des Menschen in der Humboldt-Rezeption bei Gobineau" (183–208) conclusively establishes the fact that Humboldt's "Theory of Culture" simply will not "fit" Gobineau's racial theory, and that Gobineau's Humboldt reception along those lines in the long run proved to be "especially damaging" (204–205). Jean Rousseau's contribution, "La Place de la nation dans la théorie linguistique de Humboldt" (209–234), brings us back to Hans Aarsleff, the bête noire of Humboldt's admirers, who in 1988 and subsequently had characterized Humboldt's work on language as "nationalist, if not racist" (209). Rousseau's essay staunchly rejects Humboldt's defamation by Aarsleff and others as entirely misplaced in a thoughtful and balanced account of Humboldt's view of the nation in the context of his linguistic theory. On the whole, the Tintemann/Trabant volume, in all its diversity and superimposed three-fold order, offers a strong collective statement affirming Humboldt's significance to a quite sturdy humanistic branch of linguistics. As such it will be of particular interest to general readers concerned with the direction the field is taking.


This paper is a part of a project concerning the finding of objective characteristics of susceptibility to voice strain. In that project, measurements were made of simultaneous recordings of microphone speech, oral flow, oral pressure and EGG. A comparison is made of parameters extracted from the inverse filtered waveforms of oral flow and speech pressure from these recordings, that is, with and without a face-mask. Microphone and flow recordings of the syllable /pæ/ were inverse filtered. The parameters speed quotient (SQ), open quotient (OQ), the amplitude difference between the first and second harmonic (H1-H2), and a measure of spectral slope were extracted from the glottal wave form. Initial analysis was intended to show a correlation between the parameter values for mask and non-mask recordings. The expected correlation was not forthcoming, and a re-assessment of the methodology was required. A repeated measures analysis of variance was then carried out to examine the effects of three independent variables: presence of the flow-mask, presence of an endoscope, and voicing condition. The results showed that the presence of the mask used for the flow recordings had a significant effect on the parameters which were examined. The explanation for these results include the psychological effect of the mask, inconsistent voicing strategies on behalf of the subjects, possible large within-speaker variation, and the acoustic effects of the flow mask.


The crisis launched by the COVID-19 had immediate consequences in all areas of activity, including the sports world. If initially in Romania the handball matches were played without spectators, then they were stopped, the players being forced to preventively isolate themselves at their homes. The first objective of this research is to identify and analyze the Romanian Handball Federation's decisions taken at the beginning of the pandemic and the second objective is to identify the structural differences between a normal competitive season and the competitive season affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, in Romanian handball.


A run in a string is a maximal periodic substring. For example, the string $\texttt{bananatree}$ contains the runs $\texttt{anana} = (\texttt{an})^{3/2}$ and $\texttt{ee} = \texttt{e}^2$. There are less than $n$ runs in any length-$n$ string, and computing all runs for a string over a linearly-sortable alphabet takes $\mathcal{O}(n)$ time (Bannai et al., SODA 2015). Kosolobov conjectured that there also exists a linear time runs algorithm for general ordered alphabets (Inf. Process. Lett. 2016). The conjecture was almost proven by Crochemore et al., who presented an $\mathcal{O}(n\alpha(n))$ time algorithm (where $\alpha(n)$ is the extremely slowly growing inverse Ackermann function). We show how to achieve $\mathcal{O}(n)$ time by exploiting combinatorial properties of the Lyndon array, thus proving Kosolobov's conjecture.


We present in this article an original manner to estimate the trajectory of a vehicle running in urban-like areas. The method consists in extracting then tracking features (points, lines) with an uncalibrated stereo-rig from the road assumed as a plane to compute homographies relative to the camera(s) motions. The purposed method copes with the dense traffic conditions: the free space required (first ten meters in front of the vehicle) is slightly equivalent to the security distance between two vehicles. Experimental issues from real data are presented and discussed


ABSTRACT Reflection traveltime tomography has been used to describe subsurface velocity structures which, in practice, can be used as a background or initial model for pre‐stack depth migration or full waveform inversion. Conventional reflection traveltime tomography is performed by solving an optimization problem based on a ray‐tracing method. As a result, reflection traveltime tomography requires heavy computational efforts to carry out ray tracing and solve a large matrix equation. In addition, like most data‐domain tomography methods, reflection traveltime tomography depends on initial guesses and suffers from non‐uniqueness and uncertainty of solutions. In this research, we propose a deterministic ray‐based reflection traveltime tomography method by applying seismic interferometry. This method does not suffer from the non‐uniqueness problem and does not require a priori information on subsurface media. By adding a virtual layer (whose properties are known) on top of the real surface and applying convolution‐type interferometry, we approximately determine the stationary points (i.e., incident raypaths in the virtual layer). Then, we generate reflection points for a range of assumed velocities and estimate the velocity by considering the number of reflection points and the traveltime difference between the observed and calculated data. The reflection surface can then be recovered by using the estimated velocity. Once the first target layer is resolved, we can recover the whole media by recursively applying the same method to the lower layers. Numerical examples using surface seismic profile data for homogeneous‐layer (with a low‐velocity layer) and inhomogeneous‐layer models and real field data experiments on the Congo data set demonstrate that our method can successfully recover the velocities and depths of subsurface media without initial guesses. However, our method has some limitations for multi‐layer models because the method does not have sufficient reflection points for the deeper layers.


A novel method of creating planar aligned columnar discotic liquid crystals (cDLCs) on surfaces, which also gives control over the azimuthal angle, is presented. Surfaces are chemically patterned with stripes via microcontact printing of organothiol self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold, or via deep UV patterning of organosilane SAMs on silicon. These are then used to isolate long droplets of cDLCs by dewetting in the isotropic phase. Upon cooling from the isotropic into the hexagonal columnar phase, polarizing microscopy reveals that the cDLC aligns in a planar orientation. Results for three triphenylene derivatives (HAT‐6, HHTT, H7T) and for a phthalocyanine derivative (8H2Pc) are presented. H7T and HAT‐6 are found to align with the director perpendicular to the stripe direction, but HHTT and 8H2Pc align parallel to the stripe direction. This relatively simple new method for creating planar aligned columnar phases of DLCs gives control over the azimuthal angle: a condition required for organic field‐effect transistor applications of cDLCs.


Politics in democracy and dictatorship is markedly different; democracy and dictatorship are also associated with distinct policy outcomes. Do political regimes also select different leaders, i.e., do democratic leaders have distinct personal backgrounds to those of their peers in dictatorships, do they tend to hold different prior careers and posts while climbing the "greasy pole" of politics? The aim of this paper is to introduce the new data on leaders' careers in democracy and dictatorship and compare their personal background, experience in politics, careers and significant posts prior to their tenure, and details about their time in office, inter alia. In general, democratic leaders differ from nondemocratic ones in terms of their educational, social and career background. The paper also finds significant differences among leaders in different nondemocratic regimes, and suggests possible venues for further research.


A new type of spatially structured light field carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode with any non-integer topological order, referred to as the spiral fractional vortex beam, is demonstrated using the spiral transformation. Such beams have a spiral intensity distribution and a phase discontinuity in the radial direction, which is completely different from an opening ring of the intensity pattern and an azimuthal phase jump, common features that all previously reported non-integer OAM modes (referred to as the conventional fractional vortex beams) shared. The intriguing properties of a spiral fractional vortex beam are studied both in simulations and experiments in this work. The results show that the spiral intensity distribution will evolve into a focusing annular pattern during its propagation in free space. Furthermore, we propose a novel scheme by superimposing a spiral phase piecewise function on spiral transformation to convert the radial phase jump to the azimuthal phase jump, revealing the connection between the spiral fractional vortex beam and its conventional counterpart, of which OAM modes both share the same non-integer order. Thus this work is expected to inspire opening more paths for leading fractional vortex beams to potential applications in optical information processing and particle manipulation.


Communications over millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies is a key technology for the fifth generation (5G) cellular networks due to the large bandwidth available at mmWave bands. The short wavelength of mmWave bands enables large antenna arrays to be placed on the transceivers which forms massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). Massive MIMO with conventional fully-digital (FD) beamforming is difficult to be implemented due to high power consumption and hardware cost. One of the most effective solutions to this problem is hybrid beamforming which can be used to balance the beamforming gain, hardware implementation cost, and the power consumption. However, due to the non-convex constraints imposed by phase shifters, finding the global optima for the hybrid beamforming system is very challenging with high computational complexity. To address this issue, deep learning (DL)-based hybrid precoding with geometric mean decomposition (GMD) algorithm for narrowband mmWave massive MIMO system is proposed in this paper, where it can directly estimate the hybrid analog and digital precoders (combiners) from a given optimal FD precoder (combiner). Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed hybrid precoding model can more accurately approximate the FD precoding performance.


PURPOSE
This study compared the relationship between surface electromyographic (EMG) activity and isometric force of m. quadriceps femoris (QF) in the single-joint knee extension (KE) and the multi-joint leg press (LP) exercises.

METHODS
Nine healthy men performed unilateral actions at a knee angle of 90 degrees at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). EMG was measured from m. vastus lateralis (VL), m. vastus medialis (VM), m. rectus femoris (RF), and m. biceps femoris (BF).

RESULTS
There were no differences in maximum EMG activity of individual muscles between KE and LP. The QF EMG/force relationship was nonlinear in each exercise modality. VL showed no deviation from linearity in neither exercise, whereas VM and RF did. BF activity increased linearly with increased loads.

CONCLUSIONS
The EMG/force relationship of all quadricep muscles studied appears to be similar in isometric multi-joint LP and single-joint KE actions at a knee angle of 90 degrees. This would indicate the strategy of reciprocal force increment among muscles involved is comparable in the two models. Furthermore, these data suggest a nonuniform recruitment pattern among the three superficial QF muscles and surface EMG recordings from VL to be most reliable in predicting force output.


Interactions between organisms and their environments are central to how biological diversity arises and how natural populations and ecosystems respond to environmental change. These interactions involve processes by which phenotypes are affected by or respond to external conditions (e.g., via phenotypic plasticity or natural selection) as well as processes by which organisms reciprocally interact with the environment (e.g., via eco-evolutionary feedbacks). Organism-environment interactions can be highly dynamic and operate on different hierarchical levels, from genes and phenotypes to populations, communities, and ecosystems. Therefore, the study of organism-environment interactions requires integrative approaches and model systems that are suitable for studies across different hierarchical levels. Here, we introduce the freshwater isopod Asellus aquaticus, a keystone species and an emerging invertebrate model system, as a prime candidate to address fundamental questions in ecology and evolution, and the interfaces therein. We review relevant fields of research that have used A. aquaticus and draft a set of specific scientific questions that can be answered using this species. Specifically, we propose that studies on A. aquaticus can help understanding (i) the influence of host-microbiome interactions on organismal and ecosystem function, (ii) the relevance of biotic interactions in ecosystem processes, and (iii) how ecological conditions and evolutionary forces facilitate phenotypic diversification.


This study examined the flood prone areas within Metro Manila to find out their degrees of disaster risk. More specifically, the study considered the population densities of Metro Manila barangays, the smallest political units of the country, the gender and age population, the structural materials and the recorded depths of flooding. Geographic Information System (GIS) using multi-criteria techniques was the tool of analysis of the study. Projecting the population density of each barangay, the children, elderly and women populations to 2020 and 2030 and simultaneously examining the recorded depths of its flood waters and existing structural materials, the study identified the barangays that will be at high risk by 2020 and 2030. Although the study is limited to population data and physical characteristics of barangays, the findings may be useful to urban and regional planners and government agencies involved in disaster risk reduction and mitigation management. The study can be integrated in future development plans of specific areas and be used to guide future flood control measures. Finally, the study may be considered by other countries in their analysis of similar flooding experiences. Keywords: Barangay, Flood Risk, Assessment, Geographic Information System, Scenario


A female Thai baby born to non-consanguineous parents, presented with primary hypomagnesemia at 10 weeks of age, and suffered recurrent convulsions that responded to magnesium supplementation. She was found to have hypomagnesemia (Mg 0.35-1.02 mEq/L) and a low urinary magnesium excretion of less than 10 mg per day, or urinary Mg/Cr that ranged from 0.005-0.01 mg/mg. Intermittent hypomagnesemia and one episode of hypocalcemia with occasional convulsions developed, due to irregular consumption of oral magnesium sulfate, which had a bitter taste, caused frequent loose stools and black staining of the teeth. Better compliance after switching from magnesium sulfate to magnesium oxide resulted in an increased level of serum magnesium and the gradual disappearance of the black staining of the teeth and frequent loose stools. The patient required an oral elemental magnesium dosage of 15-30 mg/kg/day to maintain the serum magnesium level at between 1.02-1.33 mEq/L and keep her free from convulsions. The follow-up period was 7 years during which the patient showed normal physical growth and a mild degree of mental retardation.


Aiming to train the feedforward threshold neural network consisting of nondifferentiable activation functions, the approach of noise injection forms a stochastic resonance based threshold network that can be optimized by various gradient-based optimizers. The introduction of injected noise extends the noise level into the parameter space of the designed threshold network, but leads to a highly non-convex optimization landscape of the loss function. Thus, the hyperparameter on-line learning procedure with respective to network weights and noise levels becomes a challenging task. It is shown that the Adam optimizer, as an adaptive variant of stochastic gradient descent, manifests its superior learning ability in training the stochastic resonance based threshold network effectively. Experimental results demonstrate the significant improvement of the performance of the designed threshold network trained by the Adam optimizer for function approximation and image classification.


In virtually all marketing channel relationships, one of the parties even-tually will engage in an action that another channel member considers potentially destructive for the relationship. How a particular channel member reacts to such an act has implications for the long-term viability and success of the relationship. On the basis of a large data set collected from both a focal supplier and its independent dealers, the authors classify dealers' responses to a supplier's destructive acts by extending the response typology of exit, voice, and loyalty, which is based on Hirschman's seminal writings on responses to decline in organizations and states. This study finds that dealers' reactions are influenced by several antecedent factors: perceived intensity of the supplier's destructive act, the attributions relative to the act, relationship quality before the act, and the level of interdependence between dealer and supplier. The results suggest that these more proximal dealer responses affect subsequent dealer performance and overall perceptions of relationship quality after an act. The authors draw several implications for both dealers and suppliers.


The main objective of this paper is to investigate linear multiuser detection in an UMTS network in terms of system capacity and system coverage. This includes the impact of linear multiuser detection on radio resource management concepts as load control and power control. One issue the paper deals with is joint optimization of linear multiuser detection with power control. In order to keep practical UMTS issues in mind, we describe an iterative two-stage power control multiuser detection algorithm for UMTS application. With this algorithm detailed system level simulation will be carried out to show coverage and system capacity gains. As an example, we work out the maximum allowable cell radius for a given cell load and outage probability. The main result indicates for UMTS that optimum minimum mean squared error (MMSE) multiuser detection yields moderate gains compared to single-user-matched filtering. The linear decorrelator is even inferior to the single-user-matched filter.


Utilization of local food waste as an innovation in diversifying quality fish feed products in producing superior seeds. The study aimed to determine the nutritional content of local food waste. The research was carried out for 2 months,. The pr,imate analysis method (AOAC, 2005) and the results are presented in table and descriptive form. The research was conducted in two stages, namely 1). Local food waste sampling stage and 2) proximate analysis stage. The results obtained are proximate coconut cake which includes protein content: 7.29%, fat: 38.76%, water content: 3.05%, ash content: 22.247% and crude fiber: 24.29%. The proximate content of cassava leaves includes: protein content: 22.53%, fat: 5.05%, water content: 5.1%, ash content: 22.75%, and crude fiber: 33.46%, nutritional content of Moringa leaves among others: protein content: 25.66%, fat: 2.54%, water content: 7.4%, ash content: 22.247%, and crude fiber: 30.01%. The results show that local food staples still have a high enough nutritional content so that they can be used as raw materials for fish feed.


Identifying appropriate management units is vital for wildlife management. Here we investigate one potential management unit — resident communities of bottlenose dolphins — using information from ranging, occupancy, and association patterns. We identify a resident community of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in the Swan Canning Riverpark, Western Australia based on: ranging patterns, sighting rates, Lagged Identification Rates (LIR), and three measures of social affinity and structure (Simple Ratio Index, preferred dyadic association analyses, and Lagged Association Rates (LAR)). The analyses yielded an estimated 'community size' of 17–18 individuals (excluding calves). High seasonal sighting rates (> 0.75 sightings per season) and a long mean residence time (ca. nine years) indicated year-round residency. The model best-fitting the LIR (emigration and mortality) also supported this. The social structure of dolphins was species-typical, characterized by significant dyadic associations within age-sex classes (permutation test; P LAR females), and temporally stable associations (LAR > null LAR). Constant companions or long-lasting association models best explained adult male and female LARs. While behavioural information identified a resident community in the Riverpark, genetic and demographic information is needed to assess its appropriateness as a management unit.


Urban local governments are important players in climate governance, and their roles are evolving. This review traces the changing nexus of Australia's climate policy, energy policy and energy efficiency imperatives and its repositioning of urban local governments. We characterise the ways urban local governments' capacities and capabilities are being mobilised in light of a changing multi-level political opportunity structure around energy efficiency. The shifts we observe not only extend local governments' role in implementing climate change responses but also engage them as partners in conceiving and operationalising new measures, suggesting new ground is being opened in the urban politics of climate governance. A review of the Australian context provides important insights for the new politics of energy in the city as, internationally, energy efficiency is reframed as a climate change issue and the city is repositioned as an important strategic space in energy politics and the governance of energy systems.


This paper aims to describe the phenomenon of the proliferation of customary Dayak titles, and the authority to grant customary titles in Dayak communities in Central Kalimantan and their legal implications. The approach method in this paper uses a legal moral approach and a multidisciplinary approach. This paper concludes that the idea of authority and the legal implications of granting customary Dayak titles is based on a respect and reverence for someone. At the level of system, the authority to grant customary titles in the Dayak tribe has undergone a cultural transformation, which is an open authority by the council of Dayak customary and has the authority to be closed by traditional Dayak leaders. Open authority in granting customary titles through the council of Dayak customary is the highest authority in the Dayak customary law. While in the context of the application, authority and legal implications of granting customary Dayak titles that is more contextual in strengthening the recognition and existence of law and indigenous peoples in the life of the nation.


1 / 4 Recently Published Anthology of Archival Documents: "From the History of Deportations: Kazakhstan: 1939–1945" on the History of Stalin's Ethnic Deportations The review of documents collection "From the history of deportations: Kazakhstan: 1939-1945" analyses and assesses research potential of the new corpus of documents and memoirs on such form of Soviet political repressions as forced total or partial resettlement of dozens of the USSR peoples to Kazakhstan. Although the "archival revolution" of the 1990s opened access to a huge array of sources on deportations, the issue remains one of the most complex and poorly investigated. Thus, identification and introduction into scientific use of archival documents covering the previously unknown or little-known aspects of deportations remains an urgent problem of Sovietology. Therefore, the review notes that the Kazakh historians who have prepared the anthology "From the history of deportations: Kazakhstan: 1939-1945" have made a significant contribution to the national scholarship on forced migration. The work has been implemented within the frameworks of the project "From the history of deportations: Kazakhstan: 1930-1945" initiated in 2010 by the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (AP RK), the Central State Archive (TsGA RK), and the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan — consultative and advisory state body responsible for development and implementation of national policy in Kazakhstan. This collection published in 2018 is the third documentary work prepared within the frameworks of the project. The authors contend its great scientific significance.


Summary. Rainfall data are often collected at coarser spatial scales than required for input into hydrology and agricultural models. We therefore describe a spatiotemporal model which allows multiple imputation of rainfall at fine spatial resolutions, with a realistic dependence structure in both space and time and with the total rainfall at the coarse scale consistent with that observed. The method involves the transformation of the fine scale rainfall to a thresholded Gaussian process which we model as a Gaussian Markov random field. Gibbs sampling is then used to generate realizations of rainfall efficiently at the fine scale. Results compare favourably with previous, less elegant methods.


Sometimes we need to minimize the conditions of topology for different reasons such as obtaining more convenient structures to describe some real-life problems, or constructing some counterexamples whom show the interrelations between certain topological concepts, or preserving some properties under fewer conditions of those on topology. To contribute this research area, in this paper, we establish some new concepts on supra topological spaces using supra semi-open sets and give some characterizations of them. First, we introduce a concept of supra semi limit points of a set and study main properties, in particular, on the spaces that possess the difference property. Second, we define and investigate new separation axioms, namely supra semi Ti-spaces (i = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) and give complete descriptions for each one of them. We provide some examples to show the relationships between them as well as with STi-space.


Background: Factors affecting progenitor cell mobilization in patients with non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) are incompletely understood. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine which factors are crucial for effective mobilization and collection of autologous peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) prior to transplantation in Chinese patients. Patients and methods: A total of 239 patients with lymphoma (198 NHL and 41 HL patients) underwent PBSC collection after mobilization with granulocyte‐colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF) or G‐CSF plus chemotherapy priming. Results: Patient characteristics at diagnosis and transplant, including low Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score (P = 0.013), lack of extranodal invasion (P = 0.034), previously administered radiotherapy regimens (P = 0.040), treatment with platinum prior to mobilization (P = 0.042), previous chemotherapy regimens (P = 0.001) and cycles (P < 0.001), and chemotherapy regimens (P < 0.001) were statistically significant for successful mobilization in multivariate analysis. Premobilization factors, including previous radiotherapy (P = 0.009), previous chemotherapy regimens (P = 0.043) and cycles (P = 0.039), low platelet count prior to mobilization (P = 0.042), and lower CD34+ cells in peripheral blood (PB) (P = 0.050) or bone marrow (BM) (P = 0.007) were considered possibly predictive of poor mobilization. We found the patients who had chemosensitive lymphoma had worse progress‐free survival (PFS) than the patients with initial treatment and high risks (P = 0.017). Conclusion: Our analysis showed that high amounts of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, low platelet count, chemosensitive recurrent patients, combination chemotherapy plus G‐CSF and low CD34+ cells in BM prior to mobilization could emerged as important predictive factors for mobilization failure in Chinese patients with NHL and HL. J. Clin. Apheresis, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This article examines the concept of empowerment in the context of a supplementary food program in a rural community in Ghana. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to understand key empowerment processes and outcomes for women and their children. While the women felt positively about the outcomes of the program, they were less satisfied with program processes. Self-determination of the mothers and service-provider conduct were predictive of positive outcomes. The qualitative data served to temper the positive quantitative outcome data in showing that mothers are dependent on the food program. The findings were discussed in terms of the concept of empowerment and its implications for social change and program improvement.


Abstract This article discusses creativity in English as a lingua franca (ELF) and its link to a phenomenon of conventional language use, namely the use of idioms. Reviewing a number of approaches to creativity in linguistics, it attempts to address some of the salient and recurring issues that different conceptualizations have in common, such as the importance of norms and conventions for the occurrence of creativity. It proposes a two-fold distinction between norm-following and norm-developing creativity that relates to the synchronic-diachronic dimension of language variation and change, and it suggests that such a conceptualization of creativity may be particularly relevant for ELF. Referring to general findings of previous ELF research, the article builds on the assumption that ELF is generally effective in communication, in spite of the considerable variability in linguistic forms it exhibits, and proposes that creativity might serve as a fundamental concept in accounting for the variability and situational adaptability that seems to be central to ELF. Using this conceptualization as a basis, the article reports on the findings of an extensive qualitative corpus linguistic study on the variation of idioms in spoken ELF. It provides a short overview of formal characteristics of creative idioms, points out dimensions of metaphorical creativity and illustrates the range of discourse functions of creative idioms and metaphors in the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE). Exploring the general tension between creativity and convention in language use, the article stresses the importance of the intrinsic (diachronic) link between two seemingly distinct (synchronic) categories, i.e. conventional idioms and creative metaphors, and suggests that this link is paramount to the intelligibility and functionality of variable idiom use in ELF. It suggests that processes like idiomatizing and re-metaphorization take precedence over distinct categories like idiom and metaphor in the context of ELF research.


The vegetation in channels results in the loss of energy from, and the retardance of, flowing water. However, it helps to stabilize the slopes and bottoms of open channels. Recently, vegetated channels have been utilized to improve the quality of surface water and reduce the delivery of sediment and nutrient to rivers and swales. Accordingly, understanding the velocity distribution of vegetated channels is important. The velocity distribution above the canopy is normally assumed to follow the well‐accepted logarithmic law, whereas that below the canopy follows an exponential law or power law. However, logarithmic, exponential, and power laws can be affected by some characteristics of the vegetation, resulting in a highly inaccurate description of velocity distributions in vegetated channels. In this study, a velocity distribution equation that is based on probability is developed for submerged vegetated channels. An extensive series of laboratory experiments were performed using Egeria densa, and the results of earlier research on channel beds of flumes are adopted to devise and validate a velocity distribution equation. The results reveal that the developed model of velocity distribution can be used to study the effect of submerged aquatic vegetation on velocity distribution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background Elderly patients with chronic diseases (CDs) have a higher predilection for falls, with more severe consequences once they fall. Therefore, it is necessary to explore an effective way to prevent falls in elderly patients with CDs. Objective To clarify the clinical effects of outpatient health education on fall prevention and self-health management in elderly patients with CDs. Methods This retrospective study enrolled 102 elderly patients with CDs who received treatment in the School of Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University, between January 2019 and December 2020. Patients intervened by routine nursing were assigned to the regular group (n = 48), and those additionally treated with outpatient health education were included in the research group (n = 54). Assessment of patients' negative emotions (NEs) adopted the Self-Rating Anxiety/Depression Scale (SAS/SDS), determination of their sense of self-efficacy employed the Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I), and their self-care capacity evaluation used the Exercise of Self-Care Agency (ESCA). Patients' falls, hospitalization time, fall prevention knowledge, fall prevention-related health behavior, and nursing satisfaction were recorded. Results After the nursing intervention, lower SAS, SDS, and FES-I scores were determined in the research group versus the regular group; the total ESCA score assessed from various dimensions was higher in the research group; the research group also exhibited a markedly lower incidence of falls, and shorter hospitalization time than the regular group, with better mastery of fall prevention knowledge, fall prevention-related health behavior and nursing satisfaction. Conclusions Outpatient health education intervention can prevent senile patients with CDs from falling, promote their rehabilitation, and enhance their mastery of fall prevention knowledge; moreover, it can improve patients' healthy behaviors to prevent falls, mitigate their NEs, and improve their sense of self-efficacy and self-care ability, which has high clinical application value.


The paper presents a closed loop current control technique of three phase grid connected systems with a renewable energy source. The proposal optimizes the system design, permitting reduction of system losses and harmonics for the three phase grid connected system. The performance of the proposed controller of grid connected PV array with DC-DC converter and multilevel inverter is evaluated through MATLAB-Simulation. The results obtained with the proposed method are compared with those obtained when using without current controller for three-phase photovoltaic multilevel inverter in terms of THD and switching frequency. Experimental works were carried out with the PV module WAREE WS 100, which has a power rating of 10 W, 17 V output voltages and 1000 W/m ir-radiance. The test results show that the proposed design exhibits a good performance.


Dear Editor,

Kelishadi and her colleagues have done a great job for determining students' high risk behaviors (1) and have published part of this study as percentiles of aminotransaminases in Iranian children (2) These data are only from Iran, a country in Middle East and not children of Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Only children between 10 and 18 years are studied and not all children like younger than 10 years. Moreover, only 27 provinces from 31 provinces have been selected and not even all provinces of Iran. Data are really valuable but not representative of MENA. These are not even completely generalizable to Iranian children because neither covers all provinces nor all ages. Despite I did not see any calculation based sample size estimation neither in this paper (2) nor in their previous paper about the methodology of this study (1); but, sample size seems relatively sufficient. However, sampling method is more important than sample size for generalizability. Authors claimed that difference in their findings with previous study in Tehran, which has revealed lower limit for upper normal limits for ALT and AST (3), can be due to sampling, which is only from one city and not whole country and this difference may be also due to lower sample size. They have mentioned that the population studied in Tehran was less than one-fourth of the current nationwide study. It should be considered this "one-forth", accounted for 975 samples from one province. It is higher than your sample from Tehran and more homogenous than your nationwide sample. You should not compare your total sample size with the number of studied people in one province. Their results seems more representative to Tehran due to your mentioned limitations specifically when Poustchi et al. (3) have excluded subjects having abnormal values for factors that correlated with ALT in their study. In different parts of the paper (2), authors have expressed that there are linear associations. Why the authors believe that this association is linear? Is there any pre-specified hypothesis? Most of the time, the associations are not linear specifically when there is no significant linear relationship or the linear association is weak. In this study R-squares are low and the shape of the association between BMI and age with AST and ALT (Figures 1 and 2) shows that this association is not linear. It is not offered to fit a line for such association. P values are useless when the sample size is large even they become significant. R-squares are so weak and near to zero in most of these linear regressions which shows there is not a linear association. Even with such large sample size, P values were not significant for linear regression in some instances like WHtR and AST as you have mentioned. So, these associations are not linear in your study. In addition, cluster analysis is needed when cluster sampling is done. This analysis will specifically affect on all analytical results (like significancy and strength of correlations and regressions) and confidence intervals of all descriptive statistics. But, authors did not consider such analysis in their results. Kelishadi et al (2) presented the association between age and AST or ALT. I would like to reinforce that it is a cross sectional study which only shows children with higher age have lower level of ALT and AST except for ALT in females. It is not a cohort showing that with increasing age the ALT or AST level increases. If we had followed a cohort of children for some years and observe that ALT or AST are increasing with age in the same persons, then we could conclude such sentence. These are different concepts which usually misunderstood. It is known as age effect and cohort effect (4).


A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a specific type of human-machine interface that enables communication between a subject/patient and a computer by a direct control from the decoding of brain activity. To improve the ergonomics and to minimize the cost of such a BCI, reducing the number of electrodes is mandatory. A theoretical analysis of the subjacent model induced by the BCI paradigm leads to derive a closed form theoretical expression of the spatial filters which maximize the signal to signal-plus-noise ratio. Moreover, this new formulation is useful to improve a previously introduced method to automatically select relevant sensors. Experimental results on 20 subjects show that the proposed method is efficient to select the most relevant sensors: from 32 down to 8 sensors, the loss in classification accuracy is less than 2%. Furethermore, the computational time required to rank the 32 sensors is reduced by a 4.6 speed up factor allowing dynamical monitoring of sensor relevance as a marker of the user's mental state.


The effect of the stochastic field on the degenerate four-wave mixing signal intensity hag been studied basing on the phase-diffusion model. It is shown that the ratio of the correlation time of the laser source to the relaxation time of the induced grating plays an important role. The effect of the stochastic property of laser source on the linewidth of mixing signal has also been discussed.


Dr. Sang Jin Ahn has written an indispensable academic resource for those studying Asian religions, with an interesting focus regarding the cultural and sociohistorical impact Western Christianity has had upon the indigenous traditions of Korea. This authoritative, carefully researched book provides penetrating insight into the relationship between 19th and 20th century Korean Donghak and Minjung theology, both of which are influenced by Confucian shamanism. He explores the interesting fusion of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism as it developed, thus revealing the synthesis and transformations within Korea's rich religious heritage. Ahn skilfully navigates the difficult terrain that is encountered when missionary aspirations seek to establish Christian ideals and western culture, while often disregarding indigenous culture and already established religious traditions. An important contention of the book is that the social and cultural environments profoundly affect the introduction and development of religious traditions. The traditions are carefully examined, along with their key historical thinkers, with an emphasis upon the relationship between religious thought and culture. A major premise of the book is that neither social structure nor culture is static; therefore, religious doctrines must be considered within an historical context while paying close attention to the praxis of the present. Dr. Ahn challenges people to engage in a mental dialogue that encourages the understanding and respect of both religious concepts and the people involved.


AIMS
First, to quantify the interval between the onset of symptoms and the start of anti-tuberculous treatment in a series of Auckland tuberculosis patients. Second, to examine the help-seeking behaviour of the patients and the responses of the health-care providers whom they consulted about their symptoms. Third, to identify potentially modifiable reasons for delayed presentation or diagnosis.

METHODS
100 patients with tuberculosis (TB) were interviewed using a questionnaire which sought symptom duration and help-seeking behaviour. The doctors whom they consulted were surveyed about their diagnostic, therapeutic and referral responses.

RESULTS
Delayed presentation by patients ('patient delay') was found in smokers, patients who reported cough, patients who hoped their symptoms would go away on their own, and patients reporting fear of what would be found on diagnosis. 'Doctor delay' (the interval from first consultation with a doctor to start of treatment) was longer than that found in most published series and was a more important component of total delay than delayed presentation by patients. Longer doctor delay was found if patients had pre-existing lung disease or consulted multiple doctors, and if doctors did not inquire into past exposure to TB or request a chest X-ray.

CONCLUSIONS
Awareness programmes for high-risk communities are needed to encourage early reporting of symptoms. Continuing medical education for general practitioners is needed to encourage vigilance for TB and earlier use of diagnostic tests in patients who have symptoms of TB and are in high-risk groups.


Many farmers have hardly been able to meet the farm expenditure due to lack of financial command and potential. Therefore, access to credit facilities among arable crop farmers in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State was investigated. Multi- stage sampling procedure was used to select 104 respondents for the study. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire on socio-economic characteristics, means of credit awareness, access to credit facilities, utilization of credit and constraint facing in getting access to credit facilities. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentage, mean and charts and multiple linear regression for the objectives while Spearman correlation were used to analyzed the hypothesis. The results revealed that most of the respondents 81.7% was male, 54.8% were between the ages of 41-50 years, majority of the farmers were married and 33.7% had adult education. The results also revealed that the major means of credit facilities on awareness obtained from the study area was from friends, 92.3% heard about the credit awareness, 81.7% had their source of credit facilities by personal saving and majority of the farmers utilized their credit through planting materials. Spearman correlation coefficient showed that there were significant differences at p <0.05 by the respondents in the study area. Some problems hindering the access to credit facilities in the study area were amount required, period of payment, lack of collateral etc. The study recommends that government should set up financial institutions to provide fund to interested farmers at subsidized rate and easy period of payment. Keywords: Access, Credit Facilities, Credit awareness, Utilization of Credit, Arable Crop Farmers


W orking with census information on standardized academic performance tests and using different estimation techniques, this article analyses sociodemographic and management factors affecting the performance of Chile's municipal schools. The evidence suggests that the system's lack of flexibility, particularly where teacher dismissal is concerned, is an important factor but not the main cause of poor academic performance. Conversely, the differences in academic performance between municipal schools that can be attributed to management are almost twice the standard deviation of the System for Measuring the Quality of Education (simce) performance test and 20 times the increment ascribed to the "complete school day" initiative, which costs the equivalent of half a point of gross domestic product (gdp). KEYWORDS


Recommender systems are information filtering systems used in many online applications like music and video broadcasting and e-commerce platforms. They are also increasingly being applied to facilitate software engineering activities. Following this trend, we are witnessing a growing research interest on recommendation approaches that assist with modelling tasks and model-based development processes. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping review (based on the analysis of 66 papers) that classifies the existing research work on recommender systems for model-driven engineering (MDE). This study aims to serve as a guide for tool builders and researchers in understanding the MDE tasks that might be subject to recommendations, the applicable recommendation techniques and evaluation methods, and the open challenges and opportunities in this field of research.


Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that primarily affects peripheral synovial joints, like fingers, wrists and feet. Radiology plays a critical role in the diagnosis and monitoring of RA. Limited by the current spatial resolution of radiographic imaging, joint space narrowing (JSN) progression of RA for the same reason above can be less than one pixel per year with universal spatial resolution. Insensitive monitoring of JSN can hinder the radiologist/rheumatologist from making a proper and timely clinical judgment. In this paper, we propose a novel and sensitive method that we call partial image phase-only correlation which aims to automatically quantify JSN progression in the early RA. The majority of the current literature utilizes the mean error, root-mean-square deviation and standard deviation to report the accuracy at pixel level. Our work measures JSN progression between a baseline and its follow-up finger joint images by using the phase spectrum in the frequency domain. Using this study, the mean error can be reduced to 0.0130 mm when applied to phantom radiographs with ground truth, and 0.0519 mm standard deviation for clinical radiography. With the sub-pixel accuracy far beyond usual manual measurements, we are optimistic that the proposed work is a promising scheme for automatically quantifying JSN progression.


The investigation of the reliability, effectiveness, and impact of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) on smart grid applications (demand-response, real time price, etc.) requires an integrated evaluation framework. In this paper, we design an integrated simulation platform and demonstrate its use via investigating the impact of DERs on smart grid applications (demand-response and energy market) under various adverse conditions, along with network architectures. Using the standard IEEE bus system, we systematically evaluate the integration of DERs and the performance impact on demand response and energy markets with respect to system management, uncertainties and different network architectures. Our experimental results demonstrate the ability of designed co-simulation tool to evaluate the performance of DERs and system management and networking techniques. Our results are comprehensive, providing a concise representation of DER performance for the design and implementation of real smart grid system.


This paper presents the basics of the pronoun system of the Stieng language to define some similarities and differences between the pronouns of the Stieng language and those of the Vietnamese language. The pronoun system of each nation not only performs the function of communication but also expresses the linguistic and cultural characteristics of that nation. The position of the Stieng language pronouns and its expressiveness in communication has their own characteristics. Through the Stieng sentences we have recorded and investigated in Hon in Binh Phuoc province, we make some general remarks about the pronouns of the Stieng language and the interesting differences in the language system of the minority belonging to the Mon-Khmer language family. The paper is the first steps in understanding the use of pronouns in the Stieng language.


LOIS DAVITZ. PH.D. is a research associate at Teachers College. Columbia University. New York. where JOEL DAVITZ. PH.D. is professor of psychology. They are coprincipal investigators of this study. These interviews are a part of a long term research project dealing with nurses' judgments about the suffering patient's experience. The research is supported by a grant from The Division of Nursing, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, No. 00479-01. ropolitan New York hospitals, participated in small group interviews directed toward answering these questions. Participants were asked to think of a particular patient for whom they had felt a great deal of sympathy and to describe their reactions to the suffering of that patient. They were also asked to think of a patient for whom they felt less sympathy. Finally, they asked to think about themselves when they were students. In what ways had they changed or remained the same in their response to patients who were suffering?


We present a technique for improving the performance of a method for estimating the time-varying fundamental frequency (pitch) of a musical signal corrupted by interference components. The original method, developed by M. Piszczalski and B.A. Galler (1979), involves the calculation and comparison of frequency-pair ratios from each spectrum within a time-frequency transform of the corrupted signal. As the strength of the interference components is increased, the frequency estimates from this method become more unreliable. To obtain improved performance we developed a transform conditioning procedure that enhances the harmonic signal's spectral components in a constant-Q transform prior to the calculation of frequency-pair ratios. This transform conditioning technique is based on a method we have previously developed for principal decomposition analysis of time-frequency transforms.<<ETX>>


Novel reticle absorber materials are required for high-NA EUV lithography. TNO and ASML developed an assessment for the compatibility of novel high-NA reticle absorber materials with conditions that mimic the EUV scanner environment[1]. Four candidate reticle absorber materials were evaluated, TaCo, RuTa, PtMo and Pt2Mo alloys, in a joint research program. For the compatibility tests, dedicated samples with silicon wafer substrates were fabricated. The silicon wafers were coated with a Mo-Si multilayer coating, followed by a Ru capping layer and finally the absorber material. Chemical outgassing tests, in presence of hydrogen radicals, did not show chemical outgassing for the TaCo and PtMo alloys. RuTa and Pt2Mo alloys were not tested, based upon their elemental composition chemical outgassing is not expected. Next, all four materials were exposed in a hydrogen plasma resistance test equivalent to an EUV exposure of at least 250 thousand wafers** in the EUV scanner. No plasma-induced defects, like blistering or delamination, were found that were related to the intrinsic absorber properties. The RuTa and PtMo alloys were selected for EUV exposure in the EBL2 facility at TNO. Both materials were exposed to an 9.6 kJ/mm2 EUV peak dose at an EUV peak intensity of 450 mW/mm2 in a hydrogen environment. This EBL2 EUV exposure of 6 hours represents about 1-2 months of EUV dose (at least 150 thousand wafers) in a NXE or EXE scanner with a 300 W source. Both materials showed good performance during EUV exposure. Relevant surface defects and chemical outgassing were not observed. The few observed blisters in the low EUV intensity areas are likely provoked by particle contamination or coating defects. All four absorber materials, TaCo, RuTa, PtMo and Pt2Mo alloys performed well in the compatibility tests that were executed. Not all compatibility tests could be performed on each absorber material within the scope of our research program. Further testing would be needed to complete the compatibility assessment, including an EUV exposure on a patterned reticle.


Approximately two thirds of all breast cancer cases are estrogen receptor (ER) positive, which underscores the dependence of cancer cells on estrogen for growth and survival. However, resistance to endocrine therapy develops in most cases. mTORC1 (the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1) is a critical node of estrogen signaling in the cell, however the mechanism of estrogen activation of mTORC1 is not well understood. We have previously demonstrated that mTORC1 promotes growth factor-mediated ER activation by phosphorylating ERα on Ser167. This phosphorylation, which is mediated by the mTORC1 effector kinase S6K1, is important for ERα dimerization, DNA binding and transcriptional activity, is associated with endocrine resistance and correlates with therapy response. Moreover, ERα promotes expression of S6K1, generating a feed-forward positive activation loop. Our current efforts are focused on fully understanding the nature and mechanism of the relationship between mTORC1 and estrogen pathways. Our data indicate that mTOR, raptor and ER form a complex whereby ER directly interacts with raptor. Moreover, this interaction is stimulated by estrogen as seen by co-immunoprecipitation analysis. We additionally found that ER and raptor co-localize to the nucleus upon estrogen stimulation, where they interact as detected by both immunofluorescence and cellular fractionation experiments. Our current efforts are focused on understanding the role of this interaction and the mechanism of estrogen mediated localization of raptor to the nucleus. We are also investigating the role of raptor and estrogen receptor interaction in endocrine therapy treatment and resistance. Citation Format: Anya Alayev, Rachel S. Salamon, Marina K. Holz. Crosstalk between mTORC1 and estrogen receptor in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Targeting the PI3K-mTOR Network in Cancer; Sep 14-17, 2014; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A11.


Background:We performed this study to explore the inflammation and oxidative stress responses of rat trachea and lung caused by PM2.5 and mixed toxic gas.Materials and methods:Eighty-four Wistar rats were randomly assigned to receive exposure to PM2.5 and toxic gases containing carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) or saline. Microflora in rat respiratory tract were investigated through testing secretion taken from posterior pharyngeal wall on Day 1, 7 and 30. Trachea and lung tissues were processed for scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) examinations. Cytokines in rat bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), serum and lung tissues were analyzed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and real-time quantitative PCR.Results:Eight aerobes and seven anaerobes were firstly detected after exposure (p<0.01, respectively). Most of them are the pathogenic bacteria or opportunistic pathogen. SEM and TEM observations suggested that both normal structure of trachea and lung tissue were injured after exposure to PM2.5 with mixed toxic gas and the injure degree was concentration- and time-dependent. Interleukin 4 (IL-4), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) expression in the BALF and lung tissue markedly increased on Day 1 and 7 (p<0.01, respectively). Interferon γ (IFN-γ) did not show significant change after exposure. On Day 30, all the detected cytokines decreased and even disappeared. All detected cytokines in the serum had no significant difference before and after exposure (p>0.05, respectively).Conclusion:PM2.5 with mixed toxic gas can lead to dysbacteriosis in respiratory tract and destroy the normal structure of trachea and lung tissue. The injure degree was concentration- and time-dependent. Local inflammatory response instead of systemic reaction may be predominant in the response of rat respiratory tract to PM2.5 with mixed toxic gas.


1. The anuran conus arteriosus was studied by direct observation of its structure and function and by observing the effects of artificially induced contraction on the pressure pulse in the arterial arches.

2. The beat of the anuran conus was found to close the outlet to the pulmocutaneous arches. The timing of the beat of the conus in the ventricular cycle is variable; early in the cycle the conus admits less blood to the pulmocutaneous circuit, more blood being admitted when it beats late.

3. The timing of the beat of the conus appears to be adaptively related to beat frequency and to pH of the system. Elementary calculations suggest that these characteristics constitute an important measure of survival value of the anuran conus.

4. The findings of this work are compatible with the theory of selective passage of two streams through the heart, supplementing such passage with additional control of blood volumes entering the pulmocutaneous circuit.


In the above paper (MacCluer, IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., vol. 45, p. 1575-76, 2000), it was shown by way of an example that there exist bounded-input-bounded-output (BIBO) unstable linear systems whose transfer functions are analytic in the finite plane. We note that this result could easily be shown by using some examples already present in the literature.


Background: N9831 is the only randomized phase III trial comparing safety and efficacy of the addition of trastuzumab (H) to doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide then paclitaxel (Arm A: AC→T) either following (Arm B: AC→T→H) or starting concurrently with paclitaxel (Arm C: AC→T+H→H) for women with resected Stage I-III invasive HER2+ breast cancer. The 3 yr cumulative incidence of NYHA class III or IV congestive heart failure or sudden cardiac death was previously reported: 3.3% in Arm C, 2.8% in Arm B (Perez EA, et al. JCO 2008). The comparison of AC→T to AC→T+H→H was reported in a joint analysis of N9831 and NSABP B-31 in 2005 and updated in 2007, demonstrating a 52% reduction in risk of a disease event (Romond E et al., NEJM 2005; Perez EA, et al. ASCO 2007).Materials and Methods: Primary endpoint is disease-free survival (DFS). At the second planned interim analysis of Arm A vs. Arm B, the O'Brien-Fleming boundary (OFB) was crossed. NCCTG Independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee approved the release of these data as well as the data pertaining to Arm B vs. Arm C due to slow pace of events [expected 647 events in 4 yr follow-up period (f/u) vs. actual 334 events in 4.5 yr f/u]. Shortly thereafter, there were sufficient events to perform the first planned interim analysis of B vs. C. We present the results of each of these pairwise comparisons taking into account the potential for crossover to Arm C after the release of the joint analysis findings in 2005.Results: From 5/2000 to 4/2005, 2448 eligible women were enrolled for the Arm A (n=1087) vs. Arm B (n=1097) comparison. Median f/u is 5.5 yrs. with 386 events. The addition of trastuzumab sequentially to AC→T significantly improved DFS, univariately [HR(Arm B/Arm A)=0.70, 95% CI: 57-86%, logrank p=0.0005] and after adjusting for age, tumor size, number of positive nodes, and ER [PPH: HR adj =0.67 (95% CI: 0.55-0.82)]. 5 yr DFS was increased from 72% with AC→T to 80% with AC→T →H.From 5/2000 to 4/2005, 1903 eligible women were enrolled for the Arm B (n=954) vs. Arm C (n=949) comparison. Median f/u is 5.3 yrs. with 312 events. The log-rank p-value testing whether DFS differs with respect to starting time of trastuzumab was 0.019. [Not crossing pre-specified OFB for statistical significance]. After adjusting for tumor size, number of positive nodes, and ER, HR adj (Arm C/Arm B)=0.75 (95% CI: 0.60-0.94)]. 5 yr DFS was increased from 80% with AC→T →H to 84% for AC→T+H →H.Conclusions: DFS is significantly improved with the addition of 52 weeks of H (sequentially or concurrently) to AC→ T. There is a statistically significant 33% reduction in the risk of an event with the sequential addition of H following AC→T. There is a strong trend for a 25% reduction in the risk of an event with starting H concurrently with T relative to sequentially after T. Therefore, based on a positive risk/benefit ratio, we recommend that trastuzumab be incorporated in a concurrent fashion with T chemotherapy.Acknowledgements: NIH CA25224, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Genentech. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 80. NOTE: This abstract was accepted for presentation at the Symposium after the Abstract Book went to press.


Aggressive physical carrier sensing (PCS), which improves the spatial reuse efficiency by shrinking the PCS range, is a promising technique to scale high density wireless local area networks (WLANs). Although the aggressive PCS can improve the throughput in MAC layer due to enabling more simultaneous transmissions, it results in serious frame loss rate caused by hidden terminal problems. TCP congestion control is loss sensitive, and thus high frame loss rate degrades TCP throughput seriously. In this paper, we propose an analytical model to investigate the TCP performance with aggressive PCS, and based on the proposed model the TCP throughput is expressed as a function with respect to the PCS threshold. Numerical results show that MAC throughput efficient PCS starves the TCP throughput, and thus we should not adjust the PCS threshold to maximize the MAC capacity in TCP based applications. In addition, extensive experimental results based on StarEast testbed are given to validate the analysis.


Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of meiosis‐inhibiting‐agents and gonadotropins on nuclear maturation of canine oocytes. The culture medium was TCM199 + 10 ng/ml epidermal growth factor supplemented with 25 μM β‐mercaptoethanol, 0.25 mM pyruvate, and 1.0 mM L‐glutamine (Basal TCM). Initially, oocytes were cultured in Basal TCM alone or in Basal TCM + dibutylryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate (0.5, 1, 5, or 10 mM dbcAMP) for 24 hr. Dibutylryl cAMP inhibited resumption of meiosis in a dose‐dependent manner; 60% of oocytes remained at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage after being cultured for 24 hr in 5 mM dbcAMP. The meiosis‐inhibitory effect of dbcAMP appeared to be reversible, as the oocytes resumed meiosis and completed nuclear maturation after being cultured for an additional 48 hr in its absence. Oocytes were then cultured in Basal TCM alone or in Basal TCM + roscovitine (12.5, 25, or 50 μM) for 24 hr. Although ∼60% of oocytes cultured in 25 μM roscovitine remained at the GV stage, this percentage was not significantly different from the 48% that also remained at the GV stage when cultured in its absence. Oocytes were cultured in Basal TCM + 25 μM roscovitine for 17 hr, exposed briefly to equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG), and then cultured in Basal TCM for 48 hr. Short exposure of oocytes to eCG was beneficial, as it significantly increased the proportion of oocytes developing beyond germinal vesicle breakdown (P < 0.05) with ∼20–30% of these were metaphase I (MI) oocytes. Study of the kinetics of nuclear maturation demonstrated that large numbers of oocytes remained at MI even after being cultured for 52 hr following brief exposure to eCG. This study showed that in vitro maturation of canine oocytes can be somewhat improved by short exposure of oocytes to eCG. However, further studies are still required to derive effective methods to mature canine oocytes in vitro. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 65: 435–445, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Many radioactive material shipping packages incorporate cane fiberboard overpacks for thermal insulation and impact resistance. Mechanical, thermal and physical properties have been measured on cane fiberboard following thermal aging in several temperature/humidity environments. Several of the measured properties change significantly over time in the more severe environments, while other properties are relatively constant. These properties continue to be tracked, with the goal of developing a model for predicting a service life under long-term storage conditions.


Gross motor development in children is one of the important aspects that need to be considered by educators and parents. Children who have good gross motor skills will make it easier to get along with their friends. The children will be able to be good in the association. This research was used Class Action Research (CAR) approach by describing the motor learning process. The data collection was used observation and documentation. The rubric of children assessment contains 3 aspects of balance, Jumping (strength), and body agility, using 4 categories there are: Very Good Developing (VGD), Developing as Expected (DE), Starting to Develop (SD), Not Developing (ND), Data analysis is carried out from observations obtained through observation sheets in cycles I and II, after the data collected is to analyzed qualitatively to find out the process of action, then the data is processed using presentation techniques, the processed results are then analyzed descriptively to determine the presentation of the success of the action. The results shows that based on data analysis the results of the discussion that through motor learning methods can improve children's gross motor skills, in Pre-Action, The body balance aspects of the children, the category for VGD 10%, DE 10%, SD 5%,  and for ND 30%. The strength aspects the body of children, the category for VGD 5 %, DE 15%, SD 20%, and for ND 30%. The body agility aspects for children, the category for VGD 10 %, DE 15 %, SD 1 %, and for ND 50%. After taking action using APE in cycle I, the child's gross motor ability increased, the child increased even though it was not as expected. By finished all the weaknesses in cycle I, the action is continued to cycle II, and the results of observation in cycle II show there is a good improvement, The body balance aspects of the children VGD categories 30%, DE 45%, SD 15%, ND 10%, The strength aspects the body of childres, VGD categories 5%, DE 40%, SD 20%, ND 15 %. The body agility aspects for children,, VGD categories5%, DE 40%, SD 20%, and for ND 15 %. Peningkatan gross motor child of cycle I to cycle II, for VGD categories increased to 11,7%, for DE increased to 13,4%,for SD increased to 1,7%, for ND increased to 7,8 %.


Human-induced climate change is among the greatest threats to biodiversity, especially when coupled with habitat destruction. For an already water-stressed country like South Africa, changes in temperature and precipitation regimes, coupled with increasing water demands, are likely to lead to losses in biodiversity. Dragonflies are a well-studied surrogate taxon for aspects of freshwater biodiversity. We created species distribution models for 14 dragonfly species, and predicted the changes in species richness, extent of occurrence, and habitat suitability for the years 2050 and 2080 in South Africa, a poorly studied area for range-change predictions for insects. Model predictions for 2 different emissions scenarios suggest that at least 2 species will be lost from the area by 2050, and 3 by 2080. All are widespread Afrotropical species, but with narrow elevation ranges in South Africa. Only 1 species is predicted to benefit greatly from climate change. The remaining species are predicted to persist with reduced extents of occurrences at higher elevations. Most species we studied (12 of 14) thrive in artificial environments. Therefore, to a certain extent, loss in connectivity is unlikely to play a role for these species. However, the 2 stream specialists that occur in the area are particularly vulnerable because of loss of habitat. Species that currently occur farther north in southern Africa and South Africa also are likely to move southward in the future. Thus, species richness may not necessarily decrease, but replacement of species within communities will be significant.


The article analyses constitutional basis of professional self-regulation and features of professional self-regulation bodies as they are specified in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania. It is concluded that the constitutional basis of professional self-regulation should be further developed by referring it not only to freedom of association but also to state institutional system. In addition, it is evaluated that defined features of professional self-regulation bodies sufficiently reveal peculiarities of such bodies and allow forming the concept of such bodies that would clearly allow separating them from ordinary associations.


A BSTRACT In recent years, deep learning has been a topic of interest in almost all disciplines due to its impressive empirical success in analyzing complex data sets, such as imaging, genetics, climate, and medical data. While most of the developments are treated as black-box machines, there is an increasing interest in interpretable, reliable, and robust deep learning models applicable to a broad class of applications. Feature-selected deep learning is proven to be promising in this regard. However, the recent developments do not address the situations of ultra-high dimensional and highly correlated feature selection in addition to the high noise level. In this article, we propose a novel screening and cleaning strategy with the aid of deep learning for the cluster-level discovery of highly correlated predictors with a controlled error rate. A thorough empirical evaluation over a wide range of simulated scenarios demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method by achieving high power while having a minimal number of false discoveries. Furthermore, we implemented the algorithm in the riboflavin (vitamin B 2 ) production dataset in the context of understanding the possible genetic association with riboflavin production. The gain of the proposed methodology is illustrated by achieving lower prediction error compared to other state-of-the-art methods.


Flor-Henry's ideas may be unfamiliar to some readers. His most important contribution to knowledge was a study of epileptic psychosis, published in 1969. He found that patients with left temporal lobe epilepsy tended to have a schizophrenic picture to the psychosis while those with right-sided lesions tended to have a depressive or manic illness. This paved the way for numerous studies on lateralised hemispheric dysfunction in endogenous psychosis-clinical, pathological, radiological, electrophysiological and neuropsychological. At the present time the state of knowledge can only be described as chaotic. Flor-Henry has always championed the idea that left hemisphere dysfunction underlies schizophrenia and right hemisphere dysfunction affective disorders. This is almost certainly wrong, but Flor-Henry's importance is not his insistence on the precise form but a general appreciation that hemispheric imbalance of some sort is involved. I would strongly recommend both neurologists and psychiatrists to buy this book, though at £35. it is not cheap. It is, in my view, the first genuine attempt for 100 years to close the gap between neurology and psychiatry. It should be said that Flor-Henry is not the best advocate of his own case. He is prone to flight of ideas and overinclusion of evidence which detract from his main theme. Statements such as "One could view. hysteria as an attenuated forme fruste of schizophrenia in the female" are unsupported. He also has a tendency to misquote others' work to suit his argument. This is a pity because he only alienates the discerning reader. In my view classical schizophrenia is more likely to be an effect of right hemisphere dysfunction, and a paranoidhallucinatory psychosis caused by left temporal damage. These details are not so important at the present time as the recruitment of interest into the whole subject of hemisphere imbalance and psychosis. Flor-Henry can at least take the credit for this.


Introduction Cervical dystonia (CD), a rare disorder, is the most common form of dystonia, a movement disorder. Impairments in activities of daily living and quality of life may result from chronic pain, perceived stigma, difficulty walking, and/or lack of control over movements. Studies of treatments for difficulty walking in CD have been inconclusive. Osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) has been used to improve gait biomechanics in other health conditions. Foot progression angle (FPA) while walking indicates functional gait abnormalities that increase the risk of knee injury and osteoarthritis. Objective The aim of this study is to test if five-weekly treatments using an OMM sequence designed for CD improved abnormal gait biomechanics in individuals with CD by identifying and addressing somatic dysfunctions. Methods In this prospective case series, independently ambulating individuals with CD symptom onset before the age of 40 years, not due to traumatic injury, were evaluated utilizing validated scales for severity (Toronto western spasmodic torticollis rating scale [TWSTRsI]) and symptoms affecting quality of life (Cervical Dystonia Impact Profile [CDIP-58]), physical examination, and FPA before and after five-weekly OMM treatments. Lower body joint range of motion and angles were captured in a clinical gait lab by nine cameras collecting three-dimensional Whole-body position data during three trials of one gait cycle at participant-selected walking speed. The FPA waveforms during the gait cycle were quantified by Vicon Nexus and Polygon applications. Pretreatment and posttreatment results were compared to established healthy gait waveforms and tested by repeated measures ANOVA (α=0.05). Results Pretreatment waveforms in CD had a mean 5.13° of excess FPA during gait cycle phases requiring lower-extremity pronation compared to previously published age-gender-matched healthy waveforms. There was 96% improvement in pronation after five treatments, with a mean 0.21° (p=0.041) of excess FPA. Mean TWSTRs and CDIP-58 scores improved. On physical examination, the rotational direction of C2 vertebrae was contralateral to neck muscle hypertonicity. Vertical sphenobasilar synchondrosis strains were present in those with anterotorticollis. Participants had ipsilateral anterolateral neck muscle and anterolateral abdominal wall muscle hypertonicity. All patients had pelvic somatic dysfunctions with left-side superior relative to right-side and restriction from lower-extremity pronation (i.e., supination dysfunctions). Conclusion The FPA was significantly improved after treatment. This OMM sequence was well tolerated and may be useful for improving gait kinematics in individuals with CD. Randomized, controlled, long-term studies are needed to determine effectiveness.


Background. Remodeling of the collagens around the follicle is a major event in ovulation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the distribution of collagen I, III, and IV in the human ovary. Methods. Biopsies of the perifollicular stroma were obtained at sterilization during the preovulatory phase (follicle size >14 mm) or at any of three intervals (12–18 h after human chorionic gonadotrophin: early ovulatory phase; >18–24 h: late ovulatory phase; 44–77 h: postovulatory phase) after human chorionic gonadotrophin. Excised dominant follicles and whole ovarian sections were also obtained. Immunohistochemistry using antibodies against collagen I, III, IV, vimentin, and CD 45 was performed. Results and conclusions. Collagens I and III were distributed in concentric layers in the capsular stroma with bundles of collagens connecting these layers to form a mesh. Collagen I was present in larger quantities in the outer layers and collagen III showed the inverse distribution. In the theca, collagen I was present in the externa and collagen III in the entire layer. The staining intensity of collagens I and III in the perifollicular stroma decreased from the preovulatory stage. Collagen IV was present in the basal lamina separating granulosa and theca cells. This study shows that collagen I and III are abundant in and around the ovulating human follicle with typical patterns of distribution. Collagen IV is present in the basal membrane that separates the granulosa from the theca cells. Taking into account the abundance of collagens in the follicular wall and their specific localization, major site‐directed degradation of collagens seems to be necessary for follicular rupture to occur.


Recent advances have enabled automatic sound recognition systems for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) users on mobile devices. However, these tools use pre-trained, generic sound recognition models, which do not meet the diverse needs of DHH users. We introduce ProtoSound, an interactive system for customizing sound recognition models by recording a few examples, thereby enabling personalized and fine-grained categories. ProtoSound is motivated by prior work examining sound awareness needs of DHH people and by a survey we conducted with 472 DHH participants. To evaluate ProtoSound, we characterized performance on two real-world sound datasets, showing significant improvement over state-of-the-art (e.g., +9.7% accuracy on the first dataset). We then deployed ProtoSound's end-user training and real-time recognition through a mobile application and recruited 19 hearing participants who listened to the real-world sounds and rated the accuracy across 56 locations (e.g., homes, restaurants, parks). Results show that ProtoSound personalized the model on-device in real-time and accurately learned sounds across diverse acoustic contexts. We close by discussing open challenges in personalizable sound recognition, including the need for better recording interfaces and algorithmic improvements.


We examine the complete dataset of baby name popularity collected by U.S. Social Security Administration for the last 131 years (1880–2010). The ranked baby name popularity can be fitted empirically by a piecewise function consisting of Beta function for the high-ranking names and power-law function for low-ranking names, but not power-law (Zipf's law) or Beta function by itself. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity, 2012 © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Ample clinical and epidemiologic evidence exists to implicate homocyst(e)ine as a risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular disease and thrombosis. The precise mechanisms by which this occurs are uncertain but probably involve injury to endothelium, impairment of endothelial function, lipid peroxidation, oxidation of low-density lipoprotein, and creation of a prothrombotic environment in areas of endothelial injury. Plasma homocyst(e)ine concentration (PHC) can be effectively reduced with oral administration of folic acid. Whether vitamins B6 and B12 are also required in the absence of vitamin deficiency remains uncertain. Studies currently in progress may help to determine whether reduction of PHC will translate into a decrease in clinical vascular events.


Background. Late-life depression is associated with increased subcortical white matter hyper-intensities. There is some evidence that they are associated with a poorer response to acute treatment. Neurological signs and neuropsychological dysfunction are further evidence of abnormalities in the brain, but they have not been studied in relation to therapy resistance. Methods. A prospective study of 24 normal controls and 75 consecutive elderly (aged 65 to 85) patients with DSM-III-R major depression entered a naturalistic study of treatment. Assessment of response to monotherapy and then lithium augmentation or ECT created three outcome groups. Investigations included magnetic resonance brain imaging, neuropsychological and neurological examination. Results. Response to monotherapy within 12 weeks was shown by 42·7%, a further 37·3% responded to lithium augmentation or ECT within 24 weeks and 20% had responded poorly to all treatments at 24 weeks. Subcortical hyperintensities were significantly increased in the more resistant patients. These included confluent deep white matter, multiple (>5) basal ganglia lesions and pontine reticular formation lesions. Most of the neuropsychological impairment was restricted to the resistant groups and was of a subcortico-frontal type. Extrapyramidal, frontal and pyramidal neurological signs characterized the resistant groups. The combination of extrapyramidal signs, pyramidal tract signs and impairment of motor hand sequencing strongly predicted resistance to 12 weeks of antidepressant monotherapy with 89% sensitivity and 95% specificity. Conclusion. In late-life depression a poor response to antidepressant monotherapy can be expected in those patients with a frontal lobe syndrome, extrapyramidal signs or if MRI T2-weighted lesions are present in both the basal ganglia and the pontine reticular formation.


This study compared the white blood cell (WBC) and red blood cell (RBC) counts obtained with the Cell-Dyn 3200 (CD 3200) with results obtained by hemocytometer, the reference method for counting cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and other body fluid specimens. Ninety-six CSF and 65 body fluid specimens were evaluated. Background counts were maintained on the CD 3200 at 0.001 x 10(9)/L and 0.00 x 10(12)/L for WBC and RBC counts, respectively. Linearity and precision were acceptable for both the total nucleated cell (TNC) count and the RBC count. The CD 3200 WBC optical count was correlated with the TNC count obtained by the manual reference method for CSF specimens across the range of 0 x 10(9 )/L to 7.863 x 10(9)/L (r2 = 0.9867) and for body fluid specimens across the range of 0 x 10(9)/L to 14.0 x 10(9)/L (r2 = 0.9955). An r2 value of 0.9016 was obtained for the 82 CSF specimens with manual TNC counts of <0.200 x 10(9)/L. Analysis of the CSF and body fluid specimens indicated that automated RBC counts could be reported at > or = 0.003 x 10(12)/L. In this study, 7 CSF and 30 body fluid specimens had RBC counts of >0.003 x 10(12)/L, and there was good agreement with manual RBC counts, with r2 values of 0.9893 and 0.9960 obtained for CSF and other body fluids, respectively. The CD 3200 in our experience has a lower reportable range than the ranges of most automated cell counters reported in the literature. In contrast to the only other instrument with comparable reportable ranges, the CD 3200 requires a smaller sample volume without any special sample preparation, reagents, or software. By using the CD 3200 with our laboratory-specific rules for agreement between duplicate counts, we would be able to reduce our manual CSF specimen counts from 192 TNC and 192 RBC counts to 2 TNC and 178 RBC counts. For body fluid specimens, our manual counts would be reduced from 130 TNC and 130 RBC counts to 10 TNC and 4 RBC counts.


Recent evidence suggests that altered responses to affective touch - a pleasant interoceptive stimulus associated with activation of the C-Tactile (CT) system, may contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of mental conditions characterised by body image disturbances (e.g., Anorexia Nervosa). Here, we investigated whether tactile pleasantness and intensity differ across body sites, and if individual differences in dysmorphic appearance concerns and body awareness might be associated to touch perceptions across body sites. To this end, we measured perceived pleasantness and intensity of gentle, dynamic stroking touches applied to the palm, forearm, face, abdomen and back of 30 female participants (mean age: 25.87±1.17yrs) using CT-optimal (3 cm/s) and non-CT optimal (0.3 and 30 cm/s) stroking touch. As expected, participants rated CT-targeted touch as more pleasant compared to the two non-CT optimal stroking touch at all body sites. Nevertheless, CT-targeted touch applied to the abdomen elicited the lowest pleasantness ratings compared to all other body sites and to the two non-CT optimal stroking touch. Individual differences in body awareness and dysmorphic concerns significantly predicted preference for CT-optimal over non-CT optimal stroking touch applied to the forearm and the back. These findings begin to elucidate the link between CT sensitivity, dysmorphic appearance concerns and body awareness, which may have implications for future research looking to inform early interventions. Addressing impaired processing of affective interoceptive stimuli, such as CT-targeted touch, may be the key to current treatment approaches available for those populations at risk of disorders characterised by body image disturbance.


Aim: microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in many malignancies. Our aim was to identify specific miRNAs that can predict risk of relapse in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients treated on BFM protocols, better than the current risk group stratification. Currently, the main method for risk group stratification is based on the amount of minimal residual disease (MRD) assessed at specific time points by real time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR). Material and methods: Following microRNA expression analysis, we decided to focus on miR-151-5p and miR-451 that significantly correlated with known prognostic factors in ALL. Validation was performed by measuring the expression levels of miR-151-5p and miR-451 by RQ- PCR on a cohort of B-lineage ALL patients treated by a Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster (BFM) protocol following exclusion of Philadelphia positive patients (n=123). Results: Low expression of miR-151-5p, miR-451 or of both together resulted in significantly worse relapse free survival (RFS) (61%, 64% and 43%, respectively) compared to RFS rates when either or both miRNAs were highly expressed (83%, 82% and 82%, respectively) (p=0.023, 0.03 and 0.0001, respectively). Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified low expression of both miRNAs as an independent prognostic marker. Patients expressing low expression levels of both miRs had a 8.8-fold increased risk for relapse (p=0.003). Deletion of IKZF1 gene is a known adverse prognostic marker in B-lineage ALL. In 88 patients, IKZF1 status was analyzed and 9 patients were found to harbor the deletion. The expression of both miRs could still identify an adverse group of patients with only 50% RFS within the group with no deletion (p Even in a non-BFM treated B-lineage ALL cohort from The Netherlands, the expression levels of both miRs significantly correlated with outcome (p=0.003). Conclusion: Our results identify miR-151-5p and miR-451 as novel biomarkers for outcome in pediatric B-lineage ALL patients, regardless of treatment protocol. This may lead to improved risk group stratification and better RFS. Citation Format: Smadar Avigad, Iedan RN Verly, Gertjan JL Kaspers, Jacqueline Cloos, Anat Ohali, Michal Hameiri-Grossman, Keren Shichrur, Eva Fronkova, Jan Trka, Drorit Luria, Yona Kodman, Hadar Mirsky, Dafna Gaash, Marta Jeison, Galia Avrahami, Sarah Elitzur, Gil Gilad, Batia Stark, Isaac Yaniv. Increased risk of relapse in non-high-risk children with pediatric B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia can be predicted at diagnosis by microRNA expression. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pediatric Cancer at the Crossroads: Translating Discovery into Improved Outcomes; Nov 3-6, 2013; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;74(20 Suppl):Abstract nr B34.


(1) Background: Coronary angiography is considered to be the most reliable method for the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. However, angiography is an invasive procedure that carries a risk of complications; hence, it would be preferable for an appropriate method to be applied to determine the necessity for angiography. The objective of this study was to compare support vector machine, naïve Bayes and logistic regressions to determine the diagnostic factors that can predict the need for coronary angiography. These models are machine learning algorithms. Machine learning is considered to be a branch of artificial intelligence. Its aims are to design and develop algorithms that allow computers to improve their performance on data analysis and decision making. The process involves the analysis of past experiences to find practical and helpful regularities and patterns, which may also be overlooked by a human. (2) Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 1187 candidates for angiography referred to Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran from 2011 to 2012. A logistic regression, naive Bayes and support vector machine were applied to determine whether they could predict the results of angiography. Afterwards, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, AUC (area under the curve) and accuracy of all three models were computed in order to compare them. All analyses were performed using R 3.4.3 software (R Core Team; Auckland, New Zealand) with the help of other software packages including receiver operating characteristic (ROC), caret, e1071 and rminer. (3) Results: The area under the curve for logistic regression, naïve Bayes and support vector machine were similar—0.76, 0.74 and 0.75, respectively. Thus, in terms of the model parsimony and simplicity of application, the naïve Bayes model with three variables had the best performance in comparison with the logistic regression model with seven variables and support vector machine with six variables. (4) Conclusions: Gender, age and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were found to be the most important factors to predict the result of coronary angiography. The naïve Bayes model performed well using these three variables alone, and they are considered important variables for the other two models as well. According to an acceptable prediction of the models, they can be used as pragmatic, cost-effective and valuable methods that support physicians in decision making.


The oxygen in our atmosphere is derived from and maintained by the water-splitting process of photosynthesis. The enzyme that facilitates this reaction and therefore underpins virtually all life on our planet is known as photosystem II (PSII). It is a multisubunit enzyme embedded in the lipid environment of the thylakoid membranes of plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Powered by light, PSII catalyzes the chemically and thermodynamically demanding reaction of water splitting. In so doing, it releases molecular oxygen into the atmosphere and provides the reducing equivalents required for the conversion of carbon dioxide into the organic molecules of life. Recently, a fully refined structure of an isolated 700 kDa cyanobacterial dimeric PSII complex was elucidated by X-ray crystallography, which gave organizational and structural details of the 19 subunits (16 intrinsic and 3 extrinsic) that make up each monomer and provided information about the position and protein environments of the many different cofactors it binds. The water-splitting site was revealed as a cluster of four Mn ions and a Ca ion surrounded by amino acid side chains, of which six or seven form direct ligands to the metals. The metal cluster was originally modeled as a cubane-like structure composed of three Mn ions and the Ca (2+) linked by oxo bonds and the fourth Mn attached to the cubane via one of its O atoms. New data from X-ray diffraction and X-ray spectroscopy suggest some alternative arrangements. Nevertheless, all of the models are sufficiently similar to provide a basis for discussing the chemistry by which PSII splits water and makes oxygen.


A process evaluation enables understanding of critical issues that can inform the improved, ongoing implementation of an intervention programme. This study describes the process evaluation of a comprehensive, multi-level injury prevention programme for adolescents. The programme targets change in injury associated with violence, transport and alcohol risks and incorporates two primary elements: an 8-week, teacher delivered attitude and behaviour change curriculum for Grade 8 students; and a professional development programme for teachers on school level methods of protection, focusing on strategies to increase students' connectedness to school. A comprehensive process evaluation methodology was used, including assessments of dose, adherence, quality of process and participant responsiveness with teachers and Grade 8 students at four Australian high schools. Programme dose, adherence and quality of curriculum delivery were assessed through independent observations. The observer also rated the degree to which teachers used connectedness strategies in class, following participation in professional development. Teachers' responsiveness to the professional development element was assessed through surveys immediately following the training, and through focus groups for in-depth information. Student focus groups also enabled insight into their responsiveness to the programme and their perceptions of teachers' use of connectedness strategies. The results of this research provide an understanding of the application of a process evaluation to a comprehensive injury prevention programme and enable insight into the means by which the programme may be better implemented to maximise effect and sustainability. The findings also provide insight into the potential value of school connectedness in adolescent injury prevention.


G protein-coupled inwardly rectifying K+ channels (GIRK) play a major role in inhibitory signaling in excitable and endocrine tissues. The gating mechanism of these channels is mediated by a direct interaction of the Gβγ subunits of G protein, which are released upon inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor activation. This gating mechanism is further manifested by intracellular factors such as anionic phospholipids and Na+ and Mg2+ ions. In addition to the essential role of these components for channel function, phosphorylation events can also modulate channel activity. In this study we explored the involvement of redox modulation on GIRK channel function. Extracellular application of the reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT), but not reduced glutathione, activated GIRK channels without affecting their permeation or rectification properties. The DTT-dependent activation was found to mimic receptor activation and to act directly on the channel in a membrane delimited fashion. A critical cysteine residue located in the N-terminal cytoplasmic domain was found to be essential for DTT-dependent activation in hetero- and homotetrameric contexts. Interestingly, when mutating this cysteine residue, DTT-dependent activation was abolished, but receptor-mediated channel activation was not affected. These results suggest that intracellular redox potential can play a major role in tuning GIRK channel activity in a receptor-independent manner. This sort of redox modulation can be part of an important cellular protective mechanism against ischemic or hypoxic insults.