OBJECTIVE
Film digitizers are a specialized technology that is available for scanning X-ray radiographs; however, their cost makes them unaffordable for developing countries. Thus, less expensive alternatives are used. The purpose of this study was to compare three devices for digital capture of X-ray films: a film digitizer (US $15,000), a flatbed scanner (US $1800), and a 10-megapixel digital camera (US $450), in terms of diagnostic accuracy, defined as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves and computed tomography as the gold standard.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The sample included 136 chest X-ray cases with computed tomography confirmation of the presence or absence of pneumothorax, interstitial opacities, or nodules. The readers were six radiologists who made observations of eight variables for each digital capture of the X-ray films: three main variables to determine the accuracy in the detection of the above-mentioned pathologies, four secondary variables to categorize other pathological classifications, and one variable regarding digital image quality.

RESULTS
The receiver operating characteristic curves for each device and pathology were very similar. For the main variables, there was no significant statistical difference in diagnostic accuracy between the devices. For the secondary variables, >84% of cases were correctly classified, even those that were classified with the lowest image quality. High accuracy was determined for the three main variables (0.75 to 0.96), indicating good performance for all tested devices, despite their very different prices.

CONCLUSIONS
Choosing a device for a teleradiology service should involve additional factors, such as capture time, maintenance concerns, and training requirements.


Spatial tailored RF pulses in parallel transmission can be designed using a spatial domain method under the small-tip-angle approximation. Parallel transmission pulse design problems are normally well conditioned, i.e., over-determined, since data points are from the target excitation pattern, which can be sampled at arbitrary high resolution. However, the computation cost in RF pulses design can be very high, especially for multi-channel three-dimensional pulses. In this work, we propose an efficient method to design parallel RF pulses by using system matrices that are under-determined. Computer simulations show that the proposed method can gain up to 19 times computation speedup while maintaining the excitation accuracy for smooth patterns.


In this thesis, we study the problem of buying or selling a given volume of a financial asset within a given time horizon to the best possible price, a problem formally known as optimized trade execution. Our approach is an empirical one. We use historical data to simulate the process of placing artificial orders in a market. This simulation enables us to model the problem as a Markov decision process (MDP). Given this MDP, we train and evaluate a set of reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms all with the objective to minimize the transaction cost on unseen test data. We train and evaluate these for various instruments and problem settings, such as different trading horizons. Our first model was developed with the goal to validate results achieved by Nevmyvaka, Feng and Kearns [9], and it is thus called NFK. We extended this model into what we call Dual NFK, in an attempt to regularize the model against external price movement. Furthermore, we implemented and evaluated a classical RL algorithm, namely Sarsa(λ) with a modified reward function. Lastly, we evaluated proximal policy optimization (PPO), an actor-critic RL algorithm incorporating neural networks in order to find the optimal policy. Along with these models, we implemented five simple baseline strategies with various characteristics. These baseline strategies have partly been found in the literature and partly been developed by us, and are used to the evaluate the performance of our models. We achieve results on par with those found by Nevmyvaka, Feng and Kearns [9], but only for a few cases. Furthermore, dual NFK performed very similar to NFK, indicating that one can train one model (for both the buy and sell case) instead of two for the optimized trade execution problem. We also found that Sarsa(λ) with a modified reward function performed better than both these models, but is still outperformed by baseline strategies for many problem settings. Finally, we evaluated PPO for one problem setting and found that it outperformed even the best of the baseline strategies and models, showing promise for deep reinforcement learning methods for the problem of optimized trade execution.


The effects of hypoxia and ischemia on the firing rate of fibrillation potentials in denervated rat muscle were examined. We recorded electromyograms from the denervated left extensor digitorum longus muscle. Hypoxia was induced by low‐oxygen ventilation. Ischemia was established by ligating the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava, with or without extracorporeal hindlimb perfusion. The fibrillation potential firing rate correlated with the PaO2 (P < 0.0001) and temperature (P = 0.0001). Fibrillation potentials disappeared after the initiation of ischemia and reappeared after restitution of blood flow; they disappeared during ischemia with extracorporeal perfusion. The attenuation curves for the firing rate of fibrillation potentials during ischemia were well‐described by exponential curves, but there was no significant difference in the attenuation constants for circulatory arrest and perfusion with a physiologic salt solution. We conclude that the fibrillation potential firing rate is proportional to oxygen supply, presumably because of the rate of aerobic metabolism. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 22: 933–936, 1999


AbstractLangerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) involving the thyroid gland is extremely rare. Currently, the diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation for LCH involving thyroid is a challenge.We reported a rare case of LCH involving thyroid, presenting as painless thyroid goiters, and successfully performed positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) to make an accurate diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation for LCH.Although the histology or cytology is the golden standard for the diagnosis of LCH involving thyroid, the PET/CT should be keep in mind when LCH involving thyroid with inconclusive cytologic results. During the treatment of LCH, PET/CT can be performed to assess the therapeutic effect and select the most effective and reliable treatment for LCH.


Background Eccentric muscle contraction causes a microtrauma induced inflammatory reaction with muscle pain peaking 24 to 48 hours after exercise (delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS). The use of NSAIDs seems like a reasonable therapeutic approach for treatment and is frequently used in daily practice. But evidence for treatment effects is controversial. One of the reasons why the effect of NSAID's might be limited are detrimental effects on recovery, e.g. Nieman et al [1] found elevated cytokine levels in ibuprofen users following a 160 km race. We developed a robust model of DOMS induced by walking down stairs that allows monitoring of the kinetic of treatment effects in DOMS [2] Ketoprofen and diclofenac are highly potent inhibitors of inflammatory cytokines [3], whereas celecoxib seems to be less potent [4]. Objectives To compare the effects of two products with different anti-inflammatory potency (ketoprofen and celecoxib) on the kinetic of DOMS. Methods Two randomised, placebo-controlled studies using a similar design were conducted. In both studies, DOMS was induced by walking down of stairs with an altitude depending on body weight. Study I compared the effect of 200 mg celecoxib bid (n=40) to placebo (n=40). Study II compared the effect of 100 mg ketoprofen (n=24) b.i.d. to placebo (n=48). Treatment was applied for 7 days after exercise. Pain scoring was performed using a 11 point numerical scale. Rating was performed at least daily to monitor kinetic effects. Results In Study I, maximum pain during contraction in the calf was observed at 24, 36 and 48 h after exercise (4.2±1.9, 4.8±2.2, 4.2±2.5). There was a non-significant trend of pain reduction in the celecoxib group (3.7±1.6, 4.4±2.0, 3.8±1.9). Study II showed thatketoprofen application resulted in pain reduction as compared to placebo during the first 24 h of treatment. But considering the full observation period (AUC), the ketoprofen group showed higher pain scores as compared to placebo (p=0.0240). Also, maximum pain and time to maximum pain were numerically higher for the ketoprofen group. Evaluation of all parameters indicated that most of the negative effect of oral ketoprofen was caused by a delay of recovery (Time to full recovery: p=0.0046). Conclusions Ketoprofen as a highly potent anti-inflammatory drug may, in contrast to the less potent celecoxib, causes deleterious effects on recovery from muscle soreness induced by eccentric contraction. This is in line with results from a study comparing ketoprofen to celecoxib after tonsillectomy [5] showing a more pronounced treatment effect for the ketoprofen group during the first 24 h, but slower recovery as compared to celecoxib. The results may imply that the inflammatory reaction following muscle injury (as well as surgical intervention?) is an essential part of recovery. Since the effect of celecoxib for DOMS was only modest and not significant, usage of NSAIDs for the treatment of exercise induced muscle soreness cannot be supported. References Rother et al. Drug Design, Development and Therapy, 2009, 3; 143-149 Nieman et al. Brain, Behaviour and Immunity 2005; 19; 398-403 Inoue et al. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 1994 Dec;51(6):457-62 Schwartz et al. J Clin Pharmacol. 2008 Jun;48(6):745-54. Epub 2008 Apr 23. Nikanne et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2005 Feb;132(2):287-94. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


An important task in industrial process control is the continuous measurement of the relative moisture content psi of the material. Present methods, however, deliver only the absolute amount of water in the sample container and psi is derived by an additional measurement of the mass. The investigation of the dielectric behaviour of moist matter at frequencies above 8 GHz shows that for certain classes of materials density independent calibration functions can be derived experimentally which allow a determination of psi solely from microwave measurements at one frequency. The physical principle is discussed and experimental results for various materials are presented.


The trnL group I intron and the intergenic spacer between trnL and trnF are among the most widely utilized noncoding DNA regions in plant systematics. The trnL-F region is probably cotranscribed and located upstream of trnTUGU in the large single copy region of the chloroplast genome. Whereas in algal chloroplast genomes the three tRNA genes are widely scattered, they are found in tandem in land plants. This unique arrangement, therefore, seems to be a synapomorphy for land plants. Secondary structure analysis of the group I trnLUAA intron shows that high sequence variability is confined to certain stem-loop regions (P6, P8), whereas elements of the catalytic core (P, Q, R, S) are highly conserved across land plants. Considerable length differences, particularly in the stem loop P8, as well as in the trnT-L and trnL-F intergenic spacers, were observed among the diverse land plant lineages. Sequences found within mosses and liverworts were generally shorter than in most other lineages. It appears that certain elements in the trnLF spacer and in the most variable P8 stem-loop region of the trnL intron have originated by independent nucleotide additions. These elements do not share a common evolutionary history across all land plant lineages below seed plants because internally repeated sequence segments have further diversified, actually being internal paralogous stretches. Most of the length variation in the trnL-F spacer occurs between the putative sigma 70-type bacterial promoter motif upstream of trnF and the trn L3 9 exon. Apart from leptosporangiate ferns, lycophytes, and Gnetales this conserved promoter motif is present in most of the land plant lineages sampled as well as in Chaetosphaeridium. Structural data were used to assess the effect that compensating base pair changes (CBC) in helical elements of the intron have for phylogenetic reconstructions. Such changes significantly contribute to the phylogenetic structure of the data set. Although the inclusion of CBCs in general violates the requirement of character independence, their effect is rather comparable to weighting characters. The contribution of CBCs to the total amount of phylogenetic signal is found to be less significant within terminal land plant lineages, such as pleurocarpous mosses or angiosperms, because helical elements are conserved in their primary sequence and variation is lower within these terminal lineages.


The grand-canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) technique has been used for simulating the adsorption of mixtures in slit pores with graphite properties. Spherical Lennard-Jones models were used to model methane and ethane at super critical temperatures. A GCMC algorithm for mixtures which included attempts to change identities of particles was found to be more effective than conventional GCMC. Results were compared with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of Tan and Gubbins (1992; J. phys. Chem., 96, 845) and with ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) isotherms derived from single component data. Our simulation results were found to agree qualitatively rather than quantitatively with the DFT mixture results, the IAST was found to work well for the system studied. Adsorption selectivity was found to depend on packing considerations as well as the relative potential well depths of the adsorbate wall interactions.


Due to the sublimation and perfection of human knowledge in economics, the concept of efficiency developed in the past two decades and the measurement of it, based on different theories and practice. In economics, efficiency means the maximum of possible output from a certain amount of input. The efficiency is very important for developing countries Because these countries face to a shortage of inputs, production factors and technologies. So the usage of existing resources is critical for these countries. This paper aims to evaluate and rank the financial performance of the chemical firms listed in Tehran stock exchange. We Use the data environment analysis and TOPSIS methods. This research includes one major question that which company performs better due to the financial ratios. The sample includes the firms in Tehran Stock Exchange within a 3-year period (2013-2015). The Results show that Ahvas Petrochemical company, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry company and Iran Chemical Industries company are more efficient than others.


Background The aim of this study was to determine whether the end-tidal concentration of desflurane would be affected by a breathing circuit system filter attached at two different positions in anesthetic breathing circuit systems. Methods An artificial lung was ventilated under five different conditions. The first group was without any filter or desflurane (n = 5, sham), the second was with desflurane but without any filter (n = 10, control), the third group had a bacterial filter on the expiratory limb (n = 10), and the fourth and fifth groups had a viral/bacterial filter added on the expiratory limb (n = 10) or at the Y-piece of the breathing circuit (n = 10), respectively. In all groups except the sham, administration of 10% desflurane was performed for 5 minutes and then stopped for 5 minutes. Results The mean (SD) end-tidal concentration of desflurane for the groups described above peaked at 0 (0), 9.8 (0.1), 9.8 (0.1), 8.5 (0.1), and 6.7% (0.1) (P < 0.001), respectively. There was no difference in the desflurane concentrations and the expired tidal volume over time between the control and bacterial group, but there was a significant difference between the control and the fourth and fifth groups (P < 0.001). Conclusions Filters can affect the expiratory desflurane concentration during anesthesia.


In this paper, the lattice instability of γ-TiAl crystal under different loading modes was studied using a lattice dynamical finite-element method (LDFEM) and molecular dynamics (MD). The simulation results show that the lattice instability of γ-TiAl crystal is significantly influenced by loading modes and crystallographic orientations. In uniaxial loading, γ-TiAl crystal exhibits tension-compression asymmetry in critical stress. The stress–strain curves and the active slip systems obtained from LDFEM simulations are in agreement with those in MD simulations. In the nanoindentation of γ-TiAl crystal, surface orientation plays an important role in stress field, lattice instability and dislocation nucleation. The LDFEM accurately predicts the location of lattice instability and the active slip systems. The surface effect on lattice instability in nanoindentation was also proved by performing a cylindrical nanoindentation.


Abstract We determine the optimal robust strategy of an individual who seeks to maximize the (penalized) probability of reaching a bequest goal when she is uncertain about the drift of the risky asset and her hazard rate of mortality. We assume the individual can invest in a Black–Scholes market. We solve two optimization problems with ambiguity. The first is to maximize the penalized probability of reaching a bequest goal without life insurance in the market. In the second problem, in addition to investing in the financial market, the individual is allowed to purchase term life insurance to help her reach her bequest goal. As the individual becomes more ambiguity averse concerning the drift of the risky asset, she becomes more conservative with her investment strategy. Also, as she becomes more ambiguity averse about her hazard rate of mortality, numerical work indicates she is more likely to buy life insurance when the ambiguity towards the return of the risky asset is not too large.


Objective This paper evaluates the application of a natural language processing (NLP) model for extracting clinical text referring to interpersonal violence using electronic health records (EHRs) from a large mental healthcare provider. Design A multidisciplinary team iteratively developed guidelines for annotating clinical text referring to violence. Keywords were used to generate a dataset which was annotated (ie, classified as affirmed, negated or irrelevant) for: presence of violence, patient status (ie, as perpetrator, witness and/or victim of violence) and violence type (domestic, physical and/or sexual). An NLP approach using a pretrained transformer model, BioBERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers for Biomedical Text Mining) was fine-tuned on the annotated dataset and evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. Setting We used the Clinical Records Interactive Search (CRIS) database, comprising over 500 000 de-identified EHRs of patients within the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, a specialist mental healthcare provider serving an urban catchment area. Participants Searches of CRIS were carried out based on 17 predefined keywords. Randomly selected text fragments were taken from the results for each keyword, amounting to 3771 text fragments from the records of 2832 patients. Outcome measures We estimated precision, recall and F1 score for each NLP model. We examined sociodemographic and clinical variables in patients giving rise to the text data, and frequencies for each annotated violence characteristic. Results Binary classification models were developed for six labels (violence presence, perpetrator, victim, domestic, physical and sexual). Among annotations affirmed for the presence of any violence, 78% (1724) referred to physical violence, 61% (1350) referred to patients as perpetrator and 33% (731) to domestic violence. NLP models' precision ranged from 89% (perpetrator) to 98% (sexual); recall ranged from 89% (victim, perpetrator) to 97% (sexual). Conclusions State of the art NLP models can extract and classify clinical text on violence from EHRs at acceptable levels of scale, efficiency and accuracy.


Lobsters have been fished in the Oosterschelde since 1881. The so-called Oosterschelde lobster (Homarus gammarus) is very popular with the consumer, but little is known about the lobster fishery. This report summarises the available data on the lobster fishery. The study was carried about by students of University of Applied Sciences Van Hall Larenstein Leeuwarden, as part of the Bachelors' programme Kust en Zee Management. The three main questions are: What do we know about lobster biology, how is the lobster fishery currently managed and what data is available? The research project was commissioned in cooperation between the fishing association OWV (Vereniging van Beroepsvissers op de Oosterschelde, Voordelta en Westerschelde) and Wageningen Marine Research, as part of preparations for a research grant proposal towards the development of a stock assessment. For implementing optimal management and to develop a stock assessment of the lobster population in the Oosterschelde in future, it is necessary to obtain a detailed overview of the current situation. A literature study was conducted and six lobster fishers who fish in the Oosterschelde were interviewed for this study. The fishers were asked to share information about their use of fishing gear, their license, how much lobster they catch and their views on the development of the lobster stock. In the Oosterschelde, there are 42 active lobster fishing licenses, of which 37 are affiliated with the fishing association OWV. Two years ago, a major change was made in the system. The "lobster race" has been changed into a lottery system, organized by OWV. This lottery system is an improvement in the lobster sector, as with the new system every lobster fisher has equal opportunities. The abundance of lobster varies due to natural factors, but a continuing downward trend has been observed in recent years by lobster fishers and recreational divers. An overview of available data on the stock is shown in Table 2, but these have not been structurally analysed. The observed downward trends can therefore not be explained. An overview of the different views on stock decline by interviewed fishers can be found in Table 4 and 5. Since the exact reasons for the declining lobster population are unknown, no focused action or policy can be undertaken and made. Plans to reduce the number of licences to reduce fishing effort and increase the economic viability failed in 2015 after a process of ten years. There was no stock assessment to base these decisions on, and lack of support to carry out the proposed changes. The study leads to four recommendations: 1. The early benthic phase (EBP) of the lobster is not feasible to use in a future stock assessment. Assessing larger individuals will give a more reliable view of the lobster population in the Oosterschelde; 2. Further research should be carried out into which natural and anthropogenic factors (Table 4 and 5) impact lobster stocks in the Oosterschelde; 3. A survey should be held among all lobster fishers to further improve insights into the perceptions on stock development and management as well as their willingness to contribute to future data collection projects. This will inform the development of a stock assessment and research priorities. 4. Communications between the fishers and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in relation to monitoring of (illegal) fishing activities should be improved.


The purpose of this study was to describe the quality of life among 33 patients with chronic kidney disease in haemodialysis treatment and to establish whether there were differences features between them, due to adherence behavior. Health Survey SF-36 was used, biochemical and clinical data was registered, as medical support for the adherence criteria. Significant decline in quality of life was evidenced in these patients; nevertheless the social function was preserved. The results of the t-student for independent samples showed significant differences in physical function, between the groups of patients with and without adherence to treatment (n = 19 and n = 13 respectively). Likewise, the first group reveal better quality of life related with mental health while the another group was related with physical aspects. The implications of these results are discussed.


Background Greater moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is associated with lower risk of some child mental health problems (CMHP). However, there is no evidence showing the potential population impact of increasing MVPA on CMHP (prevalence and inequalities). We used data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (∼18 000 children born 2000–2002), to model a hypothetical MVPA intervention scenario, simulating universal achievement of the government's MVPA target of 60 min (m) MVPA per day. Methods 6344 children had MVPA (measured using accelerometers at 7 years[y]); of these, 4590 had data on outcome (CMHP), exposure (socio-economic circumstances) and potential confounders. CMHP at 11 y were measured using parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) total score, dichotomised using an established cut-off. Predicted probabilities of CMHP were estimated in logistic marginal structural models, weighted for attrition, adjusted for MVPAand baseline and intermediate confounding (including externalising behaviours at 7[y], to account for potential reverse causality between MVPA and some aspects of CMHP, such as hyperactivity).Inequalities were assessed using Risk ratios (RRs) and differences (RDs) [95% CIs], according to household income quintiles. Intervention was simulated by re-estimating predicted probabilities after modifying theMVPA variable. Results 49% of children achieved the 60 m MVPA target, with greater activity levels observed in lowest (65 m) compared to highest (62 m) income quintile. Greater MVPA was associated with increased risk of CMHP (RR 1.003 [0.999–1.007]), and with externalising problems in particular (RR 1.009 [1.005–1.013]). Overall prevalence of CMHP was 12.2%, with relative and absolute inequalities between lowest and highest income quintiles (RR 2.6 [1.5–3.7]; RD 11.7 [6.0–17.4]). Simulation of the intervention led to 96% achievement of the 60 m MVPA target (30 m average increase for all children, assuming 100% uptake). CMHP prevalence increased to 14.1%. Relative inequality decreased slightly (RR 2.5 [1.5, 3.6]), and absolute inequality increased (RD 13.3%; [6.6, 20.0]). In sensitivity analyses with internalising problems as the outcome, greater MVPA decreased absolute inequality in CMHP, but not relative risk or prevalence. Conclusion Findings based on a UK-representative sample of children with objective MVPA data and a validated measure of CMHP, imply that universal achievement of the national MVPA target may not reduce prevalence in CMHP or absolute inequalities. However, these findings are likely subject to reverse causation (despite adjustment for earlier externalising behaviours). Further analyses will examine these relationships in detail, including differentiating aspects of CMHP (emotional, peer, conduct and hyperactivity subscales), using teacher-reported SDQ, and positive mental health outcomes.


Muhu Holy Forest is a protected area located in district Muting, Merauke. This holy forest belongs to the Mahuze clan, one of the large clans of the Marind tribe. The aim of this study was to describe the Holy Forest as one of the protected areas that serves to conserve nature and the culture of the Mahuze clan itself. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research with data collection methods are observation and interview. Observations were made by looking directly at the Holy Forest area, and interviews were conducted with several people with the name Mahuze and also customary elders of the Mahuze clan themselves. The results showed that the Holy Forest area contained various types of plants and animals. Some plants and animals in the Holy Forest are sago, rattan, coconut, bird of paradise, wild boar, and others. This Holy Forest is maintained by the Mahuze clan from various offers from both the government and the private sector for the development of oil palm plantations. The attitude of defending their area indirectly has preserved nature and also preserved the culture of their own ancestral heritag.


This contribution investigates whether lack of trust among business people towards the business community, as well as towards the general public, is conducive to more corruption in Turkey. Based on a survey study conducted in 2001, we establish a link between trust and corruption. Accepting the claim that corruption plays a role in the emergence and persistence of economic--and political--crises, we suggest that the latest crises that hit Turkey should also be approached from a trust-based perspective.


MK-3475 is an antagonistic humanized IgG4 anti-PD1 antibody currently in late stage clinical development for the treatment of cancer. MK-3475 exerts its anti-tumor effect through blocking the interaction of the immune inhibitory molecule PD-1 with its ligands. MK-3475 does not bind to mouse PD-1. Therefore, we generated a surrogate antibody, mDX400 for use in preclinical rodent models. In multiple syngeneic tumor models, treatment with mDX400 murinized anti-mouse antibody results in complete and durable tumor regression. We have used mDX400 as a mouse equivalent of MK-3475 to aid in our understanding of the cellular and molecular dynamics of anti-PD1 immunotherapy. In the current study, we examined peripheral and intratumoral lymphoid compartments pre- and post-mDX400 treatment. The data indicated that: 1. Anti-tumor efficacy was primarily driven by the level of PD-1 receptor blockade in tumor, but not blood. 2. An altered molecular signature, including significant upregulation of genes involved in monocyte, B- and T-cell activation and differentiation, was observed post-treatment in the tumors, but not peripheral blood or draining lymph nodes, of responding animals. 3. Tumor-specific immune memory was evident, as assessed by ultrahigh-throughput DNA sequencing of TCR CDR3 region, following successful treatment with mDX400. These data provide insights into the molecular dynamics following anti-PD1 immunotherapy and will guide hypothesis generation for biomarkers to inform our clinical strategy. In addition, the cellular and molecular pathways that predominate in preclinical tumor models insensitive to anti-PD1 immunotherapy are being evaluated. These types of studies may inform us on potential therapies that can be combined with MK-3475 to expand the therapeutic benefit of this biologic. Citation Format: Venkataraman Sriram, Michael E. Bigler, Holly Cherwinski, Erin Murphy, Terrill K. McClanahan, Joseph H. Phillips. Dissecting the dynamics of anti-PD1 immunotherapy in preclinical tumor models. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5025. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5025


Videofluoroscopy: a multidisciplinary team approach is a timely volume that helps to meet the growing need for multidisciplinary team knowledge of the videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS). Clinicians increasingly rely on the objective examination of swallowing to create a baseline as part of the patient's diagnosis and treatment. Much of the current literature focuses on the speech and language therapist working alongside a radiologist. However, the radiologist is increasingly no longer involved in the investigation, highlighting the need to amplify the multidisciplinary team knowledge of the procedure.

Increasing demand for new and established diagnostic and interventional procedures has encouraged innovative models of service delivery, resulting in an extended range of health professionals crossing the traditional practice boundaries. In particular, the radiographers who complete the examination, along with the speech and language therapists, need to learn more about the swallowing function. Likewise, it is essential that speech and language therapists increase their knowledge base on the radiographic aspects of the examination.

Authored by numerous highly regarded scholars, Videofluoroscopy: a multidisciplinary team approach serves as a crucial resource to help all members of the videofluoroscopy service team acquire the knowledge and skills they require. The book is divided into two parts: Part One provides an overview of swallowing and an introduction to the VFSS. Part Two covers various clinical indications for VFSS, including stroke, neuromuscular conditions, pediatric disorders, learning disabilities, dementia, and head and neck cancers.


This paper aims to explore the linkage between poverty and inequality in malnutrition through decomposition analysis using data from the National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) conducted in 2005–2006. Association between inequality in malnutrition and income inequality and poverty is observed at the state level. Inequality is analysed using the concentration index, which is further decomposed to identify the factors associated with inequality in malnutrition. Poverty, in terms of the wealth index, has considerable impact on average rates of malnutrition, indicating a disproportional burden of malnutrition on the poor. At the macro-economic level, overall socio-economic inequality correlates moderately with the inequality in malnutrition. On decomposition, poverty alone explains more than half of the inequality in malnutrition, which justifies the poverty–nutrition inequality linkage. The paper highlights the influence of poverty in worsening malnutrition, leading to unequal nutritional outcomes among children in India.


Author(s): Onsrud, Harlan J.; Obermeyer, Nancy J.; Calkins, Hugh W., editors | Abstract: The specialist meeting for Initiative 4 of the NCGIA was held in Maine from May 6through 10, 1989. Initiative 4 sought to provide a forum for an interdisciplinary discussion of the use and value of geographic information in decisionmaking,focusing on impediments to use. Participants were drawn from the three Center sites, the academic community, government agencies and private firms active in GIS. Disciplines represented include Geography, Economics, Sociology, Law, Public Policy, and Engineering. The list of attendees and the specialist meeting agenda are attached as an appendix. Attendees' position papers and summary reports of the meeting sessions will be published in a separate workshop report.


This work presents the modelling fundamentals to study the dynamics of inverter-based resources (IBRs) in weak distribution grids and derive disturbance performance characteristics describing how they should behave under different conditions. More specifically, with respect to small-signal disturbances we study the possible voltage violations following frequency response from IBRs due to low system strength and also propose specific design requirements for IBR d–q current control to guarantee a stable response. In the context of large-signal disturbances, we highlight how active power-voltage control may not be effective due to a delay imposed by the physical features of the distribution network. Further, we mathematically discuss how IBR reactive power control could enhance its phase-locked loop stability. The proposed disturbance performance characteristics are then integrated into the IBR converter control via a novel voltage-priority reference generation strategy. Simulation results on a real Australian network show the efficacy of the proposed operational and control design requirements, and highlight possible unexpected active/reactive power interactions in weak distribution grids.


Abstract The Posada–Asinara Line is a crustal-scale transpressive shear zone affecting the Variscan basement in northern Sardinia during Late Carboniferous time. We investigated a structural transect of the Posada–Asinara Line (Baronie) with the aid of geological mapping and structural analysis. N-verging F2 isoclinal folds with associated mylonitic foliation (S2) are the main deformation features developed during the Posada–Asinara Line activity (D2). The mineral assemblages and microstructures suggest that the Posada–Asinara Line was affected by a retrograde metamorphic path. This is also confirmed by quartz microstructures, where subgrain rotation recrystallization superimposes on grain boundary migration recrystallization. Crystallographic preferred orientation data, obtained using electron backscatter diffraction, allowed analysis of quartz slip systems and estimation of the deformation temperature, vorticity of flow and rheological parameters (flow stress and strain rate) during the Posada–Asinara Line activity. Quartz deformation temperatures of 400 ± 50 °C have been estimated along a transect perpendicular to the Posada–Asinara Line, in agreement with the syn-kinematic post-metamorphic peak mineral assemblages and the late microstructures of quartz. The D2 phase can be subdivided in two events: an early D2early phase, related to the metamorphic peak and low kinematic vorticity (pure shear dominated), and a late D2late phase characterized by a lower metamorphic grade and an increased kinematic vorticity (simple shear dominated). Palaeopiezometry and strain rate estimates associated with the D2late deformation event showed an intensity gradient increasing towards the core of the shear zone. The D2early deformation developed under peak temperature conditions, while the D2late event was active at shallower structural levels.


The proliferation of devices such as tablets and smart phones, which are now used by many people in their daily lives, has led to a number of companies allowing employees to bring their own devices to work due to perceived productivity gains and cost savings. However, despite many advantage, security breaches (e.g., information leakage) can happen for various reasons (e.g., loss or theft of devices, and malicious code) and privacy breaches can happen by using personal devices for business. We should carefully scrutinize security threats in this area. We present the security threats analysis and the technical approach in this area, and discuss privacy threats and countermeasures.


This paper describes the development of a CALL resource that combines a novel goal with an innovative method. The goal is to establish L2 learners' knowledge of English word patterns (Hunston, Francis, & Manning, 1997) in the form of a complex cognitive skill that integrates conceptual understanding with related text-analysis and dictionary referencing skills to facilitate self-directed use of these common lexical features. The method consists of an automated, online form of strategy instruction that can be delivered outside class, facilitating self-paced learning with sufficient practice and feedback. In addition to the L2 vocabulary and strategy literatures, the project is informed by instructional design principles aimed at 1) managing cognitive demands on L2 learners' working memories; 2) differentiating materials so as to appropriately target declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, or the orchestration of the two; and 3) harnessing the computer's multimedia capabilities in principled ways. It also seeks to address longstanding issues in second-language instruction, including: the challenge of providing strategy training cost-effectively and efficaciously; the apparent lack of understanding of collocational relationships among many L2 learners; and the embarrassment of riches that modern, corpus-based ELT dictionaries represent insofar as they are powerful, freely available resources that go largely under-exploited.


This article is an Africological critique of the emergence of the right to environment and the universality of rights generally. The article draws on Third World approaches to international law, postcolonial legal theory and Bourdieu's reflexive sociology to illuminate this Africological inquiry into the emergence of the right to environment within international law.


ObjectiveTo evaluate the influence of previously treated, though clinically resolved, lower extremity injury on performance in a timed 20-meter shuttle run. DesignCase control study. SettingNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college during the 2000/2001 preparticipation physicals. ParticipantsNCAA Division I athletes (n = 213) participated in this research study. Athletes were excluded if they presently had an unresolved lower extremity injury or low back pain. Main Outcome MeasuresTime to complete a 20-meter shuttle run was recorded. Previous lower extremity injury and college year were recorded via a short questionnaire. ResultsA significantly slower response time on the 20-meter shuttle run was observed in freshman athletes with a history of a lower extremity injury, as compared with freshmen without a previous injury (p = 0.01). No significant difference was noted in nonfreshman collegiate athletes regardless of injury history (p = 0.98). ConclusionKinetic chain deficits may exist long after symptomatic recovery from injury resulting in functional deficits, which may be missed on a standard physical assessment. The slower shuttle run times observed in freshmen with previous lower extremity injury may be a manifestation of insufficient treatment received at the high school level or the benefit of a mandatory core strengthening program in returning athletes. Further study is necessary to identify and validate the cause-and-effect relationship. Clinical RelevanceThis study may support residual functional deficits in incoming college athletes, which may be related to inadequate care in the high school setting.


The coast of the Cameroon Gulf of Guinea (GoG) comprises areas like the, Idenau beach, Mudeka/Tiko creeks, Limbe estuary and Douala Lagoon most of which are in the immediate vicinity of industrial zones, logging stations and an oil refinery. They serve as centres for recreational sailing, fin and shellfish fisheries and sinks for the disposal of wastes. The coastline of the Cameroon GoG is generally characterised by low salinity due to high rainfall and a dense river network, which supplies freshwater. The peak salinity values recorded during the dry and rainy seasons were 20 and 12 respectively. High levels of organic nutrients ranging from 825.92 to 1671.26 ppm were recorded. Various species of Phormidium, Heterocapsa, Rivularia, Trichodesmium , and Lyngbya were identified. Water management in Cameroon is threatened with extensive and persistent noxious occurrences of harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs) and they have had a significant impact on the utilization of aquatic resources. Blooms of Lyngbya have been incriminated in cases of severe dermatitis. Fish and shellfish consumers have also reported many acute cases of sudden abdominal cramps, headaches, vomits and diarrhoea. Recommendations are made and the need for systematic long-term research in collaboration with developed country scientists is elucidated. Keywords : GoG, HABs, HCBs, dry and rainy seasons, cyanobacteria, harmful, blooms > Tropical Freshwater Biology Vol. 15 2006: pp. 33-42


In the Netherlands, more than half of domestic shigellosis cases are among men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly in the Amsterdam region. However, there is limited insight into which Shigella strains circulate in the Netherlands. Our objective was to assess the added value of whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-based surveillance for Shigella . To this end, we determined the relatedness among Shigella spp. isolates from patients in the Amsterdam region, as well as in an international context, including antimicrobial resistance markers, using WGS. The following criteria were used: it should provide insight into (1) clustering of shigellosis cases and the affected population, (2) the extent of admixture of MSM-associated isolates with those from the broader population and (3) the presence of antimicrobial resistance. It should then lead to more opportunities for targeted control measures. For this study, Shigella isolates from three laboratories in the Amsterdam region obtained between February 2019 and October 2021 were subjected to Illumina WGS at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Raw data were quality-checked and assembled, the Shigella serotype was determined with ShigaTyper, and antimicrobial resistance markers were detected using ResFinder and PointFinder. For Shigella sonnei , subclades were determined using Mykrobe. Relatedness of isolates, including 21 international reference genomes, was assessed with core genome multilocus sequence typing. In total, 109 isolates were included, of which 27 were from females (25 %) and 66 were from males (61 %), with which the majority (n=48, 73 %) being from MSM. No information on sex was available for the remaining 16 cases. The WGS data for all isolates, comprising 55  S . sonnei , 52  Shigella flexneri , 1  Shigella boydii and 1  Shigella dysenteriae , met the quality criteria. In total, 14 clusters containing 51 isolates (49 %) were identified, with a median cluster size of 2.5 cases (range: 2–15). Nine out of 14 clusters were MSM-associated, and 8 clusters (57 %) were travel-related. Six of the MSM clusters were related to international reference genomes. The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance markers was higher among isolates from MSM than non-MSM patients, particularly for ciprofloxacin (89 vs 33 %) and azithromycin (58 vs 17 %). In conclusion, about half of Shigella spp. patients were part of a cluster, of which a substantial part were related to international reference genomes, particularly among MSM, and a high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance markers was found. These findings indicate widespread international circulation of Shigella spp., particularly among MSM, with multidrug resistance that hampers treatment of patients. Moreover, the results of this study led to the implementation of a national WGS-based laboratory surveillance programme for Shigella spp. that started in April 2022.


The element pSAM2 from Streptomyces ambofaciens integrates into the chromosome through site‐specific recombination between the element (att P) and the chromosomal (att B) sites. These regions share an identity segment of 58 bp extending from the anti‐codon loop through the 3′ end of a tRNAPro gene. To facilitate the study of the att B site, the int and xis genes, expressed from an inducible promoter, and att P from pSAM2 were cloned on plasmids in Escherichia coli. Compatible plasmids carrying the different att B regions to be tested were introduced in these E. coli strains. Under these conditions, Int alone could promote site‐specific integration; Int and Xis were both required for site‐specific excision. This experimental system was used to study the sequences required in att B for efficient site‐specific recombination. A 26 bp sequence, centred on the anti‐codon loop region and not completely included in the identity segment, retained all the functionality of att B; shorter sequences allowed integration with lower efficiencies. By comparing the 26‐bp‐long att B with att P, according to the Lambda model, we propose that B and B′, C and C′ core‐type Int binding sites consist of 9 bp imperfect inverted repeats separated by a 5 bp overlap region.


Passive two-phase cooling systems are an efficient and viable alternative to conventional air-cooling schemes for thermal management of electronics due to their capability of dissipating higher power densities with lower power consumption and noise levels. This article aims to assess the performance of a novel two-phase air-cooled thermosyphon for cooling shelf-level telecommunications equipment that is designed with 18 line cards. In particular, the main objective is to investigate the effect of the condenser technology on the thermal-hydraulic performance of the cooling system. The thermosyphon consists of a multimicrochannel evaporator with 18 individual microchannel zones (one per card) connected to an air-cooled condenser via riser and downcomer tubes. The total height of the loop, from midevaporator to midcondenser, is approximately 50 cm. Two different condenser designs have been tested: a single-pass louvered-fin flat-tube condenser, and a multipass wavy-fin, circular-tube condenser. An extensive experimental campaign is performed to evaluate the performance of these two air-cooled condensers in a front-to-back airflow configuration. The experiments are carried out with R134a as the working fluid, varying filling ratios from 45% to 60%, and heat loads from 102 to 1023 W under uniform and nonuniform conditions. The influence of the air-side fan configuration is also investigated by varying the fans speed from 10 548 to 15 480 min−1 and by increasing the fan-tray height from 65 to 103 mm. The results demonstrate that the single-pass louvered-fin flat-tube condenser provides lower liquid-side frictional pressure drops and consequently higher refrigerant mass flow rate in the loop. This leads to a higher critical heat flux value, which is ideal for increasing power densities and limiting dry-out occurrence. On the other hand, the multiple-pass wavy-fin, condenser offers lower thermal resistances over a larger range of dissipated heat loads. This is mainly attributed to its lower air-side pressure drop.


In GPR system, the reflected signal is composed of three components; clutter, target signal and system noise. As system noise has less importance compared to the other components, clutter reduction methods aim to decompose the reflected signal as target signal and clutter. In this paper, target signal and clutter are modeled sparsely with appropriate dictionaries via morphological component analysis. Resulting sparse coefficients and corresponding dictionaries are used to reconstruct clutter and target components. The proposed method is applied to experimental B-scan data and it is shown that the results have higher performance compared to the widely used Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) based clutter reduction methods.


We present a fabrication method of high aspect ratio 100nm-scale nickel stamper using e-beam writing for the injection molding of optical grating patterns. Conventional nickel stamper is fabricated by nickel electroplating process which is followed by seed layer deposition. In this paper, we have used chrome coated blank mask without anti-reflection layer of CrON in order to simplified electroplating process. In experimental study, we have optimized electron-beam dosage for 100nm-scale optical grating patterns with 2.5-aspect ratio, and fabricated nickel stamper using above grating patterns as PR mold. Fabricated nickel stamper have showed height of 240±20nm and width of 116±6nm.


Aims A growing body of evidence suggests a role for altered epithelial barrier function in the pathophysiology of eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE), but few have described the epithelial structure during inflammation. The purpose of this study was to define ultrastructural features of active, inactive EoE and control subject's oesophageal epithelia. Methods We prospectively enrolled patients undergoing diagnostic upper endoscopy for evaluation of EoE. Mucosal pinch biopsies were obtained from the distal oesophagus and processed for routine histology and electron microscopic assessment. Clinical features of enrolled subjects were analysed and subjects were divided into four groups: normal, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), inactive EoE and active EoE. Representative photomicrographs of the basal and superficial epithelia were reviewed for abnormalities. Desmosomes were quantified on the surface of epithelia three to four prickle-cell layers above the basal layer. Results Twenty-nine paediatric cases (ages 2–18 years) were enrolled in the study. We observed a significant decrease in the number of desmosomes per cell (DPC) of subjects with active EoE compared with inactive EoE, GERD and normal epithelia. With respect to DPC, no significant differences were found between inactive EoE compared with GERD or normal subjects. Additional ultrastructural features observed included epithelial microplicae and evidence of eosinophil transmigration, degranulation, and sombrero formation. Conclusions Consistent with clinical and molecular findings, our ultrastructural data provide support for an altered oesophageal barrier in paediatric cases with active EoE, which may improve following treatment.


Abstract : Geospatial Data Visualization is an Applied Research Project (ARP) that investigates human factors issues associated with geospatial data visualization in a mobile Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The work covered by this report represents a scoping phase of the project. It analyzes the Canadian Force operational needs and research for cost-effective opportunities for utilizing these technologies in land forces operations. The first milestone of this scoping study investigated the front-end usability of current mobile GIS systems. Human factors issues associated with geovisualization were analyzed with reference to findings that pertained to mapping requirements identified in the SIREQ TD. An extensive technology review was conducted with emphasis on the functionality associated with effective visualization and processing of large volumes of geospatial data on mobile devices. This review also included identifying relevant military tasks in which mobile GIS systems could be effectively used. A complete list of technical and operational requirements was created and mapped onto existing commercial and military mobile GIS systems in the second milestone. A workshop was conducted as the third milestone where SMEs and operational-level military officers discussed the operational tasks identified in the first two milestones. The workshop participants elaborated on some of the current needs and identified scenario-based operational requirements and gaps that hinder effective use of mobile GIS systems. Findings of the three milestones led to the development of a human factors research plan in the last milestone. The developed research plan introduced research challenges that might be further explored through future analyses and laboratory and field studies of the issues associated with the use of mobile GIS systems for land forces.


This paper explores the utility in collecting qualitative data by employing synchronous focus groups via web-based video conferencing software such as Zoom. The authors underscore benefits and drawbacks of this data collection modality by reviewing recent interdisciplinary literature. Authors also bring forth an example of using Zoom to facilitate synchronous focus groups for a recent research study. The study centered on school psychologists' perspectives of implementing physical activity within schools to support the mental health outcomes of youth and school communities. Authors offer reflections, lessons learned, and provide suggestions for employing successful online focus groups. Researchers that are interested in employing online focus groups should thoroughly assess if participants have access to and comfortability with technology. Such assessment data may provide insight into whether online focus groups serve as an appropriate modality. Further, Implications and suggestions for research are addressed.


Abstract In Japan between 1770 and 1790, the craze for witty, comic verse forms such as kyōka and senryū, infected the ancient and noble tradition of poetry written in Chinese to produce kyōshi, "wild Chinese poetry." Written in both Edo and Kyoto by poets of the lower samurai and educated townsmen classes, kyōshi ranged from silly puns and parodies of long-petrified Chinese verse forms to serious poems that used new subjects, language, and perceptions to revive the old genre, kanshi. Of the major poets, Ōta Nampo (Shokusanjin) of Edo, well-known as a master of kyōka, was equally famous for collections of witty kyōshi, while Hatanaka Tanomo (Dōmyaku Sensii) revived the Chinese "folk song style ballad" as a vehicle for descriptions of daily life in and around Kyoto. Because kyōshi was the product of a unique conjunction of literary, social, and political factors, it was almost forgotten by the beginning of the nineteenth century.


Public health nurses are on the front line of injury prevention initiatives. However, within injury prevention interventions and research, issues pertaining to culture are often addressed through the employment of one of the three approaches: cultural competency, cultural appropriateness, and/or cultural sensitivity. When using these approaches, it is often suggested that it is only those who are the recipients of an intervention or the focus of research that "have" culture. The injury prevention designer's/provider's/researcher's own culture, as well as the ways in which it may influence the interventions or research, is typically rendered invisible. In this paper, we provide an overview and illustrations of the use of cultural competency, cultural appropriateness, and cultural sensitivity in injury prevention initiatives, as well as each approach's shortcomings. We then introduce cultural safety, an approach that has not yet gained traction in injury prevention but has had significant uptake within nursing in general, and argue that it has the potential to overcome many other approaches' shortcomings and thus may lead to more effective and socially just injury prevention initiatives.


In the framework of the theory of open systems based on completely positive quantum dynamical semigroups, we give a description of continuous variable quantum entanglement and quantum discord for a system consisting of two non-interacting non-resonant bosonic modes embedded in a thermal environment. We study the time evolution of logarithmic negativity, which characterizes the degree of entanglement, and show that in the case of an entangled initial squeezed thermal state, entanglement suppression takes place for all the temperatures of the environment, including zero temperature. We analyze the time evolution of the Gaussian quantum discord, which is a measure of all the quantum correlations in the bipartite state, including entanglement, and show that discord decays asymptotically in time under the effect of the thermal bath. We describe also the time evolution of classical correlations and quantum mutual information, which measures the total correlations of the quantum system.


Early Miocene volcanism associated with a maar-diatreme breccia complex preceded main-stage epithermal gold mineralization at the Kelian gold mine, Kalimantan, Indonesia. Prior to brecciation, andesite intrusions (19.7 ± 0.06 Ma) were emplaced into a package of felsic volcaniclastic rocks and overlying carbonaceous sand-stones and mudstones, and a weakly mineralized geothermal system was established. Intrusion of quartz-phyric, (19.8 ± 0.1 Ma) and quartz-feldspar-phyric rhyolite (19.5 ± 0.1 Ma) into the active geothermal system triggered widespread fragmentation and formation of the maar-diatreme complex. Subsurface phreatomagmatic, and phreatic explosions disrupted the preexisting hydrothermal system, producing three composite diatreme breccia, bodies (the Tepu, Runcing, and Burung Breccias). The diatremes consist of polymict breccias and sandstones that contain abundant carbonaceous matrix. A distinctive facies association comprising coherent rhyohte, jigsaw-fit rhyolite breccia, and matrix-rich breccias that contain wispy to blocky juvenile rhyolite clasts define the root zones of the diatremes. The surficial products of maar-diatreme volcanic activity at Kelian are preserved as large blocks of well-stratified breccias. They contain accretionary lapilli and were deposited by a combination of wet, pyroclastic basesurge, fallout, and cosurge fallout processes. Evidence for syneruptive resedimentation of the pyroclastic: deposits is preserved in poorly stratified breccia beds. Megablocks of phreatomagmatic base-surge deposits were dropped down several hundred meters from the maar environment into the underlying diatremes. Volcanism in the Kelian maar-diatreme complex was dominated by a combination of phreatomagmatic and phreatic processes, with subordinate hydraulic, tectonic, and dry magmatic fragmentation. The carbonaceous -matrix-rich diatreme breccias acted as aquicludes during subsequent hydrothermal activity, focusing fluid flow into the wall rocks adjacent to the diatremes, where epithermal gold mineralization and hydrothermal brecciation occurred. © 2008 Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.


The terminal differentiation of neuronal and pancreatic β-cells requires the specific expression of genes that are targets of an important transcriptional repressor named RE-1 silencing transcription factor (REST). The molecular mechanism by which these REST target genes are expressed only in neuronal and β-cells and are repressed by REST in other tissues is a central issue in differentiation program of neuronal and β-cells. Herein, we showed that the transcriptional factor Sp1 was required for expression of most REST target genes both in insulin-secreting cells and neuronal-like cells where REST is absent. Inhibition of REST in a non-β and a non-neuronal cell model restored the transcriptional activity of Sp1. This activity was also restored by trichostatin A indicating the requirement of histone deacetylases for the REST-mediated silencing of Sp1. Conversely, exogenous introduction of REST blocked Sp1-mediated transcriptional activity. The REST inhibitory effect was mediated through its C-terminal repressor domain, which could interact with Sp1. Taken together, these data show that the inhibition of Sp1 by REST is required for the silencing of its target genes expression in non-neuronal and in non-β-cells. We conclude that the interplay between REST and Sp1 determines the cell-specific expression of REST target genes.


Introduction: Type II diabetes mellitus (DMII) is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality both worldwide and in Colombia. It mainly affects men and women over 45 years of age. Inadequate control of this disease can generate greater health complications making it one of the most costly diseases in the country. Treatment includes activities other than glycemic control and requires constant monitoring by medical personnel and educational processes directed at the patient and his or her family.
Objective: To characterize the feeding of patients with DMII in three public hospitals of Cundinamarca.
Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study of 212 patients that analyzed sociodemographic characteristics, frequency of consumption and feeding practices.
Results: Most of the population was over 45 years old and had a low educational level. In total, 52% had a dietary plan, but only 8.9% received nutritional guidance from a nutritionist. The consumption of carbohydrates predominated, with low consumption of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The consumption of sugars was lower in patients with a dietary plan (p <0.05).
Conclusions: Most of the patients did not have an adequate nutrition; moreover, there was low adherence to dietary treatment, weakness in nutritional counseling and barriers to food access. These results can contribute to improving policies for the prevention and control of DMII and strategies based on the sociocultural context of the patients.


This paper presents a novel high performance file system: Same Track File System (STFS) based on the researches of the character of modern disk drive. This paper firstly analyses the non-linear seek latency character of modern disk drive, and then indicates the drawback of FFS due to small writes. Then, this paper describes a novel disk layout of STFS: putting the meta-data and data into the same track. This disk layout of STFS can effectively depress the seek overhead of small writes and greatly improve file system throughput. The experiments of this paper show that STFS is a high performance file system.


Scholastic Reading Counts and M-Reader are reading programmes that combine independent reading practice with online assessment material. The aim of the ADMC Reading Programme is to assist students in improving their reading skills.


An ultra-wideband 4 GS/s 4 bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) which is fabricated in 2-level inter- connect, 1.4 m InGaP/GaAs HBT technology is presented. The ADC has a -3 dB analog bandwidth of 3.8 GHz and an effective resolution bandwidth (ERBW) of 2.6 GHz. The ADC adopts folding-interpolating architecture to minimize its size and complexity. A novel bit synchronization circuit is used in the coarse quantizer to eliminate the glitch codes of the ADC. The measurement results show that the chip achieves larger than 3.4 ENOBs with an input frequency band of DC-2.6 GHz and larger than 3.0 ENOBs within DC-4 GHz at 4 GS/s. It has 3.49 ENOBs when increasing input power by 4 dB at 6.001 GHz of input. That indicates that the ADC has the ability of sampling signals from 1st to 3rd Nyquist zones (DC-6 GHz). The measured DNL and INL are both less than 0.15 LSB. The ADC consumes power of 1.98 W and occupies a total area of 1.45 1.45 mm 2 .


The purpose of this report is to present the results of a common mode failure analysis for the LOFT systems that have been identified as engineered safeguard features, hereinafter referred to as plant protection systems (PPS). The qualitative analysis was performed to identify potential problem areas within the LOFT facility where secondary events such as fires, missiles, etc may cause a common mode failure of redundant PPS subsystems. Thus the analysis identifies areas where additional detailed studies may need to be performed to determine if design changes are necessary such that redundant PPS subsystems will not fail as a result of secondary events. The plant was analyzed in accordance with the design existing in September 1977; that is, no assumptions were made as to the existence of proposed design changes nor of systems not yet installed.


Abstract : Within the overall objective of identifying and comparing Lagrangian transport signatures in models and observations, we are primarily interested in two aspects of the problem: (1) What do Lagrangian features tell us about mixing processes across eddy boundaries and fronts?; and (2) What is the predictability of these features and the underlying transport patterns? Building on our work from FY10, we have quantified the fluid exchange between one particular eddy, the Loop Current Ring Fourchon, and its environment from model data over the course of the eddy's life. We also have made much progress on the second aspect of the problem, due to the wealth of observations and model data that became available in connection with the clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010. In FY11, we followed two lines of inquiry: (1) Lagrangian aspects of mixing across eddy boundaries, and (2) Lagrangian forecasts for oil spill evolution. Under the first theme, we implemented and compared two eddy boundary detection algorithms at depth based on geopotential height contours and nearly closed instantaneous streamlines; studied the structure of eddies at depth; quantified area and vorticity changes for the LCR Fourchon over the course of its life (157 days); and quantified the fluid exchange at the surface between Fourchon and its environment. Under the second theme, we generated oil spill forecasts based on GOM-HYCOM and initialized with observations of the surface slick from two separate sources; developed two complementary metrics to evaluate the quality of oil spill surface movement forecasts against observations; evaluated the following potential error sources: windage effects, unspecified continuous leakage, and initialization uncertainty; and investigated the usefulness of Lagrangian coherent structures in the context of oil spill forecasts.


A large series of animal models of human lysosomal storage diseases has undergone bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to evaluate this approach to providing a source of normal lysosomal hydrolases for therapy. The relative success of this approach appears to be dependent on the age at transplant and the specific disease being treated. The variability in results between different diseases may be due to the observation that the amount of each specific enzyme secreted by bone marrow and bone marrow-derived cells varies, and because different diseases have different organ systems which are affected, with particular emphasis on the central nervous system pathology.


Storage system behaviors are recorded in trace files. The file system trace monitors the file operations from time to time. We show that once a file is created with a set of attributes, such as name, type, permission mode, owner and owner group, its future access frequency is predictable. A regression-tree-based predictive model is established to predict whether a file will be frequently accessed or not. By consulting with the rules generated from the predictive model over diverse real-system NFS traces, it can predict a newly created file's future access frequency with a sufficient accuracy. We further introduce an evolutionary storage system, which the predicted frequency information could be used to decide what files to keep in a flash memory. The trace-driven experimental results indicate that the performance speedup due to the prediction-enabled optimization is 2–4.


A confocal epifluorescence detection scheme, optimized to give sub-picomolar detection within planar glass substrates etched to a 30 µm depth, is described. A ×40, 0.6 numerical aperture (N.A.) lens with a 3.7 mm working distance was used to create a focused laser spot about 12 µm in diameter, by under-filling the lens aperture to give an effective, measured N.A. of 0.22 for the laser beam. The sectioning power (optical axis field of view) of various pinholes and the corresponding detector probe volumes (overlap of the excitation and observation volumes) were: (pinhole diameter, sectioning power, probe volume): 100 µm, 18 µm, 0.1 pl; 200 µm, 20 µm, 0.4 pl; 400 µm, 26 µm, 1.7 pl; and 600 µm, 36 µm, 2.4 pl. A log–log plot of fluorescence intensity versus fluorescein concentration, measured in continuous-flow mode using the optimum 400 µm pinhole, showed a correlation coefficient of 0.996 and a slope of 0.85. In this mode, 300 fM fluorescein gave a signal of 34.6 ± 8.1 mV over background with an S/N of 6.1, representing the lowest measured fluorescein dye concentration reported on-chip. Capillary zone electrophoresis of 1 pM fluorescein resulted in a mean S/N of 5.8. The injection plug, estimated to be about 5470 molecules, corresponds to 570 detected molecules on average. The design and use of quick-fit, flangeless fittings for interfacing tubing, fused-silica capillaries or pressurized systems to microfluidic channels etched in planar glass chips is briefly presented.


It is rare to have the chance of reviewing an established classic, but the appearance after eleven years of a revised British edition of Conjoint Family Therapy provides an opportunity for a restatement of its fundamental value. Virginia Satir's book must by now be well-known in the Probation Service as a practical guide for those who want to help families in difficulty. In the face of widespread public questioning of whether professional social work has anything tangible to offer, here are described real skills, based on knowledge, and capable of being learnt. Conjoint Family Therapy accurately .describes itself as &dquo;a guide to theory and technique&dquo;; it comprises three sections, two on theory and a third on therapy. The opening analysis of family relationships rests on a wealth of knowledge and clinical experience deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition. It says a great deal that is relevant to the understanding of delinquency and marital breakdown, two . areas of dysfunction of central concern to probation officers. This is followed by a section on communication theory and the third part describes a well-tried method of working with families in a way that involves all their members, and centres on the functional problem rather than the &dquo;identified patient&dquo;, the one who is labelled mad or bad. The book is set out in an unusual fashion, with numbered and subdivided paragraphs, but I found it clear and helpful for reference purposes. Conjoint Family Therapy should now be purchased for every office library which does not already have a copy. Virginia Satir's optimistic and infectious belief in the potential of the family as an arena for growth and change also permeates Peoplemakirrg, a new British edition of a book published in 1972. It describes family processes and is written for families to use themselves, in contrast with Conjoint Family Therapy which is for professionals. Its essential content is similar to that of the earlier book, but this is a Do-It-Yourself version, liberally equipped with exercises and


Island populations harbour a comparatively species-poor pathogen community, often resulting in naive host species that experience compromised immunity when faced with novel diseases. Over 95% of the Galapagos avifauna have survived 400 years of human settlement, yet currently face threats due to introduced diseases such as avian poxvirus. On Hawaii, declining populations of birds and even some extinctions have been attributed to avian poxvirus, and hence, identifying the prevalence and fitness costs of avian poxvirus on the Galapagos is a conservation priority. Surveys of avian poxvirus in Darwin's finches on Santa Cruz Island between 2000 and 2004 found a 33% annual increase in the prevalence of pox lesions in ground finches. Comparisons of pox prevalence on three islands (Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Isabela) were made in 2004, which indicated significant variation in pox prevalence across islands (Isabela>Santa Cruz>Floreana). Darwin's finch species were found to be differentially affected by poxvirus, with a higher prevalence in ground finches than in tree finches. There was a significant effect of habitat, even within species, with higher prevalence in the lowlands than highlands. Pox prevalence was not correlated with sex or body condition. However, male small ground finches Geospiza fuliginosa with evidence of pox were less likely to have a mate (16.6% paired) compared with males without pox (77% paired), indicating fitness costs associated with poxvirus infection.


Background: Tissue engineering has the potential to repair cartilage structures in middle-aged and elderly patients using their own "aged" cartilage tissue as a source of reparative chondrocytes. However, most studies on tissue-engineered cartilage have used chondrocytes from postfetal or very young donors. The authors hypothesized that articular chondrocytes isolated from old animals could produce neocartilage in vivo as well as articular chondrocytes from young donors. Methods: Articular chondrocytes from 8-year-old sheep (old donors) and 3- to 6-month-old sheep (young donors) were isolated. Cells were mixed in fibrin gel polymer at 40 × 106 cells/ml until polymerization. Cell-polymer constructs were implanted into the subcutaneous tissue of nude mice and harvested at 7 and 12 weeks. Results: Samples and native articular cartilage controls were examined histologically and assessed biochemically for total DNA, glycosaminoglycan, and hydroxyproline content. Histological analysis showed that samples made with chondrocytes from old donors accumulated basophilic extracellular matrix and sulfated glycosaminoglycans around the cells in a manner similar to that seen in samples made with chondrocytes from young donors at 7 and 12 weeks. Biochemical analysis revealed that DNA, glycosaminoglycan, and hydroxyproline content increased in chondrocytes from old donors over time in a pattern similar to that seen with chondrocytes from young donors. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that chondrocytes from old donors can be rejuvenated and can produce neocartilage just as chondrocytes from young donors do when encapsulated in fibrin gel polymer in vivo. This study suggests that middle-aged and elderly patients could benefit from cartilage tissue-engineering repair using their own "aged" articular cartilage as a source of reparative chondrocytes.


Teamwork has emerged as a contemporary management technique, the no adoption of which has been considered as a cause of failure to implement change initiatives in organizations. Studying teamwork in relation to the implementation of organizational routines to improve results in on line Educational Systems is important because many practices for improving e-learning systems cannot be used without a collaborative teamwork. The relational coordination model is applied to measure teamwork to a representative sample of lecturers and students that teach on e-learning based systems in Spain and in this paper, the results are presented. Given the importance of interactions among educational professionals, the model of relational coordination is well positioned to address teamwork quality in the University contexts. However, to the researchers' knowledge, this is the first research applying relational coordination model in the context of organizational routines implementation in e-learning processes.


Nucleic acid drugs, including antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), have received considerable attention as novel therapeutics for the treatment of intractable diseases. Despite their potential benefits, ASOs are currently administered via injection, which can negatively impact patient quality of life because of the prevalence of severe injection site reactions. Non-invasive transdermal administration of ASOs is desirable but highly challenging owing to the strong barrier imposed by the stratum corneum, which only permits the penetration of small molecules under 500 Da. For ASOs to exert their antisense effect, they must traverse the negatively charged cell membrane and reach the cytoplasm. In this study, we used the solid-in-oil (S/O) dispersion technology to facilitate the skin permeation of ASOs by coating the drug with a hydrophobic surfactant molecule, specifically lipid-based ionic liquid (IL) surfactants with high biocompatibility and transdermal penetration-enhancing properties. To induce the antisense effect, it was important to achieve simultaneous transdermal delivery and intracellular entrapment of ASOs. In vitro investigations indicated that the newly prepared IL-S/O enhanced the transdermal penetration and intracellular delivery of ASOs, thus inhibiting mRNA translation of the target TGF-β. In addition, in vivo investigations of tumor-bearing mice suggested that the anti-tumor effect of the IL-S/O was similar to that of injection. This study demonstrates the potential of non-invasive transdermal delivery carriers based on biocompatible ILs, which can be applied to a variety of nucleic acid drugs.


: Since the early 1990s, the Swiss Confederation has been promoting the "Four-Pillars" model to address drug-related issues. This model seeks to reduce drugrelated problems by intervention using the four fields of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and repression. Since the Confederation has no constitutional competence in drug policy, it cannot enforce this model in a top-down manner. Instead, it must rely on other means in order to convince the main players of Swiss drug policy – the cantons and the cities – to adopt its ideas.


The neglected diseases are a group of diseases with a higher incidence in poor regions and tropical or subtropical climate. The leishmanioses are listed in this group of diseases, which may present themselves in two ways: tegumentary leishmaniasis or Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL). The VL in the new world has as the etiology Leishmania chagasi, which is transmitted by the bite of the sandfly, especially Lutzomya longipalpis. There are some medications used for the treatment of VL, however, still there are recurrence rates and high mortality. In addition to the severe side effects related to these therapies, as Nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity. Not long ago it was developed the amphotericin B encapsulated the Liposomes, associated with mild side effects, however still with an onerous cost, being hard to use in regions devoid of resources. In this work we aim to evaluate the activity of 15 compounds with Schiff bases complexed or not the metals (copper, nickel, zinc and iron), to inhibit promastigotes of Leishmania chagasi in vitro, as well as the cytotoxicity of these front of macrophages and fibroblasts in vitro. For tests with the promastigotas 24 hour incubation was carried out to evaluate the feasibility of resazurin method was used. To evaluate the cytotoxicity of compounds was incubated for 24 or 48 hours, using the colorimetric method with MTT. Of the 15 compounds evaluated, 11 showed good activity in inhibiting the promastigotas in the concentrations tested, the cytotoxicity performed with these 11 compounds. Copper complexes (D1, D2, D3) presented best activities when compared with their respective free ligands. However, they also showed cytotoxicity. The compounds complexed with iron (C1 and C3) also showed activity against the promastigotes, showing no or low cytotoxicity front cells, except the C1 that presented certain toxicity front of macrophages. The Methoxy group was what showed best activity when compared to the other free ligands. Generally the free ligands, without metals, were the ones who presented lower cytotoxicity.


Introduction: Management of acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with chronic liver diseases is challenging due to the risk of bleeding and thrombotic complications. No clinical trials have studied vitamin K antagonists (VKA) or low molecular weight heparins (LMWH) use in this population. Pivotal clinical trials evaluating direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) such as apixaban, edoxaban, rivaroxaban, and dabigatran lead to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for VTE treatment but these studies excluded patients with clinically significant liver disease.
 Methods: We conducted a single-center retrospective chart review of anticoagulant practice patterns in adult patients with cirrhosis (Child-Pugh Class A-C) diagnosed with acute VTE managed between January 1, 2010 through January 2, 2020. Acute VTE was defined as pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and splanchnic vein thrombosis (SVT), which included portal vein thrombosis (PVT). Primary outcomes were recurrent VTE, bleeding events, and anticoagulant practice patterns and were calculated in the study population, as well as a subset excluding patients with only PVT. Cirrhosis, VTE, and bleeding diagnoses were based on ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. Anticoagulant prescribing patterns were recorded in both the inpatient and outpatient setting, along with demographic, VTE risk factors, and key laboratory data. Baseline laboratory data were determined as the closest measured lab ≤180 days from the acute VTE diagnosis date. Child-Pugh score was calculated using the closest laboratory data and ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes ±180 days from the VTE diagnosis date. Anticoagulant usage was considered if ≥1 dose was administered. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS® version 9.4.
 Results: Baseline characteristics of the 1335 patients in the study are listed (Table 1-3). Median age was 65 years (range 19-98) with 845 male patients (63.3%). Following acute VTE, 467 patients (35.0%) received therapeutic anticoagulation, 114 patients (8.5%) received prophylactic anticoagulation, and 754 patients (56.5%) did not receive anticoagulation. Of patients that received therapeutic anticoagulation, 78 received apixaban, 1 received argatroban, 2 received bivalirudin, 7 received dabigatran, 1 received dalteparin, 0 received edoxaban, 180 received therapeutic enoxaparin, 19 received therapeutic fondaparinux, 231 received unfractionated heparin, 28 received rivaroxaban, and 159 received warfarin. Of patients that received prophylactic anticoagulation, 59 received enoxaparin, 10 received fondaparinux, and 246 received heparin. Of 599 patients with acute VTE without PVT only, 287 patients (47.9%) received therapeutic anticoagulation, 64 patients (10.7%) received only prophylactic anticoagulation, and 248 patients (41.4%) did not receive any anticoagulation. Many patients received more than one type of anticoagulant. Therapeutic anticoagulant usage patterns by year are depicted (Figure 1-2). Recurrent VTE occurred in 329 of all patients (24.6%). Recurrent VTE occurred in 196 of 467 patients (42.0%) on therapeutic anticoagulation, 33 of 114 patients (28.9%) on prophylactic anticoagulation, and 100 of 754 patients (13.3%) who did not receive any anticoagulation. Bleeding occurred in 721 of all patients (54.0%). Bleeding occurred in 288 of 467 patients (61.7%) on therapeutic anticoagulation, 67 of 114 patients (58.8%) on prophylactic anticoagulation, and 366 of 754 patients (48.5%) who did not receive any anticoagulation.
 Conclusion: Management of anticoagulant medications in patients with advanced liver disease has marked practice variation. Anticoagulant usage patterns changed over time with the approval of DOACs and increasing familiarity with these drugs. VKA and LMWH usage appeared to decrease over time as DOAC usage rose. Close to half of all patients did not receive any anticoagulation, even when excluding patients with only PVT from the population due to the common practice of monitoring PVT patients without anticoagulation. Further analysis of recurrent VTE and bleeding events based on individual anticoagulant medications and rationale for prescribed anticoagulant regimens is underway. We hope these findings will guide and encourage future studies evaluating safety and efficacy of anticoagulant medications in patients with advanced liver disease and VTE.

 Kelkar: Acorn AI by Medidata, a Dassault Systemes Company: Current Employment. Rajasekhar:Bayer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kedrion Biopharma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Octapharma Plasma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Baxter: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Alexion: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


This paper aims to develop a novel distributed power control algorithm based on the theory of stochastic approximation. The optimal control problem is first converted into a stochastic approximation problem in which the zero point of a specific function is determined. A distributed power control algorithm is then derived using standard techniques. In the distributed algorithm, each user iteratively updates its power level by using estimates of the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of its channel. It does not require any knowledge of the link gains and state information of other users. The algorithm can handle errors in the SIR estimates. Hence it is a robust algorithm that can be used in practical scenarios.


The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the hierarchical distribution of different city size groups at the country and regional level between 1945 and 2015 in Turkey. During this period, previous studies have illustrated that human mobility played an important role for the physical and socio-economic transformation of cities and regions. At the country level, first, while the growth rate of the number of smaller cities was higher than the others, the growth rate of population was the highest in the large cities. However, later, despite the population increase, the number of small cities was decreased due to transformation of economy from rural to industrial. During the post-modern era, globalization contributed even further the growth of large cities. As a result, hierarchical distribution of different size cities according to regions reveals the wide gap with respect to urbanization between the East and the West of the country. While the metropolitan cities are over urbanized in the urban hierarchy due to globalization, some of the regions in the East do not have large cities due to lack of economic development and higher out-migration rate. Mobility of capital and the people from the East to the West do not allow the full-fledged development of the urban hierarchy in the Black Sea and the East Anatolia Regions. This results in shortage of jobs and thus it becomes a vicious cycle for underdevelopment.


The example of successful realization of developments of Institute for Metal Physics of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the field of nanotechnology is organization and successful, during 14 years, functioning of production of modern precision amorphous and nanocrystalline magnetic cores in the frames of the small research-and-production enterprise MELTA Ltd. The most important, from the practical standpoint, high heat-time stability of initial magnetic permeability of cores is provided by using new methods of final treatment of cores, minimization of their package influence on characteristics of the process using liquid impregnation heat-resistant materials and new polymeric coatings. The most effective fields of industrial use of MELTA® magnetic cores are ground leakage current sensors, current measuring transformers (converters), power medium frequency, broadband and pulse small-size transformers, filter chokes, reactors, storage transformers and ferroprobes.


The local corrosion behavior of duplex stainless steel (DSS)is affected by a wide variety of factors. Localized corrosionof DSS frequently starts at micrometer scale inclusions orprecipitates, which are often segregated in theaustenite-ferrite boundary regions. Moreover, due to thepartitioning of the key alloying elements of ferrite (Cr andMo) and austenite (N and Ni), the local interactions betweenthe phases must also be considered.The aim of this doctoral study was to increase the knowledgeabout the local dissolution behavior of DSS in acidic-chlorideenvironments. The recent developments of new local probingtechniques have opened a new frontier in corrosion science,providing valuable local information not accessible in thepast. The local techniques used include electrochemicalscanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM), scanning probe forcemicroscopy (SKPFM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM), andscanning Auger electron Spectroscopy (SAES), all withmicrometer or sub-micrometer resolution.With EC-STM, it was possible to monitor local dissolutionprocesses on DSS in situ, and in real time. MFM was capable ofimaging the phase distribution in DSS without the need of thetraditional surface etching, while SKPFM revealed that theVolta potential difference between the two phases wasmeasurable and significant. SAES showed that the compositiongradient at the phase boundaries is narrower than 2µm.Different types of DSSs have been studied, from low-alloyedDSS to superduplex. Higher contents of Cr, Mo and Nstrengthened both phases as well as the phase boundaries,resulting in phases having similar corrosion resistance thatshowed a more uniform dissolution behavior. However, the Voltapotential difference between the phases proved to be of thesame order for all the DSSs studied. Austenite was in generalassociated to regions displaying a more noble Volta potentialthan ferrite, resulting in a higher dissolution rate of theferrite next to the austenite phase.Key words:In situ, local dissolution, electrochemical,STM, SKPFM, MFM, SAES, duplex stainless steel, acidic-chloridesolution.


Halftoning is a fairly slow process when executed by software on conventional processors. To speed up halftoning, a halftoning algorithm has been developed and integrated into a dedicated hardware architecture. This paper describes the implementation of the architecture with a XILINX Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and compares its performances with results obtained by a software implementation. A discussion on how to improve the present architecture concludes the paper.


We present a new method of built-in-self-test (BIST) for sequential circuits and system-on-a-chip (SOC) using characteristic faults and circuit-specific spectral information in the form of one or more Hadamard coefficients. The Hadamard coefficients are extracted from the test sequences for a small set of characteristic faults of the circuit. By extracting a few characteristic faults from the circuit, we show that detection of these characteristic faults is sufficient in detecting a vast majority of the remaining faults in the circuit. The small number of characteristic faults allows us to reduce the coefficients necessary for BIST. State relaxation is performed on the compacted test sequences to reduce the spectral noise further. Since we are targeting only a very small number of characteristic faults, the execution times for computing the spectra are greatly reduced. Our experimental results show that our new method can achieve high BIST coverage with both lower computational efforts and storage, with very few characteristic faults.


Different montmorillonites either, completely hydrophilic (Mont-0), amphiphilic (Mont-25, Mont-50, and Mont-75) or completely hydrophobic (Mont-100) were used as reinforcing fillers for styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) individually to predict the influence of the different forms on the properties of the rubbers (rheometric characteristics and mechanical properties). The shifts in the glass transition temperatures after the clay insertion were determined from dynamic mechanical thermal analysis to investigate the preference and action of each form. In addition, the storage moduli were used as indications to the corresponding mechanical properties of the samples. The influences could be followed after comparing the impacts of aging conditions on the properties of rubber compositions. The obtained data may provide a platform to suggest the mechanism by which these forms can in some cases act as compatibilizers in addition to their reinforcing/plasticizing effect when employed with the physically incompatible NBR/SBR (50/50) blend, which helps to optimize the properties of nanocomposites based on these blends. The proposed mechanism of action showed good correlation with the results of the mechanical properties and x-ray diffraction investigations as well. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:942–948, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers


The ethanol extracts of the root, stem and leaves of Terminalia albida were evaluated for their antibacterial activities using agar diffusion method to justify the ethno botanical uses of the plant parts by the traditional healers in Nigeria. The ethanol extracts of the root, stem and leaves were effective against the test bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis) at all the concentrations used (100 l- 500 mg/ml). The root extract at 500 mg/ml is most effective against E. coli and K. pneumoniae, the stem extract at 500 mg/ml was most effective against P. aeruginosa and P. mirabilis while the leaves extract at 500 mg/ml was most effective against P. mirabilis. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) test of the root, stem and leaves extracts showed that the test organisms were inhibited at all concentrations. The root extract showed more inhibitory effect than the stem and leaf extracts. The results of this study validated the use of various parts of this plant in traditional medicine in many parts of Africa.

 Key words: Terminalia albida, antibacterial screening, root, stem, leaves.


The main purpose of this work is to characterize computably enumerable (c.e.) sets and generalized c.e. sets according to Kolmogorov complexity hierarchy. Given a set A, we consider A m, the initial segment of length m of the characteristic sequence of A. We show that the characteristic sequence of a 2 x-c.e. set can be random in the sense of Martin-LL of. We show that for x n-c.e. sets A, the uncoditional (conditional , uniform, resp.) Kolmogorov complexity of A m has optimal upper bound (n + 2) log m ((n + 1) log m, (n + 1) log m, resp.). We show that the corresponding optimal upper bounds for n-c.e. sets are the same as those for c.e. sets. We show that there is a strongly eeectively simple set A such that the unconditional (conditional, uniform, resp.) Kolmogorov complexity of A m is as high as what is possible for a computably enumerable set; but not all strongly eeectively simple sets have this property. We show that for any hypersimple set A, the uniform Kolmogorov complexity of A m cannot reach the upper bound of that for computably enumerable sets. In addition, we show that for any GG odel numbering ', the set of all nonrandom strings with respect to ' is Q-complete.


A significant problem affecting electrospun nanofibrous tissue scaffolds is poor infiltration of cells into their three-dimensional (3D) structure. Environmental and physical manipulation, however, can enhance cellular infiltration into electrospun scaffolds. In this work, RGD-modified alginate mats with increased thickness and porosity were achieved by pairing high humidity electrospinning with post-processing ultra-sonication. RGD-modified alginate, polyethylene oxide (PEO), and an FDA-approved, nonionic surfactant blends were electrospun in 20 and 50% relative humidity conditions. Mats electrospun in high humidity conditions resulted in significantly increased mat thickness and decreased fiber diameters. The mats' alginate content was then isolated via ionic crosslinking and PEO/surfactant extraction. Finally, the alginate-only mat was post-processed by ultra-sonication to further enhance its cross-sectional thickness. Cell morphology, proliferation, and infiltration into the scaffolds were evaluated by seeding fibroblasts onto the alginate mat. Cell spreading, growth and infiltration improved with increased humidity and ultra-sonication. This approach shows great promise for the design of cell-permeable nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue-engineering applications.