Stina Otterberg, Nar Tommelise for utomlands. Om svalans betydelser i H.C. Andersens eventyr. (When Tommelise went abroad. On the significance of the swallow in the H.C. Andersen story.)This essay aims to deepen our understanding of Tommelise (Thumbelina) and the swallow as characters by proposing a new mode of reading the story.To begin with, the complexity in the social machinery that generates the plot is stressed, as well as the fact that the characters all depend upon each other. The article demonstrates the key role played by the swallow — both as saviour and as helpless creature. What has been considered a quality of androgynity in Tommelise's character is here understood rather as an attribute of the swallow. It is exactly this ambiguity of gender in the swallow that not only characterizes the bird itself but creates effects on other characters and, in a fundamental way, authorizes and demands a more precise way of reading the story. Historically, the swallow has been considered female. In languages that lack neutral forms of the pronoun, the swallow is always feminine (cf. French "l'hirondelle", Italian "la rondine"). In ancient Greek, swallow or chelidon designates the female sex. This duly noted, it is all the more remarkable that the swallow in H. C. Andersen's Tommelise is thoroughly neutral, always called either "svalan" ("the swallow") or "den" ("it").In a passage called "Lost in translation", eigtheen translations into Swedish are analysed focusing on the swallow. The material is representative over time and covers 170 years of Swedish versions of this story. The survey shows that most translations do not retain the authorially sanctioned neutrality of gender, which is the case in thirteen of the texts, allowing the swallow to be neutral in only five editions. Instead, the bird is rendered either female (three translations), male (five) or both (five). Independently of the original text, the swallow's neutral gender has thus been silently determined. The essay then turns to the swallow's symbolic dimensions in cultural and natural history. In Antiquity the swallow was considered a sacred bird. In Christianity it symbolizes both Our Lady and Christ. It is argued that the sanctity of the bird makes its earthly chambers into a holy grave, and consequently the mole's violence on its dead body a mortal sin. The swallow's hibernative dwelling under ground is then associated with another context, namely the ancient but at the time of the story's first publication still widely held belief that swallows spend the winter sleeping in the ground or on the bottom of lakes. Even Carolus Linnaeus believed this to be a fact, although it had been known by men and women of learning for centuries that swallows actually migrate. It is pointed out how H. C. Andersen combines a scientific code with folklore traditions in the particular passage which focuses on how swallows endure wintertime. The opening of the swallow's eyes by Tommelise's magic kiss is also interpreted both in light of religious symbolism and popular imagination; in Christianity the healing of blindness is a metaphor for salvation, whereas folk-lore traditions hold that swallows which have lost their eyesight always have the ability to regain it. This produces an absolute contrast between the seeing swallow and the blind mole, where the latter will never be able to (re)claim a sight that he indeed has never possessed, and therefore — as opposed to the swallow — he will never be able to see in the way romantic poets do.The article then draws attention to the swallow as messenger. In literary as well as religious sources the swallow is portrayed as an agent that brings good tidings or warns of ominous machinations and evil doings. This is also how it acts in a tale by August Strindberg, "Nar trasvalan kom i getapeln," which is held forward as an important intertext to Andersen's Tommelise, a connection that has hitherto not been noted. In Virgil, the swallow is called "garrula" ("loquacious"), and this is also how it comes forward in Tommelise. Here, its chirping contrasts against the other animal sound in the story, namely the frog's incomprehensible "koax! koax! brekkekekex!", and has a meaning that can be understood. It is rightly conceived only by the story's chosen ones, namely the two characters that correspond symbolically to the swallow — Tommelise herself and the man who tells fairy tales. The message of the swallow is "quivit!" in the Danish original, which in French reads "qui vit" or "who lives?". But as Andersen attaches no question mark, it is argued we read it as "(s)he who lives" or "who lives" in order to form at once both a statement and an imperative. The force of the utterance lies in its being unfinished — it calls for the completion by a principal sentence and by the actions it generates. It is here suggested that the message be considered a magic spell of performative dimensions: it dissolves the scheming against Tommelise on behalf of the field mouse and the mole and gives her the courage to break the rules and join the swallow in escape. The message is then understood to be threefold — it gives Tommelise the choice of life, it prompts the man who tells fairy tales to write the story down, and finally it calls upon the story itself to live on and thereby give eternal life to its author. During the swallow's and Tommelise's flight to the south, Tommelise's sash (in Swedish "skarp") plays an important role as she uses it to fasten herself directly to the bird's body. It is pointed out how the translations miss the symbolism in the Danish "Livbaand" which literally means "tie of life", and it is argued that it should be read also as "umbilical cord" in the context of this particular story. The hebrew word for swallow, "deror", means "to release" — and indeed the deliverance to the fair land also becomes a conduit for Tommelise into her new life where she is given a new name. The fact that she does not choose her own name reveals a social system where the individual both affects and is affected by his/her fellow citizens — although certainly this new world seems more promising for Tommelise than her former dwellings. The essay draws two major conclusions from its analyses. Firstly, it is pointed out that the Tommelise- character is more dynamic than she has been considered to be in earlier readings of the story. The story depicts an interaction between her and the other characters.Secondly, it is questioned whether Tommelise's escape really amounts to striving toward asexuality. On the contrary, we should bear in mind that she is gendered all along, as is the partner that she finally accepts in marriage. The happy ending should therefore be interpreted not so much as a transcendence to the pure world of the ungendered soul, but rather as an admission to an alternative world where the faculty of gender is defined in another sense, that stands under a different jurisdiction, namely the botanical sexual system.Finally, it is underlined how crucial it is for the understanding of both Tommelise as a character and Tommelise as a text that the swallow retain its neutrality of gender — and that the story be translated just so, at least when the language in question allows for neutral forms of the pronoun.


All higher organisms contain small, basic, abundant, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-binding proteins called histones. These proteins are highly conserved in terms of primary structure, and they are responsible for compacting DNA into nucleosomes (for review, see reference 88). Bacteria contain proteins, termed histonelike, that share some properties with eucaryotic histones. Unlike eucaryotic histones, the bacterial histonelike proteins have not been shown to interact as a unit with DNA to form complexes analogous to nucleosomes, and it has been difficult to develop a definition that applies to all of the proteins considered by various authors to be histonelike. The many similarities between the protein called HU and eucaryotic histones first led to the idea that bacteria contain histonelike proteins (127). HU is a small, basic, abundant, DNA-binding protein capable of wrapping DNA, and its primary structure is highly conserved among bacterial species. We also consider the protein called IHF to be histonelike because it can wrap DNA and because it has considerable amino acid sequence homology with HU. IHF is a host factor that assists the bacteriophage lambda Int protein in promoting site-specific recombination (100). Three other proteins can in some ways be considered histonelike. They are small and abundant, and some are basic. Of these, protein H is the most histonelike; it has an amino acid composition similar to eucaryotic histone H2A (59). Another small, abundant protein is called Hi (18). This neutral protein appears capable of compacting DNA. The third


An efficient vertical grating coupler design for arsenic trisulfide (As2S3) on silicon dioxide (SiO2) on lithium niobate (LN) is proposed, fabricated, and experimentally verified. We report 4 dB coupling efficiency per grating for vertical fiber coupling at a wavelength of 1550 nm with a 3 dB bandwidth of 40 nm using an aluminum reflector mirror between the LN and SiO2 interface. This coupler is the first step towards the demonstration of high-performance integrated photonic devices, which would simultaneously benefit from the acousto-optic properties of As2S3 and electro-optic and acoustic properties of LN. This hybrid platform is deemed to impact a broad range of applications such as imaging, ranging, and inertial sensing.


Background: The overall death rate from lung cancer is higher in African-Americans (AA) compared to Caucasians (CAU). Understanding differences in the prevalence and type of somatic alterations between races may illuminate differences in prognosis and lead to the reduction of outcome disparities by more precisely targeting patients' treatment. Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tumor samples were collected from Baptist Cancer Center, Memphis, TN. DNA was extracted and sonicated to 250 bp following Covaris FFPE DNA Extraction & Purification protocol and further purified using Agencourt AMPure XP beads. The OncoPanel_v2 target enrichment panel (Agilent SureSelect) was used for hybrid capture of 502 cancer-related genes. Samples were pooled and sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq2500 to a mean depth of coverage of 210x. Tumors with >30x sequencing depth over >80% of targeted bases were considered for analysis. MuTect and SomaticIndelDetector were used to identify somatic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and short insertions or deletions (indels), respectively. As matched normal DNA was not available for these samples, analysis was limited to variants previously observed in tumors as described in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database, and variants were excluded if found in the germline dataset of the Exome Sequencing Project (ESP). Results: 510 tumor specimens from 242 Black and 268 White patients (with self-reported race) were analyzed including 320 adenocarcinomas and 142 squamous cell carcinomas. Pathological classification was independently reviewed and confirmed for 374 of 472 cases for an overall concordance rate of 79%. Using principle component analysis (PCA) on germline SNVs, we observed that the biological ancestry was different than the self-reported race for 1.5% of patients. Mutational frequencies for genes with known roles in adenocarcinoma such as KRAS and EGFR were not significantly different between tumors from Black and White patients (Fisher9s exact p-value > 0.05). Amplification rates for NKX2-1, MET, MDM2, and MYC and homozygous deletion rates for CDKN2A were also not significantly different between populations. Translocations involving ALK and ROS1 were detected in tumors from Black patients demonstrating that these events are present in both populations. Similarly, mutational frequencies for genes such as PIK3CA and PTEN were not significantly different across populations in squamous cell carcinomas. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that lung cancers from Black patients are more similar to Whites than East Asians with respect to genes such as EGFR, and suggest that clinical trials of targeted therapies could significantly benefit patients in both populations. Citation Format: Joshua Campbell, Christopher Lathan, Lynette Sholl, Matthew Ducar, Mikenah Vega, Ling Lin, Aaron Thorner, Nick Faris, Paul van Hummelen, Raymond Osarogiagbon, Matthew Meyerson, Laura MacConaill. Comparing the mutational landscape of African American and Caucasian lung cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3886. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3886


This report summarizes assessment of Charpy impact experiments carried out by different worldwide institutions on irradiated European RAFM steel EUROFER97 and other RAFM steels (F82H, OPTIFER). The assessment was carried out under the contract of the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), subtask TW5-TTMS-001-D11. Irradiation resistance of EUROFER97 is not satisfactory at low irradiation temperatures T in ≤ 330 °C, i.e. large, non-saturating low temperature embrittlement is seen up to 32 dpa. Heat treatment of EUROFER97 at higher austenization temperature (1040°C) leads to the reduction of the embrittlement at low irradiation temperatures T irr < 330 °C. Irradiation performance of EUROFER97 is comparable to that of international RAFM (F82H, OPTIFER) steels. A close correlation between irradiation induced embrittlement and hardening found at T irr ≤ 350 °C for RAFM steels indicates displacement damage nature of low temperature embrittlement. Irradiation performance of EUROFER97 and international reference RAFM steels is satisfactory at T irr ≥ 350 °C up to 16.3 dpa. The influence of boron-to-helium transformation on embrittlement cannot be resolved for 16.3 dpa irradiated RAFM steels with boron contents between 4 and 62 wppm. Boron doped steels (boron content between 82-1120 wppm) show progressive embrittlement and reduction of toughness with increasing helium amount. He induced embrittlement is of hardening nature for helium content of 84 appm. Larger helium concentrations lead to non-hardening embrittlement mechanisms beyond that of hardening embrittlement.


A rotation invariant image matching algorithm is introduced in this paper. The feature descriptor of feature points is calculated in polar coordinate system which achieves rotation invariant. The Wallis filter and image edge extraction are applied to reduce the influence of noise an light difference. After constructing the image feature vectors, the potential correspondences are found firstly and then the Generalized Hough Transform (GHT) is used to purify the matching result . The experiment results of three data sets show that the method is robust to image rotation, time and space efficient and is sufficient to produce matching points which can be used as initial values for further accurate image matching.


LOCAL MYOPATHIC changes in muscle biopsies as a result of "needling" the muscle have been described and indicate that electromyogram or hypodermic needling must not be done in the site to be biopsied. 1 We have found similar histological changes (ie, focal inflammatory myopathic changes) occurring after mild to moderate external trauma to guinea pig gastrocnemius muscles. The practical implication of this is that percussion with a reflex hammer or vigorous massage of a muscle to be biopsied may result in focal pathological changes which are not representative of the generalized musculature. Methods The gastrocnemius muscles of the left hind limbs of nine normal guinea pigs were traumatized manually by a variety of means. All but two of the animals underwent massage for ten seconds with a degree of pressure that would cause mild to moderate discomfort to a human thenar eminence but without lasting discomfort. In addition, these


We investigate a linear time greedy algorithm for the following load balancing problem: Assign m balls to n bins such that the maximum occupancy is minimized. Each ball can be placed into one of two randomly choosen bins. This problem is closely related to the problem of orienting the edges of an undirected graph to obtain a directed graph with minimum in-degree. Using differential equation methods, we derive thresholds for the solution quality achieved by our algorithm. Since these thresholds coincide with lower bounds for the achievable solution quality, this proves the optimality of our algorithm (as n → ∞, in a probabilistic sense) and establishes the thresholds for k-orientability of random graphs. This proves an assertion of Karp and Saks.


Most treatments of ion-cyclotron radio frequency (ICRF) surface waves in Tokamaks use either the equations of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), or the cold-plasma equations, with the approximation that the electric field parallel to the ambient magnetic field is very small. Although this assumption seems to be well justified, it eliminates the slow wave and its associated hybrid resonances, which turn out to be quite important in studying coaxial and surface modes. In particular, it was believed that coaxial modes do not exist unless there is a vacuum gap between the plasma and vessel wall. It will be shown that this is not the case when the full cold-plasma model is used, and the reason for this result will be considered. Furthermore, it will be seen that for practical purposes, the role of the plasma-vacuum boundary in confining most of the mode to the edge region seems to be taken on by the lower-hybrid resonance layer when a continuous density profile is assumed. The effect of the lower-hybrid resonance layer on the other surface waves predicted in a Tokamak seems to be small.


When the inside texture of a moving object moves, the perceived motion of the object is often distorted toward the direction of the texture's motion (motion-induced position shift), and such perceptual distortion accumulates while the object is watched, causing what is known as the curveball illusion. In a recent study, however, the accumulation of the position error was not observed in saccadic eye movements. Here, we examined whether the position of the illusory object is represented independently in the perceptual and saccadic systems. In the experiments, the stimulus of the curveball illusion was adopted to examine the temporal change in the position representation for saccadic eye movements and for perception by varying the elapsed time from the input of visual information to saccade onset and perceptual judgment, respectively. The results showed that the temporal accumulation of the motion-induced position shift is observed not only in perception but also in saccadic eye movements. In the saccade tasks, the landing positions of saccades gradually shifted to the illusory perceived position as the elapsed time from the target offset to the saccade "go" signal increased. Furthermore, in the perception task, shortening the time between the target offset and the perceptual judgment reduced the size of the illusion effect. Therefore, these results argue against the idea of dissociation between saccadic and perceptual localization of a moving object suggested in the previous study, in which saccades were measured in a rushed way while perceptual responses were measured without time constraint. Instead, the similar temporal trends of these effects imply a common or similar target representation for perception and eye movements which dynamically changes over the course of evidence accumulation.


Nasal conchae function as aerodynamic baffles: Experimental computational fluid dynamic analysis in a turkey nose (Aves: Galliformes) a b s t r a c t We tested the aerodynamic function of nasal conchae in birds using CT data from an adult male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) to construct 3D models of its nasal passage. A series of digital " turbinec-tomies " were performed on these models and computational fluid dynamic analyses were performed to simulate resting inspiration. Models with turbinates removed were compared to the original, unmodified control airway. Results revealed that the four conchae found in turkeys, along with the crista nasalis, alter the flow of inspired air in ways that can be considered baffle-like. However, these baffle-like functions were remarkably limited in their areal extent, indicating that avian conchae are more functionally independent than originally hypothesized. Our analysis revealed that the conchae of birds are efficient baffles that—along with potential heat and moisture transfer—serve to efficiently move air to specific regions of the nasal passage. This alternate function of conchae has implications for their evolution in birds and other amniotes.


The effect of aqueous extracts of yam (0, 5, 10, and 20% h/h) and chenopodium (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10% h/h) on the biology of fall armyworm was studied. Sections of maize leaves were dipped for 30 seconds in solutions of each concentration; after the section dried, a recently hatched caterpillar was placed onto each treated section. The viability and duration of the larval and pupal stages and the weight and length of the caterpillars and pupae were evaluated. For yam, the extract at 20% concentration caused the greatest influence on the larval stage of the insect, significantly reducing larval viability to 12%, with 7 day larval stage duration, differing from the control at 17 days. The extract of the same plant at 10% caused 48% larval mortality. At all concentrations, that extract also affected the pupal stage; in the control, pupal viability was 85%, whereas for the other concentrations the viability did not exceed 25%. No significant differences were observed for the weight and length of caterpillars. For chenopodium, the extract at 20% concentration caused influence on the larval stage, as it showed the lowest viability, causing mortality in six days. Other chenopodium concentrations did not show differences for the larval and pupal stages. Feeding caterpillars with leaves treated with the extract of chenopodium decreased pupal weight.


In this continuation, the mixed free convection of carbon nanotube (CNTs) is inspected in a by using the fractional approach. As a base fluid, human blood is considered and carbon nanotube (CNTs) (single and multi-wall carbon nanotubes) are detached in the form of blood-CNTs nanofluid. The leading partial derivative equations of the problem are non dimensionalized with appropriate non-dimensional variables. The leading equations are transformed into the fractional model with modified explanations and formulas of fractional framework. On this end, the Atangana-Baleanu (AB) and Caputo-Fabrizio (CF) definitions have been followed. To find the semi-analytical solution of heat and momentum equations of the fractional model, the Laplace transformation technique is operated via MATLAB software. The comparison between CF and AB fractional algorithms is worked out to judge the accuracy of solution.


3-Hexene-2,5-dione [CH3C(O)CH=CHC(O)CH3] and other unsaturated 1,4-dicarbonyls are formed from the atmospheric photooxidations of aromatic hydrocarbons. We have investigated the products of the gas-phase reaction of OH radicals with 3-hexene-2,5-dione in the presence of NO at room temperature and atmospheric pressure of air using in situ atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Products of molecular weight 102 and 191 were identified and from consideration of the potential reactions these are attributed to CH3C(O)CH(OH)CHO and CH3C(O)CH(OH)CH(ONO2)C(O)CH3, respectively. After initial addition of the OH radical, the CH3C(O)CH(OH)(*C)HC(O)CH3 radical adds O2 to form the peroxy radical which reacts with NO to yield the molecular weight 191 hydroxynitrate CH3C(O)CH(OH)CH(ONO2)C(O)CH3 or the hydroxyalkoxy radical CH3C(O)CH(OH)CH(*O)C(O)CH3 plus NO2. Our observation of a molecular weight 102 species indicates that the CH3C(O)CH(OH)CH(*O)C(O)CH3 radical dominantly decomposes to CH3C(O)CH(OH)CHO plus CH3(*C)O, rather than decomposing to CH3C(O)CHO plus CH3C(O)(*C)HOH, isomerizing, or reacting with O2. Thermochemical calculations and an empirical estimation method for calculating alkoxy radical reaction rates are consistent with our experimental observations.


Managed hosting and enterprise wide resource consolidation trends are increasingly leading to sharing of storage resources across multiple classes, corresponding to different applications/customers, each with a possibly different Quality of Service (QoS) requirement. To enable a storage system to meet diverse QoS requirements, we present two algorithms for dynamically allocating cache space among multiple classes of workloads. Our algorithms dynamically adapt the cache space allocated to each class in response to the observed response time, the temporal locality of reference, and the arrival pattern for each class. Using trace driven simulations collected from large storage system installations, we experimentally demonstrate that the algorithms not only meet the QoS requirements, but also increase the throughput by achieving a higher hit rate whenever feasible.


The reduction of pancreatic β-cell mass is an important factor in the development of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate the maintenance of pancreatic β-cell mass as well as β-cell death is necessary for the establishment of therapeutic strategies. In this context, nitric oxide (NO) is a diatomic, gaseous, highly reactive molecule with biological activity that participates in the regulation of pancreatic β-cell mass. Two types of cellular responses can be distinguished depending on the level of NO production. First, pancreatic β-cells exposed to inflammatory cytokines, lipid stress or hyperglycaemia produce high concentrations of NO, mainly due to the activation of inducible NO synthase (iNOS), thus promoting cell death. Meanwhile, under homeostatic conditions, low concentrations of NO, constitutively produced by endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), promote cell survival. Here, we will discuss the current knowledge of the NO-dependent mechanisms activated during cellular responses, emphasizing those related to the regulation of cell survival.


Background Binge eating disorder has been found to be more than an eating problem. Treatment of binge eating disorder depends on changing other aspects, and studies have shown the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy in reducing binge-eating disorder. Aim The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral group therapy on obese patients with binge eating disorder. Patients and methods This study was a prospective experimental clinical trial. Twenty-six obese female patients with binge eating disorder were enrolled in cognitive behavioral group therapy with prepsychometric and postpsychometric assessment using Symptom Checklist, Eating Disorder Examination Interview, Binge Eating Scale, and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Results Fifty-seven percent of patients showed improvement in severity of binge eating. There was significant improvement in eating pathology and reduction in the frequency of binge episodes. Significant self-esteem improvement and less psychological distress were observed and BMI showed no significant change. Conclusion Cognitive behavioral group therapy showed effectiveness in improvement of self-esteem with less concerns about weight, shape, eating, and dietary restraint. Reduced frequency of binge eating episodes and less psychological distress were also areas of efficacy with no change in BMI.


Objective: To assess the difference in various parameters of body composition between the diabetic patients and non-diabetic controls at Pak Emirates Military Hospital Rawalpindi.
Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Medicine and Nutrition Department, Pak Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, from Jul 2018 to Mar 2019.
Methodology: This study was conducted on 100 patients of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus under treatment in medicine department and matched controls from the community. Patients with type I diabetes or insulin dependents or having some other com or bid metabolic illness or autoimmune disease or malignancy were not included in the study. Parameters of body composition were measured by using the INBODY machine which works on the principle of electroimpedance.
Results: Cases and controls were matched for age and gender. Hundred cases and hundred controls were recruited for the final analysis Mean age of the cases was 43.41 ± 2.231 years while controls were 43.46 ± 3.122 years. Mean BMI in cases was 29.32 ± 2.561while in controls was 25.62 ± 4.483. BMI, visceral fat and skeletal muscle fat were found statistically significant to be more in cases of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus as compared to the controls.
Conclusion: This case control study revealed that diabetes significantly affects the body composition of the patients. It also affects other parameters like skeletal muscle mass and visceral fat. Routine screening of body composition should be made part of the diabetic clinics to pick these changes early and intervene accordingly.


Characteristic fluorescence excitation and emission is induced by either acetone-sensitized 313 nm irradiation of mixtures of 8-bromoadenosine and adenosine or 254 nm irradiation of oligo- and polynucleotides containing adenine neighbors. The acetone-sensitized reaction involves cleavage of bromine from 8-bromoadenosine with activation of C-8, leading to formation of an 8,8-adenosine dehydrodimer. Comparable fluorescence properties arise in the unsensitized photoreaction of dApdA, pdApdA, ApA, poly(dA), poly(A), poly(dA.dT), and poly(dA.U). The previously unidentified adenine ultraviolet photoproduct described by Porschke has been isolated as several variants from solutions of pdApdA and poly(dA) irradiated at 254 nm. Based upon fluorescence spectra and mass spectra, these variants are shown to contain the 8,8-adenine dehydrodimer moiety.


Exceptions are deviations from the normal execution of the program. They occur frequently in programs. In modern programming languages exceptions are separated from the normal execution using try-catch blocks and whenever an exception is raised then the catch blocks either recover from the exception in some way. or log the exception and abort. A workflow can be characterized as a long-running process. Exceptions occur in workflows but it is more expensive to abort the workflow as much work may be lost. Many proposals for describing workflows have been made. Some address exception handling, but few of these cleanly separate the description of the normal workflow from exceptions, and none present clear implementation details. Our approach to modeling and handling exceptions relies on continuations, listeners as exception handlers, and on policies, or strategies, for continuation. This model leads to a very flexible design and implementation of workflow. We present the details behind the implementation. Our work has been validated in a small prototype written in Java, though our approach and design are independent of the programming language.


BACKGROUND
Pain is prevalent after most TransOral Robotic Surgery (TORS) procedures and may limit function i.e. swallowing. Currently, there is limited knowledge regarding optimal pain treatment in TORS.

AIMS/OBJECTIVES
This clinical trial randomized patients to either a high-dose dexamethasone or low-dose dexamethasone treatment in addition to a multimodal basic analgesic protocol. The aim of the trial was to investigate the pain intensity during rest and swallowing using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) after TORS lingual tonsillectomy. Secondary outcomes were acceptable food consistency, nausea, vomiting, opioid rescue usage, length of hospitalization, feeding tube placements, readmissions, blood glucose levels and postoperative complications.

METHODS
The trial was conducted between August 2020 and October 2022. Eligible patients were patients scheduled for TORS-L treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome or as part of the diagnostic work-up of head and neck carcinoma of unknown primary.

RESULTS
Eighteen patients were and randomized 1:1. There were overall no significant differences between groups in the reported VAS scores during rest or swallowing (p ≥ .05). Overall, there were no differences in the secondary outcomes.

CONCLUSION
There were no differences in the pain intensity in the two treatment groups allocated to a basic multimodal analgesic package and either high-dose dexamethasone or low-dose dexamethasone treatment. The trial is the first RCT to include pain measurement during a procedure-relevant activity, thus creating a platform for future recovery studies.


The M double-stranded RNA (ds RNA) genome segment of the cytoplasmically inherited killer virus of yeast codes for two polypeptides when denatured and translated in vitro: a previously known 32,000-dalton peptide and a newly discovered 19,000-dalton peptide (NaDodSO4/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis). An internal 190-base-pair region of the ds RNA is selectively degraded by S1 nuclease treatment at 65 degrees C, resulting in two ds RNA fragments which contain the termini of the original ds RNA. The larger fragment codes for the 32,000-dalton polypeptide and the smaller fragment codes for the 19,000-dalton polypeptide. Thus, the two gene products of M are encoded by distinct regions of this ds RNA.


Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance of various degrees with onset or first recognition during pregnancy. Women with GDM are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life, but the risk of developing type 1 diabetes is also increased. Positivity for glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) antibodies during pregnancy confers a high risk for subsequent progression to type 1 diabetes. Here, we reported the two cases with GDM who were GAD antibody positive and progressed to type 1 diabetes with different time-courses. One woman with GDM progressed rapidly to classical type 1 diabetes while the other became slowly progressive IDDM (SPIDDM) [or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA)]


We propose a self-adaptive process (SAP) that maintains the software architecture quality using the MAPE-K standard model. The proposed process can be plugged into various software development processes and service-oriented methodologies due to its explicitly defined inputs and outputs. To this aim, the proposed SAP is integrated with the service-oriented modeling and application (SOMA) methodology in a two-layered structure to create a novel methodology, named self-adaptive service-oriented architecture methodology (SASOAM), which provides a semi-automatic self-aware method by the composition of architectural tactics. Moreover, the maintenance activity of SOMA is improved using architectural and adaptive patterns, which results in controlling the software architecture quality. The improvement in the maintainability of SOMA is demonstrated by an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) based evaluation method. Furthermore, the proposed method is applied to a case study to represent the feasibility and practicality of SASOAM.


In this paper, the 3-D model proposed in Part I of this study is verified in detail on the basis of a levitation/suspension system composed of a rectangular single-domain Y-Ba-Cu-O and a cylindrical Nd-Fe-B magnet or a permanent magnet guideway (PMG) assembled by the Nd-Fe-B magnets. The magnetic forces along the vertical direction perpendicular or the transverse direction parallel to the surface of the PMG (or magnet) were calculated and compared well with the measured data under vertical and transverse displacements. The computed results of the induced current distribution within the Y-Ba-Cu-O domain, as well as the magnetic field profiles in the Y-Ba-Cu-O and its vicinal region, were also presented and discussed.


This paper discusses the possibility of using aluminum-containing nano-additives as structure modifiers of composite mortar in order to ensure safety and durability of rubble foundation. Higher injection efficiency can be achieved by integrating the composite mortar into the foundation body. The temporal evolution of structure formation in composite mortar with various contents of boehmite and aluminosilicate nanotubes (ANT) was studied. The optimal concentrations of additives were determined at which the rate of structure formation reaches its maximum. It was revealed that ANT additives accelerate the hardening time of the composite mortar by 1.3 times in comparison with boehmite additives. The greatest impact on accelerating the structure formation in the initial period is achieved by adding 0.125% aluminosilicate tubes to the mass of cement. It was found that in this case, the duration of flowability loss of the composite mortar is reduced by a factor of three compared with that of the control sample.


During of the preparing for teaching activities necessary to generate creative activities in teachers, willingness to overcome difficulties, dangerous and unexpected situations. In article regarded the problem optimization of teaching and educational processIn directional on formation personality of safety type This training of each student to a self-appraisal and introspection of behavioral risks, working out and realization of the individual program of health, integration of disciplines safety with other disciplines of the curriculum forming of teacher's personal qualities on basis moral values, creativity. Measure of the quality of profession preparing of the future teacher becomes the presence of his personal qualities, allowing to implement ideas in teaching practice safe life and safe interaction with all the elements of the world.


High pressure (HP) and ultrahigh pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks play a key role in understanding the tectonic evolution of orogenic belts. They have typically experienced complex changes during subduction and exhumation processes arising from recrystallization, deformation, fluid–rock interactions and even partial melting, and may therefore carry valuable records of evolving geodynamic systems in an orogenic belt. This special publication addresses the current work on HP–UHP metamorphism and its relation to the tectonic evolution of orogenic belts. This special publication contains fifteen papers covering the important orogenic belts of the Himalaya, Dabie–Sulu, Tian Shan, North Qaidam and others that have been grouped into three parts: (I) new developments in the determination of metamorphic pressure–temperature (PT) conditions and their timing, (II) overview papers of well-known HP–UHP metamorphic belts and (III) research papers for some newly discovered HP–UHP belts.


In contrast to the decay products ensuing from a fast moving particle which are collimated along the original direction of the parent, those from a slow moving particle are distributed over a wide region. In the context of searches for heavy long-lived particles (LLP) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we quantitatively demonstrate, using a few benchmark models, that objects which emerge from a secondary vertex due to the decay of a LLP at the TeV scale can be at large angular separations with respect to the direction of the parent LLP. A fraction of the decay products, the backward moving objects (BMOs), can even go in the backward direction. These give rise to striking signatures in the detectors at the LHC as these particles traverse different layers of the detector outside-in towards the direction of the beam pipe. Based on a simple geometrical modeling of the detector, we give examples of how this effect translates into the fraction of energy deposited in the tracker, from particles coming as far as from the hadron calorimeter, as well as those that could be entering from outside the detector into the muon chamber. The largest effect is from LLP candidates that come to rest inside the detector, such as the stopped
R
-hadrons. But the results are promising even in the case of not so heavy LLPs and/or when some of the available energy is carried by a massive invisible daughter. This urges us to look more in detail at these unusual signatures, taking into account the particularities of each layer that constitutes the detector. From the BMO perspective, we review how each layer of the detector could be exploited and what improvements can be made to enhance the shower shapes and the timing information, for instance. We also argue that the cosmic ray events, the most important background, can be easily dealt with.


Migration and ethnic minority integration remain heavily contested issues in numerous European countries. Over the past decade, researchers and political commentators have observed an apparent retreat from multiculturalist policies related to a belief that multiculturalism has lost support among the majority public. Recently, however, based on analyses of the evolution of migrant integration policies, it has been demonstrated that multiculturalist policies were largely left in place. To investigate the effect of multiculturalist policies on public opinion, we use a multilevel analysis of three policy indicators (Multiculturalism Policy Index, Index of Citizenship Rights for Immigrants–Cultural diversity, and Migrant Integration Policy Index) and European Social Survey data in 20 European countries. Results show that multiculturalist policies, as measured by Multiculturalism Policy Index and Index of Citizenship Rights for Immigrants–Cultural diversity, and migrant integration policies more generally, as measured by Migrant Integration Policy Index, to some extent are associated with lower levels of anti-immigrant sentiments, while they do not affect public attitudes toward political institutions. Regarding political attitudes, especially respondents with higher education levels tend to respond in a more positive manner to multiculturalist policies than respondents with lower education levels.


DC/DC converters play the key roles in electronic systems. They often undergo the severest stress and are most likely to fail. So the research of reliability and failure analysis to the DC/DC converters is important to make products reliable and to maintain its performance under different loads. Highly accelerated limit test (HALT) is an advanced accelerated test method for reliability evaluation. In this paper, the concept meanings of HALT technology are introduced. The principle and procedure of the application of HALT for DC/DC converter are discussed. In the study, the test samples were subjected to progressively higher stress levels. Thermal dwells, rapid temperature transitions, vibration, electrical stress and a combination of different stresses were employed to evaluate the inherent defects of DC/DC converters. Several key parameters such as output voltage, efficiency and ripple were monitored to identify the operating limits and failures of the samples. Besides, in order to obtain the failure modes and mechanisms and give the improvement approaches, the method of failure analysis on the failed samples is introduced.


The collaboration between teacher and student leader as a possible factor contributing to learning outcomes remains under-researched. To understand the combined efforts of teachers and student leaders toward attaining teaching outcomes, this paper addresses the following questions: What are the value-added dimensions of the teacher toward achieving learning outcomes? How do student leader activities contribute to the achievement of learning outcomes? Without making any claim to tight causal relationships, this paper argues that the effective involvement of student leaders in the teaching process has considerable effects on learning. These effects do not only revolve around student development (for example leadership skills, and citizenship awareness in terms of rights, duties, and responsibilities), but also on the teaching and learning output (Heck, & Hallinger, 1999). Undeniably a common acceptance is that the teacher is permanently the leader while students are mere followers, who do not share teaching and learning behavior when it comes to the exhibition of power and authority within the classroom social environment. Nevertheless, this research reveals how collaboration between teachers and student leaders may improve students' academic outcomes.


Characters in video games, especially female characters, are often designed or depicted to be sexually attractive. These characters are sexualized by exaggerated body proportions, revealing clothing, and behavior. There are a variety of methods by which players could be impacted by these sexualized characters, including the mere exposure effect, Proteus effect, and avatar identification. The increase of video game usage and sales in recent years, specifically among the COVID-19 pandemic, brings a greater need to understand the effects of these video games. Little research currently exists on the topic, and often provides conflicting data. The current study enlisted volunteers to take self-objectification, objectification of others, and sexism inventories after playing a video game condition. The goal of this study was to discover if playing a game with a sexualized female avatar resulted in statistically significant score differences when compared to a nonsexualized and control condition.


Background Sepsis is a disease with an increasing prevalence and high hospital mortality rates. A hospital Multidisciplinary Working Group on Sepsis Code was created with the mission of implementing and developing clinical management guidelines to facilite soon detection, diagnosis and treatment of sepsis cases. Purpose To describe the impact of the Sepsis Code on hospital length of stay, mortality in septic shock or severe sepsis patients and antibiotic use in this conditions. Material and methods We carried out a retrospective observational study enrolling patients admitted to the UCI with severe sepsis or septic shock (SS). The study included a post intervention group after Code Sepsis (POST-CS) (Agust 2012–August 2013) and a historical comparison group (PRE-CS) (January 2009–December 2009). The following variables were recorded: sex, age, UCI mortality, hospital length of stay (days) in UCI, rate of the adequate antimicrobial therapy and de-escalation therapy. At admission to the ICU, severity of the illness was evaluated by the APACHE II score. Therapy was considered adequate when at least one effective drug was included in the empirical antibiotic treatment. De-escalation was defined as discontinuation of an antimicrobial agent or change to other with a narrower spectrum once culture results were available. Results A total of 38 patients (60% male), mean age 64 years, with SS were enrolled in POST-CS group and 44 patients (63% male), mean age 58 yerars, with SS in PRE-CS group. The APACHE II score in PRE-CS was 21 vs 19 in POST-CS group. Rate of de-escalation therapy was significantly higher in POST-CS group (39% vs 18%). In POST-CS group 63% patient received adequate empirical therapy and in PRE-CS group 59% patient. Patients in PRE-cs group had a significantly higher UCI mortality rate compared with patients in POST-CS group (39% vs 21%). The POST-CS had also lower length of stay in UCI (9.8 vs16 days). Conclusion The development of a training program, along with a set of actions aimed at the early detection of severe septic patients and optimising therapeutic measures included in a Code Sepsis decreases mortality and hospital length in UCI improving the management of antibiotic treatment. References and/or Acknowledgements N/A No conflict of interest.


Objectives The highest rates of traumatic brain injury (TBI)–related morbidity and mortality occur in young children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to describe the levels of 3 biomarkers (S100B, glial fibrillary acidic protein, neuron-specific enolase) in saliva of children with TBI requiring inpatient admission at a pediatric trauma center and compare these levels in children without TBI. Methods A convenience sample of 24 children aged 0 to 18 years, presenting with acute isolated TBI, was enrolled prospectively. The non-TBI comparison groups consisted of patients with medical complaints and musculoskeletal injuries only. Salivary specimens were collected, and biomarkers were measured using quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Demographic, clinical data, and brain imaging findings were obtained. Results Seventy-four children were enrolled. Twenty-four had TBI (mean age, 5.07 years; SD, 4.8 years); 14 subjects (58.3%) with TBI were found to have significant traumatic brain injury (SBI) on computed tomography scan. S100B levels were significantly higher in TBI group compared with those with musculoskeletal injury only (median, 113.2 pg/mL vs 18 pg/mL; P = 0.021). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for S100B in predicting SBI was 0.675; the optimum threshold for S100B to achieve the optimum sensitivity and specificity of SBI was at 86.9 pg/mL for SBI versus no injury group. Conclusions S100B levels in saliva were higher in children with TBI and may be predictive of SBI identified by presence of computed tomography abnormalities. Larger studies are needed to replicate our findings in using a noninvasive diagnostic measure for children with TBI and SBI.


Data of the rainy seasons from 1956/1957 to 2005/2006 for 11 stations distributed over Amman area were analyzed. They were used to estimate the areal rainfall amount in Amman area; the annual data have a normal distribution with an average of 283.7 mm. The areal rainfall amounts varied from year to year, with a standard deviation (SD) of 72.9 mm and with a variation coefficient of 26%. The analysis of the areal rainfall over a 50‐year period shows a decreasing trend (−0.4 mm/year), but with no statistical significance. The running means show two wet periods (1962/1963–1973/1974 and 1987/1988–1993/1994) and two dry periods that occurred in the beginning and the end of the study period. The amounts of water fall over Amman area ranged from 300 mm3 to 870 mm3. Despite these amounts, Amman suffers from water shortage which needs to be solved. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society


The purpose of this methodological study was to compare methods of developing predictive rules that are parsimonious and clinically interpretable from electronic health record (EHR) home visit data, contrasting logistic regression with three data mining classification models. We address three problems commonly encountered in EHRs: the value of including clinically important variables with little variance, handling imbalanced datasets, and ease of interpretation of the resulting predictive models. Logistic regression and three classification models using Ripper, decision trees, and Support Vector Machines were applied to a case study for one outcome of improvement in oral medication management. Predictive rules for logistic regression, Ripper, and decision trees are reported and results compared using F-measures for data mining models and area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for all models. The rules generated by the three classification models provide potentially novel insights into mining EHRs beyond those provided by standard logistic regression, and suggest steps for further study.


ABSTRACT In this paper, we compare two theories, modal Meinongianism (MM) and object theory (OT), with respect to several issues that have been discussed recently in the literature. In particular, we raise some objections for MM, undermine some of the objections that its defenders raise for OT, and we point out some virtues of the latter with respect to the former.


Circuit-level timing speculation has been proposed as a technique to reduce dependence on design margins, eliminating power and performance overheads. Recent work has proposed microarchitectural methods to dynamically detect and recover from timing errors in processor logic. This work has not evaluated or exploited the disparity of error rates at the level of static instructions. In this paper, we demonstrate pronounced locality in error rates at the level of static instructions. We propose timing error prediction to dynamically anticipate timing errors at the instruction-level and reduce the costly recovery penalty. This allows us to achieve 43.6% power savings when compared to a baseline policy and incurs only 6.9% performance penalty.


The introduction of antimicrobial agents was a breakthrough health intervention that helped save millions of lives around the world and that provided a sense of control on the part of clinicians over host pathogen interactions. Despite the concrete advances in prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, there has been a parallel surge in resistance to antimicrobials that is seriously compromising the gains made over the past century. There are many other factors which contribute to the rising incidence of resistance in human pathogens.  These factors include liberal availability of antimicrobials in some countries and societal factors such as the increasing number of immunosuppressed individuals, unnecessary antimicrobial use caused by patient demands for antimicrobial treatment of viral infections, the changing population age structure, and an increase in institutional care environments such as day care centers, nursing homes and hospitals. In animals, frequent and overdose use of antibiotics as a growth promoters is the dominant cause of antimicrobial resistance. The impact of drug resistance has been causing a severe effect in the control and prevention of diseases in both human beings and livestock. Acknowledging the underlying mechanisms such as inappropriate use of antibiotics in humans and the agricultural applications of antibiotics for growth promotion and prophylaxis is a first and essential step to contain global antimicrobial resistance. However, it is also critical to consider in parallel the broad social, economic and political drivers and ethical significance of antimicrobial promotion in developing countries. Moreover, these socio-ethical factors constitute tangible targets against which public policy interventions can be developed to remedy growing concerns over the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Keywords : Antibiotics, Antimicrobial resistance, Developing countries, Human, Livestock


Background and purpose Although there have been numerous publications on lumbar disc herniation (LDH) treated surgically, there has been little interest in sex differences. It has been shown in many studies that sex differences may be important in certain diseases. We therefore reviewed consecutive register material from one institution for possible gender differences in pre- and postoperative parameters in patients operated for lumbar disc herniation. Patients and methods Pre- and postoperative parameters for all patients operated on at the Department of Orthopedics, Lund University Hospital over 6 years (2000–2005 inclusive) (301 patients, 165 males) were analyzed regarding sex differences. Results Statistically significant and clinically relevant sex differences were found. Preoperatively, females had more pronounced back pain and disability, and also lower quality of life in some respects. At 1-year followup, females reported a higher rate of consumption of analgesics, a higher degree of postoperative back and leg pain, and less improvement regarding disability and some aspects of quality of life. Relative improvement, rate of return to work, and satisfaction with the outcome of surgery were not, however, statistically significantly different between females and males. Interpretation There are statistically significant differences between the sexes in lumbar disc herniation surgery regarding basic demographic status and postoperative status, whereas the surgical effect is similar. Further investigations should focus on whether there is a true sex difference or whether these differences are due to selection for surgery, differences in proneness to seek medical advice or to accept/choose surgery, or other unknown factors.


Ochronosis is connective tissue manifestation of Alkaptonuria. Joint involvement especially hip and knee destruction is seen. The cartilage is pigmented and destroyed. A 55years old male (Figure 1) with a previous total arthroplasty on both shoulders, has recently develop a hip pain. He was affected of alkaptonuria (AKU). We proceed with a total hip arthroplasty with cement less cup and modular cement less stem. Functional and quality of life scores of pre operative and post operative were compared with good results. The HHS had raised from 38,725 to 89,725, the SF36 raised too. There are no data of evaluation of QoL in literature in patients with AKU.


Summary Chickpea chlorotic dwarf geminivirus (CCDV) is one of the viruses associated with chickpea stunt disease. It is transmitted by the leafhopper Orosius orientalis. The minimum acquisition access period (AAPmi,) and inoculation access period (IAPmin) were found to be less than 2 min, while the minimum latency period (LPmi,) was less than 2 h. The median AAP, IAP and LP were 8.0 h, 2.3 h and 27.7 h, respectively. No difference in transmission rates (proportion of leafhoppers able to transmit) was observed between male and female leafhoppers. In serial transmission experiments, transmission was shown to be persistent, and after a 2-day AAP about 80% of the leafhoppers transmitted the virus for most of their life. The virus could be detected in individual leafhoppers by DAS-ELISA. It did not multiply in the leafhopper, but, instead, decreased in concentration during leafhopper feeding on a non-host of the virus.


The objectives of this dissertation are 1) to describe what child protection services actually do when assessing risk and deciding on interventions, and 2) to analyze this practice in the light of institutional expectations, organizational demands and professional technology. The field work was carried out in two Danish municipal social service agencies. Data consist of records on families subjected to serious interventions. Participant observation of case conferences and social workers' and supervisors' work days was undertaken, including their conversations with clients. In-depth interviews were conducted with mothers whose children had been placed outside home. Protection of children is analyzed in a historical and a child abuse and neglect research context. Results indicate that children's risks are not, as a rule, assessed on the basis of an understanding of the child's well-being, day to day experiences, or symptoms. Child protection services, normally, do not know the children concerned well enough for this. Neither are children's unfavourable socioeconomic conditions considered. Risk is assessed according to parents' conformity with or deviation from dominating cultural and moral conceptions of acceptable adult and parental performance. The services construct "normal cases" in order to adapt family complexity to administrative criteria and the available repertoire of solutions. A central construc tion is "the deviant family", focusing on all deviant traits and relations. Another construction is that of the "undeserving client", stressing parents' demanding and unruly ways. Yet another is "the psychological individual" transforming social needs into psychological problems which can be met by social policy measures. Institutional and legal expectations from child protection are so many and contradictory that the service objective, i.e. protecting children, is at variance with competing interests and expecta tions. The child protection organization maintains its legitimacy and proves its efforts by conforming to a variety of procedural requirements, which favour intra-organizational administrative processes and keep families at a distance. Institutional and organizational contradictions and an uncertain technology account for a child protection professionalism which is based on common sense concepts and moral evaluations and, seldom, includes the use of knowledge verified by research.


Two different methods of treating cotton and nylon-cotton fabrics with permethrin were evaluated for protection from mosquito bites after laboratory weathering. Cotton fabric treated by the individual dynamic absorption method provided consistently better protection than cotton fabric treated by the aerosol method. The nylon-cotton fabric provided similar protection regardless of the treatment method. After weathering, the toxic effects of both types of permethrin-treated fabrics treated by both methods diminished much more rapidly than did the repellent effect. Low residual amounts of permethrin in the fabrics provided 85% protection from bites against Aedes aegypti (L.) and 93% protection against Anopheles stephensi Liston. Permethrin-treated fabrics were effective in providing protection from mosquito bites for long periods, even after exposure to weathering, and appear to be an effective means of reducing nuisance effects and disease transmission by mosquitoes.


The distribution of particles in the z-axis of thick tissue sections has gained considerable attention, primarily because of implications for the accuracy of modern stereological counting methods. Three major types of artifacts can affect these sections: loss of particles from the surfaces of tissue sections (lost caps), homogeneous collapse in the z-axis, and differential deformation in the z-axis. Initially it was assumed that thick sections were not compromised by differential shrinkage or compression (differential uniform deformation). Studies in the last decade showed that such artifacts are common and that they depend on embedding media and sectioning devices. Paraffin, glycolmethacrylate and vibratome sections are affected by this artifact, but not celloidin sections or cryostat-derived cryosections. Differential distribution of particles in the z-axis is likely due to compression of the surface areas (margins) during sectioning, resulting in differential particle densities in the core and margin of tissue sections. This deformation of tissue sections can be rapidly assessed by measuring the position of particles in the z-axis. The analysis is complicated by potential secondary effects on section surfaces through loss of particles, the so-called "lost caps" phenomenon. Secondary effects necessitate the use of guard spaces, while their use in case of primary effects (compression due to sectioning) would enhance the artifact's impact on bias. Symmetric versus asymmetric patterns of z-axis distortion can give clues to distinguish primary and secondary effects. Studies that use the optical disector need to take these parameters into account to minimize biases.


Summary By conservative estimates, at least two million men and women who are or were married come out as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Once they disclose to their heterosexual spouses, divorce results in the majority of cases. Little is known about the number of marriages that endure or how many of the disclosing spouses are bisexual, given the invisibility of such marriages, the mislabeling of bisexuals as gay or lesbian, and the reluctance of spouses to identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This article reports on the experiences of 56 self-identified bisexual husbands and 51 heterosexual wives of bisexual men who maintained their marriage after disclosure. Their responses to a survey questionnaire are compared with those of 32 self-identified gay married men and 28 heterosexual wives of gay men. The convenience samples, largely from the United States, came from Internet mailing lists, support groups, and members of the Straight Spouse Network. Strategies that they found most helpful in maintaining their marriages are analyzed alongside circumstances in their lives that supported their staying married and those that worked against them. Helpful for the largest numbers of all spouse samples were honesty, communication, peer support, therapy, and taking time. The bisexual men and heterosexual wives of bisexual men also relied on the husbands' empathy and the wives' flexibility. The findings demonstrate the importance of the couple's working together to maintain a satisfying post-disclosure marriage. The relationship of the bisexual husbands and heterosexual wives of bisexual men with their respective spouses was marked by a multileveled interaction that included mutual sexual pleasure, as well as cognitive, verbal, behavioral, and emotional engagement. Their joint effort over time enabled them to deconstruct not only traditional concepts of marriage, but also dichotomous views of sexual orientation.


Theories that attempt to explain the origin of the cerrado biome are mostly based on the isolated action of three major factors: climate, fire and soil. Another factor that has been mentioned is that of human interference. We hypothesise that the evolutionary origin of this biome resulted from the complex interaction of climate, fire and soil, with climate being the triggering agent of this assumed interaction. Fire, as well as acid and dystrophic soils, would be factors involved in the selection of savanna species throughout climatic events, during the Tertiary and the Quaternary, e.g. Pliocene and Pleistocene. The genesis of the physiognomies that would give rise to cerrado sensu lato, rather than forest formations, could have occurred due to the strong pressure exerted by the reduction in water availability, and the selection of the species adapted to the new conditions imposed by the environment. The characteristics of cerrado sensu lato soil, originated from edaphic impoverishment caused by lixiviation and successive past fires, would remain, even after hydric availability increased following the Pleistocene glaciations.


The number of antidepressants prescribed by the [UK] NHS has almost doubled in the last decade, and rose sharply last year as the recession bit, figures reveal. The health service issued 39.1m prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression in England in 2009, compared with 20.1m in 1999 – a 95% jump. Doctors handed out 3.18m more prescriptions last year than in 2008, almost twice the annual rise seen in preceding years, according to previously unpublished statistics released by the NHS's Business Services Authority. The increase is thought to be due in part to improved diagnosis, reduced stigma around mental ill-health and rising worries about jobs and finances triggered by the economic downturn. (Davis, 2010)


: Based on the results of existing research, typical urban problems can be divided into three categories— traffic congestion, resources shortage, and environmental pollution. This study used cross-section data of 204 Chinese prefecture-level cities in 2013 to build a population spatial distribution index on the basis of nighttime light data for an empirical study. First, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was applied to examine the impacts of city size, spatial imbalance, lagged infrastructure construction, industrial transformation, and institutional obstacles on urban problems. Second, a threshold effect model was constructed to further investigate possible nonlinear relationships between the influencing factors and urban problems. The empirical results prove that the various aspects of urban problems should be attributed to different influencing factors since these problems are complex. The main reasons leading to traffic congestion are big city size and centralized distribution of urban population, as well as the lack of transportation infrastructure. While resources shortage is not a universal problem in most big cities, in contrast, the improvement of industrial structure, increasing supply of public services, and concentration of administrative power are helpful for big cities to attract and bring in resources. The expansion of urban population and the agglomerated structure of population distribution both hinder environmental pollution control. Besides, the growth in the proportion of non-agricultural industries and expansion of urban road area both can damage urban ecosystems.


© 2016, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. Formaldehyde (CH2O) planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and high-speed CH* chemiluminescence have been performed in a premixed, ethylene-fueled dual-mode scramjet combustor in order to study the dynamic flame behavior and structure. CH2O PLIF is used as a "flame" marker to provide information on the structure and position of the lower-temperature portion of the primary reaction zone. Low-repetition-rate (10 Hz) measurements were taken at several cross-flow planes along the axial flow direction. Statistics, including the mean of the CH2O topology, indicate sparse concentrations of formaldehyde that are intermittently detected by the PLIF measurement. Comparisons between previous Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and the current experimental measurements indicate descrepancies between the expected and measured formaldehyde concentrations. Time-resolved CH* chemiluminescence was collected at 50 kHz in order to study flame motion and stabilization in the axial flow direction. From these measurements, information regarding the flame anchoring position and flame spreading angle is collected, providing insight on the effect of cavity flame-holding and flame penetration into the freestream flow. Measurements of lean blowout (LBO) events were also acquired revealing the flame dynamics at the moment of blowout.


BACKGROUND
Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are the first drugs to alter the devastating effects of Alzheimer disease. The next generation of drugs will prevent the beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles or block enzymes that lead to neuron destruction. Effective use of these medications will require early identification of patients at risk.

METHODS
Using the PubMed service of the National Library of Medicine, all English language articles published in 2000, 2001 and the first half of 2002 with a key word of 'dementia' were reviewed for articles that described the emerging pathophysiologic model for Alzheimer disease.

FINDINGS
Standardized clinical screening tools, such as the mini-mental status examination and the clock test, administered longitudinally and correlated with family observations, can identify many at-risk patients. Genetic testing can identify a known mutation in 70% of patients who have a high family incidence of Alzheimer disease but awaits effective prevention before being useful. The molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer disease will eventually lead to prevention.

CONCLUSION
Today, these patients benefit from nutritional support and lifestyle enhancement encouraged through a continuous primary care relationship.


In the expanding context of new literacies and multiliteracies, the abilities to know how to locate, to evaluate and to exploit Web information resources in order to construct knowledge, are acknowledged as extremely important worldwide. Current literacy curricula should encourage the development of such abilities, and  their successful implementation requires teachers themselves to be properly prepared. The present study reports the web searching and evaluating practices for educational purposes employed by both pre-service and in-service teachers. Data was collected via an anonymous online questionnaire. The comparative study exhibis teachers' web practices with the purpose of identifying aspects of web literacy that require attention when designing and implementing relevant educational initiatives. According to the research findings, both pre-service and in-service teachers are based almost exclusively on popular search engines to locate web information resources, and they choose such resources without examining their wider context. In order to evaluate web information resources, they consider mainly morphological and design elements, rather than content features such as their origin and credibility. The findings raise the potential of applying critical literacy principles on the Web so that teachers can approach it critiquely . [1] when using its resources in educational settings. [1] learn to think " critiquely " (a word coined by James Paul Gee), that is, not merely consume information but also "understand and critique systems of power and injustice in a world that [people] will see as simply economically inevitable" (Gee, 2000: 62).


BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE
The most common haematological malignancy is leukaemia. Differentiation induction is considered as one of the effective therapies for leukemia. Piperine, an alkaloid extracted from piperaceae, has been reported to display a variety of pharmacological activities, including sedation, anti-inflammation and antitumor effects. This study was to investigate the effect of piperine on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of erythroleukemia K562 cells.

METHODS
Inhibition of cell growth was determined by trypan blue exclusion test; cell cycle and cell apoptosis were analyzed by FACS; induction of cell differentiation was confirmed by morphological observation, nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction assay and measurements of CD33 and CD14 expressions.

RESULTS
Piperine induced K562 cells to differentiate into macrophages/monocytes at 20 micromol/L or 40 micromol/L. After incubation with 40 mumol/L piperine for 3 d, the NBT reduction rate of K562 cells increased from (8.5+/-1.9)% to (76.7+/-5.3)%; after incubation with 20 mumol/L piperine for 3 d, the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD33 in K562 cells was decreased by 42.05% (P<0.01), whereas the MFI of CD14 was doubled (P<0.01). Piperine inhibited the proliferation of K562 cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner at a concentration of above 20 micromol/L.

CONCLUSION
Piperine can induce K562 cells to differentiate into macrophages/monocytes.


Relevance.Reliable and long-term venous access is one of the most important condition for a successful leukemia therapy in children. Safe and convenient access to a central vein allows to provide chemotherapy, adjuvant treatment, parenteral nutrition and blood transfusion. It decreases the likelihood of phlebitis development and reduction of the peripheral venous network in comparison with peripheral venous access. The use of totally implantable venous port systems reduces risks of severe complications associated with re-catheterization of the central vein thus it improves patient's quality of life.The purpose of the studyis a retrospective assessment of the experience of use and analysis of the complications of totally implantable venous port systems in children with diseases of the blood system.Materials and methods.The data of 61 patients of the pediatric hematology clinic with venous port systems have been analyzed.Results.Perioperative complications developed in 3 (4.9 %) patients Median time of using of port systems was 679 catheter-days. Delayed complications requiring removal of the device developed in 8 (13.1 %) patients. Infectious complications were the reason for device removal in 3 (2.9 %) patients, mechanical complications in 5 (8.2 %) patients. No thrombotic complications were found.Conclusions.The use of venous port systems in children with hematologic diseases for a long period of time is an effective and safe way for central venous access providing.


This study explored the perceived value, role and reported use of clinical guidelines by clinicians in urban paediatric and maternity hospital settings, and the effect of current implementation strategies on clinician attitudes, knowledge and behaviour. A total of 63 clinicians from 7 paediatric and maternity hospitals in Kabul, Afghanistan participated in structured focus groups; content analysis methodology was used for identification and analysis of key themes. Seven sets of guidelines, protocols or standards were identified (including 5 WHO-endorsed guidelines). However, most are failing to achieve high levels of use. Factors associated with guideline use included: clinician involvement in guideline development; multidisciplinary training; demonstrable results; and positive clinician perceptions regarding guideline quality and contextual appropriateness. Implementation activities should fulfil 3 major objectives: promote guideline awareness and access; stimulate motivation among clinical guideline users; and actively facilitate adherence to guidelines.


Background Bodily self-consciousness depends on the coherent integration of sensory information. In addition to visual and somatosensory information processing, vestibular contributions have been proposed and investigated. Vestibular information seems especially important for self-location, but remains difficult to study. Methods This randomised controlled experiment used the MIRAGE multisensory illusion box to induce a conflict between the visually- and proprioceptively-encoded position of one hand. Over time, the perceived location of the hand slowly shifts, due to the fact that proprioceptive input is progressively weighted more heavily than the visual input. We hypothesised that left cold caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS) augments this shift in hand localisation. Results The results from 24 healthy participants do not support our hypothesis: CVS had no effect on the estimations with which the perceived position of the hand shifted from the visually- to the proprioceptively-encoded position. Participants were more likely to report that their hand was 'no longer there' after CVS. Taken together, neither the physical nor the subjective data provide evidence for vestibular enhanced self-location.


Age can be estimated fairly accurately by listening to the voice and speech of the individual. The critical processes of communication--respiration, phonation, articulation, language, and hearing--are described in terms of the anticipated biological tissue changes of aging and the effect of these changes on the speaking process. With the exception of the common finding of hearing loss in old age, the processes of communication do not seem to be seriously affected by "normal" aging. Complicating factors and diagnostic and remedial implications are discussed.


The demand for lower uncertainties in force measurement is increasing. Deadweight force standard machines are known to yield the lowest measurement uncertainty in force realization. However, their capacities cannot be extended indefinitely as they become too large in size and prohibitively expensive. Lever amplification of a deadweight force is an option for higher capacities in force realization. This paper describes the performance of a force standard machine with a new method (patent pending) for automatic compensation of lever arm distortion in order to keep the amplification ratio constant.


An ultrasonic technique for measuring the viscoelastic properties of soft tissues is presented. This technique uses a transducer set up on a vibrator as a source of high frequency waves (ultrasound) and low frequency waves (shear wave) at the same time. Ultrasound (5 MHz) allows one to detect the displacements induced by the shear waves (200 Hz) inside soft biological tissues. These shear waves reveal pieces of information about the shear elasticity and the shear viscosity. Two kinds of media are investigated: agar-gelatin phantoms and in-vivo human biceps.


Ron Unz, originator of Proposition 227, claimed, prior to the passage of Prop. 227, that the five percent annual reclassification rate of English learners to fluent English proficient indicated bilingual education was a failure. Critics of Prop. 227 have countered that the annual reclassification rate has changed little since the passage of Prop. 227, indicating the new legislation had no effect on reclassification rates. Unfortunately, the annual reclassification rate does not provide a clear indicator of how long it takes students to be reclassified after entering the school system. To better estimate reclassification rates for English learners in California, cohorts were created to track the same groups of students over time. Ron Unz also claimed that test scores for immigrant students improved dramatically after the passage of Prop. 227. To evaluate his claim, average test scores were calculated by language fluency. Based on statewide data from three different cohorts tracked across four years, Prop. 227 has had no effect on reclassification rates or test scores.


The present work continues the investigations of using slats on the inner parts of wind turbine rotors by using an updated version of the 2D CFD based airfoil/slat design tool earlier used by the authors in combination with the rotor design methods from [8] to design slats for 0 : 1 > r=R > 0 : 3 for the LightRotor baseline 10 MW reference rotor [10]. For the slatted case, a retwisting of the slatted inner part of the rotor was allowed for the slats to be able to work as intended. The new addition to the 2D CFD based design tool is that the repre-sentation of the airfoil and slats are done using splines, thus allowing for a much broader design space than in the previous works where only the position, size and additional camber of the slat airfoil could be adjusted. The aerodynamic performance of a slatted rotor is for the first time evaluated using 3D CFD in this work, and the results are compared to predictions of a lifting line based computational tool based on 2D airfoil polars to highlight the 3D rotational effects on airfoil coefficients of the slatted inner airfoil sections.


The subject of this article is the analysis of the current state of interethnic relations in the Southern and North Caucasus Federal districts. A preliminary analysis revealed some unresolved conflicts with historical, political, economic and, in part, civilizational foundations. The implementation of the state national policy and the process of integration of ethnocultural diversity of the peoples of Russia within the framework of the Russian nation contributed to the reduction of conflict tension in these regions. However, due to the powerful influence, including foreign actors, some territories can in the future become not only hotbeds of tension, but also an open confrontation of the peoples inhabiting them. The state policy in the South of the Russian Federation takes into account aspects of the complex multicultural and multi-confessional mosaic of the region. First of all, it is aimed at countering the trends of extremism and radicalism. This study is devoted to the identification of the most problematic regions in the South of Russia.


We report on a high-resolution double-channel imaging method used to synchronously map the intensity- and optical-frequency-distribution of a laser beam in the plane orthogonal to the propagation direction. The synchronous measurement allows us to show that the laser frequency is an inhomogeneous distribution below threshold, but that it becomes homogeneous across the fundamental Gaussian mode above threshold. The beam's tails deviations from the Gaussian shape, however, are accompanied by sizeable fluctuations in the laser wavelength, possibly deriving from manufacturing details and from the influence of spontaneous emission in the very low intensity wings. In addition to the synchronous spatial characterization, a temporal analysis at any given point in the beam cross section is carried out. Using this method, the beam homogeneity and spatial shape, energy density, energy center, and the defects-related spectrum can also be extracted from these high-resolution pictures.


Initially, this thesis introduces a new graphical tool, that can be used to summarise data possessing a mixture structure. Computation of the required summary statistics makes use of posterior probabilities of class membership obtained from a fitted mixture model. In this context, both real and simulated data are used to highlight the usefulness of the tool for the visualisation of mixture data in comparison to the use of a traditional boxplot.

This thesis uses localised mixture models to produce predictions from time series data. Estimation method used in these models is achieved using a kernel-weighted version of an EM-algorithm: exponential kernels with different bandwidths are used as weight functions. By modelling a mixture of local regressions at a target time point, but using different bandwidths, an informative estimated mixture probabilities can be gained relating to the amount of information available in the data set. This information is given a scale of resolution, that corresponds to each bandwidth. Nadaraya-Watson and local linear estimators are used to carry out localised estimation. For prediction at a future time point, a new methodology of bandwidth selection and adequate methods are proposed for each local method, and then compared to competing forecasting routines. A simulation study is executed to assess the performance of this model for prediction.

Finally, double-localised mixture models are presented, that can be used to improve predictions for a variable time series using additional information provided by other time series. Estimation for these models is achieved using a double-kernel-weighted version of the EM-algorithm, employing exponential kernels with
different horizontal bandwidths and normal kernels with different vertical bandwidths, that are focused around a target observation at a given time point. Nadaraya-Watson and local linear estimators are used to carry out the double-localised estimation. For prediction at a future time point, different approaches are considered for each local method, and are compared to competing forecasting routines. Real data is used to investigate the performance of the localised and double-localised mixture models for prediction. The data used predominately in this thesis is taken from the International Energy Agency (IEA).


This study focuses on the investigation of fine (~0.54 μm) tungsten carbide particles effect on structural and mechanical properties of laser cladded Inconel 625-WC composite. Three powder mixtures with different Inconel 625 – WC weight ratio (10, 20 and 30 weight % of WC) were prepared. Coatings were made using following process parameters: laser beam diameter ø ≈ 500 μm, powder feeder rotation speed – 7 m/min, scanning velocity – 10 m/min, laser power – 220 W changed to 320 W, distance between tracks – 1 mm changed to 0.8 mm. Microstructure and hardness were investigated. Coatings produced by laser cladding were crack and pore free, chemically and structurally homogenous. High cooling rate during cladding process resulted in fine microstructure of material. Hardness improved with addition of WC from 396.3 ±10.5 HV for pure Inconel 625, to 469.9 ±24.9 HV for 30 weight % of WC. Tungsten carbide dissolved in Inconel 625 which allowed formation of intergranular eutectic that contains TCP phases.


Objective: to evaluate kidney function in patients with spinal degenerative-dystrophic diseases (SDDDs) who take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) as repeated short cycles of treatment for severe back pain.Patients and methods. The investigation enrolled 97 patients with SDDDs who took NSAIDs for back pain (a study group). A control group consisted of sexand age-matched healthy individuals who had not used NSAIDs within the past year (n=40). Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was estimated using the CKD-EPI equation and markers of kidney injury (albuminuria and globulinuria) were measured.Results. In the study group, GFR was decreased to <90 ml/min/1.73 m2 in 61 (62.9%) patients, to <60 ml/min/1.73 m2 in 11 (11.3%); the mean GFR was 77.5 [68.0; 89.0] ml/min/1.73 m2; in the control group, a decline in GFR to 89–60 ml/min/1.73 m2 was recorded in 35 (62.5%) cases; this indicator was >90 ml/min/1.73 m2 in the remaining 15 (37.5%) cases; the mean GFR was 82.5 [70.8; 90.0] ml/min/1.73 m2 (p≥0.05 for all pairwise comparisons). A decrease in GFR to <60 ml/min/1.73 m2 was found in 11 (11.3%) patients in the study group and in nobody in the control group (p=0.026). Elevated albuminuria was noted in 74 (76.3%) patients with SDDDs and in 9 (22.5%) healthy individuals (p<0.05). Albumin/creatinine ratio was 57.1 [33.8; 82.4] mg/g in the study group and 25.0 [17.5; 32.9] mg/g in the control group (p<0.0001). Increased globulinuria was established in all the patients with SDDDs and only in 3 (7.5%) healthy examinees. Globulin/creatinine ratio was 134.7 [77.5; 197.7] mg/g in the study group and 12.9 [0.5; 18.1] mg/g in the control group (p<0.0001).Conclusion. A decline in GFR to <60 ml/min/1.73 m2 was more often seen in the patients taking NSAIDs for spine pain caused by SDDDs than in the healthy individuals. In case of comparable GFR, the level of kidney injury markers was significantly higher in the study group than that in the control group, which suggests that patients with SDDDs who take NSAIDs have subclinical tubulointerstitial and glomerular changes.


According to Japan's R&D roadmap "PV2030", a base-case scenario is showing that the mass deployment of 100 GW PV aggregation will supply 10% of national electricity up to 2030. About a half of this PV installation is assumed to be brought still from residential roof-top applications. In such a state, PV penetration will reach almost 100% in the majority of urban areas. Since the classical grid formation approach does not seems to be a good solution to deal with this issue, the author has already proposed "autonomy-enhanced PV clusters (AE-PVC)" to realize a less dependent PV aggregation on the existing power grids in conjunction with grid power electronics and battery stations. Main contents are: (i) Case studies for residential towns and cities, (ii) Town grids mainly composed of massive residential PVs by considering fluctuating supply and demand; bidirectional power flows; daily cycle and irregular components; autonomous and distributed control of town grid; necessity of battery stations or controllable power sources; own frequency and voltage, (iii) Inter-grid coordination by autonomous and distributed principle: interconnection through national grids with power producers; inter-town interconnections; asynchronous power routers and so on


BACKGROUND
Organophosphates and carbamates are important sources of intoxication for humans and animals. However, large-scale studies of these intoxications in cats are unavailable.

METHODS
The medical records of 39 cats presented to a veterinary teaching hospital with acute organophosphate or carbamate intoxication were reviewed retrospectively.

RESULTS
Mortality in intoxicated cats was 15%. Low respiratory rate and low rectal temperature at presentation were associated with death. Other common clinical signs included weakness, ataxia, apathy, recumbency, anorexia and bradycardia, but these were unassociated with the outcome. The common biochemical abnormalities included decreased serum butyryl-choline esterase activity, acidaemia, hypercarbaemia and total hypocalcaemia, and increased creatine kinase activity and total plasma protein concentration. There were no significant differences in haematological, biochemical and blood gas analytes between survivors and non-survivors. Common medications and treatments included 2-pyridine aldoxime methyl-chloride-pralidoxime (2-PAM) (74%), metoclopramide (64%), antibiotics (64%), diphenhydramine (59%) and atropine sulphate (54%). There were no significant drug and treatment differences between survivors and non-survivors. The secondary complications of the intoxication included pneumonia (10%), acute kidney injury (10%) and pancreatitis (8%).

CONCLUSIONS
Acute cholinergic crisis due to organophosphate or carbamate intoxication has a fair prognosis in cats. Low respiratory rate and low rectal temperature at presentation were associated with death. The most commonly used specific medications in this study included 2-PAM, diphenhydramine and atropine sulphate.


Abstract Giant knotweeds of the genus Reynoutria (syn. Fallopia)–Reynoutria japonica, Reynoutria sachalinensis, and a hybrid of them, Reynoutria x bohemica–are noxious invasive plants in Europe and North America. R. japonica is a traditional East Asian (Japan and China) drug (Polygoni cuspidati rhizoma). Recently, it has been included in European Pharmacopoeia as one of the traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. In this study, a reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography method with diode array detector and time-of-flight mass spectrometry was developed and validated for the profiling of rhizomes from European invasive populations and Polygoni cuspidati rhizoma purchased in China. Twenty-five compounds were identified, mainly stilbenes, anthraquinones, flavan-3-ols, and phenylpropanoid esters. Tatariside B, hydropiperoside, vanicoside C, a new compound (3,6-O-di-p-coumaroyl)-β-fructofuranosyl-(2 → 1)-(2′-O-acetyl-6′-O-feruloyl)-β-glucopyranoside) were reported for the first time in these raw materials. Six compounds from three phytochemical classes–stilbenes: piceid and resveratrol; anthraquinones: emodin and physcion; hydroxycinnamic sucrose esters: vanicosides A and B–were quantified using the validated method. R. japonica from China contained twice as many stilbenoids than samples from Poland (piceid 14.83 mg/g dm vs. 7.45 mg/g and resveratrol 1.29 mg/g vs. 0.65 mg/g). R. sachalinensis rhizomes contained lower quantities of anthraquinones and no detectable stilbenes, which together with higher amounts of hydroxycinnamic glycosides makes it easily distinguishable from the other two. The phytochemical profile of R. x bohemica was intermediate between the two parent species.


Three different HLA-A2.1 monochains were engineered in which either the human or mouse 2-microglobulin ( 2m) is covalently linked to the NH 2 terminus of the heavy chain by a 15– amino acid long peptide: HHH, entirely human, HHD, with the mouse H-2D b 3, transmembrane, and cytoplasmic domains, and MHD, homologous to HHD but linked to the mouse 2m b . The cell surface expression and immunological capacities of the three monochains were compared with transfected cells, and the selected HHD construct was introduced by transgenesis in H-2D b / 2m / double knockout mice. Expression of this monochain restores a sizable peripheral CD8 T cell repertoire essentially educated on the transgenic human molecule. Consequently, infected HHD, H-2D b / 2m / mice generate only HLA-A2.1–restricted CD8 CTL responses against influenza A and vaccinia viruses. Interestingly, the CTL response to influenza A virus is mostly, if not exclusively, directed to the 58-66 matrix peptide which is the HLA-A2.1–restricted immunodominant epitope in humans. Such mice might constitute a versatile animal model for the study of HLA-A2.1–restricted CTL responses of vaccine interest.


With the rapid development of economy, middle and smallsized enterprises are playing a more and more important role in market economic and become an important part of national economy in our country which is also an active strength in the market. However, the manage environment of middle and small-sized enterprises is not very favorable, specially the problem of financing. The problem of fund shortage is becoming the most serious problem which restricts the development or even threats the survival of middle and small-sized enterprises. This essay is going to analysis the finance theory according to different sizes of business, the financing channels and the present situation of our country small and medium-sized enterprises. It will also start from three aspects which are the policy environment, social and bank and the weakness of middle and small-sized enterprises themselves. In order to find the reason for financing difficulties, it will study the finical system, the credit guarantee system, the information symmetry and the cost of financing, etc. The aim of this essay is to put forward some improvement measures and countermeasures according to the reasons discussed above. Nowadays, our country is in the high-speed economic development stage, if we can not find a better way to deal with small and medium-sized enterprise financing problems, there will have severe negative impact on the economy development in our country. So research on the problems of small and medium-sized enterprise financing difficulties and finding the solution has practical significance.


Decision support systems that help physicians are becoming very important part of medical decision making. They are based on different models and the best of them are providing an explanation together with an accurate, reliable and quick response. One of the most viable among decision-making models is the concept of decision trees, already successfully used for many medical decision making purposes. Although effective and reliable, the traditional decision tree construction approach still contains several deficiencies. Therefore we decided to develop and compare several decision supporting models, each of them built with different discretization of attributes and decision classes. For the construction of decision trees we used MtDeciT, in our laboratory developed tool for building decision trees using the classical induction method. All solutions were evolved for determining the influence of basic properties of child and his/her parents to length of successful breastfeeding. A comparison between developed models and obtained results has shown that the way of discretization obviously plays a great role in the reliable and accurate real-world medical decision making.


Modern cognitive experiments in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) involve the repetition of the same paradigm over several short sessions (or runs) since long fMRI acquisitions usually place the subject in an uncomfortable situation and generate motion artifacts. Also, shorter sessions enable to better control the subject's cognitive state and guarantee his attention during task. The Joint Detection-Estimation (JDE) framework which aims at detecting evoked activity and estimating hemodynamic responses jointly, has been developed so far to treat each session independently and then build average contrasts of interest as already done in other packages (SPM, FSL). Here, we extend JDE to the multi-session context by proposing a new hierarchical Bayesian modeling including an additional layer to describe the link between session-specific and mean evoked activity. In contrast, the HRF shape to be estimated in each region is assumed constant across sessions. Our results on simulated and real multi-session datasets show that the proposed extension outperforms its ancestor both in terms of activated areas and HRF recovery.