Shannon's theory of communication has been very successfully applied for the analysis of biological information. However, the theory neglects semantic and pragmatic aspects and thus cannot directly be applied to distinguish between (bio-) chemical systems able to process "meaningful" information from those that do not. Here, we present a formal method to assess a system's semantic capacity by analyzing a reaction network's capability to implement molecular codes. We analyzed models of chemical systems (martian atmosphere chemistry and various combustion chemistries), biochemical systems (gene expression, gene translation, and phosphorylation signaling cascades), an artificial chemistry, and random reaction networks. Our study suggests that different chemical systems posses different semantic capacities. No semantic capacity was found in the model of the martian atmosphere chemistry, the studied combustion chemistries, and highly connected random networks, i.e. with these chemistries molecular codes cannot be implemented. High semantic capacity was found in the studied biochemical systems and in random reaction networks where the number of second order reactions is twice the number of species. We conclude that our approach can be applied to evaluate the information processing capabilities of a chemical system and may thus be a useful tool to understand the origin and evolution of meaningful information, e.g. in the context of the origin of life.


Connected vehicles in large numbers will be expensive in terms of power and bandwidth unless advanced transmit schemes are employed. These would rely on channel state information at transmitter (CSIT), which rapidly becomes outdated for fading vehicular channels. We here evaluate the predictor antenna concept, that solves this problem by using antennas on the outside of vehicles, with one extra antenna in front of the others. Its estimated channel is a scaled prediction for the channels encountered by rearward antennas when they reach that position. We evaluate this concept on a large set of channel sounding measurements from an urban environment. Recent investigations of the correlations of these measurements indicate that the average normalized mean squared errors (NMSEs) of the complex valued channel predictions should be around −10 dB for prediction horizons in space of up to 3 wavelengths. This represents an extension of the attainable prediction horizon by an order of magnitude, as compared to Kalman or Wiener extrapolation of past channel measurements. It represents an accuracy that would enable e.g. accurate massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) downlink beamforming to vehicles. We here perform predictions on a subset of the measurements with good channel-to-estimation error power ratio (SNR). The approximate true channels are here available and we evaluate the performance on a validation data set. The results confirm that the distribution of the NMSE, over all investigated propagation environments, is close to that obtained by correlation-based models and outperforms the use of outdated channel measurements.


Cell disruption is a crucial step in the downstream processing of intracellular proteins from microbial cells. In general, mechanical methods of cell disruption are energy intensive and non-selective in protein release. Thus, chemical cell disruption offering a high selectivity in protein release and a low operating cost is highly sought after. In this study, a versatile cell disruption method based on alcohol permeabilization was developed and applied to a model system, namely Escherichia coli expressing an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). The disruption process was optimized using a response surface methodology. The optimum condition of cell disruption was attained at 32.2% (v/v) 1-propanol (1-PrOH), pH 8.8 and 25 °C. The active EGFP release obtained from the optimized 1-PrOH cell disruption (1.27 mg mL−1) was comparable to that from ultrasonication treatment (1.35 mg mL−1). In addition, the selective EGFP release achieved by 1-PrOH cell disruption (0.38 mg mg−1) was 2-fold higher than that by ultrasonication treatment (0.19 mg mg−1). The power consumption of 1-PrOH cell disruption (0.018 kW) was the lowest in comparison to that of ultrasonication treatment (0.08 kW) and glass bead vortexing (0.03 kW). Moreover, a high relative EGFP release can be achieved by 1-PrOH cell disruption conducted over a wide range of working parameters [3–62% (v/v) of 1-PrOH, pH 8–11 and 15–30 °C]. The versatility of this 1-PrOH cell disruption method is useful for the release of labile proteins through a fine adjustment of the working parameters based on the target protein's alcohol tolerance limit. This versatile and economically viable method holds great promise for lab- or large-scale microbial cell disruption due to the wide availability, inexpensiveness and recyclability of alcohol.


Stock-flow consistent (SFC) models become complex and hence rather intractable once they seek to incorporate more features of reality. Solving such models numerically for preselected parameter values can help to overcome this problem. But how should the parameters be selected given that there often exists a host of economically plausible values? In order to address this problem, this paper suggests using a Monte Carlo approach to examine which combinations of parameters and starting values (feasibility regions) produce economically meaningful equilibria for the short and long run, and whether the long-term equilibria thus identified are in fact stable. In addition, we undertake a sensitivity analysis for all parameters which allows us to gauge the extent to which model results are driven by certain parameters and starting values.


Initially, researchers proposed that Fragile X syndrome (FXS) should be called AFRAX syndrome because it was thought to be caused by an autism gene (Gillberg, Persson, & Wahlstrom, 1986). However, as research into FXS has progressed and an exploration of the behavioural phenotype has taken place important differences have emerged.
The systematic review (Paper 1) aims to delineate a behavioural phenotype for Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). Ten papers were included in the review. All papers were of a standard to demonstrate a behavioural phenotype for FXS. There are attributes of the FXS behavioural phenotype that meet the criteria for both Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and/or Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). However, there is robust evidence to support a broad FXS behavioural phenotype comprising: 1) social behavioural and communication difficulties, 2) emotional regulation difficulties, 3) repetitive and restrictive behaviour and speech. Several recommendations for research and clinical practice are discussed.
The aim of the empirical study (paper 2) was to examine if there are differences between the behaviour phenotype profiles of those with FXS who have a diagnosis of ASC and those that do not. Parents were asked to complete an online questionnaire that included the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), the Wessex Questionnaire, and standard demographic information. The findings of the 38 parents who completed the questionnaire are discussed below.

Finally, the research review (Paper3) will explore the author's research process. This includes a discussion about the decisions to undertake the research, as well as a review of the methodological limitations, implications for policy direction, further research and clinical implications.


The present study further investigates the harmful effects produced by nonlinear circuit elements components of the power grid by assessing the corresponding inflicted parasitic active and reactive power flows. A simplified no-neutral lumped elements circuit model is adopted comprising a three-phase linear balanced transmission line and two distorting loads, each containing a single nonlinear element. Their disparity in the distortive i-v characteristic, one being more distortive than the other, is under scrutiny from the unwanted active and reactive power circulation point of view, which allows to assess the associated dispatching, metering, and billing issues. The theoretical background this study relies on is the power theory developed by Professor Andrei Ţugulea in the mid-'80s, in total accordance with Budeanu's power definitions. The power quantities designed to provide meaningful insight into the harmful distortive effects (residual-distorting and non-symmetry active and reactive power) are used and computed in the case of four illustrative case studies. The corresponding circuits are numerically solved, and the Ţugulea theory power quantities are evaluated. On that basis, comments and conclusions are presented, in view of further development of theoretical knowledge in the field.


SUMMARY This paper presents a stream programming framework, named GPU-chariot, for accelerating stream applications running on graphics processing units (GPUs). The main contribution of our framework is that it realizes efficient software pipelines on multi-GPU systems by enabling out-of-order execution of CPU functions, kernels, and data transfers. To achieve this out-of-order execution, we apply a runtime scheduler that not only maximizes the utilization of system resources but also encapsulates the number of GPUs available in the system. In addition, we implement a load-balancing capability to flow data efficiently through multiple GPUs. Furthermore, a callback interface enables overlapping execution of functions in third-party libraries. By using kernels with different performance bottlenecks, we show that our out-of-order execution is up to 20% faster than in-order execution. Finally, we conduct several case studies on a 4-GPU system and demonstrate the advantages of GPU-chariot over a manually pipelined code. We conclude that GPU-chariot can be useful when developing stream applications with software pipelines on multiple


The question of whether those patients who privately purchase treatments which are not available on the National Health Service should, as a consequence, lose entitlement to free care for their condition has proved highly controversial in the United Kingdom. This article considers the debate upon this issue. It focuses in particular upon the degree to which the solution adopted conflicts with the foundational principles of the National Health Service which have recently been enshrined in the NHS Constitution.


Conservation biology aims to stop habitat loss and extinction of species. To achieve these goals there are several methods such as the establishment of natural reserves and national parks that in synthesis work as protected areas. However, the management of areas with high conservation priorities can be a challenge to conservation biology and all of the professionals involved in this process. The Colombian National Natural Park, Los Katios, hosts more than the 20% of Colombian biodiversity and is located in a region which is characterised as being one of the most biodiverse and endemic points on the planet. The park was declared a World Humanity Heritage Area in 1994 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and on the 8th of July 2009, the Colombian government solicited to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee the inclusion of the park on the list of World Heritage in Danger due to the pressures from illegal activities and inefficient surveillance in the area. Through the case of study of Los Katios National Natural Park, this review looks explores the extent to which the socio-economic situation and the internal crises of a country can influence the effectiveness of the conservation programs in protected areas. It also explains the relevance of National Natural Parks and the effects that some factors, such as violence; illegal crops; poverty; and environmental budget, can have on the performance of the conservation biology. This review concludes that the conservation of protected areas in countries with deep internal crises, such as in the case of Los Katios in Colombia, cannot be based solely on the fundamental conservation goals and that it is necessary to include government priorities and some strategies to counteract social issues as violence, poverty and insufficient funds when creating management plans.


Background: Antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) prescribing and clozapine underuse are considered inappropriate prescribing in schizophrenia. Psychiatric hospitalisations may be suitable occasions to re-evaluate patient pharmacotherapy and to switch to monotherapy. Objectives: To explore the evolution of APP and other psychotropic prescribing patterns during psychiatric hospitalisations, to detect characteristics associated with APP on admission and at discharge, and to examine clozapine prescribing patterns. Design: We performed a retrospective observational study based on electronic health records. Methods: Data on adult inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were collected retrospectively from 6 Belgian hospitals in 2020-2021. Results: Of the 516 patients included, APP prescribing increased significantly from 47.9% on hospital admission to 59.1% at discharge. On admission and at discharge, APP was associated with prior clozapine use (ORadmission = 2.53, CI = 1.1–5.84, ORdischarge = 11.01, CI = 4.45–27.28), treatment with a first-generation antipsychotic (ORadmission = 26.79, CI = 13.08–54.86, ORdischarge = 25.2, CI = 12.2–52.04), increased antipsychotic exposure (ORadmission = 8.93, CI = 5.13–15.56, ORdischarge = 19.89, CI = 10–39.54), and a greater number of hypno-sedatives (ORadmission = 1.88, CI = 1.23–2.88, ORdischarge = 4.18, CI = 2.53–6.91). APP was negatively associated with involuntary admission (ORadmission = 0.31, CI = 0.14–0.7, ORdischarge = 0.3, CI = 0.13–0.68). When using an alternative definition of monotherapy (i.e. including patients with an add-on low-dose antipsychotic for sleep disorders), alcohol use disorder (ORadmission = 0.26, CI = 0.13–0.54) and higher age (ORdischarge = 0.53, CI = 0.29–0.95) were negatively associated with APP, and living in a residential facility (ORdischarge = 2.39 CI = 1.21–4.71) and a higher daily dosage of benzodiazepines during the stay (ORdischarge = 1.32 CI = 1.03–1.69) increased the odds of being discharged on APP. On admission, 9.3% of patients were being treated with clozapine. Although 28.1% of patients were eligible for clozapine treatment, only 11% of patients were discharged with a clozapine prescription. For 7 of the 10 patients with a new clozapine prescription, it was directly prescribed in combination with another antipsychotic, without a prior trial of clozapine monotherapy. Conclusion: Suboptimal prescriptions of antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia persist after psychiatric hospitalisations and are associated with identifiable characteristics.


Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs) are popular micropackaging options because of their packaging density, relative ease of assembly, and inherent physical integrity, among other things. Standard commercial environments pose no rigorous stresses on them, but the same cannot be said for harsher environments. Unfortunately, the distinction between the two is ill-defined and requires extensive testing and analysis to be performed for each specific application. Both ceramic BGAs (CBGAs) and plastic BGAs (PBGAs) that house Mercury Computer Systems' custom ASIC chips have been found to be generally resilient to such stresses, with the exception of large vibrational stresses which caused premature failure of susceptible solder joints during qualification testing. A variety of techniques were investigated to ruggedize these joints. Application of a compliant underfilling epoxy with viscosity levels tailored for two package types, CBGAs and PBGAs, was found to provide the best combination of performance, cost, ease of use, and reworkability. Furthermore, this material is compatible with other materials and processes used in electronics assembly.


Architectural management has evolved from a small number of seminal works published in the 1960s into an important knowledge domain. The domain is underpinned by a growing body of theoretical knowledge which is valued by practitioners for its contribution to the improvement of planning, design and execution of projects. There are, however, very few educational programmes that take architectural management as their main focus. The aim of this article is to review the development of architectural management by focusing on the output of the Architectural Design Management Systems (ADMS) technological designers programme at the University of Technology Eindhoven (TU/e) in the Netherlands. This unique professional doctorate programme allows trainees to develop their skills via a combination of university and practice based work. Over 75 in-company assignments produced by the trainees over the past decade were reviewed to identify pertinent issues for practitioners and educators and to identify future trends in architectural management. KEYWORDS: Applied research, Architectural management, Education, Knowledge domain, Practice.


This paper extends the efforts on behaviorally modeling dc-dc power stages to modeling three-phase converters. By equating both the Y- and delta-connection of three-phase sources/loads to a new connection mode, which is suitable for calculating the generated/consumed power, this paper proposes the power transfer model respectively for three-phase boost rectifiers and three-phase voltage source inverters (VSI). The consistency between the proposed models and those previously published for dc-dc converters is discussed. The proposed models can find their applications in simulating multiple-module interconnected power supply systems.


This project seeks to highlight the difficulties of employing required annual reports in analyses attempting to tie left-hand side outcomes, whether past or future, through the use of Natural Language Processing techniques to analyze firm discussion of regulators, regulation, laws, and other regulatory regimes in the context of required 10-K annual disclosures under U.S. public company reporting regimes governed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques have gained popularity in turning text into data facilitating a multitude of varied new analytical projects in the fields of academic corporate research, using NLP mechanisms particularly for regulation-oriented corporate speech analysis presents relative uniformity across filers and industries which this small project seeks to highlight as a possible burden for NLP usage in this particular extension of the legal and financial reporting analyses. The small sample, simple word lists, and naive comparison employed here seeks to highlight, through simple methodology, that even an industry-by-industry analysis method may be less than meaningful in addressing regulatory, industry standard, and legal practice nuances defining regulatory discussion due, at least in part, to uniform reporting summaries (relative uniformity) across firms, not only those participating in a single industry, but across SEC annual filers generally. This project will conclude with a brief summary of possible causal factors in the highlighted report uniformities while refraining from any implication that regulatory or legal comparison is or should be among the comparative factors for which design and response uniformity guidelines for 10-K reports are generated or sought by the SEC for use by potential or current investors as an indicative factor of firm performance or future


Fatigue life and crack retardation behavior after penetration were experimentally examined using surface pre-cracked specimens of aluminium alloy 5083. The Wheeler model retardation parameter was used successfully to predict crack growth behavior after penetration. By using a crack propagation rule, the change in crack shape after penetration can be evaluated quantitatively. Advanced, waveform-based acoustic emission (AE) techniques have been successfully used to evaluate signal characteristics obtained from fatigue crack propagation and penetration behavior in 6061 aluminum plate with surface crack under fatigue stress. Surface defects in the structural members are apt to be origins of fatigue crack growth, which may cause serious failure of the whole structure. The nondestructive analysis on the crack growth and penetration from these defects may, therefore, be one of the most important subjects on the reliability of the leak before break (LBB) design. The goal of the present study is to determine if different sources of the AE could be identified by characteristics of the waveforms produced from the crack growth and penetration. AE signals detected in four stages were found to have different signal per stage. With analysis of waveform and power spectrum in 6061 aluminum alloys with a surface crack, it is found to be capabilities on real-time monitoring for the crack propagation and penetration behavior of various damages and defects in structural members.


A tension-leg platform (TLP), as an offshore structure, is a vertically moored floating structure, connecting to tendon groups, fixed to subsea by foundations, to eliminate its vertical movements. TLPs are subjected to various non-deterministic loadings, including winds, currents, and ground motions, keeping the tendons under ongoing cyclic tensions. The powerful loads can affect the characteristics of tendons and cause permanent deformation. As a result of exceeding the strain beyond the elastic phase of the tendons, it makes unbalancing on the floated TLPs. Shape memory alloy (SMA)-based tendons due to their superelasticity properties may potentially resolve such problem in TLP structures. In the present work, performance and functionality of SMA wire, as the main component of SMA-based tendon under cyclic loading, have been experimentally investigated. It shows a significant enhancement in recovering large deformation and reduces the amount of permanent deformation.


The surface structure of a multilayered film of symmetric perdeuterated diblock copolymers of polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate, denoted P(d-S-b-d-MMA), was investigated by neutron scattering at grazing incidence. The film surfaces were covered by islands or holes of uniform height with a lateral size of several micrometers. With the angle of incidence fixed, the off-specular neutron scattering was measured as function of scattering angle and neutron wavelength. The off-specular scattering intensity shows ridges at constant qz, the momentum transfer along the surface normal. The scattering arises from the surface domains. It was found that the off-specular ridges developed from minima in the oscillations in the specular profile corresponding to domain height. The characteristic of the off-specular scattering, which is different from that of the off-specular scattering due to the conformal roughness in a multilayered film, is interpreted in terms of the correlations of the surface domains.


In recent years the problems related to modeling and improving business processes have been of growing interest. Indeed, companies are realizing the undeniable impact of a better understanding and management of business processes (BP) on the effectiveness, consistency, and transparency of their business operations. BP modeling aims at a better understanding of processes, allowing deciders to achieve strategic goals of the company. However, inexperienced systems analysts often lack domain knowledge leading and this affects the quality of models they produce.
In this paper we propose to support this modeling effort with an approach that uses domain knowledge to improve the semantic quality of BP models. This approach relies on domain ontologies as a mean to capture domain knowledge and on metamodeling techniques. The main contribution of this paper is threefold: 1) the metamodels describing both a domain ontology and a BP model are described, 2) the alignment between the concepts of both metamodels is defined and illustrated, 3) a prototype implementing the approach is presented.


ABSTRACT In this contribution, we study time-delay systems with distributed delay whose kernel is piecewise constant. It is shown that the problem of finding a Lyapunov matrix for this class of time-delay systems can be reduced to the computation of solutions to an auxiliary system of linear differential equations with boundary conditions. The problem of solving the auxiliary system is then reduced to the solution of a system of linear algebraic equations. It is established that the auxiliary system with boundary conditions admits a unique solution if and only if there exists a unique Lyapunov matrix.


Conventionally defined, "global commodities" refer to raw materials and basic foodstuffs—sugar, bananas, cotton, coal, bauxite—that are extracted or grown in one area of the world and sold on the world market for industrial or consumer use elsewhere. Labor historians focusing on the point of extraction/production or tracking the production and circulation of specific global commodities have gained insight into the development of global capitalism, in particular relations between colonized and colonizer, developing countries and advanced industrial countries. From Sidney Mintz's Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1986) to Mark Kurlansky's Cod: The Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (1998) scholars and general readers alike have found in studies of a single commodity a productive method for understanding social relations in the making of the modern world.


The electronic contribution to the energy of icosahedral quasicrystals and related crystalline phases is discussed within a nearly-free-electron approximation. The Penrose approximant is used through the Elser and Henley scheme (1985) for modelling the Frank-Kasper phase atomic structure. The relative position of the Fermi sphere and the wide-gap reciprocal vectors for both structures is analysed. It is shown that the Jones-like arguments concerning the electronic concentration explain the stability of these phases in systems exhibiting the stable quasicrystal formation. Some assumptions about quasicrystalline alloys of other simple metals are suggested.


The karyotype of the human cell line, J-111, has been studied employing R-banding by fluorescence using acridine orange technique (RFA). The model chromosome number of this line was 112. All human chromosomes except the Y were present in each metaphase. Twenty-one marker chromosomes were distinguished and their possible origins were investigated. Of these, twelve were consistently present in all cells. Nine markers were highly variable. Four typical marker chromosomes of HeLa cells were found and their origins were identified, indicating that the line is a HeLa contaminant. The reverse banding patterns of all marker chromosomes are presented and the value of the RFA technique is discussed.


accuracy. The fact that the atmospheric absorption in the red is much less than that in the blue is obviously also an advantage. Readings taken over a period of a minute have an average deviation of about one second. Somewhat greater sensitivity could undoubtedly be attained by raising the cell voltage. However, until the need arises, this will not be done since it would involve some risk of spoiling an excellent photo-cell. The point of maximum sensitivity for equal spectral energy is near 8000 A. After the light from an AO (white) star has penetrated the atmosphere, been reflected from a mirror and passed through several glass surfaces, about 55 per cent of the total effective energy is of longer wave-length than 6800 A. For a KO (yellow) star this ratio is about 75 per cent. When a filter is used which cuts off the energy at approximately 7800 A, the total effective energy of a white star is reduced by about 80 per cent while that of a red star is reduced by approximately 64 per cent. Actual observations have shown that the photoelectric current is at least very nearly proportional to the incident light intensity over a range of magnitudes extending from 3.0 to 6.5. The important point at present is that the same relative magnitudes are found for the same stars on different nights to within a high degree of accuracy. I am very grateful to Dr. Schilt, then at Yale Observatory, now at Columbia University, for his many helpful suggestions and constant encouragement. The cooperation of the Bell Laboratories in general and of Dr. Prescott in particular made this work possible. The G-M Laboratories, Inc., in Chicago and the Westinghouse Laboratory in Pittsburgh also showed noteworthy spirit of cooperation.


Cultured cells from bovine papilloma virus (BPV)-induced fibroblastic tumors and normal dermis of cattle, horses, and hamsters were examined for cell membrane or internal neoantigens, using the indirect immunofluorescence technique. Sera from cattle and horses bearing BPV-induced fibromas cross reacted with cell membranes of tumor, but not with normal dermal cells of both species. The reaction could be blocked with homologous, but not heterologous, serum of these 2 species. Immunofluorescence was not detected with sera from hamsters bearing BPV-induced sarcomas if incubated with bovine, equine, or hamster cells. Internal neoantigens were not found in any of the acetone-fixed tumor cells, using sera from the 3 species. Both tumor and normal cells were all found free of BPV antigen, using direct immunofluorescence.


Although, in earlier work, depression in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) was attributed to difficulties adjusting to SCI, more recent articles have emphasized the importance of constitutional and environmental factors not specific to SCI, as well as established theoretical models of depression. To further explore this question, 11 pairs of monozygotic twins, where one of each pair was spinal cord injured, were studied. Measures included the Beck Depression Inventory, the depression scale of the SCL-90R, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Using pairwise t tests, the authors did not find any significant differences between SCI and non-SCI co-twins. These findings are consistent with the idea that the occurrence of SCI does not inevitably lead to increased depression.


In recent years Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) has received considerable attention from both private investors as well as pension funds. Despite this proliferation in interest, several topics are still unresolved, namely selection methods, performance and effects regarding sustainability. This paper examines how green investors can induce firms to invest in cleaner production technology by using exclusionary investment screens. SRI is more likely to be successful when abatement costs are low and if principle guided investors are numerous and have homogenous investment principles. The transformation process becomes more probable when shares of clean firms are viewed as a separate asset class by all investors. Green investors have to accept lower returns from shares of clean firms, even in the case of positive externalities.


We propose a novel method to effectively observe the core region of ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) air showers. The measurement of the core region has been challenging due to saturation problems of surface detectors caused by the high particle density. However, simulations have shown the importance of collecting data from the core region for understanding UHECRs. To address this challenge, we propose to use compact and thin sensors, such as the CMOS camera image sensors commonly found in consumer devices. These sensors have the unique ability to accurately detect not only optical photons but also charged particles such as cosmic rays and environmental radiation. Due to their thinness, these CMOS have very small energy deposits, allowing high-density regions to be observed without causing saturation problems. In this study, we aim to construct a new observation model using small and thin sensors such as CMOS sensors and discuss the possibility of establishing a large-scale and cost-effective observation network for UHECRs through a simplified model. Our other related paper will further discuss the effective use of CMOS sensors for cosmic ray observations.


Bayesian causal structure learning aims to learn a posterior distribution over directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), and the mechanisms that define the relationship between parent and child variables. By taking a Bayesian approach, it is possible to reason about the uncertainty of the causal model. The notion of modelling the uncertainty over models is particularly crucial for causal structure learning since the model could be unidentifiable when given only a finite amount of observational data. In this paper, we introduce a novel method to jointly learn the structure and mechanisms of the causal model using Variational Bayes, which we call Variational Bayes-DAG-GFlowNet (VBG). We extend the method of Bayesian causal structure learning using GFlowNets to learn not only the posterior distribution over the structure, but also the parameters of a linear-Gaussian model. Our results on simulated data suggest that VBG is competitive against several baselines in modelling the posterior over DAGs and mechanisms, while offering several advantages over existing methods, including the guarantee to sample acyclic graphs, and the flexibility to generalize to non-linear causal mechanisms.


One of the most important problems of terminal control reduction problem is considered and solved. On the base of spinor representation of spatial rotation group, the control law functions are obtained. A mathematical model of reduction process is constructed. The results can be used for practical purposes to elaborate simple control algorithms of spatial movement reduction process in many different fields.


In recent years, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing has been widely adopted for analyzing the microbial communities in drinking water (DW). However, no comprehensive attempts have been made to illuminate the inherent method biases specifically relating to DW communities. In this study, we investigated the impact of DNA extraction and primer choice on the observed microbial community, and furthermore estimated the detection limit of the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing in these experimental settings. Of the two DNA extraction kits investigated, the PowerWater DNA Isolation Kit resulted in higher yield, better reproducibility and more OTUs identified compared to the FastDNA SPIN Kit for Soil, which is also commonly used within DW microbiome research. The use of three separate primer-sets targeting the V1-3, V3-4, and V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene revealed large differences in OTU abundances, with some of the primers unable to detect entire phyla. Estimations of the detection limit were based on bacteria-free water samples (1 L) spiked with Escherichia coli cells in different concentrations [101–106 cells/ml]. E. coli could be detected in all samples, however, samples with ∼101 cells/ml had several contaminating OTUs constituting approximately 8% of the read abundances. Based on our findings, we recommend using the PowerWater DNA Isolation Kit for DNA extraction in combination with PCR amplification of the V3-4 or V4 region for DW samples if a broad overview of the microbial community is to be obtained.


General purpose visual programming languages (VPLs) promote the construction of programs that are more comprehensible, robust, and maintainable by enabling programmers to directly observe and manipulate algorithms and data. However, they usually do not exploit the visual representation of entities in the problem domain, even if those entities and their interactions have obvious visual representations, as is the case in the robot control domain. We present a formal control model for autonomous robots, based on subsumption, and use it as the basis for a VPL in which reactive behaviour is programmed via interactions with a simulation.


Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are flexible, robust, and self-organizing resource sharing infrastructures which are typically designed in a fully decentralized manner. However, a key problem of such systems are peers overusing a resource. This paper presents a fully decentralized scheme to achieve fair use in P2P systems, which does not require a priori information about a peer. The approach developed is based on a scarce resource trading scheme (SRTCPU), which utilizes CPU time as a form of payment. SRTCPU provides an incentive to offer CPU time in return of consuming a scarce resource. A distributed DNS has been implemented as an example application that uses SRTCPU.


A fuzzy controller design using linguistic control rule adjustment is proposed. The proposed adaptive law, which results from the direct adaptive approach, is used to indirectly regulate the output fuzzy variables in the fuzzy controller according to the prelabelled rules. The main advantage of the proposed method is that the determination of rule selection is formed by an analytical parameter equation with multiple input variables of the fuzzy controller. Practically, it is not easy to characterise the linguistic control rules and their membership function distribution without expert knowledge, especially in those cases when the input state variables of the fuzzy controller are increased. The rules are first labelled, then an adaptive law is used to tune the injected parameters in the IF-part to appropriately determine each output fuzzy variable under situations of lack of any knowledge of the plant. The derivation result shows that the proposed adaptive fuzzy controller is stable in the Lyapunov sense. Finally, a nonlinear system simulation example is applied to verify the effectiveness and the ability of the proposed fuzzy controller.


This paper explores media reporting of the rising food costs in five Australian newspapers in the 12 month period from 1st September 2007 to 31st August 2008. This period encompassed a Federal election in which rising food costs were identified as an election issue and a national inquiry into grocery pricing established to honour pre-election promises. Content analysis of newspaper articles demonstrates an increasing interest in the print media in food prices at this time, with thematic analysis revealing the dominance of political concerns and the economic fears of the Australian public. This paper explores these issues. It compares the rhetoric and reality of rising food costs through reporting of the causes and impact of increased food prices and explores the apportioning of blame for rising food prices and the solutions which arise from this through media reporting of political and personal strategies for managing the risk of food insecurity. The paper will also identify the social processes that contributed to the newsworthiness of rising food costs at this time.


Co2 diuresis is probably mediated via a nonosmotic influence on the supraopticohypophyseal system. Since the left atrial stretch receptor mechanism is one such nonosmotic system which Co2 might influence, experiments were designed to elucidate its role. It was found that Co2 diuresis may be abolished by the erect posture or by applying tourniquets high on the thighs while supine, and that it may be restored by standing in a tank of water or by mild exercise. Increases in plasma volume, total blood volume, or pulmonary blood volume, which conceivably might stretch the left atrium, did not occur during Co2 diuresis. Voluntary hyperventilation mimicking that which accompanies Co2 inhalation resulted in a much smaller diuresis and one which, unlike that of Co2, was accompanied by increased sodium excretion. Maintaining normal alveolar Co2 tension during voluntary hyperventilation by simultaneous inhalation of 2% Co2 in no way altered this result. Bilateral vagus section does not abolish Co2 diuresis, but may enhance it. It is concluded, therefore, that the left atrial stretch receptor mechanism is not the afferent system for Co2 diuresis.

Submitted on January 26, 1959


Enterprise-wide Solutions for AML and Anti-Fraud The financial services industry is dynamic and it is imperative for institutions to navigate this ever-changing market to grow revenue while controlling costs. Banks are looking to better understand customer needs, provide transparent processes, and strengthen their risk management practices while combating financial crime. This has led to the widespread adoption of an enterprise wide approach to compliance and risk management.


A tight-binding simulation of the atom-by-atom deposition of amorphous carbon (a-C) at 100 eV incident energy is presented. More than 500 atoms were deposited. Chains are observed to form on the surface, some of which are sputtered. The good agreement with the experimental sputter frequency data and observation that all such clusters are linear provides strong support for the existence of these chains and the direct emission model of sputtering. The bulk of the grown film is a-C with a tetrahedral bonding fraction of 20%. Experiments have shown that at this incident energy of 100 eV, tetrahedral a-C is the preferred structural form rather than the a-C produced by this simulation. This discrepancy is attributed to the short range of the interatomic potential.


A scheme for beam combination at any angles employing a specially designed multilayer grating is proposed. Such a grating is able to convert noncoaxial laser beams to coaxial ones, and the combined beams are able to output along the normal line of the grating. The intensity and the phase structure of combined beams can also be controlled. The experiments are carried out by loading an encoded grating on a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. The results agree well with the simulations. This method of beam combination with a multilayer grating serves to simplify the complexity of beam combination.


Background Hsa_circ_0002124, which was first reported in 2013, is derived from NuSAP1. However, its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its regulatory mechanisms remain to be investigated. Methods First, hsa_circ_0002124 was structurally validated via specific convergent and divergent primer amplification. The hsa_circ_0002124 expression in the liver cancer tissues and multiple HCC cell lines were determined using qPCR. Further, the cell functions of hsa_circ_0002124 in HCC cells were examined using knockdown and overexpressed hsa_circ_0002124 in 97H cells. The cell proliferation was assessed using MTS assay, cell proliferation and invasion capacities were evaluated using Transwell culture system, and cell cycle progression and apoptosis were analyzed using flow cytometry. Further, GO and KEGG analyses were performed to uncover the key function and pathways in HCC. The interaction networks between hsa_circ_0002124 and its downstream miRNAs and genes were constructed using Cytoscape software. The key protein expressions (p-JNK, JNK, p-ERK, ERK, p-P38, P38, and c-Myc) of the MAPK pathway in 97H cells with knockdown and overexpressed hsa_circ_0002124 treatments were detected using Western blotting. Results Hsa_circ_0002124 was highly expressed in the HCC cells and liver cancer tissues. Moreover, the knockdown hsa_circ_0002124 in 97H cells resulted in the repression of cell proliferation, cell invasion, and migration, with simultaneous promotion of cell apoptosis and cell cycle transformation. The opposing situations of cell function could be detected in overexpressed hsa_circ_0002124 in 97H cells. KEGG and interaction network analysis of hsa_circ_0002124 indicated that hsa_circ_0002124 could be a molecular sponge of miRNAs, which regulates the key protein expressions in the MAPK pathway. The p-JNK/JNK, p-ERK/ERK, p-P38/P38, and c-Myc expressions in knockdown hsa_circ_0002124-treated 97H cells were significantly lower than in normal 97H cells, whereas these expressions in overexpressed hsa_circ_0002124-treated 97H cells were significantly higher than in mock vector-treated 97H cells. Conclusions Hsa_circ_0002124 could be a potential biomarker for the early diagnosis and treatment of HCC.


The netherworld marriage or the wedding for dead persons is a folk religious ritual in ancientChina. It is based on ancient Chinese folk belief of afterlife in the netherworld. Through a textual research and investigation based on relevant historical records and other ancient documents, as well as some archeological discoveries, this paper tries to give a brief account of the origin and development of netherworld marriage and its cultural and ideological background in ancient China. It finds that netherworld marriage might originate from human sacrifice in early ancient times, and its name varies in different periods. It has gone through its prevailing in the Tang Dynasty, declining in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and reviving again in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the long history, this custom was generally criticized and condemned by orthodoxy Confucian intellectuals, yet it was practiced and sometimes even prevailed among both noble class and common people, due to its deep root in the folk belief. The paper also intends to clarify some misconceptions and misunderstandings concerning the study of this unique cultural phenomenon.


The Monograph Series is published by NCTM as a supplement to the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME). Each monograph has a single theme related to the learning or teaching of mathematics. This volume considers the background of constructivism, explores what it means to carry out the process of mathematical thinking and describes how children engage in mathematical activity and how teachers can promote this activity.


We study the conditional distribution of low-dimensional projections from high-dimensional data, where the conditioning is on other low-dimensional projections. To fix ideas, consider a random d-vector Z that has a Lebesgue density and that is standardized so that $\mathbb{E}Z=0$ and $\mathbb{E}ZZ'=I_d$. Moreover, consider two projections defined by unit-vectors $\alpha$ and $\beta$, namely a response $y=\alpha'Z$ and an explanatory variable $x=\beta'Z$. It has long been known that the conditional mean of y given x is approximately linear in x$ under some regularity conditions; cf. Hall and Li [Ann. Statist. 21 (1993) 867-889]. However, a corresponding result for the conditional variance has not been available so far. We here show that the conditional variance of y given x is approximately constant in x (again, under some regularity conditions). These results hold uniformly in $\alpha$ and for most $\beta$'s, provided only that the dimension of Z is large. In that sense, we see that most linear submodels of a high-dimensional overall model are approximately correct. Our findings provide new insights in a variety of modeling scenarios. We discuss several examples, including sliced inverse regression, sliced average variance estimation, generalized linear models under potential link violation, and sparse linear modeling.


Cancer mortality still remains high despite significant investments in diagnostics, drug development, and treatment. The systemic route is convenient both for routine monitoring and for drug administration. Local cancer biomarker concentrations, however, are more indicative of the state of solid tumors and their response to therapy. Furthermore, local drug delivery can achieve efficacy where systemic treatments fail. This dissertation describes two reservoir-based devices to enable such local approaches. We are applying superparamagnetic crosslinked iron oxide nanoparticles (CLIO) for the quantitative measurements of soluble cancer biomarkers. These nanoparticles are functionalized to react specifically in the presence of their target analyte. An implanted device with a sizeexclusion membrane was used to contain the CLIO and to expose them to the cancer milieu. The system was designed to be deployed deep within the body and indirectly detect cancer cells and their activity by their secreted products, which are produced at a very high copy number by each cell. A reservoir-based polymeric device has also been applied for local chemotherapy. A biodegradable polymer microchip was designed in our group to independently deliver more than one therapeutic agent. Only in vitro release of active compounds had been previously demonstrated. The work in this thesis achieves local drug therapy from the polymer microchip and demonstrates efficacy against an in vivo tumor model of brain cancer. The reservoir-based device approach has the potential to enable early detection of cancer recurrence, personalized drug treatments, and localized multi-drug therapy. Thesis Committee Professor Darrell Irvine, MIT Professor Robert Langer, MIT (HST Chair) Professor Michael Cima, MIT (Thesis Supervisor)


One of the most famous radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine is Iodine-123. Among the various types of nuclear reactions for producing I-123, the following reactions are favored due to the absence of I-124 and I-125 impurities: 54124 Xe(P,2n) 55123 Cs5.9 minβ+ 54123 Xe2.08 hrβ+ 53123 I 54124 Xe(P,pn) 54123 Xe2.08 hrβ+ 53123 I Recently in Cyclotron and Nuclear Medicine Department of NRCAM, at Atomic Energy organization of Iran (AEOI), a system for producing I-123 via Xe-124 gas target technology, has been constructed and installed. One of the major problems in this system is the highly expensive cost of the enriched Xenon-124 gas. Therefore, saving this gas inside the system is very important. Unfortunately, by accidental rupture of the window foil or bad function of O-rings, the whole Xenon gas will escape from the system immediately. In this paper, by using computer codes; ALICE91, SRIM and doing some calculations we are going to demonstrate our latest effort for feasibility study of producing I-123 with the above mentioned reactions, but using Xe-124 solid target instead. According to our suggested design, a conical shaped irradiation vessel made of copper with 1mm thickness, 1cm outlet diameter, 5cm length and 12° angle at summit can be fixed inside a liquid nitrogen housing chamber. The Xenon-124 gas will be sent to the inside of this very cold conical trap and eventually deposited on its surface in solid form. Our calculation shows that during bombardment with 17–28 MeV proton energy, the thickness of solidified Xenon layer will remain around .28 mm. Likewise; thermo-dynamical calculation shows that in order to prevent the evaporation of solidified Xenon, the maximum permissible proton beam current for this system should be less than 1.4 μA. According to these working conditions, the production yield of I-123 can be predicted to be around 150 mCi/μAh.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


The purpose of this study was to examine the self-regulation in E-commerce business and review the major issues of self-regulation in several countries. This paper reviewed the legislation for the self regulation of APEC, OECD and EC, and introduced the regulation system for several countries, such as U.S. U.K. and Japan. Also, we analyzed the current issues and problems of self-regulation in Korea and tried to suggest the future direction. There were three differnet regulations such as market forces, government regulation and self-regulation and the model of self-regulations were shaped in various types. Even though the government made the standard regulations for business sector but it was impossible to direct individual firms and their compliance of those regulations. To compensate the government regulation, the self regulation with low cost is needed and also two kinds of regulations has to be unified to enhance the regulation system in E-commerce. Jndustries should participate for the regulation voluntarily and consumers must given an award of legislation for self-regulation to motivate the self-regulations of industries.


Based on preliminary observations in the field, from the data, showed that the learning process carried out in class X SMKN 2 Banda Aceh was in accordance with the 2013 curriculum. However, in the learning process there were obstacles namely students' unpreparedness towards the material to be studied. This is caused by the teacher who concerned using the lecture method. As a result, interaction between students and teachers and between students and other students is very less. This is because communication between students and teachers is only one direction, the lack of attention, motivation of students. With the development of science and technology today, the influence of the use of eagle software is expected to improve student learning outcomes. Thus, the formulation of the problems in this study are: 1) How is the effect of using eagle software, in improving student learning outcomes in class X on technical drawing subjects at SMKN 2 Banda Aceh, 2) How are students learning interest with eagle software, on subjects drawing techniques at SMKN 2 Banda Aceh. This research is kind of a classroom action research using quantitative methods. Data was collected through observation and tests. The object of this research is class X students majoring in audio video electronics engineering at SMKN 2 Banda Aceh, totaling 25 students. This research was conducted in two stages. In the first cycle the percentage of observations of student learning activities by 57%, in the second cycle increased to 13% with a percentage value of 70%. This shows that the activeness of student learning in drawing techniques using the use of eagle software has increased in each cycle. Application of the use of eagle software can increase student interest in learning with a percentage of positive responses by 96%, while students with a percentage of negative responses by 4%. The results of the study prove that there is an increase in students' understanding in participating in learning to draw techniques with the use of eagle software.


Elastic scattering of electrons from a molecule is studied theoretically. Differential, as well as integral and momentum-transfer, cross sections are calculated at the energies 3 - 60 eV. The calculation is based on an ab initio electrostatic potential taken with the approximate effects of electron exchange and target polarization. The fixed-nuclei approximation is made and the coupled channel equations are solved for partial waves. The resulting cross sections are satisfactory in the energy range 10 - 60 eV, when compared with experimental data. The resonance structure at around 4 eV is not well reproduced by the present calculation. Detailed comparisons are also made with previous theoretical works.


A study is made of the periods of free tidal oscillations and of the corresponding wave patterns m rotating flat basins which have the form of rectangles or of sectors of circles. The analysis is based on a variational principle for tidal oscillations. It is shown that, if denotes the tide height and its complex conjugate, the sign of the integral ij(d/ds) ds, which is real, taken around the periphery of the basin, determines whether the tidal wave propagates around the basin m the direction of rotation (positive wave), or opposite to it (negative wave). The sense of propagation can also be told from the sign of dk2(r),where k2 = (or2-4w2) r = 2w/o denoting the speed of rotation, and o the frequency. A discussion is given of the removal by rotation of the degeneracy that exists in some modes in the absence of rotation. The method (A) of expansion of in terms of the eigenfunctions for no rotation (T = 0) was found to converge well only for T < 1. Our calculations were carried out by an adaptation of Trefftz's method, in which the variation of the surface integral is reduced to a variation of a line-integral taken along the boundary. This method (B) was found to be effective for all ranges of rotation. The solutions obtained illustrate that in some modes the tides are always positive, while in others they start out being negative at slow rotation and turn positive as the rotation is increased. A theory is developed, for basins of general shape, showing that as the speed of rotation is increased indefinitely a Kelvin regime sets in, in which the tide concentrates near the periphery, decreasing exponentially towards the interior. The Kelvin wave is positive and the characteristic frequencies o are given by a on = 2nn (gh)/p, p denoting the perimeter of the basin. It is shown that near a blunt corner of the coast the tide has a singularity like that in potential flow.


We present an adaptive image coding algorithm based on novel backward-adaptive quantization/classification techniques. We use a simple uniform scalar quantizer to quantize the image subbands. Our algorithm puts the coefficient into one of several classes depending on the values of neighboring previously quantized coefficients. These previously quantized coefficients form contexts which are used to characterize the subband data. To each context type corresponds a different probability model and thus each subband coefficient is compressed with an arithmetic coder having the appropriate model depending on that coefficient's neighborhood. We show how the context selection can be driven by rate-distortion criteria, by choosing the contexts in a way that the total distortion for a given bit rate is minimized. Moreover the probability models for each context are initialized/updated in a very efficient way so that practically no overhead information has to be sent to the decoder. Our results are comparable or in some cases better than the recent state of the art, with our algorithm being simpler than most of the published algorithms of comparable performance.


Purpose: To determine whether a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) meets the goals of a low infection rate and long-term use in trauma patients.
Methods: From January 2016 to June 2018, the medical records of patients who underwent central venous catheterization at a level I trauma center were retrospectively reviewed. Data collected included age, sex, injury severity score, site of catheterization, place of catheterization (intensive care unit [ICU], emergency department, or general ward), type of catheter, length of hospital stay during catheterization, types of cultured bacteria, time to development of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), and complications.
Results: During the study period, 333 central vein catheters (CVC) were inserted with a total of 2,626 catheter-days and 97 PICCs were placed with a total of 2,227 catheter- days. The CLABSI rate was significantly lower in the PICC group when the analysis was limited to patients for whom the catheter was changed for the first time in the ICU after CVC insertion in the ER with similar indication and catheter insertion times (18.6 vs. 10.3/1,000 catheter-days, respectively, p<0.05). The median duration of catheter use was significantly longer in the PICC group than in the CVC group (16 vs. 6 days, respectively, p<0.05).
Conclusions: The study results showed that the duration of catheter use was longer and the infection rate were lower in the PICC group than in the CVC group, suggesting that PICC is a safe and reliable alternative to conventional CVC.


Natural gas is a non-regenerable energy source. For this motive she must be managed properly to protect it for future generation. Proper management of natural gas reserves requires submetering. Submetering of natural gas consumption and revenue collection is traditionally accomplished using residential gas meter. To resolve some problem of revenue collection residential smart gas meters is implemented. In this context we at SC AEM SA from Timisoara, Romania produce smart gas meters such as diaphragm gas meters with an electronic index and ultrasonic gas meters.


The article considers the problems and methods of evaluating the effectiveness of the system of state and municipal management. Effective monitoring requires that the system of all monitored indicators be uniform and consistent, and that the indicators themselves be adequately reflected in the performance evaluation system of civil or municipal employees. Currently, such conditions are not provided.


Background: There is a need to establish the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and safety of allergen immunotherapy (AIT) for the prevention of allergic disease. Methods: Two reviewers independently screened nine international biomedical databases. Studies were quantitatively synthesized using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: 32 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Overall, meta-analysis found no conclusive evidence that AIT reduced the risk of developing a first allergic disease over the short-term (RR=0.30; 95%CI 0.04 to 2.09) and no randomized controlled evidence was found in relation to its longer-term effects for this outcome. There was however a reduction in the short-term risk of those with allergic rhinitis developing A cc ep te d A rt ic le This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. asthma (RR=0.40; 95%CI 0.29 to 0.54), with this finding being robust to a pre-specified sensitivity analysis. We found inconclusive evidence that this benefit was maintained over the longer-term: RR=0.62; 95%CI 0.31 to 1.23. There was evidence that the risk of new sensitization was reduced over the shortterm, but this was not confirmed in the sensitivity analysis: RR=0.72; 95%CI 0.24 to 2.18. There was no clear evidence of any longer-term reduction in the risk of sensitization: RR=0.47; 95%CI 0.08 to 2.77. AIT appeared to have an acceptable side-effect profile. Conclusions: AIT did not result in a statistically significant reduction in the risk of developing a first allergic disease. There was however evidence of a reduced short-term risk of developing asthma in those with allergic rhinitis, but it is unclear whether this benefit was maintained over the longer-term. We are unable to comment on the cost-effectiveness of AIT.


Emission spectrography has been used to study distribution of trace elements in Paleozoic limestones surrounding Pb-Zn ore bodies near Santa Rita, New Mexico, and subsequent transportation of these traces into overlying Tertiary beds. Analyses are given for Pb, Zn, Cu, Ag, and V, important ore metals, and Mn and Al, prominent in pre-ore silication. Pb highs from Tertiary fault zones may be correlated with ore bodies in pre-Tertiary rocks, but Zn has been leached unless considerable gouge is present. Pb and Zn highs from a remote part of the Tertiary area encourage further exploration. A zoning of traces occurs in Tertiary mont-morillonite zones bordering the ore-localizing Groundhog fault. Near a producing mine, Ag wa deposited for 20 feet from the fault, and Pb for 40 feet. Most Zn highs are in a 60-foot zone, but a few extend as much as 250 feet. In limestones around Pb-Zn ore bodies, trace-element distribution is controlled by small fractures, and penetration into massive wall-rock is negligible. Zn highs occur close to ore bodies, and Pb highs farther away. The shape of the Pb gradient seems controlled largely by temperature, and the relative importance of pre-ore silication and ore-deposition may be important here.


Anti-immunoglobulin (anti-Ig) causes suppression of secretion of immunoglobulin by LPS-activated pig B lymphoblasts. The cellular level at which anti-Ig influences immunoglobulin secretion has been investigated, using soluble anti-Ig which enters B cells, and anti-Ig immobilized onto acrylamide bead or plastic surfaces which can act only at the B-cell surface. Suppression of secretion only occurred with soluble anti-Ig, indicating that the intracellular processing of antibody after its complexing on the cell surface was necessary for suppression to occur. Immobilized anti-Ig acted as effectively as soluble antibody in activation of resting B cells into mitosis, showing that the activating signal of anti-Ig is received at the cell surface. Electron microscopy has shown that the block to secretion after soluble anti-Ig resulted from the accumulation of smooth membrane-bounded intracellular vesicles which, by immunofluorescence, contained immunoglobulin. The formation of vesicles was intimately associated with the intracellular localization of 125I-labelled anti-Ig which was used to follow cellular processing of anti-Ig.


The transition from gestation to lactation requires numerous physiological and metabolic adaptations in order for the body to maintain relative homeostasis. For the modern dairy cow, the difficulty to meet these challenges is increased many-fold due to the large demand for energy and metabolites placed on the body by the high producing mammary gland. Milk fever or periparturient hypocalcemia can be defined as a failure of the calcium homeostatic mechanisms to maintain serum calcium around the time of calving. Though clinical cases may only arise in ≈ 5% of transition cows, subclinical rates are much higher. Animals suffering from even subclinical milk fever are much more susceptible to numerous other transition disorders. Preventing milk fever by formulation of the prepartum ration may be accomplished by decreasing the dietary cation anion difference (DCAD) which can be defined as the balance between positively and negatively charged ions in the diet. An experiment was designed to test 2 diets containing t products designed to deliver supplementary anions to the diet versus a control ration with no added anions. Total serum calcium and incidence of postpartum health disorders were not affected by prepartum dietary treatment. Though DCAD was drastically different between the control ration and the 2 anionic diets, the concentration of the strong cation potassium was low across all treatments which presumably prevented hypocalcemia with the onset of lactation. Though our diets contained low concentrations of potassium, many diets used by dairymen contain forages that are high in potassium and thus might benefit from the addition of anions. An experiment of an unrelated nature was conducted to observe the effects of 2 diets containing wet corn gluten feed (46 or 56% of DM) as the primary energy substrate and tallgrass prairie hay (14 or 20% of DM) as the sole source of physically effective fiber versus a control ration containing alfalfa and corn silage. The 20% tallgrass prairie hay diet resulted in milk components and efficiencies similar to those of the control ration, but production and income over feed cost did not match that of the control ration in this situation.


Abstract Introduction: Emergency preparedness can be defined by the preparedness pyramid, which identifies planning, infrastructure, knowledge and capabilities, and training as the major components of maintaining a high level of preparedness.The aim of this article is to review the characteristics of contingency plans for mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) and models for assessing the emergency preparedness of hospitals. Characteristics of Contingency Plans: Emergency preparedness should focus on community preparedness, a personnel augmentation plan, and communications and public policies for funding the emergency preparedness. The capability to cope with a MCI serves as a basis for preparedness for non-conventional events. Coping with chemical casualties necessitates decontamination of casualties, treating victims with acute stress reactions, expanding surge capacities of hospitals, and integrating knowledge through drills. Risk communication also is important. Assessment of Emergency Preparedness: An annual assessment of the emergency plan is required in order to assure emergency preparedness. Preparedness assessments should include: (1) elements of disaster planning; (2) emergency coordination; (3) communication; (4) training; (5) expansion of hospital surge capacity; (6) personnel; (7) availability of equipment; (8) stockpiles of medical supplies; and (9) expansion of laboratory capacities. The assessment program must be based on valid criteria that are measurable, reliable, and enable conclusions to be drawn. There are several assessment tools that can be used, including surveys, parameters, capabilities evaluation, and self-assessment tools. Summary: Healthcare systems are required to prepare an effective response model to cope with MCIs. Planning should be envisioned as a process rather than a production of a tangible product. Assuring emergency preparedness requires a structured methodology that will enable an objective assessment of the level of readiness.


In "The Poetics of a Multiphonic Landscape artistic" research fellow Torben Snekkestad is focusing on the saxophone's ability to produce multiphonics (multiple sounds on an instrument considered monophonic). The project has become a personal artistic exploration into the process of unfolding the poetics of these complex sonics and a reflection over the process, methods and the creation of an album trilogy, consisting of acoustic solo music recorded during the research period. The main question Snekkestad has been asking himself during this three-year research project has been: What happens if the raw musical material, in the creation of a set of solo saxophone works, is based on the multiphonics only and what this material in itself suggest - possibly independent of any stylistic affiliation? Snekkestad writes on his project that his main objective «was to examine why the saxophone's multiphonics has such a captivating effect on me. How could I possibly explore their intrinsic qualities and unfold the poetic potential in them? By the same token, my ambition was to find a suitable artistic context for this enamored relationship that so heavily has stirred the waves of my imagination.» Snekkestad continues: - In the reflection text on the project, I disclose how some unexpected paths during this pursuit revealed themselves. From sprouting interest toward underwater soundscapes, to the making of a hybrid instrument called reed trumpet; and how my personal catalogue of multiple sounds found its place, not in a public pdf document or book release, but in a German wooden archive box. - I relay in what way I began to take on the intrinsic qualities of the multiphonics and the reason why an oscillation between artistic intention and action is so pivotal for an improviser. To make sure that the project had this focus at all time, I sat up a dogma that contains a list of eight fundamental criteria that manifest the intentions and structure as well as sharpen the working methods. The Artistic Result is documented through an acoustic solo album trilogy, performed and composed by Torben Snekkestad. It consists of the albums Winds of Mouth, Plateau and The Reed Trumpet.


Certain parallels between E.L. Doctorow's early years of adolescence and his novel World's Fair (1985) have given rise to a general reception of the novel as an instance of autobiography. The simultaneous merging of illusion and memoir, however, undermines all attempts at categorizing World's Fair generically insofar as any such categorization fails to capture the essence of the novel in the entirety of its dimensions. The reflection of reality through the fictional medium of the novel, through memory and language, challenges the assumption that autobiography is possible whatsoever. Arguing that it is problematic/ simplistic to recognize any text as either history or fiction, Paul de Man proposes a revolving-door model in which any autobiographical text is shown to feature fictionality while any fictional text might just as well exhibit traces of autobiographicality. In this line, the present undertaking targets the factual and fictional dimensions of World's Fair by exploring the ways that the text lends itself to a deconstructive reading. The starting point is a specular subject, inside and outside the text, who shows signs of retrospection and prescience. Further explorations of the protagonist in terms of artistic maturation, social development and communal consciousness unveil how aporic mechanisms disrupt the binary dynamics of traditional discourses.


The development of client/server personal computer networks allow electric utilities with such networks to make near real-time operating data available to any employee with network access. Sophisticated graphical displays and trending capability provides operations, planning and management personnel a high performance window into operations that could only be dreamed of a few years ago. This paper describes the benefits that two California utilities have achieved from establishment of LAN/WAN based operational data display systems. >


The key issue addressed in this chapter is the capacity of outstanding heritage sites to serve as a local resource and to drive a territorial development dynamic. Indeed, territories that have remarkable heritage sites are both highly specific (due to the presence of that attraction) and subject to significant regulatory frameworks, including the mandatory protection of their sites. Ruault and Talandier use a mixed methodology approach: quantitative (socio-economic, fiscal and environmental variables to create typologies and evaluate site impacts) for all the sites, and qualitative (survey of local managers and field research) for targeted study sites. The results show that heritage sites can boost the local economy. However, this is not always the case: their positive impact on local jobs, attractiveness and income differs according to the local context. Indeed, a remarkable heritage site entails multiple development constraints but also has huge potential for leveraging cooperation and greater profits usable for site protection. Thus, the findings question the concept of a territorial resource: its mere presence does not ensure local development, and it is necessary to rethink its role as part of a more dynamic model to extend it to the medium to long term so as to accommodate successive interactions between the asset and development. Ultimately, the aim is to turn the territory into a resource for heritage sites and vice versa by striking a balance that benefits both.


Polyaniline (PANI) chains were grafted at the edge of graphene oxide (GO) sheets by in-situ chemical oxidation polymerization. The obtained GO-PANI composite was used for the adsorption of cationic methylene blue (MB) and anionic methyl orange (MO) dyes from aqueous solutions. The structure of the GO-PANI composite was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic micrograph (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and zeta potentials. GO-PANI exhibited a high adsorption capacity for MB (962 mg/g) and MO (885 mg/g) compared with other reported absorbents, which was due to adsorption through strong π-π stacking and anion-cation interactions. The nanocomposite could be recycled five times without significant loss in removal abilities for MB (87.8%) and MO (75.0%), respectively. GO-PANI composite is a promising adsorbent for the adsorption of anionic and cationic dyes from aqueous solutions.


Introduces an innovative microinjector design, featuring a bubble valve, which entails superior droplet ejection characteristics and monolithic fabrication, which allows handling of a wide range of liquids. This new microinjector uses asymmetric bubbles to reduce crosstalk, increase frequency response and eliminate satellite droplets. During a firing, i.e., droplet ejection, the "virtual valve" closes, by growing a thermal bubble in the microchannel, to isolate the microchamber from the liquid supply and neighboring chambers. Between firings, however, the virtual valve opens, by collapsing the bubble, to reduce flow restriction for fast refilling of the microchamber. The use of bubble valves brings about fast and reliable device operation without imposing the significant complication fabrication of physical microvalves would call for. In addition, through a special heater configuration and chamber designs, bubbles surrounding the nozzle cut off the tail of the droplets being ejected and completely eliminate satellite droplets. A simple one-dimensional model of the operation of the microinjector is used to estimate the bubble formation and liquid refilling.


The consequences of acute amphetamine administration on the metabolic responsiveness of the cerebral cortex to physiologic activation were studied in normal and infarcted rats. Treated rats received a 4 mg/kg intravenous injection of d-amphetamine 1 hour before unilateral vibrissae stimulation and 2-deoxyglucose study. In nontreated normal rats, metabolic activation was restricted to the major relay stations of the vibrissae-barrel circuit. In amphetamine-treated rats, stimulation-induced increased glucose utilization was widespread, including ipsilateral and contralateral cortical regions outside the barrel field circuit. For example, an 84% increase in glucose utilization above control was seen in cortical areas anterior to the barrel field region. Increased glucose utilization induced by stimulation was severely depressed in nontreated rats that had undergone infarction of the left cortical barrel field 2 weeks previously. Vibrissae stimulation failed to increase glucose utilization significantly in cortical areas remote from the infarct. In contrast, bilateral increases in glucose utilization were observed within cortical regions of treated infarcted rats. For example, a 50% increase in glucose utilization was detected in cortical areas bordering the infarct. Thus, in the normal and infarcted rat, amphetamine appears to promote alternate circuit activation--a pharmacologic property that may be advantageous for recovery after injury.


There are the trends that the users hope to retrieve information among lots of individual database systems distributed in lots of virtual organizations. To connect all these individual database systems into a virtual database system is a significant issue. This paper presents VIRGO DDBMS, a framework of distributed database system based on virtual hierarchical tree Grid organizations(VIRGO) P2P network. The table space are classified as hierarchical domains like DNS. The servers hosting database systems joins several groups of VIRGO network according to the owned tables' domains. VIRGO DDBMS is effective for data update and retrieve by using distributed SQL statements. We use the policies which cache the host machines' addresses of database systems to avoid the overload of traffic of root nodes in tree structure. The proposal presented here can construct a virtual distributed database system which can manages huge volumes of data by connecting all database systems together which are owned by the individual virtual organizations. Keywords-Distributed database system; semantic P2P networks; distributed SQL


ABSTRACT Regarding the variance of economic voting, the literature draws on various political institutions and individual-level contexts but pays little attention on how to comprehensively analyze political and economic spheres. Given that politics and economy are closely intertwined by resource acquisition and allocation, this study proposes state-business relations (SBR) to explain the variance across countries. The empirical analysis of 31 OECD countries from 1995 to 2019 confirms that the SBR's explanatory power is significant as a coordination mechanism in a country and moderates political and economic contexts. This study highlights the importance of systematic integration of political and economic spheres and calls for additional efforts to elaborate the nuance of SBR in economic voting across countries.


Plant phytochromes are dependent on the covalent attachment of the linear tetrapyrrole chromophore phytochromobilin (P Phi B) for photoactivity. In planta, biliverdin IX alpha (BV) is reduced by the plastid-localized, ferredoxin (Fd)-dependent enzyme P Phi B synthase to yield 3Z-P Phi B. Here, we describe the >50,000-fold purification of P Phi B synthase from etioplasts from dark-grown oat (Avena sativa L. cv Garry) seedlings using traditional column chromatography and preparative electrophoresis. Thus, P Phi B synthase is a very low abundance enzyme with a robust turnover rate. We estimate the turnover rate to be >100 s(-1), which is similar to that of mammalian NAD(P)H-dependent BV reductase. Oat P Phi B synthase is a monomer with a subunit mass of 29 kD. However, two distinct charged forms of the enzymes were identified by native isoelectric focusing. The ability of P Phi B synthase to reduce BV is dependent on reduced 2Fe-2S Fds. A K(m) for spinach (Spinacea oleracea) Fd was determined to be 3 to 4 microM. P Phi B synthase has a high affinity for its bilin substrate, with a sub-micromolar K(m) for BV.


ABSTRACT HIV-1 protease (PR) mediates the proteolytic processing of virus particles during or after virus budding. PR activation is thought to be triggered by appropriate Gag-Pol/Gag-Pol interaction; factors affecting this interaction either enhance or reduce PR-mediated cleavage efficiency, resulting in markedly reduced virion production or the release of inadequately processed virions. We previously showed that a Gag-Pol deletion mutation involving the reverse transcriptase tryptophan (Trp) repeat motif markedly impairs PR-mediated virus maturation and that an alanine substitution at W401 (W401A) or at both W401 and W402 (W401A/W402A) partially or almost completely negates the enhancement effect of efavirenz (a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor) on PR-mediated virus processing efficiency. These data suggest that the Trp repeat motif may contribute to the PR activation process. Here we demonstrate that due to enhanced Gag cleavage efficiency, W402 alanine or leucine substitution significantly reduces virus production. However, W402 replacement with phenylalanine does not significantly affect virus particle assembly or processing, but it does markedly impair viral infectivity in a single-cycle infection assay. Our results demonstrate that a single amino acid substitution at HIV-1 RT can radically affect virus assembly by enhancing Gag cleavage efficiency, suggesting that in addition to contributing to RT biological function during the early stages of virus replication, the HIV-1 RT tryptophan repeat motif in a Gag-Pol context may play an important role in suppressing the premature activation of PR during late-stage virus replication.


In all standard philosophical approaches to social cognition, both vision and audition play a central role; tactile and proprioceptive sensations, less central; and taste and olfaction, if they are ever mentioned in theories of social cognition, play a marginal role. This makes it difficult to think of how social cognition might work in the deafblind population.  My intention is to outline three different views about social cognition, which attempt to explain intersubjective understanding and communication.  I'll show how vision and audition play a central role in all of these accounts.  I'll then ask what alternative resources might provide a clue to understanding social cognition in deafblindness, and finally, whether this is the right way to put the question.


From the Publisher:
This bestselling book is an essential quick reference for all Java programmers. It contains an accelerated introduction to the Java language and its key APIs, so seasoned programmers can start writing Java code right away. The third edition of Java in a Nutshell covers Java 1.2 and Java 1.3 beta and includes:
A description of the syntax of the Java language, written in a tight, concise style, that can serve as both a fast-paced tutorial and a language reference. An explanation of the object-oriented features of Java that does not assume any prior object-oriented programming experience. An overview of the essential Java APIs that shows how to perform common tasks, such as string manipulation, input/output, and thread handling, with the classes and interfaces that comprise the Java 2 platform. Documentation for the Java development tools shipped with Sun's Java SDK.

This book also includes O'Reilly's classic-style, quick-reference material for all of the classes in the essential Java packages, including java.lang, java.io, java.beans java.math, java.net, java.security, java.text, java.util, and javax.crypto. This reference material covers all of the new classes in Java 1.2 and 1.3. Once you've learned Java, you'll keep this book next to your keyboard for handy reference while you program.
This book is part of the two-volume set of quick references that every Java programmer needs. It is an essential companion to Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell, which covers the graphics and graphical user interface APIs in the Java 2 platform, including Swing, AWT, and Java 2D. A third volume, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, focuses on the Java Enterprise APIs and is of interest to programmers working on server-side or enterprise Java applications.


Minerals are essential for human body to regulate the metabolic processes but some elements are also toxic to human body. Seaweeds are taken as food items in different developed and developing countries. So, estimation of minerals composition of seaweeds including the trace metals is important to evaluate food safety. On the other hand, the industrial effluents with pollutant, including toxic heavy metals have adverse effects on the aquatic environment. Different costly conventional treatment technologies are applying for removal of heavy metals from the marine environment. These techniques are economically less beneficial and produce a huge load of toxic chemical sludge on the environment. So, remediation of heavy metals by marine macro algae is a novel eco-friendly alternative approach. The Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) has been applied to analyse elements such as (Ag, Cu, Co, Ni, Mn, Cr, Pb, Zn, Cd, Al, B, Fe, Mg and Na) of some seaweeds. The two separate standard methods of acid digestion were used to estimate the minerals composition. The aim of study is to evaluate the composition of minerals including heavy metal. From this study, it is concluded that in compare to other seaweeds species, heavy metals are present in high amount in Valoniopsis pachynema, so this species may be used as heavy metals remediator and is not safe to consider as edible. Accordingly, Codium tomentosum and Gracilaria opuntia contain high amount of aluminium, sodium and boron, so these species should also not be consider as edible.


where R ⊂ [n] denotes the set of red elements. In other words, it is possible to partition [n] into two subsets so that this partition is very close to balanced on each one of the test sets Si. Note that a "continuous" partition which splits each element exactly in half will be exactly balanced on each Si; the content of Spencer's theorem is that we can get very close to this ideal situation with an actual, discrete partition which respects the wholeness of each element. Spencer's theorem and its variants have had applications in approximation algorithms, numerical integration, and many other areas. In this post I will describe a new discrepancy theorem [1] due to Adam Marcus, Dan Spielman, and myself, which also seems to have many applications. The theorem is about "uniformly" partitioning sets of vectors in R and says the following:


Primary intestinal lymphoma in young adults is a disease that occurs mainly in underprivileged populations. There is evidence that in some cases this disease evolves from a benign lymphoplasmocytic infiltration of the gut with alpha heavy chain. More studies are needed on the effect of environmental and genetic factors on the evolution of this disease. The role of oncogenic viruses in the development of intestinal lymphoma with malabsorption is an open question. Regional studies on the entity of intestinal lymphoma with malabsorption and its relationship to childhood lymphoma in the same populations are warranted.


Annually integrated air concentrations of alpha- and gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) were determined in 2000/2001 at 40 stations across North America using XAD-based passive air samplers to understand atmospheric distribution processes on a continental scale. Elevated levels of gamma-HCH in the atmosphere of the Canadian Prairies are consistent with the ongoing use of lindane as a seed treatment on canola and confirm the feasibility of detecting the agricultural use of a pesticide using long-term integrated passive air sampling. In contrast to gamma-HCH, the atmospheric concentrations of alpha-HCH show a rather uniform distribution across Canada and the United States, which is expected for a chemical with no current use on the continent. Higher levels in the atmosphere over Atlantic Canada can be explained by alpha-HCH evaporating from the waters of the Labrador Current, which is supported bythe chiral composition of alpha-HCH and the temperature dependence of its atmospheric concentrations along the east coast of Canada. Similarly, alpha-HCH is volatilizing from Lake Superior. Atmospheric HCH levels increase with elevation in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The results suggest that evaporation, in particular from cold water bodies, is an important source of alpha-HCH to the North American atmosphere. Low levels of HCHs in Central America hint at efficient degradation under tropical conditions. Chiral analysis shows that (+)-alpha-HCH is often enriched in air over continental areas and at the Pacific Coast, which is opposite to the enantiomeric enrichment in the proximity to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Passive air sampling is a powerful tool to discern the large-scale variability of semivolatile and persistent organic chemicals in the atmosphere.


Obligate anaerobes are the predominant constituents of normal oropharyngeal flora and produce pleuropulmonary infection in patients who are prone to aspirate. Obtaining material from these patients for culture from the site of infection that is uncontaminated by normal flora is problematic. In-vitro cultivation of obligate anaerobes requires rigorous anaerobic techniques and susceptibility testing of obligate anaerobes is not standardized in many clinical microbiology laboratories. Few clinical trials of drugs have been done in patients with laboratory documented or putative anaerobic pulmonary infection. For these reasons the diagnosis and therapy of anaerobic pulmonary infection are frequently empirical and guided by published studies of in-vitro activity against collected clinical isolates. Several new drugs that have in-vitro activity against obligate anaerobes have recently become available for empirical treatment of pneumonia.


A future cellular network demands a new architecture that can facilitate the autonomous deployment of the infrastructure similar to Wi-Fi. A novel method of deploying a cellular network has been introduced with small cellular base stations, or femtocells, autonomously deployed by users in an underlay macro-cellular network. This autonomous cellular concept allows the network to grow in an organic manner, which reduces the traditional work on infrastructure installation, network configuration and maintenance. To this end, we propose hereafter an intelligent and autonomic system for power control in the femtocell context. The first simulation results seem to confirm the advantage of our solution in reducing energy consumption.


Temperature effects on diapause termination of Paratlanticus ussuriensis eggs were studied by measuring embryonic development and hatching rates at various conditions of indoor chilling and overwintering temperatures. Diapausing eggs of P. ussuriensis did not hatch at continued incubation at 25℃ and even after chilling for once at either 5℃ or 10℃ for 30, 45 and 60 days. In addition, double chillings at 5℃ with a 90 days interval at 25℃ did not induce hatching of diapausing eggs. However, double chillings at 10℃ induced hatching at 3.6~26.7%. When eggs were incubated at 25℃ after chilling for once at 5℃ for various periods, those weights were not changed but those chilled at 10℃ gradually increased to approximately 1.5 times. When 60-days-old eggs were artificially deposited under the soil at three different mountain sites in September 2007, the hatching rates of the first-overwintered eggs were 11.3, 3.5 and 4.1% and those of the second-overwintered eggs were 25.1, 21.6 and 0.4% at Hoepori, Bitanri and Hwasanri, respectively. Most eggs were hatched from mid-March to mid-April but little bit earlier in southern regions. During the hatching period soil temperatures in three tested locations were around 8 to 12℃. In overall, diapausing eggs of P. ussuriensis were greatly influenced by chilling temperature conditions and those repeated cycles, and may required overwintering for one or two times to hatch for the post-embryonic development.


The issue of consumer protection in e-commerce is an important aspect to pay attention to because some cases of e-commerce will place consumers in a weak or disadvantaged position. Therefore, this study aims to find out whether the consumer protection law no.Eight of 1999 can protect consumers in making transactions through e-commerce and how legal protection is for consumers in transactions through e-trade social media tik tok. This research uses normative legal methods and legal approaches and case studies. From the research it can be seen that (1) Based on Law Number 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection it states that business actors are responsible for providing compensation for damage, pollution and/or losses suffered by consumers as a result of consuming traded goods and/or services. It has been clearly explained here that UUPK adheres to the principle of absolute responsibility (strict legal responsibility), in which business actors must be responsible in line with the principle of responsibility adopted by UUPK, namely absolute responsibility (strict legal responsibility). (2) Legal protection given to consumers who transact through Tik Tok is provided in the form of government regulations where every market platform company in Indonesia, including Tik Tok, is required to provide a special merchant account, this is done to make it easier for the government to track online merchant records. Tik Tok has implemented these regulations by providing Tik Tok commercial enterprise features. Thus, in carrying out e-commerce transactions, consumers are expected to be more careful and choose shops on social media carefully and thoroughly.


Pressure swing NOx adsorption-desorption cycles were performed in the temperature range 200-350 degrees C using a fixed adsorbent bed of compressed Na-Y pellets and using a honeycomb coated with Na-Y powder. The experiments were performed using a synthetic gas mixture mimicking exhaust from a lean burn internal combustion engine. Na-Y zeolite coadsorbs NO and NO2 as N2O3, which in the regeneration were displaced by competitively adsorbed water molecules from a hydrated air stream. The performance of the fixed bed in these NOx adsorption and displacement desorption processes were modeled with a one-dimensional model. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters from the fixed bed model were implemented in a model for the operation of the monolith. The experimental adsorption and desorption NOx concentration profiles in the monolith were reasonably well reproduced by the model. The water content of the flushing stream and the stripping gas flow rate are key process parameters. Technically, both parameters can be optimized in a valveless system with rotating honeycomb adsorbent comprising a NOx adsorption, a water injection and a NOx evacuation section.


Brief details have been given of an ultrasound CT system based on linear arrays which can be used to generate both reflection UCT images and acoustic speed images of a suitable target section. The acoustic speed images have been shown to be of sufficient quality to provide high registration accuracy in the equivalent reflection images. The quality of the reflection images so produced is felt to be higher than has so far been achieved by any previous published work in the field of ultrasound CT. These results offer promise for the imaging of suitable in vivo targets such as the adult breast, neck and scrotum and the neonate.


Background Financial toxicity arises in cancer patients due to the objective financial burden of the disease or treatment, being associated with worse clinical outcomes. Direct non-medical spending on cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy in Peru under its publicly funded health system has not been described. Objective To know the expenses related to the transfer of the radiotherapy outpatient. Methodology For patients who started radiation therapy in 2021, treatment demographics and expenses related to transporting the patient from home to the radiation therapy center were prospectively collected. Association and connection tests were used, such as the Mann–Whitney/Kruskal–Wallis U-test and Spearman's Rho. A value of p < 0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results 398 patients were collected, with average weekly expenses for transportation, lodging and food of $17.04, $6.69 and $45.91, respectively. Confirmation was positive between weekly spending and remoteness, likewise it was negative between effective teletherapy and remoteness, both analyses being statistically significant. Conclusion The expense associated with transfer for radiotherapy is high, exceeding the average monthly income of the patient, as a consequence they have a worse therapeutic result, and may cause financial toxicity in cancer patients.