We introduce a wavelet-based methodology to detect and characterize acoustic-gravity waves propagating through Ionosphere. It is based on data consisting of the time fluctuations of electron concentrations at different heights, collected from vertical Ionospheric sounding. First, we detect the local maxima of the continuous complex wavelet transforms, separately at each heights. Second, we connect the maxima that exist jointly within the same time-period neighborhood, over a continuous range of heights. From the derivation of the phases of the wavelet transform along these maxima lines, we extract the propagation parameters. This methodology is applied to the data collected during three different solar eclipses. It enables us to evidence the existence of several acoustic-gravity waves during these events.


Human affect recognition is a well-established research area with numerous applications, e.g. in psychological care, but existing methods assume that all emotions-of-interest are given a priori as annotated training examples. However, the rising granularity and refinements of the human emotional spectrum through novel psychological theories and the increased consideration of emotions in context brings considerable pressure to data collection and labeling work. In this paper, we conceptualize one-shot recognition of emotions in context - a new problem aimed at recognizing human affect states in finer particle level from a single support sample. To address this challenging task, we follow the deep metric learning paradigm and introduce a multi-modal emotion embedding approach which minimizes the distance of the same-emotion embeddings by leveraging complementary information of human appearance and the semantic scene context obtained through a semantic segmentation network. All streams of our context-aware model are optimized jointly using weighted triplet loss and weighted cross entropy loss. We conduct thorough experiments on both, categorical and numerical emotion recognition tasks of the Emotic dataset adapted to our one-shot recognition problem, revealing that categorizing human affect from a single example is a hard task. Still, all variants of our model clearly outperform the random baseline, while leveraging the semantic scene context consistently improves the learnt representations, setting state-of-the-art results in one-shot emotion recognition. To foster research of more universal representations of human affect states, we will make our benchmark and models publicly available to the community under https://github.com/KPeng9510/Affect-DML.


We propose a new challenging task namely IDentity Stylization (IDS) across heterogeneous domains. IDS focuses on stylizing the content identity, rather than completely swapping it using the reference identity. We use an effective heterogeneous-network-based framework $Styleverse$ that uses a single domain-aware generator to exploit the Metaverse of diverse heterogeneous faces, based on the proposed dataset FS13 with limited data. FS13 means 13 kinds of Face Styles considering diverse lighting conditions, art representations and life dimensions. Previous similar tasks, \eg, image style transfer can handle textural style transfer based on a reference image. This task usually ignores the high structure-aware facial area and high-fidelity preservation of the content. However, Styleverse intends to controllably create topology-aware faces in the Parallel Style Universe, where the source facial identity is adaptively styled via AdaIN guided by the domain-aware and reference-aware style embeddings from heterogeneous pretrained models. We first establish the IDS quantitative benchmark as well as the qualitative Styleverse matrix. Extensive experiments demonstrate that Styleverse achieves higher-fidelity identity stylization compared with other state-of-the-art methods.


The concept of leadership involves making judgments that lead to action at different scales of responsibility and operations. It means the capacity to engage not only individuals in solving immediate problems, but also groups and organizations as they address broader issues of collective interest, as well as public decision making and collective action at the societal level The exercise of leadership varies by scale, complexity of operations, and impact – from the individual paramedic who has to make instant decisions regarding how to deal with an injured patient to an international coordinating committee that decides how to distribute humanitarian aid following a disaster. The contributing authors examine how leadership works in practice at different scales of public service operations. These scales range from the micro level (within organizations) to the meso level (collaboration among actors, organizations, and organizational networks) to the macro level (collaboration among international, national, regional, and local actors).


This volume is a consequence of 58 explicit papers presented during the June 1983 meeting of the Barany Society in Uppsala, Sweden. Although a broad spectrum of the research being done in vestibular physiology was presented, an emphasis of this meeting was the progress that has been made in work related to central vestibular interactions and the functional relevance of stimuli in rotary testing of the vestibular system. In both categories, this text is of value as a report on current international knowledge com bined with the diverse strategies presently appUed to otoneurological problems.


Continuing our study of the role and evolution of accretion disc winds in the microquasar GRS 1915+105, we present high-resolution spectral variability analysis of the β and γ states with the Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. By tracking changes in the absorption lines from the accretion disc wind, we find new evidence that radiation links the inner and outer accretion discs on a range of time-scales. As the central X-ray flux rises during the high-luminosity γ state, we observe the progressive overionization of the wind. In the β state, we argue that changes in the inner disc leading to the ejection of a transient 'baby jet' also quench the highly ionized wind from the outer disc. Our analysis reveals how the state, structure and X-ray luminosity of the inner accretion disc all conspire to drive the formation and variability of highly ionized accretion disc winds.


Limbic encephalitis (LE) is a rare neurological syndrome, in most cases has a paraneoplastic nature, but recently there has been a large number of observations of idiopathic autoimmune LE associated with antibodies to neuronal membrane proteins. A clinical case of a disease in a 13-year-old patient with the detection of antibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) is described. The debut of the disease is marked by a decrease in memory for current events after the first convulsive attack during 2 months.


Most Americans believe that local school districts are the only means by which citizens may exercise control over public education. Kathryn McDermott argues to the contrary that existing local institutions are no longer sufficient for achieving either equity or democratic governance. Not only is local control inequitable, it also fails to live up to its reputation for guaranteeing public participation and citizen influence. Drawing upon democratic theory and the results of field research in New Haven, Connecticut, and three suburbs, McDermott contends that our educational system can be made more democratic by centralizing control over funding while decentralizing most authority over schools to the level of schools themselves while enacting public school choice controlled for racial balance. To many people in Connecticut and elsewhere, the tension between equal opportunity for all students and local control of public education seems impossible to resolve. In 1996, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in Sheff v. O'Neill that local control produces unconstitutional segregation of public schools. Nearly all of the state's 169 towns operate their own public schools, and, like the towns they serve, the schools are generally homogeneous with respect to race and socioeconomic class. In the Sheff ruling, the court declared that making school districts coterminous with town lines "is the single most important factor contributing to the present concentration of racial and ethnic minorities in the Hartford public school system." At the same time, the court also acknowledged that the town-based school system "presently furthers the legitimate nonracial interests of permitting considerable local control and accountability in educational matters." In Connecticut and elsewhere, it has often seemed necessary to choose between local control and equity in public education, and local control has almost always won. McDermott argues that rather than seeing local control and equity as conflicting goals, policymakers should regard them as equally important components of democracy in public education. In her view, a truly democratic system of education should both encourage citizen participation in school governance and contribute to the formation and maintenance of a social order in which equality of opportunity prevails over hierarchies of privilege. Centralizing distribution of resources and using controlled choice to end racial isolation would provide greater equality of opportunity, while decentralizing management of schools would expand citizen participation. McDermott's conclusions break new ground in our understanding of local school governance itself and call into question the conventional wisdom about local participation. These findings should interest those who study school governance and reform--especially in an urban setting--as well as policy makers, administrators, teachers, students, and citizens eager to improve their schools.


US Educational attainment in rural America reached a historic high in 2000, with nearly one in six rural adults holding a 4-year college degree, and more than three in four completing high school. As the demand for workers with higher educational qualifications rises, many rural policymakers have come to view local educational levels as a critical determinant of job and income growth in their communities. Attracting employers who provide higher skill jobs and encouraging educational gains are seen as complementary components of a high-skill, high-wage development strategy. But policymakers are faced with two key questions. First, does a better educated population lead to greater economic growth? According to a recent study, rural counties with high educational levels saw more rapid earnings and income growth over the past two decades than counties with lower educational levels. However, economic returns to education for rural areas continue to lag those for urban areas. Second, are there ways to improve local educational attainment, particularly through improvements in elementary and high schools, that can enhance the economic well-being of rural residents and communities? In fact, preliminary research demonstrates a connection between better schools and positive outcomes in terms of earnings and income growth for rural workers and rural communities. Ultimately, the strength of the tie between education and economic outcomes is influenced in part by the extent to which small rural counties lose young adults through outmigration. The loss of potential workers from rural areas, as young adults leave for college and work opportunities in urban areas, has concerned rural observers for many decades. This rural "brain drain" not only deprives rural employers of an educated workforce, but also depletes local resources because communities that have invested in these workers' education reap little return on that investment. Rural Adults Post Major But Uneven Educational Gains The rise in educational attainment since the end of World War II has been a remarkable success story in rural America. In 1970, 7 percent of rural adults had graduated from college, while 56 percent of the rural adult population did not have a high school diploma. By 2000, 16 percent of rural adults age 25 and older had completed college and more than 75 percent had finished high school. Though rapid, these gains understate the educational attainment of the younger working population, ages 25-44. Nearly one-fourth of rural younger adults have at least a 4-year college degree, and over 80 percent have completed high school. Gains in educational attainment in rural areas were particularly pronounced during the 1960s, dividing the generation that viewed college as an option for the relatively few from the generation for whom college attendance became "ordinary." A similar divide can be seen in the steady increase in job skill requirements of rural firms, as employment shifted over time from farm to factory to services. Between 1980 and 2000, for instance, the share of rural workers in low-skill jobs fell from 47 to 42 percent. The relationship between high educational levels and high-skill jobs has prompted many communities to pay closer attention to the role of workforce education and training in their economic development plans. But the benefit of raising educational levels will vary widely from place to place because of the sharp disparity in educational attainment across rural America. In nonmetro counties where at least one-fourth of the population age 25 and older lacks a high school diploma, job growth has been steady, yet income levels typically fall well below the national average. In other nonmetro counties where the great majority of adults have completed high school, the need to improve workforce education levels is likely to be less urgent. Workforce Education Affects Economic Growth Higher educational levels contribute to local economic development in several ways. …


Neuroblastoma (NBL) is the third most common malignancy in children and accounts for more than 15% of cancer-related deaths in children in the US. Approximately 50% of patients present with advanced-stage and/or high risk disease. Despite significant intensification of conventional chemotherapy and the addition of immunotherapy to treatment regimens, the long-term survival rates for these children remain less than 40%. Secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), also known as osteonectin or BM-40, belongs to the matricellular family of secreted proteins. The biological functions of SPARC are known to be variable in human cancers. In neuroblastoma however, SPARC expression has been found to be associated with impaired tumor growth and decreased tumor related angiogenesis. In the present study we have attempted to elucidate the mechanisms of this angiogenesis reduction. We overexpressed SPARC adenovirus (human) with and without ionizing radiation (5Gy) in two neuroblastoma cell lines SK-N-BE2 (p53mt) and NB1691 (p53wt) and observed suppression of Vascular Endothelial Growth factor A (VEGFA) in both NB1691 (5-fold) and SK-N-BE(2) (2-fold) cells. To determine angiogenic potential of these neuroblastoma cells after SPARC overexpression, we used the dorsal skin fold model assay from which we observed that controls developed tumor cell induced vasculature (TV) which was clearly differentiated from pre-existing vasculature (PV). Radiation treatment alone of neuroblastoma cells caused the development of smaller and leaky capillaries. Overexpression of SPARC reduced the tumor cell induced vasculature to 18±6% of controls in NB1691 cells and to 48±5% of controls in SKNBE2 cells. Addition of radiation treatment to SPARC overexpressed cells further reduced tumor induced vasculature to 7±2% in NB1691 and to 15±3% of controls in SKNBE2 cells. Interestingly irradiation treatment alone increased the number of new vessel formation in both NB1691 (110±7% of controls) and SKNBE2 (136±10% of controls) cells. Previously, we observed that SPARC overexpression decreased VEGF-A expression in both NB1691 and SKNBE2 cells in vitro. To further determine the mechanism by which VEGF-A is suppressed via SPARC overexpression we determined the expression levels of VEGF-A targeting microRNAs. From the microRNA analysis we observed that miR410 was consistently overexpressed in SPARC overexpressed cells both in vitro and in vivo. We also observed that miR410 targets VEGF-A mRNA at 4 different sites, more than any other microRNA that targets VEGF-A. Our results indicate that: 1. SPARC overexpression can sensitize neuroblastoma cells to irradiation even in a varied p53 environment and; 2. Overexpression of SPARC suppresses angiogenesis by specifically inducing the expression of VEGF-A targeting microRNA miR410. Citation Format: Smita Tanpure, Jerusha Boyineni, Reuben Antony, Karen Fernandez, Julian Lin, David Pinson, Christopher S. Gondi. SPARC overexpression combined with irradiation reduces VEGF-A dependent angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo via up regulation of miR410 in neuroblastoma cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4160. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4160


This paper analyses the impact of the Working with Traditional Midwives Program on the daily routine of a Krahô indigenous women group. This is an ethnographic study that mainly used observation and field diary as supporting tools. Other tools were timely interviews and secondary data. Fieldwork occurred between August 2015 and December 2016 and involved ten women of eight different villages. Results point to a disassociation between the Program's main objective, which is focused on appreciating and reviving midwives' knowledge and the daily village reality. Although the Program has targeted women who already work empirically on the birth setting, there was a generalized acknowledgement in villages that women "became midwives" after taking the course. Consequently, the lack of payment and the frustrated expectation that "government" would hire them, though never assumed, were interpreted as neglect. Results reveal an ethnocentric bias of the Program, focused on disseminating scientific knowledge and delivering materials that deviate from the logic of the group under analysis. Studies that evaluate the impact of the Programs' actions in other contexts, including non-indigenous ones, may contribute to the necessary adjustments and the effective appreciation of these women's work.


Abstract The strong cell killing effect of high linear energy transfer (LET) carbon ions is dependent on lethal DNA damage. Our recent studies suggest that induction of clusters of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in close proximity is one of the potential mechanisms. However, the relationship between LET, the degree of DSB clustering and the cell killing effect of carbon ions remains unclear. Here, we used high-resolution imaging technology to analyze the volume of γH2AX foci induced by monoenergetic carbon ions with a clinically-relevant range of LET (13–100 keV/μm). We obtained data from 3317 γH2AX foci and used a gaussian function to approximate the probability (p) that 1 Gy-carbon ions induce γH2AX foci of a given volume (vth) or greater per nucleus. Cell killing effects were assessed in clonogenic assays. The cell killing effect showed high concordance with p at vth = 0.7 μm3 across various LET values; the difference between the two was 4.7% ± 2.2%. This relationship was also true for clinical carbon ion beams harboring a mixed LET profile throughout a spread-out Bragg peak width (30–120 mm), with the difference at vth = 0.7 μm3 being 1.6% ± 1.2% when a Monte Carlo simulation-derived dose-averaged LET was used to calculate p. These data indicate that the cell killing effect of carbon ions is predictable by the ability of carbon ions to induce γH2AX foci containing clustered DSBs, which is linked to LET, providing the biological basis for LET modulation in the planning of carbon ion radiotherapy.


The electronic band structure and the charge density distribution are theoretically studied in rhombohedral and monoclinic selenium, rhombohedral and orthorhombic sulphur with the aim to classify types of chemical bonding in molecular crystals of chalcogens. It is found that valence s- and lower in energy p-electrons contribute mainly in covalent bonds between nearest neighboring atoms in ring-shaped molecules, while all types of valence p-electrons provide bonding between rings of atoms in crystals. Parameters of critical points and the character of the charge density distribution in their vicinity point to coexistence of a number of types of chemical bonding in molecular crystals of Se and S: covalent, semimetallic and one more type, characterizing by the charge density fluctuations. Van der Waals forces, being important for finding equilibrium lattice parameters, have little impact on the charge density distribution and on the chemical bonding in crystals of chalcogens.


Depletion of water supplies for potable and irrigation use is a major problem in the rural wadi valleys of Saudi Arabia and other areas of the Middle East and North Africa. An economic analysis of supplying these villages with either desalinated seawater or treated wastewater conveyed via a managed aquifer recharge (MAR) system was conducted. In many cases, there are no local sources of water supply of any quality in the wadi valleys. The cost per cubic meter for supplying desalinated water is $2-5/m 3 plus conveyance cost, and treated wastewater via an MAR system is $0-0.50/m 3 plus conveyance cost. The wastewater reuse, indirect for potable use and direct use for irrigation, can have a zero treatment cost because it is discharged to waste in many locations. In fact, the economic loss caused by the wastewater discharge to the marine environment can be greater than the overall amortized cost to construct an MAR system, including conveyance pipelines and the operational costs of reuse in the rural environment. The MAR and associated reuse system can solve the rural water supply problem in the wadi valleys and reduce the economic losses caused by marine pollution, particularly coral reef destruction.


iBSTRACT A "release ftom proactive inhibition (PI) task" method exuaines the masculine-feminine connotation of a word as an attribute Of encoding in memory. Male (N=45) and female (N=61) ,sutjects yere given four trials, each trial consisting of three occupation's with.,all mascu4ne or all 'feminine cohnotatiOns, A suttraction task, and a recall sheet. Males presented with three sets of masculine occupations, artd then switched to feminine occupations cn flie _fourth trial, showedit continual decline in recall. Males . presented with a feminine-m,%culine switch showed 80% release from , . PI. Males may first have classified masculine occupations presented as "occupations," with.feninire cccupations subsuud into this


The pressing need to manage the spiralling number of landless people around the world has compelled several states to experiment with scattered land distribution programmes in combination with welfare transfers, instead of comprehensive land reform. This article examines the chasm between land demands and state responses in such contexts. Focusing on the Aralam resettlement site for the landless Adivasis in Kerala, India, it argues that management of the landless could take the form of 'state life' — a life envisaged by the state rather than the life the people wish to lead. Three interlinked processes are shown to shape state life in Kerala: the reduction of land to welfare, amplified welfare transfers and the mobilization of assumptions about the target population. State life enables states to extinguish simmering land struggles in the short term, but ultimately it reproduces landlessness.


ichenic associations are used as bio-indicators because lichens are long-lived, known to be sensitive to changes in the habitat and environment, and obtain their nutrients from the atmosphere. In this study we quantified the Pb, Cr, As, Co and Cd metals absorbed by the Ramalina celastri, Usnea sp., Flavopunctelia flaventor, Teloschiste sexilis, Punctelia subrudecta, Parmotrema simulans, Ramalina complanata, Parmotrema bangii, Everniastrum columbiense, Parmotrema praesorediosum, Parmotrema reticulatum, and Heterodermial eucomela lichens gathered on the west bank of the river Bogota, Colombia, in its upper basin near the town of Villapinzon, where the air and the health of the community on its banks have been affected for decades by the emissions of particulates into the air and shedding of waste waters into the river by the local tanning industry. The study found high levels of the bio-accumulation of Cd, Co, As and Cr in the lichens, with Pb values which range from 4.1 to 25.8 ppm, with the highest levels in Parmotrema reticulatum. The levels of Cd ranged from 0.8 to 45.7 ppm, with Parmotrema simulans showing the highest level. The levels of Co ranged from 0.8 to 6.3 ppm, with Heterodermia leucomela showing the highest bio-accumulation. The levels of As ranged from 9.8 to 76 ppm, with Heterodermia leucomela showing the highest level. And the levels of Cr ranged from 0.1 to 141.0 ppm, with the highest levels in Teloschiste sexilis. The results show a high accumulation of heavy metals in the lichens we studied, which were mainly derived from particulate material and indicate an impact on the community which livesin the area.


Virtual Reality (VR) can be defined as a real or imaginary environment that is manipulated and created through a computer interface. VR systems offer advantages such as immediate stimulus-based feedback, simple to more complex stimulus adjustment, easy recording of progress in individuals, and a safe learning environment. It also provides feedback that can increase the effectiveness of learning-based education by detecting and correcting motor problems. In physiotherapy, VR is becoming widespread as an alternative treatment method and its evidentiary benefits are shown in different patient groups. In this short review, we tried to explain the current use and contributions of VR in physiotherapy.


It is becoming increasingly important to carry out thermodynamic calculations starting from the very first stage of storage planning and continuing right on up to the actual storage operation in gas caverns. The reason for this is that on the one hand the availability of gas quantities and the efficiency of the storage facilities need to be determined and on the other hand these have to be predicted as reliably and as quickly as possible. History match methods and particularly the predictions (on a daily or hourly basis) of pressures, temperatures and operating gas amounts in relation to the existing storage situation are therefore important tools for the storage operator to enable him to react to short and medium-term market needs. SOCON Sonar Control Kavernen- vermessung GmbH recognized the need for and so developed a software package that, based on the SOCON sonar survey in caverns under gas with the accompanying logs, answers the remaining thermodynamic and rock mechanics questions. This provides the cavern operator with the opportu- nity to increase operational safety and at the same time allows the capacities and performance profiles during injection and extraction to be assessed (history match) and predicted.


According to the features of Palm bio-impedance spectroscopy (BIS) data, this paper suggests a kind of effective feature model of palm BIS data— elliptical model. The model combines immune clone algorithm and least squares method, establishes a palm BIS feature selection algorithm, and uses the algorithm to obtain the optimal feature subset that can completely represent the palm BIS data, and then use several classification algorithms for classification and comparison. The experimental results show that accuracy of the feature subset obtained through the algorithm in SVM classification algorithm test can reach 93.2, thereby verifying the algorithm is a valid and reliable palm BIS feature selection algorithm. Keywordspalm BIS; immune clone; feature extraction; feature selection; pattern classification;


We introduce two new correlation attacks on stream ciphers that make use of non-linearly combined linear feedback shift-registers (LFSRs). The first attack utilises the well-known Lempel-Ziv complexity measure for binary sequences. The second attack is based on the binary derivative, applied in conjunction with the distribution of runs in a binary sequence. Both attacks make use of ciphertext only, and give very good results. They are able to recover the unknown (secret) initial state of an internal LFSR, even when only a very small correlation of q=0.52 occurs between the observed ciphertext and the output of an internal LFSR, and approximately 60000 ciphertext bits are required for attacks to succeed. The computational complexity and memory requirements of the binary derivative attack are substantially lower than for the Lempel-Ziv attack, making It feasible to attack stream ciphers with LFSR-lengths of approximately 40 to 50 bits.


Composites are widely used in aircraft structures that have free edges and are vulnerable to impact events during manufacturing and maintenance. On-edge impact may have a great contribution in terms of the compression strength loss of composites, but the influence remains unclear. This paper presents experiments and simulations of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) materials with on-edge impact and compression after edge impact (CAEI). On-edge impact damage was introduced to the composite laminates through the drop weight method with 4, 6, 8 and 10 J impact energies, respectively. A special guide-rail-type fixture was used in the compression tests in which strain–force and load–displacement relationships were obtained. A continuous-step finite element model was proposed to simulate impact and compression. Continuum shell elements and Hashin failure criteria were used to simulate in-ply damage, and interlaminar damage was modelled by cohesive elements. The model was validated by correlating the experimental and numerical results. The investigation results revealed the relationships of the damage size and residual strength with the different impact energies. The crack length and delaminated area grow with the increase in impact energy. The residual compressive strength follows a downward trend with increasing impact energy.


The Nigerian Niger-Delta crude oil exploration often results in spills that affect indigenous medicinal plant biodiversity, likely changing the phytochemical profile of surviving species, their bioactivity or toxicity. In crude oil-rich Kokori and crude oil-free Abraka, classic examples of indigenous plants occupying the medicine-food interface include Vernonia amygdalina (VAL) and Ocimum gratissimum leaves (OGL). These plants are frequently utilised during pregnancy and in anaemia. To date, no scientific investigation has been reported on the potential changes to the phytochemical or bioactivity of the study plants. To discuss the similarities and dissimilarities in antisickling bioactivity and phytochemicals in VAL and OGL collected from Kokori (VAL-KK and OGL-KK) and Abraka (VAL-AB and OGL-AB), in silico, in vitro and comparative UPLC-QTOF-MS analysis was performed. Nine unique compounds were identified in OGL-KK, which have never been reported in the literature, while differences in antisickling potentials were observed in VAL-KK, OGL-KK and, VAL-AB, OGL-AB. Our findings show that VAL-AB and OGL-AB are richer and more diverse in phytochemicals and displayed a slightly higher antisickling activity than VAL-KK and OGL-KK. Ligand-based pharmacophore modelling was performed to understand the potential compounds better; this study may provide a basis for explaining the effect of crude oil spills on secondary metabolites and a reference for further research.


In vitro and in vivo perfusion techniques were used to examine the changes in the release of beta-endorphin, methionine-enkephalin (met-enkephalin), dynorphin and luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) in response to the corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) receptor antagonist, alpha-helical CRF9-41. All four peptides were measured in the same sample collected at each time interval by specific radioimmunoassay methods. In vitro release experiments were conducted using slices of hypothalami obtained from male rats whereas the in vivo release of these peptides was assessed in push-pull perfusates of the arcuate-median eminence (ARC-ME) region of the medial basal hypothalamus of chloral hydrate-anaesthetized male rats. Treatment of rat hypothalamic slices in vitro with alpha-helical CRF9-41 (10(-6) M) resulted in a significant suppression of the release of beta-endorphin and met-enkephalin within 10 min of application of the antagonist and a coincident significant increase in the release of LHRH. The levels of dynorphin were reduced but these changes were not significant. Within 10 min of withdrawal of the receptor antagonist and perfusion with normal (antagonist-free) medium the levels of these peptides returned to pretreatment values, i.e. the levels of beta-endorphin, met-enkephalin and dynorphin rose while those of LHRH fell. Comparable results were obtained in vivo during push-pull perfusion of the ARC-ME region with alpha-helical CRF9-41.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Two-stage scheduling system with multiple arrival flows is widely used in many quality of service guarantee occasions. However, there is no effective, versatile method to get the performance results for this more complex service rule system. This paper analyses a two-stage scheduling system with strict priority and generalised processor sharing scheduling discipline. By using a vertical decomposition solution method, the statistical performance bounds on the backlog and delay of each flow are derived under the exponentially bounded burstiness input model. Using a discrete time Markov-modulated On–Off process example, the performance bound results are analysed.


The regulation of hexokinase II (HKII) was examined in fat and skeletal muscle of an animal model of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, the KKAY mouse. These tissues require insulin for facilitated transport of glucose and express the insulin-responsive transporter GLUT4. The combined data from two experiments (n = 12 for each experimental condition) demonstrated mean concentrations of plasma insulin in pmol/l and glucose in mmol/l of 122 and 7.2 (control nondiabetic C57 mouse) vs. 1,118 and 29.6 (diabetic mouse), respectively. The tissues of diabetic mice compared with control mice demonstrated a reduction of HKII mRNA abundance of 68% in epididymal fat (P = 0.0001) and 34% in the quadriceps muscles (P < 0.001), with concordant reduction in the abundance of GLUT4 mRNA of 60% in epididymal fat (P < 0.001). In comparison with the results in untreated diabetic mice, diabetic animals treated with the insulin-sensitizing drug pioglitazone demonstrated an increase in the abundance of HKII mRNA with a concordant increase of GLUT4 mRNA in epididymal fat (P = 0.03 and < 0.01, respectively), and an increase of HKII mRNA in the quadriceps muscles (P < 0.05). Separate experiments demonstrated a reduction of HKII protein abundance by 61% in epididymal fat (P < 0.001, n = 12 for each experimental condition) and by 71% in the quadriceps muscles (P < 0.001, n = 6 for each experimental condition). In comparison with untreated diabetic mice, there was an increase in the abundance of HKII protein in epididymal fat of animals treated with pioglitazone (P < 0.05). Additional experiments showed a reduction of HKII protein activity in untreated diabetic mice of 24% in the quadriceps muscles (P < 0.05, n = 6 for each experimental condition). Because HKII deficits can be reversed, it appears that abnormal expression of HKII may occur secondary to insulin resistance; nevertheless such changes may exacerbate hyperglycemia.


The need to increase the security measures and make the users of different devices feel safer has led the researchers focus on finding new security mechanisms with better performance. A field where not much has been done so far is finding a solution is keeping the data secured by ensuring that only the authorized user can access the data. Even though gait recognition is an important element in this project and in the entire authentication process the issue is that it is not the only element in a successful implementation of the project. This is due to different routine activities people do daily. A solution to this issue could be activity recognition that would reduce the disadvantages of gait recognition by identifying the activities of a person continuously. Activity recognition would not only make it possible to authenticate the user in different daily activities like: slow walking, normal walking, fast walking even running, but it would also help in avoiding authentication when the user is in passive state like: sitting, standing still, etc. This is one of the key factors that motivated us in making our choice since it is an interesting challenge and it would be benefiting in the data security area if not revolutionized it. This project work has resulted in two publications papers. One paper has been accepted and attached in the appendix. The other paper is submitted and under review.


Network is a communication between two devices to communicate with each other either using wire or wireless media. The LAN network topology used at Tanri Abeng Unversity still uses a static routing topology, where the routing process is still done manually, so that if there is an addition of a new network, it will be difficult to configure the routing table. In this research, a network topology with dynamic routing methods will be built that will help improve network performance at Tanri Abeng University. The purpose of this research is to analyze the comparison of network performance at Tanri Abeng Unversity in sending data packets using static routing protocols, OSPF, and BGP based on the parameters used. In this research also, the ping process was carried out using the cisco packet tracer 100 times with the size of the data packet sent of 32 bytes for each routing method to be compared. Then in this research, the test scenario was carried out eight times on each parameter of throughput, packet loss, delay, and jitter in the hope of determining which routing method is more optimal among static routing, OSPF, and BGP at Tanri Abeng University. The test results show that BGP routing for throughput and packet loss parameters is superior to other routing methods, while OSPF routing for delay and jitter parameters is superior to other routing methods.


Stroke is an important cause of disability and second most common cause of death, worldwide. Developing countries account for two thirds of death due to stroke. As per the recent reports, the incidence and thirty day fatality rate is more in India when compared to developed countries. The final outcome of stroke patients has been improved with various strategies like early diagnosis, early prophylactic treatment, early recognition of complications and mobilization.
Although the direct effect of brain damage is the main cause for immediate mortality after stroke, the early mortality that occur within the first month after an acute stroke is commonly due to preventable medical complications, that occur either early or late during the course of recovery from stroke. These complications can be infections, neurologic-like recurrent stroke or seizures, thromboembolism, psychological problems, pain, and bed sores. High incidence of complications, ranging from 40% to 95%, following stroke have been found in previous studies. There have been many limitations in the previous studies of complications of acute stroke. Individual complications have been concentrated in most published studies. Different diagnostic criteria were also used in these studies to classify the complications.
A multicenter study (CAST-1) was conducted to examine the frequency and the factors associated with complications in acute stroke, as well as complications that could influence the outcome. Identifying the complications will aid the development of preventive strategies aimed at improving outcome after stroke.
CONCLUSION :
In our study, the rate of medical complications was high in patients with acute ischemic stroke and those patients were found to have a poor outcome. Hence early diagnosis and prompt treatment of these complications is needed, in order to improve the outcome and thereby the quality of life of patients after stroke.


Endothelial cells produce both vasodilatating compounds as nitric oxide, prostacycline, endothelial derived hyperpolarising factor and counteracting substances known as endothelial derived contracting factors: endothelin, tromboxan A2, prostaglandin H2, free oxygen radicals. Natural balance between both groups affects blood perfusion of various tissues and constitutes important element in blood pressure control. More and more attention is paid to endothelial dysfunction in patogenesis of hypertension. In a number of studies endothelial dysfunction in hypertensive patients was found out as decreased release of nitric oxide or increased production of endothelin. Principle mechanism of impaired function of endothelium in hypertension seems to be decreased production and increased degradation of nitric oxide mainly due to free oxygen radicals. Favorable effects in improvement of endothelial function were achieved by using ACE inhibitors, AT1 receptor blockers and calcium channel antagonists.


BACKGROUND
To investigate variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) incubation period, transmission barrier, and short-term vCJD predictions for methionine homozygotes in 1940-1969 and post-1969 birth cohorts by use of gender- and age-specific exposure intensities to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), based on consumption of beef mechanically recovered meat (MRM) and head meat.

METHODS
Simulation (from vCJD infections generated randomly from gender and age-specific dietary exposure intensities to BSE), constrained to equal the 47 and 64 vCJD onsets before 2001 in 1940-1969 and post-1969 birth cohorts, was used to estimate lognormal (and other) incubation mean and standard deviation which fitted the calendar year distribution of observed vCJD onsets; and to explore exponential decay in susceptibility to infection with age above 15 years.

RESULTS
For the post-1969 birth cohort, the best-fitting lognormal incubation period mean of 11 years (SD 1.5 years and 195 infections) was associated with 194 vCJD onsets (64 before 2001, 105 in 2001-2005, and 25 in 2006-2010). About one-fifth of simulated vCJD onsets before 2001 arose from infections in 1990-1996; age and gender of simulated and observed vCJD patients agreed closely. For the 1940-1969 birth cohort, well-fitting lognormal means ranged widely, the marginally best fitting being 26 years (SD 16.5 years and 382 infections; 47 vCJD onsets before 2001, 58 in 2001-2005, and 63 in 2006-2010). An age-dependent susceptibility function was required to match the age distribution of vCJD patients in the 1940-1969 birth cohort.

CONCLUSIONS
About three-fifths of predicted vCJD onsets are expected to be in males, and nearly two-thirds of vCJD onsets in 2001-2005 are expected to be in post-1969 birth cohort according to best-fitting predictions.


An improved biasing scheme for NMOS cascode structures for linear voltage regulators is proposed for mixed-signal communication systems. The proposed regulator achieves approximately 40 dB power supply rejection over wide frequency range, 15 mA load current regulation, and a regulated voltage temperature coefficient of 6 ppm/°C. This paper also presents a modified Gilbert cell SiGe-based HBT voltage reference circuit for the proposed regulator. The bandgap circuit demonstrates a simulated line regulation of 95 dB at DC, 70 dB at 1 MHz, and a reference voltage temperature coefficient of 2 ppm/°C. The proposed regulator has been designed for the IBM SiGe BiCMOS 0.35-μm process.


Abstract Carob seedlings were grown hydroponically for 9 weeks under 360 and 800 μl l -1 CO 2 . One of two nitrogen sources, nitrate or ammonium, was added to the nutrient medium at concentrations of 3 mol m -3 . Root systems of the developing plants supplied with nitrate compared to those supplied with ammonium were characterized by: (a) more biomass on the lower part of the root; (b) fewer lateral roots of first and second order; (c) longer roots; (d) higher specific root length; (e) a smaller root diameter. The morphology of the root systems of nitrate-fed plants changed in the presence of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations, resembling, more closely, that of ammonium-fed plants. Total leaf area was higher in ammonium- than in nitrate-fed plants. Nitrate-fed plants had greater total leaf area in the presence of high carbon dioxide than in normal CO 2 , due to an increase in epidermal cell size that led to development of larger leaflets with lower stomatal frequency. The observed changes in the morphology of roots and shoots agreed with the results observed for total biomass production. Nitrate-fed plants increased their biomass production by 100% in the presence of elevated CO 2 compared to 15% in ammonium-fed plants, indicating that the response of carob to high CO 2 concentrations is very dependent on the nitrogen source. Under elevated CO 2 , nitrate-grown plants had a larger content of sucrose in both roots and shoots, while no significant difference was observed in the content of sucrose in ammonium-grown plants, whether in ambient or enriched carbon dioxide. Hence, the differences in soluble carbohydrate contents can, at least partly, account for differences in root and shoot morphology.


HL-A27 were found in 31 of 48 patients with Reiter's disease (65%) as compared with 8% of 2 103 health controls. It is suggested that HL-A27 is closely related to the inheritance of a special immune response leading to an increased susceptibility to a special type of reactive arthritis which Reiter's disease has in common with ankylosing spondylitis and a certain type of psoriatic arthritis.


Mammalian genomes have distinct levels of spatial organization and structure that have been hypothesized to play important roles in transcription regulation. Although much has been learned about these architectural features with ensemble techniques, single-cell studies are showing a new universal trend: Genomes are stochastic and dynamic at every level of organization. Stochastic gene expression, on the other hand, has been studied for years. In this review, we probe whether there is a causative link between the two phenomena. We specifically discuss the functionality of chromatin state, topologically associating domains (TADs), and enhancer biology in light of their stochastic nature and their specific roles in stochastic gene expression. We highlight persistent fundamental questions in this area of research.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the therapeutic effect of Buyang huanwu decoction (BYHWD) on sepsis-induced myocardial injury (SIMI) and explore the mechanism by which BYHWD mitigates SIMI.

METHODS
The Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced SIMI mouse model was established to detect the effect of BYHWD-low (1 mg/kg), BYHWD-middle (5 mg/kg), and BYWHD-high (20 mg/kg) on SIMI. The survival of these BYHWD-treated septic mice was investigated. The histology of myocardial tissues was determined by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. The apoptotic index and inflamed microenvironment of myocardial tissues were assessed by immunofluorescent staining (IF) and flow cytometry analysis. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was employed to determine the key chemical components in the serum of BYHWD-loaded septic mice. Immunoblotting assay was utilized to detect NF-κB and TGF-β signaling activity, and M1/M2-macrophage markers using RAW264.7 cells.

RESULTS
The high dosage of BYHWD (BYHWD-high, 20 mg/Kg) significantly attenuated SIMI and improved the survival of septic mice. The BYHWD-high solution markedly reduced myocardial cell apoptosis and mitigated the inflamed microenvironment by suppressing CD45+ immune cell infiltration. Importantly, BYHWD decreased macrophage accumulation and promoted an M2-macrophage polarization. Paeoniflorin (PF) and calycosin-7-O-β-glucoside (CBG) were identified as the key molecules in BYWHD with therapeutic effect. PF (10 μM) and CBG (1 μM) inhibited NF-κB signaling, meanwhile they upregulated the TGF-β pathway, thereby facilitating an M2-macrophage phenotypic transition in RAW264.7 cells.

CONCLUSIONS
BYHWD, with two effective components PF and CBG, can mitigate SIMI by suppressing the inflamed myocardial microenvironment and skewing an immunosuppressive M2-macrophage phenotype.


Existing neural relevance models do not give enough consideration for query and item context information which diversifies the search results to adapt for personal preference. To bridge this gap, this paper presents a neural learning framework to personalize document ranking results by leveraging the signals to capture how the document fits into users' context. In particular, it models the relationships between document content and user query context using both lexical representations and semantic embeddings such that the user's intent can be better understood by data enrichment of personalized query context information. Extensive experiments performed on the search dataset, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


ABSTRACT Purpose: Musculoskeletal soft tissues possess highly aligned extracellular collagenous networks that provide structure and strength. Such an organization dictates tissue-specific mechanical properties but can be difficult to replicate by engineered biological substitutes. Nanofibrous electrospun scaffolds have demonstrated the ability to control cell-secreted collagen alignment, but concerns exist regarding their scalability for larger and anatomically relevant applications. Additive manufacturing processes, such as melt extrusion-based 3D-Bioplotting, allow fabrication of structurally relevant scaffolds featuring highly controllable porous microarchitectures. Materials and Methods: In this study, we investigate the effects of 3D-bioplotted scaffold design on the compressive elastic modulus of neotissue formed in vivo in a subcutaneous rat model and its correlation with the alignment of ECM collagen fibers. Polycaprolactone scaffolds featuring either 100 or 400 µm interstrand spacing were implanted for 4 or 12 weeks, harvested, cryosectioned, and characterized using atomic-force-microscopy-based force mapping. Results: The compressive elastic modulus of the neotissue formed within the 100 µm design was significantly higher at 4 weeks (p < 0.05), but no differences were observed at 12 weeks. In general, the tissue stiffness was within the same order of magnitude and range of values measured in native musculoskeletal soft tissues including the porcine meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament. Finally, a significant positive correlation was noted between tissue stiffness and the degree of ECM collagen fiber alignment (p < 0.05) resulting from contact guidance provided by scaffold strands. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the significant effects of 3D-bioplotted scaffold microarchitectures in the organization and sub-tissue-level mechanical properties of ECM in vivo.


Asian Swallow Bird (Hirundo rustica Linn.) representing one of the type of bird migran which is spread over in almost entire all earth. This Bird type in Java and Bali represent the common winter visitor met in all height. Information of concerning this animal existence in Yogyakarta very minim, last data about existence and amount of Asian swallow bird population in Yogyakarta in reporting in the year 1996 and till now there is no researcher reporting the species existence in Yogyakarta. This Research study about abundance population and distribution Asian swallow bird at season of migration of September 2003 - March 2004 in all region Yogyakarta. Research conducted in all region of Province of Special Region of Yogyakarta consisted by 5 sub-province, that is Sub-Province Sleman, Sub-Province Bantul, Sub-Province Kulonprogo, Sub-Province of Gunung Kidul and Municipality D.I. Yogyakarta. Parameter measured in this research is estimating an abudan of population and location of distribution population. Data intake of is amount of population conducted by direct enumeration, whereas intake of distribution data conducted by noting the name of location and geographical position. Data of result of research obtained in compiling in tables, is later then made by graph of population fluctuation and ploted in map of pursuant to co-ordinate finding of Asian swallow bird individual. To know diffraction resulted by a population enumeration, will be counted with the standard deviation formula. Result of perception indicate that full scale of Asian swallow bird population during a period to migration reach the maximum value equal to 32.579 that happened at third week of November 2003 and amount of biggest population is concentration in jl. K.H. Ahmad Dahlan and jl. Senopati, area Malioboro, Municipality Yogyakarta, that is equal to 28877 36,91. Sub-Province Bantul represent the area which is at most met by the Asian swallow bird location.


Financial dishonesty is emergent threats; this research paper suggested a various factors that impact financial dishonesty. Researchers found existing research evaluation & directions of perceived opportunity, attitudes, self-control as predictors of financial dishonesty within state. Here term Financial dishonesty looked upon by refined manner as taken in general theory of crime, various researches shows absence of self-control is sufficient reason for cheating in organizations or other places with opportunity rich regime, but other prominent deviant variables are still un answered, general theory of crime also not enable to cover other aspects which could get influence the financial dishonesty, it's found that relationship between self-control& financial dishonesty can be path through both by perceived opportunity and attitude toward financial Dishonesty. This research paper examine through its first empirical chapter involve identify connection path between self-control & financial Dishonesty Simultaneously believe that it could be path made through perceived opportunity (PA) and attitude towards financial dishonest & suggest causal flows begins from self-control to attitude towards financial dishonesty would be another interpretation or modification the general theory of crime, specially concern to financial dishonesty behaviour simultaneously soliciting that financial dishonesty in its theoretically brooder & enrich by reference to delinquency & deviant behaviour.


In this paper we investigate G-commerce-computational economies for controlling resource allocation in Computational Grid settings. We define hypothetical resource consumers (representing users and Grid-aware applications) and resource producers (representing resource owners who "sell" their resources to the Grid). We then measure the efficiency of resource allocation under two different market conditions: commodities markets and auctions. We compare both market strategies in terms of price stability, market equilibrium, consumer efficiency, and producer efficiency. Our results indicate that commodities markets are a better choice for controlling Grid resources than previously defined auction strategies.


Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) are becoming ubiquitous devices included in newly released personal computers. Broadly speaking, the aim of this technology is to provide a facility for authenticating the platform on which they are running: they are able to measure attest to the authenticity of a hardware and software con(cid:2)guration. Designed to be cheap, commodity devices which motherboard and processor vendors can include in their products with minimal marginal cost, these devices have a good theoretical design. Unfortunately, there exist several practical constraints on the effectiveness of TPMs and the architectures which employ them which leave them open to attack. We demonstrate some hardware and software attacks against these devices and architectures. These attacks include Time of Check/Time of Use attacks on the Integrity Measurment Architecture, and a bus attack against the Low Pin Count bus. Further we explore the possibility of side-channel attacks against TPMs.


Reunion Island aims to achieve electricity autonomy by 2030 to limit its heavy dependence on fossil fuel imports. Currently, coal and oil account for 64% of electricity production in Reunion Island. In order to break this dependence, this study aims to analyse the integration of renewable energies into the electricity system and in parallel to study the economic and environmental efficiency of the proposed scenario using the LEAP energy modelling tool and the OSeMOSYS optimization model. In this work, two scenarios were developed. The business as usual (BAU) scenario refers to the trend scenario based on the import of conventional fuel. Whereas, the biomass scenario favours electricity self-sufficiency in 2030 by replacing coal and oil with local biomass and waste. Results show that by setting intermittent production at 30%, electrical autonomy in 2030 can be achieved through high levels of production from biomass and waste, which will represent 57.61% of total electricity production. Moreover, the biomass-based scenario has a low production cost and a low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rate compared to BAU scenario. The integration of biomass and waste into the electricity system leads to a 91% and 91.6% reduction in the cost of electricity and GHG emission respectively in 2030.


This article presents a general approximation-theoretic framework to analyze measure transport algorithms for probabilistic modeling. A primary motivating application for such algorithms is sampling -- a central task in statistical inference and generative modeling. We provide a priori error estimates in the continuum limit, i.e., when the measures (or their densities) are given, but when the transport map is discretized or approximated using a finite-dimensional function space. Our analysis relies on the regularity theory of transport maps and on classical approximation theory for high-dimensional functions. A third element of our analysis, which is of independent interest, is the development of new stability estimates that relate the distance between two maps to the distance~(or divergence) between the pushforward measures they define. We present a series of applications of our framework, where quantitative convergence rates are obtained for practical problems using Wasserstein metrics, maximum mean discrepancy, and Kullback--Leibler divergence. Specialized rates for approximations of the popular triangular Kn{\"o}the-Rosenblatt maps are obtained, followed by numerical experiments that demonstrate and extend our theory.


OBJECTIVE
To study the morphological features of adrenal cortex in Cushing's syndrome and the correlation of morphological changes with clinical manifestations.

METHODS
216 cases of Cushing's syndrome were collected. Among these there were 160 cases of adrenal hyperplasia, 50 cases of adenoma and 6 cases of adenocarcinoma of adrenal cortex. The morphometric method was used to measure the thickness of adrenal cortex microscopically. The weight of the resected specimens were carefully recorded and correlated with clinical laboratory findings and clinical manifestations.

RESULTS
In adrenal cortex hyperplasia, the thickness and weight of the adrenal cortex increased gradually in the order of mild, moderate and severe hyperplasia. The hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the compact cell are very common in these specimens. The frequency of compact cell predominant cases was also increased in severe hyperplasia. The weight and size of the tumor differed significantly between adenoma and adenocarcinoma of the adrenal cortex.

CONCLUSION
In Cushing's syndrome, adrenal cortex hyperplasia is the most common. The grade of hyperplasia was well correlated with clinical laboratory findings. Increase of frequency of compact cell predominance is important morphological feature of hyperplasia of adrenal cortex. Adenoma should be considered when atrophy of adjacent cortex is present. The tumor size and weight as well as mitosis are important parameters in differential diagnosis between adenoma and adenocarcinoma of the adrenal cortex, but the infiltration of capsule and blood vessels and/or metastasis still remain the gold criteria for diagnosis of adrenal adenocarcinoma.


The purpose of the work addressed in this paper is to design and operate effective collaborative environments and networks that enhance market pathways for SME's by embracing collaboration as an operational tactic. However it is observed that the kinds of collaborations that one might learn from are many and varied, so that an activity theory framework has been useful in characterising case examples to facilitate comparison. Whilst this has proved helpful in providing a snapshot of a particular current or planned collaboration, it is suggested in this paper that the activity view needs to be supplemented by collaboration life-cycle and generic actor views. It is further noted that collaborations formed to explore possibilities, called a virtual breeding environment by some researchers, have different characteristics from those formed to exploit opportunities, commonly identified as some kind of virtual enterprise. Some characteristics of each type are tabulated in terms of intersecting networks of actors, activities and resources.


In this work, we propose a new quantitative way of evaluating acute compartment syndrome (ACS) by dynamic mechanical assessment of soft tissue changes. First, we have developed an animal model of ACS to replicate the physiological changes during the condition. Secondly, we have developed a mechanical assessment tool for quantitative pre-clinical assessment of ACS. Our hand-held indentation device provides an accurate method for investigations into the local dynamic mechanical properties of soft tissue and for in-situ non-invasive assessment and monitoring of ACS.Our compartment syndrome model was developed on the cranial tibial and the peroneus tertius muscles of a pig's leg (postmortem). The compartment syndrome pressure values were obtained by injecting blood from the bone through the muscle.To enable ACS assessment by a hand-held indentation device we combined three main components: a load cell, a linear actuator and a 3-axis accelerometer. Dynamic tests were performed at a frequency of 0.5 Hz and by applying an amplitude of 0.5 mm.Another method used to observe the differences in the mechanical properties inside the leg was a 3D Digital Image Correlation (3D-DIC). Videos were taken from two different positions of the pig's leg at different pressure values: 0 mmHg, 15 mmHg and 40 mmHg. Two strains along the x axis (Exx) and y axis (Eyy) were measured.Between the two pressure cases (15 mmHg and 40 mmHg) a clear deformation of the model is visible. In fact, the bigger the pressure, the more visible the increase in strain is.In our animal model, local muscle pressures reached values higher than 40 mmHg, which correlate with observed human physiology in ACS. In our presentation we will share our dynamic indentation results on this model to demonstrate the sensitivity of our measurement techniques.Compartment syndrome is recognised as needing improved clinical management tools. Our approach provides both a model that reflects physiological behaviour of ACS, and a method for in-situ non-invasive assessment and monitoring.


In this chapter, the lab-on-a-tube surface micromachining technology will be used to fabricate a flexible implantable microtemperature sensor for hyperthermia application and a three-electrode system on a polymer tube surface for glucose monitoring application. This micromachining process is based on two homemade equipments: a spray coating equipment and a programmable UV 3D projection lithography system with alignment. In the spray coating system, there is a heater nozzle next to the spray nozzle for real-time heating. Pure nitrogen is flowed through the heater nozzle, warmed up and sprayed onto the tube substrate surface. The programmable UV lithography equipment for cylindrical substrate mainly consists of four parts: a uniform illumination system, a reduced projec- tion lithography system, a synchronized motion stage system, and a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) multilayer alignment system which is used to observe simultaneously the projected mask's patterns and those ever fabricated on the tube. Using the developed lab-on-a-tube surface micromachining technology, an implantable flexible microtemperature sensor and a three-electrode microstructure are successfully fabricated on the flexible polymer tube with 330 μm outer diameter, respectively. The test temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the temperature sensor is 0.0034/°C. The measured cyclic voltammetry curve shows that the three-electrode system has a good redox property.


The relatively slow progress in the subject of sensor-based robot intelligence and autonomy naturally made the interest in the development of haptic devices and master-slave systems increase. Such systems can roughly be categorized as devices of high precision and limited work-load, and instruments developed for dealing with great work-load and limited precision in harsh industrial environment like in the case of deburring iron casts. In this latter class hydraulic actuation shows crucial advantages in comparison with electric and pneumatic systems. Aiming at this potential field of application in the labs of Budapest Tech a 6 Degree Of Freedom (DOF) hydraulic joystick-like master arm has been developed in which reflecting and sensing the necessary forces is solved by a hydraulic subsystem, too. In the first part of this paper a brief overview of the master-slave development is presented. In the rest potential improvement of the already achieved results is summarized on the basis of a detailed mathematical model of the electric servo valve controlled hydraulic differential cylinder with especial emphasis on the adhesion between the cylinder and the packing ring of the piston. Adhesion is roughly nonlinear effect causing abrupt change in the direction of the friction forces in the zero-transmission of the piston-cylinder relative velocity. Traditional control applying PID-type feedback yields poor results near zero velocity where the behavior of the friction forces is roughly nonlinear, and almost singular. The operation of a proposed adaptive control using fractional order derivatives is discussed and demonstrated by simulation results in the second part of the paper.


This paper proposes the use of two task-aware warping factors in mask-based speech enhancement (SE). One controls the balance between speech-maintenance and noise-removal in training phases, while the other controls the degree of enhancement applied to specific downstream tasks in testing phases. Our proposal is based on the observation that SE systems trained to improve speech quality often fail to improve other downstream tasks, such as automatic speaker verification (ASV) and automatic speech recognition (ASR), because they do not share the same objectives. It is easy to apply the proposed dual-warping factors approach to any mask-based SE method, and it allows a single SE base module to handle multiple tasks without task-dependent training. The effectiveness of our proposed approach has been confirmed on the SITW dataset for ASV evaluation and the LibriSpeech test-clean set for ASR and speech quality evaluations of 0-20dB. We show that different warping values are necessary in the testing phases for a single SE base module to achieve optimal performance w.r.t. the three tasks. With the use of task-aware warping factors, speech quality was improved by an 84.7% PESQ increase, while ASV had a 22.4% EER reduction, and ASR had a 52.2% WER reduction, on 0dB speech. The effectiveness of the task-aware warping factors were also cross-validated on VoxCeleb-1 test set for ASV and LibriSpeech dev-clean set for ASR and quality evaluations. The proposed method is highly effective and easy to apply in practice.


Background In rheumatoid arthritis (RA) systemic vasculitis (SV) is one of the main, and the most likely lethal complications to be missed clinically with high probability. SV may cause serious complications in various organs. In the heart it may lead to multiple silent myocardial infarctions (due to coronary arteritis and/or coronary arteriolitis); in the brain it may cause microinfarcts (due to cerebral arteritis and/or arteriolitis); in the lungs multifocal transient (migratory) pneumonitis may develop as a result of pulmonary arteritis and/or arteriolitis, etc. Objectives The aim of this study was to outline the pathogenesis of multifocal transient (migratory) pneumonia due to pulmonary medium size or small arteries and arterioles in RA. Methods Autopsy population of 161 in-patients with RA was studied. RA was confirmed clinically according to the criteria of the ACR. SV was histologically diagnosed. Results SV complicated RA in 36 (22.36 %) of 161 patients. Pulmonary arteritis and/or arteriolitis were present in 15 (44.1 rel%) of 34 cases (in two patients lung tissue was not available for evaluation). Pulmonary (bronchial) arteritis and/or arteriolitis was accompanied by corresponding lobular or sublobular vasculogenic non-hemorrhagic pneumonia in 5 (3.1%) and led directly to death in 3 (1.9%) of 161 patients. Conclusions Severe necrotizing vasculitis plays a major role in the pathogenesis of vasculogenic or so-called rheumatoid pneumonia (RhPn). Diminished blood supply due to vasculitis – distal to the involved vessels - may result in ischemia and vulnerable territories (loci minoris resistentiae) for a secondary infection (via bronchogenic or hematogenic route). According to the size of involved vessels lobular or sublobular pneumonia may develop, more or less respecting the anatomic borders of pulmonary units. The inflammation does not have a hemorrhagic character, in contrast to infarct-pneumonia due to thrombovasculitis with simultaneous venous congestion. Vasculogenic RhPn differs from bronchopneumonia as well, which is bronchocentric, has no sharply demarcated borders and is independent of the fine anatomic borders of the lung. The size of inflammatory foci depends on the size of involved vessels; in most cases lobular or sublobular pulmonary units are inflamed (supplied by the pulmonary or bronchial small arteries or arterioles) and their diameter is usually less than 20-10 millimeters. Any forms of autoimmune vasculitis are of a relapsing (recurrent) nature, leading to the silent accumulation of inflammatory foci side by side in different stages of inflammation. The number of inflammatory foci depends on the number of involved vessels and on the frequency of repeated exacerbation of vasculitis. Clinically it is difficult to recognize the small (silently accumulating) inflammatory foci in the lungs. The history of vasculitis, transient pulmonary complaints with or without fever may help in the diagnosis. In the patients under discussion the clinical complaints were accompanied by transient (migratory) multifocal micronodular infiltrates by X ray and reacted poorly to antibiotics. The patients died suddenly and unexpectedly of rapidly progressive cardio-respiratory insufficiency. The real vasculogenic nature of lethal RhPns was not diagnosed clinically. Conclusion In case of multifocal, transient (migratory) pneumonia which is refractory to antibiotics, RhPn should be considered. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of the XEN45 Gel Stent surgery between patients with and without severe pseudoexfoliation glaucoma. Methods: In this retrospective, single-center, comparative chart review, records of 24 eyes of 23 patients with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma and 24 eyes of 23 patients with non-pseudoexfoliation glaucoma with severe glaucoma, defined as uncontrolled intraocular pressure on maximally tolerated medical therapy, were reviewed. All patients were treated with XEN45 Gel Stent surgery, in either a standalone procedure (84.8%) or combined with phacoemulsification (15.2%). Mean intraocular pressure, mean number of intraocular pressure-lowering medications, change in best-corrected visual acuity and needling or rescue surgery rates were assessed. Success was defined as at least 20% decrease in baseline intraocular pressure among treatment-free patients. Results: Patient characteristics were similar between the groups. At 6 months, intraocular pressure in the pseudoexfoliation glaucoma group decreased by 32% (24.3 ± 9 mmHg–14.8 ± 7 mmHg, p < 0.001), with comparable decrease in intraocular pressure in the non-pseudoexfoliation glaucoma group (22.6 ± 7 mmHg–16.7 ± 6 mmHg, p = 0.011). Similar rates of patients required topical anti-glaucoma therapy (29% vs 22%, p = 0.559), needling (54% vs 37%, p = 0.247), and rescue trabeculectomy (13% in both, p = 1.00) at the last follow-up. However, intraocular pressure decreased more in the pseudoexfoliation glaucoma group among treatment-free patients (–10.1 ± 8.0 mmHg vs −4.1 ± 8.1 mmHg, p = 0.043), and final intraocular pressure was lower in the pseudoexfoliation glaucoma group (12.2 ± 3.5 mmHg vs 15.8 ± 5.7 mmHg, p = 0.044). Conclusions: The XEN45 Gel Stent implant demonstrated similar efficacy and safety among severe pseudoexfoliation glaucoma and non-pseudoexfoliation glaucoma patients. Greater magnitude of decreased intraocular pressure occurred among treatment-free pseudoexfoliation glaucoma patients.


Non-blocking collective operations have recently been shown to be a promising complementary approach for overlapping communication and computation in parallel applications. However, in order to maximize the performance and usability of these operations it is important that they progress concurrently with the application without introducing CPU overhead and without requiring explicit user intervention. While studying non- blocking collective operations in the context of our portable library (libNBC), we found that most MPI implementations do not sufficiently support overlap over the InfiniBand network. To address this issue, we developed a low-level communication layer for libNBC based on the Open Fabrics InfiniBand verbs API. With this layer we are able to achieve high degrees of overlap without the need to explicitly progress the communication operations. We show that the communication overhead of parallel application kernels can be reduced up to 92% while not requiring user intervention to make progress.


In an effort to redress the effects of the civil war in Northern Uganda, local, state and international officials have begun to study the feasibility of re-adapting the procedures of local justice, including mato oput, a local procedure practiced by the Acholi tribe. This article examines this evolving multilayered project of justice in Northern Uganda. It addresses two features of this model: (1) the central features of local justice, in particular mato oput, and (2) the complementary relationship between mato oput, the state, and the International Criminal Court's (ICC) victims' unit and the victims' trust fund. It argues that closer and more effective ties between the ICC and local procedures of justice can be developed. Not only does this relationship constitute an evolving framework for addressing the political realities of ICC intervention, but it also raises many important practical implications for reaching out to the local population.


PURPOSE
To assess the frequencies of somatic EGFR mutations in the tumor tissues of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) residing in the South of Russia (SR), and to define the relationship between genetic subtypes of NSCLC and the emergence of different types of metastases.

METHODS
DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed parrafin embedded (FFPE) samples of 721 patients. A total of 29 somatic EGFR mutations were detected using commercial Therascreen EGFR RGQ PCR Kit.

RESULTS
EGFR mutations were significantly more frequent in females and non-smokers even when considering the combination of both factors. The frequency of activating EGFR mutations across three age groups (<51, 51-61, >61 years) of women with NSCLC was significantly different (x2=10.94, p=0.004) and became higher with increasing age. Both activating and resistance mutations of EGFR were not associated with the frequency of regional or distant metastases. The frequencies of both regional and distant metastases were associated with higher disease stage (odds ratio/OR)=16.71; 95% confidence interval (CI): 9.5-29.38; p<0.0001, and OR=2.94; 95% CI: 2.22-3.88; p<0.0001, respectively) and adenocarcinona histology (OR=6.52; 95% CI: 2.03-20.92; p=0.002, and OR=1.99; 95% CI: 0.91-4.34; p=0.083, respectively) even when adjusted for age, gender, and smoking status. The risk for regional metastases development was associated with poor tumor differentiation (OR=2.91; 95% CI: 1.21-7.02; p=0.017).

CONCLUSION
EGFR mutations were not associated with the frequency of regional or distant metastases in SR patients with NSCLC.


ABSTRACT Land system science and affiliated research linked to sustainability require improved understanding and theorization of land and its change as a social-ecological system (SES). The absence of a general land-use theory, anchored in the social subsystem but with explicit links to the environmental subsystem, hampers this effort. Drawing on land-use explanations, meta-analyses, and associated frameworks, we advance a broad framework structure of eight elements – aggregations of explanatory variables – with links to the biophysical subsystem, for systematic comparisons of extant explanations. Tests and models can be employed to identify which set of variables and their configurations provide robust explanations of across land uses, identifying the potential for theory development. The framework and its application are applicable to both top-down and bottom-up explanatory approaches employed in the social sciences. Links to the environmental subsystem invite future exploration of SES explanations that reach across the different dimensions of global change and sustainability science.


Some studies have found characteristics of written texts that vary with author gender, echoing popular beliefs about essential gender differences that are reinforced in popular works of some scholarly authors. This article reports a study examining texts (N = 193) written in the same genre—a legal memorandum—by women and men with similar training in production of this type of discourse—the first year of U.S. law school—and finds no difference between them on the involved–informational dimension of linguistic register developed by Biber. These findings provide quantitative data opposing essentialist narratives of gender difference in communication. This essay considers relevance theory as a framework for understanding the interaction, exhibited in this and previous studies, of genre knowledge and gendered communicative performances.


This study presents an efficient quasi-binary search algorithm for vector quantisation (VQ). The proposed algorithm adopts a tree-structured VQ (TSVQ) with overlapped codewords (TSOC) to reduce computational complexity and enhance quantisation quality. This algorithm uses overlapped codewords to expand the scope of the search path to traverse more appropriate codewords. In the authors' speech experiment, compared with the full search VQ (FSVQ), the average computational savings for triangle inequality elimination (TIE), TSVQ and TSOC are 23.65, 88.63 and 59.43%, respectively. In this experiment, the quantisation accuracy of TIE, TSVQ and TSOC are 100, 46.61 and 99.16%, respectively. To further evaluate computations at each stage of the proposed algorithm, both speech and images are considered. With codebook sizes of 256, 512 and 1024, the corresponding optimal computational savings for images are 84.59, 91.08 and 93.51%, respectively, compared with the FSVQ. For speech, the optimal computational savings reached 59.43% for a codebook size of 128. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm can save a significant number of computations, depending on the size of codebook. The TSOC algorithm is a trade-off between TSVQ and TIE, which provides a satisfactory computation quality. Moreover, unlike the TIE method, our algorithm does not depend on the high correlation characteristics of signals to reduce the amount of computation, but the TIE method can be incorporated into our algorithm to dramatically reduce the amount of computation.


OBJECTIVE
To study the impact of low-level lead exposure on neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) expression of primarily cultured hippocampal neurons.

METHODS
Wistar rats gestated at 18th day were anaesthetized and paunched to get the pups, the hippocampi of the pups were separated and the hippocampal neurons were primarily cultured. After co-cultivated with different dosage of PbCl(2), the NCAM expression of the neurons were tested with Western blotting at different culture time.

RESULTS
Normally, the expression of NCAM at the 1st culture day was very low and its integral obsorbency density was 14; the climax expression time of NCAM of the cultured hippocampal neurons was 3rd to 5th cultured day, and their integral obsorbency density were 2 542 to 2 580; henceforth, the NCAM expression declined. NCAM expression was inhibited significantly by lead during the 2nd to 4th cultured day, and dose-response relationship was observed. The inhibition of lead weakened along with the cultured time prolonged, at 5th cultured day, it disappeared, and the NCAM expression of 10(-2), 10(-3) and 10(-4) mmol/L groups even exceeded the control groups. After that, the expression of NCAM in all groups began to decline, and the dose-response relationship of lead to the NCAM expression was observed again.

CONCLUSION
Low-level lead might significantly inhibit the NCAM expression of the primarily cultured Wistar rats' hippocampal neurons, and might delay the climax NCAM expression time.


Liminality is the individual or group experience of being betwixt and between states, roles, and/or identities. For both individuals and organizations, liminal experience is pervasive, often permanent, intrinsically problematic and a crucible for innovation and growth. Yet advances in our understanding of liminality in organizational life have remained fragmented, uninformed by empirical research in adjacent fields of scholarly inquiry or theorizing at different levels of analysis. This chapter aims to bring together disparate research and theorizing on liminality's contemporary manifestations to conceptualize liminality as a creative process that affects the renewal and adaptability functions that are so vital to personal and organizational thriving.


We present results of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and optical spectroscopy on different charge states of the transition metal impurity iron in ZnTe and CdTe. We identify the energy level position of the Fe+ acceptor in ZnTe at Ev + 1.7eV and estimate its position in CdTe. Ionisation transitions from Fe+to the conduction and valence bands ar found in both absorption spectroscopy and photo-EPR. Optical intra-defect tracsitions from Fe+ to crystalfield-split excited states ar resolved for the first time. This assignment to Fe2+ is based on optically detected EPR. Application of both far-infrared Fourier transform and EPR spectroscopy allows the determination of the total iron concentration in all charge states.


A progressive-ratio reinforcement schedule, in which successive reinforcements required an additional 50 responses, was programmed on one key. A response on a second key reset the progressive-ratio schedule to the first step. Before punishment, all pigeons consistently reset the schedule after reinforcement on the first step, thereby minimizing the number of responses required for reinforcement. Punishment was a brief electric shock contingent upon each response on the reset key. The first effect of punishment was to change the frequency of extra responses on the reset key. Under higher intensities of punishment, the pigeons completed the advanced steps of the progressive-ratio schedule before resetting to the first step. Completions of advanced steps were accompanied by decreases in the overall rate of responding and the rate of reinforcement. When the punishment contingency was removed, the major features of pre-punishment performance were recovered.


In 1996, 2003, and 2005, studies were conducted to examine therapeutic recreation curricula across the country and to describe their current status (Stumbo & Carter, 1999a, 1999b; Stumbo, Carter & Kim, 2004a, 2004b; Stumbo, Carter, & Folkerth, 2007). The intent of the present study was to re-examine, update, and compare therapeutic recreation curricula across the U.S. and Canada, organizing the results in a format similar to the original studies. Data are analyzed and reported in five sections: (a) university and unit, (b) faculty, (c) accreditation status, (d) curriculum, and (e) students. The results showed that therapeutic recreation curricula were located at universities and departments that varied widely. Faculty teach primarily with a load of four, three-hour courses per semester. Accreditation by COAPRT and CARTE are reported among the respondents. Curriculum changes included adding courses, internship requirements and assignments, and assessing student outcomes. Most undergraduate students who graduate are employed and become certified. Recommendations are made for therapeutic recreation stakeholders.


Abstract This paper aims at investigating empirical study of the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and identifying the effect of information accessibility and market responsiveness to business performance on SMEs. This paper tries to develop and solve the problems of research gap on entrepreneurial orientation on business performance. Data were collected from 290 batik SME respondents in Central Java Indonesia. The empirical result of this research, the role of relational capability which can build the business to have competitiveness. Information accessibility on business performance has not significant. Market responsiveness on relational capability has not significant. All hypotheses are significant except for these two relationships. This paper contributes to solve the debate between relational capabilities on business performance controversy.


With the increasing computational demands of the neural networks, many hardware accelerators for the neural networks have been proposed. Such existing neural network accelerators often focus on popular neural network types such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs); however, not much attention has been paid to attention mechanisms, an emerging neural network primitive that enables neural networks to retrieve most relevant information from a knowledge-base, external memory, or past states. The attention mechanism is widely adopted by many state-of-the-art neural networks for computer vision, natural language processing, and machine translation, and accounts for a large portion of total execution time. We observe today's practice of implementing this mechanism using matrix-vector multiplication is suboptimal as the attention mechanism is semantically a content-based search where a large portion of computations ends up not being used. Based on this observation, we design and architect A3, which accelerates attention mechanisms in neural networks with algorithmic approximation and hardware specialization. Our proposed accelerator achieves multiple orders of magnitude improvement in energy efficiency (performance/watt) as well as substantial speedup over the state-of-the-art conventional hardware.


This paper describes the design, kinematic analysis, control architecture and experimental validation of a novel 3- degree-of-freedom (DOF) robotic surgical instrument for use in minimally invasive surgery. This instrument contains a wrist mechanism that can enter the body through incisions of about 18 mm and that can be actuated extra-corporally with rigid push-pull rods passing through linear bearings in the instrument shaft. The rigid transmission and parallel architecture of this mechanism also makes it back-drivable and suitable for force estimation and control. With this instrument, it is possible to achieve and even surpass the 2 DOF bending motion that the human wrist is capable of (90-degree pitch-flexion/extension and yaw-radial/ulnar deviation) and the 1 DOF translation motion in the forward/backward directions. A prototype of the proposed design has been manufactured and assembled and has been controlled with joint space PID controllers with disturbance observers. The results of position control and back-drivability experiments on the system validate our proposal.


One can confidently predict that the 21st century will be a span of intense activity in unraveling the precise molecular and biochemical events that lead to the various forms of cutaneous cancers. These discoveries will lead to new approaches in our therapeutic armamentarium that currently do not exist. Eventually, the incidence rates and mortality rates from cancers of the skin will markedly decline--the finite goal of all the combined endeavors of the scientific and practicing medical community.


BACKGROUND Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) is a recurrent condition which may last for 3 days/month in the last 3 months. This study was conducted to evaluate the utility of laparoscopy as an effective diagnostic tool in patients with CAP and also to evaluate the common underlying causes for CAP. METHODS This is a prospective longitudinal study, conducted in the department of general surgery, Rangaraya Medical College, Kakinada. Patients with history of abdominal pain for 3 months or more with undiagnosed cause were included in the study. Detailed history of patients was documented before the clinical examination and the findings were recorded. Then laparoscopy was done under general anaesthesia. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to determine pain pre- and post-scopy. RESULTS Among the 50 patients included in the study, age ranged between 19 to 60 years. Male to female ratio was 0.4. Duration of pain ranged between 3 to 12 months. Right lower abdominal quadrant was the most common area where pain was noticed by the patient; majority (40%) of patients reported VAS score of 4; 96% (48) patients had positive outcome 3 months after post-diagnostic laparoscopy. CONCLUSIONS The study established that diagnostic laparoscopy is an effective tool for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with CAP.


Considering the blood coagulation induced by the heating of radio frequency ablation (RFA) and the mechanism of aneurysm embolization, we proposed that RFA may be used to treat arterial aneurysm. But the safety of this method should be investigated. A finite element method (FEM) was used to simulate temperature and pressure distribution in aneurysm with different electrode position, electric field intensity and ablation time. When the electrode is in the middle of the artery aneurysm sac, temperature rose clearly in half side of artery aneurysm, which is not suitable for RFA. Temperature rose in the whole aneurysm when the electrode is under the artery aneurysm orifice, which is suitable for the ablation therapy. And in this way, the highest temperature was 69.585°C when power was 5.0 V/mm with 60 s. It can promote the coagulation and thrombosis generation in the aneurysm sac while the outside tissue temperature rises a little. Meanwhile, the pressure (10 Pa) at the top of aneurysm sac with electrode insertion is less than that (60 Pa) without electrode, so electrode implant may protect the aneurysm from rupture. The results can provide a theoretical basis for interventional treatment of aneurysm with RFA.


The article is dedicated to Juan III (1822–1887), the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne in 1861-1868, who opposed himself to the Carlist «mainstream» by expanding the ideological framework of this movement to the left up to liberalism. As a liberal, Juan III becomes an exponent of the trend (left-wing bias within Carlist conservatism) which originates from Carlist general R. Maroto Yserns` activities who signed in 1839 the peace of Vergara with the Isabelites and expresses in Carlos VI`s attempts to find an agreement between the two branches of the Spanish Bourbons in the form of a dynastic marriage with Isabel II. The article analyzes the failures of Juan III as a political practitioner who sought to combine in his activities the desire to integrate himself into the New — liberal-bourgeois — Order (but for that it was necessary to find agreement with the liberal-conservative wing of the «moderados» on the right and the progressives on the left) and to remain at the head of the Carlist «mainstream» which stood on the positions of right-wing conservatism. To identify the contradictions between such incompatible intentions, Juan III's views are contrasted with — the second wife of Carlos V — Maria Teresa, Princess de Beira`s ideas who expressed the interests of the Carlist «mainstream» on the eve of the liberal-bourgeois revolution of 1868-1974 and the third Carlist war. It is shown that the figure of Juan III — for all its irrelevance in the socio-political conditions of Spain in the XIX century — becomes a kind of herald for the modern leaders of Carlism (traditionalist and liberal conservative ones) who live and act separately from the currently marginal "right-wing faction" of Carlism which still stands on the positions of right-wing conservatism.


46 children, aged 2-6 years, with decreased magnesium concentrations in hair, were studied. Magnesium supplementation consisted of Asmag preparation for 3 months and multivitamin Multi-tabs preparation (containing magnesium, but without calcium) for the following 4 months. Control studies were performed again after 7 months of treatment, i.e. 12 months after the initial measurements (the same season of the year--early spring). The results proved increases of both magnesium (from 7.74 microg/g dry mass to 11.03 microg/g dry mass) and calcium (from 159.82 mg/g dry mass to 191.60 mg/g dry mass) concentrations in hair. Increased magnesium concentrations were observed in 40 studied children (86.95 per cent). Post supplementation magnesium deficiency was found in 22 children (47.83 per cent), and four children (8.70 per cent) showed further worsening of hypomagnesemia. Increased calcium concentrations were found in 42 children (91.30 per cent), while decreased Ca levels were found in 4 children (8.70 percent). The achieved results indicate a positive influence of that form of compensation of magnesium deficiency, and suggest the need of individual selection of doses and period of Mg supplementation. The initial level of hypomagnesemia, presence of factors that might inhibit intestinal absorption, accompanying diseases that might cause decrease in magnesium concentration and other factors that might influence the total body magnesium concentration should be taken into account while designing the supplementation therapy.


Evolution via template-based replication1–4 was probably preceded by a more rudimentary form of evolution based on networks of autocatalytic reactions5–8. However, reaction networks possessing the Darwinian properties of variation (in composition, the catalysts present and their relative amounts), differential reproduction (accumulation of products), and heredity (persistence of composition), have so far not been identified. Here we show that networks of catalytic RNAs can possess certain properties of Darwinian systems, that these properties are controlled by network topology, and characterize important trade-offs between them. By combining barcoded sequencing with droplet microfluidics, we screened ̴ 20,000 reactions corresponding to more than 1,800 distinct networks of ribozymes that catalyse their own formation from RNA fragments. We found that more highly connected networks tend to reproduce more quickly (accumulate more ribozymes) and be more robust to perturbations, indicating a trade-off between variation and reproduction. Variations are strongest when adding upstream ribozymes with novel reaction specificities (innovations) which target weakly connected networks. In turn, innovations increase connectivity, thus buffer against further perturbations, highlighting a second trade-off between robustness and variation. Despite this, phases of compositional robustness can alternate with sudden variations of the composition across trajectories of network growth by accretion of novel species. Finally, heredity is found to be limited by the activity of self-assembled, non-covalent ribozymes. Our findings show that connectivity in reaction networks not only determines the probability of autocatalytic sets in chemistries8, but also their potential for evolution. They are directly relevant to scenarios where early evolution is driven by environmental heterogeneity9,10, as it depends both on robustness (persistence being necessary for selection to act) and susceptibility to changes (in order to explore novel states). More broadly, they provide guiding rules for chemistries capable of Darwinian evolution and constrain scenarios of the origins of life.