Background Cysteine-rich 61 (CYR61) is implicated in many pulmonary diseases. However, the relationship between CYR61 and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients was unknown. This research aimed to estimate the correlations of serum CYR61 with severity and prognosis in CAP patients through a prospective cohort study. Methods All 541 CAP patients were enrolled in this study. Fasting venous blood was collected. Clinical characteristics and demographic information were obtained. CYR61 and inflammatory cytokines were detected in serum using ELISA. Results Serum CYR61 was gradually increased in parallel with severity scores in CAP patients. Correlative analysis indicated that serum CYR61 was strongly associated with many clinical parameters in CAP patients. Moreover, mixed logistic and linear regression models found that there were positive correlations between serum CYR61 and CAP severity scores after adjusted for age, BMI, and respiratory rate. Stratified analyses suggested that age affected the associations between serum CYR61 and severity scores. On admission, higher serum CYR61 levels elevated the risks of mechanical ventilation, vasoactive agent, ICU admission, death, and longer hospital stays during hospitalization. Moreover, serum CYR61 in combination with severity scores upregulated the predictive capacities for severity and death than single serum CYR61 or severity scores in CAP patients. Conclusion There are significantly positive dose-response associations of serum CYR61 on admission with the severity and adverse prognostic outcomes, demonstrating that CYR61 is involved in the pathophysiology of CAP. Serum CYR61 may be used as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis in CAP patients.


In May 2007 the compact radio source Sgr A* was observed in a global multi-frequency monitoring campaign, from radio to X-ray bands. Here we present and discuss first and preliminary results from polarization sensitive VLBA observations, which took place during May 14-25, 2007. Here, Sgr A* was observed in dual polarization on 10 consecutive days at 22, 43, and 86 GHz. We describe the VLBI experiments, our data analysis, monitoring program and show preliminary images obtained at the various frequencies. We discuss the data with special regard also to the short term variability.


Cloud computing has come out to be an interesting and beneficial way of changing the whole computing world. The traditional way for task scheduling cannot meet the cloud market well enough. This paper introduces an optimized algorithm for cost based scheduling in cloud computing and its implementation. This scheduling algorithm measures both resource cost and calculation performance, it also improves the calculation/communication ratio by grouping the user tasks according to a particular cloud resource's processing capability and sends the grouped jobs to the resource.


A study that enrolled 30 patients with advanced colorectal cancer, who had not previously received any specific drug treatment, was conducted to develop and study a three-component regimen with oral fluoropyrimidine tegafur (Ftorafur) in outpatient practice. The study evaluated the time to disease progression (TDP), the overall survival (OS) of patients, who received irinotecan + oxaliplatin + Ftorafur in the first-line therapy, as well as the effectiveness and safety of this regimen. 6 patients received a 3-week chemotherapy cycle (Fig. 1), 24 patients – a 2-week chemotherapy cycle (Fig. 2). The preliminary results of the study have been obtained. The median OS was not reached, the median TDP was 8.5 months. In Group I, there was partial regression of metastasis in 3/6 patients, and prolonged disease stabilization (≥ 6 months) in 3 patients. The therapeutic effect (partial remission + long-term stabilization ≥ 6 months) was observed in all patients. The duration of TDP was from 6 to 15 months. In group II, the effect was evaluated in 24 patients, who received at least 2 chemotherapy cycles. 14/24 patients had a partial response (PR), of which 4 (16.6%) patients were radically operated, 6 patients elicited disease stabilization. Thus, control over the disease was achieved in 83.33% of patients in Group II. Oxaliplatin combined with irinotecan and fluorafur was effective, had an acceptable toxicity profile, and therefore, can be used in debilitated patients with disseminated disease.


Counting and timing ability in Wistar rats was tested in 4 psychophysical choice experiments. After training naive rats with discrete sound sequences that confounded time and number, only time gained control of behavior; control by time was stronger and acquired more rapidly after training with separate time- and number-relevant signals. Two nonnumeric cues associated with periodic sequences, temporal ratio and sequence pattern, did not appear to provide the basis for numerical discrimination, as performance was unaffected by a sudden change from periodic signals to signals with unique temporal patterns. Even after highly accurate performance with number, time showed exclusive control of behavior for signals with conflicting time and number cues. This study provides an unequivocal demonstration that rats can count, but they do so according to H. Davis and J. Memmott's (1983) "last resort" hypothesis.


For a set of input words, finding a superstring (a string containing each word of the set as a substring) of minimal length is hard. Most approximation algorithms solve the Shortest Cyclic Cover problem before merging the cyclic strings into a linear superstring. A cyclic cover is a set of cyclic strings in which the input words occur as a substring. We investigate a variant of the Shortest Cyclic Cover problem for the case of DNA. Because the two strands that compose DNA have a reverse complementary sequence, and because the sequencing process often overlooks the strand of a read, each read or its reverse complement must occur as a substring in a cyclic cover. We exhibit a linear time algorithm based on graphs for solving the Shortest DNA Cyclic Cover problem and propose compressed data structures for storing the underlying graphs. All results and algorithms can be adapted to the case where strings are simply reversed but not complemented (e.g. in pattern recognition).


Many machine learning methods are being developed to predict the spread of COVID 19. This paper focuses on the expansion of inputs that may be considered in these models. A correlation matrix is used to identify those variables with the highest correlation to COVID 19 cases. These variables are then used and compared in three methods that predict future cases: a Support Vector Machine Regression (SVR), Multidimensional Regression with Interactions, and the Stepwise Regression method. All three methods predict a rise in cases similar to the actual rise in cases, and importantly, are all able to predict to a certain degree the unexpected dip in cases on the 10th and 11th day of prediction


Majority of college and university students do not participate in moderate or vigorous physical activity in daily life and this causes deterioration of physical fitness. Several sex differences in fitness profile parameters among college students were noted in different populations. But data of motor fitness parameters in University students are lacking, especially in Indian context. The present study was aimed to provide gender specific motor fitness reference standards among Indian University students from Kolkata. 82 non–smoker male (n=41) and female (n=41) university students belonging to the age group of 20–26 years and similar socio–economic background were recruited in the study. Motor fitness parameters (agility, vertical jump test, push up test, flexibility, hand grip strength) and anaerobic capacity were measured by standard methods. Motor fitness parameters (agility, vertical jump test, push up test, flexibility, hand grip strength) and anaerobic capacity were significantly higher in male students than their female counterparts. Present data will also serve as a national standard data of motor fitness parameters of university students. This would be of further help to fitness instructors towards implementation of better fitness or exercise regime in different populations to improve physical fitness and for preventing injuries by increasing muscles' flexibility especially in case of females.


A Cu(I)-catalyzed 1,3-halogen migration reaction effectively recycles an activating group by transferring bromine or iodine from a sp(2) to a benzylic carbon with concomitant borylation of the Ar-X bond. The resulting benzyl halide can be reacted in the same vessel under a variety of conditions to form an additional carbon-heteroatom bond. Cross-over experiments using an isotopically enriched bromide source support intramolecular transfer of Br. The reaction is postulated to proceed via a Markovnikov hydrocupration of the o-halostyrene, oxidative addition of the resulting Cu(I) complex into the Ar-X bond, reductive elimination of the new sp(3) C-X bond, and final borylation of an Ar-Cu(I) species to turn over the catalytic cycle.


Anti-TB bioassay-directed fractionation led to the isolation of six carbazole alkaloids, as well as the gamma-lactone derivative of oleic acid, from the CH (2)Cl (2) extract of the stem bark of Micromelum hirsutum. The carbazoles include the new micromeline ( 2) and five known alkaloids: lansine ( 3), 3-methylcarbazole ( 4), methyl carbazole-3-carboxylate ( 5), 3-formylcarbazole ( 6), and 3-formyl-6-methoxycarbazole ( 7). Compound 1 was identified as the lactone derivative of oleic acid, (-)- Z-9-octadecene-4-olide, for which the trivial name micromolide ( 1) is suggested. It showed potent in vitro anti-TB activity against H37R v (MIC: 1.5 microg/mL), a selectivity index (SI) of 63, and exhibited activity against the Erdman strain of M. tuberculosis in a J774 mouse macrophage model (EC (90) : 5.6 microg/mL). Thus, 1 appears worthy of further evaluation as a potential new anti-TB agent. Isolates 2, 3, 6 and 7 had anti-TB MIC values between 14.3 and 42.3 microg/mL, while compounds 4 and 5 were considered inactive (MIC > 128 microg/mL). Structure elucidation and identification were based on spectroscopic analysis, including MS, 1D/2D NMR, and a full (1)H spin system analysis of 1.


This study examined whether experiences in the family and the education systems could influence Deaf ethnic identity development. Data were collected via administration of the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS). Participants' responses were assessed as outlined by the developers of the DAS (Maxwell-McCaw & Zea, 2011). Results suggested that parents' attitude towards their child's deafness may affect the deaf individual's identity development. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with four deaf ethnic minority participants: One Venezuelan American and three African American. Two hearing parents (both mothers) also participated in the interview: one Venezuelan American and one African American. Thematic analysis was used to code and identify patterns among the participants' responses. Some themes discussed were: the role of spirituality and how it shaped deaf ethnic minority parents' attitudes toward their child's deafness; the impact of educational experiences and Deaf identity development, and what factors determined whether an individual identified with their ethnicity or Deafness first. The study suggests that familial/parental attitude toward deafness and experiences in the education system strongly influence Deaf identity development. Limitations and suggestions to further research are also discussed.


Predation is a constant risk for most primates, impacting demography, population dynamics, activity patterns and social behaviour. Data are limited on both the rates of predation and its spatial and temporal variability. We present long‐term observations of Cryptoprocta ferox predation on rainforest sifakas in Madagascar, Propithecus diadema at Tsinjoarivo (22 group years) and Propithecus edwardsi at Ranomafana (73 group years), derived from intensive observations based on ongoing behavioural studies. Average per capita offtake rates are relatively low (0.06–0.07), but temporal variability is high (kills are clumped in time). This is consistent with Cryptoprocta ecology; individual home ranges are much larger than sifaka ranges, and individuals may hunt in a subsection of their range until prey density is decreased, then move on. These results have broad implications. First, in terms of the evolution of anti‐predator strategies, it now becomes important to ask: (1) whether average or peak predation rates determine the strength of selection and (2) whether antipredator strategies (e.g. vigilance, sleeping site selection) fluctuate interannually, reflecting recent experience. Second, in terms of population ecology, Cryptoprocta may have disproportionately large impacts on the (small) sifaka groups, even driving groups to extinction (as observed at both sites). Third, the disappearance of groups has important implications for conservation. When this happens in continuous forest (as at Ranomafana), home ranges will likely be re‐filled over time, whereas in isolated forest fragments (as at Tsinjoarivo), recolonization is less likely. Thus, conservation planners should consider predation as a potentially important proximate cause of extirpation in fragmented landscapes, even when resource density and quality could otherwise sustain populations. Considering the effects of predation can be useful in (1) decisions regarding the allocation of limited conservation resources, including which landscapes to invest resources in and (2) investigating ways to increase resilience of prey species.


The trithionate-iodine reaction has been studied spectrophotometrically in a slightly acidic medium at 25.0 +/- 0.1 degrees C in acetate/acetic acid buffer monitoring the absorbance at 468 nm at the isosbestic point of the iodine-triiodide ion system in the absence and presence of initially added iodide ion at I = 0.5 M ionic strength adjusted by sodium perchlorate. The stoichiometry of the reaction was found to be S(3)O(6)(2-) + 4I(2) + 6H(2)O --> 3SO(4)(2-) + 8I(-) + 12H(+). It is also shown that the consumption of iodine is inhibited by iodide ion, but it cannot be simply explained via the fast equilibrium formation of triiodide ion. A five-step kinetic model with four fitted and fixed kinetic parameters is proposed and discussed in detail, on the basis of which all the most important characteristics of the measured kinetic curves are adequately explained.


Cancer stem cells reside in a distinct region within the tumor microenvironment that it is believed to play a fundamental role in regulating stemness, proliferation, survival, and metabolism of cancer cells. This study aimed to analyze the effect of extracellular alkalinization on metabolism and survival of human CD24-/CD44+ breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs). BCSCs were cultured in alkalinized DMEM-F12 and incubated at 37°C, 5% CO2, and 20% O2 for 30 min, 6, 24, and 48 h. After each incubation period, we analyzed the modulation of various mRNA expressions related to pH and cellular metabolic regulation using the qRT-PCR. Metabolic state was measured using colorimetric and fluorometric assays. To examine cell proliferation and apoptosis, we used trypan blue and annexin V/propidium iodide assay, respectively. This study demonstrated that alkalinization could stimulate extracellular carbonic anhydrase (CAe) activity, as well as CA9 and HIF1α expression. Under alkaline pH and HIF1α regulation, glucose consumption, extracellular lactate production, and LDH activity of BCSCs were upregulated while O2 consumption was downregulated. These metabolic shifts seemed to promote apoptosis and suppress the proliferation of BCSCs. To conclude, modulation of the extracellular environment through alkalinization could change the metabolic states of BCSCs, which in turn affect the cell survival.


Compressed sensing (CS) is an efficient technique to acquire sparse signals in many wireless applications to, e.g., reduce the amount of data and save low-power sensors' batteries. This paper addresses efficient acquisition of sparse sources through quantized noisy compressive measurements where the encoder and decoder are realized by deep neural networks (DNNs). We devise a DNN based quantized compressed sensing (QCS) method aiming at minimizing the mean-square error of the signal reconstruction. Once trained offline, the proposed method enjoys extremely fast and low complexity decoding in the online communication phase. Simulation results demonstrate the superior rate-distortion performance of the proposed method compared to a polynomial-complexity QCS reconstruction scheme.


2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of the amazin' NY Mets, and ABRAMS and "The New York Daily News" have teamed up to create the definitive 50th anniversary book for fans. In 1962, the New York Mets stepped in to fill the void left by the exodus of the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers - an impossible task for any expansion team, but especially for this band of lovable losers in a city spoiled by the success of the New York Yankees. The Mets' were embarrassingly inept in their early years. But in 1969, the Miracle Mets shocked the world, defeating the Baltimore Orioles in five games in the World Series. Then, in 1986, the Mets 'bad boys' pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in sports history when they defeated the cursed Boston Red Sox to win the Mets' second world championship. And in 2000, the Amazin' Mets fought their way into a Subway Series showdown with the cross-town rival Yankees. Along the way, the cast of characters, both Hall of Famers and underachievers, has rarely failed to entertain. This fascinating narrative by beat writers Andy Martino and Anthony McCarron, combined with more than 200 of "The Daily News'" greatest Mets images and a fantastic foreword by Ron Darling, will make this the must-have book for fans of this lovable and one-of-a-kind team. Ya gotta believe!


Little is known about presuppositional skills in pre-school years. Developmental research has mostly focused on children's understanding of too and evidence is mixed: some studies show that the comprehension of too is not adult-like at least until school age, whilemore recent findings suggest that even pre-schoolers can interpret too-sentences in more age-appropriate tasks. Importantly, no study has tested directly, within the same experiment, pre-schoolers' presupposition understanding in satisfactionversus accommodation, norwith respect to other trigger types. Yet, it is well known that adults' processing of a presupposition is costlier when accommodation is required and that the type of trigger influences the processing demands. Therefore, both the trigger type and the contextual availability of a presupposition might influence young children's comprehension. We tested this with a story completion task that assessed 3–5-year-olds' comprehension of presuppositions activated by either regret or too in contexts that either satisfied the presupposition or required accommodation. Results reveal that pre-schoolers overall exhibit an understanding of presupposition. Crucially, this starkly improves between the age of 3 and 5 and the developmental trajectory depends on both context and trigger type: understanding the presupposition of regret seems easier than that of too for younger children, and less difficulties emerge when the context satisfies the presupposition. Thus, the development of presupposition comprehension in pre-schoolers depends both on the type of trigger and the contextual availability of the presupposition – satisfied versus requiring failure repair.


In my mind February is really the first month of the new year. Most of us use January to spend our last days on the beach and then we struggle to get going at work. But in February the holiday feeling has abandoned us and it is full throttle ahead. I hope that each of you are ready to tackle 2014 with new energy and loads of plans.


Analysis of the B cell repertoire is complicated by the huge diversity inherent in the germ line determined combinatory. Making use of knockout technology, kappa-deficient mice have been obtained. They constitute a shrewd model to follow the expression of an Ig minilocus, such as the lambda one, in the normal condition compared with classical transgenic models. Indeed, in contrast to wild type mice, in which only 5% of lambda B cells are produced, these mutant mice exclusively produce lambda positive B cells. Although, the lambda locus is well characterized and has a relatively simple organization, the mechanistic and selective pressures that govern its utilization are still poorly understood. The analysis of the lambda B cell repertoire in kappa-deficient mice, should therefore bring more conclusive informations. Here we present the lambda subtype distribution in the various cellular compartments of the kappa-deficient mice, and discuss the rules that can be responsible for this distribution. Our recent data indicate that the lambda subtype proportions in the bone marrow and the spleen result, for the major part, from mechanistic processes (i.e., recombinase accessibility, production of V-J functional joint and H/L pairings) while the lambda proportions found in the peritoneal cavity ensue from selective processes. Finally, the capacity to respond to various antigens is discussed from such a generated lambda B cell repertoire.


Modern design of civil constructions such as office blocks, airport terminal buildings, factories, etc. incorporates more and more environmental considerations that lead to, amongst other elements, the use of glazed façades with shading devices to optimize energy consumption. These shading devices, normally slats or louvers, are very flexible structures exposed to the action of wind, and therefore aeroelastic effects such as galloping must be taken into account in their design. A typical cross-section for such elements is a Z-shaped profile made out of a central web and two side wings. The results of a parametric analysis based on static wind tunnel tests and performed on different Z-shaped louvers to determine translational galloping instability regions are presented in this paper.


Spectral analyses were conducted for hourly hydraulic head (h) data observed over a 4‐year period at seven monitoring wells in the Walnut Creek watershed, Iowa. The log power spectral density of the hydraulic head fluctuations versus log frequency (f) at all seven wells is shown to have a distinct slope or fractal dimension (D), indicating temporal scaling in the time series of water level fluctuations. The fractal dimension of the time series varies from well to well, and the spectrum for the average h over all seven wells has a fractal dimension of 1.46 and Hurst coefficient of 0.54. The log power spectral density of estimated base flow in the Walnut Creek and four other watersheds versus log f is shown to have two distinct slopes with a break in scaling at about 30 days. It is shown that the groundwater recharge process in a basin can be estimated from a head spectrum based on existing theoretical results. Hydraulic head in an aquifer may fluctuate as a fractal in time in response to either a white noise or fractal recharge process, depending on physical parameters (i.e., transmissivity and specific yield) of the aquifer. The recharge process at the Walnut Creek watershed is shown to have a white noise spectrum based on the observed head spectrum.


Smartphones have emerged as a promising type of equipment for monitoring human activities in environmental health studies. However, degraded location accuracy and inconsistency of smartphone‐measured GPS data have limited its effectiveness for classifying human activity patterns. This study proposes a fuzzy classification scheme for differentiating human activity patterns from smartphone‐collected GPS data. Specifically, a fuzzy logic reasoning was adopted to overcome the influence of location uncertainty by estimating the probability of different activity types for single GPS points. Based on that approach, a segment aggregation method was developed to infer activity patterns, while adjusting for uncertainties of point attributes. Validations of the proposed methods were carried out based on a convenient sample of three subjects with different types of smartphones. The results indicate desirable accuracy (e.g. up to 96% in activity identification) using of this method. Two examples are provided in the Appendix to illustrate how the proposed methods could be applied in environmental health studies. Researchers could tailor this scheme to fit a variety of research topics.


Hemoglobin (Hb) E is one of the world's most common and important mutations. It results in a heterogeneous group of disorders whose phenotype range from asymptomatic to severe. Hb E trait and Hb EE are mild disorders. The combination of Hb E and Hb S (Hb SE) results in a sickle cell disease syndrome similar to sickle beta(+) thalassemia. It is important to distinguish Hb E disorders diagnostically because of this marked difference in clinical course among different genotypes. Screening tests, including hemoglobin electrophoresis and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), may suggest other mutations, unless one is familiar with the findings. E beta-thalassemia, the most serious form of E syndromes, affects a million people worldwide and is increasing in North America. Its phenotype ranges from mild anemia to severe transfusion-dependent thalassemia major. Several genetic modifiers affect the phenotype, including the type of beta-thalassemia mutation, Hb F levels, and co-inheritance of alpha-thalassemia. However, the cause of the phenotypic variability is largely unknown. A prospective natural history study of E beta-thalassemia in Sri Lanka suggests that environmental modifiers are prognostically important. The clinical course of E beta-thalassemia is punctuated by acute and chronic complications that may cause serious morbidity and mortality. Recent studies indicate these patients are at high risk for thromboembolism secondary to a hypercoagulable state increased by splenectomy. Morbidity from iron overload in nontransfused patients secondary to increased gastrointestinal iron absorption is common. Cardiopulmonary disease, including pulmonary hypertension, requires ongoing monitoring and is secondary to iron overload, thromboembolism, and hemolysis-induced nitric oxide deficiency. These patients are excellent candidates for Hb F-modulating agents because moderate changes in hemoglobin may result in marked improvement in phenotype. Recent studies with hydroxyurea indicate 40% of patients will clinically improve with hydroxyurea.


The temporal resolution power hypothesis postulates that temporal acuity of the brain is an important mechanism underlying psychometric intelligence. Evidence for this notion can be derived from studies reporting a close association between temporal resolution power and psychometric intelligence. The present study was designed to investigate whether scholastic achievement as a real world correlate of psychometric intelligence can also be predicted by temporal resolution power. For this purpose, the relation between temporal resolution power, assessed by two timing tasks, and scholastic achievement was examined in 40 second-graders, 40 fourth-graders, and 50 sixth-graders. For all three samples, structural equation modelling revealed a reliable positive relationship between a factor "temporal resolution power" and a factor "scholastic performance". Our findings support the view that temporal resolution power of the brain is not only associated with general psychometric intelligence but also reflects a fundamental mechanism involved in scholastic achievement.


The Mexican giant cardon ( Pachycereus pringlei (S.Watson) Britton & Rose) is an endemic species of the Sonoran Desert; these immense cacti serve as reservoirs of water and nutri ents and provide food and shelter for a large diversity of wildlife. The objectives of the study were to identify the number of species that currently interact with cardons and determine how they take advantage of the cactus. Camera traps were placed near cardon flowers and fruits. Animal species engaged in interactions with the plant were photographed and a literature review was also undertaken to enhance the interactions database. 61 species that interact with cardons were found, 25 of which had not previously been reported. 83 total interactions were recorded , 45% of which occurred in the flowering and fruiting season. This large number of interactions suggests that the Mexican giant cardon is a keystone species for the Sonoran Desert and should be considered for land management and conservation planning within this region.


A series of pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidine-2,4-diones and intermediates was tested for anticonvulsant activity in mice. Eleven of the 15 compounds possessed anticonvulsant activity against pentylenetetrazol-induced convulsions. One compound afforded more anticonvulsant protection against pentylenetetrazol than did trimethadione (67 and 50%, respectively). A suspension of this compound was found to be as effective as a solution in producing anticonvulsant activity. The results suggest that the nitrile analogs were more potent compared to the carbamyl analog due to higher lipid solubility.


Learning distributions of graphs can be used for automatic drug discovery, molecular design, complex network analysis and much more. We present an improved framework for learning generative models of graphs based on the idea of deep state machines. To learn state transition decisions we use a set of graph and node embedding techniques as memory of the state machine.
Our analysis is based on learning the distribution of random graph generators for which we provide statistical tests to determine which properties can be learned and how well the original distribution of graphs is represented. We show that the design of the state machine favors specific distributions. Models of graphs of size up to 150 vertices are learned. Code and parameters are publicly available to reproduce our results.


While rarely explicitly recognised in our disciplinary frameworks, the openness and curiosity on which Modern Languages in the UK is founded are, in many ways, ethnographic impulses. Ethnographic theories and practices can be transformative in relation to the undergraduate curriculum, providing an unparalleled model for experiential and holistic approaches to language and cultural learning. As a form of emplaced and embodied knowledge production, ethnography promotes greater reflexivity on our geographical and historical locations as researchers, and on the languages and cultures through which we engage. An ethnographic sensitivity encourages an openness to less hierarchical and hegemonic forms of knowledge, particularly when consciously seeking to invert the traditional colonial ethnographic project and envision instead more participatory and collaborative models of engagement. Modern Languages scholars are at the same time ideally placed to challenge a monolingual mindset and an insensitivity to language-related questions in existing ethnographic research located in cognate disciplines. For Modern Languages to embrace ethnography with credibility, we propose a series of recommendations to mobilise these new research and professional agendas.


This paper presents a contribution to the OMNeT++ 4.1 simulator in C++ by integrating our own implementation of the FF - Ford-Fulkerson multipath routing algorithm. In order to validate it, an eight-node testbed works with dynamic requested and released flows on each link, updated every second. Four simple scenarios were proposed, considering all possible combinations of fixed and/or random variation laws. Additionally, the path search algorithm BFS - Breadth First Search was implemented too. This software package running under Fedora Core gets the input data from three files called Nodes, Connections and Params. This mechanism provides the interworking between the C++-based FF simulator and the Java-based application in Intellij IDEA 10.5, used as traffic variation simulator. The graphical representations of the occupied, the requested and, respectively, the released flows are obtained by aggregating the contributions of all flows from the paths for any given source-destination pair.


This study is part of a lager ethnography research developed in 5 rural primary schools of Matutuine and Manhica Districts in Maputo province. The research involved 35 teachers, 5 school managers, 6 focus groups with parents and other community members and 2 representatives of Development Aid from People to People (ADPPMozambique).
In this article I discuss, in reflexive and critical way, the extent to which these models of textbook organization, procedures and practices adopted by ADPP-Mozambique are or not adequate for the production of textbooks in multilingual and multicultural contexts, as it is the case of Mozambique, based on the concepts of decoloniality (Mignolo, 2009, 2011, 2013) and linguistic citizenship (Stroud, 2001, 2018).
The results of the present study point out a breaking up with the 'traditional' procedures used by Ministerio da Educacao e Desenvolvimento Humano (MINEDH) in the production of textbooks in African languages. Despite this rupture, the results of the study show that there is a lack of community participation in the production of the textbook. Given this asymmetric framework, community voices are not addressed.


HFE, a major histocompatibility complex class I-related protein, is implicated in the iron overload disease, hereditary hemochromatosis. Whereas patients with hereditary hemochromatosis have low serum transferrin levels, little is known about transferrin turnover in HFE deficiency states. We injected mice intravenously with radioiodinated transferrin and compared plasma transferrin decay and steady-state endogenous transferrin concentration in the plasma between HFE-deficient and wild-type C57BL/6 mouse strains. HFE-deficient mice degraded transferrin faster than normal (P < 0.001) and had lower plasma transferrin concentrations (P < 0.001). Both HFE-deficient and wild-type mice were then fed diets with 3 different iron concentrations that we designated deficient (2-5 mg/kg of iron), control (0.2 g/kg), and overload (20 g/kg) for 6 wk immediately after weaning to create a range of serum iron concentrations and resultant transferrin saturations ranging from 16 to 78%. We found an inverse correlation between transferrin saturation and transferrin half-life (P < 0.0001, r = -0.839) for both HFE-deficient and wild-type mice, which suggests that HFE does not have a direct effect on transferrin catabolism; rather, HFE may influence transferrin half-life indirectly through its effect on transferrin saturation, which in turn enhances transferrin decay in HFE-deficient mice.


BACKGROUND/AIMS
The metabolic kinetics after a total pancreatectomy, especially the postoperative loss of pancreatic endocrine function including insulin and glucagon secretions, remain unexplored. We examined the metabolic status of patients after a total pancreatectomy under insulin control and the effects of glucagon administration on metabolic kinetics.

METHODOLOGY
The metabolic assessments of 11 patients who had undergone total pancreatectomy were performed using indirect calorimetry with blood amino acid and lipid analysis in the following three metabolic conditions: 1) under conventional insulin control alone, 2) when a pharmacologically active amount of glucagon was administered, and 3) when an additional amount of insulin was administered concomitantly to attain the insulin/glucagon molar ratio in the serum similar to the physiological value.

RESULTS
Under conventional insulin control alone, the level of calorigenesis from proteins was decreased mainly due to an impairment in the utilization of glycogenic amino acids. Furthermore, carbohydrates were not sufficiently utilized, and lipid metabolism was increased as a result of the reduced lipid catabolism. When a pharmacologically active amount of glucagon was administered, the utilization of glycogenic amino acids and lipids increased. However, the utilization of carbohydrates was slightly reduced. When an additional amount of insulin was administered, an increased utilization of protein was observed. At the same time, marked improvement was observed in the utilization of carbohydrates which was reduced in 1) and 2) indicated above. Furthermore, the utilization of lipids in calorigenesis was not reduced, but it was reduced in lipid catabolism.

CONCLUSIONS
The above findings indicate the importance of administering insulin and glucagon concomitantly and maintaining the blood insulin/glucagon ratio at a level similar to the physiological value regardless of the administered dosages of these two hormones in order to improve the energy and nutritional metabolism following a total pancreatectomy.


Summary The aim of this study was to investigate usefulness of Kalman Filter (KF) Random Walk methodology (KF-RW) for prediction of breeding values in animals. We used body condition score (BCS) from dairy cattle for illustrating use of KF-RW. BCS was measured by Swiss Holstein Breeding Association during May 2004-March 2005 for 7 times approximately at monthly intervals from dairy cows (n=80) stationed at the Chamau research farm of Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Switzerland. Benefits of KF were demonstrated using random walk models via simulations. Breeding values were predicted over days in milk for BCS by KF-RW. Variance components were predicted by Gibbs sampling. Locally weighted scatter plot smoothing (LOWESS) and KF-RW were compared under different longitudinal experimental designs, and results showed that KF-RW gave more reasonable estimates especially for lower smoother span of LOWESS. Estimates of variance components were found more accurate when the number of observations and number of subjects increased and increasing these quantities decreased standard errors. Fifty subjects with 10 observations each, started to give reasonable estimates. Posterior means for variance components were found (with standard errors) 0.03 (0.006) for animal genetic variance 0.04 (0.007) for permanent environmental variance and 0.21 (0.02) for error variance. Since KF gives online estimation of breeding values and does not need to store or invert matrices, this methodology could be useful in animal breeding industry for obtaining online estimation of breeding values over days in milk.


Background: In 2007 we described residual cancer burden (RCB) as a measure of pathologic response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and demonstrated that RCB was strongly prognostic for 5-year survival outcomes. Herein, we update the long-term outcome of this original cohort, validate our results in an independent patient group, and report outcome according to hormone receptor (HR) and HER2 receptor status.

Methods: Our original RCB development cohort received paclitaxel followed by fluorouracil, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (T/FAC) and the original validation cohort received FAC alone as neoadjuvant chemotherapy for stage II or III breast cancer (JCO 2007;25:4414-22). We subsequently evaluated RCB in 2008 in another independent validation cohort of patients treated with neoadjuvant T/FAC. These patient cohorts were followed up until 2013. The T/FAC cohorts were combined to test RCB within phenotypic subsets of HER2+, HR+/HER2-, and triple receptor-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Pre-defined RCB classes of pathologic complete response (pCR), minimal (RCB-I), moderate (RCB-II) and extensive (RCB-III) residual disease were compared with respect to relapse-free survival (RFS) using the likelihood ratio test and estimates of 10-year RFS (with 95% confidence interval) were determined from Kaplan-Meier analysis. We excluded patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) cancer who received neoadjuvant or adjuvant trastuzumab.

Results: Median follow up of event-free survivors was 142 months for the original T/FAC development cohort (N = 220), 91 months for the T/FAC validation cohort (N = 277), and 198 months for the FAC (N = 169) cohort. The estimates of 10-year RFS by RCB class for each cohort, respectively, were 86%, 81% and 95% for pCR; 87%, 81% and 85% for RCB-I; 76%, 62%, and 62% for RCB-II; and 38%, 36% and 38% for RCB-III. Table 1 presents the frequency and the estimates of 10-year RFS for each RCB class within each phenotypic subset of breast cancer (HER2+, TNBC, and HR+/HER2-) in the combined T/FAC cohorts (N = 497).

View this table:

Frequency and estimated 10-year RFS of RCB classes in breast cancer subsets after T/FAC chemotherapy

RCB was prognostic in all cohorts and subgroups (p<0.001). The hazard rate (per year) associated with RCB-III and RCB-II was highest during the first 3 years for HER2+ and TNBC but was similar to pCR/RCB-I beyond 6 years. However, for HR+/HER2- cancers the annual hazard rate was consistent during the first decade, at 6%-8% for RCB-III and 2% for RCB-II.

Conclusions: RCB after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was strongly prognostic in all phenotypic subsets of breast cancer patients over a decade of follow up, even for HR+/HER2- cancers. In HER2-negative breast cancers, RCB-I had similar prognosis to pCR, whereas RCB-III for HR+/HER2- and RCB-II/III for TNBC defined high-risk patient populations following neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr S6-02.


Recent data have suggested that interferon-b (IFN-β) may aggravate headaches in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the life-time prevalence of primary headaches in MS patients treated with interferons in comparison with patients treated with other disease-modifying agents. Attention was focused on the onset of headache and the changes in pre-existing headaches in relation to the onset of therapy. The study was open-labelled and not randomized. We studied 150 consecutive MS patients treated with IFN-β (109 patients: 54 with 1b, 55 with 1a) and with other drugs (41 patients: 14 with glatiramer acetate, 27 with azathioprine). All patients underwent a semi-structured interview to diagnose headache type, according to the International Headache Society criteria. The frequency of primary headaches was higher in the interferon-group (72%) compared to patients in the other group (54%) (P = 0.03). Worsening of pre-existing headaches or development of de novo headache occurred only in the interferon-group (41 and 48%, respectively) and not in the other group (P<0.001). These results show that headache should be considered among the side-effects of interferon in MS patients.


A polygon is said to be weakly visible from a viewing polygon P in the presence of other polygons when some part of the front side of that polygon is visible from some point in P. For applications in computer graphics and virtual reality, it is desirable to determine the set of faces of a model or scene that are weakly visible from a polygon in a preprocessing phase. For example, a CAD model of a building may be divided into regions such as rooms, and weak visibility from each region may be computed in advance. The view from any viewpoint in a region may then be rendered correctly by rendering all of the polygons that are weakly visible from that region with graphics hardware that performs hidden surface removal. The set of weakly visible faces from a region is the smallest set of scene faces that results in the correct image under those conditions. This kind of visibility computation can bring about significant performance increases over rendering all of the faces of the model with hidden-surface-removal hardware for interactive graphics applications such as architectural walkthroughs, in which views must be rendered as quickly as possible and preprocessing time is available.


Di8cus8ion.-The PRESIDENT asked whether Dr. MacCormac considered that this type of tongue was always the result of a combination of the two factors syphilis and smoking. His own idea had been that it could be caused by syphilis alone; he had seen a worse tongue in a woman who had not smoked at all. With regard to the so-called " smokers' patches " in the buccal mucous membrane, he thought these could occur independently of syphilis.


Photosynthetic performance was monitored during two consecutive summers in four co-occurring evergreen Mediterranean tree species growing on a south-facing rocky slope. In response to midday water stress, the drought-avoiding species Pinus halepensis Mill. exhibited marked stomatal closure (g(s)) but no changes in stem water potential (Psi(s)), whereas the drought-tolerant species Quercus coccifera L., Q. ilex ssp. ballota (Desf.) Samp. and Juniperus phoenicea L. displayed declines in midday g(s) and Psi(s). The higher resistance to CO(2) influx in needles of P. halepensis compared with the other species did not result in either a proportional increase in non-radiative dissipation of excess energy or photo-inactivation of photosystem II (PSII). No significant differences were found among species either in the de-epoxidation state of the xanthophyll cycle (DPS) or in the pool of its components on a total chlorophyll basis (VAZ). Despite contrasting midday assimilation rates, the three drought-tolerant species all exhibited a pronounced drop in photochemical efficiency at midday that was characterized by a decrease in the excitation capture efficiency of the open PSII centers. Although photoinhibition was not fully reversed before dawn, it apparently did not result in cumulative photo-damage. Thus, the drought-avoiding and drought-tolerant species employed different mechanisms for coping with excess light during the midday depression in photosynthesis that involved contrasting midday photochemical efficiencies of PSII and different degrees of dynamic photoinhibition as a photo-protective mechanism. These behaviors may be related to the different mechanisms employed by drought-avoiding and drought-tolerant species to withstand water deficit.


The diffusion of oxidising dopant gases into polyacetylene films has been studied. The process is complicated because it is influenced by the doping reaction, by swelling of the polymer by the gas and by degradation reactions of the polymer with the counter-ions. Electrochemical measurements of anion and cation diffusion in doped polymer give diffusion coefficients comparable with those for gaseous dopants. Diffusion coefficients for ions in polythiophene are reported. The results are discussed in terms of potential applications of these polymers.


OBJECTIVE
In this prospective, randomised study a double lumen tube (DLT) or an Arndt bronchial blocker (BB) was used for one lung ventilation (OLV). Intraoperative oxygenation, ventilation, haemodynamics, and ease of placement were compared.

METHODS
In 32 patients undergoing robotic harvesting of the left internal thoracic artery (ITA) a left-sided DLT or a BB controlled by bronchoscopy was used for OLV of the right lung. In 2 patients randomised for DLT, a single lumen tube and BB was used for difficult visualisation of the larynx. These 2 patients were excluded from the study.

RESULTS
Correct placement of DLT (8.8 +/- 5.4 min, 87.5 % of the patients) as well as BB (6.5 +/- 4.0 min; n. s.; 100 % of the patients) was achieved rapidly. The Cormack-Lehane score for visualisation of the larynx was 2, 1 - 3 (median, range) in group DLT and 3, 1 - 4 (median, range) in group BB (p < 0.05). OLV lasted for 93 +/- 29 min in group DLT and 88 +/- 34 min in group BB (n. s.). Satisfactory conditions for harvesting ITA were achieved in all patients of both groups. There was no difference in any haemodynamic parameter at any time between the two groups. Mean pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance were increased without significant differences between the two groups during thoracoscopy for robotic preparation of left ITA. During OLV, index of paO (2)/FiO (2) was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in DLT patients compared to BB patients. Time to extubation did not differ between the two groups (DLT 14.3 +/- 4.6 h; BB 11.8 +/- 3.8 h).

CONCLUSION
OLV in patients undergoing robotic cardiac surgery was safely achieved either by BB or by left-sided DLT. Positioning of the BB was easier than that of a DLT when intubation was difficult and tube exchange at the end of surgery is avoided. Therefore, we prefer a BB in patients undergoing robotic harvesting of left ITA.


VOLUME 1 SECTION ONE: THE CLASSICAL STATEMENTS AND AUTHORS The Rise of Hermeneutics - Wilhelm Dilthey and Frederic Jameson Translator's Introduction to Max Weber's Essay on Some Categories of Interpretive Sociology - Edith Graber Some Categories of Interpretive Sociology - Max Weber "Anticritical Last Word on The Spirit of Capitalism," by Max Weber - Wallace Davis "Capitalism" in Recent German Literature: Sombart and Weber - Talcott Parsons "Capitalism" in Recent German Literature: Sombart and Weber (concluded) - Talcott Parsons The Role of Ideas in Social Action - Talcott Parsons The Problem of Sociology - Georg Simmel The Sociology of Sociability - Georg Simmel and Everett C. Hughes The Verstehen Thesis and the Foundations of Max Weber's Methodology, History and Theory - Guy Oakes Rickert's Value Theory and the Foundations of Max Weber's Methodology - Guy Oakes SECTION TWO: THE INTERPRETERS AND CHALLENGERS OF THE CLASSIC INTERPRETIVIST IDEA OF VERSTEHEN The Operation Called Vershehen - Theodore Abel On the Method of Verstehen as the Sole Method of Philosophy - Ernest Nagel Empirical Science and Max Weber's Verstehende Soziologie - Peter Munch Max Weber's" Verstehen" - William T. Tucker Verstehen I and Verstehen II, Theory and Decision - Theodore Abel "Sense" and "Intention" in Max Weber's Theory of Social Action - Peter Munch Weber on Action - Stephen P. Turner Max Weber's 'Interpretive Sociology': A comparison of conception and practice - Mary Fulbrook Value-Relevance, Scientific Laws, and Ideal Types: The sociological methodology of Max Weber - John Rex Max Weber on Causal Analysis, Interpretation, and Comparison - Fritz Ringer Max Weber's Interpretive Sociology, the Understanding of Actions and Motives, and a Weberian View of Man - Thomas Burger Max Weber, Interpretive Sociology, and the Sense of Historical Science: A Positivistic Conception of Verstehen - Thomas Burder Causality or Interaction? Simmel, Weber and Interpretive Sociology - K Lichtblau Weber's Interpretive Sociology and Rational Choice Approach - Zenonas Norkus Weber's Verstehen and the History of Qualitative Research: The missing link - Jennifer Platt Weber and Interpretive Sociology in America - Peter Kivisto and William H. Swatos Jr VOLUME 2 SECTION THREE: THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL CRITICS The Stranger: An Essay in Social Psychology - Alfred Schutz Common-sense and Scientific Interpretation of Human Action - Alfred Schutz Schutz Choosing Among Projects of Action - Alfred Schutz Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences - Alfred Schutz On Phenomenological Sociology - James L. Heap and Phillip A. Roth Can There Be a Phenomenological Sociology? - Edo Pivcevic Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School of Economics - Christopher Prendergast The Rationality of Everyday Behaviour: A rational choice reconstruction of the theory of action by Alfred Schutz - Hartmut Esser Rationality, Optimality and Choice: Esser's reconstruction of Alfred Schutz's theory of action - Christopher Prendergast Spontaneous Social Order: Econmics and Sch tzian sociology - Nicolai Juul Foss Alfred Schutz on a Theory of Motivation - Andrew J. Weigert From Weber to Parsons and Schutz: The eclipse of history in modern social theory - David Zaret Existential Phenomenology and the Sociological Tradition - Edward Tiryakian Jiri Kolaja and Peter Berger Respond to Edward Tiryakian and he Responds Back - Jiri Kolaja and Peter Berger SECTION FOUR: THE CRITICAL PHENOMENOLOGISTS The Relation between Psychology and Sociology in the Work of Wilhelm Dilthey - Max Horkheimer Existentialism: Remarks on Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Etre et le Neant - Herbert Marcuse Towards a Reconstruction of Historical Materialism - Jurgen Habermas Some Distinctions in Universal Pragmatics - Jurgen Habermas The A Priori of Communication and the Foundation of the Humanities - Karlo Otto Apel Dilthey's Distinction Between "Explanation" and "Understanding" and the Possibility of Its "Mediation" - Karl Otto Apel The Hermeneutic Dimension of Social Science and its Normative Foundation - Karl Otto Apel New Developments in Phenomenology in France: The phenomenology of language - Paul Ricoeur Towards Actionist Sociology, Social Science Information - Alain Touraine The Voice and the Eye: On the relationship between actors and analysts - Alain Touraine Rationality in the Slum: An essay on interpretive sociology - Alejandro Portes Meeting or Mis-Meeting? The Dialogical Challenge to Verstehen - Rob Shields VOLUME 3 SECTION FIVE: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM The Mechanism of Social Consciousness - George Herbert Mead The Social Self - George Herbert Mead Social Consciousness - Charles Horton Cooley The Roots of Social Knowledge - Charles Horton Cooley Science without Concepts - Herbert Blumer Attitudes and the Social Act - Herbert Blumer Sociological Analysis and the "Variable" - Herbert Blumer Sociological Implications of the Thought of George Herbert Mead - Herbert Blumer Becoming a Marihuana User - Howard Becker Whose Side Are We On - Howard Becker Symbols of Class Status - Erving Goffman The Moral Career of the Mental Patient, Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes - Erving Goffman Major Trends in Symbolic Interaction Theory in the Last Twenty Five Years - Manfred Kuhn SECTION SIX: ETHNOMETHODOLOGY Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies - Harold Garfinkel Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities - Harold Garfinkel Evidence for Locally Produced, Naturally Accountable Phenomena of Order, Logic, Reason, Meaning, Method, etc - Harold Garfinkel Ethnomethodology's Program - Harold Garfinkel A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics - Aaron Cicourel and John Kitsuse The Role of Cognitive-Linguistic Concepts in Understanding Everyday Social Interactions - Aaron Cicourel Text and Discourse - Aaron Cicourel The Interpenetration of Communicative Contexts: Examples from medical encounters - Aaron Cicourel John Rawls on Two Concepts of Rules - Aaron Cicourel Symbolic Interactionism and Ethnomethodology: A proposed synthesis - Norman Denzin Verstehen, Language and Warrants - James L. Heap Writing as Social Action, Theory into Practice - James L. Heap Practical Reason in Depression: a Practice - James L. Heap VOLUME 4 SECTION SEVEN: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS "From the Native's Point of View": On the nature of anthropological understanding - Clifford Geertz Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight - Clifford Geertz Common Sense as a Cultural System - Clifford Geertz The Way We Think Now: Toward an ethnography of modern thought - Clifford Geertz Understanding a Primitive Society - Peter Winch Social Science - Peter Winch Rhetoric and the Ethnographic Genre in Anthropological Research - George Marcus Ethnographies as Texts - George Marcus and Dick Cushman On Ethnographic Authority - James Clifford Cultural Systems, and History: From Synchrony to Transformation - William H. Sewell SECTION EIGHT: CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATIONS, EXTENSIONS, FUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS On Interpreting and Interpretation - N. Denzin Sociological Knowledge: Winch, Marxism, and Verstehen Revisited - Kai Nielsen Interpretivism and Generalisation - Malcolm Williams


Patents are an important instrument in protecting innovation activities in the modern economy, especially in agriculture. Its systems foster increased innovation indirectly, by increasing the profit that can potentially be obtained from commercializing new technology. Seeing the development of agricultural technology that is growing rapidly, patent protection for agricultural equipment is very crucial. Therefore, this paper will examine and explain the impact of applying Article 20 of the Indonesian Patent Law, especially regarding the implementation of Patents in agriculture. This research is a type of library research that is juridical normative using the statute approach method. It is expected that this research able to contribute to the field of law, especially those related to Property Rights, especially regarding the study of issues related to the issue of patent ownership in agriculture.


A previous field study of 12 pavements revealed considerable stripping in the surface layers of mixtures placed in 1991-92. Most of the mixes containing chemical additives showed visual stripping, but the ones containing hydrated lime did not show significant stripping. This study was a broad field survey with cores taken from each of the nine Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) districts. The purpose was to get a better estimate of stripping in Virginia than that of the earlier study. Significant visual stripping was detected in many sites, which verified the findings of the earlier study. However, in this study, hydrated lime performed no better than chemical additives. The SM-2A 50-blow mixes with slightly more asphalt performed no better than the SM-2B or SM-2C 75-blow mixes. Pavement voids at many sites were too high for good durability, and the compaction and mix design specifications should be examined. The degree of stripping damage in underlying layers could influence performance at many sites.


This work describes a technique for forming high-density arrays and patterns of membrane-bound proteins through binding to a curvature-organized compositional pattern of metal-chelating lipids (Cu(2+)-DOIDA or Cu(2+)-DSIDA). In this bottom-up approach, the underlying support is an e-beam formed, square lattice pattern of hemispheres. This curvature pattern sorts Cu(2+)-DOIDA to the 200 nm hemispherical lattice sites of a 600 nm × 600 nm unit cell in Ld - Lo phase separated lipid multibilayers. Binding of histidine-tagged green fluorescent protein (His-GFP) creates a high density array of His-GFP-bound pixels localized to the square lattice sites. In comparison, the negative pixel pattern is created by sorting Cu(2+)-DSIDA in Ld - Lβ' phase separated lipid multibilayers to the flat grid between the lattice sites followed by binding to His-GFP. Lattice defects in the His-GFP pattern lead to interesting features such as pattern circularity. We also observe defect-free arrays of His-GFP that demonstrate perfect arrays can be formed by this method suggesting the possibility of using this approach for the localization of various active molecules to form protein, DNA, or optically active molecular arrays.


ABSTRACT Pls1 tetraspanins were shown for some pathogenic fungi to be essential for appressorium-mediated penetration into their host plants. We show here that Podospora anserina, a saprobic fungus lacking appressorium, contains PaPls1, a gene orthologous to known PLS1 genes. Inactivation of PaPls1 demonstrates that this gene is specifically required for the germination of ascospores in P. anserina. These ascospores are heavily melanized cells that germinate under inducing conditions through a specific pore. On the contrary, MgPLS1, which fully complements a ΔPaPls1 ascospore germination defect, has no role in the germination of Magnaporthe grisea nonmelanized ascospores but is required for the formation of the penetration peg at the pore of its melanized appressorium. P. anserina mutants with mutation of PaNox2, which encodes the NADPH oxidase of the NOX2 family, display the same ascospore-specific germination defect as the ΔPaPls1 mutant. Both mutant phenotypes are suppressed by the inhibition of melanin biosynthesis, suggesting that they are involved in the same cellular process required for the germination of P. anserina melanized ascospores. The analysis of the distribution of PLS1 and NOX2 genes in fungal genomes shows that they are either both present or both absent. These results indicate that the germination of P. anserina ascospores and the formation of the M. grisea appressorium penetration peg use the same molecular machinery that includes Pls1 and Nox2. This machinery is specifically required for the emergence of polarized hyphae from reinforced structures such as appressoria and ascospores. Its recurrent recruitment during fungal evolution may account for some of the morphogenetic convergence observed in fungi.


Background: Our study aimed to reveal the seroprevalence of syphilis in HIV-positive patients in our center and to reveal the diagnostic performance of the reverse sequence algorithm
Materials and Methods: The study data were obtained retrospectively. Statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS version 20.0. Screening for syphilis was performed by reverse sequence algorithm using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CMIA), Rapid Plasma Reagin and T.pallidum hemagglutination tests.
Results: A total of 91 HIV-positive patients were included in the study. Of these patients, 15 (16.48%) had never been tested for syphilis, and the rate of the patients who have a proper follow-up for syphilis was only 36.17%. Nineteen patients were diagnosed with syphilis; the overall syphilis rate was 20.88%. The mean time to the diagnosis of syphilis was 9.89±13.5 months, ranging from 0 to 48 months. Of the 76 patients screened for syphilis, 19 (25%) had CMIA positivity with concurrent RPR positivity. Concurrent TP-HA testing was performed in 54 (71.05%) of the 76 patients and 17 (89.4%) of 19 patients with CMIA positivity, and all of these patients with CMIA positivity revealed positive TP-HA results.
Conclusions: Syphilis co-infection rate in HIV-positive patients in our hospital was high. However, there are still deficiencies in the screening of syphilis, and it has been shown that a specific screening algorithm is not adopted by the clinicians who follow-up HIV-positive patients. Besides, non-treponemal and treponemal tests in the reverse sequence algorithm revealed reliable results in the diagnosis of syphilis in HIV-infected patients.


A 35 GHz, magnetron-based, compact pulse radar is presented. It contains some novel solutions of four electrically switched slot array antennas having fan beam patterns, solid-state modulator adaptive for the miniature magnetron and digital receiver techniques with advanced processing. It is designed for obstacle and rain detection for collision warning in helicopter applications.


Economist Shirley Burggraf's book The Feminine Economy and Economic Man claims that a crisis confronts Western Civilization: we are investing too little in the next generation.' A fundamental premise of Burggraf s analysis is that an ample supply of resources for children is central and indispensable to the maintenance of a good society.2 Although Burggraf gives some attention to public or collective investments in children (most notably public education), her principal concern is the private resources that parents devote to their own children. She attaches special importance to parents' personal attention and suggests that there looms a shortage of the kind of direct, hands-on care that parents, and especially mothers, have customarily supplied within the family and outside the market economy. An undersupply of parental nurture threatens to undermine children's chances of growing up to become worthy and productive adults, with negative consequences for those children and for society as a whole.4 If a shortfall in parental investment in children indeed confronts us at the dawn of the twenty-first century, what is the solution? Although Burggraf recommends a menu of measures for strengthening the family and improving education, she puts a great deal of faith in one item in particular: an intriguing but impractical proposal for reforming Social Security. 5 She suggests that the existing program be scrapped in favor of


The city of Guanajuato in Mexico is a tourist destination recognized by its cultural attractiveness that call national tourists from all over the country; the knowledge about the selection of lodging from cultural tourists is yet imprecise, that is the reason why this study seek to contribute, in a quantitative way, to elucidate this subject. The first step was to explore if there was a significant correlation between hotel occupancy in Guanajuato, México and the amount of national tourists that attend to cultural events in the destination. It was found that there is a statistical significant correlation between this tourist segment and fivestar hotel occupancy, suggesting that tourists whom travel to Guanajuato city for a cultural event choose luxury accommodation. With this information the second interest of the study was to explore structural changes in Guanajuato ́s fivestar hotel occupancy for a period of July 2013 to October 2016. With Strucchange package from R software three break points were identified and It was identified that these break points were related, in the majority of the cases, with higher luxury hotel occupancy, this suggest they are link to a strengthening of the state tourism sector, thanks to the extraordinary budget allocation in addition to the badge of being a reliable destination.


Numerical simulations moved in the recent year(s) from describing the cold-temperate transition surface (CTS) towards an enthalpy description, which allows avoiding incorporating a singular surface inside the model (As- chwanden et al., 2012). In Enthalpy methods the CTS is represented as a level set of the enthalpy state variable. This method has several numerical and practical advantages (e.g. representation of the full energy by one scalar field, no restriction to topology and shape of the CTS). The proposed method is rather new in glaciology and to our knowledge not verified and validated against analytical solutions. Unfortunately we are still lacking analytical solutions for sufficiently complex thermo-mechanically coupled polythermal ice flow. However, we present two experiments to test the implementation of the enthalpy equation and corresponding boundary conditions. The first experiment tests particularly the functionality of the boundary condition scheme and the corresponding basal melt rate calculation. Dependent on the different thermal situations that occur at the base, the numerical code may have to switch to another boundary type (from Neuman to Dirichlet or vice versa). The main idea of this set-up is to test the reversibility during transients. A former cold ice body that run through a warmer period with an associated built up of a liquid water layer at the base must be able to return to its initial steady state. Since we impose several assumptions on the experiment design analytical solutions can be formulated for different quantities during distinct stages of the simulation. The second experiment tests the positioning of the internal CTS in a parallel-sided poly- thermal slab. We compare our simulation results to the analytical solution proposed by Greve and Blatter (2009). Results from three different ice flow-models (COMIce, ISSM, TIMFD3) are presented.


Recently, it has been proposed that space-based atomic sensors may be used to detect gravitational waves. These proposals describe the sensors either as clocks or as atom interferometers. Here, we seek to explore the fundamental similarities and differences between the two types of proposals. We present a framework in which the fundamental mechanism for sensitivity is identical for clock and atom interferometer proposals, with the key difference being whether or not the atoms are tightly confined by an external potential. With this interpretation in mind, we propose two major enhancements to detectors using confined atoms, which allow for an enhanced sensitivity analogous to large-momentum-transfer (LMT) used in atom interferometry (though with no transfer of momentum to the atoms), and a way to extend the useful coherence time of the sensor beyond the atom's excited state lifetime.


Centralized unit that coordinates different types of schema running on multiple sites is getting importance now-a-days. Heterogeneous Distributed Database System (HDDS) is the collection of multiple different databases management systems running on multiple systems that are linked together. Query processing is complicated in such cases. In this work we concentrate on utilizing Genetic Algorithm for finding optimized query execution plan for distributed SELECT queries. Selecting the right set of plans for queries using Genetic Algorithm which minimizes the total execution time is the major goal of this work. Replication of schema is used in this work which gives multiple solutions for retrieval of the data. We used Chromosome for specifying plan for query. Chromosome structures consist of combination of data site and join order. Aglet, Mobile agent, is used to connect all the database servers with centralized server. By implementing this, we get the optimized plan for the select query.


Recent studies suggest that Asiatic wild asses (Equus hemionus) are being increasingly poached in a commercial fashion. Part of the meat is believed to reach the meat markets in the capital Ulaanbaatar. To test this hypothesis, we collected 500 meat samples between February and May 2006. To differentiate between domestic horse (Equus caballus) and wild ass meat, we developed a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We amplified and sequenced a cytochrome b fragment (335 bp) and carried out a multialignment of the generated sequences for the domestic horse, the Asiatic wild ass, the domestic donkey (Equus asinus) and the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii). We detected a species-specific restriction site (AatII) for the Asiatic wild ass, resulting in a specific restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) band pattern. This RFLP assay represents a rapid and cost-effective method to detect wild ass meat. All of the 500 meat samples we collected and analysed within this pilot project proved to be domestic horsemeat as declared by the sales people. Thus, either the assumption that wild ass meat is sold as "cheap horse meat" is wrong, or we picked the wrong markets, products or season.


The initial planned annual cost is frequently adjusted under the construction process in construction projects. If the annual cost is reduced than the initial planned cost, the number of possible activities is also reduced from initial planned progress schedule. In such cases, project manager need to replan the progress schedule with possible activities within changed annual cost. However, most project manager will proceed as planned schedule without any change. After the project cost has been exhausted, there are many cases to stop the operation of the construction site. This study developed active 5D CAD system that can replan the progress schedule within changed annual cost and simulate the cost status according to the changed schedule for cost visualization. This system can be used as a decision-making tool in the replaning progress schedule and will be able to increase the practical usability of 5D CAD system.


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

Recent studys suggest that Oct4, a key regulator in maintenance of the embryonic stem cell pluripotency and proliferation, is relevant with the malignant characteristic of breast cancer. This study aims to investigate the role of OCT4 in the mechanism underlying the migration of breast cancer. We compared Oct4 expression in cultured MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell, both of them are original from breast dust epithelial cell while the migration capacity of MDA-MB-231 cell is strikingly higher than that of MCF-7 cell. Result of western blot showed that expression level of Oct4 in MCF-7 cell was much higher than that in MDA-MB-231 cell. Then, we abolished Oct4 expression MCF-7 cell using siRNA technology. Trans-well assay result showed Oct4 down-regulation significantly increased the number of migrated cells. The expressions of E-cadherin andα-SMA, accepted epithelial and mesenchymal marker separately, were examined by western blot method. Upon down-regulation of Oct4, E-cadherin expression was inhibited whileα-SMA expression was significantly up-regulated. Real-time PCR result showed Fibronetin mRNA expression was also significantly up-regulated after Oct4 down-regulation. Further, we added TGF-β1 to cultured MCF-7 cell and then examined Oct4, E-cadherin and α-SMA expression level with Western blot. The results showed that TGF-β1 significantly inhibited E-cadherin while induced α-SMA expression in both time- and dose-dependent manner. At the same time, Oct4 expression was also highly down-regulated with the treatment of TGF-β1. Interestingly, Snail expression, which is a critical transcription factor in epithelium to mesenchymal transition (EMT) program, is significantly increased with the down-regulation of Oct-4 expression. Our study seemed to implicate transcription factor OCT4 in migration of breast cancer via EMT-related manner and this effect is likely associated with the impact of Oct-4 on the expression of Snail.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010 because the presenter was unable to attend.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2317.


Twenty eight cassava genotypes resistant to the dreaded cassava mosaic disease were randomly selected from the National Root Crops Research Institute Umudike, farm. The cassava samples were processed into starch and lafun, and their pasting and functional properties were assessed. Also amala was obtained from the lafun and examined for sensory characteristics of smell, hand feel (stickiness), appearance and general acceptability. Results show that the pasting properties (gelatinization temperature, Peak viscosity, Viscosity at 92oC after 15 min of heating and Stability) fell within reported values. The values ranged from 1020 BU for sample 95/0166 to 2500 BU for samples 98/2101, TMS 96/1565 and TME 419. The peak viscosity of the lafun samples ranged from 920 BU for sample 95/ 0166 to 2500 BU for samples 96/1089, 98/0068, TMS 96/ 1565, 94/0561 and M98/0068. The value of the peak viscosity of the starch sample was higher than that of the lafun sample in most cases. Bulk density of the starch samples ranged from 1.43g/cm3 for TMS97/22053 to 33g/cm3 for M98/006. On the other hand, the Bulk density of the lafun samples ranged from 0.08 cm3 for TMS 96/1565 to 1.96cm3 for TMS 92/0067. Water absorption capacity of the starch samples ranged from 0.5g/ml for samples TMS 98/2101 and 99/3073, to 2.0g/ml for sample TMS 98/0510. The values for the lafun samples ranged from 0.5g/ml for TMS 99/2123 to 2.5g/ml for TMS 30572. All the samples were on the average acceptable to the panelists having scored an average of 4.00 on a scale of 7.


Massive data centers form the core infrastructure support for the ever increasing cloud based services. Hence, the performance of data centers will have important influence on the scalability of these services. In particular, the data center network must be agile, available and scalable in order to respond to ever changing service requirements and application demands. Thus, the research community has proposed novel interconnect topologies including FatTree, DCell, BCube, in order to improve the performance of data centers. However, these topologies suffer from different issues such as poor scalability, bandwidth over subscription, or can be too expensive to construct. Motivated by these challenges, we propose and investigate a new topology called HyperFlatnet that combines the advantages of previous architectures while avoiding their drawbacks. HyperFlatnet is a cost effective and high-performance data center topology. It reduces dramatically the average path length and the network latency, it increases the aggregated bottleneck throughput and the bisection bandwidth compared to FlatNet connection network while using the same number of switches and links which makes the system more robust against link failures.


The occurrence of hyperglycemia and glucosuria was investigated in urethane anesthetized rats. The substance found in urine was chromatographically identified with d-glucose. Marked increase in the arterial blood catecholamine concentration was observed. Hyperglycemia appeared after infusion of catecholamines in concentration comparable to that found in the blood of anaesthetized rats. The results support a hypothesis that the urethane-induced hyperglycemia is caused by an endogenous adrenaline liberation. Some observations in hypophysectomized and adrenalectomized rats indicate that the adrenal steroids may play a role in this reaction.


In this paper a study on different Radio Resource Management (RRM) methods employed in a multi-carrier cellular system is presented. This work focuses on the rate-adaptive resource allocation (sub-carriers and power), as well as the utilitybased packet scheduling algorithms. The objective of the paper is to study the trade-off between system spectral efficiency and fairness among the users when the considered algorithms are used.


The Feaellidae Ellingsen, 1906 is a small but ancient family of pseudoscorpions with 20 extant species across the Southern Hemisphere, and fossils from the Lower Cretaceous of Myanmar and the Eocoene of Europe. Here, we describe and illustrate Feaella (Tetrafeaella) obscura sp. nov. as a new species from the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean. This is the first record of Feaella from a young oceanic island and may indicate a potential for long-distance dispersal in this lineage. We also elevate Feaella (T.) capensis nana Beier, 1966 to full species rank as F. (T.) nana Beier, 1966 and provide an identification key to the members of the subgenus Feaella (Tetrafeaella), thereby facilitating the identification of species.


Deploying innovations in transportation products and services to Stage 5 of the product development process represents a growing challenge for the California Department of Transportation's (Caltrans) Division of Research and Innovation. This technical agreement focused on communicating the promise of select products and services through outreach and promotion in an effort to gain broader knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of the innovations leading to their adoption by Caltrans and the transportation community at-large. Attention is given to outreach and promotion of ROSA-CRP (Roadway Safety Anaysis - Continuous Risk Profile) which addresses Integration of traffic collision data packaged in a web-based analysis tool utilizing the Continuous Risk Profile approach to improve identification of high collision concentration locations, and the California Center for Innovative Transportation's (CCIT) portfolio of Caltrans-sponsored projects including the Mobile Century and Mobile Millennium projects that opened the door to the use of GPS smart phones as traffic probes for determining real-time traffic flows.


Background Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can play pivotal roles in tumor progression by acting as microRNA (miRNA) sponges. This study aimed to investigate the association of a novel lncRNA, TRPM2-AS, with the miR-138-5p/EGFR axis in the development of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Sixty NSCLC tissues and paired adjacent non-tumor tissues were analyzed. The relative expression levels of TRPM2-AS, miR138-5p, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the interactions between them were analyzed. The NSCLC cell lines NCI-H1299 and A549 were transfected with TRPM2-AS shRNA/pcDNA, and miR-138-5p mimics. Cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis were examined in response to different transfection conditions. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to identify the target interactions between TRPM2-AS, miR-138-5p, and EGFR. A549 cells stably transfected with shRNA were injected into BALB/c null nude mice to establish a tumor xenograft model. Results TRPM2-AS was up-regulated in NSCLC tumors and cell lines. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were inhibited in NSCLC cells treated with sh-TRPM2-AS, while apoptosis was induced. The targeting of TRPM2-AS by miR138-5p and miR138-5p by EGFR were validated with dual-luciferase reporter assay. TRPM2-AS was found to be negatively correlated with miR138-5p but positively correlated with EGFR. PI3K/AKT/mTOR was activated by pcDNA-EGFR but inactivated by miR-138-5p mimics. In the tumor xenograft mouse model, sh-TRPM2-AS suppressed tumor formation, reduced the expression of EGFR and Ki67, and promoted tumor cell apoptosis. Conclusions Our results suggested that TRPM2-AS can increase the levels of EGFR via sponging miR-138-3p; this promoted NSCLC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro, and exacerbated tumors in vivo. These findings highlight TRPM2-AS/miR-138-5p as a potential target for reducing drug resistance in patients with NSCLC.


good,) and that only when nearly cold. I gave mild mercurials as the liver was inactive, applied the solid caustic freely to the tongue and apthths: and finding no directions in any work I could refer to as to the treatment of so severe a form of stomatitis materna, and that antacids in every variety and combination failed to give the least relief, I prescribed on the 6th July the following: R.-Pulveris tragacanthfe coaip. 3j. Tincturie hyoseyami 3 j. Iniftisi lpa1eirte i.31. Fiitt inistura cujus capiat partem 4tam bis terve die. Marked relief followed the use of this, which was persevered in till the middle of August, when she was delivered of a daughter after a vcry easy labour, and made a rapid recovery. If the pareira was left off for more than a day, and she attempted to take meat, or even a boiled chicken, a relapse was sure to follow. There was no symptom, as in the American cases,of any affection of the mucous follicles of the intestines. The symptoms entirely disappeared after delivery.


PURPOSE
To use focal electroretinography to evaluate changes in retinal function during transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).

METHODS
Sixteen eyes of 16 patients with ARMD with occult choroidal neovascularization (CNV) were studied. A 630-nm photocoagulator aiming beam was modified for use as a 41-Hz square-wave focal electroretinogram (fERG) stimulus. The stimulus was presented on a light-adapting background by a Goldmann-type lens (visual angle, 18 degrees; mean luminance, 50 cd/m(2)). fERGs were continuously monitored before, during, and after TTT for occult CNV. The amplitude and phase of the fERG's fundamental harmonic were measured.

RESULTS
No suprathreshold or adverse clinical events occurred during the course of the study. fERG amplitude decreased transiently during TTT (23% +/- 9% [SE]; P < 0.05). The decrease in amplitude was greatest 16 to 20 seconds and 32 to 40 seconds after the onset of TTT. It was followed by a recovery to baseline amplitude during TTT (48 to 60 seconds after TTT was begun). Within 60 seconds after TTT was completed, fERG amplitude was within the range of baseline. TTT did not alter the fERG phase. Mean fERG amplitudes and phases recorded 1 week and 1 month after TTT were comparable to mean pretreatment levels.

CONCLUSIONS
fERG amplitude decreases transiently during TTT, despite the absence of ophthalmoscopically apparent lesions. Intraoperative amplitude depression may result from an adaptation effect to laser light energy and/or hyperthermia, resulting in desensitization of cone photoreceptors and bipolar cells. Treatment sites are electrophysiologically functional 1 month after TTT. Detailed parametric study of a larger patient group is needed to determine whether fERG testing is potentially useful for monitoring and perhaps for controlling and optimizing TTT for choroidal neovascularization.


A growing field of research explores links between behavioral measures and functional connectivity (FC) assessed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Recent studies suggest that measurement of these relationships may be corrupted by head motion artifact. Using data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), we find that a surprising number of behavioral, demographic, and physiological measures (23 of 122), including fluid intelligence, reading ability, weight, and psychiatric diagnostic scales, correlate with head motion. We demonstrate that "trait" (across-subject) and "state" (across-day, within-subject) effects of motion on FC are remarkably similar in HCP data, suggesting that state effects of motion could potentially mimic trait correlates of behavior. Thus, head motion is a likely source of systematic errors (bias) in the measurement of FC:behavior relationships. Next, we show that data cleaning strategies reduce the influence of head motion and substantially alter previously reported FC:behavior relationship. Our results suggest that spurious relationships mediated by head motion may be widespread in studies linking FC to behavior.


It is recognized that fish will drink the surrounding water by reflex swallowing without a thirst sensation. We evaluated the role of the area postrema (AP), a sensory circumventricular organ (CVO) in the medulla oblongata, in the regulation of drinking behavior of seawater (SW) eels. The antidipsogenic effects of ghrelin and atrial natriuretic peptide and hypervolemia and hyperosmolemia (1 M sucrose or 10% NaCl) as well as the dipsogenic effects of angiotensin II and hypovolemia (hemorrhage) were profoundly diminished after AP lesion (APx) in eels compared with sham controls. However, the antidipsogenic effect of urotensin II was not influenced by APx, possibly due to the direct baroreflex inhibition on the swallowing center in eels. When ingested water was drained via an esophageal fistula, water intake increased 30-fold in sham controls but only fivefold in APx eels, suggesting a role for the AP in continuous regulation of drinking by SW eels. After transfer from freshwater to SW, APx eels responded normally with an immediate burst of drinking, but after 4 wk these animals showed a much greater increase in plasma osmolality than controls, suggesting that the AP is involved in acclimation to SW by fine tuning of the drinking rate. Taken together, the AP in the hindbrain of eels plays an integral role in SW acclimation, acting as a conduit of information from plasma for the regulation of drinking, probably without a thirst sensation. This differs from mammals in which sensory CVOs in the forebrain play pivotal roles in thirst regulation.


The world faces challenges that require sustainable solutions: food and nutrition insecurity; replacement of animal-based protein sources; and increasing demand for convenient, nutritious, and health-beneficial foods; as well as functional ingredients. The irrefutable potential of pulses as future sustainable food systems is undermined by the hardening phenomenon that develops upon their storage under adverse conditions of temperature and relative humidity. Occurrence of this phenomenon indicates storage instability. In this review, the application of a material science approach, in particular the glass transition temperature concept, is presented to explain phenomena of storage instability such as the occurrence of hardening and loss of viability under adverse storage conditions. In addition to storage (in)stability, application of this concept during processing of pulses is discussed. The state-of-the-art on how hardening occurs, that is, mechanistic insights, is provided, including a critical evaluation of some of the existing postulations using recent research findings. Moreover, the influence of hardening on the properties and processing of pulses is included. Prevention of hardening and curative actions for pulses affected by the hardening phenomenon are described in addition to the current trends on uses of pulses and pulse-derived products. Based on the knowledge progress presented in this review, suggestions for the future include: first, the need for innovation toward implementation of recommended solutions for the prevention of hardening; second, the optimization of the identified most effective and efficient curative action against hardening; and third, areas to focus on for elucidation of mechanisms of hardening, although existing analytical methods require advancement.


Rapid passage signals exhibiting saturation effects have been observed when a low-pressure sample of ethylene, within a multiple pass absorption cell, is subjected to radiation from a repetitively pulsed 10.25 micron quantum-cascade laser. Within each pulse the laser frequency sweeps 36 GHz from high to low frequency in a time of 140 ns. At the low gas pressures, less than 20 mTorr, in the absorption cell the sweep rate through a Doppler-broadened absorption line (ca. 0.5 ns), is much faster than the collisional relaxation time of the ethylene and this leads to rapid passage effects. Examples are given of the complex rapid passage signals observed in pure and nitrogen broadened spectra. The rapid passage effects, which lead to the variety of the observed signals, have been modelled by numerical solution of the coupled Maxwell–Bloch equations for four sets of two-level systems.


The frequency dependence of the damping coefficient of a capillary wave was measured in decylamine hydrochloride solutions. The observed relaxations were well expressed by the double-relaxation equations. From the concentration dependence of the relaxation parameters obtained, the relaxations at low and high frequencies were attributed to the adsorption-desorption and ion-pair formation reactions on the surface, respectively. Furthermore, the adsorption rate constants are related to the hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties of the surfactants.


This article discusses the relationship between Western esotericism and literature. As an example of a secular author who uses and benefits from esoteric texts, ideas and thoughts as resources in creating a literary artwork, the article analyses Laura Lindstedt's novel Oneiron. A Fantasy About the Seconds After Death (2015). It contextualises the novel within the frames of Western esotericism and literature, focusing on Emanuel Swedenborg's impact on discourses of the afterlife in literature. Laura Lindstedt's postmodern novel indicates various ways that esoteric ideas, themes, and texts can work as resources for authors of fiction in twenty-first century Finland. Since the late eighteenth century Swedenborg's influence has been evident in literature and among artists, especially in providing resources for other-worldly imagery. Oneiron proves that the ideas of Swedenborg are still part of the memory of Western culture and literature.


We present the KENSv2 (KAIST Educational Network System) framework for network protocol implementation. The framework is event-driven to guarantee deterministic behaviour and reproducibility, which in turn delivers ease of debugging and evaluation. Our framework consists of four components: the event generator, the virtual host, the TCP driver and the IP driver. The two drivers are what students have to implement, and we offer to the students the drivers in the binary format for paired testing and debugging. We have developed a test suite that covers three categories of test cases: specification, paired, and logic tests. The framework logs packet transmissions in the PCAP format to allow use of widely available packet analysis tools to inspect logical behaviour of student solutions, such as congestion control. We have designed five step-by-step assignments and evaluated student submissions. With our automated test suite, we have cut down the number of TAs by half for the doubled class size compared to the previous semester, in total 3 TAs with 49 students. We plan to continue using KENSv2 in our undergraduate networking course and expand the test suite.


SUMMARY Objective: To demonstrate the efficacy of the subconjunctival administration of bevacizumab in the treatment of corneal neovascularization. Methods: This was and interventional, prospective, not randomized study involving 7 eyes with corneal neovascularization due to different causes. All patients received a single dose of 2.5 mg of subconjunctival bevacizumab. Corneal vascularization appearance was photographically documented. Results: 5 of 7 eyes showed an average of 60% regression in the corneal neovascularization as we measured the length of the visible vasculature. Conclusion: Subconjunctival injection of bevacizumab allows an important regression in the corneal neovascularization.


Background. Veryfewrandomizedstudiesonlaparoscopic(L)versusopen(O)living-donornephrectomy(LDN)havebeen presented. The largest randomized series reported so far included 80 donors. In 2000, an Australian safety group concluded that the evidence base for L-LDN is inadequate to make recommendations regarding safety and efficacy. Methods. With this background, at our single national center, 122 donors were randomized to left-sided L-LDN (n (cid:1) 63) or O-LDN (n (cid:1) 59), from February 2001 to May 2004. This article summarizes our experiences, in particular regarding complications and safety. Results. ThereweresignificantdifferencesinfavorofO-LDNregardingoperativetime,warmischemiatime,andvessel lengths, whereas the analgesic requirements and pain data were significantly in favor of the laparoscopic procedure. In the L-LDN group, there were five major postoperative complications resulting in reoperations (8%), including two intestinal perforations. No major complications occurred in the O-LDN group. Conclusions. TheseresultsfromourrandomizedstudydosuggestthatconventionalO-LDNisaverysecureprocedure, superior to L-LDN regarding donor safety. There has been an unacceptably high rate of reoperations in our L-LDN series but without mortality or significant sequelae. A careful look at some other L-LDN series also suggests increased morbidity/mortality. Our data do, however, support the view that a perfect, uncomplicated L-LDN appears to be the superior procedure, and the laparoscopic procedure is still evolving. Donor safety may be improved by avoiding obese donors, stapling of the renal artery (not clipping), and perhaps by hand assistance. Furthermore, we will consider the retroperitoneal approach.


Machine learning techniques have been used in the past using Monte Carlo samples to construct predictors of the dynamic stability of power systems. In this paper we move beyond the task of prediction and propose a comprehensive approach to use predictors, such as Decision Trees (DT), within a standard optimization framework for pre- and post-fault control purposes. In particular, we present a generalizable method for embedding rules derived from DTs in an operation decision-making model. We begin by pointing out the specific challenges entailed when moving from a prediction to a control framework. We proceed with introducing the solution strategy based on generalized disjunctive programming (GDP) as well as a two-step search method for identifying optimal hyper-parameters for balancing cost and control accuracy. We showcase how the proposed approach constructs security proxies that cover multiple contingencies while facing high-dimensional uncertainty with respect to operating conditions with the use of a case study on the IEEE 39-bus system. The method is shown to achieve efficient system control at a marginal increase in system price compared to an oracle model.


Rationale: Duplication of the extrahepatic bile duct is an extremely rare congenital anomaly of the biliary system. Patient concerns: A 44-year-old woman presented with a history of continuous upper abdominal pain and vomiting. Diagnoses: Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) disclosed diffuse dilatation of the intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) showed the presence of two extrahepatic bile ducts with calculus at the distal end of the CBD. Interventions: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) was performed after an ERCP. Choledochoscopy, performed during the operation, showed duplicated common bile duct and the cystic duct was seen opening at the right side of the extrahepatic duct. Outcomes: The patient was doing well after 6 months of follow-up. Lessons: We reported a case of a double common duct with choledocholithiasis and gallstone. This rare anomaly may lead to cholangitis, common bile duct injury during surgery, malignancy occurrence, and should be treated with extreme care. Abbreviations: CBD= common bile duct, CT= computed tomography, DCBD= double common bile duct, ERCP= endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, LC = laparoscopic cholecystectomy, MRCP = magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography.