Previous reports have established the role of fresh autogenous cartilage grafts harvested at the time of surgery. This report describes the value of autogenous preserved cartilage, removed and stored at the time of initial surgery, for use in secondary surgery. This study also compares fresh and preserved cartilage used in crushed and noncrushed states in secondary rhinoplasties. From 1983 to 1990, 256 of 1,185 patients who had undergone septorhinoplasty required a revision procedure. Cartilage graft was used in 186 (72.7%) patients. Cartilage removed during the primary surgery was stored in a saline and antibiotic solution at 0°F to 2°F. The average time interval from primary to secondary surgery was 11.97 months (SD, 10.63 mo). Follow-up after graft placement averaged 44.71 months (SD, 26.21 mo). Two hundred seventy-seven pieces of cartilage were used, consisting of 16 noncrushed fresh, 136 crushed fresh, 8 noncrushed preserved, and 117 crushed preserved. Graft success rate was 93.8% for noncrushed fresh cartilage grafts, 87.5% for crushed fresh, 87.5% for noncrushed preserved, and 85.5% for crushed preserved graft. We conclude that preserved autogenous cartilage retains almost as much graft volume as fresh cartilage in rhinoplasties and eliminates the need for harvesting a graft. Cartilage removed during nasal surgery, particularly when a septoplasty is being performed, is valuable and should be stored for possible later use.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic inflammation of the gut whose pathogenesis is still unclear. Although no curative therapy is currently available, a number of drugs are used in induction and maintenance therapy; however, for most of these drugs, a high inter-individual variability in response is observed. Among the factors of this variability, genetics plays an important role. Areas covered: This review summarizes the results of pharmacogenetic studies, considering the most important drugs used and in particular aminosalycilates, glucocorticoids, thiopurines, monoclonal antibodies and thalidomide. Most studies used a candidate gene approach, even if significant breakthroughs have been obtained recently from applying genome-wide studies. When available, also investigations considering epigenetics and pharmacogenetic dosing guidelines have been included. Expert opinion: Only for thiopurines, genetic markers identified as predictors of efficacy or adverse events have allowed the development of dosing guidelines. For the other drugs, encouraging results are available and great expectations rely on the study of epigenetics and integration with pharmacokinetic information, especially useful for biologics. However, to improve therapy of IBD patients with these drugs, for implementation in the clinics of pharmacogenetics, informatic clinical decision support systems and training about pharmacogenetics of health providers are needed.


There is recent interest in the use of light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) for creating multiple channels within free-space optical communication systems. One crucial issue is that, for a given beam size at the transmitter, the beam divergence angle increases with increasing OAM. Therefore the larger the value of OAM, the larger the aperture required at the receiving optical system if the efficiency of detection is to be maintained. Confusion exists as to whether this divergence scales linearly with, or with the square root of, the beam's OAM. We clarify how both these scaling laws are valid, depending upon whether it is the radius of the waist of the beam's Gaussian term or the radius of rms intensity of the beam that is kept constant while varying the OAM.


Globalization is reducing our ability to control our life chances in an increasingly interconnected world. Employing a systems-theory perspective, Hedley contends that although historically humankind has gained increasing control over its fate, the trajectory of control is now on a downward course. Paradoxically, although the primary objectives of modern globalization include greater scale, access, speed, efficiency, and predictability - or in a word, control - Hedley asserts that our greater connectedness leaves humankind more vulnerable to unforeseen risks than many systems independently organized. He produces evidence from the many system failures in the globally connected information and communications infrastructure. With an increasing human population, rising human aspirations, and growing global instability, increased human control from further technological innovation becomes less and less likely. These developments, combined with a finite global eco-environment, make ecological crises potentially more devastating. Hedley concludes by discussing various approaches and strategies to deal with the problems identified.


A 10-year-old boy presented with left-sided nasal obstruction and epistaxis. Endoscopic evaluation revealed a polypoid mass in the vestibule arising from the lateral wall of the nasal cavity anteroinferior to the left inferior turbinate. Computed tomography (CT) scan showed a soft tissue opacity in the vestibule of the left nasal cavity. After the endoscopic excision of the mass, postoperative and histopathological analyses confirmed the diagnosis of an angiofibroma.


Aim: The aim of the study is to determine whether presentation and outcomes of inflammatory abdominal aortic aneurysms (IAAA) have changed over the last five decades. Methods: Comparison of current outcomes (January 2001 to December 2007) with results of the earliest report from our unit in 1972. Results: In contemporary series, 421 patients underwent AAA repair; 38 (9%) were IAAA. In 58% patients, IAAA was an incidental finding, whereas 42% patients were symptomatic with abdominal or back pain. Of those, 32% were ruptured IAAA. Male-to-female ratio was 12:1. Thirty-day mortality was 13%; elective 11.5%; emergency 17%. Comparison with 1972 study showed no change in the incidence and gender predilection. Presentation as an incidental finding and rupture increased 4- and 2-folds, respectively. Conclusion: The incidence and gender predilection of IAAA have remained unchanged. The 4-fold increase in the presentation as an incidental finding reflects current trends in patient evaluation.


us, who either from want of time or of business capacity are only too prone to accept a plausible thing without searching inquiry into its real nature and future effects. 1 am not aware, however, that the fact of the National Deposit Friendly Society being an excellent organisation for the promotion of thrift amongst the laity demands our enthusiastic acclamation, especially if such increase of wealth is in part the result of our increased necessity; nor do I see why we. should give our ready aid to any association which however plausible its prospectus may be was certainly not established for the pecuniary benefit of the medical profession. One would almost imagine from the style of argument and language adopted by the supporters of the National Deposit Friendly Society, that the chief object of those responsible for its inception was the outcome of an overwhelming desire to increase the incomes of medical men and to reduce the annual amount of their bad debts. When, however, I see that by giving my aid to such a society I most certainly redue'e my income, I begin, to question the reality of this apparent solicitude on my behalf and to feel much more inclined to go on as I have been wont to do, even with the accompaniment of " bad debts." Let a medical man who charges the orthodox and ethically correct fee divest his mind of the first pleasing impression made upon it by the very plausible but misleading scale of fees issued by this Society. Let him, then, go carefully into the question of what would be the effect upon his income of the wholesale admittance into the Society of those of his patients who are tradesmen, skilled artisans, shop assistants, clerks, etc. Then if be be not able to prove that his income would be considerably reduced thereby the assistance of figures is less than I imagine it to be. It is the specious Visit and medicine for two days, 2S. 6d. which throws dust in the eyes of most men, and it is not till they contrast the remuneration they usually obtain for attendance upon, say, a case of pneumonia with that which they would receive at the Society's rate, that the real value of the scale is manifest. A man who is the habit of charging small fees may not lose by giving his aid to the Society; but a man who charges the minimum ethical fee most certainly will. I do not suppose however that members of the Society wish to have only the services of third-rate men. Apart from the question of adequacy of remuneration, t&iere is another aspect of this matter which requires consideration, namely, the desirability or otherwise of permitting the intervention between us and our patients of a third party. In some cases this intervention is unavoidable; but it may be laid down as a broad principle that the more we sanction and acquiesce in such a condition of things the more we shall suffer, especially if the third party happens to be the laity in combination either in the form of medical aid institutes, industrial assurance companies, or national deposit friendly societies, for the very rai8on d'etre of such bodies so far as we are concerned is the acquisition of medical services at as low a rate as possible. We have suffered enough already from the action of lay combination, and it is time we ourselves combined and offered to it a firm resistance. The spirit of altruism of which one correspondent speaks has its limits. I am perfectly aware of the altruistic work done by the profession in the past; but when I consider that the result of all our modesty and selfabnegation has been ever increasing exploitation by combinations of the laity, it appears to me that our altruism requires neutralising by the infusion of a little of the selfishness of commerce. The sooner we realise the fact that as well as being scientists we must also be men of business the better will it be for our ,temporal welfare. Had we been more commercial and less altruistic in the past, so many of us would not be to-day draining the cup of poverty and impotency.-I am. etc., J. RATCLIFF-GAYLARD, M.D., Hon. Secretary, Extension Committee, Medical Guild. Manchester, June 4th.


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

Background: The intratumoral heterogeneity of HER2 expression in gastric cancer (GC) is a major challenge when identifying patients who will benefit from HER2-targeting therapy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the significance of re-evaluation of the HER2 status by repeat endoscopic biopsy in GC patients with an initial, HER2-negative endoscopic biopsy.

Methods: Patients with unresectable or metastatic gastric/gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma and who will receive first-line chemotherapy, were eligible if the HER2 was negative on the initial endoscopic biopsy. HER2 positivity was defined as immunohistochemistry (IHC) 3+ or IHC 2+/fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) + using the GC scoring system. A repeat endoscopic biopsy was performed in ≥6 different primary tumor sites immediately after obtaining initial HER2-negative results.

Results: From May 2011 to April 2013, a total of 183 eligible patients were enrolled. Baseline characteristics at the time of the initial biopsy were as follows: tumor location, GEJ∼fundus/body/antrum/diffuse stomach=22(12.0%)/47(25.7%)/68(37.2%)/46(25.1%); Lauren classification, intestinal/diffuse/mixed=53(29.0%)/111(60.7%)/19(10.4%); and HER2 IHC score, 0/1/2=149(81.4%)/26(14.2%)/8(4.4%). The median number of biopsy pieces per patient was 5 (range, 1-15) and 10 (range, 1-15) on the initial and repeat biopsy, respectively (P<0.0001). There was no difference in the median ratio of the number of cancer-containing pieces/total pieces; 0.86 (range, 0.13-1) vs. 0.89 (range, 0.10-1) (P=0.679). As the repeat biopsy identified 16 patients with HER2-positive tumor, the rate of rescued HER2 positivity was 8.7% (95% CI 4.6-12.8%). Rescued HER2 positivity was associated with tumor location (diffuse stomach vs. others=0% vs. 11.7%, P=0.013), Bormann type (IV vs. others=0% vs. 11.7%, P=0.013), and the HER2 IHC score on the initial biopsy (0 vs. 1 vs. 2 = 6.7% vs. 15.4% vs. 25.0%, P=0.028). In multivariate analysis, the HER2 IHC score (1/2 vs. 0, odds ratio=3.78; P=0.016) was an independent predictive factor for rescued HER2 positivity.

Conclusions: Repeat endoscopic biopsy is recommended in order to check the HER2 status again even if the initial endoscopic biopsy is HER2 negative in metastatic or unresectable GC.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting.

Citation Format: Sook Ryun Park, Young Soo Park, Baek-Yeol Ryoo, Chang Gok Woo, Hwoon-Yong Jung, Jeong Hoon Lee, Gin Hyug Lee, Min-Hee Ryu, Yoon-Koo Kang. A prospective study of a repeat endoscopic biopsy to identify HER2-positive tumors following an initial HER2-negative endoscopic biopsy in unresectable or metastatic gastric cancer patients: GASTHER1 study. [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 2874. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2874


Whether companies that enter markets with new products first appear at an advantage or disadvan tage is still a questionable issue in theory and practice. The theoretical part of the working paper will demonstrate that empirical data are very controversial, and the number of fields is numerous where pioneers can gain advantages and disadvantages from being the first with a new product. The survey made in February-April 2004 aimed to examine how Lithuanian innovative companies perceived the distribution of advertising effort while creating a primary and secondary demand, and whether they perceived the pioneering to be advantageous or disadvantageous from the point of view of promo tional and consumer education efforts.


This paper presents a robust algorithm for video sequence stabilization. Motion estimation is achieved using block motion vectors. In this way, the motion estimator of the MPEG encoder can be used. The simple use of block motion vectors can give unreliable global motion vectors and so elaborations are done to make the algorithm robust.


The author discusses the meaning of insecticide resistance and the manner in which it should be detected and measure. From some recent data he gives a number of examples of measurements of resistance in mosquitos of different species in various areas. He then proceeds to a speculative discussion on the way in which insecticide resistance arises whether it can be prevented and overcome its importance in the past and at present and finally its future prospects. (excerpt)


Book synopsis: Alternative ways of thinking, analysing and performing economic geographies have become increasingly significant in recent years, partly due to the recent financial crisis, which has had social and political consequences throughout the world. Yet there is a danger that the debate about alternatives may become simply a way of fixing global capitalism in its present crisis-ridden form. Instead, the analysis of alternative economic spaces must continue to offer a critique of the very notion of capitalism as a universal, if variable, set of social relations.

This important book brings together critical analyses of alterity from across the social sciences and humanities, refining and advancing what alternative economies and polities are, how they are formed, what difficulties and problems they face, and how they might be sustained. A central theme is the need to examine critically both the material contexts and the conceptual categories deployed in the making of alternative economies.


The present study examined associations between the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) 1357 G --> A polymorphism and the muscle strength response to a unilateral, upper arm resistance-training (RT) program among healthy, young adults. Subjects were 754 Caucasian men (40%) and women (60%) who were genotyped and performed a training program of the nondominant (trained) arm with the dominant (untrained) arm as a comparison. Peak elbow flexor strength was measured with one repetition maximum, isometric strength with maximum voluntary contraction, and bicep cross-sectional area with MRI in the trained and untrained arms before and after training. Women with the CNTF GG genotype gained more absolute isometric strength, as measured by MVC (6.5 +/- 0.3 vs. 5.2 +/- 0.5 kg), than carriers of the CNTF A1357 allele in the trained arm pre- to posttraining (P < 0.05). No significant associations were seen in men. Women with the CNTF GG genotype gained more absolute dynamic (1.0 +/- 0.1 vs. 0.6 +/- 0.1 kg) and allometric (0.022 +/- 0.0 vs. 0.015 +/- 0.0 kg/kg(-0.67)) strength, as measured by 1 RM, than carriers of the CNTF A1357 allele in the untrained arm pre- to posttraining (P < 0.05). No significant associations were seen in men. No significant associations, as measured by cross-sectional area, were seen in men or women. The CNTF 1357 G --> A polymorphism explains only a small portion of the variability in the muscle strength response to training in women.


The physical interactions of the wood-water-formaldehyde system are reviewed. Swelling data at 20 and 40 C (68 and 104 F) are presented which show that Douglas-fir and red alder wood shrink relative to pure water in low concentration water-formaldehyde solutions, and swell in higher concentration solutions ultimately to 18% by volume for a 24% (weight) solution of formaldehyde at 40 C (104 F). The composite sorption isotherms of the wood-water-formaldehyde system are complex. There is seen, however, an initial relative increase in water concentration of the sorbed phase, followed by a general decrease of water concentration for most of the other concentrations studied. The reasons for this are not known.


In this paper, we investigate how to automatically extract attractive summaries for news propagation on microblogs and propose a novel system called ATSUM to achieve this goal via text attractiveness analysis. It first analyzes the sentences in a news article and automatically predict the attractiveness score of each sentence by using the support vector regression method. The predicted attractiveness scores are then incorporated into a summarization system. Experimental results on a manually labeled dataset verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.


Purpose. To report the epidemiological features and laboratory results of 1,352 cases of fungal keratitis diagnosed at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in south India. Methods. The medical and microbiology records of 1,352 culture proven cases (1,354 eyes) of fungal keratitis diagnosed at the LVPEI between January 1991 to December 2000 was retrospectively reviewed for demographic features, risk factors, seasonal variation, and laboratory findings. Results. Males (962) were affected significantly more (p < 0.0001) than females (390). Of 1,352 patients, 853 (64.4%) were in the younger age group (16–49 years). Ocular trauma predisposed to infection in 736 (54.4%) of 1,354 eyes. There was a higher incidence of fungal keratitis during the monsoon and winter than summer. A fungal cause was established by smears of corneal scrapings in 1,277 (95.4%) eyes. The potassium hydroxide preparation (KOH), Calcofluor white (CFW), Gram-, and Giemsa-stained smears revealed fungus in 1,219 (91.0%), 1,224 (91.4%), 1,181 (88.2%), and 1,139 (85.1%) eyes, respectively. Fusarium (506, 37.2%) and Aspergillus species (417, 30.7%) predominated the hyaline fungal spectrum (1,133) and Curvularia species (39, 2.8%) were the highest among the dematiaceous isolates (218). Conclusions. To the best of our knowledge, this review presents the epidemiological features and laboratory results of the largest series of fungal keratitis ever reported in the literature. Keratomycosis is predominant in young adults with trauma as the major predisposing factor. With fungal keratitis being a major ophthalmologic problem in the tropical regions of the world, data available on the epidemiological features of a large series would greatly help medical practitioners at primary and secondary health care centers in the management of the disease. A simple KOH preparation of corneal scraping alone is highly beneficial in confirming the diagnosis.


From the practice of the Forensic Medicine Department, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice it appears that in criminal cases the level of medico-legal opinions provided by experts appointed by the district court or 'ad hoc' is very low. The analysis of the chosen files shoved a divergence of opinions given to the adopted motions as well as numerous offences to regulations in the nature of a consultative error. In the paper the authors have made an attempt to appraise causes of the above mentioned problems such as: 1. the lack of medico-legal knowledge and experience in court experts. 2. excessive ease of registration to the panel of court experts and the lack of processes which verify the qualifications of experts. 3. the lack of judicial control over expert's opinions and common acceptance of their work. 4. ignorance of the obligatory penal law. 5. ignorance of the basic rules for giving medico-legal opinions (legal consequences, casual nexus). 6. excessive but groundless self-confidence in experts. 7. the lack of a correct way of thinking and conclusion making. The aim of the paper was to pay close attention to the absolute need of verification of court experts' qualifications and work.


Eye degeneration is a general evolutionary tendency shown in many animal groups that are adapted to dark environments. Thus far, the degenerative process has only been discussed within a few taxonomic units, in terms of both evolution and development, and more studies are needed to deal adequately with this area of ostracod biology. The ostracods and copepods examined in the present study are small crustaceans that are widely diversified in the aquatic environment, and also in interstitial environments, and their 'nauplius eyes' (primitive eye in Crustacea; typically composed of three or four ocelli) show various degrees of degeneration. The ultrastructure and ontogeny of their degenerated nauplius eyes are described for the first time in the present study, using transmission electron microscopy. According to our observations, two morphotypes for degenerative nauplius eyes (i.e. 'tapetal-less form' and 'pigment reduced form') are found in both taxa. The first description of the embryogenesis of normal (none-degenerated) nauplius eyes of surface species is also provided. From a comparison between the embryogenesis of normal nauplius eyes and the postembryogenic development of the 'tapetal-less form', it is strongly suggested that the 'tapetal-less form' is derived by paedomorphic evolution. On the basis of our observations, as well as on previous studies, we propose the hypothesis that modularity, in the form of hierarchical interactions, exists in the nauplius eye (i.e. the tapetal cells constitute an independent developmental module to be distinguished from other developmental or functional modules, including both the pigmented cells and the sensory cells). According to our hypothesis on the nauplius eyes, we also discuss the possibility that the degenerative process is constrained within the general developmental and functional context. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 99, 521–529.


Background: Both the mini-plate fixation and suture suspensory fixation techniques are extensively applied in cervical laminoplasty, but which technique is superior has not been ascertained. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to compare the results between mini-plate fixation and suture suspensory fixation in cervical laminoplasty for the patients with multilevel cervical compressive myelopathy. Methods: PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane library, CNKI, and WANFANG were searched for studies that compared mini-plate fixation and suture suspensory fixation in cervical laminoplasty up to November 1, 2016. We calculated odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for dichotomous outcomes and mean difference (MD) with 95% CI for continuous outcomes. Review Manager 5.3 was used for the statistical analyses. Results: A total of 25 studies, involving 1603 participants, were included in this review. The results of this meta-analysis indicated that there were statistically significant differences in postoperative Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores (MD = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.34–0.99, P < 0.001), JOA scores improvement rate (MD = 4.00, 95% CI: 2.51–5.50, P < 0.001), postoperative Visual Analogue Score (VAS) (MD = −0.81, 95% CI: −1.36 to −0.26, P = 0.004), postoperative range of motion (ROM) (MD = 4.15, 95% CI: 2.06–6.23, P < 0.001), postoperative cervical lordosis (MD = 3.1, 95% CI: 2.02–4.18, P < 0.001), postoperative anteroposterior diameter of the spinal canal (MD = 1.53, 95% CI: 0.11–2.95, P = 0.03), postoperative open angle (MD = 1.93, 95% CI: 0.14–3.71, P = 0.03), postoperative cross-sectional area of the spinal canal (MD = 37.10, 95% CI: 26.92–47.29, P < 0.001), axial symptoms (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.20–0.37, P < 0.001), operation time (MD = 4.46, 95% CI: 0.74–8.19, P = 0.02), and blood loss (MD = 9.24, 95% CI: 6.86–11.62, P < 0.001). However, there was no statistically significant difference in C5 palsy (OR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.37–1.84, P = 0.63). Conclusions: As compared with suture suspensory fixation, mini-plate fixation in cervical laminoplasty appears to achieve better clinical and radiographic outcomes with fewer surgical complications. However, mini-plate fixation is associated with bigger surgical trauma. This conclusion should be interpreted cautiously and more high-quality, randomized controlled trials are needed in the future.


Mutual information quantifies the dependence between two random variables and remains invariant under diffeomorphisms. In this paper, we explore the pointwise mutual information profile, an extension of mutual information that maintains this invariance. We analytically describe the profiles of multivariate normal distributions and introduce the family of fine distributions, for which the profile can be accurately approximated using Monte Carlo methods. We then show how fine distributions can be used to study the limitations of existing mutual information estimators, investigate the behavior of neural critics used in variational estimators, and understand the effect of experimental outliers on mutual information estimation. Finally, we show how fine distributions can be used to obtain model-based Bayesian estimates of mutual information, suitable for problems with available domain expertise in which uncertainty quantification is necessary.


Abstract Collapsed walls cause collapsed mounds, and the disintegration characteristics of collapsed walls are thus closely linked with the occurrence of collapsed mounds. The current study examines the disintegration characteristics and the physical and chemical properties of collapsed walls. A multilevel analysis was conducted by obtaining soil samples from four layers of a collapsed wall. The results showed that 1) the physical and chemical properties of the soil samples (red soil layer, sandy soil layer, debris layer, gravel and eluvial breccia) are closely related to the weathering degree of the crust; 2) gravel and eluvial breccia disintegrated in the shortest time, whereas red soil exhibited the slowest disintegration in the vertical section of the collapsed wall. The order of the disintegrating ratio of the layers is as follows: red soil layer < sandy soil layer < debris layer < gravel and eluvial breccia. Initial water content significantly influenced the disintegration ratio of the red soil layer and sandy soil layer, whereas its effect on the debris layer and gravel eluvial breccia is minimal; and 3) most of the physical and chemical properties of the collapsed wall are significantly correlated with the disintegration ratio of the soil sample. The following physical and chemical properties, which are positively correlated with the disintegration ratio, are arranged based on highest to lowest correlation coefficient: sand content, MgO, natural water content, K2O, CaO, exchangeable sodium, pH, porosity, Na2O, and cation exchange capacity. The following physical and chemical properties, which are negatively correlated with the disintegration ratio, are organized based on highest to lowest correlation coefficient: cosmid, Fe2O3, silt particle, Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2, organic matter, free iron oxide, and free alumina. Only exchangeable calcium, saturated water content, specific gravity of soil particles, and dry density of soil particles are significantly correlated with the disintegration ratio. The correlation coefficient indicates that the disintegration ratio and soil structure, as well as the chemical content of clay minerals, are closely correlated. The study helps explain the mechanism of wall collapse and provides references for developing protective measures against erosion.


The primary structures of the angiotensinogen precursor and the low molecular weight (LMW) kininogen precursors have been deduced by determining the nucleotide sequences of cloned DNAs complementary to their mRNAs. The angiotensinogen precursor consists of a mature angiotensinogen of 453 amino acid residues and a putative signal peptide of 24 amino acid residues. An angiotensin moiety is located at the amino-terminal part of angiotensinogen, preceded directly by the signal peptide and followed by a large carboxyl-terminal sequence that contains two internally homologous sequences and three potential glycosylation sites. The LMW kininogen precursors are encoded by two very similar but distinct mRNAs and composed of 436 and 434 amino acid residues. Both kininogens contain two internally homologous sequences in which all amino acid differences between the two kininogens are located. This suggests that these homologous regions may be biologically significant in relation to the existence of two LMW kininogens.


Thus, the objective of the research was to evaluate the initial growth and development of seedlings under Platymiscium floribundum at different levels of luminosity. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 4 x 10 factorial scheme (four levels of shade: full sun, 50%, 65% and 80% with ten replications per treatment. The height, number of leaves was evaluated monthly. At the end of the experiment at 180 days, leaf dry matter, stems, roots, and dry matter. In addition, measurements were made of the variables related to gas exchange and plant anatomy of leaves. The results obtained were observed higher growth and developed satisfactorily at full sun), without presenting morphological changes. For the gas exchange did not differ statistically. It is concluded that the initial growth of P. floribundum seedlings was superior in the light level in full sun, providing favorable conditions for their development.


Despite the availability of ever more data enabled through modern sensor and computer technology, it still remains an open problem to learn dynamical systems in a sample-efficient way. We propose active learning strategies that leverage information-theoretical properties arising naturally during Gaussian process regression, while respecting constraints on the sampling process imposed by the system dynamics. Sample points are selected in regions with high uncertainty, leading to exploratory behavior and data-efficient training of the model. All results are finally verified in an extensive numerical benchmark.


CD38 is a 45 kDa transmembrane receptor expressed in B lymphocytes and other cells from the immune system. It is involved in apoptosis, cell activation, differentiation, and proliferation. CD38 has been used extensively to classify various subpopulations of lymphocytes in both humans and mice. It has also been used as a marker of poor prognosis in some lymphoid pathologies. However, CD38 is not a marker but rather an ectoenzyme and a receptor, where it performs several functions. The CD38 signaling pathway has only been partially studied in various cells of the immune system, where apparently the signaling is different depending on the lineage and differentiation state of the cell, leading to distinct outcomes. In this review, we provide an overview of well‐established roles of CD38 signaling B lymphocytes from mice. We also discuss areas that need further clarification to get a broader image of how CD38 performs different functions in B cells and to understand its role in B lymphocyte biology under normal versus pathological conditions. © 2011 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 2011


Artificial neural networks are used in conjunction with the Sharpe-Linter form of the capital asset pricing method to predict when the returns on US stocks will be greater than financial risk models would predict. The advantage of using a nonlinear approach is to model the financial system more accurately than linear techniques. The Sharpe-Lintner form is used to control risk and determine abnormal returns of stocks. Inputs include ratios of recent to past stock price averages over pre-event time periods, similarly, stock volume ratios, and previous quarter standardized unexpected earnings. The earnings data is quarterly and runs from the first quarter of 1993 to the second quarter of 1998. Event periods that had the smallest width around the earnings report tended to be easier to predict abnormal returns. In addition, event periods that were closest to the event (the earnings report) were more accurate at predicting the abnormal returns of stocks.


In this paper, we investigate the problem of efficiently provisioning connections of different bandwidth granularities in a heterogeneous WDM mesh network through dynamic traffic-grooming schemes under traffic-engineering (TE) principles. Due to the huge amount of traffic a WDM backbone network can support and the large geographic area it can cover, constructing and upgrading such an optical WDM network can be costly. Hence, it is extremely important for network operators to apply traffic-engineering strategies to cost-effectively support different bandwidth-granularity services using only the appropriate amount of network resources. This requires an optical WDM network to have multi-granularity switching capability, and such a network tends to be a multi-vendor heterogeneous network. However, WDM network heterogeneity increases the difficulty and challenge of efficient traffic provisioning. In this paper, we present different TE issues which need to be carefully considered in such an optical WDM network and propose possible solutions and extensions for the Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) optical network control plane. We extend an existing, generic, graph model to perform efficient traffic grooming and to achieve different TE objectives through simple shortest-path computation algorithms. We show that our approach is very practical and very suitable for traffic engineering in a heterogeneous, multi-granularity, optical WDM mesh network.


Aim

Latitudinal differences in diversity have long fascinated ecologists. It is unclear whether small soil animals such as nematodes show latitudinal differences in diversity. Based on hypotheses concerning the basis for greater tropical diversity, and by analogy with other groups, we predicted (1) greater alpha diversity in the equatorial tropics than the High Arctic, (2) greater beta and gamma diversity in the tropics. We also predicted (3) no species overlap between the tropics and the High Arctic, and (4) lower abundance of root feeding and insect parasitic nematodes in the high Arctic.

Location

We sampled at three sites in equatorial rain forest in Malaysia at 2° N and three sites in High Arctic tundra in Svalbard at 79° N.

Methods

In Malaysia and Svalbard, three sets of 1-m2 samples were taken, in interrupted grids. Nematodes were extracted using a Baermann funnel. Bulk DNA was amplified by polymerase chain reaction for the 18S rRNA gene, followed by 454-pyrosequencing.

Results

Comparing operational taxonomic unit (OTU)-based nematode communities (99% sequence similarity), averaged alpha diversity per 1-m2 quadrat showed no difference between Malaysia and Svalbard. However, the classic beta diversity and gamma diversity of nematodes was higher for Malaysia.

Main conclusions

There was, surprisingly, no difference in the alpha diversity of nematodes between Malaysia and Svalbard. However, for beta and gamma diversity, diversity was higher in Malaysia. There was also considerable OTU overlap between the two regions, suggesting that very broad climatic niches are common in nematode ecology. Plant root feeders and insect parasites were relatively more common in Svalbard. Overall, we found a mixed and complex picture in terms of agreement with what would be predicted on the basis of ecological theory and observations on other groups. While further confirmatory studies would be beneficial, there is a need to incorporate these new findings in the formulation of hypotheses and tests for the underlying causes of latitudinal trends.


Objective—Neurotensin is a peptide whose receptor (sortilin receptor 1) is linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD) development. We hypothesized concentrations of proneurotensin (stable profragment of neurotensin) would predict incident cardiovascular events in community-based subjects. Approach and Results—Blood samples from 3439 participants in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) Offspring cohort (mean age 59.2 years, 47.1% male) were tested for proneurotensin. Primary outcome of interest was incident hard CVD (myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular death); interaction between proneurotensin concentration with sex, low-density lipoprotein concentrations, and sortilin receptor 1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms was sought. At baseline, those in the highest log-proneurotensin quartile were younger and heavier (P<0.001); across proneurotensin quartiles, more prevalent hard CVD (from 3% to 7%; P<0.001) and diabetes mellitus (from 6% to 14%; P<0.001) were present. In age- and sex-adjusted models, log-proneurotensin concentrations predicted incident hard CVD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.24 per SD change in log-proneurotensin; 95% confidence intervals [CIs], 1.11–1.39; P<0.001), a finding that remained on adjustment for standard CVD risk factors (HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.01–1.27; P=0.03). Elevated log-proneurotensin concentrations were associated with shorter time to first event (P=0.02). We found no effect modification by sex, low-density lipoprotein concentration, or sortilin receptor 1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Concentrations of proneurotensin were modestly associated with left ventricular mass and coronary artery calcium in these subjects. Conclusions—Higher concentrations of proneurotensin are associated with a greater risk of incident cardiovascular events in the community. This association did not vary according to sex, baseline low-density lipoprotein, or sortilin receptor 1 genotype.


Ethnobotanical studies of the Rwenzori Mountain forest area in Bundibugyo District in Uganda were carried out between May and December 1991, and covered the northern part of the Rwenzori Mountain slopes occupied by the Bakonjo people. The presence of a major footpath through the forest with numerous utility trails radiating from it showed that some forest resources are being sought by the local population. Plant biodiversity is high, as is indicated by the fact that in a study plot of only 4 250 m , a total of 115 plant species, 101 genera and 57 families were identified from a collection of 300 plant specimens. Seventy-seven plant species were found to be of some importance to the local communities. Out of the 77 useful plant species recorded:  22 species were used for medicinal purposes; 16 for firewood; 13 for construction, joinery and furniture;  12 for craftwork; 10 provided edible fruits and vegetables; and 27 were used for a variety of other purposes. These other purposes include construction of shrines, covering of granary floors, use as toilet paper, carry ing luggage, and fodder for goats, sheep and cattle. Arundinaria alpina K. Schum. (bamboo) is the species that is most extensively harvested from the forest.


Introduction and Methods: Despite the development of new targeted therapies for treating AML, cytarabine (Ara-C) remains the most reliably effective agent, particularly when given in high dosage (HIDAC). The outcome of AML therapy in pts > 60 years of age remains dismal with slightly more than half of pts achieving remission, and < 15% becoming long term survivors. Elderly pts do not tolerate typical HIDAC regimens because of cerebellar and other toxicities, so we have employed a modified HIDAC regimen: Ara-C 2 gm/m2/day over 4 hours once daily on days 1–6, combined with daunorubicin 45 mg/m2 days 2,3,4 for induction. Consolidation consisted of one cycle of the same chemotherapy followed by two additional cycles of mHIDAC alone, unless the pt went on to autologous or allogeneic HPCT. We report a single institution experience with 59 consecutive pts ≥ 60 y/o (including 20 pts ≥ 70 y/o), and compare outcomes with 139 similarly treated pts < 60 y/o. Excluded were pts with antecedent MDS or chemotherapy-related AML, APL, and pts with major organ dysfunction.

Results and Discussion: The CR rate for pts age ≥ 60 was 66% vs 81% for those < 60 (p=0.02). The distribution of pts into cytogenetic risk categories was similar, except for an under-representation of good risk cytogenetics among older pts (3% vs 14%, p=0.025). Overall survival for older pts was worse than that for younger individuals primarily due to an excess of early deaths, however, disease free survival among complete responders was similar for the 2 age groups (see below). There were 11 (16%) early deaths within 60 days among older pts, 4 with residual leukemia and 7 during aplasia. Early death occurred in 7 (5%) of the younger pts, 2 with residual leukemia and 5 during aplasia. There were 4 deaths (3 infectious and 1 stroke) during consolidation, 3 in the older and 1 in the younger group. There were also 2 late deaths in remission (both older pts) which were unrelated to AML or therapy. Clinically significant cerebellar toxicity was observed in 4 (6.8%) of the older pts and 3 (2%) of the younger pts, for a total of 7 episodes associated with 535 courses of Ara-C delivered (1.3%). 60% of older pts were able to complete 2 or 3 courses of consolidation therapy. Our data confirm the challenges of treating older pts with AML, but suggest that a significant subgroup can tolerate and benefit from aggressive therapy which includes dose intensification of Ara-C. This mHIDAC regimen is effective and well tolerated, and repeated administration to older pts is feasible.

![Figure][1]

Overall Survival

![Figure][1]

Relapse-Free Survival

 [1]: pending:yes


Objective Nonimmune pregnant women are at risk of developing congenital rubella syndrome and measles complications. We aimed to identify pregnant women susceptible to rubella or measles in order to determine the need for immunity screening and supplemental immunization in women of childbearing age. Method This seroprevalence survey was conducted by convenience sampling in obstetric hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (southern Iran). Serum IgG levels were measured by ELISA. Result Mean age of the 175 pregnant women was 27.3±5.3 (range 16 to 42) years. The geometric mean concentration of anti-rubella IgG was 14.9 IU/mL (CI 95%,14.1–15.5), and that of anti-measles IgG was 13.8 IU/mL (CI 95%, 13–14.5). One hundred sixty-eight women (96%) had a protective serologic level (>11 IU/mL) of IgG against rubella, and 143 (81.7%) had a protective level against measles. Except for a significant inverse correlation that was showed by univariate analysis between anti-rubella IgG and the women's age (P = 0.01), immunity did not correlate with demographic or obstetric characteristics or medical history. There was no significant correlation between anti-rubella and anti-measles IgG levels (P = 0.25). Conclusion Nearly a decade after Iran's nationwide measles-rubella vaccination campaign for the population aged 5–25 years, most pregnant women up to 34 years of age had humoral immunity against rubella. We recommend rubella immunity screening or catch-up immunization for women older than 35 years who wish to become pregnant, and measles immunity screening and appropriate vaccination for all women of childbearing age.


Kinta Valley in Perak State is one of the richest valley arising from 18th century tin mining production in Malaysia. The physical evidence of this production that surrounds Kinta offers a cultural landscape narrative about this 'tin rush' era that occurred from 1884 to 1895. This paper investigates the heritage significance of Kinta Valley former mining landscape through the lens of cultural landscape theory and practice. Through a detailed case study, documentary research and site observation have been applied as qualitative methods for data collection to unravel and quantify the heritage values of the Kinta Valley former mining landscape.
Keywords: Culture landscape; vernacular landscape; tin mining; Kinta Valley
eISSN 2514-751X © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/aje-bs.v3i10.321


As the conception of ubiquitous computing and mobile services has become the focus, a highly flexible mechanism is needed to satisfy unlimited requirements from the users. This paper introduced an advanced infrastructure based on service oriented architecture (SOA). Under this structure, mobile devices can connect to other devices or devices on other platform.


Previously reported concentrations of triacylglycerol in skeletal muscle have shown high coefficients of variation, and there have been large differences between mean concentrations reported in a given muscle. Conditions for sampling and measurement were therefore investigated. Samples were best taken under anesthesia as breakdown of triacylglycerol was rapid after decapitation. Silicic acid was preferable to zeolite for removal of phospholipids although either agent could interfere with the estimation. Even with apparently reliable methods, a high variability was found in any one muscle and there were large differences between muscles. It is unlikely that the variability was due to contamination with adipose tissue. Concentrations of glycogen and phospholipid were much less variable. Although the store of triacylglycerol in skeletal muscle in caloric terms was found to be 2-18 times greater than that of glycogen, the variability found is likely to hamper studies of its metabolic role.


In the big variety of the A.C. applications in which the thyristor technology is used, there are some cases in which high power loads must be controlled by solid state devices, but because of the high power, these big loads cannot be handled by only one TRIAC device, therefore, it is very common to connect two SCRs in inverse–parallel since this arrangement would allow to drive bigger levels of power since the control stand point. In the case of the D.C. applications, there are also some cases in which the loads must be supplied with high levels of voltage (over than 1000 Volts), so for these kind of applications, it is needed to have a solid state device capable to sustain these high voltage levels, therefore in these cases, the most feasible solution is to connect two SCR (800 V) in series in order to generate a high voltage device (1600 V). In addition to the previous cases, there are also some applications in which it is needed to make the turn–off of an SCR device when it is operating under D.C. current conditions, and this can be done through the forced commutation methods for SCRs. The present application note is mainly focused in explaining some alternatives for making the control functions listed below: • Inverse Parallel connection of two SCRs for driving high power loads. • Series connection of two SCRs to generate a high voltage device. • Forced commutation methods for turning–off the SCRs.


This article comments on one detail of the artistic world of the novella Uncle's Dream . The mention of monk Misail in Svetozersky Hermitage is considered as a topographic sign, which allows one to accurately determine the local attribution of Dostoevsky's text. According to the author of the article, the prototype of the priest is Father Macarius (Mikhail Yakovlevich Glukharev), also known as "the Apostle of the Altai Land". The author introduces into scholarly circulation M. Ya. Glukharev's autograph found in Barnaul and analyses the missionary activity of the Archimandrite and the reasons for his getting closer to Tobolsk Decembrists M. A. Fonvizin and his wife N. D. Fonvizina, P. S. Bobrischev-Pushkin, and P. N. Svistunov. The paper also discusses the question of F. M. Dostoevsky's interest in the personality of the Archimandrite and the channels through which the writer could know about the old man: Fonvizin's circle, the book about father Macarius of his succеssоr S. Landyshev, Dostoevsky's Semipalatinsk fellow ethnographer N. A. Abramov, or oral legends, including raskolnik ones. The extant humorous stories about the Archimandrite might have served as an impetus for the comic transformation of his image in the novella Uncle's Dream , in which the writer easily and ironically used facts known to him encrypting Father Macarius and using the secular name Mikhail. In the writer's later works, the figure of Macarius is presented in the rough drafts of the novel The Brothers Karamazov and "the monk of Obdor" is included in the environment of Elder Zosima in the final text of the work. Long before the emergence of the conception of  The Brothers Karamazov , M. Ya. Glukharev becomes not only a catalyst in the creative process and one of the prototypes for Dostoevsky, but also an example of the "romantic missionary", a popular spiritual leader and reformer of the Church.


Cyber attackers often use passive reconnaissance to collect information about target networks. This technique can be used to identify systems and plan attacks, making it an increasingly challenging task for security analysts to detect. Adversaries can recover statistical information from the information collected from compromised nodes, revealing target identities such as operating systems, software and servers. A comprehensive analysis of the collected data can aid in understanding what information an adversary can deduce from this technique. With this analysis, the defender can examine the methods of inferring a target used by adversaries and model adversaries' inference techniques and belief formation. For this purpose, we propose a model-driven decision support system (DSS) based on a Bayesian belief network (BBN) to depict adversary node-based inference techniques from passively collected data and belief formation. BBN provides a compact representation of probabilistic data and allows the formalization of adversary beliefs. We demonstrate this approach with a case study based on the passively observed operating system (OS) fingerprinting data, which is evaluated utilizing p-value significance level and compared against the model generated from local networks and predictive accuracy. We also show that our methods produce models with high predictive accuracy surpassing a sequential artificial neural network (ANN).


Critical Whiteness studies has emerged as an academic discipline that has produced a lot of work and garnered attention in the last two decades. Central to this project is the idea that if the processes of Whiteness can be uncovered, then they can be reasoned with and overcome, through rationale dialogue. This article will argue, however, that Whiteness is a process rooted in the social structure, one that induces a form of psychosis framed by its irrationality, which is beyond any rational engagement. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of the two only British big budget movies about transatlantic slavery, Amazing Grace and Belle, the article argues that such films serve as the celluloid hallucinations that reinforce the psychosis of Whiteness. The features of this discourse that arose from the analysis included the lack of Black agency, distancing Britain from the horrors of slavery, and downplaying the role of racism.


Our industry is front and center with any wave of climate change discussion. This is our reality and was the case in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), held in the resort of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt in November 2022. Reports indicate COP27 had a better outcome than the previous COP26 meeting. So naturally, I want to share this information with our members. There are numerous outcomes that I am certain SPE will be discussing in future meetings and publications. Three aspects, in particular, are the participation of the oil industry in the conference, decarbonization vs. reduction, and attempts to phase out petroleum.
 Petroleum industry participants outnumbered every national delegation at the COP27 climate summit. The influence of UAE, the host of COP28 in 2023, showed on the sidelines and in the negotiations with CEOs of several international and national oil companies and oil ministers in attendance. Getting involved in climate change events, presenting the industry's viewpoint, and explaining the substantial efforts taken to mitigate the climate challenge is essential for our industry to continue, to level the playing field and offer a balanced path to energy security and sustainability that we owe the world based on what our industry can deliver.
 UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said at the leaders' summit, "The UAE is known as a responsible supplier of energy and will continue to play this role as long as the world needs oil and gas." The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt, Tarek El-Molla, added, "As the cleanest hydrocarbon fuel, natural gas is seen as the perfect solution that strikes the right balance and will continue to play a key role in the future energy mix."
 Some of the highlights of the conference included:
 - The emphasis on decarbonizing, rather than reducing, fossil fuel use was adequately addressed and continually presented as a viable method to help reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
 - Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) showcased Al Reyadah, the region's first commercial-scale carbon capture utilization and storage facility.
 - Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy announced the signing of a joint development agreement with Saudi Aramco for one of the largest planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) hubs in the world. The center in Jubail Industrial City will begin operation by 2027 and be able to store 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in its first phase, and extract, use, and store 44 million tonnes of CO2 by 2035.
 At the 2021 COP26 in Glasgow, coal was named as a problem for the first time, with countries agreeing to phase down its use. In Sharm el-Sheikh, some sought to turn the heat onto other fossil fuels. Egypt never included fossil fuel phaseout language in the draft text, although it does promote renewables and "low-emission" energy. This could be interpreted as gas, which has lower emissions when burned than coal or other fossil fuels, with CCS. The final resolutions of the conference did not include any language to phase down petroleum.


Distribution of low density (LDL; density range of 1.006-1.063), using the LDL flotation velocity in ultracentrifugation as a criterion, was studied in 4 groups of patients with coronary atherosclerosis (31 patients was examined, 24 of which were with angiographically confirmed coronary atherosclerosis): control group, patients with ischemic heart disease-with normal level of blood plasma lipids, with increased content of triglycerides and with decreased content of LDL cholesterol. The ratio of LDL particles with high hydration density was elevated in the LDL spectrum of all the patients examined. At the same time, each group of patients examined exhibited specific alterations in the LDL distribution spectra.


Introduction Transition-age youth (16–29 years old) are disproportionately affected by the onset, impact and burden of serious mental illness (SMI; for example, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia spectrum disorders). Emerging evidence has increasingly highlighted the concept of resilience in mental health promotion and treatment approaches for this population. A comprehensive synthesis of existing evidence is needed to enhance conceptual clarity in this area, identify knowledge gaps, and inform future research and practice. As such, the present scoping review is guided by the following questions: How has resilience been conceptualised and operationalised in the transition-age youth mental health literature? What factors influence resilience among transition-age youth with SMI, and what outcomes have been studied within the context of transition-age youth's mental health recovery? Methods and analysis The present protocol will follow six key stages, in accordance with Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) established scoping review methodology and recent iterations of this framework, and has been registered with Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/rzfc5). The protocol and review process will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team in consultation with community stakeholders. A comprehensive search strategy will be conducted across multiple electronic databases to identify relevant empirical literature. Included sources will address the population of transition-age youth (16–29 years) diagnosed with SMI, the concept of resilience (in any context) and will report original research written in English. Data screening and extraction will be completed by at least two independent reviewers. Following meta-narrative review and qualitative content analyses, findings will be synthesised as a descriptive overview with tabular and graphical summaries. Ethics and dissemination University of Toronto Health Sciences Research Ethics Board approval was obtained to complete the community stakeholder consultation stage of this review. Results will be disseminated through conference presentations, publications, and user-friendly reports and graphics.


Abstract Katz, R. The Parameter-Free Track Structure Model of Scholz and Kraft for Heavy-Ion Cross Sections. Radiat. Res. 160, 724–728 (2003). The "parameter-free", "local effects" theory of Scholz and Kraft is an extension to mammalian cells of the theory of RBE for dry enzymes and viruses of Butts and Katz. Its claim for parameter freedom has been challenged elsewhere. Here we examine its conceptual base and find errors in its use of the physical concept of cross section and its neglect of the radiobiological relationship between target size and radiosensitivity in evaluating the radiation damage to "point targets".


Recent advancements in broadband wireless communication technologies enable mobile users to receive video streaming services with various smart devices. The long term evolution (LTE) network provides high bandwidth and low latency for several emerging mobile applications. This paper proposes the buffer aware scheduling (BAS) approach to schedule the downlink video traffic in LTE network. The proposed BAS scheme applies the weighting function to heuristically adjust the scheduling priority by considering the buffer status and channel condition of UE so as to reduce the time that UE stays in the connected state without receiving data. Both of 1080P and 2160P resolution video streaming sources were applied for exhaustive simulations to examine the performance of the proposed scheme by comparing to that of the fair bandwidth (FB) and the best channel quality indicator (CQI) schemes. The simulation results indicate that the proposed BAS scheme not only achieves better performance in power saving, streaming delivery time, and throughput than the FB scheme while maintaining the similar performance as the best CQI scheme in light traffic load. Specifically, the proposed scheme reduces streaming delivery time and generates less signaling overhead than the best CQI scheme when the traffic load is heavy.


A R=44.3 m grazing-incidence grating spectrometer has been implemented on the Livermore electron beam ion traps for high-resolution measurements in the soft x-ray and extreme ultraviolet region spanning from below 10 up to 50 A. The instrument uses a grating with variable line spacing (about 2400 l/mm for a flat field of view. Spectra are recorded with a back-illuminated charge-coupled device detector. The new instrument greatly improves upon the resolution achieved with existing grating spectrometers and complements crystal spectrometers at the shorter wavelengths both in terms of wavelength coverage and polarization independent reflectivity response.


Sum of exchangeable and solution forms of soil potassium is widely used to determine potassium availability for plants. Reliability of these methods is not enough in soils that contain 2:1 phyllosilicates. Additional to exchangeable potassium, nonexchamgeable potassium also has an important role in plant nutrition. Limited information about availability and release kinetics of nonexchangeable potassium in calcareous soils of Fars province is available. For this purpose, some extractants including ammonium acetate, boiling nitric acid, 0.1M nitric acid, 2M sodium chloride and water were evaluated to prediction of potassium availability for corn in 10 calcareous soils of Fars province. Release kinetics of nonexchangeable potassium was studied using 15 successive 15-min extraction with 0.01M calcium chloride. Kinetics models describing nonexchangeable potassium release rate including zero order, first order, second order, third order, parabolic diffusion, power function and ellovich were evaluated. Results showed that 1M neutral amonium acetate, 0.1M aitric acid, water and 2M sodium chloride extractants had high correlation with corn potassium uptake. Amount of potassium released among studied soils was vary in the range of 243 to 814 mg kg-1. According to R2 and SE, kinetics of nonexchangeable potassium release was described with power function, parabolic diffusion and ellovich equations satisfactorily. According to this fact that constant rate of parabolic diffusion and ellovich models had significant correlations with corn potassium uptake, it is recommended that these two models are suitable for use in these studied soils.


This paper explains the path to competition advocacy in Brazil. More specifically, it addresses how the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring of Brazil´s Ministry of Finance (SEAE) inherited the role to promote competition among government bodies and citizens alike. It also shows the prospects for the development of competition advocacy by SEAE.


Analyzing asymmetry in species associated with disturbed environments enables the evaluation of the morphological plasticity of generalistic species and the different evolutionary responses of sexes or populations to environmental or genetic stress. This report is a study of the cranial and mandibular asymmetry of Colombian Artibeus lituratus. This species has a wide distribution and high abundance, but its morphological plasticity remains uncertain. We characterized its presence, fluctuating asymmetry, directional asymmetry and antisymmetry by measuring 11 craneometric traits in 146 adults from different localities. Fluctuating asymmetry was present in all traits; directional asymmetry and antisymmetry in three; and no measurement error in any trait. Females showed more fluctuating asymmetry in the splachnocranium and males in the neurocranium. Traits with functional importance while biting had lower levels of asymmetry and higher similarity. Traits with antisymmetry did not show association while traits with directional asymmetry showed mandibular association. We discuss the relation between the presence of cranial and mandibular asymmetry, with the functional similarity of different traits.


Vocabulary as the building block of language has always encountered challenging issues by researchers. One of these challenges is the transition of receptive lexical knowledge to productive mode. The nature of such a process and also the tools which might be useful in simplifying it are among basic questions which are needed to consider by related researchers. The present study, in essence, sets out to cast light on this issue by elaborating on structural semantic tests as an appropriate practical tool for helping learners push their receptive vocabulary knowledge into productive mode. To explain such a goal, 58 EFL learners took part in the study to take two productive tests: a L1 to L2 translation test; and a structural semantic test accompanied by sentence making. A number of them were then interviewed to share their views on the test. The results of the study revealed that structural semantic test is an effective approach for facilitating the procedure of transferring receptive vocabulary into productive compared to the commonly-used equivalent finding test. The study also led to a set of implications which are discussed.


Background: A large number of specimens are submitted to histopathology departments for microscopic examination where it is felt that this examination is inappropriately time consuming, costly, and contributes little if anything to the further management of the patients.
Objectives: To assess that the histologic examination of macroscopically normal looking gallbladder specimens is really needed.
Study Design: Descriptive study.
Setting: IIMCT-Railway General hospital, Rawalpindi.
Methods: All cholecystectomy specimens submitted to the department of histopathology at the Railway Hospital IIMCT, during a 5 years period from January 2006 to December 2010, were included in the study regardless of age and sex. The total number of blocks submitted was 400 (average 1.2 blocks/ specimen).
 Specimen reports were retrieved by computer search. The clinical history provided on the specimen request form was recorded. The case notes were retrieved in cases of malignancy to evaluate preoperative ultrasound and intraoperative findings. Macroscopic findings by a consultant pathologist were recorded from the reports. The subsequent microscopic findings from these cases were reassessed to determine whether any lesions of clinical importance were identified.

Results: A total of 326 cases of gallbladder specimens were subjected to histopathological examination within the study period. Twenty seven percent ( n=88) were males and 73 %( n=238) were females with age range from 54 years to 80 years (average 62 years). Chronic cholecystitis was the most common findings with about 84.7% of cases (n=276), followed by acute cholecystitis14.7% (n=48). Only two of the gall bladders showed adenocarcinoma (0.6%), which was preoperatively diagnosed on ultrasound findings and suspected on gross/macroscopic examination.

Conclusions: Microscopic assessment of macroscopically normal cholecystectomy specimens does not contribute to patient management and a more selective approach should be considered. This will reduce the burden on pathology departments, along with considerable cost containment.


The aim of this work was to analyze the potentiality of polarimetric P-band data for land use and land cover mapping in a site of the Brazilian Amazonia. These data are the first P-band image set gathered in the Brazilian Amazonia, so they represent an unique opportunity of analyzing the potentiality of this frequency for classification purposes. The stratification of land use/land cover classes was performed using a classification system specially developed for polarimetric data. Results showed that P-band data were able to discriminate forest and regeneration areas from crop, pasture and bare soil areas. Moreover, regeneration areas (older than 12 years) were successfully distinguished from primary forest and other regeneration stages.


We show that there is a polynomial-time algorithm with approximation guarantee $\frac{3}{2}+\epsilon$ for the $s$-$t$-path TSP, for any fixed $\epsilon>0$. It is well known that Wolsey's analysis of Christofides' algorithm also works for the $s$-$t$-path TSP with its natural LP relaxation except for the narrow cuts (in which the LP solution has value less than two). A fixed optimum tour has either a single edge in a narrow cut (then call the edge and the cut lonely) or at least three (then call the cut busy). Our algorithm "guesses" (by dynamic programming) lonely cuts and edges. Then we partition the instance into smaller instances and strengthen the LP, requiring value at least three for busy cuts. By setting up a $k$-stage recursive dynamic program, we can compute a spanning tree $(V,S)$ and an LP solution $y$ such that $(\frac{1}{2}+O(2^{-k}))y$ is in the $T$-join polyhedron, where $T$ is the set of vertices whose degree in $S$ has the wrong parity.


People's consultative assembly (MPR) from the beginning is formed as an institution with consensus principle, a principle of people's consultative through consultative agency. The position and the authority of consultative agency started to change significantly after the amandements of 1945's constitution. Even some opined that people's consultative assembly is no longer required. There are several important issues that will be discuss as the main topic in this paper. First, development planning vs broad outlines of the nations direction (GBHN). Second, the authority of people's consultative assembly to set the regulating provisions. Third, the authority of people's consultative assembly to provide a constitutional interpretation. Fourth, this assembly reviewed it's own provisions. Fifth, this assembly issued a decree inaugurating of president and vice president. These fifth reformulation issues are crucial among the dynamics of our state administration system and our current conditions, also in order to strengthen the functions of the people's consultative assembly as a center for people's representation.


A multivariate statistical analysis (MSA)-based power-grid-partitioning method is proposed. Considering the effectiveness of automatic voltage regulation of generators, network modelling is based on the quasi-steady-state sensitivity of voltage with respect to reactive power. The MSA-based power-grid-partitioning method contains two stages: a quantitative method for determining the appropriate number of zones and allocation of nodes into a number of zones. The proposed method is applied to an automatic voltage control system and an N − 1 robust pilot node selection method is presented. Simulation studies on IEEE 14-bus, 39-bus systems and a real provincial power system in China are described to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Having evolved in a dynamic solar system, all life on earth has adapted to and depends on recurring and repeating cycles of light, heat, and gravity. Our sleep cycles, reproductive cycles, and emotional cycles are all linked in varying ways to planetary motion even though we continually disrupt, modify, or extend these cycles to go about our personal and collective business. This essay explores how our sense of time is both physiological and cultural, with deep ramifications for confronting such challenges as jet lag, navigation, calendar construction, shift work, and even life span. Although chronobiologists have posited the existence of a Zeitgeber, or external master clock that serves to reset our internal clocks, it has become clear that any master clock relies as much on natural elements (such as a rising sun) as cultural elements (such as an alarm clock). Moreover the "circa" of circadian rhythms, suggests that our activities and emotions recur, not in exact twenty-four-hour cycles, but in more plastic and approximate cycles that, according to circumstance and individual, may span somewhat longer or shorter periods than one earthly rotation. Or as one chronobiologist explains, "Any one physiologic variable is characterized by a spectrum of rhythms that are genetically anchored, sociologically synchronized . . . and influenced by heliogeophysical effects." As we contemplate faster and further travel and other activities that disrupt our biorhythms, we need to develop greater awareness of chronophilia, our attachment to rhythm, our love of familiar time.


Objective: To evaluate the extent to which patient-reported outcomes (PROs) (eg, health-related quality of life) are distinct from clinical outcomes following bariatric surgery. Background: Hospital quality measurement often focuses on traditional clinical outcomes (eg, complications). However, PROs may provide a unique perspective regarding performance, particularly for common, low-risk procedures. Methods: We used data from 11,420 patients who underwent bariatric surgery (2008–2012) from the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative (39 hospitals). We included both short-term (30-day complication rates) and long-term (1-year weight loss and comorbidity resolution) outcomes. For PROs, we used health-related quality of life assessed by the Health and Activities Limitations Index (HALex) and Bariatric Quality of Life (BQL) index preoperatively and at 1 year. We used multivariable linear regression to determine the association between these PROs and both short and long-term clinical outcomes, adjusting for patient factors and the type of surgical procedure. Results: After adjustment for risk factors and surgical procedure, hospital rankings based on PROs (either the average change in HALex or BQL scores) were not correlated with hospital rankings based on complications. In contrast, both PRO measures were correlated with weight loss. Specifically, the average change in HALex score (R2 = 0.24, P < 0.002) and average change in BQL score (R2 = 0.44, P < 0.001) were correlated with hospital average percent excess. One PRO measure—BQL score—was correlated with a decline in the need for medications due to associated comorbidities (R2 = 0.16, P < 0.01). After accounting for short and long-term clinical outcomes, between 15% and 44% of the variation in PROs remained unexplained at the hospital level. Conclusions: Patient-reported outcomes are not correlated with early perioperative events, but are correlated with measures of clinical effectiveness after bariatric surgery. A comprehensive approach to surgical quality should incorporate both clinical events and self-reported measures of health status throughout the short and long-term recovery period.


Understanding the risks of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) allows for better patient education and management. Multiple risk models have been validated in large patient populations and provide insights into the risks associated with CVD. When assessing such risks, we suggest using a model that predicts myocardial infarction, cardiovascular death, and/or cerebrovascular events. In this review, we analyze several risk models and stratify the risks associated with CVD. We suggest that appropriate profiling of patients at-risk of CVD will lead to better physician recognition and treatment of modifiable risk factors, appropriate application of ATP III treatment for hyperlipidemia, and achieving optimal blood pressure control.


In this paper, we investigate a cooperative communication system with many different channel estimations, including the amplifies-and-forward (AaF), the proposed estimate-and-forward (EaF), and the proposed adaptive channel estimations. The proposed adaptive channel estimation shows the optimum performance in such a way that the error probability is closed to the EaF channel estimation, which yields a minimum error probability, but uses less amount of pilot. Meanwhile, the error probability is lower than the AaF channel estimation with a penalty of slightly additional pilot usage. Simulation results also reveal this advantage.


A seed-loading device was designed and modeled using the Monte Carlo method to verify the biological effect of iodine-125 (125I) particles on blood vessels through animal experiments. The dose distribution characteristics of irradiated vessels were established by adjusting the design variables and geometry. The deviation between the actual value and the theoretical value was verified in vitro by the thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) method. After verification, the device was used to examine the biological effect of 125I irradiation of canine carotid arteries in two dogs (and one control dog) for 180 days. The hollow cylinder seed-loading device was constructed with an inner diameter of 0.5 cm and a length of 3.3 cm. When six seeds were loaded into a single layer, the source strength ratio of the intermediate layer to the edge layer was 0.7:1. When six layers of seeds were arranged at 0.45-cm intervals, the deviations between the maximum, minimum and mean energy fluence within 2.25 cm of the vessel wall were 2.19% and –4.12%, respectively, and –9% and 4%, respectively, when verified in vitro using TLD. The carotid arteries showed good tolerance to 0.56 kGy (range of 0.51–0.58 kGy) after 180 days of irradiation. In conclusion, this 125I seed-loading device overcomes the random distribution of seeds and lays an accurate radiophysical foundation for subsequent biological experiments. The preliminary results showed that the carotid artery has good tolerance to 0.56 kGy irradiation.


Electronic systems that offer elastic mechanical responses to high strain deformations are of growing interest, due to their ability to enable new electrical, optical and biomedical devices and other applications whose requirements are impossible to satisfy with conventional wafer-based technologies or even with those that offer simple bendability. This talk describes materials and mechanical design strategies for classes of electronic circuits that offer extremely high flexibility and stretchability over large area, enabling them to accommodate even demanding deformation modes, such as twisting and linear stretching to 'rubber-band' levels of strain over 100%. The use of printed single crystalline silicon nanomaterials for the semiconductor provides performance in flexible and stretchable complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits approaching that of conventional devices with comparable feature sizes formed on silicon wafers. Comprehensive theoretical studies of the mechanics reveal the way in which the structural designs enable these extreme mechanical properties without fracturing the intrinsically brittle active materials or even inducing significant changes in their electrical properties. The results, as demonstrated through electrical measurements of arrays of transistors, CMOS inverters, ring oscillators and differential amplifiers, suggest a valuable route to high performance stretchable electronics that can be integrated with nearly arbitrary substrates. We show examples ranging from plastic and rubber, to vinyl, leather and paper, with capability for large area coverage.


Natural selection processes are constantly influencing vegetation community composition. In the presence of anthropogenic contaminants additional forces act as filters controlling persistence of naturally occurring species. Classical species diversity and richness metrics can miss subtle changes under disturbance regimes while species composition and functional characteristics may be able to detect them. Our study was designed to investigate legacy impacts of explosives contaminated soils in an experimental minefield on vegetative communities using ecological metrics. As hypothesized, species diversity and richness showed no change in the presence of explosive compounds while species composition provided clear separation of groups and functional trait dominance was also observed to change. Overall, presence of anthropogenic contaminates have led to community composition and functional shifts for vegetation after initial contamination. The responses in species composition and functional diversity/richness were a result of new tolerant species filling open niches in contaminated plots. More work is needed to confirm this in varied systems and in the presence of diverse contaminants.


The Woodford Shale is anecdotally assumed to be the major source of oil for plays in the Anadarko Basin, including the stacked oil and condensate play in the southcentral Oklahoma oil province (SCOOP). However, there is little published geochemical work to confirm this assumption. This study set out to identify a characteristic geochemical fingerprint for the Goddard Formation, another potential source rock in the SCOOP, to determine if the Goddard is contributing to oil accumulations within the SCOOP. The Upper Mississippian Goddard Formation has been a target for unconventional production in SCOOP since 2012. Published geochemical interpretations for the Goddard Formation are still limited, and this study represents the first detailed oil–source rock correlation for the Goddard in the SCOOP area. The most characteristic geochemical signature of the Goddard extracts is a predominance of tricyclic terpanes relative to the hopanes in the mass-to-charge ratio 191 chromatogram, possibly related to enrichment via thermal stress or a unique source signature. Additional distinctive signatures were also identified for the triaromatic steroid hydrocarbons, sesquiterpenoids, and steranes. The biomarker fingerprints of SCOOP oils are nearly identical with those of the Goddard extracts in this study. Oils in the SCOOP, therefore, appear to originate from a Mississippian source, such as the Goddard rather than the Woodford. This observation demonstrates the value of oil–source rock correlation studies and suggests that there may be effective source rocks in the Anadarko Basin that have been overlooked in the past and should be re-evaluated in detail.


Recent literature demonstrates that tumor hijacks physiological mechanisms of C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) that normally restrain immune cell-mediated tissue damage to suppress myeloid cell activation and promotes immune escape. We previously demonstrated that the orphan CLR CLEC-1 expressed by myeloid cells, is enhanced by the immunosuppressive cytokine TGFβ and tempers downstream CD4+ Th1 and Th17 responses following sterile inflammation. Interestingly, we observed a high CLEC-1 expression by human CD11b+ myeloid cells from ovarian ascites and from in-vitro generated pro-tumoral M2 macrophages. Moreover, open-source data show that Clec1a is highly expressed by XCR1-expressing mouse dendritic cells (DC). As these cDC1 are specialized in cross-presentation of dead cell-associated antigens, we evaluated whether CLEC-1 could be a receptor of damaged cells and regulate anti-tumor immunity. Interestingly, we observed that both human and mouse CLEC-1 bind specifically to secondary necrotic cells. No binding was observed with viable, primary necrotic or with early apoptotic cells suggesting that the ligand(s) of CLEC-1 correspond(s) to Damage-Associated Molecular Pattern(s) induced by the cell death process. Then, to test if CLEC-1 in DCs influences cross-presentation of dead cell-associated antigens, we immunized WT and Clec1a KO mice with OVA-loaded dead cells and co-injected OVA-specific TCR transgenic CD8+ OT-I T cells. Impressively, we observed an increased proliferation of CD8+ T cells in the absence of CLEC-1, demonstrating that CLEC-1 in DCs tempers cross-presentation of dead cell-associated antigens. Interestingly, we observed in a model of subcutaneous MC38 colon carcinoma that the combination of the absence of CLEC-1 with cytotoxic and immunogenic chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide), reduces significantly the tumor growth and cures most of the mice. Similarly, in orthotopic models of mesothelioma (AK7) or hepatocarcinoma (Hepa1.6), we observed a prolongation of survival of Clec1a KO mice. Mechanistically, this was associated with an increase of effector CD69+ and of central memory CD44hi CD62Lhi CCR7hi CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in both liver and spleen. Furthermore, we observed a decrease in myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Besides, macrophages display a more mature phenotype relative to MHC class II expression. In addition, transcriptomics analysis performed in tumor-bearing liver of Clec1a KO mice revealed a profound decrease in CSF1 expression suggesting a defect in immunosuppressive myeloid cell recruitment. Moreover, we observed an increase in CCL17 and CCL7 expression, both known to activate CD8+ T cells through DCs and to enhance anti-tumor immunity. Taken together, these results suggest that CLEC-1 in DCs by acting as sensor of cell damage tempers immune response and represents a novel pharmacological target for cancer immunotherapy. Citation Format: Marion Drouin, Javier Saenz, Berangere Evrard, Vanessa Gauttier, Geraldine Teppaz, Maria-Dolores Lopez-Robles, Cedric Louvet, Nicolas Poirier, Elise Chiffoleau. CLEC-1 suppress dendritic cell antigen presentation and is a novel myeloid immune checkpoint target for cancer immunotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 3423.


The folding architecture is a universal mechanism to approximate mappings between trees and real vector spaces with a neural network. The part encoding the trees and the part approximating the mapping are trained simultaneously so that the encoding ts to the speciic learning task. In this article we show that this architecture is capable of approximating any mapping arbitrary well.


Abstract. Frahtia K, Attar MR, Diabi C. 2022. Diversity and richness of day butterflies species (Lepidoptera Rhopalocera) in the Chettaba Forest, Constantine, Northeastern Algeria. Biodiversitas 23: 3429-3436. In order to balance the lack of data concerning lepidopteran fauna in the region of Constantine (northeastern Algeria), a preliminary inventory has been drawn up in that region. This work was led during the 2021 spring season at the Chettaba Forest, where three stations were chosen: The 'Aleppo pine forest', the low matorral and the high matorral. Data collection required one outing per week for each site, during which specimens were collected and/or enumerated. A total of 815 specimens from 15 species belonging to 3 families were recorded: Pieridae (6 species), Lycaenidae (5 species), and Nymphalidae (4 species). The low and the high matorrals were the richest stations, with 15 species for the former and 11 species for the latter, but only 10 species were observed in the 'Aleppo pine forest'. The highest centesimal and occurrence frequencies were recorded for Pieris rapae in all three stations. The low matorral proved to be the most diversified station (H´: 3.00 bits) because of an important heterogeneity and quality of the habitat due to the biological post-fire rise that makes it richer in nectar-bearing plants, which is important for butterfly concentration.


Continuously variable transmission (CVT) of toroidal type has a elliptical shape of contact zone under the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) condition, where the power is transmitted only by shearing the lubricant. Due to the small contact area of elliptical shape, the traction of the shear behaviors of lubricant over the contact zone is under extremely high contact pressure over 1.0GPa. During the power transmission by shearing the fluid, many kinds of mechanical movements occur such as squeezing, sliding, rolling and spin. Among the movements, the spin effect that is the most undesirable contact behavior in transmitting the power frequently makes significant abnormal wear damage. In this work, the analysis of elliptical contact of EHL with spin effect is performed, which will give very useful information to understand the traction behaviors in toroidal type of CVT system.


Expectation is an activity that interprets what will happen in the future based on the relevant data from the past. A good expectation method gives result which is not different with the fact.
Nowadays, this expectation holds very important role in determining both continuity of company and government. Expectation is also used systematically to solve many kinds of problems. One example of government problem is taxes.
This research uses the data of realization result of advertisement tax acceptance from district income department (DISPENDA) of Malang regency, and analyzes it by using single exponential smoothing method. It is one of methods that can be used for expecting data with
random character. This method purposes to get the minimum absolute percentage of mistake by taking trial error value. for
To get the expectation result of realization advertisement tax acceptance 2007, the data is analyzed by using single ) Ft Xt + (1- exponential smoothing method Ft+1 = = 0.1 and value of = 0.99, then it is tested by standard statistic and up to Durbin-Watson test, so the result of minimum mistake (galat) is in point = 0.99 is optimal parameter that is used in = 0.99. Then of expecting realization result of advertisement tax acceptance every year. From this research the expectation realization result of advertisement tax acceptance was got Rp 1506417193.80.


MARTIN, MICHAEL M., Ph.D., December 2011 MUSIC EDUCATION THE RELATIONSHIP OF TEACHER ROLE AND TEACHERS' OPINIONS OF THEIR ABILITY TO IMPLEMENT THE BENCHMARKS OF THE OHIO FINE ARTS ACADEMIC CONTENT STANDARDS IN MUSIC. (130 PP.) Co-Directors of Dissertation: Benjamin Ayling, Ph.D. Wayne Gorder. Ed.D. The aim of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was to improve the performance of America's primary and secondary schools by assuring that highly qualified teachers were in place to educate our nation's children. However, music teachers are sometimes placed in job positions that run contrary to their pre-service training. Research indicates a trend of states moving to non-stratified K-12 music certifications that may be exacerbating this problem. This study investigated the relationship of teacher role and music teachers' opinions of their ability to implement the 15 benchmarks associated with the Ohio Fine Arts Academic Content Standards in Music. Participants were a convenience sample of two groups of high school music teachers from Ohio and defined as multidiscipline (instrumental/choral) and specialist (instrumental or choral) music. The final overall response rate was 25.7% (N=147) of specialist (n1=122) and multi-discipline (n2=25) teachers. Data were derived from an online questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. Using a repeated measures analysis of variance, betweenand within-group variances were analyzed to identify differences with respect to teacher role (specialist teachers versus multi-discipline teachers) and benchmark. Findings indicated no significant difference exists between specialist and multidiscipline music teachers' opinions of their ability to implement of the Ohio Fine Arts Academic Content Standards in Music. In addition, there was no significant interaction effect between teacher role and benchmarks. Slight differences between select benchmark means and teacher role suggested future studies could investigate benchmarks by content standard rather than collectively. Future research on the topic of specialist and multidiscipline music teachers will require better precision in sampling and improved control to better investigate distinctions between these teacher groups.


Emotion Recognition through facial expressions has become an active area of research. Challenges like pose and illumination variations in images increases the scope of research. Several machine learning and deep learning techniques have been used to perform emotion recognition. However, these models need huge volume of data for training and are very time-intensive. Few aforesaid challenges are addressed in this work by using meta-learning techniques which require very few training samples for training and helps the model to generalize to new tasks. In this work, the concept of meta-learning with Siamese Networks to recognize emotions from facial expressions for arbitrary poses is used and the model is coined as MREAP (Meta learning approach to Recognize Emotions with Arbitrary Poses). An in-house dataset AED-1 (Amrita Emotions Dataset-1) has been used which consists of images expressing five basic emotions: anger, disgust, happiness, neutral and surprise in seven arbitrary poses and very less training samples are used for training. MREAP predict emotions with poses that are never seen in training which is a novelty in FER tasks. In this work, the model learns and builds feature vectors for making predictions using Euclidean distance as the metric and it achieved an accuracy of 80%.


THERE IS no general agreement as to the operation of choice for chronic duodenal ulcer. While feeling that no operation can be used for every patient, it has been routine practice for many years in Doctor R. L. Holt's surgical unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary, England, to treat most chronic duodenal ulcers by the operation of vagotomy and "anterior pylorectomy." In "anterior pylorectomy," a small lozenge is excised from the anterior aspect of the pyloric sphincter and adjacent stomach and duodenum and the defect repaired transversely. In our opinion, there can be little difference functionally between this and the Heineke-Mikulicz type of pyloroplasty and the operation should be considered a type of pyloroplasty. No attempt was made at selective vagotomy in any of these operations. In order to assess the use of vagotomy and a pyloric drainage procedure in the surgical treatment of duodenal ulcer it is important to establish


Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effect of sildenafil on the liver, when administered prior to the episode of liver ischemia/reperfusion . Method: We used 12 Wistar rats. In both IR group (n=6) and IR sildenafil group (n=6), hepatic ischemia was induced for 45 minutes by occlusion of blood vessels supplying the median and lateral lobes of the liver using a vascular clip (bulldog). IR group animals were treated with sildenafil citrate at a dose of 0.7 mg/kg by gavage, 30 minutes before ischemia. During the observation period of ischemia/reperfusion, the abdomen was temporarily closed. After 45 min the vascular clamp was removed, and reperfusion occurred by 60 min. Liver biodistribution of Tc-99m-phytate, histopathology and serum AST, ALT, LDH were analyzed. Results : In animals treated with sildenafil the right lobe of the liver (without ischemia) had significantly higher radioactivity uptake than in the untreated rats (p <0.001). After ischemia/reperfusion, sildenafil failed to improve the radioactive uptake in the left lobe (p = 0.01). Comparing the right and left lobes, the radioactive uptake was lower in lobe left than in right lobe (p = 0.005) of untreated rats (controls). The liver function tests were significantly more impaired in the group treated with sildenafil than in controls. Conclusion: Sildenafil contributed to the deterioration of liver function in a model of ischemia/reperfusion.


Video fingerprinting is one of the most promising technologies to uniquely identify video content in the Internet in a totally format-independent way. The logic behind the creation of the video fingerprints or perceptual hashes is a key factor for the performance of the system, especially in terms of storage and search efficiency. Although several video fingerprinting methods have been proposed, most of them largely focus on the robustness of the perceptual hashes to distortions, giving much less importance to the required storage as well as the efficiency of the database structure for fast and reliable searches of video content. In this paper we propose a video fingerprinting system with an excellent robustness to distortions but also offering lower storage requirements and a more efficient database structure than prior schemes.


The balance between hematopoietic progenitors and differentiated hemocytes is finely tuned during development. In the larval hematopoietic organ of Drosophila, called the lymph gland, the receptor tyrosine kinase Pvr signals from differentiated cells to maintain a pool of undifferentiated progenitors. However, little is known about the processes that support Pvr function. The small GTPase Ral is involved in the regulation of several membrane trafficking events. Drosophila has a single Ral protein, Rala, which has been implicated in the development of various tissues. Here, we investigated the involvement of Rala in the larval fly hematopoietic system. We discovered that the loss of Rala activity phenocopies Pvr loss of function by promoting hemocyte progenitor differentiation. Moreover, using epistasis analysis, we found that the guanine exchange factor RalGPS lies upstream of Rala in this event, whereas the exocyst and Rab11 are acting downstream. Strikingly, the loss of Rala activity leads to a considerable accumulation of Pvr at the plasma membrane, hence suggesting a trafficking defect and reduced Pvr function. Consistent with this hypothesis, Rala loss of function phenotype in the lymph gland is fully suppressed by constitutive STAT activity, which normally mediates Pvr function in the lymph gland. Together, our findings unravel a novel RalGPS-Rala-exocyst-Rab11 axis for the maintenance of lymph gland homeostasis through Pvr.