The main goal of this project was to develop and provide validity evidence for a disease- specific quality of life survey to be used with pediatric localized scleroderma (LS) patients. This new survey, called the Localized Scleroderma Quality of Life Instrument (LoSQI), incorporated unique features associated with the disease, not captured by current surveys. As a secondary goal, the feasibility and usefulness of anchoring vignettes with pediatric patients were examined. The project included three phases; content domain development and item generation, a pilot study, and a field test. Validity evidence was gathered from multiple sources including test content, internal structure, and in relation to other variables. Overall, there was initial support for use of the LoSQI with pediatric LS patients. Patients indicated general understanding and readability of the items, and there was qualitative evidence for content validity. Exploratory factor analysis suggested the utility of reporting a total score along with two subscale scores, (1) Pain and Physical Functioning and (2) Body Image and Social Support. Reliability of both the subscale and total scores was acceptable. There was less evidence for use of anchoring vignettes in this context, as there was a high frequency of ties in rankings, which limited the utility of statistical models. Despite limitations from a small sample size and skewed response distributions, the pilot study and the field test provided promising initial evidence that the LoSQI can be used to capture HRQoL in LS patients ages 10-20 years. Future studies should examine responsiveness of the scores to change and optimal capture of HRQoL in patients <10 years of age.


Abstract Roots of dandelion were exhumed from the soil monthly from 1997 to 1999 near Scottsbluff, NE, to assess the seasonal changes in total sugars, glucose, fructose, sucrose, and fructans. In the spring, the initiation of plant growth was accompanied by increased fructose and, to a lesser degree, glucose as a percentage of total sugars. During June, July, and August, the percentage of total sugars with a middle to high degree of polymerization (DP) fructans increased. The DP in fructans changed with reduced rainfall and was associated with increased fructose and decreased high-DP fructans as a percentage of total sugars. Decreasing or freezing soil temperatures in the fall were associated with increased fructose and decreased high-DP fructans as a percentage of total sugars. When soil froze in December, the percentage of total sugars as sucrose and low-DP fructans increased and mid- to high-DP fructans decreased. The seasonal fluctuations of glucose, fructose, sucrose, and various fructan polymers may be one mechanism that allows dandelion to adapt to environmental stresses and gain a competitive advantage over other plants in the community. An understanding of these seasonal fluctuations in sugars may also allow better timing of biological, mechanical, and chemical control practices for improved plant management. Nomenclature: Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale Weber in Wiggers TAROF.


[1] The Florida Current (FC) is the branch of the Gulf Stream system within the Straits of Florida, connected to the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico. Cyclonic, cold-core eddies travel along this oceanic current system, entering the Straits of Florida in the vicinity of the Dry Tortugas and evolving along the Florida Keys island chain and coral reefs. The development of the high-resolution (∼900 m) hydrodynamic model Florida Straits, South Florida, and Florida Keys (FKeyS), nested within a Gulf of Mexico model (both based on the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model), has enabled new findings in eddy variability. Together with high-resolution (∼1 km) ocean color imagery, multiyear model archives have been employed to study the changes in the position of the FC front and the relationship with eddy evolution. It was found that eddy interactions and transformations are common, with multiple eddy cells within individual eddies or new cells emerging from existing vortices. Features in the Dry Tortugas area previously thought to be semipermanent are shown to be frequently transformed and/or replenished. A mechanism of local cyclogenesis is also proposed. Incoming eddies interact with and influence the downstream propagation of previous eddies. Systems of eddies, rather than individual vortices, can form the elongated features observed between the FC front and the Atlantic Florida Keys Shelf. Topography plays an important role in eddy dissipation or growth. A close synergy between eddy evolution and FC meandering is revealed. The results have implications on the connectivity of remote coastal and reef ecosystems.


iii ABSTRACT EMILY R. CRANFORD: " Je suis moy-mesmes la matière de mon livre " : Sexual Ambiguities and Friendship in Montaigne's Essais (Under the direction of Hassan Melehy) While ambiguity's ultimate role is to create " infinis Essais " in the minds of Montaigne's readers, gender, sexuality and friendship play decisive roles in the significance of this ambiguity. Montaigne's oscillation between misogyny and feminism is manifested in the female voice and female persona that the essayist establishes for himself. His exploration of friendship with men and women offers the reader a plethora of contradictions, problematizations, destabilization and uncertainty; " De l'amitié " is at the same time an hommage to and mourning for Etienne de La Boétie. Montaigne makes his readers consider love between men in ways they most certainly had not before. He recreates the ancients' debate about love between men, thus continuing their contemplation of homosexuality to an infinity that is atemporal. Montaigne's friendship with Marie de Gournay enables her to multiply the meaning of his Essais with a feminist objective, thereby problematizing the misogynistic passages in Montaigne's Essais. iv To LJW and PNB, to MDD and CJL, as close to amitiez parfaites as I'll get v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


This paper details the design and implementation of a robust H/sub /spl infin// controller designed to stabilise the roll motion of a ship. The paper outlines the design of a classical PID controller in order that comparisons may be made between the performance of the two methods. The paper gives a brief background to the main theoretical aspects of H/sub /spl infin// control before introducing the actual H/sub /spl infin// controller design methodology. Having discussed the design process, the paper then leads on to the description of the actual sea trials evaluation of the H/sub /spl infin// controller. These trials took place onboard the MV Barfleur during its crossings of the English Channel during the 21st-25th November 1995. The results of these trials are then be analysed and the appropriate conclusions drawn.


A 17-year-old girl developed considerable haemorrhage per rectum 7 days after an apparently uncomplicated appendicetomy with ligature and invagination of the appendix stump. The appendix was normal. Persistent haemorrhage and a fall in HB led to a second laparotomy on the 11th post-operative day. The catgut ligature on the appendix stump was found to have slipped off, and it was assumed that there had been bleeding from the appendix stump into the caecum. The appendix stump was re-sutured and re-invaginated. After this there was no more rectal bleeding. Histological examination of the basal section of the appendix showed a small longitudinal extramural branch artery. There was probably a normal variant of the blood supply to the appendix where the basal part receives its blood supply from the caecum.


This paper assesses the democratic value brought to the European Union through the effect of the Lisbon Treaty. In doing so, it especially looks at how tendencies and theories presented in this Treaty can address criticism of a lacking EU democracy. The paper first details the so
called democratic deficit debate, highlighting the five pillars in which the EU is often considered inadequate. Drawing from this debate, the paper goes on to concentrate on different theories of democracy, in order to assess which one can be deemed the best fit for a sui- generis body such as the EU ; and also in order to see how such different theories alters the critiques facing the EU. Finally, several Articles from the Treaty itself, focusing on democratic values and the operation of the Union, are assessed using a content analysis and a discourse analysis. The purpose of this is to assess whether a particular democratic theory
appears to be favoured in the Treaty. The results from this analysis indicate that the Lisbon Treaty is heavily focused on democratic credentials, and can such be deemed as an EU response to critiques of undemocratic conduct. Furthermore, it favours a democratic theory
built on a representative and deliberative model. The final arguments look at whether such a focus can adequately address the democratic dilemma the Union is facing, and how this might happen in practice. The main arguments are illustrated with reference to theories of democracy as well as the content of the Lisbon Treaty.


Technology environment is known for dynamic changes and a general lack of stability, which causes difficulties in researching it and determination of any common substantive values. This paper addresses these challenges and its whole argument is based not only on the known literature, but also on clear examples from history which are chosen to support some of the arguments. A key aspect of this study is comprehensive empirical research that combines indirect observation of the start-up community and environment with in-depth interviews with various participants in the process of innovation within technology companies. Interviewing and gathering information from people working and setting up innovative projects at different stages of development allowed for identifying some universal values shared by all participants of the process. The research has been summarized and the results presented in four models explaining the general method for creating effective ideas within start-up type organisations. Study presents a new approach to thinking about sparking, creating and managing process of innovation. It helps to understand determinants of effective creation of ideas


This paper deals with the design of a stripline four-channel multiplexer that works in the 11–18 GHz band. It allows the splitting of the input spectrum into four 1-GHz bandwidth channels separated by a 1-GHz band. Good-rejections and -wideband phase management are both ensured by 8th-order Dual Behavior Resonator filters directly interconnected and matched through a single-stub network. To facilitate the overall tuning of this device, new electromagnetic discontinuity models were developed and proved to greatly reduce the EM tuning phase. Finally, a 17.1 cm²-size multiplexer was designed in stripline technology to take profit of its low couplings and high isolation between filters. The performed simulations showed good performances (5 dB in insertion loss and more than 60 dB in wideband rejections).


REDD and optimal carbon credits trading Sub Title Author 大沼, あゆみ(Onuma, Ayumi) 澤田, 英司(Sawada, Eiji) Publisher Keio Economic Society, Keio University Publication year 2012 Jtitle Keio Economic Society discussion paper series Vol.12, No.4 (2012. 12) Abstract REDD is receiving considerable attention as an effective mechanism for offering incentives to developing countries to slow the rate of deforestation and forest degradation. We show that the trading ratio of credits that is consistent with the social optimum, is not one to one because of uncertainty, and can be more or less than unity, depending on the type of uncertainty. Moreover, we show that the trading ratio will always be less than unity. Furthermore, we present a condition where a country that had a higher level of forest management in the past is assigned a higher trading ratio. Finally, we demonstrate that if the level of forest management is controllable for each country, then REDD does not achieve the social optimum in general. Notes Genre Technical Report URL http://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/detail.php?koara_id=AA10715850-000012040001


This paper aims to present a speed sensorless direct field oriented control (DFOC) of an induction motor (IM) fed by current source inverter (CSI). The DFOC is based on the orientation of the rotor flux to be superposed on the d axis of the rotating frame (dq), to achieve similar performances of those of dc motors, hence, the flux is controlled by the d axis current and the torque by the q axis current separately. The stator currents and voltages are employed for the estimation of the rotor flux and its angle and then the calculation of the rotation speed, by means of a sliding mode observer (SMO). Unlike voltage source inverters, a capacitive filter is required at the output of the CSI for current commutation and harmonics filtering, the mathematical model of this filter is used for the prediction and the control of the motor voltages. Simulation results under MATLAB/Simulink have been obtained to verify the effectiveness of the different proposed strategies.


Abstract We use several sources to collect and evaluate academic scientific publication on a country-wide scale, and we apply it to the case of France for the years 2015–2020, while presenting a more detailed analysis focused on the reference year 2019. These sources are diverse: databases available by subscription (Scopus, Web of Science) or open to the scientific community (Microsoft Academic Graph), the national open archive HAL, and databases serving thematic communities (ADS and PubMed). We show the contribution of the different sources to the final corpus. These results are then compared to those obtained with another approach, that of the French Open Science Barometer for monitoring open access at the national level. We show that both approaches provide a convergent estimate of the open access rate. We also present and discuss the definitions of the concepts used, and list the main difficulties encountered in processing the data. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the respective contributions of the main databases and their complementarity in the broad framework of a countrywide corpus. They also shed light on the calculation of open access rates and thus contribute to a better understanding of current developments in the field of open science.


1. An enzyme, which in the presence of NAD(+) and CoA oxidizes malonic semialdehyde to acetyl-CoA, has been purified from an extract of the colourless alga Prototheca zopfii. 2. The purified enzyme has optimum pH7.5, is specific for NAD(+) and requires a thiol compound for maximum activity. 3. The enzyme is inhibited by arsenite, N-ethylmaleimide and urea. 4. The results are discussed in relation to those obtained by other workers with a similar bacterial enzyme, and a possible reaction sequence is proposed.


In 1999, an aerial application of VectoLex WDG (water-dispersible granules) at 1.68 and 0.56 kg/ha, applied against sentinel 3rd-stage larvae of Psorophora columbiae installed in 0.42-ha rice plots 48 h after treatment, provided no control at 72 and 96 h after treatment. Less than 10% reduction was obtained at both rates 8 and 9 days after treatment against larvae of Ps. columbiae installed at 7 days after treatment. In a later test, VectoLex WDG manually applied at 5.04 and 1.68 kg/ha to small rice plots containing sentinel 3rd-stage larvae of Ps. columbiae and Anopheles quadrimaculatus obtained 90 and 97% control of Ps. columbiae at both rates, respectively, 24 h after treatment. A 2nd installation of Ps. columbiae at 24 h after treatment resulted in 7% and no control at both rates, respectively, even in the presence of larval carcasses from the 1st installation. VectoLex WDG was not effective against Ps. columbiae after 24 h atter treatment at either rate. Poor control was obtained at both rates against An. quadrimaculatus 24 h and 48 h after treatment for both installations. Two types of commercial rice fields containing native populations of larvae of An. quadrimaculatus were used for field tests in Cleveland, MS. In 1999, VectoLex WDG, aerially applied at 1.68 and 0.56 kg/ha to 0.2-ha plots in a contoured rice field, produced 81 and 85% reductions in early (neonate and 1st- and 2nd-stage) larvae and 94 and 76% reductions in late (3rd- and 4th-stage) larvae 2 days after treatment, respectively. At 2 days after treatment, means for all 4 developmental groupings (early larvae, late larvae, pupae, and combined stages) were significantly higher in untreated plots. Both VectoLex WDG rates did not differ significantly from one another. At 8 days after treatment, untreated plots contained significantly greater mean numbers of early larvae, late larvae, and combined stages, whereas both VectoLex WDG treatments were not significantly different. In 2000, VectoLex WDG applied at 1.68 kg/ha to two 0.40-ha plots in a precision-leveled field yielded 59 and 100% reductions of early and late larvae, respectively, 2 days after treatment. Reduction of late larvae remained 100% at 8 days after treatment. The numbers of late larvae, pupae, and combined stages were significantly greater in the untreated plot 2 days after treatment. At 8 days after treatment, numbers of early larvae and combined stages were significantly higher in the VectoLex WDG plot, whereas numbers of late larvae were significantly higher in the untreated plot. The differences in susceptibility of Ps. columbiae and An. quadrimaculatus to VectoLex WDG could be attributed to species differences in larval feeding behavior, body positioning in the water column, and developmental time. In tests in Arkansas, Ps. columbiae were controlled more quickly, usually within 24 h of exposure, whereas the percent reduction for An. quadrimaculatus in both tests in Cleveland, MS, suggests that control of this species within the region tested required from 48 h up to 8 days of exposure.


Introduction : AI's are the preferred adjuvant hormonal treatment for postmenopausal(PM) estrogen receptor positive (ER+) disease because of the improved efficacy over tamoxifen in terms of disease free survival and reduction in distant recurrence. AI's have been associated with increased bone loss by blocking peripheral tissue estrogen synthesis, arthralgia and a negative effect on lipid metabolism. In this prospective study we wanted to assess the amount of bone loss and the changes in lipid levels in early breast cancer(EBC) patients (pts) treated with 3yrs of extended letrozole as part of the SOLE study after 5 yrs of adjuvant AI. Objectives: the primary objective of the study is to calculate the mean percentage change in bone mineral density(BMD)(g/cm 2 ) after 8 yrs of letrozole and to compare between the continuous(C) and intermittent(I) intake of letrozole. The secondary objectives are to correlate the mean change in BMD with the initial value, BMI and to describe the evolution of the lipid levels in both groups. Patients and methods: BMD was measured at the lumbar spine (L2-4) and hip by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in PM pts. with ER+ EBC. We also measured the fasting lipid levels baseline and after 8 yrs of an AI. Differences between the two groups were assessed by the independent samples T-test and the correlation by the linear regression analysis. Results: Fifty four pts were included in the study with a mean age of 62.5 yrs(+/-8.6 yrs). Seventeen pts are too early to be evaluable, 8 pts stopped letrozole due to adverse events and 2 pts had no baseline DEXA values. Two pts received tamoxifen 2 to 5 yrs before inclusion in the SOLE study. The remaining 25 pts showed a mean change in BMD for the lumbar spine of -1.1 (10.6SD) and for the hip -4.4 (7.04SD). Currently 13 pts in the C arm demonstrated a mean decrease in BMD for the (LS) of -2.7(10.2SD), and for the hip of -2.7(5.5SD). Twelve pts included in the I arm experienced a mean increase in BMD for the LS of 0.65(SD11.2) and a mean decrease in BMD for the hip of -4.9(9.1SD). The difference between the two treatment groups was not significant for the LS measurements after 8yrs (p=0.4) nor for the hip (p=0.23) neither was it at baseline (p=0.9; 0.1). Only three pts had fractures due to trauma. The overall fracture rate was only 0.05%.There was no correlation with the BMI, but there was a significant correlation with baseline BMD.(p=0.002)The mean fasting cholesterol levels at 8yrs in the C arm was 214mg/dl(41.3SD) and in the I arm was 218mg/dl(35.6SD)and was not significantly different(p=0.8), nor was it at baseline(p=0.5). Conclusion : This first prospective long term BMD and lipid follow-up study in PM EBC pts taking adjuvant letrozole beyond 5 yrs shows a decline in BMD. Until now no significant differences were observed between continuous and intermittent letrozole. An updated and detailed follow-up on more patients will be presented. Citation Format: Christel Fontaine, Lore Decoster, Denis Schallier, Leen Vanacker, Jacques De Greve, Marian Vanhoeij, Guy Verfaillie, Jan Lamote. Prospective study of aromatase inhibitor-induced bone loss and lipid levels in early hormone sensitive breast cancer treated with AI during 8 years [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-12-11.


Drug-induced mitochondrial dysfunction can lead to severe adverse effects. Accordingly, new in vitro assay systems for assessing mitochondrial-related toxicity are required. Current systems evaluate drug-induced mitochondrial dysfunction based on cell death. However, if mitochondria are damaged without cell death, these methods run the risk of overlooking toxic or dangerous compounds. To solve this problem, we attempted to measure morphological changes semi-quantitatively by transmission electron microscopy and to detect subtle changes in mitochondrial function. To this end, we exposed HepG2 cells cultured in galactose-containing medium to benzbromarone (BBR), which impairs mitochondrial function. After 24 hr of BBR exposure, we compared the rate of cell death between galactose and glucose cultures. Before the onset of cell death, BBR increased the ratio of damaged mitochondria to a greater extent in galactose-cultured than glucose-cultured HepG2 cells. Our results suggested that this new in vitro assay system could detect mitochondrial-related toxicity before the onset of cell death.


A nonequilibrium Green's function approach is employed to investigate the spin-Hall effect in diffusive two-dimensional electron systems with Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Considering a longrange electron-impurity scattering potential in the self-consistent Born approximation, we find that the spin-Hall effect arises from two distinct interband polarizations in helicity basis: a disorderunrelated polarization directly induced by the electric field and a polarization mediated by electronimpurity scattering. The disorder-unrelated polarization is associated with all electron states below the Fermi surface and produces the original intrinsic spin-Hall current, while the disorder-mediated polarization emerges with contribution from the electron states near the Fermi surface and gives rise to an additional contribution to the spin-Hall current. Within the diffusive regime, the total spin-Hall conductivity vanishes in infinitely large samples, independently of temperature, of the spinorbit coupling constant, of the impurity density, and of the specific form of the electron-impurity scattering potential. However, in a finite-size Rashba two-dimensional semiconductor, the spin-Hall conductivity no longer always vanishes. Depending on the sample size in the micrometer range, it can be positive, zero or negative with a maximum absolute value reaching as large as e/8π order of magnitude at low temperatures. As the sample size increases, the total spin-Hall conductivity oscillates with a decreasing amplitude. We also discuss the temperature dependence of the spin-Hall conductivity for different sample sizes.


The physical and chemical processes that tend to promote an approach to equilibrium between an aqueous solution and one or more minerals in a carbonate system include dispersion, convection, and chemical reactions. When the spatial dependence of ionic constituents is examined from the point of view of these processes, the results show that the distance to attainment of saturation with respect to an individual mineral increases with increasing rates of dispersion and velocity of ground water and decreases with increasing rates of reaction. When all the concentration gradients approach zero, the resulting concentration is demonstrated to be a weighted average of the saturation concentrations for the individual minerals. The qualitative aspects of the predicted concentration behavior are in agreement with both field and experimental observations.


Historical photos constitute an important part of architectural heritage documents and achieves. They are also one of the important bases for "authenticity" in the practice and research of architectural heritage conservation. From 1921 to 1929, Tokiwa Daijo has investigated into Chinese cultural relics for five times and has taken many photos. These photos perfectly outlined the cultural relics' status of China in the early 20th century together with the commentaries, authors' notes and the travel diaries. At the same time, they are also the important evidence of recording Asian countries' cultural heritages through advanced photography techniques by the Japanese from the late Meiji Age. This paper focuses on the analysis of these historical photos and expects to provide real and integrate grounds for today's Chinese cultural heritage conservation.


The assessment of sensibility of the hand, a practice often undertaken by hand therapists, is an important aspect of the long-term follow-up of patients with peripheral nerve injuries. Such assessments provide feedback to the patient and referring surgeon, and a basis for clinical decision-making, clinical audit and research. The purpose of this survey was to investigate the choice of tests and methods of application and interpretation of specific sensibility tests among hand therapists and to compare these findings with recommendations from published research. A postal questionnaire was designed to collect descriptive data on the sensibility assessment practices of hand therapists in the UK. A total of 432 questionnaires were posted to members of the British Association of Hand Therapists. The response rate was 52.1%. Assessments of sensibility are undertaken by 70.7% of respondents. Reasons for the choice of tests, their frequency of use and specific method of application and interpretation of sensibility tests were collated. The findings indicate that pragmatic reasons such as the availability of equipment, time and sufficient patients governed the choice of tests among a large proportion of hand therapists, rather than any research evidence. The need for more accessible and evidence-based guidelines, training and practice in the use of tests and better resources were identified.


With the rapid development of various emerging technologies, such as Web services, Grid computing, and cloud computing, computer networks have become the integrant of the next generation distributed computing systems. Networking systems have a significant impact on distributed application performance; therefore, they must be integrated with other computational resources in distributed computing systems to support the requirements of high-performance distributed applications. This chapter presents a new Service-Oriented Networking (SON) paradigm that enables the integration of networking and distributed computing systems. The SON applies the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) principle and employs network virtualization for abstracting networking resources in the form of network services, which can be described, discovered, and composed in distributed computing environments. This chapter particularly discusses network service description and discovery as key technologies for realizing the SON, and describes a network service broker system for discovering the network services that meet the performance requirements of distributed applications. A general modeling approach to describing network service capabilities and an information updating mechanism are also presented in this chapter, which can improve the performance of the network service broker system in heterogeneous and dynamic networking environments. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-110-8.ch015


The e (cid:1) e (cid:2) ! p (cid:1) p cross section is determined over a range of p (cid:1) p masses, from threshold to 4 : 5 GeV =c 2 , by studying the e (cid:1) e (cid:2) ! p (cid:1) p(cid:1) process. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 232 fb (cid:2) 1 , collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage ring, at an e (cid:1) e (cid:2) center-of-mass energy of 10.6 GeV. The mass dependence of the ratio of electric and magnetic form factors, j G E =G M j , is measured for p (cid:1) p masses below 3 GeV =c 2 ; its value is found to be significantly larger than 1 for masses up to 2 : 2 GeV =c 2 . We also measure J= ! p (cid:1) p and (cid:3) 2 S (cid:4) ! p (cid:1) p branching fractions and set an upper limit on Y (cid:3) 4260 (cid:4) ! p (cid:1) p production and decay.


Nuclear Factor Kappa-B (NF-KB) is a transcription factor that plays a crucial role in controlling expression of genes involved in the immune and inflammatory responses as well a being a key component in the onset of a larger number of cancers. One activator of NF-KB that has been studied, but still remains controversial, is that of ultraviolet B light (UVB). In this study we demonstrate that mitogen- and-stress activated protein kinase (MSK1) is responsible for a non-canonical late-phase activation of NF-KB. Following UVB irradiation (50 mJ/cm2) MSK1 is activated via phosphorylation at both 6 and 24 h time points. Investigations into the signaling pathways upstream of MSK1 through the use of specific inhibitors for mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)(PD 98059) and p38 (SB 203580) revealed that both kinases are required for full phosphorylation during the late-phase (24 h) while p38 is predominately responsible for phosphorylation during the early-phase (6 h). Electromobilty shift assays (EMSA) for NF-KB binding affinity showed that inhibition of MSK1 via inhibitor H89 resulted in a marked reduction in binding affinity. Inhibition of p38 also coincided with a reduction in NF-KB binding affinity. Interestingly, supershift assays implicate that the p65 isoform of NF-KB is predominantly involved in late-phase activation in response to UVB irradiation. Analysis of cell viability showed that decreased viability was correlated with MSK1 inhibition and decreased NF-KB binding affinity. Together, the results of these studies shed light onto a novel pathway of MSK1 mediated late-phase activation of NF-KB in response to UVB irradiation. Citation Format: Oliver L. Carpenter. The involvement of MSK1 in non-canonical activation of NF-KB in the late phase of UVB irradiation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5441. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-5441


'~ cat made her lodgings in one of the nest boxes and brought up her kittens in it, and two of the gray parrots who had not been industrious enough to lay eggs and have a family of their own were seized with the idea that these kittens were their children; they kept up a constant warfare with the old cat, and whenever she left the box one of them used to get in and sit with the kittens, and they were constantly in attendance even when the mother was home." Charles Buxton, England, 1880s It has been over 270 years since the first documented breeding of a pair of African Gray Parrots by a western aviculturist. Millions of hookbill keepers have maintained a lasting love affair with this intriguing old-world psittacine. Demand for these vulture-looking gray parrots with the perceptive eye and the virtuoso voice seems to become only stronger with the years. Locating new sources for handfed baby grays in a market never saturated is like trying to obtain male canaries in September. "Sorry, all sold, thank you!"  With recent breeder success amongst hundreds of Timneh Gray Parrot pairs set up during import booms the past ten years, one would think things a bit easier. Not so. We have customers in our area who own two or three parrots, yet still come in declaring, "I've always wanted a pet gray. I'm only waiting for the prices to comedown." It may be a long wait. Even handfed timneh prices have risen the past few years to a level comparable to redtailed birds. The last lingering criticism of timnehs as "junk parrots" among unenlightened dealers near southern quarantine stations has all but disappeared. It's about time. "Timnehs were always considered the poor man's gray," ventures Don Wells, one of southern California's most experienced hookbill breeders. "Yet we find our timneh chicks can be the nicest gray babies. They are outgoing, comical, more voiciferous than our red-tailed grays - less likely to just sit there." "I find the timneh personality calmer, less neurotic," said Bonnie Zimmerman, owner of a small, impeccable facility near Los Angeles. "Half my  breeders are domestic bred, half wildcaught. The domestic birds may not produce as many babies for me, but there are no thrashings in the nest like during an earthquake." Though it is too early to present concrete evidence, some aviculturists characterize the Timneh Gray as less likely to turn to feather picking in unhappy situations. Picture this: baby gray comes into his new home, is cuddled and fawned over by the family for weeks. Then begins a transition. Routine settles back to normal; perhaps the kids go back to school. The new gray is like a toy whose first attraction has worn off. Extra food, treats and attentions are lessened. He spends more time in his cage. Presto! Boredom and frustration followed by feather picking. We've had adorable red-tailed gray babies who are sold into seemingly agreeable pet homes return with plucking habits barely 18 months later! Why grays, everyone is asking? And why the larger red-taileds in particular? Randy Snow, a reputable breeder and aviary consultant in the Willametre Valley, Oregon, explains the situation this way. "You have to remember there are a tremendous number of grays out there" he said. "In Amazons, if one bird in ten plucks, we think little about it. But, in grays, if ten birds in 100 pick, or 100 birds in 1000; then we call it a problem." These psittacines have been under scrutiny so often and so long that pet owners and breeders are constantly debating their habits and propensities. For example, are African Grays more intelligent than many other parrots? They certainly have been given opportunity to display talents. Irene Pepperberg's test gray "Alex" is only one of a host of grays with suspected cognitive powers. The truth is, had scientists chosen to work with Yellow- naped Amazons, Green-winged Macaws or Black-capped Lories, the continued years of training would probably bring the same exclamations of intelligence in these species. Since their first "discovery" by Frenchmen traveling to the Canary Islands in the 1400s, the African Gray Parrot has been given the best of chances to strut his stuff! The past three years, Feathered Friends of Santa Fe, New Mexico has made a conscious effort to specialize in Timneh Gray Parrots as pets.


The open cisterns that were built on the hills of Istanbul have been able to survive through centuries, beginning from the Byzantine period, and with certain changes in their function. Paradoxically, defining the cisterns as visible is not possible in today's Istanbul, despite their historical background. Accordingly, this hypothesis has been suggested based upon spatial reflections of Hannah Arendt's discourses on visibility in the public realm. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to investigate the reasons behind the facts that make the cisterns (Cukurbostans) invisible –while they are expected to be visible. Within the scope of this study, the Cistern of Aetius (Karagumruk Cukurbostani, Vefa Stadium today) has been chosen as a case study because of its close proximity to the Theodosian Walls and its location on the Mese (Divanyolu for Ottoman Empire). As the Arendtian perspective defines the visibility in public spaces, the selected cistern has been examined in terms of large and small scale contexts and historical and social contexts. The findings show that the cistern turned into a semi-public space, because a stadium is open only when there is a football match. On the other hand, the architectural shape of the stadium hides the 1600-year old walls of the cistern. Therefore, the cistern is not visible, both physically and perceptionally. Therefore, When the cistern becomes visible, it will be a new touristic destination in the Historical Peninsula.


We develop Boolean-valued domain theory and show how the lambda-calculus can be interpreted in using domain-valued random variables. We focus on the reflexive domain construction rather than the language and its semantics. The notion of equality has to be interpreted in the Boolean algebra and when we say that an equation is valid in the model we mean that its interpretation is the top element of the Boolean algebra.


Humidity is an important environmental parameter, which is difficult to be measured accurately and quickly using traditional measurement methods. Under the environment of low temperature or high humidity, traditional humidity and temperature sensor has shortages in humidity measurement accuracy, corresponding time and wet fade speed. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a method to measure the environmental humidity with wavelength modulation technology and harmonic detection technology based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. H2O molecular absorption line near 1392 nm is selected as the characteristic spectra. The effects of temperature, pressure and water concentration on the absorption spectrum width, the wavelength modulation coefficient and the amplitude of the harmonic signal are analyzed. Humidity and temperature sensor is modified using temperature and pressure compensation model, and the influence of the water concentration variation is eliminated by the iterative algorithm. The new humidity and temperature sensor prototype is developed, and the structure of the optical system is simple, which is easy to be adjusted. The response frequency of the humidity detection is 40 Hz. The experiment was carried out for 3 months at Qingdao national basic weather station. Experimental results show that the consistency of the humidity and temperature data is very good, which can proves the validity of the humidity measurement technology.


The functional capabilities of a thermometric clot-timer have been demonstrated in a comparative study of human and mouse plasma coagulation. The influence of some variables on coagulation times of mouse and human plasmas were examined in activated partial thromboplastin time, one-stage prothrombin time, and Russell's viper venom time assays. Mouse plasma coagulation times were generally shorter and more reproducible than those of human plasma. Optimal assay conditions are also described.


The data for patients referred to the Dunedin Hypertension Clinic (975 men, 1,348 women) between 1953 and 1977 have been examined by the Cox proportional hazards method for significant age-corrected predictors of 8-year cardiovascular and total mortality. For men, some significant predictors were systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), indices of target organ damage (heart and eyes) and smoking at presentation, and achieved BP and serum cholesterol at follow-up. For women, serum cholesterol, diabetes, target organ damage (heart and eyes) and smoking at presentation, and achieved BP level at follow-up were predictors. Relative risk for total or cardiovascular mortality was increased in both sexes most by smoking and by increased levels of achieved BP.


In studying the fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannels, various claims have been made regarding transition at Reynolds numbers significantly below 2300. As a first step in identifying the reasons for such early transition, the effect of entrance geometry on the pressure drop and transition to turbulence is studied experimentally in a conventional channel of 1.9 cm inner diameter. Four types of entrance conditions have been studied with flow of oil in a closed loop. The experimental results show the effect of entrance conditions on local friction factor, hydrodynamic developing length, and transition Reynolds number. The study will be extended to microchannels in the future.Copyright © 2002 by ASME


In this paper, we present a new tree mining algorithm, DryadeParent, based on the hooking principle first introduced in DRYADE. In the experiments, we demonstrate that the branching factor and depth of the frequent patterns to find are key factors of complexity for tree mining algorithms, even if often overlooked in previous work. We show that DryadeParent outperforms the current fastest algorithm, CMTreeMiner, by orders of magnitude on data sets where the frequent tree patterns have a high branching factor.


E-rosette-forming cells (E-RFC) in human peripheral blood can be subdivided into two fractions on the basis of their relative affinity for sheep red blood cells (SRBC). "High-affinity" E-RFC constituting 54 ± 5% of normal mononuclear cell suspensions are capable of rosette formation, despite elevated temperatures of incubation (29°C) with limited numbers of SRBC. "Low-affinity" E-RFC constituting 23 ± 4% of peripheral blood mononuclear cells require cool temperatures of incubation with an excess of SRBC to form rosettes. The following evidence indicates that low-affinity E-RFC bear surface receptors for the Fc portion of IgG, whereas high-affinity E-RFC do not. a) When High-affinity E-RFC were isolated from mononuclear cell suspensions, very few (2 ± 1%) of these lymphocytes formed rosettes with IgG-sensitized chick red blood cells (EA). When the remaining low-affinity E-RFC were then isolated, up to 85% formed rosettes with chick EA. b) When lymphocytes were incubated with erythrocyte monolayers sensitized with high concentrations of IgG, low-affinity E-RFC adhered to these EA monolayers. High-affinity E-RFC failed to attach to immune complexes. c) Virtually all E-RFC in thymus, tonsil, and lymph node formed high-affinity E rosettes and failed to bind chick EA. Spleen cell suspensions, on the other hand, contained a low-affinity E-RFC subset and E-RFC capable of binding chick EA. d) The proportion of low-affinity E-RFC in the peripheral blood of normal subjects correlated closely with the proportion of Fc-positive E-RFC among the mononuclear cells of those individuals. These observations suggest a close association between the presence of the Fc receptor on human T cells and the affinity with which those cells bind SRBC. Modified E rosette procedures permit rapid identification or isolation of high-affinity, Fc-negative and low-affinity, Fc-positive E-RFC subpopulations.


There is a gap between kinetic experiment and simulation in their views of the dynamics of complex biomolecular systems. Whereas experiments typically reveal only a few readily discernible exponential relaxations, simulations often indicate complex multistate behavior. Here, a theoretical framework is presented that reconciles these two approaches. The central concept is "dynamical fingerprints" which contain peaks at the time scales of the dynamical processes involved with amplitudes determined by the experimental observable. Fingerprints can be generated from both experimental and simulation data, and their comparison by matching peaks permits assignment of structural changes present in the simulation to experimentally observed relaxation processes. The approach is applied here to a test case interpreting single molecule fluorescence correlation spectroscopy experiments on a set of fluorescent peptides with molecular dynamics simulations. The peptides exhibit complex kinetics shown to be consistent with the apparent simplicity of the experimental data. Moreover, the fingerprint approach can be used to design new experiments with site-specific labels that optimally probe specific dynamical processes in the molecule under investigation.


The quality of channel state information (CSI) affects the performance of wireless systems. This is especially true for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems which use multiple antennas at transmitter and receiver. In time division duplex (TDD) systems, CSI for downlink can be obtained from uplink channel using reciprocity principal. However, the performance of MIMO system can be degraded due to continuously varying channel characteristic when CSI obtained from uplink is used for downlink transmission. In this study, we investigate the performance of autoregressive (AR) modeling based channel prediction under varying channel propagation (mobile speed, multipath number and angle spread) and prediction filter order. Simulation results demonstrate that using predicted CSI for downlink improves the performance of relative channel prediction error significantly.


The study of coding for constant-data-rate systems begun in Part I is continued. A simple pulse model of such a system is introduced which is easier to visualize than the correlation detection scheme of Part I. The Wagner code is extended to two multipleerror-correcting schemes. The efficiency of the Wagner code is evaluated by comparing it with Shannon's ideal coding. It is shown that the Wagner code is just the minimum probability of error detector for parity-checked sequences of independent binary digits.


The stock implementation of Erlang/OTP pseudo random number generator (PRNG), random module, is based on an algorithm developed in 1980s called AS183, and has known statistic deficiencies for large-scale applications. Using modern PRNG algorithms with longer generation periods reduces the deficiencies. This paper is a case study of sfmt-erlang module, an implementation of SIMD-oriented Fast Mersenne Twister (SFMT) PRNG with the native interface functions (NIFs) of Erlang. The test results show the execution speed of the implementation is approximately three times faster than the random module on the x86 and x86_64 architecture computers, and the execution own time for generating single random number sequences is proportional to the internal state table length.


Vancomycin is not appreciably passaged via the colonic membrane to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in persons with an intact gut epithelium due to its large chemical structure. However; hospitalized patients with diarrhea often have a disrupted GI tract. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of detectable vancomycin concentrations in the stool of patients with antibiotic-associated diarrhea receiving IV vancomycin. This was a multicenter cohort study of hospitalized patients with stool samples collected for Clostridioides difficile testing. Leftover stool samples were collected from patients who had received at least 3 days of IV vancomycin. Fecal vancomycin was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The study cohort included 33 unique patients, majority female (54.5%) aged 60 years (range 23–84). Eighteen of thirty-three patients (54.5%) tested positive for C. difficile toxins. The average duration of systemic vancomycin administration prior to stool collection was 3.5 (range 2–15) days. Three of 33 (9%) stool samples had a detectable vancomycin concentration (range 1.2–13.2 mcg/mL). These concentrations may promote the development of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus or van mutations in C. difficile, leading to vancomycin resistance. Further studies on implications are warranted.


Abstract : The M60A1(PI) Tank Thermal Sight (TTS), integrated day/night gunner's periscope, provides the commander and gunner of the M60A1(PI) tank with an improved capability for target acquisition, recognition and fire control at night. The requirement for passive operation for long range detection, recognition, and engagement precludes the use of existing image intensification devices, which require active sources of illumination for satisfactory long range operation. The system consists of five (5) major assemblies: Head Assembly, Gunner's Display, Commander's Display, Power Converter, and Mount. The TTS provides an 8X visible channel, a 1X unity window, and a dual field of view thermal channel which can be used for viewing during both the day and night time. The system is fully integrated with the tank fire control computer and laser rangefinder. The mount interfaces the Head Assembly with the tank. The Head Assembly contains the entrance window and mirror for the visible and thermal channels, as well as the afocal and the far infrared common modules that convert the IR radiation into an electronic signal and then into a visible image on the light emitting diodes. The Gunner's Display contains the 8X channel, the 8X and thermal reticle projector assembly and projection optics, the thermal channel image intensifier and biocular eyepiece. The Commander's Display contains the relay optics, and image intensifier and biocular eyepiece. The power converter contains all the electronics necessary to convert the tank power (18-30 vdc) into the voltages requires to operate the components of the head assembly, gunner's display and commander's display.


The soft mean spherical approximation is employed for the study of the thermodynamics of dusty plasma liquids, the latter treated as Yukawa one-component plasmas. Within this integral theory method, the only input necessary for the calculation of the reduced excess energy stems from the solution of a single non-linear algebraic equation. Consequently, thermodynamic quantities can be routinely computed without the need to determine the pair correlation function or the structure factor. The level of accuracy of the approach is quantified after an extensive comparison with numerical simulation results. The approach is solved over a million times with input spanning the whole parameter space and reliable analytic expressions are obtained for the basic thermodynamic quantities.


Multimedia systems are becoming increasingly complex and concurrent. The platform-based design (PBD) methodology (Keutzer et al., 2000) tackles these issues by recommending the use of formal models, carefully defined abstraction layers and the separation of concerns. Models of computation (Lee and Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, 1998) (MoCs) can be used within this methodology to enable specialized synthesis and verification techniques. In this paper, these concepts are leveraged in an industrial case study: the JPEG encoder application deployed on the Intel MXP5800 imaging processor. The modeling is carried out in the Metropolis (Balarin et al., 2003) design framework. We show that the system-level model using our chosen model of computation allows performance estimation within 5% of the actual implementation. Moreover, the chosen MoC is amenable to automation, which enables future synthesis techniques.


This paper elaborates on the connection between the AI regulation fever and the generic concept of Social Control of Technology. According to this analysis, the amplitude of the regulatory efforts may reflect the lock-in potential of the technology in question. Technological lock-in refers to the ability of a limited set of actors to force subsequent generations onto a certain technological trajectory, hence evoking a new interpretation of Technological Determinism. The nature of digital machines
amplifies their lock-in potential as the multiplication and reuse of such technology is typically almost cost-free. I sketch out how AI takes this to a new level because it can be software and an autonomous agent simultaneously.


The heat transfer enhancement in cooling passages with dimpled (concavity imprinted) surface can be effective for use in heat exchangers and various hot section components (nozzle, blade, combustor liner, etc.), as it provides comparable heat transfer coefficients with considerably less pressure loss relative to protruding ribs. Heat transfer coefficients and friction factors were experimentally investigated in rectangular channels which had concavities (dimples) on one wall. The heat transfer coefficients were measured using a transient thermochromic liquid crystal technique. Relative channel heights (H/d) of 0.37, 0.74, 1.11 and 1.49 were investigated in a Reynolds number range from 12000 to 60000.The heat transfer enhancement (NuHD) on the dimpled wall was approximately constant at a value of 2.1 times that (Nusm) of a smooth channel over 0.37≤H/d≤1.49 in the thermally developed region. The heat transfer enhancement ratio Display FormulaNu¯HD/Nusm was invariant with Reynolds number. The friction factors (f) in the aerodynamically fully developed region were consistently measured to be around 0.0412 (only 1.6 to 2.0 times that of a smooth channel). The aerodynamic entry length was comparable to that of a typical turbulent flow (Xo/Dh = 20), unlike the thermal entry length on dimpled surface which was much shorter (xo /Dh<9.8). The thermal performance Display FormulaNu¯HD/Nusm/f/fsm1/3≅1.75 of dimpled surface was superior to that Display Formula1.16<Nu¯HD/Nusm/f/fsm1/3<1.60 of continuous ribs, demonstrating that the heat transfer enhancement with concavities can be achieved with a relatively low-pressure penalty.Neither the heat transfer coefficient distribution nor the friction factor exhibited a detectable effect of the channel height within the studied relative height range (0.37≤H/d≤1.49).© 1999 ASME


The dynamics of social, national and state life continue to develop along with the development of phenomena, science, and technology. Nowadays, national problems continue to appear in the form of various phenomena that can be said to be actual, but clichéd. In the world of education, recently, for example, several viral news have appeared in the mass media and social media about problems that can be said to be clichés, namely intolerance. News or news about the issue of intolerance, for example, is a recorded conversation between the Principal of SMKN 2 Padang and a student's parents regarding the issue of uniforms for students to wear headscarves even though they are not Muslim. It can be said that this problem is not a new problem, because a few years ago there was also a problem that was essentially the same, only in a different context, namely the prohibition of the use of the hijab in several schools in the province of Bali. Then several other problems also emerged, such as the news about the case of a teacher at SMAN 58 Ciracas, East Jakarta who intervened in the election of the OSIS chairman, as well as what happened at SMAN 6 Depok which had gone viral on social media regarding the same issue, namely the problem of selecting the OSIS chairman. All of these problems are about intolerance. However, there are not a few other problems that occur in the world of primary and secondary education such as problems of radicalism and bullying. These problems are considered as a violation of the values of Pancasila. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Culture continues to strive to prepare and implement appropriate policies to overcome these various problems. One of the efforts made is by initiating the "Profil Pelajar Pancasila", an ideal profile of Indonesian students, of course according to Pancasila. The purpose of this study is to find out more about the "Profil Pelajar Pancasila", and what its implications are for students' personal resilience. The method used in this study is a qualitative method. The results of the study indicate that the profile referred to in the "Profil Pelajar Pancasila are noble, independent, critical reasoning, creative, mutual cooperation and global diversity. The Ministry of Education and Culture in the idea of a student profile has conveyed what are the indicators of the "Profil Pelajar Pancasila". This profile is an indicator used to measure how the criteria for Indonesian students are in accordance with Pancasila, which was initiated by the Ministry of Education and Culture's Character Strengthening Center. In his study of the "Profil Pelajar Pancasila" which contains characters that refer to Pancasila, it has implications for students' personal resilience, where the Pancasila Student Profile directs students to become individuals with character in accordance with Pancasila which is summarized in a "Profil Pelajar Pancasila".


Variation of landslide groundwater level caused by the changes of rainfall and reservoir water level has a close relationship with the revivification of hydrodynamic landslide as well as its long-term stability. In this paper, the correlation between groundwater levels and displacement of reservoir landslide has been studied using the introduced Maximum Entropy-Copula method (MECM) based on monitoring data of ground levels and displacement of Donglingxin (DLX) landslide. The results showed that marginal and joint distributions generated by Copula-MEM can not only well fit for the distribution and characteristics of the groundwater level change and landslide displacement without considering the linear hypothesis, but also manifest a strong tail correlation between groundwater level and displacement of the landslide. Specifically, the strong tail correlation found in variations of displacement and groundwater level of DLX landslide from 2009 to 2012 indicates that MECM may serve as a new solution for the study concerning factors of influencing the correlation of deformation of reservoir landslides. What's more, it can also predict landslide displacement through the actual elevation of the groundwater level to a certain extent, providing a theoretical basis for people in charge of early warnings of landslides.


The new quality assurance standard, which should help hospitals to identify optimum methods for improving patient care and clinical performance and to be recognized for all rational and purposeful efforts at improvement, will take time to implement. In its continuing effort to help hospitals upgrade the quality of patient care, the JCAH is committed to implementing the new quality assurance standard in a manner that will not be disruptive to participating hospitals. The JCAH is also committed to ascertaining that hospitals are making every effort to comply with the standard. The degree to which a hospital does comply with the standard will be a persuasive factor in determining accreditation status.


A detailed paleomagnetic study conducted in the Sangiran area, Java, has provided a reliable age constraint on hominid fossil-bearing formations. A reverse-to-normal polarity transition marks a 7-m thick section across the Upper Tuff in the Bapang Formation. The transition has three short reversal episodes and is overlain by a thick normal polarity magnetozone that was fission-track dated to the Brunhes chron. This pattern closely resembles another high-resolution Matuyama–Brunhes (MB) transition record in an Osaka Bay marine core. In the Sangiran sediments, four successive transitional polarity fields lie just below the presumed main MB boundary. Their virtual geomagnetic poles cluster in the western South Pacific, partly overlapping the transitional virtual geomagnetic poles from Hawaiian and Canary Islands' lavas, which have a mean 40Ar/39Ar age of 776 ± 2 ka. Thus, the polarity transition is unambiguously the MB boundary. A revised correlation of tuff layers in the Bapang Formation reveals that the hominid last occurrence and the tektite level in the Sangiran area are nearly coincident, just below the Upper Middle Tuff, which underlies the MB transition. The stratigraphic relationship of the tektite level to the MB transition in the Sangiran area is consistent with deep-sea core data that show that the meteorite impact preceded the MB reversal by about 12 ka. The MB boundary currently defines the uppermost horizon yielding Homo erectus fossils in the Sangiran area.


68Ga-DOTA NOC PET-CT imaging has been shown to have high accuracy for the evaluation of neuroendocrine tumours. We report a case of a 3-year-old boy who presented with a right paravertebral soft tissue mass. Biopsy showed ganglioneuroblastoma. The patient was referred for 68Ga-DOTA NOC for staging. 68Ga-DOTA NOC PET/CT images showed somatostatin-avid large right paravertebral soft tissue mass representing the primary lesion, along with increased radiotracer localization at multiple metastatic lytic bone lesions in the axial and appendicular skeleton. 68Ga-DOTA NOC PET-CT is helpful in the evaluation of the disease extent of neuroendocrine tumours including ganglioneuroblastoma.


In automatic video content analysis domain, the key challenges are how to recognize important objects and how to model the spatiotemporal relationships between them. In this paper we propose a semantic content analysis model based on Perception Concepts (PCs) and Finite State Machines (FSMs) to automatically describe and detect significant semantic content within sports video. PCs are defined to represent important semantic patterns for sports videos based on identifiable feature elements. PC-FSM models are designed to describe spatiotemporal relationships between PCs. And graph matching method is used to detect high-level semantic automatically. A particular strength of this approach is that users are able to design their own highlights and transfer the detection problem into a graph matching problem. Experimental results are used to illustrate the potential of this approach.


AIM
This article describes the craniofacial and dental features of an individual with Gordon syndrome. The dental management implications and considerations of treating patients with Gordon Syndrome and similar conditions resulting in limited mouth opening are discussed.

METHODS
A 14-year-old South African male was referred to the Dental Genetics Clinic with the main complaint of carious teeth. His craniofacial characteristics included low set and posteriorly rotated ears, down-slanted palpebral fissures, sloping shoulders, and a broad neck. A prognathic mandible and mild facial asymmetry were noted. He had a significant limitation of mouth opening (2 cm at incisors). Radiographic examination revealed multiple carious teeth, missing mandibular premolars, impacted maxillary premolars, taurodontism of the 44 and 34, and enlarged coronoid processes of the mandible. Dental extractions and restorations have been performed under local anaesthesia.

CONCLUSION
Gordon syndrome and similar conditions, may result in limited oral opening and impaired manual dexterity. The severity of limitation of mouth opening determines management. Dental management should focus on ensuring that the patient is able to maintain good oral hygiene by customising homecare for the individual and regular dental visits.


Several algorithms have been proposed recently to reduce encoding time in H.264/AVC standard. In this article, we compare those algorithms and has put forward more effective improvement suggestion to already commercial UMHexagonS algorithm.


In September 2015, the cities of Lyon, Munich and Vienna and 28 partners from research and industry were awarded funding for a joint project proposal within the European "Smart City and Communities" intiative. Under the headline "SMARTER TOGETHER", the consortium applied for a volume of 25 Mio. EUR for the implementation of "smart" and innovative actions in the three partner cities and for cooperation with three so called follower cities – Santiago de Compostela, Sofia und Venice. The requested funding is available as part of the EU-framework programme for research and innovation "Horizon 2020".
The funding is provided to support the implementation and testing of innovative Smart City solutions for low energy districts on a large scale and in an integrated way: Extensive energetic renewal of existing housing stock with (in Lyon and Munich) multi-faceted ownership structures, user-centered sustainable mobility solutions, innovative business models, generation of renewable energy and multiple use of infrastructure through the use of information- and communication technology (ICT). The overall aim is to improve the quality of life in neighbourhoods and to create more sustainable and user-friendly living environments. A particular focus will be on "smart" and active forms of participation of citizens.
The timeframe for the project roll-out is three years (2016-2018) followed by two years of monitoring and evaluation (2019-2020). Thereafter, successful solutions and findings are to be replicated in other districts and cities for further added value. Here, the follower cities Santiago de Compostela, Sofia and Venice as well as the European city network Energy Cities will play an important role. The projects will be implemented in close cooperation between industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, municipal companies, citizens and other interested stakeholders. The EU commission lauded the right balance between innovative technologies and the social dimension of the project: smart and integrated solutions shall improve the quality of life of citizens.
The main challenge of Smarter Together is related to the so-called co-creation approach. All involved cities, research institutes and industrial partners as well as external stakeholders seek to jointly create solutions and methodologies for innovative and replicable city development, based on lessons learned and strong knowledge exchange. Therefore the project defrined a complex iterative peer-to-peer process, allowing for a constant knowledge exchange among all affected stakeholders.


The role of chromosome-membrane associations in order of spatial chromosome organization in interphase nuclear is reviewed. Data on specificity and mechanism of interphase chromosome anchoring on nuclear membrane are summarized.


Cancer pain and chronic non-malignant pain can be difficult to manage and may not respond satisfactorily to standard analgesics. Sequential empiric analgesic trials are usually done to manage individual patients. Experimental human pain models have helped to clarify mechanisms of opioid and adjuvant analgesic actions. Combinations of opioids and adjuvant analgesics better relieve pain than either opioids or adjuvant analgesics alone, as demonstrated in randomized controlled trials. The analgesic activity of antidepressants is largely dependent upon norepinephrine reuptake and activation of alpha 2 adrenergic receptors. Corticosteroids reduce postoperative orthopedic incident pain, which may allow patients to ambulate earlier and with less pain. Spinal corticosteroids reduce lower hemibody pain. Gabapentinoids as single high doses reduce postoperative pain and certain acute pain syndromes. Individuals who experience flares of pain while on spinal opioids benefit from intrathecal boluses of levobupivicaine or sublingual ketamine. Interventional approaches to pain management are often necessary due to the limitations of systemic analgesics. Electronics stimulators (peripheral, spinal and motor cortex) improve difficult to manage chronic pain syndromes. Pulsed radiofrequency reduces pain without tissue damage, which could be an advantage over chemical or radiofrequency neurotomy. Botulinum toxin A reduces focal neuropathic pain that is durable. Interventional related successes in relieving pain are operator dependent. Most reported benefits of systemic and regional analgesics and interventional approaches to pain relief are not based on randomized trials and are subject to selection bias, sampling error, and placebo responses, which may over-inflate reported benefits. Randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm reported benefits.


This paper argues that crosstown traffic in the East and West German punk subculture was an essential aspect of how popular music helped to challenge the political legitimacy of the East German government. West German punks frequently crossed the border to attend Eastern punk concerts, meet with friends and trade stories and experiences, connections that helped to foster a transnational community of alternative youths. These interactions denied official claims that punk was the result of capitalist decadence while undermining the East German government's efforts at cultivating a distinctive socialist identity. Nor were border crossings unidirectional, as Eastern punks made daring attempts to connect with their Western cousins. Writing for West German fanzines, appearing in the Western press and even managing to release Eastern recordings smuggled westwards, Eastern punks crossed the Iron Curtain and in so doing, worked to present an alternative vision of Eastern youth to the world and join the global punk scene.


Chlorophyll-a (CHL-a) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST), amongst others, are proxies or indicators for water quality and can be easily retrieved synoptically and almost in near-real time through satellite remote-sensing. However, as they evolve in space and time in response to winds and currents, a full resolution of the temporal and spatial scales of these latters is required and their influence in shaping the distribution of water quality parameters needs to be assessed. While providing synoptic views and revealing mesoscale features, satellites suffer, indeed, from inadequate representation of sub-grid physical processes and lack of temporal resolution. Conventional point-wise measurements provide data to study high-frequency motions such as tides or high-frequency wind-driven circulation, lacking on the other hand of the spatial resolution required to resolve their spatial variability. We show here that a combined use of near-surface currents, available through High-Frequency (HF) radars, and satellite data (e.g., TERRA and AQUA/MODIS, VIIRS/NPP), are complementary tools as they help solving both fine-scale structures, especially at the coastal boundaries where satellite imageries lack of the required resolution, as well as satellite-derived mesoscale structures are fundamental aid to understand and interpret finer-scale structures in terms of larger-scale ocean dynamics.


Abstract In August 1993, a 915-MHz boundary layer wind-profiling radar was deployed at Chebogue Point, Nova Scotia, to provide wind, turbulence, and boundary layer structure information for the North Atlantic Regional Experiment summer 1993 intensive campaign. The National Research Council Canada Twin Otter atmospheric research aircraft was also part of that campaign. During the campaign, the Twin Otter flew 29 soundings over Chebogue Point. This paper describes a comparison of the wind speed and direction measured by the profiler and the aircraft. In the height range 300–2000 m above sea level, the random difference between the wind speed measurements is 0.9 m s−1, and the random difference between the wind direction measurements is 9°. There is a small systematic difference in the wind speeds (0.14 m s−1) that is probably due to uncertainty in the zenith angles of the radar beams and extremely good agreement (within 0.5°) in the wind direction. The Kalman filter-smoother technique used to remove drifts ...


Keywords: Emotion perception Face processing Effects of experience Developmental plasticity Child abuse Emotion recognition Perceptual expertise Learning a b s t r a c t How do children's early social experiences influence their perception of emotion-specific information communicated by the face? To examine this question, we tested a group of abused children who had been exposed to extremely high levels of parental anger expression and physical threat. Children were presented with arrays of stimuli that depicted the unfolding of facial expressions, from neutrality to peak emotions. The abused children accurately recognized anger early in the formation of the facial expression, when few physiological cues were available. The speed of children's recognition was associated with the degree of anger/hostility reported by the child's parent. These data highlight the ways in which perceptual learning can shape the timing of emotion perception. Humans rely heavily on facial expressions when rapidly communicating emotional states to others. Although considerable attention has been devoted to how the nervous system responds to faces as compared with other objects, there are still many questions about factors that affect the perception of emotion-specific information communicated by the face. This experiment addresses how the perception of affective signals is influenced by children's early perceptual and social experiences. The findings suggest that perceptual learning influences emotion perception, and that social experience has an important role in calibrating properties of emotion perception according to the frequency or salience of affective expressions populating an individual's environment. Physical differences between facial expressions are small compared with the range of variation in many classes of non-face objects. Yet young infants are sensitive to the subtle differences distinguishing facial expressions of emotion (Bornstein & Arterberry, 2003; Montague & Walker-Andrews, 2001). Debate continues about whether the human brain has a specialized neural subsystem for or whether these neural systems are developed through extensive expertise with faces (Diamond & Carey, 1986; Gauthier & Tarr, 1997). In either case, it is clear that over the course of development, perceptual learning involves interactions between areas involved in face recognition and those involved in spatial attention, feature binding and memory recall (Dolan et al., 1997). In addition, experience from other modalities, such as auditory information , likely contributes to children's understanding of facial expressions. Several studies have demonstrated pronounced effects of visual experience on subsequent perceptual performance. The range of approaches used to address this issue includes low-level retinotopically specific effects …


This paper focuses on lecturers' preparedness to teach EMI courses. Although many higher education institutions
 worldwide have rushed to jump on the EMI bandwagon, a strikingly low percentage of them have deemed it necessary to organise
 pre-service or in-service courses to help practitioners tackle this new teaching scenario. As a result, some potential teachers
 are reluctant to take part in EMI programmes, while some in-service EMI teachers complain because of a feeling of helplessness
 that arises from what they feel as lack of assistance from their institutions. In this article, after reviewing recent surveys on
 current practices in the training and accreditation of university teachers in EMI, I will examine what skills EMI teachers
 consider essential to deliver their classes effectively, whether they believe those can or even should be accredited, and, last
 but not least, how universities could support EMI teacher preparation. This analysis will allow us to reach EMI stakeholders by
 sharing research findings with them. Finally, a research agenda for future work on teacher preparedness for EMI will be put
 forward in an attempt to fill the gaps found in the review of the literature on the topic.


Using a single offset cylindrical parabolic reflector and a parallel-plate Luneburg lens, a novel high-gain and high-efficiency antenna is developed for automotive radar at mm-wave frequencies. Particularly, a pair of small corrugated extensions is added to the lens for a cylindrical wave. Thus, by feeding a cylindrical wave to the reflector, especially the performance in elevation is enhanced, keeping the complete antenna compact. For verification, a prototype antenna for an adaptive cruise control radar at 76.5 GHz is designed and measured. The theoretical results are verified with good agreement.


Nanoemulsion comprising an oily phase dispersed in an aqueous phase and having oil globules whose number-average size is less than 100 nm, which comprises a solid surfactant to a temperature not exceeding 45 ° C, chosen from esters of fatty and sugar acid and fatty alcohol ethers and sugar, and at least one oil having a molecular weight above 400, and wherein the weight ratio of the amount of oily phase to the amount of surfactant ranges from 2 to 10.


In this paper, we have studied a repairable parallel-series multi-state system. The proposed system consists of m components in series and n components in parallel in which each component has three possible states. The interval universal generating function (IUGF) is presented, and the corresponding composition operators are defined. The reliability assessment of the considered system is done with the help of the IUGF approach. It is worth mentioning that IUGF got attention from various researchers due to its straightforwardness, less complexity, and universal applications. In the present model, probabilities of different components, reliability, sensitivity, and mean time to failure are evaluated with the help of the Markov process; Laplace-Steiltjes transform method applying IUGF. A numerical example has also been taken to illustrate the proposed technique. Journal of Reliability and Statistical Studies, Vol. 14, Issue 1 (2021), 81–120. doi: 10.13052/jrss0974-8024.1415 © 2021 River Publishers


The effect of zinc phenylphosphonate (PPZn) on the crystallization behavior of poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM) measurements. The non-isothermal cold crystallization results showed that the addition of PPZn obviously decreased the cold crystallization temperature of PLLA and increased the degree of crystallinity of PLLA. The isothermal crystallization kinetics results showed that the crystallization rate of PLLA with small amount of PPZn was much higher than that of neat PLLA, and the half-time (t1/2) of PLLA/PPZn sample is far less than that of neat PLLA. As an effective nucleating agent, PPZn particles had also some influence on nucleation mechanism and crystal growth of PLLA. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 2744–2752, 2013


This article assesses the legal framework within which responses are deployed in the United Kingdom in the face of a pandemic such as the current H1N1 crisis or some other public health emergency. It begins with an account of the importance of legal preparedness as an essential feature of public health preparedness. It moves to an outline of the key legal provisions and parameters which provide the architecture for the existing framework in the UK, both domestically and internationally; thereafter, it identifies relevant factors that can be used to assess the efficacy of current legal preparedness, drawing on comparative experiences. Finally, it offers recommendations on how legal preparedness could be improved within the United Kingdom and in line with international obligations.


We consider functions defined on [0 ; L ] with special jump discontinuities, and discuss two different methods of doing calculus of variations. One method is to solve the boundary value problem in each sub-region divided by the discontinuities, and the other method is to use Fourier series on the whole region. We argue that the second method, though has an energy divergence problem, can lead to a unified view of similar examples and may provide a way of studying nematic defects.


The mechanism of ``cold electroweak baryogenesis'' has been so far unpopular because its proposal has relied on the ad-hoc assumption of a period of hybrid inflation at the electroweak scale with the Higgs acting as the waterfall field. We argue here that cold baryogenesis can be naturally realized without the need to introduce any slow-roll potential. Our point is that composite Higgs models where electroweak symmetry breaking arises via a strongly first-order phase transition provide a well-motivated framework for cold baryogenesis. In this case, reheating proceeds by bubble collisions and we argue that this can induce changes in Chern-Simons number, which in the presence of new sources of CP violation commonly lead to baryogenesis. We illustrate this mechanism using as a source of CP violation an effective dimension-six operator which is free from EDM constraints, another advantage of cold baryogenesis compared to the standard theory of electroweak baryogenesis. Our results are general as they do not rely on any particular UV completion but only on a stage of supercooling ended by a first-order phase transition in the evolution of the universe, which can be natural if there is nearly conformal dynamics at the TeV scale. Besides, baryon-number violation originates from the Standard Model only.


The proposed clinical recommendations discuss the modern approaches to diagnostics and treatment of the diseases with the clinical picture of thyrotoxicosis.


To hold a true conversation, an intelligent agent should be able to occasionally take initiative and recommend the next natural conversation topic. This is a challenging task. A topic suggested by the agent should be relevant to the person, appropriate for the conversation context, and the agent should have something interesting to say about it. Thus, a scripted, or one-size-fits-all, popularity-based topic suggestion is doomed to fail. Instead, we explore different methods for a personalized, contextual topic suggestion for open-domain conversations. We formalize the Conversational Topic Suggestion problem (CTS) to more clearly identify the assumptions and requirements. We also explore three possible approaches to solve this problem: (1) model-based sequential topic suggestion to capture the conversation context (CTS-Seq), (2) Collaborative Filtering-based suggestion to capture previous successful conversations from similar users (CTS-CF), and (3) a hybrid approach combining both conversation context and collaborative filtering. To evaluate the effectiveness of these methods, we use real conversations collected as part of the Amazon Alexa Prize 2018 Conversational AI challenge. The results are promising: the CTS-Seq model suggests topics with 23% higher accuracy than the baseline, and incorporating collaborative filtering signals into a hybrid CTS-Seq-CF model further improves recommendation accuracy by 12%. Together, our proposed models, experiments, and analysis significantly advance the study of open-domain conversational agents, and suggest promising directions for future improvements.


The component-based business architecture integration of military information systems is a popular research topic in the field of military operational research. Identifying enterprise-level business components is an important issue in business architecture integration. Currently used methodologies for business component identification tend to focus on software-level business components, and ignore such enterprise concerns in business architectures as organizations and resources. Moreover, approaches to enterprise-level business component identification have proven laborious. In this study, we propose a novel approach to enterprise-level business component identification by considering overall cohesion, coupling, granularity, maintainability, and reusability. We first define and formulate enterprise-level business components based on the component business model and the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) models. To quantify the indices of business components, we formulate a create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) matrix and use six metrics as criteria. We then formulate business component identification as a multi-objective optimization problem and solve it by a novel meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called the 'simulated annealing hybrid genetic algorithm (SHGA)'. Case studies showed that our approach is more practical and efficient for enterprise-level business component identification than prevalent approaches.


Survivability is an important network characteristic that provides a certain level of data delivery guarantees. The degree of survivability is usually governed by the data transfer mechanism or protocol that delivers data from source to destination. In this article we survey and discuss a variety of survivability issues, challenges, and mechanisms in multihop wireless networks. Unlike some previous surveys, we do not focus only on multipath routing techniques. We try to cover a broader spectrum of survivability techniques in the literature. Moreover, we discuss new directions in survivability that use the network coding technique in order to achieve a better degree of scalability, which is usually an issue in most survivability techniques, especially in wireless networks.


A series of cocrystals of isoniazid and four of its derivatives have been produced with the cocrystal former 4-tert-butylbenzoic acid via a one-pot covalent and supramolecular synthesis, namely 4-tert-butylbenzoic acid-isoniazid, C6H7N3O·C11H14O2, 4-tert-butylbenzoic acid-N'-(propan-2-ylidene)isonicotinohydrazide, C9H11N3O·C11H14O2, 4-tert-butylbenzoic acid-N'-(butan-2-ylidene)isonicotinohydrazide, C10H13N3O·C11H14O2, 4-tert-butylbenzoic acid-N'-(diphenylmethylidene)isonicotinohydrazide, C19H15N3O·C11H14O2, and 4-tert-butylbenzoic acid-N'-(4-hydroxy-4-methylpentan-2-ylidene)isonicotinohydrazide, C12H17N3O2·C11H14O2. The co-former falls under the classification of a `generally regarded as safe' compound. The four derivatizing ketones used are propan-2-one, butan-2-one, benzophenone and 3-hydroxy-3-methylbutan-2-one. Hydrogen bonds involving the carboxylic acid occur consistently with the pyridine ring N atom of the isoniazid and all of its derivatives. The remaining hydrogen-bonding sites on the isoniazid backbone vary based on the steric influences of the derivative group. These are contrasted in each of the molecular systems.


This study focuses on code-switching (CS) in French/Algerian Arabic bilingual communities and investigates how speech technologies, such as automatic data partitioning, language identification and automatic speech recognition (ASR) can serve to analyze and classify this type of bilingual speech. A preliminary study carried out using a corpus of Maghrebian broadcast data revealed a relatively high presence of CS Alge-rian Arabic as compared to the neighboring countries Morocco and Tunisia. Therefore this study focuses on code switching produced by bilingual Algerian speakers who can be considered native speakers of both Algerian Arabic and French. A specific corpus of four hours of speech from 8 bilingual French Algerian speakers was collected. This corpus contains read speech and conversational speech in both languages and includes stretches of code-switching. We provide a linguistic description of the code-switching stretches in terms of intra-sentential and inter-sentential switches, the speech duration in each language. We report on some initial studies to locate French, Arabic and the code-switched stretches, using ASR system word posteriors for this pair of languages.


The combined rise of digital photography and social media has expanded what might be considered photo worthy. Among the pouting selfies and food stuffs of the day exists the ubiquitous dick pic. The mainstream media generally focuses on dick pics of the unsolicited kind, which, negatively positioned, are commonly associated with heterosexual harassment. Considering the ubiquity of dick pics across apps and platforms, research on the topic nevertheless remains scarce. In this article, we examine the dick pic as an online communicative form, first considering how it manifests the ability to harass and then moving beyond this dominant framing to analysis of contexts where such images are collated, expected, and sought after. Through this analysis of dick pics as figures and actors of harassment, curation, and desire, we demonstrate the simultaneous tenacity and flexibility of their meanings in connection with the dynamics of consent and non-consent, intimacy and distance, and complex circuits of desire. We further address the role of platforms, apps, and app stores, via their community standards and terms of use, in shaping the nature, and presence, of dick pics, and discuss the affective and communicative functions that these affordances serve (or fail to serve). Our analysis of three key modes of engagement with dick pics demonstrates the ambiguity and multiple valences of the phenomenon addressed.


The application of muon tomography to monitor and image the internal structure of volcanoes in the Lesser Antilles is discussed. Particular focus is directed towards the three volcanoes that fall under the responsibility of the Institut de Physique du Globe of Paris, namely La Montagne Pelée in Martinique, La Soufrière in Guadeloupe, and the Soufrière Hills in Montserrat. The technological criteria for the design of portable muon telescopes are presented in detail for both their mechanical and electronic aspects. The detector matrices are constructed with scintillator strips, and their detection characteristics are discussed. The tomography inversion is presented, and its distinctive characteristics are briefly discussed. Details are given on the implementation of muon tomography experiments on La Soufrière in Guadeloupe.


Psychopathy refers to a range of complex behaviors and personality traits, including callousness and antisocial behavior, typically studied in criminal populations. Recent studies have used self-reports to examine psychopathic traits among noncriminal samples. The goal of the current study was to examine the underlying factor structure of the Self-Report of Psychopathy Scale–Short Form (SRP-SF) across complementary samples and examine the impact of gender on factor structure. We examined the structure of the SRP-SF among 2,554 young adults from three undergraduate samples and a high-risk young adult sample. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a four-correlated factor model and a four-bifactor model showed good fit to the data. Evidence of weak invariance was found for both models across gender. These findings highlight that the SRP-SF is a useful measure of low-level psychopathic traits in noncriminal samples, although the underlying factor structure may not fully translate across men and women.


Abstract: The chemical analysis of market-available white oat cultivars allows for their optimized use for processing, consumption, and in blocks of crosses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of white oat cultivars with regard to grain chemical content, to estimate the correlation between these traits, and to select potential REMAP markers for marker-assisted selection. Fifteen cultivars, grown in three environments, were evaluated for the contents of proteins; lipids; total, insoluble, and soluble dietary fiber; ß-glucan; and carbohydrates. Eight cultivars were analysed with REMAP markers. The cultivars Brisasul and UPFA Gaudéria presented higher contents of ß-glucan, while cultivars URS 21 and URS 22 had higher protein contents. For animal feed, the cultivars Barbarasul and FAPA Louise stood out with high lipid contents. Positive correlations between the contents of lipid and total dietary fiber, protein and insoluble dietary fiber, and total dietary fiber and insoluble dietary fiber were constant in different environments. Also, carbohydrate content was negatively correlated with protein, total dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber, and lipid content. A total of thirteen REMAP combinations were selected for variability studies regarding lipid and ß-glucan contents.


The study examined the effect of climate change on the health of rural farmers in Offa, Kwara State. Nigeria. For the purpose of achieving the objectives of the study Ninety-eight (98) respondents were randomly sampled from ten wards. Data were collected through interview scheduled couple with a well structured questionnaire. The data were analysed through the use of frequency count, simple percentages and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC). The result of the study indicated that the mean age is 45.5%. 68.4% are male. 53.1% were married. 72.4% were literate with only 14.3% non-literate. The study further revealed a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their present health status (r=0.344, p=0.001 α=0.05) The study also revealed a significant relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their perceived effect of climate change on their health status (r=0.381,p=0.001,α=0.05). More so the major source of information of the respondents on climate change were through radio/television (mean=61.3) while only few (mean=36.3) heard from research institute, majority of the respondents health status were  good (49.0%) they usually have deviation from normal health status as consequence of climate change. The common ailment they experienced is malaria (31.6%) while only few had headache and cholera (3.1%). It was concluded that their major source of information on climate change was through radio. More so it was deduced from the study that malaria is the most common and severe disease affecting the respondents with tuberculosis which is less severe. It was recommended that government should educate farmers through the mass media such as use of radio, newspaper and television on the need to plant trees to combat the effect of the ozone layers depletion which is also associated to climate change. Key words : Climate and Climate change, Ozone layers, Malaria, Health  status, Headache.


The source of investment performance is estimation error. Estimation error leads investors to believe securities are mispriced when they are not. They respond by undiversifying to increase their portfolios' estimated expected return. Since they are responding to estimation error, their actual expected return gain is likely to be much lower than anticipated. But their reduced diversification is realized. The probable result is at best a small expected return gain with considerably more risk, hence a lower reward/risk ratio. Superior investors have less estimation error than others, hence undiversify to a lesser degree. This leaves them with a higher reward/risk ratio than other investors. This picture is consistent with an analysis that doesn't take into account investors' impact on initial prices as they take positions. Estimation error has an additional impact when the analysis takes into ac-count investors' impact on initial prices as they take positions. Clearing the share market requires that initial security prices move in the direction dictated by the largest estimation errors. Now superior investors systematically gain at the expense of other investors. Superior investors undiversify and are rewarded with additional expected return. Inferior investors undiversify and suffer a decreased expected return. Superior investors increase their reward/risk ratio and gain a positive performance return. Inferior investors decrease their reward/risk ratio and acquire a negative performance return.


The lower jaws of archaeal RNA polymerase and eukaryotic RNA polymerase II include orthologous subunits H and Rpb5, respectively. The tertiary structure of H is very similar to the structure of the C-terminal domain of Rpb5, and both subunits are proximal to downstream DNA in pre-initiation complexes. Analyses of reconstituted euryarchaeal polymerase lacking subunit H revealed that H is important for open complex formation and initial transcription. Eukaryotic Rpb5 rescues activity of the ΔH enzyme indicating a strong conservation of function for this subunit from archaea to eukaryotes. Photochemical cross-linking in elongation complexes revealed a striking structural rearrangement of RNA polymerase, bringing subunit H near the transcribed DNA strand one helical turn downstream of the active center, in contrast to the positioning observed in preinitiation complexes. The rearrangement of subunits H and A′′ suggest a major conformational change in the archaeal RNAP lower jaw upon formation of the elongation complex.


Several forms of vibration-driven MEMS microgenerator are possible and are reported in the literature, with potential application areas including distributed sensing and ubiquitous computing. This paper sets out an analytical basis for their design and comparison, verified against full time-domain simulations. Most reported microgenerators are classified as either velocity-damped resonant generators (VDRGs) or Coulomb-damped resonant generators (CDRGs) and a unified analytical structure is provided for these generator types. Reported generators are shown to have operated at well below achievable power densities and design guides are given for optimising future devices. The paper also describes a new class-the Coulomb-force parametric generator (CFPG)-which does not operate in a resonant manner. For all three generators, expressions and graphs are provided showing the dependence of output power on key operating parameters. The optimization also considers physical generator constraints such as voltage limitation or maximum or minimum damping ratios. The sensitivity of each generator architecture to the source vibration frequency is analyzed and this shows that the CFPG can be better suited than the resonant generators to applications where the source frequency is likely to vary. It is demonstrated that mechanical resonance is particularly useful when the vibration source amplitude is small compared to the allowable mass-to-frame displacement. The CDRG and the VDRG generate the same power at resonance but give better performance below and above resonance respectively. Both resonant generator types are unable to operate when the allowable mass frame displacement is small compared to the vibration source amplitude, as is likely to be the case in some MEMS applications. The CFPG is, therefore, required for such applications.