Cardiovascular complications and arrhythmias account for high mortality in cardiopulmonary patients in intensive care unites (ICU) and critical care unites. Patients in ICU are often administered with 100% oxygen for treatment with many diseases. According to American Heart Association (AHA), more than 2200 deaths related to cardiac failure are reported every day with an average of 1 in every 39 seconds. Cardiomyopathy is also reported in many diseased conditions including acute lung injury, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cancer. Recent studies indicate that hyperoxia induces cardiac injury due to dysfunctional lung and compromised pulmonary functioning. The exact mechanism of cardiovascular complications in ICU/ critical care remains unknown. This review will discuss the effect of hyeproxia on cardiac remodeling with more emphasis on ventricular and electrical remodeling. Understanding the exact mechanism of hyperoxia induced cardiomyopathy is not only important to understand the disease development and progression but also open new avenues for targeted therapy.


Background: Malnutrition and inflammation are associated with morbidity and mortality in patients on maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Ghrelin, an orexigenic peptide hormone, is speculated to be associated with nutritional and inflammatory status in MHD. Aim: To assess the serum total ghrelin levels and its possible relationship with inflammation and nutritional status in patients on MHD. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted on 90 patients on MHD for 6 months and above (56 males, 34 females, mean age 52.6 [11.7] years; mean dialysis vintage 20.9 [12.1] months) and 70 healthy volunteers as control (5 males, 25 females, mean age 50.6 [9.7] years). Demographics were obtained for the study population, and dialysis-related data were collected for cases. Anthropometry, biochemical parameters, serum total ghrelin and inflammatory markers tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and high-sensitivityC-reactive protein (hsCRP) were assessed for cases and control. Self-reported appetite (five questions of appetite and diet assessment tool) and nutritional status (subjective global assessment-dialysis malnutrition score) were assessed for cases. Results: Ghrelin (242.5 [62.3] pg/mL vs. 80.2 [19.6] pg/mL; P< 0.001), TNF-α (39.8 [15.2] pg/mL vs. 6.5 [1.2] pg/mL; P< 0.001), hsCRP (10.2 [2.8] mg/L vs. 2.7 [0.54] mg/L; P< 0.001) were significantly elevated in cases versus control, anthropometry, and biochemical parameters were significantly decreased in hemodialysis patient. Of 90 cases, (13/90 [14.4%]) were well-nourished, (28/90 [31%]) mild to moderately malnourished, and (49/90 [54.4%]) were moderate to severely malnourished. Appetite was very good for14.4%, good and fair for 47.8%, poor and very poor for 37.8% patients. There was a significant difference in appetite with respect to nutritional status (P < 0.001). Ghrelin had positive correlation with inflammatory markers and negative correlation with nutritional status (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The study identified the association of ghrelin with appetite, nutritional, and inflammatory status of the patients on MHD.


The purpose of our study was to compare the 3-year of follow-up clinical outcomes in patients suffering from left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD) treated either by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) depending on SYNTAX score tertiles. The primary end point of the study was all-cause mortality for the PCI arm versus CABG arm depending on SYNTAX score tertiles. The secondary end points were the recurrence of angina pectoris following revascularization, the acute nonfatal myocardial infarction, the reduction of the left ventricular ejection fraction or the need for myocardial revascularization. With regard to patients with LMCAD, at low risk (SYNTAX score 0-22) there was no difference in the frequency of end-point occurrence among patients treated by PCI compared to CABG. Also, the tendency to increase end point occurrence in patients with LMCAD treated by PCI compared to patients treated by CABG was more evident in patients at intermediate risk, but the significant statistical difference was recorded only in the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction. Regarding the patients with LMCAD at high risk (SYNTAX score over 33) the endpoint occurrence was significantly increased, statistically significant differences were recorded in all evaluated endpoints. In conclusion, coronary artery bypass grafting remains the standard treatment for high-risk patients with complex lesions, while for patients with LMCAD at low or intermediate risk, percutaneous coronary intervention by stent implantation remains an alternative that does not pose significant risks.


We show that the method of moving quadrics for implicitizing surfaces in ℙ3 applies in certain cases where base points are present. However, if the ideal defined by the parametrization is saturated, then this method rarely applies. Instead, we show that when the base points are a local complete intersection, the implicit equation can be computed as the resultant of the first syzygies.


Aims: By studying the response of seed germination and seedling growth of invasive plants, Rorippa amphibia and Rorippa sylvestris, to temperature, the influence of temperature on the invasive ability of two species of Rorippa were further analyzed, which provided a theoretical basis for revealing the diffusion and invasion mechanism of two invasive plants in Rorippa. Study Design: Seed germination and seedling growth test of two invasive plants in Rorippa at different temperature was studied by means of laboratory culture. The germination percentage, germination index, germination potential of the seeds and the total leaf number, root length, lateral root number, biomass and root shoot ratio of seedlings were determined. Place and Duration of Study: Seeds were collected from the Shenyang Agricultural University of Liaoning Province in July 2018. Experiments were done in the College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, and conducted in April 2019 for a month. Methodology: The petri dish method was used at the experiment of seed germination. The seedling growth experiment was carried out by pot sowing. Short Research Article Wang et al.; BJI, 24(5): 39-48, 2020; Article no.BJI.59263 40 Results: At the seedling stage.R. amphibia has the strongest tolerance at 30°C, while the R. sylvestris does at 35°C. The low temperature is more beneficial to the accumulations of the seedlings, R. amphibia is the most tolerant at 25°C, and R. sylvestris is at 30°C at the seedling stage. Conclusion: The response of the seeds and seedlings of the two species to temperature was basically the same. Higher temperature promoted seed germination and inhibited seedling growth, while lower temperature inhibited seed germination. The response of seeds and seedlings of R. sylvestris to high temperature makes it more invasive in the process of global warming.


The present study attempts to quantify GNH and create GNH Index of students of Gaeddu College of Business studies, Gedu. The study focuses on developing the GNH index and also understanding of demographic pattern of GNH level of students of the college. Data was collected from a total of 679 students of the college taken randomly. Results revealed that students are most happy on cultural domain and least happy on "time use" domain of the GNH. Analysis of demographic pattern showed that the female is happier than male counterpart, students of final year leads in happiness and Haa and Zhemgang Dzonghak's students are the happiest. Thus, the study gives a perspective of the college climate in relation to happiness level of the students in the campus.


Data regarding many clinical aspects of pulmonary Mycobacterium avium complex (pMAC) are lacking. Guidelines rely substantially upon expert opinion, integrated through face‐to‐face meetings, variably weighting individual opinions. We surveyed North American non‐tuberculous mycobacteria experts regarding clinical aspects of pMAC using Delphi methods. Nineteen of 26 invited experts (73%) responded, with extensive variability. Convergence could not be reached for most questions. Respondents described extensive uncertainty around specific issues. Findings underscore urgent need for more research.


BACKGROUND
The mortality rate from melanoma has been rising and hence new therapeutic approaches for this disease have received extensive attention, especially the search for novel therapeutic targets. The aim of this study was to find new targets for the treatment of melanoma through a bioinformatics and experimental approach.

METHODS
First, we screened for differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) between melanoma and normal tissues using the TCGA-SKCM, GTEX, and GSE24996 datasets. Next, we identified epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related DEGs and analyzed their expression levels and association with patient survival. The expression level of DEGs was then confirmed in normal human melanocytes and melanoma cells. Bioinformatics analysis was used to identify miRNAs that targeted the most highly expressed DEG, LGALS1, and their binding confirmed using dual luciferase. Enriched pathways for the LGALS1 target miR-22-3p were also analyzed. miR-22-3p was overexpressed in cells in order to investigate changes in cell activity and in related genes and proteins. Exosomes from human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were coated with miR-22-3p to examine its effect on EMT.

RESULTS
The expression levels of LGALS1, CPXM1, and APLNR were higher in melanoma than in normal tissues and were associated with worse patient survival. The differential expression of these genes was confirmed using normal human skin melanocytes (PIG1) and human melanoma cells (WM-266-4). LGALS1 was the most differentially expressed gene between WM-266-4 and PIG1 cells, and was also predicted to be a target for miR-22-3p. The results of dual luciferase experiments confirmed that miR-22-3p could bind to LGALS1. Following the overexpression of miR-22-3p in WM-266-4 cells, the cell viability decreased, the expression levels of LGALS1, VIM and SNAI2 decreased, the expression level of CDH1 increased, and cell apoptosis increased. Transfection of miR-22-3p using exosomes resulted in similar effects.

CONCLUSIONS
We identified three genes (LGALS1, CPXM1, APLNR) that showed a high level of differential expression in melanoma. LGALS1 is a target for miR-22-3p binding and this can inhibit the EMT of melanoma cells, thereby preventing the development of melanoma. Moreover, exosomes secreted by MSCs can be loaded with miR-22-3p, thus regulating the EMT process in melanoma cells.


The theoretical model of cell formation in cell selection is considered. The phenomenology of the process shows that molecular evolution did not have a Darwinian basis for development. According to the described model, cell formation is an inevitable process that develops a clear molecular mechanism. This mechanism is observed throughout the entire period of early development, beginning with the stage of initiation of the process, then at the stage of molecular complications and at the final final stage. The mechanism reveals the ideological concept according to which at an early stage there was a group of ribosome structures catalyzing reversible aminoacyltransfer, their activity led to the formation of a self-replicating cycle on a translational basis.


Exactly 150 years ago, August 1858, the world witnessed a historic event in the history of telecommunications: the successful transmission of telegraph messages across the Atlantic Ocean. Although the transatlantic cable carrying these messages failed after a few weeks of operation, and it wasn't until 1866 that permanent transatlantic telegraph cable transmission became possible, the 1858 transmissions were heralded worldwide as a major achievement, introducing a new Age of Information. To commemorate this literally earth-shaking accomplishment 150 years ago, the History Column this month presents an article entitled ?A History of Transatlantic Cables? by Jerry Hayes of Concordia University, Canada, a member of the ComSoc History Committee. Interestingly, it took almost another 100 years until the first transatlantic telephone cable, TAT-1, was successfully launched. Jerry covers this epoch-making event in his article as well, in addition to the various undersea telephone cables that followed in the years after. So we are actually commemorating two historic events in this column: the first successful transmission of telegraph data across the ocean, and the first successful transatlantic cable transmission of voice. We commend the article following to you.Special Notice: The ComSoc History Committee is sponsoring a special History Session at the forthcoming IEEE GLOBECOM 2008 in New Orleans. This session, the first of its kind, and coorganized by History Committee members Jacob Baal-Schem of Israel and Mischa Schwartz, will take place Tuesday, December 2, from 1:30-6 p.m. It will consist of three parts: a keynote address on the history of OFDM by Steve Weinstein, a past President of ComSoc and a pioneer in the field of OFDM; four reviewed papers covering a variety of topics on the history of communications; and a panel discussion on the topic "Who Invented Radio?" The panelists, a distinguished group of authorities and historians in the field, drawn from the Uni


Given a spectral library, sparse unmixing aims to estimate the fractional proportions in each pixel of a hyperspectral image scene. However, the ever-growing dimensionality of spectral dictionaries strongly limits the performance of sparse unmixing algorithms. In this study, we propose a novel dictionary pruning (DP) approach to improve the performance of sparse unmixing algorithms, making them more accurate and time-efficient. We quantify the relative importance of each spectral dictionary atom using the total utility metric at virtually no cost. In this way, we have quantitative insights into how well the elements in the dictionary represent the hyperspectral scene. We evaluate the performance of the proposed dictionary pruning approach on several simulated data sets and one real data. We also compare the experimental results with two well-known dictionary pruning methods both visually and quantitatively and demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method through extensive experimental analysis.


Malyn Newitt[1] Abstract: Portuguese creoles were instrumental in bringing sub-Saharan Africa into the intercontinental systems of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. In the Atlantic Islands a distinctive creole culture emerged, made up of Christian emigrants from Portugal, Jewish exiles and African slaves. These creole polities offered a base for coastal traders and became politically influential in Africa – in Angola creating their own mainland state. Connecting the African interior with the world economy was largely on African terms and the lack of technology transfer meant that the economic gap between Africa and the rest of the world inexorably widened. African slaves in Latin America adapted to a society already creolised, often through adroit forms of cultural appropriation and synthesis. In eastern Africa Portuguese worked within existing creolised Islamic networks but the passage of their Indiamen through the Atlantic created close links between the Indian Ocean and Atlantic commercial systems.


Perhaps baseball's greatest hitter, Gibson was known as "the black Babe Ruth." In this illuminating biography, William Brashler introduces an authentic American sports hero and recaptures the mood and style, the excitement and poignance of a world of black baseball that has vanished from the American scene. "A balanced account that...brings him into clear focus as one of the outstanding baseball players of his era."-New York Times Book Review.


We introduce the concept of (EA) property and occasional w-compatibility for hybrid pair F : X × X → 2X and f : X → X. We also introduce common (EA) property for two hybrid pairs F, G : X → 2X and f, g : X → X. We establish some common coupled fixed point theorems for two hybrid pairs of mappings under φ-ψ contraction on noncomplete metric spaces. An example is also given to validate our results. We improve, extend and generalize several known results. The results of this paper generalize the common fixed point theorems for hybrid pairs of mappings and essentially contain fixed point theorems for hybrid pair of mappings.


The aim of this paper is to analyse whether there is an impact of some key marketing components, in particular the advertising, promotion, public relations, campaigns, and consumer services on enterprise sales, before and after applying social media tools and techniques. The methodology used in this paper is based on statistical primary data analysis procedure. The data was gathered through structured questionnaires, conducted mainly in marketing department with key marketing management representatives, in 120 enterprises in Kosovo. The sampling was based on the deliberating techniques. In order to test the main hypothesis of the research, whether there was a specific change in the sales of the enterprise, before and after applying social media marketing tools and techniques, a variance coefficient analysis was performed using in specific paired sample t-test analysis through SPSS. The data shows that in all cases, the results of the paired sample t-test were statistically significant. Moreover, there was a significant average difference between each paired group. In all cases, the means of the groups paired through this research from advertising, promotion, public relations, campaigns, consumer services, the sales were higher in social media contest compared to traditional contest.


The present study was undertaken in Kheda and Panchmahal districts of middle Gujarat to know the existing calf management and milk marketing practices followed by the dairy farmers. The study was conducted in randomly selected four talukas each from Kheda and Panchmahal districts. From each taluka five villages and from each village five respondents were randomly selected. Thus, total 200 respondents were included in the study. Majority (71.50 %) of the respondents followed practice of cutting the naval cord of the calf at the time of birth, of which 67.83 percent farmers were ligating and applying antiseptic to naval cord. More than half of the farmers followed disbudding in Kheda district whereas, more than three fourth of the farmers have not adopted this practice in Panchmahal district. Majority (95.00 %) of the respondents followed suckling / natural system of calf raising. Majority of the respondents provided colostrum to the calves within one hour of birth (55.00 %) or at the most between one to three hours of birth (28.50 %). Moreover, 38.00 percent of the farmers provided colostrums only after expulsion of placenta. Cent percent of the respondents from both the districts sold the milk to the dairy co-operative societies. However, majority (85.50 %) of the dairy farmers retained 1 to 2 liters of milk for their household consumption.


Serum levels of insulin (IRI), total glucagons (GLI), cortisol, glucose and free fatty acids were measured in 14 normal subjects and in 6 diabetic patients. All of them were hospitalized, but not con- , fined to bed and were given 3 daily meals of identical carbohydrate, fat and protein content. Blood samples were collected through an indwelling venous catheter at hourly intervals for 72 h. In addition, three 15-min samples were collected after each meal. The study was repeated about 1 month later, during the last 3 days of a period of chlorpropamide treatment. The results confirm the existence of a diurnal cycle in serum cortisol in normal and diabetic subjects. Diurnal variations in the postprandial glucose response of normal subjects and in the postprandial IRI response of diabetic patients were observed, but they may have been drug-induced. Chlorpropamide treatment had no significant effects in normal subjects, but was followed by a decrease in the concentration of serum GLI and by an increase in the fasting levels of IRI and in the IRI response to meals in diabetic patients. These changes may explain the restraining effect that the drug had on postprandial hyperglycemia. The results of our experiments suggest that the therapeutic effect of chlorpropamide in adult onset diabetic patients may be due to a combination of an increased release of insulin and a decreased release of total gucagon in response to the ingestion of food. The difference in the response of normal and diabetic subjects to prolonged chlorpropamide treatment remains unexplained, but may account for some of the conflicting reports on the effects of sulfonylurea derivatives on insular function.


The adenine nucleotide carrier from maize (Zea mays L. cv B 73) shoot mitochondria was solubilized with Triton X-100 and purified by sequential chromatography on hydroxyapatite and Matrex Gel Blue B in the presence of cardiolipin and asolectin. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis of the purified fraction showed a single polypeptide band with an apparent molecular mass of 32 kD. When reconstituted in liposomes, the adenine nucleotide carrier catalyzed a pyridoxal 5[prime]-phosphate-sensitive ATP/ATP exchange. It was purified 168-fold with a recovery of 60% and a protein yield of 0.25% with respect to the mitochondrial extract. Among the various substrates and inhibitors tested, the reconstituted protein transported only ADP, ATP, GDP, and GTP, and was inhibited by atractyloside, bongkrekate, phenylisothiocianate, pyridoxal 5[prime]-phosphate, and mersalyl (but not N-ethylmaleimide). Maximum initial velocity of the reconstituted ATP/ATP exchange was determined to be 2.2 [mu]mol min-1 mg-1 protein at 25[deg]C. The half-saturation constants and the corresponding inhibition constants were 17 [mu]M for ATP, 26 [mu]M for ADP, 59 [mu]M for GTP, and 125 [mu]M for GDP. The activation energy of the ATP/ATP exchange was 48 kilojoule/mol between 0 and 15[deg]C, and 22 kilojoule/mol between 15 and 35[deg]C. Partial amino acid sequences showed that the purified protein was the product of the ANT-G1 gene sequenced previously (B. Bathgate, A. Baker, C.J. Leaver [1989] Eur J Biochem 183: 303–310).


We examined the contents of amino acids to provide the basic data for the utilization of white panicled rice (Oryza sativa L., WPR) cultured in reclaimed paddy field of Bigumdo of Korea in 2011. WPR used in this study were collected in 1000 ha of reclaimed paddy field of Bigumdo. Crude protein contents of whole rice have the highest in leaf blade, followed by whole grain, leaf sheath and stem. The contents of total amino acids showed the highest trend in region received the most severe damage, but the lowest trend in region of normal growth. The content of glutamic acid was the highest among amino acids in leaf blade, whole grain, leaf sheath and stem collected in all regions, but the content of methionine was the lowest. Therefore, the contents of amino acids showed a similar level between the region occurred WPR and the region of normal growth. Further research on the nutritional aspects of forage must be performed because nutritive values of WPR were influenced by the degree of damage of WPR


The efficacy of oral trimethylpsoralen photochemotherapy with either natural solar exposures or artificial irradiations was investigated in a group of 63 vitiligo patients. Treatment with outdoor exposures during 2-3 summer seasons was found to be an inadequate therapeutic procedure under Swedish summer conditions. Office treatment with UVA cabins twice weekly led to a better therapeutic response but the number of treatments required for satisfactory repigmentation was high.


BACKGROUND
Diabetes affects almost every system including mental health. When depression and diabetes coexist, the outcome is even worse. This study was conducted to find the prevalence of comorbid depression in diabetic patients and its association with diabetic control.

METHODS
This was a descriptive cross sectional observational study conducted in the department of general medicine of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad from March to September 2014. A total of 223 adult diabetic patients 30-60 years of age were enrolled. Becks Depression score (BDI) and HDRS (Hamilton Depression Rating Score) of each patient was calculated. Patients were stratified into various categories based on their demographics, depressions scores and diabetic control (by means of HbA1C). Percentages, frequencies and means were calculated accordingly using SPSS-16.

RESULTS
Out of a total of 223 patients, 55.6% were females while the rest (44.4%) were males. The mean age of the patients was 51 years. Majority of the patients were uneducated (35.9%). Eighty-seven% were married, Mean BMI, duration of diabetes and HbA1C were 27 Kg/m2, 8.3 years±6.1 years and 8.15±2.13% respectively. Mean BDI and HDRS were 9.97±9.42 and 6.27±6.74 respectively. 25.6% and 21.1% of the patients had at least some degree of depression when assessed by BDI and HDRS score respectively..

CONCLUSIONS
Depression is common in diabetic patients especially females, uneducated, have social issues like widows, those having long standing diabetes and those who have uncontrolled blood sugars.


One of the key obstacles in the realization of high energy density lithium batteries exceeding 500 Wh/kg is the development of scalable manufacturing methods to produce stable and high mass and areal loading sulfur cathodes. In this talk, I will discuss our recent efforts that have addressed the manufacturing challenges posed by thermal melt diffusion infiltration of sulfur, which remains the most widely used technique to produce carbon-sulfur composites, through the development of a scalable capillary force driven manufacturing technique. This technique enables thick carbon host materials to be site-selectively infiltrated with sulfur (over 70 wt.%) in a matter of minutes with low-temperature thermal processing below 170 oC. This is compared to melt infiltration methods that usually require over 12 hours of processing at similar temperatures, yield no control of sulfur morphology or location, and hence exhibit poor sample-to-sample reproducibility. By leveraging this technique, our team has been able to iterate across numerous studies that I will discuss evaluating and demonstrating critical performance criteria that can enable lithium-sulfur batteries with energy density in packaged battery systems exceeding 500 Wh/kg. This includes (1) stability enabled by nanoscale V2O5 binding materials that mitigate polysulfide dissolution that lowers Coulombic efficiency and leads to anode fouling, (2) high areal capacities exceeding 19 mAh/cm2 with sulfur mass loading exceeding 75 wt.%, and (3) high sulfur utilization and retention that is strongly associated with combined sulfur morphology and polar binding properties in a sulfur-carbon composite material. Our work gives promise to a route that bypasses the high cathode material and processing cost in Li-ion batteries, sustains the scalability, throughput, and reliability needed for battery manufacturing, and overcomes performance limitations of prior approaches described in the literature that rely heavily on melt diffusion processing of sulfur-carbon composite cathodes.


Objective: To present an analysis of our experience with 22 consecutive cases of acute abdominal gynecologic emergencies managed with a laparoscopic approach. Methods: From March 1997 to October 1998, 22 patients with a diagnosis of acute abdominal gynecologic emergencies underwent laparoscopic intervention. A transvaginal ultrasound was performed on all patients preoperatively to supplement the diagnostic workup. Surgical time, complications, and length of hospital stay were evaluated, and the laparoscopic diagnosis was compared with the preoperative diagnosis. Results: The laparoscopic diagnosis was different from the preoperative diagnosis in 31.8% of patients. Of the 22 patients, laparoscopic therapeutic procedures were performed in 18 (81.8%), all satisfactorily, and with no need for conversion to open surgery. No morbidity or mortality occurred. Conclusion: Laparoscopy is a safe and effective method for diagnosing and treating gynecologic emergencies.


We report the computational discovery of complex, topologically charged, and spectrally stable states in three-dimensional multi-component nonlinear wave systems of nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger type. While our computations relate to two-component atomic Bose-Einstein condensates in parabolic traps, our methods can be broadly applied to high-dimensional, nonlinear systems of partial differential equations. The combination of the so-called deflation technique with a careful selection of initial guesses enables the computation of an unprecedented breadth of patterns, including ones combining vortex lines, rings, stars, and ``vortex labyrinths''. Despite their complexity, they may be dynamically robust and amenable to experimental observation, as confirmed by Bogolyubov-de Gennes spectral analysis and numerical evolution simulations.


ABSTRACT Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease characterized by skin infiltration of immune cells and abnormal epidermal thickening. The initial pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), which include long ncRNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs), comprise the majority of genome transcripts and are important influencers of gene transcription and post-transcription modulations. Emerging roles of ncRNAs in psoriasis were identified recently. This review summarizes the existing studies of psoriasis-related lncRNAs and circRNAs. A considerable proportion of the studied lncRNAs and circRNAs regulate keratinocyte mobility, such as keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation. Some lncRNAs and circRNAs are tightly related to keratinocyte inflammation reactions. Other reports demonstrated that they are also implicated in modulating immune cell differentiation, proliferation, and activation. This review might illuminate future psoriasis research and highlight that lncRNAs and circRNAs might act as therapeutic targets.


One of the error conditions that are required to be met is the absence of autocorrelation problems. Autocorrelation is a correlation of errors between observations, the existence of an error correlation between observations will cause deviations from the actual statistical value. One of the statistical methods for overcoming autocorrelation is the Prais Winsten method. This study aims to explain the Prais Winsten method in overcoming the problem of autocorrelation on factors that affect the life expectancy of East Java Province in 2018. This research is a secondary data analysis, data obtained from the East Java Province's health profile in 2018 with the dependent variable, namely life expectancy, and independent variables, namely prevalence of diarrhea, clean and healthy living behavior, and mean years of school. The results of this research indicated the finding of autocorrelation problems in the factors that affected the life expectancy of East Java Province in 2018. Improvements with the Prais Winsten method showed that the Durbin Watson value was at the critical point limit, Mean Square Error and coefficient of determination (R2) value was decreasing. This research concludes that the Prais Winsten method can overcome autocorrelation.


In the context of the increasing focus of university engagement with regional communities, debates about the notion of 'community engagement' have assumed a new critical urgency. This paper presents a reflective case study of community engagement by people associated with RMIT University to explore the notion of creating a 'space' in which meaningful dialogue with community members becomes possible. Such spaces must take into account the multiple identities of the participants in a dialogue; acknowledging a particular constellation of social relations that mean that dialogues become both negotiated and managed. Understanding the experiences and processes of working within these 'spaces' allows a more complex and dynamic understanding of 'why' communities engage rather than a focus on 'how' communities engage. The construction and analysis of this case study is located within frameworks of globalization, culture and marginality, suggesting that this process of situating can shed new light on how we might approach questions of engagement in the contemporary world. Marginality is not identified so much as a site of deprivation, but much more as a site of radical possibility, an often unexplored space for engagement that can 'give voice' as well as isolate. The identification of creative spaces enables some radical perspectives to challenge the way we see, imagine and create alternative and new worlds.


The study elicited stereotypes of female and male speech behaviour. The results give strong evidence that the speech of females and the speech of males, as perceived by women and by men, do not have the same subject matter, or the same manner of delivery. Of the 51 speech characteristics considered by the participants, 36 were rated as differentiating between female and male speech. These popular beliefs have an impact on people's behaviour, especially in initial encounters.


Author(s): Cai, Jing | Advisor(s): de Janvry, Alain; Sadoulet, Elisabeth | Abstract: Some new technologies or financial products have the potential to dramatically improve economic development and household welfare, but adoption is often sub-optimally slow. In this dissertation, I explore the barriers to the diffusion of innovations, identify and assess potential ways to overcome these constraints, and evaluate the impact of innovation adoption on household behavior, using both experimental and non-experimental methods.Using data from a two-year randomized experiment in rural China, the first chapter studies the influence of social networks on the decision to adopt a new weather insurance product and the mechanisms through which social networks operate. In the first year, I provided financial education to a random subset of farmers and found a large social network effect on insurance take-up: for untreated farmers, having an additional friend receiving financial education raises take-up by almost half as much as obtaining financial education directly, a spillover effect equivalent to offering a 12% reduction in the average insurance premium. By varying the information available to subjects about their peers' take-up decisions and using randomized default options, I show that the positive social network effect is not driven by scale effects, imitation, or informal risk-sharing, but instead by the diffusion of insurance knowledge. One year later, social networks continue to affect insurance demand: observing an above-median share of friends receiving payouts increases insurance take-up at a rate equivalent to about 50% of the impact of receiving payouts directly. I also find that social network effects are larger in villages where households are more strongly connected, and when the people who receive financial education first are more central in the social network.The second chapter is based on a coauthored paper with Changcheng Song, "Insurance Take-up in Rural China: Learning from Hypothetical Experience". This chapter uses a novel experimental design to test for the role of experience and information in insurance take-up in rural China, where weather insurance was a new and highly subsidized product. We randomly select a group of poor households to play insurance games and find that it improves the actual insurance take-up by 48%. In order to determine the mechanism behind this effect, we test whether it is due to: (1) changes in risk attitudes, (2) changes in the perceived probability of future disasters, (3) learning the objective benefits of insurance, or (4) hypothetical experience of disaster. We show that the effect cannot be explained by mechanisms (1) to (3), and that the experience acquired in playing the insurance game matters. We develop a simple model in which agents give less weight to disasters and benefits which they experienced infrequently. Our estimation also suggests that compared with experience with real disasters in the previous year, experience gained in the insurance game played recently has a stronger effect on the actual insurance take-up, implying that learning from experience displays a strong recency effect.In the third chapter, I take advantage of a natural experiment and a rich household-level panel dataset to test the impact of an agricultural insurance program on household level production, borrowing, and saving. The empirical strategy includes both difference-in-difference and triple difference estimations. I find that first, introducing insurance increases the production area of insured crops by around 20%, and it decreases production diversification; second, provision of insurance raises the credit demand by 25%; third, it decreases the household saving by more than 30%; fourth, the effect of insurance policy on borrowing persists in the long-run, while that on saving is significant only in the medium-run; fifth, the impact of insurance is bigger on larger farmers, and households with lower migration remittance.


In this paper, we study the problem of recognizing events in personal photo albums. In consumer photo collections or online photo communities, photos are usually organized in albums according to their events. However, interpreting photo albums is more complicated than the traditional problem of understanding single photos, because albums generally exhibit much more varieties than single image. To solve this challenge, we propose a novel representation, called Compositional Object Pattern, which characterizes object level pattern conveying much richer semantic than low level visual feature. To interpret the rich semantics in albums, we mine frequent object patterns in the training set, and then rank them by their discriminating power. The album feature is then set as the frequencies of these frequent and discriminative patterns, called Compositional Object Pattern Frequency(COPF). We show with experimental result that our algorithm is capable of recognizing holidays with accuracy higher than the baseline method.


Abstract Facial features tracking is widely used in face recognition, gesture, expression analysis, etc. AAM (Active Appearance Model) is one of the powerful methods for objects feature localization. Nevertheless, AAM still suffers from a few drawbacks, such as the view angle change problem. We present a method to solve it by using the depth data acquired from Kinect. We use the depth data to get the head pose information and RGB data to match the AAM result. We establish an approximate facial 3D gird model and then initialize the subsequent frames with this model and head pose information. To avoid the local extremum, we divide the model into several parts by the poses and match the facial features with the closest model. The experimental results show improvement of AAM performance when rotating the head.


Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Chemistry. By RUFUS P. WrILLIAMS, in charge of the Chemical Department of the English High School, Bostorn. Boston, Ginn & Co. 1896. This book, wlhich is intended especially for use in elementary schools, is arranged so that each page is devoted to a separate topic. The alternate pages are left blank for notes and the experiments are unusually full of minute directions. This minuteness of directions may be well in the case of one who is working alone and can use the book to aid him in difficulties; but when workirng under the eye of the instructor it is questionable whether such close attention to details given in the book and, as in this case, working by rules is not apt to make the student too dependent, instead of teaching him to observe for himself and to devise, to a certain extent, the methods of work he shall follow in each experiment. The free use of symbols in other than equations is especially objectionable in the early stages of the study, as the student becomes impressed with the idea that proficiency in the use and manipulation of chemical symbols is the thing to be acquired and not the principles of the subject. Difficulties encountered and overcome by the ingenluity of the student are a great incentive and give him confidence in his own powers. After taking up in order the common non-metallic elements, the author gives the usual methods of separating the members of the different grouLps of inetals. These are given without any preliminary study of the different members of the groups, which would enable one to understand the principles uponi which the separations are based and must be entirely mechanical in their nature. No text-book is recommended for use with this laboratory guide, and while it can prolbably be used with good results in many cases it must be with the constant attention of the teacher anid the elimina777


Anthropomorphism—the attribution of human qualities to non-human objects—is believed to be a natural tendency which may serve several adaptive functions. One possibility is that anthropomorphism provides an egocentric heuristic by which we can understand the world. It may also be a strategy for reducing our subjective sense of loneliness. However, not all humans exhibit the same propensity to anthropomorphise. Recent findings suggest that autistic individuals may be more likely to anthropomorphise than non-autistic individuals. In Study 1, we conducted a large-scale survey of autistic traits and dispositional anthropomorphism in the general population (n = 870). We found that individuals who reported having more autistic traits had an increased dispositional tendency to anthropomorphise non-human entities. In Study 2, we more closely examined variation in anthropomorphism tendencies in a sample of autistic adults (n = 90) to better understand what might drive increased anthropomorphism in this population. We found that those with greater anthropomorphism tendencies experienced greater levels of self-reported loneliness. We propose that increased anthropomorphism might reflect reduced opportunities for social connection for autistic people and those with more autistic traits.


Problems of legal regulation of local finances are considered in the works of lawyers, economists, sociologists, public administration specialists, from different positions of their formation, distribution and use in public relations, but in modern conditions of budgetary relations, namely – formation of budgets of united territorial communities, introduction of decentralization in regional governance, administrative reform, orientation of Ukraine to European standards and values of life, the concept of legal regulation of local finances, in particular, budget relations needs to be updated. Scientific publications investigate the problems of defining local finances as a basic basis for local government, which ensures the reproduction of the budget process and the development of regions, their constituent elements and purpose. However, at present the scientific discussion on the legal significance of local finances, their constituent elements, sources of formation and use continues, because in the modern economy a significant part of financial resources is formed and redistributed through budgets, which include budgets of united territorial communities. which, finally, as a legal institution is not defined. The development of local self-government from the standpoint of the government's proposed decentralization of power provides for the purpose of creating high-quality living conditions for citizens, providing them with the necessary public services, development of material and social base of the region.
These tasks are implemented in the presence of appropriate economic development of the territory, its financial support, which depends on the sources of budget and extrabudgetary funds and areas of their use.


This paper considers the energy consumption minimization in permutation flow shop (PFS) scheduling problem. The energy consumption of each machine is decomposed into two parts: useful part which completes the operation at current stage and wasted part which is consumed during idle period. The objective considered here is to minimize the total wasted energy consumption which is a weighted summation of the idle time of each machine. To solve this new problem, a branch-and-bound algorithm is developed. Two lower bounds are proposed, and an initial upper bound by using a variant of NEH heuristic algorithm is applied. Compared with the makespan minimization criterion, this model deduces more energy-saving solutions. Experimental results also validate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for problems with job number not larger than 15.


The study was designed to assess the effects of aloe vera gel (AVG) on broiler growth performance and haemato-biochemical changes. "Lohman" day-old broiler chicks (n=48) were reared for 28 days. At day 13, chicks were randomly divided into four equal groups (12/group). Group A was non-treated control. Group B was supplemented with antibiotic (oxytetracycline hydrochloride) as a growth promoter in water. Group C and D were supplied AVG (1% and 2%) in drinking water. Antibiotic and AVG treated broilers had higher (P<0.05) live weight (1803.8 ± 63.6 gm and 1800.00 ± 64.2 gm) than control (1607.5 ± 41.7 gm). Total erythrocyte count (3.6 ± 0.1 x 106/uL), haemoglobin (9.9 ± 0.1 gm%) and packed cell volume (35.2 ± 0.4 %) were higher (P<0.05) in treated groups. It is suggested that the aloe vera gel supplementation (1-2%) may be used as an alternative to antibiotics for better growth performance in broilers without deleterious effects on haematobiochemical profiles.
The Bangladesh Veterinarian (2019) 36(1 - 2): 25-32


A 0.12-µm SiGe phased-array Rx IC for beam-steered wireless communication in the 60-GHz band is described. It has 16 RF phase-shifting front-ends with 11° digital phase resolution and hybrid passive-active RF signal combining. It achieves 7.4–7.9 dB NF (not including 12-dB array gain) over the 4 IEEE channels. The IC has a double-conversion superheterodyne Rx core with a maximum of 72 dB of power gain in 1-dB steps, and the on-chip synthesizer achieves ≪ −90 dBc/Hz Rx phase noise at 1MHz offset. The IC draws 1.8 W at 2.7 V with a die area of 38 mm2. It has been packaged with 16 antennas in a 288-pin organic BGA and phased-array beamsteering has been demonstrated, along with 5+ Gb/s wireless links using 16-QAM OFDM.


742 Background: TRA-8, a mouse anti-human DR5 monoclonal antibody induces apoptosis in TRAIL-sensitive tumor cells. However no non-invasive method is available to monitor the treatment effects on disseminated cancer. We report a non-invasive and sensitive BI technology to determine the efficacy of combined treatment of TRA-8 and Adriamycin on disseminated breast cancer in animal model.

METHODS
Human breast cancer cell line 2LMP, a subclone of MDA-MB-231, was transfected with adeno associated virus encoding luciferase (AAV-luc). A stable luciferase-positive cell line was established by screening. Two groups (5/group) of athymic female nude mice were used. Four sites (liver, spleen, chest cavity and peritoneum) of each mouse were injected with luciferase-positive 2LMP cells (0.25x106/site). After 7 days, BI revealed disseminated tumor sites; one group of mice was injected i.v. with 150 μg TRA-8 and 6 mg/kg Adriamycin, and the 2nd group of mice did not receive any treatment. All treatments were given 2X/wk for 3 wks. Mice were imaged over time with an IVIS-100 Xenogen imaging system and tumor mass was estimated from ventral, dorsal, left and right lateral views by measuring light transmitted from the luciferase positive tumors.

RESULTS
All untreated mice died by day 21 with 4-6 fold increases in bioluminescence and extensive metastasis, including bone. Treated mice had a dramatic decrease in bioluminescence to 15-20% of day 7 values that persisted for 45 days and then began a progressive regrowth of tumor (increasing bioluminescence) in multiple sites. Dissemination of breast cancer was detected by BI and confirmed by dissection. In all untreated mice, numerous tumor nodules were detected in lungs, heart, pleural space, bones including ribs and spine, diaphragm, esophagus and pericardium, liver, spleen, stomach, kidneys, ovaries, uterus, and peritoneal membrane.

CONCLUSIONS
BI demonstrated high sensitivity for non-invasive detection and treatment monitoring of disseminated breast tumors in mice. Combination therapy with TRA-8 and Adriamycin was highly effective in the regression of disseminated breast cancer in this animal model. No significant financial relationships to disclose.


During coffee production, several types of waste such as pulp, mucilage, husk, parchment, coffee silver skin, and spent coffee grounds are generated. The amount of coffee waste and their environmental issues require effective valorization. Those wastes can be used as a source of bioactive compounds. In this work, solid-liquid extraction was used to obtain different solutions, and their phenolic contents, antioxidant capacities, fatty acid profiles, and antimicrobial activities were evaluated. Characterization of the waste materials showed that the highest yield (18.8%) was obtained for spent-coffee grounds. The highest total phenolic contents, caffeine and epicatechin, was observed for coffee pulp extract. Catechin was only observed for parchment. The lipid fraction in the coffee by-products extracts indicated that the spent coffee ground had a higher amount of total lipids, followed by the pulp, and finally the parchment. The most predominant fatty acids in all the extracts were palmitic, stearic, linoleic, oleic, arachidic, and behenic. However, parchment and coffee pulp extracts exhibited an inhibition halo against E. coli bacteria growth.


It is now widely recognized that chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is associated with insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes, so can be considered a metabolic disease. IR is most strongly associated with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1, in contrast to hepatic steatosis, which is associated with genotype 3 infection. Apart from the well-described complications of diabetes, IR in CHC predicts faster progression to fibrosis and cirrhosis that may culminate in liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma. More recently, it has been recognized that IR in CHC predicts a poor response to antiviral therapy. The molecular mechanisms for the association between IR and HCV infection are not well defined. This review will elaborate on the clinical associations between CHC and IR and summarize current knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms that potentially mediate HCV-associated IR.


Cognitive abilities and achievement status of 178 children with myelomeningocele (MMC) were examined with neuropsychological techniques. These children as a whole scored below the population average. Children with MMC and shunted hydrocephalus performed worse than the arrested (unshunted) and non-hydrocephalic children. The greater deficit occurred on the Performance IQ. 80.7% of the subjects attended normal school while, 19.3% received remedial instruction. The results of our study are consistent with a large body of literature indicating that children with shunted hydrocephalus demonstrate poorer development of non-verbal relative to verbal cognitive abilities.


In this research, rabbit femurs were implanted with CP Ti screws coated with a combination of CaCO3 and nanohydroxyapatite, and the effect on osseointegration was assessed using histological and histomorphometric examination at 2 and 6 weeks. CaCO3 and nanohydroxyapatite were combined with the EPD to coat the surfaces of the CP Ti screws. The femurs of five male rabbits were implanted with coated and uncoated implant screws. Healing time was divided into two groups (2 and 6 weeks). After 2 and 6 weeks of implantation, the histological examination revealed an increase in the growth of bone cells for coated screws, and the histomorphometric analysis revealed an increase in the percentage of new bone formation (after 6 weeks, 5.08% for coated implants and 3.66% for uncoated implants). In addition, the uncoated implant, the CP Ti implant coated with a combination of CaCO3 and nanohydroxyapatite, stimulated early bone development after two weeks and mineralization and maturation after six weeks.


Type II topoisomerases are essential enzymes that regulate DNA under- and overwinding and remove knots and tangles from the genetic material. In order to carry out their critical physiological functions, these enzymes utilize a double-stranded DNA passage mechanism that requires them to generate a transient double-stranded break. Consequently, while necessary for cell survival, type II topoisomerases also have the capacity to fragment the genome. This feature of the prokaryotic and eukaryotic enzymes, respectively, is exploited to treat a variety of bacterial infections and cancers in humans. All type II topoisomerases require divalent metal ions for catalytic function. These metal ions function in two separate active sites and are necessary for the ATPase and DNA cleavage/ligation activities of the enzymes. ATPase activity is required for the strand passage process and utilizes the metal-dependent binding and hydrolysis of ATP to drive structural rearrangements in the protein. Both the DNA cleavage and ligation activities of type II topoisomerases require divalent metal ions and appear to utilize a novel variant of the canonical two-metal-ion phosphotransferase/hydrolase mechanism to facilitate these reactions. This article will focus primarily on eukaryotic type II topoisomerases and the roles of metal ions in the catalytic functions of these enzymes.


Friction causes self-excited vibration, stick-slip vibration and any other friction-induced phenomena. That kinds of vibrations cause chatter and squeal. In order to predict such vibrations accurately, employing an accurate friction model is very important because a dynamic behavior of a system with friction is dominantly governed by a friction model. A Coulomb friction model is the most widely known model. Coulomb friction model is useful model to obtain analytical solutions of the system with friction and the model gives relatively good simulation result. However, defining a friction force at a stick state in simulation is hard because of the characteristic itself and a Coulomb friction model is discontinuous function between a static and a dynamic friction coefficient. Therefore, applying the Coulomb friction model to a simulation is not appropriate. In order to resolve these problems, an approximated Coulomb friction model was developed using simple and continuous function. However, an approximated Coulomb friction model cannot realize stick. Therefore, an approximated Coulomb friction model cannot describe friction phenomena accurately. In order to analyze a friction phenomenon accurately, a friction model for a simulation was proposed in this paper. A proposed friction model realizes stick and gives reasonably good results compared to results obtained by the simulation employing an approximated Coulomb friction model. Accuracy of a proposed friction model was verified by comparing experimental results.


This thesis discusses the Furniture Industry Development Feasibility Analysis of Supreme Naidoo districts Kampar District Kampar Kiri. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of the development of the furniture industry Masterpiece in Kampar District Kampar Kiri seen from the financial aspect. This is a descriptive quantitative research, which aims to illustrate to the reader and reveals a situation or problem, the events regarding the feasibility of the development of the furniture industry maha financial karya.Untuk using the net present value, internal rate of return, as well as the net benefit cost ratio. The results showed that the industry Furniture Masterpiece seen from the calculation of NPV calculation result is 339 847 120> o the business viable. BCR calculation results which scored 1.15> 1, then the effort feasible. IRR calculation result is 69.04% while the specified IRR is 65%, then the IRR calculation results> IRR specified, means an investment deserves. Based on the aspect of NPV, BCR and IRR accepted then the business is feasible to run.


Long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs) are RNA molecules longer than 200 nucleotides that are not translated into proteins, but regulate the transcription of genes involved in different cellular processes, including differentiation, cancer initiation and progression. The relevance of lncRNAs in the transcription field is beginning to be explored and their roles have been found to vary from guiding proteins to the genome to scaffolding proteins complexes needed for the transcription of a specific gene. Microarray analysis of normal breast of parous and nulliparous postmenopausal women revealed that lncRNAs are up-regulated in the parous breast [Int. J. Cancer: 131, 1059-1070, 2012]. Subsequently, RNA sequencing was performed to a subset of the samples, originally analyzed by microarray, to understand the role of lncRNAs in the regulation of transcription and their potential function in pregnancy9s preventive effect in reducing the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. In this work, RNA sequencing of healthy postmenopausal breast tissue biopsies from 8 parous and 8 nulliparous women using Illumina platform was performed. The sequencing results show that there are 42 lncRNAs differentially expressed between parous and nulliparous breast tissue. After analysis of these 42 lncRNAs using bioinformatics and thermodynamic filters, 11 lncRNAs were selected to be tested in vitro. Using RT-qPCR we have determined that the expression of these 11 lncRNAs is characteristic of each epithelial breast cancer cell subtype (luminal, basal and cells that overexpress HER2). These results indicate that these lncRNAs may be key targets to specifically study and potentially treat different types of breast cancers. Moreover, these lncRNAs are differentially expressed when breast tumor tissue and its adjacent normal tissue are compared. Consequently, the results in cancer/normal-like cell lines and tumor/adjacent normal tissue point to the potential of these lncRNAs as targets, not only for therapeutic approaches against breast cancer, but also as preventive measures for nulliparous women. This work provides novel information on lncRNAs differentially expressed in breast cells when comparing pregnancy versus the lack of a full term pregnancy, and also places lncRNAs as potential key regulators in cancer initiation and cancer progression. Determining their functions in both differentiation and cancer will render a comprehensive picture of their role in the human breast at the transcriptomic level. Furthermore, the manipulation of these lncRNAs can eventually lead to the development of therapeutics for breast cancer prevention. (This work was supported by NIH core grant CA06927 to Fox Chase Cancer Center) Citation Format: Maria Barton, Julia Santucci-Pereira, Theresa D. Nguyen, Jose Russo. Long noncoding RNAs in the breast of healthy women are detected in different subtypes of breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 164. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-164


Polyphonic pitch transcription consists of estimating the onset time, duration and pitch of each note in a music signal. This task is difficult in general, due to the wide range of possible instruments. This issue has been studied using adaptive models such as Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF), which describe the signal as a weighted sum of basis spectra. However basis spectra representing multiple pitches result in inaccurate transcription. To avoid this, we propose a family of constrained NMF models, where each basis spectrum is expressed as a weighted sum of narrowband spectra consisting of a few adjacent partials at harmonic or inharmonic frequencies. The model parameters are adapted via combined multiplicative and Newton updates. The proposed method is shown to outperform standard NMF on a database of piano excerpts.


Recent interest in the physics of non-perturbative light-matter coupling has led to the development of solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics setups in which the interaction energies are comparable with the bare ones. In such a regime the ground state of the coupled system is predicted to contain a population of virtual excitations which, notwithstanding having been object of many investigations, remain still unobserved. In this paper we propose a novel approach to the observation of virtual excitations. We consider asymmetric systems where virtual electronic transitions lead to static polarizations. The virtual population in the ground state can then be observed using the photonic equivalent of a Kelvin probe. We estimate the intensity of the effect in intersubband polariton systems and find it observable with present-day technology.


A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of intravenous methylprednisolone versus oral methylprednisolone at equivalent high dose was carried out on 35 patients with an acute relapse of multiple sclerosis (MS). After baseline evaluation each was randomly allocated to oral treatment and intravenous placebo or intravenous treatment and oral placebo, receiving 500 mg of methylprednisolone for five consecutive days and with reassessment at days five and twenty-eight. There was no significant difference in response when disability or functional scores were compared in the two groups. Adverse effects were minor and equally distributed. In this study oral treatment with methylprednisolone was as effective as intravenous treatment in acute relapse of MS.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the long-term results of tracheoesophageal puncture for Blom-Singer voice restoration after total laryngectomy and summarize our clinical experience of fifteen years.

METHOD
From 1986 to 2001, one hundred and thirty four cases with Blom-Singer technique after total laryngectomy for voice restoration were analyzed retrospectively. MDVP of Kay Elemetrics was used to analyze the acoustic parameters of eighteen cases with Blom-Singer indwelling voice prosthesis for 2-14 years.

RESULT
For all cases, the follow-up was two to fifteen years. From 1986 to 1989, seven of twelve cases were satisfied with their speech, the success rate was 58.3%. After the year of 1990, the success rate was 93.4% (114/122). The total success rate was 90.3% (121/134). The acoustic parameters of Blom-Singer indwelling voice prosthesis was far away from normal. The common complications included fistula granulations, infection, leakage.

CONCLUSION
The procedure of tracheoesophageal puncture for voice restoration is relatively simple and has low complications, high phonation success, good phonation quality, and steady long-term results, which is the best way to make laryngectomeel to speak. Pharyngoesophageal sphincter myotomy can raise the success rate of voice restoration by Blom-Singer indwelling voice prosthesis.


In this paper, a genetic-based algorithm is presented for optimal placement of phasor measurement units, which minimizes the number of the units and enhances the accuracy of the harmonic state estimation solutions. Also, weighted least square estimation is used for harmonic state estimation, which is based on singular value decomposition rather than the normal equations. The singular value decomposition approach eliminates the need of observability analysis prior to estimation. Optimal number and position of phasor measurement units among three different cases for harmonic state estimation in unbalanced distribution systems are compared. In first case, it is assumed that phasor measurement unit has enough channels to measure bus voltage phasor and all current phasors connected to this bus. In two other cases, phasor measurement unit has only single channel to measure a three-phase current. In one case, phasor measurement unit measured a current phasors along one branch that is connected to the bus, and in another case, phasor measurement unit measures three single phase current phasors along 1, 2 or 3 branches that are connected to the bus. The proposed algorithms for harmonic state estimation and optimal measurement placement are applied on a real 58-bus unbalanced distribution system and the results are presented.


Recently we published [ Liu et al. J. Chem. Phys. 2013 , 139 , 154312 ] an analysis of the rotational structure of the B̃-X̃ origin band spectrum of isopropoxy, which confirmed that the double methyl substitution of methoxy to yield the isopropoxy radical only slightly lifted the degeneracy of the former's X̃(2)E state. Additionally the spectral results provided considerable insight into the relativistic and nonrelativistic contributions to the experimental splitting between the components of the (2)E state. However, left unexplained was how the Jahn-Teller (JT) vibronic coupling terms within methoxy's (2)E state manifest themselves as pseudo-Jahn-Teller (pJT) vibronic coupling between the Ã(2)A″ and X̃(2)A' levels of isopropoxy. To cast additional light on this subject we have obtained new isopropoxy spectra and assigned a number of weak, "forbidden" vibronic transitions in the B̃-X̃ spectrum using new electronic structure calculations and rotational contour analyses. The mechanisms that provide the nonzero probability for these transitions shed considerable information on pJT, spin-orbit, and Coriolis coupling between the à and X̃ states. We also report a novel mechanism caused by pJT coupling that yields excitation probability to the B̃ state dependent upon the permanent dipole moments in the B̃ and à or X̃ states. By combining a new B̃-à and the earlier B̃-X̃ rotational analyses we determine a much improved value for the experimental Ã-X̃ separation.


Webster's dictionary offers numerous synonyms and related words for the word lead; the list includes words such as chief, commanding, first, foremost, high, preeminent, controlling, directing, reigning, sovereign, and superior. Some individuals (perhaps too many) in positions of authority rely very heavily on characteristics associated with these terms. Abusive leaders exploit their power and "lead" through intimidation and their ability to withhold rewards and distribute punishment. This article explores why some people are bad bosses and suggests six obligations of leaders who aspire to fulfilling the role of leadership done right.


Remodeling of the primary vascular system of the embryo into arteries and veins has long been thought to depend largely on the influence of hemodynamic forces. This view was recently challenged by the discovery of several molecules specifically expressed by arterial or venous endothelial cells. We here analysed the expression of neuropilin-1 and TIE2, two transmembrane receptors known to play a role in vascular development. In birds, neuropilin-1 was expressed by arterial endothelium and wall cells, but absent from veins. TIE2 was strongly expressed in embryonic veins, but only weakly transcribed in most arteries. To examine whether endothelial cells are committed to an arterial or venous fate once they express these specific receptors, we constructed quail-chick chimeras. The dorsal aorta, carotid artery and the cardinal and jugular veins were isolated together with the vessel wall from quail embryos between embryonic day 2 to 15 and grafted into the coelom of chick hosts. Until embryonic day 7, all grafts yielded endothelial cells that colonized both host arteries and veins. After embryonic day 7, endothelial plasticity was progressively lost and from embryonic day 11 grafts of arteries yielded endothelial cells that colonized only chick arteries and rarely reached the host veins, while grafts of jugular veins colonized mainly host veins. When isolated from the vessel wall, quail aortic endothelial cells from embryonic day 11 embryos were able to colonize both host arteries and veins. Our results show that despite the expression of arterial or venous markers the endothelium remains plastic with regard to arterial-venous differentiation until late in embryonic development and point to a role for the vessel wall in endothelial plasticity and vessel identity.


Conformal radiation therapy represents a considerable and attractive challenge in oncology. Its aim is mainly to improve local control by increasing the dose with an acceptable rate of complications. This work overviews the world literature on this subject. The technical and theoretical requirements are highlighted. These requirements include a precise definition of the target volume by digital imaging (essentially CT scan), but also clear view of the target volume and the organs at risk, a specific collimation of the beam, 3-D dose calculations, optimation procedures, and a rigid immobilization of the patient with verification of his position. Moreover, the clinical applications of conformal radiation therapy are reviewed and discussed.


Background:
Prevalence of psychosis is known to be higher in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) than in the general adult population. However, there have been no attempts to develop a psychosis screening tool specifically for the adult ID population. The present study describes the development and preliminary evaluation of a new measure, the Glasgow Psychosis Screening tool for use in Adults with Intellectual Disabilities (GPS-ID).

Method:
An item pool was generated following: 1) focus groups with adults with ID and psychosis, and their carers and/or workers; 2) expert input from clinicians. A draft scale was compiled and refined following expert feedback. The new scale, along with the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales was administered to 20 adults with ID (10 with and 10 without psychosis) and their relative or carers.

Results:
The GPS-ID total score, self-report subscale and informant rating-subscale differentiated psychosis and non-psychosis groups. The tool had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α=0.91), and a cut-off score ≥4 yielded high sensitivity (90%) and specificity (100%). The method of tool development supports face and content validity. Criterion validity was not supported.

Conclusions:
Preliminary investigation of the tool's psychometric properties is positive, although further investigation is required. The tool is accessible to adults with mild to moderate ID and can be completed in 15-30 minutes. The GPS-ID is not a diagnostic tool, therefore any adult exceeding the cut-off score of ≥4 should receive further assessment.


Chloride diffusivity of concrete is a crucial material parameter in service life modeling and durability designing of marine concrete. Many researches to deal with the issue have been accomplished. The ways for approach were very various from the empirical solution obtained by experimental result to image analysis to consider multi-scale modeling. One of the simpliest ways is to express this as a multi-factor function from the practical point of view, however, the effects of affecting factors on the chloride diffusivity of concrete were ambiguous in previous studies. Furthermore, the majority of these researches have not dealt with this issue combined with carbonation of concrete, although carbonation can significantly impact on the chloride diffusivity of concrete. The purpose of this study is to establish a fundamental approach to compute the chloride diffusivity of (non)carbonated concrete. The chloride diffusivity of concrete should be defined, based on the engineering and scientific knowledge of cement and concrete. The affecting parameters for chloride diffusivity are diffusivity in pore solution, tortuosity, micro-structural properties of hardened cement paste, volumetric portion of aggregate, and so on. These are taken into account in the calculation of the chloride diffusivity of noncarbonated concrete. For carbonated concrete, reduced porosity due to carbonation is calculated and this is used for calculating the chloride diffusivity. The results are compared with experimental data and published study.


Effects of variation in the ocean environment on abundance of northern short-finned squid (Illex illecebrosus) in the northwest Atlantic Ocean were investigated using a multiple regression model. A catch-based abundance index from two Canadian fishery areas was used as the dependent variable in time series analysis. Simple correlation analysis was used to select environmental indices. A model based on a 73-year time series of catch and meteorological data suggested that atmospheric forcing was related to squid abundance. Two other models were explored using a shorter (25-year) time series, which included an ocean temperature index and a Gulf Stream position index. One model utilized the catch-based index, whereas the other used a fishery-independent survey index as the dependent variable. All analyses indicated that squid abundance was positively related to a favourable oceanographic regime associated with a negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index (weak winter northwesterly winds), high water temperatures off Newfoundland and a southward shift in the position of the Gulf Stream and the boundary between the shelf waters and the offshore slope waters. In addition, increased meandering of the Gulf Stream appears to promote increased abundance, probably through enhanced shoreward transport of squid. Environmental relationships with squid indices are believed to reflect effects of broad-scale winter atmospheric circulation patterns on Gulf Stream dynamics, which largely regulate year-class strength of the dominant winter-spawning group early in life.


Australian sea lions Neophoca cinerea are endemic to Australia, with their contemporary distribution restricted to South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA). Monitoring of the species has proved challenging due to prolonged breeding events that occur non-annually and asynchronously across their range. The most recent available data from 80 extant breeding sites (48 in SA, 32 in WA) enabled us to estimate the species-wide pup abundance to be 2739, with 82% (2246) in SA and 18% (493) in WA, mostly based on surveys conducted between 2014 and 2019. We evaluated 1776 individual site-surveys undertaken between 1970 and 2019 and identified admissible time-series data from 30 breeding sites, which revealed that pup abundance declined on average by 2.0% yr−1 (range 9.9% decline to 1.7% growth yr−1). The overall reduction in pup abundance over 3 generations (42.3 yr) was estimated to be 64%, with over 98% of Monte Carlo simulations producing a decline >50% over a 3-generation period, providing strong evidence that the species meets IUCN 'Endangered' criteria (decline ≥50% and ≤80%). The population is much smaller than previously estimated and is declining. There is a strong cline in regional abundances (increasing from west to east), with marked within-region heterogeneity in breeding site pup abundances and trends. Results from this study should improve consistency in the assessment of the species and create greater certainty among stakeholders about its conservation status. To facilitate species management and recovery, we prioritise key data gaps and identify factors to improve population monitoring.


Based on the panel data of 75 commercial banks in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper uses four methods: mixed estimation, fixed effect, differential moment estimation and system moment estimation, to examine the impact of leverage ratio regulation on commercial bank risks and the influence of heterogeneity of commercial banks on regulatory effectiveness. We found that, first, the supervision of leverage ratio effectively reduces the risks of Chinese commercial banks; second, the heterogeneity of Chinese commercial banks will lead to differences in regulatory effects. For banks that are listed with lower capital levels and have higher risk preference, leverage ratio regulation has a stronger inhibitory effect on bank risks. On this basis, it is recommended that the regulators implement differentiated supervisory measures for commercial banks with different capital levels and risk reference while strengthening supervision of leverage.


Composite structures have become a significant part of modern lightweight aircrafts. Contrary to the aluminum panels such structures are susceptible to catastrophic failure without noticeable forewarnings. One possible way of preventing catastrophic failures is integrating health monitoring systems in the critical composite structures of the aircraft. Ultrasonic resonance inspection is especially suitable for the inspection of multilayered composite structures. In our previous works we have described the principle of narrow-band ultrasonic spectroscopy (NBUS), where the surface of an inspected structure is scanned with a resonant transducer whose frequency response is monitored in a narrow frequency band. It has been proven that the NBUS method is capable of detecting both artificial disbonds and real impact defects in carbon fiber composites. In this paper we present design guidelines for optimizing narrow-band electromechanical impedance (NBE/MI) sensors that are to be integrated with a monitored composite structure. The NBE/MI sensor takes the form of a piezoelectric element bonded to the monitored structure. Parameter variations in the inspected structure result in the respective variations of the electrical impedance (admittance) of the piezoelectric sensor. Relation between the state of the inspected structure and the sensor's admittance is estimated using the network representation. Conclusions concerning the proper choice of the operating frequencies suitable for various structures are presented.


Setting the nurse's sighted tasks and clarifying communicative lines and their purposes help effectively to establish appropriate working conditions. Approved nurse's sighted tasks are sensible and necessary for all nursing rankings and levels. Regarding this, a research for determining the nurses' awareness about nursing sighted tasks was conducted in internal and surgical wards in Tabriz selected hospitals. This survey was a descriptive study. 298 nurses were studied through a questionnaire that contained 40 questions in the form of self - reporting check list. 21 questions of 40 questions of the questionnaire were nursing sighted tasks; 19 ones were not. Reliability of the test was analyzed by SPSS14 statistical software during the study on 20 nurses. Inner correlation coefficient of questioner was 0.88. Most of the nurses were female (90.3%) and 69.5% married. 98.7% bachelor in nursing, and 90.9% of the nurses had BSc in nursing, 60.7% were under the professional responsibility insurance, and worked as nurses, respectively. The averages of nurses' ages and working background in nursing profession were 5.9 +/- 33.6 years and 73.13 +/- 108.3 months, respectively. Most of the nurses had average awareness about nursing sighted tasks, and Just 7.4% and 11.4% had low and good awareness. 67.4% and 29.9% of the subjects had known the presence of nursing duties composition very necessary and necessary. Overall, 97.3% of them have known the presence of duties composition very necessary and essential, and so these ones tended to be aware of their duties composition. Just 24.2% of the nurses had stated that there exists nursing duties composition. These cases can indicate the low level in-service education periods and also low nurses academic educations in this field. There are often ambiguous points in nursing activities which are arisen from working interferences with the other medicine professions in hospitals. Nurses are expected to do some procedure which is not their sighted tasks or they have not been trained enough about. Nurses ` activities in the affairs out of their sighted tasks and have done by system pressure have frequently led to complain of the nurses, and so this issue faces the nurses with so many difficulties. Esmaeili Vardanjani SA, Mohajjel Aghdam AR, Sohrabi M, Malekpoor P, Dadkhah D, Alinejad H. Employed nurse's awareness about sighted tasks. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):5501-5505] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 815


We consider a system of weakly coupled Rashba nanowires in the strong spin-orbit interaction (SOI) regime. The nanowires are arranged into two tunnel-coupled layers proximitized by a top and bottom superconductor such that the superconducting phase difference between them is $\pi$. We show that in such a system strong electron-electron interactions can stabilize a helical topological superconducting phase hosting Kramers partners of $\mathbb{Z}_{2m}$ parafermion edge modes, where $m$ is an odd integer determined by the position of the chemical potential. Furthermore, upon turning on a weak in-plane magnetic field, the system is driven into a second-order topological superconducting phase hosting zero-energy $\mathbb{Z}_{2m}$ parafermion bound states localized at two opposite corners of a rectangular sample. As a special case, zero-energy Majorana corner states emerge in the non-interacting limit $m=1$, where the chemical potential is tuned to the SOI energy of the single nanowires.


Background and aims Acute rotavirus infection constitutes a serious health issue both nationally and worldwide, accounting for numerous cases in children, especially under the age of 5. Presently, due to the polymorphic clinical presentation of acute rotavirus infection in children, many authors have described the concept of rotaviral disease. Objective In this study we propose to analyse cases of acute rotavirus infection in children with the aim of identifying extra-intestinal manifestations. Material and method We conducted a retrospective study on cases of acute rotavirus infection in children who were hospitalised in the Paediatric Department of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases 'Prof. Dr. Matei Bals' during 2013–2016. In these cases we have analysed the following parameters: age, sex, and background. We have also analysed the clinical forms of the disease and the extra-intestinal manifestations of the rotavirus infection. The diagnosis was established through rapid antigen testing from stool samples and PCR from urine, nasopharyngeal swabs, and CSF. Results In the aforementioned period, we have registered 1028 cases of acute rotavirus infection in children. No deaths were registered and all cases had a favourable evolution. Most affected were male patients, those who belonged to the 1–4 years age group and children from urban areas. 10.4% of all cases had extra-intestinal manifestations. Respiratory, hepatic, cutaneous and neurological manifestations were the most encountered. The most severe extra-intestinal complications were neurological, accompanied by sequelae (seizures, retard, hypotonia). Conclusions Acute rotavirus infection is a frequent among preschool children and can take severe disease clinical forms with extra-intestinal manifestations. The neurological complications are the most severe complications of the paediatric rotavirus infection.


SUMMARY Several countries have noticed not only the adoption of body change strategies by males, but these may respond to different purposes: weight loss, weight gain and increased muscle tone or muscle mass. Nevertheless, instruments that allow the assessment of these aspects in a differentially way are scanty. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to obtain the Spanish version of the Body Modification Scale (BMS), as well as to examine its psychometric properties in adolescent men. The first study included the translation, adjustment and piloting of the BMS; internal consistency and factor structure were evaluated with 270 adolescents (Mage=12.84); 171 of them participated in retest. The second study was conducted to prove, in an independent sample (n=200; Mage=13.46), the adequacy of the factor structure derived from the original. The Spanish version of the BMS indicated to have adequate internal consistency (=.88) and test-retest reliability (r=.80). The exploratory factor analysis derived initially four factors, showing conceptual overlap between two of them; therefore, it was opted to replicate the analysis performing an extraction to three factors. These explained 44.1% of the variance, grouping 20 of the 24 original items. The loss weight and increased muscle tone or muscle mass factors showed adequate reliability (>.86; r>.80), resulting substantially lower the weight gain factor (.63 and .74, respectively). The confirmatory factor analysis supported the adequacy of both structures; however, the model here proposed showed a better fit. In general, the Spanish version of the BMS showed adequate psychometric properties in adolescent men. Nevertheless, this should be corroborated not only in other ages, but also in women.


We present intersubband absorption saturation studies in InGaAs-AlAsSb quantum wells. We carried out a density matrix calculation to simulate the pulsed excitation condition after including the dephasing time and the short pulse profile to estimate the saturation intensity (I/sub S/). We compare the calculated results with measurements for both resonant and nonresonant excitation. We also present our results on the effect of pulsewidth on Is estimation.


The INRiM 1 MN deadweight force standard machine (DFSM) was installed in 1995. It adopts a binary sequence of ten weights whose combinations generate forces up to 1 MN. The advantage of this system lies in the self-calibration of its weights. The procedure is based on the comparison between two forces generated by a single weight and by a group of smaller weights, nominally equal. After 25 years, a verification of the DFSM was performed. Results are within the declared CMC limits, i.e. a relative expanded uncertainty of 2 × 10-5.


The potential of digital gaming to facilitate foreign language (FL) learning has been established in many empirical investigations; however, the pedagogical implications of these investigations remain rather limited. A potential reason for this limitation is that the FL learning potential of digital games is embedded in the gaming ecology and shaped by different forces in that ecology. However, to date most empirical studies in the field have focused primarily on the linguistic behavior of gamers rather than the gaming ecology. A potential reason for this is the lack of a robust methodological approach to examining game-based language use as an ecological, multidimensional activity. To address this research gap, this chapter proposes the diamond reconstruction model, a dynamic, multidimensional, and ecology-sensitive approach to de- and re-constructing game-based FL use. Grounded in theories of gameplay, and informed by a conceptual model of game-based FL use, the model reconstructs gameplay episodes by gathering detail-rich data on social, cognitive, and virtual dimensions.


Neural networks are getting deeper and more computation-intensive nowadays. Quantization is a useful technique in deploying neural networks on hardware platforms and saving computation costs with negligible performance loss. However, recent research reveals that neural network models, no matter full-precision or quantized, are vulnerable to adversarial attacks. In this work, we analyze both adversarial and quantization losses and then introduce criteria to evaluate them. We propose a boundary-based retraining method to mitigate adversarial and quantization losses together and adopt a nonlinear mapping method to defend against white-box gradient-based adversarial attacks. The evaluations demonstrate that our method can better restore accuracy after quantization than other baseline methods on both black-box and white-box adversarial attacks. The results also show that adversarial training suffers quantization loss and does not cooperate well with other training methods.


ANGIOGRAPHIC VISUALIZATION of the coronary arteries, although valuable, has risks and complications. These have been well-documented for transbrachial and transfemoral approaches.'`2 Coronary artery dissection,3 coronary artery thromboembolism2 and introduction of detritus into the circulation with potential coronary thromboembolism5-7 have been observed. The transfemoral approach allows for a stable catheter position without the technical complexity of surgical arterial exposure, and allows direction of the catheter through a relatively tissue-free femoral space. However, this space is surrounded by a number of skeletal muscles (fig. 1). Adherence of skeletal muscle to the catheter tip is remotely possible, and occurred in the following case. We do not believe any such complication has been previously reported.


Hemicellulose, the second, most common polysaccharide in nature constitutes approximately 20—35% of lignocellulosic biomass. Effective utilization of biomass, hitherto underutilized, is gaining tremendous importance for the production of energy, fuels, and chemicals. Amongst the vast array of chemicals derived from lignocellulosics, furfural is the key chemical that finds wide applications in oil refining, plastics, pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. There is no synthetic route for the production of furfural. A few conventional technologies currently in practice for its separation and subsequent isolation are appropriately reviewed. Major disadvantages associated with processes currently used for the production of furfural based on acid‐catalyzed hydrolysis have been discussed. A need to develop a process which is devoid of all the shortcomings associated with conventional process is emphasized. Several important aspects of chemistry underlying the acid hydrolysis of xylose are discussed. The importance of myriad pre‐treatment steps involved to surmount the physical and chemical barriers and to liberate xylose from the confines of acid‐resistant layer of lignin has been emphasized. New developments in the production of furfural from cyclodehydration of xylose using solid acid catalysts in the recent past have been reviewed appropriately in present communication. Finally, the production of furfural and furfuryl alcohol, their domestic market and export in China deserve some coverage and therefore have appropriately been discussed as well. © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd


Dynamic response of structures can be analyzed in terms of the propagation of input energy within the structure. Energy propagation is quantified by energy flux (EF), which is the amount of energy transmitted per unit time through a cross section of a medium. The formulation of EF is similar to the formulation of wave propagation in structures. It involves tracking the propagation path of the input energy and the energy loss due to damping within the elements of the structure. The EF approach introduces a new tool to evaluate the dynamic response and the energy absorption capacity of structures, providing an alternative parameter for the design of structures for dynamic loads. This article presents the theoretical basis for the methodology and gives a numerical example for the EF analysis of a plane frame structure under earthquake loads.


In complex and weakly structured domains, decision makers often employ multiple techniques, including quantitative modeling and reasoning from past experiences, to address the problem at hand. As such, there has been a call for more research on developing systems that merge problem-solving approaches, such as reasoning from past experiences, with other paradigms to provide support for both the unstructured and structured aspects of the decision-making process. Development of these systems is dependent on acquiring and modeling the knowledge and expertise inherent in the process and then representing and implementing it in an appropriate form. However, in weakly structured domains, knowledge acquisition may be better described as knowledge 'co-creation' in which the expert and system builder work together to understand the process and lend as much structure to it as possible. In this paper, we propose that the integration of principles drawn from the paradigms of case-base reasoning, expert systems, and object-oriented programming facilitates this process by providing a powerful approach to acquire and model knowledge in a weakly structured domain. We demonstrate this approach through the development of a system designed to assist a decision maker in the performance of a difficult, somewhat unstructured design and planning task.  1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Due to their noise-like features, SAR images are difficult to acquire with compressed sensing techniques. However, some parts of the images, typically associated to man-made structures, are compressible and we investigate two techniques exploiting that information to allow a compressive acquisition of the whole image. These techniques result in a significant enhancement of the image quality compared to classical compressed sensing. Moreover, compared to classical sampling and quantisation of the SAR raw data, they allow a significant reduction of bitrate with a limited increase of the distortion. However, their efficiency depends strongly on the presence of compressible parts in the image.


Public sentiments in online debates, discussions, comments are crucial to governmental agencies for passing new bills/policy, gauging upheaval, predicting elections, etc. However, to leverage the sentiments expressed in social opinions, we face two major challenges: (1) fine-grained opinion mining, and (2) filtering opinion spam to ensure credible opinion mining.
We start with mining opinions from social conversations. We focus on fine-grained sentiment dimensions like agreement (I'd agree), disagreement (I refute). This is a major departure from the traditional polar (positive/negative) sentiments (e.g., good, nice vs. poor, bad) in standard opinion mining. In the domain of debates, joint topic and sentiment models are proposed to discover disagreement and agreement expressions, and contention points/topics both at the discussion level and also at the individual post level. Proposed models also encode interactions among discussants through quoting and replying relations..
Next, we address the problem of semantic incoherence in aspect extraction by knowledge induction using seeds. Seeds are certain user defined coarse groupings which guide the modeling process. Specifically, we build over topic models to propose novel aspect specific sentiment models guided by aspect seeds.
The later part of this thesis proposes solutions for detecting opinion spam. Opinion spam refers to "illegitimate" human activities (e.g., writing fake reviews) that try to mislead readers by giving undeserving opinions/ratings to some entities (e.g., hotels, products) to promote/demote them. We address two problems in opinion spam. First is the problem of group spam, i.e., a group of spammers working in collusion. A novel relational ranking algorithm called GSRank is proposed for ranking spam groups based on mutual-reinforcement.
The second problem is opinion spam detection in the absence of labeled data. The situation is important as it is hard and erroneous to manually label fake reviews or reviewers. Our solution is based on the hypothesis that spammers differ markedly from others on behavioral dimensions which creates a distributional divergence between two (latent) population clusters: spammers and non-spammers. Modeling spamicity of users as "latent" with observed behavioral footprints, novel generative models are proposed for detecting opinion spam/fraud.


Modification of the hard jet substructure in terms of the Soft Drop jet grooming algorithm observables is studied for three different scenarios of jet quenching in a quark-gluon plasma: i) an explicit enhancement of the parton splitting functions, ii) increased soft gluon emissions induced by an in-medium virtuality gain, and iii) energy loss due to a drag force. Despite the fact that first two scenarios both correspond to a radiative energy loss mechanism and lead to similar modifications of parton showers, they are shown to have very different impacts on the momentum balance of hard subjets. Simulations for heavy-ion collisions based on the second scenario are presented and found to be in a good agreement with the experimental data.


Limia islai, new species of livebearing fish, is described from Lake Miragoane in southwestern Haiti on Hispaniola. The new species herein described has a conspicuous barred pattern consistent in several (4 to 12) black bars along the body, ray 4p serrae of the gonopodium in males with 10 segments and origin of dorsal fin in females slightly behind of origin of anal fin. Although the new species color pattern is similar to the Humpbacked Limia Limia nigrofasciata Regan 1913, L. islai sp. nov. has exclusive morphological features, such as slender body, lack of hump anterior to dorsal fin in males and presence of specific features in the gonopodial suspensory, which allow an unambiguous diagnosis from L. nigrofasciata. Limia islai further differs from L. nigrofasciata in reproductive behavior since L. islai males rely on sneak copulations and gonopodial thrusting, whereas L. nigrofasciata display an elaborate courtship behavior. The new species is also genetically distinct in both nuclear (Rh, Myh6) and mitochondrial (12S, ND2, D-loop, Cytb) genes from other species in the genus showing reciprocal monophyly. The description of this new Limia species from Lake Miragoane confirms this lake as an important center of endemism for the genus with a total of eight endemic species described so far. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.