Climate change is forecast to adversely affect air quality through perturbations in meteorological conditions, photochemical reactions, and precursor emissions. To protect the environment and human health from air pollution, there is an increasing recognition of the necessity of developing effective air quality management strategies under the impacts of climate change. This paper presents a framework for developing risk-based air quality management strategies that can help policy makers improve their decision-making processes in response to current and future climate change about 30–50 years from now. Development of air quality management strategies under the impacts of climate change is fundamentally a risk assessment and risk management process involving four steps: (1) assessment of the impacts of climate change and associated uncertainties; (2) determination of air quality targets; (3) selections of potential air quality management options; and (4) identification of preferred air quality management strategies that minimize control costs, maximize benefits, or limit the adverse effects of climate change on air quality when considering the scarcity of resources. The main challenge relates to the level of uncertainties associated with climate change forecasts and advancements in future control measures, since they will significantly affect the risk assessment results and development of effective air quality management plans. The concept presented in this paper can help decision makers make appropriate responses to climate change, since it provides an integrated approach for climate risk assessment and management when developing air quality management strategies. Implications: Development of climate-responsive air quality management strategies is fundamentally a risk assessment and risk management process. The risk assessment process includes quantification of climate change impacts on air quality and associated uncertainties. Risk management for air quality under the impacts of climate change includes determination of air quality targets, selections of potential management options, and identification of effective air quality management strategies through decision-making models. The risk-based decision-making framework can also be applied to develop climate-responsive management strategies for the other environmental dimensions and assess costs and benefits of future environmental management policies.


Background: Few data are available about brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) variation and left atrial remodeling after the left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) technique. Methods: Prospective study included all consecutive patients successfully implanted with an LAAO device. Contrast-enhanced cardiac computed tomography (CT) was performed before and 6 weeks after the procedure with reverse left atrial remodeling defined by an increase in LA volume >10%, together with blood sampling obtained before, 48 h after device implantation and at the first visit after discharge (30–45 days) for BNP measurement. Results: Among the 43 patients implanted with a complete dataset, mean end-diastolic LA volume was 139 ± 64 mL and 141 ± 62 mL at baseline and during follow-up (45 ± 15 days), respectively, showing no statistical difference (p = 0.45). No thrombus was seen on the atrial side of the device. Peridevice leaks (defined as presence of dye in the LAA beyond the device) were observed in 17 patients (40%) but were trivial or mild. Reverse atrial remodeling (RAR) at 6 weeks was observed in six patients (14%). Despite no difference in BNP levels on admission, median BNP levels at 48 h were slightly increased in RAR patients when compared with controls. During FU, BNP levels were strictly identical in both groups. These results were not modified even when each RAR case was matched with two controls on age, LVEF, creatinine levels and ACE inhibitors treatment to avoid potential confounders. Conclusion: Our study showed that despite the fact that the LAAO technique can induce left atrial remodeling measured by a CT scan, it does not seem to impact BNP levels on the follow-up. The results need to be transposed to clinical outcomes of this expanding population in future studies.


A procedure has been developed to interpret densely sampled broadside seismic refraction data recorded from a large air gun array. First arrival travel times are inverted to find the structure on an interface beneath the shot line. Travel times are calculated for three-dimensional velocity models using a rapid finite difference algorithm, adapted to allow variable sampling of the model and the determination of rays. A simple inversion parameterization eliminates the need for matrix inversion. The complete inversion procedure is computationally rapid yet allows the determination of detailed three-dimensional structure. Broadside refraction data recorded in the Queen Charlotte Basin, offshore western Canada, during a multichannel reflection experiment are used to demonstrate the procedure. The data are inverted for the basement interface beneath the shot line, defining a rapidly varying thickness of sedimentary basin fill. The results of the inversion stimulate a reinterpretation of the reflection data and identify a new major basement fault. Structure out of the plane of the reflection section is determined, including the strike of the fault and other nearby features.


The relationship between a history of respiratory infections (and associated variables) in children and lung function in later life was examined in a study among 228 children aged 7 to 11 years. In a multiple regression analysis only a few variables showed marked and consistent effects on lung function. Respiratory tract infections showed increasing impairment of lung function with repeated infections, but the impairment was smaller than that caused by current asthma.


This study investigates the origin of the interdecadal variability in the warm Arctic and cold Eurasia (WACE) pattern, which is defined as the second empirical orthogonal function of surface air temperature (SAT) variability over the Eurasian continent in Northern Hemisphere winter, by analyzing the Twentieth Century Reanalysis dataset. While previous studies highlight recent enhancement of the WACE pattern, ascribing it to anthropogenic warming, the authors found that the WACE pattern has experienced a seemingly periodic interdecadal variation over the twentieth century. This long-term variation in the Eurasian SAT is attributable to the altered coupling between the Siberian high (SH) and intraseasonal Rossby wave emanating from the North Atlantic, as the local wave branch interacts with the SH and consequentially enhances the continental temperature perturbation. It is further identified that these atmospheric circulation changes in Eurasia are largely controlled by the decadal amplitude modulation of the climatological stationary waves over the North Atlantic region. The altered decadal mean condition of stationary wave components brings changes in local baroclinicity and storm track activity over the North Atlantic, which jointly change the intraseasonal Rossby wave generation and propagation characteristics as well. With simple stationary wave model experiments, the authors confirm how the altered mean flow condition in the North Atlantic acts as a source for the growth of the Rossby wave that leads to the change in the downstream WACE pattern.


Overall development of a country largely depends on the economic policy instruments particularly fiscal and monetary policy to streamline the development and continue the developmental progress. These two policies have significant effects on long-term growth. It is noticed that policy adoption and reforms in both fiscal and monetary policies undertaken by Southeast Asian nations during the 1960s through 1990s have contributed to their advancement. This paper discusses the strategies for flourishing as emerging economies. Examples from Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are highlighted in this study. It is found that prudent fiscal and monetary policy, effective discounting and interest rate; modernized tax system and most importantly policy regime are the contributing factors of these emerging economies. However, in spite of high-income growth and development because of supportive these policy initiatives, administrative and politico-economic constraints challenged the path of economies. Long-term development strategies are suggested to sustain the growth and continue the development pace.


AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LIVES OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY The purpose of this study is to make industry employers, teachers and career guides aware of the barriers that continue to hold back women from pursuing careers in the construction industry. This research study focused on females working in the construction industry and investigated the experiences of women who chose to study construction-related degrees. The goal was to communicate what influenced their choice to study degrees in the construction industry, and what factors are currently influencing their career development. This was done with the purpose of finding solutions to re-engineer and transform the industry and make a form of transformation. A quantitative research methodology was used as a means of collecting and analysing data. This comprised of questionnaires which were designed and distributed, using targeted sampling, to 82 women studying construction-related degrees and 54 women actively employed in professional positions in the South African construction industry. Respondents' experiences were captured with quantitative data on education, course preference, family involvement, mentors, self-efficacy, women involvement, cultural influence, image of industry, reason for entering industry, motivator/influencer, traditional beliefs, social and cultural beliefs, government involvement, time, slow career progression, inclusive environment, queen bee syndrome, site conditions, discrimination and harassment. The data was analysed by using quantitative methods. Questionnaires were developed and ranked on a scale of one to five, namely strongly agree to strongly disagree and interpreted by means of counting the frequency of occurrence of answers to each ranked question. Percentages were then calculated and responses weighted according to average means. The findings and conclusions indicate the choices women make, what motivates women in South Africa to choose careers in the construction industry and the barriers encountered by them. The results from this study highlight the need for a shift in the industry; and the findings give employers, teachers and career guiders insight into what draws women into the industry and what underlying issues women face once in the industry. This provides as a guide for strategic change within educational environments and within the industry to encourage more women not only to draw themselves to find careers in the construction industry, but also retain them. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


An extraction-derivatization method suitable for the analysis of subnanogram amounts of biogenic amines in aqueous solution has been developed. The most satisfactory procedure for the analysis of these compounds was reaction with 3,5-ditrifluorobenzoylchloride (DTFMBCl) in phosphate buffer at pH 7.2 followed by extraction of the resultant amide esters into ethyl acetate. This was followed by hydrolysis of the phenolic ester functionalities by shaking the organic layer with 10 M ammonium hydroxide. The phenolic and alcoholic hydroxyl groups were then reacted with bistrimethylsilylacetamide and the trimethylsilyl-DTFMB amides were then analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in the negative ion chemical ionization mode with methane as reagent gas. The limits of detection for these derivatives was less than 1 pg and the method was readily applicable to the extraction and analysis of 0.5 ng of a given biogenic amine.


We propose a meta-typicalness approach to apply the typicalness framework for any type of classifiers. The approach can be used to construct classifiers with specified classification performance. Experiments show that the approach results in classifiers that can outperform an existing typicalness-based classifier.


Metastatic carcinoma of the nervous system limited to the meninges is rare, but it has been frequently described. Carcinomatosis of this sort is usually confined to the meninges over the cerebral hemispheres and only occasionally spreads to the spinal membranes. Meningeal carcinomatosis confined to the spinal cord and to a portion of the base of the brain without involvement of the cerebrum itself is so unusual that the following case is presented as an addition to our knowledge concerning metastatic carcinoma of the central nervous system.

Report of Case

Case No. 36–23924: Weakness five months; lumbar pain one month; mass in left upper lobe demonstrable roentgenographically; severe pain in legs; wasting and progressive weakness suggestive of spinal cord lesion; flaccid paralysis; fibrillary tremors in trunk and limb muscles; diminished lower abdominal and leg reflexes; inconclusive Queckenstedt test; pleocytosis in spinal fluid. Necropsy findings: mass in left lung, probably primary carcinoma; meningeal carcinomatosis of spinal cord membranes and membranes at base of brain; no tumor in cord or brain .

History: J. R., a fifty-six-year-old white farmer, recently employed as a church sexton, was admitted to the medical service of Dr. Alfred Stengel on Sept. 12, 1936, complaining of lower back pain which had confined him to bed for a month. In April 1936, the patient's wife had noticed clubbing of his fingers, but he continued in his usual good health until mid-July, when weakness and fatigability caused him to seek medical aid. He suffered also from soreness of both knees and a recurrent sense of pressure over the precordium. In August 1936, he complained of a dull lumbar ache, which soon rendered him bedfast. This pain was intensified by motion of the spine, particularly by flexion, and the seated posture became unbearable. There had been a loss in weight of 15 pounds during the six weeks before hospitalization.


INTRODUCTION: There is a need to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of ovarian carcinoma, particularly the serous type of cancer. Mesothelin and HE4 are two novel biomarkers which are expressed in serous ovarian carcinoma and can be measured in serum and other body fluids, including urine, by using ELISA. The measurement of antibodies to these markers can provide additional useful information. AREAS COVERED: A literature search was performed to as recent as December 1 2010, using the Internet (e.g. PubMed) on articles concerning mesothelin and HE4 for the diagnosis of ovarian carcinoma. The authors also included up to date recent information from the research performed in their own laboratory. EXPERT OPINION: The combination of CA125 with HE4 facilitates the triaging of women with a pelvic mass and detects more stage I/II tumors than CA125, the present 'gold standard', when used alone. Assaying urine for HE4 or mesothelin may detect early ovarian carcinoma more often than assaying serum. Antibodies to mesothelin and HE4 are more frequent in women with ovarian carcinoma or with certain types of infertility than in controls. No presently available biomarker or multi-marker panel lends itself to screening large populations of symptomless women to make possible detection of high grade serous ovarian carcinoma at stage I or II. The authors anticipate, within the next 5 years, that a greater emphasis will be given to the fact that the different subtypes of ovarian carcinoma represent different types of disease. Each different type of disease will require a different diagnostic approach and more efforts will focus on high grade serous ovarian carcinoma for which the clinical need is the greatest.


Background
 The pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) remains unknown, but first-degree relatives of affected patients (pts) have a 3-to-8-fold increased risk of developing CLL, suggesting an inherited component. Previously, we performed an exome-wide comparison of rare germline variants (vts) among CLL pts compared to controls and identified a 1.8X increased risk of any rare germline ATM vt in CLL pts. Certain vts had much higher relative risk; for example, ATM p.L2307F was associated with a 10X increased risk of CLL (Tiao Leukemia 2017). ATM p.F858L and p.P1054R also imparted a 2X increased risk of CLL in a candidate gene association study (Rudd Blood 2006). Most ATM missense vts have not been fully characterized and are classified as vts of uncertain significance (VUS) in clinical testing. We observed that ATM missense vts were common in our CLL clinic and sought to formally test the hypothesis of association by examining the frequency of ATM missense vts identified by next-generation-sequencing (NGS) routinely sent on hematologic malignancy pts seen at our institution. These pts served as a population with well-characterized diagnoses whose genetics had been uniformly determined by a CLIA-certified lab, allowing us to directly ask whether ATM VUS are enriched in CLL compared to other hematologic malignancies, and whether CLL characteristics differ between pts with and without ATM VUS.
 Methods
 The Brigham and Women's Hospital Rapid Heme Panel (RHP) is an NGS assay that interrogates 95 cancer-related genes, including the entire coding sequence of ATM. RHP results were aggregated for all 999 pts who had the test sent from the DFCI Lymphoma clinic (excluding T-PLL) between 7/1/2014 and 5/25/2018. RHP data were also aggregated for 876 pts seen by 3 physicians over the same time in the DFCI Leukemia clinic (acute leukemia and other myeloid disorders). Only vts with a total population allelic frequency (PAF) of <1% are included in RHP results, restricting our analysis to less common vts. Statistical analysis was performed in R.
 Results
 Out of 384 pts with CLL or monoclonal B lymphocytosis, 99 pts (25.8%, 95% CI 21.5-30.5%) had at least one ATM vt. 71 different ATM vts were seen, with 10 (14%) deemed pathogenic (nonsense mutations, internal insertions or deletions). All remaining 61 vts were missense vts, and the majority were likely germline: 43 are in the gnomAD germline vt database, and of the other 18, 8 had allele frequencies in blood between 40 and 60%. The most common vts were p.S707P (n = 11 pts), p.L2307F (n=9), p.F858L (n=8), and p.D1853V (n=8), all of which are known to be germline.
 ATM missense vts were more frequent in CLL (97 pts with missense vts out of 384 total, 25.3%) than in non-CLL lymphomas (91 out of 615, 14.8%, p=0.00006). No other individual lymphoma type had a higher frequency of ATM missense vts than CLL. Missense vts were also more frequent in CLL than in pts seen in the myeloid malignancy clinic (143 out of 876, 16.3%, p=0.0003). When restricting analysis to missense vts with PAFs reported in gnomAD, we found a higher percentage of extremely rare vts (PAFs <0.001%) in CLL pts (7 out of 42 vts, 16.7%) compared to the myeloid malignancy group (2 out of 55, 3.6%, p=0.04); the non-CLL lymphoma pts had a similar frequency of extremely rare vts (5 out of 39, 12.8%, p=0.12). Consistent with a biologic role for these vts, 32% of CLL pts with missense vts had 11q-deleted disease, while only 10.5% of pts without missense vts had 11q-deleted disease (p=3*10-6). Pts with missense vts were also significantly less likely to have TP53-aberrant disease, 10.9% vs. 20.7% (p=0.04), consistent with a mutually exclusive role for ATM and TP53. There was no difference in IGHV mutation status between CLL pts with and without missense vts (56.6% vs 53.4% unmutated, respectively).
 Conclusion
 One in 4 CLL pts has an ATM missense vt; these are more frequent in CLL than in other lymphoid or myeloid disorders. Most of these are germline and have previously been classified as VUS. CLL pts with missense vts have a higher frequency of 11q-deleted disease. These results highlight an important role for germline ATM missense vts as contributors to the inherited risk for developing CLL and emphasize the importance of analyzing VUS and constitutional data generated by NGS assays, the latter typically not reported by most laboratories.

 Kim: Papgene, Inc: Consultancy; Quanterix, Inc: Consultancy; LabCorp, Inc: Consultancy. Brown:Juno/Celgene: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy; Acerta Pharma: Consultancy; TG Therapeutics: Consultancy; Verastem: Consultancy, Research Funding; Teva: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Catapult Therapeutics: Consultancy; Dynamo Therapeutics: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Octapharma: Consultancy; Invectys: Other: Data safety monitoring board; Morphosys: Other: Data safety monitoring board; Sun Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Sunesis: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Loxo: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech/Roche: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy, Research Funding.


Functions of microRNAs have been characterized in the embryologic, physiologic, and oncogenic processes, but the role of microRNAs in mediating tumor-specific organ metastasis was addressed only recently and still absent in gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis. Here, we used the microarray analysis to define the gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis–related microRNAs from highly peritoneal metastatic derivatives (GC-9811P cells) and the parental GC-9811 human gastric cancer cells. MiR-136 was found to be decreased in all peritoneal metastatic sublines when compared with that in the parental line. We further confirmed that miR-136 expression is frequently downregulated in gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis cells and tissues and its low expression is significantly associated with more peritoneal metastasis and worse prognosis. Moreover, restoring the expression of miR-136 could inhibit gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Subsequent investigation characterized HOXC10 as a direct target of miR-136. In addition, knockdown of HOXC10 reduced GC-9811P cell migration and invasion, similar to the phenotype observed with miR-136 restoration in these cells, indicating that HOXC10 functions as a metastasis promoter in gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis. Upregulation of HOXC10 in parental GC-9811 cells resulted in a dramatic reduction of in vitro migration, invasion, and in vivo peritoneal metastasis. Furthermore, our results showed that ectopic expression of HOXC10 could reverse inhibition of metastasis by overexpressed miR-136 in GC-9811P cells. Our findings provide new insights into the role of miR-136 in the gastric cancer–specific peritoneal metastasis and implicate the potential application of miR-136 in gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis therapy.


The Mediterranean diet has recently been the focus of considerable attention as a palatable model of a healthy diet. Its influence on many cardiovascular risk factors, combined with its proven effect in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events in primary prevention, has boosted scientific interest in this age-old nutritional model. Many of the underlying mechanisms behind its health-giving effects have been revealed, from the modulation of the microbiota to the function of high-density lipoproteins (HDL), and it seems to deliver its health benefits mainly by regulating several key mechanisms of atherosclerosis. In this review, we will review the evidence for its regulation of endothelial function, a key element in the early and late stages of atherosclerosis. In addition, we will assess studies which evaluate its effects on the functioning of different arterial territory vessels (mainly the microvascular, peripheral and central vascular beds), focusing mainly on the capillary, brachial and carotid arteries. Finally, we will evaluate the molecular mechanisms which may be involved.


Abstract Two commemorative medals in the Numismatic Department of the National Museum are recently connected with foundation of the Loretto Chapel in Hájek by the Žďárský family of Žďár in 1623. The presented article documents changes in attribution in favor of the St. Florian Chapel in Kladno (1630), based on studies in written sources. Although it is not possible to specify the exact date for both of these commemorative medals, it is undoubted that they represent very rare pieces. The dies for them were produced around 1751 very likely, in time of reconstruction of the original chapel in Kladno on the basis of plans by K. I. Dientzenhofer.


Between 1827 and 1830, around forty convict men were exiled to the government's remote agricultural and stock establishment at Wellington Valley (NSW), having been identified and labelled an 'educated' or 'special' convict. Men of education and status formed a small but conspicuous minority within the predominantly working-class convict population of NSW. Their presence complicated the principles and policies of convict management, and challenged prevailing notions of class, rank and power in the penal colony. But, having long been accustomed to privilege and preferential treatment, educated convicts were, from the mid 1820s, subjected to new policies which demanded they be made more aware of their status as convicted felons. This article examines one outcome of those policies – the short but fascinating experiment of isolating 'special' convicts at Wellington Valley between 1827 and 1830. I consider the developing perceptions and prejudices underlining this experiment, before describing life and labour on the settlement. What are some of the implications and lessons of this remarkable but hitherto neglected episode in Australia's colonial history? This article has been peer-reviewed.


A simple method for detecting organic solutions with a similar refractive index using metamaterials that are deposited on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films is proposed. Pure toluene is diluted with pure alcohol for making up toluene solutions with concentrations of 0.5 wt. % and 1.0 wt. %. The experimental results from terahertz time-domain spectroscopy depict that pure alcohol and the toluene solutions have a similar refractive index in the terahertz region. The spectra of the metamaterials that are exposed to the toluene solutions are redshifted from that of the metamaterial that is exposed to pure alcohol, and the resonance frequencies of the metamaterials decrease with the increase in the concentrations of the toluene solutions. This result arises from the fact that the swelling of the PDMS films in the toluene solutions extends the arms of the split ring resonators, changing the dimensions of the metamaterials. The minimum detectable concentration of the metamaterials is less than 0.5 wt. % when they are exposed to the toluene solutions. The metamaterials deposited on the PDMS films can detect the organic solutions with a similar refractive index, and so they have the potential to sense organic gases with low concentrations.A simple method for detecting organic solutions with a similar refractive index using metamaterials that are deposited on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films is proposed. Pure toluene is diluted with pure alcohol for making up toluene solutions with concentrations of 0.5 wt. % and 1.0 wt. %. The experimental results from terahertz time-domain spectroscopy depict that pure alcohol and the toluene solutions have a similar refractive index in the terahertz region. The spectra of the metamaterials that are exposed to the toluene solutions are redshifted from that of the metamaterial that is exposed to pure alcohol, and the resonance frequencies of the metamaterials decrease with the increase in the concentrations of the toluene solutions. This result arises from the fact that the swelling of the PDMS films in the toluene solutions extends the arms of the split ring resonators, changing the dimensions of the metamaterials. The minimum detectable concentration of the metamaterials is less than 0.5 wt. % when they...


Specific gas volume (SVg, ml/g) converts CT lung density into the physiological meaningful index of volume of gas per gram of tissue (Salito, C. et al. Radiology 2009).

The aim of this study was to study regional differences of SVg in the different bronchopulmonary segments in healthy and patients with severe emphysema.

CT scans of 10 healthy subjects and 10 patients with emphysema were obtained at end inspiration (TLC) and end-expiration (RV). For each subject, ΔSVg (ΔSVg =SVg,TLC –SVg,RV) vs ΔVL (ΔVL =VL,TLC –VL,RV) was plotted for each bronchopulmonary segment and for entire lung (gray and black lines, respectively, in figure) and an Heterogeneity Index (HI) was defined as √( (d12+ d22+···+ dn2) / n) ⁄ ΔVL (d=distance of ΔVL-ΔSVg in the plot of each bronchopulmonary segment point and the entire lung at RV; n= number of bronchopulmonary segments; see figure).

In healthy lungs all bronchopulmonary segments showed similar slopes, ΔSVg /ΔVL, while in emphysema an high variance of slopes was found. As a consequence HI was significantly higher in emphysema than in healthy subjects (0.80 ±0.34 and 0.15±0.10,respectively, p<0.001).

In conclusion, SVg variations within the lung are highly homogeneous in healthy subjects. Conversely, the larger heterogeneity in emphysema reflects an inhomogeneous lung emptying and therefore HI can be considered as a biomarker for surgical planning and post-treatment evaluation.

![Figure][1] [1]: pending:yes


Bladder cancer is a common malignancy requiring a high degree of surveillance because of the frequent recurrences and the poor clinical outcome of invasive disease. To date, serum biomarkers for bladder cancer lack optimal sensitivity and specificity to assist in diagnosis and disease categorization. Here, we designed antibody arrays for bladder cancer by selecting antibodies against targets differentially expressed in bladder tumors. Serum protein profiles measured by an antibody array containing 254 antibodies discriminated bladder cancer patients from controls (n = 95) with a correct classification rate of 93.7%. A second independent antibody array containing 144 antibodies revealed that protein profiles provide predictive information by stratifying patients with bladder tumors (n = 37) based on their overall survival (P = 0.0479). In addition, serum proteins, such as c-met, that were top ranked at identifying bladder cancer patients were associated with pathological stage, tumor grade, and survival when validated by immunohistochemistry of tissue microarrays containing bladder tumors (n = 173). This study provides experimental evidence for the use of several integrated technologies strengthening the process of biomarker discovery. Serum protein profiles obtained by antibody arrays represent comprehensive means for bladder cancer diagnosis and clinical outcome stratification, which could potentially assist in selection of cancer patients who would benefit from early, individualized therapeutic intervention.


High quality video format converters apply motion estimation and motion compensation to prevent judder, resulting from picture rate conversion, and alias, due to de‐interlacing, in sequences with motion. Although initially considered being too expensive, high quality conversion is now economically feasible, and since 1995 available in consumer television ICs. This paper addresses the issues in format conversion and shows recent progress, introducing a new high quality video format conversion IC for consumer applications.


Misrun is a term used to describe the incomplete filling of the mould cavity. It is a major defect in the investment casting
process when used to produce turbine blades, impellers and impulse blades for turbo pumps which have complex profiles, thin
walls and sharp edges. From the casting engineering point of view, poor fluidity characteristics are a major factor leading to the occurrence of misrun defects in thin wall casting. The technique to "increase" the metal head during casting and improve the fluidity in thin sections are explored in this paper by the application of vibration during the pouring process. A mathematical model that enable to calculate the fluidity length in thin wall investment casting consider the effect of both mould surface, roughness and vibration has been developed. Surface roughness has been studied with the objective to calculate the Interfacial Heat Transfer Coefficient (IHTC) during liquid contact and subsequent by the IHTC during separation of solidifying metal from the mould (gap formation). The obtained data are applied in a one dimensional model of solidification during filling of a channel. The effect of vibration is quantified and incorporated into the fluidity model, such that the velocity with and without vibration can be considered in the fluidity model. High pouring temperature aluminum alloy in thin wall investment casting, fluidity characteristic is improved by application of vibration.


OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article was to determine the effects of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures in adults. METHOD: Literature searches of the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, the Chinese Biomedical Literature database, the CNKI database, Wanfang Data, and the Weipu Journal database were performed up to August 2013. Only randomized and quasi-randomized controlled clinical trials comparing the use of percutaneous plates and interlocking intramedullary nails for tibial shaft fractures were included. Data collection and extraction, quality assessment, and data analyses were performed according to the Cochrane standards. RESULTS: Eleven trials were included. Compared with interlocking intramedullary nailing, minimally invasive percutaneous plates shortened fracture healing time and resulted in lower rates of postoperative delayed union and pain. There was no significant difference between the two methods with regard to the rates of excellent and good Johner-Wruh scoring, the rate of reoperation, and other complications. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, insufficient evidence exists regarding the effects of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures in adults. Low-quality evidence suggests that minimally invasive percutaneous plates could shorten fracture healing time, decrease the rate of postoperative delayed union, and decrease pain levels compared with interlocking intramedullary nailing. There is no significant difference between the two groups in terms of functional recovery scores, reoperation, and other complications. Further research that includes high-quality randomized controlled, multicenter trials is required to compare the effects of minimally invasive percutaneous plates versus interlocking intramedullary nailing in the treatment of tibial shaft fractures in adults.


The STAR experiment pursues a broad range of physics topics in pp,pA and AA collisions produced by the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Such a diverse experimental program demands a simulation framework capable of supporting an equally diverse set of event generators, and a flexible event record capable of storing the (common) particle-wise and (varied) event-wise information provided by the external generators. With planning underway for the next round of upgrades to exploit ep and eA collisions from the electron-ion collider (or eRHIC), these demands on the simulation infrastructure will only increase and requires a versatile framework. STAR has developed a new event-generator framework based on the best practices in the community (a survey of existing approach had been made and the "best of all worlds" kept in mind in our design). It provides a common set of base classes which establish the interface between event generators and the simulation and handles most of the bookkeeping associated with a simulation run. This streamlines the process of integrating and configuring an event generator within our software chain. Developers implement two classes: the interface for their event generator, and their event record. They only need to loop over all particles in their event and push them out into the event record. The framework is responsible for vertex assignment, stacking the particles out for simulation, and event persistency. Events from multiple generators can be merged together seamlessly, with an event record which is capable of tracing each particle back to its parent generator. We present our work and approach in detail and illustrate its usefulness by providing examples of event generators implemented within the STAR framework covering for very diverse physics topics. We will also discuss support for event filtering, allowing users to prune the event record of particles which are outside of our acceptance, and/or abort events prior to the more computationally expensive digitization and reconstruction phases. Event filtering has been supported in the previous framework and showed to save enormous amount of resources – the approach within the new framework is a generalization of filtering.


A simple waveguiding structure with vertically coupled microring resonators has been realized. A finesse of more than 100 could be achieved by using Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/-SiO/sub 2/ technology. The devices have been realized by means of standard optical lithography processes and reactive ion etching (RIE).


The Michelson interferometer, IRIS-D, flown on Nimbus 4 in April 1970 is an improved version of the interferometer, IRIS-B, flown on Nimbus 3 a year earlier. Thermal emission spectra of the earth are being recorded between 400 cm(-1) and 1600 cm(-1) with a nominal spectral resolution of 2.8 cm(-1) and a noise equivalent radiance between approximately 0.5 and 1 erg sec(-1) cm(-2) ster(-1) cm. This paper describes the design and performance of the IRIS-D and concentrates on the design differences that exist between the interferometers flown on Nimbus 3 and 4. The performance is demonstrated by examples of spectra obtained while in earth orbit.


We report on new measurements of the luminosity function (LF) and mass function (MF) of field low-mass dwarfs derived from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 photometry. The analysis incorporates ~15 million low-mass stars (0.1 ), spread over 8400 deg2. Stellar distances are estimated using new photometric parallax relations, constructed from ugriz photometry of nearby low-mass stars with trigonometric parallaxes. We use a technique that simultaneously measures Galactic structure and the stellar LF from 7 < Mr < 16. We compare the LF to previous studies and convert to an MF using the mass-luminosity relations of Delfosse et?al. The system MF, measured over ?1.0< log <?0.1, is well described by a lognormal distribution with = 0.25 . We stress that our results should not be extrapolated to other mass regimes. Our work generally agrees with prior low-mass stellar MFs and places strong constraints on future theoretical star formation studies.


Because of changes that have happened in pharmaceutical market in recent years, the selling of the drug has diversified into many levels and that was the impetus of the research and recording of this work. In order to provide some answers to the questions posed daily both policyholders but also to the health professionals through the prism of sales of pharmaceutical companies. The essay includes elements and characteristics of the pharmaceutical market, in order to inform the reader initially for the overall situation of medicine in Greece compared with abroad and how it relates to the pharmaceutical expenditure on sales and provision of health services. Eventually, purpose of this essay is to clarify and to illuminate the misunderstanding that has been created as regards the pharmaceutical representative-seller and his connection with health professionals and finally who is this person and which is his role. Moreover, to all policy holders are created the query daily in many health services, «on the altar of money and selling multinational and non-pharmaceutical companies can be sidelined the correct functioning of the health system and who are those who perpetuate this situation? »


This retrospective study evaluated the results of intramedullary Kirschner wire fixation in pediatric forearm fractures and the effects on the wrist. Twenty-seven patients with forearm fractures managed by limited open reduction and intramedullary K-wire fixation were included in this study. Differences in ulnar variance were examined on wrist radiographs. Average ulnar variance was -3.23 +/- 2.14 mm on the operated wrist and -2.30 +/- 2.06 mm on the contralateral wrist (P < .05).


Ten, two-years old of crossbred native cattle weighing about at 250±20 kg were randomly divided into two groups according to receive two groups of supplemental dietary treatments by receiving YFCP1 + YFCP2 (T1) and YFCRR + YFDH (T2). The cows were offered the treatment diets at 2%BW and rice straw was fed ad li bitum. Means were compared using pair t-test. All animals were kept in individual pens and received free access to water. The results have revealed that supplementation of dietary treatment on feed intake was non-significantly different, while average daily gain (ADG) and rumen microorganisms especially bacteria and fungi zoospores were significant different and cattle in heifer fed YFCRR + YFDH (T2) treatments and received YFCP1 + YFCP2 (T1) (646.4 and 533.2 g/d). In addition, the ruminal pH, ammonia-nitrogen and blood urea nitrogen concentration were non-significantly different. Supplementation of T2 could improve population of bacteria and fungal zoospore higher than those fed T1, but decreased populations of Holotrich and Entodiniomorph protozoa in rumen. The results indicate that supplementation of yeast fermented cassava and durian hull as supplement diets with rice straw as roughage source could improve ruminal fermentation efficiency, average daily gain in crossbred native cattle.


• The course of chronic disease must be studied by long-term observation of individual patients. The course of heart disease was studied in 1,500 patients who had been registered for the purpose by the house and visiting staffs of a hospital. Mechanical problems of registration and indexing were readily solved. Special problems arose from the need of following up the same patients for many years; some of these were the relation of the patient to the index, the relation of the physician to both, the maintaining of contact, and the ultimate securing of autopsy reports. So far, only 1% of the patients have been lost to contact, and autopsy data have been obtained from 60% of those who have died. The use of punch cards has made it possible to make quick sortings according to place of registration, type of patient, and occupation. The largest etiological category has been that of congenital heart disease. Another sorting showed that 6.4% of the patients with peripheral vascular disease had symptoms of coronary artery disease. It has been possible to select groups of patients by any desired criterion for special study.


In this paper, we calculate the off-shell superpotential of two Calabi-Yau manifolds with three parameters by integrating the period of the subsystem. We also obtain the Ooguri-Vafa invariants with open mirror symmetry.


In this study, the ZrP/MCM-41 catalyst was successfully synthesized by using a facile one-pot method to load zirconium phosphate (ZrP) on MCM-41. The synthesized ZrP/MCM-41 catalyst was characterized by various characterization methods. The catalyst was confirmed to have medium and strong acidic sites by ammonia temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD). The Zr in ZrP/MCM-41 was confirmed to be Zr4+ using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The catalytic activity was evaluated during the oxidative desulfurization (ODS) process, and the optimal reaction conditions were determined, including reaction temperature and time, the catalyst dosage and O/S (H2O2/sulfur) molar ratio. Under optimal reaction conditions, the sulfur removal rate of the ODS process reached 99.9%. After the catalyst was recycled 14 times, the catalytic activity was still 94.68%. The catalyst has good catalytic activity and reusability.


Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a low‐grade, malignant vascular tumor that most commonly presents within the liver. Patients with hepatic EHE are often candidates for liver transplantation as the disease is usually multifocal at diagnosis. Although these patients achieve excellent early outcomes post‐transplant, there are very few data regarding tumor markers that can further direct chemotherapy in hepatic EHE to prevent recurrent disease. The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression of the angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors in hepatic EHE. Six patients with hepatic EHE were assessed for liver transplantation at our center. Pathology specimens of primary and recurrent EHE were analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin staining and by immunofluorescence for VEGF, fetal liver kinase 1 (Flk‐1), and fms‐related tyrosine kinase 1 (Flt‐1) expression. Five patients underwent liver transplantation, and 1 patient underwent liver resection. Biopsy‐proven recurrent EHE occurred in 3 patients. VEGF expression was present in 100% of the EHE specimens examined, whereas Flt‐1 expression was present in only 1 sample, and Flk‐1 was not observed in any of the specimens. In 1 patient with recurrent hepatic EHE post–liver transplantation, a progressive increase in the VEGF fluorescence intensity and distribution was observed. In conclusion, in this series, VEGF expression was observed in all hepatic EHE specimens analyzed. These data suggest that anti‐VEGF chemotherapeutic agents will be of use in patients with hepatic EHE, particularly as a means of reducing the tumor volume prior to resection, as a means of treating unresectable or metastatic disease, or as an adjuvant therapy in the setting of liver transplantation. Liver Transpl 16:191–197, 2010. © 2010 AASLD.


We investigate the effects of the competition between exchange ($J$) and dipolar ($D$) interactions on the magnetization reversal mechanisms of ferromagnetic nanotubes. Using first atomistic Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for a model with Heisenberg spins on a cylindrical surface, we compute hysteresis loops for a wide range of the $\gamma=D/J$ parameter, characterizing the reversal behavior in terms of the cylindrical magnetization components and the vorticity parameter along the tube length. For $\gamma$'s close to the value for which helical (H) states are stable at zero applied field, we show that the hysteresis loops can occur in four different classes that are combinations of two reversal modes with well-differentiated coercivities with probabilities that depend on the tube length and radius. This variety in the reversal modes is found to be linked to the metastability of the $H$ states during the reversal that induce different paths followed along the energy landscape as the field is changed. We further demonstrate that reversal by either of the two modes can be induced by tailoring the nanotube initial state so that vortices with equal or contrary chirality are formed at the ends, thus achieving low or high coercive fields at will without changing $\gamma$. Finally, the results of additional micromagnetic simulations performed on tubes with similar aspect ratio show that dual switching modes and its tailoring can also be observed in tubes with more microscopic dimensions.


Many U.S. histories of the digital computer field have tended to be impersonal, with heavy emphasis on eastern universities and commercial developments. This article records the events of the early years in a personal way. The people, organizations, technologies, and computers of the 1945-55 period in the western part of the United States are described as they happened.


The challenges faced by managers of transportation systems in developing nations such as Nigeria are numerous. These include driver scheduling, which, in many cases, is still being done manually; diversion of vehicles to unauthorized routes by drivers for selfish reasons results in illegal use of fuel meant for official duties, causing the organization lose considerable revenue. In its drive to reduce its carbon footprint, Elizade University, Nigeria, is embarking on the development and use of electric vehicles (EV) as a means of transportation within the university campus. This research is geared towards supporting this initiative by developing an EV tracking system that combines tracking of EV drivers with vehicle position and battery power (energy) tracking in order to mitigate the challenges outlined above. Personnel tracking was achieved using an RFID-enabled staff identity card that authenticates authorized drivers before activating the vehicle ignition system, position tracking was achieved using a geographical positioning system (GPS), and current and voltage sensors were used for tracking of electric vehicle power. Tests revealed that the EV system administrator operated through a personal computer was able to track the EV driver, position and power through a web interface/Google Maps and e-mail in real time. Whereas previous studies either considered tracking of vehicle position or power without personnel, others tracked personnel with less emphasis on the vehicle position or energy. In this study, we combined different technologies such as RFID, GPS and power sensors to consider EV administration in a holistic manner, thereby providing intervention in an infrastructurally deficient setting.


Family medicine has appropriated the biopsychosocial model as a conceptualization of the systemic interrelationships among the biological, the psychological, and the social in health and illness. For all its strengths, it is questionable whether this model adequately depicts the centrality of culture to the human experience of illness. Culture (as meaning system) is not an optional factor that only sometimes influences health and illness; it is prerequisite for all meaningful human experience, including that of being ill. A more adequate model of the relationship between culture and illness would demonstrate the preeminence of culture in the experience of illness among all people, not just members of "exotic" cultures; would view healers as well as patients as dwellers in culture; would incorporate the role of culture as meaning system in linking body, mind, and world; and would promote the significance of the cultural context as a resource for research and therapy.


The biotech high-education in Romanian has started relative recently, the first accredited college being registered in 1996 in Bucharest, in the University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. Since then, more than 1000 license students have graduated in different specializations as Agricultural Biotechnology, Industrial Biotechnology and Veterinary Biotechnology. Recently, during the implementation of a structural funds project for human resources (POSDRU/109/2.1/G/81570) has been conducted a survey on how the biotech graduates have been placed on the labour market. The statistics shows that less than 27% from the graduates have found jobs in biotech fields, such as scientific research and education, food and beverages production, environmental protection, including biofuel production, pharmaceutical products, instrumentation and suppliers. In this regard, educators, professionals and counsellors, on regional level, have started to take important measures to develop and implement activities to increase the absorption level of the biotech graduates. Aside the curricula improvement, an important step it has been the counselling of 100 students, between 20 and 30 years old about self-knowledge, neuro-linguistic programming, CV content, letter of intention writing, as well as about behaviour during an interview. Also, it has been underlined the importance of the continuous learning. More than 93% from the counselled students has found it very useful. Further, a network of 12 economical biotech operators have been developed and 38% of the counselled students have been involved in internships in fields as agriculture and food production, pharmaceutical industry, food safety and consumer protection, hygiene products design and biotech research. As preliminary result, all the graduated counselled students have decided to continue their studies in master courses, and 27% has already been employed in biotech field. The program will continue in the next years, with the aim to increase the employability for the biotech graduates.


This study compares recent CO, NOx, NMVOC, SO2, BC, and OC anthropogenic emissions from several state‐of‐the‐art top‐down estimates to global and regional bottom‐up inventories and projections from five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) in several regions. Results show that top‐down emissions derived in several recent studies exhibit similar uncertainty as bottom‐up inventories in some regions for certain species and even less in the case of Chinese CO emissions. In general, the largest discrepancies are found outside of regions such as the United States, Europe, and Japan where the most accurate and detailed information on emissions is available. In some regions such as China, which has recently undergone dynamical economic growth and changes in air quality regulations, the top‐down estimates better capture recent emission trends than global bottom‐up inventories. These results show the potential of top‐down estimates to complement bottom‐up inventories and to aide in the development of emission scenarios, particularly in regions where global inventories lack the necessary up‐to‐date and accurate information regarding regional activity data and emission factors such as Africa and India. Areas of future work aimed at quantifying and reducing uncertainty are also highlighted. A regional comparison of recent CO and NOx trends in the five SSPs indicate that SSP126, a strong pollution control scenario, best represents the trends from the top‐down and regional bottom‐up inventories in the United States, Europe, and China, while SSP460, a low‐pollution control scenario, lies closest to actual trends in West Africa. This analysis can be useful for air quality forecasting and near‐future pollution control/mitigation policy studies.


Manufacturing process for anthelmintic embovin in a micronized form have been developed. Embovin in the micronized form exhibited the highest activity.


After the collapse of the USSR Ukraine and Georgia began to develop their interstate relations actively. This development was facilitated by the political processes in each of the states, as well as the foreign policy pursued by Kiev and Tbilisi. Initially, countries focused on expanding interaction with Western countries, which were considered to be potential partners. Ukraine and Georgia were eager to develop the relations with the EU and NATO. In turn, European countries and the United States paid increased attention to Ukraine and Georgia.The alignment of forces in each of the states contributed to the rapprochement of Kiev and Tbilisi. The political forces of both countries pursued a course of distancing from Russia and rapprochement with Western countries. As a result, Ukrainian-Georgian relations relied on similar political positions, which allowed countries to expand cooperation on a bilateral basis and within the framework of multilateral cooperation mechanisms.In recent years Ukrainian-Georgian relations have been developing dynamically. Two states are pursuing a policy of joining NATO, expanding cooperation with the EU. Ukraine is interested in deepening cooperation with Tbilisi due to strained relations with Russia. In addition, Ukraine seeks to use the Western sanctions policy towards Russia to solve domestic political and socio-economic problems. Whereas, Western countries are interested in strengthening the Ukrainian-Georgian tandem hoping to use it in promotion of their interests in the post-Soviet space and in implementing policies towards Russia.This article explores the prospects for the development of interstate Ukrainian-Georgian relations, which will reflect the political processes in the post-Soviet countries.


Utterance classification is a critical pre-processing step for many speech understanding and dialog systems. In multi-user settings, one needs to first identify if an utterance is even directed at the system, followed by another level of classification to determine the intent of the user's input. In this work, we propose RNN and LSTM models for both these tasks. We show how both models outperform baselines based on ngram-based language models (LMs), feedforward neural network LMs, and boosting classifiers. To deal with the high rate of singleton and out-of-vocabulary words in the data, we also investigate a word input encoding based on character ngrams, and show how this representation beats the standard one-hot vector word encoding. Overall, these proposed approaches achieve over 30% relative reduction in equal error rate compared to boosting classifier baseline on an ATIS utterance intent classification task, and over 3.9% absolute reduction in equal error rate compared to a the maximum entropy LM baseline of 27.0% on an addressee detection task. We find that RNNs work best when utterances are short, while LSTMs are best when utterances are longer.


Providing safe drinking water is a multifaceted problem that goes beyond a treatment device and deserves a holistic approach with respect to sanitation, handling, education, and customs of the target community. Socially-embedded point-of-use treatment strategies based on familiar components are more likely to receive prolonged use from the residents. Microwave ovens are a globally diffused, socially accepted technology that are enticing options for foundations of irradiation-based treatment. Taking advantage of the exceptional qualities of certain materials at the nano-scale allows one to utilize the low-energy radiation of microwave rays. This study focused on silver nanoparticles under the hypothesis that increased temperature from microwave exposure would result in increased ion dissolution and heat shock, thus enhancing antimicrobial potency. Using Escherichia coli (K12) as a model microorganism, 1 mL samples containing up to 1 mg/L of suspended silver nanoparticles were irradiated in a microwave reactor (2,450 MHz; 70 W) for 60 and 90 s. A clear synergistic effect between microwave radiation and silver nanoparticles was observed as microbial inactivation increased with additional microwave exposure and higher concentrations of silver. A maximum of 4.7 log 10 reduction was achieved after 90 s of irradiation, indicating rapid inactivation as typical batch studies involving silver nanoparticles take on the order of hours to achieve such inactivation. These results are promising for the development of nanomaterials capable of utilizing microwave radiation; however, efficiency will need to be increased in order to treat larger volumes of water. Incorporating various nanomaterials with several stress-inducing mechanisms has the potential to enable irradiation-based disinfection with the globally-diffused microwave oven for treatment at the household level.


Summary
Although the movement of invasive bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and silver carp (H. molitrix) in the Upper Mississippi River system is dependent on their ability to swim through its numerous lock-and-dams, the swimming performance of adults of these species is at present unknown. Using a large (2,935-L) mobile swim tunnel, the swimming performance of adult bighead and adult silver carp was quantified at water velocities that challenged them to exhibit either prolonged and/or burst swimming (76–244 cm/s) with fatigue times of less than 10 min. Simple log-linear models best described the relative swim speed to fatigue relationships for both species. Under these conditions, the swimming performances of adult bighead and silver carp were similar to several species of adult fishes native to the Mississippi River system, but relatively low (<3 total body lengths per second, TL/s) compared to previously studied juveniles and sub-adult bigheaded carps (3–15 TL/s). The decline in endurance with water velocity was three times greater in bighead carp (slope = −2.98) than in silver carp (slope = −1.01) and the predictive ability of the bighead model was appreciably better than the silver carp model. The differences in adult swimming performance between the two species were coincident with behavioral differences (e.g. breaching in silver carp but not in bighead carp). The swimming performance data of adult bighead and silver carp can now be used to evaluate whether their passage through manmade river structures including the gates of lock-and-dams in the Upper Mississippi River might be reduced.


Introduction Promoting healthy lifestyles is important to protect against obesity and non-communicable diseases. However, there is a lack of understanding of the enablers and barriers to healthy lifestyles (dietary and physical activity) among pre-service nursing trainees in Ghana. This study therefore aims to examine the perceived practice, enablers and barriers in adopting healthy dietary and physical activity behaviours. Materials and methods Cross-sectional qualitative, one-on-one in-depth interviews with a semi-structured guide were conducted with 16 nursing trainees (public health nursing) (aged: 18–25 years) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Health and Allied Sciences. Participants were selected based on body mass index (underweight, normal, over-weight, and obesity) classification of the world health organization. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data analysis was manually carried out. Results Enablers and barriers were grouped into levels of individual (intrapersonal), social environment, physical environment, and university factors based on ecological model initially formulated by Bronfenbrenner's. Enablers to healthy dietary behaviour were self-discipline, dietary knowledge, social support, and access/availability. Enablers related to physical activity mentioned were body image, social support, and the existence of student societies. Barriers to healthy dietary behaviour included upbringing, preference, accessibility, safety/appearance, and studies/lectures. Barriers mentioned in relation to physical activity include a busy lifestyle, inadequate feeding, studies/academic activity, student societies, upbringing, and social support. Conclusion A program to support healthy lifestyles for nursing trainees is needed. Specifically, in terms of developing and implementing interventions to overcome barriers and promote facilitators to adopt healthy dietary and physical activity behaviours whilst in training.


A major warming above the 10-mb level in February 1966 is described with the aid of rocket data from highlatitude stations at Heiss Island (81' N.) and Churchill (59" N.), together with high-level radiosonde reports from Berlin, Germany. At Heiss Island a temperature increase of S5"C is deduced at an altitude of 32 km, preceded by a record wind of nearly 400 kt (at 39 km), verified through thermal wind computations. Extraordinary vertical motions reaching 60 em sec-1 are calculated from the thermodynamic equation. The warming is shown to have been similar to major warmings of the lower stratosphere in several respects, including the occurrence of 1) high winds related to pressure-gradient intensification several days before the peak temperature and 2) upward vertical motion in high latitudes in response to strong horizontal advection. Rocket soundings extending to the mesopause indicate the occurrence of warming to a height of at least 70 km. The mesospheric data further suggest that prior to warming events the upper polar mesosphere is characteristically cold, in accord with radiative calculations for winter. However, the mesospheric analysis is hampered by poor sampling, and an improved program of observation is needed to clarify the full structure of "stratospheric" warmings. "


This paper is the first in a series on constitutional judicial review of what the Supreme Court has termed "electoral mechanics," defined to include "the registration and qualification of voters, the selection and eligibility of candidates, and the voting process." Over the last few years, this subject has assumed a new salience as reformist litigators challenge novel state-mandated procedures for registration, voting, and vote counting. For the first time since the 1960s, a significant number of voter-participation cases are moving through the lower courts. The courts are substantially in agreement that these claims are governed by the doctrinal framework set forth in Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992), but there is a catch: Burdick's statement of black-letter law significantly misdescribes the Supreme Court's actual practice in its electoral mechanics jurisprudence - or so I argue here. As a result, lower courts confronted with the new generation of voter-participation claims have often pursued analytic methods that the Supreme Court is not likely to find congenial. Important avenues for doctrinal experimentation and elaboration are being overlooked. This paper develops a schematic map and a vocabulary for talking about the Supreme Court's methods in its electoral mechanics jurisprudence, one which should help lower courts (as well as litigants and law professors) to think more productively about the critical threshold question - what is the standard of review, and why? - in such cases. By way of illustration, the paper examines and critiques successive district court opinions enjoining Georgia's new photo-identification requirements for voting.


AbstractMost of the attention that the two silver amulets discovered at Ketef Hinnom Jerusalem have received in recent scholarship has centered upon their date and relationship to the biblical texts. This is due in part to the fact that both amulets preserve formulations of the biblical Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26. The new edition of the amulets published in 2004, however, provides impetus for new questions about the form of the incantations on the amulets and what the magical objects tell us about ancient Judahite apotropaic practices. In particular, the new edition provides a clearer picture of the content and form on both amulets. In turn, the new edition paves the way for a better understanding of how the incantations functioned as magical texts, which attempted to make an argument about their own efficacy as apotropaic objects. Despite this fact, few studies have devoted sufficient to the overall form and content preserved in the incantations. The following paper will describe the content and structure of the incantation on Amulet I and argue that the specific statement made therein provides a unique glimpse into the argument of magical texts in ancient Judah. Finally, the following paper will also briefly compare the content and structure of the incantation to several Psalms that petition Yhwh for protection against various ills. Such a comparison reveals that there may have been more fluidity between magical formulae and ancient Judahite prayer traditions than previously recognized.


Essence was extracted by cold expression methods from four varieties of Citrus harvested in Chlef region: C. Sinensis, C. paradisi, C. reticulate and C. aurantium. The characterization of the essence was done by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/ MS) in order to evaluate the quality and composition of these molecular species.

The anti-inflammatory activity of Citrus Essence was tested with a dose of 3 and 4 ml / kg by intra-peritoneal route after induced the paw edema by carrageen in in mouse model (MORINI), the results obtained were compared with those of the standard treatment.

The results of our experiment showed that Citrus essence had a significant anti-inflammatory effect via evaluation of the percentage of inhibition of edema and after a period of 120 min with C.reticulata and C. aurantium, hence for C.paradise and C. Sinensis were after 150 min. In conclusion we find that essence extracted from Citrus species reduces with significant manner the edema, whereas the molecule responsible for this effect could be limonene.


Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFCs) are used today commercially for power production. More recently they have also been considered for carbon capture from industrial and power generation CO2 sources. In this newer application context, our recent studies have shown that at low CO2/H2O cathode gas ratios, water supplements CO2 in the electrochemical process to generate power but not capture CO2. We now report the direct Raman observation of the underlying carbonate-hydroxide equilibrium in an alkali carbonate eutectic near MCFC operating conditions. Our improved electrochemical model built on the experimental equilibrium data adjusts the internal resistance terms and has improved the representation of the MCFC performance. This fundamentally improved model now also includes the temperature dependence of cell performance. It has been validated on experimental data collected in single cell tests. The average error in the simulated voltage is less than 4% even when extreme operating conditions of low CO2 concentration and high current density data are included. With the improvements, this electrochemical model is suitable for simulating industrial cells and stacks employed in a wide variety of carbon capture applications.


The complexity of a network is an effective tool to analyze its structure. It predicts its performance and its reliability. In this paper, we evaluate the complexity of two complex networks: The Flower network and the Mosaic network. First, we propose two combinatorial approaches: the bipartition and the reduction that facilitate the calculation of the complexity of complex and large networks. Then, we combine these approaches in order to reveal the mechanism of the construction of our networks. We study their topological properties and we enumerate their spanning trees. Our results highlight the potential of our combinatorial approaches, which allow us to assess the complexity for two types of large and complex networks as the Flower network and the Mosaic network.


Large programs of dynamic gene expression, like cell cyles and circadian rhythms, are controlled by a relatively small "core" network of transcription factors and post-translational modifiers, working in concerted mutual regulation. Recent work suggests that system-independent, quantitative features of the dynamics of gene expression can be used to identify core regulators. We introduce an approach of iterative network hypothesis reduction from time-series data in which increasingly complex features of the dynamic expression of individual, pairs, and entire collections of genes are used to infer functional network models that can produce the observed transcriptional program. The culmination of our work is a computational pipeline, Iterative Network Hypothesis Reduction from Temporal Dynamics (Inherent Dynamics Pipeline), that provides a priority listing of targets for genetic perturbation to experimentally infer network structure. We demonstrate the capability of this integrated computational pipeline on synthetic and yeast cell-cycle data. Author Summary In this work we discuss a method for identifying promising experimental targets for genetic network inference by leveraging different features of time series gene expression data along a chained set of previously published software tools. We aim to locate small networks that control oscillations in the genome-wide expression profile in biological functions such as the circadian rhythm and the cell cycle. We infer the most promising targets for further experimentation, emphasizing that modeling and experimentation are an∗Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com essential feedback loop for confident predictions of core network structure. Our major offering is the reduction of experimental time and expense by providing targeted guidance from computational methods for the inference of oscillating core networks, particularly in novel organisms.


Titanium dioxide (TiO2) in the form of pellets (pressed powder) and thin films are investigated, revealing the presence of distinct phases: mainly anatase and rutile. Characterization of optical, structural and electrical properties were carried out on samples submitted to different sort of thermal annealing (TA), at distinct temperatures, 500 and 1000oC, due to their influence on the obtained phases. TA temperature along with pressure application for sample conformation, determine the bands present in the photoluminescence (PL) spectra, being about 550nm, characteristic of anatase phase and 800nm, related to the presence of rutile phase. The bandgap of thin films is determined from optical absorbance data, yielding 3.4eV for anatase phase (indirect transition), and 2.9eV for rutile phase (direct transition). Besides, irradiation with monochromatic light strongly affects the thin film conductivity, but the energy range (above or below the bandgap energy) does not seem to affect the behavior, which is associated with the excitation of intrabandgap states or crystallites belonging to phases with distinct bandgaps.


Coreference resolution is the task of finding expressions that refer to the same entity in a text. Coreference models are generally trained on monolingual annotated data but annotating coreference is expensive and challenging. Hardmeier et al.(2013) have shown that parallel data contains latent anaphoric knowledge, but it has not been explored in end-to-end neural models yet. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective model to exploit coreference knowledge from parallel data. In addition to the conventional modules learning coreference from annotations, we introduce an unsupervised module to capture cross-lingual coreference knowledge. Our proposed cross-lingual model achieves consistent improvements, up to 1.74 percentage points, on the OntoNotes 5.0 English dataset using 9 different synthetic parallel datasets. These experimental results confirm that parallel data can provide additional coreference knowledge which is beneficial to coreference resolution tasks.


Exposure to soluble proteins via the gut gives rise to systemic tolerance, a phenomenon called oral tolerance. Failure of oral tolerance results in allergy, a disease that has increased during the last decades in Western industrialized countries. The cause of this rapid increase is unknown. However, according to the hygiene hypothesis and many epidemiological studies, there is a clear correlation between a hygienic lifestyle and the prevalence of allergy. The hygiene hypothesis is also supported by the results of animal studies. Specifically, germ‐free mice have been found to be deficient in the development of oral tolerance and have less functional regulatory T cells. We have observed that Swedish infants have a less diverse gut microbial flora and a slower strain turnover compared to infants in developing countries, suggesting that certain microbes may have particularly strong immunoregulatory potential. Thus, neonatal colonization by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in the gut protects against food allergy development. Most S. aureus strains can produce one or more toxins with superantigenic function, including staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) A, B, C, D, and E, as well as toxic shock syndrome toxin‐1 (TSST‐1). Superantigens are the strongest known T cell stimulants, as they stimulate 5‐30% of all T cells in an antigen‐independent manner by cross‐linking MHC class II molecules on antigen‐ presenting cells with the Vβ region of the T cell receptor. The purpose of this thesis was to study the immunomodulatory role of staphylococcal superantigen on oral tolerance in animal models of allergy. Newborn pups were exposed to SEA during the first two weeks of life. Oral tolerance was induced at 6 weeks of age by feeding the mice the model antigen ovalbumin (OVA). Oral tolerization was followed by sensitization and challenge according to an airway allergy model or a food allergy model. Neonatal SEA treatment resulted in enhanced development of oral tolerance, as evidenced by decreased sensitization in both allergy models. Further, when colonizing germ‐free mice with superantigen‐producing S. aureus, improved oral tolerance induction in the food allergy model was observed compared to mice colonized by a non toxin‐producing strain. To investigate the long‐term effect of SEA on the immune system, immune cells were studied at the time for oral tolerization. We found that mice neonatally treated with SEA had higher proportions of lymphocytes expressing the gut migratory markers chemokine receptor CCR9 and integrin α4β7. This was associated with higher numbers of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the small intestinal lamina propria. In addition, neonatal SEA treatment rendered dendritic cells (DCs) more tolerogenic demonstrated by lower expression of co‐stimulatory markers, higher expression of MHC class II, and reduced T cell stimulatory properties. A subpopulation of gut DCs expressing CD103 have been suggested to be important for oral tolerance. This DC subset specifically imprints gut migratory potential on stimulated T cells and can convert naïve T cells into regulatory T cells. The unique properties of the CD103+ DCs depend on their expression of retinal dehydrogenases (RALDHs), enzymes that convert vitamin A to retinoic acid (RA). By interfering with the vitamin A metabolism in vivo by giving mice the RALDH inhibitor Citral in their drinking water, the improvement in oral tolerance noted after neonatal SEA treatment was lost. In addition, Citral intake affected gut DCs by lowering the expression of MHC class II, suggesting that high expression of antigens via MHC class II is important for oral tolerance. In conclusion, neonatal exposure to superantigen or colonization of germ‐free mice by superantigen‐producing S. aureus confers an increased ability for oral tolerance several weeks after treatment. This improvement is likely dependent upon an interaction between gut‐residing DCs and gut‐migrating lymphocytes, particularly regulatory T cells. SEA treatment affects gut DCs inducing prolonged capacity in this subset to evoke gut‐homing potential to T cells. In addition, the improved oral tolerance observed following neonatal SEA treatment might also be dependent on functional vitamin A metabolism.


This paper proposes a sensorless maximum power point tracking (MPPT) strategy for dual power flow wind energy conversion system (WECS) based on electrical variable transmission (EVT). The outer rotor torque of the EVT is suitably controlled according to the outer rotor speed to realize the MPPT without the knowledge of wind velocity. Moreover, the model reference adaptive system (MRAS) observers are adopted to observe the outer rotor speed and position. Therefore, the proposed wind energy conversion system is controlled without physical sensors such as wind speed sensor and position sensor. Both the normal and the simplified MRAS observers are analyzed and the performance of each observer is compared. The simulation models are built based on Matlab/Simulink, and the simulation results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the sensorless MPPT control of the proposed system.


[125I]RTI‐55 is a cocaine analog with high affinity for dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5‐HT) transporters. Quantitative ligand binding studies revealed a novel high affinity [125I]RTI‐55 binding site assayed under 5‐HT transporter (SERT) conditions which has low affinity for almost all classic biogenic amine transporter ligands, including high affinity 5‐HT transporter inhibitors such as paroxetine, but which retains high affinity for cocaine analogs. This site, termed SERTsite2 for its detection under 5‐HT transporter conditions (not for an association with the SERT) occurs in monkey caudate, human caudate, and guinea pig caudate membranes, but not in rat caudate membranes. SERTsite2 is distinguished from the DA transporter (DAT) and SERT by several criteria, including a distinct ligand‐selectivity profile, the inability to detect SERTsite2 in cells stably expressing the cloned human DAT, and insensitivity to irreversible ligands which inhibit [125I]RTI‐55 binding to the DAT and SERT. Perhaps the most striking finding about SERTsite2 is that a wide range of representative antidepressant agents have very low affinity for SERTsite2. The affinity of cocaine for this site is not very different from the concentration cocaine achieves in the brain at pharmacological doses. Viewed collectively with the observation that ligands with high affinity for SERTsite2 are mostly cocaine analogs, these data lead us to speculate that actions of cocaine which differ from those of classic biogenic amine uptake inhibitors may be mediated in part via SERTsite2. Synapse 28:322–338, 1998. Published 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Stress analysis and fatigue life on shock absorber are investigated in this study. The lower part of spring is shown with the maximum equivalent stress and displacement of 153.49MPa and 26.151mm. The rear part is also shown with the number of fatigue life less than . And the middle part of spring is shown with the minimum safety factor of 0.94592. The designed modeling suspension in this study has no possibility with resonance. As the result of this study is applied by the chassis of automobile, the prevention on fatigue fracture and the durability is predicted.


Abstract An analysis by the finite element method and a related computer program is presented for an axisymmetric solid under asymmetric loads. Calculations are carried out on displacements and internal stresses and strains of a radial tire loaded on a road wheel of 600‐mm diameter, a road wheel of 1707‐mm diameter, and a flat plate. Agreement between calculated and experimental displacements and cord forces is quite satisfactory. The principal shear strain concentrates at the belt edge, and the strain energy increases with decreasing drum diameter. Tire temperature measurements show that the strain energy in the tire is closely related to the internal temperature rise.


Background. Employees will be highly motivated to fulfill new responsibilities, when they actually feel psychologically empowered , i.e. would positively evaluate their own professional competence, wish to solve job related problems independently and show initiative at work. In Lithuania, the phenomenon of psychological empowerment was virtually not examined yet; therefore it is highly relevant to analyze its expression, diversity of contributing factors and their characteristics in managers and specialists. The aim of the study was to examine the expression of  psychological empowerment and its relation with empowering leader behavior and structural empowerment. Method . Three methodologies were used in this study: the questionnaire of psychological empowerment (Tvarijonavicius ir Bag- dziuniene, 2013), the questionnaire of empowering leader behavior (Ahearne et al., 2005), and the questionnaire of structural empowerment (Laschinger et al., 2001). There were 280 participants in this study: specialists (N=205) and middle managers (N=75), working in 14 organizations in Lithuania. Results. The results of the study revealed that empowering leader behavior and structural empowerment predicted employee psychological empowerment; empowering leader behavior and structural empowerment predicted employee psychological empowerment directly; also there was an interaction between empowering leader behavior and structural empowerment and its' dimensions when predicting psychological empowerment; the empowerment predictors for specialists and managers differed. Conclusions. The psychological empowerment of middle managers was higher than of the specialists. The role of empowering leader behavior on psychological empowerment was higher in the conditions of low structural empowerment; the psychological empowerment predictors for specialists were: opportunity to use current and acquire new skills, information about the status of the organization, trust demonstrated be a direct manager, and autonomy for the work provided; while the psychological empowerment of middle managers was only predicted by the opportunity to use current and acquire new skills.


Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is an important cause of intestinal disease, primarily affecting hospitalized patients exposed to antibiotics. Infection has been associated with prolonged hospital stays and excess healthcare expenditures. Recent changes in the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of CDI have occurred, leading to renewed scrutiny of this pathogen. Increases in its incidence and severity have been documented, possibly due to the emergence of a hypervirulent strain that produces high levels of toxins. Community-acquired cases in individuals without traditional risk factors have been reported. Furthermore, oral metronidazole may not be as effective as oral vancomycin for patients with severe CDI. New therapies are being investigated for patients with recurrent disease. This review highlights the new developments in the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and management of CDI, serving as an up-to-date resource for primary care clinicians.


The Central Luconia Province, offshore Sarawak, is a significant gas province characterized by extensive development of late Miocene carbonate buildups. Some 200 carbonate structures have been seismically mapped of which 70 have been drilled. FMS/FMI borehole images were obtained from three appraisal wells drilled in the [open quotes]M[close quotes] cluster gas fields situated in the northwestern part of the province. The [open quotes]M[close quotes] cluster fields are currently part of an upstream gas development project to supply liquefied natural gas. Log facies recognition within these carbonate gas reservoirs is problematic due mainly to the large gas effect. This problem is being addressed by (1) application of neural network techniques and (2) using borehole imaging tools. Cores obtained from the M1, M3, and M4 gas fields were calibrated with the FMS/FMI images. Reservoir characterization was obtained at two different scales. The larger scale (i.e., 1:40 and 1:200) involved static normalized images where the vertical stacking pattern was observed based on recognition of bed boundaries. In addition, the greater vertical resolution of the FMS/FMI images allowed recognition of thin beds. For recognition of specific lithofacies, dynamically normalized images were used to highlight lithofacies-specific sedimentary features, e.g., clay seams/stylolites, vugs, and breccia zones.more » In general, the FMS/FMI images allowed (1) easier recognition of reservoir features, e.g., bed boundaries, and (2) distinction between lithofacies that are difficult to characterize on conventional wireline logs.« less


BACKGROUND
NF-kappaB includes a family of signal-activated transcription factors that normally regulate responses to injury and infection but which are aberrantly activated in many carcinomas.

OBJECTIVE
To review the activation and role of NF-kappaB in pathogenesis and as a target for treatment and prevention in carcinoma.

METHODS
Evidence from experimental, epidemiological, preclinical studies and clinical trials cited in the literature are reviewed.

RESULTS/CONCLUSION
Cumulative evidence implicates NF-kappaB in cell survival, inflammation, angiogenesis, spread and therapeutic resistance during tumor development, progression and metastasis of carcinomas. Non-specific natural and synthetic agents that inhibit NF-kappaB have demonstrated activity and safety in prevention or therapy. NF-kappaB-activating kinases and the proteasome are under investigation for targeted prevention and therapy of carcinoma.


ABSTRACT Base pressure at the base of high-speed jet has long been one of the important issues from both the view points of fluid dynamics as well as practical engineering applications. The base pressure characteristics of incompressible flows have been well known to date. However, the base pressure at transonic or supersonic speeds would be different due to the co mpressibility effects and shock waves. In the present paper, a CFD study has been performed to underst and the base pressure characteristics at transonic and supersonic speeds, prior to experimental work. An emphasis is placed on the control of the base pressure using a simple orifice. A variety of supersonic jet plumes have been explored to investigate the flow variables influencing the base pressure. The results obtained were validated with existing experimental data and discussed in terms of the base pressure and discharge coefficient of the orifice.초 록 고속의 제트에서 기저압력은 유체역학 및 실용적 공학 적용의 관점으로 매우 중요한 분야중의 하나로 다루어져 왔다. 현재까지 비압축성 유동의 기저압력 특성들은 비교적 상세하게 알려져 있다. 하지만 천음속 혹은 초음속에서의 기저압력은 압축성 효과 및 충격파 발생으로 인해 매우 다르게 나타난다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 천음속 혹은 초음속에서의 기저압력특성에 관한 이해를 위해 선행된 실험 연구결과를 바탕으로 수치해석적 연구를 수행하였다. 간단한 오리피스를 사용하여 기저 압력 조절하는 것에 주안점을 두었다. 기저 압력에 영향을 미치는 유동변수의 적용으로 여러 형태의 초음속 제트 플룸을 분석하였다. 선행된 실험결과를 모사하여 수치해석 기법의 타당성을 조사하였으며, 계산된 기저압력과 오리피스의 유출계수에 관하여 논의하였다.Key Words: Compressible Flow(압축성 유동), Orifice(오리피스), Base Pressure(기저압력), Discharge Coefficient(유출계수), Supersonic Nozzle(초음속 노즐)


Acellular dermal matrices (ADM) are a novel graft. The goal of this systematic review is to evaluate the evidence behind differences in human and porcine ADM, irrelevant of manufacturing method, and to determine if there is enough of an evidence base to change clinical practice. An extensive literature search was performed through MEDLINE and Embase with search terms defining a population, intervention and outcome. Title and abstract exclusion were performed with other exclusion criteria. In 191 articles were found after exclusion of duplicates, with only 29 remaining following exclusions. Ten studies were found to have level I and II evidence (I=3, II=8), of which two were histopathological, one was an animal model, one was a systematic review, and six were clinical. The remaining studies were reviewed and considered for discussion, but did not hold high enough standards for medical evidence. Strong clinical evidence already exists for the use of human ADM, but questions of access, cost, and ethics require consideration of a xenograft. Histopathologically, evidence suggests minimal long-term differences between human and porcine ADM, although there is a short acute immune response with porcine ADM. Clinically, there is limited difference in outcomes, with a small range in effect of different ADM preparations. Considering the effectiveness of ADM in wound healing, more high-level research with appropriate statistical analysis to facilitate a future meta-analysis is recommended to justify a transition from human to porcine ADM.


We advocate two Higgs doublet model without $Z_2$ symmetry, and focus on the extra top Yukawa couplings $\rho_{tt}$ and $\rho_{tc}$. We show that $A^0$ and $H^0$ bosons are still allowed at 300 GeV mass, where $cg \to tA^0$, $tH^0$ can lead to $tt\bar c$ same-sign top, or top-assisted di-Higgs $th^0h^0$ signatures, resp. As bonus material, we explore the constraint provided by current 4-top search, but advocate direct search for triple-top generated by $cg \to tH^0/A^0 \to tt\bar t$ for $H^0,\, A^0$ above $t\bar t$ threshold, and offer some insight on the mild but intriguing "excess" found by CMS in $gg \to A^0 \to t\bar t$ at 400 GeV.


The formation constants of the complexes formed between H+, Mn2+, Co2+, and Ni2+ and DL-4,4′-dithiobis(2-aminobutyric acid)(dtba) have been measured potentiometrically at 25 °C and I= 0.1 mol dm–3 KCl. Titration curves of the ligand in the presence of Mn2+, Co2+, and Ni2+ ions did not reveal appreciable complexing in acidic media. At intermediate pH values (ca. 6–8) the equilibria, after neutralization of two COOH groups, have been shown to include a large range of protonated complexes with the ligand behaving as tri- or quadri-dentate chelate depending on the pH. The determination of the formation constants of complexes formed by dtba with divalent metals has shown that there are the following species in solution: [Mn(HL)]+, [MnL2]2–; [Co(HL)]+, [CoL], [CoL2]2–; [Ni(HL)]+, [NiL], [NiL2]2–, where the ligand L2–=[–O2CCH(NH2)CH2CH2S–]2. These complexes are very likely to be N,O-chelates of a glycine type. The proton of the hydrogen complexes is probably bound to the amine group which is not a part of the chelate ring. The cumulative and stepwise formation constants follow the Irving–Williams series. Probable structures for the various complexes are discussed by comparing them with the crystal structure of the solid ligand and by considering the values of log (Kn/Kn+1).


Healthcare organizations are challenged with constrained resources and increasing service demands by an aging population with complex care needs. Exponential growth in competency requirements also challenges staff's ability to provide quality patient care. How can a healthcare organization support its staff to learn "at or above the speed of change" while continuing to provide the quality patient care? Island Health is addressing this challenge by transforming its traditional education model into an innovative, evidence-based learning and performance support approach. Implementation of the methodology is yielding several lessons learned, both for the internal Learning and Performance Support team, and for what it takes to bring a new way of doing business into an organization. A key result is that this approach is enabling the organization to be more responsive in helping staff gain and maintain competencies.


: The arrival of a particular type of technology, sociable robots, can challenge our understanding of companionship. Our focus is on robot pets, as these are finding their way into our families, schools, and nursing homes. In this paper we analyse two science fiction texts on robot dogs – Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1954) and Isaac Asimov's A Boy's Best Friend (1974)– before concentrating on technology assessment, a scientific method to describe and extrapolate possible impacts of emerging technologies. We argue in favour of the use of science fiction literature for this kind of research, as thus far technology assessment efforts have focused remarkably little on ethical and philosophical dimensions that have already been discussed in science fiction literature for decades.


Feature warping is a core technique in optical flow estimation; however, the ambiguity caused by occluded areas during warping is a major problem that remains unsolved. In this paper, we propose an asymmetric occlusion-aware feature matching module, which can learn a rough occlusion mask that filters useless (occluded) areas immediately after feature warping without any explicit supervision. The proposed module can be easily integrated into end-to-end network architectures and enjoys performance gains while introducing negligible computational cost. The learned occlusion mask can be further fed into a subsequent network cascade with dual feature pyramids with which we achieve state-of-the-art performance. At the time of submission, our method, called MaskFlownet, surpasses all published optical flow methods on the MPI Sintel, KITTI 2012 and 2015 benchmarks. Code is available at https://github.com/microsoft/MaskFlownet.


Computation on ciphertexts of all known fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) schemes induces some noise, which, if too large, will destroy the plaintext. Therefore, the bootstrapping technique that re-encrypts a ciphertext and reduces the noise level remains the only known way of building FHE schemes for arbitrary unbounded computations. The bootstrapping step is also the major efficiency bottleneck in current FHE schemes. A promising direction towards improving concrete efficiency is to exploit the bootstrapping process to perform useful computation while reducing the noise at the same time. We show a bootstrapping algorithm, which embeds a lookup table and evaluates arbitrary functions of the plaintext while reducing the noise. Depending on the choice of parameters, the resulting homomorphic encryption scheme may be either an exact FHE or homomorphic encryption for approximate arithmetic. Since we can evaluate arbitrary functions over the plaintext space, we can use the natural homomorphism of Regev encryption to compute affine functions without bootstrapping almost for free. Consequently, our algorithms are particularly suitable for arithmetic circuits over a finite field with many additions and scalar multiplication gates. We achieve significant speedups when compared to binary circuit-based FHE. For example, we achieve 280-1200x speedups when computing an affine function of size 784 followed by any univariate function when compared to FHE schemes that compute binary circuits. With our bootstrapping algorithm, we can efficiently convert between arithmetic and boolean plaintexts and extend the plaintext space using the Chinese remainder theorem. Furthermore, we can run the computation in an exact and approximate mode where we trade-off the size of the plaintext space with approximation error. We provide a tight error analysis and show several parameter sets for our bootstrapping. Finally, we implement our algorithm and provide extensive tests. We demonstrate our algorithms by evaluating different neural networks in several parameter and accuracy settings.


Hearing voices is distressing and frightening, but cognitive psychology can provide a range of interventions that enable people to live with their auditory hallucinations. Liam Clarke looks at ways to empower this patient group.


The aim of this work was to develop an analytical method in order to determine the isotopic composition of different elements in soil samples and to determine the existence of contamination. The method used in the digestion of the samples was the EPA 3050B, and some metal concentration were determined including uranium and thorium. For elements with even lower concentrations such as plutonium and radium a treatment after mineralization by EPA, was necessary. The measurement technique used was mass spectrometry with quadrupole and plasma induced associated (ICP-MS). Results of the analysis performed in two laboratories showed a good correspondence. This method allowed to perform the isotopic characterization of studied soils and results showed that the studied soils do not present any local pollution and that the presence of plutonium-239, is due to global fallout. Keywords: isotopic determination, alpha emitter, radionuclides, ICP-MS, soil contamination.