We propose a novel approach to improve the distinctiveness of local image features without significantly affecting their robustness with respect to image deformations. Local image features have proven to be successful in computer vision tasks involving partial occlusion, background noise, and various types of image deformations. However, the relatively high number of outliers that have to be rejected from the correspondences set, formed during the search for similar features, still plagues this approach. The task of rejecting outliers is usually based on estimating the global spatial transform suffered by the features in the correspondences set. This presents two problems: (i) it cannot properly deal with non-rigid objects, and (ii) it is sensitive to a high number of outliers. Here, we address these problems by combining typical local features with shape context. A performance evaluation shows that this new semi-local feature generally provides higher distinctiveness and robustness to image deformations, thus potentially increasing the inlier/outlier ratio in the correspondences set. Also, we show that in wide baseline stereo matching, and non-rigid motion applications, the use of the novel semi-local feature not only provides robustness to non-rigid deformations, but also produces a higher inlier/outlier ratio than the standard Hough clustering of the global spatial transform of parameters.


This is a new title in the fantastic First Reading series, part of "The Usborne Young Reading Programme". It is aimed at children who are beginning to read. In this delightful retelling of a Japanese fairy tale, a poor woodcutter follows his runaway rice ball to an underground kingdom ruled by magical mice. Developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, who is a Principal Lecturer in Education and an early reading specialist from Roehampton University. Every title in this series features clear and compelling text accompanied by highly appealing illustrations. It is designed to motivate children as they learn to read.


The inherent ability of ultrasonic wave to propagate in dense and opaque suspensions makes it a desirable method for online measurement of particle size distribution in industrial operations. The ability of ultrasonic attenuation spectroscopy to determine particle size distribution has been extended to dense suspensions of particles lying predominantly in the intermediate wave propagation regime at the measurement frequencies. This was achieved by accounting for the effect of detector size and shift in the frequency spectrum under dense conditions in the theoretical model and deconvolution algorithm, respectively. The proposed modifications enable the application of this technique in various industrial processes requiring in situ and real-time measurement of particle size distribution such as crystallization, mineral processing and food processing. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010


This study examined the socio-economic status of work-study students in Covenant
University, Ota, Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria. The study used survey method
(questionnaire) to collect information from 120 respondents. Findings of the study showed
that a percentage change in parental income and occupation significantly increased the
likelihood of student participation in work and study programme by 0.453 and 0.367
percentages. The above result is found significant at 5 percent (P<0.05) and 1 percent level
of significance (P<0.001) respectively. The study concluded that a significant support of
parental income and occupation played a significant role in student individual choices of
whether to enroll for a work-study initiative or otherwise


In this study, we delve into the dynamic landscape of machine learning research evolution. Initially, through the utilization of Latent Dirichlet Allocation, we discern pivotal themes and fundamental concepts that have emerged within the realm of machine learning. Subsequently, we undertake a comprehensive analysis to track the evolutionary trajectories of these identified themes. To quantify the novelty and divergence of research contributions, we employ the Kullback-Leibler Divergence metric. This statistical measure serves as a proxy for ``surprise'', indicating the extent of differentiation between the content of academic papers and the subsequent developments in research. By amalgamating these insights, we gain the ability to ascertain the pivotal roles played by prominent researchers and the significance of specific academic venues (periodicals and conferences) within the machine learning domain.


Many problems in programming involve pairs of computations that cancel out each other's effects; some examples include parsing/printing, embed- ding/projection, marshalling/unmarshalling, compressing/de-compressing etc. To avoid duplication of effort, the paradigm of bidirectional programming aims at to allow the programmer to write a single program that expresses both computations. Despite being a promising idea, existing studies mainly focus on the view-update problem in databases and its variants; and the impact of bidirectional programming has not reached the wider community. The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate, through concrete language designs and case studies, the relevance of bidirectional programming, in areas of computer science that have not been previously explored.

In this thesis, we will argue for the importance of bidirectional programming in programming language design and compiler implementation. As evidence for this, we will propose a technique for incremental refactoring, which relies for its correctness on a bidirectional language and its properties, and devise a framework for implementing program transformations, with bidirectional properties that allow program analyses to be carried out in the transformed program, and have the results reported in the source program.

Our applications of bidirectional programming to new areas bring up fresh challenges. This thesis also reflects on the challenges, and studies their impact to the design of bidirectional systems. We will review various design goals, including expressiveness, robustness, updatability, efficiency and easy of use, and show how certain choices, especially regarding updatability, can have significant influence on the effectiveness of bidirectional systems.


Chitosan is attractive as a substrate for stem cell expansion because it improves stemness through formation of spheroids. Hypoxia has also been proposed as a strategy to enhance stemness and survival of stem cells after in vivo implantation. This study was therefore designed to evaluate the influence of hypoxia on chitosan-induced behavior of stem cells. Umbilical cord matrix-derived stem cells were cultured on chitosan film or standard plate under normoxia and hypoxia, for 3 and 7 days. Based on immunophenotyping, chitosan strongly suppresses the expression of CD90 and CD105 cell surface markers, changes partially reversed by combined exposure to hypoxia. Hypoxia generally increased the volume and number of spheroids formed on chitosan, but the cellularity of cultures on chitosan films remained lower than that of standard plates. After 7 days of culture, the expression of stemness related genes (Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog) was best stimulated by combined exposure to chitosan and hypoxia. Based on our results, conditioning stem cells for 7 days on chitosan films under hypoxic conditions is recommended to enhance the stemness of stem cells, and minimize cell loss due to lack of attachment on chitosan. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 501-511, 2018.


Two unrelated adult sibling cases (36‐ and 32‐year‐old females) of Juvenile hyaline fibromatosis are presented. The parents of one of these patients were non‐consanguineous but natives of a small Island, and one elder sister among four siblings was affected with the same disease. The parents of the other patient were consanguineous, and one other sibling suffered from the identical disease. Both patients presented with multiple subcutaneous nodules, which they had had since infancy, and had undergone numerous surgical excisions. Light microscopy examination of skin lesions from both patients showed identical histology; an abundance of a homogenous, amorphous, eosinophlllc extracellular matrix in which spindle‐shaped cells were embedded. Electron microscopically, the spindle‐shaped cells had hypertrophic Golgi apparatus and dilated, rough endoplasmlc reticulum. Fine flbrillar and granular material‐filled structures, the contents of which were occasionally released into the extracellular matrix, were also seen, immunohistochemically, the spindle‐shaped cells were vlmentin‐positive but negative for α‐smooth muscle actln and S‐100 protein, and the hyaline ground substance was positive for type I and type III collagen but negative for type II and type IV collagen and tenascin. Matrix metalloprotelnase‐1, ‐2, and ‐9, and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (TlMP)‐2 was positive but TIMP‐1 was negative. A review of 39 cases of juvenile hyaline fibromatosis In the literature is also presented. In summary, skin lesions may be the most outstanding symptoms of juvenile hyaline fibromatosis, but joint contracture and gingival hypertrophy precede the skin manifestation.


Sociopoetics defines a field for research and action in health and in other  areas.  A  vision  of  the  integrated  individual  (in  itself,  integrating  strengths  and weaknesses, and holistically, in the human and non-human environment), the Researching-Group  device  inspired  by  Paulo  Freire  and  Institutional  Analysis  (and operative Groups etc.) favors "work" between shadow and light, between oppression and freedom, by the profound solidarity and responsibility of the members in the process of knowing,  caring  and  learning.  The  Researching  Group  owns  the research,  care  and learning in dialogicity with the institution that welcomes us, which is entitled to demand returns  by  its  availability.  But  it  is  even  more  than  that:  it  is  a  thinker,  a  collective philosopher,  an  intelligent  collective  covered  by  pre-individual  and  supra-individual affections,  giving  substantiated  reasons  in  expanded  environments,  winning  without holding, and receiving without relying.


The original lease block on the area which is now the Imogene Oil Field was taken as a result of the discovery in 1935 by surface geology of a large fault, upthrown to the southeast. A general reconnaissance reflection seismograph survey followed in 1940, preceding the drilling of the discovery well by about two years. A further detailed reflection seismograph survey was made after the discovery to outline the structure more accurately.


1 Nandakoban H, Furlong TJ, Flack JR. Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis following treatment with exenatide. Diabet Med 2013; 30: 123–125. 2 Pendergrass M, Fenton C, Haffner SM, Chen W. Exenatide and sitagliptin are not associated with increased risk of acute renal failure: a retrospective claims analysis. Diabetes Obes Metab 2012; 14: 596–600. 3 Ferrer-Garcia JC, Martinez-Chanza N, Tolosa-Torréns M, SánchezJuan C. Exenatide and renal failure. Diabet Med 2012; 27: 728–729. 4 Weise WJ et al. Exenatide-associated ischemic renal failure.Diabetes Care 2009; 32: e22–e23. 5 US Food and Drug Aministration. Website. Available at http:// www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ucm194556.htm Last accessed 24 September 2012. 6 Natarajan B et al. Clinical experience with exenatide in a routine secondary care diabetes clinic. Prim Care Diabetes 2012; 4: 57–60.


The organization of the viral DNA sequences in 15 adenovirus-transformed cell lines was analyzed by the Southern blotting procedure. The site of adenovirus integration in the cellular genome was found not to be unique, and the viral DNA sequences involved in integration were not confined to a specific region of the adenovirus genome. Several cell lines showed simple integration patterns that demonstrated the presence of large continuous stretches of viral DNA. In four cell lines, containing sequences from both molecular ends of the viral genome, the left- and right-hand-terminal sequences appeared to be linked to each other.


ABSTRACT Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between burnout, depression, anxiety, and stress levels of primary health-care workers. Methods This cross-sectional study included 338 health-care workers. The sociodemographic data form, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) were applied. Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, Chi square test, and Logistic regression analysis were used. The error level was taken as 0.05. Results The burnout levels of the health workers were lower level in Emotional Exhaustion (EE) (79.0%), Depersonalization (D) (81.1%), and Personal Accomplishment (PA) (54.1%). The level of the depression, anxiety, and stress were found to be 10.9%, 14.8%, and 5.0%, respectively. The rates of low-moderate-high EE and D, low-moderate PA were higher in physicians than midwives and nurses. There were significant differences between the mean of burnout levels and gender, marital status, occupation, and total working times. Mean depression was higher among physicians while mean stress was lower among who worked 5 years and under. EE and PA were the factors associated with depression and anxiety, while EE was the factor associated with stress. Discussion Considering that burnout, depression, anxiety, and stress are intertwined concepts, it is thought that's needed to develop strategies for health workers to regain working energy.


Recent work has demonstrated piezoelectric behavior in voided polymers. It is thought that the piezoelectricity results from the creation of space charges bordering the voids when the material is exposed to an electric field in excess of the breakdown strength. The resulting voided piezoelectric material is more flexible than conventional piezoelectric ceramics, and may be far less expensive to manufacture. Accurate models of piezoelectricity in voided materials are needed to explore the limits of performance and their use under a wide range of conditions. We are using finite element analysis to develop a model of the mechanical, electrical, and piezoelectric behavior in voided materials. Results for some of the materials of current interest, such as low-density polypropylene LDPP and porous polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE will be presented. Work performed under a JHU/APL sabbatical to the JHU/WSE.


We propose a new approach for generative modeling based on training a neural network to be idempotent. An idempotent operator is one that can be applied sequentially without changing the result beyond the initial application, namely $f(f(z))=f(z)$. The proposed model $f$ is trained to map a source distribution (e.g, Gaussian noise) to a target distribution (e.g. realistic images) using the following objectives: (1) Instances from the target distribution should map to themselves, namely $f(x)=x$. We define the target manifold as the set of all instances that $f$ maps to themselves. (2) Instances that form the source distribution should map onto the defined target manifold. This is achieved by optimizing the idempotence term, $f(f(z))=f(z)$ which encourages the range of $f(z)$ to be on the target manifold. Under ideal assumptions such a process provably converges to the target distribution. This strategy results in a model capable of generating an output in one step, maintaining a consistent latent space, while also allowing sequential applications for refinement. Additionally, we find that by processing inputs from both target and source distributions, the model adeptly projects corrupted or modified data back to the target manifold. This work is a first step towards a ``global projector'' that enables projecting any input into a target data distribution.


Capillary rarefaction of the coronary microcirculation is a consistent phenotype in patients with dialysis-dependent ESRD (dd-ESRD) and may help explain their excess mortality. Global coronary flow reserve (CFR) assessed by positron emission tomography (PET) is a noninvasive, quantitative marker of myocardial perfusion and ischemia that integrates the hemodynamic effects of epicardial stenosis, diffuse atherosclerosis, and microvascular dysfunction. We tested whether global CFR provides risk stratification in patients with dd-ESRD. Consecutive patients with dd-ESRD clinically referred for myocardial perfusion PET imaging were retrospectively included, excluding patients with prior renal transplantation. Per-patient CFR was calculated as the ratio of stress to rest absolute myocardial blood flow. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, including age, overt cardiovascular disease, and myocardial scar/ischemia burden, were used to assess the independent association of global CFR with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. The incremental value of global CFR was assessed with relative integrated discrimination index and net reclassification improvement. In 168 patients included, median global CFR was 1.4 (interquartile range, 1.2-1.8). During follow-up (median of 3 years), 36 patients died, including 21 cardiovascular deaths. Log-transformed global CFR independently associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.01 per 0.5-unit increase; 95% confidence interval, <0.01 to 0.14; P<0.001) and cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio, 0.01 per 0.5-unit increase; 95% confidence interval, <0.01 to 0.15; P=0.002). For all-cause mortality, addition of global CFR resulted in risk reclassification in 27% of patients. Thus, global CFR may provide independent and incremental risk stratification for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with dd-ESRD.


Adenine phosphoribosyl-transferase (APRT) is the key enzyme that transforms adenine into adenylate monophosphate (AMP). In case of APRT deficiency, xanthine oxidase rapidly oxidizes adenine into 2,8-dihydroxyadenine (2,8-DHA), which is then eliminated by the kidneys through tubular secretion. 2,8-DHA is insoluble at a physiologic range of pH; therefore, it can easily precipitate in the urine. Although subjects with APRT deficiency may have repeated kidney stones, some of these patients may remain asymptomatic throughout life [1,2]. Nevertheless, a handful of reports propose that APRT deficiency can also lead to 2,8-DHA crystal-induced acute or chronic renal failure [3,4]. In this paper, we report a case of a middle-aged man with APRT deficiency that led to 2,8-DHA crystal-induced chronic active tubulointerstitial nephritis.


In Sarcophaga ruficornis, during normal metamorphosis the larval hindgut epithelium degenerates and the imaginal hindgut epithelium is formed from the proliferation and differentiation of the cells of the posterior imaginal ring. The newly formed hindgut becomes slightly dilated posteriorly to form the rectal pouch. At four places in this pouch, the epithelium becomes thick and forms the primordia of the rectal pads. The cells in the primordia begin to divide and project into the lumen of the pouch and later form the cortex cells of the rectal pads. The cavity of the primordia becomes filled with blood cells and fibrous material, which give rise to the medulla of the rectal pads.


Skeletal muscle unloading and disuse in humans can occur for a variety of reasons. Numerous models of muscle unloading exist in humans including bed rest (Paddon-Jones et al. 2004, 2005, 2006; Symons et al. 2009), limb immobilization/suspension (Gibson et al. 1987, 1988; de Boer et al. 2007; Glover et al. 2009), and even imposed inactivity, which is a model of relative muscle disuse (Krogh-Madsen et al. 2010; Breen et al. 2013). In all these situations there are varying degrees of hypodynamia and muscle atrophy.

There are a range of techniques and models used to delineate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underpin disuse skeletal muscle atrophy. However, in our opinion, the answer to the question of what mechanism is primarily responsible for simple disuse muscle atrophy in humans cannot be obtained from measurements made in disease states (i.e. sepsis, burns, cancer cachexia, starvation, uraemia). Nor can this question be addressed merely through measurement of static protein and gene abundances and inferring mechanisms, particularly in rodent models. In fact, we propose that there are inherent species-specific differences between rodents and humans that have had a direct bearing on the confusion in this area (Phillips et al. 2009). A conspicuous methodological problem relates to the use of ex vivo muscle preparations to estimate protein turnover that do not appropriately mimic the in vivo situation since they fail to sustain a positive protein balance and so are inherently biased toward showing a dominant effect of proteolysis (Phillips et al. 2009). In addition, rodents (and many other species) have markedly higher (2.5 times) rates of muscle protein turnover and sensitivity to disuse (Thomason et al. 1989) versus humans. Moreover, rodents exhibit marked fibre-type-dependent differences in rates of protein turnover (type I fibres being twice as great as type II fibres) (Garlick et al. 1989), but such fibre-type differences are of a smaller magnitude in humans (Mittendorfer et al. 2005; Koopman et al. 2011). Thus, for the purposes of concision and relevance to the human disuse model the focus of our commentary is on data from humans, in non-disease states, that is evidenced by dynamic in vivo measurements of skeletal muscle protein turnover. Naturally, with atrophy there is an imbalance between the rates of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and muscle protein breakdown (MPB), which during net muscle protein balance are in equilibrium.

One of the first studies supporting the notion that decreased rates of protein synthesis drive disuse atrophy was provided by Gibson et al. (1987) who showed that young men who had their leg immobilized had a lower rate of MPS at rest in the fasted state by ∼30% compared to their contralateral non-immobilized limb. The same team of investigators went on to show that a minimum (10–15 min day−1) of local muscle electrical stimulation completely ablated the disuse-induced fall in MPS and the decline in muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) (Gibson et al. 1988). A number of studies have subsequently shown reductions in MPS of ∼50% compared either to pre-disuse levels in bed rest (Ferrando et al. 1996; Paddon-Jones et al. 2004) or to a non-immobilized limb with casting/bracing (de Boer et al. 2007; Glover et al. 2009). Thus, the fall in resting MPS is a reproducible consequence of disuse; however, muscle contraction, even at remarkably low levels (Gibson et al. 1988; Oates et al. 2010), can offset the decline in MPS and in doing so markedly attenuate or completely ablate atrophic declines in muscle CSA whether involuntary (Gibson et al. 1988) or voluntary (Symons et al. 2009; Oates et al. 2010).

In addition to contraction, a known potent stimulus for MPS is hyperaminoacidaemia (Bohe et al. 2001; Fujita et al. 2007). Since humans spend a significant portion of their waking hours in a post-prandial state an important question is how does disuse affect MPS in response to amino acid provision? Glover et al. (2009) provided the first evidence that disuse induces a marked blunting of the normal hyperaminoacidaemia-stimulated rise in MPS with varying degrees of hyperaminoacidaemia. While hyperaminoacidaemia was induced by an amino acid infusion in that study (Glover et al. 2009) the findings of a reduced response of MPS to protein ingestion have recently been corroborated using intrinsically labelled proteins (Wall et al. 2013). The approximate decline in fed-state MPS in these papers (Glover et al. 2009; Wall et al. 2013) was ∼50–60%. The mechanism for this disuse-induced blunting of amino acid-stimulated anabolism is not apparent but may involve reductions in amino acid transport capacity and protein signalling which have been shown to be reduced with disuse (Drummond et al. 2012). Thus, in humans disuse induces not only a reduction in resting MPS of ∼50% but also a reduction in the meal-induced rise in MPS of ∼50%.

Stuart Phillips is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. He has a BSc in Biochemistry, MSc in Nutritional Biochemistry, and received his PhD in Human Physiology from the University of Waterloo in 1995. He has been a Canadian Institutes for Health Research New Investigator and was a recipient of the Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award. Dr Phillips' research focuses on the interaction between amino acid provision and loading on muscle protein turnover and phenotypic outcomes in humans. He has used models of loading, unloading, ageing and hypoenergetic states to interrogate the response of skeletal muscle and characterize mechanisms underpinning changes in these states. Chris McGlory graduated with a PhD from the University of Stirling where he studied how omega-3 fatty acids influenced protein turnover. Currently, Dr McGlory is a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr Phillips investigating the amino acid sensitivity of muscle protein turnover.

The rate of muscle loss in simple disuse atrophy is rapid in the early stages of disuse and then slows reaching a nadir (Adams et al. 2003). The estimated rate of muscle loss over the initial disuse (i.e. the period during which muscle loss is most rapid) shows that muscle CSA declines at a net rate of ∼0.6% day−1 (Adams et al. 2003). Knowing the rate of disuse-induced loss of muscle CSA provides a testable scenario in which measured in vivo rates of muscle protein turnover should quantitatively predict the decline in muscle mass. When considered together the reproducible decline in resting MPS and the decline in hyperaminoacidaemia-mediated stimulation of MPS completes a picture of what happens within many different types of disuse models. As we have previously discussed (Phillips et al. 2009), in a person with stable muscle mass, the rates of MPS and MPB must be equal at ∼0.055% h−1 or 1.32% day−1 (Wilkinson et al. 2013). With disuse, as detailed above, the fasting rate of MPS is depressed by ∼50% and the fed rate of MPS is also depressed by ∼50%. Thus, the estimated diurnal average (with 14 h in a true fasting and 10 h in a fed-state condition) of MPS is reduced to ∼0.035% h−1 or ∼0.84% day−1. Assuming, as is our stance here, that breakdown remains at the pre-disuse rate, then the rate of loss of protein or net protein balance is defined by: ksynthesis − kbreakdown = 0.84 – 1.32 ≈ −0.48% day−1 which is close to the net rate of muscle CSA loss of ∼0.6% day−1 as reported by Phillips et al. 2009. Thus, if breakdown were a predominant, or even substantial, contributor to muscle atrophy during disuse then the loss of muscle mass would be far greater than what is observed during the period of greatest muscle loss. Thus, contrary to our opponent's thesis, it appears when measured in humans with simple disuse there is minimal elevation in muscle protein breakdown (Symons et al. 2009).

What is not occurring to an appreciable degree in the disuse models (bed rest, limb immobilization, reduced activity) is a concomitant hypercortisolaemia, hypoandrogenaemia, or hypercytokinaemia. Such systemic states are present to varying degrees in hypercatabolic models of muscle wasting (Pasini et al. 2008). In muscle wasting due to, for example, cancerous cachexia, sepsis, burns, uraemia, or critical illness, muscle unloading often occurs but is accompanied by the aforementioned hormonal and cytokine perturbations and often hypocaloric feeding and undernutrition. As such, pathophysiological states in which 'markers' of proteolysis have been shown to be increased (Lecker et al. 2004) are inappropriate models on which to base conclusions about the importance of mechanisms that underpin non-disease disuse muscle atrophy. In fact, in uncomplicated disuse (bed rest) models, to simulate hypercatabolic disease-state stress subjects have been given hydrocortisone (Paddon-Jones et al. 2005). Nonetheless, we acknowledge that bed rest is often a consequence of hospitalization that may well be related to some of the diseased states as described above.

Whether reductions in MPS or accelerated rates of MPB in non-pathophysiological states of disuse drive human muscle atrophy is an important issue since the choice of a primary countermeasure to attenuate atrophy would rest on the mechanism that predominates. In this regard, based on examination of existing data from uncomplicated disuse atrophy in humans, it is our opinion that declines in MPS are the predominant mechanism, underpinning the decline in muscle CSA in non-diseased models of disuse human skeletal muscle atrophy. Thus, future work should focus on strategies to enhance the sensitivity of skeletal muscle in response to stimuli of MPS during disuse.


Abstract High school students participated in two experiments designed to investigate application and transfer of a mnemonic strategy. On Day 1 of Experiment 1, mnemonically instructed students outperformed nonmnemonic control students on both recall and application tests for the initial task of learning passage-embedded information about features of fictitious cities. No evidence of successful strategy transfer was obtained, however, on Day 2 passages about several U.S. presidents. In Experiment 2, mnemonically instructed students again recalled and applied more Day 1 city information than did control students. Moreover, with Day 2 transfer passages that were less complex and more similar to the Day 1 cities passages, there was qualified support for the hypothesis that mnemonic students could transfer their previously learned strategy to a set of new materials: Successful transfer was observed when the students were given an explicit hint to try to use a strategy similar to the one they had used previously (prompted transfer), but not when no such hint was provided (spontaneous transfer).


This paper addresses the problem of rate selection for the cooperative hybrid automatic repeat request with chase combination (HARQ-CC) system, where time correlated Nakagami-m fading channels are considered. To deal with this problem, the closed-form cumulative distribution function (CDF) for the combine SNRs through maximal ratio combining (MRC) is first derived as a generalized Fox's H̅ function. By using this result, outage probability and delay-limited throughput (DLT) are derived in closed forms, which then enables the rate selection for maximum DLT. These analytical results are validated via Monte Carlo simulations. The impacts of time correlation and channel fading-order parameter m upon outage probability, DLT and the optimal rate are investigated thoroughly. It is found that the system can achieve more diversity gain from less correlated channels, and the outage probability of cooperative HARQ-CC system decreases with the increase of m, and etc. Furthermore, the optimal rate increases with the number of retransmissions, while it decreases with the increase of the channel time correlation.


A novel electrosensory function is presented for the large, plankton–feeding, freshwater paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, along with a hypothesis which accounts for the distinctive, elongated rostrum of this unusual fish. Behavioural experiments conducted in the 'dark' (under infrared illumination), to eliminate vision, show that paddlefish efficiently capture planktonic prey to distances up to 80–90 mm. They make feeding strikes at dipole electrodes in response to weak low–frequency electrical currents. Fish also avoid metal obstacles placed in the water, again in the dark. Electrophysiological experiments confirm that the Lorenzinian ampullae of paddlefish are sensitive to weak, low–frequency electrical signals, and demonstrate unequivocally that they respond to the very small electrical signals generated by their natural zooplankton prey (Daphnia sp.). We propose that the rostrum constitutes the biological equivalent of an electrical antenna, enabling the fish to accurately detect and capture its planktonic food in turbid river environments where vision is severely limited. The electrical sensitivity of paddlefish to metallic substrates may interfere with their migrations through locks and dams.


Engineering education requires an applicative rather than mere absorption of facts and information. Processing and reprocessing of facts intensify learning that enables better understanding which leads to the ability of application through innovation and creativity. Language serves as a conduit in the above process of engineering learning. This paper speaks about a skill based inclusive approach of theoretical and practical aspects for teaching and learning English in a comprehensive manner. Skill based approach unlike other approaches, requires periodical review of the derived tasks and objectives. This paper shifts the general attention from language learning to language acquisition. This is being projected with an idea to leverage the process of teaching - learning English in a practical as well as suitable way. Skill development mechanisms, verification process, sample analysis and concrete recommendations on further improvement are also dis- cussed as a part of this paper.


Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans is an important fungal pathogen. The capsule is a well established virulence factor and a target site for diagnostic tests. The CPL1 gene is required for capsular formation and virulence. The protein product Cpl1 has been proposed to be a secreted protein, but the characteristics of this protein have not been reported. Here we sought to characterize Cpl1. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Cpl1 of C. neoformans var. neoformans and the Cpl1 orthologs identified in C. neoformans var. grubii and C. gattii formed a distinct cluster among related fungi; while the putative ortholog found in Trichosporon asahii was distantly related to the Cryptococcus cluster. We expressed Cpl1 abundantly as a secreted His-tagged protein in Pichia pastoris. The protein was used to immunize guinea pigs and rabbits for high titer mono-specific polyclonal antibody that was shown to be highly specific against the cell wall of C. neoformans var. neoformans and did not cross react with C. gattii, T. asahii, Aspergillus spp., Candida spp. and Penicillium spp. Using the anti-Cpl1 antibody, we detected Cpl1 protein in the fresh culture supernatant of C. neoformans var. neoformans and we showed by immunostaining that the Cpl1 protein was located on the surface. The Cpl1 protein is a specific surface protein of C. neoformans var. neoformans.


The goal of Sentiment Exploration (SE) is used for mining the accurate sentiments which are very beneficial for businesses, governments, and individuals, the opinions, recommendations, ratings, and feedbacks are becoming an important aspect in present scenarios. The proposed methodology likewise attempts to introduce a swarm intelligence based sentimental supervised methodology. In order to obtain a relevant feature data set from a large number of data samples, this method used particle swarm optimization to attain the utmost optimum feature set. The evaluation of the optimum feature set is obtained by means of using Minimum Redundancy and Maximum Relevancy measure as the fitness function. The categorization of the extracted feature set is accomplished with the Support Vector Machine classification technique. The experimental outcome for the suggested method is evaluated using four performance measure like precision, recall, accuracy, and f-measure and showed that proposed swarm intelligent based classification method has better performance using IMDB, Movie Lens and Trip Advisor Data Samples.


In this study, a transient flow in a spool valve has been studied via numerical analysis. First, a numerical procedure is developed for non-uniform grid systems. A consistent formulation of the QUICK scheme is derived for non-uniform rectangular grid systems. A transient flow field was then investigated for the condition with several values of the spool stroke and a large pressure difference between upstream and downstream boundaries. The computational result was used to obtain a mathematical model for the spool valve flow transient in high Reynolds number condition of practical importance. Unsteady characteristics of the axial flow force acting on the spool valve was investigated based on the pressure and shearing stress distribution of the computational result. Prediction of the unsteady flow force based on the momentum theory was examined using the computational result.


The data presented in this file are related to the research article 'Sus A, Bischoff G, Mueller A, Buhr L (2006) Chemical and biological monitoring of the load of plant protection products and of zoocoenoses in ditches of the orchard region 'Altes Land'. Nachrichtenblatt des Deutschen Pflanzenschutzdienstes 58:28-42' which is only available in German language. The pesticide data presented here were acquired in four ditches in Lower Saxony, Germany (three ditches located in apple plantations, one ditch located in grassland) between 2001 and 2003. Two different monitoring strategies have been applied; event-driven sampling after pesticide applications and weekly integrated sampling using automatic water samplers. A total of 70 active substances have been monitored while farmers applied 25 active substances. LC-MS/MS (PE Sciex API 2000), GC-MS (Finnigan GCQ), GC coupled with electron capture detector (ECD) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) were used for identification and quantification of the target substances.


We want to find a timestamping method which improves efficient performance and have high-level security to send secured messages in the digital signature and the law of e-commerces. Our paper shows a H-binary tree of time stamp to use a time stamp protocol with high suity and performance in the packets of sending messages. We implement and analyze the protocols, show to compare with previous RSA methods. Our proposed protocol has O(log n) time complexity and high-performance.


Chronic ulcers are a major public health problem, due to their chronic nature, their poor response to treatment, the high frequency of recurrences, and their affection to the patient's quality of life. Even with the development of new therapies in the field of chronic wound care, chronic ulcers remain a clinical problem. As a novel branch of research, Catalytic Nanomedicine has offered promising results in disinfection and treatment of chronic wounds through the use of bionanocatalysts, organically functionalized mesoporous nanostructured materials with catalytic properties. Particularly, Cu/TiO2-SiO2 mixed oxide bionanocatalysts have shown favorable results for chronic ulcer healing. In this work, we present the treatment of 15 patients (8 females and 7 males, mean age of 69.59 ± 12.07 years old) affected with chronic ulcers (wound age ranging from 4 months to 10 years old, mean size of 12.94 ± 18.20 cm2) by the administration of Cu/TiO2-SiO2 bionanocatalysts embedded in a nanoemulsion matrix. In all cases, complete epithelialization and healing of the lesions was achieved (healing time from 3 to 35 weeks), without the appearance of side effects. Wound healing time was analyzed in the context of initial wound size, wound's age, patient's age, and concomitant conditions, being wound size and patient's age the main factor affecting the duration of the treatment with the bionanocatalysts.


Two high resolution methods solving inverse problems potentially ill-posed, named 4-MUSIC and 4-RapMUSIC, are proposed. They allow for localization of brain current sources with unconstrained orientations from surface electro-or magneto-encephalographic data using spherical or realistic head geometries. The 4-MUSIC and 4-RapMUSIC methods are based on i) the separability of the data transfer matrix as a function of location and orientation parameters and ii) the fourth order (FO) virtual array theory. In addition, 4-RapMUSIC uses the deflation concept extended to FO statistics accounting for the presence of potentially but not totally coherent sources. Computer results display the superiority of the 4-RapMUSIC approach in different situations (two closed sources, additive Gaussian noise with unknown spatial covariance, ...) especially over classical algorithms


This article is a literature review of conceptions of stereotype, prejudice, underlying assumptions and images of self and other as relevant to history textbooks and related research. History textbooks are seen as representations of a nation's official history as they build identity and form conceptions of morality in their readers. I address questions like, what are the underlying assumptions of history texts that lead to picturing ourselves and others? Could an understanding of the other be seen as a liability, given the moral responsibility it introduces? In seeking answers, instead of a sociological approach analysing the social systems of power and oppression, the perpetuating of stereotypes is viewed from an individual, psychological perspective. Hence, I ask how the psychology of hatred could be understood and what this implies for viewing the self in relation to the other through history education. I conclude by stressing that moral responsibility starts with the self and not with the other; and that the bigger enemy of history teaching is not prejudice and stereotype contained in pedagogic texts, but indifference or bystander behaviour that such texts could encourage.


OBJECTIVE
Subclinical gut inflammation has been demonstrated in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). This study was undertaken to determine the frequency of regulatory CD4+CD25(high) T cells (Treg cells) and to evaluate Treg cell-related cytokines (interleukin-2 [IL-2], transforming growth factor β [TGFβ], and IL-10) and transcription factors (FoxP3 and STAT-5) in the ileum of patients with AS.

METHODS
Quantitative gene expression analysis, by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, of Treg-related cytokines (IL-2, TGFβ, and IL-10) and transcription factors (STAT-5 and FoxP3) was performed on ileal biopsy specimens from 18 patients with AS, 15 patients with active Crohn's disease (CD), and 15 healthy subjects. Tissue and circulating Treg cells were also analyzed by flow cytometry.

RESULTS
A significant up-regulation of IL-2, TGFβ, FoxP3, STAT-5, and IL-10 transcripts in the terminal ileum of AS patients displaying chronic ileal inflammation was observed. Flow cytometric analysis of Treg cells showed significant peripheral expansion in both patients with AS and chronic inflammation and patients with CD (mean ± SD 1.08 ± 0.4% and 1.05 ± 0.3%, respectively) as compared with healthy subjects (0.25 ± 0.12%) (P < 0.05). Interestingly, a 5-fold increase in the proportion of Treg cells was observed in the gut of patients with AS (5 ± 3%) as compared with healthy subjects (1.2 ± 0.4%) (P < 0.001), with 70-80% of these cells also producing IL-10. In vitro studies showed that blocking IL-10 was sufficient to induce Th17 polarization on lamina propria mononuclear cells isolated from AS patients.

CONCLUSION
Our findings provide the first evidence that an active Treg cell response, mainly dominated by IL-10 production, occurs in the gut of AS patients and is probably responsible for the absence of a clear Th17 polarization in the ileum of AS patients.


The full waveform inversion (FWI) of strongly dispersive Love wave data is a challenging task. Amplitude, phase and dispersion information not only depends on the density and shear modulus distribution in the subsurface, but also significantly on intrinsic damping. This is especially a problem in near surface data applications with complex underground structures and low Qs values. Therefore, the FWI of a dispersive Love wavefield demands an accurate initial visco-elastic model and careful data pre-processing. Another key ingredient of a successful time-domain FWI is the sequential inversion of frequency filtered data in order to mitigate the non-linearity of the inverse problem. Common FWI strategies are based solely on either low- or bandpass filtered data. In this study we introduce a workflow consisting of a combined low- and bandpass filter strategy to achieve an appropriate data fit of the low-frequency Love wave and high-frequency refracted SH-wavefield. The applicability of this FWI strategy and the importance of a visco-elastic medium description is demonstrated for SH field data from the transect over a medieval 2D canal structure in southern Germany. The resolved canal shape and small scale structures in the inversion results are verified by an archaeological excavation.


Equations are given that express scattering for transmitting and receiving circularly polarised waves in terms of the characteristics for linear polarisation. Special cases are discussed, for which it is possible to estimate the radar cross-section for one polarisation based on data for other polarisations. Knowledge of polarisation characteristics is sometimes helpful for acquiring insight into the scattering mechanisms of complex surfaces.


Introduction Issues around hepatology service delivery and training in the UK have been highlighted by the recent Lancet Commission.1Currently, the majority of liver services are delivered by gastroenterologists with <6 months of hepatology. Increased numbers of specialists with advanced training are required to tackle the increasing burden of liver disease. Whilst guidelines exist to define minimum training requirements and competencies for all trainees,2training opportunities are variable. Method The 2014 trainee survey was sent to all UK trainees. 263/806 (32.6%) responded. Within the hepatology section of the survey, respondents were asked about future career plans, satisfaction with training, training opportunities and self assessed competence. Results Subspecialism: 8% of trainees plan to be a subspecialist hepatologist and 6% an academic hepatologist which is lower than those planning a career in general gastroenterology (16%), advanced endoscopy (12%) and IBD (10%). Overall experience: 68% of respondents rated themselves as either satisfied/very satisfied with their hepatology training. This is lower (p < 0.01) than overall gastroenterology training (82.9%), basic endoscopy (79.9%) and IBD (79.2%). Barriers to training: 25.3% of trainees who wished to undertake formal hepatology training identified a barrier to accessing this. The main barriers were lack of local training opportunities and not wishing to move region to access hepatology training. Opportunities: All trainees should have at least 12 months in a level 2 or 3 centre.2However of current senior trainees (ST6+) less than 70% reported spending 6 months or more in at least one of these centres. Self reported competence of senior trainees to act as a consultant in a district general hospital found that 50% felt they were not competent in post transplant, viral and autoimmune liver disease and 30% felt they were not competent managing complications of portal hypertension including variceal bleeding. Conclusion The results confirm variability in hepatology training. This exists not only in access to advanced training but also core training competencies. All deaneries should aim to organise training rotations to maximise the opportunities especially in the deaneries which do not contain a level 3 centre. Early exposure of all trainees to hepatology units and clinics may allow better understanding of training pathways and early career planning. Disclosure of interest None Declared. References Williams R, Aspinall R, Bellis M, Camps-Walsh G, Cramp M, Dhawan A, et al. Addressing liver disease in the UK: a blueprint for attaining excellence in healthcare and reducing premature mortality from lifestyle issues of excess consumption of alcohol, obesity and viral hepatitis. Lancet 2014;384(9958):1953–1997 BSG Liver Section Training information 2014. http://www.bsg.org.uk/sections/liver-training/index.html


OBJECTIVE
To observe the effect of glutamine given through different avenues on intestine mucosal barrier damage induced by severe burn injury.

METHODS
One hundred and sixty Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: namely normal control (C group), burned control (B group), parenteral nutrition with glutamine (PN+GLN group) and enteral nutrition with glutamine (EN+GLN group). Rats in B group, PN+GLN group, and EN+GLN group were subjected to 30% total body surface area (TBSA) full-thickness burn injury. In the latter three groups, nutritional intake was isonitrogenous and isocaloric. In PN+GLN group and EN+GLN group the nutrition were supplemented with glutamine 1.0 g.kg(-1).d(-1), and in B group tyrosine 1.0 g.kg(-1).d(-1). Indexes relevant to injury to the intestine were determined on postburn day (PBD) 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10.

RESULTS
After burn injury, the index of intestinal mucosal injury, intestine mucosal permeability and the activity of plasma diamine oxidase (DAO) were significant increased compared with C group (all P<0.01). On the other hand, the intestine mucosal blood flow (IMBF), mucosa thickness, villous height, crypt depth and intestinal epithelial proliferation index were significantly decreased (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Compared with B group, the extent of changes in these indices were lowered in PN+GLN group and EN+GLN group (P<0.05 or P<0.01), and the effects were more marked in EN+GLN group than those in PN+GLN group.

CONCLUSION
GLN is beneficial in minimizing intestinal injury, promoting intestinal mucosal repair. Enteral supplementation of GLN is a better way of administration.


The switch from transcriptionally activating MYC–MAX to transcriptionally repressing MAD1–MAX protein heterodimers has been correlated with the initiation of terminal differentiation in many cell types. To investigate the function of MAD1–MAX dimers during differentiation, we disrupted the Mad1 gene by homologous recombination in mice. Analysis of hematopoietic differentiation in homozygous mutant animals revealed that cell cycle exit of granulocytic precursors was inhibited following the colony‐forming cell stage, resulting in increased proliferation and delayed terminal differentiation of low proliferative potential cluster‐forming cells. Surprisingly, the numbers of terminally differentiated bone marrow and peripheral blood granulocytes were essentially unchanged in Mad1 null mice. This imbalance between the frequencies of precursor and mature granulocytes was correlated with a compensatory decrease in granulocytic cluster‐forming cell survival under apoptosis‐inducing conditions. In addition, recovery of the peripheral granulocyte compartment following bone marrow ablation was significantly enhanced in Mad1 knockout mice. Two Mad1‐related genes, Mxi1 and Mad3, were found to be expressed ectopically in adult spleen, indicating that functional redundancy and cross‐regulation between MAD family members may allow for apparently normal differentiation in the absence of MAD1. These findings demonstrate that MAD1 regulates cell cycle withdrawal during a late stage of granulocyte differentiation, and suggest that the relative levels of MYC versus MAD1 mediate a balance between cell proliferation and terminal differentiation.


In 4 dogs injected intravenously (i.v.) with 125I labeled fibrinogen, 51Cr labeled platelets and 99mTc labeled albumin, and subjected to successively increasing amounts of i.v. infused monomethylmethacrylate, doses corresponding to the amounts released into the blood stream following implantation of acrylic cement during total hip replacements did not affect the clotting mechanism, did not cause trapping of platelets and fibrin in the lungs, did not generate fat emboli, and did not cause depression of the arterial oxygen tension or blood pressure. Monomethylmethacrylate in whole blood was associated with both blood cells and plasma.


Shear wave induced phase encoding (SWIPE) imaging generates ultrasound backscatter images of tissue-like elastic materials by using traveling shear waves to encode the lateral position of the scatters in the phase of the received echo. In contrast to conventional ultrasound B-scan imaging, SWIPE offers the potential advantages of image formation without beam focusing or steering from a single transducer element, lateral resolution independent of aperture size, and the potential to achieve relatively high lateral resolution with low frequency ultrasound. Here a Fourier series description of the phase modulated echo signal is developed, demonstrating that echo harmonics at multiples of the shear wave frequency reveal target k-space data at identical multiples of the shear wavenumber. Modulation transfer functions of SWIPE imaging systems are calculated for maximum shear wave acceleration and maximum shear constraints, and compared with a conventionally focused aperture. The relative signal-to-noise ratio of the SWIPE method versus a conventionally focused aperture is found through these calculations. Reconstructions of wire targets in a gelatin phantom using 1 and 3.5 MHz ultrasound and a cylindrical shear wave source are presented, generated from the fundamental and second harmonic of the shear wave modulation frequency, demonstrating weak dependence of lateral resolution with ultrasound frequency.


The in vivo effects of several chemotherapeutic agents on the mitotic cycle of leukemic blasts in the bone marrow were evaluated by serial measurements of cells in mitosis and in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis as indicated by ability to incorporate tritiated thymidine or tritiated deoxyuridine. 28 studies were done in 23 children and 1 adult. The changes in the marrow after a single injection of L-asparaginase, hydrocortisone, cyclophosphamide, cytosine arabinoside, methotrexate, and an exchange transfusion (62% of the total blood volume) were evaluated. L-asparaginase and hydrocortisone were found to arrest the entry of cells into the S period. Cyclophosphamide appeared to inhibit DNA synthesis, arrest cells in mitosis, and inhibit the entry of cells into the S period. Cytosine arabinoside, and methotrexate inhibited DNA synthesis. During the period of time the cells were inhibited in the S phase by these two drugs, cells continued to enter the S period. Thus partial synchronization was achieved after these two drugs. An exchange transfusion had no consistent effect on the mitotic cycle, but partial synchronization in the S period was seen in one patient. To take advantage of the ability of cystosine arabinoside, to synchronize leukemic cells in the S phase, a second cycle-dependent drug was given at the time the leukemic blasts were synchronized. The second cycle-dependent drugs evaluated were vincristine, methotrexate, and cytosine arabinoside given by intravenous drip over a 12 hr period. Recruitment was found after cytosine arabinoside alone, and after prior synchronization with cytosine arabinoside and then the administration of either of these drugs. The results of these studies indicate that a greater therapeutic advantage can be achieved by a second cycle-dependent drug after synchronization than after the second drug alone.


The unconstrained reduced action corresponding to the dynamics of scalar fluctuations about the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) background is derived using Dirac's method of description of singular Lagrangian systems. The results are applied to the so-called negative mode problem in the description of tunneling transitions with gravity. With our special choice of physical variable, the kinetic term of the reduced action has a conventional signature for a wide class of models. In this representation, the existence of a negative mode justifying the false vacuum decay picture turns out to be manifest. We also explain how the present result becomes consistent with the previously proved ``no negative mode (supercritical supercurvature mode) theorem.''


Beam-foil spectroscopy techniques have been used to study intercombination transitions in Be-like Fe22+ and B-like Fe21+. The method of time delayed spectroscopy was used to identify the Be-like 2s2 1S0-2s2p 3P1 and B-like 2s22p 2P3/2-2s2p2 4P5/2 transitions. Intensity decay curves for these transitions were recorded and level lifetimes were obtained. The latter were found to be 17.5 ± 1.5 ns for the Be-like 2s2p 3P1 level and 14.8 ± 1.0 ns for the B-like 2s2p2 4P5/2 level.


We have done a spectroscopic study of the solar transition region using high resolution UV & EUV data obtained by SUMER(Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation) on board SOHO(Solar and Heliospheric Observatory). Optically thin and conspicuous emission lines observed at the solar limb are carefully selected to acquire average values of physical parameters for the quiet region as a function of radial distance. Our main results found from the present study can be summarized as follows. 1) Nonthermal velocities estimated from various UV lines do not decrease with height at least within one total line intensity scale height above the limb. 2) Nonthermal velocity distribution with temperature is very similar to that of the disk center, in the sense that its peak is located around 2 10 5 K, but the value is systematically larger than that of the disk. 3) It is found that nonthermal velocity is inversely proportional to quadratic root of electron density up to about 10 arc seconds above the limb, i.e. N e ?1=4 , implying that the observed nonthermal broadening can be attributed to Alfv en waves passing through the medium. 4) Electron density estimated from the O V 629/760 line ratio is found to range from about 1 10 10 cm ?3 to 2 10 12 cm ?3 in the transition region.


One of the reasons for many social tragedies resulted from land expropriation in China is failure of the constitution to bring into play its due functions in standardizing land expropriation power of the government and protecting farmers' rights. In the existing land expropriation system, government is not only a policy maker of land expropriation, but also a "referee†of dispute over land expropriation. Government' land expropriation power and land-expropriated farmers' rights become out of balance. As a result, some local governments do not attach importance to farmers' rights, making land-expropriated farmers dissatisfied and consequently leading to some social tragedies unfavorable for harmony and stability. To fundamentally settle disputes over land expropriation and realize win-win of farmers' right and state interest, it should bring into full play functions of the constitution through protecting farmers' right to participate in land expropriation and establishing constitution evaluation mechanism.


This paper develops a relation between the partitioning properties of computer logic and the distribution of connection lengths. The computation of length distributions is important for wirability analysis and delay estimation. The principal result is that an exponential partitioning function leads to an inverse power law length distribution.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of one bout and three intermittent bouts of short-duration, high-intensity running on the performance of a sports-specific psychomotor skill. Participants (N = 13) were male soccer players (M age 20.5 yr., SD = 2.0) who had been playing semi-professionally for M = 2.1 years, SD = 1.11 and trained twice a week. They undertook a soccer-passing test in three conditions: following rest, following a 100-m sprint and following 3 × 100-m sprints, with 30-sec. rest intervals between sprints. Passing accuracy showed a significant linear deterioration, while number of passes showed a significant quadratic effect. Low to moderate linear regression correlations were found between posttest heart rate and absolute and variable errors on the test. It was concluded that short-duration, high-intensity exercise has a negative effect on accuracy in a sports-specific task that requires both perceptual judgment and motor control.


This document lists the significant publications and presentations of the Space Sciences Laboratory during the period Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 1994. Entries in the main part of the document are categorized according to NASA Reports (arranged by report number), Open Literature, and Presentations (arranged alphabetically by title). Also included for completeness is an appendix (arranged by report number) listing preprints issued by the laboratory during this reporting period. Some of the preprints have not been published; those already published are so indicated. Most of the articles listed under Open Literature have appeared in referenced professional journals, books, monographs, or conference proceedings. Although many published abstracts are eventually expanded into full papers for publications in scientific and technical journals, they are often sufficiently comprehensive to include the significant results of the research reported. Therefore, published abstracts are listed separately in a subsection under Open Literature. The organizational code of the cognizant SSL branch or office is given at the end of each entry.


The purpose of this paper was to investigate the awareness and use of career information sources among secondary school students. The survey research design was used for the study. Data collection was done with the aid of a questionnaire.  Out of 228 copies of the questionnaire administered, 200 were successfully retrieved. The retrieved copies were analysed and interpreted using simple percentage and frequency distribution method. The results revealed that secondary school students are more aware of parents, teachers and churches as sources of career information. However, when it came to utilizing sources of career information, parents, classmates and teachers were mostly utilized. In the aspect of usefulness of information received, information received from parents, churches and teachers were found to be most useful. Among the challenges faced when seeking career information, delays and inaccuracy in information received topped the list. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others, that parents assist their children in utilising other sources of career information as this would widen their understanding and assist them in making more intelligent decisions. Keywords : Career choice, Career information, Information seeking behaviour, Information sources, Nigeria, Secondary school students.


A total of 392 patients have undergone prosthetic valve surgery including the mitral valve over a four-year period (1972-76). Of these patients 56 (14%) had a pulmonary artery systolic pressure of 70 mmHg or more during preoperative cardiac catheterisation and the hospital mortality of this group was 5.4%. Similarly, the hospital mortality of the remaining 336 patients with a pulmonary artery pressure below 70 mmHg was 5.4%. The presence of pulmonary hypertension in patients with valve disease including the mitral valve does not therefore indicate that the risk of dying in hospital as a consequence of corrective surgery is increased. The absence of a raised hospital mortality in this recent series may be attributed to improved surgical techniques and materials, while the use of droperidol and pentolinium which may reduce pulmonary vascular resistance as well as systemic resistance during surgery could be contributory.


Magnetically imploded cylindrical metal shells (z-pinch liners) are attractive drivers for experiments exploring hydrodynamics and properties of materials at extreme conditions. As in all z-pinches, the outer surface of a liner is unstable to magneto Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) modes during acceleration, and large-scale distortion arising from RT modes could make such liners unuseable. On the other hand, material strength in the liner should, from first principles, reduce the growth rate of RT modes, and material strength can render some combinations of wavelength and amplitude analytically stable. A series of experiments has been conducted in which high-conductivity, soft, cylindrical aluminum liners were accelerated with 6-MA, 7-/spl mu/s rise-time driving currents. Small perturbations were machined into the outer surface of the liner and perturbation growth monitored. Two-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (2-D-MHD) calculations of the growth of the initial perturbations were in good agreement with experimentally observed perturbation growth through the entire course of the implosions. In general, for high-conductivity and soft materials, theory and simulation adequately predicted the behavior of magneto-RT modes in liners where elastic-plastic behavior applies. This is the first direct verification of the growth of magneto-RT in solids with strength known to the authors.


Background: Only limited information is available on the nutrition knowledge of the general Austrian population and how this relates to the nutrition knowledge of health professionals (medical doctors, pharmacists, nutritionist, dieticians) and school teachers. Methods: Adolescents and adults at the age of 14–75 years (n = 1000), medical doctors (n = 307), pharmacists (n = 295), nutritionists (n = 124), dieticians (n = 160) and school teachers (n = 873) completed an online survey using a German version of the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire-Revised (GNKQ-R) including self-reported data on sex, age, BMI, and health status. Adolescent and adult participants were recruited by a research agency to be representative for the Austrian population for age, sex, and education. A convenience sample was used for health professionals (medical doctors, pharmacists, nutritionist, dieticians) and school teachers. All participants completed a computer-assisted web-based interviewing (CAWI) survey. Results: Total scores for nutrition knowledge of the general population (61.4%) were significantly lower than scores from all other groups (medical doctors 81.3%, pharmacists 83.0%, dieticians 87.5%, nutritionists 85.6%, school teachers 74.5%). The main drivers for better nutritional knowledge were female sex, higher age, and higher level of education, while BMI classification and self-reported health status had no impact. In regard to single questions, the most striking result was the misclassification of sugar as the nutrient with the most calories by 41.4% of the general population while only 29.0% correctly identified fat to be the nutrient with the most calories. Conclusions: The nutritional knowledge of the general population should be significantly improved in order to lay a basis for better dietary behavior. In view of the relatively low scores of teachers, their nutrition education should be improved in order to enable transfer of sound education in schools.


Recent clinical trials have consistently demonstrated that reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to very low levels will substantially reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The lipid-lowering agents of choice are the statins, which are generally considered safe and effective. Of the various agents available, atorvastatin and rosuvastatin are the most powerful, followed by simvastatin. Serious adverse effects with statin therapy are uncommon and primarily involve effects on the liver and skeletal muscle. The risk increases with the statin dose and coadministration with other drugs metabolized by the same metabolic pathway, such as the cytochrome P-450 system. For patients who do not achieve adequate reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels with statin therapy of moderate potency, the clinician can up-titrate the dose of the initial statin, institute combination therapy and carefully monitor for adverse effects, or switch to a lower dose of a more potent statin. The strategy chosen depends on the degree of lipid lowering required and on safety, cost, and compliance issues. This article reviews evidence concerning the benefits of reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels below currently established targets and addresses the question of whether Intensive statin therapy is likely to Increase the risk of adverse events or concomitant comorbidity.


We demonstrate that the parallel computing with graphic processing unit (GPU) effectively accelerates a particle-based carrier transport simulation called EMC/MD method. The simulation speed is increased by parallelizing the point-to-point Coulomb's force calculation, which is sufficient to accomplish a device characteristic simulation of nanostructured metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) including source and drain diffusion regions. The EMC/MD simulation powered by GPU computing is a useful tool to investigate the statistical variability analysis of nano-scale transistors.


Presentation is the default mode of communication in higher education. Teacher education is no exception, and student teachers learn the practice of presenting by observing their subject teachers and by performing their own presentations. This study proposes an analytical framework based on the Learning Design Sequence (LDS) (Selander, 2008), which captures the design and processual aspects of presentation in the context of teacher education. Subject to observations are the student teachers' performances of reports from their practicum placement. The study departs from Shulman's (1987) ideas regarding what constitute essential teaching skills. He identified the transformation and representation of subject content as two key aspects of teaching. Transformation entails didactic reasoning regarding how to make a subject matter comprehensible, whereas representation entails giving ideas a material shape. By approaching presentation as a semiotic practice (Zhao, 2014), transformation and representation take on additional meaning; it is akin to a sign-making activity motivated by pedagogical ends. By using the LDS as an analytical tool, the students' agentive process of sign making is modelled as two transformation cycles. The first cycle captures the students' pre-forming activity of giving shape to knowledge by designing a semiotic artefact: a PowerPoint slide show. The second cycle captures the performance of the slides for an audience. The model reflects the dynamic multimodal interplay that occurs between the presenter and the semiotic artefact during performance. The amended LDS supports the analysis of presentation at three levels: the semiotic, interpretative and curricular levels.


Location and general Description The region discussed is that part of the Allegheny plateau in western New York which lies between the Canandaigua valley on the east and the valley of the Genesee river and its tributary, Canaseraga creek, on the west. It covers the northward slope of the plateau, here about 20 miles long. At its northern limit the distance from the foot of Canandaigua lake to the Genesee river is 25 miles. It is bounded on the south by the Cohocton-Wayland valley, which connects the head of Canaseraga with the head of Canandaigua, only 10 miles apart. It includes the four western finger lakes—Honeoye, Canadice, Hemlock, and Conesus—all of which are tributary to the Genesee. The plateau rises from an elevation of about 800 feet on the north to a crest above 2,000 feet in the southern part of the region. Its northern third is underlain by the . . .


Re Donald (1977) 2 TRNZ 275 dealt with valuing a wife's interest in a bank account held jointly with her husband, on his death. Somers J held that the wife did not have any beneficial interest in the account until the husband's death, when she acquired a right to the whole account. This note argues that this conclusion was incorrect. Since the purpose for the account was for both parties to have access to money as required, Somers J should have found that the wife had some beneficial interest in the account before her husband's death.


Detection of complement-fixing antibody to coccidioidin by using the complement fixation test or an immunodiffusion assay for complement-fixing antibody (IDCF) is widely viewed as the most useful immunodiagnostic test for coccidioidomycosis. In this investigation, we report the production of an immunoglobulin G subclass 1 (IgG1) monoclonal antibody (MAb) to the IDCF antigen for use as a biospecific ligand for purifying the IDCF antigen on solid-phase immunosorbents and for use as a reagent for screening genomic or cDNA expression libraries from Coccidioides immitis. BALB/c mice were immunized by intramuscular injections of coccidioidin in adjuvant, followed by an intrasplenic booster injection of coccidioidin in saline. The spleen cells were fused with SP2/0 Ag14 myeloma cells, and the fusion products were screened for IgG antibody to coccidiodin by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Positive hybridomas were cloned and evaluated for reactivity to the IDCF antigen by two-dimensional immunoelectrophoresis and by immunoblotting. An IgG1 Mab was produced that was specific for the IDCF antigen when evaluated by two-dimensional immunoelectrophoresis and immunoblotting. The epitope recognized by the MAb was heat labile (60 degrees C, 30 min) and susceptible to enzymatic digestion with pronase but was resistant to treatment with lipase, alpha-mannosidase, glucose oxidase, and endoglycosidase H. This heat-labile peptide epitope appears to be specific to C. immitis, as judged by the fact that the MAb was not reactive in immunoblots or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of histoplasmin or blastomycin.


This paper studies a new fractional-order form for the active low-pass filter. The form was mainly generated from generalizing an active second-order low-pass filter with three capacitors to the fractional-order domain with three independent orders. The transfer function introduced an extra term in the denominator comprising the third fractional order. The effect of the third fractional-order alongside the other transfer function coefficients on the critical frequencies had been studied numerically. For simulation purposes, Foster I realization had been utilized to synthesis the fractional-order capacitors approximated by using Matsuda technique. The simulation had been carried out on OrCAD showing matching results to the theoretical analysis with subtle error for the half-power frequency. Experimental work had been conducted on ELVIS II kit using off-the-shelf components and the results showed a match to the simulation profile with low error. Aside from that, complete design flow for active fractional-order filters had been followed in this work.


Purpose of review: Cardiologists and researchers are well informed of the advances in chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics and their clinical application in the field of cardiology. Heart failure is a syndrome with a progressive clinical deterioration that involves left ventricular dysfunction and neurohormonal adaptations with a relentless course toward end-stage myocardial failure. In the present paper, a concept of chaotic behavior of cardiac function during heart failure progression is introduced. Recent findings: The progressive nature of heart failure discloses a dynamical and non-linear system with properties and characteristics of chaotic behavior related to the initial conditions and the presence of a chaotic attractor. The clinical deterioration of heart failure in a worse clinical state concentrates the characteristics of a complex and unstable system that is stabilized in the form of a strange (chaotic) attractor. The clinical stabilization in the form of a strange attractor is accomplished with help from the self-organized positive feedback stabilization neurohormonal mechanisms. This stabilization period is interrupted by miscellaneous causes with left ventricular remodeling being the most prominent. Summary: In human heart failure, there are periods of clinical stabilization in the form of the strange attractor that depends on its initial state, and interruption periods of clinical instability. In the interruption periods small changes of the interrupted causes can produce high clinical instability. Left ventricular remodeling with its functional myocardial deterioration is the most probable cause of the clinical decline and of the progressive nature of heart failure.


Background: There have been many cases of HIV/AIDS in Kurdistan Region-Iraq as mentioned by ministry of health in Kurdistan region-Iraq, and it is increasing every year. The HIV/AIDS Training is not involved formally in the program of the university. This investigation evaluated the knowledge and attitudes of nursing students` regarding HIV/AIDS in Erbil city. Aim: To assess nursing students' knowledge about HIV/AIDS, who are future nurses, and to identify their attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 217 Erbil medical technical nursing students both stages both genders in Erbil city-Iraq during the 2021-2022 academic year, they participated voluntarily to fill a questionnaire sheet knowledge and AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS) developed by the investigator. Results: A total of 217 nursing students participated in the survey. Their age ranges from (19-28 years) with mean age 21.69± 4.6 years, only 25 participants (11.5%) were having high knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS, and only 3 of participants (1.4%) had high attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. Discussion: The majority of nursing students had medium knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Almost all of them have negative attitude toward HIV/AIDS. Though, for the high proportion (65.9%) of low attitudes and (32.7%) with medium attitudes of nursing students, a review of the recent instructive element on HIV/AIDS is essential. Minority of the nursing students have superior level of knowledge in regards to HIV/AIDS and disappointed number had positive attitudes in regards to HIV/AIDS. Conclusion: Improving basic knowledge of nursing students regarding HIV/AIDS is essential, nonetheless also fighting against HIV/AIDS misconception. The current research illustrated that nursing students must learn more regarding HIV/AIDS. And the negative conception of HIV/AIDS by the upcoming nurses should be addressed to advance the quality of nursing care.


To clarify whether edible polysaccharides (dietary fibers) have a host defense stimulating activity, the effects of intraperitoneally administered dietary fiber on the generation of microbicidal superoxide anion (O2-) in mouse peritoneal exudate macrophages (MP) were investigated. MP obtained from mice injected cellulose or pectin generated larger amount of O2- when stimulated by 12-o-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) or during phagocytosis of opsonized zymosan than those from mice injected proteose peptone, a widely used elicitor for MP. Especially, generated O2- from cellulose-elicited MP was as strikingly large as that from MP elicited by lentinan, a strong antitumor polysaccharide, when stimulated by TPA. Yeast mannan had no effect on O2(-)-generation. These results suggest the possibility that cellulose and pectin may act as host defense stimulators. The augmentation by cellulose or pectin of O2(-)-generation during phagocytosis was not inhibited by the calmodulin (CaM) antagonist N-(6-aminohexyl)-5-chloro-1-naphthalenesulfonamide (W-7). However, the augmentation was completely disappeared when the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methylpiperazine (H-7) was added. These results strongly suggest that the augmentation of O2(-)-generation in phagocytosing MP by cellulose or pectin might be due to the increased activity of PKC in the MP, and that CaM may not be involved in the augmentation.


Transient performance analysis is essential for the successful design of a spacecraft thermal management system. This paper presents three dynamic models for analyzing system-level transient responses of a loop heat pipe (LHP)-micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) thermal management system consisting of a LHP and a variable emittance radiator employing MEMS technologies. The recommended hybrid mathematical model, which is deduced from the fundamental 3-node and 4-node thermal networks, provides an efficient closed-form equation enabling direct calculation of the fluid mass flowrate in the LHP from the nodal temperatures of the thermal management system, and a set of state equations that independently compute the temperature responses of the cooled object, LHP evaporator, LHP condenser, and MEMS radiator. The temperature transients of a 50 W LHP-MEMS thermal management system, as well as the hydraulic responses inside the employed LHP, were numerically investigated and discussed in detail.


During balanced growth of cells in culture all extensive properties of the culture — e.g. cell number, total mass, total DNA content — increase exponentially at the same specific growth rate. Therefore, in some average sense, each component of a cell must double between birth and division. For DNA there exists an elaborate mechanism to ensure precise replication of the genetic material and accurate partitioning of identical copies of the genome to the two daughter cells. Do cells possess another mechanism that intentionally relates the timing of cell division to overall increase in cell size, or is the coordination of growth and division an incidental consequence of size‐independent rules for progress through the cell cycle?.


We consider the problem of heterogeneous checkpointing in distributed systems. We propose a new solution to the problem that is truly heterogeneous in that it can support new architectures without any information about the architecture. The ability to support new architectures without additional knowledge or custom configuration is an important contribution of this work. This ability is particularly useful in mobile settings in which there is no a priori knowledge of the potential machines on which the application might execute. Our solution supports execution in unknown settings as long as there is compiler support for the high-level language in which the application is written. We precisely define what it means for a particular solution to be heterogeneous and discuss the heterogeneity of our solution and other solutions. We use code instrumentation at the source code level to provide heterogeneous checkpointing and recovery.


Abstract This article addresses the effects of thermal radiation, stratification, and Joule heating for the flow of magnetohydrodynamics Sutterby nanofluid past over a stretching cylinder. The transport phenomenon of heat and mass are modeled under temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and diffusion coefficients, respectively. Moreover, traditional Fourier and Fick's laws have been implemented in thermal and mass transport expressions. The governing model that consists of a set of coupled partial differential equations is converted into system of nonlinear coupled ordinary differential equations via suitable similarity transformations. The resulting set of expressions is analytically treated through an optimal homotopy scheme. The effects of different dimensionless flow parameters on the velocity, temperature, and concentration fields are illustrated through graphs. The patterns of skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt, and Sherwood numbers are examined via bar charts. The major outcome of the proposed study is that variable thermal conductivity decays the temperature and radiation raises the temperature of the system. Stratification parameters show the reverse behavior for temperature and concentration boundary layers. Shear rate-dependent rheology in view of Sutterby liquid has the ability to reduce the flow of fluid. Therefore, the ability of flow in rheology of Sutterby liquid becomes reduced. Consequently, layer of momentum boundary has increased with respect to parameter of Sutterby liquid.


Some of the refugees forced to flee their home country are young people who have just graduated from secondary school, completed one or more semesters at university level, or already hold a first degree. They want to continue their university studies in Europe, but encounter a variety of obstacles standing in their way. They are, however, also supported by Swiss students and universities. What difficulties do they encounter, and what measures are especially helpful in this situation?


The neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is thought to mediate the induction of a constellation of behavioral, endocrine, and autonomic responses which are important for an animal's adaptation to stressful events. We have found that the anteroventral periventricular preoptic nucleus (AVPv) and medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) of colchicine-injected female rats contained numerous intensely stained CRF-immunoreactive neurons. The AVPv/MPN in males contained very few CRF-immunoreactive neurons per section, even in colchicine-injected animals. This sexually dimorphic population of CRF-immunoreactive neurons in the AVPv may play some role in the sex-related differences in hormonal responses to stress and/or in the control of female reproductive events.


The feasibility of practical in-band full-duplex radios has recently been demonstrated experimentally. One way to leverage full-duplex in a network setting is to enable three-node full-duplex, where a full-duplex access point (AP) transmits data to one node yet simultaneously receives data from another node. Such three-node full-duplex communication however introduces inter-client interference, directly impacting the full-duplex gain. It hence may not always be beneficial to enable three-node full-duplex transmissions. In this paper, we present a distributed full-duplex medium access control (MAC) protocol that allows an AP to adaptively switch between full-duplex and half-duplex modes. We formulate a model that determines the probabilities of full-duplex and half-duplex access so as to maximize the expected network throughput. A MAC protocol is further proposed to enable the AP and clients to contend for either full-duplex or half-duplex transmissions based on their assigned probabilities in a distributed way. Our evaluation shows that, by combining the advantages of centralized probabilistic scheduling and distributed random access, our design improves the overall throughput by 3.16× and 1.44×, on average, as compared to half-duplex 802.11 and greedy downlink-uplink client pairing.


Ethylene signaling in Arabidopsis begins with a family of five ethylene receptors that regulate the activity of the Raf-like kinase, CTR1. Recent work to identify novel factors required for modulating ethylene signaling resulted in the isolation of enhanced ethylene response 1 (eer1), a mutant that displays both increased sensitivity and increased amplitude of response to ethylene. Molecular cloning of eer1 reveals that its mutant phenotype results from a loss-of-function mutation in the previously characterized RCN1, one of three PP2A A regulatory subunits in Arabidopsis. Our analysis shows that neither RCN1 expression nor PP2A activity is regulated by ethylene. Instead, we found that Arabidopsis PP2A-1C, a PP2A catalytic subunit previously characterized as interacting with RCN1, associates strongly with the kinase domain of CTR1 in vitro. This likely represents a role for PP2A in modulation of CTR1 activity because an in vitro kinase assay did not reveal phosphorylation of either RCN1 or PP2A-1C by CTR1, indicating that neither of them is a substrate for CTR1. PP2A activity is required for Ras-dependent activation of mammalian Raf, with reductions in PP2A activity significantly compromising the effectiveness of this mechanism. Our genetic and biochemical results suggest that a similar requirement for PP2A activity exists for ethylene signaling, with loss-of-function mutations affecting PP2A activity possibly reducing the effectiveness of CTR1 activation, thus lowering the threshold required for manifestation of ethylene response.


The interaction of two transmit-receive pairs coexisting in the same area and communicating using the same portion of the spectrum is analyzed from a game theoretic perspective. Each pair utilizes a decentralized iterative water-filling scheme to greedily maximize the individual rate. We study the dynamics of such a game and find properties of the resulting Nash equilibria. The region of achievable operating points is characterized for both low- and high-interference systems, and the dependence on the various system parameters is explicitly shown. We derive the region of possible signal space partitioning for the iterative water-filling scheme and show how the individual utility functions can be modified to alter its range. Utilizing global system knowledge, we design a modified game encouraging better operating points in terms of sum rate compared to those obtained using the iterative water-filling algorithm and show how such a game can be imitated in a decentralized noncooperative setting. Although we restrict the analysis to a two player game, analogous concepts can be used to design decentralized algorithms for scenarios with more players. The performance of the modified decentralized game is evaluated and compared to the iterative water-filling algorithm by numerical simulations.


This paper complements the literature on style migration by examining value and size premiums throughout Europe. Information from more than 25 European markets indicates an average value premium of 9.58% per year. The primary determinants of the persistent value outperformance are: 1) value firms migrating to a neutral or growth portfolio, and 2) growth stocks migrating to neutral or value portfolios. The financial health metric F_SCORE helps uncover outperforming stocks ex ante, and provides preliminary evidence on the probability of migration, but only for small stocks.


Modeling heterogeneity in field crops is a key issue for a better characterization of field production. This paper presents some experimental data on sugar beet illustrating this heterogeneity. Several sources of individual variability within plant populations are identified: namely, initial condition (seed biomass, emergence delay), genetic variability (including phyllochron) and environment (including spacing and competition). A mathematical framework is introduced to integrate the different sources of variability in plant growth models. It is based on the classical method of Taylor Series Expansion, which allows the propagation of uncertainty in the dynamic system of growth and the computation of the approximate means and standard deviations of the model outputs. The method is applied to the GreenLab model of plant growth and more specifically to sugar beet. It opens perspectives in order to assess the different sources of variability in plant populations and estimate their parameters from experimental data. However important issues like optimization of data collection and system identifiability have to be resolved first, since the uncertainty effects may be mixed in an inextricable way or may necessitate a too huge amount of experimental data for their estimation.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the corrosion behavior of commercially available surface modified nickel titanium (NiTi) arch wires with respect to a conventional NiTi and to evaluate its association with surface characteristics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Five types of surface modified arch wires and a conventional NiTi arch wire, all from different manufacturers, were evaluated for their corrosion resistance from breakdown potential in an anodic polarization scan in Ringer's solution. Surface characteristics were determined from scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and energy dispersive analysis. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc Duncan's multiple range tests were used to evaluate statistical significance.

RESULTS
Surface modified NiTi wires showed significant improvement in corrosion resistance and reduction in surface roughness values. Breakdown potentials increased in the order of group 6 (conventional; 204 mV) < group 1 (nitride; 333 mV) < group 5 (epoxy resin; 346mV) < group 3 (oxide; 523 mV) < group 2 (gold; 872 mV) < group 4 (Teflon; 1181 mV), but root mean square (RMS) roughness values, which indicated surface roughness, followed a different pattern: group 3 (oxide; 74.12 nm) < group 1 (nitride; 221.651 nm) < group 4 (Teflon; 278.523 nm) < group 2 (gold; 317.894 nm) < group 5 (epoxy resin; 344.236 nm) < group 6 (conventional; 578.555 nm).

CONCLUSIONS
Surface modification of NiTi wires proved to be effective in improving its corrosion resistance and decreasing surface roughness. However, neither factor could maintain a direct, one-to-one relationship. It meant that the type and nature of coating material can effectively influence the anticorrosive features of NiTi wires, compared with its surface roughness values.


The optimal gain design method of a three-phase boost converter is proposed in this study. The control system has a two-loop configuration, in which each controller is coupled closely; thus, the optimal design is difficult to achieve using conventional gain-tuning method. The proposed method is adopted to the MATLAB SISO TOOL software and is based on the controller requirements, which are phase margin and cut-off frequency of the open-loop system. The optimal proportional–integral gains can be designed easily using the proposed interactive method of the SISO TOOL. The performance of the proposed system is verified through simulation and experiments.


Object Behavior Analysis nalysis is the study and modeling of a given problem domain, within the context of stated goals and objectives. It focuses on what a system is supposed to do, rather than how it is supposed to do it (which we consider the design aspects). In addition , it must embody the rule of traceability (why), which justifies the existence of a given result by tying it back to the stated goals and objectives. The components of the problem domain can be described as anything that end users of the system, both humans and machines, view as part of the problem context. This may include technical issues, if the users view such issues as part of the problem. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • We want the analysis process to be carried out in a predictable and controllable manner. In taking an object-oriented approach to analysis , our goal on completion is that we have a clear understanding of the behaviors exhibited by the system , the objects that exhibit these behaviors, the relationships among the objects, and how the objects interact with one another (the system dynamics). This must all be specified in a clear and well-defined language of object and behavior names, chosen from the problem domain. In addition, any implementation code must be traceable back to the results of the analysis. This means that the vocabulary and structures apparent in the design and implementation must clearly reflect the vocabulary and structures that result from the analysis. Object-oriented analysis endeavors to model a situation in terms of a collection of interacting entities, each of which provides a well-defined set of behaviors and attributes. Most published approaches describe conceptually similar definitions , although they adopt alternate terminologies [2, 3, 10]. There is a high degree of agreement on the desired structure of the end result; we differ in how to get to the end result. Many approaches recommend first searching for the tangible objects , notably seeking the nouns in a requirements specification and any applicable verbs and adjectives. With nouns as the objects, the message interface is determined from the verbs, and the logical properties are derived from the adjectives. Although this basic approach may work for small systems, it is our experience that it simply will not scale up. First, it assumes that a complete, …


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

Nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to mediate contrasting effects on tumorigenesis i.e. at low levels NO is pro-tumorigenic and at high levels NO is anti-tumorigenic. Recent studies revealed that treatment of tumor cell lines with NO donors at high levels significantly inhibited cell growth and survival pathways such as the constitutively activated NF-κB. Tumor cells with activated NF-κB were reported to have the capacity to initiate the metastatic cascade via induction of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). The EMT phenotype is characterized by decreased expression of epithelial gene products (e.g. E-cadherin, cytokeratin 18) and upregulation of mesenchymal gene products (e.g. vimentin, fibronectin). In addition, the tumor cells exhibit invasive and migratory properties. Based on these above findings, we hypothesized that treatment of metastatic prostate carcinoma cell lines, PC-3 and DU-145 with DETANONOate (500-1000μM) may reverse the EMT phenotype. This hypothesis was tested and treatment of the cells with DETANONOate resulted in inhibition of the EMT phenotype through inhibition of NF-κB activity. Inhibition of NF-κB was shown to be due, in part, to S-nitrosylation of p50. In addition to the inhibition of EMT phenotype, treatment with DETANONOate also inhibited invasive properties. The dual roles of DETANONOate-mediated inhibition of NF-κB and EMT were corroborated by the use of the NF-κB inhibitor DHMEQ. We examined the underlying mechanism by which NF-κB-induced inhibition by DETANONOate resulted in the inhibition of EMT. The EMT-induced transcription factor Snail was highly expressed in PC-3 and DU-145 cells. Treatment with DETANONOate inhibited Snail expression concomitant with inhibition of EMT. The direct role of Snail inhibition by DETANONOate and the inhibition of EMT was corroborated in cells transfected with Snail siRNA and such treatment reversed the EMT phenotype, mimicking DETANONOate. Inhibition of the repressor activity of Snail by DETANONOate resulted in the upregulation of the Raf-1 kinase inhibitory protein (RKIP). The role of RKIP induction in the reversal of EMT was corroborated in cells overexpressing RKIP. The in vitro findings with DETANONOate-induced inhibition of EMT were validated in mice bearing PC-3 xenografts. Treatment with DETANONOate and analysis by IHC of tumor biopsies revealed that the EMT phenotype was reversed. There was an inverse correlation between Snail inhibition and RKIP induction. The present findings demonstrate, for the first time, that NO donors (high concentrations) inhibit the EMT phenotype and suggest their potential therapeutic applications in vivo in patients. These studies also suggest that the NF-κB/Snail/RKIP circuitry is dysregulated in tumor cells and is responsible, in part, for the EMT phenotype.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1466.