Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that nurses' transition to academia is complex and influences the construction of their professional identity. The aim of this study was to analyze the construction of academic nurses' identities within the framework of dialogical self theory, especially the internal positions they deployed and the main contradictions they faced during professional transitions. A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted and fieldwork was performed between September and December 2016. The participants were three academic nurses working at different Spanish universities. The nurses wrote narrative diaries for 4 months and three interviews were conducted before, during, and after the diary writing. The main tensions identified concerned their I-positions within the research and teaching spheres. Nursing research is still linked or subordinated to other professional contexts. In the teaching sphere, the main tensions involved the assessment process. Transitioning to the teaching sphere requires specialized training in research and teaching skills, as well as specific support to enable nurses to meet multiple challenges and foster their professional development. Thus, this study highlights the need to refocus future nurses' training by reevaluating the academic field and the need for specific programs to enhance the transition from clinical practice to academia for future academic nurses.


male pharmacists clearly suggests that these must be significant factors. On the other hand, if being a doctor or a doctor's wife carries with it a special kind of distress loading, clearly the physician is not unique in this either. Being an unskilled worker may be a worse predicament. By the same token, there appear to be some professions (e.g., the clergy, politicians) that are spared excessive risks of suicide. If we are to understand why doctors and their wives are at higher risk for suicide, we might benefit from undertaking in depth comparisons of their demographics, lifestyles and value systems with those of other occupational groups.


The objective of this study was to quantify the number of segments that have contractile activity and determine the propagation speed from uterine electrophysiological signals recorded over the abdomen. The uterine magnetomyographic (MMG) signals were recorded with a 151 channel SARA (SQUID Array for Reproductive Assessment) system from 36 pregnant women between 37 and 40 weeks of gestational age. The MMG signals were scored and segments were classified based on presence of uterine contractile burst activity. The sensor space was then split into four quadrants and in each quadrant signal strength at each sample was calculated using center-of-gravity (COG). To this end, the cross-correlation analysis of the COG was performed to calculate the delay between pairwise combinations of quadrants. The relationship in propagation across the quadrants was quantified and propagation speeds were calculated from the delays. MMG recordings were successfully processed from 25 subjects and the average values of propagation speeds ranged from 1.3–9.5 cm/s, which was within the physiological range. The propagation was observed between both vertical and horizontal quadrants confirming multidirectional propagation. After the multiple pairwise test (99% CI), significant differences in speeds can be observed between certain vertical or horizontal combinations and the crossed pair combinations. The number of segments containing contractile activity in any given quadrant pair with a detectable delay was significantly higher in the lower abdominal pairwise combination as compared to all others. The quadrant-based approach using MMG signals provided us with high spatial-temporal information of the uterine contractile activity and will help us in the future to optimize abdominal electromyographic (EMG) recordings that are practical in a clinical setting.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the reliability and validity of a dedicated assessment tool for lateral epicondylitis after translation into Hong Kong Chinese.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SETTING
District hospital, Hong Kong.

PATIENTS
Seventy-four patients, 12 of whom were bilingual, were recruited (total of 82 elbows).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Translation equivalence and reliability were measured with the test-retest method. Validity was measured against the Roles and Maudsley outcome score and mean maximal grip strength.

RESULT
The Patient-rated Forearm Evaluation Questionnaire had high English-Chinese equivalence (Spearman's rho correlation coefficient=0.926; P<0.001). It was also very reliable (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.99; P<0.001). Validity according to the Roles and Maudsley outcome score and mean of maximal grip strength was significant (P<0.01).

CONCLUSION
The Hong Kong Chinese version of Patient-rated Forearm Evaluation Questionnaire is a reliable and valid assessment tool for chronic lateral epicondylitis. Its equivalence to the original English version makes outcome assessment across cultural barrier feasible.


We propose a multi-modal perceptual system that is inspired by the inner working of the human brain; in particular, the hierarchical structure of the sensory cortex and the spatial-temporal binding criteria. The system is context independent and can be applied to many on-going problems in social robotics, including but not limited to person recognition, emotion recognition, and multi-modal robot doctor to name a few. The system encapsulates the parallel distributed processing of real-world stimuli through different sensor modalities and encoding them into features vectors which in turn are processed via a number of dedicated processing units (DPUs) through hierarchical paths. DPUs are algorithmic realizations of the cell assemblies in neuroscience. A plausible and realistic perceptual system is presented via the integration of the outputs from these units by spiking neural networks. We will also discuss other components of the system including top–down influences and the integration of information through temporal binding with fading memory and suggest two alternatives to realize these criteria. Finally, we will demonstrate the implementation of this architecture on a hardware platform as a social robot and report experimental studies on the system.


Special features of professional training of future specialists in extraordinary (emergency) situations, increasing its quality with the use of interactive technologies have been considered in this article. The paper presents a research of modern interactive educational technologies, most widely used at higher educational institutions, promoting modernization of education as well as training of competitive future specialists. The article grounds possibility of formation and development of the culture of professional communication by interactive methods of learning, and business games, in particular. The research deals with kinds of business games as active methods of learning, their structural levels and features of use.


Algeria sits at the crossroads of the Atlantic, European, Arab and African worlds. Yet, unlike the colonial wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Algerian war for independence has rarely been viewed as a primarily international conflict. Rather, prevailing accounts of the war interpret it as a domestic French crisis that was resolved when Charles de Gaulle granted Algeria independence. Yet, as Matthew Connelly here demonstrates, from the very start of the bloody eight year struggle, the Front de Liberation Nationale pursued self-rule on the world stage. Exploiting Cold War competition and regional rivalries, the spread of mass communications, and international and non-governmental organisations, such as human rights groups, foreign press conferences, and the United Nations, the rebels harnessed international forces to bring pressure to bear on the French government, which became obsessed with the conflict's impact on its reputation. By winning rights and recognition from the global community, the rebels helped break up the French colonial empire and rewrite the rules of international relations. In narrating the Algerian war for independence, Connelly analyses how the United States and other states influenced the war and were, in turn, influenced by it. He interprets it in a global and comparative context, arguing for a reconceptualisation of diplomatic history as international history. Based on research on three continents and, for the first time, the rebels' own archives, this study of the Algerian war for independence offers a landmark reevaluation of the conflict forty years after its conclusion and a model for the writing of international history.


This paper sets the stage for this Special Issue covering a set of papers, which try to provide a cross-scale evaluation of the trade-offs and synergies evident among aquaculture, water quality and environment in the empirical context of 8 different countries from Asia and Africa. Having discussed the livelihood and policy significance of the issue of cross-scale trade-offs and synergies, this paper provides an eclectic review of literature to show how this issue has been insufficiently treated in past studies. With a brief overview and synthesis of the papers included in this Issue, this paper also indicates how they overcome the analytical, methodological, and data challenges so as to provide a cross-scale evaluation of the trade-offs and synergies in different empirical settings. After illustrating how the new research insights can be integrated into the public debates and policy processes, this paper concludes with the identification of future research and policy needs.


Selective downward gaze paralysis has not previously been described as a complication after posterior fossa operations in children. The authors found downgaze palsy to be a transient complication after resection of large pediatric posterior fossa midline tumors reaching the aqueduct of Sylvius. They reviewed the cases of 2 children with large posterior fossa midline tumors who underwent resection via an inferior transventricular approach. They developed a hypothetical scheme to account for downward gaze paralysis based on anatomy and insight gained from experimental studies. The authors describe potential risk factors for developing transient selective downward gaze paralysis with the hope of making more pediatric neurosurgeons aware of this complication following removal of lesions around the mesencephalic periaqueductal gray matter. Recognition and understanding of downward gaze palsy after posterior fossa surgery should improve preoperative counseling and promote postoperative family coping.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the usefulness of porous high-density polyethylene implants (Medpor) in a variety of facial skeletal deformities and subcutaneous defects, excluding those associated with acute maxillofacial trauma.

DESIGN
Case series.

SETTING
Academic tertiary care referral center in Baltimore, Md.

PATIENTS
Thirty-four patients (age range, 20-74 years) with facial deformities requiring skeletal defect reconstruction or augmentation (38 cases), treated between January 1, 1992, and January 1, 1997. Follow-up ranged from 6 months to 40 months.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Age, type and origin of the deformity treated, type of treatment, and complications.

RESULTS
Types of deformities and defects treated include 7 patients with orbital defects (secondary traumatic or oncologic deformities), 8 with temporal fossa defects, 8 with frontocranial defects, 4 with maxillary or malar defects, 7 with calvarial bone graft donor site defects, 2 with microtia, and 2 with chin deficiency. Forty implants were placed. Complications included implant exposure in 4 patients and inappropriate augmentation in 1 patient (chin implantation).

CONCLUSIONS
High-density polyethylene implants offer an excellent alternative to autogenous and other alloplastic materials in reconstruction of many facial defects and deformities. Advantages include its versatility and relatively ideal pore size that allows for excellent soft tissue ingrowth and coverage. Disadvantages include its rigid nature and difficulty in contouring to the surface of complex skeletal structures.


ABSTRACT Gaia Pigino received her master's degree in natural science followed by a PhD in evolutionary biology – focusing on zoology and ecotoxicology – in the laboratory of Fabio Bernini at the University of Siena, Italy. She then joined the electron microscopy laboratory of Pietro Lupetti for her first postdoctoral position before moving to Zürich. There, supported by an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship, she worked with Takashi Ishikawa at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen. In 2012, Gaia became an independent group leader at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden. Her laboratory is interested in understanding the assembly of the cilium and mechanisms of ciliary transport in eukaryotic cells, as investigated with cryo-transmission electron microscopy.


U–Pb zircon analyses from a series of orthogneisses sampled in drill core in the northern Gawler Craton provide crystallisation ages at ca 1775–1750 Ma, which is an uncommon age in the Gawler Craton. Metamorphic zircon and monazite give ages of ca 1730–1710 Ma indicating that the igneous protoliths underwent metamorphism during the craton-wide Kimban Orogeny. Isotopic Hf zircon data show that 1780–1750 Ma zircons are somewhat evolved with initial εHf values –4 to +0.9, and model ages of ca 2.3 to 2.2 Ga. Isotopic whole rock Sm–Nd values from most samples have relatively evolved initial εNd values of –3.7 to –1.4. In contrast, a mafic unit from drill hole Middle Bore 1 has a juvenile isotopic signature with initial εHf zircon values of ca +5.2 to +8.2, and initial εNd values of ∼+3.5 to +3.8. The presence of 1775–1750 Ma zircon forming magmatic rocks in the northern Gawler Craton provides a possible source for similarly aged detrital zircons in Paleoproterozoic basin systems of the Gawler Craton and adjacent Curnamona Province. Previous provenance studies on these Paleoproterozoic basins have appealed to the Arunta Region of the North Australian Craton to provide 1780–1750 Ma detrital zircons, and isotopically and geochemically similar basin fill. The orthogneisses in the northern Gawler Craton also match the source criteria and display geochemical similarities between coeval magmatism in the Arunta Region of the North Australian Craton, providing further support for paleogeographic reconstructions that link the Gawler Craton and North Australian Craton during the Paleoproterozoic.


The microscopic diagnostic differentiation of odontogenic cysts from other cysts is intricate and may cause perplexity for both clinicians and pathologists. Of particular interest is the odontogenic keratocyst (OKC), a developmental cyst with unique histopathological and clinical characteristics. Nevertheless, what distinguishes this cyst is its aggressive nature and high tendency for recurrence. Clinicians encounter challenges in dealing with this frequently encountered jaw lesion, as there is no consensus on surgical treatment. Therefore, the accurate and early diagnosis of such cysts will benefit clinicians in terms of treatment management and spare subjects from the mental agony of suffering from aggressive OKCs, which impact their quality of life. The objective of this research is to develop an automated OKC diagnostic system that can function as a decision support tool for pathologists, whether they are working locally or remotely. This system will provide them with additional data and insights to enhance their decision-making abilities. This research aims to provide an automation pipeline to classify whole-slide images of OKCs and non-keratocysts (non-KCs: dentigerous and radicular cysts). OKC diagnosis and prognosis using the histopathological analysis of tissues using whole-slide images (WSIs) with a deep-learning approach is an emerging research area. WSIs have the unique advantage of magnifying tissues with high resolution without losing information. The contribution of this research is a novel, deep-learning-based, and efficient algorithm that reduces the trainable parameters and, in turn, the memory footprint. This is achieved using principal component analysis (PCA) and the ReliefF feature selection algorithm (ReliefF) in a convolutional neural network (CNN) named P-C-ReliefF. The proposed model reduces the trainable parameters compared to standard CNN, achieving 97% classification accuracy.


A container security device (CSD) monitors intrusion through the cargo door; it is a reduced function device that uses IEEE 802.15.4 with a beacon mode. However, in the beacon mode, the CSD consumes too much battery power in periodical listening and sensing trials even when there is no CSD reader. Therefore, we propose a low-power CSD to reduce the unnecessary power consumption. The proposed CSD follows the requirements of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and reduces battery consumption through a power-efficient hardware design, a night-watch mechanism for low-power operation and low-power sensing to reduce unnecessary monitoring. Simulation results show that our CSD reduces battery consumption by over 70% through the night-watch mechanism and by approximately 80% through the low-power sensing.


MODE-PP TeX (MODE TeX Pretty-Printer) is a module which allows formatting and pretty printing of GRM (General Relationship Model) and GDMO (Guidelines for the Definition of Managed Objects) specifications. The tool allows the generation of one or more TeX files which contain formatted specifications according to different document style constrains. MODE-PP TeX is part of the MODE (Managed Object Development Environment) prototype which is developed for integrating the use of Formal Description Techniques in an environment for building Management applications. MODE-PP TeX is built on top of MODE-FE and is provided as a library. This document is the reference manual for release 1.0 of the MODE-PP TeX library and its API.


Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. To provide cloud computing services, it is required to allocate bandwidth to access the processing ability simultaneously. It would be also necessary in the future to consider the case where ICT equipment operates under the condition that the total electric power supply available is restricted, because the percentage of electric power generated by renewable energy, such as photovoltaic power generation and wind power energy, will continue to rise and the power generated by these natural means varies over time considerably. First, this paper presents cloud resource allocation guidelines in the case where there is a limit to electric power capacity available in each area, assuming a cloud computing environment in which both processing ability and network bandwidth are allocated simultaneously. Next, it proposes a method for optimally allocating both processing ability and bandwidth as well as electric power capacity. Optimal allocation means that the number of requests that can be processed is maximized, and the power consumed by a request is minimized. It is demonstrated by simulation evaluations that the proposed method is effective. Finally, this paper presents an algorithm that attempts to reduce total electric power consumption by aggregating request processing of multiple areas.


Freshwater scarcity is a critical challenge threatening human survival especially due to poverty and arid and off-grid regions. Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) has emerged as a promising strategy for clean water production. However, most of the high-capacity sorbents are limited by the poor sorption/desorption kinetics and uncontrollable liquid leakage problem. Inspired by the plant transpiration process, we develop an environmentally friendly LiCl@pollen cell-polypyrrole (LiCl@PC-PPy) composite sorbent by confining the LiCl hygroscopic agent in the cages of the PC-PPy. The composite sorbent exhibits much improved sorption/desorption kinetics owing to the hydrophilicity of the hierarchical porous structure of the pollen cells, which provides abundant water sorption active sites and diffusion pathways and forms a concave meniscus on cell skeletons to maximize the thermal utilization efficiency. Moreover, the big cavities of the PC-PPy cages can serve as a water reservoir to reduce liquid leakage. As a result, the sorbent can capture atmospheric water to 85% of its own weight under 60% relative humidity (RH) within 2 h and rapidly release the water within 1 h under weak light irradiation of 0.8 sun. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, the fabricated AWH device can absorb 1.55 gwater/gsorbent at night and collect 1.53 gwater/gsorbent of water in 1-day outdoor operation, and the collected water can meet the drinking water standards defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).


Plutonium and Pu-Ga alloys have been observed to have anomalous hydrogen solubility behavior, including a significant concentration dependence of hydrogen diffusivity in the dilute regime, a sharp drop off in the hydrogen solubility constant in the dilute regime, and a near complete absence of change in the Sieverts' constant as the alloys are heated across phase transformation boundaries. We are investigating the possibility that a vacancy mechanism is responsible for this behavior. X-ray diffraction measurements show a 0.14% lattice contraction in Pu-2 at. % Ga alloys when they are charged with ~2 at. % hydrogen. The lattice re-expands when the hydrogen is removed. Density functional calculations show that increasing the number of hydrogen atoms associated with a vacant lattice site in Pu lowers the energy of the hydrogen-vacancy complex. These observations support the idea that vacancies are stabilized by hydrogen in the Pu lattice well beyond their thermal equilibrium concentration and could be responsible for the anomalous hydrogen response of Pu.


By default, neural networks learn on all training data at once. When such a model is trained on sequential chunks of new data, it tends to catastrophically forget how to handle old data. In this work we investigate how continual learners learn and forget representations. We observe two phenomena: knowledge accumulation, i.e. the improvement of a representation over time, and feature forgetting, i.e. the loss of task-specific representations. To better understand both phenomena, we introduce a new analysis technique called task exclusion comparison. If a model has seen a task and it has not forgotten all the task-specific features, then its representation for that task should be better than that of a model that was trained on similar tasks, but not that exact one. Our image classification experiments show that most task-specific features are quickly forgotten, in contrast to what has been suggested in the past. Further, we demonstrate how some continual learning methods, like replay, and ideas from representation learning affect a continually learned representation. We conclude by observing that representation quality is tightly correlated with continual learning performance.


An increase in use of bicycles for short urban trips could help in a small but significant way to alleviate some present urban traffic problems. To encourage this goal an effective network of cycle-ways is needed on which bicycles and other compatible vehicles can be safely operated. An alternative bicycle type vehicle is proposed to overcome the disadvantages which deter some people from using bicycles. In this way it is hoped to encourage a greater potential use of cycle ways. This paper discusses the specifications for the vehicle and describes the design and development of prototypes.


A survey was conducted of Greek (N = 27), Chinese (N = 21) and Anglo Australian (N = 26) carers of frail aged people living in the community. The health and dependency status of the aged groups were similar as were many of the experiences of the carers, e.g. stress experienced, appreciation of community services used. Anglo Australian carers were less likely to reside with the aged and seemed more attuned to eventual nursing home placement. Greek carers used fewer services, were least likely to have considered placement and emphasised their duty to care. Chinese carers were those most likely to use services and appreciate their potential for maintaining the aged in the community.

Mary Westbrook is Associate Professor in Psychology and Dr Varoe Legge is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. In this capacity they are involved in the education of practitioners in ten health professions. They are currently researching attitudes toward physical disability and rehabilitation in six Australian communities.


Skeletal metastases are clinically significant because of associated symptoms, complications such as pathological fractures and their profound significance for staging treatment and prognosis. Detection of bone metastatic lesions allows radiation therapy or surgical interventions to prevent pathological fractures from disabling the patients. High sensitivity of bone scanning in determining the presence and extent of metastatic disease makes extremely important tool in decision making. Bone scans demonstrate metastatic lesions much earlier than X-ray,C.T.,MRI. 99mTechnetium methylene di-phosphonate (99mTc MDP) bone scintigraphy was performed for the detection of bone metastases in histopathologically proven patients of breast cancer. All spot views were taken as the primary method of acquisition, the regions of the skeleton covered by each spot view. The first spot view of the axial skeleton, usually the posterior projection of the chest, was acquired for approximately 500,000 to 1 million counts depending on the field of view (FOV) of the gamma camera. 53 patients of breast cancer were investigated with gamma camera. On visual analysis there was positive scan findings (bone metastases) in 19 patients (35.84 %) and negative scan findings (normal bone scan) in 34 patients (66.6%). 99mTc-MDP bone scintigraphy elucidates, non-invasively, tumour characteristics and may be indicative for prognosis and response to chemotherapy and hormonal treatment. Purpose of study was to diagnose, staging and see the treatment response in breast cancer patients.


Unquestionably, the purification of polypeptides by chromatographic methods is a considerable bottleneck in their preparation. Peptides synthesised by solid phase synthesis typically contain chromatographically similar impurities that complicate purification by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques. We report on the application of a slow gradient HPLC protocol that allows, in a single chromatographic step, the purification of hundreds of milligrammes of material. This technique was applied to an extensive collection of synthetic polypeptides some incorporating non‐proteinogenic functionality. In all cases examined, the peptides were not only obtained in high purity peptides but were also recovered in multi‐milligramme amounts. Copyright © 2012 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The spherulitic superstructure, crystallinity, and structure and morphology of crystals of isotactic polypropylene were controlled by the conditions of melt crystallization and related to the transmittance of visible light. Spherulitic samples, which contained monoclinic lamellae, were prepared by slow cooling of the quiescent melt at rates lower than 10 K/s and by isothermal melt crystallization at temperatures between 373 and 413 K. Nonspherulitic specimens, which contained nonlamellar mesomorphic domains, in contrast, were obtained by rapid cooling of the melt with rates faster than 100 K/s. The crystallinity and the size of crystals were furthermore fine-tuned by subsequent annealing at elevated temperatures. Analysis of such films of different structure by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy revealed that the light transmission was independent of (1) the fraction, (2) the internal structure, and (3) the size of the crystals. In contrast, the light transmission increased with decreasing size of spherulites and finally exceeded 90% in films of 100 μm thickness when spherulites were completely absent. The crystallinity and the structure and size of the crystals of the films of isotactic polypropylene could be adjusted within wide limits without affecting the light transmission. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010


We present double pooling, a simple, easy-to-implement variation on test pooling, that in certain ranges for the a priori probability of a positive test, is significantly more efficient than the standard single pooling approach (the Dorfman method).


A social tagging system, such as del.icio.us and Flickr, allows users to annotate resources (e.g., web pages and photos) with text descriptions called tags. Tags have proven to be invaluable information for searching, mining, and recommending resources. In practice, however, not all resources receive the same attention from users. As a result, while some highlypopular resources are over-tagged, most of the resources are under-tagged. Incomplete tagging on resources severely affects the effectiveness of all tag-based techniques and applications. We address an interesting question: if users are paid to tag specific resources, how can we allocate incentives to resources in a crowd-sourcing environment so as to maximize the tagging quality of resources? We address this question by observing that the tagging quality of a resource becomes stable after it has been tagged a sufficient number of times. We formalize the concepts of tagging quality (TQ) and tagging stability (TS) in measuring the quality of a resource's tag description. We propose a theoretically optimal algorithm given a fixed "budget" (i.e., the amount of money paid for tagging resources). This solution decides the amount of rewards that should be invested on each resource in order to maximize tagging stability. We further propose a few simple, practical, and efficient incentive allocation strategies. On a dataset from del.icio.us, our best strategy provides resources with a close-to-optimal gain in tagging stability.


Predicting wheat phenology is important for cultivar selection, for effective crop management and provides a baseline for evaluating the effects of global change. Evaluating how well crop phenology can be predicted is therefore of major interest. Twenty-eight wheat modeling groups participated in this evaluation. Our target population was wheat fields in the major wheat growing regions of Australia under current climatic conditions and with current local management practices. The environments used for calibration and for evaluation were both sampled from this same target population. The calibration and evaluation environments had neither sites nor years in common, so this is a rigorous evaluation of the ability of modeling groups to predict phenology for new sites and weather conditions. Mean absolute error (MAE) for the evaluation environments, averaged over predictions of three phenological stages and over modeling groups, was 9 days, with a range from 6 to 20 days. Predictions using the multi-modeling group mean and median had prediction errors nearly as small as the best modeling group. About two thirds of the modeling groups performed better than a simple but relevant benchmark, which predicts phenology by assuming a constant temperature sum for each development stage. The added complexity of crop models beyond just the effect of temperature was thus justified in most cases. There was substantial variability between modeling groups using the same model structure, which implies that model improvement could be achieved not only by improving model structure, but also by improving parameter values, and in particular by improving calibration techniques.


This paper explains how commonality analysis (CA) can be conducted using a specific Statistical Analysis System (SAS) procedure and some simple computations. CA is used in edlcational and social science research to partition the variance of a dependent variable into its constituent predicted parts. CA determines the proportion of explained variance that is unique to a predictor variable and the proportion that is common to two or more predictors. Whereas the ordering of the predictors using stepwise regression may lead to faulty data interpretations, CA is a method by which all possible predictor combinations are tested to determine the model that best explains predicted variance. Data from a study of life satisfaction (LS) among 198 elderly residents in 17 Texas nursing homes illustrate procedures for conducting CA with regression results. The subjects completed a LS questionnaire to determine if their self-reports of LS differed from those of the elderly living outside of nursing homes. Eight subscale components and the number of years in the nursing home were analyzed by regression to determine which variable best predicted nursing home satisfaction. Meaning was the dominant factor in predicting nursing home satisfaction and accounted for about 80% of all explained variance in the sample. In addition, a SAS computer program for obtaining all possible R-squared values is discussed as an efficient method of implementing the required analyses. CA offers a fairly straightforward method of analysis when no more than four independent variables are of interest. Three tables of data are presented, and the R-squares of LS scales are included. (SLD) ******************************************************t**************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original docment. ***********************************************************************


The temperature dependence of the capacitance of very high efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells exhibits an anomalously large increase with temperature that cannot be explained under the usual depletion approximation. Based on a full calculation of the capacitance, we show that this large increase of capacitance with temperature of p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) heterojunctions occurs when a strong inversion layer at the c-Si surface appears. It is further shown that due to the promotion of inversion as the temperature increases, the temperature at which strong inversion appears depends on the valence band offset and position of the Fermi level in a-Si:H. Therefore, a simple analysis of the temperature dependence of silicon heterojunction solar cells' capacitance can be used to reveal the presence of a strong inversion, to study details of the band diagram and to get insight into the heterointerface.


Abstract Marchiafava–Bignami disease (MBD) is a rare neurological disease usually associated with chronic alcoholism and characterized by demyelination and necrosis. Our aims were to describe the clinicoradiological features and identify factors that may affect the prognosis of patients with MBD. We examined clinical manifestations, laboratory results, and neuroradiological features of 9 patients with MBD. The patients were classified into 2 subgroups (favorable and poor outcome subgroups) based on the Modified Oxford Handicap Scale (MOSH). In addition, we compared the clinical and neuroimaging features between the 2 subgroups. Nine adult male patients (age of onset range 37–62 years, with a mean age of 47.00 ± 14.50 years) were included in this study. According to MOSH, 4 patients were placed in the poor outcome subgroup (MOHS ≥ 3), 5 patients were placed in the favorable outcome subgroup (MOHS ⩽ 2). Relatively high score of MAST-C (≥6) (P = .008), extracallosal lesions (P = .048), GCS (P = .026), cerebral lobe impairment (P = .048) was significantly more common in the poor outcome subgroup. Clinical manifestations of MBD are variable and lack specificity. Early diagnosis by relatively specific performance of bisymmetric lesions in corpus callosum of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) may affect the prognosis. The prognosis of patients with severe disturbance of consciousness, heavy alcohol consumption, extracallosal lesions, cerebral lobe impairment is probably unfavorable.


PURPOSE
Breast carcinomas becoming tamoxifen-resistant after objective clinical response to antiestrogen therapy may remain responsive to other endocrine agents due to different mechanisms of action. The aim of our study was to analyze whether primarily tamoxifen-unresponsive/steroid receptor (SR) - positive breast carcinomas can respond to an aromatase inhibition.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Thirteen postmenopausal, SR-positive, metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients were included: they had previously failed to respond to tamoxifen, either as primary systemic therapy for advanced disease, or as adjuvant treatment (5 and 8 patients, respectively). Patients were treated with 2.5 mg letrozole daily, from 2-25 months, mostly until disease progression.

RESULTS
Partial response (PR) was obtained in one third of the patients (4/13); additionally, 3 patients showed disease stabilization (SD) longer than 6 months. The observed response duration lasted from 7 to 36+ months (median 9). Overall survival from the beginning of letrozole treatment was better in letrozole responders compared with nonresponders. It appeared as if there were two different subgroups of patients: one completely endocrine-unresponsive, and the other unresponsive to tamoxifen but responsive to letrozole (supposed to be primarily tamoxifen-resistant, but otherwise endocrine-responsive). HER-2 overexpression (immunohistochemically determined as 2+ and 3+) was found in 3 patients, which could not account for the different endocrine responsiveness.

CONCLUSION
Our study confirmed that some SR-positive breast carcinomas, primarily tamoxifen-unresponsive, may respond to letrozole, thus being endocrine-responsive, while others did not respond, probably due to complete endocrine unresponsiveness. It is not likely that HER-2 was the biomarker that made the difference between these two subgroups.


Mach's principle was used by Mishra, and we use this work to come up with conditions for a stable overall mass M, contributing to GW generation / entropy of the universe. The composition of M as gravitons changes over time from initial beginnings to the present day, but the final invariant gravitional mass M we work with is a way to state initial and final numbers, N, of the constituent particles contributing to entropy of our universe. This relates to the number of Gravitinos, the super‐partners to Gravitons, as contibutions to N, initially, and dying out as up to the present day values. Seen from the present, we have the


In recent years microwave techniques take more in to consideration. In most applications wide broadband amplifier is need. One of these circuits which used for broadband amplifier designing is reactively matching circuit. In designing of reactively matching circuit, in method which is named compensated matching, with making a small unmatching in input and output of matching network changing gain are decrease as for as possible along the band. The small unmatched in designing of matched circuit in compensated matching method call matching error. Changing of amplifier gain along the spectrum totally depended on matching error. So we should decrease matching error until gain amplifier be constant along the spectrum. We can assign suitable elements in matching circuit to achieve wide band and small matching error broadband amplifier but, it is difficult and time-consuming to assign proper elements. Hence, make a new method in order to determine proper elements for maximum decrease of matching error with high speed looks necessary. The goal of this paper is presentation a new method for designing broadband amplifier to either cause the sever decrease in matching error or increase the designing speed. In the new presentation method an equation is achieve to accounting matching error which is base on S transistor parameters and matching circuit elements. Then in order to reduce the matching error, genetic algorithm method is used. In order to consider application of the new proposed method, a matching circuit is designed with five elements. This design is with use of compensated matching methods and proposed method. The results show designing time and matching error of the new method is decreased dramatically.


The Sample Survey of Military Personnel in the spring of 1996 asked detailed questions of Army personnel about job satisfaction. Maximum likelihood factor analysis yielded four factors: satisfaction with supervision, with job environment, with the duty specifically, and with opportunity for development, factors similar to those used in Smith's Job Descriptive Index, 1992, Scales developed from these factors showed acceptable internal consistency reliability and correlated as expected with measures of satisfaction with Army life, retention, morale, combat preparedness, and overall job satisfaction. Some divergent validity was established with measures of personal/family stress and with previous job stress. Demographic data suggested that soldiers with higher education found more satisfying job opportunities while those with higher rank, more years of service, and higher age reported greater satisfaction with job fulfillment, perhaps a consequence of selection effects.


High surface area activated carbon (AC) obtained by KOH activation was pulverized by ultrasonic air-jet pulverization equipment and the effect of particle size of AC on rate performance of electric double layer capacitors (ECs) was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectrometry using an equivalent circuit model based on a mixed kinetic and charge transfer control. The model parameters were extracted by Marquardt fitting method. The series solution resistance, polarization resistance and Warburg resistance were obtained. It is found that both the series solution resistance and polarization resistance are independent of the particle size while the Warburg resistance determined by the mass transport resistance or diffusion coefficient of ions within pores of AC particles governs the rate capability of the AC based ECs, owing to the short diffusion length of ions within pores of AC particles.


This paper describes the development of an AR-based modular construction system, which can be used within the phases of advanced automobile development. The application completes real automobile prototypes by virtual components to show design variants or to support design reviews. Therefore the user can select virtual car components from a virtual component menu and place them on a real car. Interaction with the AR-scene is done by hand gestures. The evaluation of the applications was done at Volkswagen AG, department of commercial vehicles, a German automobile manufacturer.


Historical photographs of people generate significant cultural and economic value, but correctly identifying the subjects of photos can be a difficult task, requiring careful attention to detail while synthesizing large amounts of data from diverse sources. When photos are misidentified, the negative consequences can include financial losses and inaccuracies in the historical record, and even the spread of mis- and disinformation. To address this challenge, we introduce Photo Steward, an information stewardship architecture that leverages a deliberative workflow for validating historical photo IDs. We explored Photo Steward in the context of Civil War Photo Sleuth (CWPS), a popular online community dedicated to identifying photos from the American Civil War era (1861–65) using facial recognition and crowdsourcing. While the platform has been successful in identifying hundreds of unknown photographs, there have been concerns about unverified identifications and misidentifications. Our exploratory evaluation of Photo Steward on CWPS showed that its validation workflow encouraged users to deliberate while making photo ID decisions. Further, its stewardship visualizations helped users to assess photo ID information accurately, while fostering diverse forms of stigmergic collaboration.


The addition of simple porous fabric layers to electrorheological fluid activated clutches is demonstrated to improve, and in some cases more than double the available operating torque, whilst slightly reducing the EHT supply current requirements. The use of this technique in other devices such as actuators, flexible joints, controllable compliant surfaces etc. is also been found to be essential in preventing electrical breakdown. >


Research has revealed the existence of genuine, exaggerated and suppressed pain facial expressions, which can be influenced by pain type, previous experience with pain, and empathy.
The present study investigated how observers with and without chronic pain perceive genuine and deceptive pain expressions, in individuals experiencing chronic pain and experimental pain. The study comprised of three phases. Phase one involved collecting facial expressions of pain. Ten female participants took part (five with chronic pain and five experiencing experimental pain). Genuine, exaggerated, suppressed and neutral expressions were collected. Phase two was a pilot study of the images from Phase one. Phase three was a survey of the facial expressions. Forty three participants took part (23 with chronic pain and 20 with no pain).
Participants categorised expressions and rated images' pain intensity. Findings revealed that observers struggled to distinguish between genuine and deceptive pain expressions, however experimental pain expressions were easier to read than chronic pain expressions.
Similarly, observers with no pain were better at reading expressions than observers with chronic pain. Empathy had little effect on pain intensity ratings. The findings are considered with regards to previous research, and methodological limitations, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.


A 74-year-old man presented with right eye pain, swelling, photophobia, and vision loss 1 month following placement of an intravitreal dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex; Allergan, Irvine, CA) for intraocular inflammation refractory to topical therapy. Clinical examination showed visual acuity of 20/400, anterior chamber cell, vitritis, retinal vasculitis, and extensive retinitis. A vitreous biopsy was performed followed by intravitreal injections of vancomycin, ceftazidime, ganciclovir, and clindamycin. Polymerase chain-reaction testing was positive for Toxoplasma gondii. After a course of systemic therapy, intraocular inflammation subsided but visual acuity remained poor. This is the first case to the authors' knowledge of reactivation of T. gondii following intravitreal implantation of dexamethasone. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina. 2016;47:1050-1052.].


The RAF/MEK/ERK (MAP Kinase) pathway is the index oncogenic signaling towards which many compounds have been developed and tested for the treatment of KRAS-driven cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Here, we explored the immunological changes induced by targeted MEK1/2 inhibition (MEKi) using trametinib in preclinical mouse models of PDA. We evaluated the dynamic changes in the immune contexture of mouse PDA upon MEKi using a multidimensional approach (mRNA analyses, flow cytometry, and immunophenotyping). Effect of MEKi on the viability and metabolism of macrophages was investigated in vitro. We showed that transcriptional signatures of MAP Kinase activation are enriched in aggressive human PDA subtype (squamous/basal-like/quasimesenchymal), while short term MEKi treatment in mouse PDA induced subtype switching. Integrative mRNA expression and immunophenotypic analyses showed that MEKi reshapes the immune landscape of PDA by depleting rather than reprogramming macrophages, while augmenting infiltration by neutrophils. Depletion of macrophages is observed early in the course of in vivo treatment and is at least partially due to their higher sensitivity to MEKi. Tumor-associated macrophages were consistently reported to interfere with gemcitabine uptake by PDA cells. Here, our in vivo studies show a superior antitumor activity upon combination of MEKi and gemcitabine using a sequential rather than simultaneous dosing protocol. Our results show that MEK inhibition induces a dramatic remodeling of the tumor microenvironment of mouse PDA through depletion of macrophages, which substantially improves the antitumor activity of gemcitabine.


The paper works out an online self-learning control plant for multiple support vector machine inverse control. The multiple support vector machine model applies subtractive clustering algorithm by which the input space is divided into several small local spaces. By means of least squares support vector machine, the sub-models are established. The prediction output of each sub-model is connected by principal components regression method so that identification of the inverse dynamics model of the system is achieved. Combining inverse model of the system as a system controller with the controlled plant, a SVM direct inverse control system is constituted. In order to overcome the influence of inverse model identification error, a SVM direct inverse control system with the PID compensation is designed in the paper. The simulation research proves that the control strategy can provide the system with good tracking performance, resistance to interference and a better robustness.


Oral tolerance blocks the development of specific immune responses to proteins ingested by the oral route. One of the first registries of oral tolerance showed that guinea pigs fed corn became refractory to hypersensitivity to corn proteins. Mice fed with chow containing corn are tolerant to zein, and parenteral injection of zein plus adjuvant blocks immunization to unrelated proteins injected concomitantly and reduces unspecific inflammation. Extensive and prolonged inflammatory infiltrate in the wound bed is one of the causes of pathological wound healing. Previous research shows that intraperitoneal injection of zein concomitant with skin injuries reduces the inflammatory infiltrate in the wound bed and improves wound healing. Herein, we tested if one subcutaneous injection of zein before skin injury improves wound healing. We also investigated how long the effects triggered by zein could improve skin wound healing. Mice fed zein received two excisional wounds on the interscapular skin under anesthesia. Zein plus Al(OH)3 was injected at the tail base at 10 min, or 3, 5, or 7 days before skin injuries. Wound healing was analyzed at days 7 and 40 after injury. Our results showed that a zein injection up to 5 days before skin injury reduced the inflammatory infiltrate, increased the number of T-cells in the wound bed, and improved the pattern of collagen deposition in the neodermis. These findings could promote the development of new strategies for the treatment and prevention of pathological healing using proteins normally found in the common diet.


A noninvasive method was developed to assess fracture healing using optical densitometric methodology. Photometric measurements of osseous tissue density were based on illuminance or intensity of light, transmitted through standard roentgenograms. The method was tested in 6-mm tibial segmental defects and single-cut osteotomy defects in adult mongrel dogs. The lowest measureable bone density in the defect was compared to bending rigidity of the involved extremity. For both types of defect, an exponential relationship was found between the densitometric evaluation of the healing fracture gap and bending rigidity. This method proved superior to a roentgenographic scoring method and is capable of detecting small differences in mineral content using standard roentgenograms. The high correlation between densitometric evaluation and bone rigidity indicates this method has potential for use in the in vivo assessment of fracture healing.


In this paper, we present an e(cid:14)cient approach for supporting fast-scanning (FS) operations in MPEG-based video-on-demand (VOD) systems. This approach is based on storing multiple, di(cid:11)erently encoded versions of the same movie at the server. A normal version is used for normal playback, while several scan versions are used for FS. Each scan version supports forward and backward FS at a given speedup. The server responds to a FS request by switching from the normal version to an appropriate scan version. Scanning versions are produced by encoding a sample of the raw frames using the same GOP pattern of the normal version. When a scanning version is decoded and played back at the normal frame rate, it gives a perceptual motion speedup. By being able to control the tra(cid:14)c envelopes of the scan versions, our approach can be integrated into a previously proposed framework for distributing archived, MPEG-coded video streams [21]. FS operations are supported using no or little extra network bandwidth beyond what is already allocated for normal playback. Mechanisms for controlling the tra(cid:14)c envelopes of the scan versions are presented. The actions taken by the server and the client's decoder in response to various types of interactive requests are described in detail. The latency incurred in implementing various interactive requests is shown to be within an acceptable range. Striping and disk scheduling strategies for storing various versions at the server are presented. Issues related to the implementation of our approach are discussed. Finally, we compare our scheme against other FS approaches.


We recorded an EEG within the first few days of coma in 100 patients without history of trauma or drug intoxication, in 50 after cardiac arrest, and in 50 in coma of other, chiefly metabolic etiologies. The EEG findings were classified in 5 categories (I-V) in terms of increasing severity. We were especially interested in the question whether the degree of early EEG disturbances allows prognostic conclusions regarding the clinical fate of patients one month after the beginning of coma. It was found that very severe EEG changes (Grad IV-V) indicate a poor prognosis (death, persistent vegetative state or profound neurological deficits) in over 90% of coma both after cardiac arrest and of other etiologies. An EEG without very severe changes (grade I-III) does not allow definite prognostic conclusions. Depending on the etiology, recovery occurs in 10-33% of cases. The prognostic significance of certain EEG parameters can be summarized as follows: areactivity to external stimuli and the presence of an "alpha-coma" pattern are usually (but not necessarily) associated with a poor outcome. The same applies to coma patients with epileptiform patterns in the EEG and/or suffering from epileptic or myoclonic seizures. One-fourth of patients with triphasic EEG complexes recover completely.


Brushite (Dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, (DCPD), CaHPO4·2H2O) is one of key components in calcium phosphate system due to wide attractive material not only as bioceramics but also environmental materials. Morphology of DCPD crystals is important factor when one uses its functionality with chemical reaction; because its surface crystal face, shape and size rule the chemical reactivity, responsiveness. Moreover, physical properties are also changed the morphology; such as cohesion, dispersiveness, permeability and so on. If one uses DCPD crystals as environmental renovation materials to catch the fluoride ions, their shape require 020 crystal surfaces; which usually restricts their shape as plate-like structure. After the chemical reaction, the shape of sludge is not good for handling due to their agglutinate property. Therefore searching an effective parameter and developing the method to control the morphology of DCPD crystals is required. In past, we reported that initial concentration and pH value of starting solution, prepared by dissolving calcium nitrate, Ca(NO3)2 and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, NH4H2PO4, changes the morphology of DCPD crystals and phase diagram of morphology of DCPD crystal depend on those parameter. The DCPD crystallization shows unique behaviour; products obtained higher initial concentration form single crystal-like structure and under lower condition, they form agglomerate crystal-like structure. These results contradict usual crystallization. Here we report that the effect of mixing process of two solutions. The morphology of DCPD crystals is changed from plate structure to petal structure by the arrangement. Our result suggests that morphology of DCPD crystals strongly depends at incipient crystallization condition and growth form is controllable by setting initial crystallization condition.


A novel heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) unilateral model oriented to a fast prediction of the performance of HBT monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit distributed amplifiers is proposed. The HBT unilateral model includes, by simple expressions, the effects caused by the HBT parasitics. A graphical design procedure for HBT distributed amplifiers is also proposed. This method is based on a set of generalized charts and represents a simple and fast design tool for designers. Comparisons between the performance of specially designed HBT distributed amplifiers and the results obtained using the HBT unilateral model demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.


Kynurenic Acid (KYNA) is a metabolite of tryptophan pathway and also an endogenous antagonist of glutamate receptors. Several studies indicated that glutamate antagonists have anti-proliferative potential. Moreover, subunits of the NMDA receptor which is one of the glutamate receptors have been shown to be found in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2). In this study, the antitumor effects of KYNA in HepG2 cells were investigated for the first time at the molecular level. The effects of KYNA on the viability of HepG2 cells were determined by MTT analyses. Effects of KYNA on mRNA transcriptions of apoptosis related genes Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 were analyzed by qRT-PCR. mRNA expression analysis revealed that the mRNA levels of effector Caspase-3 and pro-apoptotic Bax/Bcl-2 ratio were not increased in HepG2 cells treated with KYNA. In conclusion, our findings showed that KYNA does not exert its anti-proliferative effects on HepG2 cells through caspase-mediated apoptotic cell death, but it may perform this anti-proliferative effect through a different mechanism of death. Further studies are needed to find out potential cell death mechanisms that may play a role in anti-proliferative activity of KYNA on HepG2 cells.


ABSTRACT Outlet glaciers undergo rapid spatial and temporal changes in flow velocity during calving events. Observing such changes requires both high temporal and high spatial resolution methods, something now possible with terrestrial radar interferometry. While a single such radar provides line-of-sight velocity, two radars define both components of the horizontal flow field. To assess the feasibility of obtaining the two-dimensional (2-D) flow field, we deployed two terrestrial radar interferometers at Jakobshavn Isbrae, a major outlet glacier on Greenland's west coast, in the summer of 2012. Here, we develop and demonstrate a method to combine the line-of-sight velocity data from two synchronized radars to produce a 2-D velocity field from a single (3 min) interferogram. Results are compared with the more traditional feature-tracking data obtained from the same radar, averaged over a longer period. We demonstrate the potential and limitations of this new dual-radar approach for obtaining high spatial and temporal resolution 2-D velocity fields at outlet glaciers.


After the Higgs boson discovery at the LHC in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, the measurement of the properties of the Higgs boson became the priority among the experimental particle physics community. The Higgs boson mass and the third family (t, b and τ) Yukawa couplings have now been measured at the LHC. The best accuracy on the Higgs boson mass, which is currently 140 MeV. In order to measure the Higgs boson properties at high precision, the high energy future collider programs were proposed. In this essay, the ZH cross-section measurement with "recoil mass" technique, the electron Yukawa coupling, and the Higgs boson self-coupling measurements at FCC will be discussed.


It is a hot topic how entanglement, a quantity from quantum information theory, can assist machine learning. In this work, we implement numerical experiments to classify patterns/images by representing the classifiers as matrix product states (MPS). We show how entanglement can interpret machine learning by characterizing the importance of data and propose a feature extraction algorithm. We show on the MNIST dataset that when reducing the number of the retained pixels to 1/10 of the original number, the decrease of the ten-class testing accuracy is only O (10–3), which significantly improves the efficiency of the MPS machine learning. Our work improves machine learning's interpretability and efficiency under the MPS representation by using the properties of MPS representing entanglement.


This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is expected that some existing clients may have an incentive to switch away from a newly merged firm as the same larger firm now audits close competitors once audited by separate firms. Prior theory also suggests that another group of potential clients should be attracted to the newly merged firm where the merger enhances or creates industry specializations. The expectation is that in both of these instances there will be increased switching activity associated with the newly merged audit firm. Contrary to expectations, a significantly lower level of switching behaviour was observed for the newly merged firm compared with that of the other Big 5 firms, suggesting that an advantage of enhanced specialization may not be the attraction of new clients but the retention of existing clients. When comparing the nature of the switches, some support was found for the view that the switches to the new firm were likely to be in enhanced areas of specialization, but no evidence was found to suggest that close competitors would switch away from this firm. The greater rate of retention of clients compared with other Big 5 firms was not associated with a more competitive audit pricing policy.


We examine the impact of wholesale markets on operations of the bulk power system and elaborate some basic implications of engineering practices for designs of wholesale markets. This analysis is intended to provide a basis for enhancements to existing principles of engineering management. Wholesale markets bring economic and financial aspects that alter the context in which system operations are conducted, and introduce incentive and benefit-cost considerations that might alter operating procedures that previously were based on reliability considerations. The principles addressed are those relevant to the interface between engineering aspects of system operations, and economic aspects of market operations. We outline ways that engineering practices developed in the era of vertically integrated utilities might be adapted to the wholesale markets introduced since restructuring began in 1998 in the United States.


Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has a complex pathophysiology withepithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) thought to be important to the pathogenesis of fibrotic lesions. CD248 is a membrane bound receptor that has collagen and lectins as ligands and is a stromal cell marker, whose expression is up-regulated post-natally during tissue inflammation andre-modelling. A role of CD248 is emerging in kidney fibrosis, but its function in the lung is unknown. We hypothesised that CD248 is a mesenchymal marker of IPF severity and that CD248 contributes to IPF pathogenesis. Methods CD248 expression was investigated in 23 IPF patient lung samples using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and qualitatively scored. Expression was assessed in cultured normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLFs), A549 cells, IPF derived fibroblasts and normal human primary ATIIs, treated with or without TGF-β1 and PDGF-BB, using flow cytometry and qRT-PCR. siRNA CD248 knock down (KD) on NHLF mesenchymal marker expression and proliferation was evaluated using qRT-PCR and BrdU assays. Results IHC revealed strong CD248 expression by fibroblasts in both fibrotic areas and physiological structures of IPF lung tissue (pericytes and pleural tissue). Expression was greatest in samples from lung transplant explants. In vitro, CD248 protein levels were significantly greater in IPF derived lung fibroblasts vs NHLFs (p < 0.01). CD248 KD significantly reduced proliferation of control, PDGF-BB and/or TGF-β1 treated NHLFs (p < 0.001), but collagen and αSMA mRNA levels were unaffected (p > 0.05). The alveolar epithelium did not express CD248 on the protein level and minimal CD248 mRNA levels were detected in cultured A549 cells and ATIIs, which remained unchanged during TGF-β1 induced EMT. Summary CD248 expression is elevated in the lungs of IPF patients especially in severe disease. CD248 expression appears specific for fibroblasts compared to epithelial cells and does not change during EMT. CD248 KD reduced fibroblast proliferation, but not myofibroblast differentiation. We conclude that CD248 over-expression is involved in the pathogenesis of IPF – and that it has potential as a marker of mesenchymal/fibroblast lineage. Given that CD248 ligands are collagen type I, IV and fibronectin, we hypothesise that CD248 signalling represents a novel matrix-fibroblast interaction that may be a potential therapeutic target in IPF.


Understanding the mechanisms that impact the performance of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) is essential to the development of optimized designs and fabrication processes, as well as the qualification of devices for commercial applications. Silicon micromachines include engines that consist of orthogonally oriented linear comb drive actuators mechanically connected to a rotating gear. These gears are as small as 50 micrometers in diameter and can be driven at rotation rates exceeding 300,000 rpm. Optical techniques offer the potential for measuring long term statistical performance data and transient responses needed to optimize designs and manufacturing techniques. We describe the development of Micromachine Optical Probe (MOP) technology for the evaluation of micromachine performance. The MOP approach is based on the detection of optical signals scattered by the gear teeth or other physical structures. We present experimental results obtained with a prototype optical probe and micromachines developed at Sandia National Laboratories.


The global economic trends of this century have put the management of knowledge at a level never before seen in human history. While the scope of known science and engineering fields keep shrinking as a result of emerging new frontiers that occasion break-a ways and multi-disciplinary interests, knowledge management as a matter of necessity continues to be on the increase because old knowledge is never thrown away but improved upon to evolve better products and better ways of achieving set objectives. Most African economies have evolved over several millennia and it is interesting to note that the various ethnic nationalities in Africa have been able to overcome the challenges of extinction because of the rich pool of their indigenous knowledge (IK). Indeed, the nations of the continent can emerge as global players faster if efforts are made to better understand and exploit this knowledge pool. This paper looks at the opportunities in the rich IK pool of the Nigerian ethnic nationalities, the possibility of evolving the appropriateintellectual property inherent and proposes a model that will energize the profitable and proper management of IK in Nigeria.


Small lesions in the brain stem (including the hypothalamus) of the European hamster were effective with respect to food intake, hibernatory disposition and thermogenic power (oxygen consumption) as well. Hyperphagia was accompanied by depression of hibernation mostly. Moreover, hibernation was hindered by impairment of the thermogenic capacity. Entrance into hibernation depended on the integrity of the middle and caudal hypothalamic areas and the rostral portions of the pons and midbrain. Hyperphagia resulted from destruction of the middle (ventromedial) hypothalamic and caudal hypothalamic areas, including transition structures to the pons. A depression of thermogenesis against cold was observed after destruction of supramammillary and neighbouring mesencephalic areas. Supplementary results: An annual metabolic rhythm characterized by a minimum in december has been established once more. Urethane anesthesia did not abolish cold thermogenesis, despite the development of a slight hypothermia. Poikilothermia resulting from brain stem damage disappeared during a three-day period. Furthermore, diencephalic lesions did not suppress arousal from hibernation significantly.


Energy saving and different working voltage applications are widely employing matrix converters. Matrix converters are used to convert three phase AC input voltages to three phase AC output voltages of required magnitude and frequency. Pulse width modulation is a technique used for converting three phase AC input to three phase AC output. In this research paper, pulse width modulation based matrix converter will be designed to acquire voltage of desired magnitude and frequency. Voltage transfer ratio will be maximized in this technique so that any desired voltage magnitude could be achieved. Secondly, harmonics will be made reduced in this design. Simulations will be performed in Matlab and characteristics of output waveform will be observed with respect to characteristics of input waveforms.


We studied the plasminogen activator levels in plasma samples of 37 patients with Behcet's syndrome. A significant decrease of plasminogen activator activity level was shown by the euglobulin lysis time method, the amidolytic activity level (Testzym method), and the fibrin plate method. Such a decrease may be associated with the severity of Behcet's syndrome.


This research utilizes a longitudinal methodology to study the entrepreneurial learning strategies of a representative sample (n= 173) of nascent entrepreneurs in Sweden. We examine Sarasvathy's theory of effectuation with respect to six different learning strategies and their effect on the progression of start-up processes. The results show that the progression of the start-up process, as represented by the number of gestation activities undertaken during each time period, is systematically related to the nascent entrepreneur's learning strategy. The analysis covers 24 months, and findings indicate that learning strategies associated with effectuation processes have positive effects on the progression of the start-up process. We also found positive effects from persistent learning strategies in the progression of the start up process.


Abstract In this study, we investigated the quantity and impact of worldwide research production in the field of "project management" over the past 38 years. We performed a bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database between 1980 and 2017 to develop an understanding of the evolution of research on "project management." Using the knowledge of a domain expert in the field of "project management," we first compiled a set of reliable keywords, which represented the field. Second, we developed a data extraction strategy for searching the phrase "project management" in the title or keyword or abstract of publications by limiting our sources to journals in English. We observed the evolution of this field by analyzing not only the quantity of publications but also their impact (citations) per year and compared their growth trend in four periods. The results of our analysis confirmed that not only the research themes or topics but also the active parties involved in project management research have experienced phonemic changes over time.


Freeform surfaces are becoming an increasingly exciting opportunity in optical design, in particular when correcting systems with off-axis geometries. Nevertheless, especially when coming to commercial use, the challenges for manufacturing are difficult to handle. The optical quality of a system is perturbed by typical deformations, such as localized figure errors and regular mid-spatial-frequency ripples, that come from the diamond-turning process. In this proposal, we investigated a workflow for analyzing the impact of real optical surfaces on the optical performance for even complex systems. Based on a simple and robust description, the surface is implemented back into the design. While the more localized deviations are analytically described by radial basis functions, the residual ripple structures are covered by a new approach based on the power spectral density. The reimport of optical surfaces back into the design software allows simple estimations for the requirements on manufacturing and the analysis of the realistic impact on system performance.


Adenoviral vector mediated gene therapy has received extensive attention in airway disease treatment. However, the lack of the requisite coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) on the apical surface of airway epithelium and the host immune response to adenoviruses limit their in vivo application. In our study, we developed for the first time a novel formulation composed of anionic liposomes and adenoviruses (AL-Ad5) using a calcium-induced phase change method. The obtained formulation was employed to enhance the transduction efficiency of airway gene delivery. Our results indicated that primary cultured airway epithelial cells infected by AL-Ad5 displayed higher LacZ gene expression compared to naked adenovirus. Importantly, AL-Ad5 significantly improved and prolonged LacZ gene expression in murine airway tissues when delivered in vivo by intratracheal instillation. Additionally, it was found that anionic liposomes provided immunoprotection to the adenovirus from neutralizing antibody, thus slowing down the elimination of Ad5 particles meanwhile reducing the inflammatory reaction caused by the Ad5 vector. These results suggested that the combination of anionic liposomes with adenovirus may be a useful strategy to deliver therapeutic genes into the airway epithelia and is promising in clinical application.


Platinum-based anticancer agents are widely used as first-line drugs in cancer chemotherapy for various solid tumors. However, great side effects and occurrence of resistance remain as the major drawbacks for almost all the platinum drugs developed. To conquer these problems, new strategies should be adopted for platinum drug based chemotherapy. Modern nanotechnology has been widely employed in the delivery of various therapeutics and diagnostic. It provides the possibility of targeted delivery of a certain anticancer drug to the tumor site, which could minimize toxicity and optimize the drug efficacy. Here, in this review, we focused on the recent progress in polymer based drug delivery systems for platinum-based combination therapy.


Abstract This special article is an essay version of the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy 2011 Carl Koller Award lecture. Historically, evaluations of a trainee's regional anesthesia learning focused on caseload numbers. The deficiency of this unidimensional approach is that case numbers alone say little about the resident's mastery of the nontechnical aspects of regional anesthesiology. Simulation can refine technical skills, but also expands the teaching paradigm to include management of rare complications. Teachers are further challenged by requirements to incorporate systems-based practice topics, including the optimization of operating room efficiency and patient safety. Journals play an important role in regional anesthesia education for both trainees and mature anesthesiologists. Editorial boards build valuable educational foundations by providing critical analysis of new technologies and sponsoring practice advisories. Subspecialty societies such as European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine foster regional anesthesia education through their efforts to define curricula, produce guidelines, and promote international collaboration.


A range of values exists in the literature for compositional dependence of bandgap in AlxGa1-xAs below the direct-indirect alloy composition and the way this is apportioned between the conduction and valence band edges. The authors compare results obtained from studies of compositionally graded quantum-well structures with consensus values and find that a self-consistent picture emerges only if a larger bandgap dependence than is still widely quoted in the literature is used. The preferred relation for bandgap dependence is Delta Eg(x)=1.427x+0.041x2 (eV) with a conduction-to-valence band split ratio of about 60:40, yielding Delta Ec=0.88x and Delta Ev=0.55x.


Causation at a distance does not explain quantum correlations. Explaining observations in terms of causes and effects is central to empirical science. However, correlations between entangled quantum particles seem to defy such an explanation. This implies that some of the fundamental assumptions of causal explanations have to give way. We consider a relaxation of one of these assumptions, Bell's local causality, by allowing outcome dependence: a direct causal influence between the outcomes of measurements of remote parties. We use interventional data from a photonic experiment to bound the strength of this causal influence in a two-party Bell scenario, and observational data from a Bell-type inequality test for the considered models. Our results demonstrate the incompatibility of quantum mechanics with a broad class of nonlocal causal models, which includes Bell-local models as a special case. Recovering a classical causal picture of quantum correlations thus requires an even more radical modification of our classical notion of cause and effect.


Cutaneous infection of guinea pigs with HSV1 was topically treated from 2 to 6 days post infection with 7 antiherpetic substances. Phosphonoformic acid and acyclovir were found to be highly effective; trifluorothymidine, thymine arabinoside, ethyldeoxyuridine, and adenine arabinoside monophosphate all had some therapeutic effect in decreasing order, whereas iododeoxyuridine was ineffective. The efficacy of treatment was evaluated from cutaneous lesion scores by the Wilcoxon rank test. The substances were combined in marginally effective concentrations. From the 21 combinations, acyclovir + phosphonoformic acid, acyclovir + thymine arabinoside, and phosphonoformic acid + thymine arabinoside suggested a synergistic interaction, which appeared significant for acyclovir + phosphonoformic acid.


Introduction: Maxillary and mandibular incisal display at rest and smile is an integral part of dento-facial aesthetics. Its correlation with lip form and the effect of age and gender has not been studied in elderly Indian population. Dental photography has been given a great importance in prosthodontics and the study of various aesthetic parameters on digitalised photographs can act as additional diagnostic tool. Aim: To determine correlation between lip form and incisal display in elderly subjects and to determine age and gender related changes. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Prosthodontics, Karnavati School of Dentistry, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, from November 2020 to September 2021. The study sample comprised of digital photographs taken in natural head position of 324 elderly Indian subjects (180 males &144 females) and they were divided into 4 age groups: Group I consisting of 157 subjects aged (31- 45 years), Group II consisting of 107 subjects aged (46-55 years), Group III consisting of 47 subjects aged (56-65 years) and Group IV consisting of 13 subjects aged >65 years. The various parameters (lip form, maxillary and mandibular incisal display) were then analysed using Image J (Fiji app) image analysis software. The statistical analysis was done using Pearson correlation (significant when p<0.05), scatter plot, and Independent t-test (significant when p<0.05) and one-way Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) post-hoc Tukey-Kramer test to compare the parameters of different groups. Results: The results of this study showed that there is a significant correlation between lip form and maxillary & mandibular incisal display at rest (r=0.388, p=0.001). Females have more incisal display for a particular type of lip form as compared to male subjects. A statistically significant difference was found in maxillary incisal display and lip form between male and female groups (T=-5.934, p-value=0.001 and T=-2.367, p-value=0.019 respectively) but no statistically significant difference was found in mandibular incisor display between male and female groups (T=1.832, p-value=0.068). Hence, females above 30 years of age had more maxillary incisal display as compared to males but almost same mandibular incisal display. Also, straight lip form was more common among elderly male subjects (63.6% as compared to females 36.4%) but females had moderate lip form most commonly (52.1% as compared to males 47.9%). High lip form was reported equally in both male and female subjects with 50% in each group. Conclusion: It has been concluded from the study that for a particular type of lip form (either straight, moderate or high), females have more average incisal displays as compared to males. A strong correlation exists between lip form and incisal display in elderly Indian population. Hence, lip form can be used as a definitive parameter to determine Incisal displays in prosthetic rehabilitation to get optimum aesthetic outcomes.


For most species, evolutionary adaptation is not expected to be sufficiently rapid to buffer the effects of human‐mediated environmental changes, including environmental pollution. Here we review how key features of populations, the characteristics of environmental pollution, and the genetic architecture underlying adaptive traits, may interact to shape the likelihood of evolutionary rescue from pollution. Large populations of Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) persist in some of the most contaminated estuaries of the United States, and killifish studies have provided some of the first insights into the types of genomic changes that enable rapid evolutionary rescue from complexly degraded environments. We describe how selection by industrial pollutants and other stressors has acted on multiple populations of killifish and posit that extreme nucleotide diversity uniquely positions this species for successful evolutionary adaptation. Mechanistic studies have identified some of the genetic underpinnings of adaptation to a well‐studied class of toxic pollutants; however, multiple genetic regions under selection in wild populations seem to reflect more complex responses to diverse native stressors and/or compensatory responses to primary adaptation. The discovery of these pollution‐adapted killifish populations suggests that the evolutionary influence of anthropogenic stressors as selective agents occurs widely. Yet adaptation to chemical pollution in terrestrial and aquatic vertebrate wildlife may rarely be a successful "solution to pollution" because potentially adaptive phenotypes may be complex and incur fitness costs, and therefore be unlikely to evolve quickly enough, especially in species with small population sizes.


Background: Pleural effusion is a fluid above the normal in the pleural space. Widespread pleural effusions will cause shortness of breath that affects the fulfillment of oxygen demand, so that nursing interventions can be arranged one of them is to set the semifowler position and collaborate in the giving of O2. The purpose of this study was to obtain a picture and experience in providing nursing care significantly for patients with pleural effusion with respiratory disorders. Method: This study uses data analysis method that is comparing the results obtained from two patients with pleural effusions who experienced ineffective breathing disorder and then compared with case study journal or other sources. Result: Based on the results of interviews and observations concluded that with the same diagnosis and performed the same implementation there are differences in outcomes in the intervention group with the control group. Conclusion: Forward in this study is the need to pay attention to accuracy in conducting assessments to maximize data in determining the priority problems that occur in patients and interventions based ONEC (Observation, Nursing Treatment, Education, Collaboration).


Background: This study was formulated for the comparative evaluation of the knowledge and attitude of the general dental practitioners and non-orthodontic specialties about the orthodontic treatment. Methodology: Data of this cross sectional study was collected from 100 general dentists between an age ranges of 30 to 50 years using simple random sampling from all over Lahore. Results: The percentage for the positive responses was 85.69% whereas the negative response rate was very low which was reported as 14.3%. This showed that dental practitioners in market are practicing orthodonticskills. The response rate of general practitioners was: 60.42% positive responses and 39.57% negative responses were obtained which showed that more than half of general dental practitioners have a positive attitude towards orthodontic treatment guidance to their patients with general complaints. Conclusion: The overall attitude of general dental practitioners is satisfactory towards orthodontic treatment in general patients. Moreover, dental practitioners in Pakistan are were well aware of the Skills used before, during and after the orthodontic treatment. Keywords: Clinical practice, Knowledge, Orthodontic treatment, Dental Practitioners


The modulational instability that occurs during the interaction of a long laser pulse and its own wakefield in an underdense plasma has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Recent experiments using laser pulses that are several times longer than the wakefield period have yielded transmission spectra that exhibit a series of secondary peaks flanking the main laser peak. These peaks are too closely spaced to be the result of Raman instabilities; their origin was found to be photon acceleration of the laser's photons in the wakefield instead. In the experiments described in this paper, a laser pulse of 50–200 fs containing 300–600 mJ was focused on the edge of a helium gas jet on a 25 µm focal spot. The observed transmission spectra show evidence of both ionization blueshift and modulation by the pulse's wakefield. The transmission spectra have also been modelled using a dedicated photon-kinetic numerical code. The modelling has revealed a direct correlation between the spectral modulations and the amplitude of the excited wakefield. By comparing the measured and simulating spectra, the origin of various spectral characteristics has been explained in terms of photon acceleration. The feasibility of using this effect as a wakefield diagnostic will be discussed.


Attackers use various domain squatting techniques to convince users that their services are legitimate. Previous work has shown that methods liketyposquatting, where single characters are removed or duplicated, can successfully deceive users. In this paper, we present a study that evaluates how well participants distinguish malicious from benign domains before and after they learned and applied domain squatting techniques themselves. In a multi-part survey, 288 participants create 2,880 malicious domains based on common domain squatting techniques and rate both domains created by other participants and real-world phishing domains in terms of how convincing they are. Our key results show that participants have problems to identify legitimate domains as benign if they include unusual top-level domains, additional terms, or use subdomains. Moreover, participants rated domains created by other participants higher than real-world phishing domains. Overall, we find that participants are more sceptic of domains, and flag more benign domains as malicious, if they contain domain squatting characteristics after they gained practical experience creating phishing domains themselves. In particular, the number of falsely classified domains that were actually benign increased from 33.7% to 46.6% after our training. Our results show that training users to act as an adversary can help to increase the effectiveness of security trainings. In addition, we recommend that online services do not create domains that make use of common domain squatting techniques, to reduce confusion for users.


policy pursued by the authorities. First, the liquidity and the potential liquidity in the markets are so enormous that no monetary measures, however stringent they may be, can touch anywhere beyond the fringe of the financial markets. The innovation and 'sophistication' of the market mechanism and the multiplicity of the credit instruments have gone to such an extent that any institution, with a name and ability to drum up a favourable credit report in the market (which is not difficult), can transform its entire credit requirements into an actual credit instrument through, what is called, the technique of 'liability management". This technique of raising credit and undertaking financial intermediation Is not confined to banks and financial institutions. It is now be- ins employed effectively and more generally by all institutions. The more central bankers are determined to control credit, the greater the diversion of financial intermediation from financial to non-financial intermediaries and from the controllable regions to non-controllable regions. What is .significant from the point of view of the inflation psychology now is not the actual stock of money but the actual and the potential process and facility for the creation of money and near-money.


Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH), the hypothalamic peptide which stimulates the release of growth hormone (GH) from the pituitary, has been the center of intense study since its structure was described in 1982. It is in the area of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) that GHRH has its greatest clinical potential. Several studies have addressed the efficacy of GHRH as an alternative therapy in GHD. It appears that GHRH can be equally effective, whether given in a pulsatile manner or as discrete injections several times a day; i.e. the total dose may be more crucial than how it is given. While there are several issues that must be addressed before an optimal GHRH regimen can be devised, the available data would suggest that GHRH may become a safe, effective alternative to GH therapy in some patients with GHD.


[1] Solar erythemal UV radiation (UVER) is highly relevant for numerous biological processes that affect plants, animals, and human health. Nevertheless, long-term UVER records are scarce. As significant declines in the column ozone concentration were observed in the past and a recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer is anticipated by the middle of the 21st century, there is a strong interest in the temporal variation of UVERtime series. Therefore, we combined ground-based measurements of different meteorological variables with modeled ozone data sets to reconstruct time series of daily totals of UVER at the Meteorological Observatory, Potsdam, Germany. Artificial neural networks were trained with measured UVER, sunshine duration, the day of year, measured and modeled total column ozone, as well as the minimum solar zenith angle. This allows for the reconstruction of daily totals of UVERfor the period from 1901 to 1999. Additionally, analyses of the long-term variations from 1901 until 1999 of the reconstructed, new UVER data set are presented. The time series of monthly and annual totals of UVERprovide a long-term meteorological basis for epidemiological investigations in human health and occupational medicine for the region of Potsdam and Berlin. A strong benefit of our ANN-approach is the fact that it can be easily adapted to different geographical locations, as successfully tested in the framework of the COSTAction 726.


Objectives To study the percentage of pregnant women who consumed omega-3 fatty acids in the course of pregnancy, and to assess their knowledge on the source and potential health benefits of these supplements. Method An anonymous self- administered questionnaire on the use and knowledge of omega-3 fatty acids was distributed to the pregnant women in the antenatal clinic in the United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong in May 2012. Result Two hundred Fifty-four questionnaires were received. Fourteen (10.9%) and fifteen (14.7%) women from the first and third trimester group reported the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids during current pregnancy respectively. The mean score of all the subjects on knowledge of omega-3 fatty acids was 7.87 out of 12. Women who were taking omega-3 supplements, who had completed tertiary education, with monthly income >HK$30,000 and who were Hong Kong residents had significantly better knowledge. About 80% of the subjects would like to have more information on the use of omega-3 fatty acids supplementation during pregnancy. Conclusion Although there is still lack of concrete evidence on the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in pregnancy, there were 10–15% of pregnant women taking these supplements despite their fair knowledge. Further study is required to confirm the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids and better public education in this area is recommended. It would be most appreciated if medical professionals can provide more information on various nutritional supplements to pregnant women.


Abstract We deduce the Riemann–Roch type formula expressing the microlocal Euler class of a perfect complex of D -modules in terms of the Chern character of the associated symbol complex and the Todd class of the manifold from the Riemann–Roch type theorem for periodic cyclic cocycles of a symplectic deformation quantization. The proof of the latter is contained in the sequel to this paper.


Withan increasingpopulation in aworldwith limited resources,maximisation of food production has become a key metric for industries across the globe. However, distribution problems have led food wastage also increasing as an unexpected and undesirable consequence of this search for food production efficiency. Growing fears of food safety have called for the need for application of innovative concepts that consider the systems where these issues arise, for effective management of Food Supply Chains. In order to understand and manage this problem beyond traditional optimization techniques, this paper aims to understand the application of System Dynamics (SD) as a tool for the management of Food Supply Chains (FSC). By using a structured literature review (SLR) this paper gathers extant scientific literature in order to describe the use of System Dynamics (SD) as a problem-solving tool beyond its traditional use as a simulation tool in FSC Management. This research provides evidence for the current use of SD in FSC for testing strategic decisions, operational problems and various what-if scenario analysis, beyond traditional FSC problems such as Bullwhip effect, Inventory and Process Control. Additionally, this work argues for avenues of future research for the use of SD in FSCs.


Criteria and recommended occupational safety and health standards have been developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as a basic adversary review and comment process. Several changes in the process designed to alleviate problem areas include the preparation of work practice standards and the addition of supplementary requirements to the existing promulgated standards.


AIM
Of the present study was to evaluate 18FDG PET as a diagnostic tool in primary and recurrent ovarian cancer.

METHODS
PET of the abdomen and the pelvis was performed in 26 patients suspected for primary (n = 17) or recurrent (n = 9) ovarian cancer with an ECAT 953/15 scanner 45 min after intravenous administration of 245 MBq 18F-FDG (mean). PET findings were validated by surgery, histology and/or cytology.

RESULTS
Ovarian malignancies or recurrent ovarian cancer were demonstrated by PET in 16 out of 19 cases. Malignancy was excluded in six out of seven cases. False negative findings were obtained in two cases of low malignant potential tumors (LMP) and in one case of low grade serous/mucinous ovarian cystadenocarcinoma. PET yielded one false positive result in a case of salpingoophoritis. Quantitative analysis revealed a mean SUV of 6.8 +/- 2.3 in primary ovarian carcinoma vs. 2.6 +/- 1.2 in benign masses (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
These preliminary data show 18FDG PET to be useful in diagnosis of recurrent ovarian cancer. PET is of limited use in differentiating LMP from benign tumors and ovarian cancer from inflammatory processes. Concerning this differentiation, quantitative analysis does not improve diagnostic accuracy.


In this paper a digital system for enhancing the diagnosis of skin cancer is presented. The algorithm is based on the standard ABCD dermatologic protocol, and on the measurements of contours and surfaces of some specific areas into the mole image captured by epiluminiscence techniques. Automatic algorithms of digital image processing have been developed in order to detect the appropriate segmentation of the images of suspected moles. This allows one to calculate some quantitative features based on the external contour using the Isodata Algorithm. In addition, other features are found based on the internal contours segmented using color heterogeneity criteria. These small internal moles help the diagnosis of the skin cancer to extract information about propagation and irregularities. The database used consists of 65 images already catalogued by dermatologists and the results are successful according to the assessment of medical experts.