Several factors which influence the rate of inactivation of muscle postjunctional membrane (PJM) receptors during the sustained application of carbamylcholine (CARB) have been studied by two methods. The rate of inactivation was increased by elevating the tonicity of the bathing medium, by increasing the CARB concentration, by raising the calcium ion concentration, and by substituting SO4 = for Cl- ions in the extracellular fluid. The relative effectiveness of calcium and other divalent cations in receptor inactivation was compared. In the absence of calcium, other divalent cations such as magnesium, strontium, or manganese were not efficient substitutes for calcium. In the presence of calcium, the addition of strontium or manganese ions accelerated the rate of receptor inactivation, but the addition of magnesium (up to 12 mM) inhibited this process. The inactivation of the membrane receptors in denervated muscle fibers was found to be similar to that in innervated muscle fibers. Various factors in PJM receptor inactivation are discussed. It is suggested that PJM receptor inactivation is influenced by the binding of calcium ions to sites on the internal surface of the PJM.


The analysis of the sequence, diversity and abundance of nucleic acids underpins modern biology. There are many books available that introduce the uninitiated to the delights of nucleic acid analysis, mostly in the form of recipe collections, and such books succeed or fail by the attention to detail given to optimization, standardization and trouble-shooting protocols. Given that nucleic acid analyses are now used routinely in forensic and food safety fields, robust methods are highly desirable, if not essential.

This book takes the welcome approach of focussing on quality control, quality assurance, optimization, validation and calibration. The first chapter sets the context for the rest of the book, introducing 'Valid Analytical Measurement' principles, which will be familiar to those working in ISO17025 and similar environments. The second chapter discusses quality in the molecular laboratory and provides pointers to the relevant ISO and other standards, and stresses the need for sample and metrological traceability. The third chapter introduces the general principles of method validation and the concepts of accuracy, precision, limit of detection, limit of quantification, measurement uncertainty, etc., and then gives a worked example of the validation of a realtime PCR procedure.

The next four chapters cover DNA extraction, DNA quantification, factors affecting PCR reliability and validity, and quantitative realtime PCR. The DNA quantification chapter is particularly helpful – emphasizing the necessity of using an appropriate method for the material under study. The PCR chapter has clear guidelines for dealing with inhibitory materials present in DNA from animal samples, but, alas, it is poor on plant DNA. The post-PCR analysis section of this chapter is quite short and only gives a general introduction to the subject. The quantitative realtime PCR chapter clearly explains the different approaches that are now available, and has a helpful comparison of realtime PCR machines. This chapter also covers the mathematics for understanding quantitative PCR.

The eighth chapter deals with multiplex PCR and whole-genome PCR. As with the realtime PCR chapter, there is some unnecessary repetition within the chapter. It does, however, mention untemplated nucleotide addition, but does not give practical advice on minimizing the difficulties that it can cause (beyond saying that it is easier to optimize the addition of the extra nucleotide).

The following chapter, on RNA, includes more data from real experiments than is typical of the other chapters, and uses these experiments as a way of conveying tips and tricks. The authors deal with extraction, quantification, quality assessment and qPCR in an engaging way. As in the PCR chapter, the emphasis is on RNA of animal origin and therefore those with green fingers should look elsewhere for guidance on extracting plant RNA, although much of the chapter is of general interest.

The tenth and final chapter deals with microarrays, and is almost entirely based on the use of arrays in the analysis of gene expression. There is a helpful discussion of the basic types of array and the applications of arrays. A good part of the chapter deals with obtaining reliable, consistent data from microarray experiments. Much of the inconsistency in microarray experiments is due to the complexity of the procedure, and the chapter considers each step in turn with recommendations for minimizing the inconsistency. The authors also include pointers to international and national initiatives that have evolved in order to foster the adoption of uniform methods and standardized techniques.

In a book such as this, one would expect a chapter on robust methods for DNA sequencing, but neither sequencing nor resequencing is covered. One of the shortcomings of this kind of book is that, due to the time scales involved, the science and technology have moved on since the ink dried on the authors' submissions. This book, for instance, does not cover next-generation sequencing (Solexa, 454, Solid, etc.) and nor does it cover the more modern forms of genotyping (e.g. the Illumina Golden Gate system) that have revolutionized nucleic acid analysis in the last two years. It would seem to be self-evident that quality management principles should be applied to techniques that generate such enormous volumes of raw data.

Whilst the book is primarily directed at laboratories within the professional analytical sector, it would be of immense benefit to many undergraduates and recent graduates. The book is well produced, with clear diagrams and illustrations of key points. In summary, it is a book that is recommended reading for anyone involved in the analysis of nucleic acids, particularly those using PCR-based techniques.


The rising costs of health and social support systems for an aging population will become unsustainable without proactive steps to create individual and environmental changes that promote successful aging. Unfortunately, many older adults do not currently have a healthy lifestyle and are at risk for poor health outcomes, including chronic illnesses and mortality. The authors review the behavioral and psychosocial correlates of health and well-being, which include resilience, self-efficacy, smoking, physical activity, diet, good sleep, and having a strong social network, and linked them to the concept of successful aging. They discuss the unique challenges of maintaining health behaviors among older adults over time and review 3 of the most common approaches to lifestyle intervention in older adults (ie, social cognitive theory, the transtheoretical model, and social ecological models). They conclude that initiation and maintenance of behaviors require perceptions of control (self-efficacy), a belief in the positive health outcomes for performing these behaviors, and a value for the outcome (outcome expectancy) for successful aging to be realized. Moreover, more research is needed that takes a broader ecological perspective that makes use of multilevel strategies to behavior change in older adults.


Slip casted, carbon bonded nozzles with active mullite coating arehave been simultaneously tested with uncoated nozzles in a steel casting simulator according to their clogging behavior against endogenous as well as exogenous non‐metallic inclusions. After the tests with inclusions containing steel melt no clogging of particles could be observed on the active mullite coating after steel melt contact. The investigations show a position‐dependent partially till completely decomposition of the mullite coating into coarse grained alumina‐rich particles and a second phase with a main composition in the ternary system MnO–SiO2–Al2O3. It has been verified that these decomposition was caused by multiple reactions between the mullite coating and the substrate during heat‐up as well as interactions between the coating and alloying elements of the steel melt during the tests.


In this letter, it is pointed out that the two-matrix model defined by the action S = ½(trA2 + trB2) − [(αA)/(4)]trA4 − [(αB)/(4)]trB4 − [(β)/(2)]tr(AB)2 can be solved in the large-N limit using a generalization of the solution of Kazakov and Zinn-Justin (who considered the symmetric case αA = αB). This model could have useful applications to 3D Lorentzian gravity.


We have developed an intelligent robot camera system to support the production of broadcast television programs. The objective was to develop a system that automatically shoots scenes that are completely natural as if taken by an experienced camera operator, and that enables a single operator to control multiple cameras at the same time. We have developed an automatic program production system that is composed of several network-connected robot cameras programmed to mimic the shooting and camerawork techniques of professional camera operators. In this paper we give an overview of a prototype system using a new subject detection system and three robot cameras that are linked over a network and present a detailed summary of the trial results.


Abstract Background Brucellosis is a zoonotic infection. Humans contract brucellosis through inhalation of aerosolized infected particles, or when they come in direct contact with infected animal parts, or on consuming unpasteurised dairy products. It can affect multiple organs and systems. Endocarditis is diagnosed late in the course of the disease with mostly aortic valve involvement with serious morbidity and mortality. Case summary We report a case series of four patients with Brucella endocarditis. The first patient presented with fever, malaise, and exertional breathlessness. He underwent aortic valve replacement for refractory heart failure and bulky vegetations after failed medical therapy. The second patient presented with fever, breathlessness New York Heart Association (NYHA) III, with arthralgia, myalgia, anorexia, and weight loss. In view of aortic abscess with impending rupture and compression of left main coronary artery, aortic valve replacement was performed on the 4th day of antibiotic treatment. The third patient presented with fever, fatigue, NYHA II, and developed peripheral embolization but responded to medical treatment alone. The fourth patient presented with intermittent fever for 7 months. During hospitalization, he suffered acute limb ischaemia and stroke with absence of left dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial pulsation. Brucella IgG ELISA was positive. Mitral valve replacement was done subsequently with unremarkable hospital course. Discussion Brucellosis is a challenging diagnosis to make. The diagnosis and treatment is often delayed as it presents with non-specific symptoms and signs. Cardiac involvement occurs in only 2% of the cases, but accounts for 80% of the mortality due to brucellosis. Brucella endocarditis should be suspected in cases of endocarditis with negative blood cultures and a risk of exposure. The most accepted treatment for Brucella endocarditis is a combination of antimicrobial therapy with surgery.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in suburban traffic planning and guidance, but their short endurance and limited range still affect the application prospect of UAVs. Therefore, the heterogeneous system between UAVs and intelligent vehicles (IVs) can effectively solve this problem. We propose a vision based UAV autonomous landing system and construct a traffic simulation scene based on a complex urban road. This paper uses the gazebo-based simulation platform to test the whole heterogeneous autonomous landing system in different conditions. The quadrotor UAVs are equipped with a monocular camera to detect landmarks. Then, the PID-based controller is used to autonomously land our UAVs. The experiments are conducted using different flight heights. The experimental results indicate that:1) the simulation platform can quantitatively analyze heterogeneous autonomous landing system performance. 2) sufficient adjustment time and higher landmark recognition metrics can effectively improve the landing performance of UAVs.


The utilization of biomass from plants is one efforts for the fulfillment an availability of alternative energy in indonesia. Gliricidia sepium is a tolerant species that can grow in dry land. However its utilization as renewable energy source is non-optimized. This study aims to analyze the potential carbon stocks and biomass from Gliricidia sepium as a raw material for alternative energy in East Nusa Tenggara. This study was conducted in November 2015 and located in Humusu Sainiup, Timor Tengah Utara Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province. The method used in collecting data was applied in three different land-use, namely monoculture Gliricidia sepium, polyculture between Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala, and polyculture between Gliricidia sepium and Zea mays. We used the allometric equation from Ketterings namely B = 0.11ρD2+0,62 and C = 0.5 x B. The results showed that the different land-use will give different value of carbon stocks which is in this study the biggest value of carbon stocks was found in monoculture of Gliricidia sp (35.35 tC ha-1) compared with Gliricidia sp + Leucaena sp (18.83 tC ha-1), and Gliricidia sp + Zea mays (13.79 tC ha-1). The value of biomass and carbon stocks was influenced by wood density, trees density, and diameter at breast height (dbh).


Abstract : A series of swine-skin decontamination trials were carried out to demonstrate a proof-of-principle for including a radiological detection and decontamination module in DRDC Suffield s Counter-Terrorism Technology Centre / First Responder Training Program (CTTC/FRTP). The radionuclides examined were 64Cu, 42K, 24Na, and 99mTc and the decontamination agents evaluated included Water, Soap, Fuller's Earth paste, and both Active and Non-Active Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion (RSDL). Skin coupons (2 x 2 inches) were prepared from fresh swine skin and then contaminated with 20 L spots in a 5 x 5 grid for each radionuclide. Initial decontamination attempts reduced the residual contamination levels to about 50%. The lowest residual contamination achieved after multiple decontamination cycles was 20%. Fuller s Earth paste proved to be the best decontamination agent with an average final residual contamination level of 20% for all radionuclides except 99mTc. With 99mTc, the lowest residual contamination level achieved was 40% after six decontamination cycles. RSDL (Active and Non-Active) did not prove to be an effective radiological decontamination agent, as Water alone resulted in lower residual contamination levels. These experiments will be repeated using living human skin in tissue culture before presenting a proposal to implement a radiological detection and decontamination module to the DRDC Suffield training program.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Background: CRM1 (XPO1) is the exclusive exportin mediating transport of most tumor suppressor proteins (TSPs) including p53, pRb, FOXO, APC and p21 out of the nucleus, abrogating their function.

Methods: We tested the effects of the potent, selective, clinical stage oral SINE compound KPT-330 in prostate cancer (PrCa) models. Male SCID mice orthotopically (intraprostatic) inoculated with the DU145 PrCa, known to produce highly metastatic tumors with visceral metastases. In parallel, male CD1-nu/nu mice were inoculated with intracardiac and intratibial injections of the aggressive/bone-derived PrCa PC3, known to produce prominent osteolytic bone lesions. The effects of SINEs KPT-330 and KPT-251 on metastatic spreading were determined.

Results: We previously demonstrated that SINE CRM1 antagonists KPT330 and KPT251 have potent antitumor effects on PrCa both in vitro and in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that KPT-330 reduces intraprostatic DU145 tumor burden as well as the incidence of macroscopic metastases to lymph nodes, liver and lung, in a dose-dependent manner. The DU145 tumor burden was reduced by 41% with KPT-330 (4 mg/kg qd/5 days) and 61% (10 mg/kg q 3-4 d x 7) when compared to controls. The incidence of PC3-derived bone metastases were significantly reduced with KPT-330 at 10 mg/kg (q 2d x 3 weeks). At 50 days after cell injection, 80% (8/10) of controls and 0% (0/10) of the KPT-330-treated animals developed X-Ray evidence of bone lesions (p<0.05). The burden of bone metastases, measured by lytic bone area, was significantly higher in controls than in KPT-330-treated animals. Similarly, after intra-tibial injection, the lytic areas were higher in controls than in the KPT-330 group (p<0.05). The level of serum markers of osteoclast activity (TRAP and type I collagen fragment, CTX), was significantly higher in controls than in KPT-330-treated animals. The related SINE KPT-251 (100 mg/Kg q 2d x 3 weeks) confirmed the reduction of bone metastasis following CRM1 inhibition. The overall and disease free survival, evaluated at 170 days after tumor injection, were significantly higher in KPT-330- and KPT-251-treated animals versus controls (P< 0.0001). Treatment of PC3 and DU145 cells with KPT-330 lead to significant reductions in the secretion of proteolytic enzymes (MMP-9, MMP-2, uPA) as well as reduced ability of tumor cells to migrate and invade Matrigel. Impaired secretion of pro-angiogenic (VEGF, IL6, IL8) and pro-osteolytic (RANKL, IL6) cytokines was also observed.

Conclusions: These data show that selective blockade of CRM1-dependent nuclear export has direct antitumor, anti-metastatic and anti-osteolytic activities in PrCa and thus represents a novel approach for the treatment of advanced/ metastatic PrCa. KPT-330 is now in Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with advanced solid tumors (clinicaltrailas.gov: [NCT01607905][1]).

Citation Format: Giovanni Luca Gravina, Monica Tortoreto, Andrea Mancini, Paola Muzi, Luca Ventura, Sandra D'ascenzo, Alessandro Addis, Yosef Landesman, Dilara McCauley, Vincenza Dolo, Michael Kauffman, Sharon Shacham, Nadia Zaffaroni, Claudio Festuccia. CRM1-Selective Inhibitors of Nuclear Export (SINE) reduce the incidence of tumor spreading and improve overall survival in preclinical models of prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3440. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3440

 [1]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT01607905&atom=%2Fcanres%2F73%2F8_Supplement%2F3440.atom


Fistulous tracts about the anus deep to the external sphincter muscle are often associated with such destruction in their vicinity that it is often not anatomically or functionally advisable to cut through the sphincter muscle at the time the fistula is first attacked. The advisability of completely cutting through a fistulous tract in a one-stage operation depends, of course, on the length or depth of the fistula, as well as upon the nature of the surrounding tissue. The unsupported ends of a cut sphincter may likely fall back into recesses of an abscess cavity behind it and even may be held apart permanently as the cavity fills in with new tissue around the sphincter. This may result in partial or total incontinence or a deep trough at the anal verge, which may be difficult to cleanse after a bowel movement. Hence, it may be expedient at times to isolate the


Introduction: Toxoplasma gondii is a ubiquitous obligate intracellular parasite with a relatively broad host range infecting both mammals and birds. Toxoplasma proteins are strong antigens that can begin strong immune reactions, among which Rhoptry protein 1 (ROP1) can be named discharging from rhoptry cell-organ. ROP1 is regarded as a competitor for recombinant vaccines against toxoplasmosis. Therefore, the main objective of the current study was to evaluate the cloning and expression of ROP1 Toxoplasma gondii in a cloning vector as well as to create this recombinant antigen in order to be applied for later uses. Methods: Genomic DNA of Toxoplasma gondii was removed and reproduced by PCR, then the PCR product was cloned into the EcoR1 and BamH1 sites of cloning vector, pUET1, and transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 plysS strain. Moreover, pcROP1 was sub-cloned into the HindIII and EcoRI sites of the pcDNA3 in order to produce recombining eukaryotic declaration vector. The cloned ROP1 was verified by PCR, limitation enzymes (HindIII and BglΙ) digestion and nucleotide sequencing. Then , this recombinant antigen was covered applying IgM and ELISA IgG. Results: The study results demonstrated that a fragment of 757 bp was separated. In addition, nucleotide sequence analysis of the ROP1 cloned in pUET1vector revealed high homology (96%) with RH strain Gene Bank Accession (No. M71274). Conclusion: The recombinant ROP1 antigen in an IgM Rec-ELISA test can be replaced with the tachyzoite antigen in IgG and IgM serologic tests.


Background: Spinal infection and tumor have abnormal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) manifestations in the early stages; however, they are not easy to identify before symptoms appear. These conditions have their own characteristics and need to be correctly diagnosed.Methods: MRI images of six cases of pyogenic spondylitis, eight cases of tuberculous spondylitis, eight cases of Brucella spondylitis, and twelve cases of spinal tumor were reviewed. MRI images of the involved vertebral body, vertebral facet joint, spinous process, paravertebral soft tissue, and posterior dural sac of the vertebral body were analyzed using T2-weighted imaging, T1-weighted imaging, lipgraphy and enhanced MRI, respectively. Results: MRI data of spinal infection, spinal tuberculosis, spinal tumor, and spinal Brucella infection differed in their characteristics.Conclusions: MRI could provide early diagnostic evidence for spinal lesions.


In this paper, I analyse the historical constructions of menstruation in mid‐twentieth century Britain. I examine the complex intertwining relations between the female human body and the female nonhuman body. My argument is twofold: firstly, I argue that endocrinological experiments on nonhuman animals' reproductive cycles were mobilised towards affirming a binary division of female/male, animal/human. This facilitated the perpetuation of patriarchal ideologies in British biomedical research. Secondly, I argue that as a result of these dualistic conceptualisations, the female nonhuman body intersected with the female human body in scientific discourses. These bodily transmutations in scientific research contributed towards a form of social control over women, strategically rendering them as 'Other' with nonhuman animals. I illustrate this using Carol J Adams' (2015) concept of the absent referent.


Local grain orientations were studied in melt-textured YBCO samples processed with various amounts of depleted uranuim oxide (DU) and Y2O3 by means of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. The addition of DU leads to the formation of Ucontaining nanoparticles (Y2Ba4CuUOx) with sizes of around 200 nm, embedded in the superconducting Y-123 matrix. The orientation of the Y2BaCuO5 (Y-211) particles, which are also present in the YBCO bulk microstructure, is generally random as is the case in other melttextured Y-123 samples. The presence of Y-211 particles, however, also affects the orientation of the Y-123 matrix in these samples.


Health risk of human exposure to microcystin-leucine arginine (MC-LR) has aroused more and more attention over the past few decades. In the present study, MC-LR was orally administered to female mice at 0, 1, 10 and 40 μg/L for three and six months. We found that chronic exposure to MC-LR at environmental levels could stimulate follicle atresia and lead to decreased developmental follicles, accompanied by a reduction of gonadosomatic index (GSI). In line with the irregular gonadal hormone level and estrus cycles, subfertility of female mice was also confirmed by analyzing numbers of litters and pups. The in vitro study suggested that granulosa cells could uptake MC-LR and should be the target of the toxicant. Oxidative stress in granulose cells induced by MC-LR promoted follicle atresia and eventually leads to female subfertility.


A solid‐state Glass/TiO2 electrode was fabricated using a transparent conductive titanium oxide film on a glass substrate. The coating of the glass substrate was achieved by a novel simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) procedure. This electrode can be used as an indicator electrode in potentiometric acid‐base titration. This electrode behaves reversibly and responds to the oxide ion concentration in molten nitrate. NH4VO3, KH2PO4, K2HPO4, and their mixture were titrated with Na2O2 at 350°C using the glass/TiO2 electrode in molten NaNO3.


BACKGROUND. We have shown that treatment of human prostate cancer cells with the selective prolactin (PRL) receptor modulator, S179D PRL, inhibits growth in vitro, and the initiation and growth of xenografts in vivo. S179D PRL treatment also upregulates expression of the short form 1b (SF1b) PRL receptor, activation of which upregulates expression of the cell cycle-regulating protein, p21. METHODS. We examined the consequences of long term increased expression and activation of SF1b, at levels comparable to those resulting from treatment with S179D PRL, by creating PC-3-derived stable cell lines expressing a constitutively active form of SF1b, DS2 SF1b. RESULTS. Increased expression ofDS2 SF1b decreased growth and migration of the cells. This was accompanied by an increase in cell-matrix interactions, and cell–cell aggregation when cells were plated on basement membrane components. Real-time PCR evaluated the expression of genes related to invasive capacity. Of particular interest was decreased expression of the protease, urokinase-type plaminogen activator, and its receptor, uPAR, and increased expression of its inhibitors, PAI-1 and 2. Also decreased in cells with increased expression of DS2 SF1b was expression of basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor. CONCLUSION. We conclude that at least part of the beneficial effects of S179D PRL is the result of increased expression of SF1b, and that the effects of increased expression and activation of SF1b continue to be of potential benefit in the long term. Prostate 70: 37–47, 2010. # 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Simulating the propagation of optical pulses in a single mode optical fiber is of fundamental importance for studying the several effects that may occur within such medium when it is under some linear and nonlinear effects. In this work, we simulate it by implementing the nonlinear Schrödinger equation using the Split-Step Fourier method in some of its approaches. Then, we compare their running time, algorithm complexity and accuracy regarding energy conservation of the optical pulse. We note that the method is simple to implement and presents good results of energy conservation, besides low temporal cost. We observe a greater precision for the symmetrized approach, although its running time can be up to 126% higher than the other approaches, depending on the parameters set. We conclude that the time window must be adjusted for each length of propagation in the fiber, so that the error regarding energy conservation during propagation can be reduced.


Lexical selection (i.e., selection of relevant words from the lexicon) is one of the essential linguistic processes associated with speaking. A prominent theory of language production developed by Levelt, Roelofs, and Meyer (1999) posits that lexical selection is a competitive process: Every produced word is a result of comparison of activation levels of multiple alternatives, which "compete" to be selected. In this dissertation, new evidence supporting this view was provided. In the first study, I demonstrated that the distractor effects in the picture-word interference task (PWI) and in the Stroop task are both undermined by competitive lexical selection. This is in line with the competitive account of Levelt et al. and in contrast with some recently advanced findings that linked the distractor effect in PWI to perceptual and conceptual processing. In the second study, I explored whether and how speakers can modify their top-down control in PWI. It was observed that the distractor effect size is dependent on whether the speaker is exerting more or less control. Importantly, under both high and low control the distractor effect was linked to the lexical selection time-window of the processing stream. A series of experiments performed in the third study showed that such control adjustments in PWI were driven by relaxation of control on post-congruent trials, rather than enhancement of control on post-incongruent trials, as a currently dominant conflict-monitoring account suggests. The fourth study demonstrated that speakers can also adjust allocation of processing capacity based on available information about the complexity of an upcoming trial.


High entropy alloys (HEA) are one of the modern-era alloys accelerating with greater velocity because of their excellent properties and different applications. In the present paper, we have successfully fabricated HEA (23Fe-21Cr-18Ni-20Ti-18Mn) powders by ball milling the elemental Fe, Cr, Ni, Ti, and Mn powders for 15 h. The advancement of the milling process and phase transformation of HEAs were studied by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The crystallite size and the lattice strain of the HEA were calculated by using the Williamson-Hall (W-H) equation and the values were found to be 7 nm and 0.0176%, respectively. Similarly, the true lattice parameter was calculated using the Nelson–Riley (N-R) extrapolation method, and the value was found to be 3.544 Å. We have successfully investigated the electrochemical response of 15 h ball milled 23Fe-21Cr-18Ni-20Ti-18Mn HEA powders to determine the ascorbic acid (AA) using cyclic voltammetry. We have modified the carbon paste electrode with ball milled HEA of concentrations 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 mg, and among them, 8 mg HEA modified carbon paste electrode (HEA-MCPE) depicted the highest current sensitivity. We reported the effect of modifier concentration, analyte concentration, scan rate, and pH on the oxidation peak of AA. The electrochemical active surface area of carbon paste and MCPE was calculated using the Nernst equation and the values were found to be 0.0014 cm2 and 0.0027 cm2, respectively. The fabricated HEA-MCPE showed excellent current sensitivity, stability, anti-fouling, and selectivity.


Despite awareness of obstetricians to the constant increase in the number of caesarean sections in recent years, certain dogmas concerning uterine scar still persist in our practices and influence clinical decisions. Fear of a uterine scar rupture, a major obstetric complication, is always in mind. As for bi-uterine scar, it was considered, until recently in Belgium, as a full and definitive indication against an attempted vaginal delivery. However, several previous clinical studies clearly showed that, under certain conditions, vaginal birth after two caesarean sections was usually successful with very good results in terms of maternal and fetal morbidities. Even if such a clinical situation is not common, this article aims to sensitize obstetricians to the lack of objective clinical arguments to reject a vaginal delivery in a patient having a previous history of two caesarean sections. Such a patient must be motivated and followed up within a specific framework. Moreover, this type of delivery should receive optimal monitoring.


Patients with diabetes mellitus are characterized by an extraordinary vascular vulnerability. Traditionally, glucose-induced damage to the vascular endothelium is believed to be one of the first steps in the development of vascular damage. However, in the healthy vessel the endothelium is protected by a matrix layer of highly glycosylated proteins that form a physical barrier between the endothelium and the blood flowing past. Although its presence has been known for half a century, this so-called glycocalyx earned little attention from researchers in the past because of an underestimation of its size. In the last decade it has become clear that its full thickness actually exceeds that of the vascular endothelium. Accumulating research into the functional relevance of the endothelial glycocalyx suggests an important role for this layer in the development of cardiovascular disease in diabetes mellitus. Here we will present an overview of the biochemistry of the intact glycocalyx, current methods to assess the glycocalyx, and its possible role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease in diabetes.


Canada faces significant policy and economic challenges related to healthcare for frail older adults. Annual per capita healthcare costs for people over age 65 are five times those for people under 65. Flat economic growth and an aging workforce decrease tax revenue, which funds 70% of health spending. Governments are shifting policy to enhance person-centered care and shifting spending from hospitals to primary and community care. Recognizing that frailty and evidence-based frailty screening can contribute directly to reform initiatives, what are the policy and economic considerations, both nationally and internationally, around frailty screening that will benefit patients, families and/or the wider health system? Based on key informant interviews, we present recommendations for approaching policy and economic challenges in frailty through the following healthcare policy instruments: financing, funding, legislation, regulation, technology, interdisciplinary care, person-centered service and health promotion.


In the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Great East Japan Earthquake, the schools in the disaster-affected area suffered tremendous damage. While this damage to school buildings is relatively well-known due to the images posted to the Internet or from news reports, whether schools have been successful in resuming normal operation is less well understood outside the stricken areas. For the benefit of those who are to come, the local governments in these areas have recorded the damage inflicted on school facilities and the struggle that the schools and the education committees involved have faced in reconstructing the schools and resuming the provision of education. However, such invaluable materials rarely see the light of day because they are buried in a vast mountain of records covering various fields. We focus on the above two major disasters and discuss similarities and differences in the initiatives taken toward resuming school operations, and summarize the issues that teachers should be prepared to face in the event of a disaster.


Aims/Objectives/Background Medical Student First Responders (MSFRs) are volunteer Community First Responders, who respond to emergency calls and can provide life-saving interventions before the arrival of an ambulance. There is no data on diurnal trends in ambulance service demand for MSFRs, who do not typically work fixed shift patterns and therefore at present do not know when the most beneficial time of day to volunteer is. Thus, the aim of this service evaluation was to asses when demand for MSFRs is highest in central Oxfordshire and assess if MSFRs were available to respond at those times. Methods/Design All MSFRs shifts on a single Dynamic Response Vehicle between 1 October to 31 December 2020 were included. The MSFRs operated exclusively in central Oxfordshire (post codes OX1 – OX4) on behalf of South Central Ambulance Service. MSFR dispatch probability was calculated by comparing total time on duty (for each hour between 9 am – 1 am) with the respective number of incidents attended within that hour, and then plotted as a 3-point moving average against time. No patient data was collected. Results/Conclusions 163 'on duty' hours and 58 incidents (44% 'Category 1' responses, 88% MSFR first on scene) were included. There were clear diurnal trends in MSFR availability and demand (Abstract 797 figure 1). The probability of MSFR dispatch was highest at 56.3% between 6–7 pm; however, MSFRs were most likely to be available later in the day between 9–10 pm. These findings suggest that the majority of MSFRs shifts occur at times when demand is relatively low. MSFRs are a highly flexible resource and should be encouraged to volunteer earlier in the day, as this would significantly improve coverage during the late afternoon when demand is greatest. Abstract 797 Figure 1


Fifth Generation (5G) signals using the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrums are highly vulnerable to blockage due to rapid variations in channel link quality. This can cause the devices or User Equipment (UE) to suffer from connection failure. In a dual connectivity (DC) network, the channel's intermittency issues were partially solved by maintaining the UE's connectivity to primary (LTE advanced stations) and secondary (5G mmWave stations) simultaneously. Even though the dual-connected network performs excellently in maintaining connectivity, its performance drops significantly due to the inefficient handover from one 5G mmWave station to another. The situation worsens when UE travels a long distance in a highly dense obstacle environment, which requires multiple ineffective handovers that eventually lead to performance degradation. This research aimed to propose an Adaptive TTT Handover (ATH) mechanism that deals with unpredictable 5G mmWave wireless channel behaviors that are highly intermittent. An adaptive algorithm was developed to automatically adjust the handover control parameters, such as Time-to-Trigger (TTT), based on the current state of channel condition measured by the Signal-to-Interference-Noise Ratio (SINR). The developed algorithm was tested under a 5G mmWave statistical channel model to represent a time-varying channel matrix that includes fading and the Doppler effect. The performance of the proposed handover mechanism was analyzed and evaluated in terms of handover probability, latency, and throughput by using the Network Simulator 3 tool. The comparative simulation result shows that the proposed adaptive handover mechanism performs excellently compared to conventional handovers and other enhancement techniques.


Background The large number of anaesthetics administered means that the total cost to a hospital of inhalational anaesthetic agents such as isoflurane or sevoflurane can be considerable. Although the high cost of the use of inhaled anaesthetic agents in part represents the large number of patients that receive them, anaesthetists have a duty to use these drugs in a responsible and cost-effective way. Purpose As part of a collaborative working initiative, a study of anaesthetic gas use in hospitals was conducted. The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the choice of anaesthetic agents between the two vanguard hospital sites. The plan was to feed back the results to the respective anaesthetic departments and use the results to inform good practice Material and methods The study was conducted over 2 weeks at both hospitals. The study was conducted using a form which the anaesthetist would complete during a procedure. The same form was used for both hospital audits. Results In total 157 cases were included in the study. The results show that across both hospitals sevoflurane was the most commonly used inhaled anaesthetic agent (75%); followed by desflurane (18% usage exclusively at one hospital) and isoflurane (7%). The study showed that sevoflurane was the most commonly used agent and overall there was a range of fresh gas flow rates being used. There were a range of reasons for the choice of inhaled anaesthetic, but the main reason for the use was to reduce side-effects and the use of laryngeal mask airway anaesthesia. Conclusions Like most studies this also presented some limitations. The forms required the completion by a consultant. This meant consistency of response cannot be guaranteed. There was also a significant difference in response rate over the 2 weeks. The outcomes to this study will be fed back to the respective anaesthetic departments. Ensuring low-flow anaesthetic machines are available and increasing the use of isoflurane as an alternative agent, has the potential to save a significant amount of money. Reference and/or Acknowledgements 1. Pharmacoeconomics of volatile inhalational anaesthetic agents: 11-year retrospective analysis. Anaesthesia and Intensive CareSep 2010;38(5);849–854. No conflict of interest


Purpose:Mentoring is critical to develop and nurture early career investigators, helping them to succeed in building networks of colleagues, and is especially important for investigators focused on HIV research. We piloted a multidiscipline mentoring program targeting postdoctoral scholars and early career faculty concentrating on HIV/AIDS research. Method:The pilot mentoring program was conducted at the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) at the University of California San Francisco and the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology. Mentees were self-referred postdoctoral scholars and early career faculty. Mentors were drawn from the senior faculty. Early career mentees were matched with senior investigators for individual meetings, a monthly workshop on topics directed by the mentees, and single-day mentoring seminars. Results:More than 30 mentees and 20 mentors have participated in the pilot project. Most mentees reported that the 1-on-1 mentoring was a satisfying experience. The most highly valued activities were those that facilitated networking among mentees, networking between mentors and mentees, and workshops that focused on grant applications and first academic appointments and promotions. Conclusions:A multidisciplinary mentoring program for postdoctoral scholars and early career faculty focused on HIV/AIDS research is valuable. Umbrella organizations, such as the CFAR, are well suited to create and provide highly valued mentoring experiences.


This paper provides a summary of the analysis and design process with respect to the development and prototyping of a Bicycle Radar for a Senior Capstone Project at Wright State University in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate. The basic radar technology adopted for this project is a commercial integrated (miniaturized) K-band FMCW Monopulse Module that is recently designed for future Intelligent Automotive Cruise Control Applications. The design documentation, preliminary test outputs, and discussions within the sections of this paper describe a number of novel features of this Bicycle Radar Design including the methodology for overlaying the K-band range-angle data onto streaming video on the iPhone. Additional discussions pertain to radar waveform generation, control, and processing. A section on potential follow-on activities as well as a discussion on technology options and applications of the resulting system concept is also provided.


Climbing asparagus, Asparagus scandens Thunb., currently has a patchy distribution in New Zealand, mainly in disturbed lowland forest remnants near towns and the coast, predominantly in the North Island but found as far south as Banks Peninsula. Here it prevents regeneration of native seedlings and smothers or strangles understorey shrubs and saplings. Based on its current distribution, it tolerates open sunny sites to deep shade and damp or dry forest. Left unchecked and aided by birds and humans, climbing asparagus is likely to spread considerably in the next decade, consolidating its current distribution in New Zealand. Several characteristics of the species make it difficult to control: the small, fine seedlings are hard to find, adult plants entwine with native plants, much of the plant's biomass is underground and the apical meristem will resprout if left in the ground after control.


This special issue contains eight topical studies on the structure, stratigraphy, and petroleum system of the Maracaibo Basin, a supergiant basin in western Venezuela. Most of the work reported in this special issue is the product of thesis-related research by master's and doctoral-level students at the Jackson School of Geosciences of the University of Texas at Austin during a collaborative relationship with the Venezuelan national oil company, Petrleos de Venezuela, S. A., that was initiated in the late 1980s. This introductory article presents a regional overview of the tectonic setting and geology of the Maracaibo Basin. With a cumulative oil production of more than 30 billion bbl, since the first production well was drilled in 1914 and estimated ultimate oil reserves of more than 44 billion bbl, the Maracaibo Basin is the most prolific hydrocarbon basin in the Western Hemisphere. Unlike the more extensive Gulf of Mexico giant hydrocarbon provinces, the relatively small size (50,000 km2; 19,305 mi2), relative simplicity in its structure and stratigraphy, and wealth of surface and subsurface data make the Maracaibo Basin an attractive target for basinwide synthesis. The objective of this article is to present a regional compilation of two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) seismic data, wells, and outcrop data at a basinwide scale to reveal the basin's 3-D structure and stratigraphy. Moreover, we show regional tectonic reconstructions, regional geologic maps, and basin subsidence history to better constrain four major tectonic events that affected the basin and that are critical for understanding the timing and distribution of major unconformities and clastic wedges, the distribution of the reservoir rocks, the reactivation of older fault trends, and the timing of maturation for underlying source rocks. Many of these topics are discussed in greater detail in the other eight articles in this special issue.


Most philosophers who have expressed a view about whether forgiveness is compatible with forgivers' continuing to punish, or support the punishment of, people who have wronged them hold that forgiveness is compatible with punishing or favouring punishment of wrongdoers. I argue that whether forgiveness entails forbearing punishment depends on which of two senses of forgiveness is operative. On the first, sentiment-based sense of forgiveness as consisting essentially in a change of heart on the part of a victim, a victim can, I submit, forgive while continuing to punish or to support the punishment of a person who has wronged her. On the second sense of forgiveness as consisting in debt remission whether or not accompanied by a change of heart, the state's remission of the entirety of criminal offenders' punishment qualifies as forgiveness and, moreover, the state could not forgive offenders in this sense while continuing to punish them.


When a library is implementing an integrated library system, the library administrator needs a staff training program that applies management concepts to the overall strategic plan. The au- thors recommend a modified form of Joseph Harless' Front-End Analysis problem solving model which is designed to force the user to think through the underlying conditions or terms creating the "problem" environment and then link solutions to a training model. A 2 phase approach is presented that is structured around defining the problem state and delineating the specific steps to correct prob- lem areas. A time analysis of the authors' initial staff training pro- gram is outlined and 2 sample needs assessments are provided.


This book sheds new light on Melville's classic novel "Typee" through a close and revealing look at his revision process. "Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life" was published in 1846 and was Melville's most popular work, offering Victorian readers startling and romantic glimpses of island people and practices. "The Typee" manuscript was discovered only in 1983, and is considered one of the most important literary manuscripts in nineteenth-century American studies. "Melville Unfolding" offers a new approach to literary analysis, focusing on how the "invisible text of revision" is made visible in the critical construction of the novel. This volume is linked to an electronic edition of "Typee", providing a model for how critical analysis and textual editing work synergistically and how print and online technologies can complement one another. "Melville Unfolding" walks readers through the intriguing twists and turns of Melville's writing process, detailing the delights and frustrations of reading a writer in manuscript. In jargon-free prose, John Bryant introduces the scholarship of manuscript study, the use of the revision narrative, and the benefits of the fluid-text analysis - asking readers to consider what a text is, how it comes into being, how it evolves, and how the study of a fluid text enhances our understanding of writers, writing, and culture.


Patients successfully treated for a malignancy with cytotoxic therapy have an increased risk of developing secondary myelodysplasia (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We report a patient in remission from Hodgkin's disease (HD) who remains hematologically normal 4 years after combination chemotherapy, but who has biological and genetic abnormalities characteristic of myelodysplasia. X-inactivation analysis using a 5' phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) probe demonstrates polyclonal hematopoiesis, but cytogenetic analysis reveals a clonal population with a minority of metaphases having a 7q-deletion. NRAS mutations are not detectable 1 year after treatment, but are present in two separate clones (at codons 12 and 15) analyzed by single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP), followed by cloning and sequencing 4 years after treatment. The presence of an activated NRAS with the same codon 12 mutation was independently confirmed by the nude mouse tumorigenicity assay. In vitro peripheral blood granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM) have changed from normal to undetectable levels while erythroid burst forming units (BFU-E) were significantly reduced on two occasions during the period of observation. These abnormalities are characteristic of MDS. Continued clinical follow-up will determine whether these evolving genetic and biological abnormalities pre-date the onset of clinical and morphological features of MDS.


Background Intense acute pain afflicts millions of patients each year. Despite the recently increased focus on the importance of pain control, management of acute pain has remained suboptimal.1 Pain knowledge surveys of nurses suggest that educational efforts probably have been beneficial and should continue. Early in the education of nurses, responsibility for pain assessment and use of analgesics must be instilled.2 Objectives Our aim was to enhance the learning experience of nursing staff in terms of management of patients with acute pain in different clinical settings. To make it more effective tool we incorporated simulation based scenarios rather than just didactic delivery. Methods One day acute pain management workshop was organised at two different days. 40 nurses attended it. Initial half of the day focused on enhancing knowledge base through interactive lectures. Later half had simulation scenarios based on common acute pain themes encountered by nursing staff. An evaluation sheet was generated to highlight key learning points. Feedback was sorted from all the candidates pre and post simulation scenarios. Results Average job experience of group was more than 15 years. More than 90% of candidates had no prior exposure to simulation based education. Feedback and evaluation indicated that not only candidates find simulation based learning enjoyable but also more effective in reinforcing the concepts of management of acute pain. Conclusions Based on our results we have decided to make acute pain management via simulation run as twice a year program to educate more staff. We suggest that simulation based education can be an effective tool to train acute pain management. References Sinatra R. Causes and Consequences of Inadequate Management of Acute Pain. Pain Medicine 2010;11:1859–1871. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2010.00983.x McCaffrey M, Ferrell BR. Nurses' knowledge of pain assessment and management: How much progress have we made? Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 1997;14(3):175–188


Genetic factors are important for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related conditions, and it is crucial to better understand the complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors contributing to these diseases. In the last 3-4 years, we have seen a remarkable development within population-based genetics, and through the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) we now know of hundreds of genetic variants robustly associated with CVD and related conditions. In the coming few years, we are facing a rapid development with exponentially increasing amounts of data from sequencing methods, but also from new techniques for analyzing mRNA (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics) and metabolites (metabolomics). As a result, we have to be prepared to adapt from a primarily hypothesis-driven and locally focused research philosophy towards a more hypothesis-generating and international, collaborative way of thinking about biomedical population-based research in general.


We found that LaInO3 perovskite catalyst showed high activity for oxidative coupling of methane (OCM). Partial substitution of La3+ site in the LaInO3 catalyst with Ba2+ increased its catalytic activity and selectivity to C2 hydrocarbons drastically. The partial substitution of La3+ site in LaInO3 with Ba2+ increased oxygen vacancies in the stable cubic phase, and then contributed to the production of active oxygen species on its surface for selective C2 formation.


Estimates of investment and its components in Latin America over the past 30 years are used to review stylized facts relating to investment and explore factors that explain its connection with economic growth. In particular, the low level of investment, the reduction in public spending in the 1980s and its partial recovery along with private investment between 2003 and 2010 are explored. It is found that the increase in national income —on the back of rising terms of trade— made it possible to increase national saving and its contribution to financing investment between 2004 and 2008. The analysis of causality between the investment ratio and growth in gross domestic product (gdp) suggest that —for a considerable number of Latin American countries— changes in the growth rate have preceded changes in the investment ration in the period under study.


UWB channel model is the research foundation of indoor positioning in wireless communication system. According to the path loss and multipath fading in channel model, we demonstrate the modeling method and characteristics of path loss channel model, Δ-K channel model and S-V channel model. An improved S-V channel model of UWB system is proposed based on the analysis of the physical channel measured data. Simulation results show the model can better reflect the characteristic parameters of UWB channel.


In this paper, a charge control with an input voltage feedforward is proposed for an input-series-output-parallel-connected converter configuration for the high-speed-train power system application. This control scheme accomplishes the output current sharing. For the output-parallel-connected modules as well as the input voltage sharing for the input-series-connected modules for all operating conditions including the transients. It also offers the robustness for the input voltage sharing control according to the component value mismatches among the modules. This configuration enables the usage of a MOSFET for a high-voltage system allowing a higher switching frequency for a lighter system weight and smaller size. The performance of the proposed scheme is verified through the experimental results.


B32 Introduction. It is important that health professionals and health information providers understand the extent and nature of cancer information available to the public as it directly affects their outreach efforts as well as their daily interactions with individual patients and their families. Local television news represents an important channel for the dissemination of health and cancer information. This study assesses the extent and nature of the coverage of cancer in local television news. Method. Using content analytic procedures, coders examined every news story on 1, 257 newscasts aired on seven stations (the affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, WB, and Univision) in four midwest U.S. markets_Chicago, Indianapolis, South Bend, and Terre Haute_during four composite weeks from December 2004 to June 2005. Each channel9s local morning, noon, and early and late evening newscasts were analyzed. Each cancer news story was coded in terms of: length (in seconds); location in the newscast; specific cancer types, stages, and topics covered; overall visual and verbal tone, viewpoints presented, follow-up options provided, and language accessibility. Results. A total of 386 news stories (1.0%) focused on cancer, with an average duration of 57 seconds. More than half of these stories (58%) were located in health segments; 7% served as a lead story of a newscast. Nearly half (40%) of all cancer news stories were broadcast in the morning, a function of newscast length. When compared by the number of cancer stories per 30 minutes, newscasts at noon offer the most coverage of cancer. The most frequently covered cancers were breast (24%) and colon/rectum (12%), followed by prostate, brain, lung/bronchus, leukemia, skin, liver, ovary, non-hodgkin lymphoma, oral cavity, and pancreas (all between 10% and 1%). This order diverges from actual cancer incidence rates. One out of four (26%) cancer stories covered advances; 13% focused on fundraising; 5% focused on technology; and 3% on law/policy. Most cancer news stories were verbally neutral (55%) or positive (35%), and visually neutral (93%) in tone. Few offered contrasting viewpoints (2%). Only one in eight provided follow-up information (12%). The average story required a 10 th grade education to be understood. Differences across markets did emerge but they were not systematically related to market size (and the likely resources of stations in those markets). Implications. Health practitioners can take some comfort in knowing that cancer stories in local news are mostly natural or positive, content unlikely to discourage information-seeking among cancer patients and their families as some earlier studies suggested. Yet, since cancer stories are episodic and abbreviated, and only few provide follow-up options, health practitioners will have to utilize other information outlets (i.e., PSAs and pamphlets) to set an agenda and steer viewers to interactive sources of information.


Machine learning (ML) is an area of artificial intelligence that provides computer programmes with the capacity to autodidact and learn new skills from experience, without continued human programming. ML algorithms can analyse large data sets quickly and accurately, by supervised and unsupervised learning techniques, to provide classification and prediction value outputs. The application of ML to chemical pathology can potentially enhance efficiency at all phases of the laboratory's total testing process. Our review will broadly discuss the theoretical foundation of ML in laboratory medicine. Furthermore, we will explore the current applications of ML to diverse chemical pathology laboratory processes, for example, clinical decision support, error detection in the preanalytical phase, and ML applications in gel-based image analysis and biomarker discovery. ML currently demonstrates exploratory applications in chemical pathology with promising advancements, which have the potential to improve all phases of the chemical pathology total testing pathway.


Impedance plethysmography has great potential in the non-invasive detection of dangerous iliofemoral thrombosis. It was used to examine 198 patients undergoing total hip replacement for evidence of proximal venous segment thrombosis. There were 13 abnormal results, and subsequent venography in 12 of these revealed a false-positive rate of 4.0%; there was one false-negative result giving a sensitivity of 85.7%. A venographic study of 46 other patients clinically suspected of having a proximal deep-vein thrombosis confirmed this sensitivity. The iliofemoral thrombosis rate was 3.9% after total hip replacement and this rate increased significantly in the group of patients over 70 kg in weight. Impedance plethysmography was found to be a useful non-invasive screening procedure for potentially fatal proximal venous thrombosis.


Abstract Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the marginal adaptation and microleakage of class V cavities restored with conventional glass ionomer cement (GIC), resin-modified glass ionomer (RMGI), and bioactive ionic resin (BIR) restorative materials after 6 months of water storage. Materials and Methods One hundred twenty standardized class V cavities (2 mm deep, 4 mm in width, and 3 mm in height) were prepared in sound extracted human molar teeth, where the coronal margins were in enamel while the cervical margins were in dentin. Three glass ionomer-based restorations were tested (n = 40): GIC (Equia Fil), RMGI (Fuji II LC), and BIR (ACTIVA Bioactive Restorative). Half of the teeth from each group (n = 20) were evaluated for their marginal adaptation with scanning electron microscopy and the other half submitted to dye penetration test to examine microleakage. Further division for each subgroup (n = 10) occurred to be tested immediately, while the remaining teeth were examined after keeping for 6 months and thermocycling. Statistical analysis The outcomes were analyzed by Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests. Results No statistically significant differences were observed among the three studied restorative materials. However, the differences were statistically significant in microleakage test between enamel and dentin and after water aging. Conclusion All tested restorative materials exhibited the same marginal adaptation and microleakage. Dentin substrate revealed greater microleakage than enamel, especially with BIR restorative material. Water aging had a negative effect on RMGI with respect to microleakage.


Abstract : This paper describes the construction of a catalog of positions and proper motions for 130 stars in the direction of the galactic center. All available information for stars within approx. 2 deg of this point has been utilized to produce the best and densest possible reference system. The reference frame of the catalog is that of the Southern Reference Star (SRS) program. The typical star in this catalog has a position and angular velocity based on 16 observations from six source catalogs whose epochs of observation span 77 years. The root mean square positional uncertainty is 0.49 at 1975.0. A total of 13 source catalogs dating back to 1847 have been used. Additional information included central dates for right acension and declination, position and proper motion variances, identification numbers, and apparent magnitudes. (Author)


Osmotic fragility and autohemolysis were used as endpoints in the measurement of damage to the plasma membrane in human erythrocytes, after single or double heat treatments. Injury recorded above 46 degrees C, and the induction of thermotolerance in the enucleate cells after a primary heat treatment of 44 degrees C for 15 min, indicates that the plasma membrane plays an important role in heat injury and in thermotolerance.


Political cartoons constitute a specific genre of visual images. They are pictorial representations or attitudes with different cartoon elements which depict political and social issues, and events of a country, an institution or a party (Sani, Abdullah & Ali, 2014). Visual language as non-verbal communication may or may not be supported by a verbal text (Peñamarin, 1998). This paper sheds light on the themes of 29 selected Arab political cartoons as a sample that is widely spread during the Arab Spring era and its aftermath (Woźniak, 2014). It also looks to identify the cartoon elements used by the cartoonists and to highlight the use of these elements such as colours, symbol, signs and others that connote different meanings. The study revealed that the visual language of Arab Spring cartoons from 2011 to 2013 reflected some common themes that highlight issues such as the image of democracy, the involvement of interfering countries and powers in the events of the Arab Spring, government authorities, military-people relations, the role of media and social media, an account of the stages of the Arab revolutions and issues of women's image in relation to socio-political change and ethical responsibilities for both the cartoonists and the Arab people. These are represented via visual messages that connote different meanings. It also revealed that the role of non-verbal visual language can be effectively realised and highlighted through the Arab cartoonists' utilisation of the interaction between different signs of the cartoons' elements such as symbolism, metaphor, labelling, irony, analogy and colour to convey certain intended messages.


Core EEL spectra of MWCNTs (multi-wall carbon nanotubes) grown in a nitrogen atmosphere were acquired utilising a dedicated STEM equipped with a Gatan Enfina system. Splitting of the carbon K-edge π* resonance into two peaks provided evidence of two nondegenerate carbon bonding states. In order to confirm the presence of a CNx bonding state, a full-potential linearised augmented plane-wave method was utilised to simulate core EEL spectra of graphite and graphitic-CNx compounds. The simulations confirmed splitting of the carbon K-edge π* resonance in graphitic-CNx materials, with the pristine graphite π* resonance remaining unsplit. The simulations also confirmed the increasing degree of amorphicity with higher concentrations (25%) of substitutional nitrogen in graphite.


Develops a simple model of radio wave propagation and illustrates how basic physical concepts such as refractive index, refraction, reflection and dispersion can be applied to a situation normally not met in introductory physics courses.


Objectives: Little is known about injury of the corticobulbar tract (CBT) in stroke patients. We attempted to investigate injury of the CBT in patients with dysarthria following cerebral infarct, using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). Methods: Eight patients with dysarthria following a corona radiata infarct and 12 control subjects were recruited for this study. Diffusion tensor imaging was performed at 14.3 days after onset and reconstruction of the CBT was performed using the probabilistic tractography method. Fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, and tract volume of the CBT were measured. Results: Reconstructed CBTs in the affected hemisphere of the patient group were thinner than those of the unaffected hemisphere of the patient group and the control group. Regarding the DTT parameters of the CBTs, fractional anisotropy and tract volume were significantly lower in the affected hemisphere of the patient group than in the unaffected hemisphere of the patient group and the control group (p < 0.05). However, we did not observe any difference in the mean diffusivity value (p > 0.05). Conclusions: We demonstrated injury of the CBT in patients with dysarthria following cerebral infarct in the corona radiata using DTT. This result indicates the importance of CBT evaluation for dysarthria in patients with cerebral infarct. Therefore, we suggest that evaluations of the CBT using DTT would be useful for patients with dysarthria following cerebral infarct.


In the past, most studies dealing with the benefits of space nuclear electric power systems for solar system exploration have focused on the potential of nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) to enhance missions by increasing delivered payload, decreasing LEO mass, or reducing trip time. While important, such mission enhancements have failed to go to the heart of the concerns of the scientific community supporting interplanetary exploration. To put the matter succintly, scientists don't buy delivered payload—they buy data returned. With nuclear power we can increase both the quantity of data returned, by enormously increasing data communication rates, and the quality of data by enabling a host of active sensing techniques otherwise impossible. These non‐propulsive mission enhancement capabilities of space nuclear power have been known in principle for many years, but they have not been adequately documented. As a result, support for the development of space nuclear power by the interplanetary exploration comm...


Transmission coefficient of an electron incident on a heterostructure potential with nanometer-thick trapezoidal barrier grown on anisotropic materials are derived by solving the effective-mass equation including off- diagonal effective-mass tensor elements. The boundary condition for an electron wave function (under the effective-mass approximation) at a heterostructure anisotropic junction is suggested and included in the calculation. The analytic expressions are applied to the Si(110)/Si0.5Ge0.5/Si(110) heterostructure, in which the SiGe barrier thickness is several nanometers. It is assumed that the direction of propagation of the electrons makes an arbitrary angle with respect to the interfaces of the heterostructure and the effective mass of the electron is position dependent. The transmission coefficient is calculated for energy below the barrier height, varying the applied voltage to the barrier. The transmission coefficient depends on the valley where the electron belongs and it is not symmetric with respect to the incidence angle.


Retinal vascular anomalies may be classified as congenital or acquired. The natural history, frequency, and significance of such lesions is outlined, and a guideline for management is provided. Most retinal vascular anomalies can be accurately diagnosed and appropriately managed by careful consideration of the patient's history and the funduscopic appearance, and by appropriate use of fluorescein angiography.


In cost-sensitive off-line applications, compliance with the existing line-current harmonic standards can be achieved by employing clamped-current-boost (CCB) input-current shapers (ICSs). In this paper, a thorough analysis of the CCB ICS is presented, and a complete design-oriented mathematical model is derived. The design equations are given in closed forms so that they can be easily computed by any standard mathematical software. The model is verified experimentally on a 100 W universal-input-voltage-range ICS.


Time-varying pricing tariffs incentivize consumers to shift their electricity demand and reduce costs, but may increase the energy burden for consumers with limited response capability. The utility must thus balance affordability and response incentives when designing these tariffs by considering consumers' response expectations. This paper proposes a joint learning-based identification and optimization method to design equitable time-varying tariffs. Our proposed method encodes historical prices and demand response data into a recurrent neural network (RNN) to capture high-dimensional and non-linear consumer price response behaviors. We then embed the RNN into the tariff design optimization, formulating a non-linear optimization problem with a quadratic objective. We propose a gradient-based solution method that achieves fast and scalable computation. Simulation using real-world consumer data shows that our equitable tariffs protect low-income consumers from price surges while effectively motivating consumers to reduce peak demand. The method also ensures revenue recovery for the utility company and achieves robust performance against demand response uncertainties and prediction errors.


ABSTRACT Pandemics are amongst the most destructive disasters to have afflicted humankind through history. These disasters entail a disproportionate effect on refugee populations, who are already in a state of high vulnerability. This study aims to assess the perception of risk of COVID-19 in the refugee populations in Turkey, in addition to evaluating anxiety levels during the pandemic. The participants of this study were refugees enrolled in a local nonprofit organization in Istanbul. They were asked to complete questionnaires which asked about COVID-19 and any self-protection measures. The questionnaire also incorporated the General Anxiety Disorder-7 screening test. In this young, male and mostly unemployed population, knowing someone who experienced COVID-19 was associated with a greater likelihood of compliance with hygiene and physical distancing measures. Anxiety levels were above 29%, and the highest scores were in the age group between 25 and 55 years. We argue that comprehensive public health measures against COVID-19 should include focused interventions for refugee populations that take the extra vulnerability (health, financial, and other) into account.


Higher failure rates of construction business have been observed as a recurring phenomenon in the construction industry. This research focuses on the causes behind a range of performance modes of construction business. The growth and capacity underinvestment archetype has been used as the main systems archetype to develop a causal structure for understanding the business performance. A system dynamics model was developed to create a simulation platform for the causal structure. A context of a typical small and medium construction company has been used in the simulation model. This research considered and experimented with a set of selected managerial policies and practices that can lead the construction business to failure, sustenance, or growth. In order to achieve the expected growth or sustenance, it is found that a certain level of balance needs to be secured on how much emphasis is to be given to win new projects, how much profit margins to work with, and how much capacities to be arranged and deployed for project operations, management, and execution.


Supervised learning can improve the design of state-of-the-art solvers for combinatorial problems, but labelling large numbers of combinatorial instances is often impractical due to exponential worst-case complexity. Inspired by the recent success of contrastive pre-training for images, we conduct a scientific study of the effect of augmentation design on contrastive pre-training for the Boolean satisfiability problem. While typical graph contrastive pre-training uses label-agnostic augmentations, our key insight is that many combinatorial problems have well-studied invariances, which allow for the design of label-preserving augmentations . We find that label-preserving augmentations are critical for the success of contrastive pre-training. We show that our representations are able to achieve comparable test accuracy to fully-supervised learning while using only 1% of the labels. We also demonstrate that our representations are more transferable to larger problems from unseen domains.


In this communication, the novel low cost hybrid energy harvester combining rectifying antenna with the solar cell for feeding the low power energy systems are reported. The bioinspired leaf shaped monopole antenna is designed to work in the most used communication frequency bands such as GSM-1800, UMTS-2100, WIFI-2.45 and LTE-2.65 GHz for the energy harvesting purposes and microstrip low pass filter is also added on the feeding line for the second harmonic rejection for increasing the efficiency of the harvester. The solar cell is placed on the ground plane of the designed leaf shaped antenna for using volumetric space efficiently and obtain a more compact system. The implemented prototype harvester generate 76 mV, 120 mV and 90 mV when the same type receiver antenna feed from the 25 dBm power from the RF source located at a distance of 1 m which satisfies the far field condition of the antenna without solar cell at the 2.15 GHz, 2.45 GHz and 2.65 GHz frequency bands, respectively. After the illumination of its solar cell component with 165 lux, the total harvested voltages are measured as 150 mV, 170 mV and 190 mV at the same frequency bands, respectively.


The synthesis of reproducible and continuous AlPO-18 membranes is demonstrated. The separation performance of these membranes for equimolar CO(2)/CH(4) gas mixtures is presented. The AlPO-18 membranes displayed CO(2) permeances as high as ~6.6 × 10(-8) mol m(-2) s Pa with CO(2)/CH(4) separation selectivities in the ~52-60 range at 295 K and 138 kPa.


Background: Multiple techniques have been described for reconstruction of the lateral ligaments of the ankle. Most require extensive exposure and dissection, which may lead to potential problems with wound healing, higher risk of nerve injury, fibrosis, and stiffness. This study reports on the results of a minimally invasive method to reconstruct the ligaments using a semitendinosus tendon autograft and achieve a stable ankle while avoiding these problems. Materials and Methods: From September 2006 to May 2010, 25 patients (14 males, 11 females) with chronic ankle instability underwent lateral ligament reconstruction. The average age was 32.4 (range, 17 to 62) years old. A semitendinosus autograft was harvested through 2 small knee incisions. For the ankle reconstruction, 4 small incisions of 5 mm each were made at the medial and lateral side of the fibular tip, the talar neck, and the middle of the calcaneus. Anatomical reconstruction of the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) was then performed through these small incisions. The mean final follow-up was 32.3 (range, 12 to 56) months. AOFAS questionnaires were used to measure clinical outcomes and donor site morbidity and patient satisfaction are also reported. Preoperative and postoperative stress tests were performed and radiographic parameters were measured. Results: The mean AOFAS score increased on average from 71.1 to 95.1 (P < .001). Two patients reported residual instability on uneven ground. No patient reported weakness or disability from the donor site. The satisfaction level was excellent in 20 patients and good in 5 patients. Significant improvement in stress radiographic parameters was noted for the talar tilt angle, with reduction from a mean of 14.0 to 3.8 degrees (P < .001); anterior talar displacement reduced from a mean of 12.3 to 4.6 mm (P < .001). Conclusion: Reconstruction of the lateral ankle ligaments using a semitendinosus tendon autograft and a minimally invasive approach can achieve a stable ankle while avoiding extensive exposure and risk of nerve injury. Level of Evidence: Level IV, retrospective case series.


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

The study of breast cancer relies heavily upon the identification of tumor-associated proteins that are involved with tumor growth and development. Our lab has discovered that mammary tumor cells express high levels of a novel protein known as Semaphorin7A (SEMA7A). After analyzing breast tissue samples collected at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, we have found that normal human mammary epithelial cells express negligible mRNA levels of SEMA7A, while the malignant mammary tumor cells express elevated levels of SEMA7A. Additionally, our laboratory has established a murine model of mammary cell lines that parallels our human findings. Currently, we have correlated high levels of SEMA7A with increasing tumor malignancy and metastasis. However, it is still unknown what factors could induce the production of SEMA7A in mammary tumors. Recent studies have proven that the expression and induction of SEMA7A in normal endothelial cells is regulated under a hypoxic-response element in the promoter of its gene. Although hypoxia is an established tumorigenic factor, it is unknown if the increased hypoxic conditions in breast tumors could induce SEMA7A. In this study we have investigated if exposing mammary cells to hypoxia induces the expression of pro-tumorgenic SEMA7A. Our results show that SEMA7A is up-regulated in 4T07 and 4T1 mammary tumor cells after hypoxic exposure via TGF-β activation of the PI3/AKT pathway. Furthermore, we have found that shRNA silencing of the SEMA7A in 4T1 mammary cells attenuates the activation of pro-angiogenic and mesenchymal genes even after hypoxic stimuli. In vivo, these cells show a reduced proliferation and metastatic potential. We therefore postulate an exciting new role for SEMA7A as a TGF-β effector that promotes tumorigenesis during breast cancer progression.

Citation Format: Ramon A. Garcia-Areas, Stephania Libreros, Samantha Amat, Camila Castro-Silva, Kathy Schilling, Vijaya Iragavarapu-Charyulu. Hypoxia induced TGF-β regulates Semaphorin7A to promote a pro-tumorigenic mesenchymal phenotype in mammary cells. [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 2007. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2007


The aim of this study was to assess the veterinary pharmaceutical products that have been registered in Kenya in order to determine the most common routes of administration and the type of marketed dosage forms. Registered veterinary products were first categorized by route of administration and then sub-categorized by the dosage form. Veterinary pharmaceuticals delivered by oral and parenteral routes were the most common, collectively accounting for 87.7% of all registered products. Topical, intramammary, intrauterine and ophthalmic routes accounted for 4.7%, 3.3%, 1.0% and 0.1% of the registered products respectively. Products that could be delivered by more than one administration route comprised 3.2% of the registered products. For most routes of administration, a variety of specific dosage forms were available. Dosage forms for oral administration included solids (53.4%) namely powders, tablets, boluses, freeze dried products, granules; liquids (46.3%) namely suspensions, solutions, syrups and semi-solids (0.3%) namely pastes. Topically administered dosage forms included solutions, sprays, ointments, creams, shampoos and powders, while those delivered via the intrauterine route included pessaries, solutions and suspensions. Keywords: dosage forms, administration route, veterinary pharmaceutical products, animal species, drug delivery.


Wind can induce noise on microphones, causing problems for users of hearing aids and for those making recordings outdoors. Perceptual tests in the laboratory and via the Internet were carried out to understand what features of wind noise are important to the perceived audio quality of speech recordings. The average A-weighted sound pressure level of the wind noise was found to dominate the perceived degradation of quality, while gustiness was mostly unimportant. Large degradations in quality were observed when the signal to noise ratio was lower than about 15 dB. A model to allow an estimation of wind noise level was developed using an ensemble of decision trees. The model was designed to work with a single microphone in the presence of a variety of foreground sounds. The model outputted four classes of wind noise: none, low, medium, and high. Wind free examples were accurately identified in 79% of cases. For the three classes with noise present, on average 93% of samples were correctly assigned. A second ensemble of decision trees was used to estimate the signal to noise ratio and thereby infer the perceived degradation caused by wind noise.


Background: Oral cancer is a rapidly growing disease among Indian subjects mainly in the low socioeconomic group. Socially and economically marginalized subjects are at high risk for oral cancer because of smoke and smokeless tobacco consumption. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of precancerous lesions and oral cancer and evaluate tobacco as a causative factor in Indian subjects visiting the outpatient department of the institute. Methods: Around 658 subjects were analyzed for frequency of premalignant lesions and oral malignancy in Indian subjects from the low socioeconomic group. Patients visited for pain, burning, or ulceration in the oral cavity were clinically assessed for any tissue growths, leathery alterations, ulcerative changes, and white or red lesions in the oral cavity. Results: The overall prevalence of smokeless and smoking tobacco was 78.8% (n=518) and 65.2% (n=429) respectively in the present study. Around 39.8% (n=262) of samples were stained positive for precancerous and cancerous lesions of the oral cavity. The highest number of positive samples were from buccal mucosa with 36.2% (n=238) subjects and 6.1% (n=40) for labial mucosa. Conclusions: Oral cancer is highly prevalent in Indian subjects owing to high tobacco consumption rates and habits warranting the cessation center a priority. Also, early detection and screening are vital to attaining better outcomes. More tobacco cessation centers are needed to stop the habit and early diagnosis will prevent dysplastic changes.


Bank liquidity shortages during the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 led to the introduction of liquidity regulations, the impact of which has attracted the attention of academics and policymakers. In this paper, we investigate the impact of liquidity regulation on bank lending. As a setting, we use the Netherlands, where a Liquidity Balance Rule (LBR) was introduced in 2003. The LBR was imposed on Dutch banks only and did not apply to other banks operating elsewhere within the Eurozone. Using this differential regulatory treatment to overcome identification concerns, we investigate whether there is a causal link from liquidity regulation to the lending activities of banks. Using a difference-indifferences approach, we find that stricter liquidity requirements following the implementation of the LBR did not reduce lending. However, the LBR did lead Dutch banks to modify the structure of loan portfolios by increasing corporate lending and reducing mortgage lending. During this period Dutch banks experienced a significant increase in deposits and issued more equity. Overall, the findings of this study have relevance for policymakers tasked with monitoring the impact of post-crisis liquidity regulations on bank behavior.


Only children had significantly higher intakes of many nutrients and nutrients/1000 kcal than other children. A higher proportion of only children was found to be obese. There were no significant differences according to birthrank in intakes by children. There were more obese children among the fatherless than those with fathers, in particular among those whose mothers were widowed. However, this was not accounted for by the present dietary findings, since fatherless children had lower intakes of carbohydrate and added sugar. There were no differences in nutrient intake or intake/1000 kcal by mother's country of origin or her level of education, or by disposable income.


This study investigated whether the implementation of inductive approachincreases students' achievement in teaching grammar at the seventh grade students of SMP N 16 Cirebon. Richards et al, 1985 in Chalipa 2013 often said that Inductive approach is learning in which learners are not taught rules directly, but are left to discover - or induce - rules from their experience of using the language; Ke (2008, p.1) stated that inductive approach helps students to rediscover their subconscious knowledge of English grammar and gives advantages such as makes the sentence wellformed and grammatical competence, actively involves students in their grammar learning process, and helps students to understand. This study employed quasi experimental design. The finding supported the research hypothesis that inductive approach is potential for students' achievement in learning grammar, especially Inductive approach made classroom atmosphere actively, it seem when inductive approach was implemented in teaching and learning process, almost students have enthusiasm to answer the question


The advanced train control system (ATCS) RF network uses frequencies in the 900-MHz band, and Gaussian filtered baseband frequency shift keying modulation at 4800 b/s with data encoded using a Reed-Solomon forward error correction code. Field tests were conducted to determine the RF performance of a mobile communications package (MCP) designed for ATCS both in areas of relatively flat terrain and in mountainous regions. The results of these tests were presented, including a description of the techniques used to extract the Rayleigh and shadowing components of the measured signal. Message error rate (MER) results are given, and these results are compared to results from lab tests using a mobile channel simulator and to theoretical predictions.<<ETX>>


In this paper, recent advances of GaN transistors on Si for switching and high-frequency applications are reviewed. Novel epitaxial structures including superlattice interlayers grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) relieve the strain and eliminate the cracks in the GaN over large-diameter Si substrates up to 8 in. As a new device structure for high-power switching application, Gate Injection Transistors (GITs) with a p-AlGaN gate over an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure successfully achieve normally-off operations maintaining high drain currents and low on-state resistances. Note that the GITs on Si are free from current collapse up to 600 V, by which the drain current would be markedly reduced after the application of high drain voltages. Highly efficient operations of an inverter and DC–DC converters are presented as promising applications of GITs for power switching. The high efficiencies in an inverter, a resonant LLC converter, and a point-of-load (POL) converter demonstrate the superior potential of the GaN transistors on Si. As for high-frequency transistors, AlGaN/GaN heterojuction field-effect transistors (HFETs) on Si designed specifically for microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies demonstrate a sufficiently high output power at these frequencies. Output powers of 203 W at 2.5 GHz and 10.7 W at 26.5 GHz are achieved by the fabricated GaN transistors. These devices for switching and high-frequency applications are very promising as future energy-efficient electronics because of their inherent low fabrication cost and superior device performance.


The key challenge of unsupervised vehicle re-identification (Re-ID) is learning discriminative features from unlabelled vehicle images. Numerous methods using domain adaptation have achieved outstanding performance, but those methods still need a labelled dataset as a source domain. This paper addresses an unsupervised vehicle Re-ID method, which no need any types of a labelled dataset, through a Self-supervised Metric Learning (SSML) based on a feature dictionary. Our method initially extracts features from vehicle images and stores them in a dictionary. Thereafter, based on the dictionary, the proposed method conducts dictionary-based positive label mining (DPLM) to search for positive labels. Pair-wise similarity, relative-rank consistency, and adjacent feature distribution similarity are jointly considered to find images that may belong to the same vehicle of a given probe image. The results of DPLM are applied to dictionary-based triplet loss (DTL) to improve the discriminativeness of learnt features and to refine the quality of the results of DPLM progressively. The iterative process with DPLM and DTL boosts the performance of unsupervised vehicle Re-ID. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by producing promising vehicle Re-ID performance without a pre-labelled dataset. The source code for this paper is publicly available on https://github.com/andreYoo/VeRI_SSML_FD.git.


Abstract A covalently linked organic dye–cobaloxime catalyst system based on mesoporous NiO is synthesized by a facile click reaction for mechanistic studies and application in a dye‐sensitized solar fuel device. The system is systematically investigated by photoelectrochemical measurements, density functional theory, time‐resolved fluorescence, transient absorption spectroscopy, and photoelectron spectroscopy. The results show that irradiation of the dye–catalyst on NiO leads to ultrafast hole injection into NiO from the excited dye, followed by a fast electron transfer process to reduce the catalyst. Moreover, the dye adopts different structures with different excited state energies, and excitation energy transfer occurs between neighboring molecules on the semiconductor surface. The photoelectrochemical experiments also show hydrogen production by this system. The axial chloride ligands of the catalyst are released during photocatalysis to create the active sites for proton reduction. A working mechanism of the dye–catalyst system on the photocathode is proposed on the basis of this study.


In this paper, we report a neural probe which can selectively stimulate target neurons optically through Si wet etched mirror surface and record extracellular neural signals in iridium oxide tetrodes. Consequently, the proposed approach provides to improve directional problem and achieve at least 150/m gap distance between stimulation and recording sites by wet etched mirror surface in V-groove. Also, we developed light source, blue laser diode (OSRAM Blue Laser Diode_PL 450), integration through simple jig for one-touch butt-coupling. Furthermore, optical power and impedance of iridium oxide tetrodes were measured as 200μW on 5mW from LD and 206.5kΩ at 1kHz and we demonstrated insertion test of probe in 0.5% agarose-gel successfully. We have successfully transmitted a light of 450nm to optical fiber through the integrated LD using by butt-coupling method.


IPsec is a security architecture for Internet, which is directly positioned on the top of the IP layer. The major part of IPsec consists of the Internet Key Exchange protocol, now in its version 2. IKEv2 offers authentication, authorization and key agreement services. One of the possible authentication mechanisms in this protocol is based on X509 certificates and the PKI infrastructure. As we are in the process of the IKEv2 protocol implementation, in this paper we describe experiences and design decisions taken during the implementation of the X509 certificate based authentication in the IKEv2 daemon.


Abstract New design conditions on the observer based residual filter design for the linear discrete-time linear systems with zoned system parameter faults are presented. With respect to time evolution of residual signals and with a guarantee of their robustness, the design task is stated in terms of linear matrix inequalities, while the recursive implementation of algorithms is motivated by the platform existence for real-time processing. A major objective is to analyze the configuration required and, in particular, a new characterization of the norm boundaries of the multiplicative zonal parametric faults to be projected onto the structure of the set of linear matrix inequalities.


The linewidths of phase-locked, oscillating arrays of high temperature superconducting Josephson junctions have been used to estimate such statistical information for several junction processes using a fitting process to simulate results. Statistical data from arrays consisting of several hundred to many thousand junctions operating, and at least partially phase locked, at 77K are being used to characterize and improve junction processes. Spreads on critical currents for three different processes; step edge, edge SNS and electron-beam defined nanobridges, have ranged from +or-3% to 15% (l sigma ) and on normal state resistances from +or-2% to 11%.<<ETX>>


ONSET derives its diagnosis from the combined evidence of contemporaneous and successive findings, which is in accordance with the behaviour of a clinician. Although it does not increase the diagnostic capabilities in principle, i.e., it cannot perform better than an expert reasoning on the basis of the same knowledge, computational power can be exploited to perform the matches and combine the results with greater precision, resolution, reliability, and transparency. Fundamental improvements of diagnosis, however, can only be expected from better serological tests or increased testing frequency. ONSET relies on domain knowledge explicated in a non-verbalized, analytical form. Knowledge representation-although mathematical-is intuitively clear and easy to conceive, making it equally accessible to both man and machine, and hence subject to objective evaluation and criticism.<<ETX>>


13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigations were performed on the one-dimensional organic conductor (TMTTF)2SbF6 to clarify its electronic properties in the proximity of the ground states. An abrupt broadening of 13C NMR absorption lines below 8 K (TN = 8 K), confirmed a long-range antiferromagnetic phase transition. Below TN, the absorption lines are composed of four distinct broad lines, indicating a commensurate magnetic structure. The amplitude of staggered magnetization, ρ, is comparable to (TMTTF)2Br, and on the order of 0.1 μB according to the splitting of 13C NMR lines at 3 K.