Hypoglycemia is a neglected metabolic disorder. Thus, we evaluated the protective effect of hypoxia-preconditioned human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) on hypoglycemic testicular injury. We examined 56 testes from 28 animals: 7 rats with insulin-induced hypoglycemia (HG group), 7 hypoglycemic rats which received an intratesticular injection of hUCB-MSCs (HG-MSC group), and 14 untreated control rats. Testosterone level, testicular catalase (CAT) activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) level were analyzed. Immunostaining for specific testicular germ and somatic cell markers was performed. Proliferating and apoptotic cells were detected by anti-PCNA and anti-caspase-3, respectively. Morphometrical data were statistically analyzed. The hypoglycemic rats showed a significant decrease in testosterone level and CAT activity and a significant increase in MDA production. Examination of histological structure and protein expression of diverse germ cell markers revealed collapsed tubules that were lined by degenerated germ cells, decreased lactate dehydrogenase type C immune expression, as well as decreased proliferating and increased apoptotic cells number in hypoglycemic testes. Injection of MSCs improved testicular biochemical parameters, preserved germ cells and somatic cells, and decreased apoptosis. In conclusion, hypoxia-preconditioned hUCB-MSCs attenuate rat testicular injury caused by insulin-induced hypoglycemia. Avoidance and rapid management of hypoglycemia are necessary to avoid significant testicular injury.


The project is "The Humboldt Association of the Remodeling Center Goethe," with a contemporary architectural response respecting and knowing the organizational guidelines of the Association as are its strategic direction and corporate principles, so that within this context to understand the content requires space, complementing the existing spatial analysis of this entity to obtain the necessary elements for a new and robust picture of it. Therefore this research was based on three pillars: the organization along with its cultural and academic context, with the architectural analysis of the current space, and the concept which is based on an allegory about the "Fall of the Berlin Wall," performed and translating it through a contemporary architectural pro posa l. In the axis investigates the organizational structure of the organization, its mission, vision, its corporate image, so that the new proposed architecture will integrate and trengthen it. In the cultural context defines the cultural elements it needs the project, the cultural centers-boom academic field of cultural policies of its country representative, in the case of Germany, this policy is largely aimed at spreading their culture, raise awareness of Germany current. The architectural and spatial analysis of the current Association, as determined by the activities under the administrative and organizational structure of the entity, taking advantage of this feedback for the new proposal. The allegorical concept of the "Berlin Wall", it symbolizes not only interpreting and translating it into a physical form, but by analyzing the context of what produced this event in your way of life, and seeing the space, as spaces open, transparent, and so on. Thus the proposed new architecture for "Humboldt House" integrates the most relevant research from the same holistic, moved towards an architectural logic, renewing their body image, strengthen its approaches, consistent with the goals you are looking for the institution.


The Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Dep. of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) has developed and released four low-phytate spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) germplasm lines: LP1-2581 (Reg. No. GP-196, PI 658245), LP1-2163H (Reg. No. GP-199, PI 658248), LP3-1159 (Reg. No. GP-198, PI 658247), and LP640-1304 (Reg. No. GP-197, PI 658246). The low phytate trait derives from sodium azide-induced mutations. In these lines, phytate—the primary form of phosphorus in grain—is significantly reduced, and inorganic phosphorus is increased. Total phosphorus is unchanged or reduced slightly. Phytate cannot be digested by monogastric animals and is an effective chelator of nutritionally important minerals. Low-phytate barley has been associated with increased phosphorus and mineral nutrition and reduced phosphorus excretion when fed to monogastric animals. Each of these lines represents a unique combination of genetic background and a low-phytate allele. Each mutant allele represents a mutation at a different locus. These lines may be useful for the production of future low-phytate cultivars or for genetic and biochemical studies.


Visual localization in crowded dynamic environments requires information about static and dynamic objects. This paper presents a robust method that learns the useful features from multiple runs in highly crowded urban environments. Useful features are identified as distinctive ones that are also reliable to extract in diverse imaging conditions. Relative importance of features is used to derive the weight for each feature. The popular Bag-of-words model is used for image retrieval and localization, where query image is the current view of the environment and database contains the visual experience from previous runs. Based on the reliability, features are augmented and eliminated over runs. This reduces the size of representation, and makes it more reliable in crowded scenes. We tested the proposed method on data sets collected from highly crowded Indian urban outdoor settings. Experiments have shown that with the help of a small subset (10%) of the detected features, we can reliably localize the camera. We achieve superior results in terms of localization accuracy even when more than 90% of the pixels are occluded or dynamic.


Abstract High Performance Computing (HPC) is required for many important applications in chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, etc., see, e.g., an overview in [1]. In this paper we shortly describe an application (a multiscale material design problem) that requires HPC for several reasons. The problem of interest is analysis of the fiber-reinforced concrete and we focus on modelling of stiffness through numerical homogenization and computing local material properties by inverse analysis. Both problems require a repeated solution of large-scale finite element problems up to 200 million degrees of freedom and therefore the importance of HPC computing is evident.


Topdressing accounts for approximately 40% of the total nitrogen (N) application of winter wheat on the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China. However, N use efficiency of topdressing is low due to the inadaptable topdressing method used by local farmers. To improve the N use efficiency of winter wheat, an optimization method for topdressing (THP) is proposed that uses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based remote sensing to accurately acquire the growth status and an improved model for growth potential estimation and optimization of N fertilizer amount for topdressing (NFT). The method was validated and compared with three other methods by a field experiment: the conventional local farmer's method (TLF), a nitrogen fertilization optimization algorithm (NFOA) proposed by Raun and Lukina (TRL) and a simplification introduced by Li and Zhang (TLZ). It shows that when insufficient basal fertilizer was provided, the proposed method provided as much NFT as the TLF method, i.e., 25.05% or 11.88% more than the TRL and TLZ methods and increased the yields by 4.62% or 2.27%, respectively; and when sufficient basal fertilizer was provided, the THP method followed the TRL and TLZ methods to reduce NFT but maintained as much yield as the TLF method with a decrease of NFT by 4.20%. The results prove that THP could enhance crop production under insufficient N preceding conditions by prescribing more fertilizer and increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by lowering the fertilizer amount when enough basal fertilizer is provided.


The purpose of the research is to study certain aspects of transformation of corporate relations and corporate law, in the light of blurring of company boundaries and development of digital communications and startup culture. The results and conclusions are obtained based on general scientific and private scientific methods of research. Research studies examples of quasi-corporate and quasi-public structures created through (1) deferred share transfer agreements (SAFE), (2) crowdfunding agreements, (3) public market intermediary companies (SPAC), (4) exchanges for private companies. With the emergence of cross-border hybrid corporate structures at intersection of debt and equity, public and private financing, the current debates on the objectives of corporate law and the purpose of the corporation acquire a new perspective, as the very boundaries of the corporation become fluid. At the same time, decision-making procedures are mediated by third parties and digital technologies, with the prospect of conflict of interest, and are regulated, among other things, by standards emerging so to say from below. In the digital era, flexibility in the choice of elements of the structure allows to detach from the current state corporate regulation and attach to it in the right place and at the right time. It is concluded that the explosive growth of hybrid structures forms new areas of development of legal regulation by rejecting the dichotomy of soft and hard law. Among the vectors of transformation, the growing importance of private law unifications, the development of theoretical apparatus based on the concept of transnational law, the emergence of its subsystems, including lex corporatoria are noted. Among the tasks of lex corporatoria the formation of standards and customs in the field of corporate finance is also postulated as a regulatory framework for functioning of the hybrid structures under study.


The phase-locking dynamics in 1D and 2D lattices of non-identical coupled circle maps is explored. Aglobal phase locking can be attained via a cascade of clustering processes with the increase of the coupling strength.Collective spatiotemporal dynamics is observed when a global phase locking is reached. Crisis-induced desynchronizationis found, and its consequent spatiotemporal chaos is studied.


Experiments in which chicks are reared wearing a translucent goggle, or some similar device designed to degrade the retinal image, usually result in the induction of a significant degree of myopia. The induced myopia is due to enlargement of the vitreous chamber of the eye. Despite extensive change in the size, shape and refractive index distribution of the crystalline lens, its refractive power is static in the embryonic and early chick eye. The contribution to myopia of the cornea is uncertain; some studies have indicated either an increase or a decrease in corneal radius of curvature while others found no change. The fact that experimental myopia can be produced in chicks even when the optic nerve has been cut or when the degraded retinal image is restricted to one sector of the eye suggests that accommodation is not involved. Nevertheless, when the retinal image is degraded by being defocused with convex or concave lenses, myopia (concave lenses) or hyperopia (convex lenses) results. Chicks wearing concave or convex soft contact lenses from the day of hatching develop refractive states equal to the lens power (+8 and -10 diopters) within one week. The ability of the eye to vary its refractive development according to the sign of defocus suggests a role for accommodation. However, study of the ciliary muscle and accommodative apparatus of myopic and emmetropic chick eyes does not reveal any morphological differences that might indicate that the myopic eye had experienced an increased level of accommodation.


OBJECTIVES: Umbilical venous cannulation is the favored approach to perinatal central access worldwide but has a failure rate of 25–50% and the insertion technique has not evolved in decades. Improving the success of this procedure would have broad implications, particularly where peripherally inserted central catheters are not easily obtained and in neonates with congenital heart disease, in whom umbilical access facilitates administration of inotropes and blood products while sparing vessels essential for later cardiac interventions. We sought to use real-time, point-of-care ultrasound to achieve central umbilical venous access in patients for whom conventional, blind placement techniques had failed. DESIGN: Multicenter case series, March 2019–May 2021. SETTING: Cardiac and neonatal ICUs at three tertiary care children's hospitals. PATIENTS: We identified 32 neonates with congenital heart disease, who had failed umbilical venous cannulation using traditional, blind techniques. INTERVENTIONS: Real-time ultrasound guidance and liver pressure were used to replace malpositioned catheters and achieve successful placement at the inferior cavoatrial junction. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In 32 patients with failed prior umbilical venous catheter placement, real-time ultrasound guidance was used to successfully "rescue" the line and achieve central position in 23 (72%). Twenty of 25 attempts (80%) performed in the first 48 hours of life were successful, and three of seven attempts (43%) performed later. Twenty-four patients (75%) were on prostaglandin infusion at the time of the procedure. We did not identify an association between patient weight or gestational age and successful placement. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound guidance has become standard of care for percutaneous central venous access but is a new and emerging technique for umbilical vessel catheterization. In this early experience, we report that point-of-care ultrasound, together with liver pressure, can be used to markedly improve success of placement. This represents a significant advance in this core neonatal procedure.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

MET is known as a proto-oncogene, which involves in growth, migration, metastasis and angiogenesis in tumor progression. Recently, it is reported that MET also functions as chemo and EGFR-TKI resistant factor in cancer cells. Particularly, HGF/MET signal seemed to reduce the potency of conventional chemotherapeutic drugs in clinical. Meanwhile, VEGF/VEGFR signal plays an important role in angiogenesis in tumor growth, and is essential for the survival signal of endothelial cells(ECs) to protect from the damage by chemotherapeutic drugs. Some VEGFR inhibitors have already been approved for the treatment of several carcinomas with monotherapy. Many clinical combination trials with VEGFR inhibitor and chemotherapeutic agents have been tried, but its therapeutic benefit are restricted. It is highly desire for improving therapeutic benefit by combination therapy with VEGFR inhibitor and standard chemotherapy. TAS-115, a novel oral MET/VEGFR dual inhibitor, demonstrated not only potent efficacy but also prominent safety profiles achieved by improvement of PK profile and cellular selectivity. Potent MET/VEGFR dual inhibition provides significant anti-tumor effect from lower dose for TAS-115. On the one hand, the improvement of PK profile and cell selectivity led to better tolerability. As a result, therapeutic window (MTD/ED50) of TAS-115 became wider than that of the pre-existing VEGFR or MET/VEGFR inhibitors. These profiles give TAS-115 the long-term dosing at full effective dose without severe toxicity. Moreover, in vitro study, HGF completely suppressed the induction of apoptosis by 5-FU or Paclitaxel in cancer cells expressed MET. Meanwhile, VEGF abolished the cytotoxic effect by these chemotherapeutic drugs against ECs. It was suggested that harmonization of both HGF and VEGF in tumor greatly contributed to the resistance against conventional chemotherapeutic drugs. The MET/VEGFR dual inhibition by TAS-115 improves the sensitivity of chemotherapeutic drugs for both cancer cells and ECs via suppression of function as chemo-resistance factor by MET and VEGFR. In fact, the combination therapies with TAS-115 and conventional chemotherapeutic drugs caused tumor regression or potent growth inhibition without sever body weight loss in several xenograft models. Notably, TAS-115 markedly enhanced anti-tumor effect of Paclitaxel, and brought tumor shrinkage of approximately 80% in the combination. More important feature is that TAS-115 has disturbed rapid tumor re-growth following Paclitaxel treatment and the higher safety profiles of TAS-115 permits combination therapy with chemotherapeutic drugs in chronic treatment. It is expected TAS-115 demonstrates prominent therapeutic benefit in combination with chemotherapy based on the synergistic action of the potent MET/VEGFR dual inhibition and higher safety profiles.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1785. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1785


YA service innovators Linda W. Braun, Hillias J. Martin, and Connie Urquhart explain how to be smart about taking risks without shying away from them. They offer concrete advice for Laying the groundwork for change in key areas such as collection building and programming Including technology components as part of traditional services, such as booktalks, information literacy instruction, and book discussion groups Effectively gaining support from administrators and colleagues Real-world examples of risky change in action from librarians and authors of YA lit enrich this exploration of a topic rarely discussed in depth, but central to YA services in school and public libraries today.


Abstract The present work studied the carbides in forged and annealed H13 hot work die steel. The carbides were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and analyzed with quantitative chemical analysis method. The carbide types, qualities and compositions in dependence on temperatures were thermodynamically calculated by Thermo-Calc software and compared with the experimental results. In the final, methods for carbide improvement were discussed. The results are as follows. The primary carbides and the carbide segregation are improved after the hot-forging operation. The carbides in the hot-forged and annealed H13 steel are M7C3, M6(C, N) and M(C, N) which is accordance with the calculated results. Trace Mg added to the H13 steel leads to an increase of primary carbide nucleation and a decrease of primary carbide size.


Numerous disciplines are engaged in studies involving motor control. In this study, we have used a single link system with a pair of muscles that are excited with alpha and gamma signals to achieve an oscillatory movement with variable amplitude and frequency. The system is highly nonlinear in all its physical and physiological attributes. The major physiological characteristics of this system are simultaneous activation of a pair of nonlinear muscle-like-actuators for control purposes, existence of nonlinear spindle-like sensors and Golgi tendon organ-like sensor, actions of gravity and external loading. Transmission delays are included in the afferent and efferent neural paths to account for a more accurate representation of the reflex loops. The profile of excitation is difficult to predict a priori, hence we have used a reinforcement learning approach to track a desired trajectory. This paper proposes a reinforcement learning method with an Actor-Critic architecture instead of middle and low level of central nervous system (CNS). The Actor in this structure is a two layer feedforward neural network and the Critic is a model of the cerebellum. The Critic is trained by State-Action-Reward-State-Action (SARSA) method. The Critic will train the Actor by supervisory learning based on previous experiences. The system is implemented on a PC using Matlab® and Simulink® Software. To enhance the computational performance a number of C codes were also written. The effectiveness and the biological plausibility of the present model are demonstrated by several simulations. The system showed excellent tracking capability and after 280 epochs the RMS error for position and velocity profiles were 0.02, 0.04 radian and radian/sec, respectively.


Prior efforts have produced a sea surface temperature (SST) optimum interpolation (OI) analysis that is widely used, especially for climate purposes. The analysis uses in situ (ship and buoy) and infrared (IR) satellite data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). Beginning in December 1997, ''microwave'' SSTs became available from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite Microwave Imager (TMI). Microwave SSTs have a significant coverage advantage over ''IR'' SSTs because microwave SSTs can be retrieved in cloud-covered regions while IR SSTs cannot. However, microwave SSTs are at a much lower spatial resolution than the IR SSTs. In this study, the impact of SSTs derived from TMI was tested from the perspective of the OI analysis. Six different versions of the OI were produced weekly from 10 December 1997 to 1 January 2003 using different combinations of AVHRR and TMI data and including versions with and without a bias correction of the satellite data. To make the results more objective, 20% of the buoys were randomly selected and the SSTs from these buoys were withheld from the OI for independent verification. The results of the intercomparisons show that both AVHRR and TMI data have biases that must be corrected for climate studies. These biases change with time as physical properties of the atmosphere change and as satellite instruments and the orbits of the satellites, themselves, change. It is critical to monitor differences between satellite and other products to quickly diagnose any of these changes. For the OI analyses with bias correction, it is difficult using the withheld buoys to clearly demonstrate that there is a significant advantage in adding TMI data. The advantage of TMI data is clearly shown in the OI analyses without bias correction. Because IR and microwave satellite algorithms are affected by different sources of error, biases may tend to cancel when both TMI and AVHRR data are used in the OI. Bias corrections cannot be made in regions where there are no in situ data. In these regions, the results of the analyses without bias corrections apply. Because there are areas of the ocean with limited in situ data and restricted AVHRR coverage due to cloud cover, the use of both TMI and AVHRR should improve the accuracy of the analysis in these regions. In addition, the use of more than one satellite product is helpful in diagnosing problems in these products.


Alveolar type II (ATII) cells inhibit fibroblast proliferation in coculture by releasing or secreting a factor(s) that stimulates fibroblast production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). In the present study, we sought to determine the factors released from ATII cells that stimulate PGE2 production in fibroblasts. Exogenous addition of rat IL-1alpha to cultured lung fibroblasts induced PGE2 secretion in a dose-response manner. When fibroblasts were cocultured with rat ATII cells, IL-1alpha protein was detectable in ATII cells and in the coculture medium between days 8 and 12 of culture, correlating with the highest levels of PGE2. Furthermore, under coculture conditions, IL-1alpha gene expression increased in ATII cells (but not fibroblasts) compared with either cell cultured alone. In both mixed species (human fibroblasts-rat ATII cells) and same species cocultures (rat fibroblasts and ATII cells), PGE2 secretion was inhibited by the presence of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) or selective neutralizing antibody directed against rat IL-1alpha (but not IL-1beta). Conditioned media from cocultures inhibited fibroblast proliferation, and this effect was abrogated by the addition of IL-1Ra. Addition of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) resulted in an earlier increase in PGE2 secretion and fibroblast inhibition (day 8 of coculture). This effect was inhibited by indomethacin but was not altered by IL-1Ra. We conclude that in this coculture system, IL-1alpha secretion by ATII cells is one factor that stimulates PGE2 production by lung fibroblasts, thereby inhibiting fibroblast proliferation. In addition, these studies demonstrate that KGF enhances ATII cell PGE2 production through an IL-1alpha-independent pathway.


Abstract Objective: Our survey aimed to identify knowledge and application of guidelines in the United States by assessing practicing obstetricians and gynecologists (OBGYN) use of thromboprophylaxis, preferred methods and whether their type of practice influenced their choices. Study design: A cross-sectional survey of fellows of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) was performed. A 21-item paper and electronic questionnaire was sent to each participant. A total of three mailings were carried out. Results: In total, 400 OBGYN were invited to participate. Questionnaires were returned by 209 (52.3%), 157 (75.1%) of whom provided prenatal care within the last year. All respondents used at least one method of thromboprophylaxis routinely. About 92.4% used pneumatic compression devices. An equal proportion used unfractionated heparin and low molecular weight heparin routinely (17.8%). About 19.1% routinely used combination prophylaxis. In total, 77.1% (n = 121) used the ACOG guidelines. Local hospital guidelines were referenced by 38.2% (n = 60). Other guidelines referenced were the ACCP guideline (n = 34, 21.7%) and several international guidelines (n = 5, 3.3%). Conclusion: Awareness of the risk of thromboembolism around delivery by cesarean section is high among OBGYN practitioners. Broadening guidelines to encompass all deliveries, not only cesareans, with a focus on identifying the patient at risk, would likely be successful.


Collaborative learning is extensively applied in classroom activities, but the screens on handheld devices are designed for individual-user mobile applications and may constrain interaction among group learners. The small screen size may lead to fragmented and tete-a-tete communication patterns and frequently obstruct the externalization of the learning process. This study compares two learning scenarios, one using only handheld devices and the other integrating handheld devices with LCD shared displays, in order to explore whether shared displays in classrooms can augment handheld devices to facilitate articulation and communication among participants. This study involved 15 graduate students enrolled in a Statistics and Data Mining course. Data were collected on the course over a period of eight weeks. Students were required to solve problems collaboratively and content analysis was performed on student dialogue and nonverbal interactions in the two different learning scenarios. In the environment with shared displays, each discussion thread attracted more students and demonstrated more shared visual focus than in the one-to-one setting by a significant margin. Students, when studying in an environment with shared displays, exhibited more lively interaction with each other, including frequent hand-pointing behavior. Furthermore, students proposed more arguments and positions in the SharedDisplay environment than in the environment without shared displays. Therefore, shared displays can not only improve articulation processes, but can also promote student engagement by establishing a social workspace for learning with handheld devices.


These lecture notes aim at a post-Bachelor audience with a backgound at an introductory level in Applied Mathematics and Applied Statistics. They discuss the logic and methodology of the Bayes-Laplace approach to inductive statistical inference that places common sense and the guiding lines of the scientific method at the heart of systematic analyses of quantitative-empirical data. Following an exposition of exactly solvable cases of single- and two-parameter estimation, the main focus is laid on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations on the basis of Gibbs sampling and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling of posterior joint probability distributions for regression parameters occurring in generalised linear models. The modelling of fixed as well as of varying effects (varying intercepts) is considered, and the simulation of posterior predictive distributions is outlined. The issues of model comparison with Bayes factors and the assessment of models' relative posterior predictive accuracy with information entropy-based criteria DIC and WAIC are addressed. Concluding, a conceptual link to the behavioural subjective expected utility representation of a single decision-maker's choice behaviour in static one-shot decision problems is established. Codes for MCMC simulations of multi-dimensional posterior joint probability distributions with the JAGS and Stan packages implemented in the statistical software R are provided. The lecture notes are fully hyperlinked. They direct the reader to original scientific research papers and to pertinent biographical information.


In this research we introduce the ABBA framework for the generation of advanced screen readers. Current solutions do not enable blind users to participate in the Web in a satisfactory way because they are not time-efficient, cumbersome to use, and do not provide enough overview and orientation within a document. Also, they hide away important layout information from the user. Our approach overcomes these limitations by unifying different semantic views of a document into one multi-axial model and making them accessible to the user in an intuitive interface. The benefit to the user is a higher level of control in different navigation scenarios.


HRM practices have predominantly been seen as means put in place by top
management to achieve certain ends. This thesis argues that approaching the HRM
phenomenon in this way is limiting because it establishes a divide in HRM activities
between those aspects that conform to top management intentions, contribute to consistency
of HRM practices, and produce desired effects; and those that are not part of top
management design, are a source of variability in HRM practices, and are at best irrelevant,
at worst detrimental to the efficacy of HRM practices. Variability in HRM practices within
organisations has become an important focus for debate in the strategic human resource
management (SHRM) literature. This thesis argues that an alternative view of HRM is
required for the field to move forward.
Practice perspectives in organisation and management studies provide the basis for an
alternative approach to studying HRM. Actor-network theory is particularly well suited for
examining patterns of repetitive activity across time and space, and thus constitutes a useful
framework for understanding consistency and variability in HRM practices.
This thesis presents empirical research that applies actor-network theory to provide a
'flat' description of HRM activities in a large UK-based fashion retailer. Through an
innovative research design that uses participant narratives of HRM episodes (n=112), HRM
activity in the company is characterised as distributed, emergent and patterned. It is
distributed in the sense that employment outcomes were produced through assemblies of
heterogeneous –human and nonhuman– elements. It is emergent in the sense that the set of
associations that were made in order to produce an employment outcome was not
predictable, nor was the outcome itself. Both were the result of the associations that became
stabilised during the flow of activity. Finally HRM activities were patterned through the
standardising actions of central actors and their associated artefacts. In particular members
of the HR department found ways to retrieve information from the field, transform it into
standards, and deploy these standards back to the field in order to produce repetitive patterns.
This alternative view of HRM implies a novel understanding of the nature of HRM
practices, the role of variability and consistency, and the ways in which the effects of HRM
may be produced. Such understanding acknowledges that effects of HRM are produced as
much through variability as through consistency, and that these must not be understood as
opposite, mutually exclusive features of HRM systems.
The implications for research and practice are wide-ranging. This thesis strongly
advocates a case study research programme that provides rich descriptions of HRM activities
in diverse settings, as the best way to advance the field and produce practitioner relevant
knowledge and advice. Practitioners are advised to pay attention to the processes through
which HRM outcomes are produced in their organisation, and to the means by which they
themselves deploy their agency to create patterns in those processes.


The goal of this paper was to review the evidence of population-level impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWH) on Gulf of Mexico (GOM) continental shelf taxa, as well as evidence of resiliency following the DWH. There is considerable environmental and biological evidence that GOM shelf taxa were exposed to and suffered direct and indirect impacts of the DWH. Numerous assessments, from mesocosm studies to analysis of biopsied tissue or tissue samples from necropsied animals, revealed a constellation of physiological effects related to DWH impacts on GOM biota, some of which clearly or likely resulted in mortality. While the estimated concentrations of hydrocarbons in shelf waters and sediments were orders of magnitude lower than measured in inshore or deep GOM environments, the level of mortality observed or predicted was substantial for many shelf taxa. In some cases, such as for zooplankton, community shifts following the spill were ephemeral, likely reflecting high rates of population turnover and productivity. In other taxa, such as GOM reef fishes, impacts of the spill are confounded with other stressors, such as fishing mortality or the appearance and rapid population growth of invasive lionfish (Pterois spp.). In yet others, such as cetaceans, modeling efforts to predict population-level effects of the DWH made conservative assumptions given the species' protected status, which post-DWH population assessments either failed to detect or population increases were estimated. A persistent theme that emerged was the lack of precise population-level data or assessments prior to the DWH for many taxa, but even when data or assessments did exist, examining evidence of population resiliency was confounded by other stressors impacting GOM biota. Unless efforts are made to increase the resolution of the data or precision of population assessments, difficulties will likely remain in estimating the scale of population-level effects or resiliency in the case of future large-scale environmental catastrophes.


We describe an approach based on Tree-based Association Rules(TARs) mined rules, which provide approximate, intensional information on both the structure and the contents of XML documents and can be stored in XML format as well. There are two main approaches to XML document access: Keyword-based Search and QueryAnswering. The idea of mining association rules to provide summarized representations of XML documents has been investigated in many proposals either by using languages XQuery,JQuery etc., and techniques developed in the XML context or by implementing graph-or-tree-based algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a proposal for mining and storing TARs (Tree-based Association Rules) as a means to represent intensional knowledge in native XML.


Background: Cancer care is evolving to a model of precision medicine where genomic changes in a patient9s tumor are used to inform individualized management (mgmt). The optimal approach and impact of tumor profiling on cancer care remain important research questions. We report the impact on clinical decision-making by results from a PMRP in a research practice. Methods: A custom designed next generation sequencing (NGS) 68 gene alteration (GA) panel, covering clinically relevant genes and regions was developed in 2014. The NGS results were used to: 1) prioritize standard therapies; 2) match patients (pts) with clinical trials (CT); and 3) serve as a data mining resource. NGS testing was offered early in the course of mgmt. An Institutional Review Board approved prospective registration protocol (PMRP) was activated in 2014, with the objective of establishing a centralized longitudinal, molecular phenotypic, and research data repository. Primary endpoints include proportion of pts where NGS impacted mgmt, to include enrollment onto CT. A cloud-based informatics platform was developed to: manage PMRP; facilitate CT matching; perform quality assurance/quality improvement; pursue research initiatives. Results: As of 11/15/2016, 869 pts gave informed consent, with 844 pts enrolled. The top primary sites included: breast (115); colorectal (111); central nervous system (103); lung (91); ovary (49); hematologic malignancies (46); pancreas (37); uterus (28); esophagus (25); skin (21). Of solid tumor pts with documented clinical stage, 130 (40%) pts had early stage cancer (I, II and III), and 193 (60%) pts had advanced stage (IV) cancer. NGS results: 739 (88%) pts with GA found; 27 (3%) pts without GA. Of pts with GA, 178 (24%) pts had actionable (on-label drugs) GA and 476 (64%) pts had applicable (off-label or CT) GA, for a total of 546 (74%) pts with actionable and/or applicable GA. The top actionable GA were: KRAS (125); PIK3CA (17); BRAF (13); EGFR (12); NRAS (11); AKT1 (3); TET2 (2); ERBB2 (2); HRAS (2). The top applicable GA, included: TP53 (225); TPMT (78); TYMS (78); PIK3CA (77); APC (56); PTEN (52); IDH1 (34); CDNK2A (22); CTNNB1 (18); TET2 (16). Care mgmt impact was reported by physicians for 508 pts with actionable/applicable GA. Physicians reported mgmt impact, at time of reporting, for 105 (21%) pts, to include: new treatment (Tx) in 30 (6%) pts; no Tx given in 18 (4%) pts; Tx changed in 12 (2%) pts; Tx stopped in 1 ( Conclusions: NGS profiling of tumors with this 68 GA panel has an impact on clinical decision- making in a minority, though substantial number, of pts. Impact on CT participation remains modest. Access to drugs and CT remains an important barrier. Citation Format: Thomas D. Brown, Paul D. Tittel, Philip J. Gold, Charles W. Drescher, John M. Pagel, J D. Beatty, Patra Grevstad, Desiree Iriarte, Shlece Alexander, Madeleine Brindle, Xiaoyu Liu, Donielle O9connor, Mariko Tameishi, Danbin Xu, Anna B. Berry. Impact of a personalized medicine research program (PMRP), using targeted tumor profiling and a cloud based clinical trials matching platform, on clinical decision-making [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 997. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-997


Background Tofacitinib is a novel, oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Objectives To compare the effects of tofacitinib 5 mg and 10 mg twice daily (BID) monotherapy versus methotrexate (MTX) on patient-reported outcomes in a 12-month interim analysis of a randomised, double-blind, parallel group Phase 3 study (NCT01039688).1 Methods MTX-naïve patients with RA (≥6 tender/swollen joints; erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR] >28 mm/hr and/or C-reactive protein [CRP) >7mg/L]) were randomised 2:2:1 to tofacitinib 5 mg BID, 10 mg BID, or MTX titrated from 10 mg/week to 20 mg/week. PROs were secondary endpoints, including mean changes from baseline in: patient-reported pain (Visual Analogue Scale; VAS), Patient Global Assessment (PtGA) of disease activity (VAS), physical function (Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index; HAQ-DI), health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) (Short Form 36 version 2, acute; SF-36), and fatigue (Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue; FACIT-F). Analyses used a linear mixed-effect model, with baseline values as covariates, on all patients who received ≥1 study drug dose (full analysis set) and had both a baseline and ≥1 post-baseline value. Least squares mean changes from baseline at Month 12 are presented; non-responder imputation for minimum clinically important differences (MCID) of PROs. Results At the 12-month cut-off (24 May 2012), 769 patients who received treatment were ongoing; 307 with tofacitinib 5 mg BID, 328 with tofacitinib 10 mg BID, 134 with MTX. Tofacitinib treatment resulted in statistically significant improvements versus MTX in all PROs except SF-36 mental component score for the 5 mg BID dose (Table 1). Changes in values for all PROs were numerically greater in patients receiving tofacitinib 10 mg BID than those receiving 5 mg BID. A significantly greater proportion of pts achieved at least MCID with tofacitinib 10 mg BID vs MTX for all PROs (FACIT-F data not available) (Table 1). Conclusions In this Phase 3 study, MTX-naive patients receiving tofacitinib monotherapy generally reported significant improvements in PROs compared with MTX over 12 months' treatment. References Lee EB, et al. Arthritis Rheum 2012; 64(S10): S1049 Disclosure of Interest V. Strand Consultant for: Pfizer Inc., R. Fleischmann Grant/research support from: Pfizer Inc., Consultant for: Pfizer Inc., R. Alten Grant/research support from: Pfizer Inc., Speakers bureau: Pfizer Inc., T. Koncz Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc., S. Zwillich Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc., J. Bradley Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc., D. Gruben Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc., B. Wilkinson Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc., S. Krishaswami Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc., G. Wallenstein Shareholder of: Pfizer Inc., Employee of: Pfizer Inc.


Mitochondrial diseases (MD) represent a large clinically heterogeneous group of disorders that arise as a result of dysfunction of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. The article discusses clinical features of the MD, accompanying by epilepsy. Two case reports are presented of MELAS syndrome and Alpers-Huttenlocher syndrome. The genetic background of MD is discussed as well as methods for establishing the diagnosis of MD and peculiarities of antiepileptic therapy.


Synthesis, crystallographic characterisation, spectroscopic (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy [FT-IR]) and density functional modelling studies of the Schiff base 1-[(4-ethoxyphenylimino)methyl]napthalene-2-ol (C19H17NO2) have been reported. The molecular structure obtained from X-ray single-crystal analysis of the investigated compound in the ground state has been compared using Hartree–Fock and density functional theory (DFT) with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. In addition to the optimised geometrical structures, atomic charges, molecular electrostatic potential, natural bond orbital, non-linear optical (NLO) effects and thermodynamic properties of the compound have been investigated by using DFT. The experimental (FT-IR) and calculated vibrational frequencies (using DFT) of the title compound have been compared. The solvent effect was also investigated for obtained molecular energies and the atomic charge distributions of the compound. There exists a good correlation between experimental and theoretical data for enol-imine form of the compound. The total molecular dipole moment (µ), linear polarisability (α), and the first-order hyperpolarisability (β) were predicted by the B3LYP method with different basis sets 6-31G(d), 6-31+G(d,p), 6-31++G(d,p), 6-311+G(d) 150 and 6-311++G(d,p) for investigating the effects of basis sets on the NLO properties. Our computational results yield that βtot for the title compound is greater than those of urea.


The Sensititre system provides antibiotics dried in microtitre trays in appropriate concentrations for the determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) when organisms are added in liquid culture medium and incubated overnight. Results with a variety of media--for Gram-negative bacilli tested with ampicillin, carbenicillin, cephaloridine, and gentamicin, staphylococci with penicillin, cloxacillin, fusidic acid, and gentamicin, and streptococci with penicillin, ampicillin, cephaloridine, and erythromycin--were usually very similar to those of agar dilution tests. Discrepant results are found in a few situations, and in some cases, especially those involving borderline resistance to fusidic acid and gentamicin among staphylococci and Gram-negative bacilli, we have been unable to suggest modfication to produce the right results. Despite these problems, fortunately few and identifiable, we recommend the system especially for use in laboratories that determine the MICs infrequently.


Neuroadapted Sindbis virus (NSV) was selected by serial passage of wild-type Sindbis virus (SV) in mouse brain. After intracerebral inoculation of weanling mice, NSV causes a severe encephalomyelitis with hindlimb paralysis and high mortality; SV causes nonfatal mild disease. In order to determine the biologic basis of neurovirulence in vivo, these viral infections have been compared by using infectivity assays, light and electron microscopy, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and double-labeling for neural cell markers and viral RNA. More infectious virus is present in the central nervous system during NSV than during SV infection. After intracerebral inoculation, both viruses enter the central nervous system via the ependyma and spread to gray matter areas, including the ventral horns of the spinal cord. Their cellular targets are not different, and neuronal infection is prominent. NSV infects more neurons, and causes more severe injury than SV. In NSV infection, there is marked swelling of lumbar and thoracic neurons and their processes in the ventral horns. Relatively mild changes are detected in SV infection only by electron microscopy. Neuroadaptation likely occurs by increasing the efficiency of viral replication in neurons, rather than by a fundamental change in the cellular tropism or the topography of the infection in the central nervous system.


Some radon mitigation systems draw air with a high radon concentration from under the basement floors of houses and exhaust it outdoors. The objective of this project was to measure the reentry rates of radon released at roof level and at ground level near a house to determine whether exhaust above the roof is necessary. This was done by using a portable mockup of a radon mitigation system exhaust, with sulfur hexafluoride (SF{sub 6}) as a tracer gas. The roof-level exhaust produced maximum indoor sulfur hexafluoride concentrations that were significantly lower than those from the ground-level exhaust. This suggests that the better radon discharge location is on the roof of a house.


PURPOSE Previous investigations have reported a relationship between variables obtained from echocardiography with tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) in systolic heart failure (HF) cohorts. The purpose of the present investigation was to perform a comparative analysis between echocardiography with TDI and CPX in patients with HF and normal ejection fraction (NEF). METHODS Patients with HF-NEF (N = 32) underwent echocardiography with TDI and CPX to determine the following variables: (1) the ratio between mitral early velocity (E) and mitral annular velocity (E'), (2) ejection fraction, (3) left ventricular (LV) mass, (4) left ventricular end systolic volume, (5) peak oxygen uptake (&OV0312;O2), (6) ventilatory efficiency, (7) the partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (PETCO2) at rest and peak exercise, and (8) heart rate recovery at 1 minute (HRR1). RESULTS Pearson correlation revealed that E/E' was significantly correlated with peak oxygen uptake (r = −0.55, P = .001), the ventilatory efficiency slope (r = 0.60, P < .001), resting PETCO2 (r = −0.39, P = .03), peak PETCO2 (r = −0.50, P = .004), and HRR1 (r = −0.63, P < .001). Left ventricular mass and left ventricular end systolic volume were not correlated with any CPX variable. Ejection fraction was correlated with HRR1 (r = −0.55, P = .001). An HRR1 threshold of less than 16 and/or 16 or more beats per minute (higher value positive) effectively identified subjects with an E/E' > 10 (positive likelihood ratio: 13:2). DISCUSSION E/E' provides an accurate reflection of LV filling pressure and thus, insight into diastolic function. The results of the present investigation indicate CPX provides insight into cardiac dysfunction in patients with HF-NEF and thus, may eventually prove to be a valuable and accepted clinical assessment.


In 2018, the Government of Ethiopia committed to large-scale, donor-supported reforms aimed at improving equitable learning in the basic education system—the General Education Quality Improvement Program for Equity (GEQIP-E). In this paper, we examine the reform design process in the context of Ethiopia's political environment as a strong developmental state, assessing the influence of different stakeholder priorities which have led to the focus on equity within the quality reforms. Drawing on qualitative data from 81 key informant interviews with federal and regional government officials and donors, we explore the negotiation and power dynamics which have shaped the design of the reforms. We find that a legacy of moderately successful reforms, and a shared commitment to global goals, paved the way for negotiations of more complex and ambitious reforms between government actors and donors. Within government, we identify that regional governments were only tokenistically included in the reform process. Given that regions are responsible for the implementation of these reforms, their limited involvement in the design could have implications for success.


Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANET), in which vehicles constitute the mobile nodes in the network, have attracted increasing interest in both academia and industry. However, due to the prohibitive cost of deploying and implementing such a system in the real world, most of the related research relies on simulations for evaluation purposes. A key component for VANET simulations is a realistic vehicular mobility model, as this ensures that the conclusions drawn from simulation experiments will carry through to the real deployments. Node mobility in a vehicular network is strongly affected by the driving behavior such as route choices. While route choice models have been extensively studied in the transportation community, as far as we know, the effects of preferred route and destination on vehicular network simulations have not been discussed much in the networking literature. In this work, we set out to understand the effect of route choices on vehicular network simulation. We also discuss how different destination selection models affect two practical ITS application scenarios: traffic monitoring and event broadcasting. We conclude that selecting a sufficient level of detail in the simulations, such as modeling of route choices, is critical for evaluating VANET protocol design.


Background: Snake bite is one of the important public health problems. The objective of the study was to assess the demographic and clinical features of snake bite patients.
Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Medicine, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad from July, 2016 to June, 2017. Sample size was 52 selected through consecutive sampling technique. Demographic variables were sex, age, residence, districts and months. Research variables were site of snake bite, presence of fang marks, snake eye witnessed, time period to reach hospital, signs and symptoms, complications, anti-snake venom (ASV) administration, length of hospital stay and incidence of death. Data being categorical was analyzed by SPSS-16 as count and percentages and numeric by mean and SD.
Results: Among 52 patients, 57.70% were male. Patients belonging to rural area were 96.15%. Mean age was 30 years and mean hospital stay was two days. The modal site of snake bite was foot and ankle in 42.30%. Fang marks were seen in 76.92% and snake was eye witnessed in 73.07%. Bleeding complications were seen in 30.76% patients, Four patients died.
Conclusion: Snake bite is common in young males from Mansehra, especially in July and August. Foot and legs were most common area receiving bite with fang marks and snake eye witness in majority of cases. Swelling, pain and tenderness were the most common signs and symptoms with bleeding as common complication. Half of the patients reached hospital in 6 hours. Mortality is significantly high in victims who presented after 48 hours of the bite.


We examined long-term variations in kelp growth in coincidence with recent (2004– 2006) measurements of underwater photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), light attenuation coeffi cients, chlorophyll concentrations, and total suspended solids (TSS) to determine the impact of sediment resuspension on the productivity of an isolated kelp bed community on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast. Attenuation coeffi cients exhibited distinct geographical patterns and interannual variations between 2004 and 2006 that were correlated with temporal and geographical patterns in TSS (range 3.5– 23.8 mg L 1). The low chlorophyll levels ( 3.0 g L 1) in all three years were unlikely to have contributed signifi cantly to periods of low summer water transparency. Blade elongation rates in the arctic kelp, Laminaria solidungula, are excellent integrators of water transparency since their annual growth is completely dependent on PAR received during the summer open-water period. We noted that blade growth at all sites steadily increased between 2004 and 2006, refl ective of increased underwater PAR in each successive year. Mean blade growth at all sites was clearly lowest in 2003 ( 8 cm) compared to 2006 (18– 47 cm). We attribute the low growth in 2003 to reported intense storm activity that likely produced extremely turbid water conditions that resulted in low levels of ambient light. Examination of a 30-year record of annual growth at two sites revealed other periods of low annual growth that were likely related to summers characterized by exceptional strong storm activity. Although kelp growth is expected to be higher at shallower sites, the reverse occurs, since sediment re-suspension is greatest at shallower water depths. The exceptionally low growth of kelp in 2003 indicates that these plants are living near their physiological light limits, but represent excellent indicators of interannual changes in water transparency that result from variations in local climatology.


Fractal theory was used to study the rules of Yellow River's food happening. The author put forward a method, grid method, to calculate the riverway's fractal dimension. After comparing the fractal dimensions and flood peak discharges of the Lower Yellow River parts, some helpful conclusions have been achieved. At a certain scale range, riverway of the Lower Yellow River shows some fractal characteristics, that is self-similarity. The fractal dimension of the Lower Yellow River changes with the flood peak discharge. Usually, the bigger the fractal dimension, the more curving the river way, the bigger the flood peak discharge, the bigger the possibility that flood happens. As a result, the fractal dimension can be regarded as a quantitative index to predict flood.


Constructing certifiably reliable software systems is difficult. Deductive program synthesis techniques (Flener 1995, Manna and Waldinger 1980) can currently be used to construct small software systems or to organize small sets of software components in a reliable manner. In order for synthesis techniques to be applicable to real-world problems outside the experimental laboratory, they must be inexpensive relative to manual techniques. The difficulty and expense in constructing software synthesis systems currently precludes the use of these techniques in many instances.


The subject of this paper is to analyze the way of implementation and operation of hardware DRM protection systems on the example of selected printer cartridges. Thanks to the analysis, it is possible to understand the way of operation of typical security chips used in printer cartridges. Using the knowledge gained, it becomes possible to modify the data on the security chips and thus reset the protection, so that the printer sees the chip with the modified data as a new one. However, the process itself was difficult due to the lack of publicly available materials on this topic. In this paper, different approaches to DRM security analysis have been used, so that the reader can try to perform the described steps to analyze other hardware DRM systems by himself. In addition, devices called resetters have been designed and fabricated to quickly reset the analyzed security chips. Their design and documentation is available on the author's Github.


Tehran has become the heart of the Middle East power center and Iran's role in the Middle East geopolitics is undeniable. Without Iran's perspective, understanding the future of Middle East is not possible. Nowadays, Tehran's diplomatic and political power brokers are involved in negotiating power sharing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Armenia and even Syria. They are trying to expand their influence in other countries including Yemen and Bahrain. Growing complexity in the region has helped Iran to expand its influence and flex its muscles in the entire Middle East. Tehran's policies have always been successful and currently it is in the threshold of winning position. Iranian strategy and influence have increased after the Arab Spring. The region's dominant power Iran has extensive connection with political parties, militia, and governments of several countries even at the ground level in the region. Components of the Middle East countries wait for Tehran's gesture during both times of peace or war. Iranian military commanders deployed in the Middle East have high level of influence in comparison to other countries. Strong security and intelligence of Iran have played significant role in bolstering its influence in Syria, Afghanistan power deal, management of Hezbollah, connection with the Hamas, Yemeni Hutu or current role in Iraq's victory against Islamic State terrorist fighters. What can be understood is that only a joint effort of Iran and the United States will help in stabilizing the region. However, making an alliance between these two countries might prove to be a Herculean task.


ABSTRACT A variety of point-of-care monitors for the measurement of hematocrit, hemoglobin, blood gas with electrolytes, and lactate can be used also in the prehospital setting for optimizing and individualizing trauma resuscitation. Point-of-care coagulation testing with activated prothrombin test, prothrombin test, and activated coagulation/clotting time tests is available for prehospital use. Although robust, battery driven, and easy to handle, many devices lack documentation for use in prehospital care. Some of the devices correspond poorly to corresponding laboratory analyses in acute trauma coagulopathy and at lower hematocrits. In trauma, viscoelastic tests such as rotational thromboelastometry and thromboelastography can rapidly detect acute trauma coagulopathy and give an overall dynamic picture of the hemostatic system and the interaction between its different components: coagulation activation, fibrin polymerization, fibrin platelet interactions within the clot, and fibrinolysis. Rotational thromboelastometry is shock resistant and has the potential to be used outside the hospital setting to guide individualized coagulation factor and blood component therapies. Sonoclot and Rheorox are two small viscoelastic instruments with one-channel options, but with less documentation. The point-of-care market for coagulation tests is quickly expanding, and new devices are introduced all the time. Still they should be better adopted to prehospital conditions, small, robust, battery charged, and rapid and use small sample volumes and whole blood.


Optimal therapy of biochemically relapsed prostate cancer (BRPC) after local treatment is elusive. An established modified citrus pectin (PectaSol®, P-MCP), a dietary polysaccharide, is an established antagonist of galectin-3, a carbohydrate-binding protein involved in cancer pathogenesis. Based on PSA dynamics, we report on the safety and the primary outcome analysis of a prospective phase II study of P-MCP in non-metastatic BRPC based. Sixty patients were enrolled, and one patient withdrew after a month. Patients (n = 59) were given P-MCP, 4.8 grams X 3/day, for six months. The primary endpoint was the rate without PSA progression and improved PSA doubling time (PSADT). Secondary endpoints were the rate without radiologic progression and toxicity. Patients that did not progress by PSA and radiologically at six months continued for an additional twelve months. After six months, 78% (n = 46) responded to therapy, with a decreased/stable PSA in 58% (n = 34), or improvement of PSADT in 75% (n = 44), and with negative scans, and entered the second twelve months treatment phase. Median PSADT improved significantly (p = 0.003). Disease progression during the first 6 months was noted in only 22% (n = 13), with PSA progression in 17% (n = 10), and PSA and radiologic progression in 5% (n = 3). No patients developed grade 3 or 4 toxicity.


Job's tear is a cereal plant that can be used as food and feed with high contains of protein, fat, and vitamins. Productivity of job's tears need to be developed and improved through the adjustment of the genoypes and cultivation techniques. The objective of this research were to select the genotypes of job's tear with high yield, and to study the interaction effect of genotypes with the plant growth regulator application to yield. The experiment was conducted from June 2014-February 2015 in Rancakalong Sumedang Indonesia. The experimental design used in this research was factorial randomized block design with four replications. The first factor was six genotypes of job's tear and the second factor was plant growth regulator application (gibberelins and paclobutrazol). The differences among treatment means were compared using Least Significant Difference (LSD) test at 5% probability level. The result showed that was the interaction effect between application of gibberellins and paclobutrazol with six genotypes of job's tear on seeds weight per hill, seeds weight plot, seeds weight per ha, and harvest index. The best genotype of job's tear was G38 with the highest yield reached 4.09 tons ha which was treated with giberellins and paclobutrazol 12 ml L.


A109 For diagnostic purposes, mutation detection in cancer is difficult due to the presence of contaminating normal tissue infiltrated throughout the tumor tissue. Traditional PCR and sequencing methods are labor intensive and time consuming. Therefore, we have developed an assay using a nanochip array platform to find specific mutations in cancer-related genes. An amplicon-down method was applied. That is, the DNA sample was amplified with a biotin labeled primer and the resulting target amplicon was electronically addressed to a streptavidin membrane. This method is based on differences in melting temperatures. The data is collected either at a specific Tm, or during a series of temperature increments to create a melting curve. As proof of principle, we screened codon 12 of the K- ras gene, which is commonly mutated in several tumor types. The analysis was done on formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor samples that showed various degrees of contaminating normal tissue. We screened 233 patient samples corresponding to various cancer types. These included colon, rectum, pancreas, lymph node, lung, spleen, liver, stomach, and thyroid cancers. We were able to detect mutations in samples that contained as little as 20% tumor cells. In addition, the sensitivity was 100% and the specificity was nearly 100%. These data agreed 100% with PCR enrichment and sequencing results that were performed in parallel. Moreover, the method presented here was even more sensitive in some instances. For example, we were able to detect very low amounts of mutant allele that was not detected by traditional sequencing due to background noise. In conclusion, we found this test to be extremely accurate, reproducible, fast, and due to its versatility, generally applicable to any mutation screening. Furthermore, in a therapeutic setting, it could provide an effective selection criterion for a patient treatment regimen.


As of late, the occurrence of appendicitis has notably diminished. However, appendicitis stays one of the more common surgical emergencies, and appendectomy stays the treatment of non-complicated appendicitis. Acute appendicitis (AA), a typical intra-abdominal surgical pathology, obliges a comprehensive understanding of its presentation, assessment, diagnosis, and overall operative administration. There are two types of surgery to remove the appendix. The standard technique is an open appendectomy and laparoscopic appendectomy. As with other laparoscopic surgical procedures, the literature defines decreased pain, earlier resumption of diet, and decreased length of hospital stay for laparoscopic appendectomy versus the equivalent open procedure.  Nevertheless, this should be accurately considered in the light of the present condition of the open procedure, which already causes minimal risk and is related with an extremely short hospital stay and a low complication rate. Further disadvantages of laparoscopy incorporate increased cost and longer operating times. We conducted this review using a comprehensive search of MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from January 1, 1988, through July 28, 2017.


Since the emergence of mobile networks, the number of mobile subscriptions has continued to increase year after year. To efficiently assign mobile network resources such as spectrum (which is expensive), the network operator needs to critically process and analyze information and develop statistics about each base station and the traffic that passes through it. This paper presents an application of data analytics by focusing on processing and analyzing two datasets from a commercial trial mobile network. A detailed description that uses Apache Hadoop and the Mahout Machine learning library to process and analyze the datasets is presented. The analysis provides insights about the resource usage of network devices. This information is of great importance to network operators for efficient and effective management of resources and for supporting high-quality of user experience. Furthermore, an investigation has been conducted that evaluates the impact of executing the Mahout clustering algorithms with various system and workload parameters on a Hadoop cluster. The results demonstrate the value of performance data analysis. Specifically, the execution time can be significantly reduced using data pre-processing, some machine learning techniques, and Hadoop. The investigation provides useful information for the network operators for future real-time data analytics.


Centred around an early suite of poems by the little-known Sade scholar and fellow traveller of Surrealism, Maurice Heine (1884–1940), this paper reveals the impact on artists (including Georges Braque) and poets of a series of spectacular exhibitions of Coptic 'mummies' in Paris. An account of Albert Gayet's Antinoe excavations and exhibitions at the Musee Guimet is constructed, and this is used to explore the cultural meanings of the archaeological museum around 1900. The paper is a contribution to the study of a particular form of Orientalism, as well as an exploration of late Symbolism, one cultural territory out of which the Surrealist movement emerged. It argues that fascination with eroticised death and decay led, in Heine's case, to an exploration of the powers and limitations of poetic language. Heine's work is contrasted with more redemptive aesthetic representations of death in Nerval and Holbein, as interpreted by Julia Kristeva. It is suggested that Heine's exhaustion of language in the evocation of death, and his almost political interrogation of the museum, make sense of his later contributions to Surrealism through his study of Sade.


This study aims to investigate the impact of co-design process on ex-mentally ill persons practicing expressive textile arts after taking a series of co-design textile arts and fashion creativity workshops from service learning subject, "Community Engagement through Expressive Textile Arts and Fashion" offered by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 2017 to 2018. A total of 38 prototypes had been jointly created by exmentally ill persons, subject lecturers and undergraduate students during attending the co-design workshops in these two years. Through the co-design process, expressive textile arts and fashion creativity was adopted as the caring medium to improve ex-mentally ill persons' mental well-being, socialhealth, empowerment, self-esteem, self-understanding and self-confidence, and also rebuild their personal identity. Concepts of ex-mentally ill persons in the community, expressive arts therapy, textile arts, expressive textile arts and service-learning subject are introduced. In this study, quantitative research method was used to explore the impacts of co-design process on ex-mentally ill persons practicing expressive textile arts. For the results, positive impacts are found on ex-mentally ill persons of feelings and thoughts before and during attending the expressive textile arts workshops in 2017 and 2018. And the most important impact is raising public awareness, it helps to eliminate misconception of ex-mentally ill persons in the society, reduce alienation and discrimination, and also promote social cohesion and acceptance.


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the role of computer-CPED in the Netherlands to the year 2008.

DESIGN
Computer-assisted learning is currently employed in many modern undergraduate dental curricula. It could also play an important role in providing continuing professional education in dentistry (CPED) to general dental practitioners. Computer-CPED offers teacher-independent and individualized interaction by distance learning.

METHODS
A simulation study was conducted. Entry data were either derived from publications or were estimated.

RESULTS
The results indicate that the demand for CPED will exceed the supply by 2002.

CONCLUSION
The introduction of Computer CPED may substantially contribute to the supply of CPED-courses in de first decade of the next century. By 2008 about 25% of the CPED-courses could be provided by computer education.


Tubular secretion by renal proximal tubules, as a mechanism for delivering fluid and electrolytes to the urine, has received little attention in modern conceptions of renal function in vertebrates even though it is the mechanism for urine production in aglomerular fish. This report demonstrates that some proximal tubules of glomerular kidneys of freshwater-adapted euryhaline fish spontaneously secrete fluid. The fluid consists primarily of Na (138 mM) and Cl (160 mM). NaCl and fluid secretion can be stimulated by adenosine 3',5-cyclic monophosphate, suggesting that tubular fluid secretion is under hormonal control. Fluid secretion driven by NaCl secretion in glomerular proximal tubules of fish that already filter NaCl and water suggests that secretion of fluid and NaCl may play a fundamental role in vertebrate renal function beyond a preadaptation for aglomerular urine formation.


The geomagnetic field behavior in polar regions remains poorly understood and documented. Although a number of Late Holocene paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) records exist from marginal settings of the Amerasian Basin in the Arctic Ocean, their age control often relies on a handful of radiocarbon dates to constrain ages over the past 4,200 years. Here we present well‐dated Late Holocene PSV records from two sediment cores recovered from the Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean. The records are dated using 26 14C measurements, with local marine reservoir corrections calibrated using tephra layers from the 3.6 cal ka BP Aniakchak eruption in Northern Alaska. These 14C‐based chronologies are extended into the post‐bomb era using caesium‐137 dating, and mercury isochrons. Paleomagnetic measurements and rock magnetic analyses reveal stable characteristic remanent magnetization directions, and a magnetic mineralogy dominated by low‐coercivity minerals. The PSV records conform well to global spherical harmonic field model outputs. Centennial to millennial scale directional features are synchronous between the cores and other Western Arctic records from the area. Due to the robust chronology, these new high‐resolution PSV records provide a valuable contribution to the characterization of geomagnetic field behavior in the Arctic over the past few thousand years, and can aid in developing age models for suitable sediments found in this region.


The design of a low-light level pixel in CMOS technology for biomedical applications is described. This pixel is also suitable for very high-speed applications, such as fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) used for drug discovery and/or minimally-invasive optical biopsy. In order to achieve high-speed imaging using single-photon detection, a detector with a very low dead-time is needed. The single-photon avalanche-photodiode (SPAD) discussed in this work uses a mainstream deep-submicron CMOS technology in order to achieve ultrahigh-speed operation and high pixel fill-factor, with in-pixel active quench and reset circuits. The paper also presents an innovative approach for reducing the deadtime of the detector and an attractive technique for simultaneous high-speed image acquisition by all the pixels of an array in parallel.


To determine whether cAMP regulates mouse placental lactogen-I (mPL-I) and mPL-II secretion at midpregnancy in vitro, mouse placental tissue from day 9 of pregnancy was dispersed with collagenase, cells were fractionated on a Percoll gradient, and the purified trophoblast cells were plated in a serum-free medium. The cells were then incubated with various agents that increased the intracellular cAMP level for 5 days. 8-Bromo-cAMP stimulated mPL-I secretion, but inhibited mPL-II secretion in a time- and dose-dependent manner without changing the amount of newly synthesized trichloroacetic acid-precipitable proteins. Cholera toxin and forskolin, which increase intracellular cAMP accumulation, also regulated mPL-I and mPL-II secretion in the same manner. 8-Bromo-cAMP increased the intracellular mPL-I concentration, decreased the intracellular mPL-II concentration, and increased the immunoprecipitable newly synthesized mPL-I concentration in both the medium and cells. 8-Bromo-cAMP increased the expression of mPL-I messenger RNA and decreased the expression of mPL-II messenger RNA. The sequential reverse hemolytic plaque assay and double immunocytochemistry indicated that 8-bromo-cAMP regulates the subpopulation of giant cells containing and releasing mPL. These findings suggest that an increase in intracellular cAMP stimulates mPL-I secretion, but inhibits mPL-II secretion by changing the subpopulation of giant cells containing and releasing mPL.


The paper presents the ITER vacuum vessel (VV) contact dose build up evaluation from start to end of the machine life (expected to occur after about 20 years of operations, corresponding to an average neutron fluence of 0.5 MWa/m/sup 2/ on the first wall). The reference design used for ITER Generic Site Safety Report (GSSR) has been considered. Results are given for the inboard and outboard VV regions (and for both the front and rear 316L(N)-IG walls) in the radial equatorial plane. The Sn calculation sequence SCALENEA-1 (with the FISPACT-99 activation code) has been used for the analysis. The results point out that after only 20 seconds of irradiation at the nominal neutron power load, the contact dose of the most activated VV zone (i.e. the outboard region, front wall), reaches the hands-on limit of 10 /spl mu/Sv/h just after few months cooling time, requiring remote handling operations on that component in maintenance cells.


A transitory hyperglycemia was observed after production of bile pancreatitis in the dog. This phenomenon was characterized by an immediate increase in blood sugar after injection of bile, reaching a maximum at 10–30 minutes and returning to or near normal values within 45–90 minutes. Substances other than bile, particularly vegetable oils, also produced this reaction. It was not changed significantly in adrenalectomized animals or in those pretreated with dihydroergotamine, but in cobalt-treated dogs the response was almost completely prevented. Epinephrine from the adrenals appears to be ruled out as the major causative factor, whereas glucagon is implicated. Dihydroergotamine did not completely block hyperglycemia following epinephrine in the dog under the conditions of our experiment.


The synthesis and the crystal data of the oxychlorides of Er, Tm, Yb and Lu are reported. All compounds are isostructural, crystallizing in the rhombohedral SmSJ-type arrangement. The range of existence of the two structure types occurring with the rare earth oxychlorides is briefly discussed on the basis of electrostatic calculations.


Abstract Teams of heterogeneous autonomous robots become increasingly important due to their facilitation of various complex tasks. For such heterogeneous robots, there is currently no consistent way of describing the functions that each robot provides. In the field of manufacturing, capability and skill modeling is considered a promising approach to semantically model functions provided by different machines. This contribution investigates how to apply and extend capability models from manufacturing to the field of autonomous robots and presents an approach for such a capability model.


Metal-organic framework (MOF) structures have gained significant attention for their exceptional catalytic performance in ozone degradation, even under high humidity conditions, which is attributed to the presence of unsaturated metal sites (MOF defects). However, the correlation between MOF defects and catalytic ozone remains ambiguous, and a general approach for the controllable synthesis of high-performance MOF structures is currently lacking. Herein, different defective UiO-66 materials with cluster or ligand defects were obtained by precisely controlling small molecular acid modulators. Their catalytic performance can be analyzed in real time through the specific cataluminescence (CTL) signal of ozone at the interface. The presence of ligand defects was found to be crucial for both catalytic degradation and luminescence of ozone, and the CTL signal exhibited a positive correlation with the endogenous hydroxyl group content in the material (R2 = 0.982), while external humidity further supplemented internal water molecules within the material. Furthermore, theoretical calculations were conducted to compare the adsorption behaviors of ozone on the defective UiO-66 under dry/wet conditions, leading to the proposal of two potential reaction pathways. Subsequently, UiO-66-DA with superior catalytic performance was employed to develop a highly efficient CTL sensor capable of accurately detecting ozone (LOD = 23.3 ppb). This study held significant value in elucidating the reaction site of ozone on MOFs and achieving optimal catalytic effects through the careful selection of modulators and humidity levels.


The current maintenance management method has affected the efficiency and capabilities of the operation management. Maintaining the production capability in any production system is an essential part of an operations management.  Many issues such as poor productivity and quality, inadequate finance, poor safety and morale, as well as environmental risks have emerged due to the current maintenance practice. In today's world, company is moving towards implementing green as an effort and attractive strategy to achieve sustainability and maintaining competitiveness in their business practice to cater the consumer demands. In this sense, green maintenance management capability (GMMC) permitting better company awareness and commitment to environmental sustainability while gaining effective maintenance practice. In this research, green technology and green human resource management were assessed, important issues were addressed and recommendation were made for prospect research.


Nine species of Parallelodemas Faust are reported from China. In addition to the previously recorded P. impar Voss, we found P. docile Faust, P. vicinum Faust and the following six species newly described herein: P. dimetans sp. n., P. feae sp. n., P. petilum sp. n., P. plumosum sp. n., P. setifrons sp. n. and P. tumens sp. n. Parallelodemas tarsale Voss from Java is transferred to Lepidomyctides Yoshihara and Morimoto (comb. n.). Lectotypes are designated for P. docile, P. imperfectum Faust, P. perfectum Faust, P. tardum Faust and P. vicinum. Several morphological modifications with unknown functions are documented, illustrated and discussed. Males of some species have special setae on rostrum, antennal scape and mesotarsus. A medially notched epistome apparently occurs in both sexes but seems to wear off in females, probably during the preparation of oviposition sites. The mandible is unusual in having a convex, edentate inner face and incisor-like structures on the outer face.


Soft tissues are important for aesthetic considerations
in implant therapy. The purpose of this study was to investigate soft tissue
augmentation by using porous poly-DL-lactic
acid (PDLLA)shaped as a tablet, with a diameter of5.0 mmand a height of2.0 mm. Porous PDLLA was implanted between
the periosteal and epithelial tissues in 25 rats that were sacrificed at 1, 2,
4, 12, and 24 weeks. The average height of the PDLLA scaffolds at approximately
24 weeks was 1.85 ±0.08 mm,
and the molecular weight decreased with time. Sinusoidal capillaries at 1 week,
connective tissues at 4 weeks, and necrotic tissues at 24 weeks were observed
more than other periods. At 24 weeks, the connective tissue surviving in the
pores was confirmed to contain blood vessels; therefore, blood vessels are
considered to be critical for the survival of soft tissue in scaffold pores. In
this study, PDLLA was found to be useful for soft tissue augmentation in the
long term. Although the molecular weight of PDLLA decreased with time, the
height of the PDLLA scaffolds was preserved. The connective tissue surviving in
the pores of the scaffolds at 24 weeks were associated with blood vessels.
Further studies are necessary to investigate the optimal scaffold shape and
surface characteristics to improve the penetration of blood vessels.


The Drosophila melanogaster P transposable element provides one of the best cases of horizontal transfer of a mobile DNA sequence in eukaryotes. Invasion of natural populations by the P element has led to a syndrome of phenotypes known as P-M hybrid dysgenesis that emerges when strains differing in their P element composition mate and produce offspring. Despite extensive research on many aspects of P element biology, many questions remain about the genomic basis of variation in P-M dysgenesis phenotypes in natural populations. Here we compare gonadal dysgenesis phenotypes and genomic P element predictions for isofemale strains obtained from three worldwide populations of D. melanogaster to illuminate the molecular basis of natural variation in cytotype status. We show that the number of predicted P element insertions in genome sequences from isofemale strains is highly correlated across different bioinformatics methods, but the absolute number of insertions per strain is sensitive to method and filtering strategies. Regardless of method used, we find that the number of euchromatic P element insertions predicted per strain varies significantly across populations, with strains from a North American population having fewer P element insertions than strains from populations sampled in Europe or Africa. Despite these geographic differences, numbers of euchromatic P element insertions are not strongly correlated with the degree of gonadal dysgenesis exhibited by an isofemale strain. Thus, variation in P element insertion numbers across different populations does not necessarily lead to corresponding geographic differences in gonadal dysgenesis phenotypes. Additionally, we show that pool-seq samples can uncover population differences in the number of P element insertions observed from isofemale lines, but that efforts to rigorously detect differences in the number of P elements across populations using pool-seq data must properly control for read depth per strain. Our work supports the view that euchromatic P element copy number is not sufficient to explain variation in gonadal dysgenesis across strains of D. melanogaster, and informs future efforts to decode the genomic basis of geographic and temporal differences in P element induced phenotypes.


Objective Elderly patients with head and neck cancer often receive non-standard treatment for reasons other than comorbidity. In this prospective study we investigated how elderly patients fare 1 year after treatment in comparison with their younger counterparts. Material and Methods Seventy patients aged 45–60 years and 51 patients aged ≥70 years with cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx (stage II–IV) or larynx (stage III–IV) participated in the study before treatment and 1 year later. Each patient was interviewed and given a questionnaire concerning physical functioning, social contacts, depressive symptoms, satisfaction with treatment and future expectations. Results At 12 months, patients in both age groups reported significantly more depressive symptoms and less social support than before treatment, and their Karnofsky Performance Score was lower. However, there were no differences between elderly and younger patients. Approximately 90% of those in both age groups said that they would choose the same treatment again, and there was no age difference regarding the impact of treatment or expectations for the future. Conclusion This study shows that the impact of treatment on quality of life did not differ between elderly and younger patients with head and neck cancer. Therefore, standard treatment should be considered in elderly patients if no severe contraindications exist.


We present in modern language the contents of the famous note published by Henri Poincare in 1901 "Sur une forme nouvelle des ´ equations de la Mecanique", in which he proves that, when a Lie algebra acts locally transitively on the config- uration space of a Lagrangian mechanical system, the well known Euler-Lagrange equations are equivalent to a new system of differential equations defined on the product of the configuration space with the Lie algebra. We wr ite these equations, called the Euler-Poincarequations, under an intrinsic form, without any reference to a particular system of local coordinates, and prove that t hey can be conveniently expressed in terms of the Legendre and momentum maps. We discuss the use of the Euler-Poincare equation for reduction (a procedure sometimes called Lagrangian re- duction by modern authors), and compare this procedure with the well known Hamil- tonian reduction procedure (formulated in modern terms in 1974 by J.E. Marsden and A. Weinstein). We explain how a break of symmetry in the phase space produces the appearance of a semi-direct product of groups.


While in prison, Jeanne-Marie Roland expressed the wish that she might have written a history that would have made her the Tacitus, or more modestly, the Catharine Macaulay of her country. It is clear that she had previously admired Macaulay's republican history of the Stuarts and the English Civil War. Jean-Paul Marat also appreciatively referred to this history, and hints such as these suggest that this work was quite well known in France before the Revolution, although a French translation was not published there until 1791-92. This paper provides an overview of Macaulay's influence in France, examines the origins of the translation of her history, and considers the way it was presented, during the crucial period of the Revolution when it appeared. I will offer new evidence for Macaulay's relationships with French radicals and aristocrats before the Revolution, and in particular, discuss letters relating to her acquaintance with the duc Louis-Alexandre de La Rochefoucault, the chevalier d'Eon, Guillaume-Joseph Saige, Jouges de Chaumont (who was Benjamin Franklin's French hostess), and relating to her friendship with Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville.


Coding for the wireless video sensor networks should be a different issue from the coding for video telephony applications. There are two special features observed in the video sensor networks, limited resources, and low fidelity. Due to these features, coding for this network application requires a new perspective. It is a direction for coding to be of simple structure and not for the entertainment purpose but sufficient for the basic sensing needs. Our coding method is accordingly developed as follows: motion compensation followed by a new idea of shape compensation to replace the conventional residue discrete cosine transform coding. More specifically, our binary images are coded by the motion vectors and the class of morphological filters to achieve a bit rate below 10 kp/s. The resources (bandwidth, power, and hardware) are thus altogether significantly saved. This limited resources approach is the first time particularly investigated for the wireless sensor networks.


The effect of gender in learning has often been the focus of research because of its potential implications in academic achievement. However, the effect of gender in hypertext reading has not been thoroughly investigated. The Web in general and the hypertext in particular has modified the way people access and use information. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study into gender differences in hypertext reading. The study focuses on text-based electronic documents. The study is a mixed method design, with the use of the think-aloud protocols and a between subjects experiment. It examines some original variables not previously studied comprehensively, such as coherence of transactions, sum of selected hyperlinks, and hyperlink location. Forty two participants (30 males and 12 females) read a hierarchically structured hypertext and then, all answered the same set of questions. The data consisted of reading times, comprehension scores, reading strategies, coherent links, hyperlink location, sum of hyperlinks, and the sum of read nodes. The results show that gender did not significantly affect any of the measured variables.


This article presents the results of a psychiatric and church-historical analysis of the substantial court records from 21 cases of female child murderers in eighteenth-century Denmark-Norway. We investigated, first, the appearance of mental aspects in the cases and if they allowed for a retrospective clinical hypothesis regarding the mental state of the offender. Second, traces of theological or religious elements and third, trends or developments in the cases from 1697–1758 were considered. After an introduction to the legal framework, we present six cases with mental aspects, comprising existential death wish, depression, acute stress disorder, polymorphic psychosis, psychotic state and personality disorder to illustrate findings regarding the murderers' mental states. Religious elements and developments proved hard to find. The results of the analysis point to social and mental rather than religious causative factors for the murders. To some degree they resemble present-day "suicide by cop" or homicides committed by mentally ill persons. This calls for a modification of the theory of so-called suicide murders and a religious or particularly Lutheran component in this regard. The in-depth analysis indicates that court procedures were perfectly commonsense and included mental aspects but seldom religion – and no magic.


Graphical diagrams are an important part of the educational process, as students draw diagrams in fields as various as business, math, computer science, engineering, music, and many others. Hand-sketched student diagrams aid in active learning and creative processes. However, correcting hand-sketch diagrams take a significant amount of teacher time, and are thus often left out of the testing process. Automatically correcting these diagrams can provide immediate student and instructor feedback while significantly reducing instructor time. This workshop will introduce the audience to sketch recognition tools that are available for use in their classroom for active learning, immediate feedback, and automated assessment.


The region of southwestern Montana and east-central Idaho, north of the Snake River plain and east of the Idaho batholith, has been affected by a complex sequence of orogenic events from the Proterozoic through Holocene time. Deposition of Proterozoic Belt Supergroup rocks and rocks of similar age in east-central Idaho occurred in basins that were clearly fault controlled. Many of these faults were reactivated repeatedly at later times and controlled or affected the development of younger tectonic features. This study encompasses the entire width of the Sevier orogenic belt in this part of the Cordilleran fold and thrust belt. The thrust belt comprises several major eastward-transported thrust plates that are successively younger to the east. These plates juxtapose distinct stratigraphic packages that were deposited in eugeoclinal, miogeoclinal, and continental platform settings. As a consequence, the thrust plates can be distinguished on the basis of facies and thickness distribution as well as, to some extent, structural style. In southwest Montana, Sevier-type structures overlap with, and butt against, basement-involved Laramide structures. The extension of southwest Montana basement trends into Idaho suggests that this overlap may extend into east-central Idaho. Superimposed on these older structures are mid-Tertiary to Holocene normal faults that formed present-day basins and ranges. Many of these are reactivated older fault zones, some of which can be shown to have Precambrian ancestry. The region has excellent oil and gas potential, because reservoir and source rocks and trapping mechanisms are all clearly present. However, an understanding of the effect of overlapping tectonic elements is necessary to predict accurately where favorable rock packages are preserved. End_of_Article - Last_Page 941------------


Abstract The micro-injection molding is used to fabricate ultra-thin polymeric components used in optoelectronics and biotechnology. Due to the extremely high flow resistance and fast heat transfer, ultra-thin parts is difficult to mold. In this study, a lab-made impact type micro-injection machine and a rapid heating/cooling system are used to perform the micro-injection molding. A mold with test-sheet cavities of thickness 100 lm and 200 lm are constructed. The molding capacity and the effects of processing conditions are systematically investigated. The processing conditions include the mold temperature, air pressure of accelerating cylinder, and air pressure of packing cylinder. The thicker parts have larger operation window. The high mold temperature reduces the area of short shot but induces more shrinkage and sink mark. The increase of air pressure in accelerating and packing cylinders can effectively reduce shrinkage.


Induced motion provides a cheap and reliable way of segmenting an object from the background within an image. As such it has potential applications to a wide variety of machine vision systems. This paper presents a system that segments an object from the background by inducing a sinusoidal motion and then searching for the signal in the resulting optical flow. The effectiveness of the system is evaluated using ROC curves and shown to be reliable and robust in the presence of distractor motions.


This paper analyzes inter-annual (1993-2008) and intra-annual (2006-2008) flooding patterns in the unregulated San Pedro River, based on digital analysis of two Landsat satellite imagery series and ancillary rainfall and discharge data, to describe variations in the natural pulse. The long-term pattern, over a period of 16 years, showed considerable fluctuations, with a maximum flood extent (FE) of approximately 200 km 2 , while the observed average was 57.8 km 2 over the entire period, around 24 km 2 the dry season and more than 90 km 2 in the rainy season. The seasonal variation, analy zed using 29 quasi-monthly images recorded from 2006 to 2008, displayed FE peaks in the rainy season (July to October) with variations in time and extent that were not directly related to rainfall but instead were related to river discharge, Q, (FE = y 0 + a(1-0.9983 Q ); R 2 = 0.91). We used the above exponential model with monthly average river discharge data (1944-2008) and the proposed regulated volume of discharge from governmental plans to construct a dam on the San Pedro River. We found that the natural ecosystem will be altered by increasing the inundation in the dry season and reducing it in the rainy season. This change will have consequences in coastal wetlands and aquatic biota adapted to historical conditions, with consequences for the production of aquatic organisms and for ecosystem services.