Background: Multiagent induction chemotherapy consisting of fludarabine, cytarabine, G-CSF, and idarubicin (FLAG-IDA) results in complete remission in ~ 85% of newly diagnosed patients with acute myeloid leukemia (ND-AML), yet 30-40% experience relapse. Combining the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (VEN) with chemotherapy results in synergistic leukemic cell death, inferring FLAG-IDA+VEN may improve outcomes in ND-AML.
 Design: A phase 1b/2 study evaluating FLAG-IDA+VEN (Fig. 1A) in ND and relapsed/refractory (R/R) AML patients 18 years of age. Phase 1b results were previously reported (DiNardo, JCO 2021). The Phase 2 (P2) portion enrolled patients into two cohorts: ND and R/R-AML. ND-AML outcomes are reported herein.
 Objectives: The primary P2 objective is determination of overall activity of FLAG-IDA+VEN including overall response rate (ORR: CR+CRi+CRh+MLFS+PR). Secondary objectives include determination of overall survival (OS), event-free survival (EFS), duration of response (DOR), and biomarkers predictive of VEN sensitivity.
 Results: Forty-one patients with ND-AML (de novo AML: n=29, secondary AML [sAML]: n=7, therapy-related AML [tAML]: n=5) enrolled. Median age was 44 years (range 20-65). ELN risk was favorable, intermediate, and adverse in 20%, 37%, and 44% of patients. Common mutations included NRAS (29%; n=12), IDH2 (17%; n=7), RUNX1 (15%, n=6), and NPM1 (15%, n=6). TP53 mutations and KMT2A-rearrangements were identified in 10% (n=4) and 12% (n=5) of patients at diagnosis, respectively.
 The median number of treatment cycles received was 2 (range 1-6). The ORR was 98% (CR: n=30 [73%], CRh: n=5 [12%], CRi: n=1 [2%], MLFS: n=4 [10%]) and CRc (CR+CRh+CRi) rate was 88% (n=36). 92% of CRc patients attained MRD-negative status by flow cytometry. Median time to best response was 29 days (range 22-94). Sixty-six percent (n=27) of patients transitioned to allogeneic transplantation (HSCT) after a median of 3.8 (range 3.2-4.9) months. Median DOR was NR (95% CI: 17-NR). Median cycle length for cycles 1 and 2 were 31 and 41 days. Median time to count recovery (ANC 500 cells/mm 3 and platelet count 50,000 cells/mm 3) was longer following cycle 2 compared to cycle 1 (47 vs. 32 days, p-value < 0.001). Common adverse events included febrile neutropenia (39%; n=16), pneumonia (24%; n=10), and bacteremia (19%; n=8). No 30 or 60-day mortality occurred. Nine patients relapsed (ELN intermediate: N=3, adverse: N=6) including 100% of patients with baseline TP53 mutations (N= 4), and the one patient with inv(3). TP53 mutations were identifiable in 67% (n=6) of patients at relapse, including two patients without TP53 mutations at diagnosis. Four deaths have occurred, all in the setting of relapsed disease.
 With median follow up of 16 months, median OS and EFS are both NR, with 1-year OS and EFS rates of 96% and 77%, respectively (Fig. 1B). Patients with KMT2A rearrangements (n=5) and NPM1, IDH1, and/or IDH2 mutations (n=13) have experienced an 18-month survival rate of 100%. Patients with TP53 mutations at diagnosis have significantly inferior OS (24 months vs. NR, p-value: 0.03) and EFS (median EFS 8 months vs. NR, p-value <0.001) compared to patients with wild-type TP53.
 A propensity score matched analysis compared to a historical cohort of patients receiving frontline FIA (fludarabine, idarubicin, cytarabine) induction (N=74) at our institution indicated FLAG-IDA+VEN was associated with improved median OS (NR vs. 47 months, p-value: 0.022), and a trend towards improved OS and EFS in patients not undergoing HSCT (FLAG-IDA+VEN vs. FAI median OS: 24 vs. 19 months, p-value: 0.09; median EFS: NR vs. 8 months, p-value: 0.064). On multivariate analysis, increased age and ELN risk group correlated with increased risk of death (age [HR 1.05, 95% CI: 1.02-1.09, p-value: 0.001]; ELN risk group [HR 1.92; 95% CI: 1.185-3.11, p-value: 0.008]), while decreased risk was observed based on treatment with FLAG-IDA+VEN vs. FIA (HR 0.28, 95% CI: 0.096-0.84, p-value: 0.02).
 Conclusions: FLAG-IDA+VEN induction and consolidation results in high MRD-negative CRc rates in ND-AML with an expected safety profile. Durable responses were observed at 12-months, with favorable outcomes compared to historical cohorts of intensive therapy. Patients with TP53 mutations treated with FLAG-IDA+VEN experience inferior outcomes compared to patients with wild-type TP53. Prospective randomized trials are warranted to confirm these results.
 Figure 1 Figure 1.

 DiNardo: AbbVie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Agios/Servier: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria; Foghorn: Honoraria, Research Funding; Notable Labs: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Honoraria; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Research Funding; ImmuneOnc: Honoraria, Research Funding; GlaxoSmithKline: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Forma: Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene, a Bristol Myers Squibb company: Honoraria, Research Funding. Takahashi: GSK: Consultancy; Celgene/BMS: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Symbio Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Loghavi: Abbvie: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company; Curio Sciences: Honoraria; Gerson Lehrman Group: Consultancy; Guidepoint: Consultancy; Peerview: Honoraria; Qualworld: Consultancy. Kadia: Amgen: Other: Grant/research support; Liberum: Consultancy; Jazz: Consultancy; Ascentage: Other; Novartis: Consultancy; Cellonkos: Other; Sanofi-Aventis: Consultancy; Cure: Speakers Bureau; Dalichi Sankyo: Consultancy; Aglos: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Other; AbbVie: Consultancy, Other: Grant/research support; BMS: Other: Grant/research support; Genentech: Consultancy, Other: Grant/research support; Pfizer: Consultancy, Other; Pulmotech: Other; Genfleet: Other; Astellas: Other. Daver: ImmunoGen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: Data Monitoring Committee member; Abbvie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Astellas: Consultancy, Research Funding; Trovagene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding; FATE Therapeutics: Research Funding; Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Trillium: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sevier: Consultancy, Research Funding; Hanmi: Research Funding; Novimmune: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Research Funding; Glycomimetics: Research Funding; Dava Oncology (Arog): Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Syndax: Consultancy; Shattuck Labs: Consultancy; Agios: Consultancy; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; SOBI: Consultancy; STAR Therapeutics: Consultancy; Karyopharm: Research Funding; Newave: Research Funding. Short: Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Astellas: Research Funding; NGMBio: Consultancy; Takeda Oncology: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria. Sasaki: Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Daiichi-Sankyo: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Wang: Stemline Therapeutics: Honoraria. Borthakur: Astex: Research Funding; Ryvu: Research Funding; ArgenX: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Current Employment; Protagonist: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; GSK: Consultancy. Issa: Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Syndax Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; Kura Oncology: Consultancy, Research Funding. Alvarado: Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; BerGenBio: Research Funding; CytomX Therapeutics: Consultancy; Sun Pharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; FibroGen: Research Funding; Daiichi-Sankyo: Research Funding; Astex Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; MEI Pharma: Research Funding. Pemmaraju: Springer Science + Business Media: Other; Roche Diagnostics: Consultancy; Cellectis S.A. ADR: Other, Research Funding; Plexxicon: Other, Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.: Other, Research Funding; CareDx, Inc.: Consultancy; MustangBio: Consultancy, Other; HemOnc Times/Oncology Times: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sager Strong Foundation: Other; DAVA Oncology: Consultancy; Dan's House of Hope: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Samus: Other, Research Funding; ASCO Leukemia Advisory Panel: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ASH Communications Committee: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Aptitude Health: Consultancy; Abbvie Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other, Research Funding; LFB Biotechnologies: Consultancy; Stemline Therapeutics, Inc.: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other, Research Funding; Celgene Corporation: Consultancy; Novartis Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: Research Support, Research Funding; Incyte: Consultancy; Affymetrix: Consultancy, Research Funding; Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc.: Consultancy; Clearview Healthcare Partners: Consultancy; Blueprint Medicines: Consultancy; Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.: Consultancy; ImmunoGen, Inc: Consultancy; Pacylex Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy. Yilmaz: Daiichi-Sankyo: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding. Jain: Genentech: Honoraria, Research Funding; Servier: Honoraria, Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Honoraria; Adaptive Biotechnologi


Single-photon LiDAR offers single-photon sensitivity and picoseconds timing resolution, leading to high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) images. In this paper, we investigate the reconstruction of 3D images from data acquired using a custom designed time-of-flight scanning transceiver based on the time-correlated single-photon counting LiDAR. The system comprises a pulsed laser source at 1064nm wavelength, a monostatic scanning transceiver and a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. The maximum distance of ranging finding under the experimental environments is up to 95.1km, and high-resolution 3D image of a pavilion is reconstructed at the range of 2.9km. A total variation restoration optimization algorithm is performed to reduce the acquisition time of the entire 3D images. Experimental results show that this system is feasible for imaging at longer range by refining the setup, and have potential for target recognition.


Introduction: Oral administration of arginine has been associated with physical performance improvement due to probable decrease of muscular fatigue derived from the vasodilatation factor of the nitric oxide over the skeletal muscles. Objective: to evaluate the effects of oral administration of L-Arginine during an exercise program with weights. Methods: 20 male individuals, randomly divided in two groups: A and B, were submitted to eight weeks of training with weights (three times per week). Group A used 3 grams of L-Arginine + vitamin C during the eight weeks and group B used only vitamin C (control group). Results: After eight weeks of training, group A presented body weight values and lean mass significantly higher (p < 0.05), body fat percentage significantly lower (p < 0.05), and strength of lower limbs significantly higher (p < 0.05), while group B did not present significant differences for the same period. Conclusion: Oral administration of arginine associated with a training program with weights increased the stimuli of the exercise to the skeletal muscles level, enabling hence, increase of muscular strength and mass.


The present report details the results of a high-level theoretical investigation of benzene−AlX3 and ethene−AlX3 (X = H, F, Cl) interactions. The binding energies, preferred modes of interaction of AlX3 with benzene and ethene, and vibrational frequencies for these complexes have been evaluated at the MP2 level using basis sets ranging from the 6-31+G* to the much larger (6-311++G(2df,p) + diffuse(d,p)). In the lowest energy conformers of the benzene complexes, the Al atom is directly placed over one of the benzene carbons, while in the ethene complexes, the Al atom lies above the center of the π bond. The binding energies of both the benzene and ethene complexes of AlX3 are dominated by electrostatic contributions, which is in contrast to the dominance of the electron correlation energy in the benzene−BX3 complexes. A very sharp increase in the negative charge of the benzene carbon closest to the Al atom in the lowest energy conformers of the benzene complexes from −0.2 to −0.4 au points to an important ...


Insulin is unique among growth factors and hormones in its ability to control metabolic functions such as the stimulation of glucose uptake and glucose transporter (GLUT4) translocation in physiological target tissues, such as muscle and adipose cells. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying this specificity have remained incompletely understood, particularly in view of the ability of some growth factors to mimic insulin-dependent early signaling events. In this study, we have probed the basis of insulin specificity by overexpressing in hormone-responsive 3T3-L1 adipocytes wild-type platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor (PDGFR)-beta and selected, informative mutant receptor proteins. We show that such adipocytes overexpressing wild-type PDGFR on exposure to cognate growth factor activate glucose transport, GLUT4 translocation, and the serine-threonine protein kinase Akt/protein kinase B to a degree comparable with that produced in response to insulin. In addition, PDGF elicits the robust generation of phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate in vivo in PDGFR-overexpressing 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Expression of PDGFR-beta mutant proteins demonstrates that these responses require the presence of an intact phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-binding site on the overexpressed PDGF receptor. Furthermore, PDGF stimulates these effects independent of insulin receptor substrate(IRS)-1 or IRS-2 tyrosine phosphorylation or docking to activated PI3K. These data demonstrate that 1) the basis of insulin-specific glucose transport in cultured adipocytes is the low level of receptors for other growth factors and 2) in the presence of adequate receptors, PDGF is fully capable of activating glucose transport in a manner requiring PI3K and subsequent phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate accumulation but independent of insulin, insulin receptor, and IRS proteins.


Distinct part psychiatric or rehabilitation units may help produce a positive financial margin for a hospital by transforming unused capacity into a revenue-generating enterprise and securing cost-based reimbursement from Medicare.


The present study looks at a subject of special relevance in the contemporary history of Physical Education in Spain, the regulation of the degrees from the beginning of the 1980's. This is primarily based on data originating from primary sources that are legislative in nature. We analyzed the political debate in the Congress of the Deputies and the Senate, as well as the abundant regulations that followed the General Law of Physical Culture and Sport of 1980, which tried to synchronize professional situations, studies, and previous degrees of Physical Education with the new ones that were proposed by the Royal Decree 790/1981.


Stratigraphic data from salt marshes provide accurate reconstructions of Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) change and necessary constraints to models of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), which is the dominant cause of Late-Holocene RSL rise along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast. Here, we produce a new Mid- to Late-Holocene RSL record from a salt marsh bordering Great Bay in southern New Jersey using basal peats. We use a multi-proxy approach (foraminifera and geochemistry) to identify the indicative meaning of the basal peats and produce sea-level index points (SLIPs) that include a vertical uncertainty for tidal range change and sediment compaction and a temporal uncertainty based on high precision Accelerator Mass Spectrometry radiocarbon dating of salt-marsh plant macrofossils. The 14 basal SLIPs range from 1211 ± 56 years BP to 4414 ± 112 years BP, which we combine with published RSL data from southern New Jersey and use with a spatiotemporal statistical model to show that RSL rose 8.6 m at an average rate of 1.7 ± 0.1 mm/year (1σ) from 5000 years BP to present. We compare the RSL changes with an ensemble of 1D (laterally homogenous) and site-specific 3D (laterally heterogeneous) GIA models, which tend to overestimate the magnitude of RSL rise over the last 5000 years. The continued discrepancy between RSL data and GIA models highlights the importance of using a wide array of ice model and viscosity model parameters to more precisely fit site-specific RSL data along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast.


Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a bioactive lipid enriched in the tumor microenvironment of immunosuppressive malignancies such as ovarian cancer (OvCa). While LPA enhances the tumorigenic attributes of cancer cells, the immunomodulatory activity of this phospholipid messenger remains largely unexplored. Here, we report that LPA operates as a negative regulator of type-I interferon (IFN) responses in OvCa. Ablation of the LPA-generating enzyme autotaxin in OvCa cells reprogrammed the tumor immune microenvironment, extended host survival, and improved the effects of therapies that elicit protective responses driven by type-I IFN. Mechanistically, LPA sensing by dendritic cells triggered PGE2 biosynthesis that suppressed type-I IFN signaling via autocrine EP4 engagement. Moreover, we identified an LPA-controlled, immune-derived gene signature associated with poor responses to combined PARP inhibition and PD-1 blockade in OvCa patients. Controlling LPA production or sensing in tumors may therefore be useful to improve cancer immunotherapies that rely on robust induction of type-I IFN.


The dominant histories of 19th- and 20th-century art in the West have tended to depict modernism as making deep and decisive breaks from religious thought, practices, and institutions. There are good reasons for scholars seeing the history this way. On the one hand, the development of modern art coincided with major sociocultural shifts that deeply reshaped not only religion (as established religious traditions became increasingly contested and pluralized) but also the functions of art itself, which thrived in forms and spaces that seemed significantly detached from religious subjects, patronage, and purposes. On the other hand, there were also significant theoretical factors shaping the ways that religion was presented—or often conspicuously not presented—in the writing of modern art history. An especially strong secularization theory (a sociological thesis positing that a society's modernization necessarily entails its secularization) has tended to dominate the scholarship of modernism, coupled with a heavy reliance on critical models that privilege highly suspicious hermeneutics (in the lineages of Marxian, Nietzschean, and Freudian critical theory), which tend to dismantle whatever "religious" content persists in modern art into questions of social power, ressentiment, sublimated desire, and so on. In all these ways, religious traditions became largely invisible and unreadable in the history of modernism, even in cases where they were important factors.
 Since the 1990s, however, several of the key historical and theoretical underpinnings of this depiction of modernism have been increasingly called into question, and a more complicated, ambiguous picture is emerging—one in which modern art and religion remain deeply entangled in fascinating and confusing ways. There are various ways of identifying and understanding these entanglements, which require not only careful reexamination of the particularities of the histories involved but also reconsideration of the interpretive assumptions and priorities through which those histories are construed. There are at least five focal points where the nexuses of art and religion are being reexamined and brought more clearly into view in the histories of modernism—namely, through object-oriented, practice-oriented, artist-oriented, context-oriented, and/or concept-oriented studies of particular instances in those histories. These focal points provide concrete loci for perceiving and exploring the functions, formations, and effects of "religion in modern art"—an inquiry which also can be reversed to explore examples of "modern art in religion," including instances where major artworks are situated in churches, cathedrals, synagogues, and other religious contexts. There are, however, varying ways that scholars interpret what they find at these focal points and how they discern the larger implications of these particular entanglements of art and religion in the history of modern and contemporary art. These differences are clarified by recognizing at least four interpretive horizons—anthropological, political, spiritual, and theological—within which scholars are understanding these focal points and rereading these histories. Though often diverging in the accounts they produce, these four horizons (and the potential interplay between them) are vital for a continued rethinking of the relations between modern art and religion.


Pituitary tumors producing FSH have hitherto been reported only in males, all of whom have had normal or raised LH levels in serum. This report describes a female with a pituitary adenoma associated with supranormal serum levels of FSH. The FSH was also qualitatively abnormal when compared with FSH in the serum of other postmenopausal women, had a lower apparent molecular weight on gel chromatography, and was less negatively charged, as shown by electrophoresis. The results of LRH tests and suppression tests with ethinyl estradiol indicated autonomy of the FSH-producing adenoma. The FSH level increased concomitant with tumor enlargement and decreased after surgical removal of the pituitary adenoma or pituitary irradiation. The serum level of the glycoprotein alpha-subunit was raised about 100-fold. Any free FSH beta-subunits were not detectable in serum. The abnormal FSH had antigenic sites in common with both the alpha- and beta-subunits of FSH. The LH level was extremely low, and there was no response to LRH tests or ethinyl estradiol treatment. After gel chromatography, a small amount of LH, corresponding to 1/50th of the average for the patient's age, was detected at the position for normal LH. There was no GH response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia, while the cortisol increase was normal. Thyroid and adrenal functions were normal. The PRL level was within the normal range and increased slightly after estrogen treatment.


The invention relates to a light emitting diode driving circuit for driving a plurality of light emitting diode chains. The light emitting diode driving circuit comprises a plurality of constant current circuits and a plurality of short-circuit protection circuits; a transistor and a detection resistor in each constant current circuit are coupled in series between the output end and the ground end of a corresponding light emitting diode chain; and when the constant current circuits work normally, by comparing a reference voltage with a detection voltage generated by the detection resistor, a feedback circuit in each constant current circuit outputs a signal to control the size of current passing through the transistor to achieve constant current control; in addition, each short-circuit protection circuit is coupled with the output end of the corresponding light emitting diode chain and the corresponding constant current circuit and is used for outputting a short circuit signal to cut off the transistor of the corresponding constant current circuit to turn off the corresponding light emitting diode chain when the voltage of the output end of the corresponding light emitting diode chain reaches a preset voltage and the voltage of the input end of a short circuit signal generation circuit in the short-circuit protection circuit reaches a preset voltage.


In this paper, we analyze a particular spatial locality case (called horizontal locality) inherent to manycore accelerator architectures employing barrel execution of SPMD kernels, such as GPUs. We then propose an adaptive memory access granularity framework to exploit and enforce the horizontal locality in order to reduce the interferences among accelerator cores memory accesses and hence improve DRAM efficiency. With the proposed technique, DRAM efficiency grows by 1.42X on average, resulting in 12.3% overall performance gain, for a set of representative memory intensive GPGPU applications.


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

We have previously demonstrated that distant metastasis might require the autocrine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1; CXCL12)/CXCR4 system in cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). In this study, we examined the expression of metastasis-related genes in B88-SDF-1 cells, which have an autocrine SDF-1/CXCR4 system and distant metastatic potentials in vivo. Microarray analysis revealed that 418 genes were upregulated in B88-SDF-1 cells. To confirm the specificity of the microarray analysis, 3 highly upregulated genes, metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5), plasticity related gene 1 (PRG1), and unknown gene were reanalyzed by RT-PCR. These 3 genes were upregulated in B88-SDF-1 cells in comparison with those in mock cells, but AMD3100, a specific antagonist of CXCR4, abrogated the upregulation of 2 (mGluR5 and PRG1) out of 3 genes in B88-SDF-1 cells. Thus, we analyzed the expression of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5), one of the genes that were upregulated in B88-SDF-1 cells. A specific mGluR5 antagonist, MPEP did not affect the growth of B88-SDF-1 cells, but did inhibit the enhanced-migration of B88-SDF-1 cells. When the B88-SDF-1 cells were transplanted into the vein, numerous metastatic foci were detected. Under the present conditions, MPEP significantly inhibited the lung metastasis of the B88-SDF-1 cells, ameliorated body weight loss, and improved the survival rate of tumor-bearing nude mice. These results suggested that mGluR5 might be one of a possible metastasis-related gene induced by an autocrine SDF-1/CXCR4 system in oral SCC.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 412.


Embedded atoms or molecules in a photoexcited He nanodroplet are well-known to be ionized through inter-atomic relaxation in a Penning process. In this work, we investigate the Penning ionization of acetylene oligomers occurring from the photoexcitation bands of He nanodroplets. In close analogy to conventional Penning electron spectroscopy by thermal atomic collisions, the n = 2 photoexcitation band plays the role of the metastable atomic 1s2s 3,1S He*. This facilitates electron spectroscopy of acetylene aggregates in the sub-Kelvin He environment, providing the following insight into their structure: the molecules in the dopant cluster are loosely bound van der Waals complexes rather than forming covalent compounds. In addition, this work reveals a Penning process stemming from the n = 4 band where charge-transfer from autoionized He in the droplets is known to be the dominant relaxation channel. This allows for excited states of the remnant dopant oligomer Penning-ions to be studied. Hence, we demonstrate Penning ionization electron spectroscopy of doped droplets as an effective technique for investigating dopant oligomers which are easily formed by attachment to the host cluster.


Incorporation of implanted antimony (Sb) in strained-silicon (s-Si) formed on relaxed-SiGe virtual substrates (10 and 30% Ge) has been studied. The implantation doses were 5×1013- 5×1014 cm-2 with an energy of 20 keV. The activation of dopant was performed by an rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment at 700 and 800 °C for 30 sec. Projected range of this implantation is about 20 nm which was also confirmed by different techniques. The layers were analyzed in terms of strain relaxation, sheet resistance, thermal stability, defect generation and dopant incorporation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution reciprocal lattice mapping (HRRLM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), four-probe measurements and Hall measurements were applied as characterization tools. This work demonstrates that the Sb incorporation in Si has improved in the presence of strain. The strain amount in s-Si does not alter after implantation or subsequent thermal treatment for dopant activation. The Sb-implanted s-Si layer on Si0.70Ge0.30 virtual substrate (5×1014 cm-2 700 °C, 30 sec RTA) demonstrated substitutional Sb concentration of 2.5×1020cm-3 where the same dose for a Si reference sample could only show 1×1020 cm-3. The fraction of active-to-atomic concentration of Sb-implanted Si was estimated nearly to 90%. HRTEM micrographs of Sb-implanted annealed samples illustrate almost defect-free material.


ABSTRACT Timber wolf Canis lupus pups vocalize within hours of birth. In this report we examine aspects of the acoustical structure of these vocalizations. We installed an unobtrusive monitoring system in a den excavated by a group of pack-reared timber wolves at the Dalhousie Animal Behavior Field Station in order to observe and record at close range the activities of a female wolf with her litter of pups. We obtained audio and video recordings from birth through the first six postnatal weeks, after which time the pups emerged from the den. The audio recordings were analyzed spectrographically and the vocalizations were classified according to gross spectral type, duration, presence and rate of frequency modulation, and spectral bandwidth. Joint differences in at least two dimensions were necessary to classify vocalizations. The most common sounds, present as early as day one, were harmonically structured, with fundamental frequencies that decreased with age. Other vocalizations, which were rare and rese...


Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations have been performed on a set of 34 titanium dioxide clusters ((TiO2)(n) with n125) to investigate structural and electronic properties of nanostructured TiO2 (nano-TiO2) materials. The investigated clusters include models of the three low-energy polymorphic forms of TiO2 anatase, rutile, and brookite. A systematic comparison of clusters of increasing size show clear trends for emerging bulk properties in the investigated systems as the surface-to-bulk ratio changes from small clusters dominated by undercoordinated surface atoms to more realistic model nanocrystals with significant bulk components. Differences and similarities in terms of atomic coordination, structural stability, and electronic properties for the three different polymorphic forms of nano-TiO2 are discussed. The calculations provide evidence for emerging polymorphism with increasing cluster sizes so that the different TiO2 forms can be clearly distinguished based on structural characteristics associated with the local bonding environment of the constituent atoms. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Less)


It is argued that a certain form of the view that the semantic paradoxes show that natural languages are "inconsistent" provides the best response to the semantic paradoxes. After extended discussions of the views of Kirk Ludwig and Matti Eklund, it is argued that in its strongest formulation the view maintains that understanding a natural language is sharing cognition of an inconsistent semantic theory for that language with other speakers. A number of aspects of this approach are discussed and a few objections are entertained.


Different metal ions were added as supplements to culture media to study sophorolipids production by Wickerhamiella domercqiae Y2A CGMCC 3798. The fermentation media were supplemented with different metal ions in the form of sulfate. A maximum yield 149.90 g/L was achieved in the presence of Cu2+ ions. The production of lactonic sophorolipids was favored when culture media wad supplied with Mg2+ ions, while Fe2+ ions were the optimal ions for acidic sophorolipids production. TLC, HPLC, and LC–MS analyses were used for further investigation on the sophorolipids production. The results of SDS–PAGE and enzymatic transformation of acidic sophorolipids showed differential expression of extracellular proteins of W. domercqiae Y2A CGMCC 3798 in presence of Mg2+ or Fe2+. Overall the results indicated potential selective production of different sophorolipids based on selected metal ions in culture media.

Practical applications: During the fermentation process of sophorolipids, L-SLs and A-SLs were produced selectively by adding Mg2+ and Fe2+into fermentation media, respectively.

Sophorolipid composition and production are different produced by Wickerhamiella domercqiae Y2A CGMCC 3798 cultured with Mg2+ (a) and Fe2+ (b), respectively by HPLC analysis.


When John Russworm and Samuel Cornish launched the first African American newspaper, Freedom's Journal, in 1827, there seemed to be a vast and untapped audience hungering for news by and about the black community. In the first issue they optimistically observed that there were "FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND free persons of colour, one half of whom might peruse, and the whole be benefitted by the publication of the Journal."(1) But within a year Russworm had left the paper after the two clashed over the question of black colonization in Africa. Cornish renamed the paper the Rights of All and continued his quest to make it a dominant cultural and political force among free blacks. By 1829, he could not secure enough subscribers or underwriters to keep the paper going, and the first African American newspaper ceased publication.(2)In the decades before the Civil War, sustenance was rare for the nearly forty African American newspapers that quickly appeared, only to quickly disappear. Russworm and Cornish's expectations of the free black community and its ability to support its own periodicals were clearly flawed. Poverty, illiteracy, competing political agendas, and the social effects of racism and discrimination contributed to the creation of an audience that could not support --financially or otherwise--a single vision of one newspaper. African American publications played a vital role in galvanizing the abolitionist movement, encouraging education and racial improvement, and disseminating the news, yet nearly all operated at a loss and most were short lived.(3)Research on the antebellum black press has focused on the editorial content of these newspapers or the individuals who edited and published them. The most recent comprehensive study on the subject repeatedly points to the financial difficulties of these newspapers, but does not dwell on the specific economic, political, and cultural factors that impeded their success.(4) The often celebratory tone of the history of the black press overshadows the extent to which the dissemination of African American ideas and culture was obstructed in nineteenth century America. Research that considers the origins and maintenance of these obstacles can provide a more realistic understanding of the role of race in the evolution of American journalism.This article is an examination of what happened to a little-known black newspaper, the Provincial Freeman, which was published between 1853-1860 in what is now Canada's Ontario province. The Freeman addressed a diverse community in Canada, comprised of fugitive slaves and African American expatriates, as well as abolitionists and missionaries on both sides of the border. It was among only a half-dozen antebellum black-owned newspapers in North America that lasted more than two years, although it eventually folded on the eve of the Civil War.(5)Scholars have noted that few business records exist for nineteenth-century newspapers, and this is particularly true for small and undercapitalized black newspapers like the Freeman.(6) The lack of financial records does not mean that constructing such a history is impossible; rather, it may take some imagination and vigilance to create an economic profile of these papers.(7) The commentary in editorial columns, surviving correspondence, and other documents provide insight into the struggle for survival of the antebellum African American press. The narrative that unfolds in the pages of these papers describes an uphill battle waged by editors and publishers to build a viable subscription base, solicit donations, recruit advertisers, and receive payment for their product.On the surface, at least, it appears that the problems that plagued the Freeman were not unlike those suffered by countless small-town and rural newspapers across the United states and Canada. Yet, when we consider the competing exigencies of the audience, African American newspapers faced additional obstacles. …


Female tree crickets (Oecanthus nigricornis) prefer large males but do not receive larger glandular courtship gifts from these males. This finding is puzzling from both the male and female perspectives, because females should prefer males providing more direct benefits, and because males who provide larger gifts achieve higher insemination success. We tested for differences in the quality of male secretions and found that larger males provided more proteinaceous food gifts than did rivals, which could explain why they are preferred by females. The preference in turn could cause depletion of food gift reserves in favored males, because natural remating rates are high and because even a single feeding bout negatively affects glandular stores. Most intriguingly, we showed that preferred males can adaptively decrease the size of courtship food-gifts provided (in order to conserve gifts for future mating events) when they perceive that the probability of multiple future mating opportunities is high. Thus, the elevated mating rates of preferred males (both before and after a focal mating event) could account for the small size of their courtship food-gifts. W hen males provide material (direct) benefits to their mates, females are expected to choose males providing the most or best materials (Trivers, 1972). In fact, recent theory suggests that direct benefits such as food gifts or parental care should be more important to choosy females than are indirect in many species, the preferred males do not provide more or better direct benefits (Møller and Thornhill, 1998). This apparent paradox has been examined by using several approaches both for systems featuring parental care (Kokko, 1998; Møller and Thornhill, 1998) and for systems in which males feed their mates (Bussière, 2002), but these theoretical arguments remain largely untested. Here, we use a courtship-feeding insect as a model system to examine several hypotheses that might explain why high-quality preferred males do not provide more material benefits to their mates than do rivals. The food gift provided by male black-horned tree crickets (Oecanthus nigricornis) comes from specialized dorsal (meta-notal) glands (Fulton, 1915). A female is attracted to the calling song of a male, mounts him, and stimulates secretions from the dorsal glands by palpating hairs on the gland's surface during courtship. Shortly after the onset of courtship feeding, the male transfers a small spermatophore to the female. Unlike some other Orthoptera (Vahed, 1998), the spermatophores of tree crickets are not physically attached to specialized nutritious substances …


This paper first underlines the main advantages, use and limitations of the electron backscatter diffraction technique from the viewpoint of phase transformations. To get a deeper understanding of physical mechanisms involved in phase transformations, several evolutions are now in progress to get an insight into both three‐dimensional and real‐time information. Two of them, in particular, improvement of data collection versus improvement of data processing are discussed in the second part of this paper.


Avariety of efforts are currently underway to develop alternatives to the neoclassical paradigm and neoclassical analysis of economic behavior. Here, the author seeks not to argue which approach is most productive, but to demonstrate the useful policy implications of adding key noneconomic (so- cial, psychological and political) variables to a paradigm that attempts to model economic behavior. This co-deterministic paradigm is called socio- economics. The article discusses the different and often insightful policy analysis that results from employing a socio-economic set of variables in four major areas: (1) allowing for shifting preferences; (2) including institu- tional contexts and influences within which individual transactions take place; (3) recognizing the effects of political as well as economic power differences; and (4) combining macro and structural policies. Copyright 1990 by The Policy Studies Organization.


ABSTRAK COPD is a chronic and progressive disease that requires self-management efforts in the management of the disease. Self-efficacy is an important concept of self-management disease to achieve behavioral change. The research objective was to identify the influence of dyspnea management education toward self-efficacy in managing breathing difficulties in COPD patients. The research design was quasi-experimental by using pretest-posttest with the control group. The number of samples was 34, consist of 17 people in intervention group and 17 people in control group. The results showed that a significant increase toward self-efficacy after given dyspnea management education (p = 0.036). Based on this research, dyspnea management education can be used as an optimal nursing intervention to improve self-efficacy in managing breathing difficulties in COPD patients.


Large-seededness can increase grain yield in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] if larger kernel size more than compensates for the associated reduction in kernel number. The aim of this research was to investigate kernel filling characteristics associated with the high kernel weight of KS115 germplasm and consider implications for grain yield improvement. Germplasm with a twofold range in potential kernel size was grown in two field experiments. In both experiments, a large-seeded hybrid based on KS115 yielded significantly more grain than a normal-seeded hybrid with the same female parent. Genotypic differences in final kernel weight were associated with both an increased rate and extended duration of kernel filling. A high kernel filling rate was associated with a high rate of increase in kernel water content and kernel volume, which resulted in large maximum water content and volume per kernel. The long kernel filling duration of KS115-based germplasm was associated with an extended duration of the period of rapid water uptake into the kernel following the onset of rapid dry mass accumulation in the grains. For this particular germplasm, this was likely due to the presence of large ovaries before fertilization. Because of a trade-off between potential kernel weight and number, prolonged duration, rather than an increased rate of kernel filling, appeared to be the main mechanism through which large-seededness of KS115 could increase grain yield.


: Characteristically subtle with its ambiguous intent and low intensity, workplace incivility violates interpersonal norms for mutual respect and has serious negative implications for organizations. In recent years, the topic of workplace incivility has attracted closer attention from scholars because of a vested interest in establishing harmonious workplaces. Reviewing related studies, we clarified the concept, measurement, antecedents and outcomes of workplace incivility and concluded with managerial implications. It is essential that future studies pay more attention to the native conceptualization, operationalization, and utilizes cross-level and longitudinal designs to better understand the mechanism of workplace incivility.


The paper presents the results of studying visual tracking of the targets which moved with a constant amplitude of angular displacement. The tracking was carried out during an interaction of vestibular and optic sensors. The tracking stability was related to the coincidence of the direction of vestibular and optic stimuli.


Hydro-metrological events cause substantial economic damage and social disruption in our society to date. These climate-related risks will become even more severe in the future, driven by changes in the frequency and magnitude of natural hazard events, an increasing exposure of buildings or infrastructure, as well as vulnerability and resilience developments of residents and businesses. Although these long-term developments are of major social and economic relevance, decisions in disaster risk management and their (potential) impacts are typically assessed as singular events and potential alternative solutions, which have not been considered, are out of scope. Recent research therefore suggests to employ the concept of iterative climate risk management (CRM), in order to align disaster risk management and climate change adaptation policy and practice. This is supposed to increase the awareness of how complex and dynamic the challenge of comprehensively tackling climate-related risks is.

Pathways aims to fill this gap by analysing the long-term development of past and future decisions. The arenas in which these decisions are made are characterised by (1) competing interests from various policy areas, (2) ad-hoc decisions often taking precedence over strategic planning for long-term CRM, and (3) previous decisions providing carry-over, follow-up or creating even lock-in effects for later decisions. Focusing on two climate-adaptation regions in Austria (so-called KLAR!-regions), Pathways paints a comprehensive picture of how local adaptation pathways were developed in the past, how these pathways led to specific decisions at specific points in time, and which impacts these choices had on community development with respect to the choices and pathways not taken. Pathways learns from the past to inform the future with the aim to provide capacity building at the local level. By understanding how earlier decisions enabled or constrained the later decisions, pathways offers policy guidance for making robust decisions in local CRM.

Pathways applies a mixed-method approach to integrate quantitative and qualitative social science research methods and to triangulate the research objectives from different perspectives. Semi-structured interviews with key CRM actors at various levels of government, geo-spatial analysis, secondary analysis of census data and archival research jointly inform the reconstruction of past decision points and related pathways. This approach allows to test, compare, confirm, and control the collected data and the interpreted results from different perspectives, while avoiding narrow, oversimplifying explanations. Building on the lessons learnt from the past, future pathways are co-designed with local stakeholders in Formative Scenario workshops. Pathways restricts its scope to climate-related risks from extreme hydro-meteorological events and geological mass movements, such as riverine floods and pluvial torrents, mud and debris flow, landslides or avalanches. This risk domain requires governance structures for immediate response to the disaster as well as for prevention and relief/reconstruction. Pathways aims to improve the knowledge base for respective governance efforts.


This work studies RF energy harvesting as a power supply for wireless (back-)scattering technology in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band. The scattering is accomplished by modulating an incident continuous wave signal (CW) according to an intermediate signal such that the modulated signal is receivable by a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) receiver. The intermediate signal provides for frequency shifting as well as information carrying modulation and is specifically designed as a signal with a relative low frequency of ca. 4 MHz, which allows for signal generation by a low energy microcontroller. The microcontroller receives its operational energy from a harvesting circuit, which accumulates and intermediately stores the energy of the incident CW signal. We achieved unidirectional BLE advertising by combining scattering technology and energy harvesting and thus showed the feasibility of wireless communication from a battery-less RF scattering transponder to a regular mobile telephone.


Three children with congenital clavicular pseudarthrosis are reported in this paper. Reference is made to indications for surgery and to the surgical approach.


OBJECTIVES
To compare changes in AIDS knowledge and risk behaviors among Brazilian cocaine users in an intervention trial.

METHOD
119 participants were randomly assigned to either a standard or a standard plus "thought mapping" intervention, and re-interviewed 2 and 8 weeks after intake using standardized data collection instruments. Intervention effects were examined using generalized estimated equation model.

RESULTS
Significant increases in AIDS knowledge and condom use were observed in the experimental group, as well as significant changes in the subscores for sexual and drug risks. The experimental intervention was less successful in decreasing mean days of cocaine use when compared to the standard.

CONCLUSION
Although not robust, the findings nevertheless suggest that components of the experimental thought-mapping model might be useful in combination with other approaches.


Electron impact multiple ionization relative cross sections of rare gas atoms (Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe) have been measured using a pulsed electron beam and a pulsed ion extraction combined with a time-of-flight analysis of the charge. The measurements cover a larger range of energies and charges than in earlier experiments, from threshold to 1 keV and from charge n = 1 to 4 (Ne), 5 (Ar), 7 (Kr) and 6 (Xe). The average number (γ) of electrons ejected from the atom per ionization event is calculated and used to evaluate the contributions of the inner-shell processes. The results are also compared with those in the case of photon impact. As regards the major ions produced, relative uncertainty as low as 1.3% for the ionization cross section ratios is achieved for all the sample gases, except near threshold. As for the γ-values, relative uncertainty is estimated to be as low as 1.2%.


Studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of storability of S. cerealella and T. chilonis at zero and control temperature for different time interval i.e. (2, 6, 12, and 24) h. Research reveals that different tem, time interval effect the parameters like incubation, emergence, hatching and longevity. Three different sets of experiments were conducted to observe hatching (%) and incubation period of S. cerealella, emergence (%) and adult longevity of T. chilonis from parasitized pupae and parasitism of S. cerealella eggs, subsequent emergence (%) of T. chilonis from the parasitized eggs and their adult longevity. Interpretation of findings unravels that eggs stored for shorter period of time i.e. 2 hours resulting in higher hatching (85.33%) and incubation period (8.13 days). Higher pupal emergence (82.66%) of T. chilonis and adult longevity (6.23 days) for storage period of 2 hours and an increase in duration decline was recorded. Significantly higher parasitism (86.66%) of S. cerealella, emergence (92.71%) and adult longevity (6.13 days) was recorded for storage period of 2 hours and with increase in duration the declension was recorded in parameters under study.


BackgroundDysbiosis of the oral microbiome mediates chronic periodontal disease, including its characteristic bone loss and host inflammatory response. Realignment of this microbial dysbiosis towards health may prevent disease. Treatment with antibiotics and probiotics can modulate the microbial, immunological, and clinical landscape of periodontal disease with some success. Antibacterial peptides or bacteriocins, such as nisin, and nisin-producing probiotics, Lactococcus lactis, have not been examined in this context, yet warrant further examination because of their biomedical benefits in eradicating biofilms and oral pathogenic bacteria, and modulation of immune mechanisms. The goal of this study was to examine the potential for nisin and a nisin-producing probiotic to abrogate periodontal bone loss and related inflammatory landscape while modulating the composition of the oral microbiome. ResultsA polymicrobial mouse model of periodontal disease was employed for this purpose. In a disease context, nisin and the nisin-producing Lactococcus lactis probiotic significantly decreased the levels of periodontal pathogens, alveolar bone loss, oral inflammatory host response, and host-antibody response to these pathogens. Surprisingly, nisin and/or the nisin-producing L. lactis probiotic also enhanced the number of gingival fibroblasts, periodontal ligament cells, and bone lining cells in response to the polymicrobial infection. Nisin and probiotic treatment significantly shifted the oral bacteriome and virome towards the healthy control state. This shift was characterized by a unique signature; health was associated with a Proteobacteria (Marinobacter sp. B9-2), whereas 3 retroviruses (Golden Hamster Intracisternal A-particle H18, Bat gammaretrovirus, and Porcine type C oncovirus) were associated with disease. Specific disease-associated microbial species were highly correlated with IL-6 levels. ConclusionsNisin's ability to shift the oral microbiome towards health, mitigate oral disease and the host immune response, and promote a novel regenerative periodontal phenotype, addresses key aspects of the pathogenesis of the disease. These benefits may negate the systemic effects associated with periodontal disease and reveal a new biomedical application for nisin in regenerative medicine.


This study describes the establishment of a Danish national strategy for treatment and rehabilitation of acquired brain injury, particularly traumatic brain injury, in 1997. The vision was to create a system of tax-financed continuous treatment, restoration of function, and outpatient rehabilitation. Recommendations and their fulfillment are described. Focus is on the establishment and function of early intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation after severe traumatic brain injury, centralized as 2 units since the year 2000, each with half the country as uptake area, corresponding to populations of around 2.5 million. Advantages gained by this centralization are increased focus on brain injury so that everybody gets specialized rehabilitation, regardless of the prognosis, the introduction of a database for severe brain injuries with unified measures of function and outcome, and the creation of a basis for method development and interdisciplinary research. Results for the first 3 years also indicate that outcome is improved after centralization.


Organic hypoglycemia occurs in pancreatic and mesenchymal tumors. Thirty percent of extrapancreatic tumors are intrathoracic. A patient with hypoglycemic pleural mesothelioma was treated by surgical excision without recurrence five years after surgery. The mechanisms of hypoglycemia are not clearly established. The recurrence of hypoglycemia is a good sign of tumor recurrence.


Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease. About 87000 cases of monkeypox were confirmed by the World Health Organization until 10th June 2023. The most prevalent methods for identifying this disease are image-based recognition techniques. Still, they are not too fast and could only be available to a few individuals. This study presents an independent application named SyMPox, developed to diagnose Monkeypox cases based on symptoms. SyMPox utilizes the robust XGBoost algorithm to analyze symptom patterns and provide accurate assessments. Developed using the Gradio framework, SyMPox offers a user-friendly platform for individuals to assess their symptoms and obtain reliable Monkeypox diagnoses.


An analog circuit architecture of Gaussian-kernel support vector machines having on-chip training capability has been developed. It has a scalable array processor configuration and the circuit size increases only in proportion to the number of learning samples. Thanks to the hardware-friendly algorithm employed in the present work, the learning function is realized by attaching a small additional circuitry to the SVM classifying hardware. The SVM classifying hardware is composed as an array of Gaussian circuits. Although the system is inherently analog, the input and output signals including training results are all available in digital format. Therefore, the learned parameters are easily stored and reused after training sessions. A proof-of concept chip containing 2-class, 2-D, 12-template classifier was designed and fabricated in a 0.18- m CMOS technology. The experimental results obtained from the fabricated chips are pre- sented and compared with theoretical calculation results. It can classify vectors per second and the average power dissipation was 220 W. The learning capability was tested using eight fabricated chips and the variability among these chips were evaluated. Successful operation of the chips was confirmed by measurement results, which demonstrates that on-chip-learning can compensate for analog imperfections.


Short carbon fiber (SCF), rice straw powder, and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) were melted, mixed, and compounded into composites by compression molding. The effects of carbon fiber content on the mechanical properties of rice straw-high density polyethylene composites (RHCs) were studied. The carbon fibers were characterized by a universal capability test machine (UCTM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), DMA dynamic mechanical analyzer, and a Fourier infrared spectrometer. The results showed that the addition of carbon fiber was beneficial to reduce the creep of RHCs. Meanwhile, the carbon fibers were broken after strength testing. The functional group types of rice straw WPC composites did not change, and the skeleton structure of WPC materials was still retained. When the content of carbon fibers was 9%, a large number of carbon fibers were surrounded by the HDPE matrix; the fibers were broken and rarely pulled out. The results showed that good interfacial bonding took place between the carbon fibers and the composites. The maximum tensile strength of the RHC/S9 was 15.15 MPa, which was 20.7% higher than that of default RHC, and the modulus of elasticity was 52.5% higher than that of default RHC. However, due to the large content of carbon fiber, the distribution of the carbon fibers was uneven in the matrix, and the toughness was reduced.


Adil Ahmad Haque argues that civilians who contribute to unjust lethal threats in war, but who do not directly participate in the war, are not liable to defensive killing. His argument rests on two central claims: first, that the extent of a person's liability to defensive harm in virtue of contributing to an unjust threat is limited to the cost that she is initially required to bear in order to avoid contributing, and second, that civilians need not bear lethal costs in order to avoid indirectly contributing to unjust lethal threats. I argue that Haque's defense of each claim fails.


Linear morphea or circumscribed scleroderma following closely a nerve distribution is of relatively common occurrence, but morphea associated with facial hemiatrophy is distinctly a rarity, if one may judge from the literature. Recently, two such cases have been observed in the Section on Dermatology and Syphilology of the Mayo Clinic. Barrs,1in 1891, reported a case of this type. Since then, three other cases have been recorded, all from the British Isles. Barrs' patient was a woman, aged 27, whose face was markedly asymmetrical, and the skin and subcutaneous tissue on the right side, from the upper border of the orbit to the level of the teeth in the lower jaw, were atrophied. The eyeball was noticeably sunken. Definite diminution in sensation over the area supplied by the superior maxillary nerve was detectable. Alopecia was not present. The patient had had neuralgia of the right side of the face


Post-processing of complex altimetry-derived echo shapes is necessary over the Caspian Sea, in which the altimetry-inferred level fluctuations, derived from on-board 'retrackers', represent errors within a wide boundary close to the coastlines, i.e. up to ~10–30 km. Four different techniques were implemented to retrack 10 Hz radar waveforms of the TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) mission and 20 Hz waveforms of its follow-on mission Jason-1. These include three previously introduced algorithms of the Off Center of Gravity, the standard NASA β-5, and Threshold Retracking, after some improvements. We also introduced a new method called 'Extrema Retracking (ExtR)', which works based on edge detection and extracting extremum points of the returned waveforms. Before implementing each technique, a two-step preprocessing was applied to exclude unwanted waveforms. Then, an unsupervised classification approach was applied to classify the remaining waveforms into multiple groups, according to their shape and geometrical properties. Finally, the waveforms of each group were post-processed using an appropriate retracking algorithm, and subsequently, the derived corrected ranges were converted to sea surface height (SSH) values. Our post-processed results were evaluated (1) by comparing the time series of SSHs with in situ tide gauge measurements as well as (2) by comparing the along-track retracked SSHs to their corresponding geoid profiles, computed from the EGM2008 model. For each evaluation, in situ measurements or geoid profiles were subtracted from the retracked SSH values to compute residuals. Thereafter, the mean and root mean squares of the residuals were calculated and interpreted, respectively, as a measure of bias and noise level of the processed SSHs. Our results indicated a reduction in noise and bias after the application of retrackers. Specifically, the bias and noise of the ExtR-derived SSH time series were decreased at locations close to the Anzali, Noshahr and Neka tide-gauge stations (along the southern coast). For example, the correlation between altimetry observations and tide gauge measurements close to the Anzali Port over the T/P era was increased from 0.31 (using original altimetry data) to 0.83 (using ExtR), which is equivalent to a noise reduction of 0.58 to 0.39 m. Comparisons of the along-track SSHs with geoid profiles indicated a significant mitigation of land contamination over the coastal areas.


This paper addresses the need for theoretical advancements in understanding team processes and the impact of technology on teams. Specifically, it examines the use of digital collaboration technologies by organizational teams and their effect on team communication and collaboration. Using the concept of affordances as a theoretical lens, the paper explores the potential relationships between technology affordances and essential team processes. It also provides an agenda for future research on social technologies and teams as well as novel methodological approaches for better understanding the ways in which digital technologies are affecting team processes and performance in the workplace.


Serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase-1 (SGK1) is a serine/threonine protein kinase that responds to various stimuli and mediates cell survival. Although it is known that testicular torsion leads to testicular damage and male infertility, the role of SGK1 in torsion remains unclear. This study investigated whether torsion-induced apoptosis is associated with changes in phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1), SGK1 and forkhead transcription factor FOXO3a expression and/or phosphorylation in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: sham (control), 1, 2 and 4 h of unilateral torsion. Bilateral testes, testicular interstitial fluid (TIF) and blood samples were collected immediately after torsion. Our results revealed that SGK1 protein and mRNA were abundantly present in testes and were induced by 2 h of torsion, but that phosphorylation of SGK1, PDK1 and FOXO3a decreased simultaneously. After 2 h of torsion, the testosterone secretion capacity of the primary Leydig cells and testicular interstitial cells (TICs) was impaired and apoptotic spermatogonia and TICs were observed; in addition, the mean seminiferous tubular diameter was decreased. Torsion increased plasma corticosterone levels, but decreased plasma luteinizing hormone and testosterone levels. However, the testosterone levels of the TIF in the ipsilateral testes were significantly enhanced after 2 h of torsion, but suppressed in the contralateral testes. This animal study suggests that PDK1, SGK1 and FOXO3a are involved in torsion-induced apoptosis and that medical therapy should be performed as early as 2 h after the occurrence of torsion to prevent further damage.


The productivity of trypanotolerant N'Dama cattle, kept under traditional management conditions in The Gambia, West Africa, was assessed by the regular, monthly collection of health and production parameters in two study areas. The study areas were selected because of differences in tsetse challenge. Performance traits were used to build up an index to estimate the productivity of village N'Dama cattle. The productivity index per 100 kg cow maintained per year varied from 37.2 kg in the study area of Keneba village (with a low tstse challenge) to 21.4 kg for cattle kept near the villages of Tuba and Sambelkunda, an area which had a high tsetse challenge. Average age at first calving was 4.5 or 5.0 years depending on the study area, calving intervals were 623 or 703 days and there was an average 12% loss of body weight in adult females during the dry season. The productivity indices of village N'Dama cattle in The Gambia compare favourably with similar indices for trypanotolerant and trypanosusceptible breeds elsewhere in Africa, and show that even under harsh conditions and with high tsetse challenge, they are able to effectively produce milk and meat for the rural population.


Objectives To externally validate the accuracy of the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) model against existing risk scores for stroke and major bleeding risk in patients with non-valvular AF in a population-based cohort. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Danish nationwide registries. Participants 90 693 patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular AF were included between 2010 and 2016, with follow-up censored at 1 year. Primary and secondary outcome measures External validation was performed using discrimination and calibration plots. C-statistics were compared with CHA2DS2VASc score for ischaemic stroke/systemic embolism (SE) and HAS-BLED score for major bleeding/haemorrhagic stroke outcomes. Results Of the 90 693 included, 51 180 patients received oral anticoagulants (OAC). Overall median age (Q1, Q3) were 75 (66–83) years and 48 486 (53.5%) were male. At 1-year follow-up, a total of 2094 (2.3%) strokes/SE, 2642 (2.9%) major bleedings and 10 915 (12.0%) deaths occurred. The GARFIELD-AF model was well calibrated with the predicted risk for stroke/SE and major bleeding. The discriminatory value of GARFIELD-AF risk model was superior to CHA2DS2VASc for predicting stroke in the overall cohort (C-index: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.70 to 0.72 vs C-index: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.66 to 0.68, p<0.001) as well as in low-risk patients (C-index: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.59 to 0.69 vs C-index: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.53 to 0.61, p=0.007). The GARFIELD-AF model was comparable to HAS-BLED in predicting the risk of major bleeding in patients on OAC therapy (C-index: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.63 to 0.66 vs C-index: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.63 to 0.65, p=0.60). Conclusion In a nationwide Danish cohort with non-valvular AF, the GARFIELD-AF model adequately predicted the risk of ischaemic stroke/SE and major bleeding. Our external validation confirms that the GARFIELD-AF model was superior to CHA2DS2VASc in predicting stroke/SE and comparable with HAS-BLED for predicting major bleeding.


This study compared the cholesterol levels and shell pigments (protoporphyrin and biliverdin) of chicken (conventional and organic), quail, pheasant, and goose eggs. The material for the study was chicken (organic system - Lohmann Brown and conventional system - HyLine Brown) eggs, quail ( Coturnix coturnix japonica ), goose (local), and pheasant ( Phasianus colchicus ) eggs homogeneously selected with a subjective scoring. High-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection was used to analyze the samples (HPLC-PDA). There were no significant differences in the yolk cholesterol content of eggs between species. Based on mg/g of yolk, different poultry species had comparable amounts of cholesterol. Quail eggshells contained significantly more protoporphyrin (81.92 M/g) than chicken (conventional-organic) and pheasant eggshells (P<0.01), but conventional chicken eggshells contained less protoporphyrin (10.73 M/g) than other species (P<0.01). Biliverdin was found only in the eggshells of quail (2.83 M/g) and pheasant (1.02 M/g) (P<0.01). It was observed that white shelled goose eggs had no detectable pigment. Research is required to elucidate the role of diet, age, stressor, strain, and housing systems on protoporphyrin and biliverdin pigment concentrations and cholesterol in table eggs and breeder eggs production.


Students with visual impairment (VI) were taught to request using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and tangible symbols. Participants were four males with additional disabilities, 5 to 11 years old, who had little to no functional vision. A functional relation between PECS Phase 1 and requesting was established using a multiple baseline single subject design. All students learned to request independently within 7 to 14 sessions in Phase 1. Students maintained requesting above criterion for 1 to 5 months. All students generalized requesting to a new communication partner (CP); however, only two students reached criterion during generalization sessions. Two students learned to seek out a CP 5 feet away to request; however, no functional relation was established for Phase 2. More research is needed to establish PECS as an evidence-based practice for children with VI.


An effective predictor-corrector guidance algorithm of high-lifting vehicles is presented in this paper. For the convenience of designing the bank angle profile, the path constraints are transformed into the constraints of the bank angle by using the quasi-equilibrium glide condition (QEGC). The differential equations of motion and range-to-go of hypersonic vehicle are used to predict the terminal target point. The main problem of the guidance of high-lifting vehicles is the bounces of vehicle in the trajectory. For suppressing the trajectory oscillations caused by their high ratio of lift and drag in the guidance, the current bank angle, which is calculated from the predictor-corrector guidance approach, will be improved by the reference flight path angle. What is more, a method is presented to correct the terminal bank angle. Simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) can cause a broad spectrum of human illness ranging from symptomfree to hemolytic uremic syndrom (HUS). Associations between known or putative virulence factors of STEC and diseases in human were investigated. PCR analyses showed that 33 (78.6%) isolates carried an ehxA enterohemolysin gene and 6 (14.3%) isolates possessed an saa autoaggutinating adhesin gene, and 31 (73.8%) isolates carried an eae intimin gene (7 isolates with type β, 16 with type γ, and 3 with type e). Twenty-nine (69%) isolates from patients carried eae+, ehxA+, saa- (genotype A) and 68 (86%) isolates from asymptomatic outbreaks and 4 (36%) isolates from bovine possessed eae-, ehxA+, saa+ (genotype C). Neither the bundle-forming pilus gene nor the enteropathogenic E. coli adherence factor plasmid was found. In HEp-2 cell adherence assay, isolates carrying eae gene exhibited a localized adherence phenotype, the other isolates carrying saa showed LC (loose clusters of bacteria) and IS (isolated bacteria). In conclusion, most STEC isolated from cattle feces in Gwangju, Korea showed characteristics different from those isolated from patients. But these results may be useful information for pathogenesis judgement of STEC.


Style guides, the primary tool of technical editors, are as important as ever; actually, their increased uses and benefits can redefine the activities of editors. Specifically, style guides can be used to train new employees, to generate buy-in of subject-matter experts, and to define the process flow of document and product generation. Additionally, because they have the potential to control many style decisions and to integrate a variety of skills, computer-driven styles and Web style guides reinforce these increased uses and benefits and suggest the emergence of even more. Thus technical editors' roles may be expanded to include additional training functions, new marketing dimensions, and innovative research in multimedia design and development.


One of the public transportation sectors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is air transportation. Many cities or countries have imposed a system of lockdown or social distancing in their territory, resulting in almost all flights being cancelled. The purpose of this study is to analyze the form of legal protection for consumers who experience cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic? And discussed the form of responsibility of the air transportation company towards the obligation to refund air transportation departure tickets that were canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic. This study uses normative law as its method with conceptual and legislation as its approach. There are three sources used in this research, namely primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials. The legal materials contain the 1945 Constitution, the Criminal Code, the Consumer Protection Act, the Aviation Law and the Disaster Management Law, the Minister of Transportation, Government Regulations, legal journals, and other legal-related literacy. These materials are collected by means of recording techniques, file systems, and document studies which will later be analyzed systematically. The forms of legal protection listed in the results of this study show a form of legal protection for consumers who experience cancellation of departures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of rights and consumer obligations described in Law no. 1 of 2009 regarding Aviation and Law no. 8 of 1999 regarding Consumer Protection. The responsibility of the air transportation company for the obligation to refund flight departure tickets that were canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic is to apply a refund mechanism in the form of vouchers


Uses of fixed appliance have become popular recently. The purpose of its use is to correct malposition of teeth in order to normalize the masticatory function and to eliminate the accumulation of food remain between the teeth. These will prevent the formation of caries and any periodontal tissue disease. Fixed appliance patients must routinely maintain their oral hygiene. This study was an analytical survey with cross-sectional design to know the relationship between behavior in tooth brushing of students using thefixed appliance and oral hygiene in Poltekkes Kemenkes Medan. The average of Oral Hygiene Index – Simplified (OHI-S) value of students using fixed appliance (2.68) was still above national target which is ≤2, and there was a relationship between behavior in tooth brushing of students using the fixed appliance and oral hygiene (p<0.02). In conclusion, to get good oral hygiene and to prevent caries formation and periodontal disease patients using fixed appliances should maintain their dental health.


Purpose: In patients with altered mentality caused by drugs or unknown causes, ammonia is checked to facilitate differential diagnosis or diagnose hepatic coma. This helps early prevention and treatment of brain damage due to hyperammonemia. This study was conducted to evaluate clinical characteristics of intoxicated adult patients with hyperammonemia. Methods: We evaluated 95 patients with hyperammonemia among intoxicated patients above the age of 15 who visited our ED from January 2013 to December 2015. We analyzed the demographic characteristics and type of poisoning substance, reason for ingestion, toxicological characteristics such as elapsed time from ingestion to hospital visit, lab, clinical progression and complications. Data were evaluated using the student's t test or Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables, and Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test for frequency analysis of categorical variables. Results: When compared to healthy individuals, patients with hyperammonemia showed statistical significance on their SOFA score (p=0.016) and poison severity score (p<0.001). Additionally, patients with hyperammonemia showed significantly different initial serum AST level (p=0.012) and maximum serum AST level during the hospital stay (p=0.026) when compared to healthy individuals. Moreover, individuals with sustained hyperammonemia compared to transient hyperammonemia showed clinically significant SOFA scores (p<0.001), poison severity scores (p=0.007), mortality rates in the ICU (p=0.021), as well as different duration of hospital stay (p=0.037), serum creatinine level (p=0.002), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p=0.025), and serum myoglobin (p=0.015). Conclusion: Most poisoning-induced hyperammonemia cases were transient and recovered without special treatment. Therefore, hyperammonemia is almost non-specific among poisoning patients.


Background and Hypothesis:
Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided fine-needle biopsy (FNB) to obtain core liver specimen is shown to be effective and safe. However, prospective data is limited regarding EUS-FNB in non-malignant liver disease. This study evaluates two EUS-FNB techniques with the hypothesis that the modified wet suction (MWS) technique will produce greater pathological yield than the slow pull (SP) technique in patients with non-malignant liver disease.
Experimental Design or Project Methods:
In this prospective, randomized controlled trial we are evaluating efficacy and safety of EUS-FNB techniques (MWS versus SP) in patients with initial indication for an upper endoscopy plus need for a liver biopsy to assess non-malignant disease. The primary outcome is pathological yield defined as number of complete portal tracts (CPTs), specimen length, and fragmentation. Secondary outcomes include pathological yield between two specimen processing techniques, pathological yield between left versus right liver lobe biopsy, time for biopsy technique, and complications.
Results:
For this interim analysis, 8 patients (5 received MWS and 3 received SP) out of a projected total of 360 patients are enrolled. Independent t-test analysis reveals no statistical difference between CPTs (P=0.56), specimen length (P=0.12), and fragmentation (P=0.16). No differences are found between any secondary outcomes, and there have been no biopsy-related complications.
Conclusion and Potential Impact:
This underpowered interim analysis reveals no statistical difference in primary or secondary outcomes between MWS versus SP technique. The current results for both groups are consistent with specimen adequacy criteria determined by American Association for the Study of Liver Disease.


The tissue destruction characteristic of periodontal diseases is a result of an imbalance between the host inflammatory process and specific pathogenic bacteria residing in the periodontal crevicular space. The protective nature of the host response enables the majority of the population to defend the bacterial insult that constantly threatens the health of the supporting tissues of the dentition. One of the major players on this inflammatory and immunologic battleground is the polymorphonuclearleukocyte (PMN) or neutrophil. A general knowledge of these syndromes is of benefit in understanding the role the neutrophil holds in the initiation and progression of periodontitis and in coordinating the multidisciplinary care that is often required. Aim of this article is to review those syndromes that have a link between neutrophil dysfunction and periodontitis.


BACKGROUND: A bioelectrochemical process for trichloroethene (TCE) dechlorination was developed. In this new process, a solid-state electrode polarized to −450 mV versus the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE), in combination with a redox mediator (i.e., methyl viologen, MV) is employed as an electron donor for the microbial reductive dechlorination of TCE. In this study we compared the performance of the process with the redox mediator immobilized at the surface of electrodes or dissolved in the bulk liquid, using both a culture highly enriched in Desulfitobacterium spp., capable of dechlorinating TCE to cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE), and a culture highly enriched in Dehalococcoides spp. capable of dechlorinating cis-DCE to ethene.

RESULTS: Short-term potentiostatic (−450 mV versus SHE) experiments showed that TCE or cis-DCE was dechlorinated both in the presence of soluble (500 µmol L−1) and immobilized MV. However, TCE or cis-DCE dechlorination rates with MV-modified electrodes were remarkably lower than with soluble MV. Both cultures produced significant amounts of H2 in the presence of electrically reduced, soluble MV, whereas no H2 was produced when the mediator was immobilized at the electrode surface, regardless of the potential applied to the electrode, in the range −425 to −500 mV versus SHE.

CONCLUSIONS: The process, operated with modified electrodes, supports the microbial dechlorination of TCE to ethene. Immobilization not only allows retention of the mediator within the system, but also increases process efficiency by preventing bioelectrochemical H2 formation. On the other hand, strategies to increase dechlorination rates with modified electrodes need to be developed. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry


Few studies have focused on gaining the views and experiences of primary aged children with the highest level of SEN – those with Statements of SEN (SSEN) or Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). This exploratory study aimed to understand from the perspective of children with moderate or general learning difficulties what they think of school, the additional support they receive, and what they would change about it in the future. It also aimed to investigate the extent to which these children are involved in the decision-making process around their provision and whether their views are considered. Six children were interviewed using pictorial prompts and the data were transcribed and analysed thematically from a social constructivist standpoint. The study found that the pupils with SSEN or EHCPs held generally positive views of schools, preferred creative subjects, but experienced a range of difficulties at school. Friends and the support of a considerate adult were viewed as important elements of school. However, close TA support and appearing different from their learning-abled peers seems to promote physical isolation, a lack of agency and bullying. Pupils placed more value on support linked to developing their interaction skills rather than support that helped them to learn, or support related to changes in their environment. Overall, the most valued support was 'Working with different adults'. The most important change for children was a desire to have more opportunities to interact with their peers within the learning environment. The children showed mixed experiences of being involved with decision-making at the school, but generally findings showed that children were mostly left out of decision-making. These developments have the potential to inform schools, EPs and other professionals' practice. Additionally, this study highlights the difficulties that schools face over inclusion and provides readers with thoughts on the actual level of inclusion for some pupils with a SSEN or EHCP.


The main purpose of this paper is to illustrate the mutual benefit to combinatorics and geometry by considering a topic from both sides. Al-Azemi and Betten enumerate the distinct combinatorial 223 configurations that are triangle free. They find a very large number of such configurations, but when taking into account the automorphism group of each, they find two cases in which there is only a single configuration. On the heuristic assumption that an object that is unique in some sense may well have other interesting properties, the geometric counterparts of these configurations were studied. Several unexpected results and problems were encountered. One is that the combinatorially unique 223 configuration with automorphisms group of order 22 has three distinct geometric realizations by astral configurations.


Rapid pathogen sensing remains a pressing issue today since conventional identification methodsare tedious, cost intensive and time consuming, typically requiring from 48 to 72 h. In turn, chip based technologies, such as microarrays and microfluidic biochips, offer real alternatives capable of filling this technological gap. In particular microfluidic biochips make the development of fast, sensitive and portable diagnostic tools possible, thus promising rapid and accurate detection of a variety of pathogens. This paper will provide a broad overview of the novel achievements in the field of pathogen sensing by focusing on methods and devices that compliment microfluidics.


We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of twisted double bilayer graphene with twist angles between 1° and 1.35°. Consistent with moiré band structure calculations, we observe insulators at integer moiré band fillings one and three, but not two. An applied transverse electric field separates the first moiré conduction band from neighboring bands, and favors the appearance of correlated insulators at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 band filling. Insulating states at 1/4 and 3/4 band filling emerge only in a parallel magnetic field (B_{||}), whereas the resistivity at half band filling is weakly dependent on B_{||}. Our findings suggest that correlated insulators are favored when a moiré flat band is spectrally isolated, and are consistent with a mean-field picture in which insulating states are established by breaking both spin and valley symmetries at 1/4 and 3/4 band filling and valley polarization alone at 1/2 band filling.


The effect of the CaO/SiO2 molar ratio on the surface tension of calcium aluminosilicate melts containing magnesia (CaO–SiO2–Al2O3–MgO) has been explored using a ring method at 1 723–1 823 K; the Al2O3 and MgO contents were approximately 12 and 8 mol%, respectively. The CaO/SiO2 molar ratio of the samples was varied in the range of 1.1–1.7. The surface tension of the CaO–SiO2–Al2O3–MgO system simultaneously increased upon increasing the CaO/SiO2 molar ratio. The present data were compared with the surface tension of the binary calcium silicate (CaO–SiO2) and the ternary calcium aluminosilicate (CaO– SiO2–Al2O3) melts reported in the literatures. The surface tension of the present CaO–SiO2–Al2O3–MgO melts was higher than those of the binary calcium silicate melts and slightly lower than those of the ternary calcium aluminosilicate melts when the polymerization degrees of the melts were comparable. The change in the surface tension was considered from the viewpoint of the local structure of oxygen atoms at the melt surface. Oxygen atoms, which require higher coordination by cations in the bulk, may tend to lose their neighbors at the surface of the melts, which can result in the formation of unsatisfied bonds at the surface. An increase in the number of unsatisfied bonds can yield an increase in the surface tension.


Abstract Several authors have suggested that male Calliope Hummingbirds (Selasphorus calliope) perform their dive and shuttle displays on "dispersed leks" where the dramatic aerial displays of several individuals can be seen or heard from a single location. To expand on the limited information available on breeding territorial behavior, I provide detailed time budget data from 3 years of observation of males in a 20-year-old seed-tree cut in Montana. Males spent the vast majority of their time (76%, on average) perched on dead willow branches that extended upward to 4–5 m in height, and an average of 90% of perch time was spent at no more than three perch sites. Most of the rest of the males' time (15%, on average) was spent off territory, where they conducted a good portion of their feeding. About 6% of a male's time was spent performing energetically demanding dive and shuttle displays, which were directed primarily toward females, but also toward other bird species perched within the male's territory. Displays directed toward females were sometimes followed by copulation while she was perched. This is only the second geographic location where male Calliope Hummingbirds are reported to have congregated in what appears to be a dispersed lek. We still know little about how common the clustering of breeding territories is, whether such clustering is limited to early successional habitat, and whether relatively few males obtain most of the copulations in such clusters, as would be expected in a classic lek breeding system.


Many fjords consist of deep, stratified reaches separated by shallower sills above which most of the mixing between water masses occurs. On a long time scale, each reach can be modeled as a steady, two-layer advective flow. These flows intermingle in turbulent mixing zones, where the flow from any incoming layer can be split into two parts: an efflux fraction, which continues on into the next reach, and a reflux fraction, which mixes vertically and recirculates into its original reach. Using conservation of mass, we define these fractions and express them in terms of the salinities observed in the reaches. The processes of the complex mixing zones need not be considered in detail. These ideas are applicable to complicated branched fjords and linked sequences of reaches. Where more than two reaches meet at a multiple junction the conservation of two tracers (usually fresh water and salt) is insufficient to determine completely the efflux/reflux fractions. We propose an entropy maximization technique to resolve the uncertainty. Long-term pollutant concentrations relate directly to the circulation via the new efflux/reflux formulation. The method demonstrates that refluxing leads to conservative pollutants being broadcast throughout the fjord system with magnified concentrations. A new quantity, the mean tracer age, provides a relevant time scale that includes the effects of recirculation and to which the rates of non-conservative processes should be compared. Conservative pollutants may be retained for a surprisingly long time in a refluxing system.


High-reflective coatings are used in many physics experiments. Despite the high quality of the optical coating, the performances of the mirrors are altered by the scattered light induced by micrometer size defects in the coating layers. The topic of this paper is the study of the point-like scatterers present in the specific coating of the mirrors used in state-of-the-art, high-sensitivity optical experiments. We studied the behavior of the materials according to different thicknesses and the resulting defects after annealing. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first insight into the formation of such defects for different materials and thickness and how this is reduced when samples are annealed.


Background The field of bioinformatics has grown at such a rapid pace that a gap in standardization exists when reporting an analysis. In response, the BioCompute project was created to standardize the type and method of information communicated when describing a bioinformatic analysis. Once the project became established, its goals shifted to broadening awareness and usage of BioCompute, and soliciting feedback from a larger audience. To address these goals, the BioCompute project collaborated with precisionFDA on a crowdsourced challenge that ran from May 2019 to October 2019. This challenge had a beginner track where participants submitted BCOs based on a pipeline of their choosing, and an advanced track where participants submitted applications supporting the creation of a BCO and verification of BCO conformance to specifications. Results In total, there were 28 submissions to the beginner track (including submissions from a bioinformatics master's class at George Washington University) and three submissions to the advanced track. Three top performers were selected from the beginner track, while a single top performer was selected for the advanced track. In the beginner track, top performers differentiated themselves by submitting BCOs that included more than the minimally compliant content. Advanced track submissions were very impressive. They included a complete web application, a command line tool that produced a static result, and a dockerized container that automatically created the BCO as the tool was run. The ability to harmonize the correct function, a simple user experience, and the aesthetics of the tool interface differentiated the tools. Conclusions Despite being new to the concept, most beginner track scores were high, indicating that most users understood the fundamental concepts of the BCO specification. Novice bioinformatics students were an ideal cohort for this Challenge because of their lack of familiarity with BioCompute, broad diversity of research interests, and motivation to submit high-quality work. This challenge was successful in introducing the BCO to a wider audience, obtaining feedback from that audience, and resulting in a tool novices may use for BCO creation and conformance. In addition, the BCO specification itself was improved based on feedback illustrating the utility of a "wisdom of the crowd" approach to standards development.


The distribution of the linear combination of two chi-square variables is known if the variables are independent. In this paper, we derive the distribution of positive linear combination of two chi-square variables when they are correlated through a bivariate chi-square distribution. Some properties of the distribution, namely, the characteristic function, cumulative distribution function, raw moments, mean centered moments, coefficients of skewness and kurtosis are derived. Results match with the independent case when the variables are uncorrelated. The graph of the density function is presented.


It remains a major concern that sperm structure has continued to be poorly investigated and reported in avian species. To our knowledge, sperm structure in the order Pelecaniforme has not been reported. Although McFarlane (1963; Proceedings of the XIII International Ornithological Congress; Ithaca, NY; American Ornithologists' Union) reported the study of spermatozoa in two genera and two species of the family Ardeidae, he did not provide an account, or the names of the species examined. The present report on the sperm structure of the cattle egret, Bubulcus ibis, is, thus, the first in the order Pelecaniformes (this bird has been placed variably under the order Ciconiiformes, or the order Pelecaniformes). Five sexually mature and reproductively active male cattle egrets were obtained from the wild, humanely euthanized, the reproductive organs dissected out, and tissues from the ducti deferentia were prepared for transmission electron microscopy. The sperm structure of this bird is generally similar to that described for most non‐passerine birds. However, the acrosome is a short, conical or bullet‐shaped, blunt‐ending organelle that lacks a perforatorium. The base of the acrosome is flat and makes contact with the nucleus along, a correspondingly flat plane. The nucleus, thus, ends anteriorly in a flat plane devoid of a concavity or a rostrum, and an endonuclear canal. The acrosomal and nuclear features of this bird are, therefore, main deviations from the situation in the non‐passerine clade of birds.


Guaranteeing real-time and accurate object detection simultaneously is paramount in autonomous driving environments. However, the existing object detection neural network systems are characterized by a tradeoff between computation time and accuracy, making it essential to optimize such a tradeoff. Fortunately, in many autonomous driving environments, images come in a continuous form, providing an opportunity to use optical flow. In this paper, we improve the performance of an object detection neural network utilizing optical flow estimation. In addition, we propose a Lyapunov optimization framework for time-average performance maximization subject to stability. It adaptively determines whether to use optical flow to suit the dynamic vehicle environment, thereby ensuring the vehicle's queue stability and the time-average maximum performance simultaneously. To verify the key ideas, we conduct numerical experiments with various object detection neural networks and optical flow estimation networks. In addition, we demonstrate the self-configurable stabilized detection with YOLOv3-tiny and FlowNet2-S, which are the real-time object detection network and an optical flow estimation network, respectively. In the demonstration, our proposed framework improves the accuracy by 3.02%, the number of detected objects by 59.6%, and the queue stability for computing capabilities.


A framework for recognising human faces from unfamiliar views is described and a simple implementation of this framework evaluated. The interaction between training view and testing view is shown to compare with observations in human face recognition experiments. The ability of the system to learn from several training views, as available in video footage, is shown to improve the overall performance of the system as is the use of multiple testing images.