This paper presents a numerical approach that combines the finite-element time-domain (FETD) method and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to model and analyze the two-dimensional electromagnetic problem concerned in the simultaneous switching noise (SSN) induced by adjacent signal traces through the coupled-via parallel-plate structures. Applying FETD for the region having the source excitation inside and FDTD for the remaining regions preserves the advantages of both FETD flexibility and FDTD efficiency. By further including the transmission-line simulation, the signal integrity and power integrity issues can be resolved at the same time. Furthermore, the numerical results demonstrate which kind of signal allocation between the planes can achieve the best noise cancellation. Finally, a comparison with the measurement data validates the proposed hybrid techniques.


The purpose of this thesis is to define the processes involved in the formation of Adverbials which have the morphological shape adj+ly, in terms of the theory of Transformational Grammar and starting with the assumptions about syntax contained in Chomsky's "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax" (1965). This thesis is therefore fundamentally descriptive in its aim and attempts to provide analyses for the traditional de-adjectival Adverbials, that is for Manner and Degree and Sentence Adverbials, These are found to be considerably more varied in their syntactic origins that has generally been supposed. It has also been necessary to relate to de-adjectival Adverbials other structures e.g. with + N.P. and like -N.P., which carry out identical functional roles. Some of the conclusions arrived at have implications not only for the analysis of particular structures but also for the nature of the "Model" set up to define natural language. The thesis starts with a consideration of prevalent assumptions concerning the analysis of these Adverbials, One of the central notions of current theory, here termed "The Doctrine of the Unique Source", is that which attempts to explicate the relationship between alternative surface forms of Manner and Degree Adverbials by hypothesising a single Deep Structure category from which they all arise. This "Doctrine" is intimately linked with theoretical assumptions about the nature of Interrogatives and the definition of syntactic function. Since the conclusion is here reached that the "Unique Source" is a mistaken hypothesis some of the support for these related theories is removed. Finally, a further theoretical implication of this study is that the "Aspects" Model is inadequate for defining a relationship between categories that is required for the expression of a process common to all de-adjectival Adverbials, In fact it provides further empirical evidence that the notion "A qualifies B" must be directly definable.


Electronic gadgets are more and more demanding nowadays. When the users are difficult to reach the grid or have no charger along with them, aside from conventional power bank, thermoelectric generator (TEG) can be another choice to charge up their electronic gadgets. Most of the TEG can only generates low voltage which is not enough to charge up the electronic gadgets. So, the voltage needs to be stepped up. Boost converter with voltage sensor or switching regulator is considered and both are compared in terms of efficiency performance, stability, and reliability by using software. In low voltage application, a switching regulator is more suitable to be used to step up TEG voltage for charging mobile devices compared with self-constructed boost converter.


The conceptual foundation, behavior, and implementation of semidistributed hydrological models such as TOPMODEL and VIC are reviewed from a "saturation path modeling" perspective, hereinafter referred to as SPM. A general family of SPM models is analyzed, based on the assumptions that (1) an event‐invariant relationship between the saturated area and catchment storage exists (which may include hysteretic and stochastic components) and (2) ponding is negligible and quick flow is generated from precipitation on saturated areas. The VIC and TOPMODEL are then obtained from specific constitutive functions and numerical approximations. In general, SPM leads to compact equations in canonical ODE form, making the behavior of the model transparent and facilitating improvements of both the conceptual model itself and its numerical implementation. A comprehensive numerical analysis of SPM, TOPMODEL, and VIC is presented, providing insight into the timescale dependence of their parameters. It is demonstrated that uncontrolled numerical implementations, particularly traditional fixed‐step explicit Euler methods, can introduce considerable artifacts into the behavior of conceptual models such as TOPMODEL, corrupting calibration and prediction.


Previous research on sensitization in Aplysia was based entirely on unnatural noxious stimuli, usually electric shock, until our laboratory found that a natural noxious stimulus, a single sublethal lobster attack, causes short-term sensitization. We here extend that finding by demonstrating that multiple lobster attacks induce long-term sensitization (≥24 h) as well as similar, although not identical, neuronal correlates as observed after electric shock. Together these findings establish long- and short-term sensitization caused by sublethal predator attack as a natural equivalent to sensitization caused by artificial stimuli.


Application of the turbo principle to multiuser decoding results in an exchange of probability distributions between two sets of constraints. Firstly, constraints imposed by the multiple-access channel, and secondly, individual constraints imposed by each users' error control code. A-posteriori probability computation for the first set of constraints is prohibitively complex for all but a small number of users. Several lower complexity approaches have been proposed in the literature. One class of methods is based on linear filtering (e.g. LMMSE). A more recent approach is to compute approximations to the posterior probabilities by marginalising over a subset of sequences (list detection). Most of the list detection methods are restricted to non-singular systems. In this paper, we introduce a transformation that permits application of standard tree-search methods to underdetermined systems. We find that the resulting tree-search based receiver outperforms existing methods


We study relations between the Lindelof property in the spaces of continuous functions with the topology of pointwise convergence over a Tychonoff space and over its subspaces. We prove, in particular, the following: a) if $C_p(X)$ is Lindelof, $Y=X\cup\{p\}$, and the point $p$ has countable character in $Y$, then $C_p(Y)$ is Lindelof; b) if $Y$ is a cozero subspace of a Tychonoff space $X$, then $l(C_p(Y)^\omega)\le l(C_p(X)^\omega)$ and $\operatorname{ext}(C_p(Y)^\omega)\le \operatorname{ext}(C_p(X)^\omega)$.


Background
In the EMBRACA phase III trial, talazoparib (1 mg daily, orally) demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in PFS versus physician's choice of chemotherapy (PCT; capecitabine, eribulin, gemcitabine, or vinorelbine) in patients with HER2-negative advanced breast cancer carrying a germline BRCA1/2 mutation; we evaluated patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

Patients and methods
Patients were randomized 2 : 1 to receive talazoparib or PCT. PROs were assessed at day 1 (baseline), the start of each treatment cycle (every 3 weeks), and at the end of treatment, using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-30) and its breast cancer module, QLQ-BR23. Prespecified exploratory analyses included a longitudinal mixed-effect model comparing treatment arms and a time to definitive clinically meaningful deterioration (TTD) analysis carried out in the global health status/quality of life (GHS/QoL), and all functional and symptom scales from the EORTC QLQ-C30 and -BR23 questionnaires. Between-arm TTD comparisons were made using a stratified log-rank test and a Cox proportional hazards model.

Results
Baseline scores were similar between arms. Statistically significant estimated overall improvement from baseline in GHS/QoL was seen for talazoparib compared with statistically significant deterioration for PCT {3.0 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2, 4.8] versus -5.4 [95% CI -8.8, -2.0]; between arms, P < 0.0001}. A statistically significant greater delay was observed in TTD in GHS/QoL, favoring talazoparib over PCT [hazard ratio, 0.38 (95% CI 0.26, 0.55; median, 24.3 versus 6.3 months, respectively; P < 0.0001)]. A statistically significant overall change and a statistically significant delay in TTD, all favoring talazoparib, were also observed in multiple functions and symptoms.

Conclusion
Patients who received talazoparib had significant overall improvements and significant delay in TTD in multiple cancer-related and breast cancer-specific symptoms, functions, and GHS/QoL.

ClinicalTrials.gov
NCT01945775.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Publically-available databases (CDC/NCI) report causes of mortality at the national, state and recently, county level. However, county or sub-county-wide health in West Virginia is difficult to assess due to the rural, sparse and isolated nature of many counties. In Boone County, WV, villages are arranged in a narrow, winding valley or 'hollow' lying between mountain peaks and situated along a creek or river. This region, rich with subterranean coal seams, has been mined for over 100 years; however, mountaintop removal mining (MTR), which began in the 1980s, now allows for the removal of previously-inaccessible seams by surface mining techniques in the top third of a mountain. Mountaintop removal mining has increased dramatically and current estimates suggest greater than 30 percent of West Virginia's coal is produced using this technique. For people residing near MTR sites, dust particulates or other mobilized constituents (minerals, metals, coal, or excipients) may present a health hazard by entering the food chain via vegetables or fruit grown in a home garden, through drinking water, or by breathing or ingestion. To evaluate whether the rate of lung and bronchus cancer deaths have changed over the past fifty years, mortality records were examined from 1962 and 1972-3 (before mountaintop mining removal was widely used) and compared with those from 2006-12. The Chi-squared statistic was used to compare the frequency distributions for the rate of lung and bronchus cancer deaths in eight age categories between 1962, 1972-3, and 2006-12. We found the three time periods were significantly different from one another (α=0.005), and that the number of lung and bronchus cancer deaths had increased in those aged 45 years or older. Smoking rates and socioeconomic status within the county have remained relatively constant during the past decade. Taken together societal and environmental changes and medical advances have influenced causes of mortality in this coal-rich Appalachian county.

Citation Format: Lynn M. Crosby, Christina DeVera, Kaylene Charles, William Orem. Mortality trends from lung and bronchus cancer in Boone County, W.V., USA before and after mountaintop removal mining practices. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-297. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-LB-297


ABSTRACT This article considers the institutional trust of Russia's humanitarian intelligentsia, describes its underlying qualities, characterizes the structure of institutional trust, reveals the essence and prerequisites of its occurrence, and analyzes the elements of institutional structure. The intelligentsia demonstrates a very high level of trust in the Russian president, but the attitudes and motives of this trust differ significantly (the difference between true supporters and passive observers). Trust in the military reflects the intelligentsia's recognition of its merits and role in ensuring the security of the state. Complete trust in the church indicates the intelligentsia's identification with its values and goals. The intelligentsia's low level of trust in political institutions is part of a contemporary international trend—a sense of injustice, the belief that things will not improve, and incredulity about the future undermine trust in the state. Trust of the police and the courts is low, largely due to widespread prejudice, low awareness of their activities, and rare interactions with them. The intelligentsia's trust in television and the press is very limited; however, television remains the main source of news, while an important alternative is the Internet. The low level of institutional trust among members of the humanitarian intelligentsia is combined with conservatism, paternalism, and civic and political passivity, and is more likely an indication of disappointment and alienation than an active criticism of Russian institutions.


In this paper we study how households' financial vulnerability affects the propagation of housing and credit shocks. First, we estimate a non-linear model generating impulse responses that depend on the evolution of households' Debt to Service Ratio, i.e. the fraction of income that households use to pay back their debt. Second, we use sign restrictions to jointly identify a wide set of financial and economic shocks. We find that financial vulnerability: i) amplifies the response of the economy to housing shock, ii) makes the response to expansionary credit shocks less persistent and even negative after the first year since the arrival of the shock. Finally, overall recessionary shocks have larger effects with respect to expansionary ones of the same size.


Some but not all tumor cells are killed in the environment of a delayed hypersensitivity reaction (DHSR) induced by antigens unrelated to the tumor. Of the several cytotoxic components, cellular and humoral, which are present at the site of a DHSR, a lymphokine released by the interaction of specific antigen with immune T cells-presumptively lymphotoxin-was shown to be responsible for the antitumor action of DHSR. The same mechanism may account for the failure of some tumor cells to grow when inoculated in admixture with BCG.


The level of anine aminotransferase/aspartate aminotransferase (ALT/AST) ratio in the serum was often used to assess liver injury. Whether the ALT/AST ratio (LSR) was associated with prognosis for gastric adenocarcinoma (GA) has not been reported in the literature. Our aim was to investigate the prognostic value of the preoperative LSR in patients with GA. A retrospective study was performed in 231 patients with GA undergoing curative resection. The medical records collected include clinical information and laboratory results. We investigated the correlations between the preoperative LSR and overall survival (OS). Survival analysis was conducted with the Kaplan–Meier method, and Cox regression analysis was used to determine significant independent prognostic factors for predicting survival. A p value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. A total of 231 patients were finally enrolled. The median overall survival was 47 months. Multivariate analysis indicated that preoperative LSR was an independent prognostic factor in GA. Patients with LSR ≤ 0.80 had a greater risk of death than those with LSR > 0.80. The LSR was independently associated with OS in patients with GA (hazard ratio: 0.610; 95% confidence interval: 0.388–0.958; p = 0.032), along with tumor stages (hazard ratio: 3.118; 95% confidence interval: 2.044–4.756; p < 0.001) and distant metastases (hazard ratio: 1.957; 95% confidence interval: 1.119–3.422; p = 0.019). Our study first established a connection between the preoperative LSR and patients undergoing curative resection for GA, suggesting that LSR was a simple, inexpensive, and easily measurable marker as a prognostic factor, and may help to identify high-risk patients for treatment decisions.


The authors report a case of cardiac arrest following interscalene brachial plexus block in the sitting position for shoulder arthroscopy. The cardiac arrest occurred 45 minutes after interscalene brachial plexus block. It seems that it resulted from the activation of Bezold-Jarisch's reflex and a related vasovagal syncope.


The movement of romanticism in art (18th-19th c) is briefly reviewed. This artistic movement institutionalized freedom of personal expression of the artist and presented various art styles, which were rooted mainly in topics of the past. One of the manifestations of the romantic spirit was Neoclassicism which was based on copies of works of Greek and Roman antiquities. Romantic painters, musicians and architects have left as heritage an amazing wealth of art works.


Scheduled surgery can often be a stressful time for patients. While anesthesia providers give a full explanation of care to the patient, research suggests that anxiety and time constraints imposed by the system may hinder the amount and quality of information provided. Use of technology to augment dissemination of information may have an impact. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a website on: (1) preoperative patient education, (2) patient anxiety, and (3) patient satisfaction with anesthesia care. The week prior to surgery, 64 ASA class I and II subjects at a 350-bed urban university affiliated hospital completed a demographic questionnaire, State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and modified Standard Anesthesia Learning Test (mSALT), and the experimental group was given website information. On the day of surgery, all subjects completed the STAI and mSALT. Before discharge, subjects rated satisfaction. The experimental group had a significant increase in posttest mSALT scores (P = .004). Neither the experimental nor the control group had a significant change in posttest state anxiety (P = .279 and .762) or trait anxiety (P = .823 and.570). The experimental group differed significantly from the control group in satisfaction with teaching (P = .019).


Partially purified fraction of methanol extract of leaf of Mesua ferrea Linn was assessed for its phytochemical screening. Thin layer chromatographic studies, antimicrobial activity, anti-inflammatory activity, antidiabetic activity and antioxidant activity experiments were conducted. Phytochemical screening reflects the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, coumarins, terpenoids, steroids, emodins and quinone derivatives. Thin layer chromatographic study was carried out using solvent system of various polarities of n-butanol, acetic acid and acetone. TLC profiling shows pure band of peptide at 254 and 366 nm. Protein content was determined using Nanodrop technique. Antimicrobial efficiency was determined using well diffusion method. Partially purified fractions of Mesua ferrea Linn was most sensitive against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Protease mirabilis with maximum zone of inhibition in diameter 16, 21 and 17 mm respectively at a concentration of 20 µg. In vitro anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated using albumin denaturation (84.67%) membrane stabilization assay (73.6%) and proteinase inhibitory activity (90.62%). Aspirin was used as standard drug for the study of anti-inflammatory activity. In vitro antidiabetic activity was determined by α-amylase inhibition assay. Antioxidant activity was performed by reducing power assay. Fraction #3 has higher absorbance 0.94 at 500 µg/ml followed by fraction #2 absorbance 0.89 at 500 µg/ml.


Over the last ten years, there has been an increasing shift in software production from plandriven processes towards lean software processes. These lean processes are based either on agile strategies or in open source environments. One instance of this trend is the growing use of GitHub as a software construction platform. More and more, software developers are relying on text as representation and collaboration as a way of producing quality software. As such, the adoption of more abstract representations (model oriented), as the research community have been forecasting, is yet to happen. Taking a bias position, anchored on the concept of transparency as a quality, we look at the factors for the prevalence of code over models. We try to forecast possible ways to foster the use of models in software production. Our vision is based on bringing transparency to collaborative modeling.


"9/11," as it was metonymically abbreviated, was marked by visuality. Although several novelists have written literature surrounding the attacks on the World Trade Center, many have circumvented some of the pivotal components of September 11th. To create a holistic literary product, there are three vital elements to be accounted for: the aspect of visuality, the victims' confusion and grief, and the aspect of a rehabilitative community. Jonathan Safran Foer's novel "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is a unique and stylistically-distinctive representation of the 9/11 event. Foer's use of verbal avoidance strategies point to the utter confusion and grief of trauma victims. His use of multimodality, an alternative formatting strategy that implements differing fonts and photographs, speaks to the highly visual aspect of September 11th. Also, Foer emphasizes the importance of building a community in the midst of a traumatized individual's fragmentation of reality and his/her personal grief. Therefore, Foer's novel is one of the few to fully encapsulate the aesthetic quality of September 11th while also accounting for the victims' grief and their restorative process through community.


Preamble In December of 1998, the Board of Trustees issued a position statement (see attached) that the American Psychiatric Association opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as "reparative" or conversion therapy, which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation. In doing so, the APA joined many other professional organizations that either oppose or are critical of "reparative" therapies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, The American Counseling Association, and the National Association of Social Workers (1). The following Position Statement expands and elaborates upon the statement issued by the Board of Trustees in order to further address public and professional concerns about therapies designed to change a patient's sexual orientation or sexual identity. It augments rather than replaces the 1998 statement.


The key to successful of assessment reform depends on how teachers understand the concept and practices of assessment. Brown's (2003, 2004) studies provided initiation for educators in this area. Different versions of Brown's questionnaire on Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment (TCoA) used both in Hong Kong and China rendered new insights and information into the wide range of conceptions and practices of assessment among practitioners in Hong Kong and the Mainland China (Brown, Kennedy, Fok, Chan, & Yu, 2009; Li & Hui, 2007). These results showed that there might be a fundamental difference in conceptions and practices of assessment between practitioners in a Chinese context and those in the West. Qualitative interviews were conducted among five local primary school curriculum leaders of different backgrounds and subject specialists. Preliminary results showed that there are culture-specific as well as context-based differences. These are illustrated as assessment as a way to change students' learning attitude, assessment as identifying students' potentials, and using assessment to prepare students for future challenges. The results are helpful in revealing the possible cultural factors and their influences that contribute to the dissimilarities found in the conceptions of and practices in assessment. This missing link broadens our understanding and allows us to better measure teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment.


Purpose
The nature of international markets and the challenges with respect to the competitiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) makes it imperative to examine government support. This study aims to assess the role and effectiveness of government and the export promotion agencies in supporting exports by non-traditional horticultural SMEs in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach
The study used a qualitative research design, which involved semi-structured interviews with senior managers of six export facilitating institutions to gain an understanding of the services offered to SMEs with respect to exports of non-traditional horticultural products.

Findings
The findings reveal inadequate cost-efficient sources of non-traditional horticultural export financing for SMEs. This is a hindrance to the international competitiveness of exporting SMEs in developing countries such as Ghana. In addition, effective and coordinated support from export promotion agencies was found to be critical.

Originality/value
The study highlights the importance of government's role in policymaking and implementation of export-led programmes for horticultural exporting firms in Ghana. Despite their strategic importance, this area of research has not attracted the attention of researchers, with little or no information on the horticultural international competitiveness of non-traditional horticultural products.


In the methods of facial expression recognition based on statistical feature extraction, statistical features of facial expression images are correlative to shooting condition, illumination and the difference of images between subjects themselves (such as complexion), which will disturb the facial expression recognition. This paper points out a method of facial expression recognition based on the difference of statistical features (DSF). The differences of statistical features are obtained by subtracting statistical features of neutral expression from the statistical features of other expressions. By this way, we can eliminate partly these disturbances. Our experiments are performed on the databases of CED-WYU (1.0), COHN-KANADE and JAFFE. Our experiment results indicate that the recognition ratios of facial expression are heightened by this method


The relationship between chromatin modification and lymphocyte development is still poorly understood. Here we show a correlation between methylation of lysine 4 on histone 3 (H3-K4) and activation of several loci required for the pre-B cell to immature B-cell developmental transition. A critical step in this transition is the induction of V(D)J recombination at the Igkappa locus. Upon activation of Igkappa recombination, a >10-fold enrichment of both di- and trimethylated H3-K4 is observed at Jkappa targeting signals, but not at an analogous targeting signal in the T-cell receptor alpha locus or, surprisingly, at several Vkappa signals. However, H3-K4 methylation is restricted to the actively recombining fraction of Jkappa recombination targeting signals, consistent with a direct relationship between H3-K4 methylation and signal activity. Correlations between increased H3-K4 methylation and induction of transcription are also observed at some, but not all, loci where transcription is induced. H3-K4 methylation may therefore be a widely used but not universal means for controlling chromatin activity in this developmental transition.


The story I wish to tell today is of the emergence, over the last two centuries, of an integrated academic health care delivery system from the foundations of this country's fourth medical school, New Hampshire's first major hospital, and a multidisciplinary practice group, unique in its time. I will trace the covergence of each of these into a system that we offer as an answer to the contemporary puzzle of how to provide the best available care at value and still support the academic missions of education and research. We believe this to be the current delemma of American medicine, and while our answer may not be either successful or universally applicable, we are committed to the attempt. As background, let me provide some perhaps familiar details of the growth of these Hanover [NH] and Lebanon [NH] institutions.


Abstract The use of empty space (ES) is ubiquitous in Asian art. The authors use a computational method to quantitatively assess the amount of ES in Chinese landscape painting (CLP). The data show that 56.8% of ancient CLPs contain mostly ES, while only 9.4% from modern times do. ES reached its peak during the Yuan dynasty (1271–-1368) and its lowest point in the 1960s. Chan culture, literati ink play, the "exhibition hall effect," and Maoist politics, as well as other social factors, may have had an impact on this shift. This empirical study indicates that art keeps abreast of current developments: The philosophy, culture, politics and general education of a specific era influence artists' perception, aesthetics and creative output.


This article analyses the plight of Myanmar's unwanted people— the Rohingya. Although they have inhabited the country for centuries, the Rohingya are not listed as one of the 135 legally recognized ethnic groups by the state and are therefore categorized as illegal immigrants. Rendered stateless, subject to decades of oppression and systematic human rights violations by the country's successive governments, these people have now become, according to the UN, the most persecuted minority in the world. While an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Rohingya once lived in Myanmar, only around one- fifth remain at present. Over the last four decades, almost two thirds of its population have fled the country due to state- sponsored ethnic persecution. This article addresses: the reason for the Rohingya's statelessness; their disputed origins and the issue of Rohingya identity; the context of the Rohingya crisis; the nature of human rights violations against the community; the situation of the Rohingya in Bangladesh; and, finally, international reaction to the crisis.


Herpes simplex viruses (HSVs) cause cold sores and genital herpes and can establish lifelong latent infection in neurons. An engineered oncolytic HSV (oHSV) has recently been approved to treat tumors in clinics. HSV latency-associated transcripts (LATs) are associated with the latent infection, but LAT transcriptional regulation was seldom reported. For a better treatment of HSV infection and tumors, here we sequenced the LAT encoding DNA and LAT transcription regulatory region of our recently isolated new strain HSV-1-LXMW and did comparative analysis of the sequences together with those of other four HSV-1 and two HSV-2 strains. Phylogenetic analysis of LATs revealed that HSV-1-LXMW is evolutionarily close to HSV-1-17 from MRC University, Glasgow, UK. For the first time, Using a weight matrix-based program Match and multi-sequences alignment of the 6 HSV strains, we identified HSV LAT transcription regulatory sequences that bind to 9 transcription factors: AP-1, C-REL, Comp1, E2F, Hairy, HFH-3, Kr, TCF11/MAFG, v-Myb. Interestingly, these transcription regulatory sequences and factors are either conserved or unique among LATs of HSV-1 and HSV-2, suggesting they are potentially functional. Furthermore, literature analysis found that the transcription factors v-myb and AP-1 family member JunD are functional in regulating HSV gene transcription, including LAT transcription. For the first time, we discovered seven novel transcription factors and their corresponding transcription regulatory sequences of HSV LATs. Based on our findings and other reports, we proposed potential mechanisms of the initiation and maintenance of HSV latent infection. Our findings may have significant implication in our understanding of HSV latency and engineering of better oncolytic HSVs.


Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.

ABSTRACT An electrical mobility spectrometer (EMS) is used to classify airborne, electrically charged particles in nanometer ranges. It is capable of measuring the electrical mobility of the particles ranging from 10 - 700 nanometers, under the influence of an electric field. The EMS design can be described as an assembly of two concentrically cylindrical electrodes with an air gap between the walls. In the EMS, air and aerosol flows enter from one end, pass through the annular and exit the other end. Electric field is applied between the inner and outer electrodes. Particles having specific mobility are collected on a designated electrode ring where electrical signals are measured to obtain size distributions. Flow condition and electric field pattern are important factors influencing accurate particle size distribution measurements. In this study, a computational model of the instrument was developed to predict the behavior of the flow and electric fields under various design parameters, including ratios of sheath air and aerosol flow rates, Reynolds numbers, electrode ring width, ring separation and arrangement and type of flow guide materials. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equation and the Maxwell's equation are numerically calculated for the flow and the electric fields, respectively, with a commercial computational fluid dynamic software package, CFDRCT. The software was based on finite volume method. It was found that the numerical simulation results exhibited a qualitatively well-agreed trend with the published results in the literature. Prediction of flow and electric field conditions was particularly useful in the instrument design. A prototype of the particle size spectrometer is planned to be built and tested, based on the results of this model.


Purpose: Although Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the most widely used bladder cancer immunotherapy, innate immune responses involving antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) cause BCG failure. Here, we developed genetically modified recombinant BCG (rBCG) strains which escape AMPs and evaluate the efficacy and effects of rBCG. Materials and Methods: We constructed rBCG strains expressing Streptococcal inhibitor of complement (Sic), which confers resistance to human α-defensin-1 and cathelicidin, and d-alanyl carrier protein ligase (dltA), which confers resistance to cationic AMPs. Sic and dltA were separately cloned into the pMV306 plasmid and introduced into BCG via electroporation. The efficacy of the Sic and dltA gene electroporation into BCG was evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The internalization rates and anticancer effects of the rBCG strains containing Sic (rBCG-Sic) and dltA (rBCG-dltA) was evaluated by the orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model. Results: The cycle quantification (Cq) values of rBCG-Sic (y=-4.8823x+13.645, R=0.9996) and rBCG-dltA (y=-5.438x+11.641, R=0.9995) were inverse correlations to the amount of Sic and dltA genes dose dependently. The mean introduction proportions of Sic and dltA genes into BCG by electroporation were 22.2%, 27.5% and showed constant efficacy. In the orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model, the relative internalization number of rBCG-Sic, and rBCG-dltA into bladder cell in mouse bladder were higher than that of BCG and the tumor volume at rBCG-Sic were lower than at BCG and rBCG-dltA at 11, 14 and 18 days. Conclusions: Our results showed that constructed rBCG-Sic and rBCG-dltA by electroporation and the rBCG-Sic and rBCG-dltA can effectively escape BCG-stimulated AMPs, and significantly improved immunotherapeutic tools to treat bladder cancer in orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model. (Korean J Urol Oncol 2021;19:40-47)


This study aims to answer the results of the analysis and describe the speaking skills of fourth grade students in Indonesian subjects at SDN Rawa Buaya 07. The approach method used in this research is descriptive qualitative by taking data at SDN Rawa Buaya 07 with the research subjects being teachers and class students. IV. Data was collected by observation, interviews, oral tests and documentation. Data analysis was carried out through three stages of implementation, namely data reduction, data presentation and drawing conclusions. Checking the validity of the data used includes triangulation of sources, triangulation of data collection techniques, triangulation of time and guarantor of validity. The results obtained indicate that the speaking skills of fourth grade students in Indonesian subjects at SDN Rawa Buaya 07 are in the "still low" category because the overall average is still below the Minimum Completeness Criteria (KKM) in Indonesian subjects, which is 70. It would be nice, teachers should provide active and fun learning through the use of media or varied learning methods to support the effectiveness of students' speaking skills in the classroom and outside the classroom.


The failure of glyphosate to control all weeds throughout the entire growing season has sometimes prompted growers to use herbicides other than glyphosate on glyphosate-resistant soybean. Field studies were conducted in 1999 and 2000 to investigate potential crop injury by several herbicides in glyphosate-resistant soybean and to determine the relationships between soybean maturity group, planting date, and herbicide treatment on soybean injury, leaf area index (LAI), and yield. Glyphosate-resistant soybean generally recovered from early-season herbicide injury and LAI reductions; however, some treatments reduced yield. Yield reductions were more common in double-crop soybean than in full-season soybean. In full-season soybean, most yield reductions occurred in the early-maturing 'RT-386' cultivar. These yield reductions may be attributed to reduced developmental periods associated with early-maturing cultivars and double-crop soybean that often lead to reduced vegetative growth and limited LAI. Reductions in LAI by some herbicide treatments were not necessarily indicative of yield loss. Further yield reductions associated with herbicide applications occurred, although soybean sometimes produced leaf area exceeding the critical LAI level of 3.5 to 4.0, which is the minimum LAI needed for soybean to achieve maximum yield. Therefore, LAI response to herbicide treatments does not always accurately indicate the response of glyphosate-resistant soybean yield to herbicides. Nomenclature: Glyphosate; soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. Additional index words: Double-crop soybean, full-season soybean, soybean maturity group. Abbreviations: EPSPS, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EC 188.8.131.52); fb, followed by; LAI, leaf area index; PRE, preemergence; POST, postemergence; WAP, weeks after planting.


The Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channels control many Ca2+-modulated physiological processes in mammals. Hyperactivating CRAC channels are known to cause Stormorken syndrome. Here we show the design of azopyrazole-derived photoswitchable CRAC channel inhibitors (designated piCRACs), which enable optical inhibition of store-operated Ca2+ influx and downstream signaling. Moreover, piCRAC-1 has been applied in vivo to alleviate thrombocytopenia and hemorrhage in a zebrafish model of Stormorken syndrome in a light-dependent manner.


The Chimera overset grid method is reviewed and discussed in the context of a method of solution and analysis of unsteady three-dimensional viscous flows. The state of maturity of the various pieces of support software required to use the approach is discussed. A variety of recent applications of the method is presented. Current limitations of the approach are defined.


During the early stages of the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia, regional leaders attempted to implement appropriate policies in order to mitigate the negative effects that occurred in their respective regions. This crisis period necessitates good managerial skills and a strong leadership personality from regional leaders. Policies are developed on the basis of public ethics and are geared toward providing high- quality public services. This study used a qualitative approach that employs Robert N. Entman's framing analysis method to examine the news text of Kompas.com in relation to the policies implemented by several regional leaders in Indonesia to control the spread of COVID-19. The results of the study show that several regional heads in Indonesia have the competence and character of crisis leadership and apply public ethics in taking and implementing policies to overcome the spread of COVID-19 in their respective regions.


We show that generalized multiquadric radial basis functions (RBFs) on $\mathbb{R}^d$ have a mean dimension that is $1+O(1/d)$ as $d\to\infty$ with an explicit bound for the implied constant, under moment conditions on their inputs. Under weaker moment conditions the mean dimension still approaches $1$. As a consequence, these RBFs become essentially additive as their dimension increases. Gaussian RBFs by contrast can attain any mean dimension between 1 and d. We also find that a test integrand due to Keister that has been influential in quasi-Monte Carlo theory has a mean dimension that oscillates between approximately 1 and approximately 2 as the nominal dimension $d$ increases.


Thank you very much for downloading schizophrenia culture and subjectivity the edge of experience. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search numerous times for their chosen novels like this schizophrenia culture and subjectivity the edge of experience, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious bugs inside their laptop.


In this paper, we prove some common fixed point theorems for weakly reciprocally continuous mappings satisfying contractive conditions. Also, we prove a common fixed point theorems in a fuzzy metric space from the class of compatible mappings to non-compatible mappings in a fuzzy metric space. AMS Subject Classification: 47H10, 54H25


The responses of mechanoreceptor neurons in the antennal chordotonal organ have been examined in cockroaches by intracellular recording methods. The chordotonal organ was mechanically stimulated by sinusoidal movement of the flagellum. Stimulus frequencies were varied between 0.5 and 150 Hz. Receptor neurons responded with spike discharges to mechanical stimulation, and were classed into two groups from plots of their average spike frequencies against stimulus frequency. Neurons in one group responded to stimulation over a wide frequency range (from 0.5 to 150 Hz), whereas those in a second group were tuned to higher frequency stimuli. The peak stimulus frequency at which receptor neurons showed maximum responses differed from cell to cell. Some had a peak response at a stimulus frequency given in the present study (from 0.5 to 150 Hz), whereas others were assumed to have peak responses beyond the highest stimulus frequency examined. The timing for the initiation of spikes or of a burst of spikes plotted against each stimulus cycle revealed that spike generation was phase-locked in most cells. Some cells showed phase-independent discharges to stimulation at lower frequency, but increasing stimulus frequencies spike initiation began to assemble at a given phase of the stimulus cycle. The response patterns observed are discussed in relation to the primary process of mechanoreception of the chordotonal organ.


Of many techniques used to characterize quality of HgCdTe, ion milling is emerging as a unique means to reveal electrically active and neutral defects and complexes. Ion milling is capable of strongly affecting electrical properties of HgCdTe, up to conductivity type conversion in p-type material. It appears, that strongly non-equilibrium processes which take place under ion milling, when material is oversaturated with mercury interstitial atoms generated near a surface, lead to formation of specific defect complexes, which may not form under other type of treatment. By measuring parameters of a crystal before and after milling, and following disintegration of defects with time after ion milling ('relaxation'), one can detect and identify these defects. This method was applied to analyse different samples grown by molecular beam epitaxy.


The purpose of this study was to improve student learning outcomes in the Mathematical muple in grade III elementary schools with the Problem Based Learning (PBL) learning model. The research conducted was a Classroom Action Research (CAR) in two cycles, with each cycle consisting of two meetings. The stages of each cycle are planning, implementing, observing and reflecting. Each meeting is carried out a pre test and post test to determine the progress of students. In cycle I students who completed after carrying out the post test were 53%. In cycle II participants students who complete after carrying out the post test are 90%. These results indicate that the Problem Based Learning (PBL) learning model can improve the learning outcomes of students, especially Class III Mathematics at SDN 1 Randurejo.


Radiation features are studied for a grounded wire-medium slab excited by a simple canonical source, i.e., a horizontal electric dipole. For the first time, an approximate analysis based on a homogenized model for the wire medium as well as a rigorous full-wave analysis of the actual periodic structure are presented. The homogeneous model takes into account both anisotropy and spatial dispersion of the metamaterial medium in the long-wavelength regime. One rather surprising result is that this structure allows for directive pencil beams at broadside that are azimuthally symmetric (in spite of the directionality of the wires). The structure also allows for conical beams that point at a chosen scan angle, where the beam angle and beamwidth are azimuthally independent, and the beam peak in the elevation planes remains approximately constant during the scanning process, in contrast with other types of planar leaky-wave antennas. These remarkable features are explained in terms of the azimuthal independence of the wavenumber for the leaky mode that is responsible for the beam.


Some results of a systematic analysis of important sources of hydrocarbon emissions from a direct injection diesel engine are presented. The following sources are considered and investigated: (1) local overmixing, (2) poor end of injection, (3) fuel emptying from sac volume. The analysis uses systematic engine experiments and an existing two-dimensional thick evaporating spray model to determine the contribution of various hydrocarbon sources to the total hydrocarbon emissions in the exhaust. The results show that at idle and light load conditions, local overmixing is the major source of hydrocarbon emissions. The amount of fuel overmixed is directly controlled by mixing rate, ignition delay, and the lean limit of combustion. Mixing rate calculations show that the injection rate shape and nozzle geometry are more important than the physical properties of the fuel in determining the amount of fuel overmixed. The results also show that for a low emission engine using timing advance at light loads for overmixing control, poor end of injection and fuel emptying from the sac volume can be important sources of hydrocarbons. The characterization of these sources and their effect on fuel evaporation and hydrocarbon emissions are discussed.


Teschler, Timothy, L. M.S., Department of Chemistry, Wright State University, 2007. Preparation and Derivatization of Novel Sydnonimines and their Esters. Some years ago, we reported that 3-phenylsydnone underwent dilithiation to yield the dilithio species, upon treatment with n-butyllithium. Subsequent reactions with electrophiles led to variously substituted aryl sydnones, dependent on the nature of the electrophile employed. Sydnonimines, exocyclic nitrogen analogs of sydnones, exhibit interesting biological properties and, accordingly, it was of value to explore whether or not the dilithiation approach could be extended to such species. In the present work a series of N-6-ethoxycarbonyl-3-arylsydnonimines were synthesized from the corresponding sydnonimine hydrochlorides in moderate yields (2277%). Attempted dilithiations of N-6-ethoxycarbonyl-3-arylsydnonimines and trapping with iodine proved to be problematic, yielding only the mono substituted (at the 4position) iodosydnonimine and not the desired disubstituted sydnonimine in a model study with N-6-ethoxycarbonyl-3-phenylsydnonimine. The 4-iodo species was extremely unstable, decomposing to the parent sydnonimine on standing or exposure to moisture, however, by careful chromatography, it was possible to isolate the N-6-ethoxycarbonyl4-iodo-3-phenylsydnonimine in a very low yield (1.6%). Further lithiations with


Cooper's 12-minute run test (CRT) for prediction of maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) has not yet been explored in Indian sportspersons. Present investigation was conducted to evaluate the applicability of CRT in Indian cricketers. 75 male and 45 female cricket players were randomly recruited from reputed cricket academies of Kolkata, India and were randomly assigned into the study group (male = 45, female = 25) and confirmatory group (male = 30, female = 20). Incremental cycle ergometer exercise was used for direct estimation of VO2max by expired gas analysis and the indirect prediction of VO2max (PVO2max) was performed by CRT method. The current protocol of CRT was found to be inapplicable in both the genders of Cricketers due to a significant difference between PVO2max and VO2max and a large limit of agreement between PVO2max and VO2max in the study groups. A significant correlation (r = 0.76 in males and r = 0.79 in females, p<0.001) was depicted between VO2max and distance covered in CRT. Regression equations were computed based on the significant correlation. The application of these equations in the confirmatory groups revealed an insignificant difference between PVO2max and VO2max and narrow limits of agreement. Standard errors of the estimate of the regression norms were also minimal. Therefore, modified equations are recommended for CRT application for valid and precise evaluation of cardiorespiratory fitness in terms of VO2max in male and female Indian cricketers.


Although there were earlier attempts to name and classify viruses, the subject gained new and critical attention when the sixth edition of Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology for the first time included a 160-page supplement titled "Order Virales, The Filterable Viruses." This supplement was prepared by Francis 0. Holmes, and was an extension of an earlier preliminary presentation published by him in 1939. It included animal viruses, plant viruses, and bacterial viruses (bacteriophages). As organized by Holmes, the order Virales consists of 13 families, 32 genera, and 248 species. One's philosophy as to whether or not the time is yet ripe to name and to attempt to classify the viruses may fall within a range from violent objection to at least sympathetic acceptance of the idea. There are those who feel that since we have little or no information as to how viruses multiply, these agents should not be treated in the same manner as are the bacteria which, in general, divide by fission. The fact that certain of the plant viruses have been isolated in the form of crystaline proteins also causes some to question the appropriateness of applying a binomial nomenclature to viruses. A more realistic approach, however, would seem to be the acceptance of the fact that there is a distinct need for some kind of generally accepted nomenclature for these agents as is evidenced by several past attempts at nomenclatures using numbers, letters, and other designations. Furthermore, the presentation made by Holmes in the Bergey Manual constitutes a formal and scientifically valid proposal which should be dealt with in a scholarly manner. On a general ideological basis, the writer is inclined to accept the Holmes classification as a provisionally satisfactory starting point. Furthermore, even though in this paper certain constructive criticism will be offered concerning points of pertinent detail regarding Holmes' treatment of insect viruses, the writer wishes to make clear his appreciation of the great amount of thought and work that this author has put into a commendable pioneer presentation. So far as the appropriateness of applying the binomial system of nomenclature to the viruses is concerned, with certain possible exceptions (e.g., the advisability of recognizing the viruses as a new kingdom), the writer finds himself in rather general agreement with the point of view expressed by R. E. Buchanan in a talk at the "Bergey's Manual Dinner" in Cincinnati, May 17, 1949, and since then circulated in mimeographed form. In his discussion, Buchanan acknowledges several inadequacies of Holmes' systematics but believes that none of them is fundamental and that there appears to be no good reason why the binomial system should be avoided. The writer also recognizes the statement in the In-


Adult neurogenesis continually produces a small population of immature granule cells (GCs) within the dentate gyrus. The physiological properties of immature GCs distinguish them from the more numerous mature GCs and potentially enables distinct network functions. To test how the changing properties of developing GCs affect spiking behavior, we examined synaptic responses of mature and immature GCs in hippocampal slices from adult mice. Whereas synaptic inhibition restricted GC spiking at most stages of maturation, the relative influence of inhibition, excitatory synaptic drive, and intrinsic excitability shifted over the course of maturation. Mature GCs received profuse afferent innervation such that spiking was suppressed primarily by inhibition, whereas immature GC spiking was also limited by the strength of excitatory drive. Although the input resistance was a reliable indicator of maturation, it did not determine spiking probability at immature stages. Our results confirm the existence of a transient period during GC maturation when perforant path stimulation can generate a high probability of spiking, but also reveal that immature GC excitability is tempered by functional synaptic inhibition and reduced excitatory innervation, likely maintaining the sparse population activity observed in vivo.


INTRODUCTION
Implemented in 2007 by Ordinance No. 6357, allocation rules of cadaveric donor kidneys seek to distribute equitably a scarce community resource to patients who can improve their survival and quality of life. As stated in the aforementioned ordinance these rules must be updated whenever the state of the art recommends it. The objective of this work is to evaluate and compare three cadaveric donor allocation models: scoring criteria of ordinance nº 6537/2007 (model 1); similar to the previous model but with a lower score for the dialysis time (model 2); and a model adapted from the previously proposed color allocation system (model 3).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
For the purpose of this analysis we generated data about 70 cadaveric donors taking into account information published regarding blood group distribution and human leucocyte antigens allelic and haplotype frequencies of Portuguese voluntary donors. We generated also data for a simulated waiting list of 500 first-time kidney transplant candidates.

RESULTS
We observed fewer candidates selected by model 3 with more than 3 human leucocyte antigens mismatches (39.3%) when compared to those selected by model 1 with more than 3 human leucocyte antigens mismatches (57.1%, p < 0.01).

DISCUSSION
In our analysis, model 3 selects transplant candidates with a lower number of human leucocyte antigens mismatches when compared to the adapted rules for kidney allocation of Ordinance No. 6537/2007 (model 1) without penalizing candidates with a longer time on dialysis.

CONCLUSION
The analysis and discussion of the best rules for allocation of such a scarce resource as organs from deceased donors should be a continuous and adaptive process inherent to transplant candidate's waiting list evolution and mutation.


One of the open problems in scientific computing is the long-time integration of nonlinear stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs). We address this problem by taking advantage of recent advances in scientific machine learning and the dynamically orthogonal (DO) and bi-orthogonal (BO) methods for representing stochastic processes. Specifically, we propose two new Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) for solving time-dependent SPDEs, namely the NN-DO/BO methods, which incorporate the DO/BO constraints into the loss function with an implicit form instead of generating explicit expressions for the temporal derivatives of the DO/BO modes. Hence, the proposed methods overcome some of the drawbacks of the original DO/BO methods: we do not need the assumption that the covariance matrix of the random coefficients is invertible as in the original DO method, and we can remove the assumption of no eigenvalue crossing as in the original BO method. Moreover, the NN-DO/BO methods can be used to solve time-dependent stochastic inverse problems with the same formulation and computational complexity as for forward problems. We demonstrate the capability of the proposed methods via several numerical examples: (1) A linear stochastic advection equation with deterministic initial condition where the original DO/BO method would fail; (2) Long-time integration of the stochastic Burgers' equation with many eigenvalue crossings during the whole time evolution where the original BO method fails. (3) Nonlinear reaction diffusion equation: we consider both the forward and the inverse problem, including noisy initial data, to investigate the flexibility of the NN-DO/BO methods in handling inverse and mixed type problems. Taken together, these simulation results demonstrate that the NN-DO/BO methods can be employed to effectively quantify uncertainty propagation in a wide range of physical problems.


An intestinal clamp was improved by application of a silicone elastomer measuring 3, 4 and 5 millimeters in thickness to the nip surfaces to reduce nip force or to make pressure distribution more uniform. For the 1 kilogram weight, the output from the pressure sensor, which was placed on the blade, was decreased as the thickness of the silicone elastomer was increased. Pressures loaded on central and marginal regions of the large intestine were more than seven times greater than that on the mesenteric region with use of a conventional clamp. In contrast, pressures on all of the mesenteric, central and marginal regions were relatively low and uniform with use of clamps equipped with silicone elastomer. These results indicate that the clamp equipped with the silicone elastomer damages tissues only to a small extent because of the dispersion effect of the pressure and the uniformity of the pressure distribution.


Introduction The Obstetric Simulation Training and Teamwork (OB-STaT) curriculum was an in situ interprofessional program to provide standardized postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) simulation training throughout a health system to decrease PPH morbidity. In this study portion, investigators hypothesized that OB-STaT would increase: (a) team member knowledge in diagnosis and management of PPH, (b) teamwork, (c) adherence to established PPH protocols, and (d) patient satisfaction. Methods The OB-STaT was implemented at 8 US Navy hospitals between February 2018 and November 2019. Participant PPH treatment and maternal/neonatal resuscitation pretraining/posttraining knowledge was assessed via an 11-item test, whereas teamwork and standardized patient assessment were rated using validated Likert-type scales: the 15-item Clinical Teamwork Scale and 3-item Patient Perception Score, with item ranges of 0 to 10 and 0 to 5, respectively. Local PPH protocol adherence was assessed using role-specific checklists, with a potential maximum of 14 points (anesthesia/nursing) or 22 points (obstetrics). Results Fifty-four interprofessional teams participated. Obstetricians (trainees and attendings) demonstrated significantly improved knowledge test scores (8.33 ± 1.6 vs. 8.66 ± 1.5, P < 0.01). Between the 2 scenarios, overall mean Clinical Teamwork Scale scores improved significantly for all interprofessional teams (5.82 ± 2.0 vs. 7.25 ± 1.9, P < 0.01). Anesthesia, nursing, and obstetric subteams demonstrated significant increases in protocol adherence as measured by critical action scores (12.28 ± 1.7 vs. 13.56 ± 1.0, 12.43 ± 1.6 vs. 13.14 ± 1.3, and 18.14 ± 2.7 vs. 19.56 ± 2.1 respectively, all P < 0.02). Although overall standardized patient satisfaction did not significantly improve, scores for feeling well informed did (3.36 ± 1.0 vs. 3.76 ± 0.8, P < 0.01). Conclusions The OB-STaT curriculum modestly improved participants' teamwork, communication, and protocol adherence during simulated PPH scenarios; OB-STaT may decrease PPH morbidity.


We present an approach to non-uniform complexity in which single-pass instruction sequences play a key part, and answer various questions that arise from this approach. We introduce several kinds of non-uniform complexity classes. One kind includes a counterpart of the well-known non-uniform complexity class P/poly and another kind includes a counterpart of the well-known non-uniform complexity class NP/poly. Moreover, we introduce a general notion of completeness for the non-uniform complexity classes of the latter kind. We also formulate a counterpart of the well-known complexity theoretic conjecture that NP is not included in P/poly. We think that the presented approach opens up an additional way of investigating issues concerning non-uniform complexity.


Raw images, which may contain many noisy background pixels, are typically used in convolutional neural network (CNN) training. This paper proposes a novel variance loss function based on a ground truth mask of the target object to enhance the visual attention of a CNN. The loss function regularizes the training process so that the feature maps in the later convolutional layer are focused more on target object areas and less on the background. Attention loss is computed directly from the feature maps, so no new parameters are added to the backbone network; therefore, no extra computational cost is added to the testing phase. The proposed attention model can be a plug-in for any pre-trained network architecture and can be used in conjunction with other attention models. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed variance loss function improves classification accuracy by 2.22% over the baseline on the Stanford Dogs dataset, which is significantly higher than the improvements achieved by SENet (0.3%) and CBAM (1.14%). Our method also improves object detection accuracy by 2.5 mAP on the Pascal-VOC2007 dataset and store sign detection by 2.66 mAP over respective baseline models. Furthermore, the proposed loss function enhances the visualization and interpretability of a CNN.


The formation of biomolecular condensates underpins many cellular processes; however, our current understanding of condensate formation within cells is largely based on observing the final near-equilibrium condensate state. It is less clear how proteins behave before condensates form or at concentrations at which condensation does not occur in cells. Here, we use a combination of fluorescence microscopy and photobleaching analysis to quantify phase separation of negative elongation factor (NELF) in living and stressed cells. We use the recently reported system of stress-induced condensation of NELF in human nuclei as a model to study the behaviour of proteins before condensation. We find that pre-condensate heterogeneous clusters both grow and shrink and are not freely diffusing. Unexpectedly, we also find such small dynamic clusters in unstressed cells in which condensates do not form. We provide a categorisation of small and large clusters based on their dynamics and their response to p38 kinase inhibition. Overall, our data are best explained as non-classical nucleation with a flat free-energy landscape for clusters of a range of sizes and an inhibition of condensation.


In this paper, we aim to design an automatic camera pose estimation pipeline for clinical spaces such as catheterization laboratories. Our proposed pipeline exploits Scaled-YOLOv4 to detect fixed objects. We adopt the self-supervised key-point detector SuperPoint in combination with SuperGlue, a keypoint matching technique based on graph neural networks. Thus, we match key-points on input images with annotated reference points. Reference points are chosen on fixed objects in the scene, such as corners of door posts or windows. The point-correspondences between the image coordinates and the 3D coordinates are applied to the Perspective-n-Point algorithm to estimate the pose of each camera. Compared with other camera pose estimation methods, the proposed pipeline does not require the construction of 3D point-cloud model of the scene or placing a polyhedron object in the scene before each required calibration. Using videos from real procedures, we show that the pipeline can estimate the camera pose with high accuracy.


Author(s): Schirmer, Daniel Boone | Abstract: The U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay in the Philippines enables the U.S. government to escalate at will its military presence in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. It thus has the potential of entangling the Philippines in a U.S. war of Third World intervention. Its status will be negotiated in coming years as the treaty governing the U.S. bases in the Philippines is due to expire in 1991.


Giorgio Strehler (1921-1997) established the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in 1947 with a production of Carlo Goldoni's Servant of Two Masters that went on to international acclaim and created the directors reputation as the leader of Italian theatre in postwar Europe. Over four decades he produced definitive versions of Shakespeare (Lear and Measure for Measure along with two productions of The Tempest), Brecht (The Threepenny Opera and The Good Woman of Setzuan), and the great Italian dramatic authors (especially Goldoni's The Villeggiatura Trilogy, and Pirandellos Henry IV andThe Mountain Giants). His first version of The Tempest was performed in the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1948 with a translation by the poet Salvatore Quasimodo, and featured characters who emerged from the Gardens famous fountains and reflecting pools. The second production, from which the following text derives, was initially staged in 1978 with a translation by longtime collaborator Agostino Lombardo, and performed in the United States in 1984. In this piece Strehler re-imagines the first twenty minutes of The Tempest through the eyes and mind of a spectator. This piece, "Shakespeare, oltre La Tempesta " wasfirst published in La Nuova Rivista Europea, Vol. 2, No. 5, May-June 1978, 23-40; and then again in the volume Inscenare Shakespeare by Giorgio Strehler, Rome: Bulzoni Editore, 1992, pp. 106-131.


From January 1980 to June 1982, 150 children with primary onset of a joint disease during the previous 6 months were entered into a prospective non-randomized observation study. 106 of the 150 children were diagnosed as juvenile chronic arthritis cases according to the EULAR-criteria. Nine children of this group belonged to the systemic subgroup (7 girls, 2 boys). HLA-typing was performed in 100 of the 106 children: HLA-B27 was evident in the total patient group with significantly increased 41% versus 8.9% of the control group. This antigen is significantly evident in all subgroups with variously increased frequency, except in the systemic and early-onset (pauciarticular) subgroups; the frequency in the rheumatoid-factor-negative polyarticular type of juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) was 37.9%, in the rheumatoid-factor-positive polyarticular form 33.3%, and in the oligoarthritis/sacroiliitis-group 72.2%. DR5 was significantly present in the total patient group with 32% (control group 13.4%) and in the early-onset oligoarthritis group (43.7%). The rheumatoid-factor-positive (50%) and negative polyarticular group (31%) showed a pronounced slightly significant increase.


Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) exhumed the remains of two individuals who had received Pu by intravenous injection, performed Pu analysis on these remains, and then sent portions of individual bones to our laboratory. We analyzed these bone samples to determine the macro-distribution of naturally occurring alpha-emitting isotopes of U (234U and 238U). We found that the sacrum contained the highest concentrations of 234U and 238U (4.9 +/- 0.3 mBq g-1 of bone ash). Different ribs contained varying concentrations of 234U and 238U ranging from 0.26 +/- 0.2 to 1.6 +/- 0.4 mBq g-1 of bone ash for 234U, and from 0.16 +/- 0.1 to 1.5 +/- 0.4 mBq g-1 ash for 238U. The upper and lower values differ significantly at p = 0.001. Concentrations of 234U and 238U in vertebral bodies were lower than in left ribs numbers 1 and 2, but were similar to the concentrations in the other left ribs. The concentration of 235U was below the detection limit in each bone (lower limit of detection (LLD) = 4 X 10(-4) Bq per sample). The results indicate that the distribution of U isotopes is not uniform throughout the skeleton. Thus, the skeletal burden of U estimated from determinations in an individual bone sample may be quite erroneous until the fraction of total skeletal U contained in each bone is known.


The overlay approach -FPGA over FPGA- has a number of expected benefits, including bitstream compatibility between different vendors and parts, fast reconfiguration and, more generally, ease of use. However the number of complex engineering tasks to design, explore and make use of such overlays severely restrains their diffusion. This paper presents a downloadable integrated tool flow named Argen. Argen supports defining reconfigurable architecture and generating the corresponding overlay along with its System-on-chip exploitation environment.


Purpose

The spread of genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs is related to consumer scepticism in Europe, and particularly in Italy. Consumer scepticism in turn depends on the low level of public knowledge about the health consequences, in terms of risks and benefits, of consuming these GM foods. This paper aims, first and foremost, to investigate the phenomenon of GM foodstuffs consumption in Italy and, then, to construct a statistical model for analysing the Italian habits regarding this consumption. Furthermore, this model allows us to formalize the origins of behaviour regarding GM foodstuffs consumption and to detect the drivers of their purchase.

Design/methodology/approach

From January 2009 to May 2009, 1,061 public high school students in 25 randomly selected schools of a metropolitan area (Naples, South Italy) were questioned. More precisely, each student was given a questionnaire regarding, in the first part, school cultural characteristics and, then, awareness and GM food consumption. A Likert scale was used to answer the questions. After collecting data, the authors chose to apply structural equation modelling, as it is one of the general and powerful multivariate analysis technique useful to simultaneously analyse and evaluate multivariate hypotheses.

Findings

The findings showed that GM food consumption by Italian students depended on the knowledge of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and on the impact of this organisms both on human health and the environment. Therefore, in order to help consumers to choose whether or not to eat GM foods, a standardized evaluation system of human health and environmental consequences produced by GMO and GM foods should be created. In particular, the authors introduced a general framework that could help researchers/users to select and assess a hierarchy of the influence of factors on Italian habits regarding the consumption of GM foodstuffs.

Originality/value

In this research, the authors propose a structural equation model – full formative measurement model – that allows to define the origins of behaviour towards GM food consumption and to detect the drivers of their purchase. Particularly, the authors showed that GM food consumption depended on the knowledge of GMOs and on the impact of the GMOs on human health and the environment.


Aging is a multidimensional process that leads to an increased risk of developing severe diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and immunological diseases. Recently, small non-coding RNAs known as microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to regulate gene expression, which contributes to many physiological and pathophysiological processes in humans. Increasing evidence suggests that changes in miRNA expression profiles contribute to cellular senescence, aging and aging-related diseases. However, only a few miRNAs whose functions have been elucidated have been associated with aging and/or aging-related diseases. This article reviews the currently available findings regarding the roles of aging-related miRNAs, with a focus on cardiac and cardiovascular aging.


Abstract Catino and Rizzo ['Regular subgroups of the affine group and radical circle algebras', Bull. Aust. Math. Soc.79 (2009), 103–107] established a link between regular subgroups of the affine group and the radical brace over a field on the underlying vector space. We propose new constructions of radical braces that allow us to obtain systematic constructions of regular subgroups of the affine group. In particular, this approach allows to put in a more general context the regular subgroups constructed in Tamburini Bellani ['Some remarks on regular subgroups of the affine group' Int. J. Group Theory, 1 (2012), 17–23].


A 60-year-old male athlete developed a folliculitis in the beard region after several competitions. After identification of herpes simplex antigen within the lesions, systemic therapy with acyclovir led to rapid improvement. In folliculitis resistant to antibiotic and anti-inflammatory therapy, viral and mycotic infections as well as eosinophilic folliculitis should be considered as differential diagnostic possibilities.


Gay men face decisions associated with disclosure, the process of coming out as gay, when and if to disclose, and how much information. These decisions carry more weight in masculinized industries such as law enforcement. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to critically explore gay male law enforcement officers' experiences working in a masculinized industry. A critical interpretation process revealed that gay male law enforcement officers learn tacit and informal "rules of engagement," which are enacted as a form of survival consciousness to cope in an industry that is continually hostile toward gay identity.


Drawing on the upper-echelons theory and diversity issues, this study examines the relationships between top management team (TMT) organizational tenure, tenure diversity, and combat performance. The study is based on of Korea Combat Training Center (KCTC) that is designed for training and evaluation of the battalion combat power. Findings indicate that battalions with higher levels of TMT tenure have a positive effect on combat performance. Tenure diversity of TMT has a negative effect on combat performance. In addition, results showed that the negative relationships between tenure diversity of TMT and combat performance are attenuated by commander's shared experience with other TMT members.


A novel pH-responsive wormlike micellar viscoelastic solution was constructed by a rosin-based anionic surfactant (Na-MPA-AZO-Na) in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The viscoelasticity, aggregate morphology and pH-responsiveness of the pH-responsive wormlike micelles have been investigated though the method of rheology and cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM). Its corresponding mechanism has been studied using 1H NMR and 1H-1H 2D NOESY HNMR. The zero-shear viscosity (η0) of the wormlike micellar solution rapidly decreases by 3 orders of magnitude as the pH increases from 5.21 to 9.56. The viscoelastic fluids and water-like solutions can be converted by tuning the pH between 3.62 and 12.00, and the corresponding aggregates also transform between wormlike micelles and spherical micelles. In addition, the wormlike micellar cross-sectional diameter is approximately 10 nm, which is remarkably larger than that of the common wormlike micelles. The phenomenon can be attributed to the large steric volume of the rosin rigid skeleton. When the pH is 12.00, a ''pseudo'' Gemini surfactant are constructed by Na-MPA-AZO-Na and CTAB though the electrostatic interactions. And wormlike micelles also can be formed with the increasing concentrations. The η0 of the wormlike micellar system shows strong dependence on concentration with an exponent of 9.6 (η0∝C9.6). And this work further promotes new applications of forest resources.


The aim of this investigation was to study the frequency of urinary tract tumors (UTT) in settlements around the South Morava River and its tributaries where Balkan nephropathy is endemic. For this purpose 659 surgery and autopsy records of patients with UTT were reviewed. The records came from 25 counties and 1279 settlements classified as endemic, hypoendemic and nonendemic. Upper tract urothelial, urinary bladder and kidney tumors were included in the evaluation. A highly significant geographic correlation between Balkan nephropathy and UTT localized in renal pelvis and ureter was noted in the South Morava River valley. These tumors were 57 and 61.8 times more frequent in endemic settlements than in control rural and city populations free of Balkan nephropathy. The frequency of urinary bladder tumors in endemic settlements was also increased compared with the nonendemic villages and large cities, up to 11.9 and 8.5 times, respectively. In endemic settlements, upper urinary tract tumors were five times and tumors of urinary bladder were seven times more frequent in families with Balkan nephropathy than in those without, and up to 224 times more frequent than in the city families. Familial clustering of UTT was also noted. The geographic correlation between Balkan nephropathy and UTT supports the speculation that these disorders share a common etiology.


In the recent years, tissue culture has emerged as a promising technique to obtain genetically pure elite populations under in vitro conditions. The Cleome viscosa are used in traditional systems of medicine for the treatment of many diseases in human. The present study aims to investigate the role of assorted plant growth regulators (PGRs) on in vitro propagation and comparison of similar and dissimilar compounds of wild plant C. viscosa. Nodal explants of 1.5-2.0 cm were used to induce multiple shoots in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentration of different plant growth regulators (PGRs) such as 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP), Naphthalene-3-acetic acid (NAA), Indole-3- acetic acid (IAA) and the bioactive constituent of wild and in vitro propagated C. viscosa plant was compared by analyzing polar and non polar extract of both the plants using Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Multiple shoots were initiated within 28 days of inoculums and the various concentration of PGR had a significant role in the number of shoot formed and the in vitro regeneration of explants. The regenerated plantlets showed no morphological differences from the wild plant but the GC-MS analysis of ethanol extract showed the presence of eight compounds in wild plant and six in micropropagated while chloroform extract showed ten compounds in both plants.


Many procedures have been proposed in the literature to select the simulated alternative with the best mean performance from a finite set of alternatives. Among these procedures, frequentist procedures are typically designed under either the subset-selection (SS) formulation or the indifference-zone (IZ) formulation. Both formulations may encounter problems when the goal is to select the unique best alternative for any configuration of the means. In particular, SS procedures may return a subset that contains more than one alternative, and IZ procedures hinge on the relationship between the chosen IZ parameter and the true mean differences that is unknown to decision makers a priori. In this paper, we propose a new formulation that guarantees to select the unique best alternative with a user-specified probability of correct selection (PCS), as long as the means of alternatives are unique, and we design a class of fully sequential procedures under this formulation. These procedures are parameterized by the PCS value only, and their continuation boundaries are determined based on the Law of the Iterated Logarithm. Furthermore, we show that users can add a stopping criterion to these procedures to convert them into IZ procedures, and we argue that these procedures have several advantages over existing IZ procedures. Lastly, we conduct an extensive numerical study to show the performance of our procedures and compare their performance to existing procedures.


Alzheimer's disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting ∼50% of humans by age 85. The disease process is associated with aggregation of the Aβ peptides, short 39–43 residue peptides generated through endoproteolytic cleavage of the Alzheimer's precursor protein. While the process of aggregation of purified Aβ peptides in vitro is beginning to be well understood, little is known about this process in vivo. In the present study, we use the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system for studying Aβ-mediated aggregation in an organism in vivo. One ofthis yeast's endogenous prions, Sup35/[PSI+], loses the ability to aggregate when the prion-forming domain of this protein is deleted. We show that insertion of Aβ peptide sequences in place of the original prion domain of this protein restores its ability to aggregate. However, the aggregates are qualitatively different from [PSI+] prions in their sensitivity to detergents and in their requirements on trans-acting factors that are normally needed for [PSI+] propagation. We conclude that we have established a useful new tool for studying the aggregation of Aβ peptides in an organism in vivo.


Introduction. The article deals with the early history of Elista as a city, and makes a first attempt to anthropologically compare urban space at the initial stage of the city's history to its current conditions. Goals. The paper examines the first and key stage in the formation and development of Elista as center of Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast. Materials. The bulk of analyzed sources are documents contained in the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia. Results. The work concludes that the preservation of old buildings to date is a representation of the city's local memory. As is shown, the preservation of historical architecture proved crucial to such a representation.


Background and importance Sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) is an oral regimen approved for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV). To date, no pharmacokinetic data exist on the impact on efficacy and safety of this regimen when it is crushed and mixed with liquids or food. Aim and objectives To describe the case of a 65-year-old man patient with HCV infection who successfully achieved a sustained viral response (SVR) when SOF/VEL oral combination was administered crushed and dissolved in 10 mL of water. Material and methods A 65-year-old man presented with HCV infection, genotype 4, with minimal fibrosis (F0–F1). He was operated on for laryngeal neoplasia and treated with radiotherapy 10 years previously, presenting secondary swallowing problems since then. His last evaluation of liver fibrosis was 4.7 kPa (1 year before treatment). He showed elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase (43 U/L), alanine aminotransferase (48 U/L) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (94 U/L) at the beginning of treatment, and a normal range for other liver profile values. Off-label treatment with crushed SOF/VEL dissolved in 10 mL of water for 12 weeks was decided, and serum HCV-RNA was determined at +12 weeks, +24 weeks (SVR) and 1 year post-treatment. Results The patient presented undetectable serum HCV-RNA at +12 weeks, +24 weeks (SVR) and 1 year post-treatment, and normal liver enzymes values were reached at +12 weeks post-treatment. SOF/VEL tablets only took 1 min to be dissolved in water, with a bitter taste, according to the patient. Conclusion and relevance Crushed SOF/VEL was effective in eradicating HCV in our patient. However, there is little evidence to support the practice of crushing SOF/VEL for reliable conclusions, and hence more studies are needed to determine its bioavailability when administrated in a way different from the conventional one. We aim to develop management guidelines for antiviral drugs with different administrations. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


The erythrocytes sedimentation can be monitored by an ultrasonic echographic method which is described. It is shown that this technique can give some information on the hematocrit profile in the sedimentation tube.


The Tweet in the epigraph above was written by a twitter user learning South Sámi, the language of his ancestors. As for many Sámi who lived in this area of Sweden, Swedish (or norwegian, on the other side of the national border) was the language that was promoted, taught at school, and privileged in all domains of society until the mid1900s, resulting in the Sámi language being lost for up to three generations. This tweet, one of the examples discussed in this article, illustrates how an ideological statement can, in less than 140 characters, relate to issues of indigenous identities, linguistic revitalization, and communitybuilding. hashtags—such as "#åarjel" in this example, referring to the South Sámi language—produce emic categories that generate crossreferences, define networks, and create an arena for performing identities. Social media has a central role in the emergence of folkloric expressions, not only as a mode of consumption, but also in shaping and sharing these expressions. Folksonomies—categories created by users in order to organize Web content—are another form of practices that illustrate the vernacular online. The vernacular Web has been discussed in previous research (e.g., howard 2008a), pointing at the multiplicity of agencies and the complexity of processes at play in participatory media. Such research indicates the relevance of further investigation


Background While corticosteroids appear effective in reducing respiratory support requirements of babies with very severe chronic lung disease of prematurity (CLD), controversy remains regarding the most appropriate route, timing, preparation and dosage. Using Delphi methodology, consensus was reached involving 4-weekly pulses of methylprednisolone for 3 days at 500 mg/m2 in ventilator-dependent, or close to ventilation, babies in diffuse lung disease of childhood (Cunningham S., et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 189;2014:A4664). Use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin also reached consensus. Aims and objectives To describe the features of those babies who received methylprednisolone, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin ("consensus treatment") for severe CLD compared to those who did not in order to inform the drafting of a protocol. Methods A prospective database detailing care of babies with severe CLD referred to the CLD service at Nottingham Children's Hospital Jan 2009–Dec 2014 was used. Results 147 children were referred to the service; 4 babies received consensus treatment. Those receiving consensus treatment were ventilated for longer 39(sd 4.6) versus 8(sd 16.8) days (p < 0.001). Children receiving consensus treatment were significantly older at discharge 245(65) versus 95(45.5) days and were discharged with higher oxygen requirements (1.0(0.4) vs. 0.3(0.2) litres). Conclusions Babies with very severe CLD were successfully treated with consensus treatment. A change in practice toward discharge at higher oxygen delivery rates in such babies was safe. Further experience will refine the objective criteria for considering consensus treatment and would inform the design of a future randomised controlled trial.


Background and Aim Bacterial diarrhea is very common in particular in devoloping countries and is still one of the most causes of mortalities in children. The aim of present study was to identify the most common of bacterial agents causing acute bacterial diarrhea in children under 14 years old and detection of their resistance to antibiotics. Methods During two years, 610 samples obtained from children under 14 years old with gastroentrotitis were investigated for bacterial cultures, frequency of age, serogrouping of isolates and antibiogram patterns. Polyvalent (I, II, III, IV) and monovalant antisera were used for serogrouping of E. coli (EPEC). Antibiogram tests were also performed by gel-diffusion method of Kirby-Bauer. The data were gathered through a questionnaire and analysed using spss software. Results Out of 610 tested samples, 155 cases (25.4%) had positve culture for intestinal pathogenic bacilli. The most common isolate was; Escherichia coli (EPEC) with 105 cases (67.8%) and the lowest isolate was Shigella with 18 cases (11.6%). The most common serogroup of E. coli was 0128 (26.6%) and the lowest serogroup was 0119 (5.7%). The most common serogroups of Salmonella were S. typhi (34.4%) and S. typhimurium. The most common serogroup of Shigella was S. sonnei (55.6%). The most effective antibiotics against bacteria were ceftriaoxne, nitrofurantoin, imipenem, amikacin and gentamycin. Conclusions The present study showed that Escherichia coli (EPEC) and Salmonella species are predominant causes of bacterial diarrhea in children under 14 years old in this region. Most species showed high resisitance to routine antibiotics such as ampicillin, trimethoprim and chloramphenicol.


Humeral shaft fractures are uncommon in childhood, representing between 0.2% and 3.4% of all pediatric fractures1,2. Although rotational malalignment is recognized as a complication of humeral shaft fractures in adults, the common internal rotation deformity is well tolerated and the mild loss of external rotation is said to be of no importance3,4. Extreme external rotation deformity following a humeral shaft fracture in a child is extremely rare, and only a single case, to our knowledge, has been reported5. We report a case of severe external rotation deformity of a closed midshaft humeral fracture in a child that resulted in shortening of the humerus, limited external rotation of the shoulder, and a severe flexion contracture of the elbow.

A nine-year-old left-hand-dominant child sustained an injury to the left upper extremity while competing in an equestrian event. The child was riding a horse at a speed estimated at 10 mph as she approached a jump. She came too close to the side post that provides support for the jump, and, as the horse jumped, the girl's left forearm struck the post. At the time of impact the shoulder was fully extended and slightly externally rotated, and the elbow was flexed to 90°. She remained in the saddle, and her forward motion continued, resulting in severe deformity of the left upper extremity. She remained conscious throughout, and she was transported to an outside institution for evaluation and treatment.

In the emergency room she was found to have a closed fracture of the humeral shaft with a palpable left radial pulse and normal motor and sensory function in the left hand. The emergency-room physician noted an abnormal skinfold anteriorly over the humerus. Radiographs demonstrated minimal apparent deformity, and the arm was placed in a …


During the COVID-19 pandemic, people sought information through digital news platforms. To investigate how to design these platforms to support users' needs in a crisis, we conducted a two-week diary study with 22 participants across the United States. Participants' news-consumption experience followed two stages: in the \textbf{seeking} stage, participants increased their general consumption, motivated by three common informational needs -- specifically, to find, understand and verify relevant news pieces. Participants then moved to the \textbf{sustaining} stage, and coping with the news emotionally became as important as their informational needs. We elicited design ideas from participants and used these to distill six themes for creating digital news platforms that provide better informational and emotional support during a crisis. Thus, we contribute, first, a model of users' needs over time with respect to engaging with crisis news, and second, example design concepts for supporting users' needs in each of these stages.


This paper raises the truth question to explore the possibility of constructing a system of systematic theology in the contemporary context. By using Schleiermacher's thought as a constructive resource, two dimensions of truth are discussed in dialogue with Kathryn Tanner's book Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology: coherence and correspondence. Addressed in the first section is coherence, along with its auxiliary, comprehensiveness, as a requirement for system. The whole of the Christian world view is grasped by a principle of coherence that reflects both a subjective component of authorial individuality and an objective component of an individual grasp of the 'spirit of the age'. Furthermore, consensus regarding systematic coherence in Western Christian thought agrees on a metanarrative structuring doctrines from creation to apocalypse. In Tanner's work, the principle of coherence is gift-giving that is traced from an inner-trinitarian narrative to its outer-trinitarian expressions in creation, the incarnation, eschatology, as well as in ethical response. Thematized in the second section is the tricky issue of theological correspondence between claims of redemption on the one hand and the sin, evil, and tragedy of the world on the other. Tanner's book offers one solution to this problem: analogical correspondence that situates doctrinal patterns of gift-giving (such as the incarnation, creation) as concentric circles in varying degrees of correspondence to their inner-trinitarian center. In view of this solution, this paper questions the relation between systematic coherence and the reality of both life's brokenness and the depths of divine self-giving pathos.


The paper deals with Kalman (or 𝐻2) smoothing problem for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with multiplicative noises. Packet loss occurs in the observation equations, and multiplicative noises occur both in the system state equation and the observation equations. The Kalman smoothers which include Kalman fixed-interval smoother, Kalman fixedlag smoother, and Kalman fixed-point smoother are given by solving Riccati equations and Lyapunov equations based on the projection theorem and innovation analysis. An example is also presented to ensure the efficiency of the approach. Furthermore, the proposed three Kalman smoothers are compared.


Introduction: Secretion of immunoglobulin A (IgA) constitutes one of the frontline protection of the lung against inhaled pathogens. IgA is actively transported from the basolateral pole up to the apical pole of epithelial cells by the polymeric Immunoglobulin Receptor (pIgR), where a cleavage releases IgA bound to the extracellular part of the receptor called secretory component (SC). Little is known regarding IgA/pIgR regulation in the acute diseased lung. In particular, the regulation of the IgA system by hypoxia is unexplored. Methods: The effects of hypoxia on broncho-epithelial cells were studied in a model of human respiratory epithelium reconstituted in vitro upon culture in air/liquid interface (ALI). After full differentiation, the cultured bronchial epithelia were submitted to 1% O2 in an hypoxic chamber for 12 days, upon resting or stimulated (IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα) conditions. Results: In fully ALI-differentiated cultures from 15 control subjects, hypoxia induced a significant decrease of pIgR expression (Western Blot, p=0.0017), SC release in the apical washes (ELISA, 620 ± 797 ng/ml vs 4145 ± 4178 ng/ml) and pIgR mRNA expression (qPCR, p=0.031), irrespectively of inflammatory cytokines. In addition, hypoxia also induced a dedifferentiation as evidenced by cell morphology and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signatures, including decreased E-cadherin expression (WB, p=0.016). In addition, pharmacological stabilization of HIF-1α recapitulated these features. Conclusion: In a model of reconstituted human airway epithelium, hypoxia alters pIgR expression and cell differentiation, probably through the HIF-1α pathway.


In the mid-twentieth century (1948–57), North America experienced a severe drought forced by cold tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs). If these SSTs recurred, it would likely cause another drought, but in a world substantially warmer than the one in which the original event took place. We use a 20-member ensemble of the GISS climate model to investigate the drought impacts of a repetition of the mid-twentieth-century SST anomalies in a significantly warmer world. Using observed SSTs and mid-twentieth-century forcings (Hist-DRGHT), the ensemble reproduces the observed precipitation deficits during the cold season (October–March) across the Southwest, southern plains, and Mexico and during the warm season (April–September) in the southern plains and the Southeast. Under analogous SST forcing and enhanced warming (Fut-DRGHT, ≈3 K above preindustrial), cold season precipitation deficits are ameliorated in the Southwest and southern plains and intensified in the Southeast, whereas during the warm season precipitation deficits are enhanced across North America. This occurs primarily from greenhouse gas–forced trends in mean precipitation, rather than changes in SST teleconnections. Cold season runoff deficits in Fut-DRGHT are significantly amplified over the Southeast, but otherwise similar to Hist-DRGHT over the Southwest and southern plains. In the warm season, however, runoff and soil moisture deficits during Fut-DRGHT are significantly amplified across the southern United States, a consequence of enhanced precipitation deficits and increased evaporative losses due to warming. Our study highlights how internal variability and greenhouse gas–forced trends in hydroclimate are likely to interact over North America, including how changes in both precipitation and evaporative demand will affect future drought.