Six new triterpene glycosides (1-6), together with 11 known ones (7-17), have been isolated from a glycoside-enriched fraction prepared from the tubers of Anemone coronaria L. (Ranunculaceae). On the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including 2D NMR data, and the results of hydrolytic cleavage, the structures of 1-6 were determined to be 3beta-[(O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)]-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl)oxy]-2beta,23-dihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid (1), 3beta-[(O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->3)-O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)]-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl)oxy]-23-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid (2), 3beta-[(O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)]-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl)oxy]-23-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester (3), 3beta-[(O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)]-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl)oxy]-2beta,23-dihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester (4), 3beta-[(O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)]-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl)oxy]-2beta-hydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester (5), and 3beta-[(O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->2)]-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl)oxy]-23-hydroxyolean-18-en-28-oic acid O-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->4)-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl ester (6), respectively. Furthermore, the isolated compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against HSC-2 cells.


Crossmodal knowledge distillation (KD) extends traditional knowledge distillation to the area of multimodal learning and demonstrates great success in various applications. To achieve knowledge transfer across modalities, a pretrained network from one modality is adopted as the teacher to provide supervision signals to a student network learning from another modality. In contrast to the empirical success reported in prior works, the working mechanism of crossmodal KD remains a mystery. In this paper, we present a thorough understanding of crossmodal KD. We begin with two case studies and demonstrate that KD is not a universal cure in crossmodal knowledge transfer. We then present the modality Venn diagram to understand modality relationships and the modality focusing hypothesis revealing the decisive factor in the efficacy of crossmodal KD. Experimental results on 6 multimodal datasets help justify our hypothesis, diagnose failure cases, and point directions to improve crossmodal knowledge transfer in the future.


The addition of lithium carbenoids to isocyanates provides a versatile access to N-substituted 2-haloacetamides: the reaction tolerates the presence of variously functionalized substituents on the nitrogen atom, including sterically demanding ones and reactive halogens. No erosion of the enantiopurity was observed in the case of optically active isocyanates. One of the substrates prepared has been employed in Charette's type chemoselective addition of a Grignard reagent to access an α-chloroketone.


Rare-earth zirconates, such as lanthanum zirconates and gadolinium zirconates, have been intensively investigated due to their excellent properties of low thermal conductivity as well as chemical stability at high temperature, which can make these materials ones of the most promising candidates for next-generation thermal barrier coating applications. In this study, three compositions, lanthanum/gadolinium zirconates with reduced rare-earth contents from stoichiometric RE2Zr2O7 compositions, are fabricated via solid state reaction as well as sintering at 1600oC for 4 hrs. The phase formation, microstructure, and thermo-physical properties of three oxide ceramics are examined. In particular, each oxide ceramics exhibits composite structures between pyrochlore and fluorite phases. The potential of lanthanum/ gadolinium zirconate ceramics for TBC applications is also discussed.


T he intellectual inquiries of Moishe Postone unfolded, as everyone's do, from knowledge-forming interests. Some of these came in complex ways from his family and childhood. He chose not to follow his father into a rabbinical career, but his scholarly pursuits were informed both by Judaism and by antiSemitism—and clearly by scholarship. He also came to participate in what we might consider one of the most important secular extensions of Talmudic commentary, seeking to read Marx ever more deeply, in ways more adequate for our age, and in dialogue with other great thinkers of modernity like Freud, Durkheim, and Weber. As Talmudic scholars endlessly unfold meaning deemed already present in the Torah, Moishe studied Marx's texts in pursuit of a theory that could make sense of the 1960s–70s crisis—and today's—as well as of enduring patterns in capitalism and of the possibilities for emancipation. The project of reconstructing social theory through a deeper reading of Marx and especially his mature analyses of capitalism became Moishe's life's work. His reading, writing, and teaching were of course closely linked. And they were globally influential. Moishe set out to address limits in the perspective of the 1960s Left within which he had come of political age. As he recalled, as much about himself as others,


Consistency and asymptotic normality of the sieve estimator of the drift coefficient of fractional stochastic partial differential equation models using a finite number of Fourier coefficients of the solution are studied based on observations on a fixed time interval (0, T). The equation is driven by additive noise that is white in space and fractional in time with Hurst parameter H≥1/2.


Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are tuneable solvents with attractive properties for numerous applications. Their structure–property relationships are still under investigation, especially at the solid–liquid interface. Moreover, the influence of water on interfacial nanostructure must be understood for process optimization. Here, we employ a combination of atomic force microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations to determine the lateral and surface-normal nanostructure of the DES choline chloride:glycerol at the mica interface with different concentrations of water. For the neat DES system, the lateral nanostructure is driven by polar interactions. The surface adsorbed layer forms a distinct rhomboidal symmetry, with a repeat spacing of ~0.9 nm, comprising all DES species. The adsorbed nanostructure remains largely unchanged in 75 mol-% DES compared with pure DES, but at 50 mol-%, the structure is broken and there is a compromise between the native DES and pure water structure. By 25 mol-% DES, the water species dominates the adsorbed liquid layer, leaving very few DES species aggregates at the interface. In contrast, the near-surface surface-normal nanostructure, over a depth of ~3 nm from the surface, remains relatively unchanged down to 25 mol-% DES where the liquid arrangement changed. These results demonstrate not only the significant influence that water has on liquid nanostructure, but also show that there is an asymmetric effect whereby water disrupts the nanostructure to a greater degree closer to the surface. This work provides insight into the complex interactions between DES and water and may enhance their optimization for surface-based applications.


Abstract —A visual parser-generator application for generating parsers without any textual grammar specification, script or code. Unlike other parser-generators, it represents parser rules as visual grammar trees with distinct icons for the grammar-tree nodes. This application provides facilities of generation of abstract syntax tree. Along with user friendly interface this application allows the user to store their grammar as back in an XML file that can be later used for reviewing, testing, or modification of grammar. This application accepts context-free grammars from the user for parser generation. It allows users to develop, edit and understand the working and flow of grammar languages and also facilitate them to test their own grammar that is user can made their own grammar and test on this application. This application is pretty user friendly and provide a handy graphical user interface environment in generating parse trees and action code generation.


Labyrinth weirs are commonly used to increase the capacity of existing spillways and provide more efficient spillways for new dams due to their high specific discharge capacity compared to the linear weir. In the present study, experimental and numerical investigation was conducted to improve the rectangular labyrinth weir performance. In this context, four configurations were tested to evaluate the influence of the entrance shape and alveoli width on its discharge capacity. The experimental models, three models of rectangular labyrinth weir with rounded entrance and one with flat entrance, were tested in rectangular channel conditions for inlet width to outlet width ratios (a/b) equal to 0.67, 1 and 1.5. The results indicate that the rounded entrance increases the weir efficiency by up to 5%. A ratio a/b equal to 1.5 leads to an 8 and 18% increase in the discharge capacity compared to a/b ratio equal to 1 and 0.67, respectively. In addition, a numerical simulation was conducted using the opensource CFD OpenFOAM to analyze and provide more information about the flow behavior over the tested models. A comparison between the experimental and numerical discharge coefficient was performed and good agreement was found (Mean Absolute Relative Error of 4–6%).


Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem has been extensively studied by researchers in the field of robotics, however, conventional approaches in mapping assume a static environment. The static assumption is valid only in a small region, and it limits the application of visual SLAM in dynamic environments. The recently proposed state-of-the-art SLAM solutions for dynamic environments use different semantic segmentation methods such as mask R-CNN and SegNet; however, these frameworks are based on a sparse mapping framework (ORBSLAM). In addition, segmentation process increases the computational power, which makes these SLAM algorithms unsuitable for real-time mapping. Therefore, there is no effective dense RGB-D SLAM method for real-world unstructured and dynamic environments. In this study, we propose a novel real-time dense SLAM method for dynamic environments, where 3D reconstruction error is manipulated for identification of static and dynamic classes having generalized Gaussian distribution. Our proposed approach requires neither explicit object tracking nor object classifier, which makes it robust to any type of moving object and suitable for real-time mapping. Our method eliminates the repeated views and uses consistent data that enhance the performance of volumetric fusion. For completeness, we compare our proposed method using different types of high dynamic dataset, which are publicly available, to demonstrate the versatility and robustness of our approach. Experiments show that its tracking performance is better than other dense and dynamic SLAM approaches.


Ultrahigh frequency satellite signals from the Pacific FleetSat (53° elevation angle) and L band signals from the Pacific Marisat (50° elevation angle) were recorded in Guam, an equatorial station, from April 1982 through May 1, 1983. Three receivers aligned in the magnetic east-west direction were used, with the most widely separated receivers (457.2 m separation) recording the UHF signal amplitudes and the middle receiver recording the L Band signal amplitudes. These data are analyzed for the drift characteristics of ionospheric irregularities. The digitized spaced receiver data are processed to yield the scintillation index, the cross-correlation function and the self-power spectrum. By assuming a locally frozen flow, several methods have been devised to compute the drift velocity, V0, and the characteristic random velocity, VC. These methods seem to show internal agreement. They also show that the velocity fluctuations decrease markedly during the first few hours after local sunset. The spectral index of the self-power spectrum roll-off was also determined during times of both weak and strong scintillation. For the weak scintillation cases, the slopes were observed to gradually steepen as the night progressed into the postmidnight period. This steepening suggests the decaying of smaller-sized irregularities. There were a few exceptions to this observed decay. For the strong scintillation cases, the shape and slope of the self-power spectrum were observed to be influenced by the drift velocity and scattering strength of the irregularities.


This paper outlines a method for evaluating a new chord-labelling algorithm using symbolic data as input. Excerpts from full-score transcriptions of 40 pop songs are used. The accuracy of the algorithm's output is compared with that of chord labels from published song books, as assessed by experts in pop music theory. We are interested not only in the accuracy of the two sets of labels but also in the question of potential harmonic ambiguity as reflected the judges' assessments. We focus, in this short paper, on outlining the general approach of this research project.


John Dobbings review of the British television program "When Breasts are Bad for Business" contained a number of inaccurate statements. The World Health Organizations international code for the marketing of breast milk substitutes was not developed by a group of emotional activists; it was carefully developed in consultation with governments international agencies and experts in science medicine and marketing and subsequently ratified by 118 governments. According to the reviewer the industry is abiding by the code; in reality only 1 company has agreed to abide by the code 5 or 6 companies are considering some of the codes provisions and the approximately 80 remaining companies have given no indication concerning their willingness to adopt the code. Contrary to the reviewers interpretation the code does not recommend the promotion of infant formulas by any health facility including hospitals. Furthermore the effort to reform the marketing of infant formulas is not a veiled attempt to abolish all processed baby foods. The purpose of the code is to ensure that infant formulas are used only when necessary and not for routine feeding. The benefits of breast feeding are clearly recognized by health professionals. The reviewers contention that the infant formula industry has been an active supporter of research which has promoted breast feeding must be refuted. Recommendations stemming from research on breast feeding have not been implemented. Neither the medical profession nor the industry has made an effort to disseminate information on the value of breast feeding nor on the methods available for promoting breast feeding.


Lupus nephritis is major manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus and could cause nephrotic syndrome or chronic kidney disease might lead to end-stage renal failure. The pathogenesis of macrophage as well as lymphocyte impairment had been described in lupus nephritis. The interstitial macrophage accumulation and interstitial change or fibrosis is more important than glomerular immunoglobulin deposition or glomerular macrophage accumulation in terms of renal outcome and survival proportion. The expressions of macrophage associated proteins such as CCL2/MCP-1, MIP-1 family and their receptors, CCR2, CCR1 and CCR5 are major target of therapeutic strategy for improving renal illness. The blockade of these chemokines or chemokine receptors ameliorates renal impairment without reducing glomerular immunoglobulin deposition. Deletion of CSF-1 signaling pathway represented more excellent effect in experimental lupus nephritis. The effect of specific antagonist for macrophage associated proteins, specific thyrosine kinase inhibitor for macrophage signaling pathway on glomerulonephritis in lupus prone mice had been reported with evaluation of renal leukocyte infiltration, anti-DNA antibody reduction, the amount of proteinuria, and their survival. The depletion of macrophage could be useful therapeutic tool including M2 macrophage and have synergistic effect with other immunomodulating agents.


The processing of ships at a container terminal is divided into two stages, namely Berthing and Loading/Unloading. Both stages use labor and time as inputs. The Loading/Unloading stage also uses other resources, such as Quay and Stacking Cranes and other material handling equipment. Each stage has its own outputs. Thus, the outputs of the Berthing stage are the ship characteristic data, such as the Tonnage, Length and Depth. The single output of the Loading/Unloading stage is the number of TEUs loaded and unloaded. An input-oriented, parallel-process network DEA model is proposed to compute the overall system technical efficiency together with labor and time targets. A cost minimization network DEA model is also proposed so that the cost efficiency of previous ships processing can be assessed and a minimum cost resource allocation can be computed for an arriving ship. The proposed approach is illustrated on a real-world dataset.


In the past few decades, the humanities and social sciences have developed new methods of reorienting their conceptual frameworks in a "world without frontiers." In this book, Bernadette M. Baker offers an innovative approach to rethinking sciences of mind as they formed at the turn of the twentieth century, via the concerns that have emerged at the turn of the twenty-first. The less-visited texts of Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James provide a window into contemporary debates over principles of toleration, anti-imperial discourse, and the nature of ethics. Baker revisits Jamesian approaches to the formation of scientific objects including the child mind, exceptional mental states, and the ghost to explore the possibilities and limits of social scientific thought dedicated to mind development and discipline formation around the construct of the West.


In April 2012 an audit of 58 healthcare professionals (HCPs) across University Hospitals Leicester (UHL), highlighted a lack of knowledge in acute severe asthma management. Only 62% had awareness of hospital guidelines for the management of asthma, only 45% used them. Knowledge of indications for chest radiograph, steroid use, criteria for safe discharge, and target oxygen saturation was particularly weak. We therefore revised the guidelines and created an innovative music video to improve the management of acute asthma across UHL. The guidelines were translated into memorable lyrics, sung over a famous song, and released onto YouTube. UHL Staff were informed via Facebook and Twitter. The video gained over 10000 views. Within days organisations such as the Department of Health and BBC News hosted the video on their websites. 55 UHL HCPs participated in the repeat audit (June 2012). The results were compared with the pre-intervention audit, and analysed using Fisher's exact test. Results showed 100% of UHL HCPs were aware of the guidelines compared to 62% before (p Interest from other hospitals and even multinational companies has suggested a huge appetite for using social media in medicine. We have shown it can help improve clinical practice, but the method could be adapted to educate any group including difficult to reach populations such as teenagers and ethnic minorities. The possibilities are not limited by resources or money, but only by imagination. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj0PEn79Cuw.


Two tomato lines with normal maturation (NR-1 and NR-2) have been crossed
 with two mutant lines (NR-10 nor and NR-12 rin) with delayed maturation
 (shelf life). Determination of mutant genes has been done by χ2 test on 100
 fruits from F2 generation. Fruits have been picked 65 days from antesis and
 kept for 60 days, when six evaluations have been done. Data have been
 collected every 10 days on parental lines and progeny F1 and F2 generation.
 Variance testing has been done on the basis of one- and two-factorial
 analysis and groups compared by contrasts. Fruits have been preserved in
 controlled conditions (in dark at 5°C). Tomato genotypes with nor or rin gene
 had desirable traits (delayed ripening, long shelf life and firm fruits) for
 modern selection, so they should be included in programmes aiming to create
 commercial F1 hybrids.


The performance of A1xIn1-xSb LEDs have been investigated for a number of aluminum concentrations between 0% and 8.8%. The devices were designed for use in CO2, CO, CH4, NO and NO2gas sensors since an increasing aluminium concentration produces shorter wavelength LEDs. The sensitivity of the NO gas sensing system was measured and a detection limit of 400ppm was found.


In the last two centuries, our world would have been a safer place if philosophers such as Rousseau, Marx, and Nietzsche had not given intellectual encouragement to the radical ideologies of Jacobins, Stalinists, and fascists. Maybe the world would have been better off, from the standpoint of sound practice, if philosophers had engaged in only modest, decent theory, as did John Stuart Mill. Yet, as Ronald Beiner contends, the point of theory is not to think safe thoughts; the point is to open intellectual horizons. In Philosophy in a Time of Lost Spirit, Beiner reflects on the dualism of theory and practice. The purpose of the theorist is not to offer sensible guidance on the conduct of social life but to test the boundaries of our vision of social order. Whereas the liberal citizen should embody the practical virtues of prudence and moderation, the theorist should be radical, probing, and immoderate. Looking back at the liberal-communitarian debate of the 1980s, Beiner recognizes that the antidote to our spiritless times lies neither in the embrace of community over individualism nor of individualism over community: both individual and community need to be submitted to radical questioning. It is by exposing ourselves to the challenge of fearless thinking encountered at the philosophical extremities that we are most likely to understand our own world at a deeper level. In this collection of essays and reviews, Ronald Beiner helps us to think critically about the thought-worlds of our foremost contemporary thinkers, including Hannah Arendt, Allan Bloom, Michel Foucault, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jergen Habermas, Will Kymlicka, Christopher Lasch, Richard Rorty, Judith Shklar, Leo Strauss, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer.


PySDM is an open-source Python package for simulating the dynamics of particles undergoing condensational and collisional growth, interacting with a fluid flow and subject to chemical composition changes. It is intended to serve as a building block for process-level as well as computational-fluid-dynamics simulation systems involving representation of a continuous phase (air) and a dispersed phase (aerosol), with PySDM being responsible for representation of the dispersed phase. The PySDM package core is a Pythonic high-performance implementation of the Super-Droplet Method (SDM) Monte-Carlo algorithm for representing collisional growth, hence the name. PySDM has two alternative parallel number-crunching backends available: multi-threaded CPU backend based on Numba and GPU-resident backend built on top of ThrustRTC. The usage examples are built on top of four simple atmospheric cloud modelling frameworks: box, adiabatic parcel, single-column and 2D prescribed flow kinematic models. In addition, the package ships with tutorial code depicting how PySDM can be used from Julia and Matlab.


Mass violence, almost no matter how defined, is (thankfully) rare. Rare events are very difficult to study in a systematic manner. Standard statistical procedures can fail badly and usefully accurate forecasts of rare events often are little more than an aspiration. We offer an unconventional approach for the statistical analysis of rare events illustrated by an extensive case study. We report research whose goal is to learn about the attributes of very high risk IPV perpetrators and the circumstances associated with their IPV incidents reported to the police. Very high risk is defined as having a high probability of committing a repeat IPV assault in which the victim is injured. Such individuals represent a very small fraction of all IPV perpetrators; these acts of violence are relatively rare. To learn about them nevertheless, we apply in a novel fashion three algorithms sequentially to data collected from a large metropolitan police department: stochastic gradient boosting, a genetic algorithm inspired by natural selection, and agglomerative clustering. We try to characterize not just perpetrators who on balance are predicted to re-offend, but who are very likely to re-offend in a manner that leads to victim injuries. With this strategy, we learn a lot. We also provide a new way to estimate the importance of risk predictors. There are lessons for the study of other rare forms of violence especially when instructive forecasts are sought. In the absence of sufficiently accurate forecasts, scarce prevention resources cannot be allocated where they are most needed.


M.I.M.R. is the acronym of a Multifrequency Imaging Microwave Radiometer i.e. an instrument whose scientific objectives are the monitoring of the Earth surface and its atmosphere. This monitoring is performed at 6 frequencies: 6.8, 10.65, 18.7, 23.6, 36.5 and 89 GHz. Alenia Spazio is responsible, as prime contractor, for the instrument and antenna system design with the related test activities. This paper describes the radiometer antenna system composed by 3 elements : an offset parabolic reflector named "main reflector" illuminated by a cluster of 9 feeds at the frequencies written above, a small offset parabolic reflector named "cold reflector" used for calibration purposes and pointed toward the cold space at 2.70 K, a box filled with absorbing material named "hot load" which simulates the black body behaviour to allow the instrument calibration at 3000 K.<<ETX>>


Aim
Women with anorexia are often perceived very negatively – for example, as manipulative and deceitful – both by wider society and treatment providers. In this context, it is important for practitioners to understand the experience of living with this illness, but there is very little empirical research focused on the everyday phenomenology of anorexia. This study aimed to expand this limited literature by 'giving voice' to the lived experience of women with anorexia.

Method
A purposive sample of 12 women – 11 with a formal diagnosis of AN as a result of NHS treatment and one with a long behavioural history of dietary restriction who had received private treatment – who saw themselves as recovered, or in recovery, from anorexia nervosa participated in semi-structured interviews. The women were asked about the history of their eating disorder, their understandings of its cause and experiences of seeking help and treatment.

Results
The data were analysed with thematic analysis and three themes identified – Shame, Solitude and Salvation – which, when taken together, describe the dual role of anorexia nervosa as both problem and solution, the cyclical nature of sufferers' behaviours and feelings and the way in which anorexia nervosa is a form of distress that can make its sufferers feel better as well as worse.

Conclusions
Further light is shed on the ambivalence about recovery, and resistance to treatment, that are frequently experienced by sufferers. Implications of these findings for those who work with eating disorders clients are discussed.


In the last decades, an increasing attention has been paid to the study of different parallel structure mechanisms and their applications, mainly triggered by Stewart that presented an aircraft simulator system. Parallel structure features provide big advantages in potential applications. For example, parallel robots may give higher speed and acceleration, higher static and dynamic accuracy and higher stiffness than what is possible with the industrial robots used today. A typical limitation with many of the paral-lel structures is that their workspace is small com-pared to the serial structures. This paper presents a new parallel structure, the Gantry-Tau, which pro-vides 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) translational mo-tion with a large workspace. The structure of the ro-bot is patented by ABB. The Gantry-Tau robot is a six link parallel kinematic structure with the links configured according to 3-2-1. The 3-2-1 notation refers to how many links form each resulting kine-matic cluster of the robot. Orientational DOF of the robot could be provided by a decoupled system. For a conventional 3 DOF serial gantry ro-bot two of the actuators contribute to the moving mass. The Gantry-Tau can be constructed with ex-ceptionally low moving mass since the actuators are stationary and the structure has inherently high stiff-ness. The structure is thus ideal for many applications with demands on high accelerations, for instance for the pick and place operations. The nominal inverse and direct kinematics of the structure are developed and optimization is used to find a construction of Gantry-Tau with maximum workspace volume.


### Assessing Which Sources of Hazard Uncertainty Matter

The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast 2 (UCERF2) is a fully time‐dependent earthquake rupture forecast developed with sponsorship of the California Earthquake Authority (Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities [WGCEP], 2007; Field et al. , 2009). UCERF2 contains 480 logic‐tree branches reflecting choices among nine modeling uncertainties in the earthquake rate model shown in Figure 1. For seismic hazard analysis, it is also necessary to choose a ground‐motion‐prediction equation (GMPE) and set its parameters. Choosing among four next‐generation attenuation (NGA) relationships results in a total of 1920 hazard calculations per site. The present work is motivated by a desire to reduce the computational effort involved in a hazard analysis without understating uncertainty. We set out to assess which branching points of the UCERF2 logic tree contribute most to overall uncertainty, and which might be safely ignored (set to only one branch) without significantly biasing results or affecting some useful measure of uncertainty. The trimmed logic tree will have all of the original choices from the branching points that contribute significantly to uncertainty, but only one arbitrarily selected choice from the branching points that do not.

Figure 1.
Branches of the UCERF2 logic tree (after WGCEP, 2007). Dotted lines (…) indicate that the tree continues parallel to the branches that are shown, but that these branches are omitted from the figure for clarity. Black numbers below branches are the branch weights.

Risk analyses that use the trimmed tree should produce approximately the same results as those that use the full tree. Risk, as used here, refers to the relationship between some undesirable outcome and its likelihood of occurrence, typically from some particular decision‐maker's perspective. Risk can be measured in terms of an uncertain quantity of loss, such as the relationship between future earthquake‐related repair costs to a particular asset or group …


In the French Camargue-the delta surrounding the mouth of the Rhone River and part of the southern "nation" of Occitania-the bull is a powerful icon of nationalism, literature, and culture. How this came to be-how the Camargue bull came to confront the French cock, venerable symbol of a unified and republican France-is the story told in this ingenious study. Robert Zaretsky considers how in fin-de-siecle France the young writer Folco de Baroncelli, inspired by the history of the American West, in particular the fate of the Oglala Sioux and other Native American peoples, reinvented the history of Occitania. Galvanized by the example set by Buffalo Bill Cody, Baroncelli recast the Camargue as "le far-west" of France, creating the "immemorial" traditions he battled to protect. Zaretsky's study examines the creative tension between center and periphery in the making of modern France: just as the political and intellectual elite of the Third Republic "invented" a certain kind of France, so too did a coterie of southern writers, including Baroncelli, "invent" a certain kind of Camargue. The story of how the Camargue bull challenged the French cock in this ideological and cultural Wild West deepens our appreciation of the complex dynamic that has created contemporary France.


The calcium-sensing receptor (CaR) activation has recently been shown to modulate the ERK1 and ERK2 cascade in different cell lines. The present study investigated this pathway in human normal and tumoral parathyroid cells. In cells from normal parathyroids and almost all hyperplasia increasing extracellular calcium concentrations (Ca(o)(2+)) induced a significant activation of ERK1 and -2, the percent stimulation over basal activity (at 0.5 mM Ca(o)(2+)) being 545 +/- 140 and 800 +/- 205 in normal cells and 290 +/- 71 and 350 +/- 73 in hyperplasia at 1 and 2 mM Ca(o)(2+), respectively. This effect was mediated by CaR because it was mimicked by the receptor agonist gadolinium and neomycin. Basal and Ca(o)(2+)-stimulated ERK1 and -2 activity was nearly abolished by the PKC inhibitor calphostin C, and PKA changes did not affect ERK1 and -2 activity. PI3K blockade by wortmannin, known to prevent G protein betagamma subunit effect on ERK1 and -2, induced a 30% reduction of the Ca(o)(2+)-stimulated ERK1 and -2 activity. Adenomatous cells showed high PKC-dependent ERK1 and -2 activity in resting conditions that was unresponsive to high Ca(o)(2+). A role of MAPK on PTH secretion was suggested by the finding that PD98059, a specific MEK inhibitor, abolished the inhibitory effect of 1.5 mM Ca(o)(2+) on PTH release from normal parathyroid cells. In conclusion, these data first demonstrate that CaR activation, through the PKC pathway and, to a lesser extent, PI3K, increases ERK1 and -2 activity in normal parathyroid cells and this cascade seems to be involved in the modulation of PTH secretion by Ca(o)(2+). Interestingly, this signaling pathway is disrupted in parathyroid tumors.


We recently proved threshold saturation for spatially coupled sparse superposition codes on the additive white Gaussian noise channel [1]. Here we generalize our analysis to a much broader setting. We show for any memoryless channel that spatial coupling allows generalized approximate message-passing (GAMP) decoding to reach the potential (or Bayes optimal) threshold of the code ensemble. Moreover in the large input alphabet size limit: i) the GAMP algorithmic threshold of the underlying (or uncoupled) code ensemble is simply expressed as a Fisher information; ii) the potential threshold tends to Shannon's capacity. Although we focus on coding for sake of coherence with our previous results, the framework and methods are very general and hold for a wide class of generalized estimation problems with random linear mixing.


This paper describes the author's attempts to parameterize a simple carbon cycle model as two PFTs at 6 flux tower sites, and run the parameterized model at 500 locations across CONUS for 33 years, assimilating estimates of above ground biomass and leaf area on 15 July annually. This represents a complex, technological feat, and the successful development of impressive workflow capabilities. The authors acknowledge that this work is "proof of concept" and that there is a companion paper in preparation. Perhaps this paper suffers as a consequence, as in its current form it offers only very limited progression from previous work.


In this paper we extend and apply MRP theory towards reverse logistics including the considerations of transportation consequences. Our aim is to demonstrate the versatility obtained from using MRP theory when combining Input–Output Analysis and Laplace transforms. This enables an analysis of a supply chain including four sub-systems, namely manufacturing, distribution, consumption and reverse logistics, where the geographical distance between the activities play an important role. The main focus in this paper is on reverse logistics (recycling, remanufacturing). Especially we wish to model the evaluation of disposal and reverse activities far away from agglomerations, which often means an improved environment for nearby inhabitants. This is also illustrated in a numerical example. We use the Net Present Value as a measure of the economic performance. Our ambition is to show that supply chain sub-systems may accurately be described using input and output matrices collected together in corresponding matrices for the system as a whole. Activity levels in each sub-system govern the speed of the respective processes, and these activity levels, in general, will be considered as decision variables. We now analyse reverse logistics activities in which the flows of materials and goods are typically divergent (arborescent processes), similar to properties of the distribution sub-system, and recent results on the extensions of basic MRP theory introducing the concepts of output delays and the generalised output matrix are also introduced here, when modelling the reverse logistics sub-system. & 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights


Recently, electromagnetic encoders with synchronous reading and direction detection capability have been reported. Such structures are useful for the implementation of (i) displacement/velocity sensors and (ii) chipless-RFID systems based on near-field coupling and sequential bit reading. In the latter, synchronous reading and motion direction detection are a need in order to avoid false readings of the identification (ID) code, if the relative velocity between the reader and the encoder is not constant, and to read the correct ID code (rather than the inverse one), respectively. On the other hand, synchronous reading and motion direction detection, are essential to determine the encoder direction in displacement/velocity sensors, as well as to provide the absolute position of the encoder, provided that the whole encoder is encoded with the Bruijn sequence. In this paper, synchronous reading and direction detection in high-resolution/high-density electromagnetic encoders based on chains of linearly-shaped metallic inclusions are reported. To this end, it is necessary to add two chains of metallic inclusions to the one containing the ID code. In the reader side, three harmonic signals are necessary in order to generate the clock signals and to obtain the ID code. The reader consists of a microstrip line loaded with three pairs of open-ended folded stubs positioned face-to-face by their extremes. By displacing the encoder chains over the extreme of the stubs, at short distance, stub coupling is enhanced when a metallic inclusion lies on top of the stubs, and the frequency response of the reader is shifted towards lower frequencies. Thus, by injecting three (properly tuned) harmonic signals at the input port of the microstrip transmission line, three amplitude modulated (AM) signals are generated by tag motion at the output port of such transmission line, and the envelope functions contain the velocity, the ID code and the absolute position. The reported reader/encoder system exhibits superior space resolution and information density as compared to other similar systems based on synchronous reading.


The effects of dolomitic limestone (DoL) on dairy manure (DaM) physical and chemical characteristics and odor
and gas control were evaluated in a bench-top study and laboratory study. In the bench-top study, DoL was added to DaM
and placed in 1.0-L sedimentation cylinders. The DaM/DoL combination was analyzed for pH, solids, and nutrients. Surface
pH slowly increased with time. Approximately 87% of the calcium and magnesium and 70% of the phosphorus was found in
the settled solids. In the laboratory study, DoL was added to fresh DaM at approximately a 1:1 ratio (dry basis) and stored
in PVC columns. The liquid and settled solids layers were analyzed for pH, solids, nutrients, and viscosity. Adding DoL to
DaM decreased solids content in the liquid fraction, increased solids content in the settled solids fraction, increased resistance
to flow, decreased odor emissions, and decreased the amount of surface crust.


Atani [1] proved some results in quotient semirings using subtractive ideals. We introduce the notion of subtractive extension of an ideal which is a generalization of subtractive ideals. In the results of Atani, we replace the condition of subtractive ideal by subtractive extension of an ideal and hence generalize all the results of Atani. We obtain some equivalent conditions for subtractive extension of an ideal and hence characterize the ideals, prime ideals and primary ideals in quotient semirings.


This paper introduces the design and implementation of a wireless sensor network (WSN) gateway with multi-mode access to Internet supporting data collection and video surveillance. The wireless sensor network collects data, while the video surveillance devices are applied for the monitoring of WSN system. Both the wired and the wireless way of Internet access are discussed. Because of the bandwidth requirement of the video stream and WSN data transmission, the 3G Internet access module is applied in the gateway in case of unreachable wired Internet access. The main architecture, the software and the hardware design of the gateway system are described separately.


Playgrounds are a major source of unintentional injuries in the school environment. In fact, 80% of all injuries on public playground equipment happen at school. Thus, the need for developing a playground injury prevention plan is critical to provide safe educational outdoor environments for children. The S.A.F.E.™ framework for injury prevention is the first step in preventing playground injuries. This article highlights suggestions that school nurses can implement in creating an effective playground injury prevention program at their schools.


&NA; A patient diagnosed as having acute lymphoblastic leukemia (L2) relapsed 4 months later and was found to have morphologic and immunologic evidence of a biphenotypic hybrid acute leukemia. Chromosome analysis at relapse showed two abnormal clones, one with marked hypodiploidy and the other with exactly double the hypodiploid clone. It is considered that this is an example of a hybrid lymphoblastic/nonlymphoblastic leukemia with unique karyotype.


High-throughput matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (HT-MALDI-MS) has garnered considerable attention within the drug discovery industry as an information-rich alternative to assays using light-based detection methods. To date, these efforts have been primarily focused on assays using protein or peptide substrates. Methods for RNA or DNA analysis by HT-MALDI-MS have not been extensively reported due to the challenges associated with MALDI-MS of oligonucleotides, including the propensity to form multiple salt adducts, low ionization potential, and ease of fragmentation. The objective of this work was to develop a platform suitable for HT-MS analysis of RNA and DNA substrates that overcomes these hurdles by combining on-surface sample preparation with soft ionization. This has been accomplished through the selective immobilization of fluorous-tagged oligonucleotides on a fluorous-modified MS target plate, followed by on-surface enrichment, matrix addition, and direct laser desorption/ionization, a process dubbed fluorous HT-MS (F-HT-MS). The work has resulted in methods by which RNA and DNA substrates can be detected at nanomolar concentrations from a typical assay buffer system using procedures that are amenable to full automation. The protocols were applied to an miRNA biogenesis assay, demonstrating its potential for RNA processes and thereby filling a prominent gap in RNA drug discovery: the paucity of in vitro functional assays.


Background:  Professional standards for validity of achievement tests have long reflected a consensus that validity is the degree to which evidence and theory support interpretations of test scores entailed by the intended uses of tests.  Yet there are convincing lines of evidence that the standards are not adequately followed in practice, that standards alone are not sufficient guides to action, and that reviewers of tests do not call attention to important kinds of validity evidence that might support the demanding process of making sense of test scores or reasoning from test scores. Purpose: The intent of this article is to make more transparent the demands of achievement test interpretation on users in instructional contexts and to open up a dialogue on implications for the evaluation profession for improvement of practice along lines already set out by evaluation theorists. Setting:  Not applicable. Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Not applicable. Data Collection and Analysis: Review of current practice. Findings:  The article makes transparent the lack of attention to validation of achievement tests to support inferences relevant to intended uses in instruction and project evaluation. Elements of a model for the process of reasoning from test scores are articulated. The cognitive demands on the test score user are illustrated in achievement test contexts in writing, science, and mathematics. Implications are drawn for deliberation on issues and for the development of casebooks to guide practice. Keywords:  assessment; test validation; test users; test interpretation


Thalidomide and the analogues lenalidomide (CC-5013, Revlimid) and CC-4047 (Actimid) belong to the family of immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs). These agents have anti-angiogenic properties, modulate TNFalpha and IL-12 secretion, co-stimulate T cells, increase NK cell toxicity and have direct anti-tumour effects. These characteristics have made of them promising drugs for treatment of relapsed, refractory and newly diagnosed MM. It seems that lenalidomide and CC-4047 are more powerful in inhibiting TNFalpha and have, except for myelosuppression, less side effects than Thal. Combination of IMiDs with dexamethasone, bortezomib and with chemotherapeutic agents are tested in numerous trials, which will help in determining the optimal combination and administration schedule of different molecules to take advantage of non-overlapping toxicities and synergisms between those agents.


trees ensemble methods monthly full-coverage and high-resolution AOD Compared has good performance with an R 2 of 0.79. A good analysis of spatio-temporal variability is then presented the interpretation of environmental covariates on FEC is explored using recommend minor


Due to the characteristics of the cotton picker working in the field and the physical characteristics of cotton, it is easy to burn during the operation, and it is difficult to be detected, monitored, and alarmed. In this study, a fire monitoring system of cotton pickers based on GA optimized BP neural network model was designed. By integrating the monitoring data of SHT21 temperature and humidity sensors and CO concentration monitoring sensors, the fire situation was predicted, and an industrial control host computer system was developed to monitor the CO gas concentration in real time and display it on the vehicle terminal. The BP neural network was optimized by using the GA genetic algorithm as the learning algorithm, and the data collected by the gas sensor were processed by the optimized network, which effectively improved the data accuracy of CO concentration during fires. In this system, the CO concentration in the cotton box of the cotton picker was validated, and the measured value of sensor was compared with the actual value, which verified the effectiveness of the optimized BP neural network model with GA. The experimental verification showed that the system monitoring error rate was 3.44%, the accurate early warning rate was over 96.5%, and the false alarm rate and the missed alarm rate were less than 3%. In this study, the fire of cotton pickers can be monitored in real time and an early warning can be made in time, and a new method was provided for accurate monitoring of fire in the field operation of cotton pickers.


We have identified novel nuclear transcripts in the human beta-globin locus using nuclear run-on analysis in erythroid cell lines and in situ hybridization analysis of erythroid tissue. These transcripts extend across the LCR and intergenic regions but are undetectable in nonerythroid cells. Surprisingly, transient transfection of a beta-globin gene (epsilon, gamma, or beta) induces transcription of the LCR and intergenic regions from the chromosomal beta-globin locus in nonerythroid cell lines. The beta-globin genes themselves, however, remain transcriptionally silent. Induction is dependent on transcription of the globin gene in the transfected plasmid but does not require protein expression. Using in situ hybridization analysis, we show that the plasmid colocalizes with the endogenous beta-globin locus providing insight into the mechanism of transinduction.


Myanmar is an ASEAN country, standing with its own resources in health care of people. There are 5 medical universities currently in Myanmar, namely, University of Medicine-1, University of Medicine-2, and Defence Services Medical Academy in Yangon, and University of Medicine, Mandalay, and University of Medicine, Magway. The first medical college was founded in Yangon in 1930. The MBBS course (Bachelor degree) work extends over seven years in which general pathology in 3rd MBBS and systemic pathology with Haematology are in the curriculum of Final part I. Postgraduate Pathology courses of Diploma, Master degree and PhD have been conducted since 1970. Currently, pathologists are working in the all health sectors. Most of the tissue diagnoses are made by routine H&E staining and immunohistochemistry techniques are in lesser extent. Frozen section specimens were done around 1980 but not in date. Myanmar has very little experience and knowledge in telepathology. Here is a practice of taking second opinion while rendering of histopathology tissue diagnoses by consulting with seniors who are clever in the particular subjects. Therefore, encouragement and enforcement in the areas of telepathology for education, diagnosis and research purposes for young generation of pathologist are crucial.


Nitric oxide (NO*) can stabilize mRNA by activating p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). Here, transcript stabilization by NO* was investigated in human THP-1 cells using microarrays. After LPS pre-stimulation, cells were treated with actinomycin D and then exposed to NO* without or with the p38 MAPK inhibitor SB202190 (SB). The decay of 220 mRNAs was affected; most were stabilized by NO*. Unexpectedly, SB often enhanced rather than antagonized transcript stability. NO* activated p38 MAPK and Erk1/2; SB blocked p38 MAPK, but further activated Erk1/2. RT-PCR confirmed that NO* and SB could additively stabilize certain mRNA transcripts, an effect abolished by Erk1/2 inhibition. In affected genes, these responses were associated with CU-rich elements (CURE) in 3'-untranslated regions (3'-UTR). NO* stabilized the mRNA of a CURE-containing reporter gene, while repressing translation. Dominant-negative Mek1, an Erk1/2 inhibitor, abolished this effect. NO* similarly stabilized, but blocked translation of MAP3K7IP2, a natural CURE-containing gene. NO* increased hnRNP translocation to the cytoplasm and binding to CURE. Over-expression of hnRNP K, like NO*, repressed translation of CURE-containing mRNA. These findings define a sequence-specific mechanism of NO*-triggered gene regulation that stabilizes mRNA, but represses translation.


Abstract Background Systemic hypertension (SH) is a potential complication of acute kidney injury (AKI) in dogs. Objective To describe the prevalence of SH and hypertensive retinopathy in dogs with AKI, to investigate the relationship between SH and severity of AKI and to assess possible factors associated with SH. Animals Fifty‐two dogs with AKI. Methods Prospective observational study of dogs presenting to a tertiary referral center that fulfilled the International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) guidelines for the diagnosis of AKI. Systolic blood pressure measurement, urine protein/creatinine ratio (UPCR), urine output, presence of hypertensive retinopathy and fluid overload (FO), survival to discharge and duration of hospitalization were subsequently assessed. The prevalence of SH was calculated and the relationship between SH and recorded factors was examined by nonparametric statistics. Results The prevalence of SH (≥160 mm Hg) on admission or during hospitalization was 75% (39/52) and in 56% (22/39) of cases this was severe (≥180 mm Hg). Sixteen percent (7/43) of dogs had evidence of hypertensive retinopathy and 77% (24/31) dogs had UPCR >0.5. Forty‐two percent (22/52) dogs had FO on admission or during hospitalization. There was no association between SH and IRIS AKI grade, oligo/anuria, survival to discharge, duration of hospitalization or proteinuria. Dogs with FO on presentation were more likely to be hypertensive at admission compared to dogs without FO (P = .02). Dogs that did not survive to discharge were more likely to have FO (P = .007). Conclusions and Clinical Importance Systemic hypertension is common in dogs with AKI. Systemic hypertension might be associated with FO, which itself is associated with nonsurvival. Monitoring for SH and FO is therefore warranted in dogs with AKI.


OBJECTIVE
To discuss the major differences and similarities among the currently published insulin infusion protocols (IIPs) for critically ill patients.

METHODS
IIPs were identified by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The reference lists for all retrieved protocols were also reviewed to identify any IIPs that were not surfaced with use of our initial search strategies. The major differences and similarities among the IIPs were identified and examined. In addition, strategies for successful implementation of IIPs were outlined.

RESULTS
Our search strategies retrieved 17 IIPs. Currently, no published studies have compared one insulin protocol with another. The major differences or similarities among the published IIPs were in the following areas: patient characteristics, target glucose level, time to achieve target glucose level, incidence of hypoglycemia, rationale for adjusting the rates of insulin infusion, and methods of blood glucose measurements. Because of variations in the definition of hypoglycemia, methods of blood glucose measurement, and types of blood samples used, some comparisons across the protocols were difficult. Use of a multidisciplinary team and gaining administrative support are crucial for addressing issues and provision of necessary resources for implementing a protocol for "tight" glycemic control in critically ill patients.

CONCLUSION
Clinicians should evaluate the type of patients in their critical care units, the mean baseline glucose levels, and the available resources to determine the most appropriate and practical IIP for their institution.


Expression and purification of β-galactosidases derived from Bifidobacterium provide a new resource for efficient lactose hydrolysis and lactose intolerance alleviation. Here, we cloned and expressed two β-galactosidases derived from Bifidobacterium. The optimal pH for BLGLB1 was 5.5, and the optimal temperature was 45 °C, at which the enzyme activity of BLGLB1 was higher than that of commercial enzyme E (300 ± 3.6 U/mg) under its optimal conditions, reaching 2200 ± 15 U/mg. The optimal pH and temperature for BPGLB1 were 6.0 and 45 °C, respectively, and the enzyme activity (0.58 ± 0.03 U/mg) under optimum conditions was significantly lower than that of BLGLB1. The structures of the two β-galactosidase were similar, with all known key sites conserved. When o-nitrophenyl-β-D-galactoside (oNPG) was used as an enzyme reaction substrate, the maximum reaction velocity (Vmax) for BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 3700 ± 100 U/mg and 1.1 ± 0.1 U/mg, respectively. The kinetic constant (Km) of BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 1.9 ± 0.1 and 1.3 ± 0.3 mmol/L, respectively. The respective catalytic constant (kcat) of BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 1700 ± 40 s−1 and 0.5 ± 0.02 s−1, respectively; the respective kcat/Km value of BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 870 L/(mmol∙s) and 0.36 L/(mmol∙s), respectively. The Km, kcat and Vmax values of BLGLB1 were superior to those of earlier reported β-galactosidase derived from Bifidobacterium. Overall, BLGLB1 has potential application in the food industry.


Abstract : This paper presents the first step in establishing a link between the heavy-tailed nature of terrain and a new terrain modeling technique, L1 splines, that is, splines based on minimizing the L1 norm rather than the square of the L2 norm. To establish this link, we focus on the heavy-tailed nature of the second derivatives that occur in the L1 spline minimization principles. For one urban-terrain data set (Baltimore, Maryland) and two natural-terrain data sets (Killeen, Texas), the second derivatives behave asymptotically rather than like exponential functions. Similar results for first derivatives minus first differences are presented. The distributions investigated here are not directly related to the spatial frequency spectra that have been the topic of most previous investigations of the heavy-tailed nature of terrain. The heavy-tailed nature of the frequency spectra of terrain has not resulted in any major impact on modeling of large terrain datasets (although it has had significant positive impact on modeling of vehicle-terrain interaction, where the data sets are local and smaller). The investigation of the heavy-tailed nature of the derivatives of terrain will have significant impact by providing the theoretical underpinnings for the current observation that L1 splines provide better terrain modeling than alternative techniques.


A 14 year old boy with atypical myasthenia gravis is reported. The interesting features of the case were the onset in first decade with progressive weakness of limb muscles simulating limb girdle myopathy, presence of bilateral symmetrical non fluctuating external ophthalmoplegia with ptosis and the absence of diplopia. Differential response to choline esterase inhibitors was clinically apparent. In contrast to excellent improvement in limb weakness with choline esterase inhibitors, there was no improvement in external ophthalmoplegia or ptosis. The possibilities are discussed and literature is reviewed.


In this paper the effects of multiplier architecture on the overall performance of the OFDM De-modulator for an UWB system are studied. The two commonly used VLSI multiplication algorithms, namely, the Baugh-Wooley algorithm and the Modified-Booth algorithm, are the candidates for this study. Partial product accumulation session can be found in both algorithms. There are two major classes of partial product accumulation architectures which are the tree architecture and the array architecture. Under a specific speed that can meet the requirement of an UWB system, silicon usage, power consumption, and SQNR of the various architectures are compared. All OFDM de-modulators in this study are implemented with 0.13um CMOS technology and the multiplier used in the de-modulator is 10bits × 10 bits. Simulation results show that the tree type Baugh-Wooley multiplier with an output word-length of 12 bits can achieve the best balance between silicon usage, power consumption and SQNR.


Results of document scanning are digital images. Image processing is considered as bidimensional signal processing. Such images are the input of document analysis and recognition systems. Information extraction is one objective of document analysis and recognition systems. Textline extraction is a crucial step of such systems because its output is considered as the input of the recognition step. Most segmentation methods take as input binary images, which explains that binarization methods can affect segmentation results. We study in this paper how does the choice of binarization minimally affects the results of text-line segmentation methods? Several evaluation metrics are used for the comparison between segmentation results. The proposed approach is tested using the benchmarking databases IAM (about 556 images) and IAM historical (about 60 images). The results show that binarization affects the detection rate (DR) and the recognition accuracy (RA) metrics for segmentation evaluation.


Three numerical schemes, namely: Toeplitz Matrix meth-od, Product Nystrom method and Sinc-Collocation method have been proposed and implemented to give an approximate solution of the linear Volterra integral equation of the second kind with Carleman kernel. To display the validity and acceptability of the numerical methods, two illustrative examples with known exact solution are presented. Numerical results show clearly that the convergence and accuracy of these schemes are in a good agreement with the exact solution. Moreover, it is worth pointing out that the Nystrom and Toeplitz matrix schemes are more efficient in comparison with the sinc-collocation method. AMS Subject Classification: 45D05, 65R20, 68Wxx


Methyl cis-10-epoxy-3,7,11-trimethyl-trans,trans-2,6-tridecadienoate has been stereoselectively synthesized in 12 steps starting from methyl trans-gamma-bromo-beta,beta-dimethylacrylate and 1-acetyl-1-methylcyclopropane. The final product proved to be identical with the second, less abundant juvenile hormone (methyl 12-homojuvenate) isolated from the Cecropia silk moth. The biological activities of the compound were evaluated in various insects.


We consider a control problem for a diffusive PDE model of heterogeneous population of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) aiming to balance the aggregate power consumption within a given amount of time. Using the Green's function approach, the problem is formulated as an approximate controllability problem for a residue depending on control parameters nonlinearly. A sufficient condition for approximate controllability is derived in terms of initial temperature distribution, operation time of TCLs and threshold value of the aggregate power consumption. Case studies allow to reveal the advantages of the proposed solution from numerical calculations point of view.


Image enhancement is an important issue in digital image processing. Various approaches have been developed to solve image enhancement problems, but most of them require deep expert knowledge to design appropriate image filters. To automatically design a filter, we propose a novel approach based on the genetic algorithm that optimizes a set of standard filters by determining their types and order. Moreover, the proposed method is able to manage various types of noise factors. We applied the proposed method to local and global image enhancement problems such as impulsive noise reduction, interpolation, and orientation enhancement. In terms of subjective and objective evaluations, the results show the superiority of the proposed method.


Slow light has always been a topic of extreme interest for researchers and scientists in order to utilize the full potential of light in switching, memory devices and in quantum optics. However, slow light phenomena and its potential applications in switching and memory devices by tunable graphene based hyperbolic metamaterial have not still been introduced in literature. Here we theoretically propose and numerically analyze a graphene based tunable slow light device from the concept of controlling the group velocity of light in hyperbolic metamaterials. In THz range, graphene-dielectric stack can behave as hyperbolic metamaterials and hyperbolic metamaterials can demonstrate slow light phenomena while being cladded by air. By utilizing the tunability option of graphene, proposed devices can be made tunable, which is the most important criteria to manage the full advantage of slow light. It ultimately paves a fully new way to find novel applications in photonic switch, optical buffers and memory devices. Interestingly, in such graphene based devices, voltage will play a vital role to control the group velocity of light from slow to fast and the carriers are photons instead of electrons.


Summary

1
For iteroparous organisms life-history theory predicts a trade-off between current and future reproduction, and therefore the evolution of host responses to current parasite infestation that will maximize lifetime reproductive success. The parasite-induced variation in reproductive success is thus not the net result of parasite infestation alone, but the parasite-mediated outcome of optimal resource allocation among current and future reproductive events. Understanding the importance of parasites for the evolution of host life history therefore requires an experimental investigation of the effects of parasites over the host's life span. Such studies are currently scant.

2
We manipulated the load of an ectoparasite, the hen flea (Ceratophyllus gallinae), in the nests of its most common host, the great tit (Parus major), over a period of 4 years and recorded, the components of current and future reproductive success including survival, divorce, breeding dispersal and various reproductive parameters. Finally we assessed, for females only as paternity of males was unknown, the lifetime reproductive success as a close correlate of Darwinian fitness.

3
For current reproduction, our experiment demonstrates that parasites reduce current reproductive success via an increase in the probability of nest failure during incubation and the nestling period. In the presence of fleas, clutch size and the number of fledglings were reduced while the incubation and the nestling period were prolonged. Thus parasitism led to an increase in parental effort but nevertheless reduced current reproductive success.

4
For future reproduction, the experiment shows that females breeding in infested nests dispersed over longer distances between breeding attempts. The divorce rate following infestation, the probability of breeding locally in the future and residual reproductive success were not affected significantly by ectoparasites. The study thus suggests that hen fleas play a minor role in shaping the trade-off between current and future reproduction.

5
Lifetime reproductive success of females, measured as the total number of locally recruiting offspring over the 4 experimental years, was reduced significantly by ectoparasites. The negative effect of parasites arose by a reduction of the number of fledglings per breeding attempt rather than by a reduction of the number of breeding attempts.


Sequential two-photon-laser-induced fluorescence (TP-LIF) in NO has been achieved by using 226-nm radiation to excite the X(2)Pi ? A(2)Sigma transition followed by excitation of the A(2)Sigma ? D(2)Sigma transition using the fundamental output of a Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm. The resulting fluorescence was monitored at wavelengths as low as 187 nm (D(2)Sigma ? X(2)Pi transition), thus permitting major discrimination against conventional noise sources as encountered in single-photon-laser-induced fluorescence (SP-LIF) systems. Also, since the 226-nm radiation used in the TPLIF method is generated in the same manner as in the SP-LIF technique (i.e., the sum-frequency mixing of 288-with 1064-nm radiation), the two-photon sequential-pumping scheme requires no major extra optical hardware. Although the final optimization of the TP-LIF NO method has not yet been completed, extrapolations based on currently measured signal and noise levels suggest a detection sensitivity level of 3 parts in 10(13) (0.3 pptv) under atmospheric conditions. This would represent approximately a 25-fold increase in sensitivity over the SP-LIF NO technique.


The concept of fluctuation-induced effective interactions is extended to systems driven out of equilibrium. We compute the forces experienced by macroscopic objects immersed in a soft material driven by external shaking sources. We show that, in contrast with equilibrium Casimir forces induced by thermal fluctuations, their sign, range, and amplitude depend on specifics of the shaking and can thus be tuned. We also comment on the dispersion of these shaking-induced forces, and discuss their potential application to phase ordering in soft materials.


Context. It is still debated whether or not the Galactic chemical evolution of sulphur in the halo follows the flat trend with [Fe/H] that is ascribed to the result of explosive nucleosynthesis in type II SNe. It has been suggested that the disagreement between different investigations of sulphur abundances in halo stars might be owing to problems with the diagnostics used, that a new production source of sulphur might be needed in the early Universe, like hypernovae, or that the deposition of supernova ejecta into the interstellar medium is time-delayed. Aims. The aim of this study is to try to clarify this situation by measuring the sulphur abundance in a sample of halo giants using two diagnostics: the S I triplet around 1045 nm and the [S I] line at 1082 nm. The latter of the two is not believed to be sensitive to non-LTE effects. We can thereby minimize the uncertainties in the diagnostic used and estimate the usefulness of the triplet for the sulphur determination in halo K giants. We will also be able to compare our sulphur abundance differences from the two diagnostics with the expected non-LTE effects in the 1045 nm triplet previously calculated by others. Methods. High-resolution near-infrared spectra of ten K giants were recorded using the spectrometer CRIRES mounted at VLT. Two standard settings were used, one covering the S I triplet and one covering the [S I] line. The sulphur abundances were individually determined with equivalent widths and synthetic spectra for the two diagnostics using tailored 1D model atmospheres and relying on non-LTE corrections from the litterature. Effects of convective inhomogeneities in the stellar atmospheres are investigated. Results. The sulphur abundances derived from both the [S I] line and the non-LTE corrected 1045 nm triplet favor a flat trend for the evolution of sulphur. In contrast to some previous studies, we saw no "high" values of [S/Fe] in our sample. Conclusions. We corroborate the flat trend in the [S/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] plot for halo stars found in some previous studies but do not find a scatter or a rise in [S/Fe] as obtained in other works. We find the sulphur abundances deduced from the non-LTE corrected triplet to be somewhat lower than the abundances from the [S I] line, possibly indicating too large non-LTE corrections. Considering 3D modeling, however, they might instead be too small. Moreover, we show that the [S I] line can be used as a sulphur diagnostic down to [Fe/H] similar to - 2.3 in giants.


In this paper, we introduce a new approach for modeling visual context. For this purpose, we consider the leaves of a hierarchical segmentation tree as elementary units. Each leaf is described by features of its ancestral set, the regions on the path linking the leaf to the root. We construct region trees by using a high-performance segmentation method. We then learn the importance of different descriptors (e.g. color, texture, shape) of the ancestors for classification. We report competitive results on the MSRC segmentation dataset and the MIT scene dataset, showing that region ancestry efficiently encodes information about discriminative parts, objects and scenes.


Aims: To compare monoscopic and stereoscopic assessment of the optic disc using novel software for the digital stereoscopic analysis of optic disc stereopairs. Methods: Software was developed for the stereoscopic display of digital optic disc images using an interlaced display method. Neuroretinal rim width was determined at 10 degree intervals around the optic disc using a custom (stereoscopic) cursor whose depth was adjusted to that of Elschnig's rim. Measurements were taken, first viewing the disc monoscopically and at a separate sitting, stereoscopically. Results: Measurements were made in 35 eyes from 35 patients (1260 estimates for each observer) using three observers. The mean cup to disc ratio (CDR) ranged from 0.57 to 0.66 (SD 0.13–0.14) for monoscopic viewing compared with 0.64 to 0.69 (SD 0.12–0.14) for stereoscopic viewing. Stereoscopic assessments gave higher CDRs in temporal, superior, nasal, and inferior aspects of the optic disc (p<0.001, Mann-Whitney U test). Agreement between observers in estimating CDR was high for monoscopic assessment (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.74 (CI 0.72 to 0.76) increasing to 0.80 (0.78 to 0.82) for stereoscopic assessment. Conclusion: Digital stereoscopic optic disc assessment provides lower estimates of neuroretinal rim width and higher levels of interobserver agreement compared with monoscopic assessments.


In our previous work on multiuser communications, two methods were investigated for user separation in a time-invariant, underwater acoustic environment. The first method employed the conventional and adaptive time-reversal mirrors to either passively or actively remove multiuser interference, and the second introduced iterative, successive interference cancellation (SIC) as another active procedure for interference removal. SIC is the multiuser interference equivalent of the decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) for intersymbol interference channels. Much like the DFE, SIC combines previously decoded symbols with channel estimates to remove interference. Both prior works assumed a time-invariant channel, allowing channel estimates obtained during a training period to be valid for the duration of the packet. This paper generalizes the SIC approach to time-varying channels by carefully restructuring the SIC framework and employing a matching pursuit (MP) algorithm to provide data-driven channel updates. The proposed receiver design was used to decode multiuser data collected during the Focused Acoustic Fields 2006 (FAF-06) experiment. Results from this analysis demonstrate that 2 users can successfully be separated by a 16-element receive array with the restructured approach. At a transmission rate of 5 × 103 symbols per second, the architecture is capable of achieving data rates of up to 40 kbps and spectral efficiencies up to 5.33 b/s/Hz.


Abstract We investigated the degradation of biphenyl and identified main degradation products. Biphenyl and 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl (2,3-DHB) was added to cultivation media to identify whole collection of degradation products of four bacterial strains isolated from long-term PCB contaminated soil (Alcaligenes xylosoxidans and Pseudomonas stutzeri) and long-term PCB contaminated sediment (Ochrobactrum anthropi and Pseudomonas veronii). Cultivation flasks were processed in different time after inoculation to determine biphenyl fission rate. Alcaligenes xylosoxidans was revealed as the most appropriate strain for bioremediation process with the highest biphenyl transformation rate. Biphenyl degradation led to the formation of benzoic acid. However, as the presence of 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhex-2,4-dienoic acid (HOPDA) was not confirmed, the transformation pathway common for many other bacteria is probably modified.


Certification of agricultural products is an increasingly common tool that is expected to contribute to agricultural improvement, farmer well-being, poverty alleviation, reduced environmental impact and food safety. In an increasingly competitive market, processors, manufacturers and retailers use certification to demonstrate their green and sustainable credentials and differentiate their products. In some commodity sectors, such as coffee and cocoa, products certified as sustainable are on track to reach majority market share in important producing and consuming nations. This development poses a major challenge for farmers in general, and small-scale farmers in ACP and other developing countries, in particular. This publication, commissioned by CTA, presents the findings of a study of the impact of certification on farmers in coffee, cocoa, cotton, fruit and vegetables.


During the aging process, cognitive decline occurs in different functions such as memory, language, executive functions and attention. In this sense, TV Neurones, a cognitive training software, was developed and can be used by health professionals to maintain and/or restore cognitive abilities of older people. However, there are no validation studies of the Portuguese version of TV Neurones. This study aimed to contribute to the validation of the Portuguese version of the TV Neurones. Specifically, it was intended to analyze the acceptability of this software of cognitive training with health professionals. A qualitative exploratory and descriptive study was conducted. The sample comprised 11 health professionals with, at least, 3 years of working experience with adults with neurocognitive decline. Data collection instruments included a socio-demographic questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Data was analyzed using content analysis technique. As main findings some categories have emerged: i) TV neurones is a relevant cognitive training tool for people with cognitive impairments; ii) presents some advantages; iii) presents some limitations; iv) is useful to stimulate cognitive functions; v) presents progressive levels of difficulty; vi) has an adequate association to the different cognitive functions; vii) possible improved suggestions; viii) professionals and clinical cases for which the software is most suitable. The results obtained have contributed to the validation process of the Portuguese version of the TV Neurones allowing acknowledging the potential and limitations of this software for people with cognitive impairment.


The aim of the evaluation was to examine the impact of an Oral Health Improvement Project on the oral health-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of prisoners in this high-security gaol. Prisoners in a high-security prison that had adopted a health-promoting prison agenda were invited to take part. Prisoners in locations where the Project had been active acted as the intervention group and those in other settings where there was no formal involvement with the Project acted as controls. All consenting prisoners were asked to complete questionnaires to assess their Project awareness, oral health-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. The data were subjected to Chi-squared tests, t-tests, correlation analysis and ANCOVA. Fifty-nine intervention and 48 control group prisoners completed questionnaires. Intervention group prisoners were more Project-aware (F[1,97] = 6.98, p = 0.01) and more knowledgeable about oral health (F[1,97] = 12.02, p = 0.001) when controlling for duration of current imprisonment. No significant associations between intervention group status and oral health-related attitudes or behaviours were found. Increased reported smoking and poorer dietary habits were significantly explained by duration of current imprisonment. This evaluation highlights the difficulties in changing health-related attitudes and behaviours in the prison setting. It also demonstrates the need for effective deployment of the health-promoting prison approach to improve the oral health of prisoners.


This article adopts the theory of social practices as a critical lens for understanding computer game consumption as multiple 'nexuses of doings and sayings', which represent the elements of and are situated within the broader context of consumer culture. Specifically, we explore an emerging phenomenon of an organised and competitive approach to computer gaming, referred to as 'electronic sports' or 'eSports', by offering a novel conceptualisation of eSports as an assemblage of consumption practices. In our endeavour, we illustrate that eSports practices are performed by consumers through multiple interconnected nexuses of unique understandings, tools, competencies and skills, whereby these nexuses transcend the elements of digital play to include the watching and governing of eSports. Accordingly, eSports consumers take on multiple roles beyond being considered merely as 'players', engaging with this phenomenon using different nexuses of practical activities. Our findings suggest that, in order to gain a more comprehensive perspective of what consumers actually do with computer games, we should explore gaming consumption in relation to different social practices that co-constitute multifaceted consumer engagement within this genre.


Gender bias within hormone replacement therapy has been prevalent for decades, and the circumstances surrounding this bias continue to worsen. A billion-dollar industry has been built on dozens of testosterone replacement therapies and medications to treat andropause and erectile dysfunction for men; women have been less fortunate. This article discusses this bias and the well-orchestrated attempt by the pharmaceutical industry to eliminate bioidentical hormones, as well as to downplay the important role of compounding pharmacies in fulfilling the needs of women in this longstanding gender gap.


Nanocrystalline Si/SiO2 multilayers are prepared by thermally annealing amorphous Si/SiO2 stacked structures. The photoluminescence intensity is obviously enhanced after hydrogen passivation at various temperatures. It is suggested that the hydrogen trapping and detrapping processes at different temperatures strongly influence the passivation effect. Direct experimental evidence is given by electron spin resonance spectra that hydrogen effectively reduces the nonradiative defect states existing in the Si nanocrystas/SiO2 system which enhances the radiative recombination probability. The luminescence characteristic shows its stability after hydrogen passivation even after aging eight months.


Identifying patient groups with low participation in diabetes self-management education can inform efforts to improve its use. Data from the 2013–2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to assess variation in participation in a diabetes self-management class in New Jersey. Nonparticipation varied significantly by race/ethnicity (P < .001), education (P < .001), health care coverage (P = .04), county (P < .001), years since diagnosis (P < .001), and whether a diabetes provider visit occurred in the past year (P = .002). Attention is warranted in identifying participation barriers among patients who live in certain counties, have less education, are without health care coverage, have been diagnosed with diabetes more recently, visit a provider less often, or belong to certain racial/ethnic minority groups.


The structural complexity of a manufacturing system results primarily from the complexity of its equipment and their layout. The balance between both complexity sources can be achieved by searching for the best system granularity level, which yields a manufacturing system with the least overall structural complexity. A new system granularity complexity index is developed to sum up and normalize the complexity resulting from the system layout complexity and the equipment structural complexity. A previously developed layout complexity index together with a code-based structural complexity assessment are used to determine the structural complexity of standalone pieces of equipment and to arrive at a balance between the two sources of complexity. Cladistics analysis is used to hierarchically cluster required pieces of equipment and bundle them into more integrated equipment and machines and demonstrate the possible different system granularity levels. The new developed model is a useful tool to create specific system configuration and layout alternatives based on system components adjacency, and then select the system design with the least overall structural complexity among those alternatives. The results of the presented case study clearly demonstrated this trade-off where decomposing manufacturing systems into a highly granular configuration with standalone machines maximizes system layout complexity and minimizes equipment complexity, while at a low level of granularity pieces of equipment are bundled into complex integrated machines, lines or cells but with a very simple system layout. © 2015 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Iran has one of the highest rates of road traffic accidents worldwide and according to a recent UNICEF report, the current rate of road accidents in Iran is 20 times more than the world average. Using extensive interviews with a variety of Iranians from a range of backgrounds, this book explores their dangerous driving habits and the explanations for their disregard for traffic laws. It argues that Iranians' driving behaviour is an indicator of how they have historically related to each other and to their society at large, and how they have maintained a form of social order through law, culture and religion.


Objective: To analyze the correlation between anatomy of spermatic vessels and varicocele, providing reference for the preoperative assessment and treatment of varicocele. Methods: A total of 156 patients who underwent microsurgical left subinguinal varicocelectomy at Shanghai General Hospital between May 2015 and July 2016 were included in this study. The severity of varicocele and number of spermatic vessels detected in operations were recorded. According to the number of internal spermatic arteries (ISAs), the patients were divided into three groups: single-ISA group (55 cases), double-ISAs group (63 cases) and multi-ISAs group (38 cases), to analyze the correlation among spermatic vessels and to compare varicocele grade, the volume of testes, the parameter of semen analysis, serum reproductive hormone, surgery time, and hospital stay among the three groups. Results: The number of ISAs was positively correlated with the ipsilateral internal spermatic veins (ISVs) (r=0.210; P=0.008)and lymphatic vessels (r=0.224; P=0.005); the number of lymphatic vessels was positively correlated with the ipsilateral gubernacular veins (r=0.172; P=0.032)and ISVs (r=0.296; P=0.000) . The number of ISVs in the multi-ISAs group (10.58±4.28) was significantly larger than that in the single-ISA group (8.22±3.10, P=0.003). The number of lymphatic vessels in the multi-ISAs group(4.11±1.90)was also significantly larger than that in the double-ISA group(3.76±1.40, P=0.020) and the single-ISA group(3.13±1.52, P=0.007). The number of ISVs in grade 2 varicocele patients (9.74±3.90) was significantly higher than that in grade 3 varicocele patients (8.33±3.10, P=0.013). No significant differences in varicocele grade, change of pre- and post-operative semen analysis, serum reproductive hormone, the volume of ipsilateral testes, surgery time, and hospital stay were observed among the three groups. Conclusions: There is a correlation among various kinds of spermatic vessels. Patients with grade 2 varicocele, especially who have multiple ISAs, are likely to have more ISVs and lymphatic vessels. For these patients, surgeons should pay more attention to protect spermatic arteries and lymphatics carefully while ligating varicose veins completely to prevent recurrence and complications.


Introduction: The effect of dual GLP-1 and glucagon analogues on insulin secretion remains unclear. Here, we investigated the effect of novel GLP-1 / glucagon receptor (GLP-1R/GCGR) co-agonists on beta cell lines, finding augmented insulin release compared to reference agonist Exendin-4. This effect was related to signalling bias at the GLP-1R. Methods: GLP-1R/GCGR co-agonists were designed, based on the sequence of oxyntomodulin. INS-1 832/3 beta cells and MIN6B1 beta cells were used to perform 24 hour insulin secretion assays. Ligand-directed signal bias was determined from cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and β arrestin-1/2 responses measured by enzyme fragment complementation in CHO-K1 cells expressing GLP-1R or GCGR. Results: Several co-agonists show enhanced maximal insulin release compared to Exendin-4 (representative co-agonist Peptide A vs. Exendin-4 fold insulin release, normalized to 11mM glucose: INS-1 823/3 cells 4.45 ± 0.24 vs. 2.55 ± 0.22, p = 0.0002; MIN6B1 cells 2.28 ± 0.22 vs. 1.57 ± 0.08, p = 0.002). At the GLP-1 receptor, co-agonists were biased towards cAMP generation, compared to the β arrestin-2 pathway (delta log (τ/KA) -0.70 ± 0.11 [Peptide A], vs. 0.29 ± 0.11 [Exendin-4], p= Conclusion: GLP-1R/GCGR co-agonists show enhanced insulin release in vitro compared to exendin-4. As canonical effects of β arrestin recruitment include desensitisation and loss of cell surface receptors via endocytosis, the observed signal bias with these peptides may be linked to their insulinotropic effect. These findings may inform the design of more potent insulinotropic compounds for therapeutic use in type 2 diabetes. Disclosure G. Farooq: None. B. Jones: None. J.S. Minnion: None. S.R. Bloom: None.


The high harmonic spectra of helium atoms which are exposed to external monochromatic linearly polarized laser fields are calculated by solving the time-dependent non-Hermitian Schrodinger equation. The entire electronic correlation effects with and without the presence of the field are included in our calculations. The full high-harmonic generation spectra HGS were calculated and not only the intensities of the integer harmonics frequencies as calculated before by non-Hermitian quantum mechanics. The HGS were calculated when the helium atoms are initially in their ground state, or in the 1s2p excited state or in a superposition of the two field free states. In the first two cases only odd-order harmonics are obtained. However, in the latter, in addition to the odd-order harmonics also pronounced even-order harmonics are obtained. The even order peaks are much broader than the peaks of the odd-order high harmonics. The association of the widths of the peaks in the HGS with the lifetime of the photoinduced resonances which control the dynamics is discussed.


Cholesterol transport proteins regulate a vast array of cellular processes including lipid metabolism, vesicular and nonvesicular trafficking, organelle contact sites, and autophagy. Despite their undoubted importance, the identification of selective modulators of this class of proteins has been challenging due to the structural similarities in the cholesterol-binding site. Herein we report a general strategy for the identification of selective inhibitors of cholesterol transport proteins via the synthesis of a diverse sterol-inspired compound collection. Fusion of a primary sterol fragment to an array of secondary privileged scaffolds led to the identification of potent and selective inhibitors of the cholesterol transport protein Aster-C, which displayed a surprising preference for the unnatural sterol AB-ring stereochemistry, and new inhibitors of Aster-A. We propose that this strategy can, and should be applied to any therapeutically relevant sterol-binding protein.


We have read with great interest the letter to the editor by van Roon et al 1 commenting on our paper 'Towards personalised treatment in primary Sjogren's syndrome: baseline parotid histopathology predicts responsiveness to rituximab treatment'.2 The authors argue that there is a need for standardisation of the histopathological characteristics of salivary gland tissue of patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS), in general, and of the presence of germinal centres (GCs), in particular.

We fully agree with van Roon et al 1 and other authors about the need for consensus guidelines to standardise the histopathological evaluation of salivary gland biopsies in patients with pSS.3 A standardised scoring system may facilitate prognostication and stratification of patients with pSS and is needed for a valid evaluation of various clinical trials.3 In particular, histological definition of GCs in salivary gland tissue is warranted, since these structures can be difficult to detect in diagnostic H&E-stained tissue sections. Detection of GCs in the periductal lymphoid infiltrates of the salivary glands is clinically relevant, because the presence of these structures is associated with more severe disease.4 Importantly, the presence of GCs in minor salivary gland biopsies has been postulated to be a predictor of patients who are at risk of lymphoma development.5 …


Abstract Background Although submucosal dissection is useful for treating laterally spreading colorectal tumors, there is little information regarding the endoscopic treatment of large protruding colorectal neoplasms. Here, we aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of endoscopic submucosal dissection for protruding colorectal neoplasms ≥ 20 mm in diameter. Methods In total, 112 consecutive patients undergoing treatment between January 2005 and June 2017 were enrolled retrospectively. The study period was divided into six periods to evaluate any changes in outcomes over time. We reviewed all short-term clinical outcomes, including lesion characteristics, procedure time, and percentages of en bloc resection, curative resection, adverse events, and treatment discontinuation. Results The percentages of en bloc, en bloc R0, and en bloc curative resections were 88 %, 82 %, and 59 %, respectively. Perforation occurred in 11 patients (10 %), and the endoscopic procedure was discontinued in five patients (4 %) because of technical difficulty. For lesions ≥ 40 mm in diameter, the procedure time showed a statistically significant decreasing trend in the latter half of the study period. However, the rate of cure did not improve along with enhancements to the procedure's technological aspects. Conclusions Although endoscopic submucosal dissection for large protruding lesions has advanced in terms of its technical aspects, its ability to cure large protruding neoplasms has not shown gratifying results.


Abstract Extraction of Am(III) and Eu(III) from NO3-, ClO4-, SCN- and NO3- + ClO4- media with tri-n-octyl phosphine oxide (TOPO) in xylene has been carried out at 15, 25, 30 and 35°C. Under the extraction conditions the species M(NO3)3·3TOPO, M(SCN)3·4TOPO, M(ClO4)3·4TOPO and MNO3(ClO4)2·4TOPO are predominantly extracted at all the temperatures (M=Am or Eu). The two phase equilibrium constant (log Kex) follows an order SCN- > NO3- + ClO4- > ClO4-> NO3-. Extraction enthalpies have been calculated in each system from the temperature dependence of the Kex. The thermodynamic parameters ΔG, ΔH and ΔS have been discussed and compared with other mono- and bidentate organophosphorus extractants for Am(III) and Eu(III) from same aqueous medium. The -ΔH values for the two-phase reaction follow an order NO3- + ClO4- > ClO4- > SCN- > NO3- for both metal ions. This has been explained on the basis of heat energies involved with the formation of ML3 complex (L being the anion used), the transfer of ML3 to the organic phase and the attachment of TOPO molecules, and also on the limiting partial molal volume of the anions.


Background and objectives Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). A premature atherosclerosis can be measured by ultrasound of intima media thickness (IMT) and of flow-mediated dilation (FMD). In patients with RA of recent onset the authors have found IMT and FMD to be similar as in controls. In this prospective 5-year follow up, the authors aimed to investigate for increased progression of atherosclerosis in the patients with early RA compared to the controls. The authors also aimed to analyse the relationship between IMT and FMD and biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction, taking inflammation and traditional CVD risk factors into account. Material and methods Patients from northern Sweden diagnosed with early RA are followed in an ongoing prospective study of co-morbidity. From these patients a subgroup aged ≤60 years (n=71), was consecutively included for measurements of IMT of A. carotis communis and FMD of A. brachialis. The ultrasound measurements were taken at inclusion (T0) and after 5 years (T5). Fourty-two age/sex matched controls were included. The patients were clinically assessed (DAS28, TJC, SJC, DMARDs) and blood was drawn from all individuals for initial analysis of cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, ESR, CRP, MCP-1, PAI-1, tPA-mass, VWF, sICAM, sVCAM, sE-selectin and sL-selectin. Results Patients with RA had a significant aggravation in both IMT (0.052 at T0 and 0.058 at T5, p<0.001) and FMD (0.090 at T0 and 0.070 at T5, p<0.001). Among the controls the increase was less evident and only significant for IMT (0.055 at T0 and 0.060 at T5, p<0.001). In linear regression analyses among patients with RA, the IMT at T5 was significantly associated with several variables measured at T0: systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), cholesterol, triglycerides, tPA, VWF, and MCP-1 and it was inversely associated with sL-selectin. In the corresponding analyses of FMD at T5 it was significantly associated with sL-selectin and inversely associated with diastolic BP and VWF at T0. Among the controls, the IMT at T5 was significantly associated with cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides, body mass index, systolic and diastolic BP, and tPA at T0, while FMD related inversely with VWF at T0. Conclusions In 5 years, the increase in subclinical atherosclerosis tended to be more evident among patients with early RA compared to the controls. The IMT at T5 was more highly predicted by baseline levels of biomarkers of endothelial activation in patients with RA compared to controls.