The presence of class-specific anti-IgA in patients with a previous history of anaphylaxis after tranfusion requires special attention. We report a case of successful transfusion support for liver transplantation in a patient with common variable immunodeficiency and a history of anaphylactic transfusion reactions. A 49-year-old woman had chronic hepatitis C infection following exposure to blood. She was known to have common variable immunodeficiency (IgG 3.76 g/l, IgM 0.19 g/l and IgA 0.05 g/l; reference ranges: IgG 7.0–18.6 g/l, IgM 0.49–2.0 g/l, IgA 0.78–4.8 g/l). In addition, she showed specific anti-IgA. Liver transplantation was required because of deteriorating hepatic function. The donor liver was thoroughly perfused to remove IgA. During the operation, 21 units of washed RBC, 1 aspheresed unit of IgA-deficient platelets and 2,000 ml of IgA-deficient FFP were transfused. Unfortunately, the patient had to return to theatre later because of continued bleeding. At laparotomy, no definite bleeding point was identified. An additional 16 units of washed red cells, 1,750 ml of IgA-deficient FFP, 3 g of fibrinogen (Immuno with IgA concentration of 0.11– 0.14 g/l) and 1 IgA-deficient apheresed unit of platelets were given. Thereafter, progress was uneventful. Anti-IgA, detected by passive haemagglutination assay [1], became undetectable 24 h after the operation and remained so until the 26 post-operative day. Washed red cells are suitable for transfusion support for patients with IgA deficiency and anti-IgA for liver transplantation [2, 3], and triple washing is recommended if a manual technique is used [4, 5]. For platelet support, either washed platelets or, preferably platelets collected from IgA-deficient donors have been recommended [2, 3]. Platelet washing to remove IgA is pH dependent [6]. In view of the patient's previous history of anaphylactic transfusion reactions, there was some concern regarding the proficiency of washing techniques and it was decided to use platelets collected from IgA-deficient donors. Ten IgA-deficient regular blood donors volunteered to donate plasma/platelets for this procedure. IgA-deficient donors were identified by screening random blood donors using a passive haemagglutination inhibition assay with a sensitivity of 5 μg/ml, followed by confirmation using an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay capable of detecting 200 ng/ml of IgA [7]. The main problem in providing IgAdeficient platelets was the short shelf-life. Platelets were collected by aspheresis each Monday. These would be available until Friday before expiry. To be able to provide blood products timely and safely, it was agreed in advance with the transplantation team that the operation should only take place between Tuesday and Friday. Transfusion support for the transplantation was successful because of planning and co-operation between the transplantation team, the hospital blood bank, and the regional transfusion centre. References


We introduce heterogeneous preferences (heterogeneity in risk aversion and time discount factor) into a two-agent endowment economy with enforcement constraints, aggregate and idiosyncratic uncertainty (Alvarez and Jermann (2001)), and study the corresponding asset pricing and risk sharing implications. We show that the relative time discount factor and the interaction between heterogeneous risk aversion and aggregate uncertainty affect the evolution of the relative Pareto weight of agents over time. When both agents are not constrained, the relative Pareto weight of the more patient agent rises, and that of the less risk averse agent does so in booms and the reverse in recessions. We demonstrate that preference heterogeneity can generate a positive equity premium with only idiosyncratic uncertainty present since the conditional pricing kernel is time-varying depending on which agent is the marginal pricer. We use recursive Lagrangian method to solve a calibrated model and show that preference heterogeneity boosts the mean and volatility of equity premium quantitatively, when the more risk averse and/or the more patient agent cannot trade away most of his income risk with the other agent because of enforcement constraints.


The occurrence of aberrant anatomy is one of the causes of endodontic failures when they are not detected accurately. Hence understanding these anomalies is highly important for a dental practitioner. The present retrospective study was conducted to analyse the incidence of a single fused canal in mandibular second molars and its association with gender . Data was obtained from the database of the institute and the preoperative and obturation radiographs were evaluated. The details were entered in an excel sheet and a descriptive statistical analysis and a chi square test by SPSS. The results of the present study showed a 1.6% chance of occurance of a single fused root with a single canal in a mandibular second molar with a higher predilection for females. These results are statistically significant with a p value of 0.012. From a clinical point of application, a complete examination from multiple angled radiographs and three dimensional assessment must be conducted when an unusual anatomic form is encountered. This will reveal accurate details and will help in preventing iatrogenic errors which often lead to the failure of endodontic treatment.


Acid peptic disease in adolescents may be more common than previously recognized. However, appropriate medical attention is often delayed because of misdiagnosis and undertreatment. Thorough questioning of adolescent patients is important to elicit a complete description of symptoms. Endoscopy or intraluminal pH monitoring may be necessary to establish a diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease or peptic ulcer. Therapy with histamine receptor antagonists, especially ranitidine (Zantac), is recommended. Antireflux surgery may be needed to prevent potential long-term gastrointestinal damage. Patients with duodenal ulcer should also be advised to make life-style changes to avoid recurrence of disease later in life.


Focusing on the term of Borrowed Scenery, this paper probes into the historic evolvement and variety of this term in Chinese gardening, in other words how this term started, evolved and changed from classical to modern times. The study here is mainly based on literature survey, which could be divided into three parts: etymologic, classical and modern literatures. On the other hand, the space composition related to the term of Borrowed Scenery is summarized in aspects of both visual and body feature. Then the characteristics of this term and historic variety are concluded. The Pavilion of Borrowed Scenery recorded by Huang Tingjian is the first example of this term, and it played an important role in the classical times, in which the devise to the visual medium became important. In modern studies since 1930s, this term is mainly grounded on the literature of Yuan Ye, and greatly influenced by modern scholars. As a result, the concept of Borrowed Scenery is expanded from small-scale to large-scale, from the field of garden to others, gradually close to the concept of View.


Mass balance equations in terms of the moment generating function of the distribution of mole conoentrations of polymer species for free radical copolymerizations of mono/divinyl monomers could be numerically solved after gel point using open source code ACDC, needed for extremely stiff two-point boundary value problems. For the first time, it became possible to compare the error of earlier well-known approximated estimation method for the weight fraction of sol and average molecular weights to this accurate mathematical solution. It turns out that predictions by the pseudo-kinetic method are reasonable only when equal reactivity of double bonds prevails, causing early gelation in the batch reactor. Otherwise the discrepancies between the exact and approximate solutions are quite important.


High performance optical recording systems were applied to analyzed dynamical neural behavior in mammal, guinea pig and rat, for investigating coding structure in the auditory system. The neural coding structure in an anaesthetized guinea pig auditory cortex was investigated by comparing the spatio-temporal neural responses evoked to simple tone bursts, a complex sound such as click and natural species specific vocalizations (in vivo experiment). The cortical coding for vocalization is due to the dynamic assembly of the neurons corresponding to these formant frequencies. The results also show that any neurons specific to the species specific vocalization do not exist in the auditory cortex. Regarding the visualization of the place coding of the interaural delay for sound localization, the in vitro optical imaging of the organotypic slice culture showed the possibility to visualize the ITD topography proposed by Jefferess.


Architectural Graphics Standards by Charles George Ramsey and Harold Reeve Sleeper, first published in 1932 (and now in its eleventh edition), is a definitive technical reference for architects--the one book that every architect needs to own. The authors, one a draftsman and the other an architect, created a graphic compilation of standards that amounted to an index of the combined knowledge of their profession. This first comprehensive history of Ramsey and Sleeper's classic work explores the changing practical uses that this "draftsman's Bible" has served, as well as the ways in which it has registered the shifts within the architectural profession since the first half of the twentieth century. When Architectural Graphics Standards first appeared, architecture was undergoing its transition from vocation to profession--from the draftsman's craft to the architect's academically based knowledge with a concomitant rise in social status. The older "drafting culture" gave way to massive postwar changes in design and building practice. Writing a history of the architectural profession from the bottom up--from the standpoint of the architectural draftsman--George Barnett Johnston clarifies the role and status of the subordinate architectural workers who once made up the base of the profession. Johnston's account of the evolution of Ramsey and Sleeper's book also offers a case study of the social hierarchies embedded within architecture's division of labor. Johnston investigates what became of the draftsman, and what became of drafting culture, and asks--importantly, in today's era of digital formats--what price is exacted from architectural labor as architecture pursues new professional ideals.


A signal integrity analysis of modular metric high-density connector systems for use in telecommunication, computer- and other high-speed applications is presented. Carefully designed appropriate high performance test-setups-with different contact-pitch-consisting of backplane and daughtercard are the basis for all time- and frequency-domain measurements like TDR/TDT, crosstalk, insertion loss, VSWR, propagation delay etc. Based on 2-D FEM-calculations high-accurate simulation-models are produced which include multiline-crosstalk. The calculated curves are in an excellent agreement with the measured data. The behaviour in "bus-like" applications (connectors as a part of a stub) is discussed.


Marriage Preparation Ministry is a strong and vibrant tradition at Creighton University and St. John's Parish. This important ministry supports Creighton's mission of upholding the living tradition of the Catholic Church through embracing and furthering the sacramental, social and spiritual development of couples in the Creighton community. The Creighton/St. John's Marriage Preparation Ministry strives to uphold the sacredness of family life, the inalienable worth of each individual and the call to life-long committed love relationships.


Effective clinical intervention strategies for COVID-19 are urgently needed. Although several clinical trials have evaluated the use of convalescent plasma containing virus-neutralizing antibodies, the effectiveness has not been proven. We show that hamsters treated with a high dose of human convalescent plasma or a monoclonal antibody were protected against weight loss showing reduced pneumonia and pulmonary virus replication compared to control animals. However, a ten-fold lower dose of convalescent plasma showed no protective effect. Thus, variable and relatively low levels of virus neutralizing antibodies in convalescent plasma may limit their use for effective antiviral therapy, favouring concentrated, purified (monoclonal) antibodies.


In VLSI applications, area, delay and power are the important factors which must be taken into account in the design of a fast adder [1]. The paper attempts to examine the features of certain adder circuits which promise superior performance compared to existing circuits. The advantages of these circuits are low-power consumption, a high degree of regularity and simplicity. In this paper, the design of a 16-bit comparator is proposed. Magnitude comparison is one of the basic functions used for sorting in microprocessor, digital signal processing, so a high performance, effective magnitude comparator is required. The main objective of this paper is to provide new low power, area solution for Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) designers using low power high performance efficient full adders.


Parenting is a critical factor in adolescent social-emotional development, with maladaptive parenting leading to risk for the development of psychopathology. However, the emotion-related brain mechanisms underlying the influence of parenting on psychopathology symptoms are unknown. The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging and laboratory measures to examine sex-differentiated associations among parenting, adolescent emotion-related brain function, and substance use and psychopathology symptoms in 66 12-14 year olds. Maternal parenting behaviors (warmth, negative parenting) were observed in a laboratory task. Adolescent brain responses to negative emotional stimuli were assessed in emotion processing regions of interest (left [L] and right [R] amygdala, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]). Adolescents reported on substance use and depressive, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms. Maternal negative parenting predicted adolescent brain activation differently by sex. For girls, negative parenting predicted heightened R ACC activation to negative emotional stimuli. For boys, negative parenting predicted blunted L and R anterior insula and L ACC activation. Furthermore, for girls, but not boys, heightened L anterior insula and heightened L and R ACC activation were associated with substance use and depressive symptoms, respectively. Findings suggest neural response to negative emotion as a possible sex-specific pathway from negative parenting to psychopathology.


MEAs with nanofiber mat electrodes containing Pt/C catalyst and Nafion binder were fabricated and evaluated. The electrodes were prepared by electrospinning a solution of catalyst powder, salt-form Nafion (with Na+, Li+, or Cs+ as the sulfonic acid counterion), and a carrier polymer of either polyethylene oxide or poly(acrylic acid). The carrier polymer was extracted prior to MEA testing by a hot water soaking step. The resulting fibers were 15-17% porous, with a core-shell-like morphology (a coating of primarily Nafion on the fiber surface). MEAs with anode/cathode catalyst loadings of 0.1 mgPt/cm2 each and a Nafion 211 membrane produced high power at both high and low relative humidity (RH) conditions in H2/air fuel cell tests, e.g., a maximum power density of 919 mW/cm2 at 100% RH and 832 mW/cm2 at 40% RH for a test at 80 °C and 200 kPaabs. The presence of nm-size pores within the fibers trapped water via capillary condensation during low RH feed gas testing, thus maintaining a high proton conductivity of the Nafion binder in the anode and cathode while minimizing/eliminating ionic isolation of catalyst particles in low water content, poorly conductive binder.


With the intention to provide more information about this rare and difficult disease, we communicate that the boy from the Case 3 underwent a right transfemoral amputation due to massive enlargement and walking inability in November 2006. In January 2007, he had a massive enterorrhagia probably related to the growth of the vascular tumor and involvement of the colon. Despite multiple transfusions and medical measures, stabilization was not achieved and he died before surgical procedure could be attempted. The patient of the Case 1 is a mulatto man, and not a black man as described. We wish to thank Dr. José Luis Borges de Mesquita who participated in the treatment of Case 5 and Dr. Antonio Marmo Lucon, who provided the data of the patient of the Case 1.


Liquid–liquid equilibria of three ternary systems {glycerol + acetone + water}, {glycerol + 1, 4-dioxane + water}, and {glycerol + acetonitrile + water} were measured at temperatures of 288.15, 298.15, and 308.15 K. The results of the first two systems were satisfactorily correlated with the UNIQUAC equation with average deviations of 0.74 and 0.81%, respectively. Those of the last system were well correlated with a deviation of 2.49%. Glycerol was verified as a suitable solvent to remove water from acetone + water and acetonitrile + water solutions, through investigation of the distribution coefficients and selectivity for water, combining vapor-liquid equilibria of the systems {acetone + water} and {acetonitrile + water} at atmospheric pressure.


An advanced methodology for the detection and quantification of the ice-free period in the Arctic coastal zone is proposed. Ice-free period (IFP) dynamics is analyzed in the Kara Sea coastal zone near "Marresalya" and "Amderma" stations using long-term satellite data about sea ice concentrations. In a new method an advanced approach for defining the IFP characteristics (starting/ending dates and duration) was applied in addition to the conventional use of 15% sea ice concentration threshold. We provide estimates of the mean statistics and linear trends in the IFP characteristics using three long-term satellite-based sea ice concentration datasets: OSI SAF, NSIDC, JAXA and compare them to the estimates based upon direct observations on stations. Mean IFP durations and ending dates as well as linear trends derived from satellite data show a close comparability with observations with differences ranging within 2–7 days for IFP durations and within 0.01–0.05 days/year for IFP ending date trends. At the same time, strong deviations were found for both mean and long-term trends of the IFP starting dates, specifically showing negative trends in the satellite-derived starting dates which is not confirmed by observations. This results in a moderate agreement on trend estimates in IFP durations between satellite data and observations, while the mean characteristics are in a very good agreement and implies the necessity of more careful look onto representativeness of satellite data in the near-coastal zone during the onset season.


It is known that the binding of the reduced coenzyme (NADPH) to bovine liver glutamate dehydrogenase is controlled by the presence of phosphate, acetate, and other anions as well as the pH of the medium. These effectors mediate this binding by lowering the pK (8.5) of an ionizable group on the enzyme, and this pK shift is linked to a high enthalpy E <--> E' transition in the protein. In this study, we have measured enthalpy changes and proton transfer for enzyme-NADPH binding under a variety of combinations of phosphate, acetate, and hydrogen in the pairs acetate-NADPH and H(+)-phosphate, and negative interactions are seen in the pairs H(+)-NADPH, phosphate-NADPH, acetate-phosphate, and H(+)-acetate. We present a general model to account for all of these effects. This model incorporates a newly defined coenzyme binding subsite. The observed phenomena are interpreted in terms of the extent of loading of the specific anion-binding site on the enzyme that regulates the ionization of an enzyme group of pK 8.5. A proton is cooperatively shared with two phosphate groups at this site. Furthermore, we conclude that this cooperative trimolecular binding to the enzyme constitutes an allosteric driving force for the high enthalpy two-state transition observed in the ligand binding reactions of this enzyme.


Abstract:  During stress, activation of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis and the sympathoadrenal system leads to increased secretion of glucocorticoids and catecholamines, respectively, in order to maintain homeostasis. Recent evidence suggests that stress hormones, acting on antigen‐presenting immune cells, may influence the differentiation of bipotential T helper (Th) cells away from Th1 and toward a Th2 phenotype. This results in suppression of cellular immunity and potentiation of humoral immunity. Thyroid autoimmunity is clinically expressed as Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and its variants (sporadic or postpartum thyroiditis) or as Grave's disease (GD). The different phenotypic expression of thyroid autoimmunity is largely dependent on the balance of Th1 versus Th2 immune response. A predominantly Th1‐mediated immune activity may promote apoptotic pathways on thyroid follicular cells leading to thyroid cell destruction and HT. Conversely, predominance of Th2‐mediated immune response may induce antigen‐specific B lymphocytes to produce anti‐TSH receptor (TSHr) antibodies causing GD. The weight of evidence from epidemiological and case–control studies supports an association between stress and GD. On the other hand, there is little information available on the effect of stress on HT, but there is evidence for an increase in postpartum thyroiditis, following the cellular immune suppressive effect of pregnancy. Whether stress has a causative effect on GD remains elusive. Circumstantial evidence supports the hypothesis that stress may influence the clinical expression of thyroid autoimmunity in susceptible individuals favoring the development of GD by shifting the Th1–Th2 balance away for Th1 and toward Th2. Conversely, recovery from stress or the immune suppressive effect of pregnancy may induce a Th2 to Th1 "return shift" leading to autoimmune (sporadic) or postpartum thyroiditis, respectively.


Cybernetic theory and interactivity have much in common, including human interrelationships between modern technology and how they define and reveal the whole interactive process. Most of the key notions in both can be described as the system in conversation about the system, talking
 to each other through the information passed back and forth between the particular relationship in audiences and artworks. These similar languages are feedback, control, conversation and system thinking in the field of cybernetic theory and interactive artworks. As can be seen, some concepts
 of the cybernetic are applicable to interactivity. So, how can cybernetic thinking be applied to interactive artworks? The purpose of this article is to explore the interplay of cybernetics theory and interactivity and the connection between cybernetic/system thinking and technological/interactive
 artworks by illustrating the similarity of characteristics and comparing the conversation of two network systems. The goal is to deconstruct and reshape their relationships by thinking of interactive artworks in the way of cybernetic thinking.


This article examines the issue of women in leadership roles. Presenting research evidence which shows that presence of women in top leadership roles is accompanied by superior organizational performance, it asks the question why we still find women in small numbers in senior and top positions. It examines attitudinal and systemic barriers to women's advancement and suggests some ways to overcome them. While women need to become more proactive, for any meaningful organizational change to occur, top management and HR professionals need to work together.


This paper describes magnetically levitated micro permanent magnet (PM) motors by two types of active magnetic bearings. The micro PM motors consist of a cylindrical rotor (/spl phi/2.0 mm/spl times/10 mm), a pair of electromagnets, a pair of photodiodes, and an analog PD controller. The motors are characterized by the small rotor levitated without any mechanical contacts and one-axis controlled active magnetic bearing. Horseshoe-shaped and cylindrical electromagnets are applied to the active magnetic bearing. The rotor successfully rotates, levitating in the center of the electromagnets. In this paper, dynamic characteristics of the two types of micro PM motors, such as relationships between rotation speed and driving current, rotation speed and time, and acceleration and driving current, are discussed. As a result, it is found that the magnetically levitated micro PM motors by two types of active magnetic bearings are very different from each other and very promising.


Live fluorescence imaging has shown the dynamic nature of dendritic spines, with changes in shape occurring both during development and in response to activity. The structure of a dendritic spine positively correlates with its functional efficacy. Learning and memory studies have shown that great deal of the information stored by a neuron is contained in the synapses. High precision tracking of synaptic structures can give hints about the dynamic nature of memory and help us to understand how memories evolve both in biological and artificial neural networks. Experiments that aim to investigate the dynamics behind the structural changes of dendritic spines require the collection and analysis of large time-series datasets. In this paper, we present an open-source software called SpineS for the automatic longitudinal structural analysis of dendritic spines with additional features for manual intervention to ensure optimal analysis. Our extensive experimental analyses on multiple datasets demonstrate that SpineS can achieve a high-level performance on samples collected both by two-photon and confocal imaging systems.


Planning is highly conditioned by the relationships between the market, state and politics. This becomes particularly clear in looking at the changes taking place in the countries of the former Communist block as they attempt to establish a new set of relationships. The old power structures have been dislodged and old laws discarded. This paper examines the situation in Bulgaria and explores the preconditions for setting up a new planning system there. The first section outlines the political changes since 1989 and shows how political instability has effected the pace of change. The establishment of a market in land and property is a second precondition for the planning system there and moves in this direction are presented, including restitution policies. Finally the issues raised by the early attempts towards a new planning system are discussed.
This paper is the first of a series looking at the countries of Eastern Europe and the author would welcome comments from others working in this field.


This paper presents an evaluation of the adaptive, backstepping control technique applied to a single-degree-of-freedom, magnetic levitation system. Comparisons are made between a linear compensator and a backstepping compensator for step changes in the commanded position of levitation. Performance is evaluated based upon percent overshoot, settling time, steady-state error, and robustness to variations in levitated mass. The adaptive, backstepping compensator is found to achieve superior performance over the linear compensator when subjected to variations in both levitated mass and commanded position. By investigating the performance of this emerging technique known as backstepping under these inherently nonlinear conditions, it is intended to determine the feasibility and capabilities of this approach for practical applications to magnetic levitation systems.


The objective of this paper is to analyze and summarize the performance results and the technology used in the 1995 Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) Challenge. Government and industry are exploring hybrid electric vehicle technology to significantly improve fuel economy and reduce emissions of the vehicles without sacrificing performance. This last in a three-year series of HEV competitions provided the testing grounds to evaluate the different approaches of 29 universities and colleges constructing HEVS. These HEVs competed in an affay of events, including: acceleration, emissions testing, consumer acceptance, range, vehicle handling, HVAC testing, fuel economy, and engineering design. The teams also documented the attributes of their vehicles in the technical reports. The strategies and approaches to HEV design are analyzed on the basis of the data from each of the events. The overall performance for promising HEV approaches is also examined. Additional significant design approaches employed by the teams are presented, and the results from the events are discussed.


In this paper, we firstly characterize the relationship between the(ordered) filters, (ordered) s -prime ideals and (ordered) semilattice congruences in ordered $\Gamma$-semigroups. Finally, we give some characterizations of semilattice congruences and ordered semilattice congruences on ordered $\Gamma$-semigroups and prove that 1. n is the least semilattice congruence, 2. N is the least ordered semilattice congruence, 3. N is not the least semilattice congruence in general.


In the present paper, mechanical and thermal properties of rapidly manufactured copper parts were studied. The combination of three-dimensional printing and ultrasonic assisted pressureless sintering was used to fabricate copper parts. First, the ultimate tensile strength and thermal conductivity were compared between ultrasonic assisted and conventional pressureless sintered samples. The homogenously mixing of particles and local heat generation by ultrasonic vibrations promoted the sintering driving process and resulted in better mechanical and thermal properties. Furthermore, response surface methodology was adopted for the comprehensive study of the ultrasonic sintering parameters (sintering temperature, heating rate, and soaking time with ultrasonic vibrations) on ultimate tensile strength and thermal conductivity of the fabricated sample. Analysis of variance was performed to identify the significant factors and interactions. The image processing method was used to identify the surface porosity at different parameter levels to analyse the experimental results. High ultimate tensile strength was obtained at high sintering temperature, long soaking time, and slow heating rate with low surface porosity. After 60 min of soaking time, no significant effect was observed on the thermal conductivity of the fabricated sample. The significant interactions revealed less effect of soaking time at low sintering temperatures for ultimate tensile strength and less effect of heating rate at low sintering temperatures for thermal conductivity. Multi-objective optimization was carried out to identify parameters for maximum ultimate tensile strength and maximum thermal conductivity.


Recombinant adeno-associated virus type 2 (rAAV) has many properties of an ideal vector for gene therapy: broad spectrum of susceptible cells, efficient gene transfer, persistent transgene expression in vivo, and no indiction of vector-related toxicity. Ovarian carcinoma cell lines, however, were previously reported to be quite resistant to rAAV transduction. Using an optimized adenovirus-free packaging system, highly purified rAAV vectors coding for the enhanced green fluorescent protein (AAV/EGFP) and for mCD40 ligand (AAV/CD40L) were generated. Their transduction efficiency in ovarian carcinoma cell lines was assessed with and without irradiation prior to infection. As measured by flow cytometry, transgene expression in up to 92% of cells was achieved with AAV/EGFP. gamma-irradiation (20 Gy) significantly increased the transduction rates up to 3.5-fold in cell lines with low susceptibility to AAV infection. The aquired capability of AAV/CD40L transduced tumor cells to activate dendritic cells was demonstrated in a second step. Dendritic cells were generated from human peripheral blood monocytes and maturized by stimulation with IL-4 and GM-CSF. Co-cultivation of mCD40L transgenic tumor cells with these dendritic cells resulted in strong ELISA-determined expression of IL-12 as an indicator of dendritic cell activation. We conclude that transduction of tumor cells with rAAV encoding mCD40L is a promising strategy for tumor immunotherapy which may be further developed to a vaccination approach with transgenic ovarian carcinoma cells generated by ex vivo transduction.


In the article certainly and grounded prognostication on the basis of method of scenarios, development of world power industry in the conditions of passing to the new technological mode of world economy.


This study investigates how early clinical experiences impact teacher candidates' learning and experiences with Latina/o English learners in a field-based program housed in a multilingual, urban elementary school. We draw on multiple-case study design and use discourse analysis to explore cases of three candidates. Findings reveal exploration of additive language policies, use of cultural tools in academic contexts, and linguistic validity in assessments.


The current AASHTO policy for sight distance at Stop-controlled intersections is based on a model of the acceleration performance of a minor-road vehicle turning left or right onto a major road and the deceleration performance of the following major road vehicle. An alternative intersection sight distance model based on gap acceptance is developed and quantified. Field studies that were performed to determine the critical gaps appropriate for use in sight distance design are described. It is recommended that the sight distance along the major road for a passenger car at a Stop-controlled intersection should be based on a distance equal to 7.5 s of travel time at the design speed of the major road. Longer sight distances are recommended for minor-road approaches that have sufficient truck volumes to warrant consideration of a truck as the design vehicle.


We study the pricing of point-to-point capacities corresponding to different quality of service (QoS) classes in a simple telecommunications network and under an efficient network routing. The network uncertainties come from point-to-point demand processes that are driven by Brownian motions. Our model gives an analytical QoS pricing formula in terms of perfect quality prices and the parameters of the point-to-point demand processes. In the absence of perfect quality prices, a utility based pricing approach is used. The model is illustrated with a numerical example and the QoS-price curve is found to be S-shaped.


BACKGROUND
So far, studies based on the dualistic model of passion have ignored how the 2 different types of passion interact in a person's identity. The aim of this article is to identify profiles of passion for work and their consequences for psychological well-being.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The survey was conducted on a sample of 522 employees of various employment sectors. The Passion Scale was used to assess passion for work, while to explore well-being, the anxiety and depression subscale of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and the Subjective Vitality Scale were employed. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to distinguish the passion profiles, following which the results regarding well-being in the following groups were compared using non-parametric tests.

RESULTS
Four passion profiles have been identified. They are termed as high-moderate (profile 1: high harmonious passion for work and moderate obsessive passion for work), high (profile 2: high harmonious passion for work and obsessive passion for work), optimal (profile 3: high harmonious passion for work and low obsessive passion for work), and low (profile 4: low harmonious passion for work and low obsessive passion for work). Employees with a low score for both harmonious passion for work and obsessive passion for work had the lowest score regarding well-being.

CONCLUSIONS
This study was one of the first to use the LPA approach to explore the configuration of passion for work. It provided an indication of how the different dimensions and levels of passion set up with each other and what their consequences would be. The conducted research emphasized the protective role of the harmonious passion for work against the negative effect of obsessive passion for work. Med Pr. 2022;73(4).


In this article, I review the major characteristics of different types of appendage‐like processes that develop at the abdominal segments of many immature insects, and I discuss their controversial morphological value. The main question is whether the abdominal processes are derived from segmental appendages serially homologous to thoracic legs, or whether they are "secondary" outgrowths not homologous with true appendages. Morphological and embryological data, in particular, a comparison with the structure and development of the abdominal appendages in primitive apterygote hexapods, and data from developmental genetics, support the hypothesis of appendicular origin of many of the abdominal processes present in the juvenile stages of various pterygote orders. For example, the lateral processes, such as the tracheal gills in aquatic nymphs of exopterygote insects, are regarded as derived from lateral portions of appendage primordia, homologous with the abdominal styli of apterygotan insects; these processes correspond either to rudimentary telopodites or to coxal exites. The ventrolateral processes, such as the prolegs of different endopterygote insect larvae, appear to be derived from medial portions of the appendicular primordia; they correspond to coxal endites. These views lead to the rejection of Hinton's hypothesis (Hinton [1955] Trans R Entomol Soc Lond 106:455–545) according to which all the abdominal processes of insect larvae are secondary outgrowths not derived from true appendage anlagen. J. Morphol. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The morphology of the female reproductive system has been studied in six species of Xiphidorus Monteiro, 1976. The didelphicamphidelphic reproductive tract has equally developed branches, each consisting of a reflexed ovary, oviduct, pars dilatata oviductus, sphincter muscle, uterus, ovejector, vagina and vulva. Although the reproductive organ is quite similar in X. achalae Luc et Doucet, 1984, X. amazonensis Uesugi, Huang et Cares, 1985, X. balcarceanus Chaves et Coomans, 1984, X. minor Rashid, Coomans et Sharma, 1986, X. saladillensis Chaves et Coomans, 1984 and X. tucumanensis Chaves et Coomans, 1984, some interspecific differences afe evident in the length of the uterus and oviduct, and the shape and size of the ovejector and spermatheca. Spiniform structures afe present in the proximal part of the uterus of X. achalae, X. amazonensis and X. balcarceanus and appear to be attached in a uterine network. Spines seem to be absent from the uteri of X. minor, X. saladillensis and X. tucumanensis, but this needs further confirmation. Objects resembling crystalline structures are conspicuous in the uterine lumen of X. tucumanensis. Spermatozoa afe present in the female gonoducts of X. tucumanensis and X. amazonensis, but not in any of the other Xiphidorus species included in this study.


Poverty alleviation is a central aim of economic and social policy, and yet there is no consensus about what poverty means or how it is best measured. Often, the households below an income poverty line are counted as poor, but there may be no firm basis for concentrating on that particular income level. There may also be wide variations among the households below any income poverty line in terms of their actual living standards. This book explores what poverty means in developed countries, and shows that understanding and measuring it requires widening the focus beyond curent income. By using broader measures of resources and information on living patterns and concrete indicators of deprivation, it shows how those who are effectively excluded from participation in society due to a lack of resources can be more accurately identified, and the processes producing such exclusion better understood. The core issue of this book is how to define and measure poverty in relatively rich countries in a way which is valid, meaningful in the context, and valuable for policy-making. Extensive tables of data from a specially designed survey of a large representative sample of Irish households are used to illustrate this issue.


A series of 5-amino- and 5-hydroxyquinolone antibacterials substituted at C7 with a select group of common piperazinyl and 3-aminopyrrolidinyl side chains was prepared. These 5-substituted derivatives were compared to the analogous 5-hydrogen compounds for antiinfective activity by using DNA gyrase inhibition, minimum inhibitory concentrations against a variety of bacteria, and in vivo efficacy in the mouse infection model. The influence on the structure-activity relationships of varied substituents at C8 (H, F, Cl) and N1 (ethyl, cyclopropyl, difluorophenyl) was also studied. The results showed that several of the structure-activity conclusions regarding side-chain bulk at C7, the effect of halogen at C8, and the effect of the C5-amino group were greatly influenced by the choice of the N1-substituent. Several outstanding broad spectrum quinolones were identified in this work. In particular, the spectrum and potency of the 7-piperazinyl quinolones could be greatly enhanced by the judicious choice of C5-, C8-, and N1-substituents.


In this paper, we introduce Annobot: a platform for annotating and creating datasets through conversation with a chatbot. This natural form of interaction has allowed us to create a more accessible and flexible interface, especially for mobile devices. Our solution has a wide range of applications such as data labelling for binary, multi-class/label classification tasks, preparing data for regression problems, or creating sets for issues such as machine translation, question answering or text summarization. Additional features include pre-annotation, active sampling, online learning and real-time inter-annotator agreement. The system is integrated with the popular messaging platform: Facebook Messanger. Usability experiment showed the advantages of the proposed platform compared to other labelling tools. The source code of Annobot is available under the GNU LGPL license at https://github.com/rafalposwiata/annobot.


Purpose:To date, there are limited data on the economic burden of childhood glaucoma, a relatively rare but visually debilitating disease. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the immediate costs of illness associated with childhood glaucoma during the first 4 years after presentation. Methods:Data on age, sex, surgical interventions, visits, examinations under anesthesia, and medications were collected yearly following presentation in patients with childhood glaucoma. Inclusion criteria included diagnosis of primary or secondary childhood glaucoma, age less than 21 years, and follow-up of 4 years. A total of 23 patients (39 eyes) were included. Cost analysis used 2013 hospital-specific charges and US average hourly wage to calculate outcomes of total, direct, and indirect costs (significance level P<0.05). Results:The annual cost of care of childhood glaucoma averaged $21,441.61 per patient, representing 1100% of annual costs in adult glaucoma and an increase of 800% in annual costs of health care per pediatric patient. The average total 4-year cost of care was $85,074.96 per patient. Surgical interventions and examinations under anesthesia were the greatest contributors to costs, representing 69.0% and 23.2% of total 4-year costs, respectively. The annual costs of care for childhood glaucoma were highest in the first year compared with subsequent years, averaging $46,293.62 per patient (P<0.05). Conclusions:Childhood glaucoma carries a substantial economic burden with the highest costs occurring in the first year after presentation. The greatest contributors to cost of illness are surgical interventions and examinations and anesthesia.


The complexity of the current pharma market needs the most effective drug product development and production. Product lifecycle management (PLM) can produce pharmaceutical manufacturing more efficiently and with less risk. The life cycle approach became adopted in numerous stages within the pharmaceutical company, considering its inception. This International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) Q12 guideline intends to enhance the supervision of the post-approval chemistry, manufacturing, and control changes most reliably and effectively both for pharmaceutical industries and regulatory authorities. In this review article, we discuss the benefits and challenges related to this enhanced framework. The new ICH Q12 guideline "Technical and regulatory considerations for pharmaceutical product lifecycle management" assist the management of post-approval chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) changes in an effective way with regard to the pharmaceutical companies.


In a given scenario, simultaneously and accurately predicting every possible interaction of traffic participants is an important capability for autonomous vehicles. The majority of current researches focused on the prediction of an single entity without incorporating the environment information. Although some approaches aimed to predict multiple vehicles, they either predicted each vehicle independently with no considerations on possible interaction with surrounding entities or generated discretized joint motions which cannot be directly used in decision making and motion planning for autonomous vehicle. In this paper, we present a probabilistic framework that is able to jointly predict continuous motions for multiple interacting road participants under any driving scenarios and is capable of forecasting the duration of each interaction, which can enhance the prediction performance and efficiency. The proposed traffic scene prediction framework contains two hierarchical modules: the upper module and the lower module. The upper module forecasts the intention of the predicted vehicle, while the lower module predicts motions for interacting scene entities. An exemplar real-world scenario is used to implement and examine the proposed framework.


This paper describes a coupled fire-atmosphere model that uses a sophisticated high-resolution non- hydrostatic numerical mesoscale model to predict the local winds which are then used as input to the prediction of fire spread. The heat and moisture fluxes from the fire are then fed back to the dynamics, allowing the fire to influence its own mesoscale winds that in turn affect the fire behavior. This model is viewed as a research model and as such requires a fireline propagation scheme that systematically converges with increasing spatial and temporal resolution. To achieve this, a local contour advection scheme was developed to track the fireline using four tracer particles per fuel cell, which define the area of burning fuel. Using the dynamically predicted winds along with the terrain slope and fuel characteristics, algorithms from the BEHAVE system are used to predict the spread rates. A mass loss rate calculation, based on results of the BURNUP fuel burnout model, is used to treat heat exchange between the fire and atmosphere. Tests were conducted with the uncoupled model to test the fire-spread algorithm under specified wind conditions for both spot and line fires. Using tall grass and chaparral, line fires were simulated employing the full fire- atmosphere coupling. Results from two of these experiments show the effects of fire propagation over a small hill. As with previous coupled experiments, the present results show a number of features common to real fires. For example, we show how the well-recognized elliptical fireline shape is a direct result of fire-atmosphere interactions that produce the 'heading', 'flanking', and 'backing' regions of a wind-driven fire with their expected behavior. And, we see how perturbations upon this shape sometimes amplify to become fire whirls along the flanks, which are transported to the head of the fire where they may interact to produce erratic fire behavior.


Summary form only given. In this paper, a real-time energy management algorithm (RTEMA) for a grid-connected charging park in an industrial/commercial workplace is developed. The charging park under study involves plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) with different sizes and battery ratings as well as a photovoltaic (PV) system. Statistical and forecasting models were developed as components in the developed RTEMA to model the various uncertainties involved such as the PV power, the PHEVs, arrival time, and the energy available in their batteries upon their arrival. The developed energy management algorithm aims at reducing the overall daily cost of charging the PHEVs, mitigating the impact of the charging park on the main grid, and contributing to shaving the peak of the load curve. Hence, the benefits of implementing this RTEMA is shared among the customers, the charging park considering all customers as a bulk of power connected to the grid, and the ac grid. This makes it applicable for various business models. The developed RTEMA utilizes a fuzzy controller to manage the random energy available in the PHEVs' batteries arriving at the charging park and their charging/discharging times, power sharing among individual PHEVs that is commonly known as vehicle-to-vehicle functionality, and vehicle-to-grid service between the charging park and the main ac grid. The developed RTEMA was simulated using the standard IEEE 69-bus system at different penetration and distribution levels. The obtained results verify the effectiveness and validity of the developed RTEMA.


Urban and peri-urban population is rising rapidly in the
developing countries. The available estimates reveal that by 2020 the
developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America will be the
home of some 75 per cent of all urban dwellers (CGIAR, 2003).
India is no exception, where urban population has been increasing at
an alarming rate of more than 3 per cent annually. The forecasts are
that by 2030, the urban population will be 41 per cent of the total
population in India (UN, 2002). Growing urbanisation and rising
incomes are responsible for transforming agriculture, which is
different from the....


As Silicon Valley companies have grown, with skyrocketing profits and public approbation, their executives have been startled recently to encounter an obstacle beyond their control: government regulation. Facebook now employs enough H1-B visa holders to trigger limits on its employment of hightech immigrant workers. For a company that has built a global empire on "sharing," or moving user data through Facebook's system as freely as possible, the prospect of limits—whether on the distribution of data or human resources—is not welcome. Facebook's slogan, "move fast and break things," takes as a given that the company is firmly in the driver's seat, choosing its speed and what limits it will surpass, without its pace regulated by outside forces. Accustomed to relative technical sovereignty, Facebook and its cohort see the prospect of federal immigration restrictions not as a divergence of their interests with that of the public, but as an outdated threat from Washington, the imposition of old values on an ecosystem that has transcended them.


Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), an economically important pathogen of swine, is the necessary cause of post weaning multisystemic wasting disease (PMWS); PCV2 infection is associated with porcine dermatitis and nephritis syndrome (PDNS). Current immunohistochemical (IHC) methodologies identify PCV2 antigens but are not capable of differentiating replicating virus from nonreplicating virion particles in tissue sections. In this paper, a combination of IHC using commercial monoclonal antibodies specific for single stranded (ss) and double stranded (ds) DNA and PCV2 specific in situ hybridization (ISH) was used to show the specificity of the former for PCV2 DNA in tissue sections from PCV2-infected gnotobiotic pigs. Cold-ethanol-fixed tissue sections were superior to formalin-fixed tissues for detection of PCV2 DNA, presumably due to the lack of protein cross-linking in the latter. These data demonstrate that conventional IHC detects PCV2 DNA forms in experimentally infected PCV2-positive gnotobiotic porcine tissue sections that are minimally compromised by either formalin fixation or the hybridization conditions needed for ISH.


Solute movement In the soli-root system. P H Nye and P B Tinker. Pp xiv+342. Studies in Ecology Volume 4. Blackweils, Oxford. 1977. £12·80. This book must be welcomed as an important addition to the literature for it breaks new ground in attempting a rigorous 'analysis of the factors determining the movement of nutrient ions from the soil to the plant root. It is no fault of the authors that, though a pleasure to read, it is also a disappointment. In spite of the very large endeavour that has gone into the study of the movement of ions in soils, thereis a long way to go towards understanding and being able to predict nutrient up-take by plants. As the authors say at the end of the book, the treatment of the topics is necessarily incomplete, and progress is impeded by "the inaccuracy of soil physical measurements; the natural heterogeneity of soils; and the difficulty of predicting root development and properties". They could well have added further difficulties associated with the biological factors that influence nutrients in the vicinity of the root, and after entry to the root, and the structural changes that occur in soils; present knowledge of the soil-root interface is still rudimentary. However, the authors have brought together in a coherent form a wealth of information on water and nutrient movement in the soil, and provided a framework within which further work may more fruitfully be conducted. The book will be essential reading for all those interested in advancing an understanding of plant nutrition. D J GREENLAND


BACKGROUND
Sonoelastography is an ultrasound imaging technique able to assess mechanical properties of tissues. Strain elastography (SE) is a qualitative sonoelastographic modality with a wide range of clinical applications, but its use in brain tumor surgery has been so far very limited.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the first large-scale implementation of SE in oncological neurosurgery for lesions discrimination and characterization.

METHODS
We analyzed retrospective data from 64 patients aiming at (i) evaluating the stiffness of the lesion and of the surrounding brain, (ii) assessing the correspondence between B-mode and SE, and (iii) performing subgroup analysis for gliomas characterization.

RESULTS
(i) In all cases, we visualized the lesion and the surrounding brain with SE, permitting a qualitative stiffness assessment. (ii) In 90% of cases, lesion representations in B-mode and SE were superimposable with identical morphology and margins. In 64% of cases, lesion margins were sharper in SE than in B-mode. (iii) In 76% of cases, glioma margins were sharper in SE than in B-mode. Lesions morphology/dimensions in SE and in B-mode were superimposable in 89%. Low-grade (LGG) and high-grade (HGG) gliomas were significantly different in terms of stiffness and stiffness contrast between tumors and brain, LGG appearing stiffer while HGG softer than brain (all P < ·001). A threshold of 2.5 SE score had 85.7% sensitivity and 94.7% specificity in differentiating LGG from HGG.

CONCLUSION
SE allows to understand mechanical properties of the brain and lesions in examination and permits a better discrimination between different tissues compared to B-mode. Additionally, SE can differentiate between LGG and HGG.


To test the availability of soybean meal as a protein source and to increase its effectiveness in the diets for the fingerlings of red seabream, some feeding trials were conducted. Two different types of diet, steam pellet and soft dry pellet, contained various levels of soybean meal, were used. The growth, feed efficiencies, and body compositions were examined after the feeding trials. Results of the experiments suggested that dietary protein level could be reduced from 52 % to 47 % by elevating dietary energy level from 13 % to 21 % with lipid. The best results of growth and feed efficiencies were achieved by the diet that containing 47 % of crude protein and 20 % of crude lipids. The growths and feed efficiencies showed no difference when 20 % of fish meal in the experimental diet were substituted by soybean meal. Therefore, 20 % of fish meal could be substituted by soybean meal without reducing growth rates or feed efficiencies of fingerling red sea bream.


A new technique is described for reducing computational complexity and improve accuracy of power distribution and interconnect noise prediction for wide, on-chip data-buses. The methodology uses lossy transmission-line power-blocks with frequency-dependent properties needed for the multi-GHz clock frequencies. The interaction between delta-I noise, common-mode noise, and crosstalk is illustrated with simulations using representative driver and receiver circuits and on-chip interconnections.


When a perfectly electrically conducting (PEC) waveguide is perturbed by the insertion of a PEC structure aligned with its axis, its propagation constants are perturbed. The underlying boundary value problem may be converted to a homogeneous Fredholm matrix equation in which the propagation constants are found from the roots of the determinant of the matrix; stable and numerically efficient processes may be employed to find the propagation constants. There is no constraint on the size or shape of the inserts. As well as determining the empty waveguide parameters, this approach provides an estimate of the perturbation to the propagation constants of the empty waveguide.


Effects of addition of Zn (up to 1 wt%) on microstructure, precipitate structure and intergranular corrosion (IGC) in an Al–Mg–Si alloys were investigated. During ageing at 185 °C, the alloys showed modest increases in hardness as function of Zn content, corresponding to increased number densities of needle-shaped precipitates in the Al–Mg–Si alloy system. No precipitates of the Al–Zn–Mg alloy system were found. Using high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM), the Zn atoms were incorporated in the precipitate structures at different atomic sites with various atomic column occupancies. Zn atoms segregated along grain boundaries, forming continuous film. It correlates to high IGC susceptibility when Zn concentration is ~1wt% and the materials in peak-aged condition.


Conservation and consistency are fundamental properties of discretizations of systems of hyperbolic conservation laws. Here, these concepts are extended to the realm of iterative methods by formally defining locally conservative and flux consistent iterations. These concepts are of both theoretical and practical importance: Based on re-cent work by the authors, it is shown that pseudo-time iterations using explicit Runge-Kutta methods are locally conservative but not necessarily flux consistent. An extension of the Lax-Wendroff theorem is presented, revealing convergence towards weak solutions of a temporally retarded system of conservation laws. Each equation is modified in the same way, namely by a particular scalar factor multiplying the spatial flux terms. A technique for enforcing flux consistency, and thereby recovering convergence, is presented. Further, local conservation is established for all Krylov subspace methods, with and without restarts, and for Newton's method under certain assumptions on the discretization. Thus it is shown that Newton-Krylov methods are locally conservative, although not necessarily flux consistent. Numerical experiments with the 2D compressible Euler equations corroborate the theoretical results. Further numerical investigations of the impact of flux consistency on Newton-Krylov methods indicate that its effect is case dependent, and diminishes as the number of iterations grow.


Background Patient portals (ie, electronic personal health records tethered to institutional electronic health records) are recognized as a promising mechanism to support greater patient engagement, yet questions remain about how health care leaders, policy makers, and designers can encourage adoption of patient portals and what factors might contribute to sustained utilization. Objective The purposes of this state of the science review are to (1) present the definition, background, and how current literature addresses the encouragement and support of patient engagement through the patient portal, and (2) provide a summary of future directions for patient portal research and development to meaningfully impact patient engagement. Methods We reviewed literature from 2006 through 2014 in PubMed, Ovid Medline, and PsycInfo using the search terms "patient portal" OR "personal health record" OR "electronic personal health record". Final inclusion criterion dictated that studies report on the patient experience and/or ways that patients may be supported to make competent health care decisions and act on those decisions using patient portal functionality. Results We found 120 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Based on the research questions, explicit and implicit aims of the studies, and related measures addressed, the studies were grouped into five major topics (patient adoption, provider endorsement, health literacy, usability, and utility). We discuss the findings and conclusions of studies that address the five topical areas. Conclusions Current research has demonstrated that patients' interest and ability to use patient portals is strongly influenced by personal factors such age, ethnicity, education level, health literacy, health status, and role as a caregiver. Health care delivery factors, mainly provider endorsement and patient portal usability also contribute to patient's ability to engage through and with the patient portal. Future directions of research should focus on identifying specific populations and contextual considerations that would benefit most from a greater degree of patient engagement through a patient portal. Ultimately, adoption by patients and endorsement by providers will come when existing patient portal features align with patients' and providers' information needs and functionality.


Background/Objective: To evaluate if fundus autofluorescence (FAF) patterns around geographic atrophy (GA) and the status of the fellow eye have an impact on GA progression. Methods: We included 54 eyes of 35 patients with GA. Areas of GA were quantified by RegionFinder software. Results: GA progression rates in eyes with a diffuse trickling pattern (median 1.42 mm2/year) were significantly higher than in normal eyes (median 0.22 mm2/year) and eyes with other diffuse FAF patterns (median 0.46 mm2/year). Eyes with a banded pattern had a significantly higher progression rate (median 0.81 mm2/year) than those without any FAF abnormalities (p = 0.038). The group with baseline total atrophy of the eyes <1 disk area (DA; median 0.42 mm2) had an inverse relation with GA progression compared to the groups with baseline atrophy >1 DA (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Diffuse trickling and banded patterns may have an impact on GA progression and may serve as prognostic factors.


Abstract. Air pollution harms human health and the environment. Several regulatory efforts and different actions have been taken in the last decades by authorities. Air quality trend analysis represents a valid tool in assessing the impact of these actions taken both at national and local levels. This paper presents for the first time the capability of the Italian national chemical transport model, AMS-MINNI, in capturing the observed concentration trends of three air pollutants, NO2, inhalable particles having diameter less than 10 micrometres (PM10) and O3, in Italy over the period 2003–2010. We firstly analyse the model performance finding it in line with the state of the art of regional models applications. The modelled trends result in a general significant downward trend for the three pollutants and, in comparison with observations, the values of the simulated slopes show the same magnitude for NO2 (in the range −3.0 ÷ −0.5 ug m−3 yr−1), while a smaller variability is detected for PM10 (−1.5 ÷ −0.5 ug m−3 yr−1) and O3-maximum daily 8-hour average concentration (−2.0 ÷ −0.5 ug m−3 yr−1). As a general result, we find a good agreement between modelled and observed trends; moreover, the model allowed to extend both the spatial coverage and the statistical significance of pollutants' concentrations trends with respect to observations, in particular for NO2. We also conduct a qualitative attempt to correlate the temporal concentration trends to meteorological and emission variability. Since no clear tendency in yearly meteorological anomalies (temperature, precipitation, geopotential height) was observed for the period investigated, we focus the discussion of concentrations trends on emissions variations. We point out that, due to the complex links between precursors emissions and air pollutants concentrations, emission reductions do not always result in a corresponding decrease in atmospheric concentrations, especially for those pollutants that are formed in the atmosphere such as O3 and the major fraction of PM10. These complex phenomena are still uncertain and their understanding is of the utmost importance in planning future policies for reducing air pollution and its impacts on health and ecosystems.


Abstract. Basin inversion involves the reversal of subsidence in a basin due to compressional tectonic forces, leading to uplift of the basin's sedimentary infill. A thorough understanding of basin inversion is of great importance for scientific, societal and economic reasons. Analogue tectonic modelling forms a key part our efforts to improve our understanding of basin inversion processes, and researchers have conducted numerous studies on this topic. In this review paper we recap the advances in knowledge of basin inversion tectonics acquired through analogue modelling studies, providing an up-to-date summary of the state of analogue modelling of basin inversion. We describe the different definitions of basin inversion that are being applied by researchers, why basin inversion has been historically an important research topic, and what the general mechanics involved in basin inversion are. We subsequently treat the wide range of different experimental approaches used for basin inversion modelling, with attention to the various materials, set-ups and techniques used for monitoring and analysing the model results. Our new systematic overviews of generalized results reveal the diversity of model results, depending greatly on the chosen set-up, model layering and (oblique) kinematics of inversion, as well as 3D along-strike structural and kinematic variations in the system. We show how analogue modelling results are in good agreement with numerical models, and how these results help to better understand natural examples of basin inversion. In addition to reviewing the past efforts in the field of analogue modelling, we also shed light on future modelling challenges and identify a number of opportunities for follow-up research. These include the testing of force-boundary conditions, adding geological processes such as sedimentation, transport and erosion, applying state-of-the-art modelling and quantification techniques, and establishing best modelling practices. We also suggest expanding the scope of basin inversion modelling beyond the traditional upper crustal "North Sea style" of inversion, which may contribute to the on-going search for clean energy resources. It follows that basin inversion modelling can bring valuable new insights, providing a great incentive to continue our efforts in this field. We therefore hope that this review paper will form an inspiration for future analogue modelling studies of basin inversion.


Lianas (climbing woody vines) are important structural parasites of tropical trees and may be increasing in abundance in response to global-change drivers. We assessed long-term (-14-year) changes in liana abundance and forest dynamics within 36 1-ha permanent plots spanning -600 km2 of undisturbed rainforest in central Amazonia. Within each plot, we counted each liana stem (> or = 2 cm diameter) and measured its diameter at 1.3 m height, and then used these data to estimate liana aboveground biomass. An initial liana survey was completed in 1997-1999 and then repeated in 2012, using identical methods. Liana abundance in the plots increased by an average of 1.00% +/- 0.88% per year, leading to a highly significant (t = 6.58, df = 35, P < 0.00001) increase in liana stem numbers. Liana biomass rose more slowly over time (0.32% +/- 1.37% per year) and the mean difference between the two sampling intervals was nonsignificant (t = 1.46, df = 35, P = 0.15; paired t tests). Liana size distributions shifted significantly (chi2 = 191, df = 8, P < 0.0001; Chi-square test for independence) between censuses, mainly as a result of a nearly 40% increase in the number of smaller (2-3 cm diameter) lianas, suggesting that lianas recruited rapidly during the study. We used long-term data on rainfall and forest dynamics from our study site to test hypotheses about potential drivers of change in liana communities. Lianas generally increase with rainfall seasonality, but we found no significant trends over time (1997-2012) in five rainfall parameters (total annual rainfall, dry-season rainfall, wet-season rainfall, number of very dry months, CV of monthly rainfall). However, rates of tree mortality and recruitment have increased significantly over time in our plots, and general linear mixed-effect models suggested that lianas were more abundant at sites with higher tree mortality and flatter topography. Rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2, which may stimulate liana growth, might also have promoted liana increases. Our findings clearly support the view that lianas are increasing in abundance in old-growth tropical forests, possibly in response to accelerating forest dynamics and rising CO2 concentrations. The aboveground biomass of trees was lowest in plots with abundant lianas, suggesting that lianas could reduce forest carbon storage and potentially alter forest dynamics if they continue to proliferate.


In the present study the effects of different commercially available periodontal dressings (Peripac, Barricaid, Fittydent, Reso-Pack and Myzotect-tincture) on fibroblast (V-79-379A) proliferation and survival were tested in vitro. Barricaid, Fittydent and Reso-Pack periodontal dressings have only small inhibitory effects on cell proliferation (83.3 +/- 9%, 71.6 +/- 8.7% and 87.3 +/- 4.5% of control after 48 h, respectively) in comparison with the great inhibitory effect of Myzotect-tincture (2.9 +/- 0.1%) and Peripac (33.7 +/- 11.4%) (p < 0.001). Barricaid was the only dressing where 41% of cells survived after exposure, while the other four dressings killed all the cells in 6 days. In addition, the healing of artificially created gingival wounds covered by Barricaid and Reso-Pack was followed for 7 days in 12 Beagle dogs. Histological evaluation of gingival tissue demonstrated that wounds covered by Reso-Pack showed the best epithelisation and vascularity and the least inflammatory reaction in first 4 days. Later the observed parameters were similar with those of wounds covered by Barricaid or without pack. The present results indicate that Peripac periodontal dressing and Myzotect-tincture showed the highest cytotoxicity to fibroblasts in vitro. From the histological observations in Beagle dogs Reso-Pack has been found to be the most suitable dressing, followed by Barricaid.


Historical fragmentation in spectrum access models accentuates the need for novel concepts that allow for efficient sharing of already available but underutilized spectrum. The emerging LSA regulatory framework is expected to enable more advanced spectrum sharing between a limited number of users while guaranteeing their much needed interference protection. However, the ultimate benefits of LSA may in practice be constrained by space-time availability of the LSA bands. Hence, more dynamic LSA spectrum management is required to leverage such realtime variability and sustain reliability when, for example, the original spectrum user suddenly revokes the previously granted frequency bands as they are required again. In this article, we maintain the vision of highly dynamic LSA architecture and rigorously study its future potential, from reviewing market opportunities and discussing available technology implementations to conducting performance evaluation of LSA dynamics and outlining the standardization landscape. Our investigations are based on a comprehensive system-level evaluation framework, which has been specifically designed to assess highly dynamic LSA deployments.


Over a period of 5-year (May 2000 to April 2005) 29 patients of congenital pouch colon (CPC) were managed by single pediatric surgeon in the Department of Pediatric Surgery of a tertiary hospital. Of these, 11 were girls (M: F: 1.6:1). Detailed anatomy could be studied in nine patients, were included in this study. Age of presentation in female subjects ranged 1 day to 8 years. On examination, eight of the nine patients had single perineal opening suggesting a very high incidence of association of cloaca in female subjects with CPC. Four had short urogenital sinus with colonic pouch opening in the posterior wall of urinary bladder. In other two patients, CPC terminated in short cloaca. Anomalies of mullerian structures such as uterus didelphus and septate vagina ware commonly encountered. Proximal diversion with or without pouch excision was done as the initial preliminary treatment for all those patients who presented in early life. Of the nine girls, two died after the preliminary surgery. Only five patients have undergone definitive surgery. Definitive surgery included abdomino-perineal pull-through of proximal normal colon ( n =2), tubularization of pouch with abdomino- posterior sagittal- pull through ( n =2) and abdomino-posterior sagittal urethra-vaginoanorectoplasty with pull through of tapered pouch colon in one patient. Two of these patients had concomitant bowel vaginoplasty. Three patients with tubularized pouches had constipation and spurious diarrhea. However, good pseudo-continence of bowel was achieved on regular bowel washes. The cosmetic appearance of perineum in all these three patients was acceptable. The patients in whom pouch excision was done had diarrhea and severe perineal excoriation resistant to conservative management.


Railroads use wayside inspection technologies to monitor the health of passing railcars. Because of resource constraints, an efficient and feasible installation plan should be integrated into a multiperiod decision–support framework to derive the maximum benefit over a long planning horizon. A large-scale network optimization framework was proposed to solve this problem. The problem was formulated into two equivalent mathematical models: a maximum coverage model and a K-median model. A set of solution algorithms including a greedy heuristic, a 1-interchange heuristic, and a Lagrangian relaxation method were developed for these models, and their computational performances were investigated. A numerical case study was developed to illustrate the use of these models in real-world settings, and insights into empirical applications of these models were drawn.


Results of the effect of synthetic analogs of juvenile hormones of insects, dimiline, altozide and altozare, on the mite P. cuniculi have been shown. It has been noted that repeated coverings of mites in Petri dishes and rabbits' skin with 0.005--5% emulsions of altozide, 0.005--10% emulsions of altozare and 0.25--8% suspensions of dimiline cause no changes in their morphology and metamorphosis. 1--4% emulsions of altozide and altozare and 2--8% suspensions of dimiline have been found to have an acaricide effect and cause 100 per cent mortality of mites within 48 hours.


We study a stochastic system of interacting neurons and its metastable properties. The system consists of $N$ neurons, each spiking randomly with rate depending on its membrane potential. At its spiking time, the neuron potential is reset to $0$ and all other neurons receive an additional amount $h/N$ of potential. In between successive spike times, each neuron looses potential at exponential speed. We study this system in the supercritical regime, that is, for sufficiently high values of the synaptic weight $h.$ Under very mild conditions on the spiking rate function, is has been shown in Duarte and Ost \cite{do} that the only invariant distribution of the finite system is the trivial measure $ \delta_{\bf 0}$ corresponding to extinction of the process. Under minimal conditions on the behavior of the spiking rate function in the vicinity of $0$, we prove that the extinction time arrives at exponentially late times in $ N$, and discuss the stability of the equilibrium $\delta_{\bf 0}$ for the non-linear mean-field limit process depending on the parameters of the dynamics. We then specify our study to the case of saturating spiking rates and show that, under suitable conditions on the parameters of the model, 1) the non-linear mean-field limit admits a unique and globally attracting equilibrium and 2) the rescaled exit times for the mean spiking rate of a finite system from a neighbourhood of the non-linear equilibrium rate converge in law to an exponential distribution, as the system size diverges. In other words, the system exhibits a metastable behavior.


Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely-used anticancer drug, but its cardiotoxicity severely hampers its potency in chemotherapy. Herein, human serum albumin (HSA) is engaged as a biocompatible nanocarrier to load a pH-sensitive DOX prodrug, DMDOX, generating HSA-DMDOX nanoparticles via self-assembly driven by hydrophobic interactions. HSA-DMDOX disperses well in a physiological environment (∼40 nm) but aggregates in a tumor acidic microenvironment (pH 6.5, ∼140 nm) owing to the hydrophobicity increase of DMDOX by protonation of carboxylic groups. In vitro anticancer study showed that HSA-DMDOX exhibited enhanced cellular uptake by 4T1 cells and superior cytotoxicity in comparison to HSA-DOX nanoparticles. In vivo study suggested that HSA-DMDOX achieved long blood circulation, aggregation enhanced tumor retention, comparable antitumor efficacy and reduced cardiotoxicity relative to free DOX. Our work presents a facile and effective approach to delivering anthracyclines by HSA-based tumor pH-responsive nanoparticles with aggregation-enhanced tumor retention and reduced toxicity.


As children acquire language and encounter new
speakers and linguistic situations, they also acquire the knowledge
of sociolinguistic variation necessary to achieve communicative
competence (Romaine 1984). When children enter school, they
encounter new speakers, a new set of linguistic situations and
styles, and sometimes new language varieties or even entirely new
languages. Children's exposure to new languages is particularly
intense in language immersion models; in the dual-language
immersion model, students dominant in different languages interact
in the same classroom, and spend time learning in each language.
The "dual" in dual-language simplifies the more complex reality of
many such programs, in which multiple varieties of languages are in
fact present (Rubinstein-Avila 2002). In dual-language immersion
classrooms where teachers and students speak a range of dialects,
participants must learn to negotiate between varieties as well as
between languages. The present study seeks to investigate what
sociolinguistic knowledge children can acquire in the early
elementary school years of a Mandarin-English dual-language
immersion program, by examining how sociolinguistic meaning is
reflected and negotiated in the linguistic practice and
metalinguistic discourse of members of the school community. This
question is addressed through ethnographic and quantitative
analysis of teacher and student language use, corrective feedback,
and other metalinguistic discourse. The present research draws on
data from a year-long participant-observation study of first-grade
and second-grade classes (ages 5-8) at a Mandarin-English
dual-language immersion program in the United States. Analysis of
language use and metalinguistic discourse at the school establishes
that, rather than simply imitating the speech of their teachers or
classmates, students in the early elementary grades can make use of
sociolinguistic information present in stylistic variation and
metalinguistic discourse to target and acquire a variety distinct
from that used by the speakers around them. This analysis of the
variation present in a dual-language immersion school setting also
suggests that the sociolinguistic information present in classrooms
is more rich and varied than has been previously assumed, and
equips students to competently navigate a range of linguistic
situations.


Genetic parameters were estimated from 5-year data collected in two 11 x 6 factorial matings, one between Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis Barr. & Golf. (PCH) and Pinus oocarpa Schiede (Pooc) and the other between PCH and Pinus tecunumanii (Schw.) Eguiluz et Ferry (PTEC), that were planted on two sites in Queensland, Australia. The data were also used to predict the general hybridizing ability (GHA) of the 11 PCH parents common to the POOC and PTEC factorials. Genetic parameter estimates obtained from an across-sites analysis were generally of similar magnitude in the two different hybrids. Unbiased heritability estimates from the across-sites analysis were usually intermediate between those obtained from the analysis of the data from the single sites, and estimates from the female (PCH) and male (POOC or PTEC) parents were often substantially different. Type B genetic correlations (r(gB)) between the same trait measured in the two tests were high (ranging from 0.76 to 0.95) for all traits except DBH of the Pea x PTEC hybrids (r(gB)=0.36). Estimates of r(gB) for DBH from the female parents were generally higher than estimates for PCH between pairs of tests in these same locations, while estimates for DBH of the PCH x PTEC hybrids are similar to estimates for height in pairs of PTEC tests grown in different countries. The ratio of additive to dominance variance was 1.4 for diameter, but all other traits showed relatively little dominance variance. The ranking of the 11 PCH parents based on the GHA predictions was very similar in both the Pooc and PTEC hybrid crosses for traits that were controlled primarily by additive variance (i.e., straightness and wind-firmness, where correlations between the two sets of breeding values exceeded 0.92); however, for diameter the correlation was low (r=0.45) and not significant(at the p=0.05 level). The implications of these results are discussed in relation to the genetic improvement of hybrids.


We present a fabrication technique for graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) that employs copper oxide nanowires as the etch masks. We demonstrate that these etch masks have numerous advantages: they can be synthesized simply by heating a copper foil in air, deposited on graphene from a solution, they are inert to oxygen plasma, and can be removed from the substrate by dissolution in mild acids. We fabricated GNRs in the device configuration and tested their electrical properties. Depending on the duration of the plasma etching, GNR devices exhibiting either standard ambipolar electric field effects or p-type transistor behaviors with ON-OFF ratios > 50 can be fabricated. The resulting devices based on narrow GNRs are demonstrated to exhibit promising electronic properties, which can be exploited in studies where GNR devices are required.


AIM
Opioids are increasingly used to control postoperative pain via intravenous patient-controlled analgesia, with several advantages. The present study evaluated the effects of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with different doses of fentanyl on postoperative pain and on the quality of physical/emotional recovery from surgery and anesthesia.

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed data from 288 patients, and evaluated whether intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with fentanyl correlated with the degree of postoperative pain. We then prospectively studied 47 patients who underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The patients were randomized into 2 groups (15 or 30 μg/mL of fentanyl), and postoperative pain control was compared using a visual analog scale score. Furthermore, the Japanese 40-item quality of recovery (QoR-40J) score (global and dimensional) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to assess the quality of recovery from surgery and anesthesia.

RESULTS
Of 288 patients, 20% complained of intolerable pain and 18% experienced postoperative nausea and vomiting. In the prospective study, the visual analog scale pain score was lower in the Fentanyl 30 group than in the Fentanyl 15 group (p<0.05) on postoperative day 1. Dimensional QoR-40J pain subscales correlated with both the emotional state subscales (postoperative day 1, p<0.05; day 2, p<0.05) and global QoR-40 scores on both postoperative days (day 1, p<0.05; day 2, p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
The postoperative pain as well as the physical and emotional quality of recovery in the patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy could be alleviated by sufficient doses of opioids.


Early detection of increasing values of intraocular pressure (IOP) due to glaucoma can prevent severe ocular diseases and ultimately, prevent loss of vision. Currently, the need for an accurate, mobile measurement of IOP that shows no correlation to central corneal thickness is unmet within the modern healthcare practices. There is a potential to utilize soundwaves as a mobile measurement method and therefore, the relationship between IOP and the reflection coefficient of sound waves is investigated. Simulations are conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics to provide theoretical confirmation of the worthiness of the experiment. An experiment is conducted to further investigate the relationship between the internal pressure of an object and its acoustic reflection coefficient. The experiment exploits the use of hydrostatic pressure to determine internal pressure, and the reflection coefficient is measured and analyzed. An initial experiment is conducted to identify the resonant frequency of the object and the optimal frequency for maximizing reflection. The experiment shows comprehensively that there is a relationship between the internal pressure of an object and its acoustic reflection coefficient, providing a confirmation of the theory that would allow mobile measurements of IOP to be conducted with the use of a smart phone.


Within the Cerna Valley in southwestern Romania, over a 100 caves were formed in the Jurassic and Cretaceous limestone that outcrops on the valley walls. Three aspects are prominent when entering most of the caves in this region: the presence of considerable gypsum deposits, the amount of guano, and the cave temperature. High temperature anomalies are uncommon in the cave environment. In certain caves in the lower part of Cerna Valley, however, one can measure air temperatures as high as 40°C. This situation is due to the presence of thermal water pooling or flowing through the caves or to the hot steam that rises along fractures from deeper thermal water pools. As a result, these caves provide a unique set of conditions that allowed for the deposition of a suite of unusual minerals. This study presents the results of fifty-seven mineral samples that were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, geochemical, Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscope analyses with the scope of linking the cave minerals with likely hypogene speleogenetic processes. Here we document the occurrence of twenty-two secondary cave minerals, among which, apjonite and tamarugite are the first recorded occurrences in a limestone cave environment. The minerals fall into three distinct associations: sulfate-dominated (Diana Cave), phosphate-dominated (Adam Shaft), and sulfate-phosphate-nitrate-rich assemblage (Great Sălitrari Cave). Additional isotopic measurements (δ34S) performed on sulfate speleothems contribute valuable information on both minerals and cave origins.


During the last few years the interest on the behaviour of both gravel and mixed beaches has increased because of the interest in soft coastal engineering measures for combating erosion. In contrast to gravel beaches, little research has been devoted to the sediment transport of beaches containing a mixture of both sand and gravel sediment (Mason and Coates, 2001). Thus, because of the limited understanding surrounding these beaches, mixed sand and gravel coastlines have a lot of research potential for both coastal resource management and scientific reasons. In recognition of this, a series of 3-dimensional physical model tests has been undertaken in order to examine the behaviour of gravel and mixed beaches more closely. The 3-D physical model tests were carried out in the 3-D wave basin located at Franzius-Institute (Marienwerder) of University of Hannover, at a nominal scale of 1:1. During the study, measurements of beach profiles and of cross-shore and long-shore current data were taken, generated by oblique wave attack, along gravel and mixed beaches with a uniform slope and a trench. New formulae for predicting wave breaking depth index, breaking depth and height, undertow velocity, long-shore current velocity and step and berm elevation have been proposed. A new parametric profile model has been developed in order to predict the beach profile changes of gravel and mixed beaches with a uniform slope and a trench due to sediment transport. The results of the new parametric profile model and of the refined parametric model SHINGLE have been validated against field and experimental data. The results of this validation were encouraging for the refined model, showing better accuracy than the SHINGLE model and showing that it has the potential to be a valuable tool in the design and management of gravel and mixed beaches.


BACKGROUND
Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are congenital vascular anomalies of the central nervous system that can result in seizures, hemorrhage, recurrent headaches, and focal neurologic deficits. These CCMs can occur as sporadic or autosomal dominant conditions, although with incomplete penetrance and variable clinical expression. Three CCM loci have been identified, on chromosomes 7q21-22 (CCM1; Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man [OMIM] 116860), 7p13-15 (CCM2; OMIM 603284), and 3q25.2-27 (CCM3; OMIM 603285), and 3 genes have been cloned, KRIT1 on CCM1, MGC4607 on CCM2, and PDCD10 on CCM3. Mutations in KRIT1 account for more than 40% of CCMs.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the results of a comprehensive evaluation of 5 Italian families affected with CCM.

DESIGN
Clinical, magnetic resonance imaging, and KRIT1 gene analysis.

SETTING
University academic teaching hospitals.

PATIENTS
Fifteen patients with CCM diagnosed according to defined criteria and 45 at-risk, symptom-free relatives.

RESULTS
Three novel and 2 described mutations were found in KRIT1. The families included 33 KRIT1 mutation carriers, 57.6% of whom had no symptoms. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed CCM lesions in 82.3% of symptom-free mutation carriers.

CONCLUSIONS
The data confirm both incomplete clinical and neuroimaging penetrance in families with the KRIT1 mutation. This consideration is important in genetic counseling. Moreover, the data emphasize both the importance of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of CCM and the potential for DNA-based diagnosis to identify subjects at risk.


ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa proteases are considered important virulence factors which damage host tissues and interfere with host antibacterial defense mechanisms. P. aeruginosa biofilm cells are not completely killed by antibacterials, and therefore this study addresses the question whether ciprofloxacin attenuates the virulence of biofilm communities by abolishing their secretion of proteases. The surviving cells of the colony biofilms studied, despite their cyclical exposure to four doses of ciprofloxacin at bactericidal concentrations (one dose a day), still secreted active proteases to the environment surrounding the biofilms. The biofilm cells secreted elastase B (LasB) over the duration of the experiments as confirmed by Western immunoblot analysis. The colony biofilms did not secrete LasA—a protease with staphylolytic activity. The same profiles on zymogram gels with gelatin were observed for the proteases secreted by both ciprofloxacin-exposed and unexposed (control) biofilms. Total proteolytic activities of the colony biofilms studied were significantly reduced after exposure to ciprofloxacin at bactericidal concentrations—after 96 h of exposure they dropped to 38% for the strain intermediate resistant to ciprofloxacin and to 65% for the strain highly resistant to the antibiotic, relative to the control biofilms. The surviving cells of the colony biofilms after their release into a fresh medium displayed transient increased resistance to ciprofloxacin compared to their planktonic counterparts.


Often, the amount of RNA that can be isolated from a defined tissue is very small. A method consisting of nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and silver staining is described that can be used to evaluate the concentration of very dilute RNA samples. The method is a good starting point for assays dealing with small amounts of RNA, such as semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), making it possible to perform parallel assays from similar amounts of total RNA when quantitation by other methods is too insensitive. The method has been used successfully to monitor the amount of total RNA isolated from rat sciatic nerve and the rat C6 glioma cell line.


We consider the problem of creating a sample view of a database table. A sample view is an indexed materialized view that permits efficient sampling from an arbitrary range query over the view. Such "sample views" are very useful in applications that require random samples from a database: approximate query processing, online aggregation, data mining, and randomized algorithms are a few examples. Our core technical contribution is a new file organization called the appendability, combinability, and exponentiality (ACE) tree that is suitable for organizing and indexing a sample view. One of the most important aspects of the ACE tree is that it supports online random sampling from the view. That is, at all times, the set of records returned by the ACE tree constitutes a statistically random sample of the database records satisfying the relational selection predicate over the view. Our paper presents experimental results that demonstrate the utility of the ACE tree.


Variable or adjustable speed drives generate pulse width modulated waveforms with risetimes below 100 ns. These very rapid transitions can cause large turn-to-turn voltages in inductive devices such as random wound motors, resulting in partial discharge and premature failure. One way to mitigate this problem is to absorb high frequency energy in the cable between the drive electronics and the motor. This contribution analyses design considerations for optimization of such a cable.


The flexible shells of corner-corner type are often utilized as distribution, vapor belts to distribute medium or expansion joints to compensate the difference of displacement between shell side and tube side due to temperature or pressure in heat exchangers. Corner-corner type can be fabricated for large diameter equipment because of better manufacturing process and space saving. However, at present, the design depends on experience and the primary stress of the outer cylinder. The lack of accurate and integral calculation methods have limited its application and even resulted in safety hazard. In this paper, a mechanical model is established for the flexible shell of corner-corner type and analytical solution including the global stresses, local stresses, stress trend curves and axial stiffness is proposed based on the plate and shell theory. The analytical method is verified by finite element analysis. It is demonstrated that the analytical method is accurate and reliable. It is pointed out that the local stresses of each element should not be ignored. Meanwhile, the stresses may transfer to reverse value along the path away from the maximum stress, which would arise the buckling failure.


Journalists must verify information provided by their sources. However, factors such as job precariousness, urgency and the credibility they give to mainly institutional sources mean that journalists do not verify information. Most codes of conduct recommend the duty to correct information as soon as an unintentionally committed error is discovered, but journalists dislike recognising their own errors and even more so correcting them publicly. These circumstances affect adversely the quality of discourse and the credibility of mass-media. Ombudsmen partially bridge this gap. As a result, false, mistaken, wrong or biased pieces of news are published and journalists, against the rules of truth and honesty, rarely rectify on their own initiative. This article analyses the coverage of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, in which the game of mimicry saw the same mistake repeated in different media and in different countries, although prestigious newspapers published an unusual public apology.