kmew him, and expressing my apprehension: as to the niature of his case. On the following morning (June 1st), he called on me, accompanied by his friend. He had taken both d-oses of morphia, and had passed a comfortable rjight's Sleep; he said the pain in his body and limbs was relieved, but that he could not open his mouth sufficient to, admit his little finger, and that he had a constant inclination to sneeze, although unable to do so. Four days previously, while in a state of drunkenness, he was pulling about and teasing a black retriever dog, which bit hiim on the wrist of the left hand, from which the thumb had been amputated twenty years previously. The wound inflicted by the bite' was the size of a small harleycorn, apparently quite superficial, having no signs of inflammation about it, and no pain attached to it. He showed considerable signs of nervous anxiety, and expressed his apprehension that the bite of the dog would cause his death; or, as he expressed it, "would send him up the orchard." His pulse was 110, weak and compressible; and he complained of thirst. I ordered him a saline mixture, with fifteen minims of cbloric ether to each dose, and told him to keep in bed. Three hours afterwards, I visited him; and on giving him a teaspoonful of liquid, whichl he swallowed hastily and with great difficulty, I found it produced violent and distressing spasms, as he had predicted; and, although with considerable effort he was able to open his mouth to the extent of half an inch, the jaw immediately closed with a snap, and became riaid. His pulse was now 140. full, but easily compressed; and he complained of slight pain and tightness across the epigastrium. I allowed him to have a glass of porter, which he greatly desired, and ordered as much beef-tea and milk to be administered to him as he could swallow. In the evening, he appeared more calm and composed. The trismus continued the same; and there was slight tetanic rigidity of the muscles of the neck. He had taken about half a pint of beef-tea, half a pint of milk, and a glass of porter. The splashing of water before him produced no spasm; and he could even dabble his hands in water without experiencing any uneasiness. Throughout the following day (June 2nd), the symptoms continued precisely the same; and he took a fair amount of nourishment, but with extreme difficulty. I saw him for the last time at 9 o'clock at night, when lhe could open his jaw to the extent of half an inch, and continue to keep it open without assistance; but, on attempting to swallow, the spasm was more violent than I had before witnessed; his countenance looked wild and expressive of. horror; and he said he felt convinced he should soon die, but was quite quiet in his manner, and perfectly sensible. His pulse had fallen to 70, and was very weak and small. I ordered him to have small quantities of beef-tea frequently given to him, unless he felt inclined to sleep. From 11 o'clock that night until 5 o'clock the following morning, he slept comparatively calmi, when he awoke apparently refreshed, could open his mouth wider, and speak plainer, but could not be persuaded to attempt to swallow anything; about an hour afterwards, he heaved two or three deep sighs, and expired calmly and without spasm. REMARKS. Although I am inclined to believe that this was a case of hydrophobia, I am struck with the apparent nmildness of the symptoms throughout, in comparison with other cases of which I have read and heard. The point, however, which I wish particularly to bring under notice is, that the dog was perfectly healthy when he inflicted the wound, and has continued to be so up to' the present time: a circumstance in conrnection with hydrophobia whicb, I believe,'is not generally admitted, although it tends to confirm my previous opinion, that it is ppssible for this malady to supervene on the bite of a dog, even though' he be perfectlyfrac frobi rabies, 6T: especially-if the wound is inflicted at a time whenthe animal has been excited to anger. I am also inclined to think that the bite, being contingent to the cicatrix of the amputated thumb, may have acted as a predisposing cause in producing the disease. I may mention, that I could not learn that he had ever been bitten by a dog before; and althouah the disease set in so shortly after the infliction of the wound, which is at variance with previously recorded cases, still the prima facie evidence is such, as must, in my opinion, leadl to the conclusion, that the wound inflicted by the dog was the sole and only cause of the symptoms and death; but whether the case be looked upon as one of pure " rabies canina", or simply as one of tetanus, I will leave to the judgment of others.


The cohesin complex regulates sister chromatid cohesion, chromosome organization, gene expression, and DNA repair. Here we report that endogenous human cohesin interacts with a panoply of splicing factors and RNA binding proteins, including diverse components of the U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP complex and several splicing factors that are commonly mutated in cancer. The interactions are enhanced during mitosis, and the interacting splicing factors and RNA binding proteins follow the cohesin cycle and prophase pathway of regulated interactions with chromatin. Depletion of cohesin-interacting splicing factors results in stereotyped cell cycle arrests and alterations in genomic organization. These data support the hypothesis that splicing factors and RNA binding proteins control cell cycle progression and genomic organization via regulated interactions with cohesin and chromatin. One Sentence Summary Endogenous tagging reveals that cohesin interacts with diverse chromatin-bound splicing factors that regulate cell cycle progression and genomic organization in human cells.


This study aims to analyze innovation strategies in the perspective of resource-based theory (RBT). This research was conducted in the Province of Bali with the population in this study were all small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that produced export commodities and recorded in the List of Regional Exporters of Bali (Bali Province) in 2016, which amounted to 462 business units and sampling methods with slovin so that a sample of 215 is obtained. Analysis of data using PLS SEM. Mastery of social capital by export-oriented SMEs in Bali that prioritizes the cognitive dimension and is followed by the relational and structural dimensions have not been able to determine the improvement of their business performance. However, the mastery of social capital which is used as the basis for the application of innovation strategies to achieve a superior position in competition, is able to improve or improve their business performance


Much prior work has studied processor cache replacement policies, but a large gap remains between theory and practice. The optimal policy (MIN) requires unobtainable knowledge of the future, and prior theoretically-grounded policies use reference models that do not match real programs. Meanwhile, practical policies are designed empirically. Lacking a strong theoretical foundation, they do not make the best use of the information available to them. This paper bridges theory and practice. We propose that practical policies should replace lines based on their economic value added (EVA), the difference of their expected hits from the average. We use Markov decision processes to show that EVA is optimal under some reasonable simplifications. We present an inexpensive, practical implementation of EVA and evaluate it exhaustively over many cache sizes. EVA outperforms prior practical policies and saves area at isoperformance. These results show that formalizing cache replacement yields practical benefits.


The increasingly daunting problem of antimicrobial resistance has led to an intense focus on optimization of antibiotic therapy, with simultaneous goals of improving patient outcomes and minimizing the contribution of that therapy to making the available antibiotics obsolete. Although even appropriate antibiotic therapy drives resistance, inappropriate therapy may also have adverse effects on the individual patient, as well as on the bacterial ecology. Recent research has validated the benefit of intelligent utilization of both microbiological data and clinical assessment in the empirical selection of initial broad-spectrum therapy and in further guidance of therapeutic decisions throughout the course of illness by use of a systems approach. Thus, the optimal approach to the critically ill patient with infection involves the initiation of aggressive broad-spectrum empirical therapy followed by timely responses to microbiological and clinical results as they become available. An appropriate response to this information often involves de-escalation of therapy or even its discontinuation.


The optimum teratogenic dose of subcutaneously administered sodium salicylate was determined in vivo at 9.5 days of gestation. Fetuses from rats injected with this dose at 9.5 days were examined at 11.5 days and its propensities for producing resorption as well as deformities noted. Next, maternal serum levels 3-3.5 hours and 18.5 hours after salicylate injection were determined. Having established the feasibility of determining an effect due to salicylate at 11.5 days, after injection at 9.5 days, the following experiments were performed in vitro in animals cultured between 9.5 and 11.5 days by the method of New et al. (1976a): (1) Sodium salicylate was added to the culture serum, at levels equivalent to those obtained 3-3.5 hours after maternal injection of the optimum teratogenic dose, for 24 of the 48 hours culture period. (2) Rats were cultured for the first 24 hours of the 48 hours culture period in serum taken from rats injected 3.5 hours previously with the optimum teratogenic dose. (3) Rats were cultured for 24 out of 48 hours in serum from animals which had been injected with the optimum teratogenic dose 18.5 hours before bleeding. (4) Rats were cultured for 24 out of 48 hours in serum containing salicylate added to make up levels normally associated with (3). (5) A control culture was performed. The experiment indicates great similarity between the results obtained from animals cultured in serum with salicylate added and results from culture in serum of salicylate treated rats. It appears therefore that sodium salicylate - acting directly on the feto-placental unit - is the active teratogen rather than any of its metabolites.


Background: The debate on the question whether biomimetics has a specific potential to contribute to sustainability is discussed among scientists, business leaders, politicians and those responsible for project funding. The objective of this paper is to contribute to this controversial debate by presenting the sustainability assessment of one of the most well-known and most successful biomimetic products: the façade paint Lotusan®. Results: As a first step it has been examined and verified that the façade paint Lotusan® is correctly defined as a biomimetic product. Secondly, Lotusan® has been assessed and compared to a conventional façade paint within the course of a detailed product sustainability assessment (PROSA). For purposes of comparison, the façade paint Jumbosil® was chosen as reference for a conventional paint available on the market. The benefit analysis showed that both paints fulfil equally well the requirements of functional utility. With respect to the symbolic utility, Lotusan® has a particular added aesthetic value by the preservation of the optical quality over the life cycle. Within the social analysis no substantial differences between the two paints could be found regarding the handling and disposal of the final products. Regarding the life-cycle cost, Lotusan® is the more expensive product. However, the higher investment cost for a Lotusan®-based façade painting are more than compensated by the longer life time, resulting in both reduced overall material demand and lower labour cost. In terms of the life-cycle impact assessment, it can be ascertained that substantial differences between the paints arise from the respective service life, which are presented in terms of four scenario analyses. Conclusion: In summary, the biomimetic façade paint Lotusan® has been identified as a cost-effective and at the same time resource-saving product. Based on the underlying data and assumptions it could be demonstrated that Lotusan®-based façade paintings have a comparatively low overall impact on the environment. Summarizing our results, it can be emphasized that Lotusan® is the more favourable product compared to Jumbosil® according to sustainability aspects.


As a byproduct of phosphoric acid industry, phosphogypsum has many environmental problems. In order to recycle phosphogypsum to manufacture lightweight building materials, cementitious additives including fly ash, ground granulate blast-furnace slag and Portland cement were added to improve strength and water-resistance and different volume of foam was added to reduce the bulk density. The results show that hydrated lime can improve mechanical strength and water resistance of PG paste and the optimal dosage of hydrated lime is 6 %. Higher addition of fly ash or ground granulated blast-furnace slag improves the fluidity and delays the setting time of PG paste. The addition of 10 ~ 20 % fly ash results in a little reducing influence and 10 % ground granulated blast-furnace slag leads to an increase of 20.7 % for 28 days compressive strength of hardened PG specimen. The higher addition of Portland cement results in the better mechanical strength and water resistance of PG specimens. The 28day compressive and flexural strength reaches 25.9 MPa and 8.9 MPa respectively for the 25 % Portland cement mixture. PG based lightweight building materials can prepared by the addition of 60 % volume of air foam, with compressive strength of 1.7 MPa, bulk density of 521.7 kg/m3 and thermal conductivity of 0.0724 W/(m·K). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.25.3.19910


The design and self-assembly of novel multipyrene hexagonal metallacycles via coordination-driven self-assembly is described. By employing newly designed 120° dipyridine donor and di-Pt(II) acceptor linkers substituted with pyrene, a variety of tris- and hexakis(pyrene) hexagonal metallacycles with well-defined shape and size were prepared via [3 + 3] and [6 + 6] self-assembly, respectively, under mild conditions in high yields. The structures of these novel metallacycles were well characterized by multinuclear NMR (31P and 1H) spectroscopy, cold-spray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (CSI-TOF-MS), electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-TOF-MS), and elemental analysis. The shape and size of all hexagonal metallacycles were investigated by the PM6 semiempirical molecular orbital method. The preliminary study of their spectroscopic behavior was also carried out. It was found that these pyrene-modified metallacycles displayed different optical behaviors, which might be cause...


This paper outlines the framework of a hardware and software system using RFID technology, and a general procedure for secure electronic voting in a poll and precinct setting. The e-ballot can be used for recount compared to "ballot" on direct recording equipment (DRE) and optical scan. Voter verification, quick recounts, public bulletin boards, and security issues are discussed, along with an attempt at hardware and software design for secure remote home computer voting. A RFID approach to voting has theoretical advantages over current systems, like a paper ballot, it separates data (ballot) from the programming architecture (voting software/hardware), thus making the voting system verifiable.


Modern advanced phasor measurement units are developed with ultrahigh reporting rates to meet the demand for monitoring the power systems dynamics in detail. Due to the large volume of data, the communication and storage systems are seriously challenged with the presence of ultrahigh-density (UHD) synchrophasor and point-on-wave (POW) data. Therefore, it is an urgent task to compress the UHD data for more efficient communication and data storage. This article proposes several methods to compress the synchrophasor and POW data in a lossless manner. First, an improved time-series special compression (ITSSC) method is proposed to compress the UHD frequency data. Second, a delta-difference Huffman method is combined with the time-series special compression algorithm to compress the UHD phase angle data. Finally, a cyclical high-order delta modulation method is proposed to compress the UHD POW data. The proposed models are extensively tested and compared with different existing lossless compression algorithms using the field-collected synchrophasor and POW data at different reporting rates. The results indicate that the proposed algorithms are efficient in performing lossless compression for the UHD synchrophasor and POW data in real time.


A method for analyzing bacteria containing recombinant plasmids is described. It allows inexpensive and rapid manipulation and screening of a large number of clones without the need for extensive laboratory equipment.


We study the static and dynamic structure of thermally fluctuating elastic thin sheets by investigating a model known as the overdamped dynamic Föppl–von Kármán equation, in which the Föppl–von Kármán equation from elasticity theory is driven by white noise. The resulting nonlinear equation is governed by a single nondimensional coupling parameter g where large and small values of g correspond to weak and strong nonlinear coupling respectively. By analysing the weak coupling case with ordinary perturbation theory and the strong coupling case with a self-consistent methodology known as the self-consistent expansion, precise analytic predictions for the static and dynamic structure factors are obtained. Importantly, the maximum frequency nmax supported by the system plays a role in determining which of three possible classes such sheets belong to: (1) when g≫1 , the system is mostly linear with roughness exponent ζ = 1 and dynamic exponent z = 4, (2) when g≪2/nmax , the system is extremely nonlinear with roughness exponent ζ=1/2 and dynamic exponent z = 3, (3) between these regimes, an intermediate behaviour is obtained in which a crossover occurs such that the nonlinear behaviour is observed for small frequencies while the linear behaviour is observed for large frequencies, and thus the large frequency linear tail is found to have a significant impact on the small frequency behaviour of the sheet. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that ultra-thin materials such as graphene lie in this intermediate regime. Despite the existence of these three distinct behaviours, the decay rate of the dynamic structure factor is related to the static structure factor as if the system were completely linear. This quasi-linearity occurs regardless of the size of g and at all length scales. Numerical simulations confirm the existence of the three classes of behaviour and the quasi-linearity of all classes.


Transportation is one of the major carbon-footprint contributors towards country. These emissions are generated from automobiles on traffic, especially during congestion. In Malaysia, traffic congestion remains an issue, especially in developing regions, Penang and Kuala Lumpur which results in massive delays, fuel wastage, monetary losses and environmental pollution. In order to deter these issues, a sustainable transport mode should be promoted which is bicycle. The present study intends to look into the relationship between infrastructural factors and cycling intention. Availability, route planning and accessibility, are the predictor variables and user intention is the criterion variable. The Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), will be the underpinning theory in order to understand the intention from the road users. Judgmental sampling method were used and 400 usable data were collected from Penang population through self-administered questionnaire. The findings reveal that relationship between Availability of Public Bike (APB), Route Planning (RP) and Accessibility of cycling-transit integration (ACT) are positively correlated with user's intention to cycle (CCB), and APB was found to have a strongest relationship with user's intention to cycle (CCB) in this study.


In this study, the physical and chemical characteristics of wet and dry season groundwater quality parameters of 35 wells within the provincial boundaries of Sivas were used for calculations such as sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), Kelly's ratio (KR), sodium percentage (Na%), permeability index (PI), residual sodium carbonate (RSC) and magnesium hazard (MH), which are used in irrigation water quality ratings. Also, the irrigation water quality index (IWQI) was calculated for all groundwater sources within the study area. Groundwater quality parameters and the spatial distribution of the parameters calculated throughout the study were mapped using GIS, and irrigation water quality evaluation was performed in accordance with USA Salinity Laboratory diagram and irrigation water quality standards. The correlations between the irrigation water quality parameters were determined using Pearson correlation analysis. IWQI values showed that the majority of groundwater samples (45.7%) are in the 'weak' (MR: medium rating) category for the dry season, whereas 42.9% of groundwater samples fall within the 'very weak' (HR: high restriction) category for the wet season. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article presents an overview of the Albanian legal system of enforcement in the civil and commercial area. Its purpose is not only to identify the enforcement system in Albania and the characteristics of each enforcement title but also to compare it with that of the Brussels IA Regulation. The article concludes that the Albanian enforcement system is built on the spirit of the European system and is very similar to several European countries. However, the range of foreign enforcement titles that can be recognized and enforced in Albania is narrower than that provided in the European Union countries. Therefore, it should be expanded to include, in addition to irreversible judgments, other European enforcement acts, such as European Payment Order, Settlement Agreements, Authentic instruments, etc.


This article describes the effectiveness of open note quizzes in improving student outcomes in an introductory Human Anatomy and Physiology course. Results are discussed within the context of a teaching strategy called LETME (Link, Extract, Transform, Monitor and Extend), which was specifically developed for at risk community college students. The use of open note quizzes not only helped students monitor their progress, but also with note taking as they extracted and transformed information from the textbook and other sources. It also enabled them to link this information to previous knowledge and extend it to new concepts. In addition to achieving significantly higher test scores in the five lecture tests and overall grades, students exposed to LETME reported slightly better study habits in monitoring their own performance and their independent study skills. For instance, surveys indicated that they were more likely to use their textbook, take notes and be involved with study groups. The experimental group also reported that the open note quizzes helped them in preparing for exams and mastering the course. Students in the experimental group were also more likely to complete the course than the general student population.


This paper provides an overview of the history and funding of bioinformatics training in the USA, and summarises some of the challenges and key features associated with bioinformatics training programmes at PhD level. The paper includes compilations of current PhD bioinformatics training programmes and sources of funding.


The seismic analysis of a rigid-framed prestressed concrete bridge in Tianjin Light Railway is performed. A 3-D dynamic finite element model of the bridge is established considering the weakening effect caused by the soft soil foundation. After the dynamic characteristics are calculated in terms of natural frequencies and modes, the seismic analysis is carried out using the modal response spectrum method and the time-history method, respectively. Based on the calculated results, the reasonable design values are finally suggested as the basis of the seismic design of the bridge, and meanwhile the problems encountered were also analyzed. Finally, some conclusions are drawn as: 1) Despite the superiority of rigid-framed prestressed concrete bridge, the upper and lower ends of the piers of the bridge are proved to be the crucial parts of the bridge, which are easily destroyed under designed earthquake excitations and should be carefully analyzed and designed; 2) The soft soil foundation can possibly result in rather weakening of the lateral rigidity of the rigid-framed bridge, and should be paid considerable attention; 3) The modal response spectrum method, combined with time-history method, is suggested for the seismic analysis in engineering design of the rigid-framed prestressed concrete bridge.


One of the main economic benefits associated with the sustainable character of buildings is certainly the reduced use and energy consumption. The savings can be very significant, especially when you consider that a non-residential building, energy-efficient point of view, can be achieved a power savings of 30% (Kats, 2003). This, combined with the rising energy prices and growing awareness of environmental issues, has gradually shifted the demand towards buildings with good sustainable features; as a result, the concept of "sustainability" has become a real "driver" for designers " (Turner and Frankel, 2008). However it is appropriate and interesting to understand whether and to what extent a general trend, widely shared, is recognized by the market in terms of value. To simplify, it is appropriate to distinguish between the evidence of statistical data and considerations that have significant but only qualitative characteristics; then highlight statistics that demonstrate the relationship between the buildings performance in terms of sustainability, and the corresponding market value and, at the same time, raise the motivation and guidance of end users and investors to see if the market can push towards sustainability because of there issues such as economic benefit and convenience, and not only opportunities and responsibilities.


Single-port or single-incision laparoscopic surgery has been reported for a number of surgical procedures, including cholecystectomy, appendicectomy, and urological procedures. Single-port thoracoscopic procedures for evacuation of empyema have been described. However, to the authors' knowledge, there has been no report of single-port laparoscopic drainage of abdominal infected fluid collections, especially in children, in the relevant world literature. The authors report the first use of single-port laparoscopy with the TriPort system for drainage of abdominal infected fluid collections in children using the previous open appendicectomy wound. This approach was successfully completed in 2 consecutive children without conversion to open surgery. The operative duration was less than 30 minutes in each case. Both patients had no intraoperative or postoperative complications on follow-up at 8 weeks. Single-port laparoscopy with the TriPort system is safe and technically feasible for the management of pelvic collection and/or abscesses. Also, this technique is useful in multiloculated collections and allows for a washout of the peritoneal cavity at the same time, which is not the case for image-guided drainage. In addition, it also allows checking for the blowout of the appendicectomy stump as the cause for the collection. Finally, it has the advantage of reduced wound morbidity and better cosmesis.


In this paper a short survey is given of the work of L.A. Lyusternik on cubature formulae, which are many-dimensional generalizations of the standard quadrature formulae of Gauss for an interval. A general method is developed for constructing such formulae; a number of specific formulae are given and certain applications are made to the solution of partial differential equations.


This study, for the first time, rendered crab shell activated biochar modified by potassium hydroxide (KOH) impregnation (CSAB), revealing a new potential application in the removal of diesel oil from oily wastewater. The structural characteristics of crab shell biochar (CSB) and CSAB were investigated by SEM, and the crystal structure and optical properties of as-prepared samples were analyzed using XRD and FTIR. Results showed that CSAB had stratified surface structure morphology, abundant functional groups, and that its high specific surface area could reach up to 2441 m2/g, which was about eight times larger than that of untreated CSB (307 m2/g). An adsorption isotherm study indicated that the actual adsorption process both of CSAB and CSB were found to fit better with the Freundlich equation. Moreover, chemical interaction controlled the adsorption kinetics efficiency while the adsorption equilibrium capacity was 93.9 mg/g. Due to its highly developed pore structure, unique surface characteristics, and effective adsorption performance, this low-cost activated carbon had the potential to serve as an efficient adsorbent for water pollution purification.


Objective: To investigate the efficacy of intermittent cervical traction in the treatment of chronic neck pain over a 12-week follow-up. Design: A randomized controlled trial. Setting: Hospital-based outpatient practice. Subjects: Seventy-nine patients with chronic neck pain. Interventions: Subjects were randomly assigned to either experimental group (n = 39, mean age = 50.5 ± 9.8) or control group (n = 40, mean age = 48.8 ± 9.1). Experimental group received intermittent cervical traction and control group received infrared irradiation alone; twice a week over a period of six weeks. Outcome measurements: The values of Chinese version of the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ), verbal numerical pain scale (VNPS), and cervical active range of motion (AROM) were measured at baseline, six-week and 12-week follow-up. Results: No significant differences were found between the two groups in the NPQ (P > 0.05), VNPS (P > 0.05) and AROM (P > 0.05).


Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), a potent pan-histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, has been clinically approved for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). SAHA has also been shown to exert a variety of anticancer activities in many other types of tumors, however, few studies have been reported in large-cell lung carcinoma (LCC). Our study aimed to investigate the potential antitumor effects of SAHA on LCC cells. Here, we report that SAHA was able to inhibit the proliferation of the LCC cell line NCI-H460 in a dose- and time-dependent manner, induced cell apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest, decreased AKT and ERK phosphorylation, inhibited the expression of pro-angiogenic factors (VEGF, HIF-1α) in vitro, and suppressed tumor progression in an NCI-H460 cell nude mouse xenograft model in vivo. These results indicate that SAHA can exert its strong antitumor effects in LCC patient.


Stackelberg equilibria have become increasingly important as a solution concept in computational game theory, largely inspired by practical problems such as security settings. In practice, however, there is typically uncertainty regarding the model about the opponent. This paper is, to our knowledge, the first to investigate Stackelberg equilibria under uncertainty in extensive-form games, one of the broadest classes of game. We introduce robust Stackelberg equilibria, where the uncertainty is about the opponent's payoffs, as well as ones where the opponent has limited lookahead and the uncertainty is about the opponent's node evaluation function. We develop a new mixed-integer program for the deterministic limited-lookahead setting. We then extend the program to the robust setting for Stackelberg equilibrium under unlimited and under limited lookahead by the opponent. We show that for the specific case of interval uncertainty about the opponent's payoffs (or about the opponent's node evaluations in the case of limited lookahead), robust Stackelberg equilibria can be computed with a mixed-integer program that is of the same asymptotic size as that for the deterministic setting.


Abstract This book/lecture is intended for a college freshman level class in problem solving, where the particular problems deal with electrical and electronic circuits. It can also be used in a junior/senior level class in high school to teach circuit analysis. The basic problem-solving paradigm used in this book is that of resolution of a problem into its component parts. The reader learns how to take circuits of varying levels of complexity using this paradigm. The problem-solving exercises also familiarize the reader with a number of different circuit components including resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and operational amplifiers and their use in practical circuits. The reader should come away with both an understanding of how to approach complex problems and a "feel" for electrical and electronic circuits.


Content in semantic Web portals is often projected along application specific navigational taxonomies and linked semantically. This paper presents a logic-based method and a server Ontodella for these tasks. We argue that logic rules between the content layer and the application layer add flexibility and better architectural separation of content and functionality. The system has been implemented and applied succesfully in several semantic portals


Health literacy (HL) or basic reading and numeracy that allow an individual to function in the health care environment, is a relatively new topic, yet has increasingly been gaining interest over the past few years both in the research and policy agendas, particularly in the develop countries. Where studied, inadequate HL has been associated with poor health care quality and more cost. Yet many physicians do not recognize the problem or is not skilled enough to approach the subject with their patients. In this review, important aspects of HL, such as its epidemiology, associations with poor outcomes, assessment, determinants and interventions, particularly in nephrology, are discussed. Because it is common and associated to adverse clinical outcomes, inadequate HL should be incorporated into the list of assessments of patients with renal disease.


In a two-player game, two cooperating but non communicating players, Alice and Bob, receive inputs taken from a probability distribution. Each of them produces an output and they win the game if they satisfy some predicate on their inputs/outputs. The entangled value $\omega^*(G)$ of a game $G$ is the maximum probability that Alice and Bob can win the game if they are allowed to share an entangled state prior to receiving their inputs.
The $n$-fold parallel repetition $G^n$ of $G$ consists of $n$ instances of $G$ where Alice and Bob receive all the inputs at the same time and must produce all the outputs at the same time. They win $G^n$ if they win each instance of $G$. Recently, there has been a series of works showing parallel repetition with exponential decay for projection games [DSV13], games on the uniform distribution [CS14] and for free games, i.e. games on a product distribution [JPY13].
This article is meant to be a follow up of [CS14], where we improve and simplify several parts of our previous paper. Our main result is that for any free game $G$ with value $\omega^*(G)=1-\varepsilon$, we have $\omega^*(G^n) \le (1 - \varepsilon^2)^{\Omega(\frac{n}{\log(l)})}$ where $l$ is the size of the output set of the game. This result improves on both the results in [JPY13] and [CS14]. The framework we use can also be extended to free projection games. We show that for a free projection game $G$ with value $\omega^*(G)=1-\varepsilon$, we have $\omega^*(G^n) \le (1 - \varepsilon)^{\Omega(n)}$.


Abstract : Using the population of black officers 03-04, determine by investigation the validity of the alleged existence of sub-standard black officers commissioned at predominantly black universities; determine linkage between university preparation and continued service of the black officer. The basic foundation of our study emanates from conclusions drawn by the Class of 79 Black Officer Accession and Retention Study (BOAR). Data were gathered from a literature search, through interviews with personnel associated with the issue, and by attending a conference of Presidents and Chancellors of historically black colleges at Tuskegee Institute. Based upon an analysis of the data, specific on-going initiatives instituted by Department of the Army and the award of a contract 'to determine the role of predominantly black colleges in the production of officers for the military,' the study group concluded that continued effort would be redundant, uneconomical, and potentially detrimental to on-going initiatives. Thus, the collection and analysis of additional data were suspended. The group recommends follow-on investigation and evaluation of the effectiveness of DA initiatives; the conclusions and recommendations of DA- funded study (Scarboro); and the factors affecting retention of quality junior black officers. (Author)


The material culture of the communities living in the Middle Tisza Region during the 14th–13th centuries BC was formed by multiple cultural effects of diverse origin. The archaeological record of the settlement in Tiszabura, dated to the pre-Gáva period, is marked by an influence of the early Urnfield culture, maintaining strong connections with Transdanubia and the Eastern Alpine region, as well as by the local ceramic style having Belegiš II-type elements of Bánság origin blended in.The thousands of ceramic sherds yielded by a large-scale excavation of the site made it possible for one to create a network based on ceramic styles and surface treatment. The topology and resource distribution model of the constructed graph describe the direction and intensity of the Tiszabura community's strongest connections and define its position in the interaction network of contemporary communities.


This paper addresses the problem of self-tuning the parallelism degree in Transactional Memory (TM) systems that support parallel nesting (PN-TM). This problem has been long investigated for TMs not supporting nesting, but, to the best of our knowledge, has never been studied in the context of PN-TMs. Indeed, the problem complexity is inherently exacerbated in PN-TMs, since these require to identify the optimal parallelism degree not only for top-level transactions but also for nested sub-transactions. The increase of the problem dimensionality raises new challenges (e.g., increase of the search space, and proneness to suffer from local maxima), which are unsatisfactorily addressed by self-tuning solutions conceived for flat nesting TMs. We tackle these challenges by proposing AUTOPN, an on-line self-tuning system that combines model-driven learning techniques with localized search heuristics in order to pursue a twofold goal: i) enhance convergence speed by identifying the most promising region of the search space via model-driven techniques, while ii) increasing robustness against modeling errors, via a final local search phase aimed at refining the model's prediction. We further address the problem of tuning the duration of the monitoring windows used to collect feedback on the system's performance, by introducing novel, domain-specific, mechanisms aimed to strike an optimal trade-off between latency and accuracy of the self-tuning process. We integrated AUTOPN with a state of the art PN-TM (JVSTM) and evaluated it via an extensive experimental study. The results of this study highlight that AUTOPN can achieve gains of up to 45× in terms of increased accuracy and 4× faster convergence speed, when compared with several on-line optimization techniques (gradient descent, simulated annealing and genetic algorithm), some of which were already successfully used in the context of flat nesting TMs.


A systematic approach for the synthesis of flexible and controllable plants is presented. It provides a new quantitative measure of the flexibility and controllability of a design and allows the designer to systematically evaluate different process structures and/or control systems. An integrated approach based on the dynamic mixed-integer nonlinear-programming problem is introduced that consists of two stages in each iteration of the algorithm. In this way, the effect of disturbances on the process design and operation, as well as its ideal performance, under a variety of control schemes can be estimated. The method is illustrated using a mini-integrated plant as a case study.


From abstract: This report presents studies in cost analysis and plant design, and physics core thermal and fuel cycle analyses.


Gene drives are selfish genetic elements that can be re-designed to invade a population and they hold tremendous potential for the control of mosquitoes that transmit disease. Much progress has been made recently in demonstrating proof of principle for gene drives able to suppress populations of malarial mosquitoes, or to make them refractory to the Plasmodium parasites they transmit. This has been achieved using CRISPR-based gene drives. In this article, I will discuss the relative merits of this type of gene drive, as well as barriers to its technical development and to its deployment in the field as malaria control. This article is part of the theme issue 'Novel control strategies for mosquito-borne diseases'.


The fine lateral roots ofLysinema ciliatumR. Br., an epacrid from habitats subject to periodic drought in Western Australia, are hair roots resembling those of Ericaceae. The finest (ultimate) hair roots have a cortex consisting only of an endodermis and an exodermis. Both layers have Casparian strips on the radial walls. The exodermis develops to state III very close to the root tip, showing wall thickening and a suberized lamella encircling each cell. In many roots collected after tip-growth had ceased and the tip had fully differentiated this suberized exodermis completely encircled the apex. In older hair roots the epidermis collapses or is sloughed off leaving the suberized exodermis as the outermost layer. The very fine hair roots have a very small stele containing only one xylem tracheid, and phloem consisting of a single sieve element with companion cell. The very small diameter of the single tracheid indicates a high resistance to water flow along the hair roots. This may tend to conserve soil moisture in the region of the hair roots, leading to improved survival and prolonged function of mycorrhizas in the field.


In order to describe the social organization of termites with any precision, it is essential to have quantitative information on the spatial distribution of castes within the colony. Such information is important not only for descriptive purposes, but also because it can give clues to the interactions that take place within and among the different castes. Precise information on caste distribution within colonies is ordinarily not easy to obtain, because colonies are usually completely disrupted in opening them up, and because in any case the description of spatial organization in large three-dimensional or dispersed colonies in quantitative terms is difficult. But in some locations, colonies of certain kalotermitid species offer a unique opportunity to obtain just such data. In the Oleta River Mangrove Preserve just north of Miami, Florida, large numbers of Incisitermes schwarzi are found in slender, dead mangrove tree-trunks, where they form nearly one-dimensional colonies. Because the colonies are relatively small and are entirely above ground, and because the termites do not forage outside the wood, whole colonies can be collected in segments and analyzed. The results of such an analysis are the subject of this paper. While some of the findings of this study--the association of larvae with the royal pair, the aggregation of nymphs and alatesmhave been noted before in a casual way in the general descriptions of many other students of the Isoptera (e.g., Imms, 1919; Grass6, 1949), this is the first quantitative description of the spatial distribution of castes in a termite, and is worth putting on record for that reason.


This study reveals the link between the potential of nomophobia and the mental model of the child formed when memorizing al-qur'an. Basically, nomophobia is interpreted as a communication pathology in the form of a psychological disorder that causes children to feel restless and uncomfortable when away or can not access their gadgets instantly. Nevertheless, the research findings indicate a positive trend between nomophobia as a psychological disorder with a mental model that plays a vital role in determining students' ability to memorize al-qur'an. This is reflected in the activity of memorizing al-qur'an especially in conditioning sessions using video, images and religious ceremony before starting memorizing al-qur'an.Anak who have the potential or tendency nomophobia have a better mental model in memorizing al-qur ' an. This is due to the breadth of virtual experience that children get from using gadgets that can form their positive mental models when memorizing the Qur'an. This further affects the formation of strong emotions, the motivation to maintain memorization, foster awareness and better understanding of morals. Teachers and parents should create some conditions of use of gadgets based on the intensity of usage time, content accessed by children, and positive control over the child's negative behavior that arises.


————————————— This essay was presented in an abbreviated version as the A. A. Brill Lecture of the New York Psychoanalytic Society on November 30, 1971. Support by the Anne Pollock Lederer Research Fund of the Institute for Psychoanalysis of the long-term study of narcissism is gratefully acknowledged. Specifically, this essay sets forth the principal lines of thought to b e pursued in a detailed investigation of certain aspects of narcissism which is intended to be a continuation of the already published work on the vicissitudes of the libidinal cathexis of the self (Kohut, 1971). The future work will deal with the following three topics: (1) the libidinal a spects of narcissism—retrospective and supplementary considerations; (2) narcissism and aggression; and (3) narcissism and group psychology. The present essay deals in a preliminary form with the first two of these three topics; the scope of the third topic is briefly outlined at the end.


A dynamic Tobit model is applied to longitudinal data to estimate the hours of work of married women in Sweden during 1992-2001. Hours of work are found to be negatively related to fertility. Other characteristics of married women are also found to have an effect on labor supply. Intertemporal labor supply decisions seemed to be characterized by a substantial amount of unobserved heterogeneity, first order state dependence and serially correlated error components. The findings suggest that the first order state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity are very sensitive to the initial condition.


In order to analyze accurately the thermohydrodynamic behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flows, it is important to obtain the appropriate basic equations of mass, momentum and energy conservation. The basic equations presently used are obtained based on the two-fluid model assuming that both phases are continuous fluid. However, when these equations are applied to a dispersed flow such as a bubbly or droplet flow, problems arise regarding matters such as the physical interpretation of each term and ill-posedness. In view of the above, simplified and physically reasonable basic equations for gas-liquid dispersed flows were developed based on the assumptions that phase change rate and/or chemical reaction rate are not so large at interface, that there is no heat generation in a dispersed phase and that a dispersed phase can be treated as isothermally rigid particles. Based on the local instant formulation of mass, momentum and energy conservation of the dispersed flow, time-averaged equations were obtained. It is shown that, in the derived averaged momentum equation, the terms of pressure gradient and viscous momentum diffusion do not appear and that, in the energy equation, the term of molecular thermal diffusion heat flux does not appear. These characteristics of the derived equations were shown to be very consistent concerning the physical interpretation of the gas-liquid dispersed flow. Furthermore, the basic equations obtained always maintained their well-posedness as regards the initial value problem.


As our dependency on hlformation systems grows, the threat of having those disrupted by cyber attacks becomes a very pressing reality. We have witnesses nmltiple occurrences of attacks in the recent past that have seriously disrupted businesses and organizations. And, unfortunately, this trend is only increasing. For some time now, some research groups have been doing research oil data mining techniques that can potentially help in meeting the challenges posed by the attacks. This special issue is an attempt to bring some of these people together and disseminate some of the results among the SIGMOD audience, and perhaps spark the interest of the community for this emerging field. In this issue we have six papers. The first four deal with the issue of building Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) using data mining. The paper by Salvatore Stolfo and his group at Columbia University gives an overview of their system, the first one that employed data mining for IDS, and describes their vast experience with data mining techniques in the area. The second paper by researchers at George Mason University (Julia Couto, Sushil Jajodia, Ningning Wu, and myself) describes their experiences with ADAM, a system that uses data mining techniques to implement a different class of IDS: anomaly detection. The next paper, by J.B.D. Cabrera, L. Lewis and R.K. Mehra covers a radically different approach to IDS: the mining of sequences of system calls for classifying intrusions and faults induced by privileged processes in Unix. The fourth paper, by W. Lee (a former member of the Columbia University group) and W. Fan surveys the open opportunities for research in tim mining of audit trails. We change the topic in the fifth paper, by Y. Sagin, V. Verykios, and C. Clifton, with the description of techniques that prevent misuse of the association rules technique, in an attempt to preserve the privacy of sensitive data. The last paper by O. deVel, A. Anderson, M. Corney, and G. Mohay describes a technique used for forensic analysis with the aim of authorship attribution. I close this introduction by thanking all the authors involved in this issue for their efforts, and the Editor in Chief of the SIGMOD record, Ling Liu, for giving me the opportunity of presenting this exciting new field to the database community. I hope that you enjoy the issue.


Clinical and histopathological features of cutaneous vasculitis are presented by means of 14 case reports. Proof of vasculitis in skin biopsy consecutively demands for a search of a cause and of the extension of the vasculitic process in the sense of a systemic disease. The most frequent form of cutaneous vasculitis is hypersensitivity angiitis, a disease in which always an exogenous (drugs, infections) or an endogenous (malignant neoplasia, connective tissue disease) trigger should be sought if cutaneous vasculitis persists after removal or treatment of the suspected cause. Then, antihistaminic or--particularly in cases with systemic involvement--immunosuppressive drugs (corticosteroids or cyclophosphamide) should be considered.


The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the main characteristics of the management of local public policy network that controls food safety in three municipalities in the state of Sao Paulo. These municipalities were chosen because they represent different population sizes and implement food safety programs that are structurally similar. Therefore, it is possible to identify their institutional and organizational barriers concerning the public policy networks. The descriptions and evaluations of these networks are institutional and, despite some similarity in rules, norms, laws, and conventions, there are differences in some organizational basis. The comparative study was based on a participatory research to evaluate the obstacles and effectiveness of each network program. The results identified structural and functional differences in the food safety policy network of the three cities investigated and indicated that structural factors (such as the degree of central control and level of resources among others) can influence the effectiveness of the programs although the functional factors are those that need more urgent improvements. The present study suggests ways that these programs can use to achieve more positive results in the coming years.


Idea association involves a dynamic linking process among ideas, cases and the links themselves. Based on the knowledge representation issueconcept-form proposed by Oxman (1994), design ideas, cases and links are elucidated. Furthermore, various and dynamic linking plays are involved in two steps: divergent, in which alternative idea entities are linked, and convergent, in which these idea entities are selected. These linking plays provide a computational mechanism for indexing prior design cases dynamically. Finally, an index prototype for supporting the linking process of idea association, called Mapmaker, is proposed in this paper.


A novel oxalate-based complex of the formula {Ba(2)(H(2)O)(5)[NbO(C(2)O(4))(3)]HC(2)O(4)}·H(2)O (1) was prepared from an aqueous solution containing the [NbO(C(2)O(4))(3)](3-) and Ba(2+) entities in the molar ratio 1:2, and characterized by X-ray single-crystal diffraction, IR spectroscopy, and thermal analysis. The crystal packing of 1 reveals a complex three-dimensional (3D) network: the Nb polyhedron is connected to eight neighboring Ba polyhedra through the oxalate ligands and the oxo-oxygen group, whereas the Ba polyhedra share edges and vertices. The ability of compound 1 to act as a single-source precursor for the formation of bimetallic oxides was investigated by the thermal analysis (TGA and DSC) and X-ray powder diffraction. Thermal processing of 1 resulted in the formation of mixed-metal oxide phases, Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9) and Ba(5)Nb(4)O(15). Three stable polymorphs of Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9) were isolated: the known, hexagonal α- and orthorhombic γ-Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9), and another one, not previously reported, hexagonal δ-Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9) polymorph. The new, δ-Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9) polymorph has the 6H-perovskite structure (space group P6(3)/m), in which the Nb(2)O(9)(8-) face-sharing octahedral dimers are interconnected via corners to the regular BaO(6)(10-) octahedra. Formation of the mixed-metal oxides takes place at different temperatures: the Ba(5)Nb(4)O(15) oxide occurred at ∼700 °C, as the major crystalline oxide phase; by heating the sample up to 1135 °C, the α-Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9) form was obtained, whereas the heating at 1175 °C caused the crystallization of two polymorphs, γ-Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9) and δ-Ba(4)Nb(2)O(9). Special focus was set on the electrical properties of the prepared mixed Ba(II)-Nb(V) oxides obtained by this molecular pathway in a single-step preparation.


Abstract Objective Although scissor-type knives such as the Stag-Beetle (SB) Knife Jr are expected to result in a safe and easy colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (CR-ESD), information regarding the learning curve is lacking. Therefore, this study evaluated the learning curve with using SB Knife Jr. Materials and methods We retrospectively reviewed 507 CR-ESD procedures performed in 464 patients using SB Knife Jr. The primary endpoint was a learning curve to achieve a satisfactory complete resection rate. The secondary endpoints were learning curves to achieve a satisfactory en bloc resection rate, curative resection rate, and resection speed. Results The complete, en bloc, and curative resection rates were 91.9%, 95.9%, and 84.0%, respectively. Moving average analysis showed that 39 cases were required for a complete resection rate of >80%, 41 for an en bloc resection rate of >90%, and 50 for a curative resection rate of >75%. We divided the procedure into three phases using the cumulative sum method: I, II, and III (cases 1–36, 37–119, and 120–507, respectively). Although we found no significant between-phase differences, the complete resection rate showed an increasing trend in Phase III (83.3 vs. 89.2 vs. 93.3%; p = .099). The en bloc resection rate (91.7 vs. 91.6 vs. 97.2%; p = .047) and resection speed (20.5 vs. 7.2 vs. 6.8 min/cm2; p < .001) were greater in Phase III. Despite the larger specimen size (27.3 vs. 38.2 vs. 40.4 mm; p < .001) and more severe fibrosis (p < .001) in Phase III, the procedure time was shorter (73.8 vs. 57.8 vs. 54.2 min; p = .041). The curative resection rate was not significantly different between phases. Conclusions SB Knife Jr enables safe and easy CR-ESD during the introductory period compared to the conventional tip-type knife and has an acceptable learning curve. Therefore, using this knife will encourage the widespread adoption of CR-ESD in Asian general hospitals and non-Asian countries.


Optical interface multichip modules promise to alleviate the bottlenecks of electrical interconnection. Two kinds of optical transmitter multichip module were fabricated for optical printed circuit board (OPCB) based interconnections for performance analysis. Each of the modules consist of 1 x 4 bottom-emitting VCSELs flip-chip bonded on a CMOS driver array IC for optical interconnection; among them one is an 850nm short-wavelength and the other is a 1310nm long-wavelength VCSEL. The short- and long-wavelength VCSELs have -3dB bandwidth of about 3.6 GHz and 2.6 GHz, respectively. Four-channel driver array which has been fabricated in a 0.18μm Si-CMOS technology requires 1.8V of power supply, is used for the both multichip transmitter modules. Short- and long-wavelength multichip modules are bumped with Au/Sn solder and gold stud bump wire respectively using the flip-chip bonding technology. The multichip modules have a dimension of 1.1mm x 1.2mm x 0.5mm for the four channels. The multichip module employing flip-chip bonding technology reduces unwanted crosstalk due to bond wires. The two modules showed BER less than 10-12 and clear eye openings at 2.5 Gbps. We measured the frequency response and crosstalk of long-wavelength multichip module and will compare them with the short-wavelength multichip module to evaluate which module is preferable for the optical interconnection applications on optical PCBs.


Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) facilitate vehicles to wirelessly communicate with neighboring vehicles as well as with roadside units (RSUs). However, the existence of inaccurate information within the network can cause traffic aberrations and also disrupt the normal functioning of any traffic monitoring system. Thus, determining the credibility of broadcast messages originating from the region of interest (ROI) is crucial under a malicious environment. Additionally, a breach of privacy involving a vehicle's private information, such as location and velocity, can lead to severe consequences like unauthorized tracking and masquerading attack. Thus, we propose an edge cloud based privacy-preserving secured decision making model that employs a heuristic based on vehicular data such as GPS location and velocity to authenticate traffic-related information from the ROI under different traffic scenarios such as congestion. The effectiveness of the proposed model has been validated using VENTOS, SUMO, and Omnet++ simulators, and also by using a simulated cloud environment. We compare our proposed model to the existing peer-based authentication model, the majority voting model, and the reputation-based system under different attack scenarios. We show that our model is capable of filtering malicious vehicles effectively and provide accurate traffic information under the presence of at least one non-malicious vehicle within the ROI.


Abstract The paper proposes an approach to solving the problem of optimal placement of data array replicas in a distributed system. It presents a formal model of a distributed system with unreliable communication channels. A system is represented as a graph with coloured arcs. The formulation of the problem of finding the optimal placement of replicas is given. As a criterion for optimization, the minimum response time to a data request is considered. The task solution heuristic algorithm is also proposed in the paper.


Severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) remains a significant challenge for neonatal specialists. In order to reduce complications during extraction of the surgical balloon after fetoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO) CDH, we have developed a FETO with a 'long tail balloon' of 2.5 mL volume. Here we describe two successful uses of the device with observed/expected total fetal lung volume (o/e TFLV) of 15% and with o/e TFLV of 24% and 'liver up'. The o/e TFLV increased to 134% in first case and to 47% in second fetus. The balloon was successfully extracted at 34 weeks' gestation by pulling the long tail suture during second fetoscopy. In the second case the fetus pulled out the balloon from trachea itself by traction onto the balloon's long tail. Both neonates were operated on for their CDH with a good outcome. This work showed the feasibility of this long tail balloon for FETO to reduce the technical difficulty of the balloon extraction and the possibility that fetuses are able to extract the balloon by itself by pulling the balloons' long tail. Further development of long tail balloon for FETO could facilitate its extraction thereby reducing neonatal complications.


In bird species in which territories are defended by both sexes, 'showing up together' is a widespread behaviour of mated individuals. To test whether the spatial proximity of simultaneously appearing mates would have a territorial signal function we presented robin chats (Cossypha heuglini H.) to mounts of conspecifics placed within their territories, Experimental variables were (1) distance between mounts, and (2) number of mounts. Results: Compared to single mount presentations, residents did not show significant differences in agonistic approaches towards the 'intruders', when mounts were positioned with a distance of 3-6 m to each other (spaced presentations). In contrast, when the distance between mounts was 0.3-0.6 m, (close presentations, simulating the close perching of mates) residents approached them significantly less often and less close (Tables 1 and 2). Such approach and attack inhibitions were not stronger when three or four mounts were offered instead of two. Residental pairs spent more time in non-vocal display behaviours than did single residents (Table 3). During playback of conspecific song after having been presented to a mount test, the residents' responses appeared to be influenced by whether they had received a spaced or a close mount test before. Our results have demonstrated the significance of visual pair recognition through clues from spatial proximity of birds. As with the vocal duet displays, the close perching of pair members may function in signalling cooperation during territorial confrontation with conspecifics.


Discussion about tourist events and other forms of socialization that take place in the Historic Center of São Luís – located in the State of Maranhão, in Brazil –  which, in turn, give rise to collective tourist experiences linked to Historical Heritage. The aim of our work is to highlight the role of these events in the composition of collective heritage interactions, enhancing the general notion about the importance of preserving historic spaces and monuments. It addresses concepts of themes such as experience, heritage, and tourism, with an emphasis on the narrative of collective experiences. With a descriptive and analytical focus, it uses bibliographic material from authors who address the issues pertinent to the study and also analyzes the data collected through field research made with residents who participated in tourist events and socializations in the Historic Center of São Luís. These gregarious interactions are believed to promote the materialization of a collective feeling of belonging with the heritage.


Every province and territory in Canada has an independent ethics commissioner, along with ethics rules, and so too does the House of Commons, the Senate, and cabinet. The ethics regime for the House of Commons and the cabinet, however, appears to be the least successful of these ethics regimes in preventing breach of the rules. This article identifies the major weaknesses of the federal ethics regime. While in most other jurisdictions the ethics commissioner meets annually with all legislators to explain the rules, the extensive mandate of the federal ethics commissioner makes fulfilling the primary function – prevention through education – challenging. Face-to-face meetings between the ethics commissioner and members of the House of Commons and cabinet rarely occur. The author reviews inquiries made by the two House of Commons commissioners since 2004, and argues that many of the inquiries would have been unnecessary if face-to-face meetings had been held.


For the problem of poor control precision of high-speed solenoid valves which are widely used in aero-engine control systems, a fuzzy-PID control system based on Soc single-chip is designed in this paper by using fuzzy self-tuning of PID parameters control algorithm. Because the Soc single-chip can control the output flow of high-speed solenoid valve very well by its PWM function, the monitoring system may not only enhance the control precision of high-speed solenoid valve, but also may improve the anti-interference performance greatly. Moreover, Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


In this paper the Markov analyzer MOSES (MOdelling, Speci cation and Evaluation System) and the model description language MOSLANG { both developed at the Institute for Operating Systems at the University of Erlangen{Nuernberg { are described using two examples. To evaluate the performance of a computer system the system has to be speci ed. In this paper the model description language MOSLANG is introduced and applied to some examples. The core of MOSLANG consists of constructs suitable for the speci cation of the possible states of the system and of RULE constructs which model the state transitions. This speci cation method is much more compact than other comparable methods and enables the user to specify large systems when he has become familiar with MOSLANG. The Markov analyzer MOSES supports the input of MOSLANG and subsequently creates the Markovian system of equations automatically. For solving this system of equations ve di erent methods are provided. MOSES calculates the state probabilities and derives from them the performance measures which are speci ed using MOSLANG. MOSES has been used to solve many di erent problems, among others for analyzing and comparing di erent multiprocessor versions of the operating system UNIX. MOSES is implemented in the programming language C and runs on all UNIX systems.


Publicly available summaries from Marketing Authorization Applications for gene and cell therapy products (advanced therapies) were evaluated to explore data expectations for product characteristics pre and post changes (comparability). Public assessment reports were used to analyze trends in information requests from regulators concerning comparability from current commercial advanced therapies. In the analysis, 12 products approved in the USA and EU were included. Inadequacies were highlighted for comparability data (six products); additional information requests (five products) and major objections were identified relating to comparability (two products, EU). Postapproval authorization obligations were imposed for six products. Comparability data are essential component for regulatory applications and public assessment reports provide a valuable source of insight into regulators' expectations.


Three cases of so‐called trichoblastic infundibular cyst are reported. The lesions showed a configuration similar to infundibular cysts, including basophilic orthokeratotic corneocytes arranged in basket‐weave pattern and intermingled with eosinophilic sebum. The cyst wall was mainly composed of stratified squamous epithelium showing infundibular keratinization throughout a granular layer. However, in some areas, epithelial cords, buds and reticulated proliferations of follicular germinative cells surrounded by a densely cellular stroma emanated radially from the cyst wall. In one case, in addition to the presence of follicular germinative cells, there were also aggregations of matrical cells with evidences of inner sheath and matrical differentiation. In our opinion, these findings support a neoplastic rather than a cystic nature for this lesion. We discuss the histopathologic differential diagnosis with other follicular cystic lesions showing similar keratinization.


Lung cancers with activating mutations in the KRAS oncogene present a major clinical challenge due to poor prognosis and frequent treatment resistance, particularly to agents targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). For many years, it has been known that mutations in KRAS enhance cellular resistance to ionizing radiation (IR). Clinical data are emerging suggesting that the radioresistance of KRASmut cancer cells that is observed in the laboratory is also seen in patients. However, the underlying mechanisms of mutant KRAS-associated radioresistance is understudied and poorly understood. Cancer stem cells (CSC), also referred to as tumor-initiating cells, may promote metastases development and recurrence after therapy. Generally, cancer cells with CSC-like phenotypes or markers have been found to be radioresistant. Enhanced DNA damage response and repair pathways have been discussed as one underlying mechanism. Interestingly, mutant KRAS has been recently linked to CSC-like phenotypes such as tumor initiation, anchorage independence, and self-renewal. Here, we characterized a radioresistant phenotype associated with KRAS mutated lung cancer cells, xenografts, and patients. CSC-like cells were defined as tumor-initiating cells. Genomic, biochemical, and cell-based assays were used to identify candidates for targeting KRAS mutation-mediated radiation resistance. Radiation resistance is conferred by a CSC-like subpopulation that is characterized by condensed chromatin, high CD133 expression, invasive potential, and tumor-initiating properties. Osteopontin, the gene product of SPP1, promotes aspects of this phenotype including radiation resistance and acts in the same pathway as the EGFR. SPP1/EGFR-dependent chromatin condensation not only protects cells against radiation-induced DNA damage but also downregulates putative negative regulators of CSC-like properties, including CRMP1 and BIM. This phenotype defines a subset of KRAS mutated lung cancers that is enriched for co-occurring TP53 mutations. In conclusions, markers and mechanisms of resistance to radiation therapy in lung and other cancers are poorly characterized. Our data provide novel insight into the aggressive biology of KRAS mutant cancers and have major implications for strategies to overcome the radiation resistance associated with this genotype. Citation Format: Meng Wang, Jing Han, Lynnette Marcar, Josh Black, Qi Liu, Xiangyong Li, Kshithija Nagulapalli, Lecia V. Sequist, Raymond H. Mak, Cyril H. Benes, Theodore S. Hong, Kristin Gurtner, Mechthild Krause, Michael Baumann, Jing X. Kang, Johnathan R. Whetstine, Henning Willers. A SPP1-EGFR pathway links stem-like properties of KRAS-mutated lung cancer to radiation resistance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4756. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4756


Wind erosion is a threat to the sustainability and productivity of soils that takes place at local, regional, and global scales. Current estimates of the cost of wind erosion have not included the costs associated with the loss of soil biodiversity and reduced ecosystem functions. Microorganisms carried in dust are responsible for numerous critical ecosystem processes including biogeochemical cycling of nutrients, carbon storage, soil aggregation, and transformation of toxic compounds in the source soil. Currently, much of the information on microbial transport in dust has been collected at continental scales, with no comprehensive review regarding the microbial communities, particularly those associated with agricultural systems, redistributed by wind erosion processes at smaller scales including regional or field scales. Agricultural systems can contribute significantly to atmospheric dust loading and loss or redistribution of soil microorganisms are impacted in three interactive ways: (1) differential loss of certain microbial taxa depending on particle size and wind conditions, (2) through the destabilization of soil aggregates and reduction of available surfaces, and (3) through the reduction of organic matter and substrates for the remaining community. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of dust sampling technologies, methods for microbial extraction from dust, and how abiotic, environmental, and management factors influence the dust microbiome within and among agroecosystems. The review also offers a perspective on important potential future research avenues with a focus on agroecosystems and the inclusion of the fungal component. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


phatic allusion to 'two blows' followed by a 'third,' which is intentionally separate. This surely accords well with the supposition that there were two implements: she first cut him down with two blows of the axe falling on the head, which was an easy mark; then, when he was down and at her mercy, she finished him with one thrust of the sword of Aegisthus. We can found only a general presumption on the fact that Sophocles (Elect. 99) and Euripides (Hec. 1261) gave Clytemnestra the axe. But at any rate this cannot have been borrowed, as a scholiast suggests, by a hasty inference from Homer Od. iv. 535, 'he (Aegisthus) slew him like an ox at the stall, when he had feasted him'; for in the other version (Od. xi.), where the very same phrase is repeated, the sword is expressly mentioned (424). On the other hand it is likely enough that Sophocles and Euripides followed a dramatic precedent and brought in the axe as familiar, leaving out the sword. That Aeschylus placed both in her hands is the only theory which appears to fit with the data. His reason for adding the sword is obvious : it was to bring into clear relief the instrumentality of Aegisthus in the fulfilment of the inherited curse on the house of Atreus, to which he belonged. From this point of view Aegisthus was the chief agent, Clytemnestra the accessory. This solution involves no technical difficulty either as regards the execution of the double murder or the presentation by means of the eccyclema. We may conjecture that Cassandra was despatched with the axe after Agamemnon and the sword then used on Agamemnon's body in gratuitous cruelty, and that Clytemnestra was exhibited with the sword in her hand and the axe lying at her feet.


Threshold photodetachment spectroscopy has been performed on the molecular anion CN- at both 16(1) K and 295(2) K in a 22-pole ion trap and at 295(2) K from a pulsed ion beam. The spectra show a typical energy dependence of the detachment cross section yielding a determination of the electron affinity of CN to greater precision than has previously been known at 31 163(16) cm-1 [3.864(2) eV]. Allowed s-wave detachment is observed for CN-, but the dependence of the photodetachment cross section near the threshold is perturbed by the long-range interaction between the permanent dipole moment of CN and the outgoing electron. Furthermore, we observe a temperature dependence of the cross section near the threshold, which we attribute to a reduction of the effective permanent dipole due to higher rotational excitation at higher temperatures.


Currently search engines like Google, Yahoo and Excite are centralized, which means that all queries that users post are sent to some big servers (or server group) that handle them. In this way it is easy for the systems to relate IP-addresses with the queries posted from them. Clearly privacy is a problem here. Also censoring out certain information which is not 'appropriate' is simple, and shown in recent examples. To give more privacy to the users and make censoring information more difficult, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems are a good alternative to the centralized approach. In P2P systems the search functionality can be devided over a large group of autonomous computers (Peers), where each computer only has a very small piece of information instead of everything. Now the problem in such a distributed system is to make the search process efficient in terms of bandwith, storage, time and CPU usage. In this Ph.D. thesis, three approaches are described that try to reach goal of finding the short routes between seeker and providers with high efficiency. These routing algorithms are all applied on 'Semantic-Overlay-Networks' (SONs). In a SON, peers maintain pointers to semantically relevant peers based on content descriptions, which makes them able to choose the relevant peers for queries instead of, for example, choosing random peers. This work tries to show that decentralized search algorithms based on semantic routing are a good alternative to centralized approaches.


The 'ecosystem service' debate has taken on many features of a classic Kuhnian paradigm. It challenges conventional wisdoms about conservation and the value of nature, and is driven as much by political agendas as scientific ones. In this paper we review some current and emerging issues arising in relation to the analysis and assessment of ecosystem services, and in particular emphasize the need for physical geographers to find new ways of characterizing the structure and dynamics of service providing units. If robust and relevant valuations are to be made of the contribution that natural capital makes to human well-being, then we need a deeper understanding of the way in which the drivers of change impact on the marginal outputs of ecosystem services. A better understanding of the trade-offs that need to be considered when dealing with multifunctional ecosystems is also required. Future developments must include methods for describing and tracking the stocks and flows that characterize natural capital. This will support valuation of the benefits estimation of the level of reinvestment that society must make in this natural capital base if it is to be sustained. We argue that if the ecosystem service concept is to be used seriously as a framework for policy and management then the biophysical sciences generally, and physical geography in particular, must go beyond the uncritical 'puzzle solving' that characterizes recent work. A geographical perspective can provide important new, critical insights into the place-based approaches to ecosystem assessment that are now emerging.


The aim of the paper was to compare the growth of rural Croatian infants with 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth standards and to evaluate the potential preventive influence of breastfeeding on the development of obesity in infancy. Two hundred three infant-mother pairs from Baranja, an Eastern region of Croatia, were enrolled into this study. Retrospective evaluation of infants' medical charts was used to obtain anthropometric data recorded at the birth, 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age. Infant feeding mode was self-reported by mothers. Breastfed infants gained the least weight of all observed groups. Up to 6 months of age, formula fed infants had the highest weight gain and after 6 months of age, mixed milk fed infants had the highest weight gain. At 12 months of age, 6.4% of all study infants and 7.6% of mixed milk fed infants were at risk of overweight, while the same risk for the group of breastfed infants was 4%. Most of the study infants achieved higher values of body mass and length than the child growth standards. Exclusively breastfed infants, in comparison with other study groups (formula fed infants, mixed milk fed infants and cow's milk fed infants), had lower weight-for-length z-scores during the first year, which suggests that breastfeeding may have a preventive impact on obesity development.


Lenticulostriate artery (LSA) aneurysms are uncommon. Here, we report one case of ruptured LSA aneurysm which is related to Moyamoya disease (MMD). Surgical treatment of this aneurysm is challenging because of its deep location and complex neural structures around the LSA. We report one case treated with endovascular Onyx embolization, successfully and review LSA aneurysm associated with MMD.


Having studied, as mentioned in the previous report, the changes of blood-platelets in the splenic arteries and veins, I extended my investigation into white corpuscles, hemoglobin and reticulated red cells: and with the object of ascertainning what their changes mean, I carried out an histological research of the spleen, the liver and the bonemarrow in the above-stated procedures and came to the following conclusions. 1) In the case of a normal rabbit, the number of the white corpuscles especially the lymphocytes in the splenic veins exceeds that in the splenic arteries. 2) After thyroidectomy and the injection of phenylhydrazin the white corpuscles in splenic veins increase more remarkably than those in splenic arteries, the lymphocytes and monocytes also showing a remarkable augmentation. 3) When adrenalin or silver-elecroid is injected, the white corpuscles in splenic veins outnumber exceedingly those in splenic arteries. When adrenalin is injected, the lymphocytes and monocytes increase especially. When silver-elecroid is injected, the augmentation of the lymphocytes is not comparatively remarkable, while on the other hand, the pseudoeosinophile-leucocytes increase. 4) In the case of a normal rabbit, as well as in that where the thyroidectomy is performed, a greater quantity of hemoglobin is found in the splenic veins than in the splenic arteries, and it is especially so when phenylhydrazin is injected. But the continuous injection of silver-elecroid does not cause any remarkable change of the contents of splenic veins and arteries. The quantity of the hemoglobin fluctuates almost in the same way as the number of the red blood corpuscles does. 5) No remarkable change of the reticulated red cells occurs in splenic arteries and veins. 6) After thyroidectomy and the injection of phenylhydrazin, the appearance of the megacaryocytes in the spleen is demonstrable, but no remarkable change occurs in the liver. 7) Thyroidectomy gives rise to the atrophy of the bone-marrow, the proliferation of adipose tissue and the decrease of megacaryocytes. A similar tendency is recognizable when phenylhydrazin is injected. 8) From these above-stated blood pictures of the splenic arteries and veins, as well as the histological researches of the blood-making organs, it may be inferred that from thyroidectomical causes, the spleen regains, in a compensatory sense, its blood-making function outside the bone-marrow.


The technology for coiled-tubing-conveyed perforating (CTCP) under extreme conditions has been available for a number of years, but until recently, the techniques have not been used in Venezuela. This paper will describe the first experiences in which CTCP has been used in this area. The first candidate identified for the application was a new well in East Venezuela. This well was the first high pressure, high temperature (HP/HT) highly deviated deep monobore well completed in El Furrial Field in the North Monagas area that was perforated underbalanced with this technology. Although several traditional perforating methods were initially evaluated, the decision was made to perform the operation underbalanced using rig-assisted coiled-tubing technology because of the following advantages that could be realized from use of this method ○ Debris in the tunnel would be reduced, minimizing the potential for formation damage. ○ The debris could be circulated out more easily. ○ The use of kill fluid to control the well would not be necessary. ○ By eliminating the cost of the kill fluid and the resulting costs of handling the returned kill fluid, well costs would be reduced, The operation was performed in a live well with a 77-degree maximum well deviation and total depth (TD) of 17,907 feet. Several engineering simulations were performed before the job. These simulations enabled the operator and service engineering personnel to quantify the effects of CT fatigue, lockup, stresses, forces, elongation due to weight and temperature, and buoyancy effects. Other important factors considered were safety, health, environment, quality and well control, taking into account all possible contingencies. Finally, nine (9) coiled tubing runs were performed to complete the well, a total of 1,190 ft of 3 3/8-in., 6 shots per foot (SPF) and 2 3/4-in., 6 SPF guns were run. In all of the coiled-tubing-conveyed perforating runs, the expended guns were retrieved successfully under live well conditions. To retrieve the guns without killing the well, a subsurface flapper-type safety valve, which enabled the operations to be performed under controlled conditions, was used. Currently, the well is producing 19,621 BOPD through a I-in, choke and 1,591 psi surface pressure. Production and wellhead pressure expectations for this well were exceeded.


The prevalence of reported chronic diseases was studied in quintiles of waist/hip ratio and Quetelet index in 11,825 women aged 40-73 presenting for mammographic screening in the DOM-project. After adjustment for age and Quetelet index, increased waist/hip ratio was found to be associated with an increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cholecystectomy and a lower prevalence of varicose veins. No associations were observed between waist/hip ratio and the prevalence of angina pectoris, gout and rheumatism. The odds ratios, adjusted for age and Quetelet index, of the highest versus the lowest quintile of waist/hip ratio were 3.4 (95% CI 1.4-8.3) for diabetes mellitus; 2.2 (95% CI 1.7-2.8) for hypertension; 2.0 (95% CI 1.2-3.4) for cholecystectomy, and 0.81 (95% CI 0.68-0.95) for varicose veins. After adjustment for waist/hip ratio and age, Quetelet index was found to be associated with an increased prevalence of hypertension, cholecystectomy and varicose veins. Quetelet index, however, was not found to be related to diabetes, gout or rheumatism. We conclude that in a representative sample of Dutch women older than 40 years, fat distribution in addition to overweight is related to important chronic diseases.


High throughput measurements of DNA methylomes at single-cell resolution are a promising resource to quantify the heterogeneity of DNA methylation and uncover its role in gene regulation. However, limitations of the technology result in sparse CpG coverage, effectively posing challenges to robustly quantify genuine DNA methylation heterogeneity. Here we tackle these issues by introducing scMET, a hierarchical Bayesian model which overcomes data sparsity by sharing information across cells and genomic features, resulting in a robust and biologically interpretable quantification of variability. scMET can be used to both identify highly variable features that drive epigenetic heterogeneity and perform differential methylation and differential variability analysis between pre-specified groups of cells. We demonstrate scMET's effectiveness on some recent large scale single cell methylation datasets, showing that the scMET feature selection approach facilitates the characterisation of epigenetically distinct cell populations. Moreover, we illustrate how scMET variability estimates enable the formulation of novel biological hypotheses on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression in early development. An R package implementation of scMET is publicly available at https://github.com/andreaskapou/scMET.


Unwritten language leaves no material traces, so whether or not a particular fossil hominid possessed language must be inferred from proxy evidence. This leaves a great deal of room for argument. My contention here is that the intimate feedback between language and symbolic cognition strongly implies that the possession of language may only be confidently inferred from the material products of symbolic minds. Such products include geometrical and realistic imagery, items of symbolic bodily adornment, highly complex multistage technologies, and even radical alterations in the tempo of change itself. Evidence in these categories is known from African sites dating from the later Middle Stone Age, ca. 80 kyr ago, and possibly earlier. However, even the most ancient such sites considerably postdate the appearance in the same continent of Homo sapiens as an anatomically distinct entity, at some point around 200 kyr ago. The first anatomically modern people appear to have possessed behavioral repertoires not unlike those of contemporaneous nonsymbolic hominids such as Homo neanderthalensis , strongly suggesting (1) that symbolic cognition, and by extension language, were acquired by Homo sapiens well within its tenure, and (2) that at this point the anatomical structures necessary for producing modern speech had already been in existence for a considerable time, having been acquired initially in another context entirely. What is more, the neural substrate that permits symbolic thought was clearly already present, having presumably been acquired in the major developmental reorganization that gave rise to Homo sapiens as a distinct anatomical entity. The biology, after all, must have been in place to allow the behavior to be expressed. But the immediate impetus to the acquisition of symbolic thought appears necessarily to have been cultural rather than biological. Most likely, this stimulus was the invention of language, which, as an externalized attribute, could have spread with particular rapidity through a biologically enabled population.


This study on Acer campestre L. subsp. campestre , used traditionally in treatments of various inflammation disorders, especially hemorrhoids and rheumatism, aimed to determine the total phenolic contents, the antioxidant and antimicrobial potentials, and the chemical composition profile of the extracts and subextracts from maple syrup and Acer campestre L. subsp. campestre leaves and twigs. The antioxidant activities of maple syrup extracts and subextracts were examined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), and the total phenolic contents of all samples were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (FCR) method. Also, they were tested for their antimicrobial activities by microbroth dilution technique. Catechic tannin, saponins and flavonoids are determined in its leaves and twigs by preliminary qualitative phytochemical analysis. The alcoholic extracts obtained by 48-hour maceration (91.2%), ethyl acetate subextract of alcohol extracts obtained by 24-hour maceration (91.1%) and alcohol extracts obtained by 24-hour maceration (88.8%) exhibited higher radical scavenging activity than other samples, while the decoction and infusion had moderate activities. Beside of this, it was found that the syrup and its subextracts have more total phenolic contents than other extracts. The alcohol extracts obtained by 24-hour maceration and by 48-hour maceration exhibited higher activity against Candida albicans (78 μg/mL and 156 μg/mL, respectively). Only the alcohol extract obtained by 48-hour maceration and ethyl acetate subextract of syrup showed an activity against Escherichia coli , while all samples except butanol subextract of syrup have an antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa .


We have identified a novel role for hyaluronan (HA), an extracellular matrix polymer, in governing the mechanical properties of inflamed tissues. We recently reported that insulitis in type 1 diabetes of mice and humans is preceded by intraislet accumulation of HA, a highly hygroscopic polymer. Using the double transgenic DO11.10 × RIPmOVA (DORmO) mouse model of type 1 diabetes, we asked whether autoimmune insulitis was associated with changes in the stiffness of islets. To measure islet stiffness, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) and developed a novel "bed of nails"-like approach that uses quartz glass nanopillars to anchor islets, solving a long-standing problem of keeping tissue-scale objects immobilized while performing AFM. We measured stiffness via AFM nanoindentation with a spherical indenter and found that insulitis made islets mechanically soft compared with controls. Conversely, treatment with 4-methylumbelliferone, a small-molecule inhibitor of HA synthesis, reduced HA accumulation, diminished swelling, and restored basal tissue stiffness. These results indicate that HA content governs the mechanical properties of islets. In hydrogels with variable HA content, we confirmed that increased HA leads to mechanically softer hydrogels, consistent with our model. In light of recent reports that the insulin production of islets is mechanosensitive, these findings open up an exciting new avenue of research into the fundamental mechanisms by which inflammation impacts local cellular responses.


HgCr2S4 is a typical compound manifesting competing ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchanges as well as strong spin-lattice coupling. Here we study these effects by intentionally choosing a combination of magnetization under external hydrostatic pressure and thermal conductivity at various magnetic fields. Upon applying pressure up to 10 kbar at 1 kOe, while the magnitude of magnetization reduces progressively, the AFM ordering temperature TN enhances concomitantly at a rate of about 1.5 K/kbar. Strikingly, at 10 kOe the field polarized FM state is found to be driven readily back to an AFM one even at only 5 kbar. In addition, the thermal conductivity exhibits drastic increments at various fields in the temperature range with strong spin fluctuations, reaching about 30% at 50 kOe. Consequently, the results give new experimental evidence of spin-lattice coupling. Apart from the colossal magnetocapacitance and colossal magnetoresistance reported previously, the findings here may enable new promising functionalities for potential applications.


Information spreading processes within the complex networks are usually initiated by a selection of highly influential nodes in accordance with the used seeding strategy. The majority of earlier studies assumed the usage of selected seeds at the beginning of the process. Our previous research revealed the advantage of using a sequence of seeds instead of a single stage approach. The current study extends sequential seeding and further improves results with the use of dynamic rankings, which are created by recalculation of network measures used for additional seed selection during the process instead of static ranking computed only once at the beginning. For calculation of network centrality measures such as degree, only non-infected nodes are taken into account. Results showed increased coverage represented by a percentage of activated nodes dependent on intervals between recalculations as well as the trade-off between outcome and computational costs. For over 90% of simulation cases, dynamic rankings with a high frequency of recalculations delivered better coverage than approaches based on static rankings.


We show that the interaction of an oil-dispersed colloidal particle with an oil-water interface is highly tunable from attractive to repulsive, either by varying the sign of the colloidal charge via charge regulation or by varying the difference in hydrophilicity between the dissolved cations and anions. In addition, we investigate the yet unexplored interplay between the self-regulated colloidal surface charge distribution with the planar double layer across the oil-water interface and the spherical one around the colloid. Our findings explain recent experiments and have direct relevance for tunable Pickering emulsions.


In order to increase the image size and the viewing zone angle of a hologram, a high-speed spatial light modulator (SLM) is imaged as a vertically long image by an anamorphic imaging system, and this image is scanned horizontally by a galvano scanner. The reduction in horizontal pixel pitch of the SLM provides a wide viewing zone angle. The increased image height and horizontal scanning increased the image size. We demonstrated the generation of a hologram having a 15 degrees horizontal viewing zone angle and an image size of 3.4 inches with a frame rate of 60 Hz using a digital micromirror device with a frame rate of 13.333 kHz as a high-speed SLM.


We consider the emergence from quantum entanglement of spacetime geometry in a bulk region. For certain classes of quantum states in an appropriately factorized Hilbert space, a spatial geometry can be defined by associating areas along codimension-one surfaces with the entanglement entropy between either side. We show how radon transforms can be used to convert these data into a spatial metric. Under a particular set of assumptions, the time evolution of such a state traces out a four-dimensional spacetime geometry, and we argue using a modified version of Jacobson's "entanglement equilibrium" that the geometry should obey Einstein's equation in the weak-field limit. We also discuss how entanglement equilibrium is related to a generalization of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula in more general settings, and how quantum error correction can help specify the emergence map between the full quantum-gravity Hilbert space and the semiclassical limit of quantum fields propagating on a classical spacetime.