Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are lay individuals who are specially trained to serve as liaisons between members of their communities and healthcare providers and services. Research conducted on the effectiveness of CHW programs in promoting screening mammography has reported conflicting results (i.e., some studies favored the use of CHWs while some do not). The aim of this study was to conduct a synthesis of all prospective studies on the effectiveness of CHW programs in improving screening mammography rates using the techniques of systematic-review and meta-analysis. It was hypothesized that study participants who received a CHW intervention would be more likely to receive a screening mammogram when compared to participants who did not receive a CHW intervention. Methods: Any prospective study conducted in the U.S. assessing the effect of a CHW intervention in a controlled setting and enrolling a minimum of 10 participants was eligible for inclusion. A comprehensive search of CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases along with the reference lists of published articles was performed to identify potentially relevant studies conducted and published between 1980 and January 31, 2008. All retrieved citations were reviewed by two researchers for inclusion. Data extraction was performed using a standardized data collection form. Dichotomous data (receipt of mammogram) were summarized as risk ratios (RRs) for each study. The summary results from each study were pooled under a random effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed both by visual inspection of forest plots for each outcome, as well as by formal statistical testing for heterogeneity using the chi square and I2 test. Robustness of findings was assessed according to characteristics of CHW interventions, methodological quality of included studies, or study design. Results: Initial search yielded 228 citations of which 24 studies met the pre-determined inclusion criteria. Of the 24 studies, 18 had extractable data. Altogether these 18 studies included a total of 26,660 participants at baseline. In a combined sample of RCTs (n=10) and quasi-experimental studies (n= 8), participation in a CHW intervention was associated with a small, but significant increase in receipt of screening mammography [RR: 1.06 (favoring intervention); 95% Confidence interval (CI: 1.02, 1.11), p = .003]. The effect remained when pooled data from only the RCTs were included in the meta-analysis (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.12, p Conclusions: Results from the meta-analysis indicate that CHW interventions are an effective strategy for increasing screening mammography, but intervention effectiveness depends on the research design of studies, as well as characteristics of the CHW intervention. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):B41.


False sharing is a notorious problem for multithreaded applications that can drastically degrade both performance and scalability. Existing approaches can precisely identify the sources of false sharing, but only report false sharing actually observed during execution; they do not generalize across executions. Because false sharing is extremely sensitive to object layout, these detectors can easily miss false sharing problems that can arise due to slight differences in memory allocation order or object placement decisions by the compiler. In addition, they cannot predict the impact of false sharing on hardware with different cache line sizes.
 This paper presents PREDATOR, a predictive software-based false sharing detector. PREDATOR generalizes from a single execution to precisely predict false sharing that is latent in the current execution. PREDATOR tracks accesses within a range that could lead to false sharing given different object placement. It also tracks accesses within virtual cache lines, contiguous memory ranges that span actual hardware cache lines, to predict sharing on hardware platforms with larger cache line sizes. For each, it reports the exact program location of predicted false sharing problems, ranked by their projected impact on performance. We evaluate PREDATOR across a range of benchmarks and actual applications. PREDATOR identifies problems undetectable with previous tools, including two previously-unknown false sharing problems, with no false positives. PREDATOR is able to immediately locate false sharing problems in MySQL and the Boost library that had eluded detection for years.


Spin excitations in the Kondo semiconductor CeNiSn have been studied in a wide Q-range and in the energy range of h(cross) omega =1.2-7 meV by means of single-crystal neutron scattering. The magnetic fluctuation at low temperatures in this energy range is dominated by the easy a-axis component Im chi ad. Below the coherence temperature of 20 K, two dynamic antiferromagnetic correlations develop as excitation peaks at h(cross) omega =2 and 4 meV. The 4 meV excitation appears at Q=(Qa. 1/2 +n, Qc) where Qc and Qc are arbitrary and n is an integer, which indicates that the correlation is quasi-one dimensional along the b-axis. The 2 meV excitation appears around Q=(0,0,I) and (0,1,0), which shows three-dimensional Q-dependence. These two excitations reflect the nature of the Kondo coherent state of CeNiSn.


The assessment of visual function was published at the suggestion of the American Committee on Optics and Visual Physiology in order to make available a basic text for a course presented at the meetings of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. Each instructor contributed a chapter on his special field, emphasizing underlying scientific principles and application of methods for testing visual function. The book contains nine chapters, which are given in order here: "Visual Acuity" (Rubin); "Visual Fields" (Newman); "Rod Vision" (Alpern); "Clinical Aspects of Night Vision" (Krill); "Color Vision of Normal Observers" (Pokorny and Smith); "Abnormal Color Vision" (Krill); "Practical Aspects of Depth Perception" (Burian); "Electrophysiological Measurements" (Potts); "Assessment of Special Visual Functions" (Keeney). Beyond the usual measurements of acuity, perimetric fields, and testing of color vision, the application of psychophysical studies is still quite limited, but methods to obtain additional information have been and are being further


Two children with pulmonary metastases from nephroblastomas showed the radiological features of chest wall tumour involvement. Diagnostic surgical exploration subsequently revealed pedunculated and fully resectable peripheral lung metastases. The mechanism by which these pedunculated lesions mimicked the classic 'D sign' of an extrapulmonary (pleural or chest wall) tumour is explained.


Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is an imaging modality with many possiblepractical applications. It is mainly used for geophysical applications, for which it iscalled electrical resistivity tomography. There have also been many proposed medicalapplications such as respiratory monitoring and breast tumour screening.Although there have been many uniqueness and stability results published over thelast few decades, most of the results are in the context of the theoretical continuousproblem. In practice however, we almost always have to solve a discretised problemfor which very few theoretical results exist. In this thesis we aim to bridge the gapbetween the continuous and discrete problems.The first problem we solve is the three-dimensional triangulation problem of uniquelyembedding a tetrahedral mesh in R3. We parameterise the problem in terms of dihedral angles and we provide a constructive procedure for identifying the independentangles and the independent set of constraints that the dependent angles must satisfy.We then use the implicit function theorem to prove that the embedding is locallyunique. We also present a numerical example to illustrate that the result works inpractice. Without the understanding of the geometric constraints involved in em-bedding a three-dimensional triangulation, we cannot solve more complex problemsinvolving embeddings of finite element meshes.We next investigate the discrete EIT problem for anisotropic conductivity. It iswell known that the entries of the finite element system matrix for piecewise linearpotential and piecewise constant conductivity are equivalent to conductance values ofresistors defined on the edges of the finite element mesh. We attempt to tackle theproblem of embedding a finite element mesh in R3, such that it is consistent with someknown edge conductance values.It is a well known result that for the anisotropic conductivity problem, the bound-ary data is invariant under diffeomorphisms that fix the boundary. Before investigatingthis effect on the discrete case, we define the linear map from conductivities to edgeconductances and investigate the injectivity of this map for a simplistic example. Thisprovides an illustrative example of how a poor choice of finite element mesh can resultin a non-unique solution to the discrete inverse problem of EIT. We then extend theinvestigation to finding interior vertex positions and conductivity distributions thatare consistent with the known edge conductances. The results show that if the totalnumber of interior vertex coordinates and anisotropic conductivity variables is largerthan the number of edges in the mesh, then there exist discrete diffeomorphisms thatperturb the vertices and conductivities such that no change in the edge conductancesis observed. We also show that the non-uniqueness caused by the non-injectivity ofthe linear map has a larger effect than the non-uniqueness caused by diffeomorphisminvariance.


Zambian communities in 21 settlements have developed partnerships with District Councils and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with the aid of the Community Development Programme. A Training Programme for Community Participation in Settlements Improvement was implemented by the government from 1984 to 1994 with the support of the UN Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) (Habitat). Although seed money for physical settlement improvements was not included, integrating training with the actual process of upgrading enabled the participating communities to make the improvements. The selected communities, with the support of District Council staff, produced project documents to solicit the support of NGOs. The partnerships consisted of three groups; 1) Resident Development Committees, which represented the communities; 2) NGOs; and 3) District Councils. The first group mobilized the communities in the identification of priority needs and in action planning. The second group supplied equipment and funds. The third group provided technical services and created a legal framework in the form of a memorandum of understanding, which was signed by all partners. Sustainability, maintenance, and management of services after the phasing out of NGO support were defined in the memorandum. Schools, clinics, storm-water drainage, and road improvements were some of the benefits obtained from this tripartite partnership.


Fluorescent conjugated polymers formulated in nanoparticles show attractive properties to be used as bioimaging probes. However, their fluorescence brightness is generally limited by quenching phenomena due to interchain aggregation in the confined nanoparticle space. In this work, branched conjugated polymer networks are investigated as a way to enhance the photoluminescence quantum yield of the resulting conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs). 1,3,5-Tribromobenzene and 2,2',7,7'-tetrabromo-9,9'-spirobifluorene are chosen as branching moieties and are added in 3 or 5 mol % to the poly(p-phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) conjugated polymer synthesis. Nanoparticles of all samples are prepared via the combined miniemulsion/solvent evaporation technique. The optical properties of the branched polymers in solution and in nanoparticle form are then compared to those of the linear PPE counterpart. The fluorescence quantum yield of the CPNs increases from 5 to 11% for the samples containing 1,3,5-tribromobenzene. Furthermore, when 5 mol % of either branching molecule is used, the one-photon fluorescence brightness doubles. The nanoparticles show low cytotoxicity in A549 human lung carcinoma cells up to a concentration of 100 μg/mL for 24 h. They also exhibit good particle uptake into cells and compatibility with two-photon imaging.


Butterfly valves are widely used as control valves for industrial process. For the definition of optimum configuration of the valve, wide range of related studies has been actively conducted in the case of working fluids of water or air under the normal temperature. Recently, internal flow and performance characteristics of cryogenic butterfly valve for LNG carrier take a growing interest in the field of research and development. Therefore, present study is aimed to investigate the internal flow and performance characteristics of the cryogenic butterfly valve because the study result for the valve can be hardly found at present. Part 1 of this paper describes the study result of a butterfly valve model under the condition of the normal temperature. Succeeding Part 2 of this paper will describe the internal flow characteristics of a cryogenic butterfly valve for LNG carrier. The results of Part 1 show that pressure loss coefficients and flow rate coefficients obtained by the present experiment and CFD analysis agree well each other. Moreover, internal flow visualization for the valve by CFD analysis and PIV measurement have revealed complicated flow patterns of the internal flow field in detail.


The River Valley intrusion within the ~2.48 Ga East Bull Lake intrusive suite in Ontario, Canada, is an example of a mafic igneous intrusion with "contact-type" Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide mineralization along its base. Whereas many contact-type deposits are thought to form from in situ contamination of the magma by the addition of crustal S during emplacement, there are some intrusions, including the River Valley intrusion, which appear to have a much more complex history where the timing of S saturation, and thus the critical ore genesis processes, may have occurred much earlier, prior to emplacement.

The River Valley intrusion is made up of a basal ~100 m of unlayered, inclusion-bearing units, overlain by layered cumulates. The basal units contain autoliths of gabbroic rocks and inclusions of footwall gneiss and amphibolites, all within a gabbroic matrix. Platinum-group element-rich magmatic sulfide mineralization occurs throughout both the inclusions and the matrix as blebby and disseminated sulfides. The matrix and inclusions can be separated into two distinct textural types: hydrothermally altered greenschist assemblages and unaltered metamorphic amphibolite assemblages. The platinum group mineral (PGM) assemblages vary only between textural types, and not between inclusions and matrix, being dominated tellurides in all rock types. The hydrothermally altered rocks, however, have fewer tellurides and an increased amount of Sb- and As-bearing PGM, indicative of minor fluid interaction, although the PGM have not been mobilized significantly away from the base metal sulfides. Precious and base metal geochemistry shows all rock types to have an excellent correlation between all the platinum group elements (PGE), indicating the presence of a single, well homogenized, PGE-rich sulfide liquid. However, Au and Cu appear to be decoupled from the PGE at low concentrations, although correlate well with each other, which is interpreted to be due to minor fluid redistribution and alteration of sulfide bleb margins. The overlying Layered units above the mineralized units are not PGE depleted. Trace element data, including (Th/Yb)PM and (Nb/Th)PM ratios, demonstrate that all River Valley rocks were formed from crustally contaminated magmas following interaction with local country rocks in a deeper subchamber; although some samples have S/Se ratios indicative of crustal S, most have S/Se ratios lower than the mantle range, indicative of S loss.

We propose a multistage model for the formation of the mineralization in the River Valley intrusion with a major contamination event at depth with the addition of S from local crustal rocks, inducing sulfide saturation. Sulfide droplets were then enriched in PGE within a conduit system with possible further upgrading of sulfide metal tenors (and reduction of S/Se ratios) via partial dissolution of sulfide. The PGE-enriched sulfide liquid then settled in a staging chamber and partially crystallized before a major pulse of magma entrained sulfide liquid, eroded blocks of precrystallized and mineralized gabbro and footwall rocks, and emplaced an inclusion-bearing package as the lower 100 m or so of the River Valley intrusion. Later emplacement of main River Valley magma was from an S-undersaturated, PGE-fertile magma.

The River Valley intrusion is thus an example whereby contact-type mineralization is purely a function of the earliest magma intruded containing preformed sulfide mineralization, rather than contamination triggering sulfide saturation in situ. In such cases, processes at depth determine the generation and subsequent tenor of the mineralization. In particular, dissolution of the sulfide can upgrade metal tenor, but subsequently will reduce S/Se ratios, masking the signature of crustal contamination. In addition, a multistage emplacement such as this will not necessarily preserve the characteristic increase in Cu/Pd ratios in the overlying cumulates that is often used in exploration for PGE deposits in mafic intrusions. Thus, a full understanding of all the field, geochemical, and mineralogical factors is required to construct genetic models for such deposits and especially in the interpretation of S/Se and Cu/Pd ratios as an indicator of crustal contamination and the presence of PGE mineralization.


The inhibition of mushroom tyrosinase by cucumber extracts was evaluated. The inhibitory effect was measured by both polarographic and spectrophotometric methods. The commercial aldehyde, trans,cis-2,6-nonadienal, described as a major volatile compound of cucumber, was characterized as a noncompetitive inhibitor against 4-tert-butylcatechol oxidation by mushroom tyrosinase. The K(I) obtained was 3.4 mM. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity was not detected in cucumber skin extracts. However, the presence of PPO was revealed by Western blot; a single band was found with a M(r) of 53 kDa. These results support the assumption that the enzyme PPO is present in the cucumber skin, but its activity is inhibited. Peroxidase (PO) was also found in cucumber skin extracts. This enzyme was detected in the soluble fraction but not in the membrane fraction. The kinetic characterization of PO was carried out. Native isoelectric focusing revealed several acidic PO isoenzymes with a pI in the range between 5 and 6, a basic isoenzyme, and one principal neutral isoenzyme of pI = 7.2.


As the right ventricle's (RV) role in cardiovascular diseases is being more widely recognized, interest in RV imaging, function and quantification is growing. However, there are currently few RV quantification methods for 3D echocardiography presented in the literature or commercially available. In this paper we propose an automated RV segmentation method for 3D echocardiographic images. We represent the RV geometry by a Doo-Sabin subdivision surface with deformation modes derived from a training set of manual segmentations. The segmentation is then represented as a state estimation problem and solved with an extended Kalman filter by combining the RV geometry with a motion model and edge detection. Validation was performed by comparing surface-surface distances, volumes and ejection fractions in 17 patients with aortic insufficiency between the proposed method, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and a manual echocardiographic reference. The algorithm was efficient with a mean computation time of 2.0 s. The mean absolute distances between the proposed and manual segmentations were 3.6 ± 0.7 mm. Good agreements of end diastolic volume, end systolic volume and ejection fraction with respect to MRI ( -26±24 mL, -16±26 mL and 0 ± 10%, respectively) and a manual echocardiographic reference (7 ± 30 mL, 13 ± 17 mL and -5±7%, respectively) were observed.


Ciprofloxacin (CP) is a fluoroquinolone that is highly active against diverse microorganisms. At concentrations less than 1 µg/ml it is active against a diverse types of bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillius subtilius, Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In addition, it has shown to be effective against other diseases such as malaria, cancer and AIDS. The extended antimicrobial activity, lack of plasmid-mediated resistance, large volume of distribution and minimal adverse effects of CP are therapeutically advantageous. In the pursuit of increasing their effectiveness against these diseases and prevent unwanted resistance, researchers have begun to synthesize a class of organic, inorganic and organometallic derivatives, which have displayed interesting activities. This review describes the development and recent advances on the evaluation of CP and its derivatives as a new class of drugs with potential for clinical development.


Many studies explore advertising influence on children (Kunkel et al., 2004) with its intended and unintended effects (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2003) and the various factors that can possibly – though it is not commonly shared (Buckingham, 2004) - mitigate its strength, such as quantity of advertising exposure (Gorn & Goldberg, 1978), age (Chan, 2000), parental action (Buijzen & Mens, 2007; Kline, 2011), and cognitive defenses (Brucks et al. 1988). Children's skepticism about advertising, instead, does not necessarily decrease significatively advertising influence (Derbaix & Pecheux, 2003) but seems to be negatively related to children's attitude toward advertising ((Buijzen, 2007). On their way to awareness of advertising, children show – differently by age - difficulties in distinguishing fantasy from reality (Khan, 2001) and perceive commercials aims (Buijzen, 2009).
Our research actually analyzed a sample of primary-school children (N=116) aged 7 to 12, and through a pre-test with questionnaires (Mallincrodt & Mizersky, 2007) and focus groups (Pine & Nash, 2002) a treatment with lessons on advertising and its techniques and a post-test with same questionnaires explored their thoughts and beliefs about advertising role, their perceived truthfulness of advertising, their acceptance of advertising embellishment actions in the commercials, their attitudes towards it. Then, after the educational path on advertising construction and techniques (setting, voice, jingles, actors, testimonials, ecc.) - through ANOVA's results - evinced whether a significant change happened in their ability to decode the advertising messages.
The results led to confirm first of all, that the bases for skepticism about advertising varied both with age and with education and, secondly, evinced a low starting level in children's skepticism about advertising. Furthermore, evidences proved that children's skepticism grew after the educational path though it revealed a certain difficulty by children - not in grasping untruthfulness of advertising - but in accepting it - children sometimes showed correct knowledge of the matter but felt uncomfortable with it and adjusted it, modifying their answer to reach a more comfortable situation. Bases for future research are trying to verify the real relation between skepticism and influence of advertising and how genre difference acts in advertising.


An instrument is described by which aliquot portions of a liquid may be mechanically measured and delivered. It was devised especially for use in immunological experiments, to take the place of a graduated pipette in setting up serum tests. The instrument may be set for any quantity within its capacity and measures sterile liquids without danger of contamination. It may therefore find a wider application in other procedures requiring sterile measurements of small amounts of liquid.


Background The association between support from social relations and ischemic heart disease is well described, however the possible hazardous effects of negative aspects of social relations on cardiovascular health are less well known. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the possible influence of negative aspects of social relations (NASR) at baseline on the risk of development of ischemic heart disease (IHD) defined as incident hospitalized cases of acute myocardial infarction and chronic IHD during 7 year follow-up. NASR were defined as demands or worries from partner, children, family, and friends. Methods Participants were included in a questionnaire-based study in 2000 and were a random sample (N=6767) of Danish men and women aged 40 or 50 years by October 1st 1999 from the Danish Longitudinal Study on Work, Unemployment and Health. Data for the present study are based on baseline questionnaire data in 2000 and register linked data from the period 2000–2007 on hospitalization for IHD (ICD10: I21–25). Cases of IHD (I21–25) four years prior to baseline were excluded from the analyses. In total 127 new cases of IHD were identified during follow-up. Results Men who always or often experienced worries or demands from their partner had an increased risk of incident IHD compared to those who seldom/never experienced worries and demands HR(95%CI)=2.28(1.14–4.53) adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, cohabitation status, depressive symptoms, smoking and emotional support from all social relations . There was no association between demands/worries from partner and risk of development of IHD among women. Both men and women who experienced frequent worries and demands from their family (other than partner and children) were at increased risk of IHD HR=1.76(1.10–2.81) adjusted for above mentioned covariates and gender. Demands and worries from children and friends were not associated with significantly increased risk of IHD although estimates were in the same direction as for demands/worries from partner and family. Conclusion For men, frequent demands and worries from a partner seem to be associated with increased risk of incident IHD hospitalization during 7 year follow-up. Demands/worries from family are risk factors for both women and men. Adjustment for the level of social support from all social relations did not change these conclusions. These findings confirm earlier findings of an association between NASR and self-reported angina pectoris. The weaker findings for women may partly be explained by the substantially smaller number of cases in this middle-aged cohort.


Postoperative biliary stricture is a relatively rare but serious complication of biliary surgery. Although Rouxen-Y hepaticojejunostomy or choledochojejunostomy are well-established and fundamental therapeutic approaches, their postoperative morbidity and mortality rates have been reported to be up to 33% and 13%, respectively. Recent studies suggest that percutaneous transhepatic intervention is an effective and less invasive therapeutic modality compared with traditional surgical treatment. Compared with fluoroscopic intervention, percutaneous with cholangioscopy may be more useful in biliary strictures, as it can provide visual information regarding the stricture site. We recently experienced two cases complete membranous occlusion of the bilioenteric anastomosis and successfully treated both patients using percutaneous transhepatic cholangioscopy.


Mucins, major components of the extracellular mucus blanket that protect and lubricate mammalian epithelia, are high-molecular-mass glycoconjugates (154 to > or = 7,000 kDa) with hundreds of oligosaccharide chains in O-glycosidic linkages to a protein backbone. The apparent expression of more than one type of oligosaccharide core structure in mucins isolated from pathological material may reflect either inherent limitations in analysis, disease-related alterations in parameters affecting glycosylation and post-translational modifications (e.g., nucleotide-sugar concentrations, expression of specific glycosyltransferases, rates of transport through the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi) or the activation of mucin protein genes that are more highly expressed in disease states with different glycosylation patterns. Recent studies have revealed the existence of a family of at least four human mucin proteins; MUC1, MUC2, MUC3, MUC4, each of which contains a variable number of tandem repeats that differ in sequence and size. Full-length sequences of cDNA clones encoding human mucin proteins are currently available only for MUC1 which, in contrast to most airway and intestinal mucins, is membrane associated and not secreted. Current information on mucin oligosaccharides and proteins is reviewed herein. More detailed knowledge of the protein and oligosaccharide structures of mucins will be important in identifying specific role(s) in health and disease, i.e., in the physiological functions of mucus.


Altered maternal nutrition and metabolism, restricted utero-placental blood flow, and other perturbations in the maternal compartment may disturb critical periods of fetal development resulting in increased susceptibility to develop disease in childhood and adult life. In response to these perturbations, changes in placental structure and function occur, which influence the supply of nutrients, oxygen, and methyl donors and alter the secretion of hormones and other signaling molecules into the fetal circulation. Thus, the placenta plays a critical role in modulating maternal-fetal resource allocation, thereby affecting fetal growth and the long-term health of the offspring.


Cardiac function is of paramount importance for both prognosis and treatment of different pathologies such as mitral regurgitation, ischemia, dyssynchrony and myocarditis. Cardiac behavior is determined by structural and functional features. In both cases, the analysis of medical imaging studies requires to detect and segment the myocardium. Nowadays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most relevant and accurate non-invasive diagnostic tools for cardiac structure and function. In this work we propose to use a deep learning technique to assist the automatization of myocardial segmentation in cardiac MRI. We present several improvements to previous works in this paper: we propose to use the Jaccard distance as optimization objective function, we integrate a residual learning strategy into the code, and we introduce a batch normalization layer to train the fully convolutional neural network. Our results demonstrate that this architecture outperforms previous approaches based on a similar network architecture, and that provides a suitable approach for myocardial segmentation. Our benchmark shows that the automatic myocardial segmentation takes less than 22 seg. for a volume of 128 × 128 × 13 pixels in a 3.1 GHz intel core i7.


ABSTRACT The mechanical properties of Agave americana fibers treated with NaOH solutions (1, 5, and 20 wt.%) for different times (0.5, 1 and 3 h) were investigated. At these conditions, tensile strength and ultimate strain of the fibers were determined. The treatment that required the minimum resources to improve the mechanical performance was 1% NaOH for 1 h. Fiber surface after the alkaline treatment was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM); it showed partial remotion of impurities at the mildest condition (1% NaOH for 0.5 h) and an apparent surface decomposition when using the most harsh condition (20% NaOH for 3 h). Fly ash-based geopolymer composites with different treated fiber contents were prepared. The compressive, flexural, and splitting tensile strengths of the composite geopolymers at seven days of age were determined. Results indicated that the addition of fibers slightly influenced the compressive strength; however, the ductility capacity was improved by up to 26% when 1% of treated fiber was incorporated. Regarding the tensile behavior, results indicate a direct relationship of strength with the amount of fibers, up to 36% improvement with 1% fiber content. Morphological of the fiber-reinforced geopolymer matrices was finally studied by SEM.


This paper is a reply to Ken Himma's article on How Facts Make Law. In his thoughtful and thought-provoking paper, Himma claims that the argument of HFML must go wrong somewhere because, if successful, the argument shows too much with too little. In particular, he claims that my argument, with very limited resources, reaches a conclusion that entails that subjectivist and non-cognitivist theories of morality are false. Himma insists that I should not be able to resolve such controversial debates in meta-ethics with no meta-ethical or even normative resources. My basic response has two parts. First, it is not correct that my conclusion entails that subjectivist and non-cognitivist theories of morality are false. My conclusion itself is neutral as to the metaphysics of morality. Second, it is not even true that my argument, if successful, shows that there must be moral facts. The reason is that I rely on the plausibility of the existence of moral facts (whatever their metaphysics) in arguing for my conclusion. In sum, my argument's conclusion doesn't get us nearly as far as Himma thinks. Nor are my argument's resources as meager as he claims.


This book focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. It also includes the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume.


In this research work, surface characteristics of Ti-6Al-4V alloy have been investigated and the grinding process has been optimized using nano grinding wheel. Experiments have been conducted using L27 full factorial design. Surface roughness prediction model in nano grinding wheel for Ti alloy was developed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and compared with the model using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) methodology to predict the experimental behavior of the system. Grinding wheels with and without 3% nano Al2O3 powders were fabricated and their surface characteristics like surface roughness, material removal rate (MRR) and temperature were measured. Grinding was carried out on grade 5 Ti alloy with different wheels by varying input parameters. On comparing experimental and predicted results, it was found that the empirical values of surface roughness were close to the predicted values by 5%.


Literature of economics and politics has recently realized the controversial role of China in Africa, however, in case of Sudan; the nature and characteristics of development assistance and aid from China is appreciated for being least interruptive in the domestic affairs of the country. Thus, China is regarded as a donor interested in commercial and economic mutual benefits rather than in political once, consequently; this paper determines the positive and negative effects of Foreign Aid from China to Sudan. Apart, a vast range of literature in discipline of politics, a comparison of effectiveness of Foreign Aid from China to Sudan in context of economic is lacking. Hence, current study assessed the positive and negative effect of Foreign Aid from China to Sudan qualitatively. Data is gathered from interviews of development projects managers and from reports and publications of Central Bank of Sudan, Ministry of Finance & National Economy and The World Bank. The projects incorporated are under the development assistance and Aid from China. In the analysis of effects of aid from China to Sudan, positive as well as negative effects were revealed; Significance of both types cannot be neglected given, their influences on the economy of Sudan. Where positive effects are related to economic development, their negative impacts are associated with sustainability of growth given, its influence on debt burden as most of the Chinese Aid in form of loan rather than debt. Thereafter, assessing the influence of aid is subject to comparison its positive effects on economic indicators and its negative impact on debt burden. Moreover, debt burden doesn't only deteriorate sustainability but also; it has influence on economic growth given the expenditure of debt servicing. Thus, Sudan is recommended to compare the increase in income due to aid with increase in indebtedness, for policy making in aid relationship with China.


Genetic mutations play a key role in the phenotypic and functional heterogeneity that arise among cancer cells within a tumor. The distinct tumor subclones can be intermingled or spatially separated and recent studies suggest this subclonal architecture varies dynamically throughout the disease course. As such, there is a need to accommodate this level of genetic heterogeneity in the classical notion that the carcinogenic process evolves in a stepwise manner through the accumulation of a specific set of mutations along time. To genetically compare independent lesions from the same patient in the progression of colorectal carcinoma (CRC), we selected 16 patients with metastatic CRC with available primary tumor (PT), lymph node (LN) and liver metastases (LM), and corresponding normal mucosa (NM), resulting in 65 samples. Clinical data were available for all patients. DNA was extracted from FFPE tissues after morphologic evaluation by a pathologist. Sequencing was performed with the Ion PGM system using Ampliseq primer panels consisting of a multiplex PCR covering approximately 2,800 COSMIC mutations from 50 oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes frequently mutated in human cancers. Genes include APC and CTNNB1, considered the initial genetic event in CRC development. NM from all patients was sequenced to identify germline genetic variants. Data was analyzed on the Ion Torrent Server v4.2 using the Variant Caller and Coverage Analysis plugins. Ion Reporter Server and IGV were used for variant annotation and reads visualization, respectively. A total of 1212 somatic variants were detected among the 65 samples. C/G>T transitions were the most prevalent alterations. In keeping with its initiating role, APC mutations showed the highest allelic fraction in the majority of samples. Seven samples exhibited a remarkably high number of variants (mean = 145). Excluding these, an average of 3,5 variants were observed per sample. For each patient, putative driver mutations (in APC, CTNNB1, KRAS or TP53) detected in PT were also detected in LN and LM. In LM of 6/16 patients (38%) an average of 4 private mutations were observed. Mutations in other genes, empirically classified as passenger mutations, were also frequently found in this series. However, these mutations were heterogeneously distributed in the different lesions of the same patient. In most patients treated with chemotherapy before liver metastasectomy, additional private mutations were detected in the LM. Contrary to what was previously described, CRC presents a high level of homogeneity concerning well-established driver mutations, since all were present in every tissue of each patient. Conversely, a higher level of heterogeneity was detected between different lesions of the same patient for passenger mutations. Relapse after chemotherapy seems to associate with the emergence of new mutations, reflecting its influence in the dynamics of tumor cell populations. Citation Format: Miguel Silva, Carlos Resende, Rui Barranha, Sara Meireles, Fatima Carneiro, Jose L. Costa, Jose C. Machado. Colorectal primary tumors and metastases are highly homogeneous regarding driver mutations. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2398.


Objective To investigate whether bilateral carotid body tumor resection invariably and chronically affects arterial baroreflex or peripheral chemoreflex function. Methods We studied eight consecutive patients (two men and six women; ages 48.1 ± 11.8 years), a median time of 3.4 years (range 1.3–20.6 years) after bilateral carotid body tumor resection, and 12 healthy control individuals (eight men and four women; ages 53.7 ± 10.1 years). Baroreflex sensitivity (phenylephrine), blood pressure and its variability (24 h Spacelabs and 5 h Portapres recordings), responses to standard cardiovascular reflex tests and the ventilatory responses to normocapnic and hypercapnic hypoxia were assessed. Results Baroreflex sensitivity was lower in patients (6.4 ± 7.2 ms/mmHg) than in controls (14.7 ± 6.6 ms/mmHg; P ± 0.011). Mean office blood pressure and heart rate were normal in patients (123.3 ± 11.9/79.0 ± 7.3 mmHg and 67.5 ± 9.4 beats/min, respectively) and controls (117.8 ± 10.6/74.0 ± 6.8 mmHg and 61.1 ± 9.2 beats/min, respectively). Blood pressure variability was increased during ambulatory measurements. Three patients exhibited orthostatic hypotension. The Valsalva ratio, an index of baroreflex-mediated cardiovagal innervation, was lower in patients (1.4 ± 0.2) than in controls (1.8 ± 0.5; P ± 0.008). The normocapnic ventilatory response to hypoxia was absent in all patients, whereas a small residual response to hypoxia was observed under hypercapnic conditions in two patients. Conclusions Bilateral carotid body tumor resection results in heterogeneous expression of arterial baroreflex dysfunction, whereas the normocapnic hypoxic drive is invariably abolished as a result of peripheral chemoreflex failure.


A set X in E3 is said to have vertical number n if the intersection of each vertical line with X contains at most n components. The set X is said to have vertical order n if each vertical line intersects X in at most n points. A set with vertical number 1 is said to be vertically connected. We prove that a 2-sphere in E3 with vertically connected interior is tame. This result implies as corollaries several previously known taming theorems involving vertical order and vertical number along with several more general and previously unknown results.


The lower Blackhawk Formation and the Star Point Sandstone of the southern Wasatch Plateau are the lower deltaic and nearshore facies, respectively, of an Upper Cretaceous regressive deltaic sequence. Economic coal beds are associated with peat-forming environments in both the lower delta plain and the accretionary ridge-distributary mouth bar subfacies of the delta. Discontinuities (rolls, splits, and pinch-outs) within the coal beds of the accretionary ridge subfacies are controlled primarily by: (1) proximity of the peat marsh to the high-energy shoreline environment, (2) relative compaction ratios of channel sands and finer detritus over which the peat marsh developed, and (3) topographic expression of the paleodrainage network incised within the top of the underlying Star Point sediments. Discontinuities (rolls, splits, pinch-outs, and washouts) within the coal beds of the lower delta plain subfacies are controlled primarily by: (1) proximity of the peat swamp to laterally contemporaneous distributary channels, (2) relative compaction ratios of underlying sands and finer detritus, and (3) erosion of the heat beds by basal scouring of overridi g distributary channels. Detailed outcrop measurements and drill hole data are used to develop accurate, site-specific, paleoenvironmental models to define the areas of potential coal-bed discontinuities and to aid in local exploration and mine planning. End_of_Article - Last_Page 600------------


Abstract Economic and monetary union (EMU) started with serious flaws. Those flaws had been carefully diagnosed and yet no attempts were made to deal with them. As an original experiment, it would have been extraordinary that its design be perfect from the start. The fact that these flaws came together to generate the euro-area crisis is an indictment of the denial that has characterized the first decade of the monetary union. The costs of this denial have been enormous, including lost incomes, unemployment, bankruptcies, and dangerous political under-currents. We revisit three main flaws: the lack of planning to deal with financial instability, the lack of transparency of the ECB, and the poor articulation between monetary policy and national fiscal policies.


A comparison of single range cell detection and integrated contiguous range cell detection for a high range resolution radar is presented. A simulation was used to generate probability of detection curves for the two detection strategies using 10 target models with different target scattering characteristics. The integrated range cell detection strategy was found to be superior in all cases except when the target is composed of a single strong flare point.


Purpose To investigate radiomics based on DWI (diffusion-weighted imaging) for predicting 1-year ischemic stroke recurrence. Methods A total of 1,580 ischemic stroke patients were enrolled in this retrospective study conducted from January 2018 to April 2021. Demographic and clinical characteristics were compared between recurrence and non-recurrence groups. On DWI, lesions were segmented using a 2D U-Net automatic segmentation network. Further, radiomics feature extraction was done using the segmented mask matrix on DWI and the corresponding ADC map. Additionally, radiomics features were extracted. The study participants were divided into a training cohort (n = 157, 57 recurrence patients, and 100 non-recurrence patients) and a test cohort (n = 846, 28 recurrence patients, 818 non-recurrence patients). A sparse representation feature selection model was performed to select features. Further classification was accomplished using a recurrent neural network (RNN). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values was obtained for model performance. Results A total of 1,003 ischemic stroke patients (682 men and 321 women; mean age: 65.90 ± 12.44 years) were included in the final analysis. About 85 patients (8.5%) recurred in 1 year, and patients in the recurrence group were older than the non-recurrence group (P = 0.003). The stroke subtype was significantly different between recurrence and non-recurrence groups, and cardioembolic stroke (11.3%) and large artery atherosclerosis patients (10.3%) showed a higher recurrence percentage (P = 0.005). Secondary prevention after discharge (statins, antiplatelets, and anticoagulants) was found significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.004). The area under the curve (AUC) of clinical-based model and radiomics-based model were 0.675 (95% CI: 0.643–0.707) and 0.779 (95% CI: 0.750–0.807), respectively. With an AUC of 0.847 (95% CI: 0.821–0.870), the model that combined clinical and radiomic characteristics performed better. Conclusion DWI-based radiomics could help to predict 1-year ischemic stroke recurrence.


Regional development policy strengthens the role and responsibilities of local public administration and of regional organisms in the economical and social development of localities and developing regions, at the same time, diminishing the implication of governmental institutions in these matters. We have in view the diminishing of present regional imbalance, emphasizing the stimulation of balanced development and the revitalization of disadvantaged areas (with delayed development). The main idea is that the minimization of disparities can occur only through the regions' gaining of competitive capacity. Furthermore, we will succinctly present the manner of creating the medium size regions (NUTS 2) in the E.U., which can or cannot have an administrative role and differ in size. Their main part is that of running regional politics. The Structural Funds aim at accomplishing certain objectives, among which the convergent objective has a considerable share regarding financial allotments. The role of the member states is that of creating Operational Programs for accessing funds, which are to be adopted by the European Commission, and once adopted, they are to be implemented.


Feed is one of the most important things in aquaculture. More than 50% cost productiondecided by feed. The increase of artificial feed price affected by raw material price rising could troubled the farmers and cultivator. Coconut husk as waste in traditional markets. This research purpose to know the utilization of coconut husk as alternative feed material. This research used experiment method composed of one control and three treatmenteach of it with three repetitive. The treatment composition with 5%, 10%, and 15% coconut husk flour. The observed parameter in this research is survival rate, weight absolute, specific growth rate, conversion feed, and water quality. The obtained result is the feed with 15% coconut husk flour formulation had the best result compared from control with survival rate 100 ± 0%, weight absolute 11,75 ± 1,46 gram, specific growth rate 2,89 ± 0,41% and feed conversion ratio 1,62 ± 0,16 without the alteration of water quality. Coconut husk flour can be used as alternative feed material with 15% in formulation.


International comparisons of health system performance as provided by multilateral organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) meet a lot of interest [1]. Although the methodological challenges in providing comparative data are substantial, there is also a large potential for crossnational learning. Within the OECD, the scope on international health system comparisons has in the past mainly been on comparisons of the financing of health care (resulting in OECD's system of Health Accounts) and publication of comparative data on the structure of health care (numbers of physicians, institutions and technologies) and data on the health of populations (Health Data).


The glacial refugium hypothesis (GRH) proposes that glaciers promoted differentiation and generation of intraspecific diversity by isolating populations in ice‐free refugia. We tested three predictions of this hypothesis for the evolutionary divergence of rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus) during the Wisconsin glaciation of the late Pleistocene. To do this, we examined subspecies distributions, population genetic structure, and phylogenetic relationships in 26 populations across North America and the Bering Sea region. First, we analyzed sequence variation in the mitochondrial control region, in a nuclear intron (Gapdh), and in an internal transcribed spacer (ITS1). Control region sequences of 154 rock ptarmigan revealed strong population and phylogeographic structure. Variation in intron sequences of 114 rock ptarmigan also revealed significant population structure compatible with results for the control region. Rock ptarmigan were invariant for ITS1. Second, we show that five known Nearctic refugia and an Icelandic refugium are concordant with the current distribution of morphologically distinct subspecies; five of these six refugia are geographically concordant with the distribution of closely related control region haplotypes. Third, our estimates of the time since phylogenetic lineages diverged predated the last glacial maximum for all but two lineages. In addition, all lines of evidence suggest that two unknown refugia in the Bering Sea region supported rock ptarmigan during the Wisconsin glaciation. Overall, our results are most consistent with the hypothesis that isolated populations of rock ptarmigan diverged in multiple refugia during the Wisconsin and that geographic variation reflects patterns of recolonization of the Nearctic after the ice receded. The GRH may therefore offer the most plausible explanation for similar biogeographic patterns in a variety of Nearctic vertebrates.


We investigate the behavior of isotropic invariant subspaces of skew-Hamiltonian matrices under structured perturbations. It is shown that finding a nearby subspace is equivalent to solving a certain quadratic matrix equation. This connection is used to derive meaningful error bounds and condition numbers that can be used to judge the quality of invariant subspaces computed by strongly backward stable eigensolvers.


The non-spherically symmetric winds of B[e] supergiants are investigated. An empirical density distribution is chosen that accounts for the density concentrations and ratios derived from observations, and our model winds are assumed to contain only hydrogen and helium. We first calculate the approximate ionization radii for H and He and compare the results with the ionization fractions calculated from the more accurate ionization balance equations. We find that winds with a r^-2 density distribution turn out to reach a constant ionization fraction as long as the wind density is low, i.e. in polar direction. For the high density equatorial regions, however, we find that the winds become neutral just above the stellar surface of the hot and massive B[e] supergiants forming a disk-like neutral region. In such a disk molecules and dust can form even very near the hot central star.


Nine different membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems with different process configurations (submerged and external), membrane geometries (hollow-fiber, flat-sheet, and tubular), membrane materials (polyethersulfone (PES), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)) and membrane nominal pore sizes (0.03-0.2 μm) were evaluated to assess the impact of influent microbial concentration, membrane pore size and membrane material and geometries on removal of microbial indicators by MBR technology. The log removal values (LRVs) for microbial indicators increased as the influent concentrations increased. Among the wide range of MBR systems evaluated, the total and fecal coliform bacteria and indigenous MS-2 coliphage were detected in 32, 9 and 15% of the samples, respectively; the 50th percentile LRVs were measured at 6.6, 5.9 and 4.5 logs, respectively. The nominal pore sizes of the membranes, membrane materials and geometries did not show a strong correlation with the LRVs.


Abstract We describe a simple and safe technique for achieving retrograde cerebral perfusion via a small coronary sinus type catheter placed in the superior vena cava. This method is especially useful when the need for circulatory arrest is first recognized intraoperatively and a single two‐stage venous cannula has already been placed for cardiopulmonary bypass. The advantages of this technique over other currently employed methods for retrograde cerebral perfusion are discussed.


This study tested the degree to which a need-supportive family environment influences adolescents' endorsement of the value priorities that their mothers wish for them. Mothers and their adolescents (𝑁=280) rated the importance of three intrinsic values (personal growth, close relationships, and community contribution) and three extrinsic values (wealth, fame, and attractiveness). Results revealed that mothers placed greater emphasis on intrinsic over extrinsic values than did adolescents. Furthermore, the congruence of mothers' and adolescents' emphasis on intrinsic values was moderated by the extent to which adolescents experienced satisfaction of their basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence at home. Finally, the well-being of both adolescents and mothers was associated with the degree to which they prioritized intrinsic over extrinsic values. Implications for research on the transmission of values and goals are discussed.


Precision medicine faces many challenges, including the gap of knowledge between disease genetics and pharmacogenomics (PGx). Disease genetics interprets the pathogenicity of genetic variants for diagnostic purposes, while PGx investigates the genetic influences on drug responses. Ideally, the quality of health care would be improved from the point of disease diagnosis to drug prescribing if PGx is integrated with disease genetics in clinical care. However, PGx genes or variants are usually not reported as a secondary finding even if they are included in a clinical genetic test for diagnostic purposes. This happens even though the detection of PGx variants can provide valuable drug prescribing recommendations. One underlying reason is the lack of systematic classification of the knowledge overlap between PGx and disease genetics. Here, we address this issue by analyzing gene and genetic variant annotations from multiple expert-curated knowledge databases, including PharmGKB, CPIC, ClinGen and ClinVar. We further classified genes based on the strength of evidence supporting a gene's pathogenic role or PGx effect as well as the level of clinical actionability of a gene. Twenty-six genes were found to have pathogenic variation associated with germline diseases as well as strong evidence for a PGx association. These genes were classified into four sub-categories based on the distinct connection between the gene's pathogenic role and PGx effect. Moreover, we have also found thirteen RYR1 genetic variants that were annotated as pathogenic and at the same time whose PGx effect was supported by a preponderance of evidence and given drug prescribing recommendations. Overall, we identified a nontrivial number of gene and genetic variant overlaps between disease genetics and PGx, which laid out a foundation for combining PGx and disease genetics to improve clinical care from disease diagnoses to drug prescribing and adherence.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to know the modifications of the vaginal bacterial flora that occurs in bacterial vaginosis and to know the involvement of these microorganisms and the influence of several epidemiologic factors in the etiology of this disease.

METHODS
We studied, by using semiquantitative cultures and GLC, vaginal washings from 50 healthy women and 50 women with bacterial vaginosis.

RESULTS
The most remarkable results were the high sensitivity of Amsel's criteria and their good correlation with GLC. Women with bacterial vaginosis showed a great increase of CFUs/ml of Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum and several species of anaerobic bacteria, and an important decrease of the amounts of aerobic lactobacilli. The main epidemiologic factor among those that were studied was the use of IUDs.

CONCLUSIONS
The appearance of bacterial vaginosis is associated with the increase of the amounts of G. vaginalis, Bacteroides or related genera (Prevotella, Porphyromonas), and probably M. hominis and U. urealyticum, also being associated to a decrease of the amounts of aerobic lactobacilli. These facts are probably related with alteration in the ecologic relationship lactobacilli/G. vaginalis/anaerobic bacteria.


ABSTRACT A Middle East-based amine sweetening unit, with an overall capacity of about 2.2 BSCFD of gas, is among the world's largest process plants and currently processes sour gas with 10 mol% of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) put together. Current expectation is that acid gas contents in the feed may increase beyond the design limit of the plant. The present work is an effort to quantify the effects of the feed gas CO2 increase on the plant and to proffer solutions to handle these effects efficiently. We revised the kinetics of amine-based CO2 absorption correlation of an existing model using real-data-driven parameters re-estimation. Evolutionary technique that employs particle swarm optimization algorithm is used for this purpose. The new CO2 kinetic model is inserted in a first-principle process simulator, ProMax® V4.0, in order to analyze various solutions necessary to mitigate the operational challenges due to increased feed CO2. The process plant with present design and operating conditions is determined to handle up to 8.45 mol% CO2 contents in the sour gas feed. Further results revealed that methyldiethanolamine, diethanolamine, and dimethyl ether propylene glycol (DEPG) could not handle this high feed CO2 challenge, even at maximum (design) steam and solvent usage. However, diglycolamine exclusively renders the solution as it treats high CO2 feed gas efficiently with allowable utility consumption, while satisfying the constraints imposed by product gas specifications.


The future of the West Bank and Gaza remains the single most crucial issue in the search for peace in the Middle East. Examining the entire range of possible outcomes, Mark Heller of the Center for Strategic Studies, Tel-Aviv University, argues that an independent Palestinian state in those territories, even one dominated by the PLO, could, under certain stringent conditions, be the preferred option for Israel. In the first comprehensive treatment of the political, social, economic, and military factors bearing on the disposition of the West Bank and Gaza, Mark Heller sets forth the possible alternatives--annexation by Israel, perpetuation of the status quo, federal or communal arrangements, and territorial compromise within the framework of the Jordanian option--and evaluates their implications for Israeli security. Heller outlines the conditions under which he believes the establishment of a Palestinian state could be the optimal solution. He also discusses the economic prospects of a Palestinian state and the future of Jerusalem. His analysis is the boldest attempt yet to come to grips with the Palestinian question and the future of Israel. No one interested in the pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Arab conflict can afford to ignore this book.


Multiple orthogonal challenges around escalating costs and providing quality care plague healthcare delivery, especially in OECD countries. This research in progress paper addresses the post-operative discharge phase of the patient journey and proffers a technology-enabled model that both supports a quality care experience post-discharge but also prudent management to minimise costly unplanned readmissions and thereby subscribe to a value-based care paradigm. The chosen context is stoma patients but the solution can be easily generalised to other contexts. Next steps include the conduct of clinical trials to establish proof of concept, validity and usability.


The specifications of the subsystems that compound a radiometer interferometer devoted to Earth observation are of main concern because they set the viability and final performance of such an instrument. The importance of these errors is related to the exact way they are generated, since this determines if a particular calibration procedure is capable of removing them or if they remain as residual errors. This paper presents a general method to analyze system errors. This method is used to analyze in detail the amplitude and phase errors of the receivers and their impact on the radiometric resolution. Special attention has been paid to nonseparable errors, since foreseen calibration procedures can only deal with separable phase and amplitude terms. Finally, the results have been used to set the receiver requirements of the instrument called MIRAS (microwave imaging radiometer by aperture synthesis), which is currently being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).


The purpose of this investigation was to study the expression of type X collagen in the hen's oviduct. Type X collagen is a short-chain collagen that is present in the fibers of eggshell membranes, and there is evidence to suggest that it contributes to structural integrity. In situ hybridization and Northern blot analysis were used to study the expression of this important matrix constituent. The results demonstrated that gene expression was predominantly in the tubular gland cells of the isthmus segment of the oviduct. In contrast to observations with other matrix proteins, such as parathyroid hormone-related peptide and osteopontin, gene expression did not fluctuate with the position of the egg in the oviduct.


Background: Damage control laparotomy with temporary abdominal closure has become routine in trauma surgery. This technique is associated with complications. Increasing prevalence of this procedure leads to concern over abdomens being left open due to decision points other than patient factors, such as routine, time of day, or surgeon fatigue. We hypothesize that time of day contributes to the decision to leave the initial trauma laparotomy open. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective chart review of 527 patients over 5 years. Patients with emergent damage control laparotomies with fascia not closed were included in the open abdomen group. Those patients who had fascia primarily closed were used as the control group. Patient demographics, injury factors, time of operation, and time to fascial closure were evaluated. Results: Time of day was not predictive of the decision to leave a patient open. In a logistic regression model of these factors, only patient age (P = 0.002), injury severity score (P < 0.0001), and the number of abdominal organs with an injury grade of three or more (P = 0.0014) predicted the abdomen would be left open. Of the patients with initially open abdomen, 101 (72.1%) survived and 77 (76.2%) of those achieved primary fascial closure. Mean time to closure was 3.7 days. Conclusion: The decision to perform damage control surgery and leave an abdomen open appears to be consistent throughout the day and to be dependent on the patient factors. Time of day does not seem to be a contributing factor. Fascial closure, done on average 3.7 days after the initial procedure, does not vary based on the demographic or injury factors. It appears that closure occurs as part of a routine or on convenience. An opportunity may exist to identify a subset of the open abdomen patients that could return to the operating room for earlier definitive closure, thereby lowering the risk of complications. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Patient care, Practice based learning and improvement, and Systems-based practice.


Colour constancy (CC) is the ability to perceive the true colour of the scene on its image regardless of the scene's illuminant changes. Colour constancy is a significant part of the digital image processing pipeline, more precisely, where true colour of the object is needed. Most existing CC algorithms assume a uniform illuminant across the whole scene of the image, which is not always the case. Hence, their performance is influenced by the presence of multiple light sources. This paper presents a colour constancy algorithm using image texture for uniform/non-uniformly lit scene images. The propose algorithm applies the K-means algorithm to segment the input image based on its different colour feature. Each segment's texture is then extracted using the Entropy analysis algorithm. The colour information of the texture pixels is then used to calculate initial colour constancy adjustment factor for each segment. Finally, the colour constancy adjustment factors for each pixel within the image is determined by fusing the colour constancy of all segment regulated by the Euclidian distance of each pixel from the centre of the segments. Experimental results on both single and multiple illuminant image datasets show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing state of the art colour constancy algorithms, particularly when the images lit by multiple light sources.


Abstract : This scoring record documents the efforts of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) to detect and discriminate inert unexploded ordnance(UXO) utilizing Standardized UXO Technology Demonstration Site Desert Extreme. The scoring record was coordinated by Larry Overbay and the Standardized UXO Technology Demonstration Site Scoring Committee. Organizations on the committee include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, the Institute for Defense Analysis, the U.S. Army Environmental Center, and the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center.


Background:    Enhancing oral health care services provided through inter-professional collaboration between medical and dental practitioner is important, and even essential. The purpose of this study is to assess the attitude toward and knowledge of medical-dental collaborative practice among medical students attending colleges in Southern India. Methods:       A cross sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among medical students and interns of medical colleges in coastal South India with prior information and permission. The questionnaire consisted of 11 questions to assess attitude toward and knowledge of medical-dental collaborative practice. The demographic backgrounds of participants were also recorded. Chi square test was employed for data analysis. The responses obtained were correlated with age, gender and year of study of participants using Pearson's correlation test Results:        A total 250 questionnaires were distributed and 234 responses were appropriately completed. Most of the students agreed that oral health was an integral part of systemic health, however participants disagreed on attending compulsory rotation in dentistry at a statistically significant level (p<0.05), moreover participants did not agree with physicians having an active role in motivating their patients for regular dental check-up. 82% of the medical students believe that dental check-up should be included in health packages under health insurance. A statistically significant (p<0.05) difference was observed among 3rd year & 4th year students and interns and also it was found that female students provided more positive responses towards medical-dental collaboration. Conclusions:        Even though medical students showed fairly positive attitudes and knowledge towards dentistry, the analysis within the study groups showed that knowledge and attitudes regarding the collaborative practice worsened over the academic years among the medical students. In order to destigmatize and foster interdisciplinary collaboration which would contribute to higher resource efficiency and the standard of care, continuing education in both the disciplines would be highly beneficial.


140 Abstract— Web services are being considered an excellent tool to solve distributed computing challenges in business integration. Business-to-business integration has become a critical issue as organizations find a greater need to consistently interact with new partners in a global business environment. Picking a service of an organization from the services having similar properties, capabilities, interfaces, and effects is a difficult task and necessitates the use of an intelligent decision making system. So the quality related aspects are also considered for the selection of a best service. Measuring the QoS of a web services for a customer is not an easy task. Selection based on NonFunctional parameters is always be a wrong choice because of false projection and advertisement by the service providers. Here, the challenge is to check the actual reputation for the service provider. In this paper, we are proposing a method to measure the actual reputation of a services provider by considering various reputation measures of few reputed service providers.


Achieving bright photon upconversion under low irradiance is of great significance and finds many stimulating applications from photovoltaics to biophotonics. However, it remains a daunting challenge to significantly intensify upconversion luminescence in small nanoparticles with a simple structure. Herein, we report the amplification of photon upconversion through engineering interfacial density of states between the core and the shell layer in sub-10 nm colloidal rare-earth ions doped fluoride nanocrystals. Through tuning of the metal cations in the shell layer of alkaline-earth-based core/shell nanoparticles, both the interfacial phonon frequency and the density of state are evidently decreased, resulting in the luminescence intensification of up to 8224 times. The generality of this upconversion enhancement strategy has been verified through expansion of this approach to alkali-based core/shell nanoparticles. The engineering of photon density of state in such core/shell nanoparticles enables dynamic display and high-level security information storage.


In this paper, Crepis setosa subsp. topaliana (Asteraceae), which is known as
 endemic to Greece, is recorded as a new taxon for the flora of Turkey. It
 grows in scrub and in cultivated and grassy roadside places in the northwest
 and western parts of Turkey. An extended description of C. setosa subsp.
 topaliana is presented here, together with an identification key. The
 conservation status of this subspecies and its chromosome number are
 indicated.


LBA509 Background: Everolimus (EVE) plus exemestane (EXE) more than doubled progression-free survival (PFS) while maintaining quality of life vs EXE alone in postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor positive (HR+), HER2-negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer (BOLERO-2 phase III; NCT00863655). PFS benefit was seen in all clinically defined subgroups. We evaluated genetic variations of a broad panel of cancer-related genes and explored their correlations with EVE benefit.

METHODS
Exon sequence and gene copy number variations were analyzed in 182 cancer-related genes by next-generation sequencing (NGS). Correlations with PFS were evaluated using both univariate and multivariate Cox models.

RESULTS
NGS data (>250x coverage) were successfully generated from archival tumor specimens from 227 patients (NGS population, 157 and 70 in EVE+EXE and EXE arms, respectively) whose baseline characteristics and clinical outcome were comparable with the trial population (PFS HR = 0.40 and 0.45, respectively). The treatment benefit of EVE+EXE over EXE is maintained in the subgroups defined by each of the nine genes with a mutation rate >10% (eg, PIK3CA, FGFR1, and CCND1), or when less frequently mutated genes (eg, PTEN, AKT1) were included in their respective pathways. Patients with no or only 1 genetic alteration in PI3K or FGFR pathways, or CCND1, had a greater treatment effect from EVE (HR = 0.27, 95% CI 0.18-0.41, adjusted by covariates, in 76% of the NGS population), indicating the value of these pathways for predicting sensitivity/resistance to EVE in this setting.

CONCLUSIONS
This is the first global registration trial in which efficacy-predictive biomarkers were explored by correlating broad genetic variations with clinical efficacy. It demonstrated the feasibility of applying large-scale NGS and subsequent correlative analysis to such trials. The observations suggest that a large subgroup of patients (76%), defined by minimal genetic variations in the PI3K or FGFR pathways, or CCND1, derives the most benefit from EVE therapy (HR = 0.27 vs 0.40 for the full NGS population). These exploratory results and their implication in understanding the interplay of multiple pathways in tumor cells and testing new hypotheses for targeted combination therapies in HR+/HER2- BC will be further investigated.

CLINICAL TRIAL INFORMATION
NCT00863655.


Co-management approaches in forestry have frequently failed to fulfil their promise and have generated unexpected conflicts. This is partly because they intersect with a plurality of interests and concerns, in settings that are more socially, institutionally and ecologically differentiated and dynamic than is often assumed. This article engages with current debates around pluralism in community forestry, and illustrates how they can be informed by a better understanding of institutional dynamics. It begins by characterising the dynamic forest landscapes in which community forestry processes are enacted. It goes on to sketch out some analytical tools that can help illuminate these processes, and which expose the links between interests in forests, resource access and control, and institutions. In this context, the third part of the article illustrates how institutional dynamics can work out in practice when villagers, governmental, non-governmental and donor agencies interact in the practice of community forestry. The need to take account of multiple institutions and power relations, to manage pluralism rather than necessarily attempting to achieve consensus, and to appreciate social and ecological uncertainties, suggests that forest management should seek to influence processes rather than to define states, and be adaptive rather than pre-planned.


BACKGROUND Photographs are an essential tool for the documentation and sharing of findings in dermatologic surgery, and various camera types are available. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the currently available camera types in view of the special functional needs of procedural dermatologists. METHODS Mobile phone, point and shoot, digital single-lens reflex (DSLR), digital medium format, and 3-dimensional cameras were compared in terms of their usefulness for dermatologic surgeons. For each camera type, the image quality, as well as the other practical benefits and limitations, were evaluated with reference to a set of ideal camera characteristics. Based on these assessments, recommendations were made regarding the specific clinical circumstances in which each camera type would likely be most useful. RESULTS Mobile photography may be adequate when ease of use, availability, and accessibility are prioritized. Point and shoot cameras and DSLR cameras provide sufficient resolution for a range of clinical circumstances, while providing the added benefit of portability. Digital medium format cameras offer the highest image quality, with accurate color rendition and greater color depth. Three-dimensional imaging may be optimal for the definition of skin contour. CONCLUSION The selection of an optimal camera depends on the context in which it will be used.


Score-based generative modeling (SGM) is a highly successful approach for learning a probability distribution from data and generating further samples. We prove the first polynomial convergence guarantees for the core mechanic behind SGM: drawing samples from a probability density $p$ given a score estimate (an estimate of $\nabla \ln p$) that is accurate in $L^2(p)$. Compared to previous works, we do not incur error that grows exponentially in time or that suffers from a curse of dimensionality. Our guarantee works for any smooth distribution and depends polynomially on its log-Sobolev constant. Using our guarantee, we give a theoretical analysis of score-based generative modeling, which transforms white-noise input into samples from a learned data distribution given score estimates at different noise scales. Our analysis gives theoretical grounding to the observation that an annealed procedure is required in practice to generate good samples, as our proof depends essentially on using annealing to obtain a warm start at each step. Moreover, we show that a predictor-corrector algorithm gives better convergence than using either portion alone.


In semi-supervised representation learning frameworks, when the number of labelled data is very scarce, the quality and representativeness of these samples become increasingly important. Existing literature on semi-supervised learning randomly sample a limited number of data points for labelling. All these labelled samples are then used along with the unlabelled data throughout the training process. In this work, we ask two important questions in this context: (1) does it matter which samples are selected for labelling? (2) does it matter how the labelled samples are used throughout the training process along with the unlabelled data? To answer the first question, we explore a number of unsupervised methods for selecting specific subsets of data to label (without prior knowledge of their labels), with the goal of maximizing representativeness w.r.t. the unlabelled set. Then, for our second line of inquiry, we define a variety of different label injection strategies in the training process. Extensive experiments on four popular datasets, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, SVHN, and STL-10, show that unsupervised selection of samples that are more representative of the entire data improves performance by up to ~2% over the existing semi-supervised frameworks such as MixMatch, ReMixMatch, FixMatch and others with random sample labelling. We show that this boost could even increase to 7.5% for very few-labelled scenarios. However, our study shows that gradually injecting the labels throughout the training procedure does not impact the performance considerably versus when all the existing labels are used throughout the entire training.


The last comprehensive statistics of tornadoes in northern Eurasia (NE) were published more than 30 years ago. This paper introduces a new database of tornadoes in NE that spans from the tenth century to 2016. The database, compiled using various sources, contains 2879 tornado cases over land and water and includes tornado characteristics. Tornadoes are common for most regions of NE, with a density reaching four cases per 104 km2 in 1900–2016 in some regions. Tornadoes over land have distinct annual and diurnal cycles: they form mostly in May–August, with a maximum in June, and during daytime, with a maximum at 1700–1800 local time. Waterspouts form in all months with a maximum in late summer and mostly at 0900–1300 local time. Most tornadoes are weak and short lived. The Fujita-scale intensity is ≤F1 for 80% and ≥F3 for 3% out of all rated tornadoes. Half last less than 10 min. The average annual number of all tornadoes over land is around 150, including 10 and 2 tornadoes with ≥F2 and ≥F3 intensity, respectively. Annually, 1–2 tornadoes lead to casualties and result in 2.9 fatalities and 36.3 injuries. Despite the incompleteness of the dataset, our results show that tornadoes in NE, although being rare, are not as extremely rare as has been thought before. The results illustrate the substantial underestimation of tornado threat by the general public, researchers, and meteorologists, and unambiguously indicate the need for systematic assessments and forecasting of tornadoes by national weather services.


The article substantiates the need for widespread introduction of computer technology and information systems in the mix production process at ACF and their quality control, which is determined by the presence of a significant number of control objects, a large array of monitored indicators, high labor and material costs of testing, low efficiency and quality of processing complex multidimensional data. It is proposed to use Data Mining methods for intelligent data analysis and prediction of pavement durability depending on the composition of asphalt mix which enable to solve the tasks of classification, regression, clustering and forecasting using artificial intelligence methods. The algorithm of intellectual data analysis and prediction of durability of the mix depending on its composition is offered and the actions at each its stage, using additional methods of data analysis, are described. The example of real raw data processing obtained from the quality control laboratory of one of the asphalt plants using Data Mining tools of STATISTICA package according to the developed algorithm is given. The prospects of using modern data processing technologies in the field of asphalt concrete quality control are evaluated. It is shown that to assess the quality of the mix and pavement durability, it is necessary to move to complex quality indicators, taking into account pavement operating conditions.


Objective: Characterisation of 17 clinical E. coli isolates producing different types of chromosomally encoded CTX-M-enzymes. The isolates were collected from The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany within the EU SAFEFOODERA project "The role of commensal microflora of animals in the transmission of extended spectrum a-lactamases". Methods: The identification of ƒ-lactamases was performed by PCR/sequencing. The isolates were typed by MLST, phylogenetic groups and XbaI-PFGE. The plasmid content was visualized by S1-nuclease-PFGE. The bla CTX-M- genes were mapped by Southern-blot hybridization using XbaI- and S1-PFGE profiles. To confirm the chromosomal location of the bla CTX-M- genes, the genomic DNA was also digested with I-CeuI, and I-CeuI-PFGE profiles were hybridized with bla CTX-M- and16S rDNA-probes. Results: The 17 clinical E. coli were mostly ascribed to the phylogenetic groups D (n= 9) and B2 (n= 6). Only two isolates belonged to group B1. Both were CTX-M-15-producers but showed different sequence types (ST156 and ST2178). Among all 17 isolates seven different STs were identified and one had not been described before. The most predominant was ST38, found in 7 isolates which belonged to phylotype D. Most isolates (n=11) produced CTX-M-15, mainly in addition to TEM-1 (n= 5), OXA-1 (n= 2) or both (n= 2). The remaining 6 isolates expressed CTX-M-group 9 ƒ-lactamases, being CTX-M-14 the most frequent one (4 isolates, 2 of them co-produced TEM-1). CTX-M-9 and CTX-M-51 were detected only in one isolate each. Hybridization experiments confirmed, that CTX-M-encoding genes were all chromosomally located. Positive hybridization bands were only detected in XbaI- (ranging from ~95-600 kb) and I-CeuI-PFGE (bands of ~550-1080 kb) profiles. Two strains showed the presence of two copies of the bla CTX-M gene in their chromosome. Plasmids in contrast turned out to be negative in hybridization experiments. Conclusion: The presence of these epidemiologically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes on the chromosome, rather than on plasmids promotes the maintenance of the gene in the population before their dissemination.


The ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of a recently cultured human Encephalitozoon cuniculi isolate was analyzed by gene amplification and DNA sequencing. Restriction endonuclease digestion (FokI) and double-stranded DNA heteroduplex mobility shift analysis were performed to determine their utility for strain differentiation. The human E. cuniculi isolate was identical to E. cuniculi III, which had been isolated only from domestic dogs until now. The patient providing the isolate owned a pet dog, but no microsporidia were detected in the pet's urine.


In 1997, El Nino-related fires raged across the Indonesian archipelago, and smoke from the fires covered Southeast Asia. Images of this disaster were captured by the KidSat camera. The KidSat Project was a NASA pilot program designed to allow students to view and study the Earth from space using a shuttle-mounted camera. A series of 15 images was taken by the camera of the Indonesian fires as they began to rage out of control. Using various techniques to analyze these images, the KidSat Exploration Team comprised a report detailing the social and scientific significance of the Indonesian fires.


Question Answering (QA) is a challenging topic since it requires tackling the various difficulties of natural language understanding. Since evaluation is important not only for identifying the strong and weak points of the various techniques for QA, but also for facilitating the inception of new methods and techniques, in this paper we present a collection for evaluating QA methods over free text that we have created. Although it is a small collection, it contains cases of increasing difficulty, therefore it has an educational value and it can be used for rapid evaluation of QA systems.


CONTEXT
Induction of protective anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) immune responses is the goal of an HIV vaccine. However, this may cause a reactive result in routine HIV testing in the absence of HIV infection.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the frequency of vaccine-induced seropositivity/reactivity (VISP) in HIV vaccine trial participants.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Three common US Food and Drug Administration-approved enzyme immunoassay (EIA) HIV antibody kits were used to determine VISP, and a routine diagnostic HIV algorithm was used to evaluate VISP frequency in healthy, HIV-seronegative adults who completed phase 1 (n = 25) and phase 2a (n = 2) vaccine trials conducted from 2000-2010 in the United States, South America, Thailand, and Africa.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Vaccine-induced seropositivity/reactivity, defined as reactive on 1 or more EIA tests and either Western blot-negative or Western blot-indeterminate/atypical positive (profile consistent with vaccine product) and HIV-1-negative by nucleic acid testing.

RESULTS
Among 2176 participants free of HIV infection who received a vaccine product, 908 (41.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 39.6%-43.8%) had VISP, but the occurrence of VISP varied substantially across different HIV vaccine product types: 399 of 460 (86.7%; 95% CI, 83.3%-89.7%) adenovirus 5 product recipients, 295 of 552 (53.4%; 95% CI, 49.2%-57.7%) recipients of poxvirus alone or as a boost, and 35 of 555 (6.3%; 95% CI, 4.4%-8.7%) of DNA-alone product recipients developed VISP. Overall, the highest proportion of VISP (891/2176 tested [40.9%]) occurred with the HIV 1/2 (rDNA) EIA kit compared with the rLAV EIA (150/700 tested [21.4%]), HIV-1 Plus O Microelisa System (193/1309 tested [14.7%]), and HIV 1/2 Peptide and HIV 1/2 Plus O (189/2150 tested [8.8%]) kits. Only 17 of the 908 participants (1.9%) with VISP tested nonreactive using the HIV 1/2 (rDNA) kit. All recipients of a glycoprotein 140 vaccine (n = 70) had VISP, with 94.3% testing reactive with all 3 EIA kits tested. Among 901 participants with VISP and a Western blot result, 92 (10.2%) had a positive Western blot result (displaying an atypical pattern consistent with vaccine product), and 592 (65.7%) had an indeterminate result. Only 8 participants with VISP received a vaccine not containing an envelope insert.

CONCLUSIONS
The induction of VISP in HIV vaccine recipients is common, especially with vaccines containing both the HIV-1 envelope and group-specific core antigen gene proteins. Development and detection of VISP appear to be associated with the immunogenicity of the vaccine and the EIA assay used.


Performances of production lines are often greatly disturbed by machine failures. Two failure models are considered most relevant for manufacturing systems. This paper addresses failure-prone production lines with limited buffers. Each machine is subject to either time-dependent failures or operation-dependent failures. A machine subject to time-dependent failures can fail at any time even it is idle and a machine subject to operation-dependent failures can fail only when it is working on a part. A timed Petri net model is proposed to formally describe the behavior of a production line subject to both types of failures. A simulation algorithm based on this Petri net model is then proposed for performance evaluation of production lines under both types of machine failures.


Nanoparticles in biological systems encounter lipid-bilayer membranes as barriers. They interact with plasma membranes, membranous organelles, such as the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus, the nucleus, and intracellular and extracellular vesicles, such as autophagosomes, lysosomes, and exosomes. Extracellular vesicles have recently attracted particular attention, as they are involved in the transmission of biological signals and as regulators for biological processes. For example, exosomes, small vesicles containing proteins, mRNA, and miRNA, that are released by cells into the extracellular environment, have been suggested to participate in tumor metastasis. Furthermore, vesicles can be applied as targeted-drug-delivery systems. We systematically characterize wrapping of spherical nanoparticles that enter and exit vesicles, depending on particle size, vesicle size, vesicle reduced volume, and membrane spontaneous curvature. We predict the complex wrapping behavior, in particular for large particle-to-vesicle size ratios, where the shape changes of the free membrane contribute significantly to the deformation energy and where nanoparticle wrapping transitions and vesicle shape transitions are coupled. Partial-wrapped membrane-bound particles impose boundary conditions on the membrane that stabilise oblates and stomatocytes for particle entry, and prolates and stomatocytes for particle exit. Our results suggest that nanoparticles may stimulate autophagocytic engulfment, which would facilitate transport of the nanoparticles into lysosomes and would lead to subsequent degradation of nanoparticle-attached proteins.


Abstract The rat model can be used to assess ileal protein digestibility rapidly and in first intention, but no standardised method exists. Our objective was to compare methods to assess protein digestibility, depending on collection site (ileum/caecum) and use of a non-absorbable marker. A meal containing either casein, gluten or pea protein and chromium oxide as non-absorbable marker was given to male Wistar rats and the entire digestive content was collected 6 h later. Total chromium recovery was incomplete and variable, depending on protein source. We observed no significant difference in digestibility between the methods for any of the protein sources tested. Although none of the methods tested is optimal, our results suggest that caecal digestibility can be used as a proxy of ileal digestibility in rats without using a non-absorbable marker. This simple method makes it possible to evaluate protein digestibility of new alternative protein sources for human consumption.


In Jack Kerouac's Maggie Cassidy, the narrator's father speaks "loud, in French, like an uncle calling the idiot from the corner making clear to me meanings that can never be recorded in the English language" (Kerouac 2009: 97). Two invaluable collections of previously unpublished works by Kerouac, La vie est d'hommage and The Unknown Kerouac, reveal the profound effort and revolutionary achievement of Jack Kerouac to express those meanings. These collections show us Kerouoac's evolution as a writer, bring to light the source of his literary experimentation as a movement between two languages, and illuminate the consequences for his thematics of travel and migration. Kerouac's outsider perspective allowed him to create a style we now recognize as quintessentially American. These two volumes will help readers to appreciate the impact of Kerouac's native French on his innovations in writing and give us a richer picture of his aesthetic and compositional philosophy. The Unknown Kerouac's editor, Todd Tietchen, explains in his introduction how his volume corrects mistakes that still haunt readings of Kerouac—that he was a careless writer with a shallow knowledge of literature, more a cult figure than a dedicated and committed artist—through these significant additions to the Kerouac canon. For example, his "Journal of 1951" is a stunning record of a psychic and aesthetic breakthrough that leads to a new sense of Kerouac's creative mission, and his resolution to create a literature of lived experience. Kerouac wrote this journal as he convalesced in a VA hospital after an attack of thrombophlebitis, "where I had time to think at last without interruption and unfolded my secret desire in writing at last:—to tell exactly what happened and not worry about style but only worry about completeness of detail and the hell with what anybody thinks," as he explained in a 1963 interview with John Clellon Holmes (312). "Journal of 1951" highlights the diversity of inspiration for Kerouac's literary art (Chaucer, Joyce, Dostoevsky, Melville, Proust, and Céline) and provides valuable context for Kerouac's road novels. Migratory experience, literary archetypes of pilgrimage and quest, the aspirations of the post-war generation, and the history of the French-Canadian diaspora, all play an important role in this journal. In a haunting fragment from "Memory Babe," an unfinished project started by Kerouac after On the Road that provides a portrait of French-Canadian life in the 1920's and 1930's and was meant to be included in Kerouac's monumental The Duluoz Legend, the author notes, "American writers who write and speak only one language are lucky. I write in English but I speak French to my family. My French family on my mother's side arrived in Quebec Canada a few miles north of Maine a long time ago. My father's side 1756. So don't say we're not North Americans. What I have to do here is transpose the French talk into understandable modern American English, and then add the exact sound-spelling of the old French behind it. Besides, I want the reader to see what I had to go through and what fun it was to know 2 languages" (254). In his translator's note, Cloutier explains how the first draft actually reads "I want the reader to see what I had to go through and how much work it is to know two languages" (xxxvi) and insightfully points out how "Kerouac revises the sentiment to make it more upbeat. This elision is pure Kerouac: the surface of pleasure shown to the public belies the tremendous toil and craft undertaken behind closed doors" (xxvi). Cloutier's remarkable collection of previously unknown works by Kerouac in French, discovered in 2006 when the Kerouac archives were opened to the public, testifies to this painstaking craft. Kerouac's French writings are an important source for his spontaneous method


Prologue: A Personal View of Special Education Part I: Foundations for Understanding Special Education Chapter 1: The Purpose and Promise of Special Education Chapter 2: Planning and Providing Special Education Services Chapter 3: Collaborating with Parents and Families in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Society Part II: Educational Needs of Exceptional Students Chapter 4: Mental Retardation Chapter 5: Learning Disabilities Chapter 6: Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Chapter 7: Autism Spectrum Disorders Chapter 8: Communication Disorders Chapter 9: Deafness and Hearing Loss Chapter 10: Blindness and Low Vision Chapter 11: Physical Disabilities, Health Impairments, and ADHD Chapter 12: Low Incidence Disabilities: Multiple/Severe Disabilities, Deaf-Blindness, and Traumatic Brain Injury Chapter 13: Giftedness and Talent (Piirto and Heward) Part III: Special Education Across the Lifespan Chapter 14: Early Childhood Special Education Chapter 15: Transitioning to Adulthood Postscript: Developing Your Own Personal View of Special Education Appendix: Coverage of Content Areas for PRAXIS II Test Glossary. References. Name Index. Subject Index. Photo Credits.


Minquartynoic acid (1) was isolated as an antimalarial and antileishmanial constituent of the Peruvian tree Minquartia guianensis and its absolute configuration at C-17 established to be (+)-S through conversion to the known (+)-(S)-17-hydroxystearic acid (2) and confirmed using Mosher's method.