This paper describes the equipment and technique used to measure shielding effectiveness* of threaded electrical connectors during vibration. The vibration fixture is a modified coaxial trough of which the connector is a part. The connector is mechanically loaded with a short section of cable. A known current is applied on the shield of this short cable section and across the receptacle/plug interfaces. RF leakage into the interior of the cable is determined by forming the interior wiring of the cable into a closed loop and measuring the current in this loop. The logarithmic ratio of the current in the shield to the current in the interior loop is the shielding effectiveness of the cable-connector combination. The cable shield is composed of brass convolute with a braid covering and provides, by itself, 100 dB isolation. This isolation was demonstrated by testing the shielding effectiveness (S.E.) of a base-line specimen which substituted a brass fitting for the connector. It is demonstrated that this method of testing connectors can be used to determine S.E. under vibration. The method is proposed as a standard method of qualification testing of connectors.


The structure of fully hydrated bilayers comprised of equimolar proportions of palmitoylsphingomyelin (PSM) and cholesterol has been examined by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Two coexisting bilayer structures, which are distinguished by the transbilayer phosphate-phosphate distance of coupled PSM molecules, are observed by diffraction at 37°C. The MD simulations reveal that PSM molecules in the thicker membrane are characterised by more ordered, more extended and less interdigitated hydrocarbon tails compared to those in the thinner membrane. Intermolecular hydrogen bonds further distinguish the two bilayer structures, and we observe the disruption of a sphingomyelin intermolecular hydrogen bond network induced by the proximity of cholesterol. Through an unsupervised clustering of interatomic distances, we show for the first time that the asymmetry of phospholipids is important in driving their interactions with cholesterol. We identify four distinct modes of interaction, two of which lead to the dehydration of cholesterol. These two modes of interaction provide the first description of precise physical mechanisms underlying the Umbrella Model, which itself explains how phospholipids may shield cholesterol from water. The most dehydrating mode of interaction is particular to the N-acylated fatty acid moiety of PSM, and thus explains the long-held observation that cholesterol preferentially mixes with sphingomyelins over glycerophospholipids.


Power consumption of disk based storage systems is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for both commercial and scientific application domains. Prior work proposed several hardware based approaches to reducing disk power consumption by making use of techniques such as spinning down idle disks and rotating them at lower speeds than the maximum speed possible. While such techniques are certainly very important, it is also critical to consider the influence the software can exercise in shaping the power consumption behavior of disk-intensive application programs. Motivated by this, the main goal of this work is to study whether an optimizing compiler can be used for increasing the power benefits that could be obtained from multi-speed disks. Specifically, we propose and experimentally evaluate a compiler-directed energy-aware data prefetching scheme for scientific applications that process disk-resident data sets. This scheme automatically determines the prefetch distance for all disk access instructions, the disk speeds to be employed, and the associated disk layouts (striping parameters) in a unified setting. We implemented the proposed approach within an optimizing compiler framework and conducted experiments with several disk-intensive applications. Our experimental evaluation shows that the proposed approach brings significant reductions in disk energy consumption over a state-of-the-art software-based I/O prefetching mechanism that does not take into account energy consumption explicitly. Our results also show that the energy-aware prefetching scheme does not bring any extra performance penalties and the energy reductions achieved are consistent across a wide spectrum of values of the simulation parameters.


Importance As medical knowledge and clinical practice rapidly evolve over time, there is an imperative to publish results of clinical trials in a timely way and reduce unnecessary delays. Objectives To characterize the age of clinical trial data at the time of publication in journals with a high impact factor and highlight the time from final data collection to publication. Design and Setting A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of all randomized clinical trials published from January 1 through December 31, 2015, in the Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, Lancet, and New England Journal of Medicine. Multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted to assess whether data age (adjusted for follow-up duration) and publication time were associated with trial characteristics. Main Outcomes and Measures The outcome measures were the midpoint of data collection until publication (data age), the time from first participant enrollment to last participant enrollment (enrollment time), and the time from final data collection to publication (publication time). Results There were 341 clinical trials published in 2015 by the 6 journals. For assessment of the primary end point, 37 trials (10.9%) had a follow-up period of less than 1 month, 172 trials (50.4%) had a follow-up period of 1 month to 1 year, and 132 trials (38.7%) had a follow-up period of more than 1 year. For all trials, the median data age at publication was 33.9 months (interquartile range, 23.5-46.3 months). Among trials with a follow-up period of 1 month or less, the median data age was 30.6 months (interquartile range, 18.6-39.0 months). A total of 68 trials (19.9%) required more than 4 years to complete enrollment. The median time from the completion of data collection to publication was 14.8 months (interquartile range, 7.4-22.2 months); publication time was 2 or more years in 63 trials (18.5%). In multivariable regression analyses adjusted for follow-up time, inconclusive or unfavorable trial results were significantly associated with older data age (>235 days). Compared with trials funded only by private industry, trials funded by government were associated with a significantly longer time to publication (>180 days). Conclusions and Relevance Clinical trials in journals with a high impact factor were published with a median data age of nearly 3 years. For a substantial proportion of studies, time for enrollment and time from completion of data collection to publication were quite long, indicating marked opportunities for improvement in clinical trials to reduce data age.


Few-shot learning addresses the the problem of learning based on a small amount of training data. Although more well-studied in the domain of computer vision, recent work has adapted the Amazon Review Sentiment Classification (ARSC) text dataset for use in the few-shot setting. In this work, we use the ARSC dataset to study a simple application of transfer learning approaches to few-shot classification. We train a single binary classifier to learn all few-shot classes jointly by prefixing class identifiers to the input text. Given the text and class, the model then makes a binary prediction for that text/class pair. Our results show that this simple approach can outperform most published results on this dataset. Surprisingly, we also show that including domain information as part of the task definition only leads to a modest improvement in model accuracy, and zero-shot classification, without further fine-tuning on few-shot domains, performs equivalently to few-shot classification. These results suggest that the classes in the ARSC few-shot task, which are defined by the intersection of domain and rating, are actually very similar to each other, and that a more suitable dataset is needed for the study of few-shot text classification.


BackgroundCardiac surgery is the most well-known treatment for cardiovascular diseases, including coronary artery and valvular heart diseases. Following cardiac surgery, systemic inflammatory responses are induced due to myocardial arrest, surgical trauma and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), which lead to greater complications and poorer outcomes in patients. There is growing evidence, that evaluating cellular markers in cardiac surgery patients are promising messengers of inflammation and could predict post-operative inflammatory events. In this study, for the first time, hematological parameters and the ratio of inflammatory cells before, during, and after cardiac surgery are assessed to predict inflammatory complications, such as: acute renal injury (AKI) and atrial fibrillation (AF).Material and MethodsThis retrospective study was performed on patients, who underwent elective open-heart surgery; they referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz during November 2014 - March 2017. The profiles of 400 cardiac surgery patients, who underwent CABG were scanned to evaluate the relationship between hematological parameters, cellular-inflammatory indexes, and inflammatory events before, during, and after cardiac surgery. In this study, AKI was diagnosed based on KIDGO criteria; Electro Cardiogram (ECG) was also used to diagnose AF. The specificity and sensitivity of biomarkers were assessed through the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC).ResultsAccording to the results, the post-operative NLR was significantly associated with AKI (P-Value: 0.03). Serum markers, including BUN and sCr levels were also significantly correlated with AKI and Non-AKI patients in all post-operative periods (P-Value: 0.0001). Hb core related antigen (HbCr) was also associated with AKI as a hematological parameter.ConclusionsThe findings of this study claimed, that post-operative NLR is significantly associated with the occurrence of AKI; it has also the acceptable sensitivity and specificity results. HbCr levels in the postoperative period also has relatively acceptable sensitivity and specificity concerning AKI.


The inhibitory parts of inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor-like proteins from several mammalian sera (sheep, goat, horse, donkey, pig, rabbit, rat and dog) were released by limited proteolysis with trypsin and were isolated by reversible binding to immobilized trypsin. The inhibitors are very similar with respect to their stability in acids, molecular masses and amino-acid compositions. They are different, however, in their inhibitory properties. In view of the known covalent structures of the inhibitory parts of the human and bovine inhibitors, homologous covalent structures consisting of two tandem Kunitz-type domains are suggested also for the isolated inhibitors. Bovine trypsin, bovine chymotrypsin and porcine plasmin are inhibited by all investigated inhibitors, most likely via their C-terminal domain. The inhibitors from horse, donkey, rabbit, rat and dog serum interact also with elastase from human polymorphonuclear granulocytes, those from sheep, goat and pig serum inhibit in addition porcine pancreatic elastase and bovine chymotrypsin via their N-terminal Kunitz-type domain. It is supposed that the amino-acid residue in position P1 of the N-terminal Kunitz-type domain is responsible for the characteristic inhibitory properties of each inhibitor.


Comparability and reliability of monitoring data are essential for any meaningful assessment and for the management of environmental risks. For emerging pollutants, there is concern regarding the comparability of data at the European level. Methods used for the monitoring of emerging pollutants have often not been properly validated either in-house or at the international level. Such methods are often not well established in the scientific community, and far from being harmonised or standardised. In addition, they may only be applicable to specific conditions (matrix, organism) which may further complicate data comparability. Within the EU-funded coordination action "NORMAN - Network of Reference Laboratories for Monitoring and Bio-monitoring of Emerging Pollutants", a common European approach to the validation of both chemical and biological methods for the respective monitoring and bio-monitoring of emerging pollutants (or their effects) in a broad range of matrices has been developed. This guidance document addresses three different validation approaches, in increasing order of complexity. These are : 1. Within-laboratory validation (research level) ; 2. Basic external validation (transferability at expert level) ; 3. Inter-laboratory validation (routine level). The concept of these three approaches is strictly hierarchical, i.e. a method must fulfil all criteria of the lower level before it can enter the validation protocol of a higher level. In the case of a specific monitoring task, this protocol will guide the user through the following steps : I. Evaluation and classification of existing methods with respect to their potential, both in terms of validation, and the selection of an appropriate validation approach ; II. Development of a method, in terms of extending its application ; III. The validation procedures to be undertaken in order to effectively demonstrate the validation status of a selected method according to the three approaches adopted. The scope of the harmonised protocol covers quantitative and qualitative biological and chemical test methods for the analysis of water, air, soil and biota. The protocols have been tested in three case studies, each one matching one of the three validation levels. Based on the feedback from the case studies, the protocols have been improved. Future validation studies (for methods to monitor emerging pollutants) by the NORMAN network will make use of the protocols, and it is intended to implement the protocols at the level of European Standardisation (e.g. as CEN guidance document).


This paper considers a new approach for constructing metamodels for capturing tail behavior in stochastic systems, e.g., simulation outputs. Specifically, we are concerned with the problem of global estimation of the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) surface, given (stochastic) responses from a collection of design points. The approach combines stochastic kriging, which has previously been shown to work well for metamodeling of discrete-event simulation output, with extreme value theory, which is a powerful statistical tool for estimating tail behavior. We present the general methodology and promising results of preliminary computational experiments.


The chemistry of fullerenes, which are a class of carbon allotropes that can be prepared by vaporization of graphite in an electric arc in a low pressure atmosphere, 1 has become a topic of much experimental and theoretical study over the past 25 years. Herein we present a series of theoretical studies related to recently discovered or studied endohedral metallofullerenes (EMF) and a theory as to the selective stability of certain isomers of EMFs. Computational treatments of the anions of C80 and C94 are presented and compared in an effort to gain an understanding and predictive model for which isomers of each cage size EMF will be most stable. A model is proposed in which the pentagons of fullerene anions are seen as charge localization centers that repel one another, making the pyracyclene bonding motif much more unstable for fullerene anions than for fullerene neutral cages. Computational treatments are also presented for two newly discovered EMFs, Y2C2@C92 and Gd2@C79N. Y2C2@C92 is reported to exhibit a previously undiscovered mode of internal cluster rotation, while Gd2@C79N is shown to have unusual stability for an azofullerene with a large spin quantum number (15/2). Finally, computational techniques are employed to predict the thermodynamic feasibility of a chemical reaction replacing one metal atom in a trimetallic-nitride


Introduction: Children and adolescents living in shelters may present with impaired motor development, cognitive function, as well as speech and understanding; psychological alterations; and hyperactivity. All of these factors may be detrimental to motor learning. Objective: To investigate motor learning in children and adolescents living in shelters, and to compare it with that of individuals living in a family context. Methods: We assessed 36 individuals who were divided into groups: an experimental group, composed of institutionalized children and adolescents (EG, n=18), and a control group (CG, n = 18) that was matched by age and sex. Motor learning was assessed using a maze test in three stages: acquisition, retention and transfer. The data were analyzed using the Shapiro Wilk, Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney, Kruskal Wallis tests and Dunn's post-test (p < 5%). Results: The EG had a longer task performance time than the CG. There was a significant reduction in task performance time between the first (EG = 11.05 [8.50-14.85]s; CG:7.65 [5.95-10.23]s) and the last task performance block (EG:8.02 [6.86-10.23]s; GC: 5.50 [4.50-6.82]s) in both groups. When comparing the variables of the last acquisition (GE:8.02[6.86-10.23]s; GC: 5.50[4.50-6.82]s), retention (GE:8.20[7.09-9.89] s;GC:5.35[4.50-6.22]s) and transfer blocks (GE:8.30[6.28-11.43]s; GC:5.30[4.90-6.82]s) in each group, we found no changes in task performance time between test batteries. Conclusion: Individuals living in shelters showed a motor learning deficit, as evidenced by longer task performance time when compared to their controls. Nevertheless, both groups performed the task in a similar manner.


Background: The pathogenesis of cataract is influenced by a number of factors including oxidative stress. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) catalyses the nucleophilic addition of the thiol of GST to electrophilic acceptors. It is important for detoxification of xenobiotics in order to protect tissues from oxidative damage. Objectives: To examine whether the interaction of polymorphism of GSTM1 gene and occupational sunlight exposure modulate the risk of cataract. Methods: Blood samples from 95 subjects with cataract and 95 age and sex matched healthy persons were collected. The genotypes of GSTM1 were determined using PCR. Results: The null genotype of GSTM1 was associated with an increase in cataract risk in the indoor workplace, but this association was not significant in the outdoor subjects. Conclusion: The active genotype of GSTM1 has lost its protective role in persons who work outdoors. It is suggested that activity of the GSTμ enzyme may be inhibited in the human lens after occupational exposure to UV light.


![Graphic][1]

Introduction

Treatment of patients (pts) with relapsed/refractory (R/R) chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with the combination of venetoclax (VEN), an oral, selective Bcl-2 inhibitor, and rituximab yielded an ORR of 84% (Roberts et al. Haematologica 2015). Treatment of such pts with VEN in combination with obinutuzumab (Gazyva®, Gazyvaro™, G), a Type II, glycoengineered anti-CD20 antibody, may yield even better treatment outcomes. We present preliminary efficacy and updated safety data from an ongoing phase 1b study ([NCT01685892][2]) evaluating this combination in R/R or treatment-naive (TN) pts with CLL in alternate treatment schedules.

Methods

Pts with CLL with an ECOG PS ≤1 and adequate organ function are enrolled in a study with a 3+3 design and cohorts ranging from 100 to 600 mg/day of VEN. Pts are assigned to one of two dosing schedules, starting treatment with either VEN (Schedule A) or G (Schedule B). Both schedules include tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) risk mitigation based on disease burden at screening, which includes a gradual VEN ramp-up to the assigned cohort dose. Six cycles of combination therapy will be given and then pts with R/R disease continue single-agent VEN until disease progression; TN pts will receive single-agent VEN for an additional 6 months. Dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) are identified during the first 21 days of combination therapy in Schedule A or the first 35 days of combination therapy in Schedule B, and focus on TLS, infusion related reactions, and cytopenias. Based on a safety review of data from this trial, the 600 mg cohort will not be explored. Response is first assessed before Cycle 4 according to 2008 International Workshop on CLL guidelines.

Results

As of April 20 , 2015, 32 pts (26 R/R and 6 TN) have been enrolled. Four R/R pts were unenrolled after a sponsor-initiated clinical hold secondary to TLS events in other VEN studies. Patient characteristics include a median age 62.5 (range, 45-80) years, and 62.5% male pts. TLS risk was assessed in 28 pts following protocol modifications adopted after a Sponsor-initiated clinical hold; 96.4% were at medium or high risk for TLS. The highest VEN dose administered in this study was 400 mg/day (administered to 11 R/R and 6 TN pts). Median time on study was 5.5 (range, 0.1-19.6) mo. for all pts and 2.8 (range, 0.9-2.8) mo. for TN pts. Among pts exposed to VEN, dose interruptions were observed in 17/27 (63%) pts. A summary of AEs is presented in Figure 1.

Laboratory TLS was observed in 4/32 (12.5%) pts and all were able to continue study treatment after resolution of electrolyte changes; no cases of clinical TLS occurred. One pt with R/R disease in cohort 1 discontinued study participation following disease progression (the pt completed 6 cycles of combination treatment). A second pt with R/R disease in cohort 1 died secondary to acute respiratory failure; Richter's transformation also was suspected in this pt but not confirmed. Twenty pts with R/R disease and 6 TN pts remain on the study. At least 1 response evaluation has been performed in 17 pts with R/R disease. The overall response rate (ORR) by investigator assessment was 100%; 4/17 (23.5%) pts achieved complete response/complete response with incomplete bone marrow recovery (CR/CRi). Among the 13 (76.5%) pts with PRs after 3 cycles of therapy, 3 have improved to CR/CRi at assessments 28 days after completing C6D1. Full MRD data will be available in the near future but early analyses suggest some patients may achieve MRD negative status by Cycle 4.

Conclusion

These preliminary data suggest that VEN + G can be safely administered in pts with CLL with no difference in tolerability between R/R and TN subgroups. AEs appear to be manageable and no pt has discontinued study participation secondary to cytopenia, the most frequently observed AE. Data suggests that the TLS prophylaxis measures are effective even in patients with a higher disease burden. An expansion phase is planned using a 400 mg per day dose of VEN in R/R and TN pts following a review of safety data assessing potential differences between dosing schedules. The preliminary efficacy data suggest this regimen may be an important option in patients with CLL; a phase 3 study evaluating VEN+G is ongoing.

![Figure][3]

Disclosures Flinn: Cephalon, Inc; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Genentech, inc; Gilead: Research Funding. Off Label Use: Venetoclax is an investigational drug that is not yet approved in this indication. Brunvand: Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Millenium: Speakers Bureau. Choi: Gilead: Consultancy, Other: Advisory Board, Speakers Bureau; AbbVie: Consultancy, Other: Advisory Board, Research Funding. Dyer: Roche Pharmaceuticals: Speakers Bureau; ONO Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding. Gribben: Janssen: Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Gilead: Honoraria; Roche/Genentech: Honoraria; Pharmacyclics: Honoraria. Hillmen: Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Research Funding; Roche Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Research Funding; Gilead: Honoraria, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie Company: Honoraria, Research Funding; AbbVie: Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding. Jones: Acerta Pharma BV: Research Funding. Li: Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Mobasher: Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Vosganian: Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Kipps: Pharmacyclics Abbvie Celgene Genentech Astra Zeneca Gilead Sciences: Other: Advisor; Pharmacyclics Abbvie Celgene Genentech Astra Zeneca Gilead Sciences: Other: Advisor.

 [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif
 [2]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT01685892&atom=%2Fbloodjournal%2F126%2F23%2F494.atom
 [3]: pending:yes


Twisted Eguchi-Kawai reduced chiral models are shown to be formally equivalent to a U(1) non-commutative parent theory. The non-commutative theory describes the vacuum dynamics of the non-commutative charged tachyonic field of a brane system. To make contact with the continuum non-commutative theory, a double scaling large N limit for the reduced model is required. We show a possible limiting procedure, which we propose to investigate numerically. Our numerical results show substantial consistency with the outlined procedure.


We recently demonstrated that expanded human CD4 T cells can be transduced to express TCRs specific for a given epitope. These cells proliferate and secrete cytokines in response to their cognate peptide/MHC. Herein, we examined whether TCR- transduced cells could be skewed to different T-helper subsets, or alternatively if previously skewed T cells could be modulated after transduction. Two HLA DR1-restricted TCRs were cloned from Th2 and Th17/Th1-type CD4+ T-cell clones specific for a coagulation factor VIII peptide (pC2). Engineered CD4+ T cells expressing these TCRs exhibited different proliferation kinetics during titration with pC2. All pC2-stimulated cells expressed IFN-g, IL-4, and IL-2 intracellularly but did not express cytokine signatures characteristic of their parental Th2 and Th17/Th1 clones. CD45RA+ and CD45RA- T cells were skewed to Th1, Th2 or Th17 and then transduced with each of the 2 TCRs. The higher-avidity TCR cells that were skewed to Th2 and then stimulated with low [pC2] maintained a Th2 cytokine signature, whereas the same cells stimulated with higher [pC2] expressed lower levels of IL-4 and GATA3. In contrast, Th1, Th17 and Th0-skewed cells transduced with the same TCR expressed their respective cytokines at all pC2 doses. Differences between the low-avidity TCR-engineered cells were less pronounced. These studies will inform our strategies for designing novel T-helper cellular therapies.


Numerical modeling has emerged as an effective tool for managing groundwater resources and predicting future responses, especially when dealing with complex aquifers systems and heterogeneous formations. Among these models, MODFLOW and MT3D are the most commonly used simulators for groundwater flow and solute transport in subsurface systems, respectively. These models have been used herein as a management tool for the Azraq basin, one of the most important groundwater resources for domestic and agricultural sectors in Jordan. Groundwater extraction from this basin already exceeded the safe yield of the aquifer, and a sharp drop in the water table, a dry out of the springs at the center of the basin and the problem of increased salinity in many parts of the aquifers have been reported. Currently, more than 600 wells including governmental, private and unauthorized wells are operating within the basin boundary. In its attempts to restore and sustain the aquifer, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI), the official entity in charge of water resources in Jordan, is considering several scenarios of controlled pumping. In this study, five suggested scenarios of pumping with different abstraction rates for years 2005 through 2020 have been explored by using the three dimensional finite difference flow model [MODFLOW (PM5)] to simulate the flow system, and the solute transport model (MT3D) to predict the transport of total dissolved solids given in terms of Electric Conductivity (EC). These scenarios include: first, maintaining the current pumping rate of 57 MCM for the study period; second, reducing the current pumping rates by half; third, increasing the pumping rate by half; fourth, reducing the pumping rates in public wells by half and maintaining the current rates for other wells; and finally reducing the pumping rates by half for the farm wells (private) and maintaining the rates at the other wells. Results indicate that the first and fourth scenarios have similar effect on the drawdown. Also, the second and fifth scenarios have similar effects and provide the lowest drawdown values. The third scenario gives the worst drawdown. The transport of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) given in terms of Electric Conductivity (EC), has also been explored. Different parameters including EC, recharge, model boundary and advection parameters were adjusted to run the model. Simulation results indicated that the effect of the different scenarios on the values of EC is less profound than the effects on the drawdown values. The third scenario caused a slight increase of EC values over the values simulated by other scenarios.


1. Introduction.—In the collection of fossil mammals found in the freshwater deposits of Clacton by Mr. John Brown, of Stanway, and now in the British Museum, is a series of antlers, forty-one in number, which Mr. Davies could refer to none of the fossil species of the genus Cervus. A careful examination has convinced me of the truth of his conclusion, and that they indicate a species of deer hitherto unknown, not only in Britain but also on the Continent. For it I propose the name Cervus Browni in memory of Mr. John Brown, to whose indefatigable labour in collecting fossils we owe very much of our knowledge of the Pleistocene Mammalia. Dr. Falconer, whose attention was directed by Mr. Davies to some of these antlers, considered them to belong to a species distinct from the Axis of the Crag and Forest-bed *, being unaware at the time that the nearly perfect antler, Plate XVII. fig. 4 (which shows that the Clacton deer had no affinities with any round-antlered deer), belonged to the series of fragments which he inscribed in his note-book as those of Cervus Clactonianus, and considering that the antler in question, which is taken as the type of the species, belonged really to Cervus dama *. I have therefore felt justified in designating the species after its discoverer, whose name has been as yet ignored in terminology, instead of adopting Dr. Falconer's manuscript name, which he never attempted to define. Evidence derived from antlers is, in the


The author investigates whether buying impulsiveness, the situational context and gender have an effect on the automatic and unconscious activation of control goals such as "saving" (demonstrating the activation of self-control) via marketing stimuli such as the names of popular commercial chains. Thus, he extends the work of Fishbach, Friedman and Kruglanski (2003) and conveys their findings into the marketing context. Data comes from one hundred and one participants who completed several self-control related questionnaires and underwent a Lexical Decision Task. Men took significantly longer to identify control goals as correct words when being primed with marketing stimuli compared to when being primed with irrelevant primes. In women, however, exactly the opposite pattern emerged. Additionally, higher general self-control led to a faster recognition of control goals as correct words, replicating Fishbach et al.'s (2003) findings.


Ulva sp. (Chlorophyta) is a representative species of the intertidal macro-algae responsible for the green tides that occurred along the shores of Qingdao in 2008 and had detrimental effects on the preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games sailing competition. In view of its significance, we have investigated the photosynthetic performance of the photosystems and the changes in photosynthetic electron transport that occur during desiccation and rehydration of Ulva sp. The PSII activity in Ulva sp. declined gradually during the course of desiccation, which was reflected by the decreased maximum quantum yield and effective quantum yield, whereas the PSI activity fluctuated significantly. In contrast, the electron transport rates of PSII approached zero at severe levels of desiccation, but the electron transport of PSI, which still operated, could be suppressed effectively by a specific inhibitor. Furthermore, the electron transport of PSI during rehydration of desiccated thalli was recovered faster than that of PSII. All these results implied that the linear electron flow was abolished in desiccated Ulva sp., whereas the cyclic PSI activity was significantly elevated, was still active at severe levels of desiccation and could be restored faster than PSII activity. Based on these results, we concluded the PSI-driven cyclic electron flow might provide desiccation tolerance and additional flexibility for the cell physiology of Ulva sp. under desiccation conditions, which might be one of the most important factors that make Ulva sp. well suited to experience daily cycles of desiccation at low tide and rehydration at high tide.


The integration of high-speed light emitters on silicon chips is an important issue that must be resolved in order to realize on-chip or interchip optical interconnects. Here, we demonstrate the first electrically driven ultrafast carbon nanotube (CNT) light emitter based on blackbody radiation with a response speed (1-10 Gbps) that is more than 10(6) times higher than that of conventional incandescent emitters and is either higher than or comparable to that of light-emitting diodes or laser diodes. This high-speed response is explained by the extremely fast temperature response of the CNT film, which is dominated by the small heat capacity of the CNT film and its high heat dissipation to the substrate. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate 140 ps width pulsed light generation and real-time optical communication. This CNT-based emitter with the advantages of ultrafast response speeds, a small footprint, and integration on silicon can enable novel architectures for optical interconnects, photonic, and optoelectronic integrated circuits.


The first Lewis-base-catalyzed unexpected [1 + 2 + 2] annulation reaction between Morita-Baylis-Hillman carbonates and unsaturated pyrazolones was developed. The multicyclic cyclopentane-fused dispiropyrazolone constructions containing five contiguous stereogenic centers, including two spiro quaternary centers, were prepared with excellent yields (81-98%) and moderate to good diastereoselectivities (1:1 to 13:1). Further transformation and gram-scale operations were also achieved efficiently.


Many food stamp-eligible nonparticipants are aware of the Food Stamp Program (FSP) and how to apply but do not realize that they are eligible. Nearly all eligible nonparticipating households surveyed in 2000 and 2001 knew of the FSP, but less than half thought they were eligible. Most nonparticipant households said that they would apply for food stamp benefits if they were sure they were eligible. Nonetheless, 27 percent would never apply. The main reason for not applying was a desire for personal independence. Some eligible nonparticipants were interested enough in receiving benefits to contact the food stamp office but did not get enough information or support to become participants. This report was produced as part of the Food Stamp Program Access Study, which is examining local food stamp office policies and practices as possible barriers to participation. The report focuses on one group of eligible households, those who are not participating in the FSP. As a group, these households generally have higher incomes and earnings and are more food secure than participants.


From 30.11. to 05.12.2008, the Dagstuhl Seminar 08492 Structured Decompositions and E cient Algorithms was held in Schloss Dagstuhl Leibniz Center for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The rst section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available.


The relationship between voter participation and party fortunes has received much attention in the voting behavior literature. Specifically, a number of studies on the advanced industrial democracies postulate that left-of-center parties benefit from higher turnout. This article extends that argument to a quite different context: the economically and politically volatile post-communist world. Using aggregate data from 15 post-communist countries between 1990 and 1999, we test the turnout-party vote linkage. We find that, indeed, increased turnout benefits left parties, particularly the successor communist parties, while adversely affecting conservative and nationalist parties.


In this paper we consider the motion planning and control problem of an underactuated 3DOF rigid body. The dynamics of a particular experimental setup as abstraction of the rotational degrees of freedom of a helicopter is studied. The virtual holonomic constraints approach serves as analytical tool to plan various periodic motions of the system, where a synchronization pattern among the generalized coordinates can be specified and a trajectory is obtained from reduced order dynamics. The controller design is based on a transverse linearization along a desired trajectory and ensures exponential orbital stability. Convergence to a desired motion is confirmed via numerical simulations.


This project had 3 objectives: (1) to determine the kinetic factors governing inclusion removal from liquid steels at a slag metal interface; (2) to develop a methodology to enable steels of less than 1 ppm total oxygen to be produced with an average inclusion diameter of less than 5 μm; and, (3) to determine the slag-metal interface conditions necessary for ultra clean steels. In objectives 1, and 3, the major finding was that dissolution rates of solid particles in slags were found to be significant in both ladle and tundish slags and must be included in a model to predict steel cleanliness. The work towards objective 2 indicated that liquid steel temperature was a very significant factor in our understanding of clean steel potential and that undercooled steels equilibrated with low oxygen potential inert gases have the potential to be significantly cleaner than current steels. Other work indicated that solidification front velocity could be used to push particles to produce clean steels and that reoxidation must be severely curtailed to allow the potential for clean steels to be realized.


BACKGROUND
Many young patients who are cyberbullied maintain communication with their harasser, despite the fact that this behaviour perpetuates the harassment. Numerous studies describe coping strategies adopted by cyberbullied adolescents. None describe what motivates adolescents to continue to communicate with their harassers.

METHODS
We conducted a literature review of cyberbullying, taking into account the challenges of adolescence. We used several search engines (Scopus, PsycINFO, Cairn and PubMed), using the following keywords: cyberbullying, teens, behaviour, coping strategies, social network, Facebook, counterpart. Our search returned 526 results, which were subsequently sorted as a function of their relevance. We also consulted reference books on adolescent psychology.

RESULTS
The adolescent, whose identity is being rebuilt, seeks a peer group, but also a relationship with a counterpart. This search is replayed on social networks and can lead adolescents to meet a counterpart harasser. Studies show that adolescents who suffer from cyberbullying are more likely than others to be in search of new friendships, and use social networks to make up for a lack or absence of fulfilling social relationships. They have fewer friends, have more difficulty maintaining social ties, and have fewer communication skills. In addition, cyberbullied adolescents have poorer relationships with their parents and teachers than their peers.

CONCLUSIONS
Narcissistically fragile adolescents are at greater risk of being unable to stop communicating with their cyberbully. If the adolescent has no other relationships that enable him or her to develop their identity, they will be unable to put an end to this harmful counterpart relationship. It would be interesting to supplement this review with an experimental study, and to consider the development of new, secondary prevention strategies in the adolescent population.


Background Vitamin D deficiency has been declared as a risk factor for acute bronchiolitis. Objective The aim was to delineate the therapeutic effect of vitamin D supplementation on the clinical course of acute bronchiolitis and to investigate the relationship between vitamin D status and the severity of acute bronchiolitis. Materials and methods A randomized double-blind controlled trial was conducted including 60 infants who required hospital-based care for acute bronchiolitis. The included infants were randomly assigned to either vitamin D3 treatment (100 IU/kg/day) (vitamin D group) or placebo (placebo group) all through the period of admission. The primary outcome was the length of hospital stay in days, and the secondary outcome measures were as follows: time to resolution of tachypnea, chest retractions, hypoxia, inability to feed/lethargy, and any adverse events. Modified Tal score was used for severity assessment. Basal serum vitamin D level was evaluated in all patients before enrollment in the randomized trial. Results The vitamin D group had significantly shorter length of hospital stay, rapid resolution of signs of respiratory distress, and shorter need for oxygen therapy. Further, patients with severe disease showed significant low basal serum vitamin D level compared with milder cases. Moreover, patients with exclusive breastfeeding and those with daily outdoor exposure for less than 1 h were found to have significantly lower serum vitamin D. Conclusion Vitamin D supplementation at a dose of 100 IU/kg/day could have a significant beneficial effect in infants with acute bronchiolitis.


Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis/differential scanning calorimetry and galvanostatic charge and discharge technologies were used to study microstructures and thermal decomposition characteristics of spherical Ni(OH)2 and their effects on the electrochemical performance using statistical method. The results show that as the surface morphology of spherical Ni(OH)2 changes from large layer like to small grain-like, the electrochemical performance characterized with discharge capacity generally decreases. There are trivial positive relativity of the discharge capacity to d001 (distance of planes (001)) and FWHM101 (XRD full width of half maximum of plane (001)), and obvious positive relativity of the discharge capacity to FWHM100 and FWHM001. There is an obvious negative relativity of the discharge capacity to water content and a positive relativity to decomposition temperature for spherical Ni(OH)2. The discharge capacity generally increases with the increase of crystallization extent and the crystal size.


Pseudo-LiDAR 3D detectors have made remarkable progress in monocular 3D detection by enhancing the capability of perceiving depth with depth estimation networks, and using LiDAR-based 3D detection architectures. The Advanced stereo 3D detectors can also accurately localize 3D objects. The gap in image-to-image generation for stereo views is much smaller than that in image-to-LiDAR generation. Motivated by this, we propose a Pseudo-Stereo 3D detection framework with three novel virtual view generation methods, including image-level generation, feature-level generation, and feature-clone, for detecting 3D objects from a single image. Our analysis of depth-aware learning shows that the depth loss is effective in only feature-level virtual view generation and the estimated depth map is effective in both image-level and feature-level in our framework. We propose a disparity-wise dynamic convolution with dynamic kernels sampled from the disparity feature map to filter the features adaptively from a single image for generating virtual image features, which eases the feature degradation caused by the depth estimation errors. Till submission (November 18, 2021), our Pseudo-Stereo 3D detection framework ranks 1 st on car, pedestrian, and cyclist among the monocular 3D detectors with publications on the KITTI-3D benchmark. The code is released at https://github.com/revisitq/Pseudo-Stereo-3D.


The present study provides information on the emotional experience of people with intellectual disability. To evaluate this emotional experience, we have used the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS). The most important result from this study is that the emotional reaction of people with intellectual disability to affective stimuli is very similar to that of the control groups. The way in which people with intellectual disability express basic affect to emotional stimuli in terms of happy-sad and calm-nervous is very similar to that of the general population. However, there are also some differences in how basic affect is expressed in the affective dimensions that might be relevant to our understanding of the emotional life of people with intellectual disability.


A remarkable feature of molecular biology over the last two decades has been the massive scaling up of its experimental techniques. The sequencing of the entire genome of organisms, the determination of the expression level of genes by means of DNA microarrays or reporter genes and the identification of proteins and their interactions by high-throughput proteomic methods have produced enormous amounts of data on different aspects of the functioning of cells. Nowadays, there is a general consensus among biologists on the need to complement time-course data characterizing genomic, proteomic and metabolic systems with formal methods for identifying dynamical models of networks of interactions. Indeed, reverse-engineering of regulatory networks enables computer-based simulation and in silico experiments that can be used for massive and rapid verification or falsification of biological hypotheses, replacing in certain cases costly and time-consuming in vitro or in vivo experiments. Moreover, in silico analysis of biological systems, beside promoting the understanding of cell functioning, underlies the design of interventions of biotechnological or biomedical relevance. For these reasons, the use of system identification techniques for the reconstruction of parameter and structure of biological systems is expected to play an increasingly important role in the field of systems biology. However, standard system identification methods are unlikely to work out of the box because they must cope with several challenges specific to biological systems. First, the structure of many interaction networks is unknown or highly uncertain and it has to be inferred on the basis of available data. Parsing all possible model structures is often computationally prohibitive and this calls for data-based model selection methods that are based on structural properties of the underlying systems. Second, full-blown models of biological systems often contain several parameters that cannot be reconstructed from available biological data. This raises the issue of simplifying existing models and resorting to suitable parameterizations that are amenable to identification tasks. Third, the stochastic nature of chemical interactions might hamper the use of standard identification techniques and requires the development of novel and ad hoc methods. The aim of this special issue has been to collect very recent developments in system identification tailored to the reconstruction of biological processes. In the first paper, entitled A Distribution Matching Method for Parameter Estimation and Model Selection in Computational Biology, G. Lillacci and M. Khammash exploit the probability distribution of noise affecting the data for validating parameters inferred through an observer-based identification algorithm and for discriminating among alternative models of the same biological process. The second paper by M. Rodriguez-Fernandez, J. R. Banga and F. J. Doyle III, entitled Novel Global Sensitivity Analysis Methodology Accounting for the Crucial Role of the Distribution of Input Parameters: Application to Systems Biology Models, introduces a novel global sensitivity analysis methodology, Bayesian DGSM, that exploits a priori available information on the distribution of the parameters to improve the sensitivity analysis. The third paper entitled Accounting for Extrinsic Variability in the Estimation of Stochastic Rate Constants by C. Zechner, A. Ganguly, S. Pelet, M. Peter and H. Koeppl addresses the issue of separating the effects of stochastic kinetics from those due to extrinsic noise sources in single cell data. The authors present a Bayesian inference scheme capable of deconvoluting these two sources of variability and thus allowing for extracting statistical information about cell-to-cell variability.


Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) has the widest distribution of pine species and the populations are locally adapted to very different environmental conditions. Adaptive traits such as those related to growth are optimal for understanding adaptation of populations to local conditions in widely distributed forest species. A study of the timing of growth during the first growing period of families in four populations from the latitudinal limits of the distribution range was conducted. Individual growth curves were fitted, and a set of variables related to growth rhythm and timing of budset was obtained for genetic analyses. Pooled heritabilities across populations were very high for most of the traits (0.43–1.09), and population differentiation for growth variables showed high values as well (QST = 0.19–0.71). Phenotypic correlations were higher than genetic ones, and most of them were positives. Even no general patterns of additive variances were found, the high additive genetic variance obtained (14% ± 8%...


Oropharyngeal avian trichomonosis is mainly caused by Trichomonas gallinae, a protozoan parasite that affects the upper digestive tract of birds. Lesions of the disease are characterized by severe inflammation which may result in fatality by starvation. Two genotypes of T. gallinae were found to be widely distributed in different bird species all over the world. Differences in the host distribution and association with lesions of both genotypes have been reported. However, so far no distinct virulence factors of this parasite have been described and studies might suffer from possible co-infections of different genotypes. Therefore, in this paper, we analyzed the virulence capacity of seven clones of the parasite, established by micromanipulation, representing the two most frequent genotypes. Clones of both genotypes caused the maximum score of virulence at day 3 post-inoculation in LMH cells, although significant higher cytopathogenic score was found in ITS-OBT-Tg-1 genotype clones at days 1 and 2, as compared to clones with ITS-OBT-Tg-2. By using one representative clone of each genotype, a comparative proteomic analysis of the membrane proteins enriched fraction has been carried out by a label free approach (Data available via ProteomeXchange: PXD013115). The analysis resulted in 302 proteins of varying abundance. In the clone with the highest initial virulence, proteins related to cell adhesion, such as an immuno-dominant variable surface antigen, a GP63-like protein, an armadillo/beta-catenin-like repeat protein were found more abundant. Additionally, Ras superfamily proteins and calmodulins were more abundant, which might be related to an increased activity in the cytoskeleton re-organization. On the contrary, in the clone with the lowest initial virulence, larger numbers of the identified proteins were related to the carbohydrate metabolism. The results of the present work deliver substantial differences between both clones that could be related to feeding processes and morphological changes, similarly to the closely related pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Background: Results from several recent case-control studies suggest that increased sun exposure may reduce risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Vitamin D synthesis is hypothesized as one possible mechanism, since solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation exposure triggers endogenous vitamin D production in the skin. To date, no prospective studies of UV and NHL have been conducted.

Methods: We identified 1057 incident cases of NHL through 2006 in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), a cohort study of approximately 121,700 women who have been followed since 1976. Ambient UV radiation exposure, as measured by average annual UV-B flux (in R-B counts x 10-4), was estimated for all participants based on residence at various times during life and categorized as 113. Vitamin D intake from food and supplements was calculated based on responses to food frequency questionnaires with follow-up beginning in 1980. Using plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) measurements available for a subset of the NHS population, we developed a linear regression model to predict plasma 25(OH)D levels for the entire cohort based on multiple determinants of vitamin D status, including dietary intake and UV-B flux. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The main analyses included all cases of NHL; we also performed separate analyses for the most common NHL subtypes [i.e., chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and follicular lymphoma (FL)].

Results: For most measures of ambient UV-B flux, the risk of NHL was increased for women in the highest category of exposure (i.e., > 113) compared to the lowest (i.e., 113 ranged from 1.10 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.29) for UV-B flux based on residence in 1976 to 1.21 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.47) for UV-B flux at age 15. Positive linear trends were observed for all measures. We observed stronger associations for CLL/SLL than for FL and no association for DLBCL with most measures of UV-B flux. The RR for the highest quintile of total vitamin D intake versus the lowest, after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking, height, multivitamin use, and intake of retinol, calcium, and total calories, was 1.02 (95% CI: 0.71, 1.46). There was no association between predicted 25(OH)D score and risk of NHL. There did not appear to be differences in effect estimates for vitamin D intake by NHL subtype.

Conclusions: Our findings of weak but statistically significant positive associations between UV-B flux assessed at various time points and risk of NHL in this prospective cohort study do not support the hypothesis of a protective effect of sunlight exposure. We found no association between vitamin D intake and risk of NHL, suggesting that if UV exposure is ultimately found to reduce the risk of this cancer, the effect may not act through vitamin D.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2820.


ObjectivesTime-use has become an important field of research in social and medical sciences. Time diary is the most popular method for measuring time-use that has 2 different methods of administration including yesterday and tomorrow diary. The present study aimed to compare these methods of measuring time-use. MethodsThis cross-sectional comparative study was conducted on 256 under 5-year-old healthy children that were selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling method in 2017. Data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman correlation coefficient, 2-way ANOVA, Independent t-test and Mann–Whitney U Test. ResultsParticipants spent 1476.23 min/d on aggregate daily occupations, according to the yesterday-diary estimate, and 1492.14 min/d according to the tomorrow-diary. In one area of occupation, the yesterday and tomorrow diary estimates differed slightly. Two-way ANOVA found no significant interaction between diary method and age category (F5,234=1.222, P=0.300) and no significant main effect of diary method (F1,234 =0.830). While, the ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for age category (F5,234=4.91, P=0.00). There were no significant mean differences in the number of occupational repertoires between the participants of yesterday and tomorrow diary groups. Likewise, there were no significant differences in the number of verbatim of the two groups.DiscussionThe findings of our study indicated no difference between yesterday and tomorrow diaries estimates in terms of measuring under 5-year-old children's time-use


Strong correlation of the modes of electromigration damage and microstructure is reported for Cu films. It is found that changes in the microstructure lead to qualitative variation in electromigration damage kinetics - from the traditional open circuit due to void growth across the line, to damage growing along the line, and not leading to failure. Some of our findings are consistent with the theoretical model based on interplay between surface and grain boundary diffusion. The activation energy eV of electromigration mass transport was measured using a modified electrical resistance method.


In this paper, we describe the experiences of the Automated Software Engineering Group at the NASA Ames Research Center in the development and application of three di erent transformation systems. The systems span the entire technology range, from deductive synthesis, to logic-based transformation, to almost compiler-like source-to-source transformation. These systems also span a range of NASA applications, including solving solar system geometry problems, generating data analysis software, and analyzing multithreaded


Background Angio-based index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) and fractional flow reserve (FFR) have been developed, however, the differences between baseline and hyperemic data and their effects on their computation have not yet been discussed. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of a novel method for calculating IMR and FFR from coronary angiography under baseline and hyperemic conditions. Methods We performed a retrospective study to investigate the diagnostic performance of angiography-derived IMR (AccuIMR) and FFR (AccuFFRangio) computed from the hyperemic condition (AccuIMRhyp, AccuFFRangiohyp) and baseline condition (AccuIMRbase, AccuFFRangiobase) in 101 consecutive patients with chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) who underwent measurements of IMR and FFR at a single center, using wire-based IMR and FFR as the reference standard. Results AccuIMRhyp showed much better correlation with IMR than AccuIMRbase (r=0.77 vs. 0.47, P<0.001). The diagnostic accuracy and area under the curve (AUC) for identifying significant microvascular dysfunction was higher for AccuIMRhyp than AccuIMRbase [92.1% (95% CI: 85.0–96.5%) vs. 83.2% (95% CI: 74.4–89.9%), P=0.012; 0.942 (95% CI: 0.877–0.979) vs. 0.815 (95% CI: 0.726–0.886), P=0.003]. The computed AccuFFRangio showed good correlations with FFR and good diagnostic performance under both hyperemic and baseline conditions [r=0.68 vs. 0.68, P>0.99; diagnostic accuracy =95.9% (95% CI: 89.8–98.9%) vs. 94.9% (95% CI: 88.4–98.3%), P=0.728; AUC =0.989 (95% CI: 0.942–1.000) vs. 0.973 (95% CI: 0.919–0.995), P=0.381]. The net reclassification index (NRI) demonstrated that hyperemic group had improved reclassification ability compared to the baseline group in identification of IMR >25 (NRI =0.20, P<0.001) and FFR ≤0.8 (NRI =0.11, P<0.001). Conclusions By comparing the calculated angio-derived IMR and FFR under the baseline and hyperemic conditions, this study demonstrates that AccuIMR calculation is more accurate using the hyperemic condition, while AccuFFRangio calculation is accurate under both conditions.


The paper focuses on the use of online lexicons in the translation process. A number of online lexicons containing agricultural and environmental terminology are considered. It analyses the ways in which translators use online lexicons and finds that they can be a source of terminological and supplementary information. Comparisons have been made between the printed and online versions of the lexicons and a number of advantages of the online lexicons have been identified. The continual updating of the entries in the online lexicons and the increasing amount of data contained in them were found out. The usefulness of hyperlinks, which allow the use of not only one particular lexicon but also other related Internet sources, is highlighted.


Thermolysis of solid [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)2Cl2](2, d(t)bpe =(t)Bu2PCH2CH2P(t)Bu2) under vacuum affords the five-coordinate complex [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)Cl2] (4), which was shown by X-ray crystallography to contain a weak remote agostic interaction. In solution, 4 can be readily trapped by CO, CH3CN or water to give [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)(L)Cl2](L = CO, 2; L = CH3CN, 6; L = H2O, 7). Reaction of 4 with AgOTf/H2O yields the tris-aqua complex [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)(H2O)3](OTf)2 (8), which has been structurally characterised and probed in solution by pulsed-gradient spin echo (PGSE) NMR spectroscopy. The water ligands in 8 are labile and easily substituted to give [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)(NCCH3)3](OTf)2 (10) and [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)(DMSO)3](OTf)2 (11). In the presence of CO, the tris-aqua complex undergoes water-gas shift chemistry with formation of the cationic hydride species [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)3H](OTf) (12) and CO2. X-Ray crystal structures of complexes 2, 4, 6, 8 and 11-12 are reported along with those for [{Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)}2(mu-Cl)2(mu-OTf)](OTf) (3), [{Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)}2(mu-Cl)3][Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)Cl3](5) and [Ru(d(t)bpe)(CO)(H2O)2(OTf)](OTf)(9).


Background: The acceleration of re-epithelialization and fibroblast differentiation were noted during the experiments with silver nanoclusters (SNs) by interrupting the negative development of inflammation at the level of cytokines and promoting a positive course of reparative processes. The aim of this work was to elaborate the experimental model of prosthesis hernioplasty in subcutaneous and intraperitoneal locations of hernioprostheses with SNs, which allowed us to study the course of reparative reactions in all layers of the anterior abdominal wall. Material and Methods: We used a modified hernioprosthesis made from polyester fibers coated with a metal-polymer composition, including the stabilized SN in a concentration of 6.8 and 11.3 mg per 1 g of the hernioprosthesis mesh. During this research we used guinea pigs to study the in vivo tissue reactions. The clinical part of the study included the group of 212 patients who underwent removal of an inguinal hernia. We have identified various factors associated with infectious and toxic effects on the body by determining the level of the serum glutamate-pyruvate-transaminase (SGPT). Results: In implantation of the hernioprostheses, including the high concentration of SN in the laparotomy wound, the exudative component of the inflammation was weakly expressed. It was mostly the proliferative changes that took place. We did not find either CD8-positive type T lymphocytes or PAX5-positive type B activated cells in the exudate. Conclusion: Our research has shown that the use of hernioprostheses that include silver nanoclusters leads to the reduction of inflammation in the exudative phase and to a more favorable course of reparative processes.


Tension-continuous (shortly TT) mappings are mappings between the edge sets of graphs. They generalize graph homomorphisms. From another perspective, tension-continuous mappings are dual to the notion of flow-continuous mappings and the context of nowhere-zero flows motivates several questions considered in this paper.
Extending our earlier research we define new constructions and operations for graphs (such as graphs Delta(G)) and give evidence for the complex relationship of homomorphisms and TT mappings. Particularly, solving an open problem, we display pairs of TT-comparable and homomorphism-incomparable graphs with arbitrarily high connectivity.
We give a new (and more direct) proof of density of TT order and study graphs such that TT mappings and homomorphisms from them coincide; we call such graphs homotens. We show that most graphs are homotens, on the other hand every vertex of a nontrivial homotens graph is contained in a triangle. This provides a justification for our construction of homotens graphs.


To The Editor:

This letter is in response to the article by Leet et al., entitled "Surgical Treatment of Femoral Fractures in Obese Children: Does Excessive Body Weight Increase the Rate of Complications?" (2005;87:2609-13), which focused on complications in obese children undergoing surgical treatment of femoral fractures. While most surgeons, it is safe to say, prefer to operate on thin patients rather than obese patients, most of us have the anecdotal impression that various kinds of complications seem to be more common in obese patients, regardless of whether they are children or adults. The authors apparently wanted to prove that these anecdotal beliefs are actually true and could be quantified statistically by looking at a group of children undergoing surgery for the treatment of femoral fractures. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, I do not believe that they proved their point.

The first problem is that there was a relatively small number of what they classified as obese patients among the total number of patients in the study, and, for …


BACKGROUND
The global COVID-19 pandemic has brought numerous challenges for conducting the human subjects research needed to advance science and improve health.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this article is to discuss how a college of nursing at a large public university in the southeast United States has responded to the challenges of conducting research during the novel COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS
Seven faculty researchers at the University of South Carolina College of Nursing share their experiences in overcoming the unique challenges of conducting research due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategies to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 are presented within the context of the research process, career implications, communication, and maintaining morale.

RESULTS
Fears of COVID-19 and social distancing measures have hindered participant recruitment, enrollment, and involvement in ongoing studies. Increasing virtual technology use and enhancing safety precautions have assisted researchers to overcome barriers. Scholarly writing has increased for some faculty members whose studies have been stalled by the pandemic, yet others have seen a decline due to additional personal responsibilities. The careers of faculty members across all ranks have been uniquely affected by the pandemic. With most faculty working remotely, enhanced communication strategies at the university and college have supported the research enterprise. Morale has been adversely affected, but a variety of personal and collegial efforts have helped faculty cope and preserve a sense of normalcy during this devastating pandemic.

DISCUSSION
Faculty and their ability to conduct the research needed to inform clinical and public health practice have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of conducting research during this unprecedented crisis, faculty and institutions are taking novel steps to ensure the continuity of scientific progress for improving the health and well-being of patients and populations.


In construction projects, inspection of structural components mostly relies on typical measurements (e.g. measuring tapes, levelling or total stations). Additionally, with those methods, only a few points on the structure can be measured, and resulted inspection may not fully reflect the actual, detailed condition. Laser scanning is emerging a remote sensing technology to capture the structures' surfaces in high details accurately and quickly. However, because of complex, massive data points acquired from the construction project, in practice, data processing is still manual work with support of computer aided program. To improve current workflows, this paper proposes a method automatically extracting structural components of the concrete building and subsequently inspects them in a term of deformation. The proposed method explores both spatial information of a point cloud and contextual knowledge of structures (e.g. orientation or shape). Additionally, based on the fundamental design of the structures, component's boundaries are automatically extracted to establish un-deformed surfaces of the components for deformation measurement.


Abstract This paper examines the state of Canada's federal access to information (ATI) regime. Drawing from literature on government transparency, we conceptualize Bill C-58 and the problems it proposes to address as a form of policy discordance. We assess the recent digitization of ATI in Canada by analyzing data on request abandonment, record exemptions, as well as variation by ministry. In so doing, we identify tensions between strategic narratives of "open, honest, government" and recent changes brought about through legislative amendments. We conclude by problematizing notions of proactive disclosure, open government, and transparency as currently promoted in the Canadian federal context.


Abstract: Carbon-based hybrid nanostructures are believed to entail certain advantages of their parent low-dimensional materials and would serve as building blocks to bridge the nanoscale geometry to the large-scale application requirements. Fullerene, carbon nanotubes and graphene are suggested as ideal 'building blocks' for this kind of bottom-up strategy. In this work a series of hybrid gra-phene/fullerene architectures, termed graphene nanobuds, are constructed by attaching or fusing C 60 molecules on a defect graphene sheet and the mechanical properties are investigated through molecular dynamics simulations. The elastic moduli are observed to degrade by a certain amount but are still rather high. The obtained Young's moduli are of several hundred GPas and the tensile strengths are above 50 GPa. Furthermore, the intriguing feature of the nearly linear stress-strain response could attract intense follow-up investigations and could be utilized in various application branches such as position sensing.


Abstract. During the past decades, the increased impact of anthropogenic interventions on river basins has prompted hydrologists to develop various approaches for representing human–water interactions in large-scale hydrological and land surface models. The simulation of water reservoir storage and operations has received particular attention, owing to the ubiquitous presence of dams. Yet, little is known about (1) the effect of the representation of water reservoirs on the parameterization of hydrological models, and, therefore, (2) the risks associated with potential flaws in the calibration process. To fill in this gap, we contribute a computational framework based on the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model and a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, which we use to calibrate VIC's parameters. An important feature of our framework is a novel variant of VIC's routing model that allows us to simulate the storage dynamics of water reservoirs. Using the upper Mekong river basin as a case study, we calibrate two instances of VIC – with and without reservoirs. We show that both model instances have the same accuracy in reproducing daily discharges (over the period 1996–2005), a result attained by the model without reservoirs by adopting a parameterization that compensates for the absence of these infrastructures. The first implication of this flawed parameter estimation stands in a poor representation of key hydrological processes, such as surface runoff, infiltration, and baseflow. To further demonstrate the risks associated with the use of such a model, we carry out a climate change impact assessment (for the period 2050–2060), for which we use precipitation and temperature data retrieved from five global circulation models (GCMs) and two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs 4.5 and 8.5). Results show that the two model instances (with and without reservoirs) provide different projections of the minimum, maximum, and average monthly discharges. These results are consistent across both RCPs. Overall, our study reinforces the message about the correct representation of human–water interactions in large-scale hydrological models.


Many-body effects in solids are ultimately related to the correlation among electrons, which can be probed by double photoelectron emission. We have investigated the electron pair emission from a Cu(111) surface upon photon absorption. We are able to observe for the first time the full extension and shape of a depletion zone around the fixed emission direction of one electron. It has an angular extension of approximately 1.2 rad, which is independent of the electron energy.


: Under nembutal narcosis on cats, intracellular electrophysiological studies have been made of common properties and differences in the neuronal organization of the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis and intrinsic pontine nuclei. Reciprocal connections of all the nuclei with the cerebellum and sensorimotor cortex were revealed. It was shown that the cerebellar peduncles are involved to a different extent in the transmission of cerebellofugal signals from the nucleus reticularis tegmenti pontis and the pontine nuclei; all these nuclei have different projections to the central cerebellar nuclei and receive different descending cortical impulsation. Functionally, the investigated cortico-cerebellar pontine relay structures supplement and duplicate each other.


Conditions are described for the formation of protoplasts from Streptomyces parvulus that are able to synthesize actinomycin D de novo. Antibiotic synthesis by protoplasts, in contrast to that by mycelium, was sensitive to inhibition by actinomycin D and to a decrease in sucrose concentration. On the other hand, synthesis by mycelium was much more sensitive to inhibition by amino acid analogs (d-valine, cis-3-methylproline, and α-methyl-dl-tryptophan). In addition, the uptake of amino acids (l-methionine, sarcosine, and l- and d-valine) by protoplasts was significantly lower than that by mycelium. The advantages and limitations of using protoplasts for studying in vivo actinomycin synthesis are discussed.


Over 30 years ago, Clostridium perfringens was reported as a contaminant of the processing plant and processed carcasses of broiler chickens. Poultry processing procedures and methods for detecting C. perfringens have changed since that time. Therefore, a study was conducted to determine the incidence and numbers of C. perfringens in the water of the scald tank, the water of the chill tank, and the rinse water of the processed carcasses from modern broiler chicken processing plants. In trial 1, collected samples were inoculated into iron milk medium (IMM) and incubated at 46 degrees C for 18 h (the traditional method) or at 37 degrees C for 3 h followed by incubation at 46 degrees C for 15 h (an injury recovery method). Each of three preselected broiler chicken flocks from two integrators were the first processed for that processing shift. The overall incidence of confirmed C. perfringens in samples associated with the three flocks was 40% of postprocessing scald water samples, 13% of preprocessing chill water samples, 13% of postprocessing chill water samples, and 19% of carcass rinses. The incidence of C. perfringens in samples incubated in IMM using the injury recovery procedure was significantly higher than in samples incubated in IMM by the traditional method, but only when all samples associated with the three flocks were pooled. In trial 2, water samples from each tank of a three-tank counterflow scalder, water samples from the prechill and chill tank, and samples of carcass rinses were collected in the middle of a processing shift during multiple visits to a processing plant. Samples were inoculated into IMM with neomycin and polymyxin B sulfate (IMMA) and incubated using the traditional and injury recovery procedures. The incidence of C. perfringens in water samples was 100% from scald tank 1, 100% from scald tank 2, 100% from scald tank 3, 88% from the prechill tank, and 63% from the chill tank. The incidence in carcass rinse samples was 67%. The mean most probably number (MPN) of C. perfringens for contaminated samples decreased from log10 5.07/100 ml of water in scald tank 1 to log10 1.26/100 ml of water in the chill tank. The mean MPN in carcass rinse samples was log10 1.20 C. perfringens per 100 ml. The incidence and mean MPN of C. perfringens in these samples after heat shock at 75 degrees C for 20 min was somewhat less, but high enough to indicate that much of the contamination arises from heat-resistant spores of this organism. In trial 2, there were no differences in incidence and MPN of C. perfringens in samples incubated in IMMA with the traditional method or the injury recovery method.


This Commentary addresses issues related to exposures to teratogens and makes the case for increased research into the safety of medication usage during pregnancy for mothers and fetuses. Not only are medications commonly used during pregnancy, but evidence points to an increasing prevalence and number of drug exposures experienced by the embryo or fetus, particularly during the critical first trimester of pregnancy. Although the first trimester represents a particularly vulnerable period of organogenesis, exposures during other gestational time periods may also be associated with deleterious outcomes. In addition to the changing (and in many cases unknown) risks to a developing fetus, other challenges to studying medication exposures and their effects during pregnancy include the dramatic changes in physiology that occur in pregnant women and the ethical dilemmas posed by including this vulnerable population in randomized controlled trials of safety and efficacy. However, without adequate knowledge of the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, efficacy, and safety of medication use in pregnancy, women may be under‐dosed to minimize exposure or not treated at all, resulting in inadequate treatment and potential harm to the mother and her baby. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is undertaking studies on medications and teratogenic exposures during pregnancy, including alcohol, maternal diabetes, oral hypoglycemic agents, and antiviral medications, through several of its research networks. Although this is a start, there is a critical need for further research on medications used during pregnancy, especially their effects on both the mother and her developing child. Published 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Land is an essential but limited natural resource. We employ the concept of stocks to analyse driving forces for land-use conversion and to assess, whether the German political "30hectares-goal" is feasible given the current institutional setting. In this paper major driving forces for land-use conversion are identified and underlying stocks and persistent institutional structures as well as their dynamics are investigated. It will be shown that meeting the 30hectares-goal is unlikely. We further argue that due to persistent stocks and institutional structures land-use conversion from agricultural into urbanised land takes place on smaller time scales than its reconversion. We conclude that demographic change and regional migration processes may result in further land-use conversion even with declining population. Economic structural change as well as an increasing traffic volume will likewise contribute to further land-use conversion.


Nivkh (formerly called Gilyak) is a language isolate spoken on the island of Sakhalin and on the lower reaches of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. The census of 2002 counts their population as 4,902 of whom only 9.7% regard Nivkh as their mother tongue. This rate is sufficiently low to regard the language as being in danger of disappearance. Since 1997, the author has been engaged in the documentation of this language. This book is a result of his fieldwork to the above-mentioned area. It contains a descriptive sketch of the phonology of Nivkh, and discussions on laryngeal phonology and consonant mutation (lenition). These topics have received a lot of attention in current theories of phonology and the discussions in the last decade have led to substantial progress in understanding these phenomena. This book proposes analyses which succeed in describing complicated phonology on the surface from a restricted number of phonological principles and generalizations. It is aimed to help theoretical phonologists, field linguists and all who want to learn about the phonological system of Nivkh.


Christian ecotheology tends to emphasize human identity with the rest of nature while also arguing that human society requires transformation through appreciation of intrinsic value in non-human nature. Since this sets up a tension between notions of humans as natural beings and as free to choose among alternative motivations, it would benefit Christian ecotheology to think more consistently about implications of humanity's belonging to nature. Science has provided compelling reasons for thinking that egoism is an incorrigible dimension of human life, thereby suggesting that abusive exploitation of nature has deeper roots than cultural constructs. This realization calls for fundamental rethinking of several traditional Christian doctrines, including the Fall, original sin, and free will. In fact, some theologies already anticipate these revisions, though more remains to be done. Moreover, Christian ecotheology's attention to concepts of connections between humans and nature and of nature's value remains important, but some of its emphases need to change.


Histone deacetilase inhibitors (HDCAi) have been shown to modulate gene expression with pro-differentiative effects. Valproic acid (VPA) has HDCAi activity and synergizes with Ara-C to differentiate AML blasts in vitro. VPA is orally applicable and has a low toxicity prophile. We tried to assess the therapeutic activity of VPA in combination with low-dose Ara-C in elderly/frail AML/RAEB patients. We enrolled in this study 31 patients with Myeloid Pathologies. Fifteen pts had diagnosis of oligoblastic AML (M0:2, M1: 7, M2: 1, M4:1, M5: 4); 13 patients had RAEB (RAEB 1: 2, RAEB 2: 11) with the following IPSS: int-1=2, int-2= 2, high= 6. Three other patients had progression from previous MPS (1 from ET, 2 from LMMC). Median age was 70 yrs (range: 53 to 84). Median time from Diagnosis to treatment was 15 months (range 1 to 79). Clinical status at start of protocol was: at Diagnosis = 13 pts, Resistant after induction =6 pts, Relapsed after CR =11 pts, Relapsed after allogeneic transplant =1 pt). All patients were excluded from conventional chemotherapy for age and multiple comorbidities. In 27 out of 31, these comorbidities required therapy or periodic controls (grade 3), other 2 pts had one of G4 grade (life-threatening). Thirteen patients were defined "frail" because they presented 3 of G3 comorbidities or at least a G4 one. Twenty-nine pts were evaluated for autosufficiency with ADL score, 5 of them didn't reach the score of 6, showing impairment in their autosufficiency. Assessing functional autonomy, IADL score showed deficiency in 17 of 29 patients. In our protocol, VPA was administered in continuum to reach serum concentration of 50–100μg/ml. Ara-C was given in cycles of 8 days, 40 mg/day. Ammonium and valproic acid serum level was routinely checked. Bone marrow examination was done at the enrollement in the study, after sixth cycle of Ara-C and/or if improvement of blood counts were observed. In two patients that were in CR at the end of sixth cycle, VPA was maintained; other six cycles of Ara-C were given monthly and thereafter every third month until relapse. Six patients received the treatment for at least 6 cycles, the other patients had a median of 2 cycles, (range 1 to 4). Ten patients are still in treatment, 17 dropped out for progression/death, one patient underwent reduced intensity allotransplant while in remission. From the start of protocol, median overall survival was 4 mths, range 1 to 33 mths. Fifteen pts are alive now. Overall, 11 of 31 patients (35%) had hematological improvement (according to IWG, 2008), including 7 CR (22%) with clearing of blasts in the marrow and normalization of blood counts. The median cycle of improvement was 2 (range 1 to 4) and the median duration of improvement was 2 months (range 1 to 23 months), including two pts that lasted in CR for 10 and 23 months; 3 pts are still in CR at 5,8 and 10 mths from the starting of response, one patient is in Hematological Improvenment at 2 mths. Hematological toxicity requiring platelet transfusion was seen in 17 patients, while 10 pts required red cell transfusion. Transient hyperammoniemia was seen in one patient; liver toxicity in another patient. Neutropenia-related infections were seen in 3 pts. Adding VPA to low-dose Ara-C, some complete responses and some improvements in peripheral cytopenias can be achieved without a significant increase in toxicity. Therefore this therapeutic protocol is feasible for elderly/frail oligoblastic AML/RAEB patients who cannot have aggressive therapy.


Two species of scarab beetles, the Osaka beetle (Anomala osakana) and the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica), utilize the opposite enantiomers of japonilure, (Z)-5-(1-decenyl)oxacyclopentan-2-one, as their sex pheromones. Each species produces only one of the enantiomers that functions as its own sex pheromone and as a very strong behavioral antagonist for the other species. Using an integrated approach we tested whether the discrimination of these two opposite signals is due to selective filtering by pheromone binding proteins or whether it originates in the specificity of ligand-receptor interactions. We found that the antennae of each of these two scarab species contain only a single pheromone binding protein, which associates with both enantiomers to a similar extent. The single neuron recording technique, on the other hand, showed that both species possess olfactory receptor neurons, colocalized in one sensillum, extremely specific to either (R)- or (S)-japonilure. Therefore, pheromone binding proteins (PBPs) alone cannot perform the task of chiral discrimination; enantiomeric specificity must be achieved by the interaction of the pheromone or the appropriate ligand-PBP complex with membrane receptors.


This article analyses the usage of T/V forms of address in Peninsular Spanish in a context of high formality —four interviews on Spanish national television
of ca. 40 minutes each to frontbench politicians by top political analysts. Whilst the interviewers used V consistently, from the different choices of T/V pronouns
made by the interviewees a number of intriguing conclusions are inferred. Unlike previous research into the addressees' social factors, this research shows
that the addressees' age, sex and power/authority did not necessarily have an impact on the speakers' choice of T or V. Conversely, the factor common to those
speakers who used T was their young age (not the addressees'). Additionally, the cases of variation within the same speaker's speech, changing from V to T, were prompted by the speaker's desire to implicate less solidarity in moments when they disagreed with their interlocutors. In sum, this research reveals that the
choice of T or V, even in contexts of the highest formality, may depend on the speaker's idiosyncrasy and will to express more or less distance with their addressee.


Activities of excavating coal exscind natural vegetation and deposit stone on the natural land that modified the natural land contribute to waste farmlands. Additionally, pollution of environment, losses of human life, human settlements and the infrastructure are also rising, which certainly demands urgent attention. Revegetation had been considered as a kind of cost-effective means. A reasonable potentiality for Revegetation of abandoned lands from coal mining activities is benefit for planning of Revegetation. In this paper, 34 instances were investigated, and seven attributes such as slope angle, elevation, topographic wetness index, lineaments, geological formations, soil types, condition of traffic, correlative with abandoned lands were recorded. A potentiality evaluation method based on support vector machine was proposed and was tested on those data. The purpose of SVM proposed in this paper is to construct a model that suggests target value of data instances in the testing set using only the given attributes. We randomly select 22 data instances to construct the SVM model. Testing is made by rest data. The results show SVM the good performance of potentiality evaluation with RBF kernel. it manages to achieve 95% success on the training set and 75% success on the testing set. Experiments performed also show that the performance of this method is mostly superior to that of artificial neural networks and SVM can be employed as an efficient method for evaluating the revegetation potentiality of abandoned lands from coal mining activities.


Various research models based on the interpretive paradigm, can serve effectively as research approaches for studies in Informatics (Information Systems). This metaresearch study overviews research paradigms and Information Systems (IS) research, then descriptionbes, discusses and illustrates some interpretive approaches: action research, grounded theory, and the family comprising development research and two forms of design research, namely, design-science research in IS and design-based research in the realm of educational technology. In the current milieu - with its emphasis on interactivity, user-centricity, usability, empowerment software, and e-learning - inquiry processes originating from the social sciences are relevant to IS, particularly for research on human aspects of the design and development of personal computing applications. The five approaches advocated have underlying theoretical and methodological frameworks and reflective methods. Each one can serve as a model to guide the research process, offering a unifying thread, cohesion and internal consistency to a research study.


International arbitration perhaps crosses more practical and theoretical boundaries than any other area of law. A practitioner must approach the field prepared to deal with aspects of national, international and conflicts laws, public and private law, and substantive and procedural law. Crucial issues involve policy matters as well as the layers of national and international regulation of the arbitral process. There are also special considerations to be taken into account in the presence of state parties and of third parties. In a three-day symposium held at the School of International Arbitration, Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), Queen Mary University of London, on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary in April 2005, a stellar array of practitioners and academics undertook the task of taking a fresh look at some of the persistent legal and practice issues of international arbitration. The conference - and this book derived from it - illustrate the combination of the scholarly and the highly practical which has characterised the mission of the School of International Arbitration since its establishment in 1985. These insightful papers demonstrate not only the increasing breadth and scope of the subject, but also the way in which many of its themes and issues cross legal and disciplinary boundaries and pose questions for the future of the law and arbitration practice in an internationalised world. These include: public policy; mandatory rules; confidentiality; provisional measures; res judicata; costs; amicus briefs; groups of companies; parallel proceedings; and anti-suit injunctions. Contributors focus on topics and countries with which they have particular expertise or experience. Both international commercial and international investment arbitration are covered. This important book will be of great interest to arbitration lawyers, international lawyers and business people, as well as to academics, libraries, and students of dispute resolution.


This paper studies disturbance rejection problem for discrete time-delay nonlinear systems. The optimal control of original systems causes a nonlinear Two Points Boundary Value (TPBV) problem with both time-delay terms and time-advanced terms. By using of Successive Approximation Approach (SAA), the original nonlinear TPBV problem is transformed into a sequence of nonhomogeneous linear TPBV problems without time-delay terms and time-advanced terms. We proved that the sequence of solutions uniformly converges to the optimal disturbance rejection control law of the original systems through two lemmas. By finite iterations of the solution sequence, the iterative procedure can be stopped and suboptimal control law is obtained. Based on reduced-order disturbance observer, the presented control law can be easily completed and physically realizable. Simulation results of two cases verify the validity and effectiveness of the presented controller.


Abstract: Cholinergic deficits are clinicopathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (DAT) and during the past decade have been the sole target for clinically effective treatments. By contrast, vascular dementia subtypes (VaD) are heterogeneous clinical syndromes, and therapeutic approaches have been directed toward control of vascular risk factors. Little attention has been paid to cholinergic deficits as a mechanism contributing to cognitive impairments in VaD as a potential target for treatment. The purpose of the study was to determine whether there are therapeutic benefits from long‐term treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors among VaD patients. Ten VaD patients were diagnosed according to DSM‐III‐R and NINDS‐AIREN criteria and classified into subtypes by neuroimaging. All were treated with titrated doses of donepezil for a mean interval of 15 months. At baseline and follow‐up clinic visits, patients underwent medical and neurological examinations, as well as neuropsychological testing including Mini‐Mental Status Examinations (MMSE) and Cognitive Capacity Screening Examinations (CCSE). Cognitive statuses of 10 treated patients were then compared before and after treatment. Net changes were expressed as annual MMSE score changes (ΔMMSE/year) and annual CCSE score changes (ΔCCSE/year). Of the 10 treated VaD patients, cognitive improvements were found when comparisons were made before and after treatment. Ten treated patients also showed greater cognitive improvements, while untreated patients showed continued cognitive decline. This study suggests that cholinergic deficits in VaD are due to neuronal ischemic damage with loss of acetylcholine and that treatment of VaD with cholinesterase inhibitors is a rational therapy.


Federated learning (FL) enables collaborative model training among distributed devices without data sharing, but existing FL suffers from poor scalability because of global model synchronization. To address this issue, hierarchical federated learning (HFL) has been recently proposed to let edge servers aggregate models of devices in proximity, while synchronizing via the cloud periodically. However, a critical open challenge about how to make a good synchronization scheme (when devices and edges should be synchronized) is still unsolved. Devices are heterogeneous in computing and communication capability, and their data could be non-IID. No existing work can well synchronize various roles (\textit{e.g.}, devices and edges) in HFL to guarantee high learning efficiency and accuracy. In this paper, we propose a learning-based synchronization scheme for HFL systems. By collecting data such as edge models, CPU usage, communication time, \textit{etc}., we design a deep reinforcement learning-based approach to decide the frequencies of cloud aggregation and edge aggregation, respectively. The proposed scheme well considers device heterogeneity, non-IID data and device mobility, to maximize the training model accuracy while minimizing the energy overhead. Meanwhile, the convergence bound of the proposed synchronization scheme has been analyzed. And we build an HFL testbed and conduct the experiments with real data obtained from Raspberry Pi and Alibaba Cloud. Extensive experiments under various settings are conducted to confirm the effectiveness of \textit{Arena}.


The need to restore and keep the grid running or fast restoration during emergencies such as extreme weather conditions is quite apparent given the reliance of other infrastructure on electricity. One promising approach to electricity restoration is the use of locally available energy resources to restore the system to form isolated microgrids. In this paper, we present a black start restoration method that forms islanded microgrids after a blackout. The master DGs in the formed microgrids are coordinated to work together through droop control. Several constraints, including incentive-based demand response (DR) with direct load control (DLC) and distributed generator (DG) operation constraints, were formulated and linearized to realize a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) restoration model. To improve compactness and to ensure that the model is neither under-sized nor over-sized, a pre-processing graph analysis approach was introduced which helps to characterize the least number of restoration steps needed to optimally restore the microgrid. Studies were performed on a modified IEEE 123 node test feeder to evaluate the effects of demand response, non-dispatchable DGs, and choice of restoration steps on the quality of the restoration solution. When possible, the proposed method yields an interconnected multi-master microgrid with improved redundancy.