessibility and usage, while the second section included researches related to work done and progress for diarrheal diseases and sanitation. Afterwards, methodologies were discussed where, firstly, trends and then the limitations in access to the basic necessities of life that is clean water and hygiene are mentioned. At last, the implementations and how they affected the rural Ugandans was discussed.


Three-dimensional (3-D) numerical simulations of decananometer Gate-All-Around transistors with 30 nm channel length and 10 nm Silicon film thickness have been performed to deeply investigate their electrical response to heavy ions irradiation. Results show that these GAA devices exhibit an excellent control of both impact ionization and bipolar amplification. A careful comparison between two-dimensional (2-D) and 3-D simulations is also reported to explore the limits of the 2-D approach for such ultra-deep submicrometer multi-gate device architectures


Introduction/Background Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) followed by hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) with cisplatin is a widely used strategy in the treatment of ovarian carcinomatosis. Although it seems to improve the patients' survival, one of its most important adverse effects is postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI). The aim of our study was to assess the incidence and identify the predictive risk factors of AKI after CRS and cisplatin-based HIPEC. Methodology This is a retrospective study from two centres evaluating patients with advanced or recurrent ovarian cancer who underwent CRS followed by cisplatin-based HIPEC from January 2007 to December 2013. Patients were classified in two groups according to the occurrence of AKI, defined when glomerular filtration rate at postoperative day-7 was 25% lower than at day-0. We also evaluated AKI following Risk, Injury, Failure, Lost and End-stage kidney function criteria. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted in order to assess the association between different variables and AKI occurrence. Results Sixty-six patients were included: 29 (44%) underwent first-line treatment while 37 (56%) were treated for recurrent disease. The incidence of postoperative AKI was 48%. Table 1 displays the univariate analysis. After multivariate analysis, hypertension (OR 18.6; 95% CI 1.9–182.3; p=0.012) and low intraoperative diuresis (OR 0.5; 95% CI 0.4–0.8; p=0.001) were associated with AKI occurrence. Conclusion The incidence of AKI after CRS and cisplatin-based HIPEC was high. Hypertension and low intraoperative diuresis were independent risk factors for this complication. An adequate perioperative hydration, in order to maintain a correct diuresis, could decrease acute kidney injury occurrence in patients undergoing CRS plus HIPEC. Table 2 shows general recommendations to decrease this complication. Disclosure Nothing to disclose.


The first-order Raman spectroscopy of diamond exhibits splitting and redshift after the burst of high-pressure (160–200 GPa) and high-temperature (~2000 K). The observed longitudinal optical (LO) and the transverse optical (TO) splitting of Raman phonon is related to the tensile-strain induced activation of the forbidden or silent Raman modes that arise in the proximity of the Brillouin zone center.


The structures of the first and the second transmembrane segment of the bovine mitochondrial oxoglutarate carrier (OGC) were studied by circular dichroism (CD) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. Peptides 21–46 and 78–108 of its primary sequence were synthesized and structurally characterized in membrane-mimetic environments. CD data showed that at high concentrations of TFE (>50%) and SDS (>2%) both peptides assume α-helical structures, whereas in more hydrophilic environments only peptide 78–108 has a helical structure. 1H-NMR spectra of the two peptides in TFE/water and SDS were fully assigned, and the secondary structures of the peptides were obtained from nuclear Overhauser effects, 3JαH-NH coupling constants and αH chemical shifts. The three-dimensional solution structures of the peptides in TFE/water were generated by distance geometry calculations. A well-defined α-helix was found in the region K24-V39 of peptide 21–46 and in the region A86–F106 of peptide 78–108. We cannot exclude that in intact OGC the extension of these helices is longer. The helix of peptide 21–46 is essentially hydrophobic, whereas that of peptide 78–108 is predominantly hydrophilic.


A calculation is presented of the sticking probability for hydrogen atoms colliding with a liquid 4He surface. The calculation is based on a model potential for the H–liquid 4He interaction which is used to derive both bound and free atom wave functions and the linear H atom–ripplon coupling. Results are presented in terms of the energy and angle dependent sticking probability s(E, θ) and the thermally averaged probability s(T), and comparison is made to the experimental result s(T) = 0.035 ± 0.005 for 0.18 < T < 0.27 K.


The intrusion detection system and technology of classified layered-wireless sensor network was able to meet the high safety requirements of wireless sensor network, it is urgent for us to improve the identification and generalization of detection system about characters of intrusion. In this paper, we design an intelligent intrusion detection system which realizes intelligence, the effective and direct way was to add the methods, and it was used for identification and generalization of intrusion characters to the Agent function of intrusion detection. It could obtain credible judgment by updating and examining the database for the actions which the general misuse detection or anomaly detection was not sure if the intrusion was formed.


The morphology, composition, and mechanical properties of the dorsal bony plates in the Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) were determined in this study. Scanning electron microscopy images of the bony plates revealed a ridge‐like shape similar to that of traditional Chinese architecture and displayed hierarchical microstructures whose the degree of mineralization decreased from the surface layer to the internal layer. Moreover, the crests in the central part of the bony plates displayed porous characteristics. Composition analysis of the bony plates revealed that they were primarily composed of Ca, P, O, and C, demonstrating that hydroxyapatite was the main constituent. Mechanical experiments including nanoindentation, penetration, and tension tests confirmed that the bony plates have excellent mechanical properties and present high specific tensile strength that is comparable to that of 304 stainless steel. This study may provide a new bionic design template for lightweight and high‐strength body armor.


In the present investigation, a study is carried out using numerical simulation on the effects of cylinder deactivation on tribological parameters and emissions in an internal combustion engine. For the development of the research, a tribological model was used to predict the characteristics of the lubrication film, friction conditions, blow-by gas, and deformation of the piston rings. Additionally, the construction of a CFD model was carried out to describe the kinematic movement of the engine piston. The analysis of results allowed for the demonstration of the active cylinders presenting an increase of 21.53% and 7.65% in the pressure and temperature in the cylinder wall. Additionally, the active cylinders present a reduction of 11.33% in the minimum thickness of the lubrication film and an increase in the friction force due to asperities, which implies an increase of 33% in power losses due to friction. The implementation of technologies such as cylinder deactivation causes an increase in combustion gas leaks caused by the increase in pressure of the active cylinders. However, the use of this technology allows reducing 9.09%, 8.26%, and 7.41% in CO, HC, and NO emissions. Although the use of technologies such as cylinder deactivation allows significant fuel savings, it is necessary to consider the negative effects caused by this technology, such as the increase in combustion gas leaks and the increase in power loss by the greatest frictional forces.


We report here the observation of quasi-periodic conductance fluctuations in the low temperature magneto-resistance of gated bi-layer (BL) field-effect transistors (FETs). Both correlation field analysis and conductance fluctuation behaviour suggests that the quantum transport in the BL-FETs closely resembles that in conventional semiconductor open quantum dots.


We present a new wave separation method to enable the split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) technique to break through the limitation of the length of the incident bar and greatly to increase its measurable maximum strain. At the same time the dispersion effect of the elastic wave is significantly reduced. The fundamental principle of the new method is proven rigorously. The feasibility and credibility of the new method are also verified by experiments.


Abstract Purpose: This study aimed to provide an overview of a) the used measurement instruments in studies evaluating effects on quality of life (QoL), function, activity and participation level in patients with a lower extremity amputation using bone-anchored prostheses compared to socket prostheses and b) the effects themselves. Method: A systematic literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, CINAHL and Web of Science. Included studies compared QoL, function, activity and/or participation level in patients with bone-anchored or socket prostheses. A best-evidence synthesis was performed. Results: Out of 226 studies, five cohort and two cross-sectional studies were eligible for inclusion, all had methodological shortcomings. These studies used 10 different measurement instruments and two separate questions to assess outcome. Bone-anchored prostheses were associated with better condition-specific QoL and better outcomes on several of the physical QoL subscales, outcomes on the physical bodily pain subscale were inconclusive. Outcomes on function and activity level increased, no change was found at participation level. The level of evidence was limited. Conclusions: There is a need for a standard set of instruments. There was limited evidence that bone-anchored prostheses resulted in higher QoL, function and activity levels than socket prostheses, in patients with socket-related problems. Implications for Rehabilitation Use of bone-anchored prostheses in combination with intensive outpatient rehabilitation may improve QoL, function and activity level compared with socket prosthesis use in patients with a transfemoral amputation and socket-related problems. All clinicians and researchers involved with bone-anchored prostheses should use and publish data on QoL, function, activity and participation level. There needs to be an agreement on a standard set of instruments so that interventions for patients with a lower extremity amputation are assessed consistently.


The repressed transactivator (RTA) yeast two-hybrid system was developed to enable genetic identification of interactions with transcriptional activator proteins. We have devised modifications of this system that enable its use in screening for inhibitors of protein interactions from small molecule compound libraries. We show that inhibition of protein interactions can be measured by monitoring growth in selective medium containing 3-aminotriazole (3-AT) and using this assay have identified inhibitors of four independent protein interactions in screens with a 23,000 small molecule compound library. Compounds found to inhibit one of the tested interactions between FKBP12 and the transforming growth factor beta receptor (TGFbeta-R) were validated in vivo and found to inhibit calcineurin-dependent signaling in T cells. One of these compounds was also found to cause elevated basal expression of a TGFbeta-R/SMAD-dependent reporter gene. These results demonstrate the capability of the RTA small molecule screening assay for discovery of potentially novel therapeutic compounds.


Angiotensin, bradykinin, substance P, physalaemin, and Met-enkephalin were tested for their ability to affect the action potential (AP) of the isolated guinea pig papillary muscle driven at 1/sec and 3/sec. Variables studied were height and duration of AP, dV/dtmax, half-life of recovery of dV/dtmax, and refractory period. At relevant concentrations the peptides were not effective.


Successful fabrication of stacked Nb-(Al/AlOx-Nb)n superconducting tunnel junctions with n=3 is reported. Coupling effects are visible in the three measured Fraunhofer patterns of the individual junctions. One of the patterns always shows a considerable field spreading in comparison with the other two patterns, as if the corresponding junction area were much smaller. Negative resistance measured as a function of temperature between 4.2 K and 2 K, in the sum gap region of the I-V characteristics, indicates heating effects.


This paper presents a new approach to the velocity and acceleration analyses 3DOF parallel manipulators. Building on the definition of the "acceleration motor", the forward and inverse velocity and acceleration equations are formulated such that the relevant analysis can be integrated under a unified framework that is based on the generalized Jacobian. A new Hessian matrix of serial kinematic chains (or limbs) is developed in an explicit and compact form using Lie brackets. This idea is then extended to cover parallel manipulators by considering the loop closure constraints. A 3- PRS parallel manipulator with coupled translational and rotational motion capabilities is analyzed to illustrate the generality and effectiveness of this approach.


Breast cancers exhibit inter-patient and intra-tumoural genomic variability which underpins our understanding of intrinsic drivers of the disease. The advent of next generation sequencing methods and informatics approaches has redefined the landscape of primary breast cancer subtypes into many more molecularly defined patient subgroups than had been previously appreciated, thus redefining our understanding of inter-patient variation. These studies have implications for the understanding of driver mutation context in primary cancers and should pattern future clinical and molecular studies of primary breast cancers. Closely linked to inter-patient genomic variability is the notion that most cancers are ecosystems of evolving cellular clones has implications for biological understanding and clinical application. The evolution of clonal composition has particular significance when evidence of positive or negative selection can be associated with the clonal genotype or epigenotype. Over the last 5 years next generation sequencing of tumours and methods for single cell analysis have opened up this approach for solid epithelial malignancies. I will discuss the implications of clonal evolution for cancer medicine and biological studies of cancer with reference to breast cancers. We have developed informatics approaches to population level clonal analysis and extended these to single cell measurements of genotypes. I shall discuss our more recent data from single cell sequencing and clonal analysis applied to clonal evolution of patient derived tumour xenografts, to illustrate the impact of clonal evolution on biological studies of breast cancer in model systems. Citation Format: Aparicio S. Clonal Dynamics and Breast Cancer Subtypes. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PL2.


The use of a liquid feedstock carrier in suspension plasma spray (SPS) permits injection of fine powders, providing the possibility of producing sprayed coatings that are both thin and dense and have fine microstructures. These characteristics make SPS an attractive process for depositing highly efficient electrodes and electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) applications. In the present study, NiO-yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) anode and YSZ electrolyte half cells were successfully deposited on porous Hastelloy X substrates by SPS. The NiO-YSZ anode deposition process was optimized by design of experiment. The YSZ electrolyte spray process was examined by changing one parameter at a time. The results from the design-of-experiment trials indicate that the porosity of the as-deposited coatings increased with an increase of suspension feed rate while it decreased with an increase of total plasma gas flow rate and standoff distance. The deposition efficiency increased with an increase of total plasma gas flow rate, suspension feed rate and standoff distance. The microstructure examination by SEM shows that the NiO and YSZ phases were homogeneously distributed and that the YSZ phase had a lamellar structure. It was observed that the density of the YSZ electrolyte layer increased as input power of the plasma torch increased.


We study the ferromagnet/semiconductor contacts formed by transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers, focusing on semiconducting MoS${}_{2}$ and WS${}_{2}$ and ferromagnetic VS${}_{2}$. We investigate the degree of $p$-type doping and demonstrate tuning of the Schottky barrier height by vertical compressive pressure. An analytical model is presented for the barrier heights that accurately describes the numerical findings and is expected to be of general validity for all transition metal dichalcogenide metal/semiconductor contacts. Furthermore, magnetic proximity effects induce a 100% spin polarization at the Fermi level in the semiconductor where the spin splitting increases up to 0.70 eV for increasing pressure.


Work on optimal protocols for Eventual Byzantine Agreement (EBA)---protocols that, in a precise sense, decide as soon as possible in every run and guarantee that all nonfaulty agents decide on the same value---has focused on full-information protocols (FIPs), where agents repeatedly send messages that completely describe their past observations to every other agent. While it can be shown that, without loss of generality, we can take an optimal protocol to be an FIP, full information exchange is impractical to implement for many applications due to the required message size. We separate protocols into two parts, the information-exchange protocol and the action protocol, so as to be able to examine the effects of more limited information exchange. We then define a notion of optimality with respect to an information-exchange protocol. Roughly speaking, an action protocol P is optimal with respect to an information-exchange protocol ε if, with P, agents decide as soon as possible among action protocols that exchange information according to ε. We present a knowledge-based EBA program for omission failures all of whose implementations are guaranteed to be correct and are optimal if the information exchange satisfies a certain safety condition. We then construct concrete programs that implement this knowledge-based program in two settings of interest that are shown to satisfy the safety condition. Finally, we show that a small modification of our program results in an FIP that is both optimal and efficiently implementable, settling an open problem posed by Halpern, Moses, and Waarts (SIAM J. Comput., 2001).


This article acts as an introduction to the new regular section in The Family Journal called Marriage Education and Enrichment. A brief overview of the history of marriage enrichment is followed by summaries and research associated with five of the leading marriage enrichment programs and research (ACME, TIME, Relationship Enhancement, PREPARE/ENRICH, and PREP). Participants' views of outcomes and future directions for marriage enrichment are discussed.


The present review deals with one of the most important branches of radiochemistry, of considerable practical and applied importance (the preparation of "labelled" compounds, the enrichment of radioactive isotopes) and scientific and theoretical interest. An understanding of processes involving atoms which have undergone a nuclear transformation in the solid phase will make it possible to solve many problems of the physics and chemistry of the solid state. The bibliography contains 151 references.


Several reports in fly, nematode and mammalian cells have revealed that the inactivation of endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT) blocks the endosomal maturation but also leads to the increased number of autophagosomal structures. In this review we compare these data and conclude that the way ESCRT mutations affect the relationships between autophagosomes and endosomes cannot be generalized but depends on the studied species. We propose that the effect of ESCRT mutations on autophagy is directly dependent of the level of interaction between autophagosomes and endosomes. In particular, the formation of amphisomes during autophagosomal maturation could be the key point to explain the differences observed between species. These observations highlight the importance of multiple model organisms to decipher the complexity of relationships between such dynamic vesicles.


Like all John Harris's work, this survey and proposed solution of some of the central problems in medical ethics, especially life and death issues, is brilliantly argued (always) and highly controversial (sometimes). Both characteristics stem from the fact that the book proceeds with strict consistency from the plausible but by no means inevitable unexpressed premiss that the only possible source of ethical values lies in what is actually found valuable. Thus freedom from suffering is valued by all sentient creatures, whether or not they can formulate their values and desires in words; and so we are morally obliged to cause as little pain as possible to humans or animals. But life can be valued only by a person, ie by a being that is capable of being self-conscious and of knowing it has a life to value; hence we must respect the lives of human beings already born, but not of plants, animals or human fetuses. Now, ifwhat is valuable is the same as what is valued, two values will be of supreme importance, because they are necessary conditions for realising all other values. These are the life and the autonomy, ie capacity for free choice, of persons. Hence the obligation to respect their life and autonomy is overriding, and extends to those who are currently not able to exercise personhood but may be reasonably expected to do so in the future, such as children or those temporarily unconscious. Moreover, the lives of all persons are equally important, since no external criteria exist to make their importance unequal; and to kill and to allow to die are morally identical, since their moral effect is exactly the same. So any action (or inaction) which can be seen in advance to result in the death of one or more persons can be justified only if (a) those persons are themselves intentionally threatening the life or autonomy of other persons, or (b) the death of a smaller number ofpeople is necessary in order to save the lives of a larger number, or (c) the persons have autonomously decided that their lives are no longer of value to them. If this is applied to medical ethics, the following conclusions, among others, can be drawn: 1. Abortions and experiments on human embryos present no moral problem, since no person is involved. 2. The withholding of treatment and/or nourishment from severely handicapped children is morally identical to killing them: indeed, worse, since it causes them more suffering. As such, there is at least a strong presumption that it is wrong. 3. Voluntary euthanasia, freely chosen, is not wrong. 4. On the other hand, the involuntary euthanasia practised by the government, whose failure to provide adequate health care makes it morally responsible for the resulting deaths, is certainly morally wrong. 5. The failure to provide patients with adequate information to make autonomous decisions is wrong. 6. There should be a very strong presumption against overriding patients' expressed wishes, unless there is good reason to think that defects of selfcontrol, reasoning or information make them non-autonomous. 7. No sexual practice or mode of bringing children into the world can be morally wrong unless it violates the autonomy of another person or causes them undesired physical or mental suffering. 8. The value of a life is given by its importance for its possessor, not by its usefulness to others: hence the lives of the old, as long as they wish to live, are just as important morally as those of the young.


There is scarce information in Brazil and other South American countries about the occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in food, mainly refrigerated ready-to-eat products. The consumption of sliced vacuum-packaged meat products has increased in the last few years. Nevertheless, a complete assessment of the risk associated with L. monocytogenes in these products is still necessary. Because of the production and storage characteristics of these products, they can be considered potential vehicles for L. monocytogenes to humans, mainly immunocompromised, elderly, and pregnant women. The objectives of this study was to evaluate the population of L. monocytogenes in salami, a ready-to-eat meat product with extended shelf life, acquired in retail stores in São Paulo-Brazil. The three-tube most probable number technique was used and the methodology was that from Health Canada. Strains were biochemically identified and serotyped. Among the 45 samples, 3 (6.7%) harboured 9.2 MPN/g of L. monocytogenes and the others < 0.3 MPN/g. All the strains belonged to serotypes 1/2a and 1/2b, the most frequent serotypes found in food everywhere. Even being low, the population of L. monocytogenes found in this product could be a cause of concern to public health authorities as it can pose a threat to population at risk. This contamination highlights the importance of implementing systems like HACCP to assure safe products to consumers.


We may consider the inducement of demand to public transportation as a solution to relieve traffic congestion and pollution. Subway has merits as moving on schedule, transporting more people than bus. But subway is required a vast investment in the early stage of construction has a huge debt. So it runs into red figures, and on this account, services of subway are falling more and more. Development of subway's operation cost function is useful to understand structure of subway's operation and catch the relations of operation cost and actual results. In addition, we can present the policy that is a helpful to the operation as development of operation cost function. But there are short of studies about operation cost deal with a subway comparison with local train. Because local train has many lines and data, on the other hand, subway has one to four lines and less data. Most of previous studies sought the operation cost function of Seoul. So this study aimed to develop and apply the operation cost function of Seoul, Incheon, Busan and Daegu area using full allocation method. In this study, we considered the number of passengers, track-km, train-km, revenue as actual results. By appling the operation cost function, we compared the average cost of each city and confirmed the existence of economies of scale about the number of passengers, train-km.


Stabilizing natural as well as man-made slopes in various parts of Nepal is a challenging job. Generally, conventional retaining structures (masonry, concrete or gabion walls) are constructed to stabilize such slopes. The construction and maintenance costs of such walls are increasing every year. A soil bioengineering approach to stabilize slopes using bamboos and plants is explained. The objective of this research work is also to examine the effectiveness of bamboo crib walls to retain the slopes. The performance of the bamboo crib walls were monitored for five years and the results are discussed. The paper highlights the design and construction procedure, strength and durability of bamboo crib walls reinforced with vegetation. A comparison of costs between conventional gabion retaining wall and vegetated bamboo crib wall has also been made for economic justification. The result shows that the introduction of plants inside the bamboo crib wall will not only increase the life of such wall but also increases the stability of whole slope in long-run. Experimental results and qualitative assessment of bamboo crib walls show that the technique of making vegetative crib wall using bamboo could be a sustainable alternative to conventional retaining walls and has potential to add socio-economic value to the communities.


Photoautotrophically grown cells of the blue-green alga (cyanobacterium) Nostoc sp. strain Mac assimilated and oxidized both glucose and fructose in the dark at different rates. The rate of fructose metabolism in these cells could be stimulated by casein hydrolysate, the effect being most pronounced at low sugar concentrations. This stimulation was not seen in cells grown heterotrophically in the dark, suggesting that it is a transitory phenomenon which disappears during the autotrophy-heterotrophy growth transition. The stimulation of fructose assimilation by casein hydrolysate was abolished by chloramphenicol or streptomycin, suggesting there are rate-limiting steps in protein biosynthesis in the dark that ultimately lead to inhibition of fructose uptake. Glucose metabolism did not show these phenomena, indicating there are differences in the metabolism of the two sugars.


This paper presents an automated adversarial mechanism called WikipediaBot. WikipediaBot allows an adversary to create and control a bot infrastructure for the purpose of adversarial edits of Wikipedia articles. The WikipediaBot is a self-contained mechanism with modules for generating credentials for Wikipedia editors, bypassing login protections, and a production of contextually-relevant adversarial edits for target Wikipedia articles that evade conventional detection. The contextually-relevant adversarial edits are generated using an adversarial Markov chain that incorporates a linguistic manipulation attack known as MIM or malware-induced misperceptions. Because the nefarious use of WikipediaBot could result in harmful damages to the integrity of wide range of Wikipedia articles, we provide an elaborate discussion about the implications, detection, and defenses Wikipedia could employ to address the threat of automated adversarial manipulations and acts of Wikipedia vandalism.


ABSTRACT Here we report on the first record of the mole cricket parasitoid Larra bicolor F. (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) in North Carolina. The presence of larvae and adults was documented at a mole-cricket-infested golf course near the South Carolina border. The means of arrival is not known, and may have occurred at the same time the hosts arrived or as the result of natural dispersal and range expansion. Evidence suggests that the parasitoids were able to survive through at least one severe winter.


Photochemical machining is an engineering production technique for the manufacturing of burr free and stress-free components in various industries. The thin, precision parts and complex geometries can be produced by using non-conventional machining process in diverse industries as aerospace, electronics automotive manufacturing. This paper focuses on study of three-dimensional photochemical machining at varying temperatures by using coloured photo tool. The process is starting with by designing of photo tool for different surface curvature. Cooper material was selected for experimentation, it has good electric and thermal conductivity. The control parameters selected were temperature, concentration and time. The temperature and time are varying parameter for etching. The depth of etch was measured by using Digital Micrometre having least count 0.001mm. The objective of this study is to achieve variable depth on two dimensional surfaces.3D PCM was carried out for flat surfaces followed by curved objects on copper.


OBJECTIVE
Is to evaluate the advantage of Contractubex gel with regards to influence on vascularisation, pigmentation, thickness, surface size, configuration, and elisticity of postsurgical scars of children (after cheilorinoplasty) in comparison to absence of systematized topical treatment.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Into the prospective, non-interventional, observational, multi-centered, in parallel groups, open, controlled study were included 60 patients aged 2,5 months and older with postsurgical scars after first cheilorinoplasty after 7-14 day after operation. Patients were randomized into 2 groups of 30 patients in each. I group - patients get applications of Contractubex gel 3 times a day (in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening) in accordance with patient information leaflet. II group - control group with no regular therapy of of postsurgical scars (without treatment or without application of oils and gels with anticsarring action). The period of medicine usage - 9 months and more for each patient, the each patient observation duration is 18 months.

RESULTS
After analysis of the primary as well as secondary efficacy criteria (total grade based on POSAS scale, reported by investigator/parent) after 3, 6, 12, 18 months of observation in both groups a positive statistically significant dynamics was registered. At the same time in the Contractubex group results were statistically significantly better than in the control group. Positive dynamics was achieved quickier in the main group than in the contol group and was to observe already after 3 months of therapy, during the whole treatment and observation phase, and after 18 months of therapy. Additionally conducted photodocumentation of postsurgical scar development dynamics in terms of the study confirms positive effect of surgery and absence of visual data regarding keloids or hyperthrophic scars formation in patients in both groups. Adverse events, i. a. pain, itch, burning, long-run hyperemia were not registered during the whole period os study.

CONCLUSION
The conducted study has shown high efficacy and safety of Contractubex usage for the treatment of postsurgical scars of children with with congenital cleft lip and palate (from 2,5 months old). The statistically significant advantage of the therapy with Contractubex was demonstrated in comparison with the control group (with no regular topical treatment). The obtained results allow to recommend Contractubex gel as an effective and safe medicine for the treatment of scarring after surgeries for kids directly after sutures removal.


1. The feeding response of the Hawaiian coral Cyphastrea ocellina was elicited by alcoholic extracts of Artemia nauplii and of plankton. 2. Chromatographic analysis of these extracts revealed that the imino acid proline was primarily responsible for the observed mouth opening and feeding behaviour. 3. Somewhat less feeding activity was also caused by the reduced tripeptide glutathione. 4. Analogues of these compounds, pipecolic acid and S -methyl glutathione, respectively, were as effective as the naturally occurring compounds. 5. Some data are also presented for the feeding responses of two other Hawaiian corals, Pocillopora damicronis and Fungia scutaria .


WHAT message about health reform should our elected officials, the health care community, and the American people take from the 1992 presidential election? As an issue, health care enjoyed considerable prominence in the presidential campaign. But is there sufficient support to pass a health reform plan? And if so, from the voters' perspective, what would such a plan have to look like? This article uses the results of an election night survey of voters, combined with secondary analysis of preelection and election-day exit polls, to examine these questions. The public's responses tell us a great deal about the role of health care in the 1992 election and in the agenda for the newly elected President and Congress. Data and Methods The data reported herein are derived primarily from three sources. The first is a national public opinion survey conducted on election night, November 3,1992, by Louis Harris & Associates on


Various β–amino carbonyl derivatives were synthesized, by the reaction of aniline, acetophenone and aromatic aldehydes, in high yields within shorter reaction times using PEG-600 as a safer catalyst under solvent-free conditions at room temperature. This synthetic route is exceedingly easy and avoids the use of toxic catalysts.


A survey of the existing experimental and theoretical data on the trinitrogen dioxide anion N 3 O - 2 that manifests a controversy as to the number of isomers and their chemical structures is presented. To resolve the controversy, new computational studies are performed at the MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ computational level. Two hitherto unknown isomers are predicted, one with singlet and one with triplet spin multiplicity. The singlet isomer, structurally characterized as N 2 ·[ONO] - , is the most stable among all known isomers and accounts for fragmentation patterns observed in the recent dissociative photodetachment experiments.


In 1997/98 and 1998/99 experiments were implanted in field in Tibagi, PR, to evaluate the answer of the common beans at the different potassium rates (0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 kg ha -1 of K 2 O) and two application forms (line and throw), in Cultivar Carioca in notill system. The experiment was installed in randomized blocks in arrangement factorial 2x5 with four replications. In the stages R5, R6, R 7 , R 8 e R 9 they were used ten plant s and evaluated dry mass. The leaves of twenty plants were collected to observe the potassium level in the leaf tissue. In the two years of evaluation, the culture didn't answer to the different potassium doses and the two application forms to the yield and its components, showing that, even for high yields, favorable climatic conditions, the plant supplies its need for the element in the soil, due constant replacement of the cultures predecessors, cultural remains.


In recent years, wsj0-2mix has become the reference dataset for single-channel speech separation. Most deep learning-based speech separation models today are benchmarked on it. However, recent studies have shown important performance drops when models trained on wsj0-2mix are evaluated on other, similar datasets. To address this generalization issue, we created LibriMix, an open-source alternative to wsj0-2mix, and to its noisy extension, WHAM!. Based on LibriSpeech, LibriMix consists of two- or three-speaker mixtures combined with ambient noise samples from WHAM!. Using Conv-TasNet, we achieve competitive performance on all LibriMix versions. In order to fairly evaluate across datasets, we introduce a third test set based on VCTK for speech and WHAM! for noise. Our experiments show that the generalization error is smaller for models trained with LibriMix than with WHAM!, in both clean and noisy conditions. Aiming towards evaluation in more realistic, conversation-like scenarios, we also release a sparsely overlapping version of LibriMix's test set.


The presence of human seminal plasma proteins in biological stains was demonstrated by an absorption test using anti-human seminal protein rabbit serum decreased degree of antibody activity was titrated on a microtiter plate by the agglutination of latex particles coated with human seminal plasma proteins. This method of test was sensitive and highly specific. The latex reagent for this test could be preserved in a refrigerator for over one year without the loss of reactivity.


We present two software packages for derivative-free optimization (DFO): DFO-LS for nonlinear least-squares problems and Py-BOBYQA for general objectives, both with optional bound constraints. Inspired by the Gauss-Newton method, DFO-LS constructs simplified linear regression models for the residuals and allows flexible initialization for expensive problems, whereby it can begin making progress after as few as two objective evaluations. Numerical results show DFO-LS can gain reasonable progress on some medium-scale problems with fewer objective evaluations than is needed for one gradient evaluation. DFO-LS has improved robustness to noise, allowing sample averaging, regression-based model construction, and multiple restart strategies with an auto-detection mechanism. Our extensive numerical experimentation shows that restarting the solver when stagnation is detected is a cheap and effective mechanism for achieving robustness, with superior performance over sampling and regression techniques. The package Py-BOBYQA is a Python implementation of BOBYQA (Powell 2009), with novel features such as the implementation of robustness to noise strategies. Our numerical experiments show that Py-BOBYQA is comparable to or better than existing general DFO solvers for noisy problems. In our comparisons, we introduce an adaptive accuracy measure for data profiles of noisy functions, striking a balance between measuring the true and the noisy objective improvement.


OBJECTIVE
Cardiovascular complications are the main cause of death in people with diabetes. Early, asymptomatic changes are due to autonomic nervous system dysfunction, which if identified can lead to improved health. This study used detrended fluctuation analysis to identify changes in heart rate variability (HRV) associated with short-time electrocardiograph (ECG) recordings. The aim of the study was to determine whether heart rate variability analysis on short ECG recordings has the potential to be a useful adjunct to clinical practice.

DESIGN
Comparative design with three independent simple random samples.

SETTING
University-based research project.

PARTICIPANTS
Forty-eight people with no diabetes or cardiovascular complications had a 20 min ECG recorded, which was subsequently analysed using mathematical procedures. All participants also had a lying-to-standing autonomic nervous system test. Data was analysed using a Student t-test.

RESULTS
Heart rate variability expressed as a numeric value (alpha(1)), is reduced in disease states. We found a significant difference in alpha(1)(P = 0.03) between the ECG recordings of the diabetes and control groups. In addition lower alpha(1)values were obtained from people identified with autonomic dysfunction within the diabetes group.

CONCLUSION
The importance of our findings is that abnormal HRV identifies people with cardiovascular disease, irrespective of diabetes status, that may have autonomic neuropathy. HRV analysis is easily implemented by primary health care providers and has the potential to lead to improved health care by reducing inequity in rural areas and specifically addressing cardiovascular complications associated with diabetes.


The effectiveness of synthetic aqueous Methylene Blue dye adhering to Activated Carbon Merremia emarginata (ACME) was investigated in this study. The effects of important variables on the outcomes, such as agitation time, pH, adsorbent dosage, and other ionic concentration, were assessed. It has actually been done to evaluate the equilibrium isotherm models, thermodynamic variables, and kinetic data. Adsorption equilibrium isotherms were expressed using the Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption models, although it was found that the Langmuir model more accurately reflected the experimental results. The pseudo second order kinetic model can also make the adsorption more understandable. The goal of the survey was to determine whether it was possible to remove Methylene Blue dye from synthetic aqueous solution utilizing ACME as a cheap adsorbent.


Background: Although overall air quality has improved in the United States, air pollution remains unevenly distributed across neighborhoods, producing disproportionate environmental burdens for minoritized and socioeconomically disadvantaged residents for whom greater exposure to other structurally rooted neighborhood stressors is also more frequent. These interrelated dynamics and layered vulnerabilities each have well-documented associations with physical and psychological health outcomes; however, much remains unknown about the joint effects of environmental hazards and neighborhood socioeconomic factors on self-reported health status. Objectives: We examined the nexus of air pollution exposure, neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, and self-rated health (SRH) among adults in the United States. Methods: This observational study used individual-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics merged with contextual information, including neighborhood socioeconomic and air pollution data at the census tract and census block levels, spanning the period of 1999–2015. We estimated ordinary least squares regression models predicting SRH by 10-y average exposures to fine particulate matter [particles ≤2.5μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5)] and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage while controlling for individual-level correlates of health. We also investigated the interaction effects of air pollution and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage on SRH. Results: On average, respondents in our sample rated their health as 3.41 on a scale of 1 to 5. Respondents in neighborhoods with higher 10-y average PM2.5 concentrations or socioeconomic disadvantage rated their health more negatively after controlling for covariates [β=−0.024 (95% CI: −0.034, −0.014); β=−0.107 (95% CI: −0.163, −0.052), respectively]. We also found that the deleterious associations of PM2.5 exposure with SRH were weaker in the context of greater neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage (β=0.007; 95% CI: 0.002, 0.011). Discussion: Study results indicate that the effects of air pollution on SRH may be less salient in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods compared with more advantaged areas, perhaps owing to the presence of other more proximate structurally rooted health risks and vulnerabilities in disinvested areas (e.g., lack of economic resources, health access, healthy food options). This intersection may further underscore the importance of meaningful involvement and political power building among community stakeholders on issues concerning the nexus of environmental and socioeconomic justice, particularly in structurally marginalized communities. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11268


The city of eThekwini or Durban has undergone a period of rapid urbanization that has contributed to the degradation of the city's natural environment. Climate change is placing further strains on the city's ability to manage the urban environment. The urban environmental profile of eThekwini has been prepared as the first component of the assignment promoting green urban development in Africa: enhancing the relationship between urbanization, environmental assets and ecosystem services, a project being conducted under the leadership of the World Bank. An overall objective of this project is to link the study of urban environmental issues with the advancement of more sustainable urban growth. The profile summarizes the existing quality of the terrestrial and other aquatic environmental assets, identifies the key drivers that are the cause of their vulnerability, and describes the key institutional challenges and constraining factors that limit the city's ability to address environmental management challenges. Identification of the key environmental assets and key drivers of environmental degradation within the city required a more comprehensive review of reports on urban planning and infrastructure services. The urban environmental profile is organized as follows: section one gives introduction. Section two, eThekwini context, sets the background, and context of the study of Durban, providing an overview of the impacts of urbanization and climate change and drawing the link to the urban environment. Section three, quality of the environmental assets of eThekwini describes the state of the key environmental assets of eThekwini: the terrestrial assets, aquatic assets, coastal assets, and the air, and attempts to infer the associated historic and current trends. Section four, drivers of environmental vulnerability and degradation describes the key issues that are driving degradation, the impacts caused, and the reason for these challenges. Section five, institutional issues and challenges describes the key factors that constrain the eThekwini's ability to effectively address environmental management challenges. Section six, key findings provides a synthesis of key findings of the study.


BACKGROUND
Ankle fracture treatment is predicated on minimal displacement, leading to abnormal joint contact area. The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether computed tomography (CT) detects subtle mortise malalignment undetectable by x-ray in supination-external rotation-II (SER-II) injuries.

METHODS
A total of 24 patients with SER-II injuries, as demonstrated by negative gravity stress radiography, were included. Medial clear space (MCS) measurements were performed on bilateral ankle x-rays (injured and contralateral, uninjured side) at several time points as well as bilateral non-weight-bearing CT performed once clinical and radiographic healing was demonstrated (mean = 66 days post injury, range = 61-105 days). Statistical analyses examined differences in measurements between both sides.

RESULTS
Final x-rays demonstrated no differences between normal and injured ankle MCS (P = .441). However, CT coronal/axial MCS measurements were different (P < .05). CT coronal MCS measured wider by a mean difference of 0.67 mm (P < .001).

CONCLUSION
There is a high incidence of subtle mortise malalignment in SER-II ankle fractures, as demonstrated by CT, which is undetectable when assessed by plain radiographs. Although clinical outcomes are yet unknown, there are important implications of the finding of confirmed, subtle mortise malalignment in SER-II injuries and the limitations of x-ray to detect it.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Level III.


ABSTRACTThe laboratory evaluation of bioenergy power and the capacity and efficiency of the metabolic processes limiting the level of special endurance champions is presented. The contributions of partial metabolic functions towards the development of special endurance in wrestlers is discussed, along with how these functions should be included in the development of tests for measuring special endurance.


Abstract Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (CAEBV) infection is usually a fatal disease associated with clonal proliferation of EBV-infected T or NK cells. We present the case of a 33-year-old Peruvian patient who developed a multisystem CAEBV, notably responsible for exceptional ophthalmological and renal damage. We describe the clinicopathological features of EBV-induced lymphoproliferative disorder.


Background The stag beetle Lucanus cervus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) is widely distributed in Europe. Habitat loss and fragmentation has led to significant reductions in numbers of this species. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of L. cervus and reconstructed phylogenetic relationships among Lucanidae using complete mitochondrial genome sequences. Methods Raw data sequences were generated by the next generation sequencing using Illumina platform from genomic DNA of L. cervus. The mitochondrial genome was assembled by IDBA and annotated by MITOS. The aligned sequences of mitochondrial genes were partitioned using PartitionFinder 2. Phylogenetic relationships among 19 stag beetle species were constructed using Maximum Likelihood (ML) method implemented in IQ-TREE web server and Bayesian method implemented in PhyloBayes MPI 1.5a. Three scarab beetles were used as outgroups. Results The complete mitochondrial genome of L. cervus is 20,109 bp in length, comprising 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNAs and a control region. The A + T content is 69.93% for the majority strand. All protein-coding genes start with the typical ATN initiation codons except for cox1, which uses AAT. Phylogenetic analyses based on ML and Bayesian methods shown consistent topologies among Lucanidae.


OBJECTIVES
Endothelial dysfunction during ischaemia-reperfusion (IR) is a major cause of primary graft dysfunction during lung transplantation. The routine use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) during lung transplantation remains controversial. However, the contribution of CPB to pulmonary endothelial dysfunction remains unclear. The objective was to investigate the impact of CPB on endothelial dysfunction in a lung IR rat model.

METHODS
Rats were allocated to 4 groups: (i) Sham, (ii) IR, (iii) CPB and (iv) IR-CPB. The primary outcome was the study of pulmonary vascular reactivity by wire myograph. We also assessed glycocalyx degradation by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and electron microscopy and both systemic and pulmonary inflammation by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunohistochemistry. Rats were exposed to 45 min of CPB and IR. We used a CPB model allowing femoro-femoral support with left pulmonary hilum ischaemia for IR.

RESULTS
Pulmonary endothelium-dependent relaxation to acetylcholine was markedly reduced in the IR-CPB group (10.7 ± 9.1%) compared to the IR group (50.5 ± 5.2%, P < 0.001), the CPB group (54.1 ± 4.7%, P < 0.001) and the sham group (80.8 ± 6.7%, P < 0.001), suggesting that the association of pulmonary IR and CPB increases endothelial dysfunction. In IR-CPB, IR and CPB groups, vasorelaxation was completely abolished when inhibiting nitric oxide synthase, suggesting that this relaxation process was mainly mediated by nitric oxide. We observed higher syndecan-1 plasma levels in the IR-CPB group in comparison with the other groups, reflecting an increased degradation of glycocalyx. We also observed higher systemic inflammation in the IR-CPB group as shown by the increased plasma levels of IL-1β, IL-10.

CONCLUSIONS
CPB significantly increased the IR-mediated effects on pulmonary endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, the use of CPB during lung transplantation could be deleterious, by increasing endothelial dysfunction.


There is an increasing demand for special types of rice that have black or red pericarp, low amylose (subspecie japonica) or aromatic. However, intense breeding process for obtaining and indicating genetically promising new cultivars and adapted to cultivation environments are demanded. In this sense, for evaluating the special types of irrigated rice genotypes, and determining the adaptability and stability of these using mixed models. First, a preliminary agronomic evaluation of genotypes for special types of irrigated rice was performed, and later, the agronomically promising genotypes were evaluated in multi-site trials, aiming at verifying the interactions with the environment. Statistical analyzes were performed considering mixed models, using the SELEGEN-REML/BLUP software. High genotypic variability among genotypes for special types of irrigated rice was observed, obtaining some agronomically promising and with good adaptability and stability, with high accuracy and selection efficiency using mixed models. The observed wide diversity and rice genetic variability presented new prospects and opportunities for producers for acquiring food of higher added value to consumer market.


The application of radio frequency ablation (RFA) has been widely explored in treating various types of cardiac arrhythmias. Computational modeling provides a safe and viable alternative to ex vivo and in vivo experimental studies for quantifying the effects of different variables efficiently and reliably, apart from providing a priori estimates of the ablation volume attained during cardiac ablation procedures. In this contribution, we report a fully coupled electrothermomechanical model for a more accurate prediction of the treatment outcomes during the radio frequency cardiac ablation. A numerical model comprising of cardiac tissue and the cardiac chamber has been developed in which an electrode has been inserted perpendicular to the cardiac tissue to simulate actual clinical procedures. Temperature-dependent heat capacity, electrical and thermal conductivities, and blood perfusion rate have been considered to model more realistic scenarios. The effects of blood flow and contact force of the electrode tip on the treatment outcomes of a fully coupled model of RFA have been systematically investigated. The numerical study demonstrates that the predicted ablation volume of RFA is significantly dependent on the blood flow rate in the cardiac chamber and also on the tissue deformation induced due to electrode insertion depth of 1.5 mm or higher.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to review the radiographic and MRI findings of bisphosphonate-related femoral periosteal stress reactions to propose a scoring system for predicting symptoms and fracture risk.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A retrospective study included patients undergoing long-term bisphosphonate therapy who had radiographic evidence of focal femoral periosteal thickening on radiographs and MR images. There were 43 femoral periosteal stress reactions in 33 patients; eight patients underwent MRI. Radiographs and MR images were evaluated for focal cortical thickening (periosteal and endosteal), bone edema, focal cortical abnormalities (radiolucency, striations, cavities), and dreaded black line. The radiographic score (derived with statistical methods) and simple scores (simple radiographic, MRI, and combined scores) were compared with symptoms and fracture outcome.

RESULTS
Logistic regression analysis showed an association between radiographic dreaded black line and symptoms (odds ratio, 68.0). Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses showed radiographic dreaded black line (p < 0.0005; hazard ratio, 27.3) and focal cortical radiolucency (p = 0.011; hazard ratio, 6.8) were independent predictors of fracture. The survival score derived from Cox regression coefficients showed good separation of high- and low-risk groups. Mann-Whitney tests showed an association between MRI and combined scores and symptoms (p = 0.036, p = 0.036). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve suggested better association with symptoms for MRI and combined scores than for simple radiographic scores (1.00, 1.00, 0.93).

CONCLUSION
In bisphosphonate-related femoral periosteal stress reactions, radiographic dreaded black line and MRI and combined scores were associated with symptoms, and radiographic survival score was predictive of fracture risk. The relation between MRI and combined scores and fracture was not statistically significant.


Procedures selected from the work of Bjornsson and Karlsson 1 , 2 for the quantitation of sulfated glycosaminoglycans with Alcian Blue were modified and adapted to the measurement of this type of polysaccharide in bovine skin. Modifications include: (1) pulverization of the skin under liquid nitrogen, (2) brief, gentle digestion of the skin with collagenase, (3) the use of a variety of Alcian Blue widely used in histologic work, (4) the recipe for the preparation of the Alcian Blue reagent solution, (5) determination of suitable sample size, volumes of reagent solutions, incubation times, duration of centrifugation, etc. The procedure developed yields linear results for 50-300 mg samples of skin; the relative standard deviation for the procedure is ′ 15%.


The internet links almost a billion computers. It is both a driver and a central component of globalisation. The web is also a symbol of globalisation, signalling promise and deep problems, hopes and forebodings. While some observers see vast gains in communication, information access, commerce and new wealth, critics point to big unresolved issues: elite control over rules in marketing, production, and labour; invasions of privacy; expansion of fraud and misinformation; the shredding of ties to family, friends, and local communities, and global corporate gatekeepers to the technology and its content.

Who will be our webmeister? More specifically, will corporate commercial interests dominate the electronic world over the public interests of planet and peoples? Are we to be atomised consumers who simply buy goods, services, and information and accept whatever guarantees the sellers might offer? Or will we be global citizens participating in decision making and entitled to call decision makers to account?

Recent headlines confront us with attempts by transworld corporations to control both the tools for information access (the Microsoft antimonopoly ruling) and content (the mammoth merger of the entertainment giant Time-Warner with Internet Service Provider AOL, and French Vodafone with Canadian Seagrams), profitising the net. To counter this trend, critics have proposed a reserve province on the internet of the same quality and usability as that of its enlarging commercial counterpart, a cyberspace preserve for public institutions—where governments can (and should) improve the transparency of their own decision making and information systems; where non-profit service, educational, and public interest organisations can offer internet services free or at low cost with a publicly subsidised rate similar to "old media" public radio, TV, telecommunications and press.1

In the fascination of searching through limitless worlds, the new electronic tools have so absorbed the day span of human beings, that …


In 2 cases of recurrent secondary hyperparathyroidism and 4 cases of persisting secondary hyperparathyroidism observed in patients treated by chronic haemodialysis, 8 hyperplastic parathyroid masses and 1 parathyroid adenoma, all located in the lower part of the neck, were removed after percutaneous ultrasonographic detection. There were 7 true positive and 1 unexplained false positive results. In 1 out of the 2 false negative results, the mass located behind the esophagus could not be detected because of the laryngotracheal gas. Two masses located inside the thyroid gland and a 5th hyperplastic gland were correctly identified by ultrasound. Two reluctant patients accepted a new cervicotomy because of the ultrasound reports. The reports played a prominent role in the operative technique in 3 cases.


Despite tremendous success of pneumococcal conjugated vaccine and antimicrobial treatment by amoxicillin, acute otitis media (AOM) still remains as a great medical concern. Failure of antimicrobial treatment includes several factors. The middle ear cavity is surrounded by bone tissue, which makes it difficult to maintain sufficient concentration of antibiotics. Tympanic membrane of AOM patients thickens and actually becomes a barrier for topical therapy. This review discusses novel antimicrobial treatment strategies based on drug delivery systems (DDS) for AOM. To deliver drugs enough to kill the pathogenic bacteria without systemic side effects, the development of new antimicrobial treatment strategy applying innovative drug DDS has been expected. The sustained-release DDS can achieve sufficient time for antimicrobial concentrations to exceed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for time-dependent antibiotics as well as enough maximum concentration for dose-dependent antibiotics to eradicate causative pathogens in the middle ear. The development of trans-tympanic membranes of DDS, such as hydrogels with chemical permeation enhancers (CPEs), is another attractive strategy. Phage is a promising strategy for developing DDS-based therapies. The DDS formulations enable antimicrobial treatment of AOM by a single dose and thus, an attractive future antimicrobial treatment for AOM.


ABSTRACT By situating the film9s tragic representation of homo- sexuality within the tradition of melodrama, this article questions whether Brokeback Mountain truly challenges mainstream taboos. Like Midnight Cowboy , Brokeback Mountain casts its radical subject matter within an ultimately conservative generic paradigm rather than camping it up in the manner of Andy Warhol9s Lonesome Cowboys.


Foamed concrete has been used as a building material since early 1920. In the beginning, it was used as an insulation material with very low density. Since then there have been attempts to make this material more load-bearing and structural. In present-day foamed concrete is being used in soil reinforcement, building blocks and other sorts of building materials [1]. Geopolymer concrete has been around for more than 40 years. It is being used in all sorts of buildings such as railroads, reservoirs, and houses. As both of these materials, structural capacities and usage increases there still are questions regarding their long-term properties like creep and shrinkage. This article aims to determine the differences in the time-dependent long-term properties of these two different building materials. The size of all creep and shrinkage specimens was 46mm in the diameter and 190mm in height. The creep properties of the specimen were determined by loading them with 20% of the ultimate stress value. The compressive strength, creep and shrinkage of both materials were determined. Also, new information on geopolymer concrete and foam concrete specimen modulus of elasticity variation differences in-time were determined. Modulus of elasticity did reach 31.39 GPa on the 30th day, 36.79 GPa on the 62nd and 48.34 GPa on the 135th day since specimens were made for geopolymer concrete and 12.22 GPa on the 30th day, 12.49 GPa on the 62nd and 14.23 GPa on the 135th day since specimens were made for foam concrete. All the data regarding compressive strength, long-term properties, and modulus of elasticity of the specimens have been obtained by experimental investigation only.


The recently synthesized honeycomb carbon allotrope has numerous potential applications, in particular for storage of gases inside carbon matrices. In this work this carbon form was experimentally studied in its denser form in order to estimate the upper temperature limit for keeping a gas inside the cellular structure. Along with the previously reported random honeycombs of a zigzag type we have also revealed the densest armchair structure. The mechanism of absorption-desorption of carbon dioxide studied by means of high energy electron diffraction at low temperatures showed the two — stage character of the observed desorption at elevated temperatures. This effect is associated to the weaker or stronger bonding of molecules with pore walls depending on the specific configuration of channels with different sizes. We have found that complete desorption of CO2 does not occur even at the temperatures about three times higher as compared with the sublimation point of carbon dioxide in our vacuum conditions.The recently synthesized honeycomb carbon allotrope has numerous potential applications, in particular for storage of gases inside carbon matrices. In this work this carbon form was experimentally studied in its denser form in order to estimate the upper temperature limit for keeping a gas inside the cellular structure. Along with the previously reported random honeycombs of a zigzag type we have also revealed the densest armchair structure. The mechanism of absorption-desorption of carbon dioxide studied by means of high energy electron diffraction at low temperatures showed the two — stage character of the observed desorption at elevated temperatures. This effect is associated to the weaker or stronger bonding of molecules with pore walls depending on the specific configuration of channels with different sizes. We have found that complete desorption of CO2 does not occur even at the temperatures about three times higher as compared with the sublimation point of carbon dioxide in our vacuum conditions.


This paper attempts to differentiate among the theories of hedging by using disclosures in the annual reports of 400 UK companies and data collected via a survey. I find, unlike many previous US studies, strong evidence linking the decision to hedge and the expected costs of financial distress. The tests show that this is mainly because my definition of hedging includes all hedgers and not just derivative users. However, when the tests employ the same hedging definition as previous US studies, financial distress cost factors still appear to be more important for this sample than samples of US firms. Therefore, a secondary explanation for the strong financial distress results might be due to differences in the bankruptcy codes in the two countries, which result in higher expected costs of financial distress for UK firms. The paper also examines the determinants of the choice of hedging method distinguishing between non-derivative and derivatives hedging. My evidence shows that larger firms, firms with more cash, firms with a greater probability of financial distress, firms with exports or imports and firms with more short-term debt are more likely to hedge with derivatives. Thus, differences in opportunities, in incentives for reducing risk and in the types of financial price exposure play an important role in how firms hedge their risks.


A novel framework referred to as visual vocabulary labeling is proposed for 3d object retrieval. It aims at localizing the visual semantics to 3d object with textual modalities. Two main processes are included in the presented framework. One is automatic labeling from 3dobject to visual vocabulary. The other is visual vocabulary based retrieval with relevance feedback. The probabilistic model and similarity measurement is proposed to bias the mapping from the low-level 3dobject shape descriptor to the high-level visual vocabularies defined in the visual vocabulary database.The probabilistic model is represented as a cooccurrence matrix of the visual vocabularies. A similarity mapping scheme is devised using statistical methods as Gaussian distribution and Euclidean distance together with probability conditions of visual vocabularies. The proposed 3d object shape descriptor is a 64-dimension vector composed of two kinds of 3dobject features. They are the 19-dimension feature vector from 20 geometry projection images and 45-dimension feature vector from 45 grid region of 3dobject. The technique of relevance feedback has been introduced to the framework both of the labeling process and retrieval process. During the two processes, the proposed method takes the user's feedback details as the relevant information, and then dynamically updates visual vocabulary database. The experimental results indicate that the proposed semantic-based visual vocabulary descriptors outperform the traditional content-based 3d object retrieval model.


This book is dedicated to Olivier Coussy, the prominent scientist and engineer who developed the fundamentals of poromechanics theory that were transformational in many application of civil environmental and petroleum engineering, bioengineering and sustainable development of materials and structures. Olivier passed away on January 15, 2010. He was the colleague and friend of all the contributors to this book. To honor the memory of Olivier Coussy , Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and IFSTTAR (French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks) have organized a symposium held at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech from April 18 to 20, 2011. The theme of this symposium was chosen after his last monograph (Mechanics and Physics of Porous Solids, J Wiley & Sons, 2010) which embodies his most recent vision of the Poromechanics at the interface between physical chemistry and solid mechanics. Because the interface between those two fields is not often explored as he said, he aimed to bridge the gap between physical chemistry, which governs what happens at the level of the pore, and solid mechanics, which is the natural frame in which deformations, stresses and fluid transport are addressed and quantified at the macroscopic level of the porous material. In this vein the organizing committee of the symposium intended to gather academics and industrials that either develop or utilize the concepts of the mechanics and physics of porous solids as envisioned by the late Pr.Coussy.


This study focuses on two major aspects of Jesuit pedagogy in Spain that should be held in mind in order to understand Jesuit educational transformations after the Second Vatican Council: Firstly (A), the theological renewal undertaken since the end of the 1960s, mainly by the Jesuit institute Fe y Secularidad founded in 1967 and the drive towards pedagogical innovation articulated especially in the Jesuit journal Razon y Fe. Secondly (B), the continuity of a process of philanthropic adaptation of Jesuit educational institutions in Spain after 1965. Before analysing these two main aspects, a brief introduction is given to the question how Spanish Jesuits have participated in the theological avant-garde during the 1940s and 1950s. In a final part of the paper, the present study summarises the key aspects of this analysis and highlights the character of Jesuit educational innovations after Second Vatican Council.


This paper examines the current regulatory obstacles to extending the permitted use of NRT, and to include smoking reduction ways of addressing these. There are major differences between different countries in regulations concerning NRT. These differences appear to be due to different attitudes to cigarette smoking as an issue and different preconceptions about nicotine as an addictive and potentially toxic drug. The paper considers how existing WHO and American Psychiatric Association definitions of mental disorders may be used in submitting proposals for use of NRT as an aid to smoking reduction and how concerns over safety and abuse and dependence liability can be addressed. It also examines what new evidence may be needed. Coordinating the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry, clinicians and researchers will probably be important in moving regulatory authorities further in the direction of accepting NRT for widespread use in smoking reduction.


This paper uses two game-theory models, where monetary policy is first ineffective and then effective, to illustrate a delegation scheme that makes consistent policy optimal and controllable. The delegation scheme produces the minimization of both the social and the central bank loss functions. Minimizing the social loss function generates optimality conditions. Minimizing the central bank loss function produces controllability conditions. Optimality conditions depend on specific models, and controllability conditions do not. We propose a concept of consistent targets, which refer to the targets that satisfy both optimality and controllability conditions. Consistent policy proves optimal and controllable in both example models when the government delegates consistent targets to the central bank.


The equation of computing the reflection coefficient between two meshes of different sizes is derived. Using the equation, quasi-network characteristics of nonuniform mesh for the finite-difference time-domain technique is found and analyzed. The so-called mesh network (MN) here is a kind of structure composed of the sections of mesh in cascade. The cell sizes of these sections change regularly. By means of choosing the number of mesh sections, length of each section, and cell sizes, some novel network characteristics are obtained, which can be used to match the reflecting wave of nonuniform mesh or improve the transmitted characteristics for a mesh wave to travel along the nonuniform mesh. Formulas for analyzing the MN are given. The characteristics are realized in both one- and three-dimensional cases. The applications and advantages of the MN are shown by computing three different structures, i.e., microstrip-gap capacitor, parallel-coupling filter, and microstrip slot-line transformer.


One of the most significant problems regarding the space conditioning of atriums is their relatively large volumes compared with traditional commercial and institutional spaces. This may lead to high energy consumption, if atriums are fully conditioned unless effective design strategies are implemented. Most people perceive atriums as indoor environments, not as outdoor or intermediate environments and therefore demand high comfort levels. It is often very difficult to achieve high thermal comfort and low energy consumption at same time. A 1 °C decrease in indoor temperature in winter will decrease energy consumption by 5 %. If people are aware of such relationships, it might lead them to accept atriums with lower temperatures in winter and higher temperature in summer and wear appropriate clothing while in atrium spaces, thus achieving considerable savings in energy use. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v9i1.10671 Journal of the Institute of Engineering , Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 65–68


AIM
The aim of this work was to compare the functional results of secondary Girdlestone hips with the results of total hip replacement (THR) after a Girdlestone situation.

METHODS
72 patients with THR following a Girdlestone situation and 87 patients with a Girdlestone situation (90 hips) were compared with regard to defined endpoints.

RESULTS
THR following a Girdlestone situation provided for significantly higher patient satisfaction (89 % versus 13 %) and hip function (HHS 63 versus 39 points). The groups only marginally differed with regard to the incidence of complications (0.32 versus 0.26 per patient) and the necessity for surgical revision (0.38 versus 0.31 per patient).

CONCLUSION
Conversion of Girdlestone hips with THR provided patient satisfaction and functional results superior to secondary Girdlestone hips while the incidence of postoperative complications and revisions were similar for both groups. These differences justify attempts at the conversion of Girdlestone situations with THR, if technically possible, in accordance with the patient's wish and as allowed by his/her general health.


Human–machine interaction (HMI) establishes an interconnected bridge between humans and robots and plays a significant role in industry and medical fields. However, the conventional interface is bulky and rigid with a single function. It lacks feedback information to be provided to the user, limiting its application scenarios and the ability to complete complex tasks in a dynamic environment. Herein, a flexible bidirectional (FBD) interface with integrated multimodal sensing and haptic feedback and the development of an FBD‐based closed‐loop HMI platform are presented. The proposed FBD interface offers programmable haptic feedback through a coin vibration motor array to endow the user with better performance in missions. The multimodal sensing array can perceive signals of joint movement and the pressure imposed on the skin. In addition, the FBD interface exhibits significant advantages of flexibility and a compact structure. The experimental tests verify that the multimodal sensing module can accurately perceive various static and dynamic movements of a human. Furthermore, the actuation module can provide diverse haptic vibrations to convey different information to the user. Moreover, successful applications in the scenarios of bilateral robotic teleoperation and assistance of disabled people indicate great potential of the FBD interface for broad applications.


BACKGROUND
Many studies have demonstrated the presence of somatosensory modulation changes at different sites in patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) using different modalities. However, the neck area, a well-know condition related to TMD, remains unexplored.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the thermal pain threshold in patients with TMD and controls at cephalic and extra-cephalic areas, including the neck.

METHODS
Twenty female patients with TMDs diagnosed by the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) and twenty age-matched controls underwent a first interview about neck pain and disability (NDI questionnaire). A blinded evaluator assessed the thermal pain threshold for cold (CPT) and heat (HPT) stimuli in accordance with an ascending method of limits of the Quantitative Sensory Testing at the following sites: periorbital, masseter, cervical posterior and ventral forearm. The groups were compared using a t-test with α = 5%.

RESULTS
Patients with TMDs reported pain at higher temperature for cold stimuli in all sites (P < 0·05) and at lower temperature for heat stimuli in the right periorbital site (P < 0·05) than controls. Pain and disability due tothis symptom were reported more often in the TMD group (P < 0·05).

CONCLUSION
Patients with TMD have pain modulation changes in the neck area as well, especially for cold stimuli, associated with higher disability and a higher report of neck pain than controls. These findings reinforce the evidence regarding the relationship between TMDs and neck pain.