Digital printing enables solution processing of functional materials and opens a new route to fabricate low-cost electronic devices. One crucial parameter that affects the wettability of inks for all printing techniques is the surface free energy (SFE) of the substrate. Siloxanes, with their huge variety of side chains and their ability to form self-assembled monolayers, offer exhaustive control of the substrate SFE from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. Thus, siloxane treatment is a suitable approach to adjust the substrate conditions to the desired ink, instead of optimizing the ink to an arbitrary substrate. In this work, the influence of different fluorinated and nonfluorinated siloxanes on the SFE of different substrates, such as polymers, glasses, and metals, are examined. By mixing several siloxanes, we demonstrate the fine tuning of the surface energy. The polar and dispersive components of the SFE are determined by the Owens-Wendt-Rabel-Kaelble (OWRK) method. Furthermore, the impact of the siloxanes and therefore the SFE on the pinning of droplets and wet films are assessed via dynamic contact angle measurements. SFE-optimized substrates enable tailoring the resolution of inkjet printed silver structures. A nanoparticulate silver ink was used for printing single drops, lines, and source-drain electrodes for transistors. These were examined in terms of diameter, edge quality, and functionality. We show that by adjusting the SFE of an arbitrary substrate, the printed resolution is substantially increased by minimizing the printed drop size by up to 70%.


In this work, we propose deep latent space clustering for speaker diarization using generative adversarial network (GAN) back-projection with the help of an encoder network. The proposed diarization system is trained jointly with GAN loss, latent variable recovery loss, and a clustering-specific loss. It uses x-vector speaker embeddings at the input, while the latent variables are sampled from a combination of continuous random variables and discrete one-hot encoded variables using the original speaker labels. We benchmark our proposed system on the AMI meeting corpus, and two child-clinician interaction corpora (ADOS and BOSCC) from the autism diagnosis domain. ADOS and BOSCC contain diagnostic and treatment outcome sessions respectively obtained in clinical settings for verbal children and adolescents with autism. Experimental results show that our proposed system significantly outperform the state-of-the-art x-vector based diarization system on these databases. Further, we perform embedding fusion with x-vectors to achieve a relative diarization error rate (DER) improvement of 31%, 36% and 49% on AMI eval, ADOS and BOSCC corpora respectively, when compared to the x-vector baseline using oracle speech segmentation.


XYZ is a cable company of excellence in audio-video cable technology through research, production, and product development. PT. XYZ produces frequency cables, power cables, and low-voltage cables and its newest products are USB cables and CCTV cables. PT. XYZ is a company that uses a make-to-order strategy. To produce quality products with fast delivery, a production division is needed, where the division is in charge of designing the production process, and maintaining product quality in accordance with established quality standards. As a company with a high production capacity target, a good strategy and planning are needed to increase efficiency by reducing waste. Balancing the utility of each path can be done to reduce the waste of time that occurs. Based on observations of the NYM low voltage cable production process, there is still idle time at several work stations due to the production machine factor. It is often found that there are workstations that are idle while other stations are fully working. The results of the data were obtained and processed by comparing the two types of NYM products based on product performance measurements. The efficiency level of the 2×1.5 mm² NYM product with a length of 46,000 meters is more efficient than the NYM 3×1.5 mm² product with a length of 12,000 meters because the balance delay in the NYM 3×1.5 mm² product is longer. So the company needs to evaluate or reassess the balance of the NYM assembly line.


The NiTi shape memory alloy has been modified by ion implantation with Ta to improve the surface and biological properties. The elemental and phase composition and structure of the surface and near-surface layers of NiTi specimens after the Ta ion implantation with the fluency D = 3 × 1017 cm-2 and D = 6 × 1017 cm-2 are examined. The methods of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron dispersion analysis (EDS) are used. It is found that a nonuniform distribution of elements along the depth of the surface layer after the ion implantation of NiTi specimens, regardless of the regime, is accompanied by the formation of a number of sublayer structures.


This study identified the antifungal metabolites produced by Bacillus altitudinis Q7 against Alternaria alternata and investigated the antifungal activity and antifungal action. Lipopeptide, the important secondary metabolites were identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry as lichenysin. The antifungal activity of lipopeptide on A. alternata was determined by microdilution technique, and its minimum inhibitory concentration was 1.2 mg/ml. Stability test showed that lipopeptide had excellent temperature and pH resistance. To investigate whether lichenysin acted on the cell membrane and changed its permeability, the ultra‐violet absorption of protein and nucleic acid were measured using a colorimetric method. The antifungal metabolites produced by B. altitudinis Q7 was lichenysin, which showed stable antifungal activity in the extreme environments. Lichenysin could inhibit A. alternata by altering the permeability of cell membrane, leading to the outflow of proteins and nucleic acids from the cytoplasm. This research suggests the lipopeptide from B. altitudinis Q7 is a potential biological control agent against A. alternata.


Vegetation distribution and state have been measured since 1981 by the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) instrument through satellite remote sensing. In this study a correction method is applied to the Pathfinder NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) data to create a continuous European vegetation phenology dataset of a 10-day temporal and 0.1° spatial resolution; additionally, land surface parameters for use in biosphere–atmosphere modelling are derived. The analysis of time-series from this dataset reveals, for the years 1982–2001, strong seasonal and interannual variability in European land surface vegetation state. Phenological metrics indicate a late and short growing season for the years 1985–1987, in addition to early and prolonged activity in the years 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1995. These variations are in close agreement with findings from phenological measurements at the surface; spring phenology is also shown to correlate particularly well with anomalies in winter temperature and winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Nevertheless, phenological metrics, which display considerable regional differences, could only be determined for vegetation with a seasonal behaviour. Trends in the phenological phases reveal a general shift to earlier (−0.54 days year−1) and prolonged (0.96 days year−1) growing periods which are statistically significant, especially for central Europe.


Synopsis The structural complex comprising the Tarskavaig and Moine nappes of Skye has been re-mapped and analysed in detail. Large scale folds belong to only two generations and these can be correlated with generations of large folds in adjacent mainland areas. Small folds belong to at least four more generations in addition to the two generations already mentioned. Some of these small folds are, however, of little regional importance and are found only in zones of highly deformed rocks. These zones have developed at two separate times in the structural evolution; and, like thrust planes, belong to two other separate periods. General considerations indicate that the displacements on the thrust planes could be very much less than assumed, and there is the possibility that the Loch Alsh fold may well be a late stage structure, in contrast to earlier views.


To the Editor: —I have noted inThe Journal, April 4, page 1168, the excellent suggestions of Dr. Edward G. Martin in reference to "Spinal Anesthesia Excluding the Motor Nerves" and I am happy to be able to confirm his observations for I have been using small doses (from 40 to 70 mg.) of procaine intraspinally since October, 1929. There is another decided advantage, I believe, which the intradural administration of procaine makes available, when the procedure permits, and that is the use of the ventral posture. The lateral (Sims) and dorsal postures are not ideal for anorectal treatments. Surgical treatment of the anus and rectum can be executed with comfort to the patient and with greater ease to the surgeon when the patient is placed in a ventral, semiflexed posture. With the patient lying prone on the table this can be effected by "breaking the table" so as to


This project proposes the use of a non-invasive method for the distinction of burn depths using infrared thermography. This technique allows measurement and visualization of skin temperature accurately, remotely and without contact through a thermographic image. Thermographic images of patients who had been attended at the Burned Institute of the city of Cordoba were taken, in order to determine the depth of the burns in a non-invasive manner. The results obtained from the thermal images of the patients reflect that thermography could be an useful tool as a complementary diagnostic method to the one currently used, being beneficial since it is not invasive, it does not cause pain to the patient, and its use does not cause adverse effects.


A large number of problems can be formalized as finding the best symbolic expression to maximize a given numerical objective. Most approaches to approximately solve such problems rely on random exploration of the search space. This paper focuses on how this random exploration should be performed to take into account expressions redundancy and invalid expressions. We propose a learning algorithm that, given the set of available constants, variables and operators and given the target finite number of trials, computes a probability distribution to maximize the expected number of semantically different, valid, generated expressions. We illustrate the use of our approach on both medium scale and large-scale expression spaces, and empirically show that such optimized distributions significantly outperform the uniform distribution in terms of the diversity of generated expressions.

We further test the method in combination with the recently proposed nested Monte Carlo algorithm on a set of benchmark symbolic regression problems and demonstrate its interest in terms of reduction of the number of required calls to the objective function.


Background/Aims: The tracheoesophageal prothesis (TEP) has become the primary modality for laryngeal communication after total laryngectomy due to high success rates, minimal morbidity, and more natural pulmonary driven speech. Fibrosis, kyphosis, and post-radiation contracture may preclude TEP placement through rigid esophagoscopy, and certain patients may not tolerate an in-office awake procedure. For such patients, a technique for flexible esophageal stenting and TEP placement is necessary. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of 3 patients who underwent TEP placement through endotracheal-tube esophageal stenting at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Results: All 3 patients underwent laryngectomy after prior chemoradiotherapy for laryngeal cancer with resulting neck contracture and fibrosis preventing rigid esophagoscopy. All patients underwent successful TEP placement through endotracheal stenting without complication and developed excellent tracheoesophageal speech. Specific technical details are highlighted. Conclusions: In patients with anatomical constraints preventing traditional TEP placement through rigid esophagoscopy, fiberoptic guidance through an endotracheal tube stent provides a safe and efficient approach for TEP placement.


In this thesis we discuss stratification in Argentina in relation to the process of economic development, divided into two stages, before the World Crisis and between 1929 and 1955. In chapter one we try to make explicit some basic definitions and discuss some of the reasons that justify the selection of our subject and its orientation. In each of the following three chapters we try to isolate those peculiar features of the process of economic development in Argentina which have affected the formation and further evolution of stratified groups, namely, economic, occupational and of status. We define an "economic group" as the set of units of production engaged in a certain economic activity: this activity and the Interests attached to it are what defines a group, not its individual members. Here we discuss the formation of economic groups within specific activities. We conclude that whereas agricultural development favoured the formation of a powerful group, (estancieros), the peculiar course of industrial development obstructed the formation of powerful groups except in a few activities; in the majority of cases these activities belonged either to foodstuffs production or were branches where foreign capital had been invested. "Occupational groups" are defined in terms of role within the economic unit and of the branch of activity to which the unit belongs. Here we try to relate changes in the economic structure to the disappearance of old groups as well as the formation of new ones. Furthermore, we focus our attention on the impact of development on the distribution of income among different occupational groups. The first stage of development is characterized by the formation of middle strata as well as a high rate of occupational mobility. During the second stage occupational mobility continued to be high, particularly for people already located in the middle strata. The most remarkable feature of this stage was the growth of white collar and urban workers. Finally we discuss status groups which are defined as circles of people who share a style of life and because of this a given prestige. We point out how rapid occupational mobility and changes in the material aspects of styles of life have worked against the survival of status groups.


Soybean is considered as an important legume because of its high content of protein and oil. However, it is sensitive to drought stress that was increasingly recorded recently. Plants respond to drought by several changes on the physiological and molecular levels and by endogenously changing the concentrations of certain substances, sauch as reactive oxygen species (ROS). An experiment was conducted in 2018 and 2019 to investigate the effects of drought stress and the possible effects of exogenously sprayed hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) at R1 stage on two soybean cultivars. Significant decreases in all studied traits were recorded as a result of drought stress. Noticeable enhancements in stomatal conductance, relative chlorophyll content, relative water content, leaf area index, plant height and the final seed yield of both cultivars when treated with H2O2 were also recorded. It could be concluded that H2O2 spraying can be a good strategy to alleviate presumable negative influence of drought.


BACKGROUND
Immunization coverage has been consistently low in semi pastoralist regions of Ethiopia, including the Gambella region.

OBJECTIVE
Assess facility preparedness for routine immunization services in the region.

METHODS
All health centers and randomly selected health posts that were reported to provide immunization services for at least six months earlier to the data collection time were included. The study was conducted in August, 2011. Data were collected through observations and interviewing health facility head or EPI focal person using structured questionnaire.

RESULT
Only 7/28 (25%) of health facilities provided routine EPI service regularly while the rest 21/28 (75%) health facilities did not offer routine EPI regularly. The reasons given for not providing EPI services regularly were lack of refrigerator in 9/28 (32.1%) health facilities, shortage of kerosene in 7/28 (33.3%), the refrigerators were dysfunctional in 3/28 (14.3%), had no vaccine in 1/28 (3.6%) health facilities. At times higher coverage were attained when Enhance Routine Immunization Activities (ERIA) were conducted.

CONCLUSION
Routine EPI performance in Gambella region is generally low. There seems to be reliance only on ERIAs to increase EPI coverage. Health facilities should be staffed with trained personnel and adequate immunization logistics should be available to run regular static and outreach services.


Abstract The use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in modelling the hydrological processes has become a common approach in the last two decades, among side the traditional methods. In regard to the rainfall-runoff modelling, in both traditional and ANN models the use of ground rainfall measurements is prevalent, which can be challenging in areas with low rain gauging station density, especially in catchments where strong focused rainfall can generate flash-floods. The weather radar technology can prove to be a solution for such areas by providing rain estimates with good time and space resolution. This paper presents a comparison between different ANN setups using as input both ground and radar observations for modelling the rainfall-runoff process for Bahluet catchment, with focus on a flash-flood observed in the catchment.


The improvements in wireless sensor networks (WSN) moves the technology to be more convenient with its practical installation feature and low cost. Today, WSNs are used in many applications and to be able to ensure the needs of these applications the sensor nodes have to know their own positions. Besides, to find the exact positions of these nodes, diverse methods are presented in the literature. We presented a recursion based localization technique over an ad hoc network composed of wireless nodes. Here, in the given wireless network structure when a mobile node needs to find out its own position, it will find the nearest two or three reference nodes around itself who own their localization informations so that by utilizing these nodes' localization informations, the mobile node will find out its own location. Additionally, the presented alghorithm includes some basic properties of Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR) protocol and DV-hop schema.


Mike Thelwall was honoured with the Derek John de Solla Price Award (2015) at his 50 years age and at 20 years of research publishing career. The first contribution of the author was in 2000 at the age of 35. His publications were analysed by year, growth of publication pattern, collaboration pattern, authorship pattern, channels of communications used and keywords etc. He had 297 publications during 2000-2015 in domains: Computer Science (237), Social Sciences (183), Decision Sciences (50), Mathematics (45), Engineering (11), Medicine(7), Agricultural and Biological Sciences (6), Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (6), Economics, Econometrics and Finance (3), Physics and Astronomy (3), Arts and Humanities (2), Business Management and Accounting (2), Psychology (1) and Multidisciplinary (1). Collaborative authorship pattern is found to be in the team size of 2-above 5. Fifty-seven are single authored papers, 136 two authored, 63 three authored, 21 four authored, 7 five authored and 13 above five authored. Two and Three authored papers constitute nearly 67 percent of the total authorship of his papers while single author papers are nearly 19 percent of the total authorship.


Li-based batteries are a key element in reaching a sustainable energy economy in the near future. The understanding of the very complex electrochemical processes is necessary for the optimization of their performance. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is an accepted method used to improve understanding around the chemical processes at the electrode surfaces. Nevertheless, its application is limited because the surfaces under investigation are mostly rough and inhomogeneous. Local elemental analysis, such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), could assist XPS to gain more insight into the chemical processes at the surfaces. In this paper, some challenges in using electron spectroscopy are discussed, such as binding energy (BE) referencing for the quantitative study of chemical shifts, gas atmospheric influences, or beam damage (including both AE and XP spectroscopy). Carefully prepared and surface-modified metallic lithium material is used as model surface, considering that Li is the key element for most battery applications.


T

he study examines why Egyptian EFL undergraduates find it difficult to comprehend the proper syntactic structures of their target language (i.e. English) and particularly translate the meaning of an Arabic-written source text into English. Such differences are analyzed in line with the gender variables (i.e. male and female Egyptian learners) and their ability to tolerate the syntactic and connotative differences which exist between the English and Arabic languages. This difficulty emanates from the syntactic differences which exist between their mother tongue (i.e. Arabic) and their target language (i.e. English). Such syntactic differences lead to linguistic uncertainty on the part of Egyptian EFL undergraduates. The ability of overcoming such linguistic uncertainties may vary among the Egyptian EFL learners particularly when they fulfill a translation-based task from a source text written in Arabic into English. This is attributed to the fact that translation from a mother tongue into the target language is the main field in which such syntactic differences become visible and tangible. The study provides implications for the teaching of translation as a core course at the Department of Languages and Translation.


A forward reachability analysis method for the safety verification of nonlinear systems controlled by neural networks is presented. The proposed method relies on abstracting the activation functions in the neural networks (NN) by quadratic constraints (QCs) resorting to local sector bounds. To tackle the system nonlinearity, the nonlinear model is embedded into a linear parameter varying (LPV) representation. An outer-approximation of the forward reachable set of the closed-loop system is obtained using semidefinite programming. A numerical example clearly demonstrates the applicability of the proposed method. Comparison with some available methods reveals that the provided approach may potentially lead to less conservative results.


This timely book examines the authorization of Shari'ah-compliant intermediaries as either credit institutions or as investment companies in the European Union.


This study was designed to examine academic self-perceptions in adolescents with learning disabilities as part of a two-year intervention project. The major objective was to compare students' perceptions with their teachers' judgments of their level of effort, strategy use, and academic performance in reading, writing, spelling, and math. The sample consisted of 308 students with learning disabilities, 355 average achievers, and their 57 teachers. Findings indicated that the students with learning disabilities viewed themselves as motivated, hard-working, appropriately strategic, and academically competent, thus reflecting positive academic self-concepts. Teachers' judgments were significantly more negative and they rated the overall group of students with learning disabilities as below average in their strategy use, academic performance, and organization. The most interesting finding occurred when the results were analyzed for students whose overall academic achievement was in the high-average range. Teachers rated the effort and strategy use of students with and without learning disabilities as above average, indicating that their perceptions were influenced by students' academic success and were not negatively impacted by the existence of a learning disability. In contrast, teachers judged low-achieving students with learning disabilities more negatively than their low-achieving peers without learning disabilities. Thus, teachers' perceptions of students' effort and strategy use were influenced by students' academic success and their learning disabilities did not interfere negatively with this perception. Lastly, findings indicated that hard work, in combination with efficient strategy use, can lead to success in the classroom.


As a social problem, violence has been reflecting its consequences over people's daily lives. For such reason, it is important to understand how it is seen and addressed by health professionals, especially by nurses. It is therefore essential to study this issue by identifying and analyzing scientific paper on the theme. With this objective, we analyzed all Brazilian nursing scientific production on violence published in the period of 2003 to April, 2008. Articles from Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde / Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BVS/BIREME) were accessed using LILACS, MEDLINE, SCIELO and BDENF database. We focused on methodology, Brazilian region where the study was performed, author's degree (professor, undergraduate or postgraduate student, assistant nurse), language, year of publication, type of violence covered and publication vehicles. A total of 154 articles were found, out of which 47 were selected. Qualitative approaching was used in 33 papers (70, 2%). Seventeen studies (36, 2%) had been performed in the Southeast of Brazil, 32 (68, 1%) had been carried out by professors, 39 (83, 0%) were written in Portuguese and 22 (46, 8%) dealt with violence against children and teenagers. The publication that most frequently had articles on the subject was Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, with a total of 10 papers (21, 3%). We conclude that Brazilian scientific production on violence is still scarce, even though there has been a gradual increase in the studied period.


This paper deals with the application of multipath search coding (MSC) concepts to the coding of stationary memoryless and correlated sources and of speech signals at a rate of one bit per sample. We have made use of three MSC classes: 1) codebook coding (vector quantization), 2) tree coding, and 3) trellis coding. This paper explains the performances of these coders and compares them both with those of conventional coders and with rate-distortion bounds. Figs. 2 and 3 demonstrate the potentials of MSC coding strategies. The paper reports also on results of MSC coding of speech, where both the strategy of adaptive quantization and of adaptive prediction were included in coder design.


In 1956, after 96 years of petroleum exploration and production, the United States had produced 52.4 billion bbl of crude oil. Industry opinion and all available evidence were in agreement that the ultimate amount of crude oil to be produced in the lower 48 states would probably fall between 150 and 200 billion bbl, with future production from two to three times that of the past. The high estimate for natural gas was about 850 Tcf. At that time, the writer showed that if the ultimate crude oil production should be between 150 and 200 billion bbl, and if the ultimate amount of natural gas to be produced should be about 850 Tcf, the peak of crude oil production should occur during the period 1966 to 1971, and the peak of natural gas production at about 1970. That was the end of consistency in the estimates of the ultimate amounts of crude oil and natural gas to be produced in the United States. During the next 5 years petroleum-industry estimates escalated to 400 billion bbl for crude oil and about 1,500 Tcf for natural gas, while estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey reached 590 billion bbl for crude oil and 2,630 Tcf for natural gas. Furthermore, these higher estimates persisted until well into the 1970 decade. In the meantime, successive estimates by the writer, based on analyses of publicly available petroleum-industry data, led consistently to about 165 to 175 billion bbl as the ultimate amount of crude oil, and 1,000 to 1,100 Tcf for natural gas, with the crude oil production peak due to occur during 1967-70, and that of natural gas in the mid-1970s. These estimates were predictions of the future, and that future has now elapsed. The peak of crude oil production was reached in 1970 and that of natural gas in 1973. By the end of 1972, the evidence was consistent with 170 billion bbl for the ultimate amount of crude oil and 1,000 to 1,100 Tcf for natural gas. However, since 1972 proved reserves and discovery and production rates of both oil and gas have been declining more rapidly than ori inally estimated. Should this continue, the ultimate quantities of oil and gas may be less than those estimated in 1972. End_of_Article - Last_Page 470------------


In the course of an examination with the slit lamp, an attempt is usually made to keep the subject's eyes stationary, and yet directed straight ahead, by having him fixate on the examiner's forehead or on some part of the microscope. While probably satisfactory for all practical purposes, the procedure has several disadvantages: The observer's head and, to a less extent, the microscope are not themselves stationary; they are not visible when the examination is done in a dark room, and they are so close to the subject that fixation is tiring for the presbyopic or prepresbyopic patient. To overcome these difficulties and to permit a ready variation in fixation, we have found the following procedure satisfactory for all but one-eyed patients. Two mirrors about 5 cm. in diameter are attached to the chin rest base by means of a flexible cable1in such a way that each mirror


The ecological success and also the susceptibility of corals to bleaching have been attributed to their obligate relationship with Symbiodinium and its functional diversity. Deeper understanding of this symbiosis is essential to enable the existence of reef ecosystems. This thesis aimed to determine how the environment and the host exert control over the proteome of Symbiodinium and how this is related to the maintenance of symbiosis. Firstly, it was explored how the proteome related to the photoacclimation strategies of Symbiodinium, and its regulation under different light environments. An initial assessment of the proteome regulation using shotgun proteomics over Symbiodinium type C1 cultured at two experimental photon fluxes displayed differences in proteins associated with light harvesting, electron transport, carbon fixation and protein modification. Subsequent two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) analysis between three Symbiodinium types (A1, A13 and C1) cultured at the two previous photon fluxes revealed unique proteome differences across these types and between both experimental light treatments. Database searches of the isoelectric point (pI) and the molecular weight (MW) tagged these proteins also associated with the same processes matched by previous shotgun analysis over C1 type. These results are in agreement with previous hypothesis on different photoacclimation strategies displayed among different types of Symbiodinium. These strategies comprised differential proteomic modifications in the photosynthetic unit (PSU) of the experimental types of Symbiodinium to balance ATP production and achieve homeostasis at different photon flux environments. The host control effect and regulation of the proteome and physiology of Symbiodinium ex- hospite was studied using two host release factors (HRFs) a free aminoacid mix (FAA) and the host tissue (HT) homogenate from the coral Pocillopora damicornis. To comprehend the relation between the proteome and physiology various parameters related with the photosynthate production and translocation of Symbiodinium were measured including: glucose released, excitation pressure over photosystem two (PSII), total protein, total glucose and chlorophyll a concentration in the presence and absence of the HRFs. The measured parameters showed variability among types. In general, the parameters directly related to photochemistry: Chl a and excitation pressure over PSII were controlled by photon flux and inversely correlated with each other. Protein and glucose also correlated with each other and were controlled by host factors although HT and FAA had an antagonistic effect of stimulation and inhibition of these parameters respectively. The principal component analysis (PCA) evidenced the existence of a general mechanism of glucose release which correlated with protein expression. The HRFs control over the proteome of Symbiodinium explored by SDS-PAGE analysis displayed different bands with differential expression among types and treatments. Some of these proteins may be related with the stimulation and inhibition of the mechanism of translocation of glucose that were found. Identification of these proteins would probably clarify the physiology behind the translocation of glucose from the Symbiodinium cell to its coral host. The proteome response and physiology of Symbiodinium was assessed by the interaction of different light environments with different temperatures. Growth patterns and photochemical measurements confirmed unique acclimation processes to light and temperature conditions across the three Symbiodinium types. These acclimation strategies appeared regulated by the differential expression of proteins involved in photosynthesis, protein modification, energy metabolism and cell maintenance. This differential expression of the proteome related to these processes seemed associated with the activation of alternative electron transport pathways to balance ATP production, regulate energy metabolism and fuel the cell at the different experimental light and temperature conditions. The results obtained provide a broader view on how the differential regulation of the proteome mediates the physiological plasticity across types of Symbiodinium to photoacclimate to different light enviroments, to acclimate to high temperature and to respond to stressful conditions determining the functional diversity existing in this genus of coral symbionts.


Urodynamic and microcirculatory parameters were studied in 70 females aged from 21 to 70 years with hyperactive urinary bladder (HAUB) and 15 females free of diseases of the lower urinary tract. HAUB patients appeared to develop microcirculatory disorders in the wall of the bladder manifest as slow circulation resulting in detrusor hyperactivity responsible for HAUB symptoms. HAUB development is accompanied with urodynamic disorders - enhancement of detrusor contractility and that of urethral sphincter with growing amplitude of their electric activity leading to potentiation of bladder evacuatory ability. Different conservative treatments were evaluated for their influence on urodynamics and microcirculation in females with HAUB.


Genetic interpretation and diversity of 9 isozyme loci have been estimated in 7 improved varieties and 19 landraces from Sweden by means of starch gel electrophoresis. The isozyme systems were ACO, DIA, GPI, MDH, PGD and PGM. For the statistic analysis we used the following measures: average number of alleles per locus, percentage of polymorphic loci, average heterozygosity direct count and average heterozygosity Hardy-Weinberg expected unbiased estimate. The measures were made on species and population levels. The distribution of the total genetic diversity among populations was also calculated. To illustrate the genetic relationships among populations, genetic distances were measured and principal component analysis performed. As expected in a cross-pollinated crop we found high genetic diversity and a larger variation within than among the populations. Somewhat unexpectedly, however, we found that the currently used varieties have the same high level of heterozygosity as the landraces but in the dendrogram the two groups are separated. The dendrogram showed three main clusters. The large cluster included 21 populations and the two small clusters were clearly distinguishable from the rest. The landrace spring-type could not be separated from the landraces winter-type, but we did detect a difference between different spring types. A few populations had unique alleles for certain loci.


Linoleic acid and monomethyldecenylsuccinic acid were tested as uncoupling agents for energy linked functions of corn mitochondria. 2,4-dinitrophenol was used as a standard for comparison. Both compounds uncoupled oxidative phosphorylation, released oligomycin-blocked respiration, and accelerated adenosine triphosphatase. Linoleic acid uncoupled calcium-activated phosphate accumulation and the increase in light scattering that accompanies the accumulation. Unlike dinitrophenol, linoleic acid at 0.1 mm had a destructive effect on membrane semipermeability. Kinetic studies indicated that dinitrophenol and linoleic acid compete with phosphate for active sites in oxidative phosphorylation.Some linoleic acid is taken up by respiring mitochondria and a major share of the uptake is incorporated into phospholipids. Calcium ion and oligomycin promote the uptake, but coenzyme A does not. It is deduced that fatty acid probably attacks the non-phosphorylated intermediate, I approximately X, producing X approximately acyl. Uncoupling results from breakdown of X approximately acyl, but sufficient X approximately acyl is maintained to serve as a source of activated fatty acid.


AIMS
Mitochondrion is considered as the major source of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). H2S has been reported to be an antioxidant, but its mechanism remains largely elusive. P66Shc is an upstream activator of mitochondrial redox signaling. The aim of this study was to explore whether the antioxidant effect of H2S is mediated by p66Shc.

RESULTS
Application of exogenous H2S with its donor, NaHS, or overexpression of its generating enzyme, cystathionine β-synthase, induced sulfhydration of p66Shc, but inhibited its phosphorylation caused by H2O2/D-galactose in SH-SY5Y cells or in the mice cortex. H2S also decreased mitochondrial ROS production and protected neuronal cells against stress-induced senescence. PKCβII and PP2A are the two key proteins to regulate p66Shc phosphorylation. Although H2S failed to affect the activities of these two proteins, it disrupted their association. Cysteine-59 resides in proximity to serine-36, the phosphorylation site of p66Shc. The C59S mutant attenuated the above-described biological function of H2S.

INNOVATION
We revealed a novel mechanism for the antioxidant effect of H2S and its role in oxidative stress-related diseases.

CONCLUSION
H2S inhibits mitochondrial ROS production via the sulfhydration of Cys-59 residue, which in turn, prevents the phosphorylation of p66Shc.


South Florida has more than its share of invasive plants, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals, birds, and invertebrates. Nonnative species often spread quickly. Research and monitoring can help managers anticipate which species will cause harm before it is too late to remove them. Identifying where a species is on the invasion curve is the first step to taking management action. The invasion curve shows that eradication of an invasive species becomes less likely and control costs increase as an invasive species spreads over time. Prevention is the most cost-effective solution, followed by eradication. If a species is not detected and removed early, intense and long-term control efforts will be unavoidable. This 4-page fact sheet was written by Rebecca G. Harvey and Frank J. Mazzotti, and published by the UF Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, November 2014.
WEC347/UW392: The Invasion Curve: A Tool for Understanding Invasive Species Management in South Florida (ufl.edu)


ABSTRACT The virulence of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, stems from its antiphagocytic capsule, encoded by pXO2, and the tripartite toxins encoded by pXO1. The accepted paradigm states that anthrax is both an invasive and toxinogenic disease and that the toxins play major roles in pathogenicity. We tested this assumption by a systematic study of mutants with combined deletions of the pag, lef, and cya genes, encoding protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF), and edema factor (EF), respectively. The resulting seven mutants (single, double, and triple) were evaluated following subcutaneous (s.c.) and intranasal (i.n.) inoculation in rabbits and guinea pigs. In the rabbit model, virulence is completely dependent on the presence of PA. Any mutant bearing a pag deletion behaved like a pXO1-cured mutant, exhibiting complete loss of virulence with attenuation indices of over 2,500,000 or 1,250 in the s.c. or i.n. route of infection, respectively. In marked contrast, in guinea pigs, deletion of pag or even of all three toxin components resulted in relatively moderate attenuation, whereas the pXO1-cured bacteria showed complete attenuation. The results indicate that a pXO1-encoded factor(s), other than the toxins, has a major contribution to the virulence mechanism of B. anthracis in the guinea pig model. These unexpected toxin-dependent and toxin-independent manifestations of pathogenicity in different animal models emphasize the importance and need for a comprehensive evaluation of B. anthracis virulence in general and in particular for the design of relevant next-generation anthrax vaccines.


Dietary wood charcoal can be a potential low-cost feed supplement for the improvement of performance in broiler chicken production, while reducing loss of nutrients through birds' excreta. However, it has no nutritive value and excess feeding may lead to constipation and thereby hamper birds' production performance. An experiment was conducted with a total of 24  male broiler chickens which were subjected to a commercial broiler finisher diet with 0, 1.5, 3, and 6% wood charcoal (on a dry matter basis), respectively.  This was to ascertain the level of dietary wood charcoal that can be included in a commercial broiler feed without negative effects on production performance of broiler chickens, nutrient utilization and losses through birds' excreta under adverse climatic conditions in Northern Ghana. Birds' feed consumption, body weight gain, as well as excreta quality were assessed for four days. Results showed that dietary wood charcoal can replace up to 6% of a commercial broiler chicken feed without negative effects on growth performance, nutrient utilization and excreta consistency, while reducing the phosphorous concentration in broiler excreta. Future research should analyze the long-term effect of feeding charcoal on performance and health of laying hens.

 Key words: Broiler chickens, dietary wood charcoal, nutrient utilization, production performance, excreta quality.


Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has received significant attention because of the global climate change and the consumption of fossil fuel resources. Specifically, using TiO2 in photocatalytic applications, such as the removal of organic pollutants and a hydrogen production has become an important issue. Thus, many researchers have attempted to prepare highly active TiO2 materials using various synthetic approaches. Modifications of the conventional sol-gel method, such as the addition of surfactants, have been employed in synthetic procedures. Moreover, hydrothermal, solvothermal, sonochemical and microwave methods have also been used as alternative approaches. Recently, the use of ionic liquids represents a burgeoning direction in inorganic material synthesis. Ionic liquids are exceptional solvents consisting of ions possessing low vapor pressure and tunable solvent properties. This article reviews the preparation of TiO2 materials using ionic liquids with various synthetic approaches. Also, sustainable energy and environmental cleanup applications of TiO2 materials, including the treatment of hazardous organic substances and hydrogen energy derived from electrochemical methods, are discussed.


Given a finite set of points P in the Euclidean plane, the Steiner problem asks us to constuct a shortest possible network interconnecting P. Such a network is known as a minimal Steiner tree. The Steiner problem is an intrinsically difficult one, having been shown to be NP-hard [7]; however, it often proves far more tractable if we restrict our attention to points in special geometric configurations. One such restriction which has generated considerable interest is that of finding minimal Steiner trees for nice sets of integer lattice points. The first significant result in this direction was that of Chung and Graham [4], which, in effect, precisely characterized the minimal Steiner trees for any horizontal 2_n array of integer lattice points. In 1989, Chung et al. [3] examined a related problem, which they described as the Checkerboard Problem. They asked how to find a minimal Steiner tree for an n_n square lattice, that is, a collection of n_n points arranged in a regular lattice of unit squares like the corners of the cells of article no. TA962752


Since numerous complications after meniscectomy, in cases of peripheral tear of the meniscus an average follow up of 32.2 months after meniscal suture was presented. Excellent and good results in 90 percent of cases reviewed prove this procedure to be efficient.


ABSTRACT These recommendations were created after the publication of informative note 3/2020- CGGAP/DESF/SAPS/MS, of April 4, 2020, in which the Brazilian Ministry of Health recommended the use of a cloth mask by the population, in public places. Taking into account the necessary prioritization of the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for patients with suspected or confirmed disease, as well as for healthcare professionals, the SBN is favorable concerning the wear of cloth masks by chronic kidney patients in dialysis, in public settings, except in the dialysis setting. The present recommendations have eleven items, related to this rationale, the procedures, indications, contraindications, as well as appropriate fabrics for the mask, and hygiene care to be adopted. These recommendations may change, at any time, in the light of new evidence.


Maleidrides are a class of bioactive secondary metabolites unique to filamentous fungi, which contain one or more maleic anhydrides fused to a 7-, 8- or 9- membered carbocycle (named heptadrides, octadrides and nonadrides respectively). Herein structural and biosynthetic studies on the antifungal octadride, zopfiellin, and nonadrides scytalidin, deoxyscytalidin and castaneiolide are described. A combination of genome sequencing, bioinformatic analyses, gene disruptions, biotransformations, isotopic feeding studies, NMR and X-ray crystallography revealed that they share a common biosynthetic pathway, diverging only after the nonadride deoxyscytalidin. 5-Hydroxylation of deoxyscytalidin occurs prior to ring contraction in the zopfiellin pathway of Diffractella curvata. In Scytalidium album, 6-hydroxylation – confirmed as being catalysed by the α-ketoglutarate dependent oxidoreductase ScyL2 – converts deoxyscytalidin to scytalidin, in the final step in the scytalidin pathway. Feeding scytalidin to a zopfiellin PKS knockout strain led to the production of the nonadride castaneiolide and two novel ring-open maleidrides.


Neural networks have revolutionized the field of machine learning with increased predictive capability. In addition to improving the predictions of neural networks, there is a simultaneous demand for reliable uncertainty quantification on estimates made by machine learning methods such as neural networks. Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) are an important type of neural network with built-in capability for quantifying uncertainty. This paper discusses aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty in BNNs and how they can be calculated. With an example dataset of images where the goal is to identify the amplitude of an event in the image, it is shown that epistemic uncertainty tends to be lower in images which are well-represented in the training dataset and tends to be high in images which are not well-represented. An algorithm for out-of-distribution (OoD) detection with BNN epistemic uncertainty is introduced along with various experiments demonstrating factors influencing the OoD detection capability in a BNN. The OoD detection capability with epistemic uncertainty is shown to be comparable to the OoD detection in the discriminator network of a generative adversarial network (GAN) with comparable network architecture.


&NA; ≫ Diabetes has negative effects on the outcomes of total joint arthroplasty, including increased numbers of complications, decreased function, early revision, and higher costs. ≫ The prevalence of diabetes is increasing rapidly worldwide; therefore, the orthopaedic surgeon should have an understanding of how diabetes affects surgical outcomes.


The ectodermal dysplasia and cleft lip/palate (EEC) syndrome describes the association of ectrodactyly, ectodermal dysplasia and orofacial clefting. As with many autosomal dominant disorders, there is variability in expression and not all of these three core features are present in every individual with the condition. Moreover, there may be additional associated features, which are under-recognized. One of these is the presence of genitourinary anomalies, some of which cause significant morbidity. This report details a further two patients with EEC syndrome and genitourinary involvement, including flaccid megacystis with detrusor muscle failure, bilateral hydronephrosis and megaureter, requiring significant renal and urological involvement during their childhood. We go on to review the literature on the diagnosis and management of genitourinary malformations in EEC syndrome.


The automotive industry is at the verve to deploy computer systems not only for safety-related and comfort functionality, but for safety-critical by-wire systems. In the scope of the PEGASUS project a car will be equipped with time-triggered technology in order to provide not only superior car dynamics but also investigate system design and integration on the basis of a series car. As part of this project a diagnostic solution is being developed in order to tackle prevalent diagnostic problems, such as the trouble-not-identified phenomenon in electronic systems, by exploiting the error-containment properties of the underlying architecture. In this paper we present the diagnostic architecture of the PEGASUS car that operates on the distributed state of the system in order to trace experienced failures back to the origin and decide on the type of fault (e.g., transient vs. permanent, internal vs. external) that is affecting the system. A necessary prerequisite of such an integrated diagnostic infrastructure is the continuous monitoring and subsequent dissemination of diagnostic information in order to allow a meaningful analysis.


A detailed mechanistic study of the substitution behavior of a 3d metal heptacoordinate complex, with a rare pentagonal-bipyramidal structure, was undertaken to resolve the solution chemistry of this system. The kinetics of the complex-formation reaction of [Fe(dapsox)(H(2)O)(2)]ClO(4) (H(2)dapsox = 2,6-diacetylpyridine-bis(semioxamazide)) with thiocyanate was studied as a function of thiocyanate concentration, pH, temperature, and pressure. The reaction proceeds in two steps, which are both base-catalyzed due to the formation of an aqua-hydroxo complex (pK(a1) = 5.78 +/- 0.04 and pK(a2) = 9.45 +/- 0.06 at 25 degrees C). Thiocyanate ions displace the first coordinated water molecule in a fast step, followed by a slower reaction in which the second thiocyanate ion coordinates trans to the N-bonded thiocyanate. At 25 degrees C and pH <4.5, only the first reaction step can be observed, and the kinetic parameters (pH 2.5: k(f(I)) = 2.6 +/- 0.1 M(-1) s(-1), DeltaH(#)(f(I)) = 62 +/- 3 kJ mol(-1), DeltaS(#)(f(I)) = -30 +/- 10 J K(-1) mol(-1), and DeltaV(#)(f(I)) = -2.5 +/- 0.2 cm(3) mol(-1)) suggest the operation of an I(a) mechanism. In the pH range 2.5 to 5.2 this reaction step involves the participation of both the diaqua and aqua-hydroxo complexes, for which the complex-formation rate constants were found to be 2.19 +/- 0.06 and 1172 +/- 22 M(-1) s(-1) at 25 degrees C, respectively. The more labile aqua-hydroxo complex is suggested to follow an I(d) or D substitution mechanism on the basis of the reported kinetic data. At pH > or =4.5, the second substitution step also can be monitored (pH 5.5 and 25 degrees C: k(f(II)) = 21.1 +/- 0.5 M(-1) s(-1), DeltaH(#)(f(II)) = 60 +/- 2 kJ mol(-1), DeltaS(#)(f(II)) = -19 +/- 6 J K(-1) mol(-1), and DeltaV(#)(f(II)) = +8.8 +/- 0.3 cm(3) mol(-1)), for which an I(d) or D mechanism is suggested. The results are discussed in terms of known structural parameters and in comparison to relevant structural and kinetic data from the literature.


Sporadic diphtheria cases in Malaysia have remained low in number since the 1990s. However, in 2016 a total of 31 cases were reported nationwide and to investigate this we performed molecular characterization of 30 Corynebacterium diphtheriae isolates collected from 1981 to 2016 using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). C. diphtheriae isolates were identified and biotyped using the API Coryne kit, while the toxigenicity was determined by PCR and the Elek test. All of the 2016 isolates belonged to biotype mitis, caused respiratory diphtheria and were toxigenic strains. MLST analysis identified 17 sequence types (STs), including 11 new ones. ST453 was the most common clone (7/30, 23.3 %), followed by ST141 (5/30, 16.7 %), ST451 (3/30, 10.0 %) and ST248 (2/30, 6.7 %). The clones identified in 2016 had not been detected in previous isolations and they were phylogenetically distinct. Our results suggest that the diphtheria cases in 2016 were caused by the emergence and spread of new clones in Malaysia.


Skin, the body's largest organ, protects from deleterious environmental impacts (physical, chemical, microbiological) and is crucial for the maintenance of temperature, electrolyte and fluid balance and tactile sensation, it sets a boundary between the organism and the environment. Any change in the normal skin texture disturb the patient both mentally and physically. Psoriasis is a common, chronic, recurrent inflammatory disease of the skin, characterized by circumscribed, erythematous, dry, scaly plaques of varying sizes. The severity of psoriasis is found to be ever fluctuating. Individuals are likely to cycle between differing levels of severity throughout lifetime. The course of the disease is punctuated by spontaneous flare-ups and remissions. Psoriasis being a chronic and often disfiguring condition, cause a marked impairment in quality of life. There is no certain cure for this disease. Ayurvedic diagnosis is as Vatha-Kapha predominant Mahakushta namely Sidhma kushta. Here an effort to treat a 13-year-old child having plaque psoriasis by Samsodhana and Samsamana therapy. Initially 6 days Virechana was performed and then followed by Samsamana with intermittent Virechana karma. PASI score is used to assess the severity of psoriatic lesions and the patient's response to treatment. PASI score before the treatment was found to be 15.7 which became 0 at the end of the treatment. This case report showed the treatment modalities done in the patient obtained great result with no recurrence in the last 1.5 years.


Arguments for capital account liberalization are based on the presumed positive consequences on the economic growth of liberalizing economies. On the basis of those arguments, most Latin American countries have been engaged in intense domestic and international financial liberalization processes during the last two decades. However, the existence of a push in favor of economic growth from capital account liberalization is conditional on higher capital inflows. Mainstream analyses accept as axiom that capital account liberalization would automatically lead to higher and more stable capital inflows. The paper analyses whether capital account liberalization has actually entailed higher and more stable capital inflows in Latin America in the last few decades.


Cranial sutures are growth and stress diffusion sites that connect the bones protecting the brain. The closure of cranial suture is a key feature of mammalian late development and evolution, which can also lead to head malformations when it occurs prematurely (craniosynostosis). To unveil the phenotypic and genetic causes of suture closure in evolution, we examined 48 mammalian species searching for (i) causal links between suture patency, brain size, and diet using phylogenetic path analysis; and (ii) instances of genome-phenome convergence amino acid substitutions. Here we show that brain size and the anteroposterior order of ossification of the skull are the two main causes of sutures patency in evolution. We also identified three novel candidate genes for suture closure in evolution (HRNR, KIAA1549, and TTN), which have never been reported in clinical studies of craniosynostosis. Our results suggest that different genetic pathways underlie cranial suture closure in evolution and disease.


Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is a non-traditional cutting technology that is extensively utilized in contemporary industry, particularly for machining difficult-to-cut materials. EDM may be used to create complicated forms and geometries with great dimensional precision. Titanium alloys are widely used in high-end applications owing to their unique intrinsic characteristics. Nonetheless, they have low machinability. The current paper includes an experimental examination of EDM's Ti-6Al-4V ELI (Extra Low Interstitials through controlled interstitial element levels) process utilizing a graphite electrode. The pulse-on current (IP) and pulse-on time (Ton) were used as control parameters, and machining performance was measured in terms of Material Removal Rate (MRR), Tool Material Removal Rate (TMRR), and Tool Wear Ratio (TWR). The Surface Roughness (SR) was estimated based on the mean roughness (SRa) and maximum peak to valley height (SRz), while, the EDMed surfaces were also examined using optical and SEM microscopy and cross-sections to determine the Average White Layer Thickness (AWLT). Finally, for the indices above, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted, whilst semi-empirical correlations for the MRR and TMRR were given using the Response Surface Method (RSM). The results show that the pulse-on time is the most significant parameter of the machining process that may increase the MRR up to 354%. Pulse-on current and pulse-on time are shown to have an impact on the surface integrity of the finished product. Furthermore, statistics, SEM, and EDX images on material removal efficiency and tool wear rate are offered to support the core causes of surface and sub-surface damage. The average microhardness of the White Layer (WL) is 1786 HV.


The development and implementation of an Automated Ground Vehicle (AGV) positioning and control system in a real world environment presents a challenge. The positioning system for this outdoor, container-carrying AGV, uses an extended Kalman Filter to estimate its position, heading and velocity by fusing together sensor data from several sources. This paper presents the design and implementation considerations for the positioning system in this platform.


Image captioning (IC) systems aim to generate a text description of the salient objects in an image. In recent years, IC systems have been increasingly integrated into our daily lives, such as assistance for visually-impaired people and description generation in Microsoft Powerpoint. However, even the cutting-edge IC systems (e.g., Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services) and algorithms (e.g., OFA) could produce erroneous captions, leading to incorrect captioning of important objects, misunderstanding, and threats to personal safety. The existing testing approaches either fail to handle the complex form of IC system output (i.e., sentences in natural language) or generate unnatural images as test cases. To address these problems, we introduce Recursive Object MElting (ROME), a novel metamorphic testing approach for validating IC systems. Different from existing approaches that generate test cases by inserting objects, which easily make the generated images unnatural, ROME melts (i.e., remove and inpaint) objects. ROME assumes that the object set in the caption of an image includes the object set in the caption of a generated image after object melting. Given an image, ROME can recursively remove its objects to generate different pairs of images. We use ROME to test one widely-adopted image captioning API and four state-of-the-art (SOTA) algorithms. The results show that the test cases generated by ROME look much more natural than the SOTA IC testing approach and they achieve comparable naturalness to the original images. Meanwhile, by generating test pairs using 226 seed images, ROME reports a total of 9,121 erroneous issues with high precision (86.47%-92.17%). In addition, we further utilize the test cases generated by ROME to retrain the Oscar, which improves its performance across multiple evaluation metrics.


The cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor p21WAFI/CIP1is a multidoniain. multifunctional protein and a candidate tumor suppressor. Here, we show that, among rationally designed and tumor-associated mutants of hu man p21 ectopically expressed in U-2-OS cells, those that are selectively deficient in binding to either cyclin or CDK are partially impaired in inhib iting endogenous CDK activities but efficiently promote assembly of active cyclin D/CDK4<6) complexes. These results provide mechanistic insights into the p21-cyclin/CDK interplay in vivo and suggest a functional subclassification of tumor-specific aberrations of p21. Intriguingly, the subclass exempli fied by the melanoma-derived N50S mutant may promote tumorigenesis, by both attenuating CDK-inhibitory function and concomitantly activating the proto-oncogenic cyclin D-dependent kinases.


Introduction Sedentary behaviour, has emerged as a risk factor for premature death and several chronic diseases. About one-third to half of our daily sitting time occurs at work. There is limited research on the link between occupational sitting and important work-related outcomes such as work engagement, presenteeism and sickness absence. An earlier cross-sectional study by Munir, et al. (2015) found that women had higher occupational sitting times than men and that men with high work engagement of vigour and dedication were less likely to have prolonged sitting time. In this study, we examine the effects of occupational sitting time on sickness absence, sickness presenteeism and work engagement, and over an 18 month period. Methods A cohort of 1005 office workers from the Northern Ireland Civil Service (Stormont) completed a questionnaire in 2012 (T1) and in 2014 (T2). Occupational sitting time were divided into tertiles of low (<360 mins), medium (361–420 mins) and high levels of sitting time (421–600 mins). Logistic regressions and generalised linear regressions were used to analysed data. Results Participants were predominantly female (n=613, 61%). There were no significant findings for occupational sitting times predicting sickness absence. Overall, males who reported moderate levels of sitting times at T1 were more likely to report engaging in sickness presenteeism at T2. This was not the case for those males reporting high levels of sitting time. Increase sitting time at T1 also contributed to lower levels of work engagement of dedication at T2 for males. There were no significant findings for females between occupational sitting times and work-related outcomes. Discussion Our finding findings for levels of sitting time, sickness presenteeism and work engagement warrants further research.


The majority of the human genome is comprised of non-protein-coding genes, but the relevance of non-coding RNAs in complex diseases has yet to be fully elucidated. One class of non-coding RNAs is long non-coding RNAs or lncRNAs, many of which have been identified to play a range of roles in transcription and translation. While the clinical importance of the majority of lncRNAs have yet to be identified, it is puzzling that a large number of disease-associated genetic variations are seen in lncRNA genes. The 8q24.21 locus is rich in lncRNAs and very few protein-coding genes are located in this region. Interestingly, the 8q24.21 region is also a hot spot for genetic variants associated with an increased risk of cancer. Research focusing on the lncRNAs in this area of the genome has indicated clinical relevance of lncRNAs in different cancers. In this review, we summarise the lncRNAs in the 8q24.21 region with respect to their role in cancer and discuss the potential impact of cancer-associated genetic polymorphisms on the function of lncRNAs in initiation and progression of cancer.


Passive radars utilising illuminators of opportunity are being actively studied in the field of radar. In the last few years, many illuminator sources have been employed for passive radar applications. However, there have been no published results on the use of the long-term evolution (LTE) signal as a novel source for passive radar applications. For the first time an experimental investigation into the feasibility of LTE-based passive radars for detecting a moving target is presented. A theoretical analysis was conducted on a captured LTE signal in the atmosphere. This was then followed by a field experiment. The preliminary results show that the LTE signal is capable of being an illuminator for passive radars.


As students in K-12 classrooms reflect the increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of the United States as a whole, understanding diverse worldviews and inclusion of diverse students are important skills for classroom teachers. However, the pedagogical practices for training teacher education students with the knowledge and skills to effectively teach their racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students range greatly. This study explores the potential of one teacher training strategy, cross-border community-based learning, and the impact of this strategy on teacher education students' understanding of diversity and commitment to future actions in their own classrooms. The research employs a comparative case study of two sections of a diversity and multicultural education course for undergraduate education students: one section participated in community-based learning at an Indigenous school in Guatemala and one section participated in traditional-classroom learning. The mixed-methods analysis of pre/post survey data, student journals, and student presentations suggests that community-based learning which centers Indigenous Knowledges and assets holds potential to motivate teacher education students to include diverse students in their future classrooms and challenge colonial systems of education in their future teaching. This research contributes five main recommendations to inform teacher education and community-based learning curriculum, including important differences between learning for teacher education Students of Color and White students on one particular survey scale.


Objective: The emphasis of this study is on the relative mortality of 45 - 74-year-old men and women in Denmark in 1943-92, following economic and political changes that have affected the social meaning of gender over the last 50 years, and which have diminished former sex differences in health behaviour. Methods: Sex ratios of total mortality and mortality from major non-sex-specific causes of death were calculated on computerized mortality data from the Danish National Cause of Death Register that covers all deaths in Denmark since 1943. Results: In the early 1940s the sex ratio of all-cause mortality was low, 1.0-1.1, it increased to a peak level in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but has since decreased due to an increase in female mortality and a more favourable trend in male mortality. Conclusion: Gender equality, employment, and economic autonomy may have beneficial health effects on both men and women, but the effects are inconsistent. The trend in smoking is the major explanatory factor for the more recent trends in gender differentials in mortality in Denmark.


In an effort to control the COVID-19 outbreak in Indonesia, the government implemented rules such as clean and healthy living behavior by all components of public, isolation, and early detection. Community knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 play an important role in determining the readiness of the community in accepting policies in the form of behavior change from the health authority. The aim of this study is to determine the KAP toward COVID-19 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A cross-sectional online survey of 155 householders was conducted between 04 May 2020 and 18 May 2020. Descriptive statistics, t-tests and one-way analysis of variance were conducted. Most public have understood about causes symptoms, mode transmission, high risk groups, isolation and quarantine, and proper use of disinfectants but people have not been able to distinguish between how to increase immunity and how to prevent COVID-19 transmission. The public has a positive belief that the government will succeed in controlling and managing a health crisis. Public behavior to prevent COVID-19 transmission is good, except the use of disinfectants and stop smoking or prohibiting family members from smoking. Differences in public knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 occur in different gender and occupational groups.


Left-lateral slip occurred on individual surface breaks along northeast-trending faults associated with the 24 November 1987 earthquake sequence in the Superstition Hills, Imperial Valley, California. This sequence included the M_s = 6.2 event on a left-lateral, northeast-trending "cross-fault" between the Superstition Hills fault (SHF) and Brawley seismic zone, which was spatially associated with the left-lateral surface breaks. Six distinct subparallel cross-faults broke at the surface, with rupture lengths ranging from about Formula to 10 km and maximum displacements ranging from 30 to 130 mm. About half a day after the M_s = 6.2 event, an M_s = 6.6 earthquake nucleated near the intersection of the cross-faults with the SHF, and rupture propagated southeast along the SHF. Whereas right-lateral slip on the SHF occurred dominantly on a single trace in a narrow zone, the cross-fault surface slip was distributed over several stands across a 10-km-wide zone. Also, whereas afterslip accounted for a large proportion of total slip on the SHF, there is no evidence for afterslip on the cross-faults. We present documentation of these surface ruptures. A simple mechanical model of faulting illustrates how the foreshock sequence may have triggered the main rupture. Displacement on other cross-faults could trigger an event on the southern San Andreas fault by a similar mechanism in the future.


DNA computing involves computing models which use the recombination behavior of DNA molecules as computation devices. This idea was successfully applied by Adleman in his biological experiment in order to show the solvability of the Hamiltonian path problem for larger instances. In 1998, a DNA based computation model, called sticker system, which is an abstraction of the computations using the recombination behavior as in Adleman's experiment was proposed. In 2013, a new variant of sticker system using weights was introduced, namely the weighted sticker system. In this paper, the generative capacity for several variants of bounded delay and nonrestrictive weighted sticker systems are investigated. The relation between families of languages generated by several variants of weighted sticker systems and weighted grammars are also presented.


Background
 SEA-CD70 is being developed in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Current treatment options are limited for patients (pts) with relapsed or refractory (r/r) MDS or r/r AML and outcomes remain poor. SEA-CD70 is an investigational humanized, non-fucosylated monoclonal antibody targeting CD70. Expression of CD70 is limited in normal tissue, but is aberrantly expressed on malignant myeloid blasts while absent from healthy hematopoietic progenitor cells. CD70 and its ligand, CD27, may play a role in malignant blast cell survival and/or tumor immune evasion. SEA-CD70 uses a novel sugar-engineered antibody (SEA) platform to produce a non-fucosylated antibody with enhanced effector function. The proposed mechanism of action of SEA-CD70 includes elimination of CD70 positive cells via enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), and mediation of complement-dependent cytoxicity (CDC). Additionally, SEA-CD70 has the potential to block the interaction of CD70 with CD27, which may disrupt signals that enhance blast proliferation and survival and may modulate the immune system to limit immune evasion and increase antigen specific T cell responses.
 Methods
 SGNS70-101 is a phase 1, open-label, multicenter, dose-escalation, and cohort expansion study designed to establish the safety, tolerability, and preliminary activity of SEA-CD70 in pts with myeloid malignancies (NCT04227847). Dose escalation is ongoing. In dose escalation, pts must have r/r MDS with 5-20% blasts which has failed prior treatment with a hypomethylating agent (HMA), and have no other therapeutic options known to provide clinical benefit for MDS. After conclusion of dose escalation, monotherapy expansion cohorts will be opened for pts with MDS and for pts with AML. Primary objectives are to evaluate the safety and tolerability, and to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) or recommended expansion dose of SEA-CD70. Secondary objectives are to assess antitumor activity, PK, and immunogenicity of SEA-CD70. Once dose escalation is complete and the recommended monotherapy dose is identified, combination cohorts will be considered in AML and MDS. The study is currently enrolling with sites opening in the US and EU.

 Aribi: Seattle Genetics: Consultancy. Advani:OBI: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Other: advisory board; Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding; Kite: Other: Advisory board/ honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Other: steering committee/ honoraria, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board/ honoraria, Research Funding; Immunogen: Research Funding; Glycomimetics: Consultancy, Other: Steering committee/ honoraria, Research Funding; Macrogenics: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding. Donnellan:Kite Pharma/Gilead: Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Karyopharm Therapeutics: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Astex Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; MedImmune: Research Funding; TCR2 Therapeutics: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; PTC Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bellicum Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; CTI Biopharma: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Celularity: Research Funding; Forma Therapeutics: Research Funding; Forty Seven: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding; H3 Biomedicine: Research Funding; Ryvu Therapeutics: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding. Fathi:Astellas: Consultancy; Agios: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amphivena: Consultancy, Honoraria; AbbVie: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Forty Seven: Consultancy; Jazz: Consultancy, Honoraria; Kite: Consultancy, Honoraria; NewLink Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy; PTC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; TrovaGene: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; Blue Print Oncology: Consultancy; Boston Biomedical: Consultancy; Kura: Consultancy; Trillium: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding. Rotta:Merck: Speakers Bureau; Jazz Pharma: Speakers Bureau. Vachani:Blueprint: Consultancy; CTI Biopharma: Consultancy; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy, Research Funding; Jazz: Consultancy; Astellas: Research Funding; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy. Yang:AROG: Research Funding; Protagonist: Research Funding; Jannsen: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Research Funding. Ho:Seattle Genetics: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Garcia-Manero:Novartis: Research Funding; Helsinn Therapeutics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; Onconova: Research Funding; Amphivena Therapeutics: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Acceleron Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Honoraria; AbbVie: Honoraria, Research Funding; Astex Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; H3 Biomedicine: Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding.


The extraction of L(+) tartaric acid from aqueous solutions by amberlite LA-2 is a secondary amine mixture in different diluent solvents. Extraction equilibria of L(+) tartaric acid by amberlite LA-2 in 1-octanol, cyclohexane, isooctane, hexane, methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) solvents at temperature 298.15 K have been measured. The batch extraction experiments distribution coefficients (D), loading factors ( Z) and extraction efficiency (E) were calculated. The maximum removal of L(+) tartaric acid is 91 % with MIBK and 0.92 mol.L-1 initial concentration of Amberlite LA-2.


Abstract This paper argues that the conditions of the Anthropocene render the four ontologies described by Philippe Descola obsolete, and begins the search for a fifth ontology that speaks to the meaning of the arrival of the new epoch. The radically new dispensation destabilises all prior understandings of the human, of nature and of the relationship between the two. Before progress is possible, the Anthropocene must be correctly understood. The concept emerged in the year 2000 not as another term to describe the extent of human impact across the landscape, the environment or ecosystems, but as a new idea to capture a very recent change in the nature of human impact on the Earth as a total entity, activity of a kind and on a scale sufficient to shift the geological evolution of the planet itself. The emergence of humans as a force of nature represents a rupture in human history and in Earth history, and a shift in the ontological status of both humankind and the Earth. All previous ontological systems are Holocene ones. The Earth can no longer be characterised, as it has been in environmental philosophy and post-humanism, as passive and fragile, as our victim; it is increasingly marked by angry, violent and uncontrollable behaviour, all of which destroys the conceit of human mastery. However, this emphatically does not mean that humans are powerless and that our agency can be reduced to the "agencies" of other creatures. A new ontology must grasp the primal Anthropocene fact that humankind is so powerful and so exceptional that it can knowingly change the geological trajectory of the Earth. The essence of the Anthropocene is not technological but lies in the fact that technological humans have shifted the Earth into a "no analogue state." A fifth ontology might begin from the reconfiguration of time implied when humans became a geological force, and as a result the novel way we must look into the future and reconsider the nature of the being of humans. If an ontology is the expression of the emotional orientation of the times, then the grounds of a fifth ontology can be found in the "attunement" of the millions of striking school students. The essential disposition appears to be that of dread.


The following body of work is a compilation of five years of research at San Diego State University as well as one year spent working as a fellow in the GK-12 program through the Socrates program at the University of California, San Diego. During that time I focused on creating iridium NHC complexes that featured nitrogen containing ring substituents that showed the possibility of acting as a pendant base. The two heterocyclic substituents on which I focused were derivatives of pyridine and pyrimidine groups attached to an NHC ligand. The ability of the nitrogen to coordinate to the metal center was controlled through the use of sterically bulky groups adjacent to the nitrogen atoms of the pyridine and pyrimidine rings. The resulting metal complexes were studied for their structure, dynamics, and catalytic activity using a variety of experimental systems, with the notable success of cyclizing primary and secondary amines onto alkenes in an intramolecular fashion. For the future work, the two projects that I developed for my assistants, Khoi Le and Ariana Perez, will be covered. For Khoi Le the research goal is to develop tridentate ligands based on my previous NHC research with bi-dentate ligands. These complexes will then be tested for their ability to reduce glycerin, a common by product of saponification, into more commercially interesting molecules. Ariana Perez was tasked with developing nitrogen containing ring systems as metal free catalysts for the refinement of triglycerides into methyl esters for the production of bio-diesel. Her work was based on literature reports of DMAP working as an efficient nucleophilic catalyst. Finally the work that I did as an NSF GK-12 fellow will be covered as well. During that time I was developing my skills in communication and implementing several new laboratory experiments aimed at improving high school students understanding of basic chemistry. Of particular note, I worked on two laboratory experiments that helped to develop the students understanding of electron orbitals and molecular shapes as dictated through bonding. This experience proved to be a great opportunity to not only refine my teaching abilities, but also to see chemistry from a different perspective


Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a common autoimmune disease with various symptoms involving multiple organs. Neuropsychological manifestations are various and generally serious. Leukoencephalopathy is particularly rare but life-threatening in patients with SLE. Results: Here, we describe the case of a young woman who developed a subacute onset intracranial hypertension, papillar edema on fundus examination, diffuse cerebral edema on brain CT scan, and diffuse leukoencephalopathy on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The immunological workup was positive for antinuclear antibodies, anti-DNA and anti-extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) antibodies. She was ultimately diagnosed with SLE and experienced significant improvement after treatment with high dose of corticosteroids, acetazolamide, and immunosuppressant. We additionally review the previously reported cases of SLE with diffuse cerebral edema and leukoencephalopathy with a focus on the possible pathophysiological mechanisms of such association. Conclusions: We highlight, through this case report and the literature review, the importance of considering SLE in patients with cerebral edema and diffuse leukoencephalopathy and treating it aggressively.


A brief resume of the various steps by which artificial immunization was finally brought about will prove one of the most interesting stories of medical history. To start with, the very first steps will bring us back to biblical lore, and in the Talmudical lore of the ancient Israelites we will find some striking rules that prove to the zealous investigators that the question of infection and contagion was equally as well known to them as it is to us. The rules of hygiene as set down by Moses have not been altered by time, and though the observations in that ancient period were not made with the exactness of the present time, the results were about the same, and if the rules were disregarded the same diseases were the results. The question of exactness is what is always necessary in any science, and though theory held sway for a considerable


Human ventricular tissue was obtained 11–28 hr post mortem, homogenized in ammonium hydroxide, and tested for its ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of an "activated" cottonseed oil emulsion. Lipolysis, as indicated by a rise in fatty acids, occurred in the presence of a freshly prepared homogenate, but not in the presence of a boiled homogenate. Sodium chloride, 1 m, inhibited the reaction, but sodium fluoride, 0.2 m, did not. An activated cottonseed oil emulsion was more readily hydrolyzed than a "nonactivated" cottonseed oil emulsion. Approximately 50% of the activity of the homogenate sedimented at a gravitational force produced by centrifugation at 800 g for 10 min. The conclusion is that human heart tissue, like animal heart, contains lipoprotein lipase activity and that this activity is associated, in part, with the heavier cellular particles.


The solar laser power scaling potential of a side-pumped Ce:Nd:YAG solar laser through a rectangular fused silica light guide was investigated by using a 2 m diameter parabolic concentrator. The laser head was formed by the light guide and a V-shaped pump cavity to efficiently couple and redistribute the concentrated solar radiation from the parabolic mirror to a 4 mm diameter, 35 mm length Ce(0.1 at.%):Nd(1.1 at.%):YAG laser rod. The rectangular light guide ensured a homogeneous distribution of the solar radiation along the laser rod, allowing it to withstand highly concentrated solar energy. With the full collection area of the parabolic mirror, the maximum continuous wave (cw) solar laser power of 40 W was measured. This, to the best of our knowledge, corresponds to the highest cw laser power obtained from a Ce:Nd:YAG medium pumped by solar radiation, representing an enhancement of two times over that of the previous side-pumped Ce:Nd:YAG solar laser and 1.19 times over the highest Cr:Nd:YAG solar laser power with a rectangular light-guide. This research proved that, with an appropriate pumping configuration, the Ce:Nd:YAG medium is very promising for scaling solar laser output power to a higher level.


John Nash was a mathematician who earned the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in game theory. His life story was made into a successful movie, A Beautiful Mind. In 1955, Nash was in correspondence with the United States National Security Agency (NSA),1 discussing new methods of encryption that he had devised. In these letters, he also proposes some general principles of cryptography (bold highlighting not in the original):


This paper investigates the problems of L2 stability and H∞ control problem of a class switched homogeneous nonlinear system via the semi-tensor product (STP) of matrices method. First, a homogeneous Lyapunov-like function in the form of STP is constructed. Based on this, the system in question is limited on to the unit sphere to be investigated, a switching law is designed to make sure that the normal system that is globally asymptotically stable is globally L2 stable either. By the former Lyapunov-like function and the designed switching law, the H∞ control problem of the considered system is reduced into a Riccati-like one via the STP of matrices method, thus a control law similar to that of linear system is designed.


Many of the principles established in adults with undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) apply to children, adolescents and young adults (AYA). However, NPC in young patients should be distinguished from the adult form by several points. This review focuses mainly on differences between adult and pediatric NPC. The role of biology and genetics in pediatric NPC is discussed. Systemic treatment modalities including type of chemotherapy induction, timing of treatment, role of immunotherapy as adjuvant treatment, or in relapsing/ metastatic diseases are reported. Radiation modalities (doses, techniques…) in children are also reviewed. Long-term effects including secondary cancers are finally be discussed in this young NPC population.


Early postnatal use of dexamethasone has recently been shown to be effective in improving the pulmonary status in premature infants with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). To study the effect of dexamethasone on pulmonary inflammatory responses, we studied ten infants treated with dexamethasone and ten infants without this treatment. Serial tracheal aspirates were obtained for cell counts, neutrophil counts, total protein concentrations, and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and 6‐keto prostaglandin (PG)F1α levels before and after starting the study. Infants in the dexamethasone‐treated group required significantly lower mean airway pressures for ventilation and had lower PaCO2 values from day 3 to day 14 than infants in the control group, suggesting better pulmonary function. For infants in the dexamethasone group, the tracheal aspirates showed significantly lower cell and neutrophil counts, protein concentrations, and 6‐keto‐PGF1α and LTB4 levels than in the control group. We conclude that early postnatal dexamethasone therapy may lessen lung inflammation and improve pulmonary function in infants with RDS. Pediatr Pulmonol. 1997; 23:193–197. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Optical encryption and decryption system is successfully demonstrated by using cross-gain modulation (XGM) technology of semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) all-optical XOR logic gates. Operation speed of 10 Gbps encryption and decryption operations are successfully obtained.


It is well-known that heat impacts human labour/physical work capacity (PWC), but systematic evaluations of solar radiation (SOLAR) effects and the interaction with air temperature and humidity levels and clothing are lacking, as most lab-studies are conducted in semi-nude subjects without radiation or only in a single climatic condition. Due to the high relevance of SOLAR in various occupations, this study quantified how SOLAR interacts with clothing and other primary environmental factors (air temperature/humidity) of importance to determine PWC in the heat. The data allowed the development of a SOLAR correction factor for predicting PWC in major outdoor industries. Fourteen young adult males (7 wearing a standardised work coverall (0.9 Clo), 7 with shorts and trainers (0.3 Clo) walked for 1-hour at a fixed heart rate of 130 b·min−1, in seven combinations of air temperature (25 to 45°C) and relative humidity (20 or 80%), with and without SOLAR (800 W/m2 from solar lamps). Cumulative energy expenditure in the heat, relative to the work achieved in a cool reference condition, was used to determine PWC%. Skin temperature was the primary determinant of PWC in the heat. In dry climates with exposed skin (0.3 Clo), SOLAR caused PWC to decrease exponentially with rising air temperature, whereas work coveralls (0.9 Clo) negated this effect. In humid conditions, the SOLAR-induced reduction in PWC was consistent and linear across all levels of air temperature, and clothing conditions. WBGT and UTCI based prediction equations of PWC represented SOLAR correctly. For heat indices not intrinsically accounting for SOLAR, correction factors are provided enabling forecasting of heat effects on work productivity.


dream.Medusa is a multimedia piece combining performance, responsive video, and audience feedback. Live vocalization and participant controlled devices provide interaction into a simulated lucid dream environment created with Max/MSP and Jitter. We discuss the concept of the piece, the interaction technologies, and the experience of performing with interactive participants. This document provides an overview of the concepts we would like to discuss in article-length format if our submission is accepted.


Summary. The traditional method of analysis procedures of collective choice involves three different approaches: investigation operator voting against the characteristic conditions, investigation the properties of the function of choice, analysis on the possibility of manipulating (verification the stability of the voting process under the influence of negative impacts from voters or organizer). Research team of the department ITMU VSUET proposed and implemented a fourth approach, which is to research the probabilistic characteristics the results of the procedures (value of the displacement valuation of estimate the usefulness of specific alternative to its true value, the standard deviation of evaluating of estimate the usefulness of alternative from its true value, the probability of correct ranking of alternatives at the output the procedure of choice, etc.). This article is dedicated to the analysis of the consistency of estimates the usefulness to compare alternatives, obtained at the output of the traditional procedure Thurstone-Mosteller and its generalizations, created by the authors of. In the general, the term of consistency of estimator of statistical estimation assumes tending to zero error of estimation by increasing the sample size. However, depending on the interpretation of "calculation errors" in science are the following main types of consistency: the weak consistency of statistical estimation, based on the notion of convergence in probability of the random quantity; the strong consistency, based on the concept of convergence with probability to one; the consistency of statistical estimation in the mean square. The variance of this assessment tends to zero. This article provides a proof of the theorem, according to which the assumptions rather general nature of estimates the usefulness being ranked alternatives obtained using the procedure Thurstone-Mosteller satisfied the consistency of statistical estimation in the mean square. In this case, of the consistency of statistical estimation in the mean square follows the weak consistency of statistical estimation of estimates the usefulness alternatives of original sample.


This paper presents a comparative study on coaxial parallel hybrid (PH) and coaxial parallel-serial hybrid (PSH) powertrain architectures for plug-in hybrid electric buses (PHEB) in the perspective of economical performance. To do so, parameters of main components, including the engine power, the electric motor power, the capacity of battery are selected based on the same dynamic specifications of a PHEB. Then the PH electric bus (PHB) and the PSH electric bus (PSHB) are modeled in Matlab/Simulink, respectively. The dynamic programming (DP) algorithm and the nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) based energy management controllers are designed to evaluate the fuel consumption and the energy cost of batteries. The simulation results reveal that the electric motors in PSHB possess about 10% higher equivalent efficiency and the PSHB has the superiority of energy saving effect over PHB.


Surgeonfishes are a species-rich group and a major biomass on coral reefs. Three species are commonly found throughout South Atlantic, Acanthurus bahianus, A. chirurgus, and A. coeruleus. In this paper, we present the first cytogenetic data of these species, revealing a sequential chromosomal diversification. A. coeruleus was characterized by a relatively conserved karyotype evolved by pericentric inversions of some pairs (2n = 48, 2sm + 4st + 42a). In contrast, the karyotypes of A. bahianus (2n = 36) and A. chirurgus (2n = 34) were highly differentiated by the presence of six large metacentric pairs in A. bahianus (12m + 2sm + 4st + 18a) and A. chirurgus (12m + 2sm + 4st +1 6a) probably derived by chromosomal fusions that corroborate their closer relationship. A discernible in tandem fusion represents an autapomorphic character to A. chirurgus. In spite of macrostructure variation, single nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) on short arms of a subtelocentric pair and similar distribution of C-bands were observed in the three species. Overlapping of chromosomal data with molecular phylogeny indicated pericentric inversions which took place nearly at 19 Ma while centric fusions are as recent as 5 Ma. A physical mapping of coding and noncoding sequences in Acanthurus could clarify the role of additional rearrangements during their chromosomal evolution.


A power MOSFET device structure that has been developed to optimize the tradeoff between ON resistance and switching speed is discussed. The device structure features a trench injector that injects a controlled quantity of minority carriers into the drift path of the MOSFET current to modulate the conductivity of the device during the ON state. The conductivity-modulated MOSFET device (CMDMOS) has been fabricated and characterized. The device structure has demonstrated low ON resistance and high switching speed. It can be implemented along with logic circuitry to allow programmable electrical control of the switching-speed/ON-resistance tradeoff.<<ETX>>


We report the identities of the members of a group of proteins that associate with BRCA1 to form a large complex that we have named BASC (BRCA1-associated genome surveillance complex). This complex includes tumor suppressors and DNA damage repair proteins MSH2, MSH6, MLH1, ATM, BLM, and the RAD50-MRE11-NBS1 protein complex. In addition, DNA replication factor C (RFC), a protein complex that facilitates the loading of PCNA onto DNA, is also part of BASC. We find that BRCA1, the BLM helicase, and the RAD50-MRE11-NBS1 complex colocalize to large nuclear foci that contain PCNA when cells are treated with agents that interfere with DNA synthesis. The association of BRCA1 with MSH2 and MSH6, which are required for transcription-coupled repair, provides a possible explanation for the role of BRCA1 in this pathway. Strikingly, all members of this complex have roles in recognition of abnormal DNA structures or damaged DNA, suggesting that BASC may serve as a sensor for DNA damage. Several of these proteins also have roles in DNA replication-associated repair. Collectively, these results suggest that BRCA1 may function as a coordinator of multiple activities required for maintenance of genomic integrity during the process of DNA replication and point to a central role for BRCA1 in DNA repair.