SARS-CoV-2 is a highly contagious, airborne-transmission, virus that can be spread by people who do not have obvious symptoms. In 2020, that combination of features forced much of the world to impose a wide variety of forms of social distancing, ranging from simple recommendations
 restricting how shared spaces can be used to rigidly enforced quarantines. It is unclear how much distancing is enough, but it is clear that the economic and emotional costs of distancing are high. Fortunately, consistent use of simple face masks dramatically reduces the probability of others
 becoming infected. The catch is that a significant fraction of the US population either is refusing to wear masks or is wearing masks in ways that render them ineffective. For example, it is problematic for a shop owner to prevent potential customers who are not properly masked from entering
 their store. Thus, we have created the Covered Safe Entry Scanner–an open source system that uses image processing methods to automatically check for proper use of masks and potentially deny entry to those who do not comply. This paper describes the design, algorithms, and performance
 of the mask recognition system.


Collaboration scripts are didactic scenarios that guide and support groups of learners in collaborative learning. Adaptive collaboration scripting is the idea that collaboration scripts can be adapted during run time in several of their aspects, to provide learning experiences tailored to individual and group characteristics. In order to build systems that support this type of adaptation, one needs to implement adaptation models that consider both the user characteristics (at individual and/or group level) and the script features. Especially for the latter, it is important to distinguish between ldquointrinsicrdquo and ldquoextrinsicrdquo aspects of the script, identifying what aspects should be considered as non-adaptable core script features and what aspects are negotiable and adaptable. Within this context, the scope of this work is twofold: (a) to provide an introductory conceptual framework for adaptive collaboration scripting, and (b) to present a case study on the design of a Web-based system for supporting the adaptive operation of a ldquopyramidrdquo type collaboration script.


During chronic hypertension, increases in heart rate (HR) or adrenergic stimulation are associated with maladaptive left ventricular responses as isovolumic contraction and relaxation durations failed to reduce, impeding filling. We, therefore, investigated the effects of acute selective HR reduction with ivabradine on left ventricular dysfunction during chronic hypertension. Accordingly, chronically instrumented pigs received angiotensin II infusion during 4 weeks to induce chronic hypertension. Left ventricular function was investigated while angiotensin II infusion was stopped. A single intravenous dose of ivabradine was administered at days 0 and 28. Dobutamine infusion was also performed. HR was increased at day 28 versus day 0. Paradoxically, both isovolumic contraction and relaxation times failed to reduce and remained unchanged (57±3 versus 58±3 ms and 74±3 versus 70±3 at day 28 versus day 0, respectively). At day 28, ivabradine significantly reduced HR by 27%. Concomitantly, abnormal ventricular responses were corrected because both isovolumic contraction and relaxation times were significantly reduced while filling time was improved. Similarly at day 28, maladaptive responses of isovolumic contraction and relaxation to dobutamine were no longer observed during HR reduction with ivabradine. Correction of HR reduction with pacing showed that non-HR–related mechanisms also participated to these beneficial effects. In this model of chronic hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy, acute HR reduction with ivabradine corrects the maladaptive responses of cardiac cycle phases by restoring a normal profile for isovolumic contraction and relaxation both at rest and under adrenergic stimuli, ultimately favoring filling.


Autoscopy is thought to be a rare phenomenon in which a person visualizes or experiences a veritable hallucinatory image of his double. It may be more common than has hitherto been thought, however. It has no general pathological significance compared with its counterpart, the Capgras syndrome, where there is the experience of the object as a double, but it can occur in psychotic and borderline states and in afflictions of the central nervous system. Autoscopy has been known since ancient times but came into prominence only in the nineteenth century, both in the romantic literature of the double and in neuropsychiatric research. This paper details its history in literature as well as in psychiatry and neurology and also offers clinical examples from the author's caseload. It is the contention of the author that the phenomenon is far more common as an intrapsychic (nonhallucinatory) experience and that it is especially common in dreams. Autoscopy can ultimately be considered the quintessence of a "Cartesian artifice" in which one mind-body ("I") is caught in the act of regarding its compatriot self as a mind-body with sufficient distance as to register the ultimate meaning of self-recognition. A theory is offered that autoscopy is a special form of depersonalization which may be related to the "split-brain" phenomenon neurophysiologically and which is due to special forms of splitting and projective identification psychically.


Abstract We used radio-telemetry techniques to determine hourly activity patterns of 29 juvenile Lilac-crowned Parrots (Amazona finschi) during 1996–2000 in tropical dry forest of Jalisco, Mexico. Parrots had two peak activity periods—early morning and late afternoon—for both overall activity and local movement. Individuals were generally inactive and did not change location for 5–6 hr during the middle of the day. Parrots were more active in the dry season than in the rainy season, although movements resulting in a change of location did not vary between seasons. Seasonal variations in activity of Lilac-crowned Parrots may be related to variations in food availability or temperature. Activity patterns of parrots need to be considered when evaluating habitat use or survey data.


Organic inputs were used for 10 years on a French vineyard topsoil to improve structural stability and thus to protect against erosion. The three types of organic inputs (mulches) included: conifer compost, CC (100 m3 ha−1 every 3 years); conifer bark, CB (300 m3 ha−1 every 5 years); and cereal straw, S (10 t ha−1 every 2 years). The other two types of organic inputs were cover crops of clover (C) and fescue (F). The impacts of these organic inputs on soil organic carbon (SOC) content, wettability (capillary rise and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)) and structural stability were studied. The SOC content was twice as large in the CC, C and F topsoils (SOC content of 2.56–3.24%) as in the reference (R) topsoil (SOC content of 1.39%). Both apparent contact angle (θ) and surface OH:C mass ratio indicated that the R and S topsoils were hydrophilic (θ of 27.4–33.4°, surface OH:C ratio of 3.20–4.41), whereas the CB, C and F topsoils were partially hydrophobic (θ of 69.1–79.8°, surface OH:C ratio of 1.36–2.86), and the CC topsoil had intermediate values (θ of 46.9°, surface OH:C ratio of 2.43–2.81). Moreover, the greater the θ value, the smaller the water sorptivity value and the greater the proportion of water‐stable aggregates, Agw. The increase in SOC content had beneficial effects on Agw, particularly for the partially hydrophobic C and F topsoils (Agw of 22.3–44.5%) against the hydrophilic R and S topsoils (Agw of 8.2–12.7%). Development of hydrophobicity, correlated with the decrease in the surface OH:C ratio and the increase in the C–O, C–N proportion on surface C, should be attributed to humified organic matter or/and to plant and microbial polysaccharides. As the XPS and aggregate stability data describe soil physical processes at small scales (nm to mm), we suggest an experimental and modelling framework for upscaling these results for practical improvement and management of vineyard soils.


Results from a number of preclinical studies have demonstrated that a P450-based gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) strategy for the treatment of cancer is both safe and efficacious. This strategy has now moved forward into the clinic. At least two different approaches using different delivery methods (retroviral vector MetXia® [Oxford BioMedica] and encapsulated P450 expressing cells), different cytochrome P450 isoforms (human CYP2B6 versus rat CYP2B1) and different prodrugs (cyclophosphamide [CPA] versus ifosfamide [IFA]) have concluded Phase I/II clinical trial with encouraging results. In the future, P450-based GDEPT can potentially be further enhanced by improved vectors for P450 gene delivery and disease-targeted promoters for focused gene expression at the target site. In addition, there is scope for developing synthetic P450s and their respective prodrugs to improve both enzyme kinetics and the profile of the active moiety.


It has become more important to measure accurate depth profiles in developing more advanced devices. To this aim, Depth profiling in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been extensively used as an informative technique in the semiconductor and electronic devices fields due to its high sensitivity, quantification accuracy and depth resolution (Fujiyama et al, 2011; Seki et al, 2011). However, the depth resolution in SIMS analysis is still limited to provide reliable and precise information in very thin structures such as delta layers, abrupt interfaces, etc. By optimization of the experimental conditions, the depth resolution can be enhanced. In particular, lowering the primary energy seems to be a good solution, but this increases the measurement time and leads to other limitations, owing to the wrong focalization of primary ion beam, such as roughness in the crater bottom, not flat crater, etc. Therefore, the depth resolution remains so far to its perfect limit. It is only by numerical processing like deconvolution that the depth resolution can be improved beyond its experimental limits.


The objective of this study was to described 3-years survival of patients with HIV/AIDS based on non-compliance medication. This study used a retrospective cohort design at RSPI Prof. Dr. Sulianti Saroso in 2010-2012. The cumulative survival probability of patients with HIV/AIDS at RSPI Prof. dr. Sulianti Saroso in the second year (24th month) was 95.6% and the third year (in the 36th) was 91%. Probability 3-years survival patients with HIV/AIDS whom were adherence (97,6%) was higher than non-adherence (83,1%). Based on incompliance to appointment of taking drugs, probability 3-years survival among patient whom were compliance (93,8%) was also higher than incompliance (88,1%). Nonadherence to ART may caused a failure of the suppression on HIV viral, thus increase the possibility of HIV virus mutations that can lead to drug-resistant and ultimately increase the risk of death. Poor compliance to appointments of taking drugs in the first year also assumed the poor adherence of the next assignment to take drugs in the further, and show disobedience to ART, so it will increase the risk of death. Need to monitor coverage of medication adherence of patients with HIV/AIDS in a regular basis as the early warning on the risk of death among patients with HIV/AIDS.


We reported a simple method to pattern quantum dots, CdSe/ZnS, on selectively functionalized surface. This selective patterning of the quantum dots solution can be understood by considering the difference in affinity owing to different chemical functionality between the surface charge of quantum dots and transferred polyelectrolyte. Thus the quantum dots can be easily deposited on desired surface by simple dipping method. And the patterned shape and size can be freely controlled by polymer transfer technique according to the variation of used micromold.


We have performed noise measurements in the Charge Density Wave system Rb0.3MoO3 below the threshold at low temperature. In this regime this system nearly behaves as an insulator, it presents a very small and strongly nonlinear conductivity (10-15 to 10-12 Ω-1). We have observed a 1/f current noise through the sample, which increases dramatically with the amplitude of the electric field and whose amplitude slowly decreases with time. We have found that a direct relationship exists between this Broad-Band Noise amplitude and the d.c. conductivity, independently of the time of observation. These results are attributed to fluctuating CDW domains. From the relationship, it is possible to evaluate the number of independent fluctuating CDW domains contributing to the noise. Surprisingly this number is independent of E and of the history of the sample.


Sub Title Author 蔡, 淑鈴(Tsai, Shu-Ling) 鹿又, 伸夫(Kanomata, Nobuo) Publisher 慶應義塾大学大学院社会学研究科 Publication year 2012 Jtitle 慶応義塾大学大学院社会学研究科紀要 : 社会学心理学教育学 : 人間と社会の探究 (Studies in sociology, psychology and education : inquiries into humans and societies). No.73 (2012. ) ,p.7995 Abstract Since World War II, higher education systems have expanded rapidly in both Japan and Taiwan. This paper compares the educational growth of women vis-àvis men in Japan and Taiwan. Using time-series data that cover the experiences of birth cohorts of 1946 to 1985, we find that both societies move toward the direction of a greater gender parity in educational attainment, with different time paths. Taiwan's increase in women's average years of schooling across postwar cohorts exhibits an explosive time path, whereas Japan's time path for the increase in women's schooling is a stable one. The paper also employs cointegration model to test the positive relationship between change in educational growth and macroeconomic change (the growth in national income, in service sector employment, and in female labor force participation). The results reveal that economic growth exerts a significant impact upon the increase in educational attainment for both sexes in both societies, with stronger impacts upon Taiwanese women. Meanwhile, labor market opportunities in the service sector is closely linked with educational growth. This pattern hold true for both sexes and both societies. Finally, women's increasing participation in the economy as a driving force of educational growth is especially salient in the case of Taiwanese women. Notes 論文 Genre Departmental Bulletin Paper URL https://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/detail.php?koara_id=AN000 6957X-00000073-0079


Doll's analysis of lung cancer incidence (mortality) in cigarette smokers is refined in more detail in this paper. His conclusion that incidence is approximately proportional to rate of smoking and the fifth power of years of smoking is shown to hold in each of several age and dose groups giving additional evidential support. The data are equally well fitted by a Weibull distribution and by a lognormal distribution with a constant geometric standard deviation. There is, however, a trend away from these fits which needs to be examined in other studies.


Since their birth in the 6th century, universities have undergone different forms of transformations, especially of structural, ideological, and epistemological nature. Recently, the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has triggered a wave of such transformations and just like other industrial revolutions, university management ought to be cautious as such transformations could exacerbate existing inequalities between the rich and the poor students. To this end, a clear roadmap for such a transformation becomes critical. This is the contribution of this paper. We achieve this through a bibliometric analysis of the state of scientific research into the 'university transformation' topic, with a special focus on South Africa's (RSA) context. The content of the identified scientific publications on RSA was further subjected to thematic analysis leading to the revelation that decolonisation, community engagement and structural transformation, are the main research themes. It also emerges that RSA universities have not embraced 4IR as a lens through which to pursue transformation. On the other hand, the RSA government launched the project: "Transformation at Public Universities" during the 2017/18 planning year. Subsequently, all universities in the country adopted and rolled out a customised transformation agenda. Among these universities, are the six universities of technology (UoTs), which, for historical reasons, the transformation project presents unique challenges and opportunities. Created slightly after the millennium, UoTs are still seen as critical role players in the third mission of universities, that of "achieving economic growth and social progress". These findings, as wells as the existence of systemic exclusion, marginalisation, and discrimination (especially along racial lines) in RSA universities, defines our proposed roadmap. Using one of the UoTs and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the reference, the proposed university transformation roadmap is supported by empirical data on the assessment of the readiness of students to adopt 4IR technologies.


This timely and necessary contribution to understanding the construction process for U.S. and global economic indicators excels in describing the economic data—why the variable is important, how it is computed, and what it says about the future.


Use of the Flagyl selection procedure [Schmidt et al. (1977) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 74, 610-614] led to the isolation of a nuclear mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii designated thm-24. This mutant displays normal electron transport rates in vitro, possesses high latent ATPase activity bound to the thylakoid membrane, but is incapable of photophosphorylation. Decay of the transmembrane potential, as indicated by the kinetics of the 520-nm absorption change after illumination, is unusually slow and markedly biphasic. Sodium dodecylsulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of purified thylakoid membranes shows mutant thm-24 to be lacking a number of polypeptides including those previously designated 4.1, 4.2 and 8.1. Treatment of purified thylakoid membranes of wild-type and mutant algae, using the chloroform-release procedure of Beechey et al. [(1975) Biochem. J. 148, 533-537] resulted in the removal of ATPase activity from each strain. In wild-type cells, the ATPase activity was of heterogeneous enzymatic origin; fractionation of the chloroform-release extracts by non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis yielded three distinct bands displaying ATPase activity, designated ATPases I, II and III. In contrast, extracts from membranes of mutant thm-24 yielded only one ATPase-containing fraction, co-migrating with ATPase I from wild-type. Use of electrophoretic, immunological and enzymatic methods established a correspondence of the polypeptide subunits of ATPases II and III and those of spinach coupling factor, CF1. ATPase I from either algal strain was shown to be structurally distinct from high plant CF1 and to C. reinhardtii ATPases II and III.


Natural disasters by their very nature occur suddenly and have the potential to cause great harm at an individual, family, community, and societal level. They occur frequently, and with the escalation in extreme events related to climate change, the frequency, and severity of natural disasters will only increase (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2014). Globally, a growing number of people are being exposed to natural disaster; however, the vulnerability to exposure is not equally shared. Those who are socially, physically, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally, or otherwise disadvantaged are especially vulnerable to experiencing natural disaster.


Abstract:This article examines the use in early modern English drama of an apparently awkward stage direction, the 'immediate re-entrance.' In its purest form—in which the stage is cleared and the exact same group of characters re-enters, now imagined to be in a different fictional location—this device is extremely rare, and indeed discouraged by the unwritten 'Law of Re-entry.' Yet scattered examples exist, and a remarkable number involve characters in similar situations with recurring images of keys, fate and devils. Studying these 'fatal re-entrances' reveals their earliest appearance to have been in Thomas Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603) and The Second Part of The Iron Age (1612-32). A flurry then appeared at the Cockpit playhouse on Drury Lane in the early 1620s: William Rowley's All's Lost by Lust (1619-20) crystallized Heywood's idea into a simpler form that seems in turn to have inspired sequences in The Witch of Edmonton (Rowley with Thomas Dekker and John Ford, 1621) and The Changeling (Rowley with Thomas Middleton, 1622). Two subsequent Cockpit plays, The Spanish Gypsy (Dekker, Ford, Middleton and Rowley, 1623) and The English Traveler (Heywood, 1624), toy with the audience's familiarity with this expanding trope by introducing unexpected variations. For a few years, a group of playwrights turned the disparaged immediate re-entrance into a powerful stage image that could represent physically the act of choosing, and of walking toward the destiny created by that choice.


Gastric cancer (GC) is the 5th most prevalent cancer. The etiology of GC is still poorly understood. We performed a case-control study in a Chinese population to investigate the association of rs2243248 (-1098 G/T), rs2227284 (-33 C/T), rs2243250 (-589 T/C) and rs2070874 (-107 T/C) polymorphisms and haplotypes with the development of gastric cancer in a Chinese population. A total of 362 patients with gastric cancer and 384 controls were recruited between December 2013 and December 2015. Genotyping of rs2243248 (-1098 G/T), rs2227284 (-33 C/T), rs2243250 (-589 T/C) and rs2070874 (-107 T/C) was performed in a 384-well plate format on the sequenom MassARRAY platform, and analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS. The TC and CC genotypes of rs2243250 (-589 T/C) were associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer when compared with the TT genotype, with adjusted ORs (95% CI) of 1.52 (1.07-2.15) and 2.13 (1.30-3.51), respectively. The TTTT haplotype revealed a reduced risk of gastric cancer (OR=0.65, 95% CI=0.45-0.94). No linkage disequilibrium was found among IL-4 rs2243248, rs2227284, rs2243250 and rs2070874. In summary, our findings support a significant association of IL-4 rs2243250 polymorphism with the risk of gastric cancer in the Chinese population, and IL-4 haplotype contributes to the development of this disease.


Previous studies indicate that RNA may be required for proteinase-resistant prion protein (PrP) amplification and for infectious prion formation in vitro, suggesting that RNA molecules may function as cellular cofactors for abnormal PrP (PrPSc) formation and become part of the structure of the infectious agent. To address this question, we used chemicals that can cleave phosphodiester bonds of RNA and assessed their effects on the infectious agent. Lithium aluminum hydride, a reducing agent that can induce reductive cleavage of oxidized molecules such as carbonyls, carboxyl acids, esters, and phosphodiester bonds, did not affect cellular PrP degradation; however, it destroyed PrPSc, extended the scrapie incubation period, and markedly reduced total RNA concentrations. These results prompted us to investigate whether RNA molecules are cofactors for PrPSc propagation. RNase A treatment of partially purified PrPSc and of 263K scrapie brain homogenates was sufficient to increase the sensitivity of PrPSc to proteinase K degradation. This is the first evidence that suggests that RNA molecules are a component of PrPSc. Treatment with RNase A alone and PrPSc degradation by RNase A plus proteinase K in vitro, however, did not result in loss of scrapie infectivity compared with the effects of lithium aluminum hydride. Together, these data suggest that RNA molecules may be important for maintaining the structure of PrPSc and that oxidized molecules can be important in scrapie agent replication and prion infectivity.


The main purpose of this paper is both to reconstruct the structure of Royal finance in the late Chos?n dynasty and to estimate its volume. The starting point of analysis is Ilsasagung(一司四宮) in 1860s. Ilsasagung were the main Royal family houses (and also procurement agencies) such as Naesusa(內需司), My?ngryegung(明禮宮), Sujingung(壽進宮), ??igung(於義宮) and Yongdonggung(龍洞宮). The operation of these institutions was composed of both the income of collecting taxes or rents from peasants or producers and the expenditure to Seoul merchants in order to procure items. The main source of Royal family's income was Kungbangj?n(宮房田) which consisted of paddy fields, dry fields, forests, grasslands and so on. The income from Kungbangj?n ranged from (commodity) money to several goods including local products. From the result of analysis, we could find that the ratio of money over commodities in Royal finance was higher than that in 'public' (government) finance. This shows the 'private' aspect of Royal finance. Moreover, subsidies from other financial agencies were larger than the own income of Royal families. We could interpret this as not 'self-supporting' finance of Royal family. In addition, Royal finance's share of the whole public (dynasty) finance is not very big. However, the volatility of Royal finance tells us that its procurement system was the key (or 'marginal') element to identify the economic system of the late Chos?n dynasty whereas the official tribute system(貢物制度) was rather fixed in the long run.


The author had the rare privilege of meeting Mahatma Gandhi when the latter visited Noakhali for restoration of peace following a large-scale violence triggered by the call given by the Indian Muslim League to the Muslims to launch direct action from August 16, 1946 for the creation of an independent state for them, namely Pakistan. He narrates the enthusiasm of the people over the arrival of the Mahatma at Noakhali. There are very few left in the country who had seen the Mahatma and had the opportunity to interact with him. As a young boy of 15, he saw and met Gandhi and received his blessings which continue to inspire him to render service to the downtrodden.


This experiment investigated the reliability of five indices used to express the magnitude of induced vestibular nystagmus. The investigation was undertaken because information concerning the reliability of the various response parameters when caloric testing is repeated on the same subject is limited. Electronystagmographic assessments of the nystagmus response to the Fitzgerald-Hallpike test were obtained from 16 subjects on three occasions with equal intervals of time between occasions. The data were statistically treated with an analysis of variance technique that allows the generation of correlation coefficients. The findings showed that speed of the slow phase, total beats, culmination frequency, and total amplitude reliably express the magnitude of induced nystagmus on repeated tests. Duration of the induced reaction was not as reliable as the other indices on repeated testing. In addition, difference scores were more repeatable than absolute scores and the caution that must be maintained when using correlation coefficient analyses to estimate reliability is highlighted.


The value of computed tomography (CT) in determining the cause of obstructive jaundice in 67 proved cases is described. The presence of stones, the level of obstruction, the relative size of the ringlike structures produced by the dilated bile duct, and the shape of the distal visualized ring have proved to be the most important variables. The retrospective analysis determined the correct cause in 94% of the cases. CT fulfills all goals considered important in obstructive jaundice and eliminates the need for invasive procedures in many cases.


We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a 1-jet ( f, G ) : E → R × X to admit an extension ( F, ∇ F ) for some F ∈ C 1 ,ω ( X ). Here E stands for an arbitrary subset of a Hilbert space X and ω is a modulus of continuity. As a corollary


Kidney involvement in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) portends a worse prognosis; thus, early and accurate detection of lupus nephritis is key. Unfortunately, current clinical markers, including creatinine clearance, autoantibodies, serum complement levels, urine sediment and proteinuria, do not always reliably identify patients with kidney disease. Moreover, these biomarkers do not help distinguish between various histopathological classes of lupus nephritis, which are often used as benchmarks to guide treatment. An intensely hot area of lupus research currently revolves around biased and unbiased approaches to identify biomarkers that can more reliably predict clinical and histopathological lupus-associated kidney activity and, perhaps even more importantly, durable response to treatment.

Novel biomarkers of lupus nephritis currently under investigation include but are not limited to B Lymphocyte Stimulator (BLyS), A Proliferation-Inducing Ligand (APRIL), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-like WEAK inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK), and Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1). BLyS, also known as B cell Activating Factor belonging to the TNF Family (or BAFF), is a transmembrane protein that is cleaved by a furin protease into a biologically active soluble protein that is important for B cell activation and differentiation. Numerous studies have shown that serum BLyS levels are elevated in patients with SLE compared with controls, making it the target of the recently Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved lupus drug, belimumab.1 Currently, the Belimumab International Lupus Nephritis Study clinical trial is underway to determine the efficacy of belimumab in patients with lupus nephritis (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01639339). Like BLyS, APRIL is a member of the TNF family, and is thought to have a regulatory role in B cell proliferation. APRIL levels have been shown to be elevated in patients with lupus compared with healthy controls, although one study has found that levels may be lower in patients with lupus nephritis compared with patients who have …


Analyzing the Constitutional Hurdle to Bifurcated Trials THE rise of mass tort cases has stretched judicial ingenuity and resources to their limits. Dockets across the country are flooded with claims against manufacturers of goods, like cigarettes and asbestos, that carry the capacity to cause mass injury. Resolving these cases individually could take decades, and prevailing plaintiffs often receive pennies for every dollar spent on litigation and transaction costs. In response, many district courts have separated a particular issue or issues for class treatment under Rule 23(c)(4)(A) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, while leaving individual issues for individual trials before different juries. This procedure, known as bifurcation,1 can streamline a case because resolution of a common issue (e.g., general causation) often eliminates the need for further proceedings. Accordingly, bifurcation has been described as "one of the sharpest instruments available to trial courts managing mass tort litigation" and "one of the most necessary and natural in [trial judges'] arsenal of tools required for the shaping of these types of cases for efficient adjudication."3 In addition, plaintiffs often seek certification of an issue class to pressure defendants into an overall settlement of claims. Aggregation of claims exerts pressure on defendants to settle all of the plaintiffs' claims because of "the sheer magnitude of the risk" to which litigating an aggregated proceeding exposes defendants.4 Aggregation can be difficult to achieve in a traditional class action due to "intractable management problems" and other hurdles identified by the Supreme Court in Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, which has made judicial approval of class settlement - a device which avoids the management problems of a class action precisely because there is no trial - difficult to obtain for similar reasons. Not surprisingly, plaintiffs have resorted to certification of issue classes to achieve the overall settlement pressures of aggregation while potentially avoiding pitfalls identified in Amchem due to the more limited nature of the issue class inquiry.6 Yet perhaps the most significant obstacle to bifurcation is the Constitution itself. The Reexamination Clause of the Seventh Amendment provides that "no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."7 Various courts have held that the Reexamination Clause prevents judges from bifurcating trials where "an overlapping common issue tried by a jury in an aggregate proceeding might thereafter be subjected to prohibited reexamination by juries in subsequent individual proceedings."8 Other courts have largely reached the opposite conclusion - that the Clause "does not substantially inhibit" a trial judge's ability to bifurcate.9 I. The Relevance of the Reexamination Clause in Mass Tort Cases Courts have frequently allowed mass tort10 cases to be brought as class actions "with respect to particular issues" under Rule 23(c)(4)(A) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure," and have left individual issues for separate trials before different juries. A. Gasoline Products Co. v. Champlin Refining Co. Those courts that view the Reexamination Clause as a significant stumbling block to bifurcation have claimed support in Gasoline Products.12 In this breach of contract case, a jury found liability and awarded damages, but did not specify its findings as to the terms of the contract or the date of its formation and breach. The First Circuit affirmed the liability determination, but set aside the jury's finding with respect to damages due to erroneous jury instructions. On appeal, the Supreme Court faced the question whether a partial new trial on damages before a different jury violated the Reexamination Clause. Although the Seventh Amendment "does not compel a new trial of [liability] even though another and separable issue must be tried again," the Court held that this partial new trial was impermissible: Where the practice permits a partial new trial, it may not properly be resorted to unless it clearly appears that the issue to be retried is so distinct and separable from the others that a trial of it alone may be had without injustice . …


We describe a simple method of inserting the distal screws in a locked femoral nail. The method requires no aiming device and no assistant. The only equipment needed is a 3 mm Kirschner wire and an air drill.


Title of Document: A GENERIC RELIABILITY ANALYSIS AND DESIGN FRAMEWORK WITH RANDOM PARAMETER, FIELD, AND PROCESS VARIABLES Zhimin Xi, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Professor Byeng D. Youn, Department of Mechanical Engineering This dissertation aims at developing a generic reliability analysis and design framework that enables reliability prediction and design improvement with random parameter, field, and process variables. The capability of this framework is further improved by predicting and managing reliability even with a dearth of data that can be used to characterize random variables. To accomplish the research goal, three research thrusts are set forth. First, advanced techniques are developed to characterize the random field or process. The fundamental idea of these techniques is to model the random field or process with a set of important field signatures and random variables. These techniques enable the use of random parameter, field, and process variables for reliability analysis and design even with a dearth of data. Second, a generic reliability analysis framework is proposed to accurately assess system reliability in the presence of random parameter, field, and process variables. An advanced probability analysis technique, the Eigenvector Dimension Reduction (EDR) method, is developed by integrating the Dimension Reduction (DR) method with three proposed improvements: 1) an eigenvector sampling approach to obtain statistically independent samples over a random space; 2) a Stepwise Moving Least Square (SMLS) method to accurately approximate system responses over a random space; and 3) a Probability Density Function (PDF) generation method to accurately approximate the PDF of system responses for reliability analysis. Third, a generic Reliability-Based Design Optimization (RBDO) framework is developed to solve engineering design problems with random parameter, field, and process variables. This design framework incorporates the EDR method into RBDO. To illustrate the effectiveness of the developed framework, many numerical and engineering examples are employed to conduct the reliability analysis and RBDO with random parameter, field, and process variables. This dissertation demonstrates that the developed framework is very accurate and efficient for the reliability analysis and RBDO of engineering products and processes. A GENERIC RELIABILITY ANALYSIS AND DESIGN FRAMEWORK WITH RANDOM PARAMETER, FIELD, AND PROCESS VARIABLES


This study aimed to explore the relationships between the Big Five personality traits, creativity, and individual differences in uses of music (i.e. when and why people choose to listen to music). A sample of one hundred and two people (N = 102) completed measures for the above constructs and data were analyzed using bivariate correlations and multiple regressions. Results showed that, in line with the hypotheses, personality traits Openness to Experience and Extraversion were significantly positively correlated, and predicted, Creativity. Neuroticism, in contrast, was found negatively linked to Creativity. Moreover, Openness to Experience and Extraversion were positively associated with Background uses of music. Both variables were also found to be predictive of uses of music for background purposes. Results are discussed with reference to previous findings on personality as determinants of creativity and different uses of music.


Escalating pain is common in the fi nal weeks of life, requiring skilled management to assist patients with a life-limiting illness. Using a cancer model, pharmacologic approaches to treat pain in the fi nal weeks of life are reviewed.


This study aims to examine the relationship between Book-Tax Differences and earnings quality i.e. earnings persistence in order to assess the usefulness of accounting earnings for decision making. Managers may have incentives to increase accounting or "book" earnings while simultaneously reducing taxable income, any difference in the two measures is termed the book-tax difference (BTD). As the measurement of accounting earnings and taxable income is based on two different sets of rules differences can arise because of permissible discretion in the measurement of accounting income representing genuine economic differences. However, differences could also represent earnings management or manipulation, e.g. an increase in accounting income without a corresponding increase in real assets. Consequently this has raised calls to conform accounting earnings and taxable income in an attempt to limit the misuse of the discretion and the deviation permitted between the two measures. Nevertheless, conformity is argued to cause a loss of accounting earnings informativeness which makes them less useful for decision making. Using an earnings persistence model this study aims to address: (1) Does the contribution of the BTD in the model differ from that of underlying earnings and if so, does the nature of the contribution depend on a short term or longer-term measure of the BTDs. (2) Further, when BTDs are disaggregated into their "temporary" and "permanent" sources does the nature of the contribution change. If BTDs behave differently from underlying earnings, this will support the retention of differing measures of accounting earnings and taxable income and more directly retaining discretion in measurement of accounting earnings.


Purpose: Recently, Housing area plan has tried to reflect a public space of various forms. However, most of cases are indiscriminately developments, which don't reflect the diverse needs of residents. In addition, a subject of the public space is not clear and consistently stable of the management, so the residents don't have an interest enough to take advantage of it. Method: In order to make a plan of the public space of a residential complex, an architect designer needs to take a few things into consideration. One is a physical facility in needs. And other one is a management of keeping a social place stably and consistently, which allows residents to be able to interact with each other. It should be regarded for residents to form a sense of belonging, while minimizing the interface friction. When all these problems are fulfilled, an interaction will be made to improve the quality of the living environment. Result: Therefore, in this study, it is necessary to define the meaning of territoriality of the external public space of housing complex. This study makes it possible to improve the relationship of neighborhood and the quality of the life for the residents, depending on the time. This is the first step as 'the research for the territoriality of the external public space of housing complex', in order to define about the concept, function, characteristic of territory(the base of territoriality) and to establish the territoriality that can form the physical or psychological boundary in public space.


A novel Tin-functionalized integrated rubber of styrene-isoprene-butadiene tri-copolymer (SIBR) was prepared in the styrene (St)/isoprene (Ip) /butadiene (Bd) system with self-made tin-containing organolithium (simplified as SnLi) as initiator via living anionic polymerization. By means of several measures such as TEM, SEM and dynamic viscoelastometer, morphology, static mechanical properties, wear ability, dynamic heat build-up and dynamic viscoelasticity of Tin-functionalized SIBR (Sn-SIBR) were studied and compared with non-functionalized SIBR and NR/S-SBR (40/60) blend. The result shows that with improving antiskid properties and wear resistance, Sn-SIBR reduces the rolling resistance over 30%, which has excellent mechanic properties and dynamic properties. Sn-SIBR satisfies the overall property requirements of high-performance tire tread, and it is an ideal new style tread material for high-property environmental green tire.


Abstract In this paper I argue for a different standard to assess the quality of communicative conduct in local governance meetings. Rather than seeing public talk occasions as needing politeness or civility, a better norm, I suggest, is "reasonable hostility". Emotionally marked criticism of the past and future actions of public persons (i. e., reasonable hostility), I show, is necessary for the able functioning of democratic bodies. Following a critique of politeness theories, including a claim for why Goffman's concept of face is more suitable for exploring situated communicative practices, background on U.S. school governance practices and the particular U.S. school board meetings that are the focus of this paper are provided. Then, I illustrate and analyze recurrent, ordinary kinds of face-attack that occurred in the community's public meetings and provide evidence that meeting participants judged the remarks to be face-attacking. In the paper's concluding section, I describe the situation and face-attack features that distinguish reasonable hostility from unreasonable forms.


Accumulation of molecular data obtained from quantum mechanics (QM) theories such as density functional theory (DFTQM) make it possible for machine learning (ML) to accelerate the discovery of new molecules, drugs, and materials. Models that combine QM with ML (QM↔ML) have been very effective in delivering the precision of QM at the high speed of ML. In this study, we show that by integrating well-known signal processing (SP) techniques (i.e. short time Fourier transform, continuous wavelet analysis and Wigner-Ville distribution) in the QM↔ML pipeline, we obtain a powerful machinery (QM↔SP↔ML) that can be used for representation, visualization and forward design of molecules. More precisely, in this study, we show that the time-frequency-like representation of molecules encodes their structural, geometric, energetic, electronic and thermodynamic properties. This is demonstrated by using the new representation in the forward design loop as input to a deep convolutional neural networks trained on DFTQM calculations, which outputs the properties of the molecules. Tested on the QM9 dataset (composed of 133,855 molecules and 16 properties), the new QM↔SP↔ML model is able to predict the properties of molecules with a mean absolute error (MAE) below acceptable chemical accuracy (i.e. MAE < 1 Kcal/mol for total energies and MAE < 0.1 ev for orbital energies). Furthermore, the new approach performs similarly or better compared to other ML state-of-the-art techniques described in the literature. In all, in this study, we show that the new QM↔SP↔ML model represents a powerful technique for molecular forward design. All the codes and data generated and used in this study are available as supporting materials. The QM↔SP↔ML is also housed at the following website: https://github.com/TABeau/QM-SP-ML.


O ne-third of US cancer survivors were worried about treatment and cancer care disruptions early in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology.1 Investigators used a mixed-methods approach to elicit survivor experiences and worries during the pandemic from cancer survivors in their own words. The study found that cancer survivor concerns were widespread and revealed that the pandemic exacerbated serious gaps that already existed in the health care system. Researchers, led by Corinne Leach, PhD, MPH, MS, senior principal scientist in behavioral research at the American Cancer Society (ACS), analyzed survey data gathered from March 25 through April 8, 2020, from the 20192020 ACS Cancer Action Network Survivor Views Panel. Dr. Leach says that the findings highlight the importance of clear communication between health care providers and patients regarding concerns that may affect patient mental health as their care continues to change during the pandemic. Among the key findings were the following: • Many survivors had treatment disruptions. • Seventy-seven percent were concerned that they were at high risk for serious health impacts and intensive care unit admission or death if infected with COVID-19. • Fear of getting sick with COVID-19 was pervasive among survivors, and they reported social distancing and mask wearing to avoid infection. • Many respondents described feelings of social isolation and loneliness. • Twenty-seven percent worried that the pandemic would make it more difficult for them to afford cancer care; some were concerned about deciding what would be more important: medicine or food. Another important concern among respondents was the inability to bring a companion to in-person appointments. Survivors understood the decision to disallow this but reported being caught off guard by the new rule, particularly when appointments involved receiving bad news from providers, such as learning about a cancer recurrence. Treatment delays and cancellations point to the need for policy interventions and new delivery models to improve ways in which patients with cancer can safely receive care, the authors noted. They also stressed the need for public policies that address financial worries associated with the pandemic. Such policies include the following: • Increasing federal Medicaid funding to ensure that people have health coverage should they become uninsured. • Increasing funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cancer screening programs. • Providing $15 billion to the National Institutes of Health to restart stalled clinical trials.


Pyranojacareubin; 1,5-dihydroxy-6',6'-dimethyl-2H-pyran(2,,3':6,7) -6",6"-dime-thyl-2H,4H-pyran(2",3":2,3)xanthone and a new xanthone l,6-dihydroxy-5-methoxy-6',6'-dime-thyl-2H-pyran(2',3':3,2)-7-(3,3-dimethylprop-2-enyl)xanthone were isolated from the ether extract of the root bark of Rheedia acuminata together with friedelin and friedelanol.


The residual heat exchanger in nuclear power plant is the key component of secondary side passive residual heat removal system, where the performance of removing decay heat by condensation and pool boiling to the secondary water storage tanks in the residual heat exchanger is crucial to the safety of the nuclear power plant. In the present paper, an experimental facility is built to evaluate the heat removal capability of the residual heat exchanger in both steady state natural circulation and forced circulation at different pressures. The high pressure steam is forced to flow and enter into heat exchanger with a slight inclined tube, which is installed in a large water pool. Experiments are carried out to study the characteristics of the steam condensation in the residual heat exchanger at different parameters. A calculation code for modeling this process and predicting the outlet temperature is also developed.The results show that the temperature difference between inlet and outlet increases with the increase of the inlet steam pressure due to the variation of latent heat. Meanwhile, the outlet temperature also increases with increasing flow rate. The calculation results accord with the experimental data at low mass flow rate. It is also found that the two calculation models proposed by J.R. Thome predict the flow pattern well, and the Shah's equation is more suitable to estimate the heat transfer characteristic.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


During traumatic joint injuries, impact overloading can cause mechanical damage to the cartilage. In the following inflammation phase, excessive inflammatory cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1β (IL-1β)) can act on chondrocytes, causing over-proliferation, apoptosis, and extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation that can lead to osteoarthritis. This study investigated the combined effects of traumatic overloading and IL-1β challenge on the metabolic activities of chondrocytes. Bovine cartilage explants underwent impact overloading followed by IL-1β exposure at a physiologically relevant dosage (1 ng/mL). New click chemistry-based methods were developed to visualize and quantify the proliferation of in situ chondrocytes in a nondestructive manner without the involvement of histological sectioning or antibodies. Click chemistry-based methods were also employed to measure the ECM synthesis and degradation in cartilage explants. As the click reactions are copper-free and bio-orthogonal, i.e., with negligible cellular toxicity, cartilage ECM was cultured and studied for 6 weeks. Traumatic overloading induced significant cell death, mainly in the superficial zone. The high number of dead cells reduced the overall proliferation of chondrocytes as well as the synthesis of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and collagen contents, but overloading alone had no effects on ECM degradation. IL-1β challenge had little effect on cell viability, proliferation, or protein synthesis but induced over 40% GAG loss in 10 days and 61% collagen loss in 6 weeks. For the overloaded samples, IL-1β induced greater degrees of degradation, with 68% GAG loss in 10 days and 80% collagen loss in 6 weeks. The results imply a necessary immediate ease of inflammation after joint injuries when trauma damage on cartilage is present. The new click chemistry methods could benefit many cellular and tissue engineering studies, providing convenient and sensitive assays of metabolic activities of cells in native three-dimensional (3D) environments.


The crossbar nonidealaties may considerably degrade the accuracy of matrix multiplication operation, which is the cornerstone of hardware accelerated neural networks. In this paper, we show that the crossbar nonidealities especially the wire resistance should be taken into consideration for accurate evaluation. We also present a simple yet highly effective way to capture the wire resistance effect for the inference and training of deep neural networks without extensive SPICE simulations. Different scenarios have been studied and used to show the efficacy of our proposed method.


PURPOSE
This systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled studies aimed to assess the efficacy of different types of exercise programs (EP) on ankylosing spondylitis (AS) activity, function and mobility.

METHODS
We searched PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library and Embase databases for reports of controlled trials of patients with AS published up to May 2022. The studies were classified by intervention into categories defined by the 4 exercise domains established by the American College of Sports Medicine and then adopted by the European League Against Rheumatism: aerobic, muscle strength, flexibility, neuromotor performance.

RESULTS
We found a moderate effect of EP as a whole on BASDAI (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index) (-0.60, 95% CI -0.95, -0.25, p < 0.001), BASFI (Functional) (-0.63, 95% CI -0.84, -0.42, p < 0.0001) and BASMI (Metrology) (-0.52, 95% CI -0.88, -0.15, p < 0.01). The effect of "flexibility + muscle strength" EP was large for BASMI, moderate for BASDAI and BASFI. The effect of "flexibility + muscle strength + aerobic" EP was large for BASFI, moderate for BASDAI.

CONCLUSIONS
EP, regardless of the specific type of exercise, have a moderate effect on AS activity, function and mobility. EP including flexibility and muscle strength exercises may have a large effect, especially for mobility. Programs including aerobic exercise showed significant efficacy for function.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONIn ankylosing spondylitis (AS), any exercise program (EP), regardless of the type of exercises involved, showed a moderate effect on disease activity, function and spinal mobility.In AS, EP combining flexibility and strength exercises showed the largest effect on spinal mobility and should be encouraged.In AS, EP combining flexibility, muscle strength and aerobic exercises may be particularly effective on patient function.


BACKGROUND Solid-organ transplant recipients constitute a complex patient population that experiences numerous and aggressive skin cancers. Proactive, comprehensive, ongoing, and effective dermatologic care of these patients is a necessity. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to emphasize the need for organized dermatologic care for transplant recipients and to collect and present various proactive paradigms established in and designed for different practice settings to manage organ transplant recipients at high risk for skin cancer. METHODS Information about practice setting, patient demographics, and the care model used was obtained through questionnaires sent to a selection of 12 physicians known to care for transplant recipients in various practice settings. RESULTS All 12 physicians completed the questionnaire. The organized dermatologic care of transplant recipients occurs in three basic clinic settings: multidisciplinary transplant clinics, designated dermatology transplant subspecialty clinics, and integration of transplant recipient care within existing dermatology clinics. CONCLUSIONS Various practice settings offer both advantages and disadvantages in providing preventive and therapeutic care of organ transplant recipients at risk for skin cancer. Regardless of the clinic design used, an organized and firmly established clinic model to allow proactive and ongoing care for these patients is important for education, prevention, and early intervention.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta), a cytokine with potent promalignant properties, is overexpressed in different tumors. Therefore, the development of TGF-beta inhibitory molecules is of paramount importance to improve the efficacy of antitumor therapies. Several strategies using neutralizing antibodies, TGF-beta soluble binding proteins, antisense compounds, or small molecule inhibitors targeting TGF-beta signaling, have shown that TGF-beta inhibition helps in antitumor therapy. Some of these compounds have shown their value by directly inhibiting tumor growth and metastasis, whereas others have been able to enhance antitumor immune responses. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of two peptide inhibitors of TGF-beta, namely P144 (1) and P17 (2), in 6 human tumor cell lines derived from medulloblastoma (DAOY), rhabdomyosarcoma (TE671), neuroblastoma (SK-NSH and SH-SY5Y), and glioblastoma (A172 and U87-MG). P144 and P17 are derived from human TGF-beta type III receptor sequence (1) and phage display library technology (2) respectively. Both peptides have high affinity for soluble TGF-beta and potent inhibitory effects on TGF-beta binding to its receptors. MTT assay and an apoptosis test (Cell Death Detection ELISA PLUS, Roche) were performed before and after treatment with the peptides, which were added to the media at a final concentration of 100 ug/ml. P17 did not produce any effect on the cell lines, while P144 induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in three brain tumor cell lines (DAOY, A172, and U87-MG). The level of phosphorylated Smad2 (that initiates the activation of the TGF-beta intracelular signaling pathway) was decreased in presence of P144 in all cases, as determined by Western blot, confirming that P144 inhibits TGF-beta signaling. qRT-PCR was performed in order to analyze different genes related with the regulation of the TGF-beta signaling, such as Smad7, Ski, SnoN, FoxG1, which are inhibitors of the pathway, and p21CIP. Our preliminary data show that P144 affects the transcription of Smad dependent genes, e.g. Smad7, SnoN and Ski, although confirmatory experiments are still required. Our data suggest that inhibition of the TGF-beta pathway by P144 inhibits cell growth and increases apoptosis in brain tumor cell lines, possibly in a Smad-dependent manner. Therefore, P144 should be further tested as a therapeutic agent against brain tumors.

1. Ezquerro IJ, et al. A synthetic peptide from transforming growth factor beta type III receptor inhibits liver fibrogenesis in rats with carbon tetrachloride liver injury. Cytokine 22:12-20, 2003.

2. Dotor J, et al. Identification of peptide inhibitors of transforming growth factor beta 1 using a phage-displayed peptide library. Cytokine. 39:106-115, 2007.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5044. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-5044


Based on the analysis of practical dilemma of the third-party electronic commerce system in China, this paper points out strengthening the policies and regulations' supervision is the key to continuously enhance its influence. The paper is divided into three parts. Part I describes the social and economic position of China's third-party platform. Part II establishes legal principles of supervising and managing it. Part III considers related legal problems, such as liability rules for errors in e-commerce, the intermediary system of e-commerce, special rules of e-contract. Recommendations of improving its supervision and management mechanism are provided.


Birds have been used as model species in ecotoxicological research for decades but have only recently been included in toxicity testing schemes. However, the avian fauna is very diverse. Given this diversity the ecology, behavior and reproduction should be considered when selecting the appropriate bird model in ecotoxicological studies. This article focusses on choosing the right bird model species for experimental studies with endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs have been associated with adverse effects on the reproduction and development in birds and other wildlife. In addition, new EDCs continue to emerge and the concern for potential effects in humans and wildlife is calling for increased toxicity testing and hence appropriate model species. Common bird model species used in ecotoxicological studies investigating EDCs will be reviewed. In addition, considerations for selecting the right bird model, along with potential drawbacks and restrictions on the use of certain species will be discussed.


Mobile devices are often stuck behind high-latency links. Unfortunately for mobile browsers, latency (not bandwidth) is often the key influence on page load time. Proxy-based web accelerators hide last-mile latency by analyzing a page's content, and informing clients about useful objects to prefetch. However, most accelerators require content providers to divulge cleartext HTTPS data to third-party analysis servers. Acceleration systems can be installed on first-party web servers, avoiding the violation of end-to-end TLS security; however, due to the administrative overhead (and additional VM costs) associated with running an accelerator, many first-party content providers would prefer to outsource the acceleration work—if outsourcing could be secure. In this paper, we introduce Oblique, a third-party web accelerator which enables secure outsourcing of page analysis. Oblique symbolically executes the client-side of a page load, generating a prefetch list of symbolic URLs. Each symbolic URL describes a URL that a client browser should fetch, given user-specific values for cookies, the User-Agent string, and other sensitive variables. Those sensitive values are never revealed to Oblique's analysis server. Instead, during a real page load, the user's browser concretizes URLs by reading sensitive local state; the browser can then prefetch the associated objects. Experiments involving real sites demonstrate that Oblique preserves TLS integrity while providing faster page loads than state-of-the-art accelerators. For popular sites, Oblique is also financially cheaper in terms of VM costs.


The BLAP75 protein combines with the BLM helicase and topoisomerase (Topo) IIIα to form an evolutionarily conserved complex, termed the BTB complex, that functions to regulate homologous recombination. BLAP75 binds DNA, associates with both BLM and Topo IIIα, and enhances the ability of the BLM-Topo IIIα pair to branch migrate the Holliday junction (HJ) or dissolve the double Holliday junction (dHJ) structure to yield non-crossover recombinants. Here we seek to understand the relevance of the biochemical attributes of BLAP75 in HJ processing. With the use of a series of BLAP75 protein fragments, we show that the evolutionarily conserved N-terminal third of BLAP75 mediates complex formation with BLM and Topo IIIα and that the DNA binding activity resides in the C-terminal third of this novel protein. Interestingly, the N-terminal third of BLAP75 is just as adept as the full-length protein in the promotion of dHJ dissolution and HJ unwinding by BLM-Topo IIIα. Thus, the BLAP75 DNA binding activity is dispensable for the ability of the BTB complex to process the HJ in vitro. Lastly, we show that a BLAP75 point mutant (K166A), defective in Topo IIIα interaction, is unable to promote dHJ dissolution and HJ unwinding by BLM-Topo IIIα. This result provides proof that the functional integrity of the BTB complex is contingent upon the interaction of BLAP75 with Topo IIIα.


The aim of this study was to evaluate cutting dates and the use of additives on the silage quality of the entire sunflower plant. The forage variety (Rumbosol-91) was harvested in weeks 1, 3 and 5 post-flowering (F1, F2 and F3, respectively) and treated with the following additives: 1) 1.5 × 105 cfu of g -1 forage inoculant, based on homofermentative lactic acid bacteria Enterococcus faecium, Pediococcus pentosaceus and Lactobacillus plantarum (INOC), 2) 3 ml kg -1 forage of an 85% formic acid solution (FORM) and 3) without additive (Control); following a 3x3 factorial design with five replications. Effluent production and total dry matter (DM  losses decreased,  from 282 and 134 g kg -1 on D + 1  to 96 and 87 g kg -1 on D + 5 as a result of the high moisture content of the forage close to flowering. NIRS analysis of the silage samples showed that the protein, fiber and digestibility contents decreased significantly with the maturity of the plant; the rapid accumulation of oil in the DM made the energy concentration higher in the most advanced phenological state. The fermentative quality of the silages was satisfactory, regardless of the cutting moment and the use of additive. It is concluded that the cutting moment of the plant is better at five weeks post-flowering, when an acceptable fermentation is expected without the need to use preservatives.


In vitro orchid propagation of Oncidium baueri (Orchidaceae) without the use of agar.  This research aims at  studying the  in vitro  propagation of  Oncidium baueri (Orchidaceae) without the use of agar as a solidifying agent of culture medium. The seeds were germinated in Murashige and Skoog medium (MS, 1962) modified with half of the macronutrients concentrations. When the seedlings reach an average height of 1 cm, they were   subcultivated   in   600   mL   plastic   flasks   containing   200   mL   of   the   same   nutritive medium used for germination. The evaluated treatments were: 7 g of agar per liter + 1/2 MS medium liquid; chopped (polyurethane) foam + 1/2 MS medium liquid; sphagnum + 1/2 MS medium liquid; thick sand + 1/2MS medium liquid. The evaluated variables after 8 months of study were: aerial part height, tallest root length, sprout number, root number and total fresh mass. The statistics analysis demonstrates that the sphagnum or thick sand treatments are not indicated  to substitute the agar. However, the treatment with chopped polyurethane foam showed an optimum rooting and vegetative development of seedlings, being, therefore, an efficient  and  less  costly  alternative  to   replace  the agar   in   the  in  vitro  propagation  of


"The Yoga Sutra", dating from about the third century A.D., distills the essentials of a complex system of physical and spiritual discipline into 200 brief aphorisms. Yoga is at the heart of all meditative practice in Asia, yet until now there has been no first-rate English version of this primary text. Barbara Stoler Miller's translation admirably fills that gap - her clear, strong style and sensitive phrasing convey every nuance of Patanjali's words, and her commentary offers invaluable guidance to anyone seeking to understand Indian philosophy or the practice of yoga. "The Yoga Sutra" does not propose to offer new knowledge but rather a new perspective on the nature of knowing. As a method of achieving insight, the discipline of yoga is far from mystical ecstasy or ritual trance. Its goal is a contemplative intensity that can unbind the constraints of everyday experience, and that goal helps explain Americans' growing interest in yoga in recent years. This interest has been most widely expressed in the physical dimension of yoga - the postures known as hatha-yoga - but attention is increasingly being directed at the philosophy and psychology that define the discipline. Here the "Yoga Sutra" shines most brightly; in a world of bewildering complexity and seductive material culture, this centuries-old text offers powerful techniques for countering private mental chaos and moral confusion. "The Yoga Sutra" has great relevance today, and thanks to Barbara Stoler Miller it is now truly accessible.


By analysing three-dimensional QED with a Chern-Simons term and Nf flavours of electrons at its critical point, we determine various leading-order large-Nf critical exponents which depend non-trivially on the coupling to the topological term.


Even though the economic union of Russia and Belarus is virtually complete, important material differences persist between the civil codes of the two countries. Of particular significance to foreign investors in Belarus are the provisions regulating intellectual property, inheritance, and private international law - provisions that set Belarus apart from other CIS jurisdictions and that make it especially attractive to businesses critically affected by these considerations. This fourth volume in the CIS Civil Code series presents the Belarus Civil Code that entered into force on 1 July 1999. William E. Butler's English translation is of the high quality that has come to be expected by counsel for international investors with a special interest in the CIS countries.


A new invariant of stress tensor is introduced - the mean shearing stress, resulted from the integration with respect to Mohr's circle. The invariant is used to lay down the terms of plasticity. Determining equations are written on the basis of associated flow law. Rigid variants of the model and elastoplastic ones are obtained. Characteristic surfaces with normals, coinciding with main stresses direction are demonstrated for the rigid-plastic variant.


Cathepsin D (EC 220.127.116.11) is a lysosomal endopeptidase physiologically present at very low concentration in different tissues. The aim of the study was to estimate the physiological activity and distribution of cathepsin D in the liver. Four groups of ten-week-old male Wistar rats were raised without xenobiotics and sacrificed on day 4, 42, 47 and 84 of the experiment, and their livers were taken for immunohistochemical and biochemical investigation. Immunostaining for cathepsin D was evaluated by light microscope. Activity of the free and bound fractions of hepatic cathepsin D was measured spectrophotometrically. Immunohistochemical staining for cathepsin D was positive in Browicz-Kupffer cells in some but not in all rat liver specimens of each experimental group. The staining pattern was cytoplasmic and granular. Occasionally the positive stained endothelial cells were also found. No activity of cathepsin D in hepatocytes was detected. The positive immunostaining was found in livers with high enzyme activity in the biochemical investigation. No significant differences in activity of the free and bound fractions of cathepsin D among the different age groups were noted. However, the higher, age-dependent activity (p>0.05) of the free fraction was observed in the youngest and the two-middle groups of rats that were sacrificed on day 42 and 47 than in the oldest one. The bound fraction did not reveal such changes. It could be concluded that there were no differences in the activity of hepatic free and bound fractions of cathepsin D in male Wistar rats of various reproductive age. The rat Browicz-Kupffer cells revealed the highest activity of cathepsin D.


Over the past decade, ROS-sensitive formulations have been widely used in atherosclerosis applications such as ROS scavenging, drug delivery, gene delivery, and imaging. The intensified interest in ROS-sensitive formulations is attributed to their unique self-adaptive properties, involving the main molecular mechanisms of solubility switch and degradation under the pathological ROS differences in atherosclerosis. This review outlines the advances in the use of ROS-sensitive formulations in atherosclerosis applications during the past decade, especially highlighting the general design requirements in relation to biomedical functional performance.


In this paper, we propose a new image quality metric using derivative filters in the context of compressive sensing (CS) that represents a sparse or compressible signal with a small number of measurements. In general, an arbitrary image is not sparse or compressible, however, its derivative image is compressible. In this paper, derivative images are obtained using first- and second-order derivative filters such as Sobel operators and Laplacian of Gaussian filters. Each derivative image of the reference and distorted images is measured via CS. Measurements of derivative images are compared for evaluating the image quality. Experiments with the laboratory for image and video engineering database show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Segmentation-based motion compensation is used in combination with adaptive wavelet packet transform for compressing image sequences. Motion compensation and estimation are performed at both encoder and decoder so that the region shape information need not be transmitted and only the changed vectors are transmitted. This is very useful in low bit-rate applications. Also the adaptive wavelet packet transform used promises a very faithful representation of the images.


The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) has an irreplaceable importance with its guidelines for cancer staging. These staging procedures are carried out with retrospective and prospective analysis studies. In the light of the new data, there may be an increase or decrease in the staging of some skin cancer lesions, while some concepts are completely eliminated. In the 8th Edition of the AJCC Manual, which is published approximately 7 years after the previous edition, changes were made in line with the new data on skin cancers. The most prominent change for squamous cell carcinoma of the skin is the discrimination between "clinical (cN)" and "pathological (pN)" staging. The most prominent change for Merkel cell carcinoma is that "cN" and "pN" distinction has been introduced for both regional lymph node and distant metastasis. In terms of melanoma, it can be said that everything related to a tumor, a regional lymph node, and a distant metastasis have been changed. Given the fact that the next edition will not be released earlier than at least another 7 years, it is necessary to quickly become acquainted with this new edition for the benefit of treating and monitoring patients with skin cancer.


This paper addresses the issue of model selection risk by examining whether a model's past performance in forecasting expected returns provides an indication of its future forecasting performance. For this purpose, we implement a wide range of different forecasting models and then apply the Aiolfi-Timmermann methodology for relative performance persistence measurement. We find no evidence of performance persistence in forecasting models at the top end of the historical forecasting performance rankings. Economic consequences of this purely statistical study are subsequently quantified by an out-of-sample asset allocation exercise. Simulating an asset allocator, who selects ex ante return forecasting models based on their ex post performance, we show that investors should make portfolio decisions based on forecasting models from the middle of the historical forecasting performance rankings.


Youths of today particularly from urban areas are facing a highly demanding and challenging life than earlier generations, sandwiched between tradition and technology. There is a significant shift in terms of socio-economic development, life style, technological advancement and environmental patterns in everyone's lives over the last few decades (Bohn & Short, 2009). Young adults (age group ranging from 18 to 25 years) today, face problems such as family/relationship conflicts, absence of emotional connect with family members, depression, addiction, low self-esteem/lack of confidence, etc. Many young adults get involved in an intimate relationship to fulfill their needs for belongingness (Maslow, 1943). The need for belongingness remains unfulfilled in young adults having insecure attachment with their parents (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970). With decrease in the family size (i.e. the number of children per married couple) over the years and rise in nuclear households (Bhasin, 2016), young girls in urban settings tend to lack coping mechanisms in stressful situations and become vulnerable to mental health related issues. This piece of research is an attempt to present four cases of young adult girls belonging to nuclear families who approached for psychological help. A common concern of each one of them was absence of emotional connect with their respective parents in spite of living under the same roof. Two of them suffered from severe depression and were referred for psychiatric help. Two of the four girls regularly indulged in deliberate self-harm while one was addicted to substance use. All four girls expressed dissatisfaction about their childhood as they felt neglected throughout. Findings suggest that the young adults need to be provided with proper care, attention and strong support at the family front to become confident, self-sufficient and self-reliant which would prevent them from getting into problems like depression, addiction, deliberate self-harm, etc.


In order to exploit efficiently very high resolution satellite multispectral data for precision agriculture applications, validated methodologies should be established which link the observed reflectance spectra with certain crop/plant/fruit biophysical and biochemical quality parameters. To this end, based on concurrent satellite and field campaigns during the veraison period, satellite and in-situ data were collected, along with several grape samples, at specific locations during the harvesting period. These data were collected for a period of three years in two viticultural areas in Northern Greece. After the required data pre-processing, canopy reflectance observations, through the combination of several vegetation indices were correlated with the quantitative results from the grape/must analysis of grape sampling. Results appear quite promising, indicating that certain key quality parameters (like brix levels, total phenolic content, brix to total acidity, anthocyanin levels) which describe the oenological potential, phenolic composition and chromatic characteristics can be efficiently estimated from the satellite data.


This study aims to determine the effect of game strategies and storytelling strategies on Indonesian Language lessons on listening skills of Grade VI students of State Elementary School No.118315, Negerilama Plantation. This type of research is a semi-experimental study with a sample of 2 experimental classes, namely 20 students of class VI A and 22 students of class VI B. Class VI A was treated with Game Strategy and Class VI B was treated with Storytelling Strategy. The research instrument used a test consisting of 5 questions in the form of an essay test that has been tested for validity and reliability. After being given treatment to the two experimental classes, the results are (1) There were differences in students' listening skills before and after being given the game strategy treatment in class VI, namely 75.5 and 83.5. (2) There are differences in students' listening skills before and after being given storytelling strategy treatment in class VI, namely 67.8 and 76.6. (3) Listening skills of grade VI students were better at using game strategies than storytelling strategies. This was indicated by the average listening skill of students using game strategy was 83.5 while storytelling strategy were 76.6.


This article argues that it is remiss to understand the acute intensification of White supremacist politics in contemporary Britain without paying close attention to how this racism is inherently gendered and sexualised. This will be discussed in relation to the gendered racism of 'misogynoir' as experienced by the British Member of Parliament Diane Abbott. The article uses Shirley Anne Tate's powerful analysis of the Sable-Saffron Venus in the English imaginary to argue that forms of British, and more explicitly English, national identity have been worked out on the back of systemic efforts to erase the material and epistemic presence of Black women in Britain from the British body politic. It further argues that the politics of erasure extends to the epistemic elision of Black British feminist theorising within the field of social theory. What then are the consequences and interplay of both the lived and epistemic acts of violence? I explore these issues by mapping Black British feminism's anticolonial politics to argue that we should bring this tradition to bear in our analysis of this most recent iteration of racism in our contemporary times.


Cysticercus tenuicollis (C. tenuicollis) is the larval stage infection of Taenia hydatigena, a common tapeworm of dogs and other Canidae, which has a wide range of intermediate hosts including sheep, goat, cattle, deer, camel, horse, human and other wild ruminants, the disease spreads through a contaminated water, soil and food with feces of infected dogs or other carnivores, T. hydatigena lives in the intestinal of the definitive host (carnivores) and excretes a huge number of eggs with feces daily. The present study conducted to determine the prevalence rate and molecular characterization of C. tenuicollis among sheep and goats in Sulaimani province. A total of 14088 slaughtered animals were inspected postmortem from the new Sulaimani abattoir comprise, which involves 13395 sheep and 693 goats. The selected cysts were preserved in 70% Ethanol for DNA extraction and molecular study,  The mt-CO1 gene was amplified with a conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the PCR product purified and DNA sequencing for reverse and forward strands was determined by a genetic analyzer, the obtained sequences aligned with the DNA sequences of T. hydatigena in Iran, Turkey and Palestine, which deposited in GenBank under the following accession number (JQ710588), (JN827307) and ( KM032284) respectively. The prevalence rate of C. tenuicollis was 2.63% in sheep and 2.58% in goats. This result shows no significant differences of C. tenuicollis between sheep and goats (p>0.05). The nucleotide sequence alignment of cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (CO 1) gene revealed that the amplified DNA fragment is belong to Taenia hydatigena and Echinococcus granulosus and the nucleotide sequences of T. hydatigena deposited in GenBank under accession number (MH638348). This finding concludes that the amplification of mt-CO1 gene cannot be depended on discriminate hydatid cyst and C. tenuicollis while the partial DNA sequences of mt-CO1 gene are significantly valuable to differentiate C. tenuicollis from hydatid cyst, which is completely different in the pathology and control.


Background WHO defined cerebral malaria (CM) in 1990 as a clinical syndrome of Plasmodium falciparum infection with unrousable coma not attributable to another cause. This has been broaden by adding altered consciousness, severe anemia, and respiratory distress without laboratory confirmation in order to curtail mrtality in children. This has resulted in overdiagnosis and overlooking other serious alternatives plus overburdening the scarce resources. Aims To analyze the situation in Sudan by studying children admitted with clinical CM and do all the possible diagnostic work up in order to reach definitive diagnosis. Patients and methods Patients belonged t the main hospitals in the capital Khartoum admitting to well organized emergency departments. Clinical and laboratory data were collected from children over 1 month of age admitted with clinical CM between April and November 2011. Patients were investigated for CM, acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) and Herpes encephalitis (HE). Results One hundred and four children fulfilled the study criteria. CM was clinically diagnosed in 38 patients but only 5 were pure CM. Sixty three were suspected for ABM but 15 were confirmed cases. HE was defenitively diagnosed in only one case. There were 5 cases of mixed infection and the rest were unknown and presumed encephalitis due to viruses other than Herpes simplex. Conclusion CM was clinically over-diagnosed in our study. It is advisable to do all the necessary investigations, particularly a thoruogh blood film examinatiom, beforediagnosing CM. It is recommended to study cases that resemble CM for more detailed viruses disease.


Child online sexual solicitation has become a significant form of child sexual abuse. Disclosure of online sexual solicitation is a multifaceted and complex process. The role of the disclosure recipient is crucial in the disclosure process, with respect to the initiation of the disclosure, how much children disclose, recantations and the children's well‐being. The current study aimed to explore children's experiences, perceptions, challenges and obstacles regarding disclosing online sexual solicitation as revealed in their forensic interviews. The sample, obtained from the Service of Forensic Interviews with Children in Israel, included 32 Israeli children who were sexually solicited online and participated in forensic interviews. A thematic qualitative methodology was used to analyse the children's narratives. The findings demonstrated that children tend to disclose online sexual solicitation to their peers and not to their parents. The children provided three main reasons for this tendency: sexuality, technology and the recipient's response. The current study's findings highlight the important role of peers in the disclosure process of online sexual solicitation. Moreover, the findings reveal children's difficulties disclosing online sexual solicitation to their parents. Practical implications of children's online sexual solicitation disclosure, future recommendations and study limitations are discussed.


Electronic government is one of the most important phenomena in the use of information and communication technology, the implementation of which has a profound change in the way of life, administration and leadership of countries and is a combination of information technology and web information network, which aims to provide direct services to citizens, government employees, businesses and other government departments. The purpose of this study is to investigate the maturity models of electronic government. In the present study, the review method has been used to investigate different models of e-government maturity. After reviewing all the models, it was determined that four factors have been considered in the majority of them, which are: 1) presence at the web level, 2) The interaction of government and citizens, 3) transaction and 4) integration.


This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 208185, "Single-Phase Retarded Inorganic Acid Optimizes Remediation of Drilling Formation Damage in High-Temperature Openhole Horizontal Carbonate Producer," by Ahmed Mohamed Fawzy, Noor Nazri Talib, SPE, and Ruslan Makhiyanov, SPE, ADNOC, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
 Emulsified acid is one of the preferred choices among retarded-acid options used in Middle East high-temperature carbonate producers. However, it also brings operational complexities. The recent introduction of a single-phase retarded inorganic acid system (SPRIAS) has enabled stimulation with the same benefits as those of emulsified acids while eliminating its drawbacks. A newly drilled oil producer in one of the largest carbonate fields onshore Middle East was selected for pilot implementation of the SPRIAS. The experience gained with this pilot well confirmed the SPRIAS as a reliable option to replace emulsified acids in the region.
 SPRIAS
 The SPRIAS has the dissolution capacity of hydrochloric acids (HCl) of similar concentration. It also has a retardation factor equivalent to that of emulsified acid, which allows the creation of wormholes just as deep into the formation. Such a retardation effect was demonstrated through numerous pore-volume-to-breakthrough (PVBT) coreflow experiments at downhole conditions. Fig. 1 shows such a PVBT experiment with 15% HCl, emulsified acid, and a SPRIAS of similar HCl acid concentration on a 1-in.-diameter×6-in.-long, 8-md Indiana limestone core at 250°F. The PVBT of the emulsified acid and SPRIAS are significantly smaller than that of HCl and are statistically similar.
 Because it is not an emulsion but a single-phase aqueous fluid, the SPRIAS also has a viscosity within the same order of magnitude as HCl. This allows the SPRIAS to be pumped at higher rates than retarded emulsified acid. For the application discussed in this study, the SPRIAS was selected to improve the stimulation of the tighter part of the wellbore because the retarded-acid system can develop deep wormholes at low injection rates.


Abstract Heterodyne detection has been used to measure the polarization state of light back-scattered from various targets (including flame-sprayed aluminium, sandpaper and painted surfaces). The samples are illuminated with a linearly polarized single-frequency continuous-wave CO2 laser operating at a wavelength of 10.6 μm. The back-scattered co-polarized and cross-polarized components are both coherently detected by beating with an optical local oscillator. This process allows the relative amplitudes and phases of the two components to be measured and hence the light's polarization state can be evaluated. When the target undergoes movement, the scattered light demonstrates the usual properties of dynamic speckle, and the technique allows observation of the time evolution of the polarization ellipse.


The ability to detect oil spills reliably, as well as to carry out fast and effective recovery operations, is the onus of any extraction company working in the field. Unfortunately, detecting and tracking oil spills is no easy task. By employing a combination of radar, optical and infrared (IR) sensors, operators are empowered to not only detect, characterise and track spills, but also to locate "combatable oil", i.e. where oil is at its thickest, and therefore, where recovery efforts should be mobilised.
 Radar-based oil spill detection (OSD) systems can be supported to great effect by the addition of optical and IR sensors. Real-time evaluation of oil spill thickness using such a combination of sensors is achieved thanks to the exploitation of some of oil's natural properties.
 The first of these properties is that oil will interact with the surface of the sea, affecting radar backscatter imagery. When oil is present on the sea surface it impacts the surface tension of the water and, as a result, wind does not create the same short-wave patterns on the surface as in areas free of oil. This means that areas covered with oil will not exhibit backscatter in the same way as areas free of oil.
 The second of these properties is that when oil and water are at the same temperature, oil emits less infrared energy than water, meaning that oil will appear cooler than water when observed using an infrared sensor. Additionally, unlike water, oil absorbs almost all light in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning that thick oil (where the upper layers of oil are insulated from the water below) will heat up in the daytime and become hotter than water. At night, the inverse will be observed, with the upper layer of thick oil cooling to below the temperature of the surrounding water.
 As a result of these properties, areas of the sea that are polluted with oil will appear differently on the various sensor displays based on the thickness of the spill, the wind and current conditions, and whether it is day or night. By harnessing the combination of radar, optical and infrared sensors, operators can determine the location of spills in daylight or darkness. They can also determine the leading edge of the spill, allowing for an understanding of its trajectory, and where recovery efforts should focus their attention.
 Furthermore, automatic tracking and historical insights can add much-needed information to user interface displays, giving operators comprehensive situational awareness.


Several studies have been conducted to identify the factors that most influence on service quality and customer satisfaction in the fitness industry. However, little attention has been dedicated to the identification of the most relevant attributes. This study aims to fulfill this gap and suggests that it is also necessary to identify the factors and the attributes which are most important concerning the perceptions of customers of fitness centers. Based on the scientific literature, a 23-item questionnaire was designed and a sample of 368 customers of four Brazilian fitness centers was considered. Factorial analysis and Quartile analysis revealed that the most important factors are related to Workout facilities & Price and Staff. The fitness equipment must be varied and in sufficient quantity, besides being in perfect working order. Special attention should be dedicated to the instructors' politeness and competence, and the accuracy of information they provide. The overall cleanliness of the fitness center and the value of service are also important.


Background: We sought to determine if fever in the early postintravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) time period (first 36 hours after IVIG completion) for Kawasaki disease, with or without additional infliximab, can predict IVIG resistance and coronary artery abnormalities (CAA). Methods: Acute Kawasaki disease subjects enrolled in a clinical trial of infliximab plus IVIG (n = 96) versus placebo/IVIG (n = 94) had temperatures recorded every 6 hours after completion of IVIG infusion. Fever was defined as temperature >38.0°C; patients with persistent or recrudescent fever >36 hours after completion of IVIG were classified as IVIG resistant. Multivariable logistic regression by fever pattern was performed to predict outcomes (IVIG resistance and CAA). Results: There was no difference in the time to defervescence between the infliximab/IVIG group (n = 96) versus placebo/IVIG group (n = 94). There was no fever after completion of IVIG in the majority of subjects [66% of those with no CAA (n = 139) and 76.5% of those with CAA, (n = 51)]. Although subjects with at least 1 fever 24–36 hours post-IVIG had a higher probability of IVIG resistance [odds ratio = 30.6 (95% confidence interval: 6.7–139.8); P < 0.0001], fever at 24–36 hours was not associated with higher likelihood of CAA. There were also 11% (n = 19) of IVIG responders who had fever at 24–36 hours post-IVIG. The majority of subjects with CAA (43 of 51, 84.3%) were identified by the initial echocardiogram, so the effect of fever on development of CAA could not be assessed. Conclusions: Fever in the first 36 hours after IVIG completion is not predictive of CAA. Our data support refraining from retreatment until 36 hours after completion of IVIG.


Preparation of L and slide susceptibility maps is important for engineering geologists and geomorphologists. However, due to complex nature of L and slides, producing a reliable susceptibility map is not easy. In recent years, various data mining and soft computing techniques are getting popular for the prediction and classification of L and slide susceptibility and hazard mapping. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the prediction capabilities between the neural network and fuzzy logic model for L and slide susceptibility mapping in a geographic information system (GIS) environment. In the first stage, L and slide-related factors such as altitude, slope angle, slope aspect, distance to drainage, distance to road, lithology and normalized difference vegetation index (ndvi) were extracted from topographic and geology and soil maps. Secondly, L and slide locations were identified from the interpretation of aerial photographs, high resolution satellite imageries and extensive field surveys. Then L and slide-susceptibility maps were produced by the application of neural network and fuzzy logic approahc using the aforementioned L and slide related factors. Finally, the results of the analyses were verified using the L and slide location data and compared with the neural network and fuzzy logic models. The validation results showed that the neural network model (accuracy is 88%) is better in prediction than fuzzy logic (accuracy is 84%) models. Results show that "gamma" operator (X = 0.9) showed the best accuracy (84%) while "or" operator showed the worst accuracy (66%).


This paper studies the impact of US quantitative easing monetary policy on China's economy. In order to cope with the financial crisis in 2008 and walk out of the economic downturn, the United States adopted quantitative easing monetary policy. However, due to the special status of the US dollar as an international currency, although this unconventional monetary policy has injected sufficient liquidity into the world economy, it also has significant negative spillover effects on other countries. On the basis of relevant theories, this paper empirically analyzes the actual impact of the policy on emerging economies represented by China through VAR model. The results show that the policy has a great impact on China's export trade, domestic prices, capital market and monetary policy, among which the impact on China's domestic price level is the largest. But the overall effects are complex, that there is no consistent direction of change, and the volatility is high. Based on the findings, the China government should put more emphasis on the foreign risks when making monetary policies.


AbstractA mechanically-based nonlocal Timoshenko beam model, recently proposed by the authors, hinges on the assumption that nonlocal effects can be modeled as elastic long-range volume forces and moments mutually exerted by nonadjacent beam segments, which contribute to the equilibrium of any beam segment along with the classical local stress resultants. Long-range volume forces/moments linearly depend on the product of the volumes of the interacting beam segments, and on pure deformation modes of the beam, through attenuation functions governing the space decay of nonlocal effects. This paper investigates the response of this nonlocal beam model when viscoelastic long-range interactions are included, modeled by Caputo's fractional derivatives. The finite-element method is used to discretize the pertinent fractional-order equations of motion. Closed-form solutions are obtained for creep tests by typical tools of fractional calculus. Numerical results are presented for various nonlocal parameters.


The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, and pursuant to clause 5(a)(4)(A) of rule X, the Chair announces that the Speaker named the following Members of the House to be available to serve on investigation subcommittees of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the 107th Congress: Mr. GEKAS of Pennsylvania; Mr. CHABOT of Ohio; Mr. LATOURETTE of Ohio; Mr. SHADEGG of Arizona; Mr. WICKER of Mississippi; Mr. MORAN of Kansas; Mr. FOSSELLA of New York; Mr. GREEN of Wisconsin; and Mr. TERRY of Nebraska. There was no objection.