The online Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform has become essential to how the international community understands and interacts with forest information. While most international policy frameworks and private sector commitments refer to monitoring "forests" or "natural forests," GFW monitors global "tree cover" and "tree cover change." "Tree cover" on the GFW platform includes natural and planted forests, as well as oil palm, rubber, orchards, cocoa, coffee, and other tree crops that are not typically considered forest. The objective of this work is to spatially differentiate plantation forests and tree crops from natural and seminatural forests on a global scale. For this purpose, "tree crops" are stands of perennial tree crops, such as rubber, oil palm, coffee, coconut, cocoa, and orchards, and "planted forests" are stands of planted trees—other than tree crops—grown for wood and wood fiber production or for ecosystem protection against wind and/or soil erosion. By identifying and eliminating these areas from GFW's global map of tree cover, "natural forest" areas can be more readily isolated, leading to more effective tracking of national and global progress toward major international commitments that relate to forests, climate, and biodiversity. We conducted extensive outreach to compile, synthesize, and harmonize national maps of the world's planted forests and tree crops into a global map (Figure 1), which we refer to as the Spatial Database of Planted Trees (SDPT). Results show that in 2015, there were approximately 173 million hectares of planted forests worldwide, or slightly CONTENTS Abstract ...........................................................1


Let $G$ be a complex simply-laced semisimple algebraic group of rank $r$ and $B$ a Borel subgroup. Let $\mathbf i \in [r]^n$ be a word and let $\boldsymbol{\ell} = (\ell_1,\dots,\ell_n)$ be a sequence of non-negative integers. Grossberg and Karshon introduced a virtual lattice polytope associated to $\mathbf i$ and $\boldsymbol{\ell}$ called a twisted cube, whose lattice points encode the character of a $B$-representation. More precisely, lattice points in the twisted cube, counted with sign according to a certain density function, yields the character of the generalized Demazure module determined by $\mathbf i$ and $\boldsymbol{\ell}$. In recent work, the author and Harada described precisely when the Grossberg–Karshon twisted cube is untwisted, i.e., the twisted cube is a closed convex polytope, in the situation when the integer sequence $\boldsymbol{\ell}$ comes from a weight $\lambda$ of $G$. However, not every integer sequence $\boldsymbol{\ell}$ comes from a weight of $G$. In the present paper, we interpret the untwistedness of Grossberg–Karshon twisted cubes associated with any word $\mathbf i$ and any integer sequence $\boldsymbol{\ell}$ using the combinatorics of $\mathbf i$ and $\boldsymbol{\ell}$. Indeed, we prove that the Grossberg–Karshon twisted cube is untwisted precisely when $\mathbf i$ is hesitant-jumping-$\boldsymbol{\ell}$-walk-avoiding.


Transvaginal Doppler ultrasonography has an important role in detecting and confirming the gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD). It can also be helpful in early detection of the malignant cases of GTD such as the invasion and protrusion of trophoblastic tissue into the uterine wall. Ultrasonographic picture of the malignant GTD is also specific for the presence of prominent zones of vasculavization in the peritrophoblastic tissue, as well as in the uterine tissue in which malignant GTD is developed. Resistance Index (RI) values were measured at the level of blood vessels of peritrophoblastic tissue and of suspected zones in the uterine tissue to detect neovascularization, which followed the malignant process. Theca luteal cysts were often detected by Transvaginal Doppler ultrasonography.


A study was made of quantum-well injection lasers with a strained active InGaAs layer, emitting at 980 nm. At room temperature the minimum threshold current density for a layer 6–7 nm thick was 120 A cm-2 in a cavity 540 μm long. Phenomena which accompanied the disappearance of the index-guiding lateral confinement because of the 'anti-index-guiding' influence of excess carriers were studied in stripe laser diodes of the ridge-wave-guide type. These phenomena included collapse and bistability of lasing, power hysteresis, and changes in the angular distribution. Calculations were made of the mode gain in ridge-waveguide lasers with different geometric parameters and as a function of the excess carrier density. It was found that the mode gain could have a maximum and then fall significantly on increase in the pumping rate, which was used to account for the collapse of lasing and for the power hysteresis.


BACKGROUND
During the 1990s, most Western countries officially recommended that pregnant women abstain from alcohol. However, information about the potentially harmful effects of alcohol during pregnancy does not necessarily equate to understanding, and information and knowledge may not be associated with pregnant women's own attitudes toward drinking.

METHODS
From October to December 1998, we interviewed 439 Danish-speaking pregnant women who were referred for routine antenatal care at their first visit at 15 to 16 weeks of gestation. The women were interviewed about their attitudes toward and beliefs and knowledge about drinking during pregnancy. Questions were also asked about information on alcohol provided to the women.

RESULTS
Seventy-six percent of the women considered some alcohol intake during pregnancy to be acceptable, mostly on a weekly level. Binge drinking, however, was considered to be harmful by 85%. These attitudes were not associated with knowledge about the official recommendation or whether the woman had talked to her general practitioner or midwife about alcohol during pregnancy. Most of the women had received information on alcohol from the mass media or relatives, but most women believed that information about alcohol during pregnancy could best be communicated to them by health personnel. Only 21% were aware of the official recommendation from the Danish National Board of Health. One third had discussed alcohol with their general practitioner or midwife, but these women had mostly been advised that some alcohol intake was acceptable.

CONCLUSIONS
Most of the women considered some alcohol intake during pregnancy to be acceptable, mostly on a weekly level, and their attitudes were independent of their knowledge about the subject. Most of the women had not been informed about alcohol during pregnancy.


The aim of this study was to establish the optimum operating parameters for biohydrogen production from food waste. Batch fermentation was conducted using a 150 mL serum vial incubated in anaerobic condition. Heat-treated Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) sludge was used as the seed culture for biohydrogen production. Biohydrogen production was performed at different temperatures (35, 40, 50, 55 and 60°C), initial pH (5, 6, 7 and 8) and various compositions of sludge to substrate (10:90, 20:80, 30:70 and 40:60% (v/v)). The highest biohydrogen yield was 593 mL H2 g-1 carbohydrate for the experiment conducted at a temperature of 55°C, initial pH 7 and composition of sludge to substrate at 30:70% (v/v). The biohydrogen production from the waste was accompanied by the production of organic acids and the ratio of Hac/HBu was 0.87. Treatment efficiency as shown by Total Carbohydrate (TC), Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Total Volatile Solids (TVS) reduction were 38, 25 and 18%, respectively.


Flow is a state of complete focus and immersion with the activity at hand. It is commonly referred to as "being in the zone." Flow has been a key component of the recent positive psychology movement and the downstream effects of flow include greater happiness, more creativity, and reduced defensiveness. An overview of the research on flow and more specifically, an overview of the research on flow at work is provided. Previous research, however, has failed to illustrate why flow produces positive outcomes. This paper outlines the origins of the flow experience using anthropological evidence consistent with I-D Compensation Theory. Next, the results of two studies are presented to demonstrate that optimal experience (i.e., flow) leads to optimal performance. Study one surveyed undergraduate students and clarified the construct of flow, established discriminant validity from engagement, and showed flow as a significant predictor of academic performance and citizenship behavior. Study two surveyed an adult working population and established the criterion validity of flow to job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. More specifically, higher levels of flow in dockworkers and drivers lead to fewer costly accidents and greater productivity over and above engagement alone. Also, flow mediated the relationship between engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Theoretical and practical implications for flow in academics and in the workplace are discussed. INDEX WORDS: flow, engagement, academic performance, job performance THE CONSTRUCT AND CRITERION VALIDITY FOR BEING "IN-THE-ZONE" LEADING TO OPTIMAL ACADEMIC AND JOB PERFORMANCE


OBJECTIVE Τo examine the relationship of perceived social support and fatigue as predictors of aggressive behaviors among mental healthcare professionals.
METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted between April 2018–June 2018 with 104 mental healthcare professionals who completed three questionnaires online, specifically, the Greek version of the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), the Greek version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and the Greek version of the Aggression Questionnaire (G-AQ). The analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0. Descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression analysis, and the Pearson (r) correlation coefficient test were used.
RESULTS The mental healthcare professionals reported high rates of fatigue and aggression and low levels of social support. Fatigue was reported by 54.8% (n=57) of the sample. The total score on FAS and its dimensions "mental
fatigue" and "physical fatigue" were found to be significant predictors of aggressive behavior, while social support was not. The total score on MSPSS was found to be a significant predictor of "physical aggression". In addition, a statistically significant relationship was found between fatigue and perceived social support. CONCLUSIONS Mental healthcare professionals present high rates of fatigue and aggression and record low levels of social support. These findings are of importance for developing a model of intervention that can prevent and diminish aggressive behaviors in this group


This study aims to present an overview the position of marriage in the constitutions of European countries. First, the origin of marriage as a fundamental right is looked at from a historical perspective, leading to different supranational instruments' declarations. Subsequently, different approaches of the constitutions of European countries are scrutinised and classified depending on what protection, if any, is given to marriage. The spectrum spreads from defining marriage as protected by declaring it as a fundamental right to the lack of constitutional mention. For this broad overview, the scope of this work is based on the fact that all of these countries are parties to the Council of Europe, and the Rome Convention of 1950. Finally, a short exploration of some of the countries' constitutional jurisprudence is carried out regarding the most controversial topics concerning the fundamental right to marriage.


With the arrival of Francoism to the University of Valencia, the academic world was mired in a decadent atmosphere unbearable to anyone with intellectual aspirations. It all began with a Falangist who, without receiving any orders, decided to assail the University; immediately the old professors were cast out. What followed was a period in which, in the Philosophy Department, ideology was more important than teaching preparation, and the ambition for power and prestige was the driving force in the professional careers of the new professors.


Emerging multicore Systems-on-Chip are enabling new cyber-physical applications such as autonomous drones, driverless cars and smart manufacturing using web-connected 3D printers. Common to those applications is a communicating task pipeline, to acquire and
process sensor data and produce outputs that control actuators. As a result, these applications usually have timing requirements for both individual tasks and task pipelines formed for sensor data processing and actuation. Current cyber-physical programming platforms, such as Arduino and embedded Linux with the POSIX interface do not allow application developers to specify those timing requirements. Moreover, none of them provide the programming interface to schedule tasks and map them to processor cores, while managing I/O in a predictable manner, on multicore hardware platforms. Hence, this thesis presents the Qduino programming platform. Qduino adopts the simplicity of the Arduino API, with additional support for real-time multithreaded sketches on multicore architectures. Qduino allows application developers to specify timing properties of individual tasks as well as task pipelines at the design stage. To this end, we propose a mathematical framework to derive each task's budget and period from the specified end-to-end timing requirements.

The second part of the thesis is motivated by the observation that at the center of these pipelines are tasks that typically require complex software support, such as sensor data fusion or image processing algorithms. These features are usually developed by many man-year engineering efforts and thus commonly seen on General-Purpose Operating Systems (GPOS). Therefore, in order to support modern, intelligent cyber-physical applications, we enhance the Qduino platform's extensibility by taking advantage of the Quest-V virtualized partitioning kernel. The platform's usability is demonstrated by building a novel web-connected 3D printer and a prototypical autonomous drone framework in Qduino.


In this study we have defined the changes in gene copy number of the candidate oncogene ZNF217 during colon cancer development and progression. This gene is mapped to chromosome 20q and lies within 20q13.2, a region which we have previously shown to be highly amplified in colorectal cancer by comparative genomic hybridization. The gene copy number of ZNF217 was assessed in 100 colon carcinomas (19 Dukes' A, 42 Dukes' B and 39 Dukes' C), 13 colonic adenomas and 10 normal colon samples. DNA extracted from laser microdissected cells was amplified by multiplex real‐time PCR at two distinct gene loci—ZNF217 and β‐globin (control gene)—on an ABI7700 sequence detection system. Of the 100 colon cancers studied, 61 showed some level of amplification of ZNF217, 15 had loss of ZNF217, while 24 were diploid. All the adenomas except one were diploid. In this study we have found that ZNF217 amplification is a frequent event in colon cancer and that the extent of its amplification varies markedly between tumours (range 3–13 copies). There was a trend toward poorer survival in patients whose cancers had either gain or loss of ZNF217. Copyright © 2004 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper addresses the generation of basis siphons and traps of Petri net models obtained using an incremental modelling approach. The goal is to provide an efficient tool for detecting deadlocks along the modelling process and to detect design errors as soon as possible. Efficient algorithms for generating basis siphons and traps when a transition or a place is added to an existing Petri net model are proposed.


This communication represents an interim instalment of experiments still in course, which are aimed at the elaboration of a ringworm culture medium that will entirely and satisfactorily replace the original "milieu d'epreuve" or test medium of Sabouraud; or, better yet, a medium that will, in addition, be free from the objectionable factors inherent (at least for fungi) in a medium comprised of one or more chemically impure substances like peptone, which are not internationally reproducible at all times. The last mentioned phase of the problem is the one which we look forward to with the greatest expectations. This communication will indicate that at present the efforts of dermatomycologists generally are being directed toward the elaboration of substitutes for Sabouraud's formula, and that our own work, while unfruitful, marks at least a beginning in a different direction, that is, a formula free from defects contingent on peptone, such as were indicated.


Continuous micromixer-tube reactors are versatile and widely used tools to explore the benefits of microreactor processing for organic synthesis. Due to enhanced mass and heat transfer capabilities and mechanical stability with regard to temperature and pressure their use can lead for given chemical protocols to process intensification and as important additional aspect enable process chemistry with novel features not feasible so far because of limits of conventional equipment. Naturally, the heat transfer capabilities of the tube section within continuous micromixer-tube reactors are - albeit enhanced - limited especially since they are often rather meso- than microstructed. In this context the temperature profiles within the tube section of a continuous micromixer-tube reactor was determined for two exothermic reactions, the addition of dimethly amine to acrylonitrile and an ionic liquid synthesis, in order to determine the occurrence and extent of hot spot formation for different process conditions and to gain thereby also a deeper understanding of the processes. Seven temperature sensing elements were therefore integrated into the tube section. Furthermore, it is outlined how these experiments can contribute to the targeted adaptation of the reactors.


This study investigated the relative model—data fit of an ideal point item response theory (IRT) model (the generalized graded unfolding model [GGUM]) and dominance IRT models (e.g., the two-parameter logistic model [2PLM] and Samejima's graded response model [GRM]) to simulated dichotomous and polytomous data generated from each of these models. The relative magnitudes of the adjusted χ2/df ratios for item pairs and item triples at the test level were used to evaluate fit. Two simulation studies were conducted, one for dichotomous data and the other for polytomous data. Relative fit of the ideal point and dominance models were compared with respect to different conditions: test length, sample size, and sample type. In many simulated conditions, it was found that comparing relative fits (using test-level doubles and triples adjusted χ2/df ratios) almost always consistently pointed to the correct IRT model. However, GGUM could fit dichotomous two-parameter logistic (2PL) data well when the scale length was short (i.e., 15 items); nevertheless, an examination of estimated GGUM item parameters clearly shows dominance item characteristics. Results of the simulation studies and implications are discussed.


The authors have analysed the expediency of the suggested low-grade fuels application method. Thermal processing of solid raw materials in the gaseous fuel, called synthesis gas, is investigated. The technical challenges concerning the applicability of the existing gas equipment developed and extensively tested exclusively for natural gas were considered. For this purpose computer simulation of three-dimensional syngas-incinerating flame dynamics was performed by means of the ANSYS Multiphysics engineering software. The subjects of studying were: a three-dimensional aerodynamic flame structure, heat-release and temperature fields, a set of combustion properties: a flare range and the concentration distribution of burnout reagents. The obtained results were presented in the form of a time-averaged pathlines with color indexing. The obtained results can be used for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of complex multicomponent gas incineration singularities.


With the increasing popularity and social influence of information retrieval (IR) systems, various studies have raised concerns on the presence of bias in IR and the social responsibilities of IR systems. Techniques for addressing these issues can be classified into pre-processing, in-processing and post-processing. Pre-processing reduces bias in the data that is fed into machine learning models. In-processing encodes fairness constraints as a part of the objective function or learning process. Post-processing operates as a top layer over the trained model to reduce the presentation bias exposed to users. This dissertation explored ways to bring the pre-processing and post-processing approaches, together with the fairness-aware evaluation metrics, into a unified framework as an attempt to break the vicious cycle of bias and improve fairness in IR. We first investigated the existing bias presented in search engine results. Specifically, we focused on the top-k fairness ranking in terms of statistical parity fairness and disparate impact fairness definitions. With Google search and a general purposed text cluster as a lens, we explored several topical diversity fairness ranking strategies to understand the relationship between relevance and fairness in search results. Our experimental results showed that different fairness ranking strategies resulted in distinct utility scores and performed differently with distinct datasets. Second, to further investigate the relationship of data and fairness algorithms, we developed a statistical framework that was able to facilitate various analysis and decision making. Our framework could effectively and efficiently estimate the domain of data and solution space. We derived theoretical expressions to identify the fairness and relevance bounds for data of different distributions, and applied them to both synthetic datasets and real world datasets. We presented a series of use cases to demonstrate how our framework was applied to associate data and provide insights to fairness optimization problems. Third, we proposed an evaluation metric FAIR for the ranking results that encoded fairness, diversity, novelty and relevance. This metric offered a new perspective of evaluating fairness-aware ranking results. Based on this metric, we developed an effective ranking algorithm that jointly optimized for fairness and utility. Our experiments showed that our new metric was able to highlight results that achieved good user utility and fair information exposure at the same time. We showed how FAIR metric related to existing metrics through correlation analysis and case studies, and demonstrated the effectiveness of our FAIR-based algorithm.


This thesis investigates the capability of Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) communication technology to be used for indoor real-time positioning. The integration of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to increase positioning accuracy was also evaluated. We designed and implemented a novel evaluation method for positioning systems that compares each of the position estimates with the ground truth position at the same moment. We experimentally verified the accuracy of an UWB positioning system in line-ofsight (LOS) conditions to be, on average, 10.97 cm for a robot moving at around 0.16 m/s on a track of length 6.7 m. In the case of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions, accuracy on a track of length 9.7 m for the same moving robot was, on average, 58.47 cm. Data fusion of IMU and UWB measurements using an extended Kalman filter increased average positioning accuracy to 51.96 cm, an 18.8% increase over UWB measurements alone, in NLOS conditions. In LOS conditions, we observed that data fusion of IMU and UWB measurements decreases the average positioning accuracy (from 10.97 cm to 14.17 cm) compared to use of UWB only position estimation.


The principal aim of the GOLD project (Grid-based Information Models to Support the Rapid Innovation of New High Value-Added Chemicals) is to carry out research into enabling technology to support the formation, operation and termination of Virtual Organisations (VOs). This technology has been implemented in the form of a set of middleware components, which address issues such as trust, security, contract monitoring and enforcement, information management and coordination. The paper discusses these elements, presents the services required to implement them and analyzes the architecture and services.The paper follows a top down approach starting with a breif outline on the architectural elements, derived during the requirements engineering phase and demonstrates how these archtiectural elements were mapped onto actual services that were implemented according to SOA principles and related technologies.


When making measurements using many sensors, it is expected that, within normal operating ranges, the signal-to-noise ratio is approximately linear (i.e. 20 dB/decade). This generality does not hold, however, when making measurements using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). If the velocity of the target of an LDV measurement increases by an order of magnitude, changes in the speckle pattern will introduce noise into the measurand. An experiment was conducted using an LDV system to measure the velocity response of a speaker excited over several orders of magnitude in both frequency and amplitude. Results are presented showing the relationship between signal-to-noise ratio and vibration amplitude.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Design artifacts in online innovation communities are increasingly becoming a primary source of innovation for organizations. A distinguishing feature of such communities is that they are organized around design artifacts, not around people. The search for novel innovations thus equates to a search for novel designs. This is not a trivial problem since the novelty of a design is a function of its relationship to other designs, and this relationship changes as each design is added. These relations between artifacts affect both consumption and production. Moreover, these relations form a landscape whose structure affects the emergence of novelty. We find evidence for our theorizing using an analysis of over 35,000 Thingiverse design artifacts. This work identifies the differential effects of different forms of novelty, visual and verbal, on subsequent innovation, and identifies the differential effects of different degrees of structure in the landscape on novelty.


Abstract The Andean cat (Leopardus jacobitus), one of the world's most threatened felids, forms part of the little-known carnivore guild occurring in the dry areas of the High Andes. Although human–carnivore conflicts are among the major causes of carnivore population decline, no data are available on this issue for the High Andes. We report here the results of the first survey of human perceptions of, and attitudes towards, carnivores in the high-altitude Andes of Argentina. Interviews with 50 adults and 226 schoolchildren revealed that pumas (Puma concolor) and foxes (Lycalopex culpaeus) are considered pests for preying upon livestock and are actively hunted by adults. Although perceptions of the Andean cat and the Pampas cat (Leopardus colocolo) were more positive, especially among schoolchildren, they are also frequently killed by local people. We suggest that, contrary to what was previously thought, hunting might be affecting the conservation status of the Andean cat and of some puma populations in the High Andes of Argentina, and that education strategies may help to improve human attitudes, particularly in the case of the endangered Andean cat.


Optical imaging is an important tool for exploring and understanding structures of biological tissues. However, due to the heterogeneity of biological tissues, the intensity distribution of the signal is not uniform and contrast is normally degraded in the raw image. It is difficult to be used for subsequent image analysis and information extraction directly. Here, we propose a fast image contrast enhancement method based on deep learning called Fast Contrast Enhancement Network (FCE-Net). We divided network into dual-path to simultaneously obtain spatial information and large receptive field. And we introduced the spatial attention mechanism to enhance the inter-spatial relationship. We showed that the cell counting task of mouse brain images processed by FCE-Net was with average precision rate of 97.6% ± 1.6%, and average recall rate of 98.4% ± 1.4%. After processing with FCE-Net, the images from vascular extraction (DRIVE) dataset could be segmented with spatial attention U-Net (SA-UNet) to achieve state-of-the-art performance. By comparing FCE-Net with previous methods, we demonstrated that FCE-Net could obtain higher accuracy while maintaining the processing speed. The images with size of 1024 × 1024 pixels could be processed by FCE-Net with 37fps based on our workstation. Our method has great potential for further image analysis and information extraction from large-scale or dynamic biomedical optical images.


INTRODUCTION In the age of Web 2.0, Gibson (2007) observed that it is important to remember the "newness" of the Web and living online, stating: "The Internet is a new human activity in, I imagine, the way cities were once a new human activity. And we're still coming up with novel things to do in cities. So the Internet has some ongoing novelty value" (n.p.). Today, as never before, people from around the world are becoming connected in whole new, novel ways, most notably in the virtual reality of virtual worlds, which have been categorized as being "the next great information frontiers" (Bush and Kisiel, 2007, p. 1). They are known rather synonymously as: MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games); MMORPGs (massively multi-player online role playing games); MUVEs (multi-user online virtual environments); or NVEs (networked virtual environments). Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs)--the umbrella term that will be used in this report--can be defined as being: "graphical two-dimensional (2-D) or three-dimensional (3D) videogames played online, allowing individuals, through their self-created digital characters or 'avatars,' to interact not only with the gaming software but with other players" (Steinkuehler and Williams, 2006, n.p.). Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Reeves, Malone, and O'Driscoll (2008) differentiated Second Life from MMOGs in the following manner: "unlike online games, virtual social worlds lack structured, mission-oriented narratives; defined character roles; and explicit goals" (p. 62). In the virtual social world of Second Life, there are no quests, no scripted play and no top down game plan (Sharp and Salomon, 2008). There is no embedded objective or narrative to follow. There are no levels, no targets, and no dragons to slay. It has been hailed as nothing less than the "evolution of the computer game," as rather than having a ready-made character with a fixed purpose, one creates his or her own avatar with an open-ended existence (Hutchinson, 2007, n.p.). Thus, rather than being a Star Wars-like character or an armed, rogue warrior whose mission it is to shoot as many other characters as possible or to collect enough points or tokens to advance to the next level, the Second Life avatar traverses a virtual world--often flying "teleporting" from virtual place to virtual place. Virtual worlds are fast becoming an environment of choice for millions of individuals--and a very big business. Since its launch in January 2004, the number of residents in Second Life has grown rapidly--to over 13 million in early 2008 (Linden Lab, 2008). Second Life is, in truth, but one slice--albeit a tremendously important one--of the overall virtual worlds' marketplace. In fact, both in terms of population and revenue, Second Life is dwarfed in size by what Sellers (2007) aptly termed "men in tights" games, medieval-styled fantasy games such as--World of Warcraft, Runescape, Lineage, Ragnarok, and Everquest. In fact, in January 2008, World of Warcraft--the largest MMOG--surpassed the astonishing mark of having 10 million active subscribers--at least a quarter of which are based in the U.S. and Canada (Smith, 2008) and almost half of whom are based in China (Au, 2008a). MMOGs are the fastest growing category of online gaming, with the total number of MMOG players has been estimated to be in excess of 150 million worldwide (Varkey, 2008). Indeed, Jeff Jonas, who is the Chief Scientist for IBM Entity Analytic Solutions, recently observed that: "As the virtual worlds create more and more immersive experiences and as global accessibility to computers increases, I can envision a scenario in which hundreds of millions of people become engaged almost overnight" (quoted in O'Harrow, 2008, n.p.). While Second Life is not the largest or the first virtual world, it has gained general acceptance as a platform that has drawn the most attention (Rollyson, 2007). In late 2007, Gartner predicted that by the end of 2011, fully 80 percent of all active Internet users "will have a 'second life,' but not necessarily in Second Life" in the developing sphere of virtual worlds (n. …


Eosinophilic digestive disease (EDD) includes a broad spectrum of clinical presentations due to eosinophilic inflammation involving anywhere from the esophagus to the rectum. The heterogeneity in the clinical presentations of EDD is determined by the site and depth of eosinophilic infiltration. The sites of inflammation determine the nomenclature for EDD. The most well characterized of these, eosinophilic esophagitis (EE), eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EG), and eosinophilic colitis or enterocolitis. While the depth of esosinophilic infiltration through the three main layers (mucosa, musculosa and serosa) determines the prominent clinical manifestation. The recent advances in gastrointestinal endoscopy and the increasing awareness and diagnosis of EDD, in my viewpoint, can be of help to add to our understanding of the heterogeneous clinical syndrome under the broad title bronchial asthma. Here I present a multidisciplinary comparitive analysis to prove that EDD and the allergic bronchial asthma can be regarded as two clinical expressions of one disease in two systems that are functionally different but anatomicaly and embryologically related.


Subsurface rocks and their fluid content along with their architecture affect reflected seismic waves through variations in their travel time, reflection amplitude, and phase within the field of exploration seismology. The combined effects of these factors make subsurface interpretation by using reflection waves very difficult. Therefore, assistance from other subsurface disciplines is needed if we intend to make a more accurate image of the subsurface. In this regard, rock physics acts as an integrated tool to combine subsurface information from different disciplines in a set of relationships between engineering (petrophysical) properties and their relevant geophysical variations, or more specifically, elastic variations. As a matter of fact, rock physics is required for a better understanding of rock properties if we intend to have a full understanding of our reservoir properties and their fluid content. This paper reviews some of the most important rock physics models and their application within the field of seismic exploration. These models are generally valid for the given conditions in which they are derived, and as a result, having a good understanding of their physical and geological limitations can help a lot with accurate rock physics modeling and interpretation. In this regard, this paper is an attempt to create a better understanding of such models, using different references and my personal experiences with these models. The application contexts of the models presented in this paper are not limited to the discussed scenarios. These scenarios are the ones that are commonly used and have shown a good prediction power in practice.


Looks at the use of robotic cameras in television news studios and the problems of navigating them accurately around their environment. Explains how the robots recognize coded targets around the studio which they compare with a preprogrammed map. Discusses the choice between laser scanners and line scan tv cameras to scan the targets and why the line scan camera was chosen; because it exhibited a number of advantages including a lower cost than the laser. Concludes that camera robot development is still at an early stage and is very mush responsive to user requirements. It remains to be seen whether they can move from the news and presentation studio environment into areas such as drama and light entertainment.


The authors begin by enumerating the various syndromes in which painful ophthalmoplegia may be observed (sphenoidal fissure syndrome, Collier's syndrome, syndromes involving the orbital apex, the cavernous sinus and parasellar syndromes; Raeder's syndrome, Gradenigo's syndrome and Fischer-Brugge syndrome). They then discuss the various causes that must be investigated in all cases of painful ophtalmoplegia. They consider in order: -- ophtalmoplegia due to general causes (especially diabetes) and neurological causes (e.g. multiple sclerosis); -- ophtalmoplegia due to common local canses space-occupying processes, vascular malformations, ear, nose and larynx infections); -- painful ophalmoplegia of unknown origin, which includes four entities of very differing importance (Gubler and Charcot's ophthalmoplegic migraine and Tolosa-Hunt syndrome of which the clinical symptoms and course are so different that they can be distinguished as two entities; and, secondarily, inflammatory pseudo-tumours of the orbit and the recurrent multiple cranial nerve palsies that are observed in South-East Asia). (Acta nurol. belg., 1977, 77, 331-350).


This study aims to examine the potential use of a geopolymeric matrix as a sustainable alternative to commercial mortars in carbon fabric-reinforced matrix composites. Single-lap shear tests were conducted to examine the bond behavior at the fabric-matrix interface. Test parameters included the type of matrix (geopolymeric and cementitious matrices) and the bonded length (50 to 300 mm). The geopolymeric matrix was a blend of fly ash/ground granulated blast furnace slag activated by an alkaline solution of sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide. The bond behavior of the geopolymeric-matrix specimens was characterized and compared to that of similar specimens with a cementitious matrix. The specimens failed due to fabric slippage/debonding at the fabric-matrix interface or fabric rupture. The effective bond lengths of the geopolymeric- and cementitious-matrix specimens were 150 and 170 mm, respectively. The geopolymeric-matrix specimens exhibited higher fabric strains, higher ultimate loads, and a steeper strain profile along the bonded length than those of their cementitious-matrix counterparts. New bond-slip models that characterize the bond behavior at the fabric-matrix interface for geopolymeric- and cementitious-matrix specimens were developed. Both models exhibited equal maximum shear stress of 1.2 MPa. The geopolymeric-matrix model had, however, higher fracture energy and higher slip at maximum shear stress than those of the cementitious matrix model.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of targeted disruption of the cellular receptors of either tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) or interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) during experimental gram-negative bacterial infection and endotoxemia.

DESIGN
Transgenic (knockout [KO]) mice deficient in either the p55 TNF receptor (TNF RI) or the p80 IL-1 receptor (IL-1 RI) were challenged with intravenous lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) or intraperitoneal live Escherichia coli 0111:B4. Mortality was assessed daily for 7 days. Serum endotoxin levels and quantitative blood cultures were monitored at multiple times during infection.

SETTING
Surgical infectious disease research laboratory.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Mortality, results of quantitative blood cultures, and serum endotoxin levels.

RESULTS
Both TNF and IL-1 RI KO mice were resistant to endotoxin challenge (0% mortality for both groups) compared with control mice (100% mortality [P < .01]). In contrast, only the IL-1 RI KO mice were resistant to infection caused by viable gram-negative bacteria (43% mortality) compared with control mice (100% mortality [P < .01]). Infection led to 100% mortality in TNF RI KO mice. The IL-1 RI KO mice exhibited less bacteremia and diminished endotoxemia compared with control and TNF RI KO mice 18 and 24 hours after infection.

CONCLUSION
The absence of either the TNF or the IL-1 RI receptor prevents cellular activation by each respective cytokine. Absence confers protection against intravenous endotoxin, which stimulates massive rapid release of cytokines into the systemic circulation. However, bacterial infection within the peritoneal cavity is known to cause more delayed cytokine release, and cytokines may act at the site of infection to enhance host defenses. We believe that IL-1 signaling may be more critical in provoking lethal systemic toxic effects than TNF signaling. However, TNF signaling may be an important component of host defense enhancement at the local site of infection.


Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have the potential to solve many traffic problems, such as accidents, congestion and pollution. However, there are still challenges to overcome, for instance, AVs need to accurately perceive their environment to safely navigate in busy urban scenarios. The aim of this paper is to review recent articles on computer vision techniques that can be used to build an AV perception system. AV perception systems need to accurately detect non-static objects and predict their behaviour, as well as to detect static objects and recognise the information they are providing. This paper, in particular, focuses on the computer vision techniques used to detect pedestrians and vehicles. There have been many papers and reviews on pedestrians and vehicles detection so far. However, most of the past papers only reviewed pedestrian or vehicle detection separately. This review aims to present an overview of the AV systems in general, and then review and investigate several detection computer vision techniques for pedestrians and vehicles. The review concludes that both traditional and Deep Learning (DL) techniques have been used for pedestrian and vehicle detection; however, DL techniques have shown the best results. Although good detection results have been achieved for pedestrians and vehicles, the current algorithms still struggle to detect small, occluded, and truncated objects. In addition, there is limited research on how to improve detection performance in difficult light and weather conditions. Most of the algorithms have been tested on well-recognised datasets such as Caltech and KITTI; however, these datasets have their own limitations. Therefore, this paper recommends that future works should be implemented on more new challenging datasets, such as PIE and BDD100K.


Recent scholarly trends have called into question the view of the Reformation as a singular, epoch-making event; many scholars prefer to speak of sixteenth-century "reformations," while others regard the Reformation as a chapter within longer-running and more significant historical processes. This essay proposes viewing the Reformation as a complex, epoch-making event that was initiated and sustained by both Protestant and Catholic actors. The Reformation created an enduring reality of division that was experienced and engaged differently by Christians depending upon their ecclesial, social, and geographic location, among other factors. By relating the disciplinary motives and endeavors of the era to contestation regarding truth and falsehood, the divine and the demonic, this essay argues for taking a broader view of religious discipline and for seeking to understand the Reformation era on its own terms, rather than as a late-medieval or an early-modern event.


Introduction: With the sharp increase in incidence and improving survival of breast cancer in Asia, survivorship issues, like fatigue, anxiety and depression and health related quality of life are becoming increasingly important. In the multi-ethnic setting of South East Asia, these items have been understudied. Methods: This cross-sectional study included a random sample of 377 breast cancer patients visiting the breast care clinic of the National University Hospital for routine follow-up between April 2014 - April 2015. Patients were at least 12 months post diagnosis. Patient characteristics were collected from medical records. Malay (n=72) and Chinese (n=305) breast cancer patients were compared in terms of physical function, fatigue, and financial difficulties (as reported in the EORTC-QLQ-C30), and anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS). Clinically relevant fatigue (CRF) was defined as a score ≥40, and clinically relevant anxiety and depression were defined as scores of ≥8. Mann-Whitney U test and Fisher9s exact test were used to compare patient reported outcomes between Chinese and Malays. Results: The mean age at time of survey was 56.5 (range: 27-79), with 305 (74%) Chinese and 72 (18%) Malays. Median (Interquartile range) ages were 58 (52-64) for Chinese and 52 (46-57) for Malays; the distribution of age was significantly different (p Ninety seven (26%) patients reported scores 8 and above for anxiety; with 80 (26%) Chinese and 17(24%) Malays (p=0.765). Sixty two (24%) patients reported scores of 8 and above for depression, with 55 (18%) Chinese and 7 (10%) Malays (p=0.111). Sixty two (24%) patients experienced clinically relevant fatigue, 44(14%) Chinese and 18 (25%) Malays (p=0.034). Malays experienced lower level of physical function than Chinese, 87 (73-93) vs 93 (87-100) respectively (p=0.004), and more financial difficulty, 33 (0-67) vs 0 (0-33) respectively (p Conclusion: One in 4 patients experience anxiety, depression, and/or clinically relevant fatigue. Malay breast cancer survivors, experience more clinically relevant fatigue and reduced physical functions compared to Chinese breast cancer survivors. In addition, they experienced more financial difficulties. Citation Format: Ho PJ, Verkooijen HM, Gernaat S, Hartman M. Ethnic differences in quality of life, anxiety and depression and fatigue in breast cancer survivors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-10-13.


Summary
The study examined the life-script account for a reminiscence bump in a Trinidadian sample (N = 100; range: 31–59 years old). The cue-word technique elicited memories, and events (n = 809) were content-coded as life scripted (e.g., marriage), considering normative ages from a preliminary study, unusual (e.g., traumatic events), or ordinary (e.g., a day at the beach). Two reminiscence bumps were found: one between 6 and 15 years old and another in the mid-twenties, for both positive and negative events. The early bump was comprised mostly of ordinary events, regardless of participant's age. The second bump period was mostly unusual events, regardless of valence, although people ≥40 years old were producing this bump for negative life events. Life-scripted events were found only in the early negative reminiscence bump. The discussion focuses on other theoretical interpretations for the findings (e.g., life-story account), methodological considerations for future work, and cultural considerations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Card index systems are normally not very efficient when used for cross-indexing purposes and information retrieval, useful information frequently being lost because of poor indexing and little or no cross-referencing. Large card index systems are often compiled by research workers but these potentially useful stores of information are normally lost, or are not available, to other research workers in the same field. Size can also become a limiting factor to the efficient use of a card index system. A central storage system for every research field or related fields could make all the information contained in card index systems available to every research worker. This could only be achieved by using a computer. A cross-indexed information storage and retrieval programme is being developed for use in the Natal Region. A proposed specific and non-specific classification system for the indexing of references in pasture research is presented. Keywords: classification; computer programme; index; information retrieval; information technology; limiting factor; natal; pasture; pasture research; research; south africa


Aim. After the beginning of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the clinical practice, the number of multiple pregnancies has increased. There are discussions continuing about being less healthy of babies born after IVF pregnancies. In this study we aimed to compare perinatal and obstetric outcomes of IVF twin pregnancies and spontaneous conceived twin pregnancies. Method. Twin pregnancies terminated in our clinic between 2004 and 2009 were divided in two groups as spontaneous conceived pregnancies and IVF pregnancies. Data were collected from patient files retrospectively. Results. A total of 198 twin pregnancies were enrolled and 29 of the cases were IVF pregnancies. IVF pregnancy rate was 14.6%. Age, gestational age, pregnancy induced hypertension, preterm rupture of membranes, preterm labor, intrauterine growth retardation, anemia, diabetes mellitus, polyhydramnios, oligohydramnios, intrauterine demise of one fetus, method of delivery; height, weight, one minute and five minute APGAR scores, admission to newborn intensive care unit of babies and congenital abnormalities were compared. The gestational age; history of pregnancy induced hypertension, preterm rupture of membranes, intrauterine growth retardation, anemia, diabetes mellitus, polyhydramnios, oligohydramnios, and intrauterine demise of one fetus; height, weight, Apgar scores, admission to newborn intensive care unit of babies; and congenital abnormalities were found similar between the study groups (p>0.05). Preterm labor, cesarean section and maternal age were significantly higher in IVF pregnancies (p<0.05). Conclusion. Twin pregnancies are accepted as high-risk pregnancies because of increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality rates. Pregnancies in IVF patients are achieved in maternal age more than normal pregnancies and in general cesarean delivery rates is higher compared to the normal pregnancies.


The normal distribution has the unique property that the cumulant generating function has only two terms, namely those involving the mean and the variance. This property is used to construct a simple by using the log of the modulus of the empirical characteristic function to what would be expected under normality. The test statistic is easy to calculate. Using a simulation study the proposed test is shown to have excellent power, especially in large samples.


Recent advancements in signal processing (SP) and machine learning, coupled with electronic medical record keeping in hospitals and the availability of extensive sets of medical images through internal/external communication systems, have resulted in a recent surge of interest in radiomics. Radiomics, an emerging and relatively new research field, refers to extracting semiquantitative and/or quantitative features from medical images with the goal of developing predictive and/or prognostic models. In the near future, it is expected to be a critical component for integrating image-derived information used for personalized treatment. The conventional radiomics workflow is typically based on extracting predesigned features (also referred to as handcrafted or engineered features) from a segmented region of interest (ROI). Nevertheless, recent advancements in deep learning have inspired trends toward deep-learning-based radiomics (DLRs) (also referred to as discovery radiomics). In addition to the advantages of these two approaches, there are also hybrid solutions that exploit the potential of multiple data sources. Considering the variety of approaches to radiomics, further improvements require a comprehensive and integrated sketch, which is the goal of this article. This article provides a unique interdisciplinary perspective on radiomics by discussing state-of-the-art SP solutions in the context of radiomics.


Background: One of the most predominant periodontal diseases is the plaque induced gingivitis. For the past 20 years, super-oxidized solutions have been shown to be powerful antimicrobials and disinfectants via oxidative damage. The taste is better than chlorhexidine and does not stain the teeth. Microsafe®, a recently presented super-oxidized solution for gingival care, offers a completely improved approach to treatment of gingivitis. Interleukin 1 beta is one from interleukins family and it is released by many cells such as macrophage to control immune response. Aim: The aim of the study is to determine the effect of super oxidized water mouthwash on the pro �?n�?l�?mm�?tor�? cytokines (IL_1β) in the gingival crevicular �?lu�?d compared to chlorhexidine in participants who continue to perform regular mechanical oral hygiene. Materials and methods: ort�?Ǧ�?�?ve adult male patients with generalized gingivitis participated in the double blinded randomized controlled parallel study divided into three groups, two mouth rinses and distilled water( negative control) used during seven days periods as adjunctive to regular mechanical oral hygiene(brushing and �?loss�?n�?�?ǡ one group received super oxidized water mouth rinses (Microsafe®) three times daily and the second group received Alcohol-free chlorhexidine 0.12% solution(kin gingival®) twice daily and the third group received distilled water (negative control). In the �?�?rst visit GCF collected from targeted sites (upper incisors, labial side) and then scaling and polishing were done. In the second the GCF was collected again from the same teeth. Results: The level of IL-1β showed a highly s�?�?n�?�?�?c�?nt differences in CHX group in the 2nd visit after treatment (46.062 versus 22.958 p=0.005) when compared to D.W and Microsafe® groups which also showed a s�?�?n�?�?�?c�?nt changes(65.517 versus 50.277 P=0.026, and 55.920 versus 46.351 p=0.010 respectively ). �?�?n�?�?�?c�?ntl�? decreased between the study groups in level of IL_1β between the 1st visit and the 2nd visit (P=0.039) Conclusion: According to the results of our study, CHX was better than SOW and this was improving by immunological marker (IL-β). There was a positive reduction in the IL_ 1β after topical application of Microsafe® for one week but the duration of application must be continued more than 1 week to reach a good decrease of IL-1β in GCF which is a sign of less periodontal destruction.


During a zoological survey in north-west Madagascar (Sahamalaza Peninsula) we documented aspects of the natural history of Boophis occidentalis (formerly a subspecies of B. albilabris and here raised to species level). Individual age assessed by skeletochronology ranged from 4 to 11 years. Breeding behaviour was observed at a seasonal stream after heavy rainfalls: five choruses of eight to 90 males aggregated in shallow brook sections. The males emitted low frequency calls and engaged in scramble battles. Only two females were found. A couple laid a large number of eggs, attached as a single layer on submerged stones. Tadpoles reared from these eggs had the typical morphology of brook-breeding Boophis species with a 1:5+5/3 keratodont formula and a relatively flattened body. Adult males had an anteroventrally oriented cloaca, a morphological trait shared with B. albilabris. Advertisement calls were similar in general structure to those of B. albilabris recorded at Anjanaharibe-Sud. They were unharmonious and consisted of pulsed notes emitted at irregular intervals. Much lower pulse rates in B. albilabris (30‐38 pulses/s) than in B. occidentalis (90‐109 pulses/s) support the specific distinctness of these taxa. The combination of characters related to reproductive biology in B. occidentalis and B. albilabris is unique in Boophis. The acontinuous breeding behaviour and large number of eggs per clutch are traits found in the pond-breeding species of the B. tephraeomystax group, while larval morphology and habitat are characteristic of brook-breeding species. Available morphological and molecular data place B. albilabris and B. occidentalis into the brookbreeding Boophis radiation. The acontinuous timing of reproduction and large egg number may be secondary adaptations that allowed the species to colonize arid regions of western Madagascar.


This case focuses on the University of Kansas football program's fall from relevance over a nine-year period and the personnel decisions that were made as it happened. The case provides a background on the competitive landscape of intercollegiate athletics, including the importance of conference affiliation, the associated revenues that stem from such affiliations, and the potential threat of conference realignment to demonstrate the importance of a competitive football program. The case then walks the reader through football-related personnel decisions, providing detailed backgrounds of the coaches to identify job-market signals and assess their fit with the job and organization. Details of raises and contract extensions made by the outgoing chancellor and incumbent athletic director are also provided to examine performance standards within Kansas Athletics. As a change in university leadership takes place, the reader is asked to consider what actions, if any, the incoming chancellor should take to turn around a struggling football program and ensure a viable athletic department.


Machine learning models have been widely used in numerous classification problems and performance measures play a critical role in machine learning model development, selection, and evaluation. This paper covers a comprehensive overview of performance measures in machine learning classification. Besides, we proposed a framework to construct a novel evaluation metric that is based on the voting results of three performance measures, each of which has strengths and limitations. The new metric can be proved better than accuracy in terms of consistency and discriminancy.


The hippocampus plays a critical role in goal-directed navigation. Across different environments, however, the hippocampal map seems to be randomized, making it unclear how goal locations might be encoded. To address this question, we trained mice to seek reward at several locations on virtual linear tracks, and optical recordings of calcium activity were made at cellular resolution from two major hippocampal output structures, CA1 and the subiculum. These experiments revealed a population of neurons that were consistently active near reward locations. Their pattern of activity sharply contrasted with simultaneously-recorded place cells and even persisted across environments, when other cells remapped randomly. Their timing was closely correlated with reward anticipation behaviors, yet could not be explained by the behaviors themselves, raising the possibility that reward-associated cell signals were used by mice to identify the reward location. These results demonstrate that the hippocampus employs a context-invariant marker of goal locations, and reveal a novel target for studying how the hippocampus contributes to navigation.


We have examined primary tumor
sections from melanoma patients by immunohistochmistry (IHC) for the presence
of the odontogenic ameloblast-associated protein (ODAM). Within these patient
tissues we have observed a correlation of nuclear ODAM staining in the primary
tumors with sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis. Surgically, SLN invasion in
melanoma is considered an important indicator of more aggressive, invasive
melanoma and to date there are limited biomarkers which strongly correlate with
metastatic disease. The observation that ODAM staining in melanoma associates
with SLN invasion may have important prognostic implications which could assist
in the management of melanoma. Notably, ODAM expression may correlate with
pathway-signaling we have previously reported to be affected by ectopic ODAM
expression in cultured melanoma and breast cancer cell lines.


2127 Blockade of VEGF has been shown to be effective at inhibiting tumor growth in various preclinical models and in diverse human cancers. Preclinical and clinical data suggest that ongoing VEGF signaling is necessary to maintain the angiogenic tumor vasculature, as treatment with VEGF blockers results in a rapid loss of tumor vessels and a decrease in tumor perfusion. In this study, we sought to characterize in more detail the rapid changes in angiogenic vessels, and to relate the vessel loss to corresponding effects on tumor cell proliferation. SCID mice bearing established tumors of different origins (two human renal cell carcinomas (786-0, A498), a human fibrosarcoma (HT1080), a human and a rat glioblastoma (U87-MG, C6), and a human basal cell carcinoma (A431) or polyvinyl acetate sponge implants (a simplified model of angiogenesis) were treated with a single subcutaneous dose of VEGF Trap (25 mg/kg), a potent inhibitor of all isoforms of VEGF-A and placental growth factor (PlGF) that is currently in Phase II clinical trials. At 24 or 72 hr after treatment, tumors and sponges were excised and stained for blood vessels (PECAM/CD31), and tumors were stained for hypoxia (HypoxyProbe) or cell proliferation (Ki67). We found that VEGF Trap induced a reduction in vessel density in all tumor types and in the sponges at both 24 and 72 hr, although the magnitude of the vessel loss varied (ranging from 24% reduction in HT1080 tumors to 69% reduction in A498 tumors at 72 hr). The vessel loss was characterized by decreased angiogenic sprouting, pruning of small vessels, and a more uniform size and appearance of the remaining vessels. Similarly, all tumors showed an increase in tumor hypoxia and a decrease in tumor cell proliferation, although again the magnitude of these effects varied in the different tumors. The relative magnitude of the vessel loss was not directly proportional to the levels of VEGF expression by the tumor cells, as assessed by quantitative RT-PCR. These results show that while VEGF blockade results in rapid vessel loss in all tumors and other models of angiogenesis, the extent of the vessel loss varies significantly and may affect the subsequent pattern and extent of tumor cell proliferation.


Organisms often perceive risk to be attacked by natural enemies through cues that accompany or persist after attacks on conspecifics. Under the risk of attack, preys may prioritize anti-enemy behaviours, sacrificing their feeding activities. These enemy-induced changes can affect the prey population growth. The presence of killed congeners is a past attack events cue but, in terrestrial prey-enemy systems, its effect on prey population biology is an open question. This was addressed here by studying both the space use and reproductive effort of aphids exposed to congeners killed by parasitoids. To test whether preys adjust their responses with the threat intensity, aphids' responses in presence of killed conspecifics were compared to those measured when directly exposed to non-consumptive parasitoids. The results showed that killed congeners are perceived by aphids and led to both changes in their space use and a strong decline in their population size. This experiment is the first to demonstrate that the presence of congeners killed by an enemy can contribute to the suppressive effects of natural enemies on prey populations.


Background Genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes is crucial for diagnosing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndromes (HBOC). Testing for such genes has been on the rise due to the development of multigene panel tests. However, results classified as variants of uncertain significance (VUS) present challenges to clinicians trying to interpret their functions and choose appropriate management plans.Methods We reviewed a total of 676 breast cancer patients who had VUS on BRCA mutation tests between November 2007 and April 2013 in the KOHBRA study. These results were compared to the ClinVar database. We calculated the incidence and odds ratios for these variants using the Korean Reference Genome Database (KRGDB).Results A total of 58 and 91 distinct VUS in BRCA1 and 2 were identified in the KOHBRA study (comprising 258 and 453 patients, respectively). A total of 27 variants in the KOHBRA study were not registered in the SNP database. Of the BRCA1 VUS, 20 variants were reclassified as benign or likely benign, 4 variants were reclassified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic, and 8 variants remained as VUS according to the ClinVar database. Of the BRCA2 VUS variants, 25 variants were reclassified as benign or likely benign, two variants were reclassified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic, and 33 variants remained as VUS according to the Clinvar database. There were 12 variants with conflicting interpretations of pathogenicity for BRCA1 and 18 variants for BRCA2. Among them, p.Leu1780Pro showed a particularly high odds ratio.Conclusions Six pathogenic variants and one conflicting variant identified using ClinVar could be reclassified as pathogenic variants in this study. Using updated ClinVar and calculating odds ratios can be helpful when reclassifying VUS in BRCA1/2.


AIM
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of prolonged sequential therapy with mexidol in the acute and early recovery stages of hemispheric ischemic stroke (IS).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A randomized double blind multicenter placebo-controlled, in parallel groups trial included 151 patients (62 men and 89 women) with hemispheric IS. Using a method of simple randomization, 150 patients (62 men and 88 women), aged 40-79 years, were randomized into two groups. Patients of Group I were treated with mexidol: 500 mg/day IV infusion for 10 days, followed by 125 mg tid (375 mg/day) PO for 8 weeks. Patients of Group II received the placebo according to the same scheme. The total duration of patients' participation in trial ranged from 67 to 71 days.

RESULTS
By the end of treatment, the mean score on the modified Rankin scale (mRS) was lower in Group I compared to Group II (p=0.04). In Group I, the decrease in mRS mean score (Visit 1-5) was more prominent (p=0.023), percentage of patients with 0-2 scores by mRS scale (Visit 5) was higher (p=0.039), mean NIHSS score lower (p=0.035) in Visit 5 compared to group II. By the end of treatment, the decrease in mean NIHSS score in patients with diabetes mellitus was more prominent in Group I in comparison with Group II (p=0.038). In Group I, the dynamic of improvement of quality of life was more prominent and started from Visit 2 in general population and subpopulation of patients with diabetes mellitus. The share of patients with no problems with movement in space was higher in Group I (p=0.022). There were no statistically significant differences in frequency of side effects in patients of both groups.

CONCLUSION
It is recommended to include mexidol in therapy of patients with IS in the acute and early rehabilitation stages.


In this paper, we present Vertexica, a graph analytics tools on top of a relational database, which is user friendly and yet highly efficient. Instead of constraining programmers to SQL, Vertexica offers a popular vertex-centric query interface, which is more natural for analysts to express many graph queries. The programmers simply provide their vertex-compute functions and Vertexica takes care of efficiently executing them in the standard SQL engine. The advantage of using Vertexica is its ability to leverage the relational features and enable much more sophisticated graph analysis. These include expressing graph algorithms which are difficult in vertex-centric but straightforward in SQL and the ability to compose end-to-end data processing pipelines, including pre- and post- processing of graphs as well as combining multiple algorithms for deeper insights. Vertexica has a graphical user interface and we outline several demonstration scenarios including, interactive graph analysis, complex graph analysis, and continuous and time series analysis.


Choosing fresh cork oak seeds and using Petri dish and filter paper germination method,the NaCl and Na2CO3 resistant potential of Quercus variabilis seeds with five different NaCl and Na2CO3concentrations(0,50,100,200 and 400 mmol / L) were examined. During the experimental process,the seed germination,radicle growth,three protective enzyme(SOD,POD,CAT) activities and the organic osmoregulation substances(proline,soluble protein and soluble sugar) were all measured,and the correlation between the seed germination,radicle growth rate under NaCl and Na2CO3 stress were analysed. The results showed that:( 1) NaCl and Na2CO3 stress had no significant impact to seed germination rate and germination index,even under high Na+concentration( 200 mmol / L) stress,seed germination rate was still higher than contrast. With the addition of Na+concentration,radicle length,radicle growth rate and fresh weight of radicle under two kinds of stresses presented the downward trend. The vigor index and salt tolerance index under NaCl stress increased at the lower concentrations(50 mmol / L) and then decreased at the higher concentrations(100,200 and 400 mmol / L),but theyboth declined under Na2CO3 treatment. Relative salt-harmed rate waved under two stresses,they were lower than the contrast under 50 and 200 mmol / L Na+concentration,but were higher under 100 and 400 mmol / L Na+concentration.(2)The regression equation between vigor index,radicle growth rate and different concentrations of NaCl and Na2CO3 stress were found,and they showed that the critical value of the vigor index,fresh weight of radicle,radicle length and radicle growth rate under NaCl stress,were 300. 0,300. 0,333. 6 and 369. 6 mmol / L respectively,they were 69. 0,67. 2,182.0,187. 5 mmol / L respectively under Na2CO3 stress.( 3) Under two kinds of stresses, with the increase of Na+concentration,MDA( malondialdehyde) content increased significantly; SOD( superoxide dismutase) activity decreased after increasing under NaCl treatment, but they were all lower than the contrast under Na2CO3treatment; POD(peroxidase) activity had no significant change,CAT(catalase) activity was down and then rose. Proline,soluble protein and soluble sugar contents were increased in varying degrees with the addition of Na+concentration,they were to the maximum under the largest concentration of NaCl treatment,and they were all higher than the contrast under Na2CO3treatment(4) Under the same Na+concentration stress,the growth indicators such as seed germination rate,germination index,radicle length,radicle growth rate and fresh weight of radicle under NaCl treatment were all higher than that of Na2CO3 treatment,malondialdehyde,protective enzymes( SOD,POD,CAT) activities and osmotic adjustment substances(proline,soluble protein and soluble sugar) contents were all lower than that of Na2CO3 treatment,which showed the effects of Na2CO3 stress on seeds were more significant than that of NaCl stress. Thus it can be seen that cork oak seeds increased protective enzymes activities and contents of osmotic regulation substances in vivo to adapt to the salt-alkali stress,making the inhibition degree of germination and growth to the minimum.


Previous studies have shown that cysteamine [2-aminoethanethiol (CSH)], given in vivo or in vitro, rapidly but reversibly depletes immunoreactive PRL from the anterior pituitary (AP) through a mechanism which, in vitro, does not appear to involve the dopamine (DA) receptor. In the present investigation, these effects of CSH were explored further with emphasis on determining whether CSH; (1) depletes biological as well as immunological PRL activity from the AP and blood, (2) has effects on plasma PRL in chronically cannulated male rats, (3) alters the PRL response to drugs which stimulate the secretion of the hormone, and (4) acts in vivo via DA receptors to deplete PRL. CSH produced a dose-dependent depletion of both immunological and biological PRL activity from the AP and blood. In chronically cannulated animals, PRL levels in the plasma were undetectable 90 min after CSH administration and remained so for 4 h. However, by 24 h plasma PRL in treated animals had returned to control levels. The PRL response to both domperidone and morphine was virtually abolished in CSH-treated animals. Blockade of DA receptors by pretreatment with domperidone did not alter the ability of CSH to reduce AP PRL stores. These results indicate that CSH: 1) alters both biological and immunological PRL activity by a rapid but reversible effect, and 2) circumvents the DA receptor to deplete pituitary PRL content. Thus, CSH or similar compounds may serve as a prototype for a new class of drugs which can be used in the treatment of hyperprolactinemia.


Facts and fiction are two sides of a coin; this is so because the former is backed up with evidence while the latter is imaginary in nature. Positivism is a method of gaining knowledge that is empirically based, while non-positivism is also a method of gaining knowledge through secondary data and observation. Positivism is a method of gaining knowledge that originated from pure sciences, though its use has been accepted in the behavioural sciences. The study examines; facts and fiction in positivism and neo-positivism. The research method adopted for this study is the secondary sources or documentary research method found under qualitative research method. The method of research analysis used for this research is the 'Content Analysis Method'. The findings of this study are; Qualitative and quantitative research uses observation as the mode of gaining knowledge (use of our five senses); hence the two paradigms believe that anything that cannot be observed lacks validity. Quantitative and qualitative research aimed at the same goal, which is to build theory, prediction, generalization, and to gain knowledge. Even though quantitative and qualitative researches are facts based, they end up being infiltrated with imagination they initially try as much as possible to avoid. For instance, both research undertakings often than not fall victim of 'fallacy of band wagon', a situation where majority of the subjects (that questionnaire were administered to or subject that interview were administered to) give false observation about social phenomenon they have observed. Keywords: Facts, fiction, positivism, neo-positivism, qualitative, quantitative DOI : 10.7176/RHSS/9-4-03


The article considers the problem of falsifications in historical science, the causes and consequences of falsifications of Russian history both in Russia and abroad. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of purposes, forms and possibilities of the fight against falsifications of history which has been going on in Russia in recent years.


BACKGROUND
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide with a rising incidence rate in most countries. Considering the increase in life expectancy and change in lifestyle of Iranian women, this study investigated the age-adjusted trend of breast cancer incidence during 2000-2009 and predicted its incidence to 2020.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The 1997 and 2006 census results were used for the projection of female population by age through the cohort-component method over the studied years. Data from the Iranian cancer registration system were used to calculate the annual incidence rate of breast cancer. The age-adjusted incidence rate was then calculated using the WHO standard population distribution. The five-year-age-specific incidence rates were also obtained for each year and future incidence was determined using the trend analysis method. Annual percentage change (APC) was calculated through the joinpoint regression method.

RESULTS
The bias adjusted incidence rate of breast cancer increased from 16.7 per 100,000 women in 2000 to 33.6 per 100,000 women in 2009. The incidence of breast cancer had a growing trend in almost all age groups above 30 years over the studied years. In this period, the age groups of 45-65 years had the highest incidence. Investigation into the joinpoint curve showed that the curve had a steep slope with an APC of 23.4% before the first joinpoint, but became milder after this. From 2005 to 2009, the APC was calculated as 2.7%, through which the incidence of breast cancer in 2020 was predicted as 63.0 per 100,000 women.

CONCLUSIONS
The age-adjusted incidence rate of breast cancer continues to increas in Iranian women. It is predicted that this trend will continue until 2020. Therefore, it seems necessary to prioritize the prevention, control and care for breast cancer in Iran.


Subgrid information from land models has the potential to be a powerful tool for investigating land‐atmosphere interactions, but relatively few studies have attempted to exploit subgrid output. In this study, we modify the configuration of the Community Land Model version CLM4.5 so that each plant functional type (PFT) is assigned its own soil column. We compare subgrid and grid cell‐averaged air temperature and surface energy fluxes from this modified case (PFTCOL) to a case with the default configuration—a shared soil column for all PFTs (CTRL)—and examine the difference in simulated surface air temperature between grass and tree PFTs within the same grid cells (ΔTGT). The magnitude and spatial patterns of ΔTGT from PFTCOL agree more closely with observations, ranging from −1.5 K in boreal regions to +0.6 K in the tropics. We find that the column configuration has a large effect on PFT‐level energy fluxes. In the CTRL configuration, the PFT‐level annual mean ground heat flux (G) differs substantially from zero. For example, at a typical tropical grid cell, the annual G is 31.8 W m−2 for the tree PFTs and −14.7 W m−2 for grass PFTs. In PFTCOL, G is always close to zero. These results suggest that care must be taken when assessing local land cover change impacts with subgrid information. For models with PFTs on separate columns, it may be possible to isolate the differences in land surface fluxes between vegetation types that would be associated with land cover change from other climate forcings and feedbacks in climate model simulations.


The detectors in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are arsenic-doped silicon impurity band conduction (Si:As IBC) devices and are direct descendants of the Spitzer IRAC long wavelength arrays (channels 3 and 4). With appropriate data processing, they can provide excellent performance. In this paper we discuss the various non-ideal behaviors of these detectors that need to be addressed to realize their potential. We have developed a set of algorithms toward this goal, building on experience with previous similar detector arrays. The MIRI-specific stage 1 pipeline algorithms, of a three stage JWST calibration pipeline, were developed using pre-flight tests on the flight detectors and flight spares and have been refined using flight data. This paper describes these algorithms, which are included in the first stage of the JWST Calibration Pipeline for the MIRI instrument.


This paper presents a novel strategy to model the full three-dimensional structures of end region of huge turbine-generators with power level up to 1000MW. The 3-D nonlinear anisotropic magnetic field including the eddy current losses is calculated by utilizing the reduced magnetic vector potential formulation. With the help of Biot-Savart's law, the magnetic field caused by currents in the stator and rotor windings, which are very complex in geometric shapes, can be calculated in a far easy way. The flux density distribution in the end region and the eddy current distribution in the structural parts under different operating conditions are presented


The epimers of a steroid carboxamide, N-propyl 20 alpha- and 20 beta -dihydroprednisolonamide, were evaluated for their local and systemic effects on granuloma formation, pituitary-adrenal function and liver glycogen content in rats. When the carboxamides were administered locally, the 20 beta-epimer exhibited greater activity than the 20 alpha-epimer in suppressing cotton pellet granuloma formation. Neither epimer had suppressive effects on thymus weight and plasma corticosterone levels at the dose level used. When the carboxamides were administered systemically, they were pharmacologically inactive. Furthermore, in acute pharmacological studies, the carboxamides neither increased tyrosine aminotransferase activity and glycogen deposition in the liver nor decreased plasma corticosterone levels and relative thymus weight.


Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network is only one of hundreds of terrorist organizations around the world. Others wait for their own cues to follow similar scripts for using modern technologies to terrorize vulnerable populations. In A Faceless Enemy, Glenn Schweitzer provides a sweeping history of the technologies that are at the heart of this new and deadly terrorism and gives us a fuller understanding of the relationships between terrorists and drug traffickers, the potential threat of cyberterrorism, and the now very tangible risks posed by bioterrorism and chemoterrorism. Based on the authors' long careers in science and international politics, and drawing upon interviews with diplomats and intelligence operatives around the globe, A Faceless Enemy is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the complex issues related to terrorism and the future of international security.


Three experiments tested whether the Implicit Association Test (IAT) is sensitive to the perceived accuracy of newly learned associations. In experiment 1, participants learned to associate positive or negative attributes with two novel groups. Participants in one condition were told that the attributes accurately described the groups; in a second condition, prior to learning, they were made aware that the attributes were randomly assigned to the groups. Participants were given an IAT and an explicit measure testing attitudes towards the two groups. When the participants were told that the attributes were accurate, their IAT performance and explicit measure responses indicated a preference for the more positively described group but when the attributes were known to be arbitrary, preferences were reduced according to both measures. Experiment 2 replicated these results and demonstrated that the associations were learned even in the random condition. Experiment 3 included a condition that placed "not" before each attribute, which demonstrated that people can incorporate a negative modifier into a learned association. Explicit attitudes and the IAT showed reversed preferences in this negation condition. These experiments imply that the IAT is sensitive to the perceived accuracy of learned associations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The quality of the segmentation of organs and pathological tissues has significantly improved in recent years by using deep learning approaches, which are typically trained with fully supervised learning. For these fully supervised learning methods, an immense amount of fully labeled training data is required, which are, especially in medicine, costly to generate. To overcome this issue, weakly supervised training methods are used, because they do not need fully labeled ground truth data. For the localization of objects weakly supervised learning has already become more important. Recently, weakly supervised learning also became increasingly important in the area of segmentation of pathological tissues. However, these currently available approaches still require additional anatomical information. In this paper, we present a weakly supervised segmentation method that does not need ground truth segmentations as input or additional anatomical information. Our method consists of three classification networks in sagittal, axial, and coronal direction that decide whether a slice contains the structure to be segmented. Then, we use the class activation maps of the classification output to generate a combined segmentation. Our network was trained for the challenging task of pancreas segmentation with the publicly available TCIA pancreas dataset and we reached Dice scores for slices of up to 0.86 and an overall Dice score of up to 0.53.


Three-dimensional mathematical/computational models of three types of plesiosaur (Liopleurodon - short neck, Cryptoclidus - medium neck, and Thalassomedon - long neck) were used to investigate aspects of their flotation and stability. Equivalent models of an extant alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) were used as tests. With full lungs, and uniform tissue densities of 1,050 g/l, all five models would float at the surface, with the alligator and sea turtle models replicating the depths of immersion and inclinations observed in living forms. Impractically large amounts of gastroliths were needed to initiate sinking - even with the lungs 50% inflated,10 kg of stones were still required in a 218 kg Cryptoclidus to produce negative buoyancy, and the hypothesis that gastroliths were for control of buoyancy is rejected. However, gastroliths equal to 1% of body weight in the Thalassomedon model were effective at damping out buoyant oscillations of the neck when at the surface and minimizing instability when fully immersed at 10 meters depth. The oblate bodies of Cryptoclidus and Liopleurodon provided effective passive mechanisms for righting the body if perturbed by waves at the surface, but the almost circular cross-section of the Thalassomedon body was ineffective in self-righting. The relatively longer flippers of Thalassomedon may have provided higher drag to resist rolling. The idea that plesiosaurs could maintain their necks above the water surface in an erect manner is rejected due to unbalanced buoyancy torques acting on the body.


Objective To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of regularly used immunohistochemical
markers, including Vimentin ( Vim) , Desmin ( Des) , Myoglobin (MG) , Myosin ( MS) , Smooth-muscle actin (SMA) and Sarcomeric actin (Sr-A) , in the diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). Methods After resection , 24 RMSs and other childhood tumor specimens were fixed in 10% neutral-buffered formalin and embeded in paraffin. The immunohistochemical staining was performed by LSAB procedure. Heat-induced epitope retrieval of Des, MS, Sr-A was processed in order to enhence positive rate and positive strength. Results Vim, MG, MS, Des, Sr-A, SMA were arranged in the order of sensitivity from higher to lower. About specificity, Sr-A, Des, SMA, MG, Vim standed in a sequence from higher to lower (the data of MS is insufficient) ; Des,MG, Sr-A possessed higher experimental efficiency, followed by SMA, Vim in a succession. Conclusion Vim and MG are of the higher sensitivity but lower specificity. On the reverse, Sr-A and Des hold the better specificity but lower sensitivity. So the combination of multiple antibody reactions should be considered to improve the diagnostic ability in poorly differentiated RMS. According to the result of experimental efficiency, we suggest that the combination of Des, MG and Sr-A can make it possible to diagnose the majority of RMS clearly.


Background: Naples Prognostic Score (NPS) is a novel score based on inflammatory-nutritional indicators. We aimed to analyze the prognostic value of the Naples Prognostic Score in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients following surgery. Methods: A total of 319 NSCLCpatients following surgery were analyzed in the retrospective cohort study. We analyzed the predictive value of Naples Prognostic Score for overall survival and recurrence-free survival in postoperative non-small cell lung cancer patients by using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and multivariate Cox regression analysis. At the same time, the time-dependent ROC and the area under curves were also created to compare the accuracy of different scoring systems. Results: According to NPS, we divided all patients into 3 groups,120 patients were divided into group 0, 161 patients were divided into group 1, and 38 patients were divided into group 2. The median survival time for all patients is 32 months, and the median survival times for different groups were 35 months, 31 months, and 28 months, respectively. The overall survival and recurrence-free survival survival curves of different groups were significantly different (both P < .05), and patients in the higher NPS groups had a disappointing prognosis. NPS may be an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and recurrence-free survival, according to the results of multivariate analysis (both P < .05). The area under curve showed that the accuracy of the NPS was significantly better than other score systems. Conclusions: The NPS is closely related to the long-term survival prognosis of patients with NSCLC, especially in stage III patients.


Modern neoadjuvant endocrine therapy trials comparing aromatase inhibitors (AIs) with tamoxifen have shown that neoadjuvant AIs can downstage cancers and avoid mastectomy in around 50% of post menopausal women with large ER positive tumours, and are superior to tamoxifen in this respect. The future potential of preoperative endocrine therapy is in the use of molecular biomarkers after starting treatment to predict outcome. This approach was pioneered in the IMPACT trial which showed that the reduction in tumour proliferation as measured by the biomarker KI67 comparing neoadjuvant anastrozole v tamoxifen v. the combination. was significantly greater for anastrozole than for the other 2 arms, predicting the same long-term outcome benefit in the equivalent adjuvant ATAC trial. The change in Ki67 with treatment could be used to predict potential benefit with other novel endocrine therapy approaches. Recently a similar neoadjuvant trial comparing anastrozole v letrozole v exemestane has shown no significant difference in Ki67 suppression between arms, predicting no long-term difference in clinical outcome with these agents. Around 15% of patients with good initial tumour Ki67 suppression after 2 weeks of preoperative endocrine therapy show recovery of Ki67 by 12 weeks, providing early biomarker evidence of treatment resistance. Clinical outcome in these patients appears correspondingly worse. This provides an opportunity for biomarker led studies of agents targeting both innate and acquired resistance to endocrine therapy, defined by 2 week and 12 week Ki67 levels.. One such preoperative endocrine therapy trial with Ki67 as primary endpoint has already been carried out: patients were started on 2 weeks of preoperative anastrozole and then randomised to the addition or not of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, gefitinib (IRESSA). This novel pre-operative endocrine therapy approach also allows the study of changes in other biomarkers and in gene expression as a means of elucidating underlying mechanisms of resistance Finally the clinical potential of Ki67 after 2 weeks preoperative AI treatment is further demonstrated by the observation that higher 2 week values of Ki67 after treatment in the IMPACT trial predicted for a significantly worse recurrence-free survival. This raises the intriguing possibility that patients with ER positive breast cancer, including small cancers, could be treated with 2 weeks preoperative endocrine therapy before surgery and Ki67 levels at surgery be used to predict long-term outcome for the individual patient and in particular to identify those patients with a good prognosis who would not require chemotherapy. This hypothesis is being tested in the UK POETIC (Peri-Operative Endocrine Therapy for Individualised Care) trial which has so far accrued around 2,000 patients out of an overall target of 4,000. A similar approach in which Ki67, pathologic stage and ER at the end of a course of neoadjuvant endocrine therapy are combined to produce a Preoperative Endocrine Prognostic Index (PEPI) is being used to identify patients with such a low risk of relapse that adjuvant chemotherapy may not be necessary. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2011;71(24 Suppl):Abstract nr MS4-2.


Subwavelength perfect optical absorption structures based on monolayer-graphene are analyzed and demonstrated experimentally. The perfect absorption mechanism is a result of critical coupling relating to a guided mode resonance of a low index two-dimensional periodic structure. Peak absorption over 99% at wavelength of 1526.5 nm with full-width at half maximum (FWHM) about 18 nm is demonstrated from a fabricated structure with period of 1230 nm, and the measured results agree well with the simulation results. In addition, the influence of geometrical parameters of the structure and the angular response for oblique incidence are analyzed in detail in the simulation. The demonstrated absorption structure in the presented work has great potential in the design of advanced photo-detectors and modulators.


Abstract Weld residual stress of the lap fillet GMA welding joints which was performed using two strength grades of steel sheets and two strength grades of welding wires were measured. In addition, to consider the effects of steel sheet strength and weld metal strength on welding residual stress, thermal elastoplastic analysis using FEM was carried out for the experiments. As a result of the analysis using the temperature history of the heat-affected zone as a fitting parameter, the residual stress distributions near the toe were in agreement with the measurement in the FE analysis. Comparing the residual stress distributions in the direction perpendicular to the weld line on the weld metal surface near the toe, which is the occurring point of fatigue cracks in the FE analysis results, with the same steel sheet, the higher the weld metal strength the smaller the tensile residual stress. And comparing with the same wire, the higher the steel sheet strength the higher the tensile residual stress. The reason for the former is that when using high-strength wire, cooling transformation occurs at a lower temperature than using low-strength wire. As a result, it is considered that the tensile residual stress was effectively reduced by causing transformation expansion while the surrounding strength was high. The reason for the latter is considered to be that each stress value changes based on the yield stress of the steel sheet and weld metal because the plastic strain continues to occur in each direction until transformation occurs after welding. It was considered that the larger the ratio of the hardness of the weld metal to the base metal, the smaller the ratio of the residual stress of the weld metal near the toe to the yield stress.


The aim of this project was to investigate the effect of β-Hydroxy-β-methyl butyrate (HMB) on the expression of antimicrobial peptides (AMP) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), administering it in the diet and water. We studied two different families of S. salar and fish were divided into four groups. Fish were sampled over a period of three weeks. The expression of cathelicidin-2 (asCATH2), Hepcidin-1 and iNOS, both important components for the first line of immune defenses, was measured in gill, kidney, spleen and heart tissues. Up-regulation of asCATH2 and iNOS was observed after HMB treatment with increases of expression at different times. In addition, the responses varied throughout days but the variation between families was not significant. Hepcidin-1 expression rather than being enhanced, was in some cases, downregulated, nevertheless, in one of the two families it was significant enhanced during the last days-post-induction. The study provides us with a powerful molecular tool to evaluate the innate immunity system of different salmon families. Further investigations will be undertaken to confirm whether higher AMP gene expression, or other defense mechanisms of innate immunity, are valuable as a natural protection against common diseases.


Abstract The chromatin remodeler complexes mammalian SWI/SNF (SWItch/Sucrose Non-Fermentable) are altered in more than 40% of cancers and are involved in therapeutic resistance. In children, SMARCB1 is mutated in 95% of rhabdoid tumors, and the remaining 5% present mutations in SMARCA4. These tumors are typically identified in children younger than three years old and have a very poor prognosis with a survival under one year following diagnosis. SMARCB1 expression is also lost in more than 90% of epithelial sarcomas, a rare and aggressive tumor affecting young adults, and in 50% of pediatric chordomas. Additional mSWI/SNF subunits are also highly mutated in childhood cancers such as ARID1A and ARID1B in neuroblastomas, the most common solid tumor in children, and the ARID subunits and SMARCA4 in medulloblastomas, the most common brain cancer in children. To date, mSWI/SNF roles in normal and cancer cells are still largely undetermined and focus on nuclear functions. However, our assessment of genetic dependencies and drug sensitivity screens revealed that cancer cells mutated for mSWI/SNF are genetically dependent and exclusively sensitive to translation factors and translation pathway inhibitors. We demonstrate that mSWI/SNF complexes are extensively localized in the cytoplasm and that they interact with the translation initiation machinery. Furthermore, short-term inhibition, depletion and cancer mutations of specific subunits alter protein synthesis and increase sensitivity to translation inhibitors. Most mutations in these complexes being considered loss of function, these results suggest a potential therapeutic opportunity for diseases presenting mutations in these complexes. In conclusion, our work demonstrates the chromatin remodelers mSWI/SNF have direct roles in translation that will not only be relevant for the molecular understanding of cancer but also lead to new therapeutic opportunities.