The thesis of this book is that the facts of psychology are inadequately accounted for on the assumption that mentation and conscious behaviour are products of the activity of the physical brain. So the authors postulate a psychic brain composed of immaterial " ons " or " psychons " with a structure of its own which is capable of interaction with the physical brain through the ether. These ons are " immaterial," by which the authors say that they mean " simply that the mass of a psychon is of the second order of small quantities compared with the mass of an electron." The formation of unitary perceptions by the integration of sensations and the phenomena of integrated motor behaviour are both explained on the analogy of wireless reception. The authors suggest that this is more than an analogy. In conscious behaviour it is suggested that each synapse comprises a " wireless " resonator capable of responding to one note only. A motor idea sets up a set of aetheric vibrations which activates the particular set of synapses whose resistances must be lowered for the particular action to be carried out. T,he difficulty which at once strikes the reader of this book, but which is nowhere met by the authors, is how the psychic structure of " ons " makes the process any more intelligible than any of the ways in which the material brain might be supposed to act on the synapses. There seem to be two possible reasons for rejecting the physical brain as the seat of sensory integration and of psychic structure and as the originator of conscious behaviour. One is the objection that the phenomena are such that no material structure however complicated could account for them; the second is that although a sufficiently complex physical structure might produce the effects, the brain is not a sufficiently complex structure. If the first is the reason put forward, it is clear that merely postulating a structure of particles smaller than those of matter in no wise gets over the difficulty. If, however, the second is the reason for rejection of the materialist hypothesis, the materialist may well answer that our knowledge of the way the minute structures of the brain work is so inadequate, that we can not legitimately draw any such conclusions. In this objection the materialist would certainly be right.


This paper describes the Hyper-Threading Technology architecture, and discusses the micro architecture details of Intel's structure. Hyper-Threading Technology is an important addition to Intel's enterprise product line and has been integrated into a wide variety of products. Intel provides Hyper-Threading (HT) in processors based on its Pentium and more recent processor die. HT enables two threads to execute on each core in order to hide latencies related to data access. These two threads can execute simultaneously, filling unused stages in the functional unit pipelines. To aid better understanding of HT related issues, we look at Performance Monitoring Unit (PMU) data (instructions retired; un-halted core cycles; L2 and L3 cache hits and misses; vector and scalar floating-point operations, etc.). We then use the PM data to make deduction on a new metric of efficiency in order to quantify processor resource utilization and make comparisons of that utilization between single-threading (ST) and HT modes. We also study performance gain using unhalted core cycles, code efficiency of using vector units of the processor, and the impact of HT mode on various shared resources like L2 and L3 cache. Results using four full-scale, productionquality scientific applications from computational fluid dynamics indicate that HT generally improves processor resource utilization efficiency, but does not necessarily translate into overall application performance gain. Key words: Hyper-Threading, core circles, code efficiency, processor resource utitilization, applications performance.


Underground forums are used to discuss and organise cybercrime (as well as more conventional social activities). These forums are also commonly used for exchanging various digital currencies, either gained through the profits of crime or through less controversial means. Understanding the link between discussions of illicit behaviour and currency exchange can provide insights to identify money laundering and other parts of the cybercrime supply chain. In this paper we use natural language processing to classify posts from HackForums by crime type over a period of more than 10 years. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that this type of classification has been used for this large forum dataset. Although the majority of conversations in the forum were identified as relating to non-criminal discussions, we concentrate on the types of crimes being discussed by those exchanging currencies. We find the most popular topics are related to trading credentials and bots and malware. PayPal was one of the most widely advertised digital currencies and we observe significant displacement from Liberty Reserve to Bitcoin after the former was taken down in 2013. Rather than an explicit 'cashing out' mechanism, in which cryptocurrencies gained through crime flow into state-backed fiat currencies, we instead see a circulation of capital between different forms, as cash is held and then cashed back and forward according to movements in the wider currency market. We continue our examination of discussions of cryptocurrencies and explore how the underground market has reacted to new opportunities, with a qualitative case study about Facebook's putative 'Diem' coin. We find that while most discussions are related to the technical details and potential investment opportunities, some potential cybercrime use-cases are raised.


Echoviruses constitute one of the major groups of the genus Enterovirus and are associated with illnesses including aseptic meningitis, nonspecific rashes, encephalitis, and myositis (1). Echovirus 13 is an enterovirus that rarely has been detected in the United States, accounting for only 65 of approximately 45,000 enterovirus isolates reported to CDC during 1970-2000. No associated outbreaks have been reported in this country. As of June 2001, eight state public health laboratories and one private laboratory had reported an increased number of echovirus 13 isolates to CDC, most associated with aseptic meningitis. This report summarizes echovirus 13 activity in the United States and highlights the investigation of aseptic meningitis outbreaks in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Tennessee. Echovirus 13 should be considered in the diff erential diagnosis of persons with aseptic meningitis.


It is well accepted that iron clubhead properties affect shot outcomes in golf. However, the mechanisms that contribute to this relationship have not received recent scientific study. The purpose of this study was to determine how the different clubhead mass distributions in a blade 5-iron and a cavity-back 5-iron affect clubhead presentation and ball launch conditions. Nine clubhead presentation variables and four ball launch variables were measured for ten discrete impact locations and five face angles during swings using a golf robot. Group means were analysed statistically using an independent samples approach to identify differences and linear regression was used to indicate relationships between key launch variables. The cavity-back showed higher effective clubhead loft with greater total ball spin than the blade, despite having matched static lofts, whilst also providing more consistent launch outcomes across a range of impact locations. Evidence of the phenomenon known as the 'gear effect' was found for the cavity-back, but not the blade, suggesting that the threshold at which the clubhead's centre of gravity (CG) is deep enough to detect the gear effect lies between the CGs of the two 5-iron types. These novel robot test findings lend support to the perceived performance benefits of perimeter-weighted irons; whether these effects translate to human golfer swings is reported in Part II of this paper.


Abstract Background Multi-region sequencing (MRS) has been widely used to analyze intra-tumor heterogeneity (ITH) and cancer evolution. However, comprehensive analysis of mutational data from MRS is still challenging, necessitating complicated integration of a plethora of computational and statistical approaches. Findings Here, we present MesKit, an R/Bioconductor package that can assist in characterizing genetic ITH and tracing the evolutionary history of tumors based on somatic alterations detected by MRS. MesKit provides a wide range of analysis and visualization modules, including ITH evaluation, metastatic route inference, and mutational signature identification. In addition, MesKit implements an auto-layout algorithm to generate phylogenetic trees based on somatic mutations. The application of MesKit for 2 reported MRS datasets of hepatocellular carcinoma and colorectal cancer identified known heterogeneous features and evolutionary patterns, together with potential driver events during cancer evolution. Conclusions In summary, MesKit is useful for interpreting ITH and tracing evolutionary trajectory based on MRS data. MesKit is implemented in R and available at https://bioconductor.org/packages/MesKit under the GPL v3 license.


This paper presents an example of collaboration between teacher educators, pre-service teachers, current teachers and school students that had a primary aim to increase student interest in STEM activities through a MakerSpace STEM club, while improving pre-service teachers' confidence in delivering the Australian Curriculum: Technologies. The benefit of close relationships between universities and schools provides the framework for collaborative learning opportunities for pre-service teachers and school students. University academics were facilitators in the process, managing the external grant application and wider community workshops as well as embedding the activities in the university curricula. The school teachers managed the internal delivery of the MakerSpace club and promotion of STEM activities in their schools. All worked collaboratively to provide two professional development workshops, supported by a grant from the Google CS4HS program. Outcomes of this research demonstrate a student-centred approach to digital technology education. This model of collaboration between teacher educators and schools is replicable and has a positive impact on preparing pre-service teachers to be classroom ready.


From river management point of view, it is important to forecast morphological behavior after river modification work such as straightening, widening and excavation. However, little is known about the influence of artificial impact on channel processes, especially in small rivers, because of lack of data . Therefore, in order to supply the information mentioned above, we investigated morphological changes after river channel improvement work in an actual river. In this paper, we deal with temporal changes of bed configuration after excavation of the meandering low-flow channel which was carried out in the Yamamori River. By field survey, we examined the plan form variation of low-flow channel, the bed profile in the longitudinal direction and the grain-size distribution of bed materials. The significant difference of discharge, which is one of the main features of floods in small rivers, leads to considerably different morphological behaviors. This channel morphology was analyzed by the numerical model, and channel processes in the Yamamori River were explained on the basis of the numerical results.


In this paper the hardware architecture of a new Underwater Manipulation System is presented, which includes details about the design of the mechanical components, as well as the electronics that control the manipulation tasks, such as the PC104 ROS (Robotic Operating System) enabled server, an Arduino manager of the power consumption of the arm, and an underwater camera included in the visual servoing loop for manipulation. The manipulation system is integrated into the Girona 500 AUV, providing a complete system that can be operated via a network from the ground base station. The paper describes this system architecture, which is the purpose of the ongoing FP7 TRIDENT project. Further work will focus of extending the experiments to a more realistic scenario in the sea. At the moment of writing the scientific team is performing this integration in the northern coast of Spain.


Hybrid inorganic–organic semiconductor (HIOS) interfaces are of interest for new photovoltaic devices operating above the Shockley–Queisser limit. Predicting energy band alignment at the interfaces is crucial for their design, but represents a challenging problem due to the large scales of the system, the energy precision required and a wide range of physical phenomena that occur at the interface. To tackle this problem, many‐body perturbation theory in the non‐self‐consistent GW approximation, orbital relaxation corrections for organic semiconductors, and line‐up potential method for inorganic semiconductors which allows for tractable and accurate computing of energy band alignment in crystalline van‐der‐Waals hybrid inorganic–organic semiconductor interfaces are used. In this work, crystalline tetracene physisorbed on the clean hydrogen‐passivated 1 × 2 reconstructed (100) silicon surface is studied. Using this computational approach, it is found that the energy band alignment is determined by an interplay of the mutual dynamic dielectric screening of two materials and the formation of a dipole layer due to a weak hybridization of atomic/molecular orbitals at the interface. The significant role of the exchange‐correlation effects in predicting band offsets for the hybrid inorganic–organic semiconductor interfaces is also emphasized.


In potentially reversible situations with diminished cardiac outputs such as acute myocardial infarction, massive pulmonary embolism, and intractable congestive heart failure due to a lesion amenable to surgery, mechanical support of the circulation for a number of days may be useful. 1,2 Animal work has shown that it is possible to relieve acute heart failure by pumping blood from the great veins to the aorta, 3 and artificial heart-lung apparatus has been used for short periods in man. 4,5 An extracorporeal circuit 6 for prolonged circulation support is presented. Blood is drained by gravity from the superior vena cava and pumped without oxygenation into the aorta at the bifurcation. The splanchnic bed is perfused by a mixture of oxygenated blood and blood from the shunt. The procedure tends to increase systemic blood flow and reduce cardiac output. The system is closed so that the dangers of contamination and air embolism


Within the broad category of radical history, which seems to be the same as political economy, there is no question that the dominant paradigm has been laid out by Immanuel Wallerstein in his world-system model. Since the first volume appeared in 1974 his work has set the agenda, leaving orthodox Marxists, let alone modernisation theorists, liberal market analysts and empiricists floundering in his wake. It even seems that post-modernists, after their brief florescence, have returned to the obscurity they deserve. Wallerstein's work produced a host of rebuttals, modifications, and elaborations. Yet from the beginning even the most trenchant critics have never questioned the value of his enterprise; rather they have been concerned to improve it, to a greater or lesser extent modify it, but they still recognise its seminal importance.


The authors argue that technical communication instructors are in a particularly apt position to teach social media as key to students' lives as technical communicators and future professionals. Drawing on the concepts of reach and crowd sourcing as heuristics to rearticulate dominant cultural narratives of social media as deleterious to students' careers, the authors offer a case study of an introductory professional and technical communication pedagogy that helped to disrupt uncritical deployments of social media.


studies of anatomical to functional imaging provide some additional information which is not always available in either of the two individual images. In case of Alzheimer disease, synergistic study of MR-PET or MR-SPECT brain images provides clinical information of functional behaviour of effected brain regions with the pathological status of corresponding tissues. But it requires alignment and fusion of two different types of imaging modalities. In our endeavour we have suggested a shape based generalised transformation model for the brain image registration and implemented it with radial basis function (RBF) neural network. For fusion we have suggested a two step process. Firstly, we have used fuzzy c-means to segment the candidate images and to assign basic probability assignment (bpa) to each pixel corresponding to each cluster. Then on the basis of these weightage ( bpa ) we have proposed Dempster Shafer evidence accumulation concept to combine each pixel to generate a fused image. From the experimental results it is evident that fused MR- PET and MR-SPECT images can provide sufficient information for the synergistic studies of Alzheimer Diseased brain images.


Human geographers and others have started to challenge the language of fait accompli that often surrounds discussions of workers and globalization. Labor geography and debates on social movement unionism stress the new horizontal and vertical strategies pursued by labor unions in maneuvering the spaces of globalization. In this article the author argues that these debates have failed to take into account properly the deep-seated transformations of work regimes that have taken place in some contexts, particularly in the global South, how these transformations are associated with internal shifts in union membership, and what that means for union politics. In the Bolivian case examined in the article, economic liberalization and foreign direct investment (FDI) have weakened industrial workers and strengthened informal sectors internally, which have brought about a rearticulation of class visions, claims and collective identities towards greater sensitivity to ethnicity politics. This can arguably make labor unions more democratically responsive, and it has enabled the Bolivian labor movement to successfully press some of its claims, such as greater state involvement in natural resource sectors. However, this rearticulation also points to exacerbated problems of finding room for workplace politics in social movement unionism and labor geography in the global South.


While the neural structures mediating context-related renewal of extinction are well established, the neurotransmitter systems processing renewal remain elusive. Noradrenergic stimulation before extinction improved learning, but did not alter renewal. Since context processing already during initial conditioning can influence renewal, in this fMRI study we investigated how noradrenergic stimulation by a single dose of atomoxetine (ATO) before initial acquisition of a context-related predictive-learning task affects subsequent learning and renewal in humans. ATO participants showing contextual renewal (REN) exhibited a selective extinction learning deficit compared to placebo (PLAC) and ATO participants lacking renewal (ATO NoREN), probably owing to formation of more stable associations during acquisition. New learning and retrieval during the extinction phase as well as initial acquisition were unimpaired. In ATO REN, higher activation in right inferior frontal gyrus (iFG) during acquisition may have supported the formation of more stable associations, while reduced activation in hippocampus and left iFG during extinction was associated with impaired context encoding and response inhibition. During recall, ATO REN showed reduced overall context-dependent renewal associated with higher activation in medial PFC and right hippocampus. The results demonstrate the importance of noradrenergic processing in inferior frontal cortex and hippocampus for human extinction learning, but not necessarily initial conditioning. Since an identical atomoxetine treatment evoked diverging blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation patterns in REN and NoREN participants, the effect is presumably related to the participants' preferred processing strategies that may have recruited differentially interconnected networks in which noradrenergic stimulation produced diverging consequences. In the ATO REN group, probably an additive effect of their preferred processing strategy, which pre-activated the noradrenergic system, and the experimental treatment caused a shift beyond the optimal working range of the noradrenergic system, thus modulating BOLD activation in a way that impaired extinction learning and recall.


A new design of a microstructured optical fiber using cylindrical perfectly matched layers is proposed and analyzed through the vectorial beam propagation method (VBPM) in conjunction with genetic algorithm (GA). The fiber is made up from silica doped with germanium and it contains two and three identical horizontals cores surrounded by air holes. First, the signal power launched in the left core is completely transferred to the neighbor core with 100% of the coupling ratio. Next, the signal power launched in the central core is equally divided between the two neighboring cores with 50% of the coupling ratio. Through numerical simulations, it is demonstrated that the optical power can be completely transferred for a propagation distance around 6000 μm to the first application and 4000 μm to the second application. The behavior of the resulting geometry has been optimized by a genetic algorithm in conjunction with an efficient vectorial finite element formulation (GE‐VBPM). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:281–285, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27308


We study the interaction between supermassive binary black holes in an elliptical orbit and their surrounding disk with a gap. The gap in the disk is a low density region formed due to the tidal effects of the less massive black hole. The binary we have investigated has a sub-parsec separation and is coplanar with the disk. We find that the maximum variation of the surface density in the gap reaches 50% during an orbital period. However, in other regions of the disk, the density variation is much less than 1%. Furthermore, we calculate the corresponding variation of spectral energy distribution within a period, but little variation is found. The reason for these results is that the viscosity timescale of the disk at the binary radius is much longer than the orbital period of the binary.


Anastasius, references to civil strife, spectacles and the factions. In each case C. compares the information given in the two panegyrics and sets this evidence in context, discusses other evidence, analyses the problems and presents possible solutions. The result is a series of short but well-documented and illuminating essays on important aspects of the reign of Anastasius. The third and final chapter of the section is the least satisfying. When he is dealing with the historical problem of which members of Anastasius' family Priscian mentions and examining the very different means by which the two panegyrists justify and legitimize Anastasius' rule, C. is at his best. He is less happy discussing images of the emperor in the panegyrics and such themes as imperial virtues and the use of space and time in the panegyrics. These aspects of the works need to be considered in literary as well as historical terms in the light of the panegyric tradition in which both authors were writing. No one interested in the history and literature of the period should ignore this book. C. notes in his introduction that his aim is to facilitate other approaches to the material and further research. He has succeeded admirably.


Background The problem of medication non-adherence has emerged as a critical hurdle to osteoporosis management. With the recent introduction of new therapies with different administration schemes, understanding patients' preferences for osteoporosis medications may contribute to optimise treatment selection and to improve adherence to therapy. Objectives This study aims to evaluate the preferences of osteoporotic patients for medication attributes, to establish how they trade between these attributes, and to estimate the willingness to pay for specific attributes. Methods A discrete choice experiment was designed in which patients were asked to choose, for a series of hypothetical scenarios, between two unlabeled drug alternatives (and an opt-out option), which vary along several attributes of interest. Based on qualitative research with patients, drug treatment was described by five attributes: efficacy in reducing the risk of fracture, possible side-effects in 1 in every 50 patients, mode and frequency of administration and out-of-pocket contribution. This study employed a Bayesian efficient design to construct the 15 choice sets and a mixed logit panel data model estimate patients' preferences. Osteoporotic patients were recruited from 2 osteoporosis centres in Belgium and we also investigated whether high-risk patients (i.e. defined as FRAX-major risk greater than 10%) had different preferences than low-risk patients. Results A total of 257 osteoporotic patients completed the experiment. Patients preferred a drug treatment with a higher risk reduction and a lower cost. They preferred oral monthly tablet and 6-month subcutaneous injection compared with weekly oral tablets, 3-month subcutaneous, and intravenous treatment every 3-month or yearly. Patients disliked more being at risk of gastro-intestinal disorders than at risk of skin reactions and flu-like symptoms. There was significant preference heterogeneity for all attributes except the subcutaneous injection ones. Respondents were willing on average to pay €16 per month or to trade 13.7% of drug's efficacy for oral monthly tablet or 6-month subcutaneous injection compared with other modes of administration. Patients with high-risk of fractures did not have significant differences in preferences compared with low-risk patients, except they placed higher value on, and are willing to pay more for, osteoporosis medications. Conclusions This study revealed that, on the group level, osteoporotic patients had preferences for oral monthly tablet and 6-month subcutaneous injection, and disliked more gastro-intestinal disorders, and they are willing to trade efficacy or pay for such outcomes. Preference heterogeneity would suggest incorporating individual preferences into clinical/shared decision-making to improve osteoporosis care. Acknowledgements This study was funded by Amgen Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Since the discovery of pulsars 50 years ago, a lot
of progress has been made in understanding how the radio emission
mechanism of pulsars works. Nevertheless, explaining the wealth of
observational phenomenology has proven difficult. In this thesis,
we investigated the radio polarisation properties of pulsars. It
has become clear that the propagation of radio emission in the
pulsar magnetosphere plays a major role in shaping the observed
radiation, especially where polarisation is considered. We started
by studying the time-dependence of radio polarisation by observing
the polarisation properties of individual pulses of PSR B0031-07, a
pulsar with multiple stable drift modes. Furthermore, using a
larger sample of 31 pulsars, we aimed to explore if it is common
for switches between orthogonal polarisation modes (OPMs) to be
linked to periodic intensity variability. Eleven pulsars in the
sample showed both a mixture of OPMs and drifting subpulses. Out of
these, nine showed synchronous switching of OPMs with the drifting
subpulses and for the remaining two pulsars we showed that the
drifting might well be too complex to reveal the link between
polarisation and the periodic intensity variations. So if the
pulsar has OPM switches, it is most likely linked to drifting
subpulses if present. This is argued to be a consequence of
propagation effects in the pulsar magnetosphere. Even if no
periodic intensity variations are observed, it was established that
changes in polarisation are coupled to variability in intensity.
The frequency dependence of radio polarisation was studied by
conducting the largest investigation to date into the origin of
phase resolved apparent rotation measure (RM) variations in the
polarised signals of 98 radio pulsars. A total of 42 pulsars showed
significant phase resolved apparent RM variations. Our results are
inconsistent with all variations being caused by interstellar
scattering. Instead, magnetospheric propagation is argued to be
important, and thus leaving a frequency dependent imprint in the
observed polarised radiation. Lastly, we investigated the
polarisation properties of three newly discovered pulsars from the
GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky Survey to get geometrical
information about the pulsar and its emission beams. We conclude
that the magnetic axis of PSR J0514-4407 is highly inclined with
respect to the rotation axis. This is consistent with what we would
expect given that is it a gamma-ray emitting
pulsar.


Prediction of the dynamic properties of water uptake across polymer libraries can accelerate polymer selection for a specific application. We first built semiempirical models using Artificial Neural Networks and all water uptake data, as individual input. These models give very good correlations (R 2 > 0.78 for test set) but very low accuracy on cross-validation sets (less than 19% of experimental points within experimental error). Instead, using consolidated parameters like equilibrium water uptake a good model is obtained (R 2 = 0.78 for test set), with accurate predictions for 50% of tested polymers. The semiempirical model was applied to the 56-polymer library of L-tyrosine-derived polyarylates, identifying groups of polymers that are likely to satisfy design criteria for water uptake. This research demonstrates that a surrogate modeling effort can reduce the number of polymers that must be synthesized and characterized to identify an appropriate polymer that meets certain performance criteria.


Mining great service entities in trajectory database indicates to the exposure of entities with huge service like acquisition. The extensive number of contender entities degrades the mining achievement in terms of execution time and space stipulation. The position may become worse when the database consists of endless lengthy transactions or lengthy huge utility entity sets. In this paper, we use two algorithms, namely Utility Pattern Growth (UP –Growth) for mining huge utility entities with a set of adequate approaches for pruning contender entities. The previous algorithms do not contribute any compaction or compression mechanism the density in bit vector regions. To raise the density in bit-vector sector the Bit search Mask Search (BM


The paper presents the results of empirical studies of the mother interaction with preschool children. The objective of the research is to determine the peculiarities of mothers aged over 35 interaction with a child. Relevance of the research is due to a pronounced recent trend of first births in adulthood when parenthood is referred to as "late". Means of identifying age-related features is a comparative analysis of the two groups of preschool children mothers who gave birth to their first child under to 30 years (young mothers) and those who gave birth to their first child being over 35 ("late" mother). The study involved 80 females aged 26 to 55 years with children of preschool age. Features of the emotional state of their children were also analyzed. Preschool experience of interaction in the family allowed to talk about the advantages and dangers of the "late" motherhood. The analysis of the emotional state of preschool children was conducted by projective picturesque samples, also, the mothers and kindergarten teachers who are to watch the baby for a long period of time were interviewed. The results of the study suggest that a "late" mother builds a more harmonious interaction with the children, which is reflected in their experience of the family situation well-being, and a favourable emotional state. Responsiveness of "late" mothers and also their support and sympathy allow the child to feel secure, while at the same time does not induce children's autonomy. These children are more likely to seek help of an adult, need adult's support, while the children of young mothers are more likely to solve problems on their own.


Selective histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) inhibitors are safe and well‐tolerated with less off‐target effect. However, most available HDAC6 inhibitors contain hydroxamate as a zinc‐binding group (ZBG), and their unfavorable pharmacokinetic properties along with potential genotoxicity limited wide application in diverse diseases. Therefore, we designed and synthesized a series of selective HDAC6 inhibitors utilizing thiol as the ZBG and discussed their structure‐activity relationship based on molecular docking. In particular, compound 21, obtained by constantly step‐by‐step simplification and evolution based on Ricolinostat, a specific HDAC6 inhibitor in Phase II, unexpectedly showed high selectivity (29‐fold) and moderate potency (73 nM). Utilizing pyrimidine as a linker in thiol‐based HDAC6 inhibitors produces an utterly novel structure, which might display different pharmacokinetic properties and genotoxicity.


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

Most patients treated for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common primary brain malignancy, have less than 2 years survival due to rapid recurrence. The GBM stem cell (GSC) sub-population exhibits therapeutic resistance and is hypothesized to drive tumor recurrence. Therefore, GSC-specific targeting is likely critical for improving outcome. Phospholipid ether analog, CLR1404 and its radioiodinated isosteres, exhibit cancer cell-specific uptake and prolonged retention in 57/61 cancer cell lines and xenografts (including GBM) due to affinity for cancer cell lipid rafts. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of CLR1404 against GBM and its GSC subpopulation. Multiple sphere-forming GSC lines were isolated from patient specimens with IRB approval, and rigorously validated for self-renewal, multi-lineage potential, and high efficiency orthotopic tumor initiation in NOD-SCID mice. Proliferation assays were performed by addition of CLR1404 in serum-free medium for 24 hours. To test effects on stem cell properties, GSCs were treated with CLR1404, dissociated to single cells, plated at 500 cells in a 96-well plate, and allowed to form spheres (≥2-4 weeks). CLR1404 inhibition of the AKT oncogenic signaling pathway in GSCs was assayed with immunoblot analysis. In vivo, GSCs were pre-treated for 24 hours with CLR1404 prior to orthotopic injection of 200,000 live cells into immunodeficient mice. Subsequent survival curves were then constructed. CLR1404 anti-proliferative effects were seen on all 7 different GSC and GBM lines tested with IC50 values ranging between 5-10 µM using MTS assay; control normal differentiated neural cells exhibited an IC50 of approximately 40 µM. CLR1404 treatment also decreased sphere-forming ability of multiple GSC lines with IC50 values between 5-10 µM. CLR1404 inhibition of AKT activation was observed using immunoblot analysis. CLR1404 pre-treatment of GSCs significantly increased survival time in an orthotopic mouse model (Control: 59±6.1 days; CLR1404: 94±4.4 days), suggesting CLR1404 treatment of the GSC tumor initiating cells improves outcome. This data of CLR1404's therapeutic potential against GBM and its GSCs, combined with previously demonstrated tumor cell targeting specificity of CLR1404 and its radioactive isosteres, provides strong evidence for the potential of novel CLR1404-based therapies to improve GBM outcomes.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3495. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3495


Vitamin K antagonists are most commonly used in long-term thrombosis prophylaxis and the use in patients with cardiovascular disease seems to be increasing. By interfering with the normal hemostatic mechanism, an increased risk of bleeding will arise and administration of human plasma or prothrombin complex concentrates may be necessary. It can be difficult to normalize hemostasis using plasma and prothrombin complex concentrates, because these may be associated with thromboembolic side-effects. The level of factor VII, one of the vitamin-K-dependent coagulation factors, decreases during oral anticoagulant therapy and the administration of recombinant factor Vila normalizes the prolonged prothrombin time in warfarin-treated rats. After administration of acenocoumarol (International Normalized Ratio > 2), decreased levels of factor X and factor IX (19–46%), protein C (2–20%) and factor VII (4–17%) were found in 28 healthy volunteers. After one dose of recombinant factor Vila (5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 120, 160, 240, or 320 μg/kg) the International Normalized Ratio and prothrombin time normalized, which may imply an effect on bleeding in individuals receiving oral anticoagulant therapy. The lowest dose (5μg/kg) normalized the International Normalized Ratio for 12 h and doses > 120 μg/kg normalized it for 24 h. Fragment 1+2 stayed within its normal range in all dose groups, indicating that no systemic coagulation occurred.


Hemodynamic monitoring is needed in up to 58% of patients presented to the emergency department. Central venous pressure (CVP) monitoring is generally useful to assess general volume status. There are several methods of CVP measurement, which can be categorized as invasive and non-invasive. CVP manometer and electronic transducer are among the invasive methods and direct observation, ultrasonography and plethysmography are examples of non-invasive ones. All the mentioned methods have some negative points and shortcomings. Here we introduce a new device that can facilitate CVP measurement and provide physicians with further data that can be helpful regarding decision making and patient management.


This paper presents a generic model for an integrated smart health monitoring system for infrastructures using multisensor fusion and condition assessment sheets. Though various techniques for health monitoring have been discussed extensively in the literature, little attention has been given to obtain high quality data from the measurement and sensing system by using an intrinsic knowledge base. The method proposed in this paper uses measurement data from different types of sensors with different resolutions and fuses it together based on the confidence in them derived from information not typically used in traditional data fusion methods. Examples of such information are operating temperature, frequency range, fatigue cycles, etc. These are fed as additional inputs to a fuzzy inference system (FIS) that has predefined membership functions for each of these variables. The outputs of the FIS are weights that are assigned to the different sensor measurement data that reflect the confidence in the sensor's behavior and performance. A modular approach is adopted for the data fusion system. It allows adding or deleting a sensor, along with its fuzzy logic controller (FLC), anytime without affecting the entire data fusion system. The time history of problems and solutions taken to correct them are stored as a condition assessment sheet (CAS) that shows the health of each sensor and the entire measurement system at a glance. This work finds applications in the health management of civil infrastructures, power plants, airplanes and rocket/shuttle test facilities.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


During simultaneous or successive occurrences of precipitation and storm surges, the interplay of the two types of extremes can exacerbate the impact to a greater extent than either of them in isolation. The compound flood hazards from precipitation and storm surges vary across regions of the world because of the various weather conditions. By analyzing in-situ observations of precipitation and storm surges across the globe, we found that the return periods of compound floods with marginal values exceeding the 98.5th percentile (i.e., equivalent to a joint return period of 12 years if the marginal variables are independent) are < 2 years in most areas, while those in northern Europe are > 8 years due to weaker dependence. Our quantitative assessment shows that cyclones (i.e., tropical cyclones (TCs) and extratropical cyclones (ETCs)) are the major triggers of compound floods. More than 80% of compound floods in East Asia and > 50% of those in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Australia are associated with TCs, while in northern Europe and the higher latitude coast of North America, ETCs contribute to the majority of compound floods (i.e., 80%). Weather patterns characterized by deep low pressure, cyclonic wind, and abundant precipitable water content are conducive to the occurrence of compound floods. Extreme precipitation and extreme storm surges over Europe tend to occur in different months, which explains the relatively lower probability of compound floods in Europe. The comprehensive hazard assessment of global compound floods in this study serves as an important reference for flood risk management in coastal regions across the globe.


Objectives: Medialization by thyroplasty or intracordal autologous fat injection provides voice improvement in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Thyroplasty is considered a "permanent" medialization, whereas fat injection is considered "temporary" because of reabsorption. The objective of this study was to compare the evolution of acoustic parameters for these procedures over 1 year and to evaluate the results of fat injection at 2 years. Methods: From 1994 to 1998, 46 consecutive patients (17 women and 29 men) were treated exclusively by intracordal injection of autologous fat, and then from 1999 to 2002, 48 consecutive patients (19 women and 29 men) were treated with the Montgomery Thyroplasty Implant System or Gore-Tex thyroplasty. Each patient's voice was prospectively recorded before operation and at 1, 3, 12, and 24 months after operation. Six patients (13%) in the injection group underwent a second injection, and 1 patient (2%) in the thyroplasty group underwent revision surgery. Jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR) were calculated for a 1,000-ms midvowel segment of the vowel /a/. Results: One month after operation, jitter, shimmer, and NHR were significantly improved in both groups (Wilcoxon's test, p < 0.05 in all cases). Jitter and shimmer did not change significantly between 1 and 3 months or between 1 and 12 months (p > 0.05). The NHR had improved at 12 months in both groups (injection, p = 0.0004; thyroplasty, p = 0.0178) and at 24 months in the injection group (p = 0.0076). No significant difference was noted between the two techniques before operation or at 1, 3, or 12 months after operation (Mann-Whitney test, p > 0.05). Jitter and shimmer had not changed significantly after 24 months in either group. At 24 months, there was no difference in acoustic parameters between the two treatment groups. Conclusions: The two techniques provided comparable objective acoustic voice improvement. At 2 years, autologous fat injection provides long-term acoustic voice improvement comparable to that of thyroplasty, but it has a higher rate of revision surgery.


Correlations between early- and late-life performance are a major prediction of life-history theory. Negative early-late correlations can emerge because biological processes are optimized for early but not late life (e.g., rapid development may accelerate the onset of senescence; "developmental theory of ageing") or because allocation to early life performance comes at a cost in terms of late-life performance (as in the disposable soma theory). But, variation in genetic and environmental challenges that each individual has to cope with during early life may also lead to positive early-late life-history trait correlations (the "fixed heterogeneity" or "individual quality" hypothesis). We analyzed individual life-history trajectories of 7,420 known-age female southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) monitored over 36 years to determine how actuarial senescence (a proxy for late-life performance) correlate with age at first reproduction (a proxy for early-life performance). As some breeding events may not be detected in this field study, we used a custom "multievent" hierarchical model to estimate the age at first reproduction and correlate it to other life-history traits. The probability of first reproduction was 0.34 at age 3, with most females breeding for the first time at age 4, and comparatively few at older ages. Females with an early age of first reproduction outperformed delayed breeders in all aspects we considered (survival, rate of senescence, net reproductive output) but one: early breeders appeared to have an onset of actuarial senescence one year earlier compared to late breeders. Genetics and environmental conditions during early-life likely explain the positive correlation between early- and late-life performance. Our results provide the first evidence of actuarial senescence in female southern elephant seals.


This paper presents a fully integrated 71-76GHz power amplifiers (PA) fabricated in a 0.12μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The PA employs five common-emitter stages with on-chip power combining to achieve power gain of 21dB, 17.6dBm output power at 1dB compression, and saturated power of 20.1dBm. The modified Wilkinson combiner that was used shows 0.5dB insertion loss. Small signal characteristics of the amplifier show peak gain at 72GHz with 3dB bandwidth of 17GHz (24%). The PA's bias is applied using digitally adjustable PTAT bias circuits and it consumes quiescent currents of 140mA from a 2V supply and 280mA at 1dB compression.


Cretaceous and Tertiary coal-bearing rocks of the Raton coal field underlie about 1,000 sq mi of the New Mexico part of the Raton basin. Although coal has been mined commercially in this field since 1870, the rocks in the Vermejo Formation (Late Cretaceous) and the Raton Formation (Late Cretaceous and Paleocene) still contain more than 1 billion tons of high-quality, medium-to-high-volatile A and B bituminous-rank coking coal. The Vermejo Formation consists mainly of nonmarine sandstone, siltstone, and shale and beds of coal; it ranges in thickness from more than 350 ft in the western part of the field to less than 50 ft along the southeastern margin and is absent east of Raton. The Raton Formation is lithologically similar to the Vermejo and ranges in thickness from more than 1,900 ft in the west-central part to about 1,400 ft near Raton Pass in the eastern part; most of the minable coal beds in the Raton Formation are in the west-central part of the field in the upper two-thirds of the formation. Thickness of coal beds in both formations ranges from coaly streaks to at least 11 ft. Early mining was concentrated along the eastern and southeastern margins of the coal field in coal beds in the Vermejo Formation. The last of these mines was shut down in 1966 when a mine was opened on the York Canyon coal bed in the upper part of the Raton Formation about 35 mi west of Raton. The shift in mining activity makes feasible the development of several coal beds recently discovered in the western part of the field. End_of_Article - Last_Page 214------------


Background: Through the last decades vast amount of sequence information have been produced by various protein sequencing projects, which enables studies of sequential patterns. One of the bestknown efforts to chart short peptide sequences is the Prosite pattern data bank. While sequential patterns like those of Prosite have proved very useful for classifying protein families, functions etc. structural analysis may provide more information and possible crucial clues linked to protein folding. Today PDB, which is the main repository for protein structure, contains more than 50'000 entries which enables structural protein studies. Result: Strongly folded pentapeptides, defined as pentapeptides which retained a specific conformation in several significantly structurally different proteins, were studied out of PDB. Among these several groups were found. Possibly the most well defined is the "double Cys" pentapeptide group, with two amino acids in between (CXXCX|XCXXC) which were found to form backbone loops where the two Cysteine amino acids formed a possible Cys-Cys bridge. Other structural motifs were found both in helixes and in sheets like "ECSAM" and "TIKIW", respectively. Conclusion: There is much information to be extracted by structural analysis of pentapeptides and other oligopeptides. There is no doubt that some pentapeptides are more likely to obtain a specific fold than others and that there are many strongly folded pentapeptides. By combining the usage of such patterns in a protein folding model, such as the Hydrophobic-polar-model improvements in speed and accuracy can be obtained. Comparing structural conformations for important overrepresented pentapeptides can also help identify and refine both structural information data banks such as SCOP and sequential pattern data banks such as Prosite.


Studies have been made on muscovite single crystals treated under dry and hydrothermal conditions at temperatures above 800~ The course of reaction is markedly affected by the amount of water present in the system. In the presence of a large excess of water, appreciable reaction commences at 8(~0~ with the formation of kalsilite and corundum. The kalsilite may bear an epitaxial relationship to the muscovite, but the corundum is quite unoriented. Reaction appears to proceed by solution of part of the muscovite and reprecipitation on unreacted areas. In the presence of low pressures of water the reaction course appears to be similar to that under dry conditions. Above 900~ a new phase has been identified which is similar to the spinel phase reported by Eberhart at temperatures above 1050~ The phase is monoclinie and probably represents an intermediate stage between dehydrated muscovite and the spinel phase. A tentative mechanism is proposed for the dehydration of muscovite based on an inhomogeneous mechanism.


OBJECTIVE
To compare mean nuclear volume (MNV) estimated by the stereologic intercept method in lymph node-positive and -negative cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva.

STUDY DESIGN
This retrospective study consisted of 53 cases (lymph node metastasis, n = 19; cases without lymph node metastasis, n = 34) of squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva. MNV was estimated with the help of an image cytometer. The nuclear point intersection method was used to measure MNV. The mean nuclear volumes of both lymph node-positive and -negative cases were compared.

RESULT
MNV in the lymph node-negative and -positive cases was 717.0 +/- 533.1 and 1,961.4 +/- 1,369.6 microns 3, respectively (P < .000, Mann-Whitney U test). There was a significant difference in MNV between the 2 groups of tumors.

CONCLUSION
The observations from the present study suggest that estimation of MNV of malignant squamous cells from the vulva on conventional histopathology sections may provide an objective and useful diagnostic tool in predicting lymph node metastasis.


Phospholipases C beta (PLC-βs) are essential components of the signal transduction of metazoans. They catalyze the production of the second messengers inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG) from the hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). These enzymes are activated by G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) through the interaction with the alpha subunit of heterotrimeric G-proteins belonging to the Gq family (Gαq), the Gβγ subunits released by the inhibitory G-protein (Gi) and Ca2+ ions. Here we review current structural insights on these important proteins, with a particular focus on the most structurally characterized isoform (PLC-β3) and the activation mechanism operated by Gαq. We propose, following the lead of recent studies, that a tight combination of experiments and molecular simulations are instrumental in further enlightening the structure/function understanding of PLC-βs.


The structure of syncytia induced by Heterodera schachtii Schmidt in roots of susceptible Raphanus sativus L. cv. "Siletina" and resistant radish cv. "Pegletta" was investigated. In the radish cultivar "Siletina" the syncytia most often appeared in the elongation zone of lateral roots. They were initiated in the procambium and pericycle but also included the parenchyma cells of vascular cylinder. In the susceptible cultivar "Siletina" the cells forming the female's syncytia were subject to hypertrophy. Their cytoplasmic density increased. The cytoplasm contained numerous organella. The proliferation of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum took place. Branched cell wall ingrowths were formed next to the vessels. In the male's syncytia the cells were only slightly increased. Their protoplasts contained few organelles. The cell wall ingrowths were poorly developed. In the syncytia of the resistant cultivar "Pegletta" there was only a slight increase of the cell volume. A well developed system of rough endoplasmic reticulum was observed in the protoplast. Distended ER cisterns contained fine fibrillar material. Material of similar structure also appeared in numerous small vacuoles. In resistant plants only some, not numerous, syncytia spreading in procambium fully developed and functioned long enough for the parasite females to mature. At an advanced stage of infection a well developed system of a rough ER was observed also in those syncytia and numerous vacuoles appeared.


Natural disasters are a key issue of contemporary society and an inspiration for the emergence of new theories such as theories of eco-theology, eco Sufism, fiqh al-bi'ah, ecofeminism, biocentrism, and anthropocentrism. These theories were initiated to seek solutions to natural disasters. However, disasters and calamities continue to occur. One of the causes is the lack of human awareness of the importance of environmental conservation. This article formulates comprehensively the Prophet's teachings on nature conservation with a focus on two questions: (1) What are the forms of nature conservation? and (2) What understanding can be derived from the teaching? Based on the linguistic analysis with the contextual approach, it is concluded that Islam has introduced the concept of nature conservation from the beginning including: (1) nature conservation phases in the forms of (a) maintenance, preservation, and processing of land and (b) protection and prevention and (2) understanding of these shapes leads to motivation and responsible elements in conservation programs to actualize ecological piety.
Keywords: ecotheology, fiqh al-bi'ah, hadith, conservation, understanding


Summary Controlling potentially harmful and polluting emissions from farms is important in the developed world, where legislation exists in many countries limiting emissions such as ammonia and controlling how manure is disposed of from intensive farm-ing operations. In Switzerland, there are legal agreements concerning controls of ammonia emissions, most especially from farms. Ammonia production from pig farms can be controlled by dietary intervention, such as reducing protein levels, which in turn reduces excretion, mainly via urine. The following paper surveys current practices for nitrogen use on Swiss pig farms, and how feeding strategies may assist in controlling ammonia production from pig production systems. The survey found that 70-75% of all feeds used for pigs of all categories were reduced in protein and nitrogen, with 90% being reduced in protein in high animal density areas. Regression analysis showed that CP levels explained up to 49% of the nitrogen ef fi ciency, suggesting that other factors are important in pollution control. Although piglet diets are more tightly regulated in terms of controlling N input, excessive protein levels in so-called reduced protein diets for fi nisher pigs and dry sows are common in the market. Hence, there is considerable potential to reduce N-input and ammonia emissions from Swiss pig production, which could be implemented at no or minimal extra cost.


Docosahexaenoic acid is a fatty acid found naturally in plants oil, fish oil, fish meat, seafood flaxseed, algae, and egg yolk. It is one of the long-chain unsaturated fatty acids that are important for human biochemistry. As an important component of grey matter, docosahexaenoic acid is subject to intense research in the field of neurodevelopmental study. It is needed mainly in the third trimester of pregnancy for optimal foetal brain growth and mother's docosahexaenoic acid intake is known to be important in supplying the foetal needs. However, arguments still exist on whether docosahexaenoic acid status is essential or non-essential for infants, especially in the preterm infant population. In the past, strong arguments coming from translational studies showed the benefits of supplementation of docosahexaenoic acid in developing foetuses and infants. Hence, docosahexaenoic acid supplementation has long existed as commercially available docosahexaenoic acid-fortified formula milk. However, the benefit of this supplementation remains controversial after follow-up in human-based studies and clinical trials. The discovery of the fatty acid desaturase gene and its significance in regulating human docosahexaenoic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acids levels also seemed to give new evidence basis for docosahexaenoic acid supplementation in infants. This literature review attempts to explain the current understanding of clinical benefit of docosahexaenoic acid-fortified milk for infants, starting from the translational study level to clinical trials.


Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a steady vasculitis contamination of dark etiology. Clinically immense renal contamination is by and large typical, and renovascular hypertension is the major renal issue. The assessment of TA development is ordinarily troublesome because vascular disturbance may progress to fixed vascular injury without revelations of dynamic disease. As of quite recently, the best therapeutic choices have not been recognized.


The number of herbicides available for use in strawberry (Fragaria xananassa Duch.) production is limited. Corn gluten hydrolysate (CGH) is a water-soluble extract of corn gluten meal (CGM), a by-product of corn wet-milling. Both CGH and CGM have been shown to inhibit root development of seedlings and can provide nitrogen (N). Four weed control and/or N- containing products were studied: CGH, CGM, urea (46N-0P-OK), and urea applied with DCPA at 8.4 kg.ha -1 a.i. Treatments were applied at N rates of 0, 9.8, 19.5, and 29.3 g.m -2 . The 0 g.m -2 of N treatment served as the control. During the 1995 establishment season, all treatments were applied in June, July, and August. Treatments were applied in July and August during the 1996, 1997, and 1998 growing seasons. Dicot and monocot weed number and weed shoot dry weights were determined =30 days after both July and August treatments. Strawberry yield data were collected in June. Leaf N data were collected during the first week of July, before renovation. When CGH was applied in July, dicot weed number in August decreased in one of four years, but CGH never affected the number of monocot weeds. CGM application in July, reduced the number of dicot weeds found in plots in Aug. 1995 and 1998. Urea had no effect on dicot weed number from 1995 to 1997. However, in 1998, dicot weed number was reduced by as much as 79% as the rate of urea increased. In all study years, dicot weed number was reduced between 86% and 97%, for the high rate of DCPA + urea, compared with control plots. With few exceptions, rate of N had no effect on leaf N or yield. CGH exhibited limited potential as a natural weed control product; it reduced dicot weed number in one year, but did not affect the number of monocot weeds in any year. Strawberry yield in plots receiving CGH showed a linear increase in one year (1998), but did not show an increase in the other 2 years. Chemical name used: dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA).


Smartphones have provided their users many niches, particularly for mobile commerce, known as mcommerce. As smartphone penetration around the globe, it has rapidly altered the phone users and the market places, as US mobile devices have penetrated more than 80% of the population in 2017. The average adult daily usage of mobile devices outpaced personal computers for the first time, and the users have conducted more commerce activities on their mobile devices than on their personal computers. As a result, predicted by eMarketer, US mcommerce will be a half of the total ecommerce by 2022. The marketers realize that they can better find their customers on the move, and enable them to better target these customers for their products. This research, through an empirical survey, focuses on the smartphone user behavior. The research results provide some useful insights for marketers in their future marketing endeavors.


Background: There is current uncertainty over the future of assertive community and outreach teams in view of recent evidence suggesting that they no longer reduce hospital admissions. Despite this, assertive teams remain popular among practitioners. Aims: To eXamine the views of assertive community team members and other mental health professionals in London (UK) and Vilnius (Lithuania) to determine important differences in attitudes. Method: A questionnaire, involving the assessment of statements giving common opinions on assertive community teams, was given to 62 staff in Vilnius, Lithuania and West London, UK, 33 from assertive community or outreach teams and 29 from other mental health professionals. Results: The results of the questionnaire showed that personnel in eXperienced assertive outreach teams in London believed that they gave more intensive care (p < 0.001), felt it of greater value to see patients in the community (p < 0.001) and were not just well-resourced community teams with low caseloads (p < 0.01) than did other groups, but they placed lower value on assertiveness (p = 0.04) and comprehensive care (p < 0.04). These differences were less marked in Lithuania where staff regarded home treatment as similar to clinic treatment and were more supportive of comprehensive care. Conclusion: The results suggest that in eXperienced community teams the notion of assertiveness has become less important in planned intensive community care and so the term ACT may be outmoded. However, for countries such as Lithuania, somewhat similar to the United States in 1972 when ACT began, the original principles are still appropriate and `assertive' is a major component of their effectiveness.


Watson for Oncology (WfO) is a clinical decision support system driven by artificial intelligence. In Korea, WfO is used by multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) caring for cancer patients. This study aimed to investigate the effect of WfO use on hospital satisfaction and perception among patients cared for by MDTs. This was a descriptive study that used a written survey to gather information from cancer patients at a hospital in Korea. The rate of positive change in patient perception after treatment was 86.8% in the MDT-WfO group and 71.2% in the MDT group. In terms of easily understandable explanations, the MDT-WfO (9.53 points) group reported higher satisfaction than the MDT group (9.24 points). Younger patients in the MDT-WfO group showed high levels of satisfaction and reliability of treatment. When WfO was used, the probability of positive change in patient perception of the hospital was 2.53 times higher than when WfO was not used. With a one-point increase in overall satisfaction, the probability of positive change in patient perception of the hospital increased 1.97 times. Therefore, if WfO is used appropriately in the medical field, it may enhance patient satisfaction and change patient perception positively.


An improved high efficiency wide zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) range push–pull converter for low-voltage to high-voltage power conversion is proposed in this study. For this improved converter, all of primary switches are turned on with ZVS operation from full load to light load by using the energy stored in the leakage inductance aided by the magnetising inductance. The resonance between the leakage inductor and the voltage-doubler-rectifier capacitors reduces not only the voltage and current stresses of rectifier diodes but also the turns ratio of high-frequency transformer and conduction loss. In addition, the circulating energy is decreased dramatically compared with the similar converter resulting in lower conduction loss. This topology features simpler structure and higher efficiency. Detailed operational principle, design, comparative study and experimental results are fully discussed in the text. Finally, a 200 W experimental prototype has been built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed concept.


Background: Starches have been shown to be important across various disciplines such as the pharmaceutical industries, food industries and also paper industries. Starch is basically a mixture of polymers consisting of a-D-glucose as the monomeric unit. The goal of this study is to modify the native starches which are gotten from Zea mays, Triticum estivum, and Oriza sativa through cross-linking using sucrose and formaldehyde at different concentrations, and assessing the utilisabilty of the modified starches as potential excipients [binder] for tabletting of Paracetamol tablets. Method: Starch was extracted from Maize, Wheat and Rice grains and defatted. A confirmatory test was carried out on the extracted starch. The starches were treated with ethanol and crosslinked with varied concentrations of sucrose and formaldehyde. Further characterizations were carried out such as the determination of moisture content, bulk and tapped densities, effect of electrolyte on swelling behavior, viscosity and pH . Results: Maize and rice starches cross linked with 2.5 % sucrose gave the least percentage moisture content. The batches cross-linked with 40% formaldehyde showed the highest moisture content. The densities (bulk and tapped) of maize wheat and rice starches showed a reduction with the increasing concentration of the cross-linking agent for sucrose, which is the reverse case for formaldehyde. The different concentrations of sucrose and formaldehyde cross-maize, wheat and rice starches had pH values between 4.50 and 5.52. The onset and end set of the glass transition temperatures were varied for all the starches modified with formaldehyde. The melting peak temperatures obtained indicated that the formaldehyde-modified rice starch had significantly lower melting temperature than those of wheat and maize starches.Conclusion: The result of all the studies carried out shows that the different concentrations of sucrose and formaldehyde had effects on the various qualities of the native starches used and that the chemical agents used also had effects on the original molecular conformations of the native samples though the amorphous and crystalline structures were still present. Cross linking agents made the starch molecule more surfaces active by causing a change in conformation of the molecules at the interface hence an increase in viscosity. The starches were denatured by the cross-linking agents and this could improve their suitability for human consumption as food, cosmetic materials and even drug [as excipients].


In this paper, we study the geometry of the pseudo-slant submanifolds of a Sasakian space form. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for a submanifold to be pseudo-slant submanifolds, pseudo-slant product, mixed geodesic and totally geodesic in Sasakian manifolds. Finally, we give some results for totally umbilical pseudo-slant submanifolds of Sasakian manifolds and Sasakian space forms.


Let $G$ be a bipartite graph. A subset $S$ of $X$ is called a $Y \overline{Y}$ dominating set if $S$ is a $Y$-dominating set and $X-S$ is not a $Y$-dominating set. A subset $S$ of $X$ is called a minimal $Y \overline{Y}$ dominating set if any proper subset of $S$ is not a $Y \overline{Y}$ dominating set. The minimum cardinality of a minimal  $Y \overline{Y}$ dominating set is called the $Y \overline{Y}$ domination number of $G$ and is denoted by $\gamma_{Y \overline{Y}}(G)$. In this paper some results on $Y \overline{Y}$ domination number are obtained.


The aim of the study was to investigate the micromorphology of Mentha pulegium leaves and flowers harvested in three different Sicilian (Italy) areas with peculiar pedo-climatic conditions, and to characterize the phytochemical profile, the phytotoxic activity, and the eco-compatibility of their essential oils (EOs) for potential use as safe bioherbicides. Light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) highlighted that M. pulegium indumentum consists of non-glandular and glandular trichomes of different types. Peltate trichomes of plants from the different sites showed few significant differences in dimension and abundance, but they were characterized by a surprisingly high number of secretory cells both in leaves and flowers. Phytochemical analyses showed that oxygenated monoterpenes were the most abundant class in all the EOs investigated (92.2–97.7%), but two different chemotypes, pulegone/isomenthone and piperitone/isomenthone, were found. The complex of morphological and phytochemical data indicates that soil salinity strongly affects the expression of the toxic metabolite pulegone, rather than the EO yield. Phytotoxicity tests showed a moderate activity of EOs against the selected species as confirmed by α-amylase assay. Moreover, the low toxicity on brine shrimp provided a rationale for the possible use of investigated EOs as eco-friendly herbicides.


For better understanding of the imaging result provided by inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR), it is more desirable to present it from the conventional range-Doppler domain to the homogeneous range-cross-range domain. To accomplish the process of cross-range scaling, the rotating velocity (RV) of the target should be estimated first. For a uniformly planar rotating object, a novel method based on a concept of rotation correlation is proposed to obtain the RV in this letter, and neither prominent scattering centers nor phase coefficient extraction is required. Furthermore, a three-step fast-Fourier-transform-based convolution interpolation scheme is proposed to realize the above correlation, which makes the proposed method more efficient for implementation. Finally, experimental results with both simulated and real ISAR data are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for different targets.


Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was undertaken using an instrument which used a high-powered microscope to deliver the light and tightly focused the low energy laser beam onto the surface of a solid sample. A micro-plasma was generated on the surface of the sample under test even though the amount of energy/pulse from a beam of 532 nm was <1 mJ. Rare earth elements such as europium, gadolinium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, and a transition metal, yttrium, were tested. These elements are important in nuclear fission reactions especially for estimation of actinide masses for non-proliferation "safeguards". Each element was mixed in the graphite matrix in different percentages from 1% to 50% by weight and the LIBS spectra were obtained for each composition as well as after mixing each element in the same amount using oxides of the elements. The data for the 5% mixture of the rare earth elements with graphite powder along with the transition metal has been presented in this article. A micro-LIBS approach was used to demonstrate that these rare earth elements can be identified individually and in a complex mixture in glove boxes in which the microscope LIBS instrument is housed in a nuclear research environment.


Why do certain firms handle the challenge presented by changes in the social, economic, and political environments better than others? In order to answer this question, a clearer understanding is needed of the process of institutionalizing responsiveness and the factors that influence the ability of companies to perceive and deal with changes. This paper posits that the model proposed by Ackerman to describe the progression of institutional change from issue awareness to program design and then operational integration is useful, but needs to be refined to take into account the influence of characteristics in each company's traditional way of viewing and managing tasks. Drawing on empirical data from the experiences of a major Swiss corporation, the Migros Genossenschaftsbund AG, this paper reports on a preliminary attempt to elaborate on Ackerman ?s model by integrating the concept of corporate social reporting as an instrument of planned cultural change.


In urban environments, radiation energy from the sun becomes a heat load on the human body. The radiation energy can be divided into visible, near-infrared, and far-infrared wavelengths. Far-infrared radiation is re-emitted from structures that have been warmed by the sun. On the other hand, visible and near-infrared light comes directly or reflected from structures. However, previous studies have measured environmental changes using only far-infrared cameras to study urban heat island (UHI) countermeasures. Therefore, it is important to measure the environmental radiation energy at each wavelength region to properly discuss the cause of the heat load. To conduct the measurements, we used three cameras operating at different wavelengths: visible, near-infrared, and far-infrared. In addition, the measurements were conducted in different urban locations, seasons, and weather conditions in the Tokyo area of Japan, an urban metropolis. The results for far-infrared wavelengths show that, in summer when the temperature is high, all structures except the sky have a positive heat load on the human body, while, in winter or cloudy weather when the temperature is low, the heat load on the human body is negative. The results of heat load measurements at visible and near-infrared wavelengths show that the heat load varies greatly depending on the proportion of sky, plants, and buildings, despite the proportion of ground area being the same. These results indicate that the differences in radiation wavelengths need to be considered when considering reducing the heat load on the human body in urban environments. Therefore, the proposed method could contribute to the development of more effective UHI countermeasures by measuring in a various environments and countries.


Consumer needs are assumed to be originated from tensions between perceptions of the self and the environment by which the whole psychological field, life space, is developed. Dual research problems are developed from this proposition; one is to approach a basic framework of consumer life space and the other is to explore consumer needs from different life spaces for comparing distinctive characteristics within and across different life spaces. The former is developed with three nations' time use studies from which all possible human activities are listed, clustered, and re-clustered to obtain a basic framework for consumer life spaces. Three GT studies collect consumer needs on learning, a kitchen, and an imaging device for representing those needs from a self, a family, and a leisure/cultural life space, respectively. Consumer needs are repeatedly clustered and underlying three dimensions in consumer needs are deduced: self- vs. others-oriented, functional vs. emotional, and autotelic vs. instrumental. The three dimensions produce eight types of consumer needs, with which distinctive characteristics of consumer needs from different life spaces become manifested.


Background Fuzheng Huayu recipe (FZHY) is an original Chinese patent medicine which was developed and marketed by our institute. It could markedly improve liver tissue inflammation and ameliorate hepatic fibrosis in the clinical study. The intrahepatic macrophages recruitment and polarization play an important role in the progress of liver inflammation and fibrosis. Whether FZHY exerted its antiliver fibrosis effects through regulating intrahepatic macrophages phenotypic ratios is still unknown. This study aims to explore the antifibrosis mechanism of FZHY on regulating the recruitment and polarization of intrahepatic macrophages. Methods C57/B6 mice were used for the establishment of the CCl4-induced mice liver fibrosis model. Liver inflammation and fibrosis were evaluated by HE and Sirius red staining, hydroxyproline assays, and biochemical tests. The levels of chemokines and inflammatory cytokines in liver tissue were measured by RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis, western blot assay, RT-qPCR, and immunofluorescence assay. The macrophages recruitment and phenotypic polarization were observed by flow cytometry. Results FZHY significantly improved liver inflammation and reduced liver fibrosis degree. TNF signaling pathway, involved in macrophages recruitment and phenotypic polarization, was discovered by RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis. In TNF signaling pathway, CCL2 expression was significantly decreased and CX3CL1 expression was significantly upregulated by FZHY in liver tissue and primary intrahepatic macrophages. The ratio of proinflammatory hepatic resident macrophage-Kupffer cells (F4/80+CD11b−CD86+) was downregulated by FZHY, while the proportion of anti-inflammatory Kupffer cells (F4/80+CD11b−CD206+) was upregulated. Meanwhile, the ratio of proinflammatory Ly6Chigh macrophages (F4/80+CD11b+Ly6Chigh) which were recruited from blood circulation by CCL2 was reduced by FZHY, while the ratio of restorative Ly6Clow macrophages (F4/80+CD11b+Ly6Clow) which were recruited from blood circulation or induced from Ly6Chigh macrophages polarization by CX3CL1 was significantly increased. Conclusions FZHY could regulate the recruitment and polarization of intrahepatic macrophages via CCL2 and CX3CL1, so as to play its anti-inflammation and antifibrosis pharmacological effects in the liver.


The subventricular zone (SVZ) is the largest neural stem cell (NSC) niche in the adult brain; herein, the blood-brain barrier is leaky, allowing direct interactions between NSCs and endothelial cells (ECs). Mechanisms by which direct NSC-EC interactions in the SVZ control NSC behavior are unclear. We found Cx43 to be highly expressed by both NSCs and ECs in the SVZ, and its deletion in either cell type leads to increased NSC proliferation and neuroblast generation, suggesting that Cx43-mediated NSC-EC interactions maintain NSC quiescence. This is further supported by in vitro studies showing co-culture with ECs decreases NSC proliferation and increases their expression of genes associated with quiescence in a Cx43-dependent manner. Cx43 mediates these effects in a channel-independent manner involving its cytoplasmic tail and ERK activation. Such insights further advance our understanding of NSC regulation in vivo and may inform NSC maintenance ex vivo for stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative disorders.


During fiscal year 2006, the University of Connecticut Libraries spent almost two-thirds of its collection budget on electronic resources, making it essential that students, faculty, and staff can find and access these resources without assistance from librarians. To address ease-of-use issues, a cross-functional task team spent a year assessing the libraries' database locator and worked to create a more functional system. This iterative process of usability testing and design included three sets of usability tests, several design sessions, and revision of database descriptions. The new design now enables users to successfully and quickly find databases without mediation.


Aim: Dental implant placement is potentially invasive and hemorrhagic. Patients on the new oral anticoagulants (NOAC) have a potential risk of hemorrhage postoperative. The present study systematically reviews if NOAC medication presents the potential to increase the bleeding risk after dental implant placement. Materials and methods: A systematic review was conducted of randomized clinical trials evaluating the risk of hemorrhage after dental implants in patients taking NOAC medication. The literature search was conducted using Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, Science Direct without the restriction of language from June 2010 to December 2018. The inclusion criteria were: anticoagulant therapy, dental implant placement and postoperative incidence of bleeding follow-up. The reviewers performed data extraction, bias risk assessment, and determination of the overall quality of evidence for each of the outcomes using the Jadad scale. Review results: Two articles regarding the incidence of bleeding risk post dental implant placement were included in the review. The first article showed that one patient from the intervention group and two patients from the control group presented slight bleeding the day after the surgery, with the relative risk of 0.919 and the 95% confidence interval of 0.078–10.844. The second article showed that two patients from the intervention group and two patients from the control group presented slight bleeding the day after the surgery, with the relative risk of 0.675 and the 95% confidence interval of 0.090–5.088. Conclusion: The results suggested that continuing the intake of NOAC during and post procedure has not increased the hemorrhage risk. Hence, drugs modification or alteration was not necessary. Clinical significance: More well-designed studies are required for future research.


This paper is essentially a progress report on the geological study being made in the Southeast Missouri District by the St. Joseph Lead Company. The problems encountered are described and the progress toward their solution is assessed. These problems have consisted of the subdivision of the Bonneterre formation into units that are mappable underground, the recognition of the types of rock alteration accompanying or preceding ore deposition, the recognition of the structural controls of the ore trends, and the collection of data that may indicate the method of ore genesis. The Bonneterre formation is divided into eight principal zones which are numbered from top to bottom. Contacts between zones are mapped, and structural features are indicated by contouring. Ore in each zone has distinctive characteristics. Buried Precambrian igneous knobs have localized some ore bodies in the Lead Belt area, but sedimentary arch structures of depositional origin are the outstanding features controlling ore trends. Fracture zones exerted a secondary influence where arches are present and, where arches are absent, were, in some places the dominant ore-controlling structures. Major alteration effects are dolomitization of limestone, "fingering" and spotting, recrystallization, and removal by solution. Glauconite and adularia have been introduced or redistributed. Lateral migration of the ore solution was important, and the vertical component of motion almost surely was up rather than down. The marginal position of sphalerite in the galena ore bodies is in accord with the relative solubilities of the two sulfides.


Author(s): Mancillas, Francisco Javier | Advisor(s): Candler, Robert N | Abstract: It is known that the absence of tactile feedback in robotic surgery represents a limiting factor to surgeons. In effect, the lack of tactile feedback in robotic surgical tools is closely associated with tissue damage. This is especially true among novice surgeons who, not having surgical tools that measure compressive sensing, apply excessive force causing tissue crush injuries. Additionally, the lack of tactile feedback in the shear directions lead to additional problems, such as breaking of sutures due to excessive pull forces. In view of the lack of tactile feedback, our efforts have been focused on developing a highly sensitive micro-scale, tri-axial, capacitive-based, differential force sensor. To this end, we provide relevant derivations to single-element, multi-axis capacitive sensing including an illustrative discussion on capacitive pressure sensor (CPS) theory. We begin our discussion on CPS theory with the well-known parallel plate capacitor to illustrate key physical concepts and move on to more complex structures, such as capacitors with asymmetrical surface areas under deformation. Whenever possible, we provide explicit capacitance expressions for these last structures and demonstrate that such expressions reduce to more familiar ones. To ensure the validity of our theoretical calculations, we have also provided results obtained from COMSOL Multiphysics simulations. It is worth mentioning that for our theoretical calculations, we have only considered deformations in the downward direction as a result of external forces applied to the top surface of the CPS model so as to facilitate the evaluation of capacitance expressions. For the COMSOL Multiphysics simulations of our proposed capacitive force sensor (CFS) model, on the other hand, no restrictions are imposed on the direction of deformation. The design, including sensor location and performance criteria, of our current CFS model is also considered as well as its working principle.


A new product's meaningfulness and novelty are recognized as two distinct and important dimensions. Thus, researchers started to investigate their impact on new product performance. However, researchers' reports on the impact of novelty on performance are still mixed, and several issues need to be solved. One of these problems is comparing how strongly each of these dimensions affects the new product performance. The other is to investigate the contingent influence of market turbulence on the relation between the new product's novelty and its performance. Building on the resource-based view of the firm and signaling theory, this study aims to: 1) examine the impact of a new product's meaningfulness and novelty on its commercial performance; 2) compare the relative influence of these dimensions on product performance; and 3) examine the moderating effect of market turbulence on the relationship between the novelty and the new product's commercial performance. Data concerning 374 new products of Polish highand medium-high-technology companies were examined to achieve these goals using structural equation modeling. First, the results indicated that a new product's meaningfulness is positively related to its commercial performance, whereas novelty is not. Furthermore, meaningfulness affects performance more strongly than product novelty, and market turbulence moderates the relation between the new product's novelty and performance. Subsequently, based on these findings, theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research are provided.


In this work, we demonstrated a compact Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser capable of generating high-energy pulses using a newly developed multiwall carbon nanotube (CNT) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) thin film based saturable absorber. Q-switched pulse operation is obtained by sandwiching the thin film between two fiber ferrules forming a saturable absorber. A saturable absorber with 1.25 wt. % of PVA concentration shows a consistency in generating pulsed laser with a good range of tunable repetition rate, shortest pulse width, and produces a high pulse energy and peak power. The pulse train generated has a maximum repetition rate of 29.9 kHz with a corresponding pulse width of 3.49 μs as a function of maximum pump power of 32.15 mW. The maximum average output power of the Q-switched fiber laser system is 1.49 mW, which translates to a pulse energy of 49.8 nJ. The proposed method of multiwall CNT/PVA thin film fabrication is low in cost and involves uncomplicated processes.


COVID-19 is a new strain of highly contagious coronavirus, and at present, more than 221.4 million people have been infected with this virus, and the death toll exceeds 2793398. Early and fast detection of COVID-19 from infected individuals is critical to limit its spreading. Here, we report an innovative approach to detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleocapsid (N) protein by combining DNA/RNA oligomers as aptamers and a graphene oxide (GO) coated optical microfiber as a sensor system. The DNA/RNA aptamers can effectively capture the SARS-CoV-2 N protein in vitro, with the GO coated optical microfiber aptasensor for real-time monitoring of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein. Due to the extremely high surface-to-volume ratio and excellent optical and biochemical properties of the GO surface layer, the fixing effect of the microfiber surface is significantly improved and the lowest limit of detection (LOD) is 6.25 × 10-19 M. Furthermore, in order to prove the feasibility of this sensing method in clinical applications, we use this sensor to detect the N protein mixed in fetal bovine serum (FBS) samples. The experimental results show that the biosensor can quickly and effectively detect the N protein (1 × 10-9 M) in a complex sample matrix within 3 minutes. These findings suggest that this approach can be utilized for quantitative monitoring of coronavirus particles due to its high sensitivity, which can help to quickly exclude patients who do not have the infection. Collectively, the optical microfiber sensor system could be expected to become an important platform for the diagnosis of coronavirus due to its simple detection scheme and easy miniaturization.


In recent years, mirror visual feedback (MVF) therapy combined with electrical stimulation (ES) have been proposed for patients with hemiparesis. However, the neurophysiological effect remains unknown. We investigated the effects of MVF by itself and along with electromyogram-triggered ES (ETES) on hemodynamic responses using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Eighteen healthy subjects participated in this study. We measured changes in brain oxygenation using 48 NIRS channels. We investigated the effects of three main factors of visual feedback (observation of a mark, right hand, and hand movements via mirror) with or without ES on bilateral precentral gyrus (PrG), postcentral gyrus (PoG), supplementary motor area (SMA), supramarginal gyrus area (SMG), and angular gyrus (AG) to determine the contribution of each factor. The results showed that the left PoG was significantly more activated when performing mirrored tasks (MT) than when performing circle or Right-hand Tasks (RTs). In addition, the right PoG and right SMA in MT were significantly more activated than in MT + ES cases. Our findings suggested that observation of movements through the mirror caused activation of the postcentral gyrus rather than the PrG, and MVF along with ETES decreased cortical activation.


The article presents modern data on the formation, structure, functions and possibilities of correction of the gut microbiota. The gut microbiota is a collection of living organisms that inhabit the human intestine and form a complex microecological system that performs many functions. It is known that the composition and state of the gut microbiota is influenced by both environmental factors, such as diet and lifestyle, and the human body, including genetic predisposition. A violation in this system (dysbiosis) can provoke the development of a number of diseases and pathological conditions, in which the correction of the gut microbiota may be a promising therapeutic strategy. The most common methods of correcting dysbiosis are dieting, the use of pro-and prebiotics, and fecal microbiota transplantation. The diet affects the qualitative and quantitative composition and functions of the gut microbiota, the activity of its individual representatives. Probiotics are used to modulate, preserve the gut microbiota in dysbiosis, as well as to prevent its development. Fecal microbiota transplantation is performed by transferring the microbiota from a healthy donor. This method is one of the most effective ways to treat Clostridium difficile infection. This review article also presents the results of fecal microbiota transplantation in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and hepatic encephalopathy. It is shown that after transplantation, there is a rapid change in the composition of the gut microbiota, which becomes similar to the microbiota of a healthy donor. Each of these methods of correction demonstrates a different degree of influence on the gut microbiota, and their therapeutic effectiveness depends on the direct characteristics of the methods used, as well as the specific disease and requires further study.


The most important finding from the N. M. Curtis, K. R. Ronan, and C. M. Borduin (2004) meta-analysis for the broader field is likely the difference in effect sizes between multisys- multisystemic therapy efficacy versus effectiveness studies. This difference has important implications for research on the transport of evidence-based treatments to community practice settings. For example, factors rarely considered in efficacy research (e.g., funding structures, organizational climate, program maturity, site characteristics) are emerging as important determinants of treatment fidelity and, in turn, clinical outcomes for practice in real-world settings. Current research is clearly demonstrating that evidence-based practices can be successfully transported, but much remains to be learned regarding the optimal parameters of such transport.


This paper updates the ongoing effort at LLNL to develop autonomous, agile micro-satellites (MicroSats). The objective of this development effort is to develop MicroSats weighing only a few tens of kilograms, that are able to autonomously perform precision maneuvers and can be used telerobotically in a variety of mission modes. The capabilities under development include satellite rendezvous, inspection, proximity-operations, formation-flying, docking, and servicing. The focus of this paper is on the development of several ground test vehicles and the demonstration of proximity operations on a dynamic air bearing table.


To establish a system for managing road pavement, it is mandatory to prepare information components based on various perspectives of pavement management. One of the most significant information components in these systems is quality assessment regarding road pavement status. Accordingly, in this regard, data containing details of surface pavement failures and defects are of great significance. Apart from causing vehicle depreciation & damage, maintenance costs, and reducing the useful lifespan of the pavement structure, road pavement failures also lead to accidents and reduce road safety. Bearing in mind that the most important surface damages in road pavement are related to cracks with longitudinal, transverse, oblique, alligator, and block types, and as such cracks and defects can be visually and non-destructively assessed and evaluated, imaging-based approaches and techniques can provide details such as the type of defect, its severity, extent, and location and prove to be highly useful. In this paper, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)/drone photogrammetry has been proposed as a complementary approach aimed at providing information on defects caused by cracks in the country's road pavement management system. According to the author, the output of UAV photogrammetric products will significantly improve if the system parameters are adjusted. Consequently, through presenting a procedure to investigate the optimal parameters in the design of a UAV photogrammetric network, further, attempts were made for the implementation of an automated algorithm based on image processing operations & classifier decision tree which is independent of scale and image dimensions. Hence, after removing the road edges and determining the asphalt area, a pixel detection operation was carried out to reveal the cracks. Furthermore, after preparing the ground reality through selected orthophoto mosaic, the evaluation of crack pixel detection was determined using the proposed algorithm with three methods. An accuracy of 96% was determined for the main orthophoto mosaic. For the test orthophotos, which were the result of images taken by Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic Pro at different altitudes, an accuracy of approximately 82% to 91% was determined.


We theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate the use of motional sidebands in a trapped ensemble of ^{87}Rb atoms to engineer tunable long-range XXZ spin models. We benchmark our simulator by probing a ferromagnetic to paramagnetic dynamical phase transition in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, a collective XXZ model plus additional transverse and longitudinal fields, via Rabi spectroscopy. We experimentally reconstruct the boundary between the dynamical phases, which is in good agreement with mean-field theoretical predictions. Our work introduces new possibilities in quantum simulation of anisotropic spin-spin interactions and quantum metrology enhanced by many-body entanglement.