By the beginning of the sixteenth Venice was an established maritime empire having achieved, not only the methodical restraint of the Ottomans' expansive aspirations towards European lands, but also solid control over the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas and the trade routes to the Levant. Internally Venice was a metropolis bustling with merchants, craftsmen, travellers and visitors, amongst whom a great number uf established foreigners. Nearly eighty per cent of the city's population was made up of these labouring poor, who contributed significantly to the economic stability and prosperity ofthe Republic, as they provided the workforce for many of its industries. Venice was home to the world renowned Arsena/e, the biggest 'factory' in medieval and early modern period. It was there where the great Venetian galleys were built, armed, and launched into water, contributing to the Republic's economic prosperity, commercial and territorial expansion, as well as its defensive purposes. This thesis focuses on two of the most distinct working class communities in the city, the shipbuilding craftsmen, commonly known as Arsena/atti, and the seafaring Greek community. Both these groups, the former in charge of building these vessels, and the latter serving in them as sailors and captains, or similarly employed in the . shipbuilding industry, were two of the most prominent working class clusters in late Renaissance Venice. This study will attempt to look into the way of life of the maritime folk outside their workplace, in order to assess their financial and social standing - taking into consideration the places in which they lived, their households, their [mances, the social networks which they formed, and their religious and charitable activities - at a time of considerable demographic, economic, and social adjustments for the city. The examination of the two groups, established in the same neighbourhoods and united under the same occupational activities, will show that despite any linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity, their situation in life was very similar, and demonstrative of the circumstances of the Venetian working classes as a whole. Keeping in mind that early modern Venice's papa/ani have been considerably neglected by contemporary scholarship, the ultimate objective of this thesis is to initiate a basic study on the socio-economic life of the lower classes in one of the most populous and celebrated cities in medieval and early modern Europe.


The initiation of corrosion-induced cracks, often running parallel to the reinforcement, becomes a turning point in the service life of a reinforced concrete (RC) structure as they promote increased corrosion rates, thus accelerating the degradation process of the structure. Compared to plain concrete, fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) provides additional confinement to the reinforcement, which has been reported to delay or even prevent the appearance of mechanically induced splitting cracks. In this study, an experimental programme has been carried out to investigate the influence of fibres on the onset of corrosion-induced splitting cracks. Cylindrical lollipop specimens with a centrally positioned O16 mm bar and varying cover depths from 40 to 64 mm were subjected to accelerated corrosion. A constant current of 100 µA/cm2 was impressed through the specimens and the electrical resistance between each rebar and an external copper mesh acting as cathode was monitored. Crack initiation, determined from a drop in electrical resistance, and confirmed by visual inspection, revealed that fibre reinforcement may delay corrosion-induced cracks, an effect that was more noticeable for reduced c/O ratios, featuring up to 50% higher corrosion levels at crack initiation compared to plain concrete.


Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a major type of noncoding RNA greater than 200 nucleotides in length involved in important regulatory processes. Abnormal expression of certain lncRNAs contributes to the pathogenesis of multiple diseases, including cancers. The lncRNA LINC00707 is located on chromosome 10p14 and is abnormally expressed in numerous disease types, and particularly in several types of cancer. High LINC00707 levels mediate a series of biological functions, including cell proliferation, apoptosis, metastasis, invasion, cell cycle arrest, inflammation, and even osteogenic differentiation. In this review, we discuss the main functions and underlying mechanisms of LINC00707 in different diseases and describe promising applications of LINC00707 in clinical settings.


Xenobiotic metabolome identification of Chinese herbal formula in biological systems is a very challenging task. Qingkailing injection is a typical Chinese herbal injection, which is wildly used clinically in China. However, the holistic metabolic fate of the ingredient from Qingkailing injection remains unclear. In this work, a metabolomic strategy for comprehensively elucidating Qingkailing injection derived prototype components and metabolites in rat urine conducted by hybrid linear ion trap high-resolution mass spectrometry was developed. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid linear ion trap high-resolution mass spectrometry was developed to obtain the urine profiling between the control group and Qingkailing injection treated group. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminate analysis was applied to distinguish the exogenous and the endogenous. In the S-plot, 37 xenobiotics derived from Qingkailing injection were found in urine, including 18 prototype compounds and 19 metabolites. The characterization of the prototype components and metabolites in rat's urine provided essential data for further pharmacological studies of Qingkailing injection. Our results indicated that the metabolomic approach was an effective tool to discover, screen, and analyze the multiple prototype components and their metabolites from complicated traditional Chinese preparations in vivo.


Structural defects such as joints or faults are inherent to almost any rock mass. In many situations those defects have a major impact on slope stability as they can control the possible failure mechanisms. Having a good estimate of their strength then becomes crucial. The roughness of a structure is a major contributor to its strength through two different aspects, i.e. the morphology of the surface (or the shape) and the strength of the asperities (related to the strength of the rock). In the current state of practice, roughness is assessed through idealized descriptions (Patton strength criterion) or through empirical parameters (Barton JRC). In both cases, the multi-dimensionality of the roughness is ignored. In this study, we propose to take advantage of the latest developments in numerical techniques. With 3D photogrammetry and/or laser mapping, practitioners have access to the real morphology of an exposed structure. The derived triangulated surface was introduced into the DEM (discrete element method) code PFC3D to create a synthetic rock joint. The interaction between particles on either side of the discontinuity was described by a smooth-joint model (SJM), hence suppressing the artificial roughness introduced by the particle discretization. Shear tests were then performed on the synthetic rock joint. A good correspondence between strengths predicted by the model and strengths derived from well-established techniques was obtained for the first time. Amongst the benefits of the methodology is the possibility offered by the model to be used in a quantitative way for shear strength estimates, to reproduce the progressive degradation of the asperities upon shearing and to analyze structures of different scales without introducing any empirical


The vertigo larynge of Charcot, 1 the tussis convulsiva of Heberden, 2 and other variants of syncopal states have been described throughout the history of medicine. It has even been suggested that death by crucifixion may be a form of fatal syncope. 3 Early clinical observations during the practice of bloodletting suggested that a decrease in both heart rate and blood pressure occurred during syncopal attacks. The relative contribution of the nervous system to bradycardia and hypotension still remains controversial despite the almost 2 centuries of investigations into nervous influences on the heart. Central to this debate is the concept of an inhibitory reflex arc among the heart, brain, and circulatory system. The goals of this article are 3-fold: to trace the contributions of bloodletting to our understanding of syncope, to articulate the experimental and conceptual history of this reflex arc with special attention to cardiac innervation, and to show that an overemphasis on vagally mediated bradycardia led to a delay in recognizing the importance of sympathetic effector systems in the production of hypotension.


Introduction: The Brazilian AIDS Programme success is recognized worldwide, due to its integrated approach of prevention, respect for human rights and to free of charge universal access to state of the art antiretrovirals. Current situation: As of 2006, 180,000 people living with AIDS are on HAART with 17 drugs available, receiving medical and laboratory care through the public health system. Costs for ART drugs reached US$ 400 million in 2006 and will increase steeply if the current trends are maintained: uptake of approximately 20,000 new patients/year and the need for more expensive, patent-protected second and third line drugs. Discussion: We discuss the strengths and weeknesses of the programme, budgetary pressures, the need for more intense preventive efforts, for boosting local production of new drugs, for more investment in research and development and the issue of voluntary and compulsory licensing. There are many hurdles in pursuing long-term sustainability, which depends on country driven initiatives and international collaboration and participation. Conclusion: We conclude that the Brazilian experience demonstrated the capability of a developing country to treat people with equity, independently of race, gender or economic power and that this equality "seed" has already spread to other countries. Internally this experience must be used to tackle other endemic diseases, such as leprosy, malaria, dengue and leishmania. The Brazilian political will has been proven but, once again, there will be the need for concerted action by civil society, researchers, health professionals, people living with HIV/AIDS and the government to convince the world that health needs should not be treated as commercial issues, and that progress in research and development must be shared throughout the world if we expect to survive as a civilization.


Background Individualized decisions are required in early-stage breast cancer patients. We aimed to establish a novel model for predicting non-sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastases in patients with positive SLNs, using preoperative and intraoperative characteristics and inflammatory indicators. Methods The data of 489 patients with invasive breast cancer were retrospectively collected from Xuanwu Hospital between 2014 and 2021. Among them, 96 patients with at least one positive SLN were used to build the predictive model. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the risk factors of non-SLN metastases. A nomogram was developed using these risk factors and was validated by calibration curves. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) and decision curve analyses (DCA) were used to compare our novel nomogram with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) nomogram. Cross-validation was performed for further internal validation of the predictive model. External validation was conducted using another treatment group (n=46 patients) in Xuanwu Hospital. Results Non-SLN metastases occurred in 42 of the 83 patients with positive SLNs (50.6%). Multivariate stepwise logistic regression indicated that the risk factors were age (P=0.032), number of positive SLNs (P=0.020), number of negative SLNs (P=0.011), resected tumor size (P=0.038), and monocyte count (P=0.012). A predictive model was developed and virtualized by nomogram using these five risk factors. The AUC of our nomogram was 0.867, which was significantly higher than that of the MSKCC model. DCA also showed a superior clinical value for our novel nomogram. After 10-fold cross-validation with 400 times repetitions, the AUC of our model was still 0.830. External validation of our model showed an AUC of 0.727. The model was well-calibrated in the internal and external validation series. Conclusions A five-factor nomogram was developed for predicting non-SLN metastases in early-stage breast cancer patients. This novel tool exhibited good accuracy and could assist clinicians with intraoperative decisions in breast cancer patients with positive SLNs.


Polymer electrolyte fuel cells are promising candidates as energy conversion devices in applications from portable power to stationary applications or electric vehicles. In order to achieve practical voltage, power and energy density, stacks are employed for almost all applications. Here, we present a six-cell 'single cell' stack in which individual cells can be isolated from the stack by current carrying leads found within each of the bipolar plates. The current carrying leads allow individual cells to be isolated from the rest of the stack, so that cells can either be tested together or independently. The design of the stack, utility for specific applications, including stack diagnostics and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) testing, and some experimental results, obtained using the stack, are presented. Special focus is given in this paper to the area of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stacks, however the equipment and many of the experimental results presented are appropriate for other fuel cell systems.


A holographic implementation of a fully connected neural network is presented. This model has a simple structure and is relatively easy to implement, and its operating principles and characteristics can be extended to other types of networks, since any architecture can be considered as a fully connected network with some of its connections missing. The basic principles of the fully connected network are reviewed. The optical implementation of the network is presented. Experimental results which demonstrate its ability to recognize stored images are given, and its performance and analysis are discussed based on a proposed model for the system. Special attention is focused on the dynamics of the feedback loop and the tradeoff between distortion tolerance and image-recognition capability of the associative memory. >


An ulcer by pressure is produced when a constant pressure is exerted over the skin. This generates the collapse of the blood vessels and, therefore, a lack in the contribution of the necessary nutrients for the affected zone. As a consequence, the skin deteriorates, eventually causing an ulcer. In order to prevent it, a protocol must be applied to the patient, which is reflected on time and cost of treatment. There are some air mattresses available for this purpose, but whose performance does not fulfill all requirements. The prototype designed in our laboratory is based on the principle of the air mattress. Its objective is to improve on existing technologies and, due to an increased automation, reduce time dedication for personnel in charge of the patient. A clinical experience was made in the local Emergencies Hospital and also in an institution dedicated to aged patients care. In both cases, the results obtained and the comments from the personnel involved were favorable.


The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has altered its pediatric HIV study (ACTG 152) to eliminate the AZT only arm because children taking AZT alone were progressing faster to opportunistic infections and death than children in the other drug groups. This has caused similar alterations in other trials using AZT alone, but it has also lent credence to the notion that AZT has little or no benefit used as a single agent in children. Additionally, the ACTG 152 results will most likely mean a stronger emphasis on individualized care that depends less on clinical trial data and more on clinical practice. No clinical trials directly compare to the results of ACTG 152, however. In adults, AZT generally appeared either equivalent or better than the AZT/ddI combination. Several questions about ddI therapy in children, such as dosage tolerance, convenience, cost, and choosing the right therapy for the child, remain unanswered. ACTG 152 results (available in 1995) will not provide all the answers that parents of HIV-infected children will need. There is hope that experts in pediatric HIV infection who previously met to develop anti-HIV and prophylaxis guidelines for children will reconvene in anticipation of final ACTG 152 analysis.


The purpose of this study was to investigate two elements of the community approach to safety promotion for children and adolescents. The first concerns whether there is any correlation between safety-promoting activities in different municipal settings, and the second whether socio-economic and demographic characteristics affect the level of safety-promoting activities. A cross-sectional study was performed comprising 25 municipalities in Stockholm County. The extent of safety-promoting activities was studied in four settings: the municipal setting in general, the traffic setting, the pre-school setting, and the school and leisure activity setting. Data on nine demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the municipalities were collected from public statistics. There were three main findings. First, safety-promoting activities in the municipal setting in general, the pre-school setting, and the school and leisure activity setting, but not in the traffic setting, were apparently associated with total municipal safety-promoting activities. Secondly, socio-economic characteristics, measured as the proportion of adults with >12 years of education, did not predict the extent of safety-promoting activities. Finally, growing municipalities with a large proportion of children reported fewer safety-promoting activities than non-growing municipalities. This study demonstrated weak correlations between safety-promoting activities in different municipal settings. The finding that growing municipalities have fewer safety-promoting activities provides pertinent lessons for future action and research. The study offers a method by which it may be possible to better assess the complex components of the community approach to safety promotion.


The air traffic control system is a vast network of people and necessary navigational equipment that ensures the safe operation of commercial and private aircraft throughout the world. Air traffic controller service is responsible for area, approach and aerodrome control. Aircraft fatal accident data for commercial jet airplanes between 1959 and 2008 show that 36% of the accidents happen in the final approach and landing phase, possibly due to mechanical failure or human error resulting from poor communication between the pilot and air traffic controller. This paper presents an integration of a radar system with a GPS-based Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) for approach control separation between all instrument flight rules (IFR) flights and between IFR flights and visual flight rules (VFR) flights operated as controlled flights. The integration is simulated using MATLAB. Results of the simulation show that aircraft separation is easier and safer than relying only on an air traffic controller. We note, however, that the service of air traffic controllers is still required for successful aerodrome control.


Tradeoffs centrally mediate the expression of human adaptations. We propose that tradeoffs also influence the prevalence and forms of human maladaptation manifest in disease. By this logic, increased risk for one set of diseases commonly engenders decreased risk for another, diametric, set of diseases. We describe evidence for such diametric sets of diseases from epidemiological, genetic and molecular studies in four clinical domains: (i) psychiatry (autism vs psychotic-affective conditions), (ii) rheumatology (osteoarthritis vs osteoporosis), (iii) oncology and neurology (cancer vs neurodegenerative disorders) and (iv) immunology (autoimmunity vs infectious disease). Diametric disorders are important to recognize because genotypes or environmental factors that increase risk for one set of disorders protect from opposite disorders, thereby providing novel and direct insights into disease causes, prevention and therapy. Ascertaining the mechanisms that underlie disease-related tradeoffs should also indicate means of circumventing or alleviating them, and thus reducing the incidence and impacts of human disease in a more general way.


A dermatophyte antigen kit (DQT) was released in Japan as an in vitro diagnostic tool to identify tinea unguium in June 2022. From July 2022 to February 2023, we examined 75 potassium hydroxide (KOH)-negative patients (male, n = 23; female, n = 52; mean ± SD age, 63.6 ± 13.9 years) and determined the accuracy in confirming the fungal element with ZoomBlue™ staining at 400× magnification. The DQT results were classified into three categories. DQT-positive onychomycosis was detected in 27 patients with tinea unguium and two with non-dermatophyte onychomycosis. Fungal cultures were positive in 14 (51.8%) patients (Trichophyton rubrum [n = 11], T. interdigitale [n = 1], Fusarium solani [n = 1], and Talaromyces muroii [n = 1]). DQT-negative onychomycosis included ten patients with cured tinea unguium and 3 with Candida onychomycosis. Twenty-three patients had DQT-negative mimics for onychomycosis (onychauxis [n = 11], traumatic onycholysis [n = 8], yellow nail syndrome [n = 5], pincer nail deformity [n = 3], brittle nail syndrome [n = 2], contact dermatitis [n = 2], lichen planus [n = 1] and psoriasis [n = 1]). Because sparse, atrophic and/or fragmented mycelia are invisible in direct microscopy with potassium hydroxide (KOH) at 100× magnification, DQT was beneficial for diagnosing onychomycosis.


The authors present the psychiatric reform in Brazil (PRB) against the backdrop of the ideological and technical crisis of the care model previous to redemocratization and the Unified Healthcare System (SUS) creation. They emphasize the leading role of Caracas Declaration in 1990 and the normative initiatives taken by the Ministry of Health. The authors place the PRB legal framework in the context of


As shown in a 2018 article by Cristiano and Paesani, the element of Phillips's 1958 article that immediately obtained attention in the policy debate was the estimate of the unemployment rate compatible with price stability. Building on this previous work and based on the unpublished papers of the Council on Prices, Productivity, and Incomes and other published sources, the present article throws fresh light on why the curve paper failed to influence policymaking. At least two reasons may account for this. First, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, works based on inferential statistics still failed to obtain widespread attention among professional economists in the United Kingdom. Second, Phillips's 1958 article came at the beginning of a process that led to the abandonment, for some time at least, of the idea of buying price stability at the cost of increasing the unemployment rate.


The utilization of steady state monitoring techniques has become an established means of providing diagnostic and prognostic information for systems and equipment. This is mainly driven by both the wealth of available analysis techniques and the comparatively larger amount of data. However, steady state data is not the only, or in some cases, even the best source of information regarding the health and state of a system. Transient data has largely been overlooked as a source of system information due to the additional complexity in analyzing these types of signals. Time Distribution Mapping via the Sharp Transform allows for a fast, intuitive, generic quantification of deviations a transient signal from an established norm. Without regard to the type or source of the signal, referencing to an established Time Distribution Map can implicitly capture shifts mean, standard deviation, skewness, or even gross frequency shifts without need of additional processing. By quantifying and trending these shifts, an accurate measure of system heath can be established and utilized by prognostic algorithms. In fact, for some systems the elevated stress levels during transients can provide better, more clear indications of system health than those derived from steady state monitoring.


Most oseltamivir-resistant pandemic (H1N1) 2009 viruses have been isolated from immunocompromised patients. To describe the clinical features, treatment, outcomes, and virologic data associated with infection from pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus with H275Y mutation in immunocompromised patients, we retrospectively identified 49 hematology–oncology patients infected with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus. Samples from 33 of those patients were tested for H275Y genotype by allele-specific real-time PCR. Of the 8 patients in whom H275Y mutations was identified, 1 had severe pneumonia; 3 had mild pneumonia with prolonged virus shedding; and 4 had upper respiratory tract infection, of whom 3 had prolonged virus shedding. All patients had received oseltamivir before the H275Y mutation was detected; 1 had received antiviral prophylaxis. Three patients excreted resistant virus for >60 days. Emergence of oseltamivir resistance is frequent in immunocompromised patients infected with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus and can be associated with a wide range of clinical disease and viral kinetics.


This work is devoted to the study of antimicrobial properties of cellulose-containing textile materials treated with new safe biocidal products of thiosulfonate structure. A resource-saving method of providing antimicrobial properties to cellulose-containing textile materials is presented. High antimicrobial activity of biocidal products after washing was established. The duration of action and expediency of their use in the textile industry are proved. It is shown that after 10 washes the treated tissues lose only 14-15% of antimicrobial properties.


At the George O. White State Forest Nursery in Licking, MO, we annually grow about 20 species of shrubs. That number has been larger in some years. For most species, we purchase seeds locally and process them at our nursery. Our shrubs are used for wetland restoration, windbreaks, visual screens, riparian buffers, and wildlife plantings.


Schizophrenia has various symptoms that are characteristic of the disease. One such symptom is verbal hallucinations. Hoffman (1986) proposes that the \language production mechanism\ is dysfunctional in schizophrenics and that this aberrant mechanism is the cause of the hallucinations. This study investigated whether Hoffman's notions are correct. One subject group was ten schizophrenic patients from Larned State Hospital in Larned, KS. The second subject group was the control group of ten volunteers from the Hays area. The control group was matched to the schizophrenic group according to age, education, and gender. The subjects were tested according to an active- passive paradigm. The materials involved in this study included a six-sentence preamble and a picture. The preambles are designed to reflect one of two conditions in which the conceptual focus is either in the active or passive voice. A computer was used to present the preamble as well as the picture. The subject's reaction time and accuracy of their first response was recorded. There was a significant main effect for groups, i.e., between the subjects with schizophrenia and their matched controls. Generally, subjects with schizophrenia responded significantly slower and less accurately than their matched controls. Therefore, it appears that Hoffman's notion of a dysfunctional \language production mechanism\ may have some merit. However, from these results alone one cannot conclusively say that Hoffman's notion is completely correct. There are many other linguistic operations that were not manipulated in the present experiment which may or may not have affected the results. Future research is needed to understand the role of these other related operations.


This article examines the way in which two transactions have influenced copyright culture and informed copyright policy, free software licenses in our own time and contracts for authors' rights starting in the sixteenth century. Often, a copyright holder uses contracts to increase the control it has over a work after distribution. In these two transactions, copyright holders opted for less control over the work than the then-current copyright regime allowed. The experience of sharing rights with other stakeholders in each of these cases played a role in changing ideas about how expressive works are best created and distributed. Though early copyright generally belonged to publishers, not authors, nascent contracts that gave authors some rights in their work aided in the rise of the idea of the author as the sole creator, and eventually the copyright holder, of literary works in print. Free software licenses have been at the forefront of a revolution turning in virtually the opposite direction, championing the value of collaboration and giving the user a role in continuing the life of an expressive work. Through comparative analysis of the history of each transaction, the article describes the conditions under which extraordinary transactions like these are likely to develop and how they help to change the fundamental assumptions that underlie copyright protection. The analogy between the contracts for authors' rights and free software licenses over time suggests that we are in the midst of a rise of the collaborative user every bit as important to the culture of copyright as was the rise of the author.


The creation of The Comision Nacional de Evaluacion y Acreditacion Universitaria (CONEAU) in 1995 opens a chapter about the evaluation processes that, 20 years from its functioning, allows to move along in the study and analysis from an evaluation perspective and accreditation that does not base its developments, or its evolution, or the increasing levels of quality achieved in the system, in the elaboration of university rankings, or in the taking of exams for teachers and students. The history of institutionalization of this process can be related from the initial political decision, the first times of rejection, going through the thoroughness of the organization and the development of tools and procedures, the self-assessment processes to the present where it is possible to raise achievements and pending issues. It is in the context of a story about this experience that the question about the curricular changes that these processes may have generated taking the idea of perspective raised by Alicia de Alba in his text Curriculum: crisis, myth and perspective (1995) and thus return to think about how to express curricularly the common and the diverse in the processes of university education.


A fundamental step in sentence comprehension involves assigning semantic roles to sentence constituents. To accomplish this, the listener must parse the sentence, find constituents that are candidate arguments, and assign semantic roles to those constituents. Each step depends on prior lexical and syntactic knowledge. Where do children begin in solving this problem when learning their first languages? To experiment with different representations that children may use to begin understanding language, we have built a computational model for this early point in language acquisition. This system, BabySRL, learns from transcriptions of natural child-directed speech and makes use of psycholinguistically plausible background knowledge and realistically noisy semantic feedback to begin to classify sentences at the level of "who does what to whom."
Starting with simple, psycholinguistically-motivated representations of sentence structure, the BabySRL is able to learn from full semantic feedback, as well as a supervision signal derived from partial semantic background knowledge. In addition we combine the BabySRL with an unsupervised Hidden Markov Model part-of-speech tagger, linking clusters with syntactic categories using background noun knowledge so that they can be used to parse input for the SRL system. The results show that proposed shallow representations of sentence structure are robust to reductions in parsing accuracy, and that the contribution of alternative representations of sentence structure to successful semantic role labeling varies with the integrity of the parsing and argument-identification stages. Finally, we enable the BabySRL to improve both an intermediate syntactic representation and its final semantic role classification. Using this system we show that it is possible for a simple learner in a plausible (noisy) setup to begin comprehending simple semantics when initialized with a small amount of concrete noun knowledge and some simple syntax-semantics mapping biases, before acquiring any specific verb knowledge.


OBJECTIVES
Liver retransplant is the only therapeutic option for irreversible liver graft failure. Its incidence varies between 5% and 22% worldwide. Liver retransplant - despite some recent improvement - is associated with significantly poorer outcome compared with the primary transplant. The purpose of this study was to assess the outcome of liver retransplant compared with primary liver transplant, compare the outcome of early and late liver retransplant, and to evaluate the outcome of liver retransplant within different predictive index categories.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed adult patients who had liver retransplant from May 2001 to December 2013. Patients were divided into 2 groups: group A (early liver retransplant), retransplant within 30 days; and group B (late liver retransplant), retransplant > 30 days after primary liver transplant.

RESULTS
After 460 primary adult liver transplants, 17 liver retransplants (3.7%) were performed in 16 adults. Mean patient survival after liver retransplant was 29.5 ± 31.9 months. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year patient survival was 68.8%, 51.6%, and 38.7%. Mean graft survival following liver retransplant was 27.9 ± 32.1 months, and 1-, 3-, and 5-year graft survival was 51.5%, 34.3%, and 22.9%. Patient and graft survival was significantly better in group B than group A at 1 year and 3 years. There were 9 liver retransplants (52.9%) with predictive index category IV; 7 retransplants (41.2%) with predictive index category III; and 1 retransplant (5.9%) with predictive index category II. Patient survival was significantly higher for predictive index category III than IV at 1 year and 3 years.

CONCLUSIONS
Patient and graft survival are lower after liver retransplant than primary liver transplant. Graft and patient survival are better in late than early liver retransplant and in predictive index category III than IV.


The photoluminescence (PL) of the sol-gel derived Ce 3+ -doped silica (with or without Al co-doping) annealed at various temperatures was monitored. It was found that the PL shows a variation in emission intensity (first a decrease and then an increase), band position (red shift) and band width (broadening) with an increase of the annealing temperature. In other words, solution-like PL is exhibited in low-temperature-annealed samples and, with increasing the temperature, the PL becomes more and more similar to that observed in Ce 3+ -doped silica prepared by chemical vapour deposition. These changes can be attributed to the annealing induced structural evolution in silica: Ce 3+ ions change from coordinating with water and silanols to embedding in silica network. In addition, Al co-doping markedly enhances the emission intensity and also affects the band position (blue shift) and band width (narrowing), which can be due to the changes in the local environment induced by the addition of Al.


This article is about technologies that arithmetize and data-manage the other and the foe. It undertakes a mini-genealogy of information technology used to identify and sort individuals. Information management technologies developed in libraries are identified as fundamental, yet overlooked, sources of a bio-political revolution. In particular, the library card registry and the smart number has led to a radicalization and standardization of the state's capacities to know individuals. This article is also about a curious North-South symbiosis, or 'boomerang effect', where technologies first used on the other in illegible, securitized situations are then transported back to the metropole where they are initially deployed to capture the internal other and then, ultimately, the entire population. Finally, this article is about the global war on terror and how 'knowing the enemy' is intimately connected to a whole host of data-mining techniques and statistical knowledges.


Abstract Black American women writers were side-lined by the literary canon as recently as the 1980s. Today, as a result of their agency, a distinct literary tradition that bears witness to black women's particular expressiveness is recognized. Bernard Bell observes that the defining features common to most literary works by black American women are a focus on racist oppression, black female protagonists, the pursuit of demarginalization, women's bonding, women's relationship with the community, the power of emotions, and black female language. Although these elements refer predominantly to novels, they are also present in Paule Marshall's memoir Triangular Road (2009) and Gloria Naylor's fictionalized memoir 1996 (2005). Moreover, the two works are fitting examples of racial art, the point of departure of which, according to Black Arts Movement advocates, should be the black experience. Actually, since through memoirs the authors offer significant insights into themselves, the genre seems closer to this objective of racial art than novels. At the same time, taking into consideration the intricate plot structures, vivid images, and emotional intensity, their memoirs evidence the quality of literariness i.e., in formalist terms, the set of features that distinguish texts from non-literary ones, for instance, reports, articles, text books, and encyclopaedic biographical entries. Moreover, Marshall and Naylor utilize creative imagination incorporating fabulation, stories within stories, and people or events they have never personally encountered, which dramatizes and intensifies the experiences they relate. In Marshall's memoir, the fictitious elements are discernable when she imagines the historical past. Naylor demarks imagined narrative passages with separate sections that intertwine with those based upon her actual life experience.


We present algorithmic and architectural transforms for low power realization of Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters implemented both in software on programmable DSPs and as hardwired macros. For the programmable DSP based implementation, these transform address power reduction in the program memory address and data busses and also the multiplier. We also propose architectural extensions to support some of these transformations. The transforms for hardwired FIR filters aim at reducing the supply voltage while maintaining the throughput. We also present transforms that reduce the computational complexity of the FIR filter computation and thus achieve power reduction.


Powder River basin, Wyoming. Color ratio composite image, red-altered areas. Spectral reflectance studies indicate that a shift in the absorption band edge from 0.52 mu m (for goethitic sandstone) to 0.58 mu m (for hematitic sandstone) and an intensification of an absorption band at 0.85 mu m (for hematitic sandstone) are the bases for identifying the red-altered sandstone as green anomalous areas on the color ratio composite image. At high densities (>65%), vegetation masks the sandstones on the color ratio composite image.--Modified journal abstract.


A dinickel catalyst promotes reductive cyclization reactions of 1,1-dichloroalkenes containing pendant olefins. The reactions can be conducted with a Zn reductant or electrocatalytically using a carbon working electrode. Mechanistic studies are consistent with the intermediacy of a Ni2(vinylidene) species, which adds to the alkene and generates a metallacyclic intermediate. β-Hydride elimination followed by C-H reductive elimination forms the cyclization product. The proposed dinickel metallacycle is structurally characterized and its stoichiometric conversion to product is demonstrated. Spin polarized, unrestricted DFT calculations are used to further examine the cyclization mechanism. These computational models reveal that both nickel centers function cooperatively to mediate the key oxidative addition, migratory insertion, β-hydride elimination, and reductive elimination steps.


airy farming is a multi-billion {USD} industry that provides essential food products. At the same time, the millions of animals that this industry oversees generate a massive environmental footprint (affecting air, land, and water quality). Specifically, livestock manure is a carbon- and nutrient-rich waste stream that is routinely used as fertilizer. This practice enables nutrient recycling but also leads to emissions of greenhouse gases and to nutrient pollution of soils and waterbodies. Mitigating these environmental impacts requires investment in manure processing technologies; identifying and prioritizing investment strategies requires understanding inherent conflicts (trade-offs) and synergies that exist between economic and environmental impacts. In this work, we present a conflict analysis and resolution framework that integrates techno-economic analysis (TEA), life cycle assessment (LCA), and supply chain (SC) optimization. We use this framework to investigate deployment scenarios of manure processing pathways in the Upper Yahara watershed region of Wisconsin; here, we evaluate LCA metrics (GHG emissions, ammonia emissions, fossil energy use, and nutrient pollution) and TEA metrics (cost and revenue) for different pathways that include manure collection, storage, application, and processing steps. The LCA and TEA metrics are embedded within a SC optimization model that makes decisions on technology selection and geographical placement and on product transport in the study area. A conflict resolution procedure is used to explore trade-offs associated with these decisions and to identify optimal compromise solutions that best balance trade-offs. Our results reveal that there exist non-obvious conflicts and synergies between the explored metrics that can be exploited to mitigate multiple impacts simultaneously. We also find that the deployment of a diverse set of technologies is needed to fully resolve conflicts. The impact of emerging technologies (ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis) and government incentives is also discussed.


Like dental caries, epidemiological assessment of periodontal disease is important for purposes of recognizing the extent of the disease in the population as well as a basis for planning and evaluating preventive and treatment programmes. while present day measurement methods for dental caries are excellent such is not true for periodontal diseases. This paper reviews the development and usefulness of different indices for the assessment of periodontal disease and treatment needs in epidemiological investigations.


Summary The conversion of cyclophosphamide to its alkylating metabolite(s) by microsomes obtained from male rat liver was characterized. Under the conditions used, the reaction was found (a) to be temperature dependent; (b) to be enzyme concentration dependent; (c) to proceed in a linear fashion for 20 min; (d) to be localized to the hepatic microsomal fraction (no activity was found in Walker 256 carcinosarcoma cell fractions or in thymus, adrenal, and kidney cell fractions); (e) to require NADPH (NADH could not serve as an electron donor); (f) to be inhibited by carbon monoxide; (g) to be inhibited noncompetitively by nicotinamide; and (h) to be greatly depressed if previously frozen rather than fresh microsomes were used. Cyclophosphamide bound to microsomal hemoprotein elicited a Type I spectrum. As determined by a Lineweaver-Burk plot, the Vmax was 4.20 µmoles/g/hr and the Km was 1.39 mm. Microsomes from livers of female rats and mice metabolized cyclophosphamide with a Vmax of 0.66 and 9.69 µmoles/g/hr, respectively, and a Km of 0.67 and 0.68 mm, respectively. Cyclophosphamide inhibited metabolism of ethylmorphine competively and vice versa. The Ki9s when each was used as an inhibitor for the other9s metabolism equaled their respective Km9s. These findings and 2-substrate kinetic studies support the conclusion that the same enzyme system or systems with a common rate-limiting step catalyze the biotransformation of cyclophosphamide, ethylmorphine, and many other drugs in rat liver. While large differences in rates of metabolism were observed in vitro between male and female rats, proportional differences were not found in vivo as estimated by blood levels of alkylating activity following a single injection of cyclophosphamide i.p.


Background The Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS), a single-question outcome, has been defined as an absolute level of patient well-being. A few studies have assessed PASS in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), but it is not known whether the results of those studies apply also to the group of non-radiographic (nr) axial spondylarthritis (axSpA) Objectives To estimate the PASS values for disease activity and several patient reported outcomes both in the whole group of axSpA and in the two subgroups of AxSpA. Methods This single-center cross-sectional analysis included patients fulfilling the ASAS criteria for axSpA, who have been registered in our local database. All patients responded to the global yes/no question for PASS. A variety of other outcome measures in regard with global scales, disease activity, functional status, health status and quality of life were collected at the same time. The thresholds at which patients rated themselves in PASS for disease activity (BASDAI and ASDAS) and for each of the assessed patient self-reported outcome measures were estimated using the 75th centile (25th centile for SF 36)estimation and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses in the whole group, as well as in each subgroup of axSpA. Contributors which can affect PASS were evaluated with logistic regression analysis. Results The analysis was based on 356 axSpA patients (261 AS, 95 nr-axSpA) with a mean age of 42.2±12.0 years and mean disease duration of 14.7±10.8 years. Of the patients with axSpA, 271 (%76.1) considered themselves in PASS (76.6% in AS, 74.7% in nr-axSpA). PASS thresholds for disease activity and all other assessed outcome measures were shown in table and there were not significant difference between AS and nr-axSpA group. PASS cut-off points for BASDAI, BASFI and HAQ identified by the 75th percentile method were slightly higher than those determined by the ROC analysis, but similar for the rest of the outcome measures. The patients with an acceptable status had significantly lower mean disease activity scores and good results with the all outcome measures. PASS had no relationship with age, sex, disease duration and education (years) in logistic regression analysis. Of the axSpA patients with BASDAI (≥4), 61.4% and those with ASDAS (>3.5), 50% rated themselves in PASS, whereas 5.5% of the patients with a BASDAI score <2, and 4.5% of those with ASDAS <1.2 were not in PASS. Conclusions PASS thresholds for disease activity and outcome measures were similar to the figures previously reported in some studies with no apparent difference between patients with AS and nr-axSpA. However, more than half the Turkish axSpA patients considered themselves in PASS, which needs to be evaluated in further studies. Disclosure of Interest None declared


When we can not assume a large amount of annotated data , active learning is a good strategy. It consists in learning a model on a small amount of annotated data (annotation budget) and in choosing the best set of points to annotate in order to improve the previous model and gain in generalization. In deep learning, active learning is usually implemented as an iterative process in which successive deep models are updated via fine tuning, but it still poses some issues. First, the initial batch of annotated images has to be sufficiently large to train a deep model. Such an assumption is strong, especially when the total annotation budget is reduced. We tackle this issue by using an approach inspired by transfer learning. A pre-trained model is used as a feature extractor and only shallow classifiers are learned during the active iterations. The second issue is the effectiveness of probability or feature estimates of early models for AL task. Samples are generally selected for annotation using acquisition functions based only on the last learned model. We introduce a novel acquisition function which exploits the iterative nature of AL process to select samples in a more robust fashion. Samples for which there is a maximum shift towards uncertainty between the last two learned models predictions are favored. A diversification step is added to select samples from different regions of the classification space and thus introduces a representativeness component in our approach. Evaluation is done against competitive methods with three balanced and imbalanced datasets and outperforms them.


In this thesis, the design of fully parallel timing-error-tolerant Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) decoders have been investigated. LDPC decoders are employed in numerous communication systems to correct channel-induced transmission errors. The ever increasing data traffic demands require LDPC decoders that are capable of providing high processing throughput and low processing latency, using limited hardware resources and energy consumption. The fully parallel implementation of LDPC decoders is suitable, due to the high throughput and low latency that this affords. However, the task of designing reliable Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) systems is becoming increasingly challenging in successive generations of nanoscale fabrication technology. This may be attributed to the occurrence of timing errors, during the processing, which is caused by the increasing susceptibility to IR drop, inductive noise, crosstalk, electrostatic discharges, particle strikes, switching noise and fabrication process variations. Therefore it is necessary to consider the effects of timing errors during the design of LDPC decoders. However, the characterization of the timing error tolerance of LDPC decoders relying on measurements obtained directly from a fabricated Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) may not be preferable, owing to the associated risk of wasting all of the invested time, effort and expense, if the ASIC is not able to facilitate the desired outcomes. A novel design flow is therefore proposed in this thesis, which allows the use of simulations at the algorithm level to investigate the decoders' error correction performance, with considerations of the occurrence of timing errors in the hardware architecture level of the design. LDPC decoders employing the optimal Sum-Product Algorithm (SPA) have a very high implementation complexity, which requires the exchange of floating point probabilities between the parity-Check Nodes (CNs) and Variable Nodes (VNs) in their factor graph representation. In order to reduce the complexity, the Log-Sum-Product Algorithm(Log-SPA) and the Min-Sum Algorithm (MSA) may be employed in the LDPC decoder, which operate on a basis of Log-Likelihood Ratios (LLRs), rather than probabilities. These LLRs can be represented by Fixed-Point (FP) numbers, comprising a number of bits, referred to as the bit width. It is this bit width that proportionally determines both the size of the memory required, as well as the area of the data path and hence the energy consumption imposed. We propose the use of EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts to select the bit widths for the Fixed-point LDPC Decoders (LDPC-FDs), in order to achieve a desirable trade-off between the implementation complexity and the error correction performance. This significantly expedites the LDPC-FD design process, relative to the conventional approach of using trial and error based Bit Error Ratio (BER) simulations. Using the proposed design flow, timing characteristics analysis may be performed on the LDPC-FD, in order to derive an error model of the causes and effects of timing errors. With the aid of the error model, the error correction performance of the LDPC-FD in the presence of timing errors may be characterized. In this way, the parametrization of the LDPC-FD may be optimized. In Stochastic LDPC Decoders (LDPC-SDs), only a single bit is exchanged between each pair of CNs and VNs in each clock cycle. Over the course of several successive clock cycles, the individual bits that are exchanged between a particular pair of nodes collectively form a Bernoulli sequence, which may replace the LLRs conventionally used in LDPC-FDs. Owing to this, the operations of the CNs and VNs may be implemented using simple logic gates, which grants LDPC-SDs the practical opportunity for fully parallel implementation. As in LDPC-FDs, the proposed design flow may be adopted to guide the investigation of the timing error tolerance of LDPC-SDs, in order to determine their optimal parametrization.


In the paper a new fault diagnosis-oriented neural network and a diagnostic method for localization of parametric faults in Analog Electronic Circuits (AECs) with tolerances is presented. The method belongs to the class of dictionary Simulation Before Test (SBT) methods. It utilizes dictionary fault signatures as a family of identification curves dispersed around nominal positions by component tolerances of the Circuit Under Test (CUT). A neural network based classifier with a new Two-Center Ellipsoidal Basis Functions (TCEBFs) is used for fault signature classification. The TCEBF classifier is more robust against component tolerances and multiple parametric faults in comparison with conventional Radial/Ellipsoidal Basis Function (RBF/EBF) neural networks. This article presents a description of the proposed diagnostic method, the construction procedure of the TCEBF, the architecture of the fault classifier and simulation results obtained for the low-pass analog filter.


Concerning the need for a new conception of legal theory one question arises, above all, especially when external and internal observation as well as the critical reflexion on the premises and presuppositions of all dealings with the law permit a degree of distance, the question, namely, whether it is not an increasing application of scientific methods that is needed, in the sense that the development of a theory from the beginning involves the integration of a norm‐descriptive point of view and intellectual standpoint with the norm‐ prescriptive theory of law, by way of complementing each other, as it were (multilevel approach to law). This, at least, appears to be the only way of also clarifying the relationship between legal theory and philosophy and the theory and sociology of law. The inevitable consequences of the development of a theory of norms and action also have to be drawn from this.


ABSTRACT. Experiments with oriental fruit moth males, Grapholita molesta (Buck), provide evidence that a pheromone plume in zero wind elicits an endogenous, self‐steered programme of counterturning (zigzagging) flight, and that wind experienced in flight establishes the polarity of the counterturns; they become aligned so that displacement occurs toward the source, even after the wind is stopped. In zero wind, males located a pheromone source more frequently when they had experienced a wind after having already taken flight before the wind was stopped (46%) compared with those that took flight later and therefore only experienced wind while they were in contact with the ground (14%). Furthermore, males placed in a stationary pheromone plume in zero wind located the source, eventually, on 21% of occasions. The flight tracks of these males, as well as those having experienced a wind only while on the ground, often exhibited repetitive counterturns (zigzags) of c. 180–200d̀. However, the counterturns meandered around the flight tunnel, the inter‐reversal track angles having no consistent direction. Sometimes the males displaced down‐tunnel in the stationary plume, sometimes up, eventually locating the source and performing a courtship display. The inter‐reversal track angles of males counterturning in wind, on the other hand, displayed a consistent orientation of c. 60d̀ to either side of the wind line, resulting in consistent upwind displacement toward the source. With no pheromone present, with or without wind, counterturns were not observed.


The Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics (sub titled "The Stability of Planetary Systems") was held in Ramsau, Styria, in the Austrian Alps, from March the 25th to the 31st, 1984. The dedication of the meeting to Alexander von Humboldt presented partici pants with the challenge that the discussions during the week should reflect the spirit of that great scientist of the last century, that the very many interesting ideas presented and developed during the sessions should be interpreted in the light of a broad v ew of astron omy and astrophysics. The topics of the meeting ranged from astrometric questions relating to the specification of inertial reference systems, motion of planets (including minor planets) and satellites, with the recurring topic of the search for criteria of stability of the systems, resonances, periodic orbits, and to the origin of the systems. Each session began with one or more invited review papers, followed by offered contributions and discussion. Three evening discussions were held, devoted respectively to inertial systems, to numerical integration techniques, and to cosmogonic problems and ring systems. On the evening of Wednesday, March 28th, a recital of chamber mus c was given by Bernhard Piberauer, on the violin, and Meinhard Prinz, on the piano."


Recent experimental results show that precipitation of nanoparticles on heater surfaces can result in heat flux enhancements observed in nanofluids. These precipitated nanoparticles can potentially act as nano-fins. Hence, in this study molecular dynamic simulations are performed to study the interfacial thermal resistance between a nanofin and a working fluid. A (5, 5) carbon nanotube (CNT) of diameter 6.78 A and various lengths are immersed in various fluids in these analyses. For this simulation the total numbers of the fluid molecules, and the breath and the height of the cell are kept constant. So due to the different densities of the matrix, the length of the cell as well as the length of the nanotube is different for each matrix. In these simulations, the nanotube is placed at the centre of the cell and the fluid molecules surround the nanotube. Periodic boundary conditions are applied in all the directions. So the system under consideration is array of long nanotubes aligned in the horizontal direction. Simulation procedure consists of first minimizing the system. During the minimization the system is allowed to relax. During the simulations, nanotube and water molecules are allowed to move but the cell size remains constant. After minimization, NVT process is performed for 10ps to scale the velocities so that the average temperature of the cell is 300K. After the ensemble is equilibrated to the base temperature of 300K, the temperature of the nanotube is raised to 750K, by scaling the velocities of the carbon atoms. In the next step the system is allowed to relax under constant energy. This is done by performing the NVE equilibration for 10ps. The difference in the temperature of the carbon nanotube and the fluid is then calculated and plotted against the equilibration time. For the CNT-fluid system, the temperature decreases exponentially with time as predicted by various researchers in the literature. From the graphs the interfacial resistance for 1-Hexene, 1,7-Dodecene and 1,7,13-Octadecene is estimated and the effect of polymer chains is investigated.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


Santa Clara, Limeport, and Berkeley are Arabidopsis thaliana accessions previously identified as diversely metal resistant. Yet these same accessions were determined to be genetically indistinguishable from the metal sensitive Col-0. We robustly tested tolerance for Zn, Ni and Cu, and genetic relatedness by growing these accessions under a range of Ni, Zn and Cu concentrations for three durations in multiple replicates. Neither metal resistance nor variance in growth were detected between them and Col-0. We re-sequenced the genomes of these accessions and all stocks available for each accession. In all cases they were nearly indistinguishable from the standard laboratory accession Col-0. As Santa Clara was allegedly collected from the Jasper Ridge serpentine outcrop in California, USA we investigated the possibility of extant A. thaliana populations adapted to serpentine soils. Botanically vouchered Arabidopsis accessions in the Jepson database were overlaid with soil maps of California. This provided no evidence of A. thaliana collections from serpentine sites in California. Thus, our work demonstrates that the Santa Clara, Berkeley and Limeport accessions are not metal tolerant, not genetically distinct from Col-0, and that there are no known serpentine adapted populations or accessions of A. thaliana.


The trust region (TR) method is an effective algorithm for image reconstruction of electrical impedance tomography (EIT). Aiming at the drawback of the traditional TR method, an improved method named the nonmonotonic and self-adaptive trust region (NSTR) method is proposed in this paper, in which three kinds of modified techniques are shown that help in improving the computational precision and convergence speed of the algorithm. The comparisons with image reconstruction are carried out between the NSTR, Levenberd–Marquardt (LM) and TR methods. Simulation experiment results indicate that for both the LM and TR methods it is difficult to accurately reconstruct concave and multiple boundaries. However the NSTR method cannot only realize accurate reconstruction, but also provide faster convergence speed. A noise simulation test is carried out and results show that the NSTR method also has strong stability in image reconstruction for EIT. This new method presents a feasible and effective way to research on image reconstruction for EIT.


With the development and diversification of medical care, the importance of precision medicine, which selects a suitable treatment for the individual patient from a huge number of options, is increasing. It is often difficult to explain multifactorial diseases such as cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases by a single hypothesis. In such case, a data-driven approach is essential to construct individualized models based on comprehensive observation of the target disease. The data-driven approach utilizes artificial intelligence to extract, predict, and classify patterns of data, considering different types of variables and complex dependencies between variables. In this paper, we introduce the basic idea, typical methods, and application examples of artificial intelligence and its core technology, machine learning. We would like to discuss a new framework of medical research toward the next generation medicine, while reviewing how machine learning is used in precise prediction and data-driven redefinition of diseases.


Graded composition InAsxSbyP1-x-y quaternary layers were prepared by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) on InAs substrates. Subsequent Cd-acceptor diffusion was used for the fabrication of infrared light-emitting diodes. Room-temperature electroluminescence emission near the 3.32 mu m (v3) fundamental absorption of methane was readily detected from these diodes.


Objectives. The purpose of this work was to determine the influence of residual alumina after sand blasting treatment in titanium dental implants. This paper studied the effect of alumina on physico-chemical surface properties, such as: surface wettability, surface energy. Osseointegration and bacteria adhesion were determined in order to determine the effect of the abrasive particles. Materials and Methods. Three surfaces were studied: (1) as-received, (2) rough surface with residual alumina from sand blasting on the surface and (3) with the same roughness but without residual alumina. Roughness was determined by white light interferometer microscopy. Surface wettability was evaluated with a contact angle video-based system and the surface free energy by means of Owens and Wendt equation. Scanning electron microscopy equipped with microanalysis was used to study the morphology and determine the chemical composition of the surfaces. Bacteria (Lactobacillus salivarius and Streptococcus sanguinis) were cultured in each surface. In total, 110 dental implants were placed into the bone of eight minipigs in order to compare the osseointegration. The percentage of bone-to-implant contact was determined after 4 and 6 weeks of implantation with histometric analysis. Results. The surfaces with residual alumina presented a lower surface free energy than clean surfaces. The in vivo studies demonstrated that the residual alumina accelerated bone tissue growth at different implantation times, in relation to clean dental implants. In addition, residual alumina showed a bactericidal effect by decreasing the quantity of bacteria adhering to the titanium. Conclusions. It is possible to verify the benefits that the alumina (percentages around 8% in weight) produces on the surface of titanium dental implants. Clinical relevance. Clinicians should be aware of the benefits of sand-blasted alumina due to the physico-chemical surface changes demonstrated in in vivo tests.


Abstract Otto Scherzer was one of the pioneers of theoretical electron optics. He was coauthor of the first comprehensive book on electron optics and was the first to understand that round electron lenses could not be combined to correct aberrations, as is the case in light optics. He subsequently was the first to describe several alternative means to correct spherical and chromatic aberration of electron lenses. These ideas were put into practice by his laboratory and students at Darmstadt and their successors, leading to the fully corrected electron microscopes now in operation.


In Mnemonic, a play conceived and directed by Simon McBurney and devised by Theatre de Complicite, words are not only time capsules in which different fictionalized memories are preserved, but also mnemonic objects in their own right. The playtext they conform acts, of course, as a reminder of the show that this British company created in 1999 for the Salzburg Festival, and that toured internationally again in 2002: at the same time, the published text of the work contains the perspectives and potential techniques from which the notion of memory – and of individual and collective forms of remembrance associated with it – can be explored and semiotized. Núria Casado-Gual's article looks at the dramaturgical strategies and theatrical techniques used by the company in their particular theatricalization of memory. Mnemonic, she contends, is not only relevant as an outstanding piece of contemporary theatre, but also as a 'memorable' text that helps us decipher our enigmatic selves in apparently oblivious and eroding postmodern times. Núria Casado-Gual lectures in English language, literature, and theatre at the University of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. She is author of a PhD thesis on the the Caribbean playwright Edgar Nkosi White, and combines her academic work with creative theatrical projects as both playwright and performer with the company Nurosfera.


BACKGROUND
With the increase in molecular genetic understanding of disease, diagnostic test development and availability are growing rapidly. This study investigated oncologists' decision making on using pharmacogenomic tests for cancer treatment and examined cross-cultural differences between the USA and Germany.

METHODS
Pilot studies revealed that the following cues play a role in decisions on pharmacogemonic tests: stage of cancer, availability of treatment options, cost of the treatment options, severity of side effects of the treatments, therapeutic consequence of the test, cost of the test and guideline recommendation specifying use of the test. All cues were used for designing the main study comprising nine scenarios, for each of which oncologists were asked to decide whether they would order a pharmacogenomic test.

RESULTS
On average, US oncologists opted for the test in 6.5 out of the nine scenarios (SE = 0.2), and German oncologists in 5.4 scenarios (SE = 0.2). The majority of oncologists' decisions in both the USA (76.1%) and Germany (64%) were best explained by a simple sequential model (heuristical strategy). In the USA, the information about cost of the test was most influential on the decisions; in Germany it was the guideline recommendation of the test. When the side effects of therapy B were described as being more severe within the scenarios, choices in favour of a non-recommended test increased by about 20% within both samples.

CONCLUSION
Both US and German oncologists were highly inclined to use pharmacogenomic tests, but differed in what information influenced their decisions - a difference possibly explained by the differences in the health insurance systems. Although many oncologists' heuristical decisions were based on the valid cue of a test's guideline recommendation, an alarming number abandoned it when a therapy had potentially severe side effects.


Little is known about the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and work-related stress and its risk factors among white-collar businessmen and management workers that migrate to high-income developing countries. A structural questionnaire survey was administered to 156 white-collar Taiwanese management personnel of representative companies of their industries in Taiwan, who were assigned long-term job positions in China. Questionnaire content included demographics and medical history, self-reported physical and mental conditions, personal lifestyle and behavior, Beck Depression Inventory, and information on HRQoL. White-collar migrant workers reported a high prevalence of alcohol consumption (72.4%) and perceived work-related stress (62.2%), and a lower prevalence of regular exercise (12.2%). Workers with higher levels of perceived work-related stress reported more alcohol consumption, a history of hyperlipidemia, and a higher prevalence of self-reported neck pain, poor sleep, and mild/moderate/severe depression. In our primary multivariate risk model to determine lifestyle and work-related stress variables and HRQoL, perceived work-related stress and a feeling of depression negatively impacted both the Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores of the SF-36 health survey. Hyperlipidemia and self-reported neck pain were associated with significantly lower PCS scores, whereas cardiovascular disease, gastric ulcer, and poor sleep were associated with statistically lower MCS scores. White-collar migrant workers are generally younger with high socioeconomic status. Perceived work-related stress and a feeling of depression indirectly affect HRQoL. Hyperlipidemia, self-reported neck pain, cardiovascular disease, gastric ulcer, and poor sleep also had a significant negative impact on HRQoL.


BACKGROUND
Alcohol dependence is characterized by a neuropsychological profile of extensive impairment in executive functions, visuospatial abilities, sociocognitive, emotional and motivational dysfunctions. A growing body of research evidence suggests that alcoholism-relatedstructural and functional brain changes may underlay abovementioned deficits. Nevertheless, certain alcohol-related impairments are reversible with abstinence. Several studiesindicated that with prolonged abstinence functional improvement in memory, visuospatial abilities, and attention occur within 3 to 4 weeks of abstinence accompanied by at leastpartial reversal of brain shrinkage and some recovery of metabolic functions in the frontallobes and cerebellum, as well as with increased cortical grey matter volume.
METHODS
33 male abstinent alcohol inpatients (average abstinence: 8 weeks) and 36 healthy controls were tested on the following domains: attention (classical vs. emotional Stroop Task),working memory (spatial vs. verbal), visuospatial abilities (Benton Face Recognition Task,Line Orientation Test), emotionality (Ekman Emotional Recognition Task, Test of Emotional Styles, Beck Depression Inventory) and motivation (Behavioural Inhibition/Activation Scale).
RESULTS
Alcohol abstainers compared to healthy controls showed impaired attention, more depressive symptoms and overactive activation behavioural system, whereas the working memory and visuospatial tasks did not reveal significant differences between groups. A specificneuropsychological profile has been found among alcohol abstainers with suicidal historywhere lower emotion recognition ability and attention difficulties with emotional stimulihave been recorded.
CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrated that some alcohol-related cognitive, emotional and motivationaldeficits can also persist to certain extent after several weeks of sobriety. Especially alcoholabstainers with suicidal history revealed a specific neuropsychological profile in this regard. Employed neurocognitive assessment proved as useful approach for clinical evaluation of alcohol abstainers functioning, since cognitive deficits have been also hypothesizedto affect the efficacy of alcoholism treatment


Taking into account the importance of NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions from marine engines and the current increasingly restrictive legislation, this work aims to develop a numerical model to study NOx reduction. To this end, direct injection of NH3 (ammonia) into the combustion chamber was proposed in the MAN B&W 7S50MC marine engine. The numerical model was employed to analyze several injection temperatures, injection timings and ammonia to fuel ratios, obtaining NOx reductions of almost 60%. Besides, a comparison between ammonia injection and water injection was done. The results showed that ammonia is more efficient than water to reduce NOx with a negligible influence on other pollutants such as CO (carbon monoxide) and HC (hydrocarbons). Nevertheless, ammonia is efficient in a very restrictive temperature and injection timing range. This numerical model was compared with experimental measurements, obtaining satisfactory results which validate the work.


Until now, literature data support the fact that the CHOP regimen represents the standard first line treatment for patients with advanced intermediate-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Recently, idarubicin has been introduced in clinical trials because of its favourable preclinical profile: it is more active than daunorubicin and doxorubicin against a number of experimental tumour systems and is significantly less cardiotoxic in animal models. From March 1991 to June 1993, 115 previously untreated patients with stage II to IV intermediate-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to the Kiel classification, were enrolled in a phase III comparative trial. The objectives of the study were to compare the efficacy and safety of using idarubicin instead of doxorubicin in the polychemotherapeutic regimen CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and dexamethasone). Of the 115 patients registered for the trial, 103 were evaluable: 52 received CH (doxorubicin)OP and 51 received CI(Idarubicin)OP. Known prognostic factors were equally distributed among the two groups. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in the rates of partial and complete response. The overall response rate was 87%, with complete response in 62%: 63% in the CHOP group, and 59% in the CIOP group. At 30 months (median 20 months), 86% of all CR patients were alive without disease in the CHOP group and 85% in the CIOP group. Patients treated with CHOP experienced severe alopecia more frequently (P = .004). Only three patients in the CIOP group showed cardiac adverse events (1 moderate and 2 mild), while in the CHOP group 4 mild, 2 moderate and 1 severe were recorded. LVEF monitoring was carried out in 31 patients of the CHOP group and in 27 of the CIOP group. A median drop of 8.3% of the LVEF was observed in patients treated with CHOP regimen as compared to 4.8% in patients with CIOP regimen (P = .0001). In this trial, the "idarubicin arm" (CIOP regimen) was found to have an equivalent therapeutic efficacy and, slightly, reduced clinical toxicity in comparison to the standard doxorubicin-containing CHOP regimen in patients with intermediate-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.


The contact angle of colloidal particles at an oil-water interface plays a crucial role in determining Pickering emulsion stability and emulsion type, but the contact angle cannot be directly determined using conventional methods. In this work, a Pickering emulsion was prepared with photocurable resin as the internal phase containing silica nanoparticle stabilizers. Particles adsorbed at the oil-water interface were then fixed through UV curing, allowing for the investigation of various parameters that influence the contact angle of colloidal particles at the interface. After curing, the contact angle can then be observed using scanning electron microscopy and subsequently measured. The contact angle of interfacial adsorbed silica nanoparticles gradually decreases as the size increases due to the line tension at the three-phase contact line, but, more importantly, we found that the surface chemistry of the silica nanoparticles plays the most important role in determining the contact angle. The fast fixation of solid nanoparticles at emulsion interfaces facilitates accurate measurements of the partition of particles between oil and water, providing a new method for studying the factors that affect Pickering emulsion stability.


Developing a brand icon has been a way for marketers to humanize and forge relationships with consumers. Icon development takes time. During this time, marketers have to face how much they stay true and consistent with their icons and how much they allow their icons to adapt to cultural changes in the marketplace. Little is known about how consumers respond to changing icons, and even less is known about whether there may be certain consumer groups that are more or less receptive to such changes. Four experiments and qualitative interviews were undertaken to gain insights into these issues. People who have a low need to belong were most impacted by changes in the icon, with effects most evident among consumers with a fearful attachment style. Feelings of rejection were found to amplify these effects. These findings have implications both for theory and practice.


Recent research has found support for a reverse golden section hypothesis, whereby people rate stigmatized identities negatively 61.8% of the time and positively 38.2% of the time. Two golden section studies were undertaken. The first replicated a previous study in which a reverse golden section pattern was found for people rating homeless and mental patient identities. The second investigated whether the reverse golden section pattern held when mental health practitioners and trainees rated these same identities. The first study confirmed use of a reverse golden section pattern by nonprofessionals in rating homeless and mental patient identities, whereas the second study found that mental health practitioners and trainees did not use such a pattern.


As for the inside analysis of a semiconductor device, we observed the wire sweep of plastic package by a newly developed X-ray CT instrument. We could observe the three-directional configuration of the bonding wire of encapsulated QFP by composing two-dimensional cross section CT scan image. By this new method, we got more smooth wire profiles than the result we observed before.


Uncertainty has been described as one of the major stressors faced by children with cancer and their families. However, ill children's responses to uncertainty have not been systematically studied. This grounded theory study of 11 children undergoing treatment for cancer confirmed that children experience multiple uncertainties in the context of cancer diagnosis and treatment. For the most part, however, children did not characterize themselves as feeling uncertain. Instead, they quickly came to view their lives as routine and ordinary despite the unpredictable nature of their illness course. Children described a process of getting used to cancer that allowed them to keep their focus on the ordinary nature of their everyday lives within the uncertain context of their illness. This interplay between uncertainty and routine provides important insight into children's psychological adjustment to life-threatening illness.


This study consists of a checklist and an analysis of the spatial distribution of the species of Orchidaceae of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Based on literature, the accepted names and current synonyms for the species in the state are cited. The occurrence of 121 genera and 560 accepted species was detected, 12 of them endemic. Of the three subfamilies represented in the state, Epidendroideae is the most representative, with 94 genera and 432 species, followed by Orchidoideae with 25 genera and 122 species, and Vanilloideae, with only two genera and six species. According to the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 24 species fall within the vulnerable category, seven are endangered and four are critically endangered. The life form, plant formation and habitat of each species are also presented.


BACKGROUND Lifetime psychotic symptoms are present in over half of the patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and can have an adverse effect on its course, outcome, and treatment. However, despite a considerable amount of research, the impact of psychotic symptoms on BD remains unclear, and there are very few systematic reviews on the subject. AIM To examine the extent of psychotic symptoms in BD and their impact on several aspects of the illness. METHODS The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines were followed. An electronic literature search of six English-language databases and a manual search was undertaken to identify published articles on psychotic symptoms in BD from January 1940 to December 2021. Combinations of the relevant Medical Subject Headings terms were used to search for these studies. Articles were selected after a screening phase, followed by a review of the full texts of the articles. Assessment of the methodological quality of the studies and the risk of bias was conducted using standard tools. RESULTS This systematic review included 339 studies of patients with BD. Lifetime psychosis was found in more than a half to two-thirds of the patients, while current psychosis was found in a little less than half of them. Delusions were more common than hallucinations in all phases of BD. About a third of the patients reported first-rank symptoms or mood-incongruent psychotic symptoms, particularly during manic episodes. Psychotic symptoms were more frequent in bipolar type I compared to bipolar type II disorder and in mania or mixed episodes compared to bipolar depression. Although psychotic symptoms were not more severe in BD, the severity of the illness in psychotic BD was consistently greater. Psychosis was usually associated with poor insight and a higher frequency of agitation, anxiety, and hostility but not with psychiatric comorbidity. Psychosis was consistently linked with increased rates and the duration of hospitalizations, switching among patients with depression, and poorer outcomes with mood-incongruent symptoms. In contrast, psychosis was less likely to be accompanied by a rapid-cycling course, longer illness duration, and heightened suicidal risk. There was no significant impact of psychosis on the other parameters of course and outcome. CONCLUSION Though psychotic symptoms are very common in BD, they are not always associated with an adverse impact on BD and its course and outcome.


Modern society is faced with the glaring possibility of a future 'digital gap' where the electronic records preserved from yester years could not be retrieved due to a number of technical and policy factors. Chances are that there will not even be any paper surrogates for those electronic records as the practice has lately been the substitution of paper records with electronic ones without due consideration of the longevity of the latter. Computer users who normally look at the current use of electronic records without necessarily considering the preservation issues that need to be considered if these records are to be available for future use have accelerated this practice.

This paper looks at the challenges that are likely to face the archivists in their endeavour to preserve electronically generated records. It also suggests issues that the archivist may consider in the preservation of these records. Archivists around the world have been giving warnings that computer files may survive long but the equipment to make sense of them may not. This era could become a "digital dark age" - a part of its collective memories forever lost.
 ESARBICA Journal Vol.23 2004: 82-92


Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) and virtual machine (VM) based server consolidation are well-known CPU scaling techniques for energy conservation that can have an adverse impact on system performance. For the responsiveness-sensitive multitier applications running in today's data centers, queuing models should ideally be used to predict the impact of CPU scaling on response time, to allow appropriate runtime trade-offs between performance and energy use. In practice, however, such models are difficult to construct and thus are often abandoned for ad-hoc solutions. In this paper, an alternative measurement-based approach that predicts the impact without requiring detailed application knowledge is presented. The approach proposes a new predictive model, the CPU gradient, that can be automatically measured on a running system using lightweight and nonintrusive CPU perturbations. The practical feasibility of the approach is demonstrated using extensive experiments on multiple multitier applications, and it is shown that simple energy controllers can use gradient predictions to derive as much as 50% energy savings while still meeting response time constraints.


This study was concerned with determining the effectiveness of play therapy as measured by behavioral changes in interpersonal relationships, mature behavior patterns, and more adequate use of intellectual capacities. Client-centered play therapy appears to have grown out of the concept that it is the relationship between the therapist and the child that brings about change and growth. Rather than diagnostic or as preliminary to therapy, the relationship itself is seen as therapy. Problems are seen not in terms of their historical past, but rather as they exist in the immediate present and in terms of the child's own means of expression. The relationship offers to the child the opportunity to experience growth under the most favorable conditions. Like its adult counterpart, client-centered counseling, client-centered play therapy is based upon the hypotheses that the individual has within himself the capacity for growth and self-direction, and that these growth impulses are released within the therapeutic relationship established between the therapist and the child. This study was conducted to investigate changes in behavior which occur as a result of play therapy and to determine that such changes do not occur in the absence of play therapy. It was a direct outgrowth of an ongoing program developed at the Pupil Appraisal Center of North Texas.


BACKGROUND
Multicellular spheroids are known to be the most adapted model to keep the in vitro resistance properties of cells. This in vivo-like tissue-culture representation was applied to investigate the immune reactivity of MCF-7 cells by monocytes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Human blood monocytes, obtained by elutriation, were co-cultured with multicellular tumor spheroids of drug-sensitive (MCF-7S) and doxorubicin-resistant (MCF-7DXR) MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

RESULTS
Tumor cells, according to their phenotype, induced differential recruitment and behavior of the immune cells towards the two types of spheroids. The secretion of various cytokines and the expression of several adhesion molecules were analysed. The MCF-7DXR/monocytes co-culture supernatant showed higher levels of IL-6 and IL-8 than the MCF-7S/monocytes co-culture supernatant. Cells from the MCF-7DXR spheroids expressed some adhesion molecules, CD-44 and CD-54, leading to a strong cellular cohesion in comparison with the sensitive spheroids.

CONCLUSION
The two spheroid phenotypes represented an excellent model system for determining the precise tumor microenvironment in which cells move, the crucial molecular requirements and the mechanisms by which immunotherapeutic strategies could be developed to eradicate chemo-resistant tumors.


Abstract: Angiostrongylus felineus n. sp. (Nematoda, Metastrongyloidea), parasitic in Puma (Herpailurus) yagouaroundi (É. Geoffroy, 1803) (Carnivora, Felidae) from the municipality of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, is described and illustrated herein. Angiostrongylus felineus n. sp. differs from all congeneric species by having the anterior extremity with accentuated cuticular expansion and by smaller size of spicules. This study describes for the first time a species of Angiostrongylus in a wild Felidae in Brazil.


A 50-year-old woman presented with black necrotic lesions over her left medial canthus and mastoid process. She had recently been diagnosed as having Hodgkin lymphoma and had received her first course of chemotherapy. Over the next 2 weeks, she became pancytopenic and developed sepsis. A subsequent bacterial culture of a venous access line tip yielded Staphylococcus aureus. Despite antistaphylococcal treatment with intravenous benzylpenicillin and floxacillin, the patient's condition deteriorated, and she was transferred to the intensive care unit at our hospital, where she received ventilatory and cardiovascular support and underwent hemofiltration. She was dependent on noradrenaline and adrenaline for inotropic support. Within 24 hours, she developed several large, black, necrotic ulcerations over the mastoid process and left medial canthus (Figure 1). Other necrotic lesions were also evident on the sole of her right foot (Figure 2). An echocardiogram was obtained to look for an underlying thrombotic source. Although a possible thrombus was observed in her left ventricle, anticoagulation was considered to be inappropriate because disseminated intravascular coagulation had developed. A skin biopsy specimen was obtained from the patient's neck (Figure 3). Multiple necrotic lesions developed rapidly to involve her torso, including her vulva, and she died 3 days later. What is your diagnosis?


Learning media is a learning aid that act as an intermediary in conveying instructional information which are one of the instruments that determine the success of learning process. The research aim is to produce an edutainment mathematics learning media based android on ellipse materials that is good and decent that can be used in the learning process. The media was developed to attract students' interest in ellipse which is considered difficult by some students The qualification of the media cover three aspects of validity, practical, and effective. This research is developed using ADDIE model which consists of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The developed media was conducted with limited trials with the research subjects are grade XI students of SMAN 1 Kedungwaru. The instrument used on this research are validation sheets, questionnaires test of practicality, and students test. Based on the data obtained the result of validity test from the experts stated that the media was categorized as valid, from the questionnaires test of practicality from students the media was categorized as practical, and from the student test result showed that 80% of the students met the completeness limit so the media categorized as effective. The result concluded that the developed media categorized as decent and can be used in learning process.
Keywords: ADDIE, android, edutainment, ellips, development, learning media


A resource-efficient key management protocol is essential for security-sensitive applications in wireless sensor networks (WSN). Moreover, the dynamic pair-wise key and group key management protocols are also important for long-lived and mobile WSN. In this paper, a two-layered dynamic key management (TDKM) approach for cluster-based WSN (CWSN) is proposed. Both pair-wise key and group key are distributed in three rounds for key material exchange without encryption/decryption and exponentiation operations in TDKM. In theoretical analysis, TDKM is compared with other key management protocols to show its efficiency. Finally, the relationships between the number of groups and the system performance including key generation overhead, network security, and secured data transmission overhead in CWSN are analyzed.


Whole-genome duplication (WGD) is a primary source of genetic material for evolutionary variation. This work compares the genomes of four monocots and two eudicots using integrated phylogenomic and syntenic analyses, revealing an ancient WGD that shaped the genomes of all commelinid monocots, including grasses, bromeliads, bananas, gingers, palms, and other economically important plants. Unraveling widespread polyploidy events throughout plant evolution is a necessity for inferring the impacts of whole-genome duplication (WGD) on speciation, functional innovations, and to guide identification of true orthologs in divergent taxa. Here, we employed an integrated syntenic and phylogenomic analyses to reveal an ancient WGD that shaped the genomes of all commelinid monocots, including grasses, bromeliads, bananas (Musa acuminata), ginger, palms, and other plants of fundamental, agricultural, and/or horticultural interest. First, comprehensive phylogenomic analyses revealed 1421 putative gene families that retained ancient duplication shared by Musa (Zingiberales) and grass (Poales) genomes, indicating an ancient WGD in monocots. Intergenomic synteny blocks of Musa and Oryza were investigated, and 30 blocks were shown to be duplicated before Musa-Oryza divergence an estimated 120 to 150 million years ago. Synteny comparisons of four monocot (rice [Oryza sativa], sorghum [Sorghum bicolor], banana, and oil palm [Elaeis guineensis]) and two eudicot (grape [Vitis vinifera] and sacred lotus [Nelumbo nucifera]) genomes also support this additional WGD in monocots, herein called Tau (τ). Integrating synteny and phylogenomic comparisons achieves better resolution of ancient polyploidy events than either approach individually, a principle that is exemplified in the disambiguation of a WGD series of rho (ρ)-sigma (σ)-tau (τ) in the grass lineages that echoes the alpha (α)-beta (β)-gamma (γ) series previously revealed in the Arabidopsis thaliana lineage.


article i nfo Active sensing Sensor arrays Chemical classification Metal-oxide sensors Fabry-Perot interferometers This paper presents Posterior-Weighted Active Search (PWAS), an active-sensing algorithm for classification of volatile compounds with arrays of tunable chemical sensors. The algorithm combines concepts from feature subset selection and sequential Bayesian filtering to optimize the sensor array tunings on-the-fly based on infor- mation from previous measurements. Namely, the algorithm maintains an estimate of the posterior probability associated with each chemical class, and updates it sequentially upon arrival of each new sensor observations. The updated posteriors are then used to bias the selection of the next sensor tunings towards the most likely classes, in this way reducing the number of measurements required for discrimination. We characterized PWAS on a database of infrared absorption spectra with 250 analytes, and then validated it experimentally on an array of metal-oxide sensors. Our results show that PWAS outperforms passive-sensing approaches based on sequential forward selection, both in terms of classification performance and robustness to noise in sensor measurements.


"Private ordering" is an important concept and commonly-used phrase in legal scholarship. At least three "ordering" activities often performed by governments can be privatized: lawmaking, adjudication, and enforcement of adjudicators' decisions. Distinguishing among these activities and offering lasting lessons on their privatization — but nowadays not often credited for doing so — is Soia Mentschikoff's seminal 1961 article, Commercial Arbitration. This short piece reconsiders Mentschikoff's classic article in light of contemporary scholarship on private ordering and credits Commercial Arbitration with teaching us lasting lessons about commercial arbitration and even about commerce itself. Key to these lessons is Mentschikoff's empirical study of trade association arbitration and her comparison of such industry-specific arbitration with the more general commercial arbitration exemplified by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). This comparison shows arbitration's ability — especially in the "core commercial" context of trade associations — to privatize all three of the aforementioned "ordering" activities: lawmaking, adjudication, and enforcement of adjudicators' decisions. Mentschikoff thus builds impressively from the humble context of routine sales disputes to enduring insights about the role of private ordering in the production, application, and enforcement of law.


This executive order by Governor David M. Beasley declares December 24, 1997, a legal holiday for State employees in South Carolina.