With the increased demand of multifunction in electronic device, downscaling of interconnection pitch presents an important role for the next generation electronics with high performance, small form factor, low cost and heterogeneous integration. In the current types of interconnects, solder micro bumps have received much attention due to its low cost of material and process. For fine pitch solder micro bump interconnections, selection of under bump metallurgical material is a crucial issue because the solder micro bump joints with different kinds of UBM material will present varied reliability performances. However, which structure of solder micro bump joint shows the better reliability properties is not concluded yet until now. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) chip stacking using 30μm pitch interconnects with lead-free solder bumps and two types of UBM material is described. The reliability of solder micro bump interconnection with varied UBM material is also discussed. Assembly of the chip-on-chip test vehicle with a micro bumps diameter of 18 μm and a pitch of 30 μm was conducted. There were more than 3000 micro bumps with Sn2.5Ag solder material on both the silicon chip and carrier. Two kinds of UBM layer on Si chip were selected in this study: one was single copper layer with a thickness of 8 μm and the other was Cu/Ni layer with a total thickness of 8 μm. The UBM was electro-plated on Al trace and then the Sn2.5Ag solder with a thickness of 5 μm was deposited. During bonding process, the micro joints were formed at a peak temperature of 250 °C and the microgaps between chips were then filled by a capillary underfill cured at 150°C for 30 min. In this study, we evaluate the effect of fluxless bonding on the joining ability of solder micro bumps. The influence of underfill on the reliability of solder micro bump interconnections was estimated also. Subsequently, the chip-stacking modules were inspected by an X-ray and a scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) to determine the quality of micro joints including bonding accuracy, formation of interconnections and the percentage of voids within the underfill. Afterwards, the moisture sensitivity level 3 pre-conditioning test and temperature cycle test for 1000 cycles were performed to evaluate the reliability of solder micro bump interconnects. The results of reliability test revealed that the introduction of underfill could apparently enhance the reliability performance of micro joint under mechanical evaluation.


Popular subdivision algorithms like Catmull-Clark and Loop are C2 almost everywhere, but suffer from shape artifacts and reduced smoothness exactly near the so-called "extraordinary vertices" that motivate their use. Subdivision theory explains that inherently, for standard stationary subdivision algorithms, curvature-continuity and the ability to model all quadratic shapes requires a degree of at least bi-6. The existence of a simple-to-implement C2 subdivision algorithm generating surfaces of good shape and piecewise degree bi-3 in the polar setting is therefore a welcome surprise. This paper presents such an algorithm, the underlying insights, and a detailed analysis. In bi-3 C2 polar subdivision the weights depend, as in standard schemes, only on the valence, but the valence at one central polar vertex increases to match Catmull-Clark-refinement.


An efficient and operationally simple synthesis of 7-deuteropyrazolo[1,5-a]pyridine and 7-deutero-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyridine derivatives using α-H/D exchange of 1-aminopyridinium cations in basic D2O followed by a 1,3-cycloaddition of acetylenes and nitriles is presented. A high regioselectivity and a high degree of deuterium incorporation were achieved. The procedure was applied for several 4-R-1-aminopyridinium cations (R = H, Me, OMe).


A variety of reproductive barriers can enable reproductive isolation and stable coexistence of plant species. Differing floral traits might play an important role in reproductive isolation imposed by pollinators. Such shifts in pollinator use have been hypothesized to contribute to the radiation of Erica (Ericaceae) in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. The sister species Erica shannonea and Erica ampullacea co-occur and overlap in flowering phenology. Both have unscented long-tubed flowers consistent with adaptations for pollination by long-proboscid flies (LPFs), but differences in flower orientation and corolla tube length are indicative of a shift in pollinator species. We conducted controlled pollination experiments and pollinator observations to determine the breeding system and pollinators of the two species. Both species are self-incompatible and require pollinator visits for seed production, suggesting that pollinators could strongly influence flower evolution. The horizontally orientated flowers of E. shannonea were found to be pollinated by Philoliche rostrata (Tabanidae), which has a long, fixed forward-pointing proboscis, while the vertically upright orientated flowers of E. ampullacea were found to be pollinated by Prosoeca westermanni (Nemestrinidae), which has a shorter proboscis that can swivel downwards. The nemestrinid fly's proboscis is too short to access the nectar in the relative long-tubed flowers of E. shannonea and the tabanid fly's proboscis cannot swivel down to access the upright flowers of E. ampullacea. Consequently, these traits are likely to act as reproductive barriers between the two Erica species and thereby might have contributed to speciation and enable stable coexistence.


The emergence of integrated technologies is facilitating the configuration of vision and sound in ways previously impossible with discrete technologies. The attributes of infinite storage, continually increasing speed of access and phenomenal manipulation of images and sound are moving rapidly towards the notion of virtual reality in technology based information and presentation systems. What are the implications for instructional design? This paper discusses effective multimedia design strategies which results in the creation of multimedia programs. Implications for the development of materials with groups located at geographically different places are discussed. This impacts on the possibility of developing multimedia material between different groups in different countries.


The nose‐to‐brain (N‐to‐B) transport mechanism of nanoparticles through the olfactory epithelium (OE) is not fully understood. Most research utilized nasal epithelial cell models completely deprived of olfactory cells. Aiming to shed light into key cellular pathways, in this work, for the first time, the interaction of polymeric nanoparticles in a 17–483 nm size range and with neutral and negatively and positively charged surfaces with primary olfactory sensory neurons, cortical neurons, and microglia isolated from olfactory bulb (OB), OE, and cortex of newborn rats is investigated. After demonstrating the good cell compatibility of the different nanoparticles, the nanoparticle uptake by confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy is monitored. Our findings reveal that neither olfactory nor forebrain neurons internalize nanoparticles. Conversely, it is demonstrated that olfactory and cortical microglia phagocytose the nanoparticles independently of their features. Overall, our findings represent the first unambiguous evidence of the possible involvement of microglia in N‐to‐B nanoparticle transport and the unlikely involvement of neurons. Furthermore, this approach emerges as a completely new experimental tool to screen the biocompatibility, uptake, and transport of nanomaterials by key cellular players of the N‐to‐B pathway in nanosafety and nanotoxicology and nanomedicine.


The main gain of Model-based Testing (MBT) is the generation of robust test suites with minimal effort. However, as the software evolves along with its models, test suites often need to be generated again, resulting on test case discards and the loss of historical data. To address this issue, prior research has proposed a strategy to reduce the discard of MBT test cases, specifically those derived from CLARET use case models, employing distance functions to identify test cases that have undergone minimal impact due to changes and can be easily updated instead of being discarded. In this work, we report a case study in which we applied this approach to an industrial system developed at the TJPB (Court of Justice of the State of Paraíba). At least 7% of the test cases that would be discarded could be reused, which reduces information losses and improved the traceability of the project issues.


Background: Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is caused by germline mutations of mismatch repair genes, usually in hMLH1 or hMSH2. All earlier studies on penetrance except one population based study were conducted in HNPCC families and did not correct for the way in which these families were ascertained. Objective: To obtain estimates of the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) and endometrial cancer (EC) for carriers of disease causing mutations of the hMSH2 and hMLH1 genes. Methods: Families with known germline mutations of hMLH1 (n = 39) and hMSH2 (n = 45) were extracted from the Dutch HNPCC cancer registry. Ascertainment-corrected maximum likelihood estimation was carried out on a competing risks model for cancer of the colorectum and endometrium. Results: Both loci were analysed jointly as there was no significant difference in risk (p = 0.08). At age 70, colorectal cancer risk for men was 26.7% (95% confidence interval, 12.6% to 51.0%) and for women, 22.4% (10.6% to 43.8%); the risk for endometrial cancer was 31.5% (11.1% to 70.3%). Conclusions: Current estimates of the CRC risk of mutations to the hMLH1 and hMSH2 locus should be replaced by considerably lower risks which account for the selection of the families.


A questionnaire survey was carried out among fifth form students in three Gisborne city high schools in 1968 and repeated in 1981. On an item concerned with smoking, 514 students responded on the first occasion and 583 on the second. Over time, there was a shift towards higher levels of smoking among females and lower levels among males, a finding that applied to both Maori and European students. Socioeconomic status was not related to levels of smoking for either ethnic group in 1968 and for Maoris in 1981; on the latter occasion, however, European students from low socioeconomic homes reported higher levels than those from high socioeconomic homes.


The cephalopod vertical lobe is the largest learning and memory structure known in invertebrate nervous systems. It is part of the visual learning circuit of the central brain, which also includes the superior frontal and subvertical lobes. Despite the well‐established functional importance of this system, little is known about neuropil organization of these structures and there is to date no evidence that the five longitudinal gyri of the vertical lobe, perhaps the most distinctive morphological feature of the octopus brain, differ in their connections or molecular identities. We studied the histochemical organization of these structures in hatchling and adult Octopus bimaculoides brains with immunostaining for serotonin, octopus gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (oGNRH), and octopressin‐neurophysin (OP‐NP). Our major finding is that the five lobules forming the vertical lobe gyri have distinct neurochemical signatures. This is most prominent in the hatchling brain, where the median and mediolateral lobules are enriched in OP‐NP fibers, the lateral lobule is marked by oGNRH innervation, and serotonin immunostaining heavily labels the median and lateral lobules. A major source of input to the vertical lobe is the superior frontal lobe, which is dominated by a neuropil of interweaving fiber bundles. We have found that this neuropil also has an intrinsic neurochemical organization: it is partitioned into territories alternately enriched or impoverished in oGNRH‐containing fascicles. Our findings establish that the constituent lobes of the octopus superior frontal–vertical system have an intricate internal anatomy, one likely to reflect the presence of functional subsystems within cephalopod learning circuitry. J. Comp. Neurol. 523:1297–1317, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The present study explores the possibilities of using chitosan-magnetite (CM) nanocomposites for removal of urea in blood serum. The CM nanocomposites, with an average diameter in the range of 12–33 nm, were characterized by transmission electron microscopic and selected area electron diffraction analysis. The particles demonstrate fair ability to remove urea in human blood serum. The maximum removal efficiency was nearly 26%, when 200 mg of CM nanocomposites were allowed to agitate with 25 mL of urea solution of concentration 100 mg/dL. The CM nanocomposites could be easily removed by applying moderate magnetic field. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009


The retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Nishtar Medical Hospital, Multan, to compare the safety and efficacy of oral progesterone and levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) for the management of DUB. The study was conducted on 90 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Participants were randomly divided into groups A (LNG-IUS) and B (oral progesterone). The primary outcomes were Pictorial blood loss assessment chart (PBAC) scores. Secondary outcomes were the evaluation of adverse effects and Hb levels. A comparison of the mean PBAC score showed that LNG-IUS significantly reduced PBAC scores (P< 0.0001). Comparison of post-treatment HB levels showed that LNG-IUS significantly increased Hb level, and the difference between both groups was statistically significant (P< 0.0001). After 6 months, the incidence of adverse effects in group B was 60%, while in group A was 40%. However, hypomenorrhea was more prevalent in group A. It can be concluded that LNG-IUS is a more effective and safe treatment choice for Dub compared to oral progesterone.


The project is about integrating the SMS function with a website based system. The
idea for the project started by identifying the problems that always faced by students in
University Technology ofPETRONAS when receiving parcels. Usually the parcels will
be sent straight to UTP by the courier service provider like Pos Laju, DHL, FedEx and
etc. the parcels then will be kept in the main office where every parcel information will
be recorded. Parcels for students will be sent to Lembaran Residential Office for them
to be collected by the recipients. The problem comes up when students need to check
the list of recipient's names on the board in front of Lembaran Residential Office. The
objective of this project is to provide an integrated system for admin and general users
which are staffs and students. It makes the work of checking on their parcels arrival
easier and faster. Furthermore, it will eliminate the need to re-type the parcels
information, first in the main office and second in Lembaran Residential Office. One
more major function is to include the SMS functionality in order to alert the recipients.
It enable user to receive the news on their parcel arrival on time. The methodology used
is waterfall model. The system has been developed based on the six step of system
development life cycle those are planning, analysis, design, develop, integration and
test, and lastly operation and maintenance. If one stage fails then it will be go back to
previous stage. The end of the project it hope that the objective will be achieved
whereas the system can view the record of general user online from their PC, while
admin may use admin privileges on the information and also may use the SMS
functionality.


> 'I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I write and I understand.' Chinese Proverb

Disclosure in the form of the spoken word has long been considered beneficial and widely used in counselling and other therapies. Self-inhibition of negative emotions is thought to lead to continuous autonomic arousal and poorer health.1 Writing therapy, otherwise described in the literature as 'expressive (emotional) disclosure', 'expressive writing', or 'written disclosure therapy' may have the potential to heal mentally and physically. In early experiments, participants wrote about their most traumatic thoughts and feelings related to a stressful event for up to 20 minutes over three or four writing sessions. To isolate any non-specific beneficial effect from participating in studies, control groups wrote about superficial non-emotive topics. The experimental group observed better physical health, improved immune system functioning, and fewer days off due to illness. This formed the basis of subsequent studies into writing therapy.

How writing potentially brings about health benefits is unknown and the underlying mechanism is likely to be complex and multifactorial. One theory is that of emotional catharsis whereby the mere act of disclosure, essentially 'getting it off your chest' is a powerful therapeutic agent in itself.2 Writing may facilitate cognitive processing of traumatic memories, resulting in more adaptive, integrated representations about the writer themselves, their world, and others.3 It is also possible that development of a coherent narrative over time results in ongoing processing and finding meaning in the traumatic experience.4

Writing therapy could potentially be a cheap and easily accessible option that would require minimal input from healthcare professionals. We wondered whether it could be an effective alternative form of therapy in general practice, since access to psychological therapies in primary care can often be slow or limited, much to the frustration of …


Whether or not chemical changes in plants in response to pests (insects and pathogens) are general or specific remains unclear. Some evidence indicates that an induced response (IR) to arthropods via the octadecanoid pathway represents a distinct mechanism from the salicylic acid‐based pathway of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) to pathogens. To further test this hypothesis, young cotton seedlings were activated with benzo (1,2,3) thiadiazole‐7‐carbothioic acid (S) methyl ester (BTH), an elicitor of SAR. The enzymatic activities of a number of pathogenesis‐related (PR) proteins in young and old leaves of control and BTH treated plants were measured. BTH applications elicited marked increases in the activity levels of chitinase, peroxidase, and β‐1,3‐glucanase both locally and systemically. The highest levels of induction were detected systemically in young leaves. Except for some local effects on whitefly oviposition, the induction of SAR by BTH had no effect on either host preference of whiteflies Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) or on feeding efficiency of cotton bollworms Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner). We conclude that SAR induction via the salicylic acid pathway in 'Acala' cotton has negligible effect on the tested insect herbivores.


The tribo-electric effect consists in the electrification of certain materials after coming into contact with other materials. This effect may be used in conjunction with the electric field forces for electrostatically separating positively- and negatively-tribo-charged granules that have otherwise similar size, density, magnetic properties and electric conduc- tivities. Although tribo-electrostatic separation has been used for a long time, its larger-scale application is hampered by a multitude of technical problems that need to be solved: sensitivity to environmental conditions, non-homogeneity of mate- rial charging, chaotic particle trajectories, electrode clogging, etc. This paper reviews various recent patents that claim in- novative solutions of these problems, allowing increasing efficiency and robustness of the separation. The improvements concern each phase of the process: (i) pretreatment and feeding; (ii) tribo-charging of the materials to be separated; (iii) electrostatic separation and particle collection. Most of the new applications were developed for the recycling of plastics from industrial waste and the recovery of unburned carbon from fly ash. The paper concludes with a description of the fu- ture developments expected in the field of tribo-electrostatic separation.


While tracing the various subdivisions of the Durness Series of quartzites and limestones from Sutherland southwards into Rossshire, careful attention has been paid to any indications of fossiliferous zones which might throw additional light on the age of the strata. During last season's campaign, certain sections in the Dundonnell Forest happily furnished the evidence which has been eagerly sought after. Physical Features of the Dundonnell Forest. Between Little Loeir Broom and Loeh Maree the members of this series traverse one of the wildest tracts in the west of Ross-shire. The Dundonnell Forest lies mainly to the south of the head of Little Loch Broom, stretching southwards by An Teallach (3483 ft.) to Loch an Nid and Creag Rainich (2646 ft.). The southern portion of the Forest is drained by the Loch an Nid river, which, finding its source in the loeh of that name, flows northwards for about three miles towards the shooting-lodge of Achneigie. The river is bounded on the east for part of this distance by a precipitous crag (1000 ft. high), and on the west by the long dip-slopes of quartzite and Torridon Sandstone of Sgurr Ban (3194 ft.) and Ben a Chlaidheimh. Near Achneigie the river bends towards the north-west, soon pouring its waters into Loch na Sheallag. From this loch issues the Gruinard river, discharging into Gruinard Bay. The sections from which the fragments of Olenelluz were obtained occur along the eastern slope of the valley drained by the Loch an Nid river, between Loch


Background and Aims: Peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) is a minimally invasive procedure for the surgical treatment of achalasia and an endoscopic alternative to open or laparoscopic Heller myotomy (HM). POEM was initially developed in Japan, was first published in 2010, and has since been increasingly adopted in Western countries. The aim of this study is to present preliminary data from the introductory phase of POEM in a small-volume center. Material and Methods: The first 14 patients operated with POEM for achalasia at the University Hospital of North Norway were registered in a prospective database and retrospectively evaluated, as a quality assurance study. Indications for the procedures were manometric diagnosis of achalasia and a significant Eckardt symptom score (≥ 7 points). Results: A total of fourteen patients, 6 female, median age 47 years (19-77 years), were operated in a day care unit and observed in the hospital ward for a median of 1 day (1-17 days). The preoperative and three month postoperative follow-up median Eckardt symptom scores were 8 (7-12) and 0 (09), respectively. One complication was encountered, which resulted in an intraoperative mucosal perforation, and was subsequently treated with an endoscopically implanted stent. Four patients reported acquiring occasional gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), which did not necessitate regular antacid medication. Conclusion: Preliminary results from the introductory phase of POEM for achalasia in a small volume center demonstrate that the procedure was performed safely and with satisfactory short term results.


Abstract : The need for U.S. forces, and the Army in particular, to conduct operations in complex environments integrated with multinational partners is well founded both in contemporary experiences and strategic guidance. In order to synchronize with these mission partners, U.S. forces must be willing and able to share digital information at operational and tactical levels with trusted coalition forces. In spite of this widely recognized requirement, the U.S. Army still has no single interoperable allied mission network available for rapid deployment. As a result, Army organizations are unable to realize the full potential of the Regionally Aligned Forces (RAF) initiative or mission command doctrine. The lack of a sustainable coalition network, or Mission Partner Environment (MPE), further prevents Army units from rapidly integrating or maintaining command and control with multinational partners as required by combatant commanders. This study reviews the history of these shortcomings and explores the Afghanistan experience to support specific recommendations for the emerging MPE. The relative success of the Afghan Mission Network (AMN) makes the case for the using common operational priorities (mission threads) as the basis for network security architecture. This examination will show the MPE must be included and prioritized within Army network programs of record and that policy must shift to allow more flexible risk assessment with respect to information sharing in support of current and future multinational operations.


Normally visual surveillance systems are basedon background subtraction to detect foreground objects andthen conduct multiple objects tracking with data associationand tracking filters in an open-loop procedure. Differentfrom the state-of-the-art approaches, this paper discusses aclosed-loop object detection and tracking method. In ourproposed method, each pixel is first modeled with an adaptiveGaussian Mixture Models (GMMs). Second, foregroundmoving objects are tracked by Multiple Hypotheses Trackers(MHT) together with an adaptive Interacting MultipleModels (IMM) method. With the IMM approach, object'sdynamic properties can be better modeled to get more accuratedynamic tracking results. Third, our proposed closedloopapproach uses the object tracking results to adjust theGMMs' parameters to extract foreground object pixels moreaccurately. With this closed-loop approach, the accuracy ofboth object detection and tracking are improved withoutincreasing computational costs. The proposed new algorithmis tested with extensive experimental videos collected fromdifferent scenarios such as urban streets, intersections, andhighways. Experimental results demonstrated the efficiencyand robustness of our proposed algorithm in handling objectdetection and tracking in real-time.


In this paper, we consider the problem of answering count queries for genomic data subject to perfect privacy constraints. Count queries are often used in applications that collect aggregate (population-wide) information from biomedical Databases (DBs) for analysis, such as Genome-wide association studies. Our goal is to design mechanisms for answering count queries of the following form: How many users in the database have a specific set of genotypes at certain locations in their genome? At the same time, we aim to achieve perfect privacy (zero information leakage) of the sensitive genotypes at a pre-specified set of secret locations. The sensitive genotypes could indicate rare diseases and/or other health traits one may want to keep private. We present both local and central count-query mechanisms for the above problem that achieves perfect information-theoretic privacy for sensitive genotypes while minimizing the expected absolute error (or per-user error probability, depending on the setting) of the query answer. We also derived a lower bound of the per-user probability of error for an arbitrary query-answering mechanism that satisfies perfect privacy. We show that our mechanisms achieve error close to the lower bound, and match the lower bound for some special cases. We numerically show that the performance of each mechanism depends on the data prior distribution, the intersection between the queried and sensitive genotypes, and the strength of the correlation in the genomic data sequence.


1. Whole-cell recordings were performed on acutely isolated pyramidal neurons from rat sensorimotor cortex 2 to 21 days postnatal to study the expression of a tetrodotoxin (TTX) sensitive, voltage dependent, persistent Na+ current (INaP) during different stages of postnatal development. 2. INaP was activated positive to about -60 mV and attained its peak amplitude between -40 and -35 mV. Activation of INaP did not require preceding activation of the transient Na+ current. 3. Peak INaP amplitudes showed a three-fold increase over the first three postnatal weeks, starting from 60.7 +/- 7.5 (SE) pA (n = 6) at postnatal day (P) 2-P5 and reaching 189.1 +/- 20.4 pA (n = 13) at P17-P21. 4. Measurements of peak INaP density, which took concomitant cell growth into account, revealed that a considerable current density already existed in very young neurons (P2-P5: 4.3 +/- 1.0 microA/cm2, n = 6) when compared with INaP density in early adult neurons (P17 - P21: 8.9 +/- 0.8 microA/cm2, n = 5). 5. Our data provide the first direct evidence for the presence of a significant INaP density during early postnatal development of neocortical neurons indicating that this current should play a role in the control of intrinsic excitability at this age.


© 2016 Published by Oxford University Press 2016. The Laplace-Beltrami operator (LBO) on a sphere with a cut arises when considering the problem of wave scattering by a quarter-plane. Recent methods developed for sound-soft (Dirichlet) and sound-hard (Neumann) quarter-planes rely on an a priori knowledge of the spectrum of the LBO. In this article we consider this spectral problem for more general boundary conditions, including Dirichlet, Neumann, real and complex impedance, where the value of the impedance varies like α/r, r being the distance from the vertex of the quarter-plane and α being constant, and any combination of these. We analyse the corresponding eigenvalues of the LBO, both theoretically and numerically. We show in particular that when the operator stops being self-adjoint, its eigenvalues are complex and are contained within a sector of the complex plane, for which we provide analytical bounds. Moreover, for impedance of small enough modulus |α|, the complex eigenvalues approach the real eigenvalues of the Neumann case.


Objectives: The present paper attempted to discover the behaviour of fertility differentials across the districts of Punjab, Pakistan. More precisely, it aimed to investigate some salient determinants of fertility differential through fitted regression line and scatter plot including the confidence interval. Materials and Methods: Data in this study were gathered from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2013-2014. The regression analysis was employed to evaluate the relationship of fertility determinants, followed by plotting two-way scatter plots and confidence intervals. For the empirical analysis, the total fertility rate (TFR) was taken as an outcome variable while the employment rate, underfive mortality, and contraceptive use were considered as determinants. Results: The results indicated that child mortality is a very significant variable in determining the level of fertility and it had the coefficient value of 0.0096. It was further found that child mortality has a positive relationship with fertility rates. Thus, child mortality must be reduced to overcome the issue of high fertility rates at the district level of Punjab. Contraceptive use was also a very effective variable regarding determining the level of fertility and had a negative coefficient value of -0.033. Finally, the employment rate was a very useful variable for the determination of fertility level. Conclusions: The empirical results revealed that child mortality should be reduced in order to decrease the level of fertility in Punjab, Pakistan, and contraceptive use should develop through family planning programs.


The study of quality of life (QoL) in a French cohort of patients suffering from angina pectoris was one of the objectives of the ELAN longitudinal study. It concerned 3,954 subjects (76% males) mean age: 67 +/- 11 years, followed up by 613 cardiologists which were invited to complete a series of baseline sociodemographic and clinical data and to answer a series of questions upon one year outcome (3,261 medical records available). QoL was assessed at baseline via a self-administered 12-item general questionnaire, the Short-Form 12 (SF-12), enabling to compute a mental component summary (CS-12) and a physical component summary (PCS-12) score. Mean MCS-12 in the ELAN cohort (49 +/- 7.5) was very close to the standards derived from general American population (50 +/- 10) or to the data available in a general French population (51.2 +/- 7.4). Whereas mean PCS-12 was hardly lower (about one standard deviation) in comparison with general American population (50 +/- 10) or with a general French population (48.4 +/- 9.4). QoL was higher in males and linked to age in a contrasted way (higher MCS-12 and lower PCS-12 in elderly; p < 0.0001). It depended on the clinical condition (lower MCS-12 associated with mixed-type angina pectoris or with more severe angina and with persistent smoking; lower PCS-12 associated with mixed type or more severe angina, with cardiac failure episodes, arteritis obliterans, stroke antecedents or left ventricular hypertrophy). Both scores were negatively correlated, in multivariate regression analysis, with the severity of persisting angina at one year, after controlling for the severity of baseline angina and the other confounding variables. Above all, MCS-12 and especially PCS-12, predicted major coronary events at one year (death, myocardial infarction, angioplasty, coronary by-pass surgery). In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, low baseline PCS-12 was associated with higher risk for cardiovascular death at one year (OR = 2.44; 95% CI = 1.25-4.74; p < 0.01). These results confirm the clinical validity of SF-12 (cross sectional stage of the study) and stress its prognostic value independent from the other risk factors (longitudinal stage of the study).


Genetic mutations and environmental factors dynamically influence gene expression and developmental trajectories at the neural, cognitive, and behavioral levels. The examples in this article cover different periods of neurocognitive development—early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood—and focus on studies in which researchers have used a variety of methodologies to illustrate the early effects of socioeconomic status and stress on brain function, as well as how allelic differences explain why some individuals respond to intervention and others do not. These studies highlight how similar behaviors can be driven by different underlying neural processes and show how a neurocomputational model of early development can account for neurodevelopmental syndromes, such as autism spectrum disorders, with novel implications for intervention. Finally, these studies illustrate the importance of the timing of environmental and genetic factors on development, consistent with our view that phenotypes are emergent, not predetermined.


In this paper, the impact of thermally induced self-doping and phase transformation in TiO2 based resistive random-access memory (ReRAM) is discussed. Instead of a thin film, a vertically aligned one-dimensional TiO2 nanotube array (TNTA) was used as a switching element. Anodic oxidation method was employed to synthesize TNTA, which was thermally treated in the air at 350 °C followed by further annealing from 350 °C to 650 °C in argon. Au/TiO2 nanotube/Ti resistive switching devices were fabricated with porous gold (Au) top electrode. The x-ray diffraction results along with Raman spectra evidently demonstrate a change in phase of crystallinity from anatase to rutile, whereas photoluminescence spectra revealed the self-doping level in terms of oxygen vacancies (OV) and Ti interstitials (Tii) as the temperature of thermal treatment gets increased. The electrical characterizations establish the bipolar and electroforming free resistive switching in all the samples. Among those, the ReRAM sample S3 thermally treated at 550 °C displayed the most effective resistive switching properties with R OFF/R ON of 102 at a read voltage of −0.6 V and a SET voltage of −2.0 V. Moreover, the S3 sample showed excellent retention performance for over 106 s, where stable R OFF/R ON ≈ 107 was maintained throughout the experiment.


Background: Necrotizing fasciitis is an uncommon severe infection involving the subcutaneous soft tissue, particularly the superficial and often the deep fascia. Early diagnosis is of utmost importance since the disease progress rapidly. The present study was conducted to determine clinical, laboratory and therapeutic aspects of necrotizing fasciitis in a group of Iranian patients referred to a referral center in Tehran between 1999 and 2003. Materials and methods: For this descriptive study, all patients with the diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis referred to Imam Khomeini hospital during a 4-year period (1999-2003) were enrolled. The diagnosis of necrotizing fasciitis was verified according to the clinical, radiologic, and direct inspection of a surgeon. Results: Totally, 34 patients referred during the studied period with the mean age of 43.7±28.3 years and male to female ratio of 19:15. Tachycardia (41.2%) and tachypenia (44.1%) were the most common presenting signs. Lower limb was the most frequent site of involvement (70.5%). Totally, 64 operations were performed (2.14 operation/ patient). Conclusion: Necrotizing fasciitis should be ruled out in any patient presented with pain, flu-like symptoms, swelling, blisters, and necrotizing appearance skin, especially if it is associated with diabetes mellitus, injecting drug abuse or recent trauma. Prompt diagnosis, suitable antibiotic use, and extensive operation could significantly reduce mortality.


This paper aims to put constraints on the transition redshift zt, which determines the onset of cosmic acceleration, in cosmological-model independent frameworks. In order to perform our analyses, we consider a flat universe and assume a parametrization for the comoving distance DC(z) up to third degree on z, a second degree parametrization for the Hubble parameter H(z) and a linear parametrization for the deceleration parameter q(z). For each case, we show that type Ia supernovae and H(z) data complement each other on the parameter space and tighter constrains for the transition redshift are obtained. By combining the type Ia supernovae observations and Hubble parameter measurements it is possible to constrain the values of zt, for each approach, as 0.806± 0.094, 0.870± 0.063 and 0.973± 0.058 at 1σ c.l., respectively. Then, such approaches provide cosmological-model independent estimates for this parameter.


The α′′-Fe16N2 has attracted much interest as a candidate for semi-hard magnetic materials. As reported coercivity of α′′-Fe16N2 nanoparticles so far were not high, it is necessary to improve magnetocrystalline anisotropy of α′′-phase to be used practically. Since theoretical calculation suggests a possibility of the improvement of magnetocrystalline anisotropy by substituting of Fe with Co, we challenged to make α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 nanoparticles by hydrogen reduction of α-(Fe1-xCox)OOH as a starting material changing X from 0 to 0.1. We were able to produce α-(Fe1-xCox) nanoparticles through (Fe0.98Co0.02)OOH, and (Fe0.95Co0.05)OOH and (Fe0.95Co0.05)2O3. Sintering occurred during reduction and crystallite diameter D increased with increasing reduction temperature. α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 phase containing α-(Fe,Co) nanoparticles were obtained only at reduction of 340 °C for 4 h and nitridation of 170 °C for 5 h for X = 0.02. It has been revealed that α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 or α′′-Fe16N2 could be formed below D = 50 nm of α-(Fe,Co) or α-Fe. And containing Co make it more difficult to produce α′′-phase. It can be said that the formation of α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 is subject to a limit of D and Co content. Long time nitridation is only way to increase the formation yield of α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N. High Hc = 2000 Oe was obtained for α′′-(Fe0.98Co0.02)16N2 by changing nitridation time 10 hours from 5 hours. Further long nitradation is expected to increase in Hc of α′′-(Fe0.98Co0.02)16N2.The α′′-Fe16N2 has attracted much interest as a candidate for semi-hard magnetic materials. As reported coercivity of α′′-Fe16N2 nanoparticles so far were not high, it is necessary to improve magnetocrystalline anisotropy of α′′-phase to be used practically. Since theoretical calculation suggests a possibility of the improvement of magnetocrystalline anisotropy by substituting of Fe with Co, we challenged to make α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 nanoparticles by hydrogen reduction of α-(Fe1-xCox)OOH as a starting material changing X from 0 to 0.1. We were able to produce α-(Fe1-xCox) nanoparticles through (Fe0.98Co0.02)OOH, and (Fe0.95Co0.05)OOH and (Fe0.95Co0.05)2O3. Sintering occurred during reduction and crystallite diameter D increased with increasing reduction temperature. α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 phase containing α-(Fe,Co) nanoparticles were obtained only at reduction of 340 °C for 4 h and nitridation of 170 °C for 5 h for X = 0.02. It has been revealed that α′′-(Fe1-xCox)16N2 or α′′-Fe16N2 could be formed below D = 50...


To study evolved resistance/tolerance in an insect model, we carried out an experimental evolution study using D. melanogaster and the opportunistic pathogen B. cereus as the agent of selection. The selected lines evolved a 3.0- to 3.3-log increase in the concentration of spores required for 50% mortality after 18–24 generations of selection. In the absence of any treatment, selected lines evolved an increase in egg production and delayed development time. The latter response could be interpreted as a cost of evolution. Alternatively, delayed development might have been a target of selection resulting in increased adult fat body function including production of antimicrobial peptides, and, incidentally, yolk production for oocytes and eggs. When treated with autoclaved spores, the egg production difference between selected and control lines was abolished, and this response was consistent with the hypothesis of a cost of an induced immune response. Treatment with autoclaved spores also reduced life span in some cases and elicited early-age mortality in the selected and wound-control lines both of which were consistent with the hypothesis of a cost associated with induction of immune responses. In general, assays on egg production yielded key outcomes including the negative effect of autoclaved spores on egg production.


Some parameters of peripheral blood cellular and humoral immunity were studied in 80 patients with different stages of pulmonary sarcoidosis, which were compared with the results obtained in 30 healthy subjects of the control group. An increase in the total count of lymphocytes, and primarily that of B-lymphocytes, was found, as compared with those in healthy subjects. T-lymphocyte changes were statistically insignificant. The IgM level was found decreased with the values of IgG and IgA being constant, as compared with those in subjects of the control group. In the group of patients there was a statistically significant decrease in the values of total complement with the values of phagocytosis in sarcoidosis patients and healthy subjects being statistically indistinguishable.


This paper presents a new method to improve the classification performance for remote-sensing applications based on swarm intelligence. Traditional statistical classifiers have limitations in solving complex classification problems because of their strict assumptions. For example, data correlation between bands of remote-sensing imagery has caused problems in generating satisfactory classification using statistical methods. In this paper, ant colony optimization (ACO), based upon swarm intelligence, is used to improve the classification performance. Due to the positive feedback mechanism, ACO takes into account the correlation between attribute variables, thus avoiding issues related to band correlation. A discretization technique is incorporated in this ACO method so that classification rules can be induced from large data sets of remote-sensing images. Experiments of this ACO algorithm in the Guangzhou area reveal that it yields simpler rule sets and better accuracy than the See 5.0 decision tree method.


The univariate generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution is the most commonly used tool for analysing the properties of rare events. The ever greater utilization of Bayesian methods for extreme value analysis warrants detailed theoretical investigation, which has thus far been underdeveloped. Even the most basic asymptotic results are difficult to obtain because the GEV fails to satisfy standard regularity conditions. Here, we prove that the posterior distribution of the GEV parameter vector, given an independent and identically distributed sequence of observations, converges to a normal distribution centred at the true parameter. The proof necessitates analysing integrals of the GEV likelihood function over the entire parameter space, which requires considerable care because the support of the GEV density depends on the parameters in complicated ways.


We give an analytic quantitative relation between Hardy's non-locality and Bell operator. We find that Hardy's non-locality is a sufficient condition for the violation of Bell inequality, the upper bound of Hardy's non-locality allowed by information causality just corresponds to Tsirelson bound of Bell inequality and the upper bound of Hardy's non-locality allowed by the principle of no-signaling just corresponds to the algebraic maximum of Bell operator. Then we study the Cabello's argument of Hardy's non-locality (a generalization of Hardy's argument) and find a similar relation between it and violation of Bell inequality. Finally, we give a simple derivation of the bound of Hardy's non-locality under the constraint of information causality with the aid of the above derived relation between Hardy's non-locality and Bell operator.


The paper shows that it is urgent to study stroke in young patients aged 15—45 years. In accordance with the TOAST classification, the author presents the major pathogenetic subtypes of ischemic stroke (IS): atherothromboembolic, cardioembolic, lacunar, that of other known and unknown etiology. The clinical picture and diagnostic principles of IS at young age are considered. Particular emphasis is laid on therapy for IS. It is pointed out that the leading therapy option in these patients is thrombolysis; intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator is more frequently used; oral anticoagulants and antiplatelet agents are certain to prescribe.


Substance use disorder impacts the lives of significant others, more especially the wives of individuals using substances. However, the physical and mental health issues among wives of people who inject drugs (PWID) are less studied. The current cross-sectional, multisite study assessed the physical and mental health of wives of 433 PWID across six sites in Delhi. The mean age of the participants was 32.7 years (standard deviation: 9.7). More than 50% of the participants reported menstrual problems, most commonly dysmenorrhea. Around 55.9% had adverse pregnancy outcomes (abortion, miscarriage, or stillbirth). Around one out of four participants reported at least one specific sexually transmitted infection symptom. Around 11% were diagnosed with tuberculosis and 35% with a major medical illness in their lifetime. More than 90% of the participants had depressive and anxiety symptoms. The study showed that there is a huge burden of physical and mental health issues among the wives of PWID.


OBJECTIVE
Non-Hispanic (NH) Black children are less likely to receive a standard treatment course for infantile epileptic spasms syndrome (IESS) than White/NH children at pediatric tertiary care epilepsy centers in the United States. However, if inequities exist in time to diagnosis is unknown. Diagnostic delays as little as a week can be associated with worse developmental outcomes.

METHODS
Diagnostic delays were evaluated in a retrospective cohort of 100 children with new onset IESS between January 2019 and May 2022.

RESULTS
Children with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) caregivers were more likely to experience clinically significant delays in referral from first provider to neurologist, when compared to White/NH children, even after controlling for other demographic and clinical variables (Odds ratio: 4.98, Confidence Interval (CI) 1.24-19.94, p=0.023).

SIGNIFICANCE
Disproportionate diagnostic delays place BIPOC children at risk for adverse developmental and epilepsy outcomes. Further interventional prospective and qualitative studies are needed to address inequities in care.


This study investigated human resource subjects' allocation and students' academic performance in Secondary Schools in Obudu, Nigeria. The relevant variables of teachers subject was used as independent variable while the dependent variables were students' academic performance. Six hundred teachers from 20 secondary schools were sampled for the study through stratified sampling technique. Teachers' placement was correlated with students' academic performance in NECO examinations in English Language and Mathematics on the basis of schools while the relationship between teachers' placement and extent of their task accomplishment were correlated on the basis of individual teachers. Teachers' subject placement had positive direct relationship on students' academic performance. Government and proprietors of schools should recruit competent teachers to reduce incidence of inverse relationship between teacher demand and supply.


Perceivers of other minds often overestimate the similarity between their own and other people's perspectives. This egocentric projection during perspective-taking is argued to originate from perceivers' tendency to use their own perspective as a referential anchor from which they insufficiently adjust away to account for an alternative interpretation. We investigated whether an explicit focus on another person's point of view allows perceivers to make sufficient perspective-adjustments, thereby attenuating their egocentric projection. Findings showed that we successfully replicated Keysar's (1994) illusory transparency of intention effect (Experiment 1) and Epley, Keysar, Van Boven, and Gilovich's (2004) findings that confirm perceivers' egocentric anchoring and (insufficient) adjustment during perspective-taking (Experiment 2). We further showed that enhancing perceivers' attention to another person's perspective both prior (Experiment 1) and during (Experiment 2) perspective-taking did not diminish egocentric projection. Findings are discussed in light of the role of feedback in making accurate perspective-adjustments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


Soluble antigen prepared from pseudorabies virus-infected embryonic pig kidney cells was used to demonstrate the presence of pseudorabies virus antibodies in sera taken from naturally and experimentally infected swine. Antibody could be detected by agar-gel immunodiffusion as early as 14 days postexposure and was demonstrable at least 3 months after experimental infection (the longest period tested). The reliability of the agar-gel immunodiffusion test was comparable to that of the microtitration serum-virus neutralization test commonly used in diagnostic laboratories. One advantage of the agar-gel immunodiffusion test was that severely hemolyzed and cytotoxic serum samples could be tested with confidence. The test is simple, rapid, and inexpensive and could be easily adopted by diagnostic laboratories that receive requests for pseudorabies virus antibody determinations in swine sera.


We identified the cytokines interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) by specific radioimmunoassays in the CSF of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurologic diseases (OND). There was a high incidence of detectable IL-1β in patients with active MS compared with inactive MS or OND patients. TNF was also more frequently present in active MS than in OND CSF. By contrast, most MS CSF did not contain detectable IL-6. There was no correlation between the degree of CSF pleocytosis and the level of individual cytokines, suggesting that cytokine accumulations may be derived from CNS, and not CSF, cells. As IL-1β: and TNF experimentally induce astrogliosis, demyelination, temperature elevation, lassitude, and sleep, and results raise the possibility that these cytokines may contribute to a variety of manifestations in MS and in other disease states.


Line-scanning hyperspectral imaging (LHSI) is known to have a higher acquisition rate but lower sectioning capability than point-scanning hyperspectral imaging. To further increase the axial imaging contrast of LHSI, structured illumination was integrated into line excitation to remove the off-focus and scattered on-focus fluorescence signals. In an unsectioned leaf, the imaging contrast can be enhanced by 8 times, while in sectioned mouse skin tissues, a 4.5-fold enhancement can be achieved. With a spectral resolution of 1.15 nm, the fluorophores with seriously-overlapped spectra was proved to be separated without cross-talk by applying linear unmixing to the recorded spectral information.


SUMMARY The anatomy of the buccal mass and the function of nine principal muscle groups involved in the feeding movements, are described for the mollusc Tritonia hombergi. Anatomical and physiological studies on some 40 neurones along the posterior border of the buccal ganglia indicates that many are primary motoneurones to the muscles of the buccal mass. The feeding cycle may be divided into three phases of muscle activity termed Protraction, Retraction and Flattening, which are correlated with the patterned bursting observed in P, R and F motoneurone groups within the motoneurone population. A fourth group of motoneurones are thought to innervate muscles to the outer lips which are active during protraction. The patterned output of impulses in the buccal nerves during feeding cycles confirms that the motor control of the muscle groups may be explained in terms of the sequential activation of the P, R and F cells.


Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine) forest ecosystem restoration is a growing emphasis in the southwestern United States to address over 120 years of forest structure change, decreased forest health, and increased potential for disease and wildfire. Restoration treatments replicating pre‐settlement conditions may reduce tree density by 98%, are detrimental to canopy‐dependent wildlife such as tassel‐eared squirrel (Sciurus aberti), particularly at the patch scale, and are of concern when applied at the landscape scale. We examined S. aberti population dynamics in north‐central Arizona, U.S.A., from 1999 to 2002 at nine 280‐ha sites oriented along a landscape gradient of varying proportions (4.6–99.2%) of unlogged, high‐quality (HQ) habitats within a matrix of intensively thinned low‐quality habitat. Our objectives were to estimate S. aberti density, juvenile recruitment, and survival across this gradient; quantify patch‐ and landscape‐scale habitat relationships to populations; evaluate possible habitat thresholds in squirrel population response; and develop forest management recommendations. In regression models, both patch‐scale and landscape‐scale parameters influenced squirrel populations. At the patch scale, number of interlocking canopy trees was added most frequently, whereas the proportion of HQ habitat was the landscape‐scale variable added in five of seven models. Recruitment and survival at dense, HQ plots were inversely related to number of small, sapling‐sized trees. Nonlinear thresholds in density and recruitment occurred when the proportion of HQ habitat at study sites was between 24 and 42%. Our study points to the importance of maintaining HQ habitat in mesoreserves on the landscape at or above this threshold range, as well as pursing a mix of forest management prescriptions in the matrix surrounding mesoreserves to achieve wildlife, forest restoration, and fire risk reduction objectives.


In this paper, we introduce a novel and efficient algorithm for reconstructing the 3D locations of tumor sites from a set of 2D bioluminescence images which are taken by a same camera but after continually rotating the object by a small angle. Our approach requires a much simpler set up than those using multiple cameras, and the algorithmic steps in our framework are efficient and robust enough to facilitate its use in analyzing the repeated imaging of a same animal transplanted with gene marked cells. In order to visualize in 3D the structure of the tumor, we also co-register the BLI-reconstructed crude structure with detailed anatomical structure extracted from high-resolution microCT on a single platform. We present our method using both phantom studies and real studies on small animals.


Abstract Compression coating is a possible process for obtaining zero-order release. Nifedipine compression-coated (CC) di-matrix depot tablets were prepared from a single punch tablet press with low viscosity hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC-L) as the inner polymer, and with middle viscosity hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC-M), HPC-L and Eudragit RSPO as outer polymers. The release behavior and mechanisms in vitro of the final tablets were investigated, and gravimetric analysis was used to study the release mechanism. The fast release of the core depot and slow release of the outer depot with time formed total zero-order release. The results showed that the formulation presented ideal zero-order release at the weight ratio of nifedipine 3:5 (core: layer), the combination of HPC-L and HPC-M (56:25) in the outer depot, and with the core depot placed in the center. The CC tablets released to more than 95% in 24 h and fitted a zero-order model with the equation Mt/M∞ = 0.038t (R2 = 0.98555). In conclusion, zero-order release of nifedipine over 24 h could be achieved by applying polymer HPC-L and HPC-M with the compression coating technique.


In this paper a surface inspection system for rails is proposed. There is a lack of commercial systems and publications about surface inspection of rails. Therefore, the quality control developed by rail manufacturers depends on their own developed systems or on the equipments provided by very few sellers. Commercial systems must be configured manually by experts of seller companies. The configuration process requires large sets of all types of manufactured rails along several periods of time and the active participation of the quality engineers of the manufacturer. This is a long, cumbersome and very expensive process. In this paper we propose a new system that can be configured using a systematic method that can be performed by the quality engineers of the manufacturer. The proposed inspection system uses differential images of the rail surfaces obtained with a technique called the Spectral Images Differentiation Procedure. These images are processed using a computer vision algorithm that looks for variations in the pixel values among the images. In order to offer more information, a neural network approach is used for classifying detected defects into six types. The proposed system is an open solution for the inspection of rail surface, easy to implement at an affordable cost, which can be systematically configured by the quality engineers of the manufacturing company.


Eighty patients who were culture-confirmed positive for recurrent herpes labialis were entered into a clinical trial. Sixty of these completed two episodes each in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 5 per cent acyclovir in a polyethylene glycol ointment base. The 5 per cent acyclovir ointment failed to show better clinical healing effects than placebo in both documented episodes. There were no serious side effects observed in either group.


Epithelial mucins, MUC gene products, are widely expressed in human organs such as airways, the urogenital and gastrointestinal tracts, and the eyes. MUC-type mucins have very large sizes and complex structures with very extensive O-glycosylation and are regarded as protective molecules. The aim of this review is to discuss mucin glycoproteins structure, biosynthesis and functions in normal and pathologically altered epithelial mucosa of human gastrointestinal tract.


We study measure perturbations of the Laplacian in L 2 (R 2) supported by an innnite curve ? in the plane which is asymptotically straight in a suitable sense. We show that if ? is not a straight line, such a \leaky quantum wire" has at least one bound state below the threshold of the essential spectrum.


ABSTRACT This article follows the discussion on female consumers in Swedish advertising journals and handbooks. The aim is to problematise the gendered aspects of Swedish consumer and early advertising history, by studying how the notion of the female consumer intersected with notions of social class, marital status and sexuality. The article also closes in on the persons who were invited to embody the consuming women and what kind of interests they represented. The article concludes that, from the start of the twentieth century, gender and class was prevalent in the advertising literature. The married woman was also from the start seen as the head of the consuming family. Therefore, reaching her through advertising became key for facilitating the relations between producer and consumer. With time, different women's organisations, the weekly press, and new theories of advertising from the US addressing the notion of 'Mrs Consumer' came to influence the Swedish advertising trade press. The result became the favouring of a certain kind of middle class, urban and rational kind of femininity, strongly connected to homemaking and women's roles in purchasing for the family. However, this femininity also paralleled notions of 'the flapper' and the professional woman.


ABSTRACT Telepresence has been playing an important role in a mediated learning environment. However, the current design of telepresence seems to be dominated by the emulation of physical human presence. With reference to social constructivism learning and the recognition of individuals as intelligent entities, this study explored the transformation of telepresence and its association with learning. A sample practice was performed and evaluated to understand students' response toward the transformed telepresence. The results revealed that students recognized the presence of their peers in the transformed telepresence, and this enhanced their interest in the related activity conducted in the mediated learning environment. More importantly, students reported various cognitive processes of learning and new thoughts regarding the subject content. The findings of this study suggest that transformed telepresence creates a specific medium for human expression with particular properties and powers. This medium offers a new aspect of collaboration among participants for enhancing language learning.


Cellulose dissolution and regeneration is an increasingly active research field due to the direct relevance for numerous production processes and applications. The problem is not trivial since cellulose solvents are of remarkably different nature and thus the understanding of the subtle balance between the different interactions involved becomes difficult but crucial. There is a current discussion in literature on the balance between hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions in controlling the solution behavior of cellulose. This treatise attempts to review recent work highlighting the marked amphiphilic characteristics of cellulose and role of hydrophobic interactions in dissolution and regeneration. Additionally, a few examples of our own research are discussed focusing on the role of different additives in cellulose solubility. The data does support the amphiphilic behavior of cellulose, which clearly should not be neglected when developing new solvents and strategies for cellulose dissolution and regeneration.


This study provides a profile of deprivation with respect to consumer expenditure, cereal consumption and energy intake across demographic and agro-climatic regions as defined by the National Sample Survey Organisation of India. It examines this evidence at the disaggregated level to verify whether a public distribution system (PDS) targeted with reference to estimates of poverty would end up penalizing the non-poor but food insecure. The empirical profiles have also useful policy relevance with respect to decentralized formulation and implementation of the PDS.


SUMMARY Traditional growth analysis techniques have dealt with changes in plant weight and leaf area and have contributed a great deal to the understanding of plant growth. However, they have ignored the fact that the plant may be considered as a population of modules perfectly suited for studies of age structure. Plant growth has many analogies with the growth of a population of organisms. Plant modules (e.g. leaves) have a life cycle-birth, juvenile phase, 'reproduction' (i.e. contributing resources to the birth of other leaves and ultimately to flowering and seed set), senescence and death. Plants of Linum usitatissimum were grown in a glasshouse under full and 50% light and at densities of 3.9 and 30/flat. Leaf birth rates were reduced by shading and especially by increased plant density. Light and density also influenced the branching pattern, the intrinsic rate of growth (rm), leaf survivorship, life expectancy (es), and leaf death rates. Leaf death was strongly influenced by the treatments. Regardless of leaf age, leaf area index, flowering time, density or light intensity, leaf death started when the total biomass of the plants was about 13 g/flat. This biomass apparently exceeded the carrying capacity of the soil medium. Experimentally withholding nutrients, shading the lower parts of the plants, and the removal of flower buds influenced the onset of leaf death but the variable that was most effective, was the withholding of nutrients. Death started in the lower leaves and proceeded upwards regardless of leaf age. The number of seeds per plant was more strongly correlated with the number of leaves than with the total leaf area per plant. This study shows that the application of life-table and other demographic analyses to leaf birth and death is feasible and permits an interptetation of plant response to environmental factors at a more sophisticated level than is possible from classical growth analysis.


The series The Ephemeral Form is my attempt to communicate the ways in which women are similar in order to empower women so that they may overcome their differences creating a way for more open communication. This series of prints explore the notion of femaleness from a personal perspective and aesthetic. The main subject in each piece is the female torso as a static figure or a figure in motion. There is a specimen-like quality to the images as well as direct references to medieval panel paintings. Within each image the torso of the female is transparent revealing the biology of the figure. This is to show the viewer the similarities between the figures. On the surface of the figure in the image are markings and road maps, like scars, to represent the figure as a real being with a personal history. The image, when completed, looks very old and antiquated similar to a Medieval panel painting. I use the paintings and deteriorated quality of them as a metaphor for how I see the female body as it has been scrutinized and the idea of it has been transformed over time. These are the themes discussed in this paper. It is my intention that these works speak to how the female body is constantly revealing and concealing its self, opening up and closing off. The idea of femaleness is constantly changing, creating a cycle of confusion and revelation, and I depict this through the construction of the whole piece through many layers of images, decay and deterioration.


Micah Lande, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic School in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. He teaches human-centered engineering design and innovation courses in the engineering and manufacturing engineering programs. Dr. Lande researches how technical and non-technical people learn and apply a design process to their work. He is interested in the intersection of designerly epistemic identities and vocational pathways. Dr. Lande received his B.S in Engineering (Product Design), M.A. in Education (Learning, Design and Technology) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Design Thinking) from Stanford University. Dr. Lande is the PI on the NSF-funded project "Should Makers Be the Engineers of the Future" and a co-PI on the NSF-funded project "Might Young Makers Be the Engineers of the Future?"


We use ensemble machine learning algorithms to study the evolution of magnetic fields in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence that is helically forced. We perform direct numerical simulations of helically forced turbulence using mean field formalism, with electromotive force (EMF) modeled both as a linear and non-linear function of the mean magnetic field and current density. The form of the EMF is determined using regularized linear regression and random forests. We also compare various analytical models to the data using Bayesian inference with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. Our results demonstrate that linear regression is largely successful at predicting the EMF and the use of more sophisticated algorithms (random forests, MCMC) do not lead to significant improvement in the fits. We conclude that the data we are looking at is effectively low dimensional and essentially linear. Finally, to encourage further exploration by the community, we provide all of our simulation data and analysis scripts as open source IPYTHON notebooks.


Integration of microelectrodes in microfluidic devices has attracted significant attention during the past years, in particular for analytical detections performed by direct or indirect electrochemical techniques. In contrast there is a lack of general theoretical treatments of the difficult diffusion-convection problems which are borne by such devices. In this context, we investigated the influence of the confining effect and hydrodynamic conditions on the steady-state amperometric responses monitored at a microband electrode embedded within a microchannel. Several convective-diffusive mass transport regimes were thus identified under laminar flow on the basis of numerical simulations performed as a function of geometrical and hydrodynamic parameters. A rationalization of these results has been proposed by establishing a zone diagram describing all the limiting and intermediate regimes. Concentration profiles generated by the electrode across the microchannel section were also simulated according to the experimental conditions. Their investigation allowed us to evaluate the thickness of the diffusive-convective layer probed by the electrode as well as the distance downstream from which the solution becomes again homogeneous across the whole microchannel section. Experimental checks of the theoretical principles delineated here have validated the present results. Experiments were performed at microband electrodes integrated in microchannels with aqueous solutions of ferrocene methanol under pressure-driven flow.


The fast chirp transform (FCT) provides a powerful formalism for the detection of signals with variable frequency, in much the same way that the Fourier transform provides a formalism for the detection of constant frequency signals. The FCT algorithm has significant applications in the detection of gravitational waves, particularly the gravitational wave signal produced by an inspiralling compact binary. We report on progress towards a parallelized search code to identify inspiral events in interferometer data and estimate the mass parameters.


Abstract. This study presents the late Quaternary faunal change of small mammals on the southern part of Okinawajima (Ryukyu Archipelago) on the basis of subfossils in late Pleistocene and middle Holocene fissure-filling deposits. The present subfossils include the Okinawa spiny rat Tokudaia muenninki, Ryukyu long-furred rat Diplothrix legata, Watase's shrew Crocidura watasei, and an indeterminate species of bat. With the exception of C. watasei, these species no longer exist in southern Okinawajima. Predominance of these rat species suggests that the environment around the fissure was densely forested during these ages. However, the presence of C. watasei remains implies that open habitats also existed in the middle Holocene. Tokudaia muenninki remains from the fissure show that it had survived on southern Okinawajima until the middle Holocene. The upper first molar widths and lower molar row lengths in the late Pleistocene T. muenninki material from the fissure are significantly smaller than those of extant conspecific specimens, whereas the upper molar row length appears to be similar to those of the extant conspecifics. These findings suggest that the molar proportions of T. muenninki have changed since the late Pleistocene.


The nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway of eukaryotes involves ∼30 polypeptides. Reconstitution of this pathway with purified components is consistent with the sequential assembly of NER proteins at the DNA lesion. However, recent studies have suggested that NER proteins may be pre-assembled in a high molecular weight complex in the absence of DNA damage. To examine this model further, we have constructed a histidine-tagged version of the yeast DNA damage recognition protein Rad14. Affinity purification of this protein from yeast nuclear extracts resulted in the co-purification of Rad1, Rad7, Rad10, Rad16, Rad23, RPA, RPB1, and TFIIH proteins, whereas none of these proteins bound to the affinity resin in the absence of recombinant Rad14. Furthermore, many of the co-purifying proteins were present in approximately equimolar amounts. Co-elution of these proteins was also observed when the nuclear extract was fractionated by gel filtration, indicating that the NER proteins were associated in a complex with a molecular mass of >1000 kDa prior to affinity chromatography. The affinity purified NER complex catalyzed the incision of UV-irradiated DNA in an ATP-dependent reaction. We conclude that active high molecular weight complexes of NER proteins exist in undamaged yeast cells.


The focus here is on the New Public Management, henceforth NPM, which constitutes a tsunami, virtually worldwide. Thus, inter alia, we hear about "customers" of public services, which are to be provided by "public intrapreneurs" as well as by cadres of employees at all levels who are "empowered." And so on and on, with the conventional topics including crosstraining, total quality, performance measurement, and strategic planning. Although widely accepted, the NPM dogma - certainly it is no less in influential sources - does not survive critical analysis. In sum, this essay proposes this judgment: that in more or less equal measure, NPM combines ubiquity, too much made of some six useful but limited notions, unreconciled diversities, and major issues at sixes-and-sevens. This essay also intends to show how NPM might rise above its limitations. Specifically, four emphases relate to these critical-cum-constructive ambitions. In preview, the old NPM: seldom even attempted detailing a useful approach to applications; typically neglected systemic or milieu characteristics within which applications occurred; usually did not specify a useful front-load in designs: i.e., training in values, attitudes, and interaction skills that would facilitate developing a "cultural preparedness" for appropriate applications; and seldom specified supportive structural/managerial arrangements and especially how they might be achieved in practice. The text gives illustrative attention to how matters might be improved upon.


The widespread usage of the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) has motivated the development of Parallel Discrete Wavelet Transform (PDWT) on multicore computer systems. Several studies that have implemented PDWT by utilization of parallel technology have shown that it is an effective approach to speed up the wavelet transformation by a considerable factor. However, the parallelism is implemented in multi-machine network environment which affects the system maintenance and the bandwidth speed. Therefore, multi-core technology has great importance as it gives an intermediate approach to system speedup without jeopardizing on performance. In this work, wavelet transform is implemented on a single core/multi-core system and developed in C# using. Net framework 4.0. This study presents an efficient approach to compute the DWT transform with Adaptive Load Balancing Algorithm (ALBA) which is applied on standard form on parallel general-purpose computers. This technique does not introduce any restriction on the size of the input data or on the transform parameters. Complete use of the available processor parallelism, modularity, and scalability are achieved. Theoretical and experimental evaluations and comparisons are given with respect to traditional parallelization.


Concern is growing over a potential flaw in the Affordable Care Act (ACA): the mandate to offer first-dollar coverage for all preventive services that receive A and B recommendations from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The USPSTF, an independent panel established during the Reagan administration in 1984, is composed of clinicians who specialize in the critical appraisal of evidence and make recommendations on clinical preventive services that are graded by the strength of the evidence: A and B recommendations when there is compelling evidence that benefits outweigh harms, C recommendations when the net benefit is modest, D recommendations when there is evidence of net harm or no benefit, and I statements when there is insufficient evidence to make a recommendation.


Transverse phase-space distributions of low-energy ion beams extracted from ECR ion sources often show higherorder effects caused by ion-optical aberrations. Understanding these effects is mandatory to keep emittance growth and the resulting beam losses in low-energy beam transport lines under control. We present results of an experimental and theoretical study of beam extraction and transport in the AGOR injection line at KVI. Particle tracking simulations have been performed of a multi-component neon ion beam extracted from an ECR ion source to calculate 4D phase-space distributions at various positions along the beam line. The simulations compare well with beam profile and emittance measurements.


Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most prevalent cardiovascular diseases worldwide and most patients suffer from MI without awareness. Therefore, early diagnosis and timely treatment are crucial to guarantee the life safety of MI patients. Most wearable monitoring devices only provide single-lead electrocardiography (ECG), which represents a major limitation for their applicability in diagnosis of MI. Incorporating the derived vectorcardiography (VCG) techniques can help monitor the three-dimensional electrical activities of human hearts. This study presents a patient-specific reconstruction method based on long short-term memory (LSTM) network to exploit both intra- and inter-lead correlations of ECG signals. MI-induced changes in the morphological and temporal wave features are extracted from the derived VCG using spline approximation. After the feature extraction, a classifier based on multilayer perceptron network is used for MI classification. Experiments on PTB diagnostic database demonstrate that the proposed system achieved satisfactory performance to differentiating MI patients from healthy subjects and to localizing the infarcted area.


Background : Antibodies targeting the immune check point inhibitor programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) have been associated with relatively high response rates that appear durable in most patients. Past studies have shown the percentage of melanoma expressing the ligand for PD1, PD-L1 varies from 38 to 53% depending on the cutoff used to determine positivity and the antibodies used. In the majority of melanoma, expression of PD-L1 was associated with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and was believed to be induced by IFN gamma from T cells. Relatively few melanomas had (constitutive) PD-L1 expression in the absence of TILs. Study and Results: In the present study we examined the signal pathways involved in inducible and constitutive expression of PD-L1 expression on cultured melanoma cells, including those derived from patients pre and post vemurafenib treatment. Our results suggest that nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) has a role in IFN-gamma inducible expression as shown by inhibition of PD-L1 expression with the inhibitor, BMS 345541 which blocks phosphorylation of the inhibitory IkB kinase, resulting in cytoplasmic retention of NF-kB p65 and p50 subunits. Luciferase based promoter reporter assays confirmed an association between NF-kB activity and PD-L1 expression levels. Targeting NF-kB was more effective in reducing inducible PD-L1 levels than targeting either the MAPK pathway or the P13Kinase/AKT pathway. Transfections with the super repressor, Inhibitor of kappa B alpha, mutated at S32 and S36, to correlate with PD-L1 levels are being carried out. In addition, si RNA mediated knockdown of the p50 and p65 subunits to confirm the involvement of NF-kB in PD-L1 expression will be studied. We are also currently dissecting the signaling pathways involved in constitutive expression of PD-L1. NF-kB is an important protein complex involved in adaptive and innate immune response and regulates cytokine and chemokine production in melanoma. It also contributes to induction of proteins involved in cell proliferation and survival, playing a role in resistance to targeted therapy. The present results highlight another important function of this crucial transcription factor which our recent studies show may be targetable by inhibitors of the bromo domain and terminal repeat (BET) reader proteins. Citation Format: Kavitha Gowrishankar, Dilini Gunatilake, Stuart Gallagher, Jessamy Tiffen, Peter Hersey. Regulation of PD-L1 expression in human melanoma by NF-kB. [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 2947. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2947


Abstract : The program has been successful in reaching the objective of developing a unique technology of Adhesive-Free Bond (AFB) composite crystals, optical ceramics, glasses and optical coatings. Major highlights of the program include: * AFB Nd:YAG/YAG composite slabs with undoped ends have enabled 100kW weapons level HEL (High Energy Lasers) through Onyx Optics manufacturing development. * AFB Passive q-switched microchips are in advanced development for Sidewinder missiles. * AFB Waveguide structures are in advanced development for a number of defense applications, with components of different sizes. * AFB Disk laser components are used in production laser machining systems. * AFB Nonlinear walk-off corrected crystal composites enable quasi-noncritical phase matching at any wavelengths that previously have only been accessible by critical phase matching and are relevant for infrared countermeasures (IRCM) and directed IRCM. * AFB Ho:YAG lasers have been designed and developed that exhibit the best beam quality and highest efficiency of any that have been reported in the literature. * Optical, mechanical and thermal properties of AFB composites have been characterized that have placed the technology on a solid data basis for design of composite components and scale up to production. * The program has enabled industry-wide scale-up of AFB composite crystal. * Components for solid state lasers that are concurrently being scaled up to prototype and production quantities at laser manufacturer and systems integrator facilities for wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the terahertz region. The customer base is world-wide.


The resolution characteristic can be obtained by the modulation transfer function (MTF) of a GaAs/GaAlAs photocathode. After establishing the theoretical model of GaAs(100)-oriented atomic configuration and the formula for the ionized impurity scattering of the non-equilibrium carriers, this paper calculates the trajectories of photoelectrons in a photocathode. Thus the distribution of photoelectron spots on the emit-face is obtained, which is namely the point spread function. The MTF is obtained by Fourier transfer of the line spread function obtained from the point spread function. The MTF obtained from these calculations is shown to depend heavily on the electron diffusion length, and enhanced considerably by decreasing the electron diffusion length and increasing the doping concentration. Furthermore, the resolution is enhanced considerably by increasing the active-layer thickness, especially at high spatial frequencies. The best spatial resolution is 860 lp/mm, for the GaAs photocathode of doping concentration 1 × 1019 cm−3, electron diffusion length 3.6 μm and the active-layer thickness 2 μm, under the 633-nm light irradiated. This research will contribute to the future improvement of the cathode's resolution for preparing a high performance GaAs photocathode, and improve the resolution of a low light level image intensifier.


Freenet is a popular peer to peer anonymous network, with the objective to provide the anonymity of both content publishers and retrievers. Despite more than a decade of active development and deployment and the adoption of well-established cryptographic algorithms in Freenet, it remains unanswered how well the anonymity objective of the initial Freenet design has been met. In this paper we develop a traceback attack on Freenet, and show that the originating machine of a content request message in Freenet can be identified; that is, the anonymity of a content retriever can be broken, even if a single request message has been issued by the retriever. We present the design of the traceback attack, and perform Emulab-based experiments to confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the attack. With randomly chosen content requesters (and random contents stored in the Freenet testbed), the experiments show that, for 24% to 43% of the content request messages, we can identify their originating machines. We also briefly discuss potential solutions to address the developed traceback attack. Despite being developed specifically on Freenet, the basic principles of the traceback attack and solutions have important security implications for similar anonymous content sharing systems.


In this work, SrBi4Ti4O15 (SBT) high-temperature piezoelectric ceramics with the addition of different oxides (Gd2O3, CeO2, MnO2 and Cr2O3) were fabricated by a conventional solid-state reaction route. The effects of oxide additives on the phase structures and electrical properties of the SBT ceramics were investigated. Firstly, X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that all these oxides-modified SBT ceramics prepared presented a single SrBi4Ti4O15 phase with orthorhombic symmetry and space group of Bb21m, the change in cell parameters indicated that these oxide additives had diffused into the crystalline lattice of SBT and formed solid solutions with it. The SBT ceramics with the addition of MnO2 achieved a high relative density of up to 97%. The temperature dependence of dielectric constant showed that the addition of Gd2O3 could increase the TC of SBT. At a low frequency of 100 Hz, those dielectric loss peaks appearing around 500 °C were attributed to the space-charge relaxation as an extrinsic dielectric response. The synergetic doping of CeO2 and Cr2O3 could reduce the space-charge-induced dielectric relaxation of SBT. The piezoelectricity measurement and electro-mechanical resonance analysis found that Cr2O3 can significantly enhance both d33 and kp of SBT, and produce a higher phase-angle maximum at resonance. Such an enhanced piezoelectricity was attributed to the further increased orthorhombic distortion after Ti4+ at B-site was substituted by Cr3+. Among these compositions, Sr0.92Gd0.053Bi4Ti4O15 + 0.2 wt% Cr2O3 (SGBT-Cr) presented the best electrical properties including TC = 555 °C, tan δ = 0.4%, kp = 6.35% and d33 = 28 pC/N, as well as a good thermally-stable piezoelectricity that the value of d33 was decreased by only 3.6% after being annealed at 500 °C for 4 h. Such advantages provided this material with potential applications in the high-stability piezoelectric sensors operated below 500 °C.


The hydraulic conductivity of a scrim reinforced nonwoven thermal locked geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) with respect to both de-aired distilled water and arctic diesel (jet fuel) are examined for different numbers of freeze and thaw cycles. The hydraulic conductivity of jet fuel is found to be about one order of magnitude smaller than that for de-aired water. Increasing numbers of freeze and thaw cycles, did not significantly change the hydraulic conductivity although the permittivity with respect to water decreased. The intrinsic permeability of the GCL permeated by jet fuel increased slightly with an increasing number of freeze-thaw cycles. It is shown that under the conditions examined, the GCL performed very well.


Male involvement in antenatal care helps to have safe delivery, especially in developing countries. The problem has been insufficiently studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study assessed male attendance and associated factors at their partners' antenatal visits among antenatal care attendees in Bale Zone health facilities. Cross sectional study was conducted from May to June, 2017 among 609 pregnant mothers. Simple random sampling was used to select participants. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21). Variables with p-values <0.05 were considered to declare statistical significance in multivariable logistic regression analysis. Male attendance at their partners' antenatal visits was 41.4%. Having primary level of education (AOR=2.15, CI=1.12, 4.11), age ≥ 35 years (AOR=0.3, CI=0.1, 0.87), being farmer (AOR=0.23, CI=0.11, 0.51), having previous antenatal care visit (AOR=0.49, CI=0.26, 0.92) were factors associated with male partner involvement. Male attendance at their partners' antenatal visits was low. Hence, health providers and other stakeholders shall create awareness and implement strategies to boost male partners' involvement in antenatal care visit.

 Key words:  Antenatal visits, Bale-Zone.


The X-ray structure of the complex formed between N,N-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) and 1,2-bis(iodoethynyl)benzene is reported. The N---I halogen bond lengths are 2.654 and 2.662 A, approximately 75% of the sum of the van der Waals radii. On the basis of literature precedent and electrostatic potential calculations, a series of fluorosubstituted iodophenylacetylenes were prepared and individually complexed with dimethylaminopyridine in a search for shorter halogen bonds. A N---I halogen bond distance of 2.680 A was observed in the DMAP complex with 3,5-difluoro(iodoethynyl)benzene, and halogen bond distances of 2.622, 2.676, 2.700, and 2.705 A were observed in the complex of 4-fluoro(iodoethynyl)benzene with DMAP. These N---I bond distances range from 74.3 to 76.6% of the sum of the van der Waals radii.


ZrB2—20 vol.% SiC ceramics with additional 20 vol.% short carbon fibers were developed to promote graceful failure using hot-pressing technique. The influence of short carbon fiber on the strength, and modulus of composite was analyzed and estimated using a modified rule of mixtures. The calculation results showed that a little decrease in flexural strength from 502 to 445 MPa and elastic modulus from 414 to 322 GPa was due to the lower elastic modulus of short carbon fiber. An apparent increase in fracture toughness from 2.0 to 6.56 MPa m1/2 was obtained with the addition of short carbon fiber. And the fracture toughness was analyzed and calculated based on the toughening mechanisms of crack deflection, fiber pullout, and crack bridging. Calculated results were in good agreement with experimental results.


This paper describes a technique for using robust linear estimation on nonlinear systems. This technique provides a means for linearizing the nonlinear system in such a way as to not limit the large signal behavior of the target system. The nonlinearity in the target system must be able to be represented as a piecewise linear function. Furthermore, the H2 and H∞ robust estimation techniques will be compared to each other for a sample nonlinear system.


BACKGROUND
White matter abnormalities have been associated with both behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

OBJECTIVE
Using MRI diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures, we compared white matter integrity between patients with bvFTD and those with early-onset AD and correlated these biomarkers with behavioral symptoms involving emotional blunting.

METHODS
We studied 8 bvFTD and 12 AD patients as well as 12 demographically-matched healthy controls (NCs). Using four DTI metrics (fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and mean diffusivity), we assessed the frontal lobes (FWM) and genu of the corpus callosum (GWM), which are vulnerable late-myelinating regions, and a contrasting early-myelinating region (splenium of the corpus callosum). The Scale for Emotional Blunting Scale (SEB) was used to assess emotional functioning of the study participants.

RESULTS
Compared to AD patients and NCs, the bvFTD subjects exhibited significantly worse FWM and GWM integrity on all four DTI metrics sensitive to myelin and axonal integrity. In contrast, AD patients showed a numerical trend toward worse splenium of the corpus callosum integrity than bvFTD and NC groups. Significant associations between SEB ratings and GWM DTI measures were demonstrated in the combined bvFTD and AD sample. When examined separately, these relationships remained robust for the bvFTD group but not the AD group.

CONCLUSIONS
The regional DTI alterations suggest that FTD and AD are each associated with a characteristic distribution of white matter degradation. White matter breakdown in late-myelinating regions was associated with symptoms of emotional blunting, particularly within the bvFTD group.


Learning Objectives: Despite improvements in early recognition and treatment of infections, sepsis remains a frequent causes of childhood mortality worldwide. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign recommends consideration for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for refractory septic shock. Case series and single institution reports suggest reduced mortality if ECMO is used in sepsis, but there is a lack of larger multicenter data. We aimed to assess incidence and treatment benefit of ECMO in children with sepsis and septic shock. Methods: Retrospective multicenter cohort study of children younger than 16 years admitted to PICU with sepsis and septic shock in Australia and New Zealand between 2002 and 2017. Sepsis-specific adjusted models to predict baseline mortality were performed to compare sepsis cases treated with ECMO versus cases not treated with ECMO. Results: During the study period, 5062 children with sepsis met eligibility criteria, of which 80 were treated with ECMO for sepsis. There were 14.2 ECMO treated children per 1000 pediatric sepsis admissions in 2002-2009 compared with 17.0/1000 in 2010-2017 (p=0.425). The benefit threshold, defined as the baseline mortality risk for which ECMO became beneficial was calculated as 46.4% risk of mortality. Among children receiving ECMO, the observed mortality for those below the threshold was 42.8% (24 deaths) which was higher than the number of deaths predicted in the baseline model (28.3%, 15.9 deaths; SMR=1.51, 95%CI: 0.972.25). In contrast, the observed mortality was lower than predicted among patients above the benefit threshold (50.0% (12) versus 68.8% (16.5); SMR=0.73, 95%CI: 0.38-1.27). Based on these figures, a sufficiently powered randomized controlled trial of ECMO in pediatric sepsis would require 507 patients to be enrolled. Conclusions: This large population-based study indicates that ECMO is used in approximatively 1 out of 60 children admitted to PICU with sepsis. We were able to demonstrate a threshold for survival benefit of ECMO in children with sepsis using a sepsis mortality prediction model. Our findings suggest that a fully powered RCT on ECMO in sepsis is unlikely to be feasible. Future research should instead focus on improving identification of chiildren with sepsis most likely to benefit from ECMO to improve adequacy and timing of decision-making in relation to ECMO in sepsis.


Article history: Received 11 December 2012 Received in revised form 13 February 2013 Accepted 13 February 2013 Available online xxxx


ABSTRACT The influenza C virus CM2 protein and a chimeric influenza A virus M2 protein (MCM) containing the CM2 transmembrane domain were assessed for their ability to functionally replace the M2 protein. While all three proteins could alter cytosolic pH to various degrees when expressed from cDNA, only M2 and MCM could at least partially restore infectious virus production to M2-deficient influenza A viruses. The data suggest that while the CM2 ion channel activity is similar to that of M2, sequences in the extracellular and/or cytoplasmic domains play important roles in infectious virus production.


The detection limit is one of the most important performance parameters for bioanalytical techniques. Here we present a generic method to estimate the detection limit of biomolecular assays based on a step-by-step analysis of the assay procedure. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used here as an example; however, much of the information presented in this article may be applied to other types of biomolecular assays and analytical techniques. A clear understanding of what affects the detection limit can help researchers to evaluate different bio-analytical techniques properly, and to design better strategies to optimize and achieve the best analytical performance.