We study in this paper the achievable secrecy rate of the Gaussian multiple-input single-output (MISO) visible light communication (VLC) in the presence of randomly located eavesdroppers. We consider a system model comprising a transmitter (Alice) equipped with multiple fixtures of LEDs, one legitimate receiver (Bob) equipped with a single photo-diode (PD) and a group of randomly located eavesdroppers, each equipped with a single PD. The channel is modeled as deterministic, real- valued and subject to an amplitude constraint, through which Alice wants to communicate privately with Bob. We consider the case where the eavesdroppers are colluding together, i.e., they act jointly in eavesdropping on the communication between Alice and Bob. We adopt the truncated generalized normal (TGN) as input signaling and beamforming as transmission strategy. At first, we derive a closed-form expression of the average achievable secrecy rate as a function of the density of eavesdroppers using stochastic geometry. Then, we investigate the optimal beamformer that maximizes the average achievable secrecy rate of the system. Finally, the analysis is verified by Monte Carlo simulations.


In this study, the input-to-state stability (ISS), stochastic-ISS and integral-ISS problems for a class of switched stochastic systems with time delays are studied. A continuously differentiable Lyapunov-Krasovskii function with an indefinite derivative is employed to derive the ISS-type properties of the systems. Two cases are considered: (i) synchronous switching, i.e. candidate controllers coincide with the switching of the system mode; (ii) asynchronous switching, i.e. the candidate controllers have a lag to the switching of the system modes. Furthermore, for asynchronous switching, the authors allow the Lyapunov-Krasovskii function to be time-varying and increasing, respectively, during the time when the active subsystem and the controller match each other. Then, by means of the average dwell-time method together with the Lyapunov-Krasovskii function, they can get the desired ISS-type results. Finally, two examples are given to show the validity of the results.


This paper examines the association between the variability of the speech signal inside an analysis frame and the relative difficulty of classifying that frame. We introduce a novel measure of speech frame variability and show through classification experiments that this measure is a strong predictor of classifiability, even when conditioning on the distance to segment boundaries. Finally, we show how to incorporate the measure as weights in the discriminant function of a GMM-HMM recognizer, thereby increasing the relative importance of low variability frames in both decoding and training. This is shown to give a reduction in error rates.


This essay, written for readers unfamiliar with the details of American health law and policy, portrays the essential features of the battle for health reform in the United States and of the law that survived the battle: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The essay summarizes key aspects of the U.S. health care system and how it compares in terms of costs and results with other advanced nations' systems. The political and legal conflicts leading up to and following PPACA's enactment are described. The major features of the law, attempting to address problems of access to health care, quality, and cost, are explained. Issues remaining to be resolved in the law's implementation are set out: the expansion of Medicaid coverage for the low-income population; the formation of each state's health insurance exchanges; cost-control measures such as the establishment of the Independent Payment Advisory Board and the adoption of new payment models; coverage of contraceptives as part of the essential benefits package; and the role of the new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The essay concludes that the law is poised to achieve genuine progress toward increased access to health care, but that the law's aims of improving quality and controlling costs are far less certain of accomplishment.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in pregnant patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

METHODS
Twenty-four pregnant patients with SLE treated with HCQ during pregnancy from May, 2006 to February, 2011 were studied retrospectively. All babies were followed up during early infancy for growth development.

RESULTS
Of them, 22 patients were treated with HCQ throughout the whole pregnancy with no lupus flare occurred in 21 patients (95.4%), while temporary discontinuation of HCQ precipitated a flare of disease in two patients. Three patients (12.5%) had premature delivery, and pregnancy induced hypertension happened in 3 patients (12.5%). No congenital abnormalities occurred and mean follow-up of 26 months (range 1 - 47 months) revealed no abnormalities in these children.

CONCLUSION
Our findings reinforce the safety of HCQ therapy during pregancy and HCQ should probably be maintained throughout the pregancy in patients with SLE.


Distinct C-terminal amino acid sequence motifs serve as the targeting signals for outer mitochondrial membrane and plastid outer envelope TA proteins Howard James Teresinski Advisor: University of Guelph, 2014 Dr. Robert T. Mullen Tail-anchored (TA) proteins are a unique class of functionally diverse membrane proteins that are defined by their single C-terminal transmembrane domain and their ability to insert post-translationally into specific organelles in an Ncytosol-CIMS orientation. While in recent years considerable progress has been made towards understanding the biogenesis of TA proteins in yeast and mammals, relatively little is known about how these proteins are properly partitioned within plant cells, mostly because so few plant TA proteins have been identified. Here we show the results of experiments aimed at cataloguing, in silico, all of the TA outer mitochondrial membrane and plastid outer envelope proteins in Arabidopsis and then identifying and characterising distinct, C-terminal targeting motifs responsible for the proper sorting of at least a subset of these proteins. Collectively, the results of this thesis provide important insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the biogenesis of TA proteins in plant cells.


There must be an election coming. The current debate in Britain about the politicisation of the police is analytically confused and historically amnesiac, with both Labour and the Conservatives looking like participants in an orgy of political cross-dressing. Professor Robert Reiner calls for a little historical perspective.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of LSE Research.


The flow over multi-element airfoils has been numerically investigated in ANSYS fluent and has been compare the aerodynamic parameters with the standard NACA airfoils 4412 and 0012. The 2D viscous, transient, pressure model equations together with the k-ω turbulence model were applied to this numerical simulation utilizing the multiblock unstructured grids of sphere of influence type. Numerical results showed that the aerodynamic parameters of multi element airfoils with tail effect are much optimum than the standard NACA airfoils. Also the analysis is made on different flap and slat angles of different conditions and the optimization of multi element airfoils has been performed.


1 In spinal cats anaesthetized with α‐chloralose, a study was made of the effects of methionine enkephalin and methionine enkephalin amide on the responses of neurones of spinal laminae IV and V to noxious and innocuous skin stimuli. The enkephalins were ejected from micropipettes either in the region of cell bodies or in the substantia gelatinosa. 2 Administered near cell bodies the enkephalins reduced spontaneous firing and cell responses to both types of skin stimuli. These effects were antagonized by naloxone when administered near cell bodies but not when given intravenously in doses (0.3‐0.6 mg/kg) more than adequate to antagonize analgesic doses of morphine. 3 Administered in the substantia gelatinosa the enkephalins were more selective in their action. The predominant effect was a reduction in nociceptive responses with little effect on non‐nociceptive responses although spontaneous firing was commonly reduced. Naloxone administered either in the substantia gelatinosa or intravenously (0.1‐0.3 mg/kg) reversed these effects of the enkephalins.


Short and long term effects of sulpirid on the sleep EEG in humans were investigated in 8 patients aged 20-68 years (average 40.4) suffering from autonomic instability. In each patient seven polygraphic night sleep recording were performed. After an adaption night and two nights without medication each subject got 200-400 mg sulpirid i.m. for two days and then 300-600 mg orally for a three-week period. In both groups the short-term application of sulpirid caused a reduction of waking periods and a slight decrease of stage 3, while stage 2 was increased. In psychotic patients the long-term orally administered substance was followed by an increase of deep synchronous sleep (stage 4). As this alteration of sleep couldn't be revealed in the control group, we consider this finding as a result of the improvement of psychosis. In the patient group the amount of REM sleep was augmented during the short-term application as well as during the long-term application, where, as in the control group the amount of REM sleep decreased when sulpirid was given orally for three weeks. This result is discussed in comparison with the properties of the tricyclic antidepressant drugs and monoamine oxidase inhibitors and the clinical effects of sulpiride.


The generation and behavior of particles in a low‐pressure silane‐argon discharge have been analyzed under continuous and pulsed radio‐frequency (rf) excitation conditions. In the continuous rf excitation regime, the influence of parameters such as gas temperature and silane partial pressure are determined. By using rf pulsed excitation, it is shown that gas‐flow effects play a predominant role for particle dynamics when the excitation is stopped. Radio‐frequency regimes with short and adjustable rf off sequences are used to study both the inhibition of particle formation and the elimination of particles from the dusty plasmas. The electrical properties of the discharge are shown to be sensitive to the presence of the particles. Simple models for particle trapping in the plasma edge and for particle dynamics when the discharge is turned off are presented.


Sound signals of respiratory airflow represent summations of acoustic waves of various frequencies, which basically depend on the characteristics of the flow and on those of the surrounding tissue. This study was designed to examine the capability of time-frequency distribution (TFD) of respiratory signals in order to differentiate between unobstructed and obstructed upper airways. In order to investigate the TFD characteristics of defined upper airway geometry we conducted a controlled basic study in a laboratory system with an in vitro isolated airway model, which was either unobstructed or had concentric obstructions of various degrees at different locations along the tube. Pressure fluctuations were acquired with a microphone proximal to the airway opening. A short-term Fourier transform was used to study the TFDs of these signals. The results of the in vitro study showed that the energy of the higher frequencies increased for relatively small incremental changes in: i) reduction of the lumen cross-section, ii) decrease of distance from measurement site to obstruction, and iii) increase of breathing effort. Further development of this method may lead to noninvasive clinical techniques for early diagnosis of upper airway obstructions.


: A relationship of ambient air pollution in the towns of Almetyevsk and Kazan to acute respiratory infection of the upper airways (ARIUA) in children was examined. Higher atmospheric pollution was found to cause an increase in the incidence of ARIUA. The correlation ratios for all the nosological entities studied ranged from 0.71 to 0.92, their mean errors were 0.01-0.29. There was a significant combined effect of sulfur dioxide and carbon oxide (9.9%, p < 0.01), that of sulfur dioxide and dust (8.1%, p < 0.001). The findings serve as the basis for elaboration of measures to reduce environmental pollution.


Novel nonfluorinated Cu(diketiminate)L complexes with L = neutral olefinic ligand have been prepared as stable, volatile Cu(I) precursors for the deposition of copper films by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. Among them, the complexes of 4-a and 5-a are the most volatile and stable at low temperature (55 degrees C). A clean, conformal copper film was deposited at 120 degrees C in an ALD process. These Cu(I) complexes are the first examples of nonfluorinated copper(I) diketiminates that can be readily applied to an industrial microelectronic fabrication process.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The absence of accepted patient-centered outcomes in research can limit shared decision-making in peritoneal dialysis (PD), particularly because PD-related treatments can be associated with mortality, technique failure, and complications that can impair quality of life. We aimed to identify patient and caregiver priorities for outcomes in PD, and to describe the reasons for their choices.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Patients on PD and their caregivers were purposively sampled from nine dialysis units across Australia, the United States, and Hong Kong. Using nominal group technique, participants identified and ranked outcomes, and discussed the reasons for their choices. An importance score (scale 0-1) was calculated for each outcome. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically.

RESULTS
Across 14 groups, 126 participants (81 patients, 45 caregivers), aged 18-84 (mean 54, SD 15) years, identified 56 outcomes. The ten highest ranked outcomes were PD infection (importance score, 0.27), mortality (0.25), fatigue (0.25), flexibility with time (0.18), BP (0.17), PD failure (0.16), ability to travel (0.15), sleep (0.14), ability to work (0.14), and effect on family (0.12). Mortality was ranked first in Australia, second in Hong Kong, and 15th in the United States. The five themes were serious and cascading consequences on health, current and impending relevance, maintaining role and social functioning, requiring constant vigilance, and beyond control and responsibility.

CONCLUSIONS
For patients on PD and their caregivers, PD-related infection, mortality, and fatigue were of highest priority, and were focused on health, maintaining lifestyle, and self-management. Reporting these patient-centered outcomes may enhance the relevance of research to inform shared decision-making.


Abstract : The use of computer technology to control large pointing systems can significantly improve performance and reduce human work load. The goal of this thesis was to design software for an inexpensive, yet accurate and efficient control system for the 36-inch reflecting telescope owned and operated by the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy. Within this thesis, a computer program is developed to automatically move the telescope to a set of celestial coordinates and track with an accuracy of one-tenth of an arc second for five minutes within 75 deg of the zenith. Set times are anticipated to be between four and thirty seconds. Corrections are made to celestial coordinates to account for precession, nutation, aberration and atmospheric refraction effects. The user is provided an interface to the computer-based system that allows storage and editing of 100 star positions, editing of the system parameters and display of the telescope's status. Manual control of the telescope is also permitted at any time. Safety of the telescope structure is the primary concern of system software.


Remote sensing provide the best means to monitoring change in vegetation over a wide range of temporal scales over large areas. In this study, the vegetation index which has been applied known as the Stress Related Vegetation Index (STVI) on in the area around the Euphrates River and part of Al-Habbaniyah lake which located at western side of the river in Ramadi city, Al-Anbar province at Iraq to study the vegetation cover changes and detect the areas of changes, using two satellite sensors multispectral images such as TM and ALI, after geometric correction procedure to rectifying these images. The STVI-4 index result was the best than other vegetation indices (STVI-1 and STVI-3) to discriminate the vegetable cover distribution. The differencing image and statistical characteristics have been implemented to delineate and calculate the areas of changes in agriculture land.


Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is often discovered at an advanced stage due to a lack of early symptomology, resulting in this being the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the USA. The relationship between diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer has been known for many years; however, it is not well understood. Studies have suggested that long-standing type 2 diabetes mellitus can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 1.5–2.0-fold. However, patients with new-onset diabetes over 50 years of age have an 8-fold higher risk of pancreatic cancer. Evidence has shown that pancreatic cancer causes diabetes, with the majority being new onset. Diabetic ketoacidosis, which occurs in long-term hyperglycemia, as an initial presentation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma is rare, and only a few cases have been reported. It is postulated that pancreatic cancer prevents insulin-producing cells of the pancreas from responding to insulin resistance. The enriching new-onset diabetes for pancreatic cancer (ENDPAC) score may be utilized as a screening tool for pancreatic carcinomas as an early diagnosis may lead to cure by surgery instead of the grave prognosis associated with it. In this case report, we discuss a 52-year-old female presenting with symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis who was then subsequently found to have stage-4 pancreatic adenocarcinoma. We concluded that if a patient presents with new-onset diabetes, abdominal imaging with CT scans and endoscopic ultrasound may be warranted to rule out pancreatic carcinoma.


Weld seam position detection mainly relies on initial point detection of weld seam in robotic welding automation. In industry factory, the position data for weld seam are usually detected through contact measurement sensor before welding. Such a method is not suitable in heavy industry, since length of weld seam may reach to ten meters which results in time-consuming position detection which will reduce the duty cycle of the equipment and lowered the cost-effective of welding equipment significantly. To satisfy the huge demand of market in industries mentioned above, a method based on scanning-spotlights and calibration technique with laser range finder sensors is proposed in this paper. The duty cycle of the equipment is improved significantly through separating welding motion system and weld seam position detection system. It not only meets welding position precision requirement, but also reduces the costs considerably. Moreover, the cost-effective is improved significantly.


Let $K$ be a number field generated by a root $\th$ of a monic irreducible trinomial $F(x) = x^n+ax^{m}+b \in \Z[x]$. In this paper, we study the problem of $K$. More precisely, we provide some explicit conditions on $a$, $b$, $n$, and $m$ for which $K$ is not monogenic. As applications, we show that there are infinite families of non-monogenic number fields defined by trinomials of degree $n=2^r\cdot3^k$ with $r$ and $k$ two positive integers. We also give infinite families of non-monogenic sextic number fields defined by trinomials. Some illustrating examples are giving at the end of this paper.


The creation of new and better recommendation algorithms for social networks is currently receiving much attention owing to the increasing need for new tools to assist users. The volume of available social data as well as experimental datasets force recommendation algorithms to scale to many computers. Given that social networks can be modelled as graphs, a distributed graph-oriented support able to exploit computer clusters arises as a necessity. In this work, we propose an architecture, called Lightweight-Massive Graph Processing Architecture, which simplifies the design of graph-based recommendation algorithms on clusters of computers, and a Java implementation for this architecture composed of two parts: Graphly, an API offering operations to access graphs; and jLiME, a framework that supports the distribution of algorithm code and graph data. The motivation behind the creation of this architecture is to allow users to define recommendation algorithms through the API and then customize their execution using job distribution strategies, without modifying the original algorithm. Thus, algorithms can be programmed and evaluated without the burden of thinking about distribution and parallel concerns, while still supporting environment-level tuning of the distributed execution. To validate the proposal, the current implementation of the architecture was tested using a followee recommendation algorithm for Twitter as case study. These experiments illustrate the graph API, quantitatively evaluate different job distribution strategies w.r.t. recommendation time and resource usage, and demonstrate the importance of providing non-invasive tuning for recommendation algorithms.


Dyslexia is a reading disability that is characterised by difficulties of reading, decoding and spelling. In order make online materials accessible for people with dyslexia, developers should make on-screen presentation of text adaptable. There is very little research that has empirically tested which text presentations and web navigation are helpful or acceptable to people with dyslexia. Therefore two studies are conducted on the aspect of text presentation, Study 1 focused on the effects of typefaces and font size while Study 2 focused on the effects of line spacing and line length. Study 3 focused on the effects on menu organisation and visibility on web navigation. All three studies compared English native speaking adults with and without dyslexia on their eye gaze behaviour, performance, preferences and opinions. For the text presentation studies, the dyslexic participants were grouped into more specific categories, mild and moderately dyslexic, based on the results of a well-established checklist for identifying dyslexia. Eye gaze tracking was measured in all studies. Findings from the studies on text presentation show that all participants had fewer fixations with small font size, shortest fixation durations with dyslexia-optimised typefaces, and fewer and shorter fixations with longer line length. Participants preferred sans serif typeface and wider line spacing. There were different levels of comfort with dyslexia-optimised typefaces for non-dyslexic and dyslexic participants. Findings from the study on web navigation show that fragmented menus with visible sub-menus had fewer fixations, while dynamic sub-menus had fewer revisits and fewer fixations. However unified menus were rated as easier to use, to remember and to learn. Participants with dyslexia show poor performance in both text presentation and web navigation studies. Key contribution of this programme of research is to the methodology of studies to investigate text presentation on screen and web navigation effects for people with dyslexia.


Cyclura lewisi is an endangered rock iguana endemic to the island of Grand Cayman. Like many other animals, C. lewisi increasingly depends on modified landscapes for its survival. The remaining natural population is too small and fragmented to yield information on the natural history and population biology of this species. Therefore, we studied habitat use in a population of captive‐bred, released iguanas in a botanic park. Compositional analysis was used to examine habitat selection and use by iguanas at two scales: selection of home range within the landscape and selection of locations within home ranges. At both scales and for all time periods examined, iguanas preferred modified habitat to natural habitat. Subhabitats were examined only at the scale of selection within the landscape, for which iguanas showed preference in some but not all time periods. Iguanas used artificial retreats more often than natural retreats and commonly occupied retreats in modified areas. Many female iguanas nested in artificial sites within the park. The use of modified habitats and artificial retreats and nests by reintroduced C. lewisi is encouraging, because this and other species of Cyclura may depend on these resources for future survival.


Abstract Steep-walled catchments are a source of wildlife mortality. Incidental to searching for carcasses under five wind turbines in the panhandle of Texas, we discovered vertebrate carcasses on a frequent basis in concrete oil-catchment basins associated with each turbine's transformer. During 2015 and 2016, we found remains of 62 vertebrates trapped in these basins. We recommend new designs that prevent entrapment and addition of escape ramps to existing basins to reduce the frequency of trapped animals. Mitigation of mortality of the level that we observed could significantly reduce this unnecessary impact on wildlife from what is a far-reaching and growing industry.


Making climate-sensitive economic sectors resilient to climate trends and shocks, through adaptation to climate change and managing uncertainties associated with climate extremes, will require effective use of climate information to help practitioners make climate-informed decisions. The provision of weather and climate information will depend on the availability of climate data and its presentation in formats that are useful for decision making at different levels. However, in many places around the world, including most African countries, the collection of climate data has been seriously inadequate, and even when available, poorly accessible. On the other hand, the availability of climate data by itself may not lead to the uptake and use of such data. These data must be presented in user-friendly formats addressing specific climate information needs in order to be used for decision-making by governments, as well as the public and private sectors. The generated information should also be easily accessible. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, led by Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), has been making efforts to overcome these challenges by supporting countries to improve the available climate data, as well as access to and use of climate information products at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Challenges to the availability of climate data are alleviated by combining data from the national weather observation network with remote sensing and other global proxies to generate spatially and temporally complete climate datasets. Access to climate information products is enhanced by developing an online mapping service that provides a user-friendly interface for analyzing and visualizing climate information products such as maps and graphs.


Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is considered as the fifth most important cereal crop in the world. It is well adapted to a range of environmental conditions. This study was based on twenty six sorghum germplasm accessions conserved at the seed gene bank of Plant Genetic Resource Center, Gannoruwa, Sri Lanka. The evaluation of the morphological diversity was based on 14 qualitative morphological traits outlined by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. Qualitative data recorded from morphological traits were analyzed using PROC CLUSTER procedure of SAS software. The clustering pattern of studied sorghum accessions based on qualitative morphological markers comprised of seven major clusters. Clustering pattern based on the qualitative traits depicts the geographical origin of the studied accessions. This can be explained by the fact that qualitative traits are less influenced by the environment. In principle, qualitative data are expected to provide additional information on hierarchical units. Observation of a considerably high number of clusters consolidates that principle. There were 13 polymorphic qualitative morphological traits with respect to all the studied sorghum germplasm accessions. Cluster I, II, III, IV, V and VI had one or several features shared by all the member accessions those cannot be found in all the members of any other clusters. Also there were unique features restricted to cluster II, III, V and VI. This study reveals sufficient genetic relatedness of studied sorghum germplasm accessions which will meaningful in the conservation and breeding programs of the crops.


During solar flares, two distinct phases of acceleration can be distinguished. The first is an impulsive phase which does not last more than a fraction of a minute and which consists of the acceleration of electrons of about 100 keV. During the second phase, the particles reach higher energies (more than 1 MeV for electrons) and the development is more gradual. This paper mainly concerns the impulsive phase. Recent microwave and X-ray observations are reviewed. Both emissions result from the same electron distribution. Two principal models exist in the literature: the non-thermal model and the 'quasi-thermal' model. They differ in the particle distribution. During the impulsive phase, type III radiobursts are observed. Their generation is due to energetic electrons streaming outward through the corona and the interplanetary medium. The mechanism of radiation is briefly reviewed. Recent in situ measurements by space experiments and radio observations are shown. Some coronal type III burst observations at metre and decametre wavelengths are reviewed. Conclusions concerning in particular the electron beam characteristics are suggested.


ABSTRACT One causal model of preeclampsia (PE) postulates that placental hypoxia alters the production of angiogenic growth effectors (AGEs), causing an imbalance leading to maternal endothelial cell dysfunction. We tested this model using the natural experiment of high-altitude (HA) residence. We hypothesized that in HA pregnancies 1) circulating soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) is increased and placental growth factor (PlGF) decreased, and 2) AGE concentrations correlate with measures of hypoxia. A cross-sectional study of healthy pregnancies at low altitude (LA) (400 m) versus HA (3600 m) compared normal (n = 80 at HA, n = 90 at LA) and PE pregnancies (n = 20 PE at HA, n = 19 PE at LA). Blood was collected using standard serum separation and, in parallel, by a method designed to inhibit platelet activation. AGEs were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. AGEs did not differ between altitudes in normal or PE pregnancies. AGE concentrations were unrelated to measures of maternal or fetal hypoxia. PlGF was lower and sFlt-1 higher in PE, but overlapped considerably with the range observed in normal samples. PlGF correlated with placental mass in both normal and PE pregnancies. The contribution of peripheral cells to the values measured for AGEs was similar at LA and HA, but was greater in PE than in normotensive women. Hypoxia, across a wide physiological range in pregnancy, does not alter levels of circulating AGEs in otherwise normal pregnancies. Peripheral cell release of AGEs with the hemostasis characteristic of standard blood collection is highly variable and contributes to a doubling of the amount of sFlt-1 measured in PE as compared to normal pregnancies.


Objective To explore the effect of secobarbital (Sec) and triazolam (TZ) on heart rate variability(HRV) and the possibility of using it as an index and physiological evidence for evaluating the efficiency of hypnotics. Method Two kinds of HRV indices (time domain parameters , frequency domain parameters) of 8 healthy young men aged 18 to 20 were observed during 5 h sleeping in a noise environment after administration of Sec (0.1 g) or TZ (0.25 mg). Subjective assessment of the hypnotic efficiency of Sec and TZ were analysed afterward. Results As compared with baseline and placebo group, SDNN, SDANN, LF, LF/HF in Sec group were significantly decreased, whereas RMSSD and HF significantly increased. Similar changes were found in TZ group, except that SDNN, SDANN, LF, had no significant changes as compared with baseline group. Conclusion The effects of hypnotics on HRV indices were significant.The change of TZ may be mainly due to its effect on vagus activity. HRV may be used as an objective and sensitive index for evaluation of efficiency of hypnotics.


S-100 protein (S-100) appears to be a marker for bone tumors of cartilaginous origin. Any analyses of proliferative activity in S-100-positive tumor cells, however, has not yet been presented. This study assessed the proliferative activity of those cells by means of a double-immunohistochemical staining method using proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and S-100. The most intense reactivity for S-100 was found in the well-differentiated chondrocytes of enchondromas, osteochondromas, and osteosarcomas. On the contrary, the more immature the tumor cells were, the more intensely positive they were for PCNA. In parosteal chondrosarcoma, exceptionally, PCNA-positive as well as S-100-positive cells were abundant, suggesting that these proliferating cells produced S-100. In periosteal osteosarcoma, however, the proliferating cells labeled by PCNA revealed little reactivity for S-100. This immunohistochemical method is potentially useful to know the identity and origin of proliferating cells and may sometimes be diagnostic for bone tumors containing cartilaginous elements.


Clear cell morphology is an uncommon finding in tumors. A subset of clear cell neoplasms also shows melanocytic differentiation, including clear cell sarcoma, PEComa, and some subtypes of renal cell carcinoma. A hallmark of these tumor types is the activation of a member of the MIT/TFE family of transcription factors, which includes MITF, TFE3, TFEB, and TFEC. Microphthalmia transcription factor (MITF is the master regulator of melanin synthesis, while TFEB plays a critical role in lysosome biogenesis. Cytogenetic translocations involving TFE3 and TFEB are now well described in multiple tumor types, but there has been little evidence to suggest similar regulation of MITF. Here we describe a series of 7 clear cell cutaneous neoplasms with melanocytic differentiation that are characterized by ACTIN-MITF gene fusions, either ACTB-MITF or ACTG1-MITF. The chromosomal breakpoints preserve MITF's dimerization and transcriptional activation domains, suggesting that these fusion proteins likely result in hyperactive MITF function, analogously to the previously reported TFE3 and TFEB fusions. Our findings indicate that MITF gene rearrangements may be key drivers of tumor pathogenesis and expand the spectrum of neoplasia associated with the MIT/TFE family.


: The frequency of reciprocal translocations in spermatogonia of F1(CBAxC57Bl6) mice irradiated with 50 MeV protons, 4.2 GeV deuterons, 1.8 GeV/nucleon helium ions or 60Co gamma-rays was investigated. The relative biological effectiveness of these particles calculated by comparing the equieffective doses of reference and experimental radiations was less than 1.0 under the assumption of the linear dose-effect relationship. The RBE of the particles calculated by means of the nonparametric method largely depended on the doses applied.


The main cause of anaerobic pulmonary infections is aspiration of saliva, upper airway secretions or gastric content. Predisposing conditions include prominent dental disease, chronic upper respiratory tract infections and reduced consciousness. Fusobacterium nucleatum, Bacteroides melaninogenicus and anaerobic Gram-positive cocci are the most frequently encountered organisms. The clinical presentations are lung abscess, lung gangrene and empyema, which all tend to take a slow and indolent course. Preferred localization are dependent lung segments, most often on the right side. For bacteriological examination in these infections, only transtracheal aspirate and aspirate from the lung or pleural space are considered adequate. In 26 cases of empyema treated in our hospital during the last 3 years, adequate specimens had been taken in 19. Fifteen had been adequately examined, and anaerobes were cultured in 6. Among 29 abscesses treated during the same period, adequate specimens had been taken in only 14, and 11 had been properly examined. Seven specimens grew anaerobes on culture. In prospective studies of transtracheal aspirate in 15 chronic bronchitics without emphysema, anaerobes were not demonstrated. In 11 patients with bronchiectasis, anaerobic bacteria were cultured in 3. Finally, no anaerobic bacteria could be demonstrated in the transtracheal aspirate from 76 patients with acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis. Anaerobic, pulmonary infections do not represent an intriguing medical problem in our region. However, knowledge of these infections is necessary to secure adequacy in collection of specimens and in their bacteriological examination.


The word arthritis actually means joint inflammation. The term arthritis is used to describe more than 100 rheumatic diseases and conditions that affect joints, the tissues which surround the joint and other connective tissue. The pattern, severity and location of symptoms can vary depending on the specific form of the disease. Typically, rheumatic conditions are characterized by pain and stiffness in and around one or more joints. The symptoms can develop gradually or suddenly. Certain rheumatic conditions can also involve the immune system and various internal organs of the body.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effectiveness of image-repair strategies adopted by organizations to restore their public image and reputation following crisis situations, the lessons learned from these cases and the significance of contextual factors that are likely to affect image-repair efforts and strategies adopted.

Design/methodology/approach
Three cases have been reviewed in this paper: Weather, Jordan; Nestlé Waters, Jordan; and Victoria College School, Jordan. Information was obtained from published materials, such as YouTube commentaries, local newspapers and online news agents, primarily the Jordan Times, which is considered the number one daily in the country. The discussion of these cases is original and based on academic theory and literature.

Findings
Organizations differ in terms of the ways they respond to corporate crises and the strategies they are likely to adopt to restore/recover their reputation and public image.

Practical implications
Corporate reputation or public image is an asset that is built over time. Organizations within all industries seek to secure positive images in the minds of people. The image of an organization however can be threatened by crises. Trust and public image decline when stakeholders feel they have not been adequately informed in times of crises regarding the different attributes of the situation or how the organization is dealing with the crisis. Organizations have the choice to adopt one image-repair strategy at a time or a combination of strategies according to the requirements of the situation.

Originality/value
Image-repair strategies have been examined in American and European contexts but have, to the author's knowledge, never been examined in the context of Arab organizations and more specifically in the context of Jordanian organizations. This paper therefore provides a new insight into how to apply these strategies in a unique and new context and will also motivate future research in this regard.


Introduction Airborne geophysics, particularly aeromagnetic and gamma-ray spectrometer (radiometric) surveys, forms a critical component of geological mapping and mineral resource inventory programs in many African countries. In the 60's and 70's, regional aeromagnetic surveys were fairly widespread over much of the continent, in both sedimentary and hard rock terrains (Barritt, 1993). In the 80's and 90's, higher resolution surveys, incorporating radiometrics, were carried out in certain countries, particularly in southern Africa. In the last decade, a number of national initiatives (e.g. Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Ghana, etc.) have seen the high-resolution geophysical coverage greatly improve. The surveys form part of larger initiatives to improve the geological knowledge of a country or region, with the ultimate objective of increasing mineral investment and developing a sustainable mining industry. These geoscience programs are typically accompanied by reforms in the mining law to promote such investment. They contribute to tectonic reconstruction, groundwater and environmental applications, and petroleum exploration, all of which ultimately assist societal development (Reeves, 2005). International funding agencies such as the World Bank, European Community and African Development Bank have seen the value in such programs, and ensure that airborne geophysics receive a large share of project budgets. In jurisdictions throughout the world, it has been demonstrated that high-quality geophysical coverage leads directly to increased and more focused exploration. A trend in the last few years has been the inclusion of an airborne electromagnetic follow-up component to the airborne program. This paper provides current examples from two countries. In Uganda, more than 600,000 line-km of magnetic and radiometric data are being acquired over most of the country. In addition, eight blocks with high mineral potential are being flown with electromagnetic systems (Tempest and heliGeotem). In Senegal, the entire hard rock region has been covered by 130,000 line-km of magnetic and radiometric data, followed by a Tempest survey over three large blocks.


The poet's rhythm translated. Pushkin in Poggioli's "rhythmic versions"

Renato Poggioli was not only a slavist and a comparativist, but also an accomplished translator into Italian and a specialist in translation studies. In his article The added artificer he enfasizes the attitude of the translator as "primarily formal, precisely because an external formal sanction is the main object of his quest". In his translations Poggioli pays great attention to the formal aspects of the poems he translates, and especially to the metrical aspects. In his studies as well as in his translations, he admits for brief poems the possibility of a translation based on a metrical equivalent instead of a functional equivalent one. The article deals with Poggioli's versions of Pushkin's poems, in particular with The song of the President in The feast during the Plague. For this song Poggioli chose a rhythmic and metrical solution very close to the Russian original: he adopted an Italian iambic tetrameter which follows the same rules of the Russian iambic tetrameter. With this successful choice he broke the closeness of the Italian prosodic tradition. As a real added artificer he "invents a tradition", gives solutions already abandoned in the Italian literary polysystem.


Network coding, whose intermediate nodes decode and encode packets to forward incoming packets, increases the capacity the multicast network. However there are security issues of confidentiality and integrity which degrade and threat network coding. In this paper, we propose Secure Key Checksum (SKC), a secure mechanism using an encryption key, to provide both confidentiality and integrity. To provide the confidentiality, SKC utilizes a block encryption. For the integrity check, SKC uses a checksum based scheme verifying encoded blocks on-the-fly with low computational cost. Also, SKC uses a combined security key for encryption and checksum.


A class of capillary flows in unsaturated porous media is characterized by quasi steady viscous flow confined behind curved air‐water interfaces and within liquid bodies held by capillary forces along crevices and grain contacts. The geometry of the connected capillary liquid network within the pore space resembles channels that form between adjacent bubbles in foam (Plateau borders) with solid grains representing gas bubbles in foam. For simplified channel geometry, we combine expressions for viscous flow with continuity considerations to describe the evolution of the channels cross‐sectional area during gravity drainage. This formulation enables modeling of unsaturated flow without invoking the Richards equation and associated hydraulic functions. We adapt a formalism originally developed for foam "free drainage" (drainage under gravity) or "forced drainage" (infiltration front motion) to a class of unsaturated flows in porous media that require a few input parameters only (mean channel corner angle, air entry value, and porosity) for certain initial and boundary conditions. We demonstrate that the reduction in capillary channel cross section yields a consistent description of self‐regulating internal fluxes toward attainment of the so‐called "field capacity" in soil and provides an alternative method for interpretation of outflow experiments for prescribed pressure boundary conditions. Additionally, the geometrically explicit formulation provides a more intuitive picture of capillary flows across textural boundaries (changes in channel cross section and number of channels). The foam drainage methodology expands the range of tools available for analyses of unsaturated flow processes and offers more realistic links between liquid configuration and flow dynamics in unsaturated porous media.


Changes in gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity throughout the course of rat hepatocarcinogenesis induced by brief dietary exposure to N-2-fluorenylacetamide (2-FAA) followed by promotion with dietary phenobarbital (PB) were studied. By examination of changes in total GGT activity and its histochemical localization, the effects of initiator and promoter on this enzyme can be clearly differentiated. Both 2-FAA and PB increase total GGT activity in grossly normal liver, PB causing a tenfold greater increase than that caused by 2-FAA. Although the elevation of GGT activity in livers of rats sequentially treated with 2-FAA-PB was not additive or synergistic, the course of increase was distinct from that of either 2-FAA- or PB-caused changes in activity, suggesting that 2-FAA and PB interact to alter the GGT phenotype of sequentially treated animals. GGT activity in neoplasms induced by either 2-FAA or 2-FAA-PB was highly variable, i.e., from nearly basal levels to those 170-fold greater than basal. Lesions induced by 2-FAA without PB promotion had elevated GGT, indicating that PB is not required to produce GGT-positive neoplasms by this protocol. Histochemically, changes in GGT activity occurred in both hepatocytes and nonhepatocyte cell populations in a characteristic, treatment-dependent manner, well-correlated with total GGT activity. Treatment with 2-FAA, especially that with 2-FAA-PB, induced primarily focal and nodular GGT activity patterns. PB alone produced no GGT-positive foci, but it did cause GGT-positive ductular proliferation. Continued PB exposure produced a GGT activity pattern which clearly defined the interlobular regions of the liver; no similar staining pattern was seen in either 2-FAA-treated or 2-FAA-PB-treated livers. These results indicate that an initiator and one of its promoters, combined and individually, alter GGT activity in a characteristic manner over the course of hepatocarcinogenesis. Moreover, the effects of the promoter on GGT activity are dependent on whether or not prior exposure to initiator has occurred.


ABSTRACT Although macroautophagy/autophagy deficiency causes degenerative diseases, the deletion of essential autophagy genes in adipocytes paradoxically reduces body weight. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) plays an important role in body weight regulation and metabolic control. However, the key cellular mechanisms that maintain BAT function remain poorly understood. in this study, we showed that global or brown adipocyte-specific deletion of pink1, a Parkinson disease-related gene involved in selective mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy), induced BAT dysfunction, and obesity-prone type in mice. Defective mitochondrial function is among the upstream signals that activate the NLRP3 inflammasome. NLRP3 was induced in brown adipocyte precursors (BAPs) from pink1 knockout (KO) mice. Unexpectedly, NLRP3 induction did not induce canonical inflammasome activity. Instead, NLRP3 induction led to the differentiation of pink1 KO BAPs into white-like adipocytes by increasing the expression of white adipocyte-specific genes and repressing the expression of brown adipocyte-specific genes. nlrp3 deletion in pink1 knockout mice reversed BAT dysfunction. Conversely, adipose tissue-specific atg7 KO mice showed significantly lower expression of Nlrp3 in their BAT. Overall, our data suggest that the role of mitophagy is different from general autophagy in regulating adipose tissue and whole-body energy metabolism. Our results uncovered a new mitochondria-NLRP3 pathway that induces BAT dysfunction. The ability of the nlrp3 knockouts to rescue BAT dysfunction suggests the transcriptional function of NLRP3 as an unexpected, but a quite specific therapeutic target for obesity-related metabolic diseases. Abbreviations: ACTB: actin, beta; BAPs: brown adipocyte precursors; BAT: brown adipose tissue; BMDMs: bone marrow-derived macrophages; CASP1: caspase 1; CEBPA: CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP), alpha; ChIP: chromatin immunoprecipitation; EE: energy expenditure; HFD: high-fat diet; IL1B: interleukin 1 beta; ITT: insulin tolerance test; KO: knockout; LPS: lipopolysaccharide; NLRP3: NLR family, pyrin domain containing 3; PINK1: PTEN induced putative kinase 1; PRKN: parkin RBR E3 ubiquitin protein ligase; RD: regular diet; ROS: reactive oxygen species; RT: room temperature; UCP1: uncoupling protein 1 (mitochondrial, proton carrier); WT: wild-type.


Goodwill accounting treatment has been a subject of heated debate for a long time in many countries around the world. Changing to international accounting standards and settings was much discussed in Sweden. International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) issued Exposure Drafts, which were related to goodwill accounting treatment in 2002. In this thesis, two respondents groups' positions, regarding the disclosure information on goodwill impairment test, and assumption are examined by studying comment letters that submitted to the IASB. It is suggested that the two groups lobbied the proposal because the new standard has economic consequences. The result shows that, as hypothesized, non-preparer group supported more than the preparer group for disclosing variety information on goodwill impairment test and assumption. Furthermore, it would be interesting to see what kind of arguments from two different groups, and how they argue for their positions. The result is both groups used IASB framework are based on useful arguments to support their positions at the same extent, although the objects behind the lobbying activities are different from two groups.


Background Poor control of asthma results from many factors, partly due to inadequate knowledge towards asthma among patients. It is necessary to know patients' knowledge level before education. However, there is no accepted instrument to evaluate knowledge of asthma in Chinese patients with asthma. The study aims to develop a Chinese version of Patient-completed Asthma Knowledge Questionnaire (PAKQ) to assess its reliability, validity, and responsiveness for testing its clinical application in Chinese adult patients with asthma. Methods After translation, back-translation, and cross-cultural adaptation of the PAKQ into Chinese version, a survey of patients with asthma (n=464) in China was conducted. Demographics and clinical data were collected in addition to questionnaires concerning cognition of asthma, education, history, and asthma control test score. The PAKQ was then completed. 14±4 days after the initial assessment, the participants completed the retested questionnaire and again completed the questionnaire immediately after education. The reliability and the construct validity were evaluated. The optimal cut-off points for predicting disease knowledge among asthma patients were determined using the Youden index method. Results The Chinese version of PAKQ showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =0.888) at baseline and an acceptable 2-week test-retest reliability (ICC =0.932, r=0.874). On the basis of large modification indices (>10), this four-factor questionnaire was found to fit the data satisfactorily (χ2/df =1.695, RMSEA =0.039, GFI =0.856, CFI =0.885, and SRMR =0.058). Paired t-tests showed significant changes on pre-educational and post-educational tests (t=22.83, df=463, P<0.0001). The optimal cut-off value of the PAKQ total score for assessing patients' knowledge level was 35 points (AUC =0.757). Conclusions The Chinese version of the PAKQ questionnaire was developed and validated in terms of reliability and validity as an effective instrument for the insight into asthma knowledge of adult patients with asthma in China. Future research will evaluate the utility of the instrument in clinical practice.


The authors discuss the underpinnings of structural analysis in the higher education system. The article justifies why it focuses on specific labor market segments and the nature of the university's basic product as grounds for proposing a typology and groups of institutions. A Soviet "master plan" is reconstructed on the basis of the formulated approach to the typology. It is important because, according to the authors, the current structure of the Russian system of higher education is largely determined by how it developed during the Soviet period. It is shown that the Soviet project was built on the idea of administrative regulation of the labor market, and it is argued that it generally implemented a quasi-corporate system model of higher vocational education. The article analyzes how the structure of the higher education system that Russia inherited from the Soviet Union changed under the influence of factors that were mainly external to the education system. It was changed to a much lesser degree by deliberate government policy. The typology of higher education institutions that results from these changes is described based on an analysis of quantitative data. The authors consider possible structural policy directions in the field of higher vocational education as a foundation for working out a "master plan" for restructuring the higher education system in Russia. The authors establish goals that must be met by the modernization of the structure of higher education.


Abstract Extensive facies analysis of the outcrops located near Moscardón (Iberian basin, NE Spain) resulted in a precise reconstruction of the facies architecture of a Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) carbonate platform. Different types of microbialites occurred in the transitional area between the shallow and relatively deep carbonate platform domains, located above and below wave base level, respectively. The most significant volume of the micorbialites is found in the platform slope, located below wave base level, in a depth range of around 30–50 m. In the lower slope, during stages of rapid accommodation gain, the vertical aggradation of individual stratiform building blocks results in the formation of up to 25 m-thick microbial–siliceous sponge buildups. During stages of sea-level highstand the individual building blocks are dominated by lateral (down-slope) progradational accretion, resulting in flatter, lens-shaped buildups. The transition between the upper slope and the shallow platform area is characterized by microbial-encrusted intraclastic–bioclastic packstones. Microbial crust development helped to stabilize the seafloor, allowing the eventual accumulation and preservation of the sand-sized grains above wave base.


Coastal hazard due to wave activity, in the form of coastal erosion, has long been a problem in the coastal area of Ujunggebang. Loss of coastal land in the coastal area has removed a lot of rice fields, settlements, and public facilities. Efforts to maintain the coastline along 3,300 m of the coastal area, by building coastal defense structures (CDS), have been carried out by the central government since 2006 but, until 2015, the CDS that has been built is still only around 1782 m long, in some places the structure is damaged due to wave activity, and in general the structure is not enough to prevent overtopping. Meanwhile, unprotected coastal segments with CDS have experienced significant erosion. The idea of land use change as an effort to adapt coastal hazards, which was conveyed through an idea socialization approach and through showing examples of coastal area management practices to villagers, gave birth to the idea of developing a coastal tourism area in the village as a complementary measure for the existing coastal defense structure. Although the main problem faced- coastal erosion- has not been resolved, the development of the tourism area has been recognized by the local government as successfully changing the life of the village community.


Introduction: Epilepsy represents one of the major brain disorders worldwide. Living in the society is more challenging than epilepsy itself. The main objective of the study was to find out knowledge, attitude, behavior and myth towards epilepsy among community people. Methods: The descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted with the systematic random sampling. A structured, pretested interview questionnaire was used to collect data and analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Results: Of the 50 respondents. With regards to knowledge, attitude, behavior and myth towards epilepsy, 100% correctly thought that epilepsy is a brain disorder while 70% believed it to be a psychiatric disorder and an inherited disorder (70%).  Most of them thought that epilepsy can be cured (90%). Similarly 94% viewed that a person with epilepsy takes up a job. About 78% of the respondents would throw the water on the person and 50% would make the person smell a shoe during seizure. Similarly 14% would take the person to the Dhami/Jhankri. Myths found to be prevalent were epilepsy is transmitted by eating non vegetarian diet (18%), caused by an evil/supernatural power (26%) and can be treated by spiritual healer (18%).   Conclusions: Although majority of the respondents had heard of epilepsy. False attitude, behavior and myth about the condition still prevail in a community. It may be worthwhile including awareness programs about epilepsy by community education/ local health organization in order to dispel the false attitude, behavior and manage the person with epilepsy in community as well.


One of the land development problems of developing countries is to provide readily available land for new urbanization demands. Compensation based procedures are mostly used land provision methods around the world in urban land development applications but it is both expensive and mandatory. To provide new settlements and built-up areas, there should be a more effective land redistribution process. Land readjustment is one of the land development tools in the developing world to help deal with urbanization requirements. It has great abilities in solving land-use problems in urban areas when new and redesigned urban settlements are needed. Providing regular urban land development process many land readjustment implementations have been practiced in Turkey. Particularly, municipalities are used the process to supply public-uses areas rather than land compensation. In this paper, first, land acquisition methods in Turkey are briefly reviewed, then land readjustment method and its apllications are discussed with its current issues for regular urban developments.


Solar Orbiter provides dust detection capability in inner heliosphere, but estimating physical properties of detected dust from the collected data is far from straightforward. First, a physical model for dust collection considering a Poisson process is formulated. Second, it is shown that dust on hyperbolic orbits is responsible for the majority of dust detections with Solar Orbiter's Radio and Plasma Waves (SolO/RPW). Third, the model for dust counts is fitted to SolO/RPW data and parameters of the dust are inferred, namely: radial velocity, hyperbolic meteoroids predominance, and solar radiation pressure to gravity ratio as well as uncertainties of these. Non-parametric model fitting is used to get the difference between inbound and outbound detection rate and dust radial velocity is thus estimated. A hierarchical Bayesian model is formulated and applied to available SolO/RPW data. The model uses the methodology of Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation, estimating parameters of dust and their uncertainties. SolO/RPW dust observations can be modelled as a Poisson process in a Bayesian framework and observations up to this date are consistent with the hyperbolic dust model with an additional background component. Analysis suggests a radial velocity of the hyperbolic component around $(63 \pm 7) \mathrm{km/s}$ with the predominance of hyperbolic dust about $(78 \pm 4) \%$. The results are consistent with hyperbolic meteoroids originating between $0.02 \mathrm{AU}$ and $0.1 \mathrm{AU}$ and showing substantial deceleration, which implies effective solar radiation pressure to gravity ratio $\gtrsim 0.5$. The flux of hyperbolic component at $1 \mathrm{AU}$ is found to be $(1.1 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{-4} \mathrm{m^{-2}s^{-1}}$ and the flux of background component at $1 \mathrm{AU}$ is found to be $(5.4 \pm 1.5) \times 10^{-5} \mathrm{m^{-2}s^{-1}}$.


Chemical investigation of an NCI-DTP collection of Thorectandra sp. and a UCSC collection of Smenospongia sp. yielded six new brominated tryptophan derivatives: 6-bromo-1'-hydroxy-1',8-dihydroaplysinopsin (4), 6-bromo-1'-methoxy-1',8-dihydroaplysinopsin (5), 6-bromo-1'-ethoxy-1',8-dihydroaplysinopsin (6), (-)-5-bromo-N,N-dimethyltryptophan (7), (+)-5-bromohypaphorine (8), and 6-bromo-1H-indole-3-carboxylic acid methyl ester (11). Additionally, the known compounds aplysinopsin (1), 1',8-dihydroaplysinopsin (2), 6-bromo-1',8-dihydroaplysinopsin (3), (1H-indole-3-yl)acetic acid (9), and (6-bromo-1H-indol-3-yl)acetic acid methyl ester (10) were also encountered. The structures of 4-8 and 11 were confirmed on the basis of analysis of (1)H and (13)C (1D and 2D) NMR data as well as comparison to known compounds. Compounds 1, 3-8, 10, and 11 were found to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus epidermidis with either weak or moderate MICs.


ABSTRACT In Korea chicken meat price is not determined in the auction markets, but it is artificially calculated using the live chicken price of one day before, transporting cost, converting rate of live chicken into carcass, and slaughtering cost. This calculated price is published through the mass media and used as the base for chicken meat transaction. By the way, since 85% of the Korean broiler industry is composed by the integrated system, the live chicken price is nothing to do with ex-factory price of chicken meat produced by the integrators. Under this pricing system, when we estimate the margin of the chicken meat through the marketing process, the margin of the integrator is fluctuated by the live chicken price of one day before, which is nothing to do with integrators; When the live chicken price is low, the margin of the integrators is low, but the margin of the selling agencies' is relatively high. On the contrast, when the live chicken price is high, the margin of the integrators is high, but the selling agencies' margin will be relatively low, because consumer's price could not be increased in parallel with increase of the live chicken price. Accordingly, the ex-factory price of chicken meat determined using the production cost of live chicken and slaughtering cost of the integrator by adding resonable margin of the integrator should be determined and published, so that it could be used for chicken meat transaction. In Japan the Zen-Noh Chicken Foods Corporation announce the ideal piece of chicken every morning, and all the transactions of the chicken meat will be determined based on this price. In Korea, it will be desirable to make bench marking from Japanese case, in other words the NH could announce the ideal price of chicken meat every morning, so that it would be the base price of chicken meat transaction. Even though the market share of the NH is less than 5%, its publicity should be accepted, since it is a subsidiary of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of Korea.(Key words : wholesale market, converting rate, slaughtering cost, ex-factory price, integrator, market share)


The extrapolation capability of Large Language Models (LLMs) based on Rotary Position Embedding is currently a topic of considerable interest. The mainstream approach to addressing extrapolation with LLMs involves modifying RoPE by replacing 10000, the rotary base of $\theta_n={10000}^{-2n/d}$ in the original RoPE, with a larger value and providing longer fine-tuning text. In this work, we first observe that fine-tuning a RoPE-based LLM with either a smaller or larger base in pre-training context length could significantly enhance its extrapolation performance. After that, we propose \textbf{\textit{Scaling Laws of RoPE-based Extrapolation}}, a unified framework from the periodic perspective, to describe the relationship between the extrapolation performance and base value as well as tuning context length. In this process, we also explain the origin of the RoPE-based extrapolation issue by \textbf{\textit{critical dimension for extrapolation}}. Besides these observations and analyses, we achieve extrapolation up to 1 million context length within only 16K training length on LLaMA2 7B and 13B.


An integrated and controlled migration of leukocytes is necessary for the legitimate functioning and maintenance of the immune system. Chemokines and their receptors play a decisive role in regulating the leukocyte migration to the site of inflammation, a phenomena often referred to as chemotaxis. Chemokines and their receptors have become significant targets for therapeutic intervention considering their potential to regulate the immune system. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) is a preeminent member of CC chemokine family that facilitates crucial roles by orchestrating the recruitment of monocytes into inflamed tissues. Baicalin (BA), a major bioactive flavonoid, has been reported to attenuate chemokine-regulated leukocyte trafficking. However, no molecular details pertaining to its direct binding to chemokine(s)/receptor(s) are available till date. In the current study, using an array of monomers/dimers of human and murine CCL2 orthologs (hCCL2/mCCL2), we have shown that BA binds to the CCL2 protein specifically with nanomolar affinity (Kd = 270 ± 20 nM). NMR-based studies established that BA binds CCL2 in a specific pocket involving the N-terminal, β1- and β3-sheets. Docking studies suggested that the residues T16, N17, R18, I20, R24, K49, E50, I51, and C52 are majorly involved in complex formation through a combination of H-bonds and hydrophobic interactions. As the residues R18, R24, and K49 of hCCL2 are crucial determinants of monocyte trafficking through receptor/glycosaminoglycans (GAG) binding in CCL2 human/murine orthologs, we propose that baicalin engaging these residues in complex formation will result in attenuation of CCL2 binding to the receptor/GAGs, thus inhibiting the chemokine-regulated leukocyte trafficking.


Abstract Experiments have been conducted to investigate the collection efficiencies of highly charged drops with radii from 60 to 120 μm for relatively uncharged droplets of about 20 μm radius. The measurements indicate that, for drop charges approaching the Rayleigh limit value, the collection efficiencies are increased by a factor of around 20–30 over those for uncharged drops. The high collection efficiencies imply that a highly charged drop is capable of collecting uncharged droplets initially situated at distances of several drop radii from the fall trajectory of the drop. Calculations utilizing a simple numerical model for the interaction of a drop and droplet pair demonstrate that these high values of collection efficiency are due to the electrical forces of attraction arising between the drop charge and the dipole induced within the uncharged droplet. The implications of this work for the modification and dissipation of warm clouds and fogs are briefly discussed.


ABSTRACT With the expectation that an examination of language between toddler twins in their home environment would reveal characteristics unique to the subjects' twin status, 31 hours of crib-talk between identical twin girls and diary records of their speech were examined. It was found that the subjects developed conventional syntax and vocabulary, but adapted them in ways which appropriately expressed their twin status. Three salient examplesinclude their use of a double name for themselves as a team, their use of singular verbs in reference to themselves together, and their use of the singular pronoun me in pronominal reference to themselves as a team.


A new method in quantitative x-ray diffractometry has been developed which uses no "standard" minerals for calibration. Thus, this new method is diametrically different from the classical internal method of Klug and Alexander, which requires the similarity (in chemical composition, crystallinity, and degree of preferred orientation) of minerals used as "the standards" and in the unknowns. The method is based on the interrelationship between the weight percentages of constituent minerals in a rock and relative intensities of x-ray peaks arising from these minerals. If the concentration in percent of mineral m in sample s is denoted as Xms, the mass absorption coefficient as µs, the intensity of a diffraction peak as Ims, and the instrumental (including structural and compositional characteristics of the constituent minerals) constant as Km, then the weight percentages of minerals in a rock can be obtained easily through a least-squares analysis, Xms = Ks/I^primems, where I^prime = Ims/µs. The µs can be measured readily from the Compton scattering intensity with an x-ray spectrometer. Examples from a synthetic mixture, carbonate rock, and mudrock illustrate this new approach. End_of_Article - Last_Page 475------------


A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementation of vitamin D3,
papaya leaf meal (PLM) and pineapple skin meal (PSM) for 7 days prior to slaughter
on meat quality of spent layer chickens. In Experiment 1, based on Completely
Randomized Design, 40 spent layer chickens (ISA Brown) were allotted to control
(n=10), vitamin D3 (n=10), papaya leaf meal (n=10) and pineapple skin meal (n=10)
treatments. The combined effects of vitamin D3 and PLM were also examined in this
study based on 2×4 factorial design of which, 80 ISA Brown spent layer hens were
equally divided to PLM with vitamin D3 (n=40) and PLM without vitamin D3
(n=40). Ten birds of each of the main treatment group (PLM with vitamin D3 and
PLM without vitamin D3) were then subjected to the levels of 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 2%
of PLM. Meat quality analysis (shear force values, drip loss, cooking loss and colour) were carried out for both experiments. In Experiment 1, both vitamin D3 and
PLM have significantly improved tenderness (reduced shear force values), drip loss,
cooking loss and colour. However, the supplementation of PSM has resulted in no
significant effect on all of the analysed meat quality traits. Meanwhile, the results
from Experiment 2 demonstrated that PLM without the inclusion of vitamin D3 has
significantly improved meat tenderness, cooking loss and colour. In general, the
study has highlighted the potential benefits of PLM and vitamin D3 supplementation
for improving meat quality in spent chicken.


This paper aims at characterization of different cationic forms of montmorillonite clay using FTIR, XRD and TGA techniques. Montmorillonite was separately treated with different alkaline and alkaline earth and transition metal cations, such as Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Cd2+ to get the corresponding homoionic forms of montmorillonite clay mineral. The developed samples were characterized by the above mentioned methods. FTIR spectra of the samples revealed that the exchangeable cations have a minor effect on the stretching and bending bands of the structural OH, while a major one on both position and intensity of the physically adsorbed water was reported. XRD showed the changes in the crystallographic spacings of montmorillonite clay mineral due to ion exchange process. Thermogravimetric study of the examine samples showed two DTG exothermic peaks in their DTG curves, attributed to the dehydration of the physically adsorbed and bounded water and dehydroxylation of the structural water respectively. All the results obtained proved that these exchangeable cations dominated the amount of the physically adsorbed water and initial humidity of the clay.


The purposes of this study were to evaluate the short-term international language and culture exchange program for a month between Dali University, China and Burapha University, Thailand, and to provide recommendations for improving the program. Using a naturalistic approach, the setting involved purposive sampling that was used to identify 18 participants who had participated in the program. The experiences of Chinese students who joined the program were investigated using an in-depth semi-structured interview. The data were then classified into ten interrelated themes: (1) Life experience, (2) Learning experience, (3) Impression, (4) English communication, (5) Culture, (6) Problems, (7) Suggestion, (8) Reasons to join the program, (9) Benefits, and (10) Comparison. The results of this study showed the strengths and weaknesses of the present program. The program contributed substantively to the participants' individual development and international understanding. The findings also discussed the Chinese students' experiences of English communicative proficiency. The study recommended the need for increased accountability and commitment of those concerned at every level in each university and to pay more attention to the continuity and sustainability of the program. Keywords : Program Evaluation, Exchange Program, English Language, Naturalistic Approach


Non-marital cohabitation is a rapidly rising universal phenomenon in this modern era. The post-modern or capitalist society, the concepts of relationships between man and woman particularly the way of thinking towards cohabitation or living relationship has seen a drastic change. The issue of cohabitation from a sociological perspective to comprehend the nature of such a shifting structure of marriage. In this context, to know the rise in rates of cohabitation and its different meanings and implications in related to the way of life in terms of personal and social relationships and consequences. It is more rational to rethink in these types of meanings and implications particularly in marriage systems. There is different social meaning and cultural significance between traditional marriage system and newly emerged cohabitation practice. This paper tries to analyze the conceptual debate and practical contradiction of cohabitation and conventional marriage system. Likewise, this study provides an analysis of causes and consequences of cohabitation in existing societies.


In this paper we study the single longitudinal spin asymmetry $A_{UL}^{\sin(\phi_h-\phi_R)}$ of dihadron production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) via helicity-dependent dihadron fragmentation function (DiFF), which describes the correlation of the longitudinal polarization of a fragmenting quark with the transverse momenta of the produced hadron pair. Recently experimental searching for this azimuthal asymmetry in dihadron SIDIS by the COMPASS Collaboration yielded a very small signal. Here we calculate this unknown T-odd DiFF $G_1^\perp$ using a spectator model to access the asymmetry and clarify why the signal is very small. The transverse momentum dependent (TMD) factorization method, in which the transverse momentum of the final state hadron pair leaves unintegrated, has been applied. We estimate the $\sin(\phi_h-\phi_R)$ asymmetry at the kinematics of COMPASS experiments and compare with the data. What's more, the predictions on the same asymmetry are also made at the Electron Ion Collider (EIC).


Flexible couplings are used to transmit power between two shafts and accommodate, more realistically, a combination of parallel, axial and angular misalignments, between them. Presence of misalignment of certain degree is considered unavoidable. The coupling also attenuates the transmission of fluctuation of torque and speed from one rotor to the other by flexing itself, and is thus helpful in providing nearly smooth transmission of speed and torque. However, in this process, the dynamic behavior of the rotors is also influenced by the coupling characteristics, as the coupling incorporates a flexible damped intermediate member between the shafts it couples. A detailed literature survey has shown that researchers so far have not attempted to find out the dynamic characteristics, the stiffness and damping of a coupling, and, instead, the effect of misalignment (combination of parallel and angular misalignment) is considered to generate forces independent of the coupling characteristics. This paper attempts to find out an analytical model for the dynamic characteristic of segmented link coupling in terms of suitable non-dimensional coefficients to generate the characteristics of a coupling element which may be used for dynamic analysis of coupled rotor shaft system.


The paper approaches the different dimensions and analysis levels of the food and nutritional security, presenting the sets of indicators and methodologies used by the national and international organizations for its assessment. The sources used refer to the indicators and studies elaborated by FAO, OECD, IFPRI, Eurostat, EUI, Defra, the Ministry of Health and NIS. In the recent years, the population food security issue came to the foreground again, due to the challenges at global level, among which we can mention the food demand increase from the new emergent countries, the non-food uses of agricultural production by biofuel production, as well as the impact of climate changes, on agricultural production and on food supply. Food security is a concept that widely evolved in the last decades, while its complexity gradually increased. Practically, at present, in order to evaluate the food security from the different countries of the world, the specialized institutions or research teams use dozens of indicators, in order to measure the multiple dimensions of the food security concept. In this respect, the paper also contains an assessment of the population food security in Romania, as reflected by the most representative indicators presented.


It would be desirable, in terms of energy conservation, to use a low complexity approximate algorithm to do all IDCT computation in an MPEG-2 decoder. However, there is a significant quality penalty associated with this approach that may not always be acceptable. A practical algorithmic method is presented here for achieving quality/energy tradeoff for a hardware 2-D IDCT in an MPEG-2 decoder. By allowing multiple algorithms to run on the same IDCT hardware, multiple quality/energy tradeoff modes can be supported, and the quality that results when an approximate algorithm is used can be increased. For example, by simply using an approximate algorithm for all B frame IDCT processing, while using a conventional algorithm for I and P frames, it is shown that a 23% energy reduction can be achieved compared to using the conventional algorithm exclusively. This significant energy reduction can be achieved with a quality tradeoff of less than 0.5 dB average PSNR.


This paper proposes and evaluates a systematic method for controlling an energy storage system for preventing load shedding due to transient declines in frequency. The proposed controller works on local measurements and uses an extended Kalman filter to perform online identification of system parameters. These results are then used to implement a model predictive controller for the safe withdrawal of support and energy recovery, both without incurring transient load shedding. The formulation accounts for single generator outages and includes power system parameters such as inertia, damping, and droop. The proposed method is evaluated using the nonlinear simulations of 6-bus and 24-bus test systems known as Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS) and IEEE Reliability Test System. The results show that the proposed controller is effective in preventing transient load shedding.


Richard Rorty is easily cast as the intellectual godfather of our post-truth condition. But unlike Nicholas Gaskill, whose article in Common Knowledge 28, no. 3, has engendered a continuing symposium in the journal, Professor Fuller sees Rorty's role as being to his credit rather than detriment. Rorty extended W. B. Gallie's idea of "essentially contested concepts" from the moral and political spheres to the epistemic, thereby rendering such terms as truth, reason, and evidence inherently vague, which means that they are defined not a priori but only in the context of exemplary concrete cases. Doing so invariably results in a "redescription" of what is observed that explains the "meta" level of understanding that philosophy brings to whatever it discusses. In this sense, all that the post-truth condition does is turn everyone into a philosopher.


This study investigated the development of syntactic awareness and its relation to linguistic performance. Fifty-six subjects from four groups (3, 5, 7 and 20 years old) were asked to judge the grammaticality of forty sentences (eighteen with word-order changes and twentytwo with morphological violations) and correct the grammatically deviant sentences. The results reveal a significant age effect on subjects' performance in both judgement and revision tasks. Children scored significantly higher in judging sentences with word order changes than those with morphological violations. No significant correlation between the awareness tasks and the language measures was found. The growth of syntactic awareness and its relation to language development are discussed.


The transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan syndecan-1 was identified from a human placenta cDNA library by the expression cloning method as a gene product that interacts with membrane type matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MT1-MMP). Co-expression of MT1-MMP with syndecan-1 in HEK293T cells promoted syndecan-1 shedding, and concentration of cell-associated syndecan-1 was reduced. Treatment of cells with MMP inhibitor BB-94 or tissue inhibitor of MMP (TIMP)-2 but not TIMP-1 interfered with the syndecan-1 shedding promoted by MT1-MMP expression. In contrast, syndecan-1 shedding induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate treatment was inhibited by BB-94 but not by either TIMP-1 or TIMP-2. Shedding of syndecan-1 was also induced by MT3-MMP but not by other MT-MMPs. Recombinant syndecan-1 core protein was shown to be cleaved by recombinant MT1-MMP or MT3-MMP preferentially at the Gly245-Leu246 peptide bond. HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells stably transfected with the syndecan-1 cDNA (HT1080/SDC), which express endogenous MT1-MMP, spontaneously shed syndecan-1. Migration of HT1080/SDC cells on collagen-coated dishes was significantly slower than that of control HT1080 cells. Treatment of HT1080/SDC cells with BB-94 or TIMP-2 induced accumulation of syndecan-1 on the cell surface, concomitant with further retardation of cell migration. Substitution of Gly245 of syndecan-1 with Leu significantly reduced shedding from HT1080/SDC cells and cell migration. These results suggest that the shedding of syndecan-1 promoted by MT1-MMP through the preferential cleavage of Gly245-Leu246 peptide bond stimulates cell migration.


ABSTRACT Reducing the grain size in zirconia ceramics has shown to decrease its toughness by size-dependent stabilisation of the tetragonal phase that, in turn, hinders the stress-induced phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic. The stability of the tetragonal phase increases with the decrease of grain size but decreases with the reduction of the amount of yttria added, implying the need for adjustment of the yttria content when a nano-grained structure is of concern. In this study, low-yttria compositions were investigated. The ceramics were prepared with two sintering methods namely spark plasma sintering (SPS) and pressureless sintering. A clear tendency was noted for the indentation toughness increase with the reduction of yttria content, and a higher toughness achieved in as-SPSed samples in comparison with the annealed samples. The origins of the increased toughness were discussed in terms of yttria content, carbon contamination and increased oxygen vacancies after sintering at reducing atmosphere in SPS.


In social life, Muslims often encounter forms muamalah. One of the forms muamalah is buying and selling. Sale and purchase allowed by Islam is the buying and selling that does not contain elements of usury, maysir, and gharar. Each transaction is considered valid if it meets the requirements and get along well defined purchase and in accordance to Islamic law. Credit according to Islamic terms is the right to receive payment or obligation to make payment at the time requested, or in the future, because the delivery of the goods now. While the credit sharia financing is known for providing money or bills based on agreements between the company and other parties, which require the other party to restore the funding after a certain period of time in exchange for results.This paper describes about definition, functions, objectives, elements and other types of credit, determine mortgage interest and the goodness and badness of credit, credit in Islamic economic perspective. Islam regards the practice of buying and selling as a legitimate practice and have a great maqasid for sustaining human life, maintain the property, life, lineage, intellect and serenity spiritual and physical. There are also practices in the name of selling but the fact is forbidden usury. The development of the understanding of this practice is consuming a variety of studies, so there is that to allow and forbid. Nothing justifies and forbid the sale and purchase with accounts payable, which is currently known by the term credit.


Innovation of semi-intensive milkfish cultivation and modular methods in the farming unit of the Indonesian Muslim University, Parreang Hamlet, Bontosunggu Village (Kalibone), Minasatene District, Pangkep Regency. The problem of demand for milkfish is the size of a lot of consumption, low production yields, traditional cultivation technology used, facilities and infrastructure are irrelevant, production management does not use good farming methods. The purpose of this activity is (1). applying the semi-intensive milkfish cultivation system technology innovation with a modular method, (2). Developing an economic culture, (3) creating new entrepreneurs of milkfish cultivation in ponds, (4) increasing milkfish production (4) stimulating the community to develop semi-intensive milkfish cultivation with a modular method, (5) stimulating students to innovate and develop milkfish farming. The implementation method is a demonstration of milkfish farming in ponds ranging from pond preparation, natural food growth, seed stocking, artificial feeding and probiotics, handling water quality, pests, and diseases, and harvesting. The density of seeds stocked with a semi-intensive system was 10,000 heads / ha. Map the ponds used for shifting maintenance (modular method) of 3 ponds for 5 months. The results achieved are the production of milkfish with size of 5 milkfish / kg or ± 250 g as much as 423 kg with a net income of Rp.4,390,000. The maintenance cycle is carried out one cycle because of the dry season constraints from the planned 3 maintenance cycles.


The overall goal was to perform a systematic literature search and structured review of the state of outcome measurement in the field of upper limb prosthetics and to propose future directions for research in this area. The review is based on systematic searches of Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and RECAL electronic databases from 1970 to March 2009 and on subsequent review of the reference lists of the identified publications (citation tracking), as well as articles in the author's personal collection. Each article was independently reviewed by two readers. Publications were initially screened for relevance, and then fully reviewed to extract relevant data and review the methodological quality of the study. A quality rating form, based on guidelines provided by Terwee et al. (J Clin Epidemiol. 2006;60:34–42), was devised for evaluation of the clinimetric properties of the identified outcome measures. The search identified 660 peer-reviewed publications related to outcome measurement with upper limb amputees of which 25 met all of the author's inclusion criteria for full review. In the adult literature, seven outcome measures (4 amputees specific and 3 generic) were revealed. This compares with 25 measures identified in the lower limb adult amputee outcomes review by Condie et al. (J Prostht Orthot. 2006;18:13–45). In the pediatric review, nine distinct outcome measures (5 amputees specific and 4 generic) were found. Two of the pediatric measures also have younger child versions. There was overlap of one measure, the Assessment of Capacity for Myoelectric Control (ACMC), between adult and pediatric studies. The use of standardized outcome measures with adult upper limb amputees is sparse in the published studies with this clinical population, and upper limb prosthetic-specific measures are few in number. Attention needs to be paid to all aspects of measurement development and validation across the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health. The measures with greatest psychometric promise for use in upper limb prosthetics are the ACMC, the Upper Extremity Functional Status Module of the Orthotics and Prosthetics User Survey, the Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand Questionnaire, and the Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experience Scales. Greater strides toward measure development and validation have been made with pediatric upper limb amputees. The emphasis that is currently needed is on the determination of the test-retest reliability and responsiveness of the most promising measures (ACMC, University of New Brunswick Test, the Assisting Hand Assessment, Prosthetic Upper Extremity Functional Index, and the ABILHAND-Kids) and discussion on how best to approach the measurement of participation and quality of life.


Evidence obtained in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes indicates that arbitrary contacts between DNA-bound proteins and components of the transcriptional machinery can activate transcription. Here we demonstrate that the Escherichia coli omega protein, which copurifies with RNA polymerase, can function as a transcriptional activator when linked covalently to a DNA-binding protein. We show further that omega can function as an activation target when this covalent linkage is replaced by a pair of interacting polypeptides fused to the DNA-binding protein and to omega, respectively. Our findings imply that the omega protein is associated with RNA polymerase holoenzyme in vivo, and provide support for the hypothesis that contact between a DNA-bound protein and any component of E. coli RNA polymerase can activate transcription.


Background The main purpose of this study was to identify the correlation between the expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HAGLR in plasma exosomes and the detection rate of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods LncRNA HAGLR expression was detected in plasma exosomes of 40 patients with NSCLC and 8 healthy subjects using qRT-PCR. CTCs were enriched and separated using CTC-BIOPSY® abnormal cell separator. The correlations between lncRNA HAGLR expression in plasma exosomes and CTCs of patients with NSCLC and clinical pathological parameters were also analyzed. Bioinformatics analyses indicated HAGLR was evidently down-regulated in NSCLC tissues when compared to normal controls. The relationship between differential expression of HAGLR with different stages of NSCLC and clinical prognosis were elucidated using corresponding statistical methods. Results HAGLR was significantly decreased in NSCLC, and there was obvious correlation with overall survival (P<0.05). CTCs were detected in peripheral blood of patients with NSCLC with the positive rate of 70.0%. In lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), compared with the high expression group of HAGLR, the low expression group had a better overall survival (P<0.05). At the same time, the high expression of HAGLR was positively correlated with the high detection rate of CTCs (P<0.05), suggesting that the disease may have a later tumor stage, and poor prognosis. Conclusions lncRNA HAGLR and CTCs could be used as potential biomarkers for NSCLC metastasis risk prediction.


In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the theory and design of filter bank transceivers due to their superior frequency response. In many applications, it is desired to have transceivers that can support multiple services with different incoming data rates and different quality-of-service requirements. To meet these requirements, we can either do resource allocation or design transceivers with a nonuniform bandwidth partition. In this paper, we propose a method for the design of nonuniform filter bank transceivers for frequency selective channels. Both frequency response and signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) can be incorporated in the transceiver design. Moreover, the technique can be extended to the case of nonuniform filter bank transceivers with rational sampling factors. Simulation results show that nonuniform filter bank transceivers with good filter responses as well as high SIR can be obtained by the proposed design method.


With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind assessment program and the use of proficiency levels as a means of evaluating Annual Yearly Progress, there is a renewed interest in the consistency of classification decisions based on scale scores from achievement test and state-wide proficiency standards. Many of the current methods described in the literature (Huynh, 1976; Hanson and Brennan, 1990; and Livingston and Lewis, 1995) are based on assumptions about the distribution of the conditional errors. Although recent methods (Brennan and Wan, 2004) make no assumptions about the distribution, these methods have one compelling disadvantage: the decision consistency calculated is based on the entire set of data and are not conditional on the location of the cut scores, the student measure and the conditional standard errors of measurement for the students. The decision consistency for a student scoring right at the cut score will be much lower that the decision consistency for a student with a score 5 points above or below that cut score. The standard error method described in this article is based solely on the asymptotic standard error of measurement derived from the appropriate Rasch measurement model, and the location of the cut score used to make the classification decision. This classification can be easily modified to accommodate multiple classification categories. This is a conditional decision consistency statistic that can be applied to each person ability estimate (raw score) and provides information that can be used to calculate the likelihood that a person with that measure will receive the same classification if retested. The decision consistency for the entire sample can be calculated by simply summing the likelihood of the same classification over all of the examinees. The results of retest simulations using data that fit the Rasch model suggest that the standard error method provides a better estimate of the resulting classification consistency than the true score methods or the bootstrap method.


Interest in research into knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) has been growing continuously because of the rapid increase in the amount of information embedded in real-world data. Several systems have been proposed for studying the KDD process. One main task in a KDD system is to learn important and user-interesting knowledge from a set of collected data. Most proposed systems use simple machine learning methods to learn the pattern. This may result in efficient performance but the discovery quality is less useful. In this paper, we propose a method to integrated a new and complicated machine learning method called inductive logic programming (ILP) to improve the KDD quality. Such integration shows how this new learning technique can be easily applied to a KDD system and how it can improve the representation of the discovery. In our system, we use user's queries to indicate the importance and interestingness of the target knowledge. The system has been implemented on a SUN workstation using the Sybase database system. Detailed examples are also provided to illustrate the benefit of integrating the ILP technique with the KDD system.