Contrastive learning has been applied successfully to learn numerical vector representations of various forms of data, such as texts and images. Learned encoders exhibit versatile transfer capabilities to many downstream tasks. Representation based search is highly efficient with state-of-the-art performance. Previous researches demonstrated that learning high-quality representations requires a large number of negatives in contrastive loss. In practice, the technique of in-batch negative is used, where for each example in a batch, other batch examples' positives will be taken as its negatives, avoiding encoding extra negatives. This, however, still conditions each example's loss on all batch examples and requires fitting the entire large batch into GPU memory. This paper introduces a re-computation technique that decou-ples back propagation between contrastive loss and the encoder, removing encoder backward pass data dependency along the batch dimension. As a result, gradients can be computed for one subset of the batch at a time, leading to an almost constant peak GPU memory usage for batches of different sizes.


ABSTRACT Interprofessional collaboration is understood to improve efficiencies and quality of care but is associated with challenges such as professionals' differing routines, knowledge, and identities, as well as professional hierarchies and time constraints. Given these challenges, there is limited understanding of how professionals collaborate effectively in providing patient-centred care. This study, with a convergence triangulation mixed-methods study design, explored interprofessional staffs' perceptions of interprofessional collaboration and patient-centred care when working with hospitalized older adults. Thirty-six staff responded to a survey which included the Patient-Centred Care measure and the Modified Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration; we also interviewed 14 nursing staff. Although all scores suggested a high value was placed on interprofessional collaboration, scores were low related to activities that facilitated team processes. We identified three themes from the data: knowing the patient/family, functional needs, and communication processes. Staff identified daily rounds with interprofessional teams as supportive of interprofessional collaboration and patient-centred-care.


This article seeks to review and analyze the contribution and impact of supply chain and safety, based on the adoption of International Standard ISO 28001:2007, as a strategy to improve competitiveness and linkage to international markets for Colombian coal. To achieve this goal, we review books, reports and articles, covering from the description of the mining sector in Colombia to supply chain concepts and structure in the coal sector to analyze the impact of ISO 28001:2007 in the competitiveness of this sector. Once developed the article, you get that security in the supply chain is a strategy that can contribute to competitiveness in the Colombian mining sector, but its implementation requires the company to structure and coordinate well the actors and process that make up the chain in Colombia and World.


This article is a product of a nine-month training and application program implemented by the micro component of the Economic and Social Impact Analysis/Women in Development (ESIA/WID) and the Food Systems Program of the East-West Center Resource Systems Institute (RSI). It reviews the existing reports, records and studies related to water sector. Findings show basic unit being directly proportional to cash requirements of the water district but inversely proportional to the number of its connectors.


A new state contractive constraint-based predictive control (SCC-MPC) scheme was proposed in this paper. This model predictive control algorithm consists of a basic finite horizon MPC technique and an additional state contractive constraint. The crucial function of the additional state contractive constraint in SCC-MPC is to guarantee the stability of the control scheme. The nominal stability and robust stability of SCC-MPC scheme were analyzed and proved respectively. In our research, the new model predictive control scheme was applied to multi-area load frequency control (LFC). Simulation results show the performance of the scheme. When the areas suffer from load disturbances, the frequency variations and the deviation of power flow between areas go to zero by using SCC-MPC scheme.


The insulin response after a glucose challenge was studied in 11 male patients with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) and in 8 age, sex and weight matched controls. There was significant hyperinsulinemia in the DISH group, most marked at 2 h after the glucose challenge. Growth hormone levels were found to be normal in each group. The marked hyperinsulinemia in patients with DISH may play a role in the pathogenesis of this condition.


We report a combinatorial synthesis study on the magnetic properties of sputter-deposited Co/Pd multilayers with high perpendicular anisotropy and high remnant squareness for magnetic media applications such as magnetic logic systems, bit patterned media, magneto-optical recording, and multilevel three-dimensional (3D) magnetic media. The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in the multilayers originates from the interfacial anisotropy of the alloylike structure. The deposition conditions and subsequent microstructures of the multilayers are critical factors to determine the magnetic properties of the media. We investigated the dependence of the magnetic properties on the thickness of Co and Pd layers the number of Co/Pd bilayers. For instance, we found that a 0.26-nm-thick layer of Co would produce the highest coercivity value if paired with a 0.55-nm-thick Pd layer. Our results revealed that an Ar+ milling could significantly increase the coercivity of the multilayer media. Further, we discovered that we c...


Abstract This paper presents a description of new gastropods belonging to the superfamily Porcellioidea (Vetigastropoda) from the richly diverse Lower Devonian gastropod fauna of the Road River Formation in the Royal Creek area, Yukon Territory. This fauna belongs to Western Canada Province of the Old World Realm. The Pragian species Porcellia (Porcellia) yukonensis n. sp. and Porcellia (Paraporcellia) sp. represent the oldest presently known members of subgenera Porcellia (Porcellia) and Porcellia (Paraporcellia). Their simple shell ornamentation fits well with an earlier described evolutionary trend in shell morphology of the Porcellinae. Late Pragian to early Emsian Perryconcha pulchra n. gen. and n. sp. is the first member of the Porcellioidea bearing a row of tremata on adult teleoconch whorls. The occurrence of this shell feature in the Porcellioidea is additional evidence that the evolution of the apertural slit was much more complicated than has been proposed in classical models of Paleozoic gastropod evolution.


A molecular model of poorly understood hydrophobic effects is heuristically developed using the methods of information theory. Because primitive hydrophobic effects can be tied to the probability of observing a molecular-sized cavity in the solvent, the probability distribution of the number of solvent centers in a cavity volume is modeled on the basis of the two moments available from the density and radial distribution of oxygen atoms in liquid water. The modeled distribution then yields the probability that no solvent centers are found in the cavity volume. This model is shown to account quantitatively for the central hydrophobic phenomena of cavity formation and association of inert gas solutes. The connection of information theory to statistical thermodynamics provides a basis for clarification of hydrophobic effects. The simplicity and flexibility of the approach suggest that it should permit applications to conformational equilibria of nonpolar solutes and hydrophobic residues in biopolymers.


Constructional radiation protection of X-ray examination rooms is perfectly settled by DIN 6812. The present study was intended to ascertain safe handling of X-rays in the surgical room. The measuring technique with LiF-dosimeters is described, and its results concerning the load to surgical personnel are communicated. Though, with frequent operations, the monthly turn-on time does not exceed thirty hours according to DIN 6811, the maximum permissible individual dose, nevertheless, will be exceeded. A practical representation of radiation load as a function of the turn-on time will facilitate to surgical personnel the estimation of dose. Then, spatial isodoses are shown by means of which the necessary protection equivalent of the building can be calculated. Even the minimum demand for a limitation of the controlled area to the surgical room does require lead-equivalent protection if the surgical room is small.


Going beyond the debate between positivists and proponents of natural law, there is a controversy over whether there can or ought to be "philosophy in law" ( i.e., whether anything within the subject-matter of philosophy can also become part of the subject-matter of law). According to Luhmann's autopoietic theory, law is a normatively closed system and accordingly remains completely independent from philosophy. Dworkin, on the other hand, asserts that constitutional law depends for its coherence and integrity on being encompassed within a particular political philosophy. This essay approaches "philosophy in law' from a functional rather than a legitimating perspective, and concludes against both Luhmann and Dworkin that the integration of philosophy in law is interstitial and limited. The consequence of this for law's validity and legitimacy is a likely increase in contestation and contestability. The essay concludes that by embracing pluralism as a philosophy, one can reduce and better manage contestability without ever becoming able to eliminate it.


As software development becomes more collaborative, business and technical processes of software engineering and their management need to accommodate and support collaboration. In this paper we briefly survey key concerns, known challenges, and potential alternative solutions. We draw on lessons learned from software process models, organizational behaviour and knowledge management and their relevance to collaborative software development. We suggest elements of the solution to the problem of managing business and technical processes with software development in inter-organizational context.


Abstract 1. Cefadroxil is a broad-spectrum β-lactam antibiotic that is widely used in the treatment of various infectious diseases. Currently, poor understanding of the drug's pharmacokinetic profiles and disposition mechanism(s) prevents determining optimal dosage regimens and achieving ideal antibacterial responses in patients. In the present retrospective study, we developed a population pharmacokinetic model of cefadroxil in wild-type and Pept2 knockout mice using the nonlinear mixed effect modeling (NONMEM) approach. 2. Cefadroxil pharmacokinetics were best described by a two-compartment model, with both saturable and nonsaturable elimination processes to/from the central compartment. Through this modeling approach, pharmacokinetic parameters in wild-type and Pept2 knockout mice were well estimated, respectively, as follows: volume of central compartment V1 (3.43 versus 4.23 mL), volume of peripheral compartment V2 (5.98 versus 8.61 mL), intercompartment clearance Q (0.599 versus 0.586 mL/min) and linear elimination rate constant K10 (0.111 versus 0.070 min−1). Moreover, the secretion kinetics (i.e. Vm1 = 17.6 nmoL/min and Km1 = 37.1 µM) and reabsorption kinetics (i.e. Vm2 = 15.0 nmoL/min and Km2 = 27.1 µM) of cefadroxil were quantified in kidney, for the first time, under in vivo conditions. 3. Our model provides a unique tool to quantitatively predict the dose-dependent nonlinear disposition of cefadroxil, as well as the potential for transporter-mediated drug interactions.


I present a personal vision of what is essential in the field of neutrino mass, both from the point of view of what has been achieved and what could lie ahead. In the process, I offer a logical, theoretical and phenomenological rationale behind my opinions. It is however neither a summary of what was discussed in the conference nor a party-line viewpoint, rather an attempt to dig through the enormous body of material in our field in order to uncover a common unifying thread. The main focus is on the search for a predictive and self-contained theory of the origin and nature of neutrino mass, with the conclusion that the left–right symmetric model plays a special role in this aspect.


The incidence of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) has been shown to be high posttransplantation in the absence of prophylaxis. For this reason, lung transplant recipients routinely receive prophylaxis. We report on our results using aerosolized pentamidine prophylaxis in nine patients post-lung transplantation (eight single lung transplants, one double). The patients received monthly treatments of 300 mg of aerosolized pentamidine for a mean of 10.6 months (range, 4 to 21 months). Patients were routinely monitored with serial pulmonary function studies and bronchoscopy as clinically indicated. Two of the patients experienced bronchospasm in response to the therapy. None of the patients experienced any episodes of PCP during the period of inhaled pentamidine prophylaxis. Inhaled pentamidine is a safe and effective form of PCP prophylaxis and may be used instead of sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim in patients who have a sulfa allergy or other untoward sulfa side effects.


Crack formation in concrete is common, but a typical phenomenon related to durability. Percolation of cracks may lead to leakage problems or ingress of deleterious materials, causing deterioration of the concrete matrix or corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement. Durability can be enhanced by preventing further ingress of water and other substances. In recent years a bacteria-based self-healing concrete is being developed to extend the service life. A two component healing agent is added to the concrete mixture. The agent consists of bacteria and an organic mineral precursor compound. Whenever cracks occur and water is present the bacteria become active and convert the incorporated organic compounds into calcium carbonate, which precipitates and is able to seal and block cracks. This paper aims to review the development of bacteria-based self-healing concrete, introducing the proposed healing system. Different stages in the development are discussed, and some recommendations for further research are given.


Living with Peril explains in detail how the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations adapted to the reality of a Soviet nuclear force capable of destroying the United States and against which there was no effective defense. Wenger illuminates the development, implementation, and evolution of U.S. government policies designed to avoid war and to respond to the vulnerability of nuclear destruction. Drawing from a wealth of sources, Wenger provides an insightful and original perspective on the origins of Cold War nuclear diplomacy.


We investigated how an internal model is generalized when the dynamics of the arm is changed during reaching movements in a force field. We also investigated whether generalization occurs in intrinsic or extrinsic coordinates. Three regions of the workspace were used to train and test the subjects: Left, Right and Center. The subjects were trained in one region with a force field and then were tested in another region with the same force field. The results show substantial generalization in reaching movements when the applied force field is in joint-based (intrinsic) coordinates.


This paper proposes the use of a resonant pole inverter (RPI) as the control circuit to drive the data electrodes of an ac plasma display panel (PDP). This new application of RPI simplifies the circuit design by using fewer components, and has lower power losses than conventional driver circuits. The circuit employs two resonant MOSFETs and zero-voltage-switching technique to generate an asymmetric pulse train with moderate rising and falling time to drive the data electrodes of a PDP. The circuit also recovers the reactive energy from the PDP, like conventional energy recovery circuits. Power losses are further reduced by adding a dc offset voltage to the pulse train. The power consumptions of different driving circuits are assessed. The proposed circuit is tested on a dual-scan 42-in SVGA ac plasma display panel and is found to be practical.


This study aims to examine the contribution of morphological awareness to second language (L2) Chinese reading comprehension through potential mediating factors. Adult L2 Chinese learners (n = 447) participated in the study and completed two morphological awareness tasks (segmentation and discrimination), two vocabulary knowledge tasks (character knowledge and word-meaning knowledge), one lexical inference task, and one reading comprehension task. By testing alternative path models, this study identified the preferred model assuming the covariates of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge jointly contributed to L2 Chinese reading comprehension through lexical inference. The written modality of morphological awareness induced the activation of both morphological and orthographic information in print. The result suggests that morphological awareness (in the form of grapho-morphological knowledge) and vocabulary knowledge seem to be two parallel components under the same construct predicting Chinese reading comprehension. More importantly, this study underscores the intermediary effect of lexical inference in associating morphological awareness and reading comprehension in L2 Chinese learners.


In an organizational context autonomous agents consist of groups of people, machines, robots, and/or guided vehicles tied by the flow of information between an agent and its external environment as well as within an agent. Mathematical modeling is used to evaluate such an information flow. The evaluation of an information flow is performed for different types of external and internal environments. Two major cases are taken into account, i.e., static and dynamic processes describing the external environment. Only actions that are described by real numbers and utility functions that are twice differentiable are considered. The results of the model-based evaluation of an information flow in different decision situations are formulated as IF...AND...THEN rules that provide some useful knowledge about autonomous agents functioning. To support the development of a bridge between the distributed systems and artificial intelligence, an approach is suggested that combines knowledge expressed by traditional IF...THEN rules with machine learning technique based on the training of a neural network. A three-layer neural configuration is used. The concepts included are illustrated with examples providing interpretation and relation to real situations. >


This article examines the role of black, minority ethnic and refugee (BMER) communities in the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy in London. Although recent government policy in health and social care has highlighted the need for local partnerships across sectors to deliver improved healthcare and reduce health inequalities, there has been limited research on dementia in minority ethnic groups. Despite the cosmopolitan mix of the capital's population, BMER communities have historically been marginalised from strategic health initiatives. This article highlights the work undertakenby the London Region Dementia Implementation Task Group to support commissioner engagement with BMER communities in planning dementia services, and to help these communities to have more influence on the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy in London. The potential health access and economic risks of failing to improve the involvement of BMER communities in planning dementia care are outlined.


This study addresses the microbiology of a natural ecosystem (the infant bowel) for children in a rural setting in Indonesia and in an urban environment in New Zealand. Analysis of DNA sequences generated from the microbial community (microbiota) in the feces of the infants during the first year of life showed marked differences in the composition and complexity of the bacterial collections. The differences were most likely due to differences in the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding of infants in the two countries. These kinds of studies are essential for developing concepts of microbial ecology related to the influence of nutrition and environment on the development of the gut microbiota and for determining the long-term effects of microbiological events in early life on human health and well-being. ABSTRACT The biological succession that occurs during the first year of life in the gut of infants in Western countries is broadly predictable in terms of the increasing complexity of the composition of microbiotas. Less information is available about microbiotas in Asian countries, where environmental, nutritional, and cultural influences may differentially affect the composition and development of the microbial community. We compared the fecal microbiotas of Indonesian (n = 204) and New Zealand (NZ) (n = 74) infants 6 to 7 months and 12 months of age. Comparisons were made by analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences and derivation of community diversity metrics, relative abundances of bacterial families, enterotypes, and cooccurrence correlation networks. Abundances of Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis and B. longum subsp. longum were determined by quantitative PCR. All observations supported the view that the Indonesian and NZ infant microbiotas developed in complexity over time, but the changes were much greater for NZ infants. B. longum subsp. infantis dominated the microbiotas of Indonesian children, whereas B. longum subsp. longum was dominant in NZ children. Network analysis showed that the niche model (in which trophic adaptation results in preferential colonization) of the assemblage of microbiotas was supported in Indonesian infants, whereas the neutral (stochastic) model was supported by the development of the microbiotas of NZ infants. The results of the study show that the development of the fecal microbiota is not the same for infants in all countries, and they point to the necessity of obtaining a better understanding of the factors that control the colonization of the gut in early life. IMPORTANCE This study addresses the microbiology of a natural ecosystem (the infant bowel) for children in a rural setting in Indonesia and in an urban environment in New Zealand. Analysis of DNA sequences generated from the microbial community (microbiota) in the feces of the infants during the first year of life showed marked differences in the composition and complexity of the bacterial collections. The differences were most likely due to differences in the prevalence and duration of breastfeeding of infants in the two countries. These kinds of studies are essential for developing concepts of microbial ecology related to the influence of nutrition and environment on the development of the gut microbiota and for determining the long-term effects of microbiological events in early life on human health and well-being.


This study aims to establish whether any correlation exists between (1) students' reading habits, (2) knowledge of grammar, (3) creative thinking, and (4) academic writing. This study assessed 69 students from the English Department at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Sciences (FKIP), Bengkulu University, Indonesia, with them being selected through proportional random sampling as subjects for the study. A survey with test and questionnaire techniques was employed to collect data, which was then analyzed through multiple regression and correlation analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that positive correlations exist between (1) students' reading habits and learning outcomes for academic writing, (2) knowledge of grammar and learning outcomes for academic writing, (3) creative thinking and learning outcomes for academic writing, and (4) students' reading habits, knowledge of grammar, and creative thinking on the one hand, and student's learning outcomes for academic writing on the other hand.


The preparation of 6-spin-labeled codeine and morphine is described. Treatment of either 6-chlorocodide or 8-bromocodide with 4-amino-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidino-1-oxyl free radical in dimethylformamide afforded 6-spin-labeled codeine. Similar treatment of 6-chloromorphide afforded 6-spin-labeled morphine. Exclusive formation of the 6-isomer in these reactions is explained by halide-ion-catalyzed isomerization of the 6-halo opiate to the 8-halo isomer followed by a normal SN2' displacement of the halogen. Both spin-labeled compounds displayed weak in vivo analgesic activity and did not bind appreciably to receptors in brain homogenate.


The aim of the present study was to identify the mechanisms involved in the reduction of TSH secretion during prolonged food restriction. The basal TSH secretion rate, the TSH secreted in response to TRH, both in vivo and in vitro, and the TSH, nuclear T3, and plasma membrane TRH binding sites in the pituitary were determined in rats receiving 75% (FR75), 50% (FR50) and 25% (FR25) of the food consumed by the ad libitum fed rats (controls). The basal TSH secretion rate (microgram.h-1.(100 g)-1) in FR75, FR50 and FR25 groups were decreased by 19, 42 and 74% of control values, respectively, whereas the TSH secreted in response to TRH in vivo and in vitro was reduced by 21 and 13% in FR50, and 55 and 44% in FR25, respectively, of the corresponding control values. Food restriction increased the TRH binding sites from 229 in controls to 322, 479 and 521 (fmol/mg protein), in FR75, FR50 and FR25 groups, respectively, whereas the opposite was seen in nuclear T3(controls 862, FR75 841, FR50 342 FR25 233 fmol/mg DNA). Moreover, a decrease in the pituitary TSH concentration was observed in FR50 and FR25 rats. The data suggest that an alteration in the amount of TRH reaching the pituitary gland is probably the main responsible for the low plasma TSH values during food restriction. However, an inhibitory effect at the pituitary level cannot be ruled out.


Vitamin E is a group of isoprenoid chromanols with different biological activities. It comprises eight oil-soluble compounds: four tocopherols, namely, α-, β-, γ-, and δ-tocopherols; and four tocotrienols, namely, α-, β-, γ, and δ-tocotrienols. Vitamin E isomers are well-known for their antioxidant activity, gene-regulation effects, and anti-inflammatory and nephroprotective properties. Considering that vitamin E is exclusively synthesized by photosynthetic organisms, animals can only acquire it through their diet. Plant-based food is the primary source of vitamin E; hence, oils, nuts, fruits, and vegetables with high contents of vitamin E are mostly consumed after processing, including industrial processes and home-cooking, which involve vitamin E profile and content alteration during their preparation. Accordingly, it is essential to identify the vitamin E content and profile in foodstuff to match daily intake requirements. This review summarizes recent advances in vitamin E chemistry, metabolism and metabolites, current knowledge on their contents and profiles in raw and processed plant foods, and finally, their modern developments in analytical methods.


The effects of remote nitrogen plasma and nitrogen plasma on medical PVC's surface modification are studied. The surface properties are characterized by the contact angle measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Results show that the remote nitrogen plasma treatments modify the PVC surface in both morphology and composition and the treatment by the remote nitrogen plasma in PVC surface modification is more effective than that by the nitrogen plasma. Remote nitrogen plasma can modify the surface more uniformly. After the PVC surface is treated for 2 min by remote nitrogen plasma, the [w(O)+ w(N)]/w(C)] value increases from 0.13 to 0.51 and the water contact angle decreases from 89o to 18o.


Background— Pericardial fat has been implicated in the pathogenesis of obesity-related cardiovascular disease. Whether the associations of pericardial fat and measures of cardiac structure and function are independent of the systemic effects of obesity and visceral adiposity has not been fully explored. Methods and Results— Participants from the Framingham Heart Study (n=997; 54.4% women) underwent chest and abdominal computed tomography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging between 2002 and 2005. Pericardial fat, intrathoracic fat, and visceral adipose tissue quantified from multidetector computed tomography, along with body mass index and waist circumference, were examined in relation to cardiovascular magnetic resonance measures of left ventricular (LV) mass, LV end-diastolic volume, and left atrial dimension. In women, pericardial fat (r=0.20 to 0.35, P<0.001), intrathoracic fat (r=0.25 to 0.37, P<0.001), visceral adipose tissue (r=0.24 to 0.45, P<0.001), body mass index (r=0.36 to 0.53, P<0.001), and waist circumference (r=0.30 to 0.48, P<0.001) were directly correlated with LV mass, LV end-diastolic volume, and left atrial dimension. In men, pericardial fat (r=0.19 to 0.37, P<0.001), intrathoracic fat (r=0.17 to 0.31, P<0.001), visceral adipose tissue (r=0.19 to 0.36, P<0.001), body mass index (r=0.32 to 0.44, P<0.001), and waist circumference (r=0.34 to 0.44, P<0.001) were directly correlated with LV mass and left atrial dimension, but LV end-diastolic volume was not consistently associated with adiposity measures. Associations persisted after multivariable adjustment but not after additional adjustment for body weight and visceral adipose tissue, except for pericardial fat and left atrial dimension in men. Conclusions— Pericardial fat is correlated with cardiovascular magnetic resonance measures, but the association is not independent of or stronger than other ectopic fat stores or proxy measures of visceral adiposity. An important exception is left atrial dimension in men. These results suggest that the systemic effects of obesity on cardiac structure and function may outweigh the local pathogenic effects of pericardial fat.


Reviews briefly the present situation of the electronics industries in the third world, from Asia to Africa and Latin America.


The fundamental challenge for social computing is to contribute to fostering communities in which humans can transcend the limitation of the unaided,individual human mind by helping each other.Going beyond antidotal examples requires an analytical framework in which to interpret data in order to understand the context- and application-specific nature of these collaborations. We have studied peer-support communities (PSCs) in the context of the SAP Community Network (SCN), which relies on forums and conferences to support their collaboration.
 This research attempts to create a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of social support provided by peers in software development communities from the following perspectives: Responsiveness--how responsive are communities to the needs of its members? Engagement Intensity--how timely is the peer support? Role Distribution--how wide is the participation of users and in what kind of roles do they participate? Reward System--what is the impact of explicit reward (point) systems on community behavior?
 The data gained from analyzing these perspectives (and their comparison with open source software peer-support communities) has provided insights and led to an increased understanding of what works in PSCs. Here we articulate some initial design guidelines to further improve the potential benefits gained from these communities.


Purpose: To provide an in‐depth synthesis of the literature on polymyalgia rheumatic (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) that will assist the primary care nurse practitioner (NP) in recognizing the variety of symptom presentations, accurately evaluating laboratory data, developing a plan of care that includes current treatment guidelines, and adroitly managing patients for improved outcomes. Data sources: A thorough search of the literature was conducted including MEDLINE, CIHAHL, and PubMed encompassing the decades from the 1970s to the present. Conclusions: Because of the varied and vague symptom presentations of PMR and GCA, primary healthcare providers often misdiagnose these pathologies, delaying treatment and relief of suffering. Textbooks descriptions often omit supplemental content necessary to understand the intricacies of the presenting symptoms, diagnostic tests needed for work‐up, and specific treatment for these overlapping pathologies. Implications for practice: Because PMR and GCA often present in the primary care setting, NPs must maintain a high index of suspicion when a patient over 60 years of age presents with vague complaints such as headache, weakness, anorexia, and malaise. Arriving at an accurate diagnosis in a timely fashion will lead to appropriate treatment and minimize patient suffering.


Mice lacking the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor EPAS1 die at mid-gestation. Despite normal morphological development of the circulatory system, EPAS1-deficient mice display pronounced bradycardia. In addition to the vascular endothelium, EPAS1 is expressed intensively in the organ of Zuckerkandl (OZ), the principle source of catecholamine production in mammalian embryos. EPAS1-deficient embryos contained substantially reduced catecholamine levels. Mid-gestational lethality was rescued by administration of the catecholamine precursor DOPS to pregnant females. We hypothesize that EPAS1 expressed in the OZ senses hypoxia during mid-gestational development and translates this signal into an altered pattern of gene expression, leading to increases in circulating catecholamine levels and proper cardiac function.


Relapsed B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children is associated with poor prognosis. Therefore, it seems essential to stratify patients according to prognostic factors in order to adapt therapies. The evaluation of minimal/measurable residual disease (MRD) during chemotherapy constitutes the most powerful prognostic factor in all age groups, indeed, patients with early low MRD having better outcomes.
 New immunotherapies based on monoclonal antibodies have recently been developed and are giving promising results in chemoresistant forms with limited toxicities. Indeed, CD20, CD38, CD22 and, less developed, HER2/neu constitute therapeutic targets. However, few studies have reported on the expression level of these markers and compared it to the normal counterpart, precursor B-cells or hematogones. Such investigations would be useful to appreciate the potential efficacy of immunotherapies targeting these markers. Moreover, it could help for the detection of minimal/measurable residual disease during follow-up.
 A cohort of 125 B-ALL patients (1-25 years old) was retrospectively enrolled in this study, treated between January 2011 and February 2020. Samples collected from bone marrow or peripheral blood were studied in multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC). Cells were analyzed with a Canto II flow cytometer (BD Biosciences), and Diva (BD Biosciences) software was used to assess the expression of the antigenic markers. The same MFC assay had been performed over the whole period, allowing for fluorescence intensities comparison. Additionally, results from 36 normal bone marrow samples were examined, to compare the level of antigen expression by hematogones.
 CD20, CD38 and CD22 were expressed in respectively 53.6%, 99.2% 98.4% of the cases, rather homogeneously and at intermediate levels. The mean fluorescence intensity of CD38 was much higher on hematogones than blasts, which made it a leukemia-associated immunophenotype (LAIP) for 101 patients (81.4%). HER2/neu, a marker of breast cancer also expressed in a subset of ALL, was present in 16 samples (13.4%), but not detectable on hematogones, and can thus always be considered a LAIP. Interestingly, in this subgroup, patients had a significantly lower 5-year EFS compared to patients without expression of HER2/neu (63% versus 80.5%, p=0.02) (Figure 1). No significant difference in the expression of tested potential therapeutic markers was found between age groups.
 In conclusion, these 4 antigens have sufficient expression intensities to make them potential therapeutic targets, which could be an interesting alternative for the treatment of refractory/relapsed childhood B-ALL. For example, trastuzumab could be a potential immunotherapy in the HER2/neu expressing group, especially regarding their poorer prognosis. Moreover, CD38 and HER2/neu are good candidates for monitoring MRD. These results are of interest as it has been shown that monitoring MRD early was prognostic on patients' outcome.
 Figure

 Chevallier: Incyte Corporation: Honoraria.


. As an environmentally friendly pollution control technology, TiO2 photocatalytic technology has a broad prospect in the field of environmental protection. In this paper, composed nano-TiO2–diatomite were prepared by depositing TiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of diatomite microparticles. The nano-TiO2/diatomite composed photocatalyst is used to remove phenol in water in a specific designed reaction box under 4 different operation factors such as different reaction time, different pollutant concentration, different UV light powers and different amount of catalytic powder. The experimental results indicate that the phenol removal percentages are influenced by the reaction time most significantly, the second is the phenol concentration, the next one is the photocatalyst amount and the UV light powers' effect is quite limited. Tthe degradation of phenol typically slows down at the reaction time about 30 or 60 minutes. Besides that, the phenol removal kinetic removal rates were also investigated.


* Reassigning the Tasks of the Mind * The Master Thought Process of the Modern World * The Book of Nature Part One Of The Book Of Nature: Place * The First Fiction * An Emergent Fable of Astronomers and Stars * The Computer Within Living Memory * Listening to Data Part Two Of The Book Of Nature: Pace * The Maths of the Industrial Age * The Advent of New Sciences and New Maths * Listening to Neuron Part Three Of The Book Of Nature: Pattern * The New Intermaths of the Information Age * The Patterns Within Life * The Life Within Patterns * Computing the Patterns of Societies and Economies * Computing the New Realities of the Information Age * Computing the Patterns of Bodies and Minds * Listening to Life


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

As oncology treatment moves toward personalized targeted therapeutic agents, the NCI-60 human tumor cell line panel is an ideal community-wide tool to further understanding of the disease and molecular targets of new agents. The panel includes cell lines from nine tumor types, and is extremely well characterized at the molecular level, enabling interrogation of patterns of growth inhibition by a set of targeted investigational oncology agents looking for characteristics of the cell lines that determine sensitivity. We have used a number of online tools to enable data analysis, including COMPARE (http://dtp.nci.nih.gov/compare/), which provided the identification of compounds and/or genes that have highly correlated response patterns for any selected 'seed' compound. These data enable comparisons between drug sensitivity profiles that lead to the elucidation of common mechanistic targets or pathways, associations with potential response biomarkers, the confirmation of mechanism of action or identification of novel mechanisms, and the uncovering of unexpected "off-target" activities. For example, using the allosteric Akt inhibitor MK-2206 as the seed compound, response patterns for the ATP-competitive Akt inhibitors PF-4173640 (0.84), GDC-0068 (0.80), AZD-5363 (0.83), GSK-690693 (0.67), and CCT-128930 (0.69) are highly correlated. In addition, examination of the response profile for vandetinib produced a set of highly correlative agents including the corresponding EGFR inhibitors sapatinib (0.81) and AEE-788 (0.83), as well as the recently FDA-approved BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib (0.72) and the SRC inhibitor, AZD-0530 (0.74). Not surprisingly, kinase profiling of these 5 agents (0.5 uM) showed >90% inhibition of EGFR in all cases. In a third example, the BRAF V600E mutated cell lines were found to be sensitive to the bcr-abl inhibitors bafetinib and rebastinib, similarly to vemurafenib. This association suggested BRAF inhibitory activity for the former agents, which was confirmed through kinase profiling. Moreover, the NCI-60 response pattern for the androgen receptor modulator AZD-3514 has a high correlation with the BET bromodomain inhibitors JQ-1 (0.77), I-Bet-151 (0.80), and I-Bet-762 (0.78), suggesting a commonality of target/pathway for these compounds. Further correlations, associations and hypotheses generated from interrogating the compound response patterns, gene expression profiles, mutations and other characteristics will be presented. Funded by NCI Contract No. HHSN261200800001E.

Citation Format: Joel Morris, Mark Kunkel, Eric Polley, Susan Holbeck, Anne Monks, David Evans, Annamaria Rapisarda, Jerry Collins, Beverly Teicher. Interrogation of NCI-60 patterns of growth inhibition in conjunction with investigational oncology agents kinase profiling for the elucidation of mechanistic targets. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5475. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5475


As the number and cost of environmental regulations have increased over the last thirty years, the regulated community, taxpayers, and policy makers have begun to demand that the benefits of regulations justify their costs. The use of benefit-cost analysis as an integral part of developing new regulations is increasing and the demands and expectations being placed on the method have expanded. Although benefit-cost analysis is expected to play an even greater role in environmental decision making in the years ahead, questions remain concerning whether benefit-cost analysis can meet these expectations. This paper explores the role of benefit-cost analysis in US public investment and environmental decision making and examines how benefit-cost methods are responding to new analytic demands. It reviews the US experience with benefit-cost analysis at the Federal and State levels of government and discusses several applications to environmental regulations, illustrating how such analysis can contribute to decision-making as well as pointing out some of the method's pitfalls. The paper also discusses how several important (and sometimes controversial) methodological issues-including intergenerational equity, the distribution of benefits and costs, uncertainty and risk, and the measurement of the value of non-market goods and services-might be addressed practically as benefit-cost analysis is further extended into environmental policy and regulation. Finally, the paper concludes with recommendations for the future use of benefit-cost analysis in environmental decision making.


Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that has emerged as a leading risk factor for dementia associated with increasing age. Two‐dimensional (2D) cell culture and animal models, which have been used to analyze AD pathology and search for effective treatments for decades, have significantly contributed to our understanding of the mechanism of AD. Despite their successes, 2D and animal models can only capture a fraction of AD mechanisms due to their inability to recapitulate human brain‐specific tissue structure, function, and cellular diversity. Recently, the emergence of three‐dimensional (3D) cerebral organoids using tissue engineering and induced pluripotent stem cell technology has paved the way to develop models that resemble features of human brain tissue more accurately in comparison to prior models. In this review, we focus on summarizing key research strategies for engineering in vitro 3D human brain‐specific models, major discoveries from using AD cerebral organoids, and its future perspectives.


Analysis and design of riser systems for permanently moored FPSOs/FSOs in shallow water are known to be extremely challenging. The complex nature of shallow water hydrodynamics and dynamic responses of the FPSO in extreme environmental conditions, limitations caused by water depth, and the close proximity of risers to each other and other structures, define significant technical and practical challenges for the riser designer. These challenges are typically magnified by conservative estimates of the global response of the FPSO system. The new riser design codes tend to be vague about global riser analysis requirements and do not clearly define the global mooring analysis outputs, i.e. vessel offset and correlation between low-frequency offset and maximum wave height, to be used in riser detailed analysis. The codes commonly refer to the fully coupled mooring-riser system analysis for more realistic representation of the behavior of the system but do not provide guidance on the application of various offsets, associated directions, and environmental conditions. However, due to the large analysis matrix and level of numerical modeling required for detailed riser analysis, the fully coupled mooring-riser system analysis is not typically used by riser designers in the actual project phase. It is common to perform the riser analysis by assuming the vessel is at an extreme offset and performing dynamic analysis about that location with the maximum wave by using a time history of regular waves, or segments of random wave elevation time histories that contain the maximum wave. While this approach may not cause much difficulty for deepwater riser systems, it has a profound effect on the performance of riser systems in shallow water, leading to challenges in both the design and costs associated with such a system as it exaggerates the dynamic response of the floater, and the loading on the riser system. In this paper, model test data and numerical time-domain simulations have been utilized to revisit the response of typical shallow-water FPSOs in extreme conditions. The main purpose here is to discuss the natural response of the system and highlight the correlation between the low-frequency and wave-frequency responses.


Background TL1A (TNFSF15) is a newly identified TNF-like cytokine that associates with the death domain receptor DR3 (TNFRSF25), expressed on activated lymphocytes. TL1A-DR3 binding produces costimulatory signals resulting in lymphocyte proliferation, secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and induction of apoptotic signals [1]. Recent studies have shown that both TL1A and DR3 are upregulated and possibly implicated in the pathogenesis of several chronic inflammatory conditions, including, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis [2, 3]. Objectives (a) To examine whether soluble TL1A is increased in Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). (b) To search for possible correlations between TL1A serum concentration, and various clinical and laboratory parameters of AS. (c) To study the effect of anti-TNF treatment on soluble TL1A levels. Methods Seventy-five consecutive patients with AS (61 men), aged 47.2±15.5 years (mean±SD) with disease duration of 20.3±13.9 years, were included in this cross-sectional study. Nineteen age and sex-matched healthy individuals served as controls. Forty four patients were anti-TNF treatment-naïve, whereas the remaining patients were on infliximab (n=21), adalimumab (n=3), or etanercept (n=7). The patients' perceived disease activity and functional limitation were recorded by Bath AS Disease Index (BASDAI) and Bath AS Functional Index (BASFI) respectively. The objective functional status was evaluated by measurements of spinal mobility (AS-Metrology). Serum concentrations of TL1A were measured by ELISA. Mann-Whitney two-sample statistics was used for group comparisons and Spearman's coefficients for testing correlation between variables. Results Average serum concentration of TL1A were 3-fold higher in anti-TNF- naïve (601±1066 pg/ml) compared to anti-TNF-treated patients (196±302 pg/ml, p=0.018) and healthy controls (199±286 pg/ml, p=0.03). No significant association between individual TL1A serum levels and functional status (BASFI-score, AS metrology parameters), presence of extra-articular manifestations such as intestinal inflammation and uveitis, or C-reactive protein levels measured in the same individual was found. A positive correlation between individual serum levels of TL1A and BASDAI scores was noted (Spearman r=0.3, p=0.01). Conclusions We report increased serum concentrations of TL1A in AS which correlate with clinical disease activity and can be controlled by anti-TNF treatment. Interactions between TL1A and its receptors may be important in the pathogenesis of the disease. References Migone TS et al. Immunity 2002;16: 479-92. Bamias G et al. Clin Immunol 2008;129:249-55. Bamias G et al. Exp Dermatol 2011; 20:725-31. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Abstract Global warming is expected to result in an acceleration in current rates of sea level rise, inundating many low-lying coastal and intertidal areas. This could have important implications for organisms that depend on these sites, including shorebirds that rely on them for feeding habitat during their migrations and in winter. We modeled the potential changes in the extent of intertidal foraging habitat for shorebirds at five sites in the United States that currently support internationally important numbers of migrating and wintering birds. Even assuming a conservative global warming scenario of 2°C within the next century (the most recent projections range between 1.4°C and 5.8°C), we project major intertidal habitat loss at four of the sites (Willapa Bay, Humboldt Bay, San Francisco Bay, and Delaware Bay). Projected losses range between 20% and 70% of current intertidal habitat. Such losses might jeopardize the ability of these sites to continue to support their current shorebird numbers. The most severe losses are likely to occur at sites where the coastline is unable to move inland because of steep topography or seawalls. The effects of sea level rise may be exacerbated by additional anthropogenic factors. In southern San Francisco Bay, for example, sea level rise may interact with land subsidence due to aquifer depletion, and the constraints imposed by existing seawalls on the landward migration of habitat, resulting in the greatest habitat loss. At the fifth site (Bolivar Flats) we project smaller losses as the intertidal habitats are unconstrained by sea walls and will be able to migrate inland in response to rising sea level. Installation of additional coastal protection barriers at this site and others is likely to exacerbate the rate and extent of intertidal habitat loss.


The reason for health differences in adults should be searched for in their childhood (Ben-Shlomo, Kuh, 2002). The health of a child at the early stages of ontogenesis and the social and economic environment in which the child lives influence his/her behavior in an adult life (Lynch еt аl., 1997). We made an attempt to understand which of the mother's characteristics enable us to forecast her child's health.
Subjects: 100 mother-child dyads, among them 95% children of the second year of life and 99% children of the first year of life were given particular diagnoses at birth. There were no children with genetic pathologies. Typical diagnoses were "encephalopathy" and "motor disturbance syndrome".
The set of the methods included: a test-inventory assessing relationship of a mother to a child of the first years of life (N.V. Vereshchagina, E.I. Nikolaeva); an inventory for emotional intelligence assessment (D.V. Lucien), a questionnaire for the social assessment of mother (her age, education, the number of children in family, anamnesis' data), analysis of medical records of children.
The regressive analysis showed that the probability of a diagnosis removal is linked to several variables, i.e. the younger and the better-educated a mother is, the more it is probable that her child's diagnosis will be cancelled. The more children a family has and the higher the child acceptance level shown by the mother are, the more likely it is that the child will fully recover during the first two years of life. Supported by RGNF by17-36-01056.


The exact cause of amenorrhea during the puerperium is still a matter of debate. PRL might inhibit primarily the release of FSH and LH or their stimulating effects on the ovary. In the study presented here, 28 healthy women were investigated, 13 of them lactating puerperae. In the other 15, lactation was prevented by drugs (metergoline in 9, bromocriptine in 6). The women's serum PRL, FSH, LH, beta-HCG and 17 beta-estradiol as well as their FSH and LH response to LHRH (100 micrograms i.v.) were tested 1, 3, 7 and 14 days after vaginal delivery. Serum PRL levels remained elevated in the lactating puerperae and dropped in the puerperae treated with metergoline or bromocriptine. The pattern of FSH, LH and beta-HCG levels as well as the FSH and LH response to LHRH were superimposable in lactating and in nonlactating women. 17 beta-estradiol levels dropped in all puerperae from day 1 to 7, but rose from day 7 to 14 only in the puerperae treated with metergoline or bromocriptine and not in the lactating women. These data indicate that PRL directly affects the ovarian response to FSH and LH, whereas the release of FSH and LH remains unaffected. A stimulatory effect of metergoline and bromocriptine on the ovarian steroidogenesis cannot be excluded.


In recent years, wetland landscape design is increasingly becoming a new research focus. In this paper, on the basis of the framework with the principles of cultural heritage, humanistic care and in accordance with aesthetic, it takes the cultural vision as an indispensable design factor. Also, the function oriented should be the main consideration in the wetland design, the original cultural symbol should be materialized in the landscape, and the humanistic design and eco-technology should be on a reasonable balance. Therefore, the designers must permeate the cultural factors into the prerequisite process of the design in order to reflect the spirit of the humanistic landscape wetland and promote the wetland conservation and restoration


This article presents the GETALP system for the participation to SemEval-2013 Task 12, based on an adaptation of the Lesk measure propagated through an Ant Colony Algorithm, that yielded good results on the corpus of Semeval 2007 Task 7 (WordNet 2.1) as well as the trial data for Task 12 SemEval 2013 (BabelNet 1.0). We approach the parameter estimation to our algorithm from two perspectives: edogenous estimation where we maximised the sum the local Lesk scores; exogenous estimation where we maximised the F1 score on trial data. We proposed three runs of out system, exogenous estimation with BabelNet 1.1.1 synset id annotations, endogenous estimation with BabelNet 1.1.1 synset id annotations and endogenous estimation with WordNet 3.1 sense keys. A bug in our implementation led to incorrect results and here, we present an amended version thereof. Our system arrived third on this task and a more fine grained analysis of our results reveals that the algorithms performs best on general domain texts with as little named entities as possible. The presence of many named entities leads the performance of the system to plummet greatly.


Today one can say that programming has not only osmotically infused scientific and artistic research alike, but also that those new contexts elucidate what it may mean to be an algorithm. This talk will focus on the 'impatient practices' of experimental programming, which can never wait till the end, and for which it is essential that the modification of the program in some way integrates with its unfolding in time. A contemporary example is live coding, which performs programming (usually of sound and visuals) as a form of improvisation. Early in the history of computer languages, there was already a need felt for reprogramming processes at runtime. Nevertheless, this idea was of limited influence, maybe because, with increasing computational power, the fascination with interactive programs eclipsed the desire for interactive programming. This may not be an accidental omission, its reasons may also lie in a rather fundamental difficulty, on which we will focus here. In itself, the situation is almost obvious: not every part of the program-as-description has an equivalent in the program-as-process. Despite each computational process having a dynamic nature, an integration of programming into the program itself must in principle remain incomplete. As a result, a programmer is forced to oscillate between mutually exclusive perspectives. Arguably, this oscillation reveals a specific internal contradiction within algorithms, a necessary obstacle to semantic transparency. By calling this obstacle algorithmic complementarity, I intend to open it up for a discussion in a broader conceptual context, linking it with corresponding ideas from philosophy and physics. Here a few words about this terminology. Complementarity has been an influential idea in conceptualising the relation between the object of investigation, as opposed to the epistemic apparatus and the history of practice. Originating in the psychology of William James, where it referred to a subjective split of mutually exclusive observations, Niels Bohr used it to denote the existence of incommensurable observables of a quantum system (position vs. momentum, time vs. energy). Independent of the particular answer Bohr gave, complementarity raises the question of whether such a coexistence is induced by the experimental system or already present in the subject matter observed. Accordingly, in the case of programs, we may ask whether this obstacle is essential to their nature or whether it is a mere artefact of a specific formalisation. Algorithms, arguably situated between technical method and mathematical object, make an interesting candidate for a reconsideration of this discourse. The existence of an obstacle to semantic transparency within algorithms and their respective programs need not mean a relative impoverishment of computation. Conversely, prediction is the wager and 1 Institute for Music and Media, Dusseldorf, email: email@example.com vital tension in every experimental system, as well as in interactive programming. After the conceptual discussion, I will try to exemplify this claim by introducing a few examples in the recent history of live coding. Again and again surfacing in form of symptoms such as an impossibility of immediacy, I hope this practice will be conceivable in terms of having algorithmic complementarity as one of its driving forces. Two Approaches to one Task: A Historical Case Study of the Implementation and Deployment of two Software Packages for the Design of Light-Weight Structures in Architecture and Civil Engineering


Hot, underdense bubbles powered by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are likely to play a key role in halting catastrophic cooling in the centers of cool-core galaxy clusters. We present three-dimensional simulations that capture the evolution of such bubbles, using an adaptive-mesh hydrodynamic code, FLASH3, to which we have added a subgrid model of turbulence and mixing. Pure-hydro simulations indicate that AGN bubbles are disrupted into resolution-dependent pockets of underdense gas. However, proper modeling of subgrid turbulence shows that Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities act to mix the heated regions with their surroundings, while at the same time preserving them as coherent structures, consistent with observations. Thus bubbles are transformed into hot clouds of mixed material as they move outwards in the hydrostatic intracluster medium. Properly capturing the evolution of such clouds has important implications for many ICM properties.


Hepatitis is one of the leading causes of mortality globally and Pakistan, too, has a very high burden of liver disease and associated morbidity and mortality. Significant burden combined with lack of adequate transplant facilities make it crucial to understand predictors and natural history of more severe stages of liver damage or inflammation, such as acute liver injury, as is the aim of this study. Even though it is known that Acute Liver Injury (ALI) is defined as INR ≥ 2.0, ALT ≥ 10X ULN, and Total Bilirubin ≥ 3 mg/dl, there is a dearth of literature on factors and prognosis associated with ALI.


Despite the recent advances in distributed MDP frameworks for reasoning about multiagent teams, these frameworks mostly do not reason about resource constraints, a crucial issue in teams. To address this shortcoming, we provide four key contributions. First, we introduce EMTDP, a distributed MDP framework where agents must not only maximize expected team reward, but must simultaneously bound expected resource consumption. While there exist single-agent constrained MDP (CMDP) frameworks that reason about resource constraints, EMTDP is not just a CMDP with multiple agents. Instead, EMTDP must resolve the miscoordination that arises due to policy randomization. Thus, our second contribution is an algorithm for EMTDP transformation, so that resulting policies, even if randomized, avoid such miscoordination. Third, we prove equivalence of different techniques of EMTDP transformation. Finally, we present solution algorithms for these EMTDPs and show through experiments their efficiency in solving application-sized problems.


Aim This study examined the factors related to whether or not school-based tobacco control efforts were associated with student smoking behaviour among two groups of students: Group 1 (15–17 years of age; grade 10 in 2000 and grade 11 in 2001) and Group 2 (16–19 years of age; grade 11 in 2000 and grade 12 in 2001). Background Between 1999 and 2001, Prince Edward Island (PEI) introduced a province-wide initiative to implement both school-based policies banning smoking on school grounds and school-based smoking prevention programming, phased in over a three-year period, in all schools. Methods Data were collected from all 10 English-speaking secondary schools in PEI (Canada) over three years (1999–2001) using the Tobacco Module of the School Health Action, Planning and Evaluation System. Findings Results showed an increase in both occasional and regular smoking behaviour with Group 1 showing an 18% increase in occasional smoking compared to 3.9% for Group 2. The characteristic associated with an increased likelihood of regular and occasional smoking for 2000 and 2001 was students overestimating the percentage of youth their age who smoke. However, students' knowledge and awareness of smoking policies and enforcement, students' perceptions of schools having clear rules, and that students who break the rules get into trouble increased from 2000 to 2001. The findings from this study provide important information about how groups of students within schools experience tobacco control efforts differently. Addressing student misperceptions and policy implementation within schools may provide direction for tobacco control.


The Cambodian capital markets have come a long way considering that the Paris Peace Agreements, which ended the nation's civil war, were signed only in 1991. Strong GDP growth (10.8% annually between 2000 and 2018), a dollarized economy with free movement of capital, and a policy consensus favoring investments should have spurred the rapid development of a securities exchange in Cambodia. The first equity listing on the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX), however, did not take place until 2012.

Currently in Cambodia, seven companies are listed on the main board, and another six companies have issued eight bonds. The CSX is still small in size compared with its Asian neighbors' bourses. Its development is also behind schedule given the urgent need of local corporations to find cheap and convenient sources of funding. Stocks and bonds on the CSX have had comparatively low returns historically when compared with less risky bank deposits or higher returns from real estate.

Mindful of these challenges, the Royal Government of Cambodia has implemented a broad range of measures to support faster capital market development. Educating both investors and corporations, introducing accounting standards and audit requirements, and licensing such market actors as fund management companies, securities brokers, and custodian banks, to name a few, will provide the infrastructure and support Cambodia needs for long-term growth.

Listing private companies with exciting growth prospects will be key in renewing interest among potential investors in Cambodia. Likewise, new investment choices such as REITs, private equity, and mutual funds should spur further interest. The creation of a government bond market will be critical as well in order to attract institutions that crave safe and long-dated assets for asset–liability management purposes.

All of these factors combine for a constructive view of the prospects for Cambodian capital markets.


The authors review the historical relationship between the work of applied economists, and policymakers, and the institutions that came to characterize the commodity, and risk markets of the 1980s. These institutions were a response to the harmful consequences of commodity market volatility, and declining terms of trade. But the chosen policies, and instruments relied on market interventions, to directly affect prices, or the distribution of prices in domestic, and international markets. For practical, and more fundamental reasons, this approach failed. The authors next discuss how a growing body of work, contributed to a change in thinking that moved policy away from stabilization goals, toward policies that emphasized the management of risks. They distinguish between the macroeconomic effects of volatile commodity markets, and the consequences for businesses, and households. The authors argue that both sets of problems remain important development issues, but that appropriate policy instruments are largely separate. Nonetheless, because governments, households, and firms must all respond to a wide range of sources of risk, they emphasize the role for an integrated policy by government. Increasingly, alternative approaches have come to rely on market-based instruments. Such approaches accept the market view of relative prices as immutable, but address directly the negative consequences of volatility. As traditional risk markets (such as futures and insurance markets) expand, and new parametric markets emerge, the practicality of applying market-based instruments to traditional risk, and development problems increases. The authors show the change in approaches to risk, and the reliance on old, and new market instruments, with new, and sometimes experimental programs, with special emphasis on programs at the World Bank.


The authors have developed a new, comprehensive set of simulation tools aimed at modeling the interaction of intense ion beams and electron clouds (e-clouds). The set contains the 3-D accelerator PIC code WARP and the 2-D ''slice'' e-cloud code POSINST, as well as a merger of the two, augmented by new modules for impact ionization and neutral gas generation. The new capability runs on workstations or parallel supercomputers and contains advanced features such as mesh refinement, disparate adaptive time stepping, and a new ''drift-Lorentz'' particle mover for tracking charged particles in magnetic fields using large time steps. It is being applied to the modeling of ion beams (1 MeV, 180 mA, K+) for heavy ion inertial fusion and warm dense matter studies, as they interact with electron clouds in the High-Current Experiment (HCX). They describe the capabilities and present recent simulation results with detailed comparisons against the HCX experiment, as well as their application (in a different regime) to the modeling of e-clouds in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).


Air-liquid interface (ALI) epithelial cell (EC) cultures are useful for studying the effect of exposure to airborne substances, but require substantial cell numbers that cannot always obtained from patients. Recent studies show that 3D organoid cultures can be initiated from samples with limited EC numbers, such as BAL (Sachs et al, 2019). Aim of the present study was to compare expansion of EC using 3D organoid culture to conventional 2D plastic-basic expansion for establishment of ALI cultures, and whether such cultures can be used for exposure to cigarette smoke (CS). Airway EC were obtained from tracheal aspirates (TA) from preterm newborns and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), or from bronchial tissue (BT) from adults. TA and BAL cells were 3D-expanded, whereas cells from BT were expanded in 3D and 2D. Following expansion, EC were cultured at ALI to induce differentiation. The impact of cell origin and 2D or 3D expansion was assessed with respect to (i) cellular composition; (ii) response to CS exposure; (iii) effect of Notch inhibition or IL-13 stimulation on cellular differentiation. Well-differentiated ALI cultures were established from all samples and cellular compositions were comparable. All 3D-expanded cultures showed a similar oxidative stress and unfolded protein response following CS exposure, but different from the 2D-expanded cultures. Additionally, TA- and BAL-derived cultures were less sensitive to modulation by DAPT or IL-13 than BT-derived cultures. We conclude that organoid-based expansion of clinical samples with low epithelial cell numbers, such as tracheal aspirates from preterm newborns, is a valid method and tool to establish ALI cultures.


We have prepared several complexes of tetrachloroplatinate with organic molecules bearing diffuse positive charges. A human squamous carcinoma cell line, SCC-25/CP, which is 30-, 10-, and 9-fold resistant to CDDP, carboplatin, and iproplatin, respectively, is as sensitive to the platinum-(+) dye complexes as is the parent SCC-25 cell line. A dose of each platinum-(+) dye complex which produced 50-90% cell kill was selected to assess the radiation sensitizing potential of these agents in vitro. All of the platinum-(+) dye complexes were effective sensitizers of hypoxic cells. Pt(Rh-123)2 (100 microM) produced DMFs of 2.7 and 2.6 in the SCC-25 and SCC-25/CP cells, Pt027 (100 microM) gave DMFs of 2.2 and 2.6 in the SCC-25 and SCC-25/CP cells; PtSA (10 microM) produced DMFs of 2.2 and 2.0 in the SCC-25 and SCC-25/CP cells; and PtDeca (50 microM) gave DMFs of 1.8 and 1.9 in the SCC-25 and SCC-25/CP cells. The antitumor activity of the platinum-(+) dye complexes was assessed in four transplantable mouse tumors and compared with the activity of CDDP. In both intraperitoneal and subcutaneous tumors the platinum-(+) dye complexes had activity comparable to CDDP. In the Lewis lung tumor, increasing doses of Pt(Rh-123)2 produced increasing dose modification when the drug was administered prior to single doses of radiation. A dose of 50 mg/kg of Pt(Rh-123)2, Pt027, or PtDeca produced very similar dose modification in this tumor. Overall, the platinum-(+) dye complexes are effective radiosensitizers both in vitro and in vivo.


ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to compare the functional performance of community-dwelling older adults of both sexes and investigate the possible mediation aspects that may influence the sex differences regarding socioeconomic and anthropometric characteristics, health status, and quadriceps muscle strength. 233 Brazilian older adults were assessed, and men's and women's sociodemographic data, physical activity level, quadriceps muscle strength, functional performance (gait speed and the SPPB), and history of falls were compared. Sex differences in functional performance were observed even after statistically adjusting the model (age, body mass, income, physical activity level, and occurrence of falls). When quadriceps muscle strength was included in the adjusted model, the sex difference remained only for gait speed. When stature was included in the adjusted model, the sex difference in gait speed disappeared. Our results suggest that the sex difference in functional performance assessed by the SPPB can be explained due to the fact that men are stronger than women. In addition, the sex difference regarding gait speed was explained by the sex difference in stature. Public actions that encourage older women to practice physical activities that promote increased muscle strength can positively interfere with their best functional performance for as long as possible.


Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) MRI with maternal hyperoxia can assess oxygen transport within the placenta and has emerged as a promising tool to study placental function. Measuring signal changes over time requires segmenting the placenta in each volume of the time series. Due to the large number of volumes in the BOLD time series, existing studies rely on registration to map all volumes to a manually segmented template. As the placenta can undergo large deformation due to fetal motion, maternal motion, and contractions, this approach often results in a large number of discarded volumes, where the registration approach fails. In this work, we propose a machine learning model based on a U-Net neural network architecture to automatically segment the placenta in BOLD MRI and apply it to segmenting each volume in a time series. We use a boundary-weighted loss function to accurately capture the placental shape. Our model is trained and tested on a cohort of 91 subjects containing healthy fetuses, fetuses with fetal growth restriction, and mothers with high BMI. We achieve a Dice score of 0.83+/-0.04 when matching with ground truth labels and our model performs reliably in segmenting volumes in both normoxic and hyperoxic points in the BOLD time series. Our code and trained model are available at https://github.com/mabulnaga/automatic-placenta-segmentation.


Introduction: CTC are detectable in approximately 75% of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), and are elevated (≥5CTC/7.5 ml whole blood (WB)) in about half. Elevated CTC at baseline are associated with a worse prognosis, and a decline in CTC levels suggests response to therapy. We initiated a prospective randomized clinical trial (SWOG S0500) to test whether a change in chemotherapy after failure to clear CTC after one cycle of first line chemotherapy would improve outcomes of patients starting first line cytotoxic chemotherapy for MBC. Methods: Patients initiating first-line chemotherapy for MBC were enrolled. All patients had measurable or evaluable disease that included bone metastases. Patients with elevated CTC at baseline and who continued to have elevated CTC after 21 days of therapy were randomly assigned to either continue initial therapy until progression or to change to a second line chemotherapy (physician choice) immediately at cycle 2. Patients with elevated CTC at baseline, which were not elevated at the 21-day follow-up were maintained on their initial therapy. Patients without elevated CTC at baseline were followed in an observation arm. The primary endpoint was overall survival, and progression-free survival was a secondary endpoint. It was expected that approximately 500-650 patients would have to be screened to enroll 120 patients in the randomized trial. Power was 81% with 2-sided α = 0.05 to detect a 70% increase in median overall survival for patients randomized to change therapy. Three interim analyses were planned during the course of the trial. Results: From 10/1/2006 until 3/15/2012, 624 patients were registered of whom 612 were eligible. A baseline CTC was obtained in 593 (97%) eligible patients of whom 317 (53%) had elevated CTC at baseline. Thirty-one patients (10%) with elevated baseline CTC did not complete the follow-up CTC due to death, progression, withdrawal, or assay failure. Of the 286 remaining patients, 123 patients (43%) continued to have elevated CTCs after the first cycle of chemotherapy and were randomly assigned to either maintain original chemotherapy (n = 64) or switched to new chemotherapy (n = 59). Final outcome results will be analyzed in October 2013 and will be reported if released by the SWOG Data Safety Monitoring Board. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr S5-07.


Estimation of live weight from measurements of body dimensions is useful in many management activities with domestic animals. In present study live weight was measured from 2932 female and 1037 male semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus L.) during different seasons in 1969-85. The age of reindeer varied between 1 day and 14 yrs. Back length (along back from second spinous process to base of tail) and chest girth (just behind front legs) were taken also from 1490 female and 510 male reindeer. The growth of reindeer from birth to adulthood was cumulative consisting of a rapid weight accretion during summers followed by a weight loss or stasis during winters. The mathematical analyses of the growth based on exponential solutions gave average values for growth of female and male reindeer. Body weight of females increased until the age of 4.5 yrs and that of males until the age of 5.5 yrs. During winter and spring body weight of hinds decreased 10 to 15 kg and that of stags 30 to 50 kg in different age groups. Significant linear regressions were found between live weight and back length (r = 0.809 and 0.892), live weight and chest girth (r = 0.860 and 0.872) and live weight and combined body measure (back length + chest girth) (r = 0.877 and 0.941) and live weight and body volume (r = 0.905 and 0.954, respectively) in female and male reindeer. Exponential regressions gave, however, the best estimations of live weight with combined body measure.


In this article author tried to combine different branding tools and famous archetype methodology of Karl Gustav Jung. Themain purpose of this article is to find Political Branding approaches and methods which should be used by parties for a long periodpolitical resistance on political market. To have such objectives author of the article undertakes focus group research – interviewingcitizens and opinion makers on political market of Georgia. As a case of problem why brands fail or how political brands behavethemselves during final stage of elections, if they lose their image during the change of their archetype, authors used Georgian 2012parliamentary elections.


Abstract Pneumococcal pneumonia continues to be an important disease in terms of prevalence, morbidity and mortality. With the discovery of penicillin and its wide clinical use, the overall mortality of pneumococcal pneumonia has been significantly reduced, but problems remain. These include: 1) death rate is uninfluenced by the antibiotic in the first five days of illness; 2) death rate in certain high risk groups and in patients infectecd with type 3 pneumococcus exceeds 25%; and 3) penicillin resistant strains of pneumococci have emerged. Because of these and other considerations, a modern 14-valent pneumococcal vaccine has been developed by Robert Austrian and his co-workers. The vaccine has been found to be immunogenic and effective in a number of populations studied. Additional efficacy studies are needed, however, particularly in certain high risk groups, such as the elderly and immunocompromised patients.


Throughout the two decades prior to the Great War, aristocratic life and luxury was in steady decline in the British dominions, as economic historian David Cannadine argues. A war on landowners by the lower classes and a new democratization threatened to end the prestige of families grounded in the aristocracy. As Cannadine noted, "in many parts of the country, tenants turned against their landlords, frequently refused to pay their rents, and stridently demanded an end to the system of great estates." The question of who was right to command and lead various institutions in British Society would be put to the test throughout the course of the First World War.


Intensive agriculture is detrimental to soil biodiversity and functioning. Promoting communities of key soil organisms, such as earthworms and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, may help improve agricultural sustainability by replacing inputs with ecosystem services. In this thesis, I explore ways to manage earthworm communities for improved soil functioning via adjusted agricultural practices, promotion of source habitats in the landscape, and inoculation. I also explore the effects of soil compaction on AM fungal symbiosis in wheat varieties, and test application of grassland soil as a method to increase AM fungal diversity in agricultural soils. I show that diverse earthworm communities and bioturbation can be promoted by reducing tillage intensity and total earthworm densities can be increased via diversifying crop rotations. Moist and fertile semi-natural grasslands with high small-scale habitat heterogeneity may serve to sustain earthworm diversity in agricultural landscapes. Inoculation with commercially obtained Lumbricus terrestris earthworms may help restore populations of this tillage sensitive species and improve wheat growth but the long-term establishment of these worms is uncertain. Application of grassland soil may increase AM fungal diversity in agricultural soils but this may not be reflected in AM fungal taxa colonizing wheat roots. I also show that soil compaction differently affects AM colonization in wheat varieties. Further research needs to identify which earthworm and AM fungal community properties best result in functional benefits under different conditions. Nevertheless, I show that earthworm and AM fungal communities can be promoted in various ways, individually or in combination, suggesting potential to enhance functional effects of these key organisms in agricultural soils.


This contribution gives a bibliometric perspective on the recently strongly discussed topic concerning the role of conferences in computer science. We investigate the frequency and impact of conference publications in computer science, comparing with journal articles. It turns out that, from a bibliometric perspective, the best strategy to gain impact is that of publishing few, final, and well-polished contributions in archival journals, instead of many premature 'publishing quarks' in conference proceedings.


This paper reports on experimental results and their interpretations for an indoor extremely high frequency (EHF) multipath channel. It is intended to help in establishing design guidelines for indoor wireless communications systems using millimeter waves. It deals with measurements obtained for the narrow and wideband indoor radio channels at 37.2 GHz within a typical concrete building at Laval University. Two kinds of transmission antennas, omnidirectional and directional, are used to investigate the propagation characteristics for the indoor channel. Under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, the distance-power law exponent is found to be lower than the free space condition with walls playing a major role on the sustaining of high level signals. Large- and smallscale variations extracted from the original data are shown to follow log-normal and Rice distributions, respectively. The observed wideband impulse response has delay spread extending over a range up to 40 ns and a maximum root mean square (rms) value of about 16 ns. Both amplitude and phase behaviors of the signals are available for a better understanding of the various effects.


The article is an overview of the problem of "archaeology and journalism": the author examines the main research approaches to the study of the popularization of archaeological knowledge by the media in the context of a more general research field of "public archaeology".


Increased traffic in combination with growing environmental impacts have led to the accelerated degradation of built infrastructure. In reinforced concrete structures, the corrosion of steel reinforcement is the predominant cause of deterioration. Thus, over the last years the use of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites as internal reinforcement bars (rebars) for concrete structures has been evaluated, and has been proved to be a viable alternative to traditional steel reinforcement mainly due to its tensile strength and non-corrosive nature. However, thus far, the GFRP rebar market is diverse and manufacturers around the world produce GFRP rebar types with different surface enhancements to improve the bond to concrete characteristics. In this study, the bond performance of three dissimilar GFRP rebar types (sand coated, helically grooved and with surface lugs) was evaluated over time in seawater environments, with a focus on the bond strength. Accordingly, specimens were exposed to seawater in circulating chambers at three different temperatures (23 °C, 40 °C and 60 °C) for multiple time periods (60 and 120 days). To evaluate the bond performance, pullout tests were conducted according to ASTM D7913. The results showed that the bond strength varied with the surface enhancement features. However, the bond strength did not vary significantly with exposure time and temperature for all three evaluated rebar types.


Six different types of shallow water molluscan assemblages have been distinguished from the embayment deposits accumulated during the maximum stage of the post-glacial Jomon Transgression (ca. 6,500-5,000y.B.P.) in the southern Kanto, central Japan. These assemblages are also recognized in the embayment deposits of the very early stage as well as in the later stage of the transgression. In detail, however, their rise and fall are in harmony with the sedimentary history during transgression. In the early stage of the transgression, ca. 10,000-7,000y.B.P., the Crassostrea gigas-Anadara granosa-Batillaria zonalis assemblage and the Dosinella penicillata-Paphia undulataAnadara broughtonii assemblage predominated in accordance with the development of muddy facies on the bottom of drowned valley. On the contrary, the sandy bottom assemblages, such as, the Meretrix lusoria-Mactra veneriformis-Umbonium moniliferum and the Meretrix lamarcki-Umbonium gigantium-Glycymeris albolineata assemblages, became dominant after the maximum stage of the transgression, from about 4,500 to 2,000y.B.P., during the reclamation stage of the embayment by the sandy materials provided from the adjoining rivers. The intertidal assemblage, the Crassostrea assemblage, found in the innermost part of the bay is characterized by the association of several warm water species. Two steps of invasion of the warm water species are recognizable in the southern Kanto region. At the first step, ca. 9,5008,700y.B.P., Anadara granosa, Anomalocardia squamosa and some other warm water molluscs appeared following the advancement of the Crassostrea assemblage into the embayment. The second step is at the beginning of the maximum stage of the Jomon Transgression, about 6,500 to 6,000 y.B.P.. Molluscs of the tropical nature are the invaders of this step. They are represented by Ostrea pauluciae and Tellinimactra edentula. These warm water species rapidly declined in the later stage of maximum transgression, between 5,000 and 4,000y.B.P., and most of the species disappeared after 4,000 years. Cause of disappearance of the warm water species has been said to be the lowering of water temperature. But it is known that the main cause of the disappearance is most probably attributable to the disappearance of their habitats, shallow muddy environment, rather than the lowering of water temperature. There are many shell-mounds formed during the Jomon Era along the west coast of Tokyo Bay. Their situation and duration, relative abundance, and the change in species composition of shells can be explained by changes of paleogeography, sedimentary facies, and associated molluscan assemblages in and adjoining coastal areas of the embayments formed during the Jomon Transgression.


A new homoleptic Co(II) complex bearing two highly sterically congested 2-formiminopyrrolyl N,N'-chelating ligands is reported, displaying slow relaxation of the magnetisation at zero static (DC) field. This compound shows a large value for the zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameter D of -42.6(4) cm-1 leading to a spin-reversal energy barrier Ueff of 85 cm-1.


Internal anal sphincter manometric and myoelectrical investigations were performed under basal conditions and in response to rectal distension in 17 patients with chronic anal fissures and 15 controls. Measurement of sphincter pressures were carried out by pull-through technique, using water perfused open-tip-catheters. Electrical signals were obtained employing concentric needle electrodes inserted into the internal anal sphincter. No statistically different resting pressures were noted between patients with fissures and controls. Just so no significant difference were found in frequency and amplitude of slow potentials generated by the internal and sphincter. Neither amplitude or frequency correlate with anal sphincter pressures. In both groups, transient rectal distension produced relaxation of the internal sphincter and were associated with inhibition or irregularity of electric activity. Distribution and amplitude of internal overshoot contraction showed no difference in both groups. It can be concluded that internal sphincter spasm can not be considered as the sole cause for persistence of fissures.


We investigate an application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) referred to in the literature as group scanning, in which an RFID reader device interrogates several RFID tags to establish "simultaneous" presence of a group of tags. Our goal is to study the group scanning problem in strong adversarial settings and show how group scanning can be used in distributed applications for supply chain management. We present a security framework for group scanning and give a formal description of the attending security requirements. Our model is based on the Universal Composability framework and supports re-usability (through modularity of security guarantees). We propose two novel protocols that realize group scanning in this security model, based on off-the-shelf components such as low-cost (highly optimized) pseudorandom functions, and show how these can be integrated into RFID supply-chain management systems.


In this paper, the effects of formaldehyde addition on the performance of compressed natural gas homogeneous charge compression ignition engine, CNG (HCCI) were investigated. In this study, the four-cylinder, four-stroke engine was used. The results obtained from the use of various percentage of formaldehyde addition in CNG (HCCI) engine were compared to those of numerical and theoretical analysis. The results indicated that when addition fuel additive as the formaldehyde in CNG engine were used, engine performance parameters such as torque and power, brake mean effective pressure and brake specific fuel consumption are optimum condition at 0.13% formaldehyde addition in CNG (HCCI) engine and these parameters are decreased with increasing more than 0.13% formaldehyde addition amount in the engine. It is also shown that the air/fuel mixture will ignite earlier using this additive so it is conceivable to reduce inlet mixture temperature resulting in better performance due to higher volumetric efficiency


To clarify the effects of lung function following exposure to diesel engine exhaust (DEE), we recruited 137 diesel engine testing workers exposed to DEE and 127 non-DEE-exposed workers as study subjects. We performed lung function tests and measured cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) cytome index and levels of urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) metabolites. There was a significant decrease of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second to forced vital capacity (FEV1/ FVC), maximal mid expiratory flow curve (MMF), forced expiratory flow at 50% of FVC (FEF50%), and forced expiratory flow at 75% of FVC (FEF75%) in the DEE-exposed workers than non-DEE-exposed workers (all p<0.05). Among all study subjects, the decreases of FEF75% were associated with the increasing levels of PAHs metabolites (p<0.05), and there were negative correlations between FEV1, FEV1/FVC, MMF, FEF50%, and FEF75% with CBMN cytome index (all p<0.05). Our results show that long-term exposure to DEE can induce lung function decline which shows mainly obstructive changes and influence of small airways function. The decreased lung function is associated with internal dosage of DEE exposure, and accompany with the increasing CBMN cytome index.


In the early morning of 26 December 2004 the ocean research satellite Jason flew over the Indian Ocean and recorded a surface tsunami wave less than 1 meter high. If it was no more than chance that a satellite equipped with a sensitive radar passed over at that precise moment, then the potential role of orbiting spacecraft in future early warning systems was established.

This special tsunami workshop was convened during the PORSEC biennial symposium to review the performance of satellites and consider the extent to which future space systems could contribute to reducing the impact of marine hazards.


In all the patterns presented so far, one of the two compound constituents can be identified as the head, from which the compound inherits its syntactic properties and often also its semantic specifications. However, it is also true that in most compound classes seen so far, a subset of tokens 'jump' grammatical category, exhibiting distributional properties incompatible with those of the head constituent. In those cases, the resulting compound is said to be exocentric. In Spanish this conversion process can lead to the recategorization of any compound as a nominal ( bienestar 'welfare', lit. 'well-be', subibaja 'see-saw', lit. 'go up-go down'), or of nominal compounds as adjectives ( muy cararrota 'very cheeky', lit. 'very face-broken').
In addition to these sporadic examples of exocentricity, some productive and stable compound patterns of Spanish are always exocentric, i.e., neither of their constituents is ever the head of the compound. In all cases of exocentric patterns, the resulting compound is a noun. Consequently, rather than proposing ad hoc conversion for each compounded token, it is more theoretically sound to incorporate the process of conversion or o-derivation into the pattern itself. In Chapter 2, Section 126.96.36.199, it was proposed that the first merge operation between constituents is followed by a second merge with an empty (unpronounced) head, which corresponds to the WCM and is responsible for the conversion of the compound. In Spanish the two most common exocentric compounding patterns are [V + N]N and, to a much lesser extent, [Q + N]N compounds (Table 7.1). Each one of them will be considered separately.


The analysis of functioning of Novosibirsk regional clinical diagnostic center demonstrated that the development and enhancement of labor efficiency, accessibility and quality of consulting diagnostic process and total medical care to oblast population needs to follow several directions. These are adequate organizational managerial activities, integral methodological approach to modernization of structural units functioning, rationale planning, standardization and control of quality, modernization and optimization of actual material technique base and resources implementation, elaboration of optimal model of interaction with regional curative preventive organizations. On the basis of evidential operative data it is proved that the integral evaluation of the activities of curative preventive organizations, polyclinics for instance, has to include such overall criteria of consulting diagnostic process as effectiveness of using medical equipment and labor efficiency of personnel.


Wetlands are one of the major habitats that play a vital role in the survival of biodiversity. The recent study aimed to evaluate diversity, abundance and threats to birds of an important Ramsar site, Uchalli Wetland Complex, along with Ahmedabad lake. Data were collected by direct (point count) as well as indirect method (interviews) from December 2020 to May 2021. In total, 139 avian species of 27,450 individuals were recorded at study sites. Results revealed that the species richness was maximum at Uchalli (133), followed by Khabbaki (92), Jahlar (88), and Ahmedabad lake (79). The Shannon Weiner index and Simpson index values for Jahlar lake, Uchalli lake, Khabbaki lake, and Ahmedabad lake were (2.99, 0.90), (2.32, 0.82), (2.26, 0.66) and (1.72, 0.51) respectively. The omnivore was the most abundant (40%) feeding guild followed by carnivores (32%) and insectivores (20%). Four vulnerable species sarus crane ( Grus antigone ), southern grey shrike ( Lanius excubitor ), imperial eagle ( Aquila heliaca ), and common pochard ( Aythya ferina ), four near-threatened species ferruginous pochard ( Aythya nyroca ), northern lapwing ( Vanellus vanellus ), alexandrine parakeet ( Psittacula eupatria ), and pallid harrier ( Circus macrourus ), and one endangered species steppe eagle ( Aquila nipalensis ) were observed during the study. These species require special attention for conservation as illegal hunting is one of the major threats to the species in the study area. Other threats include fishing, use of insecticides and pesticides.