Our paper describes the fundamentals of an IP selection support tool that can be used over the Internet as well as in intranets of larger companies. Such a tool can be used to support the board and chip design activities of electronic circuit designers by informing about available products as IPs or chips to purchase. Online IP catalogues as they have been emerging lately may contain thousands of IPs but they typically provide only littl e selection support and littl e detailed information on the properties of the IPs. This can make it impossible for a designer to evaluate a number of IPs of the same type according to his special purposes. By combining abstract domain knowledge and a similarity-based search approach, the selection assistant we describe is capable of evaluating a database of IPs according to the designer's needs. Due to this assistant's abilit y to automatically evaluate IPs it can hide confidential information from the user while still offering high quality retrieval results. A first prototype of the system has been presented at DATE'98 and is online at http://wwwagr.informatik.uni-kl.de/~readee/. It covers the special case of DSPs. In our paper we present a framework that extends the concepts of this prototype to a general IP selection support application. We also present concepts for IP modelli ng, taxonomies, classifications of IP parameters and quality measures for IP characterisation and design space representation. 1 Introdu ction More and more electronic companies do not hesitate to use IPs (" Intellectual Properties") from third parties inside their complex electronic systems. An IP is a design object whose major value comes from the skill of its producer (Lewis 1997), and a redesign of it would consume significant time. A designer who wants to reuse designs from the past must have a lot of experience and knowledge about existing designs, in order to be able to find candidates that are suitable for reuse in his specific new situation. More and more IP vendors arise, offering their IPs especially in the internet. Searching in such IP databases can be an extremely time consuming task Centre for Learning Systems and Applications, Dept. of Computer Science University of Kaiserslautern, PO-Box 3049, 67653 Kaiserslautern Institute for Computer Structures, Dept. of Computer Science University of Siegen, Hölderlinstr. 3, 57068 Siegen because, first, the public domain documentation of IPs is very poor and second there are currently no intelli gent tools to support the designer in deciding whether a given IP from a database can be easily adapted to meet the specification of his new application. A simple but typical reuse scenario from the designer's point of view consists of a few main steps: 1. Make a specification for a new application. 2. Find a catalogue of reusable designs that contains IPs of the new application's domain. 3. In the catalogue, search for the IP that is best reusable for the new application. 4. Obtain (buy) this IP from the IP provider. 5. Try to reuse the IP. 6. Finally, find out whether a good decision was made, i.e. whether a profit was gained by reusing the IP. This article is mainly concerned with steps 3 and 5. There are a number of reasons why intelli gent search assistants are needed to support the designer in searching a catalogue of IPs: • IP databases can be very large. Standard search approaches, li ke keyword search or decision trees, tend to fail to keep the number of matching IPs small . The IPs retrieved have to be individually examined by the designer. This can be very time consuming. • Evaluating the usabilit y of an IP for a specific problem often requires that the user makes himself familiar with many details of the design. Even if the user is an expert in the application domain of the IP, extracting certain information out of a data sheet can be very diff icult because the technical data contained therein is partly described on a very low technical level. • Design information on soft core IPs (Oehler et al. to appear), described using a hardware description language, must be protected against plagiarists. Because of this there is not much information available on soft core IPs for a designer before he actually buys them. It is therefore absolutely impossible for him to tell the difference between a number of IPs with similar purposes but different implementations. The Concern of READEE All these arguments make clear that a database of reusable designs requires a search facilit y that possesses more intelli gence and knowledge than currently available systems can provide. In the near future, electronic applications can be expected to grow so complex that their designers cannot be expected to be specialists in the reusable components they are going to employ for their project. So, retrieval assistants capable of providing real selection support (and possibly guidance in configuring the retrieved designs) are highly recommended. The READEE project has been initiated to explore and realise new methods to overcome these problems. However, looking at typical IPs described with hardware description languages like VHDL or Verilog HDL, it is obvious that a complete analysis of such designs with respect to a given target application can be extremely complex and calculation intensive. Moreover, a designer who decides to reuse existing hardware components often does not ex1 READEE [ ́redI]: Reuse Assistant for Designs in Electronic Engineering; funded by the foundation " innovation" (Stiftung Innovation) of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; Corporate partners: Centre for Learning Systems and Applications at the University of Kaiserslautern; Engineering off ice "Dr. Peter Conradi & Partner" ; tecInno GmbH, Germany pect to find an IP that exactly meets his requirements – he just wants to find a design that is easily adaptable or to which he can easily adapt his application framework. The READEE project applies and extends case-based reasoning (CBR), which is a mature software technology for building knowledge-based systems (see Lenz et al. 1998 for a stateof-the-art collection of CBR applications; see also wwwagr.informatik.uni-kl.de/~lsa/CBR/). Unlike traditional knowledge-based approaches, CBR does not solve new problems (e.g. design problems) from scratch, but by reusing solutions to previous problems (called cases) stored in a case base. Within this paradigm, CBR employs a simple but powerful idea: " similar problems have similar solutions" . Therefore, cases appropriate for reuse are selected based on the similarity to the new problem to be solved. However, having a good notion of similarity, i.e., a notion of similarity that approximates reusabilit y, is the key for the successful application of this technology and was also a core challenge for the development of the IP reuse selection approach developed in READEE and presented in this paper. The implementation of the READEE software is performed on top of the commercial CaseBased Reasoning software tool CBR-Works but extend this tool in several ways. Several fielded applications using this tool have already been realised, e.g. an online selection tool for operational ampli fiers from Analog Devices (Voll rath et al. 1998). After a brief discussion of an existing reuse database section 3 introduces some fundamental concepts of our READEE prototype. Section 4 introduces a more general conception of using CBR techniques for the reuse of IPs. This conception involves an IP taxonomy and distinguishes between three different kinds of IP parameters. To support the adaptation (i.e. determination of parameter values) of IPs to new application designs, we propose an approach that utili ses constraint nets to describe the design space of IPs. 2 An Existing Database In July 1997 Design & Reuse (Behnam et al. 1998) launched an online catalogue for IPs. This catalogue was very successful right from the start, which indicates that there is a big demand for reusable designs. The Design & Reuse "yellow pages" basically provide two different search faciliti es: First, there is a hierarchical IP taxonomy which serves as a selection tree for IPs and families of IPs, and second there is a keyword search that enables a user to search across the boundaries of the taxonomy. There are general points of criti cism that apply to these search techniques: Keyword search is only a syntactical search. A search for a "short cycle time", for example, would fail to find components with a "high clock rate", which is a more or less equivalent property. In addition to that, more abstract information like "good for high fidelty audio applications" can not be deduced from low-level attributes like "signal-to-noise ratio" and "dynamic range" by a syntactical search. A taxonomy, on the other hand, holds some more information about categories of designs. A drawback of a purely taxonomic search is that there is no information about the relations (exchangeabilit y or equivalence, for example) between two categories on the same hierarchical level. However, such information would be very beneficial to have in a reuse tool. Another problem with selection trees is that the user is forced to make decisions in a predefined order. If, for some reason, she/he cannot (or does not want to) make a decision at some point, she/he is forced to make several inquiries in sequence. Figure 1 ill ustrates this problem with an ex2 CBRWorks was developed collaboratively by the University of Kaiserslautern and TecInno GmbH and is now marketed as commercial product by TecInno. ample taken from the Design & Reuse "yellow pages" : A user looking for an 8 bit microcontroller is forced to make a decision (RISC or CISC) he rather would not care about. It is not possible to generally solve this problem by re-organising the tree because there might be another user looking for a RISC microcontroller, so the order of decisions cannot be globally optimised. 3 The READEE Prototype The READ


Rather than the standard practice of selecting a single "best-fit" distribution from a candidate set, frequentist model averaging (FMA) forms a mixture distribution that is a weighted average of the candidate distributions with the weights tuned by cross-validation. In previous work we showed theoretically and empirically that FMA in the probability space leads to higher fidelity input distributions. In this paper we show that FMA can also be implemented in the quantile space, leading to fits that emphasize tail behavior. We also describe an R package for FMA that is easy to use and available for download.


Near-surface seismic refraction and electrical resistivity methods were used to characterise the subsurface condition of a site reclaimed from water bodies in order to determine its competence for construction purposes. Nine seismic refraction profiles were acquired and the results were interpreted using SeisImager software. Also, twelve vertical electrical soundings were conducted and the acquired data were interpreted using WinResist computer package. Four-five geoelectric layers were delineated and the resistivity values obtained ranges between 23.3 and 1705.1 m  . The result of the resistivity method showed that the third layer is the most competent layer in the study area. The depth of this layer is between 7.5 m and 51 m in the subsurface. In a related development, three layers were delineated by the seismic refraction method and the third layer which is between 7 m and 18 m, may be the most competent because it had the highest engineering parameters. The Young modulus of the competent layer at this site ranges between 1.558 and 25.106 GPa and bulk modulus ranges from 0.999 to 16.093 GPa , it was also noted that the shear modulus ranges between 0.638 and 10.123 GPa . There is an agreement in the results of the two methods of investigation. Therefore, it was recommended that some form of arrangement must be made to transfer the load from the civil engineering construction to the most competent layer underneath so as to avoid building failure.


Quantitative analysis of minimal residual disease (MRD) is emerging as among the most important predictors of subsequent relapse in childhood ALL. In 381 of 438 (87%) sequential cases of childhood B-lineage ALL enrolled on DFCI Consortium protocol 95-01, we could sequence IgH and/or TCR γ/d gene rearrangements at diagnosis to design allele specific oligonucleotide (ASO) primers at complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3). Real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) was performed using ASO and consensus primers and consensus TaqMan probes. The MRD value was calculated as the mean of triplicates of target gene normalized by the mean of triplicates of GAPDH control gene. We present here initial analysis of assessment of RQ-PCR MRD using 202 peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) samples obtained at the end of the induction period on day 30. BM and PB samples at day 30 were available in 71% of patients, PB only available in 8% and BM only available in 21% of the patients. In cases with both BM and PB samples or in whom multiple markers for MRD assessment were available, the highest MRD value at day 30 was used to analyze relapse-free survival (RFS). 60% of cases had no detectable MRD at day 30 in either BM or PB, whereas 40% had detectable MRD ranging from 2.07 x 10−6 to 0.11. At day 30, BM samples were more likely to have detectable MRD than their matched PB samples (p=0.0043 by McNemar's test). The 5-year RFS (+/− standard error) for patients with undetectable MRD is 0.93 (+/−0.023), versus patients with detectable MRD of > 0 to = 0.001 is 0.25 (+/− 0.09) (log-rank p-value <0.0001). Stratified log-rank tests comparing the distribution of time to relapse among these three levels of MRD, controlling separately for risk status, treatment group, WBC, sex and age, remain highly significant (p-value < 0.0001). Patients with detectable MRD at day 30 have 9 times the risk of relapse compared to those with negative MRD (hazard ratio 95% CI of 4.1 to 20.2). Multivariable analysis of the prognostic value of MRD for the hazard of relapse was performed using Cox proportional hazards regression models, with covariates including MRD, risk status, treatment group, and MRD detection was demonstrated to be a highly significant independent prognostic factor in all models (p<0.0001). A Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated that the actual value of detectable MRD after controlling for the presence or absence of MRD is associated with relapse (p=0.004). We conclude that patients with undetectable MRD at day 30 have clearly superior outcome and patients with MRD more than 0.001 have significantly worse outcome. Quantification of MRD at completion of induction therapy using RQ-PCR provides a significant, reliable and independent clinical prognostic parameter to predict clinical outcome. Day 30 BM samples are more likely to have detectable disease than PB. Data on the impact of RQ-PCR at all time points will be presented. Based upon these results, risk-stratification therapy based on MRD level at completion of induction therapy will be incorporated into the next trial to attempt to improve the long-term survival rate of children at high risk of relapse and reduce overall the chemotherapy toxicity in children with B-lineage ALL.


DNA fragments containing mispaired and modified bases, bulges, lesions and specific sequences have altered conformation. Methods for separating complex samples of DNA fragments based on conformation but independent of length have many applications, including (i) separation of mismatched or unmatched DNA fragments from those perfectly matched; (ii) simultaneous, diagnostic, mismatch scanning of multiple fragments; (iii) isolation of damaged DNA fragments from undamaged fragments; and (iv) estimation of reannealing efficiency of complex DNA samples. We developed a two-dimensional conformation-dependent electrophoresis (2D-CDE) method for separating DNA fragments based on length and conformation in the first dimension and only on length in the second dimension. Differences in migration velocity due to conformation were minimized during second dimension electrophoresis by introducing an intercalator. To test the method, we constructed 298 bp DNA fragments containing cytosine bulges ranging from 1 to 5 nt. Bulge-containing DNA fragments had reduced migration velocity in the first dimension due to altered conformation. After 2D-CDE, bulge-containing DNA fragments had migrated in front of an arc comprising heterogeneous fragments with regular conformation. This simple and robust method could be used in both analytical and preparative applications involving complex DNA samples.


Here we extend a semianalytical method to compute thermoelastic properties of materials (Wu & Wentzcovitch, ) to monoclinic systems and apply it to diopside (MgCaSi2O6), a mineral with monoclinic symmetry and an end‐member of clinopyroxene. Using ab initio results for structural and vibrational properties, we obtain the density, the elastic tensor, single crystal elastic anisotropies, and seismic wave velocities of diopside over a wide pressure and temperature range. Our results agree well with previous available experimental results. Compared with other minerals in the upper mantle, clinopyroxene has the lowest P wave velocity (VP) and S wave velocity (VS) at depths greater than 240 km. Combining our results with elastic properties of other major upper‐mantle minerals obtained by previous studies, we estimate the density and wave velocity profiles of a pyrolitic mantle in the depth range of 220–400 km, where pyroxene is gradually dissolved into garnet. The obtained profiles agree well with seismic models (PREM and AK135) supporting the notion of a pyrolitic upper mantle.


Next‐generation sequencing (NGS) is becoming increasingly used for diagnostic mutation analysis in myeloid neoplasms and may also represent a feasible technique in mastocytosis. However, detection of the KIT D816V mutation requires a highly sensitive method in most patients due to the typically low mutation levels. In this study, we established an NGS‐based KIT mutation analysis and analyzed the sensitivity of D816V detection using the Ion Torrent platform. Eighty‐two individual NGS analyses were included in the study. All samples were also analyzed using highly sensitive KIT D816V mutation‐specific qPCR. Measurements of the background level in D816V‐negative samples supported a cutoff for positivity of 0.2% in three different NGS panels. Clinical samples from patients with SM that tested positive using qPCR with a D816V allele burden >0.2% also tested positive using NGS. Samples that tested positive using qPCR with an allele burden <0.2% tested negative using NGS. We thereby demonstrate that caution should be taken when using the potentially very sensitive NGS technique for KIT D816V mutation analysis in mastocytosis, as many patients with SM have D816V mutation levels below the detection limit of NGS. A dedicated and highly sensitive KIT D816V mutation analysis therefore remains important in mastocytosis diagnostics.


The pattern of protein kinase activity in leukemic cells from patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia, acute myeloblastic leukemia, acute monocytic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia was studied and compared with normal peripheral blood granulocytes and lymphocytes. Our data showed that: (a) histone kinase activity was slightly lower in leukemic cells than in normal cells, whereas casein kinase activity was 2- to 3-fold higher in leukemic cells; (b) cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate stimulated 1.4- to 1.6-fold histone kinase activity of both normal and leukemic cells, whereas it did not stimulate casein kinase activity; (c) the ratio of histone kinase activities to casein kinase activities correlated directly with the maturation of the white blood cells; and (d) histone and casein kinase activities of extracts from normal and leukemic cells behaved similarly on chromatography on phosphocellulose and casein/Sepharose 4B. These results suggest that the increase in casein kinase activity is not due to the appearance of a new type of casein kinase but to an increase of the casein kinases 1 and 2 present in normal cells.


Advance Care Planning (ACP) is widely regarded as a component of good end-of-life care. However, findings from a qualitative international study of patient and family caregiver attitudes and preferences regarding ACP highlight participants' ambivalence towards confronting the future and the factors underlying their motivation to accept or defer anticipatory planning. They show how ACP impacts on, and can be determined by, relationships between patients and their family caregivers. Although some patients may welcome the chance to engage in ACP a tendency towards either therapeutic optimism or fatalism can limit its perceived appeal or benefit. The focus on individual autonomy as an ethical principle underlying ACP does not resonate with real world settings. Many patients naturally orient to share responsibility and decision making within the network of significant others in which they are embedded, rather than exert unfettered freedom of 'choice'.


Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are capable of learning unprecedentedly effective features from images. Some researchers have struggled to enhance the parameters' efficiency using grouped convolution. However, the relation between the optimal number of convolutional groups and the recognition performance remains an open problem. In this paper, we propose a series of Basic Units (BUs) and a two-level merging strategy to construct deep CNNs, referred to as a joint Grouped Merging Net (GM-Net), which can produce joint grouped and reused deep features while maintaining the feature discriminability for classification tasks. Our GM-Net architectures with the proposed BU A (dense connection) and BU B (straight mapping) lead to significant reduction in the number of network parameters and obtain performance improvement in image classification tasks. Extensive experiments are conducted to validate the superior performance of the GM-Net than the state-of-the-arts on the benchmark datasets, e.g., MNIST, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100 and SVHN.


The exclusive lasso regularization based on the $\ell_{1,2}$ norm has become popular recently due to its superior performance over the group lasso regularization. Comparing to the group lasso regularization which enforces the competition on variables among different groups and results in inter-group sparsity, the exclusive lasso regularization also enforces the competition within each group and results in intra-group sparsity. However, to the best of our knowledge, a correct closed-form solution to the proximal mapping of the $\ell_{1,2}$ norm has still been elusive. In this paper, we fill the gap by deriving a closed-form solution for $\rm{Prox}_{\rho\|\cdot\|_1^2}(\cdot)$ and its generalized Jacobian. Based on the obtained analytical results, we are able to design efficient first and second order algorithms for machine learning models involving the exclusive lasso regularization. Our analytical solution of the proximal mapping for the exclusive lasso regularization can be used to improve the efficiency of existing algorithms relying on the efficient computation of the proximal mapping.


Background In a phase II trial, the HER2−derived E75 vaccine administered with the immunoadjuvant GM-CSF has been shown to reduce breast cancer recurrence in the adjuvant setting, with a greater benefit seen in patients with low levels of HER2 expression (IHC 1+ or 2+). There has also been recent suggestion that patients with low HER2 expression may also benefit from trastuzumab. Preclinical testing of the combination of trastuzumab and the E75 vaccine has shown a synergism with combinational therapy. Finally, from our phase II trials of cytotoxic T cell-eliciting peptide vaccines, sequential treatment with trastuzumab and HER2 vaccination has resulted in no recurrences in 30 patients with a median follow-up of 48 months. Based on these results, we have designed a trial to evaluate the ability of the combination of trastuzumab and the E75 vaccine to prevent breast cancer recurrence. Trial Design : This study will be a multi-center, prospective, randomized, single-blinded, phase II trial evaluating trastuzumab + E75+GM-CSF (immunoadjuvant) vs. trastuzumab + GM-CSF alone (no E75) in the adjuvant setting in breast cancer patients. Eligible patients include node positive (or node negative if negative for both ER and PR) disease-free breast cancer patients with low or intermediate levels of HER2 expression (IHC 1+ or 2+) and adequate cardiac function (LVEF >50%). Patients must be HLA-A2/A3 + (E75 is HLA-A2/A3-restricted). Patients will be enrolled after completing standard of care multi-modal therapy and randomized between the two treatment arms with stratification by HER2 expression (1+ or 2+) and nodal status (N0, N1, N2, or N3). Vaccinations (E75+GM-CSF or GM-CSF alone) will be administered as six monthly intradermal inoculations concurrently with trastuzumab therapy. The primary efficacy endpoint is to compare disease-free survival (DFS) between treatment arms at 24 months. Secondary objectives will include evaluation of cardiac toxicity from combination therapy (periodic cardiac assessment with MUGA or ECHO), DFS at 36 months, and immunologic responses to vaccination. From previously published experience with trastuzumab, we expect a recurrence rate of 15% in trastuzumab (plus GM-CSF) treated patients and anticipate that the combination of trastuzumab with E75+GM-CSF will reduce this recurrence rate to 5%. In order to show a statistical difference between these recurrence rates, we plan to enroll 150 patients per treatment arm (300 total) with a type I error rate of 5% and 80% power to detect the primary endpoint. Trial accrual is anticipated to begin in January 2012, with a two year period of enrollment followed by a three year follow-up period. Conclusion : We hypothesize that combination adjuvant immunotherapy with trastuzumab and E75 vaccination will result in a greater reduction in breast cancer recurrence than trastuzumab therapy alone and have designed a multi-center, prospective, randomized, single-blinded, phase II trial evaluating the efficacy of this immunotherapy combination. Contact Information : This trial is sponsored by Genentech and RXi Pharmaceuticals through the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr OT3-01-18.


Neuromodulation can dynamically alter neuronal and synaptic properties, thereby changing the behavioral output of a neural circuit. It is therefore conceivable that natural selection might act upon neuromodulation as a mechanism for sculpting the behavioral repertoire of a species. Here we report that the presence of neuromodulation is correlated with the production of a behavior that most likely evolved independently in two species: Tritonia diomedea and Pleurobranchaea californica (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia, Nudipleura). Individuals of both species exhibit escape swimming behaviors consisting of repeated dorsal-ventral whole-body flexions. The central pattern generator (CPG) circuits underlying these behaviors contain homologous identified neurons: DSI and C2 in Tritonia and As and A1 in Pleurobranchaea. Homologs of these neurons also can be found in Hermissenda crassicornis where they are named CPT and C2, respectively. However, members of this species do not exhibit an analogous swimming behavior. In Tritonia and Pleurobranchaea, but not in Hermissenda, the serotonergic DSI homologs modulated the strength of synapses made by C2 homologs. Furthermore, the serotonin receptor antagonist methysergide blocked this neuromodulation and the swimming behavior. Additionally, in Pleurobranchaea, the robustness of swimming correlated with the extent of the synaptic modulation. Finally, injection of serotonin induced the swimming behavior in Tritonia and Pleurobranchaea, but not in Hermissenda. This suggests that the analogous swimming behaviors of Tritonia and Pleurobranchaea share a common dependence on serotonergic neuromodulation. Thus, neuromodulation may provide a mechanism that enables species to acquire analogous behaviors independently using homologous neural circuit components.


Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence of and risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a representative Korean population. Materials and Methods: A nationwide population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among the civilian, noninstitutionalized Korean population aged 40 and older (mean age, 55.7 years; 95% confidence interval [CI], 55.4–56.0). A total of 16,109 older (≥40 years of age) subjects participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey 2008–2011. All participants underwent standardized interviews and comprehensive ophthalmic examinations. Using physiologic mydriasis, a 45° digital fundus photograph was taken of both eyes of each participant. All fundus photographs were graded according to an international classification and grading system. Main outcome measures consisted of prevalence of early- and late-AMD. Results: Of the 16,109 subjects, fundus photographs were gradable for 14,352 (89.1%). The prevalence of early- and late-AMD in the Korean population was 6.0 and 0.6%, respectively. The prevalence of early-AMD increased from 1.5% in those aged 40–49 years to 16.2% in those aged ≥70 years. After adjusting for confounders, the prevalence of early-AMD increased with increasing age (odds ratio [OR], 1.08; CI, 1.06–1.09). For late-AMD, old age (OR, 1.09; CI, 1.04–1.14), male gender (OR, 2.45; CI, 1.11–5.37), high systolic blood pressure (OR, 1.03; CI, 1.00–1.06) and high fasting glucose level (OR, 0.97; CI, 0.94–0.99) were significant risk factors. Smoking was not associated with either early- or late-AMD in this Korean population. Conclusions: The present study provides the first population-based data on the prevalence of and risk factors for AMD in a representative Korean population. The prevalences of early- and late-AMD in this population were 6.0 and 0.6%, respectively. The prevalence of AMD in Koreans is higher than for those in other Asian countries and similar to that of Caucasians in Western countries.


The period following the Roman withdrawal from England in AD 410 has long been considered a time of 'cultural decline', owing to the relative paucity of archaeological evidence relating to this time and the dismal state of affairs described by the Dark Age historians Gildas (c AD 540) and Bede (AD 731). Traditionally this period has been viewed as a time of chaos in which farmland was abandoned and the population declined, leading to woodland regeneration in many areas. In Northwest England, archaeological remains for the early medieval period (c AD 410-1066) are sparse. Early palynological studies in Cumbria, for which radiocarbon dates were often lacking or imprecise, frequently assigned major 'woodland clearances' to the Romano-British period, woodland regeneration phases to the early Dark Ages, 'subdued' agriculture to Anglo-Saxon farmers and pastoral clearances to the actions of Norse settlers. The overarching aim of this study has been to question the validity of the above interpretations through analysis of pollen and diatom records from six tarns within the English Lake District. Of the sites investigated, both Loughrigg and Barfield Tarns produced good records for the study period. The pollen curves for Loughrigg Tarn appear to support the traditional interpretation of woodland regeneration in the early post-Romano-British period, while at Barfield Tarn the pollen indicates a largely open landscape with limited evidence for agriculture. Drawing together the data from these sites with the small body of extant palaeoecological research relating to this period, it is clear that the timing and nature of land-use varied across the region. This highlights the importance of localised pollen studies, particularly as regards the relationship between vegetation records and archaeological remains. Pollen-vegetation simulation experiments using HUMPOL (Bunting & Middleton, 2005) were a useful aid to interpretation, raising important questions regarding 'woodland regeneration' signals in pollen diagrams


Infusible platelet membranes (IPMs) prepared from fresh or outdated human platelets have been shown to correct prolonged bleeding times in thrombocytopenic rabbits. In previous trials, IPMs did not seem to be immunogenic and lacked dose-limiting toxicity. The present study was undertaken to explore whether the platelet glycoprotein (GP) Ib/IX/V complex might retain functionality in the IPM preparation. IPMs did not spontaneously bind von Willebrand factor (vWF), but saturable binding could be induced by ristocetin, with a dissociation constant (Kd) of 0.31 +/- 0.03 microgram/mL at 1.0 mg/mL of ristocetin. Of 4 anti-GPIb-alpha monoclonal antibodies tested, AN-51 inhibited vWF binding 67.8% +/- 5.8%, whereas AS-2, AS-7, and SZ-2 were ineffective. Maximal vWF binding induced by botrocetin was only 10% to 15% of that observed with ristocetin. Retention of partial functionality of the GPIb/IX/V receptor allowing vWF binding in a modulated manner seems to represent a critical mechanism by which IPMs may provide hemostatic efficacy.


The human striatum has been previously implicated in the processing of positive reinforcement , but less is known about its role in processing negative reinforcement. In this experiment, participants learn specific approach or avoidance responses, mediated by positive and negative reinforcers respectively to investigate how affective learning and associated neural activity are influenced by the motivational context in which learning occurs. The paradigm was divided into two discrete sessions, where participants could either earn monetary rewards (approach sessions) or avoid monetary losses (avoid sessions) based on successful learning. Specifically, a conditioned cue predicted the chance to win or avoid losing money contingent on a correct button press (pre-learning trials), which upon learning led to the delivery of rewards or termination of losses (post-learning trials). Skin conductance responses (SCRs) and subjective ratings confirmed a learning effect (greater SCRs pre vs. post-learning) irrespective of reinforcer valence. Concurrently, activity in the ventral striatum was characterized by a similar learning effect, with greater responses during pre-learning. Interestingly, such learning effect was enhanced in the presence of a negative reinforcer, as suggested by an interaction between learning phase and session, highlighting the influence negative reinforcers can have on striatal circuits involved in learning and motivated behavior.


A thyristor-controlled series capacitor (TCSC) substantially improves transmission capacity. It also mitigates subsynchronous resonance (SSR) accompanying conventional series capacitors. With an appropriate angle of thyristor firing, electrical damping becomes almost zero, which is called SSR neutral. This quality comes from TCSC itself. However, negative damping still remains and is large for firing angle 170~800° where little current flows through thyristors. This paper deals with control of firing angle. First, we oscillate the firing angle at a given frequency, and present an analytical method of calculating electrical damping. Next, we show that the damping improves at all frequencies if the firing angle oscillation is in phase with that of rotor angle. Synchronizing torque decreases, however, so a limit must be put on the control gain. Lastly, we execute numerical simulations to verify our analytical results.


Abstract In order to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites among labourers from Thailand in Taiwan, the stool samples from 1364 Thai labourers were examined by the formalin-ether concentration method and 18·0% were found to be infected with one or more parasites. The infection rates of hookworm, Opisthorchis viverrini, Strongyloides stercoralis, Enterobius vermicularis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Hymenolepis nana, Capillaria philippinensis, Schistosoma japonicum, Echinostoma sp., Entamoeba coli, Giardia lamblia, and Entamoeba histolytica, were 7·6%, 7·0%, 3·2%, 0·5%, 0·3%, 0·1%, 0·1%, 0·l%,0·l%, 0·4%, 0·2%, and 0·1% respectively. The prevalence was highest among the 21–25 age group (24·8%). Among the 245 infected persons, 91% were infected with one parasite, 8% with two parasites and 1% with three parasites. The finding that parasitic infections are prevalent among Thai labourers demonstrates the need for control measures in foreign labourers in Taiwan and further studies to determine the susceptibility of O. viverrini to the snail hosts of Clonorchis sinensis.


OBJECTIVE
We aimed to determine the influences of surgical procedures on the postoperative death of octogenarians with clinical Stage IA non-small cell lung cancer excluding cT1mi.

METHODS
We compared overall survival and the cumulative incidence of death due to all and other causes among 1 130 279, and 191 consecutive patients aged ≤79 and ≥80 years after lobectomy, segmentectomy and wedge resection at three institutions. Death due to other causes was defined as death due to any cause except non-small cell lung cancer.

RESULTS
The median followup was 53 months. The 5-year overall survival rates for patients aged ≥ 80 and ≤ 79 years after lobectomy, segmentectomy and wedge resection were respectively, 78.0% (95% confidence interval, 63.8%-87.2%) versus 91.2% (95% confidence interval, 89.0%-92.9%), 68.1% (95% confidence interval, 45.2%-83.1%) versus 90.0% (95% confidence interval, 84.6%-93.5%), and 62.7% (95% confidence interval, 44.0-76.7%) versus 84.4% (95% confidence interval, 76.3%-89.9%) (P < 0.01 for all). The cumulative incidence of death due to other causes after wedge resection was similar between patients aged ≥ 80 and ≤ 79 years (P = 0.45), but significantly higher in those aged ≥ 80, than ≤ 79 years after lobectomy or segmentectomy (P = 0.00015 and 0.00091, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
The influence of wedge resection on death due to other causes was lower than that of lobectomy or segmentectomy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer aged ≥ 80 years. Wedge resection might be a useful option for octogenarians even if they can tolerate lobectomy/segmentectomy to avoid postoperative death due to causes other than non-small cell lung cancer.


The small unit warfare fought in Thailand is significantly different from previous conflicts. The heavy use of antipersonnel land mines by insurgent forces has affected both the tactical and the medical responses of government forces. Lower-extremity injuries have come to dominate the military medical care system and tactics have been designed to prevent or minimize the unit and individual disability inherent in this type warfare.


Models of doubly vergent orogens provide an excellent proxy for the Llano Uplift of central Texas, a Grenville-aged belt that consists of two portions with different structural styles, metamorphic grades, degrees of partial melting, and opposite directions of tectonic transport. Six phases of deformation at amphibolite-facies conditions are recorded in both portions of the uplift as a result of continent-continent and arc-continent collision. However, in the western uplift, field mapping and thin section analysis of microstructures and metamorphic mineral assemblages provide evidence for temperatures above the second sillimanite isograd and partial melting during both early and late deformation. These observations correlate well with numerical models for the Alps, which have identified a prowedge and retrowedge in the crust above a subducting slab. The western uplift is coincident with the retrowedge, located at greater depth in the orogenic pile, leading to greater temperatures and more melting as well as opposite vergence from the prowedge. A lack of discrete shear zones and opposite structural stacking and vergence in the western uplift, coupled with apparently greater temperatures and more widespread partial melting, suggest that the western uplift has a different tectonic history from the eastern uplift. Most notably, this study documents widespread and pervasive partial melting during uniformly distributed deformation, as well as abundant granitic intrusions during latest deformation in the western uplift. Analogue models readily accommodate these observations from both eastern and western parts of the uplift in the form of a bivergent orogenic wedge.


Objectives To study the expressions of endothelin-1 at early stages of atrial fibrillation in a rapid paced primary cultured atrial myocyte model. Methods Primary rat atrial myocytes were cultured and a rapid paced cell model was established. The polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) were applied to detect the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression and secretion of endothelin-1. Results mRNA expression of endothelin-1 increased after 6 h of rapid pacing and continued to elevate in a time dependent manner. Similarly, changes of endothelin-1 secretion were paralleled. Conclusions Expressions of endothelin-1 increased in early phase of rapid paced atrial myocytes. It implicated the endothelin-1 was implicated in pathological remodelling of atrial fibrillation.


We propose and demonstrate an electronic system achieving continuously tunable time-delays with nanosecond-scale delay excursions for ultra-wideband signals. Our demonstration system yields an adjustable delay of up to 1.6 ns for input signals spanning 3 to 7 GHz. The key component is a dispersive length of microstrip line created by etching a chirped electromagnetic bandgap structure in the conducting strip.


DQN (Deep Q-Network) is a method to perform Q-learning for reinforcement learning using deep neural networks. DQNS require a large buffer and batch processing for an experience replay and rely on a backpropagation based iterative optimization, making them difficult to be implemented on resource-limited edge devices. In this paper, we propose a lightweight on-device reinforcement learning approach for low-cost FPGA devices. It exploits a recently proposed neural-network based on-device learning approach that does not rely on the backpropagation method but uses OS-ELM (Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine) based training algorithm. In addition, we propose a combination of L2 regularization and spectral normalization for the on-device reinforcement learning so that output values of the neural network can be fit into a certain range and the reinforcement learning becomes stable. The proposed reinforcement learning approach is designed for PYNQ-Z1 board as a low-cost FPGA platform. The evaluation results using OpenAI Gym demonstrate that the proposed algorithm and its FPGA implementation complete a CartPole-v0 task 29.77x and 89.40x faster than a conventional DQN-based approach when the number of hidden-layer nodes is 64.


We have developed a new electronic nose based on a gas sensor array to detect organic vapors. The gas sensor array is based on 2×2 non-continuously working oscillators equipped with differently polymer-coated surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors. The SAW detection system which is employed to detect various organic molecules in a static system was prepared using 99.8 MHz two-port SAW resonators and a computer for signal acquisition and data process. This gas sensor array system consists of SAW sensors, polymers with different polarity and function groups, and signal readout electronics. We select the appropriate coating materials on to the SAW crystal (LiNbO3) for organic vapors, e.g. poly(4-vinylphenol), poly(vinyl acetate), poly-ethylene-glycol, poly-styrene-co-maleic, anhydride, polystyrene and poly-sulfone. In this study, we focus on the detection of vapors like methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol (IPA), acetone, amine, and trimethylamine (TMA). Finally, we get the good result of tree-view from the two-way hierarchical clustering analysis after comparing the correlation between the 6 coating materials and 6 organic vapors. These organic vapors could be clearly distinguished by the tree-view. Furthermore, the SAW detection system can distinguish unknown gas or mixed gas by the database of pattern recognition in the future.


Computer network packet routing is an major important function in the computer based communication, The quality of service parameters efficiencies are highly depends on the how the packet travel and using which path. The strategically scheduling of routing can play major role in the network performance also essential to choose proper routing while designing the computer network. Artificial neural networks are basically known to as systems of connected "neurons" which are communicating through exchange messages between. The communication having the stastical figure known as weights that can be adjust based on experimental and real knowledge, which makes the neural network a adaptive to inputs and capable of learning. Using Hopfield artificial neural networks one can fast computation and leaning and with low energy in its basic stable formation. They are good contender for the implementation of neural routing algorithm. We are utilizing the Hopfield neural network for neural routing computation of shortest path in the network in this paper.


Background: Recent studies have suggested that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) might have potential therapeutic effects in acute lung injury (ALI), specifically in bleomycin-induced and bacterial LPS-induced lung injury models. However, whether MSC could induce an early anti-inflammatory response in lung injury induced by overventilation remains to be elucidated. Aim: To assess the potential role of MSC in preventing or modulating early inflammation in healthy rats subjected to ventilator induced lung injury (VILI). Methods: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (250-300 g) were anaesthetised, tracheotomised, intubated and paralysed by intravenous instillation of pancuronium bromide. Nine rats were ventilated with a high tidal volume of 25 ml/kg (VILI) for 3 h. Five millions of MSC were intravenously injected to 4 of these rats 30 min before starting ventilation. Spontaneously breathing anesthetised rats (N=4) served as controls. After 3 h of VILI/control the animals were sacrificed and broncoalveolar lavage inflammatory cells were assessed. Results: In VILI, MSC significantly (p Conclusion: This preliminary result suggests that infusion of bone marrow-derived MSC prevents early inflammation in VILI. Funding: L. Chimenti was a recipient of a ERS/Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellowships 2010


Background: Physical and psychological consequences can develop as a result of cancer and its treatment affecting people's lives. Cancer rehabilitation services have been found to have positive effect on quality of life and managing side effects worldwide. However, accessibility and lack of information on services can serve as barriers leaving people with unmet rehabilitation needs. The aim of this study was to investigate the value, barriers, and facilitators of two cancer rehabilitation services in South Wales from the perspective of healthcare professionals and people affected by cancer.
Methods: Audio recorded, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of healthcare professionals (n=20), and people affected by cancer (n=15) at two specialist cancer rehabilitation services in South Wales. The study was approved by London South – East Research Ethics Committee (17/LO/2123). Written informed consent was obtained from every participant. Both healthcare professionals and people affected by cancer were asked questions about the value, meaning, barriers and facilitators of cancer rehabilitation. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) was used to identify themes in the data.
Results: People affected by cancer (PABC) valued the expert knowledge, care and attention from healthcare professionals and the peer support during certain rehabilitation interventions. Exercise classes were highly regarded among PABC due to positive changes in their physical strength and mental health. However, accessibility and understaffing were addressed as barriers to service provision by both healthcare professionals and PABC. Lack of information on available services was reported by PABC, while healthcare professionals mentioned underfunding and cultural problems as barriers specific to them. Moreover, there was no consensus among participants on the meaning of rehabilitation, which could explain some of the barriers.
Conclusion(s): The findings of this study indicate that cancer rehabilitation is highly valued by people affected by cancer. However, these services are not always available for everyone, due to barriers related to the healthcare system and people's own personal problems. Service promotion and education of both people affected by cancer and healthcare professionals may help in overcoming some of the barriers.


The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which health maintenance organization (HMO) penetration within the public hospitals' market area affects the financial performance and viability of these institutions, relative to private hospitals. Hospital- and market-specific measures are examined in a fully interacted model of over 2,300 hospitals in 321 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in 1995. Although hospitals located in markets with higher HMO penetration have lower financial performance as reflected in revenues, expenses and operating margin, public hospitals are not more disadvantaged than other hospitals by managed care.


This thesis identifies a gap in existing theories of corporate finance. This gap is an implication of a Keynesian-Minskian analysis of markets and market-based economies. From a founding theoretical perspective rooted in the view that markets are not reliably efficient the case is developed that past price trend extrapolation is an important factor in corporate financing decisions. At a macro-financial level, companies repurchase equity over periods of strong market rises, while increasing debt at the same time. During periods of sustained, substantial market decline debt is retired and large new equity issues occur. This change in corporate financing is implicitly expensive as relatively low prices are realised for the new stock issued at these times. These factors suggest that conventional theories of corporate financing decisions that rely on corporate rationality and optimisation do not provide a compelling fit with observations in the period 1980-2012. Moreover, inference to Minsky's (1986) argument that companies are compelled through market declines to shore up their balance sheets provides a better fit with the evidence. These arguments form the basis for the development of the 'extrapolative expectations' theory of corporate finance. The second major development in this thesis draws on the theoretical development outlined above to create market movement description and prediction models. These models operate on data drawn from the US Standard & Poors 500 index over the period 1980-2012. Two primary models are developed using binomial logistic regressions. The dichotomous dependent variables are drawn as quarters of market rise (1) or no rise (0), and market falls (1) or no fall (0), respectively for the 'buy' model and the 'sell' model. Variables tested and those found to add to an explanation of the dependent variables include: corporate debt flows, corporate equity flows, corporate dividend flows, interest rates, market volumes, and historical market levels. Each variable is tested for up to ten lags (two-and-a-half years). Collectively, the variables add to our understanding of those factors influencing (or at the least, signalling) market levels, enabling quarter ahead market forecasts to be made with greater accuracy than arises from an assumption of a random walk. This conclusion crystallises the view that company macro-financial flows and prices are an important cause or signal of future market direction.


With the emergence of cooperation as a new communication paradigm, and the need for self-organizing, distributed networks, it is necessary to seek suitable game theoretical tools that allow to analyze and study the behavior and interactions of the nodes in future communication networks. In this context, this chapter introduces the coalition formation game theory, and its potential applications in communication and wireless networks. Specifically, it presents the fundamental components, the key properties, the mathematical techniques, the solution concepts, and describes the methodologies for applying these games in several applications drawn from the state-of-the-art research in communications.


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder with a high incidence and severe impact on the human body, which can induce systemic chronic inflammatory responses. Chronic inflammation is an important cause of exacerbation of OSA and its associated complications. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor 3 (NLRP3) is an inflammasome that is widely found in epithelial cells and immune cells and plays an important role in inflammatory diseases as an important component of innate immunity. Research evidence suggests that the activation of NLRP3 inflammasomes can exacerbate the damage to neurons, endothelial cells, lung and kidney caused by OSA, and these effects can be eliminated by genetic or pharmacological deletion of NLRP3. Targeting inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome may serve as a co-therapeutic strategy for OSA-induced related complications. This article reviews NLRP3 inflammasome and its mechanism in OSA-related concurrent diseases, which can provide scientific basis for prevention and intervention of OSA and its related complications.


This article reviews normative ways of presenting sexual health in intervention programs for the sex education and health care of young people in Latin America. These programs usually consider adolescence and youth as naturalizing categories and can be described as strongly preventionist. Based on our activities in Brazil, ongoing research and training of health professionals and activists, and inspiration from recent debates about youth sexuality and reproductive health in Latin America, we present and analyze face to face scenes from the field. Co-constructions of sexual citizenship and sexual subjects arise from local meanings and agendas that need to be shared and negotiated. We conclude: that sexual health and adolescence should be strongly contextualized categories; that adolescent identities should be understood as "ipse identities" (Ricoeur, 1991), or as reflexive identities constructed continuously in relationship with otherness; and that there is a promising relationship between sexuality and human rights.


The influences of the microstructure on the crack propagation behavior in the (α+β) Ti-6Al-4V alloy was studied by comparing a fine bi-modal and a coarse lamellar microstructure. Fatigue crack propagation tests were performed using CT-specimens with a computer controlled servo hydraulic testing machine, operating under load control at 30Hz (sine wave) and an R-ratio of 0.1. The experiments were performed at room temperature in air. Tests at constant amplitude and periodically superimposed single tensile overloads (overload ratio 1.5) were carried out. Intermittent baseline cycles of n=5,000 between consecutive overloads was applied. For both microstructures, the crack propagation rate was reduced in the presence of overloads. This retardation is more pronounced for the bi-modal microstructure compared to the lamellar condition. Detailed investigations of the fracture surfaces demonstrated the presence of steps parallel to the fatigue crack propagation direction emanating from the overload markers. The pronounced retardation effect observed for the bi-modal microstructure is related to the higher amount of steps along the overloads markers.


This article presents a different way to study the theory of regularized learning for generalized data including representer theorems and convergence theorems. The generalized data are composed of linear functionals and real scalars to represent the discrete information of the local models. By the extension of the classical machine learning, the empirical risks are computed by the generalized data and the loss functions. According to the techniques of regularization, the global solutions are approximated by minimizing the regularized empirical risks over the Banach spaces. The Banach spaces are adaptively chosen to endow the generalized input data with compactness such that the existence and convergence of the approximate solutions are guaranteed by the weak* topology.


he past few years in health care have been a story of extraordinary turbulence. After decades of uncontrolled cost escalation, the businesses and governments that directly pay for most health care finally mandated a fiscal restraint that, in the early 1990s, launched in earnest the upheaval known as "managed care." One major result has been the replacement of such values as, "If it might help and won't hurt, do it," and, "Too much is better than too little," with conservative edicts such as, "If you can't demonstrate its value, don't do it." Virtually everyone can claim disenchantment with the upheaval in health care. Patients who expect their health plans to cover the latest tests and treatments are angry when their plans' administrators refuse. Physicians must routinely justify their every medical move to outside parties and must be vigilant for the economic as well as the medical wisdom of their care. Employers, tantalized for a brief period by health plan premiums that were level if not actually declining, are now dismayed by the re-emergence of double-digit health care inflation. And health plans struggle to balance enrollees' demands for the latest and greatest medical innovations against purchasers' demands for controlled spending and lower premium prices, as well as societal demands that the plans promote the best interests of the broader population. This single article cannot begin to explore the causal latticework behind all of the disenchanting changes in the American health care system. But we can examine one major culprit: the notion of medical necessity. "Medical necessity" defines patients' entitlements under various health plans: they can rightly expect their plans to cover T


Chronic kidney disease progression can be predicted based on the degree of tubular atrophy, which is the result of proximal tubule apoptosis. The Na+/H+ exchanger NHE1 regulates proximal tubule cell survival through interaction with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P2], but pathophysiologic triggers for NHE1 inactivation are unknown. Because glomerular injury permits proximal tubule luminal exposure and reabsorption of fatty acid/albumin complexes, we hypothesized that accumulation of amphipathic, long-chain acyl-CoA (LC-CoA) metabolites stimulates lipoapoptosis by competing with the structurally similar PI(4,5)P2 for NHE1 binding. Kidneys from mouse models of progressive, albuminuric kidney disease exhibited increased fatty acids, LC-CoAs, and caspase-2-dependent proximal tubule lipoapoptosis. LC-CoAs and the cytosolic domain of NHE1 directly interacted, with an affinity comparable to that of the PI(4,5)P2-NHE1 interaction, and competing LC-CoAs disrupted binding of the NHE1 cytosolic tail to PI(4,5)P2. Inhibition of LC-CoA catabolism reduced NHE1 activity and enhanced apoptosis, whereas inhibition of proximal tubule LC-CoA generation preserved NHE1 activity and protected against apoptosis. Our data indicate that albuminuria/lipiduria enhances lipotoxin delivery to the proximal tubule and accumulation of LC-CoAs contributes to tubular atrophy by severing the NHE1-PI(4,5)P2 interaction, thereby lowering the apoptotic threshold. Furthermore, these data suggest that NHE1 functions as a metabolic sensor for lipotoxicity.


The increasing complexity of the food retailing landscape, including a myriad of food label claims and concern about the source, safety and quality of foods, has changed the way consumers approach food buying decisions. This is an issue of interest and importance to those producers who may choose to sell direct to consumers as a means to increase their share of the food dollar or to initially introduce differentiated produce offerings. Yet, the direct buying trend is emerging so fast that little is known about what motivates consumers and how producers can best market to interested buyers.


N6-Methyladenosine (m6A) has emerged as a key post-transcriptional regulator in mRNA metabolism, and its dysregulation is associated with multiple human diseases. Herein, we construct a single-molecule fluorescent biosensor for antibody-free detection of locus-specific m6A in cancer cells and tissues. A 5'-biotinylated capture probe and a 3'-hydroxylated assistant probe are designed for the recognition of specific m6A-mRNA. The m6A-sensitive endoribonuclease MazF can identify and cleave the unmethylated mRNA, and the retained intact m6A-mRNA can hybridize with assistant probes and capture probes to achieve sandwich hybrids. The sandwich hybrids are immobilized on magnetic beads (MBs) to initiate the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-assisted polymerization, facilitating the continuous incorporation of Cy5-dATP to form long Cy5-polyA tails for the production of an on-bead amplified fluorescence signal. After magnetic separation and exonuclease digestion, numerous Cy5 fluorophores are released and subsequently measured by single-molecule detection. Especially, this biosensor is implemented simply and isothermally without the involvement of either radiolabeling or m6A-specific antibody. Moreover, this biosensor shows ultrahigh sensitivity with a detection limit of 2.24 × 10-17 M, and it can discriminate a 0.01% m6A level from a large pool of coexisting counterparts. Furthermore, this biosensor can be used for monitoring cellular m6A-mRNA expression and differentiating the m6A level in the breast cancer patient tissues from that in the healthy person tissues, providing a new avenue for clinical diagnosis and epitranscriptomic research.


In recent years, Internet of Things (IoT) technology has brought many applications and developments for wearable devices, and the use of non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) instruments to measure attention has been a topic of discussion. However, the correlation between attention and cognitive load has rarely been analyzed by data mining. For this reason, this study used head-mounted non-invasive EEG instruments based on IoT technology to collect attention values related to two courses and extracurricular activities and used a cognitive load questionnaire to investigate the cognitive loads of subjects. Correlation analysis was carried out through data mining technology to find the correlation between attention and cognitive load. In addition, six short-term experiments and relaxation experiments were designed to measure the subjects' maximum attention and minimum attention values, so as to propose a strategy for setting the attention baseline. According to the results of the various experiments, subjects suffering from overload showed a state of inattention during the whole activity while subjects suffering a high load showed low sustained attention; only subjects with a medium load showed high sustained attention. Subjects with a low load showed inattention for nearly the entire activity. In this study, a strategy for setting an attention baseline was proposed to normalize the attention values from different EEG instruments. The correlation between attention value and cognitive load is analyzed using association rule mining technology so that the change of cognitive load could be effectively estimated by measuring the attention value instead of using questionnaire in the future.


Abstract. A highly diversified fauna of hermit crabs associated with reef environments from the Serraduy Formation (lower Eocene) in the southern Pyrenees (Huesca, Spain) is described. Other European Eocene outcrops have yielded paguroids associated with a single environment; however, the studied association represents one of the highest paguroid diversities in a single Eocene outcrop worldwide. The new material increases the diversity of known fossil paguroids, including eight species from which six are new: Clibanarius isabenaensis n. sp., Parapetrochirus serratus n. sp., Dardanus balaitus n. sp., ?Petrochirus sp., Eocalcinus veteris n. sp., ?Pagurus sp., Paguristes perlatus n. sp., and Anisopagurus primigenius n. sp. We erected a new combination for Paguristes sossanensis De Angeli and Caporiondo, 2009 and Paguristes cecconi De Angeli and Caporiondo, 2017 and transfer them to the genus Clibanarius. This association contains the oldest record of the genera Eocalcinus and Anisopagurus. Our data demonstrate that paguroids were diverse by the early Eocene in coral-reef environments and fill an important gap between the poorly known Paleocene assemblages and the more diverse mid- to late Eocene ones.


Thrust faulting has been suggested as a viable mechanism of debris transport at many glaciers, often inferred from the presence of up‐glacier dipping bands of debris that emerge at the ice surface to form ridges of basally derived material. However, modelling indicates that the development of thrust faults is mechanically inhibited because stresses are much lower than that required for shear failure, a prerequisite for thrust faulting, and field measurements fail to detect thrust‐related displacement. The mechanism for the emplacement of these ridges that appear at the surface of many polythermal valley glacier termini remains open to question. This study re‐examines the origin of debris ridges on the surface of Storglaciären, a polythermal valley glacier in northern Sweden, using field observations, ice microstructural analyses, sediment grain size analysis, stable isotope composition of the ice, and modelling. We find no evidence of discrete displacement across the debris bands that produce the ridges, nor do we find evidence that folding might be responsible. We propose that the bands originate at the base of the glacier by one of two mechanisms, perhaps in combination: (i) refreezing of meltwater near the thermal transition in basal ice, and (ii) injection into tensile fractures periodically opened at the base due to high fluid pressure and then freezing. In either case, separation from the base occurs due to high fluid pressure and freezing introduces ice below the debris bands, which are then transported forwards due to basal shear and upwards due to longitudinal compression, and revealed by surface ablation.


Nowadays, swarm robotics research is having a great increase due to the benefits derived from its use, such as robustness, parallelism, and
flexibility. Unlike distributed robotic systems, swarm robotics emphasizes a large number of robots, and promotes scalability. Among the multiple applications of such systems we could find are exploring unstructured environments, resource monitoring, or distributed sensing. Two of these applications, monitoring, and perimeter/area detection of a given resource, have several ecological uses. One of them is the detection and monitoring of pollutants to delimit their perimeter and area accurately. Maritime activity has been increasing gradually in recent years. Many ships carry products such as oil that can adversely affect the environment. Such products can produce high levels of pollution in case of being spilled into sea. In this paper we will present a distributed system which monitors, covers, and surrounds a resource by using a swarm of homogeneous low cost drones. These drones only use their local sensory information and do not require any direct communication between them. Taking into account the properties of this kind of oil spills we will present a microscopic model for a swarm of drones, capable of monitoring these spills properly. Furthermore, we will analyse the proper macroscopic operation of the swarm. The analytical and experimental results presented here show the proper evolution of our system.


Music was played an important role in ancient Egyptian society, and the lute was among the stringed instrument known in ancient Egypt like a harp and a lyre. Lute was introduced to Egypt during the new Kingdom, due to the Egyptian contacts with Asia and, played by men and women alike. Female lutenist was part of ancient Egyptian musician ensemble playing usually in banquets. This paper focuses on female lutenists as professional musicians especially in the tomb scenes during the 18th dynasty and other related objects. Moreover, the paper deals also with the scenes of female lutenists shown on banquets and represented in the marshes and drawing on ostraca.  These lutenists were professional young girls, playing music and dance at the same time. They commonly appear in scenes as nude or nearly nude. This representation is an artistic motif preferred by the artist to portray female lutenists, and it had also its religious connotation that benefited the deceased by regenerating and rebirth him after death. The main objective of the paper is to highlight the female lute player as a professional musician and dancer in the tomb's scenes, fragmented stone blocks, ostraca, a votive bed, and carved unguent spoons. Besides, it is an attempt to explain their nudity comparing with other musicians in ancient Egypt with their artistic and religious connotations.


Previous reports have suggested that antibodies reactive with neutrophils (ARN) are frequently detectable in patients undergoing bone marrow or blood stem cell transplantation (BMT), and that such antibodies result in steroid-responsive delayed neutrophil engraftment or steroid-responsive post-engraftment neutropenia in some patients. However, the true incidence and significance of ARN in the BMT setting remain poorly established because most of the published data are in the form of retrospective case reports. Therefore, we prospectively studied the incidence of ARN, the rate of neutrophil engraftment, and the incidence of post-engraftment neutropenia in a cohort of 40 BMT candidates. Sixteen of the 36 evaluable patients (44%) had detectable ARN following transplant vs none of 25 concurrently studied healthy controls (P < 0.0001). Patients with detectable ARN in the post-transplant period recovered to an absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of 500 x 10(9)/l a median of 3.5 days later than patients without detectable ARN; multivariate analysis controlling for the potential effects of diagnosis, conditioning regimen, amount of prior therapy, and other factors revealed that only the administration of hematopoietic growth factors (P = 0.008) and the presence of ARN in the post-transplant period (P = 0.016) were independently predictive of the rate of neutrophil engraftment following BMT. Four of the 16 patients with detectable ARN (25%) satisfied previously published criteria for post-engraftment neutropenia, ie a fall in the ANC to less than 500 x 10(9)/l for at least 2 consecutive days, following initial engraftment to an ANC of at least 1000 x 10(9)/l for at least 2 consecutive days. In contrast, none of the 20 patients without detectable post-transplant ARN developed post-engraftment neutropenia. Multivariate analysis revealed that only the presence of ARN in the post-transplant period (P = 0.022) was independently predictive of post-engraftment neutropenia. All four patients with ARN-associated post-engraftment neutropenia responded to steroid-based therapy. These prospectively gathered data support previously published primarily case report data suggesting that ARN occur frequently following BMT and are associated with an increased incidence of delayed neutrophil engraftment and post-engraftment neutropenia. As is the case in the non-transplant setting, ARN-associated neutropenia occurring following BMT may respond to steroid-based therapy.


The computer code ABSIM has been developed for simulation of absorption systems in a flexible and modular form, making it possible to investigate various cycle configurations with different working fluids. Based on a user-supplied cycle diagram, working fluid specification and given operating conditions, the program calculates the temperature, flowrate, concentration, pressure and vapor fraction at each state point in the system and the heat duty at each component. The modular structure of the code is based on unit subroutines containing the governing equations for the system's components. A main program calling these subroutines links the components together according to the cycle diagram. The system of equations for the entire cycle is thus established, and a mathematical solver routine is employed to solve them simultaneously. Property subroutines contained in a separate database serve to provide thermodynamic properties of the working fluids.
 The paper describes the current capabilities and recent improvements made to ABSIM along with examples of simulation results for several rather complex cycles, including lithium bromide-water double-, triple- and quadruple-effect cycles and ammonia-water GAX, branched GAX and vapor exchange (VX) cycles.


Anti-corruption chorus has ratcheted up, as the seriously affected, good governance advocates, and anti waste advocates. Articles featured in this book attempt to highlight and discuss root causes, transmission media, effects of corruption and proven actionable counter corruption measures. The cruaimportance of culture and its manifestations in curbing corruption scourge is exhaustively explored by identifying aspects with conducive as well as 'counteracting' effects on corruption in case of Indonesia. Culture is posited as the last bastion in the anti-corruption drive. Two articles in the volume highlight the generic causes, manifestations, and effects of corruption on developing countries in general and business sector in particular, while another explores the poverty-corruption nexus and establishes a positive simultaneous link between poverty and corruption. The need for long-term, varied, multidimensional,and participatory, rather than piecemeal,sporadic,ad hoc,sectoral anti-corruption measures is underscored in another article. Democracy amid decentralization efforts and its impact on public expectations, service delivery perception, corruption completes the volume


This paper proposes the simulation technique of power system with voltage source converter (VSC) based FACTS devices. The benefits of the simulation method on the stability are explored by incorporation the load injection model of various VSCs into the power system. The paper presents the method of simulation the power system with VSC on MATLAB/SIMULINK. The proposed method of simulation is tested on the new England system


One can locate in Marx's work important theoretical foundations for the analysis of neoliberalism: theories of the state (its relation to class patterns), of the transformation of the institutions in which the ownership of the means of production is expressed (the separation between ownership and management, loan capital), and banking capital (as administrator of loan capital). These theoretical frameworks are helpful in analyzing the role of the state in neoliberalism and the power of finance. To this, one must add the analysis of financial capital by Hilferding and Lenin. The recurrent postponement of the final superseding of capitalism constrained Marxist theoreticians to define long-term periodizations, such as the theory of monopoly capitalism or long waves. But the legacy of founding fathers is not very helpful with respect to the interpretation of the succession of the postwar Keynesian compromise and neoliberalism.


Blood transfusion in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) is at a crossroad. Significant recent developments may help meet local needs in safe blood products and fulfil a global health target, as highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, in improving supply and safety, and ensuring the gradual implementation of selective haemotherapy. When WHO recommended the evaluation of convalescent blood or plasma to treat Ebola‐infected patients during the recent epidemics, substantial gaps in local blood collection, testing and technology infrastructure and safety, as compared to best accepted quality standards, became evident. This evidence should now serve as an 'electro‐shock'/awakening call used to highlight the needs for local governments to support National Blood Transfusion Services and establish robust national regulatory authorities that are mandated to bear regulatory responsibilities of blood establishments. A nationally co‐ordinated blood programme is the best tool to gather reliable epidemiological data, address local needs in blood and blood products and serve public health. A literature review using WHO website and PubMed was conducted in this article to outline the current clinical use of blood products and plasma derivatives in SSA. This text also intends to highlight the gaps to be filled in the coming years with respect to quality, safety, supply and efficacy of blood and plasma products, in line with WHO guidelines for transfusion.


Memristors have recently generated significant interest due to their potential use in nanoscale logic and memory devices. Of the four passive circuit elements, the memristor (a two-terminal hysteretic switch) has so far proved hard to fabricate out of a single material. Here we employ electromigration to create a reversible passive electrical switch, a memristive device, from a single-component metallic nanowire. To achieve resistive switching in a single-component structure we introduce a new class of memristors, devices in which the state variable of resistance is the system's physical geometry. By exploiting electromigration to reversibly alter the geometry, we repeatedly switch the resistance of single-component metallic nanowires between low and high states over many cycles. The reversible electromigration causes the nanowire to be cyclically narrowed to approximately 10 nm in width, resulting in a change in resistance by a factor of two. As a result, this work represents a potential route to the creation of nanoscale circuits from a single metallic element.


The food environment can interact with cognitive processing and influence eating behaviour. Our objective was to characterize the impact of implicit olfactory priming on inhibitory control towards food, in groups with different weight status. Ninety-one adults completed a modified Affective Shifting Task: they had to detect target stimuli and ignore distractor stimuli while being primed with non-attentively perceived odours. We measured reactivity and inhibitory control towards food pictures. Priming effects were observed on reactivity: participants with overweight and obesity were slower when primed with pear and pound cake odour respectively. Common inhibitory control patterns toward foods were observed between groups. We suggest that non-attentively perceived food cues influence bottom-up processing by activating distinguished mental representations according to weight status. Also, our data show that cognitive load influences inhibitory control toward foods. Those results contribute to understanding how the environment can influence eating behaviour in individuals with obesity.


The LHAASO (Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory) project, which is under construction at high altitude of 4400m a.s.l. in Sichuan, China,aims to observe the extensive air showers (EAS) induced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. LHAASO consists of several large detector arrays including KM2A (1 km$^2$ array), WCDA (Water Cherenkov Detector Array) and WFCTA (Wide Field of view Cherenkov Telescope Array). By employing hybrid detection technique, LHAASO offers an accurate measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum and composition around the knee region. Furthermore, the primary particle identification can be obtained by using Multivariate Analysis (MVA).

In this contribution, we present the parameters that will be measured by various detectors of LHAASO in the EAS detection and discuss the performance of the MVA method for primary particle identification.


We introduce a class of doubly infinite complex Jacobi matrices determined by a simple convergence condition imposed on the diagonal and off-diagonal sequences. For each Jacobi matrix belonging to this class, an analytic function, called a characteristic function, is associated with it. It is shown that the point spectrum of the corresponding Jacobi operator restricted to a suitable domain coincides with the zero set of the characteristic function. Also, coincidence regarding the order of a zero of the characteristic function and the algebraic multiplicity of the corresponding eigenvalue is proved. Further, formulas for the entries of eigenvectors, generalized eigenvectors, a summation identity for eigenvectors, and matrix elements of the resolvent operator are provided. The presented method is illustrated by several concrete examples. Mathematics Subject Classification (2010). Primary 47B36; Secondary 15A18.


The authors report on a patient with artificial ventricular pacemaker with hysteresis, who suffered from ventricular fibrillation known as "torsade de pointe" and ventricular flutter, often accompanied by lipothymias, with hypokalemia. The following points are considered: the pacemaker responsibility to produce arrhythmia; the pacemaker behaviour during ventricular tachyarrhythmias; the modifications of stimulation threshold and R-wave sensitivity after PM removal and the following hours.


Nuclear and polyadenylated RNA fractions of Raji cells are encoded by larger fractions of Epstein-Barr virus DNA (35 and 18%, respectively) than encode polyribosomal RNA (10%). Polyribosomal RNA is encoded by DNA mapping at 0.05 X 10(8) to 0.29 X 10(8), 0.63 X 10(8) to 0.66 X 10(8), and 1.10 X 10(8) to 0.03 X 10(8) daltons. An abundant, small (160-base), non-polyadenylated RNA encoded by EcoRI fragment J (0.05 X 10(8) to 0.07 X 10(8) daltons) is also present in the cytoplasm of Raji cells. After induction of early antigen in Raji cells, there was a substantial increase in the complexity of viral polyadenylated and polyribosomal RNAs. Thus, nuclear RNA was encoded by 40% of Epstein-Barr virus DNA, and polyadenylated and polyribosomal RNAs were encoded by at least 30% of Epstein-Barr virus DNA. Polyribosomal RNA from induced Raji cells was encoded by Epstein-Barr virus DNAs mapping at 0.05 X 10(8) to 0.29 X 10(8), 0.63 X 10(8) to 0.66 X 10(8), and 1.10 X 10(8) to 0.03 X 10(8) daltons and also by DNAs mapping within the long unique regions of Epstein-Barr virus DNA at 0.39 X 10(8) to 0.49 X 10(8), 0.51 X 10(8) to 0.59 X 10(8), 0.66 X 10(8) to 0.77 X 10(8), and 1.02 X 10(8) to 1.05 X 10(8) daltons.


To the Editor: We read with great interest, but equal concern, the recent article by Rosenstock et al.1 and the accompanying editorial by Fiadjoe and Litman.2 Both publications confirm that flexible bronchoscopy "will still be required" and that anesthesiologists in "large number(s)... lack the commitment and desire to master fiberoptic intubation" and concluding that using a rigid videoscope represents a paradigm shift in anticipated difficult airway management is misguided. Indeed, in expert hands, not only was flexible bronchoscopy a reliable and efficient technique, equivalent in success rate and time to intubation to the McGrath video laryngoscope, but 7 of the 48 patients randomized to the McGrath video laryngoscope could not undergo the awake technique! The exclusion criteria (limited mouth opening and neck pathology prohibiting recurrent laryngeal nerve block via the transtracheal method) were also so restrictive that it is no surprise that the success rates of the two methods were equivalent. Head and neck pathology has already been associated with a high failure rate using video laryngoscopy.3 Perhaps any device chosen, including traditional Macintosh and Miller laryngoscopes, when this patient population was eliminated for investigation, would result in equivalent success. Given the fact that the success and time to perform an awake intubation was equivalent "in expert" hands, perhaps the recommendations should be that anesthesiologists and anesthesia trainees use flexible bronchoscopy more frequently to develop and maintain skills that require more practice and expertise rather than seek alternative and potentially limited devices that subjugate one's required skillset. If we continue to compromise the development and maintenance of flexible bronchoscopic skills, future studies will inevitably demonstrate the superiority of the rigid devices in limited patient populations because of a lack of anesthesiologists who are skilled flexible bronchoscopists. As clinicians and educators, we must squelch the desire to further encourage the steady erosion of advanced airway skills. Although we thank the authors for further demonstrating that video laryngoscopic methods have their role in managing patients with anticipated difficult airways, the need to perform awake flexible fiberoptic intubation is still an absolute vital skill that requires a renewed educational emphasis so that anesthesiologists can and will use this technique when indicated. Residency programs and airway workshops need to spend more time teaching the more difficult to master fiberoptic technique and less time teaching video laryngoscopy, which is easier to learn and maintain mastery of in the first place. (Accepted for publication October 10, 2012.) Adam I. Levine, M.D.,* Andrew B. Leibowitz, M.D. *The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. adam. firstname.lastname@example.com


Multisyllabic word reading has received little attention in existing computational models, which are designed for English. The Greek language uses mainly multisyllabic words, while its orthography is feedforward consistent and includes a stress diacritic. We present here a computational model of reading aloud Greek words and nonwords, based on the connectionist "triangle" model, adapted to the Greek orthography, using a novel input representation. The network displays several effects from the word reading literature and successfully assigns stress. Further investigations are underway.


In this study, seasonal Mann - Kendall test method was applied to 12 stations of the water quality measurement network of Nam-River based on data of BOD, COD, TN and TP for 11 years from January 2005 to December 2015 The changes of water quality at each station were examined through linear trends and the tendency of water quality change during the study period was analyzed by applying the locally weighted scatter plot smoother (LOWESS) method. In addition, spatial trends of the whole Nam-River were examined by items. The flow-adjusted seasonal Kendall test was performed to remove the flow at the water quality measurement station. As a result, BOD, COD concentration showed "no trand" and TN and TP concentration showed "down trand" in regional Kendall test throughout the study period. BOD and TP concentration in "no trand", COD, and TN concentration showed an "up trand" tendency in Nam-River dam. LOWESS analysis showed no significant water quality change in most of the analysis items and stations, but water quality fluctuation characteristics were shown at some stations such as NR1 (Kyungho-River 1), NR2 (Kyungho-River 2), NR3 (Nam-River), NR6 (Nam-River 2A). In addition, the flow-adjusted seasonal Kendall results showed that the BOD concentration was "up trand" due to the flow at the NR3 (Nam-River) station. The COD concentration was "up trand" due to the flow at NR1 (Kyungho-River 1) and NR2 (Kyungho-River 2) located upstream of the Nam-River. The effect of influent flow on water quality varies according to each site and analysis item. Therefore, for the effective water quality management in the Nam-River, it is necessary to take measures to improve the water quality at the point where the water quality is continuously "up trand" during the study period.


The authors conducted a prospective randomized trial to compare the Shouldice and the Bassini-Kirschner technique between April, 1994 and December, 1995. During this period 129 adult patients, mean age 54 (17-87) years underwent operation on primary inguinal hernias in their department. 63 Shouldice and 66 Bassini-Kirschner operations were performed by 17 surgeons. The duration of surgery, the technique of anesthesia, the perioperative complications, the duration of postoperative care, then one year after the operation the recurrence rate and the patient's subjective complains were investigated. 85 patients of 129 were examined one year after the operation in spite of that all the patients were invited for control. Both operations gave almost the same results in the perioperative period and nearly identical recurrence rate (4.44% in Shouldice and 5.0% in Bassini-Kirschner group). The patient's subjective complains were also very similar one year after the operation. The authors could not find significant difference in the results of the two types of surgery although they were well experienced with the Bassini-Kirschner operation and just starting to practice the Shouldice procedure. These facts suggest that having more experience with the Shouldice operation makes available the extreme low recurrence rate published by several authors.


OBJECTIVES
We measured the pharmacokinetics and safety of zidovudine in pregnant women infected with human immunodeficiency virus and their offspring.

STUDY DESIGN
Asymptomatic human immunodeficiency virus-infected women with uncomplicated singleton gestations (28 to 36 weeks) underwent parenteral and oral zidovudine treatment during pregnancy and labor. Maternal and neonatal drug levels were measured at delivery and sequentially for 48 hours. Infants were followed up for 18 months.

RESULTS
The total body clearance (26.3 +/- 10.1 ml/min/kg), mean terminal elimination phase zidovudine half-life (1.3 +/- 0.2 hours), and urinary zidovudine recovery were similar to values in nonpregnant adults. Essentially equivalent zidovudine levels in the mother and neonate at delivery implied little, if any, fetal zidovudine metabolism. The half-life of zidovudine in the neonates was tenfold that of the mother. No significant adverse effects were noted in the infant at birth or on follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
In both mothers and infants the drug appeared safe and well tolerated with no significant hematologic abnormalities.


The aim of this study was to analyze the morphometric characteristics of ovarian follicles and their distribution in the ovarian cortex in South American fur seal pups (Arctophoca australis). Samples were obtained from animals stranded in the Uruguayan Atlantic coast. Ovaries were dissected, fixed, weighed, and processed by standard histological techniques. Ovarian weight increased with pup age and body length. There was an increase in the diameter of the oocytes (22.24 ± 0.6 to 68.2 ± 5.3 µm), the nuclei (10.04 ± 0.2 to 20.7 ± 1.6 µm), and follicles (30.4 ± 1.2 to 252.6 ± 53.6 µm) of type 1 to type 5 follicles; there was a wide range of variation in the diameter of follicle type 4 and 5. Granulosa layer thickness increased between follicles type 3 and 4, whereas between type 4 and 5 there was a reduction. Thecal layer from follicles type 3 and 4 consisted of 1–2 layers of cells, whereas type 5 showed an increase in thickness (3.13 ± 0.3 to 13.8 ± 5.2 µm). Follicles type 1 and 2 occupied superficial regions within the ovarian cortex while the remaining follicles had a deeper location. These results provide a basis for comparison with females of other age categories as well as follicular dynamics studies in South American fur seals. Anat Rec, 296:1658–1663, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


We report a case of a girl with a chromosomal disorder that has never been described in the literature: inversion of chromosome 4 with an unbalanced translocation between the short arm of chromosome 4 and long arm of chromosome 18. Clinical manifestations of this syndrome included severe growth retardation, very slow weight gain, optic nerve hypoplasia, pronounced delay in mental and motor development, and epilepsy with focal hemiclonic fever-related seizures of varying location. The patient has multiple stigmas of dysembryogenesis, but no abnormalities in the development of internal organs. The somatic status is complicated by chronic liquid aspiration and sleep apnea. Magnetic resonance imaging has demonstrated agenesis of the corpus callosum. In this article, we have summarized the results of clinical observation and electroencephalography findings obtained during several years. The type of epilepsy in this girl does not match Wolf–Hirschhorn syndrome (which is determined by her karyotype), but is similar to epilepsy in patients with aberrations of the long arm of chromosome 18.


Psychologists as a group are rather notorious in their pursuit of the appropriate conceptual schemas into which can be ordered the richness and complexities of human experience. Systems, theories, methodologies and what have you, are laboriously arrived at, hailed, lived with, and after an initial romance are ultimately found wanting in lesser or greater degrees. Thus, there has been, especially among clinical psychologists, in the past two decades, a growing uneasiness with the cult of scientism, as embodied in the logical-positivist movement of the 30's and 40's, a disenchantment with rock-bound determinism, and a felt impoverishment of conceptionalization resulting from the rigid application of the S-R model to the arena of clinical phenomena. Gestaltists in the league with phenomenologists have always done battle with the molecular-reductionistic of their colleagues, and while the heat of conflict between the Hullians and Tolmanians has subsided, the lines are clearly drawn. Currently, the


Several routing protocols have been proposed in recent years for possible deployment of mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in military, government and commercial applications. In this paper, we review these protocols with a particular focus on security aspects. The protocols differ in terms of routing methodologies and the information used to make routing decisions. Four representative routing protocols are chosen for analysis and evaluation including: Ad Hoc on demand Distance Vector routing (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) and Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm (TORA). Secure ad hoc networks have to meet five security requirements: confidentiality, integrity, authentication, non-repudiation and availability. The analyses of the secure versions of the proposed protocols are discussed with respect to the above security requirements.


Purpose : To investigate the effect of ursolic acid (UA)-incorporated glycol chitosan (GC) nanoparticles on inhibition of human osteosarcoma. Methods : U2OS and Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells were transfected with ursolic acid (UA) incorporated glycol chitosan (GC) nanoparticles. Ultraviolet (UV)  spectrophotometry was used to measure drug contents in nanoparticles at 365 nm with empty GC vehicles as blank. Bicinchoninic acid assay (BCA) method was employed to determine protein concentration. Identification of apoptosis and necrosis in osteosarcoma cells was performed by propidium iodide and FITC-annexin V reagents, respectively. FAC Scan flow cytometry was used to analyse apoptotic cells. Results : Among the range of UA concentrations tested, the minimum effective concentration was 10 μM with half inhibitory concentration IC50 of 25 μM. In U2OS cells, treatment with 10 and 25 μM UAinduced apoptosis in 5.89 ± 3.90 and 60.54 ± 5.40 % cells, respectively, compared to 2.05 ± 1.01 % cells for control. In Saos-2 cells, exposure to 10 and 25 μM UA induced apoptosis in 9.86 ± 8.89 and 47.54 ± 14.5 % cells, respectively, compared to 1.79 ± 0.23 % for control cells. Western blot analysis revealed  translocation of Bax and Bcl-2 proteins from mitochondria to cell cytosol. Increase in UA concentration  from 10 μM to 25 μM led to increase in the proportion of cells in G0/G1 phase and decrease in the number of cells in S and G2/M phases. These results confirm that UA transfection arrests cell cycle in G0/G1 phase in human osteosarcoma cell lines. Conclusion : UA transfection resulted in the inhibition of cell proliferation, Ezh2 expression inhibition, and apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway due to decrease in membrane potential and release of cytochrome C, as well as cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase. Keywords : Osteosarcoma, Cell cycle arrest, Palliation, Glycol chitosan, Ursolic acid


Confronted with events of a high traumatic potential that our Earth is experiencing: wars, terrorism, attacks on people of all kinds etc ... Emergency clinics have become essential in the care of populations. Emergency shelters, as well as emergency cells, have been developing strongly in recent years. The victims are looking for a response to their inability to elaborate upon the event. There, the place of clinical psychologists can become essential. We will see through a clinical case, how positioning and listening to a professional can allow the emergence of the implicit demand by the subject. By this assumption, not of the event but of the subjective experience of the event by the person, the clinician based on psychoanalytic theories could allow the subject to reduce the risk of developing a post-traumatic stress disorder.


This paper examines the theoretical and practical effects of the government procurement and dual pricing on the producer prices for rice and wheat in India. Contrary' to the previous research this paper shows that the impact depends on whether the subsidies are infra-marginal or extra-marginal in nature. Econometric analysis of the pooled cross sectional and time series data for the selected states reveals a negative impact of the grain procurement on the weighted average prices of rice and wheat. Thus, the so called Dantwala-Mellor hypothesis of positive impact is not supported by the data.