Technological innovations have facilitated a greater understanding of how the tumor microenvironment contributes to cancer, leading to rapid FDA approval of four immunotherapies. To assess how these therapies are being further investigated in combination with other therapies and in tumor types outside of the current FDA approval, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the curated clinical trials in the JAX Clinical Knowledgebase (JAX-CKB). In brief, clinical trials investigating Atezolizumab, Nivolumab, Pembrolizumab, and Ipilimumab, curated from clinicaltrials.gov, were queried in the JAX-CKB and then analyzed for comparison. Further analyses were executed to illustrate possible unmet needs within the field of cancer therapeutics. Of the four immunotherapies, Pembrolizumab was identified with the greatest number of clinical trials overall, with 305 compared to Atezolizumab, 79, Nivolumab, 183, and Ipilimumab, 126. Of these trials the number of trials investigating Pembrolizumab, Atezolizumab, Nivolumab, or Ipilimumab in combination with another therapy was higher than those investigating one of the four immunotherapies as a monotherapy. Phase II trials for both single therapy and combinatorial therapies were greater than both Phase I and Phase III for the same groups, regardless of therapy. On average, 12% ± 3.8% of the combined trials for all four drugs included any advanced solid tumor. Nivolumab combined with Ipilimumab demonstrated the greatest number of trials (61) investigating an immunotherapy in combination with another immunotherapy. Among those, 30 were Phase II trials, 16 were Phase I, and 14 were Phase III. Across five cancer indications (lung, pancreatic, ovarian, prostate, and colon), lung cancer was most commonly indicated in the trials, among all four drugs. Prostate was indicated in the least number of trials, with Ipilimumab ranking the highest (10). The recent success with immunotherapies has garnered significant interest in understanding how these therapies will perform in different tumor types and whether specific combinations will have a greater impact. Interrogation of the clinical trial terrain in the JAX-CKB provides a basis for determining additional investigations that might be warranted. Citation Format: Cara M. Statz, Sara E. Patterson, Taofei Yin, Susan M. Mockus. A comprehensive analysis delineating the immunotherapeutic terrain of cancer-related clinical trials [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 541. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-541


In perfused rat hearts insulin can activate, and catecholamines can inactivate, glycogen synthase (EC 188.8.131.52); the magnitude of each hormonal response is magnified if tissue glycogen levels are depleted. Both beta-adrenergic and alpha-adrenergic agonists inactivate insulin-stimulated and basal glycogen synthase, with each promoting the same extent of inactivation in both circumstances. In this system beta-adrenergic agonists act via cyclic AMP (cAMP), and alpha-adrenergic agonists via Ca2+, whereas insulin action appears to be independent of either cAMP or Ca2+. The action on cardiac glycogen synthase by the physiological catecholamine epinephrine is apparently mediated by the concomitant interaction with both alpha and beta receptors; interaction with each is mediated by their separate second messenger systems, which combine to produce the end physiological response.


BACKGROUND
It is unclear whether hypertension should be treated during the acute phase of stroke, and some have hypothesised that blood pressure should be increased to improve cerebral perfusion.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of this review was to assess the effect of lowering or elevating blood pressure in people with acute stroke, and the effect of different vasoactive drugs on blood pressure in acute stroke.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane Library (2000 Issue 3 ) using the CDSR and the CCTR databases, MEDLINE (from 1966), EMBASE (from 1980), BIDS ISI (Science Citation Index from 1981), and existing review articles. We contacted researchers in the field and pharmaceutical companies. We handsearched the Ongoing Trials section of the journal Stroke and scanned the reference lists of existing review articles.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised trials of interventions that aimed to alter blood pressure in patients within two weeks of acute ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two reviewers independently applied the inclusion criteria and assessed trial quality. Two reviewers extracted the data.

MAIN RESULTS
Five trials involving 218 patients were included. The trials tested the following vasodilators: nimodipine (66 patients), nicardipine (5), captopril (3), clonidine (2), glyceryl trinitrate (16) and perindopril (14); 92 subjects received placebo/control treatment. Oral calcium channel blockers (CCB's), nimodipine and nicardipine reduced systolic blood pressure (weighted mean difference 10.9mmHg, 95% confidence interval 2.0 to 19.7), diastolic blood pressure (weighted mean difference 9.5mmHg, 95% confidence interval 4.0 to 15.1) and heart rate (weighted mean difference 4.7 beats per minute, 95% confidence interval 0.2 to 9.2) at 48 hours. The greatest fall in blood pressure over the first 24 hours was shown in patients given the highest dose of nimodipine. ACE-I (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors), perindopril and captopril reduced systolic blood pressure (weighted mean difference 15.0 mmHg, 95% confidence interval -0.6 to 30.6) and diastolic blood pressure (weighted mean difference 11.8 mmHg (weighted mean difference 95% confidence interval 4.2 to 19.4) at 24 hours. Glyceryl trinitrate showed a non significant reduction in blood pressure at 24 hours. None of the drugs significantly affected outcome. The limited amount of data made it impossible to assess the relationship between change in blood pressure and clinical outcome. No completed studies of interventions to raise blood pressure were identified.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS
There is not enough evidence to evaluate the effect of altering blood pressure on outcome during the acute phase of stroke. Oral CCB's, ACE inhibitors and glyceryl trinitrate all appear to lower blood pressure in patients with acute stroke.


The article offers a socio-psychological analysis of religious identity structure of Muslim youths who live in the Russian Federation. The research was conducted in the Chechen Republic (city of Grozny). The two groups of respondents were selected, the high school pupils (9–10th grades) and students (1–2 year). In order to study their religious identity was applied a "Religious identity components" questionnaire. The original version of this tool was developed by D. Van Camp, it was adapted to the Russian circumstances by V. A. Shorokhova and subsequently developed by O. S. Pavlova. The results of the study prove that religious identity of the two age groups in both cases remains the same, i.e. the four-factor model, regardless the respondents' age. However, there are still some specific features as applied to each group.


Effect of thermal treatments on the structural and electrical properties of the chemical bath deposition derived Ti-doped ZnO thin films are studied. XRD results show that the annealed Ti-doped ZnO films with wurtzite structure are randomly oriented. Crystallite structure, carrier concentration, resistivity and mobility are found to be dependent on the treatment temperature. At a treatment temperature of 100°C, the Ti-doped ZnO film possesses a carrier concentration of 1.3×1020 cm-3, a resistivity of 3×10-3 Ω-cm, and a mobility of 15 cm2/Vs.


Hollow-core fibers provide an ideal environment for the interaction of a laser and gases; however, achieving stable and efficient coupling of a high-power laser is one of the key problems to be solved. Here, we study stable and efficient coupling of a high-power continuous-wave fiber laser with anti-resonant hollow-core fibers spliced with end caps. By optimizing the splicing process, a maximum laser power of 460 W was injected and 356.5 W was outputted under uncooled conditions, realizing a total transmission efficiency of approximately 77.5%. A test of more than 1 h showed the stability of this a coupling method. A few other important characteristics, such as the Fresnel reflection of the end caps and the influence of the end caps on the transmission beam quality, were measured and examined. This study opens new opportunities for stable and highly efficient coupling of high-power lasers with hollow-core fibers, which is significant for their applications in many other fields besides high-power fiber gas lasers, such as high-power laser delivery and liquid lasers in hollow-core fibers.


Concurrent engineering with the design of increasingly complex components requires additional tools to avoid space conflicts. Configuration space control is a key technology necessary to achieve the required design efficiency and product development of a complex experiment. Easily accessible solutions available within CAD frameworks, product data management, and configuration management systems currently solve only part of this task. Therefore, it is vital to develop and control a set of procedures that can handle concurrent engineering issues and manage the compatibility of the various components being designed, manufactured, and assembled. In addition, a defined set of procedures are required to control the changes, additions, and nonconformities to the design of components that occur in a developing experiment. To cope with these tasks, sophisticated tools and procedures have been adapted, developed, and implemented. This paper covers the configuration space control process for the in-vessel components of Wendelstein 7-X, and demonstrates its application in the control of the as-assembled components.


Abstract The presence of naphthenic acids (NAs) in crude oil is the major cause of corrosion in the refineries and its processing equipment. The goal of this study is to reduce the total acid number (TAN) of NAs by treating them with subcritical methanol in the presence of acidic ionic liquid (AIL) catalysts. Experiments were carried out in an autoclave batch reactor and the effect of different reaction parameters was investigated. It was observed that TAN reduction was positively dependent on the temperature and concentration of the AIL whereas excess of methanol has a negative effect. Approximately 90% TAN reduction was achieved under the optimized reaction conditions using [BMIM]HSO4 as catalyst. It was also perceived from the experimental results that the AILs with longer alkyl chain exhibited higher catalytic activity. The activity and stability of AIL showed that they can be promising catalyst to esterify NAs under subcritical methanol.


Summary Cortisone systemically administered to day-old chicks is a powerful growth inhibitor for the 18-day period of this study. A partial reversal of this growth inhibitory activity of cortisone may be accomplished by the simultaneous administration of beef amniotic fluid.


Rental housing is a vital component in accommodating large numbers of families in less−developed countries and particularly in the major cities. In many major cities of Africa and Asia, more than half of the population are tenants. It is a well-known fact to those familiar with Port Harcourt that there is an acute shortage of housing for all strata of the society in the city. There is gentrification of the private rental market. Private landlords renovate and convert single rooms to self-contained apartments and flats and push out the original occupants who can no longer afford the cost of this type of accommodation. The research was assumed as a cross-sectional survey of all individuals who reside in private estates that had 4 building units and more constructed between 1978 and 2014 in Greater Port Harcourt City (GPHC) these were the target group. The research design used was the "passive-observational" method. The total number of private estate residents interviewed was 400 (ascertained field research). The head of each household was the respondent to each questionnaire as he/she was considered the most knowledgeable about household conditions. Therefore the analysis of responses was based on this number. The study relied on two sources of information primary and secondary. Primary sources comprised (a) a largely pre-coded questionnaire, administered face-to-face by trained interviewers, (b) Individual Depth Interviews (IDIs) of key informants, (c) direct observation, (d) measurement, and (e) photography. Secondary sources included: (a) unpublished and published material in past theses, books, journals, maps, etc; and (b) the Internet. Data analysis utilised mainly univariate and multivariate statistical analytical techniques. Analysis was carried out with the aid of the microcomputer – adapted Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16. Some of the findings from the research are; On a 6 point Likert scale, asking private estate residents what they feel about the rents they pay; the modal rating showed four categories of house types "Too High" and two categories said "About Right. The primary modal reason for residents moving accommodation was "high cost of rent" (21.5%), followed by job related reasons which was 15.25%. The recommendations are; Government needs to regulate rents charged by the private estate developers through the ministry of housing that will set the rates for various house types and locations. Private Landlords will need to operate a functional association in Rivers State as obtained in other developed countries. Private Landlords need to develop their property using locally sourced materials so that the overall cost of building is not too high.


A new experimental facility has been developed to investigate the fragmentation of vesicular magma undergoing rapid decompression. The facility based on a vertical shock tube was designed and constructed to produce starch syrup foams of high void fraction but low permeability, high liquid viscosity, and at high pressure as alternative to foamy magma exposed to expansion waves. The highly viscous material (starch syrup) of dynamic shear viscosities ranging from 5 to 1012 Pa s were intermixed with nitrogen gas bubbles under 1.6 to 2.6 MPa and were subsequently loaded into an acrylic test section. The foamy starch syrup was pressurized up to 2.6 MPa and then rapidly decompressed to 0.1 MPa, which caused its fragmentation and simultaneous ejection of the fragmentation products into a large-volume chamber. In ejecting high-pressure foam into a low-pressure chamber, the foam's fragmentation process was characterized with the help of pressure measurements and high-speed video recording. Prior to decompression experiments, we examined the viscoelastic properties of the foam specimens by using a rheometer. The rapid decompression generated wide varieties of fragment shapes similar to those observable in volcanic explosions, such as elongated to blocky pumice and flat, pointed shards with smooth or conchoidal fracture. The results prove that a shock dynamic approach is effective to model magma fragmentations.


Parametric and nonparametric approaches to evaluate land-cover change detection using very high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery are applied to the analysis of the demolition of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility located near Denver, CO. Both maximum-likelihood and neural network classifiers are used to validate a new parallel architecture which improves the accuracy when applied to VHR satellite imagery for the study of land-cover change between sequential satellite acquisitions. An enhancement of about 14% was found between the single-step classification and the new parallel architecture, confirming the advantage and the robust improvement obtained with this architecture regardless of the classification algorithm used. In this paper, we demonstrate and document the demolition and removal of hundreds of buildings taken down to bare soil between 2003 and 2005 at the Rocky Flats site.


Though more than 80% of acute pharyngitis (AP) cases have a viral etiology, it remains one of the most common causes for the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics (ABs). Half of patients receive antibiotics in general practice. Point-of-Care Tests (POCTs) distinguish between bacterial and viral pharyngitis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of POCTs using throat swabs to detect β-Streptococcus pyogenes Group A (strep A) infection among patients with sore throat/acute pharyngitis in primary care practices across Germany. A study was conducted in 1257 primary care practices. Two questionnaires were administered concerning frequency, POCT results and whether antibiotics were prescribed. Of the 1257 physicians, 60% used POCTs. Of these, 25% used a POCT before prescribing an antibiotic, 39% in cases of severe sore throat, 40% in cases of long-lasting pharyngitis and 25% in other cases. In total, 83% considered the adoption of POCTs in everyday practice to be important or very important for the diagnosis of strep A, 90% considered it important or very important for achieving a more sensible use of antibiotics and the prevention of bacterial resistance and 80% considered it important or very important for justifying to patients whether or not an antibiotic is needed. POCT results and information on AB prescriptions were available for 583 patients. Of these, 22.5% tested positive for strep A, and 21.8% were prescribed antibiotics. Our study shows that the use of swab tests in patients with sore throat in primary care practices results in high levels of physician satisfaction and can strongly reduce the misuse of antibiotics in clinical practice.


Data collected from 294 young adults, ages 19 to 25, and both a same- and an opposite-gender best friend or mate across 3 annual assessments were analyzed to examine the similarity to and influence of the peer on the young adult's substance use. The authors found similarity across time between both peers and the young adult in cigarette use, alcohol use, binge drinking, and, in most cases, marijuana use. In prospective analyses, peer use predicted young adult cigarette use, binge drinking, and problem use by the young adults. Results were generally consistent across gender and for both same- and opposite-gender peers. Findings emphasize peer influence contribution to young adult substance use and suggest the design of interventions that involve both young adults and their peers.


School improvement includes collaborative activities and planned change to develop teachers, staff, environment and physical conditions. Other hand school effectiveness involves effectively using all resources of school for increasing the success of students. This study aims to investigate Cacabey Primary School, in city of Kirsehir, Turkey in terms of school improvement and school effectiveness paradigm. Case study method is used in this study. Research was conducted with the head teacher of the school. In this direction semi structured interview was used for collecting data. Data were classified and analyzed qualitatively. Under the light of the findings of the research it is concluded that most of the features of the school improvement paradigm were largely achieved in this school. Accordingly some recommendations were made at the end for further research.


Objectives Prolonged grief disorder is associated with significant distress and impairment and thus efforts to improve treatments are essential. The present pilot study tested the efficacy and feasibility of group Metacognitive Grief Therapy (MCGT) designed specifically for prolonged grief symptomatology to reduce the psychological distress and impaired function resulting from bereavement. Design/participants Twenty-two bereaved adult participants with prolonged grief symptomatology were randomised to a wait-list control (n=10) or an intervention condition (n=12) with a 3-month and 6-month follow-up. The wait-list control group was offered treatment after the post-test assessment. Intervention Participants attended six group MCGT sessions that ran for 2 hours per week. Outcome measures A primary outcome measure of prolonged grief symptomatology and secondary outcome measures of depression, anxiety, rumination, metacognitive beliefs and quality of life were taken pretreatment and post-treatment for both groups and at the 3-month and 6-month follow-up for the intervention group. A Generalised Linear Mixed Model was used to assess treatment efficacy. Results Post-treatment intent-to-treat analyses showed MCGT reduced prolonged grief symptomatology (Cohen's d=1.7), depression (d=1.3), anxiety (d=0.8), stress (d=1.0), rumination (d=0.9) and increased quality of life (d=0.6), and these effects were maintained at the 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. No prepost between-group differences were found in metacognitive beliefs. However, a large significant effect was identified at the 3-month and 6-month follow-ups (d=1.0). Conclusion The results show promise for the utility of group MCGT for reducing psychological distress and promoting quality of life. Additionally, the results underscore the need for a full randomised controlled trial of group MCGT, which may be an important addition to the treatment armamentarium available to support people with prolonged grief. Trial registration number ACTRN12613001270707; Results. Original protocol BMJ Open 2015;5:e007221. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-007221


Presented here are two novel porous supramolecular boron imidazolate frameworks (BIF-106 and BIF-107), which are stabilized through relatively weak interactions between two-dimensional boron imidazolate layers. Moreover, BIF-107 exhibits efficient CO2 photoreduction to CO with a remarkable rate of 1186.0 μmol·g-1·h-1 under visible-light irradiation.


Sir .—Studies have documented alcohol and other drug usage among the adolescent population. In 1985, in a study of over 17000 high school students, 75% admitted to trying alcohol, 60% marijuana, and 16% cocaine. 1 Because these statistics, along with other statistics from similar studies, involve a cross section of the population, the percentages of drug usage by adolescents in a given practice might be very different. Depending on many factors, including demographics, socioeconomic status, ethnic population served, and geographic areas (urban vs rural), the figures in any pediatric practice may be dissimilar to the figures quoted. In dealing with the problem of drug usage/abuse in an adolescent population in one's own practice, it might be beneficial to know what the statistics are in regard to drug usage in the population being served. In the process of obtaining information about the deliberate intoxication of children and pets by adolescents, I


A model-based fault diagnostic procedure is proposed for an eddy-current test instrument which utilises the multiple model estimation algorithm (MMEA). This algorithm essentially consists of a set of Kalman filters and is an ideal candidate for realisation by parallel-processing techniques. A practical instrument has been developed, consisting of a commercially available eddycurrent test instrument linked to a parallel processor consisting of an array of 4 transputers. A set of tubular metal samples, with known inner and outer wall defects, has been fabricated to enable the performance of the experimental instrument to be evaluated, and some practical results are given in the paper.


In this article, I observe the relational produc- tion of place online through the mobile practices of an e- learning course that combined interactions in physical and online environments. I use actor-network theory as ana- lytical framework to explore element interrelations of this e-learning course, an International Cooperation project or- ganized by Capacity Building International (InWEnt). The course involved participants from African, Asian, Euro- pean, and Latin American countries. This transnational pro- gram included travel from different continents to Germany and South Africa for the participation in face-to-face work- shops as well as online interactions. Face-to-face encoun- ters strongly affected e-learning interactions. I show how course participants introduced face-to-face experiences on- line through associative impulses. I identify these associa- tions that were contributed as texts to online forums as en- actments of Law and Mol's concept of "fire space". Fire spatial impulses functioned as compensatory practices with respect to scarce sensory and symbolic information in online environments. Social cues associated with the sensory and symbolic information from physical spaces that learners in- troduced online highlighted the decisive role of face-to-face social stimuli in the constitution of online places. Results are based on ethnographic participation in the observed e- learning course.


Double-chambered right ventricle (DCRV) was first described in 1858 by TB Peacock, but it is now understood to be a form of congenital heart disease wherein there is a mid-cavitary obstruction that dived the right ventricle into a high-pressure proximal portion and a low-pressure distal portion. DCRV can classify into two main types based on the tissue responsible for the mid-cavitary obstruction. Patients with type 1 DCRV have an anomalous muscle bundle that crosses the right ventricle while type 2 DCRV has parietal and septal muscle hypertrophy that is responsible for the obstruction, and they often are more likely to present with a ventricular septal defect (VSD). Associated anomalies include VSD (most common and can be seen in up to 90% of DCRV patients), transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, ruptured sinus of Valsalva aneurysm, atrial septal defect, aortic valve regurgitation, persistent left superior vena cava, tricuspid valve regurgitation, Ebstein anomaly, and valvar pulmonary stenosis.


Designing a Java processor supporting horizontal multithreading has become more attractive as network computing gains importance. Different from the traditional superscalar processors that issue multiple instructions from a single instruction stream to exploit the instruction level parallelism (ILP), the horizontal multithreading Java processors issue multiple instructions (bytecodes) from multiple threads in parallel to exploit not only the ILP but the thread level parallelism (TLP). Such processors have multiple dispatch slots and require the instruction fetch unit to supply instructions with much higher bandwidth than superscalar processors. Using a traditional superscalar cache architecture in a horizontal multithreading Java processor results in high cache miss ratio caused by the interference among the threads. We investigate multibank instruction cache architecture for horizontal multithreading Java processor to meet the requirements of the high instruction fetch bandwidth. In order to evaluate the cache performance as well as the horizontal multithreading Java processor performance, we developed a trace driven simulator. The simulator consists of a trace generator that generates the Java bytecode execution traces and an architectural simulator that reads the traces and evaluates the performance of the instruction cache and the overall performance of the Java processor. Our simulation results show that the performance improvements are obtained by the low cache miss ratio and the high instruction fetch bandwidth of the proposed cache architecture. The IPC performance is about 19 when both the number of slots and the number of banks are 8, about 5 times better than one bank cache.


Regulatory Focus Theory predicts that the motivation to self-regulate goal-directed thought and behavior depends on two distinct regulation strategies: a promotion focus based on attaining gains and a prevention focus based on avoiding losses. This study takes a social-cognitive approach predicting that regulatory focus has an impact on how family startups (several family related founders) explore "new ideas", exploit "old certainties" and achieve the balance of both (ambidexterity), compared to lone founder startups (only one founder present). It is also proposed that two commonly psychological traits used in entrepreneurial research - achievement motivation and internal locus of control, predispose entrepreneurs to a promotion regulation strategy. Promotion regulation strategy, in turn, leads startups to be more risk-seeking and more explorative. The previous argument is used as a springboard to derive hypotheses about what makes a family startup more ambidextrous. It is also hypothesized that ambidextrous orientation has an effect on survival hazards in family startups.


This paper explores Sally Potter's film The Tango Lesson and the story of Jacob's fight with the angel that features in it. The Tango Lesson is not only about the tango and the relationship between the characters Sally and Pablo but also about their search for what it means to feel like a Jew. On this search, Sally and Pablo embody in a tango pose Jacob's fight with the angel as painted by Eugene Delacroix. This pose and the biblical story behind it act as a key to understanding the relationship between Sally and Pablo. In this paper, I show how Sally resembles Jacob and Pablo the angel of both the biblical story and Delacroix's painting. But I also argue that a role reversal takes place in Potter's film; that Pablo can be Jacob and Sally his angel. The experiences of being blessed and hurt as well as the importance of being remembered shape not only Sally's but also Pablo's life. To feel Jewish, I conclude, does not mean to be Jewish through birth or through belonging to a congregation but to search for a sense of self through a relationship. On this search, the ability to play different roles in different relational contexts is essential.


ABSTRACT Despite the few empirical research, innovation in the Brazilian Basic Sanitation sector is an increasingly debated topic, Therefore, this study aimed to explore the structures and activities of Brazilian basic sanitation companies in research, development, and innovation (RDI). To achieve this the research conducted an empirical study of the state companies of basic sanitation, hereafter called CESBs, through a survey based on Innovation Research (Pintec) and secondary data. The survey examines the following aspects: introduction of product, process, organizational and marketing innovation; types of innovative activities developed; funding for RDI; cooperation for RDI; intellectual property; impacts of innovations; organizational structure for innovation management; innovation management system; and barriers to innovation management. The results indicate that the CESBs have structures and develop actions in RDI; however, these activities are not strategic for the companies analyzed.


A simple low-cost sensor system for thickness measurement of metallic plates by means of a high-resolution laser mouse navigation sensor and a lightweight displacement probe is presented in this paper. An experimental prototype was developed, which involves release of the probe freely on the plain surface of metallic plates under test. A signal is generated from the laser mouse during the release of the probe. The first minima of the signals are related to the thickness of the metallic plates.


Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL disease) is a rare multisystem disorder of autosomal dominant inheritance with high penetrance. Inactivation of the VHL-protein leads to an increased expression of hypoxia induced growth factors. Predilection sites for tumor growth are the retina, the central nervous system and various visceral organs. Retinal capillary hemangioblastoma is one of the earliest manifestations of VHL disease. The lifetime risk of permanent visual loss defined as a visual acuity of 0.5 or less is about 35% in gene carriers. It increases to 60% if there is already retinal capillary hemangioblastoma. If VHL disease is suspected, a careful ophthalmological examination should be included in the clinical screening program. Having confirmed the diagnosis, regular ophthalmoscopic monitoring is essential in order to detect developing tumors at an early stage. Therapeutic options for small to medium sized peripheral tumors are laser or cryocoagulation; larger- hemangioblastomas can be treated by brachytherapy using ruthenium plaques, while asymptomatic juxtapapillary tumors can be observed at regular intervals.


This paper presents a methodological proposal, which is focused on the task of rendering and manipulation of virtual objects via kinesthetic. Our project involves two key areas: Virtual Reality and Haptic Rendering. Virtual Reality is related to the creation of virtual environments, considering physical and virtual aspects, levels of immersion and interaction with the user. Haptic rendering is used to provide kinesthetic stimuli in order to improve the man- machine interaction. We identify three main processes as a part of the methodology: i) selection of algorithms and methods for haptic rendering according to the project developed, ii) selection of languages and specialized software tools for virtual applications and iii) selection of haptic devices, all these considerations are key for developing a project using haptic rendering.


Many optimisation problems involve combinatorial constraints on continuous variables. An example of a combinatorial constraint is that at most one variable in a group of nonnegative variables may be positive. Traditionally, in the mathematical programming community, such problems have been modeled as mixed-integer programs by introducing auxiliary binary variables and additional constraints. Because the number of variables and constraints becomes larger and the combinatorial structure is not used to advantage, these mixed-integer programming models may not be solved satisfactorily, except for small instances. Traditionally, constraint programming approaches to such problems keep and use the combinatorial structure, but do not use linear programming bounds in the search for an optimal solution. Here we present a branch-and-cut approach that considers the combinatorial constraints without the introduction of binary variables. We review the development of this approach and show how strong constraints can be derived using ideas from polyhedral combinatorics. To illustrate the ideas, we present a production scheduling model that arises in the manufacture of fibre optic cables.


This paper presents an efficient modelling of airships with small deformations moving in an ideal fluid. The formalism is based on the Updated Lagrangian Method (U.L.M.).This formalism proposes to take into account the coupling between the rigid body motion and the deformation as well as the interaction with the surrounding fluid. The resolution of the equations of motion is incremental. The behaviour of the airship is defined relatively to a virtual non-deformed reference configuration moving with the body. The flexibility is represented by a deformation modes issued from a Finite Elements Method analysis. The increment of rigid body motion is represented similarly by rigid modes. A modal synthesis is used to solve the general system equations of motion. Time constant matrices appears (i.e. mass and structural stiffness ma trices), and we show a convenient technique to actualise the time dependant matrices.


Diode-pumped Kerr-lens mode-locked laser operations of Yb3+:Sc2O3 ceramics have been achieved. 92 fs pulses with the average power of 850 mW under 3.89 W incident pump power were obtained at a center wavelength of 1042 nm. The optical-to-optical efficiency was 21.9%. 90 fs pulses with the average power of 160 mW were also obtained at a center wavelength of 1092 nm. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a Kerr-lens mode-locked Yb3+:Sc2O3 laser.


Abstract. Damage in Armenia, Colombia, for the 1999 (Mw6.2) event was disproportionate. We analyse the damage report as a function of number of storeys and construction age. We recovered two vulnerability evaluations made in Armenia in 1993 and in 2004. We compare the results of the 1993 evaluation with damages observed in 1999 and show that the vulnerability evaluation made in 1993 could have predicted the relative frequency of damage observed in 1999. Our results show that vulnerability of the building stock was the major factor behind damage observed in 1999. Moreover, it showed no significant reduction between 1999 and 2004.


We present a simple yet accurate numerical approach to compute the free energy of binding of multivalent objects on a receptor-coated surface. The method correctly accounts for the fact that one ligand can bind to at most one receptor. The numerical approach is based on a saddle-point approximation to the computation of a complex residue. We compare our theory with the powerful Valence-Limited Interaction Theory (VLIT) [P. Varilly et al., J. Chem. Phys. 137, 094108 (2012); S. Angioletti-Uberti et al., ibid. 138, 021102 (2013)] and find excellent agreement in the regime where that theory is expected to work. However, the present approach even works for low receptor/ligand densities, where VLIT breaks down.


468 Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the third most common genitourinary cancer. Up to 30% of patients (pts) with RCC presents with advanced disease. Sunitinib(S), an orally available tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is the well established first-line therapy for these population. Actually few data are available in the literature about its use in patients > 75 yrs investigating the feasibility, the efficacy and the toxicity in this population.

METHODS
From 2007 to 2011, 16 pts >75 yrs with mRCC received S. 75% of pts had a clear cell carcinoma, 87.5% had a surgery on primary tumor, 18.7% had a metastic disease at diagnosis and the median time to metastatic progression was 13.5 months. Median age was 78 years (range 71-88y).All patients had 0-1 performance status and 69% of them received S as first-line treatment. Four pts started S on the approved 50 mg /d 4-week-on-2-off schedule, but three of them reduced to 37.5 mg continuous once daily dosing(ODD)starting from the third cycle. Five out of 8 pts receiving 37.5 mg continuous ODD reduced the dose at 25 mg continuous ODD or modified the schedule. Four pts started with 25 mg continuous ODD and 2 of them continued the treatment at modified schedule. Median number of cycles administered was 7 (range 2-16).

RESULTS
Response rate was 87% (13pts) in 15 evaluable pts. Overall response included 40% (6 pts) of PR, 20% (3pts) of CR, 33% (5pts) of SD > 6 mos. Progressive disease was observed only in 1patient. TTP was 12.4 months (95% CI, 4.8-32.6). Overall survival was 34.2 months (95% CI, 27.3- ). The main toxicity requiring dose reduction or schedule modification was haematological (46%), G3Anemia in 1 pt G3-4 thrombocytopenia in 3pts and G3 leukoneutrophenia in 3pts. No any toxicity required treatment interruption.

CONCLUSIONS
In summary these results show the feasibility and the efficacy of S in elderly population with high response rate regardless the doses and schedule used.


Abstract A retrospective view of South African President Jacob Zuma's delivery portfolio provides evidence of unfulfilled promises and continued erosion of democratic principles and practices enshrined in the constitution. In the election address of 6 May 2009, as well as the inaugural speech of 9 May 2009, one notes a much more inward-looking, 'man of the people' approach than that of his predecessor, President Mbeki, who advocated pan-Africanism as the foremost priority. In President Zuma's election speech of 6 May 2009, he constantly foregrounds local affiliations and references to his own positive personal qualities, addressing exclusively the ANC majority votership, while at his inauguration he addresses the entire nation. There is a visibly distinct shift from extreme subjective authorship in the election speech to attempted objectivity in the inaugural address, as the signs of the individual authorial presence are reduced in the inaugural speech, in order to attempt a more inclusive rhetoric. Furthermore, his State of the Nation address of 2011 is characterised by an overriding theme of self-praise, other-blaming and veiled threats. In summary then, President Zuma's speeches signal a radical shift from Africanism and pan-Africanism and from the agenda of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), to neo-traditional, patriarchal notions of governance.


Abstract This study surveys recently graduated sport psychology (SP) doctoral students' (N = 34) educational backgrounds, work experiences, and perceptions of the professional field of SP inside and outside the realm of academia. Special attention was given to subjects' perceptions and expectations with regard to applied work in SP, actual work experiences, and income. Findings indicate that almost all graduates are spending their time in a variety of work activities, i.e., some combination of teaching, research, consulting, administration, and coaching, with a strong emphasis on teaching in an academic institution. Gender analysis revealed that, in general, females earned 74% of what males earned; females earned 53% of what males earned outside academia. Graduates' personal comments suggest a concern about consumer demand and financial support offered applied professionals in SP as well as the adequacy of their own training to provide applied services. Implications for AAASP and SP program directors are ...


The construction industry's environment is continually changing. Employees are now more
geographically widespread and diverse, both culturally and educationally, than ever before. A
great deal of research has been carried out on knowledge acquisition and storage, but there is
still a distinct lack of research into knowledge presentation and communication. Information
and knowledge presentation play a significant role in daily decision-making processes, when
inappropriate decisions may result from inaccurate or poorly communicated information. The
simplified, filtered coherent presentation of explicit knowledge can be instrumental to a
successful, profitable and safety conscious business.
Wates Construction is a major construction company and employs around 1300 people
directly, as well as various subcontractors on different projects. Their current turn over is
around £1billion, they are based in the UK and have branches in Ireland and Abu Dhabi.
Wates realised their existing information system was inefficiently conveying information to
its employees and the need to provide a simplified system, to assist staff's decision-making
processes. Earlier IT professionals' attempts to make the system more usable had made no
significant difference to its performance.


The current study aimed to examine the effects of strategic planning, online planning, strategic planning and online planning combined (joint planning), and no planning on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of oral productions in two simple and complex narrative tasks. Eighty advanced EFL learners performed one simple narrative task and a complex narrative task with 20 minutes in between. The order of the two stories was counterbalanced to control for any possible practice effect. The results suggest that no planning in both tasks was the least effective. Strategic planning led the learners to elevate both their complexity and fluency significantly in the narrative simple task and only their fluency in the complex task. Online planning helped the participants improve their accuracy significantly both in the simple and complex tasks. Finally, joint planning resulted in the significant elevation of accuracy and fluency in the simple task on the one hand, and complexity and accuracy in the complex task on the other. With respect to the effect of task complexity, the interaction between task complexity and CAF was significant. The results and comparisons between groups are discussed in the light of Levelt's model of speaking, Skehan's Trade-off Hypothesis, and earlier studies.


EFFECT OF Abstract Information technology systems in healthcare have existed for several years and gained relatively widespread usage. Therefore, factors of IT adoption have largely been discussed in literatures in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of using systems. However, existing frameworks are failing to include an important aspect, the technostress undertaken by physicians. Our research idea is that IT adoption in a clinical environment depends on five different dimensions of technostress (e.g. work overload, techno-invasion and etc. al) of physicians through PU and PEOU based on TAM model. This paper first made comprehensive literature review to the content about technostress and different theories related to adoption, then put forward five hypotheses based on the TAM Model, which has been widely perceived by scholars. As for the model construction and data collection, the research intends to use a 5-point Likert scale and select physicians at different levels from 7 representative hospitals' basic units located in Shaanxi province. Based on all above, we expect the research could offer a subtle theoretical understanding about the nature of technostress and their impact on adoption by physicians. On the practical front, the research has implications for managers intending to design managerial procedures or rules for the purpose of improving the adoption.


This publication describes systems and techniques to indicate to a user of an electronic device remaining battery life in terms of a number of activities that can likely be performed before the battery's power is depleted. The user interface (UI) or operating system (OS) of many electronic devices, such as those of smartphones, provides an indication of remaining battery life in terms of a percentage of a fully-charged battery. For example, when a battery is halfway depleted, the electronic device indicates fifty percent (50%) remaining power. Many users are not, however, able to convert a percentage of total battery charge into a quantity of activities that can be completed before the battery's charge is exhausted. Described systems and techniques monitor recent activities performed by a user and an amount of battery usage per activity. A battery module computes how many of each of these activities can be completed based on the per-activity battery usage and a remaining battery percentage. The battery module uses the UI to indicate a number of activities that can be completed prior to the battery being depleted or reaching a critical level. In these manners, the user can tailor usage of the electronic device to ensure that important tasks are completed before the battery dies.


[1] The use of elastic plate theory to model the emplacement of laccoliths and large mafic sills has been debated for nearly 40 years. These intrusions typically attain a horizontal width that is large relative to the emplacement depth. Provided that large-scale plasticity and/or heterogeneity is not observed in the overlying host rock, it should then be valid to approximate its deformation based on analysis of a thin elastic plate with effective properties that are the consequence of interaction among heterogeneities that are small relative to the size of the intrusion. But the predictions that are usually cited from elastic plate theory are characterized by bell-shaped geometry, in contrast to the flat-topped, steep-sided geometry typical of many laccoliths or the nearly uniform thickness typical of large mafic sills. This fact has motivated several alternate explanations of laccolith and large mafic sill emplacement. Nonetheless, elastic plate theory should be revisited in light of the fact that previous elastic plate-based predictions have, in general, not taken into account an appropriate fracture propagation condition, fluid flow in the growing intrusion, and, importantly, the influence of the weight of the magma on intrusion growth. We present a model for the growth of circular intrusions that accounts for all of these factors. The model predicts the appropriate geometry for both laccoliths and large mafic sills. The predicted thickness to length relationships are also consistent with field data. Hence, while it may sometimes be appropriate, there is, in general, no fundamental need to appeal to large-scale rock plasticity in order to explain observed intrusion geometries, and it may, in fact, be appropriate to understand the growth of laccoliths and large sills in light of a single underlying mechanical model.


Present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of monsoon rains and topography on plant communities of desert ecosystem of District Khairpur. The study was conducted at three desert sites differing in topography i.e. Kotdiji sand dunes, Ubhan Shah flat dunes and Sorah inter dunes, designated as site A, B and C respectively using quadrate method. The data of plant communities were recorded twice in a year during study period i.e. pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons and compared. The 35 plant species formed five plant communities at three sites. At site A Aerva - Calligonum-Leptadenia, formed pre-monsoon community and Aerva - Leptadenia–Salvadora formed post monsoon community. At site B, Aerva-Calligonum-Leptadenia and Aerva-Leptadenia-Citrullus formed pre and post monsoon communities respectively. While at site C, Calotropis-Alhagi, were dominant at pre and post monsoon. L. pyrotechnica showed significant correlation with C. colosynthesis and S. oleoides.


Mechanisms for maintaining biodiversity are still unclear despite considerable research. The classic theory predicts that stable co‐occurrence of competitive species requires niche differentiation. In fact, the co‐occurring species are often differentiated from each other. However, the neutral theory assuming equivalence of the reproductive rate of all individuals regardless of the species in a biological community has successfully recreated the observed patterns of species abundance distribution. This success is based on the unrealistic assumption suggesting that some mechanisms eliminate interspecific differences in the reproductive rates. Here, I present sexual selection as a candidate of the mechanisms by constructing analytical and simulation models. Sexual selection affects the traits that increase mating success even at the expense of fecundity when the species is abundant. By contrast, when the species is at a relatively low density, this negative effect on fecundity is mitigated because less competition for mating occurs in the rare species. The analytical model of this effect on fecundity predicted that sexual organisms stop population growth before exhausting resources due to the effect. This prediction was confirmed by simulation models. The simulations also showed that hundreds of competitive species with interspecific differences in reproductive potential can coexist over 10,000 generations. Moreover, species abundance distributions obtained from the simulations were similar to the patterns observed in field data. Given the generality of sexual reproduction in nature, sexual selection is likely to play a significant role in sustaining biodiversity over a broad range of environments. Synthesis. Evolution does not always maximize population growth rate. This study shows that evolution of sexual selection controls the population growth rate according to density and stabilizes the population size. This stabilizing effect has a potential to rescue endangered species from extinction, prevent overgrowth of common species, promote coexistence of competitive species, and successfully recreate the observed patterns of species abundance distribution.


Synchrotron–laser pump-probe (PP) luminescence measurements have been undertaken in hexagonal-phase boron nitride. For non-resonant excitation below the boron K-edge, the dynamics of the transients induced by the application of laser probes at 1.49, 2.33 and 3.07 eV are determined, as well as the signal recovery to equilibrium after the probes are removed. The transients are shown to be entirely related to the presence of trapping states within the material. By varying the synchrotron pump energy, the system dynamics are shown to change significantly, due to alteration in competition between the defect centres. As the synchrotron energy is scanned across the near-edge x-ray absorption (NEXAFS) region of the boron K-edge (190–205 eV), PP NEXAFS can be extracted directly from the trapping rate changes, and this opens the possibilities for directly linking particular charge trapping centres with their chemical environments. This is the first report where such processes have been used to obtain luminescence-based PP x-ray absorption spectra.


Abstract:This essay places Kant and Proust in dialogue around the question of aesthetic pleasure. It focuses upon two obscure and largely neglected instances of spectatorship staged in À la recherche du temps perdu in order to highlight an oscillation within our experience of the beautiful. This oscillation pertains to the possibility and impossibility of sharing one's pleasures with others. When Kant separated the judgment of taste from the cognitive, practical, and moral domains of human experience, he also made it difficult to communicate much, if at all, about instances of art and beauty. This gives rise to a structure within the aesthetic experience that I call "communicability without communication." Through an analysis of aesthetic spectatorship in À la recherche, I show how, despite its insistence upon the universality of aesthetic judgments, the Kantian notion of the aesthetic is haunted by the threat of solipsism. With Kant and Proust, I develop an original theoretical account of the ways in which works of art sustain our longing for community, while nevertheless frustrating those desires.


Background Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterized by fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. Although interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a major cause of death in this disease, pulmonary function remains stable in a subset of SSc patients with ILD without any treatment. However, clinical characteristics in this subset of patients are not well characterized. Objectives To investigate clinical characteristics of SSc patients with ILD who do not require additional immunosuppressive treatment for ILD. Methods A total of 151 SSc patients with ILD who received medical care at Seoul National University Hospital between 1978 and 2013 were enrolled in this study. ILD was diagnosed based on chest computed tomography (CT) and the extent of ILD was semi-quantitatively graded into 1-4 (grade 1, <25%; grade 2, 25–50%; grade 3, 50–75%; grade 4, >75% of lung involvement). Detailed baseline clinical characteristics were obtained from medical record review. Mortality was ascertained from medical record review and data from the Statistics Korea. After confirming survival benefit of untreated group versus treated group with Kaplan Meier analysis, clinical characteristics of untreated group were defined by comparison with treated group (chi-square test or Student t-test). Sensitivity test was performed by proving survival benefit of patients with the defined characteristics in the untreated group (log-rank test). Results The mean (standard deviation) age at diagnosis of 151 patients was 48.7 (12.9) years and 88.7% were women. Eighty (52.9%) patients did not receive immunosuppressive treatment for ILD, while 71 (47.0%) patients required immunosuppressive treatment, which includes cyclophosphamide (n=46), azathioprine (n=8), glucocorticoids (n=14) and others (n=3). Interestingly, median survival of non-treatment group was significantly better than treatment group during the follow-up of 1300.80 person-years (p=0.029 by log-rank test). Compared with treatment group, non-treatment group had higher baseline predicted % of forced vital capacity (FVC, 79.2±16.8% vs. 68.0±18.2, p<0.001), predicted % of diffusion capacity of carbon monoxide (DLCO, 66.4±20.5 vs. 52.0±17.9, p<0.001), lower CT grade (Grade 1: 89.6% vs. 54.7%, p<0.001), absence of pulmonary arterial hypertension (83.8% vs. 64.8%, p=0.013) and absence of gastrointestinal involvement (60.0% vs. 39.0%). Other baseline characteristics were not different, which include age at diagnosis, duration of disease, skin subset, profile of autoantibodies, involvement of heart or kidney and subtypes of ILD on CT. Among the non-treatment group, patients with the defined characteristics showed significant survival benefit than those without the characteristics (p=0.0047 by log-rank test). Conclusions Watch and wait approach may be applied to patients with SSc-associated ILD with minimal pulmonary infiltrates on CT scan and absence of pulmonary arterial hypertension at ILD diagnosis. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.3686


In this paper we suggest a model in which f electrons are bound in a narrow band near Fermi level, s-p-d electrons free and hybridization between them is considered. Numerical results show that the local magnetic moment of the f electron possesses certain stability under varying pressures. A phase diagram is plotted. The case of intermediate valence is discussed qualitatively.


The constant increase in bandwidth and bit rate happening nowadays amongst networks, makes it easier and easier to communicate and distribute information throughout the world. In spite of that, still many of these interactions rely on a server-client model, which has been proven to be very suitable for most of said interactions over networks, but still it has a huge drawback, it depends on one entity, the server, and if the server fails, all the model goes along with it. Peer-to-peer (P2P) model appeared to remedy this shortcoming but it has not been able to achieve the level of the server-client model. In this report, a new alternative to both these models will be introduced, described and put up to a performance test, this alternative is called network coding. This technique promotes the mixing of data in all the nodes of a network, achieving a greater throughput with the penalty of an added delay. A study across on how network coding works is presented, followed by a test and evaluation trial that presents the performance behaviour of said technique when compared to traditional multicasts and multiple unicasts. It is proven in this report, that by applying this technique to the various existing networks nowadays (i.e. Internet, LAN, mobile network), these benefit far more than suffer from detriments brought by network coding, like the delay, always achieving faster distribution times. This report was written in the context of a dissertation work and so it comprises three main parts: the notions of what network coding is and why should it be used; the development of an efficient solution to P2P networks using network coding; the description of the experimental setup, the simulation environment and results obtained by these simulations and consequent evaluation.


Weather, in particular the intensity and duration of sunshine (luminance), has been shown to significantly affect financial markets. Yet, because of the complexity of market interactions we do not know how human behavior is affected by luminance in a way that could inform theoretical choice models. In this paper, we use data from a field study using an incentive-compatible, decision task conducted daily over a period of two years and from the US Earth System Research Laboratory luminance sensor to investigate the impact of luminance on risk preferences, ambiguity preferences, choice consistency and dominance violations. We find that luminance levels affect all of these. Age and gender influence the strength of some of these effects.


A hallmark of the changes in dynamics towards the glass transition is the stretched exponential structural relaxation. Quasielastic neutron scattering results on liquid rubidium demonstrate such a nonexponential relaxation process in a simple liquid metal above the melting point. The nonexponential decay is an indication of non-Markovian dynamics and points to the collective character of the relaxation process. Describing the relaxation dynamics by a two-step process, the long lasting part of the decay process is in remarkable quantitative agreement with predictions from mode coupling theory. The feedback mechanism of the slowing down process in the theoretical description suggests that this contribution is at the origin of the structural arrest. With rising temperature the intermediate scattering function transforms into a simple exponential decay at a temperature range which indicates the end of the highly viscous solidlike behavior in the liquid.


The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of ibuprofen, indomethacin, diclofenac and naproxen for sustained release drug delivery systems, on the thermal and mechanical properties of polymeric free films of Eudragit RS. Free films with different drug contents were prepared by casting-solvent evaporation method. Thermal properties of free films were determined using a differential scanning calorimeter. Morphology of films, mechanical tests and water vapor transmission were also studied. Overall results demonstrated that percent elongation and elasticity of ERS films was increased by incorporation of ibuprofen and indomethacin in the films. Plasticization effect of ibuprofen was mainly due to lipophilic interaction of drug and polymer backbone while in the case of indomethacin, separation of polymeric chains via drug crystallization between polymer segments could affect the elasticity of free films. Naproxen and diclofenac not only had no plasticizing effect but also decrease the flexibility of polymeric films.


Infostations is a new system concept proposed to support "many time, many where" wireless messaging services. Three basic scenarios, sit-through, walk-through, and drive-through are used to describe the user mobility in Infostations. In order to handle channel access and allocation, retransmission, and adaptive transmission rate adjustment in Infostations, we propose an intelligent transmission protocol called WINMAC in this paper. The design and implementation issues of WINMAC for a prototype Infostation system based on a commercial radio chip set for 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN are described.


We have used reflection high‐energy electron diffraction to study the surface periodicity of the growth front of InAs/GaInSb strained‐layer superlattices (SLSs). We found that the apparent surface lattice spacing reproducibly changed during layers which subsequent x‐ray measurements indicated were coherently strained. Abrupt changes in the measured streak spacings were found to be correlated to changes in the growth flux. The profile of the dynamic streak spacing was found to be reproducible when comparing consecutive periods of a SLSs or different SLSs employing the same shuttering scheme at the InAs/GaInSb interface. Finally, when the interface shuttering scheme was changed, it was found that the dynamic streak separation profile also changed. Large changes in the shuttering scheme led to dramatic differences in the streak separation profile, and small changes in the shuttering scheme led to minor changes in the profile. In both cases, the differences in the surface periodicity profile occurred during the parts of the growth where the incident fluxes differed.


An open study was carried out in general practice to assess the analgesic effectiveness, tolerance and side-effects of salsalate when given at a dosage of 3 g per day for 6 weeks. Sixty-six patients who were known long-term analgesic users were treated: they included 16 with active inflammatory disease of rheumatoid type, 20 with degenerative joint disease, and 27 with other musculo-skeletal conditions. Three patients were withdrawn during the study because of gastro-intestinal upset. Assessments, using rating scale scores, were made pre-trial and at 2-weekly intervals of joint pain, other musculo-skeletal pain, and duration of morning stiffness. The results showed that there was marked improvement in joint pain and morning stiffness, particularly in those patients with inflammatory joint disease. Improvement in musculo-skeletal discomfort was less evident. Side-effects were reported on 24 occasions, the most frequent being dyspepsia. Faecal occult blood tests showed that there were 7 patients with probable blood loss during treatment, 4 of them, however, had no other clinical signs or symptoms of gastrointestinal intolerance.


Background Cluster of differentiation 8 (CD8) is expressed in cytotoxic T cells, where it functions as a co-receptor for the T-cell receptor by binding to major histocompatibility complex class I (MHCI) proteins, which present peptides on the cell surface. CD8A is critical for cell-mediated immune defense and T-cell development. CD8A transcription is controlled by several cis-acting elements and trans-acting elements and is also regulated by DNA methylation. However, the epigenetic regulation of CD8A in the duck and its relationship with virus infection are still unclear. Results We investigated the epigenetic transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, for the expression of the CD8A and further evaluated the contribution of such epigenetic regulatory mechanisms to DHV-I infection in the duck. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) revealed the highest level of CD8A expression to be in the thymus, followed by the lungs, spleen, and liver, and the levels of CD8A expression were very low in the kidney, cerebrum, cerebellum, and muscle in the duck. RT-qPCR also demonstrated that the CD8A mRNA was down-regulated significantly in morbid ducklings treated with DHV-1 and up-regulated significantly in non-morbid ducklings in all the tissues tested. In addition, hypermethylation of CD8A was detected in the morbid ducklings, whereas relatively low methylation of CD8A was evident in the non-morbid ducklings. The CD8A mRNA level was negatively associated with the CpG methylation level of CD8A and global methylation status. Conclusions We concluded that the mRNA level of the CD8A was negatively associated with the CpG methylation level of CD8A and global methylation status in the duck, suggesting that the hypermethylation of CD8A may be associated with DHV-1 infection. The first two CpG sites of the CD8A promoter region could be considered as epigenetic biomarkers for resistance breeding against duckling hepatitis disease in the duck.


This course consists of the study of childhood development in the physical, cognitive and psychosocial areas. This course will address some of the problems children face during this developmental period in the lifespan.


Electrolysis under Galvanostatic and Potentiostatic Conditions DTU Orbit (07/11/2019) A Comparative Study of Durability of Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells Tested for Co-Electrolysis under Galvanostatic and Potentiostatic Conditions State-of-the-art SOECs consisting of a nickel-yttria stabilized zirconia (Ni-YSZ) fuel electrode, YSZ electrolyte and lanthanum strontium cobaltite ferrite-gadolinium doped ceria (LSCF-GDC) composite oxygen electrode were tested under co-electrolysis (H2O+CO2) conditions. The aim in this study was to compare the SOEC durability under co-electrolysis conditions between galvanostatic and potentiostatic modes. Specifically, the cells were operated at 0.75 A/cm(2) (galvanostatic) and at 1.2V(potentiostatic) at 750 degrees C for over 1000 hours. In both modes, a larger degradation was observed initially for the first 200 hours of testing, followed by a more stable performance over longer operating times. Interestingly, there was a difference in trends of serial and polarization resistances' evolution. In galvanostatic mode of operation, both increased while for potentiostatic mode only the polarization resistance increased over time. The difference of the degradation was attributed to the overpotentials being experienced by the cells in the respective modes. Trends of the area specific resistance (ASR) and detailed electrochemical analysis of the performance of the cell under durability conditions for both modes indicated that the degradation was due to both the fuel electrode and the oxygen electrode, with an additional contribution from fuel electrode in galvanostatic testing. Microstructural analysis also confirmed the degradation of the active fuel electrode. (C) The Author(s) 2018. Published by ECS.


The goal of few-shot classification is to classify new categories with few labeled examples within each class. Nowadays, the excellent performance in handling few-shot classification problems is shown by metric-based meta-learning methods. However, it is very hard for previous methods to discriminate the fine-grained sub-categories in the embedding space without fine-grained labels. This may lead to unsatisfactory generalization to fine-grained sub-categories, and thus affects model interpretation. To tackle this problem, we introduce the contrastive loss into few-shot classification for learning latent fine-grained structure in the embedding space. Furthermore, to overcome the drawbacks of random image transformation used in current contrastive learning in producing noisy and inaccurate image pairs (i.e., views), we develop a learning-to-learn algorithm to automatically generate different views of the same image. Extensive experiments on standard few-shot learning benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of our method.


Overshadowed by its massive cousin just to the west, the island and civilization of Taiwan is easily overlooked but has long been a bastion of great intellectual activity on all disciplinary fronts. Many of us in Chinese studies visit Taiwan regularly, use its resources, mingle with Taiwan-based academics, present our research there, and take time to enjoy what it offers in cuisine, art, music, and natural beauty. A much smaller number of us focus our research on Taiwan itself, and the way that research is carried out is fraught with the problems of a contested epistemological geography. Some center their research solely on Taiwan. Others take a comparative approach. In my opinion, both of these ways of organizing and presenting ones findings are acceptable, and the litmus test for judging research on Taiwan should be the intrinsic quality of that work and not based upon whether one is a "pure" Taiwan studies scholar or not. All this stems from Taiwan's continued ambiguous and indeterminate status in the world politically and ethnically. This problem will not go away soon, but that does not mean we should shrink from it. The motivation for writing this short piece came from my reading of Emily Baum's (2011) review of Yomi Braester's new book Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Conflict (2010).


Very little data have been reported that describe the structure of the tail domain of any cytoplasmic intermediate filament (IF) protein. We report here the results of studies using site directed spin labeling and electron paramagnetic resonance (SDSL‐EPR) to explore the structure and dynamics of the tail domain of human vimentin in tetramers (protofilaments) and filaments. The data demonstrate that in contrast to the vimentin head and rod domains, the tail domains are not closely apposed in protofilaments. However, upon assembly into intact IFs, several sites, including positions 445, 446, 451, and 452, the conserved "beta‐site," become closely apposed, indicating dynamic changes in tail domain structure that accompany filament elongation. No evidence is seen for coiled‐coil structure within the region studied, in either protofilaments or assembled filaments. EPR analysis also establishes that more than half of the tail domain is very flexible in both the assembly intermediate and the intact IF. However, by positioning the spin label at distinct sites, EPR is able to identify both the rod proximal region and sites flanking the beta‐site motif as rigid locations within the tail. The rod proximal region is well assembled at the tetramer stage with only slight changes occurring during filament elongation. In contrast, at the beta site, the polypeptide backbone transitions from flexible in the assembly intermediate to much more rigid in the intact IF. These data support a model in which the distal tail domain structure undergoes significant conformational change during filament elongation and final assembly.


The hemodynamic effects of flestolol were evaluated in 30 patients undergoing routine cardiac catheterization. Hemodynamic measurements were obtained during baseline (prior to flestolol), at steady state during IV flestolol infusion (1, 5, and 10 μg/kg/min) and at 20 to 30 minutes after discontinuation (postinfusion). Flestolol‐induced hemodynamic changes were similar to those induced by other beta blockers without intrinsic sympathomimetic activity. Significant dose‐dependent reduction in heart rate, rate pressure product, and increase in peripheral vascular resistance were seen. Flestolol produced clinically insignificant decrease in myocardial contractility as shown by slight decrease in LVdp/dt, CI, and LVEF. Hemodynamic data from patients with paced heart rate, further confirms a direct mild cardiac depressant effect of flestolol, a finding common to other beta blockers. Consistent with the short elimination half‐life of flestolol (t1/2 = 6.5 minutes), most of the hemodynamic changes rapidly returned to preinfusion level within 20 to 30 minutes following its discontinuation. Thus flestolol, with its unique pharmacokinetic profile and titrability, may be beneficial in the treatment of critically ill patients.


Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished). In 2006, about 18% of global final energy consumption came from renewables, with 13% coming from traditional biomass, such as wood-burning and 3% from hydroelectricity. New renewables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels) accounted for 2.4% and are growing very rapidly. The share of renewables in electricity generation is around 18%, with 15% of global electricity coming from hydroelectricity and 3.4% from new renewables. Wind power is growing at the rate of 30% annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 121,000 megawatts (MW) in 2008, and is widely used in European countries and the United States. The annual manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached 6,900 MW in 2008, and photovoltaic (PV) power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert.


A 53-year-old woman visited the Department of Rheumatology with a chief complaint of a 3-day history of fever and chills and also presented with pain occuring in both knees at the time of outpatient visit. Based on rheumatologic and hematological lab studies, ultrasonography, and a needle aspiration biopsy of the articular cavity, the patient was diagnosed with reactive arthritis. On hospitalization day 3, consultation with the Department of Ophthalmology was requested regarding decreased visual acuity lasting for 3 days. Upon ophthalmologic examination, the corrected visual acuity was 0.1 in the right eye and 0.05 in the left eye. Upon slit lamp microscopy, there were no abnormal findings in the anterior segment. Upon fundus examination, however, there were yellow-white lesions in the macular area of both eyes. Fluorescein angiographywas performed to assess the macular lesions, and the findings were suggestive of macular infarction in both eyes. Due to a lack of other underlying disease, a past surgical history, and a past history of drug administration, the patient was diagnosed with macular infarction in both eyes associated with reactive arthritis. To date, there have been no other such cases reported. In a patient with reactive arthritis, we experienced a case of macular infarction in both eyes, which occurred without association with a past history of specific drug use or underlying disease. Herein, we report our case, with a review of the literature.


It is well known that there exists strong energy correlation between various subbands of a real-world image. A new powerful technique of Finite State Vector Quantization (FSVQ) has been introduced to fully exploit the self-similarity of the image in wavelet domain across different scales. Lattices in R/sup N/ have considerable structure, and hence, Lattice VQ offers the promise of design simplicity and reduced complexity encoding. The combination of FSVQ and LVQ gives rise to the so-called FSLVQ, which is proved to be successful in exploiting the energy correlation across scales and is simple enough in implementation.


Thin CO2 laser beam system is applied to the line-quenching process of a carbon steel block under traveling heat condition. Since it is very difficult to experimentally evaluate the temperature variation, characteristic property of laser irradiated zone and residual stresses during and after the operation, especially, in heat traveling condition, numerical simulation by finite element simulation code •gHEARTS•h is implemented based on metallo-thermomechanics developed by the authors. The results of the simulated stress distribution seem to represent the practical mode of tensile and compressive stresses after quenching, and characteristics of the martensite transformed region is compared with the observed micrograph in cross section of the block. Stress distribution and volume fraction of martensite of the edge of starting and finishing the beam reveal to differ from the data at the intermediate part. Some numerical simulation is carried out to evaluate the effect of operating condition.


Kinetic rate constants for 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) and the tissue-blood partition coefficient of water were determined using dynamic positron emission tomography in conscious macaques, and alterations in these parameters in aging or anesthesia were also examined. The parameters were estimated on a pixel-by-pixel basis using an anatomic standardization technique; group differences were then examined on the parametric images from the young, aged, and anesthesia groups. For the conscious condition, seven young and seven aged male rhesus macaques were used; six young male rhesus macaques were used for the isoflurane anesthesia condition. H215O and FDG were used as tracers. The kinetic parameters were estimated by a nonlinear least-square fitting procedure with compartment models including terms for the cerebral blood volume (CBV) and time delay of the input function. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc) were also calculated from the estimated parameters. In the aged group, glucose phosphorylation was decreased more than glucose transport, and the occipital cortex was the most affected region where reduction in CBV, CMRglc, and CBF were also observed. In the anesthesia group, glucose transport was decreased; however, glucose phosphorylation was not affected except for the occipital pole. The occipital cortex was also the most affected region. The tissue-blood partition coefficient of water was decreased globally.


Space diversity reception and forward-error correction coding are powerful techniques to combat multipath fading encountered in mobile radio communications. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a discrete-time switched diversity system using trellis-coded modulation multiple phase-shift keying (TCM-MPSK) on slow, nonselective correlated Nakagami (1960) fading channels. Analytical upper bounds using the transfer function bounding technique are obtained and illustrated by several numerical examples. A simple integral expression for calculating the exact pairwise error probability is presented. The use of optimum adaptive and fixed switching thresholds is considered. Monte Carlo simulation results, which are more indicative of the exact system performance, are also given.


UML is now widely accepted as the standard modeling language for software construction. The Class Diagram is its core view, having well formed semantics and providing the backbone for any modeling effort. Class diagrams are widely used for purposes such as software specification, database and ontology engineering, meta-modeling, and model transformation. The central role played by class diagrams emphasizes the need for strengthening UML modeling tools with features such as recognition of erroneous models and the detection of errors' sources. Correctness of UML class diagrams refers to the capability of a diagram to denote a finite but not empty reality. This is a natural, unquestionable requirement. Nevertheless, incorrect diagrams are often designed, due to the interaction of contradicting constraints and the limitations of current tools. In this paper, the authors clarify the notion of class diagram correctness, discuss various approaches for detecting correctness problems, and propose a pattern-based approach for identifying situations in which correctness problems occur, and for providing explanations and repair advices.


When a spacetime has boundaries, the entangling surface does not have to be necessarily compact and it may have boundaries as well. Then there appear a new, boundary, contribution to the entanglement entropy due to the intersection of the entangling surface with the boundary of the spacetime. We study the boundary contribution to the logarithmic term in the entanglement entropy in dimensions d=3 and d=4 when the entangling surface is orthogonal to the boundary. In particular, we compute a boundary term in the entropy of N=4 supergauge multiplet at weak coupling. For gauge fields we use a prescription which is consistent with the positive area law. The boundary term is compared with the holographic calculation of the entropy based on the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal adapted appropriately to the present situation. We find a complete agreement between these two calculations provided the boundary conditions imposed on the gauge multiplet preserve 1/2 of the supersymmetry and the extension of the boundary into the anti–de Sitter bulk is a minimal hypersurface.


SUMMARY: Two colonial strains of Neurospora crmsa have been found suitable for testing nutritional requirements by replica plating. One strain (crisp) has been replicated with a set of needles and the other (crisp, ragged) with filter paper. When ripe perithecia from crisp × crisp crosses are submerged in water, complete asci can be collected rapidly with a capillary pipette.


The excellent maneuverability and the availability of a large number of sensors including good quality video cameras make quadcopters attractive for surveillance systems. Most video surveillance systems need a real-time high quality video stream from the cameras on the quadcopter to the base station which requires a stable and reliable radio link. Moreover, to ensure a controlled flight, it is essential to maintain a good quality radio link from the base station to the quad- copter. The quality of this link depends on the distance between base station and quadcopter as well as the ambient noise. Towards this end, we present a controller to hover a quadcopter at the maximum distance from the base station while maintaining the link quality at a given value indicated by the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). There are existing solu- tions in the field of robotics that incorporate the concept of link aware mobility. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first link-quality aware mobility implementation on a quadcopter.


Plums could be a potential crop for growers and homeowners in Florida and other mild winter areas throughout the Gulf coast, but many plum varieties will not grow well enough in Florida to produce fruit. In response to this need, the University of Florida has developed cultivars that improve the potential for growing plums in Florida. This revised 13-page fact sheet provides information for growing plums in Florida including information about chilling hours, pollination and fruit set, fruit harvesting, and yields, as well as information about the plum cultivars adapted to grow in Florida. Written by M. Olmstead, E.P. Miller, P.C. Andersen, and J.G. Williamson, and published by the Horticultural Sciences Department, January 2016.
HS895/HS250: Growing Plums in Florida (ufl.edu)


Range-oversampling processing is a technique that can be used to lower the variance of radar-variable estimates, reduce radar update times, or a mixture of both. There are two main assumptions for using range-oversampling processing: accurate knowledge of the range correlation and uniform reflectivity in the radar resolution volume. The first assumption has been addressed in previous research; this work focuses on the uniform reflectivity assumption. Earlier research shows that significant reflectivity gradients can occur in storms; we utilized those results to develop realistic simulations of radar returns that include effects of reflectivity gradients in range. An important consideration when using range-oversampling processing is the resulting change in the range weighting function. The range weighting function can change for different types of range-oversampling processing and some techniques, such as adaptive pseudowhitening, can lead to different range weighting functions at each range gate. To quantify the possible effects of differing range weighting functions in the presence of reflectivity gradients, we developed simulations to examine varying types of range-oversampling processing with two receiver filters: a matched receiver filter and a wider-bandwidth receiver filter (as recommended for use with range oversampling). Simulation results show that differences in range weighting functions are the only contributor to differences in radar reflectivity measurements. Results from real weather data demonstrate that the reflectivity gradients that occur in typical severe storms do not cause significant changes in reflectivity measurements, and the benefits from range-oversampling processing outweigh the possible isolated effects from large reflectivity gradients.


Introduction Dog owners have gradually changed their approach, paying more attention to the nutrition and health of their animals. Various pet foods with different ingredients and nutritional characteristics are available on the market. The present study aimed to evaluate the administration of three diets, namely, two grain-free (GF1 and GF2) and one grain-based (CB), with different sources of carbohydrates that can influence the glycemic and insulin postprandial responses in healthy dogs. Materials Fifteen healthy dogs were dived in three groups and alternatively fed each diet for 50 days. Blood samples were collected at beginning of each feeding period. Glycemia and insulin were measured before and after 120, 240 and 360 minutes diet administration to evaluate postprandial responses. Results GF2 diet showed the highest level of albumin and mean insulin concentration (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the GF1 diet caused the smallest (p < 0.001) glucose and insulin area under the curve (AUC) and the lowest (p < 0.05) glucose nadir. Otherwise, GF1 showed the highest (p < 0.01) insulin time to peak. The GF2 diet showed the highest level of albumin while reporting the lowest amount of fructosamine (p < 0.05). The diet GF2 registered the highest (p < 0.001) level of insulin zenith. The cereal-based (CB) diet reported the highest amount of fructosamine (p < 0.05). The CB diet had the highest levels of glucose and the highest (p < 0.001) glucose and insulin mean concentrations. Diet CB reported the lowest (p < 0.001) insulin nadir. Discussion Diets with different carbohydrate sources and chemical compositions could modulate the glycemic response in healthy dogs. Bearing in mind that glycemic/insulin postprandial responses influence energy availability and that different dogs have specific lifestyles, it may be preferable to also consider these aspects when choosing a maintenance diet for animals


Late Precambrian (Eocambrian) sediments of south Norway, the so-called 'sparagmite sequence', consist of 1500--3000 m of graywackes, shales, arkoses, carbonates, and conglomerates. A system of coarse clastic wedges deposited as fan deltas are found along the margin of the basin, suggesting that sedi mentation took place in well-defined grabens as a response to faulting. The Moelv Tillite is developed both as a massive diamictite and as a drop-stone facies in a laminated matrix, indicating local glaciations around the basin. The sparagmite basin is interpreted as a rift valley structure related to the opening of the protoatlantic ocean. The late Precambrian rifting phase was followed by the Lower Cambrian and Middle Cambrian transgression.


This paper considers the Liu estimator in the multinomial logistic regression model. We propose some different estimators of the biasing parameter. The mean square error (MSE) is considered as the performance criterion. In order to compare the performance of the estimators, we performed a Monte Carlo simulation study. According to the results of the simulation study, we found that increasing the correlation between the independent variables and the number of regressors has a negative effect on the MSE. However, when the sample size increases the MSE decreases even when the correlation between the independent variables is large. Based on the minimum MSE criterion some useful estimators for estimating the biasing parameter d are recommended for the practitioners.


In this work, we investigate the influence of the pulse-shape uncertainty on the accuracy of inverse deconvolution algorithms for improving the resolution of long- pulse lidars.


Signal processing usually requires extremely high computing power. Fortunately, with advance in VLSI technology, the required performance could be achieved with more functional units performing concurrent computations on a chip. Supplying demanding data streams to these computational units soon becomes the system-performance bottleneck because of slow off-chip U0 and memory with less improvement speed. We have proposed a data stream generation (DSG) scheme that explores data reuse property existing in most signal processing algorithms while supplying appropriate data sequences. This scheme can make the VLSI signal processors much more latency and cost efficient. In the illustrating example, our DSG supplies the specified streams with 4-cycle setup time at the beginning (latency), instead of 48 cycles for each block in conventional FIFO approaches and only requires U6-storage elements.


".......... Perhaps, in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none, or very little: there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is largely darkness............ And darkness is not a subject for history" – Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper. This chapter is necessitated so that similar comments to Trevor-Roper's on African history would be avoided as it relates to autism spectrum disorders in Africa, even though there are limited research works relating to autism spectrum disorders in Africa at present. Since Leo Kanner first reported autism in his classical paper titled, "Autistic disturbances of affective contact" in 1943 (Kanner, 1943), knowledge and research about autism spectrum disorder have been on the increase in Europe and North America. However, the situation in Africa had remained largely obscured until about the last decade. The pioneer works on autism spectrum disorders in Africa had been by Longe and Asuni (Longe & Asuni, 1972) and Lotter (Lotter, 1978; Lotter, 1980) about three decades after the first report of autism spectrum disorder by Kanner in 1943 (Kanner, 1943). Lotter discussed cross-cultural perspectives on childhood autism. Africa, because of its peculiar sociocultural environment may have divergent conception on various aspects of autism spectrum disorder compared to that envisaged in the Western culture (Bakare et al, 2009a). In the same vein, cultural factors have recently been documented to influence characterization, diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder worldwide (Bernier et al, 2010). It may be important to recall therefore that until about two and half decades ago, autism spectrum disorder was thought to be exclusively an illness peculiar to Western civilization. The existing evidence then suggested that autism occurs mostly in countries with high technological development, high level of industrialization and with salience of nuclear family system. However autism spectrum disorder was also believed to be relatively uncommon even in Western Europe and North America at that time. Nevertheless, the idea that autism may not exist in Africa was further supported by very infrequent report of cases on the continent and other parts of the world outside the West. These observations led Sanua to raise a debate and a pertinent question in 1984 in a paper entitled, "Is infantile autism a universal phenomenon? An open question" (Sanua, 1984).


A nine-year-old, male Cocker Spaniel with a history of surgical excision of oral melanoma located at the gingiva of the left maxilla was evaluated progressively over the course of 1 month post-surgery. The dog had shown signs of respiratory distress. Radiographic examination revealed diffusely pulmonary metastases. The respiratory distress progressively worsened and the dog died following excision of the oral mass. On necropsy, disseminated metastases to various organs including the lungs, heart, mediastinum, liver, kidneys, spleen, tonsil, lymph nodes, adrenal glands, thoracic wall, jejunum, pancreas, and brain were observed. Microscopically, the neoplastic cells were characterized by spindle to polyhedral phenotypes, having centrally located vesicular nuclei with prominent nucleoli, and melanin pigment accumulations in the cytoplasm. Neoplastic cells were seen within organ parenchyma as well as being found as emboli in blood and lymph vessels of those organs. The neoplastic cells demonstrated strongly cytoplasmic immunoreactivity to Melan A. Hematogenous dissemination is considered as an important route for distant metastases of oral melanoma. In this report, we describe the rare disseminated metastasis of an oral melanoma to the brain and gastrointestinal tracts, which are considered to be important sites of melanoma metastases in humans.


The authors present a case of thoracic spinal cord compression secondary to epidural lipomatosis in an obese patient. This patient represents the 10th case of epidural lipomatosis secondary to simple obesity reported in the literature. The diagnosis is based on three criteria: 1) medical history and physical examination consistent with segmental spinal cord compression; 2) epidural fat thickness greater than 7 mm in the region of compression, based on magnetic resonance imaging (preferred) or computerized tomographic imaging; and 3) a height-to-weight ratio greater than 27.5 kg/m2. This specific correlation between epidural fat thickness measurement and calculation of height-to-weight ratio has not previously been reported. Surgical decompression through a posterior laminectomy and excision of excess epidural fat resulted in immediate reversal of the patient's symptoms. Knowledge of the association of epidural lipomatosis with obesity in the absence of glucocorticoid imbalance is important in discerning what may be an underrecognized syndrome.


New restaurants often do not manage to succeed within a reasonable amount of time. Exotic restaurants especially face the problem that price promotions may not attract new customers because prospective customers might associate very low prices for unfamiliar food with a high functional risk. This paper describes how Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW), a new pricing mechanism, was successfully implemented at Kish, a moderately priced Persian restaurant in downtown Frankfurt. After the initial testing phase, which had the characteristics of a promotional offer, the restaurant decided to permanently offer its buffet lunch under PWYW conditions. We report the long-term effects of this decision as well as a simulation demonstrating that profitability is mainly based on 'trading up' the continuous inflow of new customers to the more profitable dining offer where prices are fixed.


The efflux of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from soils influences atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and thereby climate change. The partitioning of inorganic carbon (C) fluxes in the vadose zone between emission to the atmosphere and to the groundwater was investigated to reveal controlling underlying mechanisms. Carbon dioxide partial pressure in the soil gas ( p CO 2 ), alkalinity, soil moisture and temperature were measured over depth and time in unplanted and planted (barley) mesocosms. The dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) percolation flux was calculated from the p CO 2 , alkalinity and the water flux at the mesocosm bottom. Carbon dioxide exchange between the soil surface and the atmosphere was measured at regular intervals. The soil diffusivity was determined from soil radon-222 ( 222 Rn) emanation rates and soil air Rn concentration profiles and was used in conjunction with measured p CO 2 gradients to calculate the soil CO 2 production. Carbon dioxide fluxes were modeled using the HP1 module of the Hydrus 1-D software. The average CO 2 effluxes to the atmosphere from unplanted and planted mesocosm ecosystems during 78 days of experiment were 0.1 ± 0.07 and 4.9 ± 0.07 μmol C m −2 s −1 , respectively, and grossly exceeded the corresponding DIC percolation fluxes of 0.01 ± 0.004 and 0.06 ± 0.03 μmol C m −2 s −1 . Plant biomass was high in the mesocosms as compared to a standard field situation. Post-harvest soil respiration ( R s ) was only 10% of the R s during plant growth, while the post-harvest DIC percolation flux was more than one-third of the flux during growth. The R s was controlled by production and diffusivity of CO 2 in the soil. The DIC percolation flux was largely controlled by the p CO 2 and the drainage flux due to low solution pH. Modeling suggested that increasing soil alkalinity during plant growth was due to nutrient buffering during root nitrate uptake.