As distributed systems grow larger and more complex, the problem of managing them becomes more serious and automated assistance becomes essential. Automated management services need to become a standard part of distributed systems but in order for them to be of any value they must be general enough to adapt to the needs of any organization, without sacrificing practical usability. That challenge is partially addressed with a proposal for automated configuration management based upon descriptions of configuration states. The proposed model is very general, yet the language and algorithms that are introduced are designed to be very practical. Experimental application of this approach to a real-life configuration problem is presented, with comparison to the existing solution that is in production use.


PURPOSE
To analyze the clinical outcomes of the ocular surface in patients with vitamin D deficiency after oral replacement.

METHODS
A total of 40 patients with vitamin D deficiency were enrolled in the study. The patients received 50,000 units of oral vitamin D weekly over a period of 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, 1,500-2,000 units/d were administered for 24 weeks. Eyelid margin score, meibomian gland expressibility score, Oxford grading, Schirmer I test, tear breakup time, tear osmolarity, and the Ocular Surface Disease Index score were evaluated at baseline, and at 8, 12, and 24 weeks.

RESULTS
The meibomian gland expressibility score, Schirmer I, tear breakup time, tear osmolarity, and Ocular Surface Disease Index score showed improvement 8 weeks after vitamin D supplementation (p<0.05). Compared with the pretreatment values, the eyelid margin score and Oxford grading were decreased at week 12 (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
Vitamin D replacement appears to improve ocular surface in individuals with vitamin D deficiency.


Altered neural processing of social signals such as angry facial expressions has been associated with increased aggressive behavior, but evidence for this relationship in healthy persons using ecologically valid experimental designs is lacking. We presented socially relevant videos of facial expressions in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) version of the well-established Taylor Aggression Paradigm and investigated 41 healthy male participants, of whom 32 were included in the analysis. In each round of this competitive reaction time task, participants observed their opponent while he selected a punishment level for him, bearing either a neutral or angry facial expression. Afterward, participants in turn selected a punishment level for their opponent. Across participants, reactivity of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to angry facial expressions was negatively related to aggressive behavior. Within participants and across trials, activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was positively related to aggressive behavior specifically in response to angry expressions. Moreover, we found an effect of angry expressions on neural activity patterns during later stages of the task, demonstrating that the effect of angry expressions on neural reactivity is more than just a short-lived, stimulus-driven response. Our results underscore the importance of OFC and ACC for the shaping of socially adaptive responses to provocation.


Pancreatic cancer continues to pose an enormous challenge to clinicians and cancer scientists. With a more affluent world the global incidence of pancreatic cancer is rising. For the first time significant advances are now being made into the management of the disease. There is a more sophisticated approach to palliative care and the centralisation of pancreatic cancer services is leading to greater tumour resection rates. Newer adjuvant modalities are also greatly increasing the 5 year survival rates. The molecular basis of pancreatic cancer is now better understood than ever before, leading to the development of new diagnostic approaches and the introduction of mechanistic based treatments. Technical advances in imaging and great improvements in conventional and molecular pathology have led to a deeper understanding of the pathological variables of the disease. This is now an important time for making big inroads into what still remains the most lethal of the common cancers.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat. It is the commonest cancer affecting the exocrine pancreas. In 2000, there were 217 000 new cases of pancreatic cancer and 213 000 deaths world wide and in Europe 60 139 new patients (10.4% of all digestive tract cancers) and 64 801 deaths.1 In 2002 there were 7152 new cases in the UK, with similar numbers in men and women.2 In the USA in 2006 there were 33 730 new cases and 32 300 deaths.3 Without active treatment, metastatic pancreatic cancer has a median survival of 3–5 months and 6–10 months for locally advanced disease, which increases to around 11–15 months with resectional surgery.4 The late presentation and aggressive tumour biology of this disease mean that only a minority (10–15%) of patients can undergo potentially curative surgery. Major advances in the past decade …


Boolean function bi-decomposition is ubiquitous in logic synthesis. It entails the decomposition of a Boolean function using two-input simple logic gates. Existing solutions for bi-decomposition are often based on BDDs and, more recently, on Boolean Satisfiability. In addition, the partition of the input set of variables is either assumed, or heuristic solutions are considered for finding good partitions. In contrast to earlier work, this paper proposes the use of Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF) for computing bi-decompositions. These bi-decompositions are optimal in terms of the achieved quality of the input set of variables. Experimental results, obtained on representative benchmarks, demonstrate clear improvements in the quality of computed decompositions, but also the practical feasibility of QBF-based bi-decomposition.


A new, much-needed knowledge model for integrating heterogeneous knowledge represented by independently developed deductive rules and diverse data models has been developed and is presented. It has the strength and expressiveness necessary to unify seemingly disparate, autonomous components. Separate components, including rules, are modeled as functional units. A complete set of relationships, or links, between units based on domain interdependencies is defined, along with a set of integration operators. This approach resolves the unique and complex forms of conflict that arise from integrating deductive rules from autonomous sources, such as conflicts in meaning, redundancies and subsumption. This model has significant application to the creation of a common representation for future shared environments. >


The Gunma Urological Oncology Study Group has performed a multivariate statistical analysis of prognostic factors based on 353 patients with prostate cancer diagnosed between 1974 and 1984. This paper discusses the prognostic significance of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in these patients with prostate cancer. Based on three ranges (<20, >20‐ <50, >50 mm/h) of ESR, a significant difference of survival rates among the patients was found by means of univariate analysis. ESR apparently includes components which represent anemia or infection. Hemoglobin, frequently used as a prognostic factor, was compared with ESR by means of multivariate analysis, and ESR was found to be a more useful prognostic factor than hemoglobin. Moreover ESR showed the highest partial coefficient value among the items studied (clinical stage, pathological differentiation, age, acid phosphatase, gait disturbance). It seems that ESR includes not only anemia and infection components but also provides a clue to the degree of bone metastasis or the degree of prostate cancer progression.


We present a theory of metal-cavity nanolasers and our progress in experiments of metal-cavity surface-emitting microlasers and nanoLEDs with electrical injection at room temperature. After substrate removal, the devices are flip-chip bonded to silicon. The fabrication concepts represent significant progress toward integration of active nanophotonic devices with silicon electronics.


The heavy metals pollution is one of the problems that emerge due to excessive uses of agrochemicals to meet the higher demands of food production for human consumption. The present study aim to analyse the uptake of heavy metals in paddy plants (Oryza sativa) with growth stage and grains from paddy field at Sungai Besar, Selangor. Those heavy metals get accumulated in paddy plant throughout growing process which consists of vegetative, reproduction, and ripening stage. The levels of nonessential toxic heavy metals (Cd, Cr, and Pb) and the micronutrients (Cu, Mn, and Zn) were determined by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectophotometry in the paddy at different growth stage and rice grain samples. Concentration of heavy metals in edible parts (rice grains) was compared with allowable levels stipulated by Malaysian Food Act (1983) and WHO/FAO in other to assess the health risk to consumer. The order levels of heavy metals in plants throughout the growing stage was Zn>Mn>Pb>Cr>Cd indicating that the accumulation of micronutrients was more than that of nonessential toxic heavy metals. Meanwhile, the ranking order of occurrence of the heavy metals accumulation in rice was Zn>Pb>Cd>Mn. The mean concentrations (mg/kg) of metals in grain samples were 29.01±16.87, 21.89±3.12, 0.665±0.074 and 0.303±0.845, respectively. Metal concentrations in the grains studied were found lower than the permissible limits except for Pb. The elevated levels of Pb in the plants could possibly be attributed to anthropogenic sources. In spite of that, Cu and Cr in grain samples were below FAAS detection limit. Statistical differences were performed by Tukey's multiple comparison test by using SPSS Version 20.0. There were no significant differences (P >0.05) observed between the metal concentrations in the paddy plants with growth stage and grains. Though, the present study found that paddy plants at vegetative stage accumulate more heavy metals than the other stage. The Health Risk Index (HRI) and Health Index (HI) were calculated to assess potential risks through rice consumption. HRI values >1 were found in Cd and Pb are the key components contributing to the potential health risk. The higher HI values of adults rice consuming (24.78) suggest their adverse health effects in the near future.


Purpose: To compare conventional dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) with Pawar's intracystic implant dacryocystorhinostomy in terms of surgical technique, complications and success rate for primary acquired nasolacrimal duct obstruction (NLDO).
Materials and Methods: This is a prospective comparative, nonrandomized, clinical study. It is carried out on 50 cases of primary acquired NLDO. The 50 cases were divide into two groups; Group A consisting of 30 cases that underwent Pawar's intracystic implant DCR whereas Group B consisting of 20 cases those operated by conventional DCR technique.
Data regarding demographic profile of patients, mode of presentation, diagnosis, intraoperative variables such as surgical duration, intra- and post-operative complications, hospital stay and causes of failure and final surgical outcome, were analyzed. Clinical success was defined as patent lacrimal system on irrigation (objective) and absence of symptoms (subjective).
Results: Out of 50 cases 40 (80%) were female and 10 cases (20%) were males. In this study, 39 (78%) cases had chronic dacryocystitis, followed by pyocele/mucocele 5 (10%), chronic dacryocystitis with lacrimal fistula 3 (6%), and previous failed DCR surgery 3 (6%).
Hemorrhage from nasal mucosa was observed in 9 cases (45%) during conventional DCR surgery and one case (3.33%) in implant DCR. Hemorrhage from angular vein occurred in 1 case (5%) during conventional DCR. Nasal mucosa was disrupted/damage in 8 cases (40%) during conventional DCR. The average operating time in convention DCR is 110.50 minutes while for Pwar's implant DCR is 27.33 minutes. The commonest post-operative complication of Pawar's intracystic implant DCR was obstruction of passage found in 4 cases (13.33%). Hypertrophic scar was the most common postoperative complication in 8 cases (40%) in conventional DCR. Success rate of implant DCR at 2 months follow up was 83.33% and at the end of 3 months after management of failed cases of implant DCR was 96.66%. Success rate of conventional DCR at 2 months follow up was 80% and at the end of 3 months after management of failed cases of conventional DCR was 85%.
Conclusion: The success rate of Pawar's intracystic implant DCR is comparable with conventional DCR with additional advantages such as easy, quick, minimal intra- and post operative complication and possibility of conventional DCR in future in failed Pawar's implant DCR.


The development of a mandatory continuing education program for the pharmacy staff of a 675-bed hospital with 10 decentralized pharmacy satellites is described. The therapeutic topics selected for presentation were antibiotics, immunology and adverse drug reactions, diabetes mellitus and acid-base disorders. The format for each subject included a pretest of basic knowledge, a comprehensive lecture, a tape recording, supplemental handout material and readings, and a posttest. Posttests were scheduled three to four weeks following lectures to allow preparation time. Questionnaires were used to evaluate acceptance of the program. Posttest scores for each of the four topics were significantly better than pretest scores (p less than or equal to 0.0001). Questionnaire responses indicated that 97% of the participants believed the program to be worthwhile, and 94% voted to continue the series. The success and acceptance of this approach to continuing education support its application to a comprehensive program of staff development.


Brazil owns a large vegetal covering and the best utilization of these materials requires physical and mechanical characterization procedures. Equations found in the literature make easier the wood properties determination. At this context, well known authors developed the equation βl = βt/23, being βl and βt the longitudinal and tangential shrinkage percentages, for βl estimation based on the βt value specially for wood species from the Northern hemisphere. This paper aims to investigate the accuracy of this equation for fifteen tropical Brazilian wood species covering the entire range of hardwood strength classes according to the Brazilian Normative ABNT NBR7190. The average experimental values of βl and βt were 7.71% (CV = 26,71%) and 0.73% (CV = 38,76%), respectively. The non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA refuted the hypothesis of equivalence between theoretical and experimental βl values (p-value = 0.0000). A linear regression model fitted to experimental values provided βl = βt/9,84 as optimal solution (p-value = 0.0000, R2 = 47,23%). According to results it is possible to conclude that the value of longitudinal shrinkage percentage of tropical Brazilian wood species is statistically 2,34 times greater than the value found in the literature, which impacts the design of timber structures procedures increasing the internal stresses in timber structural elements.


Introduction The goal of this article is to introduce the most important of the different molecular biology databases available to researchers. Recent advances in technology have resulted in an information explosion. This has risen the challenge of providing an integrated access method to these data, capable of querying cross-referenced but highly heterogeneous databases. The SRS (Etzold, Ulyanov et al. 1996) system has emerged to deal with these problems and has became a powerful tool in modern biotechnology research. The chapter is organized in two main sections. The first section gives an overview of the following groups of databases: • bibliographic, • taxonomic, • nucleic acid, • genomic, • protein and specialized protein databases, • protein families, domains and functional sites, • proteomics initiatives, • enzyme/methabolic pathways. The second section describes the SRS approach to integrate access to these databases and some recent developments at the EBI SRS server (http://srs.ebi.ac.uk).


Planted pines often require a number of years to achieve a firm anchorage. In this, they differ from naturally established trees which, at least to begin with, are usually quite stable. This difference is due to the effect of the usual methods of raising and planting forest tree seedlings on root morphology. One way to eliminate this effect is to plant seedlings while they are very young and still retain the capacity to initiate first order lateral roots. Another, is to use planting stock raised in containers coated with a root growth inhibitor to prevent the elongation of lateral roots until after planting. With both methods, planted trees can be obtained having a symmetrical array of primary lateral roots comparable in form and mechanical function to the roots of a naturally established tree.


In 1987, the introduction of two 20-MHz B- (brightness-) scan ultrasound systems with axial and lateral resolution of 200 µm and 75–80 µm, respectively, rendered two-dimensional sonographic imaging in dermatology possible. Since then cutaneous sonography has increasingly been used to investigate drug effects on human skin. Both unwanted and wanted effects have been studied, including skin thinning due to repeated glucocorticoid application and reduction of skin thickening in hyperplastic disorders such as psoriasis vulgaris due to various treatment approaches. The resolution of 20-MHz ultrasound is sufficient for studying pathological changes and pharmacological effects in the dermis and the subcutaneous fat; for assessing the epidermis, frequencies between 50 and 100 MHz may prove to be more effective.


Land use changes in different regions have profound spatial connections. In order to reveal the spatial linkage among land use changes of various provinces in China, the conception of land use advantage index is defined firstly referring to regional advantage theory in economics, and a method (D = ) is established to measure the index. Based on the index, land use data, and production value published in statistical yearbook, landuse advantage of different regions in China and its evolution between 1996 and 2003 are analyzed. The results show that the provinces with remarkable advantage in built-up land, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Guangdong, strengthen their advantage in built-up land to an extent higher than the national average. Meanwhile, the advantage in agriculture land decreases in most of those provinces. The provinces with relative advantage in agriculture land, including Hebei, Fujian, Hainan and Jilin, strengthen their advantage in agriculture land to an extent exceeding Guangxi, Yunnan, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Advantage index increases in forestland or grassland in Henan, Anhui, Hunan, Heilongjiang and Sichuan. Those results imply that there are three evolvement mechanisms in the evolution process of land use advantage. They are polarization mechanism, gradient extrapolation mechanism and ecological blocking mechanism. By exploring the results of the existing researches on land use changes in China, it is further confirmed that the three mechanisms, at the national scale, not only dominate the evolution process of regional land use advantages in China, but also dominate the changes of land use pattern in China.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

BACKGROUND: Growth factor receptors have recently been described as potential therapeutic targets for penile carcinoma patients, and there are reports on benefits from the clinical use of monoclonal antibodies against EGFR. However, knowledge on the molecular basis of the disease is scarce. For that, we have addressed the expression of EGFR and HER2, as well as mutational and amplification status of EGFR in samples from penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) patients.

METHODS: Clinicopathologic features and survival data from 183 PSCC patients were reviewed from hospital records and immunohistochemistry (IHC) against EGFR and HER2 was performed. Positive cases were those showing strong and complete membrane staining in more than 10% of the tumor cells. HER2 was also classified as positive according to the presence of cytoplasmic staining (cHER2). Sixty cases were submitted to dual-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and were classified as unaltered (those harboring 2 signals for each probe) or FISH positive (either if polysomic - harboring more than 2 signals for each probe - or amplified - cases with an EGFR signal:centromeric signal ratio exceeding 2). EGFR exons 18, 19, 20 and 21 from 27 independent frozen cases were sequenced. Variables were compared by the Pearson chi-square or Fisher´s exact test. Survival rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log-rank test. Alpha error was set at 5%.

RESULTS: IHC analysis showed that, for EGFR expression, 91 cases (49.7%) were positive and 92 negative, out of which 9 (4,9%) showed no staining at all. Positive cases were associated with higher incidence of recurrence and exophytic growth (p=0.031 and p=0.023, respectively). Membrane staining of HER2 was not seen in any case whereas cHER2 was found in 20.3% (29) of cases, all of them high grade tumors. No low grade tumor presented this staining pattern. cHER2 was also associated with EGFR expression (p=0.017). Regarding FISH, 36 cases were unaltered whereas 32 were FISH positive (out of which 16 presented chromosome 7 polysomy and 6 EGFR amplifications). FISH positivity did not associate with EGFR expression (p=0.403). No mutation in the studied EGFR exons was observed. A polymorphism without clinical significance (p.Q787Q in exon 20) was found in 19/27 cases. cHER2 expression and FISH positivity were an independent risk factor for cancer-specific and overall survival, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Success of targeted therapies is highly linked to appropriate patients selection and our findings might indicate that EGFR has a key role in penile carcinogenesis, making PSCC patients potential candidates for EGFR-targeted therapies since both EGFR expression and chromosome 7 polysomy are associated with poor prognosis. A possible interaction between membranous EGFR and cytoplasmic HER2 could favor the use of tyrosine-kinase inhibitors instead of monoclonal antibodies.

Citation Format: Alice M. T. Silva-Amancio, Isabela W. Cunha, Gustavo C. Guimaraes, Fernando A. Soares. Epidermal growth factor receptors and penile carcinoma: The role of EGFR and HER2 expression as prognostic and predictive markers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3327. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3327


Motherhood is a rewarding, but challenging experience. Mothers are expected to balance parenting with multiple roles.To assess the effectiveness of planned baby care education on maternal attachment. Quantitative research approach and o ne group pre-test- post test
design was used to select 30 Primi mothers in NMCH, Nellore selected by non probability- purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using questionnaire related to maternal fetal attachment and baby care.Among 30 primi mothers, in pre-test shows that 07% have below
average, 63% average and 30% above average levels of maternal confidence. The post-test shows that 07% have average and 93% have above average levels of maternal attachment and self confidence. So, the planned baby care education has proved to promote the maternal attachment and self confidence levels.


Methionine uptake was 2-2.3-fold higher in the transformed rat embryo fibroblasts as compared with the non-transformed cells. This was associated with a 2-fold greater Vmax, with no detectable changes in Km values. Methionine starvation caused an increase in the rate of transport, the increase being higher in the transformed cells. Addition of methionine abolished the starvation effect, although to a smaller extent in the transformed cells. It is suggested that differences in methionine uptake might be due to a quicker depletion of intracellular methionine, and not to changes in the transport system of the transformed cells.


Using a transient electrical model, in which the impacts of Si surface potential and thermal excitation were taken into account, the charging and discharging processes in a metal nanocrystal (NC) memory were simulated. For an NC memory with 2.25 nm tunnel oxide layer, the retention time is more than ten years, and the program and erase time can reach 45 and 60 μs at ±10 V applied voltage, respectively. Moreover, the carrier storage effect caused by NCs has great influence on capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics. The flat-band voltage shift ΔVFB and the charge density Qnc are greatly dependent on the start sweep gate voltage VG and the sweep rate dV/dt. The large memory window reveals the high carrier injection efficiency for both electrons and holes, and it increases steadily from 0.86 to 8.30 V with the increase of the start applied gate voltage from ±2 to ± 6 V. When the sweep rate is slow enough, the flat-band voltage shift and the stored charges will reach a saturation state. Hence, the simulation C-V characteristics of metal NC memory may guide the devices design or to predict their performances.


One accompaniment of loss of ovarian function for many women is osteoporosis. Care of women who suffer a hip fracture as a result of osteoporosis has become a public health issue and focuses on a possible lack of patient education regarding health maintenance. Nurses can play a key role in the care of women with osteoporosis by knowing about possible causative factors and by having a broad understanding of patient management, including how important patient education is to the maintenance of health.


The present study investigates how categorical perception of Mandarin tones develops along age from fourto six-year-old preschoolers. The results showed that Mandarin tones could be perceived categorically by children as young as four years of age, who were able to process tones as linguistic categories. The positions of the identification boundaries did not differ significantly between children and adults, but the boundary widths did differ significantly, with much narrower boundary widths (i.e., sharper boundaries) for the six-year-old group and the adult group. Moreover, the overall discrimination accuracies for all the children groups were lower than that for the adult group. However, children as early as five years of age could discriminate between-category tone pairs almost equally well as the matching adults. These findings lead us to conclude that five to six years of age seems to be a critical period for the development and refinement of Mandarin tone perception.


Objective: The pursuance of the evolution of 115 patients with chronic active hepatitis with HVC, in treatment with Peginterferon α2A, 180 µg / week and Ribavirină in dose adaptated to the weight, with the aim of establishing the frecquency of apparition of the thyroid dysfunction in the context of the specific treatment.Concomitantly,it has been pursued the establishing of correlations between age, sex, degree of activity of the disease, the possible moment of the infection and the apparition of the clinical and paraclinical thyroid modifications. Methodes: The prospective clinical study was realised on a lote of 115 patients with chronic active hepatitis with HVC, aged between 18 - 65 years. The patients were taken from the clinic and ambulatory of the Clinical Emergency Hospital of Sibiu, during 2005 - 2010. The criteria of inclusion and exclusion were the ones imposed by the CNAS protocol: age between 18 - 65 years, the increased level of the transaminases normal or increased, detectable viremy, hepatic biopsy punction. Results: I have remarked since the beggining the increased incidence (statistically meaningful) before the beggining of the therapy with antithyroid antibodies in the studied lote in comparison with the population without viral hepatic pathology. Thus, 11 patients presented at the beggining of the treatment antithyroid antibodies, representing 9,6 %. Among them, 8 were females and 3 were males. Ulterior, during treatment, the number of patients that had antithyroid antibodies increased progressively, being of 18 patients at 3 months, respectively 21 patients at the end of the treatment. It has been observed that the majority of the patients that developed chronic autoimmune thyroiditis at the end of the treatment had antithyroid antibodies in the first three months. Also, it has been observed a predominance of the cases at the females (14 among 18). The last determination of the antithyroid antibodies was effectuated at the end of the therapy. The monitorisation after treatment is curently developing, so we can not appreciate the extension during the time of the chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Concomitantly, the evaluation of the TSH, T3 si T4 at the beggining of the treatment evidentiated the existence of a number of 2 patients with hypothyroidism and the absence of hyperthyroidism. Both patients with hypothyroidism were females. During treatment the number of patients with hypothyroidism increased, as in the end of the therapy the cases were 9, among them 6 women and 3 men. Again, it has been remarked the prevalence of the females. The majority of the cases had medium and simple hypothyroidism. There was a case, a female aged 48 years, a patient that presented antithyroid antibodies at the beggining of the treatment, also a simple hypothyroidism, whose evolution under the treatment with Peginterferon α2A was to mixedem coma, the patient neccesitating specialty treatment in an intensive therapy unit. Conclusions: The thyroidian events manifestated on the whole had an incidence of 9,5% in our study (tiroiditis, hypo - and hyperthyroidism), situating our study at least in percentage in the limits of the studies developed at an European level.


Much of the twentieth century, especially its later half is known as the 'Age of Human Rights' and rightly so as no preceding century in human history witnessed such a provision of human rights enunciations on a global scale. Never before have the languages of human rights sought to supplant all other ethical languages. No previous century has witnessed the proliferation of endless normativity of human rights standards as a core aspect of the politics of the intergovernmental desire. Never before has this been a discourse so varied and diverse.[1]It was this sheer importance which prompted the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Boutros Boutros Ghali,  to term it, in his inaugural address at the 1993 Vienna Conference on Human Rights, as a 'common language of humanity'.
This article attempts to discover how far the changing dimensions of the human right discourse has helped the Transsexuals (or Transgenders, as they are preferred to be called now) as well as Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and other such sexual and gender minorities in attaining the social, economic and political status they have been  fighting for all these years.

[1] Upendra Baxi, The Future of Human Rights 1(2nd ed. 2006).


User experience (UX) is a quality aspect that considers the emotions evoked by the system, extending the usability concept beyond effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Practitioners and researchers are aware of the importance of evaluating UX. Thus, UX evaluation is a growing field with diverse approaches. Despite various approaches, most of them produce a general indication of the experience as a result and do not seek to capture the problem that gave rise to the bad UX. This information makes it difficult to obtain relevant results to improve the application, making it challenging to identify what caused a negative user experience. To address this gap, we developed a UX evaluation technique called UX-Tips. This paper presents UX-Tips and reports two empirical studies performed in an academic and an industrial setting to evaluate it. Our results show that UX-Tips had good performance in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, making it possible to identify the causes that led to a negative user experience, and it was easy to use. In this sense, we present a new technique suitable for use in both academic and industrial settings, allowing UX evaluation and finding the problems that may lead to a negative experience.


Abstract. Winarni NL, Nuruliawati, Anugra BG, Junaid AR, Widayanti S, Aslan, Nugroho A, Miga I, Kurniawan MB, Liestanti M, Lutfiani RA, Wulandari Y. 2023. Can cities provide butterfly-friendly habitats? Biodiversitas 24: 2334-2341. Cities are progressively changed over time, creating land use changes with reduced green space areas. On the other hand, urban habitats offer a range of opportunities for biodiversity including butterflies which also act as an ecological health indicator. In Indonesia, like Jakarta Greater Area, or the so-called Jabodetabek which comprised Jakarta and its satellite cities, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi, is highly urbanized. However, its capabilities to support the butterfly community are still little known. Thus, this paper aims to identify Jakarta Greater Area's potential as urban habitat for butterflies through a citizen science approach namely KupuKita. The data were collected from June 2021 to November 2022. The survey used KupuKita platform, an online questionnaire established in 2021, which focused on three families, Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, and Pieridae. Its species richness, diversity and community pattern were analyzed consecutively by using Shannon-Wiener and Simpson's Index. Next, the results were also analyzed towards the vegetation strata (grasses, shrubs, and trees) as observed during the data collection. The results suggested that Jakarta, Tangerang, and Bekasi have the least diverse butterfly community in comparison to Depok and Bogor. The butterfly community in Depok and Bogor was similar, both high in richness and diversity. Such similarity was potentially due to the wide arrays of remaining habitats that supported butterfly communities in three strata. The shrubs support more species richness rather than other strata. Bogor and Depok were potentially support more species in all three strata. Hence, because of the closely plant-butterfly relationships, vegetation interventions are crucial to increase the complexity of vegetation and create a butterfly-friendly habitat.


The death of an offspring is described as the most traumatic of losses when the death is 'sudden and unexpected', and is one which can affect family equilibrium. Borrowing from Timmermans' (1994) autobiographical ethnography of death and dying, and the author's personal experiences with terminal illness, this paper will use an introspective ethnographic approach to offer an account of my own experience of coping with the death of a family member. Through the use of participant observation and individual case study, it will present an insight into the residual effects of 'sudden death' upon those who are left behind - the mother, the father, sisters and brothers-and explore and identify possible changes in constructs of self and self-identity, the effects on inter/intra familial relationships, male/female expressiveness/inexpressiveness, and religious and world philosophies. The implications of the research are considered.


This paper uses the HCT (Hydrodynamics, Chemistry and Transport) chemical kinetics code to analyze natural gas HCCI combustion in an engine. The HCT code has been modified to better represent the conditions existing inside an engine, including a wall heat transfer correlation. Combustion control and low power output per displacement remain as two of the biggest challenges to obtaining satisfactory performance out of an HCCI engine, and these are addressed in this paper.
 The paper considers the effect of natural gas composition on HCCI combustion, and then explores three control strategies for HCCI engines: DME (dimethyl ether) addition, intake heating and hot EGR addition. The results show that HCCI combustion is sensitive to natural gas composition, and an active control may be required to compensate for possible changes in composition. The three control strategies being considered have a significant effect in changing the combustion parameters for the engine, and should be able to control HCCI combustion.


Anatomic studies have traditionally relied on macroscopic, microscopic, and histological techniques to investigate the structure of tissues and organs. Anatomic studies are essential in many fields, including medicine, biology, and veterinary science. Advances in technology, such as imaging techniques and molecular biology, continue to provide new insights into the anatomy of living organisms. Therefore, anatomy remains an active and important area in the scientific field. The consolidation in recent years of some omics technologies such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics allows for a more complete and detailed understanding of the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs. These have been joined more recently by "omics" such as radiomics, pathomics, and connectomics, supported by computer-assisted technologies such as neural networks, 3D bioprinting, and artificial intelligence. All these new tools, although some are still in the early stages of development, have the potential to strongly contribute to the macroscopic and microscopic characterization in medicine. For anatomists, it is time to hitch a ride and get on board omics technologies to sail to new frontiers and to explore novel scenarios in anatomy.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship of the histopathologic grade and extent of prostatic inflammation with the level of serum PSA in patients with type IV prostatitis.

METHODS
We performed transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy for 120 patients suspected of prostate cancer and included in this study only those with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis (n = 46), excluding the cases with prostate cancer and those with BPH but no prostatitis. We evaluated the relationship between prostatic inflammation and serum PSA levels based on the three-grade pathohistologic criteria for the extent, location and aggressiveness of prostatic inflammation. The serum tPSA levels, fPSA levels, % fPSA, and PSAD were compared among different groups.

RESULTS
As for the extent of inflammation, 35 of the 46 included cases were grade I (tPSA: [8.46 +/- 4.09] microg/L; fPSA: [1.75 +/- 0.93] microg/L; PSAD: 0.15 +/- 0.11), 7 were grade II (tPSA: [15.26 +/- 5.26] microg/L; fPSA: [2.54 +/- 0.72] microg/L; PSAD: 0.26 +/- 0.07) and 4 were grade III (tPSA: [21.05 +/- 7.58] microg/L; fPSA: [3. 19 +/- 1.13] microg/L; PSAD: 0.42 +/- 0.19), with statistically significant differences among the three groups in the levels of tPSA (P = 0.001), fPSA (P = 0.008) and PSAD (P < 0.001). Regarding the location of inflammation, 19 cases were grade I, 17 were grade II and 10 were grade II, with no significant differences in tPSA, fPSA and %fPSA among the three grades (P > 0.05). As for the aggressiveness of inflammation, 32 cases were grade I (tPSA: [8.37 +/- 4.07] microg/L; fPSA: [1.76 +/- 0.93] microg/L; PSAD: 0.14 +/- 0.11), 10 were grade II (tPSA: [13.30 +/- 5.69] microg/L; fPSA: [3.27 +/- 2.21] microg/L ; PSAD: 0.25 +/- 0.06) and 4 were grade III (tPSA: [21.05 +/- 7.58] microg/L; fPSA: [3.19 +/- 1.13] microg/L; PSAD: 0.42 +/- 0.19), with statistically significant differences among the three grades in the levels of tPSA (P = 0.002), fPSA (P = 0.024) and PSAD (P < 0.001). The extent of inflammation was positively correlated with the levels of tPSA (r = 0.6, P < 0.001), fPSA (r = 0.5, P = 0.001) and PSAD (r = 0.6, P < 0.001), and so was the aggressiveness of inflammation (tPSA: r = 0.5, P < 0.001; fPSA: r = 0.4, P = 0.008; PSAD: r = 0.7, P < 0.001), but a negative correlation was found between the aggressiveness of inflammation and %fPSA (r = -0.4, P = 0.013).

CONCLUSION
The aggressiveness and extent of prostatic inflammation in asymptomatic prostatitis patients are significantly correlated with the level of serum PSA, which may help pathologists to avoid unnecessary repeated biopsies for patients with high-grade prostatitis.


K(+) acquisition by Arabidopsis roots is mainly mediated by the high-affinity K(+) transporter AtHAK5 and the inward-rectifier K(+) channel AtAKT1. This model is probably universal to plants. Mutant plants lacking these two systems (athak5,atakt1) take up K(+) and grow when the external K(+) concentration is above a certain level, indicating that an additional transport system may compensate for the absence of AtHAK5 and AtAKT1. Here we describe that this alternative system is essential for providing sufficient K(+) to sustain growth of athak5,atakt1 plants. This system is especially sensitive to Ca(2+), Mg(2+), Ba(2+) and La(3+), it transports Cs(+) and its activity is reduced by cyclic nucleotides. These results suggest that a Ca(2+)-permeable voltage-independent non-selective cation channel, probably belonging to the cyclic nucleotide gated channel (CNGC) family, may provide the pathway for K(+) uptake in athak5,atakt1 plants. The genes encoding the two members of the CNGC family that have been described as mediating root K(+) uptake, AtCNGC3 and AtCNGC10, are not up-regulated in athak5,atakt1 plants, excluding overexpression of these genes as a compensatory mechanism. On the other hand, an increased driving force for K(+) in athak5,atakt1 plants due to a hyperpolarization of the membrane potential of its root cells is also discarded. The identification of this unknown system may provide tools to improve plant K(+) nutrition in conditions where AtAKT1 functionality is reduced, such as under salinity. In addition, this system may constitute an important pathway for accumulation of toxic cations such as Cs(+) or radiocesium ((137)Cs(+)), and could play a role in phytoremediation.


With the continuous reduction of CMOS device dimension, the importance of Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) keeps growing. To determine its impact on circuit performance and optimize the design, it is essential to physically model RTN effect and embed it into the standard simulation environment. In this paper, a new simulation method of time domain RTN effect is proposed to benchmark important digital circuits: (1) A two-stage L-shaped circuit is proposed to generate RTN signal by integrating a white noise source. An L-shaped circuit is a RC filter connected with an ideal comparator, where RC values are calibrated with the physical property of RTN; (2) This sub-circuit is fully compatible with SPICE, enabling the time domain analysis in nanometer scale digital design; (3) The importance of discrete RTN is demonstrated on a 32nm SRAM design and a 22nm low power ring oscillator (RO), using the proposed method. As compared to traditional 1/f noise, the impact of RTN is more significant under low voltages, leading to tremendous differences in the prediction of Vccmin and failure probability in SRAM, as well as jitter noise in RO.


The authors compare the implications of a symmetric information contracting model and a dynamic labor supply model for changes in earnings and hours. A simple test is whether earnings changes are more variable than hours changes, as predicted by the labor supply model, or less variable, as predicted by the contracting model. The authors apply this test to two longitudinal surveys of adult men and find that earnings are somewhat more variable than hours for men who never change employers. The estimates suggest that changes in earnings and hours not associated with survey measurement error occur at fixed wage rates.


Part of a series of fi ve reports that cover energy and industry, traffi c and transport, measurement technology, indoor air, and health and the environment. This publication includes material protected under copyright law, the copyright for which is held by Tekes or a third party. Material contained here may not be used for commercial purposes. The contents are the opinion of the writers concerned and do not represent the offi cial Tekes position. Tekes bears no responsibility for any possible damage arising from the use of this material. The original source must be mentioned when quoting from this publication. 3 Preface T he air we breathe exposes us to a growing number of airborne contaminants, including particulate matter invisible to the eye, as a result of ever-growing traffi c volumes and ever-higher levels of energy generation , as well as other factors. Fine particulates are known to have major health implications, and result in the premature death of over 300,000 people in the EU annually alone. Advances in technology are allowing us to measure smaller and smaller sizes of particles and gain a better understanding of how they impact health and the environment, however. The more we learn about the very real harm caused by these types of emissions, the more the benefi ts of introducing tougher air quality standards become clearer. Typical of the initiatives being introduced in this area is the European Commission's Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) programme, the results of which will be used to enhance European air quality from 2010 onwards. Tekes launched a four-year programme in 2002 known as the FINE Particles – Technology, Environment and Health Technology Programme – together with the Academy of Finland, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and the Ministry of the Environment – to address some of these challenges. In particular , to generate new research data, leverage the existing broad range of Finnish expertise in fi ne particles and develop it further, and catalyse business opportunities in the fi eld. The programme's ultimate goal has been to improve our understanding of the impact emissions of this type have on health and the environment, identify the potential for new technological innovations, and encourage their commercialisation. The FINE programme involved over 50 individual projects and close to 60 companies and 20 research institutions , and focused on emissions and technology in fi ve main areas: energy and industry, …


Use of harmonized accounting standards may reduce investor's uncertainty and can thus reduce the cost of capital. It can significantly improve the communication between business users and all their statements. Due to the globalization of business and international harmonization of financial reporting countries experiences a shift in paradigms from historical costs accounting towards fair value measurement. Paper provides an analysis how the ability to measure accounting harmonization can be helpful from the perspective of a globalized world. A comparative analysis between IFRS and IFRS for SMEs show the level of compatibility between these sets of accounting regulation.


Effects of a Japanese medicinal plant named Sairei-To, were examined in a rat experimental renal disease. Thirteen weeks after subtotal nephrectomy, the blood pressures in rats given Sairei-To (Sairei-To rats) were lower than those without Sairei-To. The urinary protein excretions and glomerular sclerosis were markedly decreased in the Sairei-To treated rats. Arteriolar diameters were measured using microvascular casts. The afferent and efferent arterioles were both significantly dilatated. The efferent arterioles in Sairei-To rats were dilated to a greater extent than that of the afferent. These results indicated that Sairei-To lessened renal damages in the rat subtotal nephrectomy model, possibly through the blood pressure reduction and the efferent arteriolar dilatation.


By using sonic well logs from diverse geophysical environments to evaluate the statistical character of the Earth's subsurface strata, the authors find the surprising result that the elastic property of the strata displays a well defined exponential correlation with correlation length of the order of 2-15 m. Through numerical simulations based on the sonic well log data they relate this correlation length to the behaviour of seismic wave multiple scattering and localisation. Good agreement with localisation theory predictions is obtained both on the frequency dependence of the localisation length and on the character of the pulse backscattering spectrum. Values of the localisation length obtained are 15-30 km at 20 Hz and 1.5-5 km at 100 Hz.


Pathological changes vary in the morphology and function during the process of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In this study, we compared the diagnostic value of fractal analysis and tissue tracking on cardiovascular magnetic resonance images to characterize the trabecular complexity as myocardial strain alteration for HCM.


1. The mean osmolar concentration (expressed as mM. NaCl/1.) of the serum for Lampetra planeri was found to be 110 mM. in the ammocoete and 113 mM. in the adult. For adult L. fluviatilis serum in November the mean osmolar concentration was 143 mM. and in March 136 mM.

2. In adult planeri the Cl concentration of the body fluids accounted for nearly 90% of the total concentration as compared with only 58% in the serum of the ammocoete. Adult fluviatilis kept in tap water throughout the winter appeared to show an increase in Cl levels.

3. Evidence has been produced to support the view that the differences observed in water, fat and Cl content of ammocoete and adult planeri and adult fluviatilis are consequences of the period of starvation preceding sexual maturity.

4. Pronounced seasonal variations have been found in the fat and Cl content of ammocoetes of planeri .

5. The osmotic uptake of water has been determined for adults of both species in fresh water. In planeri the rate of uptake for unit body weight is about four times as great as in fluviatilis .

6. Observations have also been made on the osmotic loss of water of ammocoete and adult planeri and of adult fluviatilis in sea water of different concentrations. For unit body weight osmotic loss of water in planeri is about twice that of fluviatilis.

7. Total losses of Cl have been determined for ammocoete and adult planeri in distilled water and their effects on internal Cl levels have been studied. Observations have also been made on the active uptake of Cl.

8. Acclimatization experiments on ammocoetes and adult planeri and on adult fluviatilis have failed to produce any evidence of regulation in sea water.


Objective Resolution of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) requires clearance of pulmonary edema. Biologically variable ventilation (BVV) strategies that improve gas exchange, lung mechanics, and inflammatory mediators in ARDS may be beneficial in this regard. We used quantitative computed tomography (CT), a single indicator thermodilution system (PiCCO) to determine extravascular lung water (EVLW), and the change in edema protein concentration over time to compare edema clearance with BVV vs conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV) in a porcine ARDS model. Methods Sixteen pigs with oleic acid lung injury were randomized to four hours of ventilation with either CMV (n = 8) or BVV (n = 8) at identical low tidal volume and minute ventilation over time. Hemodynamic variables, gas exchange, lung mechanics, and PiCCO derived EVLW were determined hourly. Computed tomography images and edema fluid samples were obtained at baseline lung injury and after four hours of ventilation. Wet and dry lung weights were determined postmortem. Results At four hours with BVV, peak airway pressure was decreased significantly and lung compliance improved compared with CMV (P = 0.003; P \ 0.001, respectively). Hemodynamic variables and gas exchange were not different between groups. Also at four hours, computed tomography revealed an increase in total gas volume (P = 0.001) and a decrease in total lung weight and global lung density (P = 0.005; P = 0.04 respectively) with BVV. These findings were associated with a significant increase in the gas volume of normally aerated lung regions (P \ 0.001) and a decrease in the poorly and non-aerated lung regions (P = 0.001). No change in any CT parameter occurred with CMV. The lung weights derived from computed tomography correlated well with postmortem wet weights (R 2 = 0.79; P \ 0.01). The decrease in PiCCO derived EVLW from injury to four hours did not differ significantly between BVV and CMV. Extravascular lung water showed no correlation with postmortem wet weights and significantly underestimated lung water. Average alveolar fluid clearance rates were positive (1.4%� hr -1 (3%)) with BVV and negative with CMV (-2.0%� hr -1 (4%)). Conclusions In a comparison between BVV and CMV, computed tomography evidence suggests that BVV facilitates enhanced clearance and/or redistribution of edema fluid with improved recruitment of atelectatic and poorly aerated lung regions; no such evidence was seen with either single thermodilution measurement of EVLW or edema clearance rates. The results of computed tomography provide further evidence of the benefit of BVV over conventional ventilation in ARDS.


During this time the management process of managing Kuliah Kerja Nyata at IAIN Salatiga still uses the conventional way by involving documents manually so it takes a long time. The purpose of this study is to build applications that are useful for handling the process of managing Kuliah Kerja Nyata (KKN) at IAIN Salatiga starting from registering data management, KKN supervisor lecturer management, to reporting the results of KKN. The application development method used in this study is the prototype method and in testing its application using the BlackBox testing method. From the results of the Blackbox, The Testing test shows that the application of a Kuliah Kerja Nyata on the Salatiga IAIN as a whole the functionality can run well.


This article analyzes the development prospects and problems for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). It examines issues of integration within the EAEU, as well as interactions with other countries, both CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and non-CIS. The main problem of integration within the EAEU is the dominance of redistributive motives over productive ones. This article assesses the extent of Russian oil and gas transfers to EAEU partners and the impact of tax maneuvers on their size. It shows that the creation of mechanisms for redistributing profits within the EAEU will allow a positive economic effect to materialize from free trade agreements with non-CIS countries. The article assesses the risks for the EAEU related to Russia's introduction of a unilateral ban on food imports from countries on the sanctions list and to the possible establishment of tariffs on trade with Ukraine.


Research in cancer chemoprevention involves a number of activities, the first and foremost of which is acquisition of detailed knowledge concerning the process of carcinogenesis and identification of points of intervention whereby the process can be reversed or stalled. Parallel to this is the search for ideal chemopreventive agents--natural or synthetic--and screening for their activity and efficacy in vitro and in vivo. For ethical reasons it is not possible to test new agents on humans, so preclinical studies are dependent on results first being obtained with suitable animal models. Since it is not possible for a single model to reflect the diversity and heterogeneity of human cancers, it is necessary to have as many different models as possible, depending on the requirement of the studies on different aspects of cancer biology. Advances in research on carcinogenesis and chemoprevention therefore have to be accompanied by development of appropriate laboratory animal models using a variety of carcinogens that produce tumours at different sites. Animal models have contributed significantly to our understanding of carcinogenesis and ways to intervene in the underlying processes. Many animal carcinogenesis and tumour models have been found to mirror corresponding human cancers with respect to cell of origin, morphogenesis, phenotype markers and genetic alteration. In spite of the fact that interpolation of data from animal studies to humans is difficult for various reasons, animal models are widely used for assessment of new compounds with cancer chemopreventive potential and for preclinical trials. So despite the movements of animal rights activists, animal models will continue to be used for biomedical research for saving human lives. In doing so, care should be taken to treat and handle the animals with minimal discomfort to them and ensuring that alternatives are used whenever possible.


Objective To quantify vascular smooth muscle polyploidy and growth kinetics in aortic cells from stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) and from normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, and to examine the effects of treatment with the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor perindopril on these parameters. Design The following experimental groups were used: young (age <20 weeks) and old (age > 20 weeks) untreated WKY rats and untreated SHRSP; SHRSP treated with perindopril, and age- and sex-matched control SHRSP; and SHRSP treated with hydralazine and hydrochlorothiazide and age- and sex-matched control SHRSP. The effects of treatment of the SHRSP with perindopril for 30 days on vascular smooth muscle polyploidy and growth kinetics were measured and compared with the effects of equivalent antihypertensive doses of hydralazine and hydrochlorothiazide. Methods Vascular smooth muscle polyploidy was measured using flow-cytometry DNA analysis of freshly harvested cells. Growth curves were performed on cultured aortic cells. Plasma renin activity was measured by an antibody-trapping method, plasma angiotensin II (Ang II) by radioimmunoassay and plasma ACE activity by a colorimetric method. Cardiac hypertrophy was evaluated by measuring the heart weight: body weight and left ventricle + septum weight: body weight ratios. Results The SHRSP had markedly and significantly elevated G2 + M phase of the cell cycle. Treatment with perindopril resulted in a significant reduction in polyploidy in the SHRSP, whereas treatment with hydralazine and hydrochlorothiazide had no effect on the percentage of cells in the G2 + M phase of the cell cycle. The regression of polyploidy after treatment with perindopril was associated with a significant reduction in the concentration of Ang II and ACE activity, and with a significant regression of cardiac hypertrophy. Increased mitogenesis of cultured vascular smooth muscle cells from the SHRSP was not altered by treatment with perindopril. Conclusions ACE inhibition reduces vascular smooth muscle polyploidy in large conduit arteries. This type of vascular protection is mediated by the reduced Ang II and possibly by increased kinins level, rather than by the hypotensive effect alone.


Heterogeneous thyroid nodules with distinct components are similar to background in ultrasound image. This results in a difficult task when radiologists and physicians manually delineate the complete shape of a nodule, or distinguish what kind of components it has. Hence, this paper presents an automatic process for nodule segmentation and component classification. A decision tree algorithm is used to segment the possible nodular area. A refinement process is then applied to recover the nodular shape. Finally, a hierarchical classification method based on support vector machine (SVM) is used to identify the components in the nodular lesion. Experimental results of the proposed approach were compared with those of other segmentation methods and showed a good performance.


V(D)J recombination of Ig and TCR genes is strictly regulated in a lineage- and stage-specific manner by the accessibility of target gene chromatin to the recombinases RAG1 and RAG2. It has been shown that enforced expression of the basic helix–loop–helix protein, E2A, together with RAG1/2 in a nonlymphoid cell line BOSC23 can induce V(D)J recombination in endogenous Igκ and TCR loci by increasing chromatin accessibility of target gene segments. In this study, we demonstrate that ectopically expressed E2A proteins in BOSC23 cells have the ability to bind directly to the promoter and recombination signal sequence of Vκ genes and to recruit histone acetyltransferase CBP/p300. Overexpression of CBP/p300 in conjunction with E2A results in enhancement of E2A-induced histone acetylation, germline transcription, and Igκ rearrangement. Conversely, knockdown of endogenous CBP/p300 expression by small interfering RNA leads to a decrease in histone acetylation, germline transcription and Igκ rearrangement. Furthermore, analyses using a mouse pre-B cell line revealed that endogenous E2A proteins also bind to a distinct set of Vκ genes and regulatory regions in the mouse Igκ locus and act to increase histone acetylation by recruiting p300, confirming the similar findings observed with BOSC23 cells. These observations indicate that E2A plays critical roles in inducing Igκ rearrangement by directly binding to and increasing chromatin accessibility at target gene segments.


Objectives. There is growing evidence for the use of biofeedback (BF) in affective disorders, dissocial personality disorder, and in children with histories of abuse. Electroencephalogram (EEG) markers could be used as neurofeedback in emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) management especially for those at high risk of suicide when emotionally aroused. This narrative review investigates the evidence for EEG markers in EUPD. Methods. PRISMA guidelines were used to conduct a narrative review. A structured search method was developed and implemented in collaboration with an information specialist. Studies were identified via 3 electronic database searches of MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO. A predesigned inclusion/exclusion criterion was applied to selected papers. A thematic analysis approach with 5 criteria was used. Results. From an initial long list of 5250 papers, 229 studies were identified and screened, of which 44 met at least 3 of the predesigned inclusion criteria. No research to date investigates EEG-based neurofeedback in EUPD. A number of different EEG biomarkers are identified but there is poor consistency between studies. Conclusions. The findings heterogeneity may be due to the disorder complexity and the variable EEG related parameters studied. An alternative explanation may be that there are a number of different neuromarkers, which could be clustered together with clinical symptomatology, to give new subdomains. Quantitative EEGs in particular may be helpful to identify more specific abnormalities. EEG standardization of neurofeedback protocols based on specific EEG abnormalities detected may facilitate targeted use of neurofeedback as an intervention in EUPD.


There are many ideas in software design that are considered good practice. However, research is still needed to validate their contributions to software maintenance. This paper presents a method for examining software systems that have been actively maintained and used over the long term and are potential candidates for yielding lessons about design. The method relies on a criterion of stability and a definition of distance to flag design characteristics that have potentially contributed to long-term maintainability. It is demonstrated by application to an example of long-lived scientific software. The results from this demonstration show that the method can provide insight into the relative importance of individual elements of a set of design characteristics for the long-term evolution of software


BACKGROUND
Myocardial fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a useful method in assessment of functional significance of coronary stenosis. Deferral of intervention of angiographically intermediate lesion based on FFR measurement is safe in selected patient population as previously described. The aim of the study was to assess mid-term results after deferring coronary intervention of intermediate lesion in a non-selected patient population with no respect to the extent of coronary artery disease and to the results of stress tests if performed.

METHODS
A coronary intervention of angiographically intermediate lesion (40 - 70% according to QCA) was deferred in a group of 50 consecutive patients (33 men, mean age 60.8 +/- 10.2 y.) on the basis of FFR > or = 0.75 (mean FFR 0.89 +/- 0.06). FFR was measured in 62 lesions (mean stenosis diameter 55 +/- 7%, left anterior descending 34 lesions, circumflex artery 13 lesions, right coronary artery 15 lesions). One-vessel disease was presented in 14 pts (28%), 36 pts (72%) presented with multivessel disease (two-vessel disease in 27 pts - 54% and three-vessel disease in 9 pts - 18%). Stress test was positive in 15 pts, in 1 pts. negative, and in 3 pts. non-diagnostic. All-cause mortality, cardiac mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemia driven target vessel revascularization (TLR) were recorded during follow-up. Severity of angina pectoris (CCS classification) and a need for antianginal treatment (beta-blockers, nitrates, calcium channel blockers) at the baseline and at the end of clinical follow-up was recorded.

RESULTS
Follow-up was completed in 49 patients (98%). Mean time of follow-up is 15.4 +/- 2 months (range 12 - 22 months, median 15 months), two patients died (4 %)--one from colon cancer, the other patient died from lung cancer, there was not any cardiac death recorded, two patients (4%) had target vessel revascularization. Estimated 22 months event-free (all-cause death, MI, TLR) survival was (mean +/- SEM) 86 +/- 7%. There was a significant difference in symptom severity--mean grade of angina pectoris at baseline was 1.8 +/- 1.3, at follow-up 1.1 +/- 1.0 (p < 0.05). There was not difference in use of antianginal drugs was same at baseline and at follow-up (1.7 +/- 0.8 vs. 1.7 +/- 0.7). Thirty-five patients (71%) were treated by statins.

CONCLUSIONS
Deferring of coronary interventions of intermediate stenosis based on FFR measurement is safe in a mid-term follow-up. Despite of the same intensity of antianginal treatment there was a significant decrease in symptom severity.


With the broad and increasing application of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in clinical settings, IgG‐induced allergic reactions, including passive systemic anaphylaxis (PSA), have attracted significant attention. However, it is not clear which types of IgG mAb–antigen complexes or IgG aggregates formed by antigen binding can trigger PSA, as not all immune complexes (ICs) are capable of triggering PSA. Here, we characterise mAb–antigen complexes capable of inducing murine PSA to evaluate and predict which ICs are able to induce PSA.


Recent extensive and systematic numerical experiments have uncovered new insights into plasma focus devices including the following: (i) a plasma current limitation effect, as device static inductance L0 is reduced towards very small values; (ii) scaling laws of neutron yield Yn and soft x-ray yield Ysxr as functions of storage energies E0 and currents I; (iii) a global scaling law for neutron yield Yn as a function of storage energy E0 combining experimental and numerical data showing that scaling deterioration has probably been interpreted as neutron 'saturation'; and (iv) a fundamental cause of neutron 'saturation'. An important scaling property is that the plasma condition is the same whether the plasma focus is a small sub-kilojoule machine or a large one with thousands of kilojoules of stored energy; and the related constancy of the dynamic resistance. This scaling property turns out to be the cause of 'scaling deterioration' of yields. The understanding of this situation points to a new class of plasma focus devices to overcome the 'saturation' of I and yields. Plasma focus technology has to move to ultra-high voltage technology and take advantage of circuit manipulation techniques in order to move into a new era of high performance. This paper will examine fundamental scaling properties of the plasma focus including speeds and dynamic resistance, temperatures, dimensions and times, these being computed in the model which thus is a good source of reference for diagnostics. More importantly, we link up these basic scaling characteristics with the crucial ideas of the inherent yield scaling deterioration, thus providing a clear understanding of its overall performance characteristics, paving the way for future exploitation. The paper also takes a peek at the latest development of modeling the instability phase using anomalous resistance terms, resulting in quantitative experimental data of the instability phase of the plasma focus.


Amid growing awareness of the economic exploitation of children, this paper juxtaposes the multilateral trade regime and international law governing labor standards and human rights. The charters for both trade and labor regimes are premised on the interdependence of economic and social progress. Nonetheless, the legal norms governing the various regimes differ in their scope and application to child labor and formal linkages do not exist between the two specialized governance systems. This paper proposes that established rules of international law compel the harmonization of international trade rules with international labor and human rights norms that prohibit the worst forms of child labor. Obligations under the multilateral trade regime can be interpreted and implemented in light of either higher values, represented by peremptory norms of customary international law, or common commitments, where parties to international trade obligations are also bound by international human rights and labor law. Based on a working definition of "extreme forms of child labor", the Note examines relationships among peremptory norms, customary international law and treaty law. It then considers the degree to which extreme forms of child labor can be said to come within the scope of jus cogens, customary law and common treaty obligations relevant in particular to slavery, labor, and human rights. The Note analyzes the applicability of those norms to obligations under multilateral agreements governing international trade and, where relevant, U.S. domestic law and the international obligations of the United States. It further evaluates the role of norms relating to child labor in the development of investment treaty and domestic law, and private actors' initiatives, including codes of conduct and labeling programs. The Note concludes that the interpretation of the norms of the specialized regimes consistently with those prohibiting extreme forms of child labor is compelled as a matter of law, and is essential to the realization of the aim of economic and social progress which is common to international trade, human rights, and labor law.


Dementia is mostly found in the elderly throughout the world. Person with dementia will be losing the ability of the brain to functioning including language, thinking and learning, memory, emotional, intellectual knowledge and judgment, some patients had behavior and personality changes and/or psychological symptoms. These will affect to the ability to perform everyday activities. The pathological conditions of dementia inhibit person with dementia from taking complete care of themselves and make them require the care from others. Family are important source of home care and support for person with dementia. As a result of caring person with dementia, family caregivers may experience life change that would be expected to be stress. Therefore, nurses are well positioned to play important role in taking care of family caregivers such as sharing knowledge, giving advise, relieving burden and stigma as well as strengthening their coping.


Diesel particulate filter has been adopted in new vehicle with diesel engine. Since the flow of exhaust gas was clogged as particulate matters were deposited in the filter, it have bad effects on a fuel consumption and power. It was investigated that a particulate filtering system with vacuum pump in the exhaust gas line could be free from clogging in previous research. In this study, the effects of water injection and position of inlet port in filtering system on reducing in particulate matter were investigated. It was noticed that particulate matter were decreased remarkable by water injection and moving the position of inlet port.


A region encompassing the origin of replication of staphylococcal plasmid pT181 has previously been shown to express an incompatibility effect denoted Inc3B, when cloned into another replicon (Novick et al. 1984). In an attempt to understand the mechanism of this incompatibility effect, and its relationship with the function of the replication origin, mutants deficient in this property were isolated and characterized. The results obtained suggest that the Inc3B effect is due to the competition for replication between the replication origin cloned in a hybrid and the origin of an autonomous plasmid. The Inc3B-deficient mutants isolated expressed different degrees of residual incompatibility. The inc3B mutations which did not express any incompatibility were found also to inactivate the function of the replication origin. All the other mutants which expressed residual Inc3B had a functional origin but presented a significantly reduced ability to use this origin when coexisting with a plasmid using a wild-type pT181 origin. It is suggested that these inc3B mutations represent a new type of origin mutation which affects the ability of the origin to compete with other origins using the same replication system, though the function per se of the origin is not significantly impaired.


On public benchmarks, current action recognition techniques have achieved great success. However, when used in real-world applications, e.g. sport analysis, which requires the capability of parsing an activity into phases and differentiating between subtly different actions, their performances remain far from being satisfactory. To take action recognition to a new level, we develop FineGym, a new dataset built on top of gymnasium videos. Compared to existing action recognition datasets, FineGym is distinguished in richness, quality, and diversity. In particular, it provides temporal annotations at both action and sub-action levels with a three-level semantic hierarchy. For example, a "balance beam" activity will be annotated as a sequence of elementary sub-actions derived from five sets: "leap-jump-hop", "beam-turns", "flight-salto", "flight-handspring", and "dismount", where the sub-action in each set will be further annotated with finely defined class labels. This new level of granularity presents significant challenges for action recognition, e.g. how to parse the temporal structures from a coherent action, and how to distinguish between subtly different action classes. We systematically investigates different methods on this dataset and obtains a number of interesting findings. We hope this dataset could advance research towards action understanding.


In this paper, nanostructured vanadium carbide thin films were deposited on glass substrates and their optical and surface properties were analyzed. All produced samples were transparent in the optical region. Refractive index values were calculated using the Drude model. According to contact angle measurements of the coated surfaces, the samples show high wettability. The surface free energies of the samples were found to be very similar. The influence of the nitrogen content in the buffer gas mixture was determined; it was concluded that the microstructure, refractive index, surface morphology, surface free energy, and thickness of thin films can change in response to the nitrogen concentration of the radio frequency (RF) buffer gas.


Proponents of the Big Seven model of personality have suggested that Positive Valence (PV) and Negative Valence (NV) are independent of the Big Five personality dimensions and may be particularly relevant to personality disorder. These hypotheses were tested with 403 undergraduates who completed a Big Seven measure and markers of the Big Five and personality pathology. Results revealed that PV and NV incrementally predicted personality pathology dimensions beyond those predicted by multiple markers of the Big Five. However, factor analyses suggested that PV and NV might be best understood as specific, maladaptive aspects of positive emotionality and low agreeableness, respectively, as opposed to independent factors of personality. Implications for the description of normal and abnormal personality are discussed.


Stone fruits from commercial as well as abandoned orchards were evaluated for European Stone Fruit Yellows phytoplasma (ESFY) presence during 2004-2007 years. Orchards were monitored in western and southern districts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the first survey conducted in period of 2004 till 2005 the causal agent of ESFY was identified on peach ( Prunus persica ) and apricot ( Prunus armeniaca ) plants in both surveyed districts. During 2007, a new survey was performed and samples were taken from symptomatic and symptomless plants of European plum ( Prunus domestica ), Japanese plum ( Prunus salicina ), Myrobalan plum ( Prunus cerasifera ) and cherry ( Prunus avium ). Samples were analyzed using real-time PCR and nested PCR approaches. In this extended survey, the presence of ESFY phytoplasma was additionally identified in Japanese plum and myrobalan plum trees. Keywords : Bosnia and Herzegovina, myrobalan plum, Japanese plum, phytoplasma, ESFY, PCR


For more than half a century ischemic spinal cord injury (SCI) and consecutively permanent paraplegia remained the most devastating complication after open and endovascular thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair. Various neuroprotective strategies (e.g., motor-/somatosensory evoked potential monitoring and cerebrospinal fluid drainage) used as adjuncts have lowered the SCI; maybe most importantly, the modern collateral network (CN) has begun to replace the classic understanding of spinal cord blood supply implying several consequences. Reliable non-invasive tools to monitor cord perfusion to detect imminent spinal cord malperfusion, ischemia and forthcoming neurologic injury (particularly early postoperatively) is not available, neither is a reliable strategy to prevent ischemic injury during distal circulatory arrest and after segmental artery occlusion. Currently, two promising new concepts--potentially advancing spinal protection in open and endovascular TAAA repair--address these issues: 1) non-invasive real-time monitoring of the paraspinous CN-oxygenation via near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as an alternative to the demanding direct neuromonitoring; and 2) preconditioning of the CN as minimally invasive, endovascular "first stage" to increase the resilience of spinal cord perfusion prior to definite aortic repair. This article illustrates both concepts discussing: 1) the clinical application of thoracic and lumbar collateral NIRS monitoring to indirectly detect spinal cord hypoperfusion; and 2) minimally invasive selective segmental artery coil-embolization (MISACE) for (arteriogenic) preconditioning of the CN prior to extensive open or endovascular staged TAAA repair.


Differentiating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) from hypertensive heart disease (HHD) is important yet challenging. In this study, we compared 9 convolutional neural network (CNN) models based on cardiac MR cine imaging only for differentiation of the two diseases. We show that the dynamic information contained in cine about myocardial contraction and relaxation is crucial for accurate differentiation. By leveraging this information, we achieved a testing accuracy of 86.8% ± 3.5% in a cohort including 190 HCM and 113 HHD subjects. The results show that cine-based CNN is reasonably accurate for differentiation of HCM and HHD.


Alismanin A (1), a novel aromatic triterpenoid with a C34 skeleton, was isolated from Alisma orientale together with a rearranged nor-triterpenoid (2) and a 13,17-seco triterpenoid (3). Their structures were determined by a combination of HRESIMS, 2D NMR spectra, electronic circular dichroism (ECD), theoretical calculations, and X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds 1 and 2 displayed significant activation effects on pregnane X receptor (PXR) at 10 nM. A plausible biosynthetic pathway for 1-3 is also discussed.


The concern with the quality of legal training, embodied by teaching / learning practices, consistent with what is expected from the qualitative performance of university graduates, runs through the history of Legal Courses and remains until today. Thus, the research aims to answer the following question: how has the Faculty of Law at UFPA acted within the scope of legal practice in order to adapt to the New Curricular Guidelines? The research objectives involve the description of the New Curricular Guidelines no 05/2018 and the demonstration of the academic management process in legal practice and the development highlights of the UFPA Law School. The method to be used will be the rational dialectic, which will excel by comparison and reflection about the consequences and repercussions that will be provoked, based on the effectiveness of the proposed changes. The first section will address the New Curricular Guidelines no 05/2018; the second will address the Legal Practice Nucleus; the third will deal with Law Clinics; the fourth, will demonstrate the academic management process to implement the New Curriculum Guidelines 05/2018, as a practice of consolidating the teaching / learning process, fostering research and extension. Finally, the pioneering work of the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Para in the process of standardizing mandatory and non-mandatory internships and the performance of legal clinics stands out.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate xylose metabolism in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae stains overexpressing the xylulokinase gene XKS1 at different levels by replacing the promoter in the chromosome.

METHODS
Based on S. cerevisiae CEN. PK 113-5D, we constructed xylose-metabolizing strains where the promoter of xylulokinase gene XKS1 was replaced by TEF1 promoter, PGK1 promoter and HXK2 promoter on the chromosome. We quantitated the transcriptional level of XKS1 gene (accumulated mRNA) and measured the activity of xylulokinase in each stains. Furthermore, we also determined the intracellular level of ATP and evaluated the xylose-fermenting abilities of the engineered strains.

RESULTS
The engineered strains exhibited higher expression of xylulokinase than the parental strain at both transcription and enzyme activity levels. The highest xylulokinase activity was observed in the strain whose XKS1 was controlled by PGKlp, and was decreasingly followed by the strains whose XKS1 was controlled by TEF1p, HXK2p and native promoter. The expression level of xylulokinase negatively correlated with intracellular level of ATP and positively correlated with ability of ethanol production from xylose. The highest ethanol yield was 0.35 g/g consumed sugars while the lowest xylitol yield, which was 0.18 g/g consumed xylose, was observed.

CONCLUSION
By promoter replacement, xylulokinase was overexpressed at different levels. In this work, higher expressional level of xylulokinase improved the conversion of xylose to ethanol.


We provide several characterizations of unanimity decision rules, in a public choice model where preferences are constrained by attributes possessed by the alternatives (Nehring and Puppe, 2007a,b). Solidarity conditions require that when some parameters of the economy change, the agents whose parameters are kept fixed either all weakly lose or they all weakly win. Population-monotonicity (Thomson, 1983a,b) applies to the arrival and departure of agents, while replacement-domination (Moulin, 1987) applies to changes in preferences. We show that either solidarity property is compatible with voter-sovereignty and strategy-proofness if and only if the attribute space is quasi-median (Nehring, 2004), and with Pareto-effi ciency if and only if the attribute space is a tree. Each of these combinations characterizes unanimity. JEL classification codes: D63, D71, H41.


Although one study has reported a cross‐reactivity between DNCB and chloramphenicol in 40% of patients, other investigators have been unable to confirm the existence of any cross reaction. The purpose of this study is to determine whether sensitization of patients to DNCB poses a risk of cross reaction to chloramphenicol. In the present study, 100 consecutive patients who were sensitized to DNCB failed to show a single reaction to patch testing with chloramphenicol in a 1% ointment. The discrepancy between these results may be explained by a possible misinterpretation of a primary irritant reaction as an allergic contact reaction in the original report.


A study of the anisotropy of primary cosmic rays is presented. The expression of the anisotropy was derived in a model of discrete sources in an infinite galaxy. Using these derived formulas, the amplitudes of the first harmonic anisotropy caused by eleven supernovae nearby the Earth were calculated individually and the trend of the resultant anisotropy was investigated. It was found that the expected results can account for the power law of E0.5 of the anisotropy above an energy 5×1015eV, and the Compton-Getting effect is responsible for the anisotropies in the energy range 1011–1014eV. Furthermore, we have got the streaming velocity of 35km/s with respect to the cosmic ray background.


Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA

Glioblastoma multiform (GMB), as a major unsolved clinical challenge, remains among the most aggressive malignancies in human brain with poor prognosis around 10-14.6 months survival. Due to their infiltrative character in the limited space, it is very difficult to be completely resected surgically. Although radiotherapy and chemotherapy that were given to patients after surgery may improve overall survival, the treatment outcomes in general are poor. The tumors eventually recur. Thus, new therapeutic strategy for GBM is urgently needed. It has been shown that CD47, a tumor cell surface marker, through binding its receptor SIRPα on macrophages plays as "don't eat me signal" and thus, by blocking the interaction of CD47 with SIRPα could lead to tumor destruction. So, we developed a standardized protocol for a novel xenograft surgical resection model which mimicked the process of operation in clinic. We hypothesized that the mechanical surgical procedure of tumor resection may create an inflammatory tumor environment, leading to recruitment of immune cells including macrophages. We believed the presence of these macrophages was needed to mediate the anti-tumor effects of the CD47 antibody which we administered postoperatively. The aims of the project are: 1) Translating brain tumour immunotherapy from the lab bench via preclinical studies to the clinic; 2) Establishing a novel xenograft surgical resection model to mimic the clinical setting of tumour recurrence in patients. Specifically, we will: 1) In vitro quantify and functionally characterize tumour-associated macrophages from treated vs. untreated tumours; 2) Using our clinical relevant animal models we want to determine the efficacy of targeting CD47 therapy.

In this study, we have developed a standardized protocol for a novel xenograft surgical resection model to parallel the treatment seen in glioma patients. The model accounts for the therapeutic benefit of surgical resection in pre-clinical models and demonstrates that recurrent tumors show higher proliferation and angiogenesis comparing to non-resected tumors. Moreover, the resection site is highly infiltrated by both CD68 and pSTAT1 positive macrophages. CD47 antibody treatment group has longer survival time than other groups.

Citation Format: Huaiyang Zhu, Ning Yang, Lina Leiss, Cecilie B Rygh, Siddhartha S Mitra, Samuel H Cheshier, Bin Huang, Rolf Bjerkvig, Per O Enger, Irving L Weissman, Xingang Li, Jian Wang. Targeting CD47 triggers macrophage-dependent brain tumor destruction in a clinical relevant model. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1331. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1331


Efforts have been made to develop a multifunctional platform that could provide both diagnostic information and a therapeutic effect. In this study, superparamagnetic poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)–iron oxide (uSPIO/PLGA) microspheres were prepared for application in ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the enhancement of the therapeutic efficiency of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) on liver tissue through an intravenous injection. Highly dispersed, regular spherical and negatively charged uSPIO/PLGA microspheres were fabricated by a typical double emulsion method in which uSPIO nanoparticles were observed and integrated into PLGA microspheres. The Fe (iron) concentration was determined using atomic absorption spectrometry. In our experiment, the uSPIO/PLGA microspheres showed higher echogenicity than PLGA microspheres and saline in US imaging. Furthermore, the uSPIO/PLGA microspheres appeared to negatively enhance T2-weighted (T2WI) magnetic resonance imaging, with the MR signal intensity decreasing with the increase of the Fe content. The uSPIO/PLGA microspheres were introduced into bovine liver and into rabbits to evaluate the HIFU synergistic ablation efficiency in vitro and in vivo. After the intravascular administration of the uSPIO/PLGA microspheres, the liver tissue was ablated by HIFU, and the tissue exposed to HIFU was subjected to pathological examination to determine its structural variation. Pure PLGA microspheres (without uSPIO) and saline were used as the controls. Our results show that the coagulative necrosis volume and degree of liver tissue in the uSPIO/PLGA group was significantly greater than in the PLGA group and saline group. The employment of the composite uSPIO/PLGA microspheres could significantly enhance dual-modality US/MR imaging and HIFU synergistic therapy with an intravenous administration method.


HIV infection is a significant independent risk factor for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease and death. We summarize COVID-19 vaccine responses in people with HIV (PWH). A systematic literature review of studies from January 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022, of COVID-19 vaccine immunogenicity in PWH from multiple databases was performed. Twenty-eight studies from 12 countries were reviewed. While 22 (73%) studies reported high COVID-19 vaccine seroconversion rates in PWH, PWH with lower baseline CD4 counts, CD4/CD8 ratios, or higher baseline viral loads had lower seroconversion rates and immunologic titers. Data on vaccine-induced seroconversion in PWH are reassuring, but more research is needed to evaluate the durability of COVID-19 vaccine responses in PWH.


Dynamic scene deblurring is a challenging problem in computer vision. It is difficult to accurately estimate the spatially varying blur kernel by traditional methods. Data-driven-based methods usually employ kernel-free end-to-end mapping schemes, which are apt to overlook the kernel estimation. To address this issue, we propose a blur-attention module to dynamically capture the spatially varying features of non-uniform blurred images. The module consists of a DenseBlock unit and a spatial attention unit with multi-pooling feature fusion, which can effectively extract complex spatially varying blur features. We design a multi-level residual connection structure to connect multiple blur-attention modules to form a blur-attention network. By introducing the blur-attention network into a conditional generation adversarial framework, we propose an end-to-end blind motion deblurring method, namely Blur-Attention-GAN (BAG), for a single image. Our method can adaptively select the weights of the extracted features according to the spatially varying blur features, and dynamically restore the images. Experimental results show that the deblurring capability of our method achieved outstanding objective performance in terms of PSNR, SSIM, and subjective visual quality. Furthermore, by visualizing the features extracted by the blur-attention module, comprehensive discussions are provided on its effectiveness.


Large MIMO base stations remain among wireless systems designers' best tools for increasing wireless through-put while serving many clients. Still, current system designs, sacrifice throughput with simple linear MIMO detection algorithms. Higher performance detection techniques are known, but remain off the table because of their related complexity and latency requirements.
In this PhD thesis, novel signal processing approaches are presented, that have the potential to reclaim this wasted MIMO channel capacity while meeting challenging latency requirements by employing parallel processing and efficient tree pruning techniques. The core of this work builds a novel framework for massively parallel signal processing for large MIMO systems applicable to both uplink and downlink. The proposed approaches are asymptoticly optimal, adapt to the processing capabilities of the base station and the current MIMO channel realization, support powerful a posteriori probability (APP) decoding and have latency requirements similar to simple successive interference cancellation. The proposed massively parallel precoder and the detector are validated in over-the-air experiments. In order to make the approaches practical, novel solutions for fast rate adaptation (for both uplink and downlink) are proposed, necessary to translate the improved detection/precoding capabilities into actual throughput.

In addition, this thesis introduces the novel principle of Antipodal detection and decoding, that enables the complexity efficient demultiplexing of tens of interfering streams even in the most challenging transmission scenarios (e.g., when the number of transmitted streams equals the number of the base stations antennas). For the first time, the proposed Antipodal detector leverages the unexploited relation between the detection reliability and the detection complexity of sphere decoding to extract implicit reliability information (at no extra processing cost) and to substantially reduce the detection complexity itself. In particular, the detector polarizes its output into highly reliable bits and erasures. While a traditional belief-propagation decoder can handle such an outcome, the Antipodal decoder proposed is tailored to the properties of the Antipodal detector output.


A specific and sensitive method using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) equipped with automatic on-line solid-phase extraction device for the quantitative measurement of anabolic hormone residues, 4-androstene-3,17-dione, testosterone and dihydrotestosterone in cell culture medium was developed. Steroid content in cell culture medium was determined directly without an additional sample preparation step. Separation of analytes from polar endogenous compounds was carried out on an automatic column-switching device coupled with a C4-alkyl-diol silica restricted-access solid-phase extraction column. The lipophilic fraction containing anabolic hormone residues were back-flushed on to a conventional C-18 reversed-phase column for the final chromatography. The analyte was ionized in an ElectroSpray interface under positive ion mode before entering a quadrupole mass analyzer. The lowest points of calibration curves were 0.05 ng ml(-1) for 4-androstene-3,17-dione and testosterone, and 1 ng ml(-1) dihydrotestosterone, respectively. A comparison with results from radioimmunoassay (RIA) is also presented.