This document presents a review of evidence commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation to inform the guidance document Improving Mathematics in Key Stages Two and Three (Education Endowment Foundation, 2017). The review draws on a substantial parallel study by the same research team, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which focuses on the problems faced by low attaining Key Stage three students in developing their maths understanding, and the effectiveness of teaching approaches in overcoming these difficulties. This project, Low attainment in mathematics: an investigation focusing on Year 9 pupils includes a systematic review of the evidence relating to teaching of low-attaining secondary students, which the current report builds upon in the wider context of teaching maths in Key Stages two and three. The Education Endowment Foundation and the Nuffield Foundation are both committed to finding ways of synthesising high quality research about effective teaching and learning, and providing this to practitioners in accessible forms. There have been a number of recent narrative and systematic reviews of mathematics education examining how students learn and the implications for teaching (e.g., Anthony & Walshaw, 2009; Conway, 2005; Kilpatrick et al., 2001; Nunes et al., 2010). Although this review builds on these studies, this review has a different purpose and takes a different methodological approach to reviewing and synthesising the literature. The purpose of the review is to synthesise the best available international evidence regarding teaching mathematics to children between the ages of 9 and 14 and to address the question: what is the evidence regarding the effectiveness of different strategies for teaching mathematics? In addition to this broad research question, we were asked to address a set of more detailed topics developed by a group of teachers and related to aspects of pupil learning, pedagogy, the use of resources, the teaching of specific mathematical content, and pupil attitudes and motivation. Using these topics, we derived the 24 research questions that we address in this review. Our aim was to focus primarily on robust, causal evidence of impact, using experimental and quasi-experimental designs. However, there are a very large number of experimental studies relevant to this research question. Hence, rather than identifying and synthesising all these primary studies, we focused instead on working with existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews. This approach has the advantage that we can draw on the findings of a very extensive set of original studies that have already been screened for research quality and undergone some synthesis. Using a systematic literature search strategy, we identified 66 relevant metaanalyses, which synthesise the findings of more than 3000 original studies. However, whilst this corpus of literature is very extensive, there were nevertheless significant gaps. For example, the evidence concerning the teaching of specific mathematical content and topics was limited. In order to address gaps in the meta-analytic literature, we supplemented our main dataset with 22 systematic reviews identified through the same systematic search strategy.


The neutron time-of-flight spectrum from the reaction π−p → π0 + n was measured in order to study the acceleration mechanisms in the atomic cascade of pionic hydrogen. For the first time, discrete "high-energy"components up to about 200 eV were found in hydrogen gas. The earlier findings of discrete components in liquid hydrogen are confirmed in a model-independent way, and for the first time, indications of transitions with Δn = 2 are observed.


This research examines heterogeneity in Americans' musical tastes by separating breadth and level of taste, taking into account the structural constraints such as cohort, period, social class, gender and racial composition, which have shaped Americans' musical preferences over the past 20 years. We identify four types of respondents who share similar taste patterns that correspond to different degrees of omnivorousness: omnivores, limited, temperates and moderates. We argue that taste patterns deviate from the usual elitist basis in that omnivores are depicted as both highbrow individuals with lowbrow taste and non-highbrow individuals with lowbrow taste. We also find that structural constraints have little impact on breadth of tastes among omnivores and a relatively high impact on breadth of tastes among limited, temperates and moderates. Heterology is emphasized (rather than the Bourdieuvian homology) in an examination of the equivalence between the social structure and the cultural sphere. Heterology recognizes that breadth and level of taste are two independent dimensions of cultural consumption.


This study aims to describe seminal plasma characteristics, detect changes during and between two consecutive spawning seasons (SS), and compare plasma features between two important South American fish species. Prochilodus lineatus and Brycon orbignyanus sperm was collected over two (SS1; SS2). Each season was divided into first and second sampling periods (P1; P2). Thus, the four experimental periods were referred to as SS1P1, SS1P2, SS2P1, and SS2P2. Seminal plasma was analyzed for osmolality, pH, and Na+, K+, and Ca2+ concentration. Additionally, sperm concentration, motility rate, and velocities (curvilinear = VCL; straight line = VSL) were determined and correlated with plasma features. In P. lineatus, plasma osmolality was lower in SS1P2, pH was higher in SS2P2, Na+ was higher and K+ and Ca2+ were lower in SS2P1 compared with other experimental periods. Positive correlations were observed between motility and plasma osmolality, motility and Na+, and VCL and Na+. In B. orbignyanus, plasma osmolality was higher in SS2P1 and SS2P2 and K+ concentration was higher in SS1P1 compared with other experimental periods; no correlation was observed. Seminal plasma parameters change during SS; therefore, the composition of a sperm extender and artificial fertilization methods should be adapted to maximize fertilization rates.


Thirty groundwater samples were taken from Assiut's northern outskirts. The physicochemical properties of these samples were investigated. For the evaluation of water–rock interaction, the saturation index (SI), chloro-alkaline indices (CAI1 and CAI2), Gibbs ratios for cations and anions (GC and GA), principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were used. (1) With the exception of five samples that were supersaturated, the rest of the groundwater samples were under-saturated with carbonate mineral dissolution (calcite, dolomite, and aragonite) and evaporite mineral dissolution (anhydrite, gypsum, halite, and sylvite). (2) The presence of ion exchange between alkali elements (Na+ + K+) and earth alkaline elements (Ca2+ + Mg2+) is explained by the positive values of the chloro-alkaline indices. (3) In four groundwater samples, negative chloro-alkaline indices suggest reverse ion exchange and an increasing alkali element content. (4) The Gibbs diagram demonstrates that, with the exception of four samples that reflect saline groundwater, the majority of the groundwater samples are freshwater recharging from the fresh surface water in the research area. (5) Groundwater types include Ca-HCO3 (11%), Mg-HCO3 (48%), Na-HCO3 (23%), Mg-Cl (13%), and Na-Cl (3%). (6) The alkali, earth alkaline elements, and sulphate are the key controls on groundwater salinity, according to PCA and HCA. (7) The somewhat saline groundwater in the research area's western desert margins should not be used since it poses a health danger to people.


Giving halal certification for many products is a guarantee that products is safe for consumption by a Muslim people. But media tend to using religion value to get a big commodity that profitable for company, or change the using value of religion to economic value. This research is a study about audience of television advertisement with the reception approach. This research is for knowing how are the Solo Hijabers community members meaning to Zoya Hijab advertisement. This research is using a qualitative method. Data analysis that using is Reception by Stuart Hall (encoding-decoding) with using three kind of analysis, dominant hegemonic position, negotiated position, and oppositional position. The result that researcher get is just showing two types, that is hegemonic dominant and negotiation. While the opposite position not happen to Hijabers Solo Community. In this research also found interesting something, although informant nothing have an attitude, meaning, and act the same way. They are still agree of hijab Zoya distribution in the market. Even they want to buy or using that hijab. Without they realize, they agree halal value to the Zoya hijab advertisement is a form of commodification.


The underlying basis for the accuracy of protein synthesis has been the subject of over four decades of investigation. Recent biochemical and structural data make it possible to understand at least in outline the structural basis for tRNA selection, in which codon recognition by cognate tRNA results in the hydrolysis of GTP by EF-Tu over 75 A away. The ribosome recognizes the geometry of codon-anticodon base pairing at the first two positions but monitors the third, or wobble position, less stringently. Part of the additional binding energy of cognate tRNA is used to induce conformational changes in the ribosome that stabilize a transition state for GTP hydrolysis by EF-Tu and subsequently result in accelerated accommodation of tRNA into the peptidyl transferase center. The transition state for GTP hydrolysis is characterized, among other things, by a distorted tRNA. This picture explains a large body of data on the effect of antibiotics and mutations on translational fidelity. However, many fundamental questions remain, such as the mechanism of activation of GTP hydrolysis by EF-Tu, and the relationship between decoding and frameshifting.


A 60-yr-old patient with ESRD (82 kg/168 cm), hypertension for the previous 18 yr, and type 2 diabetes is found dead in bed by his wife at home on a Saturday morning. The patient's history is notable for having started dialysis 34 weeks previously. His last dialysis had been the previous day (on a Friday afternoon). Predialysis potassium had been 5.7 mmol/L, the dialysate K+ was 2.0 mmol/L, and Mg2+ was 0.5 mmol/L. Autopsy was not performed.

Before his morbid event, the patient had been doing well on dialysis. He had less than 6 episodes of hypotension (<100 mmHg) per month. His average predialytic weight gain was 4 kg, and, with fluctuations, his average predialysis BP was 155/65 mmHg. While continuing on gliquidone (an oral sulfonylurea hypoglycemic drug that does not accumulate in renal failure), he had no episodes of hypoglycemia, and his last glycosylated hemoglobin level was 7.2%. His medical history is of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) with an ejection fraction of 55%. His electrocardiogram showed signs of LVH and flat T waves. He had no history of hypoglycemic episodes and no evidence of retinopathy. He reported no episodes of arrhythmia or precordial pain. A predialysis chest x-ray 2 wk before the terminal event had shown pulmonary congestion. His medications included 0.25 μg/d calcitriol, calcium carbonate, 10 mg of folate, 80 mg of verapamil, and no β blockers. In addition, he received varying doses of darbepoietin and iron gluconate as required. He did not receive a statin.

Dr. Eberhard Ritz: This case, unfortunately, is the usual presentation of patients on dialysis who succumb to sudden death: There are few, if any, specific premonitory symptoms or signs, cardiac standstill is usually the presenting symptom, and autopsy is not performed, so more specific information …


The purpose of this document is to initiate a discussion of a set of universally applicable standards of practice for culturally competent care that nurses around the globe may use to guide clinical practice, research, education, and administration. The recipient of the nursing care described in these standards is assumed to be an individual, a family, a community,or a population. These standards are based on a framework of social justice (Rawls, 1971), that is, the belief that every individual and group is entitled to fair and equal rights and participation in social, educational, economic, and, specifically in this context, health care opportunities. Culturally competent care is informed by the principles of social justice and human rights regardless of social context. Through the application of the principles of social justice and the provision of culturally competent care, inequalities in health outcomes may be reduced.


This paper presents a study on the trajectory of a two stage launch vehicle. The study includes dynamic responses of motion parameters as well as the variation of angles affecting the orientation of the launch vehicle (LV). LV dynamic characteristics including state vector variation with corresponding altitude and velocity for the different LV stages separation, as well as the angle of attack and flight path angles are also discussed. A flight trajectory study for the drop zone of first stage and the jettisoning of fairing are introduced in the mathematical modeling to study their effect. To increase the accuracy of the LV model, atmospheric model is used taking into consideration geographical location and the values of solar flux related to the date and time of launch, accurate atmospheric model leads to enhancement of the calculation of Mach number, which affects the drag force over the LV. The mathematical model is implemented on MATLAB based software (Simulink). The real available experimental data are compared with results obtained from the theoretical computation model. The comparison shows good agreement, which proves the validity of the developed simulation model; the maximum error noticed was generally less than 10%, which is a result that can lead to future works and enhancement to decrease this level of error. Keywords—Launch vehicle modeling, launch vehicle trajectory, mathematical modeling, MATLAB-Simulink.


INTRODUCTION: Molecular-based diagnostics tools such as gene expression signatures for predicting patient outcome or response to treatment are cornerstones of personalized medicine. However, they have a reputation for poor validation performance on patient cohorts independent of those on which they were developed, a combined result of small patient cohorts and tumor heterogeneity. We quantitatively assess the impact of tumor heterogeneity on gene-expression based predictive models of patient outcome for non small cell lung cancer. EXPERIMENTS: We developed a fully automated pipeline to computationally purify tumor gene expression profiles using a tool called ISOLATE (Quon et al., 2009), identify a prognostic gene signature on a training cohort (Friedman et al., 2010), and validate the signature on independent cohorts. ISOLATE accepts heterogeneous tumor profiles and healthy tissue profiles, and outputs purified tumor profiles and percentage tumor content for each heterogeneous sample. We used 1 training cohort of 86 patients (Beer et al., 2002), and 4 independent validation cohorts totaling 443 patients (Shedden et al., 2008). The computational pipeline was run on the training and validation cohorts in two identical scenarios with the exception of either performing computational purification on all samples or not. RESULTS: We first validated the estimates of % tumor content of ISOLATE on 32 lung adenocarcinomas on which two pathologists independently estimated % content. For the 23 samples on which the two pathologists agreed strongly, ISOLATE estimates had 0.51 correlation with their average, compared with an overall correlation of 0.59 between the two pathologists. Our computational pipeline identified an 82-gene signature ('unpurified-sig') on the unpurified tumor profiles, and a 110-gene signature ('ISOLATE-sig') on the purified tumor profiles. We used these signatures to identify low and high risk patient groups within the validation cohorts of 443 patients. ISOLATE-sig achieved a very significant difference in survival between the identified low and high risk patients (Hazard Ratio (HR)=1.92, p=10⁁(−6)), compared to unpurified-sig (HR=1.53, p=10⁁(−3)). We separately examined all 227 Stage I patients, and found consistent results: ISOLATE-sig performance (HR=1.80, p=10⁁(−3)) compared very favorably to the original profiles (HR=1.45, p=10⁁(−2)). Here, only ISOLATE-sig achieves a hazard ratio whose 95% CI strictly exceeds 1. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to date that quantitatively assesses the effect of tumor heterogeneity on models for predicting patient outcome. We also present a fully automated computational pipeline for purifying, identifying, and validating gene expression based signatures. We showed purification lead to much better prognostic models of lung cancer, and anticipate similar results for other solid cancers. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4847. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4847


The article provides an overview of methods for injury severity predicting which can be used for prehospital emergency medical service.


In recent years, the topic of explainable machine learning (ML) has been extensively researched. Up until now, this research focused on regular ML users use-cases such as debugging a ML model. This paper takes a different posture and show that adversaries can leverage explainable ML to bypass multi-feature types malware classifiers. Previous adversarial attacks against such classifiers only add new features and not modify existing ones to avoid harming the modified malware executable's functionality. Current attacks use a single algorithm that both selects which features to modify and modifies them blindly, treating all features the same. In this paper, we present a different approach. We split the adversarial example generation task into two parts: First we find the importance of all features for a specific sample using explainability algorithms, and then we conduct a feature-specific modification, feature-by-feature. In order to apply our attack in black-box scenarios, we introduce the concept of transferability of explainability, that is, applying explainability algorithms to different classifiers using different features subsets and trained on different datasets still result in a similar subset of important features. We conclude that explainability algorithms can be leveraged by adversaries and thus the advocates of training more interpretable classifiers should consider the trade-off of higher vulnerability of those classifiers to adversarial attacks.


The effects of irradiation by 16- and 27-MeV protons on standard and oxygenated silicon diodes, processed by different technologies, have been investigated. The acceptor creation rate /spl beta/ can be lower for standard diodes than for state-of-the art oxygenated devices, suggesting that the role of oxygen is more complex than expected and must be folded with the technology of the fabrication process. In addition, we show the inaccuracy of the /spl beta/ normalization by the nonionizing energy loss factor not only for oxygenated diodes but also for standard nonoxygenated devices.


This paper further substantiates the physiological role of beta-endorphin (beta-END) in the control of the cyclic LH secretion and provides new data on the interactions between 17 beta-estradiol (17 beta-E2) and beta-END at both the hypothalamic and pituitary levels. At the hypothalamic level, during the estrous cycle in rats, beta-END concentrations were highest on diestrus I in the arcuate nucleus, median preoptic area and median eminence and lowest at the time of the preovulatory 17 beta-E2 surge on proestrus, before the subsequent preovulatory hypothalamic GnRH and plasma LH surges. Data obtained in ovariectomized 17 beta-E2-treated ewes support the direct involvement of 17 beta-E2 in changes in beta-END and GnRH concentrations in these hypothalamic areas. At the anterior pituitary level, in vitro results obtained using anterior pituitaries from the proestrus morning cycling female rat have shown that 17 beta-E2 strongly suppresses beta-END secretion and that GnRH stimulates the release of beta-END. Furthermore, marked fluctuations were observed for plasma beta-END throughout the menstrual cycle in the woman. Low beta-END concentrations were observed in the period preceding the LH preovulatory surge. Taken together, these results show that: (1) decreases in hypothalamic beta-END concentrations, which are controlled at least by circulating levels of 17 beta-E2, modulate GnRH synthesis and/or release and contribute to the mechanisms which initiate the LH surge; (2) anterior pituitary beta-END might be involved in the mechanisms which terminate the LH surge.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the structural characteristics and herbage accumulation of tanzania guineagrass (Panicum maximum cv. Tanzania) under rotational grazing and subjected to combinations of two grazing frequencies (time for the canopy to intercept 90 or 95% of the incident light) and two post-grazing heights (30 or 50 cm). Treatments were assigned to experimental units according to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design, with three replications. Sward heights at pre-grazing were consistent during the experimental period and were of around 65 and 75 cm, for 90% and 95% of light interception (LI), respectively. Pastures managed with post-grazing height of 50 cm and 90% of LI had higher number of grazing cycles when compared with those submitted to post-grazing height of 30 cm and 95% of LI. Herbage mass production was higher in summer, intermediate in late spring and lowest in fall and winter and early spring. Herbage mass and lamina leaves production were higher in pastures managed with post-grazing height of 30 cm when compared with post-grazing height of 50 cm. Nevertheless, the effects of frequency on herbage mass production were associated with the post-grazing height used. The LI levels (90 or 95%) did not affect leaf lamina production. The combinations of frequency and severity of grazing resulted in little variation in the morphological composition of forage, except in the autumn, when there was a higher percentage of dead material in pastures managed with post-grazing height of 50 cm when compared with those with post-grazing height of 30 cm. The rotational grazing of tanzania guineagrass should be initiated when canopy intercepts 95% of incident light until a post-grazing height of 30 cm. When necessary and in order to generate flexibility in grazing management, the tanzania guineagrass can be grazed with 90% of light interception.


The main scientific goal of the ICANOE detector(1) is the one of elucidating in a comprehensive way the pattern of neutrino masses and mixings, following the SuperKamiokande results and the observed solar neutrinos deficit. To achieve these goals, the experimental method is based upon the complementary and simultaneous detection of CERN beam (CNGS) and cosmic ray (CR) events. For the currently allowed values of the SuperKamiokande results, both CNGS and cosmic ray data will give independent measurements and provide a precise determination of the oscillation parameters. Since one will observe and unambiguously identify νe, νμ and ντ components, the full (3×3) mixing matrix will be explored.


Backgrounds: The outbreak of coronavirus has had a serious impact on the economy, life and education of virtually all countries around the world. In China, the pandemic continues to pose a great challenge to the traditional in-person education model of schools. Educators in China are facing the agonizing decision of whether to resume in-person instruction while there's still no effective cure for the new coronavirus. Therefore, in order to ensure the quality of teaching and learning during the period of special time, we explore the "online + offline" blended teaching mode. Methods: Four hundred medical undergraduates from Dalian Medical University in China took part in a simulated teaching model to improve their learning ability of innovation and exploration. Taking molecular biology experiment - cell apoptosis as an example, we experimented with the blending of "online + offline " teaching mode and evaluated the learning outcome under this mode from the perspectives of experiment operation, report writing and group cooperation.Results: Over 95% of them totally agree with this teaching mode and expect to have it applied to other subjects, while less than 10% of the students have the opinion that the traditional teaching mode is better. The result of the innovation project competition also shows that the students trained under this teaching mode perform better than those under the traditional teaching mode in both objective questions and answers and experimental operation.Conclusions: Adoption of this "online + offline" blended teaching mode is effective and provides a new perspective to solve the problems encountered by medical students when they reach a higher level of development. In the process of carrying out this teaching mode, the cultivation of students' independent learning and innovative exploration ability were emphasized. Furthermore, it also helps students to lay a solid foundation for their future study and career development.


In 1970 Ulrike Meinhof abandoned a career as a political journalist to join the Red Army Faction; captured as a terrorist along with other members of the group in 1972, she died an unexplained death in a high-security prison in 1976. A charismatic spokesperson for the RAF, she has often come near to being idealized as a freedom fighter, despite her use of extreme violence. In an effort to understand how terrorism takes root, Sarah Colvin seeks a dispassionate view of Meinhof and a period when West Germany was declaring its own "war on terror." Ulrike Meinhof always remained a writer, and this book focuses on the role of language in her development and that of the RAF: how Meinhof came to justify violence to the point of murder, creating an identity for the RAF as resistance fighters in an imagined state of war that was reinforced by the state's adoption of what Andreas Musolff has called "war terminology." But its all-powerful identity as a fighting group eroded the RAF's empathy with other human beings -- even those it once claimed to be "fighting for." It became a closed unit, self-justifying and immobilized by its own conviction that everything it did must be right. This is the first specialized study of Meinhof and the RAF in English -- which is remarkable given the current interest in the topic in both Europe and the U.S.


Flattened MgB2 superconductors have an advantage of increased filament density and consequently high transport current density. On the other side, flat rolling is introducing the texture into MgB2, which leads to critical current anisotropy. Therefore, MgB2 tapes prepared from different precursor powders (ex-situ, in-situ and mechanical alloying) deformed in several metallic sheaths were measured in the external magnetic field of variable orientations. Critical current anisotropy of these composite tapes are compared and discussed.


A stable relativistic electron beam (REB) ring for plasma confinement was formed by REB injection with the help of image currents in a resistive shell, and then the ring was compressed in major radius by a factor 2.0. The current rise well obeyed the adiabatic scaling law.


The object of research is the theory of formation of the shadow sector of the economy. The paper presents an evolutionary analysis of theories of the shadow economy emergence. It deals with the study of the main theories of the emergence of the informal sector of the economy and determines their features, preconditions of origin, and drivers. Based on the systematization of literary research of scholars, the following groups of theories have been identified: modernization theory, neoliberal theory, institutional theory, the theory of political economy. The analysis of the economic content of the concept of the shadow economy emergence has been used to identify the most influential drivers of the transition of economic entities into the «underground». In particular, the most influential factors include the level of centralization of power, the economic development of the country, the quality of the institutional environment, etc. The analysis of approaches to understanding the definition of the «shadow economy» revealed ambiguous interpretations of the concept of the shadow economy and a significant number of synonyms used in the study of the shadow economy. The Google Trends toolkit was used to prove the multivariate approaches to understanding the essence of this phenomenon. The most common interpretations include the shadow economy, the informal economy, the underground economy, the black economy, and the non-observed economy. The bibliometric analysis of scientific publications in journals indexed in Scopus and WoS databases for 2014–2020 yielded three main clusters, which combine papers that deal with the study of the theory of shadow economy. They are as follows: the shadow economy emerges mainly due to low rates of economic development of the country; the shadow economy emerges due to high unemployment; the growing share of the shadow sector of the economy is a consequence of ineffective government policies. The study concluded that the key task in the implementation of state policy aimed at combating the shadow economy should be coordination the state prevention measures with the most influential drivers of growth in the share of the shadow sector of the economy.


BACKGROUND
Since 1980, the epidemiology of childhood cancer in Spain has been registered through the National Registry of Childhood Cancer. However, this registry does not include patients from Autonomous Community of Cantabria because there is no reporting clinical center. The absence of data on childhood cancer in this region justifies this study.

OBJECTIVES
To analyze the clinical presentation, diagnostic delay and incidence of childhood cancer in Cantabria.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective analysis of 89 children (aged 0-15 years) diagnosed with cancer in Cantabria from 1995-2000.

RESULTS
The annual incidence of childhood cancer in the region was 198.1 cases per million inhabitants with a predominance of males (53.9 %) and children aged less than 5 years (46.1 %). The most frequent cancers were leukemia (32.6 %) and brain tumors (23.6 %). The most frequent signs and symptoms were fever (29.2 %) and decreased appetite or fatigue (19.1 %). The mean delay in diagnosis for all tumors was 5.99 weeks and delays were longest for brain tumors. There was a direct statistical relationship between non-specific clinical presentation and diagnostic delay. A total of 20.2 % of all patients received treatment outside Cantabria.

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of all childhood cancers and especially that of neuroblastoma was higher in Cantabria than in other areas of Spain. In general, the major difficulties in the diagnosis of childhood cancer are its low incidence and non-specific presenting symptoms. Specialized pediatric oncology units near to patients' homes should be created to avoid problems due to treatment outside the area of residence.


Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of medium dose dexamethasone androgen suppression tests (DAST) in female hyperandrogenism. Methods: DAST results were retrospectively analyzed in 85 cases of women with hyperandrogenism including 55 cases of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), 10 cases of testosterone-producing tumors and 20 cases of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) between January 1984 and December 2017 in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The suppression rate of testosterone and 17 hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) were evaluated. The cut-off point of suppression rates were calculated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve in the differential diagnosis of CAH and non-CAH causes. Results: The 1-day medium dose DAST was performed simultaneously in 41 cases of CAH patients and the 5-days medium dose DAST was performed simultaneously in 19 cases of CAH patients. The results indicated that the average suppression rate of testosterone were 77.9% and 91.3% (P<0.001) and the average suppression rate of 17OHP was 95.2% and 97.0%, respectively (P=0.220). In patients (41 cases of CAH, 10 cases of testosterone producing tumor and 20 cases of PCOS) with 1-day DAST, the optimal testosterone suppression rate was 61.2% (the sensitivity and specificity was 87.8% and 96.7%, respectively) and the optimal 17OHP suppression rate was 87.1% (the sensitivity and specificity was 95.1% and 93.3%, respectively) in the identification of CAH and non-CAH cases. There is no clinical significance between the testosterone and 17OHP suppression rate in the differential diagnosis of CAH and non-CAH cases. Conclusions: There was no difference in the suppression rate of 17OHP between the 1-day and 5-days DAST in CAH cases. The sensitivity of suppression rate of 17OHP is equal in the differential diagnosis of hyperandrogenism. One-day approach DAST could be used as functional test for the diagnosis of the etilology of hyperandrogenism (CAH or non-CAH).


Researchers investigated whether a neuromuscular training programmewas effective in preventing non-contact leg injuries in female floorball players. The programme was designed to enhance players' motor skills and body control, as well as to activate and prepare their neuromuscular system for sports specific manoeuvres. A cluster randomised controlled study design was used. Participants were 457 players (mean age 24 years), recruited from 28 top level female floorball teams in Finland. Teamswere allocated to treatment using cluster random allocation with 14 teams allocated to the intervention (256 players) and 14 to the control (201 players). Teams in the control group were asked to do their usual training during the study period. Clubs were followed up for one league season (six months). The primary outcome was the occurrence of acute non-contact injuries of the legs during training or play. In total, 32 327 scheduled hours of training and play were recorded for the intervention group (mean number per player 126.3 hours (standard deviation 32.5)), compared with 25 019 hours for the control group (124.5 (30.8)). Over the season, 20 acute non-contact leg injuries were reported for the intervention group, compared with 52 injuries for the control group. Some players may have experienced more than one injury. The injury incidence rate per 1000 hours of training and play was 0.65 (95% confidence interval 0.37 to 1.13) in the intervention group and 2.08 (1.58 to 2.72) in the control group. The unadjusted injury incidence rate ratio for the intervention compared with the control was 0.31 (0.17 to 0.58). Poisson regression was used to adjust the injury incidence rate ratio for potential confounding (including age, body mass index, floorball experience, playing position, number of orthopaedic operations, and league). The adjusted injury incidence rate ratio was 0.34 (0.20 to 0.57). Which of the following statements, if any, are true? a) The players were not equally as likely to experience acute non-contact leg injuries because they differed in the number of hours of training and play


BACKGROUND
This investigation examines the question of whether decreasing wavelength of light and/or reducing luminance benefits oculomotor efficiency in normal and reading disabled (RD) children.

METHODS
Two groups of children were identified as normal or disabled readers using standardized reading tests. After suitable practice, eye movements were objectively measured with the Visagraph II as each of the subjects silently read a series of three different selections at their independent reading level with clear (control), gray, and blue filters. Four variables were measured for each subject. Data were analyzed using a repeated measure ANOVA and post hoc tests.

RESULTS
The standardized reading tests significantly differentiated average from poor readers using grade scores and percentiles. Initially, with clear filters, eye movement scores of normal readers were superior to disabled readers for fixations regressions, and rate of reading. Among the RDs--but not the normals--the three variables improved with the blue filter when compared with the clear filter, number of fixations and regressions were significantly lower, and rate was significantly higher. Gray filters yielded no significant changes. Improvement with the blue filters normalized the three variables in that there were no significant differences between normal and disabled readers.

CONCLUSION
This investigation confirms a link between wavelength of light and eye movement efficiency in reading. Blue filters resulted in a significant improvement in the number of fixations and regressions and rate of reading in RD children. The outcome broadens the concept of transient system deficit established in previous research to include the effect on oculomotor efficiency. The educational implications of this study are of special interest to optometrists.


Background: Frailty is a clinical condition associated with loss of muscle mass and strength (sarcopenia). Mitochondria are centrally implicated in frailty and sarcopenia. Leucine (Leu) can alter mitochondrial content in myocytes, while resistance training (RT) is the strongest stimulus to counteract sarcopenia and may enhance mitochondrial biogenesis. Objective: We determined the effects of Leu supplementation and RT on mitochondrial content and function in pre/frail elderly women in a randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled study. Methods: Nineteen pre/frail elderly women (77.5 ± 1.3 y, BMI: 25.1 ± 0.9 kg/m2), based on the Frailty Phenotype, underwent 3-months of RT 3×/week with protein-optimized diet and were randomized to 7.5 g/d of Leu supplementation or placebo alanine (Ala). Pre/post-intervention mitochondrial respiration, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, calcium retention capacity (CRC), time to permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening, mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) protein content, leg press 1-repetition maximum (1RM), and 6-min walk test (6MWT) were measured. Results: No time, supplementation, or interaction effects were observed for respiration, ROS, time to mPTP opening, and CRC. VDAC levels significantly increased in the Leu group post-intervention (p = 0.012). Both groups significantly increased leg press 1RM and 6MWT, with no effect of supplementation. Discussion: Leu supplementation with 3 months of RT increased mitochondrial content. Future studies should investigate if there is an increase in mitochondrial turnover or a shift in quality control (mitophagy) in leucine supplemented pre/frail elderly women who undergo 12 weeks of RT. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT01922167.


Radical decyanation of aliphatic nitriles was achieved in the presence of NaBH4 and a thiol. The reaction proceeds via a radical mechanism involving borane radical anion addition to nitrile to form an iminyl radical, which undergoes carbon-carbon cleavage. Reductive radical addition to acrylonitrile is followed by decyanation to give a two-carbon homologated product in a net radical ethylation reaction.


With the rapid advancement of SOI technology, SOI device and circuit performances keep steadily improving. However, some fundamental problems such as self-heating and ESD are still un-resolved. Such adverse effects can be easily dealt with by combining bulk technologies with current SOI technologies on the same wafer. It has been shown that NMOS buffers built on the substrate of SOI wafers can provide significant improvement in ESD protection for SOI circuits. Also, the availability both SOI and bulk technologies can facilitate the design of high performance circuits. Integration of SOI and bulk technologies can easily be done after selectively etching of the silicon film and buried oxide. However, due to the difference in surface quality, the performance of these substrate MOSFETs is not very clear. Issues such as electron mobility, gate oxide quality and hot carrier reliability have to be addressed. In this paper, the performance of substrate MOSFETs fabricated on SIMOX wafers are evaluated and compared with normal bulk wafers fabricated in the same process lot.


We wanted to investigate the immunological events occurring in rats intestinally colonized from birth (neonatally) or at adult age with an ovalbumin (OVA)‐producing Escherichia coli O6K13 strain, carrying type 1 pili. The neonatally colonized animals responded with lower delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH) against OVA and lower levels of IgG antibodies against OVA, O6 lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and type 1 pili compared to age‐matched controls. The IgG antibody response against the bystander antigen, human serum albumin (HSA), was lower in the neonatally colonized animals than in the controls co‐immunized with HSA and E. coli, indicating a release of suppressive factors induced by the bacterial antigens. The adult colonized animals showed an increased DTH and antibody response against OVA after immunization. They also had high pre‐immunization levels of IgG anti‐O6 LPS antibodies compared to controls. However, the relative increase in IgG anti‐O6 LPS antibody levels after the immunization with dead E. coli was much lower in the adult colonized animals. The present results suggest that neonatal animals develop tolerance against antigen on bacterial colonizers of the intestine. In addition, this tolerance contains components of suppression.


Enteritis necroticans 'pigbel' is caused by Clostridium perfringens type C but has rarely been reported in developed countries. A 50‐year‐old Japanese man with untreated diabetes mellitus (DM) presented with diarrhea and abdominal pain. Intraoperative endoscopic and macroscopic examination disclosed segmental annular mucosal lesions characteristic of clostridial enteritis. Clostridial infection type C was verified on pathological, and immunohistochemical analysis. Although rare, the disease is likely to be underdiagnosed. Hence, the pathology and immunohistochemistry of segmental enteritis with annular mucosal lesions should be examined to establish a diagnosis of enteritis necroticans even in mildly affected patients, and especially those with DM.


For harvesting wind energy, especially at low-velocity regions, Savonius vertical-axis wind rotors are usually preferred. Among other variants of the vertical-axis wind rotors, the Savonius rotor has become an attractive candidate as a small-scale stand-alone system due to its direction independency, ease of fabrication and the absence of yaw-mechanism. The present paper attempts to study the effect of corrugated blades on the performance of a conventional Savonius rotor. The corrugation is a bio-inspired concept derived from the dragonfly wings. As reported in literature, the corrugation applied in the chord-wise direction of the airfoil improves the lift characteristics. This lift improvement is caused by the trapped vortices inside the corrugation that promotes a low-pressure region over the leading edge and suction surface of the airfoil. This concept of corrugation and its effect has been applied to the blades of a conventional Savonius wind rotor to improve its torque characteristics. In this paper, a rotor with corrugated semicircular blade profiles is studied by two-dimensional (2D) transient numerical simulation in ANSYS FLUENT using shear stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model. The simulations are conducted in the range of 5 m/s to 7 m/s to suit the lower wind velocities of the Savonius rotor. The torque and power coefficients of the corrugated semicircular-bladed rotor are calculated at the rotating conditions. Further, the pressure and local torque distributions over the corrugated blade surfaces are obtained and analyzed to understand the torque mechanism of the rotor with corrugated blade profiles. In order to have a direct comparison, the study has also been carried out for semicircular-bladed rotor without corrugation.


Cyclically loaded machine parts made of high strength-steel mostly fail at high lifetimes from subsurface inclusions. This phenomenon was observed notably in fatigue tests at low stress amplitudes, which cause failure in the very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) regime. In contrast, at high stress amplitudes the crack initiation and failure starts from the surface. It can be shown that, depending on stress level, different crack growth mechanisms play an essential role for the failure from subsurface inclusions. To analyse the crack growth initiated from inclusions, specimens of the bearing steel 100Cr6 in martensitic condition were tested under tension-compression at different loads till failure. The fracture surfaces were analysed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with focus on the crack origin, to apply fracture mechanics theory. In combination to this the microstructure below the crack surface was analysed in detail by a focused ion beam (FIB) preparation of the area around the inclusion and a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation. Finally the change of failure mode is explained by different crack growth mechanisms, which depend on the respective stress intensity factors and a general threshold value for the initiation of long cracks.


The rapid rise in recent years of cyberbullying in schools has largely taken the education community by surprise, and only now are we developing an understanding of how widespread cyberbullying in schools has become, the different forms that it can take, what motivates pupils to engage in cyberbullying, and what strategies schools can employ to prevent cyberbullying. This paper takes stock of research findings dealing with cyberbullying by pupils in order to create a psychological typology of pupil cyberbullies. Five common types are identified and described: the sociable cyberbully, the lonely cyberbully, the narcissistic cyberbully, the sadistic cyberbully, and the morally-driven cyberbully. A better understanding of these cyberbullying types will help ensure that the strategies used to prevent cyberbullying by pupils take account of the psychological attributes (both personal and social) that underpin such behaviour.


In recent years, the structure of global population keeps going towards highly-aged continuously. The development of chronic patient medical care system becomes important and meaningful since people paid a lot attention to medical prevention. The medical care system has to provide alerts in time before the severe chronic illness occurs, such as stroke, diabetics, heart disease. Thus, necessary procedures can be taken in short time to save one precious life. In this paper, we presented a data mining system for chronic patient monitoring with applications on caring of cardiovascular patients. By mining vital signs like ECG, the system can predict with a classification tree and inform doctors to take actions if any anomaly could happen. A series of experiments on PAF data showed that our system can stably predict the anomaly from patientspsila ECG data without coding of medical rules as done in other existing approaches.


Background: Grudhrasi (Sciatica) is one of the eighty Vatavyadhi mentioned in Ayurvedic Samhitas , which is caused by aggravated Vatadosha . This is characterized by Ruja (pain) in the waist, back, thigh, knee and calf regions along the course of Sciatic nerve. There are many treatment modalities available in Ayurveda and Modern medical science. They have some or the other shortcomings and drawbacks. Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of Bhujangasana with Katibasti over only Katibasti . Materials and Methods: It is a randomized open interventional parallel efficacy drug trial. A total number of  40 patients were selected from OPD. All the patients were having classical presentation of Grudhrasi and SLR test positive between 30 0 and 70 0 . The selected were randomly divided in to two groups, namely, Group A (study group n = 20) and Group B (control group n = 20). Group A was given Bhujangasana with Katibasti and Group B was given Katibasti only. The data were collected and observations were made before the treatment, on 8 th day, 15 th day and on 22 nd day of the treatment. The data obtained from the result were subjected for statistical analysis and conclusions were drawn. Results: In Group A, 85% patients were totally relieved of pain and 15% patients were reported to have moderate pain. In Group B, 55% patients reported total relief from pain and 25% had mild pain. In 90% cases SLR became negative in Group A, whereas in Group B 75% patients reported negative result in SLR test. Conclusion: Analysis of overall effect of treatment in the present study reveals that Bhujangasana with Katibasti was statistically significant compared to that of Katibasti .


In recent years, there has been an increased interest in octahedral rotations in perovskite materials, particularly on their response to strain in epitaxial thin films. The current theoretical framework assumes that rotations are affected primarily through the change in in-plane lattice parameters imposed by coherent heteroepitaxy on a substrate of different lattice constant. This model, which permits prediction of the thin-film rotational pattern using first-principles density functional theory, has not been tested quantitatively over a range of strain states. To assess the validity of this picture, coherent LaAlO3 thin films were grown on SrTiO3, NdGaO3, LaSrAlO4, NdAlO3, and YAlO3 substrates to achieve strain states ranging from +3.03% to −2.35%. The out-of-plane and in-plane octahedral rotation angles were extracted from the intensity of superlattice reflections measured using synchrotron x-ray diffraction. Density functional calculations show that no measurable change in intrinsic defect concentration should occur throughout the range of accessible strain states. Thus, the measured rotation angles were compared with those calculated previously for defect-free films. [ Hatt and Spaldin Phys. Rev. B 82 195402 (2010)]. Good agreement between theory and experiment was found, suggesting that the current framework correctly captures the appropriate physics in LaAlO3.


This thesis describes an investigation on impurity transport in the JT-60U tokamak plasma both in the core and the divertor plasmas to provide a better understanding of plasma physics. A radiative divertor experiment with neon gas puff was carried out with an aim of investigating impurity behaviors in the divertor, after the open divertor was modified to the pumped W-shaped divertor. To evaluate neon radiation, analysis was made for lines from neon ions measured with a VUV spectrometer in the divertor plasma. As a result, lines from Ne IV-Ne VIII were identified. By combining the measurement with an absolutely calibrated multi-channel interference filter spectrometer and that with the VUV spectrometer, the radiation loss through neon line emission was estimated in the divertor plasma. In the case of pumping off, the detached plasma evolved into a MARFE. It was observed that the line intensities of highly ionized neon (Ne VII, Ne VIII) increased simultaneously with the formation of the MARFE and furthermore increased after the MARFE formation. It is considered that after the divertor plasma was detached, the plasma flow velocity and the friction force were weaker than in the case of pumping off than in the case of pumping on and more impurities moved toward the X-point region. This observation implies reduction of impurity back flow from the divertor to the upstream by the friction force. This thesis indicates that the plasma flow in the SOL (Scrape-Off Layer) is important to confine the impurity in the divertor region and prevent the MARFE for the first time. In reversed shear discharges with ITB (internal transport barrier), electron density, temperature and radiation power strongly increased inside the ITB. The core radiation was analyzed by bolometry, VUV spectrometer and CXRS (charge exchange recombination spectroscopy). The core radiation was evaluated with the spectroscopic method in the reversed shear regime. 97% of the main plasma radiation was bremsstrahlung and this estimation agreed with the bolometric measurement within 10%. During high performance discharges with reversed shear, the radiation profile strongly peaked inside the ITB radius. The increment of carbon density is explained by neoclassical transport of banana-banana collision regime. However, nIne is flat inside ITB during the electron density increase implying that the discharge has not reached a steady state. If the impurity keeps accumulating at the center as predicted by neoclassical transport theory, the carbon accumulation may pose a problem to the core plasma performance.


OBJECTIVE
To explore morphological and vision changes in untreated eyes with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) that have poorly demarcated boundaries.

DESIGN
Analysis of photographs of untreated patients with poorly demarcated occult CNV participating in a prospective clinical trial evaluating laser treatment compared with observation.

SETTING
Two tertiary retinal referral centers.

PATIENTS
Symptomatic individuals with poorly demarcated subfoveal occult CNV associated with age-related macular degeneration.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Change in size of lesion, development of classic CNV, change in vision, and development of subretinal fibrosis.

RESULTS
During follow-up (9-12 months), 32% of the occult choroidal neovascular lesions more than doubled their original size. Classic CNV developed in 52% of eyes that started without it. The median loss in visual acuity was 2.5 lines. Eyes with classic CNV or subretinal blood or both at baseline developed subretinal fibrosis more frequently and lost more visual acuity, but not to a statistically significant degree.

CONCLUSIONS
The morphological changes of eyes with subfoveal occult CNV in which the boundaries are poorly demarcated in variable; the presence of subretinal blood or a component of classic CNV may influence the prognosis for further loss of vision.


In this work, we address several issues that influence the accuracy and reliability of model-based predictions for composite materials systems. During this process, we pursue data-driven stochastic modeling and simulation of complex composite materials across a hierarchy of length scales. The key feature of our approach is the utilization of polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) within a hierarchical multiscale setup to carry out stochastic data-driven model characterization, model updating, and model validation. The most prominent aspect of PCE-based modeling is coupling the key descriptors of properties and behaviors, featuring the different length scales, explicitly with respect to fundamental uncertainties across these length scales. A variety of central and consequential implications of PCE-based modeling within the context of some pressing complexities are discussed and demonstrated in this paper. Among these central features, we specifically highlight: (i) the explicit mapping among the constitutive properties of composites at different length scales with physics-constraint data models, (ii) the efficient integration of a matrix of different data sets featuring multiscale properties , (iii) the construction of explicit reduced-order surrogates of intricate dependent and coupled structure of quantities of interests, (vi) the versatility of PCE models to perform model calibration, efficient simulation of multiscale quantities of interests, efficient quantification of uncertainties in predictions, model updating as new data sets become available.


The potentiometric method was used to determine the protonation (dissociation) constants for morin, rutin and chrysin and the composition and formation constants of the Pd(II)-flavonoid complexes in the water/methanol/acetonitrile/1,4-dioxane mixture (water/MDM). All investigations were carried out at a constant ionic strength of I = 0.2 (KCI) at 298 K. Morin, rutin and chrysin are polyprotic acids (polihydroxy-flavones) practically insoluble in water, but they are soluble in organic solvents. The mixture of water/MDM is interesting because several solvents were mixed together to produce a solvent having a physical and chemical properties different of the pure components. The two (chrysin) and three (morin, rutin) dissociation constants were obtained by the Bjerrum method (graphic approximations) and numeric data analysis by Hyperquad2008 computer program. Obtained results provide evidence to show that investigated flavonoids in water-MDM solutions form with Pd(II) complexes of composition ML and MI.. The values of the stability constants suggest that the complexes of chrysin, rutin and morin with Pd(II) ions are of medium stability. Moreover, obtained result implies that morin forms the strongest complexes with Pd(II), subsequently rutin and chrysin.


This paper investigates the existence of a second dimension of state policy ideology orthogonal to the traditional left-right dimension: civil libertarianism-communitarianism. It argues that voter attitudes toward nonviolent acts that are sometimes crimes, particularly weapons and drugs offenses, are in part distinct from their liberal or conservative ideologies, and cause systematic variation in states' policies toward these acts. The hypotheses are tested with a structural equation model of state policies that combines "confirmatory factor analysis'' with linear regression. The existence of a second dimension of state policy essentially uncorrelated with left-right ideology and loading onto gun control, marijuana, and other criminal justice policies is confirmed. Moreover, this dimension of policy ideology relates in the expected fashion to urbanization and the strength of ideological libertarianism in the state electorate. The results suggest that the libertarian-communitarian divide represents an enduring dimension of policy-making in the United States.


A noise-reduction algorithm for time-series of non-linear systems is presented. The algorithm smoothes the attractors in phase space using B-splines, allowing a more accurate measure of their dynamics. The algorithm is tested on numerical and experimental data. It is linear in complexity, and can be applied to embeddings of any dimension.


Experiences with prophylaxis of postoperative complications in 1179 lung resections (1960 to 1974) are discussed. Preoperatively exercises in breathing, inhalations with mucolytic and proteolytic drugs, in some cases therapeutic bronchosopy are used. An atraumatic thoracotomy with minimal cutting of muscles is preferred. In the postoperative course early mobilization of the patients and substitution of large amounts of fluid are used. The number of postoperative complications was reduced from 15,2% (1960 to 1966) to 2,6% (1971 to 1974). Artificial respiration or postoperative therapeutic bronchoscopy were not necessary during the last 6 years.


It is proposed that the scope of solid-phase peptide synthesis could be considerably broadened by attaching peptides to the solid-phase through functional side-chain groups rather than through the commonly used alpha-carboxyl groups. Side-chain attachment offers the use of a large variety of chemical linkages to solid supports. Attachment through the epsilon-amino group of the lysine residue to a polystyrene resin has been applied to a solid-phase synthesis of lysine-vasopressin. N(alpha)-tert-butyl-oxycarbonyl-L-lysyl-glycinamide was condensed with chloroformoxymethyl polystyrene-2% divinylbenzene resin. After removal of the N(alpha)-protecting tert-butyloxycarbonyl group, the peptide chain was elongated by standard Merrifield procedures to give Tos-Cys(Bzl)-Tyr-Phe-Glu-(NH(2)) - Asp(NH(2)) - Cys(Bzl) - Pro - Lys(Z - resin) - Gly-NH(2). Cleavage from the resin with HBr in dioxane or trifluoroacetic acid gave a partially protected nonapeptide hydrobromide. For purification, it was converted into a fully protected peptide by treatment with benzyl p-nitro-phenyl carbonate and crystallized. Deprotection by sodium in liquid ammonia, oxidative cyclization, IRC-50 desalting, and ion-exchange chromatography gave lysinevasopressin with high potency in a rat-pressor assay.


MRCKα is a ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine kinase involved in cell contraction and F-actin turnover, which is highly amplified in human breast cancer and part of a gene expression signature for bad prognosis. Nothing is known about the in vivo function of MRCKα. To explore MRCKα function in development and in breast cancer, we generated mice lacking a functional MRCKα gene. Mice were born close to the Mendelian ratio and showed no obvious phenotype including a normal mammary gland formation. Assessing breast cancer development using the transgenic MMTV-PyMT mouse model, loss of MRCKα did not affect tumor onset, tumor growth and metastasis formation. Deleting MRCKα and its related family member MRCKβ in two triple-negative breast cancer cell lines resulted in reduced invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells, but did not affect migration of 4T1 cells. Further genomic analysis of human breast cancers revealed that MRCKα is frequently co-amplified with the oncogenes ARID4B and AKT3 which might contribute to the prognostic value of MRCKα expression. Collectively, these data suggest that MRCKα might be a prognostic marker for breast cancer, but probably of limited functional importance.


Absolute phase retrieval is essential for height measurement in digital fringe projection. However, projections of additional structured patterns that are normally required for phase unwrapping increase the measurement complexity. In this paper, we propose two reference-plane-based pixel-by-pixel absolute phase retrieval techniques with as few projections as possible, suitable for different object depth ranges. The wrapped phase on the object is absolutely unwrapped by referring just to the absolute phase map on the reference plane. Single-frequency absolute phase retrieval with one-reference-plane-based calibration is first proposed for objects within a height limit that equals a calibrated system constant. To extend the measurement depth range, dual-frequency absolute phase retrieval with two parallel reference planes is further proposed. The additional low frequency is used to choose the unwrapping reference from the two reference plane phases for unwrapping the high-frequency phase. Moreover, the proposed techniques are capable of high-frequency absolute phase unwrapping for objects with step-height surface discontinuities. Experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed two techniques.


Brain postnatal development is characterized by critical periods of experience-dependent remodeling1,2. Termination of these periods of intense plasticity is associated with settling of neuronal circuits, allowing for efficient information processing3. Failure to end critical periods thus results in neurodevelopmental disorders4,5. Yet, the cellular processes defining the timing of these developmental periods remain unclear. Here we show in the mouse visual cortex that astrocytes control the closure of the critical period. We uncover a novel underlying pathway involving regulation of the extracellular matrix that allows interneurons maturation via an unconventional astroglial connexin signaling. We find that timing of the critical period closure is controlled by a marked developmental upregulation of the astroglial protein connexin 30 that inhibits expression of the matrix degrading enzyme MMP9 through the RhoA-GTPase signaling pathway. Our results thus demonstrate that astrocytes not only influence activity and plasticity of single synapses, but are also key elements in the experience-dependent wiring of brain developing circuits. This work, by revealing that astrocytes promote the maturation of inhibitory circuits, hence provide a new cellular target to alleviate malfunctions associated to impaired closure of critical periods.


The mother-infant interaction was studied in the mouse by changing the size of litters. Litter size was reduced to either two or eight on the day following parturition, and the behavior of the mothers was observed by the time-sampling technique during the entire lactation period. There was no significant difference in their maternal behavior, (nursing, licking pups, and nest bulding). The mothers of the small litters were less active and spent more time resting than the mothers of the large litters. The offspring were re-grouped at weaning (21 days of age) into groups of two or eight of the same sex, and tested in an open field at nine weeks of age. The pre-weaning litter size and the post-weaning group size affected different aspects of the open-fieldbehavior.


The endogenous defenses of the mouse heart against reactive oxygen metabolites were investigated. The activities of three enzymes capable of detoxifying activated oxygen were determined in both the heart and liver; cardiac muscle contains 150 times less catalase and nearly four times less superoxide dismutase than liver. Glutathione peroxidase activities were, however, similar to the two tissues. Assay of glutathione peroxidase in the heart after 6 wk of selenium depletion with both hydrogen peroxide and cumene hydroperoxide as substrates revealed a >80% drop in enzyme activity and gave no indication that murine cardiac tissue contains nonselenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase. The selenium-deficient state, which was characterized by markedly decreased cardiac glutathione peroxidase levels, led to significantly enhanced doxorubicin toxicity at a dose of 15 mg/kg i.p. Doxorubicin administration in selenium-sufficient animals resulted in a dose-dependent decrease in cardiac glutathione peroxidase activity; the decrease in enzyme activity lasted 72 h after 15 mg/kg i.p. In contrast, cardiac superoxide dismutase and hepatic superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase were unaffected by this dose of doxorubicin. These results suggest that the major pathway in cardiac tissue for detoxification of reactive oxygen metabolites is via the concerted action of superoxide dismutase and selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase. The latter enzyme may be depleted by a selenium-deficient diet or doxorubicin treatment, leaving the heart with limited mechanisms for disposing of hydrogen peroxide or lipid peroxides.


Researchers have embraced a variety of machine learning (ML) techniques in their efforts to improve the quality of learning programs. The recent evolution of hybrid architectures for machine learning systems has resulted in several approaches that combine rule induction methods with case-based reasoning techniques to engender performance improvements over more traditional single-representation architectures. We briefly survey several major rule-induction and case-based reasoning ML systems. We then examine some interesting hybrid combinations of these systems and explain their strengths and weaknesses as learning systems. We present a balanced approach to constructing a hybrid architecture, along with arguments in favor of this balance and mechanisms for achieving a proper balance. Finally, we present some initial empirical results from testing our ideas and draw some conclusions based on those results.


Black in Marine Science was founded in 2020 to celebrate black marine scientists, spread environmental awareness, and inspire the next generation of scientific thought leaders. Black in Marine Science began as a week but has become a movement.


A magnetohydrodynamics solver ("mhdCompressibleInterFoam") has been developed for a compressible two-phase flow with a free surface by extending "compressibleInterFoam" solver within OpenFOAM suite. The primary goal is to develop a tool to simulate compression of magnetic fields in vacuum and simplified magnetized plasma targets by imploding rotating liquid metal liners in the context of a Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) concept in pursuit by General Fusion Inc. At present, the solver is limited to axisymmetric problems and the magnetic field evolution is solved in terms of toroidal field component and poloidal flux functions. The solver has been validated and verified using a number of test cases for which analytical or other numerical solutions are provided. Those tests cases include: (i) compression of toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields in vacuum and cylindrical geometry, (ii) axisymmetric annular Hartmann flow, and (iii) compression of magnetized target initialized with a Grad–Shafranov equilibrium state in a cylindrical geometry. A methodology to incorporate conductive solid regions into simulation has also been developed. Capability of the code is demonstrated by simulating a complex case of compressing a magnetized target, which is injected during implosion of a rotating liquid metal liner with an initially soaked poloidal magnetic field. An application of the solver to simulate compression of a magnetized target in a geometry and parameters relevant to the Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) being developed by General Fusion Inc. is also demonstrated.


People have hunted mammals in tropical Asian forests for at least 40,000 yr. This period has seen one confirmed global extinction (the giant pangolin, Manis palaeojavanica) and range restrictions for several large mammals, but there is no strong evidence for unsustainable hunting pressure until the last 2000–3000 yr, when elephants, rhinoceroses, and several other species were progressively eliminated from the large parts of their ranges. Regional declines in most species have occurred largely within the last 50 yr. Recent subsistence hunting has typically focused on pigs and deer (hunted with dogs and spears or with snares), monkeys and other arboreal mammals (often caught with blowpipes), and porcupines and other rodents (smoked or dug out of burrows). Over the last 50 yr, the importance of hunting for subsistence has been increasingly outweighed by hunting for the market. The hunted biomass is dominated by the same species as before, sold mostly for local consumption, but numerous additional species are targeted for the colossal regional trade in wild animals and their parts for food, medicines, raw materials, and pets. Many populations of mammalian dispersers of large seeds and understory browsers have been depleted or eliminated, while seed predators have had a more variable fate. Most of this hunting is now illegal, but the law enforcement is generally weak. However, examples of successful enforcement show that hunting impacts can be greatly reduced where there is sufficient political will. Ending the trade in wild animals and their parts should have the highest regional conservation priority.


The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the crystalline metastasis of lactose, which is a main component baby milk powder, and the hardness of baby milk powder compressed by humidification followed by drying. Because baby milk powder is manufactured using a spray dryer, lactose in compressed baby milk powder exists in an amorphous (solid dispersion) form. X-ray diffraction measurement showed that this amorphous lactose metastasized to β-form crystalline lactose, and thereafter metastasized to the α-form during the humidification-drying process. As a result of this crystalline metastasis, the hardness of the compressed baby milk powder increased, and then decreased. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed bridging structures between the particles increased and then decreased during the humidification-drying process. This showed that bridging structures between the particles produced by crystalline metastasis of lactose as a result of the humidification-drying process, which leads to an increase in the hardness of the compressed baby milk powder. These results show that the necessary degree of hardness of the porous compressed baby milk powder (necessary for packaging and transportation) resulted from the humidification-drying process.


The heat shock response in Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis was characterized with respect to synthesis of a unique set of proteins induced by thermal stress. A shift in temperature from 30 to 42°C was sufficient to arrest the growth of L. lactis subsp. lactis, but growth resumed after a shift back to 30°C. Heat shock at 50°C reduced the viable cell population by 103; however, pretreatment of the cells at 42°C made them more thermoresistant to exposure at 50°C. The enhanced synthesis of approximately 13 proteins was observed in cells labeled with 35S upon heat shock at 42°C. Of these heat shock-induced proteins, two appeared to be homologs of GroEL and DnaK, based on their molecular weights and reactivity with antiserum against the corresponding Escherichia coli proteins. Therefore, we conclude that L. lactis subsp. lactis displays a heat shock response similar to that observed in other mesophilic bacteria.


The male phenotype arises from the optimal concordance of chromosomal, gonadal and hormonal sex. Hormonal sex depends directly on the type of gonads that have been formed, and is linked both to the production of hormones and to their optimal effect on target tissues. The present review underlines the fact that psychosexual orientation in the male is also related to factors linked to sex hormones. Many of the experimental and clinical data available militate against the long-held belief that the development of role and gender identity in man is predominantly determined by environmental factors. This study points out the importance of hormonal factors at the CNS level. The most common abnormalities of sexual orientation are homosexuality and transsexualism. Despite their relatively high frequency in the general population, research into possible biological influences in these abnormalities is very scant. The authors of the present paper have reviewed the literature data yielded by biological and hormonal studies on homosexuality and transsexualism. These data seem to support the hypothesis that androgens may be deficient in the CNS of male homosexuals. Morphological or functional (neurotransmitter) anomalies in androgen actions at the CNS level could also favor radical dissociation between psychological sex and gonadal, hormonal and phenotypic sex in transsexualism. In conclusion, the present review seems to indicate that hormonal factors (gonadal and adrenal hormones, hormone receptors, transduction mechanism of the hormonal signal, neurosteroids, neurotransmitters etc.) play a determining role in the formation of gender identity.


A noticeable interest has been observed in the formation of learning to learn competence in both the documents of educational policy and in scientific sources, where the importance of this process is highlighted, which is treated as a lifelong learning activity. Therefore, the need to reveal different learners' ability and preparation to learn how to learn becomes comprehensible. Thus the research problem could be expressed by the question if there exists differences between higher grade schoolchildren's and first year students' learning to learn competence, what complementary parts of this competence are more developed within the two groups of the respondents. To fulfill the objective of the research – to reveal and to compare the level of learning to learn competence of higher grade schoolchildren and first year students, the following research tasks have been defined: 1) to determine differences between schoolchildren's and students' competence of planning and evaluation of learning 2) to analyze the priorities of organizing learning of both groups of respondents 3) to reveal differences of the respondents' viewpoints on the perception of the importance of learning to learn and emotional learning experience. The research data revealed some statistically relevant differences between the development of schoolchildren's and students' learning to learn competence, although in the author's opinion these differences do not have essential influence on the development of this competence. Most significant changes were determined in the schoolchildren's and students' ability to organize learning. Students' priorities are evident: creation of a suitable learning environment and preparation for learning. Besides, it became obvious that schoolchildren are better at applying various communication forms in learning. It has become clear that students are able to have a deeper insight into personal importance of learning, whereas schoolchildren demonstrated higher self-confidence and courage to communicate in a foreign language.


AffectNet contains more than 1,000,000 facial images which manually annotated for the presence of eight discrete facial expressions and the intensity of valence and arousal. Adaptive structural learning method of DBN (Adaptive DBN) is positioned as a top Deep learning model of classification capability for some large image benchmark databases. The Convolutional Neural Network and Adaptive DBN were trained for AffectNet and classification capability was compared. Adaptive DBN showed higher classification ratio. However, the model was not able to classify some test cases correctly because human emotions contain many ambiguous features or patterns leading wrong answer which includes the possibility of being a factor of adversarial examples, due to two or more annotators answer different subjective judgment for an image. In order to distinguish such cases, this paper investigated a re-learning model of Adaptive DBN with two or more child models, where the original trained model can be seen as a parent model and then new child models are generated for some misclassified cases. In addition, an appropriate child model was generated according to difference between two models by using KL divergence. The generated child models showed better performance to classify two emotion categories: 'Disgust' and 'Anger'.


Ve present results from a mathematical analysis that is aimed at finding the best way to sequence the three traditional cancer treatments: surgery (S), chemotherapy (C) and radiotherapy (R). The mathematical model tracks the temporal evolution of the primary tumor and its associated metastases, and incorporates the primary tumor's effect on the dormancy and growth of the metastases. We show that the SCR schedule (i.e., surgery followed by chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy) achieves a higher cure probability than SRC if the primary tumor is sufficiently large or if the metastatic population is sufficiently large relative to the primary tumor. We also show that a novel schedule, SRCR, which splits the radiotherapy regimen into two disjoint portions, is optimal among all schedules, provided that the patient's dormant metastatic tumors do not become vascularized within about 40 days after surgery. Running title: Sequencing Multimodal Treatments 1Person to whom correspondence should be addressed


We establish the presence of topologically protected edge states on the (001) surface of HgS in the zinc-blende structure using density-functional electronic structure calculations. The Dirac point of the edge state cone is very close to the bulk valence band maximum. The Dirac cone is extremely anisotropic with a very large electron velocity along one diagonal of the surface elementary cell x' and a nearly flat dispersion in the perpendicular direction y'. The strong anisotropy originates from a broken fourfold rotoinversion symmetry at the surface.


The performance of conventional distance-based vector quantization (VQ) for distributed speech recognition (DSR) is inevitably degraded by the environmental noise and quantization distortion. The pre-trained codebook is less scalable and may not be matched with the testing speech. A new concept of Histogram-based Quantization (HQ) is proposed in this paper, in which the quantization levels are dynamically defined by the histogram or order statistics of a segment of local most recent past samples of the parameter to be quantized. All problems with a pre-trained codebook is automatically solved because the pre-trained codebook is not used at all. The computation requirement is low because no distance measure is needed. The approach is robust because most disturbances (including very non-stationary types) can be absorbed by the dynamic histogram. Extensive experiments with AURORA 2.0 testing environment indicated the new approach is highly robust and scalable, suitable for future personalized and context-aware DSR environment.


Coupling factor particles are associated with membranes of maize etioplasts (Lockshin et al., 1971. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 226: 366-382). In addition, several, but not all, of the polypeptides found in the photosynthetic lamellae of maize chloroplasts are present in etioplasts. During the photoregulated maturation of chloroplasts from etioplasts, the membranes of the organelle acquire the capacity to carry on acid to base phosphorylation. The acquisition of this ability is closely correlated with the development of osmotic responsiveness and the appearance of a 46,000 dalton polypeptide in the membranes.


Here we report on estimates of the changes in stratospheric water vapour (SWV) due to methane oxidation based on observational data. Above the tropopause oxidation of methane results in a decrease in its mixing ratio with altitude and this is a major source for SWV. The vertical profile of SWV changes from methane oxidation is presented here using satellite observations of the vertical profile of methane. Trends in the SWV are shown to be small in the lower stratosphere, but can reach 0.7 ppbv at 30 km at high latitudes over the period 1950–2000. The radiative forcing for this indirect effect of methane increase over the industrial era is estimated to be slightly weaker than 0.1 Wm−2 which implies a larger contribution of water vapour to the methane global warming potential than used in recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments. Our estimate considers only chemical changes and not SWV of dynamical causes. Importantly, we find substantial differences in the temperature change in the stratosphere for a homogeneous change in SWV and SWV change from methane oxidation. This has implications for trend analysis of SWV and understanding and attribution of the stratospheric temperature trend.


The UK's Oxford PV has reaped $81 million in its fourth round of fundraising to support production of perovskite-silicon photovoltaic cells. Investors include Goldwind, a Chinese renewable energy provider, and Meyer Burger, a supplier of photovoltaic production equipment. Oxford PV was created in 2010 and is based on technology from the lab of University of Oxford professor Henry Snaith. The company says its low-cost, thin-film perovskite layer boosts silicon cells' performance and can be tuned to capture high-energy blue light. It will scale up manufacturing at its site in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany.


Nationalism theorists have noted the link between traumatic events and national identity, and cultural trauma theory presents a framework for understanding how these events become trauma narratives. I argue for greater consideration of how these narratives are strategically linked to ideological frames of national identity. A case study of post-Independence India considering the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and the Partition of India and Pakistan demonstrates how two very different events were promoted as cultural traumas by various carrier groups in order to promote a secular vision of the Indian nation. Adapting Armstrong and Crage (2006), I suggest that the success of these trauma narratives depend on several criteria: the ease of narrating the event, how it is linked to underlying cultural meanings/frames and how the event interacts with historical contingencies.


In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in broadcast database systems, where the server periodically broadcasts contents of a database to mobile clients such as PDAs. There are three query processing methods in the broadcast database system: (i) the server processes a query and then broadcasts the query result to the client; (ii) the client stores all data that are necessary in processing the query and then processes it locally; and (iii) the server and the client collaborate in processing the query. Since the performance of each method changes according to the system situation, such as query frequency, it is difficult to decide the optimal method among them statically. In this paper, we propose a new query processing method which dynamically changes the query processing method based on query frequency. This method improves not only the response time but also the success rate of query processing compared with the traditional methods.


It is currently assumed that crude oil-based fuels will continue to dominate the transport fuel markets for at least the next 20 years. However, the complexity in their composition (hundreds or even thousands of components) makes impossible the detailed understanding of their combustion chemistry. Concerning gasoline fuels, numerous studies have been conducted over the past decades on alkanes (linear and branched) and, to a certain extent, aromatics. However, even though linear alkenes (or olefins) of interest (C4-C8 range) have been studied, it is worth noting that these linear molecules do not really represent the olefin fraction of a gasoline fuel. Indeed, studies on gasoline fuels typically conclude that a branched olefin such as 2-methyl-2-butene would represent better this fuel fraction. Unfortunately, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no combustion kinetics study available for 2-methyl-2-butene in the literature. During this study, ignition delay times for 2-methyl-2-butene have been measured behind reflected shock waves for mixtures highly diluted in Ar (99% dilution). Pressures around 1.5, 10, and 30 atm and equivalence ratios set to 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 have been investigated over a large range of temperatures (1345-1730 K). It was possible to derive the following correlation from these data:


We analyse the effects of an active labour market program for disadvantaged workers recently implemented in an Italian depressed area. Our sample includes 859 workers, mostly women, who entered the program before April 2008 and were interviewed in 2009-10. We complement the existing administrative data with survey data that enables us to control for numerous individual and labour market characteristics for both treated and non-treated individuals. Using propensity-score matching methods, we find that the employment subsidy had a positive and significant effect (ATT) for participants on both the probability of finding a job and on their level of income. We also control for effect heterogeneity and find that the outcome of the policy was higher for women and, among them, we also find that the program was more effective on less educated and older female workers. Finally, we exploit unique information on previous contacts between workers and firms and on the use of informal channels for job search activity to explore the role of the program in promoting the transition from informal employment to a salaried economy.


Motor memories undergo a period of consolidation before they become resistant to the practice of another task. Although movement variability is important in motor memory consolidation, its role is not fully understood in redundant tasks where variability can exist along two orthogonal subspaces (the 'task space' and the 'null space') that have different effects on task performance. Here, we used haptic perturbations to augment variability in these different spaces and examined their effect on motor memory consolidation. Participants learned a shuffleboard task, where they held a bimanual manipulandum and made a discrete throwing motion to slide a virtual puck towards a target. The task was redundant because the distance travelled by the puck was determined by the sum of the left and right hand speeds at the time of release. After participants initially practiced the task, we used haptic perturbations to introduce motor variability in the task space or null space, and subsequently examined consolidation of the original task on the next day. We found that regardless of the amplitude, augmenting variability in the task space resulted in significantly better consolidation. This benefit of increasing task space variability was likely due to the fact that it did not disrupt the pre-existing coordination strategy. These results suggest that the effects of variability on motor memory consolidation depend on the interplay between the induced variability and the pre-existing coordination strategy.


Astronomical nebulae are among the most complex and visually appealing phenomena known outside the bounds of the Solar System. However, our fixed vantage point on Earth limits us to a single known view of these objects, and their intricate volumetric structure cannot be recovered directly. Recent approaches to reconstructing a volumetric 3D model use the approximate symmetry inherent to many nebulae, but require several hours of computation time on large multi‐GPU clusters. We present a novel reconstruction algorithm based on group sparsity that reaches or even exceeds the quality of prior results while taking only a fraction of the time on a conventional desktop PC, thereby enabling end users in planetariums or educational facilities to produce high‐quality content without expensive hardware or manual modeling. In principle, our approach can be generalized to other transparent phenomena with arbitrary types of user‐specified symmetries.


AFrER World War II the impetus of interest in keratoplasty quickened again, and with the advent of new technique and new methods an adequate reservoir of donor grafts became imperative. In the United Kingdom the expansion of this branch of ophthalmic surgery had been sadly hampered by the impact of two wars, the lack of instruments, and the absence of trained personnel. Even when these difficulties had been overcome, the acute shortage of donor material still remained, and it was evident that the supply of living grafts from excised pathological eyes would no longer be adequate. This possibility had been foreseen by Tudor Thomas, who was the first to organize the collection and registration of such eyes in Great Britain, but World War II seriously restricted the expansion of his work. Filatov (1937) pointed out the value of cadaver material, and it was natural for eye surgeons to examine this potential source of donor supplies. The use of cadaver material for medical purposes, however, was governed by the Anatomy Act of 1832 (2nd and 3rd William 4, cap 75.), which put a stop to the practices of the " resurrectionists ", and aimed at ensuring a legal supply of subjects for anatomical dissections from the bodies of unclaimed persons dying in public institutions. That Act did not help the provision of material for corneal graft surgery, since a complicated legal procedure has to be carried out before the body is available, and does not permit the removal of a fresh organ from the body since this is permissible only on a. Coroner's order. Nor did the Act allow anyperson to bequeath his or her own eyes for graft purposes, as in law the dead body has no property. Legal opinion was that the removal of cadaver eyes for graft purposes, even with the consent of relations was, therefore, illegal. In addition, a large number of enlightened people in Great Britain who wished to bequeath their eyes for corneal grafts were, by law, prevented from doing so. It seemed, therefore, that if these obstacles could be removed the supply of donor material would be legally increased; surgeons would not run the risk of legal actions and the voluntary bequest of eyes would probably be sufficient for anticipated needs. A campaign was set on foot to educate the British public regarding the possible successes and limitations of corneal graft surgery and the urgent need for donor grafts. The Press were asked to avoid inaccurate sensationalism in their accounts, the Broadcasting and Television Services co-operated


This paper is concerned with the investigation of characteristic turbulent scales in circular and plane turbulent free jets with large density variations. The numerical study has been performed with a second-order turbulence model to confirm analytical relations about density and Reynolds number effects on dynamic and scalar turbulence scales derived from requirements of pseudo-self-preservation. The present results explain and quantify trends previously reported from visualizations of variable density turbulent jets performed by Pitts (NBSIR Report No. 86-3340, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1986). It is clearly shown that the parameter relevant for the evolution of these scales is the momentum flux Mj . In addition, the influence of this quantity on small scales is found to be larger than that on large scales.


Novelist Sean O'Faolain, playwright Brian Friel, and poet Seamus Heaney have been highly critical of the Irish revolutionary generation for its oversimplification of the interstice between past and present. These post-war writers complain that the nationalists see Irish history as a great romantic narrative with a tragic beginning and possibly a happy ending. The present collection of essays centres on the implications of an intricate conception of Irish history and identity. It emphasises both the historical considerations and the literary representations of Irish identities. The text of the "Good Friday Peace Accord" is included along with individual chapters on the slow triumph of politics, historical revisionism, uses of the national anthem, on Sean O'Faolain, on Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes", and nationalism and unionism in this decade. The chapters on literary representation discuss the peotry of Northern Ireland, of John Hewitt and Seamus Heaney, James Joyce's "modern hells", Samuel Beckett, and the state of the Irish theatre. Apart from essays by such Irish writers as Tom Garvin, Colm Toibin, Edna Longley, and Fintan O'Toole, the collection contains contributions by American, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish scholars.


The electromagnetic field in the interferometer is described in the approximation of one longitudinal mode and averaged over distances on the order of the optical wavelength A and over the optical times o-'. Aex SS o., w is the pump frequency o detuning from the frequency of exciton transition 0,; A' of o is the pump frequency detuning from the frequency of the interferometer longitudinal mode of; r characterizes the attenuation of the field in the cavity; y is the reciprocal lifetime of an exciton; e is the coefficient of nonlinear interaction of excitons; m is the effective mass of an exciton; d is the dipole matrix element for the exciton optical transition; f i is Planck's constant; c is the velocity of light in the semiconductor (without the contribution of the exciton state to the refractive index); K = 2 ~ / A is the wave number of the longitudinal mode; U = c / (ZL), L is the resonator length. Functions Q, 8 and Eo are normalized in such a way that I Q I ', I El ', and I &I are, respectively, the densities of coherent excitons, of photons in the resonator, and of photons in the pump wave. Laplacian 0: operates in the system plane, which is transverse to the direction of pump wave propagation. The dispersion equation for transverse fluctuations shows that two instabilities can exist. The first leads to periodic stratification of amplitude and phase of exciton polarization with the spatial scale L L,, = The second instability leads to excitation of transverse standing waves of the optical field with the scale L L, = (c/W)"'. At ty ical values of the parameters, L. 10cm, L, 1O-j cm, it is shown that both instabilities can coexist. When the situation of a given laser field in a cavityless system is realized, only the instability with respect to exciton stratification exists. The numerical modeling of nonlinear structures of exciton polarization, which B QTuC32 Fig. 1. The structure forming in the case of a given electromagnetic field (Eq. (1) with E = const). There is one unstable transverse mode. Parameters: Am / y = 1.5; €I I Q, I = 1.3 y/2 (+s is a homogeneous steady-state solution); L = 5.3 L. In Fig. 1 and 2 the time is in units of 2/ y, 1 + 1 2 is in units of y/(21e I ) .


All bodies rely on stem cells to grow from a single cell into an adult. Stem cells allow our bodies to build new tissue, such as new muscle when we exercise. Domestic livestock stem cells offer a unique opportunity to study developmental biology, serve as a resource to screen for harmful toxins or lifesaving drugs or even regenerative therapies for a number of diseases. This review provides information on bovine stem cells, emphasizing different sources of stem cells and current methods for isolation and culture of pluripotent stem cells from cattle. We also review the application of bovine stem cell in future.


Abstract Image segmentation plays an increasingly important role in image processing. It allows for various applications including the analysis of an image for automatic image understanding and the integration of complementary data. During vascular surgeries, the blood flow in the vessels has to be checked constantly, which could be facilitated by a segmentation of the affected vessels. The segmentation of medical images is still done manually, which depends on the surgeon's experience and is time-consuming. As a result, there is a growing need for automatic image segmentation methods. We propose an unsupervised method to detect the regions of no interest (RONI) in intraoperative images with low depth-of-field (DOF). The proposed method is divided into three steps. First, a color segmentation using a clustering algorithm is performed. In a second step, we assume that the regions of interest (ROI) are in focus whereas the RONI are unfocused. This allows us to segment the image using an edge-based focus measure. Finally, we combine the focused edges with the color RONI to determine the final segmentation result. When tested on different intraoperative images of aneurysm clipping surgeries, the algorithm is able to segment most of the RONI not belonging to the pulsating vessel of interest. Surgical instruments like the metallic clips can also be excluded. Although the image data for the validation of the proposed method is limited to one intraoperative video, a proof of concept is demonstrated.