When a postsynaptic neuron receives a spike from the axon, its synapse releases neurotransmitters to the synaptic cleft. The probability of vesicle release depends on the amount of calcium ions. The concentration of calcium ions keeps on changing with time. The opening and closing of these channels is controlled by the calcium ion gates operating at different rates. Similarly, the binding of neurotransmitters to the membrane depends on the number of receptors. The existing literature considers probabilities of vesicle release and binding of neurotransmitters as constants. In practice, these two probabilities are time-dependent. This issue is addressed in this paper and new derivations of the time-varying nature of these two probabilities are obtained from simulation study and analysis. The present investigation of estimation of these two time-dependent probabilities will help to develop improved nanoscale neuronal communication models.


On Sunday 6 October 1998, during a holiday long weekend in New South Wales (N.S.W.), Australia, at around 2 p.m., beside the busy Pacific Highway south of Kempsey, without a building in sight in any direction, a family group was to be seen approaching a small white cross. The adults seemed to be late thirties to early forties, with the three children, aged from around five to twelve years. Flowers were already on the memorial and, after the group had paused, the youngest child was coaxed forward to place there the small wreath she was carrying. As with examples of commemoration detailed in recent issues of Folklore, (Walter 1996, 106; Monger 1997), here is evidence of a place that was rich with significance and worthy of reverential behaviour for this group. Memorial crosses are often seen along Australian roadsides, thus following the practice previously described for other countries. Yet it is rare to know of the actual details prompting the commemoration, and rarer still to see any people actually at the sites. The common characteristics of this private and increasingly important folk custom are difficult to determine. The available evidence provides only the barest outlines of the practice; and when such mourners are encountered, the passer-by must avoid intruding upon their grief. A useful method of investigation in this subject is the comparative approach, drawing upon examples from many situations, and to this end I offer the following observations from northern New South Wales. The largely European experiences detailed by George Monger reflect a land with many cultural echoes already inherent in specific sites. Australia's more mobile population and a lower density of occupation have led to only slight practice of such site commemoration. Even with the large-scale European migration into Australia of the last fifty years, elaborate wayside memorials--as in the Greek practice, for example--is rare on this side of the world (none in northern N.S.W.). An Australian study recently undertaken in Newcastle N.S.W. provides much useful data and pause for thought. K.V. Hartig and K.M. Dunn (1998) compared official records of all motor fatalities over a five-year period with remaining memorialisation sites, then undertook interviews with drivers, the bereaved and local residents. Their major finding was a strong gender link: [Roadside memorials] function as conservative memorials of youth machismo; of heroic aggression, disregard for safety and egocentrism (Hartig and Dunn 1998, 5). Their interviews reported that most drivers--with the particular exception of older males--slowed down as they passed these sites. While much of the descriptive material in Hartvig and Dunn's report accorded with my own northern N.S.W. experience (sizes of crosses 30cms--1m, always white with black lettering), some of their observations did not. For example, I found no evidence of the use of photographs and long messages. Furthermore, their analysis did not ring true for my region. The study seemed to be relevant mainly to a closely settled urban area--where the sites were not only readily identifiable but perhaps an unavoidable sight in daily travel to work or shopping. Such is not the case in rural Australia. Their study therefore prompted me to a renewed local observation and analysis. The north of the state is dominated by two highways. The Pacific Highway and the New England Highway link Sydney to Brisbane, with the New England taking a longer, inland route. Though the traffic volume, particularly on the Pacific Highway, is similar to that on British motorways, it still seems essentially a country road, mostly of only two lanes. The sides of the roads are readily accessible to motorists who need to stop, but this is rarely done. Housing is sparse, and there is a large amount of through-traffic. For over ten years there has been a concerted public campaign to get the Pacific Highway upgraded. …


An introduction to the immigration materials available at the University of Kentucky College of Law Library. Originally created by Steven Richardson.


Recent research has shown that mining and modelling search tasks helps improve the performance of search personalisation. Some approaches have been proposed to model a search task using topics discussed in relevant documents, where the topics are usually obtained from human-generated online ontology such as Open Directory Project. A limitation of these approaches is that many documents may not contain the topics covered in the ontology. Moreover, the previous studies largely ignored the dynamic nature of the search task; with the change of time, the search intent and user interests may also change. This paper addresses these problems by modelling search tasks with time-awareness using latent topics, which are automatically extracted from the task's relevance documents by an unsupervised topic modelling method (i.e., Latent Dirichlet Allocation). In the experiments, we utilise the time-aware search task to re-rank result list returned by a commercial search engine and demonstrate a significant improvement in the ranking quality.


This two experiment study examined (1) how women frame their participation with beauty practices and the impact this has on both their well-being and recognition of discrimination, and (2) how exposure to a choice framework affects recognition of sexism. Based on information from an online survey, participants in study 1 considered their participation to be a choice, though I was unable to establish a connection between well-being and endorsement of a choice framework, nor between score on the recognition measure and endorsement of choice framework. Study 2 manipulated participants' exposure to the choice framework by presenting them with different versions of an advertisement. Exposure did not predict a significant change in recognition of discrimination, though a marginally significant unhypothesized interaction was found between identification with feminism and condition. Participants low in feminism showed decreased recognition in the experimental condition, where participants high in feminism showed increased recognition. These results have implications for our understanding of choice frameworks, and discussions of gender inequality and beauty ideals.


This article proposes the centrality of procedural integrity—or fidelity to local norms of case processing—to the post-sentencing adjudication of monetary sanctions. We draw on insights gained from observations of more than 4,200 criminal cases in sixteen courts in New York and Illinois and find that procedural integrity becomes a focal point in the absence of monetary sanctions paid in full and on time. This examination of the interplay between the sociolegal context and workgroups within courtrooms brings to light how case processing pressure, mandatory monetary sanctions, defendants with pronounced financial insecurity, and judicial discretion inform the role monetary sanctions play in court operations.


UV imprinting process can manufacture high-functional optical components with low cost. If hard polymers can be used as transparent molds at this process, the cost will be much lower. However, there are limited researches to predict the machinability and the burr of hard polymers. Therefore, a new method to predict them by analyzing load-depth curves which can be obtained by the instrumented indentation test was developed in this study. The load-depth curve contains elastic deformation and plastic deformation simultaneously. The ratio of the plastic deformation over the sum of the two deformation is proportional to the ductility of materials which is one of the parameters of the machinability and the burr. The instrumented indentation tests were performed on the transparent molds of the hard polymers and the values of ratio were calculated. The machinability and the burr of three kinds of hard polymers were predicted by the ratio, and the prediction was in agreement with the experimental results from the machined surfaces of the three kinds of hard polymers.


This paper presents the design of simple but powerful soft switching scheme for a DCDC Boost Converter with a closed loop control. A new novel soft switching scheme is proposed with a single switch and minimum components which offers load independent operations. The only switch used in this converter is switched ON at zero current and switched OFF at zero voltage .The proposed Controller is used to improve the dynamic performance of DC-DC converter by achieving a robust output voltage against load disturbances. The duty cycle of the Boost converter is controlled by PI Controller. A 50W/50KHz soft switched PWM Boost converter is simulated and analyzed. The results are simulated using PSIM.


This paper presents the development of a chemical sensor which was microfabricated on top of liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. As a result of the unique material properties of LCP, the sensor showed favorable flexibility as well as operational reliability. These features demonstrate potential for integration of the sensor into automated sensing vehicles to achieve real-time detection. The sensor consists of a gold working electrode, a silver/silver chloride reference electrode, and a gold counter electrode. The working electrode of the sensor was further modified with bismuth nanoparticles and Nafion. The modified sensor exhibited a significantly enhanced sensing capability toward cadmium metal ion (Cd(II)) in comparison to the unmodified one. The effects of deposition potential and deposition time on the sensing performance of the sensor were extensively investigated through electrochemical experiments. With optimized parameters, the sensor was capable of quantifying Cd(II) in the concentration range of 0.3 to 25 µg/L. The minimum Cd(II) concentration detected by the sensor was 0.06 µg/L under quiescent deposition. The obtained results suggest that the proposed sensor has a great potential to be deployed for in-situ Cd(II) determination.


We previously demonstrated that, in nasal epithelial cells (NECs) from smokers, methylation of an antiviral gene was associated with impaired antiviral defense responses. To expand these findings and better understand biological mechanisms underlying cigarette smoke (CS)-induced modifications of host defense responses, we aimed to compare DNA methylation of genes that may play a role in antiviral response. We used a two-tiered analytical approach, where we first implemented a genome-wide strategy. NECs from smokers differed in the methylation levels of 390 genes, the majority (84%) of which showed decreased methylation in smokers. Secondly, we generated an a priori set of 161 antiviral response-related genes, of which five were differentially methylated in NEC from smokers (CCL2, FDPS, GSK3B, SOCS3, and ULBP3). Assessing these genes at the systems biology level revealed a protein interaction network associated with CS-induced epigenetic modifications involving SOCS3 and ULBP3 signaling, among others. Subsequent confirmation studies focused on SOCS3 and ULBP3, which were hypomethylated and hypermethylated, respectively. Expression of SOCS3 was increased, whereas ULBP3 expression was decreased in NECs from smokers. Addition of the demethylating agent 5-Aza-2-deoxycytidine enhanced ULBP3 expression in NECs from smokers. Furthermore, infection of differentiated NECs with influenza virus resulted in significantly lower levels of ULBP3 in cells from smokers. Taken together, our findings show that genomic DNA methylation profiles are altered in NECs from smokers and that these changes are associated with decreased antiviral host defense responses, indicating that epigenenic dysregulation of genes such as SOCS3 and ULBP3 likely impacts immune responses in the epithelium.


He floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, darting and dancing his way to boxing's heavyweight world championship. In the process, the fleet-footed and motor-mouthed fighter became King of the Ring and more: a cultural icon who dominated headlines, generated controversy and enthralled even those audiences uninterested in the sport. Readers will discover fascinating facts about this dazzling champ including: that he began boxing at only age 12; his involvement in the controversial Nation of Islam; what happened when he refused to fight in the Vietnam War; his present-day battle with Parkinson's Syndrome; and more.


The performance of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is sometimes degraded by the interference caused by the physical or the systemic physiological activities. Several interferences presented during fNIRS recordings are mainly induced by cardiac pulse, breathing, and spontaneous physiological low-frequency oscillations. In previous work, we introduced a multidistance measurement to reduce physiological interference based on recursive least squares (RLS) adaptive filtering. Monte Carlo simulations have been implemented to evaluate the performance of RLS adaptive filtering. However, its suitability and performance on human data still remain to be evaluated. Here, we address the issue of how to detect evoked hemodynamic response to auditory stimulus using RLS adaptive filtering method. A multidistance probe based on continuous wave fNIRS is devised to achieve the fNIRS measurement and further study the brain functional activation. This study verifies our previous findings that RLS adaptive filtering is an effective method to suppress global interference and also provides a practical way for real-time detecting brain activity based on multidistance measurement.


A case is presented with chronic suppurative otitis media and subsequent tympanogenic labyrinthitis, extradural abscess, and otogenic meningitis. The clinical course is described and pathologic findings demonstrated using serial temporal bone sections. The difficulties of diagnosing and treating this clinical condition are illustrated.


This research aims to test the hypothesis planteda: "The Holy Spirit, the Spousal origin" in the super Cantica Expositio Canticorum of William of St. Thierry. From this place of communion flows the Spousal where human beings are called to share in the Trinitarian life through the Holy Spirit, through the hypostatic union of human and divine in Christ. This is a complex and novel nature, developed from a dogmatic content that the author has deployed as mystical theology Trinity. Key words : Song of Songs, William of Saint Thierry, Holy Spirit, Trinity, Christ.


Fifth AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, Nov 12-15, 2006

CS07-01

We have previously proposed that human cancers exhibit a mutator phenotype during their evolution . We hypothesized that the large numbers of somatic mutations observed in human cancers could not be generated by the extremely low rate of mutation in normal cells . Clonal mutations have been documented in a variety of human cancers. An extensive number of mutated genes have been identified in human tumors by brute force DNA sequencing . However, DNA sequencing is unable to detect random mutations within a tumor, and it is these mutations that would be associated with the heterogeneity of cancers cells within a tumor. The quantitation of random mutations in human cells has been precluded by lack of an assay to measure mutations at the level of single DNA molecules . We have established a method to detect and identify rare random mutations in human cells, at a frequency of 1 per 108 base pairs . The assay is based on gene capture, by hybridization with a uracil-containing probe, followed by magnetic separation. Mutations that render the mutational target sequence non-cleavable by a restriction enzyme are quantified by dilution to single molecules and real-time quantitative PCR amplification. Our target sequence was TCGA in intron 6 of p53. The background was 10-8 mutations/base pair in normal human cells, and mutations in this sequence were genetically neutral. Using this new mutation assay, we report here the results of a blinded experiment comparing the frequency of random mutations in five neoplasms with that in the corresponding normal tissues obtained from untreated patients. The mutation frequency in normal tissues is less than one mutation in 108 base-pairs. In contrast to the paucity of mutations in normal tissues, all five tumors exhibited large numbers of mutations, the mean being 205 × 10-8 mutations per base-pair. Frequencies ranged from 65 x 10-8 for a peri-renal liposarcoma to 475 x 10-8 mutations per base pair for a colon adenocarcinoma. Sequence analysis indicated all were single base substitutions and that the majority were not clonally expanded. The difference between the median mutation frequencies for the normal and tumor samples is highly significant [ P = 0.009; Wilcoxon Rank-Sum (Mann-Whitney test)]. These results provide strong evidence for a mutator phenotype in carcinogenesis and indicate that it is an ongoing process. The large numbers of random mutations present within tumors has important biological implications. First, random mutations might be the basis for the morphologic heterogeneity of cancer cells within a tumor. Second, even though many of these mutations might be progenitors of clonal mutations they would not be detected by the proposed projects to establish an atlas of tumor cancer genes. Third, random mutations might be predictive for the emergence of drug resistance; tumors with large number of random mutations are more likely to contain maligant cells harboring enhancing mutations in drug resistant genes. This concept provides a molecular basis for the observed clinical efficacy of combination therapy, since any single cell would be unlikely to contain mutations that confer resistance to agents with different mechanisms of cytotoxicity. Fourth, random mutations may provide an independent criterion for grading tumors; tumors with large numbers of mutations may be further along the pathway to invasion and metastasis. Last, our results suggest that enhanced mutagenesis is an ongoing process in at least some tumors and thus carries the hopeful implication that inhibition of this process may impede tumor progression. References 1. Loeb, L. A., Springgate, C. F., and Battula, N. Errors in DNA replication as a basis of malignant change. Cancer Res., 34: 2311-2321, 1974. 2. Loeb, L. A., Loeb, K. R., and Anderson, J. P. Multiple mutations and cancer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 100: 776-781, 2003. 3. Wang, T. L., Rago, C., Silliman, N., Ptak, J., Markowitz, S., Willson, J. K. V., Parmigiani, G., Kinzler, K. W., Vogelstein, B., and Velculescu, V. E. Prevalence of somatic alterations in the colorectal cancer cell genome. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99: 3076-3080, 2002. 4. Futreal, P. A., Coin, L., Marshall, M., Down, T., Hubbard, T., Wooster, R., Rahman, N., and Stratton, M. R. A census of human cancer genes. Nat. Rev. Cancer, 4: 117-183, 2004. 5. Bielas, J. H. and Loeb, L. A. Quantification of random genomic mutations. Nature Meth., 2: 285-290, 2005.


This paper presents a visual-inertial odometry-enhanced geometrically stable Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm for accurate mapping using aerial robots. The proposed method employs a visual-inertial odometry framework in order to provide robust priors to the ICP step and calculate the overlap among point clouds derived from an onboard time-of-flight depth sensor. Within the overlapping parts of the point clouds, the method samples points such that the distribution of normals among them is as large as possible. As different geometries and sensor trajectories will influence the performance of the alignment process, evaluation of the expected geometric stability of the ICP step is conducted. It is only when this test is successful that the matching, outlier rejection, and minimization of the error metric ICP steps are conducted and the new relative translation and rotational components are estimated, otherwise the system relies on the visual-inertial odometry transformation estimates. The proposed strategy was evaluated within handheld, automated and fully autonomous exploration and mapping missions using a small aerial robot and was shown to provide robust results of superior quality at an affordable increase of the computational load.


Organoid is a newly developed cellular there-dimensional culture system in recent years. Organoids have a three-dimensional structure, which is similar to that of the real organs. Together with the characteristics of self-renewal and reproduction of tissue origin, organoids can better simulate the function of real organs. Organoids provide a new platform for the study of organogenesis, regeneration, disease pathogenesis, and drug screening. The digestive system is an essential part of the human body and performs important functions. To date, organoid models of various digestive organs have been successfully established. This review summarizes the latest research progress of organoids of taste buds, esophagi, stomachs, livers and intestines, and prospects future application of organoids.


A variety of chroman spiroketals are synthesized via inverse-demand [4 + 2] cycloaddition of enol ethers and ortho-quinone methides (o-QMs). Low temperature o-QM generation in situ allows for the kinetic, diastereoselective construction of these motifs, providing entry to a number of unusual chroman spiroketal natural products.


Over a 6-month period, 157 patients, 89 of whom had central nervous system tumors, were examined on a prototype 0.12 T resistive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging unit. All of the patients had computed tomography (CT), which was used as a standard to which the NMR findings were compared. Studies were done primarily by saturation-recovery technique with short repetition times. The signal intensity with saturation-recovery technique did not allow differentiation among most tumor types. Location, extent, and morphology helped to some extent in attempts at differentiation. In the multiplanar mode, NMR compared favorably to CT with regard to lesion detection. Limited early experience suggests that NMR also may detect some lesions when the CT is negative and may detect additional lesions when one or more are present. The NMR examination was well tolerated by selected patients.


PURPOSE
Existing reviews of trauma and psychosis have identified associations between childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and psychosis. However, conceptual issues relating to assessment of CEA limit the conclusions that can be drawn from the literature. The aim of this review was to identify and evaluate studies reporting an association between childhood experiences of caregiver antipathy (i.e. criticism, hostility, coldness, or rejection from a parental figure experienced prior to age 17 years) and psychosis symptoms/diagnosis.

METHODS
Five databases were systematically searched for articles published until May 2020. Studies were evaluated against inclusion/exclusion criteria, and a narrative synthesis of findings was completed. Study quality was assessed by two independent raters.

RESULTS
Fourteen studies comprised of 1,848 participants met inclusion criteria. Twelve of these studies found significant associations between caregiver antipathy and psychosis, and two did not. There was evidence that adults with schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses report more severe caregiver antipathy in childhood than non-clinical controls and that caregiver antipathy severity is positively correlated with psychosis symptom severity. Most studies received weak or moderate quality ratings and all used cross-sectional or case-control designs which showed associations, rather than causal relationships, between childhood caregiver antipathy and later psychosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Future research would benefit from more rigorous and valid assessment of CEA, use of multivariate methods to account for possible patterns of co-occurrence, and longitudinal study designs to make more robust causal claims. The findings may have important implications for the delivery of psychological care for people with psychosis who report adverse caregiving experiences.

PRACTITIONER POINTS
People with schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses may report more severe caregiver antipathy in childhood than non-clinical controls. Caregiver antipathy severity appears to be positively correlated with psychosis symptom severity in clinical and non-clinical populations. Clinicians should consider the possible impact of caregiver antipathy on psychosis symptoms, their content and distress maintenance. Clinicians should also recognise the potential impact of adverse caregiving experiences on therapeutic relationships, patterns of help-seeking and service engagement. Best practice in clinical services would be to adopt individual, formulation-based approaches within trauma-informed models of care.


In this paper we present the experimental evidence of incipient ordering of star polymers in solution near the overlap concentration ϕ* as predicted by scaling laws. We have studied 8- and 18-arm polyisoprene stars in the dilute and semi-dilute regime. A peak in the interparticle structure factor S(Q) due to a liquidlike ordering of spheres was found by small-angle neutron scattering. A shift of the peak position to higher Q was observed with increasing concentration. The corresponding mean particle distance 2π/Qmax scales with ϕ-1/4 for both stars. Our results, in accordance with predictions, follows the general scaling behavior.


We investigated the mechanism of the AuCl3-catalyzed synthesis of highly substituted furans from 2-(1-alkynyl)-2-alken-1-ones with nucleophiles using the density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP function, and obtained the optimal pathway. The rate-determining step of the cyclization is H-migration from the hydroxy group to a ligand Cl of AuCl3 with a 49.3 kJ•mol^(-1) energy barrier. The calculated results show that the ligand Cl of AuCl3 plays an important role in the reaction, which stabilizes the catalyst and is also directly involved in the reaction. The active energy of proton transfer decreases from 71.5 to 49.3 kJ•mol^(-1) by assisting the proton transfer. In addition, the reason why HBF4 cannot catalyze the cyclization of 2-(1-alkynyl)-2-alken-1-ones is also discussed in this work. The theoretical results are consistent with the experimental observations.


Summary Management targeting increased structural complexity requires not only targets but also mechanisms by which to create those target structures. We identified the most influential structural attributes and spatially explicit metrics for small-scale structural complexity using multiple linear regression at the beginning, end and over a 15-year period in two Norway spruce-dominated stands in southern Finland. Both stands had plots that exhibited an even-sized (ES) structure created through low thinnings and plots that exhibited an uneven-sized (UES) structure perpetuated through single-tree selection harvests. For both structure types, best models for structural complexity used a combination of non-spatial structural and/or compositional attributes and spatially explicit metrics that included the variation in tree size, tree size differentiation, tree density, stand basal area and spatial aggregation. Structural complexity in the ES structure type was mostly a function of tree size differentiation, whereas stand basal area and tree size differentiation were the most influential in the UES structure type. A conceptual model is presented to illustrate how spatial heterogeneity relates differently to small-scale structural complexity, which could be enhanced in ES structure types by increasing variation in size differentiation and in UES structure types by increasing variation in tree abundance.


Background and Purpose. Spasticity (hypertonicity) is a frequent problem that can develop after stroke and can lead to a number of secondary complications, such as contractures and pain. Consequently, many rehabilitation resources are used in treating the condition and its secondary complications. At present, the clinical assessment of spasticity incorporates descriptive scales of resistance to passive movement, but the use of a neurophysiological measure of muscle activity levels has been advocated. This case report focuses on the diagnosis of spasticity through the use of a neurophysiological measure. Case Descriptions. Two individuals who required botulinum toxin treatment for poststroke spasticity were assessed over a course of 20 weeks with both clinical (Modified Ashworth Scale) and neurophysiological (surface electromyography recording of levels of muscle activity) measures of spasticity. Additionally, arm function, arm movement, and pain were measured. The individuals' responses to treatment with botulinum toxin and overall recovery after stroke are described. Outcomes. There were discrepancies between the clinical and the neurophysiological measures of spasticity. The clinical measure of spasticity was not effective in consistently identifying the presence of spasticity and, therefore, also was ineffective in documenting the individuals' responses to treatment. The neurophysiological measure was able to identify when muscle activity levels had been reduced, but a reduction in muscle activity levels did not always correspond with a reduction in Modified Ashworth Scale scores. Discussion. The accurate identification of spasticity is important not only for assessment but also for the selection of appropriate treatments after stroke.


Rapid type 2 molybdenum(V) e.p.r. signals from reduced functional xanthine oxidase have been further investigated. These signals, which show strong coupling of two protons to molybdenum, have been obtained under a variety of new conditions: specifically either at pH 8.2 in the presence of borate ions, or at pH 10.1--10.7 with or without various other additions. Parameters of the signals were obtained with the help of computer simulations. In at least some of these signals, the coupled protons must be located on the enzyme rather than on bound species. The relationship between type 1 and type 2 Rapid signals is discussed. They may represent geometrical isomers, or alternatively, hydroxyl uptake as a ligand of molybdenum may be involved in formation of type 2 species.


The development of sepsis in patient suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) represents a frequent complication that has been associated with worsened global and neurological outcome. In an effort to better characterize the influence of sepsis following TBI, we developed an in vivo model of combined TBI and sepsis in the rat by coupling two validated models: (1) Controlled Cortical Impact (CCI) and (2) Cecal Ligation and Puncture (CLP). Possible contributing effects of sepsis on post-traumatic outcome were evaluated as mortality rate, body weight change, neurological motor (beam balance), cognitive (Morris water maze [MWM] for memory and learning) function, histopathological damage (lesion volume, cell counts in the CA1 and CA3 hippocampal areas), and morphological indices of inflammation (activated microglia and astrocytes) for the 14-day study period. In this study, we produced a mild TBI characterized by a low mortality rate, a transient delay in weight gain, and a transient impairment in motor and cognitive functions. The histological counterpart was represented by a cortical lesion in the area of impact at 14 days post-injury, associated with cell loss in the CA1 and CA3 hippocampal regions, and scarce infiltration of microglia. The superimposition of sepsis on this mild TBI model resulted in worsening of post-injury mortality and weight loss, significant exacerbation of post-injury motor deficit and cognitive impairments, and further exacerbation of neuronal cell death in the CA3 area together with over-expression and activation of microglial cells in the peri-lesional area. Altogether, our findings indicate that sepsis, when superimposed on TBI, exerts a negative effect on the evolution of post-traumatic damage.


Food banks play an essential role in alleviating world hunger by allocating surplus food to eligible agencies or individuals. As non-profit organizations, food banks target agencies to achieve operational efficiency of food allocation (i.e., reduce food waste). However, this would result in inequitable service delivered to different agencies. In this work, we design real-time food allocation rules to serve the sequentially revealed demand of each targeted agency, and to ensure that adequate food is allocated to each agency (fairness) as much as possible. We measure allocation fairness by fill rate (i.e., the ratio of the allocated amount to revealed demand) and exploit online convex optimization tools to characterize the attainable fill rate of the agency. We use these insights to develop provably near-optimal allocation rules for food bank operations, and leverage on extensive numerical simulations to discuss the promising benefits of our allocation rules over the existing benchmark.


A MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol has direct impact on the energy efficiency and traffic characteristics of any Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Due to the inherent differences in WSN's requirements and application scenarios, different kinds of MAC protocols have so far been designed especially targeted to WSNs, though the primary mode of communications is wireless like any other wireless network. This is the subject topic of this survey work to analyze various aspects of the MAC protocols proposed for WSNs. To avoid collision and ensure reliability, before any data transmission between neighboring nodes in MAC layer, sensor nodes may need sampling channel and synchronizing. Based on these needs, we categorize the major MAC protocols into three classes, analyze each protocol's relative advantages and disadvantages, and finally present a comparative summary which could give a snapshot of the state-of-the-art to guide other researchers find appropriate areas to work on. In spite of various existing survey works, we have tried to cover all necessary aspects with the latest advancements considering the major works in this area.


PURPOSE
To analyze the predictive value of parameters of submaximal and maximal cardiopulmonary exercise performance on International Ski Federation (Fédération Internationale de Ski) World Cup ranking (FIS ranking) in elite Austrian Alpine skiers.

METHODS
Over 7 World Cup seasons (2012-2018), exercise data (maximal oxygen uptake and maximum power output, lactate threshold 2, and ventilatory threshold 2, based on stepwise cycle spiroergometry) were analyzed to determine whether there was a correlation between world FIS ranking and exercise capacity of male and female elite Alpine skiers.

RESULTS
The data of 39 male skiers (age: 27.67 [4.20] y, body mass index: 26.03 [1.25] kg/m2) and 36 female skiers (age: 25.49 [3.18] y, body mass index: 22.97 [1.71] kg/m2) were included in this study. The maximum oxygen uptake and maximum power output ranged from 4.37 to 4.42 W/kg and 53.41 to 54.85 mL/kg/min in men and from 4.17 to 4.30 W/kg and 45.96 to 49.16 mL/kg/min in women, respectively, over the 7 seasons; the yearly mean FIS ranking ranged from 17 to 24 in men and 9 to 18 in women. In a fixed-effects model used for the subsequent panel regression analysis, no statistically significant effect on FIS ranking was found for the exercise parameters of interest.

CONCLUSIONS
Neither maximal aerobic tests nor maximum power output significantly predicted competitive performance, as indexed by the FIS ranking. This reinforces the assumption that no single parameter determines competition performance in this complex sport. Therefore, identifying the optimum amount of endurance training remains a major challenge for athletes and coaches, as does identifying and improving the factors that determine performance.


Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, or pNETs, represent a rare and clinically heterogenous subset of pancreatic neoplasms. One such pNET, the insulinoma, is found to be malignant in just 4% of all insulinomas. Due to the exceedingly uncommon occurrence of these tumors, there is controversy regarding the optimal evidence-based management for these patients. We therefore report on a 70-year-old male patient admitted with 3 months of episodic confusion with concurrent hypoglycemia. The patient was found to have inappropriately elevated endogenous insulin levels during these episodes, and somatostatin-receptor subtype 2 selective imaging revealed a pancreatic mass metastatic to local lymph nodes, spleen, and the liver. Fine needle aspiration of pancreatic and liver lesions confirmed the diagnosis of a low grade pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. Molecular analysis of tumor tissue revealed a novel mutational profile consistent with pNET. The patient was initiated on octreotide therapy. However, treatment with octreotide alone demonstrated limited efficacy in controlling the patient's symptoms, prompting consideration of other therapies.


Results are reported from a feasibility study on the use of parallel processing platforms for real-time simulation and control. This has developed a back-end accelerator which takes the output of SIMULINK-an icon based menu driven package- and automatically generates executable parallel code without user intervention. Hence the user can design and simulate a control system using the familiar SIMULINK interface, execute the simulation in real time, and then analyse the results using, for example, the powerful facilities of MATLAB. An example from the chemical industry is used to support the results presented. Follow up work on the inclusion of advanced feedback control schemes is discussed. In particular, the inclusion of a module for generalised predictive control is presented.


This study aimed to describe effectiveness of instruction approaches (the snowball throwing's type of cooperative learning and conventional) and compare effectiveness of the snowball throwing's type of cooperative learning approach with conventional approaches in logics instruction seen from the aspect of student mathematics achievement in the academic year 2014/2015 at AMIKOM Mataram. The research is a quasi-experiment with nonequivalent comparison-group design. Its population is all of the student of informatics management (MI) with sample used are students of MI A and MI C+Exe. To test the effectiveness of instruction approaches (the snowball throwing's type of cooperative learning and conventional), data were analyzed using one sample t-test. To test that the snowball's throwing type of cooperative learning approach is more effective than conventional approach, the data were analyzed using ANOVA followed by Benferroni's t-test. The results showed that the instruction approaches (the snowball throwing's type of cooperative learning and conventional) is effective and the snowball throwing's type of cooperative learning approach is more effective than conventional approaches in logics instruction seen from the aspect of student mathematics achievement in the academic year 2014/2015


The role of the international commodity market in transmitting disturbances is considered in a model that incorporates commodities as an input in production. The analysis employs a three-country framework: a liquidity-constrained commodity supplier and two industrial countries that import the commodity, export differentiated manufactured goods and hold the outstanding debt of the commodity exporter. In this setting the impact of changes in fiscal policy, commodity supplies, and the real interest rate are assessed. Particular attention is paid to the responses of the real exchange rate, commodity prices, and the international distribution of debt to the various shocks.


Bathellier) Abstract. Sensory cortex encompasses the regions of the cerebral cortex that receive primary sensory inputs and is crucial for conscious sensory perception in humans. Yet, some forms of perception are possiblewithoutsensorycortex.Forexampleinanimalmodels,theassociationofasounddetectionto a simple behavior resists to the inactivation of auditory cortex. In contrast, post-training inactivation experiments conducted in visual or somatosensory cortex led to much stronger e ff ects. Here we show that muscimol inactivation of visual or auditory cortex in the same detection protocol transiently abolishes visual but not auditory detection. We also observe that cortex-dependency correlates with longer reaction times. This suggests that auditory cortex is more easily bypassed by other circuits for stimulusdetectionthanotherprimarysensoryareas,whichmaybeduetotimingdi ff erencesbetween auditory and visual associations. Résumé. Le cortex sensoriel englobe les régions sensorielles primaires, ce qui peut être dû à des di ff érences de timing entre les associations auditives et visuelles. Note. sciences / Brice


We are entering in a new era of computing technology i.e. Internet of Things (IoT). IOT is a sort of "universal global neural network" in the cloud which connects various things. The IoT is a intelligently connected devices and systems which comprised of smart machines interacting and communicating with other machines, environments, objects and infrastructures and the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and sensor network technologies will rise to meet this new challenge. As a result, a enormous amount of data are being generated, stored, and that data is being processed into useful actions that can "command and control" the things to make our lives much easier and safer—and to reduce our impact on the environment.Every organization such as companies and civil institutions needs up-to-date information about people. In this regard, most establishments either use websites, emails or notice boards. However, in most of countries internet access is available to people on systems and their mobile devices, so that the transferring of the information can be much easier and less costly through the internet


The objective of this paper is to identify the combination of factors that would make small and nonprofessional sports clubs economically and financially viable, despite low revenues and a limited attractiveness to the general public. In this regard, an analysis has been conducted on a sample of 200 clay shooting clubs in Italy. Results show that the main factors that positively affect performance are those most directly related to the core practice, as well as facilities/services supporting practitioners. This research adds to the sport management literature in two ways. First, it provides an in-depth analysis of the connection between infrastructure and organizational features of sports clubs. Second, this research highlights which facilities, services and initiatives can be adopted in order to increase financial and organizational performance of small sport clubs and, consequently, provide a higher attractiveness to practitioners.


Helicobacterpylori (Hp) is mainly acquired during childhood and causes one of the most widespread infections worldwide; it is recognised as a cause of gastritis and peptic ulcer and it has been classified as a group A carcinogen by World Health Organization. This infection can be diagnosed by invasive techniques requiring endoscopy and biopsy (histological examination, rapid urease test, culture) and by non invasive tests (serology, urea breath test, detection of Hp antigen stool specimen). The gold standard in the eradication of Hp is one-week triple therapy: one proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and two antibiotics (mainly nitromidazoles, macrolides and beta-lactames). It is possible the use of probiotics during this therapy to reduce the adverse effects, to improve tolerability and compliance of multiple antibiotics regimens.


The presence of a general practitioner (GP) at the hospital emergency ward is a first attempt to answer a society phenomenon, challenging the hospital manager, but related to a more complex and extensive problem. New habits, due to various reasons, eventually move an ever growing proportion of patients from the community GP towards the hospital. The relationships between the patient and the practitioner are collapsing down like those between family members especially in towns. How can we resolve such an evolution politically? To have the city GP inside the hospital as it is already the case in big US cities? or, to favor the central role of the community general practitioner in the medical management of the patients, but in opposition to the present course of events? The first solution would be more expensive than the second one.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between appearance-related attitude(attitude toward appearance, body satisfaction) and clothing attitude, and to examine how clothing attitude was influenced by appearance-related attitude. The method of this study was survey research by using questionnaires. Subjects were 700(middle school students 217, high school students 227, university students 256) girl students located in Junrabookdo province. In this statistical analysis, SPSS 11.5 for Windows program was utilized to calculate frequency, mean, factor analysis, cronbach's , one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, multiple regression analysis. The results of this research were as follows: The results of analysing the factors to the response clothing attitude emerged five dimensions(fashion pursuit, gender attractiveness, self-expression, aesthetic, and modesty). University school girls' students showed higher attitude toward appearance, body satisfaction, clothing attitude except of modesty. Clothing attitude variables except of modesty had positive correlations with appearance-related attitude. However, modesty of clothing had negative correlations with appearance-related attitude. As a conclusion, adolescents' appearance-related attitude constituted important characteristics which could affect clothing attitude directly.


Abstract The Makassar Straits, located on the south-eastern margin of Sundaland, between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi, is an under-explored deep-water domain, adjacent to a world class hydrocarbon province (Kutai Basin, primarily deltaic and shelfal). Geological development of the Makassar Straits commenced during the Eocene in response to crustal extension that propagated south-westwards from the Celebes Sea spreading centre. After initial opening of the Makassar Straits, early-phase Eocene horst and graben terrains were overlain by basinal sag sediments during the subsequent Oligocene to Miocene era. Following uplift of Borneo during the Neogene and resultant massive outbuilding of the Mahakam Delta, considerable amounts of sediment were redeposited as turbidite facies in the North Makassar Basin. During the Plio-Pleistocene, prior extensional settings in the Makassar Straits became compressional as successive fragments of micro-continental material, initially sourced from the Australian Plate ("Australoid"), collided with the south-eastern margin of Sundaland. This recent collision not only assembled the island of Sulawesi into its current (ephemeral) K-shape but also formed the West Sulawesi Fold Belt, which obscures the eastern part of the original Eocene rift in the Makassar Straits. Traps within the foldbelt are mapped as compressional folds over a thin-skinned detachment within probably over-pressured, late Eocene to early Miocene mudrocks. Neogene turbidite reservoirs are postulated to be charged from both Paleogene and Neogene source rocks.


5362 The pulmonary microenvironment is a unique milieu in which lung carcinogenesis proceeds in complicity with the host cellular network. We previously found that lungs at risk for carcinogenesis contain inflammatory mediators capable of potently promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) through the induction of E-cadherin transcriptional repressors, including the zinc finger transcription factor family member Snail. In these studies, we are exploring the role of Snail expression in the pathogenesis of human lung cancer. We utilized Snail gene-modified human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC) to define early events in lung carcinogenesis. Snail was up-regulated and E-cadherin was concomitantly down-regulated in HBEC Snail cells (HBEC-S) compared to HBEC vector control cells (HBEC-V). In a three-dimensional (3D) spheroid culture model, HBEC-V formed compact spheroidal colonies, whereas HBEC-S formed stellate cell aggregates with invasive processes. In a 3D organotypic culture model, HBEC-V formed well-organized epithelial cell layers atop a modified basement membrane. In contrast, HBEC-S epithelial cell layers were disorganized and discohesive, and they completely invaded the underlying mucosa after only one week. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining of E-cadherin was intense in HBEC-V but nearly absent in HBEC-S. Snail, cytokeratin 14, and p63 staining of HBEC-V was restricted to the basal epithelial cell layer, whereas HBEC-S were uniformly positive for the markers regardless of the location of the cells within the epithelium and underlying mucosa. The proliferation marker Ki67 was also up-regulated in HBEC-S compared to HBEC-V. These findings suggest that over-expression of Snail in normal lung epithelium results in down-regulation of E-cadherin and induction of subsequent molecular and morphological changes characteristic of EMT. To define the role of Snail in established lung cancer, we utilized Snail gene-modified NSCLC cell lines. In a SCID murine model, tumor cell lines over-expressing Snail demonstrated enhanced tumor growth and metastasis. Snail tumors displayed increased vascularity and augmented expression of the angiogenic proteins IL-8, ENA-78, and VEGF. These findings suggest that Snail expression plays an important role in the pathogenesis of NSCLC by serving as a critical link between inflammation, angiogenesis, and EMT. These studies were supported by: UCLA SPORE in Lung Cancer P50CA90388 and UT Southwestern SPORE in Lung Cancer P50CA75907.


Intelligent control of an assembly robot using vision is presented. In assembling, the task is planned by the task planner, and the corresponding robot trajectory is planned as the reference trajectory. The robot should also adapt to environmental variation. To coordinate the planner and robot, a virtual internal model is used to modify the planned reference trajectory according to the environmental variation. The use of a force and vision sensor is proposed in the virtual internal model for error correction in assembly. A simple assembling task is experimentally achieved to verify the validity of the proposed method. The task considered is screwing a bolt with an open-ended wrench fixed to the wrist of the robot, where the bolt is not accurately placed at the fixed predetermined place. The experiment shows that the proposed control system works satisfactorily.<<ETX>>


The prevention science approach to emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) focuses on early intervention targeting risk and resilience factors (e.g., early problem behaviors, teacher-child interactions, classroom climate). The current study investigates the effectiveness of BEST in CLASS, a classroom-based indicated preventive intervention targeting young children at risk for EBD, in terms of producing clinically meaningful reductions of problem behaviors and improvements in social skills. A total of 185 early childhood teachers (92 in the treatment condition) and 462 young children (230 in treatment) participated in the study. Teachers completed rating scale measures of problem behaviors and social skills. The clinical significance of the findings indicated that the BEST in CLASS condition had a lower percentage of children with clinical or borderline range scores at posttest when compared with children in the control classrooms. The BEST in CLASS prevention model, clinically significant intervention outcomes, and prevention of EBD are discussed.


This paper describes the power features of the aqueduct being built to supplement the water supply of Southern California. Three hundred thousand kilowatts of power ultimately will be transmitted from Boulder Dam to operate 45 synchronous motors driving centrifugal pumps. High efficiency, long life, and simplicity of design are given precedence over close voltage regulation and the elimination of momentary interruptions.


Deep Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) show promising performance on a range of graph tasks, yet at present are costly to run and lack many of the optimisations applied to DNNs. We show, for the first time, how to systematically quantise GNNs with minimal or no loss in performance using Network Architecture Search (NAS). We define the possible quantisation search space of GNNs. The proposed novel NAS mechanism, named Low Precision Graph NAS (LPGNAS), constrains both architecture and quantisation choices to be differentiable. LPGNAS learns the optimal architecture coupled with the best quantisation strategy for different components in the GNN automatically using back-propagation in a single search round. On eight different datasets, solving the task of classifying unseen nodes in a graph, LPGNAS generates quantised models with significant reductions in both model and buffer sizes but with similar accuracy to manually designed networks and other NAS results. In particular, on the Pubmed dataset, LPGNAS shows a better size-accuracy Pareto frontier compared to seven other manual and searched baselines, offering a 2.3 times reduction in model size but a 0.4% increase in accuracy when compared to the best NAS competitor. Finally, from our collected quantisation statistics on a wide range of datasets, we suggest a W4A8 (4-bit weights, 8-bit activations) quantisation strategy might be the bottleneck for naive GNN quantisations.


This study is devoted to find out public library development in Karachi under the local government set up. There are two parallel public library systems in Karachi, i.e. Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and City District Government Karachi (CDGK) which are studied through a survey. Questionnaire was distributed among the library personnel and users. On the basis of response and observations findings are reproduced in this article.


Toxicological indices of wistar rats fed formulated chaw of Telfairia occidentalis planted on crude oil contaminated and bioremediated soil was studied. Farmland, measuring 18 m2 was divided into three lots of 4 m2 and 2 m space was allowed between each lot (A, B and C). Two lots were polluted, subjected to 16 weeks of bioremediation and viable seeds of T. occidentalis were planted and grown for 28 days. The harvested vegetable leaves were analyzed. Leaves from natural attenuated soil showed high concentration of both aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with values of 9.34+0.03 mg/kg and 9.18+0.05 mg/kg for C36 and Fluoranthene respectively, while the bioaugmented soil had Lead as the highest heavy metal with a value of 0.10+0.02 g/100g. Four groups, of 9 rats each (totalling 36 rats) of adult males and females, wealing males and females were subsequently sub-grouped into 3 and allowed to acclimatize for a period of 1 week. These animals were fed formulated rat chaw of 50% dry weight of T. occidentalis, from the three lots (control, bioaugmented and natural attenuated soil) for a period of 28 days. Assay of animals' toxicological index showed elevated concentrations of alkaline phosphatase, alanine and aspartate aminotransferases, urea and creatinine in their sera. A slight increase in serum amylase activity was recorded, while concentrations of their haemoglobin and Packed Cell Volume (PCV) reduced. The obtained results from these biomarkers were confirmed by the histopathological sections of the animal organs.


Antrochoanal polyps (ACPs) are benign lesions that arise from the mucosa of the maxillary antrum, grow into the maxillary sinus, and reach the choana with nasal obstruction being their main symptom. Most of these lesions are small and clinically silent and found as incidental finding, but large cysts which occupy the entire antrum have also been reported in literature. Nasal endoscopy and computer tomography (CT) are the golden standard in the diagnosis of ACPs, and enucleation by Caldwell–Luc approach is the recommended treatment for larger antral cysts. This article is a report of a 9-year-old male patient diagnosed with ACP arising from a benign cyst of maxillary antrum with characteristic clinical, CT, and histopathological features along with brief review of literature.


We have designed a novel Spot-Size converter (SSC) which is constructed with a tapered silicon waveguide and an overlaid rectangular sol-gel hybrid SiO2 waveguide. Simulation analysis based on the three-dimensional beam propagation method (3D-BPM) shows the conversion efficiency can be up to 95% (loss of 0.22dB).


Brahman and Person is a collection of essays by the late Richard De Smet (1916-1997) on the topic of person in Indian thought. Overturning the current interpretation, De Smet proposes that the nirguna Brahman can be regarded as properly personal, provided person is understood in the original and classical sense that emerged in the Christian effort to speak about the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation. The rendering of Saguna and nirguna Brahman as personal and impersonal, instead, originated with the Western translators of Sanskrit works, who were influenced by an individualistic idea of the person and the consequent restriction of its application to the human being. De Smet also dedicated attention to the question of the human person in Indian and Western thought over a number of essays, proposing that a properly holistic and organic notion of the human person can be found especially in the thought of Sankara.


Objective: This study aimed to investigate effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on anxiety, depression and quality of life in patients with intrauterine adhesion. Methods: Patients who received therapy for intrauterine adhesion (IUA) were recruited and randomized into MBSR group and Wait-List group (WL group). 71 women who received routine physical examination were recruited as healthy controls. Patients in MBSR group received MBSR training for 8 weeks. Results: There were 76 patients in MBSR group, 75 patients in WL group and 71 subjects in control group. When compared with control group, the scores of anxiety and depression increased significantly and the score of quality of life reduced significantly before intervention. In patients, the scores of quality of life in all the domains were negatively related to the scores of anxiety and depression (P<0.05). After MBSR for 8 weeks, there was a significant time and group interaction for the anxiety score (F=55.168, P<0.001) and depression score (F=252.485, P<0.001). The MBSR group showed a decrease in the anxiety and depression score, while the WL group did not. The quality of life (except for bodily pain) in the MBSR group was also significantly improved. The recurrence rate in the MBSR group was 18.4%, which was significantly lower than that in WL group (34.7%; P=0.024). Conclusion: IUA patients have evident anxiety and depression, which significantly reduces the life quality of patients. MBSR may improve the anxiety and depression of IUA patients during therapy, promote the post-operative recovery and improve their quality of life.


The active rule system is a key element of the rule-based mobile agent middleware system for activeness and autonomy of the sensor network. The rule manager, which is the main components of active rule based mobile agent framework and active rule system, performs the control and management of the rule-related processes. In this paper, we design and implement the roles and functions of the rule manager in detail. The proposed rule manager plays an important role in the sensor network environment. The sensor data server loads the active rule on the mobile agent by the rule manager according to the situations, and the mobile agent migrates to the destination node and performs the designated action. This active rule-based mobile agent middleware system presents the usefulness for the various sensor network applications. Through the rule execution experiment using the rule-based mobile agent, we show the adaptability and applicability of rule-based mobile agent middleware system to the dynamic environmental changes in sensor networks.


Background: Left atrial volume indexed to body surface area (LAVi) is the recommended method for LA size quantification. Assessing LAVi in Indian patients undergoing coronary interventions for acute coronary syndrome (STEMI, NSTEMI, and UA) is clinically relevant. Methods and Results: Amongst 190 patients (66.4 yrs, 68.4% males), 29.5%, 40.5%, and 30% respectively had STEMI, NSTEMI and UA. Mean LAVi was 32.29 ± 12.06 ml/m2 and 111 (58.4%) had LAVi ≥32 while 79 (41.6%) had LAVi <32. Patients were divided into 2 groups (group 1 LAVi >32 and group 2 LAVi <32). Group 1 patients had higher prevalence of TVD [n = 49 vs n = 5, p = <0.001] and higher mean Syntax score (24.47 vs 14.64, p = <0.001). Despite similar LVEF, those with higher LAVi had had higher incidence of mild MR (50.4 vs 27.8, P = 0.0002) and moderate/severe MR was present only in Group 1 patients (27.9% and 5.4%). Grade I, II, and III diastolic dysfunction was present in 71.2, 17.1, and 9.9% patients in Group 1 vs 45.6%, 0%, and 0% in group 2. Diastolic parameters like septal E/e' and lateral E/e'ratio were also higher in Group 1. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) at 30 days was significantly higher in group 1 (20.7 vs 6.3%, P = 0.006). On multivariate analysis, triple vessel disease and LAVi were the only predictors of MACE while LVEF was not. ROC curve analysis for LAVi demonstrated that a cut-off 33.35 ml/m2, predicted 30 day MACE with Area under curve (AUC) 0.775 (95% CI 0.700-0.850); sensitivity and specificity of 86.7% and 61.4%. Inter-quartile analysis of LAVi (<26.3, 26.3-33.35, 33.36-36.3, and >36.3 ml/m2) demonstrated that 30 day MACE increased across quartiles (4.16%, 4.25%, 22.44%, and 28.26%, respectively, P < 0.001). Conclusion: Amongst patients with ACS undergoing revascularization, those with higher LAVi had more severe CAD, diastolic dysfunction and higher 30 day MACE. LAVi provides superior prognostic information as compared to conventional LV systolic and diastolic parameters in patients with ACS and should be incorporated in routine echocardiographic analysis. More studies with larger numbers and longer follow up are required to further elucidate on this.


Orbicule characteristics and pollen morphology were studied using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with 13 species of Oxalis section Alpinae, endemic to South America. Orbicules are either homogeneous or heterogeneous in size; surface smooth or with punctuations; margin smooth, lobed, or wavy; rounded, oblong, or irregular shapes; variable clustering. According to orbicule characteristics, six groups are proposed. The Oxalis pollen grain is 3-colpate and the shape is prolate spheroidal, oblate spheroidal, or spheroidal; ambit rounded or triangular. Exine microreticulate, semitectate, brochate. Brochi circular, oval, triangular to polygonal. Lumen with or without content. Sporopollenin generally forming groups that may be in rows in the margins or in the center of colpus.


Sidescan sonar, a well known marine geophysical exploration technique, widely utilized in maritime archaeology, has great potential as a reconnaissance tool in limnoarchaeological surveys. Its application in the identification of manmade structures on the floor of a flooded valley (Glenfarg Reservoir, Scotland) and the location of nearshore settlements (crannogs) in a natural water body (Loch Tay, Scotland) are described and discussed. It is suggested that sidescan sonar is a more efficient method of underwater archaeological reconnaissance than diver surveys.


In Aischylos' Eumenides, Apollo intimates a theory according to which the father is the sole genetic parent of the child. The status of this conception, and whether it is depicted as an outlandish idea, has been much and inconclusively discussed. This paper considers a neglected piece of evidence: Apollo's use of the very unusual word αὐτάδελφον when addressing Hermes. In light of the Greeks' awareness of this etymology as well as the other instances of this rare word in tragedy, the author argues that Aischylos' text highlights the etymological connection to δελφύς, the womb, thus evoking the role of the mother. This suggests that Aischylos subtly lets his, and Apollo's, language rebel against the notion of merely paternal kinship, and the concomitant ideas about revenge, retaliation and children's obligations to their parent.


Gravitational wave-forms from coalescences of binary black hole systems and binary neutron star systems with low tidal effects can hardly be distinguished if the two systems have similar masses. In the absence of discriminating power based on the gravitational waveforms, the classification of sources into binary neutron stars, binary black holes and mixed systems containing a black hole and a neutron star can only be unambiguous when assuming the standard model of stellar evolution and using the fact that there exists a mass gap between neutron stars and black holes. This approach is however limited by its own assumptions: for instance the 2.6 solar mass object detected in the GW190814 event remains unclassified, and models of new physics can introduce new compact objects, like primordial black holes, which may have masses in the same range as neutron stars. Then, without an electromagnetic counterpart (kilonova), classifying mergers of compact objects without mass gap criteria remains a difficult task, unless the source is close enough. In what follows we investigate a procedure to discriminate a model between binary neutron star merger and primordial binary black hole merger by using a Bayes factor in simulated wave-forms that we superimpose to realistic detector noise.


The initial state selected time-dependent wave-packet method was extended to calculate the state-to-state integral cross section for the title reaction with H2O in the ground rovibrational state on the potential energy surface of Yang, Zhang, Collins, and Lee. One OH bond length was fixed in the study, which is justifiable for the abstraction reaction, but the remaining 5 degrees of freedom were treated exactly. It was found that the H2 molecule is produced vibrationally cold for collision energy up to 1.6 eV. The OH rotation takes away about 4% of total available energy in the products, while the fraction of energy going to H2 rotation increases with collision energy to about 20% at 1.6 eV.


In the Zambian school curriculum the concept of fractions is introduced to primary school pupils in Grade 5. The topic is also taught to Grades 6 and 7 pupils. The pupils have exhibited errors and misconceptions when solving classroom exercises and answering examination questions related to this concept. They find it difficult to even apply knowledge of fractions to situations outside the classroom. The aforementioned challenges faced by the pupils motivated this study on fractions. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to identify difficulties that Zambian primary school pupils encounter when learning fractions. A survey of 10 primary schools was conducted in Kapiri Mposhi district in Central province of Zambia with data collected from 100 male and female Grade 5 pupils. As a data collection tool a test was designed to assess main components of fraction knowledge with focus on conceptual and procedural knowledge and how these can be distinguished. Results revealed numerous difficulties encountered by pupils largely due to inadequate conceptual understanding of many aspects of fractions. Generally it was revealed that pupils had difficulties with both procedural and conceptual knowledge although the difficulties were mostly emanating from insufficient conceptual understanding of the topic.


TlO THE E lHTOR: I re ad with iョ イ」イ ・ セエ th e セ セ L ャ、・ by Hum et al concerningtheu diffiH セ ue s in using general practiti oners to l\ ruit patie nts f or a tri al of JLITeren t 0'. thu ds oftreatingdepression.' .t is important to place thetrial in conrct. In p ast d ecadesgene-ralpractiricners. h.ve beenexhorted 10 usc anndepreesams fl' treating depressio n .Since The advent of It ecuve se rotonin reupta ke mhibuors (.', Rl s) in the-past decade, general pracri n u n have hadaccessto a nfe and effecU' rnedrcarion. These drugs have raprd ur ct and arere aso nablywetl torcratedhy n >( paucnrs.The co r respondin g mevsagc l! .r psychothe rapy is as e ffec tive! andthat It educes re lapseratn' ィゥャ セ no t beenpron.red as effecnvelv as ha s the efficacy of セ L Rls. Also, while G Pswith an in terest in rr 'Hal health COlO)' counsellm g, they can nachievethe rapid rchcfof surfenn g seen 1" h SS RJmcdrcanon. n a I QQII study, we exam ined thereasons w, " g p セ become involved in recruumg for rc -arch project sand why so me were not セ Q e to recruit patients.' The main differセ ャ , e related to a fedinto:that involvemen t II worthwhile . W'e d id not particularly セ セ [ G ャ ッ イ ・ the reasons t ha t mad e theresearch proect worthwh ile , hut GPsgen erally see ± rngs as worthwhile when th ey benefit the p · len!. rN ・ セ ・ ャャ イ 」 ィ セ オ 」 ィ 。セ fh.lt desl;n bed byHum el セ QG is Yer}' imporunc 「 ・ 」 S オ セ ・ if examines .....h.l t occ urs in general pracUCe. Howen' r, II :tI ''>' be ヲ セ オ ゥ エ ヲ オ エ to examine 。ャエ・イョ。エゥ セ G ・


This work presents the results of the field survey in 2016 referring to invasive insect pests newly recorded from the Southern Romania. Five non-European insect species, belonging to Hemiptera and Lepidoptera Orders damaging diverse plants were identified, as follows: three polyphagous species in Auchenorrhyncha group, Orientus ishidae, Phlogotettix cyclops and Acanalonia conica; one true bug species Leptoglossus occidentalis harmful to conifer seeds, and one leaf miner species Phyllocnistis vitegenella pest to grapevine. In this work we included summarized data related to some aspects of species origins, distribution in Europe and Romania and preference to the host plants.


Childrearing behaviors are often shaped by familial and cultural principles that function as guides for socialization goals and effective childrearing practices. For an increasing number of Latino families, the extended kin often acts as a source of childcare support. Due to a scarcity of research on the familial support configurations of Latin American families, the current study utilizes a cross-cultural retrospective approach to explore the associations between matrilineal/patrilineal kin and life history strategies in relation to childrearing. Applying a family system and life history framework, the present model tested 200 university students from Mexico and Costa Rica on measures of family emotional environment and traditional social values (e.g., familismo/simpatía and patriarchal values). Results found that childcare assistance from patrilineal and matrilineal kin was associated with positive family emotional environment, which weakly mediated the association between kin care and slow life history. Positive associations were also found between matrilineal kin childcare and traditional Latin social values. However, patriarchal values were only predicted by higher levels of patrilineal kin aid. The results are consistent with the general theoretical literature of life history theory and family systems theory, suggesting that high levels of childcare produce positively emotional family climates, which in turn perpetuate the development of prosocial individuals with slow life history strategies. Implications for further research are discussed.


In the era of digital information, intellectual capital becomes more important to firms because the economic environment throughout the world continuously focused on the existence of knowledge capital in the firms to ensure firms' survival. However, the existence of firms' investment in intellectual capital is not clear because it is reported as an expense rather than asset. This situation makes the efficiency of intellectual capital investments vague which can jeopardize firms' performance and value. However this weakness could be overcome with a reliable governance in the firms. The objective of this study is to investigate the moderating effect of government ownership (a characteristic of corporate governance) in the association between the efficiency of intellectual capital and firm performance. Government ownership has always been seen by investors as controversial especially when the government seems to always taking advantage of firms' wealth. This study utilised a sample of 1,048 firm-years data from financial statements of firms listed on the main market of Bursa Malaysia for years 2012 through 2014. Findings shows a positive association between intellectual capital efficiency and firm performance. However the existence of government ownership weakens the association. Findings support the grabbing hand theory which argues that government ownership is seen as negative by stakeholders due to only taking advantage and not enhancing the existence of intellectual capital in firms. Findings show that investors still need to be alert if they want to invest in firms owned by the government in Malaysia. Nevertheless, the findings could also assist the government as owners to listed firms to improve their reputation in order to be seen as the entity that would help elevate firms' performance which could eventually assist to heighten the capital market and economy of Malaysia


Breast cancer therapies are in continuous evolution: From surgery to hormonal therapy, from classical and new combined chemotherapies to emerging targeted agents of recent introduction to the clinic. The attempt to personalize the best treatment for each patient is driven by efficacy and safety parameters and tumor biology investigations of markers for aggressiveness and response to treatment. The plethora of targeted therapies has provided momentum for the quest to better understand not only target mechanisms of action, but also tumor behavior. Moreover, how to monitor response to these agents is crucial today to achieve better resource-sharing and to find cheaper, less invasive, and standardized detection techniques for clinically validated biomarkers. In this report, we briefly summarize data on the major tissue and soluble biomarkers focusing on their actual use in daily practice, as well as their emerging role and possible future applications in breast cancer treatment.


Concolic testing is a well-known validation technique for imperative and object-oriented programs. We have recently introduced an adaptation of this technique to logic programming. At the heart of our framework for concolic testing lies a logic programming specific procedure that we call "selective unification". In this paper, we consider concolic testing in the context of constraint logic programming and extend the notion of selective unification accordingly. We prove that the selective unification problem is generally undecidable for constraint logic programs, and we present a correct and complete algorithm for selective unification in the context of a class of constraint structures.


In glottal source analysis, the phase minimization criterion has already been proposed to detect excitation instants. As shown in this paper, this criterion can also be used to estimate the shape parameter of a glottal model (ex. Liljencrants-Fant model) and not only its time position. Additionally, we show that the shape parameter can be estimated independently of the glottal model position. The reliability of the proposed methods is evaluated with synthetic signals and compared to that of the IAIF and minimum/maximum-phase decomposition methods. The results of the methods are evaluated according to the influence of the fundamental frequency and noise. The estimation of a glottal model is useful for the separation of the glottal source and the vocal-tract filter and therefore can be applied in voice transformation, synthesis, and also in clinical context or for the study of the voice production.


Reinhard Hutter is a leading theologian who has made important contributions to ecclesiology, pneumatology, and Christian rationality, but his most fundamental one is to the nature of theology and theological method. What makes his work of particular interest to Pentecostals is its attempt to give theology a pneumatological and ecclesiological ground. He suggests that the pathos of theology is doctrina and core church practices; theology receives its character and content from church doctrine and practices. Although successful in respect to his ecclesiological program, his proposal does not give theology a direct pneumatological ground and pathos. Nevertheless, his notion that theology receives its pathos from church doctrine and practices can be adapted to suggest a pneumatological pathos of Christian experience and theology. The result is a proposal that the Holy Spirit conditions the pathos of Christian experience and theology, which provides a theological and explicitly a pneumatological pathos not only for Pentecostal experience and theology but also for the role of Pentecostal experience in developing a uniquely "orthopathic" ecumenical contribution to Christian theology.


This paper explores the experiences of new part-time professors (instructors hired on a semester-by-semester basis that have been working at the institution for less than five years) and considers the phenomenon of how they connect with peers. It examines whether a lack of connection exists among part-time professors at the University of Ottawa and how this may affect their experience (i.e. teaching and career), lead to barriers to connection, and affect their social capital (i.e., their ability to access or use resources embedded in their social networks). Using Moustakas' (1994) phenomenological approach for collecting and analyzing data and Creswell's (2007) approach for establishing validity, we uncovered several thematic patterns in participants' experience that indicate barriers to connection and affect the ability to access and mobilize social capital: Feeling uncertain or impermanent, isolated, overwhelmed, and like second-class citizens. The paper concludes that inadequate social capital may not only influence part-time professors – it may also have problematic implications for students, the department, and the University as a whole.
Keywords: Social capital, barriers to communication, phenomenology, qualitative methods, part-time professors


The legacy of Herman Dooyeweerd, that colossus of reformational thinking, presents us not only with the gifts of his systematic genius, but also with the riddles of his unperfected work, which now have become a part of our own unfinished work. Not the least of these riddles and not the least of our unfinished work confront us in the legacy of Dooyeweerd's anthropological reflections. As he indicates in the conclusion of his monumental New Critique, all of his previous investigations are nothing but preliminaries that implicitly converge upon the ultimate problems of philosophical anthropology. The question of man, in effect, constitutes the fundamental implicit theme of Dooyeweerd's philosophy.


This report contains information about the effect of frequency on the breakdown voltage of an air gap at standard pressure and temperature, 76 mm Hg and O{degrees}C, respectively. The frequencies of interest are 47 MHz and 60 MHz. Additionally, the breakdown in vacuum is briefly considered. The breakdown mechanism is explained on the basis of collision and ionization. The presence of the positive ions produced by ionization enhances the field in the gap, and thus determines the breakdown. When a low-frequency voltage is applied across the gap, the breakdown mechanism is the same as that caused by the DC or static voltage. However, when the frequency exceeds the first critical value f{sub c}, the positive ions are trapped in the gap, increasing the field considerably. This makes the breakdown occur earlier; in other words, the breakdown voltage is lowered. As the frequency increases two decades or more, the second critical frequency, f{sub ce}, is reached. This time the electrons start being trapped in the gap. Those electrons that travel multiple times across the gap before reaching the positive electrode result in an enormous number of electrons and positive ions being present in the gap. The result is a further decrease of the breakdown voltage. However, increasing the frequency does not decrease the breakdown voltage correspondingly. In fact, the associated breakdown field intensity is almost constant (about 29 kV/cm).The reason is that the recombination rate increases and counterbalances the production rate, thus reducing the effect of the positive ions` concentration in the gap. The theory of collision and ionization does not apply to the breakdown in vacuum. It seems that the breakdown in vacuum is primarily determined by the irregularities on the surfaces of the electrodes. Therefore, the effect of frequency on the breakdown, if any, is of secondary importance.


The trafficking of H+-ATPase vesicles to the apical membrane of inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) cells utilizes a mechanism similar to that described in neurosecretory cells involving soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein target receptor (SNARE) proteins. Regulated exocytosis of these vesicles is associated with the formation of SNARE complexes. Clostridial neurotoxins that specifically cleave the target (t-) SNARE, syntaxin-1, or the vesicle SNARE, vesicle-associated membrane protein-2, reduce SNARE complex formation, H+-ATPase translocation to the apical membrane, and inhibit H+ secretion. The purpose of these experiments was to characterize the physiological role of a second t-SNARE, soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein (SNAP)-23, a homologue of the neuronal SNAP-25, in regulated exocytosis of H+-ATPase vesicles. Our experiments document that 25-50 nM botulinum toxin (Bot) A or E cleaves rat SNAP-23 and thereby reduces immunodetectable and (35)S-labeled SNAP-23 by >60% within 60 min. Addition of 25 nM BotE to IMCD homogenates reduces the amount of the 20 S-like SNARE complex that can be immunoprecipitated from the homogenate. Treatment of intact IMCD monolayers with BotE reduces the amount of H+-ATPase translocated to the apical membrane by 52 +/- 2% of control and reduces the rate of H+ secretion by 77 +/- 3% after acute cell acidification. We conclude that SNAP-23 is a substrate for botulinum toxin proteolysis and has a critical role in the regulation of H+-ATPase exocytosis and H+ secretion in these renal epithelial cells.


This paper presents a reactive power control scheme for Current Source Converter (CSC) based wind energy system using a Permanent Magnetic Synchronous Generator (PMSG). The novelty of the proposed scheme is to adjust d-axis current of the PMSG to achieve reactive power control for the utility grid. The principle of the control scheme is discussed, and theoretical analysis is provided. The effectiveness of the d-axis current control and its impact on the converter operation are investigated. The analysis shows that the reactive power of the wind energy system can be regulated in a wide range, from leading to lagging, by positive or negative d-axis current. Simulation results on a 2.47 MW CSC wind energy system are carried out, and the experimental verification is performed on a 2 kW laboratory prototype.


About the book: Exploring the definition and appeal of cult TV from Emma Peel to Buffy. A television series is tagged with the label 'cult' by the media, advertisers, and network executives when it is considered edgy or offbeat, when it appeals to nostalgia, or when it is considered emblematic of a particular subculture. By these criteria, almost any series could be described as cult. Yet certain programs exert an uncanny power over their fans, encouraging them to immerse themselves within a fictional world. In Cult Television leading scholars examine such shows as The X-Files; The Avengers; Doctor Who; Babylon Five; Star Trek; Xena, Warrior Princess; and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to determine the defining characteristics of cult television and map the contours of this phenomenon within the larger scope of popular culture.


InGaN metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PDs) with recessed electrodes were fabricated. Compared with the conventional planar MSM-PD, it was found that measured photocurrent and photocurrent-to-dark-current contrast ratio were both much larger for the MSM-PD with the recessed electrodes. With a 5-V applied bias and an incident light wavelength of 470 nm, it was found that measured responsivities were 0.144 and 0.038 A/W for the MSM-PDs with and without the recessed electrodes, respectively.


The Gulf of Corinth, located in central Greece, is characterized by normal faulting and by high seismicity since the antiquity. On 4 February 2008 a seismic swarm burst in NW Peloponnesus characterized by the occurrence of two moderate-size earthquakes of moment magnitudes 4.7 and 4.5, respectively. Analysis of the data revealed the existence of shear-wave splitting. The events that were chosen for the anisotropy study fit the selection criteria, having clear and impulsive S wave arrival phases on the horizontal components. In addition, the amplitude of the S wave phase on the vertical component was smaller than on the horizontal ones. The representations that were used to determine the polarization direction of the fast split shear wave, the time delay between the two split shear waves and the polarization direction of the source were the polarigram and the hodogram. The uniform fast shear wave polarizations, irrespective of the azimuth of each event, are consistent with the general NNE-SSW direction of extension in the Gulf and, therefore, in agreement with the extensive dilatancy anisotropy (EDA) model. Finally, a decrease of the time delay values was observed after the occurrence of the first moderate earthquake, implying changes of the medium's properties.


This paper addresses the impact at the metropolitan level of increasing trade in white-collar economic activities. The paper first refines the definition of white-collar occupations at-risk to offshoring. Applying this definition to the national job base shows that close to 15 million people, or 11.7% of the employed labor force, are in white-collar occupations at-risk to offshoring. While not all of these jobs will be offshored, the number of jobs is of similar order of magnitude to the manufacturing sector, and the proportions offshored could be similar as well. For metropolitan areas, the analysis shows that places with high shares of the labor force employed in at-risk white-collar occupations tend to have larger populations, a more highly educated workforce, and higher earnings. Despite these advantages, between 2001 and 2003 these places had slower employment growth, in both at-risk occupations and overall, and to some extent lower wage growth than places with fewer at-risk jobs. A more detailed look at the San Jose metropolitan area—Silicon Valley—shows that the occupation profile is changing--a possible sign of restructuring. Despite heavy jobs losses, incomes are rising in the MSA as routine jobs are lost (to offshoring and other factors), but the most advanced technical activities remain. Policy responses to white-collar offshoring at the state level have addressed the politically prominent issues rather than the major problems likely to emerge from the process. Policy responses need to focus on worker and business assistance, maintaining competitive strengths, and positioning the community, local firms, and the labor force to participate in future growth opportunities.


This was an experiment to test the extended discretion laboratory approach (ED) versus a guided-inquiry (GI) approach for teaching biology in a university setting. It had previously been found productive in a high-school setting. The approach provides considerably less specific procedure for the students to follow than did a guided-inquiry approach and required relatively high independence. Four hundred sixty-nine students taking university introductory biology were randomly assigned to using either the ED learning approach or one characterized as guided inquiry for one semester. Three measures were taken to verify that instructional treatments followed the two approaches. All indicated qualitative and quantitative differences between ED and GI approaches in the direction predicted by the operational definitions. The criterion variables were (1) student scores on a multiple-choice laboratory exam, (2) student scores on laboratory reports, and (3) student scores on six laboratory quizzes given during the semester. The only criterion variable which showed significant differences between groups (laboratory-report scores) also showed significant group-by-instructor interaction. The hypothesis of no difference therefore stood unrejected for all criterion variables. Since the ED approach appears to produce equivalent learning gains in understanding of biology laboratory concepts compared to a guided-inquiry approach, this approach should still be considered for laboratory teaching, because it purports to train for discretionary use of resources during instruction in addition to the conventional development of laboratory concepts.


This paper describes a hybrid motion-compensated wavelet transform coder designed for encoding video at very low bit rates. The coder and its components have been submitted to MPEG-4 to support the functionalities of compression efficiency and scalability. Novel features of this coder are the use of overlapping block motion compensation in combination with a discrete wavelet transform followed by adaptive quantization and zerotree entropy coding, plus rate control. The coder outperforms the VM of MPEG-4 for coding of I-frames and matches the performance of the VM for P-frames while providing a path to spatial scalability, object scalability, and bitstream scalability.


Ubiquitous computing has established itself as the next generation of communications, offering to users the capabilities of the networks at any time and place, in order to support their daily tasks. However, the deployment of services for ubiquitous computing environments requires several challenges, such as mobility, dynamism and heterogeneity. Generally, providing a service to users is relatively simple, but the demand for these is becoming more demanding, thereby inducing an innovative feature and therefore a high complexity and variability of services. To comply with the requirements of users, it is necessary to combine several services, which implies provide to ubiquitous environments of efficient mechanisms of discovery and composition. In this paper, we propose a service composition platform for ubiquitous computing environments, which considers the specification of the behavior of services, the user profile and context. Thus, it is possible to obtain a composite service, which apart from meeting the demand of the user, adjusts to your preferences and the context in which it is.


We develop an (r, k) phase-space description of waves in plasmas by introducing Gaussian window functions to separate short-scale oscillations from long-scale modulations of the wave fields and variations in the plasma parameters. To obtain a wave equation that unambiguously separates conservative dynamics from dissipation in an inhomogeneous and time-varying background plasma, we first discuss the proper form of the current response function. In analogy with the particle distribution function f(v, r, t), we introduce a wave density N(k, r, t) on phase space. This function is proved to satisfy a simple continuity equation. Dissipation is also included, and this allows us to describe the damping or growth of wave density along rays. Problems involving geometric optics of continuous media often appear simpler when viewed in phase space, since the flow of N in phase space is incompressible.


Retinoids, a group of structural and functional analogs of vitamin A, are known to regulate a large number of essential biological processes and to suppress carcinogenesis. The effects of retinoids are mainly mediated by nuclear retinoid receptors, which include retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and retinoid X receptors (RXRs). Each receptor has three subtypes (alpha, beta, and gamma) and each subtype has different isoforms. Retinoic acid receptor-beta (RAR-beta) has four isoforms that have different affinities to retinoids and different biological functions. Loss of expression of RAR-beta(2) during cancer development is associated with tumorigenesis and retinoid resistance; induction of its expression, on the other hand, can suppress carcinogenesis. Expression of another isoform, RAR-beta(4), is increased in various types of cancer. RAR-beta(4) transgenic mice develop hyperplasia and neoplasia in various tissues, and induction of RAR-beta(4) expression increases the growth of tumor cells that do not express RAR-beta(2). Future studies will focus on molecular pathways involving RAR-beta(2) and the role of RAR-beta(4) in cancer development.


The Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre offers an Oncology Rehabilitation Program to patients with cancer. Between January 1997 and December 1998, 254 patients with cancer participated in the program. This paper describes the program and its participants. The program's strengths, limitations and future directions are also discussed.


Two uncharacterized small cryptic plasmids (SCPs) were isolated from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli strain E2348/69. Genomic DNA sequence analysis of both SCPs indicated that the smaller plasmid, p5217, encoded several mobilization genes, whereas the larger plasmid, p6148, encoded several putative antibiotic resistance determinants. Complementation analysis showed that p6148 encodes functional streptomycin resistance genes but, owing to the presence of several frameshift mutations, a nonfunctional sulfonamide resistance determinant. A plasmid similar to p6148 has previously been shown to confer a slight growth advantage on E. coli. However, we were unable to observe any significant growth advantage in different E. coli strains transformed with p6148. The p6148 DNA sequence is homologous in sequence and arrangement to DNA from other plasmid families, including large conjugative plasmids and SXT integrative and conjugative elements. This study suggests that gene clusters of the sul2-strAB antibiotic resistance genes are widespread and highly transferable, owing to their presence in a wide variety of mobile genetic elements.


The strain has been employed for controlled modification of electronical and mechanical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials. However, the thermal strain-engineered behaviors of the CVD-grown MoS2 have not been systematically explored. Here, we investigated the strain-induced structure and properties of CVD-grown triangular MoS2 flakes by several advanced atomic force microscopy. Two different kinds of flakes with sharp-corner or vein-like nanostructures are experimentally discovered due to the size-dependent strain behaviors. The critical size of these two kinds of flakes can be roughly estimated at ∼17 μm. Within the small flakes, the sharp-corner regions show specific strain-modified properties due to the suffering of large tensile strain. While in the large MoS2 flakes, the complicated vein-like nanoripple structures were formed due to the interface slipping process under the larger tensile strain. Our work not only demonstrates the size-specific strain behaviors of MoS2 flakes but also sheds light on the artificial design and preparation of strain-engineered nanostructures for the devices based on the 2D materials.


One day, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was known mainly as a philosopher and a pedagogue, told a deer hunting story. In doing so, he managed to play a small role in the development of the branch of maths called 'game theory'. Later his story was converted into a game. Initially game theory was used to explain exchange in the field of economics. Over time, the mathematical modeling was found to be useful in the social sciences. A game theory describes diverse and cognizant participants forced to make decisions. In regards to the game based on cooperation, a choice is at the same time a dilemma. It can be viewed as a moral or philosophical predicament and in addition it gives as an inside into the human psyche and behaviour. Game theory has the potential to offer an attractive mathematical model, useful in analyzing social interactions. Though currently unappreciated by pedagogy, it has the potential to be successfully used in pedagogical studies analyzing conflict of interest of all participants in an educational process.