Previous research studied characteristics of high performance companies (HPCs) in mature economies (United States, Europe, and Australia) and in an Asian emerging economy (India). This study of HPCs in the developing economy investigates Turkish companies that are listed in the Istanbul Stock Exchange and companies that display specific characteristics of HPCs—sustained and superior cash flow returns, growth rates, and total shareholder returns. We test the hypothesis that there will be no significant difference between the financial performance drivers and measures from before the financial crisis era (2005–2007) and those of after the financial crisis (2008–2009). We identified 41 companies that met the criteria of HPCs over the 2005–2009 time period. When comparing HPCs with ISE ordinary companies, both in the pre-financial crisis period (2005–2007) and the post-financial crisis period 2008–2009, Turkish HPCs were shown to maintain superior asset management and performance profitability, lower financial risk, and stronger cash flow returns compared to the benchmark group over economic periods of rapid growth and stable market conditions and the periods of economic decline and uncertainty. The results provide direction for the management of companies that aspire to HPC status and to maintain HPC status, especially during periods of financial crisis. We identify five operating objectives that are important for maintaining high performance during periods of financial crisis.


Current debates on teachers' use of information and communication technology (ICT) have brought to attention profiles and purposes of ICT use in school-related teaching activities. However, ICT integration in mathematics classrooms is yet to be fully investigated. The present study seeks to identify Zambian Teachers' profiles of ICT use in Mathematics Pedagogy. To explore profiles of ICT use in schools and at home for different purposes, we take a person-centered approach and apply descriptive statistics to narrower the knowledge gap by analysing teachers' ICT skills, beliefs and attitudes towards the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of mathematics. To find the mean differences between the perceived knowledge in teachers' ICT Math profiles and gender, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed over the data provided by ninety-two (92) teachers by completing validated survey questionnaires. These analyses revealed that teachers in Kabwe district posses ICT skills and showed positive attitudes towards ICT integration in mathematics classrooms. Unfortunately, they had low profiles of ICT integration in general. A significant difference between teachers' overall ICT Math profiles and gender existed. Given that the coverage of ICT at home and in schools has increased substantially over the last decades, profiles of teachers' ICT use in mathematics teaching informs teachers and students whether or not students exploit these opportunities to the same extent. Recommendations for future research, policy and practice are proposed.


Field-induced phase transitions in [111]- and [110]-oriented relaxor ferroelectric (1 − x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystals in the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) composition range were examined through temperature-dependent complex capacitance measurements. Two first-order phase transitions from paraelectric cubic to ferroelectric tetragonal and then to ferroelectric rhombohedral phases were observed in the unpoled crystal. Additional weak dielectric anomalies were observed at a temperature of ~ 40 °C (in both crystals) and ~ 90 °C (in [110] crystals) in the poled samples. These weak anomalies disappeared when cooling the crystal from higher temperature but within the ferroelectric tetragonal phase. The new anomalies were attributed to the formation of field-induced metastable phases, which were unstable with temperature modulation.


: Many patients scheduled for diagnostic tests want to know in detail what they will experience. Here are the first in a new series of patient guides to X-ray exams.


The Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment (known as MIAME) guidelines describe information that needs to be provided to enable the interpretation of the results of a microarray-based experiment unambiguously. The MIAME guidelines were developed by the Microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) Society. Since the MIAME position paper was published in 2001, it has been cited in the scientific literature well over a thousand times. MIAME has been replicated for many other technologies, the major data repositories are supporting MIAME, and most scientific journals have adopted MIAME guidelines as a requirement for publishing. With the advent of new-generation sequencing technology, MIAME faces new challenges. To address this, the MGED Society has proposed new guidelines, i.e., Minimum Information about a high-throughput SeQuencing Experiment (MINSEQE). Here we present analysis of the reasons for the success of MIAME, as well as discuss where it has failed, and the challenges it faces.


Haematuria is a common complaint presenting to doctors in both community and acute centres. It can be a sign of underlying urinary tract malignancy. Appropriate investigation and management should follow evidence-based practice and recognized guidelines, and subsequently lead to a rapid diagnosis.


Macrophage cholesterol accumulation and foam cell formation, the hallmark of early atherosclerosis, is the result of enhanced cellular uptake of plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL). Native LDL, has to undergo oxidative modifications in order to be taken up at an enhanced rate by macrophages, leading to foam cell formation. Macrophage uptake of oxidized LDL involves its binding to scavanger receptors (including cellular proteoglycans) and this is followed by an impaired cellular cholesterol metabolism. Cells of the arterial wall including macrophages can oxidize LDL in a process that involves activation of cellular oxygenases, such as NADPH oxidase and 15-lipoxygenase. This process, however, also depends on the macrophage antioxidant environment, where glutathione peroxidase and reduced glutathione play an important protective role against cell-mediated oxidation of LDL. Macrophage phospholipids peroxidation under oxidative stress can also contribute to macrophage-mediated oxidation of LDL. Evidence for the occurrence of oxidized LDL in vivo is as follows: 1) In the atherosclerotic lesion [in humans, as well as in the transgenic, apolipoprotein E-deficient mice], LDL is oxidized (and as a result, it is also aggregated), in comparison to plasma LDL which is normally not oxidized. 2) Plasma LDL from patients at high risk for atherosclerosis (such as hypercholesterolaemic, hypertensive, diabetic and renal failure patients), as well as from the apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, demonstrates increased susceptibility to oxidation in comparison to normal LDL. In some groups of these patients LDL is minimally oxidized already in plasma. 3) Supplementation of nutritional antioxidants, which are rich in polyphenols (red wine, licorice, olive oil), or of selenium to humans or to the apolipoprotein E-deficient mice, as well as therapy with beta-hydroxy-beta-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors (so-called "statins") in hyperocholesterolaemic patients, were shown to reduce the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation. This effect could be associated with a reduction in the size of the atherosclerotic lesion and may thus contribute to attenuation of the atherosclerotic process.


Background Dietary factors may modulate many complex interactions between the microbiome, metabolome, and immune system and can have an impact on the functional status of older adults. Sulforaphane (SFN), a natural compound and Nrf2-related activator of cytoprotective genes, provides a wide range of biological effects from cancer prevention to reducing insulin resistance. We have shown that SFN increased survival and improved cardiac and skeletal muscle function in a mouse model of aging. This study aims to investigate the anti-aging effects of SFN on the gut microbiome and metabolome.Results Young (6-8 weeks of age) and old (21-22 months of age) male C57BL/6J mice were provided regular rodent chow or chow containing SFN for 2 months. Fecal samples were collected right before and at the completion of SFN administration. We profiled the gut microbiome and applied global metabolomic profiling to fecal samples. Multi-omics datasets were analyzed individually and integrated to investigate the relationship between SFN diet, the microbiome, and metabolome. Microbial diversity, composition and functional capacity varied substantially across different age groups. On a global level, in old mice we observed that the SFN diet restored the gut microbiome to mimic that in young mice. In old mice, the SFN diet enriched bacteria associated with an improved intestinal barrier function and the production of anti-inflammatory compounds. In addition, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, central in cellular respiration, was decreased and amino acid metabolism-related pathways were increased. SFN diet induced metabolite biomarkers in old mice that are associated majorly with the genera, Oscillospira , Ruminococcus , and Allobaculum.Conclusion In old mice, SFN directed the metabolic potential to that of young animals. Integrated microbiome and metabolome analyses revealed metabolite biomarkers that could be modulated by bacteria and contribute to the anti-aging effects of SFN. Collectively, our results provide evidence in support of a novel hypothesis that SFN diet exerts anti-aging effects by influencing the gut microbiome and metabolome. Although further investigations are needed to identify precise mechanisms, modulating the gut microbiome by SFN may have the potential to promote healthier aging.


Introduction: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its associated risk factors in a rural population with ethnic variation. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in rural areas of Agh- Ghola in Golestan province. 1500 thirty-plus- year-old participants were selected by cluster sampling method. Due to the nature of the variables, the data were collected through interview, measurement and observation, and they were analyzed through logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 18.4% and women suffered more from the disease than men did. Hypertension prevalence in Turkmen was greater than that in Baluchi and Sistani ethnic groups. There was also a significant relationship between hypertension and lack of physical activity, and with the age increase, the hypertension prevalence also showed an increasing trend. Major risk factors were: age over 60, high BMI, lack of physical activity and high proportion of abdominal to hip circumference. Conclusion: The higher prevalence of hypertension among Turkmen was firstly because of the weight-gain and higher BMI, and secondly due to lack of physical activity. The higher susceptibility of women to hypertension was due to the higher frequency of risk factors among them, no the effect of their gender.


The aim was to investigate the treatment efficiency of passive vertical-flow wetland filters containing different plant communities (predominantly Phragmites Australis and/or Typha Latifolia) and granular media with different adsorption capacities in order to save capital costs, to produce high quality effluent, and to investigate the microbial interactions in the filters. Gravel, sand, granular activated carbon, charcoal and Filtralite (light expanded clay) were applied. Lead and copper sulphate were
added to polluted urban beck inflow water in order to simulate pre-treated mine wastewater, landfill leachate or highway runoff and to test the toxicity of lead and copper to wetland biota. The interactions between growth media, microbial and plant compositions and the reduction of predominantly lead, copper, biochemical oxygen demand and potentially pathogenic bacteria were investigated. The mean lead concentrations were 1.281mg/l and 0.028 mg/l for inflow and outflow water, respectively. The mean inflow and outflow concentrations for copper were 1.114 and 0.199 mg/l, respectively. The average BOD5 (5-day biochemical oxygen demand) was 3.2 mg/l for inflow and 0.8 mg/l
for outflow water. However, after maturation of the biofilm,
which dominated the top sediment, all wetlands reduced the
heavy metals sufficiently and performed statistically similar (71~98% for Log10 data sets). It follows that there is no additional benefit in using adsorption media to enhance filtration performance.


Computer-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems have evolved over the past four decades, from standalone, compartmentalized operations into networked architectures that communicate across large distances. There is an emerging trend comprising SCADA and conventional IT units toward consolidating some overlapping activities. This trend is motivated by cost savings achieved by consolidating disparate platforms, networks, software, and maintenance tools. For reasons of efficiency, maintenance, economics, data acquisition, control platforms have migrated from isolated in-plant networks using proprietary hardware and software to PC-based systems using standard software, network protocols, and the Internet. In this thesis, we present an approach for web-based SCADA systems that adapt to the behavior of the target application. In addition, we take into account the real time constraints that imposed by the nature of the problem. We show that our approach is more efficient than other approaches in terms of consuming as little as possible of the available resources (computational power and network bandwidth).


Self-inflicted urethral foreign body insertion in men is very rare and an important condition which urologists encounter in their clinical practice. Urologists should be familiar with the different techniques for the removal of these foreign bodies. Most cases are associated with psychiatric disorders. Hence, they should be referred for complete psychiatric evaluation. The emotional condition of the patient and the circumstances under which this act was committed should be investigated at the same time. Many cases of self-inflicted foreign body in the urethra have been reported in the literature such as fishhooks and bullets. However, metallic tongue cleaner in urethra has not yet been reported. Here, we are reporting the case of a 28-year-old male who presented with dysuria for 1 day following insertion of metallic tongue cleaner in the penile urethra, for sexual gratification which, he was unable to remove. The foreign bodies were found in the anterior urethra on X-ray and were successfully removed endoscopically without any complication. The patient was advised to take psychiatric consultation and counseling to prevent future episodes.


We think that parceled constructions are a part of a general system of linguistic mechanisms which fulfill advertiser's stylistic strategy and the whole of which gives an opportunity to send the message of an advertising text to a consumer effectively and expressively, to impact by way of large-scale sale of goods/ services. This polyfunctional construction of expressive actualizing syntax intensifies the process of positioning of an advertised item, due to which its idea must remain in minds of potential customers. Hereafter, remembering about the image of a favourite item, they would like to check the correspondence of linguistic code to a real advertising item.


A VME/VMX bus interface has been designed and built to interface a VME-based data acquisition system to CAMAC. The interface communicates via a differential bus with a companion unit that functions as a CAMAC crate controller. The interface maps both VMiE and VMX address cycles into appropriate CAMAC cycles. Special diagnostic features have been incorporated in the design to allow quick fault detection and location.


Though revolutionizing, Computer Based Assessment (CBA) has not accomplished to become an established system of evaluation in Foreign Language Assessment (FLA). Research in CBA is very narrow and short-term, while the findings are usually misleading. This is mainly due to the inability from the part of New Technologies to simulate the human examiner and the lack of flexibility as regards language errors. In many cases, the performance of examinees during CBA varies from the corresponding performance during a traditional, paper-and-pencil examination. The reason for this has to do either with student or system inability. CBA systems are programmed to assess the competence of a wide number of individual students. Yet, our experience as teachers reveals that the examiner is not an impersonal "checker" but an active, emotional intervener between the examinee and the test. The paper aims to prove that Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) can deservedly substitute the human examinee, by assessing the true cognitive state and foreign language competence of each student. CAT technologies can introduce a new, student-based era in Foreign Language Assessment that will be personalized, flexible, and sensitive to human cognition, language processing and error correction. To this end, research in FLA needs to fully exploit the current findings in CAT, Cognitive Science, Foreign Language Learning, and Error Correction. After reporting the findings in error correction, the paper separates wrong answers into errors and mistakes and proposes an innovative methodology for CAT as regards FLA that will approximate the exact language competence of each student individually.


Pneumococcal disease remains a global problem despite the availability of effective conjugate vaccines. The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) extends the valency of PCV7 by including six additional serotypes highly associated with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). Comparisons between PCV13 and PCV7 or the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine have established noninferiority of PCV13 for both safety and immunogenicity profiles for use in children and adults, respectively. At the end of 2011, PCV13 had been approved and launched in 104 countries worldwide, with 54 including the vaccine in their pediatric national immunization program. Surveillance data from early adopters of PCV13 has indicated reductions are occurring in both overall IPD and IPD caused by the six non-PCV7 serotypes; early reports of serotype replacement in carriage are also emerging. While serotype replacement for PCV7 was observed to varying degrees for both carriage and disease, the extent to which this will occur for PCV13 is yet to be determined.


Mobile mini drama of the Line is a mini-series that narrate the characters who play a part in a story which has drama genre. One of them is a mobile mini drama Line "Nic and Mar" designed to meet the needs of the people of Indonesia will of entertainment that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere for free just by using the gadget. However, the facts behind their mobile mini dramas which incidentally can be enjoyed free, able to bring great benefits in terms of economy for the media Line. Researchers interested in studying this phenomenon because the researchers identified that there has been a process of commodification and wanted to know what kind of shape the commodification. The purpose of this research is to determine how to shape the content of the message commodification Mini Drama Line "Nic and Mar". The approach of the research is qualitative, uses a semiotic analysis to analyze the research object. The data analysis technique is based from "The Codes of Television" by John Fiske. The research result is in Mini Drama Line "Nic and Mar" there are audio aspect and visual aspect that formed by videography techniques so that it becomes a spectacle, but the signs are there in processed into a product so that the scene in this drama mini formed into commodities. The function changed, initially the storyline is used for forming part mini-drama story, now the storyline also serves


Currently, there is a trend towards the inclusion of rehabilitation therapies as a complement to the pharmacological treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease, which leads to a transition to interdisciplinary management. This systematic review analyzed as problem, the integration of physical therapies and therapeutic components during physical rehabilitation process. Its objective was to assess the patient´s integration, therapist and family components during the physical rehabilitation process of people with Parkinson's. Selection criteria were established to homogenize the selected sample. The studies were chosen through a search, from January 2017 to October 2018. The following databases were searched: Science Direct, SciELO, EMBASE (Excerpta Medica), Medline, Elsevier, Scopus, Pudmed. The established descriptors were: [Parkinson's disease or physical activity and Parkinson's disease], [physical interventions in Parkinson's disease or physical therapies in Parkinson's disease] and [rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease or family and Parkinson's disease]. As a result, 13 articles were selected which met the criteria, using the PEDro scale the methodological quality was evaluated and the importance of physical capacities restoration during motor rehabilitation of these people was highlighted. For its approach, it was also proposed to integrate rehabilitation process components. Therapeutic components must be integrated into studies of this condition: patient, as the main center of attention; therapist, who is most responsible for leading the rehabilitation process and family, for the role it plays within the process.


This paper presents comparative studies of preanalytical quality indices of vacuum gel systems (VGS) from four manufacturers, i.e., GL 795 (China), Vacuette (Austria), BD Vacutainer SST (USA) and Zdravmedtech (Russia). The analysis of the number of qualitative defects of the preanalytic phase of blood collection in vacuum gel tubes at the inpatient departments and in Department of Clinical Chemistry (preanalytic laboratory), in accordance with adopted criteria based on Russian industry standards, which are implemented with European indices of pre-analytic stage. The obtained results allowed us to identify a number of qualitative defects at pre-analytic stage for the vacuum gel systems from each manufacturer, including to summarize the data on number of these defects. Based on these results, the most common defects in each of the VGS presented by manufacturers are formulated. The results obtained can be used by manufacturers to improve the quality (structures) of the mentioned vacuum gel tubes. The results of the comparative characteristics of VGS of different manufacturers were evaluated by their influence on the indexes of hemolysis (IH), ictericity, lipemia. The resulting indices of ictericity and lipemia do not allow to use them as criteria for assessing quality of the gel systems. The frequency of IH occurrence in serum at > 50 conventional units in VGS of different manufacturers was studied. It was revealed, that IH in the range from 10 to 50 conventional units and more, can be used as a criterion of VGS quality. Comparison of routine biochemical parameters in VGS of different manufacturers, i.e., alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, direct bilirubin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), serum K+, was also carried out. It was found that the largest deviations from the average value were obtained for aspartate aminotransferase indices of more than 12.47% in Russian test tubes, and for direct bilirubin of more than 12.25% in Chinese test tubes and more than 9.15% in Russian test tubes. The study showed influence of IH upon quantitative values of lactate dehydrogenase for VGS from different manufacturers. It is proposed to use lactate dehydrogenase as an analyte. On this basis, it is possible to recommend a comparative quality assessment of vacuum gel systems, with IH cutoff level of more than 19 conventional units. It remains relevant to search for other analytes that can be used to assess the quality of VGS from different manufacturers. Some areas of research in biochemical testing are outlined. Preliminary data are obtained on usage of vacuum systems from different manufacturers for quality assessment, as well as conditions for performing these tests, along with the level of the hemolysis index of more than 10 conventional units.


SUMMARY We investigated the relationships between the δdeuterium (δD) and the δ18oxygen (δ18O) of drinking water and the δD and δ18O of blood plasma, red blood cells and feathers in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) fed on diets with identical hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions and five isotopically distinct drinking water treatments. We expected and, with only one exception (18O in blood plasma), found linear relationships between the δD and δ18O values of drinking water and those of bird tissues. The slopes of these relationships, which estimate the percentage contributions of drinking water to the tissue isotopic signatures, were lower than those of previous studies. We found significant differences in the δD and δ18O values of feathers, red blood cells and plasma solids. In feathers and red blood cells, δD and δ18O values were linearly correlated. Our results have three implications for isotopic field studies: (1) if the isotopic composition of drinking water differs from that of food, its effect on tissue isotope values can confound the assignment of animals to a site of origin; (2) comparisons of the δD and δ18O values of different tissues must account for inter-tissue discrimination factors; and (3) δD/δ18O linear relationships are probably as prevalent in animal systems as they are in geohydrological systems. These relationships may prove to be useful tools in animal isotopic ecology.


We introduce a novel clustering algorithm for data sampled from a union of nonlinear manifolds. Our algorithm extends a popular manifold clustering framework, which first computes a sparse similarity graph over the input data and then uses spectral methods to find clusters in this graph. While previous manifold learning algorithms directly compute similarity scores between pairs of data points, our algorithm first augments the data set with a small handful of representative atoms and then computes similarity scores between data points and atoms. To measure similarity, we express each data point as sparse convex combination of nearby atoms. To learn the atoms, we employ algorithm unrolling, an increasingly popular technique for structured deep learning. Ultimately, this departure from established manifold learning techniques leads to improvements in clustering accuracy and scalability.


Introduction. Allergic rhinitis is one of the most common chronic upper respiratory diseases in children. Unfortunately, modern science has not made sufficient progress to cure allergic rhinitis permanently. Without eliminating exposure to the causative allergen, which is most often impossible, the treatment of this disease allows patients to achieve only some degree of management of symptoms, improving the patient's quality of life. Pharmaceutical therapy is one of the most affordable and widely used methods for managing the symptoms of allergic rhinitis. Topical antihistamines are widely recognized as initial therapy in patients with mild to moderate allergic rhinitis, which may quickly lessen the severity of symptoms. To enhance the effect on the nasal obstruction symptom, preference is given to combination nasal drugs containing both an antihistamine and a decongestant. Clinical cases. This article presents three most common "patient profiles" aged 3, 5 and 8 years with allergic rhinitis, which showed clinical efficacy of the use of nasal antihistamine and decongestant combination drugs. A rational choice of a nasal combination drug for the management of symptoms of allergic rhinitis is substantiated in each clinical situation. Conclusion. The presented literature data and reviewed clinical cases has led the authors to conclude that topical combination nasal drugs containing antihistamines and decongestants are an effective and safe initial treatment of symptoms of pediatric allergic rhinitis.


Past and recent earthquakes showed that the seismic performance of buildings is strongly influenced by the presence and contribution of unreinforced masonry (URM) infills, which are usually considered as non-structural elements. Such enclosures are used – especially in Mediterranean countries – to provide buildings with thermic, visual and acoustic insulation.
On one hand, URM infills can stand significant lateral loads and, so, they contribute to the lateral strength capacity of structures. In addition, they are provided with a high in-plane stiffness. For this reason, the assessment of a construction modelled as bare frame can yield to a significant underestimation of its lateral strength and stiffness.
On the other hand, it is well-known that the high force demand that URM enclosures attract and then transfer to the confining elements can yield to unexpected failures of structural members designed without accounting for infills' presence. For example, Reinforced Concrete (RC) columns (and beams, potentially) not designed addressing seismic and capacity design provisions sometimes exhibit brittle failures during strong earthquakes due to the so-called "frame-infill interaction", i.e., due to the shear forces transferred by infills and not considered in the design. Moreover, the absence of infills at a certain storey of a building (typically, the first) produces a non-negligible stiffness variation of the structure lateral stiffness along its height, leading, in this way, to potential peaks of inelastic demand at that storey yielding to a sidesway collapse due to a soft-storey mechanism. In addition, infills' damaging due to IP actions and their repair or refurbishment produces most of the financial losses consequent to earthquakes.
In other words, neglecting infills' presence and their contribution to the seismic response of structures can be both conservative and unconservative. For these reasons, the interest in the characterization of the seismic response of URM infills has significantly grown in the engineering and research community in the last decades.
It should be noted that these bi-dimensional non-structural elements are subjected to the seismic action both in the in-plane (IP) and in the out-of-plane (OOP) direction. The expulsion or overturning from the confining frame due to OOP actions of URM infills is potentially highly detrimental for human life safety and amplifies the economic losses consequent to earthquakes. The OOP collapse of URM infills is promoted by the damage due to IP actions, which can reduce their OOP strength, stiffness and displacement capacity. This phenomenon is called IP/OOP interaction.
This PhD thesis is dedicated to the characterization and modelling of the OOP behaviour of URM infills and to the study of the effects of the IP/OOP interaction both at the level of the single (non-structural) component and at the level of the infilled structure seismic performance.
Chapter I is dedicated to the existing literature concerning this issue and investigating the definition of the OOP strength, stiffness and displacement capacity of URM infills. In addition, existing formulation for the prediction and reproduction of the IP/OOP interaction effects are addressed. Finally, existing URM infills' modelling strategies accounting for their OOP behaviour and for the IP/OOP interaction effects are described in detail.
Chapter II constitute the second part of the previous literature recall, as it is dedicated to a detailed description of the experimental tests carried out in the past to investigate the OOP behaviour of URM infills and the IP/OOP interaction effects. It is observed that the experimental database allowing evaluating the effectiveness and robustness of literature formulations and models described in Chapter I is extremely poor.
For this reason, a comprehensive and extended experimental program has been carried out at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of University of Naples Federico II. The experimental program main aim is the characterization of the effects of the panel height-to-thickness slenderness ratio, of the boundary conditions at edges and of the IP/OOP interaction on the OOP strength, stiffness and displacement capacity of URM infills. A total of fifteen tests has been carried out to enrich the available experimental database. Chapter III is dedicated to a detailed description of the experimental program and of its results.
In Chapter IV, the experimental database collected in Chapter II and III is analysed and discussed, in order to compare the prediction of literature formulations and models aimed at assessing the OOP response of URM infills and/or its significant parameters, such as the force at first macro-cracking and at maximum, as well as their secant stiffness at the first macro-cracking and at maximum and the displacement capacity/ductility. The predicting capacity of the available IP/OOP interaction models is assessed, too. This comparison is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the available models for the prediction of the OOP response of both IP-undamaged and IP-damaged URM infills. Based on the results of this comparison, original and mechanical based proposals are described for a robust and effective modelling of URM infills' OOP response. In addition, empirical formulation for the prediction of the IP/OOP interaction are proposed. With Chapter IV, the characterization of the OOP behaviour of the single panel, which is the first part of this thesis, is completed.
Chapter V is dedicated to a simple state-of-the-art concerning the current provisions given by international technical codes and standards for the assessment of URM infills safety with respect to OOP seismic demands. More specifically, demand and capacity models provided by codes are described and discussed. This is preliminary to the assessment of the seismic performance of RC buildings accounting for the OOP response of infills and for the IP/OOP interaction effects, which is the second part of this thesis.
To this aim, a set of sixteen case-study buildings has been designed according to Eurocodes' provisions. The case-study buildings are described and commented in detail in Chapter VI. The case-study buildings are different for the number of storeys, which is equal to 2, 4, 6 or 8, and for the design peak ground acceleration (PGA) at Life Safety Limit State.
In Chapter VII, the case-study buildings described in the previous section are used to assess the PGA at the first OOP collapse of different infill layouts in a non-linear static framework by using both a simplified "Designer (code-based) Approach" and a refined "Reference Approach". Only the least accounts, in evaluating the OOP force demand and capacity of infills, for the structural nonlinearity as well as for the IP/OOP interaction effects. The dependence of such the PGA capacity with respect to the first OOP collapse on the number of storeys and on the design PGA is discussed. In addition, the PGA at the first OOP collapse is compared with the design PGA of the case-study buildings as well as to the PGA corresponding to their conventional structural collapse. It is shown that weak infills in mid- and high-rise buildings can collapse for OOP actions and due to the IP/OOP interaction effects at PGA demand lower than the PGA at structural collapse or even than the design PGA. In addition, simplified criteria to evaluate, based on infills geometric and mechanical properties, if the OOP safety check is necessary or not are presented.
In Chapter VIII, the seismic performance of the case-study buildings accounting and not accounting for the IP/OOP interaction effects on URM infills is assessed by means of non-linear incremental dynamic analysis. Also in this case, the overall capacity of buildings with respect to the first OOP collapse is investigated. In addition, the OOP behaviour factor and effective stiffness of URM infills accounting for the IP/OOP interaction effects is evaluated. Such values can be used for a simplified OOP safety check of URM infills in a linear elastic framework.
In the appendix section, some theoretical considerations and experimental data supporting the discussions above proposed are reported in detail.


We present a shoreline change model for coastal hazard assessment and management planning. The model, CoSMoS‐COAST (Coastal One‐line Assimilated Simulation Tool), is a transect‐based, one‐line model that predicts short‐term and long‐term shoreline response to climate change in the 21st century. The proposed model represents a novel, modular synthesis of process‐based models of coastline evolution due to longshore and cross‐shore transport by waves and sea level rise. Additionally, the model uses an extended Kalman filter for data assimilation of historical shoreline positions to improve estimates of model parameters and thereby improve confidence in long‐term predictions. We apply CoSMoS‐COAST to simulate sandy shoreline evolution along 500 km of coastline in Southern California, which hosts complex mixtures of beach settings variably backed by dunes, bluffs, cliffs, estuaries, river mouths, and urban infrastructure, providing applicability of the model to virtually any coastal setting. Aided by data assimilation, the model is able to reproduce the observed signal of seasonal shoreline change for the hindcast period of 1995–2010, showing excellent agreement between modeled and observed beach states. The skill of the model during the hindcast period improves confidence in the model's predictive capability when applied to the forecast period (2010–2100) driven by GCM‐projected wave and sea level conditions. Predictions of shoreline change with limited human intervention indicate that 31% to 67% of Southern California beaches may become completely eroded by 2100 under sea level rise scenarios of 0.93 to 2.0 m.


Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is a cytokine involved in promoting tumor growth during breast and pancreatic cancer by promoting Th2 cell-mediated inflammation. Despite being essential to maintain Treg cell homeostasis in the mouse and human intestine, a role for TSLP in colorectal cancer has never been shown. To determine if TSLP affects tumor growth during colorectal cancer, we utilized a murine model of colitis-associated colorectal cancer. TSLP deficient mice exhibited decreased tumor numbers when compared to the WT littermate controls. Moreover, we found that tumors in TSLP−/− mice were also significantly smaller in size than WT mouse tumors. TSLP was mainly localized in the tumor tissue, indicating that it might be produced by cancer or cancer-associated cells. Further, TSLP receptor (TSLPR) expression was significantly upregulated after development of cancer. To determine if TSLP signals directly on the tumor cells, we utilized Villincre TSLPRflox mice in which the TSLPR expression is absent only in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs). Consistent with the TSLP−/− mice, lack of TSLP signaling on IECs led to a decrease in tumor number as well as tumor size, suggesting that TSLP signals directly on the IECs to promote tumor growth. Overall, these data show a novel role for TSLP in controlling tumor progression during colorectal cancer and identify it as a potential target for immunotherapy intervention.


We present a gesture recognition algorithm from Euler angles acquired using multiple orientation sensors. This algorithm is a part of a system for controlling unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of manned aircrafts on an aircraft deck. After exploring multiple approaches to arm gesture recognition, we investigate a real-time arm gesture recognition system using the IS-300 Pro Precision Motion Tracker by InterSense. Our work consists of (1) analyzing several gesture recognition approaches leading to a selection of an active sensor, (2) gesture modeling using Euler angles, (3) low-level gesture characterization, and (4) model-based gesture classification algorithms. We have implemented and tested the proposed real-time arm gesture recognition system in a laboratory environment with a robot that represents an UAV surrogate.


Successful inclusion of students with learning disabilities in foreign language courses has been problematic, likely due to factors such as heightened anxiety and individualized learning challenges which are characteristic of those with learning disabilities. These learning characteristics often necessitate that multisensory strategies be employed to support students with learning disabilities in academic content areas; prior research has suggested that such strategies contribute to successful completion of foreign language coursework for struggling learners. Accordingly, an initial study investigated the impact of an explicit, multisensory strategy called Guided Visual Vocabulary Practice (GVVP) in recalling English translations of concrete Spanish nouns. Progress of participants (n = 8) with GVVP was compared to performance with traditional flashcards in a single-subject, reversal design spanning a 10-week period. Student performance was assessed by tabulating the number of thematically grouped Spanish nouns correctly translated when presented orally from randomized lists. The findings indicated a moderate effect size (0.54) overall, but the largest impact with GVVP occurred among the three middle school participants included in the sample. An analysis of different aspects of the Spanish vocabulary words (cognates, number of syllables, initial letters) may have correlated with student performance is included, as are implications for future research and instructional practice. Subscribe to LDMJ


Objective α-Linolenic acid (ALA) is considered to be a cardioprotective nutrient; however, some epidemiological studies have suggested that dietary ALA intake increases the risk of prostate cancer. The main objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of case–control and prospective studies investigating the association between dietary ALA intake and prostate cancer risk. Design A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted by searching MEDLINE and EMBASE for relevant prospective and case–control studies. Included studies We included all prospective cohort, case–control, nested case-cohort and nested case–control studies that investigated the effect of dietary ALA intake on the incidence (or diagnosis) of prostate cancer and provided relative risk (RR), HR or OR estimates. Primary outcome measure Data were pooled using the generic inverse variance method with a random effects model from studies that compared the highest ALA quantile with the lowest ALA quantile. Risk estimates were expressed as RR with 95% CIs. Heterogeneity was assessed by χ2 and quantified by I2. Results Data from five prospective and seven case–control studies were pooled. The overall RR estimate showed ALA intake to be positively but non-significantly associated with prostate cancer risk (1.08 (0.90 to 1.29), p=0.40; I2=85%), but the interpretation was complicated by evidence of heterogeneity not explained by study design. A weak, non-significant protective effect of ALA intake on prostate cancer risk in the prospective studies became significant (0.91 (0.83 to 0.99), p=0.02) without evidence of heterogeneity (I2=8%, p=0.35) on removal of one study during sensitivity analyses. Conclusions This analysis failed to confirm an association between dietary ALA intake and prostate cancer risk. Larger and longer observational and interventional studies are needed to define the role of ALA and prostate cancer.


Topics typical of general chemistry I content that need to be mastered have not changed in over 15 years, but the tools available to assist students in learning general chemistry have. Striving to enhance motivation and give students the practice needed for learning first-semester general chemistry were the reasons behind this case study on the advantages and drawbacks to using electronic homework (e-homework). The effectiveness of online homework is important and needs to be evaluated. The questions that therefore arise are: Are commercially available Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools going to motivate and encourage students to complete the assignments required, and if so, will their use improve the students' success rate in general chemistry? This case study (n = 1,947) covered a 14-semester span and the use of seven different commercial systems. Of the 1,090 students who voted, 70.7% felt as though the e-homework had been valuable enough to them that it should be continued. Contributions from this study highlight how well do students perform in the class and how well they perform when they advanced to the next general chemistry class. The impacts of e-homework on prevention of knowledge decay and content retention are provided. One of the advantages to using e-homework is that students who master their e-assignments (≥ 90% correct) do better than those who do not. Noted that within these classes is that students who mastered the assignments exhibit less knowledge decay than their peers leading to the conclusion that e-homework is a valuable asset to learning chemistry. The results also indicate that students' content retention of those who experience e-homework is improved over students who did not use the e-homework available by an average of 15% as scored on an ACS standardized exam given to students the following semester.


We have generated slim edges on manufactured silicon strip detectors by cleaving the non-active edge material and passivating the very smooth edge with a thin coat of silicon oxide. We report a comparison of I-V measurements and charge collection and noise measurements on two identical sensors, one with and one without slim edge treatment. The current voltage measurements of the entire sensor and individual strips indicate that the large current increase due to the treatment is confined to the guard ring, while the strips show essentially no increase in leakage currents. The noise on all strips, including the one adjacent to the slim edge, is not changed by the cut. The signal from a beta source before and after cutting is the same within 4%.


The purpose of this study was to investigate how a mobile collaborative augmented reality (AR) system affects learners' knowledge construction behaviors and learning performances. In this study, 20 undergraduate students were recruited and divided into dyads to discuss given questions with the assistance of mobile collaborative AR system named AR Physics. The participants' knowledge regarding elastic collision was evaluated through a pretest and a posttest that occurred right after the treatment. Learners' knowledge construction behaviors were qualitatively identified according to a selected coding scheme and then were analyzed by adopting sequential analysis. The results indicated that learners significantly gained their knowledge on the topic of elastic collision after completing the given task by manipulating AR Physics system. Furthermore, sequential patterns of learners' behaviors during knowledge construction activities were identified.


Three austenitic stainless steels (AISI 316, AISI 316LN, and 253MA) have been investigated at 600°C with respect to fatigue and creep-fatigue behavior. Transmission electron microscopy showed that cross-slip and climb of dislocations are inhibited in AISI 316LN and 253MA due to the presence of nitrogen in solid solution. This results in a planar slip character and a concomitant increase in fatigue strength. However, during creep-fatigue deformation, nitrogen has an adverse effect on strength. This can be explained as an enhanced interaction between creep and fatigue due to the generation of high stresses in the grain boundary regions, caused by inhibited recovery.


Electricity markets face a substantial amount of uncertainty. Traditionally this uncertainty has been due to varying demand. With the integration of larger proportions of volatile renewable energy, this added uncertainty from generation must also be faced. Conventional electricity market designs cope with uncertainty by running two markets: a day ahead or pre-dispatch market that is cleared ahead of time, followed by a real-time balancing market to reconcile actual realizations of demand and available generation. In such markets, the day ahead market clearing process does not take into account the distribution of outcomes in the balancing market. Recently an alternative so-called stochastic settlement market has been proposed (see e.g. Pritchard et al. [5] and Bouffard et al. [2]). In such a market, the ISO co-optimizes pre-dispatch and spot in one single settlement market. In this paper we consider simplified models for three types of market clearing mechanisms. We demonstrate that under the assumption of symmetry, our simplified stochastic programming market clearing is equivalent to a two period single settlement (TS) system that takes count of deviation penalties in the second stage. These however differ from a TS model that dispenses with deviation penalties and has been (and continues to be) in use in New Zealand (NZTS). Our models are targeted towards analyzing imperfectly competitive markets. We will construct Nash equilibria of the resulting games for the introduced market clearing mechanisms and compare them under the assumptions of symmetry and in an asymmetric example.


The secondary photometric standard star number 79 for the FS Aur field (Henden & Honeycutt 1997), designated as [HH97] FS Aur-79 (GSC 1874-399), is a short-period (0.2508 days) eclipsing binary whose light curve is a combination of the β Lyr and BY Dra type variables. High signal-to-noise ratio multicolor photometry was obtained using the US Naval Observatory 1 m telescope. These light curves show asymmetry at quadrature phases (the O'Connell effect), which can be modeled with the presence of starspots. A low-resolution spectrum obtained with the 3.5 m Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO telescope at orbital phase 0.76 is consistent with a spectral type of dK7e and dM3e. A radial velocity curve for the primary star was constructed using 24 high-resolution spectra from the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Spectra show Hα and Hβ in emission confirming chromospheric activity and possibly the presence of circumstellar material. Binary star models that simultaneously fit the U, B, V, R, and radial velocity curves are those with a primary star of mass 0.59 ± 0.02 M⊙, temperature 4100 ± 25 K, and mean radius 0.67 R⊙, just filling its Roche lobe, and a secondary star of mass 0.31 ± 0.09 M⊙, temperature 3425 ± 25 K, and mean radius 0.48 R⊙, just within its Roche lobe. An inclination angle of 83° ± 2° with a center-of-mass separation of 1.62 R⊙ is also derived. Starspots, expected for a rotation period of less than 1 day, had to be included in the modeling to fit the O'Connell effect.


Author(s): Lau, Marie Wingyee | Advisor(s): Prochaska, J. Xavier | Abstract: Models of galaxy formation make the most direct predictions on gas related processes. Specifically, a picture on how gas flows through dark matter halos and onto galaxies to fuel star formation. A major prediction is that massive halos, including those hosting the progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies, exhibit a higher fraction of hot gas with T ~ 10^7 K. Another prediction is that some mechanism must be invoked to quench the supply of cool gas in massive systems. Under the current galaxy formation paradigm, every massive galaxy has undergone a quasar phase, making high-redshift quasars the progenitors of inactive supermassive black holes found in the center of nearly all galaxies. Moreover, quasars clustering implies M_halo = 10^12.5 M_sun, making quasar-host galaxies the progenitors of present day, massive, red and dead galaxies.The Quasars Probing Quasars survey is well-suited to examine gas related processes in the context of massive galaxy formation, as well as quasar feedback. To date the survey has selected 700 closely projected quasar pairs. To study the circumgalactic medium, a sub-sample of pairs with projected separation within 300 kpc at the foreground quasar's redshift are selected. From the first to seventh paper in the Quasars Probing Quasars series, the statistical results had been limited to covering fractions, equivalent widths, and without precise redshift measurements of the foreground quasars. Signatures of quasar feedback in the cool circumgalactic medium had not been identified. Hence, a sub-sample of 14 pairs with echellette spectra are selected for more detailed analysis. It is found that the low and high ions roughly trace each other in velocity structure. The HI and low ion surface densities decline with projected distance. HI absorption is strong even beyond the virial radius. Unresolved Ly-alpha emission in one case and NV detection in another case together imply that a fraction of transverse sightlines are illuminated. The ionization parameter U positively correlates with impact parameter, which implies the foreground quasar does not dominate the radiation field.The circumgalactic medium is significantly enriched even beyond the virial radius, and has median [M/H] = -0.6. O/Fe is supersolar. No evolution in the total H column is found up to projected distance of 200 kpc, within which the median N_H = 10^20.5 cm^-2. Within the virial radius, the mass of the cool CGM is estimated at M_CGM = 1.5*10^11 M_sun. In two cases, detection of CII* implies electron density n_e g 10 cm^-3. Motivated by the preliminary kinematic results from this high-resolution sample, kinematic analysis of 148 pairs with precise foreground quasar redshifts is performed. The background spectra of this sample are of low and high resolution. The mean absorptions in metals exhibit velocity widths sigma_v = 300 km s^-1 , however the large widths do not require outflows. The mean absorptions have centroids redshifted from the systemic redshift by +200 km s^-1. The asymmetry may be explained if the quasars are anisotropic or intermittent, and the gas is not flowing onto the galaxy. Finally, several observational and theoretical lines of future inquiry using multiwavelength data are presented.


Most patients with early stage chronic hepatitis B virus infection are in the immune-tolerant phase. Therefore, previously been generally believed that there is no disease progression or liver injury-related events, and poor antiviral efficacy in patients with immune-tolerant phase. With that in mind, antiviral therapy is generally not recommended in current domestic and foreign guidelines. However, more and more studies have shown that patients in the immune-tolerant phase may develop liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma without treatment, so clinical treatment is urgently needed. Currently, drugs based on nucleocapsid inhibitor, immune modulation, and other novel mechanisms for viral replication are being developed to reduce hepatitis B surface antigen, which offers the possibility to achieve viral suppression or even functional cure in these patients. This paper mainly reviews and discusses the latest research progress, population characteristics, treatment needs, and design strategies of clinical trials of new drug for immune-tolerant phase population.


Purpose
The study aims to showcase the developmental perspective of "grey literature" and its importance to different sectors of the society. Furthermore, issues, challenges and possibilities concerned with the existence of "grey literature" have also been discoursed.

Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on the existing literature published in the field of "grey literature" which was identified with the aid of three leading indexing and abstracting services, Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus, and Google Scholar. Keywords like grey literature, black literature, The Grey Journal, The International Journal on Grey Literature, International Conference on Grey Literature, non-conventional literature, semi-published literature, System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (SIGLE), European Association for the Exploitation of Grey Literature (EAGLE), white literature, white papers, theses and dissertations, GreyNet, grey literature-electronic media, Grey market, open access, OpenNet, open access repositories, institutional repositories, open archives, electronic theses and dissertations, institutional libraries, scholarly communication, access to knowledge, metadata standards for grey literature, metadata heterogeneity, disciplinary grey literature, etc. were searched in the select databases. Simple as well as advanced search feature of the databases were made use of. Moreover, for more recent and updated information on the topic, the "citing articles" feature of the databases was also used. The "citing articles" were consulted on the basis of their relevance with the subject content.

Findings
The study helps to understand the definitive framework and developmental perspective of "grey literature". "Grey Literature" has emerged as a promising content for enhancing the visibility of the ideas that were earlier unexplored and least made use of "Grey literature" has also overcome the problems and issues with its existence and adoption. Technology has played a catalytic role in eradicating the issues and problems pertinent to the "grey literature" to a greater extent.

Research limitations/implications
The study is based on the published literature that is indexed by only three databases, i.e. Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus and Google Scholar. Furthermore, some limited aspects of "grey literature" have been covered.

Practical implications
The study will be of great help to various stakeholders and policymakers to showcase the value and importance of "grey literature" for better access and exploitation. It will also be of importance to those interested to know how the literature tagged as grey changed with the passing time and how it through its unseen characteristics has evolved as an important source of information at par with the "white literature".

Originality/value
The study tries to provide a demarcated and segregated outlook of the "grey literature". It also focuses on various issues, problems and possibilities pertinent to the adoption and existence of "grey literature".


The research problem addressed in this study focused on the students' assessment issue. Although the assessment of student learning should form part of the curriculum of school programs, many educational institutions do not make student assessment part of their teaching and learning routines. A holistic and integrated framework, which encompasses an interdisciplinary approach, to determine the cumulative added value of education was developed. The study adopted value chain and stakeholders' analysis and expectations perspectives and the concepts of key success factors (KSFs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). Information technology (IT) is added and considered as an enabling factor. The framework was put into context to take into consideration the environment surrounding the education institutions and schools. The adopted framework would enhance the students' assessment system and improve the overall education system. The framework is flexible to the extent that it could easily be adopted in different local, national and global contexts in which pertinent value chains could be developed.

 Key words: Education, value chain, stakeholders, technology, students assessment, added value.


Tax recognition for charitable contributions in Canada takes the form of a deduction where the contribution is made by a corporation or for the purpose of gaining or producing income from a business, a nonrefundable credit where individuals make qualifying gifts to eligible recipients, and a reduction or exemption from capital gains tax on gifts to eligible recipients of qualifying cultural property, publicly traded securities, or ecologically sensitive land. This article reviews different rationales for the tax recognition of charitable contributions, concluding that the most persuasive rationale is to indirectly subsidize the quasi-public goods and services that charities provide and the social and cultural pluralism that they advance. The article goes on to evaluate current rules by reference to these rationales for tax recognition and makes specific proposals for reforming Canadian tax rules in light of this evaluation.


This paper studies the responses of unemployment in Germany, the United States and Britain to the Great Recession of 2008-09 by making use of Beveridge curve analysis, and in the entire OECD with other techniques. It is shown that Britain suffered from recession but no structural problems; the United States suffered from structural unemployment during the recovery; Germany exhibited a much better performance both during and after the recession. The rise in OECD unemployment is broken down into parts due to aggregate activity, the construction sector and a residual attributed to policies and institutions, which is used to reach conclusions about policy.


MOTIVATION
Tremendous amount of omics data being accumulated poses a pressing challenge of meta-analyzing the heterogeneous data for mining new biological knowledge. Most existing methods deal with each gene independently, thus often resulting in high false positive rates in detecting differentially expressed genes (DEG). To our knowledge, no or little effort has been devoted to methods that consider dependence structures underlying transcriptomics data for DEG identification in meta-analysis context.

RESULTS
This article proposes a new meta-analysis method for identification of DEGs based on joint non-negative matrix factorization (jNMFMA). We mathematically extend non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) to a joint version (jNMF), which is used to simultaneously decompose multiple transcriptomics data matrices into one common submatrix plus multiple individual submatrices. By the jNMF, the dependence structures underlying transcriptomics data can be interrogated and utilized, while the high-dimensional transcriptomics data are mapped into a low-dimensional space spanned by metagenes that represent hidden biological signals. jNMFMA finally identifies DEGs as genes that are associated with differentially expressed metagenes. The ability of extracting dependence structures makes jNMFMA more efficient and robust to identify DEGs in meta-analysis context. Furthermore, jNMFMA is also flexible to identify DEGs that are consistent among various types of omics data, e.g. gene expression and DNA methylation. Experimental results on both simulation data and real-world cancer data demonstrate the effectiveness of jNMFMA and its superior performance over other popular approaches.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
R code for jNMFMA is available for non-commercial use via http://micblab.iim.ac.cn/Download/.

CONTACT
firstname.lastname@example.com

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


There is no clear evidence from imaging studies for specific structural abnormalities in the brains of people with autism. The most robust observation is of greater total brain volume. There is evidence that this greater volume is not present at birth, but appears during the first few years. This brain enlargement might be a marker of abnormal connectivity due to lack of pruning. While abnormalities have often been reported in the cerebellum and the amygdala, these are difficult to interpret since both increases and decreases in the size of these structures have been observed. Another way of identifying the neural basis of autism is to investigate brain systems underlying cognitive functions compromised in this disorder such as face perception and 'theory of mind'. Autistic people fail to activate the 'fusiform face area' during face perception tasks and show weak activation of medial frontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus when performing theory of mind tasks. These problems stem from a lack of integration of sensory processing with cognitive evaluation. I speculate that this problem reflects a failure of top-down modulation of early sensory processing. The problem could result from abnormal connectivity and lack of pruning.


The School of Nursing of the University of Sao Paulo is involved in a process to change the Baccalaureate curriculum, and its implementation is planned to happen in 2009. This is a presentation of the main guidelines of the new curriculum. It is structured in three cycles: Basic (1.500h), Intermediate (1.500) and Final (1.000h), with 4.000h in total, in eight semesters. The aim of the change is to increase de integration among its courses and departments, to promote the autonomy of the student and to adopt as guidelines the principles of the Unified Health Care System in Brazil. The profile aimed is of a general practitioner in nursing, with technical, scientific, ethical and political competencies to provide nursing care to individuals, families and social groups.


This study conducted in Bongaigaon and Darrang districts of Assam, India is based upon water chemistry and sediment characteristics investigation in an reportedly arsenic infested belt. Of total 50 sampled wells, 15 had arsenic concentration above national drinking water standard of 50 μg/l, and 33 had As concentrations above the WHO guideline of 10 μg/l. However no distinct zones or depths with specific sedimentological features could be identified. Sediments with colour on green-olive scale are probably more likely to bear As contaminated water than white sediments. Sand filters used to reduce high iron content seem to reduce As content of water effectively. Arsenic rich water is also partly avoided since drillers seek water low in iron, which is often also low in arsenic content. Reductive dissolution of Ferric hydroxides is believed to be the release mechanism controlling the mobility of arsenic, rather than oxidation of arsenopyrite or pH induced desorption.


Purpose: To report the unexpectedly prolonged effect of botulinum toxin A (BTX) injection in patients with myasthenia gravis. Methods: Retrospective review of presenting history, clinical findings and treatment of two cases. Results: Two patients with myasthenia gravis underwent a single BTX injections for gustatory epiphora (case 1) and hemifacial spasm (case 2). The effect of the treatment lasted 18 months and at least 8 months respectively. Conclusion: We report the prolonged effect of BTX in two patients with myasthenia gravis. To our knowledge, the prolonged and distant effect of BTX in myasthenia gravis has not been specifically addressed in the literature. We postulate that this prolonged effect may be due to the presence of autoantibodies in patients with myasthenia gravis.


The rational inattention model has recently attracted much attention as a promising candidate to model bounded rationality in the research field of decision-making and game theory. However, in contrast to this energetic promotion of the theoretical works, empirical verification of the validity of the RI model has not progressed much. Furthermore, to our knowledge, the central assumption of the RI model, that the amount of mutual information obtained from signals adequately represents the cognitive cost of information, has not been tested from a neuroscientific perspective. The purpose of the present study was to test whether the amount of mutual information adequately represents the cognitive cost of information from a neuroscientific perspective. We proposed a sequential investment task, in which the two main models of RI can be treated simultaneously in a more realistic experimental environment. We used a model-fitting approach to analyze the subjective information cost, and compared the model parameters representing the information cost with the concentration of oxidized hemoglobin in the brain blood. Our results showed that the cost parameter λ of the stochastic choice type model, which fits the behavioral data of the present experiment better than the Kalman filter type model, was significantly positively correlated with the activation status of the rostral prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The cognitive cost represented by the amount of mutual information employed in the RI model is consistent with the activation of brain regions associated with cognitive cost, and, thus, indirectly supports the assumption of the RI model.


The paper describes the NMT models for French-German, English-Ukranian and English-Russian, submitted by the eTranslation team to the WMT22 general machine translation shared task. In the WMT news task last year, multilingual systems with deep and complex architectures utilizing immense amount of data and resources were dominant. This year with the task extended to cover less domain specific text we expected even more dominance of such systems. In the hope to produce competitive (constrained) systems despite our limited resources, this time we selected only medium resource language pairs, which are serviced in the European Commission's eTranslation system. We took the approach of exploring less resource intensive strategies focusing on data selection and filtering to improve the performance of baseline systems. With our submitted systems our approach scored competitively according to the automatic rankings, except for the the English–Russian model where our submission was only a baseline reference model developed as a by-product of the multilingual setup we built focusing primarily on the English-Ukranian language pair.


Defects in boundary representation models often lead to system errors in modeling software and associated applications. This paper analyzes the model rectification problem of manifold boundary models, and argues that a rectify-by-reconstruction approach is needed in order to reach the global optimal solution. The restricted face boundary reconstruction problem is shown to be NP-hard. Based on this, the solid boundary reconstruction problem is also shown to be NP-hard.


The rebuilding of deteriorating residential areas is being replicated rapidly throughout Israeli cities despite limited assessment of the social consequences. This paper presents the findings of a social impact assessment (SIA) applied to a demolition and reconstruction case study carried out in a low-income neighborhood in Petah Tikva. The project represents a typical example of developer-led removal of low-rise, mixed tenure housing replaced by privately owned high-rise housing. A mixed-methods approach was used to explore the actual and potential social implications from different points of view held by the various public and private actors in the project. The research was based on the analysis of official documents, field observations, and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in the rebuilding process, and with affected community representatives. The case study was analyzed with regard to three components: the public engagement process, financial well-being, and community cohesion and stability. The assessment revealed insufficient public and municipal involvement, the displacement of the majority of low-income households, disregard for the provision of community infrastructure, and the weakening of community stability. The paper suggests various ways to improve the outcomes of the project for all the affected parties, and argues that incorporating the SIA mechanism in this particular form of urban renewal might improve strategic decision-making and promote urban sustainability.


At a meeting of the American Medical Association in June 1937 a resolution was introduced on the "Evils from Promiscuous Use of Barbituric Acid and Derivative Drugs," in which was included the following statement: "The evils of these drugs include habit formations, toxic cumulative action, their substitution for alcoholic beverages for drunken episodes, their use for successful as well as unsuccessful suicidal attempts, their improper use being a recognized causative factor in many motor accidents and their improper use being a recognized etiologic factor in some criminal assaults...." The widespread use of barbiturates is illustrated in table 1 by statistics of the manufacture and sale of the drugs in this country for 1936 compiled by the United States Tariff Commission. These figures were made available through President H. G. Bertram of the Winthrop Chemical Company, in whose opinion, because of the high United States duty, "sales" may be considered practically


To examine the direct effects of neurosteroids on gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA(A)) receptor expression, we exposed developing neuronal cells (P19) in vitro to 3alpha-hydroxy-5alpha-pregnan-20-one (3alpha,5alpha-THP, allopregnanolone). Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis revealed a concentration-dependent decrease in GABA(A) receptor alpha4 subunit mRNA expression that reversed 24 h after steroid withdrawal. These data suggest that variations in neurosteroid levels regulate the pattern of GABA(A) receptor subunit expression and may alter the trophic effects of GABA.


The human T-cell protein cyclophilin shows high affinity for and is the proposed target of the major immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin A (CsA). Cyclophilin also has peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity that is inhibited by CsA with an IC50 of 6 nM, while by contrast a homologous PPIase from Escherichia coli has been found to be much less sensitive to CsA, shown here to be 500-fold less potent at an IC50 of 3000 nM. This E. coli rotamase lacks the single highly conserved tryptophan residue of eukaryotic cyclophilins, and we show here that mutation of the natural F112 to W112 enhances E. coli rotamase susceptibility to CsA inhibition by 23-fold. Correspondingly, the human W121 mutations to F121 or A121 yield cyclophilins with 75- and 200-fold decreased sensitivity to CsA, while kcat/Km values of rotamase activity in a tetrapeptide assay drop only 2- and 13-fold, respectively. This complementary gain and loss of CsA sensitivity to mutation to or from tryptophan validate the indole side chain as a major determinant in immunosuppressant drug recognition and the separation of PPIase catalytic efficiency from CsA affinity.


This document describes performance measurement(PM) packet delay
measurement for Service Function Chains (SFCs) to assess the
operational status and behavior of a SF, a subset of SFs, a whole SFC
as a function of the actual deterministic SF/SFC. Packet loss
mechanism described in this document is based on [SFC-PM-arch].


When some household appliances are running, the electrical quantities such as active power and reactive power will change slowly for a long time, which will affect the feature extraction of event-based non-intrusive load identification, resulting in low accuracy of load identification results. In view of this situation, a feature extraction method is proposed. Its core idea is that there is a certain law in the change of active power and reactive power in a very short time, and the curve can be fitted to speculate the values of these electrical quantities in the next time, so as to eliminate the influence. Based on this, a feature extraction method applied to non-intrusive load identification is realized. The test results show that this method can effectively improve the accuracy of non-intrusive load identification feature extraction data, and has good application value.


After examining some perceived inconsistencies in the relationship between species richness and energy, Latham and Ricklefs rejected the Energy Diversity Theory in favour of historical explanations of the geographical patterns of tree species richness. We have re-examined Latham and Ricklefs's data, both by itself and pooled with Currie and Paquin's data. We find that Latham and Ricklefs's data are, in fact, consistent with the richness-energy hypothesis. Because of strong collinearity between annual evapotranspiration and region in their particular data sets, the data cannot be used to distinguish between the hypotheses that contemporary climate, versus some other interregional difference, is responsible for observed species richness patterns. Finally, there is no particular reason to attribute differences among regions to historical factors rather than to contemporary ones.


Cellulose-based nanomaterials, which are generally known as nanocelluloses, are interesting renewable biomaterials which have potential applications for example in material science, electronics and biomedical engineering and diagnostics. Cellulose has a strong ability to form lightweight, highly porous and entangled networks that make nanocellulose suitable as substrate or membrane material. Recently, also studies related to piezoelectric behavior of nanocellulose have been published. The piezoelectricity of wood was proposed already in 1955 by Eiichi Fukada, but only very slightly studied since then. Here, we show the experimental evidence of signiicant piezoelectric activity of diferent types of nanocellulose ilms. Wood-based cellulose nanoibril (CNF) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) ilms, and bacterial nanocellulose (BC) ilms have been studied. The recent results suggest that nanocellulose is a potential bio-based piezoelectric sensor material.


Circuit breakers (CBs) are the main protection devices for both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) power systems, ranging from tens of watts up to megawatts. This paper reviews the current status for solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs) as well as hybrid circuit breakers (HCBs) with semiconductor power devices. A few novel SSCB and HCB concepts are described in this paper, including advantage and limitation discussions of wide-band-gap (WBG) devices in basic SSCB/HCB configuration by simulation and 360 V/150 A experimental verifications. Novel SSCB/HCB configurations combining ultra-fast switching and high efficiency at normal operation are proposed. Different types of power devices are installed in these circuit breakers to achieve adequate performance. Challenges and future trends of semiconductor power devices in SSCB/HCB with different voltage/power levels and special performance requirements are clarified.


In this paper, we investigate extremal problems on the subject of the $4$-cycle $C_4$, which has played a heuristic important role in the development of extremal graph theory. As a milestone Furedi proved that the extremal number $ex(q^2+q+1, C_4)\leq \frac12 q(q+1)^2$ holds for $q\geq 14$. This matches with the fundamental construction of Erdős-R{e}nyi-Sos and Brown from finite geometry for prime powers $q$, thus providing one of the very rare exact results in the field.
Our first result is a stability of Furedi's theorem. We prove that for all even $q$, every $(q^2+q+1)$-vertex $C_4$-free graph with at least $\frac12 q(q+1)^2-\frac12 q+o(q)$ edges must be a spanning subgraph of a unique polarity graph, which is constructed from a finite projective plane. Among others, this gives an immediate improvement on the upper bound of $ex(n,C_4)$ for infinite many integers $n$.
A longstanding conjecture of Erdős and Simonovits states that every $n$-vertex graph with $ex(n,C_4)+1$ edges contains at least $(1+o(1))\sqrt{n}$ copies of $C_4$. Building on the above stability, we obtain an exact result in this direction and thus confirm Erdős-Simonovits conjecture for an infinite sequence of integers $n$. In fact our result implies a stronger assertion that generally speaking, whenever $n\gg \ell$ in these circumstances, we can characterize the graphs achieving the $\ell^{th}$ least number of $C_4$'s. This can be extended to more general settings, which provide enhancements on the supersaturation problem of $C_4$. We also discuss some related problems and formalize a conjecture on $ex(n,C_4)$, whose affirmation would disprove Erdős-Simonovits conjecture for general $n$.


Confirmatory diagnosis of bacterial coinfections with COVID-19 is challenging due to the limited specificity of the widely used gold-standard culture sensitivity test despite clinical presentations. A misdiagnosis can either lead to increased health complications or overuse of antibiotics in COVID-19 patients. With a multi-step systems biology pipeline, we have identified a 9-gene biomarker panel from host blood that can identify bacterial coinfection in COVID-19 patients, even in culture-negative cases. We have also formulated a qPCR-based score that diagnoses bacterial coinfection with COVID-19 with the accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of 0.93, 0.96, and 0.89, respectively. This gene signature and score can assist in the clinical decision-making process of necessary and timely prescription of antibiotics in suspected bacterial coinfection cases with COVID-19 and thereby help to reduce the associated morbidity and mortality.


Background The presence of valvular heart disease (VHD) may affect the risk of stroke and mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Community‐based estimates of prevalence and outcomes of specific forms of VHD in patients with AF are lacking. Methods and Results We examined the prevalence of VHD, anticoagulation use, mortality, stroke/transient ischemic attack, and bleeding among a community cohort of patients with AF. Significant VHD was defined as follows: (1) moderate/severe mitral stenosis or mechanical valve; (2) bioprosthetic valve, surgical repair, or balloon valvuloplasty; and (3) moderate/severe aortic regurgitation or stenosis, mitral regurgitation, or tricuspid regurgitation. Proportional hazards models were performed to test the association between VHD groups and outcomes. Among 9748 patients with AF, 2705 (27.7%) had significant VHD. Anticoagulation use was highest among patients with mitral stenosis/mechanical valve (91.8%). Compared with individuals with no significant VHD, individuals with aortic regurgitation/aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation, or tricuspid regurgitation (hazard ratio, 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.07–1.42) had the highest risk of death. There were no differences in stroke or transient ischemic attack and major bleeding among individuals with and without significant VHD. Patients with AF and aortic stenosis had the highest risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.08–1.62). Conclusions Significant VHD is common among patients with AF in community practice. In a community cohort of patients with AF and CHA 2 DS 2‐VASc score ≥2, most were anticoagulated. Individuals with AF and moderate‐to‐severe biological VHD have more comorbidities and a higher mortality risk; however, stroke and major bleeding are similar among those with and without significant VHD.


This paper introduces PyDCI, a new implementation of Distributional Correspondence Indexing (DCI) written in Python. DCI is a transfer learning method for cross-domain and cross-lingual text classification for which we had provided an implementation (here called JaDCI) built on top of JaTeCS, a Java framework for text classification. PyDCI is a stand-alone version of DCI that exploits scikit-learn and the SciPy stack. We here report on new experiments that we have carried out in order to test PyDCI, and in which we use as baselines new high-performing methods that have appeared after DCI was originally proposed. These experiments show that, thanks to a few subtle ways in which we have improved DCI, PyDCI outperforms both JaDCI and the above-mentioned high-performing methods, and delivers the best known results on the two popular benchmarks on which we had tested DCI, i.e., MultiDomainSentiment (a.k.a. MDS -- for cross-domain adaptation) and Webis-CLS-10 (for cross-lingual adaptation). PyDCI, together with the code allowing to replicate our experiments, is available at this https URL .


The present study evaluated the incidence of Listeria spp. in some Brazilian cheeses obtained from retail stores in Rio de Janeiro, Of 103 samples of various types of cheese examined as recommended in the Listeria isolation protocol of the Health Protection Branch of Canada, 11 (10.68%) were contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes, 13 (12.62%) by Listeria innocua, 6 (5.83%) by Listeria grayi, and 1 (0.97%) by Listeria welshimeri. A higher incidence of L. monocytogenes as observed mainly in the homemade Minas Frescal cheeses (a Brazilian soft white cheese, eaten fresh), 7 of 17 (41.17%), followed by ripened cheeses, 3 of 53 (5.67%), and industrially manufactured Frescal (Minas and Ricotta) cheeses, 1 of 33 (3.03%). Three serotypes (1/2a, 1/2b and 4b) were observed among the strains of L. monocytogenes isolated, all of them being frequently involved in outbreaks of foodborne listeriosis and sporadic cases of the disease all over the world.


Abstract. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) is a well-known and willingly used technology. One of the advantages of this technology is primarily its fast and accurate data registration. In recent years ALS is continuously developed. One of the latest achievements is multispectral ALS, which consists in obtaining simultaneously the data in more than one laser wavelength. In this article the results of the dual-wavelength ALS data classification are presented. The data were acquired with RIEGL VQ-1560i sensor, which is equipped with two laser scanners operating in different wavelengths: 532 nm and 1064 nm. Two classification approaches are presented in the article: classification, which is based on geometric relationships between points and classification, which mostly relies on the radiometric properties of registered objects. The overall accuracy of the geometric classification was 86 %, whereas for the radiometric classification it was 81 %. As a result, it can be assumed that the radiometric features which are provided by the multispectral ALS have potential to be successfully used in ALS point cloud classification.


Objective: This study was conducted to determine the effect of mobbing behaviors of health workers at work on attitudes towards violence. Materials and Methods: The study included 75 health care workers who are working in the two different public hospitals. Data were collected between March and April 2016. A three-section questionnaire was used in the data collection. In the first section was contained the demographic characteristics of the participants. Other sections were "Workplace Psychologically Violent Behaviors (WPVB)" scale developed by Yıldırım and Yıldırım (2007) and "Adults' Attitudes Scale Toward Violence Scale (AASTVS)" developed by Gür et al. (2016). Results: 82,7% of the participants in the research had one or more encountered workplace mobbing behavior from one or multiple times in the last 12 months. The most encountered mobbing behaviors of participants, respectively; attack on professional status (79%), attack on personality (76%), individual's isolation from work (64%) and other negative behaviors (27%) were found. It is determined to be satisfied with the work of the participants medium level (2.58±1,1). In addition, when the participants have problems in their departmants, they stated that they receive support from 50.7% of the first-level manager, 46.7% of co-workers to solve. Conclusion: In this research, it is determined to participants are exposed to workplace psychological violence situations between attitudes towards violence were positive and moderately strong relationship (r = 0.447; p< 0.000) and the exposure to mobbing behavior an impact of 20% on attitudes towards violence.


The term 'solid dispersion' has been utilized to describe a family of dosage forms whereby the drug is dispersed in a biologically inert matrix, usually with a view to enhancing oral bioavailability. It may be defined as the dispersion of one or more active ingredients in an inert carrier matrix at solid-state prepared by the melting (fusion), solvent or melting-solvent method. In practice, these dosage forms have been traditionally regarded as being synonymous with systems whereby the in vitro release of the drug is enhanced compared to conventional dosage forms, with concomitant implications for in vivo release. Furthermore, the carrier used has, again traditionally, been a water-soluble or water-miscible polymer such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) or polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) or low molecular weight materials such as sugars. However, the proliferation of publications in the area since the first solid dispersions were described1 has led to a broadening of these definitions to include water insoluble matrices such as Gelucires and Eudragits that may yield either slow or rapid release or absorption. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijpls.v2i1.15134 International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Vol.2(1) 2013: 42-58


Abstract This paper explores six young women's experience of grief following the death of their mother. Employing a narrative approach, the focus is placed on exploring the meanings the six participants may make from the experience of the death of their mother and how these meanings are incorporated into their sense of self. The paper highlights how the women's narratives which emerge through the process of making meaning of death can be more complex, ambiguous and ambivalent than traditional grief models account for. Judith Butler's (2004) idea of 'coming undone' by grief is thus used to explore the possibility that the death of a mother causes not only an interruption in a young woman's world but an interruption in their sense of self. In accepting the ambivalence of the ties the women held with their mothers, and acknowledging the transformative effect of grief, this paper argues that it is possible to look beyond recovery and finally accept the death of a mother as the making of the self.


Although it has commonly been asserted that cartoon images of aging convey deep psychological significance, the relationship between attitudes and cartoon appreciation has received little systematic attention. The present study examined the relationship between responses to cartoons and attitudes toward aging among college students. Subjects rated the funniness of 60 cartoons and completed the Attitudes Toward Aging Inventory, Tuckman-Lorge, and Semantic Differential. Factor analysis revealed four categories of cartoons on aging: Disparagement, Ineffectuality, Obsolescence, and Isolation. No significant relationships were found between attitudes and humor appreciation, although age and education were inversely related to several cartoon themes.


An analytical review of the literature on the pathogenesis of disorders of the motor-evacuation function of the intestine, which underlies the enteral insufficiency syndrome (EIS), which develops in various acute intra-abdominal surgical diseases, is presented. On the basis of a multivariate analysis of literature data, various pathogenetic mechanisms of enteric dysfunctions caused by morphological and structural changes in the wall of the small intestine, violations of its local defense mechanisms are described. The essence of the modern concept of the pathogenesis of enteral insufficiency – enteral distress syndrome (EDS) according to the literature is presented. According to new views, EDS is a combination of various pathogenetic mechanisms that are formed as a result of dysregulation and destabilization of biological membranes of tissue structures of the intestinal wall (especially its mucous membrane) and a violation of the functional and metabolic status of the intestine, developing in acute surgical diseases of the abdominal organs. Recognition of the validity of the concept will allow unifying the terminology and creating more evidence-based and generally accepted teaching about the nature of EIS.


This study aims to evaluate a professional development programme that prepares and assists teachers with the implementation of a multidisciplinary science module, basing the evaluation on participants' reactions, the first level of Guskey"s five-level model for evaluation (2002). Positive evaluations at the higher levels in Guskey's model are thought to depend upon those at the first level, that is, teachers' positive appreciation for the professional development programme. Different instruments (questionnaires, e-mail correspondence, and interviews) were used at various stages in the four-part professional development programme. The data were categorised by the stage in the programme to which they pertained: individual preparation; preparation seminar; online support; or reflection meeting. The data from all participating teachers were combined in word tables, with some parts paraphrased in a few sentences. In general, the teachers were satisfied with the professional development programme. This paper identifies several elements that ensure teacher satisfaction in the multidisciplinary professional development programme, indicates which are the difficult elements of this programme, and suggests how these difficulties can be handled in such a programme.


Given an $F$-manifold with eventual identities we examine what this structure entails from the point of view of integrable PDEs of hydrodynamic type. In particular, we show that in the semisimple case the characterization of eventual identities recently given by David and Strachan is equivalent to the requirement that $E\circ$ has vanishing Nijenhuis torsion. Moreover, after having defined new equivalence relations for connections compatible with respect to the $F$-product $\circ$, namely hydrodynamically almost equivalent and hydrodynamically equivalent connections, we show how these two concepts manifest themselves in several specific situations. In particular, in the case of an $F$-manifold endowed with eventual identity and two almost hydrodynamically equivalent flat connections we are able to derive the recurrence relations for the flows of the associated integrable hierarchy. If the two connections originate from a flat pencil of metrics these reduce to the standard bi-Hamiltonian recursion. Furthermore, using the geometric set-up proposed here we show how the recurrence relations of the principal hierarchy introduced by Dubrovin arise in this general framework and we provide a general cohomological set-up for the conservation laws of the semihamiltonian hierarchy associated to a semisimple $F$-manifold with compatible connection and eventual identity. Therefore, the point of view we propose, not only highlight the conceptual unity of two well-known recursive schemes (principal hierarchy and classical bi-Hamiltonian) but it also provides a far reaching generalization of these recursions that relies on the presence of an eventual identity.


In the display's calibration and characterization, Gamma value, color temperature and brightness parameters of the display colors have tremendous influence. The results of experiments: With the Gamma value increases, the color tristimulus values and luminance L values are increasing, and the rate of increase varies, adjust the display image of the bright part of the level will show better, the contrary is also true, so choose appropriate gamma value to improve the image display; the color temperature of more than gamma, color temperature value selected according to the monitor to determine the specific work environment; brightness almost no effect, select the brightness you can choose based on the observed conditions.


SHREC'10 robust correspondence benchmark simulates a one-to-one shape matching scenario, in which one of the shapes undergoes multiple modifications and transformations. The benchmark allows evaluating how correspondence algorithms cope with certain classes of transformations and what is the strength of the transformations that can be dealt with. The present paper is a report of the SHREC'10 robust correspondence benchmark results.


The oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide-binding (OB)-fold domain proteins are considered as genome guardians, whose functions are extending beyond genomic stability. The broad functional diversity of the OB-fold proteins is attributed to their protein-DNA, protein-RNA, and protein-protein interactions (PPI). To understand the connectivity of the human OB-fold proteins, we report here a systems-level approach. Specifically, we mapped all human OB-fold PPI networks and evaluated topological features such as network robustness and network hub, among others. We found that the OB-fold network comprised of 227 nodes forming 5523 interactions, and has a scale-free topology having UBA52, ATR, and TP53 as leading hub proteins that control efficient communication within the network. Furthermore, four different clusters and subclusters have been identified, which are implicated in diverse cellular processes, including DNA replication, repair, maintenance of genomic stability, RNA processing, spermatogenesis, complement system, and telomere maintenance. The importance of these clusters is further strengthened by knockout studies, which showed a significant decrease in topological properties. In summary, this study provides new insights on the role of OB-fold protein as genome guardians in regard to the underlying mechanism of signaling pathways, the roles of key regulators, and thus, offers new prospects as potential targets for diagnostics and therapeutics purposes.


Thin and transparent films of doped cadmium sulfide (CdS) were obtained on commercial glass substrates by Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) technique. The films were doped with low concentration of Sn, and annealed in air at 300 °C for 45 min. The morphological characterization of the films with different amounts of dopant was made using SEM and EDAX analysis. Optical properties of the films were evaluated by measuring transmittance using the UV-vis spectrophotometer. A comparison of the results revealed that lower concentration of Sn doping improves transmittance of CdS films and makes them suitable for application as window layer of CdTe/CIGS solar cells.