Linear form of public works such as roads, railways and rivers, generally used as long work crossing administrative districts, can be several hundreds km length and narrow. These linear forms use SCM sheets, which do not include the quadrangle shape, to make a public announcement of topographical drawing in order to get the work approval. the Integrated measurement · channel investigation and cadastral act that are established in 2009 apply the ITRF for the composition of design and construction books and coordinates of topographical map in order to get the work approval. However according to the article 5 of additional clause, while the cadastre is maintaining local coordinates, if there is a technical error in the content of the Public Announcement of Topographical Drawing that used the SCM, the question of responsibility of land borders and the efficacy or not of the announcement is raised as an administrative measure. After analysing the causes and enforcing coordinate conversion and correction taking into account linear form work's features, the result was reflected in the existing SCM. As a conclusion, the present study proposes the improvement of the procedures of the Public Announcement of Topographical Drawing.


The aim of this paper is to prove some classification results for generic shrinking Ricci solitons. In particular, we show that every three dimensional generic shrinking Ricci soliton is given by quotients of either $\mathds{S}^3$, $\erre\times\mathds{S}^2$ or $\erre^3$, under some very weak conditions on the vector field $X$ generating the soliton structure. In doing so we introduce analytical tools that could be useful in other settings; for instance we prove that the Omori-Yau maximum principle holds for the $X$-Laplacian on every generic Ricci soliton, without any assumption on $X$.


This study uses a very high resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to investigate the complex structure and behaviour of cold fronts along the New South Wales coast during the warmer months of the year, the complex interaction between the wind flow and coastlines and elevated areas as well as the lee-trough effect, particularly the way it affects waters off the east coast of Tasmania, The study also investigates the utility of the higher resolution NWP model to better predict wind fields compared to a lower resolution model.

The University of New South Wales very high resolution model (HIRES), nested in the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's coarse NWP model (GASP), was run at various horizontal resolutions (from 15 to 25km) in order to investigate the above-mentioned features. It was found to bave very good skill in resolving the features and was also found to be very accurate in the prediction of surface wind fields for various yacht race events out to at least four days ahead.

It can be concluded that there is considerable skill in the ability of high-resolution NWP models such as HIRES, to predict the major features of the wind fields over the ocean out to several days ahead.
Moreover, it was also able to more accurately simulate the complex structure of the summer-time cool change as it progressed along the NSW coast than the lower resolution model runs.
The influence of coastlines, particularly ones with complex topographical features, on the wind flow was demonstrated to a limited extent throughout the study. Finally the following concepts were also verified as a result of the study:
- air flow takes the path of least resistance
- the shape of topography can help generate local turbulence
- the orientation of the wind flow to a mountain range is important in determining turbulent effects.
- under certain airflow and stability situations, standing wave activity and a lee trough can be observed in the lee of mountains, hills
or even high coastal cliffs.


Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect of surgical management on patients with secondary epilepsy under the monitoring of cortical electrocorticography (ECoG). Methods Eighty-four patients with secondary epilepsy, admitted to our hospital from September 2004 to January 2008, were chosen; intraoperative ECoG monitoring was performed to locate the epileptic foci before the resection of the primary lesion. After the resection of primary lesion, resection of epileptic foci, enlarged resection of epileptic foci, cortical thermocoagulation, anterior temporal lobectomy,amygdalohippocampectomy and anterior callosotomy were performed, respectively, in different patients according to the clinical manifestations of seizures, and the locations of lesions and epileptic waveform discharges detected by intraoperative ECoG monitoring. Results The epileptic waveform discharges in 84 patients were noted before the resection of primary lesion. The epileptic waves were found in 80patients at the peripheral areas of the primary nidus under immediately postoperative ECoG monitoring,with a relevance ratio reaching 95.24%; after the resection of residual cortical zone with epileptic wave discharges, epileptic wave disappeared on immediately postoperative ECoG in 13 patients whose lesion located in nonfunctional area; normal signals were noted in 60 of the 67 patients performed cortical thermocoagulation whose cortical zone with epileptic wave discharges were located or neighbored in functional area, and good outcomes under the immediately postoperative ECoG monitoring were noted in the other 7 patients performed thermocoagulation combined with anterior callosotomy and/or amygdalohippocampectomy. The follow-up studies for 10 months to 4 years showed that grade Ⅰ in 56patients (66.67%), grade Ⅱ in 21 (25.00%), grade Ⅲ in 4 (4.76%) and grade Ⅳ in 3 (3.57%) according to the Engle standard of curative effect were achieved; the total effective rate was 96. 42%. Conclusion ECoG monitoring can significantly improve the efficiency of surgical management of secondary epilepsy.

Key words:
Epilepsy;  Cortical electrocorticography;  Surgical management


Aim: People who are at risk of developing vitamin D deficiency are not usually tested for vitamin D when present to hospital. The aim of this study was to explore the incidence of Hypovitaminosis-D and its treatment in admitted patient category of Cavan General Hospital, Ireland.

Methods: This is a cross sectional study which was conducted randomly among admitted patients in medicine department at CGH from August 2016 to August 2017. A random data was collected from total of 100 patients. All blood samples were stored and labeled properly in the CGH Hematology lab till further blood profile analyzed. Data was statistically analyzed through using DSAASTAT (Onofri, Italy).

Results: Selected population of 100 patients expressed almost equal numbers in gender distribution including males and females at 51% and 49% respectively. The data was analyzed on the basis of age and gender distribution. Selected Population was divided in 3 age groups. There were 9 patients under the age-group of 30-50 years, 47 of 51-80 years and 44 of >80 years age-group. Among these patients, males comprised of 57% with hypovitaminosis D (vitamin D deficiency) and females were 43% respectively. Out of these 100 patients, 33 people were recorded with normal vitamin D level and 67 patients found to have low vitamin D level. These 67 patients with low vitamin D levels were selected for treatment with vitamin D as per guidelines. Out of these 67 patients, unfortunately 3 people died, 11 lost their follow up, so remaining 53 patients participated in receiving treatments. Out of those 53 patients with low vitamin D, there were 29 males and 24 females. After receiving treatment with vitamin D, 40 people ± 0.0001 recovered, showing vitamin D level >30 nmol/L, 9 patients ± 0.0002 found mildly deficient with vitamin D levels between 21-30 nmol/L and 4 patients ± 0.0003 were severely deficient with levels of <10 nmol/L. All those people with severe deficiency were more than 80 years-of-age and also were not sure about their compliance with medications. The probability value was p ≤ 0.05.

Conclusion: This study was conducted to determine hypovitaminosis D (Vitamin D deficiency) in population, admitted to hospital with previous comorbid medical conditions which are prone to develop its deficiency. This study showed that 67% population has hypovitaminosis D with almost equal percentage in both genders. After receiving treatments with Vitamin D replacement, almost majority (>90%) showed recovery of vitamin D levels with very small number (8%) showed persistent severely low levels.


Four hundred and fifty 1-d-old male Lingnan Yellow broiler chickens were used to investigate the effects of Clostridium butyricum on growth performance, immune function, and cecal microflora. The birds were randomly assigned to 5 treatments and offered the same antibiotic-free basal diets for 42 d. The treatments were as follows: no addition (control), 1 × 10(7) cfu C. butyricum/kg of diet (CB1), 2 × 10(7) cfu C. butyricum/kg of diet (CB2), 3 × 10(7) cfu C. butyricum/kg of diet (CB3), and 10 mg of colistine sulfate/kg of diet (antibiotic). Birds fed either CB2 or antibiotic had greater overall BW than those in the control group. During d 1 to 7, d 21 to 42, and d 1 to 42, birds fed either CB2 or CB3 or the antibiotic diet had greater ADG compared with those in the control group. No significant differences were observed in BW or ADG among the CB2, CB3, and antibiotic groups. Birds fed the CB2 or CB3 diet had greater concentrations of IgA and IgG in the serum from d 14 to 42 and greater IgM in the serum from d 21 to 42 than those in the control group. Birds fed the CB3 diet had a greater concentration of complement component 3 in the serum than those in the control group from d 7 to 42. Dietary C. butyricum decreased (P < 0.05) Escherichia coli in cecal contents on d 14 and 42, and both CB2 and CB3 decreased (P < 0.05) cecal Salmonella and Clostridium perfringen from d 14 to 42 compared with the control. Broilers fed either CB2 or CB3 had greater cecal Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium counts from d 21 to 42, and birds fed C. butyricum had greater cecal C. butyricum counts during the whole period compared with those in the control group. The results indicate that C. butyricum promotes growth performance and immune function and benefits the balance of the intestinal microflora in broiler chickens.


We describe the case of a 69-year-old male with a year-long history of renal failure. Investigation revealed proliferative glomerulonephritis, cryoglobulinemia, and Q fever endocarditis. Renal tissue examination for the presence of Coxiella burnetii was positive. The patient was treated by doxycycline and chloroquine; his clinical status, renal failure, and chronic Q fever have dramatically improved.


Off-axis and eccentric pupil optical configurations are becoming more and more used in a variety of applications, in particular they are the most preferred solution for cameras devoted to study planetary surfaces, small solar system bodies (i.e. asteroids and comets) and also the atmospheres of the exoplanets. These optical designs, being devoid of central obstruction, are able to guarantee better PSF and MTF performance, and thus higher contrast imaging capabilities with respect to classical on-axis designs. In particular they are suitable for looking at extended targets with intrinsic low contrast features, or scenes where a high dynamic signal range is present. The tolerance analysis tools available in most of the commercial raytracing software packages are able to deal automatically with on-axis surfaces, but they have to be adapted for considering the off-axis cases. In particular, some tricks have to be considered in the definition of the off-axis surfaces to obtain the correct tolerance results when the way in which the surfaces are manufactured and/or mounted needs to be taken into account. For example, an off-axis section of a conic surface can be either obtained by cutting an off-axis piece from a large on-axis parent element or, as it is more common nowadays, by manufacturing it stand-alone. In this paper, a review of the tricks that the author has devised during her twenty-year experience in designing and tolerancing off-axis systems will be given. In particular the methods adopted to deal with the surface tolerance analysis of some off-axis instruments for space applications will be described in detail.


Based on content analysis of global media and interviews with many diplomats and journalists, this article describes the trajectory of the media from objective observer to fiery advocate, becoming in fact a weapon of modern warfare.The article also shows how an open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness and how a closed sect, Hezbollah, can retain almost total control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda.


In main-memory column stores, column scans are one of the base operations performed when answering analytical queries. Typically, one or multiple columns must be filtered with respect to the given query predicate, which, by default, involves inspecting all data of the involved columns. To reduce the amount of data to scan, there exist essentially two strategies: (1) Create a coarse-granular index on the column, then use it for early pruning during each scan. While creating such an index is relatively lightweight, unfortunately, accessing the relevant portions of the column through the index causes unpleasant overhead during scanning. (2) Create materialized views that contain semantic portions of the column and filter on these. While this enables fast scans, unfortunately, it requires physical copying and causes significant space overhead. To break this trade-off, in the following, we propose a view-based strategy that avoids any physical copying of column data while providing optimal scan performance. We achieve this by utilizing tools of the virtual memory subsystem provided by the OS: On the lowest level, we materialize all columns within physical main memory. On top of that, we allow the creation of arbitrarily many partial views in virtual memory that map to subsets of the physical columns having certain properties of interest. Creation, maintenance, and usage of these partial virtual views happens fully adaptively as a side-product of scan-based query processing.


The plasmids pCG86 and RP4elt coding for thermolabile enterotoxins of Escherichia coli (LT) were transferred in conjugation to Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis cells. Both plasmids were stably inherited by the recipient cells. The elt genes of the toxins were expressed in Yersinia cells at the level comparable to the one registered in Escherichia coli cells. In the broth cultures of transconjugant cells the major part of LT toxin is bound with cells (74-97%). The obtained data may serve an experimental basis in favour of possibility of Ent+ strains of Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis formation in nature and expediency of search and diagnosing of such strains.


As many members know, every year at the Fall Meeting, the AGU Education and Public Outreach department collaborates with the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA) to hold a workshop for K–12 Earth and space science teachers and informal educators. These Geophysical Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshops allow science teachers to hear about the latest Earth and space research from the scientists making the discoveries, explore new classroom resources for their students, and visit exhibits and technical sessions during the meeting for free. Successful GIFT workshops were held at the December 2010 and 2011 meetings, where excellent teams of presenters discussed a range of topics that addressed AGU's science and society and education goals and objectives (see http://www.agu.org/about/strategic_plan.shtml).


Abstract: There is growing numbers of literature debating over effective types of innovation modes and interactions that generate innovation output and moreover economic growth. However, these studies are mostly based on the case of developed countries and only few studies cover developing or transition countries. Within this context Estonia is chosen as the most successful post-Soviet transition country that is catching-up to the level of European Union in terms of economic growth and innovation level within a relatively short period of time. Estonia went through major structural reforms, including accession to EU membership and implementation of sequential Research and Development and Innovation (RD&I) strategies to improve its economic performance in a sustainable way through enhancing its innovation capacity by increasing its expenditure on R&D and building up competitive infrastructure. Within this context, this thesis studies what modes of innovation and interactions were practiced in Estonian firms after its independence and how these modes of innovation have changed during the early (first wave 2002-2004) and late (second wave 2010-2012) stage of implementing RD&I strategies and joining EU. Supporting the findings of most studies, the effective innovation mode has changed from DUI mode to combined STI and DUI mode for product inoovation output while process innovation output keeps its significant relation with combined STI and DUI mode of innovation during the two waves. Also the shifts in effective interactions for innovation outputs are observed with drastic changes in non-technological innovation while both external and internal interactions is applied for technological innovation from the first wave to the second wave. (Less)


The hyper‐reduced‐order model (HROM) is proposed for the thermal calculation with a constant moving thermal load. Firstly, the constant velocity transient process is simplified to a steady‐state process in the moving frame. Secondly, the control volume is determined by the temperature rate, and the thermal equilibrium equation in the moving frame is derived by introducing an advective term containing the loading velocity. Thirdly, the HROM is performed on the control volume with a moving frame formulation. This HROM has been applied to the thermal loading on brick and ring disk specimens with a CPU gain of the order of 7 (107). In addition, two strategies are proposed for the HROM to improve its precision. Moreover, the high efficiency and high accuracy are kept for the parametric studies on thermal conductivity and amplitude of heat flux based on the developed HROM. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The intersecting epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and partner violence disproportionately affect women who use drugs. Despite accumulating evidence throughout the world linking these epidemics, HIV prevention efforts focused on these synergistic issues as well as underlying determinants that contribute to the HIV risk environment (eg, housing instability, incarceration, policing practices, survival sex) are lacking. This article highlights selected behavior change theories and biomedical approaches that have been used or could be applied in HIV prevention interventions for drug-using women with histories of partner violence and in existing HIV prevention interventions for drug-using women that have been gender-focused while integrating histories of partner violence and/or relationship power dynamics. To date, there is a paucity of HIV prevention interventions designed for drug-using women (both in and outside of drug treatment programs) with histories of partner violence. Of the few that exist, they have been theory-driven, culture-specific, and address certain aspects of gender-based inequalities (eg, gender-specific norms, relationship power and control, partner violence through assessment of personal risk and safety planning). However, no single intervention has addressed all of these issues. Moreover, HIV prevention interventions for drug-using women with histories of partner violence are not widespread and do not address multiple components of the risk environment. Efficacious interventions should target individuals, men, couples, and social networks. There is also a critical need for the development of culturally tailored combination HIV prevention interventions that not only incorporate evidence-based behavioral and biomedical approaches (eg, microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis, female-initiated barrier methods) but also take into account the risk environment at the physical, social, economic and political levels. Ultimately, this approach will have a significant impact on reducing HIV infections among drug-using women with histories of partner violence.


For most patients with hallux valgus, the problem is caused by wearing shoes that are too tight, and conservative measures can help. We review how primary care physicians can evaluate and treat this problem, and when to refer to an orthopaedic surgeon.


Abstract The fungal genus Suillus Micheli ex S. F. Gray plays important roles in the survival and growth of plant seedlings. Humans have utilized these ectomycorrhizal fungi to enhance the nutrient uptake and defense systems of plants, particularly in the reforestation of coniferous forests. The genus Suillus is easily distinguishable by its distinctive morphological features, although the morphology of the fruiting body does not facilitate reliable interspecies discrimination. On the basis of micro-morphological features and internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis, we found that 51 of 117 Korean Suillus specimens had initially been misidentified. The list of the 12 Suillus species previously recorded in Korea was re-evaluated and revised to only eight distinct species: S. americanus, S. bovinus, S. granulatus, S. grevillei, S. luteus, S. pictus, S. placidus, and S. viscidus. We provide taxonomical descriptions for six of these species from the sample specimens.


The c-Jun NH2-terminal Kinase (JNK) pathway represents one sub-group of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases which plays an important role in various inflammatory diseases states, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Significant progress towards understanding the function of the JNK signaling pathway has been achieved during the past few years. Blockade of the JNK pathway with JNK inhibitors in animal models of IBD lead to resolution of intestinal inflammation. Current data suggest specific JNK inhibitors hold promise as novel therapies in IBD.


Mangrove forest in Lubuk Kertang Village, West Brandan sub-district has been converted around 20 ha annually (1996–2016) into various non-forest land use. Rehabilitation can be a solution to restore the condition of the ecosystem so that it can resume its ecological and economic functions. This paper discusses the evaluation of mangrove rehabilitation carried out by planting 6000 propagules in December 2015 and 5000 seedlings in May 2016 with Rhizophora apiculata species in abandoned ponds. Monitoring was carried out every 6 months from 2016 to 2022. In the restored area, 11 true mangrove species and 3 associated mangrove species were found. The percentage of plants that survived after seven years was 69.42% for planting using propagules and 86.38% for planting with seedlings. The total biomass carbon stocks stored by 7-year-old plants using propagules was 51.18 Mg ha−1, while the carbon stored by planting using seedlings was 56.79 Mg ha−1. Soil carbon stocks at the planted site with propagules were 506.89 ± 250.74 MgC ha−1, and at the planted site with seedlings were 461.85 ± 102.23 MgC ha−1. The total ecosystem carbon stocks (including aboveground carbon) in the planted site using propagules were 558.07 MgC ha−1, while planting using seedlings were 518.64 MgC ha−1. The dataset and findings on the carbon storage evaluation of mangrove rehabilitation will be useful for blue carbon research community and policymakers in the context of the climate change mitigation strategy for Indonesia.


We present a novel approach to optimal transport between graphs from the perspective of stationary Markov chains. A weighted graph may be associated with a stationary Markov chain by means of a random walk on the vertex set with transition distributions depending on the edge weights of the graph. After drawing this connection, we describe how optimal transport techniques for stationary Markov chains may be used in order to perform comparison and alignment of the graphs under study. In particular, we propose the graph optimal transition coupling problem, referred to as GraphOTC, in which the Markov chains associated to two given graphs are optimally synchronized to minimize an expected cost. The joint synchronized chain yields an alignment of the vertices and edges in the two graphs, and the expected cost of the synchronized chain acts as a measure of distance or dissimilarity between the two graphs. We demonstrate that GraphOTC performs equal to or better than existing state-of-the-art techniques in graph optimal transport for several tasks and datasets. Finally, we also describe a generalization of the GraphOTC problem, called the FusedOTC problem, from which we recover the GraphOTC and OT costs as special cases.


Arner offers a detailed explication of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's statue in the CA Prologue, which she sees functioning as part of Gower's address to those readers in "the upper strata of urban non-ruling groups"--the more prosperous shopkeepers, artisans, and craftsmen--who "had participated in or who had sympathized with the English Rising of 1381" in order to win them over to the ideology of the ruling class and to break their identification with the lower ranks of society (239). The statue represents history as predetermined. "The inevitability of this development ratifies the social order and social relations" of Gower's time and "positions medieval men and women as helpless object of great forces" (243) which have also operated over a vast expanse of time, implying that "political action is futile" and encouraging "resignation and accommodation" (244). CA nonetheless "addresses readers as having agency," but it "works to direct this agency to-ward specific ends" (245). The statue also suggests that Gower's England stands at the end of time. "Therefore, movement into the future holds little in store but further decline," and "the only hope for the continuation of Gower's society lies in the stabilizing measures offered by conservative groups" (246). The statue offers an image of society itself, with each component representing a different rank. The lowest order - the statue's feet - is the most unstable and threatens the survival of society as a whole. The statue thus suggests the need for control and repression of the lowest ranks. By placing late medieval England at the end of time, it also positions it outside of time, and paradoxically, while affirming that current social conditions are the result of an inevitable process, it also affirms the irrelevance of history to the present in order to delegitimate claims for relief based upon a history of oppression. "The erasure of the history of subordinate groups" (249) is also evident in the summary of history that accompanies the statue, which is all about the rulers rather than the ruled, suggesting that "subordinate groups . . . were irrelevant" (250). The identification of each class with a particular material "argues for an essentialist understanding of the social order" which therefore "cannot be changed" (251). Finally, "by conceptualizing rank and, by extension, interest apart from ongoing political struggles, the poem discourages readers from rearticulating their wants and needs in relation to a shifting ideological climate" (252). [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society: JGN 22.2]


Plant salt tolerance is controlled by various physiological processes such as water and ion homeostasis, photosynthesis, and cellular redox balance, which are in turn controlled by gene expression. In the present study, plants of six canola cultivars (DGL, Dunkled, Faisal Canola, Cyclone, Legend, and Oscar) were evaluated for salt tolerance by subjecting them to 0 or 200 mM NaCl stress. Based on growth, cultivars DGL, Dunkled, and Faisal Canola were ranked as salt tolerant, while cultivars Cyclone, Legend, and Oscar were ranked as salt-sensitive ones. Differential salt tolerance in these canola cultivars was found to be associated with a relatively lower accumulation of Na+ and greater accumulation of K+ in the leaves, lower oxidative damage (MDA), and better antioxidative defense system (Superoxide dismutase, SOD; peroxidase, POD, and catalase, CAT). Cultivar Oscar was the poorest to discriminate Na+ and K+ uptake and accumulation in leaves and had poor antioxidant potential to scavenge ROS. Salt stress did not affect the structural stability of photosystem-II (PSII) till three weeks, thereafter it caused a significant decrease. Salt stress increased the performance index (PIABS) by increasing the density of active reaction centers in Oscar. Salt stress decreased the antenna size thereby lowering the absorption and trapping energy flux, and maintaining the electron transport with an increase in heat dissipation. This may represent a potential mechanism to cope with salt stress. Transcriptome analysis of salt-sensitive cultivar Oscar further revealed that salt stress down-regulated DEGs related to hormonal signal transduction pathways, photosynthesis, and transcription factors, while DEGs related to the biosynthesis of amino acid and ion transport were up-regulated. In conclusion, salt tolerance in canola cultivars was associated with ion exclusion and maintenance of photosynthesis. Salt stress sensitivity in cultivar Oscar was mainly associated with poor control of ion homeostasis which caused oxidative stress and reduced photosynthetic efficiency.


Lung ultrasound (LU) has in recent years increasingly been used as a point‐of‐care method. Initially, LU was used as a so‐called descriptive diagnostic method for neonatal respiratory diseases. Instead, this review article focuses on the use of LU as a "functional" tool using classification of findings in patterns or using semiquantitative scores. We review and describe the evidence that led to the implementation of LU in predicting the need for surfactant replacement therapy in preterm infants and in the identification of newborns at risk of developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia. LU appears to be a very promising method for the future of clinical management of newborns in both acute and chronic phases of pulmonary pathologies related to prematurity. However, further studies are needed to define its role before full implementation.


AbstractPrefabrication of supraclavicular skin provides a useful source for flaps congruent with the face skin. Among various vascular sources that have been used for this purpose, anterolateral thigh fascia seems to represent a greater value because of having a long and strong vascular pedicle and negligible donor-site morbidity. In this regard, we present a technical report on using the lateral circumflex femoral artery perforator flap harvest technique in preparing an anterolateral thigh fascia flap for the prefabrication of the supraclavicular skin. The technique proved successful in resurfacing the facial skin of a young female patient with a giant congenital melanocytic hairy nevus on the left side of her face.


Systems of polynomial equations show up in many applications areas such as robotics (kinematics, motion planning, collision detection, etc.), computer vision (object modeling, surface fitting, recognition, etc.), graphics, geometric modeling (curve and surface intersections), computer-aided design, mechanical design, and chemical equilibrium systems. In this lecture, we introduce a powerful technique that finds the roots of a polynomial system by tracking the solutions of "nearby" systems. Many problems in geometry and robot kinematics can be formulated in terms of trigonometric functions, which often can be converted to polynomials. Figure 1(a) shows a manipulator with two


The local structure and cation disorder in Y(2)Ti(2-x)Sn(x)O(7) pyrochlores, materials proposed for the encapsulation of lanthanide- and actinide-bearing radioactive waste, is studied using (119)Sn (I = 1/2) NMR spectroscopy. NMR provides an excellent probe of disorder, as it is sensitive to the atomic scale environment without the need for any long-range periodicity. However, the complex and overlapping spectral resonances that often result can be difficult to interpret. Here, we demonstrate how (119)Sn DFT calculations can be used to aid the spectral interpretation and assignment, confirming that Sn occupies only the six-coordinate pyrochlore B site, and that the Sn chemical shift is sensitive to the number of Sn/Ti on the neighbouring B sites. Although distinct resonances are resolved experimentally when the Ti content is low, there is significant spectral overlap for Ti-rich compositions. We establish that this is a result of two competing contributions to the Sn chemical shift; an upfield shift resulting from the incorporation of the more polarizing Ti(4+) cation onto the neighbouring B sites, and a concomitant downfield shift arising from the decrease in unit cell size. Despite the considerably easier spectral acquisition, the lower resolution in the (119)Sn spectra hinders the extraction of the detailed structural information previously obtained using (89)Y NMR. However, the spectra we obtain are consistent with a random distribution of Sn/Ti on the pyrochlore B sites. Finally, we consider whether an equilibrium structure has been achieved by investigating materials that have been annealed for different durations.


Some viruses, such as rubella and human cytomegalovirus, are known to cross the placental barrier and infect the fetus. In other cases of maternal viral infections, such as herpes simplex, evidence for transplacental passage is less convincing and fetal damage or neonatal disease may be coincidental or associated with perinatal infection. Certain cases of fetal or neonatal disease following maternal viral infections may be associated with disease in the mother which affects her metabolic processes or the placenta in such a way as to interfere with development of the fetus and infant. The possible effects of transplacental viral infections are several. Fetal loss may occur by means of abortion or stillbirth. There may be infection of the fetus, with clinical manifestations such as rash, or without clinical manifestations. The infant may be born with congenital defects, including such deformities as cataracts, cardiac anomalies, mental retardation or cerebral palsy. Although a number of maternal viral diseases have been etiologically incriminated in congenital defects, only two-rubella and cytomegalovirus infection-are definitely proved to be associated with anomalies or mental retardation in infants.


This study explored the relationships between household energy use and householders' intention to reduce their energy use on the one hand, and psychological variables and socio-demographic variables on the other. More specifically, the study examined whether the explanation of household energy use and intentions to reduce it could be informed by variables from the theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1985) and by variables from the value-belief-norm theory (VBN; Stern, et al., 1999), alongside socio-demographic variables. Household energy use appeared to be most strongly related to socio-demographic variables (income, household size, age), while attitudinal variables and self-transcendence values (tradition/security and power/achievement) were important too. Intention to reduce household energy use was positively related to perceived behavioral control and attitudes toward energy conservation. Implications of these results for future research in the domain of household energy use and conservation are discussed.


This paper presents estimation models for the model-based preliminary design of electro-mechanical actuators. Models are developed to generate all the parameters required by a multi-objective design, from a limited number of input parameters. This is achieved by using scaling laws in order to take advantage of their capability to reflect the physical constraints driving the actuator's component sizing. The proposed approach is illustrated with the major components that are involved in aerospace electromechanical actuator design. The established scaling laws provide the designer with parameters needed for integration into the airframe, power sizing, thermal balance, dynamics and reliability. The resulting estimation models are validated with industrial data.


PURPOSE:To obtain the automatic reading device which outputs an effect sound matching the scenery of the contents of a book or projects an image showing the scenery simultaneously with a synthesized speech of a read of the contents of the book. CONSTITUTION:An optical character read part 13 after optically reading characters of the book 2 segments the individual characters to generate character-recognized text data. A vocalizing device part 14 while vocalizing the text data automatically detects an image key word showing the scenery in the text data by an image key word detection part 23 and reproduces and outputs effect sound data corresponding to it by an effect sound data reproduction part 26. In another way, a speech synthesizing process and display control part automatically detect the image key word showing the scenery in the text data by the part 23 and draws an corresponding image as a picture. Therefore, a reader is given a feeling of presence and the concrete image.


Purpose

The paper aims to present a research on the impact of the stabilization process of a thin metallic layer (Ni-P) produced on a ceramic surface (Al2O3) by means of electroless metallization on its electric parameters and structure. On the basis of the research conducted, the existence of a relationship between resistance (R) and the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the test structure with a Ni-P alloy-based layer and the temperature of stabilization was proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

Metallic Ni-P layers were deposited on sensitized and activated substrates. Metallization was conducted in an aqueous solution containing two primary ingredients: sodium hypophosphite and nickel chloride. The concentration of both ingredients was (50-70) g/dm3. The process lasted 60 min, and the metallization bath pH was kept at 2.1-2.2, whereas the temperature was maintained at 363 K. The thermal stabilization process was conducted in different temperatures between 453 and 623 K. After the technological processes, the resistance and TCR of the test structures were measured with a micro ohmmeter. The composition and the morphology of the resistive layer of the structures examined was also determined.

Findings

The dependence of the resistance on the temperature of the stabilization process for the temperature range 553 to 623 K was described using mathematical relationships. The TCR of test resistors at the same thermal stabilization temperature range was also described using a mathematical equation. The measurements show that the resistive layer contains 82.01 at.% of nickel (Ni) and 17.99 at.% of phosphorus (P).

Originality/value

The results associate a surface morphology Ni-P alloy with the resistance and TCR according to temperature stabilization. The paper presents mathematical relationships that have not been described in the literature available.


Cancer is a disease that attacks almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably and invade adjacent parts of the body. The second highest incidence of cancer in Indonesia is breast cancer with 42.1 cases per 100,000 population with an average mortality rate of 17 per 100,000 population. Mammography is a special imaging modality with x-rays to produce detailed breast images with at least 2 viewpoints, namely Craniocaudal (CC) or top view and Medio Lateral Oblique (MLO) or side view. The chest muscle area on the MLO display often interferes with the cancer identification process on mammography images because it has a dominant density and is similar to the density of cancer tissue. This research proposes a framework consisting of pectoral muscle detection on MLO display, image enhancement process, segmentation, and feature extraction. This study succeeded in increasing the accuracy of the MLO display mammography image after using the pectoral muscle remover using gradual edge detection and Hough lines Transform with the ratios of accuracy, precision, specificity, and sensitivity for images without pectoral muscle removers respectively were 33.59%, 30%, 11.49% and 80.48%. As for the images with pectoral muscle removers, the accuracy, precision, specificity, and sensitivity values respectively were 68.67%, 64.71%, 57.14%, and 80.49%. For future projects, this research can be developed using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to improve accuracy. This is expected to help doctors and radiologists in the process of reading patient mammography so it can reduce mortality from breast cancer.


photographed with a 35-mm camera using panchromatic film. Fig. 3(a) shows fringes produced by the reflection on a stainless steel plane block gauge located on the granite surface, while Fig. 3(b) shows fringes produced by the granite surface itself. It is very easy to separate regions C , D and E which correspond to a plane, to a convex or concave surface and to a valley surrounded by borders or its pecular image, respectively. To decide about the sign of the surface the beamsplitter must be moved to observe the corresponding behavior of the fringes. When the granite surface plate was loaded with 500 N at an extremity a fringe shift of two fringes was clearly observed at 80 cm from that point. Such a fringe shift corresponds to a deformation of about 4 pm.


This study systematically investigates the properties of (i) conductive Si-doped α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films grown via a third generation mist chemical vapor deposition system and (ii) Schottky diodes (SDs) and metal semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) fabricated on them. The use of chloro(3-cyanopropyl)dimethylsilane as the Si dopant resulted in conductive thin films in a wide range of Al contents x from 0 to 0.3. The resistivity fluctuated in the range from 0.14 Ω cm to 0.35 Ω cm at x ≤ 0.05 and abruptly increased as x exceeded 0.05. Nevertheless, a resistivity of 1.2 kΩ cm was measurable in an (Al0.3Ga0.7)2O3 film, whose bandgap of 6.22 eV was comparable to that of AlN. All the silver oxide SDs fabricated on these films functioned properly with the rectification ratios up to 105, while the MESFETs showed clear field-effect even in the α-(Al0.3Ga0.7)2O3 film. Interestingly, a linear dependence of barrier heights on ideality factors was obtained in diodes formed between the source and gate electrodes of these transistors despite the differences in the bandgaps. This plot yielded the average or "homogeneous" barrier height of ∼2.0 eV, suggesting that the Fermi level on the AgOy/Si:α-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 interface was pinned at ∼Ec −2.0 eV regardless of the Al content x.


It is a recognized fact that the classification accuracy of unseen classes in the setting of Generalized Zero-Shot Learning (GZSL) is much lower than that of traditional Zero-Shot Leaning (ZSL). One of the reasons is that an instance is always misclassified to the wrong domain. Here we refer to the seen and unseen classes as two domains respectively. We propose a new approach to distinguish whether the instances come from the seen or unseen classes. First the visual feature of instance is projected into the semantic space. Then the absolute norm difference between the projected semantic vector and the class semantic embedding vector, and the minimum distance between the projected semantic vectors and the semantic embedding vectors of the seen classes are used as discrimination basis. This approach is termed as SD (Semantic Discriminator) because domain judgement of instance is performed in the semantic space. Our approach can be combined with any existing ZSL method and fully supervision classification model to form a new GZSL method. Furthermore, our approach is very simple and does not need any fixed parameters.


Introduction The Single budesonide/formoterol inhaler Maintenance And Reliever Therapy (SMART) regimen reduces severe asthma exacerbations, but it is uncertain whether it increases the risk of adverse effects due to high beta-agonist and corticosteroid doses with both short-term and cumulative exposure. Objectives Our hypothesis was that treatment with the SMART regimen would reduce the risk of beta-agonist overuse but that when such episodes occurred, patients were less likely to seek medical review and, that any reduction in severe exacerbations would be at the cost of a higher systemic corticosteroid burden. Methods This was a 24-week, open-label, parallel group trial in 303 asthma patients with a recent exacerbation, conducted at four primary healthcare practices and one secondary care hospital. Participants were randomised to 200/6µg budesonide/formoterol metered dose inhaler according to the SMART regimen (two actuations twice daily maintenance with one extra actuation as-needed) or a fixed-dose regimen (two actuations twice daily maintenance) with one to two actuations of 100µg salbutamol as-needed ('Standard'), with electronic monitoring of actual inhaler use. The primary outcome was the proportion of participants with at least one high beta-agonist use episode (>12 budesonide/formoterol actuations/day in SMART or >16 salbutamol actuations/day in Standard). Results There was no significant difference between groups in the proportion of participants with at least one high use episode: SMART 84/151 (56%) vs Standard 68/152 (45%) participants; relative risk (95% CI) 1.24 (0.99–1.56), p = 0.058. There were fewer days of high use [mean (SD) 5.1 days (14.3) vs 8.9 days (20.9), relative rate (RR) (95% CI) 0.58 (0.39–0.88), p = 0.01] and days of high use without medical review [8.5 days (17.8) vs 18.3 days (24.8) per high use patient, RR 0.49 (0.31–0.75), p = 0.001] in the SMART group. The SMART regimen resulted in higher average daily inhaled corticosteroid exposure, but reduced oral corticosteroid exposure, with no difference in composite systemic corticosteroid exposure [ratio of means (95% CI) 1.03 (0.86–1.22), p = 0.76]. SMART participants had fewer severe asthma exacerbations [35 vs 66, RR 0.54 (0.36–0.82), p = 0.004]. Conclusions The SMART regimen has a favourable risk/benefit profile in patients at risk of severe asthma exacerbations.


The most common childhood cancer is acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Chemotherapy-associated hematological toxicity is well-known; however, there are few studies on hematologic toxicity incidence in children with ALL. We investigated the severity and incidence of hematologic toxicity during intense chemotherapy processes in children treated with ALL IC-BFM 2009 protocol. The study included 41 leukemic children in standard (SR) and intermediate risk (IR) groups treated between 2011 and 2015. During the induction period, the incidence of grade 4 toxicity in neutrophil count was 60%; the incidence of grade ≥ 3 toxicity in hemoglobin level was 34%; and the incidence of grade ≥ 3 toxicity in the platelet count was 51%. Deep neutropenia duration was 36.6 ± 12.7 (18-68) days during the induction. 53% of the febrile neutropenic (FEN) episodes developed during the induction period. There were no statistical differences between SR and IR risk groups with respect to hemogram values deep neutropenia duration and the number of FEN episodes (p > 0.05, all). There was a positive correlation between the number of FEN episodes and duration of neutropenia. During the induction, the mean neutrophil count remained between 0.5-1 × 109/L. FEN episodes most commonly developed during the induction phase.


COMMENT It is interesting to note that in this instance the viper did not discharge all its venom at the first bite. The condition of the boy A. T. on admission was most alarming, and it is clear that antivenene as a life-saving measure would need to be administered within a few hours of the bite. Whether the dose given in this case prevented further oedema and lymphangitis is a matter for speculation. It proved impossible to procure antivenene through the usual channels, and the supply obtained through the good offices of the Ministry of Health was received only after nearly 24 hours' delay. It was prepared by the Pasteur Institute, Algiers, against the venom of the horned viper of Africa (Cerastes cornutus). Barrett (Lancet, 1934, 2, 60) says: "As the minimum lethal dose of the adder venom for an adult is probably 50 mg. and the amount injected by a British adder is between 5 and 10 mg., the results are seldom grave, but in small children and invalids energetic measures are called for." Apart from first aid, these measures should be directed to the treatment of vasomotor shock and relief of pain. Nevertheless, in the first of the two cases here described it would have been a great comfort to be in a position to give intravenous antivenene on admission, for the boy seemed likely to die. BERNARD E. A. BArr, M.B., B.Ch., Bury St. Edmunds. Physician, West Suffolk Hospital.


Background: Food poisoning is a problem that affects public health. It is unveiling opens an opportunity for action to identify and avoid the problem. The main objective of this study is to analyze the environmental factors that influence the obligation to consult a doctor or not following food poisoning.Methods: The study was conducted, following a prospective survey, on a sample of 408 students chosen at random from six schools of urban origin in the city of Mohammedia in Morocco.Results: 33.6% of the students confirmed having consulted the doctor against 66.4% after food poisoning. In the same way, we found that 16.2% (n = 66) of the students who declared poisoning following the consumption of an offending food were hospitalized. In addition, only 13.6% of intoxicated carried out analyzes were requested by the consultant doctor. 59.3% of the drugs prescribed by doctors are anti-infectious followed by gastro-entero-hepatology 15.4% and 12.3% are analgesics.Conclusions: Overall, this study confirms that food poisoning is very frequent among students in Morocco, so parents should be educated about the danger of food poisoning in their children, by presenting them to a doctor immediately after contamination to avoid complications.


Seed dispersal may reduce seed and seedling predation (sensu Janzen) either by removing propagules from a zone of extremely high mortality near the parent, or by carrying the seeds to a habitat with reduced predation. Using the neotropical subcanopy tree Faramea occidentalis (L.) A. Rich (Rubiaceae), I experimentally investigated the effects of dispersal to treefall gaps and dispersal within the forest understory on seed and early seedling predation. In the forest understory, seeds 5 m from the crown of an adult E occidentalis suffered significantly less predation by mammals than did seeds beneath fruiting conspecifics, but the losses of young, establishing seedlings were equivalent beneath and away from adults. In contrast, seed predation in treefall gaps was indistinguishable from predation beneath fruiting F. occidentalis, while seedling predation in gaps was even greater than beneath conspecific adults. Dispersal within the forest understory appears to be selectively advantageous because of decreased seed predation away from parent trees. But the overall consequences of dispersal to gaps are less certain. Although the high light environment of a gap enhances seedling growth, the extreme predation on seeds and young seedlings may make successful establishment in a treefall gap an extremely unlikely event.


Adenocarcinoma of the lower oesophagus is rapidly increasing in industrialised countries. The importance of Barrett's oesophagus is because of the potential for it to progress to oesophageal adenocarcinoma. It has a strong correlation to chronic GORD. Symptomatic patients or those with a long segment, if dysplasia is present or the patient is under 50 years of age, should be offered anti-reflux surgery. Patients may be denied the procedure by some gastroenterologists


Increasing use of consumer electronics such as wearables brings new concerns associated with long duration, low temperature skin burn risk. Contact with these devices of low thermal mass results in the temperature of the device changing as energy is transferred from the device to the skin during contact. Current regulatory standards concerned with contact burn injury thresholds are designed assuming that the thermal energy in the hot contacting device is infinite and that the temperature of the object does not change significantly during contact. Furthermore, geometrical aspects of the contacting objects (i.e. contact shape, object size) and operational aspects (i.e. presence or absence of heat source associated with active components) are not accounted for in the standards. This paper is the second of a two-part series that discusses a numerical methodology that relies on the concept of cumulative equivalent exposure to evaluate contact burn injury thresholds. Part I described a burn injury model which numerically solves the transient heat transfer equation in living tissues and presents the burn injury threshold conditions associated with finite thermal mass objects. In Part I, the effect of a finite thermal mass is analyzed for an infinite plate of several finite thicknesses. In Part II, the sensitivities to object shape, size, thickness, contact resistance and applied heat flux are considered.


This paper is about early roots of supersymmetry, as found in the literature from 1940s and early 1950s. There were models where the power of "partners" in alleviating divergences in quantum field theory was recognized. However, other currently known remarkable features of supersymmetry, such as its role in the extension of the Poincare group, were not known. There were, of course, no supersymmetric nonabelian quantum field theories in those days.


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Background and Objectives

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a rare disease, and the epidemiology and long-term outcome are still rarely characterized. This study is then aimed to provide a population-based assessment for the demographics and outcome about ITP in Taiwan, an island in Southeastern Asia with around 23 million inhabitants.

Material and Methods

This study used claims data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). The database included information from a nationwide, mandatory-enrollment and single-payer healthcare system with more than 99% coverage rate in Taiwan since March, 1995.

To address adequate medical history tracking and outcome follow-up, only those patients with the first ITP diagnosis from Jan 1st, 2001 to Dec 31st, 2012 were included. Incident ITP was identified first with ICD-9 codes; but those cases with codes for potential ITP-confounding diseases within 6 months from the first ITP code were excluded. Next, only those patients with meaningful pharmacological treatment or splenectomy within 3 months were included in the final analysis.

Chronic ITP was defined for those with ICD-9 ITP codes and continuous drug exposure for more than 3 months, or with rituximab or splenectomy. Sex- and age-matched cohorts with 1:10 ratio were selected from Taiwan general population for survival comparison.

Results

Of the 30673 patients with ITP codes from Jan 1st, 2001 to Dec 31st, 2012, 11437 were identified as incident ITP. The mean age was 42.9+/-27.5 y/o, and 5445 (47.6%) cases had Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score more than 2. The average incidence was 4.16 per 100,000 person-year, and the details are shown in Table 1. The incidence for female was higher than that for male (4.97 vs. 3.38 per 100,000 person-year), and the incidences across the age represented a U-shape distribution, with the highest ones in those aged 0-9 y/o and more than 70 y/o (7.21 and 13.3 per 100,000 person-year, respectively). Some geographic distribution of the incidences existed, with the highest in central part and the lowest in Eastern part of Taiwan (5.33 and 2.64 per 100,000 person-year, respectively).

Secondary causes could be identified in 3560 (31.0%) cases, and malignant neoplasma (1743, 49.0%) were most frequently noted. Viral hepatitis B or C were found in 785 (22.1%) cases. Chronic ITP was diagnosed during follow-up in 29.1% (n=3324) of incident ITP patients. Those incident ITP patients aged 0-9 y/o (431/2169 vs. 2893/9268, p<0.001) or male gender (1118/4697 vs. 2206/6740, p<0.001) had a less chance to develop chronic ITP.

As compared with the matched cohort from general population, the 10-yr survival rate was significantly inferior for all ITP patients, no matter in those aged below 20 y/o (96.9+/-0.5% vs. 98.8+/-0.1%, p<0.0001) or above 20 y/o (62.5+/-0.8% vs. 83.2+/-0.2%, p<0.0001), as in Figure 1. For chronic ITP, the disadvantaged 10-yr survival rates persisted (for age below 20 y/o: 96.5+/-1.0% vs. 98.6+/-0.2%, p<0.0001; for age above 20 y/o: 72.7+/-1.3% vs. 86.7+/-0.4%, p<0.0001, as in Figure 2). Elder age, male gender and high CCI scores predicted worse survival in multi-variate analysis.

Conclusions

This study is the largest population-based epidemiology report at nationwide scale till now. Not only the results can provide a valuable demographic description for ITP in Eastern Asia, but also they confirm an inferior long-term outcome for ITP patients, which necessitates more attention to their health care.

SD: standard deviation

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Table 1.

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Figure 2.

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Figure 3.

Disclosures Tang: Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria.

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Significant characteristics of the Minoan civilization were: (a) their peaceful living with environment and neighbors. Although the Minoans were dominating in the Mediterranean for almost two millennia, in none of the numerous wars and/or conflicts that occurred in the region, they were directly or indirectly involved. And (b) the technological developments that are unprecedented in the world9s history, as shown by the numerous paradigms on water resources technologies used and water, wastewater, and stormwater management. These paradigms are relevant to water supply, fountains, cisterns used to store rainwater or spring water, aqueducts, dams, wells, water treatment systems, baths and toilets, sewerage and drainage systems, irrigation and drainage of agricultural land, and water use for recreation. Significant hydrologic and hydraulic achievements in Minoan Crete are considered and discussed.


Unexpected climatic conditions or extreme climatic events in vineyards are a worldwide problem that requires accurate spatial and temporal monitoring. Satellite-based remote sensing is an important source of data to assess this challenge in a climate-change context. This paper provides a first insight into the capacity of a multiway analysis method applied to Sentinel-2 time series to assess heatwave impacts in vineyards at a regional scale. Multi-way partial least squares (N-PLS) regression was used as a supervised technique to predict the intensity of damage caused to vineyards by the heatwave phenomenon that impacted the vineyards in the south of France in 2019. The model was developed based on available ground truth data of yield losses for 107 vineyard blocks in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and multispectral time-series predictor data for the period May to August 2019. The model showed a performance accuracy (R2) of 0.56 in the calibration set and of 0.66 in the validation set, with a standard error of cross-validation in the calibration set of 12.4% and a standard error of the prediction of yield losses in the validation set of 10.7. The model was applied at a regional scale on 4978 vineyard blocks to predict yield losses using spectral and temporal attributes. The prediction of the yield loss due to heat stress at a regional scale was related to the spatial pattern of maximum temperatures recorded during the extreme weather event. This relation was confirmed by a chi-square test (p < 5%). The introduction of N-PLS insights into the analysis enables the characterisation of heat stress responses in vineyards and the identification of spectro-temporal profiles relevant for understanding the effects of heatwaves on vine blocks at a regional scale.


Introduction: Cervical cancer remains one of the most common and deadly cancers in women worldwide. There is a significant health disparity in the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer between American Indian and Caucasian women residing on the Northern Plains. The development of cervical cancer is closely associated with persistent infection with high risk HPV genotypes. Additionally, exposure to cigarette smoke is also a risk factor for cervical cancer. Our studies indicate that Northern Plains American Indian women have a high rate of both HPV infection and smoking. Our studies also show that American Indian women who tested positive for HPV were more likely to have an abnormal PAP test than HPV positive Caucasian women. While smoking is known to increase the risk of developing cervical cancer, the molecular interactions between HPV and smoke carcinogens are not well known. Herein, we determine the cellular and molecular effects of benzo-a-pyrene (BaP) (a carcinogen in cigarette smoke) on HPV oncoprotein expression in cervical cancer cells and elucidate the role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in this process. Methods: The effects of BaP on HPV oncoproteins and AhR mediated molecular events was determined using cervical cancer cell line models and real time PCR, immunoblotting, immunostaining and flow cytometry analyses. The level of AhR activation in normal cervix and in cervical cancer tissues was also determined with immunohistochemical analysis. Results: Our results indicate that exposure to BaP, a tobacco carcinogen, activates the AhR pathway in a time and dose dependent manner, as determined by an increase in nuclear localization of AhR and increased expression of cytochrome p450 1A. Expsoure to BaP ultimately results in increased expression of HPV oncogenes. Importantly, curcumin, a natural compound, attenuated the BaP induced increase in the expression of HPV E7 oncoprotein. Interestingly, both cytoplasmic and nuclear localization of AhR is increased in cervical cancer tissue compared to normal cervical epithelium. Conclusion: Taken together this data imply that a high prevalence of HPV infection and a high exposure rate to BaP may synergize to increase the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in American Indian women residing in the Northern Plains. We have identified curcumin as a potent compound that may be effective in attenuating oncogenic HPV infection. However, increased cervical cancer screening is warranted in addition to HPV vaccine and use of chemopreventive agents, such as curcumin, to effectively decrease the cervical cancer health disparity in Northern Plains American Indian women. Citation Format: Diane M. Maher, Maria Bell, Amanda Schaefer, Meena Jaggi, Subhash C. Chauhan. Benzo(a)pyrene exposure increases expression of HPV oncoproteins: a potential co-factor for increased cervical cancer among Northern Plains American Indian women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3611. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3611


Background: The primary aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cam morphology in a cohort of people aged 40–55 years. Secondary aims were to: (1) determine differences in participant characteristics, physical impairments, radiographic and ultrasound appearances of people with and without cam morphology; and (2) explore associations between cam morphology and radiographic measures of hip osteoarthritis (OA). Methods: 107 people (68% women; 49 ± 4 years) from the Musculoskeletal pain in Ullensaker (MUST) Study underwent the clinical and imaging examinations. Examinations included questionnaires, hip range, functional task performance, pelvic radiographs and ultrasound. Alpha angle and radiographic hip OA (Kellgren Lawrence (KL) and minimal joint space (MJS)) were determined. Results: The prevalence of cam morphology was 42% and was bilateral in 47%. People with cam morphology were 6 times more likely to have a KL score ⩾2 (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence intervals, p-value]) 6.386 [1.582–37.646, p = 0.012]) and 4 times more likely to have MJS <2.0 mm (adjusted odds ratio 4.032 [1.031–12.639, p = 0.045]). The prevalence of radiographic OA features ranged from 4–13% in people with cam morphology, and 0–3% in those without. Those with cam morphology also demonstrated reduced hip flexion and rotation range (p = 0.018–0.036) compared with those without. There was no association between ultrasonic features and patient reported outcomes, and cam morphology. Conclusions: In a cohort aged 40–55 years, the prevalence of cam morphology was high (42%), with a significant relationship between cam morphology and radiographic measures of hip OA. Further longitudinal studies should explore the relationship between cam morphology and hip OA in younger people.


Medical language processing seeks to analyze linguistic patterns in electronic medical records, which requires managing lexical variations. A systematic approach to generating derivational variants, including prefixes, suffixes, and zero derivations, has improved precision and recall rates.


The investigation of the interplay of experimental crystal growth runs and computer simulations of the physical vapor transport (PVT) growth process of silicon carbide (SiC) strongly supports the development of the growth technology toward larger crystalline diameters. To apply computer‐aided designs of the growth process, a material database is developed that enables quantitative calculations of the temperature distribution inside the growth setup. The model utilizing COMSOL Multiphysics is validated by experimental means using five 100 mm SiC crystal growth runs, two measurement runs in a 100 mm PVT setup, and one SiC crystal growth run in a 75 mm PVT setup, varying in power, pressure, coil position, and reactor geometry. Material data are varied and the impact on the thermal gradients is investigated to trace out critical and noncritical parameters for the accuracy of the simulation. The influence of ambient pressure on the isolation's performance is studied experimentally and this correlation is implemented into the model. Beyond the state of the art, this work presents a modeling approach and handling of material properties for a true scale up of the current 100 mm and 150 mm SiC sublimation growth technologies to 200 mm.


Before the discovery of insulin in 1921 the diagnosis of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus was tantamount to a death sentence, with 40% or more diabetic patients dying of ketoacidosis. This changed dramatically after 1921, with ketoacidosis becoming a minor cause of death. Life expectancy increased appreciably, although not to the extent hoped for because of the emergence of nephropathy and ischaemic heart disease.

Now, with improved treatment and prevention, life expectancy is good for a patient with newly diagnosed insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Thus someone in whom the disease was diagnosed before the age of 17 in Pittsburgh between 1950 and 1981 had an 88% chance of surviving 20 years.1 Survival now would be even better, and the results of the recent diabetic control and complications trial give hope for further improvement.2

Sadly, this is not the situation worldwide. Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus is not only a disorder of developed countries: it occurs everywhere, although its incidence varies widely from about 2-4 per 100 000 in parts of sub-Saharan Africa3 to 14 per 100 000 in Britain. A substantial number of children are affected, and in …


We compare the cascade, baseline, and lattice architectures for a four-pole, four-zero photonic filter implemented using high-Q resonator-based components on SOI. These filters are fully reconfigurable and very compact (total area 0.15 mm2).


Abstract. Charles Hutton suggested in 1821 that the pyramids of Egypt be used to site
an experiment to measure the deflection of the vertical by a large mass. The
suggestion arose as he had estimated the attraction of a Scottish mountain as
part of Nevil Maskelyne's (1774) "Schiehallion Experiment", a demonstration
of Isaac Newton's law of gravitational attraction and the earliest reasonable
quantitative estimate of Earth's mean density. I present a virtual
realization of an experiment at the Giza pyramids to investigate how Hutton's
concept might have emerged had it been undertaken as he suggested. The
attraction of the Great Pyramid would have led to inward north–south
deflections of the vertical totalling 1.8 arcsec (0.0005 ∘ ), and
east–west deflections totalling 2.0 arcsec (0.0006 ∘ ), which
although small, would have been within the contemporaneous detectable range,
and potentially given, as Hutton wished, a more accurate Earth density
measurement than he reported from the Schiehallion experiment.


The International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' is an initiative on the part of the European, French, Canadian and Indian space agencies as well as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to pool together their space and ground resources in response to natural and technological disasters. Since the start of the Charter operations on November 1, 2000, it has been invoked several times to cover such events as a landslide in Slovenia, earthquakes (and resulting landslides) in El Salvador and India; oil spills off the coasts of Galapagos, Lebanon and Denmark; flooding in France, Germany, eastern Siberia and Indonesia; and volcanic eruptions in Italy and Congo. In all these cases, multi-satellite data and products were delivered to users to assist them in their relief efforts. The following is an account of the Charter operational procedure and brief descriptions of the various disasters for which satellite data was requested under the Charter.


The paper examines the link between corruption and development, using a contextual analysis of the Nigerian experience from Independence (1960) to this present day (2010). It conceptualizes corruption as "putrefaction, tainting, debasement, perversion or venality, spoiling, destruction of purity or falling away from standard of integrity or rectitude defined by law, upheld by social norms or conscience or recognized by the general conscience of mankind. It discovers the pervasiveness of corruption in all the various administration of the country military and civilian alike. Corruption is an albatross in the wheel of the country's development. The paper argues that given the kid gloves with which corruption is treated in Nigeria every development effort will continue to fail and Nigeria will die if the necessary steps are not taking. Corruption is therefore anti-developmental because all the indices of development are affected negatively by it. As a way forward the paper recommends attitudinal change of the people, aggressive campaign against corruption, rebranding of the anti-graft agencies and an independent judiciary. LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research , 8(3), 253-266, 2011


An investigation was carried out in a periurban slum colony in Chandigarh in September 1999 following a report of two microscopically confirmed cases of cholera admitted in Govt. Medical College Hospital, Chandigarh. Rapid survey in the colony covering a population of 1404 found that there were 14 cases of diarrhoea in the colony with attack rate of 9.97/1000 population. Majority (70%) of cases were females and 62% cases were under five years of age. Health education, ORS packets and medications were distributed to cases. Water sampling was also done and it was found that water from one of the hand pump was positive for V. cholerae 01 biotype El Tor serotype Ogawa. Closing of that hand pump and chlorination of drinking water in other parts of slum was recommended to higher health authorities, which was done immediately. Surveillance for diarrhoeal diseases was found to be poor. Provision of safe drinking water, improving sanitation and strengthening of disease surveillance is necessary for control of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases in slum areas.


Temporary detention, which is also interpreted as preventive detention in criminal law, means depriving the defendant of his freedom and imprisoning him during all or part of the preliminary investigation by the judicial authority by issuing a temporary detention order, although this order is considered by some lawyers and Human rights defenders have been widely criticized, but on the other hand, some lawyers emphasize it because it is one of the guarantees of criminal policy in suppressing the criminal phenomenon. Arresting the accused, which is also interpreted as preventive detention in Iranian criminal law, means depriving the accused of his freedom and imprisoning him during all or part of the preliminary investigation, which may continue until the issuance of a final verdict or its execution, and the purpose of It is ensuring access to the accused, his timely presence in the judicial authority, preventing his escape or concealment, or erasing the traces of the crime and collusion with possible accomplices and deputies of the crime. Therefore, due to the growing importance of human rights at the national and international level, and on the other hand due to the inherent conflict between arresting a person and the principle of acquittal, which respects the rights and freedoms of the accused is one of the obvious effects of this principle, an effort has been made in this article, considering that Many provisions of the international and regional declarations of human rights have standards related to the principles of criminal procedure, including the protection of the rights of the accused and the limitation of temporary detention. It is hoped that in order to optimize the rules of the criminal procedure, it will be compared and matched with the above principles.


For the millions of patients experiencing chronic pain despite pharmacotherapy, deep brain stimulation (DBS) provides a beacon of hope. Over the past decade the field has shifted away from DBS towards other forms of neuromodulation, particularly spinal cord stimulation (SCS). DBS for pain is still performed, albeit off-label in US and UK, and experiences variable success rates. SCS is an extremely useful tool for the modulation of pain but is limited in its application to specific pain aetiologies. We advocate use of DBS for pain, for patients for whom pharmacology has failed and for whom spinal cord stimulation is inadequate. DBS for chronic pain is at risk of premature neglect. Here we outline how this has come to pass, and in the process argue for the untapped potential for this procedure.


The end of the 1960s and advent of the 1970s was a period of great change amongst experimental filmmakers. Young, rebellious directors rose up the ranks, seeking a new form of cinematic expression. One of the key stylistic similarities between this new style of filmmaking was the use of small-gauge (any film stock smaller than 35mm), but they often moved within the same circuits as well (such as the Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente). These filmmakers all attempted, both within in Italy and internationally, to both advance the cinematic artform and consciously move away from many standard filmmaking practices. With the advancement of time and, crucially, technology, these films, which offer crucial historical context to this period (but are often unfinished), are revived through exhibitions, installations and performative screenings in museums and beyond cinema spaces. This essay, through an investigation of the uncertain spaces between the past and present, will focus (through theoretical and methodological reflection) on themes related to both contemporary restoration practices and the completion and exhibition of experimental film archives, by critical analysing a number of key case studies.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the impact of the Japanese yen on the values of East Asian currencies has increased since the 1997 East Asian financial crisis. In particular, this paper focuses on four crisis-affected countries: Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines and Thailand. To this end, this paper estimates the weights of the Japanese yen in the determination of the values of the East Asian currencies using daily exchange rate data sets covering the pre-crisis period from January 1990 to June 1997 and the post-crisis period from January 1999 to December 2000. Empirical test results indicate that the impact of the Japanese yen on East Asian currencies has increased since the 1997 financial crisis. The null hypothesis that the weight of the Japanese yen remains the same is rejected for all the four countries examined supporting the alternative that it has increased since the financial crisis.


Although plasticity of metals is complicated due to the string-like nature of its elementary units, the dislocations, it is currently tried to understand various stability aspects of plasticity. Of special interest are the dislocation distributions after cyclic loading ("fatigue"). Well developed periodic patterns are observed in the spatial distribution of the dislocations. Computer simulations of the behavior of straight edge dislocations will be reported, which show that the former phenomenon may be a straight-forward consequence of the interaction between dislocations. More recent ideas to relate the problem to general concepts of non-linear dynamics are also discussed.


In this paper, an improved version of the BiCGStab method for the solutions of large and sparse linear systems of equations with unsymmetric coefficient matrices is proposed. The method combines elements of numerical stability and parallel algorithm design without increasing the computational costs. The algorithm is derived such that all inner products of a single iteration step are independent and communication time required for inner product can be overlapped efficiently with computation time of vector updates. Therefore, the cost of global communication can be significantly reduced. In this paper, the bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) model is used to design a fully efficient, scalable and portable parallel proposed algorithm and to provide accurate performance prediction of the algorithm for a wide range of architectures including the Cray T3D, the Parsytec, and a cluster of workstations connected by an Ethernet. This performance model provides us useful insight in the time complexity of the method using only a few system dependent parameters based on a simple and accurate cost modelling. The theoretical performance prediction are compared with some preliminary measured timing results of a numerical application from ocean flow simulation.


In the 1970s or the early 1980s an anonymous donator has gifted a pair of spurs to Zdenko Vinski, who had been in charge of the Mediaeval Department for decades. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the discovery and the find spot are unknown and we may only speculate that these spurs were found somewhere in former Yugoslavia. They are nonetheless easily identifiable from a typological point of view, being late Roman spurs belonging to the so-called Leuna type. This set may be dated to the 4th century AD. One may presume that this set was found in a grave, since Leuna-type spurs are more often than not either grave finds or finds discovered within Roman military sites and settlements, the latter finds usually not being full sets but single spurs or fragments. The find context is shrouded in mystery because the discovery did not occur under archaeological supervision and within the legal frame of professional field research. One may only conjecture what else could have been found in that grave but in any case, the discoverer, or one of the discoverers, contacted Zdenko Vinski, probably in order to get more information about his (or their) find. The late curator must have somehow convinced the anonymous finder to leave the spurs in the Museum but he probably never managed to obtain more information about the find spot and the archaeological context.


Background: Insufficient support for balancing career and family responsibilities hinders retention of physician-scientists. Programs to improve retention of this important group of faculty are crucial. Understanding the experiences of program implementers is key to refining and improving program offerings. Methods: We conducted an interpretive, descriptive, and qualitative study as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (FRCS) awards. We conducted telephone interviews with 12 program directors representing all 10 US medical schools who received the Doris Duke funding in 2016. Results: Of the 12 participants, 10 were women (83.3%). Participating program directors perceived the FRCS award as capable of producing paradigmatic changes regarding how responsibilities at home and work in academic medicine are viewed and integrated by early-career faculty members. The main qualitative themes that captured directors' experiences implementing the program were as follows: (1) championing a new paradigm of support, (2) lessons learned while implementing the new paradigm, (3) results of the new paradigm, and (4) sustaining the paradigm. Conclusions: These findings may help to inform development of similar programs to retain and support the career progress of physician-scientists with extraprofessional caregiving responsibilities. The interviews illuminate ways in which the Doris Duke FRCS award has driven institutional culture change by normalizing discussion and prompted reassessment of extraprofessional challenges and how best to aid early-career faculty members in overcoming these challenges.


Cyber-physical control systems (CPCS), and their instantiation as autonomous robotic control architectures, are notoriously difficult to specify, implement, test, validate and verify. In this paper, we propose to integrate hybrid systems and their declension as hybrid automata and DEVS simulation models within a full-fledged and well-founded software component model tailored for CPCS. We present how the resulting comprehensive modeling tool can support the different phases of the software development to provide more reliable, more robust and more adaptable CPCS. The key concept is to provide components with a modeling and simulation capability that seamlessly support the software development process, from model-in-the-loop initial validations, until deployment time actual system verification.


In the present time of biodiversity crisis, assessing species diversity by accurate and accessible taxonomic revisions is more crucial than ever. Parasitoid wasps are considered as both one of the most diverse and under-studied groups in the tree of life. Dusona Cameron, 1901 (Ichneumonidae, Campopleginae) is with 442 species one of the most species - rich genera of Darwin wasps, but despite the existence of recent keys, species identification has proven difficult to impossible to non-specialists. In this study, we examined about 1,500 Dusona specimens from recent and historical collections in Sweden and Switzerland. We provide a photographic guide to diagnostic characters and detailed plates for 57 out of 125 Western Palaearctic Dusona species, facilitating species identification based on existing keys. We add 11 and 3 species to the faunistic records of Sweden and Switzerland, respectively. Furthermore, we reconstruct the phylogeny of European Dusona based on four standard markers (COI, CAD, ITS2, 28S) for 45 species, complemented with a reliable reference barcode library for 46 species. Even though we can identify several morphologically distinct clades, we do not propose any new subgenera due to prevalent homoplasy of characters. While most species are well separated by barcodes, several morphologically distinct species have barely discriminatory barcode sequences (p-distances < 2%) or are even paraphyletic in this marker, indicating limitations in the applicability of barcodes for Darwin wasps. This study reveals severe gaps in the inventories of neglected taxa even for well-studied countries such as Sweden and Switzerland. As this study makes species determination for Western Palaearctic Dusona more accessible, we encourage more people, including non-specialists, to work with this genus.


Background: The bifunctional protein survivin is a powerful prognostic marker in GEP‐NET disease as measured by immunohistochemical methods in tumor tissues. The present study was focused to investigate if survivin can also be detected in the serum of GEP‐NET patients and to evaluate its potential diagnostic role. Aim: To establish a method by which the serum levels of survivin can be used as a predictive value in the treatment outcome of patients with GEP‐NET disease. Materials and Methods: In 2007, serum samples were obtained from patients with well‐differentiated GEP‐NET disease (n=22) either at Charite‐Campus Benjamin Franklin (n=8) or at the University Hospital of Hamburg‐Eppendorf (n=14), hematological malignancies (HM) and solid cancers (n=22), as well as healthy volunteers (n=25), the last all obtained at the Charite. All patients had given their informed consent to this pilot study. The patients of the GEP‐NET group had either stable disease with metastasis, predominantly to the liver (n=14), or were progressive at the time of venipuncture (n=6). 9 foregut tumors, 10 midgut tumors and 3 hindgut tumors were included, a third of those functionally active. Most of the patients received any kind of bio‐ or chemotherapy. The mean age of GEP‐NET patients was 61.1 years (range 29–81), whereas the mean age of patients with HM and solid tumors was 55.9 years (range 30–82). Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) analysis was used for determination of survivin protein serum levels. Results: There was a statistically significant increase of the survivin protein serum levels in patients with HM and solid cancers compared to the healthy controls (p=0.009). The difference in survivin serum levels between healthy controls and patients with GEP‐NETs did not reach statistical significance (p=0.089). No correlation to clinical features like localization of the tumor, functional activity, Chromogranin A levels or kind of therapy was found. However, survivin serum levels tended to be higher in patients with a greater tumor burden. Conclusion: This is the first study to quantify survivin protein levels in the serum of GEP‐NET patients. The results of this small pilot study should be evaluated in further clinical trials by correlating survivin serum levels before and after therapy in order to define its potential diagnostic and prognostic use. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):B44.


This article argues the case for employing narrative methods when undertaking research with people with profound learning difficulties and people who lack verbal articulacy. It considers the foundations of life history research and the transformative position of the researcher since the 1930s. The article then examines the requisite skills for eliciting life stories and interviewing, followed by the form of the interview. It questions the logic in rigidly following qualitative interviewing as the main tool for eliciting information. The author argues that the skills and experiences of the researcher become important during challenging interview situations and that moving away from traditional qualitative interviewing means attempting to include people with profound learning difficulties in the process of researching their lives and experiences.


Three types of unit combinations, FeS2Fe + FeS2Fe, FeS2Fe + MoS2Fe and MoS2Mo + MoS2Mo, lead to Fe4S4, MoFe3S4 and Mo2Fe2S4 cubane-like clusters, respectively. A new doubly bridged single cubane cluster [Mo2Fe2S4(C4H8dtc)6]·3.5C2H2Cl4 has been obtained and its structure is discussed.


Background: Abnormal lipid metabolism predisposes to cardiovascular disease. However, dyslipidemia is often asymptomatic leading to its underdiagnosis. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to identify biomarkers that reflect an abnormal lipid profile and trigger the specific investigation of lipid metabolism. The platelet–monocyte ratio (PMR) is a severely understudied index whose association with disturbed lipid markers remains unknown. Methods: A cross-sectional study of the association between PMR and comprehensive lipid profile including total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides (TG), TC/HDL, LDL/HDL, and TG/HDL in 14,269 Saudi subjects was designed. Prevalence, risk measures, association, and the diagnostic performance (i.e., area under the curve (AUC)) were evaluated. Results: Median PMR was significantly elevated in subjects with high TC (p < 0.01), TG, TC/HDL, LDL/HDL, TG/HDL, and LDL and reduced in those with low HDL (all p < 0.0001) compared to normal subjects. The increase in PMR was abolished when only males with high TC were considered. Except for TC and LDL, all other abnormal markers were significantly more prevalent when PMR was lower (higher for HDL) than a certain cutoff specific for each parameter. Moreover, the odds of having PMR readings above or below the selected cutoffs are significantly higher with all lipid abnormalities. PMR was also weakly but significantly and differentially correlated with all forms of dyslipidemia (p < 0.0001). Notably, the highest diagnostic accuracy of PMR was observed for reduced HDL (AUC = 0.608, p < 0.0001) and elevated TG/HDL (AUC = 0.596, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: PMR is a novel, inexpensive, and readily available index that is associated with all forms of dyslipidemia, suggesting its potential use in related disorders.


Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a continuous, slow dialysis method advantageous for retaining residual renal function; however, after renal function is lost, increasing the PD dose is difficult, resulting in insufficient dialysis. The addition of hemodialysis (HD) to PD [combination therapy with PD and HD (PD+HD)] increases the ultrafiltration volume and optimizes the dialysis dose. Based on this situation, we have applied concomitant HD after loss of residual renal function in PD patients. In the present study, we investigated peritoneal function in patients who underwent PD+HD therapy. The subjects were 76 patients in whom PD+HD therapy continued for 6 months or longer. In PD+HD therapy, patients underwent PD 6 days each week and a 4-hour HD session once each week. The patients were divided into four groups based on their dialysate-to-plasma ratio of creatinine (D/P Cr) in a peritoneal equilibration test (PET) at the initiation of PD+HD therapy: high [H (n = 5)], high-average [HA (n = 29)], low-average [LA (n = 26)], and low [L (n = 16)]. Before and after initiation of PD+HD therapy, we measured PET D/P Cr values and effluent levels of fibrin degradation products (eFDPs) and cancer antigen 125 (eCA125) in the 4-hour PET effluent. In addition, we evaluated the ratio of overnight effluent to serum beta2-microglobulin (overnight D/P beta2MG) every year. In the H group, D/P Cr remained high after initiation of PD+HD therapy, but it declined significantly in the HA group and tended to decline in the LA and L groups. Overnight D/P beta2MG remained high in the H group after PD+HD therapy, but significantly declined in the HA group and remained unchanged in the LA and L groups. After PD+HD therapy initiation in the H group, eFDPs declined markedly, although that change was not significant. No decrease was noted in any other group. Peritoneal dialysis was discontinued in 33 of the 76 patients (43.4%) who underwent PD+HD therapy: in 5 of the 5 patients in the H group (100%), in 16 of 29 in the HA group (552%), in 7 of 26 in the LA group (26.9%), and in 5 of 16 in the L group (31.3%). On long-term follow-up, the PET D/P Cr tended to decrease in the H and LA groups; it did not change in the LA and L groups. No significant changes were noted in any group for overnight D/P beta2MG, eFDPs, or eCA125. We suggest that concomitant HD facilitates the continuation of PD treatment and the retention of peritoneal function in patients with uremic symptoms and excess body fluid associated with a loss of residual renal function. However, improvement in peritoneal function cannot be expected for patients in whom peritoneal function has already deteriorated. In those patients, a change of treatment method should be considered.


Ribosomal proteins (RPs) play a critical role in tightly coordinating p53-dependent cell cycle checkpoint with ribosomal biogenesis. A number of RPs, including L5, L11, L23, L26, and S7, specifically bind to MDM2 and inhibit MDM2-mediated p53 ubiquitination and degradation, leading to p53 activation, in response to nucleolar stress triggered by the perturbation of ribosomal biogenesis. Here, we report S27a, a ribosomal protein from small subunit of ribosome and synthesized as an ubiquitin C-terminal extension protein (CEP80), as a novel MDM2 regulator. S27a interacts with MDM2 at the central acidic domain of MDM2 and suppresses MDM2-mediated p53 ubiquitination, leading to p53 activation and cell cycle arrest. Knockdown of endogenous S27a significantly attenuated p53 activation by treatment with a low dose (5 nM) of actinomycin D (Act D), which specifically inhibits RNA polymerase I activity leading to inhibition of rRNA synthesis and perturbation of ribosomal biogenesis, suggesting that S27a is a non-redundant MDM2 regulator in response to nucleolar stress. Interestingly, we also show that MDM2 ubiquitinates S27a, leading to protesomal degradation of S27a, in response to Act D treatment, suggesting that MDM2, in turn, controls S27a levels in response to nucleolar stress. Taken together, our results reveal that S27a regulates p53 activity in response to nucleolar stress via a novel and dynamic interplay between S27a and MDM2. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3087. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3087


Long-running software may operate on hardware platforms with limited energy resources such as batteries or photovoltaic, or on high-performance platforms that consume a large amount of energy. Since such systems may be subject to hardware failures, checkpointing is often used to assure the reliability of the application. Since checkpointing introduces additional computation time and energy consumption, we study how checkpoint intervals need to be selected so as to minimize a cost function that includes the execution time and the energy. Expressions for both the program's energy consumption and execution time are derived as a function of the failure probability per instruction. A first principle based analysis yields the checkpoint interval that minimizes a linear combination of the average energy consumption and execution time of the program, in terms of the classical "Lambert function". The sensitivity of the checkpoint to the importance attributed to energy consumption is also derived. The results are illustrated with numerical examples regarding programs of various lengths and showing the relation between the checkpoint interval that minimizes energy consumption and execution time, and the one that minimizes a weighted sum of the two. In addition, our results are applied to a popular software benchmark, and posted on a publicly accessible web site, together with the optimization software that we have developed.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate strategies to prevent health problems - both in the mother and the child - related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The first part of this thesis contains studies about optimal timing of delivery when a hypertensive disorders occurs near term. The maternal benefits of early delivery have to be weight against the neonatal consequences of a preterm delivery. We present a study regarding both short term maternal and neonatal outcomes of two management strategies: immediate or deferred delivery. We also investigated what the long term consequences of these management strategies are on the development and behavior of the children at 2 and 5 years of age. In order to define optimal timing of delivery we developed a prediction model to assess the risk of progression to severe disease. Women at high risk could be delivered earlier to prevent maternal health complications. In the second part of the thesis we aim to evaluate the performance of first trimester prediction of preeclampsia to allow for early intervention to hypertensive disease. This issue was addressed in a prospective cohort study. In addition, we evaluated the reproducibility and repeatability of one of the predictors in the algorithm, the uterine artery pulsatility index. This thesis contributed to better healthoutcomes for both women and children.