The arbitrator's decision on its own jurisdiction plays an important role in the field of arbitration. In practice, it is by means of this decision that the arbitrator controls the existence of the foundation of the arbitration, i.e., that the parties validly attributed jurisdiction to a private third person to decide a dispute exercising jurisdictional powers. Consequently, it is essential that this decision be submitted to a well-defined legal regime, which requires the determination of its legal qualification. In this context, the notion of "arbitral award" should benefit from a definition that is specific to arbitration law, and it shall not be defined by the simple transposition of the definition of state court's "judgements" pursuant to civil procedure codes. Considering the characteristics of the arbitral jurisdiction, the decision of the arbitrator on its own jurisdiction shall be considered a genuine "arbitral award". Therefore, this decision shall be submitted to the legal regime reserved exclusively to arbitral awards, which includes the legal regime for annulment of awards.


Supply chain management (SCM) has been recognized as an important discipline with applications to many industries, where the two-echelon stochastic inventory model, involving one downstream retailer and one upstream supplier, plays a fundamental role for developing firms' SCM strategies. In this work, we aim at designing online learning algorithms for this problem with an unknown demand distribution, which brings distinct features as compared to classic online optimization problems. Specifically, we consider the two-echelon supply chain model introduced in [Cachon and Zipkin, 1999] under two different settings: the centralized setting, where a planner decides both agents' strategy simultaneously, and the decentralized setting, where two agents decide their strategy independently and selfishly. We design algorithms that achieve favorable guarantees for both regret and convergence to the optimal inventory decision in both settings, and additionally for individual regret in the decentralized setting. Our algorithms are based on Online Gradient Descent and Online Newton Step, together with several new ingredients specifically designed for our problem. We also implement our algorithms and show their empirical effectiveness.


Abstract The responses of wells to changes in atmospheric pressure (barometric effects) are briefly reviewed. Barometric effects can arise in both confined and unconfined aquifers. The basic requirements are: (1) the presence of an aquifer with some rigidity and (2) material above the saturated aquifer with low pneumatic diffusivity to prevent changes in atmospheric pressure being transmitted quickly and directly to the water table. In addition, the well must be cased to the top of the saturated aquifer and be in reasonable hydraulic connection with it. In confined aquifers, measuring barometric efficiency can provide a simple way of estimating storage coefficient. Barometric effects can be monitored with either vented or non-vented pressure transducers; neither type will eliminate barometric fluctuations and both need independent monitoring of changes in air pressure so that the barometric efficiency can be determined and the fluctuations removed from aquifer-test and similar data.


Superconducting Bi-2223/Ag composites were prepared and the microstructure was thoroughly studied. A 20 nm thick amorphous–nanocrystalline phase was observed at the interface between the superconductor and the Ag. SEM/HREM/EDX observations were used to study this nanolayer and the results point to incongruent melting as the most probable cause of this phenomenon. The change in concentration of the Bi-2223 phase with the addition of Ag is elucidated in terms of the difference between the sintering temperature used and the incongruent melting. It is suggested that the frequently observed penetration of the ceramic phase into the Ag can be explained by the interfacial energy model.


Abstract Objectives Exposure to arsenic and hexavalent chromium is a major public health concern especially in the developing part of the world and there is paucity of information on reliable treatment modalilities. It is in this regard that this study evaluates the efficacy of methanol leaf extract of Rauvolfia vomitoria (MRV) when used as pretreatment agent against potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) and sodium arsenite (NaAsO2) exposure. Methods Swiss albino mice between 7 and 10 weeks old were divided into eight cohorts of five animals each. Treatment groups consisted of a distilled water control, MRV alone (275 mg/kg po daily), K2Cr2O7 (12.0 mg/kg, single ip injection) +/− MRV pretreatment, NaAsO2 (2.5 mg/kg, single ip injection) +/− MRV pretreatment, Na2AsO2 + K2Cr2O7 +/− MRV pretreatment. MRV was given for seven consecutive days, while K2Cr2O7 and NaAsO2 were injected on day seven of the experiment. The frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes (mPCEs) was determined in bone marrow cells, while aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities were assessed in the plasma. Hepatic glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) levels were also determined. Results The NaAsO2 and K2Cr2O7 significantly (p<0.05) increased mPCE formation, AST, ALT, and CAT when compared with the control. Simultaneous exposure to NaAsO2 and K2Cr2O7 further increased the levels of the markers. Furthermore, GSH and GST were significantly reduced by NaAsO2 or K2Cr2O7 or their combination. Pretreatment with MRV reversed the markers towards that of control. Conclusions Methanol extract of Rauvolfia vomitoria may therefore ameliorate NaAsO2 and K2Cr2O7-induced toxicities via reduction of oxidative stress and fortification of anti-oxidant system.


Black scurf disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani, often refractory and with large number of persistent sclerotia, cause a heavy burden on the potato crop, while the current conventional practices against diseases are limited and are associated with toxicity and resistance. Botanical fungicides have shown enormous antifungal potential against many sclerotial forming phytopathogens. In the present study, methanolic root extract of Sonchus asper was assessed for their anti-fungal activity against R. solani. The methanolic extract was prepared by soaking dried root biomass in methanol and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively. Antifungal potential of the extract was detected in test tubes filled with broth in triplicate. The results revealed fungal biomass was significantly reduced (52–97%) with increase in concentrations of the extract (1.56–200 mg mL-1). GCMS analysis revealed that benzoic acid derivatives and isotretinoin as important compounds responsible for the antifungal activity. Hence, methanolic root extract might be a potential library for fungicide development against R. solani.


The introduction of exotic marine species is a recent concern in Brazil, and seaweeds are the least studied group. The first publications deal with intentional introduction of species for aquaculture. Recent papers focus on putative accidental introductions. In this review we summarize the existing knowledge about the presence of non-indigenous seaweeds on the Brazilian coast. Nevertheless, the labeling of a species as an exotic one can be a complex issue. Kappaphycus alvarezii and K. striatum were the only authorized and well documented intentional introductions in Brazil, aiming to carrageenan production. Caulerpa scalpelliformis , known from a large stretch of the northeast and east Brazilian coast, seems to have spread to Rio de Janeiro state and can be considered as the only invasive species in Brazil so far. Available data indicate that this species is impacting benthic communities on Ilha Grande Bay. In this same region, Laurencia caduciramulosa populations appeared in 2001 and begun to spread. Other introductions are mere suspicions: Anotrichium yagii and Dasya brasiliensis are suspected to be exotic for being conspicuous species not reported previously to well studied areas. Cladophora corallicola, Laurencia venusta, Pedobesia ryukyuensis, Porphyra leucosticta, Porphyra rizzinii and Porphyra suborbiculata , all reported on recent surveys and suspected to be newcomers, should rather be considered as cryptogenic because they may have been overlooked or misidentified on previous surveys.


Technology is constantly evolving, as a result, users have become more demanding and the applications more complex. In the realm of Web development, JavaScript is growing in a surprising way, already leaving the boundaries of the browser, mainly due to the advent of Node.js. In fact, JavaScript is constantly being reinvented and, from the ES2015 version, began to include the OO concepts typically found in other programming languages.
With Web access being mostly made by mobile devices, developers face now performance challenges and need to perform a plethora of tasks that weren't necessary a decade ago, such as managing dependencies, bundling files, minifying code, optimizing images and others. Many of these tasks can be achieved by using the right tools for the job. However, developers not only have to know those tools, but they also must know how to access and operate them. This process can be tedious, confusing, time-consuming and error-prone.
In this paper, we present Kaang, an automatic generator of RESTFul Web applications. The ultimate goal of Kaang is to minimize the impact of creating a RESTFul service by automating all its workflow (e.g., files structuring, boilerplate code generation, dependencies management, and task building). This kind of generators will benefit two types of users: will help novice developers to decrease their learning curve while facing the new frameworks and libraries commonly found in the modern Web and speed up the work of expert developers avoiding all the repetitive and bureaucratic work. At the same time, Kaang promotes the good development principles by adding automatic testing and documentation generation.
For this accomplishment, Kaang generates the main API content based on the user's input and a set of templates which will help developers to manage and test routes, define resources, store data models and others. In order to provide an addition level of confidence to the generator's end-users, the generator will be integrated on Travis CI and published on both the npmjs and Yeoman registries.


The Carajas railway is operated by Vale SA and is used to transport the Brazilian production of iron ore mine located in the state of Para until Itaqui harbor in Maranhao state. With 892 km in length, the railway will be doubled due to the prospect of increased production, which requires verification of the structures of bridges to ensure safety under loading up to 23% larger. The railway bridge in reinforced concrete has five hyperstatic spans with 25 m long and was built over Sororo river in the southeast of Para. To better evaluate its structural performance under current loadings, several structural elements were monitored with strain gages and the concrete was characterized by non-destructive and destructive testing on the structure. This information was used in a computer model to estimate the future structural behavior. The methodology was satisfactory as the estimated structural performance for future loadings, meeting the recommendations of the Brazilian technical standards.


Bioorthogonal pretargeted imaging using the inverse-electron-demand Diels–Alder (IEDDA) reaction between a tetrazine (Tz) and a trans-cyclooctene (TCO) represents an attractive strategy for molecular imaging via antibodies. The advantages of using a pretargeted imaging approach are on the one hand the possibility to achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio and imaging contrast; on the other hand, the method allows the uncoupling of the biological half-life of antibodies from the physical half-life of short-lived radionuclides. A brain-penetrating antibody (mAb) specific for β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques was functionalized with TCO moieties for pretargeted labeling of Aβ plaques in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo by a tritium-labeled Tz. The overall aim was to explore the applicability of mAbs for brain imaging, using a preclinical model system. In vitro clicked mAb–TCO–Tz was able to pass the blood–brain barrier of transgenic PS2APP mice and specifically visualize Aβ plaques ex vivo. Further experiments showed that click reactivity of the mAb–TCO construct in vivo persisted up to 3 days after injection by labeling Aβ plaques ex vivo after incubation of brain sections with the Tz in vitro. An attempted in vivo click reaction between injected mAb–TCO and Tz did not lead to significant labeling of Aβ plaques, most probably due to unfavorable in vivo properties of the used Tz and a long half-life of the mAb–TCO in the blood stream. This study clearly demonstrates that pretargeted imaging of CNS targets via antibody-based click chemistry is a viable approach. Further experiments are warranted to optimize the balance between stability and reactivity of all reactants, particularly the Tz.


Effects of ramp rate and dwell time are studied through laboratory results and a nts (DOE) using finite element analysis (FEA) incorporating stress/strain and plastic work history. Results demonstrate that solder joint fatigue life is more sensitive to dwell time than ramp rate during thermal cycling. A nonlinear relationship exists between solder fatigue life (mean time to failure, MTTF) and dwell time. Increasing dwell time past 20 min has a minimal effect on the acceleration factor or lifetime. Modeling shows that the acceleration factor increases by a factor of 1.23 for a specific ball grid array (BGA) assembly when the test condition changes from a slow ramp/long dwell (single chamber) to a fast ramp/short dwell (dual chamber). Experiments were performed to validate the FEA modeling. Different ramp time/dwell times were achieved by modulating the temperature profile in a single chamber oven. If dwell time changes from 5 to 10 min with an invariant ramp time of 5 min, apparent MTTF decreases by 55%. However, if the invariant dwell time is 10 min, MTTF remains practically the same as the ramp time increases from 5 to 10 min. These test results are consistent with modeling predictions. The focus of temperature cycling tests should not be on number of chambers, nor upon ramp rate, but upon dwell time. We recommend 8 to 10 min dwell at a high temperature of 125/spl deg/C.


Solution (31)P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is currently the main method for the characterization of phosphorus (P) forms in environment samples. However, identification and quantification of P compounds may be hampered by poor resolution of spectra caused by paramagnetic Fe and Mn. In this study, a novel technique was developed to improve spectral resolution by removing paramagnetic Fe and Mn from alkaline extracts via 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HOQ) precipitation. Batch experiments showed that both Fe and Mn were effectively removed by the precipitation at pH 9.0, with the removal efficiencies of 83-91% for Fe and 67-78% for Mn from the extracts of five different environmental samples, while little effect was found on concentration of total P. The (31)P NMR analysis of a model P solution showed that addition of 8-HOQ and its precipitation with metal ions did not alter P forms. Further analyses of the five extracts with (31)P NMR spectroscopy demonstrated that the 8-HOQ precipitation was an ideal method compared with the present postextraction techniques, such as bicarbonate dithionate (BD), EDTA and Chelex-100 treatments, by improving spectral resolution to a large extent with no detrimental effects on P forms.


This paper addresses the problem of estimation of unmeasured gas turbine engine variables using statistical analysis of measured data. Possible changes of an engine health condition and lack of information about these changes caused by limited instrumentation are taken into account. Engine thrust is under consideration as one of the most important unmeasured parameters. Two common methods of aircraft gas turbine engine (GTE) thrust monitoring and their errors due to health condition changes are analyzed. Additionally, two mathematical techniques that allow reducing in-flight thrust estimation errors in the case of GTE deterioration are suggested and verified in the paper. They are a ridge trace and a principal component analysis.A turbofan engine has been chosen as a test case. The engine has five measured variables and 23 health parameters to describe its health condition. Measurement errors are simulated using a generator of random numbers with the normal distribution. The engine is presented in calculations by its nonlinear component level model (CLM). Results of the comparison of thrust estimates computed by the CLM and the proposed techniques confirm accuracy of the techniques. The regression model on principal components has demonstrated the highest accuracy.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Sometimes the physically distributed computing devices in a network may be interested in computing some function of their private inputs without disclosing these inputs to one another. This type of computation falls under the category of Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC). The solution to SMC problems in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) can be found with the modification of the data inputs or with some anonymization technique. MANETs are the wireless networks of the mobile computing devices with no support of any fixed infrastructure. The mobile nodes use any of the radio technology like Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 or Hiperlan for directly communicating with each other. The nodes behave as hosts as well as routers. The security challenges in the MANET arise due to its dynamic topology, vulnerable wireless link and nomadic environment. An identification mechanism is needed between the nodes using identification and the credentials. This security architecture simultaneously leads to privacy problems. Some mechanism is needed which prevents a node to learn the identity or the credentials of other nodes. To provide location privacy in MANET is a nontrivial task. Current routing protocols do not focus much on the security and the privacy issues. These aspects are postponed till further development. An authentication protocol is needed between nodes using some cryptographic technique. In service-oriented MANET the denial of the service must be taken care of so that the availability of the service is maintained. The security requirement of the ad hoc network depends on its application. For example, for a simple business meeting the requirement is mitigated and for the military battlefield it is severe. Thus no general security architecture can be developed for MANET. Specific security architecture is needed for specific application. Much security related work is still pending and will add to the standards as the physical deployment of the MANET will grow. In this paper, an emphasis is made on how SMC solutions can be used for privacy preservation during computation.


This article describes an automatic detector for marine mammal vocalizations. Even though there has been previous research on optimizing automatic detectors for specific calls or specific species, the detection of any type of call by a diversity of marine mammal species still poses quite a challenge--and one that is faced more frequently as the scope of passive acoustic monitoring studies and the amount of data collected increase. Information (Shannon) entropy measures the amount of information in a signal. A detector based on spectral entropy surpassed two commonly used detectors based on peak-energy detection. Receiver operating characteristic curves were computed for performance comparison. The entropy detector performed considerably faster than real time. It can be used as a first step in an automatic signal analysis yielding potential signals. It should be followed by automatic classification, recognition, and identification algorithms to group and identify signals. Examples are shown from underwater recordings in the Western Canadian Arctic. Calls of a variety of cetacean and pinniped species were detected.


This study focused on the impact of teacher quality, teaching methods, and access to training materials on students' acquisition of employable skills in vocational technical subjects, for self employment in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Three questions and three hypotheses were formulated and tested in the study. The population of the study comprised 240 senior technical II students in the six technical colleges in the state. A random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 120 students for the study. A 28 - item structured questionnaire titled, Students' Acquisition of Employable Skills Questionnaire (SAESQ) with a four-point rating response options were used for data collection. Mean, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Regressional analysis were used for data analysis. The results indicated significant relationships between teacher quality, teaching methods and students' acquisition of employable skills. We recommend the provision of modern workshop equipment and employment of qualified and experienced teachers for effective teaching/training of students of vocational and technical education in Akwa Ibom State.


The traditional methods of drug discovery follow the "one drug-one target" approach, which ignores the cellular and physiological environment of the action mechanism of drugs. However, pathway-based drug discovery methods can overcome this limitation. This kind of method, such as the Integrative Penalized Matrix Decomposition (iPaD) method, identifies the drug-pathway associations by taking the lasso-type penalty on the regularization term. Moreover, instead of imposing the L1-norm regularization, the L2,1-Integrative Penalized Matrix Decomposition (L2,1-iPaD) method imposes the L2,1-norm penalty on the regularization term. In this paper, based on the iPaD and L2,1-iPaD methods, we propose a novel method named L1L2,1-iPaD (L1L2,1-Integrative Penalized Matrix Decomposition), which takes the sum of the L1-norm and L2,1-norm penalties on the regularization term. Besides, we perform permutation test to assess the significance of the identified drug-pathway association pairs and compute the P-values. Compared with the existing methods, our method can identify more drug-pathway association pairs which have been validated in the CancerResource database. In order to identify drug-pathway associations which are not validated in the CancerResource database, we retrieve published papers to prove these associations. The results on two real datasets prove that our method can achieve better enrichment for identified association pairs than the iPaD and L2,1-iPaD methods.


N E W Y O R K — Any pregnant woman who has anti-Ro/La antibodies should have weekly fetal echocardiograms beginning at 16 weeks' gestation to look for possible signs of congenital heart block, Dr. Jill P. Buyon said at a rheumatology meeting sponsored by New York University. During pregnancy these autoantibodies, typically found in high titers in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome but also in some asymptomatic individuals, begin to cross the placenta as early as 11 weeks. The autoantibodies accumulate in the fetal circulation and are associated with the development of various manifestations of neonatal lupus, particularly prolongation of the mechanical PR interval and congenital atrioventricular block. The importance of early detection of these autoantibodies in the fetus is underscored by the fact that once third-degree, or complete, heart block has developed, it is irreversible with current therapies, according to Dr. Buyon, professor of medicine, department of rheumatology, New York University, New York City. Moreover, anti-Ro/La congenital heart block carries a 20% mortality, and at present the majority of children who survive need a pacemaker. Intense research interest therefore is focused on identifying markers of early cardiac injury, at a point before fibrosis and scarring are permanent, and on the potential for therapeutic interventions to reverse early changes. The use of cardiac monitoring to detect prolongations of the PR interval greater than 150 milliseconds was recently evaluated in the observational PR Interval and Dexamethasone Evaluation (PRIDE) study of pregnant women who were positive for anti-Ro and/or anti-La antibodies. The study also attempted to provide some data on outcomes following the administration of steroids. Fetal echocardiography was performed weekly between weeks 16 and 26, and then biweekly between weeks 26 and 34, according to Dr. Buyon, one of the study investigators. She and her colleagues were looking for prolongation of the PR interval, evidence of tricuspid regurgitation, and unexplained atrial echodensities. Among the 88 patients who completed an evaluable course, there were three cases of third-degree heart block. One of these patients had a normal PR interval, but some tricuspid regurgitation was noted at 17 weeks and atrial echodensity, at 22 weeks. A week later the fetus was in third-degree heart block and, despite treatment with maternal dexamethasone, 4 mg/day, severe hydrops developed and the pregnancy was terminated. The second fetus had a normal PR interval between weeks 16 and 18 along with mild tricuspid regurgitation at week 17. The mother missed an appointment and, by the next time she was seen, thirddegree block had developed in the fetus. This persisted despite administration of dexamethasone, and the child continued to be followed after birth (Arthritis Rheum. 2006;54:S689). The third fetus also had a normal PR interval at 18 weeks, but 10 days later the fetus was in third-degree block and hydropic. Treatment with dexamethasone was unsuccessful, and the pregnancy was terminated at 20.5 weeks. First-degree block was detected in an additional three fetuses. In one, the PR was normal at weeks 16-18, was prolonged at week 19, and normalized within 7 days of dexamethasone treatment. The second had a prolonged PR interval at week 22 that resolved within 3 days of dexamethasone treatment. These two patients both had normal electrocardiograms at birth. The third fetus had normal PR intervals throughout gestation but an electrocardiogram at birth showed first-degree block that has persisted to age 3 years. Dexamethasone was also used in nine cases of second-degree block. Of these, four fetuses progressed to third-degree block, four remained in second, and only one was born in normal sinus rhythm. "This was a little disappointing," Dr. Buyon said. Of the 79 neonates for whom birth electrocardiograms were available, 78 were normal, and all 46 for whom 1-year follow-up electrocardiograms were available were normal, she said. In conclusion, the study suggests the following, according to Dr. Buyon: First-degree block in utero is reversible with dexamethasone, but if present at birth, close observation by a cardiologist is needed because of the possibility of later progression. There has not been evidence of conduction abnormalities developing later in neonates whose electrocardiogram was normal at birth. Advanced cardiomyopathy can occur within 7 days of a normal PR interval, so even weekly evaluation may not be sufficient. Tricuspid regurgitation may be an important early marker of injury. Dexamethasone treatment poses significant hazards to both mother and fetus, with maternal risks including diabetes and hypertension, and fetal risks including intrauterine growth retardation, adrenal suppression, and decreased brain growth. Moreover, as was seen in PRIDE, efficacy is hardly guaranteed. Accordingly, other therapeutic approaches are being investigated, including inhibition of transforming growth factor-β to limit fibrosis and prophylaxis with intravenous immune globulin (see box). ■ Early detection of autoantibodies in the fetus is vital when a woman has anti-Ro/La.


Changes in the numbers and types of lactate-producing and lactate-utilizing bacteria in the rumen of sheep were followed during stepwise adaptation from a low- to a high-concentrate diet. The mean numbers of bacteria increased after each change in diet when increasing amounts of maize grain were substituted for maize stover. A surge in number of amylolytic bacteria always preceded an increase in lactate-utilizing bacteria, and with the final diet containing 71% grain and molasses the two groups tended to balance each other, which resulted in low lactic acid accumulation. The lactate utilizers thus played a key role in controlling the fermentation. Orderly shifts occurred among the predominating amylolytic and lactate-utilizing bacteria in response to the gradual decrease in ruminal pH as the amount of maize meal in the diet increased. Among the lactate utilizers, the succession began with acid-sensitive Veillonella and Selenomonas, which were superseded by more acid-tolerant Anaerovibrio and Propionibacterium. Among the amylolytic bacteria, Bacteroides was superseded by more acid-tolerant Lactobacillus and Eubacterium. The ecological succession of predominating genera was shown to be correlated significantly with ruminal pH and, more specifically, with the length of time as well as the extent to which the pH remained below a certain critical undefined value in the rumen, arbitrarily set at pH 6.00.


The notion of contextualization of Islamic law is a form of initiative actualization of the value substance of Shari'ah ideals that in the elucidation and formulation of law put forward in the consideration of social reality. In reality, the change is a necessity; everything flows with the current developments and the changing times. Included in it, that social problems continue to grow and need to find the solution that is able to accommodate it answers. The starting point of this idea is oriented to the concept of Islamic law dimension to the social reality as a framework to formulate a foothold in the building of Islamic law. Benefit in this context being the point of important points that are the foundation of contextual understanding. The consequence of the contextualization of the idea of Islamic law (fiqh) is a framework methodology of ijtihad trying to connect with a variety of approaches, both historical approach, social, cultural, legal and others. Purity is important view of Islamic law (fiqh) for most groups of Muslims as a legacy of its history and the results of intellectual work that is constructed over a century ago should be viewed proportionally, so it will be protected from static understanding of patterns, exclusive, frozen and stiff.


The present essay aims to approach the crucial issue of the specificity of the philosophical activity and of its relation with knowledge in the philosophy of Hegel. Moreover, the need to justify its legitimacy within the domain of the other sciences is a requirement made in modern age to philosophy. Along with this general aim and in close relation with it, I will deal more specifically with Hegelian considerations about the teaching of philosophy. In order to do so, the text is divided in two principal moments: in the first, I will analyze the philosophical conception of Hegel and how the writing on the Difference presents a continuity with the way in which the question will be treated in the Encyclopaedia of 1830; in the second, Hegel's position on the teaching of this discipline will be analyzed, and in this case I will have in view Hegel's methodological texts of the period in which he was director and professor of Gymnasium in Nuremberg.


The acquisition of decision-quality tacit knowledge from domain experts has been an important issue in the realm of knowledge management and intelligent systems. We present a Tacit Knowledge Acquisition Info-structure (TKAI) that allows remote domain experts to record their tacit knowledge via a novel tacit knowledge acquisition construct called Scenarios. In this info-structure, an ontology is employed to enforce standardisation in view that tacit knowledge is deemed to be hierarchical in structure and personal in nature. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is also featured to encode the acquired scenario instances and to facilitate their transfer over the Internet for the global sharing of the acquired tacit knowledge. XML also allows the translation of scenario instances into other representational languages that are deemed more appropriate for specific tasks.


As the amount of pesticides consumption increases in agriculture, the side effects of pesticides on soil microorganisms have become an essential part in safety evaluation of pesticide for continued soil fertility. In order to establish t1e method of safety assessment of pesticides in Korea, a series of tests mere carried out. Among the paddy pesticides Fujione (Isoprothiolane, fungicide), Ortran (Acephate, insecticide), and Machete (Butachlor, herbicide) were chosen and the effects of above three pesticides on Korean paddy soil microorganisms were studied. The measurements of pesticide effects on the cycling of carbon (CO₂ production), nitrogen fixation (C₂H₂ reduction), nitrification, and dehydrogenase activity were carried out. These measurements were complemented by evaluation of pesticide effects on viable microbial numbers. Although Fujione reduced the fungi numbers and inhibited nitrogen cycling activities somewhat, no significant adverse effects were show by any of the tested pesticides in our study.


New data including measured reflectance (%Ro), programmed open-system pyrolysis data, and kerogen elemental analyses obtained on the Mississippian Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin, Texas, indicate that secondary-gas generation starts at 1.5% Ro and not at the previously prescribed 1.1% Ro. Oil-cracking kinetic parameters derived from pyrolysis experiments in the presence and absence of water indicate that secondary-gas generation will not occur at a thermal maturity as low as 1.1% Ro and requires a minimum thermal maturity of 1.5% Ro. This difference is especially important in using the Barnett Shale as an analog for evaluating other possible shale-gas plays. The new reflectance measurements have a good relationship with hydrogen indices (HIs) and compare well with other published data sets. However, the relationship does not compare well with the previously published data used to prescribe 1.1% Ro as the start of secondary-gas generation in the Barnett Shale. This discrepancy is attributed to differences in measured %Ro values and not attributed to differences in the HI values. Lack of publicly available information on the previously reported %Ro values makes it difficult to ascertain the reason for their lower values. These lower %Ro values also have impact on the previously prescribed relationship for estimating %Ro from the temperature at maximum yield by programmed open-system pyrolysis (Tmax). As a result, the new data do not agree with a previously described relationship, and the considerable scatter makes the new relationship unreliable. However, the relationship between the HI and %Ro has less scatter, which indicates that HI offers a better proxy in calculating %Ro than Tmax for the Barnett Shale. Comparison of various programmed open-system pyrolysis methods (i.e., Rock-Eval II, Rock-Eval 6, Source Rock Analyzer, and Hawk) indicates that variations in HI are within ±10% of one another. An HI of at least 44 mg/g total organic carbon is prescribed as a more certain limit for the start of secondary-gas generation and prospective in situ gas-shale accumulations.


Summary Compounds that activate host plant defence responses potentially offer socio-environmentally sound alternative methods for disease control. In a series of glasshouse trials over 2 years, pre-harvest sprays with acibenzolar-S-methyl (ASM) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) were tested for suppression of post-harvest infection of cut Freesia hybrida L. flowers by Botrytis cinerea. For the ASM treatments, variability in reducing the incidence of B. cinerea disease was observed between years, freesia varieties, incubation temperatures and ASM concentrations. In the first year, the greatest reductions in lesion numbers on ASM-treated var. 'Cote d'Azur' were recorded using 2.86 mM ASM. For three different post-harvest temperature regimes, the relative reductions in lesion numbers, compared to untreated controls, were 45% at 5°C, 40% at 12°C and 30% at 20°C, respectively. In the second year, lesion numbers were most reduced using 1.43 mM ASM to treat freesia var.'Dukaat' flowers. Here, the relative reductions were to 44% at 5°C, 26% at 12°C and 51% at 20°C. MeJA treatments were, in general, more consistently effective than ASM treatments in reducing lesion numbers and lesion diameters on cut freesia flowers. MeJA-treated (0.2 mM) freesia flowers (var. 'Dukaat') incubated at 20°C showed relative reductions of 62%, and 45% for lesion number and lesion diameter, respectively.The differing efficacy between ASM and MeJA treatments could be attributed to their differential abilities to induce the salicylic acid (SA)-mediated vs. the jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated host defence pathways, respectively.


State and local governments control most criminal justice policy in the United States, without regard for potential effects on other states. Lenient state policies might draw in criminals from other states, whereas harsh state policies might drive criminals away to other states. Alternatively, harsh policies might deter or incapacitate criminals who would otherwise migrate to neighboring states and commit crimes there. Thus the effects of a state's policies extend beyond its borders, but these effects could be positive or negative. This paper estimates the externalities of DNA databases. I exploit variation in the timing of database expansions as exogenous shocks to the sizes of state databases, to measure the cross-state effect of database size. The federal government seems to think externalities are positive, since it subsidizes state-level database expansions. I find instead that externalities are negative: increasing the number of other-state profiles increases own-state crime, so that approximately 10 percent of DNA databases' crime-reducing effect is due to states' displacing crime to other states. Effects are larger for nearby states. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that offenders respond rationally to state policies by moving to places where they are less likely to get caught for their crimes.


A new theoretical approach for the prediction of the growth habit of crystals is presented. This approach is based on a newly derived relation between the growth rate of crystal surfaces and habit-controlling factors, and includes a key step: a so-called interface structure ~IS! analysis. This analysis is to formulate the influence of the fluid phase on the crystal morphology. The essential of the IS analysis is to identify the adsorbed growth units which is in dynamic equilibrium with solid units at the crystal surface, and to calculate their concentration. It follows that a key external habit-controlling factor, the so-called surface scaling factor, can be calculated from the analysis. Based on detailed molecular dynamic ~MD! simulation data, our formalism is applied to predict the morphology of urea crystals grown from aqueous solutions. Urea crystals grown from the solutions turn out to possess a needlelike shape, in excellent agreement with experiments. This is one of the first examples of the successful theoretical prediction of morphology of crystals, and will provide a new way of thinking and understanding of the influence of the mother phase on crystal habits. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.


Transformer-based models for transfer learning have the potential to achieve high prediction accuracies on text-based supervised learning tasks with relatively few training data instances. These models are thus likely to benefit social scientists that seek to have as accurate as possible text-based measures but only have limited resources for annotating training data. To enable social scientists to leverage these potential benefits for their research, this paper explains how these methods work, why they might be advantageous, and what their limitations are. Additionally, three Transformer-based models for transfer learning, BERT (Devlin et al. 2019), RoBERTa (Liu et al. 2019), and the Longformer (Beltagy et al. 2020), are compared to conventional machine learning algorithms on three applications. Across all evaluated tasks, textual styles, and training data set sizes, the conventional models are consistently outperformed by transfer learning with Transformers, thereby demonstrating the benefits these models can bring to textbased social science research.


Background Opium abuse is one of the widespread social problems, and one of the most worrying aspects of it is the effect of parents' drug abuse on the fetus. Objectives The present study has investigated the correlation between opium abuse during pregnancy in mothers with congenital heart defects in their children. Materials and Methods From early 2009 to late 2011, for two consecutive years in specialized pediatric center of Zahedan Medical University, 225 of children suffering from congenital heart defects were examined and compared with 480 healthy ones for mother opium dependency. The final data were analyzed by student t-test and χ2 in SPSS software and the two groups were compared in terms of their parents' addiction to opium. Results From 225 children under study 23.5% had addicted parents based on the variables of the study but the rate was only 2.3 for the control group. The difference between these two groups was significant and the most common form of heart disease was congenital ventricular septal defect. Conclusions Opium has teratogenic effect on cardiovascular system.


One-third of the current A-level mathematics curriculum is determined by choice, constructed out of 'applied mathematics' modules in mechanics, statistics and decision mathematics. Although this choice arguably involves the most sizeable instance of choice in the current English school mathematics curriculum, and it has a significant impact on students' post-compulsory study of mathematics, it is not well understood how this choice is navigated. This article explores how mathematics teachers perceive each of these three areas of applied mathematics, how widely each of the modules is offered and in what ways perception might be connected to provision. Data from an online questionnaire and follow-up interviews demonstrate that teachers are influenced by a wide range of factors, including strategic concerns and views on the relative worth of each strand. The results also highlight the presence of inertia in centres' provision. In this way, this article offers some insight into current perception and provision of applied mathematics in England, and speaks to contemporary debates about curriculum content and reform. It argues that students' exposure to the powerful utility of mathematics is often unhelpfully steered or limited at a critical point in their education.


This study aimed to see Ahmad Dahlan's concept of educational thought and Ahmad Dahlan's concept of education in ordering Muhammadiyah student association (IPM) character. This study used a descriptive narrative qualitative research. The research was conducted at Muhammadiyah Kalibening Senior High School, Banjarnegara Regency. The research process was carried out using interview techniques, observation and documentation with data triangulation analysis techniques. The research analysis found that IPM activities lead to Ahmad Dahlan's educational thinking which can form disciplinary attitudes, responsibility, and have broad insights. IPM activities in this school are included in the school curriculum. Students who join the IPM will try to be introspective and discipline themselves in worship and social interactions. The activities of the Muhammadiyah Student Association are implemented in the applicable school curriculum.


Background The serum levels of the pro-inflammatory calcium-binding protein S100A12 (mainly found in neutrophil granulocytes) correlate well with clinical assessments of disease activity of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Ultrasonography (US) is a sensitive method for assessing disease activity during follow-up of RA patients and has been shown to detect residual inflammation in clinical remission. Objectives To explore the validity of S100A12 in serum as a potential inflammatory marker by comparing the levels with the results of a comprehensive US assessment. Methods A comprehensive study was performed in 20 RA patients (median (range) age 53 (21-78), disease duration 7.5 (1-26) years, 75 % women) (including clinical (DAS28 and questionnaires), laboratory (SR and CRP) and US examination (B-mode (BM) and power Doppler (PD) of 78 joints, 36 tendons and 2 bursae) at baseline (before starting adalimumab as their first biological drug) and after 1, 3, 6 and 12 months. Serum S100A12 was analysed by a sandwich ELISA. The changes between baseline and follow-up of US scores and laboratory markers were explored by Wilcoxon signed rank test. Spearman's rank correlation was used for analysing the associations between inflammatory markers and US scores. Results The patients had median (range) S100A12 levels of 49 (18-475) ng/ml at baseline, 34 (18-687) after 1 month, 23 (16-173) after 3 months, 33 (19-394) after 6 months and 40 (12-620) after 12 months, while for CRP the corresponding results were 4.5 (1-136), 2.0 (1-163), 2.5 (1-26), 2.5 (1-78) and 4.5 (1-86) mg/l and for ESR 20.0 (3-67), 13.0 (3-108), 14.5 (2-65), 14.5 (5-99), 17.5 (3-78) mmHg/h. Significantly decreased levels were found at 3 months for S100A12 (p<0.01), at 3 months for CRP (p<0.01) and at 1 and 3 months (p<0.01) for ESR (figure). Compared with the conventional inflammatory markers CRP and ESR, the neutrophil protein S100A12 had the highest correlations with the comprehensive BM and PD sum scores during the 12 months follow-up, (median (range) coefficients of 0.55 (0.35-0.78) for sum score BM and 0.45 (0.27-0.75) for sum score PD). Image/graph Conclusions S100A12 was found closer associated to the comprehensive US examinations than conventional inflammatory markers. The US scores reflect the degree of synovitis in RA patients during biologic treatment, and thus the present finding of high associations between US pathology and S100A12 shows that S100A12 is a promising serum biomarker for RA patients. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Abstract. The COVID-19 pandemic hindered the ability to conduct field geology courses in a hands-on and boots-on traditional manner. In response, we designed a multi-part virtual field module that encompasses many of the basic requirements of an advanced field exercise, including designing a mapping strategy, collecting and processing field observations, synthesizing data from field-based and laboratory analyses, and communicating the results to a broad audience. For the mapping exercise, which is set in deformed Proterozoic crystalline basement exposed in the Front Range of Colorado (USA), student groups make daily navigational decisions and choose stations based on topographic maps, Google Earth satellite imagery, and iterative geological reasoning. For each station, students receive outcrop descriptions, measurements, and photographs from which they input field data and create geologic maps using StraboSpot. Building on the mapping exercise, student groups then choose from six supplements, including advanced field structure, microstructure, metamorphic petrology, and several geochronological datasets. Because scientific projects rarely end when the mapping is complete, the students are challenged to see how samples and analytical data may commonly be collected and integrated with field observations to produce a more holistic understanding of the geological history of the field area. While a virtual course cannot replace the actual field experience, modules like the one shared here can successfully address, or even improve on, some of the key learning objectives that are common to field-based capstone experiences, while also fostering a more accessible and inclusive learning environment for all students.


Background: Cardiac abnormalities in sickle cell anemia (SCA) include pan-chamber dilation, biventricular hypertrophy, ventricular diastolic dysfunction and elevated pulmonary artery pressures. Diastolic dysfunction in SCA has been reported with a variable prevalence, ranging from 11-77%. Its onset is in childhood, and data show an increase in prevalence with age [Pediatr Blood Cancer 2017, 64 (11): e26607]. While its etiology has remained elusive, it has been shown to be associated with early mortality in adults [J Am Coll Cardiol 2007, 49(4): 472-479] and decreased exercise capacity in children and adults [Circulation 2011, 124 (13):1452-1460]. The effect of hydroxyurea (HU), a SCA disease-modifying therapy, on ventricular diastolic dysfunction has not been investigated, and could represent a potential therapeutic strategy.
 Objective: To determine the longitudinal effect of HU therapy on left ventricular diastolic function and to identify hematological correlates of altered left ventricular diastolic indices.
 Methods: Children aged 5-18 years with HbSS or HbS/β0 thalassemia enrolled in the Long-Term Effects of Erythrocyte Lysis Trial [Pediatr Blood Cancer 2019, 66(7): e27717.], underwent prospective measurement of diastolic function by 2D-echocardiogram. Echocardiogram was obtained at steady state (≥ 4 weeks from illness, transfusion, or hospitalization), and then repeated 2 years later. Echocardiogram parameters used for clinical evaluation of diastolic function included early diastolic mitral annular velocity (lateral e'), an index of ventricular relaxation and an early marker of abnormal diastolic function, and the ratio between early mitral inflow velocity and early diastolic mitral annular velocity (lateral E/e'). Diastolic function was categorized as normal/abnormal, using normative age‐specific ranges [J Am Soc Echocardiogr 2004,17(3):212-221] and compared between baseline and 2 years. Hemoglobin and hemolysis markers including absolute reticulocyte count (ARC), and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were obtained concurrently.
 Results: 155 children with SCA, mean age 10.3 years (SD 3.54), were followed longitudinally. Of those, 59 (38%) did not receive HU, 61 (39%) were treated with HU both at baseline and at the 2-year evaluation, and 35 (23%) were untreated at baseline but initiated HU during the 2-year follow-up period after the initial echocardiogram. The prevalence of abnormal E/e' ratio did not change over time in the entire cohort (baseline 56% and 2-year 61%, p=0.23) or across the subgroups. However, the proportion of subjects with abnormal e' increased from 32% at baseline to 44% 2 years-later (p=0.01, Figure 1). In the subgroup analysis, participants who were continuously treated with HU were older [mean age 12 years (SD 3.54)] and had an increase in prevalence of abnormal e' at the 2-year time-point from 31% to 51% (p= 0.01, Figure 1). Individuals who were recently initiated on HU (baseline 29% and 2-year 43%, p = 0.27) or untreated (baseline 34% and 2-year 37%, p = 0.79) were comparatively younger [mean age 9.2 years (SD 3.02)] and did not have any significant change in diastolic function over time (Figure 1). A multivariate linear generalized mixed model was used to determine the association between abnormal diastolic and hematological parameters. An increase in hemoglobin concentration or a decrease in ARC and LDH did not affect the probability of having an abnormal e'. However, improvement in anemia among participants recently initiated on HU by 1 gm/dL, appeared to decrease the probability of having abnormal E/e' (Odds ratio, OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.32-1.03, p = 0.06). No such association was seen among participants on continuous HU therapy, whose hemoglobin did not significantly increase over the 2-year period from their baseline assessment.
 Conclusion: Among children with SCA, HU therapy does not appear to significantly alter left ventricular diastolic indices over a follow-up of 2 years. Our findings may indicate HU's inability to affect cardiac remodeling in older children despite stable hematological parameters. Longer follow up is required to investigate clinically significant changes in diastolic indices during HU therapy. Additional therapeutic modalities that mitigate ventricular remodeling may need to be explored, to prevent the progression of diastolic dysfunction into adulthood, where it has been identified as a predictor of early mortality.

 Kang: MBIO: Other: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has an existing exclusive license and ongoing partnership with Mustang Bio for the further clinical development and commercialization of this XSCID gene therapy. Zhao:MBIO: Other: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has an existing exclusive license and ongoing partnership with Mustang Bio for the further clinical development and commercialization of this XSCID gene therapy. Ataga:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Global Blood Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Emmaus Life Sciences: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bioverativ: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Research Funding; Modus Therapeutics: Honoraria. Hankins:Bluebird Bio: Consultancy; NHLBI: Research Funding; ASPHO: Honoraria; Novartis: Research Funding; LYNKS Foundation: Research Funding; NHLBI: Honoraria; Global Blood Therapeutics: Research Funding; National Committee for Quality Assurance: Consultancy.


ABSTRACT Concretions from Cretaceo-Tertiary sediments from the Kaipara harbour, New Zealand, exhibit a complex suite of mineral and textural relationships. Spherulitic barite occurs as an exsolution product from calcium carbonate, as does rhombohedral rhodochrosite. Spherulitic calcite is common, and spherulitic rhodochrosite also occurs. From a comparison of these textures with experimental evidence on the inhibition of metastable carbonates by manganese ions, a complex diagenetic history is inferred. It is suggested that solid solutions of the calcite and aragonite structure and also calcium carbonate monohydrate were present in the early diagenetic history of the rock.


This article analyzes the AAA's statements delivered in his speeches from 2011 to 2012 about a new cultural policy of Banyuwangi. Using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, I will explore how local cultural discourses are constructed in a variety of his statements. These statements were the basic concepts of his cultural policy which was implemented in various cultural agendas in B-Fest since 2012. The formation, of course, cannot be separated from the frame of tourism industry in national and global scope. Following the framework of Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I will combine textual, discursive practice, and contextual analysis. Textual analysis examines the process of forming discourses on local culture in the midst of tourism as AAA has expressed in his speeches. Discursive practice focuses on the artist's response to the cultural policies adopted by Regent AAA. The last is contextual analysis of the real conditions of local culture and its perpetrators, bureaucratic institutions, and the global tourism industry that lays the ground for exploring critically how broader ideological and political interests are negotiated through cultural policy in Banyuwangi. The result of this study shows that Banyuwangi's cultural policy under AAA regime uses a transformation mode which change the physical appearance of the local cultures with glamorous style. With glamorous new look based on traditional cultural diversity of Banyuwangi, especially Using cultures, carnival is not only becoming fashion show. Fashion carnival that still carries the characteristics of art form or ritual that live in society would be more attractive and luxurious so that will attract the interest of foreign or domestic tourists who yearn for the exotic society and local cultures.


This paper presents MSAgen2.0, a system for searching and mining information on the World Wide Web, using adjustable user profiles and a dynamic grouping process. Suggestions for visiting URLs will be made to users, according to the user profiles. Also, the system has a dynamic strategy of suggestions (dynamic grouping), which helps the cooperation among the agents as well as the distribution of information. All the needed information to define the user profile is acquired, in a non-invasive way, through monitoring the user during its use of the system.


Qualitative psychology has been co-opted by institutions that represent scientific rationality inherited from modernity (with its emphases on observation, measurement, and control). A process of cooptation involves an assimilationist attitude of ownership, where the difference or opposition adheres to a policy preset by the largest group's consensus and privilege. Through the institutionalization of qualitative research and its bond, sometimes forced-to traditional scientific paradigms, qualitative psychology loses its critical potential. Given this, we propose a critical review of the epistemological and ontological assumptions of qualitative psychology and propose alternative methods (such as critical discourse analysis, feminist epistemology, fractal method, critical ethnography, among others) to revitalize critical activity. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1202201


This essay critically reflects on challenges and dilemmas I encountered when interviewing white women about their experiences with gender, racialization, and practices of whiteness. These challenges and dilemmas in the research setting relate to the researcher-participant relationship and, in particular, participants' use of 1) a "rhetorical ethic," in which their social justice narratives were contradicted by demonstrations of their own racist ideologies; and 2) how whiteness and femininity were sites of power and resources for "social desirability bias" and impression management in response to my positionality as a white woman with a Black spouse and two racially mixed children. Additionally, this essay grapples with the emotionally difficult journey of being a researcher with the feminist commitment of "giving voice" to women by developing a bond of mutual trust, while at the same time feeling compelled to conceal oneself in search of "honest" responses from the research participants. This reflection illuminates how a/symmetries of power between researcher and the researched are inscribed with race and gender dynamics that are not always discernible, yet have a tremendous influence on data gathering. These dynamics require recognizing the agency of the research participants to shape what are considered and interpreted as data. These dynamics also require treating the data with "critical skepticism" and subjecting the participants' responses to a "radical reflexivity" rooted in understanding how the larger social, political and historical "facts of whiteness" inform the microcosm of the researcher-participant relationship.


We introduce a rate-based congestion control mechanism for Content-Centric Networking (CCN). It builds on the fact that one Interest retrieves at most one Data packet. Congestion can occur when aggregate conversations arrive in excess and fill up the transmission queue of a CCN router. We compute the available capacity of each CCN router in a distributed way in order to shape their conversations Interest rate and therefore, adjust dynamically their Data rate and transmission buffer occupancy. We demonstrate the convergence properties of this Hop-by-hop Interest Shaping mechanism (HoBHIS) and provide a performance analysis based on various scenarios using our ns2 simulation environment.


ABSTRACT A growing literature suggests that degree of handedness predicts gullibility and magical ideation. Inconsistent-handers (people who use their non-dominant hand for at least one common manual activity) report more magical ideation and are more gullible. The current study tested whether this effect is moderated by need for cognition. One hundred eighteen university students completed questionnaires assessing handedness, self-reported paranormal beliefs, and self-reported need for cognition. Handedness (Inconsistent vs. Consistent Right) and Need for Cognition (High vs. Low) were treated as categorical predictors. Both paranormal beliefs and magical ideation served as dependent variable's in separate analyses. Neither set of tests yielded main effects for handedness or need for cognition. However, there were a significant handedness by need for cognition interactions. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that low, but not high, need for cognition inconsistent-handers reported relatively elevated levels of paranormal belief and magical ideation. A secondary set of tests treating the predictor variables as continuous instead of categorical obtained the same overall pattern.


Cluster tools gained greater acceptance over the past several years, although concerns still exist over the throughput these tools can achieve. This paper presents an analysis of the relationship between process times, transport times, and maximum throughput in an individual cluster tool. Theoretical models which quantify the time required to process both an individual wafer and a lot in a cluster tool are developed. Three techniques for increasing throughput, based on these models, are also presented. These modifications require minimal modification of many existing designs and can yield significant increases in performance. >


BACKGROUND
Histamine and nitric oxide (NO) are present in guinea pig hearts and in rat mast cells (MCs) of the serosal phenotype. Histamine and NO are simultaneously released upon immunological challenge of isolated hearts of actively sensitised guinea pigs. MCs release histamine in response to antigen and NO in response to stirring. This has prompted us to study the interaction between histamine and NO in rat MCs and in guinea pig hearts.

METHODS
The experiments have been carried out in isolated purified rat serosal MCs and in isolated perfused guinea pig hearts. The generation of NO by both preparations has been evaluated as nitrites (NO2-) by means of the Griess reaction.

RESULTS
Histamine upregulates the generation of NO both in rat MCs and in guinea pig hearts. The effect is abolished by blocking NO synthase and preferentially mimicked by a selective H2-receptor agonist. A selective H3-receptor agonist downregulates the generation of NO in lipopolysaccharide-pretreated MCs and in bradykinin-pretreated guinea pig hearts.

CONCLUSION
A mutual relationship between histamine and NO in allergic inflammation could be envisaged.


Objectives The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of second-look transurethral resection of bladder tumors (TURBT) in the management of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Background Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer diagnosis worldwide. Second-look TURBT ensures adequate evaluation of the muscularis propria while detecting and treating residual tumors. Patients and methods Thirty-one NMIBC patients underwent a second-look TURBT 2 weeks after the initial TURBT. The procedures carried out included reassessment of the bladder for the detection of residual lesions after initial resection, and the resection of the base of the previous resection site for restaging. Results Thirty-one NMIBC patients underwent second-look TURBT 2 weeks after the initial TURBT. Residual tumors were found in 28% of the patients with Ta tumors and 54.2% of the patients with T1 tumors (P = 0.445). The overall percent of residual tumors was 48.4% for all patients. Patients with Ta tumors had no upstaging to a higher stage or grade. On the other hand, in patients with T1 tumors we found that 50% of them were upstaged to T2. Thus, the overall upstaging to T2 was 38.7% of all NMIBC patients (P = 0.413). Conclusion Second-look TURBT is highly desirable in patients with high-grade T1 disease and large tumor size (>2-5 cm), especially if deep muscle is not found in the primary resection because of the significant risk for detecting muscle-invasive disease and missed residual tumors.


The high cost of assembling laboratories for higher education is a challenge when there is a contingency of resources. An alternative to overcome the high cost in the development of the basic structures of the teaching laboratories, is the designing and implementation of laboratory workbenches, built with the help of teachers, technicians and university students. In this work will be approached the project of didactic workbenches for the laboratory of electrical installations, capable of attending the most varied menus, as well as courses such as Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism, among others. Analyzing from a financial point of view, there is an economy above 90%, compared to commercial didactic workbenches in market. In addition, taking into account the teaching-learning aspect of the students, the benefits are greater, since the very design, design and construction of the benches represent an important form of practical learning. In addition, the workbench aims to increase the degree of complexity of the tasks compared to the existing equipment in the market, since it encompasses more concepts. For the acquisition of materials, it is suggested the use of institutional resources or partnership with public and private companies.


I argue that the so-called 'German right dislocation' in fact comprises two formally and functionally distinct constructions, which I label right dislocation proper and afterthought. The main focus of the paper lies on right dislocation proper (RD) and its discourse function. I show, that RD is used as a discourse-structuring device. RD marks the referent of the right-dislocated noun phrase as the discourse topic for the following discourse segment. This explains certain anaphoric constraints on the following discourse segment. Thus, the corresponding referent has to be anaphorically resumed as sentence topic of the corresponding sentence at the level of the 'main structure' (i.e., the main story line).


It is well known that many Asian children such as in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China and Singapore excel in mathematics while American students' performance in mathematics ranks lower than the international average [1]. The difference lies in the different educational systems, learning theories, as well as the expectations of the teachers, parents, and students themselves. Many researchers have indicated that parental beliefs and attitudes affect children's academic achievement, motivation, and sense of competence [2,3].


The packet error rate of wireless links is known to increase with the length of packets. Yet, packet length is rarely taken into account in protocols and algorithms estimating the packet error rate. Still, it is an important factor that higher layer protocols need to be aware of. In this article, we systematically measure the relationship between packet length and packet error rate over a wide range of wireless links and technologies. On the basis of our measurements, we propose a simple empirical model that can capture this behavior. Using this model, multiple methods are proposed that can estimate the packet error rate for any packet length by sampling the link. We consider methods based on hello packets with controlled packet lengths as well as data packets, where the transmitted packet lengths cannot be controlled. We investigate the accuracy of the different estimation methods in various situations and show how they are able to predict the delivery ratio for different packet sizes.


This essay analyzes the rise and fall of the New Democrats as a faction within the Democratic Party; it treats their emergence in the 1980's, their ideological underpinnings, and some of their political and policy accomplishments. The decline of the New Democrats in the 21st century is explained by examining four factors: (1) the character of their ideas, (2) the rise of partisan polarization, (3) the challenges of minority party status, and (4) the emergence of a reenergized "progressive" coalition on their left flank. The aim here is to shed light on the important subject of the rise and fall of factions in American party politics.


MARYLIE/IMPACT (ML/I) is a hybrid code that combines the beam optics capabilities of MARYLIE with the parallel Particle-In-Cell capabilities of IMPACT. In addition to combining the capabilities of these codes, ML/I has a number of powerful features, including a choice of Poisson solvers, a fifth-order rf cavity model, multiple reference particles for rf cavities, a library of soft-edge magnet models, representation of magnet systems in terms of coil stacks with possibly overlapping fields, and wakefield effects. The code allows for map production, map analysis, particle tracking, and 3D envelope tracking, all within a single, coherent user environment. ML/I has a front end that can read both MARYLIE input and MAD lattice descriptions. The code can model beams with or without acceleration, and with or without space charge. Developed under a US DOE Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) project, ML/I is well suited to largescale modeling, simulations having been performed with up to 100M macroparticles. The code inherits the powerful fitting and optimizing capabilities of MARYLIE augmented for the new features of ML/I. The combination of soft-edge magnet models, high-order capability, space charge effects, and fitting/optimization capabilities, make ML/I a powerful code for a wide range of beam optics design problems. This paper provides a description of the code and its unique capabilities.


This paper shows the design of a broadband single-stage single-ended low noise amplifier (LNA) for the frequency range 3GHz to 7GHz using 0.18/spl mu/m RF CMOS technology. The cascode feedback topology and broadband matching technique were used in the amplifier to achieve broad bandwidth performance and input/output matching characteristics respectively. The effects of feedback resistor on noise figure (NF) and gain were also described. In the operating frequency range, 1.9dB of NF, 15dB of the gain, and 0.8dB of maximum gain flatness were achieved, and the maximum input/output return loss is lower than -1OdB. The total power consumption of the LNA including bias network is 21mW under a 1.8V single supply voltage.


Microbial populations can withstand, overcome and persist in the face of environmental fluctuation. Previously, we demonstrated how conditional gene regulation in a fluctuating environment drives dilution of condition-specific transcripts, causing a population of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough (DvH) to collapse after repeatedly transitioning from sulfate respiration to syntrophic conditions with the methanogen Methanococcus maripaludis. Failure of the DvH to successfully transition contributed to the collapse of this model community. We investigated the mechanistic basis for loss of robustness by examining whether conditional gene regulation altered heterogeneity in gene expression across individual DvH cells. We discovered that robustness of a microbial population across environmental transitions was attributable to the retention of cells in two states that exhibited different condition-specific gene expression patterns. In our experiments, a population with disrupted conditional regulation successfully alternated between cell states. Meanwhile, a population with intact conditional regulation successfully switched between cell states initially, but collapsed after repeated transitions, possibly due to the high energy requirements of regulation. These results demonstrate that the survival of this entire model microbial community is dependent on the regulatory system's influence on the distribution of distinct cell states among individual cells within a clonal population.


This report presents results of a survey conducted by EG and G Idaho to determine facilities available to conduct thermal-hydraulic and thermomechanical testing for the Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy First Wall/Blanket/Shield Engineering Test Program. In response to EG and G queries, twelve organizations (in addition to EG and G and General Atomic) expressed interest in providing experimental facilities. A variety of methods of supplying heat is available.


Objective: To compare the educational value of endoscopic ear surgery versus microscopic ear surgery among medical students. Methods: Medical students anonymously completed a cross-sectional survey immediately after observing endoscopic or microscopic ear surgery. A Likert scale (1 = worst, 5 = best) was used to analyze variables across 3 domains including: (1) area of interest visibility, (2) optical quality, (3) education and understanding. The Mann–Whitney U-test and multivariable linear regression were used to compare mean scores of individual items and domain means between endoscopic and microscopic groups. Results: Forty-four surveys were analyzed (20 endoscopic and 24 microscopic ear surgeries). Across domains, the endoscope was superior to the microscope (adjusted P < .05) for visibility of the area of interest (mean ± SD: 4.74 ± 0.26 vs 4.28 ± 0.50), optical quality (4.78 ± 0.38 vs 4.28 ± 0.64), and education and understanding (4.70 ± 0.47 vs 4.13 ± 0.61). In multivariable linear regression, the mean domain score for visibility of the area of interest was 1.23 (95% CI = 0.56, 1.90; adjusted P < .01) points higher for the endoscopic group, compared to the microscopic group, adjusting for surgeon, procedure, and student type. The mean domain score for education and understanding was 1.19 (95% CI = 0.49. 1.90; adjusted P < 0.01) points higher for the endoscopic group, compared to the microscopic group, adjusting for the same confounders. Conclusions: Among medical students, endoscopic ear surgery was superior to microscopic ear surgery for several visual quality indicators and perceived educational benefit. These findings have implications for medical student education and surgical training.


Purpose
Brain tumors have become the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in young patients. Novel effective therapies on the basis of the unique biology of each tumor are urgently needed. The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, utility, and clinical impact of integrative clinical sequencing and genetic counseling in children and young adults with high-risk brain tumors.

Patients and Methods
Fifty-two children and young adults with brain tumors designated by the treating neuro-oncologist to be high risk (> 25% chance for treatment failure; mean age, 10.2 years; range, 0 to 39 years) were enrolled in a prospective, observational, consecutive case series, in which participants underwent integrative clinical exome (tumor and germline DNA) and transcriptome (tumor RNA) sequencing and genetic counseling. Results were discussed in a multi-institutional brain tumor precision medicine teleconference.

Results
Sequencing revealed a potentially actionable germline or tumor alteration in 25 (63%) of 40 tumors with adequate tissue, of which 21 (53%) resulted in an impact on treatment or change of diagnosis. Platelet-derived growth factor receptor or fibroblast growth factor receptor pathway alterations were seen in nine of 20 (45%) glial tumors. Eight (20%) sequenced tumors harbored an oncogenic fusion isolated on RNA sequencing. Seventeen of 20 patients (85%) with glial tumors were found to have a potentially actionable result, which resulted in change of therapy in 14 (70%) patients. Patients with recurrent brain tumors receiving targeted therapy had a median progression-free survival (from time on therapy) of 4 months.

Conclusion
Selection of personalized agents for children and young adults with highrisk brain tumors on the basis of integrative clinical sequencing is feasible and resulted in a change in therapy in more than two thirds of children and young adults with high-risk glial tumors.


In this paper we investigate what kind of failures are likely to happen in LED based streetlighting luminaires and what are the requirements for being able to detect these by means of thermal transient testing. Based on preliminary results of long term stability studies of LEDs done in cooperation with the Pannon University in Veszprém, Hungary one should expect degradation of different thermal interfaces. Except the die attach, the relevant thermal interfaces are likely to be detectable by relatively low resolution thermal transient measurements. The measurement hardware can be realized as an add-on to the LED driver circuitry present in the luminaire. Problems related to lack of K-factor calibration are also dealt with.


Despite the prevalence of breast cancer (BC), over half of BC cases are unrelated to known risk factors, which highlights the importance of uncovering more cancer-related factors. Currently, the microbiota has been proven to be a potent modulator of the tumor environment in BC, which regulates the immune balance in tumor-related networks. Through a large amount of data accumulation, the microbiota has shown many possibilities to reveal more insights into the development or control of BC. To expand the potential benefits of patients with BC, this study discusses the distribution profile and the effect mechanism of BC-related microbiota on tumors and further discusses its impact on different tumor therapies. Finally, we summarize the possibility of targeting microbiological therapies to improve BC treatment or in combination with other therapies.


Background The validation of the multi-ethnic GLI-2012 spirometric norms has been debated in several countries. However, its applicability in Algeria has not been verified. Aim To ascertain how well the GLI-2012 norms fit contemporary adult Algerian spirometric data. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of 300 healthy non-smoker adults (50% men, age range: 18–85 years) recruited from the Algiers region general population. All participants underwent a clinical examination and a plethysmography measurement. Z-scores for some spirometric data [FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and forced expiratory flow at 25–75% of FVC (FEF25-75%)] were calculated. If the average Z-score deviated by "< ± 0.5" from the overall mean, the GLI-2012 norms would be considered as reflective of contemporary Algerian spirometry. Results The means±SDs of age, height, weight, FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC and FEF25-75% of the participants were, respectively, 48±17 years, 1.65±0.10 m, 73±14 kg, 4.04±1.04 L, 3.18±0.82 L, 0.79±0.05 and 4.09±1.09 L/s. Almost the quarter of participants were obese. The total sample means±SDs Z-scores were 0.22±0.87 for FVC, 0.04±0.88 for FEV1, -0.34±0.67 for FEV1/FVC and 0.93±0.79 for FEF25-75%. For men and women, only the means±SDs of the FEF25-75% Z-scores exceeded the threshold of "± 0.5", respectively, 1.13±0.77 and 0.73±0.76. Conclusion Results of the present study, performed in an Algerian population of healthy non-smoking adults, supported the applicability of the GLI-2012 norms to interpret FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC but not the FEF25-75%.


Polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles loaded with benomyl as anticancer drug formulation against multidrug-resistant EMT6/AR1 cells were synthesized by amine-carboxylate reaction. Using transmission electron microscopy, the average size of chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles and benomyl-encapsulated polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles was estimated to be 155 ± 20 nm and 160 ± 25 nm, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) and chitosan are linked by covalent bonds. Zeta potentials of benomyl-encapsulated polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles at pH 4, 7.2, and 10 were 30 ± 1.8, 19 ± 0.65, and -22 ± 0.15 mV, respectively, indicating the formation of stable, hydrophilic nanoparticles. The release of benomyl from benomyl-encapsulated polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles followed pH-dependent kinetics. The uptake of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles was concentration-dependent in both MCF-7 and multidrug-resistant EMT6/AR1 cells. EMT6/AR1 cells showed 10-fold higher resistance to benomyl compared to MCF-7 cells; in contrast, benomyl-encapsulated polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles effectively inhibited proliferation of MCF-7 and EMT6/AR1 cells with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 4 ± 0.5 and 9 ± 0.5 pM, respectively. In the presence of a P-glycoprotein inhibitor, the activity of benomyl was increased, suggesting that benomyl is a substrate for P-glycoprotein. Further, benomyl-encapsulated polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles depoly-merized microtubules both in interphase and mitosis. It blocked cell cycle progression at G2/M and induced apoptosis in EMT6/AR1 cells, suggesting that benomyl-encapsulated polymeric chitosan-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles have chemotherapeutic activity against multidrug-resistant cancer cells.


Corticosteroid (glucocorticoids [GCs] and mineralcorticoids [MCs]) interact directly with cells of the cardiovascular system. Their signaling affects genomic and non-genomic receptors and comprises a multitude of alternative and interfering levels of interaction, which influence the physiological response. This review describes genomic and non-genomic pathways of steroid facilitation and portrays the current body of knowledge regarding corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG). The latter is a carrier protein facilitating corticosteroid availability in the circulation and has recently been discovered intrinsically in cardiomyocytes. Thought experiments highlight potential areas of clinical research and hypotheses are presented for steroid- carrier interaction. Furthermore, this review comprises a conclusive overview of disease conditions and substances that influence CBG levels and summarizes the potential of CBG as a potential future biomarker.


This paper explores the use of active feedback to boost the transconductance of a common-gate (CG) low-noise amplifier and achieve simultaneous low noise and input power match. Unlike transformer coupled topologies, the CG input stage is dc-coupled to a self-biased common-source feedback amplifier (for gm boosting), thus eliminating the need of external bias circuitry. Noise and intermodulation analysis with and without gm boosting are extensively studied yielding closed-form expressions of the noise figure (NF) and third-order input-referred intercept point (IIP3) that are useful for circuit design and optimization. A 9.6-GHz differential prototype implemented in a 0.18-mum technology using only NMOS transistors, achieves a minimum NF of 4 dB, an IIP3 of -11.3 dBm, a return loss of -17 dB, and a transducer gain of 18 dB while dissipating 10 m (excluding buffer circuit) from a 1.8-V supply voltage. The active chip area is 0.11 mum2.


The article analyzes the results of a survey of 55 pregnant women aged 20–40 years with a gestation period of 22–24 weeks (15 women — with a diagnosis of endocrine and uterine infertility; 20 — with complications of pregnancy; 20 — with a normal pregnancy). It was found that the occurrence of endocrine forms of infertility is primarily associated with adverse environmental conditions, especially in combination with obesity, hypodynamia, smoking and insuffi cient consumption of fruits and vegetables. The development of pregnancy disorders is largely associated with external factors (excessive use of products containing antioxidants; a small amount of vegetables and fruits in the diet; refusal of special nutrition for pregnant women, insuffi cient vitamin and mineral support during the pregravid period; adverse environmental conditions; smoking; hypodynamia and obesity). Thus, starting from the early stages of pregnancy, the doctor should assess the nutritional behavior and make recommendations for its correction.


A novel type of hidden Markov model (HMM) has been developed to account explicitly for the context-dependent vowel acoustic transitions in consonant-vowel and vowel consonant phonetic environments. The major difference between this type of HMM and the standard Gaussian HMM is that the Gaussian mean vectors associated with the vowel HMM states, which are intended to model the vowel acoustic transitions, are set to be linearly interpolated values between those of the vowel steady state and those of the assumed locus for the adjacent consonant. The locus vectors, one for each consonant except for /h/, are trained together with all other HMM parameters using the Baum-Welch algorithm. The training procedure is fully automatic and converges to a local maximum. The model is incorporated in a phonetically based 75000-word vocabulary speech recognizer and provides a modest improvement in recognition rate over the standard approach.<<ETX>>


The Quest for a Just World Order was written under the auspices of the Center of International Studies at Princeton University as part of an on-going effort of the World Order Models Project (WOMP). It is a powerful statement in what is becoming a political literary genre. Professor Kim sets forth an ambitious scheme. Not only does he call for world "order" but this state is also to be "just." Like other works in the WOMP series, a normative path is followed on a "global" scale as opposed to an international or even a world perspective. Kim spurns the value-free world in which the traditional social scientist conducts research. On the contrary, Kim argues that if the scientist is task oriented, then values are necessary in order to render solutions applicable to those global problems under observation. In this way, values become the essential basis of systemic transformation. The valueladen observation is further connected to an assumption of the existence of "human nature" which may be then modified to better the human condition and ultimately add to the development of a world order.


Introduction: This winter has seen the worst flu epidemic in 7 years and exacerbated pressure on hospitals. Early diagnosis in the emergency department (ED) should prevent transmission to other patients in hospitals, help avoid bed closures for infection control (IC) purposes, and allow rapid treatment to be delivered. Aims & Objectives: To determine whether POCT alters the following, in patients with possible influenza: 1. Time to diagnosis (rule in/out of influenza) 2. Proportion of patients admitted from outset to a bed with appropriate level of isolation (by rapid POCT confirmation) thereby avoiding subsequent bed moves. Methods: All patients presenting with possible influenza underwent POCT (Filmarray Biofire) as part of their initial assessment. We present findings from the first 2 weeks after implementation of this novel service. Results: Of 130 patients tested, 57 cases of influenza were identified, of the following strains: 41 B, 14 A H3 and 2 A H1 2009. The average time from receipt of sample to test result was 12 hours for n = 25 samples sent to the microbiology lab via the traditional method. In contrast, POCT results were available in 43 minutes. 29 of 57 influenza patients underwent POCT whilst in ED prior to admission, of whom 22 could be appropriately admitted as per infection control (IC) measures and 7 safely discharged. Of the 50 admitted, 32 were discharged home without any bed/ward moves as they had been correctly placed in the appropriate IC cohort bay from the outset. None required ITU. Discussion: We have demonstrated that POCT leads to rapid confirmation of influenza and allows informed early decision making, reducing flu contacts and bed closures.


Newest manufacturing technologies with feature sizes smaller than 20nm and FinFET devices have favored more restrictive design rules for manufacturability while suffering from electrical limitations of electromigration (EM) and variability. Designers can no longer reap the benefits in power, performance and area by simply relying on feature size miniature with contemporary design techniques. This work illustrates the importance of design and manufacturing technology co-optimization. Limitations in lithography has led to slower reduction in metal and VIA shape spacing than critical dimensions, which prompts for co-optimization in metallization stack, power mesh planning, standard cell designs and placement algorithms. New routing algorithms and parasitics modeling are required to achieve improved design performance under sky-rocketing metal resistance especially at lower metal levels. Ever-lowering maximum current limits due to EM has prompted new approaches in placement optimization to counteract the potential explosion in EM violations. Adoption of FinFET has allowed ultra-low Vdd designs, which requires careful consideration of Vth offerings that allow proper trade-off between variability, area and power efficiency.


In capacity gradient elution, the gradient separation of ionic species is achieved by decreasing the ion-exchange capacity of a column during the course of the separation. Diol-type hydroxy groups on the resin surface form anionic complexes with borate as an eluting reagent. Thus, a chemically bonded anion-exchange column enriched with residual hydroxy groups allows the creation of a capacity gradient. An increase in the amount of the complex formed gradually brings about a decrease in the ion-exchange capacity of the column, and strongly bound analyte ions are eluted. We investigated the characteristics of a column suitable for this eluent system. The concentration of borate eluent required to remove the ion-exchange capacity depended inversely on the ratio of the residual hydroxy groups to functional groups. On a column in which this ratio was approximately 100, the ion-exchange capacity could easily be adjusted by using a low concentration of mannitol as a competing reagent. Use of this column led to very small baseline shifts during the borate-mannitol gradients, and to the simultaneous determination of anions with widely varying retention times.


Acquired immunity to disease is common in animals but rare in plants. This paper reports the discovery of acquired immunity to three rust diseases and a study of the mechanism. These cases are believed to be the first examples of acquired immunity in rusts, the first in which a gaseous metabolite of the pathogen is responsible for immunization, and the first in which immunization is restricted to the germination and penetration phases of the infection. The idea and initial methods of this study were suggested by the hypothesis that the common localization of infections on leaves might be due to some self-limiting mechanism in the infected tissue. Preliminary trials with tobacco mosaic virus on bean had supported this hypothesis.' Results.-Most studies were with bean rust (uredinial stage of Uromyces phaseoli on Phaseolus vulgaris) in the greenhouse. Acquired immunity was first demonstrated by attempting to inoculate an entire leaf that bore a band of already infected tissue. The tissue adjacent to the old infection did not become diseased. This showed that somehow the healthy tissue had been immunized by the diseased tissue nearby (Fig. 1). The zone of inhibition was wider distally than proximally from the infected area, and its width varied directly with the age of the first infection. The average distances in millimeters for total and partial inhibition in one test were 0 and 0 when the second inoculation followed the first by 2 days, 1 and 10 at 5 days, 2 and 17 at 7 days, 5 and 32 at 8 days, and 7 and 24 at 9 days. This phenomenon could possibly have been due to a substance synthesized by the diseased host and/or the fungus, or it could have been due to the removal from the tissue of some substance necessary for susceptibility. Furthermore, the immunity could have been due to reduced germination of the infecting spores, to reduced penetration of the host, or to reduced invasiveness after infection was established. The Host Effect.-The host seemed to play little part in the matter, in sharp distinction to the phenomenon in animals. Spores added to a water suspension of macerated noninfected tissue taken from adjacent to infected tissue germinated slightly better than spores added to a suspension of tissue taken distant from the infection, contrary to what was expected. The Fungus Effect.-When rust spores were heavily seeded on agar or when seeded plates were closed, the resulting germination was less than when plates were lightly seeded or when the plates were open. In one representative test at 210 C., spores seeded at 1,100 spores/cm gave 77 per cent germination in 4 hours in open plates and 70 per cent germination when the plates were closed. Spores seeded at 1-9,000 spores/cm2 gave 40 per cent germination in open dishes and 16 per cent in closed dishes. This could indicate that the rust spores themselves liberated a gaseous substance which was toxic to other spores and which could explain the acquired immunity effect. The Host-Fungus Effect.-Although the presence of an inhibitory substance has been demonstrated in the fungus, but not in the host, the host-fungus complex has


Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) provide a compact representation of knowledge that can be queried in a flexible way: after learning the parameters of a graphical model, new probabilistic queries can be answered at test time without retraining. However, learning undirected graphical models is notoriously hard due to the intractability of the partition function. For directed models, a popular approach is to use variational autoencoders, but there is no systematic way to choose the encoder architecture given the PGM, and the encoder only amortizes inference for a single probabilistic query (i.e., new queries require separate training). We introduce Query Training (QT), a systematic method to turn any PGM structure (directed or not, with or without hidden variables) into a trainable inference network. This single network can approximate any inference query. We demonstrate experimentally that QT can be used to learn a challenging 8-connected grid Markov random field with hidden variables and that it consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art AdVIL when tested on three undirected models across multiple datasets.


The article by Brzag and coauthors in this issue of Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology reports a competitive accuracy performance study for a branded meter in comparison with six low-cost meters currently available in the United States. It highlights several important topics: (1) the need for more stringent post-marketing requirements for blood glucose meters after launch and (2) low-cost meters use older technologies and their manufacturers do not usually seriously invest in new technology or constant quality assurance efforts. This may explain the study results, which show superior performance of the branded meter. Finally, the article pinpoints to the "quality versus price" dilemma faced by the prescribing physician and their patients in daily routine, which may be additionally aggravated by budget constraints and prescription rules in reimbursed markets.


Purpose: This study aims to identify novel prognostic imaging biomarkers in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) using quantitative, high-throughput image analysis. Methods: 86 patients with LAPC receiving chemotherapy followed by SBRT were retrospectively studied. All patients had a baseline FDG-PET scan prior to SBRT. For each patient, we extracted 435 PET imaging features of five types: statistical, morphological, textural, histogram, and wavelet. These features went through redundancy checks, robustness analysis, as well as a prescreening process based on their concordance indices with respect to the relevant outcomes. We then performed principle component analysis on the remaining features (number ranged from 10 to 16), and fitted a Cox proportional hazard regression model using the first 3 principle components. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to assess the ability to distinguish high versus low-risk patients separated by median predicted survival. To avoid overfitting, all evaluations were based on leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV), in which each holdout patient was assigned to a risk group according to the model obtained from a separate training set. Results: For predicting overall survival (OS), the most dominant imaging features were wavelet coefficients. There was a statistically significant difference in OS between patients with predicted high and low-risk based on LOOCV (hazard ratio: 2.26, p<0.001). Similar imaging features were also strongly associated with local progression-free survival (LPFS) (hazard ratio: 1.53, p=0.026) on LOOCV. In comparison, neither SUVmax nor TLG was associated with LPFS (p=0.103, p=0.433) (Table 1). Results for progression-free survival and distant progression-free survival showed similar trends. Conclusion: Radiomic analysis identified novel imaging features that showed improved prognostic value over conventional methods. These features characterize the degree of intra-tumor heterogeneity reflected on FDG-PET images, and their biological underpinnings warrant further investigation. If validated in large, prospective cohorts, this method could be used to stratify patients based on individualized risk.