As new attacks against Windows-based machines emerge almost on a daily basis, there is an increasing need to "lock down" individual users' desktop machines in corporate computing environments. One particular way to lock down a user computer is to guarantee that only authorized binary programs are allowed to run on that computer. A major advantage of this approach is that binaries downloaded without the user's knowledge, such as spyware, ad-ware, or code entering through buffer overflow attacks, can never run on computers that are locked down this way. This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of FOOD, a foreign code detection system specifically for the Windows/X86platform, where foreign code is defined as any binary programs that do not go through an authorized installation procedure. FOOD verifies the legitimacy of binary images involved in process creation and library loading to ensure that only authorized binaries are used in these operations. In addition, FOOD checks the target address of every indirect branch instruction in Windows binaries to prevent illegitimate control transfers to either dynamically injected mobile code or pre-existing library functions that are potentially damaging. Combined together, these techniques strictly prevent the execution of any foreign code. Experiments with a fully working FOOD prototype show that it can indeed stop all spyware and buffer overflow attacks we tested, and its worst-case run-time performance overhead associated with foreign code detection is less than 35%


The extractability of phosphorus (P) was studied in an acid, unfertilized soil at an abandoned farm and in 40 different soils from former agricultural fields and pastures. Oxalate/Oxalic acid extraction was compared with a number of other methods in order to evaluate the suitability of oxalate/oxalic acid as a method for extracting P from soil. The extracting efficiency and a rough estimate of the origin of the extracted P was also investigated. Total and molybdate reactive P extracted with weak (1 mM), acid (9.35 mM, pH 2.3), and strong (50 mM) oxalate correlated well with Na2SO4 + NaF, Olsen P, and Bray 1 extractable P (0.96 > r > 0.77). Total and molybdate reactive P fractions determined by different oxalate methods were also closely correlated (0.99 > r > 0.84). Only total organic P did not correlate with the other P fractions extracted. However, the large strong oxal extractable P fraction was correlated to many of the weaker extractable fractions. A large share of this fraction is probably organic. The Na2SO4 + NaF extraction, Olsen P, and Bray 1 were also closely correlated. The more loosely adsorbed fractions are possibly replenished to some extent when the soluble phosphate is consumed by plant uptake. A large share of total P extracted with acid (9.35 mM) and strong (50 mM) oxal was organic. The molybdate reactive fraction, however, was fairly constant up to 9.35 mM oxalate in the solution, neither depending on solution concentration nor on pH. Total P extracted with oxalate was related to the logarithm of the extractant concentration. The advantage of the oxal method is that the pH can be adjusted to fit a desired soil pH, and both extractant concentration and analytical method could be chosen to determine either loosely bound P or a substantial amount of total P that might be potentially available.


Abstract:This article responds to the use of "casting couch" in the defense of Harvey Weinstein during his New York trial for rape and sexual assault in 2020. It traces the emergence of "casting couch" in the early-to-mid-twentieth century as a means of naming, but not acknowledging, sexual exploitation and violence in proximity to casting practices. The "casting couch" cliché invokes genre-scenes which depict sexual exploitation and violence, particularly towards actresses, as pornographic, melodramatic, and farcical, framing it as a source of pleasure for an audience. I compare the conventions of "casting couch" to first-hand accounts by women working in the performing arts in the UK in the early-to-mid-twentieth century. My sources are drawn from interviews and life writing, comprising Dodie Smith's autobiography, a collection of recorded interviews with music hall performers conducted by Martha Vicinus, and several biographies of performers by Stephen Bourne. I analyse how gender, class, and racialization interact in these accounts and their framing. I analyse these sources in relation to genre, drawing particularly on Lauren Berlant's concept of "genre as defense." While Weinstein's lawyers utilized the genre-scenes of "casting couch" to defend a sexual predator against the consequences of his actions, the various women discussed here deployed them in more complex ways. "Casting couch" was a means to give sexual exploitation discursive presence, even while limiting that presence. By gesturing towards a joke, and invoking melodramatic tropes, the "casting couch" cliché sometimes defended women against the violence and inequality contained in the stories they were telling.


Abstract Background: Hyperprolactinemia diagnosis and treatment is often compromised by the presence of biologically inactive and clinically irrelevant higher-molecular-weight complexes of prolactin, macroprolactin. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of two macroprolactin screening regimes across commonly used automated immunoassay platforms. Methods: Parametric total and monomeric gender-specific reference intervals were determined for six immunoassay methods using female (n=96) and male sera (n=127) from healthy donors. The reference intervals were validated using 27 hyperprolactinemic and macroprolactinemic sera, whose presence of monomeric and macroforms of prolactin were determined using gel filtration chromatography (GFC). Results: Normative data for six prolactin assays included the range of values (2.5th–97.5th percentiles). Validation sera (hyperprolactinemic and macroprolactinemic; n=27) showed higher discordant classification [mean=2.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–4.4] for the monomer reference interval method compared to the post-polyethylene glycol (PEG) recovery cutoff method (mean=1.8; 95% CI 0.8–2.8). The two monomer/macroprolactin discrimination methods did not differ significantly (p=0.089). Among macroprolactinemic sera evaluated by both discrimination methods, the Cobas and Architect/Kryptor prolactin assays showed the lowest and the highest number of misclassifications, respectively. Conclusions: Current automated immunoassays for prolactin testing require macroprolactin screening methods based on PEG precipitation in order to discriminate truly from falsely elevated serum prolactin. While the recovery cutoff and monomeric reference interval macroprolactin screening methods demonstrate similar discriminative ability, the latter method also provides the clinician with an easy interpretable monomeric prolactin concentration along with a monomeric reference interval.


The enhancement of electrical and optical properties in transparent conducting electrodes has attracted significant interest for their application in flexible electronic devices. Herein, a method for the fabrication of transparent conducting films is proposed. In this approach, RuO2 nanosheets are synthesized by a simple chemical exfoliation method and deposited as conducting films by repeated Langmuir–Blodgett coating. For enhancing the electrical and optical properties of the films, ultraviolet-ozone irradiation is applied between the repeated coatings for the removal of residual organic materials from the chemically exfoliated nanosheets. We observe that by applying ultraviolet-ozone irradiation for 30 min, the sheet resistance of the films decreases by 10% and the optical transmittance is simultaneously enhanced. Facile ultraviolet-ozone irradiation is shown to be an effective and industrially friendly method for enhancing the electrical and optical properties of oxide nanosheets for their application as transparent conduction electrodes.


The minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) plays a critical role in providing excellent machining performance and application of nanoparticles in base fluids are one of the best way for MQL in machining. The boric acid nanoparticles which are eco friendly are one among the exceptional to demonstrate the outstanding properties. This paper gives report on the enhancement of heat transfer performance in various machining applications, the nature of dilute colloidal suspensions in the medium of base fluids are necessary. The H3BO3 nanoparticles synthesis, preparation and, characterization are crucial for their stability in the suspensions to exhibit excellent Nanofluid properties. In this investigation, the preparation of boric acid nanoparticles using mechanical ball milling and XRD for synthesis and characterization.


The quality of a document is affected by various factors, including grammaticality, readability, stylistics, and expertise depth, making the task of document quality assessment a complex one. In this paper, we explore this task in the context of assessing the quality of Wikipedia articles. Observing that the visual rendering of a document can capture implicit quality indicators that are not present in the document text - such as images, font choices, and visual layout - we propose a joint model that combines the text content with a visual rendering of the document for document quality assessment. Experimental results over a Wikipedia dataset reveal that textual and visual features are complementary, achieving state-of-the-art results. Further experiments on a Peer Review dataset verify the general applicability of our proposed model.


Nurses have responded to the entrepreneurial movement by entering into various nontraditional roles and starting their own businesses. This article describes the author's experience in establishing a perinatal home-care business. The characteristics of women and nurse entrepreneurs are discussed, as are the components of a business plan and how to manage a business.


Fischer carbene complexes can be broadly defined as those transition-metal carbene complexes that have a low oxidation state, have an electrophilic carbene carbon , and usually have a heteroatom-stabilizing substituent on the carbene carbon. Fischer complexes were the first examples of any type of transition metal carbene complexes to be reported. The reaction of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes is facile, occurring just above ambient temperature, and resulting in the assembly of a benzene ring from the three carbons of the alpha, beta-unsaturated carbine complex, the two carbons of the alkyne, and the carbon of a carbon monoxide ligand. The synthetic value of this reaction stems from its broad scope, the generally high yields for the process, and the fact that that the products can function as intermediates for the synthesis of a variety of aromatic compounds including para-quinones. It is the most synthetically valuable of the large number of Fischer carbene complexes that have been developed for applications in synthetic organic chemistry. This chapter is the first comprehensive review that is limited to the synthesis of phenols and quinones from the reactions of Fischer carbene complexes with alkynes.

Keywords:

Fischer carbene complexes;
phenols;
quinones;
mechanisms;
ligands;
benzannulation;
heteroannulation;
cyclohexadienone;
alkynes;
method comparisons;
experimental conditions


Damage development due to impact needs to be understood to evaluate the consequences of impact on composite structures. This study concentrates on modelling low velocity impact and consequent compression after impact (CAI) test on thick industrial composites made from glass fiber epoxy produced by vacuum assisted resin infusion. Cross-plied laminates were tested with different impact energies and different numbers of interfaces (clustering). Results were compared to a 3D finite element analysis. Interfaces and their damage development were modelled with cohesive elements. Intraply properties were modelled by progressive failure analysis. The results show that the numerical model using only simple and independently measured material data was able to predict the impact and CAI behavior for the different energies and different stacking sequences. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility ofthe Organizing Committee of DRaF2016.


In multicellular organisms, growth and development need to be precisely coordinated and are strongly relying on positional information. Positional control is achieved through exchanges of molecular messages between cells and tissues by means of cell-to-cell communication mechanisms. Especially in plants, accurate and well-controlled cell-to-cell communication networks are essential because of the complete absence of cell mobility and the presence of rigid cell walls. For many years, phytohormones were thought to be the main messengers exchanged between cells. Nevertheless, identification of systemin as the first plant signaling peptide in tomato hinted that peptide hormones were acting in plants as they were in animals. During the last decade, our knowledge of plant signaling peptides has progressed considerably and a number of signaling peptide families have been discovered and partially characterized. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge in signaling peptides in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana and discuss their proposed functions during plant growth and development.


Earthly gravitational environment has been conditioned organisms evolutional transformations. Mankind evolution in acquiring the upright posture changed functional anatomical characteristics behaved in an almost stable environment (g = 9.81 m/s). Technological environment, up to the microgravity conditions, faces peculiar gravitational conditions that may affect locomotion, working capabilities and living situation. To understand human adapting capacities, some systematic knowledge may come from the study of trained persons such as those practising sports in different postures and environments. The aims of this study are to investigate whether long-term practice of a physical activity, in which body attitude and postural regulation are organized in different ways, can influence postural control and generate a "postural memory". Three groups of male athletes (average age: 22 ± 3 years, weight: 69 ± 9 kg, height: 179.6 ± 5.5 cm) were studied in 26 athletes (runners, bikers and swimmers). The protocol consisted of balance tests with eyes open (EO) and closed (EC) in bipodalic and monopodalic conditions. Bikers showed a mean velocity lower than swimmers both in EO (p = .004) and EC condition (p = .03). Also for mean velocity in M-L plane (p = .02) and for perimeter length (p = .003) during EO condition, bikers showed lower results. Moreover, bikers showed a more posterior position of the centre of pressure when compared to runners with EO (p = .02) and with EC (p = .03). These findings suggested that sport-specific physical training induce postural modifications on upright stance. Within the main results concerning the gravitational aspects appears paramount that swimming, the most 0 g sport (water is the best terrestrial 0 g simulator environment) gives the smallest postural memory conditioning. The studies about human postural control in normal condition, about postural modifications and memory induced by specific physical training in normal versus atypical gravitation setting, open a new perspective in anthropological studies on postural adaptations, ability and performance in extreme environments.


Previous studies showed that plate rheology exerts a dominant control on the shape and velocity of subducting plates. Here, we perform a systematic investigation of the role of elasticity in slab bending, using fully dynamic 2‐D models where an elastic, viscoelastic, or viscoelastoplastic plate subducts freely into a purely viscous mantle. We derive a scaling relationship between the bending radius of viscoelastic slabs and the Deborah number, De, which is the ratio of Maxwell time over deformation time. We show that De controls the ratio of elastically stored energy over viscously dissipated energy and find that at De>10−2 , substantially less energy is required to bend a viscoelastic slab to the same shape as a purely viscous slab with the same intrinsic viscosity. Elastically stored energy at higher De favors retreating modes of subduction via unbending, while trench advance only occurs for some cases with De<10−2 . We estimate the apparent Deborah numbers of natural subduction zones and find values ranging from 10−3 to > 1, where most zones have low De<10−2 , but a few young plates have De > 0.1. Slabs with De<10−2 either have very low viscosities or they may be yielding, in which case our De estimates may be underestimated by up to an order of magnitude, potentially pointing towards a significant role of elasticity in ∼60% of the subduction zones. In support of such a role of elasticity in subduction, we find that increasing De correlates with increasing proportion of larger seismic events in both instrumental and historic catalogues.


Background Patients with refractory-ulcerative colitis (UC) require therapy escalation. Sulfasalazine (SASP) could deliver a high concentration of 5-aminosalicylic acid to the colon. The usefulness of SASP for refractory-UC patients, however, is unclear. Aim The aim was to evaluate the usefulness of SASP for refractory-UC patients. Method We retrospectively analysed 36 (11.4%) of 316 patients with refractory-UC who had been treated with SASP. Clinical and endoscopic activities were evaluated with Lichtiger index and Mayo score, respectively. We analysed the induction-remission rate, predictive factors for the efficacy of SASP, and adverse events. Results Of 36 refractory-UC patients, 14 (38.9%) were treated with concomitant mesalazine enemas, 10 (27.8%) with azathiopurine, 4 (11.1%) with tacrolimus and 6 (16.7%) with an antitumour necrosis factor-α agent. After initiating SASP treatment, 25 patients (69.4%) achieved clinical remission. In 9 (64.3%) of 14 patients with UC treated with mesalazine enemas, mesalazine enemas could be discontinued with SASP. In all patients treated with tacrolimus, tacrolimus could be discontinued with SASP. Clinical activity score upon the initiation of SASP was significantly lower (p=0.024) and the number of patients treated with thiopurine was significantly higher (p=0.016) in the clinical remission group than in the non-clinical remission group. These factors might be predictive for the efficacy of SASP, although multivariate analysis demonstrated no statistically significant effect. Adverse events occurred in 7 patients (19.4%), and reduction or discontinuation of SASP led to improvement. Conclusions SASP appears to be more effective for refractory-UC patients with low clinical-activity and/or thiopurine-use. Trial registration number UMIN000021615; Results.


This article examines how political institutional structures affect political instability. It classifies polities as autocracies or democracies based on three institutional dimensions: election of the executive, constraints on executive decision-making authority, and extent of political participation. It hypothesizes that strongly autocratic and democratic regimes will exhibit the greatest stability resulting from self-enforcing equilibria, whereby the maintenance of a polity's institutional structure is in the interest of political elites, whether through autocratic or democratic control. Institutionally inconsistent regimes (those exhibiting a mix of institutional characteristics of both democracy and autocracy) lack these self-enforcing characteristics and are expected to be shorter-lived. Using a log-logistic duration model, polity survival time ratios are estimated. Institutionally consistent polities are significantly more stable than institutionally inconsistent polities. The least stable political systems are dictatorships with high levels of political participation. The most unstable configuration for polities with an elected executive is one where the executive is highly constrained, but the electorate is very small.


Objective To discuss the effect of vertebral lamina fenestration with small incision for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation(LDH).Methods Random sample of 120 cases of patients with LDH in different intervertebral spaces form January 2001 to January 2008 were subjected to operations with conventional surgical instruments. A posterior central mini-incision about 2.5-4cm was made,a mini-window about 1.5cm ×1.5cm opened in the interstice between the consecutive vertebral plates,and the nerve canal was depressed. Then,the vertebral pulp was removed. The whole operative time was 30min to 1.5h (mean 1h). Results All the patients were followed up for 6 months to 8 years (mean 24 months). According to the Nakai criteria,the outcome was excellent in 82 cases,good in 30 cases,fair in 5 cases and poor in 3 cases. The excellent-good rate was 93.3%. Recurrence occurred in 3 patients 6 months after operation. Conclusion The method of small incision technique is safe and effective with the advantages of minimal invasion,short operative time,less blood loss,minimal damage to spinal structure,more rapid recovery,out-of-bed activity in short time and fewer complication.


The actual cumulative mass of released quercetin from nanoparticles within the dialysis membrane was determined under the influence of external stationary and alternating magnetic fields. We have shown that the control of the release kinetics of quercetin from MNPs, i.e., the distribution of quercetin between the nanoparticles and the suspension within the membrane, can be tuned by the simple combination of stationary and alternating magnetic fields. Under non-sink conditions, the proportion of quercetin in the suspension inside the membrane is increased toward the nanoparticles, resulting in the increased release of quercetin. The results obtained could be applied to the release of insoluble flavonoids in aqueous suspensions in general.


Objectives: Despite the importance of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) transmission through heterosexual contact, the features of heterosexual transmission has not been well studied in Korea. So we conducted a cross sectional study to determine the transmission rates in married couples and assess risk factors for male to female heterosexual transmission of HIV. Methods: 169 HIV-infected males and their female sex partners were recruited from 1985 to tune 1998. We examined female sex partner's HIV infection status and interviewed male index partners and their female sex partners about demographic characteristics and sexual practices. We analysed heterosexual transmission rate by epidemiologic characteristics, disease status and sexual practices. And we assessed risk factors for HIV infection by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results: 30 female sex partners were infected at enrollment, yielding an transmission rate of 17.8%. Among couples who had used condoms consistently, none of the female sex partners was infected with HIV. In univariate analysis the significant risk factors were full blown AIDS status (OR=4.1, 95% CI: 1.49-11.43) and low CD4 T cell count of index partners at enrollment (OR=7.8, 95% CI: 2.19-27.80). In multivariate analysis HIV-1 RNA levels was significant risk factor when adjusted by CD4 T cell courts and mean sexual contacts per month (OR=19.2, 95% CI: 1.03-357.59) Conclusion: The risk of male to female heterosexual transmission increased with advanced stages of HIV infection in the index male partners.


Molybdenum(0) complexes with aliphatic aminophosphine pincer ligands have been prepared which are competent for the disproportionation of formic acid, thus representing the first example so far reported of non-noble metal species to catalytically promote such transformation. In general, formic acid disproportionation allows for an alternative access to methyl formate and methanol from renewable resources. MeOH selectivity up to 30% with a TON of 57 could be achieved while operating at atmospheric pressure. Selectivity (37%) and catalyst performance (TON = 69) could be further enhanced when the reaction was performed under hydrogen pressure (60 bars). A plausible mechanism based on experimental evidence is proposed.


BACKGROUND
Cancer is a multi-factorial disease including alterations in the cell signalling pathways. Currently, several drugs are in use to treat the cancer but such drugs show negative side effects on normal cells and causes severe toxicity.

METHODS
The current research is mainly focused on medicinal plants with potential therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of cancer without any adverse effects on normal cells. In this regards, garlic and its active compounds including diallyl sulphide, diallyl trisulfide, ajoene and allicin has been established to suppress the growth of cancer and killing of cancer cells.

RESULT
The review concerns about garlic and its active compounds chemopreventive effect through modulating various cell signalling pathways. Additionally, Garlic and its active compound was established to induce cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase and G2/M phases in cancer cells, increased the expression of tumor suppressor genes, inhibition of angiogenesis process, induction of apoptosis and modulating various other genetic pathways.

CONCLUSION
This review sketches the diverse chemopreventive activities of garlic and their active ingredients in the management of cancer mainly focusing on cell signalling pathways.


A blended discrete wavelet transform and discrete cosine rework based watermarking method with low frequency watermarking with weighted correction is proposed. Discrete wavelet transform has exceptional spatial localization, frequency unfold and multi-resolution traits, that are almost a bit just like the theoretical models of the human sensory gadget. Discrete cosine transform primarily based watermarking techniques provide compression while discrete wavelet transform based watermarking techniques offer scalability. Those relevant Houses are utilized on this blended watermarking technique. Within the proposed method watermark bits are embedded in the low waveband of every discrete cosine remodel block of selected discrete wavelet transform sub-band. The weighted correction is moreover used to improve the imperceptibility. The extracting approach reverses the embedding operations without the reference of the number one image. In comparison with the same technique with the help of discrete cosine rework primarily based absolutely technique and discrete wavelet remodel primarily based method.


Background: Observational studies suggest an association of stroke with cardiac traits beyond atrial fibrillation, the leading source of cardioembolism. However, controversy remains regarding a causal role of these traits in stroke pathogenesis. Here, we leveraged genetic data to systematically assess associations between cardiac traits and stroke risk using a Mendelian Randomization framework. Methods: We studied 66 cardiac traits including cardiovascular diseases, magnetic resonance imaging–derived cardiac imaging, echocardiographic imaging, and electrocardiographic measures, as well as blood biomarkers in a 2-sample Mendelian Randomization approach. Genetic predisposition to each trait was explored for associations with risk of stroke and stroke subtypes in data from the MEGASTROKE consortium (40 585 cases/406 111 controls). Using multivariable Mendelian Randomization, we adjusted for potential pleiotropic or mediating effects relating to atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, and systolic blood pressure. Results: As expected, we observed strong independent associations between genetic predisposition to atrial fibrillation and cardioembolic stroke and between genetic predisposition to coronary artery disease as a proxy for atherosclerosis and large-artery stroke. Our data-driven analyses further indicated associations of genetic predisposition to both heart failure and lower resting heart rate with stroke. However, these associations were explained by atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, and systolic blood pressure in multivariable analyses. Genetically predicted P-wave terminal force in V1, an electrocardiographic marker for atrial cardiopathy, was inversely associated with large-artery stroke. Conclusions: Available genetic data do not support substantial effects of cardiac traits on the risk of stroke beyond known clinical risk factors. Our findings highlight the need to carefully control for confounding and other potential biases in studies examining candidate cardiac risk factors for stroke.


We investigated experimentally the frequency dependence of a superconducting vortex ratchet effect by means of electrical transport measurements and modeled it theoretically using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau formalism. We demonstrate that the high frequency vortex behavior can be described as a discrete motion of a particle in a periodic potential, i.e., the so-called stepper-motor behavior. Strikingly, in the more conventional low frequency response a transition takes place from an Abrikosov vortex rectifier to a phase slip line rectifier. This transition is characterized by a strong increase in the rectified voltage and the appearance of a pronounced hysteretic behavior.


Librarians and academic staff suggest a relationship between the quality of references which students use in academic assignments and the marks received. This study tested that assertion by using a citation analysis methodology to assess the quality of bibliographies written by undergraduate nursing students at the University of York. Bibliographies from sixty essays across three modules were analysed, noting the types and quantities of references used and whether references were sourced independently or included in the module's reading list. Each bibliography was given an overall quality rating: 'Poor', 'Average' or 'Good'. This rating was compared with the mark the student was awarded for the essay. Results showed that, whilst students demonstrated the ability to locate items independently, the quality of those items was often poor. Generally, quality of selected sources and bibliographies improved as students progressed through the programme. There was an association between higher quality bibliographies and higher assignment marks. The study concludes that critical thinking skills are vital for nursing students to develop academically, as these skills will be tested within a clinical environment once students have completed their degree. A benefit for students is the conclusion that using higher quality sources results in higher marks.


We employed the Templer Death Anxiety Scale and the Langer Mental Health Scale to examine death anxiety and mental health as a function of length of incarceration in 56 male prisoners, categorized according to homicidal, sexual, or nonviolent convictions. Nonoffenders ( N = 60), closely matched by age, race, and socioeconomic background, served as a comparison group. While no significant death anxiety difference was found between offenders and nonoffenders with all participants included, sexual offenders had significantly higher death anxiety scores than nonoffenders. All 3 offender groups had significantly more reported psychopathology than nonoffenders. Both death anxiety and extent of psychopathology were inversely related to length of incarceration. Findings are discussed in terms of current arguments regarding the personality structure of capital offenders, as well as the possible value of a death threat in deterring serious crime.


We introduce DrummerNet, a drum transcription system that is trained in an unsupervised manner. DrummerNet does not require any ground-truth transcription and, with the data-scalability of deep neural networks, learns from a large unlabeled dataset. In DrummerNet, the target drum signal is first passed to a (trainable) transcriber, then reconstructed in a (fixed) synthesizer according to the transcription estimate. By training the system to minimize the distance between the input and the output audio signals, the transcriber learns to transcribe without ground truth transcription. Our experiment shows that DrummerNet performs favorably compared to many other recent drum transcription systems, both supervised and unsupervised.


: The authors developed a method to puncture neck muscles by means of computer tomographic control, enabling the introduction of an electrode into the obliquus capitis inferior muscle, to investigate the particular role of neck muscles in posture and head movement.


The introduction of transcatheter therapy for valvular heart disease has revolutionized the care of patients with valvular disorders. Pathologic regurgitation or stenosis of the pulmonary valve, right ventricular outflow tract, or a right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery conduit represent emerging indications for transcatheter therapy. To date, minimal literature exists detailing the anesthetic management of patients undergoing transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement. In this review, the pathophysiology and indications for transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement and possible complications unique to this procedure are reviewed. Anesthetic management, including preoperative assessment, intraoperative considerations, and early postoperative monitoring, are discussed.


Vector ordering is an essential task in testing very large scale integration systems because it affects this process from two perspectives: 1) power consumption and 2) correlation among test data. The former feature is crucial and, if not properly controlled, may result in permanent failure of the device under test (DUT). The latter feature is also important because correlation is captured by coding schemes to efficiently compress test data and ease memory requirements of automatic test equipment (ATE) while reducing volume and lowering test application time. Vector ordering, however, is NP-complete. This paper presents an evaluation of different heuristic techniques for vector ordering using the 1985 and 1989 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS85 and ISCAS89, respectively) benchmark circuits in terms of run time and solution quality. For this application, it is shown that the best heuristic technique is not the one based on the famous Christofides or Lin-Kernighan criteria but on the multifragment technique. It has been shown that the selection of an appropriate heuristic can lead to an increase in the compression ratio of up to 178% and a reduction in the power consumption during test of up to 46%.


Alternative techniques and materials are constantly being investigated to develop innovative solutions for the construction of highway embankments and other types of earth structures. Improvement of the subgrade soils for highway embankments can be critical for implementing sustainable and economical applications, especially for cases where recycled or other alternative materials are used. In this part of the research, an extensive laboratory investigation has been performed to investigate the use of fly ash and homopolymerpolypropylene (HPP) to stabilize clayey soils. Various combinations of the soil with fly ash and HPP mixtures were prepared in the laboratory and experiments were performed to evaluate the engineering properties of these mixtures. Standard Proctor compaction tests were conducted in the specially designed Harvard miniature compaction equipment. The compaction characteristics and the unconfined compressive strength of samples under different treatment conditions were investigated. This paper presents the findings from the laboratory study with particular emphasis on the use of alternative materials that provide economic benefits as well as reduced environmental impact.


We study theoretically the behaviour of two types of polyelectrolytes in a poor solvent. If the number of charges and their position along the chain is quenched, the collapse is well described by a blob model introduced by Khokhlov. Weak polyacids or polybases have however an annealed structure where the charges are "mobile" along the chain. We show that these polymers undergo a discontinuous charge instability between a small-charge globular state and a high-charge extended state. This could explain several titration and viscometric data. At higher concentration, the electrostatic interaction is more screened for annealed than for quenched polyelectrolytes.


This paper will be based on a review of research participants who have taken part in bereavement research in the United Kingdom since 2000 – specifically those parents who have lost a child whether to stillbirth, neonatal death or infant death (up to the age of one year old). Such groups are normally seen to comprise of people who are 'hard to reach' due to the sensitive nature of the topic. I will contrast the demographic profile of research participants with statistics which demonstrate the demography of loss in order to argue that research has not been able to reach those groups who are most at risk of such a loss, that is, parents from manual or routine occupations and mothers who are born outside of the United Kingdom (ONS, 2015). I will contend that this is a problem given that as services for the bereaved as well as hospital policies will be based on the experiences of those who have been interviewed by researchers which tends to be one particular group of bereaved parents, that is, those people who are born in the UK and who are in professional and managerial jobs. I will go on to argue that there is a need to concentrate research efforts on accessing the 'hard to reach' groups within 'hard to reach groups' to ensure that not only is bereavement research more inclusive but also that any services or policy which emerge from such research in inclusive too.


In this work we present the results of a study aimed at increasing performance quality in conference interpreting trainees through the development of the attention-regulatory practice of mindfulness. A review of the basic con- cepts of attention is presented as well as a review of the role of attention in interpreting as an extremely cognitive demanding task. The authors also introdu- ce and review the concept of mindfulness from a theoretical and empirical per- spective. Stress in interpreting is also addressed as a factor that may influence performance. An experimental study is presented in which focused attention practices are compared to relaxation practices in relation to performance in interpreting trainees. Schlagworter: attention, interpreting, cognitive resources, mindfulness, training, performance


This study aimed to improve the nutritional value and utilization of sunflower meal (SFM) used as feed ingredient for tilapia by an approach of solid-state fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The protein content and lipid content were increased, while, phytic acid and tripsin inhibitor were decreased during solid state fermentation process. A feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effect of yeast fermented sunflower meal (YFSFM) on the growth, feed utilization parameters of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. Dietary fish meal was replaced with yeast fermented sunflower meal (YFSFM) in four isonitrogenous (295 g/kg crude protein and isocaloric 19.5 MJ/ kg gross energy) diets. Fish meal was replaced with YFSFM in the experimental diets in four levels 0, 25, 50 or 75% to formulate four experimental diets (control diet), YFSFM-25, YFSFM-50 and YFSFM-75, respectively. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish with an initial weight 10.30 ±0.12 g. The experiment was conducted for for 84 days. The highest final body weight (FBW), weight gain (WG), specific growth rate (SGR) and the best condition factor (K) were obtained with control diet and YFSFM-25. The lowest growth response was obtained with YFSFM75. Generally, a positive protein substitution effect was observed at 25% substitution levels YFSFM-25. The highest feed intake (FI) g/fish and the best feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) were recorded for fish fed control diet and YFSFM-25, with values statistically different from the other treatments. Fish fed different levels of YFSFM did not have a significant impact on dry matter, lipid, crude protein and ash contents of the fish.


Hereditary coproporphyria (HC) is an acute hepatic porphyria with autosomal dominant inheritance caused by a deficient activity of coproporphyrinogen IX oxidase (CPX). We previously described harderoporphyria, a homozygous variant form of coproporphyria in three siblings, characterized by a massive excretion of harderoporphyrin and a marked decrease of coproporphyrinogen IX oxidase activity. In this kindred, the transmission of the disease was autosomal recessive. In the present study, sequencing of cDNA and genomic DNA from these patients revealed a point mutation resulting in a lysine to glutamic acid substitution (K304E) in exon 6 of the gene and the absence of the normal allele, suggesting a homozygous state for the mutation. Expression studies of normal and mutated cDNAs in E. coli demonstrated that this amino acid substitution was responsible for the important decrease in the enzyme activity and for the accumulation of harderoporphyrin. The Michaelis constant of the mutated enzyme was 10-fold higher than normal suggesting that the lysine at position 304 is important for binding the substrate: a slightly increased sensitivity to thermal denaturation was also observed.


The main object of this paper is to apply the vector form intrinsic finite element (VFIFE, or V-5) techniques in nonlinear large deformation dynamic analysis for the responses of moving loads on rigid frame structures. In this study, the simulation of moving loading is brought into the vector form intrinsic finite element method. It can effectively simulate the moving load. Comparing the results of the numerical simulations by VFIFE with the results obtained from other literatures, they are very close. It proved that VFIFE can effectively simulate the nonlinear large deformation dynamic problem.


Nutrition in Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is regarded as a multisystemic disorder. Over-/malnutrition in combination with inappropriate physical activity are key factors in disease development and progression. Currently, there is no proven pharmacotherapy for the treatment of NAFLD. Since overweight and obesity are frequently associated with NAFLD, weight loss and life style modifying measures are cornerstones in the management of this disease. J Gastroenterol Hepatol Erkr 2016; 14 (2): 10–3.


INTRODUCTION
IE is a rare infection in children. Scarce reports with large number of patients are published.

METHODS
Between January 1988 to December 2000 we analyzed all cases of IE cases admitted to our hospital.

RESULTS
86 cases of IE (4.9/10,000 admissions) in 86 children were diagnosed. The median age was 7.6 years. In 77% of patient previous cardiac disease was detected, interventricular defects and Tetralogy of Fallot were the more frequent. Three percent of children had rheumatic heart disease. Thirty-six percent of children had previous heart surgery. Fifty-seven percent have been received previous antibiotics. Eighty-seven percent had positive blood cultures, being the S. aureus and S. viridans the predominantly. Forty-eight percent of children had complications. The metabolic disorders and the nosocomial infections were the most frequent. Twenty-four percent required surgery, 24% of them in the first week of the diagnosis. The mortality in operated children was 19%. In the multivariate analysis we could observe that children with more than 7 years and S. aureus isolation in blood cultures had more incidence of complications and posterior surgery (p < 0.05). Children with S. aureus IE had longer duration of fever, more incidence of complications than patients with S. viridans IE (p < 0.05). Ten percent of children were treated as outpatients. The global mortality was 12,8%. Previous surgery (OR = 6.89; IC 95% 1.54-30.7) and previous antibiotic treatment (OR = 9.98; IC 95% 1.12-88.8) were the factors related with higher mortality in the multivariate analysis. S. aureus was the predominat pathogen and caused more morbidity and mortality than S. viridans IE.

CONCLUSION
Children with IE with previous surgery and previous antibiotic treatment died with more frequency.


In this paper the suboptimal event-triggered consensus problem of Multiagent systems is investigated. Using the combinational measurement approach, each agent only updates its control input at its own event time instants. Thus the total number of events and the amount of controller updates can be significantly reduced in practice. Then, based on the observation of increasing the consensus rate and reducing the number of triggering events, we have proposed the time-average cost of the agent system and developed a suboptimal approach to determine the triggering condition. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is illustrated by numerical examples.


The main objective of the presented work is to determine the ability of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic systems to reduce total and peak load demand in Saudi Arabia. Firstly, the impact of linking PV directly with grid has been assessed to find the level of penetration that can be achieved without any technical changes in the Saudi utility network. Actual data for both loads and irradiance has been used to build a realistic model. The results show a significant benefit of using GCPV system in the network. It would reduce the energy supplied from the main generators and help to decrease the peak demand load to give almost constant load profile. Also, this work sets the limits of PV penetration in the network and shows the benefit of reactive power demand in the system for maintaining the voltage level.


A close relationship between K3 surfaces and the Mathieu groups has been established in the last century. Furthermore, it has been observed recently that the elliptic genus of K3 has a natural interpretation in terms of the dimensions of representations of the largest Mathieu group M24. In this paper we first give further evidence for this possibility by studying the elliptic genus of K3 surfaces twisted by some simple symplectic automorphisms. These partition functions with insertions of elements of M24 (the McKay-Thompson series) give further information about the relevant representation. We then point out that this new "moonshine" for the largest Mathieu group is connected to an earlier observation on a moonshine of M24 through the 1/4-BPS spectrum of K3xT^2-compactified type II string theory. This insight on the symmetry of the theory sheds new light on the generalised Kac-Moody algebra structure appearing in the spectrum, and leads to predictions for new elliptic genera of K3, perturbative spectrum of the toroidally compactified heterotic string, and the index for the 1/4-BPS dyons in the d=4, N=4 string theory, twisted by elements of the group of stringy K3 isometries.


Product reputation mining systems can help customers make their buying decision about a product of interest. In addition, it will be helpful to investigate the preferences of recently released products made by enterprises. Unlike the conventional manual survey, it will give us quick survey results on a low cost budget. In this article, we propose a novel product reputation mining approach based on three dimensional points of view that are word, sentence, and aspect?levels. Given a target product, the aspect?level method assigns the sentences of a review document to the desired aspects. The sentence?level method is a graph-based model for quantifying the importance of sentences. The word?level method computes both importance and sentiment orientation of words. Aggregating these scores, the proposed approach measures the reputation tendency and preferred intensity and selects top-k informative review documents about the product. To validate the proposed method, we experimented with review documents relevant with K5 in Kia motors. Our experimental results show that our method is more helpful than the existing lexicon?based approach in the empirical and statistical studies.


In this study, we propose a new text-mining method for long-term market analysis. Using our method, we performe out-of-sample tests using monthly price data of financial markets; Japanese government bond market, Japanese stock market, and the yen-dollar market. First we extract feature vectors from monthly reports of Bank of Japan. Then, trends of each market are estimated by regression analysis using the feature vectors. As a result of comparison with support vector regression, the proposal method could forecast in higher accuracy about both the level and direction of long-term market trends. Moreover, our method showed high returns with annual rate averages as a result of the implementation test.


Since their introduction in clinical practice, antigliadin antibodies (AGA) have simplified the diagnostic iter of coeliac disease. In addition they have allowed us to recognize an even high number of new cases and also to identify new clinical forms. While AGA are widely used in the diagnostic phase, their determination during follow-up of the disease has been always limited. With the present work we observe the behaviour of AGA during the various phases of coeliac disease. The study was carried out on 288 coeliac children divided as follows: 96 at diagnosis, 136 on gluten-free-diet (75 diet adherent and 61 non adherent) and 56 on gluten-challenge. 145 healthy children were also studied as a control group. In all children AGA (IgA and IgG) were determined, with a micro-ELISA method, every two months in the children on gluten-free-diet and monthly in the children on gluten-challenge. Data obtained showed AGA behaviour strictly related to the diet. In fact while children with good compliance to the diet had AGA normalization within the 2nd and 6th month, respectively for IgA and IgG, children with poor adherence to diet had constantly positive AGA. Noteworthy was the AGA behaviour during challenge. Gluten introduction determined a rapid increase of IgA and a slow increase of IgG. Our results confirm the usefulness of AGA determination during the follow-up of coeliac children giving us the possibility to avoid one or more biopsies included in the ESPGAN protocol.


We seek evidence of a link between accruals-based earnings quality (EQ) and cost of capital by examining two classes of shares traded in China's segregated markets during 1995-2000. The A- and B-shares introduced respectively for domestic and foreign investors carry identical cash flow rights, but B-shares are traded at deep discounts relative to A-shares. We predict that whereas differential information access by foreign versus domestic investors through their own private channels causes A- and B-share prices to diverge, high-quality public reporting serves to narrow the information and hence price gaps. Consistent with our predictions, we find that EQ is negatively related to the A-B share price differential, and that the negative effect is more pronounced for firms with large information disparities between the markets. We further find that this EQ effect vanishes after the new policy in 2001, which permits domestic investors to also trade B-shares, and consequently reduces the inter-market information gap. By employing this unique setting, the study circumvents some of the research design limitations in prior studies, which enables us to better identify the pricing effect of accruals quality.


In this paper there have been presented robot and robotic systems applications in some examples of process industries. Process industries and applications of new technologies in these industries are very interesting for Bosnia and Herzegovina and its industry, because those industries are well developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this paper we will mostly present robot and robotic systems applications in food and beverage industries in which robots and its systems are mostly used for products manipulation, its transfer and transport and palletization.


Mission planning for aircraft is often done as waypoint planning. A sequence of waypoints describing the three-dimensional positions that the aircraft must visit. A common approach is to plan the sequence of the waypoints such that the Euclidean distance between them is minimized. When the high-level waypoint planning is finished, a finer grained planning is executed to obtain a trajectory that the aircraft must follow. When the waypoints in a plan are distributed far apart compared to the turning radius of the aircraft, the twostep planning approach works well, but when the waypoints are closer, the kinematics of the aircraft ruins the plan. This work describes an approach that uses a genetic algorithm to solve the waypoint planning problem while considering the kinematics of the aircraft in one single step. This approach entails the addition of a heading and target speed along with the position in the waypoint definition. The kinematics of the aircraft is modeled with Dubins curves, which are extended to allow variable turning radii.


The study was realized in cooperation with grant support: MUNI/A/0790/2012 "Verifying the psychometric properties of diagnostic tools for screening the incidence and forms of self-harm among school children". This study explores self-harming behavior among adolescents (12-15 years old) and its relation with previous psychological or psychiatric care. There is a connection to the process occurrence type of self-harm between adolescents who have been or are in psychological or psychiatric care and those who were never been. The results can spread our knowledge about self-harm behavior, which is very common teenage phenomenon. Furthermore, it can be used to specify the support for adolescents who do self-harm. In accordance with the research objectives were quantitative, exploratory data, in a one-shot cross-sectional survey using self-report measures. Our sample was 1110 adolescents between 12 to 15 years old. In our sample were 84 adolescents who do or did self-harm. The methods for measuring self-harm included the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI; Sansone, Sansone, & Wiederman, 1995). The main differences were found in occurrence of self-harm behavior between children who have never been in psychological or psychiatric care (20%) and the others (40%). Small differences were found also in different type of self-harm behavior. On the other hand we did not find differences in the self-harm process.There are differences between those adolescents who have never been in psychological or psychiatric care and the others. We hope that the results of this study could help to understand the self-harming behavior, which is currently spreading among adolescents. It could be a useful guide for those, who are working with the youth.


Understanding documents from their visual snapshots is an emerg-ing problem that requires both advanced computer vision and NLP methods. The recent advance in OCR enables the accurate recognition of text blocks, yet it is still challenging to extract key information from documents due to the diversity of their layouts. Although recent studies on pre-trained language models show the importance of incorporating layout information on this task, the conjugation of texts and their layouts still follows the style of BERT optimized for understanding the 1D text. This implies there is room for further improvement considering the 2D nature of text layouts. This paper introduces a pre-trained language model, BERT Relying On Spatiality (BROS) , which effectively utilizes the information included in individual text blocks and their layouts. Specifically, BROS encodes spatial information by utilizing relative positions and learns spatial dependencies between OCR blocks with a novel area-masking strategy. These two novel approaches lead to an efficient encoding of spatial layout information highlighted by the robust performance of BROS under low-resource environments. We also introduce a general-purpose parser that can be combined with BROS to extract key information even when there is no order information between text blocks. BROS shows its superiority on four public benchmarks—FUNSD, SROIE*, CORD, and SciTSR—and its robustness in practical cases where order information of text blocks is not available. Further experiments with a varying number of training examples demonstrate the high training efficiency of our approach. Our code will be open to the public.


Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) is a swarm optimization technique. This algorithm generally used to solve nonlinear and complex problems. ABC is one of the simplest and up to date population based probabilistic strategy for global optimization. Analogous to other population based algorithms, ABC also has some drawbacks computationally pricey due to its sluggish temperament of search procedure. The solution search equation of ABC is notably motivated by a haphazard quantity which facilitates in exploration at the cost of exploitation of the search space. Due to the large step size in the solution search equation of ABC there are chances of skipping the factual solution are higher. For that reason, this paper introduces a new search strategy in order to balance the diversity and convergence capability of the ABC. Both employed bee phase and onlooker bee phase are improved with help of a local search strategy stimulated by memetic algorithm. This paper also proposes a new strategy for fitness calculation and probability calculation. The proposed algorithm is named as Improved Memetic Search in ABC (IMeABC). It is tested over 13 impartial benchmark functions of different complexities and two real word problems are also considered to prove proposed algorithms superiority over original ABC algorithm and its recent variants. Keywords— Artificial bee colony algorithm, Swarm intelligence, Evolutionary computation, Memetic algorithm


Background: The occasional relationship between arterial atherosclerosis of lower limbs and atherosclerosis of intestinal arteries has not been fully studied yet. Objective: To assess the presence of lesions with ≥ 70% stenosis in the superior mesenteric artery and/or in the celiac trunk in patients with chronic obstructive arteriopathy of the lower limbs using vascular ultrasound (Doppler). Method: Two groups were involved, a study group and a control group, each comprising 60 patients (40 men and 20 women). The study group consisted of patients with chronic obstructive arterial disease of the lower limbs, limiting intermittent claudication or rest pain, and/or trophic lesions of the extremities but no gastrointestinal complaints. The control group comprised patients without obstructive arterial disease of the lower limbs or gastrointestinal complaints. The presence of diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, obesity, angina/infarct, smoking or dyslipidemia was considered a risk factor. All patients were submitted to vascular ultrasound of the celiac trunk and superior mesenteric artery. The patients of the study group were divided according to the presence of limiting intermittent claudication (n = 12) or trophic lesion and/or rest pain (n = 48). Results: A significant association was found between age (p = 0.04) and presence of ischemic cardiopathy (p = 0.04) with atherosclerosis of the superior mesenteric artery. The risk factors showed no significant association with presence of stenosis of the celiac trunk. A significant association was found between the presence of arteriopathy of the lower limbs and stenotic lesion of the superior mesenteric artery (p = 0.006) and the celiac trunk (p < 0.001). Conclusions: On vascular ultrasound, a finding of peripheral arteriopathy of the lower limbs suggests the presence of stenotic lesion in the superior mesenteric artery and /or the celiac trunk. The atherosclerosis in the superior mesenteric artery is associated with ischemic cardiopathy and advanced age.


Trade-off between security and performance has become an intriguing area in recent years in both the security and performance communities. As the security aspects of security protocol research is fully-fledged, this thesis is therefore devoted to conducting a performance study of these protocols. The long term objective is to translate formal definitions of security protocols to formal performance models automatically, then analysing by relevant techniques. In this thesis, we take a preliminary step by studying five typical security protocols, and exploring the methodology of construction and analysis of their models by using the Markovian process algebra PEPA. Through these case studies, an initial framework of performance analysis of security protocol is established. Firstly, a key distribution centre is investigated. The basic model suffers from the commonly encountered state space explosion problem, and so we apply some efficient solution techniques, which include model reduction techniques and ordinary differential equation based fluid flow analysis. Finally, we evaluate a utility function for this secure key exchange model. Then, we explore two non-repudiation protocols. Mean value analysis has been applied here for a class of PEPA models, and it is compared with an ODE approximation. After that, an optimistic nonrepudiation protocol with off-line third trust party is studied. The PEPA model has been formulated using a concept of multi-threaded servers with functional rates. The final case study is a cross-realm Kerberos protocol. A simplified technique of aggregation with an ODE approximation is performed to do efficient analysis. All these modelling and analysis methods are illustrated through numerical examples.


Since morbidity and mortality rates of anaphylaxis diseases have been increasing year by year, how to prevent and manage these diseases effectively has become an important issue. Mast cells play a central regulatory role in allergic diseases. Angiopoietin1 (Ang-1) exhibits anti-inflammatory properties by inhibiting vascular permeability, leukocyte migration and cytokine production. However, Ang-1's function in mast cell activation and anaphylaxis diseases is unknown. The results of our study suggest that Ang-1 decreased lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines production of mast cells by suppressing IκB phosphorylation and NF-κB nuclear translocation. Ang-1 also strongly inhibited compound 48/80 induced and FcεRI-mediated mast cells degranulation by decreasing intracellular calcium levels in vitro. In vivo lentivirus-mediated delivery of Ang-1 in mice exhibited alleviated leakage in IgE-dependent passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA). Furthermore, exogenous Ang-1 intervention treatment prevented mice from compound 48/80-induced mesentery mast cell degranulation, attenuated increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines, relieved lung injury, and improved survival in anaphylaxis shock. The results of our study reveal, for the first time, the important role of Ang-1 in the activation of mast cells, and identify a therapeutic effect of Ang-1 on anaphylaxis diseases.


A 1,2-bis(2-methylbenzothiophene-3-yl)maleimide model ( DAE) and two dyads in which this photochromic unit is coupled, via a direct nitrogen-carbon bond ( Ru-DAE) or through an intervening methylene group ( Ru-CH 2-DAE ), to a ruthenium polypyridine chromophore have been synthesized. The photochemistry and photophysics of these systems have been thoroughly characterized in acetonitrile by a combination of stationary and time-resolved (nano- and femtosecond) spectroscopic methods. The diarylethene model DAE undergoes photocyclization by excitation at 448 nm, with 35% photoconversion at stationary state. The quantum yield increases from 0.22 to 0.33 upon deaeration. Photochemical cycloreversion (quantum yield, 0.51) can be carried out to completion upon excitation at lambda > 500 nm. Photocyclization takes place both from the excited singlet state (S 1), as an ultrafast (ca. 0.5 ps) process, and from the triplet state (T 1) in the microsecond time scale. In Ru-DAE and Ru-CH 2-DAE dyads, efficient photocyclization following light absorption by the ruthenium chromophore occurs with oxygen-sensitive quantum yield (0.44 and 0.22, in deaerated and aerated solution, respectively). The photoconversion efficiency is almost unitary (90%), much higher than for the photochromic DAE alone. Efficient quenching of both Ru-based MLCT phosphorescence and DAE fluorescence is observed. A complete kinetic characterization has been obtained by ps-ns time-resolved spectroscopy. Besides prompt photocyclization (0.5 ps), fast singlet energy transfer takes place from the excited diarylethene to the Ru(II) chromophore (30 ps in Ru-DAE, 150 ps in Ru-CH 2-DAE ). In the Ru(II) chromophore, prompt intersystem crossing to the MLCT triplet state is followed by triplet energy transfer to the diarylethene (1.5 ns in Ru-DAE, 40 ns in Ru-CH 2-DAE ). The triplet state of the diarylethene moiety undergoes cyclization in a microsecond time scale. The experimental results are complemented with a combined ab initio and DFT computational study whereby the potential energy surfaces (PES) for ground state (S 0) and lowest triplet state (T 1) of the diarylethene are investigated along the reaction coordinate for photocyclization/cycloreversion. At the DFT level of theory, the transition-state structures on S 0 and T 1 are similar and lean, along the reaction coordinate, toward the closed-ring form. At the transition-state geometry, the S 0 and T 1 PES are almost degenerate. Whereas on S 0 a large barrier (ca. 45 kcal mol (-1)) separates the open- and closed-ring minima, on T 1 the barriers to isomerization are modest, cyclization barrier (ca. 8 kcal mol (-1)) being smaller than cycloreversion barrier (ca. 14 kcal mol (-1)). These features account for the efficient sensitized photocyclization and inefficient sensitized cycloreversion observed with Ru-DAE. Triplet cyclization is viewed as a nonadiabatic process originating on T 1 at open-ring geometry, proceeding via intersystem crossing at transition-state geometry, and completing on S 0 at closed-ring geometry. A computational study of the prototypical model 1,2-bis(3-thienyl)ethene is used to benchmark DFT results against ab initio CASSCF//CASPT2 results and to demonstrate the generality of the main topological features of the S 0 and T 1 PES obtained for DAE. Altogether, the results provide strong experimental evidence and theoretical rationale for the triplet pathway in the photocyclization of photochromic diarylethenes.


(1a + 1b) The purpose of this study was initially to examine whether in vivo Ig deposits in unaffected skin are a feature of patients with primary and secondary SS. A novel deposition pattern of IgG in the intercellular epidermal area was found in 68% of the patients with primary SS, but in only 13% of the patients with secondary SS. DEJ Ig deposits were observed in none of the patients. (2) Different stratified squamous epithelia from patients with primary SS were examined for intraepithelial in vivo Ig deposits. In the total of 3 investigations, epidermal intercellularly located IgG was found in 57 of 84 (68%) patients with primary SS. Intraepithelial Ig deposits were also demonstrated in the oral labial and uterine cervical mucous membranes of patients with primary SS. (3) The underlying pathomechanism(s) of the intraepidermal in vivo IgG deposits was (were) examined by investigations of skin and sera from patients with primary SS. The intraepidermal IgG deposits were found located to cell surfaces of both LC and keratinocytes. Circulating IgG from patients with primary SS was shown to bind in vivo to the intercellular area of normal human epidermis, when examined in the athymic nude mouse/human skin model. However, no similar in vitro binding of circulating IgG to normal human epidermis was found. Based on these observations and on further IH skin examinations, it was hypothesized that IgG-containing IC, bound to Fc-receptors on LC and keratinocytes, may be responsible for the in vivo deposits in skin of patients with primary SS. (4) The diagnostic significance of the intraepidermal in vivo IgG deposits for primary SS was examined in studies including normal controls and patients with other CTD. Intraepidermal IgG deposits were found to be significantly more common in patients with primary SS than in normal controls (p less than 0.001), in patients with RA (p less than 0.001), in patients with SLE (p less than 0.001), in patients with SS secondary to RA and SLE (p less than 0.001) and in the total group of other well-defined CTD (p less than 0.001). The frequency of intraepidermal IgG deposits in the patients with manifest primary SS did not differ from that of patients with incipient primary SS (0.1 less than p less than 0.2), patients with Wegener's granulomatosis (0.1 less than p less than 0.2), or patients with ill-defined CTD (0.05 less than p less than 0.1).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Landslides are common but complex natural hazards. They occur on the Earth's surface following a mass movement process. This study applies the multitype Strauss point process model to analyze the spatial distributions of small and large landslides along with geoenvironmental covariates. It addresses landslides as a set of irregularly distributed point-type locations within a spatial region. Their intensity and spatial interactions are analyzed by means of the distance correlation functions, model fitting, and simulation. We use as a dataset the landslide occurrences for 28 years from a landslide prone road corridor in the Indian Himalayas. The landslides are investigated for their spatial character, that is, whether they show inhibition or occur as a regular or a clustered point pattern, and for their interaction with landslides in the neighbourhood. Results show that the covariates lithology, land cover, road buffer, drainage density, and terrain units significantly improved model fitting. A comparison of the output made with logistic regression model output showed a superior prediction performance for the multitype Strauss model. We compared results of this model with the multitype/hard core Strauss point process model that further improved the modeling. Results from the study can be used to generate landslide susceptibility scenarios. The paper concludes that a multitype Strauss point process model enriches the set of statistical tools that can comprehensively analyze landslide data.


Abstract We present a method for measuring the characteristic length of sea ice based on fitting to a recently found solution for the flexural response of a floating ice sheet subject to localized periodic loading. Unlike previous techniques, the method enables localized measurements at single frequencies of geophysical interest, and since the measurements may be synchronously demodulated, gives excellent rejection of unwanted measurement signal (e.g. from ocean swell). The loading mechanism is described and we discuss how the effective characteristic length may be determined using a range of localized measurements. The method is used to determine the characteristic length of the sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.


Inflammation plays a critical role in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung pathology and disease progression making it an active area of research and important therapeutic target. In this review, we explore the most recent research on the major contributors to the exuberant inflammatory response seen in CF as well as potential therapeutics to combat this response. Absence of functional cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) alters anion transport across CF airway epithelial cells and ultimately results in dehydration of the airway surface liquid. The dehydrated airway surface liquid in combination with abnormal mucin secretion contributes to airway obstruction and subsequent infection that may serve as a trigger point for inflammation. There is also evidence to suggest that airway inflammation may be excessive and sustained relative to the infectious stimuli. Studies have shown dysregulation of both pro‐inflammatory mediators such as IL‐17 and pro‐resolution mediators including metabolites of the eicosanoid pathway. Recently, CFTR potentiators and correctors have garnered much attention in the CF community. Although these modulators address the underlying defect in CF, their impact on downstream consequences such as inflammation are not known. Here, we review pre‐clinical and clinical data on the impact of CFTR modulators on inflammation. In addition, we examine other cell types including neutrophils, macrophages, and T‐lymphocytes that express CFTR and contribute to the CF inflammatory response. Finally, we address challenges in developing anti‐inflammatory therapies and highlight some of the most promising anti‐inflammatory drugs under development for CF.


The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of silver thin films deposited by the pulsed laser ablation technique was investigated. The samples were grown in a controlled Ar atmosphere at pressures ranging between 10 and 70 Pa, and changing the number of laser pulses. Different surface morphologies, from isolated nearly spherical nanoparticles (NPs) to larger islands with smooth edges, were observed by means of scanning and transmission electron microscopies, as a function of the different deposition conditions adopted. SERS measurements were performed by soaking the samples in rhodamine 6G aqueous solutions over the concentration range between 1.0 × 10−4 and 5.0 × 10−8M. Raman spectra were acquired using both the 632.8 and 514.5 nm excitation sources. The dependence of the SERS activity of the samples on the observed surface morphology is presented and discussed. The presence of the so called hot spots is envisaged. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective This study aimed to determine optimal strength of sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction (SAFIRE) and to evaluate image quality (IQ) of low-dose chest computed tomography (LDCT) using SAFIRE compared with iterative reconstruction in image space (IRIS) and filtered back projection (FBP). Methods Thirty patients underwent LDCT. Computed tomography (CT) was reconstructed using 5 strengths of SAFIRE (S1-S5), IRIS, and FBP. Objective noise of CT was measured. Two radiologists evaluated CT for subjective IQ, beam-hardening artifacts, and overall IQ. Results Measured noise was highest in FBP, followed by S1, S2, S3, IRIS, S4, and S5. S2 and S3 demonstrated significantly higher overall IQ scores than the other strengths (P < 0.05). Overall IQ and beam-hardening artifacts of S2 and S3 were significantly better than those in FBP and IRIS (P < 0.001). Conclusions S2 or S3 strengths of SAFIRE can be used practically in clinical routines and may have more potential than IRIS and FBP for LDCT with improved IQ.


The high organic matter content in sewage sludge is one of the reasons for its utilization as soil amendment. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of consecutive sewage sludge applications on the amounts of carbon, total and mineral nitrogen, pH, and bulk density in a Latossol. Two soil layers (0-0,1 and 0,2-0,4 m) were evaluated after three corn cultivations in Jaguariuna (Sao Paulo State, Brazil), between 1999 and 2001. The treatments consisted of three consecutive applications of two sewage sludge types, applied at five rates each. The increasing rates of urban sludge from the Franca sewage treatment plant (total applications of 0; 10,284; 20,568; 41,136, and 82,272 kg ha-1) caused significant accumulations of carbon and nitrogen in the top soil layer. The treatments with doses of industrial and urban sludge from the Barueri sewage treatment plant (total applications of 0; 17,405; 34,810; 69,620, and 139,240 kg ha-1) did not significantly affect carbon accumulation in the soil, although in these treatments C additions were 14 % higher than in the other sludge treatment. A significant increase in nitrogen accumulation was observed. Bulk density decreased significantly in the upper layer in response to the increasing application rates of the two sludge types. Soil acidification was observed in both soil layers, which made liming necessary after the second and after the third growing seasons. Leaching of mineral-N to the deeper soil layers was observed.


The last version of the National Building Code of Canada was issued in 2010. The next version is expected in 2015. In the code cycle between 2010 and 2015, significant changes would take place in the seismic design provisions. The main factor that drives these changes is an improved understanding of the seismic hazard across the country. Changes have also been proposed in the site effect factors. The structural design provisions have been appropriately adjusted to respond to changes in the estimates of hazard and the new site effect factors. There are also new provisions related to design in regions of low hazard, buildings with flexible diaphragms, buildings with inclined columns, passive energy dissipation systems, base isolation, rocking foundations, glazing systems, racks, and elevators. Some of the changes are briefly discussed. The focus of the paper is, however, on the revisions to the structural design provisions.


The acceptance and usability of robots by their final users differs from the acceptance of other types of technological innovations, and these differences are even more accentuated in the case of Social Assistive Robotics intended for the senior people. In addition, it has to be taken into account that a robotic system that has only been tested with regular users may not meet older users' expectations. For that reason, it becomes necessary to involve the said users in the design and testing process. On the other hand, in the robotics field, it is common practice to try and reuse robotic designs and implementations in different scenarios. However, in the particular case of social robotics, many developed services and robot behaviors do not translate well between domains or even subdomains. In the present paper, we present the results of the first interaction experiments between the humanoid robot Sacarino and two groups of users: middle-aged users under lab conditions and senior users in a care facility. Sacarino is a humanoid mobile robotic platform initially designed to provide information and accompany guests in a hotel. With the current experiments, we aim to explore the extent to which the results obtained in a hotel environment can be extrapolated to the assistive environment and if a robotic system intended for senior people can operate properly in real conditions, having only been tested with regular users.


In this paper, a FE-BE procedure is implemented for dynamic analysis of concrete arch dams, which considers the effects of non-uniform ground motion. The technique relies on the finite element method for the discretization of the dam body, while the foundation rock domain is handled by three dimensional boundary element formulations with no restrictions imposed on the geometry of the canyon shape. A previously developed special purpose program is enhanced based on this approach and the response of the Morrow Point arch dam is studied as an example. The efficiency of the analysis is highly influenced by an interpolation scheme, which is used for evaluation of foundation impedance matrix and force vector. The convergence of this method is initially controlled for uniform, as well as non-uniform ground excitations. Subsequently, the effects of non-uniform ground motion are evaluated and discussed for vertically propagating SH, P and SV waves.


This chapter deals with the properties and applications of clay mineral water dispersions and clay minerals as flame retardant additives for polymers. Clay minerals, such as kao‐ linites, micas, and smectites, are the basic constituents of clay raw materials, which are classically employed in the ceramic industry to produce porcelain, fine ceramics, coarse ceramics, cements, electro-ceramics, tiles and refractories. These products are mainly used in sectors of economic importance, such as agriculture, civil engineering, and envi‐ ronment. A direct method to prepare clay mineral polymer composites is through disper‐ sion in water. Water dispersions of clay exhibit some interesting flow phenomena such as yield stress; i.e., the material behaves as a solid until a critical force applied on the materi‐ al forces it to flow. Water dispersions of clay have also been reported to be used to pre‐ pare materials with enhanced flame-retardant properties such as leather. On the other hand, direct melt compounding of clay mineral with different polymers as the composite matrix (HIPS, PP, and HDPE) to prepare a number of polymer composites with flame-retardant properties has also been reported.


Within dominant North American discourse, individual freedom is a substantive tag line for the mind-numbing tacit approval of the loveless marriage between capitalism and democracy. This paper provides an overview of the conflicted relationship social work have with the politics of liberation, empowerment theory, and self-determination, underscoring an ongoing identity crisis, which has been dressed-up as 'various tenets of the profession'. Connecting with the humanizing aspirations inherent to social work while building on critical and anti-oppressive theories and practices, I argue for social work to re-visualize and act on a cohesive emancipatory social work identity. True solidarity, which can only be uncovered through the relinquishing of a professional identity based on false consciousness and fear, is risking an act of love.


We still know very little about how the environment influences coevolutionary dynamics. Here, we investigated both theoretically and empirically how nutrient availability affects the relative extent of escalation of resistance and infectivity (arms race dynamic; ARD) and fluctuating selection (fluctuating selection dynamic; FSD) in experimentally coevolving populations of bacteria and viruses. By comparing interactions between clones of bacteria and viruses both within- and between-time points, we show that increasing nutrient availability resulted in coevolution shifting from FSD, with fluctuations in average infectivity and resistance ranges over time, to ARD. Our model shows that range fluctuations with lower nutrient availability can be explained both by elevated costs of resistance (a direct effect of nutrient availability), and reduced benefits of resistance when population sizes of hosts and parasites are lower (an indirect effect). Nutrient availability can therefore predictably and generally affect qualitative coevolutionary dynamics by both direct and indirect (mediated through ecological feedbacks) effects on costs of resistance.


Sexual exploitation is considered as one of the worst forms of violence against children and women. Whilst a combination of factors have been advanced for involvement in sex work, including poverty and unemployment, lack of schooling, Violence against children and gender- based violence as well as the influence of urbanisation, research has shown that for most adolescent girls and young women in Uganda, sex work is engaged in as a source of livelihood and survival since they lack other viable alternatives. Despite its being criminalised, highly stigmatised and exploitative, young people in Uganda continue to engage in this trade particularly in urban areas. This paper examines outcomes of an intervention implemented by Plan International and Uganda Youth Development Link to empower sexually exploited girls and young women in Kampala, through vocational skills training. Data were collected through an evaluation study involving 210 project beneficiaries. The results show that providing young women with alternative livelihood skills is not only economically empowering but potentially reduces their vulnerability to sexual exploitation. Keywords: Sex work, vocational skills, empowerment, livelihoods, Uganda


The device has a self-aligning sleeve (21) that is placed between a non-rotating ring (9) and an operating unit. The self-aligning sleeve has a set of elastic fibers (24) that are directed towards interior and an axial portion fitted in a central opening of a radial portion of the ring. The fibers are placed with respect to a plane passing via center of rotating units (11).


This article establishes taxonomy for software testing projects, allowing the development team or testing personnel to identify the tests to which the project must be subjected for validation. The taxonomy is focused on identifying software projects according to their technology. To establish the taxonomy, a development method comprised of 5 phases was applied. The developed taxonomy is comprised of 9 categories and 27 subcategories and was validated by a group of information technology (IT) managers and professionals in the field of IT through the use of a survey. The results obtained from the survey are subjected to the Mann-Whitney U test, which indicates that the taxonomy is validated. The taxonomy can be implemented in development organizations with or without a testing team that provides a classification for technology projects.


The occurrence of fractures around the femoral component of a total hip prosthesis has been well described, and the treatment options have been studied extensively. However, few reports concerning the occurrence and treatment of periprosthetic fractures of the acetabulum during and following total hip arthroplasty are available10,12,14,18. In this paper, I will review the literature concerning periprosthetic fractures of the acetabulum and outline measures to prevent and treat the problem.

In 1972, Miller described ischiopubic fractures following the insertion of a Ring component without cement in five hips and following the insertion of a McKee component with cement in four. The fractures failed to unite with non-operative treatment, and resection arthroplasty was performed in all of the hips. McElfresh and Coventry documented only one periprosthetic acetabular fracture among 5400 total hip arthroplasties performed with cement at the Mayo Clinic. Silvello et al. reported the successful treatment of a periprosthetic acetabular fracture (associated with loosening of the component) with revision of the component and bone-grafting. More recently, in a study of periprosthetic acetabular fractures following total hip arthroplasty, Peterson and Lewallen reported that long-term survival of the components was poor (eight of ten were revised) unless additional operative intervention was performed. The occurrence and recognition of periprosthetic fractures of the acetabulum, as well as those of the femur, may be on the rise, especially during the intraoperative and early postoperative periods, because of the need for so-called press-fit stability of total hip prostheses inserted without cement1,2,19.

As fixation of the acetabular component without cement has become the standard construct in total hip arthroplasties, problems associated with this approach are now being recognized. In vitro studies have demonstrated minimum bone-prosthesis micromotion when screws have been used to augment …


Abstract. Modeling studies and field mapping show that increases in ice thickness during glacial periods were not uniform across Antarctica. Rather, outlet glaciers that flow through the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) experienced the greatest changes in ice thickness. As a result, ice-free areas that are currently exposed may have been covered by ice at various points during the Cenozoic, thereby providing a record of past ice sheet behavior. We collected soil surface samples and depth profiles every 5 cm to refusal (up to 30 cm) from eleven ice-free areas along the Shackleton Glacier, a major outlet glacier of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) and measured meteoric 10Be and NO3− concentrations to calculate and estimate surface exposure ages. Using 10Be inventories from three locations, calculated maximum exposure ages range from 4.1 Myr at Roberts Massif near the Polar Plateau to 0.11 Myr at Bennett Platform further north. When corrected for inheritance of 10Be from prior exposure, the ages (representing a minimum) range from 0.14 Myr at Roberts Massif to 0.04 Myr at Thanksgiving Valley. We correlate NO3− concentrations with meteoric 10Be to estimate exposure ages for all locations with NO3− depth profiles but only surface 10Be data. These results indicate that NO3− concentrations can be used in conjunction with meteoric 10Be to help interpret EAIS dynamics over time. We show that the Shackleton Glacier has the greatest fluctuations near the Ross Ice Shelf while tributary glaciers are more stable, reflecting the sensitivity of the EAIS to climate shifts at TAM margins.


Science and practice highlight the relevance of employing sustainability practices in consumption and production. A sustainable change requires the participation of society as well as companies and organizations. In addition, companies have to rethink their classical businesses and consider innovations for acting in an ecological, economic, and social way by enhancing and adapting their business models. Business models can be described in different ways such as textual (e. g. business plans) or in graphical frameworks (e. g. Business Model Canvas). Frameworks support the designing of business models and should provide the consideration of sustainability. This paper aims to answer how sustainability is represented in existing approaches for modelling business models. Therefore, we conduct a literature review including different databases, proceedings, and journals. We identify and categorise a total of 42 articles. As a first result of the synthesis, we determine a literature-based typology of extensions, adjustments and design principles for sustainable business models. In addition, we suggest a research agenda which (a) discusses further enhancements to design sustainable business models regarding modelling techniques, sustainability assessments and detail models as well as (b) highlights the importance of evaluating these approaches by recommending evaluation settings.


Previous research suggests that serious maternal mental illness is associated with adverse youth outcomes. However, this research is of limited ability to inform appropriate social work and social policy responses for at least two reasons. First, it is based on samples that are not racially or ethnically diverse and that do not target low‐income families; second, it does not examine whether differences in the level of father involvement or the severity of maternal mental illness matter. This study involves a low‐income, racially and ethnically diverse sample of mothers with a serious mental illness and their 11–18‐year‐old children and examines parent effects on youths. Fathers were in contact but mostly were not live‐in parents. Structural equation modeling yields three key results: better maternal functioning and more paternal involvement predict better academic outcomes; less paternal involvement and more maternal health problems predict higher youth‐reported affiliative skills; and more paternal involvement predicts less youth‐reported problem behavior.


Summary In the present work, near-deterministic DFNs constrained to exposed fracture trace patterns are used as the basis for fracture porosity and permeability calculations. The method uses a moving window spatial search across a digital outcrop model surface to derive per-vertex calculations of fracture porosity and Oda's permeability tensor, based upon normals, apertures and areas captured within the search domain. This analysis produces a spatially resolved vertex property field of fracture permeability which can be used as the basis for geostatistical modelling of fractured rock mass petrophysical properties, foregoing the need to build an intermediary idealized DFN using fracture survey data. The approach is demonstrated using naturally fractured exposures of the Mishrif Formation, UAE.


The aim and purpose of the following study is twofold. The first part aims at clarifying different models of migration policy available within research of political science. The second part of the study applies the identified models onto an analysis of the official report "Integrationens svarta bok" and the suggestions the reports presents. The findings of the study are multiple. Amongst other facts we identify a lack of consistently maintaining within the frames of one model, as well as a deficit of consistent usage of rhetoric. It is evident that the conceptions within the report and the report itself do not cohere with the conceptions and the theory of the models. Consequently we argue that the suggestions do not bring about a change in the hierarchical structures that divide and characterize the Swedish society of today. In many cases it is likely that the suggested changes will preserve and enhance these structures.


We consider the problem of modeling discrete-valued vector time series data using extensions of Chow-Liu tree models to capture both dependencies across time and dependencies across variables. Conditional Chow-Liu tree models are introduced, as an extension to standard Chow-Liu trees, for modeling conditional rather than joint densities. We describe learning algorithms for such models and show how they can be used to learn parsimonious representations for the output distributions in hidden Markov models. These models are applied to the important problem of simulating and forecasting daily precipitation occurrence for networks of rain stations. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the models, we compare their performance versus a number of alternatives using historical precipitation data from Southwestern Australia and the Western United States. We illustrate how the structure and parameters of the models can be used to provide an improved meteorological interpretation of such data.


Graphene oxide (GO) is employed in a broad range of biomedical applications including antimicrobial therapies, scaffolds for tissue engineering, and drug delivery, among others. However, the inability to load it efficiently with double-stranded DNA impairs its use as a gene delivery system. To overcome this limitation, in this work, the functionalization of GO with cationic lipids (CL) is proficiently accomplished by microfluidic manufacturing. To this end, we use CLs 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane (DOTAP) and {3β-[N-(N′,N′-dimethylaminoethane)-carbamoyl]} cholesterol (DC-Chol) and zwitterionic dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine and cholesterol to generate a library of 9 CL formulations with systematic changes in lipid composition. Combined dynamic light scattering, microelectrophoresis, and atomic force microscopy reveal that graphene oxide/cationic lipid (GOCL) nanoparticles (NPs) are positively charged and uniformly coated by one lipid bilayer. GOCL NPs are able to condense plasmid DNA into stable, nanosized complexes whose size and zeta-potential can be finely tuned by adjusting the DNA/GOCL weight ratio, Rw. Luciferase assay results show that positively charged GOCL/DNA complexes (Rw = 0.2) efficiently transfect HeLa cells with no appreciable cytotoxicity. In particular, the ternary GOCL formulation made of DOTAP, DC-Chol, and Cholesterol (GOCL8) is as efficient as Lipofectamine® 3000 in transfecting cells, but much less cytotoxic. Confocal microscopy clarifies that the high transfection efficiency of GOCL8 is due to its massive cellular uptake and cytosolic DNA release. Implications for nonviral gene delivery applications are discussed.Graphene oxide (GO) is employed in a broad range of biomedical applications including antimicrobial therapies, scaffolds for tissue engineering, and drug delivery, among others. However, the inability to load it efficiently with double-stranded DNA impairs its use as a gene delivery system. To overcome this limitation, in this work, the functionalization of GO with cationic lipids (CL) is proficiently accomplished by microfluidic manufacturing. To this end, we use CLs 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane (DOTAP) and {3β-[N-(N′,N′-dimethylaminoethane)-carbamoyl]} cholesterol (DC-Chol) and zwitterionic dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine and cholesterol to generate a library of 9 CL formulations with systematic changes in lipid composition. Combined dynamic light scattering, microelectrophoresis, and atomic force microscopy reveal that graphene oxide/cationic lipid (GOCL) nanoparticles (NPs) are positively charged and uniformly coated by one lipid bilayer. GOCL NPs are able to condense plasmid DNA into sta...


that with the advent of "social innovation," entrepreneurship is channeled into controlling the firm's social environment, with significant social and economic consequences. By in-corporating "social innovation" into the Schumpeterian method, we at the same time broaden and expand the usefulness of that method. Schumpeter's pessimistic prognosis of the demise of capitalism due to a lack of entrepreneurial dynamism is, however, called into question. This work reexamines the operation of the trunkline railroad cartel between Chicago and the Atlantic coast from the mid-1870s to the mid-1890s in order to illuminate two important issues in economic history and theory. 1 First, a thorough study of the railroad cartel reveals that in the years before the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the passage of the Sherman Act, the collusion was far more successful at maintaining near-monopoly profits for its members than the current theory of cartel behavior would predict or the previous investigators of the cartel have found. This finding necessitated a new theory of collusion and a test of its hypotheses against the relevant data in order to try to ascertain what circumstances contribute to cartel stability. Second, if the railroad cartels exhibited stability before 1887, then the now-accepted hypothesis that the Interstate Commerce Commission was created to bring stability to otherwise chaotic railroad collusion must be reconsidered. The