We present updated studies on the chiral phase transition in $N_{f}=2+1$ QCD. Simulations have been carried out using Highly Improved Staggered Quarks (HISQ) on lattices with temporal extent $N_{\tau} = 6$ at vanishing baryon chemical potential. We updated our previous study \cite{Ding:2015pmg} by extending the temperature window from (140 MeV, 150 MeV) to (140 MeV, 170 MeV). The strange quark mass was chosen to its physical value $m_{s}^{\mathrm{phy}}$, and five values of two degenerate light quark masses are varied from $m_{s}^{\mathrm{phy}}/80$ to $m_{s}^{\mathrm{phy}}/20$ which correspond to a Goldstone pion mass ranging from 80 MeV to 160 MeV in the continuum limit. The universal scaling behaviour of the QCD chiral phase transition is investigated by studying the temperature and quark mass dependences of chiral condensates and chiral susceptibilities. The window of criticality compared to previous studies is also discussed.


Semantic-enabled service discovery aggravating the load of service register and decrease the performance of service matching while increasing the recall and precision of service discovery. To decrease the load of register and the performance of service discovery, a two layered P2P model, is introduced in this article. Based on the model, a service discovery algorithm composed of two stages and three steps is proposed. The model is suitable for open environment with multiple coexistent ontologies. And experimental results show that given appropriate setting, the model makes a tradeoff between recall and responding time during service discovery. In addition, the model decreases the mean load of registers efficiently while holding Recall.


Successful management of invasive weeds will require active attempts to prevent new introductions, vigilant detection of nascent populations and persistent efforts to eradicate the worst invaders. To achieve these objectives, invasion ecology offers five groups of complementary approaches. (i) Stochastic approaches allow probabilistic predictions about potential invaders based on initial population size, residence time and number of introduction attempts. (ii) Empirical taxon-specific approaches are based on previously documented invasions of particular taxa. (iii) Evaluations of the biological characters of non-invasive taxa and successful invaders give rise either to general or to habitat-specific screening procedures. (iv) Evaluation of environmental compatibility helps to predict whether a particular plant taxon can invade specific habitats. (v) Experimental approaches attempt to tease apart intrinsic and extrinsic factors underlying invasion success. An emerging theory of plant invasiveness based on biological characters has resulted in several rather robust predictions which are presented in this paper.


In0.87Ga0.13As/InAs0.70P0.30 double heterostructure light emitting diodes were grown on InP substrates using strain relaxed buffers by molecular beam epitaxy. The InAsP buffer incorporates a compositional step-back to reduce the threading dislocation density in the active region. Efficient electroluminescence at 2.7 µm was obtained at room temperature. A strong absorption is observed in the emission spectrum due to the presence of water vapour.


Starting with the fact that the great majority of injuries of the cervical spine are in the nature of a "whip lash," and accepting the meaning of the term "whip lash" as a hyperflexion followed by spontaneous extensor recoil, the nature of a great variety of injuries of this section of the spinal column becomes understandable. The extreme mobility of the cervical spine, its known potential for pure dislocation unaccompanied by fracture and its wide anatomic departure from other sections of the spinal column seem to have made specific diagnosis of lesions in this section difficult. A number of important accretions of anatomic interpretation, diagnostic technic and therapy have occurred quite recently. Correlation of these new facts has served to clarify both the diagnosis and the treatment as well as to improve the prognosis. TYPES OF INJURIES Two degrees of injury are immediately separated by the severity of the accident.


Polymorphisms have been identified in several DNA damage repair genes. These polymorphisms may effect DNA repair capacity and modulate asthma susceptibility. In this study, we aimed to determine the two polymorphisms in DNA repair gene, x-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1), in a sample of Turkish patients with asthma, and evaluate their association with asthma development. We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to analyze XRCC1 Arg194Trp and XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphisms in 116 patients with asthma and in 180 disease-free controls. Our data showed a positive association between the polymorphisms of codons 194 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.97, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.06-3.66, and p = 0.03 for Arg/Trp genotype) and 399 (OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.12-3.13, and p = 0.02 for Arg/Gln genotype, and OR = 2.59, 95% CI = 1.24-5.43, and p = 0.01 for Gln/Gln genotype) and asthma risk. No statistically significant difference was found for the allelic and genotypic distributions of the polymorphisms in XRCC1 gene between mild and moderate asthmatic patients. A combined analysis of the effect of XRCC1 codons 194 and 399 revealed the highest risk (OR = 4.17, 95% CI = 1.77-9.83, and p = 0.001) for carriers of the polymorphic alleles in both of these codons. These results suggest that the risk of asthma may be associated with DNA repair mechanisms, and understanding these mechanisms will help identify individuals at increased risk of developing asthma and should lead to improved treatment of asthma.


Various health-care applications such as assisted living, fall detection, etc., require modeling of user behavior through Human Activity Recognition (HAR). Such applications demand characterization of insights from multiple resource-constrained user devices using machine learning techniques for effective personalized activity monitoring. On-device Federated Learning proves to be an effective approach for distributed and collaborative machine learning. However, there are a variety of challenges in addressing statistical (non-IID data) and model heterogeneities across users. In addition, in this paper, we explore a new challenge of interest -- to handle heterogeneities in labels (activities) across users during federated learning. To this end, we propose a framework for federated label-based aggregation, which leverages overlapping information gain across activities using Model Distillation Update. We also propose that federated transfer of model scores is sufficient rather than model weight transfer from device to server. Empirical evaluation with the Heterogeneity Human Activity Recognition (HHAR) dataset (with four activities for effective elucidation of results) on Raspberry Pi 2 indicates an average deterministic accuracy increase of at least ~11.01%, thus demonstrating the on-device capabilities of our proposed framework.


Implementation of suitable methodology is a crucial feature of any quality research studies irrespective of the discipline with which they are related. The present book provides the basic of straightforward and inexpensive investigation method with the help of live case study so that world wide researchers may become familiar with the art of using Field data base method of research. In the field of academic research, the academicians are facing a lot of problems due to limitation of the various sources required for the research. Number of technical papers and research reports has addressed various methods and tools for the research. However, it is impossible for those who are interested to be aware for the simple and easy methods of research. The author has focused the heuristic approach of research which helps the universal researchers to carry out their research in a very easy and efficient way. The FDBM helps to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the existing field under investigation and takes the corrective action for improvements. This book explains the various steps involved in the FDBM approach with the help of live industrial case study of machining industry.


Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a staple food and income crop in eastern Africa, especially within the Uganda-Rwanda boarder region where it constitutes a major component of food security. Unfortunately, bush beans are severely affected by frequent water-logging which persists over a considerable period of the year. In spite of this, farmers have continued to cultivate bush bean though with miserable yields. The study aimed to identify farmers' indigenous coping mechanisms to the climatic predicament, as a foundation for nurturing and subsequently designing appropriate management strategies for improved bean production in the region. A household survey was conducted in Kisoro district, in a location representative of the ecological conditions of Uganda-Rwanda region. 96 respondents were selected randomly at village level from a list of 500 households provided by the extension workers. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that farmers possess vital coping mechanisms including construction of ridges, fertiliser application and chemical control of pests and diseases to expedite plant growth, and construction of drainage channels. It is clear that farmers' indigenous coping mechanisms need further nurturing and refining to improve their performance in dealing with water-logging crisis in the region.


Ensemble Kalman--Bucy filters (EnKBFs) are an important tool in Data Assimilation that aim to approximate the posterior distribution for continuous time filtering problems using an ensemble of interacting particles. In this work we extend a previously derived unifying framework for consistent representations of the posterior distribution to correlated observation noise and use these representations to derive an EnKBF suitable for this setting as a constant gain approximation of these optimal filters. Existence and uniqueness results for both the EnKBF and its mean field limit are provided. The existence and uniqueness of solutions to its limiting McKean-Vlasov equation does not seem to be covered by the existing literature. In the correlated noise case the evolution of the ensemble depends also on the pseudoinverse of its empirical covariance matrix, which has to be controlled for global well posedness. These bounds may also be of independent interest. Finally the convergence to the mean field limit is proven. The results can also be extended to other versions of EnKBFs.


Buildings and vegetation alter the wind and pollutant transport in urban environments. This comparative study investigates the role of orientation and shape of perimeter blocks on the dispersion and ventilation of traffic-related air pollutants, and the street-level concentrations along a planned city boulevard. A large-eddy simulation (LES) model PALM is employed over a highly detailed representation of the urban domain including street trees and forested areas. Air pollutants are represented by massless and passive particles (non-reactive gases), which are released with traffic-related emission rates. High-resolution simulations for four different city-block-structures are conducted over a 8.2 km 2 domain under two contrasting inflow conditions with neutral and stable atmospheric stratification corresponding the general and wintry meteorological conditions. Variation in building height together with multiple cross streets along the boulevard improves ventilation, resulting in 7–9% lower mean concentrations at pedestrian level. The impact of smaller scale variability in building shape was negligible. Street trees further complicate the flow and dispersion. Notwithstanding the surface roughness, atmospheric stability controls the concentration levels with higher values under stably stratified inflow. Little traffic emissions are transported to courtyards. The results provide urban planners direct information to reduce air pollution by proper structural layout of perimeter blocks.


Learning with incomplete data remains challenging in many real-world applications especially when the data is high-dimensional and dynamic. Many imputation based algorithms have been proposed to handle with incomplete data, where these algorithms use statistics of the historical information to remedy the missing parts. However, these methods merely use the structural information existed in the data, which are very helpful for sharing between the complete entries and the missing ones. For example, in traffic system, some group information and temporal smoothness exist in the data structure. In this paper, we propose to incorporate these structural information and develop a Structural Feature Leaning method for learning with InComplete data (SFLIC). The SFLIC model adopts a fused Lasso based regularizer and a group Lasso style regularizer to enlarge the data sharing along both the temporal smoothness level and the feature group level to fill the gap where the data entries are missing. The proposed SFLIC model is non-smooth function according to the model parameters, and we adopt the smoothing proximal gradient (SPG) method to seek for an efficient solution. We evaluate our model on both synthetic and real-world highway traffic datasets. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


Tuning the electronic structure of a π-conjugated polymer from the responsive side chains is generally done to get desired optoelectronic properties, and it would be very fruitful when light is used as an exciting tool that can also affect the backbone chain conformation. For this purpose, polythiophene- g-poly-[ N-(6-methyluracilyl)- N, N-dimethylamino chloride]ethyl methacrylate (PTDU) is synthesized. On exposure to diffuse sunlight, the uracil moieties of the grafted chains cause the absorption maximum of PTDU solution to show gradual blue shift of 87 nm and a gradual blue shift of 46 nm in the emission maximum, quenching its fluorescence with time. These effects occur specifically at the absorption range of polythiophene (PT) chromophore on direct exposure of light of different wavelengths, and the optimum wavelength is found to be 420 nm. Impedance study suggests a decrease in charge transfer resistance upon exposure because of conformational change of PTDU. Theoretical study indicates that on exposure to visible light, uracil moieties move toward the backbone to facilitate photoinduced electron transfer between the PT and the uracil, attributing to the variation in optoelectronic properties. Morphological and light-scattering studies exhibit a decrease in particle size because of coiling of the PT backbone and squeezing of the grafted chain on light exposure. The transparent orange-colored PTDU solution becomes hazy with a hike in emission intensity on addition of sodium halides and becomes reversibly transparent or hazy on heating or cooling. The screening of cationic centers of PTDU by varying halide anion concentration tunes the phase transition temperature. Thus, the light-induced variation in the backbone conformation is responsible for tuning the optoelectronic properties and regulates the thermos-responsiveness of the PTDU solution in the presence of halide ions.


Tenascin C (Tnc) is an alternatively spliced, multimodular extracellular matrix glycoprotein present in the ventricular zone of the developing brain. Pax6-deficient small eye (sey) mouse mutants show an altered Tnc expression pattern. Here, we investigated the expression of Tnc isoforms in neural stem/progenitor cells and their regulation by the paired-box transcription factor Pax6. Neural stem/progenitor cells cultured as neurospheres strongly expressed Tnc on the protein level. The Tnc isoform expression in neural stem/progenitor cells was analyzed by reverse transcriptase-PCR and dot blot Southern hybridization. In total, 20 different Tnc isoforms were detected in neurospheres derived from embryonic fore-brain cell suspensions. The Tnc isoform containing the fibronectin type III domains A1A4BD is novel and might be neural stem/progenitor cell-specific. Transient overexpression of Pax6 in neurospheres of the medial ganglionic eminence did not alter the total Tnc mRNA expression level but showed a pronounced regulative effect on different Tnc isoforms. The larger Tnc isoforms containing four, five, and six additional alternatively spliced fibronectin type III domains were up-regulated, whereas the small Tnc isoforms without any or with one additional domain were down-regulated. Thus, Pax6 is a homeodomain protein that also modulates the splicing machinery. We conclude that the combinatorial code of Tnc isoform expression in the neural stem/progenitor cell is complex and regulated by Pax6. These findings suggest a functional significance for individual Tnc isoforms in neural stem/progenitor cells.


Moscow's intervention in Ukraine since early 2014 marks a dangerous development in Russian foreign policy that has potentially significant implications for international security. Russia's actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine are in direct violation of clearly defined norms of international law. In proclaiming a right to arbitrarily intervene overseas to safeguard the rights of ethnic Russians overseas, Putin's aggressive new foreign policy sets a dangerous precedent for other countries that may wish to use force to suit their own geostrategic aspirations. Furthermore, given the security fears in Eastern Europe that have arisen from Putin's involvement in Ukraine, it is also necessary for the Transatlantic Community to adopt a firm response in underlining international opposition to Russia's actions. Yet, it is necessary to avoid viewing Putin's Russia as an imminent threat to the security of Eastern Europe that has to be confronted. An analysis of the current situation in Eastern Europe using the theoretical framework of the security dilemma suggests that confronting Russia at this stage may cause an already serious situation to escalate further. Rather, it is necessary for the Transatlantic Community to respond to Russia's involvement in Ukraine with a mixture of firmness and strategic restraint.


This paper addresses the issue of integrable structure in a modified melting crystal model of topological string theory on the resolved conifold. The partition function can be expressed as the vacuum expectation value of an operator on the Fock space of 2D complex free fermion fields. The quantum torus algebra of fermion bilinears behind this expression is shown to have an extended set of 'shift symmetries'. They are used to prove that the partition function (deformed by external potentials) is essentially a tau function of the 2D Toda hierarchy. This special solution of the 2D Toda hierarchy can also be characterized by a factorization problem of Z×Z?> matrices. The associated Lax operators turn out to be quotients of first-order difference operators. This implies that the solution of the 2D Toda hierarchy in question is actually a solution of the Ablowitz–Ladik (equivalently, the relativistic Toda) hierarchy. As a byproduct, the shift symmetries are shown to be related to matrix-valued quantum dilogarithmic functions.


Nuytinck et al, 1 on the basis of a review of autopsy specimens and reports in 35 trauma cases, hypothesize that "whole-body inflammation" indexed by increased organ weight and intraorgan accumulation of neutrophils represents a preclinical stage of multiple organ failure (MOF). The attractiveness of such a unitary theory of the origin of adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and See also p 1519. MOF is enhanced by the investigators' claim that the greatest increases in organ weight and the most pronounced signs of whole-body inflammation were found in those patients who died of ARDS, hypovolemic shock, and MOF. Unfortunately, the absence of certain data prevents acceptance of the investigators' hypothesis and leaves open to serious question the conclusions they have drawn. Of greatest concern is the absence of a contemporaneous control group. Surely there were patients in the Netherlands in whom heart attacks caused sudden death during the period spanned


Abstract The effects of a chemical drying agent on in situ rate and extent of disappearance of DM, NDF, and ADF of alfalfa were investigated. Two field replicates of first- and second-cutting alfalfa (early bloom) were treated at harvest with a potassium carbonate-sodium carbonate based chemical drying agent (7.9 kg/ha). Samples were separated into leaf, stem, and whole plant fractions and artificially dried. Treatments were arranged as a 2 × 2 × 3 factorial and analyzed as a completely randomized block design. Treatment had a greater effect on initial nutrient composition, compared with untreated, for all fractions in second cutting alfalfa. In situ DM disappearance was not affected by treatment in the first cutting for any fraction. In first-cutting leaves, NDF and ADF in situ disappearance was increased by treatment. Rate of DM and ADF disappearance for treated second cutting leaves and stems decreased compared with untreated samples. Lag time associated with NDF disappearance increased in second-cutting leaves and stems treated with drying agent. Potentially digestible ADF and lag time increased in second-cutting stem, and lag time for the whole plant decreased. Drying agent application had different effects on nutrient composition and digestibility of first and second cuttings and on leaf and stem fractions of alfalfa.


Management of carcinoma of the prostate has traditionally been guided by digital rectal examination, and by laboratory data such as serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level and histopathologic tumor grade. The introduction of the endorectal coil has improved the ability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to contribute to staging and treatment planning of prostate cancer, especially in cases of confined or locally invasive disease. Exciting research in the fields of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and MR-guided intervention of the prostate may soon expand the role of MRI in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. This article reviews current MRI techniques, the MRI features of prostate cancer, the role and efficacy of MRI in prostate carcinoma staging, and the current and future uses of MR spectroscopy and MR-guided prostate brachytherapy.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the changes in mean skin temperature and the energy expenditure induced by drinking coffee containing 4 mg of caffeine/kg body weight. Twelve healthy, weight-stable subjects were studied (five males, seven females; mean age +/- s.d., 25.3 +/- 3.3 years; BMI 22.5 +/- 3.1). Energy expenditure (EE) was measured by open-circuit indirect calorimetry, and skin temperature was determined with thermometric probes applied to the four body regions indicated by Ramanathan (chest, arm, thigh, calf). The calorimetric and thermometric measurements were carried out for 120 min with the participants lying down quietly. A significant correlation was found between the total thermogenic responses (net responses) and the temperature changes between 90 and 120 min from the coffee intake. Multiple regression analysis using mean EE after coffee intake as the dependent variable, and mean skin temperature and body weight as the independent variables yields the following equation: EE (kcal/min/m2) = -1.44 + 0.052 (mean skin temperature) + 0.004 (body weight). (r = 0.71 and P = 0.01) Our results indicate that small interindividual differences in mean skin temperature could explain energy expenditure differences in subjects with the same body weight, body composition and physical activity. This, in turn, could help explain variations in proneness to obesity.


22 nephrectomy specimens of renal allografts in chronic rejection after 3 months to 96 months were studied immunohistologically. The various cell types in the arterial wall were characterised with specific antibodies against different cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system, against smooth muscle cells, and for differentiating lymphatic cells. In addition, the metabolism of lipoproteins was studied using different antibodies against several apolipoproteins. According to our results, subendothelial plaques of foam cells consist of macrophages in foamy transformation. In the stage of intimal fibrosis, smooth muscle cells are more prominent. Lymphatic infiltration consists almost exclusively of T lymphocytes. Apolipoprotein analysis reveals deposits of Apolipoproteins A1 and B, mostly extracellular. On the whole, these results show that not only immunologic factors are involved in the reaction of the arterial wall in chronic transplant arteriopathy, but that like in atherosclerosis, disorders of lipoprotein metabolism, probably due to endothelial dysfunction, play an important role.


Intussusception commonly affects children in the first year of life but it may rarely also appear in utero. We report a newborn with delayed passing of meconium, repeated vomiting, and abdominal distension in the first week of life. After radiological diagnosis of a small bowel obstruction, the newborn underwent an exploratory laparotomy where an ileal atresia proximal to an intussusception was found. After resection of the affected bowel, an end-to-end anastomosis was possible. The postoperative period was uneventful. This case shows that intrauterine intussusception can be a rare cause for ileal atresia. Fast diagnosis and effective interdisciplinary team work are essential for a satisfying outcome.


Learning English is not an easy feat. We used to travel long distances to learn English from the best English teachers when we were younger. We may now study English without leaving our homes by using the internet; all we need is reliable internet access. As we all know, there are several advantages to studying English online, yet there are drawbacks if we do so incorrectly. I utilized a quantitative research technique to identify the advantages and disadvantages of online English learning. First, I used Google Forms to determine the most pertinent 15 questions for participants, which took approximately three months, and I obtained 95 responses out of 100 surveys on the benefits and drawbacks of online English learning. By extensively investigating the replies, we can appropriately establish the weightiness of the pros and cons of studying English on the internet. Although technology and multimedia make it easier to study English, there are advantages and problems due to poor internet usage. According to research, there are a plethora of advantages we may reap if we apply the right implications of using internet resources to learn any language, not only English. Without a doubt, if we exploited the internet in the wrong way, there would be a slew of bad consequences for our society as a whole.


Attempts by the US Air Force, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, and Board of Certi® cation in Professional Ergonomics in the US, the Harmonization of European Training Programs for the Ergonomics Profession project group in Europe, and the International Ergonomics Association to determine the scope of ergonomics and its technology are reviewed. Based on these data, and the author's own observations of ergonomics internationally, the technology of ergonomics is de® ned as human± system interface technology (HSIT). HSIT is proposed to have ® ve identi® able components. Each of these components is described, including a brief history of its development. Because it has developed a unique technology, the author concludes that ergonomics has evolved into a unique, stand-alone discipline that can be de® ned most directly by its technology. Further, that educating the general public about HSIT will increase public understanding of the nature and scope of ergonomics and its potential for enhancing organizational performance and the quality of human life.


Systems theory was presented as a potential tool for integrating scriptural and empirical understandings of humankind, since its basic concepts appear inherently in Scripture and also utilize natural levels of organization in the world, for example, physical, chemical, biological, familial, social, and cultural systems levels. Antecedents of systems theory were briefly reviewed; major concepts were defined with examples provided. The call of Abram by God to leave his land, kindred, and father's house was then analyzed from a systems theory perspective, contrasting the cultural religious milieu from which he came with the changes which became evident in his life space as an outflow from his commitment to Jehovah. While the ancient Near-East pantheon was created by and dependent upon humans, the emerging Jewish culture became increasingly dependent upon and shaped by its religious belief system, based upon the Lord's covenant relationship with his people. Abram, by making himself open and vulnerable to God, participated in a new system which included the Lord as an essential component, making true change possible for himself and his descendents. It was suggested that the elements of the Covenant can be reframed from a systems perspective as well.


ABSTRACT Financial statements are prepared and presented to reflect an organisation's financial position and financial performance and to provide useful information for decision-making (IASB, 2018a). The underlying accounting policies and related notes on biological assets must be presented in such a way that users can understand the transactions and valuation considerations that affect their performance (IASB, 2018a). Financial statement valuations and disclosures are informed by the requirements of the prescribed International Accounting Standards, which presumes that users "have a reasonable knowledge of business and economic activities and accounting and have a willingness to study the information with reasonable diligence" (IASB, 2018a). The accounting standards thus urges reporters to consider the usefulness of the information disclosed in the financial statements, as it may influence the decisions of users (IASB, 2018a). In systematically documenting the decision-enhancing disclosure for biological assets as required by users, the reporters have a comprehensive guideline to ensure that the disclosure is objective and a more accurate presentation of the real value. A consideration of the expectations of reporters may also address the general biological asset valuation challenges experienced in the industry. The detailed disclosures might attract investments, enhance market comparability and assist the users of the related financial information to understand the performance of biological assets.


Cardiac transcription factors orchestrate a regulatory network controlling cardiovascular development. Isl1, a LIM-homeodomain transcription factor, acts as a key player in multiple organs during embryonic development. Its crucial roles in cardiovascular development have been elucidated by extensive studies, especially as a marker gene for the second heart field progenitors. Here, we summarize the roles of Isl1 in cardiovascular development and function, and outline its cellular and molecular modes of action, thus providing insights for the molecular basis of cardiovascular diseases.


The paper is devoted to a reaction-diffusion equation in an infinite two-dimensional strip with nonlinear boundary conditions. The existence of travelling waves is proved in the bistable case by the Leray-Schauder method. It is based on a topological degree for elliptic problems in unbounded domains and on a priori estimates of solutions.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to clarify the relationship between the oral intake function and functional status, as well as to determine the aspects of functional status potentially predicting the effects of dysphagia rehabilitation in the maintenance stage, in elder outpatients.

METHODS
This study was conducted in a clinic, specialised in rehabilitation of patients with dysphagia. The participants were 93 non-tube-fed patients 65 years of age or older. The participants were scheduled to undergo the initial examination for oral intake function and functional status, and then to receive dysphagia rehabilitation for 1 year. After rehabilitation period, oral intake function was re-evaluated, and the elements of functional status potentially related to the effects of dysphagia rehabilitation were determined.

RESULTS
It was found that the lower the participants' oral intake function levels, the higher the prevalence of reduced parameters of functional status. After 1-year dysphagia rehabilitation, the oral intake function was maintained or improved in 70 (75.3%) participants, but had diminished in 23 (24.7%). Our analysis revealed that participants with higher Vitality Index scores and MMSE at the time of initial examination were significantly more likely to show maintained or improved oral intake function at 1 year (odds ratio[OR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14-2.71; OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.28, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
It became apparent that the lower the oral intake function level at the initial examination, the higher the prevalence of reduced multidimensional functional status. Mental function was found to predict the effects of dysphagia rehabilitation in the maintenance stage.


Section 5 of the Green Chain Walk: Thames Barrier to Oxleas Wood (4.5 miles - 2 hours 10 minutes). Includes route map, directions and other resources.


The reduction in Ca2+ concentration during diastole and relaxation occurs differently in normal hearts and in hypertrophied hearts secondary to pressure overload. We have studied some possible molecular mechanisms underlying these differences by examining the function of the sarcoplasmic reticulum and the expression of the gene encoding its Ca2(+)-ATPase in rat hearts with mild and severe compensatory hypertrophy induced by abdominal aortic constriction. Twelve sham-operated rats and 31 operated rats were studied 1 month after surgery. Eighteen animals exhibited mild hypertrophy (left ventricular wt/body wt less than 2.6) and 13 animals severe hypertrophy (left ventricular wt/body wt greater than 2.6). During hypertrophy we observed a decline in the function of the sarcoplasmic reticulum as assessed by the oxalate-stimulated Ca2+ uptake of homogenates of the left ventricle. Values decreased from 12.1 +/- 1.2 nmol Ca2+/mg protein/min in sham-operated rats to 9.1 +/- 1.5 and 6.7 +/- 1.1 in rats with mild and severe hypertrophy, respectively (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.001, respectively, vs. shams). This decrease was accompanied by a parallel reduction in the number of functionally active CA2(+)-ATPase molecules, as determined by the level of Ca2(+)-dependent phosphorylated intermediate: 58.8 +/- 7.4 and 48.1 +/- 13.5 pmol P/mg protein in mild and severe hypertrophy, respectively, compared with 69.7 +/- 8.2 in shams (p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.01, respectively, vs. shams). Using S1 nuclease mapping, we observed that the Ca2(+)-ATPase messenger RNA (mRNA) from sham-operated and hypertrophied hearts was identical. Finally, the relative level of expression of the Ca2(+)-ATPase gene was studied by dot blot analysis at both the mRNA and protein levels using complementary DNA clones and a monoclonal antibody specific to the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2(+)-ATPase. In mild hypertrophy, the concentrations of Ca2(+)-ATPase mRNA and protein in the left ventricle were unchanged when compared with shams (mRNA, 93.8 +/- 10.6% vs. sham, NS; protein, 105.5 +/- 14% vs. sham, NS). in severe hypertrophy, the concentration of Ca2(+)-ATPase mRNA decreased to 68.7 +/- 12.9% and that of protein to 80.1 +/- 15.5% (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.05, respectively), whereas the total amount of mRNA and enzyme per left ventricle was either unchanged or slightly increased. The slow velocity of relaxation of severely hypertrophied heart can be at least partially explained by the absence of an increase in the expression of the Ca2(+)-ATPase gene and by the relative diminution in the density of the Ca2+ pumps.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Environmental studies for mining of deep-sea polymetallic nodules were initiated to evaluate the possible impacts of mining on benthic environment and develop protocols for environmental studies, to fulfill one of the obligations of the country as a Pioneer Investor under the UN Law of the Sea. The studies have lead to the generation of significant results development of an environmental database as well as capacity building in the field of deep seabed mining.


The paper shows how an incremental tactical generator can be constructed based on the incremental parsing framework described in Dynamic Syntax (DS)(Kempson et al., 2001), without adding a generator-specific vocabulary or intermediate levels of representation. The resulting generator is defined purely in terms of the parsing process, together with a notion of tree subsumption. This is shown to have various advantages including easy self-monitoring and psycholinguistic plausibility. A simple Prolog implementation is described, together with various possible improvements in efficiency.


Consider a graph with a rotation system, namely, for every vertex, a circular ordering of the incident edges. Given such a graph, an \emph{angle cover} maps every vertex to a pair of consecutive edges in the ordering -- an \emph{angle} -- such that each edge participates in at least one such pair. We show that any graph of maximum degree 4 admits an angle cover, give a poly-time algorithm for deciding if a graph with no degree-3 vertices has an angle-cover, and prove that, given a graph of maximum degree 5, it is NP-hard to decide whether it admits an angle cover. We also consider extensions of the angle cover problem where every vertex selects a fixed number $a>1$ of angles or where an angle consists of more than two consecutive edges. We show an application of angle covers to the problem of deciding if the 2-blowup of a planar graph has isomorphic thickness 2.


The incidence and risk factors of symptomatic and asymptomatic hyponatremia were investigated in 94 patients who underwent transsphenoidal surgery and serum sodium level monitoring between January 2002 and December 2006. The records were retrospectively reviewed to determine the incidence and risk factors (age and sex, tumor size, endocrinologic findings) of hyponatremia. Postoperatively, the serum sodium levels of the patients were measured at least once within 2 or 3 days. Hyponatremia was found in 17 of the 94 patients, of whom 7 became symptomatic. The mean sodium level of symptomatic patients with hyponatremia at diagnosis was 123.5 mEq/l, compared with 129.8 mEq/l of asymptomatic patients. The serum sodium levels began to fall on mean postoperative day 7 and reached nadir on mean day 8. All 17 patients with hyponatremia were treated with mild fluid restriction. Four symptomatic patients with severe hyponatremia were treated with 3% hypertonic saline infusion in addition to fluid restriction. One symptomatic patient with severe hyponatremia was treated with fluid restriction only. All patients recovered within 5 days of management. Sex, tumor type, and tumor size did not correlate with development of delayed hyponatremia, but patients aged >/=50 years were more likely to develop hyponatremia. Postoperative hyponatremia after transsphenoidal surgery is more common than previously reported and may lead to fatal complications. Therefore, all patients should undergo serum electrolyte level monitoring regularly for at least 1 or 2 weeks after transsphenoidal surgery.


Clauser, Creasy A. M.S.B.M.E., Purdue University, May 2015. In Vivo Tibial Loading of Healthy and Osteolathrytic Mice. Major Professor: Joseph M. Wallace. Although the in vivo tibial loading model has been used to study the bone formation response of mice to exercise, little emphasis has been placed on the translation of architectural and compositional modifications to changes in mechanical behaviour. The goals of the studies discussed below were to investigate the mechanical response in both healthy and osteolathrytic mice to this loading model and to determine the dose-depended effects of strain level on these properties. In two separately designed studies, strain levels ranging from 1700 to 2400 μ were applied to the right tibiae of 8 week old female C57BL/6 mice, while the left tibiae were used as non-loaded control. The first study consisted of loading both PBSand BAPN-injected mice to 1750 μ which resulted in little bone formation but some tissue-level changes in mechanical analyses and an improvement in fatigue-resistance in terms of microdamage accumulation. The second study loaded healthy mice to three strain levels (1700, 2050, and 2400 μ ). Results indicated that the low end of the strain range did not engender a robust formation response, while the high end of the strain range resulted in a woven bone response in half of the animals in that group. Future studies will focus on the mid-strain level of 2050 μ which induced both significant architectural and mechanical improvements.


The guidelines for the use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring published from Japanese Circulation Society in 2010 was briefly overviewed. The accuracy of devices now used in clinical practice in Japan is of sufficient grade. The thresholds for hypertension diagnosis based on ABPM have been determined with international concensus. The evaluation of ABPM data and the clinical indications for ABPM are suggested. Particularly, white-coat hypertension, masked hypertension, nocturnal hypertension, morning hypertension and diurnal blood pressure variation are conditions for which ABPM is very useful for the detection, treatment decision and follow-up. Hypertension treatment would be very much improved by the introduction of ABPM into clinical practice.


Given the emphasis placed on technology by the Department of Health and the recent high profile Topol review, the role of healthcare data is set to become highly prevalent in the coming years. To bridge the gap between the traditional clinical-academic and statistician roles in translational research, the skillsets of interdisciplinary 'clinical informaticians' are required. This new role requires staff to be conversant in high level programming languages, such as R, python and SQL (the lingua franca of data science), whilst retaining their domain-specific knowledge and an active academic presence within their clinical specialty. To assess the feasibility of upskilling clinical staff into clinical informatician roles, we present case studies of clinicians with little-to-no formal experience of programming, statistics, and data science, who undertook this transition with the Digital Research Environment (DRE). In particular, this transition required a grounding in database extraction, data manipulation, and statistical modelling, replicating the workflow expected in a data-rich research setting. Each case study suggested that online content (tutorials, articles, open source code) provided a solid background in basic data science and functional programming. The benefits of pursuing open-source languages were most keenly observed in question and answer forums, tutorials, and open sessions, with full-text articles and books freely available. Furthermore, paid online courses were abundant, providing high-quality methodological workflows for all aspects of data science and analysis, including advanced topics such as machine learning and deep learning. We found that within 18 months, the staff were able to integrate typical data science workflows within their research programmes. The combination of clinical knowledge and data science will allow the maximum possible value to be extracted from future clinical studies and databases that host increasingly rich EPR datasets, thus further supporting evidence-based improvements to the standard of care in paediatrics.


A formalism based on non-local dielectric response theory and Green function techniques has been developed to describe the interaction of quantum well excitons with an evanescent optical wave of a planar waveguide. Reflection spectra of a system in which a quantum well placed behind a dielectric interface at which light experiences total internal reflection have been calculated. It is shown that the spectral feature corresponding to the exciton resonance becomes much more pronounced if the angle of incidence is close to the critical angle of total internal reflection. The concept of a generalized Snell law has been applied to provide simplification of the formalism.


A class of quantum channels and completely positive maps (CPMs) are introduced and investigated. These, which we call subspace preserving (SP) CPMs has, in the case of trace preserving CPMs, a simple interpretation as those which preserve probability weights on a given orthogonal sum decomposition of the Hilbert space of a quantum system. Several equivalent characterizations of SP CPMs are proved and an explicit construction of all SP CPMs, is provided. For a subclass of the SP channels a construction in terms of joint unitary evolution with an ancilla system, is presented. Submitted to: J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. PACS numbers: 03.65.-w, 03.65.Yz, 03.65.Fd


We investigate, assess, and suggest possibilities for a measurement of the local spin susceptibility of a conducting low-dimensional electron system. The basic setup of the experiment we envisage is a source-probe one. Locally induced spin density (e.g., by a magnetized atomic force microscope tip) extends in the medium according to its spin susceptibility. The induced magnetization can be detected as a dipolar magnetic field, for instance, by an ultrasensitive nitrogen-vacancy center based detector, from which the spatial structure of the spin susceptibilitycanbededuced.Wefindthatone-dimensionalsystems,suchassemiconductingnanowiresorcarbon nanotubes, are expected to yield a measurable signal. The signal in a two-dimensional electron gas is weaker, though materials with a high enough g-factor (such as InGaAs) seem promising for successful measurements.


The doubly magic N = Z nucleus Ni has been investigated with two fusion-evaporation reactions; Ca(Si, 3α)Ni at a beam energy of 122MeV and Si(S, 2p2n)Ni at 130MeV. To detect γrays in coincidence with evaporated particles the Ge-detector array Gammasphere was used in conjunction with the charged-particle detector system, Microball and a 1π neutron detector array. Results include a significantly extended level scheme of Ni, which is compared to large-scale shell model calculations in the fp shell. The experimental and theoretical results agree to a large extent, with one notable exception; the theoretical model fails to predict the proper sequence of the yrast and yrare 8 states. PACS. 21.60.Cs Shell model – 23.20.En Angular distribution and correlation measurements – 23.20.Lv γ transitions and level energies – 27.40.+z 39 ≤ A ≤ 58


SUMMARY: Eighteen cariogenic streptococcal strains identified as members of Streptococcus mutans (Clarke, 1924) were compared on the basis of biochemical tests, mannitol-i-phosphate dehydrogenases, DNA base compositions and DNA base sequence homologies. Some slight biochemical differences were found which correlated with the large differences in DNA base composition and sequence heterology which exist among these strains. All strains could be assigned to one of four groups based on these biochemical and genetic differences. Furthermore, these four groups correlated with four serological groups described by Bratthall (1970). It is proposed to divide S. mutans into four subspecies: S. mutans subsp. mutans, the type subspecies, has a guanine-cytosine (G-C) of 36 to 38 mol % and belongs to Bratthall serological group c; S. mutans subsp. rattus subsp. nov. has 41 to 43 mol % G-C, belongs to Bratthall group b, and can be distinguished from the other subspecies by its production of ammonia from arginine; S. mutans subsp. cricetus subsp. nov. has 42 to 44 mol % G-C, belongs to Bratthall group a, and can be distinguished by its lack of growth in air: S. mutans subsp. sobrinus subsp. nov. has 44 to 46 mol % G-C, belongs to Bratthall group d, and can be distinguished by its failure to ferment raffinose.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Molecular markers that identify clinically meaningful, biologically based, subsets of PC are lacking. This results in inefficient clinical trial designs and suboptimal therapy selection off-protocol. The androgen receptor (AR)-negative small cell PC (SCPC) is an often-unrecognized morphological variant of the disease found on repeat biopsies during the castrate-resistant (CR) progression of PC. Its presence predicts for a poor response to hormonal therapies, a distinct clinical behavior and a short survival. Characteristic clinical features of SCPC are frequently present in patients with CRPC, constituting a clinical syndrome termed anaplastic PC. We hypothesized that the anaplastic PC share underlying biology with SCPC, irrespective of morphology. Preclinical studies show that SCPC are characterized by loss of tumor suppressors and AR signaling, as well as overexpression of mitotic genes and proneural transcription factors. To test our hypothesis we used immunohistochemistry to analyze the expression of markers in these pathways, in tumor biopsies from chemotherapy-naive men with anaplastic PC participating in a prospective phase II clinical trial. To date we have analyzed 6 markers in 25 samples (6 with pure or mixed SCPC morphology) from prostate biopsies (n=10), transurethral resections of prostate tumors (n=4), bone marrow or bone biopsies (n=9), lymph node (n=1) or brain (n=1). Results are shown in [Table 1][1].

View this table:

Table 1.
Immunohistochemistry Anaplastic PC

Of the 17 samples that had ≤10% RB1+ cells, 10 had ≤10% AR+ cells and 9 had >10% UBE2C+ cells. Of the 11 samples that had ≤10% AR+ cells, 10 also had ≤10% RB1+ cells and 6 had >10% UBE2C+ cells. These data support our hypothesis that the anaplastic prostate carcinomas are characterized by loss of tumor suppressors and overexpression of mitotic genes. Updated results in additional samples and of additional markers will be presented.

Citation Format: Ana M. Aparicio, Sankar Maity, Xuemei Wang, Anh G. Hoang, Eleni Efstathiou, Patricia Troncoso, Christopher J. Logothetis. A molecular characterization of the anaplastic prostate carcinomas. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1195. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1195

 [1]: #T1


Studies the optimal control of a class of stochastic singularly perturbed linear systems with noisy state measurements under positively and negatively exponentiated quadratic cost the so-called LEQG problem. The authors identify appropriate "slow" and "fast" subproblems, obtain their optimum solutions (compatible with the corresponding measurement structures), and subsequently study the performances they achieve on the full-order system as the singular perturbation parameter /spl epsiv/ becomes sufficiently small. A by-product of this analysis is a more direct derivation (than heretofore available) of the solution to the LEQG problem under noisy state measurements, which allows for a general quadratic cost (with cross terms) in the exponent and correlation between system and measurement noises. Such a general LEQG problem is encountered in the slow-fast decomposition of the full-order problem, even if the original problem does not feature correlated noises. In this general context, the paper also establishes a complete equivalence between the LEQG problem and the H/sup /spl infin//-optimal control problem with measurement feedback, though this equivalence does not extend to the slow and fast subproblems arrived at after time-scale separation.<<ETX>>


A photobleaching effect is reported which reduces the broadband losses induced by the single-pulse writing of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). A primary application of the optical FBG reflector is as arrays of wavelength-encoded sensing elements for detecting mechanical strain. Instrumentation is being developed to interrogate >100 point sensors along a single fiber with FBGs and detectors operating in the 790-820 nm band. In this paper, we describe broadband absorptions induced by writing single-pulse FBGs which would impose a 10 dB power penalty with as few as 40 serialized FBGs. We have reduced these photo-induced losses more than seven-fold (measured near 800 nm) using a photobleaching process which minimally affects the FBG's reflectivities. After treatment, optical losses are sufficiently low to allow the interrogation of hundreds of FBGs along a single fiber. Photodarkening and photobleaching are measured in gratings prepared by single laser pulses, and by multiple pulses with and without hydrogen loading. Parasitic loss following photobleaching is lower for single-pulse FBGs operated near 800 nm than for FBGs written with multiple pulses in hydrogen loaded fibers and operated near 1300 nm.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

βGBP (monomeric β-galactoside binding protein) is a newly discovered antiproliferative cytokine produced by CD4+ and CD8+-activated T cells and endogenously released by somatic cells. In normal cells βGBP negatively regulates the cell cycle; in cancer cells βGBP induces apoptosis through pathways which involve inhibition of mitogenic signaling and inhibition of survival signaling. Mechanisms of action initiate with downregulation of class 1A and class 1B phosphatidylinositol 3-OH kinase (PI3K) via functional inhibition of their p110 catalytic subunit.

The study has the purpose of defining signaling routes to apoptosis downstream of PI3K in cells from colorectal carcinomas, which epitomise cancers made aggressive and refractory to therapies by accumulated genetic changes. We examined cancer cells of primary (SW480) and metastatic derivation (SW620, LoVo). Pathways investigated consequent to PI3K downregulation are those relating to Ras-ERK signaling and cell cycle parameters, to Akt signaling and to Rac mediated signaling. Apoptosis was assessed by changes in mitochondrial membrane potential, redistribution of phosphatidylserine, caspase 3 activation and DNA fragmentation.

We found colon cancer cells to be sensitive to minimal doses of βGBP which, while unable to inhibit Ras-ERK activity and Akt expression consequent to inhibition of PI3K activity, led to apoptosis through unprecedented outstanding events: a dramatic rearrangemant of the cytoskeletal network and the concurrent activation of both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis. Mechanisms involved related to two set of events. One event was characterised by overexpression and stabilisation of cyclin E, inhibition of DNA synthesis, Chk2 activation and overexpression of deregulated E2F1, a condition for the activation of intrinsic apoptosis; the other related to changes in macromolecular mobility in the plane of the membrane and CD95/Fas clustering, a condition for the activation of extrinsic apoptosis.

In vivo experiments in immunodeficient mice show that βGBP inhibits/prevents tumor development with no harm to the mouse.

The ability of βGBP to induce death in cancer cells notoriously resistant to apoptosis, and to induce death by combined routes is a unique property with important therapeutic implications.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3475.


Purpose – In 2009, the European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) celebrates its 15th anniversary and its precursor, the UK OMA, its 25th anniversary. The purpose of this paper is to review the origins and foundations of today's EurOMA and how it has progressed to being a vibrant and successful organisation.Design/methodology/approach – The review draws on archived documents, especially newsletters and board minutes, as well as memories of all of those involved.Findings – The review shows an important evolution from two groups of like minded individuals, through building annual conferences and brings these together as one. It then shows how it has evolved both through formalisation of its activities, building international links and, most importantly, developing a portfolio of activities to develop and support young researchers.Research limitations/implications – Where records are not available, the paper draws on individual memories of events from a long time ago.Originality/value – As well as p...


Phenylhydrazine or sodium nitrite injections reduce the functional metabolic activity of neutrophils (leukocytes) in the peripheral blood, suppress the development of humoral immune response and delayed type hypersensitivity, decrease the energetic potential and the antioxidant status of erythrocytes, and induce the appearance of immunosuppressive activity in these cells. Retinol acetate, tocopherol acetate, and phylloquinone administered in various pair combinations reduce the degree of changes in the parameters of nonspecific resistance and immunological reactivity. Pyridoxine and cobalamin increase the immunomodulating activity of erythrocytes modified by phylloquinone.


In this paper, we propose a hybrid beam-forming and beam-switching technique for OFDM based wireless personal area networks (WPAN). In order to compromise between performance and computational cost and overheads for the channel side information feedback, the proposed system employs hybrid beam-forming and beam-switching, where the block beam-switching using a predefined beam codebook is used at the transmitter while the optimum per-subcarrier beam-forming is used at the receiver. To verify the performance of the proposed scheme, the effective SNR gain over the single antenna transmission system is investigated along with the spectral efficiency bound for some of the channels developed by the IEEE 802.15.3c task group. For comparison, the performance of the optimum per-subcarrier beam-forming and the block beam-switching are also examined.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a worldwide malignancy with poor prognosis. Liver progenitors or stem cells could be a potential therapy for HCC treatment since they migrate toward tumors. Rat liver epithelial (RLE) cells have both progenitor and stem cell-like properties. Therefore, our study elucidated the therapeutic effect of RLE cells in rat hepatoma cells. RLE cells were isolated from 10-day old rats and characterized for stem cell marker expression. RLE cells and rat hepatoma cells (H4-IIE-C3 cells) were co-cultured and divided into four groups with different ratios of RLE and hepatoma cells. Group A had only rat hepatoma cells as a control group. The ratios of rat hepatoma and RLE cells in group B, C and D were 5:1, 1:1 and 1:5, respectively. Effective inhibition of cell proliferation and migration was found in group D when compared to group A. There was a significant decrease in Bcl2 expression and increase in late apoptosis of rat hepatoma cells when adding more RLE cells. RLE cells reduced cell proliferation and migration of rat hepatoma cells. These results suggested that RLE cells could be used as a potential cell therapy.


Understanding the function of individual miRNA species in mice would require the production of hundreds of loss-of-function strains. To accelerate analysis of miRNA biology in mammals, we combined recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors with miRNA 'Tough Decoys' (TuDs) to inhibit specific miRNAs. Intravenous injection of rAAV9 expressing anti-miR-122 or anti-let-7 TuD depleted the corresponding miRNA and increased its mRNA targets. rAAV producing anti-miR-122—but not anti-let-7—TuD reduced serum cholesterol by 40% for 18 weeks in wild-type mice. High throughput sequencing of liver miRNAs from the treated mice confirmed that the targeted miRNAs were depleted and revealed that TuD RNAs induce miRNA tailing and trimming in vivo. rAAV-mediated miRNA inhibition thus provides a simple way to study miRNA function in adult mammals and a potential therapy for dyslipidemia and other diseases caused by miRNA deregulation.

Citation Format: Phillip D. Zamore. Long-term, efficient inhibition of miRNA function in mice using Tough Decoys delivered by Adeno-associated virus vectors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Noncoding RNAs and Cancer; 2012 Jan 8-11; Miami Beach, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(2 Suppl):Abstract nr IA12.


In our previous study, we investigated the setting time, mechanical properties and microstructure of dicalcium phosphate dihydrate cements prepared using monocalcium phosphate monohydrate (MCPM) and hydroxyapatite (HA). Despite the use of sodium citrate as a setting regulator, setting occurs rapidly in the MCPM/HA system and further studies on other retardants are needed. In the present study, sodium pyrophosphate and sulfuric acid were tested to evaluate their effectiveness in maintaining workability of the cement paste. MCPM/HA cements at a powder to liquid ratio of 1.0 with sodium pyrophosphate and sulfuric acid at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM were manufactured and studied based on their setting time, mechanical and porosity properties, phase composition, and microstructure. These measurements were compared to our previous data using sodium citrate. The results showed that the additives have a dose-dependent effect on the setting time. Their order of efficiency is sodium pyrophosphate > sodium citrate > sulfuric acid. However, the sulfuric acid group exhibited the highest compressive strength (CS) compared to the other groups. A lack of correlation between the CS and the porosity of the cements suggested that a mechanism other than porosity reduction was responsible for the CS increase. Since x-ray diffraction analysis did not indicate an effect on composition, explanations based on calcium sulfate dihydrate formation and changes in microstructure were proposed based on scanning electron micrograph observations.


Three different types of proteinase inhibitors, I, II and III, were fractionated from Japanese radish seed by repeated column chromatographies on SE- and CM-cellulose. The finally purified preparation of inhibitor III was found to be homogeneous by both chromatographic and electrophoretic analyses. All three of them strongly and stoichiometrically inhibited trypsin whereas they showed weak inhibition on other proteinases, such as chymotrypsin, Nagarse and Pronase. From nitrogen content and ultraviolet absorption spectra, each of the inhibitors I and III was confirmed to be a protein. The molecular weights of inhibitors I and III were calculated to be 8000 and 12,000, respectively. These inhibitors were stable at temperatures above 90°C in an acidic pH.


OBJECTIVES
To investigate the effect of ligand-receptor interaction of osteopontin (OPN)-CD44 on the expression of hyaluronic acid (HA) in the cultured human knee osteoarthritis (OA) chondrocytes via interfering the reaction between OPN and CD44 ligand-receptor.

METHODS
The OA chondrocytes and normal chondrocytes were obtained from knee joint cartilage tissues in the patients with knee OA and malignant tumor respectively. The normal chondrocytes and OA chondrocytes were detected and analyzed, and then the intervention analysis of OA chondrocytes was carried out. The OA chondrocytes were divided into 4 groups: a negative control group, which was cultured with complete medium without any molecular intervention reagent; an OPN intervention group, which was cultured with recombinant human OPN (rhOPN) for 24 hours; a CD44 blocking group, which were pretreated with CD44 receptor specific antagonist for 1 hour to block the binding of OPN-CD44, and then treated with rhOPN for 23 hours; a CD44 homotype group, which was pretreated with CD44 for 1 hour and then treated with rhOPN for 23 hours. In addition, the study for OPN-CD44 axis was also divided into 4 groups: an OA-negative control group (OA-NC group), a si-OPN intervention group, a rhOPN intervention group, and a rhOPN + CD44 antibody (Ab) group. Western blotting, real-time PCR, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to detect the protein and mRNA expression levels of OPN, CD44, hyaluronate synthase (HAS), and HA, respectively.

RESULTS
The protein expression levels of OPN, CD44, and HAS1 and the secretion levels of HA in the OA chondrocytes were higher than those in the normal chondrocytes. Compared with the OPN intervention group, the expression levels of HAS1, HAS2, HAS3 and HA in the CD44 blocking group were lower than those in OPN intervention group (all P<0.05); but there was no significant difference in the expression levels of HAS1, HAS2, HAS3 and HA between the CD44 homotype group and the OPN intervention group (all P>0.05). The results of OPN-CD44 axis study showed that: compared with the OA-NC group, the expression of CD44 in the rhOPN intervention group was slightly lower, but the protein and mRNA levels of HAS1 were significantly increased (all P<0.05); compared with the OA-NC group, the expression of CD44 was up-regulated, but the protein and mRNA level of HAS1 were significantly inhibited in the si-OPN intervention group (all P<0.05); compared with the OA-NC group, the protein and mRNA levels of HAS1 in the rhOPN+CD44 Ab group were also significantly inhibited (all P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
The OPN in OA chondrocytes can promote the expression of HAS1, and the OPN can stimulate the secretion of HAS and induce HA expression by reacting with CD44 ligand receptor. They constitute the axis of OPN/CD44/HAS1, which plays an important role in regulating the expression of HA in chondrocytes.


Speciation behavior of trihalomethanes formation in chlorinated waters due to the effects of bromide is mathematically modeled by a three-tier scheme. Equations for the mole fractions of the mono-, di-, and trihalo-intermediates at each tier level in terms of the initial bromide to chlorine molar ratio are derived and verified by comparison with results of other theoretical studies based on an assumption of constant bromination to chlorination reaction reactivity ratio. It is identified that the usage of applied chlorine concentration or available chlorine concentration for calculation of the relative initial bromide to chlorine concentration would yield different reactivity ratio and should be used consistently. The model equations are also tested by laboratory experiments done with source water at a local plant. It is found that equations with an overall bromination to chlorination rate constant ratio of 18.66 can capture the THM speciation behavior of all four tested incubation periods well.


BACKGROUND
The differential diagnosis of hepatic fibrin-ring granulomas includes infective agents (Coxiella burneti, CMV, EBV,....), hypersensitivity to medication (allopurinol) and malignancy.

METHODS
During a period of 6 months, four patients presented at our university hospital with a similar clinical picture of fever and abnormal liver tests, and fibrin-ring granulomas on liver biopsy. Clinical course, laboratory and imaging findings, and histopathological features were compared.

RESULTS
Clinical manifestations, and laboratory and imaging findings were similar. Histopathological assessment of the hepatic fibrin-ring granulomas appeared not to be helpful in identifying the causative agent. Other histopathological features (e.g. sinusoidal rows of lymphocytes, eosinophilic polymorphonuclear infiltrate) were suggestive for the causative agent, yet conclusive identification was obtained by either serology (Q fever, CMV, EBV), or by exclusion with concomitant stop of medication (allopurinol).

CONCLUSIONS
In the differential diagnosis of hepatic fibrin-ring granulomas, serologic titers remain the determining factor, since an infective agent is the most common cause. When hepatic fibrin-ring granulomas are present, other histopathological features may be helpful in making the differential diagnosis.


Microstrip patch antennas with mutual coupling are proposed for WiMAX applications. To reduce mutual coupling between patch antennas using different methods like Split Ring Resonators (SRR), Slotted Meander Line Resonators (SMLR), Wave Guided Metamaterials (WG-MTM) and Planar-Electromagnetic Band Gap (P-EBG) structures are designed for WiMAX applications. In all four methods, antennas are engraved on 15×10 mm2 FR4 substrate. The antenna is designed by applying FR4 substrate with thickness 3mm, permittivity 4.6. The proposed antennas are modeled using ADS software. The simulated result shows that the proposed antennas are optimized for 5.8 GHz resonant frequency. By comparing all four methods Split Ring Resonators only having more isolation of -37.5 dB and the return loss of -16.5 dB. The characteristics like return loss, radiation pattern, gain, directivity etc. are computed for all the designed antennas. These features show that the proposed patch antenna with SRR structure is well suited for WiMAX application compared to other three methods.


Strain rate images (SRI) of the beating heart have been proposed to identify non-contracting regions of myocardium. Initial attempts used spatial derivatives of tissue velocity (Doppler) signals. Here, an alternate method is proposed based on two-dimensional phase-sensitive speckle tracking applied to very high frame rate, real-time images. This processing can produce high resolution maps of the time derivative of the strain magnitude (i.e., square root of the strain intensity). Such images complement traditional tissue velocity images (TVI), providing a more complete description of cardiac mechanics. To test the proposed approach, SRI were both simulated and measured on a thick-walled, cylindrical, tissue-equivalent phantom modeling cardiac deformations. Real-time ultrasound images were captured during periodic phantom deformation, where the period was matched to the data capture rate of a commercial scanner mimicking high frame rate imaging of the heart. Simulation results show that SRI with spatial resolution between 1 and 2 mm are possible with an array system operating at 5 MHz. Moreover, these images are virtually free of angle-dependent artifacts present in TVI and simple strain rate maps derived from these images. Measured results clearly show that phantom regions of low deformation, which are difficult to identify on tissue velocity-derived SRI, are readily apparent with SRI generated from two-dimensional phase-sensitive speckle tracking.


ABSTRACT During the Covid-19 pandemic, considerable scholarly attention has been paid to the proliferation of conspiracy theories and their potential impacts. How and why digital media has facilitated the production, consumption, and distribution of such discourses as 'truth' remains largely neglected in the literature though. This paper explores this process through a transdisciplinary methodology designed to investigate legitimation in digital spaces. Based on a theoretical bridge between Beetham's theory of legitimation and KhosraviNik's principle that visibility-equals-legitimacy, the Multimodal Critical Affect-Discourse Analysis of an audio-visual performance of the 5G conspiracy theory exposes how it has been simultaneously legitimized through authoritative performance and visibility. An interview given by the notorious conspiracy theorist David Icke, in which he associates the pandemic with 5G technology, was used as a case study because it was widely consumed and reproduced as 'truth', leading media companies to take unprecedented action against conspiracy theories. Besides contributing to existing debates on conspiracy theories, this paper offers new directions for the critical analysis of legitimation and power, acknowledging the fluid and diffuse nature of power in network societies and illuminating how meanings, beliefs, and affects have been manipulated by multiple actors to achieve consent and motivate collaborative authorship.


In the cohort of American MMMF workers reported by ENTERLINE et al. [Ann. occup. Hyg. 31, 625-656 (1987)] autopsies were recorded in 652 (13.5%) of 4840 deaths. Lung tissue samples were sought from all pathologists and obtained in 145 (22.2%), together with similar samples from 124 matched referents. Lung fibre counts by phase contrast microscopy were 60% higher (P less than 0.05) in workers than referents. Electron microscopy (ATEM) also showed more fibres of all kinds--MMMF, asbestos and other--but no convincing excess of any one type. Lung samples of only 26% of workers contained any MMMF, almost all siliceous in nature and in low concentration. There were too few cases of lung cancer (19) for any useful conclusion; however, in the plant with the highest lung cancer SMR (200), and a probable mesothelioma, amosite at greater than 1.0 fibres per micrograms (f micrograms-1) was found in four of six workers but in none of their matched referents. Although our findings contribute little to the interpretation of the results obtained by ENTERLINE et al. they indicate the potential value of tissue analyses in monitoring epidemiological studies of MMMF exposure.


Abstract Metallurgy is one of the oldest sciences. Its history can be traced back to 6000 BCE with the discovery of Gold, and each new discovery — Copper, Silver, Lead, Tin, Iron and Mercury — marked the beginning of a new era of civilization. Currently there are 86 known metals, but until the end of the 17th century, only 12 of these were known. Steel (Fe–C alloy) was discovered in the 11th century BCE; however, it took until 1709 CE before we mastered the smelting of pig-iron by using coke instead of charcoal and started the industrial revolution. The metallurgy of nowadays is mainly about discovering better materials with superior properties to fulfil the increasing demand of the global market. Promising are the Glassy Metals or Bulk Metallic Glasses (BMGs) — discovered at first in the late 50s at the California Institute of Technology — which are several times stronger than the best industrial steels and 10-times springier. The unusual structure that lacks crystalline grains makes BMGs so promising. They have a liquid-like structure that means they melt at lower temperatures, can be moulded nearly as easily as plastics, and can be shaped into features just 10 nm across. The best BMG formers are based on Zr, Pd, Pt, Ca, Au and, recently discovered, also Fe. They have typically three to five components with large atomic size mismatch and a composition close to a deep eutectic. Packing in such liquids is very dense, with a low content of free volume, resulting in viscosities that are several orders of magnitude higher than in pure metal melts.


Throughout the southern Ozark Highlands, endophyte-infected tall fescue (Lolium arundi- naceum (Schreb.) Darbysh) hay often is stored outdoors, without cover. At two research sites (Fayetteville and Batesville, AR), the effects of unprotected storage were assessed for large round bales of tall fescue hay packaged at three diameters (≈1.1, 1.4, and 1.7 m). Bales were stored over winter either inside or outside on wooden pallets and then sampled at three depths (0-0.15 m, 0.15-0.31 m, and 0.31-0.46 m). At both locations, bale diameter had no effect (p > 0.05) on dry matter (DM) recovery or nutritive value. Generally, there was little dete- rioration of nutritive value during the storage period, regardless of treatment; however, some interactions (p ≤ 0.041) of storage location and sampling depth were observed at each experi- mental site. Ruminal disappearance kinetics of DM exhibited some statistical differences (p ≤ 0.030) in response to treatment; however, their relative magnitude was generally small, and there was little evidence to suggest biologi- cal relevance. After storage, concentrations of ergovaline were not affected (p > 0.05) by baling treatment at Batesville (overall mean 256 μg kg −1 ); however, this was a 27.3% reduction from the initial concentration immediately after mowing. At Fayetteville this reduction was even greater, falling by 79.4% between standing forage (539 μg kg −1 ) and samples taken from baled hay after storage (111 μg kg −1 ). At both sites, bales stored outside on wooden pallets exhibited relatively small changes in nutritive value, disappearance kinetics, and ergovaline at the bale surface rela- tive to the internal portions of the bale.


Background

Regulatory T (Treg) cells have anti-inflammatory and anti-autoimmune functions. The proportion and functions of Treg cells are perturbed in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Methods

Human Treg cells were induced to amplify in vitro and cocultured with RA synovial fibroblast cells (RASFs). The proliferation and apoptosis of RASFs were determined by the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Human Treg cells were also injected to collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats via the tail vein. Changes in lymphocyte subtypes and cytokines in the peripheral blood and spleen were observed by flow cytometry.

Results

After coculture with the Treg cells, the proliferation of RA synovial fibroblast cells decreased (p<0.01), and the rate of apoptosis increased (p=0.037). The human Treg cells were injected into the tail veins of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats. The severity of the CIA was reduced (p<0.01) following the injection, the percentages of rat endogenous Treg cells in the peripheral blood and spleen increased significantly (p=0.007 and p<0.01, respectively), and the proportion of B cells decreased (p=0.031). The levels of interleukin IL-5 and IL-6 and the Th1/Th2 ratio in the peripheral blood were significantly decreased (p=0.013, 0.009 and 0.012, respectively). The number of NK cells and the levels of IL-4, IL-13, TNF-α, IFN-γ and GM-CSF in the peripheral blood and spleen did not change significantly.

Conclusion

These results suggest that exogenous Treg cells play a therapeutic role in RA and CIA. Treg cell treatment could serve as a therapy for RA.


Robot and Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) techniques have been widely used in upper limb rehabilitation training. In this work, we developed a hybrid interactive robotic system with FES for hand training. The preliminary system evaluation was achieved via a finger tracking task. The results showed that 1) the hybrid system could be successfully driven by EMG with interactive control algorithms; 2) the combined system could improve the tracking performance with adequate assistance combination from robot part and FES part. This combined system may have the potential to be used for hand rehabilitation.


Abstract Animal toxins that are used to subdue prey and deter predators act as the key drivers in natural food chains and ecosystems. However, the predators of venomous animals may exploit feeding adaptation strategies to overcome toxins their prey produce. Much remains unknown about the genetic and molecular game process in the toxin-dominant food chain model. Here, we show an evolutionary strategy in different trophic levels of scorpion-eating amphibians, scorpions and insects, representing each predation relationship in habitats dominated by the paralytic toxins of scorpions. For scorpions preying on insects, we found that the scorpion α-toxins irreversibly activate the skeletal muscle sodium channel of their prey (insect, BgNaV1) through a membrane delivery mechanism and an efficient binding with the Asp/Lys-Tyr motif of BgNaV1. However, in the predatory game between frogs and scorpions, with a single point mutation (Lys to Glu) in this motif of the frog's skeletal muscle sodium channel (fNaV1.4), fNaV1.4 breaks this interaction and diminishes muscular toxicity to the frog; thus, frogs can regularly prey on scorpions without showing paralysis. Interestingly, this molecular strategy also has been employed by some other scorpion-eating amphibians, especially anurans. In contrast to these amphibians, the Asp/Lys-Tyr motifs are structurally and functionally conserved in other animals that do not prey on scorpions. Together, our findings elucidate the protein-protein interacting mechanism of a toxin-dominant predator-prey system, implying the evolutionary game theory at a molecular level.


This article presents methodological foundations for the history of Russian political languages. Authors draw on the key insights of the Cambridge school of intellectual history while highlighting some new methodological moves based on applying this approach to the studies of the Russian history. The article provides definitions of the key methodological concepts and reviews selected illustrative cases from the Russian and Western history. In general the history of political philosophy in this perspective combines two imperatives: (a) privileged attention to available (sub)languages and idioms of the given period; (b) analysis of authors' intentions and rhetoric moves in the historical context, framed by linguistic conventions and discourses of other participants in the debate. While applying this methodology to the Russian past (and present) we have identified several relevant issues which were mostly taken for granted by the main founders of the Cambridge school: the degree of familiarity and trust of the ruling elites with the written tradition of the political philosophy; institutions of public debate; and, finally, regimes of publicity structuring political discussions.


Six future milestones in AI are discussed. These range from the development of a very general theory of problem solving to the creation of machines with capacities well beyond those of a single human. Estimates are made for when these milestones will occur, followed by some suggestions for the more e ective utilization of the extremely rapid technological growth that is expected.


Many countries, and particularly those including fragile contexts, have a shortage of formal health workers and are increasingly looking to close-to-community (CTC) providers to fill the gap. The experiences of CTC providers are shaped by context-embedded gender roles and relations. This qualitative research study in Lebanon, Nepal, Myanmar and Sierra Leone explored the gendered experiences of CTC providers during the COVID-19 pandemic in fragile settings. We used document review, in-depth interviews or focus group discussions with CTC providers, and key informant interviews with local stakeholders to generate in-depth and contextual information. The COVID-19-associated lockdowns and school closures brought additional stresses, with a gendered division of labour acutely felt by women CTC providers. Their work is poorly or not remunerated and is seen as risky. CTC providers are embedded within their communities with a strong willingness to serve. However, they experienced fractures in community trust and were sometimes viewed as a COVID-19 risk. During COVID-19, CTC providers experienced additional responsibilities on top of their routine work and family commitments, shaped by gender, and were not always receiving the support required. Understanding their experience through a gender lens is critical to developing equitable and inclusive approaches to support the COVID-19 response and future crises.


In distributed mobile robot systems, autonomous robots accomplish complicated tasks through intelligent cooperation with each other. This paper presents behavior learning and online distributed evolution for cooperative behavior of a group of autonomous robots. Learning and evolution capabilities are essential for a group of autonomous robots to adapt to unstructured environments. Behavior learning finds an optimal state-action mapping of a robot for a given operating condition. In behavior learning, a Q-learning algorithm is modified to handle delayed rewards in the distributed robot systems. A group of robots implements cooperative behaviors through communication with other robots. Individual robots improve the state-action mapping through online evolution with the crossover operator based on the Q-values and their update frequencies. A cooperative material search problem demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed behavior learning and online distributed evolution method for implementing cooperative behavior of a group of autonomous mobile robots.


This paper deals with the Tachinidae reared from Ropalidia nests collected on Madagascar. The material belongs to two genera, Anacamptomyia and Parapales, each represented by two species. Both species of Anacamptomyia are described as new: A. aurifrons sp. n. and A. blommersi sp. n. Their relation to the species from the Afrotropical mainland is discussed. The host records for Parapales are the first for this genus, supporting their placement in the Anacamptomyia group.


The main aim of the study is to examine microbiocenosis of lower respiratory tract and intestine in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer (LC), lung cancer with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and to determine their role in the etiological diagnosis of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTi), including those that develop during cancer chemotherapy (CC), to discuss the possibility of optimizing the treatment tactics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
To solve this task were examined 147 patients and 30 healthy individuals were divided into 4 groups, according to nosology. The number of patients in the COPD group was 38 people, m / f-35/3, median age 63 (57; 69) years, in the LC group -60 people, m / f - 56/4, with a median age of 65 (58; 71) year; LC groupwith CAP -21 persons m / f - 17/4, with a median age of 73(69; 75) years, in the LC group with CAP developed in the period up to 30 days after the end of chemotherapy (LC with CAP / CC) -28 persons m / f - 22/6, with a median age of 70 (67; 73) years, the norm group -30 healthy persons m / f- 26/4, median age 48(40,691 years. The spectrum of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) sputum (in bronchoalveolar lavage standards group) and test groups of feces were studied by gas-liquid chromatographic analysis (GLC analysis). Results of the study. In the norm group: total absolute content of SCFA (X) in sputum was 0.032 mg / g, the relative content of acetic acid (pC2) 0906 u, propionic acid (pC3) 0.085 u, butyric acid (pC4) 0.009 u, anaerobic index (Al) -0.104 units. According to the analysis the total absolute content of SCFA in the sputum may be expressed as follows: ∑ SCPA (C2-C4) norm (0,032) <∑ SCFA (C2-C4) COPD (0,201) <∑ SCFA (C2-C4) RL (0,463) < ∑ SCFA (C2-C4) LC with CAP (0.510) < RCMP ∑ (C2-C4) LC with CAP / CC (0.612) (mg / g), the differences are statistically significant when compared with the norm. The findings of the relative content of C2-C4 show a statistically significant increase of the relative content of propionic and butyric acids: PC3 (0,085) pC4 (0.009) norm pC2 (0.846) COPD> pC2 (0.792) LC> pC2 (0.765) LC with CAP> pC2 (0.719) LC with CAP / CC (u) in patients of all study groups compared to the norm, and between groups. And the more pronounced changes in the content of SCFA in the sputum are ascertained in lung cancer with CAP during chemotherapy. *The values of Al in the studied groups are displaced to more negative values: Al (- 0.104) rate> Al (- 0.190) COPD> Al (- 0.257) RL> Al (- 0.307) LC with CAP> Al (- 0.391) LC with CAP / CC (sing.) compared with the norm and between groups. The findings of SCPA in feces in the group norm: ~1 SCFA 10.51 mg / g, 0.634 units pC2, pC3 0,189 units, 0,176 units pC4, -0.576 Al units. The total absolute content of SCFA in feces can be expressed as follows: ∑ SCFA (C2-C4) LC (4,11) <∑ SCFA (C2-C4) COPD (4,81) <∑ SCFA (C2-C4) norm (10 51) (mg / g), the differences were statistically significant when compared with the norm; depending on the chemotherapy, preceding the development of the CAP: ∑ SCFA (C2-C4) norm (10,51)> ∑ SCFA (C2-C4) LC with CAP / che- motherapy (5,54)> ∑ SCFA (C2-C4) LC CAP (4,96)> ∑ SCFA (C2-C4) LC (4.11) (mg / g). Results of the study of the relative content of C4-C2 also demonstrate a statistically significant increase of the relative content of propionic and butyric acids: pC3 (0.189), pC4 (0.176) norm pC2 (0.590) COPD> pC2 (0,560) LC> pC2 (0.529) LC with CAP> pC2 (0.503) LC with CAP! chemotherapy (u) in patients of all study groups in comparison with the norm. And the more pronounced changes in the content of SCFA in feces are ascertained at LC with CAP during chemotherapy. The values of Al intestinal ecological community of all groups are displaced to more negative values when compared with the norm: Al (- 0.576) norm> Al (- 0.695) COPD> Al (- 0.786) LC> Al ('0.890) LC with CAP> Al (- 0.988) LC with CAP / chemotherapy (u), with the most significant changes were observedin the group of LC with CAP during chemotherapy. Conclusion, Increased absolute SCFA concentration in patients with CQPD, lung cancer, lung cancer with CAP, LC with CAP! CC in comparison with the norm indicates increased number and activity of anaerobic flora, the most significant changes observed in patients with lung cancer with CAP, developed in the period up to 30 days after the end of chemotherapy. The unidirectional changes in SCFA parameters in the sputum and stool demonstrate the dependence of microorganism biocenosis. The resulting information can be used in the etiological diagnosis of LRTI, as well as the development of therapeutic and preventive measures flAw Af infprtiniis rnmnlications and treatment of these patients.


This paper focuses on evaluating positive effects of snow-removal to reduce damages which are caused by snowfalls whose emergency indicates certain probability distribution. In this evaluation in monetary terms, CVM was used. Positive effects including the quality of residents' life by increasing accessablity. The questionnaire results on which the evaluation was based were analyzed by putting emphasis on the differences observed between WTP and WTA.The CVM used to evaluate the questionnaire results is characterized by the following: Multi Level Dichotomous Choice for respondents to easily understand questions to answer, and the use of videos and models to eliminate respondents' bias.The results indicate that Sapporo citizens estimate that keeping the current snow-removal level is equivalent to an annual benefit of 26, 800 yen / household. Secondly, they reveal that if the snow-removal level is lowered, or in other words, when lowering the snow-removal level gives adverse effects on the environment, an annual equivalent option price of 50, 700 yen/household and an annual supplementary option price of 9, 400 yen/household emerge. The difference is approximately 5.4 times. However, if the environment is improved by snow removal, the calculated annual equivalent option price and annual supplementary option price are, 36, 200 yen/household and 6, 200 yen/household, respectively The difference is approximately 5.8 times.


Inspired from the computational efficiency of the biological brain, spiking neural networks (SNNs) emulate biological neural networks, neural codes, dynamics, and circuitry. SNNs show great potential for the implementation of unsupervised learning using in-memory computing. Here, we report an algorithmic optimization that improves energy efficiency of online learning with SNNs on emerging non-volatile memory (eNVM) devices. We develop a pruning method for SNNs by exploiting the output firing characteristics of neurons. Our pruning method can be applied during network training, which is different from previous approaches in the literature that employ pruning on already-trained networks. This approach prevents unnecessary updates of network parameters during training. This algorithmic optimization can complement the energy efficiency of eNVM technology, which offers a unique in-memory computing platform for the parallelization of neural network operations. Our SNN maintains ~90% classification accuracy on the MNIST dataset with up to ~75% pruning, significantly reducing the number of weight updates. The SNN and pruning scheme developed in this work can pave the way toward applications of eNVM based neuro-inspired systems for energy efficient online learning in low power applications.


Destruxin A (DA) is a cyclo-peptidic mycotoxin from the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. To uncover potential genes associated with its molecular mechanisms, a digital gene expression (DGE) profiling analysis was used to compare differentially expressed genes in the hemocytes of silkworm larvae treated with DA. Ten DGE libraries were constructed, sequenced, and assembled, and the unigenes with least 2.0-fold difference were further analyzed. The numbers of up-regulated genes were 10, 20, 18, 74 and 8, as well as the numbers of down-regulated genes were 0, 1, 8, 13 and 3 at 1, 4, 8, 12 and 24 h post treatment, respectively. Totally, the expression of 132 genes were significantly changed, among them, 1, 3 and 12 genes were continually up-regulated at 4, 3 and 2 different time points, respectively, while 1 gene was either up or down-regulated continually at 2 different time points. Furthermore, 68 genes were assigned to one or multiple gene ontology (GO) terms and 89 genes were assigned to specific Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) Orthology. In-depth analysis identified that these genes putatively involved in insecticide resistance, cell apoptosis, and innate immune defense. Finally, twenty differentially expressed genes were randomly chosen and validated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Our studies provide insights into the toxic effect of this microbial insecticide on silkworm's hemocytes, and are helpful to better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of DA as a biological insecticide.


Devices using materials that deform in response to electricity are based on a phenomenon that was observed more than two centuries ago. The idea that a solid material can deform when stimulated by electricity originated in the late-18th century with observations of ruptures in overcharged Leyden jars, the first electrical capacitors. In 1776, Italian scientist Alessandro Volta mentioned in a letter that Italian experimenter Felice Fontana had noted volume changes in the Leyden jar upon electrification (1), an observation that launched a new field of investigation—"deformable" materials affected by electricity. More than two centuries later, the concept of "electrically stretchable materials" is at the forefront of devising bioinspired robots, tactile and haptic interfaces, and adaptive optical systems (2, 3).


The Pacific's 'Indigenous times' are not just smaller sections of larger histories, but dimensions of their own. Histories of our Pacific world are richly rendered in these essays by Damon Salesa. From the first Indigenous civilisations that flourished in Oceania to the colonial encounters of the nineteenth century, and on to the complex contemporary relationships between New Zealand and the Pacific, Salesa offers new perspectives on this vast ocean – its people, its cultures, its pasts and its future. Spanning a wide range of topics, from race and migration to Pacific studies and empire, these essays demonstrate Salesa's remarkable scholarship. Bridging the gap between academic disciplines and cultural traditions, Salesa locates Pacific peoples always at the centre of their stories. An Indigenous Ocean is a pivotal contribution to understanding the history and culture of Oceania.


This paper deals with temperature control in an industrial-scale solar collector field. The synthesis of a new dual version of an adaptive multipredictive controller (MUSMAR) is presented based on a bicriterial optimization. The adaptive predictive controller designed demonstrates improved performance in dealing with start-up transients compared with standard adaptive predictive controllers based on the certainty equivalence approach. The present algorithm is also modified so as to exploit the information conveyed by the accessible disturbances. Experimental results in the solar energy plant are included showing the benefits of combining the dual effect and the inclusion of feedforward terms.


Advances in diagnostics and treatment of childhood cancer during the past few decades have substantially increased survival, resulting in a growing population of survivors of childhood cancer. Somatic and mental late effects of the cancer and the treatment may impact the quality of life (QoL). Previous reviews of QoL in survivors of childhood cancer have shown contradictory findings across studies and the majority of studies included have been based on data from North America and may not be directly comparable to a European setting. The aim of our study was to critically evaluate and summarise the latest evidence on the QoL of childhood cancer survivors in Europe and to identify survivors at particular risk. The eligible studies were published between 2008 and 2022, conducted in Europe and included participants who had survived at least 5 years after diagnosis of a childhood cancer. The main outcome of interest was QoL of survivors which was measured with validated qualitative and quantitative QoL questionnaires. A systematic literature search conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and CINALH resulted in inclusion of 36 articles with a total of 14 342 survivors of childhood cancer. The majority of included studies found that childhood cancer survivors reported poorer QoL than comparisons. Female gender, treatment with haematopoietic stem cell transplantation and a brain tumour diagnosis were associated with lower QoL. With a growing population of childhood cancer survivors with many years ahead of them, targeted interventions and optimal follow‐up care are important to improve the QoL of survivors.