This paper provides an overview of possible engine design optimizations by utilizing highly knock-resistant potential greenhouse gas (GHG) neutral synthetic fuels. Historically the internal combustion engine was tailored to and highly optimized for fossil fuels. For future engine generations one of the main objectives is to achieve GHG neutrality. This means that either carbon-free fuels such as hydrogen or potential greenhouse gas neutral fuels are utilized. The properties of hydrogen make its use challenging for mobile application as it is very diffusive, not liquid under standard temperature/pressure and has a low volumetric energy density. C1-based oxygenated fuels such as methanol (MeOH), dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and methyl formate (MeFo) have properties like conventional gasoline but offer various advantages. Firstly, these fuels can be produced with renewable energy and carbon capture technologies to be GHG neutral. Secondly, the C1-based fuels burn with significantly less pollutant emissions. A third advantage is the high knock resistance of those fuels. This inherits a drastic efficiency potential for spark ignition engines as the compression ratio and therefore the potential thermal efficiency can be directly increased. In the single cylinder engine, a compression ratio (CR) of ~20:1 is investigated proving the high knock resistance as well as the efficiency potential of MeOH and a mixture containing 65 vol% DMC and 35 vol% MeFo (C65F35). Special attention is paid to the direct injection strategy, which utilizes up to quadruple injections and 35MPa fuel pressure. Later on, a more moderate CR increase to 15:1 with a CFD optimized piston design is investigated at a state of the art four-cylinder engine (4CE) utilizing C65F35. The whole engine map is presented proving the real-world usability and efficiency potential of this fuel type in combination with the optimized piston. WLTC and RDE tests were performed, underling both the practicality and the efficiency potential in dynamic conditions. The 4CE tests are rounded off by showcasing the potential of lean operation with two different high-energy ignition systems (Corona and passive pre-chamber ignition). The performance investigation on both engines is accompanied by emission measurements utilizing standard exhaust analyzers, an FTIR-device and particle number counting systems.


BACKGROUND
The self-expanding metal stent (SEMS) or transanal drainage tube (TDT) methods can be used as a palliative treatment before tumor resection surgery. Studies systematically comparing the efficacy and characteristics between SEMS with TDT are limited, especially in a large-scale Chinese population. This retrospective study aimed to compare the outcomes of these treatment approaches.

METHODS
This was a retrospective comparative study of patients with an acute malignant left colorectal obstruction who underwent a preoperative decompressive procedure with SEMS or TDT intervention between December 2014 and October 2017. The indicators after endoscopic treatment and tumor resection surgery between the SEMS and TDT groups were compared.

RESULTS
206 patients underwent endoscopic intervention to relieve obstruction, including 139 patients treated with SEMS and 67 patients treated with TDT. The technical success rates of the SEMS group and TDT group were 97.1% and 95.6%, respectively, and the rates of obstruction relief were 92.8% and 86.6%, respectively. TDT was more easily translocated than SEMS (P=0.02), and there was no significant difference in the incidence of other complications. However, SEMS had a lower complication rate than TDT (P=0.02), and could alleviate the obstruction faster (P<0.01). There were 72 patients and 44 patients who took resection surgery in the SEMS group and TDT group, respectively. The direct anastomosis rates were 73.6% and 63.6% (P=0.26), respectively, and only 1 case in the TDT group had anastomotic leakage. The surgery time of the SEMS group was significantly shorter than that of the TDT group (P=0.01). There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of postoperative hospital stay (P=1.00) or total treatment costs for patients undergoing surgery (P=0.26).

CONCLUSIONS
Both TDT and SEMS could effectively relieve acute left malignant colorectal obstruction with safe and reliable results, and they could both reduce the stomas rate compared with traditional surgery. SEMS could alleviate obstruction faster than TDT and had fewer complications.


We investigated the haemodynamic and respiratory effects of one‐lung ventilation and carbon dioxide insufflation in 13 adult patients undergoing video‐assisted thoracoscopy. Cardiorespiratory variables were determined during carbon dioxide insufflation at intrahemithoracic pressures of 5, 10 and 15 mmHg, and after 5 and 15 min of one‐lung ventilation. Carbon dioxide insufflation was associated with a clear deterioration in circulatory function. The cardiac index decreased subsequent to increasing intrathoracic pressures. The mean cardiac index (SD) at pressures of 10 and 15 mmHg was 1.86 (0.39) and 1.52 (0.46), respectively, and may be compared with the reduced venous return consistent with tension pneumothorax. One‐lung ventilation did not affect haemodynamic variables but reduced arterial oxygenation indices (Pao2/FIo2) from 424.29 (160.79) after induction of anaesthesia, to 207.72 (125.50) after 5 min and 172.04 (72.03) after 15 min of one‐lung ventilation, respectively. The oxygenation index was not influenced by intrahemithoracic carbon dioxide insufflation. One‐lung ventilation via a double‐lumen endobronchial tube is safe and convenient for video‐assisted thoracoscopic surgery. It has no further consequences on haemodynamic variables, whereas the compression of the lung by carbon dioxide insufflation may cause circulatory dysfunction.


The activity of the blood kallikrein-kinin system was evaluated in 18 patients with refractory arterial hypertension who received a combined therapy by using prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) infusions. PGE2 infusions produced a direct effect in modulating the vasoactive peptide system. There was activity mobilization at low baseline values of blood kallikrein and its inhibition at high values. The activating effect of PGE2 remained for further 2 weeks following the infusion. The response of the patients to previously low effective antihypertensive agents could be enhanced.


It is known that among 40–70 % of patients pollinosis can run in conjunction with pollen-food allergy syndrome (PFS), while development of PFS is associated with the consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and spices. Clinical course and severity of the disease depend on the sensitization profile, which can be represented by proteins-panallergens (PR-10, profilins, nsLTPs). However, there is little information about the sensitization profiles of patients with pollinosis caused by pollen of spring trees in Ukraine.

Aim. To study the profiles of sensitization of children with spring pollinosis.

Methods. We examined 61 children (aged 4-17 years) with spring seasonal allergic rhinitis/rhinoconjunctivitis (SAR). To establish the diagnosis, all children were given questionnaires, skin prick tests (SPTs) with commercial pollen extracts, and prick to prick tests with fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts. Component resolved diagnosis (CRD) were detected using an ImmunoCAP system. (Phadia, 100).

Results. It has been found that in 43 children (70.5 %) had polinosis in combination with PFS, the main clinical manifestation of which was an oral allergic syndrome in 43 children (100 %). Among the causal food allergens that caused the manifestations of PFS were more apples, peaches, carrots and hazelnuts (consumption of which led to 11.6 % of children before the development of anaphylaxis). All of the examined children (100 %) had a positive IgE response to rBet v 1 at significant concentrations. In 9.3 % of children, panallergens were found at once from several botanical groups. Such panallergens: rBet v 2, rBet v 4, rPhl p 7, rPhl p 12, rArt v 3 are generally not defined in the control group children.

Conclusions. Birch related PFS are common in Ukrainian pollen-allergic children with nuts and fruits predominantly implicated. Sensitization profile of children with Birch-pollen syndrome is complex and associated with sensitization to panalergens. Clinicians should be worried of PFS in patients with a high degree of sensitization to birch pollen and even young children if they have birch sensitization.


Competitiveness is an often ill-defined concept that is key to economic success. This paper focuses on the links between competitiveness and the employment relationship. It ranks European countries by their specialization in high-technology, skilled labor sectors to yield a competitiveness ranking, and examines workers' values and attitudes to identify common features of the "competitive" countries. The results show that workers in competitive countries enjoy greater flexibility and autonomy.


Habitat diversity and heterogeneity play a fundamental role in structuring ecological communities. Dam emplacement and removal can fundamentally alter habitat characteristics, which in turn can affect associated biological communities. Beginning in the early 1900s, the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams in Washington, USA, withheld an estimated 30 million tonnes of sediment from river, coastal, and nearshore habitats. During the staged removal of these dams—the largest dam removal project in history—over 14 million tonnes of sediment were released from the former reservoirs. Our interdisciplinary study in coastal habitats—the first of its kind—shows how the physical changes to the river delta and estuary habitats during dam removal were linked to responses in biological communities. Sediment released during dam removal resulted in over a meter of sedimentation in the estuary and over 400 m of expansion of the river mouth delta landform. These changes increased the amount of supratidal and intertidal habitat, but also reduced the influx of seawater into the pre-removal estuary complex. The effects of these geomorphic and hydrologic changes cascaded to biological systems, reducing the abundance of macroinvertebrates and fish in the estuary and shifting community composition from brackish to freshwater-dominated species. Vegetation did not significantly change on the delta, but pioneer vegetation increased during dam removal, coinciding with the addition of newly available habitat. Understanding how coastal habitats respond to large-scale human stressors—and in some cases the removal of those stressors—is increasingly important as human uses and restoration activities increase in these habitats.

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To the Editor.— Dr Berlin stated in his excellent editorial (Archives137:993-994, 1977) that "cyanide intoxication and diabetes mellitus" may be "the only two major clinical situations with very high levels of serum acetone and acetone bodies." Isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) intoxication also causes high concentrations of blood acetone and is about ten times more common at our institution (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland) than treatable cyanide poisoning. Isopropyl alcohol is metabolized to acetone by liver alcohol dehydrogenase, and the acetone is metabolized and excreted by the kidneys and lungs.1Urine and blood tests for acetone become strongly positive after isopropyl alcohol ingestion, though acidosis is uncommon. Ashkar and Miller2described two diabetic patients who were "alcohol" abusers; they had persistent ketosis without acidosis, which resolved after eliminating their access to rubbing alcohol. The high concentrations of acetone are a reflection of the relative nontoxicity of isopropyl alcohol—blood concentrations


Abstract Introduction: Brugada syndrome may be unmasked by non-antiarrhythmic pharmaceuticals or drugs. Lacosamide is an antiepileptic agent with a novel mechanism of sodium channel inhibition and has the potential to cause cardiac sodium channel blockade. Patient concerns: In this report, we describe the case of patient with a history of a seizure disorder who presented with Brugada I electrocardiogram morphology in the setting of septicemia. Diagnosis: Brugada I electrocardiogram morphology was unmasked by lacosamide antiepileptic monotherapy. Interventions: Lacosamide therapy was discontinued. Outcomes: Normalization of the electrocardiogram and resolution of Brugada morphology occurred on hospital day 1. Conclusion: Caution should be exercised in the use of lacosamide in those at risk for conduction delay, or in combination therapy with medications that impair renal clearance, metabolism of lacosamide, or that display inherent sodium channel blocking properties.


K. C. Chang has been instrumental in the West in propagating the view that North China in Neolithic times was lush, moist, and densely forested. A close scrutiny of data relating to palynology, soil science, and paleoclimate, however, indicates that the true loess areas of North China were, and have always been, semiarid steppe. In addition, the author considers Chang's belief that the earliest northern Chinese agriculture was a system of slash-and-burn or shifting cultivation to be invalid. Whereas the crucial problem in the slash-and-burn systems of the tropics and humid areas is fertility, the crucial problem in the agriculture of the loess areas is moisture, not fertility. The ability of loess soil to retain its fertility under semiarid conditions has accounted for the self-sustaining character of the agriculture of North China. These important issues, and others, are discussed in the volume under review.


Weber's proposal that social science should aim to be value neutral is now widely rejected. However, I argue that his position was more sophisticated than is generally recognised, and that it is for the most part sound. Clarification of his position is provided, along with an outline of the reasons why it came to be rejected. I suggest that these are, for the most part, based upon misconceptions. I also demonstrate that there are fundamental problems with any notion of normative sociology, ones that are rarely addressed and have not been resolved.


Object reacquisition or reidentification is the process of matching objects between images taken from separate cameras. In this paper, we present our work on feature based object reidentification performed on autonomous embedded smart cameras and applied to traffic scenarios. We present a novel approach based on PCA-SIFT features and a vocabulary tree. By building unique object signatures from visual features, reidentification can be done efficiently coevally minimizing the communication overhead between separate camera nodes. Applied to large-scale traffic scenarios, important parameters including travel time, travel time variability, section density, and partial dynamic origin/destination demands can be obtained. The proposed approach works on spatially separated, un-calibrated, non-overlapping cameras, is highly scalable and solely based on appearance-based optical features. The entire system is implemented and evaluated with regard to a typical embedded smart camera platform featuring one single Texas Instruments trade fixed-point DSP.


In this letter, we propose a Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based channel estimator which is learned on imperfect training data, i.e., the training data are solely comprised of noisy and sparsely allocated pilot observations. In a practical application, recent pilot observations at the base station (BS) can be utilized for training. This is in sharp contrast to state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) techniques where a training dataset consisting of perfect channel state information (CSI) samples is a prerequisite, which is generally unaffordable. In particular, we propose an adapted training procedure for fitting the GMM which is a generative model that represents the distribution of all potential channels associated with a specific BS cell. To this end, the necessary modifications of the underlying expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm are derived. Numerical results show that the proposed estimator performs close to the case where perfect CSI is available for the training and exhibits a higher robustness against imperfections in the training data as compared to state-of-the-art ML techniques.


Heterotrophic prokaryotic communities that inhabit saltern crystallizer ponds are typically dominated by two species, the archaeon Haloquadratum walsbyi and the bacterium Salinibacter ruber, regardless of location. These organisms behave as 'microbial weeds' as defined by Cray et al. (Microb Biotechnol 6: 453-492, 2013) that possess the biological traits required to dominate the microbiology of these open habitats. Here, we discuss the enigma of the less abundant Haloferax mediterranei, an archaeon that grows faster than any other, comparable extreme halophile. It has a wide window for salt tolerance, can grow on simple as well as on complex substrates and degrade polymeric substances, has different modes of anaerobic growth, can accumulate storage polymers, produces gas vesicles, and excretes halocins capable of killing other Archaea. Therefore, Hfx. mediterranei is apparently more qualified as a 'microbial weed' than Haloquadratum and Salinibacter. However, the former differs because it produces carotenoid pigments only in the lower salinity range and lacks energy-generating retinal-based, light-driven ion pumps such as bacteriorhodopsin and halorhodopsin. We discuss these observations in relation to microbial weed biology in, and the open-habitat ecology of, hypersaline systems.


The view planning problem, also known as the next-best-view (NBV) problem, for object reconstruction and inspection, has been shown to be isomorphic to the set covering problem which is NP-Complete. In this paper we express a theoretical framework for the NBV problem as an integer programming problem including a registration constraint. Experimental view planning results using a modified greedy search algorithm are presented.


The sequence of a model monomeric peptide, acetylA(EAAAK)3Aamide was altered to expedite measurement of peptide concentration and to enhance its fractional helical content. Replacement of the N-terminal alanine residue with a tryptophan residue provides a convenient chromophore for measurement of peptide concentration without diminishing the helical content. Replacement of the three lysine residues with arginine residues enhances the helical content without loss of their electrostatic contributions. Increasing the number of EAAAR sequence units in the peptide acetylW(EAAAR)nAamide from three to five indicates that the spectral features anticipated for a completely helical peptide are closely approached.


This paper proposes a grammar-based unsupervised method to automatically mine the Chinese volitive words, which are the important clues of intention and desiration in literal content, such as "can", "must", "rather than", etc. Besides, the paper introduces a scheme of manually tagging volitive words from large-scale Chinese blogs. And the tagged blogs are adopted as corpus to evaluate our unsupervised method in experiments. The results show a precision of 74.25% and a recall of 76.03%. Based on the above method, the paper constructs a statistical model to acquire all the volitive words with the trend of the mining, which improves the performance further.


Office buildings built before the pre-1960 age constitute a relevant group for analyzing the energy performance of the Portuguese building sector. A dynamic energy simulation was used to assess the energy performance of an existing office building located in the town of Bragança, Portugal. By using a staged renovation approach, two passive technologies applied to the building envelope and an efficient domestic hot water system were selected and a financial evaluation through the net saving (NS) method was undertaken to choose the best efficiency measures/packages for improving the building's energy performance. Real discount rates of 3% and 1% were used in the financial evaluation. Considering the real discount rate of 3%, the results showed that only two out seven retrofit options had a positive financial return. By using the real discount rate of 1%, all retrofit options were found to be financially efficient. The results of the study corroborated those of earlier works that found that the financial profitability of energy renovation investments is very sensitive to the discount rate used in the analysis. The results of the study also suggested that the staged renovation approach used in the analysis is economically feasible, and that this approach is an alternative to one-step renovation approach to help to achieve the country´s energy and climate targets by 2030. Suggestions for future research conducted for office buildings in the different climate zones and other age groups in Portugal are proposed.


SIR,—The review of The Geology of South-Western Uganda with special reference to the Stanniferous Deposits by H. A. Stheeman, which appeared in your February number, unfortunately gives the impression that the stanniferous deposits in Ankole are like others in being specially notable for pneumatolytic phenomena with tourmaline, topaz, secondary mica, and quartz very abundant. Your reviewer has not noticed the publication by Combe and Groves (Memoir No. 2 of the Geological Survey of Uganda with almost the same title as the above) which was published in Uganda in July, 1932, a few months after Stheeman's book. According to the latter, topaz was found at Kaina Mine and it is not claimed that it was found in any other tin occurrence then known. In the official publication the absence of fluorine minerals except muscovite was specially stressed, particularly for Mwirasando mine, which has been much more developed than any other in Ankole, and the suggestion of alkaline carriers was made. Officers of the Geological Survey have not yet been able to find topaz with any of the Uganda tin occurrences so far investigated. And though the Kaina deposits have been much more opened up since the book was published, we have not yet obtained a specimen showing topaz. At Mwirasando topaz is absent and a partly altered mineral that appears something like it has always proved on testing to be beryl. WILLIAM C. SIMMONS, Director.


The present study explored the interrelationships among selected measures of creativity, intelligence, and risk taking in a sample of fifth-grade children. Significant relationships were obtained for boys between number of associates generated to creativity tasks administered under gamelike conditions and preferred level of risk taking on a shuffleboard task. An IQ index, unrelated to creative ability, showed a marginal association with risk taking. Interpretation of the creativity-risk taking relationship stressed the importance of self-confidence as a mediating link. Consistent with that interpretation, the foregoing relationship was not found in high defensive boys but was significant and quite substantial in low defensive boys.


Fuel heat strengthening based on automobile exhaust heat can improve the efficiency of t he diesel engine effectually.The heat exchanger mentioned in this thesis is gas liquid heat pipe hea t exchanger.We analyzed the feasibility and the cost of the heat exchanger after calculation of the si ze of the relevant parts.it was found that this device can effectively improve the thermal efficiency o f the diesel engine and achieve the effect of energy-saving and emission-reduction. 利用尾气余热进行燃油热强化装置的设计与研究 孙岑 华北电力大学 能源动力与机械工程学院,保定,071003, 中国 firstname.lastname@example.com


Diabetes mellitus is one of the most severe and costly chronic disease of our time. Approximately 2-3% of diabetics have an active foot ulcer, and 15% of all patients with diabetes will develop an ulcer during their lifetime. Treatment of foot complications is one of the main items in the absorption of enormous economic and health resources addressed to the diabetic patients. Advances in basic science, tissue culture techniques and cell therapy promise to improve the treatment of diabetes as well as its complications, i.e. also the ischemic ulcers of the foot. At present, the isolation of any specific type of cells, their in vitro expansion and biological characterization of acquired cell population are possible. For the healing process in ischemic diabetic ulcers, stem cells, endothelial progenitor cells and fibroblasts, both in suspension or placed on an extracellular scaffold are used. This process is focused on stimulating the new blood vessels formation. This is stimulated by the paracrine secretion of multiple growth factors and their receptors. Verified are the vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptor, fibroblast growth factor, interleukin-8 and proangiogenic cytokines (Ref. 62).


Inositolless (inl-) Neurospora crassa strains were treated with DNA (allo-DNA) of wild type N. Crassa. Hyphal fragments of a mycelial suspension of the N. Crassa ragged inl- strain used as recipient in our transformation experiments were found to consist of units containing 100--1000 nuclei. In this strain the inositol-independent (inl+) nuclei appearing after DNA treatment or by spontaneous reversion are present in the cytoplasm together with a large number of inl- nuclei. Thus, both transformation and reversion initially must result in heterokaryosis. Under appropriate conditions the inl- nuclei can be detected in the transformed and spontaneous inl+ phenotype revertant strains. Spontaneous revertants are usually characterized by the loss of their inl+ nuclei after transfers on inositol-supplemented medium. On minimal medium, the growth rate of transformed strains is significantly lower than that of spontaneous revertants. The inl+ gene appearing after DNA treatment or by spontaneous reversion is inherited as a trait bound to chromosomes. In crosses with the transformed strains, there is a significant increase in the number of non-Mendelian (6:2 and 5:3) tetrads in the inl locus.


This paper describes a research project which developed a Web Portal around 'transition' (the move from school to 'adult' life) for people with Learning Disabilities (LD), their families and 'supporters' (a general term used in this paper to signify formal or informal carers, tutors and family). Unusually, the people with LD themselves created much of the information used in the Portal development. The paper concentrates specifically on the phase of the research in which supporters, and those with LD themselves were trained in the creation of information and its uploading onto an accessible template. It discusses, in particular, the barriers to successful exploitation of the Internet, and information technology in general, that present themselves for this cohort of users. First, a framework to examine barriers from within existing literature is discussed. A detailed look is then given at those emerging during this phase of the project. Despite obvious enthusiasm and goodwill towards the project, a patchwork of barriers inhibiting its execution was elicited, including extrinsic ('first-order') barriers such as technical and logistical problems and difficulties related to obtaining informed consent, and intrinsic ('second-order') barriers such as non-inclusive practices; activities that are too socially or intellectually challenging. The paper concludes by suggesting possible solutions, centring on the extent and content of training offered to people with LD and their supporters.


This study aims to find out the things that cause the high desire of consumers to buy the products they see from TikTok Influencers and also to find out how much influence TikTok Influencers have on online shopping interest in Communication Studies students class IV state Islamic university of North Sumatra. This research uses quantitative methods with comparative research types, namely comparisons. The data to be processed will be compared with one another to see if the comparative significance occurs or not. The population in this study were all students of Communication Science class IV in force 2019, totaling 179 students. The selection of the research sample was determined by choosing the number of five classes at random or random sampling. The data obtained using an online survey in the form of a google form which was distributed to all samples with a total of 65 students, then accumulated the information data obtained to be described from each of the questions asked in the discussion. The results show that TikTok influencers are very popular with students to view information circulating on social media, this is because Tiktok has a simple and short appeal in conveying information. This is also what makes Tiktok influence the communication studies students to buy goods if there are promos that are offered briefly. Thus the Tiktok Influencer has an influence on the Buying Interest of Communication Science Students in class IV the communication studies of the state Islamic university of North Sumatra because it turns out that the popularity of Tiktok influencers is going on, then the buying interest in class IV the communication studies students at state Islamic university of North Sumatra is high because the products offered by TikTok influencers look more attractive, artistic, short and solid.


For many organizations, the emphasis today is the development of total service quality. To achieve these goals, organizations must not only apply the marketing concept to external targets, but also plan and control internal facets of their operations. The purpose of the present article is to develop the rationale for Total Service Quality (TSQ) based on an Internal Marketing Approach (IMA) as well as to posit the steps necessary to implement an IMA.


The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a system to identify, assess and control the hazards related with production, processing, distribution and consumption in order to get safe food. The aim of this study was to design a HACCP plan for implementing in processing line of frozen whole sardine (Sardinella aurita). The methodology was based in the evaluation of the accomplishment of the pre-requisite programs (GMP/SSOP in a previous study), the application of the principles of the HACCP and the sequence of stages settles down by the COVENIN Venezuelan standard No 3802. Time-temperature was recorded in each processing step. Histamine was determined by VERATOX NEOGEN. Results showed that some sardine batches arrived to the plant with high time-temperature records, finding up to 5 ppm of histamine due to the abuse of temperature during transportation. A HACCP plan is proposed with the scope, the selection of the team, the description of the product and the intended use, the flow diagram of the process, hazard analysis and identification of CCP, monitoring system, corrective actions and records. The potential hazards were identified as pathogen growth, presence of histamine and physical objects in the sardines. The control measures of PCC are referred as control of time-temperature during transportation and processing, monitoring of ice supplies and sanitary conditions in the process.


In this study, geotechnical tests including unconfined compression test were carried out to evaluate the ground improvement effect of the hardening agent, which has been developed by using inter-chemical reactions between slag, fly ash, phosphogypsum and bypass dust on the weathered granite soil and dredged marine clay. Test results show that the strength of weathered granite soil mixed with hardening agent B-2, which uses phosphogypsum as an activator, is higher than that of B-1, which uses bypass dust as an activator. Strengths of B-1 & B-2 hardening agent mixed soil show only 44%~60% of strength of OPC(Ordinary Portland Cement, OPC) mixed soil. However, since B-1 and B-2 agents are made of industrial by-products, they seem economically more effective than ordinary portland cement as well as other present hardening agents. Test results on dredged marine clay show that unconfined compression strength increases with amount of agent and curing days. Unconfined compression strength of 14% B-1 agent mixed soil increases linearly with curing days and reaches only 40% of OPC mixed soil. While unconfined compression strength of 14% B-2 agent mixed soil increases exponentially and reaches 133% of OPC mixed soil. Relationship between deformation modulus and unconfined compression strength of B-1 and B-2 mixed soil can be expressed as E50=(20~47)qu,28, which is similar with lower limit of OPC mixed dredged marine clay.


Future mobile communication systems will be characterized by the integration of several networks at the system level. Therefore, the satellite component and the terrestrial one will use as far as possible the same protocols. Accordingly, this paper investigates the possibility of using the packet-reservation multiple-access (PRMA) technique as a medium access control protocol for low-Earth orbit-mobile satellite systems (LEO-MSSs). A modified version of the PRMA protocol, named PRMA with hindering states (PRMA-HSs), is also proposed in order to attain better performance.


To study the role played by prostaglandins (PGs) in contact urticaria, concentrations of 13,14-dihydro-15-keto-PGF2 alpha, 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, and thromboxane B2, the stable metabolites of PGF2 alpha, prostacycline and thromboxane A2 were measured by radio-immunoassay of the fluid taken from suction blisters in 11 patients. The blisters were raised on contact urticarial reactions induced by benzoic acid. The effect of peroral indomethacin on contact urticaria from benzoic acid was studied in a further 14 dermatological patients. The levels of these prostanoids in the blister fluid of urticarial skin did not differ from those derived from control blisters raised on apparently normal skin. Premedication with indomethacin, 50 mg t.i.d., completely prevented contact urticarial reactions to benzoic acid in all patients.


The interaction of amyloid beta (Abeta) 25-35 with tau protein and with the peptide 1/2R (KVTSKCGSLGNIHHKPGGG), has been investigated by chromatography, electron microscopy, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Abeta 25-35 comprises the minimum region of Abeta peptide that is able to aggregate into fibrils, and 1/2R contains residues 307-325 from the tau region involved in microtubule binding. The results of chromatography showed that Abeta 25-35 induces the aggregation of tau protein and of tau peptide 1/2R. Likewise, the results of electron microscopy showed that Abeta 25-35 increases the tau peptide polymerization observed in the presence of polyanions like heparin. A decrease in Abeta 25-35 aggregation induced by tau peptide was also observed by both techniques. No direct interaction between tau protein immobilized on the sensor surface and Abeta 25-35 could be detected by SPR. However, incubation of tau protein at room temperature produced the loss of capability of this protein for interacting with the active biosensor surface. The presence of Abeta 25-35 during the incubation of tau protein makes more efficient this loss of interacting capability with the sensor surface. These results clearly indicate that Abeta 25-35, the peptide region to which the cytotoxic properties of Abeta can be assigned, interacts with the peptide region of tau protein involved in microtubule binding. This interaction produces the aggregation of tau peptide and the concomitant disassembling of Abeta 25-35, offering thus an explanation to the lack of co-localization of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease, and suggesting the possibility that tau protein may have a protective action by preventing Abeta from adopting the cytotoxic, aggregated form.


Electrical insulation capability is one of the most critical challenges for press-pack insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), but the knowledge of its insulation failure mechanism is much less mature. To understand the insulation failure mechanism, partial discharge (PD) measurement and analysis in press-pack IGBT (PPI) submodule were performed in this study. A dedicated PD measurement system for PPIs was designed and fabricated, and fast oscilloscope, PD detector and ultraviolet (UV) image camera were employed to observe the PD. PD-induced insulation failure phenomenon in the submodule was observed under direct current voltage, and UV images indicated that the discharge occurred at the periphery of the die. Phase-resolved PD (PRPD) analysis method for PPIs was developed and three elementary structures were used to simulate the PD in the electric field reinforcement areas identified by electric field analysis. According to PRPD patterns, the observed PD in the submodule was considered to be mainly caused by a mismatch between the electric field and critical electric field on the surface of passivation layers of the die. The inference was verified at different gas pressures because a decrease of PD inception voltage in the submodule and the bare die was observed at lower gas pressure.


Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) leverage large-scale training dataset to produce remarkable performance on various image classification tasks. It, however, is difficult to effectively train the CNNs on some realistic learning situations such as regarding class imbalance, small-scale and label noises. Regularizing CNNs works well on learning with such deteriorated training datasets by mitigating overfitting issues. In this work, we propose a method to effectively impose regularization on feature representation learning. By focusing on the angle between a feature and a classifier which is embedded in cosine similarity at the classification layer, we formulate a novel similarity beyond the cosine based on von Mises-Fisher distribution of directional statistics. In contrast to the cosine similarity, our similarity is compact while having heavy tail, which contributes to regularizing intra-class feature distribution to improve generalization performance. Through the experiments on some realistic learning situations such as of imbalance, small-scale and noisy labels, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for training CNNs, in comparison to the other regularization methods. Codes are available at https://github.com/tk1980/tvMF.


A typical affective study generates a great amount of data including physiological, performance, and demographic data. Visual representation of such data in compact form is challenging. Moreover, no visualization guidelines are available specific to this domain. Here we introduce a set of design principles for visualizing results of affective studies. Specifically, we propose an inverted pyramid approach, which communicates at a glance the causation links between the user's affective states and her/his performance. The proposed strategy has been evaluated on a case study focused on the role of students' affect in exam performance.


Background: Microparticles (MP) are small membrane vesicles released from a variety of cells including platelet, leukocyte, endothelial cell which mediate intravascular coagulation. In this study, the plasma levels of total microparticle (TMP), platelet microparticle (PMP) and endothelial microparticle (EMP) in patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) were investigated to test their clinical utilities. Methods: Subjects were divided to 3 groups consisted of 119 patients with VTE, 72 cancer without VTE and 93 healthy controls. MP were assayed by flow-cytometry using non-washed, frozen platelet-poor plasma samples. TMP, PMP and EMP were identified using antibodies against Annexin V, CD41a, and CD144 respectively. Results: The mean levels of plasma TMP, PMP, but not EMP in VTE without caner group (n=77) were significantly increased compared with those in healthy controls (n=93); 1972.9/μl vs 917.0/μl, p=0.001; 1496.6/μl, 586.5/μl, p=0.001; 108.0/μl vs 97.8/μl, p=0.321). In the VTE without cancer group, the mean levels of plasma TMP, PMP, but not EMP in newly diagnosed VTE group (n=59) were significantly increased compared with previously diagnosed VTE group (n=18); 2242.5/μl vs 1089.1/μl, p=0.008; 1728.6/μl vs 735.9/μl, p=0.005; 101.8/μl vs 84.6/μl, p=0.885). Mean peak thrombin generations in VTE samples (n=9) were increased in platelet poor plasma (385.2 nM vs 163.1 nM, p=0.002) but not in microparticle free plasma (MFP) (86.2 nM vs 22.6 nM, p=NS) as compared with those of controls (n=10) suggesting the thombin generation is originated from MP of plasma. But, the mean levels of plasma TMP, PMP, but not EMP in VTE with caner group (n=42) were not increased compared with those in cancer controls without VTE (n=72); 2158.1/μl vs 1644.2/μl, p=0.094; 1637.2/μl vs 1246.8/μl, p=0.168; 86.0/μl vs86.0/μl, p=0.996). The plasma levels of B-TG were well correlated with those of PMP. The levels of plasma TMP, PMP, and EMP did not show any correlation with the level of D-dimer. Conclusion: The plasma levels of TMP and PMP are significantly increased in VTE patients and the levels are normalized after anticoagulation, suggesting MP may be used as surrogate markers for monitoring of VTE.


Smoking is the foremost public health problem affecting the world and it has a crucial implication in causing many common diseases due to Helicobacter pylori infection which is globally distributed, smoking is considered as a critical risk factor that accelerates the infection with this bacterium, the study's goal was to find out how common Helicobacter pylori infections were among male cigarette and nargileh smokers. Blood samples were collected and used for detection of anti- Helicobacter pylori IgG Ab from 80 males who were smokers and 20 from non-smoker males.The prevalence of H. pylori positivity was 34% (24 (70.6%) in smokers and 10 (29.4%) in nonsmokers, The highest percentage (52.9%) was found in the young age group (25-34) years, and 88.2 % of H. pylori positive individuals exhibited stomach symptoms. Fifty percent (50%) of H. pylori-infected individuals were Nargilehsmokers. Smoking was a key factor in the seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori and played a substantial impact on it.


Purpose: Previous abdominal surgery has been one of the relative contraindications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). Recently, the accumulation of experience and the development of skill have widened the indications of LC. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effectiveness and safety of LC in patients with a history of previous abdominal surgery. Methods: The medical records of patients treated with LC at Ewha Womans University, Mokdong Hospital from March 1997 to December 2000 were reviewed. Operative results were compared between the previous abdominal-surgery group (Group A) and the non-operative history group (Group B). Group A consisted of 99 cases: 91 cases with one operation history, 7 with two, and 1 with three. Group B consisted of 99 cases randomly selected out of 437 cases without a history of previous abdominal surgery in the same period. We compared the mean operative time, conversion rate, rate of drain insertion, starting day of postoperative diet and hospital stay. Results: In groups A and B, the mean ages were 52 and 51.4 years olds, the male to female ratios 1:2.7 and 1:1.08, and the mean operative times 88.8 and 91.1minutes (P=0.740), respectively. The conversion rates were 3% and the time of postoperative diet was 2.3 days in both groups. The rates of drain insertion were 21% and 15% (P=0.372), the hospital stay was 5.4 days and 5.6 days (P=0.769), the morbidity was 4% and 1% (P=0.371), respectively. There were no cases of mortality in either group. Conclusion: The operative results of the patients with a history of previous abdominal surgery were similar to those of the patients without an operative history. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was an effective and safe method in the patients with a history of previous abdominal surgery.


Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV." 2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority of poems, explore the gulf between his own class background and his education and the powerlessness of the inarticulate. Tony Harrison belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. His literary prowess resulted in a breakdown in the relationship he shared with his father due to his father's lack of understanding of his literary creations. It was during this period that the mother held their relationship together, but when she passed away the bond ended and Harrison and his father became estranged. This alienation not only forms the background of his personal life but also the primary source for his literary achievements. An elegy not only refers to poems that mourn the death of someone, but poems echoing estrangement and alienation also fall under the genre of elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead and those grieving, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some extent in Tony Harrison's poems, especially in the chosen ones, Bookends, Long Distance and Background Material, thus rendering them to be elegiac in tone.


BACKGROUND
This study compares the impact of the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy on lunch consumption of low- and middle-income students in sixth through eighth grades.

METHODS
Students in 1 middle socioeconomic status (SES) and 1 low SES school completed lunch food records before (2001/2002) and after (2005/2006) implementation of the Texas policy. Students recorded amount and source of foods/beverages consumed. Two-way analyses of variance with year and school SES as factors were performed to compare consumption by school SES before and after implementation of the Texas policy.

RESULTS
Regardless of year, the low SES group consumed less fat, sweetened beverages, and candy and more vitamin C and calcium than the middle SES group. There were more significant improvements in dietary patterns for the middle SES school students post-policy, particularly from the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) meal. The middle SES school students reported significantly higher percentages of less healthy items from home post-policy.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, low SES school students consumed more healthy lunches at school compared with middle SES school students, and the Texas policy improved middle SES school student dietary intakes. Whether the dietary behaviors in school influence dietary intake for the entire day is unknown.


We propose a software engineering process to aid the development of Dynamic Software Architectures (DSAs). This process is based on the sequential application of a number of formal methods and tools, and it can support software architects throughout the design, analysis and code generation of software systems. To illustrate the process, we apply it to an industrial case study from the Service Oriented Computing (SOC) domain.


A framework to identify critical executable paths in an acyclic synthesizable very-high-speed integrated circuits hardware description language or software code is presented. It can be used effectively in a variety of problems that include compiler-level architectural optimization for improved performance and static software timing analysis. The approach is path implicit and scalable. The set of executable paths is stored implicitly using zero-suppressed binary decision diagrams. Functions that represent condition statements at the basic blocks are manipulated using binary decision diagrams. Postprocessing algorithms on the canonical data structures identify critical paths and other useful metrics such as a most frequently used critical path. Experimental results demonstrate the scalability of the proposed method.


Foreign body in the ear could be seen in clinical practice. We presented this case as a case report, beacuse we

 could not see a case in literature like ours.

 Key Words: Eustachian Tube, Ear Foreign Bodies, Artifact


Thank you for downloading a students guide to the seashore. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their favorite books like this a students guide to the seashore, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful virus inside their laptop. a students guide to the seashore is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our digital library hosts in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the a students guide to the seashore is universally compatible with any devices to read.


With the emergence of virtual environments, even ordinary computer users can drag-and-drop 3d objects (cities, buildings, furniture, instruments, controls, animals and avatars) from galleries and arrange them to create attractive cyber-worlds. We have created a virtual concert application using Alice, a 3d rapid prototyping programming environment, in which instruments are arranged around a virtual conductor (in this case the user) located at their center. A user-conductor with a smartphone can use it as a simplified baton, pointing at a preferred instrument and tapping to select or start playing. When selected, an instrument is jiggled or its components dilated and contracted, and a spotlight appears until the instrument is muted, providing the conductor and audience with visual cues about the ensemble. One can also adjust volume/panning of a selected instrument by sliding corresponding controls on the smart-phone screen. Alice 3 (Beta) provides a rich api to control and display objects, but native audio capabilities are limited to playing an audio file and adjusting individual volume before playing. Using a plugin for NetBeans, Alice programs (scenarios) can be edited as Java code outside Alice. With the Java Sound api, which provides more complete control for controlling sampled audio and midi, we implement audio-related functions to the virtual concert. Smartphones have magnetometers that can be used to detect yaw, which data is acquired through a compatible programming language and library. Spatial information of smartphones can be accessed using the platform's api and transmitted to a collaborative virtual environment (cve) session server via Wi--Fi. A middleware program, the "Alice--Cve Bridge," retrieves these events through the server and selects/plays/adjusts instruments in the Alice-rendered virtual environment. Such explorations suggest the power of emerging mobile devices as generalized remote controls for interactive multimedia and ubiquitous computing.


Neisseria Meningitidis is a pathogenic bacteria responsible for a wide range of serious disease, including septsis and meningitis especially in children and infants. In contrast Neisseria lac/arnica which resides m the same ecological niche as N.meningitidis, the nasopharynx, does not cause disease and is commensal. It was found that the two species of Neisseria have converse carriage rates where N.lactamica has a protecthe role <ner N.meningitidis colonization in infants. The two species have similar structural components and genes but very different pathogenesis. It is clear that N.meningitidis adheres and invades host cells whereas N.lactamica does not invade. Adhesion of N.lactamica seems to occur mostly around the sides of the cell rather than the apex or base. Adhesion numbers of N.lactamica increase with time of infection with a greater increase from 4 to 6 hours rather than 2 to 4 hours of infection. Adhesion rates in relation to N.meningitidis adhesion numbers were less which may be dye to greater adhesive ability of As meningitidis. Inhibitor treatment of epithelial cells and thus, a decrease in cellular inflammatory response, resulted in agre-Mei J gree of adhesion and again from 4 to 6 hours, the increase in adhesion numbers mere vi eater than from. 2 to 4 hours. Supernatant quantifications showed an increase in N.Lietantiea with time,which may reflect growth of bacteria dining the course of infection. Further experimentations with advanced techniques such as con focal microscopy and more repeats of the gentamycin assay would yield more promising results. Also, the analysis of supernatant for inflammatory mediators, bactericidal compounds, and bacterial by products is necessary in order to determine the dynamics of adhesion of N.lactamica.


The DNA-binding, transcriptional activation and transforming activities of the Myc protein require dimerization with Max. Max can form also homodimers which are able to bind the same DNA sequence as Myc/Max heterodimers and suppress Myc-induced transcription and transformation. We have recently identified a naturally occurring truncated form of Max, delta Max, which in a rat embryo fibroblast enhances transformation by Myc and Ras. Like Max, this delta Max protein contains a b-HLH-Zip domain, except that the end of the leucine zipper is replaced by five delta Max-specific amino acid residues. Delta Max also lacks the C-terminal sequences of Max including a nuclear localisation signal. Here we have dissected the regions responsible for the specific effects of Max and delta Max in Ras-Myc cotransformation of rat embryo fibroblasts. Our results indicate that the suppressive activity of Max requires C-terminal acidic and basic regions and an intact leucine zipper. Replacement of the end of the leucine zipper with the delta Max-specific sequence is responsible for the enhancement of transformation by delta Max. Surprisingly, delta Max does not require the DNA-binding basic region for enhancement of transformation and has no effect on Myc-induced transcription activation from Myc/Max-binding site-containing promoter construct.


Dual chamber pacemaker therapy was considered to be the optimal treatment for most patients with symptomatic bradycardias. During the last decade, the percentage of dual chamber pacing increased to more than 60% in the United States and Western Europe. Yet, recent multicenter trials (CTOPP, MOST, UKPACE) on dual chamber pacemaker therapy failed to demonstrate a clear prognostic advantage compared to single chamber ventricular pacing. Moreover, clinical benefits of dual chamber pacing like a lower incidence of atrial arrhythmias, a reduction of hospitalization for heart failure or quality of life improvements were lower than expected or even absent. This article discusses the above mentioned studies and their limitations, reviews the increasing evidence for avoiding right (apical) ventricular stimulation and presents current approaches to differential pacemaker therapy.


Growing business literature reveals concerns about the quality and level of preparedness of business graduates entering the labor market. This study focused on the competencies, skills, and traits business students perceived as important for being a successful employee. Two hundred and sixty nine studentparticipants from four business disciplines at a regional state university in Eastern Kentucky were randomly recruited to complete a 60-item survey. Participants rated the importance of traits and qualities as well as academic knowledge/subjects. The results indicated that participants categorized various traits and qualities of successful business professionals, suggested by experts and scholars (Beggs, 2012; Kavanagh, & Drennan, 2008; Kesner, 2008; Hall et al, 1995) into eight constructs. Students rated personal principles such as work ethic, teamwork, and learning/coach-ability highly, but they failed to recognizethe importance of having internship experience and developing strong writing skills. Students also tended to highlight the importance of the academic subjects "business ethics" and "marketing & entrepreneurship." This finding seemed to be synchronized with findings of past studies (Wardrope, 2002). In conclusion, this study addresses ways to utilize these findings to revise business curriculum and improve the skills and knowledge of students.


"Fire together, wire together" is the famous abridged version of the Hebbian rule. It states that neurons in the brain adapt during the learning process, a mechanism which is called neuronal plasticity. Hebb's theory dates back to the 1940s and subsequent research in neuroscience has further corroborated it. Today, we also know that different factors play a critical role, such as timing of firing, order of activity, and functional connectivity, as cutting-edge technologies allow examining subcellular processes with extraordinary precision.


Capecitabine is a fluoropyrimidine-based drug that offers physicians a more convenient treatment for advanced colorectal cancer (CRC), with manageable toxicity and antitumor activity comparable to that of continuous-infusion therapies with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). However, there are no validated and established predictive factors for clinical outcome of capecitabine efficacy in CRC. The gene expressions of the pyrimidine metabolism enzymes dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), thymidine phosphorylase (TP) and thymidylate synthase (TS) have previously been shown to be response determinants of fluoropyrimidine-based drugs in various tumors. Therefore, we investigated whether intratumoral mRNA expression levels of these genes are also associated with the clinical outcome of patients with metastatic CRC treated with first-line capecitabine. Thirty-seven patients with metastatic CRC were enrolled in this study and treated with single agent capecitabine. The intratumoral mRNA levels of DPD, TP and TS were assessed from paraffin-embedded tissue samples using laser-capture-microdissection methods and quantitative real-time PCR. There were 20 women and 17 men with a median age of 61 years (range 49-74). The median progression-free survival was 6.7 months (95% CI, 4.8-11.6 months), with a median follow-up of 14.4 months (range 1.3-18.7 months). Complete response was observed in 1 (3%), partial response in 6 (20%), stable disease in 14 (47%) and progressive disease in 9 (30%) patients (response was inevaluable in 7 patients). Higher gene expression levels of DPD were associated with resistance to capecitabine (P=0.032; Kruskal-Wallis test). Patients with a lower mRNA amount of DPD (<or=0.46) had a longer progression-free survival compared with patients that had a higher mRNA amount (8.0 vs. 3.3 months; adjusted P=0.048; log-rank test). This pilot study suggests that intratumoral gene expression levels of DPD may be useful in predicting the clinical outcome of patients with metastatic CRC with first-line single agent capecitabine treatment. Our data should be validated in larger and prospective clinical trials.


Abstract This paper develops a new dual-frequency precise point positioning model, which combines GPS and Galileo observables. The addition of Galileo satellite system offers more visible satellites to the user, which is expected to enhance the satellite geometry and the overall PPP solution in comparison with GPS-only PPP solution. However, combining GPS and Galileo observables introduces additional biases, which require rigorous modelling, including the GPS to Galileo time offset, and Galileo satellite hardware delay. In this research, a GPS/Galileo ionosphere-free linear combination PPP model is developed. The additional biases of the GPS/Galileo combination are lumped and accounted for through the introduction of a new unknown parameter, inter-systems bias, in the PPP mathematical model. It is shown that a subdecimeter positioning accuracy level and 25% reduction in the solution convergence time can be achieved with the developed GPS/Galileo PPP model.


The pathogenesis of cluster headache remains unexplained and the immunological mechanisms have not been studied in this disease. Suspecting a possible allergic character of headache attacks it was decided to determine the haemolytic activity of the complement system and the levels of its C3 and C4 components. The investigations were carried out in 11 patients with cluster headache and in 10 patients with neurotic symptoms who served as controls. It was found that the levels of complement and its C4 fraction were not different in both groups but the level of C3 fraction showed a statistically significant difference. The authors discuss the obtained results and postulate continuation of investigations.


Because of small kernel,high efficiency and openning codes,Linux operating system have been more and more used in embedded development.In this article the process of Linux porting was analyzed,including the establishment of compiling environment,changes and porting bootloader codes,and kernel's porting.A method of Linux porting was given.At last,it took a practice on S3C2410 based on ARM,which proved its feasibility.


The unique wavelength-dependent resonance enhanced multiphonon ionization (REMPI) spectrum of a molecular species provides a means of selectively ionizing that particular species. Coupled with high sensitivity for the detection of any ions subsequently formed makes the REMPI technique attractive for trace analysis. REMPI 'fingerprints' of some aromatic molecules and their fragments have been recorded in a high vacuum quadrupole system and detection of aniline as an impurity in nitrobenzene has been demonstrated in a simple ion chamber with no mass selectivity.


To breastfeed is a right of women and infants. However, breastfeeding is viewed as a " Private domain" rather than as a "public domain" issue. Many people therefore think that it is unnecessary to use public policy to solve problems associated with breastfeeding. Nurses, due to heavy work loads and responsibilities, and shift rotation, have to face many difficulties when they combine breastfeeding and work. Since the question of whether nurses may successfully breastfeed their offspring in the workplace is one of particular significance, this article considers the importance of breastfeeding in the workplace and nurses experiences thereof, and the international criteria for a friendly breastfeeding workplace for women, in order to discuss ways in which Taiwan's health care institutions should create breastfeeding-friendly environment.


This work presents the development of a solar powered public illumination system used for a waste recycle campaign in the city of Sao Paulo (Brazil). A lighting pole is installed in a street for area illumination. It has a translucent sign vinyl which shines in the sun and glows at night with fluorescent lamps; there are stainless steel receptacles used as recycle trash bin collectors at the base of the pole. The intented use of such a photovoltaic array to power the glassy advertisement works as a way of bringing solar energy into daily use, and to encourage companies in funding local recycle awareness campaigns. Solar energy is captured by a photovoltaic solar panel and delivered into a lead-acid battery through a flyback converter. The converter also performs the function of tracking the maximum power operating conditions. At night, a resonant push-pull current-fed inverter drives a fluorescent lamp. The system is controlled by a RISC PIC16C74 microcontroller, which searches the maximum power point by commanding the flyback converter with a hill-climbing algorithm, monitors the battery energy level, and turns on the fluorescent inverter with a real-time internal clock. Serial communication is provided for connection to a portable computer, which is used for battery life management and time clock settings. The paper shows the implementation of the whole system and describes comprehensive field tests.


In human adults, new blood vessels may form in two ways: via endothelial sprouting from pre-existing endothelial cells/angioblasts (angiogenesis) or via the peripheral recruitment of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) (vasculogenesis). EPCs, which have been recently discovered, are a population of bone marrow-derived cells capable of differentiating into mature endothelial cells, and participating in the formation of new blood vessels. The molecular phenotype of EPCs and processes leading to their mobilization from bone marrow and homing to neovascularization sites remain unclear. There is still debate regarding methods for their quantification and isolation. Evidence is growing for vascular involvement in inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Recent studies suggest that EPCs in rheumatoid arthritis are involved in synovial vascularization, and may contribute to the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, known features of this disease. Data available in systemic sclerosis is consistent with the hypothesis that EPCs are recruited during active disease; however, their levels may be depleted as the disease progresses and under chronic ischemic conditions. Other inflammatory disorders have not yet been investigated. EPCs are important in vasculogenesis, and may be involved in other features of inflammatory rheumatic disorders. There are various interesting pathophysiological aspects to these cells, for example as pathogenic actors and/or biomarkers, and which may have therapeutic significance.


A variance of opinion exists as to what clinically constitutes chronic tonsillitis 1 and the relationship which it bears to infections of the upper respiratory tract and certain systemic diseases. It has long been recognized that the tonsils as the site of chronic infection may be responsible for general disorders, 2 but a study of the recent literature 3 clearly shows that the mere removal of the tonsils only too often offers no panacea and indeed may have little or no influence on the subsequent course of the supposed associated disease. The uncertain status of tonsillectomy in such cases reasonably suggests a need of further investigation. With this object in view a study was undertaken to correlate the bacteriologic and pathologic observations on a group of twenty-five adult patients with a clinical diagnosis of chronic tonsillitis for whom tonsillectomy was recommended. The clinical criteria for the diagnosis of


ABSTRACT Drag has long been part of the LGBTQ rights movement. Drag performers play an important role as community leaders and political activists. Today, drag performers are also popular celebrities in the rest of society. This article explores the role of drag performers as community leaders and celebrities in the context of the 2020 presidential election. To understand this, we interviewed drag performers about their experiences using drag to mobilize voters. Research shows that Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts are more successful if they are led by volunteers and include trusted messengers while still being unexpected in some way. Drag performers are community leaders and volunteers and, when speaking about politics, deliver unexpected—and thus memorable—messages. The drag performers that we interviewed demonstrate the potential for drag artists to be effective GOTV messengers, in both the LGBTQ community and society more broadly.


Aluminium metal foam panels can be formed by laser bending without collapse of the cell structure and with relatively large bending angles. A diode laser having the power set to 100 W and three scan rates (4, 6, and 8 mm/s) were used in the experiments. The maximum number of passes was 150 and a flow protective gas was provided on the processed zone of two panels different in density. In the paper are investigated the obtained values of the bending angles, the microstructure in the deformation zone of the AlSiMg metallic foam panels deformed by laser bending.


The rapid development platform based on ZE5 SoC and uC/OS-Ⅱ real-time operating system is the main research issue in this paper.It provides a fast,flexible,customizable microcontroller hardware and software development environment of single-chip computer to save time and cost.


RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES
To assess the accuracy of logistic regression (LR) and artificial neural networks (NN) in the diagnosis of calvarial lesions using computed tomography (CT) and to establish the importance of the different features needed for the diagnosis.

METHODS
One hundred sixty-seven patients with calvarial lesions as the only known disease were enrolled. The clinical and CT data were used for LR and NN models. Both models were tested with the leave-one-out method. The final results of each model were compared using the area under receiver operating characteristic curves (Az).

RESULTS
Of the lesions, 73.1%, were benign and 26.9% were malignant. There was no statistically significant difference between LR and NN in differentiating malignancy. In characterizing the histologic diagnoses, NN was statistically superior to LR. Important NN features needed for malignancy classification were age and edge definition, and for the histologic diagnoses matrix, marginal sclerosis, and age.

CONCLUSION
NNs offer wide possibilities over statistics for the study of calvarial lesions other than their superior diagnostic performance.


Abstract Rebels have become the most prolific users of landmines but still display significant variation in how they employ and restrict the weapon's use. This article argues that how rebels exercise restraint on landmine use depends on which audiences they rely on most. In a comparative case study of three Philippine rebel groups—the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the New People's Army—this article highlights three main findings. First, rebels reliant on voluntary compliance from local communities are more likely to limit the effects of landmines on their perceived constituency. Second, when rebels have conciliatory relations with the government, they are more likely to comply with national law, reciprocate government behavior, and limit the effects of landmines on the government's constituents. Finally, rebels seeking legitimacy from human-rights-conscious foreign sponsors are more likely to comply with international law related to landmine use.


Introduction Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values—the basic statistics behind using and interpreting screening and diagnostic tests—are taught in all medical schools, yet studies have shown that a majority of physicians cannot correctly define and apply these concepts. Previous work has not rigorously examined this disconnect and attempted to address it. Methods We used adult learning theory to design a case-based interactive workshop to review biostatistics and apply them to clinical decision-making using Bayes' theorem. Participants took an anonymous multiple-choice pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest on definitions and application of the concepts, and we compared the scores between the three tests. Several experiences with early iterations provided feedback to improve the workshop but were not included for analysis. Results We conducted the finalized workshop with 54 pediatrics students, residents, and faculty. All learners completed the immediate pre- and posttests, and eight completed the delayed posttest. Average scores rose from 4.5/8 (56%) on the pretest to 6.5/8 (81%) on the posttest and 6.4/8 (80%) on the delayed posttest. Two-tailed t tests showed p < .001 for the difference between the pretest and both posttests, and post hoc power analysis showed a power of 99% to detect the observed differences. There was no significant difference (p = .8) between the posttest and delayed posttest. Discussion Our work demonstrates that an interactive workshop reviewing basic biostatistics and teaching rational diagnostic testing using Bayes' theorem can be effective in connecting theoretical knowledge of biostatistics to evidence-based decision-making in real clinical practice.


Report on an unusual suicidal attempt by a separating disc (grinding disc). The patient inflicted himself incisions on both wrists, the occiput and the throat between the hyoid-bone and the thyroid cartilage. The hypopharynx was severed up to the posterior wall and the left jugular vein was cut completely. Due to the immediate care by the physician, the patient survived.


This paper presents a solution procedure for the PDF solution of the response of nonlinear oscillators under Poisson white noise. The exponential-polynomial closure (EPC) method is employed to fulfill this task. A van der Pol oscillator and a Duffing oscillator are further investigated in the case of nonzero mean response, respectively. When the polynomial order n increases to 6, the result of the EPC method is in good agreement with the simulation, particularly in the tail region of the PDF. The analysis shows that the non-zero mean PDF is not symmetrically distributed about its mean unlike the case of the zero-mean PDF. The numerical analysis also shows that the result obtained with the EPC method (n=2) is same as that from equivalent linearization method with which the result differs significantly from the simulation result.


Various organophosphorus ligands with a combination of different donor sites were synthesized and evaluated by solvent extraction studies for the complexation of Am(III)/Eu(III). Among the ligands with a glycolamide backbone, those with mixed amide and PO donor sites and a central oxygen or nitrogen atom showed a reasonable extraction of Am(III) and Eu(III). Ligands with a central oxygen atom exhibited selectivity towards Eu(III), and those with a central nitrogen atom towards Am(III). Ligands with PS donor sites and a glycolamide backbone did not show any reasonable extraction. Amongst the ligands with a malonamide backbone, high extraction efficiency was observed for the ligand with electron-rich substituents on phosphorus, however, with almost no discrimination between Am(III) and Eu(III). The extraction efficiency of different ligands towards Eu(III) was confirmed by microcalorimetry.


We hypothesized that elevated partial pressures of O(2) would increase perivascular nitric oxide (*NO) synthesis. Rodents with O(2)- and.NO-specific microelectrodes implanted adjacent to the abdominal aorta were exposed to O(2) at partial pressures from 0.2 to 2.8 atmospheres absolute (ATA). Exposures to 2.0 and 2.8 ATA O(2) stimulated neuronal (type I) NO synthase (nNOS) and significantly increased steady-state.NO concentration, but the mechanism for enzyme activation differed at each partial pressure. At both pressures, elevations in.NO concentration were inhibited by the nNOS inhibitor 7-nitroindazole and the calcium channel blocker nimodipine. Enzyme activation at 2.0 ATA O(2) appeared to be due to an altered cellular redox state. Exposure to 2.8 ATA O(2), but not 2.0 ATA O(2), increased nNOS activity by enhancing nNOS association with calmodulin, and an inhibitory effect of geldanamycin indicated that the association was facilitated by heat shock protein 90. Infusion of superoxide dismutase inhibited.NO elevation at 2.8 but not 2.0 ATA O(2). Hyperoxia increased the concentration of.NO associated with hemoglobin. These findings highlight the complexity of oxidative stress responses and may help explain some of the dose responses associated with therapeutic applications of hyperbaric oxygen.


This paper describes an anomaly target detection algorithm based on JPEG images. The algorithm deals directly with JPEG image data eliminating JPEG image decoding process. The algorithm extracts the JPEG DC parameters, and then compares two frames of adjacent DC parameters to determine whether the abnormal targets appear. Compared to the YUV image data processing methods, it costs less storage space, access time and computation, which is more suitable for embedded systems with limited resources. Finally, the simulation results of the algorithm are given.


By treating gaseous, liquid, or solid fluorides with UV-photolyzed O2/F2 mixtures and by treating solid oxides with UV-photolyzed F2 (or O2/F2 mixtures) in liquid anhydrous HF at ambient temperature, we investigated the possibility of the preparation of O2MIIIF4 (M = B, Fe, Co, Ag), O2MIVF5 (M = Ti, Sn, Pb), (O2)2MIVF6 (M = Ti, Ge, Sn, Pb, Pd, Ni, Mn), O2MIV2F9 (M = Sn), O2MVF6 (M = As, Sb, Au, Pt), O2MV2F11 (M = Pt), O2MVIF7 (M = Se), (O2)2MVIF8 (M = Mo, W), and O2MVIIF8 (M = I). The approach has been successful in the case of previously known O2BF4, O2MF6 (M = As, Sb, Au; Pt), O2GeF5, and (O2)2(Ti7F30). Novel compounds O2GeF5·HF, α-O2Sn2F9 (1-D), and the HF-solvated and nonsolvated forms of β-O2Sn2F9 (2-D) were synthesized and their crystal structures determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structures of all of these materials arise from the condensation of octahedral MF6 (M = Ge, Sn) units. The anion in the crystal structure of O2GeF5·HF is comprised of infinite ([GeF5]−)∞ chains of GeF6 octahedra that share common vertices. The HF molecules and O2+ cations are located between the chains. The crystal structure of α-O2SnF9 (1-D) is constructed from [O2]+ cations and polymeric ([Sn2F9]−)∞ anions which appear as two parallel infinite chains comprised of SnF6 units, where each SnF6 unit of one chain is connected to a SnF6 unit of the second chain through a shared fluorine vertex. The single-crystal structure determination of [O2][Sn2F9]·0.9HF reveals that it is comprised of two-dimensional ([Sn2F9]−)∞ grids with [O2]+ cations and HF molecules located between them. The 2-D grids have a wavelike conformation. The ([Sn2F9]−)∞ layer contains both six- and seven-coordinated Sn(IV) atoms that are interconnected by bridging fluorine atoms. A new, more complex [O2]+ salt, O2[Hg(HF)]4[SbF6]9, was prepared. In its crystal structure, the Hg atoms bridge to SbF6 units to form a 3-D framework. The O2+ cations are located inside the voids while the HF molecules are bound to Hg atoms through the F atom. Attempts to prepare several chlorine analogues of O2+ fluorine salts (i.e., O2TiCl5 and O2MCl6 (M = Nb, Sb)) failed.


Concrete subjected to combined compressive stresses and temperature loading exhibits compressive strains, which are considerably greater than for concrete subjected to compressive stresses alone. This phenomenon is called transient thermal creep or load induced thermal strain and is usually modeled by macroscopic phenomenological constitutive laws which have only limited predictive capabilities. In the present study a meso-scale modeling approach is proposed in which the macroscopically observed transient thermal creep results from the mismatch of thermal expansions of the meso-scale constituents. The meso-structure of concrete is idealized as a two-dimensional three phase material consisting of aggregates, matrix and interfacial transition zones (ITZ). The nonlinear material response of the phases are described by a damage-plasticity interface model. The meso-scale approach was applied to analyze compressed concrete specimens subjected to uniform temperature histories and the analysis results were compared to experimental results reported in the literature.


Background: Heart failure (HF) guidelines recommend assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to classify patients and guide therapy implementation. However, LVEF alone may be insufficient to adequately characterize patients with HF, especially those with mildly reduced or preserved LVEF. Recommendations on additional testing are lacking, and there are limited data on use of echocardiographic features beyond LVEF in patients with heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved LVEF. Methods: In patients with HF with mildly reduced or preserved LVEF identified in a large US health care system, the association of the following metrics with mortality was evaluated: LV global longitudinal strain (LV GLS>–16), left atrial volume index (>28 mL/m2), left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and E/e´>13 and e´<9. A multivariable model for mortality was constructed including age, sex, and key comorbidities followed by stepwise selection of echocardiographic features. Characteristics and outcomes of subgroups with normal versus abnormal LV GLS and LVEF were evaluated. Results: Among 2337 patients with complete echocardiographic data assessed between 2017 and 2020, the following features were associated with all-cause mortality on univariate analysis over 3 years of follow-up: E/e´+e´, LV GLS, left atrial volume index (all P<0.01). In the multivariable model (C-index=0.65), only abnormal LV GLS was independently associated with all-cause mortality (HR, 1.35 [95% CI, 1.11–1.63]; P=0.002). Among patients with LVEF>55%, 498/1255 (40%) demonstrated abnormal LV GLS. Regardless of specific LVEF, patients with abnormal LV GLS demonstrated a higher burden of multiple comorbidities and higher event rates compared with patients with normal LV GLS. Conclusions: In a large, real-world HF with mildly reduced or preserved LVEF population, echocardiographic features, led by LV GLS, were associated with adverse outcomes irrespective of LVEF. A large proportion of patients demonstrate adverse myocardial function by LV GLS despite preserved LVEF and may represent a key cohort of interest for HF medical therapies and future clinical studies.


Background: Detailed descriptions of acute pulmonary emboli (PE) morphology, total embolic volume (TEV), and their effects upon patients' clinical presentation and prognosis remain largely unexplored.Methods and Results: We studied 201 subjects with acute PE to the emergency department of a single medical center from April 2009 to December 2014. Patient hemodynamics, Troponin I and D-dimer levels, echocardiography, and the mortality at 30- and 90-days were obtained. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) of pulmonary structures and 3-dimensional measures of embolic burden were performed. The results showed a linear association between the greater TEV and each of the following 4 variables (increasing incidence of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction, higher systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP), greater RV diameter, and RV/left ventricular (LV) ratio (all p < 0.001)). Among the measures of CT and echocardiography, TEV and RV/LV ratio were significantly associated with impending shock. In backward stepwise logistic regression, TEV, age and respiratory rate remained independent associated with impending shock (OR: 1.58, 1.03, 1.18, respectively and all p < 0.005).Conclusions: Total embolic burden assessed by CT-based quantification serves as a useful index for stressed cardiopulmonary circulation condition and can provide insights into RV dysfunction and the prediction of impending shock.


In the last decade, instruction-set simulators have become an essential development tool for the design of new programmable architectures. Consequently, the simulator performance is a key factor for the overall design efficiency. Based on the extremely poor performance of commonly used interpretive simulators, research work on fast compiled instruction-set simulation was started ten years ago. However, due to the restrictiveness of the compiled technique, it has not been able to push through in commercial products. This paper presents a new retargetable simulation technique which combines the performance of traditional compiled simulators with the flexibility of interpretive simulation. This technique is not limited to any class of architectures or applications and can be utilized from architecture exploration up to end-user software development. The work-flow and the applicability of the so-called just-in-time cache compiled simulation (JIT-CCS) technique will be demonstrated by means of state of the art real world architectures.


Objective Associations between hospital treatment volume and survival outcomes for women with 3 types of gynecologic malignancies, and the trends and contributing factors for high-volume centers were examined. Methods The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology tumor registry databased retrospective study examined 206,845 women with 80,741, 73,647, and 52,457 of endometrial, cervical, and ovarian tumor, respectively, who underwent primary treatment in Japan between 2004 and 2015. Associations between the annual treatment volume and overall survival (OS) for each tumor type were examined using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model with restricted cubic splines. Institutions were categorized into 3 groups (low-, moderate-, and high-volume centers) based on hazard risks. Results Hazard ratio (HR) for OS each the 3 tumors decreased with hospital treatment volume. The cut-off points of treatment volume were defined for high- (≥50, ≥51, and ≥27), moderate- (20–49, 20–50, and 17–26), and low-volume centers (≤19, ≤19, and ≤16) by cases/year for endometrial, cervical, and ovarian tumors, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed younger age, rare tumor histology, and initial surgical management as contributing factors for women at high-volume centers (all, p<0.001). The proportion of high-volume center treatments decreased, whereas low-volume center treatments increased (all p<0.001). Treatment at high-volume centers improved OS than that at other centers (adjusted HR [aHR]=0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.78–0.88; aHR=0.78, 95% CI=0.75–0.83; and aHR=0.90, 95% CI=0.86–0.95 for endometrial, cervical, and ovarian tumors). Conclusion Hospital treatment volume impacted survival outcomes. Treatments at high-volume centers conferred survival benefits for women with gynecologic malignancies. The proportion of treatments at high-volume centers have been decreasing recently.


In Hungary, the long, honorable tradition of scholarly folkloristics marks folklore and its study as perfectly distinct. No scholar understands that distinctiveness better than Vilmos Voigt, longtime chair of the folklore department at Loránd Eötvös University, in Budapest. Ceaselessly active in international conferences, he deserves still more recognition. The twentyfive articles (originally published from 1969 to 1992) in this book are addressed to fellow folklorists and chosen from a prolific output; they all point to directions for future folklorists. Most are very short: they condense huge amounts of reading and always lead toward terse remarks on what has been and could be done. With its enormous range of reference, the book is well titled. It suggests a systematic theory of folklore, or at least of folk literature, that has not yet come into being. That theory proposes, with Bogatyrev and Jakobson, that folklore is "a special form of creative art" (p. 27) made by admirable creators (pp. 193–200). Folk literature must be distinguished from literary art and from simple oral communication (though how the separation is to be made remains problematic; p. 70). At some periods in the author's thinking, at least, folklore is "the whole social consciousness of the subjected classes in a class-society" (p. 221, with references to other occurrences of this formulation). Genre in folklore, which requires accurate definition, is prior to the item: it "incorporates the traditions, the frames indispensable to the creation, performing, reception and transmission of the works of folklore, and is the most important means also of social 'control'" (p. 73). The hierarchy of genres is determined by social factors (p. 74). For folktale, the most important research is to reconstruct the history of the genre (pp. 135–41, a prodigious survey of research). Interpretation of folklore up to now has followed behind literary interpretation (p. 298). A receiver's spontaneous interpretation of a tale is its "meaning"; the scholar's interpretation moves into semantics or semiotic. A reader should begin with the twentieth paper in the collection, "La Belle Dame sans Merci," on heart-stealing, which connects with the work of David Hufford and Gábor Klaniczay and brilliantly illustrates the sweep of comparative folkloristics. Another paper shows Vilmos Voigt to have been a pioneer in studying "folklorism," which he systematically presents on the basis of his clear separation between folklore and nonfolklore (pp. 185–92). His work on structuralism discusses all the challenges: the segmentation of the material, transformational rules within a genre, accounting for variability, and the multiplicity of levels. It even speculates about the correlation between structural analysis and the existence of narrative universals (pp. 76–91). In short, the number and variety of this author's topics and references reflects a formidably ambitious idea of folklore, which we could well embrace.


The present paper deals with the new opportunities deriving from the interconnections of the European and North African transmission systems. In order to achieve a single international market for electricity exchanges, interconnections between networks in different countries are becoming increasingly important and Sicily, for its geographical position in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, will undoubtedly play an important role as an electrical bridge between Europe and the North Africa in the near future. The paper, presenting the actual electro-energetic context of Tunisia, reports the new important interconnection already realized in South Italy (in particular in Sicily) and describe the planned interventions of the near future. In the second part of the paper, using the Neplan software package (10.7.4, NEPLAN AG, CH-8700 Kusnacht (ZH), Switzerland) for simulating the grid, some load flows are carried out to check some operating scenarios (2020 and 2025) considering energy flows from north to south, avoiding system violations.


[1] Spherical aggregates named clay-clast aggregates (CCAs) have been reported from recent investigations on retrieved clay-bearing fault gouges from shallow depth seismogenic faults and rotary shear experiments conducted on clay-bearing gouge at seismic slip rates. The formation of CCAs appears to be related to the shearing of a smectite-rich granular material that expands and becomes fluidized. We have conducted additional high-velocity rotary shear experiments and low-velocity double-shear experiments. We demonstrate that a critical temperature depending on dynamic pressure-temperature conditions is needed for the formation of CCAs. This temperature corresponds to the phase transition of pore water from liquid to vapor or to critical, which induced gouge pore fluid expansion and therefore a thermal pressurization of the fault. A detailed examination by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX-SEM) element mapping, SEM, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows strong similar characteristics of experimental and natural CCAs with a concentric well-organized fabric of the cortex and reveals that their development may result from the combination of electrostatic and capillary forces in a critical reactive medium during the dynamic slip weakening. Accordingly, the occurrence of CCAs in natural clay-rich fault gouges constitutes new unequivocal textural evidence for shallow depth thermal pressurization and consequently for past seismic faulting.


T lymphocytes from many patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) express decreased levels of the T cell receptor (TCR)-associated CD3 zeta (ζ) signaling chain, a feature directly linked to their abnormal phenotype and function. Reduced mRNA expression partly due to defective alternative splicing, contributes to the reduced expression of CD3ζ chain. We previously identified by oligonucleotide pulldown and mass spectrometry approaches, the serine arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1) binding to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of CD3ζ mRNA. We showed that SRSF1 regulates alternative splicing of the 3'UTR of CD3ζ to promote expression of the normal full length 3`UTR over an unstable splice variant in human T cells. In this study we show that SRSF1 regulates transcriptional activation of CD3ζ. Specifically, overexpression and silencing of SRSF1 respectively increases and decreases CD3ζ total mRNA and protein expression in Jurkat and primary T cells. Using promoter-luciferase assays, we show that SRSF1 enhances transcriptional activity of the CD3ζ promoter in a dose dependent manner. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays show that SRSF1 is recruited to the CD3ζ promoter. These results indicate that SRSF1 contributes to transcriptional activation of CD3ζ. Thus our study identifies a novel mechanism whereby SRSF1 regulates CD3ζ expression in human T cells and may contribute to the T cell defect in SLE.


Osteoid osteoma is a benign bone forming tumor of the growing skeleton that is most often seen in young men. It represents by pain and radiologic appearance of a nidus surrounded by osteosclerosis that occurs mostly in long bones of the lower extremity. Occurrence of this tumor in the hand is an uncommon condition. A 35 year old right-hand-dominant man presented to our orthopedic and trauma OPD with an approximately 2 year history of right middle finger pain without any history of trauma. He consulted previously with a local doctor and had undergone xray of the hand with no definitive diagnosis. Computed tomography at our institution was consistent with the diagnosis of osteoid osteoma. The patient was treated with surgical excision of the lesion without bone grafting. The diagnosis of osteoid osteoma was confirmed by histopathology. Follow up visit showed complete resolution of pain. In this case demonstrating that osteoid osteoma is an important differential diagnosis in patients with finger pain. Pulse Vol.8 January-December 2015 p.69-72


In this paper, the optimization of computer numerical control (CNC) machining parameters were conducted using the Taguchi design method on the surface quality of massive wooden edge glued panels (EGP) made of European larch (Larix decidua Mill). Three machining parameters and their effects on surface roughness were evaluated. These parameters included tool clearance strategy, spindle speed, and feed rate. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify the significant factors affecting the surface roughness (Ra and Rz). Optimum machining parameter combinations were acquired by conducting an analysis of the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. Optimal cutting performance for the Ra and Rz was obtained for the cutter at a tool clearance strategy of an offset 16000 rpm spindle speed and 1000 mm/min feed rate. The surface roughness, both the Ra and Rz, increased with increasing feed rate. Optimal cutting performance for Ra and Rz was obtained for a tool clearance strategy of an offset 16000 rpm spindle speed, and 1000 mm/min feed rate cutting settings. Based on the confirmation tests, Ra decreased 2.2 times and Rz 1.8 times compared to the starting cutting parameters.


If b is an inner function, then composition with b induces an endomorphism, β, of L∞(T) that leaves H∞(T) invariant. In this document we investigate the structure of the endomorphisms of B(L(T)) and B(H(T)) that implement β via the representations of L∞(T) and H∞(T) in terms of multiplication operators on B(L(T)) and B(H(T)). Our analysis, which was inspired by the work of R. Rochberg and J. McDonald, will range from the theory of composition operators on spaces of analytic functions to recent work on Cuntz families of isometries and Hilbert C∗-modules. Abstract Approved: Thesis SupervisorApproved: Thesis Supervisor Title and Department


This paper presents an exhaustive description of a field programmable gate-array (FPGA) based set-up for envelope tracking and dynamic biasing of RF power amplifiers (PA). The system includes digital adaptive predistortion (DAPD) and gain compensation deployed in a FPGA device. For testing purposes a GaN HEMT RF PA operating at 3.5 GHz was considered. Preliminary experimental results are provided showing the DAPD compensate for the steady-state PA nonlinear distortion arising as a consequence of varying the power supply.


The Ah receptor (AhR) is a ligand-dependent transcription factor that can be activated by structurally diverse synthetic and naturally-occurring chemicals. Although a significant amount of information is available with respect to the planar aromatic hydrocarbon AhR ligands, the actual spectrum of chemicals that can bind to and activate the AhR is only now being elucidated. In addition, the lack of information regarding the actual three-dimensional structure of the AhR ligand binding domain (LBD) has hindered detailed analysis of the molecular mechanisms by which these ligands bind to an active AhR signal transduction. In this review we describe the current state of knowledge with respect to naturally occurring AhR ligands and present and discuss the first theoretical model of the AhR LBD based on crystal structures of homologous PAS family members. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.


The death toll of the elderly by accidents in 2007 takes 6.5% of total death toll. The lost income from this is estimated to be 17 trillion and 511 billion won. According to CISS of Korea Consumer Protection Board, the number of safety related accidents of the elderly at home in 2006 was 486 cases in 2006 and has gradually increased every year. This thesis created 115 guidelines at 14 spaces as facility evaluation index evaluating the aging friendliness of the facility and safety related accidents generated at elderly resident welfare facility, examined influence variables of safety related accidents with 191 elderly including demographic variable, physical skill variable, social psychological variable and facility environmental variables, and then verified relevance between safety accidents and each influence variable. As a result, it was verified through ANOVA test of SAS Package Program and x2- test that facility environmental variable would be closely related to the accident. In this regard, this study newly proposes the facility standards of aging friendly facility by supplementing them with contents and guidelines of facility evaluation table as ways to reduce safety related facility of the elderly.


The potential use of Patterson-methods calculations in the limited refinement of parameters in a molecular fragment is discussed. It is found to be possible to optimize the bond lengths in a partial fragment model in an incomplete or unknown structure. This allows, for example, tautomer discrimination and provision of improved partial model information for further calculations.