We use the Bayesian method introduced by Gallant and McCulloch (2009) to estimate consumption-based asset pricing models featuring smooth ambiguity preferences. We rely on semi-nonparametric estimation of a flexible auxiliary model in our structural estimation. Based on the market and aggregate consumption data, our estimation provides statistical support for asset pricing models with smooth ambiguity. Statistical model comparison shows that models with ambiguity, learning, and time-varying volatility are preferred to the long-run risk model. We also analyze asset pricing implications of the estimated models. Received April 12, 2016; editorial decision September 11, 2018 by Editor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online


Bronwen Walter's analysis of Irish women immigrants to England in the last two centuries challenges the prevailing theories about the nature of diasporas and race that heretofore have reigned supreme in studies of the Irish experience in both the United States and Great Britain. While she believes that Irish women in the United States could more easily assimilate into mainstream culture there, she is far less sure that Irish women immigrants to Great Britain faced a similar ease in meeting the norms of the English world they had entered. In posing this doubt, Walter provides an alternate theory of the Irish experience in England than the one usually offered in most historical, anthropological, or sociological surveys of that experience. Walter's argument focuses on the fact that most studies of the Irish in Britain have been based on two assumptions: that the typical Irish experience in that country was male and that concepts of race in Britain have always centered on a blacWwhite binary, a binary that came into British consciousness only after the Second World War when "New Immigrants" from former colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean began immigrating to the former Mother Country in large numbers. Largely because of the prevailing no rm of immigration analysis in British studies, i.e., the emphasis on maleness and skin color, the importance of Irish women to the female labor market in Great Britain in the last two centuries and in the geographical, cultural and occupational mobility of the Irish outside Ireland has been ignored. As a result, what is known about this experience is based on fundamentally flawed assumptions. In contrast, Walter demonstrates that the Irish immigrant experience in Britain was at least as much female-driven as male, and that an Irish "race" distinct from that of the British has had just as much resonance in English society as the post-World War I1 emphasis on skin color has had in more recent years. In other words, Irish women, not men, are of central importance to the Irish experience in England as well as the United States and racial discrimination can as easily inhibit the success of Irish Caucasians as it can nonCaucasians in British society. By using a wide variety of secondary source materials, government reports, local studies, and oral histories, Walter seeks to rectifj what has been an inaccurate view of the Irish in Britain. By demonstrating that the Irish Britain's first colonial subjects were viewed as racially and culturally inferior by their British masters, Walter makes a comparison between the Irish diasporic experience and that of later immigrants from non-European homelands. As former colonials, then, the Irish have far more in common with their counterparts from Jamaica or Pakistan or Nigeria in terms of their lives after migration despite their "whiteness," especially in the case of women. The Irish, Walter concludes, have not invisibly assimilated into British life. Instead, they remain distinct as a culture and as an ethnicity despite two centuries of interisland contact between their homeland and their adopted country. Walter's work is an important and wellwritten analysis of the Irish in Britain. In addition, her work is a comparative study of the Irish in Britain and in the United States, as well as of the Irish and other immigrant groups to the United Kingdom. Hers is one of the few studies to make these comparisons and this fact alone makes her book especially important in immigration and cultural studies.


The effect of salting on houseflies (Musca domestica) and beetles (Necrobia rufipes and Dermestes maculatus) infestation of fish from Lake Victoria, Kenya, was studied. Sun-dried fish (Rastrineobola argentea and Oreochromis niloticus) samples for isolation of beetles, and fresh fish samples and houseflies for the salting experiments were collected from fish landing and processing beaches in the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. Results showed that all the salt concentrations ranges tested (5%-30%) repelled house flies though at different degrees. 5% repelled 68.8%, 10% repelled 72.4% and 30% repelled 82.8%. The mean number of flies which had settled on the control (no salt) chamber was significantly higher (12.20) than the mean number of flies which had settled on the experimental (salted fish tissues) chamber (3.45), p=0.00009, Students t-Test. Results from beetles' infestation experiments showed that at salt concentrations 10-30%, all the Necrobia spp adult beetles were dead compared to Dermestes spp of which some adults were still alive at 25% salt concentration. Percentage weight loss due to beetle's infestation of unsalted (control) dried dagaa or tilapia fish tissues were over 50%. Even 5-10% salt concentration reduced weight loss due to beetles' infestation of the dried fish to between 1.6% and 10%, compared to infestation of the unsalted fish. After 48 days of Dermestes and Necrobia spp beetles infestation, the mean weight of unsalted dagaa and tilapia fish tissues combined was significantly reduced to 2.05g compared to the mean weight of 4.68g of 5% salted dagaa and tilapia fish tissues combined, p=0.0002, Students t-test. These results are important because the repellency effect of salting of fish on houseflies and infestation reduction on beetles can help reduce microbial contamination and post-harvest losses of fish. © 2013 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved


In robot-assisted interventions, providing a surgeon with haptic information regarding contacts made between surgical instruments and tissue can improve task performance and reliability. In this paper, a force-reflective user interface is used with a sensorized surgical instrument to form a master-slave test-bed for studying haptic interaction in a soft-tissue endoscopic surgery environment. After modeling and parametric identification of the master and the slave, bilateral controllers are designed and teleoperation experiments involving a single degree of freedom surgical task on soft tissue (palpation) are conducted. The transparency of the teleoperator in terms of transmitting the critical task-related information to the user in the context of soft-tissue surgical applications is investigated


Investigations have demonstrated conflicting results regarding the influence of the red blood cell (RBC) storage duration on outcomes. We evaluated whether graft failure or mortality after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) increased when recipients were transfused with older RBCs. This study included 637 patients who underwent OLT between January 2001 and June 2011. Baseline and perioperative data were obtained from our blood bank, the Unified Transplant Center database, and the United Network for Organ Sharing database. Recipients whose transfused RBCs were all stored for ≤15 days were grouped in a younger group, and recipients who were transfused with RBCs stored for >15 days were placed in an older group. The relationship between graft survival/mortality and the age of intraoperatively transfused RBCs was studied by Kaplan‐Meier estimation with a log‐rank test and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression. Three hundred thirty‐four patients and 303 patients were grouped in the younger and the older RBC groups, respectively, on the basis of the ages of intraoperatively transfused RBCs. Kaplan‐Meier estimates of graft survival/mortality as a function of the posttransplant time were significantly different: the older group experienced the outcome sooner than the younger group [P = 0.02 (log‐rank test)]. After covariate adjustments, the risk of graft failure/mortality was significantly different at any given time after transplantation between patients receiving intraoperative transfusions of older RBC units and patients receiving intraoperative transfusions of younger RBC units (hazard ratio = 1.65, 95% confidence interval = 1.18‐2.31). In conclusion, patients who received intraoperative transfusions of RBCs with longer storage times had an increased risk of adverse outcomes. Liver Transpl 19:1181–1188, 2013. © 2013 AASLD.


Introduction Early detection and removal of premalignant colorectal polyps with a high potential to progress to invasive cancer is important for incidence reduction. However, there is evidence that cancers in the proximal colon tend to be detected later than other subsites resulting in more advanced stage at diagnosis and lower survival. This study examined which polyp characteristics were independently associated with proximal colon cancer incidence. Methods Data were used from the All Adenomas study, which examined endoscopy and associated pathology data on ~30,000 individuals with at least one adenoma identified. Eligible participants underwent colonoscopy between 1984 and 2010 in one of 17 UK hospitals. Polyp characteristics at baseline colonoscopy, including number, size, histology, grade and location were obtained from the database. Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for incidence of proximal colon adenocarcinoma. Time since baseline colonoscopy was used as the underlying time scale. HRs were mutually adjusted for polyp characteristics in addition to demographic- and colonoscopy-related confounders. Results Of the 27,812 (42.4% female) participants included in the analysis, 227 (0.82%) developed proximal colon cancer during a median follow-up of 9 years. Cumulative incidence over 15 years was 1.4% (95% CI: 1.2% - 1.6%). Proximal colon cancer incidence was higher among participants with ≥1 adenoma in the proximal colon at baseline, either solely or in addition to distal adenomas, compared to patients with only distal adenomas (HR 1.95, 95% CI: 1.46 – 2.62). The risk was also higher among those with ≥3 adenomas compared to those with Conclusions Adenoma location, number and size are informative of subsequent proximal colon cancer. This study provides evidence needed to identify individuals at high risk for proximal colon cancer who would require post-polypectomy colonoscopy surveillance for the early detection and removal of cancer and precancerous lesions in this subsite.


The following text is taken from the publisher's website:
"Romanticism is, and always has been, one of the most hotly contested terms in literary and cultural history. Many of the writers now described as Romantic refused to be defined by the word: 'it would be such bad taste', said Byron in 1820. Lovejoy spoke of a plurality of 'romanticisms', born of distinct thought complexes, whilst Rene Wellek argued that literatures labelled Romantic indicated common conceptions. Comparably, in the post-World War II period, political commentators have seen Romanticism as either profoundly radical or deeply reactionary.

This significant collection gathers key critical discussions that explore the complex and many-sided nature of the 'Romantic'. A new introduction by the editors, a full index and chronological table of contents guide the reader through the wealth of material dedicated to a term that is both extremely unstable and remarkably persistent."


Air is the most essential natural resource for the
survival of humans, animals, and plants on the planet. Air is
polluted due to the burning of fuels, exhaust gases from factories
and industries, and mining operations. Now, air pollution
becomes the most dangerous pollution that humanity ever faced.
This causes many health effects on humans like respiratory, lung,
and skin diseases, which also causes effects on plants, and
animals to survive. Hence, air quality prediction and evaluation as
becoming an important research area. In this paper, a machine
learning-based prediction model is constructed for air quality
forecasting. This model will help us to find the major pollutant
present in the location along with the causes and sources of that
particular pollutant. Air Quality Index value for India is used to
predict air quality. The data is collected from various places
throughout India so that the collected data is preprocessed to
recover from null values, missing values, and duplicate values.
The dataset is trained and tested with various machine learning
algorithms like Logistic Regression, Naïve Bayes Classification,
Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, K Nearest Neighbor,
and Decision Tree algorithm in order to find the performance
measurement of the above-mentioned algorithms. From this, the
prediction model is constructed using the Decision Tree algorithm
to predict the air quality, because it provides the best and highest
accuracy of 100%. The machine learning-based air quality
prediction model helps India meteorological department in
predicting the future of air quality, and its status and depends on
that they can take action.


We study the conservation of observability after sampling in the class of switched linear systems with no inputs and switching in the measurement equation only. Using van der Waerden's Theorem, a classic result from Ramsey Theory, we give a sufficient condition on the components of the resulting discretized switched linear system for it to be observable under arbitrary switching sequences. This preliminary result then enables us to extend the Kalman-Bertram criterion for nonpathological sampling to the class of switched linear systems under consideration.


ABSTRACT Objective Studies indicate an inverse association between sleep duration and psychological distress. We aimed to explore associations between changes in sleep duration and changes in psychological distress in girls and boys. Methods The Fit Futures Study is a broad adolescent study providing data from 373 girls and 294 boys aged 15–18 years collected in 2010/2011 (FF1) and 2012/2013 (FF2). Psychological distress was measured by the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-10) and sleep duration was self-reported. Change score variables were calculated as the change between baseline and follow-up for sleep duration and HSCL-10, respectively. Associations between changes in sleep duration and changes in HSCL-10 were explored by linear regressions, in gender-stratified analyses. Results At FF1, girls and boys slept on average 6.93 (SD = 1.08) and 7.05 (SD = 1.20) hours per night respectively, and correspondingly, 6.83 (SD = 1.19) and 6.85 (SD = 1.21) at FF2. At FF1, 22.8% of the girls and 25.8% of the boys slept ≤ 6 h per night, and correspondingly 28.0% and 28.2% at FF2. In girls and boys, one unit increase (30 min) in sleep duration was associated with a decrease in HSCL-10 score of B [95% CI] = −0.090 [−0.131, −0.048], p < 0.001, and −0.054 [−0.091, −0.017], p < 0.001, respectively. The associations remained significant after adjusting for confounders. Conclusion Our findings show that increased sleep duration was associated with decreased psychological distress during adolescence. Future studies should examine the causality between sleep duration and psychological distress.


Universities are encountering growing demands by legislators and communities who are clamoring for valuable information about student achievement and university system accountability. Not only are universities required to measure annual progress for every single student, but government (through ministries for education) aid is directly linked to these results. The department of Informatics of Aristotle university of Thessaloniki has developed a data warehouse solution that assists the analysis of educational data. In this paper we present the design and development of the proposed data warehouse solution, which facilitates better and more thorough analysis of departmentpsilas data. The proposed system constitutes an integrated platform for a thorough analysis of departmentpsilas past data. Analysis of data could be achieved with OLAP operations. Moreover, we propose a thorough statistical analysis with an array of data mining techniques, that are appropriate for the examined tasks.


The sole New Zealand species attributed to Cassinia, C. leptophylla, is shown to have its clos- est relatives within Ozothamnus rather than Cassinia. Cassinia leptophylla is therefore transferred to Ozothamnus.


The purpose of this study is to analyze the type of blogs written by EU commissioner Margot Wallstrom and Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt. We have also analyzed how Wallstrom and Bildt use their blogs to market themselves as politicians and as private individuals, and how they use their blogs to air political messages. We lay the foundations for our work by using Rebecca Blood's introduction of blogs, through theories on political communication, and through agenda-setting theory and parasocial interaction. We used a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative content analysis in the form of a systematic text analysis to answer our questions. We also interviewed Kent Asp, professor at the Institution of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Gothenburg. The result of the study shows that there are significant differences in the blogs written by Commissioner Wallstrom and Foreign Minister Bildt. The latter writes more frequently (almost ten times as often as Mrs Wallstrom) and usually publishes short and concise messages. Mr Bildt's blog mostly describes his working day, his own political issues and he presents himself as a great political leader with an important and challenging job. Mrs Wallstrom writes in a more informative manner about her tasks and she links her work to many types of information about her and the Commission's work. Her texts are different from Mr Bildt's in that they are quite personal – Mrs Wallstrom often writes about her family and personal life, for example. By way of a summary then, our study shows that Commissioner Wallstrom's blog is one containing information about the commission, while Mr Bildt's blog describes a Swedish foreign minister's hectic schedule and heavy workload. Mrs Wallstrom presents herself as the reader's friend, whereas Mr Bildt prefers to portray himself as a great political leader.


this issue of and demonstrate that inhibiting MLL binding to menin synergizes with FLT3 inhibition in preclinical models of NPM1c and KMT2A ( MLL )-rearranged AML, thus identifying a novel, rational combination for clinical development.


Our purpose was to determine pediatric endocrinologists' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices (KABPs) regarding recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) treatment, examine care-related attitude consensus or discordance, and identify evidence-based practice gaps. We developed a survey for National Cooperative Growth Study (NCGS) investigators () to elicit their KABPs regarding GH stimulation testing as a diagnostic tool, IGF-1 monitoring for safety and dosing guidance, and pubertal dosing. Responses were compared with NCGS data from the last 20 years. Comparison between survey responses and NCGS data revealed potential discrepancies between expressed opinions and actual practice. In conclusion, this KABP survey, combined with NCGS data, suggests changes over time in diagnostic and rhGH-related therapeutic practices. Variability and inconsistency exist between the survey responses and practice trends over time as reflected in the NCGS database. Further study is necessary to provide evidence to guide rhGH treatment decisions.


The EPICS Process Variable Gateway has become a stable, high-performance application that provides access to process variables while minimizing the impact on critical Input-Output Controllers (IOCs) and implementing additional access security. The additional access security typically prevents write access but is highly configurable. The control network of the BEPCII is divided into two separate different subnets in the control network. In order to access IOC PVs between the separate subnets as well as IOC PVs from the campus network, EPICS CA gateway has been employed in the BEPCII network. This paper introduces the Gateways application in the BEPCII control network and describes the procedures of the Gateway setup as well as the test result.


Six wear‐resistant alloys based on nickel, containing 30 wt.% Cr and from 2.5 to 5.0 wt.% C, were elaborated by foundry and subjected to oxidation by air at 1000, 1100, and 1200 °C, for evaluating the oxidation behavior of hard bulk alloys. Their microstructures are rich in chromium carbides, eutectic, or pro‐eutectic, and they also contain graphite for the highest carbon contents of interest. All the studied alloys obviously display a chromia‐forming behavior, despite the initial low chromium content in the matrix. During oxidation, carbides disappear over an increasing distance from the oxidation front, with the consequence of the enrichment of the neighbor matrix in chromium. The minimal chromium content on the surface after oxidation decreases when the alloy is richer in carbon and increases with the oxidation temperature. The carbide‐free zone tends to be deeper when the oxidation temperature increases, and also when the alloy's carbon content increases, in contrast with low‐C Ni‐30Cr alloys previously studied. The disappearance of carbides means a carbon loss as gaseous oxidized species. This probably disturbs the oxide scales growing on the external surface and may influence the oxidation behavior of the alloys. When present, graphite does not deteriorate dramatically the oxidation resistance of the alloys. The hardness of the alloys are lowered by the exposures to high temperature and by the presence of graphite.


Multi-user applications where two or more users are interacting with the same system through a shared interface e.g., large presentation touchscreens in meeting rooms to do situation analysis in a civil security context are becoming more and more frequent. Whilst traditional single user authorization scenarios seem to be a solved problem and there are some existing solutions for collaborative multi-user applications with a separate devices per user, methods for multi-user authorization, where a single device is in simultaneous usage, come with a set of new questions. It must be considered that several users work simultaneously on the same physical device so there is no way to create a separate view for every user that fits their access rights. Especially in the context of civil security it is very likely that there are several users with different security levels and the data displayed is potential highly sensitive. Therefore new strategies are needed to decide which content is shown when certain users with potentially completely different access rights work together. We will define those strategies by doing considerations how to realize authorization for a simultaneous collaborative multi-user workspace. This is done by extending the well-known Bell-LaPadula model for multi-user authorization by using different strategies regarding data confidentiality. The feasibility of our formal models is shown with an implementation in XACML, which is described in detail. With this it is already possible to integrate our model in real world applications, which we show with the Fraunhofer Digital Map Table.


Glass microelectrodes filled with a saturated solution of methyl blue or fast green in 1.0M potassium acetate can be used to mark penetrated ne. urons from which intracellular recordings have been made. Many cells can be marked in one experiment and can easily be located in subsequent histologic section.


ABSTRACT DNA repair is required for the genomic stability and well-being of an organism. In yeasts, a multisubunit complex consisting of SMC5, SMC6, MMS21/NSE2, and other non-SMC proteins is required for DNA repair through homologous recombination. The yeast MMS21 protein is a SUMO ligase. Here we show that the human homolog of MMS21 is also a SUMO ligase. hMMS21 stimulates sumoylation of hSMC6 and the DNA repair protein TRAX. Depletion of hMMS21 by RNA interference (RNAi) sensitizes HeLa cells toward DNA damage-induced apoptosis. Ectopic expression of wild-type hMMS21, but not its ligase-inactive mutant, rescues this hypersensitivity of hMMS21-RNAi cells. ATM/ATR are hyperactivated in hMMS21-RNAi cells upon DNA damage. Consistently, hMMS21-RNAi cells show an increased number of phospho-CHK2 foci. Finally, we show that hMMS21-RNAi cells show a decreased capacity to repair DNA lesions as measured by the comet assay. Our findings suggest that the human SMC5/6 complex and the SUMO ligase activity of hMMS21 are required for the prevention of DNA damage-induced apoptosis by facilitating DNA repair in human cells.


In this study, we investigated the quality characteristics of Sikhye, a traditional Korean drink, made with various amounts (0.5, 1, 2, and 3%) of powder from the roots of Doraji (RPD), for different storage periods (1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, or 15 days). The pH and Hunter's L value of Sikhye decreased with higher amounts of added RPD, while saccharinity as well as "a" and b values increased. During storage, pH and Hunter's L value of Sikhye tended to decrease while "a" and b values increased. The saccharinity of Sikhye with 0.5% and 1% RPD reached its maximum values on the tenth storage day and continuously decreased during the storage period. In contrast, the saccharinity of Sikhye with 2% and 3% RPD increased during the storage period, and had its maximum saccharinity on the fifteenth storage day. During the storage of Sikhye the total microbial cell count, typically 3.19~0.35×10 CFU/mL on the third storage day, was undetected in Sikhye with 3% RPD. The total microbial cell count of Sikhye without RPD increased to 1.91×10 CFU/mL by the fifteenth storage day, while Sikhye with 0.5, 1, 2, and 3% RPD added contained 8.43×10, 9.77×10, 2.10×10, and 7.21×10 CFU/mL, respectively. Thus, the total cell count was lower with higher additions of RPD. In sensory tests, the Sikhye control, or with 0.5% and 1% RPD added, didn't show significant differences in the texture of rice granules, plumpness of rice granules, floating of rice granules, taste, flavor, and sweetness values. The overall preference was highest (5.38) for Sikhye with 0.5% RPD, followed by the control, 1% RPD, 2% RPD and 3% RPD. In conclusion, according to preference tests, we recommended the addition of 0.5% or 1% RPD in Sikhye.


Staphylococcus aureus is considered the second most common pathogen to cause outbreaks of food poisoning, exceeded only by Campylobacter. Consumption of foods containing this microorganism is often identified as the cause of illness. In this study, a rapid, reliable, and sensitive real-time quantitative PCR was developed and compared with conventional culture methods. Real-time quantitative PCR was carried out by purifying DNA extracts of S. aureus with a Staphylococcus sample preparation kit and quantifying it in the LightCycler system with hybridization probes. The assay was linear from a range of 10 to 10(6) S. aureus cells (r2 > 0.997). The PCR reaction presented an efficiency of >85%. Accuracy of the PCR-based assay, expressed as percent bias, was around 13%, and the precision, expressed as a percentage of the coefficient of variation, was 7 to 10%. Intraday and interday variability were studied at 10(2) CFU/g and was 12 and 14%, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of 77 samples of restaurant meals in Valencia (Spain). In 11.6% of samples S. aureus was detected by real-time quantitative PCR, as well as by the conventional microbiological method. An excellent correspondence between real-time quantitative PCR and microbiological numbers (CFU/g) was observed with deviations of < 28%.


The success of percutaneous intervention for chronic total occlusion depends mainly on crossing the lesion with a wire. This report deals with the principles and the technical tips of intravascular ultrasound-guided wiring for chronic total occlusion, which can be divided into two trategies.The first is "identification of the site of entry." When the abrupt type chronic total occlusion with a side branch is treated, it is possible to identify the occlusion and the entry point by pulling back the intravascular ultrasound catheter from the distal part of the side branch.The second is "returning to the true lumen after entering a false lumen." If hematoma is caused by manipulating a wire in the false lumen that impairs visualization of the distal true lumen, an intravascular ultrasound catheter can be advanced into the false lumen.An attempt to make a successful re-entry into the true lumen can be achieved under intravascular ultrasound guidance.


Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a clinical entity different from other epidermoid carcinomas of the head and neck. It is distinguished by its particular histology, its geographic distribution, its special serologic and biologic relationship to Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV); its natural history NPC occurs more frequently in young men (25-40 years). NPC is one of the most aggressive tumors of the head and neck with a very high rate of cervical nodes and systemic dissemination. It is a very sensitive tumour and chemo-radiotherapy provides an excellent local efficiency (80%); the 5 years survival rates is about 50%.


Abstract Purpose To evaluate the effect of AMD3100 treatment to cholangiocarcinoma by analyzing the relationship between them, and provide experimental evidence for whether AMD3100 can become a clinical treatment drug for cholangiocarcinoma. Materials and methods Cholangiocarcinoma RBE cell lines were used in this study. MTT cell proliferation test was used for evaluating the effect of gemcitabine and AMD3100 to cell. CXCR4, N-cadherin, VEGF-C and MMP-9 were detect by RT-PCR and western. Transwell was used for evaluating the invasion effect. Results We demonstrated that as the concentration of gemcitabine increasing from 0.33, 3.33 to 33.33 uM, the cell survival rate was 76.65%, 71.40%, 52.25%, respectively. RT-PCR and Western blot that gemcitabine could affect the expression of CXCR4 protein and the level of mRNA transcription in a dose-dependent manner. N-cadherin VEGF-C, MMP-9 mRNA transcription level showed a significant upward trend in gemcitabine group. In Transwell test, the number of cells in the gemcitabine group was significantly higher than that in the no-medication group (p < .05), the AMD3100 group and the combination group of gemcitabine and AMD3100, the difference between the no-medication group and the AMD3100 monotherapy group was not significant, and the combination group was between them. Conclusions This study showed that gemcitabine significantly inhibited the growth of cholangiocarcinoma RBE cells in a dose-dependent manner, and gemcitabine can affect the expression of CXCR4, N-cadherin, VEGF-C, MMP-9 protein and mRNA. Cell invasion and metastasis-related factors decreased after AMD3100 combined with gemcitabine.


This paper reports an experiment into the design of crossmodal icons which can provide an alternative form of output for mobile devices using audio and tactile modalities to communicate information. A complete set of crossmodal icons was created by encoding three dimensions of information in three crossmodal auditory/tactile parameters. Earcons were used for the audio and Tactons for the tactile crossmodal icons. The experiment investigated absolute identification of audio and tactile crossmodal icons when a user is trained in one modality and tested in the other (and given no training in the other modality) to see if knowledge could be transferred between modalities. We also compared performance when users were static and mobile to see any effects that mobility might have on recognition of the cues. The results showed that if participants were trained in sound with Earcons and then tested with the same messages presented via Tactons they could recognize 85% of messages when stationary and 76% when mobile. When trained with Tactons and tested with Earcons participants could accurately recognize 76.5% of messages when stationary and 71% of messages when mobile. These results suggest that participants can recognize and understand a message in a different modality very effectively. These results will aid designers of mobile displays in creating effective crossmodal cues which require minimal training for users and can provide alternative presentation modalities through which information may be presented if the context requires.


OBJECTIVES
Data from the Western Collaborative Group Study were used to determine the extent to which the inverse association between socioeconomic status (SES) and mortality can be explained by risk factors for major causes of mortality.

METHODS
The relation of education and income to subsequent mortality was studied in 3154 employed, middle-aged men over 22 years of follow-up.

RESULTS
Over the follow-up period, 584 (18.5%) men died, 214 (6.8%) from coronary heart disease and 70 (2.2%) from lung cancer. A significant inverse association with systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, and smoking was found only for education. For education, adjustment for risk factors reduced the relative risk for coronary heart disease mortality from 1.80 (95% confidence interval = 1.33, 2.44) to 1.54 (1.13, 2.09), for lung cancer mortality from 1.60 (0.95, 2.70) to 1.38 (0.81, 2.34), and for all-cause mortality from 1.49 (1.09, 1.13) to 1.33 (1.12, 1.60). For income, adjustment for risk factors did not change relative risk for mortality from coronary heart disease (1.27 [0.97, 1.66]) and all causes (1.21 [1.03, 1.43]), but it did increase the relative risk for lung cancer mortality from 1.68 (1.05, 2.68) to 1.83 (1.13, 2.96).

CONCLUSIONS
In middle-aged, employed men, the association between SES and mortality is partially but not completely accounted for by major risk factors for mortality.


THE American breakthrough in studies of Communist China during the last decade, despite all the difficulties of study from a distance, has given us a new capacity to ap praise Peking's shifts of current policy. At the same time, our very success in understanding short-term developments tends to foreshorten our perspective, as though Chairman Mao's new China were actually as new as he so fervently exhorts it to be. If we ask the long-term question?What is China's tradition in foreign policy??our query may provoke two counter-questions: Did the Chinese empire ever have a conscious foreign policy? Even if it did, hasn't Mao's revolution wiped out any surviving tradition? To answer these questions is easy in theory, difficult in prac tice. Theoretically, since China has had two millennia of foreign relations (the longest record of any organized state), her be havior must have shown uniformities?attitudes, customs and, in effect, policies. In fact, however, the Chinese empire had no foreign office, and the dynastic record of "foreign policy" is fragmented under topics like border control, frontier trade, punitive expeditions, tribute embassies, imperial benevolence to foreign rulers and the like, so that it has seldom been pulled to gether and studied as an intelligible whole. Again, one may theorize that Maoism is only the latest effort to meet China's problems of national order and people's liveli hood on Chinese soil: the scene, the wherewithal, even the issues are largely inherited, and the violent shrillness of Mao's attack on Chinese tradition indicates to us how difficult he has found it to break free of that tradition. But for this very reason we cannot in practice look to Maoism for a realistic definition of China's foreign policy interests and aims over the centuries. Most of the record is simply condemned and brushed aside, except as parts of it may fit into current polemics. If Peking's foreign relations have left a still potent tradition, we have to discover it ourselves.


Metabolic homeostasis is aligned with changes in growth and body composition, through processes mediated by circulating metabolites and metabolic hormones, and is eventually linked to reproductive success. In the present study with sheep, we determined the relationships among phenotypic and genotypic rates of growth, muscle and fat accumulation, and the circulating concentrations of metabolic, and tested for relationships with the timing of puberty and subsequent reproductive outcomes. We used 64 females and 62 males with known phenotypic values for depth of eye muscle (EMD) and fat (FAT) and known Australian Sheep Breeding Values at post-weaning age for live weight (PWT), depth of eye muscle (PEMD) and depth of fat (PFAT). Blood plasma sampled every 20 min for 8 h via was assayed for growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), insulin, leptin, ghrelin, follistatin, glucose and non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA). In males, PWT was positively related to the concentrations of GH, follistatin, and glucose, whereas FAT and PFAT were positively related to IGF-I concentrations (P<0.01). Testosterone concentration was negatively related to muscle variables (P<0.001) and to PFAT (P<0.05). In females, the only significant relationship detected was the positive link between EMD and insulin concentrations (P<0.05). Reproductive variables were only measured in females. Live weight at first oestrus was related positively to insulin concentration and negatively to GH concentration (P<0.05). No other relationships with reproductive variables were significant. The relationships that were detected suggest subtle differences between the sexes in the way their metabolic homeostasis responds to changes in the rates of growth, and muscle and fat accumulation, perhaps due to interference by testosterone in the males.


An example of inverse estimation of irregular multivariable signals is provided by picture restoration. Pictures typically have sharp edges and therefore will be modeled by functions with discontinuities, and they could be
blurred by motion. Mathematically, this means that we actually observe
the convolution of the irregular function representing the picture with a
spread function. Since these observations will contain measurement errors,
statistical aspects will be pertinent. Traditional recovery is corrupted by
the Gibbs phenomenon (i.e., overshooting) near the edges, just as in the
case of direct approximations. In order to eliminate these undesirable
effects, we introduce an integral Cesaro mean in the inversion procedure,
leading to multivariable Fejer kernels. Integral metrics are not sufficiently
sensitive to properly assess the quality of the resulting estimators. Therefore, the performance of the estimators is studied in the Hausdorff metric,
and a speed of convergence of the Hausdorff distance between the graph of
the input signal and its estimator is obtained.


The advent of the Metaverse concept has further expedited the evolution of haptic, tactile internet, and multimedia applications with their VR/AR/XR services, and therefore, fully-immersive sensing is most likely to define the next generation of wireless networks as a key to realize the speculative vision of the Metaverse. In this magazine, we articulate different types of media that we envision will be communicated between the cyber and physical twins in the Metaverse. In particular, we explore the advantages grasped by exploiting each kind, and we point out critical challenges pertinent to 3D data processing, coding, transporting, and rendering. We further shed light on the role of future wireless networks in delivering the anticipated quality of immersion through the reliable streaming of multimedia signals between the digital twin and its physical counterpart. Specifically, we explore emergent communication paradigms, including semantic, holographic, and goal-oriented communication, which we expect to realize energy and spectrally efficient Metaverse while ensuring ultra-low latency.


Aim: To measure the light transmission through different esthetic posts and to evaluate the degree of polymerization of dual cure resin cement cured through these posts. Materials and Methods: The posts were divided into two experimental groups i.e. Group A (D.T. Light post); Group B (D.T. White post) and control i.e. Group C (metal post), each group having 10 samples. Posts of each group were illuminated with curing light and photographs were taken keeping the parameters standardized to evaluate the intensity of light transmission at different levels. The degree of polymerization of dual cure resin cement was evaluated using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. The data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis. Results: D.T. Light post showed highest light transmission and degree of polymerization. The light intensity decreased from cervical to apical for both esthetic post but the decrease from middle to apical third was insignificant for D.T. White post group. No light transmission was detected in metal post but the degree of polymerization decreased significantly from cervical to middle third. Conclusion: Cementation of fibre post with superior light transmitting ability using dual cured resin cement resulted in increased degree of polymerization.


CMUT technology was invented and has been widely researched on silicon substrates. In recent years, fabrication of CMUT on glass substrates has raised significant interests because a number of advantages it can offer. First, parasitic capacitance could be easily reduced since glass is an insulating material. Second, insulation steps required in the silicon-based CMUT fabrication process could be avoided, leading to a reduced fabrication complexity. Third, anodic bonding can be used when the substrate is borosilicate glass, which is a low-temperature bonding technique and has a high tolerance to bonding surface area and roughness in addition to the advantages of silicon wafer bonding. Moreover, glass transparency can enable novel applications beyond pulse-echo ultrasound medical imaging and enlarge the potential markets of CMUTs.


A method is presented for the calculation of the energy eigenvalues and eigenstates of the electron associated with a shallow donor impurity in a GaAs/GaAlAs multi-quantum well structure in the presence of a magnetic field parallel to the layers. Compared to the case of an impurity in a magnetic field directed perpendicular to the layers, the problem is complicated by the lack of cylindrical symmetry. This lack of symmetry is reflected in the form chosen here for the basis states that describe the donor electron. By formulating the Hamiltonian and operating on these states, the energies and orthonormal ground and excited state wavefunctions of the donor electron are determined by matrix diagonalization procedures. Calculations of the transition probability between the ground and excited states yield the theoretically most probable transition energy for a given magnetic field. These calculated values are compared to available experimental data and deviations between the theory and experiments at large fields are discussed.


Exoplanet-host stars (EHS) are known to present surface chemical abundances different from those of stars without any detected planet (NEHS). EHS are, on the average, overmetallic compared to the Sun. The observations also show that, for cool stars, lithium is more depleted in EHS than in NEHS. The overmetallicity of EHS may be studied in the framework of two different scenarii. We have computed main sequence stellar models with various masses, metallicities and accretion rates. The results show different profiles for the lithium destruction according to the scenario. We compare these results to the spectroscopic observations of lithium.


Manufacturing systems continue to adapt in order to survive the changing and challenging markets and global competition. Product and manufacturing design and capabilities are configured to allow the needed adaptation through innovative design, improved system paradigms, intelligent design and optimisation models, and product grouping to increase efficiency. In this research, it is hypothesised that the evolution and co-evolution of products and the machines used to manufacture them is akin to that observed in the adaptation of biological species. The symbiosis between products and manufacturing capabilities is studied using real examples, and a new model that establishes the symbiotic relationship between their evolution paths and observed co-evolution trends based on available historical information is proposed. Dual cladograms are used to track their evolution and detect useful potential development and plausible future evolution trends. When a state of co-evolution equilibrium is reached, a stimulus for more abrupt changes would be needed to cause further evolution on both sides. The co-evolution model has been applied to an example based on analysing the history of machine tools development and data from a major machine tools manufacturer. The evolution and co-evolution hypotheses of machined parts and machine tools were charted up to the currently observed state of equilibrium in this application field. This innovative model of co-evolution in manufacturing can help improve the utility of manufacturing resources and prolong the life of manufacturing systems beyond a single product generation and its variants.


This study was aimed to evaluate occurrence of antibiotic resistance and the presence of resistance determinants among clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii. This cross-sectional study from January to September 2018 was performed on 59 A. baumannii strains isolated from clinical samples in the north of Iran. Isolates were identified by standard microbiologic tests and molecular method. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out by disk diffusion and broth microdilution methods. The presence of carbapenem resistance genes was detected by PCR method. All isolates were resistant to cefepime, meropenem, imipenem and ceftazidime. The lowest resistance rate was observed against doxycycline with 33.9%. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) results showed that all carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB) isolates were susceptible to colistin with MIC50 and MIC90 values of 1/2 µg/mL. Among 59 CRAB, blaOXA-23-like was the most prevalent gene (86.4%) followed by blaOXA-24-like (69.5%). Meanwhile, none of the clinical isolates harbored blaOXA-58-like gene. We found a high prevalence of CRAB strains harboring OXA-type carbapenemases in the north of Iran. Our results suggests that the presence of OXA-type genes was not directly correlated with the increase of imipenem MIC level, but can be clinically important as they contribute to the selection of CRAB strains.


The authors give a phenomenological formula for interedge channel scattering (IES) in the multichannel case. The equilibrium length over which the population of different channels is equilibrated is extracted from the experiments. The four-terminal resistances for the transport through edge and bulk currents are calculated in real conductors by taking into account scattering which equilibrates different transport channels. Negative resistances are found in the simulation. This makes it clear that the coexistence of bulk and edge states, together with interedge scattering, is the origin of the negative resistances observed in a variety of samples.


Recent evidence suggests that employers acquire more precise information about a worker's productivity the more time he or she spends in the labor market. The following question arises: Is learning symmetric, that is, do all employers have the same information about workers' productivity, or is learning asymmetric, that is, does the current employer have superior information about workers' productivity? This article develops a learning model with endogenous mobility that nests both learning hypotheses. It then proposes new tests for asymmetric employer learning. Overall, learning appears to be mostly symmetric, except possibly when the employees involved are college graduates.


NASA's Pacific Exploratory Mission-Tropics (PEM-T) experiment investigated the atmospheric chemistry of a large portion of the tropical and subtropical Pacific Basin during August to October 1996. This paper summarizes meteorological conditions over the PEM-T domain. Mean flow patterns during PEM-T are described. Important circulation systems near the surface include subtropical anticyclones, the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ), the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and middle latitude transient cyclones. The SPCZ and ITCZ are areas of widespread ascent and deep convection; however, there is relatively little lightning in these oceanic regions. A large area of subsidence is associated with the subtropical anticyclone centered near Easter Island. PEM-T occurred during a period of near normal sea surface temperatures. When compared to an 11 year climatology (1986–1996), relatively minor circulation anomalies are observed during PEM-T. Some of these circulation anomalies are consistent with much stronger anomalies observed during previous La Nina events. In general, however, the 1996 PEM-T period appears to be climatologically representative. Meteorological conditions for specific flights from each major operations area are summarized. The vertical distribution of ozone along selected DC-8 flights is described using the DIAL remote sensing system. These ozone distributions are related to thermodynamic soundings obtained during aircraft maneuvers and to backward trajectories that arrived at locations along the flight tracks. Most locations in the deep tropics are found to have relatively small values of tropospheric ozone. Backward trajectories calculated from global gridded analyses show that much of this air originates from the east and has not passed over land within 10 days. The deep convection associated with the ITCZ and SPCZ also influences the atmospheric chemistry of these regions. Flights over portions of the subtropics and middle latitudes document layers of greatly enhanced tropospheric ozone, sometimes exceeding 80 ppbv. In situ carbon monoxide in these layers often exceeds 90 ppbv. These regions are located near, and especially south of Tahiti, Easter Island, and Fiji. The layers of enhanced ozone usually correspond to layers of dry air, associated with widespread subsiding air. The backward trajectories show that air parcels arriving in these regions originate from the west, passing over Australia and even extending back to southern Africa. These are regions of biomass burning. The in situ chemical measurements support the trajectory-derived origins of these ozone plumes. Thus the enhanced tropospheric ozone over the central Pacific Basin may be due to biomass burning many thousands of kilometers away. Middle-latitude portions of the PEM-T area are influenced by transient cyclones, and the DC-8 traversed tropopause folds during several flights. The flight area just west of Ecuador experiences outflow from South America. Thus the biomass burning that is prevalent over portions of Brazil influences this area.


NBER Research Associate frederic mishkin and co-author Klaus schmidt-hebbel review the pros and cons of inflation targeting in Does inflation targeting make a Difference? (This work — published in NBER Working Paper No. 12876 — was completed before Mishkin became a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.) Developing — or emerging — nations with high inflation benefit the most from the practice, the study finds. For mature, developed nations like the United States, the benefits are far more subtle. Many nations are warming to the idea of inflation targeting. By 2005, for example, eight industrial economies and 13 emerging ones had adopted full-fledged inflation targeting. Many others expect to make the move soon. But the case for inflation targeting has not been open and shut. While studies have generally established a link between the practice and improved economic performance, they haven't proven that the former causes the latter. Indeed, stable and mature non-targeting nations, including the United States, have often done just as well or better without it. "[T]he ongoing debate on whether inflation targeting matters indicates that open questions remain, particularly on the comparative macroeconomic performance in inflation targeting countries, both over time and relative to nontargeting countries," write the authors of this study. "[W]hat really matters for successful monetary policy is establishing a strong nominal anchor. While inflation targeting is one way to achieve this, it is not the only way." By looking carefully at a broad sample of 21 industrial and emerging-econ-


IntroductionManagement educators in most forms of organizations, from multinational corporations to small business companies, have increasingly engaged in the use of online delivery of instruction (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009). A similar situation occurs in higher education where approximately 96% of colleges and universities offer online courses (Chapman & Henderson, 2010). Online courses are a form of distance education as students are physically dispersed from each other and the instructor (Smith & Mitry, 2004). Online learning relies on network technology to transfer information and instructions to participants (Welsh, Wanberg, Brown & Simmering, 2003). Although substantial research has followed the growing academic interest in online education (Arbaugh, Godfrey, Johnson, Leisen Pollack, Niendorf, & Wrensch, 2009), opportunities exist for original studies measuring its effectiveness and means of improvement not only in business college settings, but also in corporate management education contexts as well. The rush to offer competitive online teaching delivery methods raises questions for all educators concerning the quality and effectiveness of this approach. Are, for instance, students or trainees actually learning the material online as well as in classroom settings?A recent meta-analysis, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education, compiled empirical studies of online learning (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, and Jones, 2010). Approximately ninety of these studies, published between 1996 and 2008, used an experimental or quasi-experimental design, compared some outcome of online or blended learning to face-toface instruction, and focused on students in higher education. Of note, most if not all of these studies were from various academic areas outside the business college setting. Results indicated that students who participated in online conditions performed at least equally (or even slightly better) than those in purely classroom settings (d = 0.05; k = 27; p > .05). These results suggest that online delivery can be an effective teaching option. Therefore, further research is needed to advance our knowledge of the conditions (moderators) accounting for online delivery effectiveness. This line of investigation is especially relevant in light of the different outcomes that have been reported when classroom and online learning are contrasted. For example, the effect sizes (d) of the studies included in Bernard, Abrami, and Wade (2004) meta-analysis ranged from - 1.31 to + 1.41. Such substantial dispersion suggests the presence of significant factors that might be moderating learning outcomes in online education. Given these results in the broad context of higher education, our study took place in the narrower context of business college education and more specifically the teaching of management.Although our study involved business college students, we devoted a significant part of our research effort to the application of our results to corporate management education. We perceive online learning in business college settings to be very similar to corporate training, especially after contemporary business schools' efforts toward making education more applicable and skill driven (see Datar, Garvin, & Culler, 2010). Indeed, significant parallels can be established between management education and corporate training. For example, empirical criteria in both settings clearly overlap. There is some consensus in management-education research to consider learners' affects, cognitions, and skills as central criteria (e.g., Rubin & Martell, 2009). Similar factors can be observed in Kirkpatrick (1974) classification of training criteria wherein trainees' reactions (affects), learning (cognitive retention) and behaviors (skill development) primarily indicate the effectiveness of the intervention. Parallels between management education and corporate training can also be observed in their pedagogies. …


The high-profile publicity generated by the Greenpeace campaign against deep-sea disposal of the Brent Spar demonstrated the power of public opinion to affect corporate image and operational decisions. Regulatory approval is not the only constraint on the granting a license to operate, and corporations now ignore stakeholder values at their peril. Although quantifying soft issues, such as negative publicity and stakeholder concerns, is difficult, there is an increasing need to integrate conventional economics with public opinion when evaluating different possible development options. This paper seeks to set out a process for incorporating negative publicity directly into project economics. We started with an outline study of the effects of two high-profile incidents of negative publicity: Hoover's Free Flights to America promotion and the ill-fated launch of Unilever's manganese accelerator soap powder. The results showed two distinct outcomes: the effect on corporate image and the direct effect on a project, such as the launch of a new product. The next step was to identify a number of possible outcomes to an escalating scenario of negative publicity within the oil and gas sector. The economic consequences of each possible outcome are expressed as risk-assessed values (RAV'S) that are the product of the probability and the cost of each outcome. To show this, we took a hypothetical case of handling of sour gas in a new field development and looked at the possible outcomes from four options for handling the gas: flaring, gas reinjection, power generation and seawater absorption. The method developed in this paper outlines a process for quantifying stakeholder values and potential negative publicity in the planning stages of potentially sensitive projects. The process provides a logical and transparent framework that encourages the exploration of these softer issues. It is designed to provide indicative, rather than definitive, values to show whether the inclusion of risk-assessed costs would alter the decision on the basis of conventional economics. The process also provides a guide for developing a consistent basis for decision making, checks the sensitivity of the development option to negative publicity, and highlights the cost critical areas.


A disjunct breeding population of Gadwall in eastern North America was first recorded in 1939. This population has extended its range during recent years to the point where it is now found breeding in more than thirty locations (primarily National Wildlife Refuges and Wildlife Management Areas). These are 1,600-2,000 km (1,000-1,200 miles) from the main breeding range in the west and midwest. The number of breeding birds and the harvest have both increased during the last decade. Approximately 40,000 Gadwall were harvested in the northern portion of the Atlantic Flyway between 1961 and 1970. The impoundment of water seems to be responsible for the increase, providing focal points for nesting activities.


Summary. Expressions are available in the literature for the propagation constants of a 'mean' wave travelling in a material with a random distribution of cracks. These are approximations for small crack density and crack dimensions small compared with a wavelength. The formulae provided to second order in crack density by the method of smoothing are here extended to the case where the cracks consist of two or more sets, aligned in different directions.


Lung volume reduction surgery can improve lung function in patients with emphysema. We report our anaesthetic experience, problems and the physiological data of eight patients. Our aims were prevention of air trapping and air leaks, good analgesia and early recovery and mobilization. We were able to achieve these aims using pressure limited ventilation, lumbar epidural diamorphine, propofol infusions and intensive physiotherapy. Hypoxia during one-lung ventilation was the main intraoperative problem. Air leaks, infection and pulmonary hypertension were the main postoperative problems.


ABSTRACT Replication of the flavivirus Kunjin virus is associated with virus-induced membrane structures within the cytoplasm of infected cells; these membranes appear as packets of vesicles associated with the sites of viral RNA synthesis and as convoluted membranes (CM) and paracrystalline arrays (PC) containing the components of the virus-specified protease (E. G. Westaway, J. M. Mackenzie, M. T. Kenney, M. K. Jones, and A. A. Khromykh, J. Virol. 71:6650–6661, 1997). To determine the cellular origins of these membrane structures, we compared the immunolabelling patterns of several cell markers in relation to these sites by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. A marker for the trans-Golgi membranes and the trans-Golgi network, 1,4-galactosyltransferase (GalT), was redistributed to large foci in the cytoplasm of Kunjin virus-infected cells, partially coincident with immunofluorescent foci associated with the putative sites of viral RNA synthesis. As determined by immunoelectron microscopy, the induced vesicle packets contained GalT, whereas the CM and PC contained a specific protein marker for the intermediate compartment (ERGIC53). A further indicator of the role of cellular organelles in their biogenesis was the observation that the Golgi apparatus-disrupting agent brefeldin A prevented further development of immunofluorescent foci of induced membranes if added before the end of the latent period but that once formed, these membrane foci were resistant to brefeldin A dispersion. Reticulum membranes emanating from the induced CM and PC were also labelled with the rough endoplasmic reticulum marker anti-protein disulfide isomerase and were obviously redistributed during infection. This is the first report identifyingtrans-Golgi membranes and the intermediate compartment as the apparent sources of the flavivirus-induced membranes involved in events of replication.


Hyperpolarized 13C-labeled compound is an emerging technique in biomedical imaging to non-invasively detect metabolic processes and has been translated in clinical for cancer and cardiac metabolism studies. However, hyperpolarized MRI signal is limited by high spatial and temporal resolution and high SNR. This work describes a novel rotated Echo-planar imaging (EPI) trajectory with a half scan acquisition that shortens echo time to reduce the T2* effect in metabolic imaging. Compared to the standard full sampled EPI trajectory, the proposed trajectory has the advantage of gaining higher signal intensity, and is less sensitive to motion artifacts, distortion artifacts and aliasing artifacts.


Morphometric and meristic characters and truss measurements of 32 Monopterus cuchia , and of 17 Ophisternon bengalense were compared to know the population status of two fresh water eels of Bangladesh. The mean numbers of line below head were significantly different between two species. Significant differences were observed in 11 morphometric characters: Pre dorsal length (PDL), Post dorsal length (PoDL), Post anal length (PoAL), Head length (HL), Snout length (SnL), Upper jaw length (UJL), Lower jaw length (LJL), Head width (HW), Pre orbital length (PrOrL), Least body diameter (LBD) and Highest body diameter (HBD) and one truss measurement (3-5) between two species in varying degrees. For both morphometric and landmark measurements, the first and second DF (discriminant function) accounted 64.8% and 33.2% of among group variability, explaining 98% of total group variability. M. cuchia collected from Mymensingh and from Dinajpur constructed one sub-cluster and O. bengalense collected from Sathkhira and from Bagerhat constructed another sub-cluster based on the Distance of squared Euclidean dissimilarity. A correct classification of individuals into their original population from leave-one-out-classification varied between 93.3% and 94.1% by discriminant analysis. The results of the present study suggested that there was limited intermingling among populations and the populations of the species were separated from one another. J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 9(1): 139-141 2016


An electrophysiologic study of ethacizin's mechanisms of action was carried out in patients with paroxysmal atrioventricular nodal tachycardia. Tachycardia was controlled by 0.5 mg/kg ethacizin in all patients. No patients demonstrated induced tachycardia in the presence of the drug, and 55% developed a complete retrograde atrioventricular block. The assessment of the preventive effect of oral ethacizin administration showed that paroxysms of tachycardia could not be provoked by esophageal electrostimulation of the heart in 87% of the patients. In the same patients, stable antiarrhythmic effect was maintained by long-term treatment with this drug. The suppression of retrograde stimulus conduction along the quick path of the atrioventricular node is assumed to be the principal electrophysiological mechanism of ethacizin action. Ethacizin can be used to control or prevent paroxysms of atrioventricular nodal tachycardia.


Conjugates between pharmaceuticals and small molecules enable access to a vast chemical space required for the discovery of new lead molecules with modified therapeutic potential. However, the dearth of specific chemical reactions that are capable of functionalizing drugs and bioactive natural products presents a formidable challenge for preparing their conjugates. Here, we report a support-free CuI-nanoparticle-catalyzed strategy for conjugating electron-deficient and electron-rich terminal alkynes with a ciprofloxacin methyl ester. Our conjugation technique exploits the late-stage functionalization of bioactive natural products such as tocopherol, vasicinone, amino acids, and pharmaceuticals such as aspirin and paracetamol to provide conjugates in excellent yields under mild and green conditions. This protocol also enabled the synthesis of (hetero)arene-ciprofloxacin 1,4-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles in good yields and high regioselectivities. These synthesized ciprofloxacin conjugates were evaluated in vitro for their antibacterial activity against a panel of relevant bacteria. A significant number of conjugates showed comparable activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, some conjugates exhibited less toxicity than ciprofloxacin against two mammalian cell lines, suggesting the utility for the future investigation of these compounds for in vivo efficacy and pharmacokinetic studies.


This paper conducts a literature survey on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and its relation to fiscal policy. Geographical and cultural proximity between originating and host countries, market size of the host countries, as well as other exogenous variables have been pointed out by a significant part of the literature as crucial factors in FDI decisions. Fiscal policy, as an endogenous factor, is an increasingly important tool on the countries competitiveness for attracting FDI, mainly in the Euro-zone. The papers analyzed identify some areas of fiscal policy: most papers focus analysis of fiscal policy only on the tax rate – that is, on the relationship between the income tax rate in force in the country and FDI; other papers analyze the relationship between fiscal harmonization and FDI; some papers study the relationship between the complexity of the fiscal system and FDI; while others attempt to relate other specific areas of fiscal policy – e.g. fiscal regime of thin capitalization – with FDI decisions; various other studies show the relationship between territories with non-existent (or extremely low) fiscal regimes and FDI. It is expected that this characteristics of fiscal policy, will be relevant in the decision-making process, where countries are competing with each other as potential locations for FDI.


Scalable multicast protocol design based on the Bloom filter has received much attention from the research community recently. With the Bloom filter-based design, routing information is carried by the multicast data packet in the format of a Bloom filter. As the network node has no need maintaining a forwarding state for each group it is supporting, the Bloom filter-based multicast protocols are more scalable compared with the traditional IP multicast. However, as these protocols require networking nodes involved to perform special Bloom filter-based processing and the legacy routers can not be all upgraded over night, the incremental deployment solution for the Bloom filter-based multicast protocols is still an open technical issue. This paper presents such a solution for the Bloom filter-based multicast protocol that the new protocol is able to work with even only a small fraction of upgraded routers in the network, where the correctness will not be affected but some efficiency may be influenced. The basic idea of the solution is to consider the unicast path connecting two upgraded routers as a logical interface, and the corresponding packet processing and forwarding state maintenance are based on the logical interface. The topology information of the upgraded routers are not required, since the multicast joining messages will automatically set up the multicasting tree connecting upgraded routers. We show that the incremental solution will not affect favored scalability property of the Bloom filter-based multicast protocol, and can work with the fast joining scheme. Simulation results are given to evaluate the influence of the incremental deployment solution on the scalability, bandwidth efficiency and joining delay.


Twenty-seven patients requiring massive transfusions were studied prospectively to determine whether administration of stored, modified whole blood induced a primary disorder of hemostasis evidenced by generalized microvascular oozing. Platelet counts fell in proportion to the number of units of blood transfused. In contrast, the levels of factors V and VIII correlated poorly with the units of blood transfused, 85% of the total variation in the levels being due to influences other than transfused blood. Levels of all other clotting factors were unrelated to the number of units of blood given. Eight patients developed abnormal bleeding. The cause appeared to be dilutional thrombocytopenia in five patients, and DIC in three. In six of the eight, bleeding was controlled with platelet concentrates alone. Two patients were given cryoprecipitate also. The most useful laboratory test for predicting abnormal bleeding was the platelet count. Fibrinogen levels should be followed as an aid in the diagnosis of DIC. The BT, PT, and PTT were not helpful in assessing the cause of bleeding, unless they were greater than 1.5 times the control value. We recommend that any patient receiving massive transfusions who develops diffuse microvascular bleeding be given platelet concentrates. Platelet counts as high as 100,000 may be required to control bleeding from surgical woulds. It is not necessary to supplement transfusions of stored, modified whole blood with fresh blood or fresh frozen plasma.


Existing approaches for time series similarity computing are the core of many data analytics tasks. Given the considered data volumes, or simply the need for fast response times, they often rely on shorter representations, usually with information loss. This incurs approximate comparisons where precision is a major issue. We present and experimentally evaluate ASAX, a new approach for segmenting time series before their transformation into symbolic representations. ASAX reduces significantly the information loss incurred by possible splittings at different steps of the representation calculation, particularly for datasets with unbalanced (nonuniform) distributions. We provide theoretical guarantees on the lower bound of similarity measures, and our experiments illustrate that our method outperforms the state of the art, with significant gain in precision for datasets with unbalanced distributions.


The anatomy of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis Linnaeus, 1758) has been poorly studied, except for the circulatory system. In particular, only a handful of studies have concerned the brain of this species since the first description in 1839. Accordingly, only a very few articles discussing encephalization mentioned the giraffe or used it in their calculations. In this article, we performed a thorough examination of the literature including old and grey, regarding the central nervous system of the giraffe. Furthermore, we examined the brain of 3 giraffes, and calculated the encephalization quotient (EQ) of the species, based on our own data and the values found in the literature. We also revised the pre‐existing literature and re‐mapped the main sulci based on current comparative interpretation and anatomical nomenclature. Our results were compared to those of other selected significant mammals. The mean brain weight was of 719.9 ± 12.5 g. Our data indicate that the EQ of the giraffe is 0.64 and matches that of the typical ungulate, despite having the largest brain among terrestrial Cetartiodactyla. This emphasizes that the giraffe is a highly specialized mammal, within the limitations of its clad. Anat Rec, 300:1502–1511, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Objective. Assess 5-year golimumab (GOL) safety in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods. Subcutaneous (SC) GOL (50 mg or 100 mg every 4 weeks) was evaluated in phase 3 trials of patients with active RA, PsA, and AS. Safety data through Year 5 were pooled across 3 RA trials [1 each evaluating methotrexate (MTX)-naive, MTX-experienced, and antitumor necrosis factor (TNF)-experienced patients], 1 PsA trial, and 1 AS trial. Data summarized was derived from both placebo-controlled (through weeks 24–52) and uncontrolled study periods. For adverse events (AE) of special interest [serious infections (SI), opportunistic infections (OI), deaths, malignancies, demyelination, tuberculosis (TB)], incidence per 100 patient-years (pt-yrs) was determined. Results. Across all trials, 639 patients received placebo and 2228 received SC GOL 50 mg only (n = 671), 50 mg and 100 mg (n = 765), or 100 mg only (n = 792). Safety followup extended for averages of 28.5 and 203.2 weeks for placebo and GOL, respectively. Respective placebo and GOL AE incidence/100 pt-yrs (95% CI) through Year 5 were 4.86 (2.83–7.78) and 3.29 (2.92–3.69) for SI, 0.00 (0.00–0.86) and 0.23 (0.14–0.35) for TB, 0.00 (0.00–0.86) and 0.22 (0.13–0.34) for OI, 0.00 (0.00–0.86) and 0.10 (0.05–0.20) for lymphoma, 0.00 (0.00–0.86) and 0.08 (0.03–0.17) for demyelination, and 0.29 (0.01–1.59) and 0.41 (0.29–0.57) for death. TB, OI, lymphoma, and demyelination incidence appeared to be higher among patients receiving GOL 100 mg only. Conclusion. SC GOL safety through Year 5 remained consistent with previously reported Year 3 findings and with other TNF antagonists. Numerically higher incidences of TB, OI, lymphoma, and demyelination were observed with 100 mg versus 50 mg. Clinicaltrials.gov identifiers: NCT00264537 (GO-BEFORE), NCT00264550 (GO-FORWARD), NCT00299546 (GO-AFTER), NCT00265096 (GO-REVEAL), and NCT00265083 (GO-RAISE).


There is disclosed a speech processor for aiding persons with sensorineural hearing loss accompanied by recruitment. The apparatus processes speech into two channels by use of a low pass and a high pass filter. Each channel includes a compressor unit which serves to compress or expand speech according to predetermined frequency sensitive ratios. The outputs of the compressors are combined in a frequency equalizer network to provide a compensated signal which is directed to a hearing aid transducer to enable an improved response for a user. The disclosure also includes a two channel system which may be employed for designing and formulating specific characteristics for hearing aids for the handicapped.


Until recently, the nudibranch genus Tenellia (Nudibranchia: Fionidae) was thought to include a single or group of species restricted to temperate estuarine waters. Given the addition of numerous other species from recent studies, the genus now encompasses species from polar, temperate, and tropical oceans from oceanic to estuarine salinities. One such fionid, Tenellia adspersa, is found in temperate estuarine waters globally and its presence is ecologically important as its congeners are capable of decimating colonies of their hydroid prey within a single generation (approx. 20-60 days). The literature is historically vague and conflicted on the morphology, taxonomy, and geographic distribution of the various estuarine species of Tenellia, that includes: T. adspersa (Nordmann, 1844), T. fuscata (Gould, 1870), T. pallida (Alder & Hancock, 1842), T. mediterannea (Costa, 1866), T. ventilabrum (Dalyell, 1853), and Embletonia fuscata (Chambers, 1934). While Tenellia adspersa has been affirmed by several authors, others have proposed the taxon is comprised of at least two species. This study represents an extensive sampling of T. adspersa, and the first to incorporate more than two genetic sequences within a phylogenetic study. Specimens of T. adspersa were collected from global localities to produce a more current and detailed phylogenetic analysis and systematic review of the genus. Ninety-five specimens were collected from Eastern Pacific, Western Atlantic, and Eastern Atlantic localities. From these, forty-five specimens were sequenced for the genes cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CO1), 16S ribosomal RNA, or the histone protein H3. While morphological analyses were informative but not definitive in separating species, molecular analyses revealed a species complex; with multiple groups. Species delimitation by the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery tool, coupled with a TCS haplotype network analysis and Maximum Likelihood were conducted. They revealed several distinct clades within the T. adspersa species complex (TASC). Eleven new sequences of T. adspersa fit into the larger Fionidae phylogeny, in addition to two previous specimens from past studies. There is 100% support for the monophyletic status of a T. adspersa species complex. Equally supported are four distinct clades, two primary and two secondary, within the species complex based upon geographic localities. These molecular analyses elucidate both natural distributions and introductions for this cryptic nudibranch.


The quantitative analysis of drainage system is an important aspect of characterization of watersheds. Using watershed as a basic unit in morphometric analysis is the most logical choice because all hydrologic and geomorphic processes occur within the watershed. The North Bangalore Metropolitan Region is constitutes a part of North Pennar, South Pennar and Cauvery Basins has been selected for the case illustration. Geo-informatics module consists of GIS mapping for location map, drainage map, surface water body map, sub-basin map etc are generated. Morphometric module consists of morphometric analysis for several drainage basin parameters include stream order, stream length, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, drainage frequency, form factor, elongation ratio, circularity ratio, texture ratio, length of overland flow and constant of channel maintenance are also calculated. An attempt has been made to utilize the interpretation capabilities of GIS to find out the relationship between the morphometric parameters at sub basin level.


A precise tracking with minimal setup times, minimal changes to the environment and acceptable costs, satisfying industrial demands in large factory buildings is still a challenging task for augmented reality(AR) applications. We present a system to determine the pose for monitor based AR systems in large indoor environments, e.g. 200 – 200 meters and more. An infrared laser detects retroreflective targets and computes a 2D position and orientation based on the information of a preprocessed map of the targets. Based on this information the 6D pose of a video camera attached to a servo motor, that is further mounted on a mobile cart is obtained by identifying the transformation between the laser scanner and the several adjustable views of the camera through a calibration method. The adjustable steps of the servo motor are limited to a discrete number of steps to limit the calibration effort. The positional accuracy of the system is estimated by error propagation and presented.


Background: Oxygen desaturation during exercise can have important consequences for the prognosis of patients with COPD.

Aim: To study the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on exercise desaturation.

Method: We studied 16 COPD patients who performed pulmonary function tests, 6MWT and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) at the beginning and at the end of a seven weeks outpatient rehabilitation program. Oxygen desaturation after exercise was defined by a decrease (exercise minus resting) ≥ 4% in pulse oximetric saturation (SpO2) or by an postexercise SpO2 < 90%.

Results: Among the 16 patients, 8 were desaturators after both 6MWT and CPET, 1 after 6MWT only and 1 after CPET only. Desaturators had lower baseline gas transfer: mean % predicted DLCO 54,5% in the 6MWT desaturators versus 77,1% in nondesaturators, p<0,001; mean % predicted DLCO 53,8% in the CPET desaturators versus 78% in nondesaturators, p=0.013. Two thirds of the patients who desaturated after 6MWT and only 12% of those who desaturated after CPET did not desaturate any longer after completing rehabilitation. Mean postexercise saturation (assessed both after 6MWT and after CPET) was significantly higher after rehabilitation (mean postexercise SpO2 after 6MWT was 89,38% before and 92.06% after rehabilitation, p=0,014; mean postexercise SpO2 after CPET was 88,86% before and 90,71% after rehabilitation, p=0,015).

Conclusions: Pulmonary rehabilitation improves exercise desaturation in COPD patients. This improvement is evident in desaturations after 6MWT which is similar with the activities of daily living. Thus, pulmonary rehabilitation can delay desaturation consequences and improve quality of life and disease progression in COPD patients.


Drug and alcohol neonate simulators were used to highlight the effects of substance misuse on prenatal development within lifespan development modules to 61 Psychology undergraduates and 12 sixth-form Health and Social Care students. A mixed method approach was used considering both knowledge development and perceptions of experiential hands-on learning. Student knowledge of the effects of drugs and alcohol on prenatal development was assessed before and after an interactive session on teratogenesis utilising neonate simulators demonstrating these effects. With this experiential learning approach, the statistical analysis combining both groups showed increased knowledge after the interactive session, and the students perceived this enhanced understanding to be a direct result of hands-on interaction with the neonate simulators. The researchers encourage the use of neonate simulators as good practice that can be effectively incorporated into the psychology and other health-related teaching contexts to facilitate knowledge on teratogenesis.


At the International Test Conference 2002 several low cost test solutions were presented. All of these solutions promised to establish a close link between automatic test pattern generation, ATE based testing and fault diagnosis/analysis by using the IEEE 1450 standard test interface language (STIL). However, the reality is different. This paper describes the integration of a STIL based tester into the standard Motorola test program generation flow. The expected benefits of this very low cost test approach are measured against the problems which had to be solved in order to achieve a high degree of automation. All remaining problems described in this paper need to be addressed by the EDA vendors, the ATE companies and the different STIL committees. Only when these issues are resolved will STIL become a success for the test world.


Slow sand filtration (SSF) is a well-known process for drinking water treatment and is widely used for the production of biologically stable drinking water and particle removal. The removal process of particles and microorganisms is highly dependent on the buildup of the schmutzdecke at the filter surface. During the ripening period and especially for cold waters, the buildup of the schmutzdecke may take several months until such filters are biologically mature and at steady-state regarding their removal performance for particles and microorganisms. In order to improve the performance of SSF in terms of the removal of bacteria, e.g. Escherichia coli and Enterococcus, pilot tests using natural bauxite as a filter media have been performed. The results showed a significant improvement in bacteria retention within the filter bed of a second-stage slow sand filter containing different depths of bauxite.


Bis- and tetra-O- and C-glycosyl calixarenes (calixsugars) have been prepared by tethering carbohydrate moieties to a tetrapropoxycalix[4]arene scaffold through alkyl chains. Two methodologies have been employed. One consisted of the stereoselective multiple glycosylation of upper rim calix[4]arene polyols leading to calix-O-glycosides; the other involved a multiple Wittig olefination of upper rim calix[4]arene-derived polyaldehydes by the use of sugar phosphoranes and reduction of the alkene double bonds affording calix-C-glycosides. The NMR spectra and NOE experiments of bis-glycosylated products indicate that compounds bearing sugar-protected residues exist preferentially in solution in a flattened cone arrangement (far conformation) whereas deprotected derivatives adopt a close conformation. Calculations by molecular mechanics of the latter compounds point to a close conformation as well in gas phase.


A problem in ethnic minority mental health that can be solved in the foreseeable future is understanding how subtle and covert forms of racism affect psychological health of racial minorities. Although scientific psychology has generated a large body of literature on racial prejudice, stereotypes, intergroup attitudes, and racial bias and their often implicit and automatic nature, relatively little is known about the effects of these subtle racial bias on minority individuals. Following a selective review of recent developments in experimental psychology and multicultural psychology, I suggest some promising approaches and opportunities for future integration that would advance the field.


To build a robust secure solution for smart city IOT network from any Cyber
attacks using Artificial Intelligence. In Smart City IOT network, data
collected from different log collectors or direct sources from cloud or edge
should harness the potential of AI. The smart city command and control center
team will leverage these models and deploy it in different city IOT network to
help on intrusion prediction, network packet surge, potential botnet attacks
from external network. Some of the vital use cases considered based on the
users of command-and-control center


Due to the fact that the training time and space complexities of SVMs are mainly dependent on the size of training set, SVMs are not suitable for classifying large data sets with several millions of examples. To solve this problem, we in this paper propose a new algorithm called minimum enclosing ball (MEB) based SVM (MEB-SVM). In MEB-SVM, the boundary of each class data set is first measured by several MEBs, and then an SVM is trained by the data locating on the two class boundaries. Experiments on the KDDCUP-99 intrusion detection data set with about five million examples, the Ringnorm artificial data set with one hundred million examples, and the NDC data set with two million examples show that the new algorithm has competitive performance in terms of running time, testing accuracy and number of support vectors.


Summary Objectives: As health information is becoming increasingly accessible, social media offers ample opportunities to track, be informed, share and promote health. These authors explore how social media and holistic care may work together; more specifically however, our objective is to document, from different perspectives, how social networks have impacted, supported and helped sustain holistic self-participatory care. Methods: A literature review was performed to investigate the use of social media for promoting health in general and complementary alternative care. We also explore a case study of an intervention for improving the health of Greek senior citizens through digital and other means. Results: The Health Belief Model provides a framework for assessing the benefits of social media interventions in promoting comprehensive participatory self-care. Some interventions are particularly effective when integrating social media with real-world encounters. Yet not all social media tools are evidence-based and efficacious. Interestingly, social media is also used to elicit patient ratings of treatments (e.g., for depression), often demonstrating the effectiveness of complementary treatments, such as yoga and mindfulness meditation. Conclusions: To facilitate the use of social media for the promotion of complementary alternative medicine through self-quantification, social connectedness and sharing of experiences, exploration of concrete and abstract ideas are presented here within. The main mechanisms by which social support may help improve health – emotional support, an ability to share experiences, and non-hierarchal roles, emphasizing reciprocity in giving and receiving support – are integral to social media and provide great hope for its effective use.


Abstract Geothermal resources have been used in Poland since the 90s of the last century. Since then, several geothermal heating plants, recreation and balneological centers have been operated. Accessing geothermal resources is possible due to deep boreholes that are either brand-new wells or old but revitalized petroleum and/or exploratory wells. In this case, the construction of production and injection wells is of significant importance. The utilization of deep geothermal energy resources is strongly dependent on the binding domestic law regulations – primarily in case of acquiring the concession enabling an execution of geological and drilling works, and subsequently a proper exploitation. The paper presents the current state of development of the geothermal energy sector in Poland, indicating examples of exploitation systems based on deep boreholes. Furthermore, the constructions of existing wells are discussed extensively. The existing examples of old but reconstructed wells in Poland, are characterized. The importance of national law and its influence on the development of a geothermal investment is highlighted, as well.


Background: Dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) has been investigated in relation to different types of cancer. However, data on the link between dietary TAC and glioma are scarce and conflicting. We assessed the relation between dietary TAC and risk of glioma among Iranian adults.
Methods: This investigation was a hospital-based case-control study that was done in Tehran between November 2009 and September 2011. Cases were individuals with pathologically confirmed glioma that were diagnosed during the last month (n=128). Controls were individuals, aged between 20 and 75 years, who were hospitalized or were outpatients referred to other wards of the same hospitals (n=256). Usual dietary intakes of participants during the preceding year were examined using a food frequency questionnaire. Data on dietary TAC from foods was gathered from published databases that provided the antioxidant capacity for each food item, measured by ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP).
Results: Mean age of study participants in case and control groups was 43.4 and 42.7 y, respectively. Compared with participants in the lowest quartile, those in the highest quartile of dietary TAC had a lower odds of glioma (OR: 0.28, 95% CI: 0.15-0.45). This association was strengthened when potential confounders were taken into account (OR: 0.13; 95% CI: 0.05-0.35). Such inverse association was also seen for men (OR: 0.05, 95% CI: 0.01-0.19), but not for women. Furthermore, significant inverse associations were seen between dietary intakes of vitamin C (OR for Q4 vs. Q1: 0.14, 95% CI: 0.05-0.36; P-trend<0.01), vitamin B6 (OR for Q4 vs. Q1: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.13-0.97; P-trend=0.02) and β-carotene (OR for Q3 vs. Q1: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.19-0.98; P-trend=0.57) and glioma, after controlling for potential covariates. Conclusion: We found that dietary TAC as well as dietary intake of vitamin C, vitamin B6 and β-carotene was inversely associated with odds of glioma in Iranian adults.


In the current security climate, the need to identify unknown subjects quickly and efficiently has never been greater. In a real-world open-space scenario, it is often difficult to ensure the compliance of an unknown subject and the use of invasive contact biometrics such as fingerprint, iris or DNA would prove to be difficult and would cause congestion problems. For such a scenario, biometrics that can be observed from a distance such as face, ear and gait would prove the most useful. Facial recognition is a well understood problem, along with its relative merits and limitations[5]. The way in which one walks is often referred to as their gait ; it is relatively easy to observe one's gait in a non-obtrusive manner and at a distance[1]. In the past, many different gait analysis techniques have been proposed[3]; although the vast majority of the algorithms have concentrated on two-dimensional video data. The use of three-dimensional video data removes problems such as viewpoint dependence and self-occlusion, which presents the opportunity to implement analysis techniques that exploit the additional information available from a three-dimensional represention of the subject. The shape of one's ear is a new and promising biometric, with the major advantage of showing very little variance once the subject has reached maturity. No biometric is perfect, all have a probability of incorrect classification, most are prone to various forms of attack or forgery and occlusion can sometimes make it difficult to collect a specific biometric. The use of several biometrics for classification is often referred to as fusion; the fusion of multiple biometrics results in a far more robust recognition system that can cope with partial occlusion and provides a significantly lower chance of incorrect classification.


In vitro tyrosine sulfation of recombinant proteins would be a valuable tool in converting those proteins expressed in prokaryotic vectors to their natural form. For this purpose tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase (TPST), the enzyme responsible for tyrosine sulfation of proteins, was characterized from a bovine liver Golgi preparation. TPST was active in a acidic environment with a pH optimum of 6.25, and displayed a stimulation by the Mn2+, with the optimum activity in the presence of 5mM MnCl2. TPST was able to sulfate recombinant hirudin variant 1 (rHV-1) expressed in Escherichia coli and the C-terminal hirudin fragment 54-65 but not the N-terminal hirudin fragment 1-15 by using 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphosulfate (PAPS), indicating its specificity for the naturally sulfated tyrosine 63. Comparison of the reaction kinetics on synthetic peptides showed that the bovine liver TPST has a higher affinity and reaction rates for those peptides with a aspartyl residue on the N-terminal side of the tyrosine when compared with a glutamyl residue.


The multifactorial etiology of periodontal disease and pulp processes, the bacterial factor has great relevance. In these processes is identified polymicrobial flora which highlights Treponema denticola, a spirochete with multiple virulence factors that make it a dangerous bacterium, being identified with a certain predominance in lesions as gingivitis necrotizing ulcer and acute apical abscesses. Its isolation culture is feasible by highly enriched media, although based procedures such as molecular biology PCR (polymerase chain reaction) can determine its presence and quantity. This review aims to tell us more about this pathogen.