Determination of arsenic species by large‐volume field amplified stacking injection‐capillary zone electrophoresis (LV‐FASI‐CZE) is reported in this paper. Whole column injection was employed. The optimum buffer pH for the separation of weak acids was discussed. It was found that the optimum buffer to analyze the stacked arsenate (As(V)), monomethylarsonate (MMA), and dimethylarsinate (DMA) was 25 mM phosphate at pH 6.5. However, the optimum buffer to analyze the concentrated arsenite (As(III)) was 20 mM phosphate – 10 mM borate at pH 9.28. The limits of detection of the method developed were 0.026 mg/L for As(III), 0.023 mg/L for As(V), 0.043 mg/L for MMA, and 0.018 mg/L for DMA. An enrichment factor of 34–100 for several arsenic species was obtained. In the end, this method was applied to determine the arsenic concentration in the environmental reference materials to show the usefulness of the method developed.


Abstract Members of the p24 protein family form a highly conserved family of type I transmembrane proteins that are abundant components of the early secretory pathway. Topologically, the proteins have a large luminal domain and a short cytoplasmic domain that allows for targeting to both coat protein complex II and coat protein complex I vesicles, and thus these proteins cycle between the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi compartments. Several functions have been proposed for these proteins including a role in coat protein complex I vesicle biogenesis, cargo protein selection, organization of intracellular membranes, and protein quality control. Recent studies have added to the list of potential cargo substrates for which p24 function is required for normal transport in the secretory pathway. This review focuses on recent developments in the study of p24 proteins and their requirement for secretory and membrane protein transport in eukaryotic cells.


The research on the space trajectory of high-speed moving and flying objects has very important research significance and application value in the fields of sports, military, aerospace, and industry. Table tennis has the characteristics of small size, fast flight speed, and complex motion model. It is very suitable as an experimental object for the study of flying object trajectory. This study takes table tennis as the research object to carry out research on the trajectory prediction of flying objects and builds a trajectory prediction system based on the trajectory prediction model, combining the constraints of the simple physical motion model and the deviation correction of the double LSTM neural network. Aiming at the problem of trajectory extraction of flying table tennis balls, a high-speed industrial camera was used to build a table tennis trajectory extraction system based on binocular vision. A multicamera information fusion method based on dynamic weights is proposed for the prediction of the trajectory of flying table tennis. In order to solve the problems that some model parameters are difficult to measure and the model is too complicated in the traditional physical motion model of table tennis trajectory, a method combining simple physics is proposed. This paper proposes a trajectory prediction model with motion model constraints and dual LSTM neural network bias correction. Experiments show that the proposed method can greatly improve the accuracy of the trajectory extraction and prediction system and can achieve a certain success rate of hitting.


Targeted delivery of IFNγ to tumors has been achieved by fusing this cytokine with GCNGRC, a tumor neovasculature homing peptide. Although the therapeutic efficacy of this protein (called IFNγ-NGR) in animal models is greater than that of IFNγ, frequent administrations of IFNγ-NGR may result in lower efficacy and tumor resistance. We investigated the role of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an IFNγ-inducible enzyme that may down-regulate T cells by affecting local tryptophan catabolism in tumor resistance to repeated treatments with IFNγ-NGR. The study was carried out in immunocompetent mice and in nu/nu mice bearing RMA lymphoma, B16F melanoma, or WEHI-164 fibrosarcoma and in vitro using cultured tumor cells. IDO activity was increased in lymphoma homogenates after multiple treatments with IFNγ-NGR but not after a single treatment. Coadministration of 1-methyl-tryptophan, an inhibitor of IDO, increased tumor responses to multiple treatments in the lymphoma, melanoma, and fibrosarcoma models. No synergism between IFNγ-NGR and 1-methyl-tryptophan was observed in vitro in tumor cell proliferation assays or in nu/nu tumor-bearing mice, suggesting that the antitumor effect was host mediated. We conclude that IDO is critically involved in tumor resistance to repeated treatments with IFNγ-NGR, likely causing excessive stimulation of tryptophan catabolism and inhibiting antitumor immune mechanisms. Coadministration of IFNγ-NGR with IDO inhibitors could represent a new strategy for increasing its antitumor activity. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(12):3859–66]


This study investigates attitude towards corruption and the role of gender, religion, education and age using a Nigerian survey data. It also seeks to establish how attitudes towards corruption relates to some other reported ethical measures such as Islamic work ethics, money ethic and corruption perception. Over 3800 questionnaires were administered with 1833 or about 48% response rate. Results revealed no significant gender differences in corruption but women reported being more religious. Also Christians rated the incidence of corruption as higher than Muslims although the sample size skews significantly in favour of the former. Older and more educated people also rated corruption incidence higher.


The aim of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of school violence bystanders from a game theoretical perspective. First, I describe the problem of bullying concentrating on the role of bystanders. Then I focus my attention on the witnesses of violence who either ignore a victim or try to defend him/her. A bystanders' decision consists of different elements and includes different stages, such as interpretation of the event and consideration of possible costs of intervention. In the article two models concerning two different stages of the decision making process are used to analyse the behaviour of bystanders: model of informational influence and a critical mass model. Informational influence model relates to interpretation of an act of violence as demanding or not demanding intervention. The observers decide whether intervening is an appropriate reaction, taking into account the behaviour of their classmates. This model shows the phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance and some factors that can influence its appearance. In the critical mass model, the bystanders assess the chances of success of their reaction in context of perception of the bully's power. This model is based on a public goods game model and it shows factors influencing the possibility of bystanders intervention.


Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS is a neurodegenerative disorder which is characterized by motor neuron (MN dysfunction, progressive paralysis, and death. Although several therapeutic approaches have been used for treatment of ALS, little success has been achieved. Natural vectors such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs can be a promising tool for overcoming therapeutic problems. MSCs have multipotential characteristics such as the ability to differentiate into variety of cell types, easy access, immunomodulation, tissue repair, exertion of trophic factors, exosome secretion and efficient homing. In this review, we will discuss the characteristics of MSCs and their possible therapeutic mechanisms in ALS patients.


The present invention provides a relatively runflat tire of integral molding is formed in a shape with a rigid (RFT) (16) reinforcement. Reinforcement is insertable into the mold for the RFT support and it is possible to maintain the structural rigidity required for such insertion. Furthermore, the present invention provides a RFT support, the RFT support is intended to be molded and is intended to include RFT reinforcement. The present invention also includes a tire, a rim, and providing a wheel assembly including a RFT support between the tire and the rim, there in RFT support RFT reinforcement. RFT support, in order to instruct the one or more attributes of the support, it is possible to have a colored indicator or be added later is formed on the support.


The provisions of the preamble and article 17(1)(a) of the Rome Statute imply that the Statute excludes national amnesties for international crimes and that, accordingly, such amnesties do not bar the jurisdiction of the ICC over a crime. From a practical point of view, however, a difficulty may arise when the ICC wants to exercise jurisdiction and bring perpetrators of international crimes to justice while an amnesty law has been passed in the country where the crimes were committed and the prevailing political situation in that country is that any foreign interference is likely to destabilise a transition in the affected State. In these situations the ICC Prosecutor may be required to exercise restraints in order to allow the territorial State to move forward. This article suggests new guidelines which the ICC Prosecutor should take into account when deciding whether or not to institute a prosecution in relation to a person who has benefited from an amnesty law in his home State. Keywords: Amnesty, international crimes, ICC, Rome Statute, interests of justice


Aim  To evaluate the hypothesis that topographic features of high-elevation mountain environments govern spatial distribution and climate-driven dynamics of the forest.

Location  Upper mountain forest stands (elevation range 1800–2600 m) in the mountains of southern Siberia.

Methods  Archive maps, satellite and on-ground data from1960 to 2002 were used. Data were normalized to avoid bias caused by uneven distribution of topographic features (elevation, azimuth and slope steepness) within the analysed area. Spatial distribution of forest stands was analysed with respect to topography based on a digital elevation model (DEM).

Results  Spatial patterns in mountain forests are anisotropic with respect to azimuth, slope steepness and elevation. At a given elevation, the majority of forests occupied slopes with greater than mean slope values. As the elevation increased, forests shifted to steeper slopes. The orientation of forest azimuth distribution changed clockwise with increase in elevation (the total shift was 120°), indicating a combined effect of wind and water stress on the observed forest patterns. Warming caused changes in the forest distribution patterns during the last four decades. The area of closed forests increased 1.5 times, which was attributed to increased stand density and tree migration. The migration rate was 1.5 ± 0.9 m year–1, causing a mean forest line shift of 63 ± 37 m. Along with upward migration, downward tree migration onto hill slopes was observed. Changes in tree morphology were also noted as widespread transformation of the prostrate forms of Siberian pine and larch into erect forms.

Main conclusions  The spatial pattern of upper mountain forests as well as the response of forests to warming strongly depends on topographic relief features (elevation, azimuth and slope steepness). With elevation increase (and thus a harsher environment) forests shifted to steep wind-protected slopes. A considerable increase in the stand area and increased elevation of the upper forest line was observed coincident with the climate warming that was observed. Warming promotes migration of trees to areas that are less protected from winter desiccation and snow abrasion (i.e. areas with lower values of slope steepness). Climate-induced forest response has significantly modified the spatial patterns of high-elevation forests in southern Siberia during the last four decades, as well as tree morphology.


Aim The aim of this study was to review interventional studies conducted by nurses about elderly people with urinary incontinence in nursing homes and to match the results to standardized nursing terminology using the Nursing Interventions Classification and the Nursing Outcomes Classification Linkages to the NANDA-I diagnoses guidelines. Method A systematic review of quantitative intervention studies was conducted using the PRISMA statement as a guide. The interventional research in English was scanned using the MEDLINE and CINAHL databases from January 2005 to May 2015. Fourteen studies that had at least one nurse researcher were conducted in nursing homes, excluding surgical and pharmacological interventions. The Nursing Outcome Classification and Nursing Intervention Classification Linkages to NANDA-I diagnoses and the Clinical Conditions Part II-U List were used as a guide to select North American Nursing Diagnosis Association International nursing diagnoses, Nursing Outcome Classification Scales, and Nursing Interventions from the data. Results We found the frequency of use of various NANDA-I diagnoses, Nursing Interventions, and Nursing Outcomes based on the Nursing Outcomes Classification and Nursing Interventions Classification Linkages to NANDA-I diagnoses and the Clinical Conditions List for incontinence. Conclusion Using the Nursing Outcomes Classification and Nursing Interventions Classification Linkages to NANDA-I diagnoses guide may provide new nursing perspectives on non-standardized research. In future studies, this may allow a comparison of data worldwide, enabling nurses to use the results in evidence-based practices.


Individual behavior that minimizes predation risk is favored by natural selection. Ground-nesting birds employ different defensive behaviors as part of their antipredator strategies because they nest where a wide range of predators have access. We investigated the influence of distraction displays on breeding success in the Kentish Plover, Charadrius alexandrinus, in order to explore the role of the defensive behavior on nest survival. We quantified the intensity of defensive behavior of adult plovers in response to nest disturbance caused by an approaching researcher, by ranking display types according to the intensity and exposure to predation. We also examined sex differences in nest defense to determine whether the existence, intensity, and consistency of individual defensive behaviors could have an impact on nest survival. We used the nest survival model in Program MARK to estimate daily survival rates of nests and to examine the influence of temporal, behavioral, and habitat variables on nest success. Our results show a positive correlation between male and female defense behaviors within pairs and that nests in which parents invested more on defense survived longer. Nevertheless, there were differences in the risks assumed by the 2 members of breeding pairs in nest defense, with females performing riskier defensive behaviors than males. The top-ranked nest survival models included combined additive effects of site, season, habitat type, nest exposure, and the defense behavioral response of females as best predictors. Finally, our study highlights that increased risk assumption in offspring defense is advantageous in terms of individual fitness.


Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and services based on them have been used globally in various sectors including but not limited to construction, real estate, e-commerce, agriculture, utilities & energy, financial services, and media & entertainment. Use of such robots have a potential to reduce the cost & time and increase safety & productivity among other benefits. The use of drones is increasing in India and the UAV market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% during 2017-2023 in terms of revenue. While the use of drones is primarily in defence sector compared to commercial use, it has been reported that drone-based solutions are being explored in agriculture, energy & utilities, insurance, infrastructure, media & entertainment and mining in India. Hence, there exists a need to investigate the level of awareness, application, benefits and barriers of using drones in Indian construction. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the level of awareness and the application of drones among the key stakeholders in Indian construction through questionnaire survey-based quantitative research among key stakeholders. The study revealed there is high level of awareness of drones and low level of usage in Indian construction. The overall pattern in the data revealed that the respondents have rated most of the indicators highly important. Following are the top-rated attributes: Drones must be experimented before using it in the construction projects (relevance); Surveying (application); Drones provide real time updates from the site (benefit); Weather related issues (barrier) and Health and Safety (KPI). It has been observed that there is statistically significant difference in perception among contractors, consultants and clients with respect to relevance & application of drones and not so for benefits, barriers & impact on KPI.


was no evidenceof nephritis or of arteriosclerosis. The lungs were mottled and spongy; there was no fibrosis; therewere no adhesionsin the pleura; The heartappeared normal in size; the valves and muscle were healthy; the coronary arteries were clear and open; the aorta was clear; there was no blood clot in the heart. On examination of the brain the hemispheresand medulla appeared normal. Blood-stainedfluid was found in the ventricles. In the cerebellumthere was a large heemorrhage,mainly in the left half and partly in the right, opening into the fourth ventricle. No ruptured vessel was found, and the circle of Willis was healthy. I gave the causeof deathas cerebellar hremorrhage into the fourth ventricle, though I could seeno.cause for the hremorrhage. •


By implementing a unique magneto-optical system with ultrafast magnetic-field ramping-rate capability (up to 3 kT/s), we have been able to routinely generate and image dendritic flux instabilities in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-x films. In the present work we study the effect of the film thickness on the dendritic instability. Dendritic avalanches in 50-600 nm thick films were magneto-optically imaged at 7 K, after ramping the magnetic field from zero to 60 mT at different rates. The data reveal a remarkable change in flux morphologies between the thin and the thicker films. While the former (50-250 nm) display well-developed dendritic patterns, the latter (350-600 nm) exhibit few avalanches with favored branch directions parallel to the film's edges. Several possible explanations for this behavior are discussed. Disciplines Engineering | Physical Sciences and Mathematics Publication Details Baruch-El, E., Baziljevich, M., Johansen, T. H., Shaulov, A. & Yeshurun, Y. (2018). Thickness dependence of dendritic flux avalanches in YBa2Cu3O7-xfilms. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 969 (1), 012042-1-012042-6. This journal article is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/aiimpapers/3093 Journal of Physics: Conference Series


It has been suggested that high-level training could contribute to the development of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), but the comparative effects of different sports on airway function remains to be determined. We evaluated 150 nonsmoking volunteers 18 to 55 yr of age; 100 athletes divided into four subgroups of 25 subjects each according to the predominant estimated hydrocaloric characteristic of ambient air inhaled during training: dry air (DA), cold air (CA), humid air (HA) and a mixture of dry and humid air (MA), and 50 sedentary subjects. Each subject had a respiratory questionnaire, a methacholine challenge, allergy skin-prick tests, and heart rate variability recording for evaluation of parasympathetic tone. The athletes had a 49% prevalence of AHR (PC(20) < 16 mg/ml), with a mean PC(20) of 16.9 mg/ml, compared with 28% (PC(20): 35.4) in sedentary subjects (p = 0.009). The prevalence (%) of AHR and mean PC(20) (mg/ml) varied as followed in the four subgroups of athletes: DA: 32% and 30.9; CA: 52% and 15.8; HA: 76% and 7.3; and MA: 32% and 21.5 (p = 0.002). The estimated parasympathetic tone was higher in athletes (p < 0.001), but this parameter showed only a weak correlation with PC(20) (r = -0.17, p = 0.04). This study has shown a significantly higher prevalence of AHR in athletes than in the control group because of the higher prevalence in the CA and HA groups. Parasympathetic activity may act as modulator of airway responsiveness, but the increased prevalence of AHR in our athlete population may be related to the type and possibly the content of inhaled air during training.


The past decade has brought advanced information technologies, which include electronic messaging systems, executive information systems, collaborative systems, group decision support systems, and other technologies that use sophisticated information management to enable multiparty participation in organization activities. Developers and users of these systems hold high hopes for their potential to change organizations for the better, but actual changes often do not occur, or occur inconsistently. We propose adaptive structuration theory (AST) as a viable approach for studying the role of advanced information technologies in organization change. AST examines the change process from two vantage points: (1) the types of structures that are provided by advanced technologies, and (2) the structures that actually emerge in human action as people interact with these technologies. To illustrate the principles of AST, we consider the small group meeting and the use of a group decision support system (GDSS). A GDSS is an interesting technology for study because it can be structured in a myriad of ways, and social interaction unfolds as the GDSS is used. Both the structure of the technology and the emergent structure of social action can be studied.We begin by positioning AST among competing theoretical perspectives of technology and change. Next, we describe the theoretical roots and scope of the theory as it is applied to GDSS use and state the essential assumptions, concepts, and propositions of AST. We outline an analytic strategy for applying AST principles and provide an illustration of how our analytic approach can shed light on the impacts of advanced technologies on organizations. A major strength of AST is that it expounds the nature of social structures within advanced information technologies and the key interaction processes that figure in their use. By capturing these processes and tracing their impacts, we can reveal the complexity of technology-organization relationships. We can attain a better understanding of how to implement technologies, and we may also be able to develop improved designs or educational programs that promote productive adaptations.


Massive load of toxic heavy metals is discharged by human activities, as well as by natural actions, give rise to metal contamination in water body. Sg. Sembilang is one of the rivers that is receiving effluent from various sources such as landfill, industrial, residential, and agricultural runoff. In this study, the concentration of heavy metals in nine stations along the Sg. Sembilang was collected for one year period to evaluate their levels of pollution. Ten heavy metals were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The mean concentrations of Fe, Mn, Zn, Al, and Cu were 3.01, 0.68, 0.29, 0.007, and 0.027 mg/L respectively, were below the National Water Quality Standards of Malaysia (NWQS), with the exception of Cd, Cr, Pb, Mg, and Ni. Calculated HPI based on the mean concentration of heavy metals, was found to be 6.05, that is below the critical pollution index value of 100. With respect to sampling locations, station J03 registered the highest value of 7.989. This is probably due to the location of J03 which is very near to the effluent discharge point. The analysis indicates the present scenario of water quality of Sg. Sembilang due to the effect of effluent from the landfill material, and waste water from industry, agricultural runoff and residential area. Required steps should be taken to conserve this river from pollution, and also to lessen the environmental risk.


We extend the Expressionist project, and thereby the re-emerging area of grammar-based text generation, by applying a technique from software verification to a critical search problem related to content generation from grammars. In Expressionist, authors attach tags (corresponding to pertinent meanings) to nonterminal symbols in a context-free grammar, which enables the targeted generation of content that expresses requested meanings (i.e., has the requested tags). While previous work has demonstrated methods for requesting content with a single required tag, requests for multiple tags yields a search task over domains that may realistically span quintillions or more elements. In this paper, we reduce Expressionist grammars to symbolic visibly pushdown automata, which allows us to locate in massive search spaces generable outputs that satisfy moderately complex criteria related to tags. While the satisficing of more complex tag criteria is still not feasible using this technique, we forecast a number of opportunities for future directions.


Continued planar bulk MOSFET scaling is becoming increasingly difficult due to increased random variation in transistor performance with decreasing gate length, and thereby scaling of SRAM using minimum-size transistors is further challenging. This dissertation will discuss various advanced MOSFET designs and their benefits for extending density and voltage scaling of static memory (SRAM) arrays. Using threedimensional (3-D) process and design simulations, transistor designs are optimized. Then, using an analytical compact model calibrated to the simulated transistor current-vs.-voltage characteristics, the performance and yield of six-transistor (6-T) SRAM cells are estimated. For a given cell area, fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) MOSFET technology is projected to provide for significantly improved yield across a wide range of operating voltages, as compared with conventional planar bulk CMOS technology. Quasi-Planar (QP) bulk silicon MOSFETs are a lower-cost alternative and also can provide for improved SRAM yield. A more printable notchless QP bulk SRAM cell layout is proposed to reduce lithographic variations, and is projected to achieve six-sigma yield (required for terabit-scale SRAM arrays) with a minimum operating voltage below 1 Volt.


Natural language processing (NLP) is a fast-growing field of artificial intelligence. Since the Transformer [32] was introduced by Google in 2017, a large number of language models such as BERT, GPT, and ELMo have been inspired by this architecture. These models were trained on huge datasets and achieved state-of-the-art results on natural language understanding. However, fine-tuning a pre-trained language model on much smaller datasets for downstream tasks requires a carefully-designed pipeline to mitigate problems of the datasets such as lack of training data and imbalanced data. In this paper, we propose a pipeline to adapt the general-purpose RoBERTa language model to a specific text classification task: Vietnamese Hate Speech Detection. We first tune the PhoBERT1[9] on our dataset by re-training the model on the Masked Language Model (MLM) task; then, we employ its encoder for text classification. In order to preserve pre-trained weights while learning new feature representations, we further utilize different training techniques: layer freezing, block-wise learning rate, and label smoothing. Our experiments proved that our proposed pipeline boosts the performance significantly, achieving a new state-of-the-art on Vietnamese Hate Speech Detection (HSD) campaign2 with 0.7221 F1 score.


Real-time measurement of the 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (TCB) which is a precursor of dioxin was developed for discharge reduction of the dioxin in exhaust gas from an incinerator. The ion yield was improved using 1-photon ionization by vacuum ultraviolet (Lyman-alpha line of hydrogen (121.6nm)) and ion trap, after solid matters such as a dust were removed. Furthermore, TCB was quantitatively analyzed using the TCB fragment ion generated by ion collision in the ion trap. This method is possible to avoid the influence of much water in the exhaust gas. The calibration curve was described as Y = 0.052X + 4.2 (R2 = 0.9967), and the detection limit was approximately 80 ng/m3 N as S/N = 2. This calibration curve was sufficiently effective to practical exhaust gas of which TCB concentration is in the range between 0.0 and 6.0 μg/m3 N. It also presents the real-time monitoring of the 18 s intervals which is due to the signal output.


The Tawny-OWL library provides a fully-programmatic environment for ontology building; it enables the use of a rich set of tools for ontology development, by recasting development as a form of programming. It is built in Clojure - a modern Lisp dialect, and is backed by the OWL API. Used simply, it has a similar syntax to OWL Manchester syntax, but it provides arbitrary extensibility and abstraction. It builds on existing facilities for Clojure, which provides a rich and modern programming tool chain, for versioning, distributed development, build, testing and continuous integration. In this paper, we describe the library, this environment and the its potential implications for the ontology development process.


The rapid climate shifts observed in the glacial climate are analyzed. The transitions into the warm interstadial states, the onsets, are easily identifiable in the record. The distribution of waiting times between consecutive onsets is well fitted, assuming that the remaining residence time in each state is independent of the past. This implies that it has a simple no-memory exponential waiting time distribution, but with the mean waiting time depending on the climate state. The mean waiting time from one onset to the next is around 2400 yr. The most likely (maximum likelihood) distribution derived solely from the onset sequence is rather insensitive to the mean waiting time in the warm interstadials in the range of 400‐1200 yr. When extending the analysis to include the transitions from the warm interstadials to the cold stadials observed with a larger uncertainty, the distributions in the two states are well fitted to exponential distributions, with mean waiting times of around 800 yr in the warm state and around 1600 yr in the cold state. This observation is an important piece in the climate puzzle, because the fact that the climate is a no-memory process indicates that the transitions are noise induced and the mean residence time in one state indicates how stable that climate state is to perturbations. The possibility of a hidden periodic driver is also investigated. The existence of such a driver cannot be ruled out by the relatively sparse data series (containing only 21 onsets). However, because the record is fitted just as well by the much simpler random model, this should be preferred from the point of view of simplicity.


Subject area

Organizational innovation, leading change, customer service management in professional service firms.

Study level/applicability

Advanced undergraduate, MBA/executive education.

Case overview

This case describes the human resource (HR) dilemma faced by BDO Hungary in 2010, an international audit and tax consulting partnership, operating in the country since 1989. In order to continue its past growth story and to reach closer to "Big Four" BDO has to enter new business segments, offer more services to its existing customers and seize higher value-added business potentials. The new strategy, however, is challenged by its incumbent, traditional core business: auditing, which is highly regulated by ethical, legal, and professional standards including non-advertisement regulations to which the resulting organizational culture and HR routines are congruent. The case is described from the perspective of the Equity Partner, HR Director and Executive MBA student, who is tasked with a new HR plan for training and development and is charged with implementing it successfully. How best to adjust current training and development policies to the best meet new strategic growth goals? How to develop existing human capital? How to make employees more commercially oriented in such a conservative, risk averse, and highly regulated environment? How to improve their customer service and the sales skill?

Expected learning outcomes

Exploring the importance of training and development in improving customer service levels in professional service firms operating in emerging markets. Understanding the limitations and the possibilities of transferring international HR policies and standards across borders and cultural differences.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes.


Although the scientific digital library is growing at a rapid pace, scholars/students often find reading Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) literature daunting, especially for the math-content/formula. In this paper, we propose a novel problem, "mathematics content understanding", for cyberlearning and cyberreading. To address this problem, we create a Formula Evolution Map (FEM) offline and implement a novel online learning/reading environment, PDF Reader with Math-Assistant (PRMA), which incorporates innovative math-scaffolding methods. The proposed algorithm/system can auto-characterize student emerging math-information need while reading a paper and enable students to readily explore the formula evolution trajectory in FEM. Based on a math-information need, PRMA utilizes innovative joint embedding, formula evolution mining, and heterogeneous graph mining algorithms to recommend high quality Open Educational Resources (OERs), e.g., video, Wikipedia page, or slides, to help students better understand the math-content in the paper. Evaluation and exit surveys show that the PRMA system and the proposed formula understanding algorithm can effectively assist master and PhD students better understand the complex math-content in the class readings.


This paper focuses on jammed timing channels. Pure delay jammers with a maximum delay constraint, an average delay constraint, or a maximum buffer size constraint are explored, for continuous-time or discrete-time packet waveforms. Fluid waveform approximations of each of these classes of waveforms are employed to aid in analysis. Channel capacity is defined and an information-theoretic game based on mutual information rate is studied. Min-max optimal jammers and max-min optimal input processes are sought. Bounds on the min-max and max-min mutual information rates are described, and numerical examples are given. For maximum-delay-constrained (MDC) jammers with continuous-time packet waveforms, saddle-point input and jammer strategies are identified. The capacity of the maximum-delay constrained jamming channel with continuous-time packet waveforms is shown to equal the mutual information rate of the saddle point. For MDC jammers with discrete-time packet waveforms, saddle-point strategies are shown to exist. Jammers which have quantized batch departures at regular intervals are shown to perform well. Input processes with batches at regular intervals perform well for MDC or maximum-buffer-size-constrained jammers.


Background: Breast milk can be a source of toxic material, along with the transfer of nutrients needed for infant growth. This study was conducted to measure the level of lead in maternal and neonatal blood and breast milk in Tehran, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 150 mothers and their infants were studied. Samples of maternal blood, fetal umbilical cord blood, breast milk, and amount of lead measured by atomic absorption method were collected. Correlations between lead levels and demographic characteristics of mother and infants were assessed.Results: The mean levels of lead in maternal and neonatal blood and breast milk were 9.79\xC2±4.31, 8.29\xC2±4.83, and 8.65\xC2±3.67 \xCE¼g/dl, respectively. The different levels of lead were associated with cord blood, maternal blood, and breast milk. No significant relationship was found between lead levels and neonatal parameters (i.e., weight, height, and head circumference). The Spearman's correlation also showed the association between different levels of lead with cord blood, maternal blood, and breast milk. Linear regression also did not show any relationship between lead levels in cord blood, milk, and mother blood with newborn growth parameters.Conclusion: The present study failed to find a significant correlation between lead and newborn birth parameters. In our study, lead levels in maternal blood, breast milk, and cord blood were lower, compared those of the previous years in Iran; however, it needs to decrease, because lead even at very low concentrations may also have adverse effects.


The AP1000 plant is an 1100-MWe class pressurized water reactor with passive safety features and extensive plant simplifications that enhance construction, operation, maintenance, and safety with reduced plant costs. The AP1000 passive nuclear power plant is uniquely equipped to withstand an extended station blackout scenario such as the events following the earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station without compromising core and containment integrity. Without AC power, using passive safety technology, the AP1000 plant provides cooling for the core, containment and spent fuel pool for more than 3 days without the need for operator actions. Following this passive coping period, minimal operator actions are needed to extend the operation of the passive features to 7 days using installed equipment. With the re-supply of fuel oil the coping time may be extended for an indefinite time. Connections for a few, small, easily transportable components provide a diverse backup means of extending passive system operation after the first 3 days. As a result, the AP1000 design provides very robust protection of public safety and the utility investment. Following the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Japan, several initiatives were launched worldwide to assess the lessons learned. These include, but are not limited to, the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) stress tests, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) Final Report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Expert Mission Report, and the U.S. NRC Near-Term Task Force Recommendations. The AP1000 design has been assessed against these initiatives and lessons learned. The purpose of this paper is to describe:  How the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station was evaluated and translated into conclusions and recommendations for nuclear power plants worldwide  How the AP1000 plant was evaluated in light of the recommendations resulting from the various post-Fukushima assessments  The key conclusions resulting from the post-Fukushima evaluation of the AP1000 design


This article examines one standard libertarian defense of proportionate taxation: that it is the obvious means to achieve a fair division of the social surplus generated by social cooperation. Focusing on the version of the argument developed in David Gauthier's Morals by Agreement, the article concludes that rather than leading to proportionate taxation, Gauthier's complicated formula for dividing social surplus (a variant of the Nash bargaining solution) at first cut leads to a tax scheme even more regressive than a head tax. Gauthier appears to conclude otherwise because he gets the implications of declining marginal utility of income for Nash-type bargaining solutions exactly backwards. Rather than implying that the poor will hold out for a greater relative share of the gain, the declining marginal utility of income implies that the poor will concede a greater relative share. The foregoing argument presumes that the only task of the social planner is to justly apportion the tax costs of running the state, against a background distribution of assets itself presumed to be just. When one takes into account the need, implicit in Gauthier's system, to use the tax system to correct the maldistribution of surplus value inherent in market prices, it becomes clear that Gauthier's scheme could imply almost any tax rate structure, from a steeply regressive one to (more plausibly) a steeply progressive one. In light of the difficulty of deriving proportionate taxation from Gauthier's premises, the article concludes that Gauthier's attraction to proportionality seems to be driven less by his premises than by the conclusion itself. Gauthier is hardly alone in this respect. Proportionate taxation seems to exert a strong, almost universal, pull on the libertarian imagination that resists logical explanation.


Targeting immune checkpoints such as programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1), programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PDL1) has achieved noteworthy benefit in multiple cancers. However, their efficacy remains unsatisfactory in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Breast cancer is not highly mutagenic and immune checkpoints blockade therapies for TNBC is not as effective as for melanoma or lung cancer with high mutation rates. Combination of different modalities offers an opportunity to enhance their effect. We studied the synergistic effect of cancer chemotherapy and immunotherapy in TNBC mouse model. Here we report that the combination of Doxisome (liposomal encapsulated formulation of Doxorubicin) and anti-PD-1 antibody suppresses tumor growth, reduces lung metastasis and improves survival of mice bearing 4T1-triple negative breast cancer. Moreover, the combination of Doxisome and anti-PD-1 was able to overcome low dose Doxisome resistance in mouse models of TNBC. The success of anticancer chemotherapy is linked to a durable immune response of targeting tumor. We present evidence that the synergistic therapeutic activity of Doxisome with anti-PD1 blockade results in enhanced T cell anti-tumor immune responses. Moreover, the synergetic effect is due to increased dendritic cells (DCs) infiltration in tumor microenvironment, which internalize tumor antigens and subsequently activate tumor-reactive T cells. In TNBC mouse model, by combining anti-PD1 checkpoint blockade while shifting the immune response towards CD4+ Th1 with Doxisome, immune tolerance to TNBC tumor can be overcome. Enhancing antigen presenting cells (APCs, e.g. DCs) infiltration by immunogenic chemotherapy and T cell activation by anti-PD1 blockade increase therapy response in TNBC. These results provide rationale for several newly planned clinical trials combining immunogenic chemotherapy with PD-1 or PD-L1 blockade in breast cancer and exploration of such a combination in others solid tumors. Citation Format: Xiangliang Yuan, Yi Xiao, Wenling Kuo, Dihua Yu. Immunogenic chemotherapy synergize PD-1 blockade by enhancing dendritic cells infiltration in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4977.


Intrapulmonary shunting and white cell sequestration in the lungs were compared prospectively in patients who underwent coronary artery grafting using either bubble or membrane oxygenators. Bubble oxygenators caused more sequestration of white cells, but this was not reflected in any detectable increase in pulmonary shunting. Postoperative blood loss was less in those patients who had been on membrane oxygenators. We conclude that there is little advantage in using the membrane oxygenator for uncomplicated short-term perfusions.


For many years, restenosis was the major limiting factor of coronary angioplasty, even since the systematic use of stents. Numerous scientific publications have aimed to define the predictive factors of this phenomenon. Factors such as diabetes, the size of the treated artery, the use of stents or not, the length of the lesion, lesion located on the proximal left anterior descending artery, the degree of residual stenosis post-angioplasty (assessed by angiography or by intravascular ultrasound) have all been evoked as being classically related to restenosis. However, our perception of the restenosis phenomenon has been dramatically changed by the demonstration of the efficacy and security of active stents. Even in so-called "at risk" populations, the use of active stents is rarely followed by restenosis. In this way, the classic risk factors for restenosis have now become arguments in favour of the implantation of an active stent. As long as budgetary constraints limit the use of active stents to patients said to be "at risk of restenosis", this population, quite paradoxically, will have a more favourable outcome than so-called "low risk" patients, in whom "ordinary" non-active stents will continue to be used.


A study was conducted for a period of 12 weeks to analyze the hatchability performance of different varieties of turkeys at the age of 30–42 weeks viz Native Turkey, Nandanam Turkey-I and Nandanam turkey-II. The mean per cent fertility of different varieties of turkeys were differed significantly (P<0.05). The native turkey recorded significantly low fertility when compared with others. Highly significant difference was observed between turkeys on mean per cent hatchability to total and fertile egg set. No significant difference was observed for mean per cent dead in germ and dead in shell in all varieties of turkeys.


This study investigates code-switching in an EFL online classroom interaction. The research data were gathered by using fieldnotes, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews on one hundred and twenty students and three English teachers. It demonstrates that both teachers and students code-switched during online English lessons. Tag switching and establishing continuity with the previous speaker were mostly used which reached 38.4%, inter-sentential switching15.5%, and intra-sentential 7.7%. respectively. In terms of the language, the findings show that classroom interaction was dominated by the use of Bahasa Indonesia 74.0%, English 52.8%, and Sundanese 16.5%. Code-switching was effective for teachers and students in EFL learning. It proved to 1) significantly influence students' activeness, 2) encourage and give better feedback to students through alternative reinforcement, and 3) encourage better teachers' and students' negotiation. With regard to efficiency, conveying meaning of the materials and bringing the project as well as assignment were essential. Nevertheless, some issues came up as a consequence of the Covid -19 outbreaks. Notably, some factors affecting the results were 1) the internet connection, 2) the students' attendance, and 3) balance. Those results suggest that the potential next research is more likely to respond to students' need to campaign online learning to be better.
Some issues come up as consequent of covid-19 outbreaks. Notably, some factors mentioned: (1) the stable or unstable internet connection, (2) the presence of students, and (3) balance. Those results suggest that the potential next research is more likely to respond students' need to campaign online learning to be better.

Keywords: codeswitching, EFL, online learning interaction and instruction


Image segmentation is an effective tool for computer-aided medical treatment, to retain the detailed features and edges of the segmented image and improve the segmentation accuracy. Therefore, a segmentation algorithm using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) for multimodal brain tumor images is proposed. First, the bivariate concept in DTCWT is used to determine whether the image noise points belong to the real or imaginary region, and the noise probability is checked after calculation; second, the wavelet coefficients corresponding to the region where the noise is located are selected to transform the noise into normal pixel points by bivariate; then, the conditional probability of occurrence of marker points in the edge and center regions of the image is calculated with the target points, and the initial segmentation of the image is achieved by the known wavelet coefficients; finally, the segmentation framework is constructed using DRL, and the network is trained by loss function to optimize the segmentation results and achieve accurate image segmentation. The experiment was evaluated on BraTS2018 dataset, CQ500 dataset, and a hospital brain tumor dataset. The results show that the algorithm in this paper can effectively remove multimodal brain tumor image noise, and the segmented image has good retention of detail features and edges, and the segmented image has high similarity with the original image. The highest information loss index of the segmentation results is only 0.18, the image boundary error is only about 0.3, and F-value is high, which indicates that the proposed algorithm is accurate and can operate efficiently, and has practical applicability.


This paper aims to describe a form of an alternative tourism based on the needs and social capital culture owned by the community. Observation techniques and in-depth interviews conducted to determine the needs and capital owned by local people whose lands are developed as a regional tourism. The findings were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis method, which is then presented as a narrative. The findings in the field, it is understood that the social capital of culture is very much contained in Buleleng Regency society which can certainly sinergized with tourism development. Social and cultural capital is owned by the people of Buleleng can be seen from a wide variety of both sacred art form and can be used as a form of entertainment, especially the unique temple multicultural atmosphere, historical relics including literary works of the kingdom of Buleleng and beautiful nature, especially the underwater world. The amount of social capital and the culture of Buleleng, including the community, but in the context of regional tourism is not developed optimally. Therefore in this study, with the understanding of human resources, social resources, and cultural resources possessed by the people in the district of Buleleng, required a special education that is based on the needs of society as well as the understanding of the capital-owned capital that positive impact can be felt more many by all parties, especially the people than the negative effects that occur in other tourist areas in Bali. In this case, the government is also obliged to accommodate the interests and needs of local communities in order to synergy between the needs of the community with programs implemented so that the common goal of improving the quality of tourism and social welfare can be achieved.


Purpose of the research is to analyze the current state of the system of critical interpretation of the phenomena of the ballet theater in Ukraine. Methodology. The application of the methods of analysis and synthesis, the chronological principle of consideration of events made it possible to conduct a scientifically objective study. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the identification of the problems of contemporary criticism of the ballet theater in Ukraine. Conclusions. Traditions of critical reflection on the events of ballet art, laid in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, supported and developed during the Soviet era, continued in the post-Soviet period in Ukraine. There are the following main problems of criticism of the ballet in modern Ukraine: a small number of critical-evaluative publications on ballet art; lack of professional critics of choreographic art, who know the history of domestic and world ballet and understand its development; the advantage of annotation-advertising over analytical and interpretative statements in periodicals; fragmented coverage of events; the absence of a specialized periodical on choreography; low aestheticphilological level of the latest Internet forms of ballet criticism (forums, blogs, etc.). The address of scientists to the problems of critical interpretation of the ballet theater will contribute to a comprehensive analysis of the critical-evaluation sphere of choreographic art, and in its turn, will positively affect the development of choreology.


The article presents a qualitative case study of the complexities involved in information technology (IT) implementation through illuminating the methods used by two different nurses in the same service enhancement initiative. The importance, relevance and history of learning IT skills is introduced and qualitative case study is argued to be a suitable methodology for investigating and unlocking such social phenomena. Three interviews were conducted and the data combined into a single narrative. One of the participants is very familiar with IT yet reverts to paper for managing numerical data arising from a waiting times audit. This project is taken over by a second nurse who immediately replaces the paper method with a spreadsheet, with help from a service enhancement champion, the third individual interviewed. The circumstances and implications of the nurses' decisions, to avoid or deploy IT, are briefly discussed. The paper concludes that it is unrealistic to expect all nurses to be extremely fluent with IT. However, the decision to leverage IT for innovation and improvement in clinical settings is made easier if education has provided nurses with a firm conceptual and practical foundation.


In order to solve the problem that the accuracy of transformer condition assessment based on oil chromatographic data is not high, this paper adopts random forest to evaluate transformer state. In order to prevent the attribute values carried by the decision tree of the basic unit in the evaluation model from being too few and thus affecting the evaluation accuracy. The ratio of H2, CH4, C2H6, C2H4, C2H2, total hydrocarbon and various characteristic gases is used as the characteristic quantity, a stochastic forest optimization model for oil chromatography state assessment was constructedimmediately following the heading. It is compared with BP neural network and SVM, the test results of field oil chromatogram data show that the accuracy of random forest state assessment is 88.5%, which is better than BP and SVM, and the random forest assessment model has faster assessment speed, This paper provides technical support for the fast and accurate condition assessment of transformer.


The authors describe modifications to a conventional SQUID voltmeter involving the use of YBCO wires in the superconducting potentiometer circuit. This modification allows measurements to be made of voltages across samples at temperatures well above the 8K limit set by the transition temperature of the original superconducting wires.


Foliar samples were harvested from two oaks, a beech, and a yew at the same site in order to trace the development of the leaves over an entire vegetation season. Cellulose yield and stable isotopic compositions (δ13C, δ18O, and δD) were analyzed on leaf cellulose. All parameters unequivocally define a juvenile and a mature period in the foliar expansion of each species. The accompanying shifts of the δ13C-values are in agreement with the transition from remobilized carbohydrates (juvenile period), to current photosynthates (mature phase). While the opponent seasonal trends of δ18O of blade and vein cellulose are in perfect agreement with the state-of-art mechanistic understanding, the lack of this discrepancy for δD, documented for the first time, is unexpected. For example, the offset range of 18 permil (oak veins) to 57 permil (oak blades) in δD may represent a process driven shift from autotrophic to heterotrophic processes. The shared pattern between blade and vein found for both oak and beech suggests an overwhelming metabolic isotope effect on δD that might be accompanied by proton transfer linked to the Calvin-cycle. These results provide strong evidence that hydrogen and oxygen are under different biochemical controls even at the leaf level.


Digital TV broadcast is available in the vast majority of countries. It has now completely replaced analogue as the main delivery system for terrestrial television in the UK. A digital television broadcast system offers many improvements over analogue transmission. It allows the delivery of a greater number of TV channels into the home by multiplexing multiple channels onto the same transmission frequency. If the signal is successfully received and decoded, it can guarantee a set picture quality, as digital is more resilient to noise and interference than analogue. This can be exploited further by reducing the total broadcast power a t the transmit towers, something that has already been achieved as part of the digital dividend. This research explores whether the broadcast power could be decreased further, or if more users could be covered using the same broadcast power, thus improving energy efficiency. If the broadcaster had access to accurate channel state information (CSI), then the entire broadcast system could be made more adaptive as beamforming techniques could be used to steer power to regions where coverage is needed. CSI would come via feedback from television equipment with channel monitoring devices supplying a relay network that operates over the internet. This paper explores the potential benefits of deploying beamforming in a broadcast Multiple Frequency Network (MFN).


Treatment of gonorrhoea has historically been delivered by a single dose of a highly effective antimicrobial agent, to which resistance is not documented, to aid compliance and break transmission. Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae compromises this approach and occurs both by acquisition of plasmids or chromosomal DNA from other bacteria or Neisseria spp or by selection of mutants resulting from misuse or overuse of antimicrobial agents, such as long term use of a single agent. Resistance to ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone, illustrates the effect of both misuse of earlier generations of quinolones and of suboptimal doses, as well as overuse. Quinolones target the DNA gyrase and topoisomerase enzymes that are responsible for DNA supercoiling and any interference with this process is bactericidal. Ciprofloxacin was widely used, often at low doses because of its high efficacy, but resistance emerged quickly resulting from selection of mutants, altering the target site and giving increasing drifts to resistance. Azithromycin, a macrolide which binds to 23S rRNA component of the 50S ribosome and interferes with protein synthesis, is effective against multiple STIs and therefore the selective pressure for resistance has been considerable. Although low-level resistance emerged quickly, high-level resistance in N. gonorrhoeae, resulting from a single point mutation in the peptidyltransferase loop of domain V of the 23S rRNA gene, was only reported in recent years and threatens to compromise its use. Sporadic use of spectinomycin selected for high-level resistance in a single step, which appears clonal and has not spread widely. Limited use of the aminoglycoside, gentamicin, for which the efficacy data is weak, appears to remain clinically active. In this era of multi-drug resistant gonorrhoea it is imperative that the selective pressure exerted by continual use of a single agent is understood and clinical practise modified, where necessary, to prevent gonorrhoea becoming untreatable.


This paper presents an experimental and numerical study that allows to evaluate the dissipation of impact energy, proposing a friction damper with the use of layers (LFD) for impact energy dissipation. The study is carried out on a macro scale of contact between the layers and friction elements. The effects of displacement and applied speed are experimentally analyzed. Numerically, the FEM analyses the effects of the preload and the material of the friction layers on the hysteretic behavior of the LFD. The energy dissipation in a cycle increases with respect to the applied displacement. The operating range of the LFD is variable, because the stiffness of the system increases with respect to the applied displacement. The preload applied to the damper varies with respect to the displacement applied. A theoretical approach is established to estimate the energy dissipation of the system with previously defined parameters or, to define the geometry and material of the damper elements for an estimated energy range.

Key Words: dry friction, variable stiffness, damper energy, layers, FEM,


Cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) describes both heart and kidney failure initiated by
dysfunction in either the heart or kidney. CRS is associated with significant worsened
outcomes than disease of either organ alone. The pathophysiology of this condition is
still not fully understood. Specifically, there is no preclinical study examining the
heart-kidney interactions where chronic heart failure (CHF) is complicated by the
addition of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Conversely, the findings remain
controversial in a recently described animal model recapitulating features of CKD comorbid
with CHF. Furthermore, one under-explored factor contributory to the
development of CRS may be circulating toxins in patients with CKD. Indoxyl sulfate
(IS), one such non-dialysable uremic toxin, has direct pro-hypertrophic and pro-fibrotic
effects on cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts. Increased cardiac fibrosis in animals with
CKD is correlated with IS serum levels. This thesis therefore aimed to further explore
the pathophysiology of CRS and the potential role of IS in this condition.
The first part of the thesis evaluated cardiac and renal changes (molecular, structural
and functional) and examined potential mechanisms that may underlie the changes
observed in a state of chronic abnormalities in cardiac function causing progressive
CKD [myocardial infarction (MI) followed by 5/6 nephrectomy (STNx) model in
Chapter 3 and 4]. This is the first preclinical model (MI+STNx) to demonstrate the
left ventricular (LV) dysfunction complicated by the addition of CKD.
This in vivo MI+STNx study demonstrated that subsequent STNx accelerated the
reduction in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) post-MI. Combined MI and STNx
led to increases in heart and lung weights and elevation in myocyte cross-sectional area
and cardiac interstitial fibrosis in the non-infarcted myocardium compared to MI alone.
These changes were associated with significant increases in atrial natriuretic peptide
(ANP), transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and collagen I gene expression. Comorbid
disease also caused increases in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis compared to
STNx alone, with no further deterioration in renal function.
The second part of this thesis assessed pathophysiological changes and potential
mechanisms in a condition of CKD contributing to decreased cardiac function and
cardiac hypertrophy [STNx followed by MI (STNx+MI) model in Chapter 5 and 6].
This in vivo study demonstrated that STNx+MI caused a non-significant decrease in
changes of LVEF over time compared to MI alone. Compared to STNx alone,
combined STNx and MI increased renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis and kidney injury
molecule-1 (KIM-1) tissue levels in the kidney, and elevated myocyte cross-sectional
area and cardiac interstitial fibrosis in the non-infarcted myocardium. These changes
were associated with increases in collagen I gene expression, and activation of p38
mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and p44/42 MAPK protein in the noninfarcted
myocardium.
The third part of the thesis focused on potential approaches to block IS-induced cardiac
remodelling (Chapter 7). Organic anion transporters 1 and 3 (OAT1/3) have been
found to be involved in the trans-cellular transport of IS in renal cells. Furthermore,
apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1 (ASK1) is a potential therapeutic target for cardiac
disease. The activation of ASK1 associated signalling pathways, namely p38, p44/42
MAPK and nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB), has been demonstrated to be involved in
IS-induced cardiac remodelling. Hence, we investigated the role of OAT1/3 and/or ASK1 in cardiac remodelling in vitro via the approaches to block pro-hypertrophic and
pro-fibrotic actions of IS in cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts. Inhibition of OAT1/3 and
ASK1 suppressed IS-activated cardiac myocyte hypertrophy and fibroblast collagen
synthesis, in a dose-dependent manner. OAT1/3 and ASK1 antagonists appear to
attenuate these effects by blocking the uptake of IS into cardiac cells and downstream
actions post-uptake, respectively.
Together, this thesis has demonstrated that accelerated cardiac remodelling and
increased renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis appear to be the common pathophysiological
changes in the setting of MI+STNx and STNx+MI. MI+STNx animals had decreased
LVEF compared to the STNx+MI animals, suggesting animals with pre-morbid CHF
had worsening cardiac outcomes. A non-significant reduction in glomerular filtration
rate (GFR) was observed in STNx+MI vs MI+STNx animals, indicating that animals
with pre-morbid CKD were likely to develop more severe renal outcomes. Thus, the
severity of heart and kidney damage appears to be best related to the primary failing
organ.
OAT1/3 and ASK1 appear to play a role in IS-induced pathological cardiac
remodelling, which are suppressed by their antagonists, in a dose-dependent manner.
They may represent potential novel therapeutic approaches to ameliorate uremic toxinstimulated
cardiac effects in the setting of co-morbid CHF and CKD.


This study investigates the relationship between international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) and innovation performance. It analyzes IEO as a key antecedent of innovation performance by considering the underlying effects of open innovation and social media usage. We test the hypothesized relationships by performing partial least squares analysis for data collected from a survey sample of 128 small and medium-sized enterprises. The results indicate that open innovation mediates the relationship between IEO and innovation performance, while social media usage mediates the relationship between IEO and open innovation. This study contributes to literature on entrepreneurship and innovation by providing new evidence regarding the benefits of IEO in terms of innovation effectiveness and the underlying mechanisms in this relationship. It also contributes to the emerging literature on the antecedents of open innovation and social media usage, as well as their effects on innovation performance. The results additionally have relevant management implications.


East Coast fever (ECF) in cattle is caused by the Apicomplexan protozoan parasite Theileria parva, transmitted by the three-host tick Rhipicephalus appendiculatus. The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is the natural host for T. parva but does not suffer disease, whereas ECF is often fatal in cattle. The genetic relationship between T. parva populations circulating in cattle and buffalo is poorly understood, and has not been studied in sympatric buffalo and cattle. This study aimed to determine the genetic diversity of T. parva populations in cattle and buffalo, in an area where livestock co-exist with buffalo adjacent to the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Three T. parva antigens (Tp1, Tp4, and Tp16), known to be recognized by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells in immunized cattle, were used to characterize genetic diversity of T. parva in cattle (n = 126) and buffalo samples (n = 22). Long read (PacBio) sequencing was used to generate full or near-full length allelic sequences. Patterns of diversity were similar across all three antigens, with allelic diversity being significantly greater in buffalo-derived parasites compared to cattle-derived (e.g., for Tp1 median cattle allele count was 9, and 81.5 for buffalo), with very few alleles shared between species (8 of 651 alleles were shared for Tp1). Most alleles were unique to buffalo with a smaller proportion unique to cattle (412 buffalo unique vs. 231 cattle-unique for Tp1). There were indications of population substructuring, with one allelic cluster of Tp1 representing alleles found in both cattle and buffalo (including the TpM reference genome allele), and another containing predominantly only alleles deriving from buffalo. These data illustrate the complex interplay between T. parva populations in buffalo and cattle, revealing the significant genetic diversity in the buffalo T. parva population, the limited sharing of parasite genotypes between the host species, and highlight that a subpopulation of T. parva is maintained by transmission within cattle. The data indicate that fuller understanding of buffalo T. parva population dynamics is needed, as only a comprehensive appreciation of the population genetics of T. parva populations will enable assessment of buffalo-derived infection risk in cattle, and how this may impact upon control measures such as vaccination.


ABS TRACT Objective: Outcome following non-operative management of superior labral anterior to posterior (SLAP) lesions has been under reported with little empirical data demonstrating the effectiveness of conservative treatment. Material and Methods: 10 patients, 5 matched pairs, presenting with symptoms consistent with a SLAP lesion performed a standardized phased rehabilitation program completing patient reported outcome (PRO) and pain measures before and following rehabilitation. Physical therapy notes and home exercise logs were reviewed and all exercises were recorded and coded using the phased rehabilitation protocol as a guide. At followup, patients were divided into two groups; responders and non-responders to treatment based on PRO. The volume of exercise and type of exercise performed for each patient were compared using frequency counts. Results: The non-responders did on average 33 more stretching exercises than the responders. The non-responders did on average 21 more scapular orientation exercises than the responders. There were few to no differences in the volume of strengthening exercises between the two groups except responders performed 38 more scapular retraction exercises at shoulder level while non-responders performed 49 more scapular retraction exercises below shoulder level. Conclusions: This case series identified few exercises that were beneficial to patients' responding to conservative intervention but more often identified exercises that were performed that did not facilitate an improved patient outcome. Therapeutic exercises are often the cornerstone of a rehabilitation program, yet limited evidence exists in which specific exercises are beneficial or not beneficial in patients with symptoms consistent with a SLAP lesion.


Development studies are ambivalent about the relationship between climate change adaption and Pacific Christianity. Biblical belief about Noah's covenant and the End Times are understood to undermine risk perception, while church membership is seen to threaten cross-denominational cooperation, hampering adaptive capacity. Yet the communicative reach and charismatic authority of Pacific churches remains the envy of development specialists working on climate change. This focus on belief and institutional reach, however, neglects how Christian ritual practice can orientate and stabilise faith communities. Drawing on fieldwork in rural Fiji investigating village migration due to coastal flooding from sea-level rise, this paper shows how ritual practice strengthens community resilience when responding to climate change. In Vunidogoloa, villagers employed the Old Testament myth of Exodus to (re)create ritual responses to vent the emotional/spiritual trauma of leaving their ancestral home. Whereas in the nearby village Vunisavisavi, such ritual responses have been lacking and village relocation remained problematic.


BACKGROUND
The authors describe a Heller's technique alteration used for treatment of early Chagasic megaesphagus (ECM): esophagocardiomyotomy with divulsion plus esophagocardiopexy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Between June 1988 and March 1996, fifty patients were operated on at Surgery Department of FAMEMA. All had chagasic megaesophagus degrees I, II and III.

RESULTS
The results were excellent in 86% (43/50) and good in 14% (7/50), for 6 months to 7.6 years of follow up. The radiological and endoscopic studies showed neither esophagic stasis nor food residues and esophagitis.

CONCLUSION
The authors concluded that esophagocardiomyotomy with divulsion plus esophagocardiogastropexy is efficient in ECM degrees I, II e III and emphasize both technical facility and security.


Cobalt60 and 10-MeV proton irradiations have been carried out on n-buried channel frame transfer CCDs (charge coupled devices) in order to study changes in charge transfer efficiency (CTE) and dark current for room temperature, 1 mu s/pixel, readout conditions. Bias dependence and post-annealing effects were observed for ionization damage. CTE effects are explained in terms of capture and emission from deep level traps. Temporal instabilities (random telegraph signals) were observed in the proton-induced dark current. >


In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), tropical dry forests and savannas cover over 2.5 million km2 and support livelihoods for millions in fast-growing nations. Intensifying land use pressures have driven rapid changes in tree cover structure (basal area, biomass) that remain poorly characterized at regional scales. Here, we posed the hypothesis that tree cover structure related strongly to senesced and non-photosynthetic (NPV) vegetation features in a SSA tropical dry forest landscape, offering improved means for satellite remote sensing of tree cover structure compared to vegetation greenness-based methods. Across regrowth miombo woodland sites in Tanzania, we analyzed relationships among field data on tree structure, land cover, and satellite indices of green and NPV features based on spectral mixture analyses and normalized difference vegetation index calculated from Landsat 8 data. From satellite-field data relationships, we mapped regional basal area and biomass using NPV and greenness-based metrics, and compared map performances at landscape scales. Total canopy cover related significantly to stem basal area (r2 = 0.815, p < 0.01) and biomass (r2 = 0.635, p < 0.01), and NPV dominated ground cover (> 60%) at all sites. From these two conditions emerged a key inverse relationship: skyward exposure of NPV ground cover was high at sites with low tree basal area and biomass, and decreased with increasing stem basal area and biomass. This pattern scaled to Landsat NPV metrics, which showed strong inverse correlations to basal area (Pearson r = −0.85, p < 0.01) and biomass (r = −0.86, p < 0.01). Biomass estimates from Landsat NPV-based maps matched field data, and significantly differentiated landscape gradients in woody biomass that greenness metrics failed to track. The results suggest senesced vegetation metrics at Landsat scales are a promising means for improved monitoring of tree structure across disturbance and ecological gradients in African and other tropical dry forests.


From the leaves of Salpichroa origanifolia three new withanolides, (20S,22R,24S,25S,26R)-5alpha,6alpha:22,26:24,25-triepoxy-15,26-dihydroxy-17(13-->18)-abeo-ergosta-2,13,15,17-tetraen-1-one (salpichrolide G, 1), (20S,22R,24S,25R)-5alpha,6alpha:22,26-diepoxy-24,25,26-trihydroxy-17(13-->18)-abeo-ergosta-2,13,15,17-tetraen-1-one (salpichrolide H, 2), and (20S,22R,25S)-5alpha,6alpha:22,26-diepoxy-25,26-dihydroxy-17(13-->18)-abeo-ergosta-2,13,15,17,23-pentaen-1-one (salpichrolide I, 3), were isolated and characterized by spectroscopic methods and with the aid of molecular modeling. The latter two compounds were obtained as an epimeric mixture at C-26.


A 50-year-old woman was diagnosed with ascending colon cancer with bilateral ovarian metastases, carcinomatous peritonitis, and carcinomatous pleurisy. Nine courses of mFOLFOX6 treatment resulted in the disappearance of her ascites and pleural effusion and a marked decrease in her serum CEA and CA19-9 levels. Additionally, the primary tumor and ovarian metastases became smaller. Therefore, a right hemicolectomy with D3 lymph node dissection, total hysterectomy, and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy were performed. Postoperatively, we changed the chemotherapy from mFOLFOX6 to bevacizumab+FOLFIRI because the patient had an allergic reaction to oxaliplatin, and we suspected lung metastasis. Because the lung metastasis grew after ten courses of bevacizumab+FOLFIRI, we changed to cetuximab+FOLFIRI. Unfortunately, 28 months after her diagnosis, the patient died of carcinomatous pleurisy.


Chapter One: The Current Regulation of Environmental Chemicals Introduction Protection of the Water Environment Classification and Labelling of Chemicals The Notification of New Substances Regulations Existing Substances Regulations New European Chemicals Policy Other European and UK Regulations on Chemicals International Activities on Chemicals Voluntary Approaches to Control of Chemicals in the Environment References Chapter Two: Chemicals Risk Assessment and Management Introduction Types of Risk Risks and Hazards The Evidence for Harm Caused by Industrial Chemicals Cost-Benefit Perception of Chemical Risks and the Roles of the Advocates The Problems in Controlling Risks from Chemicals Industry Initiatives REACH Conclusions References Chapter Three: Future Perspectives in Risk Assessment of Chemicals Introduction Difficulties in Risk Assessment Current Developments Future Perspectives Conclusions References Chapter Four: Assessing Risks to Human Health Introduction Chemical Hazard Assessment Assessing Risk Qualitative vs. Quantitative Risk Assessment Role of Epidemiology Applications of Molecular Toxicology Uncertainties in Human Health Risk Assessment and the Role of Expert Committees The Changing Face of Chemical Regulation in Europe Future Perspectives References Chapter Five: Environmental Risk Assessment What is Environmental Risk Assessment? What are We Trying to Protect? What is the EU Legislative Framework? What are Some of the Challenges Associated with the Environmental Risk References Chapter Six: Risk Assessment of Metals in the Environment Introduction Ecological Risk Assessment Comparison of Inorganic and Organic Contaminants Problems with the Application of Traditional ERA Approaches to Metals Conclusions Acknowledgements References Chapter Seven: Partitioning, Persistence and Long-Range Transport of Chemicals in the Environment Introduction Partitioning Persistence Long-range transport Conclusions Acknowledgements References


During emergency response to mass casualty disasters, one of the main logistic impediments faced by the On-site Organization Chief is to track the patients at the disaster site. We had proposed a new system based on a location aware wireless sensor network (WSN) to overcome these impediments and assist the responders in providing efficient emergency response. In this paper we have implemented a new ranging algorithm called Ranging using Environment and Mobility Adaptive RSSI (REMA) Filter which will provide the distance estimates and yield the real time localization of patients at the disaster site. We have conducted Ranging experiments both in indoor and outdoor environments and have built an offline database which is given as input for the REMA filter simulation. The output of REMA filter is given as input to the new position estimation algorithm currently being developed by us and the position estimation error is calculated using simulation. The REMA filter simulation results show the suitability of the algorithm for ranging during tracking of patients at the disaster site.


A liquid chromatographic (LC) method for the determination of dextrose, mannitol, and sorbitol in meat products was developed. Dextrose, mannitol, and aorbitol were extracted from comminuted meat products with 52% ethanol. After filtration, the extracts were purified by passing through a C SepPak cartridge and two ion exchange resin Eoono-Columns in series. &er aoncentration and filtration, extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography using a cation exchange analytical column and a differential refractometer deteotor. Homogeneously ground samples of cooked and fresh sausages and ground beef were fortified with dextrose, mannitol, and aorbitol at four different concentrations. Average overall recovery for all three compounds at all four levels of fortification was greater than 80% with coefficients of variation less than 10%.


We introduce the safe best-arm identification framework with linear feedback, where the agent is subject to some stage-wise safety constraint that linearly depends on an unknown parameter vector. The agent must take actions in a conservative way so as to ensure that the safety constraint is not violated with high probability at each round. Ways of leveraging the linear structure for ensuring safety has been studied for regret minimization, but not for best-arm identification to the best our knowledge. We propose a gap-based algorithm that achieves meaningful sample complexity while ensuring the stage-wise safety. We show that we pay an extra term in the sample complexity due to the forced exploration phase incurred by the additional safety constraint. Experimental illustrations are provided to justify the design of our algorithm.


A MEMS-based turbocharger with a novel configuration was developed and demonstrated. The compressor and turbine are installed on the same plane of the rotor. The advantages of this configuration include structural simplicity and good rotor balance. For the fabrication, we developed a special deep RIE condition to realize spike-free, uniform etching. And, we found a low wafer warp condition of five times of the anodic bonding. The device rotated at 50 000 rpm. The tip speed of the compressor approached 25 m s−1 and it is only a twentieth of the aimed tip speed. The device could not pass the natural frequency of the rotor. From the test results, we found some issues to be solved for high speed rotation. Concerning fabrication, the accurate manufacturing of bearing orifices, and a flat, uniform etched surface are required for the thrust bearing. A straight journal bearing wall is required for the hydrostatic journal bearing. Concerning bearing design, the journal bearing does not have sufficient stiffness or load capacity to support the centrifugal force of the rotor because of the remarkably short bearing length.


Background: COVID-19 infection continues to be a serious health concern in pediatric patients, associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. An important clinical question is whether laboratory hematologic parameters may act as a surrogate for imaging findings in pediatric COVID-19 pneumonia, in order to reduce exposure to ionizing radiation. The aim is to investigate the relationship between radiographic findings and hematological laboratory parameters in pediatric patients with COVID-19 infection by directly comparing the findings from both studies. Methods: This was an institutional review board-approved retrospective study of 187 consecutive pediatric patients with microbiologically confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia and available initial chest radiographs at the time of diagnosis, obtained between March 2020 and December 2020. Two groups of patients were created: 1) 1st group (without radiographic evidence of COVID-19 pneumonia) and 2) second group (with radiographic evidence of COVID-19 pneumonia). Two experienced radiologists independently reviewed the initial chest radiographs for abnormalities. Patients' medical records were reviewed for clinical presentation, hematological laboratory parameters, and patient outcomes. The relationship between initial chest radiographic findings and hematological laboratory parameters was evaluated between the two groups. Interobserver agreement was estimated with the Cohen k coefficient. Results: The study population consisted of 187 chest radiographs from 187 individual pediatric patients (95 males and 92 females; mean age ± SD, 10.1 ± 6.0 years; range, 9 months – 18 years). Group 1 consisted of 103 chest radiographs (55.0%) from 103 individual pediatric patients (54 males and 49 females; mean age ± SD, 12.5 ± 5.2 years; range, 9 months – 18 years). Group 2 consisted of 84 chest radiographs (45.0%) from 84 individual pediatric patients (41 males and 43 females; mean age ± SD, 7.0 ± 5.6 years; range, 11 months – 18 years). In group 2, observed chest radiographic abnormalities included ground-glass opacity (GGO) in 75 patients (89.2%), GGO and consolidation in 6 (7.2%), peribronchial thickening in 1 patient (1.1%), consolidation in 1 patient (1.1%), and peribronchial thickening, GGO and consolidation in one patient (1.1%). In addition, group 2 patients (with radiographic abnormalities of COVID-19 pneumonia) had significantly elevated LDH (p = 0.001) compared to group 1 patients (without radiographic findings of COVID-19 pneumonia). All pediatric patients in both groups completely recovered from COVID-19 infection. Interobserver agreement for chest radiographic findings was nearly perfect between the two reviewers in both groups (k = 0.96, p = 0.001).Conclusion: The presence of radiographic abnormalities on initial chest radiographs correlates well with hematologic laboratory abnormalities, specifically elevated LDH, in pediatric patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that hematologic laboratory parameters may act as a surrogate for chest radiography in pediatric COVID-19 pneumonia and that chest radiography may not be clinically indicated in pediatric patients with COVID-19 infection with normal LDH level, resulting in decreased exposure to ionizing radiation in this vulnerable population.


Balanced scCO2-microemulsions contain equal volumes of water and CO2 and are a novel class of microemulsions of substantial interest for both fundamental research and technical applications. One existing feature of these systems is that the solvent quality of scCO2, and hence the overall microemulsion properties, is tuned simply by adjusting pressure, which is not possible with "classical" microemulsions containing oil instead of CO2. Motivated by this, we systematically investigated the phase behavior, the microstructure, and the dynamics of balanced microemulsion systems of the type H2O–CO2–Zonyl FSO 100/Zonyl FSN 100. In systematic phase behavior studies, we found that upon increasing pressure, CO2 and water are more efficiently solubilized. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments were conducted in order to determine the topology and the length scales of the underlying microstructure. The results obtained strongly suggest the existence of bicontinuously structured microemulsions with an adjustable characteristic length scale of up to 330 A. From a quantitative analysis of the SANS data, we found that at a fixed microemulsion composition the stiffness of the surfactant membrane is increased solely by increasing the pressure, whereby the renormalization corrected (i.e. bare) bending rigidity κ0,SANS rises from κ0,SANS = 0.88 kBT at 200 bar to 0.93 kBT at 300 bar. These findings were confirmed with high pressure neutron spin echo experiments.


Over the years, miscellaneous methods for speech enhancement have been proposed, such as spectral subtraction (SS) and minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimators. These methods do not require any prior knowledge about the speech and noise signals nor any training stage beforehand, so they are highly flexible and allow implementation in various situations. However, these algorithms usually assume that the noise is stationary and are thus not good at dealing with nonstationary noise types, especially under low signal-to-noise (SNR) conditions. To overcome the drawbacks of the above methods, nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) is introduced. NMF approach is more robust to nonstationary noise. In this chapter, we are actually interested in the application of speech enhancement using NMF approach. A speech enhancement method based on regularized nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) for nonstationary Gaussian noise is proposed. The spectral components of speech and noise are modeled as Gamma and Rayleigh, respectively. We propose to adaptively estimate the sufficient statistics of these distributions to obtain a natural regularization of the NMF criterion.


Atherosclerosis is related to fat accumulation in the arterial walls and vascular stiffening, and results in acute coronary syndrome which is commonly associated with acute myocardial infarction. Oxidative stress participates in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Thus, the inclusion of food sources of dietary antioxidants, such as different kinds of nuts, may improve biomarkers related to oxidative stress, contributing to a possible reduction in atherosclerosis progression. This article has briefly highlighted the interaction between oxidative stress, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease, in addition to the effect of the consumption of different nuts and related dietary antioxidants—like polyphenols and vitamin E—on biomarkers of oxidative stress in primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention. Studies in vitro suggest that nuts may exert antioxidant effects by DNA repair mechanisms, lipid peroxidation prevention, modulation of the signaling pathways, and inhibition of the MAPK pathways through the suppression of NF-κB and activation of the Nrf2 pathways. Studies conducted in animal models showed the ability of dietary nuts in improving biomarkers of oxidative stress, such as oxLDL and GPx. However, clinical trials in humans have not been conclusive, especially with regards to the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.


A Monte Carlo model was used to describe the behaviour of electrons and ions in an argon hollow-cathode discharge under the influence of a transverse or longitudinal magnetic field. The model included calculating the energy distribution of electrons and ions, the electron excitation and ionization rate spatial distributions and the flux and density distribution of electrons and ions. Comparisons were made between these two kinds of magnetic field to primarily distinguish their effects on the hollow-cathode effect and the sputtering process. The results show that the applied magnetic fields influence the characteristics of discharge in the negative glow more efficiently than that in the cathode dark space, and the transverse magnetic field (parallel to the sheath electric field) is more suitable to enhance the hollow-cathode effect and sputtering process than the longitudinal one (parallel to the electrode).


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Temozolomide (TMZ) is a methylating agent used in first-line treatment of malignant gliomas and melanomas. Unfortunately, its use is limited by multifaceted resistance mechanisms. Although, the glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) protein metabolizes several alkylating and free radical generating anticancer agents, its role in TMZ metabolism and/or tumor resistance to TMZ are not known. In this study, we investigated the potential role of GSTP1-based metabolic detoxification of TMZ in glioma resistance to TMZ. The ability of GSTP1 to metabolize TMZ was assessed indirectly by measuring changes in the level of residual (free, un-metabolized) TMZ in a cell-free system containing TMZ, reduced glutathione (GSH) and human placental GSTP1 protein. We observed a time- and both GSH and GSTP1 concentration-dependent decrease in residual TMZ levels in reaction mixtures containing GSTP1 and after a 6 hr incubation, the level of free TMZ in GSTP1-containing reaction mixtures was decreased to 40% of controls without GSTP1. Presence of GSH alone resulted in only a 10% decrease in residual TMZ. Using three GSTP1 expressing glioma cell lines, viz, MGR1, MGR3 and U87, we examined the effect of siRNA-mediated knockdown of GSTP1 expression on tumor survival to TMZ and the level of TMZ-induced apoptosis using caspase-3/7 activation as endpoint. The TMZ IC50 values for MGR1, MGR3 and U87 of 1.31, 0.91 and 1.06 mM, respectively, were reduced significantly to 0.78, 0.6 and 0.69 mM at 48hrs following GSTP1 knockdown. Similarly, siRNA-mediated knockdown of GSTP1 increased TMZ-induced caspase-3/7 activation, significantly, in all three cell lines when exposed to TMZ for 48 hrs. Experiments evaluating the effect of combined knockdown of GSTP1 and O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) on cellular sensitivity of TMZ suggest synergism between the two strategies. Overall, these results provide support for a pivotal role that GSTP1 may play in glioma cell resistance to TMZ-based chemotherapy and the potential of targeting GSTP1 as part of strategies to reverse this resistance.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2557.


Growth as reflected by measurements of different body parts of the pink shrimp, Aristeus antennatus (abdomen, scaphocerite, uropods, and segments on the third and fourth pereiopods) was related to carapace length by type-I regression analysis. There were differences in the relative growth of swimming appendages and pereiopods. For the former (abdomen, uropods, and scaphocerite) growth was negatively allometric at a statistically significant level, whereas for the latter (pereiopod segments) growth either was isometric or exhibited a slightly positive allometry. Comparison of the measurements between the sexes revealed differences in growth only for the uropods, with the slopes of the regression lines indicating higher negative allometry in females than in males. There was no evidence of growth discontinuity for any body part over the life cycle of individuals of this species. The results have been compared to the findings reported by other investigators working with other species of shrimps, prawns, lobsters, and crabs, and the relative growth of the different body parts has been related to the different life strategies of each group.


This thesis presents the design and control techniques of a device for managing the inertial loads on photoreticle of lithography scanners. Reticle slip, resulting from large inertial loads, is a factor limiting the throughput and accuracy of the lithography scanners. Our reticle-assist device completely eliminates reticle slip by carrying 96% of the inertial loads. The primary contributions of this thesis include the design and implementation of a practical high-force density reticle assist device, the development of a novel charge-controlled power amplifier with DC hysteresis compensation, and the development of a sensorless control method. A lithography scanner exposes a wafer by sweeping a slit of light passing through a reticle. The scanner controls the motion of the reticle and the wafer. The reticlestage moves the photoreticle. To avoid deforming the reticle, it is held using a vacuum clamp. Each line scan consists of acceleration at the ends of the line and a constantspeed motion in the middle of the line, where exposure occurs. If the reticle's inertial force approaches or exceeds the clamp's limit, nanometer-level pre-sliding slip or sliding slip will occur. The assist device carries the inertial load by exerting a feedforward force on the reticle's edge. The device retracts back during the sensitive exposure interval to avoid disturbing the reticle. The reticle is at the heart of the scanner, where disturbances directly affect the printing accuracy. Our reticle assist device consists of an approach mechanism and a piezoelectric stack actuator. The approach mechanism positions the actuator 1-μm from the reticle edge. The actuator, with 15-μm range, extends to push on the reticle. We have developed control techniques to enable high-precision high-bandwidth force compensation without using any sensors. We have also developed a novel charge-controlled amplifier with a more robust feedback circuit and a method for hysteresis compensation at DC. These technologies were key to achieving high-bandwidth high-precision sensorless force control. When tested with a trapezoidal force profile with 6400 N/s rate and 60 N peak force, the device canceled 96% of the inertial force. 3 Thesis Supervisor: David L. Trumper Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering


A typical handover problem requires sequence of complex signaling between a UE, the serving, and target base station. In many handover problems the down link based measurements are transferred from a user equipment to a serving base station and the decision on handover is made on these measurements. These measurements together with the signaling between the user equipment and the serving base station is computationally expensive and can potentially drain user equipment battery. Coupled with this, the future networks are densely deployed with multiple frequency layers, rendering current handover mechanisms sub-optimal, necessitating newer methods that can improve energy efficiency. In this study, we will investigate a ML based approach towards secondary carrier prediction for inter-frequency handover using the up-link reference signals.