Background. Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is the major cause of delayed graft function in renal allografts. The present study was performed to investigate the validity of serum creatinine (SCr) level as an indicator of postischemic renal dysfunction in mice. Methods. Renal IRI or sham surgery was induced in C57BL/6 mice, and SCr level and inulin clearance (Cin) were measured between 24 hr and 7 days after ischemia. Results. Cin in IRI mice was reduced 75% at 72 hr after ischemia in association with a nearly threefold increase in SCr level. Cin in IRI mice did not recover between 72 hr and 7 days after ischemia, even though SCr level at 7 days was not different between control and IRI mice. In IRI mice, SCr level measured at 24, 48, and 72 hr after ischemia correlated inversely with Cin measured at 72 hr, but not 7 days, after ischemia. Conclusions. SCr level in the early postischemic period (24–72 hr) seems to be a valid indicator of early postischemic renal dysfunction, and that renal function remains markedly depressed at 7 days despite suggestion from the SCr value that renal function is improving.


Driven by the rapid hardware development of parallel CPU/GPU architectures, we have witnessed emerging relational query processing techniques and implementations on those parallel architectures. However, most of those implementations are not portable across different architectures, because they are usually developed from scratch and target at a specific architecture. This paper proposes a kernel-adapter based design (OmniDB), a portable yet efficient query processor on parallel CPU/GPU architectures. OmniDB attempts to develop an extensible query processing kernel (qKernel) based on an abstract model for parallel architectures, and to leverage an architecture-specific layer (adapter) to make qKernel be aware of the target architecture. The goal of OmniDB is to maximize the common functionality in qKernel so that the development and maintenance efforts for adapters are minimized across different architectures. In this demo, we demonstrate our initial efforts in implementing OmniDB, and present the preliminary results on the portability and efficiency.


Programmable A > I RNA editing is a valuable tool for basic research and medicine. A variety of editors have been created, but a genetically encoded editor that is both precise and efficient has not been described to date. The trade‐off between precision and efficiency is exemplified in the state of the art editor REPAIR, which comprises the ADAR2 deaminase domain fused to dCas13b. REPAIR is highly efficient, but also causes significant off‐target effects. Mutations that weaken the deaminase domain can minimize the undesirable effects, but this comes at the expense of on‐target editing efficiency. We have now overcome this dilemma by using a multipronged approach: We have chosen an alternative Cas protein (CasRx), inserted the deaminase domain into the middle of CasRx, and redirected the editor to the nucleus. The new editor created, dubbed REPAIRx, is precise yet highly efficient, outperforming various previous versions on both mRNA and nuclear RNA targets. Thus, REPAIRx markedly expands the RNA editing toolkit and illustrates a novel strategy for base editor optimization.


We report on the organization and realization of the Joint International Physics Summer School - Optics" devoted to High-School students. The idea of the School is to teach Physics through high-level experimental activities, suitably supported by introductory lectures and complemented by data analysis. The School is also open to the participation of a number of teachers, as an opportunity of refreshing their knowledge and increasing their experimental skills. Students and teachers are directly involved in the experimental activities. The aim of the activity is to stimulate students curiosity and interest and help them decide whether a future job career in Science could be suited for them. The School is organized in two weeks: the first in June-July in Como (Italy) at the Department of Science and High Technology and the second at the end of August in Olomouc (Czech Republic) at the Joint Laboratory of Optics. Two editions of the Summer School took place in 2013 and 2014 (overall 40 students and 3 teachers from Italy, 9 students from Czech Republic) and the third one will be in 2015. The first week of the School is devoted to introductory lectures (theoretical and experimental) to consolidate students' and teachers' knowledge of basic optics. The second week is devoted to several advanced experiments in linear, nonlinear, classical and quantum optics, performed in research laboratories. During the last day of the School, students are required to give a presentation of the results obtained during the experimental sessions.


Biogenic gas is becoming increasingly important as an exploration target in the petroleum industry because it occurs in geologically predictable circumstances and in large quantities at shallow depths as free gas or gas hydrates. As accumulations of biogenic gas result in a subtle synchronization between early generation and early trapping, we integrated a macroscopic model of microbial gas generation within a 3D basin and petroleum system forward simulator.


The important role of the correct use of statistics in the atmnospheric sciences literature is once again emphasized. Despite previous work on this topic, statistical techniques, even very simple ones, continue to be misused or altogether neglected, with the inevitable result of misleading or erroneous conclusions. An example concerning the impact of global climate change and hurricane activity is presented.


This article weaves together futurist electropop, the neorationalist memescape, neoliberal urban planning, and digital finance to illustrate some of the new epistemological and political challenges facing the growing musicological subfield of critical organology. Drawing upon recent studies of financial technology, it argues that calls to erase theoretical abstraction and return to a "common-sense" concern for "tangible things" come dangerously close to endorsing the neoliberal drive to replace public institutions with entrepreneurial competition. The aims are to show that the "affordances" of music technology today are not necessarily discernible when organologists limit their attention to musical instruments' ontologies alone, and to propose an alternative focused on "repairing" music technology's capacity for democratization. The first section presents a reading of the Grimes single "We Appreciate Power," situating the music in relation to an ethnographic account of the scene where Grimes first emerged. The second section seeks a definition of affordance that makes sense of the technological politics at work in things like rationalist meme economies and neoliberal innovation hubs. The concluding section outlines the case for a reparative organology that would both account better for materiality and resolve anxieties around theoretical abstraction.


Causal graphs such as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) are a novel approach in epidemiology to conceptualize confounding and other sources of bias. DAGs visually encode the causal relations based on a priori knowledge among the exposure of interest and the outcome while considering several covariates. The application of formal rules on these diagrams enables the identification of the causal and non-causal structures in the DAG. The causal effects are of interest and require no adjustment. Whereas the non-causal effects have to be checked for confounding and for which covariates adjustment is necessary. The identification of the adjustment set depends on the causal relations among the variables. The consideration of these relations is valuable because adjusting for more variables increases the risk of introducing bias. Considering every single path of a DAG allows the systematic identification of the causal structures in the DAG, and the determination of minimally sufficient adjustment sets for estimating the causal effect of the exposure on the outcome based on the underlying DAG. The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to the basic assumptions as well as the steps for drawing and applying a DAG.


Using the 95Rb activity mass-separated by KUR-ISOL, the absolute emission probabilities of the gamma rays of 95Rb at 352.0 keV, 95Sr at 685.6 keV and 95Y at 954.2 keV have been determined as 49.2+or-3.1, 21.8+or-1.8 and 15.9+or-0.7 per 100 decays, respectively, by an affiliation method. The log f1t value for the first-forbidden unique beta - decay of 95Y to the ground state of 95Zr has been determined as 8.62+or-0.04. The systematics of similar transitions in Y isotopes are compared with theoretical predictions.


Abstract In this paper, we develop a methodology to automatically classify claims using the information contained in text reports (redacted at their opening). From this automatic analysis, the aim is to predict if a claim is expected to be particularly severe or not. The difficulty is the rarity of such extreme claims in the database, and hence the difficulty, for classical prediction techniques like logistic regression to accurately predict the outcome. Since data is unbalanced (too few observations are associated with a positive label), we propose different rebalance algorithm to deal with this issue. We discuss the use of different embedding methodologies used to process text data, and the role of the architectures of the networks.


Provided are a surface-treated electrolytic copper foil, a laminate, and a printed circuit board with which increased fineness of pitch is possible and for which the reliability of resin adherence is excellent. A surface-treated electrolytic copper foil for which the roughness (Rz) of the roughened surface of the copper foil measured using a stylus-type roughness meter is 2.0 µm or less and the kurtosis (Sku) of the roughness curve of the roughened surface is 2-4.


Spring phytoplankton blooms in temperate environments contribute disproportionately to global marine productivity. Bloom-derived organic matter, much of it occurring as polysaccharides, fuels biogeochemical cycles driven by interacting autotrophic and heterotrophic communities. We tracked changes in the mode of polysaccharide utilization by heterotrophic bacteria during the course of a diatom-dominated bloom in the German Bight, North Sea. Polysaccharides can be taken up in a 'selfish' mode, where initial hydrolysis is coupled to transport into the periplasm, such that little to no low molecular weight (LMW) products are externally released to the environment. Alternatively, polysaccharides hydrolyzed by cell-surface attached or free extracellular enzymes (external hydrolysis) yield LMW products available to the wider bacterioplankton community. In the early bloom phase, selfish activity was accompanied by low extracellular hydrolysis rates of a few polysaccharides. As the bloom progressed, selfish uptake increased markedly, and external hydrolysis rates increased, but only for a limited range of substrates. The late bloom phase was characterized by high external hydrolysis rates of a broad range of polysaccharides, and reduced selfish uptake of polysaccharides, except for laminarin. Substrate utilization mode is related both to substrate structural complexity and to the bloom-stage dependent composition of the heterotrophic bacterial community. Originality statement The means by which heterotrophic bacteria cooperate and compete to obtain substrates is a key factor determining the rate and location at which organic matter is cycled in the ocean. Much of this organic matter is high molecular weight (HMW), and must be enzymatically hydrolyzed to smaller pieces to be processed by bacterial communities. Some of these enzyme-producing bacteria are 'selfish', processing HMW organic matter without releasing low molecular weight (LMW) products to the environment. Other bacteria hydrolyze HMW substrates in a manner that releases LMW products to the wider bacterial community. How these mechanisms of substrate hydrolysis work against a changing background of organic matter supply is unclear. Here, we measured changing rates and mechanisms of substrate processing during the course of a natural phytoplankton bloom in the North Sea. Selfish bacteria generally dominate in the initial bloom stages, but a greater supply of increasingly complex substrates in later bloom stages leads to external hydrolysis of a wider range of substrates, increasing the supply of LMW hydrolysis products to the wider bacterial community.


Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of rotaviral double-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) extracted directly from faecal specimens collected in three different parts of Hungary was applied to characterize and distinguish 21 randomly selected viral isolates. This technique made it possible to define 7 different electrophoretypes. Of the isolates 11 exhibited an identical "long" electrophoretic migration pattern. "Short" RNA pattern was found in two cases, and one atypical rotavirus was also revealed. This is the first description of rotavirus RNA electrophoretypes in Hungary.


The new facility, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP), is a combined laser-gamma nuclear physics research facility currently undergoing its final implementation stages in Măgurele near Bucharest, Romania. It already hosts two fully-operational 10 PW laser arms and, by 2023, it will also house a γ-beam system based on laser Compton backscattering, capable of delivering a high-brilliance, low-energy beam at E γ ≲ 19.5 MeV. Owing to this unique laser-gamma instrumentation combination, several types of experiments will be possible at ELI-NP, including high precision nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) experiments. In this case, the main γ-beam detection system for performing NRF studies at ELI-NP is represented by the ELI Array of DEtectors (ELIADE), featuring eight high-purity germanium (HPGe) segmented clover detectors. The current work presents the characteristics of two of the ELIADE detectors, including their photopeak detection efficiency, energy resolution, and peak-to-total ratio measured using γ-ray sources, as well as the timing performance obtained via in-beam measurements. For these latter detector tests, 130La was populated via the fusion evaporation reaction 121Sb(12C,3n)130La using a beam energy of 53 MeV at the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), also located in Măgurele. Herein, we report on the results of the ^130La linear polarization measurements taken using the ELIADE detectors as Compton polarimeters. The results obtained from the in-beam experiment were compared to several already published works and we present new information on the transition multipolarity in 130La.


Graded labels are ubiquitous in real-world learning-to-rank applications, especially in human rated relevance data. Traditional learning-to-rank techniques aim to optimize the ranked order of documents. They typically, however, ignore predicting actual grades. This prevents them from being adopted in applications where grades matter, such as filtering out ``poor'' documents. Achieving both good ranking performance and good grade prediction performance is still an under-explored problem. Existing research either focuses only on ranking performance by not calibrating model outputs, or treats grades as numerical values, assuming labels are on a linear scale and failing to leverage the ordinal grade information. In this paper, we conduct a rigorous study of learning to rank with grades, where both ranking performance and grade prediction performance are important. We provide a formal discussion on how to perform ranking with non-scalar predictions for grades, and propose a multiobjective formulation to jointly optimize both ranking and grade predictions. In experiments, we verify on several public datasets that our methods are able to push the Pareto frontier of the tradeoff between ranking and grade prediction performance, showing the benefit of leveraging ordinal grade information.


The Ganges River receives inputs from highly populated cities of India (New Delhi, Calcutta, among others) and a strong influence of anthropogenic activities until reaching the Bay of Bengal. It is a seasonal river with 80% of discharges occurring between July and October during monsoon. The land-based activities next to the shore lead to discharges of untreated domestic and industrial effluents, inputs of agricultural chemicals, discharges of organic matter (cremations), and discharges of chemicals from aquaculture farms. In spite of the UNESCO declaring Human Patrimony the National Park Sundarbans, located in the delta, contamination has increased over time and it dramatically intensifies during the monsoon period due to the flooding of the drainage basin. Vertical element distribution (Cd, Co, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) was studied in sediments collected in different stations towards the Hügli Estuary. Results determined no vertical gradient associated with the analyzed sediment samples, which informs about severe sediment dynamic in the area that probably relates to tidal hydrodynamics and seasonal variation floods. The multivariate analysis results showed different associations among metals and in some cases between some of them (Co, Zn, Pb, and Cu) and the organic carbon. These allow the identification of different geochemical processes in the area and their relationship with the sources of contamination such as discharge of domestic and industrial effluents and diffuse sources enhanced by the monsoons. Also, an environmental risk value was given to the studied area by comparing the analyzed concentrations to quality guidelines adopted in other countries. It showed an estimated risk associated with the concentration of the metal Cu measured in the area of Kadwip.


We have examined the rates of development of six wild-type and rapid-development strains of Dictyostelium discoideum. Strains NC4 and HU1231, a derivative of V12, have very similar developmental profiles. In comparison to these two strains, amoebae of the rapid-development strain HT100 reach the aggregation stage about 6 h earlier. Also, intracellular cAMP levels in HT100 increase precociously during early development. Postaggregative morphogenesis of HT100 proceeds at the same rate as NC4 and HU1231. In addition we have assessed the progress of development by RNA hybridization blotting. The appearance in HT100 of mRNAs associated with aggregation is advanced by 6 h while the appearance of early gene products is not affected appreciably. These data suggest that HT100 differs from strains NC4 and HU1231 primarily in the process of aggregation. We have partially characterized the genetic background of strain HT100. Mating and cell fusion analyses suggest that HT100 is a derivative of V12. We constructed a growth-temperature-sensitive derivative of HT100, and fused it with HU1231 cells. The resulting diploids develop at the same rate as HT100, suggesting that the rapid-development phenotype in HT100 is dominant.


The political reforms of the public sector, termed "new public management" (NPM), now have a 20-year history. This paper looks at local differences between England and Scotland over a particular dimension of NPM — performance management in health care. In the context of the dynamic reform agenda in the UK, it is expected that these "local" lessons will have some global relevance. This paper elaborates on these inter-country differences and proposes how the approaches in England and Scotland may affect productivity and innovation in health care delivery. It does this by exploring research into the behaviour of the most powerful of health care providers, the senior clinicians in hospitals.


A well–known result from the theory of the evolution of virulence is the prediction that the virulence of a pathogen (i.e. the rate of parasite–induced host mortality) always evolves to higher levels when host background mortality rates increase. This prediction, however, is derived from models that assume that host mortality sources combine additively to determine the overall host mortality rate. In this paper, we suggest that such additivity is probably rare for many host–pathogen systems, and explore how the predictions for the evolution of virulence are altered when interactions between host mortality sources are incorporated into the theory. Our results indicate that if mortality–source interactions are sufficiently strong then the evolutionarily stable level of virulence can actually decrease as the background mortality rate increases. Consequently, a detailed mechanistic description of how parasites and other mortality sources combine to cause host mortality is required before reliable predictions about virulence evolution can be made. Moreover, mortality–source interactions make empirical comparisons of the virulence of different parasites a much more subtle issue.


Heparan sulfate (HS) is one of the most complex and informative biopolymers found on the cell surface or in the extracellular matrix as either free HS fragments or constituents of HS proteoglycans (HSPGs). Analysis of free HS and HSPG sugar chains in human serum at the disaccharide level has great potential for early disease diagnosis and prognosis; however, the low concentration of HS in human serum, together with the complexity of the serum matrix, limits the information on HS. In this study, we present and validate the development of a new sensitive method for in-depth compositional analysis of free HS and HSPG sugar chains. This protocol involved several steps including weak anion exchange chromatography, ultrafiltration, and solid-phase extraction for enhanced detection prior to LC-MS/MS analysis. Using this protocol, a total of 51 serum samples from 26 premenopausal and 25 postmenopausal women were analyzed. Statistically significant differences in heparin/HS disaccharide profiles were observed. The proportion of N-acetylation and N-sulfation in both free HS and HSPG sugar chains were significantly different between pre- and postmenopausal women, indicating changes in N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferases (NDSTs), the enzymes involved in the initial step of the biosynthetic pathway. Differences in the proportion of 6-O-sulfation suggest that 6-O-sulfotransferase and/or 6-O-sulfatase enzymes may also be implicated.


Low-cost and compact size is endlessly requested by new wireless and mobile communication systems. These requirements are critical for some specific application such as bandpass filter(BPF). Most of today embedded filters in SIP are made on low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) technology, which eliminates Surface Mount Technology (SMT) and reduces the size of the filter. While LTCC filter can reduce the lateral size due to relatively high dielectric constant, it may not represent the most economical solution. Due to the increasing complexity and miniaturization of today's wireless products, the radio subsystems are being driven to very aggressive trends in advanced silicon processes for its process maturity, miniaturization. In this paper, a flowchart for RF BPFs design on silicon wafer from single inductor, capacitor to BPF optimization has been presented and proved. Two test vehicles for 5 GHz Wifi BPF are fabicated and characterized on six high-resistivity silicon (HR) wafers. Wide bandpass filter size at 0.9 mm times 1.4 mm and narrow bandpass filter size at 1.2 mm times 1.66 mm are realized. The preliminary measurement results are shown in the following.


Through latex polymerization with stabilizer (Dextran, low fraction), we prepared polybutylcyanoacrylate nanoparticles with a size of approximately 200 nm. The nanoparticle diameter decreases with decreasing stabilizer concentration. Using TEM and IR we studied the combination state and the mechanism between polybutylcyanoacrylate and Dextran. It was shown that each Dextran molecule could therefore contain several cyanoacrylate polymer moieties covalently linked via any of the available Dextran hydroxyl groups. Anchoring of the cyanoacrylate groups within the nanoparticle matrix would therefore result in an irreversible attachment between the Dextran and the nanoparticle. In this way, Dextran could be incorporated throughout the particle matrix as well as on the surface, producing the biodegradable particle. The results have been interpreted by reference to the accepted theories of steric stabilization and dispersion polymerization, and a model is proposed for the nanoparticle formation in the presence of Dextran.


【Biological phosphorus removal is characterized by complex interactions between different intracellular components of energy as PHA. Therefore, fundamental understanding of the behavior of the intracellular components and their influence on the removal of phosphorus is essential before control strategies to stabilize the proper process. The purpose of this study is to investigate relationship between release of phosphorus and synthesis of intracellular storage polymer. Mass of stored intracellular storage polymer was 21.2 mg PHA/L, 28.8 mg PHA/g MLSS. And phosphorus release/intracellular storage polymer synthesis rate was 1.8545 mg stored polymer/mg Phosphate. In the aerobic phase, mass of PAOs synthesis is 49.37 mg PAOs/L. And PAOs fraction was 6.7-6.9%. Thus intracellular storage polymer synthesis by PAOs is calculated as 493mg PHA/g PAOs.】


Tumours of perivascular epithelioid cells (PEComas) are being increasingly reported at visceral and somatic sites. Both benign and malignant variants have been identified, although clinical follow-up is often limited, which prevents meaningful predictions of behavior. We report the case of a malignant soft tissue PEComa with histologically confirmed regional lymph node metastases and radiologically confirmed pulmonary metastases. The light microscopic appearance and immunohistochemical profile (HMB-45, smooth muscle actin positive) and electron microscopic appearance support perivascular epithelioid cell differentiation.


Introduction
 Agents targeting BTK have demonstrated activity in a variety of B-cell malignancies, however not all patients respond to therapy, and amongst those that do respond, complete remissions are rare. BTK-based combination regimens have the potential to increase depth of response and permit time-limited therapy, however innovative approaches to accelerate the development of combination regimens are needed. TG-1701 is a novel, orally available and covalently-bound BTK inhibitor that exhibits superior selectivity for BTK compared with ibrutinib in in vitro whole kinome screening (Abstr 3973, EHA 2018). Herein we report the first results of a unique Phase 1 parallel dose-escalation study of TG-1701 monotherapy and TG-1701 in combination with umbralisib, a novel PI3K-δ and casein kinase-1ε inhibitor, and ublituximab, a glycoengineered anti-CD20 mAb (1701 + U2).
 Methods
 The primary objectives of the study are to characterize the safety profile and to determine the recommended Phase 2 dose of TG-1701 as a single agent and in combination with U2. Other objectives include assessment of pharmacokinetics (PK), preliminary antitumor activity, and pharmacodynamics (PD [BTK occupancy]). Eligible patients must have B-cell malignancy relapsed or refractory (R/R) to one or more prior standard therapy. Treatment consists of escalating doses of oral TG-1701 once daily (QD), continuously administered in 28-day (D) cycles (C). Patients in the 1701 + U2 combination arm receive escalating TG-1701 oral QD + umbralisib 800 mg oral QD + ublituximab 900 mg IV on D1, 8, 15 of C1, and D1 of C2-6. All patients are treated until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or investigator/patient decision to withdraw study consent.
 Results
 As of July 15, 2019, 19 patients (WM = 6, CLL = 4, FL = 4, MZL = 2, DLBCL = 2, MCL = 1) have been treated with TG-1701: 3 patients at 100 mg QD, 9 patients at 200 mg QD (expansion before opening combination), 3 patients at 300 mg QD single agent arm, and 4 patients at 100 mg QD combination arm. Patients had a median of 2 prior systemic therapies (range, 1 - 5), and all of them received previous anti-CD20 therapy. Four patients were refractory to their last prior therapy, 8 had extranodal disease, and 8 had bulky disease. To date, patients have received a median of 4 (range, 2 - 10) cycles of TG-1701.
 No dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) have been observed to date. The most common treatment-related adverse events (TRAE) are: neutropenia (21%), diarrhea (16%), nausea (16%), bruising (16%), infection (16%), ALT/AST elevation (11%), rash (11%), abdominal pain (11%), and fatigue (11%). Grade 3 TRAE are: asymptomatic and isolated lipase elevation (N=1), nausea (N=1), rash (N=1), and acute respiratory tract infection (N=1). There have been no grade 4 TRAE nor treatment discontinuations due to adverse events.
 Linear kinetics are apparent, evidenced by approximately dose proportional increase in AUC on C1D1 and C1D8. High systemic clearance (CL) has been observed with a mean CL/F of 55.4 L/hr and half-life of 2.24 hours. Tmax is observed between 1 to 4 hours post dose. PK-PD (BTK occupancy) relationship at 200 mg on C1D1 is presented in Figure 1. Decrease from baseline in tumor burden is presented in Figure 2. Two patients at the lowest dose (100 mg QD) have achieved a partial response (PR): MCL = ↓78% and WM = ↓88%. All 3 evaluable patients treated with 100 mg 1701 + U2 have achieved a response at the first response assessment: 1 CR (FL) and 2 PR (FL ↓88%, and MZL ↓65%). All patients remain on study treatment, except for both patients with DLBCL that discontinued due to disease progression. All patients with CLL have shown lymphocytosis during the first 2 cycles of therapy. Near complete BTK occupancy has been achieved in all patients at all dose levels (Figure 1).
 Conclusions
 TG-1701, a once daily BTK inhibitor has an encouraging preliminary safety profile, with clinical and pharmacodynamic activity at all dose levels evaluated. This study (NCT03671590) continues enrollment in TG-1701 single-agent and 1701 + U2 combination arms.

 Cheah: Roche, Janssen, MSD, Gilead, Loxo Oncology, Acerta, BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene, Roche, Abbvie: Research Funding; Roche: Other: Travel expenses. Wickham:Roche: Honoraria; Celgene: Other: Travel/Meeting Expenses . Turpuseema:TG Therapeutics Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Miskin:TG therapeutics Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Tang:TG Therapeutics Inc., Roche, Alexion: Equity Ownership; TG Therapeutics Inc.: Employment. Normant:TG Therapeutics Inc.: Employment, Equity Ownership. Ricart:TG Therapeutics, Pfizer, Merck: Equity Ownership; TG therapeutics Inc.: Employment. Tam:Abbvie, Janssen, Beigene, Roche, Novartis: Honoraria; Abbvie, Janssen: Research Funding.


Lead free piezoelectric ceramics 0.98(Na0.5K0.5)NbO3-0.02(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3 [abbreviated as 0.98NKN-0.02NB with the addition of 0~1.0 wt% Na2CO3 have been synthesized by the conventional mixed oxide process. The effects of amount of Na2CO3-content on the electrical properties and crystalline structures were investigated. The specimens of 0.98NKN-0.02NBT ceramics added with Na2CO3 maintain an orthorhombic phase. In the case of low Na2CO3 content ( 0.3 wt%), the grain growth became remarkable. The increase of grain size favors improving the piezoelectric properties, which is known as grain size effect. The grain size effect compensates the decrease of the electromechanical coupling factor due to the hard doping effect. For 0.98NKN-0.02NBT ceramics by doping 0.3 wt% Na2CO3, the electromechanical coupling coefficients of the thickness mode kt and the planar mode kp reach 0.51 and 0.33, respectively, after sintering at 1100 °C for 3 h. Moreover, the addition of excess Na2CO3 is a helpful method on ceramic processing to improve the dielectric tangent loss and the mechanical quality factor. Our results show that 0.98NKN-0.02NBT with the addition of 0.3 wt% Na2CO3 is a good lead-free piezoelectric ceramic.


This paper presents a design concept of smart UAV console system and the analysis of its dynamic response to shock and vibration. The console system design is determined by two main elements; the shape design and the mechanical design. The shape design refers to the human engineering aspects according to the military standards for ship borne equipment. The goal of the mechanical design is to provide the required shock and vibration endurance. The endurance of the system is numerically verified by means of Finite Element Method. The results of verification show that six resilient mounts installed on the console allow to sufficiently decrease the influence of the input impact wave on endurance of the system.


Developers of interactive 3D applications, such as computer games, are expending increasing levels of effort on the challenge of creating more narrative experiences in virtual worlds. As a result, there is a pressing requirement to automate an essential component of a narrative -- the cinematography -- and develop camera control techniques that can be utilized within the context of interactive environments in which actions are not known in advance. Such camera control algorithms should be capable of enforcing both low-level geometric constraints, such as the visibility of key subjects, and more elaborate properties related to cinematic conventions such as characteristic viewpoints and continuity editing. In this paper, we present a fully automated real-time cinematography system that constructs a movie from a sequence of low-level narrative elements (events, key subjects actions and key subject motions). Our system computes appropriate viewpoints on these narrative elements, plans paths between viewpoints and performs cuts following cinematic conventions. Additionally, it offers an expressive framework which delivers notable variations in directorial style.
 Our process relies on a viewpoint space partitioning technique in 2D that identifies characteristic viewpoints of relevant actions for which we compute the partial and full visibility. These partitions, to which we refer as Director Volumes, provide a full characterization over the space of viewpoints. We build upon this spatial characterization to select the most appropriate director volumes, reason over the volumes to perform appropriate camera cuts and rely on traditional path-planning techniques to perform transitions. Our system represents a novel and expressive approach to cinematic camera control which stands in contrast to existing techniques that are mostly procedural, only concentrate on isolated aspects (visibility, transitions, editing, framing) or do not encounter for variations in directorial style.


The structural and magnetic properties of the single-molecule magnet [Mn11CrO12(O2CCH3)(16)(H2O)(4)].2CH(3)COOH.4H(2)O (Mn11Cr) are studied through the analysis of a Mn11Cr/Mn-12 (approximate to1:1) mixed crystal, where Mn-12 is [Mn12O12(O2CCH3)(16)(H2O)(4)].2CH(3)COOH.4H(2)O. X-ray absorption spectra reveal that the Cr ion in Mn11Cr is in the +3 valence state and occupies a specific Mn3+ site in the Mn-12 skeleton. High-frequency electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra are well explained by assuming that Mn11Cr is in a ground spin-state of S=19/2 with nearly the same EPR parameter set as for Mn-12. The lower spin quantum number results in lower barrier height (56.8 K) compared to Mn-12. The magnetization curves indicate a coercive field of 0.95 T for Mn11Cr at 1.8 K, nearly half that for Mn-12. Quantum tunneling of magnetization (QTM) in Mn11Cr is observed below the blocking temperature T-B, with the same field interval as for Mn-12. The magnetization of Mn11Cr and Mn-12 in the mixed crystal can be independently manipulated by utilizing the difference between their coercive fields. The resonance fields of QTM in Mn11Cr are significantly affected by the magnetization direction of Mn-12, suggesting the effect of dipolar-biased tunneling.


This paper presents some theoretical remarks and experimental data relating to applications of the transmission-line theory to antennas. It is emphasized that the voltage, the current, and the charge are affected by radiation in different ways, a fact which should be considered in any adaptation of line equations to antennas. It is shown experimentally and theoretically that in an antenna of length equal to an integral number of half wavelengths, which is energized at a current antinode, the effect of radiation on the current and the charge (but not on the voltage) can roughly be represented by adding to the resistance of the wires another fairly simple term.


THE IMPORTANCE of cultivatable micro-organisms currently considered as secondary invaders and of the different strains of virus currently considered as primary in the causation of influenza and other epidemic respiratory infections is still a largely unsolved problem. The investigations on influenza virus have yielded information of the greatest importance as regards its presence and nature. The results of virus neutralization tests with convalescent serum for the identification of different strains in epidemics are reminiscent of the early studies on identification of different types of pneumococci by serologic means. At first there was but one type of the Pneumococcus and one strain of influenza virus and then two, three, and so on. The uncertainty as to presence of virus and the type at hand in current epidemic outbreaks, the changes that occur in influenza virus during epidemics, the difficulty and delay entailed in the identification of virus strains, the toxicity and


Levels of uranium in urine are used to monitor occupational exposure to uranium. Health and Welfare, Canada, offers a laboratory performance check program that serves as external quality control to laboratories measuring uranium in urine. Herein, we describe the system we now use. We modified the method described by Measures and LeCompte (1980) to include replicate samples and internal measures of variability. We suggest a slightly different design and a new method of evaluation. The proposed approach tracks accuracy and precision performances separately and bases performance evaluations on fixed limits, providing a consistent evaluation system and better handling of outliers. The new approach draws on traditional statistical methodology and expands concepts of modern quality improvement advocated by Taguchi.


Abstract Oral clefts are divided into cleft lip, cleft palate and cleft lip along with cleft palate. Cleft palate is defined as an inability of palatal shelves to approximate and close during the first months of embryogenic period thus leaving an opening in the roof of the mouth and forming communication between the nasal and oral cavities. Objective:   To determine the relationship of risk of oral clefts with parental health and social support. Study Design:  Case Control Study. Study Setting and Duration:   Various hospitals in Lahore and 3 month duration. Materials and Methods:   A Case Control Study was conducted. A total of 100 subjects (50 cases, 50 controls) were included. Sampling was done by purposive method. Data was collected with the help of Cornell Medical Index Health Questionnaire and Social Support Questionnaire after taking their informed consent. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. Mean and standard deviation were used to describe quantitative variables like age. Test of significance were applied. Results:   56% of cases were females and 44% were males. Mean age of mothers was 27 and fathers was 31. Most mothers were uneducated (36%) while most fathers were educated till matric (34%). Income of most parents was in the range of 10,000-20,000 PKR (44%). 24% of controls were females and 76% were males. The associations of oral cleft was found significant with parental respiratory, cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal, musculoskeletal, skin-related, genitourinary health, easy fatigability, health habits, anxiety, anger, paternal nervous system health, sensitivity, and mater-nal frequency of illness, depression and feeling of inadequacy (p < 0.05). Maternal social support catego-ries indicated that cases were less supported than con-trols: number of persons available and level of satisfaction (p < 0.05). Conclusion:   Oral clefts have a multi-factorial etio-logy. Hence, an effective preventive program should take into account parental health and social support factors. Key Words:   Non-syndromic Oral Clefts, Parental Health, Social Support.


ICISD tribunals' jurisdiction is premised on the eligible foreign investors, nationals of other contracting state party, with which the host state has agreed to submit pertinent investment disputes to international investment arbitration. The theme of this article is whether or under what conditions can ICSID tribunals pierce veil of pertinent companies to delimit the genuine foreign investors protected by relevant BITs. The article first takes a critical review of the theoretical foundations of Piercing Corporate Veil in ICSID arbitration. In terms of logic premise of tribunal's decision, "piercing corporate veil" cases in ICSID can be classified into three categories: nationality-agreement jurisdiction mode, nationals of host state as controlling shareholders mode, corporations as a form of investment mode. Investment tribunals should reconcile divergent approaches by interpreting pertinent agreements in a delicate way within express or implied authorization to promote the coherence and consistency of International Investment law as a system. This article emphasizes the analysis of the practices of ICSID tribunals and tries to reconcile the divergent approaches. International Investment Law is a legal system and the investor-state arbitration tribunals are empowered two functions: disputes resolution and treaty interpretation. The sequence of application of pertinent agreements is ICSID Convention, pertinent BIT and involved investment contracts. On procedural treatments, BIT stipulation shall not conflict with that of ICSID Convention unless providing more favorable treatment to investors, whilst the pertinent investment contracts and concessions enjoy supremacy in both procedural and substantial treatments. The whole international investment law regime is designed to strike a balance between protection of investors and sovereign regulation of host state. While protecting foreign investors, international investment law shall preserve necessary space for host states to maneuver for public policy. Thus in these three kind agreements exists one implied or default clause which is that none of the three kind agreements shall be interpreted as a barrier to stop host state from offering more favorable treatment, except host state preserves otherwise expressly.


This study characterizes the changes in leaf mass, morphological composition and nutritional value of leaf blades of palisadegrass (Urochloa brizantha cv. Marandu) under continuous grazing in the first year of implementation of pasture and after second year of the eucalyptus planting in an Integrated Crop-Livestock System and Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest, which were tested in the four seasons. The experimental design was in random blocks, with three treatments: Crop-Livestock System (ICL) and Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest with two eucalyptus tree densities (ICLF-1L, 196 eucalyptus trees ha-1 and ICLF-3L, 448 eucalyptus trees ha-1) and four replicates. Sixty castrated Nellore cattle with initial weight of 235.43 ± 25.46 kg and mean age of 16 ± 2.81 months were used during the growing phase under continuous grazing. The agronomic variables were: total dry mass of forage, leaves, stem and dead material; leaf: stem and live: senescent material ratios; and accumulation rate. The leaf: stem and live: senescent material relation did not obtain any difference between the evaluated systems. Dry matter, crude protein, fiber fractions and digestibility of leaf blades were evaluated. Dry mass of the forage (6775 kg ha-1), stem (2175 kg ha-1), senescent material (3175 kg ha-1) and dry matter content (28.6%) were greater in the ICL, whereas crude protein (11.3%) was greater in the ICLFs. On the other hand, accumulation rate and dry mass of leaf blades did not change between systems. Thus, until the first year of grazing, tree systems have advantages, because the forage production (accumulation rate) and leaf mass are similar to those of plants in full sun, besides showing higher nutritional value.


In this article, a new mobile Cloud service model is presented. It offers a dynamic and efficient remote access to information services and resources for mobile devices. Mobile Cloud computing has been evolved as a distributed service model, where individual mobile users are Cloud service providers. Compared to traditional Internet-centric Cloud service models, the complexity of mobile service management in a dynamic and distributed service environment is increased dramatically. To address this challenge, we propose to establish an OSGi-based mobile Cloud service model — MCC-OSGi — that uses OSGi Bundles as the basic mobile Cloud service building components. The proposed solution supports OSGi bundles running on both mobile devices and Cloud-side virtual machine OS platforms, and the bundles can be transferred and run on different platforms without compatibility issues. The presented solution is achieved: 1) by incorporating OSGi into Android software development platform, 2) by setting up a Remote-OSGi on the Cloud and on mobile devices, and 3) by defining three service architecture models. The presented solution is validated through a demonstrative application with relevant performance measurements.


The objective of the research was to evaluate the usability of a multimedia software application that provides information on coping with difficult situations, dealing with everyday caring problems, and first aid for emergency situations. Casual users (family caregivers, professional caregivers, and older people) were invited to use the software application and complete a questionnaire measuring quality and efficiency in utility and usability. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. Findings indicated the software application to have high global usability, correspond to user expectations, respond quickly, and be visually pleasant and easily understood. The authors conclude that software applications of this type have the potential to increase the quality of life of family caregivers, enhance their coping capacity, and enable them to continue for a longer period in their caring role.


Molecular dynamic simulations have been performed to study the solid solution mechanism of Mg100-xREx (RE = Gd, Dy, Y, x = 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4 at.%). The obtained results reveal that the additions of Gd, Dy and Y increase the lattice constants of Mg-RE alloys. Also the axis ratio c/a remains unchanged with increase in temperature, restraining the occurrence of nonbasal slip and twinning. Furthermore, it is confirmed that bulk modulus of Mg alloys can be increased remarkably by adding the Gd, Dy, Y, especially Gd, because the solid solubility of Gd in Mg decrease sharply with temperature in comparison with Dy and Y. Consequently, the addition of the RE can enhance the strength of Mg-based alloys, which is in agreement with the experimental results.


We relate the evolutionary status and mass of the Mt. Wilson project stars with the type and strength of stellar activity as established in decades of monitoring their chromospheric Ca II K line emission. We specifically derive their positions in the Hertzsprung-Russell-diagram (HRD) from Hipparcos parallaxes and SIMBAD B −V data, considering and correcting for the effects of different individual stellar metallicities, and place different activity groups of the Mt. Wilson stars on a common set of Z = 0.02 evolution tracks to obtain a quantitative picture of their relative evolutionary status and mass distribution. We find that, first, the downturn in stellar activity does not depend on absolute age but instead decreases with the relative age as stars advance on the main sequence and thus confirm theoretical expectations, while the most active of the irregularly variable stars are found to scatter around the zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS). Moderately active stars, both with clear cycles like the Sun and those without a dominant activity period, populate the 2nd quarter of main-sequence (MS) evolution. Almost inactive stars are mostly in their 3rd quarter of MS evolution and seem to represent stellar analogues of the solar Maunder minimum state. Totally inactive stars are all in the final quarter of their MS evolution and make up for over 70% of the Mt. Wilson stars that far evolved (the remainders being only weakly active). Most of these are more massive and younger than the Sun. Accordingly, less massive stars did not have enough time to significantly decrease their activity, since they generally evolve more slowly. We find, second, that the Sun is near an apparent upper mass limit for cyclic activity on the MS, because there are no cyclic MS stars much above one solar mass, at least not in the Mt. Wilson sample. Once put in proper perspective with the other Mt. Wilson stars, the Sun indeed ought to be approaching a gradual transition from moderate cyclic activity to a weak, Maunder-minimum-type state, as historic Maunder-type minima seem to indicate already. In addition, the apparent upper mass limit for MS stars to solar-like cyclic activity, not much above one solar mass, is providing dynamo theory with an interesting new challenge.


Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) belongs to Paramyxoviridae family of enveloped negative-strand RNA viruses and causes severe bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 2 years of age. As members of Paramyxoviridae family, RSV and parainfluenza type 3 (PIV3) have similar modes of infection and replication. A variety of negative-strand RNA virus infections, including that of PIV3, are inhibited by human MxA protein, a type I interferon (IFN)-inducible GTPase. We tested whether the MxA protein, induced either by type I human IFNs or by stable transfection of human MxA gene in human (U-87) or simian (Vero) cells, confers resistance to these cells against infection by RSV strain A2. RSV infection was resistant to antiviral effects induced by 0-10,000 U/ml type I IFNs (IFN-alpha or -beta) in both human lung epithelial, A549, and fibroblast, MRC-5 cells. RSV virus yield was reduced only by 10- to 20-fold, and viral protein synthesis was not significantly affected under conditions of IFN treatment where PIV3 yield was reduced by 1000- to 10,000-fold. Human or simian cell lines constitutively expressing MxA were protected against infection by PIV3 but not by RSV. Our results indicate that RSV A2 is resistant to the antiviral effects of MxA, even though RSV and PIV3 have similar replication strategies. In IFN-treated coinfected cultures, IFN-resistant RSV A2 did not prevent the IFN-mediated inhibition of PIV3 multiplication. Hence the resistance of RSV A2 to type I IFNs does not appear to be due to soluble factors released into the medium or a disruption in the cellular antiviral machinery brought about by RSV A2 infection.


Background Primary glomerulonephritis is usually treated with steroids and immunosuppressants, however, some patients exhibit treatment resistance or severe toxicity related to the chronic treatment. It has been observed that the use of off-label rituximab could be an effective alternative to be used as treatment. Purpose To assess the efficacy and safety of rituximab in the treatment of primary glomerular disease. Material and methods Observational, retrospective study of all patients with primary glomerulonephritis treated with rituximab between 2012 and 2017. For data collection, the eletronic clinic history system (Selene) was used, as was SPSS-Stadistics for the statistical analysis. Data registered: sex, age, histological classification, dose and posology of rituximab. Efficacy was assessed comparing urine protein in a 24 hour period (UP-24), serum albumin (Alb), serum creatinine (Cr) and treatments with corticosteroid and immunosuppressants before and 6 months after treatment with rituximab. The profile of adverse reactions was recorded to assess safety. Results Thirty-six patients (19 male and 17 female) were included with an average age of 60.32±14.94 years and histological diagnosis of membranous nephropathy (61.2%), focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (16.6%), minimal change disease (11.1%) and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (11.1%). The dosing regimens were two doses of 1 g of rituximab separated by 15 days (72.2%) and one single dose of 1 g (27.8%). Six months after the beginning of treatment, the mean UP-24 (range 0.04–0.15 g/24 hour) decreased from 2.87±2.46 g/24 hour to 1.09±0.77 g/24 hour (p=0,001) normalising in 8.3% of patients. The mean Alb (range 3.5–5.2 g/dL) increased significantly from 3.3±0.7 g/dL to 3.9±0.5 g/dL (p<0.005) and the mean Cr (range 0.7–1.20 mg/dL) decreased from 1.24±0.56 mg/dL to 1.21±0.55 mg/dL (p=0.436). Twelve patients used corticosteroids, of which 75% were able to discontinue them and 25% decreased the dose. Twenty-three patients used immunosuppressants, of which 78.2% could be discontinued and 21.8% reduced the dose. Sixteen per centof patients had some adverse reaction, all related to perfusion (skin rash, sore throat and pruritus). Conclusion Rituximab is an effective alternative for the treatment of primary glomerulonephritis. It significantly improves levels of UP and Alb, as well as allowing the suspension or reduction of doses of corticosteroid and immunosuppressant treatments with an acceptable profile of adverse reactions, all related to the administration of the drug. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


This chapter presents a broad overview of the scenario of human resource management (HRM) in India. It is structured along the framework discussed in chapter one of this volume. To provide the required context, this section presents some relevant demographic details of the Indian economy and society. India is a republic in South Asia. It has the second highest population in the world after China, which reached the 1 billion mark in June 2000. As per the latest Census of 2001, the total population of the country is 1027 million, which includes 531.28 million males and 495.73 million females. India's share of the world population is 16.7 percent. The literacy rate among the population for seven years and above for the country stands at 65.38 percent. The corresponding figures for males and females are 75.85 and 54.16 percent respectively. The density of population (per sq. km) is 324 and the sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) 933.


In this study, the influence of composition of thin films on the interface integrity between a hafnium dioxide thin film and a gate electrode was investigated by using a quantum chemical molecular dynamics method. Effect of the fluctuation of the composition around the HfO2±x/metal interface on the formation of the interfacial layer was analyzed quantitatively. Post-oxidation annealing after deposition of the hafnium oxide film restored oxygen vacancies and removed carbon interstitials from the film and thus, improved the quality of the oxide. However, when the excessive interstitial oxygen atoms remained in the film, the quality of the interface was deteriorated by forming a new interfacial oxide layer between the hafnium oxide and the deposited metal such as tungsten. No interfacial layer was observed, however, when a gold thin film was deposited on the hafnium oxide film with the various defects. Therefore, it is very important to control the composition around the interface, i.e., to minimize those point defects in the hafnium dioxide films and/or to introduce a diffusion barrier layer onto the oxide for improving the electronic performance and reliability of the stacked structure.


This handbook is the main output from a project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council investigating the reality of the 'net generation's' experiences and preferences in the use of technology. It involved an investigation into students' and teachers' use of new technologies and the development of eight case studies in which emerging technologies were implemented in learning settings across the participating universities. This handbook was prepared by: Gregor Kennedy, The University of Melbourne Barney Dalgarno, Charles Sturt University Sue Bennett, The University of Wollongong Kathleen Gray, The University of Melbourne Jenny Waycott, The University of Melbourne Terry Judd, The University of Melbourne Andrea Bishop, Charles Sturt University Karl Maton, The University of Sydney Kerri-Lee Krause, Griffith University Rosemary Chang, The University of Melbourne Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.


Overpopulation has recognized as a global environmental problem since few decades, as it has caused a number of adverse effects on environment. Modern medical facilities and illiteracy in some interior regions of developing countries are the major reasons for development of this inverted pyramid demographic structure. Overpopulation has resulted in a series of catastrophic consequences by causing increased pressure on existing natural resources. Deforestation, effect on welfare, climate change, decline in biocapacity, urban sprawl, food security, increase in energy demand and effect on marine ecosystem are amongst most severe impacts of overpopulation. Concrete steps need to be taken on national and international level to combat the adverse effects of overpopulation, so that sustainability of natural resources can be ensured for future generations.


Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability. FXS is caused by functional loss of the Fragile X Protein (FXP), also known as Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP). In humans and animal models, loss of FXP leads to sensory hypersensitivity, increased susceptibility to seizures and cortical hyperactivity. Several components of the GABAergic system, the major inhibitory system in the brain, are dysregulated in FXS, and thus modulation of GABAergic transmission was suggested and tested as a treatment strategy. However, so far, clinical trials using broad spectrum GABAA or GABAB receptor-specific agonists have not yielded broad improvement of FXS phenotypes in humans. Here, we tested a more selective strategy in Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice using the experimental drug BAER-101, which is a selective GABAA α2/α3 agonist. Our results suggest that BAER-101 reduces hyperexcitability of cortical circuits, partially corrects increased frequency-specific baseline cortical EEG power, reduces susceptibility to audiogenic seizures and improves novel object memory. Other Fmr1 KO-specific phenotypes were not improved by the drug, such as increased hippocampal dendritic spine density, open field activity and marble burying. Overall, this work shows that BAER-101 improves select phenotypes in Fmr1 KO mice and encourages further studies into the efficacy of GABAA-receptor subunit-selective agonists for the treatment of FXS.


ABSTRACT The tight and simultaneous combination of moral, benevolent and authoritarian leadership as well as the negative impact of authoritarian leadership imposes challenges to paternalistic leadership researchers. We used three-way tests to investigate the relationships among three dimensions of paternalistic leadership and our results indicate that the relationship between benevolent/moral leadership and leadership effectiveness is stronger for high than for low authoritarian leadership. In addition, when a leader has low benevolent and/or moral leadership, low authoritarianism has higher leadership effectiveness than high authoritarianism. However, when both benevolent and moral leadership are high, high authoritarianism works better than low authoritarianism.


The goal in this paper is to investigate data selection techniques for found speech. Found speech unlike clean, phonetically-balanced datasets recorded specifically for synthesis contain a lot of noise which might not get labeled well and it might contain utterances with varying channel conditions. These channel variations and other noise distortions might sometimes be useful in terms of adding diverse data to our training set, however in other cases it might be detrimental to the system. The ap-proach outlined in this work investigates various metrics to detect noisy data which degrade the performance of the system on a held-out test set. We assume a seed set of 100 utterances to which we then incrementally add in a fixed set of utterances and find which metrics can capture the misaligned and noisy data. We report results on three datasets, an artificially degraded set of clean speech, a single speaker database of found speech and a multi - speaker database of found speech. All of our experiments are carried out on male speakers. We also show compa-rable results are obtained on a female multi-speaker corpus.


Multiple physiological and environmental signals are needed to initiate endospore formation in Bacillus subtilis. One key event controlling sporulation is activation of the Spo0A transcription factor. Spo0A is a member of a large family of conserved regulatory proteins whose activity is controlled by phosphorylation. We have isolated deletion mutations that remove part of the conserved amino terminus of Spo0A and make the transcription factor constitutively active, indicating that the amino terminus normally functions to keep the protein in an inactive state. Expression of an activated gene product is sufficient to activate expression of several sporulation genes in the absence of signals normally needed for initiation of sporulation. Our results indicate that nutritional, cell density, and cell-cycle signals are integrated through the phosphorylation pathway that controls activation of Spo0A.


Background Studies have found that patients ignore probabilities when making treatment decisions. Objectives The objective of this study was to examine whether addition of an icon array (IA), a series of three consecutive balance-beam (BB) illustrations depicting how medications regulate the immune system, or both resulted in patients being able to better differentiate between an uncommon (2%) and rare (0.2%) adverse event (AE). Methods Patients currently being treated for a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease were mailed a survey in which they were asked to imagine that their symptoms had recently worsened and that their physician was recommending a new medication. The medication was described using eight scenarios (manipulated using a 2x4 design). We varied the probability of a serious AE (pneumonia requiring hospitalization): 2% vs 0.2% and the risk presentation format: numbers only, numbers + IA, numbers + BB, and numbers + IA + BB. Route of administration, benefit, and cost were held constant. Each subject responded to a single, randomly-assigned scenario. Dependent variables included perceived riskiness, worry, global gist related to the acceptability of the AE, and willingness to take the medication (all measured on 5-point ordinal scales). We hypothesized that the IA and BB formats would result in 1) lower perceived riskiness and worry, and 2) greater acceptability of the AE and willingness to take the medication in the 0.2% vs 2% scenarios. Socioeconomic status (SES) was defined based on difficulty paying for medication and education level. Results We mailed 1453 surveys. 465 patients completed and mailed the survey back (32% response rate). Overall, the mean age of responders was 58.99 (SD=14.85); 79.7% of were female; 83.2% White and 39.1% had a low SES. There were no statistical differences in demographic or clinical characteristics across the four risk presentation formats. Mean (SD) perceived riskiness, worry, global gist, and willingness to take the medication for 2% versus 0.2% chance of the AE, by SES level, are presented in the Image. Perceived riskiness was lower for a 0.2% versus 2% risk of the AE in the numbers + IA condition in higher SES subjects. Lower SES subjects who viewed both IA and BB were more worried about the AE and found the AE to be less acceptable in the 0.2% versus 2% condition. Conclusions With the exception of the IA's impact on perceived riskiness among subjects with higher SES, the risk formats used did not enable subjects to correctly differentiate between a 0.2% and a 2% risk of a serious AE. These results highlight the lack of impact of quantitative risk information on patients' risk perceptions. Disclosure of Interest None declared


OBJECTIVE
To explore the possible mechanism of mechanical factors in the pathogenesis of pelvic organ prolapse (POP).

METHODS
The experiment material were uterosacral ligament and cardinal ligament- derived fibroblast from 10 patients who received total hysterectomy due to benign disease except POP. Fibroblast were cultured after collagenase digestion and identified by morphology and immocytochemical methods. Fibroblasts of 4-8 generations were stretched by four-point bending system for 0µ (0 mm), 1 333 µ (1 mm), 2 666 µ (2 mm), 5 333 µ (4 mm) strain, using 0 mm strain as the control group. Parameters was set to a frequency of 0.1 Hz, 4 hours. Cell apoptosis was tested by flow cytometry.

RESULTS
Mechanical strain increased cell apoptosis [0 µ: (7.4 ± 1.5)%, 1 333 µ: (8.7 ± 2.2)%, 2 666 µ: (19.4 ± 3.4)%, 5333 µ: (50.9 ± 6.6)%, respectively]. Cell apoptosis rate was significantly higher under strong mechanical strain (2 666 µ and 5 333 µ versus 0 µ, all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Increased mechanical stress loading on human parametrial ligament fibroblasts could raise the rate of apoptosis.


Purpose: To assess the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell and inner plexus layer (GCIPL) and blood flow parameters in retrobulbar vessels, and to analyze correlations between these parameters in myopes. Methods: The study included forty myopic and 20 healthy eyes. Standard eye examination was supplemented with OCT of the optic nerve and macula (GCIPL, RNFL, RNFL in each quadrant and rim area of the optic nerve) and color Doppler imaging of retrobulbar arteries [peak systolic and end-diastolic velocities, pulsatile index and resistance index (RI) in the ophthalmic (OA), central retinal (CRA), nasal posterior ciliary and temporal posterior ciliary arteries]. Results: Significant correlations were found between blood flow parameters in the CRA, RNFL and GCIPL thickness, and axial length (AL) and spherical equivalent (SE). There were significant positive correlations between RNFL with PSV and EDV in the CRA and negative correlations between RNFL and RI in the CRA. GCIPL was positively correlated with PSV and EDV in the CRA. The decrease in RA was associated with reduced blood flow velocities in the CRA, TPCA and NPCA. Conclusion: The reduced retrobulbar blood flow in healthy young myopes is correlated with increasing AL and refractive value, and thinning of the RNFL and GCIPL. Reduction of the rim-area of the optic disc is associated with vascular and retinal circulatory disorders. These phenomena indicate the vascular basis of the described changes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which correlates ocular circulation with retinal structure.


AIMS
We examined the geographic variations in InTIME-II, a randomized double-blind trial comparing alteplase with lanoteplase for myocardial infarction.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We compared baseline characteristics, management, and outcomes in four regions (Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, and Latin America) and in countries with historically different management approaches (Germany vs the U.K., the U.S. vs Canada). Thirty-day mortality in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America and Latin America was 6.7%, 7.3%, 5.7%, 10.1%, P<0.0001. Adjusted mortality for Europe was intermediate between North America and Latin America (odds ratios (OR) [95% confidence intervals (CI)] compared to Western Europe: North America 0.84 [0.67-1.0], Eastern Europe 1.2 [1.0-1.4], and Latin America 1.8 [1.3-2.7]). Revascularization rates varied 10-fold but did not explain regional mortality differences. Germany and the U.K. had similar adjusted 1-year mortality (OR for the U.K. 1.16 [0.92-1.5]), although invasive procedures were four- to 10-fold more common in Germany. Similarly the U.S. and Canada had equal adjusted 1-year mortality (OR for Canada 0.85 [0.61-1.17]) despite three-fold higher use of invasive procedures in the U.S.

CONCLUSIONS
Significant geographic variations in practice and adjusted mortality following fibrinolysis persist despite recent guidelines. These findings have important implications in the design and interpretation of international studies, identify under- and over-utilized therapies, and support further study of treatments with marked worldwide variations.


Distributed Generation (DG) has been growing rapidly in power systems due to their potential solution for issues, like the deregulation in power system, to meet the power demand and the shortage of transmission capacities. Improper allocation of DG sources in power system would not only lead to increase power or energy losses, but can also jeopardize the system operation. The optimal placement of DG is necessary for the maximization of reliability and stability in power system. There are several research studies to solve DG placement problem by various objectives and their imposed constraints. However, the methodical principle for this subject is still an obscure problem. This paper presents an overview and general backgrounds of research and development in the field of different solution methods for optimal placement of DG found in the literature .This paper has reviewed some of the most popular methods including analytical technique, optimal power flow methods (OPF) and evolutionary computational methods. This paper provides useful guidelines for the future studies for those interested in the problem or intending to do additional research


High current, short duration pulses were investigated as methods for determining the state-of-charge of nickel--cadmium and zinc--silver oxide batteries. An accurate indicator over the whole state-of-charge range for nickel--cadmium batteries was developed on the basis of a constant voltage discharge pulse and a preconditioning step. The effects of temperature, cycling, and cell variations on test results were determined. The procedure was shown to be able to test cells of unknown background and to detect the presence of weak or defective cells. A constant voltage discharge pulse test was developed to determine if a zinc--silver oxide battery was charged above 80--85% of full capacity. (GRA)


Present day, researchers turn to natural processes such as using biological microorganisms in order to develop reliable and ecofriendly methods for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles. In this research, we had investigated extracellular biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using A. niger, isolated from the rotten onion. The formation of silver nanoparticles in the cell filtrates was confirmed by change in the color of filtrates of cell, absorption peak between 300-600 nm in UV-VIS spectra. There was a logical relationship in the efficiencies of studied A. niger in the production of silver nanoparticles and their nitrate reductase activity. The microscopic analysis of the colonies of A. niger was done by using 0.1% congo red dye. It effectively showed the morphological structure of the fungus with Conidia and Conidiophores. Hence, 0.1% congo red dye was used to stain the fungal smear and study it under the microscope. The present study showed that A. niger have potential for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles depending on their nitrate reductase activity.


Background Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is usually detected in advanced stages with a low 5-year survival rate. Delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and hypoxia-inducible factor-2alpha (HIF2α) have been studied for their role in tumorigenesis and potential for therapeutic target, and multiple clinical trials of the agents targeting them are ongoing. We investigated the expression of these markers in surgically resected GBC and tried to reveal their association with the clinicopathologic features, mutual correlation of their expression, and prognosis of the GBC patients by their expression. Methods We constructed the tissue microarray blocks of 99 surgically resected GBC specimens and performed immunohistochemistry of DLL4, VEGF, and HIF2α. We used the quantitative digital image analysis to evaluate DLL4 and VEGF expression, while the expression of HIF2α was scored manually. Results The expression of VEGF and HIF2α showed a significant trend with tumor differentiation (p = .028 and p = .006, respectively). We found that the high DLL4 and VEGF expression were significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (p = .047, both). The expression of VEGF and HIF2α were significantly correlated (p < .001). The GBC patients with low HIF2α expression showed shorter recurrence-free survival than those with high HIF2α expression. Conclusions This study suggested the possibility of the usage of DLL4 and VEGF to predict the lymph node metastasis and the possibility of VEGF and HIF2α to predict the expression level mutually. Further studies may be needed to validate our study results and eventually accelerate the introduction of the targeted therapy in GBC.


Transformer-based models excel in speech recognition. Existing efforts to optimize Transformer inference, typically for long-context applications, center on simplifying attention score calculations. However, streaming speech recognition models usually process a limited number of tokens each time, making attention score calculation less of a bottleneck. Instead, the bottleneck lies in the linear projection layers of multi-head attention and feedforward networks, constituting a substantial portion of the model size and contributing significantly to computation, memory, and power usage. To address this bottleneck, we propose folding attention, a technique targeting these linear layers, significantly reducing model size and improving memory and power efficiency. Experiments on on-device Transformer-based streaming speech recognition models show that folding attention reduces model size (and corresponding memory consumption) by up to 24% and power consumption by up to 23%, all without compromising model accuracy or computation overhead.


This paper presents single phase Power Factor Correction (PFC) with proposed variable switching frequency (VSF) control technique. The increasing of non linear loads such as thyristor rectifiers, switching-mode power supplies, adjustable speed drives, and generate harmonic currents causing various problems to the other equipment connected to the point of common coupling. There are several disadvantages in the existing PFC control implementation based on conventional PWM control. This system considered uses a unified  overcomes such a drawback by converting a voltage source into a fast-acting current source, which is reduce the harmonics in the line current, increases the efficiency and capacity of power system.  The capacitor and inductor with voltage and current ripple with minimum ripple values was designed to absorb sinusoidal input current and to reduce total harmonic distortion (THD) in the input current with output voltage regulation. The principal of operation, theoretical analysis, simulation results on a single phase boost converter are presented.


A well-balanced sectoral structure of the economy is the most important aspect of the sustainable development of cross-border territories. In the Russian-Kazakh cross-border region, the processes of transformation and restructuring of the economy are currently taking place. As a result, there occur structural and sectoral shifts in the economy, which expand the geographical division of labor and determine further specialization of the region. The paper studies the transformation of the sectoral structure of border regions of Russia and Kazakhstan by the main types of economic activity, including various components of industrial and non-industrial sectors (manufacturing, mining, energy, trade, transport, agriculture, etc.). Our analysis is special in that we apply different methodological approaches to studying the problem (by specialization, by types of industries, and by coverage). We have established that the structural and sectoral restructuring of the economy taking place in the border regions affects a wide range of different industries, with the economy of the regions undergoing a catch-up stage of development, the share of the non-manufacturing sector steadily growing and that of industry and agriculture declining, but still remaining high. The regional features are a widespread increase in the share of the non-manufacturing sector, a significant degradation of old traditional agricultural industries, as well as minor changes in the regions with the dominant role of the fuel and energy complex.


A series of aminoaromatic derivatives of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) has been prepared, in a search for terbium chelates suitable for use in fluorescence immunoassay. Most of the derivatives contained heterocyclic rings with at least one nitrogen atom. The fluorescence properties of the terbium chelate of each compound were examined. Although none of the products proved suitable for use in immunoassays, the terbium chelate formed from the product of the reaction between DTPA anhydride and cytosine (4-amino-2-hydroxypyrimidine) was particularly fluorescent and had a long fluorescence lifetime. It was unstable, however, in aqueous solution below pH 9. The fluorescence properties of some europium complexes were also examined.


The present article considers the problematical nature of social philosophy's interdisciplinary character. The author considers that we can discover its specification as an independent area of the humanities, with exarticulation of adjacent to social philosophy disciplines like political philosophy, historic sociology and social theory. If it will be done, we will be able as the scientists to prove that social philosophy, which if often considering as the synonymous of social theory, has right to exist. The author comes to conclusion that the most part of social theory supporters try to ignore valuative dimension in "theories" of thinkers they research (Georg Simmel, Hanna Arendt, Juergen Habermas, Zygmunt Bauman). In fact it is а duty of social philosophy which nature is valuative. In author's point of view, such a trend in theoretical sociology as "cultural sociology," which use not only explanatory and descriptive methods but also interpretations, reflects the differences between social theory and social philosophy because it emphasizes the cultural dimension of social processes. For example, cultural sociology deals with issues that are more relevant to philosophy than to sociology, in particular, it concerns the problem of evil.


Strong insulation in modern buildings and housing requires efficient ventilation systems. A popular solution is a decentralized system with one ventilation unit per room, but the noise emitted by such a unit then has a major impact on the comfort. In this research, it is intended to equip an existing ventilation unit with an active noise control (ANC) system to reduce its low-frequency noise emissions. The ANC system will be hosted in an additional duct deporting the air inlet aperture approximately one meter away from its original position. The one-channel feedforward ANC system has a reference microphone located between the fan and the anti-noise loudspeaker and an error microphone at the duct's end. The transfer functions have been computed by a 3D FEM solver, between the fan and several reference and error microphone locations. Several combinations of reference/error microphone positions were then tested regarding the possible active attenuation of a white noise emitted by the primary source. Optimal control by the ANC controller was assumed, the optimal filter being computed with the help of the corresponding transfer functions. Theoretical attenuations were obtained and optimal positions were finally defined for the two microphones of the ANC system. The first results are finally discussed in this paper and raise some questions regarding the influence of the noise spectrum on the attenuations obtained.


Numerous studies have underlined the putative diradical character of π-conjugated molecules that can be described by closed-shell Lewis structures, for instance, p-dimethylene p-n phenylenes, or long polyacenes. In the latter compounds, the only way to save the aromaticity of the six-membered rings is to give up the Lewis electron pairing in the singlet biradical ground state. The present work considers the possibility of doing the same by using the basic C2 units of carbo-meric architectures. A series of acyclic and cyclic carbo-meric architectures is studied by using UB3LYP DFT broken-symmetry calculations, including spin decontaminations and subsequent geometry optimization of the singlet diradical. The C2 units are shown to stabilize the singlet biradical by spin delocalization, two of them playing approximately the same role as one radical-insulating 1,4 phenylene moiety. The results are generalized to the investigation of open-shell polyradical singlet states of rigid hydrocarbon structures, the symmetry and rigidity of which can assist cooperativity and self spin polarization effect. Several synthesis targets with challenging magnetic/spin properties are suggested in the carbo-mer series.


Photocopy of a letter from Bill McCarter and Nancy Reynolds, North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, to the Trustees of the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation. In regards to a project proposed by the San Antonio Museum of Art, SAMA to development a series of art reproductions and presentation for a summer institute to train teachers. McCarter and Reynolds write that they have worked with SAMA since the museum educators attended a Marcus-funded advocacy workshop and believe that their proposal is consistent and similar to NTIEVA's efforts and support their proposal.


A technique for determining two port S-parameters from one port measurements using calibration substrate standards is described in this paper. Closed form formulas are derived to facilitate conversion from one port reflection measurements to two-port S-parameters. Comparisons are made to previously reported techniques. It is observed that the two-port S-parameters generated using SOL method is free of artificial ripples typically observed in two port S-parameters generated by the SO and the cascade methods.


Financial intermediation often exposes banks to interest rate risks by creating mismatches in the maturity structure and re-pricing terms of their assets and liabilities. The interest rate risk is along with the liquidity risk a fundamental risk associated to the management of bank resources. Both types of risk are caused by the uncertainty regarding the way depositors may withdraw their investments in case of interest rate variation, on one hand, and by the uncertainty that involves the interest rate paid by the commercial bank to its customers in order to attract and keep funds in form of deposits, on the other hand. The interest rate risk expresses the loss registered by the bank because of the unexpected evolution of the interest rate.


With the growth of the software testing industry, many in-house testing groups and outsourcing testing companies have been established. Underlying the success of these testing groups and companies are team(s) of testers. This research investigates the importance of different factors, diversity and experience on building a successful testing team. We collected the opinions of testing practitioners on these factors via a survey. The outcome strongly indicates the relative importance of different factors and that diversity is helpful for a testing team. The results also support the importance of suitable team experience.


In this paper, we propose a supervised graph representation learning method to model the relationship between brain functional connectivity (FC) and structural connectivity (SC) through a graph encoderdecoder system. The graph convolutional network (GCN) model is leveraged in the encoder to learn lower-dimensional node representations (i.e. node embeddings) integrating information from both node attributes and network topology. In doing so, the encoder manages to capture both direct and indirect interactions between brain regions in the node embeddings which later help reconstruct empirical FC networks. From node embeddings, graph representations are learnt to embed the entire graphs into a vector space. Our end-to-end model utilizes a multi-objective loss function to simultaneously learn node representations for FC network reconstruction and graph representations for subject classification. The experiment on a large population of non-drinkers and heavy drinkers shows that our model can provide a characterization of the population pattern in the SC-FC relationship, while also learning features that capture individual uniqueness for subject classification. The identified key brain subnetworks show significant between-group difference and support the promising prospect of GCN-based graph representation learning on brain networks to model human brain activity and function.


The effects of inflammatory changes on the absorption of different‐sized probes and their permeability ratios are poorly understood. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of a pharmacological agent on the permeability of the gut mucosa to saccharidic probes of larger and smaller molecular weight. Permeability was assessed by half‐hourly urinary excretion of a combined dose of d‐mannitol, l‐rhamnose and lactulose following consumption of a single 600 mg dose of aspirin and compared with a placebo in a cross‐over study in 20 healthy female volunteers. The temporal patterns of excretion of all probes were bimodal, being best fitted by polynomial functions. The relatively small early peak was evident for at least 4 h for smaller sugars, but was less evident with lactulose, being overshadowed by a larger second peak. These conclusions were further supported by separate analyses of the segments of the temporal plots between 2.5 and 4 h and between 4.5 and 6 h. The forms of these curves did not change significantly following dosing with aspirin. A greater proportion of the total dose of mannitol than rhamnose was excreted over the collection period. Following the consumption of aspirin, the cumulative rate of excretion of the smaller sugars (i.e. mannitol and rhamnose) was significantly reduced whereas that of lactulose was increased over the 6 h collection period. Aspirin has opposite effects on the absorption of larger and smaller probes, influencing the outcome of the test. These results have important consequences for the design and comparison of clinical tests of permeability.


Singapore's Real Estate: 50 Years of Transformation documents the transformation and development of the real estate market in Singapore over the past 50 years. This volume is organised around two major themes, and covers issues from the "bricks and mortar" to the capital markets; and from local to international real estate markets. The themes aptly describe how real estate has played an important role in the economic development and growth of Singapore from a third world to a first world country. Written by well-renowned experts with deep academic and practical knowledge of the progress of real estate in Singapore, this book highlights the uniqueness of real estate markets and institutions in Singapore, which have constantly been replicated and adopted in other markets.


To aid in real-world situations, soft robots need to be able to estimate their state and external interactions based on proprioceptive sensors. Estimating disturbances allows a soft robot to perform desirable force control. However, even in the case of rigid manipulators, force estimation at the end-effector is seen as a non-trivial problem. And indeed, current approaches to address this challenge have shortcomings that prevent their general application. They are often based on simplified soft dynamic models, such as the ones relying on a piece-wise constant curvature approximation or matched rigid-body models that do not represent enough details of the problem. This severely limits applications in complex human-robot interaction. Finite element method (FEM) based modeling allows for predictions of soft robot dynamics in a more generic fashion. Here, using the soft robot modeling capabilities of the frame-work SOFA, we built a detailed FEM model of a multi-segment soft continuum robotic arm composed of compliant deformable materials and fiber-reinforced pressurized actuation chambers. In addition, a model for sensors that provide orientation output is presented. This model is used to establish a state observer for the manipulator. The sensor model is adequate for representing the output of flexible bend sensors as well as orientations provided by IMUs or coming from tracking systems, all of which are popular choices in soft robotics. Model parameters were calibrated to match imperfections of the manual fabrication process using physical experiments. We then solve a quadratic programming inverse statics problem to compute the components of external force that explain the pose mismatch. Our experiments show an average force estimation error of around 1.2%. As the methods proposed are generic, these results are encouraging for the task of building soft robots exhibiting complex, reactive, sensor-based behavior that can be deployed in human-centered environments.


Purpose: To compare the clinical efficacy after an arthroscopic ACL double-bundle reconstruction with and without functional knee brace. Materials and Methods: Between July 2004 and May 2006, fifty patients who underwent an ACL double-bundle reconstruction with and without a functional knee brace for more than a 1-year follow-up were evaluated. The patients were treated with brace (Group 1, 22 cases) or without (Group 2, 28 cases) a brace after surgrey. Stability was assessed by maximal manual testing with a KT-1000 arthrometer, anterior stress radiographs using the Telos device and a lateral pivot shift test. The clinical results were assessed by the OAK (Orthopadische Arbeitsgruppe Knie) score, IKDC (International Knee Documentation Committee) score, mid thigh circumference and the range of motion. Results: More than one year after surgery, average of OAK score, IKDC score, lateral pivot shift test of the stability results and maximal manual testing with the KT-1000 arthrometer, stress radiographs with the Telos device, mid thigh circumference difference, range of motion of the clinical results were similar in both groups. Conclusion: An ACL double-bundle reconstruction produces similar stability and clinical results regardlness of whether or not a functional knee brace is used.


Laser-beam absorptance in a keyhole is generally calculated using either a ray-tracing method or electrodynamic simulation, both physics-based. As such, the entire computation must be repeated when the keyhole geometry changes. In this study, a data-based deep-learning model for predicting laser-beam absorptance in full-penetration laser keyhole welding is proposed. The model uses a set of keyhole top- and bottom-aperture as inputs. From these, an artificial intelligence (AI) model is trained to predict the laser-energy absorptance value. For the training dataset, various keyhole geometries (i.e., top- and bottom-aperture shapes) are hypothetically created, upon which the ray-tracing model is employed to compute the corresponding absorptance values. An image classification model, ResNet, is employed as a learning recognizer of features to predict absorptance. For image regression, several modifications are applied to the structure. Five model depths are tested, and the optimal AI architecture is used to predict the absorptance with an R2 accuracy of 99.76% within 1.66 s for 740 keyhole shapes. Using this model, several keyhole parameters affecting the keyhole absorptance are identified.


Privacy considerations of individuals becomes more and more popular issue in recommender systems due to the increasing need for protecting confidential data. Even though users of recommender systems enjoy with personalized productions, they behave timidly about sharing their private data due to the some privacy concerns about price discrimination, unsolicited marketing, govern-ment surveillance and etc. Thus, preserving confidential data of users while producing accurate predictions is one of the extremely important directions of the researches about recommendation systems. In this paper, we gather the most known studies and recently published ones about producing accurately predictions without endangering privacy in order to guide researchers interested with privacy concerns in recommender systems. Moreover, we give a brief discussion about utilized methods.


Background Haemodialysis (HD) patients are predisposed to dysregulated fluid balance leading to extracellular water (ECW) expansion. Fluid overload has been closely linked with outcome in these patients. This has mainly been attributed to cardiac volume overload, but the relation between abnormalities in fluid status with micro- and macrovascular dysfunction has not been studied in detail. We studied the interaction of macro- and microvascular factors in states of normal and over- hydration in HD-dependent CKD. Methods Fluid compartments [total body water (TBW) and ECW] and overhydration index (OH) were measured with Multifrequency bio-impedance (BCM). Overhydration was defined as OH/ECW>7%. Overhydration was also assessed using the ECW/TBW ratio. Macrocirculation was assessed by pulse-wave velocity (PWV) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) measurements while microcirculation through sublingual capillaroscopy assessment of the Perfused Boundary Region of the endothelial glycocalyx (PBR 5-25mcg). A panel of pro-inflammatory and vascular serum biomarkers and growth factors was analysed. Results Of 72 HD participants, 30 were in normohydration (N) range and 42 overhydrated according to the OH/ECW ratio. Average ECW/TBW was 0.48±0.03. Overhydrated patients had higher MAP (122.9±22.5 v 111.7±22.2mmHg, p = 0.04) and comorbidities (median Davies score 1.5 v 1.0, p = 0.03). PWV (p = 0.25) and PBR 5-25mcg (p = 0.97) did not differ between the 2 groups. However, Vascular Adhesion Molecule (VCAM)-1, Interleukin-6 and Thrombomodulin, and reduced Leptin were observed in the overhydrated group. Elevation in VCAM-1 levels (OR 1.03; 95% CI 1.01–1.06; p = 0.02) showed a strong independent association with OH/ECW>7% in an adjusted logistic regression analysis and exhibited a strong linear relationship with ECW/TBW (Bata = 0.210, p = 0.03) in an also adjusted model. Conclusion Extracellular fluid overload is significantly linked to microinflammation and markers of endothelial dysfunction. The study provides novel insight in the cardiovascular risk profile associated with overhydration in uraemia.


Scientific literacy indicates that science has value outside scientific practice. This idea and reality is hardly modern, although we lose sight of this history. Scientific literacy has been promoted as important goal since at least the 6th century BC. That was when Thales of Miletus led discussions at the Ionian School, to explain objects and natural phenomena by inquiries and theories, as precursors of modern science. Unfortunately, PISA study at 1999-2015 and several works on that period, has showes that common science teachings don't optimally guide students to achieve scientific literacy. As matter of fact, the answer to what is the best teaching methods to achieve scientific literacy has not been obtained yet. By proposing this work, we are consider that STEM education as an alternative to guide students on achieve scientific literacy. STEM that an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics defined as the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics into a new cross-disciplinary subject in schools. We don't deny that the concept of integrating subjects in Indonesian schools, generally is not new and has not been very successful in the past. In addition, some people consider STEM as an opportunity while others view it as having problems. However, the answer to how STEM education implementation could help guide students on achieve scientific literacy has not been studied yet comprehensively. Therefore, STEM education's lesson plans is very important to be developed. This work developed STEM education's lesson plan for guide students to achieve scientific literacy, used R&D approach four-D model that reduced into three stage: define, design, and develop. The final test of any teaching methods lies, of course, in implementation. This work is non-implementation throughtout.


The template effects on stability of twist structure liquid crystals (LCs) were investigated. By refilling a cholesteric LC (CLC) of different pitch into a blue phase LC (BPLC) template or a sphere phase LC (SPLC) template, a multi-phase and multi-pitch twist structure LC, which includes the refilling CLC and intrinsic template BPLC or SPLC, can be fabricated. By refilling a CLC of different chiral pitch into a CLC template, a multi-pitch CLC that includes the refilling CLC and intrinsic CLC, can be fabricated. Twist structure LC devices with multi-phase and multi-pitch show great potential for applications in optical communication, displays, and LC lasing.