Like many great discoveries, the Antikythera Mechanism was found by accident. In time, however, analysis using X-ray and other advanced imaging revealed its true nature, and the Antikythera Mechanism is now considered as important for technology and sciences as the Acropolis for the architecture and arts. The object is the remains of the earliest known analog computer. Now we know that it was an extremely advanced mechanism that could be used to calculate and predict astronomical events. This article shows how researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, used sophisticated imaging tools to gather data and create a working model to test their theories against the recreated mechanism itself.


The purpose of this study was to determine differences in bone mineral density (BMD) among adolescent female tennis players (TPs) and nontennis players (NTPs) and to assess body composition as a predictor variable of BMD. Nineteen female TPs and 19 female NTPs, ages 14 to 18 years, participated in this study. Lumbar spine, total hip, femoral neck, forearms BMD, and body composition were assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Lumbar spine and total hip BMD measurements for TP were greater than NTP. However, these differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.37 and 0.12, resp.). TP had significantly greater femoral neck BMD than NTPs (P = 0.02). This difference might play an important role in preventing osteoporosis and decreasing the risk of fractures at the hip later in life.


* The examples of spoken and written language that I analyze here were also discussed in a paper entitled "Involvement as Dialogue: Linguistic Theory and the Relation between Conversational and Literary Discourse," in Michael Macovski, ed., Dialogue and Critical Discourse (1997, pp. 137-57). The analysis was conducted with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. I am grateful for this support. My discussion of poetic features in conversation is based upon my book Talking Voices (1989).


Third world countries are aspiring to be stable democratically, however in daily news broadcasts these countries governments are portrayed symbolic of a Leviathan. This is due to disregard of democratic principles by the states. For Lesotho, Vision 2020 postulates an ideal state of high potential, hence the need to see if the country is on track towards achieving Stable Democracy. The research employed qualitative studies to collect data from officers occupying political offices and statutory posts. Members of Parliament (legislature) as primary respondents; were engaged as an integral part of the study together with the opposition political parties representatives and the civil society. Thus far Lesotho has travelled a long route to Democracy but the pace towards the progress is not satisfactory. Political parties have shown there are setbacks on institutional performance of organs of government intrinsic for attainment of stable democracy. In Lesotho today, statutory bodies should be granted constitutional emancipation from government control and influence to curtail negativity held by contesters for state apparatus.


A smooth spherical FexMnyO catalyst with different Fe contents was prepared by the solvent thermal method using ethylene glycol and the CO-SCR activity of the catalyst was tested to deeply explore the influence of metal Fe doping amount on the activity of the manganese-based catalyst. It was found that the addition of Fe species resulted in a strong synergistic symbiosis between the two-phase composite oxides. For the optimized Fe0.3Mn0.7O catalyst at 300 °C, the NO conversion rate and N2 selectivity reached 100% and 97.5%, respectively. The experimental results showed that the doping of FeOx could promote the reaction Fe2+ + Mn4+ → Fe3+ + Mn3+, which was beneficial to the generation of oxygen cavitation and reactive oxygen species. Moreover, the unique smooth spherical morphology of MnOx has a large specific surface area which fully provides the exposure opportunity for the active species FeOx and improves the catalytic activity of the catalyst. In addition, according to the results of in situ infrared experiments, we propose a reasonable CO-SCR model reaction mechanism.


In this article some of the most relevant terms in clinical bioethics are defined. The terms were chosen based on three criteria: impact on the most important problems in clinical bioethics, difficulty in understanding, and need to clarify their meaning. For a better understanding, the terms were grouped into 5 areas: general concepts (conflict of values, deliberation, conflict of interest, conscientious objection); justice (justice, distributive justice, models of justice, triage); clinical matters (information, competency, capability, informed consent, mature minor, coercion, secrecy, privacy, confidentiality, professional secrecy); end of life (prior instructions, limitation of therapeutic efforts, professional obstinacy, futility, palliative care, palliative sedation, principle of double effect, euthanasia, assisted suicide, persistent vegetative state, minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome, brain death), and beginning of life (assisted reproduction, genetic counseling, preimplantation genetic diagnosis).


The Holocene glacial and climatic development in Antarctica differed considerably from that in the Northern Hemisphere. Initial deglaciation of inner shelf and adjacent land areas in Antarctica dates back to between 10-8 Kya, when most Northern Hemisphere ice sheets had already disappeared or diminished considerably. The continued deglaciation of currently ice-free land in Antarctica occurred gradually between ca. 8-5 Kya. A large southern portion of the marine-based Ross Ice Sheet disintegrated during this late deglaciation phase. Some currently ice-free areas were deglaciated as late as 3 Kya. Between 8-5 Kya, global glacio-eustatically driven sea level rose by 10-17m, with 4-8 m of this increase occurring after 7 Kya. Since the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets had practically disappeared by 8-7 Kya, we suggest that Antarctic deglaciation caused a considerable part of the global sea level rise between 8-7 Kya, and most of it between 7-5 Kya. The global mid-Holocene sea level high stand, broadly dated to between 8-4 Kya, and the Littorina-Tapes transgressions in Scandinavia and simultaneous transgressions recorded from sites e.g. in Svalbard and Greenland, dated to 7-5 Kya, probably reflect input of meltwater from the Antarctic deglaciation.


Broad bandwidth amplifiers are typically limited in their spurious free dynamic range by second-order products. We have demonstrated more than 30 dB reduction in second-order products for amplifiers with 1-2 octaves of bandwidth utilizing a novel circuit approach. Improved planar baluns (180/spl deg/ transformers) are combined with differential amplifiers fabricated from 0.25-/spl mu/m GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors to implement 4-16-GHz and 3-6-GHz small-signal amplifiers. Measured values of OIP2 exceed 60 dBm with a 1-dB compression level of approximately 5 dBm. These unprecedented levels enable miniaturized, low-power front ends for broad bandwidth microwave systems.


ABSTRACT Commercial serologic assays for varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which enable reliable determination of VZV immune status and are amenable to automation, are needed. The present study compares the automated performance of the VZV whole-cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) Enzygnost anti-VZV/IgG, the Euroimmun anti-VZV ELISA (IgG) based on highly purified viral proteins, and the VZV glycoprotein (gp)-based Serion ELISA Classic VZV IgG. The fluorescent-antibody-to-membrane-antibody (FAMA) test was used as a reference. A total of 638 serum samples from VZV-negative children, blood donors, varicella vaccinees, and bone marrow transplant recipients were included. The Enzygnost anti-VZV/IgG and the Serion ELISA Classic VZV IgG showed sensitivities of 99.6% and 99.2%, respectively, and the Euroimmun anti-VZV ELISA (IgG) had a significantly lower sensitivity of 90.5%. Specificity was calculated as 100% for both the Euroimmun anti-VZV ELISA (IgG) and for the Enzygnost anti-VZV/IgG, and the Serion ELISA Classic VZV IgG had a significantly lower specificity of 89.4%. Quantitative results of all ELISAs correlated well, but there was a poor quantitative correlation between the ELISAs and FAMA. In conclusion, this study does not show any superiority of a gp- and a protein-based ELISA compared to a whole-cell ELISA for the automated detection of VZV-specific IgG. The automated performance of the Enzygnost anti-VZV/IgG assay correlated best with the FAMA reference assay.


Systemic administration of antibody against the C3H lymphosarcoma 6C3HED caused complete suppression of the growth of 10(5) tumor cells. When the size of the tumor inoculum was increased to 10(6) tumor cells, excess antibody was unable to cause complete suppression unless exogenous macrophages were added to the tumor inocula. The decreased effectiveness of antibody was shown to be caused by a local deficiency in the supply or activation of macrophages within the large tumor grafts and not by a systemic deficiency.


Demand for low-latency and high-bandwidth data transfer between GPUs has driven the development of multi-GPU nodes. Physical constraints on the manufacture and integration of such systems has yielded heterogeneous intra-node interconnects, where not all devices are connected equally. The next generation of supercomputing platforms are expected to feature AMD CPUs and GPUs. This work characterizes the extent to which interconnect heterogeneity is visible through GPU programming APIs on a system with four AMD MI250x GPUs, and provides several insights for users of such systems.


In this paper, we consider variants of the Geometric Subset General Position problem. In defining this problem, a geometric subsystem is specified, like a subsystem of lines, hyperplanes or spheres. The input of the problem is a set of n points in \mathbb{R}^d and a positive integer k. The objective is to find a subset of at least k input points such that this subset is in general position with respect to the specified subsystem. For example, a set of points is in
general position with respect to a subsystem of hyperplanes in \mathbb{R}^d if no d+1 points lie on the same
hyperplane. In this paper, we study the Hyperplane Subset General Position problem under two parameterizations.
When parameterized by k then we exhibit a polynomial kernelization for the problem. When parameterized by h=n-k,
or the dual parameter, then we exhibit polynomial kernels which are also tight, under standard complexity theoretic
assumptions.
We can also exhibit similar kernelization results for d-Polynomial Subset General Position, where a vector space of polynomials
of degree at most d are specified as the underlying subsystem such that the size of the basis for this vector space is b. The objective is to find a set of at least k input points, or in the dual delete at most h = n-k points, such that no b+1 points lie on the same polynomial. Notice that this is a generalization of many well-studied geometric variants of the Set Cover problem, such as Circle Subset General Position. We also study general projective variants of these problems. These problems are also related to other geometric problems like Subset Delaunay Triangulation problem.


This study was conducted to investigate the effect of zinc in dose 15mg/kg.bw daily taken by the mouth and dexamethasone 4mgIkg.Bw by injection for 30days on some hematological biochemical tests and some histological changes of liver spleen in male rabbits. Thirty rabbits were used that divided into 3 randomized groups (each group contain 10 male rabbits ). Control group was taken normal food and water, Zinc group that gave zinc at dose of 15mg/kg.BW/daily/oral on 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks. Dexamethasone with zinc group : Employ dexamethasone 4mg/Kg.Bw . I.M dialy for 1 and 2 weeks for experiment and at 3, 4 th weeks they gave zn 15mg/lKg.Bw day/orally. Blood samples were taken from the heart directly in 2 and 4weeks to examine packed cell volume (pcv), white blood cells (WBCs), Red blood cells (RBCs) with differential Leuckcyte count.separation blood collection to plasma and examine glucose mg/dl , cholesterol mg/dl. In histological tests, rabbits were killed and separate their organs tissue from the body to examine liver and spleen. The results revealed a decrease in level of RBCs, pcv after treatment with zinc 15, mg/Kg.Bw orally (zinc group) and increase in WBCs with differential leuckocyte count specially neutrophil cell, while biochemical tests show increase in glucose and cholesterol levels after treatment with dexamethasone 4mglkgBw. I/M seen increase in counts of RBCs , PCV, WBCs and differential lenkocyte count and decrease in glucose with cholesterol parameters, histological changes show change in liver after treatment by dexamethasone 4mglKg.Bw ,spleen tissue seen necrosis and pigmentation with hemorrhage after take dexamethasone 4mglkg in (dexamethasone + zinc group). Results also showed that zinc enhanced the immune system in at normal dose for limited time because of its effect on other mineral such as copper and causes anemia , while the dexamethasone is a drug used for antianflammatory but


Oligomeric sesquiterpenoids, biogenetically assembled from two or three monomeric sesquiterpenoid units via diverse pathways, represent a unique class of natural products. The synthetic studies inspired by their biogenesis have offered significant impetus for the efficient construction of these architecturally complex frameworks. Here we provide an overview for the biomimetic syntheses of these dimeric and trimeric molecules based on the different strategies of bond formation, including Diels-Alder reaction, hetero-Diels-Alder reaction, [2 + 2] cycloaddition, and C-C bond coupling.


Eyes absent homologue 4 (EYA4) is silenced in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and functions as a tumor suppressor to restrain PDAC development, albeit the molecular mechanism underlying its downregulation remains enigmatic. Methods: Functional studies were determined by immunohistochemistry of PDAC samples from patients and Pdx1-Cre; LSL-KrasG12D/+; Trp53fl/+ (KPC) mice, three-dimensional spheroid culture, flow cytometry, MTT and subcutaneous xenograft experiments. Mechanistical studies were examined by cellular ubiquitination, cycloheximide (CHX) pulse-chase, co-immunoprecipitation, chromatin immunoprecipitation, GST-pulldown, in vitro protein kinase assay, immunofluorescence and luciferase reporter assays. Results: We screen E3 ligase that is negatively correlated with EYA4 and uncover a mutually exclusive interaction of tripartite motif containing 69 (TRIM69) with EYA4 in human PDAC. TRIM69 elicits EYA4 polyubiquitylation and turnover independent of P53 and impedes the EYA4-driven deactivation of β-catenin/ID2 cascade, fueling PDAC cell proliferation in vitro and tumor development in mice. Expression of TRIM69 is upregulated in PDAC samples from independent cohorts of patients and the Pdx1-Cre; LSL-KrasG12D/+; Trp53fl/+ (KPC) mice, and associated with unfavorable prognosis. Depleting TRIM69 preferentially induces lethality in the EYA4-deficient PDAC cells. We further unearth that ERK2 directly binds to the D-site of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) docking groove in EYA4 Leu512/514 and phosphorylates EYA4 at Ser37, which is instrumental for EYA4 polyubiquitylation and turnover by TRIM69. Conclusion: Our results define a previously unappreciated role of TRIM69-EYA4 axis in pancreatic tumorigenesis and underscore that targeting TRIM69 might be an effective therapeutic approach for PDAC harboring EYA4 deficiency.


Background and Objectives: Brolucizumab (IVBr) is a recently introduced anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) which has been found to be very effective in treating neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). We reported our findings in a case of nAMD that developed intraocular inflammation (IOI) after IVBr injections. Materials and Methods: A 79-year-old man was referred to our hospital complaining of reduced vision in both eyes of one-month's duration. His decimal best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.9 in the right eye and 1.0 in the left eye. He was diagnosed with nAMD in the left eye and was treated with intravitreal aflibercept (IVA). Despite the three-monthly IVA injections, the serous retinal pigment epithelial detachment (PED) and subretinal fluid (SRF) remained, and the VA gradually decreased to 0.1. Because of the patient being refractory to aflibercept treatment, we switched to 3-monthly IVBr injections. The BCVA gradually improved to 0.3 and optical coherence tomography (OCT) showed an absence of the serous PED and SRF. Three weeks after his third IVBr, he returned to our hospital with a complaint of reduced vision in his left eye that he first noted two weeks earlier. Our examination of the left eye showed signs of IOI mainly in the anterior chamber. The inflammation improved with topical steroids but the treatment of the IOI was delayed for two weeks. The patient was instructed that it was important to begin the treatment as soon as the symptoms of IOI developed. We then performed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and his score indicated that he had cognitive impairment. Conclusions: We concluded that before beginning IVBr treatment in nAMD patients, a careful assessment must be made of the cognitive status of the patient.


Abstract The purpose of the present paper is to analyze L2 and L3 production and comprehension from a cognitive-pragmatic point of view, taking into account Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1986; Wilson and Sperber, 2006), Mental Models Theory (Johnson-Laird, 1983) and the Graded Salience Hypothesis (Giora, 1997). Special attention is paid to error analysis and to the detection of error sources, especially in the case of errors not attributable to transfer, interference or overgeneralization. The paper is based on three studies involving, first, L2 and L3 production (Study 1), both production and comprehension (Study 2) and L3 comprehension (Study 3). In general, the phenomena observed can be explained by a combination of Relevance Theory, Mental Models Theory and the Graded Salience Hypothesis. In fact, even when transfer is used as a strategy, its use is relevant to the learner, who assumes that it will be relevant to the recipient as well. The results also shed some light on the multilingual mental lexicon and multiple language processing.


In response to increasing legislative activity involving electronic wills, in 2017 the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) appointed the Drafting Committee on Uniform Electronic Wills Act to develop a uniform act providing rules governing the execution of electronic wills. The committee strove to create a statute that would be consistent with existing wills laws but would address differences for wills executed electronically. The committee sought to create rules that would protect the testator from manipulation by others but also from unwanted intestacy.

This article describes, from the perspective of the Reporter, the committee's process in developing the Electronic Wills Act. The article explains each provision of the Act and describes reasons for decisions made in developing the Act, including decisions to exclude certain ideas from the Act. The article also compares the Act's provisions with provisions of electronic wills statutes enacted in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, and Nevada. The article concludes with a few recommendations for enactment.

Given the increasing use of electronic documents and electronic signatures, testators will attempt to execute wills electronically. Although lawyers may prefer wills executed on paper, and paper wills will likely be the norm for many years to come, legislatures should consider enacting statutes that can guide and protect testators who prefer to execute their wills electronically. The Electronic Wills Act provides a thoughtfully developed model for states to use.


The alarming loss of pollinator diversity world-wide can reduce the productivity of pollinator-dependent crops, which could have economic impacts. However, it is unclear to what extent the loss of a key native pollinator species affects crop production and farmer's profits. By experimentally manipulating the presence of colonies of a native bumblebee species Bombus pauloensis in eight apple orchards in South Argentina, we evaluated the impact of losing natural populations of a key native pollinator group on (a) crop yield, (b) pollination quality, and (c) farmer's profit. To do so, we performed a factorial experiment of pollinator exclusion (yes/no) and hand pollination (yes/no). Our results showed that biotic pollination increased ripe fruit set by 13% when compared to non-biotic pollination. Additionally, fruit set and the number of fruits per apple tree was reduced by less than a half in those orchards where bumblebees were absent, even when honeybees were present at high densities. Consequently, farmer's profit was 2.4-fold lower in farms lacking bumblebees than in farms hosting both pollinator species. The pollination experiment further suggested that the benefits of bumblebees could be mediated by improved pollen quality rather than quantity. Synthesis and applications. This study highlights the pervasive consequences of losing key pollinator functional groups, such as bumblebees, for apple production and local economies. Adopting pollinator-friendly practices such as minimizing the use of synthetic inputs or restoring/maintaining semi-natural habitats at farm and landscape scales, will have the double advantage of promoting biodiversity conservation, and increasing crop productivity and profitability for local farmers. Yet because the implementation of these practices can take time to deliver results, the management of native pollinator species can be a provisional complementary strategy to increase economic profitability of apple growers in the short term. (Less)


Drilling of glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite is different from metallic materials due to its mechanical properties. The drilling of this material may generate delamination of drilled holes on workpiece. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the cutting parameters, such as cutting speed and feed rate, point angle of drill and material thickness on delamination produced when drilling a GFRP composite. The damage generated associated with drilling GFRP composites were observed, both at the entrance and the exit during the drilling. Hence it is essential to obtain optimum cutting parameters minimizing delamination at drilling of GFRP composites. This paper presents the application of Taguchi method for minimization of delamination influenced by drilling parameters and drill point angle and material thickness. The optimum drilling parameter combination was obtained by using the analysis of signal-to-noise ratio. The conclusion revealed that the feed rate, cutting speed, point angle and thickness are the most influential factor on the delamination, respectively. Index Terms—About four key words or phrases in alphabetical order, separated by commas. The best result of delamination were obtained at lower cutting speed,thickness.


This article reports the results of an experimental investigation of the effect of a new type of cooperative learning technique, named Interest-Oriented Student Team Achievement Divisions (IOSTAD) by the researchers of the present study, on the students' reading comprehension achievement of English as a foreign language (EFL).In so doing, two classes (n=25) were assigned to control and experimental conditions. Each class was divided into four groups of three. The control group was instructed via Student Team Achievement Divisions (STAD) technique, which is a well-known technique of cooperative learning, while the experimental group followed the same technique plus adding students' interest in their grouping and cooperation i.e., IOSTAD technique. It was assumed that considering students' interest in their grouping and working together would lead to better performance in reading. Two different domainreferenced multiple-choice reading comprehension tests were used to assess the reading comprehension ability of the students on a pretest and posttest. The results on an independent T-test showed statistical significance at P≤0.05 level that can be attributed to the effect of adding students' interest in cooperative learning on their reading comprehension achievement.


Considering the stability and reliability of the banking system as a factor in the successful development of economic processes, the authors analyze the current trends in the recovery of the Russian banking sector and the prospects for its development. Analyzing the key financial indicators of the banking sector for the period 2016-2018, the authors identify the main reasons for reorganization of the Russian banking sector, classifying banks by types of banking risks. The authors provide statistical data on measures taken to improve the Russian banking sector by the Deposit Insurance Agency in 2008-2017 and also the data regarding overall dynamics of reducing the number of banks and license revocation in 2012-2018. Forecasting further reduction in the Russian banking sector in 2019 and following years, the authors distinguish three categories of banks that have the saddest prospects: 1) banks that have increased risks associated with compliance with the law on countering laundering of funds received from crime; 2) banks conducting high-risk lending policies, the loan portfolio of which is represented by knowingly non-performing loans; 3) banks that will voluntarily surrender a license due to the lack of prospects for business development. The authors note that it is becoming more difficult for medium and small banks to compete in the traditional segments of the banking market against the background of consolidation of the banking sector, so the number of licenses voluntarily surrendered is likely to grow. A smallscale banking business does not withstand rising costs and is forced to leave the market. In order to continue their activities and not to be reorganized, small banks will have to merge with other market players, or offer a new viable product on the banking market. The main role in mergers and acquisitions will be played by regional banks with a strong brand, a stable client base and an extensive office network. The beneficiaries of reducing the number of players in the market will be mainly banks with state participation, and to a lesser extent large private banks.


The large scale motions of poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) chains randomly labeled with pyrene (Py-PDMA) were monitored by steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence in semidilute solutions of naked PDMA in acetone and DMF for polymer concentrations ranging from 0 to 550 g/L. Although increasing the polymer concentration of the solution led to a decrease of the mobility of the chromophore attached onto the PDMA backbone, this reduction was rather modest when compared to the large increase of the macroscopic viscosity. This result indicated that locally, the monomer constituting the chains experienced freedom of movement despite the high solution viscosity. The restricted mobility of the chromophore was characterized by the number of monomers occupying the volume probed by the excited chromophore during its lifetime, referred to as a fluorescence "blob". The number of monomers constituting a fluorescence blob, N(F)(-)(blob), and the volume of a fluorescence blob, V(F)(-)(blob), were found to decrease as the polymer concentration of the solution increased, reflecting the decreased mobility experienced by the chromophore. In DMF, the radius of an F-blob was found to scale as N(nu)(F)(-)blob, where nu equaled 0.66 +/- 0.03, very close to the expected value of the Flory exponent of 0.6 for a polymer in a good solvent. The combined knowledge of how N(F)(-)(blob) varies with the fluorescence lifetime of the chromophore and the coil density of the polymer was used to propose a new means of studying coil-to-globule transitions with potential implications for predicting the rate of protein folding.


Purpose: This empirical study explores a complex combination of four realms of the experience economy in formulating memories and satisfaction among festival visitors using augmented reality (AR), thus engaging visitors in the physical science experience. This study also identifies necessary conditions to achieve desired responses from visitors. Design/methodology/approach: Asymmetrical modelling with fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was used to investigate causal recipes of two configurations of the experience economy and evaluation of experience leading to both high and low scores from visitor engagement. Necessary condition analysis (NCA) was applied to examine necessary predictors in visitor engagement. The proposed configuration model was tested using data obtained from visitors to science festivals in the UK. Findings: Five causal recipes explained the complex conditions in which visitors were more likely engaged in AR. Aesthetics, education, entertainment, and satisfaction were necessary for high engagement among festival visitors. Research limitations/implications: Results from fsQCA and analyses of necessary conditions help festival organizers improve visitor satisfaction and engagement in a memorable AR experience. Originality/value: This empirical study deepens current festival understanding of how visitors experience AR by exploring combinations of complex configurations of the experience economy and evaluations of visitor experience based on memories and satisfaction. Unlike symmetrical approaches, asymmetrical modeling using fsQCA can explore recipes for both high and low


This paper studies how Chinese consumers respond to foreign goods in the post‐WTO era. Specifically, it examines brand sensitivity as a mediator and product cues as moderator of purchase intention. Additionally, it examines consumer preferences for different products and consumption plans for the subsequent five years. The survey sample is drawn from a population of foreign product users from 34 cities in 18 provinces in China. Results provide evidence that brand sensitivity mediates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase intention; product cues moderate the effect of ethnocentrism on purchase intention. As the first study to link consumer ethnocentrism directly to brand sensitivity and purchase intention, this research provides some managerial implications. Global marketers can offset the negative effect of ethnocentrism by emphasizing brand image of its products, taking advantage of specific product cues, or by providing more comprehensive after‐sale service to reduce the perceived risk of purchasing imports. Also, price is still a hurdle that prevents Chinese consumers from mass consumption of foreign products. Global firms should not overestimate the purchasing power of Chinese consumers. This study represents a "snapshot" of Chinese consumers' decision making at a time when their economic system is undergoing rapid change.


This study is concerned with an evaluation of the effects of glucocorticoids (GC) on adiponectin and leptin concentrations in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). Seven patients diagnosed with PMR were studied at baseline and after one and three months of prednisone treatment. Serum leptin and adiponectin, serum glucose and insulin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C‐reactive protein, and IL‐6 were all measured by commercial assays. The treatment with GC normalized inflammation markers and significantly increased adiponectin and leptin concentrations without any impairment of insulin sensitivity measured by HOMA‐IR. Adiponectin significantly increased only between baseline and 1 month (P= 0.013). A significant correlation was found between adiponectin and leptin concentrations both at baseline and after 3 months of treatment (both rho = 0.89, P= 0.03). In addition, adiponectin correlated also with serum glucose at baseline (rho = 0.81, P= 0.047). According to our results, adiponectin concentrations seem to be driven by inflammation, whereas leptin seems to be increased directly by the use of steroids.


It is one of the focus of strategic management research that the influence of environmental uncertainty (EU) on relational governance (RG) in the construction industry. In this paper, EU included three dimensions according to the relevant literature, and this empirical study conducted on the effects of three different dimensions of EU on RG in the conditions of non-competitive alliances (NCA) and competitive alliances (CA) of the construction industry. The results showed that the effect of three different dimensions of EU on RG differs because of different alliance types. For the NCA, market uncertainty (MU) and competitive intensity (CI) had significantly positive effect on the RG, but technological uncertainty (TU) did not significantly affect the RG. For the CA, CI had significantly negative effect on the RG, but MU and TU did not significantly affect the RG.


[reaction: see text] An efficient synthesis of 1,2-trans-glycosyl cyanides via 1,2-O-sulfinyl monosaccharides is described. Such S(N)2-type displacements at the anomeric center are stereospecific and are best performed with sodium cyanide in the presence of ytterbium triflate. Significantly, the resulting 1,2-trans-glycosyl cyanides have a free hydroxyl group at C-2 ready for further modification.


With the latest development in technology, wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) can provide new opportunities to improve human safety, human health monitoring and communicate data for effective decision making in critical time sensitive cases such as a HAZMAT situation. The Federal Hazardous Materials Regulations defines Hazardous Material (HAZMAT) as a biological, chemical, radiological, or physical substance that is capable of posing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, and property when transported in commerce. Examples of HAZMAT incidents include chemical spills on the road due to an accident, chemical leaks from a storage facility, and chemical reactions that take place during cargo transfers. The aim of this research is to identify existing gaps in the safety of commercial vehicle drivers hauling hazardous materials, where technology can be used to mitigate risks and reduce potential exposure during and after a HAZMAT incident. Our goal is to determine how the risks associated with the transportation of HAZMAT shipments can be minimized by employing reliable, secure and cost effective technological solutions such as wearable devices and sensors. In the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of accidents during HAZMAT transportation across the U.S. highways (Office of the Federal Register National Archives and Records Administration). The safety, security and environmental concerns associated with the haulage of HAZMAT are continuously growing in number and complexity. Commercial vehicle drivers associated with private and government freight agencies specializing in HAZMAT are responsible to prevent injuries and property damages to themselves, and the public while hauling hazardous materials. During a chemical spill or a HAZMAT road transportation accident, commercial vehicle drivers are at potential risk of being exposed to dangerous materials such as explosives, flammable liquids and gases, toxic and infectious substances, and corrosives that can have an adverse effect on their health and their surroundings. Hence, it is extremely important to monitor their health and improve their safety by preventing HAZMAT related injuries and illnesses. Recently conducted focus groups with first responders have helped identify various threats and concerns when responding to a HAZMAT incident. These concerns include Responder Safety – the safety of first responders in terms of long-term health effects when subjected to potential HAZMAT exposure, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) – the fear of chemicals entering the PPE, Weather and Location – weather conditions would make responding to a HAZMAT incident difficult, Communication – only minimal information is provided to first responders before reaching the HAZMAT incident site. These identified concerns generated from the focus group interviews will be used to create a survey for commercial drivers. For this study, we will be conducting focus group interviews and a needs assessment survey engaging HAZMAT transportation carriers and drivers to further identify their immediate concerns and needs in areas such as personal safety, alert notifications, safety regulations, health and wearable technology. First, our study will help us perform a gap analysis in order to assess if the concerns identified by the first responders correlate or differ from the concerns identified by commercial vehicle drivers specializing in HAZMAT transportation. Second, we will share the results with stakeholders. Third, we use the results as inputs to develop a strategic technology plan for wearable devices and sensors to build an integrated incident commander user interface for situational awareness during a HAZMAT event. US DoT Region-VII (UTC 25-1121-0005-110) supports the funding for this study.


A major revision of the TNM classification has been published in 1987. It eliminates previous differences between the UICC and AJCC versions. The new 4th edition of TNM has been accepted by all national TNM committees and enables international comparisons of data. For gastric carcinoma, the definitions for clinical and pathological primary tumor classification (T, pT) are now identical. The definition of regional lymph nodes has been revised, the stage grouping completely changed. It permits a more reliable estimation of prognosis. For the description of absence or presence of residual tumor after treatment the R classification is recommended. The reliability of classifications depends on methods used, therefore the respective requirements are discussed en detail.


Thin plates cut from melt-grown single crystals of iron +3.5% silicon were examined by an X-ray transmission topographic method and the spatial arrangement of individual dislocations and of dislocation arrays was investigated. The directions (including the sense in some cases) of dislocation Burgers vectors were identified. It was confirmed that Burgers vectors lie along <111>. Reactions such as ½[1̄11] + ½[111̄] = [010] were not observed among the individually resolved dislocations. The minimum separation of dislocations for easy individual resolution was 3 μm with CoKα radiation and 5 μm with AgKα. It was demonstrated that a one-to-one correspondence exists between dislocation outcrops and the etch pits produced by the dislocation-etching technique of Šesták (1959). The experiments showed that transmission X-ray topography when applied to metals of moderately heavy atomic weight can give a clear picture of the dislocation configuration in specimens sufficiently thick to be fully representative of the bulk material.


Abstract Aim: To evaluate the ability of four clinical methods to reflect arm and hand function at impairment and activity level and to determine their ability to discriminate among SMA II patients of all ages and in all stages of the disease. Methods: Fifty-two patients with SMA II (age range: 8–73 years) were assessed by means of the Egen Klassifikation 2 (EK2 scale), the Motor Function Measure Scale (MFM D3), the Manual Muscle Test (MMT) and Hand-Held Dynamometry (HHD) in full fist grip and lateral pinch grip. Patients were classified into six levels of upper limb function by means of the Brooke Upper Limb Scale, and the four methods' ability to differentiate among patients within these levels was calculated. Modified versions of the EK2 scale (EK Upper Limb) and the MFM D3 (MFM D3 Upper Limb) were assessed in the same manner. Results: The patients' physical abilities were best described by the MMT and EK2 while the "EK Upper Limb", MFM D3 and MMT were best at discriminating among patients across the range of upper limb function. Quantitative muscle tests as measured by Citec™ HHD were less applicable to weak patients; full fist grip could discriminate among patients at Brooke levels 3–5, and lateral pinch grip among the strongest patients. Conclusion: At the impairment level, MMT is the superior measure of muscle function in very weak patients in whom HHD cannot reflect capacity. At the activity level, the EK 2 represents daily activities whereas the MFM D3 measures motor functions. In differentiating among SMA II patients of all ages and in all stages of the disease, the ability of abbreviated versions of scales targeting upper limb function is superior to unabridged versions of these scales. Implications for Rehabilitation Evaluation of upper limb function in spinal muscular atrophy II Even very weak patients with SMA II have some residual upper limb function that is measurable if the right method is chosen. The Manual muscle test is applicable to all patients with SMA II and is useful to determine possible interventions – such as methods to drive a wheelchair or operate a computer. Abbreviated versions of the EK2 scale and the MFM are useful as methods to evaluate subtle changes in upper limb function resulting from disease progression or interventions.


Abstract. Agriculture is the backbone of Tanzanian economy. It accounts for about one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP), provides 85 percent of all exports and saves as a livelihood to over 80 percent of the total population. Maize is the primary staple crop; it's grown in nearly all agro-ecological zones in the country. Tanzania is a major maize producer in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the last four decades, Tanzania has ranked among the top 25 maize producing countries in the world. In the 2013/14 growing seasons Tanzania produced over half billion metric tons of maize of these maize smallholder farmers produced around 85%. Despite the steady production of maize over the past three decades, post-harvest losses of maize remained significant, up to 30-40 % in some rural areas. Post-harvest handling, poor infrastructure, weather variability, biotic factors such as insects and pests, bacteria, pathogens, viruses, and fungi, often aggravate such losses. Mycotoxin producing fungi pose a major risk. Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungi that frequently contaminate the maize in the field and/or during storage. Mycotoxin contamination of maize poses a health risk to humans and animals if not properly managed. The most important mycotoxins in Tanzania are the aflatoxins, fumonisins and Ochratoxin. The objective of this paper was to review current literature on the production trends, consumption, post-harvest losses, and mycotoxins contamination of maize and to provide strategies to control and prevent postharvest losses and mycotoxins contamination in Tanzania.


This research presents an abnormal beat detection scheme from lead II Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals along with some improvements on feature extraction. A set of 16 features representing positions, durations, amplitudes and shapes of P, Q, R, S and T waves is proposed in this work for heart beat classification. These features carry important medical information for normal and abnormal beat detection. Diverse classifiers are employed for abnormality detection, including K-Nearest Neighbor, Decision Tree, Artificial Neural Network, Naive Bayesian Classifier, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine along with some ensemble classifiers such as AdaBoostM1 and Bagging. We have evaluated the proposed system on raw one lead signals extracted from MIT-BIH Arrhythmia, QT and European ST-T databases in the Physionet databank. The experiments using this new set of 16 features achieve better performance for the three test databases than our previous system using a subset of these features.


Even toward the end the first decade of the 21st century, race still seems to be a critical issue in the society of the United States of America. In 1964 with the signing of the Civil Rights Act by President Lyndon B. Johnson, African-Americans assumed this would mark the end of inequalities from which they and their ancestors have suffered for a long time. Finally, the U.S. had formerly recognized African-Americans as equal citizens having the right to pursue the American Dream. However, the 1960s did not fulfill the promise of economic, social, and political equality. African-Americans continued to fight for acceptance, equal rights and their chance to pursue economic stability. Poverty, economic segregation and racism were hindrances that ruled over their lives. Thirty years later, during the 1990s, which were considered glorious years in America, many witnessed the increase of crime, violence and drug abuse mainly involving African-Americans. This work will focus on the promises made to the African American people during the Sixties and whether they were fulfilled in the Nineties, and why race seems to remain a controversial issue in America's society today.


Inadequacies in the treatment of the fluid-dynamic mixing that were not apparent in Fabry-Perot or stable resonator models were revealed with a wave optics-unstable resonator model. The unstable resonator data as a function of resonator size and size of the laser were shown to provide a severe test of a couples, wave optics, chemical kinetic, fluid-dynamic model of a chemical laser. A mechanism for the observed time-dependent oscillations that occur on lines whose saturated gain does not fill the unstable resonator was proposed. According to the proposed mechanism, the time-dependent oscillations are the result of a competition between chemical pumping and radiative deactivation of upper laser levels of HF. The oscillations occur only if the media is not strongly coupled to the optical fields diffractively or geometrically. Computer calculations supported the proposed mechanism and new unstable resonator experiments were suggested.


Abstract Several Occitan dialects spoken in Western Piedmont exhibit no 1sg subject clitic form (a situation widely attested in Northern Italian dialects), although interrogative clauses with a 1sg subject feature an enclitic particle ke, identical to the complementiser. Many attempts have been made to interpret this ke as a reflex of Lat. E(G)O 'I' or originating from the reanalysis of the analogical -k displayed by verbs such as dik 'I say'. Rather, I claim that ke is what it seems, namely the complementiser, and entertain the hypothesis that in these varieties the complementiser ended up satisfying EPP-like features. To support this analysis, I examine data from a wider area including Provençal, Gascon and Ibero-Romance dialects in which the complementiser is used as a proclitic particle in assertive clauses (Etxepare 2010 a.o.). On the theoretical side, I submit the hypothesis that the peculiar behaviour of the complementiser ke in that area has to do with the checking of a 'speaker' feature in the left periphery of the clause.


In December 1998, Peter Mandelson MP, one of the principal architects of the Labour Party's victory in the May 1997 general election, dramatically resigned as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Nevertheless, despite his relatively brief period in that office, Mr. Mandelson left his imprint on policy through the publication in November 1998 of a major White Paper, 'Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge Driven Economy'. The White Paper sets out the New Labour analysis of the national political economy in a globalized world economy and is very much influenced by Mr. Mandelson's experience of the entrepreneurial spirit during his fact-finding visit to the United States of America. This article seeks to chart the relationship between New Labour's desire to foster the development of the corporate sector within a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and the need to ensure that the integrity of the market is preserved in an arena which is seen as inimicable to strong regulatory intervention by the state. As well as mapping New Labour's political rhetoric onto contemporary debates in corporate governance, the analysis will involve an examination of the interface between business practice and morality. In particular, the article will focus upon the role of the conception of company directors as 'responsible risk takers' and the upon the use of name-and-shame sanctions in the development of an entrepreneurial culture in which all corporate enterprises are seen as having a legitimate societal 'licence to operate'.


Regardless of one's stance on the topic, drugs are an important issue in sports. Sports pages in newspapers around the globe routinely report on athletes at every level ofcompetition using performance enhancing substances to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors. The level of sophistication in beating drug testing, and developing "next-generation" agents continues to raise. The relative paucity of well designed research has been an additional factor impeding attempts to adequately address the problem. Very limited funds are currently available to conduct the necessary research. Without credible data, athletes are more vulnerable to the claims made by those benefiting from the sales of these compounds. Many younger fans and those dreaming of a similar future admire highly successful professional athletes. A strong, consistent statement admonishing drug use is needed. Actions speak louder than words. Every time a successful athlete is caught using PE drugs, every effort to diminish drug use is negatively impacted. The "win at all cost" and "second place is the first loser" mentality needs to be continually challenged by words and actions in youth sports at every level of competition. Finally, the war on drugs in sports needs to be a coordinated, well organized international undertaking as sports play an important role in virtually every culture. If we are to maintain the integrity of competition and protect the health of the athletes, we must dramatically increase our efforts to eliminate performance enhancing drugs as an acceptable option for any athlete. Sports science professionals and sports psychiatrists need to work with coaches, trainers, athletes, and national governing bodies to educating athletes on the effects of performance enhancing drug use. To achieve this important goal everyone involved in sports needs to be knowledgeable on the negative impact this has on all aspects of organized sports. It is a difficult challenge, but one that must be addressed.


Goswami, Ananda Raj, Goutam Dutta, and Tusharkanti Ghosh. Naproxen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug can affect daily hypobaric hypoxia-induced alterations of monoamine levels in different areas of the brain in male rats. High Alt Med Biol. 17:133-140, 2016.-The oxidative stress (OS)-induced prostaglandin (PG) release, in hypobaric hypoxic (HHc) condition, may be linked with the changes of brain monoamines. The present study intends to explore the changes of monoamines in hypothalamus (H), cerebral cortex (CC), and cerebellum (CB) along with the motor activity in rats after exposing them to simulated hypobaric condition and the role of PGs on the daily hypobaric hypoxia (DHH)-induced alteration of brain monoamines by administering, an inhibitor of PG synthesis, naproxen. The rats were exposed to a decompression chamber at 18,000 ft for 8 hours per day for 6 days after administration of vehicle or naproxen (18 mg/kg body wt.). The monoamine levels (epinephrine, E; norepinephrine, NE; dopamine, DA; and 5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) in CC, CB, and H were assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection, and the locomotor behavior was measured by open field test. The NE and DA levels were decreased in CC, CB, and H of the rat brain in HHc condition. The E and 5-HT levels were decreased in CC, but in H and CB, they remained unaltered in HHc condition. These DHH-induced changes of monoamines in brain areas were prevented after administration of naproxen in HHc condition. The locomotor behavior remained unaltered in HHc condition and after administration of naproxen in HHc condition. The DHH-induced changes of monoamines in the brain in HHc condition are probably linked with PGs that may be induced by OS.


The task allocation is the most important decision of the supply chain strategy. The paper starts from proceeds with the logistic service supply chain (LSSC) collaboration model based on multi-agent system (MAS) to analyze the characteristics of LSSC task allocation. According to the Markov property in the problem, the paper builds a task allocation of LSSC model by using the Markov decision process (MDP). Then, the paper proposes an algorithm based on iterative algorithm for solving the model. The paper provides a reference for studying the task allocation of LSSC quantitatively.


Author(s): Savarie, Peter J.; Clark, Larry | Abstract: Brown tree snake introduction to the snake-free island of Guam has severely impacted its native terrestrial vertebrates and economy. These nocturnal predators have extirpated forest birds, caused drastic reductions of lizards, and there is a major concern that snakes could be dispersed to other areas through Guam's cargo transportation systems. Techniques to deter the spread of snakes include cargo inspection with detector dogs and live trapping using live mice as lures to reduce snake densities in cargo handling areas. Maintaining mice in traps is expensive, and an inanimate lure would be highly desirable. Oral baiting with dead neonatal mice (DNM) treated with acetaminophen is another technique being implemented for reducing snake populations. An objection to DNM is that they decompose and become putrid after 3-4 days. Consumption of 21 candidate bait matrices was compared to DNM in free-choice tests in individually caged snakes under laboratory conditions. Consumption of dead quail chicks and geckos was equivalent to DNM. Processed canned meat products, stew beef, and chicken were 30-50% as effective as DNM. Baits not consumed included dog blood, beef liver, and quail eggs. Under field conditions with live trapped snakes, consumption of 7 bait matrices was compared to DNM in 1-choice tests. DNM were preferred (55% consumption) over all other baits. Consumption of plastic lizards, chicken fat, and mealworms was 33%, 14%, and 13%, respectively. Odoriferous chemicals (n = 23), characteristic of decomposing animal flesh, were evaluated for their ability to attract snakes in the field. Chemicals were individually evaluated by placing them on tofu baits in PVC tubes (bait stations). Snake activity around the bait stations was monitored with infrared videography. Some of the 23 chemicals (i.e., L-methionine, 3-methyl-1-butanethiol) appeared to attract snakes to the tubes. However, no tofu baits treated with chemicals were consumed, whereas 100% of the snakes that visited tubes baited with DNM consumed the dead mice. These results, along with analysis of videos, indicate that chemicals may act as long distance lures but are insufficient for stimulating and initiating consumptive or appetitive search behaviors at close range.


Polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) based microstructures, with boron doping (B-doping), are studied, with reference to their built-in stress, for different germanium implantation (Ge-implantation) doses. The microstructures are studied free standing and under static and dynamic deformations, by a combination of macroscopic (pull-in voltage, resonance frequency) and microscopic (micro-Raman) experimental techniques, in comparison with numerical calculation methods. The counterbalancing effect of Ge-implantation versus the B-doping, with respect to the built-in stress, is examined in poly-Si. Measurements, with three different experimental methods, and calculations, on bridges designed and fabricated for micromachining applications, show, consistently, the same maximization trend for the built-in stress, with a maximum at a Ge-dose of 1015 ions/cm2, in agreement with a similar non-monotonic Ge-dependence of the growth rate and the crystalline quality of poly-Si, from the literature.


We introduce the Forget-me-not Process, an efficient, non-parametric meta-algorithm for online probabilistic sequence prediction for piecewise stationary, repeating sources. Our method works by taking a Bayesian approach to partition a stream of data into postulated task-specific segments, while simultaneously building a model for each task. We provide regret guarantees with respect to piecewise stationary data sources under the logarithmic loss, and validate the method empirically across a range of sequence prediction and task identification problems.


In all mammalian species studied so far, fertilization induces oocyte activation necessary for pronuclear formation, syngamy, and the beginning of embryonic cleavage. The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of a protocol for artificial activation for bovine oocytes using ionomycin and roscovitine either in combination with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) or alone. In this study, ionomycin was used to facilitate the increase of intracellular calcium, due to the release of calcium from intracellular stores. This compound was used in conjuction with roscovitine, a specific cdc2 kinase inhibitor. The success of the treatment was compared with that of oocytes fertilized by IVF. Three replicates were carried out using bovine oocytes harvested from slaughterhouse ovaries. In vitro-matured oocytes were cultured in TCM-199 plus 10% FCS, pyruvate, estradiol, hCG, and gentamicin at 39°C in an atmosphere of 5% of CO2 in air for 20 h. After in vitro maturation, oocytes were divided into 3 groups. For parthenogenetic activation, 100 oocytes were stripped of cumulus cells and placed in H-MEM plus 10% FCS and 5 µm ionomycin for 8 min, maintained in H-MEM plus 10% FCS, 66 mm roscovitine and 7.5 mg mL–1 cytochalasin B for 6 h, and placed into culture. In the ICSI group, oocytes were denuded and transferred to 5-µL H-MEM plus 20% FCS drops. Only MII oocytes were microinjected. The sperm drop was prepared with a mixture of 4 µL polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and 1 µL of the sperm suspension produced by Percoll gradient. For injection, a single normal mobile sperm was aspirated with the tail first. A single oocyte was fixed by holding the pipette to position the polar body at the 6 or 12 o'clock position. The injection pipette was pushed through the zona pellucida and the oolema and the spermatozoan was released into the cytoplasm. After ICSI, the oocytes were subjected to the same activation protocol described earlier and cultured. For IVF, sperm was prepared by swim-up and 100 oocytes were fertilized in Fert-Talp for 18 h (sperm concentration: 1 × 106). All oocytes were cultured in HTF:BME plus 0.6% BSA, 10% FCS, 0.01% myoinositol, and gentamycin at 39°C in an atmosphere of 5% of CO2 in air for 72 h. Cleavage was evaluated visually and the embryos were stained with Hoechst 33342 for estimation of nuclei numbers. The data were analyzed by ANOVA, followed by the Tukey test (P < 0.05). The results showed a cleavage rate of 76% for the IVF group, 57% for the ICSI group, and 51% for the parthenogenic group. The artificial activation proposed was efficient in inducing oocyte activation and cleavage; however, the rates obtained were significantly lower then the ones observed after IVF. Injection of a viable sperm into the oocyte through ICSI did not improve the cleavage rate after activation. This result indicates that the membrane fusion and/or sperm interaction with the oocyte during fertilization is important for the physiological modifications that result in oocyte cleavage in bovine.


ABSTRACT Patch grafts are widely used in various kind of vascular surgeries such as detect repair or dilation of vascular stenosis. Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) patches are flexible and handle well, but have shown problems with calcification as they are non-bioabsorbable and therefore permanently remain in the body. It is important to develop an alternative biocompatible patch. Silk fibroin (SF) was developed as a biocompatible material, but it lacks of the elasticity required for surgery as a patch. Polyurethane (PU) is also a well-known elastomer so this study focused on the SF and the PU blend materials with a weight ratio of 5:5 (SF/PU). To evaluate the SF/PU patch, the patches were implanted into the abdominal aortas of rats, using the ePTFE patch in the control group. Because it was more flexible the SF/PU patch was easier to implant than the ePTFE patch. At 1 week after implantation, the SF/PU patch had been infiltrated with cells and collagen fiber. The ePTFE control patch did not accumulate collagen fiber until 3 months and calcification occurred at 4 weeks. The SF/PU patch did not present any signs of calcification for 3 months. This study addressed the problems associated with using SF in isolation and showed that the SF/PU patch can be considered as a useful alternative to the ePTFE to overcome the problem of calcification.


Video anomaly detection aims to identify abnormal events that occurred in videos. Since anomalous events are relatively rare, it is not feasible to collect a balanced dataset and train a binary classifier to solve the task. Thus, most previous approaches learn only from normal videos using unsupervised or semi-supervised methods. Obviously, they are limited in capturing and utilizing discriminative abnormal characteristics, which leads to compromised anomaly detection performance. In this paper, to address this issue, we propose a new learning paradigm by making full use of both normal and abnormal videos for video anomaly detection. In particular, we formulate a new learning task: cross-domain few-shot anomaly detection, which can transfer knowledge learned from numerous videos in the source domain to help solve few-shot abnormality detection in the target domain. Concretely, we leverage self-supervised training on the target normal videos to reduce the domain gap and devise a meta context perception module to explore the video context of the event in the few-shot setting. Our experiments show that our method significantly outperforms baseline methods on DoTA and UCF-Crime datasets, and the new task contributes to a more practical training paradigm for anomaly detection.


Signal regulatory protein-α (SIRPA) is an immunoglobulin superfamily transmembrane protein with intracellular docking sites for two Src homology domain containing tyrosine phosphatases, and most abundantly expressed in neurons and myeloid cells. SIRPA is a critical immune inhibitory receptor on macrophages. CD47 is a ligand for SIRPA, and CD47 interaction with SIRPA serves as a 'self-recognition' that prevents phagocytosis of the cells expressing CD47. Recently, we (Nature immunology 2007) identified polymorphism in murine Sirpa as a critical modulator of engraftment in xenogeneic model of human-to-mouse hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse Sirpa polymorphism has far greater reactivity with human CD47 than that of the respective alleles of other strains resulting in effective engraftment of human hematopoietic cells. In addition, as well as the mouse, human SIRPA is highly polymorphic in the IgV domain. Then, we examined whether polymorphism in SIRPA induced the difference for suppressive effect of human macrophage on hematopoiesis. First, we examined sequence alignment of SIRPA IgV domain (exon 3 of SIRPA) of healthy control 18 people. We identified two major variants; 6 people with variant1 (V1) and 12 people with variant2 (V2). The SIRPA amino acid sequences of V1 and V2 are different in 13 residues, and its residues in orthologous position between species that is polymorphic between NOD and other strains as well as between V2 and V1. Next, we examined that whether there is a difference in the effect on hematopoiesis between V1 macrophage and V2 macrophage by long term culture-initiating cells (LTC-IC) assay on MS-5 stromal cells. For macrophage preparation, peripheral mononuclear cells from healthy donors were purified by positive selection using MACS CD14 Micro Beads (Miltenyi Biotec), and they were incubated with M-CSF for 3 days. For LTC-IC assay, 5×102 differentiated macrophages were seeded onto established MS-5 stroma in 96-well tissue culture plates. The next day, human hematopoietic CD34+ cells were seeded at doses of 102 to 5×103 cells per well and cultured for 4 weeks. At the end of the culture, cells were detached and plated into methylcellulose progenitor assays. Macrophage had a suppressive effect on the number of LTC-IC in all cultures. There was tendency that V1 macrophage had a greater suppression compared to V2 macrophage, however the differences between V1 and V2 were marginal (p=0.03). These data suggests that human macrophages have suppressive effect on hematopoiesis, and human SIRPA polymorphism modulates macrophage-mediated suppression of hematopoiesis in allogenic model, likewise in xenogeneic model of human-to-mouse hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Moreover, SIRPA polymorphism might be related to graft failure in the allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.


This study deals with the statistical analysis and study of water quality index to assess hardness of groundwater in Todaraisingh tehsil of Tonk district of Rajasthan state. The study has been carried out to examine its suitability for drinking, irrigation and industrial purpose. The presence of problematic salts contains in groundwater due to local pollutants and affected the groundwater quality adversely. The estimated values were compared with drinking water quality standards prescribed by B.I.S. It was found that drinking water is severely polluted with hardness causing salts. This study reveals that people dependent on water sources of the study area are prone to health hazards of contaminated water and quality managements to hardness urgently needed.


Signature files are extremely compressed versions of text files which can be used as access or index files to facilitate searching documents for text strings. These access files, or signatures, are generated by storing "hashed" codes for individual words. Given the possible generation of similar codes in the hashing or storing process, the primary concern in researching signature files is to determine the accuracy of retrieving information. Inaccuracy is always represented by the false signaling of the presence of a text string. Two suggested ways to alter false drop rates are: 1) to determine if either of the two methologies for storing hashed codes, by superimposing them or by concatenating them, is more efficient; and 2) to determine if a particular hashing algorithm has any impact. To assess these issues, the history of suprimposed coding is traced from its development as a tool for compressing information onto punched cards in the 1950s to its incorporation into proposed signature file methodologies in the mid-1980' s. Likewise, the concept of compressing individual words by various algorithms, or by hashing them is traced through the research literature. Following this literature review, benchmark trials are performed using both superimposed and concatenated methodologies while varying hashing algorithms. It is determined that while one combination of hashing algorithm and storage methodology is better, all signature file mehods can be considered viable.


The surface polaron is investigated within the modified variational scheme of the Lee-Low-Pines theory (1953) which is valid for the whole range of the electron-surface phonon coupling. The ground state energy, the mean number of surface phonons in the cloud around the electron and the spatial localisations of the electron perpendicular and parallel to the surface change abruptly at certain values of the electron-surface phonon coupling constant alpha and of the image potential beta . The surface polaron changes its state according to the values of the parameters alpha and beta . Such features are summarised in the phase diagram.


A novel direction of arrival (DoA) estimation method based on amplifier-integrated active metasurface is proposed to find multisource directions by a single-channel system. Nonuniformly periodic time modulation (NPTM) on the metasurface reduces the hardware complexity by taking full advantage of the spectral resources. As a result, only partial metasurface elements are required to achieve 2-D DoA estimation, while the remaining elements can be redesigned and encoded to control electromagnetic waves. Thus, adaptive beamsteering can be expected to realize in a full-duplex way. Moreover, the amplifiers in the metasurface can function as modulation units to generate the required harmonics and enhance signal quality. The nonideality of the modulated square wave due to the active devices is allowed without affecting the estimation accuracy. An active metasurface prototype composed of 5 $\times $ 5 elements is fabricated and measured in the microwave anechoic chamber for multisource direction finding. The measured maximum error is 0.31°, which is high accuracy compared with the state-of-the-art works. Thus, the proposed method has application values in the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless communications, and radar.


Middleware is required to support and interface multi-modal Dynamic Data Driven Application Systems (DDDAS) with back-end and other computing facilities. Middleware is also needed to support distributed simulations and emulations needed in earlier phases of system development. This work describes the Green Runtime Infrastructure (G-RTI), an energy-efficient client server based middleware developed to support distributed DDDAS simulation, emulation and deployment. G-RTI eases and accelerates the development and testing of multi-modal studies, testbeds and DDDAS systems. It serves as a platform for research in energy reduction techniques for middleware services. The services implemented by G-RTI are described and results of benchmarking studies are reported. Its application is demonstrated through a use-case for an end-to-end implementation of a connected vehicle application. G-RTI is open source.


In this work, a novel ratiometric fluorescent platform for α-glucosidase (α-glu) and its inhibitor was constructed based on N-doped carbon dots (N-CDs). The α-glucosidase present can catalyze the release of hydroquinone (HQ) from α-arbutin. Then, the generated HQ can be oxidized and copolymerized with polyethyleneimine (PEI) to form a yellowish green fluorescence copolymer (PHQ-PEI) with intense fluorescence emission at 510 nm. When the PHQ-PEI was formed, blue fluorescence of N-CDs at 425 nm was decreased, whereas the fluorescence of PHQ-PEI at 510 nm increased sharply as a result of the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) effect between N-CDs and PHQ-PEI. However, in the presence of acarbose, the activity of α-glucosidase is inhibited, and α-arbutin cannot be hydrolyzed to hydroquinone, leading to the fluorescence recovery of N-CDs at 425 nm and the fluorescence decrease of PHQ-PEI at 510 nm. The linear range from 0.2 to 1.6 mU mL-1 and 25-150 μmol L-1 was obtained for α-glucosidase and acarbose detection, respectively, and the detection limit (LOD) for α-glucosidase and acarbose was as low as 0.082 mU mL-1 and 14.5 μmol L-1. Thus, a ratiometric fluorescent sensor with good sensitivity and high specificity was established for α-glucosidase assay and satisfactory results were acquired in real sample determination.


Leaking of confidential data to an unauthorized agent is a major concern for an organization. In this article we seek to detect the trusted node that leaks the confidential data to an unauthorized agent. Traditionally, leakage of data is handled by water marking technique which requires data modification. If the watermarked copy is found at some unauthorized site then distributor can claim his ownership. But one of the issues with watermarking method is data modification. To overcome the disadvantages of using watermark, data allocation strategies are used to improve the probability of identifying guilty third parties. The idea is to distribute the data intelligently to agents based on sample data request and explicit data request in order to improve the chance of detecting the guilty agents. Modern business activities also rely on extensive email exchange. Email leakages have become widespread, and the severe damage caused by such leakages constitutes a disturbing problem for organizations. Hence, filtering of E-mails is also necessary. This can be done by blocking E-mails which contains images, videos or sensitive data and filtering the text file of an organization.


A technology of hardening porous materials of titan powders has been elaborated. The technology is based on passing alternating current with duration of ~10-1…101 s through porous (35…40%) blanks made by method of Sintering by Electric Discharge (SED) by passing a pulse of current with duration of ~10-5…10-3 s. The influence of technological regimes of porous blanks treatment on their structure and properties is investigated. Geometry and dimension of contact necks between powder particles of obtained samples are evaluated. Variations of porosity and strengths as well as microstructure of porous samples materials before and after treatment are investigated. Optimum range of treatment technological regimes is determined within which porosity of 30…35% with maximum strength values.


The fine-scale exploitation pattern of fishers and the interactions among fishing vessels determine their impact on exploited populations, habitats, and ecosystems. This study used a unique combination of high resolution data of fishing tracks (positions recorded at 1 and 6 min intervals) and catch rates of sole (Solea solea) and plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) per tow, to study how pulse trawl (PUL) and tickler chain beam trawl (TBT) fishers exploit patches of concealed flatfish. PUL and TBT fishers had similar tactics. Effort was concentrated in the core of the patch. PUL fishers trawled in a systematic manner with successive tows segments placed parallel to each other at a median distance of ∼200 m. In 45% of the cores, simultaneous trawling by multiple PUL vessels occurred. A total of 40% of the cores were revisited in the following week, of which 50% were re-exploited. Catch rate in the core was ∼50% higher than the background catch rate and decreased over time due to resource depletion and interference related to the response of flatfish to the fishing activities. Interference contributed up to 67% to the decline in catch rate and was larger in TBT than in PUL.


Six vascular rings were evaluated using axial biplane cineangiography and concomitant barium esophagography. Three patients had a double aortic arch, two had a right aortic arch and aberrant left subclavian artery with a foreshortened left ligamentum arteriosum, and one had a pulmonary vascular sling. Barium was administered in the esophagus of the anesthetized patient followed by cineangiography. Five patients were evaluated using both the standard and four-chamber projection, while the sixth patient with the pulmonary sling was evaluated in the standard and sitting projection. With the four-chamber view, vascular rings were exposed and atypical features such as a small right aortic arch component and branch stenoses of the brachiocephalic arteries were revealed. Axial views with an esophagogram allow easier morphologic analysis and more precise definition of the vascular abnormality than conventional views.


We think of globalization as a new process, but long-distance connections are basic to being human. 'Continental fusion—connections across Europe, Asia, and Africa' sketches regional histories, considering the Neolithic history of metallurgy, pottery, burial practices, the prehistory of languages, and art styles. It is now possible to see the depth and importance of connections across this huge region from the Neolithic onwards. Materials, such as bronze, and complex art styles linked to shared cosmologies and practices helped set up and maintain connections that all areas participated in and benefitted from. Connections did not produce similarities of culture, however, and regional differences increase from the Bronze Age onwards.


The quality of English language education in universities is vital in preparing individuals for the increasingly globalized world. Assessing the efficacy of English teaching programs is therefore crucial to ensuring such quality. Consequently, this study aims to evaluate the optional English preparatory program of a state university using the CIPP model dimensions: context, input, process, and product. The current study employs a mixed-methods research approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data to address the research questions. The study sample comprised 247 preparatory graduate and 77 preparatory students, as well as 6 lecturers. In the quantitative part, The CIPP scale (Context, Input, Process, and Product), developed by the researchers based on item analysis, second-order exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, criterion validity, and content validity, was used to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the English preparatory program based on responses of participants to the items in four dimensions of the scale. The qualitative aspect of the study involved obtaining responses from participant students through open-ended questions and conducting semi-structured interviews with lecturers. These responses were analyzed, and the resulting excerpts were used to support and complement the findings obtained from the quantitative findings. The results indicate that the participants were highly satisfied with the optional nature of the program and held positive perceptions of it. However, some improvements, particularly in the physical conditions of the program's context dimension, such as the library, laboratory, and school building, were required. The findings from the input and process dimensions reveal the importance of increasing target language use and prioritization of speaking skills in the product dimension. The developed CIPP scale, which is statistically reliable and valid, can be utilized by researchers to evaluate English preparatory programs using the CIPP model. The study concludes by offering several key recommendations for creating a more effective English preparatory program based on the findings.


This article explores longstanding links between cycling and disability. Social models of disability and closely related theories on the social construction of technology are central to our approach. The former insists that disability is a social construct; the latter views technology as socially formed. Disabled persons engage in cycling for, among other things, the pleasure of moving about the city and countryside, parks and neighbourhoods, to access places of work and study, and to gain greater independence in their daily lives. They have played an active role in the development and adaptation of cycles to make them better suited to particular needs. Disabled persons, their friends and family, and technicians have shared ideas and information to design cycling machines that reduce the limitations of technologies and environments developed for so-called "able" bodies. Here, we present a typology identifying seven types of cycles that were and are used by disabled persons for varying purposes. They are as follows: transporters, pedomotives, manumotives, sociables, stability machines, tandems, and power-assisted bikes. In each case, examples existed in the nineteenth century or earlier but social construction and improved materials and technology have dramatically enhanced their utility in recent years.


Industrial control systems are continuously increasing in functionality, connectivity, and levels of integration, and as a consequence they require more computational power. At the same time, these systems have specific requirements related to cost, reliability, timeliness, and thermal power dissipation, which put restrictions on the hardware and software used. Today the high-end embedded CPUs not only provide multiple cores, but also integrated graphics processors (GPU) at close to no additional cost. The use of GPUs for general processing have several potential values in industrial control systems; 1) the added computational power and the high parallelism could pave way for new functionality and 2) the integrated GPU could potentially replace other hardware and thereby reduce the overall cost. In this paper we investigate the applicability of using integrated GPUs in industrial control systems. We do this by evaluating the performance of GPUs with respect to computational problem types and sizes typically found in industrial control systems. In the end we conclude that GPUs are no obvious match for industrial control systems and that several hurdles remain before a wide adoption can be motivated.


Objectives: Atherosclerosis represents an active inflammation that leukocytes play a major role. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been shown as an indicator of systemic inflammation. Our aim was to evaluate inflammatory markers in obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) and cardiac syndrome X (CSX) and to evaluate NLR in predicting CAD in patients with typical chest pain and coronary risk factors. Methods: Eighty patients with CSX, 80 patients with obstructive CAD with unstable angina pectoris and a control group of 80 subjects were recruited into the study. Hematologic and biochemical parameters were investigated. Results: High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was increased in CAD group and CSX group compared to the control group ( p < 0.001); however it was comparable between CAD and CSX groups ( p = 0.065). Mean NLR was higher in CAD group than CSX group and control group that the lowest value was in the control group. In CAD group, hs-CRP was positively correlated with NLR (r = 0.43, p < 0.001), and Gensini score (r = 0.54, p < 0.001). NLR was also linearly correlated with Gensini score (r = 0.49, p < 0.001). In ROC curve analysis, for the NLR of 2.26, NLR values attained 85.5% sensitivity and 43.9% specificity ( p < 0.001). When cut-off value was taken as 3.05 mg/dL for CRP, CRP values attained 78.7% sensitivity and 43.6% specificity ( p < 0.001). When cut-off value was taken as 9.5 ( × 10 9 /L) for white blood cell (WBC), WBC values attained 58.8% sensitivity and 34.3% specificity ( p < 0.001). Conclusions: NLR seems to be usefull in prediction of obstructive CAD and can be implemented in planning for diagnostic procedures in patients with typical chest pain. Increased CRP, WBC and NLR may give insight about main pathology of CSX. Despite absence of obstructive narrowing in epicardial coronaries, it appears be salutary to treat CSX due to the similar underlying pathophysiology with obstructive CAD.


A common practice to compute ligand conformations of compounds with various degrees of freedom to be used in molecular modeling (QSAR and docking studies) is to perform a conformational distribution based on repeated random sampling, such as Monte-Carlo methods. Further calculations are often required. This short review describes some methods used for conformational analysis and the implications of using selected conformations in QSAR. A case study is developed for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a widely used herbicide which binds to TIR1 ubiquitin ligase enzyme. The use of such an approach and semi-empirical calculations did not achieve all possible minima for 2,4-D. In addition, the conformations and respective energies obtained by the semi-empirical AM1 method do not match the calculated trends obtained by a high level DFT method. Similar findings were obtained for the carboxylate anion, which is the bioactive form. Finally, the crystal bioactive structure of 2,4-D was not found as a minimum when using Monte-Carlo/AM1 and is similarly populated with another conformer in implicit water solution according to optimization at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ level. Therefore, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) methods based on three dimensional chemical structures are not fundamental to provide predictive models for 2,4-D congeners as TIR1 ubiquitin ligase ligands, since they do not necessarily reflect the bioactive conformation of this molecule. This probably extends to other systems.


Wind turbines are usually designed and operated with fix startup speed. It could startup and shutdown repeatedly when the wind fluctuates around the startup speed. The excessive stress induced by frequent startup and shutdown could enhance likelihood of component failure and negatively impact the availability of a wind turbine. The startup speed with dead band is proposed in this article to prevent from frequent startup. 5-year wind data of 15 wind farms are analyzed to evaluate the reduction in the times of startup and potential loss of wind power production using the proposed approach. Numerical simulation suggests that the times of startup could be reduced by half with trivial reduction in potential wind power generation in most of investigated sites once an appropriate dead band is adopted


We prove that the class of 231-avoiding permutations satisfies a convergence law, i.e. that for any first-order sentence $\Psi$, in the language of two total orders, the probability $p_{n,\Psi}$ that a uniform random 231-avoiding permutation of size $n$ satisfies $\Psi$ admits a limit as $n$ is large. Moreover, we establish two further results about the behaviour and value of $p_{n,\Psi}$: (i) it is either bounded away from $0$, or decays exponentially fast; (ii) the set of possible limits is dense in $[0,1]$. Our tools come mainly from analytic combinatorics and singularity analysis.


Introduction Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most frequent encounters in General Practice. Investigation and referral remain common despite the self-limiting character of episodes that are not largely attributable to specific underlying injuries. Identifying patients' ideas, concerns and expectations (ICE) is a well-established element within consultation skills training and has been shown to improve prescribing. It can be a powerful communication tool setting the base for transferring and adjusting adequate clinical information. This study aims to evaluate whether ICE can decrease unnecessary medicine in the management of acute LBP in primary care. Methods and analysis Research question: Does ICE training intervention have an effect on doctors' referrals of patients suffering from acute LBP? Population: Recruitment to this parallel cluster randomised trial will take place among general practitioners belonging to four independent practice networks in Northern Bavaria/Germany. Intervention: At baseline, 24 out of 48 doctors will be randomly assigned to take part in a 1-day training session covering theoretical background and clinical implementation of patient-centred communication by stimulating ICE. They will also be given access to a web-based supporting tool for reflective practice on their communication skills. Comparison: GPs in the control group will continue consultations as usual. Outcome: Outcome measures are referrals to diagnostic imaging, physiotherapy and specialists obtained from routine practice data, compared between intervention and control group. Time: Referrals of patients consulting their doctors for documented LBP will be monitored up to 3 months after the ICE training intervention. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval for the study was obtained by the Ethics Committee of the University Erlangen-Nuremberg (296_17B). Results will be disseminated by conference presentations and journal publications. Trial registration number The trial is registered in clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03711071).


This paper presents an optimization methodology on field-scale numerical compositional simulations of CO2 storage and production performance in the Pennsylvanian Upper Morrow sandstone reservoir in the Farnsworth Unit (FWU), Ochiltree County, Texas. This work develops an improved framework that combines hybridized machine learning algorithms for reduced order modeling and optimization techniques to co-optimize field performance and CO2 storage.
 The model's framework incorporates geological, geophysical, and engineering data. We calibrated the model with the performance history of an active CO2 flood data to attain a successful history matched model. Uncertain parameters such as reservoir rock properties and relative permeability exponents were adjusted to incorporate potential changes in wettability in our history matched model.
 To optimize the objective function which incorporates parameters such as oil recovery factor, CO2 storage and net present value, a proxy model was generated with hybridized multi-layer and radial basis function (RBF) Neural Network methods. To obtain a reliable and robust proxy, the proxy underwent a series of training and calibration runs, an iterative process, until the proxy model reached the specified validation criteria. Once an accepted proxy was realized, hybrid evolutionary and machine learning optimization algorithms were utilized to attain an optimum solution for pre-defined objective function. The uncertain variables and/or control variables used for the optimization study included, gas oil ratio, water alternating gas (WAG) cycle, production rates, bottom hole pressure of producers and injectors. CO2 purchased volume, and recycled gas volume in addition to placement of new infill wells were also considered in the modelling process.
 The results from the sensitivity analysis reflect impacts of the control variables on the optimum results. The predictive study suggests that it is possible to develop a robust machine learning optimization algorithm that is reliable for optimizing a developmental strategy to maximize both oil production and storage of CO2 in aqueous-gaseous-mineral phases within the FWU.


Statistical tests on a panel of data from 54 countries over the 2004–2009 period support the proposition that high income inequality and entrepreneurial activity share a positive linear relationship. In a novel approach, the dependent variable is defined from two independent and uncorrelated perspectives: (1) the World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Snapshot, which measures new business entry density based on secondary official sources; and (2) the Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activity of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project, which is a survey-based measure of formal and informal entrepreneurial participation rates. The empirical strategy is based on the logic that economies with increasing concentrations of wealth tend to encourage entrepreneurial activity because entrepreneurs accumulate more income than workers. Following the disequalizing model, once this inequality appears, it is reinforced in successive generations. The intuition behind this outcome is that a certain level of initial capital is required to establish a new enterprise, which implies that the probability of becoming an entrepreneur increases if an individual has inherited wealth.


Energy conservative devices are the need of the modern technology which leads to the development of reversible logic. The synthesis of reversible logic has become an intensely studied area as it overcomes the problem of power dissipation associated with irreversibility. Storage device such as Read-Only-Memory (ROM) can be realized in a reversible way with low power dissipation. The reversibility of ROM has not been yet realized in literature and hence, this paper presents a novel reversible ROM with its Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) realization. On the way to present the architecture of reversible ROM, we propose a new reversible gate named as Nowrin Papiya (NP) gate. All the proposed circuits and gates are realized with CMOS based pass transistor logic. Finally, an algorithm as well as several theorems on the numbers of gates, transistors and garbage outputs have been presented to show the optimality of the reversible ROM. Simulations using Microwind DSCH software has been shown to verify the correctness of the proposed design. The comparative results prove that the proposed designs are efficient and optimized in terms of numbers of gates, transistors, garbage outputs, quantum cost and delay.


A protective effect of physical activity (PA) on breast cancer (BC) risk has been suggested. Few studies have examined the influence of PA on mammographic breast density (MBD), a strong risk factor for BC. In a prospective study in Florence, Italy, we identified 2,000 healthy women with a mammogram taken 5 years after enrolment. Individual mammograms were retrieved (83%) and MBD assessed according to Wolfe's classification. Detailed information on PA at work and during leisure time, reproductive history, lifestyle and anthropometric measurements at enrolment were available for 1,666 women. Information on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was also obtained at mammogram. Women with high‐MBD (P2 + DY Wolfe's patterns) were compared with women with low‐MBD (N1 + P1) by multivariate logistic models. Overall, high‐MBD was inversely associated with increasing levels of leisure time PA (p for trend = 0.04) and among peri‐/postmenopausal women, also with increasing levels of recreational activities (p for trend = 0.02). An interaction between PA and HRT emerged, with a stronger inverse association of highest level of recreational activity with MBD among HRT nonusers (p for interaction = 0.02). A modifying effect by body mass index (BMI) was evident among 1,025 peri‐/postmenopausal women who did not use HRT at the time of mammogram, with a stronger inverse association between recreational PA and MBD in the highest BMI tertile (OR = 0.34; 95% CI 0.20–0.57; p for interaction = 0.03). This large study carried out in Mediterranean women suggests that leisure time PA may play a role in modulating MBD, particularly in overweight/obese peri‐/postmenopausal women. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Music production is a key element of any complete multimedia system and therefore an important component of multimedia chip set solution. Wavetable synthesis is a set of techniques which allow real time music production with high polyphony on current DSPs while exceeding the quality of simple FM synthesis. However it is important to allow other synthesis techniques to further enhance the musical product. Some of these techniques, such as spectral modeling synthesis and physical modeling of musical instruments can produce higher quality than wavetable but are more expensive computationally. Thus even when real-time performance is possible, there exists a trade-off between polyphony and quality. In order to provide superior quality as well as flexibility and scaleability, we have created an overall structure that can utilize various synthesis techniques in different situations with minimum overhead. Synthesis techniques such as FM, wavetable, spectral and physical modeling and so on will thus be used together to create a more compelling musical output. This is achieved with a control structure that dynamically chooses and controls the different synthesis techniques. The first set of synthesis methods incorporated in this system is a combination of wavetable and sampling techniques.


Infective endocarditis (IE) is among the most fatal infectious diseases. Since the introduction of various intracardiac devices and interventions, the clinical aspects of IE have rapidly evolved. In this paper, we aim to define the contemporary characteristics of patients diagnosed with definite IE and to identify the predictors associated with mortality. Through retrospective analysis of patients with TEE proven vegetation, those fulfilling the modified Duke criteria for definite IE were identified. Patient characteristics in relation to clinical outcomes and mortality were analyzed. Out of 50 patients (mean age 57±15.9 years, 34% female), 72% was native-valve endocarditis of which only 32% had a predisposing valve disease such as rheumatic valve. The rate of prosthetic-valve IE was 10% and that of device-related IE was 18%. The most common causative organisms were S. aureus (16%), Coagulase-negative Staphylococci (16%), Enterococci (14%) and Viridans streptococci (12%). In-hospital mortality was 24% and was associated with concomitant diabetes, coronary artery disease, higher baseline creatinine, anemia, occurrence of cranial complications and absence of surgery during the index hospitalization. Regression analyses revealed that cerebral emboli were the only predictor of early mortality, possibly through delayed surgical treatment. In conclusion, our small cohort of definite IE patients showed that contemporary characteristics of IE has evolved with higher rates of device-related IE. Within established prognostic factors, cerebral emboli and timing of surgery are intervening factors, which suggests that the timing of surgical treatment, particularly in patients with neurologic complications, needs to be evaluated when shaping future perspectives on IE.


Two-dimensional instead of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic solutions of flow problems are quite often used in industry to facilitate short design turn-around times with varying degrees of success. A simple and robust approach for improving the accuracy of two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics solutions for problems involving internal flow passages in industrial applications is presented. The technique utilizes an approximation to the shearing stresses that act in the fully three-dimensional case but are ignored in the traditional two-dimensional approximation. Although the technique does not fully account for all the three-dimensional effects in such flows, it gives a reasonable estimate of the operation of devices with internal flows, even those involving transients. The usefulness and accuracy of the method are demonstrated through the application of the method to predict the performance of a supersonic fluidic oscillator for industrial design purposes. This brief provides industrial designers with a simple and robust tool for improving the accuracy of their computational fluid dynamic simulations.