Intravenous cationic bovine serum albumin (BSA, pI > 9.5) induces membranous nephropathy in immunized rabbits. In this study, unimmunized rabbits received intravenous injections of cationic (n = 3) or native (n = 3) or native (n = 3) BSA, followed by ex vivo isolated left renal perfusions with sheep anti-BSA antibody. Capillary wall deposits of IgG and C3 were seen exclusively in the group receiving cationic BSA, confirming an in situ pathogenesis for cationic, BSA-induced membranous nephropathy, and demonstrating the importance of a cationic antigen for its production. We then explored whether membranous nephropathy in this model is prevented by the concomitant injection of protamine sulfate, a filterable, relatively non-immunogenic polycation. An in vitro study demonstrated that protamine sulfate incubated with glomerular basement membrane (GBM) decreased the subsequent binding of radiolabeled cationic BSA (P < 0.05). In vivo, protamine sulfate was shown to bind to anionic sites in the glomerular capillary wall after intravenous injection.Groups of rabbits received 3 wk of daily intravenous injections of cationic BSA alone (n = 15) or cationic BSA and protamine (n = 18). After 2 wk of injection of cationic BSA alone, typical membranous nephropathy developed. Granular deposits of IgG and C3 were present along the GBM associated with subepithelial dense deposits, foot process effacement, and marked albuminuria. Protamine significantly reduced or prevented the formation of deposits (P < 0.001) and in6 of 18 protamine-treated animals, existing deposits decreased or disappeared between 2 and 3 wk of injection. Albuminuria was significantly reduced in protamine-treated animals with a mean of 124+/-55 mg/24 h compared to 632+/-150 mg/24 h in the control group receiving cationic BSA alone. No significant differences between the groups were noted in serum lev9lsof IgG, C3, anti-BSA antibody, or circulating immune complex size. Studies in additional animals (n = 5) given radiolabeled cationic BSA showed that protamine did not alter the clearance of cationic BSA from serum. Control experiments showed that protamine's beneficial effects were not related to its weak anticoagulant property or toits theoretical ability to deplete tissue histamine. The administration of heparin (n = 6) or diphenhydramine (n = 6) had no effect on the development of the epimembranous lesion compared to the group receiving cationic BSA alone. In addition, homogenized whole kidney histamine content was not significantly different in the group receiving cationic BSA alone compared to the group receiving cationic BSA and protamine. This work shows that a cationic BSA-induced glomerular lesion can be produced by a renal perfusion technique involving in situ complex formation and that this process requires a cationic antigen for its development. We believe that the demonstrated beneficial effects of protamine are due to its ability to bind to glomerular anionic sites, and that this electrostatic interaction results in inhibition for the further binding of the cationic antigen, thereby limiting the severity of glomerulonephritis in this model.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of partial substitution of an extruded or extruded-pelleted corn product for unprocessed corn of the starter diet on growth performance and incidence of diarrhea in weanling pigs. Seventy-two 21-day-old weanling pigs were allotted to 24 pens and provided ad libitum with one of the four experimental diets for 3 wk in two serial feeding trials during summer beginning from late June. The treatments were a milk product-soy-corn-based control diet containing 25% unprocessed corn and the other three diets only substituted with 12.5% extruded corn Suprex, Optigrain, an extruded mixture of wheat, rye and durum, or extruded-pelleted corn for an equal percentage of unprocessed corn of the control diet. All diets were supplemented with 100 ppm sulfathiazone, 50 ppm penicillin, and 100 ppm chlortetracycline for preventive medication. The initial and final weights as well as gain: feed were less in the second trial than in the first one (p<0.05). However, effects of the dietary treatments were not detected in any of the performance variables including final weight, ADG, ADFI, and fain: feed, nor were there any interactions between the trial and dietary treatment. In addition, almost all pigs exhibited normal firm feces in both trials and therefore there was no main effect in the fecal consistency score. Results suggest that partial substitution of the thermally processed corn for unprocessed corn of the milk product-corn-soy-based and medicated starter diet has no effect on growth performance or incidence of diarrhea in weanling pigs.


Composite Higgs models involving partial compositeness of Standard Model fermions typically require the introduction of fermionic partners which are relatively light in realistic scenarios. In this paper, we analyze the role of these light custodian fermions in the phenomenology of the composite Higgs models and show that they significantly modify couplings of the Higgs field. We focus on the coupling to gluons in particular, which is of central importance for Higgs production at the LHC. We show that this coupling can be increased as well as decreased depending on the SM fermion embedding in the composite multiplets. We also discuss modification of the Higgs couplings to bottom and top quarks and show that modifications to all these three couplings Hgg, Htt, and Hbb are generically independent parameters.


This is the fourth of a projected series of annual surveys reviewing dispute settlement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. 2007 was the busiest year for dispute settlement in the law of the sea for some time. The main developments under Part XV of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea were the award of the arbitral tribunal in the Guyana/Suriname Case and two prompt-release-of-vessel judgments by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Outside the framework of the Convention, the International Court of Justice gave judgments in two maritime boundary cases—one on the merits (Nicaragua v. Honduras) and the other on jurisdiction (Nicaragua v. Colombia).


The objective of the study is to look into a new method to build a human machine interactive system using active listening where machine becomes an active listener based on different states of emotions with which the machine interacts. Using the Index of Co-Incidence we determine the relationships between the emotion-states. The Birthday problem is used to determine the relationships between the visible words with each emotion state. Both of these inputs are given to the Hidden Markov Models model to determine the emotion emitted from the visible words, to decide which statement needs to be identified to continue the conversation during Active Listening. This paper proposes emotion recognition using the new concept of birthday problem and Index of Co-Incidence.


In order to evaluate the effect of arginine and vitamin E supplementation in broiler chicken diets on the immune response during post-vaccine stress, a trial was conducted with 700 chicks (1 day-old) which were distributed into 28 floor-pens and fed one of four dietary treatments (with 7 replicates) randomly assigned: T1 = control diet (1.31 % of arginine and 10 IU of vitamin E/kg of feed); T2 = T1 + 0.3 % of arginine; T3 = T1 + 70 IU of vitamin E; T4 = T1 + 0.3 % of arginine + 70 IU of vitamin E. At 12 days of age, all birds were vaccinated against Newcastle disease virus (ND), infectious bronchitis, avian influenza (AI) and fowl pox. The traits evaluated were: post-vaccine reaction at days 14, 16, 18, 21 and 23; antibody titers against ND and AI, and relative lymphoid organs weight at days 11, 19 and 26; and the performance were recorded weekly. Chickens fed T2, T4 (at day 16), and T3 (at day 21) had lesser (p≤0.05) post-vaccine reaction than birds fed T1. The antibody titers against ND (at day 11) was higher (p≤0.05) in chickens fed T4 (3.1), T3 (2.7) and T2 (2.7) compared to T1 (1.6); meanwhile, for AI titers no differences were found. There were no differences, neither for immune organs weight, nor for performance. In conclusion, arginine and vitamin E supplementation in broiler chicken diets reduced the post-vaccine stress and improved the immune response without affecting the performance.


OBJECTIVES
To cope with medical terms, which present a high variability of expression through a single natural language, in the sense that any term may be reformulated in hundred of different ways.

METHODS
A typology of term variants is presented as a systematic approach in order to favour the implementation of an exhaustive solution. Then, an algorithm able to handle all variants is designed.

RESULTS
Using MetaMap, single terms are analyzed with a success rate varying between 68 and 88 %; the algorithm presented in this paper improves this situation.

CONCLUSIONS
This experience shows that a semantic driven method, based on a thesaurus, provides a satisfactory solution to the problem of variability of a single term. The presented typology is representative of most variants in a language.


OBJECTIVE
To study the expression profiles and the role of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIγ (CaMKIIγ) during osteoclast differentiation.
 Methods: Mouse RAW264.7 cells were induced for osteoclastogenesis with 50 ng/mL receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) and the cells were harvested at 0, 1, 3 and 5 days after induction. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphotase staining was performed to verify osteoclasts formation. RT-PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescent cytochemistry were used to detect the CaMKIIγ gene expression during osteoclastogenesis.
 Results: The osteoclasts were formed at day 3 under RANKL induction and more osteoclasts were observed at day 5. At day 0, 1, 3 and 5, the relative level of CaMKIIγ mRNA were (1.067±0.179), (1.840±0.070), (9.493±0.453) and (30.767±0.573), respectively, and the relative protein level were (0.454±0.065), (0.613±0.021), (0.858±0.019) and (0.980±0.023), respectively. CaMKIIγ expression was increased in a time-dependent manner except relative protein level at day 1 (P<0.01), which showed no significant difference at day 0 (P>0.05). Immunofluorescence assay showed that CaMKIIγ protein was also increased with differentiation of osteoclasts.
 Conclusion: The CaMKIIγ expression was increased in a time-depended manner during osteoclast differentiation and it might play a vital role during osteoclastogenesis.


An in silico target prediction protocol for antitubercular (antiTB) compounds has been proposed in this work. This protocol is the extension of a recently published 'domain fishing model' (DFM), validating its predicted targets on a set of 42 common antitubercular drugs. For the 23 antiTB compounds of the set which are directly linked to targets (see text for definition), the DFM exhibited a very good target prediction accuracy of 95%. For 19 compounds indirectly linked to targets also, a reasonable pathway/embedded pathway prediction accuracy of 84% was achieved. Since mostly eukaryotic ligand binding data was used for the DFM generation, the high target prediction accuracy for prokaryotes (which is an extrapolation from the training data) was unexpected and provides an additional proof of concept of the DFM. To estimate the general applicability of the model, ligand-target coverage analysis was performed. Here, it was found that, although the DFM only modestly covers the entire TB proteome (32% of all proteins), it captures 70% of the proteome subset targeted by 42 common antiTB compounds, which is in agreement with the good predictive ability of the DFM for the targets of the compounds chosen here. In a prospective validation, the model successfully predicted the targets of new antiTB compounds, CBR-2092 and Amiclenomycin. Together, these findings suggest that in silico target prediction tools may be a useful supplement to existing, experimental target deconvolution strategies.


Objectives: We aim to compare the effectiveness of different drug treatments in improving recurrence in patients with chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH). Methods: Eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective trials were searched in PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase, from database inception to December 2021. After the available studies following inclusion and exclusion criteria were screened, the main outcome measures were strictly extracted. Taking the random-effects model, dichotomous data were determined and extracted by odds ratio (OR) with 95% credible interval (CrI), and a surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) was generated to calculate the ranking probability of comparative effectiveness among each drug intervention. Moreover, we used the node-splitting model to evaluate inconsistency between direct and indirect comparisons of our network meta-analysis (NMA). Funnel plots were used to evaluate publication bias. Results: From the 318 articles found during initial citation screening, 11 RCTs and 3 prospective trials (n = 3,456 participants) were ultimately included in our study. Our NMA results illustrated that atorvastatin + dexamethasone (ATO+DXM) (OR = 0.06, 95% CrI 0.01, 0.89) was the most effective intervention to improve recurrence in patients with CSDH (SUCRA = 89.40%, 95% CrI 0.29, 1.00). Four drug interventions [ATO+DXM (OR = 0.06, 95% CrI 0.01, 0.89), DXM (OR = 0.18, 95% CrI 0.07, 0.41), tranexamic acid (TXA) (OR = 0.26, 95% CrI 0.07, 0.41), and ATO (OR = 0.41, 95% CrI 0.12, 0.90)] achieved statistical significance in improving recurrence in CSDH patients compared with the placebo (PLB) or standard neurosurgical treatment (SNT) group. Conclusion: Our NMA showed that ATO+DXM, DXM, ATO, and TXA had definite efficacy in improving recurrence in CSDH patients. Among them, ATO+DXM is the best intervention for improving recurrence in patients with CSDH in this particular population. Multicenter rigorous designed prospective randomized trials are still needed to evaluate the role of various drug interventions in improving neurological function or outcome. Systematic Review Registration: (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=299491), identifier (CRD 42022299491).


Bursectomised chickens were protected against Marek's disease (MD) by vaccination with inactivated MD virus-specific antigens. The immunity was associated with lowered lymphocyte-associated MD viraemia following challenge. Evidence is presented that the immunity was not dependent on a humoral immune response but possibly on the presence of lymphocytes sensitised to virus-specific antigens.


On railway or polyphase power systems having a multiplicity of parallel lines, there are unique possibilities in superimposing on the lines a frequency of the magnitude of 500 cycles, (together with the consequent apparatus), to gain selective protection under all fault conditions. The principle suggested is to measure the impedance of the power system with 500-cycle current and high-frequency relays, so placed that under abnormal conditions the impedance of a faulty line, as measured by the relays protecting that line only, is sufficiently low to cause circuit breaker operation. The advantages of such a protective system would be: 1. Perfect selectivity between parallel power lines, such that a faulty line may be isolated without disturbing other lines. 2. Instantaneous operation. S. Simultaneous operation of protective breakers at the two ends of a faulty line. 4. Protection of the line against short circuits or faults, but the avoidance of breaker operation on heavy overloads when the current rush may be greater than at short circuit. 5. A measure of the continuance of a fault, permitting automatic reclosing of circuit-breakers. This super-frequency control system brings to light a number of refreshing conceptions, and while it is not completely developed at this time, sufficient experimental work has been done to warrant presenting the results as a matter of technical interest.


Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006

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Bronchiolization of alveoli (BOA) is a histologically distinct lesion, which occurs in a variety of pathologic conditions, including inflammation, chemical irritation and exposure to carcinogens. Up to 12% of lung cancer resection specimens contain BOA suggesting that it is a pre-malignant lesion ( Jensen et al., Int. J. Cancer: 1998, 75, 489–496) . In the current study we used a previously characterized transgenic (TG) mouse model ( Wang et al., Proc. AACR : 2004, Vol.45 ) to study the mechanism of BOA. We show that both human and TG mouse BOA lesions express markers of airway epithelial cells including Clara cell specific protein CC10, ciliated cell marker β-tubulin, keratins 8 and 18 but are negative for alveolar type II cell marker SP-C, suggesting that BOA is derived from bronchiolar cells. Moreover, TG mouse BOA revealed high levels of matrilysin (matrix metalloprotein 7; MMP-7) mRNA and protein, which is frequently expressed by migrating cells and precancerous lesions. Matrilysin was absent in wild type airway epithelium. We also detected matrilysin immunoreactivity in human lungs: in 8 out of 8 cancers, 5 out of 20 BOAs while adjacent normal airway revealed minimal reactivity. To further investigate the function of matrilysin in BOA we transfected the full length cDNA gene into immortalized human bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells (BEAS-2B and HPL1D, respectively). The level of matrilysin, which is a secretory MMP, increased markedly in the culture media of the transfected BEAS-2B (5.6 fold) and HPL1D (2.3 fold) cells compared to controls when analyzed by ELISA assay. Both transfected cell lines also revealed increased cell growth after 3 days. In order to examine if matrilysin facilitates invasion, BEAS-2B and HPL1D cells were treated by various concentrations of active recombinant human matrilysin (1μM, 5 μM and 25 μM) which resulted in increasing invasion indices. We conclude that BOA is composed of bronchiolar type cells which may acquire a premalignant phenotype of increased growth and invasion through expression of matrilysin.


VOLUME ONE: LEADING CREATIVE PEOPLE Part One: Creative Work Organization Strategy and Structural Differences for Radical versus Incremental Innovation - John Ettlie, William Bridges and Robert O'Keefe Organizational Innovation and Performance: The Problem of 'Organizational Lag' - Fariborz Damanpour and William Evan Technology Brokering and Innovation in a Product Development Firm - Andrew Hargadon and Robert Sutton Toward a Theory of Organizational Creativity - Richard Woodman, John Sawyer and Ricky Griffin Managing Strategic Contradictions: A Top Management Model for Managing Innovation - Wendy Smith and Michael Tushman Part Two: Creative People The Role of Intellectual Factors in Problem Solving - P. Merrifield et al. Creativity Syndrome: Integration, Application, and Innovation - Michael Mumford and Sigrid Gustafson A Meta-Analysis of Personality in Scientific and Artistic Creativity - Gregory Feist Hedonic Tone and Activation Level in the Mood-Creativity Link: Toward a Dual Pathway to Creativity Model - Carsten De Dreu, Matthijs Baas and Bernard Nijstad Creative Self-Efficacy Development and Creative Performance over Time - Pamela Tierney and Steven Farmer Part Three: Creative Leaders Leading Creative People: Orchestrating Expertise and Relationships - Michael Mumford et al. Divergent Thinking, Intelligence, and Expertise: A Test of Alternative Models - Andrea Vincent, Brian Decker and Michael Mumford Planning and Uncertainty in New Product Development - Cristoph Stockstrom and Cornelius Herstatt Multilevel Theorizing about Creativity in Organizations: A Sensemaking Perspective - Robert Drazin, Mary Ann Glynn and Robert Kazanjian Bridging the Boundary: External Activity and Performance in Organizational Teams - Deborah Ancona and David Caldwell Models in Action: How Management Models Are Interpreted in New Product Development - Mats Engwall, Ragnar Kling and Andreas Werr VOLUME TWO: LEADING CREATIVE EFFORTS Part One: Performance Interactions Influence Styles of Project Managers: Some Project Performance Correlates - Hans Thamhain and Gary Gemmill Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance - Robert Keller Success Factors of Product Innovation: An Updated Meta-Analysis - Heiner Evanschitzky et al. Applying Adaptive Leadership to Successful Change Initiatives in Academia - Linda Randall and Lori Coakley Part Two: Follower Interactions Linking Empowering Leadership and Employee Creativity: The Influence of Psychological Empowerment, Intrinsic Motivation, and Creative Process Engagement - Xiaomeng Zhang and Kathryn Bartol An Examination of Leadership and Employee Creativity: The Relevance of Traits and Relationships - Pamela Tierney, Steven Farmer and George Graen Teamwork for Innovation - The 'Troika' of Promoters - Jurgen Hauschildt and Edgar Kirchmann Explaining the Heterogeneity of the Leadership-Innovation Relationship: Ambidextrous Leadership - Kathrin Rosing, Michael Frese and Andreas Bausch Charismatic, Ideological, and Pragmatic Leaders' Influence on Subordinate Creative Performance across the Creative Process - Jeffrey Lovelace and Samuel Hunter Part Three: Organizational Interactions The Human Side of Radical Innovation - Gina O'Conner and Christopher McDermott Champions of Technological Innovation: The Influence of Contextual Knowledge, Role Orientation, Idea Generation, and Idea Promotion on Champion Emergence - Jane Howell and Kathleen Boies The Effect of Team Leader Characteristics on Learning, Knowledge Application, and Performance of Cross-Functional New Product Development Teams - Shikhar Sarin and Christopher McDermott VOLUME ONE: CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON CREATIVE LEADERSHIP Part One: The Profession The Interplay between Exploration and Exploitation - Anil Gupta, Ken Smith and Christina Shalley New Products: What Separates Winners from Losers? - R. Cooper and E. Kleinschmidt The Geographic Sources of Innovation: Technological Infrastructure and Product Innovation in the United States - Maryann Feldman and Richard Florida Part Two: The Firm Economic Determinants of Organizational Innovation - Martin Rosner Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation - Wesley Cohen and Daniel Levinthal Interfirm Collaboration Networks: The Impact of Large-Scale Network Structure on Firm Innovation - Melissa Schilling and Corey Phelps The Performance of Incumbent Firms in the Face of Radical Technological Innovation - Charles Hill and Frank Rothaermel Responding to Rivals and Complements: How Market Concentration Shapes Generational Product Innovation Strategy - Scott Turner, Will Mitchell and Richard Bettis More Similar than Different: A Study of Cooperative Product Innovation with Multiple External Stakeholders - Tania Von der Heidt and Don Scott Leadership and Innovation in Organizations: A Systematic Review of Factors That Mediate or Moderate the Relationship - Leif Denti and Sven Hemlin The Joint Behavior of Perceived Influence and Supervisor Supportiveness on Employee Innovative Behavior - Onne Janssen Incremental Effects of Reward on Experienced Performance Pressure: Positive Outcomes for Intrinsic Interest and Creativity - Robert Eisenberger and Justin Aselage Part Three: The Project Variations in Critical Success Factors over the Stages in the Project Life Cycle - Jeffrey Pinto and John Prescott Team-Level Predictors of Innovation at Work: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Spanning Three Decades of Research - Ute Hulsheger, Neil Anderson and Jesus Salgado Understanding Team Innovation: The Role of Team Processes and Structures - Anat Drach-Zahavy and Anit Somech Project Management Characteristics and New Product Survival - R. Jeffrey Thieme, Michael Song and Geon-Cheol Shin Climate for Creativity: A Quantitative Review - Samuel Hunter, Katrina Bedell and Michael Mumford Technological Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Use of Organizational Control in Managing Research and Development - Laura Cardinal The Dynamics of the Adoption of Product and Process Innovations in Organizations - Fariborz Damanpour and Shanthi Gopalakrishnan


Focused laser differential interferometry (FLDI) is used to measure a well-characterized, 17 kHz screech tone emitted from an underexpanded Mach 1.5 jet. Measurements are made at numerous spatial locations in and around the jet flow-field, where intrusive diagnostics would otherwise influence the flow-field. Results from FLDI measurements are shown to agree with measurements from microphones and analyses of high-speed schlieren. The agreement is used to demonstrate FLDI is a valid and accurate technique for measuring screech tones in jet flow-fields, and furthermore that FLDI can be used to measure jet screech at various spatial locations around the jet, and notably inside of the jet, where microphones and other intrusive diagnostics cannot be used effectively.


A revision of the alien Erigeron L. species formerly included in Conyza Less. found in the central-northern Iberian Peninsula is presented. A close examination of numerous specimens collected by the authors as well as voucher specimens preserved at several herbaria has helped clarify several aspects regarding this group. Four species have been recognised in the study area: Erigeron canadensis (=Conyza canadensis), E. bonariensis (=C. bonariensis), E. sumatrensis (=C. sumatrensis) and E. floribundus (=C. floribunda, including C. bilbaoana). They occupy anthropogenic habitats, such as road edges, abandoned fields, crops and waste ground, as well as natural and semi-natural communities, such as nitrophilous river bar communities and ruderal communities on coastal dunes subjected to substantial levels of anthropogenic disturbance. Erigeron sumatrensis and E. floribundus emerge as the two most frequent taxa. Erigeron canadensis, regarded in the past as the most widespread species of the group, is almost absent from the study area, especially from the Atlantic watershed. Furthermore, an important number of specimens previously identified as E. bonariensis do actually correspond to E. sumatrensis. No hybrids have been found. A detailed identification key highlighting the main features that help to separate the four Erigeron species is presented. Finally, as E. floribundus is the most controversial species in the group and the last to arrive, a study of its expansion across western Europe in the last century is included, where it has become a frequent alien especially along the Atlantic regions.


The problem of selecting a crisp element based upon a fuzzy set is investigated. It is noted that the defuzzification problem in fuzzy logic control is a special case of this problem. The given fuzzy subset is considered as a set of pieces of advice where the strengths of the advice is the membership grade. This problem is formulated in terms of a generalized expected value, an aggregation problem, by using the fuzzy integral. Ways to convert the fuzzy set into a fuzzy measure are shown. Different structures for the calculation of best action are developed. >


We report the fabrication and testing of a riboflavin (RF) biosensor based on the use of Cr doped SnO2 nanoparticles. The Cr-SnO2 nanoparticles with chromium concentration from 0 to 5 wt% were synthesised by a microwave irradiation method. Magnetic studies revealed that only 3 wt% Cr doped nano-SnO2 has ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature. This Cr-SnO2 nanoparticles modified electrode responded to RF linearly over a concentration range of 0.2 × 10(-6) to 1.0 × 10(-4) M with a detection limit of 107 nM. The fabricated sensor showed an excellent anti-interference ability against electroactive species and metal ions and proved to be useful for the estimation of the RF content in pharmaceutical samples with satisfactory recovery.


Traditionally, electricity networks are dimensioned on peak demand. This is inevitable due to the fact that storage of substantial amounts of electricity is technically and economically infeasible. As a result, a vast amount of currently unused network capacity is available. When this could be used, much more energy could be transported with the same network so that investments on network reinforcements could be postponed or omitted. To this end, it must be possible to shift demand for electricity in time or, more precisely, to shift the transport of electricity in time. In principle, this can be done by incorporating (distributed) electricity storage in the networks. This paper attempts to summarize the current state of knowledge regarding energy storage technologies for electric power grid. It is intended to serve as a reference for policymakers interested in understanding the range of technologies and applications associated with energy storage, comparing them, when possible, in a structured way to highlight key characteristics relevant to widespread use.


Selective Catalyst Reduction(SCR) Urea Dosing System(UDS) directly affects the system accuracy and the dynamic response performance of a vehicle. However, the UDS dynamic response is hard to keep up with the changes of the engine's operating conditions. That will lead to low NOX conversion efficiency or NH3 slip. In order to optimize the injection accuracy and the response speed of the UDS in dynamic conditions, an advanced control strategy based on an air-assisted volumetric UDS is presented. It covers the methods of flow compensation and switching working conditions. The strategy is authenticated on an UDS and tested in different dynamic conditions. The result shows that the control strategy discussed results in higher dynamic accuracy and faster dynamic response speed of UDS. The inject deviation range is improved from being between −8% and 10% to −4% and 2% and became more stable than before, and the dynamic response time was shortened from 200 ms to 150 ms. The ETC cycle result shows that after using the new strategy the NH3 emission is reduced by 60%, and the NOX emission remains almost unchanged. The trade-off between NOX conversion efficiency and NH3 slip is mitigated. The studied flow compensation and switching working conditions can improve the dynamic performance of the UDS significantly and make the UDS dynamic response keep up with the changes of the engine's operating conditions quickly.


In this article, the authors discuss the small learning community or small high schools literature and the issues surrounding the dismantling of large high schools. Next, the authors describe inclusive education and its apparent relationship to the creation of small learning communities. The authors bridge the gap between the intent of small learning communities and secondary inclusive education. Then, the authors delineate the possible benefits of explicitly linking special education (i.e., secondary inclusive education) and small learning communities. Finally, several research implications of making a link between inclusive education and small learning communities are discussed.


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

The NF-κB Pathway is Constitutively Active in Endometrial Cancer

Metastatic endometrial cancer (EC) is a disease for which therapeutic options are limited and prognosis is poor. Although 75% of endometrial cancers are diagnosed at an early stage and cured by surgery, 15-20% develop metastases and die from their disease. Uterine papillary serous carcinoma (UPSC) occurs in less than 10% of patients, but has a worse clinical outcome. Prior studies suggest that NF-kB signaling may play a role in UPSC. We therefore proceeded with a detailed investigation of the NF-κB pathway in EC.

Methods: A set of 11 endometrial cancer cell lines, representing endometrioid EC and UPSC, were tested for sensitivity to a specific inhibitor of IKKβ after 3 days of drug treatment using XTT assay. Western blot was used to assess changes in NF-κB proteins after treatment of sensitive UPSC cell lines ARK-1 and ACI-126 with IKKβ inhibitor over a time series ranging from 15 min to 24h. RNA was extracted from ARK-1 and ACI-126 cell lines after 48h treatment with IKK-2 inhibitor IV or DMSO control, and after transfection of the same cell lines with IκBα super-repressor or empty vector control. RNA was hybridized to Affymetrix U133 Plus2.0 microarray platform for gene expression profiling and the data was analyzed using mAdb. Gene and protein expression was examined in patient samples to verify biologic relevance.

Results: Six of 11 cell lines were sensitive to IKKβ inhibitor with IC50s ranging between 4 and 10uM. The highest sensitivity occurred in two UPSC cell lines ARK-1 and ACI-126. Following pharmacologic IKKβ inhibition, nuclear levels of NF-κB p65 decreased by 3h and began to increase again from 6h to 24h. Cytoplasmic NF-κB p65 increased from 15 min to 3h and then began to fall. Gene expression profiling after IKKβ inhibition, either by drug treatment or by mutant IkBa super-repressor, revealed an overlapping gene signature in the two UPSC cell lines. The genes were co-expressed across the gene expression profiles of patients with EC, and were significantly highest in African American women with UPSC.

Conclusions: There is aberrant signaling through the NF-κB pathway in a subset of EC. An IKKβ target gene signature shows that this pathway is most relevant in African American women with UPSC. Therefore, targeting NF-kB may provide a novel treatment strategy for this underserved population with a rare variant of EC.

Citation Format: Anne M. Noonan, Yovanni Casablanca, George L. Maxwell, Christina M. Annunziata. The NF-kB pathway is constitutively active in endometrial cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2007. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2007


AIM To characterize AXL receptor tyrosine kinase (AXL) expression in relationship to tumor protein P53 (TP53 gene, p53 protein) and its role in tumor invasion and response to therapy. METHODS We used 14 cell lines, including 3 isogenic pairs carrying mutant/knockout p53, to gain insight into the relationship between AXL and TP53. These included HCT116, HCT116.p53 mutant, RKO, and RKO.p53-/- lines (all from colon cancers) as well as breast cancer cell lines MCF7 and 1001 (MCF7-p53 mutant clone). HeLa cell line was used as a positive control for epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). AXL expression was determined by Western blotting using rabbit monoclonal antibody clone C89E7. AXL siRNA silencing was performed and followed by collagen invasion assay. Cell viability analysis using the sulforhodamine B assay and the invasion assay were performed after exposure to chemotherapeutic agents (doxorubicin for breast cancer cells; 5FU or irinotecan for colon cancer cells). RESULTS We showed that the introduction of p53 mutations or knockout increased expression levels of AXL in isogenic cells compared to the matching p53 wild-type parental cells. Overall, we found a trend for correlation between the potential EMT candidate AXL, p53 alterations, and EMT markers in colorectal and breast cancers. The expression of AXL in RKO cells, a rare colon cancer cell line with inactive Wnt signaling, suggests that the AXL oncogene might provide an alternative genetic pathway for colorectal carcinogenesis in the absence of Wnt signaling activation and TP53 mutation. AXL silencing in the TP53 mutant isogenic cell lines 1001, HCT116.p53 mutant and RKO.P53-/- was > 95% efficient and the silenced cells were less invasive compared to the parental TP53 wild-type cells. AXL silencing showed a subtle trend to restore colon cancer cell sensitivity to 5FU or irinotecan. Importantly, AXL expressing cells developed more invasive potential after exposure to chemotherapy compared to the AXL-silenced cells. CONCLUSION AXL is influenced by p53 status and could cause the emergence of aggressive clones after exposure to chemotherapy. These findings could have applications in cancer management.


Furfuryl glycidyl ether (FGE) represents a highly versatile monomer for the preparation of reversibly cross-linkable nanostructured materials via Diels-Alder reactions. Here, the use of FGE for the mid-chain functionalization of a P2VP-b-PEO diblock copolymer is reported. The material features one furan moiety at the block junction, P2VP68 -FGE-b-PEO390 , which can be subsequently addressed in Diels-Alder reactions using maleimide-functionalized counterparts. The presence of the FGE moiety enables the introduction of dyes as model labels or the formation of hetero-grafted brushes as shell on hybrid Au@Polymer nanoparticles. This renders P2VP68 -FGE-b-PEO390 , a powerful tool for selective functionalization reactions, including the modification of surfaces.


Solar absorption decays exponentially with depth in snowpacks. However, most climate models constrain all snowpack absorption to occur uniformly in the top‐most snow layer. We show that 20–45% of solar absorption by deep snowpacks occurs more than 2 cm beneath the surface. Accounting for vertically‐resolved solar heating alters steady‐state snow mass without changing bulk snow albedo, and ice‐albedo feedback amplifies this effect. Vertically‐resolved snowpack heating reduces winter snow mass on the Tibetan Plateau by 80% in one GCM, and significantly increases 2 m air temperature. These changes significantly reduce model‐measurement discrepancies. Our results demonstrate that snowpack radiative heating plays a significant role in regulating surface climate and hydrology. More accurate snowpack radiation has the potential to improve predictions of related climate processes, such as spring runoff and the Asian Monsoon.


Data recorded during faults in transmission network are used by control centre personnel to analyze the protection system and to decide on remedial actions that will restore normal network operation as fast as possible. The increasing number of installed digital fault recorders (DFRs) and other intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in substations has resulted in a large number of fault records to be analyzed by the power system engineer. Manual analysis of these records is both time-consuming and complex and for these reasons, many records may not be examined and much of their potential value would be lost. Determining how to make effective analysis of these records is a challenge being faced by many power utilities. The main purpose of this paper is to propose enhancements to the manual investigation of faults and disturbances that currently are performed by engineers in the Indonesian power utilities. In this paper, a new software framework for Automated Fault Analysis is proposed based on Application Service Provider (ASP) technology, which has lately received special attention in the development of distributed systems. Demonstrations of the following services currently implemented in the ASP are presented: signal pre-processing, fault analysis and protection performance analysis. The fault scenario from South Sulawesi transmission system is investigated to test the feature of the services.


In order to determine the digestibility of different levels of Sprouted Barley (SB) (0, 15, 30 and 45%), 16 adult male sheep by completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 4 replications, were used. Measuring of dry matter and protein degradability parameters of the SB was achieved from 3 rumen cannulated Taleshi breed bulls. The mean and standard deviation of chemical composition of SB including dry matter, crud protein, crude ash, crude fat, neutral detergent fiber, starch, soluble carbohydrates, Ca and P were 52.63±0.005, 10.31±0.58, 2.53±0.25, 2.78±0.15, 20.11±0.53, 44.77±1.47, 17.35±0.95, 0.096±0.006 and 0.402±0.004 % in DM, respectively. In addition, the Gross Energy was obtained 4296±102 Mcal/g. The mean of CP, CF, OM, soluble carbohydrates and GE for SB were significantly higher than barley grain (P<0.05). The mean of digestibility of DM, OM, CP, GE, NDF and DE for germinated barley obtained using difference procedure were 75.08, 81.95, 62.75, 77.66, 54.03 % and 3.34 Mcal/gr, respectively. Digestibility of NDF, GE and DE were increased (P<0.05). The degradable parameters of germinated barely for rapidly degradable fraction (a), slowly degradable fraction (b), rate of degradation (c) for dray matter were 35.19, 51.32 and 24.62 percent per hour.


With the renewed interest in using chymopapain (CP) as a chemonucleolytic agent for treatment of sciatica and low-back pain, the present study was undertaken to investigate the biomechanical property changes in canine lumbar discs after CP injections. The short-term (30- to 120-minute) in vitro effects of such an enzymatic agent appear to be the same as those of saline solution, causing increased disc heights, stiffness values, and creep rates. In the in vivo study, after three weeks, CP-injected discs had significant reductions in disc height and compressive stiffness, but the creep rate was increased substantially. However, at three months after injection, these biomechanical properties began to reverse and approached those of the uninjected controls. Buffer solution (cysteine and EDTA) was tried, but the sample size was too small to provide conclusive information. The results suggest that CP causes a disc to change its material property, but such effects appear to be time-related.


We report a 22-year-old female with a history of contusion of bilateral occipital lobes at the age of 1 year. Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed severe lesion in bilateral striate cortices which should have resulted in cortical blindness. However, she displayed a fairly good visual function presenting only cerebral asthenopia and the restriction of the visual field. A positron emission tomography revealed that no areas other than the primary visual cortices responded to visual stimuli. Thus, her residual vision may be attributable to plasticity of the visual cortex in humans.


Renal stones in the modern era are most commonly treated with minimally invasive techniques and using endourological procedures. However, for more complex cases, there is renewed interest in exploring laparoscopic or robotic techniques that can offer patients significant benefits over otherwise multiple endourologic or open surgical intervention. In clinical circumstances with anomalous anatomy, indication for concomitant reconstruction, or previously failed endourological intervention, robotic and laparoscopic approaches may offer suitable, if not more effective, treatment options.


Introduction.The problems of congestion, ecology, and road safety in most of Russia's major cities have been accumulated in the paper. Strategic planning documents aimed at updating the gene plan, improving the transport and route network, improving traffic safety, improving environmental performance and accessibility for people with disabilities are sent for such important problems solution. The paper presents the results of the scientific research conducted in large cities of Russia. Moreover, the review of the literature is presented, and the achievements of foreign science are taken into account.Materials and methods. Modern approaches to improving the system of public transport are given, the efficiency of high-speed transport modes, the organization of transport services for the disabled and low-mobility groups, traffic safety, ecology, and the implementation of the "Transport Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2030" are approved. As a criterion for the efficiency of improving the transport infrastructure, the level of its loading by various modes of transport is used.Results.The problems of influence of the city form on the formation of the transport frame, of the density of settlement and of the efficiency of urban development are considered. New methods of predicting the transport demand of the population, the level of the transport systems' development and assessing accessibility are proposed. Therefore, the developed algorithms and recommendations for reducing the volume of transport infrastructure helps to improve its performance and availability. Such effect is achieved through the redistribution of transport and passenger flows between different modes of transport.Discussion and conclusion.The authors comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to improve the regulatory and methodological base of the transport industry constantly, improving the performance of the transport infrastructure of modern cities.


In order to study the effects of post-anthesis heat stress and nitrogen levels on grain yield and yield components of wheat genotypes, two separate field experiments were conducted in delayed and optimum sowing dates under Ahvaz conditions (2006-2007). The Ahvaz site located in south west of Iran (3220 N, 4020 E) with subtropical climate condition. The experiment site had a moderate winter and dry and hot summer. Plants in delayed sowing date experienced heat stress at post-an thesis growth stage. Each split-polt experiment had a randomized complete block design with three replications. The application rates of N at three levels (50, 100, and 150 KgNha) were assigned in main-plots. Sub-plots were consisted of six bread and durum wheat genotypes. The results indicated that the grain yield reduction in 50 and 100 KgNha compared with 150 KgNha treatments was 41% and 21% under optimum and 44% and 26% under heat stress conditions, respectively. In all genotypes, grain yield and 1000-grain weight (TGW) reduction under post-anthesis heat stress conditions was 33% and 42%, respectively. The highest and the lowest grain yield reduction due to heat stress were observed in Star (39%) and Vee/Nac (27%) genotypes. The Grain yield reduction in nitrogen deficiency treatments and post-anthesis heat stress was due to significant reduction in number of grains. m and TGW, respectively. In nitrogen deficiency treatments grain number per area was reduced due to reduction in number of fertile florets. Spikelets, spikes. m, and spikelets. spike. Further research are recommended for full understanding the effects of heat stress and low N level on yield and yield components of recommended wheat genotypes under agroclimatic conditions such as south west of Iran.


This paper introduces a new hierarchical analysis methodology which incorporates approximation strategies during the analysis process. Consequently, the circuit sizes that can be analyzed increase dramatically, without suffering from the combinatorial explosion of expression complexity. Moreover the interpretability and usability in practical applications is enabled by providing analytical models that keep complexity at a minimum with the prescribed accuracy.


Ninety‐six cutaneous melanomas (CMs) were investigated aiming at finding differences, if any, among tbe main four chnicopatho‐logical types, for Bcl‐2. c‐myc and p53 protein expression, and for tumor cell proliferation and death indices. Proliferation was assessed by calculating die mitotic index (MI, number of mitoses) and the MIBl labelling index (M‐LI, number of MIBI+ nuclei), and tumor cell death by calculating tbe apoptotic index (AI, number of apoptoses) among 1000 tumor cells. CMs were subdivided into thin (<1 mm) and intermediate thickness (1‐4 mm) tumors. Bcl‐2 expression did not significantly change among different types, c‐myc Expression decreased expecially in thicker superficial spreading (SSM) and lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM) types. p53 Expression was higher in nodular melanoma (NM) and in acral lentigiuous melanoma(ALM), which also showed the highest degrees of proliferation. AI was significantly higher in thin rather than in intermediate thickness SSMs, LMMs and ALMs (8.4 vs. 2; 6.1 vs. 2.3. and 5.8 vs. 3.6, respectively). AI was low in thin (1.7) and intermediate thickness (1.9) NMs. Which also showed high MI (3.9 and 4.5, respectively), and M‐LI (16.7 and 2.9, respectively). Thin and intermediate thickness ALMs also showed high MI and M‐LI (4.1 vs. 5.2 and 11.3 vs. 14.6, respectively). Bcl‐2 is among genes which inhibit apopiotic death, whereas c‐myc and p‐53 genes promote this process. In CMs. no relation was found between BcI‐2 expression, MI, PI, and AI. All SSMs, LMMs, and ALMs with a high AI showed a high c‐myc expression and were negative for p53. c‐myc, Although highly expressed, did not promote a significant apoptotic death in NM type. Bc12, c‐myc, and p53 were not equally expressed nor equally related to tumor cell turnover in all CMs, suggesting their different influence on the various types and stages, and the role of other factors in CM growth control.


The effects of belonging to sports clubs on male high school students was evaluated. The relationships between the type and extent of school-based exercise were examined in conjunction with percent body fat, blood pressure (BP), and other key metabolic parameters. A total of 264 male Japanese high school students (age range: 17-18 years old) were studied. Percent body fat was measured and blood was collected in the fasting state during a routine health check. Subjects were divided into two groups. The exercise (E) group (n=150) included students who had belonged to a sports club during the past 2 years. The non-exercise (NE) group (n=114) included students who did not belong to a sports club during the past 2 years. The body mass index was significantly greater in group E (21.7 +/- 2.3 (SD) kg/m2) than in group NE (20.7 +/- 2.6 kg/m2, p < 0.01). However, the percent body fat in group E (13.6 +/- 3.4%) was significantly lower than that in group NE (14.9 +/- 3.8%, p < 0.01). The diastolic BP and heart rate in group E (64 +/- 7 mmHg, 70 +/- 11/min) were significantly lower in group E than in group NE (66 +/- 8 mmHg, p < 0.05; 76 +/- 14/min, p < 0.01). The serum triglyceride level was significantly lower, and the HDL cholesterol level was higher in group E than in group NE. The homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) index, used as an index of insulin resistance, was similar in the two groups. However, the level of the HOMA index was significantly lower among the 62 subjects in group E who preferred highly dynamic exercise (1.50 +/- 0.46) than it was among those in group NE (1.66 +/- 0.49, p < 0.05). Results indicate that belonging to sports clubs influences the BP and lipid profiles of adolescent males, as well as their percent body fat. In view of the reduction of cardiovascular risk factors, it is recommended that even young males practice regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise.


This is the eighth paper of a series of papers that will give a survey on several topics on formal languages and automata by using semirings, formal power series, matrices and xed point theory. The seventh paper of this series deals with tree (series) automata and systems of equations over tree. The main topics of the paper are the following. 1. Pushdown tree automata, whose behaviors are tree series over a semiring, and algebraic tree systems are equivalent; moreover, the class of algebraic tree series is characterized by algebraic tree series expressions (a Kleene result). 2. The class of recognizable tree series is closed under nondeterðministic simple recognizable tree series transductions. 3. The families of recognizable tree series and of algebraic tree series are full abstract families of tree series (full AFTs). 4. The macro power series, a generalization of the indexed languages, and the algebraic power series are exactly the yields of algebraic tree series and of recognizable tree series, respectively; there is a Kleene result for macro power series; the yield of a full AFT is a full abstract family of power series.


Bronchogenic carcinoma may produce signs and symptoms by three different mechanisms: (1) local extension within the lung, (2) metastasis, or (3) by producing systemic effects unrelated to the spread of the tumor. 14-16 This brief review will outline some of these systemic effects, which may occasionally represent the first manifestation of the disease. None of these systemic manifestations is specific, in that all may be found in association with malignant lesions of other organs. An arbitrary classification is given in Table 3. Metabolic Manifestations The most frequent metabolic abnormality found in carcinoma of the lung is wasting of the host. The cause of the marked weakness and weight loss which may accompany a small, localized malignancy is not clear. Most recent attention has been directed to a number of rather well-defined endocrine syndromes which may be produced by nonendocrine tumors, of which bronchogenic carcinoma is one of the most frequent.


Because the motion of a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite across the sky causes the Earth-space path to very quickly pass through any rain cells in the vicinity, the degree of rain fading on such paths changes more rapidly and leads to steeper fade slopes than in the geostationary case. Because comprehensive measurement data have not yet been compiled for fading on LEO links in the Ka-band, we have used simulations based on Goldhirsh's method for determining the key parameters of the well-known EXCELL model of a horizontal rain structure from long-term global rain statistics to obtain plausible estimates of the fade slope distributions for selected scenarios. The results that we obtained for geostationary satellites closely match those observed at selected sites during the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite program. The results that we obtained for LEO satellites show how fade slopes will steepen as 1) the altitude of the satellite decreases; 2) the frequency band of operation increases; and 3) the average rain rate increases. Furthermore, they suggest that, at a given probability level, the fade slopes could be between two and ten times greater than those for geostationary satellites and that mobile terminals with a clear view of the sky will experience fade slopes that are similar to those encountered by fixed or transportable terminals. These results have important implications for the design of power control algorithms and other fade-mitigation techniques.


In our previous work [1, 2], we trained an HMM-based speech recognizer without transcription or any knowledge or resources. The trained HMM recognizer was used to transcribe audio into self-organized units (SOUs) and we evaluated its performance on the task of topic identification. In this paper, we report our work in applying SOUs to discover audio patterns in spoken documents without supervision. By recognizing audio into SOUs which are sound-like units, the discovery for common audio patterns can be carried out extremely efficiently over a large corpus, without dynamic programming comparisons as proposed by earlier work [3]. Experiments were performed on Mandarin conversational telephone speech using both the one-best SOU token sequences and SOU consensus networks. We show that using SOU as keys to audio patterns, we can discover frequently spoken words with good purity.


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) complicating bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) worsens clinical outcomes in former preterm infants. Increased serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) signaling plays a prominent role in PH pathogenesis and progression in adults. We hypothesized that increased 5-HT signaling contributes to the pathogenesis of neonatal PH, complicating BPD and neonatal lung injury. Thus, we investigated 5-HT signaling in neonatal mice exposed to bleomycin, previously demonstrated to induce PH and alveolar simplification. Newborn wild-type mice received intraperitoneal PBS, ketanserin (1 mg/kg), bleomycin (3 U/kg) or bleomycin (3 U/kg) plus ketanserin (1 mg/kg) three times weekly for 3 wk. Following treatment with bleomycin, pulmonary expression of the rate-limiting enzyme of 5-HT synthesis, tryptophan hydroxylase-1 (Tph1), was significantly increased. Bleomycin did not affect pulmonary 5-HT 2A receptor (R) expression, but did increase pulmonary gene expression of the 5-HT 2BR and serotonin transporter. Treatment with ketanserin attenuated bleomycin-induced PH (increased RVSP and RVH) and pulmonary vascular remodeling (decreased vessel density and increased muscularization of small vessels). In addition, we found that treatment with ketanserin activated pulmonary MAPK and Akt signaling in mice exposed to bleomycin. We conclude that 5-HT signaling is increased in a murine model of neonatal PH and pharmacological inhibition of the 5-HT 2AR protects against the development of PH in neonatal lung injury. We speculate this occurs through restoration of MAPK signaling and increased Akt signaling.


The factors favoring the use of fusion power are discussed, and recent progress is briefly outlined. The problems encountered in the quest for a commercially feasible reactor are examined; these include first-wall and blanket material problems and plasma heating. Details of major fusion test reactors around the world are given.


We examine steady flows of a thin film of viscous fluid on the inside of a cylinder with horizontal axis, rotating about this axis. If the amount of fluid in the cylinder is sufficiently small, all of it is entrained by rotation and the film is distributed more or less evenly. For medium amounts, the fluid accumulates on the 'rising' side of the cylinder and, for large ones, pools at the cylinder's bottom. The paper examines rimming flows with a pool affected by weak surface tension. Using the lubrication approximation and the method of matched asymptotics, we find a solution describing the pool, the 'outer' region, and two transitional regions, one of which includes a variable (depending on the small parameter) number of asymptotic zones.


Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), time-resolved fluorescence quenching (TRFQ), electrophoretic NMR (ENMR), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) have been used to study mixed micelles formed from the two dodecyl tailed surfactants, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and tetra(ethylene oxide) dodecyl ether. By combining the TRFQ and EPR techniques, one is essentially able to calculate the SANS data, lending significant weight to the micelle characteristics thus obtained. EPR reports the degree of hydration of the surfactant headgroups; TRFQ, the micelle aggregation number and inter alia the volume of the hydrophobic core. Given the physical dimensions of the surfactant, i.e., alkyl chain length, headgroup volumes, etc., it is then possible to calculate the micelle ellipticity and shell thickness. The ENMR studies provide a rather different but complementary estimate of the ionic character of the micelle. With increasing nonionic content, the aggregation number increases, the micelle becomes more elliptical, and the headgroup region of the micelle becomes less hydrated and significantly more viscous. The degree of sodium counterion dissociation shows an initial small decrease with decreasing SDS micelle mole fraction but subsequently increases, reflecting the interplay between the electrostatic character of the micelle surface and the micelle curvature.


The hypothesis that loss of tissue mass in the foot contributes to foot ulceration in diabetics has never been quantitated. We developed normal criteria for the thickness of the sole of the foot at the heel, and the five metatarsal heads of both feet, using high-resolution ultrasound (10 MHz). We studied 24 normal patients ranging in weight from 125 to 250 lbs. We examined the soles of the feet of 38 diabetics without foot ulcers and 11 diabetics with foot ulcers or a history of foot ulcers who were in the same weight range as the normals. Of statistical significance, the heel thickness in controls was greater than that of the diabetics, which in turn was greater than that of the diabetics with foot ulcers. The thickness of the sole over the first and second metatarsals was also greater in the controls compared with diabetics. We conclude that high-resolution ultrasound is an effective determinant of the thickness of the sole of the foot and that diabetics have variations from the norm in the heel and at the first and second metatarsal heads.


A major challenge in the Internet is to deliver live video content with a good quality to large number of heterogeneous receivers. Layered multicast is a promising solution to accomplish this task efficiently. However, schemes using it suffer from slow convergence time, lack of inter-session fairness and TCP-friendliness, and considerable losses induced by slow response and failed join-experiments. This paper proposes a new Layered Multicast with Multilevel Congestion Marking (LM-MCM). A fundamental contribution of this scheme is introducing a multilevel congestion marking strategy (MCM) which enables a router to mark the congestion-flag field of each arriving LM-MCM packet according to the average queue size. Furthermore, based on the average congestion-flag, each receiver can improve/reduce the quality of service it receives to respond to the network congestion. We evaluated LM-MCM in a number of scenarios on NS2 simulator. The results show LM-MCM converges quickly to the optimal layer of subscription, induces less loss to track the available bandwidth, and has inter-session fairness and TCP-friendliness.


Background: In the UK, rates of neonatal postmortem (PM) are low. Consent for PM is required, and all parents should have the opportunity to discuss whether to have a post-mortem examination of their baby. Objectives: We aimed to explore neonatal healthcare professionals' experiences, knowledge, and views regarding the consent process for post-mortem examination after neonatal death. Method: An online survey of neonatal healthcare providers in the UK was conducted. Responses from 103 healthcare professionals were analysed, 84 of whom were doctors. The response rate of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) members was 11.7%. Results: Perceived barriers to PM included cultural and religious practices of parents as well as a lack of rapport between parents and professionals. Of the respondents, 69.4% had observed a PM; these professionals had improved satisfaction with their training and confidence in counselling (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) but not knowledge of the procedure (p = 0.77). Healthcare professionals reported conservative estimates of the likelihood that a PM would identify significant information regarding the cause of death. Conclusions: Confidence of neonatal staff in counselling could be improved by observing a PM. Training for staff in developing a rapport with parents and addressing emotional distress may also overcome significant barriers to consent for PM.


Privacy and anonymity are critical security issues to many large-scale MANET applications such as military communication networks. These applications are more likely deploying the networks heterogeneously and hierarchically due to administrative needs or routing efficiency. When the size of the network scales up, the routing overhead incurred by existing flat anonymous routing protocols increases fast as the required number of public key operations increases. This results in deteriorated routing and data communication performance. In this paper, we introduce a novel hierarchical anonymous on-demand routing protocol tackling this limitation. In addition to guaranteeing routing and data delivering security, the scheme provides two levels of anonymity: intra-group and inter-group. By exploiting the hierarchical network structure, it effectively controls computational overhead while preserving anonymity, hence accommodates to larger-scale MANETs


ABSTRACT An emerging line of research has begun to reveal that victims of crime share many characteristics with offenders, leading to the conclusion that the victim-offender overlap is quite substantial. Though research suggests victims and offenders are both likely to display signs of low self-control and to share certain lifestyle factors, few studies have sought to systematically analyze the various factors that converge (or diverge) across different groups: victims, offenders, victim-offenders, and total abstainers. Using data obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we examined the risk factors associated with being classified into each of the four groups. Results revealed that victim-offenders—compared to others—tended to have the highest scores on risk factors for victimization and offending. Conversely, total abstainers tended to score the lowest on measures considered risk factors. Respondents classified as victim only and those classified as offender only were positioned somewhere between victim-offenders and total abstainers in terms of their level of exposure to risk factors. These findings may indicate that victim-offenders are a statistical group in need of greater attention, especially given the benefits that could extend to the broader population if successful outcomes through intervention were realized.


Background Invisible cervical cancers on MRI can indicate less invasive surgery. Cervical cancers consist of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and non-SCC, each with different long-term outcomes. It is still unclear if surgical planning should be changed according to the histologic type of cervical cancer when it is not visible on MRI. Purpose The purpose of the study was to determine if surgical planning for cervical cancer that is not visible on MRI is influenced by the histologic type. Materials and methods Between January 2007 and December 2016, 155 women had Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage 1B1 cervical cancer that was not visible on preoperative MRI. They underwent radical hysterectomies and pelvic lymph node dissections. Among them, 88 and 67 were histologically diagnosed with SCC and non-SCC, respectively. The size of the residual tumor, depth of stromal invasion, parametrial invasion, vaginal invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and lymph node metastasis were compared between these patients using the t-test, Mann–Whitney U test, Chi-squared test, or Fisher's exact test. The recurrence-free and overall 10-year survival rates were compared between the groups by Kaplan–Meier analysis. Results The mean sizes of residual tumors were 8.4 ± 10.4 mm in the SCC group and 12.5 ± 11.9 mm in the non-SCC group (p = 0.024). The mean depth of stromal invasion in the SCC group was 12.4 ± 21.2% (0%–100%), whereas that in the non-SCC group was 22.4 ± 24.4 (0%–93%) (p = 0.016). However, there was no difference in parametrial or vaginal invasion, lymphovascular invasion, or lymph node metastasis (p = 0.504–1.000). The recurrence-free and overall 10-year survival rates were 98.9% (87/88) and 95.5% (64/67) (p = 0.246), and 96.6% (85/88) and 95.5% (64/67) (p = 0.872), respectively. Conclusions The non-SCC group tends to have larger residual tumors and a greater depth of stromal invasion than the SCC group, even though neither is visible on MRI. Therefore, meticulous care is necessary for performing parametrectomy in patients with non-SCC cervical cancer.


Nanometer circuits are increasingly prone to timing errors, escalating the need for fault injection frameworks to accurately evaluate their impact on applications. In this paper, we propose ARETE, a novel cross-layer, fault-injection framework that combines dynamic-binary instrumentation with machine learning-guided dynamic-timing analysis. ARETE enables accurate fault-injection into any application by estimating the location of the injecting errors via dynamic-timing analysis. To accelerate fault-injection, we develop a novel, data-aware, machine learning-based mechanism that dynamically pre-selects the error-prone instructions and limits the application of the costly dynamic-timing analysis only to them. To evaluate ARETE's accuracy, our fully automated toolflow is configured to support fault-injection based on detailed post-layout gate-level simulations as well as via existing workload-agnostic error models. Our results for various workloads, including an autonomous-driving library, show that the location and time of injected errors performed by ARETE, is 89.9% consistent with fault-injection based on full gate-level simulation. On average, ARETE executes 84.6× faster than gate-level simulation and at a cost of 3.4% loss in the program output quality estimation. When compared to the existing statistical fault-injection tools that are based on workload-agnostic error models, ARETE improves the accuracy of fault-injection rate and output quality estimation by 143.9% and 40.4% on average, respectively.


Purpose: This study was to identify the nursing students` self-esteem and social anxiety to provide the data for their interpersonal relations. Method: The subjects of study were the 433 nursing students of the junior colleges around a city and a province, Korea. The data were collected from Dec. 7 to Jun. 9, 2006. The instrument for the study was questionnaire consisted on the general characteristics, Interaction Anxiousness Scale by Leary, and Rosenberg`s self-esteem scale by Rosenberg. Result: The results of this research were as follows: The mean scores of self-esteem and social anxiety were respectively 28.65 and 38.38. The correlation between self-esteem and social anxiety was shown the significantly negative correlation(r=-.286, p=.000). According to the general characteristics, there were shown the significant differences in grades and ages in self-esteem. There were shown the significant differences in grades, types of next stage of education, and religions in social anxiety. Conclusion: The results of this study could be attributed to improve the interrelationship of nursing students because self-esteem and social anxiety are essential in building and maintaining the desirable personal relations.


BACKGROUND
Rickets is failure in mineralization of growing bone and cartilage due to extreme vitamin D deficiency (VDD). The study aimed to identify rickets among vitamin D deficient children and determine any relationship between clinical findings and paraclinical evidence.

METHODS
This study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, blood was drawn from 406 children aged 30-72 months for measurement of 25(OH)D level. Of these children, 108 had 25(OH)D levels of <20 ng/dL and were evaluated physically for signs and symptoms scores (0-1) of VDD and rickets. Biochemical analysis and radiography of the child's left wrist and hand was performed.

RESULTS
Of the 119 children (29.67%) with 25(OH)D levels of <20 ng/dL, 42 (10.3%) had vitamin D levels of ≤15 ng/dL. There was no correlation between serum 25(OH)D level and levels of calcium (Ca) (r = -0.16), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (r = -0.12), P (r = 0.13), and parathyroid hormone (PTH) (r = -0.15,) in children with VDD. The mean of signs and symptoms scores had no significant difference between children with (1.59 ± 0.8) and without (1.73 ± 1.01) VDD (P = 0.3). None of the children with VDD had radiographic evidence of rickets. Radiographic data showed that 69.2% (72), 10.6% (11), and 20.2% (21) of the children had delayed, normal, and advanced bone age, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Abnormal radiological findings of rickets were not found on wrist X-rays. Thus, this investigation is not necessary within the range of vitamin D levels described in the current study.


The relations between maternal sensitivity and infant negative emotionality have been tested extensively in the previous literature. However, the extent to which these associations reflect unidirectional or bidirectional effects over time remains somewhat uncertain. Further, the possibility that maternal characteristics moderate the extent to which infant negative emotionality predicts maternal sensitivity over time has yet to be tested in cross-lag models. The goal of the present study is to address these gaps. First time mothers (N = 259; 50% White; 50% Black) and their infants participated when infants were 6, 14, and 26 months of age. Infant negative emotionality was assessed via maternal report and direct observation during standardized laboratory tasks, which were subsequently combined to yield a multimethod measure at each wave. Maternal sensitivity was observationally coded at each wave and mothers self-reported emotion dysregulation at 6 and 14 months. A random intercepts cross-lagged model with maternal emotion dysregulation specified as a moderator revealed that infant negative emotionality at 6 months was negatively associated with maternal sensitivity at 14 months, but only among mothers higher in emotion dysregulation. Higher maternal sensitivity was in turn associated with lower infant negative emotionality when infants were 26 months of age. The indirect pathway was significant, lending support for the transactional model. Implications for future research and prevention/intervention are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).


Purpose The effects of aging on physical and mental health may be ameliorated by regular participation in physical activity (PA). There is also evidence for the benefits of various training modalities on cognition and functional ability in older adults. The aim of this study was to compare effects of a 12-week active video gaming intervention (X Box Kinect Sports) to conventional multimodal supervised exercise on fitness, functional ability and cognitive performance in older adults with memory complaints. Methods Participants (n = 45, 72±5 yrs.) were recruited from 6 retirement homes and cluster-randomized into the Interactive Video Gaming (IVG) group (N = 23) or Conventional Multimodal (CM) group (N = 22), meeting 2 x 1 hour sessions, weekly for 12 weeks. Pre-post measures included: 6 min walk, timed up and go, dynamic balance, functional reach, Mini-Mental State Examination, N-back Task and the Modified Stroop task. Results The IVG group demonstrated significant improvement in the total number correct responses on the Stroop task (P = 0.028) and for average reaction time of correct colour-words (P = 0.024), compared to the CM group. Functional ability improved significantly in the IVG group, including the 6-min walk (P = 0.017), dynamic balance (P = 0.03), timed up and go (P<0.001) and functional reach (P<0.0010). Conclusion An active interactive video gaming intervention was more effective than conventional multimodal exercise in improving executive and global cognitive performance and functional capacity in older adults with subjective memory complaints. Trial registration Pan African Clinical Trial Registry—PACTR202008547335106.


Purpose: To evaluate the accuracy of a novel open mask for intracranial SRS and to investigate the capability of monitoring intrafraction motion of the patient within this mask using the optical surface monitoring system (OSMS) on a linac-based platform. Methods: Efficiency was evaluated by measuring mask fabrication time during CT simulation and setup time in the treatment room. Mask shrinkage was assessed by comparing shim settings during treatment to simulation and also by measuring the distance between anterior and posterior sections of the mask on CBCT and Sim CT. Mask comfort was evaluated qualitatively post-treatment by surveying patients. Intrafraction motion was examined using 2D-3D autofusion of orthogonal kV images at mid-treatment. The intrafraction motion accuracy of the OSMS was analyzed by measuring the surface area of mask opening in Eclipse and pictures from the OSMS cameras. Results: The average preparation time for mask setup during simulation and treatment was 12.7 ± 2.3 min and 1.8 ± 0.9 min, respectively. Shims needed to be increased on average 0.8 mm, 0.8 mm, and 0.6 mm for right, left, and superior positions, respectively. CBCT measurements showed mask shrinkage, 0.8 mm both anteriorly and posteriorly. Greatest discomfort was reported on forehead followed by neck and chin. Intrafraction motion was less than 1 mm/1°. Accuracy of OSMS monitoring depended on the selected ROI. The OSMS monitored motion within 1 mm and 1° when the open surface area measured in Eclipse and captured by the camera > 147 cm2 and 33 cm2, respectively. When such conditions were not met, the accuracy somewhat degraded, an issue which can be mitigated by increasing the superior area or by angling the mask to expose greater surface to the camera. Conclusion: The new mask system rigidly immobilizes with sub-mm accuracy during treatment according to optical camera (OSMS) measurements. Research supported in part by a grant from QFix (Avondale, PA) and Varian Medical System (Palo Alto, CA)


OBJECTIVE
To assess how food shortage has been reflected in changes in nutritional status and dietary intake of resident and refugee populations in wartime Sarajevo.

DESIGN
Longitudinal observations were carried out on residents (who stayed in their homes) and refugees (living in collective centres). Three out of four municipal areas of Sarajevo were covered in the sample and households and collective centres in close proximity to the homes of fieldworkers were selected. The same households were visited in October 1992-March 1993 and November 1993-January 1994.

SETTING
The study took place in besieged Sarajevo.

SUBJECTS
In the first round 362 households (170 resident and 192 refugee) were visited and in the second round 324 households (146 resident and 178 refugee) were visited.

INTERVENTIONS
Nutritional information was gathered through anthropometric measurements, medical examination and questionnaires which included a seven day dietary recall.

RESULTS
Nutritional status was assessed by calculating body mass index (BMI) (weight/height2) in adults and weight for age percentiles in children (2-18 years of age). Undernutrition in adults was defined as BMI < 18.5 and in children as weight for age < 25th percentile. Results from the first round of data collection showed a higher level of undernutrition among refugees (15.0%) compared to residents (5.3%). The second round revealed higher levels of undernutrition among residents (8.1%) than refugees (7.0%). Daily energy intake in the first round met only half recommended dietary allowances for the former Yugoslavia which is 2700 kcals per day. Refugees were found to consume slightly higher quantities of energy (1500 kcals) compared to residents (1272 kcals). In the second round, energy intake had increased both among refugees (1832 kcals) and residents (1630 kcals).

CONCLUSIONS
The population of Sarajevo have been forced to eat a monotonous diet during the war which is deficient both in quantity and quality. Nevertheless the nutritional status of the resident and refugee populations has been maintained. Dietary intake was found to be low but this may have been partly due to under-reporting. The accuracy of data obtained through dietary intake surveys in emergency conditions may be questionable.


Growing populations and increasing industrialization causes increase in living standard, which result in decrease in the quality of water and may put stresses on natural waters by impairing both the quality of the water and the hydrological budget. This research aimed at determining the origin of the chemical elements of groundwater from the Oran Sebkha basin. It applied the inverse geochemical modeling to derive the sources of variation in the hydrochemistry. Fifty five (55) water samples were selected from different point in Oran Sebkha basin for sampling purpose in July 2011. Physico-chemical parameters such as pH and electric conductivity were measured in situ . Moreover, chloride, sulfate, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, were measured in the laboratory. Inverse geochemical models of the statistical groups were developed using PHREEQC to elucidate the chemical reactions controlling water chemistry. The inverse geochemical modeling demonstrated that relatively few phases are required to derive water chemistry in the area. In a broad sense, the reactions responsible for the hydrochemical evolution in the area fall into three categories: (1) dissolution of evaporite minerals; (2) precipitation of carbonate minerals; and (3) weathering reactions of silicate minerals. The high values of the physico-chemical parameters of water obtained in the present study sites indicate a variation in the physico-chemical parameters and demonstrated that relatively few phases are required to derive water chemistry in the area. Range of values were found as pH (5.1-7.6), conductivity (720-15820 μS cm -1 ), chloride (994-7810 mg l -1 ), sulfate (6.1-112.4 mg l -1 ), alkalinity (421-19962 mg l -1 ), calcium (80-680 mg l -1 ), magnesium (212.4-4525 mg l -1 ), sodium (124.2-4687.4 mg l -1 ) and potassium (0.9-42.5 mg l -1 ). Key words : Physico-chemical parameters, water, Sebkha.


By the beginning of the 1950s, and even more so by the end of the Korean War, the Latin American republics were faced with a clear choice: to opt explicitly for an inward-looking model of development that would reduce their vulnerability to external shocks or to press ahead with export-led growth on the basis of some combination of export intensification and export diversification. This choice was not made in a vacuum. Each option favored different groups within society, giving a political twist to most of the economic arguments. At the same time, international and regional institutions pressed hard to influence the outcome. Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) favored outward-looking policies as a solution to balance-of-payments problems, the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), under the dynamic leadership of Raul Prebisch, defended inward-looking policies. With the deterioration in the net barter terms of trade (NBTT) after the Korean War (a key feature in CEPAL's case for inward-looking development), the intellectual pendulum began to swing toward import-substituting industrialization (ISI). Yet many governments were still reluctant to abandon export-led growth altogether, in recognition of the key role still played by the export sector in economic, social, and political terms.


Parasellar meningiomas frequently extend beyond the cavernous sinus into adjacent structures. In order to determine the incidence of involvement of adjacent sites, we retrospectively evaluated the computed tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance scans of 65 consecutive patients with meningiomas invading the cavernous sinus. Thirteen nearby anatomic sites were analyzed for tumor involvement. The sites most frequently involved were the lateral sphenoid sinus wall (93%), the ipsilateral petrous apex (70%), the ipsilateral posterior petrous bone surface (59%), the sella (59%), the intracranial clival surface (44%), and the suprasellar cistern (41%). The sella, clival bone marrow, orbital apex, pterygopalatine fossa, and prestyloid parapharyngeal space were more commonly involved in recurrent tumors. Lesions were also subdivided into five groups according to whether or not they involved only one part of the cavernous sinus (grade 1), two parts of the cavernous sinus (grade 2), surrounded the cavernous carotid artery (grade 3), surrounded and narrowed the cavernous carotid artery (grade 4), or involved both sides of the cavernous sinus (grade 5). Among the 63 cases that could be assigned to a category, seven were grade 1 lesions, 13 were grade 2, 13 were grade 3, 16 were grade 4, and 14 were grade 5. Tumor grade is helpful in predicting the difficulty of resection of the cavernous component of the tumor. The incidence of involvement of adjacent sites is also helpful in assessment of imaging studies and in planning the most appropriate surgical approach.


The effect of hole drilling technique on tensile properties of COFIT plain weave composite using circular hole was investigated. As expected, the tensile properties of COFIT woven system decrease with increasing hole sizes. The laminate, which was drilled by orbital technique, seems to impart higher tensile properties and better damage resistance compared to those of conventional drilling technique. In order to predict the laminate strength with the presence of open hole, the Point Stress Criterion was used. Results indicate that good agreement was obtained between experimental and estimation tensile strengths.


This paper aims at analyzing the content of the conferences contained in the ISCA Archive over the past 25 years. It follows a similar exercise that has been conducted within the Computational Linguistics community over 50 years of existence at the ACL conference in 2012, and a survey on the IEEE ICASSP conference series from 1976 to 1990, which served in the launching of the ESCA Eurospeech conference. It contains first an analysis of the evolution of the number of papers and authors over time, including their gender and nationality, and of the collaboration among authors. It then studies the references cited in the papers, including their authors and sources. It finally conducts an analysis of the evolution of the research topics within the community over time. The survey shows the present trends in the conference series and in the Spoken Language Processing scientific community. Conducting this survey also demonstrated the importance of a clear and unique identification of authors, papers and other sources to facilitate the analysis. This survey is preliminary, as many other aspects also deserve attention. But we hope it will help better understanding and forging our community in the global village.


Purpose: To report the application of the Nellix endovascular aneurysm sealing (EVAS) device, including two chimney grafts, to successfully treat a type Ia endoleak. Case Report: An 87-year-old man had an asymptomatic 7.6-cm infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and a 4.5-cm right internal iliac artery aneurysm treated using an aortouni-iliac stent-graft. Two years after the index endovascular repair, an asymptomatic type Ia endoleak was detected on duplex ultrasound; the computed tomographic angiogram (CTA) demonstrated significant sac enlargement and stent-graft migration. Initial attempts to treat the leak with 2 aortic cuffs only reduced the size of the endoleak. Another procedure was undertaken using the Nellix device with chimney grafts to increase the proximal sealing zone above the existing stent-graft. Imaging postoperatively demonstrated successful resolution of the endoleak and continuing patency of both renal artery chimney stent-grafts. CTA at 6 months demonstrated persistent sealing of the endoleak. Conclusion: The use of the EVAS system may represent another endovascular solution that can be added to the clinician's repertoire for treating type Ia endoleak after conventional endovascular repair of infrarenal AAA.


Methods of introducing additional parameter to a family of multivariate exponential and Weibull distributions are presented. One of them is used to give a new two-parameter extension of the multivariate exponential distribution which may appear to be easier to deal with than those such commonly used two-parameter family of multivariate life distributions as the Weibull, gamma and lognormal distributions. Another general method that allows additional new three-parameter to a family of multivariate Weibull distribution is also introduced and studied. All the families of distributions expanded by either or both of these methods have the property that the minimum of a geometric number of independent random variables with common distribution in the family has a distribution also in the family. Keywords : Geometric extreme stability; Multivariate geometric distribution; Life distribution; Parametric family.


Regeneration with virtual copies (RVC) is a voting-based consistency control algorithm for replicated data objects in a distributed computing system. Proposed by Adam and Tewari (ibid., vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 594-602, 1993), it utilizes selective regeneration and recovery mechanisms for maintaining the availability and consistency of copies. This paper describes some problems with the original paper and proposes solutions.


Verbascum turcicum B. Bani, Adigüzel & Karavel. sp. nova (Scrophulariaceae), collected from B6 Adana province in South Anatolia, Turkey, is described and illustrated. The diagnostic morphological characters of the new species and the closely similar V. leianthoides and V. leiocarpum are discussed. A distribution map of V. turcicum and the two other species are provided.


Cowpea is a legume with ample plasticity, versatility and nutritional potential. It is a species widely used as a source of income and subsistence for small farmers in several Brazilian states, among them Acre. Due to the different varieties found in the State, it is the target of studies aiming at its genetic improvement. Thus, as one of the first stages of its improvement, it was aimed to determine the importance and correlations of characters for diversity and selection in traditional varieties of cowpea. The experiment was carried in completely randomized design, with plots consisting of four vase with capacity to 15.7 L, with one plant each and two replicates. The characteristics evaluated were: days for emergence, flowering (days), plant vigor (note), number of main stem nodes, apical leaflet length (mm), apical leaflet width (mm), length of pod (cm) and width of the pod (cm). The correlation coefficients (phenotypic, genotypic and environmental) were obtained, and the principal components analysis and the importance of the characters by the method proposed by Singh were carried out. The Singh method and principal components analysis were partially concordant in the distinction of the evaluated characters. The days for emergence, width of the apical leaflet, flowering and length of the apical leaflet were the main determinants for quantification of the genotypes and those that contributed the most to the variability of cowpea. The least discriminant characteristic by principal component analysis and recommended for discarding was plant vigor.


In view of the need to curb greenhouse gases, the question arises as to the functions of liability in providing effective incentives for emitters in order to change their behavior. Liability for emitting greenhouse gases exists (or can exist) in the area of public law and private law and can be subdivided into international, administrative, and criminal liability (public law liabilities) and tort law liability (private law liability). Actions for holding individual and legal persons (such as states, authorities, and companies) liable can, depending on the specific jurisdiction, be triggered by citizens but also by legal persons, such as authorities, companies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), particularly environmental NGOs. The central question in this article is how climate liability is arranged under public law and whether there would be any role for climate liability to play under private law, thereby applying a legal and economic methodology. That so-called law and economics doctrine is a useful approach as it has given a lot of attention, for example, to the different functions of specific legal instruments (more particularly regulation, including taxation and emissions trading and tort law liability) for mitigating greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, in practice, various examples can be identified whereby tort law liability is used as a complement to greenhouse gas regulation. This specific use of tort liability is analyzed in the light of the law and economics literature, thereby pointing at prospects but also at remaining core questions. The success of tort law actions will most likely greatly depend on the (lack of) ambition vested into the emissions regulations at international and national levels. One of the exciting questions for the near future is to what extent judges feel able to step into the regulation of the climate change problem, in an ex ante way. The most difficult cases are obviously those where a regulatory system concerning greenhouse gas mitigation has been put in place and where the court system is strong, but where particular groups consider the regulations to be insufficient.


This paper investigates the history and construction of paper armor, tracing its roots from Tang dynasty China, across Asia and India and into Western Europe. Source material is examined in detail to provide clues as to paper's first use in armor, how its construction style evolved, its migration, and effectiveness against period weapons from its point of origin through nineteenth century. While paper armor was by no means invulnerable, provided an inexpensive defense against swords, arrows, spears and even muskets for over a thousand years.


Curcumin has high potential in suppressing many types of cancer and overcoming multidrug resistance in a multifaceted manner by targeting diverse molecular targets. However, the rather low systemic bioavailability resulted from its poor solubility in water and fast metabolism/excretion in vivo has hampered its applications in cancer therapy. To increase the aqueous solubility of curcumin while retaining the stability in blood circulation, here we report curcumin-loaded copolymer micelles with excellent in vitro and in vivo stability and antitumor efficacy. The two copolymers used for comparison were methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (mPEG-PCL) and N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-phenylalanine end-capped mPEG-PCL (mPEG-PCL-Phe(Boc)). In vitro cytotoxicity evaluation against human pancreatic SW1990 cell line showed that the delivery of curcumin in mPEG-PCL-Phe(Boc) micelles to cancer cells was efficient and dosage-dependent. The pharmacokinetics in ICR mice indicated that intravenous (i.v.) administration of curcumin/mPEG-PCL-Phe(Boc) micelles could retain curcumin in plasma much better than curcumin/mPEG-PCL micelles. Biodistribution results in Sprague-Dawley rats also showed higher uptake and slower elimination of curcumin into liver, lung, kidney, and brain, and lower uptake into heart and spleen of mPEG-PCL-Phe(Boc) micelles, as compared with mPEG-PCL micelles. Further in vivo efficacy evaluation in multidrug-resistant human erythroleukemia K562/ADR xenograft model revealed that i.v. administration of curcumin-loaded mPEG-PCL-Phe(Boc) micelles significantly delayed tumor growth, which was attributed to the improved stability of curcumin in the bloodstream and increased systemic bioavailability. The mPEG-PCL-Phe(Boc) micellar system is promising in overcoming the key challenge of curcumin's to promote its applications in cancer therapy.


Industrial practice requires immediate and adequate responses to simple questions asked. For example, does a catalyst particle show any tendency to thermal oscillations in the form of a limit cycle? The root to such cycles is found in the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix to the reaction rate vector, applying the concept of reaction invariance, a direct consequence of Avogadro's stoichiometric principle for homogeneous stirred tank reactors. However, this concept does not generally apply to heterogeneous reactor dynamics, because it is found in the heterogeneous transports of heat, reactants and products. The transport is an irreversible phenomenon that usually contributes to shifting the eigenvalues to the left and hence increases the stability. Still, effects of transport mechanisms, both internally and externally, on the catalyst particle are important to assess in such industrial analyses. A practical industrial reactor for methanol production was the subject for stability studies, which concluded that thermal oscillations are not likely to occur. During this study, a number of interesting details were examined such as rank deficiency of the reaction matrix and root loci for the temperature dependence of the Jacobian matrix eigenvalues. A practical consequence of eventual thermal cycling of the catalyst particles is a long-term degradation of the catalyst efficiency, as seen in the ammonia synthesis.


BACKGROUND/AIMS
The aim of the study was evaluation of the morphology of the blood vessels, blood flow velocity and direction with Doppler ultrasound (D-US) and correlation with the relative liver parenchymal perfusion assessed by hepatic radionuclide angiography (HRA).

METHODOLOGY
Real-time, D-US and HRA were performed in 108 patients.

RESULTS
In patients with portal venous aneurysm, hepatopetal blood flow was increased, while portal perfusion did not differ from controls. In portal hypertensive patients, D-US detected dilatation of the portal system veins, with decreased blood flow. In comparison to the portal perfusion in controls and portal venous aneurysm, values were significantly (p < 0.01) lower in chronic active hepatitis and liver cirrhosis and differed between themselves (p < 0.01). In the groups of cirrhotic patients with esophageal varices, sclerosed esophageal varices, recanalized umbilical vein, partial portal thrombosis and cavernous portal vein with hepatofugal, hyperkinetic or slow blood flow, and very low velocities beside the thrombi, portal perfusion was lower (p < 0.01) than in controls, portal venous aneurysm, chronic active hepatitis and liver cirrhosis without collaterals. In complete thrombosis, minimal collateral flow was found with D-US, while HRA proved no portal supply.

CONCLUSIONS
D-US and HRA are complementary for the estimation of various liver vascular disorders.


The purpose of this paper is to identify the types of students' interaction, as well as their discussion patterns in an online course. The study took place in a large Midwestern University and 17 graduate students participated in the study. The primary data was obtained from students' discussion forum postings. The researchers used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to describe and analyze the types of discussion and interaction. The researchers developed a coding scheme based on theories and models. The findings of the study reveal that computer mediated communication (CMC) has a positive potential to increase interaction among students. Furthermore, the findings confirm the effectiveness of asynchronous online environment in supporting online learning community. Participants were engaged in social interaction to build their knowledge. This study recommends two-way interaction for achieving sustainable discussion and promoting higher level of interaction.


This paper investigates the amphichronic semantics and pragmatics of the scalar coordinator nēdum, 'let alone.' Synchronically, nēdum must be preceded by an assertion that is stronger than all other alternative propositions in the focus domain. The distributional properties of the coordinator result directly from this semantics. Diachronically, the meaning 'let alone' developed from metalinguistic nē 'not' and the aspectual adverb dum 'yet.' Nēdum further developed from 'let alone' to 'not just' following affirmative left coordinands.