The market globalization pushes for ever new products in order to reach new niches. In the household appliances field, the marketing specialists daily configure new combinations of numerous functional and product requirements seeking new product definitions. Each novel combination requires an assessment of technical and economic feasibility by the design departments. This paper proposes a method for a preliminary validation of new configurations at the marketing stage. Indeed a tentative Bill of Materials (BOM) and a cost of the product are obtained. A knowledge base is derived by eliciting the requirement compatibilities from existing products. The approach is matrix based and it analyzes recurrent dependencies between requirements and components variants to determine which parts are most likely to appear in the BOM. Then, the knowledge base is integrated with rules that are input by experienced designers through a simple syntax. The approach has been tested moving from the requirements of some instances of a family of cookers, and comparing the results obtained from the application of the method with the actual product BOM.


Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans with unprecedented and devastating damage to the city and its medical institutions. The effect on graduate medical education (GME) at LSU Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC-NO) was immediate and profound. Initial problems were (a) preserving education and training for the many dispersed house officers who were also regarded as evacuees and (b) overcoming our closed Charity Hospital, a historic and major public teaching facility (380 house officers for all LSUHSC-NO residency programs). We describe the survival and recovery of our GME programs. Some residents stayed and performed heroic service at public and community-isolated or damaged hospitals in New Orleans and throughout southeast Louisiana. All house officers and their families became evacuees to other cities as residents of LSUHSC-NO were dispersed throughout the state following the hurricane. House officers treated evacuated patients and others in outlying public institutions. As the year progressed, more innovative partnership opportunities were quickly established among outlying public hospitals and, ultimately, the private institutions closer to New Orleans. We present data (see tables and figures) that reflect house officers pre-Katrina, leading to the recovery of LSUHSC-NO9s GME programs within the New Orleans community. These newly established alliances show that the 621 pre-Katrina residency positions became 501 positions post-Katrina. Attempts were made to align available house officer positions to compatible teaching and patient care opportunities in regional sites. Residency program reviews demonstrated continuation of quality education and patient care delivery. For the future, we anticipate the imminent reopening of our university hospital and construction of a new teaching hospital proposed as a partnership between LSU and the Veterans Administration Medical Center. A fully functional and effective GME program is essential to any health sciences center. The final Katrina impact remains uncertain, yet LSU has maintained its vitality, with minimal losses to its mission. Lessons learned offer numerous implications for other health care institutions confronted with planning for or surviving major disasters. Many challenges lie ahead, but the recovery groundwork has been established and the future remains bright.


The treatment of fractures of the acetabulum is still a controversial subject. There has in recent years been a tendency towards surgical rather than conservative treatment but more recently it has been observed that the long-term results of both types of treatment are not dissimilar. The classification of these fractures is important in relation to both conservative and surgical treatment. With the objective of rationalising the choice of treatment, 72 comminuted fractures of the acetabulum treated conservatively at the Orthopaedic Clinic in Perugia between 1959 and 1980 were reviewed. Both the clinical and radiographic features of these cases were analysed. The overall results were 70% successes and 30% failures. Several correlations indicating which features of the fracture had most influence on the final results were established; the involvement of the support surfaces (acetabular dome) and joint congruency were found to be the most important. In addition to these major factors, the age of the patient, presence or absence of dislocation, the degree of displacement and topography of the fragments collectively define the "type" of fracture and the criteria which are indispensable for the choice of treatment.


Abstract The aim of this study was to develop an experimental methodology to measure lipid deposition with contact lenses. Contact lenses were incubated in a lipid solution. The amount and types of adsorbed lipids were assessed using mass spectrometry and confocal microscopy. The recovery of lipids from lenses varied with lipid and lens type. Most non-polar and polar lipids were desorbed from lenses during the first 5 min of extraction. Fluorescently labelled phosphatidylcholine bound within the matrix of Senofilcon A lenses but to the surface of Lotrafilcon B lenses, whereas fluorescently labelled cholesteryl ester was found throughout both lenses. The efficacy of extraction of lipids from contact lenses varies for different lipid classes and different lens materials. Differences in the amount and time of lipid desorption probably resulted from the strength of the bond between lipid and lens polymer and the depth of adsorption of lipid in the polymer.


This paper presents empirical measures of the efficiency of the New York family dairy farm over its life cycle. The increase and then decrease in farm efficiency with age is only minor. Factors not correlated with age are much more important in determining efficiency. Exiting farmers who appear not to have children to take over the family farm are managing and maintaining the farm as well as exiting farmers who have potential future farming children.


In this study, we treated pitch-based activated carbon fibers (ACFs) in hydrogen peroxide using electron beam (E-beam) irradiation to improve nitrogen monoxide (NO) sensing ability as an electrode material of gas sensor. The specific surface area of ACFs treated by E-beam irradiation with 400 kGy increased from 885 m2/g (pristine)to 1160 m2/g without any changes in structural property and functional group. The increase in specific surface area of the E-beam irradiated ACFs enhanced NO gas sensing properties such as response time and sensitivity. When the ACFs irradiated with 400 kGy, response time was remarkably reduced from 360 s to 210 s and sensitivity was increased by 4.5%, compared to the pristine ACFs. These results demonstrate convincingly that surface modification of ACFs using E-beam in hydrogen peroxide solution can enhance textural properties of ACFs and NO gas sensing ability of gas sensor at room temperature.


E-commerce has become a global imperative for firms that must remain competitive, amidst a very complicated and increasingly convoluted environment. E-commerce could therefore make the difference between whether a firm goes bankrupt or stays profitable, leading some analyst to regard e-commerce proliferation as a double-edged sword that creates new opportunities for some firms while presenting challengesto other firms (Hong & Zhu, 2006). It is on this account that e-commerce has become an active research area in the informationsystems (IS) field (Hong & Zhu, 2006). The benefits of e-commerce, as opposed to traditional commerce, has been thoroughly debated in most studies, with some researchers noting that e-commerce cuts down on company expenses and improves its profit margins by cutting out sales agents while driving down operational expenses (Adadevoh, Yeboah& Kesse-Tachi, Prof. Ntim, 2018; Hong & Zhu, 2006; Lin & Lin, 2008; Thornton & Marche, 2003; Wang & Cheung, 2004). Additionally, it improves business efficiency by enabling the company reach out directly to client for their product development inputs as well as blurs international barriers by providing access to distant markets (Alam, Khatibi, Ahmad&BinIsmail, 2008; Gupta, Iyer&Weisskirch, 2010). This confirms e-commerce adoption as an undebatable business imperative, especially for firms in developing nations who are naturally disadvantaged in their ability to reach out to take advantage of vast global markets opportunities (Alam et al., 2008; Gupta et al., 2010).


In 11 of August 2012, two destructive earthquakes with Mw= 6.4 and 6.2 occurred between cities Ahar and Varzeghan (Northwest Iran). They had a close epicentral distance of 6 Km and also had a short time lag of 11 minutes. Following that, a high-rate of aftershock activity began where during the first month more than 2000 events (M≥0.7) affected several villages in the area. The seismic released energy induced significant damage and losses in an extensive zone. Right after the seismic doublet occurrence, a surface rupture with a primarily east-west orientation was observed. The idea of having an almost vertically dipped fault plane for the first shock is more consistent with the trace of the upper edge on the surface and the focal mechanism solutions which propose a steady dipping EW. Previous studies propose different geometries for the generating faults of the second earthquake. In this study, we associate the surface rupture with the first mainshock and both nodal plane explaining the relationship between the two main seismic events are discussed after Coulomb failure stress calculation due to the first shock. Then the stress transfer because of the doublet is analyzed in order to determine its consistency with the statistical modeling prediction for the aftershock population and spatial distribution. For statistical modeling a temporal version of Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) is applied on one-year seismicity including events with minimum magnitude of 2.5.


We present a spiking neural network (SNN) for visual pattern recognition with on-chip learning on neuromorphic hardware. We show how this network can learn simple visual patterns composed of horizontal and vertical bars sensed by a Dynamic Vision Sensor, using a local spike-based plasticity rule. During recognition, the network classifies the pattern's identity while at the same time estimating its location and scale. We build on previous work that used learning with neuromorphic hardware in the loop and demonstrate that the proposed network can properly operate with on-chip learning, demonstrating a complete neuromorphic pattern learning and recognition setup. Our results show that the network is robust against noise on the input (no accuracy drop when adding 130% noise) and against up to 20% noise in the neuron parameters.


ABSTRACT A wide variety of activities, instructional teaching styles and physical activity for health characterise PE practices today. However, for children, PE is about more than performing activities or being physically active for health. Children experience moving in the context of PE in varying and ambivalent ways, which indicates that qualitative aspects of movement (how to move) and the movement context (where to move and with whom) matter to them. To gain understanding of movement qualities in PE and PE as a movement context, this article explores what happens with and between children when they move in PE and how children's movements and interactions relate to the context in which they move. The analysis starts with observational material from four primary schools in western Norway and an affect theoretical perspective is used. Through an in-depth analysis of 10–11-year-old children playing a game of sheep and wolverines, the article demonstrates how multiple actions and multiple dimensions of movement emerge simultaneously and how children's own movements and the activity emerge and develop through reciprocal interactions. The activity framework forms how children move or is expected to move, while children's actual movements make the activity what it is. Playing together co-exists and alternates with playing alone and playing in multiple ways. The flux of the game involves both an opportunity for something different to the present moment to become and for the accumulation of permanent patterns. The findings indicate a need to further discuss and explore the balances and imbalances between the individuals and the collective and the individuals, descriptions, rules and instructions in the context of PE.


We propose a distributed learning algorithm for fair scheduling in common-pool games. Common-pool games are strategic-form games where multiple agents compete over utilizing a limited common resource. A characteristic example is the medium access control problem in wireless communications, where multiple users need to decide how to share a single communication channel so that there are no collisions (situations where two or more users use the medium at the same time slot). We introduce a (payoff-based) learning algorithm, namely aspiration learning, according to which agents learn how to play the game based only on their own prior experience, i.e., their previous actions and received rewards. Decisions are also subject to a small probability of mistakes (or mutations). We show that when all agents apply aspiration learning, then as time increases and the probability of mutations goes to zero, the expected percentage of time that agents utilize the common resource is equally divided among agents, i.e., fairness is established. When the step size of the aspiration learning recursion is also approaching zero, then the expected frequency of collisions approaches zero as time increases.


As enormous construction projects of land development are carried out around Korea, useful construction materials are needed to perform the construction projects. However, there are no more enough of fill and reclamation materials in our country. That is why the coal ash is expected to be utilized as an alternative material. Since the coal ash has the characteristics of a pozzolan and a selfhardening material, it is adjudged that coal ash has a great possibility to be used as a fill and reclamation material. In this study, grain size analysis, Atterberg limit test, and specific gravity test were performed to examine the physical characteristics of the coal ash about a self-hardening material before utilizing the coal ash in the construction. Compaction test, unconfined compression test, direct shear test, and flexible wall permeability test were conducted to investigate the engineering characteristics according to mixture ratios of fly ash and bottom ash. As a result of the tests, it was confirmed that the mixing ratio 1:1 of fly ash and bottom ash is the most effective to use as a fill and reclamation material. If the mixture of coal ash is used as a backfill material with light weight around structure, it is expected to play a significant role in reducing earth pressure on the back of the structure. As the age of the mixture of coal ash goes by, it intends to decrease the coefficient of permeability. As described above, the coal ash should be considered as an alternative material of fill and reclamation materials since the result of the tests indicates that the coal ash is suitable to a useful material on the construction design.


Amorphous silicon (a-Si) electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) have been heavily investigated as treatment verification tools, with a particular focus on intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). This verification could be accomplished through a comparison of measured portal images to predicted images. A general fluence determination for portal dose image prediction would be a great asset in order to model the complex modulation of IMRT. A physically-based parameter fluence model was developed by matching multi-leaf collimator defined predicted images to measured image profiles. The fluence model was composed of a focal Gaussian and extrafocal Gaussian-like source (Pearson VII). Specific aspects of the MLCs and secondary collimators were also modeled (eg. jaw and MLC transmission factors, MLC rounded leaf tips, tongue and groove effect, interleaf leakage, MLC offsets). The resulting calculated fluence was then convolved with Monte Carlo generated EPID-specific dose kernels to convert incident fluence to dose delivered to the EPID. Measured EPID data was obtained with an a-Si EPID for various MLC-defined fields (1×1 to 20×20 cm2 ) over a range of source-to-imager distances. These measured profiles were used to determine the fluence model parameters and the resulting model was tested on prostate and oropharyngeal IMRT fields. The model predicted the open-field profiles within 2%, 2mm, while the predicted IMRT fields were generally within 3%, 3mm for at least 96% of the pixels. This model demonstrates the necessary accuracy needed for IMRT portal dose image prediction in complex clinical examples (<3%, 3mm) and could be used for pre-treatment verification.


In 2005 the EU's ETS became the first mandatory scheme to be implemented. The 2012 Australian ETS was based on the EU precedent and the plan, before the Australian ETS was repealed, had been to link the two regimes. The EU scheme suffered a serious setback early on when the market price for EU units collapsed below that considered necessary to motivate the intended emission reductions. During the last decade the EU's institutions have struggled to settle upon solutions to rehabilitate the ETS but, eventually, during 2018, signs of a sustained price increase appeared. For Australia, and other jurisdictions, the EU experience illustrates some pitfalls to avoid when establishing an ETS and provides lessons for ETS design.


When communications are slow, incomplete, or missing between any two entities – for example, between patients and providers, primary care physicians and pecialists, central and remote locations, and so on – the timeliness and quality of patient care can suffer. And while patient experiences and outcomes should always be the number-one concern, many other parts of the total healthcare ecosystem can be affected as well: costs can rise, resources can be allocated inef ciently, and opportunities for constructive collaboration can be lost.


A straightforward, mild and cost-efficient synthesis of various arylamides in water was accomplished using versatile benzotriazole chemistry. Acylation of various amines was achieved in water at room temperature as well as under microwave irradiation. The developed protocol unfolds the synthesis of amino acid aryl amides, drug conjugates and benzimidazoles. The environmentally friendly synthesis, short reaction time, simple workup, high yields, mild conditions and free of racemization are the key advantages of this protocol.


Person re-identification (re-id) aims to match a specific person across non-overlapping views of different cameras, which is currently one of the hot topics in computer vision. Compared with image-based person re-id, video-based techniques could achieve better performance by fully utilizing the space-time information. This paper presents a novel video-based person re-id method named Deep Feature Guided Pooling (DFGP), which can take full advantage of the space-time information. The contributions of the method are in the following aspects: (1) PCA-based convolutional network (PCN), a lightweight deep learning network, is trained to generate deep features of video frames. Deep features are aggregated by average pooling to obtain person deep feature vectors. The vectors are utilized to guide the generation of human appearance features, which makes the appearance features robust to the severe noise in videos. (2) Hand-crafted local features of videos are aggregated by max pooling to reinforce the motion variations of different persons. In this way, the human descriptors are more discriminative. (3) The final human descriptors are composed of deep features and hand-crafted local features to take their own advantages and the performance of identification is promoted. Experimental results show that our approach outperforms six other state-of-the-art video-based methods on the challenging PRID 2011 and iLIDS-VID video-based person re-id datasets.


With the COVID-19 pandemic, governments implemented successive lockdowns that forced employees to work from home (WFH) to contain the spread of the coronavirus. This crisis raises the question of the effects of mandatory work from home on employees' well-being and performance, and whether these effects are the same for all employees. In the present study, we examined whether working at home may be related to intensity, familiarity with WFH, employees' well-being (loneliness at work, stress, job satisfaction, and work engagement) and creativity ('subjective' and 'objective'). We also examined whether the psychological profile of employees, combining preference for solitude and associated personality variables from the Big Five, may influence the effects of WFH. The data were collected via an online survey from November 13th to December 15th 2020 among 946 employees from various organizations during the second lockdown in France. In addition to identifying two distinctive psychological profiles for employees having to WFH, results revealed that those with a "Solitary" profile reported higher loneliness at work, higher levels of stress, and lower levels of job satisfaction and work engagement than those with an "Affiliative" profile. It was also found that employees with a "Solitary" profile perceived themselves as less creative and produced objectively fewer ideas than individuals with an "Affiliative" profile. The present study suggests the necessity to distinguish the profiles of teleworkers and to offer a stronger support for the less affiliative employees when working from home.


Caching plays a key role in mobile computing because of, its ability to alleviate the performance and availability limitations of weakly-connected and disconnected operations. Caching frequently accessed data objects at the local buffer of a mobile is an efficient way to reduce query delay, save bandwidth and improve system performance. Classical cache management strategies may not be suitable for mobile environments due to the disconnection and mobility of the mobile clients. Cache management in mobile environment, in general, includes cache placement, cache discovery, cache consistency and cache replacement techniques. In this paper, we design a combined cache management architecture which includes all the above techniques. By simulation results, we will show that our proposed architecture achieves lower latency and packet loss, reduced network bandwidth consumption, reduced data server workload.


Background. Asymptomatic parasitemia is common even in areas of low seasonal malaria transmission, but the true proportion of the population infected has not been estimated previously because of the limited sensitivity of available detection methods. Methods. Cross-sectional malaria surveys were conducted in areas of low seasonal transmission along the border between eastern Myanmar and northwestern Thailand and in western Cambodia. DNA was quantitated by an ultrasensitive polymerase chain reaction (uPCR) assay (limit of accurate detection, 22 parasites/mL) to characterize parasite density distributions for Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, and the proportions of undetected infections were imputed. Results. The prevalence of asymptomatic malaria as determined by uPCR was 27.5% (1303 of 4740 people tested). Both P. vivax and P. falciparum density distributions were unimodal and log normal, with modal values well within the quantifiable range. The estimated proportions of all parasitemic individuals identified by uPCR were >70% among individuals infected with P. falciparum and >85% among those infected with P. vivax. Overall, 83% of infections were predicted to be P. vivax infections, 13% were predicted to be P. falciparum infections, and 4% were predicted to be mixed infections. Geometric mean parasite densities were similar; 5601 P. vivax parasites/mL and 5158 P. falciparum parasites/mL. Conclusions. This uPCR method identified most infected individuals in malaria-endemic areas. Malaria parasitemia persists in humans at levels that optimize the probability of generating transmissible gametocyte densities without causing illness.


Despite the many advantages of pineapple plants offered by micropropagation, there is difficulty in rooting and slowness in the growth of seedlings, requiring a long period of acclimatization in the greenhouses. The aim of this study was to evaluate organic sources and water retention polymers used for pineapple cultivar seedlings during the acclimatization phase. The experimental design was randomized blocks in a 2 × 2 × 3 factorial design. Bovine and goat manures were the organic sources that provided the greatest increases in growth characteristics for both cultivars. Goat manure was the organic sources that provided the greatest increases in growth characteristics for both cultivars. Provid seedlings with 20 leaves, height of 19.4 cm, diameter of the rosette of 26.03 mm and 23.1 cm of length of the root system at 270 days to "Vitoria". For "Imperial" the goat manure promoted seedlings with 20 leaves and height of 27.8 cm in 220 days. Bovine manure provided greater nutritional gains to seedlings. The use of the hydrogel did not favor the growth of shoots. However, it resulted to the increase in root dry mass when incorporated into the manure for both cultivars. The "Imperial" cultivar had a higher macronutrient intake on seedlings' leaves than the "Vitoria" cultivar at 270 days of acclimatization.

 Key words: Fruit production, Ananas comosus, propagation, hydrogel, organic fertilizers.


This article aims at describing the performance of sustainability indicators for Universidade de Sao Paulo, developed in Agencia USP de Inovacao/USP Recicla Program. In this context, the university's resources consumption has been assessed and indicators have been established so as to support actions, goals and sustainability policies for the institution. Generally, indicators are attributes that facilitate the understanding of a situation, by indicating - as possible - the current situation and comparing it with the desired situation. A survey performed in 2009 considered two steps: i) introduction and analysis of certain consumption indicators in 7 USP campuses, such as disposable glasses, water, electric power, built-up areas and vegetal covering, transportation and generation of waste; ii) partial data conversion into "ecological footprint". The data presented and discussed herein were raised with each campus, including colleges, schools and teaching and research institutes; in specific purchase and material distribution, water and power consumption and engineering sectors and green areas inside USP. The results achieved indicated that each member of the university community demands approximately 160m²/year of forest to absorb the impacts caused by resources consumption and waste production. The main environmental impacts noticed are related to power consumption (66%), buildings (17%) and paper consumption (13%). By considering the several challenges we faced the lack of an articulated data measurement and a control system at USP.


It is well established that learning can occur without external feedback, yet normative reinforcement learning theories have difficulties explaining such instances of learning. Recently, we reported on a confidence-based reinforcement learn-ing model for the model case of perceptual learning (Guggenmos, Wilbertz, Hebart, & Sterzer, 2016), according to which the brain capitalizes on internal monitoring processes when no external feedback is available. In the model, internal confidence prediction errors – the difference between current confidence and expected confidence – serve as teaching signals to guide learning. In the present paper, we explore an extension to this idea. The main idea is that the neural information processing pathways activated for a given sensory stimulus are subject to fluctuations, where some pathway configurations lead to higher confidence than others. Confidence prediction errors strengthen pathway configurations for which fluctuations lead to above-average confidence and weaken those that are associated with below-average con-fidence. We show through simulation that the model is capable of self-reinforced perceptual learning and can benefit from exploratory network fluctuations. In addition, by simulating different model parameters, we show that the ideal confidence-based learner should (i) exhibit high degrees of network fluctuation in the initial phase of learning, but re-duced fluctuations as learning progresses, (ii) have a high learning rate for network updates for immediate performance gains, but a low learning rate for long-term maximum performance, and (iii) be neither too under-nor too overconfident. In sum, we present a model in which confidence prediction errors strengthen favorable network fluctuations and enable learning in the absence of external feedback. The model can be readily applied to data of real-world perceptual tasks in which observers provided both choice and confidence reports.


We investigated the mechanisms by which adrenergic activation of sodium/proton exchange reduces the pH gradient across the membrane of rainbow trout red cells. In untreated cells, adrenergic stimulation caused a significant increase in the proton distribution ratio ([H+]e/[H+]i) across the red cell membrane. The increase in the proton distribution ratio caused by adrenergic stimulation was inhibited by the protonophore 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP). Thus, sodium/proton exchange displaces protons from electrochemical equilibrium. Active regulation of intracellular pH by sodium/proton exchange is possible, because the extracellular dehydration of carbonic acid to carbon dioxide is uncatalyzed. The increase in proton distribution ratio caused by adrenergic stimulation was inhibited in red cell suspensions to which extracellular carbonic anhydrase had been added before stimulation. In contrast, inhibition of intracellular carbonic anhydrase markedly increased the pH changes induced by adrenergic stimulation, suggesting that the net direction of the intracellular hydration/dehydration reaction may markedly affect the intracellular pH changes. Membrane potential changes are not a necessary component of the adrenergic response. The increases in red cell volume and sodium and chloride concentrations induced by adrenergic stimulation were unaffected in cells 'voltage-clamped' by valinomycin.


Background Heartscore is not well validated for individuals less than 40 years of age. In the latest guidelines a relative risk chart is provided with the proposal to be used for young adults aged less than 60 years instead of projecting risk at the age of 60 years. Moreover, coronary artery disease is insidiously manifested in younger patients. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods Two hundred and two young Greeks of age less than 40 years and 232 middle-aged adults aged 40–60 years without clinically overt cardiovascular disease or diabetes were consecutively recruited. Flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery, carotid, and femoral intima media thickness (IMT), carotid-radial and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) were measured in all individuals in one session. The European Society of Cardiology online Heartscore calculator was used for mortality risk (MR) 60 and Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation risk charts for relative risk (RR) computation. Results MR60 in the younger significantly correlated with all measured vascular markers whereas RR significantly correlated with carotid IMT. By multivariate regression analysis, MR60 was a stronger identifier than RR for PWV, mean carotid and femoral IMT in both groups. Young adults (<40 years) with a high MR60 (>5%) had significantly higher carotid-radial PWV, carotid and femoral IMT whereas those with a high RR (>3rd tertile) had significantly higher carotid IMT. Conclusion MR60 was a stronger identifier of most of the measured markers of early atherosclerosis as compared with RR. These data support Heartscore as a prognostic tool in terms of primary prevention for participants younger than 40 years old. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 15:619–624 © 2008 The European Society of Cardiology


Despite improvement in outcomes, loss of response (LOR) to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) therapies is a big concern in the management of inflammatory bowel disease. LOR is associated with flares of disease, increased hospitalisation rates, need for surgical interventions, and decline in quality of life. LOR may be multifactorial, but immunogenicity makes a significant contribution. Traditionally doses of anti-TNFα have been adjusted based on clinical response, using a standard approach. Immunomonitoring involves the measurement of anti-TNFα trough and antibody levels. It takes into account the underlying pharmacokinetics of anti-TNFα therapies. Expanding on this a treat to target approach may be used, where doses are intensified, or tailored to the individual based on the measurement of anti-TNFα trough and antibody levels. This review looks at the history, evolution, and clinical impact that immunomonitoring is having in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. It will focus on the role of immunomonitoring in helping to achieve long lasting deep remission and mucosal healing. It will explore the different options in terms of best measuring trough and antibody levels, explore possible advantages of immunomonitoring, and discuss its role in best optimising response, at induction, during the maintenance phase of treatment, as well as a role in withdrawing or switching therapy.


Objective To comply to the large global need for surgery, surgical equipment that fits the challenging environment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) should be designed. The aim of this study is to present a context-specific design of an electrosurgical unit (ESU) and a monopolar handheld to improve global access to surgery. Scope Extensive fieldwork (by means of surveys, interviews, observations and collection of maintenance records) was done by authors RO, KO and LH to present a detailed description of electrosurgery in clinical practice in LMICs. These findings were translated into design requirements. Feedback from users working in Kenya on the first demonstrator designs was obtained, after which the designs were adapted into conceptual prototypes. These were further evaluated by surveying respondents who attended the annual meeting of the College Of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) in Kigali, Rwanda in December 2018. Results Conceptual prototypes were developed for a) an affordable ESU that is compact and battery powered and b) a robust reusable monopolar handheld, that can be cleaned in the autoclave and by chemicals (e.g., glutaraldehyde solution). The conceptual prototypes were positively received by the 51 respondents of the survey. Conclusion The findings from the field work and the feedback from users during the design phase has led to a clear understanding of the specific needs and potential solutions. The presented conceptual prototypes need to be further developed into functional prototypes, which could be implemented in Kenya and other settings for further evaluation.


The frequency of capsulated or non-capsulated Haemophilus influenzae strains colonisation among children attending day-care centres or orphanages has been studied. Detection of capsulated or non-capsulated H. influenzae strains has been compared for agglutination test and PCR. Misdiagnosing of H. influenzae serotype with agglutination found in the study suggest that the frequency of Hib strains colonizing the nasopharynx might be lower that previously evaluated. Due to perspectives of the wider use of Hib Immunisation in the future, more efficient diagnosis scheme for identification/differentiation of capsulated and non-capsulated H. influenzae strain should be undertaken.


We sought to characterize ALS patients who opt for tracheostomy and long‐term mechanical ventilation (LTMV) and compare them with respect to medical, psychiatric, and psychosocial measures to patients who declined tracheostomy and died. We studied 72 ALS patients who were identified as hospice‐eligible. They were assessed monthly until the endpoint of death or tracheostomy. LTMV patients continued to be followed for up to 55 months. The spouse or other caregiver was similarly interviewed and followed. Medical and psychiatric evaluations were conducted, in addition to self‐reported depressive symptoms, future orientation, attitudes about hastened death, religious beliefs, and quality of life. Global cognitive capacity was assessed by caregivers. Fourteen patients chose LTMV; 58 died without LTMV. At study entry, those who later chose LTMV were younger, more had young children, had more education, and higher household incomes on average. Although their physical conditions were similar, they reported higher levels of optimism including belief in imminent cure, and more positive appraisals of their ability to function in daily life, their physical health and overall life satisfaction. At study entry, none who later chose LTMV were clinically depressed, compared to 26% of those who later refused LTMV, and their mean scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were in the 'not depressed' range while the mean for patients who later died was in the 'probable depression' range. Fourteen percent of patients who later chose LTMV were reported by caregivers to have had at least mild cognitive problems, compared to 49% of those who later died. After an average of 33 months on LTMV, only about half retained high levels of optimism and enjoyment of daily life, independent of residence (home vs. facility). Two patients expressed interest in hastening death but none had asked to terminate ventilation despite disease progression. However, half identified future circumstances that would render life intolerable. At last contact with caregivers, only one LTMV patient was reported to have major cognitive impairment. While reporting substantial emotional burden after LTMV, most but not all spousal caregivers continued to express satisfaction with care‐giving. Our findings suggest that the choice of LTMV was not about desperation (although it may involve unrealistic expectations of cure by some), ignorance, or inability to make wishes clear during a chaotic dying period. Rather, LTMV choice was consistent with a sustained sense that life was worth living in any way possible, at least for some time and within certain boundaries. ALS clinicians will need to recognize this motivation and provide appropriate clinical education to both patient and family.


Chronic renal failure (CRF) is a long, progressive, and chronic condition that requires care. In hemodialysis treatment, which is the most preferred treatment method in CRF, caregivers (informal caregivers) and health teams (formal caregivers) have difficulties as much as patients during the period of illness, and treatment. The aim of this study is to investigate the caregiving process of hemodialysis patients' informal and formal caregivers within the frame of the "Caregiver Stress Model". Informal (N = 50, mean of age: 48.5, 92% of which were woman), and formal (N = 63, mean of age: 33.4, 84%of which were woman) caregivers from various dialysis units in Istanbul participated in the study. The Resilience Scale for Adults, The Caregiver Well-Being Scale, The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, The Ways of Coping Inventory, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory were used. The results showed that the unconfident coping factor of The Ways of Coping Inventory was a moderator of the relationship between the vital activities and personal success which is sub-dimension of Maslach Burnout Inventory was revealed. Also, the findings suggested that resilience, self-confident and unconfident coping factors were significant mediators of the relationships between the vital activities and personal success. The importance of this study is that the caregiver stress model being tested on caregivers of hemodialysis patients has never appeared in the literature before. In the literature, psychological resilience, coping and social support variables, whose formative effects are frequently discussed, contributed to the mediator effects that partially supported the model. Our findings are discussed in light of other published studies in the field.


The
 present work aims
to recover
 the part
of Le
 Corbusier s theoretical production that
can
 be defined
as
Manifesto
to analyze
it since
its comparison with the analogue written
by Rem Koolhaas. Due
to the brevity
of the
 present
paper
 it will
be focus
on
the
 analogies between two main Manifestoes: Towards
an Architecture (Le Corbusier,
1923)
 and
Delirious New York (Rem Koolhaas, 1978).
The
 dialectic between these two Manifestoes
is summarized
in four
 ma
in points:
the intention
of the text -rasion d etre-,
its structure,
the
 tone
 they
 used
for
 the
 correspondent Manifesto
and
 the relationship
with the architectonic work
of the
 authors.
As we
 will see, theoretical
and
 audiovisual strategies
are
 duplicated f
rom
 the
master
to the pupil who,
on
 top
 of that,
is able
to reinterpret
and
 manipulate them
in a
way
 that makes possible for his
Manifesto
to be considered
even
 more efficient
than
 Le Corbusier s,
at least,
in its intention
to involve
 the largest
number
 of
people. This
is possible thanks
to the knowledge
that
 Koolhaas
has
 over
 media, cinema
and
 latests technologies
that
 allows
him
to express what could
be identified with
Le Corbusier s original ideas
but
 in a contemporary way,
so they seem
to be
brand
new
 and
 much
 more
 understandable
for
 today s
 society.
In this
way,
 Koolhaas
 could
 be understood also
as a kind
of
Le Corbusier living
in the world
Through
 the
 Looking-Glass organized
as Lewis Carroll
did
 in his famous
book
 Alice s
Adventures
in Wonderland.
Thr
ough
 the
 Looking
-Glass
and
 What
 Alice Found
There.


This dissertation, as the title suggests, explores the capacity of Deep Ecology to provide a religious meaning to life. In a culture increasingly sceptical towards organised religion Deep Ecology seeks to find meaning through a combination of evolutionary biology and the meditative practises of mysticism - particularly Zen and Taoism. This thesis is divided into two halves. The first explores the nature of belonging as a religious or spiritual/mystical participation in the world. I wanted this first part to serve as a background for the later discussion of Deep Ecology, dealt with in the second half My intention was to set out the central ideas of Deep Ecology against this background to seehow far they might provide this sense of connection as it is understood in the mystic or spiritual traditions. From the literature on Zen, Taoism and mysticism generally, two central ideas consistently appeared. Firstly, that exclusive identification with the egoic-self was the primary obstacle to be overcome, and secondly that the experience of non¬ordinary or transpersonal states formed the living heart of true religion. In organised or institutionalised religion this experience is frequently lost; In this common core a new felt solidarity or belonging is found as our concern and care extends beyond the egoic-self to embrace both others and the very biosphere itself Once the narrow and selfish interests of the ego are transcended a sense of meaning also emerges, a meaning found in this care and concern. However, critics of Deep Ecology accuse its supporters of failing to fully grasp the consequences of tampering with the normal ego-centred state without a total.


Background Distal femur fractures are difficult to manage and the selection of implant for internal fixation remains controversial. The objective of this study is to establish the relative strength of fixation of a distal femoral locking plate (DFLP) compared with the dynamic condylar screw (DCS) in the distal femur fractures. Materials and Methods Study was conducted on 16 freshly harvested cadaveric distal femoral specimens, eight implanted with DCS and other eight with DFLP. The construct was made unstable by removing a standard sized medial wedge of 1 cm base (gap-osteotomy) beginning 6 cm proximal to the lateral joint line in distal metaphyseal region with the loss of medial buttress. Fatigue test was conducted under load control mode at the frequency of I Hz. Specimens were subjected to cyclic loading of 2 kN, under observation for 50,000 cycles or until failure/cutout, which ever occurred earlier. Results In DFLP group, there was no implant failure and the average number of cycles sustained was 50,000. Six out of eight specimens completed 50,000 cycles and two failed in DCS group. The average number of cycles sustained by DCS was 46150. Though the bone quality as assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry DEXA was comparable in both DFLP and DCS group ( P = 0.06), none failed in DFLP group and subsidence was 1.02 ± 0.34 mm (range: 0.60-1.32 mm), which was significantly 43% lower ( P = 0.006) than subsidence in DCS group (1.82 ± 0.58; range: 1.20-3.08 mm). The average stiffness of DCS group was 52.8 ± 4.2 N/mm, which was significantly lower than average stiffness of locked condylar plate group (71.2 ± 5.1 N/mm) ( P = 0.02). Conclusions DFLP fixation of the distal femur fractures resulted in stronger construct than the DCS fixation in both cyclic loading and ultimate strength in biomechanical testing of a simulated A3 distal femur fracture.


This paper aims to strengthen the sustainability related to the water management system in an educational building, an integrated teaching and laboratory building in Universitas Indonesia. It provides recommendations to improve the water management system in the building in achieving the sustainable aspects of the local context. Water needs continuously increase due to population growth and rapid development, which require good water management. Water management is an activity in controlling water resources to use the water effectively and efficiently by minimizing damage to the environment and nature. Water is a natural resource that is very important for the survival of living things, so water for sustainable development should achieve sustainable access. Include sufficient quantities of water, of acceptable quality, at affordable prices to meet the needs of human society while maintaining the integrity of the hydrological cycle and the associated ecosystems. This paper used qualitative approaches carried out by collecting data through interviews, field observations and documents collection. The result of this study indicated that there are potentials to improve water management in the building. Optimizing the use of natural resources that exist in the building environment can strengthen the water management performance towards sustainability.


We evaluated immune functions in 16 patients with chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection (chronic infectious mononucleosis). Chronic infectious mononucleosis is an illness characterized primarily by chronic and occasionally disabling fatigue and other constitutional complaints, only sometimes beginning with an episode of acute infectious mononucleosis, and associated with an abnormal pattern of serum antibodies to EBV. In these patients, the frequency of circulating EBV-infected B cells that manifested spontaneous outgrowth in vitro was comparable to that found in EBV-seropositive normals, and the levels of EBV-specific suppressor activity were also normal. Upon stimulation with polyclonal activators, unseparated cells from these patients produced a relatively normal number of immunoglobulin-secreting cells. However, when purified T cells from these patients were mixed with normal mononuclear cells in co-culture, immunoglobulin production was strikingly suppressed. The degree of this T cell suppression correlated directly with the abnormally elevated titer of antibody to the early antigens of EBV. Interestingly, during normal convalescence from acute EBV-induced infectious mononucleosis a period is also seen during which T cells suppress the response of allogeneic but not autologous cells. Thus, from an immunologic viewpoint, patients with chronic active EBV infection appear "frozen" in a state typically found only briefly during the convalescence from acute EBV infection.


Some properties of excitons in polar semiconductors are studied theoretically by means of squeezed state variational approach. This method makes it possible to consider bilinear terms of the phonon operators as well as linear terms arising from the Lee–Low–Pines (LLP)-like transformation. The exciton ground state energy and binding energy are calculated numerically. It is shown that the squeezing effect is significant in the case of strong exciton-phonon coupling region.


Background: Preservation of articular cartilage in the setting of adolescent knee injury is paramount for long-term joint health. Achieving osseous union, minimizing implant related injury, and eliminating need for reoperation for osteochondral fracture lesions (OCL) and osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) remain a challenge for orthopedic surgeons. Hypothesis/Purpose: To evaluate MRI appearance of osseous and chondral integration following suture bridge construct. Secondarily, to assess short-term complications and outcomes of suture bridge fixation of OCL and OCD in adolescent knees. Methods: Consecutive patients (n=41) treated within a pediatric sports medicine institution who underwent suture-bridge knee fixation of an OCL or OCD from 10/2019-03/2021 were reviewed. MRI within 6 months of surgery was required. Analysis included demographics, pre-operative MRI lesion characteristics, surgical technique, suture type, Postoperative MRIs for lesion healing (Full Union: 100% cancellous/cancellous-chondral lesion continuity, Stable Union: >50% continuity with some fibrous tissue present, Un-united: < 50% continuity and extensive fibrous signal or fluid below the lesion), complications, rates and timing of return-to-sport (RTS), and short-term patient-reported outcomes (Pedi-IKDC, Pedi-FABS, KOOS Symptoms, PROMIS® ). Results: 22 knees (20 patients) included 11 OCL and 10 OCD (Table 1). Lesion characteristics: OCL-mean size=248.2(140-459)mm2, mean major length=17.3(12-27)mm, osteochondral= 10(83%), all chondral= 2(17%); OCD-mean size =374.4(130-780)mm2, mean major length=19.3(10-29)mm, progeny bone present =7(70%). 91%(20/22) were treated via mini-arthrotomy, and 86%(19/22) of constructs were absorbable suture. At MRI follow up (6.7 months, 3.0-21.1), OCLs demonstrated 91.7% Full Union, 8.3% Stable Union, 0% Un-united; OCDs demonstrated 50% Full Union, 50% Stable Union, 0% Un-united. At average of 6.4 months, 19(86%) knees had RTS. Pedi-FABS demonstrated a return to similar level of activity and Pedi-IKDC indicated functional improvement in 80% on average 9.6 months post-operatively (Table 2). There were 2 (9.1%) complications (1. repeat arthroscopy for chondroplasty and marrow stimulation for 20% distal margin instability of patellar OCL secondary to patellar instability, 2. Second surgery for patellar stabilization following trochlear OCD suture-bridge in the setting of trochlear dysplasia and no stabilization at primary procedure) and no re-operations needed for suture-bridge construct. Conclusion: In this series of knee OCLs and OCDs, suture-bridge fixation demonstrates excellent rates of healing based on MRI appearance and good early outcomes with minimal short-term complications. This technique may be used by surgeons to avoid loose body removal and marrow-stimulation, and have significant benefits in comparison to metallic and non-metallic screw/tack constructs in the treatment of these challenging lesions. Longer term follow-up and investigation is warranted. Table 1. Patient Demographics and Lesion Location Table 2. Patient Reported Outcomes


Optimization of a 337 μm HCN gas laser involving long-term stability, choice of beam splitter (polyethylene) and maximum power has been carried out. The gain determination leads to a value of 4% per metre. In addition, a liquid crystal camera has been designed to demonstrate visually the characteristics of several modes of the cavity.


Three enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA's) were developed for the benzoylphenylurea insect growth regulators (IGRB) diflubenzuron, BAY SIR 8514, and some of their analogues. AU three ELISA's were based on antibodies raised against an N-carboxypropyl hapten of diflubenzuron while a diflubenzuron phenylacetic acid derivative coupled to a different carrier than the immunizing antigen was used as the coating antigen. One ELISA was sensitive for diflubenzuron, BAY SIR 8514, and closely related IGRs while a second assay was sensitive for diflubenzuron while demonstrating minimal cross-reactivity with BAY SIR 8514. In a third case, rabbit anti-diflubenzuron IgG was coupled to alkaline phosphatase, thus eliminating one step in the classical ELISA. None of these assays demonstrated significant cross-reactivity with the benzamide, urea, phenylurea, or aniline components of diflubenzuron or BAY SIR 8514. Each of the three mays was shown to be as sensitive as the recommended HPLC methodology for the analysis of diflubenzuron in water. Low cost was found to be a major advantage of these solid-phase immunoassays over classical procedures.


Aims: To introduce our preliminary experience in using multislice computed tomographic (CT) angiography (MSCTA) to assess stenoses of the hemodialysis vascular access and to guide revising operation or percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). Methods: Contrast-enhanced 16-slice spiral CT was used to examine 22 hemodialysis patients with various dysfunctions of their vascular access. The transverse source images were reformatted as maximum intensity projection, volume-rendering, and multiple/curved planar reconstruction images. Results: The whole spectrum of arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) with the feeding artery, anastomoses, and outflow tract up to the superior caval vein was clearly displayed in all patients. According to the results of MSCTA, AVF-revising surgery was done in 11 patients, and PTA under the guide of digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was done in 5 patients. The results of MSCTA coincide with the findings of surgery or DSA in these 16 patients. Conclusions: In our opinion, MSCTA is a good noninvasive diagnostic technique to detect various hemodialysis vascular access abnormalities. It is more economical than DSA in the present medical settings and could replace DSA in the imaging of hemodialysis vascular access and provide important information for further AVF-revising surgery or PTA.


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to analyse trends in epithelial cell abnormalities (ECAs) in cervical cytology at a tertiary care hospital in Kuwait.

METHODS
ECAs in 135,766 reports were compared over three seven-year periods between 1992 and 2012. Conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) smear tests were used in the first two periods and ThinPrep (Hologic Corp., Bedford, Massachusetts, USA) tests were used in the third.

RESULTS
Significant increases in satisfactory smears, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) and atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance/atypical glandular cells (AGUS/AGCs) were seen in the second and third periods (P <0.001). No significant increases were observed among low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs) or high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) (P >0.05). An increase was noted in carcinomas between the first and second periods although a significant decline was seen in the third (P <0.014).

CONCLUSION
Satisfactory smears, ASCUS and AGUS/AGC increased during the study period although no significant increases in LSILs, HSILs or carcinomas were observed.


The locally-resolved degradation behavior was studied during 1900 hours in an SOFC repeat-element. In-situ measurements of local electrochemical performance were made on 18 locations over a segmented anode-supported cell. The evolution of local current densities, overpotentials and area-specific resistances was studied, showing a reorganization of the electrochemical reaction with time. The extent and the spatial distribution of degradation were established for different electrochemical reactions steps using impedance spectroscopy. The low- frequency cathode contribution was the mostly altered process, followed by the charge transfer reaction on anode side. Post-experiment analyses allowed to identify three major pollutants on the cathode side (chromium, silicon and sulfur), whose spatial distributions corresponded to the observed local degradation. Sources of pollutants were identified in system components as well as within the stack repeat-element.


Differentiable optimization has received a significant amount of attention due to its foundational role in the domain of machine learning based on neural networks. The existing methods leverages the optimality conditions and implicit function theorem to obtain the Jacobian matrix of the output, which increases the computational cost and limits the application of differentiable optimization. In addition, some non-differentiable constraints lead to more challenges when using prior differentiable optimization layers. This paper proposes a differentiable layer, named Differentiable Frank-Wolfe Layer (DFWLayer), by rolling out the Frank-Wolfe method, a well-known optimization algorithm which can solve constrained optimization problems without projections and Hessian matrix computations, thus leading to a efficient way of dealing with large-scale problems. Theoretically, we establish a bound on the suboptimality gap of the DFWLayer in the context of l1-norm constraints. Experimental assessments demonstrate that the DFWLayer not only attains competitive accuracy in solutions and gradients but also consistently adheres to constraints. Moreover, it surpasses the baselines in both forward and backward computational speeds.


How are long-range axonal projections from the cerebral cortex orchestrated during development? By using both passively and actively transported axonal tracers in fetal and postnatal ferrets, we have analyzed the development of projections from the cortex to a number of thalamic nuclei. We report that the projections of a cortical area to its corresponding thalamic nuclei follow highly cell-specific programs of development. Axons from cells in the deepest layers of the cerebral cortex (layer 6 and superficial subplate neurons) appear to grow very slowly and be delayed for several weeks in the cerebral white matter, reaching the thalamus over a protracted period. Neurons of layer 5, on the other hand, develop their projections much faster; despite being born after the neurons of deeper layers, layer 5 neurons are the first to extend their axons out of the cortical hemisphere and innervate the thalamus. Layer 5 projections are massive in the first postnatal weeks but may become partly eliminated later in development, being overtaken in number by layer 6 cells that constitute the major corticothalamic projection by adulthood. Layer 5 projections are area-specific from the outset and arise as collateral branches of axons directed to the brainstem and spinal cord. Our findings show that the early development of corticofugal connections is determined not by the sequence of cortical neurogenesis but by developmental programs specific for each type of projection neuron. In addition, they demonstrate that in most thalamic nuclei, layer 5 neurons (and not subplate or layer 6 neurons) establish the first descending projections from the cerebral cortex.


In recent years, there has been increasing concerns in gene flow from GM crops to wild or weedy relatives as a potential risk in the commercialization of GM crops. To access the possibility of the environmental impacts by GM rice, small-scale experiments of gene transfer were carried out. Herbicide and drought stress resistant GM rice and non-GM rice Nakdongbyeo, wild rice Oryza nivara, and weedy rice Sharebyeo were used for artificial pollination experiments and bar gene was used as a tractable marker after pollination. The harvested putative hybrid seeds after artificial pollination were germinated and true hybrid plants were selected by basta treatment. The hybrid plants were verified again by PCR amplification of bar and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) genes and RAPD PCR analysis.


Seagrass degradation occurring worldwide in the last few decades led scientists and governments to take a role in saving this ecosystem. Seagrass transplantation is a direct action to increase seagrass density or recover damaged seagrass habitats. Regrettably, transplantation does not guarantee the success of coastal restoration. The transplants were not resistant against environmental stress at its new habitats. One factor that should be considered when sourcing plant donor materials is genetic diversity. In this paper, we assessed a donor site, Labuhan Beach, where the seagrass species of Thalassia hemprichii and Enhalus acoroides occur. RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphism DNA) was performed to discover polymorphic fragments in order to interprete variation genetic of these species. Genetic diversity of the donor population was compared with the same species inhabiting an undisturbed conservation area (Baluran National Park). The data revealed that genetic diversity (allelic richness) of T. hemprichii of Labuhan population (0.19) was higher than the population in Baluran (0.15). Equally, for E. acoroides genetic diversity of the Labuhan population (0.21) was higher than at Baluran (0.16; t-test p=0.037). A phylogenetic analysis of the MatK region verified that the seagrass samples taken from Labuhan Beach were indeed T. hemprichii and E. acoroides based on identity with sequences in the GenBank database. This finding suggested that the seagrass population in Labuhan could be used as donor material; however, geographic distance and differing environmental conditions must also be considered.


This study tests the mechanism(s) of glycyrrhizin (GLY) protection against P. aeruginosa keratitis. Female C57BL/6 (B6), TLR4 knockout (TLR4KO), myeloid specific TLR4KO (mTLR4KO), their wildtype (WT) littermates, and TLR9 knockout (TLR9KO) mice were infected with P. aeruginosa KEI 1025 and treated with GLY or PBS onto the cornea after infection. Clinical scores, photography with a slit lamp, RT-PCR and ELISA were used. GLY effects on macrophages (Mϕ) and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) isolated from WT and mTLR4KO and challenged with KEI 1025 were also tested. Comparing B6 and TLR4KO, GLY treatment reduced clinical scores and improved disease outcome after infection and decreased mRNA expression levels in cornea for TLR4, HMGB1, and RAGE in B6 mice. TLR9 mRNA expression was significantly reduced by GLY in both mouse strains after infection. GLY also significantly reduced HMGB1 (B6 only) and TLR9 protein (both B6 and TLR4KO). In TLR9KO mice, GLY did not significantly reduce clinical scores and only slightly improved disease outcome after infection. In these mice, GLY significantly reduced TLR4, but not HMGB1 or RAGE mRNA expression levels after infection. In contrast, in the mTLR4KO and their WT littermates, GLY significantly reduced corneal disease, TLR4, TLR9, HMGB1, and RAGE corneal mRNA expression after infection. GLY also significantly reduced TLR9 and HMGB1 corneal protein levels in both WT and mTLR4KO mice. In vitro, GLY significantly lowered mRNA expression levels for TLR9 in both Mϕ and PMN isolated from mTLR4KO or WT mice after incubation with KEI 1025. In conclusion, we provide evidence to show that GLY mediates its effects by blocking TLR4 and TLR9 signaling pathways and both are required to protect against disease.


Accelerated thermal, hydrolytic, and photochemical degradations of alprazolam were performed under several reaction conditions. The stress studies revealed the photolability of the drug as the most adverse stability factor; the main photodegradation products were isolated and properly characterized as: triazolaminoquinoleine; 5-chloro-[5"-methyl-4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl]benzophenone, and 1-methyl-6-phenyl-4H-s-triazo-[4,3-alpha][1,4]benzodiazepinone. Accelerated pH-dependent studies show that the photoinstability increases as the pH decreases; at pH 9.0, photodegradation does not occur, therefore, the photochemical degradation of alprazolam was performed in buffered solutions at pH 2.0 and 3.6. The higher rate of reaction was observed at pH = 2.0; consequently, acidic conditions should be avoided and appropriate light protection is recommended during the drug-development process, storage, and handling. The main degradation route for alprazolam tablets is also photochemical.


The study intended to investigate availability of essential school facilities and their influence on students' academic achievement in public day secondary schools in Kisii County. The study was guided by the Education production function model. The study adopted a correlational research design which involved students and teachers from the 246 public day secondary schools in Kisii County. The target population was 75,977 subjects comprising of 73,554 students and 2,423 teachers in public day secondary schools in Kisii County. The sample size was 350 students and 50 teachers totalling to 400 subjects. Data collection was done by use of student questionnaire Document analysis guide and Teachers Interview Guide. Data collected were both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlational statistics and multiple regression. Qualitative data were analysed thematically and were reported as direct quotations. Findings from the analysed data were presented as tables, pie charts and graphs. The study found out that most facilities needed for teaching and learning were available in most public day secondary school in Kisii County .These facilities ranged from recommended course books and set books, basic laboratory equipment, classrooms and libraries. Among the facilities that were not available in almost all schools were libraries. The study indicated that availability of school facilities alone did not influence students' academic achievement.


A new computational model is developed here to analyze the influence of entrapped air on free-surface-pressurized flows. A virtual slot with ceiling on the top of the pipe is introduced to treat a separated gas-liquid flow. This model is a modified model of Preissmann's and is applicable not only to open channel flow and closed conduit flow but also pressurized flow with entrapped air. Compared to experimental results using the model of 1/50 scale, the calculation results show that the entrapped air in horizontal pipe advances the time of pressure rising and makes the maximum value of pressure higher. The escape flow of entrapped air at dropshaft is caused by surface waves pushing the air in the horizontal pipe, and then the pipe slope affects the flow rate of air. The air compressibility has less effect on the transient separated air-water flow in the pipe.


To reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme, one class of methods is to generate several OFDM symbols (candidates) carrying the same information and to select for transmission the one having the lowest PAPR. We derive a theoretical amplitude probability density function (PDF) of the selected OFDM symbol using order statistics. This amplitude PDF enables one to derive the signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio (SNDR) as a function of the number of candidates. Based on the SNDR derivation, theoretical error performance and statistical channel capacity are provided for this class of methods. The results match the simulations and make the system design easier.


In wireless relaying networks, the traditional incremental cooperative relaying scheme (IR) could improve the system throughput enormously over fading channels by exploiting relay nodes to retransmit the source data packet to the destination. In order to enhance the system throughput over time-varying fading channels, this paper proposes an adaptive incremental cooperative relaying scheme (AIR) based on adaptive modulation and coding, which implements adaptive rate transmission for the source and relay nodes according to channel state information. We derive expressions for the AIR system throughput, and then give a gradient-based search algorithm to find the optimized adaptive solution for the AIR system by maximizing throughput subject to the constraint of packet error rate at the data link layer. The results indicate that throughput of AIR system outperforms that of traditional IR system greatly for any SNR value. Keywords-cooperative relaying; adaptive modulation coding; throughput; packet error rate


Background: OLD may increase risk of cognitive deficits. Objective: Examine the role of physical inactivity in cognitive impairment (CI). Methods: Members of a population-based cohort with self-reported physician-diagnosed COPD, emphysema, or chronic bronchitis (n=140; 63% female, mean age 67 yrs, 19% current smokers) completed baseline (T1) and 2-year follow-up (T2) in-person assessments that included spirometry; completion of the CHAMPS Questionnaire to estimate energy expenditure in vigorous/moderate intensity activities (M/V) and overall; and a 10-test cognitive function battery. We defined physical inactivity as no expenditure in M/V activities. We transformed cognitive test scores to age-adjusted z-scores and defined CI as z-scores ≤-1.5 on ≥33% of cognitive tests. Logistic regression tested relationships between physical inactivity and CI at both T1 and T2, controlling for sex, education, smoking, comorbid conditions, low O2 saturation, depressive symptoms, and FEV1% predicted. Results: At T1, 31% were physically inactive. CI was more frequent among inactive subjects (27% vs. 12%; adjusting for covariates: OR=9.8 [95% CI 1.8, 53.1]). Adjusting for covariates plus T1 CI, inactive subjects were more likely to be cognitively impaired at T2 (OR=4.4 [1.2, 15.8]). Among 120 subjects not impaired at T1, inactive subjects were more likely to develop CI at T2 (26% vs. 15%; OR=6.0 [1.5, 24.1]). Conclusion: Physical inactivity is a significant risk factor for presence and incidence of cognitive impairment among adults with OLD. Clinical relevance: In OLD, participation in a program of even moderate physical activity may offer protection from cognitive impairment. Support: NIH R01 HL067438


In the modern economic environment, the innovative-investment activity of companies is acquiring great importance. According to the authors, public-private partnership (PPP) is described as the foundation of the innovative activity, as an essential tool for increasing the efficiency of the national innovative system, which contributes to incentives of investment, and optimal use of material, technical, human and financial resources. The article examines the interaction between the government and private business at different stages of the innovative process which promotes the improvement of design arrangement quality and the efficiency of the investment and innovative activity. In the article, the authors pay special attention to the necessity of application of life cycle contracts (LCC) as an effective instrument of the implementation of public private partnership for the development of the national economy. Also, they give their own definition of "lifecycle contract", and the key characteristics of LCC. The authors suggest a business model of the interaction between the state and private business based on PPP and LCC, contributing to improving the quality of design arrangements and the efficiency of investment and innovative activity in the HPU sector. The advantages and disadvantages of PPP (based on LCC) for the business and government are also identified and substantiated in the article. Moreover, the authors developed and gave scientific and theoretical credence to the technique for efficiency evaluation of investment projects, implemented as part of PPP on the basis of LCC. This technique is based on the use of the net present value, the profitability index, the internal rate of return and take into account possible fluctuations of investment risk. All these factors as a whole enable one to assess the efficiency of investments in innovation-oriented companies. According to the results of the research, the authors concluded that it is the projects of PPP, based on life cycle contracts, that can be the real instruments, contributing to the stabilization and improvement of the situation for the development of innovative-investment activity of the


Ability of human visual system to detect prominent regions in an image is fast, reliable and efficient. Computational modeling of this extraordinary behavior is termed as saliency detection. Saliency detection identifies salient regions in an image and is relevant in many computer vision applications such as object recognition, image segmentation, image retrieval etc. The term co-saliency can be explained as identifying common prominent regions in multiple images. In this paper we analysis various saliency and cosaliency detection mechanisms and studies the usability of cluster based co-saliency detection method in video foreground detection. The paper also explains design and implementation of cluster based co-saliency in video foreground detection.


The dynamics of the DNA oligomer d(CGCTAGCG)2 (CTSYM) and its complex with the dye 1,1-(4,4,8,8-tetramethyl-4, 8-diazaundecamethylene)-bis-4-(3-methyl-2,3-dihydro-(benzo-1, 3-thiazole)-2-methylidene)-quinolinium tetraiodide (TOTO) (CTSYMTOTO) bis-intercalated at the 5'-CT-3' sequence steps have been determined from NMR relaxation parameters. Longitudinal and transverse 13C relaxation rates and heteronuclear NOE relaxation data were acquired and have been analyzed in the context of the Lipari and Szabo model-free formalism. The overall rotational correlation time for the CTSYM is 3.44 ns and the CTSYMTOTO is 3.48 ns. The generalized order parameters (S2) for methine carbons in the CTSYM and CTSYMTOTO are relatively high but nonuniform for the molecules and show sequence context and conformation-dependent variations. Average values of S2 = 0.79 +/- 0.02 for the CTSYM, S2 = 0.80 +/- 0.04 for the CTSYMTOTO aromatic spins, S2 = 0.76 +/- 0.02 for the CTSYM, and S2 = 0.83 +/- 0.05 for the CTSYMTOTO deoxyribose spins were found. The S2 values for the 5'-terminal deoxyribose are lower than for the other residues. The DNA backbone in CTSYMTOTO is distorted and elongated at the site of intercalation, and the C3' atom of the C3 deoxyribose residue has a very low S2 = 0.57 +/- 0.06. The low order for this spin is interpreted in terms of exchange between the C2'-endo and O1'-endo conformations of the C3 deoxyribose. Significant chemical exchange processes were found for most of the aromatic spins in CTSYM that are interpreted in terms of microsecond to millisecond time scale dynamics. The microsecond to millisecond dynamics of the bases in CTSYM are quenched upon TOTO complex formation due to unwinding of the helix and an increase in the surface area of the bases in mutual contact and the large surface area in contact with the intercalated dye. The derived order parameters combined with the solution structure provide motional models for conformational changes induced in the backbone in response to the ligand binding.


Abstract Melted precipitation and snowfall data from eight winters were used to develop a snow and melted precipitation prediction model associated with 850-mb cyclones along the Atlantic Seaboard. Results indicate that the major potential for heavy snow exists in a band extending from 75 to 225 mi to the left and from 350 to about 1,000 mi ahead of the 850-mb cyclone in the 12-hr period beginning 6 hr after routine upper air observation time. Application of the prediction model of snow amounts to some storms from the 1968–1969 winter season indicate they provide valuable guidance to the forecaster during periods of East Coast storms.


Purpose: Illness-related stigma is argued to be largely shaped by the mass media. While scant research on the ways through which the media covers stigmatized illnesses does exist, there remains a need for a more generalizable model to predict the way any given physical illness would be covered in the media, and in particular, the ways that stigmatized illnesses would be covered. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between the ascribed degree of disease stigma and its coverage in the media. Methods: We conducted a survey of 954 randomly sampled articles over a 12-month period from five newspapers in Israel. The ascribed degree of disease stigma was measured via a questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study, which was completed by 26 experts. Two aspects of media coverage of physical illnesses were measured via content analysis: what content is presented in the media and how the content is covered. Results: We found that the more stigmatized the illness, the more coverage it received. Very stigmatized illnesses tended to appear in weekend/holiday editions and on the front page of the newspaper, in articles which mentioned behavioral or lifestyle related risk factors as well as in articles that represented foreigners as placing others at risk for illness. Very stigmatized diseases tended to be covered as metaphors, i.e. used as symbols for foul social phenomena. These illnesses also tended to be described by military and apocalyptic metaphors. Conclusions: Our findings imply that "very stigmatized" diseases are constructed as salient issues, presented as blame-able phenomena, and perceived as conveying major risk to the social and moral order. Social fears need to be understood and addressed when designing policy and, particularly, media campaigns, in order to eradicate illness-related stigma.


Rubber wood sawdust was pyrolyzed in a fluidized bed reactor at 500 °C with nitrogen as a fluidization gas and silica sand as a fluidizing bed material. The first part of the study is to determine minimum fluidization velocity (Umf) of sand, char, and binary mixture (char and sand) based on experimental and calculation methods. The next objective is to study the effect of fluidization gas velocity (Ug) on the yield and distribution of pyrolysis products. At higher gas velocity, the yield of bio-oil increased, whereas non-condensable gas decreased. To examine physicochemical properties of pyrolysis products, the third part involves analyses of pyrolysis products based on the highest bio-oil yield occurred at Ug of 5.46 cm/s. Bio-char product had significantly higher carbon composition and calorific value than original biomass feedstock and bio-oil fractions. Fractional condensation was incorporated to condense pyrolysis vapours into six fractions of bio-oil. Bio-oil products contained high percentage of oxygen and hydrogen, signifying high water content which decreased the calorific value. However, via a fractional ondensation setup, composition of water was reduced at the later part of condensers. From a GC-FID quantitative analysis, major chemical compounds in bio-oil were acetic acid and phenol.


Support vector machine-based speaker verification (SV) has become a standard approach in recent years. These systems typically use dynamic kernels to handle the dynamic nature of the speech utterances. This paper shows that many of these kernels fall into one of two general classes, derivative and parametric kernels. The attributes of these classes are contrasted and the conditions under which the two forms of kernel are identical are described. By avoiding these conditions, gains may be obtained by combining derivative and parametric kernels. One combination strategy is to combine at the kernel level. This paper describes a maximum-margin-based scheme for learning kernel weights for the SV task. Various dynamic kernels and combinations were evaluated on the NIST 2002 SRE task, including derivative and parametric kernels based upon different model structures. The best overall performance was 7.78% EER achieved when combining five kernels.


A 1.56 μm passively mode-locked laser diode with a two-section tensile strained multi-quantum-well structure is fabricated. Without any external pulse compression, a Lorentz pulse train with a pulse width of 1.03 ps and a repetition rate of 35.6 GHz is obtained, which is one of the best results that have been reported on similar devices. The optical pulse has a 300 kHz line width and a 50 dB peak over the noise floor in the photodetected radio-frequency electrical spectrum.


Surgical resection remains the cornerstone for the curative treatment of oncological disease. In a situation when a tumour encases a critical arterial or venous structure, long term oncological control may be achieved only through careful preoperative planning within a multidisciplinary team incorporating oncological and vascular specialists. The present review addresses the principles in planning oncovascular surgery, describes the oncovascular procedure in pancreatic, liver, renal and endometriosis cancer as well as vascular involvement in retroperitoneal soft sarcoma and sarcoma in lower extremity. In conclusion, the present review highlights that major vessel involvement of a tumour mass should not necessarily be considered as a barrier to en bloc resection and hence curative oncosurgery procedure.


Intrinsically motivated spontaneous exploration is a key enabler of autonomous lifelong learning in human children. It allows them to discover and acquire large repertoires of skills through self-generation, self-selection, self-ordering and self-experimentation of learning goals. We present the unsupervised multi-goal reinforcement learning formal framework as well as an algorithmic approach called intrinsically motivated goal exploration processes (IMGEP) to enable similar properties of autonomous learning in machines. The IMGEP algorithmic architecture relies on several principles: 1) self-generation of goals as parameterized reinforcement learning problems; 2) selection of goals based on intrinsic rewards; 3) exploration with parameterized time-bounded policies and fast incremental goal-parameterized policy search; 4) systematic reuse of information acquired when targeting a goal for improving other goals. We present a particularly efficient form of IMGEP that uses a modular representation of goal spaces as well as intrinsic rewards based on learning progress. We show how IMGEPs automatically generate a learning curriculum within an experimental setup where a real humanoid robot can explore multiple spaces of goals with several hundred continuous dimensions. While no particular target goal is provided to the system beforehand, this curriculum allows the discovery of skills of increasing complexity, that act as stepping stone for learning more complex skills (like nested tool use). We show that learning several spaces of diverse problems can be more efficient for learning complex skills than only trying to directly learn these complex skills. We illustrate the computational efficiency of IMGEPs as these robotic experiments use a simple memory-based low-level policy representations and search algorithm, enabling the whole system to learn online and incrementally on a Raspberry Pi 3.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Tamoxifen is one of the most commonly used agents in the treatment and prevention of estrogen receptor positive breast cancers. Beyond the presence of hormone receptors, there are no validated predictors of tamoxifen efficacy and toxicity. Therefore, we utilized a genome-wide cell-based model to comprehensively evaluate genetic variants for their contribution to cellular susceptibility to tamoxifen. Our model incorporates multi-dimensional datasets including genome-wide genotype, gene expression, and cellular growth inhibition following treatment in lymphoblastoid cell lines from the International HapMap project. Growth inhibition was measured using AlamarBlue Assay in 60 unrelated CEU (individuals of northern and western European decedent) and 60 unrelated YRI (individuals from Ibadan, Nigeria) samples. All cell lines were treated with increasing concentrations of endoxifen, an active metabolite of tamoxifen, for 72 hours. Log2 transformed percent survival at each concentration and IC50 were used as cellular susceptibility to drug phenotypes. A step-wise genome-wide association studies were performed among SNPs, mRNA expression, and endoxifen sensitivity phenotypes. We identified 10 and 74 SNPs associated with endoxifen sensitivity through the expression of 13 and 92 genes in the separate CEU and YRI population. Interestingly 3 genes (STS, TES and SMARCA2) identified through this method are known to play a role in hormone biosynthesis pathway. Furthermore, a large portion of identified genes was found to play a role in tamoxifen sensitivity in the NCI60 cancer cell lines including CHPT1, a known tumor progression marker. This approach has made possible the identification of genetic variants/genes that have not been previously associated with tamoxifen response. Further validation of these cell-based model findings may significantly improve our ability to predict tamoxifen treatment efficacy and toxicity in breast cancer patients.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1875. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1875


Abstract This article draws on Newman's (2001, 2007) typology of the modernization of governance under New Labor, to examine the development of British welfare to work administration. Concentrating on the delivery of active labor market policy, the article suggests network forms of governance occupy a marginal role in welfare to work delivery. Managerialist and hierarchical forms of governance dominate administration of activation policy. In accordance with UK tradition, a national centralized, top down system exercises control of social security and employment services administration, but increasingly seeks to realize its goals through a market system of delivery.


Drift kinetic and gyrokinetic theories and simulations are powerful means for quantitative predictions of neoclassical and anomalous transport fluxes in helical systems such as the Large Helical Device (LHD). The δ f Monte Carlo particle simulation code, FORTEC-3D, is used to predict radial profiles of the neoclassical particle and heat transport fluxes and the radial electric field in helical systems. The radial electric field profiles in the LHD plasmas are calculated from the ambipolarity condition for the neoclassical particle fluxes obtained by the global simulations using the FORTEC-3D code, in which effects of ion or electron finite orbit widths are included. Gyrokinetic Vlasov simulations using the GKV code verify the theoretical prediction that the neoclassical optimization of helical magnetic configuration enhances the zonal flow generation which leads to the reduction of the turbulent heat diffusivity χi due to the ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence. Comparisons between results for the high ion temperature LHD experiment and the gyrokinetic simulations using the GKV-X code show that the χi profile and the poloidal wave number spectrum of the density fluctuation obtained from the simulations are in reasonable agreements with the experimental results. It is predicted theoretically and confirmed by the linear GKV simulations that the E × B rotation due to the background radial electric field Er can enhance the zonal-flow response to a given source. Thus, in helical systems, the turbulent transport is linked to the neoclassical transport through Er which is determined from the ambipolar condition for neoclassical particle fluxes and influences the zonal flow generation leading to reduction of the turbulent transport. In order to investigate the Er effect on the regulation of the turbulent transport by the zonal flow generation, the flux-tube bundle model is proposed as a new method for multiscale gyrokinetic simulations.


This study was designed to examine the in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the methanol, ethanol, water, n-hexane and dicholoromethane extracts of two Allium species (Allium scabriflorum and Allium tchihatschewii) which are endemic for the flora of Turkey. The antimicrobial efficiency of the plant was evaluated according to disc diffusion and microdilution broth methods. The antimicrobial test results showed that the extracts of A. scabriflorum and A. tchihatschewii showed varying degrees of antimicrobial activity on the tested microorganisms. The extracts were screened for their possible antioxidant activities by three complementary tests; DPPH free radical-scavenging, scavenging of hydrogen peroxide and metal chelating activity assays. All the extracts of A. scabriflorum and A. tchihatschewii exhibited lower DPPH free radical scavenging activity but higher metal chelating activity when compared to standards. The values of scavenging of hydrogen peroxide of the extracts were higher than the standards that of α-tocopherol, BHA, BHT and trolox, but close to that of ascorbic acid. In addition to the antioxidant activity of these plants, the total phenolic compounds and flavonoids were also measured in the extracts. The results presented here may suggest that the extracts of A. scabriflorum and A. tchihatschewii possess antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, and therefore, they can be used as a natural preservative ingredient in food and/or pharmaceutical industry.


This paper addresses the issue of profitability of beef production from a systems perspective. The model uses information from biological and economic systems to identify factors affecting profitability of nine beef production systems in the Nebraska Sandhills. The results are further used in ranking the profitability of 37 unique subsystems.


Production facilities deliver value as subsets of larger corporate entities with a key enabler being systems, inclusive of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Systems. This research focuses on the development of an evaluation toolset for Manufacturing Execution Systems maturity, specifically determining a `Business Units' maturity relative to a fully automated corporate process enablement. The methodology includes hierarchical segregation of the business together with focused, internationally referenced, questions, facilitating system maturity evaluation. The Likert association methodology facilitates data gathering. This research delivers a method and case study on an internationally benchmarked, express evaluation toolset, with capacity to conduct a Business Unit (BU) evaluation in minimum time. Key value adds of the toolset includes system prioritization on a business benefit and cost basis.


The OASIS Web Services Notification (WSN) family of specifications defines a standard interoperable protocol through which Web services can disseminate events. We present here a summary of three WSN specification documents that are currently available: WS-Base Notification, WS-Topics, and WS-Brokered Notification. We conclude with a brief discussion on the use of the notification pattern in the Enterprise Services Bus, a service-oriented infrastructure for mediating requests among cooperating Web services.


In applications where the high voltage pick up is required, for example, photovoltaic lattice associated framework, energy unit and high-power release lights for vehicle, high stride up dc-dc converters have been acquainted with lift the low voltage to a high transport voltage. The voltage pick up of customary lift converter is restricted, considering the issues, for example, the framework effectiveness and current swell. This paper proposes a class of half breed exchanged inductor converters (H-SLCs) for high stride up voltage pick up transformation. To begin with, the topological inference of H-SLCs is concluded by consolidating the detached and dynamic exchanged inductor unit; second, this paper represents the operation methods of the proposed uneven and symmetrical converters; third, the execution of the proposed converters is investigated in detail and contrasted and existing converters; at last, a model is set up in the research center, and the trial results are given to confirm the accuracy of the examination.


The purpose of this study was analyzing with present conditions and content analysis of the parking area for the handicapped people. The researcher investigate to that establishment ratio, accessibility, the induction and guidance, and safe walking passage security, and proper space of the parking area for the handicapped people was established by lawfully. The results as follows. In spite of the regulation established by law, regulations was not established 40% on region government. The parking area for the handicapped people established Properly consider to the accessibility. But the size and height of the stand-up guide plate of the induction and guidance which corresponds in legal establishment standard of the handicapped people. then this research analyzes problems and suggests alternatives of the facilities.


We developed a hybrid integrated optical module for 1.3/1.55-/spl mu/m wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) full-duplex operation. The optical circuit was designed to suppress the optical and electrical crosstalk using a wavelength division multiplexing filter, and an optical crosstalk of -43 dB and an electrical crosstalk of -105 dB were achieved with a separation between the transmitter laser diode and the receiver photodiode of more than 9 mm. We used the optical circuit design to fabricate an optical module with a bare chip preamplifier in a package. This module exhibited a full duplex operation of 156 Mbit/s with a minimum sensitivity of -35.2 dBm at a bit error rate of 10/sup -10/.


We present the first application of deep learning at scale to do gravitational wave parameter estimation of binary black hole mergers that describe a 4-D signal manifold, i.e., black holes whose spins are aligned or anti-aligned, and which evolve on quasi-circular orbits. We densely sample this 4-D signal manifold using over three hundred thousand simulated waveforms. In order to cover a broad range of astrophysically motivated scenarios, we synthetically enhance this waveform dataset to ensure that our deep learning algorithms can process waveforms located at any point in the data stream of gravitational wave detectors (time invariance) for a broad range of signal-to-noise ratios (scale invariance), which in turn means that our neural network models are trained with over $10^{7}$ waveform signals. We then apply these neural network models to estimate the astrophysical parameters of black hole mergers, and their corresponding black hole remnants, including the final spin and the gravitational wave quasi-normal frequencies. These neural network models represent the first time deep learning is used to provide point-parameter estimation calculations endowed with statistical errors. For each binary black hole merger that ground-based gravitational wave detectors have observed, our deep learning algorithms can reconstruct its parameters within 2 milliseconds using a single Tesla V100 GPU. We show that this new approach produces parameter estimation results that are consistent with Bayesian analyses that have been used to reconstruct the parameters of the catalog of binary black hole mergers observed by the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors.


Shale is a general term used for argillaceous (clay-rich) rocks which are the most abundant sediment on the earth. It is believed that clay rich rocks comprise more than 50-75% of the geologic column. Shale has very varying petrophysical and mechanical properties. Shale is in the most cases acting as a trap or seal for hydrocarbon migration, but has also in more recent years been targeted as a reservoir target in some basins. In some wells it has been observed on cement bond logs that shales in uncemented intervals have moved in and closed the annulus. Pressure communication testing has been performed on these sections and the sections has been qualified as well barrier elements (Williams et al., 2009) for plug and abandonment (P&A) purposes. The main mechanism behind the deformation process is believed to be shale creep.
 In this paper we will discuss shale creep and other shale deformation mechanisms and how an understanding of these can be used to activate shale that has not contacted the casing yet to form a well barrier. We have developed a numerical model based on first order principles to better understand the mechanical deformation process. We are also supporting the modeling results with laboratory experiments, before we discuss a couple of field cases where shale intervals have been activated and verified to have formed a well barrier as part of the well construction process in new wells.


Irradiation of organic disulphides in aldehyde solvents resulted in reductive fission of the S–S linkage giving the corresponding thiol and an equimolar amount of the thiol acylate for linear disulphides and mono S-acylated dithiols for cyclic disulphides.