Background: In a previous proteomic study, we detected increased expression of nephronectin in the glomeruli from patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN). The aim of the present study was to clarify the usefulness of determining glomerular expression of nephronectin in kidney disease. Methods: We performed immunohistochemical staining for nephronectin in renal biopsy specimens from patients with a variety of kidney diseases (n = 190). The percentage of nephronectin-positive areas in the glomeruli was analyzed using an image analyzer. Results: Nephronectin immunoreactivity was clearly, strongly positive in the mesangial expansion and nodular lesions of DN (n = 18), whereas nephronectin immunoreactivity was negative in IgA glomerulonephritis, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, lupus nephritis, membranous glomerulonephritis, minor glomerular abnormalities, crescentic glomerulonephritis, and other kidney diseases, such as amyloidosis and light chain deposition disease. Nephronectin was stained weakly in sclerotic lesions, such as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and hypertensive nephropathy. The percentage of nephronectin-positive areas in the glomeruli from DN patients [15.1 ± 4.7% (n = 18)] was significantly higher than that for other kidney diseases [5.5 ± 3.6% (n = 172)] (p < 0.001). In multiple regression analyses, fasting plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c were significantly associated with the increase in the percentage of nephronectin-positive areas in the glomeruli (β = 0.23, p < 0.001 and β = 0.16, p = 0.045, respectively). Conclusions: The expression of nephronectin was sufficient to discriminate DN from other kidney diseases with mesangial matrix expansion and nodular lesions. We consider that nephronectin staining could be helpful in the diagnosis of DN.


Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6 in short) is a networking solution for IP backbones and datacenters, which has been recently adopted in several of large scale network deployments. The SRv6 research, standardization and implementation activities are going on at a remarkable pace. In particular, a number of Internet Drafts have been submitted related to the Performance Monitoring (PM) of flows in an SRv6 network. In this paper we discuss the proposed PM approaches, considering both data plane and control plane aspects and focusing on loss monitoring. Then we describe the implementation of a per-flow packet loss measurement (PF-PLM) solution based on the "alternate marking" method. Our implementation is based on Linux kernel networking and it is open source. We describe a platform that can be used to validate the standardization proposals from a functional perspective and the implemented solution from the performance point of view. We analyze two different design choices for the implementation of PF-PLM and evaluate their impact on the maximum forwarding throughput of a software based (Linux) router.


Ab s t r Ac t Aim: The purpose of this study was to analyze the patterns of facial fractures in children and to compare them between preschooland schoolaged children. Materials and methods: This retrospective observational study included 57 children with facial fractures. The variables analyzed were the age of the patients—divided into a preschool-aged group (0–5 years) and a school-aged group (6–12 years)—gender, cause of trauma, the facial bones involved, the pattern of fracture, the modality of treatment used, the time between injury and treatment, and the postoperative complications. Results: The incidence of facial fractures in children ≤12 years was 30.2%. The patients consisted of 40 (70.2%) males and 17 (29.8%) females, and most patients belonged to the school-aged group (n = 35, 61.4%). The most common cause of injury was falls. Mandibular fractures were the most common (54.2%), mostly involving the condylar region. Forty patients (70.2%) were treated surgically and 17 patients (29.8%) were managed conservatively. The variables that were significantly different between the two groups included the cause of injury, the site of injury, and the type of treatment. Conclusion: Facial fractures occur most frequently in school-aged children with male predominance, falls are the most common cause of facial fractures in children, the incidence of mandibular fractures is high and the condyle is the most affected site, the surgical treatment is indicated in most of the older age groups, and no major complications were encountered. Clinical significance: Facial fractures in children require special considerations in their management due to many characteristic features of the facial skeleton of the growing child and the possibility of growth disturbances that may result from these injuries, the incidence of facial fractures in children increases with the beginning of school and their treatment in school-aged children tends to be surgical rather than conservative.


Maxwell's four major papers and some shorter publications relating to kinetic theory and statistical mechanics are discussed in the light of subsequent research in those subjects. Further information about the origin and development of Maxwell's ideas, based on study of unpublished materials and closer examination of less well-known articles, is reviewed, with reference to topics such as the velocity distribution law, the theory of heat conduction, the mechanism of the radiometer effect, the ergodic hypothesis, and Maxwell's views on the history of science.


To the Editor: —The principal conclusion of M. J. Urist in his article, "After-Images and Ocular Muscle Proprioception," A.M.A.Arch. Ophth.61:230-232 [Feb.] 1959, was that since imagined convergence changes perceived size, after-images must be cerebral. There are several articles in the literature showing that perceived size depends not only on the retinal stimulus, but also upon real or imagined convergence (P. W. Miles, "The Relation of Perceived Size of Half-Images at the Fusion Level to Projection on the Horopter," Am. J. Ophth. 34:1543-1561 [Nov.] 1951). A simpler explanation would be that like perceived size, after-images can be altered as well as inhibited centrally. The retinal nature of after-images can be simply demonstrated. K. S. Craik ( Nature, London 145:512, 1940), induced an after-image on noncorresponding areas of his two eyes from a 60 watt bulb in 2 minutes. During the induction, he pressed one eye with his finger so that


We study the formation of localized shocks in one-dimensional driven diffusive systems with spatially homogeneous creation and annihilation of particles (Langmuir kinetics). We show how to obtain hydrodynamic equations that describe the density profile in systems with uncorrelated steady state as well as in those exhibiting correlations. As a special example of the latter case, the Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn model is considered. The existence of a localized double density shock is demonstrated in one-dimensional driven diffusive systems. This corresponds to phase separation into regimes of three distinct densities, separated by localized domain walls. Our analytical approach is supported by Monte Carlo simulations.


A highly-standardized plate method was used to study fibrinolytic profiles in 14 patients with essential hypertension and 245 normotensive healthy control subjects. Compared with the normotensive group, the group with essential hypertension showed a defect in fibrinolysis, as evidenced by a significant increase in the mean level of inhibitor of plasminogen activation, and a subset of the hypertensive patients also showed a significant decrease in the mean level of vascular plasminogen activator. There were no significant differences between the two groups in relation to plasma fibrinogen level, total fibrinolytic activity and plasmin inhibitor. The alterations in inhibitor of plasminogen activation and vascular plasminogen activator in the patients with essential hypertension may reflect a defect in the fibrin-clearing mechanism and, perhaps, contribute to the vascular complications of hypertension.


Little is known about the properties of extremely massive HI-galaxies. They are extremely scarce and are – according to hierarchical structure formation – only forming now (z < 1). The forthcoming deep HI SKA Pathfinders surveys will uncover many more of them. This will lead to a better understanding of their evolution and frequency, and the shape of the bright end of the HI mass function. The recently discovered galaxy HIZOA J0836-43 is one of the most HI-rich galaxies (MHI=7.5×10M ) – and the nearest of its kind. As such it is an ideal local probe of these elusive galaxies. Results from a detailed investigation in the near(IRSF) and far-infrared (Spitzer) of this local HI-massive galaxy are presented. Unlike other giant HI galaxies, it is not of low surface brightness. The galaxy is found to be a luminous starbursting galaxy at an unexpected early stage of stellar mass building, more typical of star-forming galaxies at higher redshift (z ∼ 0.7). With regard to its environment, hence possible clues to its formation, the near infrared imaging survey finds HIZOA J0836-43 to lie in a region underdense in L∗ galaxies – consistent with the observation that HI-massive galaxies are preferentially found in low density regions – in the presence, however, of an uncommonly large number of low stellar mass galaxies.


Most microbes in the natural environment are difficult to cultivate. Thus, culture-independent analysis for microbial community structure is important for the understanding of its ecological functions. An immense ribosomal RNA sequence collection is available from phylogenetic research on organisms in all domains. These sequences are available for use in genetic research. However, the amplicon-seq process using PCR requires the construction of a sequence library. Construction can introduce bias into quantitative analyses, and each domain of species needs its own primer set. Total RNA sequencing has the advantage of analyzing an entire microbial community, including bacteria, archea, and eukaryote, at once. Such analysis yields large amounts of ribosomal RNA sequences that can be used for analysis without PCR bias. Evaluation using total RNA-seq for quantitative analysis of microbial communities and comparison with amplicon-seq is still rare. In the present study, we developed a mapping-based total RNA-seq analysis to obtain quantitative information on microbial community structure and compared our results with ordinary amplicon-seq methods. We read total RNA sequences from a commercially available mock community (ATCC MSA-2003) and divided reads into small subunit ribosomal RNA (ssrRNA) origin reads and others, such as mRNA origin reads. We then mapped ssrRNA origin reads on annotated assembled contigs and obtained quantitative results under several analysis strategies. Removal of low complexity sequences, sorting ssrRNA with paired-in mode, and performing homology-based taxonomical assignments (BLAST+ or vsearch) showed superior outcomes to other strategies. Results with this approach showed a median relative abundance among ten mock community members of ~10%; ordinary amplicon-seq showed a much lower percentage. Thus, total RNA-seq can be a powerful tool for analyzing microbial community structure and is not limited to analyzing gene expression profiling of microbiomes.


Objective: To verify the knowledge, Attitude and Practices of hand hygiene amongst healthcare personnel of Mayo Hospital, Lahore. Study Design: A Cross-sectional study was carried among healthcare staff. Study Duration: September 2018-January 2019. Results: Overall, 600 doctors and nurses were enrolled in our study, 300 in each group. The mean knowledge score of doctors was 16.1±2.25 while that of nurses was 13.0±2.82. 13.6% of the doctors found to possess good attitude regarding hand hygiene but 29.6% of them had good practices. On the contrary, only 0.3% of the nurses had good attitude with 22.3% of them had good hand hygiene practices. Conclusion: Hand hygiene is one of the most effectual and simplest mean to avoid hospital acquired infections. Education of undergraduates is the basis of its implementation, in addition to the availability of the facilities. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Hand hygiene.


In an effort to meet increasing demands for travel options, highway agencies are working to accommodate non-motorists into the transportation system. Because of the challenges in constructing separate paths for bicycles, highway shoulders are the most feasible alternative in many cases, and those once prohibited for bicycle travel have been opened or are being considered for bicycle use. Although studies of the safety aspects of bicycle travel on highway shoulders have been conducted, examinations appear to focus on summary statistics of bicycle-related crashes and/or a handful of individual cases of such crashes. This study examined several aspects associated with the safety of bicyclists on shoulders of controlled access highways using empirical and theoretical analysis. The intent of the study was to determine the characteristics of a roadway segment that would require it to be designated as prohibited for bicycle use. Some of the study findings include (1) few bicyclist/pedestrian involved crashes were reported on the controlled access highways in Virginia; (2) the segments prohibiting bicyclists/pedestrians are predicted to have more run-off-right crashes, the immediate threat to non-motorists on shoulders, than the segments permitting such usage; and (3) although stopping sight distance for bicycles is not a primary concern in permitting bicycle use of shoulders in general, there are conditions such as downgrade segments with the design speed below 40 mph where it should be considered.


It is widely accepted that vagueness in law calls for a specific interpretation of the law—interpretation that changes the meaning of the law and makes it more precise. According to this view, vagueness causes gaps in the law, and the role of legal interpretation in the case of vagueness is to fill such gaps. I argue that this view is mistaken and defend the thesis that vagueness in law calls only for an application of the law to the case at hand, leaving the meaning of the law intact.


Gene disruption by biolistic transformation in serotype D strains of Cryptococcus neoformans. Fungal Genetics and Biology 29, 38-48. Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen with a defined sexual cycle and well-developed genetic and molecular approaches. Two different transformation systems have been developed, and a number of genes have been disrupted by homologous recombination. However, the frequency of homologous recombination achieved by these approaches has differed dramatically between strains of the A and D serotypes. Transformation by electroporation in serotype D strains results in homologous recombination at frequencies of 1/1000 to 1/100,000, whereas transformation by the biolistic method has resulted in gene disruption at frequencies between 2 and 50% in serotype A strains. We find that gene disruption by homologous recombination can be achieved in the congenic serotype D strain series by biolistic transformation with frequencies of approximately 1 to 4%. By this approach, we have readily disrupted the genes encoding a MAPK homolog (CPK1), the calcineurin A catalytic subunit (CNA1), and a G protein alpha subunit (GPA1). By physical and genetic methods, we show that these mutations result from targeted recombination events without ectopic integrations. Because genetic approaches can be applied in the congenic serotype D strains, our observations represent a significant advance in molecular approaches to understand the physiology and virulence of this important human pathogen.


This paper proposes a novel methodology to construct optimal portfolios that explicitly incorporates the occurrence of systemic events. Investors maximize a modified Sharpe ratio that is conditional on a systemic event, with the latter interpreted as a low market return environment. We solve the portfolio allocation problem analytically under the absence of short-selling restrictions and numerically when short-selling restrictions are imposed. This approach for obtaining an optimal portfolio allocation is made operational by embedding it in a multivariate dynamic setting using dynamic conditional correlation and copula models. We evaluate the out-of-sample performance of our portfolio empirically on the US stock market over the period 2007 to 2020 using ex-post wealth paths and systemic risk metrics against mean-variance, equally-weighted, and global minimum variance portfolios. Our portfolio maximizing a modified Sharpe ratio outperforms all competitors under market distress and remains competitive in non-crisis periods.


The ISO 14229, namely UDS diagnostic service is mainly introduced and the application of this service on vehicle ECU is analyzed according to the ECU framework.


A new scaling technique for experimental investigations of naval fan-wire antennas based on highly accurate electroplated plastics ship models is presented. Using a 3D plotter the ship model is made of ABS polymer. Due to the high resolution of this technique of 0.12 mm a scaling factor of 1/200th instead of commonly used scaling factors of 1/48th or 1/50th for scale brass models can be used with sufficient accuracy. Hence, the scaled frequency range and the dimensions of the model are appropriate for standard microwave anechoic chambers. Furthermore, production time and costs were cut by more than 90%.


The most common complication of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is loss of extension, which is often functionally worse for patients than their preoperative instability. Many preventable surgical and nonsurgical etiologic factors have been identified. Accurate placement of the tibial tunnel, adequate notchplasty, and the routing of the femoral side of the graft are all critical factors. Several studies report that early range-of-motion therapy emphasizing immediate postoperative "hyperextension" and avoiding immobilization in flexion reduces the rate of loss of extension. Initial studies investigating the effect of acute versus chronic ACL reconstruction suggested that acute reconstruction is associated with a higher rate of loss of extension. However, the authors of two recent studies in which modern techniques were used have disputed this conclusion. It is likely that the loss of extension historically seen with acute ACL reconstructions was related to tibial tunnel placement and postoperative immobilization. It is possible that the timing of acute ACL reconstruction has less of an effect than originally postulated. On the basis of the results of several biomechanical studies, it appears that ACL reconstruction may be performed with the knee in full extension during graft placement with excellent results and a very low rate of loss of extension. Use of the descriptive term "loss of extension" is preferred to the often misleading terms "arthrofibrosis" and "flexion contracture."


OBJECTIVES
This study presents short- and long-term follow-up after treatment for isolated valvular aortic stenosis in children with surgical valvotomy as the preferred 1st intervention.

METHODS
All patients aged 0-18 years treated between 1994 and 2013 at our centre were reviewed regarding the mode of first treatment, mortality, reinterventions and the need for aortic valve replacement.

RESULTS
A total of 113 patients were identified in local registries. There were 44 neonates, 31 infants and 38 children. The mean follow-up period was 11 years (range 2-22 years). No early deaths and only 2 late deaths were reported. Of the 113 patients, 92 patients had open surgical valvotomy as the 1st intervention. Freedom from reintervention was 80%, 69%, 61%, 57% and 56% at 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 years, respectively. The main indication for reintervention was valvular stenosis. Freedom from aortic valve replacement was 67%.

CONCLUSIONS
Surgical valvotomy of aortic stenosis in this long-term follow-up study resulted in no 30-day mortality and <1% late mortality. Reinterventions were common, with 38% of the patients having further surgery or catheter treatment of the aortic valve before the age of 18 years. Among the 40 patients aged 18 years or older at follow-up, 45% had had the aortic valve replaced. Our data do not allow comparison of catheter and surgical treatment, but, based on these results, we find no reason to change our current policy of surgical treatment as 1st intervention in patients with isolated valvular aortic stenosis.


Organizations provide the context, structures and complementary resources that allow creativity to thrive. Organizations also absorb and spread the uncertainty, costs and risks inherent in creative activity. But no matter how efficiently organizations are structured for creative activity, only individuals actually create new things. Individuals make connections, understand and overcome problems, have intuition and new ideas: no innovation in technology, no creativity in the arts can exist without a human mind at work. That is as inescapably true in the current age of organized, collaborative and systematic creative pursuit as it was in the age of heroic invention and creative genius.


Molting is a widespread developmental process in which the external extracellular matrix (ECM), the cuticle, is remodeled to allow for organismal growth and environmental adaptation. Studies in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have identified a diverse set of molting-associated factors including signaling molecules, intracellular trafficking regulators, ECM components, and ECM-modifying enzymes such as matrix metalloproteases. C. elegans NEKL-2 and NEKL-3, two conserved members of the NEK family of protein kinases, are essential for molting and promote the endocytosis of environmental steroid-hormone precursors by the epidermis. Steroids in turn drive the cyclic induction of many genes required for molting. Here we report a novel role for the sole C. elegans ADAM–meltrin metalloprotease family member, ADM-2, as a negative regulator of molting. Whereas loss of adm-2 led to strong suppression of molting defects in partial loss-of-function nekl mutants, overexpression of ADM-2 induced molting defects in wild-type animals. CRISPR genome editing implicated the Zn-binding motif within the metalloprotease domain as critical for mediating the effects of ADM-2 on molting. ADM-2 is expressed in the epidermis, and its trafficking through the endo-lysosomal network was disrupted after NEKL depletion. We also identified the epidermally expressed low-density lipoprotein receptor–related protein, LRP-1, as a candidate target of ADM-2 regulation. Whereas loss of ADM-2 activity led to the upregulation of LRP-1, ADM-2 overexpression caused a reduction in LRP-1 abundance, suggesting that ADM-2 may function as a sheddase for LRP-1. We propose that loss of adm-2 suppresses molting defects in nekl mutants by eliminating a negative regulator of LRP-1, thereby compensating for defects in the efficiency of LRP-1 and sterol uptake. Our findings emphasize the importance of endocytic trafficking for both the internalization of factors that promote molting and the removal of proteins that would otherwise be deleterious to the molting process. Author Summary The molecular and cellular features of molting in nematodes share many similarities with cellular and developmental processes that occur in mammals. This includes the degradation and reorganization of extracellular matrix materials that surround cells, as well as the intracellular machineries that allow cells to communicate and sample their environments. In the current study, we found an unexpected function for a conserved protein that degrades proteins on the external surface of cells. Rather than promoting molting through extracellular matrix reorganization, the ADM-2 protease can inhibit the molting process. This observation can be explained by data showing that ADM-2 negatively regulates LRP-1, a membrane protein that promotes molting by facilitating the uptake of molecular building blocks at the cell surface that are needed for molting-related signaling. Our data provide insights into the mechanisms controlling molting and link several conserved proteins to show how they function together during development.


Purchase of real estate is important from an economic perspective and individual perspective. On the price of real estate affected many technical and economic factors. One of them is inflation. The impact of inflation on the purchase and the price of real estate has already been studied many authors. But their opinions differ depending on the location where surveys were carried out. Therefore, we decided that with the help of different statistical methods, we examine the hypothesis "Purchase Real Estate Represents Protection Against Inflation" for the Slovenian real estate market. For the implementation of research, were used the following statistical methods: t-test, ANOVA, Levine test and "post - hoc" analysis. Based on the hypotheses and using statistical methods, we found that purchase of Real estate represent protection against inflation. The survey results will assist investors in deciding to purchase the real estate, scientists in developing the concept of methodological approaches for assessing real estate, real estate valuers in assessing real estate values in a given period and country in predicting and creation the state budget.


Compensatory or 'catch-up' growth may be an adaptive mechanism that buffers the growth trajectory of young organisms from deviations caused by reduced food availability. Theory generally assumes that rapid juvenile compensatory growth impacts reproduction only through its positive effects on age and size at maturation, but potential reproductive costs to juvenile compensatory growth remain virtually unexplored. We used a food manipulation experiment to examine the reproductive consequences of compensatory growth in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Compensatory growth did not affect adult growth rates, litter production rates or investment in offspring size. However, compensatory growth had negative effects on litter size, independent of the effects of female body length, resulting in a 20% decline in offspring production. We discuss potential mechanisms behind this observed cost to reproduction.


An electric dipole of finite size in the form of a spherical current sheet with a surface current density in the theta direction varying as sin theta is introduced. External to the spherical surface, the electromagnetic fields are of the same form as that of a point electric dipole situated at the origin and oriented in the z direction. The power and the power flux density are separated into the radiative and the reactive parts. This type of separation of power is related to the usual separation made on the basis of propagating and evanescent waves. There is a natural relationship between the radiative and the reactive parts with the far-field and the near-field effects, respectively.


Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalences of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and combined IFG/IGT and to develop an effective screening strategy for undiagnosed diabetes in a large urban Iranian community. Materials and Methods: The study population included 9,519 participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, aged ≥ 20 years, with full relevant clinical data. Age-standardized prevalence of diabetes and glucose intolerance categories were reported according to the 2003 American Diabetes Association definitions. The numbers needed to screen (NNTS) to find one person with undiagnosed diabetes were estimated from age-adjusted logistic regression models. Results: The prevalences of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes, isolated IFG, isolated IGT, and combined IFG/IGT were 8.1%, 5.1%, 8.7%, 5.4% and 4.0% in men and 10%, 4.7%, 6.3%, 7.6%, and 4.5% in women respectively. Un-diagnosed diabetes was associated with family history of diabetes, increased body mass index (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2), abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension and low HDL-C levels. Among men, a combination of increased BMI, hypertension, and family history of diabetes led to an NNTS of 1.6 (95%CI: 1.57-1.71) and among women a combination of family history of diabetes and abdominal obesity, yielded an NNTS of 2.2 (95%CI: 2.1-2.4). Conclusions: Approximately 32% of Tehranian adults had either diabetes or some degree of other glucose tolerance abnormalities. Nearly 40% of total cases with diabetes were undiagnosed. Screening individuals with family history of diabetes, BMI25 kg/m2, abdominal obesity and hypertension may have substantial advantages.


Gaze estimation based on electrooculograms (EOGs) has been widely explored. However, the inter-subject variability of EOGs still leaves a significant challenge for practical applications. It contributes to performance degradation when handling inter-subject issues. In this paper, an unsupervised transfer learning approach with an adaptive reweighting and resampling (ARR) strategy to fully consider individual variability is proposed for EOG-based gaze angle estimation. It allows quantifying domain shifts by leveraging the source-target similarities, reweighting and resampling the source data to retain relevant instances and disregard irrelevant instances during adaptation. Specifically, our proposed methodology first assesses the domain shifts via decomposing transformation matrices, which are estimated between the training subjects (denoted as multi-source domains) and the test subject (denoted as target domain). Then, the multi-domain shifts are assigned as weighted indicators to resample the multi-source domains for model training. Comparative experiments with several prevailing transfer learning methods including CORrelation ALignment (CORAL), Geodesic Flow Kernel (GFK), Joint Distribution Adaptation (JDA), Transfer component analysis (TCA), and Balanced distribution adaption (BDA) using two different normalization processes were conducted on a realistic scenario across 18 subjects. Experimental results demonstrate that the ARR strategy can significantly improve performance (mean absolute error (MAE) reduction: 7.0%, root mean square error (RMSE) reduction: 6.3%), outperforming the prevailing methods. Besides, the impacts of data diversity and data size on ARR strategy are further investigated. It exhibits that data size is more important than data diversity for EOG-based gaze angle estimation, and also presents the benefits of the ARR strategy for dealing with practical scenarios.


As sessile organisms, plants have evolved unique patterns of growth and development, elaborate metabolism and special perception and signaling mechanisms to environmental cues. Likewise, plants have complex and highly special programs for transcriptional control of gene expression. A case study for the special transcription control in plants is the expansion of general transcription factors, particularly the family of Transcription Factor IIB (TFIIB)-like factors with 15 members in Arabidopsis. For more than a decade, molecular and genetic analysis has revealed important functions of these TFIIB-like factors in specific biological processes including gametogenesis, pollen tube growth guidance, embryogenesis, endosperm development, and plant-microbe interactions. The redundant, specialized, and diversified roles of these TFIIB-like factors challenge the traditional definition of general transcription factors established in other eukaryotes. In this review, we discuss general transcription factors in plants with a focus on the expansion and functional analysis of plant TFIIB-like proteins to highlight unique aspects of plant transcription programs that can be highly valuable for understanding the molecular basis of plant growth, development and responses to stress conditions.


The stratigraphy and age relationships of certain rock formations of Mysore are reviewed and the following points made out. (1) The Peninsular Gneisses as a whole are not intrusive into Dharwars. (2) The existing three fold classification of Dharwars has not taken into consideration the Dharwarian succession in Goa and north Mysore and requires to be revised. The Dharwar sediments were deposited in a narrow geosynclinal trough and did not extend very much beyond their present limits. (3) The name Champion Gneiss should be used only as a local name to designate the micaceous gneisses bordering the Kolar schists and not extended to other formations. (4) The charnockite terrain represents the lower most section of the Archaeans. The Dharwars occupy stratigraphically a higher position than the deep seated charnockites. (5) Basic dykes cutting across the gneisses and schists are pre Cuddapah in age. (6) The term Dharwar should be restricted only as a local name to the schistose rocks of Mysore. The crystalline schists of other regions may represent only a portion of Dharwar or be entirely different.


Using TiO2 photocatalyst, arsenite [As(III)] can be rapidly oxidized to arsenate [As(V)], which is less toxic and less mobile in the aquatic environment. Superoxides have been recently proposed as a main photocatalytic oxidant of As(III) whereas OH radicals are dominant oxidants in most TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) reactions. This study confirms that superoxides are mainly responsible for the As(III) PCO by investigating PCO kinetics in pure and modified TiO2 systems. The rate of As(III) oxidation drastically increased on Pt-TiO2, which could be ascribed to the enhanced superoxide generation through an efficient interfacial electron transfer from the conduction band (CB) to O2. Since the addition of tert-butyl alcohol (OH radical scavenger) had little effect on the PCO rate in both naked and Pt-TiO2 suspensions, OH radicals do not seem to be involved. The addition of polyoxometalates (POMs) as an electron shuttle between TiO2 CB and 02 highly promoted the PCO rate whereas the POM alone was not effective at all in oxidizing As(III). Fluorinated TiO2 that had a markedly reduced adsorptive capacity for As(III) did not show a reduced PCO rate, which indicates that the direct hole transfer path is not important. The arsenite oxidation proceeded under visible light with a similar rate to the case of Pt-TiO2/UV when dye-sensitized Pt-TiO2 was used. Since only superoxides can be generated as a photooxidant in this visible light system, their role as a main oxidant of As(III) is confirmed. In addition, the PCO rate was significantly reduced in the presence of superoxide dismutase.


It was always so affecting this building, dedicated to the children of Yad Vashem. Every things goes in the dark and being traversed by a handrail, while we can see many lighted points around us in this space: the stars that remember so many missing children. There is a different set up and different things but I also found another beautiful and touching museum dedicated to the children, including those in the museum Yad Lailed opened in Kibbutz Lohamei He Ghettaot, founded by survivors of Warsaw Ghetto. The section devoted to children, in 1994, intends to make them understand the Holocaust without too much trauma. The shape is a spiral. The children and their families had been sucked into a spiral of violence. But here we want to bring a message of life. The final room is devoted to the children that have been survived. During the path they can be worked to reconstruct through didactic materials, you can set in a circle, the other groups present stories with their characters. Let' us start with the round room with colorful windows, copies of drawings of the children that speak about in the time of the camp, what it should be the room at the end of the route. Above, there is a figure of a butterfly that remembers you a well noun poem about a butterfly in the ghetto. And together with the Sun means the hole of life. The blue sky always is present in the drawings. The real Sun threw the first to the last room can enter into darkness recesses of the Warsaw ghetto. We can read sentences or phrases of the children of that time: " I want to take with me my clown, but my mother says- the case was already closed". We can pass threw the dun sacks made with the gray old clothes that keep inside them all their memories when they were ready quickly, a reason to talk about how many people lived every day life In their homes in the past. Then we are walking into the tracks that break: and there are images of Jews pushing each others by the trains. There is a crowed of people that we can't see their faces; people without identity. Other people with the recovered memory you enter in the darkness. There is a round dark room. Even in a spiral shape. In the center, there is a lighted candle. You can start from the dark even though there is so little light of the Sun that it is drawn by the children. Our guide explain that it isn't necessary to emphasize to tell about the tortures. This, we can learn later. The message here should be positive. At the end of all there is the Sun, the Light. The life begins again. You can release from drama. For this reason it is necessary to insist for theatre and sculpture, and drawing on research. The children have the possibility with the help of this instruments, with the help of the narrative to be free from drama.


All uremic patients have multiple risk factors for CAD including in many, the conditions that caused their ESRD--for example, diabetes and hypertension. conventional risk factors--for example, dyslipidemia and hyperhomocysteinemia. risk factors that are unique to uremia--for example, calcium and phosphate abnormalities. PD patients have particular risk with respect to their lipid status and hyperinsulinemia. Many of these risks are potentially modifiable, but evidence does not exist to assess the impact of treatment on clinical outcomes. Therefore, current decisions for therapy directed at risk factor modification must be made on an individual basis.


Implementation theory links together social choice theory and game theory. At a less abstract level, its application provides an approach to welfare economics based on individual incentives. The underlying motivation for implementation theory is most easily seen from the point of view of a relatively uninformed planner who wishes to optimize a social welfare function that depends on environmental parameters about which relevant information is scattered around in the economy. Thus, the planner wishes to both collect as much of this relevant information as possible, and, with this information, make a social decision (e.g., an allocation of resources). This is the classic problem identified by Hurwicz (1972). In the twenty years since, we find numerous research agendas falling into the general category of implementation problems: the study of planning procedures, contracts, optimal regulation and taxation, agency relationships, agendas and committee decision-making, comparative electoral systems, non-cooperative foundations of general equilibrium theory, and even much of the recent theoretical work in accounting and the economics of law.


The amide nitrogen atom of glutamine is incorporated into pyridoxine in four eukaryotes (i.e., Emericella nidulans, Mucor racemosus, Neurospora crassa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and two prokaryotes (i.e., Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis). However, in the prokaryotes Pseudomonas putida, Enterobacter aerogenes and Escherichia coli, it is the nitrogen atom of glutamate that is incorporated into pyridoxine (J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (2000) 46, 55-57). As these results were from experiments conducted under aerobic conditions, we investigated the biosynthesis of pyridoxine on S. cerevisiae under anaerobic conditions. The results showed that [amide-15N]L-glutamine was not incorporated into pyridoxine, unlike the results for aerobic conditions. The incorporation of [15N]ammonium salts into pyridoxine was not inhibited in the presence of casamino acids and tryptophan. The results showed that the nitrogen atoms of amino acids are not used for the biosynthesis of pyridoxine. The incorporation of 15N into pyridoxine was inhibited in the presence of adenine, but not in that of hypoxanthine. Thus, the nitrogen atom of pyridoxine may be from the amino group attached to the C-6 of adenine.


Simple catalytic systems for the Suzuki—Miyaura reaction of aryl chlorides under microwave conditions were tested. Microwave irradiation facilitated the reaction course. The catalyst, base, and solvent effect were studied and two reaction systems offered reasonable to high yields within a short time.


Recently, there has been considerable interest at Fermilab for the Proton Driver, a future high intensity proton machine. Various scenarios are under consideration, including a superconducting linac. Each scenario present some special challenges. We describe here the magnets proposed in a recent study, the Proton Driver Study II, which assumes a conventional warm synchrotron, roughly of the size of the existing FNAL booster, but capable of delivering 380 kW at 8 GeV.


The paper proposes an empirical analysis of the demand and supply as they appear trough the auctions for standing timber organised by the Forest Directorate Suceava, a regional branch of the National Forest Administration located in the Northern part of Romania. The results confirm that there is a trend of territorial concentration of large firms, which are able to influence the decisions of the small-size agents. On the other hand, the capacities for harvesting activities are over-sized compared with the annual resource available at the level of the Forest Directorates. Second, the evolution of demand and supply before, during and after the storm event which occurred in 2002 shows how the entrepreneurs reacted to different supply context. It appears that after the storm period the demand is much more fragmented and small-sized, and the competition is very strong. Compared with the situation before the storm, the number of firms is 25% higher, while the supply is reduced by 50%. We advance some hypotheses to explain whey the number of firms did not decrease with the decreasing of the timber supply and why the sector is facing apparently irrational economic choice, e.g. harvesting economic inefficient tracks. Finally, the paper helps to identify some key fields for the further development of the research.


Background: A need arises to efficiently control health expenditure for medical aid due to a sharp increase in medical aid expenditure. This study experimently analyzes the impact of physician behavior on medical use for medical aid beneficiaries using supplier induced demand (SID) theory. Methods: This study looks into analyze SID effect using expenditure factor analysis of medical aid for the years between 2003 and 2010 in comparison with health insurance. Moreover, this study analyzes the existence and scale of SID using econometrics modeling with panel data on 16 cities and provinces's health expenditure data for medical aid from 2003 1/4 to 2010 4/4. Results: This study finds that the growth rate of visit days per capita and treatment amount per visit days for medical aid is higher than health insurance. Furthermore, the result of econometrics modeling analysis shows the existence of SID in general hospital, hospital, clinic, oriental clinic. Conclusion: In order to efficiently control expenditure for medical aid, it is required to reinforce macro polices such as the introduction of 'target management' and micro policies such as the strengthen of management on medical institutes in the perspective of suppliers as well as regulations of demanders.


Maize histone deacetylase HDA101 mainly targets active genes regulating H4K5 acetylation and represses a small subset of targets whose expression must be kept at a low level during seed development. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) regulate histone acetylation levels by removing the acetyl group from lysine residues. The maize (Zea mays) HDAC HDA101 influences several aspects of development, including kernel size; however, the molecular mechanism by which HDA101 affects kernel development remains unknown. In this study, we find that HDA101 regulates the expression of transfer cell-specific genes, suggesting that their misregulation may be associated with the defects in differentiation of endosperm transfer cells and smaller kernels observed in hda101 mutants. To investigate HDA101 function during the early stages of seed development, we performed genome-wide mapping of HDA101 binding sites. We observed that, like mammalian HDACs, HDA101 mainly targets highly and intermediately expressed genes. Although loss of HDA101 can induce histone hyperacetylation of its direct targets, this often does not involve variation in transcript levels. A small subset of inactive genes that must be negatively regulated during kernel development is also targeted by HDA101 and its loss leads to hyperacetylation and increased expression of these inactive genes. Finally, we report that HDA101 interacts with members of different chromatin remodeling complexes, such as NFC103/MSI1 and SNL1/SIN3-like protein corepressors. Taken together, our results reveal a complex genetic network regulated by HDA101 during seed development and provide insight into the different mechanisms of HDA101-mediated regulation of transcriptionally active and inactive genes.


tions was mere coincidence, however. While the patient gave no history of severe vomiting or coughing and cardiopulmonary resuscitation had not been performed, it is entirely credible that the pain of her myocardial infarction led to a Valsalva manoeuvre that produced spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Most patients with spontaneous pneumomediastinum complain of dyspnoea and chest pain while a quarter are asymptomatic. The chest pain is usually of acute onset and can closely mimic myocardial infarction. Furthermore, electrocardiographic abnormalities including ST segment elevation have been reported in patients with spontaneous pneumomediastinum without other evidence of ischaemic heart disease.' Although raised cardiac enzymes subsequently confirmed myocardial infarction in this patient the concurrence of spontaneous pneumomediastinum highlights the importance of correct clinical interpretation of acute chest pain in such a case. David H. Roberts Vipel N. Roy David R. Ramsdale Cardiothoracic Centre, Broadgreen Hospital, Thomas Drive, Liverpool L14 3LB, UK.


In this paper, we propose probability models for performance analysis of the slotted nonpersistent CSMA protocol in wireless networks with multiple packet reception. Variants of the CSMA protocol are well-known and play important roles in medium access control. Most of the previous works on CSMA use the conventional (0, 1, e) channel model, which prohibits an access point from concurrently receiving multiple packets from distinct nodes. In this paper, we use the Poisson random traffic model to study the performance of the slotted nonpersistent CSMA protocol when the access point could simultaneously receive two or more packets from different nodes in wireless access networks. We show that in terms of the network throughput, our analytical results are consistent with simulation results.


Motor vehicle crash rates and roadway characteristics for National Highway System (NHS) and non-NHS roads in seven states—California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Washington— are presented. Accident and roadway data were extracted from the Federal Highway Administration's Highway Safety Information System. Overall, crash rates on NHS roads were approximately 10 percent lower than those on non-NHS roads, perhaps the result of higher design standards. Crash rates on urban roadways were considerably higher than on the corresponding rural roadways in each state. For rural roadways, fixed-object crash rates were higher on NHS roads than on non-NHS roads. The distribution of crashes by severity was quite similar on NHS and non-NHS roads. For urban freeways, NHS Interstates usually had lower crash rates than NHS non-Interstates. The majority of NHS roads had lane widths of 3.4 m (11 ft) or more, and many had shoulder widths of 1.5 m (5 ft) or more. Compared to NHS non-Interstate roads, NHS Interstate roads were more likely to have lane widths of 3.7 m (12 ft) or over, shoulder widths of 2.4 m (8 ft) or over, paved shoulders, and improved median design. Highway designers and safety officials can use this type of information about accident rates and roadway characteristics to enhance safety by upgrading existing highways and improving the design of NHS highways to some specified roadway design standards and guidelines.


Application specific digital signal processors are superior compared to standard digital signal processors in a number of application fields, mainly due to high throughput and low power consumption traded for flexibility. This thesis deals with two areas related to hardware implementation of custom digital signal processors: design methodology and efficient implementation of arithmetic circuits. A delayless acoustic echo canceller is chosen as an example algorithm for custom hardware implementation. The canceller algorithm with no signal path delay is suitable in telecommunication applications, and has a high implementation complexity both in number of operations per second and in the variety of signal processing elements it is composed of. The design methodology developed and applied during the echo canceller hardware implementation is presented together with a number of optimizations applicable to the algorithm, architecture, and arithmetic design levels. The work on digital arithmetic circuits includes efficient implementation of dividers and complex multipliers. A configurable divider architecture for use in a wide range of applications is proposed. The divider is based on digit recurrence algorithms. A parameterized complex multiplier designed for low power consumption and high throughput applications is presented. The multiplier is based on distributed arithmetic, offset binary coding, and adder trees. Furthermore, an arithmetic co-optimization between two algorithms, the fast Fourier transform and the FIR filter, is proposed. The acoustic echo canceller chip has been fabricated and verified for functionality, throughput, and power consumption. (Less)


Important is the quality and contents of the articles, external appearances involving styling and formatting also are next to them to be a qualified good journal. Authors here attempt to find the levels of the external appearances of journals. Amongst 28 tourism-related journals now registered in Korea Research Foundation, 23 journals were selected to analyse their referencing styles using contents analysis. The findings from the contents analysis revealed that no standardized and unified style was found existing and most of journals adopt different reference styles which may cause confusions and time wasting unnecessarily, thus leading to degrade the journal. This paper concludes with suggestion for laying down KSRSM(Korea Standard Reference Style Manual).


The 2016 St.Gallen International Competition Law Forum ICF will serve as the backdrop for discussions on a variety of current competition law, economics and policy topics. One of the panels is going to focus on restriction of competition by object or effect. How has the application of these principles changed over time? Did recent court cases lead to clarification?The following interview between Dr. Frank Montag (Partner, Freshfields) and Dr. Marcel Meinhardt (Partner, Lenz & Staehelin) offers you some food for thought and a starting point for our panel discussion. During the St.Gallen ICF itself, additional input will be offered by Dr. Wolfgang Kirchhoff (Judge, German Federal Court) and Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Simonsson (Judge, Stockholm City Court; Associate Professor, Stockholm University). Join us in St.Gallen on May 19th and 20th for the "Restriction of competition by object or effect" panel. More information about the conference and a list of the remaining panels and speakers is available on the conference homepage.


ABSTRACT Background: Estrogen and progesterone hormones have been hypothesized to play a role in the cause of depressive symptoms in female. Clinical studies have indicated that changes in estrogen levels may trigger depressive episodes among women at risk for depression. A previous study found that use of combined oral contraceptives among women who previously had experienced emotional adverse effects resulted in mood deterioration and changes in emotional brain reactivity. This study aimed to examine the effect of hormonal contraceptive use on the risk of depression in women of reproductive age. Subjects and Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta. A sample of 200 women of reproductive age was selected by purposive sampling. The dependent variable was depression symptom. The independent variables were age, education, duration of contraceptive use, type of contraceptive use, employment, and family income. Depression symptom was measured by Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI II). The other variables were collected by questionnaire. The data were analyzed by a multiple logistic regression run on Stata 13. Results: Depression symptoms increased with hormonal contraception (OR= 3.74; 95% CI= 1.61 to 8.65; p= 0.001) and duration of contraceptive use ≥36 months (OR= 6.33; 95% CI= 2.36 to 16.97; p <0.001). Depression symptoms decreased with age ≥29 years (OR= 0.12; 95% CI= 0.04 to 0.34; p <0.001), family income ≥Rp 1,571,000 (OR= 0.10; 95% CI= 0.04 to 0.24; p <0.001), education ≥Senior high school (OR= 0.18; 95% CI= 0.07 to 0.45; p<0.001), and working at home (OR= 0.37; 95% CI= 0.16 to 0.83; p= 0.016). Conclusion: Depression symptoms increase with hormonal contraception and duration of contraceptive use ≥36 months. Depression symptoms decrease with age ≥29 years, family income ≥Rp 1,571,000, education ≥Senior high school, and working at home. Keywords: hormonal contraceptive, depression Correspondence: Neta Afriyanti. Masters Program in Public Health, Universitas Sebelas Maret. Jl. Ir. Sutami 36 A, Surakarta 57126, Central Java. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com DOI: https://doi.org/10.26911/the7thicph.03.121


The biblical story of Zelophehad's daughters (Numbers 26 and 36, Josh. 17:3-6) and its avatars in talmudic midrashim and modern feminist midrashim are studied from a gender perspective. The biblical story is shown to be ambiguous, in that, on the one hand, its heroines are five impressive women who bring about a change in the law that bene ts certain women, while, on the other hand, it is firmly set in an androcentric patriarchal context whose focus is the survival of the father's name. Even though the biblical story is not feminist, it includes elements that made it possible for the feminist aspect to be raised in the talmudic midrashim (which other general praise for women as compared to men or recognition and acknowledgement of male discrimination against women)—and all the more so in modern feminist midrashim that present the five women as possessing a well-developed feminist consciousness and as a positive model of sisterhood.


The influence of an intragastric balloon in the fundus on intragastric pressure changes was assessed by comparing the intragastric pressures measured by an open-tipped catheter proximal to the balloon when the balloon was inflated and when it was not. Six subjects were tested, each twice with the balloon inflated and twice with it deflated. Two significant differences were found when the balloon was inflated: 1) periods of pressure elevations were present more of the time and 2) the waveforms generated were of greater amplitude and shorter duration. The balloon thus appears to have exerted a definite but limited effect upon gastric motility. A method for analyzing the difference in waveforms is described. Both the balloon and the open-tipped catheter recorded gastric pressure elevations which frequently occurred at the same time and were of comparable magnitude. Often, however, balloon-recorded elevations occurred in the absence of catheter-recorded ones and vice versa.

effects of gastric balloon; waveform analysis

Submitted on September 28, 1964


BACKGROUND
In addition to the oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV), several cofactors are needed in cervical carcinogenesis, but whether the HPV covariates associated with incident (i) CIN1 are different from those of incident (ii) CIN2 and (iii) CIN3 needs further assessment.

OBJECTIVES
To gain further insights into the true biological differences between CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3, we assessed HPV covariates associated with incident CIN1, CIN2, and CIN3.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS
HPV covariates associated with progression to CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3 were analysed in the combined cohort of the NIS (n = 3187) and LAMS study (n = 12,114), using competing-risks regression models (in panel data) for baseline HR-HPV-positive women (n = 1105), who represent a sub-cohort of all 1865 women prospectively followed-up in these two studies.

RESULTS
Altogether, 90 (4.8%), 39 (2.1%) and 14 (1.4%) cases progressed to CIN1, CIN2, and CIN3, respectively. Among these baseline HR-HPV-positive women, the risk profiles of incident CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3 were unique in that completely different HPV covariates were associated with progression to CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3, irrespective which categories (non-progression, CIN1, CIN2, CIN3 or all) were used as competing-risks events in univariate and multivariate models.

CONCLUSIONS
These data confirm our previous analysis based on multinomial regression models implicating that distinct covariates of HR-HPV are associated with progression to CIN1, CIN2 and CIN3. This emphasises true biological differences between the three grades of CIN, which revisits the concept of combining CIN2 with CIN3 or with CIN1 in histological classification or used as a common endpoint, e.g., in HPV vaccine trials.


The purpose of this study is to understand in depth the experiences regarding the healing of stress that takes place in the process of the job performance of fire fighting officers. For this, by having seven incumbent fire fighting officers as the subjects of the research, the individual in-depth interviews had been conducted. As a result of analyzing their experiences based on the phenomenological research method of Colaizzi, the 17 topic bundles, 5 subcategories, and 3 categories were derived. Regarding the results of the research, firstly, it appeared that the stress resulting from the job performance in the diverse processes of solving the petitions experienced as the obsessive anxiety, feeling of depression and sleep disorder, etc. Secondly, it had appeared that fire fighting officers show the strong feeling of pride and sense of calling regarding the job performance, but their dread regarding the life after the retirement was high. Thirdly, it appeared that such stress were offset and healed through the positive experiences, including the professional vocation, companionship and support by the family, etc. Because the high job stress gets developed into the continuous and complex physical problems and the emotional and psychological problems, it shows that there is a limitation to the healing with only the professional calling, companionship and support by the family. As such, for the healing of stress that takes place in the job performance by fire fighting officers and not just for the environmental improvements that are related with the job, but for the psychological and emotional support, this research arrived at the point of the suggestion that the operations of the complex and systematized supporting programs, including the strengthening of vocation and companionship, emotional support by the family etc., must be carried out.


These paper intents to develop an approach to Graffiti as kind of urban art. Graffiti can be seen as an operation, either individual or of a group, which enables to transform places, to establish communication, to improve city aesthetic quality. It allows people to participate in the transformation of urban spaces, it refines the dynamicity of forms, and puts color on grey walls, but is still considered illegal. Graffiti artists interfere in public spaces through informal appropriation. This action started around the end of the 60s in the ghettos of New York and represented an innovative and revolutionary way to mark a territory where Hip-hop, Rap and Skate culture were growing and demanding visibility (Poato, 2006). Later grafitters started covering city walls with subtle and creative demonstrations of art, ethics claims and they established a kind of clandestine communication. Nowadays, graffiti is considered and legitimated as an artistic trend, but rises continuously polemical questions. Between the boundaries of vandalism and art, anonimity and identity, it acquires acknowledgement, while it develops aesthetically. The performance itself is more important than the aesthetic results, because it qualifies the language of graffiti as a practice and as a process created in urban spaces. Graffiti's art can be described as "deprived art", in the sense that the artist is conscious he will loose any kind of possession of his work, in the moment when he leaves the physical space, where his artistic creation took place. Once accomplished, the work of art is liable to any kind of interference, possibly erased or overlapped by another work. Therefore can be said that Grafitti is subjected to the informal laws of the city, on the other hand, is the city itself being transformed. There are different technics in the making of graffiti, but two streams are predominating: Graffiti rises on unused walls of constructions or demolitions. It avoids public patrimony and private spaces, uses paintings and strong colors and can take months to be finished. Writer (scribbler, tagger, trow-up) is an intervention of illegible nicknames. The writers consider the risk to mark prohibited places such as high, invigilated, inaccessible public spaces, private walls, edifices, bridges, train stations and sculptures, but they affirm: "When we have some place in our mind there are no limits, no barriers" (intervewee in Poato, 2006, p. 35)". Among these streams, lots of interventions are accomplished: stencils, writing painters (piece), stickers, etc. With some exceptions, all of them are prohibited. Two reasons why they are prohibited can be suggested: the first one is that it is not clear defined where vandalism finishes and art begins, the second can be recognized in the fact that "workers" arrogate themselves the right to interfere in public space, without asking for previous approval. In a generic sense the city is complex and mutable. In a subjective sense the city is everyday's life experience. Both aspects are considerated by analysing the practice of graffiti. If we understand urban art as an aehstetic dimension of the city and the city not only as language, but also as a growing practice, graffiti increases the variety of aesthetic communication and works against an inactive and passive social behaviour. Do grafitti language and method only keep their original meaning and coherence if they are illegal? What is the right posture of public politics? Shoudn't be stimulated as a policy open to citizen participation and free comunication? To begin, we will see the city like an integrator element, context and suport of this practice. We will then approach many kinds of contemporary arts related to graffiti. To end, some paradoxes of this art will be brought up to discussion.


A new NCI initiative aims to accrue and molecularly profile as many as 300 cases of exceptional responses to cancer therapies, both targeted and standard. Researchers hope this exercise will yield new hypotheses to be tested in genomically driven clinical trials.


Easter lilies, Lilium longiflorum cv. Nellie White are a staple of the floral industry. In the U.S. most of the Easter lilies are grown in Oregon and California along the coast where there is a micro climate that is favorable to growth of lilies. The main pest when growing lilies in the field is Pratylenchus penetrans, the root lesion nematode. Easter lilies are one of the most expensive crops to produce because of the cost of chemicals used to control P. penetrans and other pathogens that infect the lilies. Our previous study had shown that transgenic Easter lilies containing a rice cystatin gene (Oc-IΔD86 that has a deleted Asp86) were resistant to P. penetrans in vitro. This study examined growth characteristics of five independently transformed lines of the cystatin Easter lilies compared to non-transformed Nellie White for three seasons in the field in Brookings, Oregon. Liles grown in three soil chemical treatments 1) preplant fumigation, 2) preplant fumigation plus at plant organophosphate, and 3) at plant organophosphate were compared to those grown in nontreated soil. Growth characteristics evaluated included: time of shoot emergence, survival of plants, size of plants, visual ratings of plant health, basal roots and stem roots, weight of foliage and roots, and number and size of bulblets that developed on stems. Nematodes were counted following their extraction from the roots. While not totally resistant, when planted in the field, transformed lines demonstrated and maintained a degree of resistance to lesion nematode over two growing seasons and displayed desirable growth and quality characteristics similar to non-transformed lilies.


We present a method to estimate paleomagnitude and rupture extent from measurements of displacement at a single point on a fault. The variability of historic ruptures is summarized in a histogram of normalized slip, then scaled to give the probability of finding a given displacement within a rupture for any magnitude considered. The histogram can be inverted assuming any magnitude earthquake is as likely as another, yielding probability density functions of magnitude and rupture length for any given displacement measurement. To improve these distributions we include a term to account for the probability that the earthquake would cause ground rupture and two alternative distributions of earthquake magnitude. The Gutenberg- Richter magnitude distribution predicts shorter rupture lengths and smaller magnitudes than does a uniform distribution where any magnitude earthquake is considered equally likely. Longer ruptures and larger magnitudes than the uniform model are predicted by an alternative magnitude distribution designed to return site average displacement. This model is a generalization of the characteristic earthquake model, and reasonably describes paleoseismic findings on the southern San Andreas fault, where slip is accommodated by average displacements of a few meters and earthquake recurrence times of 100–250 years. Our results should increase the value of paleoseismic displacement measurements for hazard assessment. In particular, they quantify probability estimates of earthquake magnitude and rupture length where point observations of rupture displacement are available, and so can contribute to probabilistic seismic-hazard analyses.

Online material: Rupture profiles used to sample rupture variability.


Summary Brassica vegetables are rich in polyphenols, flavonoids and glucosinolates. Investigation was undertaken to optimise the best solvents among 60% ethanol, acetone and methanol for the extraction of polyphenols from Brassica vegetables. Furthermore, different properties such as antibacterial activity and antioxidant capacity were also investigated. Results showed that a 60% methanolic extract showed the highest total phenolic content which was 23.6, 20.4 and 18.7 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) g )1 extract for broccoli, Brussels sprouts and white cabbage, respectively. The hydroxybenzoic acid content of various solvent extracts ranged from 5.86 to 8.91 GAE g )1 extract for broccoli, 2.70 to 5.44 GAE g )1 extract for Brussels sprouts and 3.69 to 4.86 GAE g )1 extract for white cabbage, while the hydroxycinnamic acid content ranged from 0.78 to 1.26 chlorogenic acid equivalents (CAE) g )1 extract for broccoli, 1.41 to 3.45 CAE g )1 extract for Brussels sprouts and 0.49 to 1.14 CAE g )1 extract for white cabbage. A concentrationdependent antioxidative capacity was confirmed for different reactive oxygen species, and moderate antibacterial activity was observed against a number of Gram-negative and Gram-positive food spoilage and food pathogenic bacteria. Solvents significantly affected polyphenolic content and its different properties, and the methanol was found to be the best solvent for the extraction of polyphenols from studied Brassica vegetables.


—Over the past years, the interest in Blockchain technology and its applications has tremendously increased. This increase of interest was however accompanied by serious threats that raised concerns over user data privacy. Prominent examples include transaction traceability and identification of senders, receivers, and transaction amounts. This resulted in a multitude of privacy-preserving techniques that offer different guarantees in terms of trust, decentralization, and traceability. CoinJoin [22] is one of the promising techniques that adopts a decentralized approach to achieve privacy on the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) based blockchain. Despite the advantages of such a technique in obfuscating user transaction data, making them usable to common users requires considerable development and integration efforts. This paper provides a comprehensive usability study of three main Bitcoin wallets that integrate the CoinJoin technique, i.e., Joinmarket, Wasabi, and Samourai. A cognitive walkthrough was conducted in order to evaluate the ease of use of these wallets using usability and fundamental design criteria. The study findings will enable privacy wallet developers to gain valuable insights into a better user experience.


A number of research and development projects in the U.S. and in Europe have shown that novel technologies can open significant perspectives for hospital information systems (HIS). The selection of software products for a HIS, however, is still nontrivial. Generalist vendors promise a broad scope of functionality and integration, while specialist vendors promise elaborated and highly adapted functionality. In 1997, the university hospital Marburg, a 1,250 bed teaching hospital, decided to introduce a new large-scale HIS. The objectives of the project included support of clinical workflows, cost effectiveness and a maximum standard of medical care. In 1997/98 a formal Europe-wide vendor contest was performed. 15 vendors, including several from the U.S., participated. Systems were checked against the hospital's objectives, functionality, and technological criteria. One of the results of both technology and market assessment was the identification of fundamental technological and design aspects strongly influencing functionality and flexibility.


Abstract Objective  This study aimed to investigate the transverse cortical cross-sections of the metacarpal bones of newborn calves subjected to pulling during dystocia. Materials and Methods  In total, radiographs of 63 metacarpal bones (35 fractured and 28 non-fractured) of 50 Holstein calves were evaluated in this study. According to the declaration of the owners, all calves were pulled by their metacarpal bones during parturition. The periosteal and endosteal diameters, medial and lateral cortical thicknesses and dorsal and palmar cortical thicknesses were measured. Furthermore, the total, cortical and medullary areas of each section, moments of inertia on the X and Y axes, major and minor principal moments of inertia, angle of rotation of the axis and polar moment of inertia were calculated. The data were analysed by sex and body weight. Results  Body weight did not affect the bone status. However, females had a 6.5 times higher risk of bone fracture as compared with the males ( p  = 0.001). The lateral cortical thickness of the fractured bones in the female animals was thinner than that of the male animals ( p  = 0.001). Conclusion  These results can be used to improve dystocia manipulations, encourage the development of new tools for dystocia and the treatment of metacarpal fractures in calves.


Introduction Renal transplantation (RT) is the best treatment option in patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF). Despite all advances, small, poor compliant or unstable bladders are one of the major problems that we face in RT. Structural urologic abnormalities resulting in dysfunctional lower urinary tract leading to ESRF may constitute 15% patients in the adult population and up to 20-30% in the pediatric population. Although many studies have been performed since more than a century, no distinct method has been developed. This clinical study aims to provide urinary storage, protect the upper urinary tract and preserve renal function, provide continence, resistance to infection and offer a convenient method of voluntary and complete emptying Materials and Methods We first applied the experimental ileobladder technique to pigs and rats to combat low bladder volume problem one year ago. When this technique proved to be successful in the laboratory environment, we applied this technique to 2 patients with bladder volume problems and ESRF. One patient was 3 years old and had a bladder capacity <2 mL. The other was 4 years old and had a bladder capacity <10 mL Ileobladder technique was performed on the patients with a lower midline incision. RT was performed in the first patient 28 days and in the second patient 44 days after the ileobladder procedure Results Approximately 15 cm of the ileum segment was prepared for ileobladder 20 cm after terminal ileum, preserving the mesentery. An abdominal lower midline incision was made, exposing the bladder that was transversally opened approximately 2-3 cm. The ileal loop was then anastomosed to the bladder. Two weeks later, living donor RT (from the mother in one patient, and the father in the other) was performed on both patients using standard technique. Since the early postoperative period, creatinine levels have reached normal levels in both patients. On the 15th postoperative day, urine probes were removed. Now, 2 months since surgery, the general condition is good in both patients and no complications were found. Conclusions The technique of ileobladder was performed successfully for patients with very small bladders. It is our plan to continue this technique to overcome small bladder and neurogenic bladder problems.


Sliding within the dam foundation is one of the key failure modes of a gravity dam. A two-dimensional (2-D) physical model test has been conducted to study the sliding failure of a concrete gravity dam under overloading conditions. This model dam was instrumented with strain rosettes, linear variable displacement transformers (LVDTs), and embedded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing bars. The surface and internal displacements of the dam structure and the strain distributions on the dam body were measured with high accuracy. The setup of the model with instrumentation is described and the monitoring data are presented and analyzed in this paper. The deformation process and failure mechanism of dam sliding within the rock foundation are investigated based on the test results. It is found that the horizontal displacements at the toe and heel indicate the dam stability condition. During overloading, the cracking zone in the foundation can be simplified as a triangle with gradually increased height and vertex angle.


This study aimed to investigate if the inclusion of different spices in bovine burger affects bacterial growth, lipid oxidation and sensorial characteristics of the products. Four hamburger formulations were preparedI: control (without additives), saffron (1%), ginger (1%) and urucum (1%). The products were analyzed for total bacterial count (TBC) on days 0, 7 and 15 (storage at 4 °C) and 0, 15 and 60 (storage at -30 °C) and, for rancidity, on days 0, 30 and 60 (storage at -30 °C). The acceptance of the sensory attributes and the purchase intent were evaluated using hedonic scales. All burgers formulated with spices and kept at 4 °C had lower TBC than the control formulation, whereas for those stored at -30 °C, the same occurred only with the ginger-made ones. Lower lipid oxidation was found for the formulations containing the spices. Control and ginger formulations led the acceptance of the tasters for the attributes appearance and color, besides that, aroused greater interest in the purchase intention trial. Ot was concluded that the addition of spices reduced TBC and delayed the lipid oxidation of hamburgers, and that the products elaborated with ginger had the highest sensory acceptance and purchase intention indexes.


Knowledge about software used in scientific investigations is important for several reasons, for instance, to enable an understanding of provenance and methods involved in data handling. However, software is usually not formally cited, but rather mentioned informally within the scholarly description of the investigation, raising the need for automatic information extraction and disambiguation. Given the lack of reliable ground truth data, we present SoMeSci-Software Mentions in Science-a gold standard knowledge graph of software mentions in scientific articles. It contains high quality annotations (IRR: K=.82) of 3756 software mentions in 1367 PubMed Central articles. Besides the plain mention of the software, we also provide relation labels for additional information, such as the version, the developer, a URL or citations. Moreover, we distinguish between different types, such as application, plugin or programming environment, as well as different types of mentions, such as usage or creation. To the best of our knowledge, SoMeSci is the most comprehensive corpus about software mentions in scientific articles, providing training samples for Named Entity Recognition, Relation Extraction, Entity Disambiguation, and Entity Linking. Finally, we sketch potential use cases and provide baseline results.


Cyclophosphamide (CP) is one of the frequently preferred chemotherapeutic agents Worldwide. CP has negative effects on the testes, spermatogenesis, and reproductive hormones. The aim of this study was to determine the protective effect of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) on the damage caused by CP. CoQ10 is use in the treatment of infertility problems and is naturally found in the testes and seminal fluid. Thirty–six Albino Wistar male rats were divided into six groups (Control, Sham, Cyclophosphamide (CP), Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), CP + CoQ10 I, CP + CoQ10 II), with six animals in each group. Semen analysis included investigations of sperm DNA damage, motility, abnormal sperm ratio, and density. Histopathological examination and assessment of oxidative stress parameters in the testes were conducted. Additionally, serum levels of FSH, LH, and Testosterone were measured. CoQ10 administration increased the motility rate, density, and Testosterone levels in testicular damage caused by CP (P<0.05). Furthermore, it was observed that the abnormal sperm ratio, sperm DNA damage, and oxidative stress were reduced (P<0.05). Based on the results of this study, the use of CoQ10 in conjunction with CP has the potential to alleviate male infertility problems that may arise from CP administration.


Geophysicists typically produce a single model, without addressing the issue of model variability. By adding random noise to the model regularization goal, multiple equiprobable models can be generated that honor some a priori estimate of the model's second-order statistics. By adding random noise to the data, colored by the data's covariance, equi-probable models can be generated that give an estimate of model uncertainty resulting from data uncertainity. The methodology is applied to a simple velocity inversion problem with encouraging results.


Laboratory scale experiments were conducted to study the conversion of sludge from conventional activated sludge to nitrogen-phosphorus removal sludge using two types of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) systems, a conventional SBR and sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR). The nitrogen and phosphorus removal characteristics were similar between SBR and SBBR and the removal efficiencies were very low when the influent TOC concentrations were low. The nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies in SBR were 96% and 77.5%, respectively, which were higher than those in SBBR (88% and 42.5%) at the high influent TOC concentration. In SBBR, the simultaneous nitrification-denitrification was occurred because of the biofilm process. The variations of pH, DO concentration and ORP were changed as the variation of influent TOC concentration both in SBR and SBBR and their periodical characteristics were cleary shown at the high influent TOC concentration. Especially, the pH, DO concentration and ORP inflections, were cleary occurred in SBR compared with SBBR.


It is widely recognized that Roman law is an important source of information about women in the Roman world, and can present a more rounded and accurate picture than literary sources. This sourcebook fully exploits the rich legal material of the imperial period - from Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE) to the end of the western Roman Empire (476 CE), incorporating both pagan and Christian eras, and explaining the rights women held under Roman law, the restrictions to which they were subject, and legal regulations on marriage, divorce and widowhood.


The central theme of this work is that a stable levitation of a denser non-magnetizable liquid droplet, against gravity, inside a relatively lighter ferrofluid – a system barely considered in ferrohydrodynamics – is possible, and exhibits unique interfacial features; the stability of the levitation trajectory, however, is subject to an appropriate magnetic field modulation. We explore the shapes and the temporal dynamics of a plane non-magnetizable droplet levitating inside a ferrofluid against gravity due to a spatially complex, but systematically generated, magnetic field in two dimensions. The coupled set of Maxwell's magnetostatic equations and the flow dynamic equations is integrated computationally, utilizing a conservative finite-volume-based second-order pressure projection algorithm combined with the front-tracking algorithm for the advection of the interface of the droplet. The dynamics of the droplet is studied under both the constant ferrofluid magnetic permeability assumption as well as for more realistic field-dependent permeability described by Langevin's nonlinear magnetization model. Due to the non-homogeneous nature of the magnetic field, unique shapes of the droplet during its levitation, and at its steady state, are realized. The complete spatio-temporal response of the droplet is a function of the Laplace number $La$ , the magnetic Laplace number $La_{m}$ and the Galilei number $Ga$ ; through detailed simulations we separate out the individual roles played by these non-dimensional parameters. The effect of the viscosity ratio, the stability of the levitation path and the possibility of existence of multiple stable equilibrium states is investigated. We find, for certain conditions on the viscosity ratio, that there can be developments of cusps and singularities at the droplet surface; we also observe this phenomenon experimentally and compare with the simulations. Our simulations closely replicate the singular projection on the surface of the levitating droplet. Finally, we present a dynamical model for the vertical trajectory of the droplet. This model reveals a condition for the onset of levitation and the relation for the equilibrium levitation height. The linearization of the model around the steady state captures that the nature of the equilibrium point goes under a transition from being a spiral to a node depending upon the control parameters, which essentially means that the temporal route to the equilibrium can be either monotonic or undulating. The analytical model for the droplet trajectory is in close agreement with the detailed simulations.


This paper presents a comparison of asynchronous and synchronous standard cell implementations for finite state machine with data-path (FSMD) ASICs. The comparison is made through independent parallel designs of a 16-bit factoring ASIC. A common functional specification, standard cell library, and suite of EDA tools for layout and simulation are used to provide a common basis for comparison. To clarify design goals and provide more data for comparison each design is separately optimized for speed and for area. Timing and area information for each design is tabulated and discussed to illustrate the specific advantages and disadvantages of each approach.<<ETX>>


Easy bruising is frequently found in healthy women. This mild bleeding tendency may be enhanced by treatment with vitamin K antagonists. This may result in more intense monitoring of the level of anticoagulation (INR) to improve the individual time within target range (ITTR) and consequently to reduce the risk of major bleeding. We performed a retrospective study in 6758 consecutive patients receiving vitamin K antagonists for primary or secondary prophylaxis of venous or arterial thrombosis (mean age 67, 51% male and 189762 INRs in 6681 person-years) to evaluate differences in gender on the occurrence of minor and major bleeding, as well as the ITTR. The incidence rates (IR, per 100 person-years) of minor and major bleeding were assessed and survival analysis performed to obtain adjusted hazard ratios (HR, 95%CI) for major bleeding in men versus women with or without prior minor bleeding, controlling for significant patient characteristics. Minor bleeding occurred more frequently in women than men (IR=33.2 versus 21.1, respectively; HR=1.5, 95%CI 1.4–1.7, p However, in women with prior minor bleeding, the incidence of major bleeding was low (IR=1.3, 95% CI 0.7–2.1), when compared to men with minor bleeding (3.3, 95%C 2.2–4.7) (HR =2.7, 95% CI 1.4–5.0, p=0.002). Men and women without prior minor bleeding had comparable incidences of major bleeding (IR 1.8, 95% CI 1.3–2.5, and 1.5, 95% CI 1.1–2.1, respectively), but both were higher than in women with prior minor bleeding (HR 1.4 (0.8–2.5, p=0.30 and 1.2 (0.7–2.2, p=0.55)). These differences were even more pronounced in patients at high risk of major bleeding due to a strongly reduced ITTR (ITTR below 30%, lowest quartile). Considering the actually achieved level of anticoagulation, there were no differences between men and women with or without prior minor bleeding that could explain the reduced risk of major bleeding in women with prior minor bleeding. With 42% to 43%, the ITTR was comparable, as was the time spend above INR 5.0 (6% to 7%). In conclusion, more frequent minor bleeding in women was associated with a reduced incidence of major bleeding, whereas in men, such a reversed association was not present. Differences in intensity of INR monitoring in patients with or without minor bleeding and as a result in actual level of anticoagulation, could not be demonstrated.


Appraisals typically are conducted using four standard methods approved by the American Society of Appraisers. For large-scale, technically unique projects, such as chemical and power plants and old industrial facilities, these standard methods are insufficient. These types of projects contain political, technical, and economic risks that are not accounted for in standard valuation methods. To include these risks in an appraisal, a Monte Carlo simulation method can be used. Probability distributions are used to model the appropriate uncertainty. The appraisal also may include modeling future decisions that may have to be made concerning the project to add insight to the risk involved. A case study of a nuclear power plant is presented. The use of Monte Carlo methods and the modeling of future decisions decreased the worth of the plant by 28% as compared to a standard income capitalization method.


The present study examined the timing of suicide and its associated soldier background and postinvestigative events among deployed Army National Guard (ARNG) soldiers from calendar years 2007 through 2014. Suicide deaths were nearly equally distributed between soldiers who had been deployed and those who had not. Among those deployed, however, suicides occurred mostly 1 year or more after having returned from deployment. Soldier background and postsuicide investigative events were associated with the timing of suicide. Having more years of military service, more previous deployments, and being married were associated with in-theater suicides. Soldiers younger in age (17–24 years), single, nonprior service, and lower in rank, in addition to having parent-family conflicts, full-time employment problems, and military transition problems were associated with suicides that had occurred 1–120 days and 120–365 days since return from deployment. Soldiers aged (24–29 years), married, and higher in rank, along with more reported problems including past behavioral health conditions, postdeployment behavior health referrals, criminal behaviors, and military performance were associated with suicides that had occurred 1 year or more after return. Findings likely represent time periods of suicide vulnerability for identifiable groups of soldiers, based on soldier background and events surrounding the suicide. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.


Photolithography has been one of the primary processes driving semiconductor advances for the past few decades. In order to make faster, more reliable devices, designers drive circuit scaling to its limits. Equipment and material suppliers must create products to meet the throughput and lithographic performance standards required of advanced devices. Track equipment performance and process architecture have improved to meet throughput considerations, and therefore the cost of lithography tracks has remained relatively constant and few equipment changes are remaining which will drastically reduce the cost of lithography. On the other hand, the cost of photolithography materials has drastically increased due to the complexity of the chemistries required to resolve shrinking critical dimensions. In addition, new technology nodes have often required additional processing layers, adding to the high cost of materials in the lithography process. These increased costs are directly delivered to the wafer for processes where high volumes of chemical or multiple layers are needed to properly coat a wafer for further processing. By fine tuning the coating process, a track equipment engineer can reduce resist cost per wafer by reducing the volume dispensed on the wafer. While reducing the resist volume to extremely low levels is attractive, it can also introduce risks into the coating process. Any interruption in the low volume dispense can cause a poor coating or no-coat situation, thus creating a wafer that requires rework or scrap. If the event is detected at the point of dispense, the wafer can be reworked. If the wafer escapes undetected until a post-lithography metrology step, it must be scrapped. This paper evaluates the cost benefits of utilizing an advanced dispense system, such as the IntelliGen® Mini, made by Entegris, Inc., combined with an every-wafer point-of-dispense monitoring strategy. This paper will discuss the means to reduce resist dispense volumes by up to 60% and the ability to track every dispense, decreasing overall scrap and the need for some routine metrology. In addition, the authors will show a return-on-investment summary for undertaking such a project.


BACKGROUND The hypothalamus produces an endogenous membrane Na+-K+ ATPase inhibitor digoxin that can modulate neurotransmitter transport and may play a role in hemispheric dominance. It can also modulate glycoconjugate synthesis and thus affect synaptic connectivity in the bowel wall. Digoxin could play a role in the genesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). AIM To study digoxin status in IBS and to correlate it with hemispheric dominance. METHODS The isoprenoid pathway, tryptophan/tyrosine catabolic patterns and glycoconjugate metabolism were assessed in patients with IBS and in right hemispheric dominant/left hemispheric dominant/bihemispheric dominant individuals. RESULTS The isoprenoid pathway was upregulated in IBS, with increased HMG CoA reductase activity (0.8 [0.07] vs 0.4 [0.06] in controls; p<0.01), serum digoxin (14.8 [1.0] vs 29.0 [1.2] ng/dL; p<0.01) and dolichol levels (63.8 [3.0] vs 120.3 [3.6] mg/dL; p<0.01). RBC membrane Na+-K+ ATPase activity (3.0 [0.2] vs 1.0 [0.1] microg/p/mg protein; p<0.01), serum magnesium (1.7 [0.1] vs 1.0 [0.1] mg/dL; p<0.01) and ubiquinone (86.4 [5.9] vs 39.8 [1.2] microg/dL; p<0.01) were reduced. There was increase in tryptophan catabolites and reduction in tyrosine catabolites. Serum total glycosaminoglycan and carbohydrate component of glycoproteins were increased in IBS. The activity of glycosaminoglycan degrading enzymes and glycohydrolases were increased. This pattern correlated with those obtained in right hemispheric chemical dominance. CONCLUSION Hypothalamic digoxin and right hemispheric dominance could play a role in the genesis of irritable bowel syndrome.


The results of research on the compatibility of a married couple by role positions and family values as a factor in the satisfaction of spouses with a marriage have been presented. The following psychodiagnostic methods were used as research methods: the test "Role positions in interpersonal relationship" by E. Burn, the questionnaire "Role expectations and claims in marriage" (A. N. Volkova), the method of V. Stolin "Test satisfaction survey marriage". As methods of statistical analysis, the Mann-Whitney U-test was used to identify significant differences in all parameters of the four formed groups. It was found that satisfaction with marriage directly depends on the compatibility of marriage partners in role positions and family values. As a consequence, couples in which the spouses are compatible on two possible factors are more satisfied with their relations, while spouses whose role positions are incompatible and family values are not agreed are least satisfied with the marriage. The obtained results can be used in the practical work of psychologists.


This paper presents a novel method for object detection and classification in 3D laser range data that is acquired by an autonomous mobile robot. Unrestricted objects are learned using classification and regression trees (CARTs) and using an Ada Boost learning procedure. Off-screen rendered depth and reflectance images serve as an input for learning. The performance of the classification is improved by combining both sensor modalities, which are independent from external light. This enables highly accurate, fast and reliable 3D object localization with point matching. Competitive learning is used for evaluating the accuracy of the object localization


Large scale communication networks are everywhere, ranging from data centers withmillions of servers to social networks with billions of users. This thesis is devoted tothe fine-grained complexity analysis of combinatorial problems on these networks.In the first part, we focus on the embeddability of communication networks totree topologies. This property has been shown to be crucial in the understandingof some aspects of network traffic (such as congestion). More precisely, we studythe computational complexity of Gromov hyperbolicity and of tree decompositionparameters in graphs – including treelength and treebreadth. On the way, we givenew bounds on these parameters in several graph classes of interest, some of thembeing used in the design of data center interconnection networks. The main resultin this part is a relationship between treelength and treewidth: another well-studiedgraph parameter, that gives a unifying view of treelikeness in graphs and has algorithmicapplications. This part borrows from graph theory and recent techniques incomplexity theory. The second part of the thesis is on the modeling of two privacy concerns with social networking services. We aim at analysing information flows in these networks,represented as dynamical processes on graphs. First, a coloring game on graphs isstudied as a solution concept for the dynamic of online communities. We give afine-grained complexity analysis for computing Nash and strong Nash equilibria inthis game, thereby answering open questions from the literature. On the way, wepropose new directions in algorithmic game theory and parallel complexity, usingcoloring games as a case example


i pon duiring the attaclk in tho earlier series tlhere were 166 cases of general peritonitis and 431 cases of abscess, whereas in the later series tlhere were onily 80 cases of genieral peritonitis and 211 cases of abscess in a total of 698 acuite cases. FurtIher evidence ma.y bu founl(d in the mortality of o1pcrations oni thle dlifferenit days of the attackc; -1.2 per ceilt. dlied ouit of those operated uipon within the first twenty-four lhours of the, attack; 3.9 per cent. of those whlowerc,operated upon -oni tlje second day; anid 8.7 p)eL cenit. of those operated iupon oii tlhe tlhird (lay; ini otlher wvords, tlhe mortality in cases opelated uponi on the seconid aniid tlhird (lays of the attack is threel timijes an(1 seven timiies as great respectively as the mortality in cases o1perated uIpon during the first day of thle attacl. l3n1t, apart fromii early operation, the adoption of Fowler's po0.sition and tlhe adminlistrationi of large quiantities of salinie have proved invaluable, and lhave savcel many lives. -1 I stpport of this onic cani l)oit to the miiortality of general peritonitis, -whi-ch' lhas fallen froml 76 to 20 1)er cenit. J Loanid, etc., -L]ondon, WF., Innle 14thl. IIUGJII LJETI!I.