This work presents a comprehensive numerical study of thermal elastohydrodynamic lubrication performance in axially crowned rollers, based on a full-system finite element approach. Axial crowning has always been introduced to finite line contacts, as a mean for improving film thickness. Its influence on friction has often been overlooked though. The current work reveals that axial crowning has a negative influence on friction, increasing it significantly with respect to the reference case of straight rollers. It is shown that, with increased crowning height (or reduced crowning radius), minimum film thickness is increased, but so is friction. Therefore, film thickness enhancement comes at the expense of a deterioration in friction. Besides, achieving sufficient enhancements in minimum film thickness would require using relatively low crowning radii, which would lead to a substantial increase in friction. The frictional increase is traced back to an overall increase in contact pressures and effective contact area within the lubricating conjunction. It is also shown that, when film thickness is the most critical design parameter, the best compromise between enhanced film thickness and deteriorated friction would be to combine axial crowning with roller-end profiling. However, when friction is the most critical design parameter, a simple roller-end profiling would offer the best compromise.


possible risk of hepatocellular carcinoma does not substantially alter the patterm of risks and benefits already known. To place the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in a public health perspective, in 1979 there were 116 deaths from hepatocellular carcinoma among all US women (users and non-users of oral contraceptives) aged 1549. These deaths should be compared with the more than 1000 deaths a year from ovarian cancer that are annually averted by current patterns of oral contraceptive use. While there are case reports of women who get hepatocellular carcinoma while taking oral contraceptives, it is not possible to document those who do not get ovarian cancer. There were 2314 deaths from lung cancer among US women aged 1549 in 1979, almost all ofthese due to cigarette smoking. To put it another way, oral contraceptive use changes slightly the profile of diseases from which women die, but for women under 35 the overall benefits continue to outweigh the risks. Finally, the findings from these two studies should not be extrapolated to the many developing countries where the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma is 10-20 times that in the United Kingdom or United States. Higher rates of hepatocellular carcinoma in developing countries are probably due to a much stronger association with the predisposing factors of hepatitis B virus infectionandcirrhosisthanin developedcounties. Past or current hepatitisB virus infection is found in 7495%2 and cirrhosis in 60-90%' of all hepatocellular carcnoma cases world wide, but these factors are much less prevalent in young women with hepatocellular acinoma especially those who used oral contraceptives. Therefore, the percentage of cases ofhepatocellularcarcinomaindevelopingcountries attributable to oral contraceptive use would be much lower than in developed counties.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a highly prevalent chronic lung disease that has a significant impact on individuals and healthcare systems worldwide. This study aimed to identify factors that predict the length of a hospital stay (LOHS), one-year mortality, and rehospitalization within 6 months in patients admitted for acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from 170 patients admitted to a district general hospital in Switzerland between January 2019 and February 2020. Sociodemographic and health-related variables measured at admission were analyzed as potential predictors. Multivariable zero-truncated negative binomial and logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the risk factors for LOHS (primary endpoint), mortality, and rehospitalization. The results show that an indication for oxygen supplementation was the only significant predictor of LOHS. In the logistic regression analysis, older age, COPD severity stages GOLD III and IV, active cancer and arrhythmias were associated with higher mortality, whereas rehabilitation after discharge was associated with lower mortality. There were no significant associations regarding rehospitalization. This study identified routinely available predictors for LOHS and mortality, which may further advance our understanding of AECOPD and thereby improve patient management, discharge planning, and hospital costs. The protective effect of rehabilitation after hospitalization regarding lower mortality warrants further confirmation and may improve the comprehensive management of patients with AECOPD.


This paper addresses learning of the tire-friction curve for road vehicles, using a batch of wheel-speed and inertial measurements. We formulate a Bayesian approach based on recent advances in particle filtering and Markov chain Monte-Carlo methods. The unknown function mapping the wheel slip to tire friction is modeled as a Gaussian process (GP) that is included in a dynamic vehicle model relating the GP to the vehicle state. The approach is nonparametric and learns the probability density function of the tire friction, from which explicit estimates can be extracted. One benefit of the method is that it is not subject to overfitting issues. We illustrate the efficacy of the method for a set of simulated step-steer maneuvers. The results show that the method can accurately identify the nonlinear tire-friction curves, even for a limited amount of data.


In our investigations we have studied both normal human endometrium and pathological endometrial tissue. Golgi system was visualized according to Aoyama technique and observed in TEM. It has been concluded that Golgi system is different in size, location and morphological features. Those differences are connected with either physiological or pathological picture of human endometrium. In pathological hyperplastic conditions of endometrium one can observe the changes in circulatory system of the cell. Thus we could accept as probable the fact of marked decrease or exclusion of secretory process of the cells.


Malignant lymphomas cause various neurological complications by several ways. They include 1) infiltration and compression due to lymphoma itself, 2) ischemia due to intravascular proliferation of lymphoma cells, 3) paraneoplastic syndrome, 4) immunodeficiency due to lymphomas, 5) organ dysfunction due to lymphomatous infiltration, and 6) complication related to therapies against lymphomas. We presented 4 patients with neurological complications caused by B cell lymphomas as follows. Our first patient was a 67-year-old woman with primary intracranial lymphoma whose onset simulated that of a cerebral infarct. The second patient was a 52-year-old man with lymphoma, who developed myelopathy caused by an intradural extramedullary spinal cord tumor. He received chemotherapy and radiation therapy, followed by complete remission. The third was a 80-year-old man with left cavernous sinus syndrome, which did not respond to therapies against lymphoma. The fourth was a 55-year-old man who presented with numb chin syndrome on both sides, followed by multifocal lymphomatous involvement of the cranial nerves, spinal roots and leptomeninges. Malignant lymphomas may affect any regions of the central and peripheral nervous systems by various ways. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential for the better outcome of neurological complications due to lymphomas.


Given an abelian scheme A→B over an algebraic base B, its Mordell-Weil group is the group of rational sections B→A; it is known to be discrete. In a joint work with J. Noguchi and U. Zannier, we consider instead the group of holomorphic, possibly transcendetal, sections. We prove some kinds of 'Big Picard' results, showing e.g. that transcedental sections cannot omit relatively ample divisors. As a by-product, we introduce a Nevanlinna analogue of the theory of heights for transcendental sections, developing the theory of the Betti maps, previously investigated together with Y. André and U. Zannier. ∗Speaker sciencesconf.org:periodes:298474


Nakanokami-shima was designated a national monument in 1972 because of its important for breeding seabirds, though the seabirds of the island were very poorly known. In this paper we present the information on the breeding species and their current status. Observations were made over a ten years period from 1975 to 1984.Seven species of seabirds were found to breed on the island. All were summer visitors, except for the Brown Booby which may be a resident.1. Bulwer's Petrel, Bulweria bulwerii. Bulwer's Petrel was not known to breed on the island until we captured and ringed 2 adults on 2 July, 1981, both of which had fully grown brood patches, and 2 more adults on 4 July, 1982, both of which were incubating. In 1982, 1983, and 1984 the petrels bred at the same locations shown in Fig. 1. The petrels bred gathering in small numbers and laid under rock, Sixty-six adults were ringed from 1981 to 1984 and it seems that the breeding population is fewer than 100 birds.2. White-faced (or Streaked) Shearwater, Calonectris leucomelas. Many nest holes of the White-faced Shearwaters were widely distributed on gentle slopes in grassplateau in the centre of the island. Some birds incubated on bare ground under dwarf 'Gajumaru', Ficus retusa, and others incubated under large rocks. We could not estimate their population.3. Brown Booby, Sula leucogaster. The main colonies, which were used by almost all the birds, were found annually at areas A, B, C, and D shown in Fig. 2. On Nakanokami-shima Brown Boobies nested on ridges and on steep cliffs. Few birds nested in the rocky zone near the shore. Before noon on 3 July, 1981, a Maritime Safety Agency Helicopter flew over the eastern part of the island, surprising the settled birds and causing them to take flight one after another. It was possible at that time to make a total count and 250 birds were counted. Since the breeding pairs were taking care of chicks at that day, some parents were probably absent offshore. Clearly the population was larger than 250. A chick ringed on 29 June, 1980, at the main colony was recaptured at the same place on 21 August, 1983. The bird was in adult plumage, but was not breeding. This recovery record indicates that non-breeding immatures are also included among those attending the main colonies. Table 1 shows the results of an intensive search for nests during the breeding season of 1984. Nests on inaccessible cliffs in areas A-D were of course omitted. The annual breeding population was estimated approximately as about 200 to 500 birds.4. Red-footed Booby, Sula sula. This species was not known to breed in Japan before 1975, when we discovered a breeding pair on 27 August, 1975. The parent incubated one egg and its nest was builted on the canopy of dwarf 'Gajumaru' bush in area A in Fig. 2. On 24 June, 1976, 3 adults and 2 chicks were ringed at the same place, and on 30 June, 1977, one downy chick and parent were found again at the same place as in 1975. On 13 July, 1982, two fledglings and one adult were seen on the cliff in area E in Fig. 2.5. Bridled Tern, Sterna anaethetus. This, species was not known to breed in Japan until we found its breeding at the island on June, 1980. The Bridled Tern settled rocky zone near the shore, placing their eggs in the shelter of rocks. The locations of colonies in 1983, and 1984 are shown in Fig. 3. This tern is apparently an inshore feeder, remaining usually close to the colony. The estimated numbers were 120 birds in area A, and 40 in area B on June 30, 1980, about 1000 in area A, and 100 in area B on 2 July, 1981, and about 650 in area, A, and 50 in area B on 2 July, 1982. Since 1981 the numbers have increased markedly. The birds in attendance at these areas were in adult plumage, however considerable numbers of non-breeding, presumably immature, birds may make up part of these totals.


Purpose: The notion of person-organization fit (P-O fit) is concerned with identifying the antecedents and consequences of compatibility between employees and the organizations in which they work. Research on correlates of P-O fit has demonstrated significant relationships with various individual outcomes such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to remain with the organization. Using the P-O fit framework and organizational justice theory, this study tests the assumption that value congruence between the employee and the organization regarding pay justice benefits employees organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to remain in the organization.Design/Methodology: A sample of 2534 teachers and 120 school managers in Stockholm was selected for a web-based survey. Questionnaires were sent to the teachers' and managers' e-mail addresses at their workplaces, accompanied by a cover letter explaining the general objectives of the research. The data collection is still on-going.Results: The preliminary results indicate that P-O fit scores for pay justice have a direct effect on employees' organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to remain with the organization.Limitations: The present findings should be replicated among other occupational groups. The use of only self-reported measures may have led to some relationships being overestimated. We also acknowledge that the cross-sectional design prohibits us from making causal inferences.Research/Practical Implications: If employees are accepting and find the reasoning underlying pay decisions to be adequate, it could contribute to more positive perceptions of pay justice – and just perhaps a better working climate.Originality/Value: Traditional justice research has only examined pay justice from the employees' perspective, this study incorporates the P-O fit framework.


Our article reviews and celebrates Susan Nolen-Hoeksema's remarkable contributions to psychological and clinical science, focusing on her vast body of theoretical and empirical work and her influence on colleagues and students. Susan spent her career trying to understand how and why a style of regulating emotions called rumination increases vulnerability to depression and exacerbates and perpetuates negative moods. More broadly, we describe research by Susan and her colleagues on the predictors of depression in childhood and adolescence; gender differences in depression and rumination in adolescence and adulthood; roots, correlates, and adverse consequences of ruminative response styles; and rumination as a transdiagnostic risk factor for not only depression but also a host of psychological disorders, including anxiety, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Susan's intellectual legacy is evident in her impressive publication and citation record, the clinical applications of her work, and the flourishing careers of the students she mentored.


In this paper, we tackle the task of symbolic gesture recognition using inertial MicroElectroMechanicals Systems (MEMS) present in Smartphones. We propose to build a non-linear similarity metric based on a Siamese Neural Network (SNN), trained using a new error function that models the relations between pairs of similar and dissimilar samples in order to structure the network output space. Experiments performed on different datasets regrouping up to 22 individuals and 18 gesture classes, targeting the most likely real case applications, show that this structure allows for an improved classification and a higher rejection quality over the conventional MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP) and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) similarity metric.


Rapidly growing interest in Corporate Responsibility (CR) has led to a large increase in firms reporting their CR activities and the inevitable comparisons of performance that follow. Along with growth in CR performance reporting has been an increase in standards and benchmarking, and the financial community has shown interest in whether there is any evidence of association between CR performance and Corporate Financial performance. This paper summarises academic and practitioner literature relating to the use of non-financial metrics for the monitoring and recording of corporate social and environmental responsibility performance. Significant themes are reviewed and current standards are identified, along with benchmarking initiatives. The paper also includes some literature related to CR leaders, who have pioneered CR activities in major corporations, identifying their philosophies to ensure chosen CR programmes deliver value to multiple stakeholders as well as shareholders. The paper concludes that, in spite of the considerable amount of literature defining CR standards, benchmarking initiatives and academic studies of CR performance, there are still several gaps in our knowledge. These gaps include how the CR information is used by stakeholders and investors, how CR agendas impact on corporate value and risk, and the basis of how competing CR projects may best be evaluated through appraisal techniques and criteria, and subsequent progress monitoring. Answers to these missing or incomplete strands will have a significant influence on the future development of nonfinancial CR metrics.


Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as one of the new hot topics in wireless communications. The use of multi-channel multi-radio (MCMR) systems can considerably enhance the throughput capacity of a WMN which requires suitable routing approaches and efficient channel assignment (CA) to the different links in order to minimize the interference and maximize the throughput. Multicast is an efficient mechanism that simultaneously delivers identical data to a group of receivers. Several approaches and mechanisms have been proposed to build multicast trees and to do an efficient CA. Existing multicast routing and CA algorithms suppose that the multicast membership is static, whereas, it is dynamic in practice. In this paper, we aim to make the group membership of a multicast tree dynamic i.e. we allow nodes to join and to leave the multicast tree freely without compromising the effectiveness of the CA. Particularly, we propose two algorithms to make a multicast tree dynamic: Node Joining the Multicast session algorithm (NJM) and Node Disjoining the Multicast session algorithm (NDM). We illustrate the use of these algorithms by examples and we show how they maintain the number of relay nodes minimal in order to maximize the throughput which is the paramount priority in WMNs.


ABSTRACT Airjigs employ air instead of water or heavy liquids as separating media, thus separation is achieved by stratification through the fluidizing and pulsing (and/or vibrating) effects. In practice, although stratification is achieved successfully, proper discharge of the float and sink (light and heavy minerals) materials can be accomplished. In addition, the feed quality from mine sites can vary and this may negatively affect the optimized operational conditions. In this case, the discharging system of separators should be controlled automatically. In the pneumatic separators, this is currently achieved through a nuclear detector that controls the discharging system. We developed an alternative discharge controlling system based on the pressure drop (Dp), since the nuclear detector is a risky radioactive source that requires careful control for avoiding the radioactive leakage. In addition, it experiences considerable failure on application. In this study, an easy, secure, and effective Dp controlled discharging system is proposed as a new technique to control the discharging system and sustain the product qualities.


This paper deals with the output feedback ℌ ∞ control design problem for continuous-time switched linear systems. More specifically, the main goal is to design a switching rule together with a dynamic full order linear controller to satisfy a prespecified ℌ ∞ level defined by the L 2 gain from the input to the output signal. Initially the state feedback version of this problem is solved in order to put in evidence the main difficulties we have to face toward the solution of the output feedback control design problem. The results reported in this paper are based on the so called Lyapunov-Metzler inequalities, which express a sufficient condition for switched linear systems global stability. The solution of the previously mentioned output feedback control design problem through a linear matrix inequality based method is the main contribution of the present paper. An academic example borrowed from literature is used for illustration.


Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease leading to varying degrees of skeletal muscle weakness. It is caused by specific antibodies directed against definite components in the postsynaptic membrane at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), such as the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) and the muscle-specific kinase (MUSK) receptor. In clinical practice, MG patients may be classified into three main subgroups based on the occurrence of serum autoantibodies directed against AChR or MUSK receptor or antibody-negative. As the MG subgroups differ in terms of clinical characteristics, disease pathogenesis, prognosis, and response to therapies, they could benefit from targeted treatment as well as the detection of other possible disease biomarkers. We performed proteomics on plasma fractions enriched in low-abundance proteins to identify potential biomarkers according to different autoimmune responses. By this approach, we evidenced a significant reduction of vitronectin in MG patients compared to healthy controls, irrespective of the autoantibodies NMJ target. The obtained results were validated by mono- and two-dimensional Western blotting analysis. Vitronectin is a multifunctional glycoprotein involved in the regulation of several pathophysiological processes, including complement-dependent immune response, coagulation, fibrinolysis, pericellular proteolysis, cell attachment, and spreading. The pathophysiological significance of the reduction of plasma vitronectin in MG patients has yet to be fully elucidated. It could be related either to a possible deposition of vitronectin at NMJ to counteract the complement-mediated muscle damage at this level or to a parallel variation of this glycoprotein in the muscle extracellular matrix with secondary induced alteration in clustering of AChRs at NMJ, as it occurs with variation in concentrations of agrin, another extracellular matrix component. The clinical value of measuring plasma vitronectin has yet to be defined. According to present findings, significantly lower plasma values of this glycoprotein might be indicative of an impaired complement-dependent immune response.


Spar platforms have been used for drilling, production and storage of oil and gas in the offshore deepwater region. The structure is installed at the deepwater locations in the sea and is exposed to continuous action of wind, wave, current and other environmental forces. Wave force constitutes about 70% of the total environmental force and could be considered as the most significant force affecting the dynamic responses needed for the design of these structures. In this study, the dynamic responses of the truss spar due to wave actions including the wave force theories and wave propagation directions are investigated. Numerical simulations are developed to investigate the accuracy of the wave force theories i.e., Morison equation and Diffraction theory, for large structure such as truss spar. The investigation is further expanded to study responses of the truss spar due to variations directions of the wave propagated. The truss spar is modelled as a rigid body with three degrees of freedom restrained by mooring lines. In the simulation, the mass, damping and stiffness matrices are evaluated at every time step. The equations of motion are formulated for the platform dynamic equilibrium and solved by using Newmark Beta method. To compute the wave force for truss spar, which is large compared to the wave length, Diffraction theory was found to be more appropriate. The Morison equation was found applicable only at the high frequency range. Short crested waves resulted in smaller responses in all the motions than that for long crested waves. Hence, it would be appropriate to consider the short crested wave statistics for the optimum design.


This paper is about the existence of traveling wave solutions for a delayed nonlocal dispersal SIR epidemic model with the critical wave speed. Because of the introduction of nonlocal dispersal and the generality of incidence function, it is difficult to investigate the existence of critical traveling waves. To this end, we construct an auxiliary system and show the existence of traveling waves for the auxiliary system. Employing the results for the auxiliary system, we obtain the existence of traveling waves for the delayed nonlocal dispersal SIR epidemic model with the critical wave speed under mild conditions.


The results of the 1989-1990 gas rate survey are represented. The data is a tabular compilation of basic information from natural gas rate orders issued by state public utility commissions throughout the country. It includes a summary of rates of return on common equity approved in rate-making proceedings. The table covers rate orders issued between August 31, 1989, and September 1, 1990. The table provides other basic rate case information besides return on common equity, such as the dollar amount of rate increases applied for and granted, filing dates of the application and order, test year ending dates, and identifying docket or case numbers.


The influence was studied of intravenous application of colloid carbon to ten dairy cows of Bohemian Spotted breed in the seventh to eighth months of gravidity, as exerted on the health condition of mammary glands and on milk yield in the subsequent lactation. The cure consisted of three i. v. installations in 72-hour intervals; one dose contained 150 mg carbon in 20 ml of 20% glucose. No adverse by-effects were observed in the course of application and after it. During the subsequent lactation period (nine months) the test cows exhibited a better health condition of mammary glands if compared with the control group (ten dairy cows). In the test group no case was recorded of the clinical form of mastitis while in the control group one case of acute mastitis and two cases of chronic mastitis occurred. S. agalactiae was not isolated at all in the test group while in the control group it was isolated in two cows. S. aureus was also isolated more times (in 32 cases) in the control cows than in the test ones (in 27 cases). A higher average counts of cells in udder-quarter milk samples were found in the test group only at the onset of lactation (from the third month after calving), the average counts of cells over the whole period under study were however lower in the test group (1 380 000 per ml) than in the control group (1 234 000 per ml). The average daily milk yield per cow in the test group exceeded the average milk production in the control group in the period of study. An increase by 1.630 1 as compared with the untreated cow was observed in the average milk yield. It has been demonstrated by the results that by the intravenous instillation of colloid carbon nonspecific natural defensive mechanisms of dairy cows, mainly leucocytes, are stimulated, which enhanced the cell readiness to react to infectious process (mastitis) and overall injury of the organism (sepsis).


Automated Theorem Proving can be interpreted as the solution of search problems which comprise huge search spaces. Parallelization of the proof task as well as cooperation between the involved provers ooer the possibility to develop more eecient search procedures. In this paper we want to investigate concepts for the development of cooperative parallel theorem provers. We deal with architectural questions as well as with possibilities of how to realize cooperation. Particularly, we discuss requirements on an eecient load distribution mechanism for cooperative parallel theorem provers. As a result of this discussion we develop the model of the new prover CPTHEO. This prover allows for a dynamic load distribution that fulllls the requirements introduced before. Furthermore, the cooperation possibilities of CPTHEO ooer the potential for reaching superlinear speed-ups.


SUMMARY Hybrid offspring from C57BL/6 (B6) females mated to males of the subspecies Mus musculus castaneus received B6 skin grafts. No strong Y chromosome-linked histocompatibility genes were detected, although occasional rejection of parental grafts by both male and female hybrids was observed after long periods. Rejection was attributed to interaction of B6 and Castaneus-derived genes in the hybrids.


Recent rapid developments in biotechnology are causing both an evolution and a revolution in science, medicine, and society. A number of potentially useful therapeutic products, diagnostics, blood products, and vaccines have been and will be developed that will represent great advances to the practicing physician and laboratory diagnostician. A large new industry is resulting and with this new science, new social and ethical issues are being raised, such as in regard to gene therapy, and will be debated for some years to come. As knowledge of the human genome increases, and further insights into the structure of receptors and the cell are obtained, even more useful products and technologies will emerge and change our lives over the next 20 years.


Although the livers of rats treated with agents known to suppress bilirubin transport appeared relatively normal on routine histological sections, cytochemical and electron microscopic preparations revealed marked changes in: (a) levels of alkaline phosphatase and apparent ATPase activities of the cell membrane at the sinusoids, bile canaliculi, and between adjacent cells; (b) morphology of the bile canaliculi such as dilatation, fragmentation, vesiculation and reduced numbers of microvilli; (c) the number of lysosomes and their distribution within the cell. Similar changes in the cytochemistry of the liver cell were induced by extrahepatic obstruction.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of the present study was to evaluate early and late effects of radiation and a-tocopherol on the secretion rate of saliva and on selected saliva salivary parameters in oral cavity cancer patients.

PATIENTS & METHODS
Eighty-nine histologically confirmed oral cavity cancer patients (OCC) were enrolled in the study. Resting whole saliva was collected before, during and at the end of the radiation therapy (RT) and simultaneous supplementation with alpha - tocopherol to the radiation treated patients (RT + AT).

RESULTS
Salivary flow rate, pH, amylase activity, total protein, sodium and potassium were analyzed. Increased pH, potassium and decreased flow rate, amylase activity, protein content and sodium were observed in 6 weeks of radiation treated patients when compared to OCC patients. A significant improvement of those parameters was observed on alpha - tocopherol supplementation in RT + AT patients.

CONCLUSION
Supplementation with alpha - tocopherol improves the salivary flow rate thereby, maintains salivary parameters.


Abstract : The Conjugate Gradient Method is the most prominent iterative method for solving sparse systems of linear equations. Unfortunately, many textbook treatments of the topic are written so that even their own authors would be mystified, if they bothered to read their own writing. For this reason, an understanding of the method has been reserved for the elite brilliant few who have painstakingly decoded the mumblings of their forebears. Nevertheless, the Conjugate Gradient Method is a composite of simple, elegant ideas that even stupid people can understand. Of course, a reader as intelligent as yourself will learn them almost effortlessly. The idea of quadratic forms is introduced and used to derive the methods of Steepest Descent, Conjugate Directions, and Conjugate Gradients. Eigenvectors are explained and used to examine the convergence of the Jacobi Method, Steepest Descent, and Conjugate Gradients. Other topics include preconditioning and the nonlinear Conjugate Gradient Method. I have taken pains to make this article easy to read. Sixty-two illustrations are provided. Dense prose is avoided. Concepts are explained in several different ways. Most equations are coupled with an intuitive interpretation.


In this article, we have investigated the actual situation of transfer distance of emergency cases by pathology base (neurological, cardiologic, pediatric and injury cases), based on the DPC data of Kumamoto prefecture. We have extracted 36,490 emergency cases of Kumamoto prefecture from the DPC database (1st July 1 2010 to 31st December 2010). Using the master table for the distance between each hospitals and each residential place represented by ZIP code in Japan, we have estimated the transfer distance of each emergency case and calculated the average distances for each of 5 categories (neurological, cardiologic, pediatric and injury cases) for each health care region (HCR). In the case of neurological cases, average, standard deviation (SD) and Coefficient of variance (CV) were 11.9Km, 10.3Km and 25.1% for Kumamoto total. There was a wide variation for average transfer distance from 5.9Km (Kumamoto HCR) to 30.0 km (Kamoto HCR). The situation is similar for cardiac cases, injury cases and pediatric cases. In order to solve this access problem of emergency care, the governance power of Regional Health Care Plan must be strengthened.


We discuss different physical effects related to the uniform acceleration of atoms in vacuum, in the framework of quantum electrodynamics. We first investigate the van der Waals/Casimir-Polder dispersion and resonance interactions between two uniformly accelerated atoms in vacuum. We show that the atomic acceleration significantly affects the van der Waals force, yielding a different scaling of the interaction with the interatomic distance and an explicit time dependence of the interaction energy. We argue how these results could allow for an indirect detection of the Unruh effect through dispersion interactions between atoms. We then consider the resonance interaction between two accelerated atoms, prepared in a correlated Bell-type state, and interacting with the electromagnetic field in the vacuum state, separating vacuum fluctuations and radiation reaction contributions, both in the free-space and in the presence of a perfectly reflecting plate. We show that nonthermal effects of acceleration manifest in the resonance interaction, yielding a change of the distance dependence of the resonance interaction energy. This suggests that the equivalence between temperature and acceleration does not apply to all radiative properties of accelerated atoms. To further explore this aspect, we evaluate the resonance interaction between two atoms in non inertial motion in the coaccelerated (Rindler) frame and show that in this case the assumption of an Unruh temperature for the field is not required for a complete equivalence of locally inertial and coaccelerated points of views.


Against a background of growing concern over the health risks associated with exposure to natural sources of radiation, a study has been carried out in Kenya in which the activity concentrations of the major radionuclides in some natural building materials are determined. Different types of rock and soil samples were analysed with a gamma ray spectrometer. Typical activities, so far encountered, are in the ranges: 50 to 1500 Bq.kg -1 for 40 K; 5 to 200 Bq.kg -1 for 226 Ra; and 5 to 300 Bq.kg -1 for 232 Th. The external gamma ray absorbed doses in indoor air, and the corresponding effective dose equivalents in a typical dwelling are presented. The need for further studies is also discussed.


PURPOSE
To investigate the feasibility of artificial neural networks (ANN) to reconstruct dose maps for intensity modulated radiation treatment (IMRT) fields compared with those of the treatment planning system (TPS).

METHODS
An artificial feed forward neural network and the back-propagation learning algorithm have been used to replicate dose calculations of IMRT fields obtained from PINNACLE(3) v9.0. The ANN was trained with fluence and dose maps of IMRT fields for 6 MV x-rays, which were obtained from the amorphous silicon (a-Si) electronic portal imaging device of Novalis TX. Those fluence distributions were imported to the TPS and the dose maps were calculated on the horizontal midpoint plane of a water equivalent homogeneous cylindrical virtual phantom. Each exported 2D dose distribution from the TPS was classified into two clusters of high and low dose regions, respectively, based on the K-means algorithm and the Euclidian metric in the fluence-dose domain. The data of each cluster were divided into two sets for the training and validation phase of the ANN, respectively. After the completion of the ANN training phase, 2D dose maps were reconstructed by the ANN and isodose distributions were created. The dose maps reconstructed by ANN were evaluated and compared with the TPS, where the mean absolute deviation of the dose and the γ-index were used.

RESULTS
A good agreement between the doses calculated from the TPS and the trained ANN was achieved. In particular, an average relative dosimetric difference of 4.6% and an average γ-index passing rate of 93% were obtained for low dose regions, and a dosimetric difference of 2.3% and an average γ-index passing rate of 97% for high dose region.

CONCLUSIONS
An artificial neural network has been developed to convert fluence maps to corresponding dose maps. The feasibility and potential of an artificial neural network to replicate complex convolution kernels in the TPS for IMRT dose calculations have been demonstrated.


In this paper we propose a new adaptive coding scheme for distributed channel coding for the three-node relay channel. In order to make it feasible for application in wireless sensor networks, the distributed code is built from standard components like Turbo and convolutional codes, and adaptation at the relay is obtained by puncturing the input and output of the employed channel code. The proposed code structure includes distributed Turbo codes and distributed serially concatenated codes as special cases. As the results of our optimization show, significant improvements in terms of rate and coverage are obtained. Compared to theoretical limits a decent performance is achieved considering that the focus is on feasibility.


ABSTRACT Like many granites, the Late Cretaceous intrusives of the eastern Mojave Desert, California, have heretofore provided useful but poorly focused images of their source regions. New studies of lower crustal xenoliths and inherited accessory minerals are sharpening these images. Xenoliths in Tertiary dykes in this region are the residues of an extensive partial melting event. Great diversity in their composition reflects initial heterogeneity (both igneous and sedimentary protoliths) and varying amounts of melt extraction (from <10% to >70%). Mineral assemblages and thermobarometry suggest that the melting event occurred at T ≥ 750°C at a depth of about 40 km. Present-day Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic ratios indicate a Mojave Proterozoic heritage, but unrealistic model ages demonstrate the late Phanerozoic adjustment of parent/daughter ratios. A link between these xenoliths and the Late Cretaceous granites, though not fully documented, is probable; in any case, they provide invaluable clues concerning a crustal melting event, recording information about nature of source material (heterogeneous, supracrustal-rich), conditions of melting (moderately deep, moderately high T, accompanied by partial dehydration), and melt extraction (highly variable, locally extensive). The Old Woman-Piute granites contain a large fraction of inherited zircon and monazite. A SHRIMP ion probe investigation shows that these zircons record a Proterozoic history similar to that which affected the Mojave region. Zonation patterns in zircons, and to a lesser extent monazites and xenotimes, document multiple phases of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary growth and degradation, commonly several in a single grain. Low Y in portions of the cores of inherited zircons and monazites and in monazites and outer portions of zircons from the xenoliths appear to indicate growth in equilibrium with abundant garnet.


Background: Disease registration is an organized system for collecting, storing, retrieving, analyzing a particular disease or exposure to known substances in a specific population. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and design of the registration system for upper gastrointestinal bleeding patients based on patients referring to Al-Zahra and Khorshid hospitals, Isfahan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This study is a research action study in which the members of the registration system team are hospital triage physicians, internal residents in the Emergency department of hospital, subspecialty assistants and gastroenterologists, statisticians (epidemiologists and methodologists), and two trained persons were specified to collect medical information and documents. The data collection tool is a researcher-made checklist. Based on the available tools, the most important criteria related to gastrointestinal bleeding were selected. In the next step, the criteria selected in the council, including team members, were reviewed and a preliminary draft was prepared to record the information of patients. Results: The results indicated the final version of the checklist in three parts including demographic variables (age, sex, education, et al.), main variables (as the minimum data required by a person to register in the checklist (patient's clinical signs)), extended main variables (its information is designed to be used to diagnose, treat, and follow-up the patient in later stages). Conclusion: It seems to be predictable by establishing a system for recording gastrointestinal bleeding diseases, disease prevalence, monitoring services and treatment of patients, survival analysis and evaluation of clinical care outcomes, finding patients at higher risk for emergency treatment, reviewing drug interventions, and interventional activities.


Intel's Moore's Law focuses on shrinking the transistors in the silicon to be able to pack more and more transistors for a given area. In general, Intel has been able to double the transistor count every 18–24 months and has been doing so while keeping the silicon size at about the same size or even smaller. The key implication to that trend has been the I/O density that needs to be routed through the packaging is also increasing (ie. More I/O count per area).


Most anomaly-based intrusion detectors rely on models that learn from training datasets whose quality is crucial in their performance. Albeit the properties of suitable datasets have been formulated, the influence of the dataset size on the performance of the anomaly-based detector has received scarce attention so far. In this work, we investigate the optimal size of a training dataset. This size should be large enough so that training data is representative of normal behavior, but after that point, collecting more data may result in unnecessary waste of time and computational resources, not to mention an increased risk of overtraining. In this spirit, we provide a method to find out when the amount of data collected at the production environment is representative of normal behavior in the context of a detector of HTTP URI attacks based on 1-grammar. Our approach is founded on a set of indicators related to the statistical properties of the data. These indicators are periodically calculated during data collection, producing time series that stabilize when more training data is not expected to translate to better system performance, which indicates that data collection can be stopped. We present a case study with real-life datasets collected at the University of Seville (Spain) and a public dataset from the University of Saskatchewan. The application of our method to these datasets showed that more than 42% of one trace, and almost 20% of another were unnecessarily collected, thereby showing that our proposed method can be an efficient approach for collecting training data at the production environment.


Background Selecting an appropriate primary efficacy criterion is of key importance in the design of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating therapeutic interventions in knee OA. One may choose among various possible primary efficacy criteria which can be classified as 1/ continuous variables such as pain (on a visual analog scale (VAS)) or function by one of the OA-specific available instruments (providing a numeric variation on a scale indicating the amount of therapeutic effect, which clinical relevance has to be established), or 2/ binary global response criteria, such as the OMERACT-OARSI (1), or response criteria based on the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS) or the Minimum Clinical Important Improvement (MCII) applied to pain, function, or patient global assessment (PGA) (2), which results are expressed in % of responders (yes/no). The sensitivity of these global response instruments has not been compared yet. Objectives The aim of this study was to compare responder's rates using various definitions of response in a knee OA trial of IAHA, and to identify factors associated with a better response. Methods Data obtained from a RCT comparing one single IA injection of 40 mg/2.0ml non-chemically modified HA with 48 mg/6.0ml hylan G-F20 were used for this post hoc analysis (3). As non-inferiority of the non-crosslinked HA was demonstrated over 6 months, data of both treatment groups were pooled (280 patients in the full analysis set, 266 completers). Uni- and multivariate stepwise regression analyses were performed to compare response criteria and identify potential factors associated with the best clinical response. OMERACT-OARSI responder criteria were compared to the PASS (≤40 mm) and MCII (≥15 mm improvement) responder criteria calculated for the following outcomes: pain using WOMAC A1 0–100mmVAS format, physical function using WOMAC C (VAS format) and the 0–100 normalized Lequesne index, and PGA on a 0–100 mmVAS. Results The three most sensitive response instruments were the MCII (relative) for pain, followed by the OMERACT-OARSI responder criteria and the MCII (absolute) for pain with around 80% responders (Fig1). Factors associated with a better response were: a higher pain at baseline (OR [95%CI]: 1.05 [1.02; 1.08]), a shorter delay since diagnosis of knee OA (0.93 [0.88; 0.99]), bilateral knee OA (2.51 [1.11; 5.68], and a better PGA (i.e. a lower score; 0.95 [0.92; 0.98]). Conclusions In this post-hoc analysis, comparing for the first time several definitions of therapeutic response in a clinical trial of IAHA in knee OA, MCII for pain and OMERACT-OARSI criteria seemed to be the most responsive outcome criteria. Response rates were higher in patients presenting with more pain at baseline, a shorter duration since diagnosis, bilateral knee OA and a better PGA. References Pham T et al. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2004;12:389–99 Tubach F et al. Arthritis Care Res 2012;64:1699–707 Dreiser RL et al. Ann Rheum Dis 2015;74(Suppl 2):376. Abstract no THU0488. Acknowledgement We thank TRB Chemedica, for providing access to their trial Database. Disclosure of Interest E. MAHEU Grant/research support from: TRB Chemedica, L. DREISER Grant/research support from: TRB Chemedica, B. AVOUAC Grant/research support from: TRB Chemedica, T. BARDIN Grant/research support from: TRB Chemedica


Resveratrol (1) reacts with singlet oxygen by two major pathways: A [2+2] cycloaddition forming a transient dioxetane that cleaves into the corresponding aldehydes and a [4+2] cycloaddition forming an endoperoxide that, upon heating, undergoes a rearrangement to moracin M. The rate constant by which singlet oxygen is removed by 1 (k(T)) was determined by time-resolved infrared luminescence spectroscopy to be 1.5 × 10(6) M(-1) sec(-1) in CD(3)OD, smaller than previously reported values. Chemical reaction accounts for ca. 25% of k(T).


Cuttings of Populus kangdingensis C. Wang et Tung and Populus cathayana Rehder, originating from high and low altitudes in the eastern Himalaya, respectively, were examined during one growing season in a greenhouse to determine the effects of progressive drought stress. The results manifested that the adaptive responses to progressive drought stress were different in these two species from different altitudes. Significant changes in stem height, leaf development, relative water content (RWC), malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) appeared earlier in P cathayana than in P kangdingensis, whereas changes in soluble protein, soluble sugar, free proline and antioxidant enzymes appeared earlier in P kangdingensis. In addition, changes in these parameters became more and more significant when the drought stress progressed, especially under severe drought stress in P cathayana. Plant growth showed significant positive correlations with soluble proteins and sugars, free proline and antioxidants and a significant negative correlation with RWC under water stressed treatment in two poplar species. Compared with P cathayana, P kangdingensis was able to maintain a superior height growth and leaf development under drought stress. Also, P kangdingensis possessed greater increments in soluble protein, soluble sugar, free proline and antioxidant enzymes, but lower increments in M DA and H2O2 than did P. cathayana when the cuttings were exposed to progressive drought stress. Our results suggest that P kangdingensis originating from the high altitude has a better drought tolerance than does P. cathayana originating from the low altitude. Furthermore, this study manifested that acclimation to drought stress are related the rapidity, severity, duration of the drought event and the altitude of two poplar species.


Author(s): Dighton, Aerynn | Advisor(s): Dutsch, Dorota | Abstract: The social meanings of the Roman toga, in all their nuances and varieties, arise not arbitrarily from culture and custom, but, as shown in this dissertation, are shaped by the materiality of the toga and its components. Inspired by current approaches in material culture studies which center on the materiality of objects and their interactions with human bodies and behaviors, this project brings together a wide variety of literary and artistic sources, from the first century B.C.E. to the late-second century C.E. and beyond, in an examination of how togas are represented in the performance of their function as signs of identity. This analysis explains the material bases for the toga's many uses as a marker of social identity, adding a wealth of complexity and nuance to the current image of the toga as a symbol of citizenship, masculinity, and Roman-ness. An important contribution of this study is its insight into how the toga functioned as a unifying sign of citizenship, one which identified gradations of social status only by subtleties in materiality. The all-white toga pura marked a 'Roman citizen' as someone integrated within a homogeneous group, with the fabric ostensibly concealing his individuality and his particular origin or status beneath a visual quality of sameness. High rank was indicated only by the addition of prestigious purple dye, making a toga no longer pura but praetexta, and by small variations in other garments such as the tunic and shoes. Nevertheless, slight physical differences in the toga's fabric, such as its whiteness or comfort level, were used in nuanced ways to indicate other markers of identity, especially wealth, to a discerning Roman audience. As a result, the toga could mark its wearer as 'elite' in artistic and literary sources, but just as often, it could also reveal him to be impoverished, servile in origin, or rustic. The toga signified more than simply citizenship in Roman society. The garment was also a sign of 'masculinity': this study explains how its drape accentuated bodily characteristics that were gendered male, and also why transparent togas signified promiscuity and effeminacy instead. The fabric of the toga both indicated and materially enforced 'peace'—except when it was adjusted for fighting, perhaps to imply that the upcoming violence was a civic duty. Changes in fashion served to differentiate the elite from non-elites or 'dandies' from more conservative dressers, as several scholars have pointed out, but in addition, this study shows how style changes also reflected shifting ideas about ideal bodily movement. In addition, many researchers have noted that various types of toga were important components of several rituals that marked social transitions, but the materiality which lies beneath their different meanings is explained here. From the brilliance of the purple-and-gold toga picta to the dark wool and filth of mourning dress, very specific changes in the toga's materials signaled a shift in status, a new phase of life, or a civic crisis. Any variation in the toga—its fiber, fabric, drape, dyes, and surface treatments—resulted in new social meanings which were largely shaped by the physical characteristics of these substances, particularly by the effects such qualities had upon the wearer's body.


Objectives: 1) To describe psychosocial risks, stable disposition to feel stress, and salivary cortisol levels in a sample of
emergency physicians in Granada, Spain; 2) to explore bivariate associations between the aforementioned factors; and
3) to analyze the results by gender.
Methods: Cross-sectional study of 32 physicians working at the emergency departments of 2 hospitals in Granada. Occupational psychosocial risk and perceived stress level were assessed with the ISTAS-21 instrument (validated Spanish
version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (trait scale; STAI-T). Salivary cortisol (Salivette) was also measured as a biochemical marker of stress at 3 moments during a work shift.
Results: The emergency physicians reported psychosocial risk factors, particularly high demand on psychological
resources and low job control. The stress levels in the male physicians were significantly higher than in the general
population (P<.017). Cortisol levels were within the normal range. On bivariate analysis, no associations were found
between ISTAS-21 findings, STAI-T scores, and cortisol levels.
Conclusions: Emergency physicians are in a potentially harmful working situation, although we detected no effect on
cortisol as a biochemical marker of stress.


We present a simple but effective attention named the unary-pairwise attention (UPA) for modeling the relationship between 3D point clouds. Our idea is motivated by the analysis that the standard self-attention (SA) that operates globally tends to produce almost the same attention maps for different query positions, revealing difficulties for learning query-independent and query-dependent information jointly. Therefore, we reformulate the SA and propose query-independent (Unary) and query-dependent (Pairwise) components to facilitate the learning of both terms. In contrast to the SA, the UPA ensures query dependence via operating locally. Extensive experiments show that the UPA outperforms the SA consistently on various point cloud understanding tasks including shape classification, part segmentation, and scene segmentation. Moreover, simply equipping the popular PointNet++ method with the UPA even outperforms or is on par with the state-of-the-art attention-based approaches. In addition, the UPA systematically boosts the performance of both standard and modern networks when it is integrated into them as a compositional module.


Alterations in serotonin (5-HT) function have been hypothesized to underlie a range of physiological, emotional, and cognitive changes in older age. Here, we conducted a quantitative synthesis and comparison of the effects of age on 5-HT receptors and transporters from cross-sectional PET and SPECT imaging studies. Random-effects meta-analyses of 31 studies including 1087 healthy adults yielded large negative effects of age in 5-HT-2A receptors (largest in global cortex), moderate negative effects of age in 5-HT transporters (largest in thalamus), and small negative effects of age in 5-HT-1A receptors (largest in parietal cortex). Presynaptic 5-HT-1A autoreceptors in raphe/midbrain, however, were preserved across adulthood. Adult age differences were significantly larger in 5-HT-2A receptors compared to 5-HT-1A receptors. A meta-regression showed that 5-HT target, radionuclide, and publication year significantly moderated the age effects. The findings overall identify reduced serotonergic signal transmission in healthy aging. The evidence for the relative preservation of 5-HT-1A compared to 5-HT-2A receptors may partially explain psychological age differences, such as why older adults use more emotion-focused rather than problem-focused coping strategies.


Concentration of ibuprofen in rabbit blood was found to be considerably higher after application of Imbun-500 suppositories, containing 500 mg of ibuprofen lysine salt equivalent to 292.6 mg of free ibuprofen, than after application of ibuprofen dragees containing 400 mg of the free drug. Parameters characterizing biological availability of ibuprofen in Imbun-500 suppositories (AUC, Cmax, tmax) were determined. Ibuprofen lysine salt proved to be considerably more easily absorbed from suppositories than ibuprofen from dragees of either home or foreign production.


In laser percussion drilling, a series of laser pulses with specified energies and durations irradiate the workpiece surface to gradually heat, melt, and vaporise material until a hole with required depth and diameter is achieved. Despite being the quickest technique for producing small diameter holes, laser percussion drilling regularly suffers from difficulties in controlling the hole quality such as hole circularity, hole taper and recast layer. Therefore, in order to produce holes to a specific requirement at minimum cost and time, it is crucial to fully understand the effects of each parameter on hole quality. In this research, a new mathematical model for multiple pulsed laser drilling is developed to predict the hole depth, hole taper, and recast layer thickness, and to investigate the effects of key laser parameters on hole dimensions. The new model accounts for recoil pressure, melt ejection, O2 assist gas effects, as well as solidification of the melt. The development of the new model is divided into two stages; pulse on stage where interaction between laser beam-material takes place, and pulse off stage where solidification of the melt is modelled. Governing equations are established from heat conduction, energy, and mass equations at the solid-liquid and liquid-vapour interfaces with appropriate boundary and initial conditions. Analytical solutions are derived by using Mathematica 7 software as a tool to solve the system of non-linear equations. To validate the model, experimental work has been conducted and the measured results are compared to those calculated from the model. It is shown that the new model gives a good prediction of the hole depth and acceptable prediction of the recast layer thickness. Laser peak power and pulse width are shown to have a significant influence over the drilled hole quality whereas the changes due to pulse frequency are less pronounced.


OBJECTIVE
Vancomycin is commonly used in the neonatal population to treat Gram-positive bacterial infections. Despite frequent use, consensus on the ideal dosing regimen in low birth weight (LBW) neonates is lacking. The objective of this research is to determine how frequently vancomycin troughs within goal range (10-20 mg/L) are achieved with empiric dosing in critically ill neonates and infants weighing less than 2500 g.

METHODS
This retrospective review evaluated LBW infants who were admitted to a level IV NICU from January 2015 to December 2016. Patients were included if they had a vancomycin trough sample collected at steady state (after at least 3 doses). Three trough cohorts (subtherapeutic: <10 mg/L, therapeutic: 10-20 mg/L, and supratherapeutic: >20 mg/L) were compared with 1-way ANOVA for continuous data and a chi-square analysis for categorical data.

RESULTS
A total of 74 patients were included, with a mean birth weight (BW) of 819.7 ± 355.4 g and a mean gestational age (GA) of 26.4 ± 3.7 weeks. Only 27 patients (36.5%) had therapeutic vancomycin trough concentrations. Subtherapeutic troughs were recorded in 40 patients (54.1%), while supratherapeutic troughs were recorded in 7 patients (9.5%). Although there was no difference between the initial dose, initial frequency was significantly different between cohorts (p = 0.04).

CONCLUSION
Empiric dosing regimens do not produce vancomycin troughs within the goal range in most LBW patients.


This paper presents a wide-tuning range Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) for software-defined radio (SDR) applications using a resonator with three potential oscillation modes. The implemented prototype in 0.18μm CMOS technology achieves a continuous tuning range of 86.7% from 5.12GHz to 12.95GHz while drawing 5 to 10mA current from 1-V supply. The measured phase noise at 1MHz offset from carrier frequencies of 5.9, 9.12 and 12.25GHz is -122.9, -117.1 and -110.5dBc/Hz, respectively. The VCO occupies a chip area of 0.33mm2.


La0.7Ce0.3MnO3 is a relatively new addition in the family of colossal magnetoresistive manganites where the cerium ion is believed to be in the Ce state. In this paper we report an extensive study the magnetotransport properties of laser ablated La0.7Ce0.3MnO3 films on LaAlO3 with variation in ambient oxygen pressure during growth and film thickness. We observe that the transport and magnetic properties of the film depend on the interplay between oxygen pressure, surface morphology, film thickness and epitaxial strain. The films were characterized by x-ray diffraction on a 4-circle x-ray goniometer. We observe an increase in the metal-insulator transition temperature with decreasing oxygen pressure. This is in direct contrast with the oxygen pressure dependence of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films suggesting the electron doped nature of the La0.7Ce0.3MnO3 system. With decreasing film thickness we observe an increase in the metal-insulator transition temperature. This is associated with a compression of the unit cell in the a-b plane due to epitaxial strain. When the system is co-doped with 50% Ca at the Ce site the system (La0.7Ca0.15Ce0.15MnO3) is driven into a insulating state suggesting that the electrons generated by Ce is compensated by the holes generated by Ca valence thus making the average valence at the rare-earth site 3+ as in the parent material LaMnO3. e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Aim of the present research was to apply a solid state reaction route to fabricate Aurivillius-type ceramics described with the formula Bi 6 Fe 2 Ti 3 O 18 (BFTO) and reveal the influence of processing conditions on its crystal structure. Pressureless sintering in ambient air was employed and the sintering temperatures were 850 and 1080 °C. It was found that the fabricated BFTO ceramics were multiphase ones. They consisted of two Bi m+1 Fe m-3 Ti 3 O 3m+3 phases, namely the phase with m =5 (i.e. the stoichiometric phase) and m =4 (i.e. the phase with a reduced number of layers in the slab). Detailed X-ray diffraction patterns analysis showed that both phases adopted the same orthorhombic structure described with Fmm2 (42) space group. The ratio of weight fractions of the constituent phases ( m =5): ( m =4) was ~30:70.


Abstract A novel approach is presented for recording high volume data about ray tracing rendering systems' runtime state and its subsequent dynamic analysis and interactive visualization in the algorithm computational domain. Our framework extracts light paths traced by the system and leverages on a powerful filtering subsystem, helping interactive visualization and exploration of the desired subset of recorded data. We introduce a versatile data logging format and acceleration structures for easy access and filtering. We have implemented a plugin based framework and a tool set that realize all ideas presented in this paper. The framework provides data logging API for instrumenting production-ready, multithreaded, distributed renderers. The framework visualization tool enables deeper understanding of the ray tracing algorithms for novices, as well as for experts.


Mouse double minute-2 (MDM2)-p53 inhibitor alrizomadlin (APG-115) is an investigational agent known to induce apoptosis of TP53-wild type cancer cells (Aguilar et al, J Med Chem 2017). Emerging evidence suggests that activation of p53 by alrizomadlin also promotes antitumor immunity in the tumor microenvironment (Fang et al, JITC 2019; Zhou et al, Nat Immunol 2021), but the links between these processes are incompletely understood. Pyroptosis refers to inflammatory programmed cell death. Central to this process is the family of gasdermins, which can form pores in cell plasma membranes, resulting in lysis and release of immune stimulants. In cells expressing these proteins, GSDME can be cleaved by caspase-3, which converts noninflammatory apoptosis to pyroptosis (Zhang et al, Nature 2020). In this context, caspase-3/GSDME appears to represent a switch between apoptosis and pyroptosis. Given that alrizomadlin elicits its apoptogenic activity primarily by activating caspase-3, we hypothesized that the MDM2-p53 inhibitor might also induce pyroptosis in GSDME-expressing cells by cleaving caspases. Our study demonstrated that alrizomadlin uniformly elicited robust pyroptosis in GSDME-expressing cancer cells. After treatment with alrizomadlin, the dying cells showed swelling with plasma membrane blebbing characteristic of pyroptosis. Alrizomadlin treatment upregulated biomarkers of pyroptosis, inducing activation of caspase-3, promoting cleavage of GSDME, and increasing release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). After a short drug exposure of 24 hours, alrizomadlin elicited concurrent apoptotic and pyroptotic tumor cell death, as evidenced by coexistence of the hallmarks of apoptosis (PARP-1 cleavage) and pyroptosis (caspase-3 cleavage and activated GSDME) markers. When the treatment duration was extended to 48 hours, cleavage of GSDME continued to increase whereas PARP-1 cleavage became nearly undetectable, suggesting a conversion from apoptosis to pyroptosis. Inhibition of caspases by pan-caspase inhibitor Q-VD-OPh (quinolyl-valyl-O-methylaspartyl-[-2,6-difluorophenoxy]-methyl ketone) abolished not only alrizomadlin-induced caspase-3 and GSDME cleavage but also reduced LDH release and cell death without inducing morphologic changes associated with pyroptosis. Taken together, these results suggest that, in addition to apoptosis, MDM2-p53 inhibitor alrizomadlin induces caspase-mediated pyroptosis in GSDME-expressing cancer cells. In this study, we reveal for the first time that apoptosis-inducing, alrizomadlin induces both apoptosis and pyroptosis in GSDME-expressing cancer cells. GSDME-dependent pyroptosis may be a previously unrecognized mechanism of action for alrizomadlin to exert antitumor immunity, with potentially important implications for clinical development of therapy involving MDM2-p53 inhibition.
 Citation Format: Qiuqiong Tang, Douglas D. Fang, Huidan Yu, Bingxing Wu, Yan Yin, Dajun Yang, Yifan Zhai. Inhibition of MDM2-p53 interaction by alrizomadlin (APG-115) induces pyroptotic cell death in gasdermin E (GSDME)-expressing cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 2998.


The objective of this study is to propose two empirical correlations to predict the mass flow rate through an automotive block type thermostatic expansion valve and then to evaluate the correlations. The first correlation is deduced by modifying the basic equation of the orifice meter for the mass flow rate and the second correlation is deduced by using the Buckingham's theorem. The first correlation showed very good agreement on the measured data for R134a, given by Monforte.(5) Average relative deviation and standard deviation of it are 2.5% and 1.6%, respectively. The second correlation agreed on the same measured data with a little greater deviations. The two correlations may apply to common expansion valves which have different geometrical sizes of the same shape.


The phase instability of bismuth perovskite (BiMO3), where M is a ferromagnetic cation, is exploited to create self‐assembled magnetic oxide nanocrystal arrays on oxide supports. Conditions during pulsed laser deposition are tuned so as to induce complete breakdown of the perovskite precursor into bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) and metal oxide (M‐Ox) pockets. Subsequent cooling in vacuum volatizes the Bi2O3 leaving behind an array of monodisperse nanocrystals. In situ reflective high energy electron diffraction beam is exploited to monitor the synthesis in real‐time. Analysis of the patterns confirms the phase separation and volatization process. Successful synthesis of M‐Ox, where M = Mn, Fe, Co, and Cr, is shown using this template‐free facile approach. Detailed magnetic characterization of nanocrystals is carried out to reveal the functionalities such as magnetic anisotropy as well as larger than bulk moments, as expected in these oxide nanostructures.


A new theory of substance use disorders is proposed-the SPFit theory-that is based on evolutionary biology and adaptive systems. Self-perceived survival ability and reproductive fitness (SPFit) is proposed as a human psychobiological construct that prioritizes and organizes (i.e. motivates) behavior, but is highly vulnerable to temporary, artificial activation by drugs of abuse. Autoshaping/sign-tracking/feature positive phenomena are proposed to underlie the development of craving and expectations about drugs as the individual learns that abused drugs will easily and reliably inflate SPFit. The cortico-mesolimbic dopamine system and its modulating interconnections are viewed as the biological substrate of SPFit; it is proposed to be a survival and reproductive motivation system rather than a reward center or reward pathway. Finally, the concept of modularity of mind is applied to the SPFit construct. Although considerable empirical data are consistent with the theory, new research is needed to test specific hypotheses derived from SPFit theory.


The very faint spontaneous near-infrared photon emission of scaled SOI FETs fabricated in 32 nm planar and 14 nm FinFET technologies is characterized and modeled for the first time. A high sensitivity and low noise detector is leveraged to measure emission at low voltages, including sub-threshold and linear regions that are extremely faint. Furthermore, the effect of device threshold is studied and modeled for the first time by comparing the emission from FETs with different Vt.


To the Editor:— I was very much interested in the report of Waldorf et al (203:831, 1968) concerning the impairment in skin reactivity of older individuals after the induction of delayed skin test reactions by the application of patch tests of 2, 4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). While these studies involved delayed skin test reactions, I wondered whether any of these individuals also had been tested with allergens producing immediate-type skin test reactions and if so, whether such reactions also were reduced in intensity. I am interested because in July 1955 my associates and I1reported the results of studies designed to show the influence of age upon skin reactivity as applied to direct skin test reactions. To determine this, we did intradermal skin tests upon nonallergic individuals in all the age decades from infancy on, with histamine solution diluted 1:1,000, 1:10,000, 1:100,000, and 1:million, using 100 individuals for each decade


The container-loading problem occurring in on-the-spot freight production is often with several constraints and objectives, i.e., complex container-loading problem. The robustness, parallelism, and a variety of applications in the solution of NP-complete problem of the genetic algorithm demonstrate that the genetic algorithm is an effective approach to solve the complex container-loading problem. In this paper, the genetic algorithm for complex container-loading problem is studied, and the effective coding and decoding methods are given. The numerical solution of example shows that the algorithm is effective.


The success of artificial insemination is very much determined by the quality of spermatozoa. The detection or identification of damaged chromatin of spermatozoa DNA is very important to forsee the adverse clinical outcome. However, the method of identification is still depended on expensive imported kits. Therefore, the objective of this research was to developed an identification kit to determine the quality of livestock spermatozoa DNA chromatin.This study consist of three step. Step 1) Determination of low melting point agarose (LMP-agarose) concentration which is 0,6%, 0,7% and 0,8%. 2) Comparison of three lysis solution (LS) which is LS I (0.4M Tris, 0.8M DTT, 1% SDS, pH 7.5), LS II (0.4M Tris,2 M NaCl, 1% SDS , pH 7.5), and LS III (0.4M Tris-HCl, 2M NaCl, 1% SDS 0,05 M EDTA, pH 7.5). 3) Comparison different staining which is Eosin yellow and Methylene blue. The results showed that 0.6% LMP-agarose demonstrated the best concentration to "trapped the spermatozoa" compared for sheep and goats. whereas the three concentration of spermatozoa cows can not be used to trap spermatozoa cow. The best formulation to lysis the membrane was LS III (0.4M Tris -HCl, 2M NaCl, 1% SDS 0,05 M EDTA). The best staining was eosin yellow and methylene blue with 2:1 ratio.


This work presents the formation of hybrid electrospun fibers of polylactic acid (PLA) with plasma synthesized polypyrrole (PPy) particles inside with the objective to prepare fibers with controlled hydrophobicity for biomedical applications. Krebs–Ringer and phosphate-buffered saline solutions were used to test the fibers. The obtained PPy particles had diameter in the 60–1000 nm range and were suspended in PLA-chloroform solutions with a PPy/PLA = 0.027 mass ratio. Hybrid electrospun microfibers were prepared with this suspension with diameters in the 0.12–9.0 µm range. Contact angles were measured on the fibers with the test solutions in the 113°–147° interval, most of them in the ultrahydrophobic (120°–150°) region. The lowest angles were obtained with particles synthesized at 20 W and the highest with particles synthesized at 100 W. The angle difference, up to 15°, was correlated with resonant ≈C≈ groups of the particles through the fiber ultraviolet absorption. Graphical abstract


The North Karelia Project: a programme for community control of cardiovascular diseases. Puska, P., Koskela, K., Pakarinen, H., Puumalainen, P., Soininen, V., and Tuomilehto, J. (Co-ordinating Centre of the North Karelia Project, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland). In this article the background and principles of the intervention and evaluation of the North Karelia Project are presented. The project is a comprehensive community control programme concerning cardiovascular diseases in the province of North Karelia, Eastern Finland. In the baseline survey of the project (1972), 25–59-year-old males had a particularly high of CVD level risk factors: there were 54% current smokers, the mean cholesterol was 269 mg% and the mean casual blood pressure was 147/90 mmHg. According to the myocardial infarction register the incidence rate of acute myocardial infarction was, during the first year of the project (1972), 13.8 per thousand among 30–64-yearold males. During the first 2 1/2 of the intervention the percentage of current smokers decreased among males from 54 to 42. The percentage of males using low-fat milk increased from 17 to 48. The percentage of males who had had their blood pressure measured during the previous half year increased from 28 to 56 and those under antihypertensive drug treatment from 3.1 to 9.1. Local groups for secondary prevention of myocardial infarction were established all over the province. On the basis of the accumulated experience and theoretical considerations, the project plan has further been elaborated.


Starting with elementary operator theory and matrix analysis, this book introduces the basic properties of the numerical range and gradually builds up the whole numerical range theory. Over 400 assorted problems, ranging from routine exercises to published research results, give you the chance to put the theory into practice and test your understanding. Interspersed throughout the text are numerous comments and references, allowing you to discover related developments and to pursue areas of interest in the literature. Also included is an appendix on basic convexity properties on the Euclidean space. Targeted at graduate students as well as researchers interested in functional analysis, this book provides a comprehensive coverage of classic and recent works on the numerical range theory. It serves as an accessible entry point into this lively and exciting research area.


references to prolepsis. It would suit Dr. Manuwald's thesis to interpret D.L.'s memory as a memory vested in society and thus transmitted through language. Cicero's reference to 'insitae vel potius innatae cognitiones', which scholars including Dr. Manuwald have found so difficult to square with other evidence, might just conceivably be read as a loosely expressed reference to this cultural inheritance of 'images' (meanings). But this is a speculation prompted by Dr. Manuwald's own ideas. Her careful discussion of Epicurean texts and the appendices in which she examines eittfio\r\ Tfj<r Siavotas and the formation of ci'ScjXa make this an impressive doctoral thesis, and I hope we shall be reading more of her work in the future.


In mid 2010 the European Space Agency opened the SMART-1 data to general public. The free access to these data opened new possibilities for its exploitation and use. In this dataset, there are data from the three instruments carried on-board: an ultracompact electronic camera to survey the lunar terrain in visible and near-infrared light (AMIE), an infrared spectrometer to analyze the Moon's minerals (SIR) and an X-ray spectrometer to identify key chemical elements in the lunar surface (D-CIXS). This work is focused on the AMIE captured images, that are used to produce a complete high-resolution atlas of the Moon. During the SMART-1 mission from 2004 to 2006, the onboard AMIE camera collected 31947 start-of-the-art (at the time) resolution and coverage images from lunar surface. However, a considerable number of images were contaminated with noise or suffered from transmission errors, being unusable for any purposes. Also, during the Earth escape phase the radiation damaged significantly the AMIE sensor invalidating the laboratorial flat field correction algorithm. This malfunction was compensated by a new calibration procedure based on in-flight images and theoretical models that will be presented on this paper. After flat field compensated, all images were also calibrated to compensate the sensor color filters at 750, 915 and 960 nm, designed for multi-spectral analysis, although now we use them as full-frame gray scale images. The resulting 1024x1024 images were geographically referenced using the in-board data and mosaiced considering illumination angle and image quality, in order to produce 88 lunar surface maps with lower resolution on the North Lunar pole (spacecraft apolune altitude of 3000Km) and higher resolution on the South Lunar pole (perilune altitude of 27Km). The final maps achieved a coverture of approximately 96% of the Lunar surface. For the latitudes higher than 60oN and lower than 75oS polar projection was used with a resolution of 300m/pixel on the North and 85m/pixel on the South. For the remaining latitudes, the Mercator projection was adopted with resolution varying from 300m/pixel to 75m/pixel increasing from North to South. In this paper we will present all the techniques adopted for the selection, calibration and mosaicing of the AMIE images. The resulting maps will soon be available online for scientific purposes on a dedicated website that is currently under development. EPSC Abstracts Vol. 9, EPSC2014-860, 2014 European Planetary Science Congress 2014 c © Author(s) 2014 EPSC European Planetary Science Congress


According to the natare of the exclosive and the substance, two different mechanisms can arise in the shock wave. In gaseous mixtures, the ''superdetonation'' wave appears as soon as the pressure exceeds a few hundred atmospheres. In solid media, on the other hand, it is sometimes practically unattainable because of the prohibitive pressure needed, and sometimes it is suppressed. (tr-auth)


Endoscopic surgery is a rapidly defusing treatment approach subject to continual technological advance. It offers great potential for economic benefits as well as health gains, but as shown in the article in this issue by Kesteloot and Penninckx, the relative cost of open versus endoscopic surgery is a quite complex issue. The main factors influencing the costs and effectiveness of endoscopic surgery are reviewed and the need for more and better evaluation studies highlighted.


AlSBA-15 catalysts possessing Bronsted acid and Lewis acid–base bifunctionalities catalyze the direct arylation of benzyl alcohols to diarylmethanes with an 85% product yield through C–O bond activation. 2 and 4wt%AlSBA-15 catalysts have been synthesised by adopting a simple and efficient post-synthetic metal implantation route. The synthesised catalysts were characterized using XRD, N2 adsorption and desorption, 27Al MAS NMR, XPS, HR-TEM, NH3 and CO2-temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and pyridine-transmission-FTIR spectroscopy techniques to confirm the existence of Bronsted acid and Lewis acid–base bifunctionalities. Through various control experiments, it is verified that Bronsted acid sites activate the benzyl alcohol and Lewis base sites interact with phenylboronic acid concurrently to accomplish the coupling reaction. In the recyclability study, 4wt%AlSBA-15 preserves its activity and stability up to 5 cycles. The 4wt%AlSBA-15 catalyst unlike homogeneous catalysts does not require additives, long reaction time and expensive metals.


Abstract : This article puts forward one type of guidance option related to the maneuver programing of reentering flight vehicles. The option in question makes use of a radiation sensing system, precisely determining the location of the starting point of the reentering flight vehicle. Use is also made of strap-on type inertial guidance systems to control the impact points of flight vehicles. Maneuvering flight is an important direction in the development of the technology of strategic flight vehicles. It is possible to use it in sudden defense, adding programing, raising precision, and recovery. Maneuvering flight tests are capable of giving complete checks in all such areas as flight vehicle propulsion systems, materials structure, heat resistance systems, stability, guidance circuits, and attitude control systems. It is capable of carrying out experiments on different technological levels. Options which are relatively simple and easy to carry out are to make the reentering flight vehicle, within the longitudinal plane, fly maneuvers according to preset programs. Going through precise inertial guidance or celestial-inertial guidance systems, guidance is carried out on the flight vehicle in the main power stage, with controls and corrections to the free section flight orbital plane, such that the trajectory is capable of entering into the predicted reentry corridor. As far as initial flight tests are concerned, it is possible to make use of inertial guidance systems which already exist, relaxing the requirements for launch plane controls and lateral impact point deviations.


Accumulation of fluid within the pericardial sac results in elevation of intrapericardial pressure with consequent cardiac compression or tamponade. Cardiac tamponade is a life‐threatening condition which requires urgent evacuation of pericardial effusion (PE). Current pericardial evacuation techniques and approaches are varied. Echocardiography provides valuable insights into identifying patients who are suitable candidates and further facilitates pericardiocentesis by improving guidance techniques. Several previous publications have provided excellent reviews of the pathophysiology of cardiac tamponade. We review the clinical presentation and role of echocardiography for diagnosis of tamponade. We focus on medical and surgical approaches for the removal of PE. Moreover, as the clinical and hemodynamic consequences of PE depend on the volume and the rate of accumulation of PE, we review the various scenarios of "small" PE resulting in cardiac tamponade.


Distributions of annual external doses to worker populations are often found to be distributed lognormally below 15 mGy (1.5 rad). Using the properties of the lognormal distribution, and starting from individual dosimeter results, a method is presented whereby estimates can be made of collective and individual doses "missed" due to the fact that dosimeters have a threshold of detection or minimum detectable dose (MDD). For the case where only annual dose totals are available for a population, if MDD results were recorded as zero and if monitoring was done on a quarterly basis, the method developed is shown to yield reasonably good estimates of "missed" collective dose. For the other cases of only annual totals being available (i.e. monitoring was done more frequently than quarterly, or MDD results were recorded as equal to the MDD), it is shown that the method does not yield useful results. The estimates developed here may be useful in radiation epidemiology, employee relations, and in probability-of-causation calculations.


Introduction Cisplatin is one of the most effective chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of various tumors. However, cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity is one of the serious side effects in humans. Aim of the work The aim of this study was to clarify the possible protective effect of Nigella sativa seeds on cisplatin-induced acute nephrotoxicity. Materials and methods A total of 24 male albino rats were used. The rats were divided into four groups: group I was the control group; group II received N. sativa seeds; group III received cisplatin through intraperitoneal injection as a single dose; and group IV received N. sativa seeds orally 3 days before, concomitant with, and 5 days after cisplatin. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected for the estimation of serum creatinine and malondialdehyde. Renal specimens were processed for light and electron microscopic examination. Results Light microscopic examination of renal cortical sections from group III showed areas with interstitial hemorrhage. Areas with destruction and loss of tubules were detected. Other areas revealed tubules with desquamated cells. Some cells revealed vacuolated cytoplasm and pyknotic nuclei. Partial or complete loss of the brush border of some tubules was seen. Some glomeruli appeared collapsed and others with thickening of the basement membranes. There was a statistically significantly increased deposition of collagen fibers between the cortical tubules. Ultrastructural examination showed variable degrees of affection of tubular cells, including loss of apical microvilli and loss of basal enfoldings of the basement membrane. Few scattered mitochondria were distributed in more electron lucent cytoplasm. There was thickening of the basement membrane of the parietal layer of the renal corpuscle and of the glomerular capillaries. Group IV rats showed attenuated cisplatin-induced renal cortical changes and improved biochemical data. Conclusion N. sativa seeds provided an ameliorative effect on acute cisplatin-induced renal cortical toxicity and it could be recommended as an adjuvant therapy for patients treated with cisplatin.


Some combinatorial characteristics of matrix multiplication on regular two-dimensional arrays are studied. From the studies, the authors are able to design many efficient varieties of the cylindrical array and the two-layered mesh array for matrix multiplication. To design a cylindrical array for matrix multiplication, a systematic design procedure is proposed. In this design procedure, Latin square (a special type of matrix) plays an important role. To design a two-layered mesh array, it is found that there is a transformation procedure to transform a cylindrical array to a two-layered mesh array. >


The study of curiosity as a construct has led to many conceptualisations, comprising of different dimensions. Due to this, various scales of curiosity have also been developed. Moreover, some researchers have conceived of curiosity as a general trait-like, while others have included contexts, such as the workplace, or education when investigating curiosity. This scoping review aims to scope the extant psychological literature on curiosity in order to better understand how it has been studied, specifically with regard to its dimensions, measures, and contexts. A total of 1194 records were identified, with 245 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Results suggest that the majority of curiosity research examined curiosity as having multiple dimensions and analysed the dimensions individually, with a deprivation-type curiosity playing the biggest role. The measure most commonly used was the Epistemic Curiosity Scale, which also consisted of a deprivation-type curiosity as one of the dimensions. Findings also implied that curiosity was most studied in the context of the workplace. Supplementary findings included a lack of representation of non-Western countries, as well as needing to cross-validate a recently developed curiosity scale. This scoping review represents a consolidation of the curiosity literature and how it can further prosper.


Recently, serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were reported to be elevated in POEMS syndrome (polyneuropafhy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal protein, and skin lesions) associated with Castleman disease (CD).' Elevated serum IL-6 levels have also been reported in CD.2 In a systematic survey, we studied 80 patients with previously untreated multiple myeloma (MM), 1 patient with abdominal angiofollicular CD, and 9 patients with POEMS syndrome. We used a specific and sensitive immunoenzymatic assay (Medgenix EASIA IL-6)3 to evaluate serum IL-6 levels. The nine patients with POEMS syndrome' had chronic peripheral neuropathy and some clinical features of the POEMS syndrome. They all presented a plasmocytic proliferation associated with a serum monoclonal immunoglobulin (IgCX: 5 patients; IgAX: 3 patients; and IgDX: 1 ~ a t i e n t ) . ~ None of these cases was associated with CD. Normal IL-6 levels are below 15 pg/ml in healthy donors. Elevated serum IL-6 levels were detected in 43% of the patients in the MM group (IL-6 values ranged from 16 to 2700 pg/ml), and in the one patient with CD (IL-6 > 2000 pg/ml). IL-6 levels were undetectable in all of the cases of POEMS syndrome (< 15 pg/ml). Mandler and associates suggest that 1L-6 may be one factor contributing to manifestations of POEMS syndrome. However, other authors have suggested that the increased production of IL-6 plays a major role in the development of systemic symptoms of CD.2,5 Our findings are consistent with these data. Therefore, we propose that IL-6 hyperproduction is probably related more to CD than to POEMS syndrome.


Architectural objects are expressed through a variety of abstractions, each presenting a different aspect. In an architectural analysis, abstractions can be treated as individual entities, categorized, and hyperlinked within an organizational structure. However, such systems lack the possibility to distinguish individual components within the abstractions and to relate these within and between abstractions. Instead, by adopting a uniform language such as XML as a common syntax for representing these abstractions, these can be interpreted and broken up into components, these components related, and the relationships added to the representation. The result is a richer information structure: an integrated structure of components and relationships represented in a uniform way. This information structure can provide new views not inherent to the original structure of abstractions, offering new interpretations that can lead to new abstractions. This paper discusses a prototype application for representing abstractions using XML, and the strengths and limitations of XML for this task.


Using cross-sectional survey approach, this research investigated privacy measures awareness, privacy setting use and information privacy concern with Social Networking Sites (SNS). The targeted respondents were International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) undergraduate students. A total of 413 questionnaires were distributed. A total number of 345 respondents returned the questionnaires and 340 were used for analysis. There is evidence to suggest that those who are aware of the existence of privacy measures in SNS will use them to protect their privacy. Further, there is a significant difference in information privacy concern between those who use privacy setting measures in SNS and those who do not.


During the Terminal Pleistocene in central Honshu, which coincided temporally with the emergence of pottery, lithic raw material reduction sequences ceased to be rational and economical, instead becoming expedient and wasteful. Furthermore, hunter-gatherers had stopped importing lithic raw materials over long distances, and attempts made previously to attain a maximum number of usable edges on artifacts upon one nodule had ceased. Their reduction sequences might have no longer required a sparing strategy, since they now used abundant local raw materials, probably due to reduced mobility. It is suggested that the emergence of pottery allowed them to exploit more diverse plant sources and enabled them to survive within smaller territories, while the lithic reduction strategies changed as they adapted to use of available lithic raw materials.


Traditional medicinal herbs play a vital role in primary healthcare throughout the world. The current investigation represents the analysis of antioxidant, antimicrobial activities of Amaranthus polygonoides and its application in L-asparaginase (anti-leukemic enzyme) production. The plant leaves were dried and extracted with distilled water to yield their crude extracts. Further, this extract was subjected to screening of antioxidant activity using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method and nitric oxide scavenging activity. The extract was found to have the highest DPPH free radical scavenging activity (84%) and nitric oxide scavenging activity (71.8%). Moreover, the extract was proved to be active against Staphylococcus aureus , Staphylococcus epidermidis , Micrococcus luteus , Bacillus subtilis , Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Klebseilla pneumonia , Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigatus through antimicrobial activity test. After the initial assessment, the extract was screened for the production of L-asparaginase by Streptomyces venezuelae using rapid plate assay and confirmed the enzyme production by zone formation. The effect of concentration of A. polygonoides leaves extract on specific growth rate and specific L-asparaginase production rate was evaluated thorough Monod kinetics and the maximum specific growth rate, μm and maximum L-asparaginase production rate, P m were found to be 0.8683 and 0.7902 h -1 , respectively. Keywords: Amaranthus polygonoides , antioxidant, L-asparaginase, production kinetics


An analysis is made of effective mode locking in continuously operating solid-state lasers by modulators based on second-harmonic generation. A new type of modulator is proposed in which a radiation field replica, attenuated as a result of harmonic generation, is subtracted interferometrically from the field. In principle, the proposed modulators can ensure more effective mode locking because of optimisation of the initial modulator transmission and because the intensity derivative of the transmission is used. Self-consistent solutions of a system describing continuous generation of ultrashort pulses are obtained and are shown to agree with the results of an analysis of the lasing dynamics based on the fluctuation model.


symptoms suggestive of fat embolism syndrome [3]. We conducted a telephone survey of all microbiology and cytology departments in hospitals in the North Western Deanery and found that cytological examination was not available in any hospital, from which we conclude that this test is not considered useful enough to be readily available. We would be interested to hear from other clinicians about their experience of using this test if it is offered by their hospital.


Price CA. Protease nexin-1 in reproductive tissues: a review. ARBS Annu Rev Biomed Sci 2008;10:75-83. The Serpins comprise a family of proteins that bind irreversibly to and inactivate serine proteases such as thrombin and plasminogen activators. This review summarizes the current knowledge of one Serpin, SerpinE2 (also known as protease nexin-1, PN-1) in the reproductive system. By virtue of the ability to regulate the activity of secreted proteases, PN-1 is most likely involved in tissue remodeling and extracellular matrix formation and degradation. Accordingly, PN-1 is expressed in the developing hypothalamus and testis, both sites of significant cell migration. PN-1 is also upregulated during tissue remodeling in the ovarian follicle (at ovulation) and in the placenta during implantation, and downregulated in the mammary gland during pregnancy and lactation. PN-1 has been shown to be essential for formation of the copulatory plug in rodents. The physiological role of PN-1 is not clear, but given the fairly widespread expression of this protein in reproductive tissues, this protein clearly deserves greater attention from reproductive biologists. © by São Paulo State University – ISSN 1806-8774