Recently, in the case of observing the global environment, satellite remote sensing technology has been important. It's because satellite remote sensing is valuable for assessing relatively large areas. But now, small scale remote sensing techniques are needed which can be applicable to the detail investigation of plant tree areas which afforest land after the large scale construction of roads, dams and airports. In this study, we tried to develop and propose a lower altitude sensing technique which can be used in ground remote sensing by using a CCD camera. As a result of this investigation the following can be concluded: We recognized the transference characteristics of filters which were used in comparative tests about the four ground remote sensing devices. We also found that the near-IR camera could be used for an imaging spectral radiometer in the extraction of the vegetation index. Furthermore, we found that the vegetation index has varied hour by hour during the day of the experiment. Finally, we brought about an increase phase of the NDVI in a forest fire, which caused considerable damage, by developing new ground remote sensing technology.


Background & objectives: Health literacy and lif estyle are social determinants of health. This study was conducted to investigate health literacy and determine lifestyle from the viewpoint of social determinants of health as well as to reveal relationships between Health literacy and lifestyle according to social determinants of health in married rural women in Izeh. Method: This cross sectional and descriptive -analytical study was conducted on 240 rural women of 18-45 years old from Izeh district in 2013using random cluster sampling method. Data were collected using questionnaires of "Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA)", €Development of Mother's Lifestyle Scale with an Approach to Social Determinants of Health and "Demographic Characteristics Checklist". Chi square, Kendall's tau-c, and V Cramer's tests were applied to analyze the data using SPSS 19. Results: The mean age (± sd) of the participants was 28.42 ± 6.38 years and 50.5% were in elementary and middle school. Sixty two percent of the studied women had low level of the health literacy (borderline and inadequate), 98.3% appropriate occupation status, 77.9% inappropriate physical activity, 31.2% unfavorable nutrition, 4.6% poor stress control, 0.4% improper health behaviors, 2.9% inadequate self -care during pregnancy, and 50.8% had improper social relationships. Health literacy level was significantly correlated with nutrition (p=0.033, r=0.15) and stress (p=0.007, r= -0.073). However, health literacy had statistically no significant correlations with occupation, physical activity, improper health behaviors, self -care during pregnancy, and social relations. Conclusion: According to the findings increases in level of the health literacy improves nutritional status, increases stresses and also increases the received cares among studie d population. Therefore, health education for this group is suggested to improve their health


Background: The fungal genus Sporothrix includes at least four human pathogenic species. One of these species, S. brasiliensis, is the causal agent of a major ongoing zoonotic outbreak of sporotrichosis in Brazil. Elsewhere, sapronoses are caused by S. schenckii and S. globosa. The major aims on this comparative genomic study are: 1) to explore the presence of virulence factors in S. schenckii and S. brasiliensis; 2) to compare S. brasiliensis, which is cat-transmitted and infects both humans and cats with S. schenckii, mainly a human pathogen; 3) to compare these two species to other human pathogens (Onygenales) with similar thermo-dimorphic behavior and to other plant-associated Sordariomycetes. Results: The genomes of S. schenckii and S. brasiliensis were pyrosequenced to 17x and 20x coverage comprising a total of 32.3 Mb and 33.2 Mb, respectively. Pair-wise genome alignments revealed that the two species are highly syntenic showing 97.5% average sequence identity. Phylogenomic analysis reveals that both species diverged about 3.8-4.9 MYA suggesting a recent event of speciation. Transposable elements comprise respectively 0.34% and 0.62% of the S. schenckii and S. brasiliensis genomes and expansions of Gypsy-like elements was observed reflecting the accumulation of repetitive elements in the S. brasiliensis genome. Mitochondrial genomic comparisons showed the presence of group-I intron encoding homing endonucleases (HE's) exclusively in S. brasiliensis. Analysis of protein family expansions and contractions in the Sporothrix lineage revealed expansion of LysM domain-containing proteins, small GTPases, PKS type1 and leucin-rich proteins. In contrast, a lack of polysaccharide lyase genes that are associated with decay of plants was observed when compared to other Sordariomycetes and dimorphic fungal pathogens, suggesting evolutionary adaptations from a plant pathogenic or saprobic to an animal pathogenic life style. (Continued on next page) * Correspondence: email@example.com Departamento de Biologia Celular, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil Pós-Graduação em Ciências Genômicas e Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © 2014 Teixeira et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Teixeira et al. BMC Genomics 2014, 15:943 Page 2 of 22 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/943 (Continued from previous page) Conclusions: Comparative genomic data suggest a unique ecological shift in the Sporothrix lineage from plantassociation to mammalian parasitism, which contributes to the understanding of how environmental interactions may shape fungal virulence. . Moreover, the striking differences found in comparison with other dimorphic fungi revealed that dimorphism in these close relatives of plant-associated Sordariomycetes is a case of convergent evolution, stressing the importance of this morphogenetic change in fungal pathogenesis.


This presentation discusses the issue of bridging science, policy, industry and practitioners communities as well as the citizen dimension for enhancing disaster resilience. It focuses on the development and consolidation of the Community of Users (CoU) on Secure, Safe and Resilient Societies, an exchange platform of the European Commission. The CoU is an initiative from DG Home and aims to create a platform to exchange information on research results and policy updates between policy-makers, researchers and end-users on a European, national and regional level. Its motivation lies on the fact that there is a large span of policies and research projects users, leading to fragmentation of information and lost opportunities regarding possible synergies. There is a strong need to boost awareness about research projects and policy developments. Besides, user’s needs are often insufficiently targeted and should be considered in the light of research programming. Links among scientific outputs and policy objectives are often lacking and there is a need to strengthen cooperation and dialogue among the different communities. This presentation will highlight current research programming and perspectives in Horizon Europe and policy implementation.


This paper describes a protective relay for fast and reliable transmission line protection that combines elements that respond only to transient conditions with elements that respond to transient and steady state conditions. In this paper, we also present an algorithm that prevents Zone 1 distance element overreach in series-compensated line applications and show how to prevent corruption of the distance element polarization during pole-open conditions. We also introduce an efficient frequency estimation logic for single-pole-tripping (SPT) applications with line-side potentials. This logic prevents distance element misoperation during a system frequency excursion when one pole is open. We also discuss an algorithm and logic to prevent single-pole reclosing while the fault is present, avoiding additional power system damage and minimizing system disturbance. Applying these algorithms and logics results in a protective system suitable for increasing power system requirements such as heavy loading, SPT, series line compensation, and shunt line compensation.


OBJECTIVE
Pediatric heart transplant recipients are at risk of posttransplant coronary artery disease known as cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV), and also may develop diastolic dysfunction. As CAV begins with a process of progressive intimal thickening, these occult diffuse changes may be detected using optical coherence tomography (OCT). We hypothesized that the development of CAV, as identified via OCT, may be a mechanism of declining ventricular function. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to assess coronary artery intimal thickening and LV strain in children who have undergone heart transplantation.

METHODS
In 17 children, we analyzed OCT images for coronary intima and media thickness, and cross-sectional area (CSA). We also performed speckle tracking imaging (STI) of the LV to determine longitudinal strain and strain rate, in addition to standard echocardiographic measures.

RESULTS
Longitudinal diastolic strain rate was associated with maximum intima thickness (r = -.497, P = .042), intima CSA, (r = -.489, P = .047), maximum media thickness (r = -.503, P = .039), and media CSA (r = -.614, P = .009). The intima maximum thickness, intima/media, and intima/lumen ratios were associated with stroke volume index (Std. β = -0.487, P = .023 and Std. β = -0.488, P = .022, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest coronary artery intimal thickening may be mechanistically linked to changes in ventricular function following cardiac transplantation.


In Arthur's trace formula, a ubiquitous role is played by certain limiting expressions arising from piecewise smooth functions with respect to projections of the Coxeter fan ((G;M)-families). These include terms resulting from intertwining operators on the spectral side and volumes of polytopes on the geometric side. We introduce the combinatorial concept of a compatible family with respect to an arbitrary polyhedral fan and obtain new formulas for the corresponding limiting expressions in this general framework. Our formulas can be regarded as algebraic generalizations of certain volume formulas for convex polytopes. In a companion paper, the results are used to study the spectral side of the trace formula.


There are a wide range of applications that involve multi-modal data, such as cross-modal retrieval, visual question-answering, and image captioning. Such applications are primarily dependent on aligned distributions of the different constituent modalities. Existing approaches generate latent embeddings for each modality in a joint fashion by representing them in a common manifold. However these joint embedding spaces fail to sufficiently reduce the modality gap, which affects the performance in downstream tasks. We hypothesize that these embeddings retain the intra-class relationships but are unable to preserve the inter-class dynamics. In this paper, we present a novel framework COBRA that aims to train two modalities (image and text) in a joint fashion inspired by the Contrastive Predictive Coding (CPC) and Noise Contrastive Estimation (NCE) paradigms which preserve both inter and intra-class relationships. We empirically show that this framework reduces the modality gap significantly and generates a robust and task agnostic joint-embedding space. We outperform existing work on four diverse downstream tasks spanning across seven benchmark cross-modal datasets.


The multi-Agent Pickup and Delivery (MAPD) problem is crucial in the realm of Intelligent Storage Systems (ISSs), where multiple robots are assigned with time-varying, heterogeneous, and potentially uncertain tasks. When it comes to Human-Swarm Hybrid System ((HS)$_2$), robots and human workers will accomplish the MAPD tasks in collaboration. Herein, we propose a Human-Swarm Hybrid System Pickup and Delivery ((HS)$_2$PD) framework, which is predominant in future ISSs. A two-layer decision framework based on the prediction horizon window is established in light of the unpredictability of human behavior and the dynamic changes of tasks. The first layer is a two-level programming problem to solve the problems of mode assignment and TA. The second layer is devoted to the exact path of each agent via solving mixed-integer programming (MIP) problems. An integrated algorithm for the (HS)$_2$PD problem is summarized. The practicality and validity of the above algorithm are illustrated via a numerical simulation example towards (HS)$_2$PD tasks.


Aim: This thesis describes a study undertaken to investigate the effect, feasibility and acceptability of health education groups for adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.Background: Common medical problems are more prevalent in this client group. Life expectancy is significantly reduced with the majority of deaths resulting from natural and preventable causes. Unhealthy lifestyles have been implicated in this excess mortality. However, few studies have evaluated the outcomes of health education. Methods: Guided by the UK Medical Research Councils framework for the evaluation of complex health care interventions, health education literature was used to model a group intervention programme. A preliminary investigation was conducted using a single group pre-test post-test design. Data regarding the effect of the intervention on participants? lifestyles were collected at interview pre, post and six months after the health education groups. Feasibility was assessed through monitoring patterns of referral and attendance. Data regarding acceptability were collected by conducting focus groups with participants who attended the health education groups and mental health practitioners who co-facilitated them. Results: 45 participants were offered the intervention. 87% (n=39) attended the health education groups. Post-intervention results showed a significant increase in levels of exercise (Z = -2.77, p = 0.006) and the number of portions of fruit and vegetables consumed (t = -5.38, p =<0.001). Changes remained significant for both exercise (Z = -2.31, p = 0.021) and fruit and vegetable intake (t = -3.77, p = 0.002) at follow up and effect sizes were large. Small but non significant changes were shown in the amount of fried food eaten (F = 4.70, df = 2, p = 0.09) and the number of cigarettes smoked per day (F = 0.83, df = 2, p =0.66). The feasibility of the intervention was good and results of focus groups indicated that health education delivered in a group format was acceptable to the participants of the study.Conclusions: Health education delivered according to the protocol developed in this study may help adults with schizophrenia to develop healthier lifestyles. However, due to methodological limitations only speculative conclusions can be made regarding the causality of effect. Further more rigorous investigation of the efficacy of the intervention in a larger scale randomised controlled trial is indicated.


In this study, we develop a resource management framework for a quantum virtual private network (qVPN), which involves the sharing of an underlying public quantum network by multiple organizations for quantum entanglement distribution. Our approach involves resolving the issue of link entanglement resource allocation in a qVPN by utilizing a centralized optimization framework. We provide insights into the potential of genetic and learning-based algorithms for optimizing qVPNs, and emphasize the significance of path selection and distillation in enabling efficient and reliable quantum communication in multi-organizational settings. Our findings demonstrate that compared to traditional greedy based heuristics, genetic and learning-based algorithms can identify better paths. Furthermore, these algorithms can effectively identify good distillation strategies to mitigate potential noises in gates and quantum channels, while ensuring the necessary quality of service for end users.


Taking treatments from bench to bedside, or bench to community, requires a viable pathway connecting molecular science to global need through public and private research funding, clinical development, drug marketing, and policy making. In this paper, the authors present a systematic analysis of the effectiveness of translating basic science into reduced global burden of disease as a proxy for systemic public health impact. They pose a compound research question: Is the current drug development pipeline aligned with current and future global burden of disease, and, if not, where do the disconnections occur?


The incident and observation angular dependences of the fluorescence from pyrene-doped polymer films are measured by variable-angle total internal reflection fluorescence spectroscopy. These angular profiles depend on refractive index, film thickness, observation wavelength, pyrene concentration, absorption coefficient of the polymer film, and so on. The profiles are in good agreement with the results calculated by fitting the parameters and by considering interference effects and concentration profiles. Step profiles of the pyrene concentration explain the results for the segmented poly(urethaneurea) film, while, in poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene films, pyrene is distributed homogeneously.


In the previous work, we developed a model for inventory routing problem with split delivery and proposed a hybrid approach based on Lagrangian relaxation to solve the model. Numerical experiments show that the proposed hybrid approach can find a high quality near-optimal solution for the problems with up to 200 customers in a reasonable computation time. In this paper, we further improve and simplify the model by introducing a new parameter - transportation cost that is generated by the vehicle's self-load. We derive some important properties of the optimal solution of the improved model. These properties lay a foundation of the proposed Lagrangian relaxation method. They can be also used as a tool to gauge and improve the quality of solutions.


Exposure of rats to hypobaric hypoxia (9.5% O2) for 40 days produced cardiac hypertrophy, increases in the total LDH activity and subunit M percentage of LDH and a significant decrease (50%) in H/M ratio when compared to control rats. An equally long exposure to cold (+6 degrees C) did not affect heart weight or total LDH activity, but a significant increase (17.6%) in the H/M ratio developed. Simultaneous exposure to cold (+6 degrees C) and hypoxia (9.5% O2) caused a significant decrease in the H/M ratio, but there was no change in the total LDH-activity when compared to the control group. The poor hypoxic tolerance of the cold-exposed rats could partly be explained by disadvantageous distribution of LDH isoenzymes leading to impaired glycolytic capacity of such an aerobic organ as the heart.


Rare Birds of North America is the first comprehensive illustrated guide to the vagrant birds that occur throughout the United States and Canada. Featuring 275 stunning color plates, this book covers 262 species originating from three very different regions—the Old World, the New World tropics, and the world's oceans. It explains the causes of avian vagrancy and breaks down patterns of occurrence by region and season, enabling readers to see where, when, and why each species occurs in North America. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features, taxonomy, age, sex, distribution, and status. Rare Birds of North America provides unparalleled insights into vagrancy and avian migration, and will enrich the birding experience of anyone interested in finding and observing rare birds.


An experimental investigation of an above-ferromagnetic resonant self-biased hexagonal ferrite circulator is detailed in this paper. The concept of the ldquoregion of opportunityrdquo is invoked to establish a relationship between the ferrite's geometry and its MH large-signal data for self-biased operation. This concept is used to design a working three-port nonreciprocal device that will serve as a basis for experimentally ascertaining best case insertion losses (ILs), return losses (RLs), and/or isolations (ISs) for circulator applications. Furthermore, we show that this nonreciprocal device when externally tuned as a circulator exhibits RLs and ISs of better than 15 dB across a narrow band; the ILs are on the order of 1.5 dB within this same band. This IL is correlated to the best case IL. Results confirm the conclusion that a ferrite with Hc = 4.0 kOe, 4piMs = 4.375 kG , and DeltaH = 1.862 kOe is suitable for self-biased circulator applications.


INTRODUCTION
Previous qualitative reviews have summarized evidence of an association between menthol cigarette use and likelihood of smoking cessation. The objective of this meta-analysis was to provide a quantitative summary of effect sizes, their variability, and factors related to the variability in effect size for the association between menthol use and likelihood of smoking cessation.

METHODS
We systematically searched Medline, PsycINFO, and Embase for prospective and cross-sectional studies of the association between menthol use and smoking cessation. We analyzed data with random effects meta-analyses and meta-regression.

RESULTS
Our review identified 22 reports from 19 studies of the association between menthol use and cessation. All identified study samples included only US smokers, with one exception that included both Canadian and US smokers. Our overall model did not demonstrate a significant association between menthol use and cessation; however, menthol users were significantly less likely to quit among blacks/African American smokers (odds ratio = 0.88).

CONCLUSIONS
Among blacks/African Americans predominantly in the US menthol users have approximately 12% lower odds of smoking cessation compared to non-menthol users. This difference is likely the result of the tobacco industry's ongoing marketing influence on the black/African American Community, suggesting that a menthol ban may have a unique public health benefit for black/African American smokers by encouraging quitting behavior.

IMPLICATIONS
This study adds a quantitative summary of the association between menthol cigarette use and smoking cessation in the United States. Findings of an association with lower likelihood of cessation among black/African American smokers, likely resulting from the tobacco industry's marketing influence, support the ban of menthol flavoring as part of a comprehensive tobacco control effort to increase cessation among black/African American smokers.


A total of 408 cats with various cardiovascular problems has been presented to two investigational clinics during the last 8 years. The number of yearly examinations has steadily increased during this period. Definitive cardiovascular disease was diagnosed in 287 cats, whereby hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) was the most common diagnosis with 67.6%. Congenital cardiovascular malformations were found in 11.8% of the cases. Ventricular septal defect (VSD) was the most frequent anomaly, in contrast to previously published studies. The ECG was found to be relatively non-specific and insensitive for the diagnosis of heart disease: Its usefulness lies in the recognition and diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias. The radiographically recognized changes were also non-specific for certain heart diseases. Radiographs of the thorax are especially useful in the evaluation of cardiomegaly, and secondary signs of congestion.


"Policy" is defined as a definite course of action adopted for reasons of expedience, prudence, wisdom, or common sense. What can be said about policy and healthy weights? We must draw conclusions from the evidence offered for the comorbidities associated with overweight. Then we must ask, what is a healthy weight? How much gain or loss will suffice to arrive at a healthy weight? What other issues such as economics and mental health costs affect policy? To facilitate the process, I will review the policy issues for which there is already a consensus and then outline the evidence available from which this group might gain perspective for formulating practical public health recommendations.


OBJECTIVE
To define the prevalence of smokers and nicotine-addicted patients in a suburban, community ED.

METHODS
This was a prospective survey of consecutive ED patients seen in a suburban ED with an annual patient census of 48,000. Medically stable patients aged 18 years or older were eligible for inclusion. Patients were excluded if they had predominantly psychiatric complaints or were critically ill. Patients were queried about their smoking habits by a closed-question survey, which included the previously validated Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence. The study was conducted during a six-week period, only at times when there were dedicated research associates available to ensure consecutive patient entry. Continuous variables were analyzed by Student's t-tests. Clinical variables were analyzed by chi-square tests. All tests were two-tailed with alpha at 0.05.

RESULTS
1,515 patients comprised the study group. The mean age (+/-SD) was 45.6 (+/-18.9) years; 52% were female, 25% were nonwhite, and 47% were college graduates. There were 317 (21%) smokers. Patients having private physicians were less likely to smoke (18% vs 29%, p = 0.001). Of all smokers, 46% were moderately to severely nicotine-dependent, 69% wanted to quit, and 30% expressed an interest in joining a smoking cessation program.

CONCLUSION
A substantial percentage of ED patients smoke, many of them are nicotine-addicted, and the majority would like to quit. Randomized, controlled trials are needed to determine whether interventions by physicians in the ED can have an impact on the smoking habits of these patients.


Dynamic dataflow allows simultaneous execution of instructions in different iterations of a loop, boosting parallelism exploitation. In this model, operands are tagged with their associated instance number, which is incremented as they go through the loop. Instruction execution is triggered when all input operands with the same tag become available. However, this traditional tagging mechanism often requires the generation of several control instructions to manipulate tags and guarantee the correct match. To address this problem, this work presents three dataflow loop optimisation techniques. The stack-tagged dataflow is a tagging mechanism that uses stacks of tags to reduce control overheads in dataflow. On the other hand, as nested loops may increase the overhead of stack-tag comparison, tag resetting can be used to set the tag to zero whenever it is safe, allowing a one-level reduction at the stack depth. Finally, loop skipping allows to further avoid stack comparison overhead in loops, when the number of iterations can be determined by the compiler. Experimental results show the overhead, drawbacks and benefits for the three optimisations presented. Moreover, the results suggested that a hybrid compiling approach can be used to get the best performance of each technique.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the effective components of Yiqi Jiedu recipe and the main biological processes and signal pathways involved in the therapeutic mechanism of the recipe in treatment of primary liver cancer through network pharmacology and molecular docking approaches.

METHODS
TCMSP, Uniport, Genecards and String databases were searched to obtain the target genes of drugs and disease using Cytoscape 3.8.2 software. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed to identify the common genes in the target genes of the drugs and disease. Using Pubcham, RCSB and Autoduck, the effective components of the drugs were connected with the final core genes. The effects of different concentrations of Yiqi Jiedu recipe on the expressions of the core genes DHX9, HNRNPK, NCL and PABPC1 in HepG2 cells were analyzed with Western blotting and real- time fluorescence quantitative PCR.

RESULTS
We finally identified 8 core genes from the drug and disease targets, including DDX5, HNRNPK, PABPC1, DHX9, RPS3A, RPS3, RPL13, and NCL. GO analysis showed that these core genes were involved mainly in the biological processes of adrenaline receptor signal communication, movement of cellular or subcellular components, blood particles, adhesion class and iron ion binding. KEGG analysis showed that the Ras signaling pathway had the greatest gene enrichment. The results of molecular docking suggested that the effective components of the recipe were capable of docking with the core genes under natural conditions, and PABPC1 and stigmasterol had the highest binding energy. In HepG2 cells, treatment with 10% medicated serum for 48 h had the strongest effect on the expression of DHX9, HNRNPK, NCL and PABPC1 (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
Yiqi Jiedu recipe is capable of regulating viral expression of primary liver cancer multiple effective components that bind to DHX9, HNRNPK, NCL and PABPC1.


A natural juice isolated from the fruit of the plant Punica granatum with antioxidant, potential antineoplastic, and chemopreventive activities. Pomegranate juice contains flavonoids which promote differentiation and apoptosis in tumor cells by down-regulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and stimulating migration inhibitory factor (MIF), thereby inhibiting angiogenesis. T he flavonoids in pomegranate juice also scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) and, in some cell types, may prevent ROSmediated cell injury and death. (NCI04) Qeios · Definition, February 7, 2020


How can we reconcile, in a non-ethnocentric fashion, the enforcement of international, universal human rights standards with the protection of cultural diversity? Examining this question, taking the controversy over female circumcision as a case study, this article will try to bridge the gap between the traditional anthropological view that human rights are non-existent -- or completely relativised to particular cultures -- and the view of Western naturalistic philosophers (including Lockeian philosophers in the natural rights tradition, and Aquinas and neo-Thomists in the natural law tradition) that they are universal -- simply derived from a basic human nature we all share. After briefly defending a universalist conception of human rights, the article will provide a critique of female circumcision as a human rights violation by three principal means: by an internal critique of the practice using the condoning cultures' own functionalist criteria; by identifying supra-national norms the cultures subscribe to which conflict with the practice; and by the identification of traditional and novel values in the cultures, conducive to those norms. Through this analysis, it will be seen that cultural survival, diversity and flourishing need not be incompatible with upholding international, universal human rights standards.


To overcome troubles in strength and process of linerboard caused by raw materials, a neutral sizing which is usual in fine paper making can be considered. A new sizing agent is necessary to show good performance in a system with high conductivity and COD. In this study, fast cure type AKD was examined as a new sizing agent and compared with conventional AKD. The effects of fixing agent addition and drying condition were also investigated. Fast cure type AKD which has a higher cationicity showed better sizing degree than conventional AKD in spite of low addition level and no curing treatment. And when fixing agent of sufficient amount was added, sizing degree was improved for both AKDs. High cationicity is a crucial factor for neutral sizing of linerboard for obtaining fast and stable sizing degree. Drying with temperature over was desirable for developing sizing degree.


The spectroscopy of colloidal CdSe nanocrystals is investigated using two-dimensional photon echo (2DPE) spectroscopy with copolarized and cross-polarized pulse sequences. Clearly resolved excited state absorption features are observed to beat at the frequency of the longitudinal-optical phonon, and the phase of this beating is found to be polarization-dependent. A simulation is performed using the excitonic and biexcitionic fine structure states predicted by theory, and the polarization-dependent beating allows each feature to be assigned to a particular excited state absorption pathway. Owing to their circularly polarized selection rules, the polarization-dependent 2DPE technique provides valuable insights into the spectroscopy of quantum dots. In particular, transient absorption features observed in pump-probe studies of CdSe quantum dots can now be assigned to specific fine structure transitions to the ground state biexciton.


This paper looks at the language of adolescents in the Admiralty Islands, who are educated through the medium of English but are fluent in Melanesian Pidgin English (Tok Pisin). It was found that lexical innovation in Manus included massive borrowing of English lexical items, especially verbs, into Tok Pisin. However, in most cases the borrowings are integrated rather than forming obvious code switches. The introduced words and phrases have the potential to influence the evolving grammar of Tok Pisin, and it seems that English and Tok Pisin are moving closer together, but descriptions of the phenomenon as a post-creole continuum appear to be premature.


ance. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of early administration of Indo and Ibu on VEGF and its soluble receptors in the developing rat lungs. Sprague-Dawley rats received IP injections at birth (P0), postnatal day 1 (P1), and P2 of either saline (Sal); 0.2 mg/kg IN on P0 followed by 0.1 mg/kg on P1 and P2; 1.0 mg/kg IN on P0 followed by 0.5 mg/kg on P1 and P2; 10 mg/kg IB on P0 followed by 5 mg/kg on P1 and P2; and 50 mg/kg IB on P0 followed by 25 mg/kg on P1 and P2. At P14 and P21 (time of microvascular maturation), lung homogenates were assessed for VEGF, sVEGFR-1 and sVEGFR-2. Untreated term rat lungs were also examined. VEGF levels increased at P14 and P21 (p < .001 vs term) whereas sVEGFR-1 levels remained unchanged and were 30to 50-fold higher than sVEGFR-2. sVEGFR-2 levels peaked at P14 (p < .001 vs term) and decreased at P21 (p < .01 vs. term and P14). Indo and Ibu had no effect on VEGF levels at P14; however, at P21, VEGF levels increased with low-dose Indo (p < .05 vs Sal). Similarly, sVEGFR-1 levels remained unchanged at P14. In contrast, sVEGFR-1 levels were elevated at P21 in the high-dose Indo group (p < .001 vs low-dose Ibu and Indo). Low and high doses of Indo had significant suppressive effects on VEGFR-2 at P14 (p < .01 vs Sal), although the effect of Indo was more potent and was sustained until P21 (p < .01 vs Sal). Soluble VEGFR-2 may play an important role during the time of lung microvascular maturation. Its suppression at P21 with Indo may result in VEGF overexpression. Ibu does not exhibit similar suppressive effects at this crucial time of lung development and therefore should be considered as an alternate therapy for ductus arteriosus closure.


Digital watermarking is distinctive depending on the techniques used and its intended applications. This paper concentrates on invisible digital image watermarking using discrete wavelet transform. The work flow involves watermark embedding, attacks and watermark extraction. Two methods are proposed and analyzed to imply the imperceptibility and robustness, among the most important criteria of digital watermarking, using three types of attacks - JPEG compression, blurring and histogram equalization. The results are compared through subjective visual inspections and calculative measurements using PSNR for watermark imperceptibility and SSIM index for watermark robustness.


Warehouse location and retailer allocation is a high-level strategic decision problem that is commonly encountered by logisticians and supply chain managers, especially during the supply chain design phase. Considering the product distribution cost and warehouse capital cost trade-offs, this paper models the warehouse location and retailer allocation problem as a 0–1 integer programming problem and provides an efficient two-stage set covering heuristic algorithm to solve large-sized problems. Finally, concluding remarks and some recommendations for further research are also presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Biofilms generally account for the majority of P assimilation in streams. However, relatively few direct measurements have been made that link nutrient loadings to biofilm assimilation. We measured P uptake rates for natural benthic biofilms sampled from 8 streams situated along a productivity gradient in the mid-Atlantic region, where point-source nutrient loadings were applied with an in situ enrichment system (ISES). ISES consisted of vials spiked with increasing concentrations of P with and without N. Short-term radiotracer (H333PO4) experiments were conducted to measure P uptake by biofilms growing on the surface of the vials collected from the streams. The relationship between P uptake and P loading in each stream was explained using simple linear regression. In all streams, P uptake rates declined with increased experimental P loading and as a function of stream productivity. Biofilms had significantly higher uptake rates overall in low- vs high-productivity streams (1.29 and 0.84 log10[nmol P μg−1 chlorophyll d−1], respectively) (F1,30 = 6.21, p = 0.018). These results indicated that assemblages in low-productivity streams were physiologically adapted to use new P additions, whereas biofilms in productive streams showed signs of P saturation such that these assemblages had reduced demand for new P loadings. N loading synergistically affected biofilm P uptake ability in high-productivity streams, where N appeared to have been a secondarily limiting nutrient. Our work emphasizes that P uptake was heterogeneous across landscapes. P-saturation was common in high-productivity streams (embedded in agriculturally dominated watersheds) and was mediated by N-enrichment and nutrient stoichiometry.


A cohort study representing a general population (Minorca Island, birth year 1997-1998) showed that in utero transfer of organochlorine compounds (OCs) in children was strongly correlated with the age of the mother and, in the case of hexachlorobenzene (HCB), 4,4'-DDE, and 4,4'-DDT, with the maternal body mass index. Some of these correlations remained significant for the serum concentrations collected in these children at four years. No significant correlations with length of gestation were observed. Breastfeeding and age of lactation were strong determinants of most OC concentrations at four years of age. At this age, the body burden of these compounds was higher than at birth irrespective of maternal or formula feeding, but they accumulated at higher extent in the former case involving concentration increments in blood that surpassed the growth dilution effects, with the only exceptions being pentachlorobenzene (PeCB), HCB, and 4,4'-DDT. 4,4'-DDE exhibited the highest increase in association with breastfeeding, pointing to a specific accumulation pathway via this mode. Compounds with low K(ow) values such as beta-hexachlorocyclohexane showed significant accumulation in four-year-old children but with small differences between the groups that had been raised on either breast milk or formula. Compounds having low K(oa) values such as HCB showed decreases in concentration and small body burden variation between birth and four years of age, which points to their preferential elimination in these initial periods of infant growth.


As universities offer courses online, issues related to quality of instruction, faculty roles and incentives, and availability of resources and support are raised. This study examined faculty members' perceptions of factors and issues that support or impede their development and teaching of Web-based courses at Mississippi State University. This measurement of factors concerning the faculty's participation in developing and teaching Web-based courses may lead to improvement in status of web-based instruction (WBI). The researcher found that a majority of the faculty was not using WBI. The low level of WBI implementation was associated with (a) the nature of course content (not all classes are meant for online teaching), (b) lack of administrative support, (c) no release time for development and revisions of online courses, (d) non-reliability of technology, and (e) lack of incentives for teaching online. If the university administration were to implement policies to recognize the importance of WBI while providing adequate support services to faculty, the future could be bright for WBI.


Artificial neural networks (ANN)-based models are efficient ways of source localisation. However very large training sets are needed to precisely estimate two-dimensional Direction of arrival (2D-DOA) with ANN models. In this paper we present a fast artificial neural network approach for 2D-DOA estimation with reduced training sets sizes. We exploit the symmetry properties of Uniform Circular Arrays (UCA) to build two different datasets for elevation and azimuth angles. Linear Vector Quantisation (LVQ) neural networks are then sequentially trained on each dataset to separately estimate elevation and azimuth angles. A multilevel training process is applied to further reduce the training sets sizes.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the association of anthropometric indexes (body mass index and waist circumference) in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and its association with insulin resistance (IR), metabolic syndrome (MS) and histological findings.

METHODS
From August 2003 to July 2004 a case series of 81 outpatients with clinic and/or histological diagnosis of NAFLD were selected at the Bahia University Gastro-Hepatology Clinic, Brazil. Liver function tests, lipid profile, glucose and insulin were performed in all patients. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were determined according to WHO criteria. IR was measured by means of the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) and IR was considered with HOMA > or =3. MS was defined according to the Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III). Liver biopsy was performed in 37 cases.

RESULTS
Body mass index > or = 30 kg m(-2) (obesity) was found in 39% of the cases and BMI > or = 25-29.9 kg m(-2) (overweight) in 53%. BMI was correlated with IR (r = 0.29; P = 0.02) and WC with ALT (r = 0.02; P = 0.03). Increased WC also was related to IR and to MS. The presence of steatohepatitis with fibrosis on liver biopsy was associated with overweight (68%) and increase of WC (41%).

CONCLUSIONS
Body mass index and WC are frequent associated with MS, IR and histological findings (steatohepatitis and fibrosis) in patients with NAFLD.


Corrosion is an important consideration in the design of a solder joint. It must be addressed with respect to the service environment or, as in the case of soldered conduit, as the nature of the medium being transported within piping or tubing. Galvanic-assisted conosion is of particular concern, given the fact that solder joints are comprised of different metals or alloy compositions that are in contact with one-another. The (thermodynamic) potential for corrosion to take place in a particular environment requires the availability of the galvanic series for those conditions and which includes the metals or alloys in question. However, the corrosion kinetics, which actually determine the rate of material loss under the specified service conditions, are only available through laboratory evaluations or field data that are found in the existing literature or must be obtained by in-house testing.


BACKGROUND: The Stewart-Treves syndrome with localisation in the region of the lower extremities is not something unusual as clinical pathology, but the clinical diagnostics is rather difficult, and it can be further complicated maximally because of: the similar locoregional findings in patients with other cutaneous malignancies. CASE REPORT: Presented is a rare form of an epithelioid variant of the Stewart Treves syndrome in a woman, aged 81, localised in the region of the lower leg and significantly advanced only for 2 months. The diagnosis was confirmed histologically and immunohistochemically. Amputation of the affected extremity was planned. Discussed are important etiopathogenetic aspects regarding the approach in patients with lymphedema and possibility for development of the Stewart Treves syndrome. CONCLUSION: Analyzing the evidence from the literature worldwide, we concluded that perhaps the only reliable (to some extent) therapeutic option in patients with Stewart Treves Syndrome is 1) the early diagnostics and 2) the following inevitable radical excision or amputation with the maximal field of surgical security in the proximal direction.


I have some exciting news—after most of a year of work, the Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal has been accepted for inclusion in the PubMed Central electronic database. This is a subsection of the National Library of Medicine, which produces PubMed, the premier electronic database of research already familiar to many of you. PubMed Central's mission is to provide free full-text articles that match users' search criteria. The process of evaluation ensured that the Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal represented a unique niche not already present in the Library's holdings and that the work published in the Journal is high quality. Thus, being accepted validates the quality and uniqueness of our journal.

Free, full-text article availability is one of the emerging trends in research. Most University libraries are now spending more of their budgets and efforts on electronic subscriptions and holdings than the traditional print journals. Most researchers are doing "library work" from their own computers. Many clinicians are using online databases to locate relevant research for their clinical questions. Immediate access to full-text articles is certainly the preferred format. Having this access available through a PubMed search validates the credibility of the research. We have a growing interest in the Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy Journal from outside the United States. We are also gaining visibility with cardiovascular and pulmonary researchers and clinicians outside of physical therapy. The Internet and access to PubMed makes our journal much more accessible to those researchers. By increasing visibility of the Journal, we also anticipate more of these researchers will submit their work for publication. This is a happy cycle which further increases the quality and uniqueness of our journal.

There are issues to be resolved, which will be the focus of the editorial board and journal staff over the next year. For example, how do we balance the "member benefit" of receiving the Journal with the need to be available to nonmembers? What about electronic subscriptions? What does this access do to advertising revenues? What does this mean for printing vs. Web site costs? These questions are not easy to answer, but are very important. We welcome the input of all subscribers, members and nonmembers alike, on these issues.

Increasing the visibility of the Journal means that we need to continue to have a steady flow of all types of scholarship to highlight. We are especially seeking case studies, commentary articles on current issues in cardiovascular and pulmonary practice, systematic reviews, and illustrations of how research is applied in clinical, educational, and administrative settings. We, as cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapists, represent a huge diversity of practice settings philosophy, and stage of evidence-based practice. We need to highlight this diversity to our ever-growing audience. We are blessed with an editorial board and cadre of reviewers who work closely with both novice and experienced authors to help their ideas come to fruition in print. I sincerely hope to see new clinicians, students, researchers, administrators, and educators bring their ideas to us. Please contact me if you have an idea you'd like to discuss.

Here's to an exciting 2010!


The Military Medical Academy is a military educational institution which carries out the primary profile training of physicians for the Armed Services and all types of post-graduation training and advanced training of the scientific-pedagogical and medical specialists. Internship as a first stage of the post-graduation training is intended to improve practical medical training of the graduates of the Russian Military Medical Academy and other medico-military educational institutions by means of their primary specialization in one of the clinical or profile branches of medicine. The reforming of the post-graduation training rest system in the Military Medical Academy aims at its further development and putting specialists' training system into accordance with the Armed Forces reorganizations. This will make it possible to ensure high professional qualification of military doctors at the level of national and international standards.


The adsorption dynamics and kinetics of CO2 on FeOx clusters have been studied using thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and molecular beam scattering. According to AES data, even at good vacuum conditions, the vapor‐deposited Fe clusters oxidize readily. An ensemble of metallic and oxidized Fe clusters form. Three structures at 120 K, 160 K, and 500 K are seen in CO2 TDS, which are assigned to physisorbed CO2 and carbonate decomposition. The latter structure is only present for large Fe exposures, χFe. The initial adsorption probabilities, S0, decrease with increasing impact energy. S0 increases with adsorption temperature, Ts, which is discussed in the framework of the capture‐zone model (CZM). Small effects of the cluster size on the initial adsorption probabilities, S0, as well as its coverage dependence, S(Θ), have been seen. The coverage dependence of the adsorption probabilities obeys the Kisliuk precursor model, as predicted by the CZM. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Initiating systems that can be applied to both free radical polymerization (FRP) and cationic polymerization (CP) have attracted much attention due to their unique advantages, such as integrating monomers with completely different structures and properties into a polymerization system to form high-performance and multi-functional (co)polymers. Methylphenylsilane (MPS) and octadecylsilane (ODS) are originally proposed here combined with iodonium salt as a highly versatile triple initiating system for redox, photo and thermal polymerizations (both radical and cationic). In redox polymerization, gel times can be controlled between 1 and 30 min by adjusting the concentrations of silane/iodonium couples or by adding additives (e.g. stabilizer TEMPOL or different inorganic salts). The combination of silane/Iod with a photoinitiator results in excellent dual photo/thermal initiating ability for both FRP and CP (demonstrated by DSC and RT-FTIR). These newly developed initiating systems can be applied in laser write experiments @405 nm and show excellent spatial resolution performance. Thick carbon or glass fiber/epoxy resin composites are also easily manufactured via a dual approach (first photocuring at the surface and then thermal curing in depth). Importantly, the new initiating systems show excellent storage stability in epoxide resins, which cannot be achieved with classical initiators.


Discovery of atomistic systems with desirable properties is a major challenge in chemistry and material science. Here we introduce a novel, autoregressive, convolutional deep neural network architecture that generates molecular equilibrium structures by sequentially placing atoms in three-dimensional space. The model estimates the joint probability over molecular configurations with tractable conditional probabilities which only depend on distances between atoms and their nuclear charges. It combines concepts from state-of-the-art atomistic neural networks with auto-regressive generative models for images and speech. We demonstrate that the architecture is capable of generating molecules close to equilibrium for constitutional isomers of C$_7$O$_2$H$_{10}$.


Cortical cerebellar atrophy (CCA) contains hereditary spinocerebellar degeneration (hSCD) and genetic testing is necessary for an accurate diagnosis. Screening for frequent hSCDs (triplet repeat disease and SCA31) was performed. Panel analysis and whole exome analysis using a next-generation sequencer were also performed. The Japan Consortium for Ataxias, J-CAT, contributes to the elucidation of the genetic epidemiology of CCA. The elucidation of CCA would be promoted by comprehensive gene analysis, including whole genome analysis.


An abstract is a brief of the paper; the abstract should not contain references, the text of the abstract section should be in 12 point normal Times New Roman. Temperature variability was investigated for the near surface air temperature time series measured at Sporilov station (Prague, the Czech Republic) between 2003–2016. The interpretation of the Sporilov daily air temperature averages was completed with the results of the long-term observation at the Prague Klementinum station (daily averages, daily maximum and daily minimum temperatures). Variability was detected by the method of absolute difference of temperature anomalies between two adjacent discrete time periods. The results demonstrated increasing warming trends for all investigated temperature time series and a general reduction of the diurnal temperature range. The range of temperature oscillations reduces also on the annual scale. The temperature variability has shown general decline, however the velocity of the detected variability decreasing trend is significantly minor in comparison with the previously investigated period 1994–2001. The analysis also revealed that the occurrence of both hottest and coldest extremes have been increasing during the investigated period at both stations.


Caldwell, Peter V. Characterization of the hydrologic regime of four Carolina Bay plant communities. (Under the direction of Dr. J. D. Gregory and Dr. M. J. Vepraskas.) Successful restoration of a wetland requires that wetland vegetation be established at the site. Unfortunately, the hydrologic regime of restored wetlands is frequently incompatible with these communities and the vegetation cannot survive. This is sometimes a result of improper hydrologic design, but in many cases it is due to a lack of understanding of the hydrology required by these plant communities. The objective of this study was to provide quantitative data describing the long-term (40 yr) hydrology associated with the Pond Pine Woodland (PPW), Nonriverine Swamp Forest (NRSF), High Pocosin (HP), and Bay Forest (BF) plant communities found in three undisturbed Carolina Bays on the North Carolina Coastal Plain. This objective was achieved by simulating water table depths in the various plant communities in the bays over a 40 yr period with calibrated DRAINMOD hydrologic models. The hydrology of the PPW community differed significantly from that of the NRSF, HP, and BF communities in that water tables were deeper in the soil profile, water was ponded on the surface less often and for shorter durations, and the water table dropped to mineral soil horizons more frequently for extended periods of time. Further, the PPW received an average of 15% of its water input from groundwater inflow, whereas the other communities did not exhibit groundwater inflow. The source of the groundwater inflow is not known but it is believed to be a local phenomenon. The water could enter the bays either laterally from adjacent uplands or vertically from confined aquifers below. A confined artesian aquifer below one of the bays was likely the source of inflow for that bay. The hydrology of the NRSF, HP, and BF communities were very similar. The water table in the NRSF and HP occasionally dropped to mineral soil horizons, which may provide them with ii the opportunity to extract additional nutrients relative to BF. The results of this study will enable wetland restoration engineers to better approximate the natural hydrology of these plant communities at a restoration site, thereby improving vegetation establishment success. CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HYDROLOGIC REGIME OF FOUR CAROLINA BAY PLANT COMMUNITIES.


Abstract Issues related to the evolving role of citizen science and open science are reviewed and discussed in this article. We focus on the changing approaches to science, research and development related to the turn to openness and transparency, which has made science more open and inclusive, even for non-researchers. Reproducible and collaborative research, which is driven by the open access principles, involves citizens in many research fields. The article shows how international support is pushing citizen science forward, and how citizens' involvement is becoming more important. A basic scientometric analysis (based on the Web of Science Core Collection as the source of peer reviewed articles) provides a first insight into the diffusion of the citizen science concept in the field of Geography, mapping the growth of citizen science articles over time, the spectrum of geographical journals that publish them, and their citation rate compared to other scientific disciplines. The authors also discuss future challenges of citizen science and its potential, which for the time being seems to be not fully utilized in some fields, including geographical research.


A removal trapping experiment was conducted in the field to investigate if microhabitat choice and population characteristics of Ctenomys talarum are affected by the bigger, dominant Ctenomys australis, in a zone where these subterranean rodent species are geographically sympatric. As reported previously by other authors, the species were distributed in a habitat segregation pattern which characterized the initial state, prior to C. australis removal. I detected a significant habitat shift-that is, changes in microhabitat choice by C. talarum individuals- in response to C. australis removal. However, it is remarkable that this only occurred after one year of continuous removal of C. australis, and was restricted to a very small expansion by C. talarum into the fringe of the area previously occupied by the dominant species. In addition, a slight increase of the C. talarum population density took place which was possibly due to the absence of the other species. It is suggested that the microhabitat typical of C. australis (with deeper, more friable soil and less vegetation) could be suboptimal and thus unpreferred for C. talarum. If the pre-experimental C. talarum population was satiated to its carrying capacity, it is possible that the small number of C. talarum individuals-mostly subadults-had invaded areas previously occupied by C. australis because they had no other choice than a suboptimal habitat. No substantial changes were detected in other population characteristics (sex ratio, age structure, distance between individuals) which were very similar to that in a control area. Interspecific interactions and displacement by the bigger C. australis could be significant but nonetheless marginal in sustaining the pattern of microhabitat segregation between the species. Difference in habitat preference, linked with species differences in body size and colour, are probably of much greater importance.


Recent studies suggest that NOTCH signaling can promote epithelial-mesenchymal transitions and augment signaling through AKT, an important growth and survival pathway in epithelial cells and prostate cancer in particular. Here we show that JAGGED1, a NOTCH receptor ligand, is significantly more highly expressed in metastatic prostate cancer as compared with localized prostate cancer or benign prostatic tissues, based on immunohistochemical analysis of JAGGED1 expression in human tumor samples from 154 men. Furthermore, high JAGGED1 expression in a subset of clinically localized tumors was significantly associated with recurrence, independent of other clinical parameters. These findings support a model in which dysregulation of JAGGED1 protein levels plays a role in prostate cancer progression and metastasis and suggest that JAGGED1 may be a useful marker in distinguishing indolent and aggressive prostate cancers.


The Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say), has been a historically significant pest of wheat in Kansas. However, it has been 60+ years since research has been conducted examining the flies' activity throughout the year. Results of pheromone trapping in 4 counties in Kansas shows that Hessian fly (HF) males are actively flying in the fall, at least 1 month after the historical fly-free dates. Therefore, the Hessian FlyFree Date is no longer valid and should be referred to as the Best Pest Management Date. Using pheromones for fall and spring trapping also indicated that HF is more active throughout the spring than previously thought, with almost continuous fly emergence and numerous emergence peaks in both spring and fall. The use of resistant wheat cultivars has been adapted to protect seedling plants from HF larval feeding in the fall. However, it is unknown if these cultivars are still providing protection after winter vernalization. Greenhouse trials indicated that 'Armour', a cultivar considered intermediately resistant, remains resistant under infestation levels of 1 fly/tiller but significant seed weight losses occured under infestations of 3 flies/tiller. In the field, Armour did not provide protection post-vernalization, with plants containing similar numbers of flaxseeds (pupae) as the susceptible cultivar, 'Fuller', and having significant losses of culm height (cm), number of spikelets/spike, number of seeds/spike, and seed weight (grams) when infested. 'Duster', a cultivar considered highly resistant, appeared to provide resistance to HF larval feeding in both the greenhouse and the field, and even produced significantly heavier seeds when infested with 3 flies/tiller in the greenhouse. These results suggest that post-vernalization screening should be conducted on all HF resistant cultivars to determine if each continues to provide protection. Little information is available showing if and how HF larval feeding on more mature wheat (Feekes 7-10), postvernalization, impact plants, aside from lodging. Greenhouse and field infestations of a susceptible cultivar, Fuller, showed that significant losses of culm height (cm), number of seeds/spikelet, and seed weight will result from as few as 1 larva /culm. Yield losses averaged 0.13g/spike (65 kg/ha) compared to non-infested plants. EXAMINING HESSIAN FLY (MAYETIOLA DESTRUCTOR) MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS AND QUANTIFYING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL IMPACT OF HESSIAN FLY FEEDING ON POST-VERNALIZATION SELECTED CULTIVARS OF WINTER WHEAT IN KANSAS


"Albert" told his story to special visitor Dr. Jill Biden in order to bring notice to a very unique tuition assistance program provided to Valencia College's homeless students. Not only was Albert homeless, his background was indicative of failure and through education he turned his life around and helped others with similar backgrounds. His voice resonates with his message, which was that going to Valencia College and "DirectConnecting to UCF" changed not only his life, but many others, and now his goal is to give back by assisting others to take this path to success. Albert made the transition from "street smart" to "'reality smart."


Li-air batteries are a promising energy storage technology for large-scale applications, but the release of highly reactive singlet oxygen (1O2) during battery operation represents a main concern that sensibly limits their effective deployment. An in-depth understanding of the reaction mechanisms underlying the 1O2 formation is crucial to prevent its detrimental reactions with the electrolyte species. However, describing the elusive chemistry of highly correlated species such as singlet oxygen represents a challenging task for state-of-the-art theoretical tools based on density functional theory. Thus, in this study, we apply an embedded cluster approach, based on CASPT2 and effective point charges, to address the evolution of 1O2 at the Li2O2 surface during oxidation, i.e., the battery charging process. Based on recent hypothesis, we depict a feasible O22–/O2–/O2 mechanisms occurring from the (112̅0)–Li2O2 surface termination. Our highly accurate calculations allow for the identification of a stable superoxide as local minimum along the potential energy surface (PES) for 1O2 release, which is not detected by periodic DFT. We find that 1O2 release proceeds via a superoxide intermediate in a two-step one-electron process or another still accessible pathway featuring a one-step two-electron mechanism. In both cases, it represents a feasible product of Li2O2 oxidation upon battery charging. Thus, tuning the relative stability of the intermediate superoxide species can enable key strategies aiming at controlling the detrimental development of 1O2 for new and highly performing Li-air batteries.


Whereas gender equality is a basic human right, and closing the gender gap is key to achieving many development objectives, development stakeholders concerned with achieving gender equality are often constrained by inadequate information to justify channeling limited resources toward closing the gender gap. This study was conducted to fill this lacuna by providing information on gender inequality in the ownership of certain assets among households. With the aid of structured questionnaire, data were obtained from 60 households using the multistage sampling technique. Results of analysis were presented using histograms. Results show considerable gender differentiation in the ownership of land, home, business and savings. The degree of gender differentiation in the ownership of consumer durables reveal that women in most households own appliances associated with domestic labour whereas men have a near monopoly in the ownership of transport vehicles, refrigerators and media sets. Result also indicates that poultry was owned by women in majority of the households. Result shows a high degree of gender disparity with respect to the share of male and female homeowners. Because access to land is crucial for the livelihoods of the rural poor, policies to ensure that women who form the bulk of the rural poor have secure access to land and other vital resources should be encouraged. Policy options that will encourage women own occupier homes should also be formulated.


Customer verbal aggression is a core social stressor among retail workers which impairs wellbeing via emotional dissonance. This study examined two moderators—supervisor support and ethnic minority status—in this well-established relationship. In addition, it tested a moderated moderated mediation model to explore whether the moderation effects of supervisor support on the indirect relationship between customer verbal aggression and wellbeing (measured as positive affect) via emotional dissonance vary between ethnic minority and ethnic majority workers. Retail workers of one retail chain ( N = 603) completed our paper-pencil survey at two measurement points. Path modeling showed that emotional dissonance mediates between customer verbal aggression and positive affect. Taken alone, neither supervisor support nor ethnic minority status moderated this relationship. However, their combination had a significant moderating effect; supervisor support moderated the indirect effect of customer verbal aggression on positive affect through emotional dissonance only among ethnic minority workers. Surprisingly, supervisor support amplified this mediation. We discuss our findings by considering the role of supervisor support and the status of ethnic minority workers.


In this paper, the effects of molecular structure on the parameters a, b and c in retention equation are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Parameter b in RP-HPLC approaches a small constant, because there is very weak displacement adsorption. Parameter c in RP-HPLC is mainly determined by the difference between solute-strong solvent and solute-weak solvent interaction and can be quantitatively correlated with the structural parameters of solute such as van der Waals volume (Vw), dipole moment (μA) and hydrogen bond energy (XAH). Parameter a has similar rules to parameter c. The prediction of k' value for non-polar, homologous compounds is studied. The linear relationship between k' and coverage of amount of the bonded chain in RP-HPLC is confirmed.


Previous work has shown that the 68-kDa immediate-early protein of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), also known as ICP22, is involved in the control of viral gene expression, although the precise mechanism remains to be elucidated. In order to study the function(s) of this protein, we constructed expression vectors containing the coding sequence of the ICP22 gene placed under the control of the SV40 or HCMV promoter. After cell transfection, ICP22 synthesis was studied by immunoblotting, using a specific antiserum. In transient expression experiments in COS cells in which the ICP22 vector was under the control of the SV40 promoter, we found that ICP22 was able to inhibit chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) expression under the control of either the alpha 22 (IE4) promoter or other immediate-early promoters, such as alpha 4 (IE3), alpha 0 (IE1), and alpha 27 (IE2). CAT expression under the control of the alpha 4 (IE3) promoter was inhibited in these cells by expression of ICP22 under the control of the HCMV promoter; it was also inhibited in RAT-1 cells by ICP22 expressed under the control of the SV40 or HCMV promoter. In contrast, CAT expression directed by the SV40 or HCMV promoters was only weakly or not inhibited by the ICP22 vectors. We also constructed an expression vector for UL13, a gene whose product is implicated in the phosphorylation of ICP22. Although CAT expression under the control of the alpha 4 (IE3) promoter was also negatively regulated by the UL13 gene product, the effects of the ICP22 (directed by the SV40 or HCMV promoter) and UL13 vectors were not synergistic; furthermore, at a particular molar ratio of the two vectors, inhibition of CAT activity was partially reversed. The results in the present work suggest that ICP22 can negatively regulate the expression of immediate-early viral genes and that its phosphorylation by UL13 protein kinase might be involved in the modulation of its function.


Dynamics of powerful femtosecond singular-phase pulsed beams in a dielectric medium under the ionization conditions is analyzed numerically. The multiphoton ionization is revealed to contribute to the stable (quasi-soliton ) regime of pulse propagation over distances exceeding five diffraction length. Use of the singular beams allows one to reach the larger densities of the light field and generated plasma.


The current in vivo x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (IVXRF)-based method of bone strontium quantification is dependent on calibration against plaster of Paris (poP; CaSO 4 · 1 2 H 2 O ?> ) calibrators/phantoms. Issues with the dissimilarity of the poP in comparison to bone mineral and the known issue with high levels of strontium contamination in commercial poP materials has led to the development of a strontium-free hydroxyapatite bone mineral phantom material. The analyte is introduced into this material by doping of a high concentration HPO 4 2 − ?> setting solution. This phantom material is not particularly well suited for the preparation of strontium containing bone phantoms which are high in strontium concentration (in the mol % concentration range) and thus when the (Ca + Sr)/P mole ratio is to be kept at 1.67: that of hydroxyapatite. This work thus evaluates the feasibility of preparing high concentration strontium-substituted hydroxyapatite phantoms using a CaHPO4 · 2H2O/Ca(OH)2/Sr(OH)2 · 8H2O cement mixture. It was found that a strontium-substituted HAp phantom material can be prepared by mixing suitable quantities of CaHPO4 · 2H2O, Ca(OH)2 and Sr(OH)2 · 8H2O to a (Ca + Sr)/P mole ratio of 1.67. Setting of the phantom using a 1 M HPO 4 2 − ?> setting solution (to increase phosphate concentration) produced a phantom composed of ( Ca 1 − x Sr x ?> )5(PO4)3OH of known strontium concentration. The final phantom material was found to be a strontium-substituted product (through x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy measurements) to the degree of substitution expected. This work thus describes the preparation of a bone phantom material which can be used for the calibration of IVXRF systems of bone strontium quantification, as well as for other modalities (i.e. dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and quantitative ultrasound) in the case that bone strontium concentrations are expected to be high such as in the case of individuals taking strontium salts for the treatment/prevention of osteoporosis.


Low-power issues become critical when the networked computing devices depend mainly on non-AC power sources such as batteries or self-generated power. In the application of using short-range wireless networks to convey low-speed but important information, low power consumption becomes a top design consideration in wireless design. Traditionally, signal strength level is fixed during the entire time of communication to maintain a certain acceptable error rate. A new approach is proposed in this paper to explore the potential and practicality of decreasing the signal strength, thus reducing the total energy consumption. Although the error rate of one frame at the DLL layer increases, it is compensated by retransmission. And it is shown in this paper both theoretically and experimentally that the power consumed could be lowered, without incurring a higher frame loss rate. An adaptive power-adjusting algorithm is proposed to allow power and energy reduction during signal transmission. Experiments are conducted using GloMoSim, up to 71.3% reduction in power can be achieved.


Due to the rapid growth of real-time applications and the ubiquity of IEEE 802.11 MAC as a layer-2 protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs), it becomes increasingly important to support delay-based quality of service (QoS) in such WLANs. In this paper, we develop a simple and accurate enough analytical model for predicting the queueing delay of real-time multimedia traffic flows in non-homogeneous random access based WLANs. This leads to tractable analysis for meeting queueing delay specifications of a number of flows. In particular, we address the feasibility problem of whether the mean delays required by a set of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) flows supporting real-time multimedia traffic can be guaranteed in WLANs. Based on the model and feasibility analysis, we further develop an optimization technique to minimize the delays for the traffic flows. Moreover, we present a decentralized algorithm and report its implementation and present extensive simulation and experimental trace-based results to demonstrate the accuracy of our model and the performance of the algorithms.


Background Olfactory loss is a challenging disease. Although glucocorticoid is sometimes used for the treatment of anosmia, it has been reported that it potentiated neural damage in the early phase of treatment. This study is designed to identify the effect of ginkgo biloba, an antioxidant that acts as a free radical scavenger, in the treatment of olfactory injury aggravated by dexamethasone. Methods Anosmia mouse model was induced by i.p. injection of 3-methylindole (3-MI). Twenty-five mice were divided into one control group without anosmia and four anosmia treatment groups (given treatments of dexamethasone and/or ginkgo biloba). The effects of treatment were evaluated by behavioral test, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry 2 weeks after 3-MI injection. Results Induction of anosmia was confirmed by behavioral tests. The thickness and cell number of olfactory neuroepithelium were decreased more significantly in the dexamethasone treatment group than in the combination treatment group. The expression of olfactory marker protein (OMP) in olfactory epithelium was more decreased also in the dexamethasone treatment group than in the combination treatment group. The expression of OMP was decreased significantly in the olfactory bulbs of anosmia groups but there were no differences between the anosmia treatment groups. Conclusion Dexamethasone treatment was associated with further deterioration of olfactory injury by 3-MI and it was recovered by combination treatment of dexamethasone and ginkgo biloba. The antioxidant effect of ginkgo biloba might play a role in restoration of olfactory loss and it was effective only when oxidative stress is maximized by dexamethasone.


Globalization in software development introduced significant changes in the way organizations operate today. Software is nowadays produced by team members from geographically, temporally and culturally remote sites. Organizations seek for benefits that global market offers and face new challenges. Naturally resistant to change, these organizations often do not realize necessity for tailoring existing methods for distributed collaboration. Our empirical investigation shows a great variety in the ways organizations distribute responsibilities across remote sites and conclude that these can be divided into two main categories: joint collaboration that requires investments in team building and independent collaboration that requires investments in knowledge management and transfer. Finally we discuss practices that are applied in industry to overcome these challenges and emphasize necessity to fully understand the pros and cons of different ways to organize distributed software projects before starting a project in this new environment.


We consider a Markovian jumping process which is defined in terms of the jump-size distribution and the waiting-time distribution with a position-dependent frequency, in the diffusion limit. We assume the power-law form for the frequency. For small steps, we derive the Fokker-Planck equation and show the presence of the normal diffusion, subdiffusion, and superdiffusion. For the Lévy distribution of the step size, we construct a fractional equation, which possesses a variable coefficient, and solve it in the diffusion limit. Then we calculate fractional moments and define the fractional diffusion coefficient as a natural extension to the cases with the divergent variance. We also solve the master equation numerically and demonstrate that there are deviations from the Lévy stable distribution for large wave numbers.


Herein, we report a new approach to bio-inspired catalyst design. The molecular catalyst employed in these studies is based on the robust and selective Re(bpy)(CO)3Cl-type (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) homogeneous catalysts, which have been extensively studied for their ability to reduce CO2 electrochemically or photochemically in the presence of a photosensitizer. These catalysts can be highly active photocatalysts in their own right. In this work, the bipyridine ligand was modified with amino acids and synthetic peptides. These results build on earlier findings wherein the bipyridine ligand was functionalized with amide groups to promote dimer formation and CO2 reduction by an alternate bimolecular mechanism at lower overpotential (ca. 250 mV) than the more commonly observed unimolecular process. The bio-inspired catalysts were designed to allow for the incorporation of proton relays to support reduction of CO2 to CO and H2O. The coupling of amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine led to the formation of two structurally similar Re catalyst/peptide catalysts for comparison of proton transport during catalysis. This article reports the synthesis and characterization of novel catalyst/peptide hybrids by molecular dynamics (MD simulations of structural dynamics), NMR studies of solution phase structures, and electrochemical studies to measure the activities of new bio-inspired catalysts in the reduction of CO2.


The increased turnover rate of the RS Al - Irsyad Surabaya cause problems on the part of hospital personnel to plan for the needs of human resources (nurses). The high percentage of nurses who come out can cause problems in terms of health care . Decreasing the number of nurses who reliably with inexperienced new nurses have resulted in health care . The purpose of this study was to analyze the efforts to reduce withdrawal Organization based factor analysis of nurses in Al - Irsyad Hospital Surabaya. This research was analytic approach using cross-sectional observational design because it is done in a specific time period to keep nurses and contract nurses to analyze the factors that affect Organization Withdrawalperawat in RS Al - Irsyad Surabaya. Population was observed throughout the hospital nurses AL - Irsyad Surabaya, both fixed and that contracts amounting to 134 people. The sampling technique in this study was the total sampling by involving all members of the population being sampled. The analysis technique used in this research is using Structural Equation Modeling with Lisrel version 8.70 program assistance. The conclusion of this research shows that individual characteristic contract employee did not affect the contextual variable but take affect work attitude. Individual characteristic keep nurses both contextual variable and work attitude do not influence. Contextual variable both fixed and that contracts do not affect the organization withdrawall whereas work attitude take affect the organization withdrawal


Background

A better understanding of social determinants of health and psychosocial and economic sequelae of cancer for an ethnoculturally diverse population is needed. A Patient-Reported Outcomes Quality of Life (PROQOL) instrument has been developed to capture less commonly discussed patient concerns. We sought to adapt this instrument and pilot it in underserved, ethnic minority cancer patients at Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS) in Phoenix, AZ.

Methods

Two focus groups (FG) were conducted to understand patient perspectives of an adapted Spanish version of PROQOL. A revised version based on FG data was then piloted among patients on active cancer treatment. Patients also completed a Linear Analog Scale Assessment (from 1-10) for quality of life (QOL) and its domains.

Results

All participants in both FG (11/12 female) were Hispanic, with a median age of 53 years. Participants agreed that the domains covered in the PROQOL represented the most important psychosocial needs in their cancer continuum. No difficulty in understanding the individual domains or questions for delving deeper into each domain was noted.

Median age of 34 pilot study participants (74% female, 79% Hispanic) was 48 years. 28/34 completed the Spanish version. The most common concerns were 'Money' (32%) and 'Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment and Survivorship' (32%). Median overall QOL was 8 (range 3-10).

Conclusions

PROQOL is feasible for systematic capture of patient concerns in underserved, ethnic minority cancer patients. A better understanding of these concerns can help design interventions to improve psychosocial outcomes for the vulnerable groups and decrease disparities in care delivery.


Recycle preparation methods were evaluated for secondary aqueous waste streams likely to be produced during reactor fuel fabrication and reprocessing. Adsorption, reverse osmosis, and ozonization methods were evaluated on a laboratory scale for their application to the treatment of wastewater. Activated carbon, macroreticular resins, and polyurethanes were tested to determine their relative capabilities for removing detergents and corrosive anions from wastewater. Conceptual flow sheets were constructed for purifying wastewater by reverse osmosis. In addition, the application of ozonization techniques for water recycle preparation was examined briefly.


Children of immigrants are known to be at greater risk for developing allergic manifestations than the population in general. In this study we observed children of Somali origin living in Italy in order to find plausible explanations for the high risk of allergic disease in immigrants. Fifty-two children aged 0-14 years (mean = 6.7 years) were examined during the spring season. The mothers of the children were asked to fill in a questionnaire on symptoms and signs of atopic diseases and the family history of atopy. In addition, a physical examination and skin tests were performed. All families used mattresses, pillows and/or blankets made of wool, known to favor the growth of mites. In the majority of these children's families we found at least five people cohabitating in the same room. Skin prick tests were most frequently positive for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. Seventy-four percent (14/19) of those with symptoms were positive to D. pteronyssinus. Only 14% (2/14) of those positive to D. pteronyssinus were positive to Lolium perenne. Thirty-seven percent (19/52) had atopic symptoms and 15% (5/33) of those without symptoms were positive to D. pteronyssinus (p < 0.0001 compared to those with symptoms). Sensitization to food allergens occurred less frequently as compared to common inhalant allergens (p < 0.0001). A high prevalence of atopic diseases among children of Somali immigrants in Italy might be attributed to contact with the new environment and poor socioeconomic conditions that promote, for example, the growth of mites. However, further studies are needed to document these differences.


Twenty five cases with systemic lupus erythematosus admitted to a referral service hospital over a period of 6 years have been studied to analyse the pattern of multisystem involvement. Febrile polyarthritis, renal involvement and skin changes dominated the clinical picture. Important serological abnormalities included the presence of antinuclear antibody and anti ds DNA. Renal biopsy carried out in all cases helped to reveal lupus nephritis in subclinical cases. The pattern of renal involvement varied, with diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis being the commonest. Oral steroids was given to all cases and cyclophosphamide was given to severe and resistant cases. The severity of system involvement, especially renal, influenced the response to treatment. Changes in presentation between Indian and Western patients are highlighted.


AIM
The objectives of the present study were to assess predictive factors associated to self-perception regarding the need for orthodontic treatment among 170 impoverished schoolchildren.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross- sectional study was conducted in public schools in the city of Belo Horizonte-MG (Brazil). Children's self-perception regarding the need for treatment was assessed using the Aesthetic Component of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN-AC) and a questionnaire addressing biopsychosocial factors. The chi-square test and multiple logistic regression were used in the data analysis.

RESULTS
The predictive factors for the self-perception of orthodontic treatment need on the part of the impoverished schoolchildren included ridicule from persons close to the children regarding the appearance of the teeth (OR 2.81; 95%CI 1.2 to 6.4), dissatisfaction with oral aesthetics due to the alignment of the teeth (OR 2.45; 95%CI 1.1 to 5.4) and missing teeth (OR 3.02; 95%CI 1.0 to 9.23).

CONCLUSION
The alignment of the teeth, missing teeth and ridicule from others regarding the appearance of the teeth are the factors that most strongly influence self- perception regarding the need for orthodontic treatment among impoverished schoolchildren.


Abstract:This essay considers Arturo Islas's posthumously published novel, La Mollie and the King of Tears (1996), arguing that an examination of its "archival remains"—its drafted and rejected material found in Islas's archive—offers compelling evidence of the text's anxious resistances to bodily, narrative, and cultural annihilation. Drawing on textual scholarship that prioritizes notions of texts as "fluid" or "in process" as well as on theories of queer and asycnhronous temporalities, I argue for a reading of the novel as haunted by its erasures and absences, and for a reading practice that more purposefully imagines the role of the body—of the author, of the text, and of the reader— in constituting and reconstituting the narrative.


This study investigates the impact of globalization toward economic growth in ASEAN countries during 2012 to 2017. The research method used judgmental sampling with samples of 11 countries. They were Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The analysis used path analysis to examine the impact between the variables of globalization and economic growth. Globalization was determined by globalization index, economic globalization, social globalization, and politic globalization. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita are used as a proxy for economic growth. The finding results are that globalization index, economic globalization, social globalization, and politic globalization have a significant positive association with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Overall globalization evidence the positive impact on economic growth in ASEAN Countries.


Efficient accumulation and intracellular drug release in cancer cells remain a crucial challenge in developing ideal anticancer drug delivery systems. Here, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-ss-acrylic acid (P(NIPAM-ss-AA)) nanogels based on NIPAM and AA cross-linked by N,N'-bis(acryloyl)cystamine (BAC) were constructed by precipitation polymerization. The nanogels exhibited pH/redox dual responsive doxorubicin (DOX) release behavior in vitro and in tumor cells, in which DOX release from nanogels was accelerated in lysosomal pH (pH 4.5) and cytosolic reduction (10 mM GSH) conditions. Moreover, intracellular tracking of DOX-loaded nanogels confirmed that after the nanogels and the loaded DOX entered the cells simultaneously mainly via lipid raft/caveolae-mediated endocytosis, DOX-loaded nanogels were transported to lysosomes and then the loaded DOX was released to nucleus triggered by lysosomal pH and cytoplasmic high GSH. MTT analysis showed that DOX-loaded nanogels could efficiently inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells. In vivo animal studies demonstrated that DOX-loaded nanogels were accumulated and penetrated in tumor tissues more efficiently than free DOX. Meanwhile, DOX-loaded nanogels exhibited stronger tumor inhibition activity and fewer side effects. This study indicated that pH/redox dual-responsive nanogels might present a prospective platform for intracellular drug controlled release in cancer therapy.


In this work, a model for estimating the energy consumption of different types of random access memory(RAM) technologies, likely to be commercially available by 2017, has been developed. The goal for this model has been to evaluate which of the memory technologies that will be the most energy efficient in 2017. This was done by building the model on the required energies to read or write a bit for the different technologies. The memory technologies that have been modelled are: Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Static RAM (SRAM), Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), Magnetic RAM (MRAM), Spin-Torque Transfer Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM) and Phase Change RAM (PCRAM). The volatile memory technologies, DRAM and SRAM, have been estimated to have the lowest energy consumption if the memories are operated at a high duty cycle. However, if the duty cycle is reduced, the emerging non-volatile memory technologies become more energy efficient. The FeRAM was estimated to have the lowest power consumption when manufactured with the technology available today. And it has been estimated that with a duty cycle lower than 8.5 × E−4, FeRAM technology consumes less power than the SRAM, and with a duty cycle lower than 1.6 × E−4, the FeRAM consumes less power than DRAM. When looking forward towards 2017, STT-MRAM was estimated to have the lowest power consumption of the emerging memory technologies. It was estimated that the STT-MRAM consumes less power than SRAM for duty cycles lower than 2.3 × E−2 and consumes less power than the DRAM for duty cycles lower than 4.6 × E−4. An experimental set-up has been developed to validate the model, and a case study of some selected memories has been performed. With this case study some limitations on the theoretical model have been pointed out. These limitations are believed to be reduced if the memories are embedded on chip.


Landauer's principle gives a fundamental limit to the thermodynamic cost of erasing information. Its saturation requires a reversible isothermal process, and hence infinite time. We develop a finite-time version of Landauer's principle for a bit encoded in the occupation of a single fermionic mode, which can be strongly coupled to a reservoir. By solving the exact non-equilibrium dynamics, we optimize erasure processes (taking both the fermion's energy and system-bath coupling as control parameters) in the slow driving regime through a geometric approach to thermodynamics. We find analytic expressions for the thermodynamic metric and geodesic equations, which can be solved numerically. Their solution yields optimal processes that allow us to characterize a finite-time correction to Landauer's bound, fully taking into account non-markovian and strong coupling effects.


Morphological changes in the mouse thymus in the experimental autoimmune hemolytic anemia were correlated with the results of the study of the immune status. The epithelial component of the thymus was more involved in the response to the experimental autoimmune hemolytic anemia during the whole experiment; this allows one to assume that just this component predetermines the character of this autoimmune process.


Consolidation and protection are among the most important treatments usually carried out in conservation of stone artifacts and monuments. In this paper, portable unilateral NMR and conventional techniques were used for investigating new multifunctional treatments based on tetraethoxysilane, silica, and polytetrafluoroethylene nanoparticles. The study was carried out on a very complex and heterogeneous porous stone such as tuff. NMR study allowed to obtain detailed information on the penetration depth of treatments, the hydrophobic effect, and changes in the open porosity caused by treatments. Physical and chemical inhomogeneities between the impregnated layers of tuff and the layers underneath were also detected. The average pores radius and pores interconnection obtained from NMR diffusion measurements were used for the first time to compare effects of different consolidating and/or protective treatments on stone. Because unilateral NMR technique is neither destructive nor invasive, investigation of treatments can be also carried out and optimized directly on buildings and monuments of interest for Cultural Heritage. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The presence or absence of lymph node metastases is pivotal for the estimation of prognosis in carcinoma patients. The presence of lymph node metastases in patients with colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is an indicator of poor prognosis and adjuvant treatment is increasingly being given to these patients. For the patient much depends on effective staging of CRC. In patients with TNM stage II CRC, prognosis is related to the actual number of nodes harvested: those in whom fewer nodes are harvested fare less well. Understaging was suspected and therefore protocols now require a minimum number of nodes. Recent observational studies, however, have questioned understaging as a plausible mechanism. Tumour, biological or patient-related factors seem to be more likely. The number of nodes is not a suitable measure for the quality of pathological staging of CRC. Instead of this outcome measure, more attention should be paid to processes and future standards must be based on sound experimental evidence and not on observational surveys.


We present a combinatorial polynomial time algorithm to compute a maximum stable set of a t-perfect graph. The algorithm rests on an ε-approximation algorithm for general set covering and packing problems and is combinatorial in the sense that it does not use an explicit linear programming algorithm or methods from linear algebra or convex geometry. Instead our algorithm is based on basic arithmetic operations and comparisons of rational numbers which are of polynomial binary encoding size in the input.