Psychobiography- if it has to be reductionist? Lucy in the mind of Lennon as an example of a bridge between the humanities and psychology

In the article I will present Tim Kasser's psychobiography entitled Lucy in the Mind of Lennon as an example of a non-psychoanalytical psychobiography that is multidisciplinary. Psychobiography will also be treated here as an opportunity for the humanities and psychology to come closer, and this rapprochement will be presented from the perspective of the humanities. At the same time, I would like to point out that psychobiography may come close to the assumptions of empirically oriented disciplines. In a broader context, the article also introduces the reader to the contemporary approach to psychobiography, as well as a discussion with previous ways of presenting it.


The city is a significant level of geography at which to examine the economic, political and social implications of austerity. We consider how the financial crisis originated in the urban and became part of a broader state crisis with consequences for cities. We then explore political implications that include the undermining of democratic processes and the rise of new 'austerity' regimes. We also consider implications for key social groups. Arguments are illustrated with evidence from North American and European cities. Finally, we explain how scholars have theorised the situation, which in turn sets the stage for policy and political solutions to the present crisis.


In internet of things (IoT) paradigm, crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining and analyzing information or input to a particular task or project generated by a number of sources such as sensors, mobile devices, vehicles and human. Cloud computing is widely used for the services such as analyzing crowdsourced data and application implementation over the IoT. Nowadays, every country and human are prone to natural and artificial disasters. Early detection about disasters such as earthquakes, fire, storms, and floods can save thousands of people's life and effective preventive measure can be taken for the public safety. All the crowdsourced data which are providing the information of a certain geographic region are analyzed in a cloud platform. But, by the time the crowdsourced data makes its way to the cloud for analysis, the opportunity to act on it might be gone. Moreover, thousands of people's life will be lost. Therefore, fog computing is the new and efficient way to analyze such critical crowdsourced IoT data of disasters. In this paper, in order to detect and take necessary steps for public safety during a disaster, we propose a crowdsourcing-based disaster management using fog computing (CDMFC) model in IoT. Further, we also proposed a data offloading mechanism for our CDMFC model to send disaster-related IoT data to the fog even if a direct link to the fog is not available. Our proposed CDMFC model and its data offloading mechanism can detect real-time disasters and disseminate early information for public safety as compared to the conventional cloud computing based disaster management models.


The number of bone fractures and cracks requiring surgical interventions increases every year; hence, there is a huge need to develop new potential bone scaffolds for bone regeneration. The goal of this study was to gain knowledge about the basic properties of novel curdlan/whey protein isolate/hydroxyapatite biomaterials in the context of their use in bone tissue engineering. The purpose of this research was also to determine whether the concentration of whey protein isolate in scaffolds has an influence on their properties. Thus, two biomaterials differing in the concentration of whey protein isolate (i.e., 25 wt.% and 35 wt.%; hereafter called Cur_WPI25_HAp and Cur_WPI35_HAp, respectively) were fabricated and subjected to evaluation of porosity, mechanical properties, swelling ability, protein release capacity, enzymatic biodegradability, bioactivity, and cytocompatibility towards osteoblasts in vitro. It was found that both biomaterials fulfilled a number of requirements for bone scaffolds, as they demonstrated limited swelling and the ability to undergo controllable enzymatic biodegradation, to form apatite layers on their surfaces and to support the viability, growth, proliferation, and differentiation of osteoblasts. On the other hand, the biomaterials were characterized by low open porosity, which may hinder the penetration of cells though their structure. Moreover, they had low mechanical properties compared to natural bone, which limits their use to filling of bone defects in non-load bearing implantation areas, e.g., in the craniofacial area, but then they will be additionally supported by application of mechanically strong materials such as titanium plates. Thus, this preliminary in vitro research indicates that biomaterials composed of curdlan, whey protein isolate, and hydroxyapatite seem promising for bone tissue engineering applications, but their porosity and mechanical properties should be improved. This will be the subject of our further work.


The importance of health care is obvious, and so are the advantages that information and communication technology is bringing to health care, its quality, its availability and its affordability. Equally important, however, is security. Security for health care information systems is not only a technical matter, it is a social goal to be achieved and to be maintained by acknowledging the social values in which such systems operate, such as the essential relationship of trust between the patient and the doctor and individual as well as collective privacy, values which find their expression in the normative environment of these systems. As the report shows, observing security from this perspective, in time, turns legal requirements from obstacles to assets for successful implementation and acceptance. This volume is the result of a collaborative European effort; collaborative across national and linguistic boundaries, collaborative as regards the disciplines involved in its production, and collaborative as it concerns the various sub-disciplines of law dealing with these issues. With this broad approach the report represents another essential element for the future of health care information systems in our societies: health care information systems will reflect the increasing mobility of the European citizens, the diversity of the services they will expect within Europe, the information and communication needs these services will produce and the complex legal environment in which they have to operate. As recently shown by the European Directive on data protection and by the efforts of establishing a European system of secure transactions, in this context too, the legal environment is the expression of common expectations as regards the values to be observed in the European information and communication society. The report addresses these issues, bridging the disciplines, providing policy tools for project leaders and for decision makers in the Health Telematics field.


An efficient synthesis of enantiopure (R)-heteroarylpyrimidine analogs is described here, which involves introduction of a chiral group, formation and separation of diasteroisomers and final transformation of an amide to an ester. The absolute configuration of the enantiopure HAPs is confirmed by X-ray analysis of their intermediates.


In the dog, secretion of the resting pancreas is affected little if at all by sodium dehydrocholate. On the other hand, secretin-stimulated pancreatic secretion is increased greatly by this bile salt; double vagotomy did not change this effect. The stimulating effect of the bile salt on secretin-stimulated pancreatic secretion was diminished greatly when both substances were mixed and administered immediately. There is a difference between effects of different brands of sodium dehydrocholate on the stimulated secretion of the dog9s pancreas.


We present a series of 33 consecutive patients treated with lengthening osteotomy due to malunited extra-articular fractures of the distal radius. Thirty-one patients were able for long-term follow-up a median (range) of seven (2–20) years after the procedure. The indication for reconstruction was mainly impaired function of the wrist. Both the anatomy and function were improved significantly postoperatively. The median radial length improved 5 mm, the radial tilt 25°, and the radial inclination improved 9°. The median improvement of forearm supination was 20°, pronation 10°, dorsal wrist flexion 10°, and volar flexion 20°. Twenty-two of 29 patients (76%) rated the functional results as good or excellent. The functional results were significantly better postoperatively, but the results were still better on the uninjured side. The grip strength on the operated hand was 82% of the uninjured hand, and the median postoperative DASH-score was 21. In five patients the graft resorbed (one fracture of the plate) and needed reoperation. All eventually healed and the anatomical and functional results were good. Another patient had symptomatic osteoarthrosis and later had a full wrist fusion. We conclude that every effort should be made to prevent malunion in the treatment of distal radius fractures, because even after anatomical correction, function is not restored fully in all patients.


Because temperatures are relatively high and it rains a lot in the region, mineral soils in the southeastern United States tend to be naturally acidic. Managing soils for both pH and nutrients helps maintain soil fertility levels and ensure economic agricultural production. If they are not maintained in the 6.0 to 6.5 pH range, which is best for most crops, most mineral soils in the Southeast will gradually return to their natural acidic state and their fertility levels will drop. In order to keep the soil in the right range, farmers have been encouraged to make routine applications of lime. Calibrated lime requirement tests are part of standard soil tests in this region, but getting the balance right can be tricky. This 4-page fact sheet explains the factors that contribute to increased soil pH and describes methods for reducing soil pH that will reduce the chances of either under- or over-liming the soil. Written by Rao Mylavarapu, George Hochmuth, Cheryl Mackowiak, Alan Wright, and Maria Silevira and published by the Soil and Water Science Department, January 2016.
SL437/SS651: Lowering Soil pH to Optimize Nutrient Management and Crop Production (ufl.edu)


Summary

1.  Thirgood & Redpath (2008) propose ways in which red grouse : hen harrier conflicts could be resolved. It has also been suggested that grouse management could accept lower bag sizes (number of birds shot) thus reducing the need for intensive management of predators and habitats. This would allow hen harriers to co-exist more easily on grouse moors.

2.  We compare the bags, costs and incomes from these less intensive forms of grouse shooting with the more intensive driven shooting.

3.  Allowing high density grouse moors to decline to low density ones will result in greater loss of income than the corresponding saving of costs. This can result in moor owners abandoning grouse management and thus gamekeepers losing their employment.

4.  Losing gamekeepers from the uplands would jeopardize the protection of heather moorland and Special Protection Areas for birds, large areas of which are keepered and which currently support high numbers of breeding waders.

5.  Synthesis and applications. We agree with the study by Thirgood & Redpath that consideration of social and economic factors will be needed to resolve conflict but a reduction in management effort from driven to walked-up shooting is not the answer. A more satisfactory approach to the harrier : grouse conflict could be to try to reduce harrier predation by means of diversionary feeding and to address the problem of the rapid build-up in harrier numbers by exploring the use of a ceiling on harrier densities.


Introduction: Morphological variations in coronoid process are produced by the corresponding developmental variations. The present study was conducted to assess morphological variations of coronoid process of mandible. Subjects and Methods: The present study was conducted in the department of Anatomy. It comprised of 100 subjects of both genders. All subjects were subjected to panoramic radiograph. The different shapes of coronoid process were compared. Results: Out of 100 subjects males were 50 and females were 50. Triangular shape coronoid process was seen in 32 males and 36 females, hook shaped in 14 males and 8 females and rounded shaped in 4 males and 6 females. The difference was non- significant (P> 0.05). On left side triangular shape was seen in 33 and 35 on right side, hook form was seen in 10 in left side and 7 in right side and rounded was seen 7 in left side and 8 in right side. The difference was non-significant (P> 0.05). Conclusion: Authors found variation in shape of coronoid process. Most common type was triangular followed by hook variety.


CSPro (Census and Survey Processing System) is a software p ackage used recently in many large scale surveys for data collection. This software often used as desktop software has been used for the first time as a web service for resolving some problems encountered in the first wave of the Morocco Household Panel Survey (MHSP). The article will outline the Survey Management Web Platform that has been developed based on web 2.0 technologies for both integrating the CSPro web service control and centralizing the data files collection from survey fields.


In the discussion of the EU as an international actor, one of the important aspects is foreign policy coherence. One of the instruments of foreign policy is public diplomacy which in the network society is often embodied in the form of digital diplomacy – use of information technologies for achieving diplomatic goals through reaching the networks of information consumers in the Internet. The significance of digital diplomacy for the EU was outlined by numerous politicians and researchers and has actualized after the events in Ukraine when the refusal of the government to sign the Association Agreement led to the wave of escalating protests, overthrow of the President, a deep political crisis and territorial losses (annexation of the Crimea by Russia). The EU digital diplomacy has been actively embodied in this process, but sometimes it appeared to be not an example of a concerted action. The aim of this article is to verify the horizontal coherence of the EU social media diplomacy in the case of the EU–Ukraine relations. The results allow us to conclude that, despite some minor failures (some unsuited rhetoric, lack of references to each other and of interactivity), on the horizontal level the EU is mostly coherent in maintaining its digital diplomacy, which allows to speak about its succeeding in selfpresentation as an international actor in the Internet communication.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the relative efficacy and morbidity of Ho:YAG versus Nd:YAG laser treatment of bullous lung disease in an animal model.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
Laser coagulation procedures for treatment of emphysematous pulmonary bullae and heterogeneous emphysema continue to evolve. The role of lasers in lung volume reduction surgery remains controversial due to issues of relative efficacy and morbidity. The Nd:YAG laser is most commonly used for these procedures. We hypothesized that the shallower penetration of the Ho:YAG laser may be better suited for laser bullae coagulation and emphysema lung volume reduction with increased efficacy and reduced lung injury.

METHODS
Thirty New Zealand White rabbits (15 normal rabbits; 15 with bullous lung disease) were evaluated with Ho:YAG compared to Nd:YAG laser exposures. Bullae were coagulated by either Ho:YAG or Nd:YAG treatment. In all animals (bullous-induced and normals), unaffected lung tissue in the upper lobes and contralateral lungs were treated with 5 spot exposures of Nd:YAG and Ho:YAG, each to assess depth of lung injury. Animals were sacrificed at Days 0, 7, and 21 and their lungs were examined histologically.

RESULTS
Ho:YAG and Nd:YAG exposures caused equivalent lung injury to normal lung tissue. In the acute phase, parenchymal necrosis depth was similar for both Ho:YAG and Nd:YAG (850 +/- 273 microns vs. 900 +/- 270 microns respectively, p = 0.7). By Day 7, lung necrosis depth was 925 +/- 133 microns Ho:YAG vs. 1225 +/- 235 microns Nd:YAG (p = 0.33), and lung fibrosis depth was 300 +/- 134 microns Ho:YAG vs. 558 +/- 127 microns Nd:YAG (p = 0.11). By Day 21, pulmonary parenchymal necrosis was not seen. Pleural fibrosis depth was maximal at Day 21, reaching 250 +/- 102 microns for Ho:YAG vs. 300 +/- 156 microns Nd:YAG (P = 0.88). Pleural necrosis depth was 67 +/- 42 microns Ho:YAG vs 48 +/- 34 microns Nd:YAG (p = 0.42) on Day 7 and resolved by Day 21. During surgical coagulation procedures, the Ho:YAG laser was dramatically more efficient in coagulating bullae. The Ho:YAG laser required less exposure at equivalent power and resulted in immediate desiccation of bullae, in sharp contrast to the Nd:YAG laser.

CONCLUSIONS
Because the Ho:YAG was more effective and did not result in more acute lung injury than the standard Nd:YAG laser in this study, Ho:YAG lasers may have improved potential for laser treatment of bullae or lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) compared to Nd:YAG lasers.


Most cataracts are related to aging. By age 80, more than half of all Americans either have a cataract or have experienced cataract surgery. Although this editorial does not have any direct relationship to cardiovascular medicine, it may have some applicability with your patients, many of whom may be older rather than younger, and have cardiovascular disease in addition to visual problems perhaps due to cataracts.


We report observations of stripe pattern formation in the gas-liquid expanded-phase coexistence region of Langmuir monolayers of D-myristoyl alanine. This system is unique in that it does not require the addition of line-active materials as in previous experiments by Keller et al. (J. Phys. Chem., 90 (1986) 2311) and Seul et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., 64 (1990) 1903), and is also not complicated by long-range molecular anisotropy. The domain of existence of the stripe phase within the phase diagram has been established and its spatial periodicity measured as a function of the liquid-phase fraction. Our results compare satisfactorily with the theoretical predictions based on the competition between line tension and dipolar repulsion among the molecules.


We present a protocol to deterministically prepare the electromagnetic field in a large photon number state. The field starts in a coherent state and, through resonant interaction with one or few two-level systems, it evolves into a coherently displaced Fock state without any postselection. We show the feasibility of the scheme under realistic parameters. The presented method opens a door to reach Fock states, with n∼100 and optimal fidelities above 70%, blurring the line between macroscopic and quantum states of the field.


In this paper we study the formation and dynamics of self-propelled cavity solitons (CSs) in a model for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) subjected to external frequency-selective feedback and build their bifurcation diagram for the case where carrier dynamics is eliminated. For low pump currents, we find that they emerge from the modulational instability point of the trivial solution, where traveling waves with a critical wave number are formed. For large currents, the branch of self-propelled solitons merges with the branch of resting solitons via a pitchfork bifurcation. We also show that a feedback phase variation of (2) can transform a CS (whether resting or moving) into a different one associated to an adjacent longitudinal external cavity mode. Finally, we investigate the influence of the carrier dynamics, relevant for VCSELs. We find and analyze qualitative changes in the stability properties of resting CSs when increasing the carrier relaxation time. In addition to a drifting instability of resting CSs, a distinctive kind of instability appears for certain ranges of carrier lifetime, leading to a swinging motion of the CS center position. Furthermore, for carrier relaxation times typical of VCSELs the system can display multistability of CSs.


Online tools provide unique access to research students' study habits and problem-solving behavior. In MOOCs, this online data can be used to inform instructors and to provide automatic guidance to students. However, these techniques may not apply in blended courses with face to face and online components. We report on a study of integrated user-system interaction logs from 3 computer science courses using four online systems: LMS, forum, version control, and homework system. Our results show that students rarely work across platforms in a single session, and that final class performance can be predicted from students' system use.


Each of the billions of the cells in our body exhibits their identity with unique gene expression profile. Recent advances in single cell transcriptomics enable to conduct cell taxonomy identifying new cell types and to re-arrange cells in order of pseudo-time course describing differentiation status of each cell. Even though the cost is still high, the single cell transcriptomics now becomes one of the conventional assays. We have applied the single cell gene expression analysis to dissect human development. In this article, we show our recent progress on a study describing early development of the kidney using human iPS cells by the single cell transcriptomics.


: Objective: The aim of our study was to determine the occurrence of accidental poisoning of etiological agents in children. Study Design: A cross sectional study. Place and Duration: This study was conducted in Department of Pediatrics, POF hospital, Wah Cantt Pakistan for the duration of six months starting from March, 2020 to September, 2020. Methodology: In our present study we included 220 patients of accidental poisoning age range is less than 12 years. We took an informed consent from the parents of the children to enter the children data in our study. Data was recorded in the study with respect to age and gender. Parents were interviewed in detail with respect to the name of offending chemical, and the route of entry of a substance was also make for the inquiry of drug medication. We sent container to the laboratory to identify toxic where the covering and wrapping of a material were available. We took samples from stomach and sent for analysis of disease. We categorized all the patients depending on the component involved in poisoning. Results: We include 220 patients in our study. In which 105 patients (47.73%) age range between 0 to 6 years while 115 patients (52.27%) age range between 7 to 12 years. 6.67+2.39 years were their mean age. In the selected patients, large number of patients were females 125 (56.82%). The substance that was responsible for accidental poisoning were present in 54 patients having petroleum-based products (24.55%), 41 having insecticides (18.63%), 81 having pharmacological agents (36.82%) and 44 were those having acid/alkali (20%). Conclusions: At the end of our study, we conclude that the most common substance in children for accidental poisoning is pharmacological agents. Such studies like ours can help to devise suggestions for the public education to control the morbidity and mortality of children.


This paper presents a design of a high efficiency RF-DC converter which can operate at an RF input power of -20 dBm (10 μW) at 2.4 GHz. The design is done in UMC 130nm MM/RF CMOS technology. RF to DC Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) is considered as the performance metric. Fully Gate Cross-Coupled Rectifier (FGCCR) is used for RF-DC conversion, impedance matched to 50 Ω and the circuit parameters are optimized. Simulation results show that the circuit gives a DC output of 5.5 μW (55% PCE) at 0.267 V for a load of 13 kΩ. A protection circuit to limit internal voltages at high input power is designed.


Airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells may contribute to asthma pathogenesis through their capacity to switch between a synthetic/proliferative and a contractile phenotype. The multimeric dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC) spans the sarcolemma, linking the actin cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix. The DGC is expressed in smooth muscle tissue, but its functional role is not fully established. We tested whether contractile phenotype maturation of human ASM is associated with accumulation of DGC proteins. We compared subconfluent, serum-fed cultures and confluent cultures subjected to serum deprivation, which express a contractile phenotype. Western blotting confirmed that beta-dystroglycan, beta-, delta-, and epsilon-sarcoglycan, and dystrophin abundance increased six- to eightfold in association with smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (smMHC) and calponin accumulation during 4-day serum deprivation. Immunocytochemistry showed that the accumulation of DGC subunits was specifically localized to a subset of cells that exhibit robust staining for smMHC. Laminin competing peptide (YIGSR, 1 microM) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors (20 microM LY-294002 or 100 nM wortmannin) abrogated the accumulation of smMHC, calponin, and DGC proteins. These studies demonstrate that the accumulation of DGC is an integral feature for phenotype maturation of human ASM cells. This provides a strong rationale for future studies investigating the role of the DGC in ASM smooth muscle physiology in health and disease.


We describe a case of partial inhibition of ongoing antitachycardia pacing scheme in an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) recipient with heart failure of ischemic etiology. The cause of inhibition was related to intermittent oversensing of paced T wave and sensing of intrinsic ventricular activation. In our effort to solve this problem, we reprogrammed the paced ventricular blanking period to a higher level.


Context: The association between spray paint exposure and bone remodeling received little attention despite the high usage of spray paints in automobile industries, steel furniture workshops etc. Aim: The present study was aimed at investigating the level of serum markers of bone formation in spray painters. The spray painting subjects were selected from automobile body repair workshops in Chennai region of TamilNadu which constitutes 30% of India's automobile industry. Setting and Design: All the study subjects, exposed to spray paint were working in a workshop without standard spraying room and did not wore any aerosol removing respirator. The controls were selected from random population irrespective of occupation. Data relevant to the socioeconomic features and personal history was collected using a questionnaire. The current study included 50 spray painters and 25 control subjects of same age group. Materials and Methods: We examined the level of serum calcium, serum phosphorus, serum differentiation markers of bone such as alkaline phosphatase (bone specific) and serum osteocalcin in which these levels were found to be high in serum of spray painters. Conclusion: The current study concludes dysregulation in bone remodeling of spray painters exposed to chronic solvents and paint pigments.


The Irish strain of Microctonus aethiopoides was released in New Zealand in 2006 to help control clover root weevil (Sitona lepidus). Establishment was rapid at all release sites except in Northland where multiple releases appeared to fail until low numbers were recovered in 2008. It was hypothesised that because Northland at 35°S is at sufficiently different latitude to the original collection sites near Belfast, Ireland (54°37'N), there is a crossing of the critical photoperiod for diapause induction in the wasp larvae. Replicated cage trials were undertaken to compare the prevalence of premature diapause in Northland with Waikato under natural daylength, and simulated Far North midsummer photoperiod (14:10 h light: dark) with a 16 h photoperiod. Results indicated that larval diapause inside the weevil may be initiated by the parent wasp as significantly more 1 instar larvae were present in weevils where wasps had been subjected to reducing daylength (16 h down to 14 h light). High mortality amongst singly-laid wasp larvae in the Northland summer and the absence of teratocytes usually associated with larvae indicates clover root weevil adults can defeat a singly-laid parasitoid. These results may explain the reduced efficacy of the Irish wasp in Northland.


UNAIDS has embraced an ambitious global target for the implementation of treatment for people living with HIV. This 90-90-90 target would mean that, by 2020, 90% of all those living with HIV should know their status, 90% of these would be on treatment and 90% of these would have fully suppressed plasma viral loads. To reach this target in the next five years presents a major logistical challenge. However, the prevalence of HIV varies greatly by risk groups, age, gender, geography and social conditions. For reasons of effectiveness and impact the focus must first be on those who are most likely to be infected with HIV and therefore most likely to infect others. In Kenya the prevalence of HIV in adults varies by two orders of magnitude among the counties. The effective implementation of 90-90-90 will depend on first providing ART where the prevalence of infection is greatest, then to those that are most easily reached in large numbers and finally to the whole population. Here we use routine data from ante-natal clinics and national survey data to assess the variation of the prevalence of HIV among counties in Kenya; we suggest reasons for this variation, and estimate the effectiveness of targeting the role out of ART. The highest prevalence occurs in some of the counties bordering Lake Victoria and these are most in need of ART. These districts in Nyanza Province, account for 31% of all cases in Kenya but make up 10% of the population and cover 1.8% of the land-area. The highest concentrations of HIV cases are in Nairobi and Mombasa which account for a further 18% of all cases in Kenya but make up 12% of the population and cover 0.1% of the land-area. Providing ART in these two cities will be relatively straightforward given their small geographical area.


New approaches to the treatment of influenza have been designed based on the highly conserved antigenicity of the M2 envelope protein among influenza A virus strains. The present study examined the anti-viral activities of an anti-M2 ectodomain (M2e) monoclonal antibody (clone rM2ss23), which binds to the M2 proteins of the influenza A virus strains A/ Aichi/2/68 (H3N2) (Aichi) and A/PJR/8/34 (H1N1) (PR8). The results showed that rM2ss23 bound to both Aichi and PR8 M2 proteins expressed on the cell surface. While the antibody did not prevent virus entry into cells, it significantly inhibited plaque formation by the Aichi strain in a dose-dependent manner when infected cells were cultured in the presence of the antibody. By contrast, the growth of PR8 (H1N1) was not affected by the antibody. A reverse genetics approach revealed that the inhibitory effect of rM2ss23 on the Aichi virus was abolished by replacing the genes encoding the HA and/or M proteins with those of the PR8 strain. These results suggest that rM2ss23 prevents virus release from infected cells and further suggest that the mechanisms underlying the virus budding mediates by HA and M2 proteins might differ between the Aichi and PR8 strains.


Many physical processes are modeled by unspecified functions. Here, we introduce the F_UNCLE project which uses the Python ecosystem of scientific software to develop and explore techniques for estimating such unknown functions and our uncertainty about them. The work provides ideas for quantifying uncertainty about functions given the constraints of both laws governing the function's behavior and experimental data. We present an analy- sis of pressure as a function of volume for the gases produced by detonating an imaginary explosive, estimating a best pressure function and using estimates of Fisher information to quantify how well a collection of experiments constrains uncertainty about the function. A need to model particular physical processes has driven our work on the project, and we conclude with a plot from such a process.


Therapeutic Area: This is a generalpharmacology and therapeutics textbook that reviews the pathophysiology andpharmacologic treatment of diseases commonly seenin an adultinternal medicine practice. Audience: Generalpracticehealthcare providers such as physicians, pharmacists, physician assistants, and nursepractitioners are the intended audience. Purpose: As stated by the editors, the purposeof the textbookis to broadly integrate information overdiverse principles to serveknowledge requirements acrossthecontinuum of practice. Content: The book is divided into 2 main parts: Part I (Principles) and Part11 (Practice). Part I is furtherbrokendown into4 sectionscontaining 21 chapters on Pharmacotherapeutic Continuum, Molecular Pharmacology, SystemPharmacology, and ClinicalPharmacology. Part II is divided into 20 organ-specificsections, with 73 disease-specific chapters.In general,each chapter in the Practicesectiondiscussesdisease-specific pathophysiology and therapeutics, as well as clinical pharmacology. Some chaptersalso discussdiseaseetiology,epidemiology, and clinical presentation. Usability:The disease-specific chapters in thePractice section willbe the primary chaptersused by clinicians. Unfortunately. there is extreme inconsistency in the breadth anddepthof information contained in each chapter, thuslimiting this text as a quickreference sourceor an in-depth reviewof diseasestatemanagement. Highlights: The primaryattributeof the book is its extensiveuse of coloredfigures thatdepictbiochemical pathways, organsystemphysiology, mechanisms and site of drug action, and treatment algorithms. These figuresenhance the textual discussionin each chapter. In many chapters thereis an extensive use of tablessummarizing drugclasscharacteristics, dosing,adverse effects, andclinical trials. Limitations: The majorlimitations of this book are the inconsistencies in presentation between chapters and the omission of discussions on the pharmacologic properties of drugs. For example. the chapter on rhythm disorderreviews the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, uses,and adverseeffectsof commonlyprescribed antiarrhythmic agentsbut fails to mentiontheir recommended doses and associatedserumconcentrations.The chapteron pharmacobiology of infections provides extensive tableson the formulation and dosingof antifungal and antiviral medications, but there are no dosing or formulation tables for the more commonly usedantibacterial agentssuchas the t3-lactams, aminoglycosides, rnacrolides, and fluoroquinolones. This handicapis furthermagnified in the chaptersthat focuson hypertension and community-acquired pneumonia(CAP),which lack any discussion of the pharmacologic characteristics and dosing recommendations for the antihypertensiveagents and antibiotics routinely usedto treathypertension andCAP,respectively.The European authors of the hypertension chapterapproach thepharmacologic management of hypertension from the World HealthOrganizationrecommendations ratherthan the moreapplicable and commonly used recommendationsfrom the seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection. Evaluation, andTreatment of High BloodPressure. The references are another limitation of the book;a significant numberof references are frombefore2000, whileonlya fewcitations are from 2007 and after. In fact, the authorsof the chapter discussingCAP werestillcitingthe 2003CAP guidelines. Comparison with Other Related Books: Fromthepharmacist's perspective, the primary competitorto this book is Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach. edited by DiPiro et al., which offers a broader scopeof disease states anda moreconsistent andcomprehensive discussion of disease-specific drugtherapy. Summary: A numberof pharmacotherapy textbooks are on the market today; this book adds nothingnew to these existing volumes.The shortcomings of thistext limitits routine useas a reliable sourceof informationon the pharmacologic managementof commonlyencountered disease states.


Biosynthetic studies on cystothiazole A (1), a beta-methoxyacrylate-type antifungal compound from a myxobacterium, were performed by feeding the producing organism, Cystobacter fuscus, with stable-isotope-labeled compounds including [2-(13)C]acetate, [1,2-(13)C2]acetate, [1-(13)C]propionate, L-[1-(13)C]serine, L-[methyl-(13)C]methionine, and DL-valine-d8. The polyketide moiety of 1 was found to be derived from acetate and propionate, the bithiazole moiety from L-serine, the O-methyl groups from the S-methyl group of L-methionine, and the isopropyl moiety from L-valine, which should be the metabolic precursor of isobutyryl-CoA.


The purpose of this study is to segment visitor groups by their motivations. to calculate the perceived performance and overall satisfaction of festival visiting experience by segmenting groups, and to relate overall satisfaction and perceived performance factors. The major results of the study were as follows: First, five groups derived from a factor-cluster analysis were named low involvement visitors. family togetherness seekers. escape from routine seekers. diverse motivation seekers. knowledgeable and new experience seekers. Second, the results revealed that perceived performance factors and overall satisfaction were significantly different among the groups. Third. overall satisfaction could be explained by the perceived performance factors. In conclusion. it has been found that visitor motivations are one component to understand satisfaction. and perceived performance as an antecedent variable has a significant effect on overall satisfaction.


Background: Hispanic children and men carry a high burden for obesity and associated medical conditions. Healthy Dads Healthy Kids was the first obesity prevention intervention targeting fathers and demonstrated weight loss among fathers and behavior change among fathers and children in Australia. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a culturally adapted version of the program for Hispanic families, Papás Saludables Niños Saludables. Methods: A randomized waitlist controlled trial with a process evaluation was conducted to assess the feasibility of Papás Saludables Niños Saludables (NCT03532048). Fathers, their partner (mother), and one to three children were enrolled. A priori feasibility criteria were: (1) recruit 40 Hispanic fathers and their families in ≤4 months; (2) retain 80% of participants for pre- and postassessments; (3) maintain ≥70% attendance to the 10 sessions; (4) obtain 80% "excellent" or "good" satisfaction from participants; and (5) collect anthropometric and behavioral data on ≥75% of participants at baseline and follow-up. Results: The study enrolled 90% (n = 36) of the goal from one local pediatric clinic between May and August 2018; retained 75% of participants for postassessment; maintained 72% attendance among those who started the program; and achieved 100% "excellent/good" satisfaction ratings among the participating fathers and mothers. One hundred percent of participants had most anthropometric and behavioral data at baseline and 72% at follow-up. Conclusions: With oversampling and improvements in the recruitment strategies, Papás Saludables Niños Saludables is feasible for a randomized controlled clinical trial to address whether a father-targeted lifestyle program is efficacious among low-income Hispanic men and their children.


Purpose of review Penile cancer (PeCa) is an orphan disease due to its rare incidence in high-income countries. Traditional surgical options for clinical T1–2 disease, including partial and total penectomy, can dramatically affect patient's quality of life and mental health status. In selected patients, organ-sparing surgery (OSS) has the potential to remove the primary tumor with comparable oncologic outcomes while maintaining penile length, sexual and urinary function. In this review, we aim to discuss the indications, advantages, and outcomes of various OSSs currently available for men diagnosed with PeCa seeking an organ-preserving option. Recent findings Patient survival largely depends on spotting and treating lymph node metastasis at an early stage. The required surgical and radiotherapy skill sets cannot be expected to be available in all centers. Consequently, patients should be referred to high-volume centers to receive the best available treatments for PeCa. Summary OSS should be used for small and localized PeCa (T1-T2) as an alternative to partial penectomy to preserve patient's quality of life while maintaining sexual and urinary function and penile aesthetics. Overall, there are different techniques that can be used with different response and recurrence rates. In case of tumor recurrence, partial penectomy or radical penectomy is feasible, without impacting overall survival.


ABSTRACT Previous research has found mixed evidence for the effectiveness of negative campaigning. Therefore, scholars have recently turned their attention to the question whether there are different dimensions of negativity. The present study contributes both empirically and methodologically to this debate by investigating the effects of three German chancellor debates using real-time response measurements of audience reactions. Following Brooks and Geer (2007. "Beyond Negativity: The Effects of Incivility on the Electorate." American Journal of Political Science 51 (1): 1–16. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00233.x), we distinguish between debate statements along three different dimensions: negative versus positive tone, policy- versus person-focus, and civility versus incivility. Also, we demonstrate how debate content and real-time response measurements of audience reactions can be analysed using econometric time-series techniques. Our analyses show that civil policy-focused statements have a positive impact, as expected, while person-focused or uncivil statements rarely have positive effects. In the concluding section, the implications of our findings are discussed and directions for further research identified.


State-of-the-art solutions in the areas of "Language Modelling & Generating Text", "Speech Recognition", "Generating Image Descriptions" or "Video Tagging" have been using Recurrent Neural Networks as the foundation for their approaches. Understanding the underlying concepts is therefore of tremendous importance if we want to keep up with recent or upcoming publications in those areas. In this work we give a short overview over some of the most important concepts in the realm of Recurrent Neural Networks which enables readers to easily understand the fundamentals such as but not limited to "Backpropagation through Time" or "Long Short-Term Memory Units" as well as some of the more recent advances like the "Attention Mechanism" or "Pointer Networks". We also give recommendations for further reading regarding more complex topics where it is necessary.


A central premise of Ronald Dworkin's famous Argument from Theoretical Disagreement is that judges regularly disagree about the grounds of law. The occurrence of these so-called 'theoretical disagreements', it is argued, cannot be explained by the influential legal positivist theory of HLA Hart according to which the grounds of law are constituted by judicial consensus. However, in his attempt to show that theoretical disagreements actually exist Dworkin primarily relies on the occurrence of judicial disagreements about legal interpretation, as he takes them to be disagreements about the grounds of law. In this article, I will argue that these interpretive disagreements do not pose a problem for Hartian positivism. My argument will rely on standard work from the field of pragmatics which provides sophisticated explanations of how the interpretation of linguistic texts, such as legal documents, works. On the model that I will propose, interpretive disagreements concern the meaning that the legal authorities who enacted the document intended to get across and these disagreements arise from diverging assumptions about the context in which these documents were enacted. I will argue that disagreements about intentions and contextual presumptions do not concern the grounds of law and therefore do not threaten Hartian positivism.


The gearbox is seen as one of the most important assets of a wind turbine, so a major concern is how to keep it running smoothly to maximise its service time and reduce the cost. However, wind turbines are often located at remote locations where icing is possible and likely, e.g. high altitudes or cold regions. This challenges the wind turbine stability and causes a variety of problems. Furthermore, rapid expansion of wind energy, along with high operation and maintenance costs, all lead to the need for a condition monitoring system which can offer diagnostics of present condition and prognostics of future condition to improve the reliability of wind turbine and reduce the cost of unscheduled maintenances and unexpected failures. The proposed approach is demonstrated by using a Bayesian Belief Network and Dynamic Bayesian Network under LabVIEW and GeNIe respectively. The proposed procedure is applied on a wind turbine gearbox model to show its feasibility.


The relationship between species richness and the occupation of niche space can provide insight into the processes that shape patterns of biodiversity. For example, if species interactions constrained coexistence, one might expect tendencies toward even spacing within niche space and positive relationships between diversity and total niche volume. I use morphological diversity of passerine birds as a proxy for diet, foraging maneuvers, and foraging substrates and examine the morphological space occupied by regional and local passerine avifaunas. Although independently diversified regional faunas exhibit convergent morphology, species are clustered rather than evenly distributed, the volume of the morphological space is weakly related to number of species per taxonomic family, and morphological volume is unrelated to number of species within both regional avifaunas and local assemblages. These results seemingly contradict patterns expected when species interactions constrain regional or local diversity, and they suggest a larger role for diversification, extinction, and dispersal limitation in shaping species richness.


We consider the problem of jointly optimizing amplify-and-forward (AF) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relays and single-antenna receivers for multipoint-to-multipoint (MP2MP) communications using weighted summean-square-error (MSE) as a system performance measure. This optimization problem is nonconvex and the optimal solution cannot be obtained in polynomial time. By applying first-order approximation for the quadratic term, we show that this problem can be approximately reformulated as a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem, which is then solved successively in an iterative way. The performance of the proposed scheme is compared with the lower bound (LB) of the global optimal solution that is obtained with increased complexity using the MSE-profile approach, and the bisection and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) techniques. Numerical results show that the performance of the proposed successive convex approximation (SCA) approach is very close to the LB of the global optimal solution and is much better than the zero-forcing MIMO relays.


The detection sensitivity of synchrotron-based X-ray techniques has been largely improved due to the ever-increasing source brightness, which has significantly advanced ex situ and in situ research for energy materials such as lithium-ion batteries. However, the strong beam-material interaction arising from the high beam flux can substantially modify the material structure. The beam-induced parasitic effect inevitably interferes with the intrinsic material property, making the interpretation of the experimental results difficult and requiring comprehensive assessments. Here, we present a quantitative study of the beam effect on an electrode material Ag2VO2PO4 using four different X-ray characterization methods with different radiation dose rates. The material system exhibits interesting and reversible radiation-induced thermal and chemical reactions, further evaluated under electron microscopy to illustrate the underlying mechanism. The work will provide a guideline for using synchrotron X-rays to distinguish the intrinsic behavior from extrinsic structure change of materials induced by X-rays.


This paper considers the problem of systematically exploring an unfamiliar environment in search of one or more recognizable targets. The proposed exploration algorithm is based on a novel representation of environments containing visual landmarks, called the boundary place graph. This representation records the set of recognizable objects (landmarks) that are visible from the boundary of each configuration space obstacle. The exploration algorithm constructs the boundary place graph incrementally from sensor data. Once the robot has completely explored an environment, it can use the constructed representation to carry out further navigation tasks. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition under which the algorithm is guaranteed to discover all landmarks. This algorithm has been implemented on our mobile robot platform RJ, and results from these experiments are presented.


There is much more to argumentative style than just the well-known presentational ("linguistic") dimension. Equally important dimensions of the argumentative styles utilised in resolving a difference of opinion are the topical dimension of the selection of the standpoints, starting points, arguments and concluding statements put forward in the discourse and the dimension of the adaptations to the presumed demand of the audience that is to be convinced. In argumentative discourse these three dimensions of argumentative style manifest themselves together in the argumentative moves that are made, the argumentative routes that are chosen and the strategic considerations that are brought to bear. Starting from this perspective, it is shown in this article how the argumentative style can be identified that was utilised by a Member of the European Parliament in a plenary debate on labelling fruit juices.


Aiming at the quality early warning problem of manufacturing process, this study develops a quality early warning system base on Web form design, combining some auto parts companies operating practice. In addition, it analyses the design principle and application methods of the system. It has been proved that the system achieves real-time monitoring, diagnosis, early warning to abnormal volatility, and prevents the defective products from occurrence and outflow, and gives corresponding diagnosis views to abnormal fluctuations according to historical data. It has been proved that this system is effective in practice.


Ecologically relevant indicators of endocrine disruption in fish must be linked with measures of reproductive success. The ability of male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) to compete for, maintain, and defend a spawning substrateis paramount to reproductive success. The present study quantified alterations in male fathead minnow reproductive behaviors after exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations (0, 10, 20, or 40 ng/L) of 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) for 21 d. A video‐based behavioral quantification system examined changes in male‐male competitive behaviors (chasing and head‐butting) and ability of males to maintain spawning substrates (nibbling and scrubbing). Behaviors analyzed included time under the spawning substrate, frequency of substrate cleaning, and conspecific aggression. Plasma hormone levels (11‐ketotestosterone [11‐KT], testosterone, and estradiol [E2]), vitellogenin (VTG), secondary male characteristics (tubercle count and dorsal nape pad rank), gonadosomatic index (GSI), and gonad histology also were evaluated. Exposure to 40 ng/L of EE2 decreased the ability of exposed males to compete with control males for spawning substrates (p = 0.09). Furthermore, exposed males displayed reduced frequency of substrate cleaning activities as well as chasing male competitors (p ≤ 0.05). 11‐Ketotestosterone, testosterone, and E2 were lower, and VTG was notably higher, in EE2‐exposed males compared with control males (p ≤ 0.03). 17α‐Ethinylestradiol exposure in males also was associated with reductions in tubercles; lower GSI, gonadal maturity ranks, and number of resorbed tubercles; and presence of an ovipositor (p ≤ 0.001). These data reveal alterations in male reproductive behavior that coincide with decreased hormone levels and secondary sex characteristics. Behavioral endpoints to discern potential ecological consequences in fish exposed to low concentrations of endocrine‐disrupting chemicals may provide sensitive and functional indices of effect.


Following the removal of the NHS bursary, nursing and midwifery students will be paying to attend university and placements from September this year.


Summary The use of forest habitats and migratory patterns are still unclear for tropical birds. Some are described herein for the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil. Thus, our aim was to describe different patterns of forest habitat use by birds and classify the birds' migration patterns for the northern Pantanal region, Brazil. From September 1999 to December 2003, we sampled four forest types, during which we collected standardised data with mist-net captures and point counts, with additional ad lib. observations. We recorded 214 bird species: 113 (52.8%) were total habitat generalists; 41 (19.2%) were forest generalists; 19 (8.9%) were flooded habitat specialists; and 28 (13.1%) were not classified due to the low number of records; three other categories of habitat use divide the remaining 6% of records. About half of the species showed some migratory behaviour, these were classified by us according to the season they spent in the area: 121 species (56.5%) as residents, 28 (13.1%) as run-off and dry migrants, 11 (5.1%) as run-off (winter) migrants, eight (3.7%) as dry (breeding) migrants, eight (3.7%) as dry and flooding (summer) migrants, eight (3.7%) as flooding migrants, three (1.4%) as flooding and run-off migrants, and 27 (12.6%) as uncommon. We constructed community occupancy models with six of the eight patterns of migration described; flooding migrants and run-off migrants were not modelled since the few species recorded also had very few detections. As expected, the model confirmed that species from all six tested migration patterns arrive and depart from the Pantanal across the seasons. Contrary to most Neotropical forests, there was a high percentage (43.5%) of non-resident species. The results show the need of investing heavily in preserving different landscape units within the Pantanal, but also in the surrounding Cerrado region, in order to conserve resident and short distance intra-tropical migrants.


An analytical investigation is made of the dynamic response of two special classes of nonlinear hysteretic oscillators that model some of the basic phenomena involved in the response of complex nuclear power plant systems which are subjected to dynamic environments. Numerical studies as well as approximate analytical solutions for the response of the nonlinear oscillators under (a) harmonic and (b) random excitation are presented. The effects of various system parameters are evaluated and the range of validity of the approximate solutions is determined.


Among the parameters which need to be specified in the design of the SSC are the cell length (l/sub c/) and the coil diameter (d/sub c/). The quality of the magnetic field of the bending magnets, reflected in both small multipole coefficients and a small sigma for these coefficients, improve as d/sub c/ increases. Similarly the smaller ..beta.. resulting from a decreased l/sub c/ results in an increased admittance (for a constant size beam pipe). Unfortunately increasing d/sub c/ and/or l/sub c/ would result in increasing the cost of the SSC. It is not only desirable but necessary to understand how the performance of an accelerator depends on d/sub c/ and l/sub c/ so that we can have confidence that the SSC when built will work. It should be straightforward to know whether or not an accelerator, once built, works or not. There are however no well accepted tools or criteria for deciding whether or not a proposed design of an accelerator will provide acceptable performance. This is particularly so in the case of accelerators built of superconducting magnets in which the magnetic field is determined by the current distribution in the coils. 3 figs.


Background and Aim The presence of malnutrition in hospitalized geriatric patients is associated with an increased risk of mortality. This study aimed to examine the performance of Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS2002) and Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) in predicting mortality for hospitalized geriatric patients in China. Methods A prospective analysis was performed in 536 hospitalized geriatric patients aged ≥65 years. Nutrition status was assessed using the MNA-SF and NRS2002 scales within 24 hrs of admission. Anthropometric measures and biochemical parameters were carried out for each patient. Patients were follow-up for up to 2.5 years. Results At baseline, 161 (30.04%) patients had malnutrition/nutritional risk according to NRS2002 assessment. According to MNA-SF, 284 (52.99%) patients had malnutrition/nutritional risk. Malnutrition/nutritional risk patients had lower anthropometric and biochemical parameters (P<0.05). NRS2002 and MNA-SF had a strong correlation with classical nutritional markers (P<0.05). NRS2002 versus MNA-SF showed moderate agreement (kappa=0.493, P<0.001). During a median follow-up time of 795 days (range 10–947 days), 118 (22%) participants died. The Kaplan–Meier curve demonstrated that malnutrition/nutritional risk patients according to NRS2002 or MNA-SF assessment had a higher risk of mortality than the normal nutrition patients (χ2=17.67, P<0.001; χ2=28.999, P<0.001, respectively). From the components of the Cox regression multivariate models, only the NRS2002 score was an independent risk factor influencing the mortality. Conclusion Both NRS2002 and MNA-SF scores could predict mortality in Chinese hospitalized geriatric patients. But only NRS2002 score was the independent predictor for mortality.


Background Driveway run overs—driving at low speed over children in private driveways—are a significant contributor to the burden of injury experienced by New Zealand children. New Zealand's rate of reported driveway injuries is high, it is estimated that on average there are nearly two injury cases a month, and approximately four deaths per annum. Aims/Objectives/Purpose The Safekids Campaign 2011/12 aimed to increase awareness of the prevention of driveway run over injuries and to promote key injury prevention behaviours to reduce risk and increase safety. Methods In July 2011, Safekids launched a multi-pronged, campaign to promote education and public awareness about the prevention of driveway run over injuries. Key activities included: A review of the literature and creation of an evidence base The delivery of workforce capacity building workshops The development of creatives and teaching tools to support a national public awareness campaign Execution of a media plan Results/Outcomes The campaign gained traction in the media; 63 newspaper print editorials were recorded. A parent survey conducted at the time of education (n=220) and a post education telephone interview (n=100) showed participants had increased/reinforced knowledge of driveway run over injuries (88% and 98% respectively), and that they had made, or intended to make changes to keep children safer (81% and 78% respectively). Significance/Contribution to the Field Communities have increased awareness of driveway run over injuries and key safety behaviours have been implemented including: heightened vigilance, increased supervision, reduced speed and the separation of play spaces from driveways.


BACKGROUND: Acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) evaluates liver stiffness non-invasively and was invented recently. This technique can easily and accurately assess the degree of liver fibrosis in clinical practice. AIM: The aim of this study was to detect the diagnostic performance of ARFI elastography in the staging of fibrosis in some Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred ninety patients with chronic HCV infection; 142 men and 48 women were enrolled in the study. They underwent liver biopsy examination for liver fibrosis detection. All demographic; clinical and biochemical data were recoded. ARFI examination was done for all subjects to detect liver stiffness measurement in relation to liver fibrosis detected by pathological examination of liver biopsies. RESULTS: Medians of liver stiffness measurement by shear wave velocity showed a significant increase as a grade of liver fibrosis increases (p ≤ 0.0001, highly significant). Liver stiffness was directly correlated to age, AST; ALT; INR and liver steatosis (p values were: 0.009; 0.0001; 0.013; 0.006 and 0.04 respectively, significant). On the other hand, liver stiffness was inversely correlated to albumin; prothrombin concentration and platelets (p values were: 0.0001; 0.001, and 0.0001, respectively, significant). We found that shear wave velocity can predict F1; F2; F3 and F4 at cut-off values: 1.22; 1.32; 1.44 and 1.8 respectively. CONCLUSION: ARFI is a diagnostic noninvasive promising technique for liver fibrosis diagnosis among Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection.


In this paper we reported the characteristics of 1 line, 2 lines and 3 lines-to-ground fault of matrix-type SFCLs (MFCLs) and the electromagnetic field distribution of reactors for MFCLs under the same cases of ground faults. To do this, we fabricated MFCLs with 6 reactors for 3 phases. Each reactor had the length of 270 mm and diameter of 80 mm. 6 reactors were made by Bakelite. We reported experimental results, including fault currents, fault voltages and magnetic field distribution according to phase differences between each phase. We confirmed that experimental results will be useful in next future plan for real power grid.


The purpose of this study is the development of an affordable computer-based electrocardiogram, heart rate and temperature monitoring system, that would complement those that are available on the market and contribute to the reduction of the shortage of these medical instruments in South African hospitals and clinics. Electrocardiogram (ECG) refers to the graph that results from time versus voltage in a patient's chest. It reflects the rhythmic activity of the heart. For this reason the electrocardiogram has a diagnostic value that can be used by medical personnel to examine the biological (hence, clinical) behavior of the heart. The electrocardiogram can also be used to get the heart rate. This thesis explained how to acquire ECG signals from the patient and also how to achieve a cheaper way of providing galvanic isolation, which is required for sensors that are attached to the human body. It also explains computer interfacing using the parallel port and computer-based processing of these ECG signals to determine the instantaneous value of the heart rate and also to reduce the interference that contaminates these signals. In reducing interference, the performance of traditional IIR notch and adaptive filters, as noise cancelers, has been analyzed and compared. Least Mean Squares (LMS) and Normalized Least Mean Squares (NLMS) algorithms are the two algorithms that were considered in this study for adaptive noise canceling and their performance is evaluated and is compared based on their convergence rate, complexity and noise reduction.


The forces leading up to the debt crisis of the 1980s go back a long way. As a country experiences a rising ratio of debt service payments to export earnings so its default risk increases. World indicators show that interest rates were on a rising trend when commodity prices were on a downward trend. However, this is a simplistic analysis. The authors disaggregate the ratio into five components: a change in the volume of debt; a change in the rate of amortisation; a change in the rate of interest; a change in the volume of exports; a change in the price of exports. The article examines these independently in the light of the available data. Results suggest that rescheduling policy is uncoordinated and that debt-management methods can be improved.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the frequency of toothbrushing or cleaning among middle school students from 44 low- and middle-income countries.

METHODS
Secondary analysis of nationally representative data from 146,462 middle school students who participated in the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) between 2003 and 2010.

RESULTS
In 39 of the 44 countries, more than 80% of students reported brushing or cleaning their teeth at least once each day. In 23 countries, more than 5% of participants reported brushing their teeth less than once a day or never. In 37 countries, boys reported a significantly lower frequency of toothbrushing or cleaning than did girls. Countries where miswak (chewing stick) use is common reported lower toothbrushing or cleaning frequency, perhaps because the questionnaire item did not clarify that this counts as a form of tooth cleaning.

CONCLUSION
School-based dental health education programmes that target early adolescents may help students to develop habits that improve their immediate and long-term health.


A test is made of a theoretical prescription for calculating the energy-differential cross section for a stripping reaction A(3He, d)B* into the continuum when B* can decay into more than one channel. For given angular momentum of B*, this is given by - pi ImTaa (d2 sigma a/dEd Omega )DWBA, where Taa is a nuclear T-matrix element for p-A scattering at the appropriate energy and the DWBA cross section is calculated using a resonant proton wavefunction. The application here is to two d3/2 resonances appearing in 12C(3He,d)13N* spectra which have been subjected to detailed measurements by Fuchs et al. (1979). The energy dependence of the T-matrix element is taken from the analysis of p-12C scattering of a number of groups. The authors obtain quite good agreement in shape and magnitude. This work is an extension of a previous study of the 12C(d,p)13C* reaction by Huby and Kelvin (1975) in that decay to the 12C(4.43 MeV) state is possible.


ABSTRACT This article discusses the impact of a professional learning activity called the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) program on the capacity of school leaders to engage, involve, and support teachers and their school communities to develop a shared moral purpose for making their school more effective in assisting students to become more able readers. It uses data collected from participants in the PALL program together with case study data collected from five Tasmanian schools to analyse the actions by school leaders to develop a shared moral purpose related to facilitating higher levels of student learning in reading. The study shows that school leaders felt more capable in their ability to lead their schools after completing the program and that the development of a shared moral purpose led to improved teaching practices and higher levels of student engagement, students' ability to talk about their learning, and better achievement in reading.


To the Editor: We read with interest the article of Srinivas et al. titled 'Estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in South Asian healthy adult kidney donors' published in the October issue of the Journal. The authors need to be applauded for having formulated a new glomerular filtration rate (GFR) prediction equation based on a large cohort of healthy subjects. However, a few issues remain. The authors have quoted the study by Barai et al. and Mahajan et al. and claimed that both studies have used a similar GFR evaluation technique as has been used by them. However both the studies quoted above have 'measured' GFR by the 'clearance method' which requires serial blood sample collection, whereas in the present study GFR was estimated by the gamma camera based 'renogram' imaging method. It is interesting to note that the authors have termed GFR derived from a 'radionuclide renogram' as 'measured GFR' and used it as the reference. The term 'measured GFR' is exclusively reserved for GFR values that have been derived by directly measuring the plasma clearance of an exogenously administered filtration marker like inulin, chromium ethylene diamine tetra acetate (EDTA) or technetium-99m diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Tc99m-DTPA). The renogram based GFR method does not 'measure' the plasma clearance of the injected exogenous filtration marker and hence is not considered as a 'measurement technique', so values thus obtained are not regarded as 'measured' GFR. The renogram based method predicts GFR based on integral activity accumulated by the kidneys during the 120–180 s after injection of Tc99mDTPA rather than assessing the plasma clearance of Tc99m-DTPA. Results of the renogram technique vary significantly with background activity correction, position and shape of background region of interest on the renogram image, body surface area and also on renal depth, and hence is subjected to significant error and performs poorly when compared against classical plasma clearance methods. Hence, 'renogram GFR' cannot be used as a substitution for measured GFR. More importantly, studies which have compared renogram GFR with prediction equations against measured GFR have consistently reported better performance by prediction equations over the renogram method. Based on the fact that in the present study by Srinivas et al. prediction equations were evaluated against a flawed gold standard, the result of this study should be interpreted with caution. In a nearly similar study, we have evaluated various predication equations in 280 renal donors against a properly measured GFR and have found that Jelliffe's formula gives more reliable prediction of measured GFR compared to Cockcroft–Gault, Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD)-1 and MDRD-2 equations (unpubl. data 2007). Hence, it is apparent that relative superiority of a prediction equation depends at least partly on the group of equations selected for evaluation. Prediction equations are mandated only as a quick screening tool of renal function and were never mandated to replace measured GFR for critical situations such as donor selection. Existing published work on donor evaluation by prediction equations have found that the prediction equations exhibit poor correlation with measured GFR and have a high level of error. Hence, we strongly advocate that GFR should continue to be measured by a clearance method rather than estimated by prediction equation for donor evaluation.


Abstract This paper aims to quantify the performance of the Czech regional labour markets and to reveal the most influential economic factors standing behind its dynamics in the last fifteen years. Investigated labour markets are described using matching function approach. The successful matches are treated as an output of production process, where the unemployed are paired with vacancies. Efficiency of this matching process plays an important role in determining unemployment outflows. Using stochastic frontier model approach, dynamics of quantified efficiency terms is revealed and differences among regions are evaluated. The model specification includes a fixed effect term, where individual effect terms and inefficiency terms are estimated jointly. The stochastic frontier is estimated using monthly and quarterly regional panel data of 77 districts for the period 1999-2014. Matching efficiency of the Czech regional labour markets is negatively influenced people who have been unemployed for a long time and by the unemployed aged over 50 years. Although all districts were able to operate at their stochastic frontiers of matching, an upward trend in the inefficiency has been found within the investigated period. These tendencies are accompanied by rising disparities among the regions. Low levels of estimated matching inefficiency do not necessary mean the low unemployment in the corresponding districts.


Abstract. Advances in ubiquitous positioning technologies and their increasing availability in mobile devices has generated large volumes of movement data. Analysing these datasets is challenging. While data mining techniques can be applied to this data, knowledge of the underlying spatial region can assist interpreting the data. We have developed a geovisual analysis tool for studying movement data. In addition to interactive visualisations, the tool has features for analysing movement trajectories, in terms of their spatial and temporal similarity. The focus in this paper is on mouse trajectories of users interacting with web maps. The results obtained from a user trial can be used as a starting point to determine which parts of a mouse trajectory can assist personalisation of spatial web maps.


Oxidative coupling of methane reaction pathways on MgO and lithium-modified MgO were theoretically studied using the semiempirical MNDO-PM3 molecular orbital method. The surface of the MgO catalyst was modeled by a Mg9O9 molecular cluster containing structural defects such as edges and corners. Lithium-promoted magnesia was simulated by isomorphic substitution of Mg2+ by Li+; the excess negative charge of the cluster was compensated by a proton connected to a neighboring O2- site. Heterolytic adsorption of methane was found to be directly related to the coordination number of both the lattice oxygen and the metal sites. Energetically the most favorable site pair was Mg3c−O3c with a neighboring Li4c site present. Various sequential oxygen and methane adsorption pathways were explored resulting in CH3OH formation with lower energy barriers for the Li-modified MgO cluster as compared to unmodified MgO.


The parabolic Allen-Cahn equation is a semilinear partial differential equation linked to the mean curvature flow by a singular perturbation. We show an improved convergence property of the parabolic Allen-Cahn equation to the mean curvature flow, which is the parabolic analogue of the improved convergence property of the elliptic Allen-Cahn to minimal surfaces by Wang-Wei and Chodosh-Mantoulidis. More precisely, we show if the phase-transition level sets are converging in $C^2$, then they converge in $C^{2,\theta}$. As an application, we obtain a curvature estimate for parabolic Allen-Cahn equation, which can be viewed as a diffused version of Brakke's and White's regularity theorem for mean curvature flow


In the post-Lisbon era and especially since the outburst of the financial and European sovereign debt crisis, the EU has been changing significantly, to the extent that the meaning and the process of integration are being affected. While constitutional asymmetry is a longstanding feature of the EU polity, the real challenge today is the expanding scope and fragmented character of newly established forms of flexibility, and how they are being used politically. The flexible configuration of integration reinforces a trend toward fragmented integration. Flexibility within the EU could become an end in itself, a device to serve a wide range of strategic visions and preferences in sectoral politics.


Recent advances in high-intensity electron and X-ray pulsed sources now make it possible to directly observe atomic motions as they occur in barrier-crossing processes. These rare events require the structural dynamics to be triggered by femtosecond excitation pulses that prepare the system above the barrier or access new potential energy surfaces that drive the structural changes. In general, the sampling process modifies the system such that the structural probes should ideally have sufficient intensity to fully resolve structures near the single-shot limit for a given time point. New developments in both source intensity and temporal characterization of the pulsed sampling mode have made it possible to make so-called 'molecular movies', i.e. measure relative atomic motions faster than collisions can blur information on correlations. Strongly driven phase transitions from thermally propagated melting to optically modified potential energy surfaces leading to ballistic phase transitions and bond stiffening are given as examples of the new insights that can be gained from an atomic level perspective of structural dynamics. The most important impact will likely be made in the fields of chemistry and biology where the central unifying concept of the transition state will come under direct observation and enable a reduction of high-dimensional complex reaction surfaces to the key reactive modes, as long mastered by Mother Nature.


ABSTRACT Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) accumulates early in atherosclerosis and promotes endothelial nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) activation, proinflammatory gene expression and monocyte adhesion. Like for other atherogenic factors, oxLDL-induced proinflammatory responses requires integrin-dependent focal adhesion kinase (FAK, also known as PTK2) signaling; however, the mechanism by which FAK mediates oxLDL-dependent NF-κB signaling has yet to be revealed. We now show that oxLDL induces NF-κB activation and VCAM-1 expression through FAK-dependent IκB kinase β (IKKβ, also known as IKBKB) activation. We further identify FAK-dependent activation of p90 ribosomal S6 kinase family proteins (RSK) as a crucial mediator of oxLDL-dependent IKKβ and NF-κB signaling, as inhibiting RSK blocks oxLDL-induced IKKβ and NF-κB activation, VCAM-1 expression and monocyte adhesion. Finally, transgenic mice containing a kinase-dead mutation in FAK specifically in the endothelial cells show reduced RSK activity, decreased VCAM-1 expression and reduced macrophage accumulation in regions of early atherosclerosis. Taken together, our data elucidates a new mechanism whereby oxLDL-induced endothelial FAK signaling drives an ERK–RSK pathway to activate IKKβ and NF-κB signaling and proinflammatory gene expression. Highlighted Article: This manuscript details the mechanistic pathways linking oxLDL and NF-κB activation, and shows for the first time that endothelial FAK activity contributes to atherosclerosis.


Behavioural disorders (BD) after brain injury are some of the most relevant issues in neuropsychology. This relevance is remarkable in three main areas of clinical neuropsychology: conceptual issues, assessment and rehabilitation. (1) BD is an heterogenous group of superficially defined symptoms, traditionally included under the term Frontal Lobe Syndrome. Its fractionning into subtypes allowed a more comprehensive and specific approach to BD, although evidence is still not able to explain its causes. Recent theoretical approaches (somatic markers, Theory of mind) suggest interesting directions for research in this area. (2) Assessment of BD is not as developed as other areas (memory, attention...), and it lacks of standarized tests with satisfying psychometric requirements. (3) Rehabilitation processes are severily interfered by BD, which are generally chronic and may even get worse with the years. Behaviour Therapy and psychopharmacological interventions have proven some usefullness in symptom reduction, although in symptoms of diminished motivation (apathy) treatment often fails to succeed.


It has been less than two decades since anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation) coupled to nitrite reduction has been discovered. Already, this process has been recognized as an important sink for fixed nitrogen in the natural environment and has been implemented as a cost-effective ammonium removal technology. Still, little is known about the molecular mechanism of this remarkable reaction. In this mini review, we present an insight into how ammonium and nitrite are combined to form dinitrogen gas.


Individual variation in drug metabolism is a major cause of unpredictable side effects during cancer therapy. Drug metabolism is controlled by a class of orphan nuclear receptors (NRs), which regulate the expression of cytochrome 3A4 (CYP3A4), an enzyme metabolizing more than 60% of clinically used drugs. In our study, it was found that xenobiotic-mediated induction of CYP3A4 gene expression in primary human hepatocytes was inhibited by camptothecin (CPT) but not by its analogue, irinotecan (CPT-11). CPT exerted its effect by inhibiting the activation of NR, human pregnenolone X receptor (hPXR). In contrast, irinotecan was found to be an hPXR agonist in the same tests. CPT disrupted the interaction of hPXR with steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1) but had no effects on the formation of the hPXR and retinoid X receptor α (RXRα) heterodimer. Nor had it effects on the interactions between the regulatory complex and DNA responsive elements. CPT treatment resulted in delayed metabolism of nifedipine induced by rifampicin in human hepatocytes, suggesting a potential drug-drug interaction (DDI) between CPT and CYP3A4 metabolized drugs. The study found a novel potent hPXR antagonist and indicated the potential of a new class of compounds to control drug efficacies in cancer therapy. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2667.


This article is based on a talk given at the plenary session on Lawrence v. Texas at the 2003 Lavender Law Conference held at Fordham Law School. It takes its cue from Justice Holmes that law is about prediction, and scours Lawrence for indications about sodomy's future. Specifically, what in Lawrence might benefit sex? What in Lawrence might confirm or disrupt hetero- and homosexual identities? This article celebrates Lawrence as a victory, but cautions against ignoring a handful of danger signs for sexual practices and categories.


Substantially higher rates of protein and fluid volume transport for microfiltration of yeast suspensions were possible with improved hydrodynamics using centrifugal fluid instabilities called Dean vortices. Under constant permeate flux operation with suspended yeast cells, a helical module exhibited 19 times the filtration capacity of a linear module. For feed containing both BSA and beer yeast under constant transmembrane pressure with diafiltration, about twice as much protein (BSA and other proteins from cell lysis) was transported out of the feed by the helical module as compared with the linear module. The volumetric permeation flux improvements for the helical over the linear module ranged from 18 to 43% for yeast concentrations up to 4.5 dry wt %.


The title compounds (R = La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Ho, Er) have been prepared in polycrystalline form by a citrate technique and, excepting the Sm and Eu phases, structurally studied by high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. All the materials are isostructural (space group Pbam, Z = 4) and contain infinite chains of octahedra sharing edges, linked together by and units. The size of the three kinds of coordination polyhedron regularly decreases as R cations become smaller. A bond-valence study allowed us to detect the presence of important tensile and compressive stresses in the crystal structure of , which are progressively released along the series as the rare-earth size decreases. The magnetic properties strongly depend on the nature of R, going from the spin-glass behaviour observed at low temperature in to the field-induced transitions exhibited by . A cusp in the susceptibility curves suggests an antiferromagnetic ordering at low temperatures, which is masked in the compounds containing strongly paramagnetic rare earths (Tb, Ho, Er). At high temperatures the paramagnetic moments are consistent in all cases with the presence of high-spin and cations.


Introduction Classifying the ethical issues in clinical ethics consultations is important to clinical practice and scholarship. We conducted a systematic review to characterize the typologies used to analyze clinical ethics consultations. Methods We identified empirical studies of clinical ethics consultation that reported types of ethical issues using PubMed. We screened these articles based on their titles and abstracts, and then by a review of their full text. We extracted study characteristics and typologies and coded the typologies. Results We reviewed 428 articles; 30 of the articles fulfilled our inclusion criteria. We identified 27 unique typologies. Each typology contained five to 47 categories (mean = 18). The most common categories were do-not-attempt-resuscitation orders (19 typologies, 70 percent), capacity (18 typologies, 67 percent), withholding (18 typologies, 67 percent), withdrawing (17 typologies, 63 percent), and surrogate or proxy (16 typologies, 59 percent). Only seven (26 percent) of the typologies contained all five of the most common categories. The typologies we used to characterize clinical ethics consultations exhibit significant heterogeneity and several conceptual limitations. A common typology is needed whose development may require multi-institutional collaboration and could be facilitated by professional organizations.


Enantioselective membrane was prepared using ethyl cellulose (EC) as membrane material. The flux and permselective properties of membrane using aqueous solution of (R,S)-2-phenyl-1-propanol as feed solution was studied. The employed membrane process was a pressure driven process. All kinds of important conditions including preparation and operation of membranes were investigated in this experimentation. When the membrane was prepared with 18 wt % EC, 20 wt % N,N-dimethylformamide in casting solution, 13 min evaporation time and 0°C temperature of water bath for the gelation of the membrane, and the operating pressure and feed solution of (R,S)-2-phenyl-1-propanol were 0.2 MPa and 1.5 mg/mL, respectively, over 90% of enantiomeric excess (e.e.) and 44.2 (mg/m2 h) of flux were obtained. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


The specific of the touristic product and its quality depend to a large extent on the professional ability of the service staff (kindness, solitude, punctuality, promptness). Aspects related to professional ethics (correctitude, trust, honesty) are seen by the consumer as inseparable from the quality of a service. At the same time, tourist's perception on the quality of the received service depends on the level of performers' involvement. Actually, in rural tourism, at boarding houses and agro tourist farms, the staff is interested in bringing more tourists, their offer being characterized by a thorough competition. Agro tourist boarding houses offer a wide range of accommodation places and natural food products from their own households. Each agro tourist region has its own specific features that are, the building style, comfort, and traditional kitchen. The National Office of Traditional Products protect the name of traditional products to avoid bad competition between producers who made same product with same geographical name but in different zone. The quality of services provided to native tourists by the boarding house or agro tourist firm staff finds itself in an interdependent relation with ecological food products. The analysis based on microsatellite data has demonstrated the possibility to genetically characterize the breeds studied and to distinguish the origin of animals. The incorrect labeling of foods represents a commercial fraud. It is very important to establish that species of high commercial value declared are not substitute, partial or entirely, by other lower value species.


Twin concordance studies suggest that genetic factors play a role in determining why only a minority of heavy drinkers develop hepatitis and cirrhosis. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) has emerged as the "final common pathway" in the pathogenesis of alcohol‐related hepatic necro‐inflammation. We have examined the frequency of the two recently described polymorphisms of the TNF‐α promoter in 150 patients with biopsy‐proven alcoholic liver disease and 145 healthy volunteers. There was a significant excess of the rare allele (TNFA‐A; G(−238) → A) at position −238 in patients with steatohepatitis compared with controls or patients without this lesion. This is consistent with previous suggestions that the TNFA‐A allele, which falls within a putative Y regulation box of the TNF‐α promoter, is associated with increased TNF‐α expression. No differences were observed for the polymorphism at position −308.


Dielectric elastomer generators offer great potential for soft applications involving fluid or human interactions. These scavengers are light, compliant, have a wide range of functions and develop an important energy density. Nevertheless, these systems are passive and require an external bias source, namely a high voltage source and complex power circuits. This cumbersome polarization complexes the system in a drastic way and slows down the development of dielectric generators. In order to remove these problems, we propose here new transducers based on the use of an electret coupled with dielectric elastomer, thus avoiding the use of a high external voltage source, and leading to the design of a soft autonomous dielectric generator. By combining a dielectric model and the electret theory, an electromechanical model was developed to evaluate the capabilities of such a generator. This generator was then produced starting from Teflon™ as electret and silicone PolyPower™ as electroactive polymer. A good agreement between the model and the experiment were obtained. An experimental energy density of 0.55 mJ g−1 was reached for 50% strain (electret potential of −1000 V). Once optimized in its design, such a soft generator could produce energy density up to 1.42 mJ g−1. An energy density of 4.16 mJ g−1 is expected with an electret potential of −2000 V.


AIM
The aim of study was to evaluate the effectiveness of microwave ablation for multiple bilobar liver tumors from colorectal cancer.

METHODS
Data from the patients undergoing a hepatic resection with or without microwave ablation at our department were analyzed retrospectively. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the logrank test.

RESULTS
Seventeen percent of patients with combined resection/ablation at sites of initial recurrence at the liver and an extra hepatic metastasis in 11%. The difference between patients with combined resection/ablation and with resection was not significant (p = 0.84). Recurrence occurred near the resection or ablation line in 12.5% within combined resection/ablation. No significant differences were found for overall survivals: disease-free survival between resection/ablation group and with resection alone.

CONCLUSION
Microwave ablation plus hepatic resection is suggested to be equally effective as hepatic resection, and it expanded indications for surgery to treat multiple bilobar liver tumors from colorectal cancer.


This paper presents a stocktaking of standalone chapters in trade agreements dedicated to good regulatory practices and international regulatory co-operation. While standalone regulatory policy chapters in trade agreements remain a new development, they signal countries' increasing interest in elevating the visibility and ambition of regulatory policy, in line with their commitments in the 2012 OECD Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory Policy and Governance and the 2005 APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist on Regulatory Reform. Still, the level of ambition of these chapters varies widely depending on the state of play of regulatory policy in trading partners. By comparing the main substantive and structural features of these chapters, this stocktaking aims to inform the development of similar chapters in future trade agreements.


Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are typically used to "actively" probe the ocean, using sensors that are mounted on a vehicle that moves through the water column. A more challenging task is to use an AUV to position a bottom-mounted stationary platform, such as a passive sonar that requires a large aperture. This paper describes the development of a passive sonar, which was mounted as a payload to the Ocean Explorer II, AUV developed at the Florida Atlantic University. The payload was designed so that the AUV could land on the seafloor and deploy the sonar. The passive sonar developed for this system can be used to measure and localize broadband sources that generate ambient noise in the coastal region. The sonar uses a sparse volume array of only six elements and a 2 m maximum dimension. With this array, it is possible to generate three-dimensional images consisting of thousands of independent pixels for any look direction or chosen image plane. This paper describes the ambient noise sonar and the variable buoyancy system used in deploying the array, and then presents some typical results obtained using the sonar.


Si-nanowire biologically-active field effect transistors (Si-NW BioFETs) have been considered recently for biosensing applications because the nanowire structures with the high surface-to-volume ratio are capable of detecting extremely low concentration of biomolecules in solution. Charges from specific binding of biomolecules on the surface of nanowires can affect the channel conductance of the entire volume of nanowires. In order to achieve high performance with low power consumption of the device, understanding of the sensing and noise mechanisms is very important. This work will present the pH sensing characteristics and the low-frequency noise (1/f noise) characteristics of the Si-NW BioFETs. The Si-NW BioFETs have been fabricated using well-established microfabrication technology which enables large wafer processing of sensor devices with high regularity to reduce the production costs. From the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) sensing performances, the sensitivity and the resolution of devices have been also discussed. This work is supported by the WCU program through the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology.


We give a brief exposition of results of Bredon and others on passage to fixed points from stable C 2 equivariant homotopy (where C 2 is the group of order two) and its relation to Mahowald's root invariant. In particular we give Bredon's easy equivariant proof that the root invariant doubles the stem; the conjecture of the title is equivalent to the Mahowald-Ravenel conjecture that the root invariant never more than triples the stem. Our main result is to verify by computation that the algebraic analogue of this holds in an extensive range: this improves on results of [Mahowald and Shick 1983].


Improvement of free walking on treadmill of the 10-year-old patient Nefeli with a SCI. At the beginning a walking speed of 2.5km/h was only possible, later on a speed of 4km/h became possible. The patient walked without shoes to have a better sensory input and in this way a higher stability, which was the limiting factor of continuous walking.


Urbanization, shrinking markets, and reduced forestry investment may affect harvesting efficiency in regions of the US South. To monitor these conditions, logging businesses have been tracked by surveys conducted by universities and trade associations. This project used a sampling approach coordinated with FIA utilization studies to sample logging crews based on a harvesting location. The approach was used to develop relationships among firm attributes and site attributes in six southeastern states (AL, GA, FL, NC, SC, and VA) from 2011 to 2018. The data included harvest attributes (location, harvest size and stand type) and logging firm attributes (production, crew labor, crew number, the number of machines by type, and machine age). For crew capital value, an equation was developed for this study using machine number and average machine age. The data from logging crews on 419 harvests were analyzed by region, harvest size, and stand type. Mean values for crew labor ranged from 3.1 to 7.1 workers. The average capital value per crew ranged from $220,000 to $524,000 per crew in the Coastal Plain with a narrower range in the Piedmont. In the Coastal Plain, higher productivity was detected for larger harvests and pine versus hardwood and mixed stands; however, in the Piedmont those trends were less obvious. Ratio of feller-bunchers, skidders and loaders were mostly 1:1:1 or 1:2:1 with 41% and 24% of samples, respectively. There were notable trends among Coastal Plain loggers regarding capital value and productivity with evidence supported by a production function. The differences in Piedmont (e.g., ownership size, market access, terrain, population density, etc.) may combine to limit daily production and labor productivity.