OBJECTIVE Although aspirin usage may be associated with a decreased risk of rupture of cerebral aneurysms, any potential therapeutic benefit from aspirin must be weighed against the theoretical risk of greater hemorrhage volume if subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) occurs. However, few studies have evaluated the association between prehemorrhage aspirin use and outcomes. This is the first nationwide analysis to evaluate the impact of long-term aspirin and anticoagulant use on outcomes after SAH. METHODS Data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS; 2006-2011) were extracted. Patients with a primary diagnosis of SAH who underwent microsurgical or endovascular aneurysm repair were included; those with a diagnosis of an arteriovenous malformation were excluded. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to calculate the adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality, a nonroutine discharge (any discharge other than to home), or a poor outcome (death, discharge to institutional care, tracheostomy, or gastrostomy) for patients with long-term aspirin or anticoagulant use. Multivariable linear regression was used to evaluate length of hospital stay. Covariates included patient age, sex, comorbidities, primary payer, NIS-SAH severity scale, intracerebral hemorrhage, cerebral edema, herniation, modality of aneurysm repair, hospital bed size, and whether the hospital was a teaching hospital. Subgroup analyses exclusively evaluated patients treated surgically or endovascularly. RESULTS The study examined 11,549 hospital admissions. Both aspirin (2.1%, n = 245) and anticoagulant users (0.9%, n = 108) were significantly older and had a greater burden of comorbid disease (p < 0.001); severity of SAH was slightly lower in those with long-term aspirin use (p = 0.03). Neither in-hospital mortality (13.5% vs 12.6%) nor total complication rates (79.6% vs 80.0%) differed significantly by long-term aspirin use. Additionally, aspirin use was associated with decreased odds of a cardiac complication (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.36%-0.91%, p = 0.02) or of venous thromboembolic events (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.30%-0.94%, p = 0.03). Length of stay was significantly shorter (15 days vs 17 days [12.73%], 95% CI 5.22%-20.24%, p = 0.001), and the odds of a nonroutine discharge were lower (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.48%-0.83%, p = 0.001) for aspirin users. In subgroup analyses, the benefits of aspirin were primarily noted in patients who underwent coil embolization; likewise, among patients treated endovascularly, the adjusted odds of a poor outcome were lower among long-term aspirin users (31.8% vs 37.4%, OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.42%-0.94%, p = 0.03). Although the crude rates of in-hospital mortality (19.4% vs 12.6%) and poor outcome (53.6% vs 37.6%) were higher for long-term anticoagulant users, in multivariable logistic regression models these variations were not significantly different (mortality: OR 1.36, 95% CI 0.89%-2.07%, p = 0.16; poor outcome: OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.69%-1.73%, p = 0.72). CONCLUSIONS In this nationwide study, neither long-term aspirin nor anticoagulant use were associated with differential mortality or complication rates after SAH. Aspirin use was associated with a shorter hospital stay and lower rates of nonroutine discharge, with these benefits primarily observed in patients treated endovascularly.


[1] Apatite fission track thermochronology is a powerful tool for the reconstruction of the thermal and geological evolution of sedimentary basins. However, reconstructing basin evolution using thermochronological data is complicated by the fact that sediments also record the thermal history of their source areas. Moreover, samples frequently contain grains from multiple source areas. We have constructed a new numerical model that integrates sediment burial and thermal history with provenance history scenarios and that uses the derived thermal history to calculate synthetic apatite fission track data. We have applied this model to study the evolution of the Roer Valley Graben and to explore the dependency of fission track data on provenance and basin thermal history. Samples that are buried at shallow depths (<1400 m) preserve a mix of late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic provenance ages that correspond to the Caledonian and Variscan orogenic events of the sediment source areas, the London-Brabant and Ardenno-Rhenish massifs, respectively, with varying degrees of subsequent exhumation. Using this knowledge about the inherited thermal history, fission track data of Mesozoic sediments could be used to constrain the Late Cretaceous inversion of the basin with an accuracy of ±250 to ±500 m. These results show that inversion-related exhumation was localized, reaching a maximum of 750 to 1250 m in the eastern part of the basin, while not exceeding 500 m in the western half of the basin. These results are in agreement with the distribution of preserved preinversion sediments and syninversion sediment accumulations that flank the northeastern part of the basin.


The study of the efficiency of the reliability of systems or productive systems in scientific life has a significant and important role in the scientific and technological development of these systems. This study deals with the superiority of mass fuzzy exponential distributions (exponential, wibble, kama, natural logarithmic) in measuring the reliability of the machines of the successive system. The applied study included data taken from the Diesel Station north of Diwaniyah, which is the time of failure and taken to a single block consisting of five machines operating respectively. The most important results of the study are that the data follow the distributions of the mass fuzzy exponential and the best distribution is the natural distribution logarithmic as the owner of the highest reliability as it turns out that the machines decreased significantly and largely because of the lack of preventive maintenance of these machines because of lack of equipment backup materials as a result of the austerity policy as well as the poor fuel used in operation.


Comments are made on a short review on the effect of contraceptive s teroids on carbohydrate metabolism which appeared previously. Intraveno us tolbutamide tolerance tests were performed on 13 normal women and 8 hypopituitary patients before and 3 and 6 months after starting on an oral contraceptive agent (OCA) containing 50 mcg mestranol and 1 mg norethindrone. The control subjects demonstrated a significant impairment of the glucose fall after tolbutamide and an enhancement of the growth hormone (GH) response to the resultant hypoglycemia while on the OCA. The pituitary-deficient patients showed no change in their glucose response to tolbutamide after starting OCA and they had minimal GH secretion as expected. 5 additional normal females on a variety of OCAs had a significant 3-fold increase in GH concentrations after moderate exercise as compared with 5 other women using other forms of contraception. The peripheral tissues of women on OCAs were exposed to higher levels of GH throughout the day. The data seemed to implicate the anterior pituitary gland and it was postulated that the estrogen-induced secretion of GH a potent insulin antagonist was responsible for the effects of OCAs on carbohydrate metabolism. It is concluded through laboratory investigations that there is good evidence to support the role of estrogens alone in causing deterioration of glucose tolerance. This contradicts the review in which it was concluded that carbohydrate metabolism in younger women was unaffected by estrogens alone but will deteriorate in response to a combination of estrogen and nortestosterone progestins.


The literature search has always been an important part of an academic research. It greatly helps to improve the quality of the research process and output, and increase the efficiency of the researchers in terms of their novel contribution to science. As the number of published papers increases every year, a manual search becomes more exhaustive even with the help of today's search engines since they are not specialized for this task. In academics, two relevant papers do not always have to share keywords, cite one another, or even be in the same field. Although a well-known paper is usually an easy pray in such a hunt, relevant papers using a different terminology, especially recent ones, are not obvious to the eye.
In this work, we propose paper recommendation algorithms by using the citation information among papers. The proposed algorithms are direction aware in the sense that they can be tuned to find either recent or traditional papers. The algorithms require a set of papers as input and recommend a set of related ones. If the user wants to give negative or positive feedback on the suggested paper set, the recommendation is refined. The search process can be easily guided in that sense by relevance feedback. We show that this slight guidance helps the user to reach a desired paper in a more efficient way. We adapt our models and algorithms also for the venue and reviewer recommendation tasks. Accuracy of the models and algorithms is thoroughly evaluated by comparison with multiple baselines and algorithms from the literature in terms of several objectives specific to citation, venue, and reviewer recommendation tasks. All of these algorithms are implemented within a publicly available web-service framework (this http URL) which currently uses the data from DBLP and CiteSeer to construct the proposed citation graph.


Apatite formation in living body is essential condition for artificial materials to exhibit bone-bonding ability, i.e. bioactivity. It has been recently revealed that sulfonic group triggers apatite nucleation in body environment. Organic-inorganic hybrids consisting of organic polymer and the sulfonic group are therefore expected to be useful for novel bone-repairing materials exhibiting flexibility as well as bioactivity. In the present study, organic-inorganic hybrids were prepared from vinylsulfonic acid sodium salt and hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA), a kind of acrylic polymer. Bioactivity of the hybrids was assessed in vitro by examining their acceptance of apatite formation in simulated body fluid (SBF, Kokubo solution). The obtained hybrids showed the apatite deposition after soaking in SBF within 7 d.


This paper presents a new assignment algorithm with order restriction, developed using the paradigm of dynamic programming. The algorithm was implemented and tested to determine the best global matching between two sets of points that represent the contours to be matched. In the experimental tests done, we used the affinity matrix obtained via the method proposed by Shapiro based on geometric modeling and modal matching. The proposed algorithm revealed an optimum performance, when compared with the classic assign- ment algorithms considered in this work: Hungarian method, Simplex for Flow Problems and LAPm. Indeed, the quality of the matching improved when compared with these three algorithms, because the crossed matching, allowed by the conventional assignment algorithms, disappeared. Besides, the compu- tational cost of our algorithm is very low in comparison with the other three, resulting in lesser execution times.


The article is devoted to the phenomenon of interethnic marriages between Russians and indigenous peoples of the North in the Krasnoyarsk territory in the 1950s. The research is based on the materials of censuses and surveys conducted by local authorities in the late 1950s. The focus of researchers was made by the Enets, the Nganasans, the Selkups, the Evenks and the Kets. Since the second half of the 20th century, contacts between the Russian population and the peoples of the far North of the Krasnoyarsk territory have become more frequent. In the context of construction projects in the region, there is an increase in marriages between Russians and representatives of local indigenous peoples. These marriages had an ambiguous impact, on the one hand they were an expression of the principle of "friendship of peoples", one of the basic principles of the Soviet state and contributed to the integration of the Northern territories into the Krasnoyarsk territory. On the other hand, mixed marriages accelerated the assimilation of these peoples and contributed to the cease and extinction of their culture. Their parents positioned most of the children in such marriages as Russian. In everyday speech these families, as well as a rule, was dominated by the Russian language, Russian culture.


Objectives: (1) To study the profile of dengue fever in patients admitted to a tertiary care centre. (2)To assess the performance of WHO classification in estimating the severity of dengue (3) To know the outcome of patients according to WHO grading for dengue fever. Background: Dengue virus infection causes a spectrum of clinical manifestations, usually classified according to the World Health Organization (WHO) grading system. We aimed to evaluate the WHO grading system in estimating the severity of dengue in adults in a tertiary centre. Methods: Our study included 88 laboratory confirmed cases of dengue infection. WHO criteria were applied to classify patients into Dengue Fever (DF), Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS).Patients were followed up with clinical and laboratory monitoring until discharge or death. We also grouped patients on the basis of whether they received significant intervention based on fluid replacement or requirements for blood transfusion. Results: Out of 88 patients, 36.3% of patients were found to have dengue fever, 56.7% with DHF, 10.2% with DSS. Plasma leakage and thrombocytopenia were significant factors in differentiating dengue from DHF, DSS. Majority of patients with DHF, DSS required interventions like fluid resuscitation and blood transfusion. Mean duration of hospital stay was longer in DHF, DSS. Conclusion: In a tertiary care centre, WHO criteria for grading of dengue can estimate the severity of dengue, helps us to segregate the patients who need aggressive management.


ObjectivePrevious studies suggest an association between isoflavone supplementation and improved body composition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional association between isoflavone consumption from a typical Western diet and measures of total body fat, body fat distribution and lean body mass. DesignThis study examined 208 healthy, postmenopausal women, aged 45 to 74 years. At screening, demographic and behavioral characteristics and medical history were obtained. One month later, dietary intake for the past year was assessed with a standardized questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were obtained, and bioelectric impedance was used to measure total body fat (lb) and lean body mass (lb). Isoflavone consumption did not vary by age, smoking, exercise, or daily alcohol intake. ResultsA significant inverse relation was shown between genistein consumption and weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and total body fat mass by bioelectric impedance analysis (P < 0.05). These findings remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders. No association was seen, however, between genistein, daidzein, or total isoflavone intake and body fat distribution or lean body mass. ConclusionThis study suggests that usual dietary isoflavone intake is associated with reduced total body fat and may consequently have a role in the prevention of chronic disease.


First, it was "The Gutenberg Galaxy"; then, "the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"; and now, here we are with another strong technological turn, which is influencing our lives, and again the artistic and cultural production as well. They call it "Convergence Culture", focusing on a new (always interwoven) way of life caused by the portable technologies and the spread of the Internet.  This study aims to analyze how these changes are affecting contemporary Italian theatre, with the support of the work developed by media studies in the field of serialization practices. In particular, it focuses on the phenomena of expansion of cultural products, moving from the context of the creation to the world of the reception. While respecting the specificity of both fields, the intention is to build a shared multidisciplinary perspective to understand how some effects of the "Convergence Culture" are changing the artistic and cultural production.


Background: Blood eosinophils may predict response to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), where ICS is recommended in patients at high risk of exacerbations by the Global Initiative for COPD (GOLD) strategy. It can help clinicians to estimate the likelihood of beneficial preventive responses to the addition ICS to regular bronchodilator treatment, and thus can be used as a biomarker in conjunction with clinical assessment when making decisions regarding ICS use. This study aims to compare therapeutic data with blood eosinophil count in COPD patients.
Methods: Data were collected from consecutive COPD outpatients in Bukit Asam Medika Hospital starting from March 1st, 2019 until June 30th, 2019 and dr. H. Mohamad Rabain Hospital starting from Oct 1st, 2019 until Dec 27th, 2019. We collected demographics, anthropometrics, smoking history, therapy, dynamic lung volumes, the Medical Research Council scale (MRC), CAT score, and blood eosinophil count.
Results: From 57 data collected, 24 (42,1%) patients were having blood eosinophil count ≥300. Patients who have more exacerbation in COPD Group C were 33,3% and 63,2% in COPD Group D. The proportions of ICS-treated COPD Group D patients and blood eosinophil count of <300 and ≥300 was 63,9% and 36,1%, respectively.
Conclusion: This study may provide information and characteristic of COPD patient in Indonesia rural area and showed who may have benefit to ICS therapy based on recommendation GOLD COPD 2019. Blood eosinophils counts is a low-cost biomarker and may help clinicians to made decision therapy.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy(HAART)for HIV/AIDS in Zhejiang province from 2009 to 2014.

METHODS
A retrospective cohort study was conducted among patients with access to HAART aged <15 years from 2009 to 2014 through descriptive epidemiological analysis on the patients' demographic characteristics, HAART efficacy. The immune recovery Kaplan-Meier curves were drawn by using baseline CD(4) T lymphocytes cell(CD(4))data. The influencing factors for virus suppression were analyzed by using logistic regression model.

RESULTS
There were 9 594 patients with access to HAART in Zhejiang from 2009 to 2014. The' average age of the patients was 38.7 years old, the male to female ratio was 4.11∶1. Heterosexual(55.9%)and homosexual(40.0%)contacts were the main transmission routes. Baseline CD(4) count 200-349 cells/μl was found in 45.4% of the patients, the median of the CD(4) count was 221(IQR: 123-298). The median of time for CD(4) recovery in patients with baseline CD(4) count <200 cells/μl was 3.48 and 11.58 times higher than the patients with baseline CD(4) count 200-349 cells/μl and baseline CD(4) count ≥350 cells/μl. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that marital status, HAART regimen, treatment miss in last week and CD(4) recovery were major influencing factors for HAART efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS
HAART had good treatment effecacy in HIV/AIDS patients in Zhejiang. The baseline CD(4) count and adherence to HAART were the most important influencing factors. It is recommended to take measures to expand HIV screening and HAART coverage, conduct HAART adherence education, and strengthen the special care for high-risk groups to improve the HAART efficacy in Zhejiang province.


While microtubule poisons are commonly used for the treatment of diverse malignancies, relatively little is known about cellular factors that determine the relative efficacy of these drugs. Here, we identified the NIMA kinase, Nek4, in a genetic screen for mediators of the response to the front-line chemotherapeutic taxol. To identify the mechanism underlying taxol resistance in Nek4-deficient cells, we examined Nek4 function in mitosis and microtubule homeostasis. Notably, we found that Nek4 promotes microtubule outgrowth following transient depolymerization. Additionally, cells lacking Nek4 showed an impaired G2/M arrest following taxol treatment, as well as a decrease in mitotic-like asters, further suggesting a role for Nek4 in the regulation of microtubule assembly. Interestingly, Nek4 suppression also sensitized cancer cells to vincristine, another microtubule poison with a distinct mechanism of action. Therefore, Nek4 deficiency may either antagonize or promote the effects of microtubule poisons, depending on whether an individual drug hyperor hypo-stabilizes microtubule polymers. While this phenomenon has previously been documented for cells bearing specific tubulin mutations, these data provide yet another example of how an alteration promoting drug resistance in a particular tumor can simultaneously enhance the efficacy of another, similar conventional chemotherapeutic. Of note, Nek4 is located in a commonly deleted genomic locus in non-small cell lung cancer. Consequently, these data also suggest a rationale for the selective use of particular microtubule poisons in specific lung cancer patients.


Corruption is a phenomenon that manifests in various types and forms especially among operators of Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs). Many actions of the operators which constitute corrupt practices often tend to be overlooked in spite of their grave consequences for the success SMEs in Nigeria. The fight against corruption in Nigeria is more concentrated in the formal sector. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate various forms in which corrupt practices are carried out among Small and Micro Enterprises in Ibadan, Nigeria. Business owners, their employees, apprentices and consumers constituted the study population. Primary data were collected using questionnaire administered on 200 business owners, 150 employees and 150 apprentices randomly chosen in five business districts in Ibadan; and the conduct of 10 in-depth interviews with purposively selected participants. Quantitative data were analysed at uni-variate level using simple percentages and frequencies while qualitative data were content analysed. Findings from the study revealed that corrupt practices were rampant among actors in SMEs and the common types of corrupt practices included stealing (60%), deception of customers (78.4%), tax evasion (62%), sale of fake products (76%), sale of expired products (65.2%), tampering with measurement scales (69.6%), bribery (82.4%), and poor service delivery (73%). The study concludes that the level of corruption in SMEs calls for concern and government should extend the fight against corruption to the informal sector in Nigeria.


We consider an effect of trivalent Eu impurities occupying two different crystallographic positions in cubic gadolinium oxide on its lattice structure and phonon spectrum. The numerical methods employed in the study take into account the shell model to describe interatomic interactions. Using cluster approach, the equilibrium lattice structures and phonon local symmetrized densities of states are calculated. The frequencies of resonant vibrations of various symmetry types induced by europium ions are determined using the Green function method. The participation of ions located around Eu impurities in the symmetrical resonant vibrations is discussed. The calculation results show that europium ions in two non-equivalent structural sites are responsible for the formation of the strongest Raman peak associated with the resonant vibrations at oxygen ions in doped Gd2O3.


Networked multiagent systems are comprised of many autonomous yet interdependent agents situated in a virtual social network. Two examples of such systems are supply chain networks and sensor networks. A common challenge in many networked multiagent systems is decentralized team formation among the spatially and logically extended agents. Even in cooperative multiagent systems, efficient team formation is made difficult by the limited local information available to the individual agents. We present a model of distributed multiagent team formation in networked multi-agent systems, describe a policy learning framework for joining teams based on local information, and give empirical results on improving team formation performance. In particular, we show that local policy learning from limited information leads to a significant increase in organizational team formation performance compared to a naive heuristic.


Capacitors used in various applications are usually selected for the usage by the type of capacitor. This selection process is most visible in the selection of the aluminum electrolytic for power supply applications. Developments related to improve performance of an alternative type of capacitor is sometimes lost to the user because of the narrow focus given to the one type It is of the designer's best interest to be aware of the developments of all types for all applications. This paper presents the latest developments for power applications with the tantalum capacitor.


Cooperative diversity has recently attracted the attention as it is promising for boosting performance of future wireless systems without compromising the desired high spectral efficiency. However, utilisation of dynamic relays in a cellular network (user terminals act as relay nodes) is very challenging since it comes together with resource constraints, increased signaling overhead and complexity. In this contribution a novel framework is presented which exploits dynamic relays in a cellular network under the presence of inter-cell interference while keeping overheads at an affordable level. It is shown that under the proposed framework, relay assisted transmission significantly improves performance. Furthermore, global power constraints are met while low signaling overhead and complexity are maintained with the use of thresholds.


The development of innovative strategies can be used to detect and prevent cancer metastasis once the molecular mediators are known. Cancer metastasis is the spread of cancer from a primary site, from which cancer cells break away and travel to a new organ via the bloodstream or the lymphatic system. However, the molecular signals responsible for the cancer cells to travel from the primary site to a new location are largely unknown. It has been hypothesized that cancer invasion is similar to leukocyte migration during response of vascular tissue to harmful stimuli. In this process, leukocytes travel through the bloodstream, attach to the vessel endothelium, and migrate through the endothelium to the site of injury. Using leukocyte migration as a model for cancer metastasis it is hypothesized that E-selectin is a major molecular mediator for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) metastasis. E-selectin is expressed on the surface of vascular endothelial cells and initiates cell-cell interactions by binding to proteins and lipids on the surface of cancer cells that have sialofucosylated carbohydrate epitopes. We have previously shown that HNSCCs bind to E-selectin expressed on stimulated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) under physiological shear stress. Also, it has been shown that glycosphingolipids isolated from HNSCCs support adhesive interactions with E-selectin-transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells. To further reveal the role of sialofucosylated glycosphingolipids in cell-cell interactions, polystyrene microsphere beads were utilized, in an in vitro model of cell adhesion under fluid flow conditions. Polystyrene beads were coated with sialyated non-fucosylated gangliosides (GM1) or sialofucosylated glycosphingolipids from HNSCCs. The expression of glycosphingolipids on the newly coated microspheres was checked by flow cytometry to ensure that the lipids adsorbed to the beads. When coated microspheres were perfused over cytokine-stimulated HUVECs, the microspheres with sialofucosylated glycosphingolipids tethered and rolled on the endothelium similar to HNSCCs, while the microspheres coated with GM1 did not bind to the endothelium. Treatment of the sialofucosylated glycosphingolipid coated microspheres with sialidase or fucosidase also eliminated adhesion of the beads to the endothelium. Our study signifies the importance of the role that glycosphingolipids play in adhesion to endothelial E-selectin under physiological shear stress. Further studies are needed to determine if sialofucosylated glycosphingolipids should be targeted for patients with HNSCCs. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5182.


Technology developments nowadays face universities with many educational challenges – to integrate technologies in educational processes, design new electronic educational materials, change teaching styles, and better meet the demands of the technology-savvy generation, as well as the requirements of the labor market for the skills and knowledge of future employees. On the other side, universities have a special role in the triangle of knowledge – to generate new knowledge, disseminate it in economy and society, and collaborate with industry for integrating it into new products and services. This demands universities to ensure proper management of their knowledge. In Bulgaria, universities have introduced various changes for meeting the challenges they face. Most are changes their technology environments for facilitating the access to educational, scientific and administrative resources all interested stakeholders. Ensuring easy-to-use learning management systems, accessible not only from computers, but also from mobile phones, are subject to on-going projects. At the same time, several changes of educational programmes, introduction of new courses and learning styles are focused on better meeting the demands of industrial stakeholders for the skills and competences of their future employees. European Union Structural Funds play a key role in supporting the implementation of all these changes in Bulgarian universities, and increasing their competitiveness and integration into the European university area. The paper provides initially an overview of the challenges facing Bulgarian universities. It focuses on the overall environment in Bulgaria for universities, as well as the e-skills agenda and the industry-academia collaboration problems. Second, the paper presents good practices at three leading Bulgarian universities – Sofia University 'St. Kliment Ohridski", Technical University – Sofia and New Bulgarian University. They show the university responses to labor market needs and the respective changes in curricula and courses, as well as the changes in the technology environments in universities for better knowledge management.


This paper considers a new approach to the problem of adaptive separation of digitally modulated signals arriving at an antenna array. The basic idea is to decouple the estimation procedure, treating one signal at a time to be the signal of interest. The method uses an iterative scheme similar to the well-documented iterative least squares with projection (ILSP) algorithm, exploiting the finite alphabet (FA) property of the signals to obtain signal estimates. The proposed algorithm is analyzed in terms of consistency and uniqueness properties, and a statistical performance analysis is carried out. The analysis together with simulation results indicate that a significant saving in computational complexity is accomplished relative to ILSP, while essentially having similar performance.


We report an all-optical packet buffer that is based on four-wave mixing loading and intracavity soliton pulse control. The target data packet consisting of picosecond pulses is loaded into the storage-buffer cavity by means of four-wave mixing with the pump pulses and stored at the corresponding idler wavelength. We stabilize the timing and amplitude of the stored idler pulses by applying intracavity all-optical soliton control. This is accomplished by combining the synchronous parametric-gain modulation achieved inside a pulse-pumped nonlinear-optical-loop mirror with the intensity discrimination provided by a nonlinear-amplifying-loop mirror. A 20 Gbit/s-packet pattern is loaded and stored for up to several seconds, corresponding to millions of circulations of the packet within the buffer.


Tax compliance has become a very popular academic research topic. Understandably so, as all modern societies face the challenge of limiting tax evasion and the losses this phenomenon causes to government revenues. Given the increase in duties in the aftermath of the economic downturn affected by COVID-19, increasing taxpayer compliance is one of the main tasks for governments worldwide. This study aimed to identify critical gaps in understanding taxpayer heterogeneity. For this purpose, an exploratory factor analysis of taxpayer perceptual and attitudinal elements was carried out. Our analysis revealed six factors influencing taxpayer compliance with the tax system. Furthermore, the cluster analysis identified four groups of taxpayers, and significant differences between the clusters and the descriptive profile of each cluster were also found. The specificities of these clusters point to a conclusion that the time has come for policy makers to employ strategies that stimulate voluntary tax compliance with minimum cost to the tax system.


I refer to the article "Will you spend the weekend in jail" (April 2009) by Wessel Badenhorst and Kate Collier.


One of the simplest models that is used to study the isotropic-nematic tranition in liquid crystalline systems is the Lebwohl-Lasher model. Several extensions of this model further enhanced its applicability. We combine two of these extensions (a generalization and the inclusion of a chiral term) and study the phase behavior and the nature of phase transitions of the resulting generalized chiral Lebwohl-Lasher model using Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the type (and even the existence) of the transition depends on the combination of the width of the interaction potential, the strength of the chiral part of the interaction, and the geometry of the system. As well, the pitch of the cholesteric bulk phase changes on approaching the phase transition if the interaction width differs from the one of the original Lebwohl-Lasher model. Thus, we identify parameter combinations that allow one to tune the properties of the ordered phase and the nature of the order-disorder transition.


Physical activity is considered a key preventative measure for various diseases, such as diabetes and cardio-vascular disorders. The majority of South Africans studied in various regional cross sectional surveys, suggest that most young people fail to meet recommended minimum physical activity standards. The main objective of this study was to ascertain the physical activity patterns and health status of rural schoolchildren. A comparative and correlational cross-sectional study design was used to assess the physical activity levels and health status of 162 rural schoolchildren. The participation levels in light and moderate to vigorous physical activity were 44.6% and 55.4% respectively. Walking to and from school was the most prevalent physical activity reported. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of the children were hypertensive. More than 50% of the children participated in health-enhancing physical activity. The low physical inactivity prevalence was most likely a result of their habitual activity patterns, which included active commuting to and from school.Keywords: Physical activity; Active commuting; Walking; Rural schoolchildren; Health status


Background and purpose: High-energy photon beams above 8-10 MV used in external radiation therapy produce neutron in dealing with the linear accelerator components and other parts in radiation field. The weakening of neutrons due to the closing jaws collimator angle, in smaller field sizes can also be a contributing factor in changing the neutron spectrum. Since a direct measurement of the neutron flux and spectrum require complex measurements in treatment room, the Monte Carlo is an alternative method for determining the true environmental neutron spectrum.
Materials and methods: Geometry of linear accelerator Elekta SL75/25 was designed in FLUKA simulation code and its validation was tested. Spectrum of neutrons produced in the accelerator was determined in the center of four field sizes of 20 × 20, 15 × 15, 10 × 10, and 5 × 5 cm2. Data analysis was done applying Mann-Whitney test.
Results: In the condition with flattening filter, significant differences was found in the neutron spectrum only in 5 × 5 to 15 × 15 cm2 and 5 × 5 to 20 × 20 cm2 field sizes (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Our results of the neutron spectrum using FLUKA simulation code are in a good conformity with the results of practical dosimetry of other researchers; therefore, checking the neutron flux in radiotherapy by simulation can be an appropriate solution to improve patient treatment and protection issues. Since neutron dose increases with an increase in field size, so, we can conclude that field size influences secondary effects of treatment.
Keywords: linear accelerator, neutron contamination, field size, Monte Carlo


Since the identification of all the major drug-metabolising cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes and their major gene variants, pharmacogenetics has had a major impact on psychotherapeutic drug therapy. CYP enzymes are responsible for the metabolism of most clinically used drugs. Individual variability in CYP activity is an important reason for drug therapy failure. Variability in CYP activity may be caused by various factors, including endogenous factors such as age, gender and morbidity as well as exogenous factors such as co-medication, food components and smoking habit. However, polymorphisms, present in most CYP genes, are responsible for a substantial part of this variability. Although CYP genotyping has been shown to predict the majority of aberrant phenotypes, it is currently rarely performed in clinical practice.


A novel and advanced characterization technique is described for performing optical studies of the luminescence properties of materials. It was developed for the investigation of semiconductor materials, including semiconductor laser diodes and photonic integrated circuits. A quantitatively calibrated, spatially and spectrally resolved imaging technique is described, which is based upon the technologies of photoluminescence microscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The principles of the spectroscopically resolved photo- and electroluminescence microscopy techniques are outlined in this paper, and the developed instrument is described in detail. Design calculations used to select and set up the experimental apparatus are presented, and results are found to compare well with this analysis. Various experimental measurements are used to demonstrate the performance of the new instrument. The study of strain and defects in high-power laser diodes is presented as one of the more challenging applications of the new technique. The results presented demonstrate the ability of this technique to image photoluminescence shifts occurring in the substrate of packaged laser bars, enabling the investigation of strain, defects and their evolution with aging. Other applications of the technique include the spectroscopic measurement of near- and far-field patterns and virtual sources of laser diodes, investigations of spectral hole burning and optical scattering processes in lasers and photonic integrated circuits, and studies of organic LEDs. In the future, applications are also envisaged in medicine and the biological sciences.


Objective: The purpose of our pilot study was to investigate associations between polymorphisms of the CYP2C8 gene with susceptibility to essential hypertension (EH) in Russian population. Design and method: A genetic association study of common polymorphisms of the CYP2C8 gene with essential hypertension in Russian population. A total of 1 459 unrelated Russian individuals (Kursk region) including 845 EH patients and 614 age and sex matched healthy subjects with normal blood pressure were recruited for this study. Two common polymorphisms −271C > A (rs7909236) and 404G > A (rs1934953) of the CYP2C8 gene were genotyped using the MassARRAY 4 system. Results: Genotype frequencies of CYP2C8 gene polymorphisms were in agreement with Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in all groups. We found that variant genotypes −271CA plus AA were significantly associated with increased hypertension risk (odds ratio = 1.31; 95% confidence interval: 1.04–1.64, P = 0.02). The association remained a statistically significant after adjustment for age, sex and body mass index by a multiple logistic regression analyses (P = 0.03). Moreover, a homozygous variant genotype 404AA tended to be associated with an increased risk of EH (odds ratio = 1.41; 95% confidence interval: 0.98–2.02, P = 0.06). However, no significant association was found between rs1934953 and EH after adjusting for the covariates. Conclusions: CYP2C8 is a cytochrome P450 enzyme involving in the generation epoxyeicosatrienic acids (EETs) from arachidonic acid, an important biochemical pathway creating mediators of inflammation and blood pressure regulation. A polymorphism −271C > A located in the promoter region of the CYP2C8 results in the creation of a C/EBPalpha transcription factor consensus sequence influencing a transcriptional activity of the gene. The −271C > A polymorphism of the CYP2C8 gene may contribute to hypertension susceptibility through the mechanisms related with biosynthesis of vascular EETs and those inducing oxidative stress by reactive oxygen species which are generated during the epoxidation of arachidonic acid by the CYP450 epoxygenase. Our pilot study is the first to show that the −271C > A polymorphism of the CYP2C8 gene is associated with increased risk of hypertension. The study was supported by Russian Science Foundation (number 15-15-10010).


Simms, Michael J. 1969 01 15: Columnal ontogeny in articulate crinoids and its implications for their phylogeny. Lethaia, Vol. 22, pp. 61–68. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164.

Detailed doamentation of columnal ontogeny in several Lower Jurassic isocrinids reveals a number of features which are of phylogenetic significance. Columnal proportions are determined by two largely independent growth vectors. Columnal diameter is primarily a function of cup size at the time of formation, though it may subsequently undergo considerable increase through lateral accretion. Columnal height is largely independent of cup size except for a gradual increase with the growth of the whole animal. Columnal diameter increases at a much greater rate than columnal height and so columnals are relatively lower in large individuals. Heterochronous variation in vertical growth rate or the extent of lateral accretion in columnals may significantly alter their shape. The smallest isocrinid columnals found (0.35 mm diameter) have synarthrial articula. The transformation to a typical pentaradiate symplexy, via a triradiate stage, occurs at a diameter of about 0.75 mm. Synarthrial articula are unknown in millericrinid columnals, which instead have symplectial articula at small diameters (0.45 mm). The presence of synarthrial articula in the stems of juvenile isocrinids, and their absence in millericrinids. supports previous hypotheses concerning derivation of bourgueticrinids from an isocrinid, rather than a millericrinid, ancestor.


We give a short proof of the Marker-Steinhorn theorem for ominimal expansions of ordered groups. The key tool is Ramakrishnan's classification of definable linear orders in such structures.


The discourse within Australian tertiary music institutions on playing-related injury is slowly developing. The high incidence of injury in students is gradually being acknowledged, and awareness of prevention strategies is increasing. In late 2005, a Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University presentation introduced staff, students, and the public to a project collaboratively undertaken by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and ESMUC (Escola Superior de M곩ca de Catalunya), Barcelona, aiming to dissolve taboos on playing-related injury among both music students and professionals. A publication on the project is due for release in mid 2007. In one aspect, however, the current discourse is critically inadequate. In focusing on injury prevention and physiological management, it overlooks the psychological, emotional, social, and financial repercussions of injury. What impact can an injury have on a tertiary music student? What are the needs of students who suffer injuries? What systems are already in place within tertiary music institutions for those students, and what can be done to address the deficiencies? From the perspective of my own experience, this paper makes suggestions for strategies that address the needs of tertiary music students with a playing-related injury.


We present two cases of focal, tumefactive, masslike lesions of diffuse cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) that presented as areas of increased signal intensity on long TR sequences without contrast enhancement or restricted diffusion. MR spectroscopy revealed normal metabolite ratios and unremarkable spectra. Pathologic tissue showed CAA and CAA with angitis of the CNS. Tumefactive CAA is a rare condition, and we describe its characteristics at MR spectroscopy and diffusion-weighted imaging.


This review introduces the subjects of bacterial biodiversity and biogeography. Studies of biogeography are important for understanding biodiversity, the occurrence of threatened species, and the ecological role of free-living and symbiotic prokaryotes. A set of postulates is proposed for biogeography as a guide to determining whether prokaryotes are "cosmopolitan" (found in more than one geographic location on Earth) or candidate endemic species. The term "geovar" is coined to define a geographical variety of prokaryote that is restricted to one area on Earth or one host species. This review discusses sea ice bacteriology as a test case for examining bacterial diversity and biogeography. Approximately 7% of Earth's surface is covered by sea ice, which is colonized principally by psychrophilic microorganisms. This extensive community of microorganisms, referred to as the sea ice microbial community (SIMCO), contains algae (mostly diatoms), protozoa, and bacteria. Recent investigations indicate that the sea ice bacteria fall into four major phylogenetic groups: the proteobacteria, the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides (CFB) group, and the high and low mol percent gram-positive bacteria. Archaea associated with sea ice communities have also been reported. Several novel bacterial genera and species have been discovered, including Polaromonas, Polaribacter, Psychroflexus, Gelidibacter, and Octadecabacter; many others await study. Some of the gram-negative sea ice bacteria have among the lowest maximum temperatures for growth known, < 10 degrees C for some strains. The polar sea ice environment is an ideal habitat for studying microbial biogeography because of the dispersal issues involved. Dispersal between poles is problematic because of the long distances and the difficulty of transporting psychrophilic bacteria across the equator. Studies to date indicate that members of some genera occur at both poles; however, cosmopolitan species have not yet been discovered. Additional research on polar sea ice bacteria is needed to resolve this issue and extend our understanding of its microbial diversity.


The enhancement of robot dynamic performance can be aided by high-speed and, in some cases, low-accuracy calculation of matrices and their inverses. Analog techniques for the calculation of robot kinematics are reviewed and a method for fast matrix inversion is proposed. Tradeoffs in speed and accuracy in such computations are also examined. >


mens.7 We report here on an unexpectedly high incidence of DVT in patients with newly diagnosed, symptomatic MM who received first-line therapy with thalidomide-dexamethasone. By study design, both drugs were administered for 4 months in an attempt to reduce tumor cell mass before collection of peripheral blood stem cells to support 2 subsequent autotransplants. The starting dose of thalidomide was 100 mg/d, with a subsequent increase to 200 mg/d after 14 days; the monthly dose of dexamethasone was 40 mg/d for 4 days, with cycles repeated on days 9 to 12 and 17 to 20 on the first and the third month of therapy. At the present time, 19 patients entered this phase II trial and received at least 2 months of therapy. Of these 19 patients, 5 (26%) had symptomatic DVT, of whom 1 had associated nonfatal pulmonary embolism. DVT was documented by doppler ultrasonography and developed in the lower extremities (popliteal vein: 3 patients; calf veins: 2 patients). Thrombosis occurred during the first month of therapy in 2 patients, the second month in 1 patient, the third month in 1 patient, and at the end of the fourth month of therapy in the last patient. Baseline laboratory evaluation for inherited risk factors for thrombosis—including antithrombin III deficiency, protein C and protein S deficiencies, resistance to activated protein C, lupus anticoagulant and antiphospholipid antibodies, and prothrombin gene abnormalities (G20210A)—was performed in all patients and excluded primary hypercoagulable states. Additional risk factors for thrombosis included hormonal therapy in a single patient. Anticoagulation therapy consisting of low-molecular-weight heparin with or without warfarin was promptly started after the diagnosis of DVT. There were 3 patients who safely continued thalidomidedexamethasone without evidence of progression of DVT; thalidomide was stopped in the other patients, 1 with associated pulmonary embolism and 1 by study design before priming therapy with high-dose cyclophosphamide. In addition to recent reports on the use of thalidomide administered in combination with multiagent chemotherapy and dexamethasone,4-6 present data show an increased risk of DVT also for patients with MM receiving first-line thalidomide-dexamethasone. This observation was not reported in previous studies with the same regimen, but different thalidomide and dexamethasone dose intensities, as salvage therapy for patients with advanced and refractory MM.7,8 Efforts aimed at elucidating biologic mechanisms associated with thrombosis and thalidomidebased therapy should continue. In the interim, careful monitoring for DVT should be recommended for patients enrolled in investigational clinical trials including thalidomide as part of therapy for MM. In these patients prophylactic low-dose warfarin should be considered in an attempt to reduce the risk for DVT.


Traumatic arterio-venous malformations of the nasal bones represent a rare but well defined clinical entity. We have described a case of a traumatic soft-tissue nasal arterio-venous malformation and commented on its investigation, pathophysiology and subsequent management. As far as we are aware this represents a hitherto unrecognised complication of nasal trauma.


In the era of the data revolution (Kitchin, 2014), new kinds of data and data sources allow researchers to share innovative ways of studying society and its dynamics to comprehend the peculiarities related to the territory. In fact, the analysis of space-time data extracted from social media can support the comprehension of complex social phenomena such as, for example, mobility (Noulas, Scellato, Lathia, & Mascolo, 2012; Yuan et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2016) or where and when certain social activities are carried out, such e.g., the participation in big events, tourist experiences or the monitoring and management of emergencies and security.
Following the actual dissemination of use of social media in the cities, the analysis of the spatial dimension is considered particularly promising in the field of urban analysis (Singleton et al., 2018) and in the emerging line of digital studies.  Nowadays, the intentional action of many people is increasingly contributing to the production and sharing of spatial data with a relevant impact on the construction of Territorial Information Systems (Zupi, 2017). This new category of spatial data is commonly known "Volunteered Geographic Information" (VGI) (Goodchild, 2007). The analysis of this kind of data leads to an innovative scenario for the collection and diffusion of geographic information from millions of users all over the world. It provides valuable insight into their perceptions and needs, opinions on places, events, and daily routes, which allow researchers to better follow traces about the knowledge of the local identities of a given place (Campaign, 2014), information flows, and social networks within society (Stefanidis et al., 2013).
However, a clear awareness of the limits of these tools of investigation is needed. For instance, problems may arise regarding representativeness of population, or even technical issues, such as for scarping systems which are not able to offer all the effective amount of data available to the researcher.  Despite this, these kinds of studies are taking hold in the social sciences which are paying particular attention to both data and source contextualisation.  As a result, they are interesting and valid tools to study issues that classic instruments are not able to perform.
Among the different kinds of digital platforms, Twitter allows the combination of textual and geo-referenced data, making this platform an interesting choice, for instance, to detect or monitor different kinds of events (Korkmaz et al.,2015), or it could be used to study the dissemination of influence (Generous et al., 2014).  Algorithms are, in this way, extraordinary tools for organising and spreading information. According to these claims, our work aims to understand, both theoretically and methodologically, how the research about territory, as a field of study, has been adapted to prolifically use data coming from algorithms of geo-location or geoparsing (Middleton et al, 2018).Specifically, this work aims to critically discuss the elements and the steps that characterize this emerging approach in order to highlight how the use of geo-localized data can be advantageous for territorial analysis and for which kinds of phenomena..Thus,  after showing the most commonly used ways of collecting information about territory using algorithms, we will discuss strategies and techniques of analysis used to combine online (social media) and offline (territorial) sources and try to identify the possible applications for each type of technique. Moreover, a third step allows us to identify the different meanings and operational processes made regarding the concept of territory. That will allow us to recognize the different conceptions of sociological space emerging from the analysis and suggest how to avoid the use of geo-localized data with a simple data-driven perspective (Kitchin, 2014) that does not consider the sociological peculiarities of the space. We will try to answer these questions by examining papers that used Twitter as the source of data. In particular, the analysis of articles will be led thanks to a third kind of content analysis following Rositi's categorisation (Rositi, 1988). Also, the extraction of the articles will be made using PRISMA methodology (Moher et. Al, 2018) for systematic review.


A simple heat treatment method was used to optimize the three-dimensional network structure of the hydrophobic aerogel, and during the heat treatment process at 200–1000 °C, the thermal conductivity of the aerogel reached the lowest to 0.02240 W/m·K between 250 °C and 300 °C, which was mainly due to the optimization of microstructure and pyrolysis of surface groups. Further Fluent heat-transfer simulation also confirmed the above results. Synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet photoionization mass spectrometry (SVUV-PIMS) was used to finely measure the pyrolysis process of aerogels, and the pyrolysis process of aerogel was divided into four stages. (I) Until 419 °C, as the temperature continued to rise, surface methyl groups were oxidized to form hydroxyl. (II) As the temperature reached to 232 °C, the oxidation proceeded. In addition, inside the aerogel, because of lacking oxygen, the reaction produced CH4 and C–Si bonds would form. (III) After 283 °C, Si–OH groups began to condense to form Si–O–Si, which optimized the three-dimensional network structures to be beneficial to improve the thermal insulation performance of silica aerogel. (IV) When it reached 547 °C, the chemical reaction was terminated, and all the primary particles gradually fused into secondary particles and sintered to form clusters.


The symptoms of myasthenia gravis (MG) reflect the loss of neuromuscular transmission due to the functional loss of the acetylcholine receptor. We reviewed the reported association of MG and connective tissue diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS), polymyositis and dermatomyositis, mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) and Sjøgren's syndrome (SjS). We found that the association of MG and MCTD or PSS is rare. We also reviewed the role of D-penicillamine, thymus abnormalities and the coexistence of SjS as one of the underlying pathological conditions for the association of MG and various connective tissue diseases.


Strong molecular dopants for organic semiconductors that are stable against diffusion are in demand, enhancing the performance of organic optoelectronic devices. The conventionally used p-dopants based on 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and its derivatives "FxTCN(N)Q", such as 2,3,4,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ) and 1,3,4,5,7,8-hexafluorotetracyano-naphthoquinodimethane (F6TCNNQ), feature limited oxidation strength, especially for modern polymer semiconductors with high ionization energy (IE). These small molecular dopants also exhibit pronounced diffusion in the polymer hosts. Here, we demonstrate a facile approach to increase the oxidation strength of FxTCN(N)Q by coordination with four tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) molecules using a single-step solution mixing process, resulting in bulky dopant complexes "FxTCN(N)Q-4(BCF)". Using a series of polymer semiconductors with IE up to 5.9 eV, we show by optical absorption spectroscopy of solutions and thin films that the efficiency of doping using FxTCN(N)Q-4(BCF) is significantly higher compared to that using FxTCN(N)Q or BCF alone. Electrical transport measurements with the prototypical poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) confirm the higher doping efficiency of F4TCNQ-4(BCF) compared to F4TCNQ. Additionally, the bulkier structure of F4TCNQ-4(BCF) is shown to result in higher stability against drift in P3HT under an applied electric field as compared to F4TCNQ. The simple approach of solution-mixing of readily accessible molecules thus offers access to enhanced molecular p-dopants for the community.


To investigate the involvement of SHP-2 in the signal transduction pathway stimulated by neurotrophins, the association of SHP-2 with components of the pathway was examined. Following NGF stimulation of PC12 cells, SHP-2 was found to be associated with the p85 subunit of PI3-kinase and the Shc proteins. In retinoic acid-differentiated SH-SY5Y cells and primary cultures of rat cortical neurons, BDNF treatment similarly caused the association of SHP-2 with p85. In addition, a tyrosine-phosphorylated protein, which is probably TrkB, was coimmunoprecipitated with SHP-2 in both cultures. These results show that SHP-2 becomes associated with signaling proteins after treatment with neurotrophins and suggest that SHP-2 plays a fundamental role in neurotrophin signaling.


An automated sequential sampling system for the measurement of particulate acid aerosols was developed in order to allow the routine collection of daily samples with only once-per-week site visits. The system's design, operation, and associated quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and data validation procedures are described. Results from a multi-year field application of this system in the Buffalo, Albany, and New York City metropolitan areas are reported, as well as from external audits and interlab analytical intercomparisons. It is found that the system successfully collected 94% of all possible samples in these three cities between May 1988 and December 1989. Weekly QA field blanks and positive control filters indicate that these data were collected with negligible acid contamination or neutralization. Peak aerosol acidity levels at these sites were found to be highest during the summer months, with peak 24-hr average levels in the 300-400 nmol/m3 range. It is concluded that this system represents a more convenient means of collecting extended daily records of valid particulate acid aerosol concentrations than has been possible in the past.


The architecture and its outputs are one of  the most relevant fields of knowledge with human beings and their daily life, and the fact that the architectural product represents the architectural vision that which is trying to deliver to the society through the architectural images of various projects, which should be perceived by the eye and trying to interpret them, so the research aims to study the vision generated by the recipient, whether the vision of the designer himself when he sees his work as an architect, another designer acting as a critic, or those who are outside of architecture field, and how that vision that the designer wants to deliver can be transformed from single vision to a double vision about the architectural product. The problem of research was the lack of clear knowledge about the role of different intellectual visions of architectural schools in the compatibility and differing visions between the designer and the other designer or the designer and the recipient to produce a double vision in architecture. The research deals with the concept of vision in general in order to extraction a set of concepts that link the vision with the architecture, whether single or double, which can be reflected by the following elements: (the concept intended by the designer – the form and its treatments - the architectural reading). In other words, it starts with the designer vision or concept and depends on what he wants to deliver, and this leads the research to study the sources of ideas and architectural images which reflect the vision of the designer, which depends mainly on architectural schools and their role in the formulation of the designer thought, and then this will be applied to elected architectural projects belonging to different schools to reach  that there is a strong duplication of vision between the other designer and the product versus a partial duplication of vision between the designer and the  product  and between the recipient and the  product


Sentence repetition tasks (SRTs) have been widely used in language development research for decades. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in studying performance in SRTs as a clinical marker for language impairment. What are the characteristics of SRTs? For what purposes have SRTs been used? To what extent have they been used with young children, in different languages, and with different clinical populations? In order to answer these and other questions, we conducted a scoping review. Peer reviewed studies published in indexed scientific journals (2010–2021) were analyzed. A search in different databases yielded 258 studies. Research published in languages other than English or Spanish, adult samples, dissertations, case studies, artificial models, and theoretical publications were excluded. After this exclusion, 203 studies were analyzed. Our results show that most research using SRT were conducted with English monolingual speakers older than 5 years of age; studies with bilingual participants have mostly been published since 2016; and SRTs have been used with several non-typical populations. Research suggests that they are a reliable tool for identifying language difficulties and are specifically suitable for detecting developmental language disorder.


Abstract.
 We examined the incidence of bark beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) colonization and subsequent mortality, and the presence of dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium vaginatum subsp. crytopodum) within a rare remnant old-growth stand of ponderosa pine. In 2011, 96% of the old growth trees were remaining with additional dense ingrowth of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex. Lawson) within the understory of the oldest trees. We compared the old-growth stand to abutting stands of ponderosa pine: a low-density seed-tree cut and a high-density post-1900 second growth. The old-growth stand had levels of bark beetle colonization similar to the seed-tree stand, and both of these stands had significantly more bark beetles than the high-density stand. Across all sites, bark beetles were found in higher numbers in the 51–60 cm diameter class. We found a trend between the proportion of trees infected per site and the percentage of trees with bark beetle activity, although a direct relationship between a tree's dwarf mistletoe infection and beetle attack was not found. This work indicates that large, older trees are not immune to endemic bark beetle attack and subsequent mortality. In light of current efforts to implement forest restoration practices that favor older and larger trees, managers of ponderosa pine forests should be aware that risk from bark beetle attack may increase as basal area increases within the stand.


Glucose is a key physiological driver of adaptive β-cell mass expansion, promoting β-cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo . Carbohydrate response element binding protein (ChREBP) is required for glucose-stimulated β-cell proliferation in both rodent and human β-cells. ChREBP has two splice isoforms - α and β. Translation of the ChREBPβ mRNA generates a truncated protein, resulting in a potent, constitutively active isoform. To study the role of the 2 splice isoforms in β-cell biology, we performed numerous experiments including immunostaining and chromatin immunoprecipitation with antibodies that recognize only ChREBPα or both isoforms. We found that ChREBPα is only transiently expressed in the nucleus. By contrast, ChREBPβ, once expressed at high enough levels to detect, is constitutively nuclear. Our data indicate that mice fed on high fat diet and diabetic db/db mice have abundant ChREBPβ localized in the nucleus while control mice have mostly cytoplasmic ChREBPα. We generated Ins-1 cell lines where we can distinguish between the splice isoforms using CRISPR/Cas9: 1. The C-terminus of ChREBPα and ChREBPβ was labeled with eGFP; 2. The N-terminus of ChREBPα was labeled by mCherry; and 3. ChREBPα was labeled with mCherry and eGFP on the N- and C- terminus, respectively and ChREBPβ is labeled with eGFP on the C-terminus. We validated the three cell lines by sequencing, ChIP, qRT-PCR and also showed that the glucose response is not altered in these cells. We found that in low glucose, ChREBPβ is present at very low levels in the nucleus. By contrast, in high glucose, ChREBPβ is present at high levels in the nucleus. Our study suggests that in response to glucose, ChREBPα, which is mostly cytoplasmic, transiently enters the nucleus, binds to a carbohydrate response element (ChoRE), and induces ChREBPβ expression, which is mostly nuclear. We propose that while the induction of ChREBPβ drives adaptive beta cell expansion, ChREBPβ contributes to glucose toxicity after prolonged exposure to high glucose and in diabetes. Disclosure L.S. Katz: None. A.K. Laxman: None. P. Zhang: None. D. Scott: None.


This experiment tested a novel written exposure intervention for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) that consisted of guided rescripting of participants' worst fear. After describing their worst fear, adults with GAD (N = 79) were randomly assigned to one of three writing interventions, each consisting of three sessions on consecutive days: (1) standard written exposure (WE), (2) written exposure with rescripting (RWE), and (3) neutral control writing (NC). Measures of symptoms and worry-associated processes were administered at pre- and post-intervention, and at 1-week and 1-month follow-ups. Worry declined significantly in all three conditions. Participants in WE reported significant reductions in fear of anxiety, whereas those in RWE reported significant reductions in fear of anger. Participants in RWE and NC reported a significant decrease in fear of positive emotion. Following RWE, participants perceived their feared scenario as less costly and perceived themselves as better able to cope with it, whereas participants in the WE and NC did not show these changes. Cognitive avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty, and negative problem orientation did not change. Findings suggest overall, RWE was not superior to WE, and that more research is needed to assess their therapeutic potential. Strengths and limitations are discussed for the benefit of future research on exposure for GAD.


Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) experimental neutron science facilities produce 1.2 TB a day of raw event-based data that is stored using the standard metadata-rich NeXus schema built on top of the HDF5 file format. Performance of several data reduction workflows is largely determined by the amount of time spent on the loading and processing algorithms in Mantid, an open-source data analysis framework used across several neutron sciences facilities around the world. The present work introduces new data management algorithms to address identified input output (I/O) bottlenecks on Mantid. First, we introduce an in-memory binary-tree metadata index that resemble NeXus data access patterns to provide a scalable search and extraction mechanism. Second, data encapsulation in Mantid algorithms is optimally redesigned to reduce the total compute and memory runtime footprint associated with metadata I/O reconstruction tasks. Results from this work show speed ups in wall-clock time on ORNL data reduction workflows, ranging from 11% to 30% depending on the complexity of the targeted instrument-specific data. Nevertheless, we highlight the need for more research to address reduction challenges as experimental data volumes increase.


Crowdfunding is a new financing channel for small- and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups to raise funds for innovation projects online. Despite its rapid development, few empirical research has been performed to identify individuals' motivations to continuously invest in crowdfunding. The high practical significance and lack of research indicate the importance of the present study. This study aims to apply Meyer & Allen's three-component model of commitment to construct a research model, incorporating context-specific antecedents. The results of our survey of 186 actual funders of the crowdfunding platforms in China indicated that affective and calculative commitment are the main drivers of funders' continuous investments in crowdfunding. Calculative commitment was proved to have a positive influence on affective commitment. Further, perceived self-worth and trust performed well as antecedents of both affective and calculative commitment, though trust played a negative role in the latter, which differed from the three other paths. And also, perceived critical mass was significantly associated with calculative commitment. The results of this research provided theoretical implications for future research and practical implications for the success of crowdfunding platforms.


In this article a Tilt-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TW-UAV) and the preliminary evaluation of its hovering characteristics in extended simulation studies are presented. In the beginning, an overview of the TW-UAV's design properties are established, highlighting the novelties of the proposed structure and the overall merits. The TW-UAV's design and structural properties are mathematically modeled and utilized for the synthesis of a cascaded P-PI and PID based control structure for the regulation of its hovering performance. In addition, extensive simulation trials are performed in order to evaluate the structure's efficiency in controlling the TW-UAV's attitude and position under various noise and disturbance scenarios.


The structure of the title compound has been established by X-ray crystallography from diffractometer data. Crystals are monoclinic, space group P21/c, cell dimensions a= 4·796(5), b= 5·049(5), c= 21·290(10)A, β= 91·43(20)°, Z= 4. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined by least-squares calculations to R 0·053 for 971 independent reflexions. The ring hydrogen is linked to nitrogen N(1), which is in agreement with the short N(2)–N(3) 1·295 A bond length and with the network of hydrogen bonds formed between the molecules. Analysis of the hydrogen bonding helped to elucidate the observed i.r. spectra.


Purpose: To determine the agreement between the results of the Nasal Air Emission and Hypernasality tests and the videofluoroscopy findings in the diagnosis of velopharyngeal dysfunction in individuals with cleft lip and palate. Methods: The sample consisted of 89 scores of Nasal Air Emission and Hypernasality tests and 89 judgments of videofluoroscopy recordings, which were interpreted as consistent velopharyngeal closure, or as inconsistent velopharyngeal closure, or as non velopharyngeal closure. The sensitivity, specificity and agreement between the interpretation of the re sults of the perceptual tests and the findings of the videofluoroscopy were calculated. Results: The rates found for sensitivity of Nasal Air Emission and Hypernasality tests were 98% and 96%, respectively, and the rates for specificity of Nasal Air Emission and Hypernasality tests were 37% and 63%, respectively. Regarding the percentages of agreement between the Nasal Air Emission test scores and the videofluoroscopy judgments, it was found an agreement of 62% for the consistent velopharyngeal closure condition, 43% for the inconsistent velopharyngeal closure, and 68% for the non velopharyngeal closure. Between the scores of Hypernasality test and videofluoroscopy judgments the agreement found was 70% for the consistent velopharyngeal closure condition, 47% for the inconsistent velopharyngeal closure and 77% for the non velopharyngeal closure. Conclusion: There was a good level of agreement between the perceptual tests and the videofluoroscopy judgments for the consistent velopharyngeal closure and non velopharyngeal closure conditions, but not for the inconsistent velopharyngeal closure.


Models of the radiation belts that are currently used to estimate exposure for astronauts describe the environment at times of either solar minimum or solar maximum. Static models, constructed using data acquired prior to 1970 during a solar cycle with relatively low solar radio flux, have flux uncertainties of a factor of two to live and dose-rate uncertainties of a factor of about two. The inability of these static models to provide a dynamic description of the radiation belt environment limits our ability to predict radiation exposures for long-duration missions in low earth orbits. In an attempt to add some predictive capability of these models, we studied the measured daily absorbed dose rate on the Mir orbital station over roughly the complete 22nd solar cycle that saw some of the highest solar flux values in the last 40 y. We show that the daily trapped particle dose rate is an approximate power law function of daily atmospheric density. Atmospheric density values are in turn obtained from standard correlation with observed solar radio noise flux. This correlation improves, particularly during periods of high solar activity, if the density at roughly 400 days earlier time is used. This study suggests the possibility of a dose- and flux-predictive trapped-belt model based on atmospheric density.


Mechanisms that mediate changes in transcriptional regulation during differentiation of long-lived memory T cells during infection remain poorly understood. During chronic viral infection, CD8 T cell differentiation yields a unique transcriptional profile: T-cell exhaustion. The suboptimal effector function of exhausted cells is partly due to sustained expression of the inhibitory receptor PD-1. Using the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus mouse model of infection, we examined pdcd1 (PD-1) gene regulation at different stages of T cell differentiation. Changes in gene expression are associated with cell-type specific profiles accompanied by distinct patterns of locus conformation and positioning of a gene relative to specific nuclear compartments (e.g. recruitment to nuclear lamina indicating silencing). We hypothesized that pdcd1 epigenetic programming and nuclear localization were coupled to viral persistence and T cell differentiation. Using DNA-FISH, we report a significant decrease in the % of pdcd1 alleles recruited to nuclear lamina in exhausted cells relative to other CD8 T cell subsets from infected mice. Reduced recruitment to nuclear lamina was consistent with upregulated expression of PD-1 mRNA and protein, and with loss of PD-1 DNA methylation in exhausted cells. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the molecular pathways mediating T cell memory and exhaustion, and may provide insight into the use of therapeutic strategies to resolve chronic infections.


Purpose: The diagnostic test of ALK rearrangement in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for crizotinib treatment is currently done on tumor biopsies or fine needle aspirations. The present study was designed to evaluate -1) whether ALK-rearrangement diagnosis could be performed using circulating tumor cells (CTCs), -2) whether CTCs harboring ALK-rearrangement could be monitored in ALK-positive patients treated by crizotinib. Patients and Methods: CTCs were isolated in 18 ALK-positive and 14 ALK-negative patients by blood filtration using ISET (Isolation by Size Epithelial Tumor cells) and tested by filter adapted-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FA-FISH), a FISH method optimized for filters. Numbers of ALK-rearranged cells and patterns of ALK-rearrangement were determined in CTCs and compared to those present in tumor biopsies. ALK-rearranged CTCs and tumor specimens were characterized for epithelial (cytokeratin, E-cadherin) and mesenchymal (vimentin, N-cadherin) markers expression. ALK-rearranged CTCs were monitored in ALK-positive patients treated by crizotinib. Results: ALK-rearranged CTCs [ranging from 4 to 34 CTCs /1mL] were detected in all ALK-positive patients, while no or only one ALK-rearranged CTCs was detected in blood samples obtained from ALK-negative patients. ALK-rearranged CTCs harboured a unique (3' 5') split pattern while heterogeneous patterns (3' 5', only 3') of splits were present in tumors. ALK-rearranged CTCs exclusively expressed a mesenchymal phenotype and contrasted with heterogeneous epithelial and mesenchymal marker expressions in tumors. Variations in levels of ALK-rearranged CTCs and in CTCs harboring a gain of ALK native copies were detected under crizotinib treatment. Conclusion: We report that ALK-rearrangement can be detected in CTCs of ALK-positive NSCLC patients using ISET and FA-FISH, enabling diagnostic testing for crizotinib treatment. Our results suggest that CTCs harboring a unique ALK-rearrangement and mesenchymal phenotype may arise from the clonal selection of tumor cells that have acquired the potential to drive metastatic progression of ALK-positive NSCLC. The molecular characterization of CTCs in patients undergoing crizotinib treatment might provide new insights into mechanism of resistance to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and possible strategies to overcome this resistance. Citation Format: Emma Pailler, Julien Adam, Amelie Barthelemy, Marianne Oulhen, Nathalie Auger, Alexander Valent, David Planchard, Melissa Taylor, Isabelle Borget, Fabrice Andre, Jean-Charles Soria, Philippe Vielh, Benjamin Besse, Francoise Farace. Detection of circulating tumor cells harboring a unique ALK rearrangement in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1470. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1470


A goal of the University of Washington Brain Project is to develop software tools for processing, integrating and visualizing multimodality language data obtained at the time of neurosurgery, both for surgical planning and for the study of language organization in the brain. Data from a single patient consist of four magnetic resonance-based image volumes, showing anatomy, veins, arteries and functional activation (fMRI). The data also include the location, on the exposed cortical surface, of sites that were electrically stimulated for the presence of language. These five sources are mapped to a common MR-based neuroanatomical model, then visualized to gain a qualitative appreciation of their relationships, prior to quantitative analysis. These procedures are described and illustrated, with emphasis on the visualization of fMRI activation, which may be deep in the brain, with respect to surface-based stimulation sites.


Abstract The history of social constructivism in International Relations (IR) is marked by cognitive change and continuity. This paper's argument begins by assuming that constructivism is a contested concept. Yet, Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblances helps in understanding why an essence of constructivism need not be found. Within this constructivist family, there are different modes of cognition, or different understandings of legitimate processes of knowing. The paper identifies two different modes, one joined, the other separate but equal. Third generation constructivists could contribute to constructivism's evolution by communicating (better) their mode of cognition. The paper draws from Wittgenstein, Gestalt psychology, and modern physics to suggest cognitive duality, illustrated with an example from global law. Physics-envy may be healthy if it differs from what IR is accustomed to. Keywords : social constructivism, third generation, cognition, Gestalt psychology, duality, Wittgenstein ----- Bibliography: Peltonen, Hannes: Constructivism, Cognition, and Duality, ERIS, 3-2016, pp. 76-86. https://doi.org/10.3224/eris.v3i3.27344


Describes an accurate and efficient simulator for a superscalar processor, the IBM RISC System/6000. This simulator was developed to obtain timing estimates for the execution of programs in an execution-driven simulation system. The simulator uses a new technique called in situ profiling, and a simplified runtime model of the RS/6000 processor to obtain dynamic timing estimates. The runtime model simulates the functional units of the processor as well as the data cache. It incorporates a novel approach to simulate the synchronization of the fixed-point and floating-point units which allows accurate timing predictions at relatively low cost. The time estimates produced by the profiler are typically within 5% of the measured times for a variety of programs.<<ETX>>


The aim of this study was to analyse the content of online reviews posted by hospital employees on job websites for themes of organisational culture. 103 anonymous online reviews across three job websites, posted by hospital employees of four hospitals within an Australian health network were extracted. Reviews had been posted across a period of six years, from 2014 to early 2020. Sentiment rating based on user-allotted ratings on the selected websites was calculated. The sentiment score was validated against the textual content of the review to confirm employee recommendation and sentiment. Sentiment was coded as neutral, positive, or negative. Significant keywords, associations, and usage within the context of identified sentiment were deductively coded and clustered manually against eight pre-determined safety culture themes. These themes were derived from the most used assessment tools for self-reported measures of occupational health and safety, and safety culture in healthcare. Workers across clinical roles (n = 49) and non-clinical roles (n = 50) were evenly represented in the dataset. 35.9% of commenters (n = 37) reported their length of employment in the hospitals that they reviewed. Most online employee reviews addressed broad themes related to perceptions of management (n = 98), safety climate (n = 97), teamwork climate (n = 91) and working conditions (n = 98). A significant set of reviews addressed themes related to job satisfaction (n = 49) and learning, training, and development (n = 41). 72.8% of online reviews (n = 75) expressed positive sentiment towards their employer. Reviews expressing negative sentiment were largely posted by former employees and indicated areas of discontent that reflected organisational and systemic factors. Online employee reviews posted by hospital workers on job sites provide valuable insights into healthcare organisational culture. Therefore, employee online reviews could be used as a supplementary source of data to inform organisational employee engagement initiatives.


Developing intelligent persuasive conversational agents to change people's opinions and actions for social good is the frontier in advancing the ethical development of automated dialogue systems. To do so, the first step is to understand the intricate organization of strategic disclosures and appeals employed in human persuasion conversations. We designed an online persuasion task where one participant was asked to persuade the other to donate to a specific charity. We collected a large dataset with 1,017 dialogues and annotated emerging persuasion strategies from a subset. Based on the annotation, we built a baseline classifier with context information and sentence-level features to predict the 10 persuasion strategies used in the corpus. Furthermore, to develop an understanding of personalized persuasion processes, we analyzed the relationships between individuals' demographic and psychological backgrounds including personality, morality, value systems, and their willingness for donation. Then, we analyzed which types of persuasion strategies led to a greater amount of donation depending on the individuals' personal backgrounds. This work lays the ground for developing a personalized persuasive dialogue system.


Vortex shedding in the turbulent wake of a square cylinder is modeled by a minimal generalized empirical Galerkin model (GM). Pressure measurements on the sides and on the back of the bluff body are used as a system output to rebuild the system full state. Despite a large number of unresolved states and the intermittent character of the vortex shedding, the use of an observer makes possible the estimation of the shift mode and the growth rate of the dynamic model truncated at order two. A high gain observer is synthesized and both simulation and experimental results show promising applications for the feedback control of the vortex shedding in order to decrease the drag coefficient, even in the case of a turbulent wake flow at high Reynolds numbers.


CONTEXT
Atypical genital nevus is rare and the only poorly documented melanocytic lesion in the spectrum of nevi of special sites. It is characterized by unique and reproducible histologic features, which may appear alarming and may raise significant concern for a diagnosis of melanoma.

OBJECTIVES
To present the clinical and histologic features of atypical genital nevus with emphasis on distinction from vulvar melanoma.

DATA SOURCES
The findings are based on a review of the current literature.

CONCLUSIONS
Atypical genital nevus is most often found in the vulva of premenopausal women. Despite the alarming histologic features, its clinical behavior appears benign with only rare local recurrence after incomplete removal. Recognition of this unusual melanocytic lesion and its characteristic histologic features is important to avoid overdiagnosis of invasive melanoma, with subsequent wide excision or sentinel lymph node biopsy, especially in view of the sensitive anatomic location.


Lactobacillus casei BL23 contains two genes, iolG1 and iolG2, homologous with inositol dehydrogenase encoding genes from many bacteria. Inositol dehydrogenase catalyzes the oxidation of inositol with concomitant reduction of NAD+. The protein encoded by iolG2, LcIDH2, has been purified to homogeneity, crystallized and cryoprotected for diffraction at 77 K. The crystals had a high mosaicity and poor processing statistics. Subsequent diffraction measurements were performed without cryoprotectant at room temperature. These crystals were radiation-resistant and a full diffraction data set was collected at room temperature to 1.6 Å resolution.


We study periodic chain clusters comprising equal numbers of two-dimensional bubbles of two different areas, with at most four bubbles per period. The cluster energies are calculated as a function of the ratio λ of bubble areas and of the imposed strain ϵ. We identify the clusters of lowest energy for each (λ,ϵ), and obtain the Young's moduli of all clusters in their unstrained state. An approximately linear correlation has been found between the Young's moduli and the cluster binding energy per unit area, similar to that which holds for crystalline solids (e.g. metals).


The horizontal transport of nitrate in main soil groups (yellow fluvo-aquic soils and aeolian sandy soil) in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain was studied. The results were as follows: the horizontal transport velocity of nitrate decreased with the distance of the tracer source in power function. Due to different soil property in soil profile, the curves of horizontal transport of nitrate were difference. The horizontal transport velocity of nitrate was controlled by the concentration gradient and soil water potential gradient in 20 cm of horizontal soil column. It was stable after 20 cm, which was controlled by soil matric potential. The horizontal transport velocity of nitrate was in a sharp positive relation with the soil moisture content and changed with exponential function. The concentration of nitrate in horizontal transport decreased with the unsaturated soil water diffusivity increased and changed with logarithmic function.


Special Studies Experience, Summer 2016 -- Seoul, South Korea -- Partner Agencie(s): The Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development (SWSD) 2016


Aim: This study focused on the impact of the clinical features on the quality of life (QoL) of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and of their caregivers. Methods: This study included PD patients along with their caregivers and was undertaken at the Malaysian Parkinson's Disease Association from June 2016 to November 2016. Clinical features of PD patients were assessed using the Movement Disorder Society revised Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale; the Hoehn and Yahr stage and the Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale were used to assess the severity and the ability of PD patients respectively. QoL of PD patients was measured using the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-39 (PDQ-39). The revised version of the Zarit Burden Interview assessed caregiver burden. Results: At least one of the clinical features affected PD patients' QoL, and at least one of the QoL domains affected the caregivers' burden. Clinical features "saliva and drooling" and "dyskinesia" explained 29% of variance in QoL of PD patients. The QoL domains "stigma," along with "emotional well-being" explained 48.6% of variance in caregivers' burden. Conclusions: The clinical features "saliva and drooling" and "dyskinesia" impacted the QoL of PD patients, and the QoL domains "stigma" and "emotional well-being" of PD patients impacted their caregivers' burden.


OBJECTIVE. The long scan time of brain MRI is a major drawback that limits its clinical use for evaluating pediatric patients who are inherently prone to motion and frequently require sedatives. This study investigated the clinical feasibility of a 1-minute ultrafast brain MRI protocol in pediatric patients by assessing its image quality in comparison with that of routine brain MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Twenty-three patients were enrolled who underwent 1-minute ultrafast MRI and routine brain MRI protocols including five essential sequences (T1-weighted imaging, T2-weighted imaging, DWI, FLAIR, and T2*-weighted imaging). Total scan time for the same image contrast levels was 1 minute 11 seconds for ultrafast MRI versus 9 minutes 51 seconds for routine brain MRI. Two readers independently reviewed all images from the two MRI protocols and graded the image quality on a 4-point Likert scale. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the readers' ratings; interobserver agreement between the readers was also assessed. RESULTS. Although the mean scores of overall image quality and anatomic delineation in ultrafast brain MR images were significantly lower than those in routine brain MR images, ultrafast brain MRI showed sufficient overall image quality and anatomic delineation with more than 2 points on the 4-point scale. CONCLUSION. The 1-minute ultrafast brain MRI protocol showed at least sufficient image quality compared with routine brain MRI. Therefore, 1-minute ultrafast brain MRI can be a viable first-line neuroimaging study for pediatric patients because of its shorter scan time, absence of radiation hazard, and reduced sedation requirements.


Systemic treatment with hedgehog inhibitors (HHis) is available to treat basal cell carcinomas but their utility is limited by adverse effects. Topical delivery methods may reduce adverse effects, but successful topical treatment depends on sufficient skin uptake, biological response, and time in tumor tissue. The aim of this review was to evaluate the current status of topical HHi delivery for BCCs and discuss barriers for translating systemic HHis into topical treatments. A literature search identified 16 preclinical studies and 7 clinical trials on the topical delivery of 12 HHis that have been clinically tested on BCCs. Preclinical studies on drug uptake demonstrated that novel formulations, and delivery- and pre-treatment techniques enhanced topical HHi delivery. Murine studies showed that the topical delivery of sonidegib, itraconazole, vitamin D₃ and CUR-61414 led to biological responses and tumor remission. In clinical trials, only topical patidegib and sonidegib led to at least a partial response in 26/86 BCCs and 30/34 patients, respectively. However, histological clearance was not observed in the samples analyzed. In conclusion, the incomplete clinical response could be due to poor HHi uptake, biodistribution or biological response over time. Novel topical delivery techniques may improve HHi delivery, but additional research on cutaneous pharmacokinetics and biological response is needed.


The new technique is suggested for a rapid bevelling of glass and metallic microelectrodes by means of ends' friction on the fine-grained surface of a quartz plate vibrating at a frequency of the mechanical resonance of the system.


This presentation focuses on identity in old age as a field which can be expanded through the use of both a social positions lens and, more specifically, an ethnicity/'race' lens. It first discusses the results of a review of literature on identity in old age which has explored the role that social positions (i.e. gender, ethnicity/'race', class, (dis)ability, sexual orientation) have played in this body of research. Finding that all social positions but gender in fact largely have been neglected in this field thus far, it is argued that the inclusion of social positions in future research on identity in old age is key to advancing this field. Then, the presentation proceeds to present preliminary find- ings from a study of identity in old age that has incorporated an ethnicity/'race' perspective. The project in question focuses on identity negotiations in relation to old age and migrant- ship (i.e. ethnic otherness as the result of migration), explor- ing the intersection between the two. Empirical data consists of 24 individual interviews with 13 foreign-born men and 11 foreign-born women aged between 55 and 79 who have been living in Sweden for 18 to 61 years. With the help of both the review of previous research and the preliminary results from this study (which implements that which the review asks for), it is thus demonstrated how the gerontological imagination can be expanded by way of employing both a social positions lens and an ethnicity/'race' aware lens.


The paper analyzes the common mode voltage at the output of matrix converters. Based on the theoretical analysis, an approach to reduce the common mode voltage for direct torque control drives using matrix converter is then proposed. The proposed method can be easily implemented without increasing computational requirements and it has been shown to achieve a reduction of 42% in the peak value of the common mode voltage. The functionality of the proposed method is validated by experimental results and compared to the conventional direct torque control.


Genodermatoses consign to an inherited skin disorder associated with structure andfunction. Several genodermatoses present with multisystem involvement lead to increased morbidityand mortality. Many of these disorders are rare and also have oral manifestations, called oralgenodermatoses. This article provides a focused review of molecular basis of importantgenodermatoses that affects the oral cavity and also has prominent associated dermatologic features.In several conditions discussed here, the oral findings are distinct and may provide the first clue of anunderlying genetic diagnosis. Many of these disorders are rare. However, the recognition of their skinfindings is important not only for the initiation of appropriate dermatologic therapy, but also for thedetection of other associated abnormalities in these frequently multisystem disorders, includingmalignancy.