OBJECTIVE
To explore a new method for in vitro expansion of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) by using platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in place of fetal calf serum (FCS).

METHODS
Bone marrow(BM) samples were obtained from the proximal femurs of patients with normal haematopoietic function undergoing total hip arthroplasty. 2 x 10(5)/cm2 BM nucleated cells were seeded in 25 cm2 flasks for MSC cultivation containing one of the 3 mediums: complete Dexter medium with 12.5% FBS and 12.5% horse serum (medium1), alpha-MEM with 10% FCS (medium2) and alpha-MEM with 5% PRP(medium3). At the same time, 1 x 10(6) nucleated BM cells and same amount of nucleated cells from iliac aspirate were seeded in 25 cm2 tissue flasks, colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) assay.

RESULTS
Culture-expanded cells from proximal femurs presented a typical fibroblast-like morphology. Cells were positive for SH2 (CD 105), SH3 (CD73), Thy-1 (CD90), while negative for CD34 and CD45. On induction, these cells could differentiate into osteoblasts. A significantly higher proliferative capacity of MSCs expanded in medium3 was observed in comparison to those in mediuml or 2 without alteration of the phenotype and the differentiation property. CFU-F assays indicated that bone marrow from the proximal femoral contained significantly more CFU-F than that from iliac aspirate.

CONCLUSION
Platelet-rich plasma can be used in place of FCS to provide a safer and more effective culture condition to expand MSCs for clinical purpose. The proximal femur BM cells can be obtained in hip surgeries.


With the ongoing prolific expansion of the size of the World Wide Web, the quantity of video content is also expanding. With this massive increase in size, users encounter a serious problem when trying to decide which videos to spend their time on. Moreover, as a result of our modern-day faster lifestyles, users wish to consume the contents of the video as quickly as possible. This article proposes a model, entitled Fast Captions, that enables users to consume the video more quickly with the help of closed captions. The proposed model incorporates a temporal summarization of the captions that helps in understanding the contents of the video more quickly. A prototype implementation of the proposed Fast Captioning model is developed with the Facilitas media player, which allows the user to select the playing speed and renders the video with summarized captions. The results of the experiments conducted with the implementation confirms the acceptance of the proposed Fast Captions model with an acceptance rate of 92%.


We study the formation of the spectra in advection dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) around Kerr black holes. We use a Monte Carlo approach and fully general relativistic treatment to follow the paths of individual photons and model their scattering with mildly relativistic, thermal electrons of the two temperature plasma present in the flow. We study the influence of the accretion rate, black hole mass, black hole angular momentum, and the strength of the small scale magnetic field present in the plasma on the resulting spectra. The impact of the black hole angular momentum on the spectra is present and can be distinguished from the influence of changes in other parameters. This property of the models should be taken into account when modeling the individual sources and the population of inefficiently accreting black holes in the Universe.


The Journal of Simulation is celebrating its tenth anniversary. The journal is published by The Operational Research Society of the United Kingdom. The society is the world's oldest-established learned society catering to the Operational Research profession, and one of the largest in the world, with 2,700 members in 66 countries. This panel session brings together four leaders of the simulation community to discuss significant advances in simulation over the last ten years, major simulation issues that still need to be addressed, and what can be accomplished during the next ten years. The first four authors of this paper are the panelists and the other three are editors of the Journal of Simulation.


In software development, Software quality analysis plays a considerable process. Through the software testing, the quality analysis is performed for efficient prediction of defects in the code. Due to the complicated structure of software projects, code examination has become a demanding issue that has to be addressed at the initial stage of testing for achieving the quality improved results. In order to resolve these issues, the Stochastic Gaussian Neighbor Embedding based Probit Regressive Reweight Boost Classification (SGNE-PRRBC) is introduced for accurate quality prediction system through code examination proficient system. The SGNE-PRRBC technique considers the number of program files as input for software quality analysis through feature selection and classification. Initially, the number of program files is taken from the dataset (DS). After collecting the files, the Gaussian distributive stochastic neighbor embedding technique choose the features (i.e. code metrics) based on the distance similarity. With the assist of Pearson correlative probit regressed reweight boost technique, the classification of program files is performed. The boosting algorithm creates 'm' number of weak classifiers i.e. Pearson correlative probit regression to categorize the input program files as normal or defected through analyze the source codes and chosen metrics. After that, the weak learners results are combined into strong through minimizing the out of sample error with gradient descent function. This enhances the accuracy of quality prediction and lessens the false positive rate (FPR). Experimental analysis is performed with various metrics namely accuracy, FPR and computation time (CT) with number of program files. Experimental results evident that the SGNE-PRRBC technique achieves better performance in terms of accuracy, CT and FPR as compared to the conventional


When someone has or is at risk for a hereditary condition, the entire family is affected. Communication within families about such risk is important—it's central to independent decision making—but it can be difficult: whether someone can disclose such information, even to family members, depends on many factors. In order to help patients and families make decisions about disclosing information regarding genetic risk, and avoid undo distress in the process, nurses must understand the many issues that affect families when genetics is discussed.


AbstractScholars interested in the role of national parliaments in the EU legislative process hardly paid attention to the differences in scrutiny between Upper Houses of EU member states. It is hypothesized in this article that structural differences between bicameral systems can explain differences between Upper Houses in scrutiny of EU legislative proposals. The hypotheses are assessed with a qualitative content analysis of parliamentary debates in the Dutch and British Upper Houses on the scrutiny of EU directives agreed upon through the ordinary legislative procedure in the period 2000–2010. The empirical findings indicate that differences in the set-up of bicameral systems can only in part explain the variation in ex ante scrutiny. Moreover, in both the British and Dutch bicameral systems, MPs of the Upper and Lower Houses most of the time do not contradict each other on substantive grounds when the same EU legislative acts are scrutinized. The results also show that the scrutiny by Upper Houses imp...


The reel-lay method is widely used for installation of subsea pipelines. Reeled pipelines are typically subjected to two reverse plastic bending cycles. However, they may occasionally see up to five bending cycles during a contingency re-reeling operation. Concerns have been expressed that increased accumulated strain during re-reeling may reduce the fracture toughness (FT) and/or increase the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) of pipeline girth welds. A test program was conducted in an acidizing environment to quantify the impact of accumulated plastic strain on the FCGR and FT of girth welds in the X65 pipeline, installed using the reeling methodology. Furthermore, an engineering critical assessment (ECA) analysis was performed, using the measured FCGR, to establish the minimum required FT for the girth welds of the subsea pipeline, operating in the acidizing environment. Paris law FCGR testing as per ASTM E647 was performed in the environment on the material subjected to 5 plastic straining cycles and subsequently aged. The FCGR, measured in the acidizing environment, was accelerated by a factor of 22 relative to the BS 7910 in-air mean FCGR curves. Slow-rising displacement FT testing as per ASTM E1820 was performed in the acidizing environment on the material subjected to 2 and 5 plastic bending cycles and subsequently aged. Three samples with a notch in both the heat affected zone (HAZ) and the weld centerline (WCL) were tested for the material subjected to 2 bending cycles. For this material condition, average threshold stress intensity values for cracking initiation, associated with 0.05 mm crack extension, were 2707 N/mm-3/2 and 2510 N/mm for the WCL and the HAZ, respectively. The average threshold stress intensity value, associated with cracking initiation measured on three HAZ samples subjected to 5 bending cycles, was 2603 N/mm. An ECA analysis as per BS 7910 (2015) was performed using the measured FCGR and the specified non-destructive examination (NDE) flaw acceptance criteria to derive the minimum required FT for the pipeline to operate safely in the acidizing environment. The ECA analysis showed that the minimum required FT in the acidizing environment at the inner diameter location was 1819 N/mm for welds subjected to 2 bending cycles, and 1842 N/mm for welds subjected to 5 bending cycles due to increased cumulative tearing of up to 0.07 mm during re-reeling. Therefore, additional bending cycles, associated with re-reeling, were shown to have an insignificant impact on the FT in the acidizing environment. Furthermore, the increased number of reeling cycles did not command any reduction in flaw acceptance criteria for the project specific application.


Supporting user interactivity in peer-to-peer streaming systems is challenging. VCR-like operations, such as random seek, pause, fast forward and rewind, require timely P2P overlay topology adjustment and appropriate bandwidth resource re-allocation. If not handled properly, the dynamics caused by user interactivity may severely deteriorate users' perceived video quality, e.g., longer start-up delay, frequent playback freezing, or blackout altogether. In this paper, we propose a derivative tree-based overlay management scheme to support user interactivity in P2P streaming system. Derivative tree takes advantage of well organized buffer overlapping to support asynchronous user requests while brings high resilience to the impact of VCR-like operations. A session discovery service is introduced to quickly locate parent peer. We show that the overhead of VCR-like operations in derivative-tree based scheme is O(log(N)), where N is the number of sessions. Simulation experiments further demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme.


Measurements have been made of the array-density spectrum of cosmic-ray showers in the sea-level size range from 3*104 to 106 particles. The index of the power-law spectrum is roughly constant below 3*105 particles but increases rapidly above this size. This increase is consistent with previous work in the range 3*105 to 107 particles.


Syarifuddin, Hafnisiregar E, Jambak J, Suryani C. 2018. The impact of oil palm plantation on ecology of rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) insect pollinators. Biodiversitas 19: 1347-1351. The establishment of oil palm plantation in Sumatra was the result of massive conversion of its rainforest. Many studies have shown that oil palm plantation is a main threat to biodiversity including insect pollinators. However, its effect on the ecology of insect pollinators is still poorly studied. In this study, we investigated the impact of oil palm plantation on the species richness and composition, abundance as well as pattern of time period and duration of insect visit on rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum, flowers. Insect visitors of flowers were compared between rambutan grown in the Oil Palm Plantation (OPP) ecotone and the one in the mixed Oil Palm Garden Forest (OPGF) ecotone. Number of visiting insects on each pannicle in ten minutes period and number of flowers and pannicles visited within 2 minutes were enumerated. The length of time of a randomly selected individual of the most abundant insects visited a flower and a pannicle was also recorded. The results showed that species composition of insect visitors was different between the two ecotones and total insect abundance was significantly higher on rambutan flowers located in the OPGF ecotone compared to rambutan trees grown close to oil palm plantation. The insect visitors on rambutan flowers in the OPGF ecotone were dominated by bees while in the OPP was dominated by Calliphorid fly. Among the main pollinators, the bee Apis cerana visited far more flowers and pannicles compared to Trigona sp and Chrysomya sp. Thus, more evidence showing that oil palm plantation probably has caused the disappearance of main species of bee pollinators, reduced abundance of flower-visiting insects, change of pollinator species composition, change of the pattern of time and change the duration of insect visit of rambutan flowers.


The variation of metal corrodibility, solution corrosiveness and corrosion rates for mild steel in I N H2S04 acid, as a function of time have been studied using gravimetric (planned interval test) and electochemical methods. A new voltammetric method has been developed to determine the corrosion rates at short time intervals. The results of the corrosion of mild steel in I N H2S04 with and without polyvinyl glycol (PVG) inhibitor at short time intervals have been reported . The corrosion inhibition efficiency of PVG is 91 % after 24 h. Significantly, it has also been possible to determine simultaneously the corrosion rates with respect to Fe(lI) and Fe(I1I).


As the improvement of honing velocity, acceleration and accuracy, corresponding requirements about control technology are put forward to meet the improvement of high machining efficiency. While the honing machine spindle reciprocating reversing control is the key control link, directly affects the ability of the machine abilities and quality. Aim at the traditional honing machine reciprocating motion cannot satisfy the requirement of high speed, high acceleration and high reversing accuracy. According to the characteristics of honing machine mechanism of reciprocating movement, establish its mathematic model and the system of fuzzy and PID double control model, and then the control system was conducted by using the tool of Simulink. The simulation result showed that using fuzzy and PID double control can make overshoots reduced compared with conventional single fuzzy control and PID control, and can well satisfied the system performance index.


Abstract The main research problem of the paper is aimed at determining the proper functioning of Lake Gardno within the period 2012-2014 considered as hydrological years in reference to the physiochemical properties of its waters, water balance, thermal regime and water overturn. Lake Gardno is a representative of non-run-off lake geo-eco-systems; it is situated within the Southern Baltic Sea Coastland at the cliff shore of Wolin Island. The paper analyses how weather conditions affect the specifics of water supplies provided to the lake and seasonal dynamics of its waters, their chemical, thermal and aerobic properties. It also specifies their overturn and balance with a particular emphasis on their supplies together with fog deposits.


Using Jordan–Winger transformation and finite Fourier transformation, the Hamiltonian of XX chain can be transformed to the diagonal form. If the total qubits number N = odd, the internal energy Ū, and correlation function Gzz in thermal equilibrium can be calculated. Then the pairwise concurrence and the critical value βcr can be calculated. For N⩾5 XX chains, there are pairwise concurrences in thermal equilibrium for antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic cases when β > βcr.


BACKGROUND
Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) was legalized in Canada in 2016, although it has been accessible as an end-of-life option in the province of Quebec since 2015. Before its implementation in clinical settings, few physicians had received formal training on requests assessments. New data indicate MAiD requesters have high rates of psychiatric comorbidities. Hence, assessment and management of psychiatric and psychosocial issues among MAiD requesters are important competencies to develop for assessors, although few training programs address them. The aim of our study was to explore physicians' self-perceived educational needs on psychiatric aspects related to MAiD in the province of Quebec.

METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional online survey and used a non-probability sampling design in one academic tertiary care center. A descriptive analysis was performed, and responders were compared on different variables.

RESULTS
From twenty-five physician assessors, nineteen responded anonymously to an online survey (n=19). The findings of our pilot study revealed that participants felt highly competent in most psychiatric aspects at end-of-life and related to MAiD practice, except for psychotherapy and psychopharmacology as well as depression identification. Most indicated strong interest in further training. No statistical differences were found among responders regarding previous experience or training in palliative care.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on our study, MAiD assessors reported high level of competency in managing psychiatric issues among requesters, but that they also expressed a strong desire for additional education.


Mediterranean landscapes have been fragmented, connected and reformed by countless trackways, buildings and field systems. On the Greek Island of Kythera, an extensive and detailed record of such structures has been recorded as part of broader multidisciplinary investigation of the island's long-term history by the Kythera Island Project (KIP). This rich dataset can be complemented further by KIP's intensive archaeological and geoarchaeological surveys, offering both practical checks on existing data and insights at a greater resolution. This paper draws on this combination of material and deploys spatial analysis techniques to explore and quantify a range of issues relating to anthropogenic landscapes.


Background: Occupational asthma (OA) is a major cause of respiratory morbidity and the most common cause of non-acute lung disease in the industrialized world. The incidence of OA in developed country is increasing, while in developing countries is still unknown. Automobile industry is a place where workers are exposed to harmful chemicals and toxic substances. In automobile industry work floor assembly lines chassis move continuously and pass by Robot Painter that spray them and workers assemble the chassis. The paint that is used contains isocyanate (low-molecular-weight compound) which is most common agent responsible for OA. Objective: The present study is undertaken to assess respiratory morbidity of paint workers in terms of obstructive and restrictive lung pattern and to study relationship between duration of exposure and respiratory morbidity. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 70 car spray paint workers, who are working for 1-6 years in an automobile industry. A pre-structured questionnaire was used to record the clinical, sociodemographic profile, and clinical examination. Pulmonary function parameters were recorded by a computerized spirometer-Medspiror during their working hours. An independent t test and a correlation test were applied. Results: Sixty-one workers had normal lung functions. The nine isocyanate-exposed workers showed a significant reduction in FEV 1 /FVC (P < 0.05) suggestive of obstructive lung pattern. There is a strong correlation between duration of exposure and pulmonary functions (P value = 0.002). Conclusion: Decreased pulmonary function tests (PFT) in spray painters were related to duration of exposure to isocyanate.


Dynamic program slicing is widely recognized as a powerful aid for e.g. Program comprehension during debugging. However, its widespread use has been impeded in part by scalability issues that occur when constructing the dynamic dependence graph necessary to compute dynamic slices. A few seconds of execution time on a modern CPU can easily yield dynamic dependence graphs on the order of tens of gigabytes in size. Existing methods either produce imprecise slices, incur large time overheads during slice computation, or run out of memory for long program executions. By carefully designing our method to take advantage of locality, we are able to efficiently use secondary storage for dynamic dependence graphs, thus allowing our method to scale to long program executions. Our prototype implementation runs directly on x86 executables, eliminating problems with e.g. Binary-only libraries. We show in our experiments that graphs can be constructed for program runs with billions of executed instructions, at slowdowns ranging from 62x to 173x. Our optimized format also allows graphs to be traversed at speeds of several million dependence edges per second.


The focus of this article is on advocacy opportunities provided by the anti-trafficking framework in a new political climate. Through the case study of the United Kingdom (UK) Modern Slavery Act 2015 deliberations the article explores opportunities to use political interest in human trafficking to advocate labour rights and protections for vulnerable workers. The article explores how, largely cynical, political motivations for the debate on 'modern slavery' in the UK, provided an opportunity to reframe the anti-trafficking discourse in this context. Whilst migration control and labour market deregulation are key priorities for the UK government, the Modern Slavery Act process enabled advocates to highlight the impact of such measures on vulnerable, predominantly migrant, workers. It also ultimately served to persuade decision makers to make a connection between widespread labour abuses and severe labour exploitation. Through this case study the article argues for engagement with anti-trafficking frameworks to both highlight and harness the political rhetoric, and maximise the space provided for promoting the rights of vulnerable workers.


CircRNAs are a group of endogenous noncoding RNAs. The quickly developing high throughput RNA sequencing technologies along with novel bioinformatics approaches have enabled researchers to systematically identify circRNAs and their biological functions in cells. Deep sequencing of rRNA-depleted RNAs treated with RNase R, which digests linear RNAs and leaves circRNAs enriched, is an efficient way to identify circRNAs. However, very few of RNase R treated data are at hand but a large amount of total RNA-Seq data with no sequencing costs is available, for circRNA predictions. In this study, we systematically investigated the prediction bias from total RNA-Seq data as well as the influence of sequencing depth, sequencing quality and single-end or paired-end sequencing strategy on the predictions. We also identified circRNA properties that may contribute to the improved prediction performance. Our analysis shows that circRNA predictions from total RNA-Seq data gain ∼50% true positive. Sequencing error dramatically worsens the predictions, rather than single-end sequencing strategy or low sequencing depth. However, false positive can be carefully controlled by using data with good quality and narrowing down circRNAs guided by their properties.


Background Hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) is a method that provides a systematic approach to identifying the hazards and the direct and indirect effects that they have on the hospital pharmacy. Purpose The objective of this study was to identify the phases at the greatest risks, to find solutions to reduce the risk level and to enhance patient safety. Material and methods We have adapted this method to all the stages of drug compounding. We analysed 45 different events concerning the preparations of drugs. For each process, a score of 0 to 3, has been assigned for the following items: probability of the event happening (0=none/unknown; 1=low; 2=moderate; 3=high); magnitude of impact divided into human impact (probability of death or injury), property impact (physical losses and damages) and business impact (interruption of services) (0=none/unknown; 1=low, 2=moderate, 3=high); and mitigation factors divided into preplanning, internal response and external response (0=none/unknown, 1=high, 2=moderate, 3=low). The severity of the event determined using the difference between the magnitude of impact and the degree of mitigation. The risk was obtained by multiplying the probability by the severity. Results Only 6/45 (13.3%) of all phases showed a risk of more than 50%. The risk related to the lack of prescription and, consequently, preparation made after a doctor's call, was 52%. The risk related to the preparation of the drug that caused allergy to the patient noted in the electronic medical record was 56%. The risk due to the preparation of the drug that caused interactions with other drugs administered to the patient was 52%. The risk of the wrong quantity of drug prepared was 67%. The risk related to the error in the choice of the solvent to be used was 52%. The risk due to incorrect labelling was 56%. Conclusion Based on these results, we have identified some solutions to reduce the risk: the double-check carried out by two different people could solve the risk due to incorrect labelling; and the software used by pharmacists can be improved to reduce the risk related to the patients' allergy or cross-reaction. Finally, errors can be reduced through clearer and specific sessions of training for the compounders. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


Background Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory joint disease associated with psoriasis. With biologics entering the therapeutic scene, treatment outcome has dramatically improved; nonetheless, pathogenesis of the condiiton is still under investigation. Exploring the biological differences between PsA and RA at tissue level may help in understanding their pathological pathways. Little comparative data is available in early and untreated disease. With the use of a minimally-invasive, ultrasound-guided, needle biopsy technique, synovium from patients with early and untreated disease and small joint involvement may be studied. Objectives To evaluate clinical, sonographic and histological features of early untreated psoriatic arthritis versus rheumatoid arthritis. Methods Patients were selected from a large prospective cohort of treatment-naïve patients with inflammatory arthritis of under 12 months' duration. All patients underwent a clinical and sonographic assessment of arthritis activity and an ultrasound-guided synovial biopsy prior to treatment. 32 PsA and 23 gender- and age-matched RA patients were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Synovial inflammatory infiltrate were assessed using immunohistochemical staining for CD3, CD68, CD20 and CD138. Tissue was classified as lymphoid (presence of grade 2/3 CD20+ aggregates); fibroid (CD68 sublining score ≤2 on a semi-quantitative scale of 0 to 4); or myeloid (CD68 sublining score >2, with or without grade 1 aggregates). Gene-expression analysis of 46 pre-selected genes was performed on 16 PsA and 22 RA patients using Fluidigm technology. Results Demographic and clinical data at the time of biopsy were comparable between PsA and RA; mean symptom duration was 5.5 for PsA and 4.8 months for RA. Mean tender and swollen joint counts were lower in PsA, nonetheless no significant difference could be found in DAS28. US synovial thickness was similar between the two groups, however a significantly higher Power Doppler score was detected in the biopsied joints of RA patients. Histologically, PsA synovitis score was significantly lower compared to RA; accordingly, PsA synovial tissue showed a lower number of B and T lymphocytes, plasma-cells and sub-lining macrophages. Around 50% of RA synovium demonstrated features of the lymphoid pathotype; in contrast, fibroid (40%) and myeloid (37%) pathotypes were prevalent in PsA (chi-square p<0.05). Surprisingly, expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNFa, IL1b, IL6, IL23, IL17A, IL12A at mRNA level was comparable between RA and PsA. Conclusions Despite similar clinical features, early treatment-naïve PsA and RA are histologically deeply different; inflammatory infiltrate is lower in PsA compared to RA. However, pro-inflammatory cytokines are similarly expressed, suggesting differential pathways of translation from synovitis to clinical phenotype. Disclosure of Interest None declared


In mutilating multidigital injuries, nonreplantable parts of amputated fingers may serve well as donor sites for reconstruction of another severely damaged finger. A case of a 38 year old man is reported who suffered a severe multidigital injury of his left hand by a milling-machine. An extensive soft tissue defect of the middle finger was covered with a neurovascular flap from the nonreplantable index finger after the fractured middle phalanx was stabilized by osteosynthesis and bone grafting and the flexor tendons were sutured. The flap contained a neurovascular bundle and a dorsal vein which were sutured to the corresponding palmar artery and nerve and dorsal vein of the finger by microsurgical technique. In multidigital mutilating injuries the immediate use of a microvascular flap from a nonreplantable part is recommended to improve healing and later use of the remaining digits.


A polyphasic study in which we performed an amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of whole-cell proteins, a gas chromatographic analysis of methylated fatty acids, pyrolysis mass spectrometry, a random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, a phenotypic analysis, and an analysis of the levels of DNA binding of Paenibacillus gordonae and Paenibacillus validus strains (including both type strains) showed that these organisms form a homogeneous group and that the names P. gordonae and P. validus are therefore synonyms. P. validus has nomenclatural priority, and an emended description of this species is given; the type strain is strain LMG 11161 (= ATCC 43897).


Abstract. We report the first isolation of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in South Korea. A 61-year-old woman presented with a 6-day history of fever, headache, and myalgia. Initial investigation showed neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. We diagnosed human granulocytic anaplasmosis by microscopic examination and serologic testing. The patient recovered fully without antibiotic therapy. The isolate was obtained from the patient's blood by cell culture and mouse inoculation. Its identity was confirmed by an immunofluorescence assay, sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, msp2 (p44), and ankA genes, and staining and electron microscopy of morulae of A. phagocytophilum in cultured human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Melanoma patients experience inferior survival after bio-chemotherapy when their tumors contain numerous cells expressing the inducible isoform of NO synthase (iNOS), and elevated levels of nitrotyrosine, a product derived from nitric oxide (NO). Although several lines of evidence suggest that NO promotes tumor growth and increases resistance to chemotherapy, it is unclear how it shapes these outcomes. Here we demonstrate that modulation of NO-mediated S-nitrosation of cellular proteins is strongly associated with the pattern of response to the anti-cancer agent cisplatin in human melanoma cells in vitro. Cells were shown to express iNOS constitutively, and to generate sustained nanomolar levels of NO intracellularly. Inhibition of NO synthesis or scavenging of NO enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptotic cell death. Additionally, pharmacologic agents disrupting S-nitrosation markedly increased cisplatin toxicity, whereas treatments favoring stabilization of S-nitrosothiols decreased its cytotoxic potency. Activity of the pro-apoptotic enzyme caspase-3 was higher in cells treated with a combination of cisplatin and chemicals that decreased NO/S-nitrisothiols, whereas lower activity resulted from cisplatin combined with stabilization of S-nitrisothiols. Constitutive protein S-nitrosation in cells was detected by analysis with biotin switch and reduction/chemiluminescence techniques. Moreover, intracellular NO concentration increased significantly in cells that survived cisplatin treatment, resulting in augmented S-nitrosation of caspase-3 and prolyl-hydroxylase-2 (PHD2), the enzyme responsible for targeting the pro-survival transcription factor HIF-1α for proteasomal degradation. Because activities of these enzymes are inhibited by S-nitrosation, our data thus indicate that modulation of intrinsic intracellular NO levels substantially affects cisplatin toxicity in melanoma cells. The underlying mechanisms may thus represent potential targets for adjuvant strategies to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy.

Citation Format: Luiz C. Godoy, Chase C.T. Anderson, Rajdeep Chowdhury, Laura J. Trudel, Gerald N. Wogan. Melanoma fights cisplatin with NO: S-nitrosation as a mechanism supporting drug-resistance. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 894. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-894


A novel simple two-dimensional square-lattice model of amphiphile at oil-water interface is developed, in which oil and water act as solvent and occupy empty sites and amphiphile occupies chains of sites. In this model, the oil-water interface is fixed, And amphiphile molecules will be enriched at the oil-water interface. The interfacial concentration of amphiphile calculated by Monte Carlo method shows that it is easier for the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balanced amphiphile to stay at the interface. And the adsorption of amphiphile increases with the increase of amphiphile concentration and the decrease with temperature.


The roles and interactions of activity planning and scheduling for Earth Observing Satellites are based on factors such as mission objective, system assets and resources, system and spacecraft constraints, planning criteria, scheduling strategies, timelines, and desired level of automation and operator interaction. Activities are generalized into four categories: accomplish the mission objective, support the mission objective, manage the system resources, and maintain the system assets. This paper discusses factors that influence the planning and scheduling design and design complexities. Included is how the design addresses modeling of the spacecraft subsystems and states when incorporating spacecraft capabilities, constraints and operating guidelines.


The present study was aimed at evaluating an underlying mechanism of the antiviral activity of the sulfated galactans (SG) isolated from the red seaweed Gracilaria fisheri against white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection in haemocytes of the black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon. Primary culture of haemocytes from Penaeus monodon was performed and inoculated with WSSV, after which the cytopathic effect (CPE), cell viability and viral load were determined. Haemocytes treated with WSSV-SG pre-mix showed decreased CPE, viral load and cell mortality from the viral infection. Solid-phase virus-binding assays revealed that SG bound to WSSV in a dose-related manner. Far Western blotting analysis indicated that SG bound to VP 26 and VP 28 proteins of WSSV. In contrast to the native SG, desulfated SG did not reduce CPE and cell mortality, and showed low binding activity with WSSV. The current study suggests that SG from Gracilaria fisheri elicits its anti-WSSV activity by binding to viral proteins that are important for the process of viral attachment to the host cells. It is anticipated that the sulfate groups of SG are important for viral binding.


On July 1, 1966, the federal government offered assistance in paying for healthcare to almost all Americans aged 65 or older. The Medicare program has been an incredibly successful program ever since then, but is now facing severe financial and other challenges that require serious reforms. Healthcare delivery systems and technology have undergone tremendous change during the past three decades, and it is time to modernize the Medicare program to reflect these changes and prepare the program for the next century.


An experimental approach to evaluate the net binding free energy of buried hydrogen bonds and salt bridges is presented. The approach, which involves a modified multiple-mutant cycle protocol, was applied to selected interactions between TEM-1-beta-lactamase and its protein inhibitor, BLIP. The selected interactions (two salt bridges and two hydrogen bonds) all involving BLIP-D49, define a distinct binding unit. The penta mutant, where all side-chains constructing the binding unit were mutated to Ala, was used as a reference state to which combinations of side-chains were introduced. At first, pairs of interacting residues were added allowing the determination of interaction energies in the absence of neighbors, using double mutant cycles. Addition of neighboring residues allowed the evaluation of their cooperative effects on the interaction. The two isolated salt bridges were either neutral or repulsive whereas the two hydrogen bonds contribute 0.3 kcal mol(-1 )each. Conversely, a double mutant cycle analysis of these interactions in their native environment showed that they all stabilize the complex by 1-1.5 kcal mol(-1). Examination of the effects of neighboring residues on each of the interactions revealed that the formation of a salt bridge triad, which involves two connected salt bridges, had a strong cooperative effect on stabilizing the complex independent of the presence or absence of additional neighbors. These results demonstrate the importance of forming net-works of buried salt bridges. We present theoretical electrostatic calculations which predict the observed mode of cooperativity, and suggest that the cooperative networking effect results from the favorable contribution of the protein to the interaction. Furthermore, a good correlation between calculated and experimentally determined interaction energies for the two salt bridges, and to a lesser extent for the two hydrogen bonds, is shown. The data analysis was performed on values of DeltaDeltaG(double dagger)K(d) which reflect the strength of short range interactions, while DeltaDeltaG(o)K(D) values which include the effects of long range electrostatic forces that alter specifically DeltaDeltaG(double dagger)k(a) were treated separately.


Poultry production has experienced a major shift with the prohibition of the use of antimicrobials and antibiotics as growth promoters. The industry in general, and more specifically turkey producers, are facing a changing world in that many consumers have a perception and certain beliefs about food production while the truth maybe something else. Additionally, perception has become a reality when it comes to consumer acceptance, which affects consumer purchasing behavior. In this regard, in many cases and genres, the public perception of antibiotic use in turkey production can be generally negative. The truth that antibiotics and other antimicrobials can be beneficial to both turkeys and consumers is lost. Therefore, turkey producers are accepting the challenge to rear turkey flocks without growth promoting antibiotics or antimicrobials. In some cases and some locales, this has become the law. In other markets, consumer desires and purchasing habits are the driving force for change. Turkey producers are scrutinizing production practices to ascertain and provide the optimal environment for turkey production. In addition, alternatives to antibiotics are being developed, tested, evaluated, and used for turkey production in increasing frequency. These include, but not limited to, probiotics (direct-fed microbials), prebiotics, organic acids, essential oils, spices, and plant and yeast extracts. Researchers are joining forces with turkey producers to develop use plans for these feed additives that, in most cases, are not the same as for antibiotic administration. Turkey producers have become proactive in developing these plans and are preparing to provide exceptional quality products that will meet consumer acceptance. However, more research focusing specifically on turkeys is certainly needed so that these alternative approaches can be optimized to meet the turkey production necessities.


Enterprises are forecasted to spend more on chatbots than on mobile app development by 2021. Up to today little is known on the roles chatbots play in facilitating feedback exchange. However, digitization and automation put pressure on companies to setup digital work environments that enable reskilling of employees. Therefore, a structured analysis of feedback-related chatbots for Slack was conducted. Our results propose six archetypes that reveal the roles of chatbots in facilitating feedback exchange on performance, culture and ideas. We show that chatbots do not only consist of conversational agents integrated into instant messenger but are tightly linked to complementary front- end systems such as mobile and web apps. Like the upper part of an iceberg, the conversational agent is above water and visible within the chat, whereas many user interactions of feedback-related chatbots are only possible outside of the instant messenger. Further, we extract six design principles for chatbots as digital feedback systems. We do this by analyzing chatbots and linking empirically observed design features to (meta-)requirements derived from explanatory theory on feedback, self- determination and persuasive systems. The results suggest that chatbots benefit the social environment of conversation agents and the richness of the graphical user interface of external applications.


Using the first-principle self-consistent linear-muffin-tin-orbital method within the local density approximation, band structure of (111)-oriented strained-layer SiGe superlattice is studied. Three different ordered arrangements of atom layers (Si-Ge?Si-Ge Si-Si?Ge-Ge and Si?Si-Ge?Ge) are considered. Calculated results indicate that (111)-oriented SiGe strained layer superlattices are semiconductive, with a band gap about 1.0eV. The first two superlattices are indirect band gap semiconductors, and the third one (Si?Si-Ge?Ge) is a direct band gap semiconductor. The influence of strain on the band structure is also investigated.


Infiltrating the operative site prior to incision with an epinephrine solution will provide vasoconstriction and a dryer operative field. However, some surgeons fear that as the vasoconstrictive effects of the epinephrine subside, smaller vessels will rebleed and a hematoma may result. In this study, 51 rats were operated with two flaps. The ventral pedicled flap, based on the inferior superficial epigastric arteries, and the McFarlane dorsal skin flap were utilized. The perimeter of all flaps was infiltrated with one of the following test infusions: (1) no infiltrate (control group), (2) 1% lidocaine hydrochloric acid (HCI), (3) 2% Iidocaine HCI, (4) 1% Iidocaine HCI and epinephrine 1:100,000, and (5) 0.5% Iidocaine HCI and epinephrine 1:200,000. Flaps were replaced In their beds. Animals were sacrificed 24 hours postoperatively. Flaps were raised at 26 hours and the coagulum weighed. No statistically significant difference was found between the weights of the coagulum of the infiltrated flaps versus the noninfiltrated flaps. Statistical power calculations on the main study flap yielded values greater than 80%. This suggests that the difference in delayed bleeding between noninfiltrated flaps and flaps infiltrated with various combinations of Iidocaine and epinephrine was insignificant.


A language model can be used to predict the next word during authoring, to correct spelling or to accelerate writing (e.g., in sms or emails). Language models, however, have only been applied in a very small scale to assist physicians during authoring (e.g., discharge summaries or radiology reports). But along with the assistance to the physician, computer-based systems which expedite the patient's exit also assist in decreasing the hospital infections. We employed statistical and neural language modeling to predict the next word of a clinical text and assess all the models in terms of accuracy and keystroke discount in two datasets with radiology reports. We show that a neural language model can achieve as high as 51.3% accuracy in radiology reports (one out of two words predicted correctly). We also show that even when the models are employed only for frequent words, the physician can save valuable time.


Nanotechnology has become a key word of public interest, since people realized the social and economic power of nanotechnology development. Nanotechnology has already become part of our daily life, and it will have an as yet unknown technological impact because it concerns all aspects of human life from novel building materials to electronics, cosmetics, pharmaceutics, and medicine.1 In recent years, engineered nanoparticles started to become the most important components in nanotechnology. The InternationalOrganization for Standardization (ISO) has provided specific definitions in their recent document entitled "Nanotechnologies—Terminology and definitions for nanoobjects—Nanoparticle, nanofibre and nanoplate". As the basis of this review, the following definitions for a nanoparticle (NP) and a nano-object will be used.


prosecution of crime from the time of arrest to the time of arraignment and deals with the duties of the Crown and of the accused while the case for the prosecution is being prepared for trial. Naturally this involves a consideration of the part played by the police in the administration of justice, and it is therefore very topical, especially at a time when the police are coming in for so much public criticism, and a Royal Commission on the police is now sitting to consider the relationship between the police and the public. Although Lord Justice Devlin, as a holder of judicial office, has placed upon himself a restriction which precludes him from offering praise or criticism of the police, nevertheless he does enable us to see the part played by the police in its true perspective with regard to interrogation, arrest and detention. This is indeed a most valuable service, for it is only by a. consideration of these problems, especially when we have the advantage of Lord Justice Devlin's learning and experience to guide us, that we are able to judge for ourselves whether all is well with the administration of justice. As one reads this book, one is struck by the fact that here is no dry academic exercise, compiled by one who has made his judgements in his study, but the practical result of years spent at the Bar and on the Bench, which gives to the writer an authority about his comments and observations, that is at once stimulating and a challenge, not only to those who are already practising in the Criminal Courts, but also those who are still studying law. I have no doubt that there will be many tutors who will be recommending this most readable book to their pupils, and I equally have no doubt that those pupils will get a better and surer grasp of the subject and the spirit of fair play that runs through the whole of the Criminal Law, than they would do from reading longer and more ambitious works. While we would all feel that the Court of Appeal has been fortunate to have gained the services of Lord Justice Devlin, at the same time Criminal Law will be the poorer for no longer having the advantage of the services of Mr. Justice Devlin. EVAN STONE.


In graph signal processing, the graph adjacency matrix or the graph Laplacian commonly define the shift operator. The spectral decomposition of the shift operator plays an important role in that the eigenvalues represent frequencies and the eigenvectors provide a spectral basis. This is useful, for example, in the design of filters. However, the graph or network may be uncertain due to stochastic influences in construction and maintenance, and, under such conditions, the eigenvalues of the shift matrix become random variables. This paper examines the spectral distribution of the eigenvalues of random networks formed by including each link of a D-dimensional lattice supergraph independently with identical probability, a percolation model. Using the stochastic canonical equation methods developed by Girko for symmetric matrices with independent upper triangular entries, a deterministic distribution is found that asymptotically approximates the empirical spectral distribution of the scaled adjacency matrix for a model with arbitrary parameters. The main results characterize the form of the solution to an important system of equations that leads to this deterministic distribution function and significantly reduce the number of equations that must be solved to find the solution for a given set of model parameters. Simulations comparing the expected empirical spectral distributions and the computed deterministic distributions are provided for sample parameters.


The catalytic activity of a series of ruthenium(II) complexes in azide-alkyne cycloadditions has been evaluated. The [Cp*RuCl] complexes, such as Cp*RuCl(PPh 3) 2, Cp*RuCl(COD), and Cp*RuCl(NBD), were among the most effective catalysts. In the presence of catalytic Cp*RuCl(PPh 3) 2 or Cp*RuCl(COD), primary and secondary azides react with a broad range of terminal alkynes containing a range of functionalities selectively producing 1,5-disubstituted 1,2,3-triazoles; tertiary azides were significantly less reactive. Both complexes also promote the cycloaddition reactions of organic azides with internal alkynes, providing access to fully-substituted 1,2,3-triazoles. The ruthenium-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (RuAAC) appears to proceed via oxidative coupling of the azide and alkyne reactants to give a six-membered ruthenacycle intermediate, in which the first new carbon-nitrogen bond is formed between the more electronegative carbon of the alkyne and the terminal, electrophilic nitrogen of the azide. This step is followed by reductive elimination, which forms the triazole product. DFT calculations support this mechanistic proposal and indicate that the reductive elimination step is rate-determining.


The inhibition of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) by antifolates is a common practice both in cell culture and in chemotherapy. Surprisingly, antifolate resistance was also observed in cultured murine myeloma cells (SP2/0) in the presence of human plasma (HP); thus, we used a proteomic approach to identify novel plasma biomarker(s) for this condition. In contrast to the in vitro antifolate response, metabolic enzymes and translation machinery proteins were found to be up-regulated in the presence of HP. The antifolate resistance inherent in HP may be explained by a simultaneous promotion of cell proliferation and the maintenance of DNA integrity. Furthermore, the factor(s) was found to be extrinsic, heat stable and very small in size. Adenine, a supplemented additive in erythrocyte preservation, was subsequently identified as the contributing factor and exogenous addition in cultures reversed the cytotoxicity induced by antifolates. Importantly, adenine-containing blood components, which may provide enhanced survival to otherwise sensitive antifolate-targeted cells, showed a dose-dependent adverse effect in transfusion recipients receiving antifolate (methotrexate) medications. These findings not only highlight a previously unnoticed role of adenine, but also emphasize a novel mechanistic link between transfusion and subsequently reduced survival in patients taking methotrexate.


Mesh quadrangulation has received increasing attention in the past decade. While previous works have mostly focused on producing a high quality quad mesh of a single model, the connectivity of the quadrangulation is typically difficult to control and varies among models even with similar shapes. In this paper, we propose a novel interactive framework for quadrangulating a set of models collectively with compatible connectivity. Furthermore, we demonstrate its application to 3D mesh morphing. In our approach, the user interactively sketches a skeleton within each model, and our method automatically computes compatible base domains for all models from these skeletons, on which the models are parameterized. With this novel parameterization, it is very easy to generate a pleasing and smooth 3D morphing sequence among these compatible models. The method yields quadrangulation with comparable quality to existing approaches, but greatly simplifies compatible re-meshing among a group of topologically equivalent models, in particular characters and animals models, with direct applications in shape blending and morphing. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, we propose a novel interactive framework for quadrangulating a set of models collectively with compatible connectivity. Furthermore, we demonstrate its application to 3D mesh morphing. In our approach, the user interactively sketches a skeleton within each model, and our method automatically computes compatible base domains for all models from these skeletons, on which the models are parameterized.


This abstract relates to the following paper: TelfordP.G., BrowneB.A., CollingeE.J., FulcherP., JohnsonB.E., LittleW., LuJ.L.C., NurseJ.M., SmithD.W. & ZhangF. Developments in the Management of Annuity Business. British Actuarial Journal, doi:10.1017/S1357321711000213


Mono‐ and sesquiterpenoids are the main chemical constituents of essential oils. Essential oils and their constituents have received increasing attention for lipid‐lowering properties in both cell and animal models. Despite the chemical diversity of essential oil compounds, the effects of many of these compounds on cholesterol metabolism are highly similar. In this report, we review the literature regarding the effects of essential oils and their terpenoid constituents on cholesterol homeostasis, and explore likely mechanisms using protein–ligand docking. We identified 98 experimental and seven clinical studies on essential oils, isolated compounds, and blends; 100 of these described improvements either in blood cholesterol levels or in sterol metabolic pathways. Our review and docking analysis confirmed two likely mechanisms common to many essential oil compounds: (1) direct agonism of peroxisome‐proliferator‐activated receptors, and (2) direct interaction with sterol‐sensing domains, motifs found in key sterol regulatory proteins including sterol regulatory element binding protein cleavage activating protein and HMG‐CoA reductase. Notably, these direct interactions lead to decreased transcription and accelerated degradation of HMG‐CoA reductase. Our work suggests that terpene derivatives in essential oils have cholesterol‐lowering activity and could potentially work synergistically with statins, however, further high quality studies are needed to establish their clinical efficacy.


The detection of dislocated cracks hidden in a superlattice is a very difficult problem of considerable practical importance. The calculation performed here proves that splitting of coupled localised edge modes occurs due to the presence of the dislocated cracks. The coupled anomalous edge modes may be 'softened' in a system which facilitates complete Coulomb screening-a superlattice with dislocated cracks, bulk with cracks, etc. This provides an approach for detecting dislocated cracks hidden in a superlattice.


Human factor VIII has been dissociated into fragment VIII-C and fragment VIII-AG in the presence of calcium chloride (0.25 M). After removing the calcium, recombination of the molecule is obtained. Fragment VIII-C can be activated by thrombin in a similar manner to the coagulant activity of whole factor VIII. This activation is calcium-dependent. In rabbits immunized against purified F VIII, VIII-C and VIII-AG specific antisera against these three entities were obtained.


In this correspondence, we study the capacity region of a general wireless network by deriving fundamental upper bounds on a class of linear functionals of the rate tuples at which joint reliable communication can take place. The widely studied transport capacity is a specific linear functional: the coefficient of the rate between a pair of nodes is equal to the Euclidean distance between them. The upper bound on the linear functionals of the capacity region is used to derive upper bounds to scaling laws for generalized transport capacity: the coefficient of the rate between a pair of nodes is equal to some arbitrary function of the Euclidean distance between them, for a class of minimum distance networks. This upper bound to the scaling law meets that achievable by multihop communication over these networks for a wide class of channel conditions; this shows the optimality, in the scaling-law sense, of multihop communication when studying generalized transport capacity of wireless networks.


The historical survey of social movements in the United States reveals that the movement is a rhetorical ground occupied by groups who have been marginalized by society. Today, however, the distinctions between those who are marginalized and those who are part of the establishment have become difficult to distinguish. This study considers the emergence of Promise Keepers, an all-male social movement, and the rhetorical themes that emerge from the group. This study identifies five rhetorical themes in Promise Keepers. These themes include asserting authority of men in the home and church, the creation of a new male identity, sports and war rhetoric, political rhetoric, and racial reconciliation. The implications of these themes are considered from a critical perspective and areas for future research are provided.


The authors propose an experimental observation of the temperature-dependent coupling effect in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) multiguide. A grating like electrode is fabricated with indium-tin-oxide in the NLC device. With the application of a voltage of 5.4 V, an optical multiguide structure is formed owing to the periodic orientation of liquid crystal molecules, induced by a grating like distributed electric field. A linearly polarized beam of 532 nm is launched into one certain channel and coupled to adjacent ones. Note that the coupling effect significantly depends on temperature. Additionally, we also observe a clear nonlinear light self-focusing phenomenon at a low light power of 15 µW.


Back-reflection through a deep random phase screen is investigated for the case of an incoherently scattering reflector. General results are derived for simple imaging geometries which predict that, in scattering-limited situations, active object illumination can lead to a modest improvement in performance in comparison with passive imaging, but not to diffraction-limited operation. The predictions are explored with the help of an analytically tractable model.


The astonishing use of the double infinitive absolute with the verb π'π, attested only in Gen. viii 5, has nor yet been explained satisfactorily. The present paper argues that this construction is neither a variant form of the periphrastic participle, nor that π'π serves as a pluperfect. Instead, the two infinitives provide an adverbial modification for the main verb by specifically marking durativity and/or iterativity. However, precisely the combination with π'π appears to be special. The past tense indicator π'π itself being semantically void here, has been employed instead of a full verb, even though such a full verb would normally be expected with this expression, in order to retrieve a piece of information given in Gen. viii 3 and move it from the background to the foreground. It is thus the information structure which conditions the author's decision to explicitly mark the durative Aktionsart.


Tm(3+), Er(3+), Tm(3+)/Er(3+), Tm(3+)/Er(3+)/Eu(3+) single, double and triple activator ion/ions doped nanocrystalline BaGd2O4 (BG) phosphors were prepared by a Pechini type sol-gel process. After annealing at 1300 °C, X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed their orthorhombic structure. Field-emission transmission electron microscope images of the BG sample indicated a nanoneedle-type morphology. Photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements were utilized to establish the emission properties of rare-earth ions doped nanocrystalline BG host lattice. Under near-ultraviolet (NUV) excitations, BG:Tm(3+) and BG:Er(3+) exhibited their characteristic emissions in the blue and green regions, respectively, while BG:Tm(3+)/Er(3+) and BG:Tm(3+)/Er(3+)/Eu(3+) showed cyan and white light emissions, respectively, when doped with appropriate amounts of activator ions. In the PL, the cross-relaxation process is dominant rather than the energy transfer process. Due to the different mechanism from PL, the CL spectra showed different emission features of BG:Tm(3+)/Er(3+)/Eu(3+) phosphor. The CL spectra of BG:Tm(3+) and BG:Er(3+) established the high purity blue and green emissions, respectively. From the PL and CL investigations, the white-light emission was realized from the single-phase BG:Tm(3+)/Er(3+)/Eu(3+) phosphor under NUV and low voltage electron beam excitations.


We present a parametric method to represent and detect geons. The parameters are extracted from joint statistical constraints defined on complex wavelet transform. We first review how steerable pyramid may be used in multi-scale multi-orientation image decomposition. Then, four stages of object recognition theory is adopted to support the choice of joint statistical constraints, which characterize geons in a high dimensional parameter space. This parametric representation is examined in detail under circumstances when geons change in orientation, location, and size. Constraint-wise similarity is introduced to describe the corresponding statistics variations. Finally, we present details of a geon detection system, and demonstrate successful experimental results as well as system limitations.


This study was done basing on the macrofungi specimens collected from Manisa province between 1994-1998. As a result of the studing of laboratory and field, 36 macrofungi taxa belonging to 13 families were determined. This study is a contribution to the macrofungi flora of Manisa province.


Background. Patient education has long been recognized as a component of effective diabetes management, but the impact of counseling and education (C/E) interventions on health care costs is not fully understood. Objectives. To identify the incidence and type of diabetes C/E received by type 2 diabetes patients and to evaluate associated economic and clinical outcomes. Methods. This retrospective cohort study used the Premier-Optum Continuum of Care database (2005–2009) to compare adult patients with type 2 diabetes receiving C/E to those not receiving C/E (control). The index date was the first C/E date or, in the control cohort, a randomly assigned date on which some care was delivered. Patients had at least 6 months' pre-index and 12 months' post-index continuous health plan coverage. Health care costs and glycemic levels were evaluated over 12 and 6 months, respectively, with adjustment for differences in baseline characteristics using propensity score matching (PSM). Results. Of 26,790 patients identified, 9.3% received at least one C/E intervention (mean age 53 years, 47% men) and 90.7% received no C/E (mean age 57 years, 54% men). Standard diabetes education was the most common form of C/E (73%). After PSM, C/E patients had some improvements in glycemic levels (among those with laboratory values available), without increased risk for hypoglycemia, and incurred $2,335 per-patient less in diabetes-related health care costs, although their total health care costs increased. Conclusions. Despite the low uptake of C/E services, C/E interventions may be associated with economic and clinical benefits at 12 months. Further analyses are needed to evaluate the long-term cost-effectiveness of such initiatives.


A DECADE AFTER THE BREAK-UP of the Soviet Union in 1991 this article presents an overall review of the state of agrarian reform in the new states that were formed in its demise. It will show that the development of a new, economically viable agricultural sector, based on private farm enterprises, is still a far cry in most parts of the former Soviet Union (FSU). Agrarian reform (including land privatisation, restructuring of the collective and state farms, market liberalisation and particularly institution building) has not been at all comprehensive. The reasons behind the stagnation of reforms in the agricultural sector will be discussed. First, we shall contrast the current state of agrarian reform in most of the former Soviet Union-leaving aside the Baltic states'-with the original 'blueprint of reform' (World Bank, 1992). Second, we shall analyse the linkage between the performance of the agricultural sector in the various FSU successor states and the agrarian reforms, within the context of the overall macroeconomic development of the countries involved.


ABSTRACT This essay applies Craig Rood's concept of rhetorical closure to the specific case study of the creation of feminist discourse communities to discuss sexuality. It looks at the editorial policies of two feminist discourse communities in order to more broadly analyze the ways that rhetorical closure operates constitutively along with invitational rhetoric. It connects these issues to past and current debates about censorship, echo chambers, safe spaces, and trigger warnings in order to show when and how rhetorical closure is intended to prevent harm. Like Rood, I do not resolve questions on distinguishing the effectiveness or ethics of rhetorical closure. Examining a radical feminist periodical of the nineteenth century and the twenty-first-century feminist blogosphere shows how invitational rhetoric works with and as rhetorical closure.


A patient with a calcifying chronic pancreatitis was found to have a neuroendocrine islet cell tumour (a previously unreported association). The tumour secreted both gastrin and ACTH leading to clinical manifestations of both the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome and Cushing's syndrome.


Abstract : This report summarizes the result of investigating the problems associated with the emergency off-loading of high viscosity oils from damaged or sunken tankers. The design constraints imposed by the oil properties and tanker characteristics were investigated and small scale verification tests were conducted. Various pumping techniques were evaluated in terms of energy efficiency, capacity, and ease of deployment. Two different systems are recommended, one for low viscosity applications and one for high viscosity applications. (Author)


Flowback analysis recently has been considered as a potential tool for assessing induced fractures through corresponding pressure analyses and rate transient analysis. In this paper, we study fracture closure mechanisms during the flowback of fracturing fluid after hydraulic fracturing treatments. Although it is known that flowback can be significantly affected by the geometry of the fractures and closure stress, there has not been any effort to understand the problem from the geomechanical point of view; rather, available studies assume that a fracture closes uniformly with constant fracture compressibility. The coupled geomechanics and fluid flow model presented in this paper help to elucidate how geostresses may affect fracturing fluid recovery under different conditions. We perform a scaling analysis to formulate the occurrence of different fracture closure modes and then use numerical analyses to verify our scaling parameters. The factors governing the flowback process include the mechanical and petrophysical properties of the rock as well as preexisting discontinuities such as natural fractures. Three different closure modes for fracture networks are described and numerically verified. The occurrence of each mode can dramatically affect fracturing fluid recovery. The role of fluid leakoff into the formation, fractures conductivity, and drawdown strategy are examined for each fracture closure scenario.


BACKGROUND
 The Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI) is a validated measurement instrument for quality of life evaluation in young patients with acne. The original version was designed in English, and it has been translated to other languages. An adaptation for the Romanian language was lacking.

 OBJECTIVE
 The main objective of this study was to evaluate the comprehensibility of the Romanian language adaptation of the CADI in a small sample of patients with acne.

 METHODS
 Guided by the team at Cardiff University, we conducted the stages of the standardized translation process—forward translation, the reconciliation of translated versions, back translation, and cognitive debriefing. The cognitive debriefing stage involved applying the CADI to a small sample of patients. This was followed by individual interviews in which each question was discussed. Ethical approval was obtained for the cognitive debriefing stage. We administered this measure as a web-based form. The completion times for each individual question and for the entire survey were automatically recorded. The interviews for assessing comprehensibility and suitability for the Romanian language and culture were also held as live, web-based meetings.

 RESULTS
 A total of 7 patients with acne—4 females and 3 males—aged between 19 and 34 years were included. All subjects were native speakers of the Romanian language. They had mild or moderate acne. The mean completion time for the survey was 3.28 minutes. The mean score for the CADI was 5.4286. All participants agreed that the language used in this quality of life measurement instrument was simple, clear, and adequate for their native language.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Despite the epidemiologic restrictions against COVID-19, through teledermatology, we achieved cultural adaptation for the CADI in a language that previously lacked a specific tool for assessing quality of life impairment in patients with acne.


The present paper is concerned with the study of an approximate equation of state, first derived by Green, which covers both phases, liquid and gas, and can be used for numerical evaluation. It contains explicitly the roots of a certain transcendental equation. The difference between the liquid and the gas corresponds to the existence or non-existence of real roots of this equation. The solution of the transcendental equation has been reduced, by using a suitable expansion, to the solution of an algebraic equation. In this way explicit expressions for the equation of state are obtained which, however, are too involved to be generally discussed. The theory can be applied to argon using the Lennard-Jones potential for the interaction between argon atoms, and the results are shown in diagrams. The character of the singularity separating liquid and gas can be seen from these diagrams to lie at the lowest point of the isotherm in the unstable region. An estimate of the position of the critical point is made and found in fair agreement with the experiental data.


Four on-road experiments investigated whether the assumed values for driver perception-reaction time (PRT) used in AASHTO design equations adequately represent the range of actual PRT for older drivers. The Case III (stop controlled) intersection sight distance (ISD) experiment found that older drivers did not have longer PRT than younger drivers; 85th percentile PRT closely matched the AASHTO design equation value of 2.0 s. In the stopping sight distance (SSD) experiment involving brake reaction times to an unanticipated event (crash barrel suddenly rolling toward roadway), there were apparent differences in the distribution of PRT among age groups. Younger drivers accounted for most of the fastest PRT, but there were no age differences in the 50th or 85th percentiles. All observed PRT were encompassed by the current AASHTO design value of 2.5 s. The decision sight distance (DSD) experiment measured when drivers recognized the need to make a lane change maneuver, from the first visibility of the roadway cue used by the driver. Although observed DSD values were generally longer with increasing driver age, the 85th percentile PRT for all age groups were well below AASHTO design assumptions. The final experiment collected judgments about the acceptability of gaps and lags in traffic. Younger subjects accepted shorter gaps and rejected lags later than older subjects. Based on these findings, and consideration of the implications of changes in PRT for sight distance requirements, no changes to design PRT values, based on older driver performance, were recommended for ISD, SSD, or DSD. Alternative models for ISD, based on gap acceptance or lag rejection, were explored. Based on limited data, it is not clear whether these models offer any significant benefits to the current AASHTO model.


The aim of the present study is to provide an overview about the impact of feeding fish on chicken manure (CM) or fermented chicken manure (FCM) on the physico chemical character of water and performance of fish, as well as public health hazards and risks associated with consuming such fish in regard to fish quality. Nile tilapia (Orechromis niloticus) as an experimental fish where stocked into 7 groups (G) with duplicate treatment. Each group received different mixture of CM or FCM with fish ration (FR), 0:100, 25:75, 50:50 and 100:0 (% CM or FCM: % FR). Physico- chemical character of water and heavy metal load (Cu, Pb and Zn) of water and fish, as well as fish performance were measured and compared with control group received only fish ration (FR). Total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N) was also used for determining fish quality. Unionized ammonia (UIA) was significantly high (P< 0.05) at groups received FCM resulted in 100% mortality in such groups. TVB-N values were significantly (P


Abstract Headache is a common symptom following head trauma and not related to the degree of trauma. The term post-head-trauma syndrome is used to denote a group of symptoms following head trauma Dizziness, vertigo, perceptual changes, memory loss paresthesias, and tinnitus have been reported as well as psychological disturbances. Pathophysiology of headache and other symptoms in the syndrome are believed to relate to vascular and neuronal disturbances, Imaging techniques may provide objective evidence of changes in the brain. Often diagnostic studies do not reveal an abnormality, Treatment consists of diagnosing the type of headache and targeting appropriate therapy. Long-term prognosis is good, the majority of patients recovering after 1 Year.


Rationale Lack of physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle are independent predictors of health. Patients with COPD are proven to be less active compared to healthy subjects. Several accelerometers are valid to measure physical activity in COPD. Little is known about the agreement in wearing time between devices. Methods Ten patients with COPD (FEV 1 /FVC: 52±13%; FEV 1 : 61±21%predicted) wore 3 valid accelerometers (SenseWear Pro Armband (SW), Dynaport MoveMonitor (DMM) and ActiGraph GT3X (ACT)) simultaneously day and night up to 1 week. Proprietary algorithms for wearing time detection were used for SW and DMM. For ACT, 2 different algorithms on the vertical axis counts for a time window of 60 minutes (ACT1) and the vector magnitude unit from 3 axes for 90 minutes (VMU) (ACT2) were tested. Results DMM was accurate in recording wearing time (Δ(SW-DMM)=-8±8 minutes (p=0.35)). In both algorithms, ACT underestimated wearing time. The underestimation was higher using ACT1 (ACT1: Δ(SW-ACT)=522±36 minutes (p Conclusion When investigating inactive time, it is important to discern it from non-wearing time. ACT significantly underestimates wearing time. This may lead to an underestimated sedentary time, which may have consequences for the interpretation of physical activity/sedentarism in patients with COPD. DMM more accurately reflects wearing time.


Anti-intellectualism – the generalized distrust of experts and intellectuals – is an important concept in explaining the public's engagement with advice from scientists and experts. We ask whether it has shaped the mass public's response to COVID-19. We provide evidence of a consistent connection between anti-intellectualism and COVID-19 risk perceptions, social distancing, mask usage, misperceptions, and information acquisition using a representative survey of 27,615 Canadians conducted from March to July 2020. We exploit a panel-component of our design (N=4,910) to strongly link anti-intellectualism and within-respondent change in mask usage. Finally, we provide experimental evidence of anti-intellectualism's importance in information search behaviour with two conjoint studies (N~2,500) that show respondents' preferences for COVID-19 news and COVID-19 information from experts dissipate among those with higher levels of anti-intellectual sentiment. Anti-intellectualism poses a fundamental challenge in maintaining and increasing public compliance with expert-guided COVID-19 health directives.


We report a case of apoplexy of an undiagnosed pituitary adenoma in a patient treated with intravenous combination chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the penis. Apoplexy occurred while he was receiving a second cycle of vinblastine, cisplatin and methotrexate and he presented with classic neuro-ophthalmological signs. He made a full recovery following conservative manage


The stability of photolithography process tool is the fundamental to the fabrication of semiconductor devices. Several process control methods are employed to qualify and then monitor every single process layer at the photolithography stage. The CDSEM (Critical Dimension Scanning Electron Microscope) measurements on metrology features and the optical inspection and DRSEM (Defect Review Scanning Electron Microscope) on device features for Process Window Qualification is part of the conventional process control. Here we employed a novel PSD (Process Stability Diagnosis) solution that provides detailed Bossung plot like analysis on device features using CDSEM or DRSEM images. This provides quick insight into the process behavior and also identifies the root cause for any deviation. In this paper we will discuss about monitoring the depth of focus and the best focus as well as diagnosis for lens parameters like astigmatism and spherical aberration. We describe the method of extracting relevant parameters from high resolution images and establishing an automatic monitor for these critical indicators.


The Enterococcus faecalis conjugative plasmid pCF10 was used to introduce Tn925 into Acetobacterium woodii by filter mating. Tetracycline resistance was transferred at frequencies of about 10(-6) per donor, but no plasmid DNA was found in the transconjugants. DNA hybridization analyses of HindIII-digested chromosomal DNA demonstrated the insertion of Tn925 at a variety of locations, whereas wild type DNA showed no hybridization at all. The transconjugants were used as donor in mating experiments with tetracycline-sensitive Bacillus subtilis. Transfer of tetracycline resistance was observed at frequencies of 10(-8) per recipient.


ABSTRACT. The article presents some insights derived from research on 'good teaching practices' in the context of the School of Humanities, Mar del Plata State University, Argentina. He professor in charge of the 'Introduction to Philosophy' course has been signaled as 'memorable' by her advanced students, and thus become part of the investigation. In her classes, the relationship with the students entails peculiar ethical dimensions, and hospitality is one of the categories involved in her didactic proposal. Much data has been gathered through ethnographic reports of classwork, interviews, surveys and analysis of reference materials, which aims at throwing light into good teaching at university, as part of the investigation conducted by the Research Team on Education and Cultural Studies (GIEEC) in this University. KEY WORDS . Hospitality – Pedagogic Bond – Memorable Professors – Higher Education Didactics. doi:10.21703/rexe.201730334812


This paper presents a method of using femtosecond laser inscribed nanograting as low-loss- and high-temperature-stable in-fiber reflectors. By introducing a pair of nanograting inside the core of a single-mode optical fiber, an intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer can be created for high-temperature sensing applications. The morphology of the nanograting inscribed in fiber cores was engineered by tuning the fabrication conditions to achieve a high fringe visibility of 0.49 and low insertion loss of 0.002 dB per sensor. Using a white light interferometry demodulation algorithm, we demonstrate the temperature sensitivity, cross-talk, and spatial multiplexability of sensor arrays. Both the sensor performance and stability were studied from room temperature to 1000°C with cyclic heating and cooling. Our results demonstrate a femtosecond direct laser writing technique capable of producing highly multiplexable in-fiber intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer sensor devices with high fringe contrast, high sensitivity, and low-loss for application in harsh environmental conditions.


The skin is an essential organ with diverse functions. A deep molecular understanding to the biology of skin can offer explanations to many dermatological diseases. Furthermore, the skin perhaps serves the best model for cell biology research ranging from adult stem cell research to general questions in cancer and in development. The skin offers a multiple advantages to be used as a model system that other tissues do not possess. Advantages of skin as a study model include: simple visualization, large size, less complex cell culture systems, and efficient physiological readouts. Here, I would address two recent findings in the field of stem cell biology using the skin as model system, and this might bring forward revolutionary outcomes in the biomedical field.


The cellular response to ionizing radiation exposure is very complex and involves many pathways. A wide variety of biologic effects are induced after exposure to ionizing radiation, ranging from DNA damage processing, signal transduction, mutations, altered gene expression, cell-cycle arrest, genomic instability, and induction of carcinogenesis to cell death. To gain insight into this complex response, global alterations in the expression of genes in irradiated cells have been examined. Recent studies have provided evidence to associate micro-RNA (miRNA) with many cellular processes, including carcinogenesis, timing of cell-fate decision, apoptosis, and metabolic pathways controlling a range of events. The small noncoding miRNA are emerging as critical components in controlling the gene expression. Because miRNA target so many genes, we hypothesized that alterations in their expression may be associated with the overall response of cells to radiation treatment. To explore the role of miRNA in cellular response to ionizing radiation, we monitored the expression levels of several miRNA by employing the stem-loop real-time polymerase chain reaction in Jurkat and TK6 cells treated with gamma-radiation. The expression levels of several members of the let-7 family miRNA that functionally inhibit the mRNAs of Ras oncogenes were upregulated after ionizing radiation treatment in Jurkat cells but were downregulated in TK6 cells. The expressions of miRNA associated with MYC translocation were upregulated in both cell types. The modulation of miRNA involved in various cancers was also examined. These results provide a first glimpse to indicate the involvement of miRNA in radiation-induced stress response and will lead to functional studies dissecting the molecular details of these processes.


More women are leading schools in the role of superintendent, but numbers are still low when compared to men. There is limited research connecting women superintendents and the promotion of other women to leadership positions. Archival data from Texas schools showed that there is no difference between districts led by women superintendents or males for percentages of women central office leaders.


An important aspect in SoS is the realization of the concerns in different systems that work together. Identifying and locating these concerns is important to orchestrate the overall activities and hereby to achieve the overall goal of the SoS. Moreover, concerns in SoS are rarely stable and need to evolve in different ways and different times in accordance with the changing requirements. To manage the SoS and cope with the evolution of concerns it is necessary that the dependency links between the concerns and the system elements can be easily traced. In this paper, we present the different traceability requirements and the corresponding metamodel to support modeling traceability and supporting traceability analysis approaches within the SoS context.


A growing body of empirical evidence suggests a positive link between boardroom gender diversity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in developed economy firms. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding whether this relationship holds true for developing economy firms. Relying on stakeholder and institutional theory, this study examines for a positive link between board gender diversity and enhanced corporate social performance of firms across three Asia Pacific emerging economies (Malaysia, Pakistan, and Thailand). We find a significant relationship between board gender diversity and enhanced adoption of CSR in these emerging markets. Given that emerging societies and their environments are often the most vulnerable to unethical corporate practices, our finding that female directors can play a strategic role in enabling firms to ethically manage their social responsibilities and sustainable practices has important policy implications for regulators and stakeholders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment


Podoplanin is known as a lymphatic marker because its expression is detected in lymphatic but not vascular endothelium. Podoplanin is also expressed in several normal tissues including osteocytes or osteoblasts. A systematic examination of the podoplanin expression was conducted in normal skeletal tissues and some bone tumor cell lines, and the diagnostic value determined in primary bone tumors. Podoplanin mRNA was expressed at a high level in bone marrow tissue and cartilage, and was upregulated with differentiation to osteoblasts in bone marrow cells. Strong podoplanin expression was seen in osteocytes, chondrocytes, and osteoblasts on immunohistochemistry. Podoplanin mRNA was expressed at a high level in several osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma cell lines, whereas podoplanin was expressed at a low level in a Ewing's/primitive neuroectodermal tumor cell line. In the clinical samples, osteosarcomas (22/26) expressed podoplanin at various levels. In small cell osteosarcomas (2/2), podoplanin was expressed strongly, although the tissue samples included few diagnostic osteoids. Chondrosarcomas (10/10) expressed podoplanin strongly, and chondroblastomas (5/5) expressed podoplanin moderately, while podoplanin was absent or expressed at low levels in Ewing's sarcomas (0/5), chordomas (0/6) and giant cell tumors of bone (1/7). Therefore, podoplanin may be a sensitive immunohistochemical marker of osteogenic and chondrogenic bone tumors.


Suicide ideation is a problem among youths who have been previously abused. This study assesses whether three factors (ie, feeling connected to school, having parents who reward good behaviour, and feeling able to cope with peer conflict) are negatively associated with suicidal ideation for 2598 pre/early adolescents with various levels of prior abuse. For the entire youth population, those who reported all three factors were less than half as likely to have suicidal thoughts as those who did not report any of these factors (10.8% vs 30.3%, p<0.05). This pattern was similar and significant for youths who experienced peer abuse (10.2% vs 35.0%, p<0.05) and youths who experienced both early child abuse and peer abuse (21.6% vs 54.8%, p<0.05). Comprehensive programmes that improve school connectedness, parent–child relationships and coping skills to avoid violent peer conflicts might help decrease suicide ideation among youths, particularly those who have been previously abused.


The development of Tribolium castaneum (Herb'st.). in five levels of broken grains 0, 20, 40, 60, 80% /20 g pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum,(L,:) R. Br.), (cv. Gero) grain as well as in milled grain flour was studied over three generations under ambient laboratory conditions (29-390C; 41-5-8% RH)in Lafia (08.33 0N and 0.8,320E). Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Twenty grammes of each level of breakage .and whole meal were infested with five pairs of 3 – to 5 – day old adults for 20 days. Adult"emergence was subsequently recorded for 20 consecutive days following the first adult emergence in each of four treatment replicates, In another experiment, three non-volatile, edible oils of benniseed (Sesamum indicum), olive (Olea europaea) and horseradish (Moringa oleiferay) were evaluated at four rates (10, 20, 30, 40 mg/20 g) to protect broken (20% of 20 g) millet grains against T. castaneum. Treatments were replicated four in times randomized complete block design. Significantly (P= 0.05) higher- number of adults 'emerged in milled flour than in 100% whole millet grains in each generation. Similarly, significantly fewer adults emerged from whole grains than from broken or milled grains. More adults emerged during the 1st generation. than ill' the 2nd and 3rd generations. Olive oil at 40 mg/20 g broken millet grains completely suppressed development of T. castaneum to adult stage over the three generations whereas oil from benniseed and horseradish at the same rate completely suppressed development in the 2nd and 3rd generations, All the oils protected broken millet grains against adult T. castaneum development when compared with the control.


Mutation analysis is a powerful dynamic approach that has many applications, such as measuring the quality of test suites or automatically locating faults. However, the inherent low scalability hampers its practical use. To accelerate mutation analysis, researchers propose approaches to reduce redundant executions. A family of fork-based approaches tries to share identical executions among mutants. Fork-based approaches carry all mutants in one process and decide whether to fork new child processes when reaching a mutated statement. The mutants carried by the parent process are split into groups and distributed to different processes to finish the remaining executions. However, existing fork-based approaches have two limitations: (1) the limited analysis scope on a single statement to compare and cluster mutants prevents their systems from detecting more equivalent mutants, and (2) the interpretation of the mutants and the runtime equivalence analysis introduce significant overhead.In this paper, we present a novel fork-based mutation analysis approach WinMut, which (1) groups mutants in a scope of mutated statements and, (2) removes redundant computations inside interpreters. WinMut not only reduces the number of invoked processes but also has a lower cost for executing a single process. Our experiments show that our approach can further accelerate mutation analysis with an average speedup of 5.57x on top of the state-of-the-art fork-based approach, AccMut.


TEM analysis of sputter-deposited MgO has been performed using a plan view and cross-section approach. The influence of the sputtering parameters including target to substrate distance (TSD), sputtering power and Ar pressure on the structure and composition of deposited films has been investigated by analysing in plan view. Optimum deposition conditions have been identified and MgO layers deposited under these are partly crystalline within an amorphous matrix. Cross-sectional TEM imaging of MgO deposited under optimum conditions onto CoFeB in a basic MTJ structure (CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB trilayer), shows that in the initial deposition, at the bottom interface of the trilayer, amorphous MgO forms and this then becomes partly crystalline (but with no preferred texture) with continued deposition, towards the top interface of the layer. TEM- energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) composition analyses suggest that the inhomogeneous oxide film structure could be caused by the deposition of disordered, non-stoichiometric MgO.


Ca 1−x Er x F 2+x thin films, with a substitution rate, x, varying from 1 to 20%, were deposited on Si(100) substrates by sublimation of high purity solid solution powders under ultra-high-vacuum. Rutherford backscattering studies have shown that the films have the composition of the initial solid solution powders, are quite homogeneous and are epitaxially grown on the substrates. The optical properties of these films were studied by means of cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence. At room temperature, the emissions due to the de-excitations from the 4 S 3/2 , 4 F 9/2 , 4 I 11/2 and 4 I 13/2 excited levels to the 4 I 15/2 ground state of Er 3+ (4f 11 ) ions are easily detected (λ = 0.548, 0.66, 0.98 and 1.53 µm) The strong 1.53 µm infrared luminescence, which presents evident potential applications for optical communications, is maximum for an erbium substitution rate included between 15 and 17%. These Er concentrations are three or four orders of magnitude greater than the optimum ones in the case of Er-doped semiconductors, which are close to 10 18 cm −3 .In the visible range, the luminescences are also important.They allow us to detect high energy ion or electron beams. However their maximum efficiencies were observed for a relatively low erbium concentration, close to 1%. These different behaviours are explained by the cross relaxation phenomena, which depopulate the higher levels to the benefit of the 4 I 13/2 → 4 I 15/2 transition. The energy distribution of the Stark sublevels of the 4 I 15/2 state, which results from crystal field splitting, was deduced from a photoluminescence study at 2K. The obtained results show that the environment of the luminescent centres does not change with the erbium concentration. At last, it must be noted that the refractive index of the layers increases with the erbium concentration, leading to the realization of optical guides. Consequently opto-electronic components could be developed from such erbium doped heterostructures.


The growth of passive and socially responsible (SR) investment makes that sustainability indices play an important role in defining what constitutes a sustainable investment. In order to know the suitability of sustainability indices as benchmarks for SR investors, we used different linear regressions to compare the compositions of sustainability indices and their conventional counterparts and to compare the levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of both types of indices. We showed that the composition of sustainability indices gradually converged towards their conventional peers. Moreover, the difference between the CSR levels of both type of indices remained the same or even decreased over time. We concluded that a change in the weighting method of sustainability indices such as the equally weighted criterion would significantly increase the difference from their conventional counterparts. However, due to the relationship between CSR and size, this change would penalize the CSR level of the index. These results raise the question of whether SR passive investors will be able to meet their non-financial expectations as a consequence of the convergence.


Design highlights for a 32-bit parallel cyclic redundancy check (CRC) generator engine are presented. In a 0.8-/spl mu/m three-layer-metal CMOS process, the engine could handle about 5 Gbps data throughput. A compact layout is achieved by predecoding eight groups of four bits followed by performing a binary tree reduction on nets that are sorted by fanout. There are six gate delays plus a single-phase clock edge-triggered register.


Anomalies of the female genital tract were successfully characterized by gray scale ultrasonography in three cases; all three were found in association with unilateral renal agenesis. Findings at intravenous urography prompted ultrasound studies. The high incidence of genital tract anomalies associated with unilateral renal agenesis, particularly in females, indicates ultrasonography be used to examine the pelvis (as well as the renal bed). Further diagnostic procedures can then be assessed on a more informed basis.