Establishing the relative configuration of a bioactive natural product represents the most challenging part in determining its structure. Residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) are sensitive probes of the relative spatial orientation of internuclear vectors. We adapted a force field structure calculation methodology to allow free sampling of both R and S configurations of the stereocenters of interest. The algorithm uses a floating alignment tensor in a simulated annealing protocol to identify the conformations and configurations that best fit experimental RDC and distance restraints (from NOE and J-coupling data). A unique configuration (for rigid molecules) or a very small number of configurations (for less rigid molecules) of the structural models having the lowest chiral angle energies and reasonable magnitudes of the alignment tensor are provided as the best predictions of the unknown configuration. For highly flexible molecules, the progressive locking of their stereocenters into their statistically dominant R or S state dramatically reduces the number of possible relative configurations. The result is verified by checking that the same configuration is obtained by initiating the locking from different regions of the molecule. For all molecules tested having known configurations (with conformations ranging from mostly rigid to highly flexible), the method accurately determined the correct configuration.


Abstract Objective This study was aimed to determine if confirmation bias affects diagnoses in obstetrics, specifically estimation of blood loss and amniotic fluid volume. Study Design We performed a randomized simulation-based trial. Participants went through the following three consecutive scenarios: (1) the first involved estimating the volume of blood (actually a blood-like substance) in a container at the simulation model's perineum. The actual volume was either 500 or 1,500 mL. Participants were told it was blood seen after a vaginal delivery. One group was told that the "patient" was normotensive, the other was told that the "patient" was hypotensive. (2) The second scenario involved estimation of amniotic fluid from an ultrasound picture of four quadrants, with one group told that the patient was normotensive and the other group told that the patient had chronic hypertension. (3) The third scenario was a "negative image" of the first (i.e., if they had been randomized to the 500 mL/normotensive in scenario one, then they would be presented with the 1,500 mL/hypotensive). They also filled a survey including demographics and tolerance of ambiguity and confirmation bias scales. Results From April 2018 through May 2018, a convenience sample of 85 providers was recruited. Participants were more likely to overestimate blood loss when they were told that the patient was hypotensive (p = 0.024), in comparison to when they were told the patient had normal blood pressure. They were also less likely to estimate the amniotic fluid as normal when they were told that the patient was hypertensive (p = 0.032). Conclusion Confirmation bias affects estimates of blood loss and amniotic fluid.


Patients often show lack of motivation prior to an inpatient behavioral therapy. On the other hand patients have problems to transfer the clinical experience into every day life after discharge. The test program "preparation and follow-up of psychosomatic inpatients" of the Psychosomatic Clinic Bad Dürkheim tries to solve these problems by selected interventions. This pilot program is evaluated in a field study with an experimental and a control group. The control group receives the regular inpatient treatment program. The experimental group additional outpatient interventions. The article presents a part of the total evaluation: acceptance of prestationary information. This was examined with an especially developed assessment questionnaire and a discharge questionnaire. The data clearly show a considerable patient' acceptance of these offers and their positive consequences on the individual therapy. The acceptance of the prestationary information meetings is thereby quite irrespective of the patient's age, gender, school education, and diagnosis.


Nigeria aims to achieve a contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of 36% by 2018 to fulfill their FP2020 commitment. To meet this objective, Nigeria is taking actions to improve equity and access to family planning through a range of policy and programmatic initiatives. FAMILY PLANNING ENVIRONMENT IN NIGERIA Nigeria presents a challenge for health programmers due to its large population of more than 170 million people and wide ranging cultural, religious and political contexts. Progress in improving access to and use of modern contraceptive methods has been similarly challenging. The total fertility rate has recently begun to decline and currently stands at 5.5 children. According to the most recent 2013 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 11.1% of Nigerian women are currently using a modern contraceptive method, a slight increase from 10.5% in 2008.1,2 Short-acting contraceptive methods are most commonly used with only 1.4% of women using a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) or permanent method (LARC/PM). There are significant regional and socioeconomic disparities in use of a modern method. The unmet need for family planning, consequently, remains high at 16.1%.1 SECTOR ROLES IN CONTRACEPTIVE PROVISION The public sector's role as the immediate source of commodities and supplies for contraceptive users in Nigeria has fallen substantially in the past 20 years as private sector provision has rapidly expanded.3 Nearly 60% of Nigerian women reported receiving contraceptives through the private sector, while 30% reported a public sector source. However, the majority of LARC/PMs were received through the public sector. The most common source of modern contraceptives reported (38.2%) was privately-owned, patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs). In Nigeria, the private sector plays a large role in distribution of contraceptive commodities and services, in contrast with most sub-Saharan Africa countries.4 However, high quality evidence on the growing private sector provision of contraceptive methods in Nigeria remains limited.3


This paper presents the design of a highly integrated tuner suitable for analog and digital terrestrial TV applications. The tuner system implements an additional up-conversion stage, which allows allocation of any TV channel at IF to the terrestrial TV frequency band (47-860 MHz). This way, applications of conventional tuner systems are expanded. Results based on standard tests have shown that the designed tuner is able to deliver the necessary performance in terms of selectivity, <-35 dB to adjacent channel protection ratio, SNR of 54 dB, in band spurious emissions lower than 60 dBc and /spl Delta/IMD/sub 3/ of 52.8 dB worst case. Finally it has been also demonstrated that with a careful design of the analog components (mixers and oscillators) the restrictive specifications of the TV tuner can be fulfilled by implementing the tuner in a low-cost standard technology (0.8 /spl mu/m SiGe). The total power consumption of the complete tuner is around 390 mA from a 5 V power supply.


The importance of situation analysis in the project cycle cannot be overstated. This research was carried out in twelve sites where mariculture was practiced in Kilifi, Mombasa and Kwale Counties in the coast of Kenya. The general objective of the research was to assess the effects of situation analysis practices on implementation of mariculture projects in Kenya. The specific objectives were to:- examine the effect of stakeholder analysis on implementation of poverty alleviation mariculture projects, establish the effect of problem analysis on implementation of mariculture projects, and determine the effect of needs assessment on implementation of poverty alleviation mariculture projects. The research was based on quantitative research approach with a cross sectional survey design. Simple random sampling was used to select the number of subjects that represent the target population in the survey. Guided questionnaire administration was adopted to capture responses from members of organized mariculture groups. Factor analysis and regression analysis were conducted on the data collected from the questionnaire survey. Results showed that the poverty alleviation mariculture projects in Kenya are dominated by female actors compared to male actors. Factor analysis revealed that degree of success and degree to which the mariculture projects have addressed their objective of poverty alleviation were the most important measures of project implementation and were named effectiveness. Regression analysis showed that there was a significant positive relationship between stakeholder analysis and effectiveness (β = 0.726; t = 12.59; p = 0.000). Being the single most significant factor influencing mariculture project implementation, stakeholder analysis should be undertaken at the situation analysis stage so that it informs project design. It was concluded that improvements in situation analysis practices brought about by improvements in stakeholder analysis would address poverty among coastal fisher communities by improving implementation of poverty alleviation mariculture projects.


Background Patient derived outcome measures such as patient satisfaction surveys are a vital tool in evaluating current services and can also be used to guide future health care provision. Aims/Objectives To undertake a re-audit of the initial survey in 2008 and incorporates specific questions about the process and experience of care that patients have received. Methods Service users were asked to complete the questionnaire anonymously and leave it in the sealed box provided. Seven clinics across Yorkshire and Humber participated in the survey with a total of 329 questionnaires returned. Results Compared with previous audit there were improved scores for ease of access as by then the 48-h target had been achieved in the region while the overall positive experiences of service remained high. The survey highlighted variations in the amount of time patients could expect to spend, with some reporting more than 60 min in clinic and this evidence will be helpful in influencing change. GPs and other medical services were still important sources of referral however increasingly service users used the internet to self-diagnose symptoms and obtain information about their local sexual health services. Preferences for clinic appointments were for evenings between 17:00–20:00, mornings 9:00–12:00 and afternoon's 13:00–17:00 in that order. Service user's experiences of services were overwhelmingly positive, and almost all would be happy to recommend the service to others. Conclusions This re-audit highlighted the need for some clinics to re-examine patient flows with the aim of reducing clinic waiting times. All clinics are advised to incorporate more evening appointments. The audit also highlighted the internet as a source of information about sexual health in general and local services in particular and it is important that individual clinics address this need.


Cardiac fibroblasts impact myocardial development and remodeling through intercellular contact with cardiomyocytes, but less is known about noncontact, profibrotic signals whereby fibroblasts alter cardiomyocyte behavior. Fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes were harvested from newborn rat ventricles and separated by serial digestion and gradient centrifugation. Cardiomyocytes were cultured in 1) standard medium, 2) standard medium diluted 1:1 with PBS, or 3) standard medium diluted 1:1 with medium conditioned > or =72 h by cardiac fibroblasts. Serum concentrations were held constant under all media conditions, and complete medium exchanges were performed daily. Cardiomyocytes began contracting within 24 h at clonal or mass densities with <5% of cells expressing vimentin. Immunocytochemical analysis revealed progressive expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin in cardiomyocytes after 24 h in all conditions. Only cardiomyocytes in fibroblast-conditioned medium stopped contracting by 72 h. There was a significant, sustained increase in vimentin expression specific to these cultures (means +/- SD: conditioned 46.3 +/- 6.0 vs. control 5.3 +/- 2.9%, P < 0.00025) typically with cardiac myosin heavy chain coexpression. Proteomics assays revealed 10 cytokines (VEGF, GRO/KC, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, leptin, macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-17, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha) at or below detection levels in unconditioned medium that were significantly elevated in fibroblast-conditioned medium. Latent transforming growth factor-beta and RANTES were present in unconditioned medium but rose to higher levels in conditioned medium. Only granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor was present above threshold levels in standard medium but decreased with fibroblast conditioning. These data indicated that under the influence of fibroblast-conditioned medium, cardiomyocytes exhibited marked hypertrophy, diminished contractile capacity, and phenotype plasticity distinct from the dedifferentiation program present under standard culture conditions.


Acute diarrhoea is the abrupt onset of a change in bowel habit, with the passage of an unusually high volume of stool (greater than the normal of 200 ml per day), and/or increased bowel frequency of bowel opening (greater than the normal of up to three times per day). Infectious diarrhoea is the commonest cause of acute diarrhoea worldwide, responsible for 3 million deaths per year in children under 5 years in the developing world, mainly due to dehydration. In England, 20% of adults suffer an intestinal infection each year, most causing a benign, self-limiting illness.


Building effective Neural Machine Translation models often implies accommodating diverse sets of heterogeneous data so as to optimize performance for the domain(s) of interest. Such multi-source / multi-domain adaptation problems are typically approached through instance selection or reweighting strategies, based on a static assessment of the relevance of training instances with respect to the task at hand. In this paper, we study dynamic data selection strategies that are able to automatically re-evaluate the usefulness of data samples and to evolve a data selection policy in the course of training. Based on the results of multiple experiments, we show that such methods constitute a generic framework to automatically and effectively handle a variety of real-world situations, from multi-source domain adaptation to multi-domain learning and unsupervised domain adaptation.


ABSTRACT The basis of the β-lactam resistance of 39 multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates recovered from hospitalized patients was studied. These isolates were collected from 2001 to 2005 at the Sahloul Hospital in Sousse, Tunisia. They belonged to two distinct clones. One clone that grouped 19 isolates produced a carbapenem-hydrolyzing oxacillinase, OXA-97, that differed from OXA-58 by a single amino acid substitution and conferred the same β-lactam resistance profile as OXA-58. The blaOXA-97 gene was located on plasmids that varied in size in 18 isolates and was chromosomally located in a single isolate. Cloning and sequencing identified genetic structures surrounding the blaOXA-97 gene similar to those reported to be adjacent to the blaOXA-58 gene. In addition, the novel ISAba8 element (which is of the IS21 family) was identified. This is the first report of the nosocomial spread of carbapenemase producers in A. baumannii isolates in Africa.


The basic principle of the targeted delivery approach is that the conjugation of a drug to a tumor-specific molecule renders the drug inactive until it reaches the target site. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which have shown high binding specificity for tumor-specific antigens, could be used as targeting agents. Paclitaxel has brought significant impact on the current cancer chemotherapy, but seriously suffers from the lack of tumor specificity. A series of paclitaxel-monoclonal antibody conjugates via C-2' ester linkage were reported. Taking into account the fact that the cytotoxicity of paclitaxel is not good enough and thus not applicable to this target delivery prodrug approach, new taxoids bearing methyldisulfanyl(alkanoyl) groups were designed, synthesized, and their activities evaluated. A highly cytotoxic C-10 methyldisulfanyl-propanoyl taxoid, was conjugated to monoclonal antibodies recognizing the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). These conjugates were shown to possess remarkable target-specific antitumor activity in vivo against EGFR-expressing A431 tumor xenografts in SCID mice, resulting in complete inhibition of tumor growth in all the treated mice without any noticeable toxicity to the animals.


EU academia is deeply infected by a virus called "democratic deficit". Last week parliamentary elections in Europe revealed the need to challenge this virus and explain why politicising the Commission (the direction enthusiastically advanced in recent EU scholarship) is largely erroneous and potentially mortal for the EU immune system. I take this occasion to further sketch the current politics of the constitutional argument about democratic deficit in EU law, summarize its major fallacies and, finally, illustrate my conclusions against the background of the last week election results.


As machine learning (ML) systems become pervasive, safeguarding their security is critical. However, recently it has been demonstrated that motivated adversaries are able to mislead ML systems by perturbing test data using semantic transformations. While there exists a rich body of research providing provable robustness guarantees for ML models against Lp bounded adversarial perturbations, guarantees against semantic perturbations remain largely underexplored. In this paper, we provide TSS-a unified framework for certifying ML robustness against general adversarial semantic transformations. First, depending on the properties of each transformation, we divide common transformations into two categories, namely resolvable (e.g., Gaussian blur) and differentially resolvable (e.g., rotation) transformations. For the former, we propose transformation-specific randomized smoothing strategies and obtain strong robustness certification. The latter category covers transformations that involve interpolation errors, and we propose a novel approach based on stratified sampling to certify the robustness. Our framework TSS leverages these certification strategies and combines with consistency-enhanced training to provide rigorous certification of robustness. We conduct extensive experiments on over ten types of challenging semantic transformations and show that TSS significantly outperforms the state of the art. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, TSS is the first approach that achieves nontrivial certified robustness on the large-scale ImageNet dataset. For instance, our framework achieves 30.4% certified robust accuracy against rotation attack (within ±30°) on ImageNet. Moreover, to consider a broader range of transformations, we show TSS is also robust against adaptive attacks and unforeseen image corruptions such as CIFAR-10-C and ImageNet-C.


This research presents the discussion about the combination of artisanal techniques and digital technologies - considered as a hybrid process - that emerges as a trend in the area of Brazilian graphic design. From the theoretical resources on techniques, technologies, concepts, design fundamentals and design methodologies applied in the case study, it is observed that many designers resort to the use of artisanal techniques as a feature of differentiated creation, which allows achieving greater conceptual quality in projects.
The theoretical basis of this research comes from some definitions about the term design and, more precisely, graphic design from Cardoso (2008) and Villas-Boas (2003). Next, to define the concepts related to image production, we consider the articulations of Santaella (2001), as well as the discussion about the hybridism applied to the field of art and design, according to the considerations of Couchot (2005). , Moura (2005) and Paula (2012). To understand how hybridism occurs throughout the creation process, an investigation on design methods is presented, based on the design methodology grounded by Munari (1998). This research also presents examples of hybrid processes, which involve handcrafted techniques mixed with digital from contemporary Brazilian graphic design projects. For a more detailed study on this topic, we present a case study of Brazilian design. Thus, this research aims to analyze and describe the methodology used in the paper town project, by graphic designer Rafa Miqueleto, which presents the hybridism of the handmade paper modeling technique with digital technology, relating it to the foundations of design proposed by Lupton and Phillips (2008).


The quantities characterizing near-tip fields of cracks are generally recognized to play a crucial role in both linear and nonlinear fracture mechanics. Among various methods developed to analyze the structure of the near-tip fields, the weight function technique of Bueckner [4, 6] based on Betti's reciprocity theorem turned out to be especially promising. The concept of higher-order weight functions in mechanics of elastic cracks was introduced by Sham [20, 21] as an extension of the weight function approach. A historical introduction into the existing alternative formulations of the weight function theory and a review of its earlier development can be found in the papers by Belov and Kirchner [28, 31]. The theory of weight functions treats the stress intensity factor K, which is a coefficient normalizing the stress singularity σ = K/(2πr)1/2 at the crack tip, as a linear functional of loadings applied to an elastic body. The kernel of the functional is however independent of loadings and, in this sense, universal for the given body geometry and crack configuration. To emphasize this fact, Bueckner [4] suggested that the kernel to be called 'universal weight function'. The weight functions play the role of influence functions for stress intensity factors, since the weight function value at a point situated inside the body or at its surface (including crack faces) is equal to the stress intensity factor, which is due to the unit concentrated force applied at this point. The weight function based functionals can be constructed not only for external forces but also for the dislocation distributions described by the dislocation density tensor, as it was shown by Kirchner [14]. The objective of the weight function theory is not to compute complete stress distributions in cracked bodies for an arbitrary loading, but to express only one parameter K characterizing the strength of the near-tip stress field as a functional (weighted average) of the loading. In particular, in the simplest case of a cracked body subjected to only surface loadings the functional has the form of a contour integral. However, in order to apply the weight function theory to practical situations, the kernel of the functional has to be evaluated and this can be done by solving a special elasticity problem, for instance, numerically by a finite element method. The stress singularities are inherent not only to cracks. Sharp


By emphasizing the emotional basis of action and the orientation of action to the future, the theory of action in William James challenges and provides an alternative to accounts of action which emphasize cognition and norms. This paper provides a statement of the Jamesian theory of action, which has been neglected in sociology. The Jamesian critique of the approach to social action in symbolic interactionism and in Parsons's voluntaristic theory of action is also indicated in the paper. Other aspects of the Jamesian theory of action of interest to sociological concern treated in the paper are the non-constructionist account of emotion developed by James, and his reconceptualization of rationality as continuous with rather than opposed to emotion.


A parametric study on the release of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles from two commercial photocatalytic nanocoatings is carried out. For this, abrasion tests are performed on them. The formed aerosols are characterized by their number concentration, particle size distribution, individual particle shape, size, and chemical composition. The two nanocoatings appear to exhibit contrastingly opposite behavior with respect to the number concentration of the released particles. Having irregular shapes, the released particles are found to have unimodal size distributions with 1.5-3.5% (in mass) of Ti content. However, no free nanoparticles of TiO2 were found. Distinct phases during the particle number concentration evolution with time are also discussed and evaluated. Two quantities--(ΔC/Δt)I and TII--are identified as the important indicators to qualitatively measure the resistance strength and hence the concentration of the released particles from a nanocoating during stress application.


Radiation pattern and gain of a corner reflector antenna finite in width are calculated by means of geometrical method for diffraction. The functions F(T)s referred to diffraction by the edges and their images are introduced. In the case of an aperture angle not equal to 2\pi /m ( m : integer) a finite number of images of a dipole are considered, and the waves diffracted by the apex edge are introduced. The cases of aperture angles 90\deg , 45\deg and 115\deg are computed. The results are compared with the measured results obtained by Cottony and Wilson. In the forward and lateral directions agreements between both results are very good; however, in the rear direction it may be necessary to take into account the effects of the waves diffracted by the upper and lower edges of the reflector, when the length of the corner reflector is not too great.


This paper presents the concept of a physical memory whose state is dependent on a stochastic variable. The stochastic parameter used is temperature. This gives way to efficient space utilization by overlapping data patches upon existing data and overcoming the upper limit of storage space, i.e. more storage data with less hardware and more data security. Furthermore, the paper goes on to present retrieval solutions, for such overlapped data patch structures, using Deep Belief Networks made up of layers of. Restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM), along with mapping with a Bidirectional Associative Memory (BAM).


Abstract The mini-midvastus (MV) approach to total knee arthroplasty (TKA) minimizes damage to the extensor mechanism; however, the mini-subvastus (SV) approach is designed to avoid such damage. Quadriceps weakness following TKA can have a significant impact on the activities of daily living, particularly stand-to-sit down (STSD) and sit-to-stand up (STSU) activities. Fifty-three subjects diagnosed with primary osteoarthritis and scheduled to undergo TKA were randomized to receive an MV or SV surgical approach and were given identical postoperative orders. Compared with age-matched controls, the SV group had a quicker return of normal peak knee extension moment during STSU, whereas the MV group had a quicker return of normal movement patterns in hip, knee, and ankle parameters during STSD yet represented the higher functioning subjects as more MV subjects had difficulty completing the task as instructed. Considering both movements are required for daily living, neither surgical group was found to have a significant advantage over the other in functional outcome through 6 months post-TKA.


The structural properties and thermochemistry of UF6 and UF5 have been investigated using both Hartree-Fock and density functional theory (DFT) approximations. Within the latter approach, the local spin-density approximation, the generalized gradient approximation, and hybrid density functionals were considered. To describe the uranium atom we employed small-core (60 electrons) and large-core (78 electrons) relativistic effective core potentials (RECPs), as well as the all-electron approximation based on the two-component third-order Douglas-Kroll-Hess Hamiltonian. For structural properties, we obtained very good agreement with experiment with DFT and both large and small-core RECPs. The best match with experiment is given by the hybrid functionals with the small-core RECP. The bond dissociation energy (BDE) was obtained from the relative energies of the fragments [UF6 --> UF5 + F], corrected for zero-point energy and spin-orbit interaction. Very good agreement was found between the BDE obtained from all-electron calculations and those calculated with the small-core RECP, while those from the large-core RECP are off by more than 50%. In order to obtain good agreement with experiment in the BDE it is imperative to work with hybrid density functionals and a small-core RECP.


A comprehensive avian survey was conducted between April 2012 and November 2013 in Boni and Dodori National reserves, the connecting Aweer Community Conservancy corridor, and the adjacent forests. Survey methods were Timed Species Counts (TSCs), mist netting and opportunistic observations. Six different habitat types were identified and sampled: 1) grassland with Hyphaene palms 2) a mosaic of forest groves, grassland and Hyphaene palm savanna 3) dense thickets 4) wetlands 5) forest with dense undergrowth and 6) acacia woodlands. A total of 184 bird species was recorded, including two near threatened bird species (Southern Banded Snake Eagle Circaetus fasciolatus and Fischer's Turaco Tauraco fischeri ), 19 Palaearctic migrants, two Afrotropical migrants and 14 East African coastal biome species. There were eight forest specialist and 29 forest generalist species. We recorded sightings of a form of Red-naped Bushshrike Laniarius ruficeps that is not illustrated in bird guidebooks for Africa, and presumed to be of the subspecies kismayensis . Data from this survey led to the upgrading of the Boni-Dodori area from a potential IBA to full IBA status. Even though these forests have species of conservation importance and sufficient habitats to conserve these species, immediate actions need to be taken to ensure their protection. We recommend comprehensive biodiversity surveys in these forests in order to obtain more scientific information such as population trends to enhance the conservation of these important, but neglected sites.


The R7RS (small) language standard can be implemented while preserving near-perfect backward compatibility with the R6RS standard and substantial compatibility with the R5RS and IEEE/ANSI standards for the Scheme programming language. When this is done, as in Larceny, R6RS Scheme becomes a proper subset of R7RS Scheme.


Instrumented ocean moorings are the gold standard for gathering in situ measurements at a fixed location in the ocean. Because they require installation by a ship and must be secured to the seafloor, moorings are expensive, logistically difficult to deploy and maintain, and are constrained to one location once installed. To circumvent these issues, previous studies have attempted to utilize autonomous underwater gliders as platforms for virtual moorings, but these attempts have yielded comparatively large station-keeping errors due to the difficulty of glider control in dynamic ocean currents. We implemented an adaptive planner using a vehicle motion model and a predictive ocean circulation model to improve station-keeping performance by incorporating anticipated currents into glider control. We demonstrate improved station-keeping performance using our planner in both simulation and in-field deployment results, and report smaller average station-keeping error than the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's M1 mooring. Finally, we utilize our simulation framework to conduct a feasibility study on using an array of autonomous gliders as virtual moorings to conduct critical calibration and validation (CalVal) for the upcoming National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission, instead of using permanent moorings. We show that this approach carries several advantages and has potential to meet the SWOT CalVal objectives.


A simple method is described for the measurement of surface-state density and surface potential in a MIS capacitor. It is similar in principle to the low frequency capacitance method in so far as a dc relationship is established between the surface potential and the voltage applied to the gate electrode. This is achieved by measuring the saturation surface photovoltage. The method differs from the low frequency capacitance method in that it measures the surface potential directly, requiring no additive constant. Experimental results are presented which agree well with those obtained by the low frequency capacitance method. The present method is complementary to a second method to be described by Lam and Rhoderick (companion paper) in that the surface-state density measurable by this first method has a lower limit while that by the second method has an upper limit, the two overlapping at the value of the space-charge capacitance.


Deep learning has achieved impressive prediction performance in the field of sequence learning recently. Dissolved oxygen prediction, as a kind of time-series forecasting, is suitable for this technique. Although many researchers have developed hybrid models or variant models based on deep learning techniques, there is no comprehensive and sound comparison among the deep learning models in this field currently. Plus, most previous studies focused on one-step forecasting by using a small data set. As the convenient access to high-frequency data, this paper compares multi-step deep learning forecasting by using walk-forward validation. Specifically, we test Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), Bidirectional Recurrent Neural Network (BiRNN) based on the real-time data recorded automatically at a fixed observation point in the Yangtze River from 2012 to 2016. By comparing the average accumulated statistical metrics of root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and coefficient of determination in each time step, We find for multi-step time series forecasting, the average performance of each time step does not decrease linearly. GRU outperforms other models with significant advantages.


This paper describes a new algorithm for transformer differential protection, based on pattern recognition of the differential current obtained as the phasor sum of the current transformers secondary currents. The algorithm uses principal component analysis (PCA) to pre-processing data from the power system, in order to eliminate redundant information and enhance hidden pattern in differential current to discriminate between internal faults from inrush and overexcitation conditions. The algorithm was proven using PSCAD/EMTDC simulations in a three-phase power system considering critical fault cases. The results show the feasibility to implement this algorithm for transformer differential protection


An increasingly complex aid landscape makes it urgent to find ways for partner countries to manage the diversity of aid actors and channels. However, it remains unclear what 'managing diversity' actually means and how this vague idea should be put into practice.
This paper explores potential approaches and strategies. It defines 'managing diversity' as the management of different sources of aid by the partner country, aimed at improving the effectiveness of aid in a complex aid landscape. Different approaches to managing diversity are discussed and compared. Drawing on country experiences, the paper also analyses the role that contextual factors play in shaping incentives for the actors involved to implement different aid coordination strategies. Despite the multiplicity of possible strategies and approaches to managing diversity, some elements can be identified that will be crucial for every approach to aid coordination. To enhance their ability to effectively manage multiple actors and sources of development assistance, partner countries should develop clear aid policies and set up strong aid management institutions. Where needed, donors should support partner country leadership and capacity development in the area of effective aid management.


To ensure flight safety of aircraft structures, it is necessary to have regular maintenance using visual and nondestructive inspection (NDI) methods. In this paper, we propose an automatic image-based aircraft defect detection using Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work for aircraft defect detection using DNNs. We perform a comprehensive evaluation of state-of-the-art feature descriptors and show that the best performance is achieved by vgg-f DNN as feature extractor with a linear SVM classifier. To reduce the processing time, we propose to apply SURF key point detector to identify defect patch candidates. Our experiment results suggest that we can achieve over 96% accuracy at around 15s processing time for a high-resolution (20-megapixel) image on a laptop.


The 238th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, held in Washington DC, included topics covering new compounds and developments in the field of medicinal chemistry. This conference report highlights selected presentations on inhibitors of PARP, a heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) inhibitor, NS3 protease inhibitors, a corticotrophin-releasing factor 1 (CRF-1) receptor antagonist, a cannabinoid receptor antagonist, diacylglycerol acyltransferase inhibitors, cathepsin and chymase receptor inhibitors, and MAPK inhibitors. Investigational drugs discussed include veliparib (Abbott Laboratories), MK-4827 (Merck & Co Inc), OB-24 (Osta Biotechnologies), BMS-339, BMS-764459, BMS-812204 and BMS-640994 (all Bristol-Myers Squibb Co), and JNJ-10311795 (Johnson & Johnson).


Magnetic-skyrmion-based racetrack memory is a high-density memory for storing information driven by low-power, wherein the arrangement of skyrmions is stored in the form of binary digit combinations. This arrangement is altered based on the skyrmion motion resulting from the influence of the spin-transfer torque. We propose a novel layered structure of a ferromagnetic metal (FM) wire/nonmagnetic insulator wire/FM wire in which the skyrmions move while maintaining the arrangement. It consists of two FM wires that are perpendicularly magnetized. One of these comprises several skyrmions, which act as binary digits (data skyrmions). The other wire constitutes a sufficient number of skyrmions that are closely packed and allow the spin-polarized current to flow. A dipole–dipole interaction acts between these two FM wires. The motion of the data skyrmion is induced by the current-induced motion of the packed skyrmion. The motion of skyrmions is simulated via micromagnetic approaches. The data skyrmions move while maintaining the distance between each skyrmion. The analog position of the data skyrmion is controlled by the current flowing through another wire. The stable data skyrmion motion has a threshold current. When the current is larger than the threshold current, the skyrmion breaks, and/or the distance between skyrmions breaks. The threshold current density is found to decrease with an increasing vacuum layer thickness and increase with increasing thickness of the FM wire flowing current. Our results show that the skyrmion motion in the proposed structure can drive skyrmions with a spin-current density lower than that of the coupled granular/continuous structure and the edge-notched nanowire structure. This structure can be used in developing low-power operational devices based on skyrmion motion.


Prolapse of a commissural portion of the aortic valve due to partial intimal tear following a blunt chest trauma is a rare condition. Aortic valve repair is a technically demanding operation and the presence of aortic incompetence due to leaflet prolapse often leads to aortic valve replacement. We report the case of a patient with aortic insufficiency due to commissural disruption following a road traffic accident, and in whom aortic valve repair was performed.


Energy from biomass is renewable and capable of providing heat, power or liquid fuels. Life cycle assessments of these renewable fuels have often shown positive energy balances and GHG savings, relative to fossil fuels. There are, however, large variations between studies and not all are positive, leading to recent reports questioning the long-term sustainability of bioenergy. Using a systematic review of life cycle assessments relevant to feedstocks grown in a temperate climate (three for heat and power and eight for liquid biofuels) we have defined these sources of variation, highlighting areas of uncertainty and priorities for future research. In addition, we have explored the challenges in comparing bioenergy and biofuels production chains and their fossil fuel equivalents and demonstrated how this can be done in a fair and consistent manner.


Recent advancements in mobile technology allow global positioning system (GPS)-enabled cell phones to provide a variety of real-time location-based services. This study reports on the design, implementation and testing of such a service, the travel assistance device (TAD), that aids transit riders with special needs in using public transportation. TAD is a program that provides the rider with customised real-time audio, visual and tactile prompts for exiting the transit vehicle by announcing `Get ready`` and `Pull the cord now!` Additionally, TAD provides alerts to riders, their caretakers and travel trainers if a rider deviates from the planned route. A website allows easy access for the creation of new trip itineraries and allows authorised personnel to monitor the rider`s location in real-time from any computer. While the TAD was designed to aid transit riders with special needs to increase their level of independence and their care-takers` level of security, any rider new to a transit system can use TAD for planning and executing trips with confidence and ease.


In the light of recent interest in quantum gravity in de Sitter space, we investigate semi-classical aspects of 4-dimensional Schwarzschild-de Sitter space-time using the method of complex paths. The standard semi-classical techniques (such as Bogoliubov coefficients and Euclidean field theory) have been useful to study quantum effects in space-times with single horizons; however, none of these approaches seem to work for Schwarzschild-de Sitter or, in general, for space-times with multiple horizons. We extend the method of complex paths to space-times with multiple horizons and obtain the spectrum of particles produced in these space-times. We show that the temperature of radiation in these space-times is proportional to the effective surface gravity -- inverse harmonic sum of surface gravity of each horizon. For the Schwarzschild-de Sitter, we apply the method of complex paths to three different coordinate systems -- spherically symmetric, Painleve and Lemaitre. We show that the equilibrium temperature in Schwarzschild-de Sitter is the harmonic mean of cosmological and event horizon temperatures. We obtain Bogoliubov coefficients for space-times with multiple horizons by analyzing the mode functions of the quantum fields near the horizons. We propose a new definition of entropy for space-times with multiple horizons analogous to the entropic definition for space-times with a single horizon. We define entropy for these space-times to be inversely proportional to the square of the effective surface gravity. We show that this definition of entropy for Schwarzschild-de Sitter satisfies the D-bound conjecture.


Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a burden both to the society and to its victims. Many factors concur to make this burden heavier. Yet the means of prophylaxis are available. Curative therapy, once the disease is established, is at hand, but much remains to be done in this area.


During the period from September 1990 to March 1992, 155 nerve blocks were performed for 125 patients as part of the clinical management of pain due to malignant disease. The efficacy, in terms of pain score reduction, and spontaneously reported side effects secondary to these procedures were prospectively audited. Neural blockade was undertaken in accordance with strict clinical criteria, and medication was optimized with the aim of achieving maximum analgesia with minimum side effects at all times. Pain was assessed before the block, 24 hours after the block and at follow-up (two to six weeks) using visual analogue scores or verbal rating scales. All patients were audited. The total (all patients, all blocks) median (lower-upper quartile) pain score dropped from 8 (6-10) cm before the block to 2 (0-4) cm at 24 hours after the block (p< 0.05) and to 1 (0-4) cm at follow-up (p <0.005). A concomitant reduction in analgesic requirements was observed. The incidence of serious side effects was low (two patients in this series). The results indicate the usefulness of these techniques for patients in the palliative care setting.


A recently constructed cluster based photoelectron spectrometer is described. This instrumentation is unique in that it enables the kinetic energy analysis of electrons ejected from both anions and neutral clusters. This capability permits the investigation of discrete electronic levels in all charge states (anionic, neutral, and cationic). A laser vaporization plasma reactor cluster source affixed with a sublimation cell is employed to produce a variety of metal clusters, and the resulting cluster distributions are analyzed with time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The corresponding electronic structure is analyzed with a "magnetic bottle" photoelectron spectrometer. Examples of instrument performance operating in both anion photodetachment and neutral multiphoton ionization (MPI) modes are provided. In the case of neutral MPI, the corresponding product distribution is collected with a Wiley-McLaren [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 26, 1150 (1955)] mass spectrometer mounted perpendicular to the magnetic bottle photoelec...


In recent years the academic libraries stood against the fast improvement of technology, with low budget and with more requirements for responsibility. Because of these, new strategies of renewal have been developed at a quick pace. A first step which is necessary for a library, is to define which approach in the procedure of change is more appropriate for itself, considering the size, the environments and the conditions of function that apply in this library. The method of TQM represents a new age in the management of an organization. Its elements such as participating management, the personnel training and the responsible service of customers, are views that libraries already driven by. As a result of this, the libraries are up to improve these principles, which already have been valued positively by them and put them partially in practice. Many libraries have embarked on plans for implementing quality-related philosophies such as TQM. It is well known that TQM is a management method, that libraries can benefit from it in several ways.


Rabbit antisera specific for O4-ethyldeoxythymidine (O4-EtdThd) were developed and used in competitive and non-competitive immunoassays for the quantitation of the miscoding promutagenic adduct O4-EtdThd in DNA. High titer antiserum TB3 (affinity constant, 8.1 X 10(8)) gave 50% inhibition of the tracer antigen-antibody binding with 0.26 pmol of O4-EtdThd in radioimmunoassay and negligible inhibition with unmodified DNA components. In competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using ENU-poly(dT) instead of hapten-protein conjugate as antigen, inhibition of antigen-antibody binding was proportional to both, the concentration of ethylnitrosourea (ENU) and alkylated DNA. The sensitivity of detection of O4-EtdThd in DNA was enhanced to fmol of O4-EtdThd and ng amounts of alkylated DNA by using avidin-biotin linked immunoreagents in non-competitive ELISA and immunoslot blot assays. An O4-EtdThd concentration-dependent binding of specific antibody, detecting 0.12 fmol of the modified base, was observed with DNA alkylated in vitro with ENU at an O4-EtdThd/Thd molar ratio of 2.6 X 10(-6). The immunological quantitation of O4-EtdThd in ENU-treated human skin fibroblast and kidney epithelial cells indicates a gradual removal of the modified base as a function of post-treatment time in culture. In both cell types about 50% of the initial damage was repaired during a 72-h period. Earlier studies using human organ extracts ruled out the participation of an alkyltransferase or glycosylase enzyme for the repair of O4-alkylthymine. None the less, the kinetics data presented indicate that normal human cells in culture are proficient for the repair of critical pyrimidine alkylation adduct that may be associated with cellular oncogenic transformation of susceptible mammalian cells.


Ab initio /DFT and statistical mechanics methods for calculation of entropy are reported for 20 molecules in which internal rotations are absent, and are compared with the experimental values. Agreement between these data and corresponding entropies calculated from spectral data is excellent, being within one entropy unit in almost all cases at 298.15 K. Entropies have also been calculated over a wide range of temperature i.e., 298.15 K and 0–400 K at 50 K intervals. It is clearly observed that all entropies increase with increasing temperature. The results show a sharp increase on going from 0 K to 50 K while the increase is slight at temperatures above 50 K. The results also suggest that such calculations may assist in studies on entropies and equilibria involving species for which vibrational frequencies can not easily be determined by experiment.


Purpose of the article is to study the history of mapping the formation of the landscape of the city of Kharkiv from the beginning of active urban development to the present day (the end of the XVIII - the beginning of the XXI century), which was carried out in view of the prospects of involving the results in the process of territorial planning of the city's modern development. Methods . The research was based on the application of the principles of diachronic and comparative-historical methodological approaches and the use of cartographic, geoinformation, historical-geographical method and the method of historical sections. Results. The methodological features of carrying out of historical and geographical research are best taken into account by means of the use of GIS. The article presents the results of cartographic modeling of the development of the city's territory, the difficulties in conducting this operation and the probable errors caused by the methodology of the operation. outlined the possibility of using such studies to solve the problems of urban planning practice. The approach outlined in this article allowed researchers from different scientific fields - historians of the city, archaeologists, demographers, economists, etc. - to interpret phenomenology of cities according to different thematic keys. Conclusions . The methodology used in this study allows the effective use of GIS methods for solving applied constructive and geographic tasks, namely, the study of the evolution of urban landscapes on the basis of the analysis and synthesis of cartographic works for the entire period of city formation.


Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of pH variation (3.6, 4.6 and 5.6) on morphometric parameters and the secondary structure of proteins (ovalbumin and gliadin).
Design/methodology/approach: The arithmetic mean roughness (Ra) and agglomerate size (AS) of the proteins were analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), while their secondary structure was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), both at different pH. Subsequently, a correlation analysis of the morphometric changes of the proteins with their secondary structure was performed.
Results: Highlighting that it was found that, protein agglomerate size is influenced by changes in β-sheets and turn conformations.
Limitations on study/implications: Effect of pH variation (3.6, 4.6, and 5.6) on morphometric parameters and the secondary structure of proteins (ovalbumin and gliadin).
Findings/conclusions: The novelty of this contribution consists in demonstrating that there is a close structure-functionality relationship between the morphometric parameters of proteins and their secondary structure, combining microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. This allows a clear and deep understanding of protein behavior to select the appropriate pH conditions to improve the properties of many foods.


In this paper we share our experience in harnessing group communications for the AS/400 cluster infrastructure. The main fonts of the AS/400 cluster is providing high availability and disaster recovery of defined cluster resources. The cluster supports up to 128 nodes, connected via any IP network. Cluster nodes and resources can be dynamically added or removed. Administrative actions or failures trigger automatic cluster reconfigurations: CLUE (Cluster Engine) is the group communication middleware implemented in the OS/400 kernel. It exploits the strong virtual synchrony model. CLUE is unique in the following aspects: It is the first virtually synchronous group communication system incorporated into a cluster solution, and customized to meet cluster needs. It is the only group communication system (GCS) integrated into a commercial operating system kernel. CLUE's special features (e.g., Flexible Group Member) can be relevant to other group communication systems.


Background
 Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder that affects millions of people worldwide, with approximately 100,000 Americans affected (Center for Disease Control, 2017). In the U.S., SCD results in over 200,000 emergency department (ED) visits annually, with pain as the most common complaint (Lanzkron S, et al 2010). At The Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center, there is a comprehensive care center for patients with SCD. At their initial patient visit, the patient and their hematologist determine a customized pain plan to be enacted when they present to the ED in acute vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC). In January 2015, these plans were implemented to allow for more rapid treatment of pain crisis in the ED at OSU.
 Methods
 A multidisciplinary group was formed in order to accelerate the treatment of SCD patients who presented with VOC. The group's goal was to reduce the time to first opioid by utilizing individualized pain plans for each patient. This would reduce the amount of time deciding the best course of treatment. With reduction in time to first opioid, outcomes including overall length of ED stay, disposition, and length of inpatient admission were identified. Data regarding these endpoints were collected from 01/01/14 to 12/31/15. Generalized linear models were fit to compare the clinical outcomes pre and post implementation of the new protocol. Comorbidities were associated with outcomes using the same modeling technique, where univariable models were built and multi-test adjustment was performed through false-discovery rate (FDR).
 Results
 During the 2-year study period, 214 patients with SCD accumulated 2429 ED visits in total. The model estimated a 48% decrease in time to first opioid after implementation of the individualized pain plan protocol (p<0.0001). There was also a decrease in the length of ED stay by 22% (p<0.0001). No significant difference between the type of disposition (discharged to home, inpatient admission, eloping from ED, or leaving without being seen) was found. No difference was found between the average number of visits to the ED and the length of inpatient admission pre and post protocol. The data did reveal a 13% increase in length of ED stay in patients with comorbid kidney disease (FDR p=0.02) and a 12% increase in length of stay in the ED for patients with history of venous thromboembolism (VTE) (FDR p=0.04). Patients with history of VTE were also found to have a 39% longer hospital admission than those without (FDR p=0.05). The odds of getting discharged from the ED were 55% lower in patients with essential hypertension (FDR p=0.02) and they were 2 times more likely than patients without hypertension to be admitted to the hospital (FDR p=0.05).
 Conclusion
 Utilization of individualized pain plans for patients with sickle cell disease presenting with VOC results in a significant reduction in the amount of time to first opioid administration. Implementation of the protocol also led to a reduction in length of stay in the emergency department, however the probability of admission did not change. In examining the effect of comorbidities on clinical outcomes, patients with history of kidney disease or VTE had increased length of ED stay and those with history of VTE also had longer hospital admissions. Patients with comorbid essential hypertension were also twice as likely to be admitted to the hospital though length of inpatient admission did not change. It is possible that patients with kidney disease have worse disease as evidenced by end-organ damage due to repeated vascular insult, ischemia, and inflammation. Similarly, those with history of VTE may have higher viscosity, endothelial adhesion, and dysfunction leading to clots. Patients with comorbid essential hypertension can also be thought to have recurrent vascular damage leading to systemic hypertension. From this information, it can be concluded that utilizing individualized pain plans in SCD patients with VOC will lead to decreased time to analgesia and perhaps decrease use of healthcare resources.

 Desai: Novartis: Research Funding; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; University of Pittsburgh: Research Funding; Ironwood: Other: Adjudication Board; Global Blood Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Potomac: Speakers Bureau.


This paper proposes a bilevel model to assist a generation company in making its long-term generation capacity investment decisions considering uncertainty regarding the investments of the other generation companies. The bilevel formulation allows for the uncoupling of investment and generation decisions, as investment decisions of the single investing generation company are taken in the upper level with the objective to maximize expected profits and generation decisions by all companies are considered in the lower level. The lower level represents the oligopolistic market equilibrium via a conjectured-price response formulation, which can capture various degrees of strategic market behavior like perfect competition, the Cournot oligopoly, and intermediate cases.


Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have been intensively investigated due to their interesting electrochemical and photoluminescent properties. Here, we report a novel method for large-scale preparation of heavy doped CQDs with tunable photoluminescence. In the present synthetic process, the carbon nanoparticles from Chinese ink were oxidized and cut simultaneously using a mature process to obtain oxidized-CQDs as precursors, and then the heteroatom (N, S or Se) doped CQDs were obtained by a one-step hydrothermal reduction and in situ doping treatment. The heavy doped CQDs are just 1–6 nm size, and have improved photoluminescence with different emission wavelengths, higher quantum yield, longer lifetime and good photostability. Further experiments suggested that these N and S doped CQDs were very sensitive for the detection of Cu2+ and Hg2+, respectively.


In the world of teaching, it takes a variety of creativity, so that students benefit from the learning process. The same thing happened in the Sunday School class held by the church. The core material is certainly from the Bible. This includes memorizing Bible verses from certain parts. Students are required to memorize the verses. Many face failure in the memorization process. They have difficulty remembering the verses. However, there is still an interesting method to make it easier for children to memorize Bible verses, namely by association methods found in quantum learning. The problem is whether the Sunday school teachers understood this association method? With descriptive research methods have found a solution that in the process of memorizing with this association method, can increase the number of verses memorized. This can be shown from the results of evaluations that have been carried out, there is an increase in the number of memorized verses that can be memorized by Sunday school students, which increases to 20 words or about 4%.


We demonstrate a novel method of wavelength conversion in a periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguide using polarization modulation and amplitude modulation of its pump. Polarization-insensitive, all-optical, intensity-to-polarization conversion in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is used to reduce the waveguide's polarization sensitivity from >30 dB to <1 dB. We demonstrate BER measurements of the converted signal at 2.5 Gb/s. We also demonstrate polarization modulation of the PPLN waveguide pump using cross-polarization modulation in highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) at 10 Gb/s.


We present and study a lattice dynamical model whose static and dynamic properties can be described exactly for all dimensions d and which, in addition, exhibits tricritical points. In the vicinity of an ordinary critical point, the critical exponents are those of the spherical model. The tricritical exponents, however, are classical and there is no logarithmic correction for d = 3. The critical dynamics is also discussed.


The broadcast scheduling problem (BSP) arises in frame design for packet radio networks (PRNs). The frame structure determines the main communication parameters: communication delay and throughput. The BSP is a combinatorial optimization problem which is known to be NP-hard. To solve it, we propose an algorithm with two main steps which naturally arise from the problem structure: the first one tackles the hardest contraints and the second one carries out the throughput optimization. This algorithm combines a Hopfield neural network for the constraints satisfaction and a genetic algorithm for achieving a maximal throughput. The algorithm performance is compared with that of existing algorithms in several benchmark cases; in all of them, our algorithm finds the optimum frame length and outperforms previous algorithms in the resulting throughput.


The electrically-evoked afferent volley generated during neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) can increase the excitability of corticospinal (CS) pathways. Over time, NMES can strengthen damaged CS pathways and result in enduring improvements in function for persons with central nervous system injury or disease. NMES-induced increases in CS excitability have been studied using a variety of NMES parameters, yet the influence of these stimulation parameters on increasing CS excitability is not well-defined. Typically, NMES is either delivered at intensities sufficient to generate repeated functional contractions for relatively short durations (30-40 min) or at low intensities, near motor threshold, for long durations (2 h). For the purpose of this study, these different stimulation protocols are termed functional electrical stimulation (FES) and somatosensory stimulation (SS), respectively. A direct comparison of increases in CS excitability induced by such protocols has not been conducted. Thus, the present experiments were designed to compare changes in CS excitability for abductor pollicis brevis (APB) in the hand following FES and SS of the median nerve. We hypothesized that due to the generation of a larger afferent volley, the FES would increase CS excitability more than the SS. Ten motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were evoked in APB using transcranial magnetic stimulation before and after each type of NMES. MEP amplitude increased significantly following both the FES (by 66 ± 7%) and SS (49 ± 6%), but the amplitude of these increases was not different. These results suggest that just 40 min of FES can increase CS excitability, and provide rehabilitative benefits, to the same extent as 2 h of SS.


ABSTRACT The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 coreceptor activity of CCR5 depends on certain polar and charged residues in its amino-terminal domain. Since studies of chimeric receptors have indicated that the extracellular loops of CCR5 are also involved in viral fusion and entry, we have explored the role of bulky, polar and nonpolar residues in these regions. Selected amino acids in the three extracellular loops were individually changed to alanines, and the coreceptor activities of the mutant CCR5 proteins were tested in a luciferase reporter virus-based entry assay. We found that the cysteines in the extracellular loops of CCR5 are essential for coreceptor activity. However, only minor (two- to threefold) effects on coreceptor function were noted for all of the other alanine substitutions. We also demonstrated that when the first 19 residues of the amino-terminal region were separated from the rest of CCR5, by insertion of glycine/serine spacers between proline 19 and cysteine 20, coreceptor function decreased. Together with our previous studies, these data indicate that both an amino-terminal gp120-binding site and extracellular domain geometry play a role in viral entry.


We present two related methods for creating MasterPrints, synthetic fingerprints that are capable of spoofing multiple people's fingerprints. These methods achieve results that advance the state-of-the-art for single MasterPrint attack accuracy while being the first methods capable of creating MasterPrints at the image level. Both of the methods presented in this paper start with training a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) on a set of real fingerprint images. The generator network is then used to search for fingerprints that maximize the probability of matching with most subjects in a dataset. The first method uses evolutionary search in the space of latent variables, and the second method uses gradient-based optimization. The unique combination of evolution and GANs is able to design a MasterPrint that a commercial fingerprint system matches to 23% of all users in a strict security setting, and 77% of all users at a looser security setting.


Background: This study explores the role of collective affirmation in attracting mass cooperation to motivate people to observe preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using a qualitative research design, a heterogeneous sample (n=32) comprising postgraduate (n=10) and doctorates (n=22) was chosen and the data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interview contents were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed via the thematic analysis method. Results: Five themes were generated in this study: perceived psychological distress, pandemic as a serious challenge to the national interest and human existence, the Janata curfew as a positive faith of the government in the abilities of Indians, lockdown as a strong faith of the government in the unshakable support of the Indians and strong affinity and pride of the Indians in their cultural heritage. The novelty, suddenness, and incurability of COVID-19 caused a set of perceived psychological distress and danger to individual and collective life. The Janata (public) curfew was perceived as a curfew of the people, by the people, and for the people. The lockdown denoted a strong faith of the Indian government in the positive virtues of the Indian people and vice versa. The mass support and adherence to the suggested preventive government measures were facilitated by collective affirmation of the well-known positive Indian cultural values (e.g. humanism, interdependence, collective pride, compassion, universal brotherhood, and so on) to the world. Conclusion: Collective affirmation inherent in the Indian cultural values catalyzed mass behavior change in the form of adherence to the essential restrictions and recommendations. Collective affirmation may have occurred because of the perceived faith of the government in the virtues of the Indians and their perceived administrative capability of the government. A culture-specific collective affirmation seems to emerge which initiated mass behavior changes leading to a successful lockdown. the Success of


The expression of TNF-alpha receptors (TNFR) was examined on a CD4+ T cell hybridoma, transformed T cell lines, CTL clones, and activated T cells from peripheral blood to determine the basis of the immunomodulatory activity of TNF on T cell function. Analyses by ligand cross-linking and competitive binding assays with mAb to the 80-kDa receptor (TNFR-I), demonstrated that the TNFR-I was the predominant receptor expressed on activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets. However, on T cell leukemic lines, a second, non-TNFR-I binding site was identified, most likely the 55-kDa form (TNFR-II). Additional subsets of T cells were readily distinguished by their expression of TNFR-I and related members of the TNFR gene family (CD40 and CD27). Expression of the TNFR-I was dependent upon the state of T cell activation. Signaling through the TCR for Ag or IL-2R was sufficient to induce TNFR mRNA and protein expression in resting T cells. Multiple sizes of TNFR-I transcripts were detected during T cell activation; however, biosynthetic studies showed these multiple species encode a single protein of 80 kDa. These results, combined with the known ability of TNF to induce IL-2R expression, indicate that TNF and IL-2 form a reciprocating receptor amplification circuit. In contrast, differentiated effector T cells triggered through the TCR or protein kinase C initiated a rapid down-regulation (transmodulation) of the TNFR-I that preceded TNF or lymphotoxin secretion. The mechanism of transmodulation involved proteolytic processing of the mature 80-kDa receptor releasing a soluble 40-kDa fragment. This indicates that a TNF autocrine loop is not likely to form during the response of an effector T cell. Collectively, these results suggest that transcriptional and post-translational modification of the TNFR-I are important control points regulating the expression of this receptor during T cell activation.


The major problem of remote sensing images is mixed pixels, available in the data which degrades the quality, accuracy of the image classification and object recognition. To overcome the problem of mixed pixel in a real satellite data a modified K-means clustering algorithm and a modified fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm, are discussed. The algorithms are developed by modifying the membership function of the standard K-means clustering algorithm (FKM) and the standard fuzzy C-means algorithm (FCM). The performance of the proposed algorithms is discussed and compared with the traditional fuzzy K-means algorithm and the traditional FCM algorithm. Results on classification and segmentation of satellite images reveal that the suggestive algorithms are robust and effective.


A cell admission control scheme is designed for the multiservice satellite systems. Two service groups: variable bit rate service group (VBRG) and fixed bit rate service group (FBRG) have been tested on the system and their performance are compared. VBRG outperforms FBRG in terms of success rate of cell admission, at the expense of reduced communication bit rate, which is not a serious problem because there is a mechanism for restoration to original bit rate.


Sellers' behavior is an important part of trading effectiveness. The objective of the
presented research, which included participation of 208 sellers, was to identify and specify differences among the selected generations (Baby Boom, X, Y, Z generations) of sellers in the context of gender. The data were collected by TBQ-T(r) (Trading Behavior Questionnaire – Traders – revised form). The paper presents the results of the multivariate analyses, which confirmed statistically significant differences among generations of sellers from the point of view of the Distressed behavior attribute. At the same time, these results confirmed statistically significant interactions between the generations and gender in assessing the Distressed, Proactive and Manipulative sellers' behavior. Limitations of this research are the limited sample size and focusing attention only on the selected factors of sellers' behavior.


Background: Hypertension is a sever illness causing from high blood pressure through the arteries during circulation. Clinically, if the individual's systolic blood pressure is greater than or equal to 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure is greater than or equal to 90 mmHg then a person is said to be hypertensive.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to obtain secondary data among hypertensive patients receiving antihypertensive treatment in between1st September 2014 to30th August 2016 in Debre Berhan referral hospital. Demographic covariates and clinical factors like age, gender, marital Status, residence, educational status, family history, alcohol status, salt use, time, body mass index and regime were considered. The data was extracted from the patient record cards. Patients, who have fulfilled the inclusion criteria, were included in the study. The data consists of 300 individuals. The average follow-up time was six month gap in order to see the difference clearly.
Results: Unstructured variance covariance structure was computed for the separate longitudinal analyses. The variability of the two biomarkers between individuals seems higher at baseline and appears to decrease over time after patients were initiated on treatment. In final saturated linear mixed model for systolic blood pressure the main effects BMI, Age (40-60), Residence (Urban), Salt (Yes) and Alcohol (Yes) were significant. And also for diastolic blood pressure the main effects BMI, Age (40-60), Residence (Urban), Salt (Yes), Regime (Hydrocholorothizide + Enalapril) and Alcohol (Yes) were significant at the 0.05 significance level.
Conclusions: In this study, two models were considered for fitting two response variables measured longitudinally. Based on the separate analysis the progression of SBP and DBP measures were significantly differ with respect to the main effect independent variables time, sex(female), Age(40-60), residence, salt, alcohol and their interaction time.


The human right to health, insofar as it is widely recognized, is typically thought to include the right to fair access to adequate healthcare, but the operating conception of healthcare in this context has been under-defined. This lack of conceptual clarity has often led in practice to largely Western cultural assumptions about what validly constitutes "healthcare" and "medicine." Ethnocentric and parochial assumptions ought to be avoided, lest they give justification to the accusation that universal human rights are mere tools for Western imperial agendas. At the same time, a right to healthcare that is not also explicitly the right to effective healthcare rapidly loses meaning. This paper strives to provide an account of medicine with the flexibility to accommodate cultural difference in forms of practice, while also aiding in the articulation of a minimum for medical systems to meet the standards set out in a human right.


This paper explores the identity of "Paki" versus "Pakistani" engendering power boundaries in the screenplay of My Beautiful Launderette by Hanif Kureishi. The aim is to study the power dynamics as they operate within the linguistic structure of the screenplay, whilst locating its corresponding relation to the socio-political structures. My reading of the text informs that the screenplay focuses on strategies of survival within the migrant, the previously colonized population of Great Britain, as well as the indigenous English populace. These strategies related to conflicting power struggle in the screenplay tend to evoke a politics of identities seen with the social and linguistic order. Thus, Kureishi's screenplay mainly summons the theme of socio-political strife where language and in particular identity markers, "Paki" versus "Pakistani",  become a site for re-construction of hierarchies to correspond to pluralistic identities of the migrant and the local. Within the scope of the linguistic power dynamics, this paper specifically focuses on the word "Paki" and the socio-political enervation of power attached to it as opposed to the constant struggle of affirmation of reallocation of the word "Pakistani" by the second generation migrant. The paper aims to depict crisis within the socio-economic identities attached to each word leading to inversion of power attached to the word. In this context, Michel Foucault's work on Power along with John McLeod's work on Diaspora and Displacement would be used as research tools to investigate the dynamics of the words "Paki" and "Pakistani" as used in My Beautiful Launderette . Theories on Linguistics would be used to elucidate the power of words in a written text. This paper may open a debate on the effects of words like "Paki" and "Pakistani" in the construction or deconstruction of identities. Future studies on the hierarchal order, dynamics of the word associated with political identities can be carried out to determine how hierarchies are constructed and displaced by words.


: A Johns Hopkins study of more than 300 men indicated that those with an abnormally low level of vitamin B-12 in their blood serum progressed to AIDS almost twice as fast as those with normal levels. In contrast to vitamin B-12, serum levels of vitamin B-6 or folic acid did not appear to correlate with disease progression. The almost twofold increase in progression to AIDS in those with low B-12 levels was found after adjusting for HIV-1-related symptoms, CD4+ cell count, age, serum albumin, use of antiretroviral therapy before AIDS, serum folate concentration, and frequency of alcohol consumption. This may indicate that serum vitamin B-12 concentrations are an early and independent marker of HIV-1 disease progression.


To create a theoretical basis for guided wave detection and identification of corrosion damages, a set of analytically based computer models of various complexity has been developed. The present paper is focused on the simplest and fastest beam model for stepped and notched waveguides, which has exhibited a wide frequency range of reasonable coincidence with the results obtained within more complex integral equation based model for a 2D notched elastic strip.


During the time of enlightened absolutism, the development of education became a state duty. The philosophers of the Enlightenment began to deal with the question of the education of elite women and that played an important role in the nation-building process. Educational reforms initiated by Catherine the Great and Maria Theresa established state educational systems in Russia and in Hungary. The first state-financed higher education institute for women in Europe was opened in Russia. Similar schools in Hungary only appeared a century later. This article compares Russian and Hungarian boarding-schools for noble maidens, focusing on the beginning of these elite institutes and the secondary-level education ensured by them. This essay is dedicated to the memory of L.N. Semenova.


The paper deals with the debate on the General Economic Equilibrium in the 1930s in Vienna and at the London School of Economics and offers an interpretation of it different from that of the traditional narratives. It interprets the debate as a renewed confrontation between the two different classical methodological paths of research in GEE, the Paretian and the Walrasian ones. What emerges from this examination is a picture of different approaches and theories in competition, in particular on the issue of the relationship between theory and the real world. This was the fundamental issue at stake. Herein lies also the interest in those distant controversies for the current debate in economics.


Marketing education has become a topical issue because of dwindling marketing students' enrolment and offering Marketing task in organisations to graduates without marketing degree. The paper evaluated Nigerian experience of marketing education effectiveness in the light of the above. The methodology adopted was Meta-Analysis of primary studies. The population of study was the total numbers of quantitative and qualitative materials downloaded. Total enumeration method was used as sampling technique. Emerging data analysed showed that marketing education quality influenced the performance of marketing graduates (mean=3, 36/4.0). The teaching methods equally influenced marketing performance (mean=3, 21/4.0). For marketing education to serve marketing practice, marketing educator's quality, learning environment quality and teaching methods quality must be enhanced. Marketing professionals must equally collaborate with marketing educators to improve marketing education. The paper concluded that quality of marketing education is an effective tool for organisational performance. The Marketing practitioners need to effectively collaborate with the marketing educators to make marketing education serves marketing practice. The paper recommended the adoption of new marketing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) as a model for marketing education. Marketing educators needs to make marketing curricular responsive to the need and requirements of prospective employers of our products. A strong marketing education and industry linkage is equally recommended.


We present a simple density-averaged approach to the self-interaction-correction (SIC) methods of density functional theory. We discuss both formal properties and applications, considering particularly metal clusters as test cases. We show that the density averaged ansatz exhibits crucial, original (as compared to other SIC schemes) properties such as unitary robustness and applicability to semi-classical approaches. It is ideally suited to systems with well defined length and energy scales such as simple metal clusters.


Satellite imagery research used to be an expensive research topic for companies and organizations due to the limited data and compute resources. As the computing power and storage capacity grows exponentially, a large amount of aerial and satellite images are generated and analyzed everyday for various applications. Current technological advancement and extensive data collection by numerous Internet of Things (IOT) devices and platforms have amplified labeled natural images. Such data availability catalyzed the development and performance of current state-of-the-art image classification and cross-modal models. Despite the abundance of publicly available remote sensing images, very few remote sensing (RS) images are labeled and even fewer are multi-captioned.These scarcities limit the scope of fine tuned state of the art models to at most 38 classes, based on [1],one of the largest publicly available labeled RS data. Recent state-of-the art image-to-image retrieval and detection models in RS have shown great results. Because the text-to-image retrieval of RS images is still emerging, it still faces some challenges in the retrieval of those images.These challenges are based on the inaccurate retrieval of image categories that were not present in the training dataset and the retrieval of images from descriptive input. Motivated by those shortcomings in current cross-modal remote sensing image retrieval, we proposed CLIP-RS, a cross-modal remote sensing image retrieval platform. Our proposed framework CLIP-RS is a framework that combines a fine-tuned implementation of a recent state of the art cross-modal and text-based image retrieval model, Contrastive Language Image Pre-training (CLIP) and FAISS (Facebook AI similarity search), a library for efficient similarity search. Our implementation is deployed on a Web App for inference task on text-to-image and image-to-image retrieval of RS images collected via the Mapbox GL JS API. We used the free tier option of the Mapbox GL JS API and took advantage of its raster tiles option to locate the retrieved results on a local map, a combination of the downloaded raster tiles. Other options offered on our platform are: image similarity search, locating an image in the map, view images' geocoordinates and addresses.In this work we also proposed two remote sensing fine-tuned models and conducted a comparative analysis of our proposed models with a different fine-tuned model as well as the zeroshot CLIP model on remote sensing data. CLIP-RS: A Cross-modal Remote Sensing Image Retrieval Based on CLIP, Northern


The article is devoted to the issue of diagnosing the level of formation of the professional communicative culture of future physicians. The description of the criteria, indicators, and levels of formation of the professional communicative culture of future physicians determined in the course of the study, is presented on the basis of the integration of pedagogical, psychological, and linguistic studies. A brief substantiation and characteristics of certain criteria (motivational, cognitive, personal value, and practical performance) and their indicators are given. The levels of formation of the professional communicative culture of future physicians were defined: high, medium, low.
The formation of the motivational criterion is the starting point for the existence of the professional communicative culture of the future specialist since this phenomenon cannot arise outside the student motivation. Motivation for choosing a profession determines the choice of professional ideals, the formation of professional plans, self-analysis, self-esteem, and the personal exactingness towards himself/herself. It acts as the leading motive of education, stimulating the cognitive activity of students.
The cognitive criterion reflects the level of mastering the knowledge necessary for successful professional communication, which forms the theoretical basis of communication, serves as the basis for the development of practical communication skills.
The personal value criterion was determined on the basis of the formation of values that determine the value attitude of the person to the chosen profession, the presence of universal values and values of professional self-realization, testify to the understanding of the readiness to identify personal initiative and further professional growth.
The practical performance criterion determines the communicative culture of the future specialist. The level of professional skills is not only the practical embodiment of theoretical general cultural and professional knowledge but also their productive application in cognitive activity and the implementation of interpersonal and professional interaction at a high level of professional culture.


At first, the author explains how the bubbling bed model has been conceived, developed and utilized for research and development of fluidized bed reactors. Referring to the KuniiKunugi Process for thermal cracking of heavy oils which uses a circulation system of coke particles, it is emphasized that a number of the results of the fundamental investigation have been well utilized throughout the development of the new process. The circulation system of fluidized solids has been applied for industrialization of Pyrox Process, which gasifies the solid waste materials. Judging the successful operation of the preceding two processes, the above circulation system could be well utilized for large scale carbonization-gasification process, which may be suitable to be constructed on an off-shore artificial island for a coal conversion center in the future. For small scale gasification of biomass or the other type of combustible materials, on the other hand, circulation of particles within a vessel is much preferable, one example of which is given in the text. At present, the author maintains that there are sound theoretical background for a rational prediction of gas and/or solids conversion in ordinary fluidized bed reactor.


Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) will be vital to the profitable production of future sub-micron memory, logic and analog IC products. Computer technology now makes it possible to monitor and control very complex IC production operations. Without this technology it will not be possible to achieve the cycle times and yields that justify the tremendous investment in new fabrication facilities. The increasing importance of CIM means that it must be considered from the very beginning of the design of a new fabrication facility. This paper describes the results of the CIM portion of a Strategic Future Fab Study-or SFFS for short that was sponsored by an international engineering and construction company (Fluor Daniel) and included 23 industry leading companies. The purpose of the SFFS was to design the fab of the future and to challenge the status quo relating to the design, construction, production systems, and operation of wafer fabrication facilities. Through the partnering effort new and novel approaches were developed and defined to achieve more precise manufacturing control, capacity planning, scheduling, improved processing capability, and overall increased productivity.


The composition contains, as the three essential ingredients, an alkyl glycoside in the absence of a quaternary ammonium softening compound, a major amount of a nonionic surfactant and a lesser amount of an anionic surfactant, in a aqueous vehicle. The invention also provides a method for simultaneously cleaning and softening fabrics without the detergency performance and brightening are thereby lessened, which comprises treating the tissues with said composition during the wash cycle of an operation of laundry.


Research on the impact of antismoking advertisements in countermarketing cigarette advertising is equivocal. Although many studies examined how different message appeal types influence people's attitudes and behavior, there have been few studies that have explored the mechanism of how individuals attend to and remember antismoking information. This study examined how message attributes of antismoking TV ads (frame, appeal type, and outcome extremity) interacted to influence people's attention (secondary task reaction time) and memory (recognition). Antismoking public service announcements were chosen that were either loss- or gain-framed, had either a health or social appeal, or had either a more or less extreme outcome described in the message. Among the key findings were that loss-framed messages with more extreme outcomes required the most processing resources (i.e., had the slowest secondary task reaction times) and were the best remembered (i.e., were best recognized). These findings indicate ways that different message attributes affect individuals' cognitive processing, and they are discussed in light of prior framing and persuasion research.


Social capital can be expressed as private good in terms of micro perspective. At the same time social capital is public good and lead to free-rider problem in terms of macro perspective. On the other hand social groups can only use social capital in their own interests and they can create their own resources by excluding other groups. Therefore the lack of inclusive features of social capital lead to social capital failures. In this study, the exclusion effect of social capital and pressure-interest groups, criminal organizations, corruption and nepotism-chronyism are explained as social capital failure or negative externalities of social capital.


Previous research has demonstrated that young children produce mirror-image letter-reversals when printing their names in a leftward direction from the midline or right margin of their writing paper. This ability is postulated to be an epiphenomenon of a symmetric, proximal (arm) stage of motor development that ontogenetically precedes lateralization of fine-motor distal (finger) control-a stage in which each arm can be controlled by either side of the brain. From this view, canonical writing in right hemi-space is contralaterally mediated by the left hemisphere and mirror-writing in left hemi-space is ipsilaterally mediated by the right hemisphere. However, evidence of right hemisphere canonical letter processing in dyslexia suggests that this is not always the case. Concordantly, an early study corrected reversals by having children print these errors canonically in left hemi-space and then rightward across the midline into right hemi-space. To further understand this behaviour, the present study investigated mirror-writing in three schools (Public, Montessori, and Waldorf) each differing in how writing is introduced. It was hypothesised that there would be no school-differences in mirror-writing if printing had been learned before school-entry and that some children would produce reversals in right hemi-space that were canonically written in left-hemi-space (inverse reversals)-the opposite of the normal pattern. The results showed that 39% of the children demonstrated these inverse reversals. It is discussed how this unexpectedly high incidence may be foundational in the development of the phonologically proficient and deficient subtypes of dyslexia, spelling-dysgraphia, and the left-hand inverted writing posture.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the balloon-occluded arterial infusion (BOAI) of cisplatin and adriamycin as a preoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with bladder cancer of stage > or = T2 or in those with stage T1 and multiple large tumours.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The study comprised 120 patients with bladder cancer who underwent BOAI from November 1984 to December 1995. BOAI chemotherapy (adriamycin and cisplatin) was administered under ischaemia through a 7 F torque-control balloon catheter, both sides of which were inserted into the contralateral internal iliac artery. The regression rate of tumours and any improvement in tumour stage was assessed.

RESULTS
The clinical response rate (complete or partial) was 66% and the tumour stage improved in 39% of the patients after BOAI. Of 26 patients with stage T3 a diagnosed before BOAI, 12 were diagnosed as T2 or less after treatment. Of 27 patients who underwent total cystectomy because the tumour was diagnosed as T2 after BOAI, the post-operative histopathological examination showed that 22 (82%) were stage pT1 or below. The features associated with a good response to BOAI in patients with up to pT3a disease were grade 3, non-papillary tumours with a diameter of < 3 cm.

CONCLUSION
In patients diagnosed as stage T2 and T3a, or stage T1 with multiple large tumours difficult to be treat by transurethral resection, BOAI should be considered as the first choice to decrease the stage or to confirm the pathological staging.


A vanadium phosphite compound, LiV(HPO3)2, has been synthesized using low-melting flux composed of phosphorous acid and lithium hydroxide. The crystal structure of the compound as refined using the Rietveld method matched with the previously reported unit cell parameters (space group: I2d, a = b = 10.5987(4), c = 9.9843(5) A). It has a 3-dimensional open-framework structure with intersecting channels. Eight-membered ring square channels can be viewed along the c-axis and 6-membered ring channels along the a- and b-axis. The Li-ions are located in the six-membered ring channels exactly at the opening window to the eight-membered ring channels. The magnetic property measurements confirmed the +3 oxidation state of vanadium. The as-synthesized V-phosphite exhibits facile electrochemical properties with an insertion voltage of 4.05 V vs. Li+/Li and 3.7 V vs. Na+/Na in Li- and Na-ion batteries, respectively. When cycled between 4.5 and 1.2 V, the compound shows an insertion of second lithium at ∼2 V. The galvanostatic charge–discharge profiles indicate that LiV(HPO3)2 can be cycled between V4+ and V2+, where a 4 V slightly sloppy plateau and a sloping profile after 2 V represent a solid-solution type mechanism during reductions for V4+/V3+ and V3+/V2+ redox couples, respectively, whereas during charging there is evidence of a biphasic reaction. The compound has been further characterized by TGA, IR, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.


This paper explores the cost-effectiveness of New York State-approved syringe exchange programs (SEPs), and provides an estimate of the annual savings in healthcare costs due to these programs. The research utilizes the simplified circulation model that estimated cost savings in Laufer's (2001) study, however with the most recent data. The cost-effectiveness analysis used data provided by seventeen SEPs, as well as published data for the most recent 12-month period available, and treatment costs from the literature. An estimated 1,608 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases are averted annually in the injection drug user (IDU) population, which translates to about $51,754,152 in treatment cost savings each year due to syringe exchange programs in New York. This research further demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of syringe exchange as prevention strategy.