Scaling down CMOS technology has rapidly improved cost, area effectiveness, switching speed of the circuits & high device reliability. However, scaling has an immense impact on static power consumption in VLSI circuits. For battery operating applications higher power dissipation is not desirable because it reduces the efficiency and cooling effects of the battery. Thus, designing a low-power consuming circuit has become the major criteria in circuit designs. A new circuit model called 3T-SAPON is designed to reduce static power consumption. 3T-SAPON technique power consumption has been reduced around 45%. Using this technique inverter, NAND are implemented and compared with some of the existing standard techniques like LCNT, LECTOR, ONOFIC and SAPON. All these circuits are simulated in Cadence 90nm technology.


Is data science a new field of study or simply an extension or specialization of a discipline that already exists, such as statistics, computer science, or mathematics? This article explores the evolution of data science as a potentially new academic discipline, which has evolved as a function of new problem sets that established disciplines have been ill-prepared to address. The authors find that this newly-evolved discipline can be viewed through the lens of a new mode of knowledge production and is characterized by transdisciplinarity collaboration with the private sector and increased accountability. Lessons from this evolution can inform knowledge production in other traditional academic disciplines as well as inform established knowledge management practices grappling with the emerging challenges of Big Data.


In this paper, the experimental equipments for ventilated supercavitation in cavitation tunnel is constructed and the basic data of ventilated supercavitation regard to the entrainment coefficient and Froude number is fulfilled. The experiments are conducted for the disk cavitator with injecting air and the pressure inside cavity and the shape of cavity are measured. As the entrainment coefficient increases while the Froude number is kept constant, the ventilated cavitation number decreases to a minimum value which decreases no more even with increasing the air entrainment. The minimum value of ventilated cavitation number, caused by the blockage effect, decreases according to increasing the diameter ratio of test section to cavitator. The cavity length is rapidly enlarged near the minimum cavitation number. In low Froude numbers, the cavity tail is floating up due to buoyancy and the air inside the cavity is evacuated from its rear end with twin-vortex hollow tubes. However, in high Froude numbers, the buoyancy effect is almost negligible and there is no more twin-vortex tubes so that the cavity shape becomes close to axisymmetric. In order to measure the cavity length and width, the two methods, which are to be based on the cavity shapes and the maximum width of cavity, are applied. As the entrainment coefficient increases after the ventilated cavitation number gets down to the minimum cavitation number, the cavity length still increases gradually. These phenomenon can be confirmed by the measurement using the method based on the cavity shapes. On the other hand, when the method based on the maximum width of cavity is used, the length and width of the cavity agree well with a semi-empirical formular of natural cavity. So the method based on the maximum width of cavity can be a valid method for cavitator design.


In order to attract talented consultants, Sigma, a consultant company, wanted an online game for recruitment. In the game, potential employees' skills could be tested to determine whether they are qualified for the job.
This paper presents a general technique for creating such a recruitment game. The report generalizes the recruitment game to a level-based game for the web, where a player should be able to progress from one level to the next by solving a given problem. A generalized framework and a prototype of the game have been created. The prototype, which is built upon the framework, acts as a proof-of-concept game and proves that the concept works.


At the Allgemeine Krankenhaus St. Georg, Hamburg, 240 patients with ovarian carcinomas were submitted to an adjuvant treatment between 1961 and 1973. The external therapy with telecobalt or by an 18 MeV betatron was dosed from 3000 to 4000 rads. Most of the patients received an additional single intraperitoneal application of 150 mCi gold-198. The five-year survival rate of all patients was 45%, whereas it was 71% for stage I, 47% for stage II, 21% for stage III, and 4% for stage IV. In 3% out of all cases, surgical procedure was necessary because of complications. Today, an indication for intraperitoneal therapy by radioactive isotopes is only adopted in case of a ruptured malignant ovarian tumor.


With a wide dataset of Peruvian firms that exported to the United States between 2006 and 2013, this paper attempts to measure the impact of the Free Trade Agreement signed by Peru and the United States on the dynamics of Peruvian exporters, by reorienting the analysis on sequential exporting, focusing now on product diversification, and incorporating the issue of trade liberalisation. This research tests whether new Peruvian exporters to the US are more likely to intensify their participation in that market, and whether trade liberalisation boosts even more such behaviour. Firms with one-year experience in the US market grow more at the intensive and extensive margin than more experienced firms; but absolute beginners are more likely to stop exporting a product to the US, and have a disadvantage in the intensive margin. Trade liberalisation, expressed as a tariff reduction by USA through a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, intensifies many of these dynamics. That boost in the intensive margin is more evident in small and medium firms. However, trade liberalisation seems to hamper new firms' growth in the extensive margin, except for large firms.


Nowadays lots of processing elements should be placed on a single chip because of ever complexity of applications. In order to connect this number of processing elements, providing a interconnection infrastructure is essential. Network on Chip (NoC) is used as an efficient architecture for chip multiprocessors, which brings a reasonable performance and high scalability. A relevant challenge in NoC architectures is latency that increased in the presence of network contention. In this paper, we utilized virtual channels in buffer structure of routers. We calculated end to end latency and link utilization in NoCs by considering different numbers of virtual channels ranging from 2 to 5. The simulation results show that using virtual channels for specified routers in 2D mesh 4x4 decreases end to end latency up to 17% . It also improves link utilization and throughput significantly.


ELECTRIC POWER is usually delivered to the distributed loads of an area by superimposed voltage webs or networks. In general, the higher voltage webs are used to transmit power, whereas the lower voltage webs, which provide much denser area coverage, are used to distribute power. Connections are required between the webs, which consist of step-down transformers with the necessary switching and protective apparatus. There are three general methods of supplying the lower voltage networks: 1. Radial networks. Separate lower voltage networks, each of which is supplied from one step-down transformer location. 2. Integrated networks. Integrated lower voltage networks which are effectively one large network supplied from several step-down transformer locations. 3. Radial networks with emergency cutovers. Same as 1, except normally open ties are provided between the networks to make possible load transfers from one network to other networks under outage or emergency conditions.


Written words are everywhere. Learning to read is one of the main tasks of our early school years, and the ability to read opens up a world of possibilities—we can absorb ourselves in stories, remind ourselves of important information, and learn new things. But few of us think about what we are actually doing as we read. Moving the eyes is essential for reading. For instance, to read this sentence, you probably began by looking at the first word before moving your eyes to each word in turn. All the while, you are working hard to recognize and understand each word. In this article, you will learn about why eye movements are a necessary part of reading, how they are measured, what they tell scientists about what is happening in the mind during reading, and how they change as children grow into adults.


Goblet cells are one of the three fully differentiated lineages in human colonic crypts. They play an important role in protecting epithelial cells from direct contact with luminal contents by secreting mucus, which consists of MUC2, TFF3 and other constituents. The goblet cell differentiation, however, is largely dysregulated in human colorectal cancers. Abundant expression of MUC2 is often observed in signet ring carcinomas and mucinous carcinomas that are associated with unsatisfactory prognosis. Despite the significant roles of goblet cells, its genetic nature and exact regulatory mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In this thesis, the goblet cell differentiation at mRNA and protein levels was characterised in a panel of 64 human colorectal cancer cell lines. Microarray analysis on the bulk population of these cell lines reveals the genes differentially expressed in goblet cell-positive cell lines, including AKR1B10, AGR3 and the cellular surface protein CA12 (Chapter 3). In addition, a novel protocol is developed for isolation and sequencing of RNA from the fixed and FACS purified cells. Using this protocol, the first goblet cell transcriptome is profiled in LS180 cancer cell line, and the goblet cell-specific genes are identified, including TFF3 and SPDEF (Chapter 4). The co-expression patterns of TFF3 and MUC2 is further investigated. In a subset of cancer cell lines, TFF3 recognises the goblet cells that cannot produce MUC2, suggesting additional regulatory mechanisms are required for its expression. The dysregulated regulation of TFF3 may provide additional evidence in colorectal cancer classification. The transcriptional regulation of ATOH1 and SPDEF on goblet cell differentiation is also demonstrated. Knock-down of either transcriptional factor decreases the goblet cell numbers, while double knock-down completely depletes goblet cell formation, suggesting the co-operative regulation of SPDEF and ATOH1 on goblet cell differentiation. In addition, CA12-positive but not -negative cells can give rise to goblet cells with the expression of MUC2, TFF3 and SPDEF. This indicates CA12 may act as a potential cellular surface marker to identify goblet cell progenitors (Chapter 5). In summary, this thesis screens goblet cells in colorectal cancer cell lines and characterise the first goblet cell transcriptome, which provides the foundation to understand regulatory control of goblet cell differentiation.


Recently, heterogeneous hardware such as GPU and FPGA is used in many systems and also IoT devices are increased repidly. However, to utilize heterogeneous hardware, the hurdles are high because of much technical skills. In order to break down such a situation, we think it is required in the future that application programmers only need to write logics to be processed, then software will adapt to the environments with heterogeneous hardware, to make it easy to utilize heterogeneous hardware and IoT devices. Therefore, in this paper, we propose environment adaptive software to operate an once written application with high performance by automatically converting the code and configuring setting so that we can utilize GPU, FPGA and IoT devices in the location to be deployed. We explain a proceesing flow and elemental technologies to achieve environment adaptive software.


Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a structural remodeling of the heart developing as a response to volume and/or pressure overload. Previous studies have shown that hypertension is not an independent factor in the development of LVH and occurrence does not depend on the length and severity of hypertension, but the role played by other comorbidities such as triglycerides, age, gender, genetics, insulin resistance, obesity, physical inactivity, increased salt intake and chronic stress. LVH develops through three phases: adaptive, compensatory, and pathological phase. Contractile dysfunction is reversible in the first two phases and irreversible in the third. According to the Framingham study, LVH develops in 15-20% of patients with mild arterial hypertension, and in 50% of patients with severe hypertension. The pathophysiology of LVH includes hypertrophy of cardiomyocytes, interstitial and perivascular fibrosis, coronary microangiopathy and macroangiopathy. Individuals with LVH have 2-4 times higher risk of having adverse CV events compared to patients without LVH.


The c-fms protooncogene product was identified as the CSF-1 or M-CSF receptor, a polypeptide growth factor that plays a major role in myelomonocytic differentiation. This led us to look for expression of c-fms in fresh acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells, using Northern blot analysis. c-fms expression was found in the leukemic cells of 28 AML patients, regardless of their stage of differentiation, which was assessed in the French-American-British (FAB) classification. However, the level of c-fms expression was especially high in AML of the M5 stage. High levels of expression were not accompanied by either amplification or rearrangements of the c-fms gene in AML cell DNAs. In contrast, c-fms expression was not found in acute lymphoid leukemias, whether of T or B origin. Thus, c-fms expression appears as a specific molecular marker of leukemogenesis in the myeloid lineage.


Focal adhesions are transmembrane protein complexes that attach chondrocytes to the pericellular cartilage matrix and in turn, are linked to intracellular organelles via cytoskeleton. We previously found that excessive compression of articular cartilage leads to cytoskeleton‐dependent chondrocyte death. Here we tested the hypothesis that this process also requires integrin activation and signaling via focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and Src family kinase (SFK). Osteochondral explants were treated with FAK and SFK inhibitors (FAKi, SFKi, respectively) for 2 h and then subjected to a death‐inducing impact load. Chondrocyte viability was assessed by confocal microscopy immediately and at 24 h post‐impact. With no treatment immediate post‐impact viability was 59%. Treatment with 10 µM SFKi, 10 μM, or 100 µM FAKi improved viability to 80%, 77%, and 82%, respectively (p < 0.05). After 24 h viability declined to 34% in controls, 48% with 10 µM SFKi, 45% with 10 µM FAKi, and 56% with 100 µM FAKi (p < 0.01) treatment. These results confirmed that most of the acute chondrocyte mortality was FAK‐ and SFK‐dependent, which implicates integrin‐cytoskeleton interactions in the death signaling pathway. Together with previous findings, these data support the hypothesis that the excessive tissue strains accompanying impact loading induce death via a pathway initiated by strain on cell adhesion receptors. © 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 32:448–454, 2014.


Introduction During their school years, an estimated 22 000 children and young people will lose a parent. Many others will experience the death of close relatives or friends, yet schools and society struggle to know how to support them because talking about death is 'taboo'. Purpose The purpose of this exciting project is to enable students and their teachers to talk openly about dying in a way that dispels some of the euphemisms, myths and fear associated with death and bereavement and to promote the recognition of death as a natural part of living. Preparation The theatre company has agreed to create, write and perform a multimedia drama using video and live performance as an integral part of a half-day interactive workshop for schools on death and bereavement. It is aimed at Key Stage 4 students, and in addition to relevant lesson plans, schools will be supplied with information packs for teachers, students and parents. Schools will be required to have some counselling support available for students. The hospice undertook the original groundwork for the project and continues to be closely involved as advisor on the content of the drama, and with the schools liaison work. Current progress A light-hearted sketch has been created which uses humour to address this serious issue; it will be performed by about eight young student actors. The first six schools who expressed an interest in the project have been selected to take part in the initial phase. Funds for the project will be raised by schools. Ongoing plans The project includes plans to record the theatre piece on DVD for use in other schools and general release to a national body such as Help the Hospices.


Comments are given on Notice 239/1998 of the Czech Mining Office which superseded Decree 17/1981 of the Czech Mining Office, published in the Official Journal of the CSR.


The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxadant effects of Hypericum perforatum (HP) and Nigella sativa (NS) in protecting against biochemical and histopathological changes in rat testis injured by experimental ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). This research study was conducted on 40 adult male Wistar albino rats. Rats were randomly separated into four groups of 10 animals each: the sham (control) group in which only the scrotal area opened and closed without torsion and detorsion (T/D); the I/R group, which was T/D applied but not treated by any agent; the HP+I/R, and NS+I/R groups, HP and NS were given intraperitoneally 30 min before T / D 25 mg / kg groups. In the I/R group with HP+I/R and NS+I/R treatment groups, torsion was created by rotating only left testis 720 degrees clockwise for 2 hours. At the end of the 2 hours torsion, the left testis was detorsioned and replaced in the scrotum for 4 hours. Along with the completion of the experiment, the left testis was rapidly removed to measure oxidative stress markers and to examine it histopathologically. In the HP+I/R and NS+I/R groups, the malondialdeyhde (MDA) level was significantly lower than in the I/R group only, and the superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), calase (Cat) activities were higher than the I/R group. Also our histopathological results supported these biochemical findings. In conclusion, our results suggest that both HP and NS protect against injury of left testis induced by I/R, however the protective effects of NS were more pronounced than those the HP.


Sparse dictionary learning (SDL) has become a popular method for adaptively identifying parsimonious representations of a dataset, a fundamental problem in machine learning and signal processing. While most work on SDL assumes a training dataset of independent and identically distributed samples, a variant known as convolutional sparse dictionary learning (CSDL) relaxes this assumption, allowing more general sequential data sources, such as time series or other dependent data. Although recent work has explored the statistical properties of classical SDL, the statistical properties of CSDL remain unstudied. This paper begins to study this by identifying the minimax convergence rate of CSDL in terms of reconstruction risk, by both upper bounding the risk of an established CSDL estimator and proving a matching information-theoretic lower bound. Our results indicate that consistency in reconstruction risk is possible precisely in the `ultra-sparse' setting, in which the sparsity (i.e., the number of feature occurrences) is in $o(N)$ in terms of the length N of the training sequence. Notably, our results make very weak assumptions, allowing arbitrary dictionaries and dependent measurement noise. Finally, we verify our theoretical results with numerical experiments on synthetic data.


This article reports the findings of 13 studies undertaken as part of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) project on "Examining the existing knowledge on coverage extension". It reviews recent evidence that highlights how cash benefits and health-care coverage, financed on the basis of contributions or tax revenue or both, can be extended and maintained in low-, middle- and high-income countries. The article also highlights a number of priority areas and issues for coverage extension, including realizing improved protection for informal-economy and migrant workers.


Implantation of permanent pacemakers in children and adolescents is possible but usually is limited to single chamber generators. The natural growth of these patients may require physiological pacing, but until recently two leads were required for this type of pacing. The single pass lead VDD pacing mode makes posible physiological pacing by using only one lead, for both atrial sensing and ventricular sensing and pacing. The feasibility of VDD pacing using endocardial lead was evaluated in 16 children and adolescents with congenital or postsurgical atrioventricular block. Their mean age was 7.9 ± 4.9 years (range 1‐16 years) and the smallest patient's weight was 8.2 kg. In all the patients, a single pass pacing lead with atrial sensing rings and bipolar ventricular pacing and sensing capability was implanted through the left or right subclavian vein. The pacemaker generator was implanted in a rectopectoral position. The mean atrial electrogram during the implantation was 4.2 ± 2.1 mV and 2.6 ± 1.9 mV after a mean of 1 week. The ventricular pacing threshold was 0.5 ± 0.2 V; the ventricular pacing impedance was 560 ± 95 Ω and the ventricular electrogram amplitude was 9.9 ± 2.1 mV. This is a first report to demonstrate the feasibility of atrial synchronous ventricular endocardial pacing using a single pass lead in a relatively large group of children and adolescents.


A journal can only be as good as the quality and variety of the papers which authors submit for consideration for placement in the journal; the constructiveness and usefulness of reviewers' comments; the expertise, representativeness and involvement of the editorial advisory panel; and the feedback which the editors receive from readers. There is a need to constantly review the progress of the journal. At the end of SAJG's first quinquennium it is therefore apposite to lake stock of its achievements and shortcomings, and to consider how it may be improved to have wider appeal and greater relevance for gerontologists in Africa.


The main radiological features of the plain film of the abdomen, excretory urography and of renal angiography in 210 patients who had suffered renal trauma were reviewed. The role of excretory urography in these cases is examined and the need for renal angiography in all cases of renal trauma is discussed. S. Afr. Med. J ., 48, 981 (1974).


Metabolic engineering is the analysis of metabolic pathway and designing rational genetic modification to optimize cellular properties by using principle of molecular biology. Aromatic metabolites such as tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine are essential amino acids for human and animals. In addition, phenylalanine is used in aspartame production. Escherichia coli and many other microoganism synthesize aromatic amino acids through the condensation reaction between phospho-enolpyruvate (PEP) and erythrose-4-phosphate(E4P) to form 3-deoxy-D-arabinoheptulosonate 7-phosphate(DAHP). But many enzymes compete for intracellular PEP, especially the phosphotransferase system which is responsible for glucose transport in E. coli. This system uses PEP as a phosphate donor and converts it to pyruvate, which is less likely to recycle back to PEP. To channel more carbon flux into the aromatic pathway, one has to overcome pathways competing for PEP. ppsA and tktA are the key genes in central metabolism of aromatic amino acids biosynthesis. ppsA encoding phosphoenolpyrucate synthetase A (PpsA) which catalyzes pyruvate into PEP; tktA encoding transketolase A which plays a major role in erythrose-4-phosphate (E4P) production of pentose pathway. We amplified ppsA and tktA from E. coli K-12 by PCR and constructed recombinant plasmids of them in pBV220 vector containing P(R)P(L) promoter. Because of each gene carrying P(L) promoter, four productions of ligation were obtained. The monoclonal host containing recombinant plasmids was routinely grown in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium added Ampicillin at 37 degrees C overnight, and then inoculated in LB (Apr) medium by 3%-5% in flasks on a rotary shaker at 30 degres C, induced at 42 degrees C for 4.5 hours when OD600 = 0.4, cells were obtained by centrifugation at 10,000 r/min at 4 degrees C. The results of SDS-PAGE demonstrated that the bands at 84kD and 73kD were more intensive than the same ones of the controls. The specific activity of PpsA in crude extracts was increased by 10.8-fold, and TktA, by 3.9-fold. When both genes were co-expressed in E. coli, the activity of PpsA varied from 2.1-9.1 fold comparing to control, but the activity of TktA was relatively stable(3.9-4.5 fold). Whatever the two genes were expressed respectively or cooperatively, both could promote the production of DAHP, the first intermediate of the common aromatic pathway, but co-expression was more effective on forming DAHP. The results demonstrate that co-expression of ppsA and tktA can improve the production of DAHP to near theoretical yield. This report details a different strategy based on co-expression of two genes in one vector in vivo to release the burden and paves the way for construction of genetic engineering bacteria for further research.


Abstract Sports informatics and computer science in sport are perhaps the most exciting and fast-moving disciplines across all of sports science. The tremendous parallel growth in digital technology, non-invasive sensor devices, computer vision and machine learning have empowered sports analytics in ways perhaps never seen before. This growth provides great challenges for new entrants and seasoned veterans of sports analytics alike. Keeping pace with new technological innovations requires a thorough and systematic understanding of many diverse topics from computer programming, to database design, machine learning algorithms and sensor technology. Nevertheless, as quickly as the state of the art technology changes, the foundation skills and knowledge about computer science in sport are lasting. Furthermore, resources for students and practitioners across this range of areas are scarce, and the new-release textbook Computer Science in Sport: Research and Practice edited by Professor Arnold Baca, provides much of the foundation knowledge required for working in sports informatics. This is certainly a comprehensive text that will be a valuable resource for many readers.


We introduce a new codification on a time series that combines permutations and another symbol containing quantitative information. With these new codes, we construct a new test to determine whether a time series is independent and identically distributed. We compare our results with those obtained with tests based only on permutations. Our results show that the new test produces better results than those based only on permutations.


Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander men have the worst health of any group in Australia. Despite this, federal, state and territory government policies do not specifically address the issue. Existing research demonstrates the complexity of the problems facing Indigenous men in Australia. The intersection of masculinity and Indigeneity, compounded by colonisation, historical policies, stigma, marginalisation, trauma, grief and loss of identity are key factors that shape these poor health outcomes. This research explores the role played by Bush Adventure Therapy as a holistic health and well-being intervention for Aboriginal men in Southern Tasmania. Bush Adventure Therapy is a diverse and malleable field of practice combining adventure and outdoor environments with the intention to achieve therapeutic outcomes for those involved. The Indigenous methodology of yarning is used to conduct semi-structed interviews (n=11*). Preliminary results indicate the negative impact on colonisation and transgenerational trauma on health and well-being. While themes of holistic improvements to health, connection to Country, place and culture, friendship and community building, spirituality and self-determination have emerged. Bush Adventure Therapy is a malleable health and well-being intervention that has been reported to provide holistically benefits. The ability to weave cultural practices such as collecting traditional foods, making items hearing stories and yarning are important to Aboriginal men. To help improve Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander men's health holistically, innovative and self-determining approaches that are culturally appropriate are important.


Statement of the Problem Some studies have reported the bond strength to be significantly lower in fluorotic enamels than the non-fluorosed. Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the shear bond streongth of metallic brackets to non-fluorosed and fluorosed teeth after different enamel conditioning. Materials and Method A total of 176 freshly extracted human premolars (88 non-fluorosed and 88 fluorosed teeth) were used in this study for bonding the metallic brackets. Teeth with moderate fluorosis were used according to Thylstrup and Fejereskov index (TFI). Eighty non-fluorosed and 80 fluorosed teeth (TFI=4-6) were randomly divided into 8 equal groups of 20 teeth each. The remaining 16 teeth were used for scanning electron microscopy observation. The enamel surface was conditioned by 4 methods: acid etching for 30 sec, acid etching for 120 sec, air abrasion followed by acid etching, and Er: YAG laser etching followed by acid etching. The morphology of etching patterns in different groups was studied under scanning electron microscope. Results The shear bond strength of fluorosed teeth to the brackets was significantly lower than non-fluorosed ones (p= 0.003). The shear bond strength of laser-acid groups in both non-fluorosed and fluorosed teeth was significantly lower than other groups (p< 0.001). Weibull analysis indicated that the chance of failure under the applied force was different between fluorosed and non-fluorosed group. The scanning electron microscope observations revealed that the fluorosed teeth treated with phosphoric acid had fewer irregularities compared to non-fluorosed teeth. The most irregularities were detected in the teeth conditioned with phosphoric acid for 120 seconds. Conclusion Fluorotic enamel adversely affects the bond strength of orthodontic brackets. None of the conditioning methods tested in this study could significantly improve shear bond strength of metallic brackets. Er: YAG laser conditioning followed by acid further reduced the bond strength in non-fluorosed and fluorosed teeth.


An experimental determination of the energies of combustion in fluorine of polytetrafluoroethylene film and powder and of mixtures of beryllium with polytetrafluoroethylene gives for reaction (1) Δ H 25 C ° = - 1022.22 kJ mol-1 (-244.32 kcal mol-1) with an overall precision of 0.96 kJ mol-1 (0.23 kcal mol-1) at the 95 percent confidence limits. The total uncertainty is estimated not to exceed ±3.2 kJ mol-1 (±0.8 kcal mol-1). The measurements on polytetrarluoroethylene give for reaction (2a) and reaction (2b) Δ H 25 ° C ° = - 10369.7 and -10392.4 Jg-1, respectively. Overall precisions expressed at the 95 percent confidence limits are 3.3 and 6.0 Jg-1, respectively. (1) Be ( c ) + F 2 ( g ) = BeF 2 (  amorphous  ) (2a) C 2 F 4 ( polymer powder ) + 2 F 2 ( g ) = 2 CF 4 ( g ) (2b) C 2 F 4 ( polymer film ) + 2 F 2 ( g ) = 2 CF 4 ( g ) Be2C and Be metal were observed in a small carbonaceous residue from the combustion of the beryllium-polytetrafluoroethylene mixtures. Methods of analysis for these substances were developed. Gases resulting from the solution of the solid residues in aqueous KOH were analyzed for H2 and CH4 by differential absorption in molecular sieves at low temperatures.


Better handling, be lighter, more fuel efficient and cause less pollution are some key requirement of a car in near future. One key technical strategy to achieve all this is the light weighting. The enormous potential of intermetallics especially aluminides as a light weight material in addition with many attractive properties, such as high oxidation and corrosion resistance and relatively low densities, combined with their ability to retain strength and stiffness at elevated temperatures make it's an ideal choice as an automotive body material. In considerations of all above, the aim of the present work is to alternate automotive body material with intermetallic Nickel Aluminides through its mechanical characteristics. The prime focus will be on to obtain the mechanical properties such as tensile, toughness and hardness which were tested using Universal Testing Machine (UTM), Impact tester, and Hardness Tester respectively. Crystallographic studies of these alloy material were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Microstructural properties and composition of these alloys were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)/ Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrum (EDX). Heat treatment (annealing) and Tafel extrapolation tests were carried out for thermal and corrosion properties of this nickel aluminides alloy respectively.


"I am a sick man . . . I am a spiteful man," the irascible voice of a nameless narrator cries out. And so, from underground, emerge the passionate confessions of a suffering man; the brutal self-examination of a tormented soul; the bristling scorn and iconoclasm of alienated individual who has become one of the greatest antiheroes in all literature. "Notes From Underground," published in 1864, marks a turning point in Dostoevsky's writing: it announces the moral political, and social ideas he will treat on a monumental scale in "Crime And Punishment," "The Idiot," and "The Brothers Karamazov."


From the urine of patients with systemic scleroderma, we previously isolated a glycosaminoglycan, which could induce a scleroderma-like change in the skin of mouse. In the present work, the cell-mediated response to urinary glycosaminoglycans was examined by lymphocyte transformation test. The specific response was observed in lymphocytes of patients with scleroderma, when the above scleroderma-inducing glycosaminoglycan was added. By contrast, lymphocytes of patients with SLE or dermatomyositis and of normal persons hardly showed a response to this glycosaminoglycan. On the other hand, the glycosaminoglycans from normal urine could not stimulate lymphocytes of patients with scleroderma or healthy persons.


Mastitis results in great economic loss to the dairy goat industry. Many approaches have attempted to decrease the morbidity associated with this disease, and among these, transgenic strategy have been recognized as a potential approach. A previous mammalian study reports that interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) has potential anti-bacterial bioactivity against infection in vitro; however, its capacity in vivo is ambiguous. In this study, we initially constructed targeting and homologous recombination vectors (containing the IFN-γ gene) and then transferred the vectors into goat mammary gland epithelial cells (GMECs). Enzyme digestion and sequencing analysis indicated that the vectors used in this study were built correctly. Subsequently, monoclonal cells were selected using puromycin and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test indicated that IFN-γ was correctly inserted downstream of the casein promoter. Monoclonal cells were then assessed for reducible expression, and reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot tests confirmed that monoclonal cells could express IFN-γ. Finally, anti-bacterial capacity was evaluated using bacterial counts and flow cytometry analysis. Decreased bacterial counts and cell apoptosis rates in transgenic GMECs demonstrated that the secretion of IFN-γ could inhibit bacterial proliferation. Therefore, IFN-γ gene transfection in goat mammary epithelial cells could inhibit bacterial proliferation and reduce the risk of mammary gland infection in goats.


During the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol consumption was largely confined to drinking in the home. There has been little research examining variables associated with risk in home drinking. The study employed an online survey of (n = 1128) individuals who had been recruited for their face recognition skills (n = 838, 70.9% females, mean age 45.05 (12.3 SD)). The main dependent variables were three different AUDIT-C cut-off scores for at-risk drinking: (a) 5 for both genders as recommended by Public Health England, (b) 7 for females and 8 for males (cut-off for students and young people) and (c) 8 for both genders (individuals seeking online help for their drinking). Among the independent variables were gender and age, motivations for home drinking using the Home Drinking Assessment Scale (HDAS), purchasing patterns, context of drinking and health and wellbeing. The predictors following hierarchical logistic regressions were for (a) purchasing alcohol online or at a supermarket and emotional HDAS scores, (b) purchasing alcohol online or at a supermarket and for parties, drinking alone and with other members of the household and emotional and practical reason HDAS scores, (c) as for b with the addition that men were more likely to be at-risk drinkers. At-risk drinking in the pandemic was explained by motivational reasons, purchasing patterns and situational factors.


Author(s): Brunet, Gillian | Advisor(s): Romer, Christina D. | Abstract: A key question in macroeconomics is the government's ability to stimulate economic activity through expansionary fiscal policy. How much economic activity results when the government increases spending by one dollar, and how does the economic and institutional context affect the answer to that question? This dissertation uses a variety of empirical techniques to explore aspects of this question using historical data on U.S. military spending. In chapter one I use state-level variation in war production spending to measure the fiscal multiplier during World War II, and examine how features of the wartime economy influenced the size of the fiscal multiplier. Chapter two focuses on how the measurement of government spending influences the estimated size of the multiplier. I introduce a new time series measure of aggregate defense spending. In chapter three I return to World War II, but this time examine the effects of wartime military spending on the post-war economy, establishing causal evidence for its role in driving the immediate post-war boom. In chapter one I use war production spending to quantify the idiosyncratic factors affecting estimates of the fiscal multiplier during World War II. World War II is often viewed as a quintessential example of government spending stimulating the economy, and is interesting both because it was such a significant economic event and because it strongly influences estimates of the multiplier whenever it is included in the sample. Newly digitized war supply contract data allow me to construct state-level panel data on U.S. spending for 1940-45 and examine state-level outcomes. Using state-level variation I estimate a relative multiplier of 0.25 to 0.3, depending on the estimation approach. This implies an aggregate multiplier of roughly 0.3 to 0.4 given wartime economic conditions. I find small employment effects: an additional job-year is associated with $165,000 to $255,000 of spending (in 2015 dollars), also depending on the estimation approach. I also find evidence that the effects of stimulus were systematically larger in states that had lower employment levels pre-war. To explain why the stimulative effects of war spending were so small, I look for guidance from the historical narrative. I show that unique features of the wartime economy significantly reduced the stimulative impact of wartime spending. Conversion from civilian manufacturing to war production reduced the initial stimulus from war production. At least 75 percent of the income generated by war spending went into increased saving and income taxes, implying that the add-on effects from increased consumption were minimal in the short run. Chapter two focuses on how the measurement of government spending influences the estimated fiscal multiplier. Economists have previously focused on measuring shocks to expectations rather than the measurement of government spending itself. My approach is driven by the observation that government spending is a long and complex process. Specifically, I introduce an alternative measure of government spending, called budget authority, which uses authorizations to measure the government's commitment to spend. Budget authority is established annually as part of the congressional budget process, and is readily available from 1976 onward. I use historical budget publications to construct defense budget authority for 1938 to 1975, extending the available data backwards by several crucial decades. Using annualized data (for purposes of comparison) to estimate the aggregate fiscal multiplier using shocks to defense spending, budget authority produces similar point estimates to the traditional NIPA measure, but much more precisely estimated. Budget authority is conceptually different from the best-known measure of shocks to anticipated defense spending, Ramey's narrative measure, particularly in how it measures shocks to expectations and how it treats uncertainty. Budget authority implies an aggregate fiscal multiplier of 0.8, while Ramey's narrative measure implies a much smaller fiscal multiplier, around 0.1. Budget authority shows consumption responses to spending more clearly than other available measures, and also picks up strong investment responses over a one-year time horizon. Ramey's narrative measure shows significant investment responses over all time horizons up to three years. While shocks to all three measures predict strong responses in total government spending, it appears that both budget authority and Ramey's measure understate the response of government spending due to timing differences between those measures and NIPA. The definition of spending mostly closely aligned to national accounting is subtly different from the definition that is most relevant for measuring the stimulative effect of government spending. Thus using the NIPA definition of spending creates a downward bias in measuring the fiscal multiplier. A fourth measure of spending, budget outlays, allows me to estimate a lower bound for the magnitude of this bias. When this bias is corrected, budget authority implies an aggregate fiscal multiplier of 1.3 to 1.4, and potentially as large as 1.4 to 1.6. Chapter three examines the influence of World War II spending in the U.S. on household consumption and savings in the immediate post-war years (1946-1949). Chapter three uses geographic variation in war spending to measure the effects of World War II spending on household consumption and savings behavior after the war ended and rationing was relaxed. I find that compared to households in locations receiving less war spending, similar households in locations which received more war spending were significantly more likely to purchase both cars and houses in the immediate post-war years. These households also had higher liquid asset holdings and, conversely, higher total debt. With the exception of debt, all of these effects were stronger for households headed by an individual age 45-64, which was the age cohort most likely to have worked in war production.


Abstract: Studies were conducted to determine effects of preharvest applications of glyphosate on the seed and seedling quality of 'Alpowa' and 'Penawawa' soft white spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) varieties. Glyphosate was applied at 0.62 or 0.84 kg ae/ha at the milk (Zadoks' scale 70 to 79), soft dough (Zadoks' scale 85), or hard dough stage (Zadoks' scale 87) of wheat development; 7 d following the hard dough treatment; and 1 d prior to wheat harvest. In harvest aid applications, wheat yields were reduced only with glyphosate applied at the milk stage of development. Yield reduction ranged from 20 to 77% depending on the year, variety, and glyphosate rate. Likewise, kernel weight and germination were affected only by glyphosate applications at the milk stage with reductions from 19 to 73% and from 2 to 46% for kernal weight and percent germination, respectively, compared to untreated wheat. Using wheat from harvest-aided glyphosate treatments at the milk stage as seeds the following year resulted in reductions ranging from 28 to 99%, 19 to 39%, and 12 to 97% for seedling density, plant height, and seed yield, respectively, compared to seeds from untreated wheat. In this study, wheat seed and seedling quality following preharvest glyphosate applications were most greatly influenced by crop maturity stage at time of application than by herbicide rate or variety. Nomenclature: Glyphosate, N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine; spring wheat, Triticum aestivum L. 'Alpowa,' 'Penewawa.' Additional index words: Desiccation, germination, harvest aid, herbicide.


Objective: To determine if there is a relationship between restricted upper-lip frenums (upper lip ties) and unexpected and unexplained asphyxia (UUA) in infants.
Methods: A retrospective review was done of 327 UUA cases from Miami-Dade County, FL and Harris County, TX. Using autopsy photos, upper-lip frenums were classified by degree of restriction. Statistical analysis was done to compare the occurrence of restricted upper-lip frenums in this UUA population to a baseline for the general population. The difference was statistically significant at the 99% confidence level.
Conclusion: There is a very strong statistical correlation between restricted upper-lip frenums and UUA infant deaths.


Advances in imaging technology over the past decades have contributed to better characterization of hepatic lesions. This study aims to differentiate focal hepatic lesions from their ultrasound (U/S) features and compared the obtained results with histopathology. A descriptive retrospective study of 100 patients who had focal hepatic lesions were reviewed during the period from 2012 to 2019 at King Abdul-Aziz Specialist Hospital, Taif, KSA. The inclusion criteria were Adults Saudi patients, ages 18 and above. LG-9 and Philips ultrasound machines with 3.5 MHz transducers were used in this study. Age group (55 to 80 years) represented 44%, mean age was 49 years, 92% were married. Regarding shape of the lesions during U/S scan, 47% of irregular outline were malignant (p=0.00), 93% of the rounded lesions were benign (p=0.00),86% of well-defined lesions margins were benign in histopathology, 61% ill-defined margin lesions were malignant and 73% of hyperechoic lesions were hemangioma (p=0.02). Regarding nature of hepatic lesions during U/S, 87% of solid lesions were malignant (p=0.03), while 89% of cystic lesions were benign. 61% of hypoechoic lesions were malignant. 80% from vascular lesions under color Doppler were benign. U/S sensitivity and specificity were 93.5 and 98%, respectively. U/S is a useful tool in differentiation cystic hepatic lesions from solid (p=0.03). Comparable studies with large samples must be done in Taif region to provide data base for hepatic lesions.


This article examines two recent books on fossilization and assesses their contribution to our understanding of the causes of non-target performance in near-native grammars. The different accounts of fossilization these books present is outlined; one takes the view that a critical period prevents subjects from accessing syntactic features which are not available in their first language (L1), while the other takes the view that maturational problems make it difficult for learners
to work out the mapping between syntactic features and their
morphological expression. The contrasting consequences of each of these phenomena upon our understanding of fossilization, end-state grammars and the role played by the first language are highlighted. The possibility of moving away from a parameter-setting model of second language acquisition is discussed.


The using of bioindikator lately become more important with the main function is to describe the existence of relevancy with biotic factor condition and abiotic area. Land fauna is enough as land indicator because it has sensitive respond to land and climate management practice, having good correlation to the land characteristic that benefits and the ecology function can describe causal chain that connects land management decision to the last productivity and plant and animal health. This research has purpose to identify kind of land fauna found in Bromo Tengger Semeru national park, analyse kinds of land fauna and analyse land fauna that can be used as land bioindikator with high sulphur standard. The   research   uses   exploration   method,   that   arrange   land   fauna observation Bromo Tengger Semeru national park and taking land sample to be analyzed in laboratory. Taking sample location in Bromo, Jemplang area (near Bromo mountain). In each location is being observed to land fauna with plot 1 X 1 m, as many as 10 plots. Land fauna found in each plots is noted about genre and amount. The sample of the land is taken, then brought to the laboratory and analyzed to find out the content of pH land, S land, organic material and C/N land. The result of this research shows that land fauna found in Bromo Tengger Semeru national park are 10 ordo, contained 29 family. Land fauna diversity in Bromo mountain is in lower area if it is compared with other area, with index 2.07 variety. Jemplang area has index variety 2.35 and Penanjakan area has index the highest fauna diversity, that is 2.73. Bromo mountain area has total sulphur  74,683  mg/1000g  land  and  it  is  the  area of  research within  highest sulphur. Land fauna used as land bioindicator within highest sulphur is ordo Brachyderinae   for   indicator   the   existence   fauna   and   Mesoveliidae   for bioindicator the inexistence of fauna.


The calibrated left apexcardiogram with time constant 4 s and its first derivative (dA/dt) has been evaluated in 62 patients with ischemic heart disease and in 50 normal subjects. The normalized positive peak of dA/dt (max dA/dt/Ad), the peak velocity of contractile element shortening (Vpm), the normalized negative peak of dA/dt (min dA/dt/Ar), and the time constant of myocardial relaxation T as well as the time interval from R wave of the electrocardiogram to the peak positive dA/dt (R-max dA/dt) and the total apexcardiographic relaxation time interval divided to mean arterial pressure (TRI) were measured. In patients with ischemic heart disease we found a decrease of max dA/dt/Ad, Vpm, min dA/dt/Ar and an elongation of T, R-max dA/dt, and TRI, when compared to controls. Various indexes for myocardial contraction and relaxation were calculated in 21 of the patients who underwent left ventricular catheterization and biplane angiography. These parameters were used as dependent variables in the multiple regression analysis. Apexcardiographic indexes were used as independent variables. The indexes Vpm, max dA/dt/Ad, min dA/dt/Ar, and T were significantly correlated with all analogous invasive indexes. It is concluded that calibrated and differentiated apexcardiography provides useful information on left ventricular contraction and relaxation.


Object detection and recognition are important problems in computer vision and pattern recognition domain. Human beings are able to detect and classify objects effortlessly but replication of this ability on computer based systems has proved to be a non-trivial task. In particular, despite significant research efforts focused on meta-heuristic object detection and recognition, robust and reliable object recognition systems in real time remain elusive. Here we present a survey of one particular approach that has proved very promising for invariant feature recognition and which is a key initial stage of multi-stage network architecture methods for the high level task of object recognition.


Hafnium oxide thin films (HOTFs) were successfully deposited onto amorphous glasses using chemical bath deposition, successive ionic layer absorption and reaction (SILAR), and sol–gel methods. The same reactive precursors were used for all of the methods, and all of the films were annealed at 300°C in an oven (ambient conditions). After this step, the optical and structural properties of the films produced by using the three different methods were compared. The structures of the films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The optical properties are investigated using the ultraviolet-visible (UV–VIS) spectroscopic technique. The film thickness was measured via atomic force microscopy (AFM) in the tapping mode. The surface properties and elemental ratios of the films were investigated and measured by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The lowest transmittance and the highest reflectance values were observed for the films produced using the SILAR method. In addition, the most intense characteristic XRD peak was observed in the diffraction pattern of the film produced using the SILAR method, and the greatest thickness and average grain size were calculated for the film produced using the SILAR method. The films produced using SILAR method contained fewer cracks than those produced using the other methods. In conclusion, the SILAR method was observed to be the best method for the production of HOTFs.


Volume and density measurement efforts at the IMGC made in the framework of the Avogadro constant experiment are reviewed, and a critical analysis of the problems encountered is presented. The status of efforts directed at the determination of the molar volume of silicon is examined, with emphasis on the development and application of a new, more precise silicon standard. >


Eight fungi isolates were obtained from Fusarium-infected Cucumis melo (melon) plants and their rhizosphere soils. Taking melon cultivar 'Xitian 1' as test material, the re-inoculation and seed germination experiments were conducted to investigate the pathogenicity and growth inhibition effect of these fungi isolates on melon. Through the determination of the induced enzyme activities, resistant substance contents, and cell membrane permeability of potted melon roots, the allelopathic effect of the crude toxins of two harmful fungi was studied, and according to the morphological characteristics and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequencing, the two harmful fungi were identified. The crude toxins of the two harmful fungi TF and HF had strong inhibition effects on the germination and growth of the melon seeds. The MDA and soluble protein contents and the cell membrane permeability of the 'Xitian 1' seedlings roots all increased, among which, the MDA content and cell membrane permeability increased by 108.6% and 40.6%, respectively when treated with the stock solution of TF toxin, compared with the control. The crude toxins of the two harmful fungi improved the induced enzyme activities of the melon roots, with the increment of the PAL and POD activities under the treatment of 10-fold dilution of TF crude toxin increased by 25.6% and 23.2%, respectively. When treated with the stock solution of HF toxin, the PAL activity significantly increased by 30.0%. The two harmful fungi TF and HF were primarily identified as Fusarium equisti and F. proliferatum, respectively. This study showed that the two Fusarium isolates could not infect melon via re-inoculation, but could negatively affect the melon's normal growth and normal physiological and biochemical metabolism via toxins excretion, and in the meantime, improve the root protective enzyme activities, with the effects of both benefit and harmfulness on melon plants. The allelopathic hazard of the crude toxins of the isolates could be one of the main causes of continuous cropping obstacle of melon.


An unbalance of cell proliferation and cell apoptosis is an important mechanism in carcinogenesis, and angiogenesis also plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis. Recently, survivin has been identified as an important member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family. Although it has been shown that survivin is highly expressed in gliomas, and is associated with tumorigenesis, progression, and poor prognosis of gliomas, as yet the relation of survivin expression with proliferation, apoptosis, and angiogenesis of gliomas it is still unclear.


The Sun's magnetic field drives the solar wind and produces space weather. It also acts as the prototype for an understanding of other stars and their planetary environments. Plasma motions in the solar interior provide the dynamo action that generates the solar magnetic field. At the solar surface, this is evident as an approximately 11-year cycle in the number and position of visible sunspots. This solar cycle is manifest in virtually all observable solar parameters, from the occurrence of the smallest detected magnetic features on the Sun to the size of the bubble in interstellar space that is carved out by the solar wind. Moderate to severe space-weather effects show a strong solar cycle variation. However, it is a matter of debate whether extreme space-weather follows from the 11-year cycle.
 Each 11-year solar cycle is actually only half of a solar magnetic "Hale" cycle, with the configuration of the Sun's large-scale magnetic field taking approximately 22 years to repeat. At the start of a new solar cycle, sunspots emerge at mid-latitude regions with an orientation that opposes the dominant large-scale field, leading to an erosion of the polar fields. As the cycle progresses, sunspots emerge at lower latitudes. Around solar maximum, the polar field polarity reverses, but the sunspot orientation remains the same, leading to a build-up of polar field strength that peaks at the start of the next cycle. Similar magnetic cyclicity has recently been inferred at other stars.


Eich (1985) found that participants' recall benefited especially from context reinstatement when they integrated the target with the contextual features in their environment (i.e., context integration). We explored the relationship between these two contextual manipulations in an eyewitness situation. All participants (N = 160) viewed a video of a staged theft and were asked to identify the culprit and recall the event after a one-week delay. Results suggested that context reinstatement (but not context integration) enhanced the perceived familiarity of the targetlfoil and their willingness to identify someone in the lineup. Although context reinstatement improved facial identification when the target was present, it also artificially boosted participants' confidence. In terms of recall, reinstating the study context improved participants' free recall of both central and peripheral details and cued recall of peripheral details. The results were consistent with the (mis)attribution of familiarity and the outshining


Background Emerging evidence suggests a potential link between psychological distress (anxiety and depression) and lung cancer risk, however, it is unclear whether other factors such as tobacco smoking and genetic susceptibility modify the association. Methods We included 405,892 UK Biobank participants free of cancer at baseline. Psychological distress was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4). A polygenic risk score (PRS) was calculated using 18 lung cancer-associated genetic loci. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results During a median follow-up of 7.13 years, 1754 lung cancer cases were documented. The higher score of psychological distress was associated with an increased risk of lung cancer (HRper 1-SD= 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02-1.11) after adjustment for smoking and other confounders. Mediation analysis revealed that 16.8% (95% CI: 13.0%-20.6%) of the distress-lung cancer association was mediated by smoking. Compared with never smokers with no distress, participants with heavy smoking and high distress had the highest risk of lung cancer (HR=18.57, 95% CI: 14.51-23.76). Both multiplicative and additive interactions were observed between smoking and psychological distress in lung cancer. Furthermore, the greatest relative increase in risk was observed among those with high genetic risk and high distress (HR=1.87, 95%CI: 1.50-2.33), and there was a significant additive interaction between the PRS and psychological distress. Conclusion Our results indicate that psychological distress was associated with an elevated risk of incident lung cancer, and such relation was modified by tobacco smoking and genetic susceptibility.


We propose and demonstrate a hybrid photonic-plasmonic nanolaser that combines the light harvesting features of a dielectric photonic crystal cavity with the extraordinary confining properties of an optical nano-antenna. For this purpose, we developed a novel fabrication method based on multi-step electron-beam lithography. We show that it enables the robust and reproducible production of hybrid structures, using a fully top-down approach to accurately position the antenna. Coherent coupling of the photonic and plasmonic modes is highlighted and opens up a broad range of new hybrid nanophotonic devices.


Lung cancer associated with neurofibromatosis type I is considered very rare, and only a few case reports have been described in the literature. There is some evidence that a genetic linkage between neurofibromatosis and carcinogenesis in the lung may exist. We present a 42-year-old female, lifetime nonsmoker with a known history of neurofibromatosis type I, free of respiratory symptoms, who underwent a low-dose HRCT of the lungs to investigate any occult interstitial lung changes. A solitary ill-defined nodule of a ground-glass opacity was detected incidentally in the middle lobe with no associated lymphadenopathy or metastatic disease. Several thin-walled lung cysts were also seen in the lower lobes. Histological analysis of the nodule after middle lobectomy revealed well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. The patient did not receive systemic chemotherapy or radiotherapy. She was free of disease on 18-month followup.


We present the agent programming language GTGolog, which integrates explicit agent programming in Golog with game-theoretic multi-agent planning in Markov games. It is a generalization of DTGolog to a multi-agent setting, where we have two competing single agents or two competing teams of agents. The language allows for specifying a control program for a single agent or a team of agents in a high-level logical language. The control program is then completed by an interpreter in an optimal way against another single agent or another team of agents, by viewing it as a generalization of a Markov game, and computing a Nash strategy. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach along a robotic soccer example.


BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in most countries. Lack of awareness of the impact CVD has on women is a continuing problem. Rural women are at a great risk for CVD and have specific barriers to early recognition and to access to treatment.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this systematic review was to identify how the state of the science for rural women and CVD has progressed over the last decade.

METHODS
Searches were conducted using the databases Cochrane, PubMed, and CINAHL with 5 major subject headings. The search resulted in the identification of 571 articles. Specific exclusion criteria resulted in an in-depth review of 15 articles. Two of the authors reviewed each article for scientific merit and interrater reliability.

RESULTS
Most studies were conducted in the United States (67%). Four studies focused on CVD knowledge; one, on physical activity; one, on diet plus other factors; one, on the effect of dried curry leaf powder and cucumber slices on hyperlipidemia; and one each, on waist circumference, exposure to smoke from wood stoves, and social support. Five of the 15 studies focused on more than 1 component, most on diet and physical activity.

CONCLUSIONS
Depth in a body of knowledge on any 1 topic, such as the most efficacious means to decrease CVD risk factors in rural women and increase health promotion activities in the population, is lacking. Another area of concern is the lack of research articles published in cardiovascular journals that include CVD in rural women.


Abstract This paper presents findings from a dissertation study examining variations of personal-professional attributes and approaches to supervision, distinguished by the ethnic origin of the supervisor, in clinical settings that provide services to Mexican-American persons. Utilizing an ethnic-sensitive practice perspective and a sample of 323 staff employed in a public MHMR system, two hypotheses were tested to examine variations in personal-professional attributes and approaches to supervision. The hypothesis that demographic traits differentiate supervisors by personal-professional attributes was confirmed. With respect to demographic traits distinguishing supervisors on approaches to supervision, there is inconclusive evidence to suggest that significant differences exist among supervisors. This study highlights the urgency in mobilizing organizations to provide greater access to services for Hispanic consumers by improving performance of ethnic-sensitive supervision in their operations. Recommendations to develop and promote ethnic-sensitive supervision in public mental health and substance abuse treatment organizations are presented.


General comment 1: How general are the observed correlations? From the perspective of a potential user whose aim is to retrieve characteristic sizes from dual-frequency radar measurements, some information may be missing. It would be relevant to include more information on the data that were collected. For example, how many data points were included how long were the time periods used (after the preprocessing steps which include e.g. removing mixed-phase conditions) to compute the coefficients of Fig 6? What were the flight conditions like, in terms of (for example) altitude, temperature, total water content...? Similarly, the authors mention the presence of various particle habits, but this could be expanded (e.g. indicate the classes of particles present in the entire dataset used, mention the presence of riming if any...). All this could help the reader get an idea of how general the derived relations are, and how they might hold in various environments.


Distributed data sharing has became an increasing challenge in modern distributed systems like cloud computing and online social networks etc., due to its data sharing archetype. The implementation of accessing policies and maintaining the policy updates has become a challenging issue in our Data sharing archetypes. Cipher text policy attributebased encryption (CP-ABE) is appropriate a capable cryptographic solution to this problem. Our CP-ABE facilitates the data owners to characterize their individual access policy over user attributes and implement the policies on the data to be distributed. Beside its advantage, on the other hand our CP-ABE have main disadvantage called a key escrow or written agreement problem. The key generation center possibly will decrypt whichever messages addressed to particular users by generating their confidential personal or private keys. This is not appropriate for data sharing situations where the data owner would like to make their private data only easy to get to chosen users. As the access policies are defined only over the attribute universe user revocation or cancellation has become another challenging issue in applying CP-ABE in data sharing system. As a result in our paper, we propose a new CP-ABE method for a data sharing system by developing the feature of the system architecture. The proposed method will achieve the following features: 1) By constructing the secure two-party computation between the key generation center (KGC) and the data storing center (DSC) we achieve escrow-free key issuing protocol through which key escrow or written agreement problem is solved and 2) On the top of ABE for alternative encryption we use selective attribute group key distribution to get elegant user revocation for each attribute. The performance and security analysis signify that the anticipated system is able to securely manage the data distribution in the data sharing system.


Ticks are blood feeding ectoparasites that transmit a wide range of pathogens. The lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, is one of the most widely distributed ticks in the Midwest and Eastern United States. Lone star ticks, like most three-host ixodid ticks, can survive in harsh environments for extended periods without consuming a blood meal. Physiological mechanisms that allow them to survive during hot and dry season include thermal tolerance and water homeostasis. Large quantity of dermal fluid secretions induced by mechanical stimulation of tick legs has been described in metastriate ticks including Amblyomma. We hypothesize that a function of tick dermal secretion is similar to the sweating in large homeothermal animals. In this study, we found that a contact with a heat probe at 45oC can trigger dermal secretion. We demonstrated that dermal secretion plays a role in evaporative cooling when ticks are exposed to high temperature. We observed that direct contact to a heat probe for 5 seconds at ~ 52oC caused an exhaustive dermal secretion with ~ 4% loss of body weight and resulted in the lethality in 24-hour, indicating that the secretion is associated with significant costs of water loss. We identified type II dermal glands having paired two cells forming large glandular structures. The secretion is triggered by an injection of serotonin and the serotonin-mediated secretion was suppressed by a pretreatment of Ouabain, a Na/K-ATPase blocker, implying that the secretion is controlled by serotonin and the downstream Na/K-ATPase.


The objective of the present study was to compare two forms of maternal asynchrony: authoritarian and permissive between dyads with history of physical abuse and control dyads. Participated 17 mother-infant dyads with a history of physical abuse and 17 dyads without a history of abuse. The children's ages ranged between four and nine years with a mean age of 6.8 years. Both groups of dyads were observed in 3 sessions of 30 minutes in an academic condition. The discussion focuses on the types of maternal asynchrony and differences between the characteristics of both groups that may account for the parenting styles of each type of sample.


In this paper, cooperative spectrum sensing under perfect and imperfect feedback channels is investigated. In particular, the optimal number of cognitive radios (CRs) required to minimize the total error of the sensing process when a perfect/imperfect reporting channels is derived. We show that the total error is always greater than zero regardless of the number of cooperating nodes. Furthermore, we derive a general formula that represents the boundaries of false alarm probability, and demonstrate that tightening the value of this boundary alone will not result in an improvement of system performance. Additionally, we show that errors in the reporting feedback channels can easily be mitigated when the optimal number of CRs participating in the sensing process is used; therefore, the overall detection probability is improved. Interestingly, results show that errors in the feedback channels can improve the detection probability at a low signal to noise ratio (SNR) link between the primary users (PUs) and the CRs.


A brand consists of more parts than the visible features such as names and logotypes. No matter in what industry a company is acting the brand in itself determines if the company will succeed or not. A successful brand is extremely hard to copy since two exactly similar brands do not exist. With a strong brand you create positive associations and form emotional relationships with customers. The purpose with this paper was to investigate how banks in the Swedish market explain their brand identity and how they use their brand identity when positioning themselves. Furthermore the authors have investigated the differences in that matter between two of the leading banks in Sweden. This was done through a comparative case study with Nordea and SEB who are two of the leading banks in the Swedish market. A qualitative method has been used to this thesis and in-depth interviews have been conducted to collect information that was suitable for our stated problem. The results showed that both Nordea and SEB explain their brand identity according to the different aspects that the theory states and they understand the importance of brand identity. When building brand identity it is important to be aware of the different parts that the brand identity consists of. Both banks try to develop the different parts of the brand identity but there are differences in the amount of resources they put in each part. When positioning themselves, both Nordea and SEB are answering the questions in the theory concerning positioning and positioning a brand. The theory implies that the core identities are the foundation when positioning and both Nordea and SEB are well aware of their core identities and they are using them when positioning their brand.


Biological treatment methods are used to remove organic and some inorganic substances from wastewater using the simplest organisms that use these substances for nutrition, breaking them down using cellular processes. The article deals with the aerobic, anaerobic and anoxic stages of biological wastewater treatment. Their differences are explained and the best way to use biological processes is analyzed according to the type of industry/production. At wastewater treatment plants, anaerobic treatment is often used at first to remove a significant part of organic substances from wastewater before sending them for further aerobic treatment. Aerobic treatment is effective for various types of wastewater, especially with lower biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). A comparative analysis of wastewater composition from food, oil and gas processing, pharmaceutical and pulp and paper industries was carried out. In the presence of organic compounds, the technology is chosen depending on the total organic matter content or the total COD content, which characterizes the total organic matter in water. A combination of anaerobic and aerobic methods is possible, if a discharge into the sewer system or into water bodies is required. The grounds for the application of biological wastewater treatment of these industries are given.


Islam has world-wide influence, and even in the United States is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth. Its sacred book, "The Koran", is the subject of voluminous commentary, yet it rarely receives the kind of objective critical scrutiny that has been applied to the texts of the Bible for over a century. To correct this neglect of objective scholarship, Ibn Warraq has assembled this excellent collection of critical commentaries on "The Koran" published by noted scholars from the beginning of the 20th century to recent times. This outstanding volume will be a welcome resource to interested lay readers and scholars alike.


The ultrastructural features of two groups of filamentous sulfur bacteria, Thiothrix spp. and an unnamed organism designated "type 021N," were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Negative staining of whole cells and filaments with uranyl acetate revealed the presence of tufts of fimbriae located at the ends of individual gonidia of Thiothrix sp. strain A1 and "type 021N" strain N7. Holdfast material present at the center of mature rosettes was observed in thin sections stained with ruthenium red. A clearly defined sheath enveloped the trichomes of two of three Thiothrix strains but was absent from "type 021N" filaments. The outer cell wall appeared more complex in "type 021N" strains than in Thiothrix isolates. Bulbs or clusters of irregularly shaped cells, often present in filaments of "type 021N" bacteria, appeared to result from crosswalls which formed at angles oblique to the filament axis. The multicellular nature of these sulfur bacteria was apparent in that only the cytoplasmic membrane and peptidoglycan layer of the cell wall were involved in the septation process. Sulfur inclusions which developed in the presence of sodium thiosulfate were enclosed by a single-layered envelope and located within invaginations of the cytoplasmic membrane.


Efficient energy storage systems impact profoundly the renewable energy future. The performance of current electrical energy storage technologies falls well short of requirements for using electrical energy efficiently in transportation, commercial, and residential applications. This paper explores the possibility by using transition‐metal‐based complexes as active materials in a Li‐ion battery full cell that synergizes the concept of both lithium‐ion batteries and redox flow batteries. A cathode made from transition metal complex, [Fe(bpy)3](BF4)2, exhibits high discharge voltage approaching 4 V (vs Li/Li+). When coupled with a Li4Ti5O12 anode, the Li‐ion full battery exhibits a cell voltage exceeding 2.2 V and decent cycling efficiencies with Coulombic efficiency and energy/voltage efficiencies above 99% and 92%/93%, respectively. Such a Li‐ion battery full cell offers distinct features such as low cost and flexibility in molecular structure design. The result reveals a generic design route toward iron‐based complexes as cathode materials with good electrochemical performances.


We consider IPO firms from 1970 to 2001 and examine the evolution of their insider ownership over time to understand better why and how U.S. firms that become widely held do so. In our sample, a majority of firms has insider ownership below 20% after ten years. We find that a firm's stock market performance and trading play an extremely important role in its insider ownership dynamics. Firms that experience large decreases in insider ownership and/or become widely held are firms with high valuations, good recent stock market performance, and liquid markets for their stocks. In contrast and surprisingly, variables suggested by agency theory have limited success in explaining the evolution of insider ownership.


The authors thinks that the cultural identification of a person is not only a basis of his personal development but it also contributes into the quality of the education system, the solution of the problems of the dialog of the cultures, human rights and integration of Russia into the world education system. The author suggests that the politics of a conservative jural state can be a premise for formation of the «person civilized».


The Polish power system is undergoing a slow process of transformation from coal to one that is renewables dominated. Although coal will remain a fundamental fuel in the coming years, the recent upsurge in installed capacity of photovoltaic (PV) systems should draw significant attention. Owning to the fact that the Polish Transmission System Operator recently published the PV hourly generation time series in this article, we aim to explore how well those can be modeled based on the meteorological measurements provided by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management. The hourly time series of PV generation on a country level and irradiation, wind speed, and temperature measurements from 23 meteorological stations covering one month are used as inputs to create an artificial neural network. The analysis indicates that available measurements combined with artificial neural networks can simulate PV generation on a national level with a mean percentage error of 3.2%.


Phytochemical analysis of leaves from ENCELIOPSIS NUDICAULIS, E. NUDICAULIS var. CORRUGATA, and GERAEA CANESCENS afforded numerous methylated flavonoids present as resin constituents as well as benzofurans and related compounds extracted from roots. Five new dihydroflavonols present on the leaf surfaces were identified based on their spectral data and on those of the corresponding flavonols obtained by oxidation with NaHSO (3).


Many people use religious belief and practice as a resource for coping with distress. However, the influence of religious content in comforting messages has yet to be examined. The current study was designed to examine how comforting messages that vary in person centeredness and incorporate different kinds of religious content are evaluated by people who vary in intrinsic religiosity and styles of religious coping. College students (N = 312) were asked to imagine that a grandparent had died and to evaluate the perceived quality of comforting messages representing different levels of person centeredness and types of religious content. They also completed measures of intrinsic religiosity and religious coping style. Results indicate not only a preference for messages with deferring religious content (in which God is described as responsible for helping the individual cope with the loss) but also variation in evaluation as a function of intrinsic religiosity and religious coping style.


CD40L and statins exhibit pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects, respectively. They are both pleiotropic and can regulate extracellular matrix (ECM) degeneration in an atherosclerotic plaque. Statins can decrease both the CD40 expression and the resulting inflammation. However, the effects of CD40L and stains on atherosclerotic plaque ECM production and the underlying mechanisms are not well established. Moreover, prolyl-4-hydroxylase α1 (P4Hα1) is involved in collagen synthesis but its correlations with CD40L and statins are unknown. In the present study, CD40L suppressed P4Hα1 expression in human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) in a dose- and time-dependent manner, with insignificant changes in MMP2 expression and negative enzymatic activity of MMP9. CD40L increased TRAF6 expression, JNK phosphorylation, NF-κB nuclear translocation as well as DNA binding. Furthermore, silencing TRAF6, JNK or NF-κB genes abolished CD40L-induced suppression of P4Hα1. Lower NF-κB nuclear import rates were observed when JNK or TRAF6 silenced HASMCs were stimulated with CD40L compared to HASMCs with active JNK or TRAF6. Together, these results indicate that CD40L suppresses P4Hα1 expression in HASMCs by activating the TRAF6-JNK- NF-κB pathway. We also found that rosuvastatin inhibits CD40L-induced activation of the TRAF6-JNK- NF-κB pathway, thereby significantly rescuing the CD40L stimulated P4Hα1 inhibition. The results from this study will help find potential targets for stabilizing vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques.


Spectrophotometric methods are used to study the binding to DNA of Actinomycin D (AMD) and its analogues: 7-nitro-AMD; 7-amino-AMD; 7-(Z-Val-Glo-NH)-AMD; 7-(AcO- . +H2-Val-Glo-NH)-AMD; 7-(AcO- . +H2-Val-Glo-Val-Glo-NH)-AMD. The binding constants are calculated from the binding isotherm of AMD and those of the AMD analogues to calf thymus DNA obtained by spectrophotometric titration. Introduction of smaller substituents such as the nitro or amino groups into position 7 of chromophore influences insignificantly the antibiotic binding to DNA, whereas bulky substituents cause a decrease in the affinity of the AMD analogues for DNA, although the spectral characteristics are not affected.


N-(3,5-Bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-1H-indole-2-carboxamide 1e is an efficient hydrogen-bonding organocatalyst for the ring-opening polymerization of l-lactide. This new catalytic species does control the dispersity (1.08) and molecular weight (3460 g/mol vs 3064 in theory) of the poly(l-lactides) prepared in 2 h. (1)H NMR analysis showed that compound 1e complexes l-lactide in CDCl(3) through the two available NH groups (amide and indole). In particular, the catalytic species appeared to be mainly the H-bonding donor amide (1e in extended conformation, alone or dimer (1e)(2)) and, to a lesser extend, the dual H-bonding amido-indole (1e in its the pinched conformation). The first X-ray structure of the complex between a H-bonding organocatalyst and l-lactide also revealed a tight H-bonded network between the dimer (1e)(2) and l-lactide.


The population densities of the 3d 4F5/2, 7/2, 9/2, 3d 4D5/2, 7/2 and 4s 4P1/2, 3/2, 5/2 levels of ionized argon in an argon ion laser discharge have been measured by a line absorption technique. The populations of these levels show a linear increase with discharge current. An estimate of the pumping rate of the upper laser configuration (4p) by electron collision with these 3d and 4s levels indicates that this may be an important, perhaps a dominant process in populating the 4p configuration.


INTRODUCTION:
Autografting has many disadvantages such as additional blood loss, increased operative time and cutaneous nerve damage, persistent pain at the donor site, vascular injury, and iliac bone fracture, herniation into the defect and in additional morbidity. Also the amount of morbidity is in direct proportion to the quality of graft retried. When the graft requirement is larger as in children where risk of damage to growth plate is high, revision hip surgeries, traumatic bone defects, spiral fusion and decompression surgeries, allograft comes into play. Although technique for allograft bone storage was described in the late 1940s and whole segmental grafts were used for tumor surgery in 1960s, the use of femoral head allografts as structural bone grafts was started in 1976 for revision hip surgeries. Initially, bone grafting was performed most commonly during complex primary hip arthroplasties such as for dysplasia, Protrusio acetebuli etc; currently for revision hip arthroplasty, foot and ankle surgeries, tumors and fracture non unions. The technique and practice of bone allografting in India is yet to take a firm footing. The facility for proper processing of the harvested bone allografts, its storage and strict donor screening is available only at few tertiary heath centers in India. The bone bank in government General Hospital started in the year 2005 is one such place aimed at maximal utilization of the allografts.
AIM: 1. To analyze various the uses cancellous and cortical allografts in orthopaedic surgery. 2. The functional outcome of the allografts in these conditions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between February 2003-October 2006, 38 cases of cortical and cancellous allografting has been carried out at the department of orthopaedics, Govt. General Hospital, Chennai. This was a prospective study conducted in 38 patients, 22 of which were males and 16 were females. The Age groups of these patients were ranging from 6-55 years. Benign bone tumors were 21 cases of which the histopathological diagnosis was Fibrous dysplasia in 7 cases, Giant cell tumor in 4 cases, ABC in 2 cases, Chondroblastoma in 2 cases, Chondromyxoid fibroma in 1 case, Simple bone cyst in 2 cases, Osteochondroma with fracture in 2 cases and Chondroma 1 case.
RESULTS: None of the patients developed systemic infection this highlights the fact that a through donor screening, proper allograft processing and storage was as essential as operative planning and technique for successful outcome of the procedure. Although the short term results were encouraging, it is required to study these cases for longer periods to reach a conclusion about the state of incorporation of structural bone allografts and need for re – surgery at a longer follow up.
CONCLUSION: 1. Bone allograft is a safe and reliable adjuvant in the management of bone defect in the setting of tumors and traumatic bone loss, and revision hip surgeries and spine surgeries. 2. Better results are observed with use of both morsellized and structural bone allografts clinically as well as radiologically. 3. Allograft procured and processed in sterile condition and stringent donor screening are very important safe guards for prevention of disease transmission. 4. Autoclaving though weakens the graft, reduces the immunological as well as reduces further, the risk of disease transmission without much comparative on bony union. 5. Cancellous femoral heads are an excellent method in the management of bone tumor defects. 6. Femoral head allografts are available options in traumatic bone defects and in children. 7. Cortical allografts and autografts add additional sterility to the defect. 8. The clinical results are good and support recommendations for continued use the grafts and development of the technique.


It is natural that diseases the most obvious features of which are located in the joints should be grouped together just as diseases of the meninges, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, etc., are grouped. While we recognize the basis of classification in the other classes and realize that the diseases may have nothing in common, except the localization of some of their phenomena, in the case of the joints we have not yet progressed so far. No class of cases seems to offer greater facilities for study and treatment, and yet in the mind of the average practitioner everything, except the typical cases of rheumatic fever, is thrown into a nebulous class of chronic, rheumatic, rheumatoid or gouty arthritis, the treatment of which is almost hopelessly chaotic. Since Svdenhain differentiated acute rheumatic fever from gout, little progress has been made, speaking for the profession at large. This confusion of ideas with the consequent thcrapeutic


The Grid provides a new and unrivaled technology for large scale distributed simulation as it enables collaboration and the use of distributed computing resources. This panel paper presents the views of four researchers in the area of Distributed Simulation and the Grid. Together we try to identify the main research issues involved in applying Grid technology to distributed simulation and the key future challenges that need to be solved to achieve this goal. Such challenges include not only technical challenges, but also political ones such as management methodology for the Grid and the development of standards. The benefits of the Grid to end-user simulation modelers also are discussed.


Despite the growing use of minimal clinically important difference (MCID) as a cancer outcome measure, no study has reported clinically significant outcomes in cancer patients. We defined MCID and evaluated the use of preoperative HRQoL for predicting MCID and survival after surgical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In total, 369 patients completed the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Hepatobiliary (FACT-Hep) and the SF-36 at baseline and at two years post-operative at three tertiary academic hospitals. The corresponding MCID values were 3.6 (SF-36 physical component summary), 4.2 (SF-36 mental component summary), 5.4 (FACT-General total score), and 6.7 (FACT-Hep total score). The predictors of achieving postoperative MCID were significantly higher in patients who had low preoperative HRQoL score, advanced age, high education level, and high BMI (p < 0.05). However, patients with a high preoperative HRQoL score, high education level, high BMI, and low Charlson comorbidity index score were significantly associated with survival (p < 0.05). Preoperative HRQoL scores were predictive of MCID and overall survival after surgical resection of HCC. The findings of this study may be useful for managing the preoperative expectations of candidates for HCC resection and for developing shared decision-making procedures for patients undergoing surgical resection of HCC.


Commentary on: Chapter 8: Basic Design Procedures for E-learning Courses (Sloep, Hummel & Manderveld, 2005) Abstract: The paper presents an ontology based approach to integrate learning designs and learning object content. The main goal is to increase the level of reusability of learning designs by enabling the use of a given learning design with different content. We first define a three-part conceptual model that introduces an intermediary level between learning design and learning objects called the learning object context. We then use ontologies to facilitate the representation of these concepts: LOCO is a new ontology for IMS-LD, ALOCoM is an existing ontology for learning objects, and LOCO-Cite is a new ontology for the contextual model. Building the LOCO ontology required correcting some inconsistencies in the present IMS LD Information Model. Finally, we illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach on three use cases: finding a teaching method based on domain-related competencies, searching for learning designs based on domain-independent competencies, and creating user recommendations for both learning objects and learning designs. Editors: Colin Tattersall and Rob Koper.


This research aims to develop learning tools of mathematics junior high school with a contextual approach as a tool for learning mathematics. The subjects are 34 students in the eighth grade of junior high school. The research method used is development research by referring to ADDIE development model which consists of five stages, namely analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The instruments are validation sheets of student worksheet, questionnaires, and test results. Results of this research are: (1) the validation result of student worksheet is in very good category; (2) the result of a questionnaire of student response is in very good category; and (3) the result of the student's learning test is in a good category. So that, student worksheet is feasible from the aspect of validity, practicality, and effectiveness.


In an offset printing factory with 56 workers, 20 (36%) developed symptomatic peripheral neuropathy due to exposure to n-hexane. Another 26 workers (46%) were found to have subclinical neuropathy. The initial change in the nerve conduction study was reduced amplitude of the sensory action potentials, followed by reduced amplitude of the motor action potentials, reduction in motor conduction velocities and increase in distal latencies. These changes indicate primary axonal degeneration with secondary demyelination. Sural nerve biopsy in a severe case showed giant axonal swellings due to accumulation of 10nm neurofilaments, myelin sheath attenuation and widening of nodal gaps. The development of neuropathy bore no direct relationship to the duration of exposure, hence factors such as individual susceptibility may be important. Optic neuropathy and CNS involvement were uncommon and autonomic neuropathy was not encountered.


Machine learning practitioners often fine-tune generative pre-trained models like GPT-3 to improve model performance at specific tasks. Previous works, however, suggest that fine-tuned machine learning models memorize and emit sensitive information from the original fine-tuning dataset. Companies such as OpenAI offer fine-tuning services for their models, but no prior work has conducted a memorization attack on any closed-source models. In this work, we simulate a privacy attack on GPT-3 using OpenAI's fine-tuning API. Our objective is to determine if personally identifiable information (PII) can be extracted from this model. We (1) explore the use of naive prompting methods on a GPT-3 fine-tuned classification model, and (2) we design a practical word generation task called Autocomplete to investigate the extent of PII memorization in fine-tuned GPT-3 within a real-world context. Our findings reveal that fine-tuning GPT3 for both tasks led to the model memorizing and disclosing critical personally identifiable information (PII) obtained from the underlying fine-tuning dataset. To encourage further research, we have made our codes and datasets publicly available on GitHub at: https://github.com/albertsun1/gpt3-pii-attacks


An initial temperature at the core-mantle boundary (CMB) is an important constraint for thermal evolution of Earth's mantle and core because this temperature strongly affects the size and onset timing of growing inner core, primordial heat in early Earth's core and thermal and chemical state in the deep mantle. In a previous study, we found ~6000 K as the initial CMB temperature in a coupled core-mantle evolution model to match constraints of thermal evolution of Earth's core [Nakagawa and Tackley, 2010]. However, in recent suggestions from high P-T physics and theoretical model of thermal evolution of Earth's core, the initial CMB temperature seems to be less than ~5000 K [Andrault et al., 2016; Nakagawa, in revisoin]. Since our core evolution model is based on a simplified analytical formulation [Buffett et al., 1992; Buffett et al., 1996] and more complicated formulation that can fit the density structure derived from seismological analysis and applicable for high thermal conductivity of iron alloy is proposed [Labrosse, 2015], we reassess the initial CMB temperature that can find the best-fit core evolution scenario. Because of thermostat effects on thermal evolution [e.g. Nakagawa and Tackley, 2010; Nakagawa and Tackley, 2012], the initial CMB temperature may not be sensitive to the scenario of thermal evolution of Earth's core and mantle but the heat flow across the CMB found in this study (9 to 10 TW) is slightly lower than the lower-bound value (11 TW). On the magnetic evolution, the low thermal conductivity is still more preferable than high thermal conductivity due to existence of adiabatic shell with high thermal conductivity that suppress a convective region of Earth's core. In the presentation, we will attempt to an implication for detectability of geoneutrino based on thermal and chemical evolution modeling of Earth's mantle and core.


Hyperemess, severe and excessive vomiting during pregnancy, is a distressing condition that can require hospital treatment. One hospital has set up a dedicated, midwife-led day unit for these women.


The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is to be the most sensitive radio astronomy receiver ever constructed. The Karoo Array Telescope (KAT) region, part of an SKA bidding site in South Africa, has been proclaimed a radio quiet zone. This paper describes several contributions our group has made to the strategies used in the management of environmental RFI and self-generated emissions. Additionally, we are interested in the hardening of telescopes against lightning.