In order to discover specific variants with relatively large effects on the human face we have devised an approach to identifying facial features with high heritability. This is based on using twin data to estimate the additive genetic value of each point on a face, as provided by a 3D camera system. In addition, we have used the ethnic difference between East Asian and European faces as a further source of face genetic variation. We use principal components analysis to provide a fine definition of the surface features of human faces around the eyes and of the profile, and chose upper and lower 10% extremes of the most heritable PCs for looking for genetic associations. Using this strategy for the analysis of 3D images of 1832 unique volunteers from the well characterised People of the British Isles study [1, 2] and 1567 unique twin images from the TwinsUK cohort (www.twinsuk.ac.uk), together with genetic data for 500,000 SNPs, we have identified three specific genetic variants with notable effects on facial profiles and eyes. Significance statement The human face is extraordinarily variable and the extreme similarity of the faces of identical twins indicates that most of this variability is genetically determined. This level of genetic variability has probably arisen through natural selection, for example, for recognition of membership of a group or as a consequence of differential mate selection with respect to facial features. We have devised an approach to identifying specific genetic effects on particular facial features. This should enable the understanding, eventually at the molecular level, of the nature of this extraordinary genetic variability, which is such an important feature of our everyday human interactions. Author Contributions WFB conceived the project. BW and TD organised collection of PoBI data and KH, DJMC, DM, AB and WFB assisted in data collection. TDS, PH and AN collected TwinsUK data. WPK and WJC conducted image registration analysis under supervision of JK. DJMC analysed registered image data and genetic data under supervision of WFB. WFB and DJMC wrote the manuscript, with WJC and WPK contributing additional technical material. WFB and BW supervised the project.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Metastasis the most devastating part of cancer, yet we know very little about the earliest steps of metastasis. Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSC) are CD11b+, Gr-1+ bone marrow-derived cells that have been shown to promote tumor development by suppressing T cells. In addition to immune suppression, MDSC can promote metastasis. MDSC localize to the invasive edges of primary tumors and promote breast cancer lung metastasis. Localized invasion of cancer cells is the earliest step of metastasis and fibroblasts are required for breast cancer cell invasion. Fibroblasts remodel the ECM and leave tracks for collective migration of carcinoma cells. These studies seek to identify the mechanism of MDSC promotion of metastasis by determining if MDSC can stimulate fibroblast migration and lead localized carcinoma invasion. Freshly isolated MDSC from a mammary tumor-bearing mouse increase fibroblast migration. TGFβRII-/- fibroblasts demonstrate a further increase in migration in response to MDSC, suggesting that TGFβ signaling is not required for MDSC promotion of fibroblast migration. MDSC secretions act directly on fibroblasts since conditioned medium from MDSC increases fibroblast migration to the same extent as live MDSC. Antibody array analysis identified several MDSC secreted proteins, including CXCL11, CXCL15, FGF2, IGF-I, IL-4 and Shh. MDSC increase carcinoma cell invasion through Matrigel, but only when fibroblasts are present. MDSC treatment of fibroblasts stimulates Akt and ERK1/2 phosphorylation and loss of secreted proteins, including SDF-1, TIMP-1, TNFα and VEGF. Analysis of subsets of MDSC identified that monocytic MDSC (CD11b+, Ly6Chi, Ly6G-) increase fibroblast migration more than other myeloid cell populations. Tumor-derived MDSC promote fibroblast migration more that splenic MDSC. These studies show that MDSC can lead fibroblasts to stimulate carcinoma invasion and suggest that perivascular MDSC may be the earliest stimulus for localized invasion during metastasis.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-495. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-LB-495


In order to facilitate the work of those who are faced with the difficult task of assigning priorities and guiding conservation action on a global scale, it is important that those countries which have jurisdiction over coastal areas start collecting, evaluating, and disseminating, data on the ecological status of their coastal zones. Only with such a data-base can the appropriate authorities effectively further the concept of conservation and sound management of marine resources. To these ends, also, the existing marine parks and equivalent reserves should be evaluated with special reference to the extent to which they provide adequate protection for representative examples of the ecosystems of the area, and to determine the need for additional areas to be protected. As part of ongoing marine conservation programmes, IUCN/WWF is giving high priority to the identification of critical marine habitats either for the purpose of setting them aside as protected areas because of their fragility or high productivity, or for their research, education, or aesthetic, values. In cases where a 'park' is not the best solution to protect an area from pollution and other disturbances, IUCN/WWF, in cooperation with other organizations—international or national—is trying to help to influence the governmental authorities concerned to find the best possible solution to the problem, whether it concerns over-fishing, using wrong fishing methods (e.g. dynamiting), or is a matter of providing guidance to the authorities concerned to achieve a rational utilization programme of coastal marine resources. Such utilization is particularly important in those parts of the tropics where marine renewable resources play a vital part in the economy of tropical human populations, but where the native fishing cannot continue to supply yields that are sufficient to meet the (usually ever-increasing) demand.


With the introduction of cameras in production cars, and the wide dissemination of wireless inter-vehicle communication devices in all new vehicles in the foreseeing future, emerging applications of this "omnipresent hardware network" can be designed. That is the case of the localization process of a particular vehicle, as the result of a broadcasted search warrant from some particular authority. The system here proposed relies in the optical recognition of the license plate of the wanted car. We present some results of license plate recognition based on real-world images acquired in different driving conditions, as well as of simulation of such a distributed search in a large-scale urban VANET, that show the feasibility of the whole process. A cryptographic protocol is proposed to deal with the security issues of the system.


Repeated trauma to the radial head may be one of the causative factors in the genesis of osteochondritis dissecans of the capitellum. We measured the force, contact area and pressure across the radiocapitellar articulation of the elbow before and after radial shortening osteotomy in five fresh-frozen cadaver upper limbs with loads of 45, 90 and 135 N, respectively. Measurements were made on pressure-sensitive film placed in the radiocapitellar articulation with the forearm in the supinated, neutral and pronated positions before and after radial shortening. Radial shortening significantly reduced the mean force and contact area across the radiocapitellar articulation in all positions of the forearm.


Thanks to its unique properties piezoceramics has applications in various fields of engineering and technology. Disk piezoelectric devices are widely used in the elements of information systems. Mathematical model of piezoceramic disk transformer with ring electrode in primary electrical circuit is constructed. An estimate is obtained and calculated and experimental curves of the frequency dependence of the modulus of transformation coefficient of piezoceramic disk transformer with ring electrode in primary electrical circuit are compared in the work. As a result of research of real device's mathematical model a set of geometrical, physical and mechanical and electrical parameters of a real object can be determined which provides realization of technical parameters of piezoelectric functional element specified in technical specifications. The cost of the saved resources is the commercial price of the mathematical model.


This paper presents a deterministic waveguide propagation model and measurements made in Brazilian cities, with transmitting antenna installed on the rooftop of buildings. All the measurements equipment and software used in the process of collection and preparation of the measured data are described. The sites used for model validation are the cities of Feira de Santana - BA and São Paulo - SP, where 3D building blocks are extracted using Google Earth database. Finally, comparisons between measured values of the signal envelope and model calculations are presented in order to validate the developed model. Results show that the developed model could be a useful tool for signal prediction with regard to street waveguides formed by buildings with antennas placed above their rooftops.


It is known that the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a fundamental role not only as a vasoconstrictor in controlling blood pressure and electrolyte/fluid homeostasis, but also as a mitogenic factor through the Ang-II type-1 (AT1) receptor in smooth muscle cells and cardiac myocytes. Angiotensin II (Ang-II) is indeed thought to be a growth factor, and Ang-II receptor blockers (ARBs), a class of antihypertensive agent, suppress signal transduction pathways mediated by several growth factors or cytokines, through the AT1 receptor. There is increasing evidence that the RAS is implicated in the development of various cancers. We previously demonstrated that ARBs have the potential to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells and tumors through the AT1 receptor. This review highlights the possibility of ARBs as novel agents for prostate cancer as well as other cancers, and reviews the literature on this area.


You-Gui Yin (YGY) is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) decoction composed of eight Chinese herbs. The interaction between TCM and Western medicine has attracted much attention nowadays. It is therefore necessary to study the clinical application of YGY in combination with Western medicine from the perspective of metabolic enzymes. This study aims to investigate the effect of YGY on the activities of seven CYP450 isozymes (CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4) in rats. Twenty-four Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into four groups: high, middle, and low-dose YGY-treated groups and the control group. They were given 13.78, 20.67, and 31 g/kg/d YGY decoction by oral administration and normal saline (10 mL/kg), respectively, for 14 days. Half an hour after the last administration, a mixed probe substrate (1 mg/kg) was administered by tail vein injection. Then, blood was taken from the venous plexus at different time points. The protein expression level of the CYP450 enzymes in the control and treatment groups was determined by western blot. The effect of YGY on the activity of CYP isoenzymes was studied by comparing the plasma pharmacokinetics between the control and treatment groups. Compared with the control group, YGY at a high (31 g/kg) dosage could decrease AUC(0–t), AUC(0–∞) and Cmax of diclofenac, omeprazole, and midazolam by at least 35.4%, while increase CL by at least 88.9%; this revealed that YGY could induce CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP3A4. The results show that when we use You-Gui Yin decoction in combination with other drugs, especially drugs metabolized by CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP3A4 enzymes, the interaction between drugs needs special attention.


The basic ideas and a number of results of the theory of low-energy excitations and localized electronic states, which are responsible for the universal low-temperature anomalies in glasses and unusual electronic properties of nonmetallic glasses, primarily glassy semiconductors, are reviewed. The basic hypotheses and models, previously proposed in this connection in order to explain the numerous empirical data, are discussed. Recently developed concepts regarding soft atomic configurations as a significant feature of the structure of glasses, determining new types of low-energy excitations in such anharmonic systems and of localized electronic states—self-trapped electron pairs with negative correlation energy, with very strong interelectronic attraction—are examined. The above-mentioned properties of glasses are analyzed on the basis of this theory and briefly compared with experiment. Some important problems in the theory of glasses are indicated.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship between partial reversed cell polarity (PRCP) and lymphatic tumor spread in invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), not othervise specified (NOS).

METHODS
Immunohistochemistry (EnVision method) was used to examine the expression of epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and the reversed cell polarity in 199 cases of IDC.

RESULTS
Of the 199 cases, including five cases with micropapillary differentiation,30 cases with PRCP and 164 cases of IDC-NOS (without micropapillary differentiation and/or PRCP), lymphovascular invasion was seen in four (4/5), 13(43.3%) and 30 cases (18.3%) respectively; nodal metastasis was seen in four (4/5), 19 (63.3%) and 56 cases (34.1%) respectively. The rates of lymphovascular invasion and nodal metastasis were significantly higher in IDC with PRCP or IMPC than IDC-NOS (P = 0.00); there was however no significant difference between IDC with PRCP and IMPC for lymphovascular invasion and nodal metastasis (P = 0.18, P = 0.64).

CONCLUSIONS
IDC with PRCP, similar to IMPC, is more likely to show lymphovascular invasion and nodal metastasis. Complete or partial reversal of cell polarity may play a significant role in lymphatic tumor spread.


We consider a piecewise constant hazard function with exactly one jump point, say τ. It uniquely determines an Exponential distribution whose density features a discontinuity of the first kind at the change point τ. Assuming that τ is the unknown parameter of interest, the maximum likelihood estimator is shown to be strongly consistent for τ. Its computation is very simple, because it requires merely a finite number of comparisons. Some graphics and calculations illustrate our results.


Androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor involved in mediating male reproductive functions. The high expression of the AR gene in target tissues of young-adult animals is generally followed by an age-dependent decline during the postreproductive life. The liver of male rats shows about a 50- to 100-fold decline in androgen sensitivity during old age due to a concomitant decline of the AR gene expression. This decline corresponds to changes in the nuclear level of several transcription factors that bind to the AR gene promoter. The positively acting factors that control the AR gene and undergo an age-dependent decline include the age-dependent transcription factor (ADF), Sp1 and the serum response factor (SRF). Nuclear factor kappa B, which functions as a negative regulator of the AR promoter, undergoes about a 10-fold increase during the age-dependent loss of the hepatic androgen sensitivity. Additionally, AP3, which can potentially function as a regulator of the AR gene, shows a marked increase during old age. Thus, a coordinated interaction among a number of positive and negative regulators appears to guide the downregulation of the AR gene during aging.


Due to the increasing demand of capacity in wireless cellular networks, the small cells such as pico and femto cells are becoming more popular to enjoy a spatial reuse gain, and thus cells with different sizes are expected to coexist in a complex manner. In such a heterogeneous environment, the role of interference management (IM) becomes of more importance, but technical challenges also increase, since the number of cell-edge users, suffering from severe interference from the neighboring cells, will naturally grow. In order to overcome low performance and/or high complexity of existing static and other dynamic IM algorithms, we propose a novel low-complex and fully distributed IM scheme, called REFIM (REFerence based Interference Management), in the downlink of heterogeneous multi-cell networks. We first formulate a general optimization problem that turns out to require intractable computation complexity for global optimality. To have a practical solution with low computational and signaling overhead, which is crucial for low-cost small-cell solutions, e.g., femto cells, in REFIM, we decompose it into per-BS (base station) problems based on the notion of reference user and reduce feedback overhead over backhauls both temporally and spatially. We evaluate REFIM through extensive simulations under various configurations, including the scenarios from a real deployment of BSs. We show that, compared to the schemes without IM, REFIM can yield more than 40% throughput improvement of cell-edge users while increasing the overall performance by 10~107%. This is equal to about 95% performance of the existing centralized IM algorithm (MC-IIWF) that is known to be near-optimal but hard to implement in practice due to prohibitive complexity. We also present that as long as interference is managed well, the spectrum sharing policy can outperform the best spectrum splitting policy where the number of subchannels is optimally divided between macro and femto cells.


The study assessed price fluctuation on production of selected food grains in Nigeria (19812020). A longitudinal-trend design was adopted for the study. Time series data were collected from secondary sources. The data were analyzed using regression analysis [Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model]. Findings of the study showed that price fluctuation of the selected food grains are challenges toward achievement of small-scale farmers' development which resulted to loss of capital and farmers shifting to other production activities. The results further revealed that, maize had a higher mean of N1,714.375 per ton; the maximum price fluctuation was found in rice (N26,516 per ton) than maize (N19,247 per ton) and wheat (N15,999 per ton); maize (1.342703) and rice (0.874336) were skewed positively to the right tail implying the presence of more values that are higher than the sample mean and wheat (-3.08378) skewed negatively to the left tail implying the presence of more values that are lower than the sample mean; rice and maize price fluctuations may be described as leptokurtic (positive excess kurtosis) with a kurtosis greater than 3 relative to the normal while wheat has a kurtosis less than 3 (negative excess kurtosis) and may be described as platykurtic implying that the distribution has a flattened curve relative to the normal. The Jarque-Bera probability test of normality showed that the price fluctuations of rice, maize and wheat were not statistically significant at P≤0.05 level of significance, thereby rejecting the null hypotheses. This implies that, price fluctuation has effects of on outputs and prices of selected food grains such as rice, maize and wheat grains in Nigeria for the period under study. The result of the price fluctuation test in prices of maize and wheat also showed that the ARCH [RESID(-1)^2] and GARCH [GARCH(-1)] terms are significant at P≤0.05 level, but rice revealed ARCH [RESID(-1)^2] and GARCH [GARCH(-1)] terms was significant at P≤0.05 level. These implies that the price of maize, wheat and rice will continue to fluctuate in line with their apriori expectations. The study concluded that pattern of real prices of food (rice, maize and wheat) gains movements in Nigeria fluctuate from 1981 to 2020. The study recommended that fiscal and monetary policies that can help increase food (rice, maize and wheat) grains' production and keep its price within the reach of common men should be pursued by government and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector of Nigeria.


Effects of low salt (LS) on (pro)renin receptor (PRR) expression are not well established. We hypothesized that LS enhances renal PRR expression via the cGMP-protein kinase G (PKG) signaling pathway. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a normal-salt (NS) or LS diet associated with intrarenal cortical administration of vehicle (V), the nitric oxide (NO) synthase inhibitor nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), the NO donor S-nitroso-N-acetyl-dl-penicillamine (SNAP), the cGMP analog 8-bromoguanosine (8-Br)-cGMP, the guanylyl cyclase inhibitor 1H-[1, 2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), or a PKG inhibitor (PKGi) for 6 days via osmotic minipump. We evaluated the effects of each treatment on renal interstitial fluid (RIF) levels of nitrate/nitrite and cGMP and renal PRR expression. There were no significant changes in blood pressure with any of the treatments. Urinary sodium excretion was significantly lower in rats given a LS diet. Compared with NS + V, RIF nitrate/nitrite and cGMP levels increased in LS + V rats. In NS groups, RIF nitrate/nitrite and cGMP levels did not change with l-NAME, ODQ, or PKGi and increased in response to SNAP. 8-Br-cGMP increased RIF cGMP but not RIF nitrate/nitrite. In LS groups, RIF nitrate/nitrite decreased with l-NAME and did not change with ODQ or PKGi whereas RIF cGMP decreased with l-NAME, ODQ, and PKGi. PRR mRNA and protein increased in LS + V. In NS rats, PRR mRNA and protein increased in response to 8-Br-GMP and were not affected by any of other treatments. In LS rats, PRR mRNA and protein decreased significantly in response to l-NAME, ODQ, and PKGi. We conclude that LS intake enhances renal expression of PRR via cGMP-PKG signaling pathway.


The correlation between the binding and processing of trypsin and its effect on prostacyclin (PGI2) production in cultured adult bovine aortic endothelial (ABAE) cells was studied. ABAE cells demonstrated an ability to produce PGI2 in a dose‐response manner to trypsin at the range of 0.1–2.0 μg/ml with a saturation at a concentration of 1 μg/ml; Likewise, 125I‐trypsin binding to the cultured cells increased in a dose‐response way and reached saturation at a concentration of about 1 μg/ml; 125I‐trypsin was bound to a specific high‐affinity cell‐surface receptor with a dissociation constant (Kd) of 1.5 × 10−8 M and each of the confluent ABAE cells has about 1.2 × 105 such receptors sites. The cell‐surface receptor for trypsin displayed specific characteristics and an excess amount of unlabeled trypsin successfully abolished 125I‐trypsin binding while thrombin in excess failed to compete for 125I‐trypsin binding. Only a small fraction of the cell‐surface‐bound 125I‐trypsin was internalized and subsequently degraded by ABAE cells as compared to the process of 125I‐trypsin internalization by human skin fibroblasts (HSF). This study demonstrated that the stimulatory effect of trypsin on prostacyclin production and release by ABAE cells might be mediated by a specific cell‐surface receptor for trypsin on these cells distinct from the thrombin receptor.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore women's experiences in one such social enterprise, and to analyze the ways in which this social enterprise supports and/or undermines its employees' health and well-being. Finding and keeping employment during recovery from addiction is a strong predictor of women's ability to maintain sobriety and accomplish other important life goals. Many treatment organizations have programs that support job readiness and acquisition; however, less priority is placed on the quality of the workplaces and their consequences for continued health and well-being. Social enterprises that exist for the purpose of employing women in recovery have the potential to be health-promoting workspaces, but understanding how health is supported for this particular population is important.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides an ethnographic account of Light Collective, a social enterprise run by women in recovery from addiction. Data were collected through 2 years of participant observation, 38 interviews and 2 focus groups. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Findings
Light Collective provides a health-promoting workplace by keeping barriers to employment low and making work hours and expectations individualized and flexible. Furthermore, the organization creates a setting in which work is developmentally nurturing, provides the opportunity for meaningful mastery and serves to build community amongst women who are often marginalized and isolated in more traditional contexts.

Originality/value
This study contributes to literature exploring the potential for social enterprises to create health-promoting workplaces by focusing the types of workplace commitments required to support a particularly vulnerable population. This study also explores some of the challenges and contradictions inherent in trying to create health-promoting work environments vis-à-vis the constraints of broader economic systems.


We analyze the dynamics of broad-area mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). We show the possibility of the coherent coupling of several transverse modes which results in several interesting effects including frequency and phase locking between transverse modes, bistability, and beam steering. We present an analytical model for the modal dynamics and its numerical analysis. Effects of amplitude and phase fluctuations on the modal stability are explored. We compare our theoretical results with our experimental measurements of buried heterostructure QCLs.


A change in the phase of the order parameter of ^3He-A can be undone by a subsequent rotation. We investigate the dynamical consequence of this broken relative gauge and rotational symmetry. In particular a wheel rotated in the liquid acts as a "gauge transformer" driving a superflow. Such experiments provide a very direct probe of this unusual feature of the order parameter, at the same time measuring the orbital quantum number of the pairs.


Candoninae is by far the most diverse ostracod group in subterranean habitats, with many genera which today have no surface water representatives. This subfamily is also peculiar because species tend to have restricted distributions regardless of habitat type, and, unlike other non-marine ostracod lineages, extremely rarely reproduce parthenogenetically. Nannocandona faba Ekman, 1914 is an exception, being originally described from Sweden, but then reported throughout the Holarctic. We study morphological vari- ability of this species here, both based on old museum specimens and on freshly collected material. We propose that the name should only be restricted to the Swedish population, and we describe two new subterranean species: Nannocandona danielopoli n. sp. from Austria, and Nannocandona schornikovi n. sp. from South Korea and the Russian Far East. These descriptions allow us to evaluate records of N. faba in other parts of the Holarctic. A new map of the genus distribution is proposed, as well as a key to species identification. Parthenogenetic reproduction of Candoninae and their general ecology is also discussed.


In the context detection field, an important challenge is automatically detecting the user's task, for providing contextualized and personalized user support. Several approaches have been proposed to perform task classification, all advocating the window title as the best discriminative feature. In this paper we present a new ontology-based task detection approach, and evaluate it against previous work. We show that knowledge intensive tasks cannot be accurately classified using only the window title. We argue that our approach allows classifying such tasks better, by providing feature combinations that can adapt to the domain and the degree of freedom in task execution.


Individual counselling requires clear objectives if it is to succeed. By structuring the counselling process, both client and therapist can ensure therapy caters to specific needs and achieves desired outcomes.


An experiment was conducted in
pots under natural conditions in alkaline calcareous soil to determine wheat (Triticum aestivum L. c.v. Atta Habib)
yield and P uptake as influenced by Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)
inoculation with compost prepared from fresh animal dung and rock phosphate.
Data indicated that wheat grain, shoot and roots yields increased significantly
(P ≤ 0.05) by inoculation of commercial mycorrhiza (AMF-II) and half dose of
compost. Grain yield increased by 43% and 37%, shoot by 43% and 39% and roots
yield by 51% and 45% over control of N and K fertilizers. Straw yield was
maximum as 5075 kg·ha-1 in the treatment of AMF-II inoculation with full dose of compost,
which was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher as 44% and 40% over control of N and
K fertilizers. Maximum and significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher plant N and P uptake
by wheat were observed in the treatment inoculated by indigenous mycorrhiza
(AMF-I) with full dose of compost followed by the inoculation of AMF-II with
full dose of compost and SSP treatment. Maximum and significantly (P ≤ 0.05)
increased soil spores' density of AMF by 26 spores per 20 g soil with maximum
roots infection intensity in wheat were observed by the inoculation of AMF-I
with full dose of compost. The AMF-II is slightly better than AMF-I regarding
grain, shoot and root yield, whereas AMF-I is better in N, P uptake, soil spore
density and their root infection intensity than AMF-II. Alone inoculation and
compost application increase the yield and nutrients uptake but the highest
improvement was observed with inoculation of AMF with compost. Results suggest
that inoculation of AMF with compost has potential to improve wheat yields and
plants' P uptake under given soil conditions.


The coincidence of renal cell carcinoma and renal angiomyolipoma in tuberous sclerosis is extremely rare, although the coexistence of tuberous sclerosis and renal angiomyolipoma is well recognized. A case of bilateral renal angiomyolipomas and left renal cell carcinoma in a patient with tuberous sclerosis is reported. A 40-year-old male was referred to our hospital for further evaluation and treatment of left flank masses. Tuberous sclerosis was diagnosed on the basis of adenoma sebaceum, seizures, mental retardation and periventricular calcification. Contrast enhanced CT scan demonstrated irregularly enhanced masses in the upper pole and the middle portion of the left kidney, and multiple small low density nodules in the bilateral kidneys. Selective left renal angiography showed hypervascular areas in the upper pole and the middle portion of the left kidney. From the findings obtained, a clinical diagnosis of left renal cell carcinoma associated with bilateral renal angiomyolipomas was made. Left radical nephrectomy was performed. The histopathological examination revealed renal cell carcinoma and multiple renal angiomyolipoma nodules. The diagnostic considerations, particularly differential diagnosis between renal angiomyolipoma and renal cell carcinoma by imaging features, are discussed.


Keeping up with rapidly emerging research fronts in various inter-disciplinary fields requires significant effort from scholars and researchers. These users are concerned not only with finding relevant articles or websites, but also for gaining the understanding of key articles, authors, citation information, and current trends. Several tools such as Action Science Explorer (ASE) have been developed to evaluate the network of citations between articles, recognize important papers and their clusters, summarize them automatically, delve into the full-text of papers to fetch context, generate reviews, create annotations and finally export results in numerous document authoring formats. Although ASE is useful for researchers and scholars, as a research prototype it is limited and tested on data from the ACL Anthology Network. ASE does not have the ability to automatically import and process scholarly articles from external repositories such as Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, and the ACM Digital Library. This paper contributes an enhanced ASE which automates the data import process: starting with a web search, then generating a citation network, statistics, text analytics, and cluster summaries. Our enhanced ASE gives researchers in many fields the ability to gain an understanding of their academic literature: the key papers, authors, research fronts, hypothesis, and state of the art.


The effect in combination therapy of high energy under water shock waves (HESW) and anticancer drugs for subcutaneous murine bladder cancer (MBT-2) in C3H/He mice was examined. HESW were generated by piezoceramics and directed to the subcutaneous tumor under ultrasonographic guidance. The subcutaneous tumor was exposed to HESW alone (100 MPa, 1000 shots, 3 shots/sec) or in combination with pirarubicin (THP, 5 mg/kg, i.p.) or carboplatin (CBDCA, 40 mg/kg, i.p.). Remarkable bleeding in the tumor was seen immediately after the exposure of HESW, destroyed cancer cells appeared after one day and wider and clearly bordered tumor necrosis was observed after three days. In the HESW alone therapy, tumor growth of smaller tumors (< 10 mm3, n = 8) were suppressed more than that of larger tumors (10-35 mm3, n = 11). Tumor growth ratio on the 14th day (TGR 14) (tumor volume on the 14th day/tumor volume on the 1st day) was examined in larger tumors. TGR 14 were 152.2 +/- 146.6 (mean +/- S.D.) in the control (n = 20), 116.3 +/- 98.9 in HESW alone (n = 11), 75.5 +/- 110.7 in THP alone (n = 8), 90.7 +/- 61.6 in CBDCA alone (n = 6), 75.8 +/- 72.2 in THP + HESW (n = 9), 3.2 +/- 4.5 in CBDCA + HESW (n = 8) and 0.8 +/- 1.3 in CBDCA + HESW 2 cycles (n = 9). Evident suppression on tumor growth was more often seen in CBDCA + HESW and CBDCA + HESW 2 cycles therapies than in the other therapies (p < 0.01). The cumulative survival rates were higher in CBDCA + HESW and CBDCA + HESW 2 cycles therapies than in the other therapies (p < 0.05). Tumor metastasis was seen only in the lungs of the dead mice after 19 days. Lung metastases were seen in 1/6 in the control, 0/5 in HESW alone, 1/5 in CBDCA alone, 0/6 in CBDCA + HESW and 1/5 in CBDCA + HESW 2 cycles therapy, respectively.


MarieSim is a computer architecture simulator based on the MARIE architecture and designed to teach beginning computer organization and architecture. It provides users with interactive tools and simulations to help them deepen their understanding of the operation of a simple computer.Through interaction with MarieSim's graphical environment, students can observe how assembly language statements affect the registers and memory of a computer system. The graphical environment for MarieSim and the accompanying data path simulator are written in Java Swing; the integrated MARIE assembler is written in Java. The software has proven useful in introductory computer organization and architecture classes. Students find MarieSim very easy to use, and anecdotal results indicate increased architectural understanding. In this article we compare MarieSim to various existing systems and explore the software's features in detail.


Given a set of local sequential datasets held by multiple parties, we study the problem of publishing a synthetic dataset that preserves approximate sequentiality information of the integrated dataset while satisfying differential privacy for each local dataset. The existing solutions for publishing differentially private sequential data in the centralized setting mostly adopt tree-based approaches. Such approaches rely on different tree structures that encode sequential data's statistical information. The construction of a tree structure is normally done by recursively splitting nodes whose noisy scores (e.g., entropy or count) are larger than a given threshold. However, extending similar ideas to the multi-party setting is challenging. First, the comparison between noisy scores and a given threshold needs to be done in a distributed manner without letting the parties know the noisy scores, while satisfying differential privacy for each local dataset. Second, in the multi-party setting the large number of node splitting decisions incurs prohibitive computation costs. In addressing the above challenges, we present DPST, a distributed prediction suffix tree construction solution. In DPST, we first introduce a novel node splitting decision method that calculates the comparison result under encryption with substantially improved efficiency. Then we present a novel batch-based tree construction approach to reduce computation costs. In order to achieve high parallel performance without incurring any extra communication cost, we introduce the conjunction and slide methods to ensure that each batch contains a stable number of carefully arranged decision tasks. To further reduce communication and computation costs, we propose a prefix-based pre-pruning method to reduce the number of nodes that need to be judged whether to split by an interactive protocol. Extensive experiments on real datasets demonstrate that our DPST solution offers desirable data utility with low computation and communication costs.


Temporal variation of mixed-layer heat budget at two contrasting locations, namely, western Pacific (warm water pool) and eastern Pacific (cold tongue) during the extreme El Niño phenomenon in 2015/2016 is evaluated. Oceanic and atmospheric datasets, including sea surface temperature (SST), wind stress, shortwave radiation (SWR), longwave radiation, latent heat flux (LHF), and sensible heat flux are analyzed. A slight warming occurred in the eastern tropical Pacific associated with a positive SST anomaly, which reflected the weakening or reversal of the trade winds. Meanwhile, the western tropical Pacific exhibited a cooling tendency during the development phase of El Niño. Analysis of the mixed-layer heat budget shows that the net heat flux due to SWR and LHF significantly contributes to the warming of the eastern tropical Pacific. The contribution from horizontal advection was extremely small on both sides. The analysis shows that the residual term significantly contributes to cooling (warming) tendency observed in the western (eastern) tropical Pacific. This condition may suggest that residual process due to entrainment and diffusivity played an important role in the evolution of cooling (warming) process in the western (eastern) tropical Pacific.


It has long been known that by combining multi-source or multi-temporal Earth observation images, the ability to detect and recognise features on the ground is greatly increased. In some specific cases models have been successfully developed for automatically integrating images from different sensors, but in general the problem of fully automatic data integration has not yet been solved. This paper introduces a new approach to automatic feature based image registration, based on multiple feature extraction and matching techniques, in order to solve the problem of automatic registration of SAR and SPOT imagery. Application of this model to pairs of small images showed that a substantial number of tie points could be found. Using these tie points with a first order transformation function consistently gave a RMS residual of less than two pixels. The model was also applied to full scene images. A method of processing based on tiling was used, rather than one based on image pyramids, since this was found to be computationally more efficient. Results showed that a large number of tie points could be located across the images. Close inspection of the matched features revealed that there were no blunders and hence the feature extraction and matching algorithm was successful. Most importantly, the approach to feature based registration using multiple feature extraction techniques clearly improved the quality and quantity of the tie points compared to traditional feature based registration techniques which rely on only one feature extraction algorithm.


A 55-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with chronic cough. Although his chest X-ray was normal, chest computed tomography revealed a nodular lesion that was causing beaded stenosis of the lumen of the upper lobe bronchus. Nodules approximately 10 mm in size were seen in the mediastinum. We could not deny the possibility of vascular disease, and enhanced chest computed tomography was performed, which showed these abnormalities to be caused by a dilated and convoluted bronchial artery. Because no pulmonary diseases that would lead to secondary vascular dilatation were evident, a diagnosis of primary racemose hemangioma of the bronchial artery was made. We performed bronchial artery embolization to prevent potential fatal bleeding from vascular rupture. The patient has been followed regularly as an outpatient, and recanalization has not been detected. Primary racemose hemangioma of the bronchial artery is a rare entity; it is also rare for this entity to be detected by findings of a nodular protrusion in the bronchial wall or in a patient presenting with a cough. Here, we report this case and review previous reports.


Nests of Sceliphron fistularium were obtained in Colombia and Moji Guaçu, São Paulo, Brazil. Complete nests consisted of 1 to 54 sausage-shaped cells, arranged side by side along a horizontal axis, and found attached to electrical wires (Colombia, n = 7) and walls (Colombia, n = 4 and Moji Guaçu, n = 4). The number of cells per nest ranged from 1 to 54, their length varying from 20.8 to 29.7 mm, and their diameter from 7.6 to 11.7 mm. Brood cells were provisioned with spiders of the family Araneidae. Only Alpaida veniliae was collected in Colombia, whereas the most frequent species found in Moji Guaçu was Micrathena swainsoni (62.0%) followed by M. acuta (23.3%). Adults emerged from June to October. The length and diameter of female and male cells were similar. Nevertheless, females were significantly larger than males. The sex ratio of individuals obtained from nests was 1.16 females: 1 male. A life table was constructed, and details of the life cycle of the wasps and parasitoids are presented. The most common mortality factors were either unknown or due to the parasitoid wasp Melittobia sp.


Making a linguistic theory is like making a programming language: one typically devises a type system to delineate the acceptable utterances and a denotational semantics to explain observations on their behavior. Via this connection, the programming language concept of delimited continuations can help analyze natural language phenomena such as quantification and polarity sensitivity. Using a logical metalanguage whose syntax includes control operators and whose semantics involves evaluation order, these analyses can be expressed in direct style rather than continuation-passing style, and these phenomena can be thought of as computational side effects.


Nowadays Congestion control problem of the intermediate nodes in the Internet has received extensively attention in control community. In this paper, a novel intelligent PID (Proportional-Integral-Differential) controller based on neural networks (PIDNN) for the problem of AQM is presented. Considering a previously developed nonlinear dynamic model of TCP/AQM system and the queue management mechanism of intermediate nodes, the parameters of AQM controller based on PIDNN is tuned online by using gradient-descent algorithm, and the probability of packet dropout is obtained adaptively to measure the degree of congestion in time, so that the quality of service (QoS) of network and the transient performance can be improve greatly especially when the network parameters are time-varying. Finally, the proposed algorithm is verified by using NS-2 simulator, and simulation results show that the integrated performance of this proposed controller is obviously superior to those of common PID controller especially on the queue stability and loss probability and etc. Furthermore, this AQM algorithm has simple structure and can be implemented easily.


This survey, quantitative and empirical based descriptive research has the objective of analysing perception of sanitary workers working in private multi-speciality hospitals in Tirunelveli city of Tamil Nadu, India towards various role and compensation related factors causing heavy workload. In order to achieve the objective, the study sampled 80 respondents using both convenience and judgement sampling techniques, and from the chosen respondents the primary data were collected using schedule method with the help of questionnaire (translating the questions in respondents' mother language, 'Tamil') along with interview. The secondary data were collected from books, journals and conference proceedings to add appropriate significance to the study. Percentage method was administered to analyse both demographic characteristics of the study and perception of the respondents towards role and compensation related factors causing heavy workload. The result of the analysis has found that all the factors discussed in this study such as ill-defined roles and responsibilities, receiving conflicting messages from two or more heads at the same time, person's interest remain contradict with the job role, salary is not adequate in accordance with the work performed, discrimination and bias in fixing salary and inadequate non-monetary rewards for effective contribution at work were strongly agreed by majority of the respondents. The study has given suitable suggestions as to how to rationalize the role and compensation related factors causing heavy workload.


In the last decades dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have extensively been studied. From an economical point of view, DSCs are of high interest because the manufacturing costs of DSCs devices are significantly lower compared with other solar devices such as silicon cells. One of the success criteria required for commercial use of DSCs is high stability under light soaking and thermal stress conditions. The dye sensitizer is one of the key components of a DSC device. Consequently, the stability of DSCs is directly linked to the dye stability, which is in turn linked to its degradation on the surface of a semiconductor anode (TiO2). In my lecture, I will present and overview of our degradation investigations of the ruthenium dyes N719, Z907 and C106 with the general structure RuLL ́(NCS)2 and show how detailed degradation mechanistic knowledge is important in the developing of DSC cells with improved thermal dye stability [1,2]. In my talk, I will also include a brief account of our recent work on the development of new methods for reducing the dark current in DSCs prepared with one-electron mediators as ferrocenium/ferrocene and CoII/CoIII complexes. In order to reduce the back electron transfer from the photo anode to the mediator R+ and the oxidized dye S+ we have applied electrochemical grafting strategies to attach an electrical isolation layer of mono and multilayers of organic molecules on the TiO2 photo anode [3].


A reconfigurable heterogeneous 3D-IC is assembled from two 28 nm FPGA die with 580 k logic cells and two 65 nm mixed signal die on a 65 nm interposer in a 35 mm 2 CS-BGA package. One mixed signal die consists of sixteen 16 bit current steering DACs, the other die consists of sixteen 13 bit pipelined ADCs. The interposer provides optimal system partitioning; noise isolation and high density interconnect between subsystems. Receive SNDR > 61.6 dBFS to Nyquist at 500 MS/s and transmit SFDR > 63.8 dBc to 400 MHz at 1.6 GS/s is measured. Ultralow FPGA to converter die interface power of 0.3 mW/Gb/s is achieved and measured digital to analog isolation > 92dB. The solution can be dynamically optimized for channel count, power and speed.


In the buffalo, the left aortic nerve ramifies in the periarterial connective tissue between the ventral surface of the aortic arch and the truncus pulmonalis. The right aortic nerve ramifies over the dorsal and right aspects of the aorta ascendens near its origin. The histograms of myelinated fibres of both left and right aortic nerve are distinctly unimodal with peak around 4-6 micron (64.2-67.8%). The left aortic body is situated in the periarterial connective tissue between the ventral surface of the aortic arch and the truncus pulmonalis, while the right aortic body is located in the tunica adventitia of the dorsal and right aspects of the aorta ascendens near its origin. The greatest sagittal section area of the left aortic body is 0.102 +/- 0.009 mm2 and that of the right aortic body is 0.041 +/- 0.002 mm2. The organ is highly vascular. The mean size of the glomus cells from the left aortic body is 7.68 +/- 0.9 micron x 9.37 +/- 0.13 micron (short diameter x long diameter), whereas the corresponding value for the right aortic body is 7.84 +/- 0.14 micron x 9.86 +/- 0.21 micron; and their density values are (11,417 +/- 301.7)/mm2 and (9,839 +/- 213.3)/mm2 respectively.


Given the horizontal and vertical projections of a finite binary pattern f, can we reconstruct the original pattern f? In this paper we give a characterization of patterns that are reconstructable from their projections. Three algorithms are developed to reconstruct both unambiguous and ambiguous patterns. It is shown that an unambiguous pattern can be perfectly reconstructed in time m × n and that a pattern similar to an ambiguous pattern can also be constructed in time m × n, where m, n are the dimensions of the pattern frame.


A construction of node-less atomic orbitals and energy-dependent, node-reduced partial waves is presented, that contains the full information of the atomic eigenstates and that allows to represent the scattering properties in a transparent manner. By inverting the defining Schr\"odinger equation, the Pauli repulsion by the core electrons can be represented as effective potential. This construction also provides a description of the Pauli repulsion by an environment. Furthermore, the representation leads to a new systematic scheme for a projector augmentation. The relation to Slater orbitals is discussed.


We define, in terms of noncommutative algebra, a transfer function matrix of a meromorphic nonlinear time-varying system, which algebraically characterizes the input-output relation of the system. Although the transfer function matrix represents the input-output relation of the system, the matrix derived from the state-space representation can depend on the state variables. By exploiting the results of noncommutative algebra, it is shown that the state variables can always be eliminated from the transfer function matrix.


The use of Glasswool as a commercial sound absorber is growing rapidly nowadays. Unfortunately, this material contains a high silica fiber which is harmful to human health. Herein, we present an improved preparation route of the composite material consisted of natural fiber made from Bangkirai wood waste (Shorea Laevifolia Endert) as a filler and unsaturated polyester as a matrix through hand lay-up method. The absorption testing, reflection, and sound transmission were performed by varying the volume fraction 0, 20, 40, and 60% of Bangkirai wood powder as a filler. It was obtained that the highest value of the sound absorption coefficient (α) contained in the composite with a 60 % volume fraction, which is 0.49, which still approaching the Glasswoll as the standard frequency. The value is also included in the category of Sound Absorption Coefficient Class D with the range 0.30-0.55 based on ISO standard 11654. From the obtained results, this composite material has the potential ability to absorb sound in controlling noise and possibility as a commercial sound absorber.


The Clinton section in Wayne County represents a clastic wedge of the Lower Silurian Albian Group. It was deposited on the distal flank of the Appalachian basin as a result of the Taconic orogeny. The section extends vertically from the Queenston unconformity to the base of the Packer shell (Brassfield Limestone). It is primarily composed of sandstone, shale, limestone, and dolostone. Within this stratigraphic section, the sandstone facies is an important hydrocarbon reservoir rock. The sandstone facies pinches out laterally along a north-south depositional limit that is roughly located along the western boundary of Wayne County. The study relied primarily on geophysical log data. However, drill cuttings were used to correlate lithologies to specific curve assemblages on the geophysical logs. This helped define lithologies to logs in areas where drill cuttings were lacking. Eight cross sections--four north-south and four east-west--show the complexity of the intertonguing clastic and carbonate deposits resulting from the progradation and shifting of deltaic and nearshore marine environments. The cross sections also show that the driller's terms of stray, red (1st), and white (2nd) Clinton sandstone are arbitrary units and are not temporally equivalent or correlative from well to well over great distances. Stratigraphic interpretations indicate that the deposition of the Clinton section began with a marine transgression from the northwest across a subaerially exposed coastal plain that was deposited as the distal end of the Ordovician Queenston delta. This transgression reworked the upper Queenston sediments and redeposited them as calcareous silts and sands. Renewed uplift of the Taconic highlands caused a clastic influx into the areas and a relative regression of the sea. These sediments were deposited in prodeltaic and lower delta-plain environments. Some of the sediments were reworked offshore by ocean currents and wave action and redeposited as offshore bars. As the influx of Taconic sediment ended, muds were deposited, which were eventually transgressed by a carbonate-rich sea. A imestone unit, the Packer Shell, was then deposited ending the Alexandrian Epoch. The structural setting is one of homoclinal dip to the southeast, with localized basement-controlled, minor folds normal to the basinal axis. Small-scale faulting can also be seen on structure maps of the base of the Packer Shell and the top of the Queenston. Local structural highs and faults affect oil and gas production in this mainly stratigraphic trap. Local structure commonly segregates the oil and gas in the same reservoir body. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1930------------


Background Cognitive impairment and dementia have a high prevalence among the elderly and cause significant socio-economic impact. Any progress in their prevention can benefit millions of people. Current data indicate that cardiovascular risk (CVR) factors increase the risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia. Using models to calculate CVR specific for the Spanish population can be useful for estimating the risk of cognitive deterioration since research on this topic is limited and predicting this risk is mainly based on outcomes in the Anglo-Saxon population. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between CVR in the Spanish population, as calculated using the FRESCO (Función de Riesgo Española de acontecimientos Coronarios y Otros) and REGICOR (Registre Gironí del Cor) CVR tables, and the change in cognitive performance at a 5-year follow-up. Methods Design: Observational, analytic, prospective cohort study, with a 5-year follow-up. Ambit: Population. Population: Subjects 55 to 74 years of age, included in the NEDICES2 (2014–2017) cohort, who did not present dementia and had undergone the neuropsychological evaluation (N = 962). Variables: Exposure factors (CVR factors and estimated risk according to the CVR predictors by REGICOR and FRESCO), dependent variables (change in the score of the brief neuropsychological test in the study NEDICES2 five years after the first evaluation), and clinical and socio-demographic variables. Statistical analysis: Analysis of data quality. Descriptive analysis: socio-demographic and clinical variables of subjects. Bivariate analysis: relationship between basal CVR and change in neuropsychological tests. Multivariate analysis: relationship between basal CVR and change in neuropsychological tests adjusted by co-variables. Analysis and comparison of the reliable change in independent samples. Discussion The Spanish population can benefit from determining if individuals with high CVR, which is commonly detected in usual clinical practice, will present decreased cognitive performance compared to subjects with lower CVR. This study can affect how to address CVR factors and the design of effective prevention strategies for cognitive deterioration. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03925844.


It has been suggested that volume expansion caused by hydrate dissociation in sediment pores can result in large overpressure, which in turn may destabilize the sediment and trigger massive submarine landslides. Here, we investigate the pressure evolution during thermally‐induced dissociation, by means of a pore‐scale model that couples dissociation kinetics, multiphase flow and geomechanics. Dissociation is controlled by a self‐preservation mechanism: increasing pore pressure reduces the driving force for dissociation. Hence, the overpressure is constrained by the phase equilibrium pressure, regardless of the kinetic rate of dissociation, heat supply, and sediment permeability. Furthermore, we find that the timescale for buildup of pressure by dissociation is typically much larger than that for its dissipation by drainage. Consequently, the overpressure is controlled by the capillary entry thresholds, which depend on the mode of gas invasion. In low‐permeability systems, fracturing is the preferred mechanism, occurring at capillary pressures lower than the entry thresholds in the undeformed sediment. Our results suggest that while large overpressures cannot be sustained by rapid dissociation in natural systems, dissociation can induce important geomechanical effects. Gas migration by fracturing provides a possible link between dissociation, sediment deformation and methane venting.


The control of machines in case of low carrier ratio (ratio of switching frequency to electrical frequency fsw/fel) is a challenging topic at the highly dynamic control of high-speed machines and high power converters. While common PI Controllers face stability issues at low ratios, Model Predictive Control (MPC) can be used to ensure stability. The cost function can be used, to reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion of the motor currents (THDi) or, keeping the THDi constant, reducing the motor filter size. This paper presents a comparison of Finite Control Set (FCS) and hysteresis based MPC algorithm for three level converter. The predictive control of the currents is providing good dynamic performance. The Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) or T-Type converter are considered to optimize the harmonic distortion of the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) currents. Simulation and experimental results prove the effectiveness of the analyzed control for 3-Level Converters.


Metastable phases may be stabilized at interfaces due to lower surface or interface energies in comparison with the equilibrium phase. An example for this kind of stabilization effect is the phenomenon of surface melting, where a liquid-like film forms at the surface below the actual melting point. The excess energy necessary for the formation of the metastable, undercooled liquid phase is overcompensated by the gain in surface energy. Similar effects have been found in interface controlled materials such as thin films or nanocrystalline materials. In thin films, incoherent interfaces between the film and the underlying substrate contribute significantly to the total energy. The lower interface energy of a metastable film can stabilize the non-equilibrium phase as in the case of surface melting. A study is reviewed of thin Fe(Zr) alloy films which serves as a model system for the investigation of the interface effects. If deposited on suitable substrates, these films grow in the amorphous phase whereas in bulk materials the crystalline solid solution is more stable. Crystallization of the initially amorphous films sets in at a critical thickness where the driving force for crystallization can overcome the stabilizing effect of the interface. Under the experimental conditions, diffusional transport is negligible so that no phase separation can occur. Upon increasing the solute concentration, a polymorphic crystal-to-glass transformation (CGT) is encountered in the volume at a critical solute concentration. At concentrations close to the CGT, the relative stabilities of the competing phases, i.e. the crystalline solid solution and the amorphous alloy, approach each other. Therefore, the chemical composition of the films plays a role equivalent to the temperature in the case of surface melting. In the vicinity of the CGT, the interface energy contributions may dominate phase formation. As a result, a dramatic increase of the critical thickness for crystallization is observed with increasing solute concentration. A thermodynamic model based on the competing energetic contributions can explain the results. A generalized phase diagram is used for the description of interface effects in glass forming systems. Precursor effects like wetting at interfaces close to the conditions for phase transitions in bulk materials are also expected to be significant in systems with a high density of incoherent interfaces. The interfaces may serve as nucleation centres which play an important role for phase transformations in these materials.


Neonatal mortality is defined for death of infants under age of 4 weeks. It is considered as an important indicator for developing in a country. Despite many efforts that were done in the last years, unfortunately there is high rate of mortality in new born infants; the aim of this study investigated the causes of the mortality of infants hospitalized in NICU of Imam-Khomeini and Mustafa-Khomeini hospitals of Ilam from 2012 to 2016. The present research is a cross-sectional study, the statistical population of which includes all deceased infants who were hospitalized in NICU of Imam Khomeini and Mustafa Khomeini hospitals of Ilam from 2012 to 2016. The information related to gender, gestational age, age at birth, birth weight, mode of delivery, Apgar scores in the first and fifth minutes, history of breast disease of the mother, and cause of death were recorded and the collected data was analyzed using SPSS, version 20 and statistical tests of chi-square and T-test. Based on the findings of the analysis, the most common causes of mortality among infants were respiratory distress syndrome (60.3), asphyxia (9.3), congenital cardiovascular diseases (7), sepsis (6.7), Intracerebral hemorrhage (3.7), and Disseminated intravascular coagulation (2.7). There, also, turned out to be a significant relationship between being stillborn, birth weight of the stillborn infant, gestational age, 1st and 5th minutes Agar rate, and the cause of death. Considering the high incidence of infant mortality at gestational age of less than 37 weeks, implementing stricter caregiving in order to prevent Preterm labor, as the most important cause of infant mortality, is of particular importance in reducing infant mortality.


. Rahawarin YY. 2017. Non-timber forest products extracted activities of the upstream Mamberamo basin's traditional communities of West Papua, Indonesia. Asian J For 1: 23-26. The aim of this study is to find utilization activities of extracting non-timber forest products by local communities on the upstream part of Mamberamo Basin. Survey, observation and semi-structural interview were taken to generate data and information. The result showed that the local communities extracted several of non-timber forest products over the course of their generations to fulfill basic daily necessities. There were several types of non-timber forest products that have been used by local communities either from plants wild animals that living across different types of forest. These activities were lasted for generations so that people called it as a traditional conservation. They are still exist recently and believed to maintain the long-lasting of non timber forest products continuity to keep the availability of traditional food sources for the daily needs over generations.


We report quantitative measurements of self-contamination in conventional and modified multi-SMF mechanically transferable (MT) connector ferrules. The modifications enable connector wear, insertion loss (IL), and IL reproducibility that are essentially equivalent to conventional ceramic ferrule connectors.


Fifty-six species in 36 genera of macrolichens are reported from the Zhongdian area, northwest Yunnan, China during the lichenological expedition for highland macrolichen survey in June, 2004. More than 60% of these species have not been reported in South Korea. All of the 182 collected specimens are deposited in the Korean Lichen Research Institute (KoLRI) at Sunchon National University in Korea, and some of them are duplicated in the lichen herbarium, Crytogamic Herbarium, Kunming Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica (KUN-L) in China. This is the first report on the macrolichen flora in the visited areas.


BACKGROUND: Poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) occurs in about half of stroke survivors. Cumulative evidence indicates that functional outcomes of stroke are worse in women than men. Yet it is unknown whether the occurrence and characteristics of PSCI differ between men and women. METHODS: Individual patient data from 9 cohorts of patients with ischemic stroke were harmonized and pooled through the Meta-VCI-Map consortium (n=2343, 38% women). We included patients with visible symptomatic infarcts on computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive assessment within 15 months after stroke. PSCI was defined as impairment in ≥1 cognitive domains on neuropsychological assessment. Logistic regression analyses were performed to compare men to women, adjusted for study cohort, to obtain odds ratios for PSCI and individual cognitive domains. We also explored sensitivity and specificity of cognitive screening tools for detecting PSCI, according to sex (Mini-Mental State Examination, 4 cohorts, n=1814; Montreal Cognitive Assessment, 3 cohorts, n=278). RESULTS: PSCI was found in 51% of both women and men. Men had a lower risk of impairment of attention and executive functioning (men: odds ratio, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.61–0.96]), and language (men: odds ratio, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.45–0.85]), but a higher risk of verbal memory impairment (men: odds ratio, 1.43 [95% CI, 1.17–1.75]). The sensitivity of Mini-Mental State Examination (<25) for PSCI was higher for women (0.53) than for men (0.27; P=0.02), with a lower specificity for women (0.80) than men (0.96; P=0.01). Sensitivity and specificity of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (<26.) for PSCI was comparable between women and men (0.91 versus 0.86; P=0.62 and 0.29 versus 0.28; P=0.86, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Sex was not associated with PSCI occurrence but affected domains differed between men and women. The latter may explain why sensitivity of the Mini-Mental State Examination for detecting PSCI was higher in women with a lower specificity compared with men. These sex differences need to be considered when screening for and diagnosing PSCI in clinical practice.


Crustacean limb regeneration relies on committed progenitor cells, including satellite-like muscle precursors. Many animals are able to regenerate amputated or damaged body parts, but it is unclear whether different taxa rely on similar strategies. Planarians and vertebrates use different strategies, based on pluripotent versus committed progenitor cells, respectively, to replace missing tissues. In most animals, however, we lack the experimental tools needed to determine the origin of regenerated tissues. Here, we present a genetically tractable model for limb regeneration, the crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis. We demonstrate that regeneration in Parhyale involves lineage-committed progenitors, as in vertebrates. We discover Pax3/7-expressing muscle satellite cells, previously identified only in chordates, and show that these cells are a source of regenerating muscle in Parhyale. These similarities point to a common cellular basis of regeneration, dating back to the common ancestors of bilaterians. Limb Regeneration Flatworms possess pluripotent stem cells that can regenerate any cell type in the body, whereas vertebrates mobilize committed progenitor cells whose fate is predetermined. Investigating limb regeneration in a crustacean, Konstantinides and Averof (p. 788, published online 2 January) found that arthropods use committed progenitor cells to regenerate missing tissues, including satellite-like cells to regenerate muscle. The study reveals similarities between arthropod and vertebrate muscle regeneration, pointing to a common basis for muscle regeneration that may date back to the common ancestors of all bilaterian animals.


The Camberwell Assessment of Need (the CAN) is a widely used instrument in several countries to assess needs for the severely mentally ill. The instrument consists of ratings of needs made by patient and staff. This paper reports test-retest reliability for staff ratings in the Swedish version. Fifty-six patients, most of them with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, were interviewed by one person from the social services and by one from the psychiatric clinic. Afterwards the ratings were discussed and negotiated in order to arrive at one unanimous rating. The same procedure was replicated after 2-4 weeks. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the sum of needs was 0.93, and for the sum of unmet needs and met needs 0.80 for both. There were no means differences between the first and second rating. An analysis was also made of the test-retest scores of individual needs and subscales. The results in this study suggest that the summary scores of the CAN generally are reliable over time when using the method applied here. General conclusions about test-retest reliability for individual needs and subscales are more difficult to make and demand larger samples.


Background and Aim: The poultry industry faces an emerging muscular defect in chicken meat called white striping (WS). The biological processes associated with WS myopathy are immune system activation, angiogenesis, hypoxia, cell death, and striated muscle contraction. We examined the Troponin T3 (TNNT3), Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) genes based on their functions related to muscle contraction and the innate immune system. This study aimed to determine the muscle fiber characteristics (MFCs) and expression level of TNNT3, TLR2, and TLR4 genes in white striping chicken meat (WSCM). Materials and Methods: A total of 428 breast samples were randomly collected from a commercial poultry processing plant. The samples were classified into four levels: 0 (normal), 1 (moderate WS), 2 (severe WS), and 3 (extreme WS). Five samples per group were selected to evaluate MFCs, including total number of muscle fibers, muscle fiber diameter, cross-sectional area, endomysium thickness, and perimysium thickness. Five samples per group were selected for ribonucleic acid (RNA) isolation to evaluate the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression levels of TNNT3, TLR2, and TLR4 genes related to WS. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that the total number of fibers, endomysium thickness, and perimysium thickness significantly differed between groups (p < 0.05). Muscle fiber diameter and cross-sectional area did not significantly differ (p > 0.05). The expression of the TNNT3 gene did not significantly differ among groups (p > 0.05). Toll-like receptor 2 and TLR4 mRNA expression significantly differed among groups (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These detailed MFCs will provide baseline information to observe WS in chicken meat. Toll-like receptor 2 and TLR4 genes may play a role in the occurrence of WS in chicken meat through non-specific immune reactions.


The American people have now become fully cognizant of the reckless wastefulness with which the natural resources of the country have been and are being used. It has also accepted a clearer conception of the value of the health of the people as one of these natural resources, and any measure that promises to contribute to the improvement of the sanitary conditions of the individual as well as of the community is considered with interest. It does not seem inopportune, then, to call the public attention to the medicinal mineral springs of the United States as to another one of the natural resources which, instead of entering into the work of preserving and restoring the health of the people, is now, while perhaps not actually wasted, largely allowed to go to waste. However skeptical one may be with regard to the value of the internal use of the waters of


In an investigation of the dietary habits of Arctic Grayling ( Thymallus arcticus ) we found that two individuals out of 93 sampled in southwestern Alaska (approximately 59°N, 159°W) contained a total of five shrews ( Sorex spp.). These shrews contained enriched levels of nitrogen stable isotopes, suggesting utilization of nutrients derived from salmon. We hypothesize that normally terrestrial shrews accidentally enter streams while foraging along the productive riparian zones of creeks with high densities of salmon. Shrews are apparently susceptible to opportunistic predation by resident stream fishes, including Arctic Grayling, when they enter the streams.


The asexual freshwater planarian Dugesia japonica has emerged as a medium-throughput alternative animal model for neurotoxicology. We have previously shown that D. japonica are sensitive to organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) and characterized the in vitro inhibition profile of planarian cholinesterase (DjChE) activity using irreversible and reversible inhibitors. We found that DjChE has intermediate features of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). Here, we identify two candidate genes (Djche1 and Djche2) responsible for DjChE activity. Sequence alignment and structural homology modeling with representative vertebrate AChE and BChE sequences confirmed our structural predictions, and show that both DjChE enzymes have intermediate sized catalytic gorges and disrupted peripheral binding sites. Djche1 and Djche2 were both expressed in the planarian nervous system, as anticipated from previous activity staining, but with distinct expression profiles. To dissect how DjChE inhibition affects planarian behavior, we acutely inhibited DjChE activity by exposing animals to either an OP (diazinon) or carbamate (physostigmine) at 1μM for 4 days. Both inhibitors delayed the reaction of planarians to heat stress. Simultaneous knockdown of both Djche genes by RNAi similarly resulted in a delayed heat stress response. Furthermore, chemical inhibition of DjChE activity increased the worms' ability to adhere to a substrate. However, increased substrate adhesion was not observed in Djche1/Djche2 (RNAi) animals or in inhibitor-treated day 11 regenerates, suggesting this phenotype may be modulated by other mechanisms besides ChE inhibition. Together, our study characterizes DjChE expression and function, providing the basis for future studies in this system to dissect alternative mechanisms of OP toxicity.


Evaluating the mRNA profile of podocytes in the diabetic kidney may indicate genes involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. To determine if the podocyte-specific gene information contained in mRNA profiles of the whole glomerulus of the diabetic kidney accurately reflects gene expression in the isolated podocytes, we crossed Nos3(-/-) IRG mice with podocin-rtTA and TetON-Cre mice for enhanced green fluorescent protein labeling of podocytes before diabetic injury. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin, and mRNA profiles of isolated glomeruli and sorted podocytes from diabetic and control mice were examined 10 weeks later. Expression of podocyte-specific markers in glomeruli was downregulated in diabetic mice compared with controls. However, expression of these markers was not altered in sorted podocytes from diabetic mice. When mRNA levels of glomeruli were corrected for podocyte number per glomerulus, the differences in podocyte marker expression disappeared. Analysis of the differentially expressed genes in diabetic mice also revealed distinct upregulated pathways in the glomeruli (mitochondrial function, oxidative stress) and in podocytes (actin organization). In conclusion, our data suggest reduced expression of podocyte markers in glomeruli is a secondary effect of reduced podocyte number, thus podocyte-specific gene expression detected in the whole glomerulus may not represent that in podocytes in the diabetic kidney.


Constitutively activated forms of the transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase c-KIT have been associated with systemic mast cell disease, acute myeloid leukemia, and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Reports of the resistance of the kinase domain mutation D816V to the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-competitive kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate prompted us to characterize 14 c-KIT mutations reported in association with human hematologic malignancies for transforming activity in the murine hematopoietic cell line Ba/F3 and for sensitivity to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor PKC412. Ten of 14 c-KIT mutations conferred interleukin 3 (IL-3)-independent growth. c-KIT D816Y and D816V transformed cells were sensitive to PKC412 despite resistance to imatinib mesylate. In these cells, PKC412, but not imatinib mesylate, inhibited autophosphorylation of c-KIT and activation of downstream effectors signal transducer and transcriptional activator 5 (Stat5) and Stat3. Variable sensitivities to PKC412 or imatinib mesylate were observed among other mutants. These findings suggest that PKC412 may be a useful therapeutic agent for c-KIT-positive malignancies harboring the imatinib mesylate-resistant D816V or D816Y activation mutations.


The macroscopic manipulation of liquids is a core component to the development of microfluidic devices. Although the Marangoni effect has been described for well over a century, actively tuning such surface tension effects is a more recent achievement. This Highlight compares recently reported electro- and photochemical methods in which this liquid manipulation has occurred. One such method, electrocapillarity as utilised by Prins et al., is shown in the picture.


Recombinant monoclonal antibody (rMAb) therapy may be instituted to achieve one of two broad outcomes: i) killing of cells or organisms (e.g., cancer cells, bacteria); and ii) neutralisation of soluble molecules (e.g., cytokines in chronic disease or toxins in infection). The choice of rMAb isotype is a critical decision in the development of a therapeutic antibody as it will determine the biological activities triggered in vivo. It is not possible, however, to accurately predict the in vivo activity because multiple parameters impact on the functional outcome, for example, IgG subclass, IgG-Fc glycoform, epitope density, cellular Fc receptors polymorphisms and so on. The present understanding of the molecular interactions between IgG-Fc and effector ligands in vitro has allowed the generation of new antibody structures with altered/improved effector function profiles that may prove optimal for given disease indications. Thus, when maximal antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity activity is indicated a non-fucosylated IgG1 format may be optimal; when minimal activity is indicated an aglycosylated IgG2 may be the form of choice.


Frost is formed on the louvered fin tube heat exchanger of heat pump when moist air temperature below 0℃ is flowing over its cold surface. Formed frost acts as a thermal resistance to make heat transfer rate decrease and blocks air flow space to increase air side pressure drop at the heat exchanger. Frost prediction on the heat exchanger leads how to delay frost in order not to increase defrosting energy. Frost pattern on the heat exchanger was predicted by using segment by segment method for the heat exchanger. Local heat transfer rate for each segment was obtained by applying e-NTU method. The proposed model was validated by comparing the predicted values with the measured data for the frost on the louvered fin tube heat exchanger under the frost condition. Predicted local and average frost thickness, average air side pressure drop, and heat transfer rate agreed with the measured data within ±18.9%.


Purpose – Scholars have called for diversity in methods and multi-method research to enhance relevance to practice. However, many of the calls have only gone so far as to suggest the use of multiple methods within the positivism paradigm, which dominates the discipline and may constrain the ability to develop middle-range theory and propose workable solutions to today's supply chain challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present a rationale for expanding the methodological toolbox of the field to include interpretive research methods. Design/methodology/approach – This research conceptually illustrates how positivist and interpretive philosophies translate into different research approaches by reviewing an extant positivist qualitative study that uses grounded theory and then detailing how an interpretive researcher would approach the same phenomenon using the hermeneutic method. Findings – This research expands the boundaries and impact of the field by broadening the set of questions research can address. It contributes a detailed illustration of the interpretive research process, as well as applications for the interpretive approach in future research, particularly theory elaboration, middle-range theorizing, and emerging domains such as the farm-to-fork supply chain and the consumer-based supply chain. Research limitations/implications – The development of alternative ways of seeking knowledge enhances the potential for creativity, expansion, and progress in the field. Practical implications – Practical implications of this research include enabling researchers to elaborate theory and develop middle-range theories through an alternative philosophical paradigm. This paradigm facilitates practical insights that are directly relevant to particular domains and move beyond general theories seeking generalizability. Social implications – Social implications of this research are much more indirect in nature. This research encourages supply chain management (SCM) scholars to look at phenomena (including those with social implications) from a different philosophical perspective, which can reveal new insights. Originality/value – This research contributes a rationale for expanding the methodological toolbox of the field to include interpretive research methods and also contributes a methodological operationalization of the interpretive approach. By reflecting on the nature of science and method in SCM, the study opens the door for creativity and progress to expand the boundaries and impact of the field.


Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) is a follow on mission of ADEOS, ADEOS2 and TRMM. It is under phase A study in JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). GCOM is not a series of satellites but a mission and its concept is to continuously monitor geophysical parameters which are critical to understand global change phenomena, especially phenomena related to climate change. Those parameters include, but not limited to, optical thickness of aerosols and clouds, water and energy fluxes, carbon fluxes, sink and source of greenhouse gases, etc. The measurements of geophysical parameters will continue more than 15 years after the launch of ADEOS2. The first generation satellites of GCOM after ADEOS2 is now composed of 3 satellites, i.e. GOSAT, GCOM-B1, and GPM core satellite. The target of GOSAT is to monitor tropospheric greenhouse gases and clarify sources and sinks of these gases with the aid of atmospheric inverse models. ADEOSΠwas launched on Dec., 2002. However, after about 10 months operation, it has lost most of its power due to the solar paddle failure. The exact cause of the accident is not apparent at this time, JAXA is now considering to launch a satellite as a substitute of ADEOSΠ. Up to now, candidate sensors on board this satellite is 3, i.e. GLI follow on, AMSR follow on and SeaWinds follow on. Further, ADEOSΠ F/O will be dividedd into two satellites, i.e. GCOM-C which will carry GLI F/O and GCOM-W which will carry AMSR F/O and SeaWinds F/O. The GLI F/O will be rather different from GLI. The main targets of GLI F/O are atmospheric aerosols, coastal zone and land. In order measure aerosols over both ocean and land, it will have ultra violet channels, as well as polarization and bi-directional observation capability. For, coastal zone and land observation, the IFOV of GLI F/O for these targets will be around 250m. The instrument will be composed of several components. The shorter wavelength region will adopt push broom scanners, while long wave region will use a conventional whisk broom scanner. AMSR F/O will be very similar to AMSR on ADEOSΠ and AMSR-E on EOS-Aqua. SeaWinds F/O will be also similar to SeaWinds on ADEOSΠ with some modifications. There are two options on the orbit. One is the same to that of ADEOSΠ, i.e. around 800km altitude. Another is a higher orbit to allow faster turn around. The target launch date is fiscal 2008. JAXA has other satellite series, starting from MOS-1 to JERS-1. The next satellite to follow the JERS-1 is ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite), which will be launched in 2005. The mission of ALOS is to provide sufficient data, which enable to generate 1 to 25,000 scale base maps all over the world.


The structure of ionic adsorption layers is studied via a proper thermodynamic treat- ment of the electrostatic and non-electrostatic interactions between the surfactant ions as well as of the effect of thermodynamic non-locality. The analysis is also applied to phase transitions into the ionic adsorption layer, which interfere further with the oscillatory-diffusive structure of the electric double layer and hydrodynamic stability of squeezing waves in thin liquid films.


Purpose: To diagnose the extent of soft tissue damage with MRI, and to evaluate the relationship between soft tissue damage and a spinal cord injury in an extension injury to the lower cervical spine trauma. Materials and Methods: Eighty-one patients who treated surgically for an anextension injury to the cervical spine over the past 5 years, were analyzed. All patients had undergone MRI after the injury, and for the specific grading of soft tissue damage, the grades were defined from grades 1 to 5. Results: The spinal cord injury developed with more than grade 3 soft tissue damage associated with a rupture of the posterior longitudinal ligament (p<0.01). The changes in signal intensity of the spinal cord also developed according to the severity of soft tissue damage (p<0.01). There was no relationship between the soft tissue damage and the spinal cord injury in spinal stenosis (p=0.75). Conclusion: The extent of soft tissue damage was diagnosed precisely with MRI, and there was an close relationship between the soft tissue damage and spinal cord injury in the distractive-extension injury to the lower cervical spine trauma.


The purpose of the present experiment was to evaluate how training procedure and monetary incentive affect skin temperature biofeedback: A 3 (training procedure) X 3 (monetary incentive) design was employed. It was hypothesized that positive and negative monetary feedback would enhance temperature control. Motivation was manipulated by paying subjects 1 cent, 10 cents, or 20 cents for every 0.1 degree F they decreased their finger temperature over baseline for three days. Results revealed a significant monetary effect only during the first training day.


The objective of this study was to estimate body conformation on
Pelibuey, Dorper and Kathadin sheeps using zoometric variables.
Measures of each one of the races and racial differences was determined
according to them, live weight was predicted by regression models based
on physical variables. Sample was conformed 276 females (34,5%; 87
Pelibuey, 92 Dorper and 97 Kathadin) on nine farms (800 sheeps) of the
State of Veracruz. Zoometric measures analyzed were: height at rump
(H), height at withers (HW), body length (TL), thoracic perimeter (TP),
circumference of the rod (CC), head width (C), fronto profile nose
(bow) (NFP), ear length (LO), rump length (LG) and rump width (AG) in
addition to body weight (BW) and age (E). The effect of race was
decisive both in weight and in body conformation, we found that the
variation between races is significant (P<0,05) while the Dorper the
bigger, followed Kathadin and Pelibuey. We found a correlation between
AP and AC (0,79), LT and AG (0,69), LG and AG (0,68). The model was
used to determine the weight according to zoometric measures is: PV =
-91,487 + 0,8282 PT + 0,403 LT + 1,4441 AG + 1,86284 CC (R2=0,85).


This study explores the tension between the standard economic theory of preference and nonstandard theories of preference that are motivated by an underlying theory of framing. A simple experiment fails to measure a known preference. The divergence of the measured preference from the known preference reflects a mistake, arising from some subjects' misconception of the game form. We conclude that choice data should not be granted an unqualified interpretation of preference revelation. Mistakes in choices obscured by a possible error at the foundation of the theory of framing can masquerade as having been produced by nonstandard preferences.


How are historical, practice-oriented, and critical research perspectives in management affected by digitalization? In this article, we describe and discuss how two digital research approaches can be applied and how they may influence the future directions of management scholarship and education: Social Media Analytics and digital archives. Our empirical illustrations suggest that digitalization generates productivity improvements for scholars, making it possible to undertake research that was previously too laborious. It also enables researchers to pay closer attention to detail while still being able to abstract and generalize. We therefore argue that digitalization contributes to a historical turn in management, that practice-oriented research can be conducted with less effort and improved quality and that micro-level data in the form of digital archives and online contents make it easier to adopt critical perspectives.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the actions needed and organisations to make a difference to the problem of loneliness in old age. Design/methodology/approach – Draws on the work of the Campaign to End Loneliness in collaboration with hundreds of organisations worldwide to document what has been done so far and to provide exemplars and imagined case studies based on collected experience to identify potential relevant actions. Findings – Many hundreds of organisations worldwide are recognising the need to support older peoples' connections and abilities to engage with their communities. However, these need to be better mapped and coordinated. Practical implications – Innovative work is already being done to tackle loneliness needs to be more systematically supported and promoted. Originality/value – Identifies how much has already changed in terms of recognising and addressing loneliness but that a more comprehensive approach to support is needed.


Cushing and Ayer recently 1 called attention to the unusual finding of xanthrochromia and increased protein in the spinal fluid above tumors of the cauda equina. This syndrome is most confusing in the localization of cauda equina tumors. That a "Froin syndrome" signifies spinal cord compression, due to tumor or other lesion, sufficiently marked to form a closed cavity and stasis of the fluid in the lumbar culdesac below the lesion, has been generally accepted. Cushing and Ayer report five cases of caudal tumor in which this syndrome was observed—a unique report. The following case report is submitted as another illuminating example: REPORT OF CASE Clinical History. —A. B., aged 60, a public accountant, was seen Jan. 12, 1923, because of severe neuralgic attacks along the course of the right anterior crural nerve. The family and personal histories were negative. About August, 1921, he had noticed discomfort and soreness in


Motivated by new sounding-rocket wide-field polarimetric images of the Large Magellanic Cloud (reported simultaneously by Cole et al.), we have used a three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transfer code to investigate the escape of near-ultraviolet photons from young stellar associations embedded within a disk of dusty material (i.e., a galaxy). As photons propagate through the disk, they may be scattered or absorbed by dust. Scattered photons are polarized and tracked until they escape the dust layer, allowing them to be observed; absorbed photons heat the dust, which radiates isotropically in the far-infrared where the galaxy is optically thin. The code produces four output images: near-UV and far-IR flux, and near-UV images in the linear Stokes parameters Q and U. From these images we construct simulated UV polarization maps of the LMC. We use these maps to place constraints on the star+dust geometry of the LMC and the optical properties of its dust grains. By tuning the model input parameters to produce maps that match the observed polarization maps, we derive information about the inclination of the LMC disk to the plane of the sky and about the scattering phase function g. We compute a grid of models with i = 28°, 36°, and 45°, and g = 0.64, 0.70, 0.77, 0.83, and 0.90. The model that best reproduces the observed polarization maps has i = 36° and g ≈ 0.7. Because of the low signal-to-noise in the data, we cannot place firm constraints on the value of g. The highly inclined models do not match the observed centrosymmetric polarization patterns around bright OB associations or the distribution of polarization values. Our models approximately reproduce the observed ultraviolet photopolarimetry of the western side of the LMC; however, the output images depend on many input parameters and are nonunique. We discuss some of the limitations of the models and outline future steps to be taken; our models make some predictions regarding the polarization properties of diffuse light across the rest of the LMC.


Palm sugar as a source of income is mostly produced by palm sugar producers who are in the village, depending on the population of existing palm trees. Available raw materials and prevailing prices affect income. This study aims to (1) analyze the structure of production costs and business income of palm sugar and (2) analyze the factors that influence the income of palm sugar producers in Rejang Lebong Regency, Bengkulu Province. The method used to analyze the cost structure is income analysis (π = TR - TC) by calculating the use of total costs (TC = TFC + TVC) used in once production process. Factors that influence palm sugar income are  price of palm sugar, number of productive trees, and yield of palm sugar. Primary data obtained from palm sugar prodicers using questionnaires and secondary data obtained from previous research. Analysis of factors that influence income using multiple linear regression analysis,  processed using the SPSS 16.0 Program. Research results show that the average income obtained by palm sugar craftsmen in Rejang Lebong District is Rp 150,374 / production. Palm sugar processing business is still feasible to be a business and profitable because the value of profitability obtained is 1.23. Factors that influence income significantly at the level of 95 percent in the form of prices and number of productive trees. Improvements in technological innovations and an increase in the population of palm sugar plants need to be improved to be able to increase the income of palm sugar' producers in the Rejang Lebong Regency of Bengkulu Province.


This paper presents a statistical analysis of the abc music notation corpus. The corpus contains around 435,000 transcriptions of which just over 400,000 are folk and traditional music. There is significant duplication within the corpus and so a large part of the paper discusses methods to assess the level of duplication and the analysis then indicates a headline figure of over 165,000 distinct folk and traditional melodies. The paper also describes TuneGraph, an online, interactive user interface for exploring tune variants, based on visualising the proximity graph of the underlying melodies.