A mosaic of two Landsat thematic mapper images acquired May 30, 1991, reveals a dark smoke plume 30–60 km wide extending hundreds of kilometers south of Kuwait City along the Persian Gulf. Smoke coming from the Raudhatain and Sabriyah oil fields blew across the Gulf of Kuwait and over Kuwait City, joined with smoke from the Greater Burgan and Minagish fields, and continued southward over smaller villages and regions of desert agriculture consisting of hundreds of axially irrigated fields in both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. One agricultural region in Kuwait was completely obscured by the smoke. The light colored limestone gravel and sand surface was darkened by oil lakes near the wells, and by oil drizzling out of the plume downwind of the wells. Most fires produced either a light or dark plume, and the separate plumes mixed to form a combined plume much darker than the land surface, but slightly more reflective than the Gulf waters. A few of the hottest fires had no visible plume, and are presumably associated with methane combustion. The last of the Kuwait fires was reportedly extinguished in November of 1991. Continued monitoring is needed to assess the impact of emissions from both burning and nonburning oil wells on the region's climate, as well as on the agriculture, fishing, and other activities essential to life in the region.


The Mayo Conservative Hip femoral prosthesis has been designed to optimise proximal femoral loading as well as preserving proximal femoral bone stock. Between October 2003 and May 2006, 42 patients (49 hips) underwent total hip replacement (THR) using the Mayo Conservative Hip femoral component. The mean age at operation was 57.8 years (range 44 to 74) and the mean clinical follow up was 3.1 years (range 2.3 to 4.7 years). The aim of our study was to review the short term results of this unorthodox femoral component. We found that 18%° of stems were malaligned ≥ 5° and the prevalence of intra-operative femoral fracture was 4%. We feel this prosthesis is difficult to implant and has an unacceptable fracture rate.


Excessive floor vibration in buildings can make occupants uneasy and many prediction methods of varying de% gree of sophistication have been developed over the years to assist engineers in the prediction of footfall vibra% tion. Prediction methods categorised as "impulse response" are often applied to relatively stiff floors. For im% pulse response methods, the predicted footfall vibration is proportional to a nominal walker impulse which is de% termined by the walker characteristics (such as stepping frequency), as well as the underlying floor parameters (such as modal mass and fundamental frequency). Among the reviewed impulse response methods, the de% pendence of the mass of the walker on the impulse is not implemented unanimously. This paper examines the influence of walker mass on the response of a relatively stiff floor. Up to 10 walkers of varying mass are considered, with each walker traversing the bay of interest at different stepping frequencies and carrying varying loads within a backpack. For each configuration, the walker traverses the bay at least 10 times to account for intra%walker variations between traversals, which are also explored.


Type 2 diabetes mellitus is an increasingly prevalent disease in the United States and globally. Multiple pharmacologic therapies are typically required over time to achieve and maintain target blood glucose levels. When first-line oral medications such as metformin (Glucophage) are not effective in achieving desired glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) levels, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists may be used. This article provides an overview of this class of agents and provides implications for home healthcare clinicians.


The effects of climate, as well as outdoor and indoor pollution, on allergic respiratory symptoms are herein explored. Also, measures utilized in modifying the susceptible individual's milieu are examined. Finally, the potential for ameliorating or preventing the development of allergies in genetically ""predisposed'' children is discussed.


BACKGROUND:Although blood transfusion is a common therapeutic intervention and a mainstay of treating surgical blood loss, it may be perceived by patients and their physicians as having associated risk of adverse events. Practicing patient-centered care necessitates that clinicians have an understanding of an individual patient's perceptions of transfusion practice and incorporate this into shared medical decision-making. METHODS:A paper survey was completed by patients during routine outpatient preoperative evaluation. An online survey was completed by attending anesthesiologists and surgeons at the same institution. Both surveys evaluated perceptions of the overall risk of transfusions, level of concern regarding 5 specific adverse events with transfusion, and perceptions of the frequency of those adverse events. Group differences were evaluated with conventional inferential biostatistics. RESULTS:A total of 294 patients and 73 physicians completed the surveys. Among the surveyed patients, 20% (95% confidence interval, 15%–25%) perceived blood transfusions as "very often risky" or "always risky." Greater perceived overall blood transfusion risk was associated with African American race (P = 0.028) and having a high school or less level of education (P = 0.022). Greater perceived risk of allergic reaction (P = 0.001), fever (P < 0.001), and dyspnea (P = 0.001) were associated with African American race. Greater perceived risk of allergic reaction (P = 0.009), fever (P = 0.039), dyspnea (P = 0.004), human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and hepatitis (P = 0.003), and medical error (P = 0.039) were associated with having a high school or less level of education. Patients and physicians also differed significantly in their survey responses, with physicians reporting greater overall perceived risk with a blood transfusion (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:Despite improvements in blood transfusion safety in the United States and other developed countries, the results of this study indicate that a sizeable percentage of patients still perceive transfusion as having significant associated risk. Furthermore, patients and their anesthesiologists/surgeons differ in their perceptions about transfusion-related risks and complications. Understanding patients' perceptions of blood transfusion and identifying groups with the greater specific concerns will better enable health care professionals to address risk during the informed consent process and recommend blood management in accordance with the individual patient's values, beliefs, and fears or concerns.


. We use data on individual patients in general practices to examine whether income related inequality in self reported health differs across general practices and whether such differences are explained by characteristics of the practices. We allow for the simultaneous determination of health and income by instrumenting income. We also allow for item non response for the income question by a two stage selection model. We find that item non response has little effect on the estimated relationship between income and health but that allowing for simultaneity doubles the estimated effect of income on health. We show that there are significant differences in the effect of income on health across practices and that these differences are related to the number of patients per GP, a measure of practice prescribing quality, and the provision of out of hours services.


In this paper, we present a grammar SEIML for semi-autonomous multi-agent system specifically catering to the area of integrative business information systems (IBIS) environments. SEIML is intended to provide the necessary constructs to model a dynamic business organization that is adaptive to fast-changing business needs.


In this technical report we investigate speed estimation of the ego-vehicle on the KITTI benchmark using state-of-the-art deep neural network based optical flow and single-view depth prediction methods. Using a straightforward intuitive approach and approximating a single scale factor, we evaluate several application schemes of the deep networks and formulate meaningful conclusions such as: combining depth information with optical flow improves speed estimation accuracy as opposed to using optical flow alone; the quality of the deep neural network methods influences speed estimation performance; using the depth and optical flow results from smaller crops of wide images degrades performance. With these observations in mind, we achieve a RMSE of less than 1 m/s for vehicle speed estimation using monocular images as input from recordings of the KITTI benchmark. Limitations and possible future directions are discussed as well.


INTRODUCTION
Several studies have shown that psychological well-being (PWB) can be promoted through positive psychological interventions (PPIs). Although these interventions have shown promising results in clinical settings, only a few studies have investigated their effectiveness in older adults, and they have rarely considered an active control group. In addition, generalisation effects of the PWB training to quality of life (QoL) and to untrained cognitive abilities have never been considered.

OBJECTIVE
In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a six-session PWB intervention aiming specifically to improve PWB, and sought any transfer effects on an aspect related to PWB, QoL. Transfer effects on a high-level cognitive process, working memory (WM), were also investigated.

METHODS
Thirty-two older adults (61-82 years old) volunteered to take part in the study and were randomly assigned to either a training group or an active control group.

RESULTS
Only the trained group, once controlled for variability, reported larger gains in PWB and in WM performance after the training.

CONCLUSIONS
This pilot study suggests that PWB training can be effective in older adults, with a positive generalisation effect on cognition (WM). The discussion focuses on the need to develop PPIs tailored to older adults' needs and resources.


"In computer-assisted learning (CAL), small group problem-solving instruction is efficient. CAL should shift the focus of school mathematics toward goals for problem solving and mathematical modeling. For the shift, the roles and responsibilities for teachers are very important in CAL" (Heid et al. 1990).


Well-preserved semi-palmate bird tracks and small wading bird tracks from the Early Cretaceous Jindong Formation of Deokmyeongri, Hai-myeon, and Naesanri, Donghae-myeon, Goseong County, South Gyeongsang Province, southern coast of Korea, are herein described as Gyeongsangornipes lockleyi ichnogen. et ichnosp. nov. and Koreanaornis hamanensis, respectively. Gyeongsangornipes lockleyi is a small asymmetrical, strong mesaxonic bird track, about 31–32 mm long and 40–41 mm wide, without a clear hallux impression. Divarication between digits II and III is much larger than that between digits III and IV. Webbing is clearly preserved, and the web between digits II and III is smaller than that between digits III and IV, which shows strong asymmetry of web development. Two different-sized Gyeongsangornipes lockleyi appear to suggest two different-size classes of web-footed birds. Koreanaornis hamanensis is a small sub-symmetrical wading bird track, about 26–28 mm long and 29–39 mm wide, without clear hallux impressions. The divarication between digits II and III (59°–66°)°) is larger than that between digits III and IV (44°– 58°). Divarication between digits II and IV is 103°–123°. Length of digit III (26–28 mm) is longer than those of digits II and III (about 18 mm). These new records shed light on patterns of bird track diversity and abundance in the Cretaceous of Korea and document a diverse avian fauna that flourished during the Cretaceous.


It highly deserves to remove human operators from hazardous environments or monotony routine work during pick-and-place type operation in current industrial societies; it also deserves to encourage the work in new exploration without risks on humans or objects. In order to achieve this, a novel robotic gripper is presented in this paper. A gripper is designed to grasp unknown objects with different masses, shapes, and coefficients of frictions considering simplicity, durability and economy. The grasping process during object lifting is considered mainly based on the slip reflex principle, as applying insufficient force leads to object slipping, and dropping may occur. A new fuzzy control algorithm based on empirical investigation of the human hand skills is proposed to adjust the applied force on the object without the risk of object crushing or dropping. In the mean time, the controller is designed to maintain the object slip in reasonable limit. The gripper design and new developed scenario force control resulted in the fast response of the task achievement. Input/output system variables are measured and analyzed. Experimental work is presented to demonstrate the efficiency and high performance of the introduced robotic gripper.


The degree of diffusion tensor anisotropy is often associated with the organization of structural tissues such as white matter. Numerous measures of diffusion anisotropy have been proposed, which could lead to confusion in interpreting and comparing results from different studies. In this study, a new method for representing the diffusion tensor shape, called the three‐phase (3P) plot, is described. This is a graphical technique based upon a barycentric coordinate system, which weights the tensor shape by a combination of linear, cylindrical, and spherical shape factors. This coordinate system can be used to map and potentially segment different tissues based upon the tensor shape. In addition, the 3P plot can be used to examine the shape properties of existing measures of diffusion anisotropy. In this paper, the 3P plot is used to compare four well‐known anisotropy measures: the anisotropy index, the fractional anisotropy, the relative anisotropy, and the volume fraction. Computer simulations and diffusion tensor images of normal brains were obtained to study the properties of this new mapping technique. Magn Reson Med 44:283–291, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


ABSTRACT Panibacillus sp. strain JCM 10914 is a xylanolytic alkaliphile isolated from the gut of a soil-feeding termite. Its draft genome sequence revealed various genes for hydrolytic enzymes and will facilitate studies on adaptation to the highly alkaline gut environment and its role in digesting soil organic matter in the gut.


Cell-mediated immunity is non-specifically reduced in the second half of H-2 incompatible pregnancy compared with syngeneic mating. Significant difference between syngeneic and allogeneic mated female mice was obtained using two independent tests: contact sensitivity to oxazolone (P smaller than 0.001) and local graft-versus-host reaction (P smaller than 0.01).


A new least squares solution for obtaining asymptotically unbiased and consistent estimates of unknown parameters in noisy linear systems is presented. The proposed algorithms are in many ways more advantageous than generalized least squares algorithm. Extensions to on-line and multivariable problems can be easily implemented. Examples are given to illustrate the performance of these new algorithms.


Abstract This article explores how boundary making proceeds after protracted conflict has ended. Drawing on an interview and focus group study in two local areas in Northern Ireland, we identify the diverse forms of everyday boundary work amongst moderates who distance from the ethno‐political blocs: everyday universalism, agonism, transformation and cosmopolitanism. Each overcomes closed exclusivist boundaries and identity oppositions, thus providing a clear contrast with the overt political contention and polarization that has followed Brexit in Northern Ireland. Our research shows the internal shape and diversity of the moderate constituency who support peace‐building and a less‐polarized politics. It also offers an answer to the question how such everyday openness coexists with continued political polarization. We trace the different political perspectives associated with each form of boundary making and argue that this hinders political cohesion amongst moderates.


In real applications it is not rare for time series of the same class to exhibit dis- similarities in their overall behaviors, or that time series from different classes have slightly similar shapes. To discriminate between such challenging time se- ries, we present a new approach for training discriminative matching that con- nects time series with respect to the commonly shared features within classes, and the greatest differential across classes. For this, we rely on a variance/covariance criterion to strengthen or weaken matched observations according to the induced variability within and between classes. In this paper, learned discriminative matching is used to define a locally weighted time series metric, which restricts time series comparison to discriminative features. The relevance of the proposed approach is studied through a nearest neighbor time series classification on real datasets. The experiments performed demonstrate the ability of learned match- ing to capture fine-grained distinctions between time series, and outperform the standard approaches, all the more so that time series behaviors within the same class are complex.


Chromosome 8p21-p23 harbors tumor suppressor gene(s) implicated in multiple types of cancers. To investigate the involvement of the gene(s) in the carcinogenesis of adenocarcinoma of gastric cardia, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) for microsatellite markers at chromosome 8p21-p23 was examined. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) was used to obtain homogeneous tumor cells from 19 surgical specimens. Subsequently, genomic DNA extracted from the LCM-captured cells was amplified by multiple displacement amplification. Each tumor was assessed for allelic loss using 13 microsatellite markers. An overall LOH frequency of 63.2% (12/19) was observed and the LOH frequency for individual markers varied from 25% to 55.6%. One common deleted region of about 1.2 Mb (8p22GGAA-8p22ATCT) was defined. Our data indicated that the tumor suppressor gene at chromosome 8p22 might play an important role in the development of adenocarcinoma of gastric cardia.


Summer the Holiday Fairy has got her work cut out. Jack Frost has moved to Rainspell Island for the summer and it's a very different place to when Rachel and Kirsty visited in the first series. Now there are no tinkling ice-cream vans or sailing boats. There's not even any sand on the beach! Jack Frost has taken it all to build his giant sandcastle. There are three special shells, that control the holiday atmosphere. Summer the Holiday Fairy needs Rachel and Kirsty's help to get them back.


Abstract Older immigrants totaled 7.3 million in 2018, representing 13.9 percent of the population of seniors in the U.S. While this population is found to contribute significantly to society, along with new opportunities comes circumstantial challenges. Of these, one of the most salient issues for foreign-born older adults is social isolation. Additionally, this population may be at an increased risk for social isolation with poor mental health because migrating to a new country might results in resettlement challenges. Despite these concerns, less is known about the consequences of social isolation among older immigrant adults. Guided by the Population Interest Context (PICO) framework and the Qualitative Interpretive Meta-Synthesis (QIMS) guidelines, this study seeks to explore consequences of social isolation among older immigrant, as well as interventions to combat isolation. The final sample of six full text articles were published between 2011 and 2021, totaling 180 participants with ages ranging from 61 to 93 years old. Findings from the study indicated that older immigrants are at risk of social isolation and loneliness because they have fewer social connections due to leaving behind their familiar social group in the home country, encounter linguistic challenges that negatively contribute to greater social isolation and poor mental health. Despite these difficulties older immigrants reported various social interventions, i.e., access to senior centers, community programs and services to be of greater importance in building social networks. Authors discuss opportunities for future research, such as exploring evidence-based studies on interventions for social isolation and loneliness of older immigrant populations.


So much has been said and written about the kidney as an etiological factor in essential hypertension, almost as a unique cause, that it would be of value to review some other aspects of this disorder. Data on the possible significance of some non-renal mechanisms which function in essential hypertension in relation to the treatment of this condition by the drugs in current use would cover certain features, information on which is rather disseminated in medical scientific literature. This data is particularly important because of the emphasis often given to the results of certain types of therapy interpreted as indicating the existence of a specific etiological factor in essential hypertension controlled by this therapy. It would seem to me that for discussion this theme falls naturally into three parts: firstly, and, very briefly, the mechanism that controls the normal blood pressure; then, secondly, those features we have chosen of the haemodynamic and other changes produced by certain possible nonrenal aetiological factors which can cause hypertension; and, thirdly and finally, the comparable haemodynamic and other related changes induced by drugs used in current therapy. It is, of course, exceedingly difficult to avoid bringing the kidney into the discussion, but in the context of this review. the kidney will not be discussed in its role as the primary factor in the causation of hypertension. . Essential hypertension, for the purpose of this article, consists of a raised blood pressure with no other recognized disease to which this may be attributed. The blood pressure is considered to be raised when it is at a level (for any specific age,


Internal sensations, especially organic ones, are not only the foundation of our consciousness of life and self but also an integral part of each feeling. This is probably the origin of the genuine affinity between feelings and consciousness of life and self, an affinity that manifests itself even in speech. Indeed, the expression "sense of self" is more natural than saying "representing" or even "imagining one's self". It is also easier and neater to talk in French about "sentiment du moi" than "representation du moi"; the expression "das Ichgefühl" is less grating than "die Ichvorstellung", the latter being rather used to mean the conceived self as opposed to the self of which one is conscious all the time. The self is not a feeling, however, if only because there are no feelings that would be equally constant or, to be more precise, that would recur with equal constancy. Even so, we can say it is closer to emotive states than to any representation or mental image. [...]


When playing video-games we immediately detect which entity we control and we center the attention towards it to focus the learning and reduce its dimensionality. Reinforcement Learning (RL) has been able to deal with big state spaces, including states derived from pixel images in Atari games, but the learning is slow, depends on the brute force mapping from the global state to the action values (Q-function), thus its performance is severely affected by the dimensionality of the state and cannot be transferred to other games or other parts of the same game. We propose different transformations of the input state that combine attention and agency detection mechanisms which both have been addressed separately in RL but not together to our knowledge. We propose and benchmark different architectures including both global and local agency centered versions of the state and also including summaries of the surroundings. Results suggest that even a redundant global-local state network can learn faster than the global alone. Summarized versions of the state look promising to achieve input-size independence learning.


Agency rulemaking is governed by a number of statutes, regulations issued by the Office of Management and Budget, and executive orders. Rulemaking statutes and executive orders obligate agencies to consult with the public, introspect, analyze, provide an explanation of rationale, and perform cost-benefit balancing for any rule. Statutory rulemaking procedure is designed to ensure that an agency does not raise costs on the public by $2 to reduce agency costs by $1, does not create costs on the public that can be reduced through better internal agency controls, does not impose undue burden on small entities, etc. Statutory rulemaking procedure ensures predictability and, ultimately, "reasoned decisionmaking." When an agency bypasses any of these obligations, there's a high risk that the agency will fail to act in the public interest. And of course the incentives and risks are even higher when an agency is funded by user fees.

The Patent and Trademark Office has never integrated these laws into its rulemaking process. The direct costs to the public are about $1.5 billion in excess costs, waste, fraud, and abuse. Indirect costs to the economy caused by PTO's bad guidance practices -- lost patent protection, companies not formed, companies that fold because of delays and unpredictability of their patent applications, business opportunities not pursued, and similar economic effects, etc. -- are well into the billions each year.

This article looks at one facet of the problem: PTO's pattern of promulgating rules through informal guidance, when more procedure is required (or, in some cases, where the rule is entirely illegal and could not be promulgated by any procedure).


Vortex displacement stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs) are studied in an idealized model of a quasigeostrophic columnar vortex in an anelastic atmosphere. Motivated by the fact that observed events occur at a fixed orientation to the earth's surface and have a strongly baroclinic vertical structure, vortex Rossby waves are forced by a stationary topographic forcing designed to minimize excursions of the vortex from its initial position. Variations in the background stratospheric ''climate'' are represented by means of an additional flow in solid body rotation. The vortex response is determined numerically as a function of the forcing strength M and the background flow strength V. At moderate M it is found that a large response, with many features resembling observed displacement SSWs, occurs only for a narrow range of V. Linear analysis reveals that for this range of V the first baroclinic azimuthal wave-1 Rossby wave mode is close to being resonantly excited. A forced nonlinear oscillator equation is proposed to describe the nonlinear behavior, and a method for determining the relevant coefficients numerically, using unforced calculations of steadily propagating vortex ''V states,'' is adopted. The nonlinear equation predicts some qualitative details of the variation in the response at finite M. However, it is concluded that strongly nonlinear processes, such as wave breaking and filament formation, are necessarily quantitatively important in determining the amplitude of the near-resonant response at finite M.


In China, as a special form of theft, the theft between relatives has been specially concerned since the ancient times, with legislation inheriting evolved for thousands of years; in the West, the special criminal law rules for relatives between theft do not only have a long history, and there are also many theoretical disputes and difference of legislation cases. After founding of the People's Republic of China, the criminal law regulations on the issue of theft between relatives has completely eliminated the Chinese and western legal traditions, causing lack of humanization and scientific insufficiency. Having an objective analysis on the legislation for theft between relatives and its theoretical basis and spiritual base can provide some experience and reference for the scientific and developed criminal law of China.


Active pulmonary tuberculosis, a source of contamination, is currently undergoing a recrudescence in developed countries, particularly in clinical contexts of immunodepression. The authors report a retrospective series of 14 cases of primary tuberculosis in a paediatric population (7 girls and 7 boys) with a mean age of 3.5 years (range: 4 months-16 years) observed over a 3-year period. After reviewing the current radiological features of patent primary tuberculosis, the authors emphasize the contribution of chest CT scan in latent forms with a normal chest x-ray and a difficult bacteriological diagnosis. Imaging remains an essential tool in early diagnosis, therapeutic management and active surveillance of this form. The authors propose a decisional flow-chart in the case of suspected primary tuberculosis in children.


Surgical approach to the treatment of patients for locally-spread tumors of the oral cavity mucosa was determined. There were operated on 75 patients, suffering tumors of the oral cavity mucosa. The aggressive surgical approach application for tumors of the oral cavity mucosa, consisting of the primary tumor excision together with surrounding soft tissues and the bone resection (in necessity) constitutes an adequate and trustworthy method of choice in the treatment of these patients.


MP78/70 is a matrix protein, with 78-kD and 70-kD isoforms, which was initially identified in bovine tissue extracts designed to solubilize elastin-associated microfibrils. Peptide analysis has shown that MP78/70 is closely related to the human protein, βig-h3. In the present study an antibody raised to a synthetic βig-h3 peptide was shown specifically to identify MP78/70 in purified form and in bovine tissue extracts. This is consistent with MP78/70 and βig-h3 being the bovine and human forms, respectively, of the same protein. The antibody was further affinity-purified on MP78/70 bound to Sepharose and used to localize the protein in a range of bovine tissues. Immunofluorescence showed that MP78/70 was localized to collagen fibers in tissues such as developing nuchal ligament, aorta and lung, and mature cornea; to reticular fibers in fetal spleen; and to capsule and tubule basement membranes in developing kidney. No general localization to elastic fibers was observed. The staining pattern in most tissues more closely resembled that of Type VI collagen, which occurs as collagen fiber-associated microfibrils, than that of fibrillin-1, a component of elastin-associated microfibrils. However, MP78/70 appeared to be less widely distributed than Type VI collagen. Immunoelectron microscopy showed that MP78/70 was predominantly found in loose association with collagen fibers in most tissues examined and was also located on the surface of the capsule basement membrane in developing kidney. Double labeling experiments indicated that MP78/70 is co-distributed with Type VI collagen microfibrils located in these regions. In some elastic tissues significant immunolabel was detected in regions of interface between collagen fibers and fibrillin-containing microfibrils of adjacent elastic fibers, and at the outer margins of the latter structures. Overall, the evidence points to MP78/70 having a bridging function, perhaps in association with Type VI collagen microfibrils, linking or stabilizing the interaction between interstitial collagen fibrils and other matrix structures, including some basement membranes and elastin-associated microfibrils.


A cytogenetic technique was developed to produce suitable chromosome spreads for phylloxera karyotype analysis. The karyotype for pathogenetic phylloxera was 2 n = 10. Karyotypes from haploid sex cells were found to vary between n = 5 and n = 6, the latter possibly indicating an aneuploidic aberration. Tetra- and polyploid cells were detected in somatic trophocytes. Preparation of phylloxera sex and somatic cells for chromosomal analysis reported here enables the study of genetic variation on a chromosomal scale.


ADP-ribosylation factors (ARFs) are highly conserved approximately 20-kDa guanine nucleotide-binding proteins that enhance the ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of cholera toxin, and are believed to participate in vesicular transport in both exocytic and endocytic pathways. Based on size, phylogenetic analysis, amino acid sequence, and gene structure, mammalian ARFs fall into three classes (class I, ARFs 1, 2, 3; class II, ARFs 4, 5; class III, ARF6). Two ARF genes (yARF1, yARF2) are known in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and believed to participate in vesicular trafficking in the Golgi system; the double deletion mutant is not viable. A third yeast ARF (yARF3) cDNA has been cloned by polymerase chain reaction-based procedures. It contains an open reading frame of 549 bases encoding a protein of 183 amino acids, with a deduced amino acid sequence more identical (60%) to that of the class III mammalian ARF than to those of the other two classes (52-56%). The yARF3 protein, however, reacted poorly with antibodies against any of the three classes of mammalian ARFs. In the presence of GTP, recombinant yARF3 protein stimulated cholera toxin-catalyzed auto-ADP-ribosylation. yARF3 gene transcription, similar to that of yARF2, was repressed by glucose. As yARF3 was not essential for cell viability and was not required for endoplasmic reticulum to Golgi protein transport, it may provide an opportunity to define an ARF function in another kind of vesicular trafficking.


Abstract This article is a retrospective review of the three volumes of Bowlby's trilogy, Attachment and Loss, where he set out his revolutionary view of attachment as the dominant drive behind human behaviour. Harris discusses the impact this has had on psychological thinking, in particular on ideas about mourning, and the connection with Darwinian evolution. Bowlby's concept of the secure base and ideas on the development of childhood attachment styles that can have a lifelong influence have crucial implications for all who work in the bereavement field.


Summary We present a case of cutaneous nerve hypertrophy possibly secondary to scratching or other trauma. The patient was symptomatic and sought surgical treatment, despite no clinical lesion being evident. This type of change has not been previously reported in this clinical setting. There was no clinical evidence of multiple endocrine neoplasia‐type 2b (MEN‐2b). Awareness of this entity may avoid unnecessary surgery.Abbreviations: MEN‐2b, multiple endocrine neoplasia‐type 2b.


The WMS Assistant can facilitate reporting the results of testing with the Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition. The Assistant encourages editing and merging the computer-generated draft report with additional information. The program is available to qualified psychologists at no charge upon certification that they meet rules for its use, including professional status and appropriate training.


Objective The selection of individualized treatment for recurrent cervical cancer is challenging. This study aimed to investigate the impact of various therapies on survival outcomes after recurrence. Methods Eligible patients were diagnosed with recurrent cervical cancer between March 2012 and April 2018. Postrecurrence progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were investigated in the whole cohort and in subgroups, categorized by recurrence site and prior radiotherapy history, using a multivariate model that incorporated treatment for primary and recurrent tumors, histological pathology, and FIGO staging. Results Two hundred and sixty recurrent cervical cancer patients were included. As of March 1, 2020, the median postrecurrence PFS and OS were 7.0 (range 0-94) and 24.0 (1.8-149.1) months, respectively. In a multivariate model measured by PFS, radiotherapy was superior to other therapies for the whole cohort (p=0.029) and recurrence only within the pelvic cavity (p=0.005), but the advantages of radiotherapy disappeared in patients with a history of radiotherapy (p values >0.05). For recurrence only beyond the pelvic cavity, combination therapy resulted in improved PFS (p=0.028). For recurrence both within and beyond the pelvic cavity, no therapy regimen provided additional PFS benefits (p values >0.05). Radiotherapy and combination therapy were also associated with improved postrecurrence OS for recurrence within the pelvic cavity (p=0.034) and only beyond the pelvic cavity (p=0.017), respectively. Conclusions In cervical cancer patients, postrecurrence radiotherapy can improve PFS and OS for patients with recurrence within the pelvic cavity and without prior radiotherapy. For recurrence beyond the pelvic cavity or cases with a history of radiotherapy, combination or individualized therapy may provide potential survival benefits.


The purpose of this study was to analyze system thinking revealed in science teachers' teaching practices of middle school astronomy classes. Astronomy lessons were video-taped from four eighth grade science teachers. The video recordings were all transcribed and analyzed by employing a framework for systems thinking analysis after modifying an existing frame of hierarchial structure used in relevant previous studies. In addition, four participants were interviewed in order to uncover their orientation toward teaching using video stimulated recall method. Findings are as follows: All participating teachers were not able to employ the four levels of system thinking appropriately and only utilized the low level of systems thinking. They also demonstrated teacher-centered practices for employing system thinking despite their student-centered orientation toward teaching. The main reason for these results may be that teachers focused more on spatial thinking, than on system thinking as well as the lack of teacher's knowledge about the content and formative assessment of non-earth science teachers. Implications on how to effectively employ the system thinking in astronomy class are discussed in this paper.


The objective of this work was to to evaluate the influence of the temperatures and the pre-germinatives treatments in germination of seeds of Albizia hasslerii. Two experiments had been carried out. In the first experiment the seeds had received the following pre-germinative treatments: immersion in H2SO4 per 10 minutes, H2SO4 per 20 minutes, GA3 150 mg. L-1 for 24 hours and the control, without treatment. For the second experiment, the seeds had been divided in two lots, one of them was sown immediately after the harvest and the other was packed in Kraft paper and stored during 90, 180 and 270 days in conditions of cold chamber and ambient temperature. The seeds had received the following pre-germinative treatments: immersion in sulfuric acid for 20 minutes, in natural water for 24 hours, and the witness. The incubation occurred in temperatures of 18oC, 25oC and 30oC, 20-30oC and in greenhouse, without control of temperature. It was evaluated germination percentage, germination speed index, the length of root and aerial part, and dry mass of seedlings. The experiments had been carried out in randomized complete design, being the first one in factorial arrangement of 6 x 5 and the second in factorial arrangement of 3 x 5 x 4, both with 4 repetitions of 20 seeds. The sulfuric acid treatment for 20 minutes presented the highest values for all the evaluated characteristics. The seeds stored for 90 days in cold chamber had presented germination superior than 50% without any pre-germinative treatment and in any temperature of incubation. Seedlings proceeding from seeds stored in cold chamber had been more vigorous.


A ferromagnetic spin glass?(FSG) is one of the three isotropic and homogeneous phases of the long-range partially ordered magnets with spin and atomic disorder which are selected by symmetry (Andreev?1978?Sov.?Phys.?JETP 47?411) (the others are genuine and antiferromagnetic spin glasses). The linear dynamical response to a magnetic field of two sub-phases of a FSG with drastically different dynamics, a randomly canted ferromagnet, in which the component spins create an acute angle with the summary magnetic moment, and a less-ordered skewed spin glass is analysed in the spin-wave approximation in the framework of phenomenological theory. The spin-wave damping coefficients and frequency shifts due to a magnon?magnon interaction are evaluated as functions of temperature and wavevector as well as the spectral-weight functions of the linear response to a magnetic field and the neutron scattering cross section which provides the possibility for experimental verification of the results. Substantial differences in the spin-wave characteristics of the FSG compared to those of the Heisenberg spin glass and the Heisenberg ferromagnet are found to be due to non-linear anisotropy effects in a FSG.


This paper discusses the continuous parameter calibration of microscopic traffic models in online simulations. An algorithm is described which uses a recent development in filter theory, the Unscented Kalman Filter. The algorithm is supplied with data of loop detectors and, of course, with the model. It adapts continuously the model parameters to the incoming data in order to keep the online simulation as realistic as possible. The parameters to be filtered have to be chosen carefully, considering their probability density function, which should be roughly Gaussian-distributed.


Techniques have been developed for automated generation of state diagrams for modelling network automata, by only observing the external behaviour of such an automaton. Although these techniques have been applied on simple protocols and on software simulations, very few complex real-world network interfaces have been modeled in this manner. For this thesis, these modelling techniques have been applied to TCP-interfaces by connecting an implementation of a learning algorithm to them over a network. In this way, the behaviour of TCPimplementations of four different operating systems has been modeled, and compared to the standard model.


This article is concerned with inverse heat conduction problems (IHCP) involving large-scale linear systems (i.e. multidimensional systems) with unknown sources or boundary conditions. The inverse problem is stated as an optimisation problem with a regularised quadratic objective functional, and it is solved using Lagrange theory. We demonstrate that the IHCP solution is obtained by simple time integration of a state-variable model: the inverse model, which is analytically derived from the so called direct and adjoint problems. In addition, we show that the number of differential equations in the inverse model can be strongly reduced without a significant loss of precision. The inversion is then carried out in three main steps: calculation of the full-order inverse model, size reduction, and time integration of the resulting reduced-order inverse model. A numerical example of heat sources identification in a 2D diffusion problem shows the performances and the accuracy of the proposed approach.


This paper presents the idea of a rough controller with application to control the overhead traveling crane system. The structure of such a controller is based on a suggested concept of a fuzzy logic controller. A measure of fuzziness in rough sets is introduced. A comparison between fuzzy logic controller and rough controller has been demonstrated. The results of a simulation comparing the performance of both controllers are shown. From these results we infer that the performance of the proposed rough controller is satisfactory. Keywords—Accuracy measure, Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC), Overhead Traveling Crane (OTC), Rough Set Theory (RST), Roughness measure


The surface potential fluctuations can have significant effects on both the magnitude and shape of the measured small-pulse DLTS spectrum. An increase in the dispersion parameter of the surface potential distribution, which is assumed to have a Gaussian form, leads to a reduction in the DLTS signal size, a shift of the peak position and a broadening of the peak shape. A computer program including the exponential temperature dependence of hole capture cross section, , was developed to analyse temperature-scan DLTS spectra of a MOS structure; in the evaluation procedure , and are taken as fitting parameters. A bias dependence of has been found and an interpretation of this behaviour has been attempted in the light of random point charges (Brews) and patchwork (Nicollian-Goetzberger) models.


In a previous publication, the use of a simple two dimensional finite difference model to predict hydrogen distribution in a simulated part wall pipeline girth weld repair was demonstrated. The validity of the model prediction was assessed using slow bend tests where the deflection to failure was an indirect indicator of the local bulk hydrogen concentration at the critical site for delayed cracking. In the present investigation, the same hydrogen diffusion model has been used to predict the maximum time for delayed cracking in a simulated girth weld repair for two ambient temperatures, (20° and −10°C). These predictions are compared with the delayed cracking times in "constant deflection" tests performed at the selected ambient temperatures.The results obtained showed that there was some scatter in the relationship between the experimentally applied deflections and the delay time to crack initiation. The delay time predicted by the model for the local hydrogen concentration to reach its maximum value at the crack initiation site, however, was a function of the ambient temperature and these agreed reasonably well with the maximum delay times to cracking observed in the experiments.Copyright © 1998 by ASME


Recently, the number of electronic devices with smart cameras has grown enormously. These devices require new, fast, and efficient computer vision applications that include moving object detection strategies. In this paper, a novel and high-quality strategy for real-time moving object detection by nonparametric modeling is presented. It is suitable for its application to smart cameras operating in real time in a large variety of scenarios. While the background is modeled using an innovative combination of chromaticity and gradients, reducing the influence of shadows and reflected light in the detections, the foreground model combines this information and spatial information. The application of a particle filter allows to update the spatial information and provides a priori knowledge about the areas to analyze in the following images, enabling an important reduction in the computational requirements and improving the segmentation results. The quality of the results and the achieved computational efficiency show the suitability of the proposed strategy to enable new applications and opportunities in last generation of electronic devices.


A novel efficient and dynamic integrated routing protocol for multicast and anycast messages is presented. The contributions of the protocol differ from well-known shared-tree systems in two aspects: (1) Off-tree anycast configuration and routing: multicast sources use anycast routing to select a better path from the source to one router in the group in order to avoid congestion or any fault in the network. (2) On-tree router anycast configurations: The nodes in the shared-tree are formed into a virtual anycast group. The shared-tree approach is extended with capability of a group cores (anycast group). The simulation data demonstrates the efficiency of the protocol.


Complicated mooring system well-known as a multi-component mooring line is highly required owing to the deep depth of water and severe sea conditions. Since the dynamic behaviors of such mooring line are quite complex, proper numerical method is indispensable to predict the dynamic behaviors of a multi-component mooring line efficiently and precisely. In this paper, a numerical method improving the lumped mass method is proposed to introduce the three-dimensional dynamic analysis of multi-component mooring line with the motion of an anchor and clump weights. The mooring line is regarded as a multi-component object which has nonuniform segment line characteristics. In this method, lumped mass technique is developed to represent the three-dimensional dynamic behavior of each segment individually, allowing the motion of bottom-end segment as well as the anchor. Then, the motion of the end-segment is regarded as the motion of the upper-end of lower segment. Meanwhile, calculation method of initial condition for dynamic calculation is developed by adopting the basic principle of multi-component mooring line catenary equations. The results of time histories representing the three-dimensional dynamic analysis of mooring line are obtained and compared with other numerical and experimental results presented in published papers. The results show good agreement with both numerical and experimental results.


The structure of the passive stabilizer system in KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) device was recently modified mainly in relation to the upgrade of the vertical position control system. Corresponding to this design change in one of the plasma facing components, a simulation study was performed to see how the disruption load and the characteristics varied. During the vertical drift phase, the vertical growth rate is shown to be increased by about 8 times while the vertical force on the passive stabilizer is reduced by about 5 times for the new passive stabilizer compared with the old one. Meanwhile, during the thermal and current quench phase, relatively small differences were observed in the disruption load and characteristics between the two models.


ABSTRACT Shortly before midnight, January 18, 1973, 171,000 gallons of oil spilled into storm drains and waters of the Oakland (California) Estuary. This report covers the $1.2 million cleanup by Clean Bay, Inc., an industry-sponsored oil spill cooperative designated by the U.S. Coast Guard as the principal cleanup contractor. The report includes a day-by-day review of the cleanup experience and an evaluation of procedures, emphasizing problems encountered in cleanup of oil in trash-laden waters. Experience gained in the cleanup of 16 small boat harbors is reviewed, including pre-cleanup arrangements, techniques of consolidating and removing oil around boats and finger-piers, and the final cleanup of marina facilites.


Objective: The psychological impact of care giving responsibility for dementia patients is significant regardless of the cultural background. Most of the current advanced caregivers' interventions, originating from developed western countries, do not necessarily apply to local settings. Hence, there is a need for an effective culturally competent psychological intervention for these caregivers. The aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the cultural-based support group for Malay caregivers of dementia patients in Kelantan towards their burden, anxiety and depression level, and quality of life. Methods: This was an experimental study, without control, investigating pre and post support group intervention effectiveness in reducing caregiver burden, anxiety and depression, and improving the quality of life. Sixteen caregivers completed the program, which involved seven fortnightly support group sessions with duration of 2 hours each, conducted over twelve weeks. Caregivers' burden was assessed using Caregiver Strain Index (CSI) while their psychological well-being was objectively assessed using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). WHO Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) was used to measure the quality of life. The validated Malay versions of the questionnaires were used. Results: There was a statistically significant reduction in the level of caregiver burden (p = or < 0.001). Measurement of both scores of anxiety and depression comparing pre and post intervention also showed improvement, but statistically were not significant. Assessment of caregivers' quality of life showed statistically significant improvement in the domains of social, psychological and physical (all with the p-value <0.05). Discussion : Our cultural-based support group is an effective intervention to improve burden, psychological well-being and quality of life among local caregivers of dementia patients. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 18 (1): January – June 2017: XX XX.


Purpose: Recently natural disasters frequently occur all over the world. However, the stakeholder management of post-disaster reconstruction is often a neglected field because of its particularity. This study investigates a model of stakeholder management for managers in post-disaster reconstruction project. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the interpretation system model, this study makes a deep analysis of the stakeholder management of post-disaster reconstruction with the case of reconstruction project in Wenchuan. Findings: The results reveal that the managers should take divergent actions to collect data of stakeholders in different situations. The discovering mode is suitable in a simple stakeholder environment and the undirected viewing mode is suitable in a relatively complex environment. Practical implications: This paper establishes a scientific archived management report of the stakeholders in Wenchuan reconstruction project to provide the suggestions and the experiences for the future projects Originality/value: Past stakeholder management models are not suitable in reconstruction project because of its particularity. This study takes interpretation system as a new model for stakeholder management in reconstruction project, allowing managers to take the optimal actions in different stakeholder environment.


The paper is devoted to the issues of conceptualization of legal development in the 20th and 21st centuries. The paper investigates social relations that determined the global law evolution in the 20th century, as well as changes in macroregulation in the first quarter of the century under consideration. The subject matter of the analysis covers theoretical understanding of the development vectors in the essence of law at the turn of the last two centuries. As a scientific hypothesis, the author puts forward the statement regarding regulatory specificity and a special strategic role of the 20th century for subsequent legal development. Proving this hypothesis, the author structures the directions of global transformation of social essence and social interrelations of law in the preceding period. The author also shows that these changes have led to the rise of a systemic postclassical legal tradition. The author has described its characteristics and the role in the formation of a new legal identity of the 21st century. The paper also examines the signs of novelty of the law of the present century. The author determines the features of its regulatory individuality generated by technological changes. It is concluded that the novelty of the law of the present century is preconditioned by the combination of Postmodern and the era of introduction of technological regulators. The paper shows the directions of formation of regulatory individuality of the 21st century, its contradictions related to the legal adaptation of a new technological order. It is concluded that the legal regulation moves towards inclusion patterns of nature and new biological and virtual states of the man in its immediate subject matter. The legal complex integrates the methodology of technology and the artificial language of technology, which results in providing a significant insight into the boundaries of social and technical norms. The paper questions the possible rupture of the legal tradition, which the 21st century is bringing, the factors of its aggravation, including the pandemic. The assumption is formulated that a new law arises in the system of innovative interrelations in the technological sphere that leads to the restructuring of institutions of law and legal relations, as well as to the formation of new value properties of law—its syncreticism, integration of the individual and the general, non-subjectivity, non-objectivity, public-private permeability, anthropomorphism.


Absorption refrigeration system (ARS) continuously shows a growing interest in many applications due to cheap energy consumption and environmental friendly system. Typically, ARS system uses ammonia-water mixture where ammonia as refrigerant and water as absorbent. The system also consist hydrogen as auxiliary inert gas. While in this research, it is operated by using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity as sources of heat. From the various publications recently, despite the ARS system attract many interests, it is still need to further analyze system"s thermodynamic for better process understanding and improvement. Hence, the purpose of this research are to investigate thermodynamically the Coefficient of Performance (COP), Carnot Coefficient or heat transfer rate (COPC), Efficiency Ratio (δ) and exergy loss of each component in the system. Temperature surrounding is important data in this research are measured to determine all of the thermodynamic analysis highlighted using published equations. From the results, it is found that the ARS using LPG is higher of about 18 percent compared to electricity where surrounding temperature is the lowest which is during morning condition. Electricity supplied to the ARS in the case at 5 for the thermostat reading. The result of COPC is basically follow COP"s results in all cases. For efficiency ratio (δ), which a comparative efficiency between COP and COPC show that the higher the value, the better process performance or the closer to the ideal value. Finally, exergy loss for both heat sources found to be highest value of 283185.2 kJ/g at evaporator as compared to other equipment in the ARS system. In conclusion, the higher COP and COPC can be obtained in the system is by using LPG as a heat source instead of using the electricity with the thermostat in the morning condition. This is because the LPG provides direct heating to the boiler and less resistance occurs during the process as compared to electricity and also due to the fact that thermal load are low during morning condition. As a result, cooling effect from ARS is better for the lower surrounding temperature. Exegy loss is found to be higher in evaporator by


Resources construction is the key element of modern distance education project in rural K-12. But how to design and develop the high-quality and easy-to-use resources is still an important problem. In order to make the resources more applicable and useable, Resources construction should pay attention to resources' actual using situation from the users' real need. This essay presented a new model: situation analysis, function extracting, and system framework for design and developing modern distance resource, and give some suggestion from this perspective.


Lower urinary track symptoms (LUTS) affect many older adults. Existing methods to evaluate the lower urinary tract are invasive and provide limited information about changes in bladder anatomy and detrusor muscle function. Use of non-invasive methods for the study of lower urinary tract anatomy and function has been limited. This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of MRI urodynamics in healthy subjects and in LUTS patients. Future advancements in this study will be aimed at using the data acquired to further deepen the comprehension of the bladder voiding cycle.


The development of lead-free small caliber weapon systems has inadvertently resulted in rounds with more material penetration capabilities. The increased penetration may mean that existing live-fire facilities will no longer be adequate for the training and certification of military and law enforcement personnel. Constraints on training in many live-fire shoot house facilities are already in place, with some allowing only single round impact during training. With no existing constitutive model for the cellular concrete commonly used in these facilities, it is not currently possible to analyze existing facilities or design new facilities against the most recent generation of ammunition currently being fielded. This project utilizes unconfined compression, uniaxial tension, triaxial confinement, and uniaxial strain from the US Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center and Sandia National Laboratory to characterize cellular concrete using a Holmquist-Johnson-Cook Concrete model for use in numerical simulations. This model is then initially validated using data from existing single projectile impact experiments against a similar material, showing results with reasonable accuracy. Additional experiments to fully validate the proposed model are discussed.
 This model provides the facility owner a potential tool to validate the safety of their facility against new projectiles and provides the designer of new facilities a tool for optimizing future configurations using these materials.


In this paper, the sensitivity of massive antenna arrays and digital beamforming to radio frequency (RF) chain in-phase quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance is studied and analyzed. The analysis shows that massive antenna arrays are increasingly sensitive to such RF chain imperfections, corrupting heavily the radiation pattern and beamforming capabilities. Motivated by this, novel RF-aware digital beamforming methods are then developed for automatically suppressing the unwanted effects of the RF I/Q imbalance without separate calibration loops in all individual receiver branches. More specifically, the paper covers closed-form analysis for signal processing properties as well as the associated radiation and beamforming properties of massive antenna arrays under both systematic and random RF I/Q imbalances. All analysis and derivations in this paper assume ideal signals to be circular. The well-known minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer and a widely-linear (WL) extension of it, called WL-MVDR, are analyzed in detail from the RF imperfection perspective, in terms of interference attenuation and beamsteering. The optimum RF-aware WL-MVDR beamforming solution is formulated and shown to efficiently suppress the RF imperfections. Based on the obtained results, the developed solutions and in particular the RF-aware WL-MVDR method can provide efficient beamsteering and interference suppressing characteristics, despite of the imperfections in the RF circuits. This is seen critical especially in the massive antenna array context where the cost-efficiency of individual RF chains is emphasized.


New Zealand's health system turns 75 in September, 2013. This article suggests that it is a time for celebration but also reflection on whether we have achieved the aims of the 1938 Social Security Act which laid out a set of principles for health care delivery. The article looks at questions of access, equity and service integration. It outlines why the health system we have today is shaped the way it is, and asks whether we should recommit to the original 1938 aims or develop a new set of principles for our health system.


This article examines in detail three Latin courses which have been in operation for several years on the PLATO IV computer-assisted instruction system: "Beginning Latin," "Latin Composition," and "Vergil's Aeneid." These programs are supplemental to classroom work and have proved very effective in individualizing instruction. The lessons primarily provide drill and practice along with diagnostic information on current progress. Class time thus released can be given to more complex activities. Complete records can be kept and easily accessed so that instructors can evaluate individual and group strengths and weaknesses. Use of CAT lessons does not necessitate a knowledge of computer programming; one can use materials already developed in the same manner as one uses a textbook. In all, the computer appears to be a most useful tool for the FL instructor, and mass production would appear to make it economically viable as well.


The unlabelled antibody technique of Sternberger was used to study the localization in histological sections of human melanoma‐associated antigen p97, which is defined by a monoclonal antibody. The antigen was detected in 8 of 10 primary skin melanomas, in 6 of 7 metastatic melanomas and in 2 of 2 compound nevi. It was localized at the cell surface, the cytoplasm and the nucleus always being negative. The antigen was not seen in cells from 3 basal cell carcinomas, I squamous cell carcinoma, I leiomyosarcoma, or in samples of normal skin (including keratinocytes, connective tissue consisting of collagenous and elastic fibers, fibroblasts, sebaceous glands, blood vessels, smooth muscles, or inflammatory cells such as granulocytes, lymphocytes and macrophages), kidney or lung. There was, however, staining of some cells in the secretory segment of eccrine sweat glands from 2 patients, possibly corresponding to myoepithelial cells. Antigen expression was somewhat variable between cells from different melanomas as well as between individual cells from the same melanoma. The possible diagnostic value of this procedure for identification and classification of melanomas is discussed.


One often-cited weakness of biocatalysis is the lack of mirror-image enzymes for the formation of either enantiomer of a product in asymmetric synthesis. Enantiocomplementary enzymes exist as the solution to this problem in nature. These enzyme pairs, which catalyze the same reaction but favor opposite enantiomers, are not mirror-image molecules; however, they contain active sites that are functionally mirror images of one another. To create mirror-image active sites, nature can change the location of the binding site and/or the location of key catalytic groups. In this Minireview, X-ray crystal structures of enantiocomplementary enzymes are surveyed and classified into four groups according to how the mirror-image active sites are formed.


During the last years our knowledge of the structural composition of erythrocyte membranes has markedly increased. It is the aim of this review to discuss hereditary changes of the erythrocyte membrane of pathophysiological significance on the basis of these recent biochemical findings. The report particularly deals with structural proteins, such as spectrin, and its possible significance for corpuscular deformation (e. g. spherocytosis). In addition, the importance of hemoglobinopathies and hereditary enzymatic defects for the development of hemolysis is discussed.


An audit of IUD usage was conducted to determine whether coils provide safe and effective family planning. 11,000 urban middle and working class patients aged 15 to 40 (parity 0 to 5+) were fitted with IUDs using the fitting method of Newton et al (1972) for the Gravigard contraceptive device. Data were compiled at time of coil fitting (July 1977 to July 1979). There was an increase in demand from 105 coils in the 1st 12 months to 164 coils in the 2nd. There was a small but increasing rate of coil replacements from all-plastic devices to bioactive (copper containing) devices. Gravigard (Cu 7) devices accounted for 88.1% or 237 of the coils fitted, the rest being Lippes Loop (7.5%), a small number of Copper-T and the relatively new Copper 250. There were 9 coil pregnancies during the study period (8 with Gravigard and 1 with Lippes Loop). A formal Pearl index gave an unexpectedly high rate of 4.54 pregnancies/100 women-years. A closer examination of clinical records revealed the presence of a superfecund family (if the pregnancies associated with the superfecund family were eliminated from statistics, the corrected Pearl index would be 2.88). There were 14 expulsions (6.5/100 women-years) and 2 patients experienced serious pelvic infection. It was concluded that in general, the coil method is an acceptable means of birth control.


Pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) catalyzes the nonoxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate into acetaldehyde and carbon dioxide and requires thiamin diphosphate (ThDP) and a divalent cation as cofactors. Recent studies have permitted the assignment of functional roles of active site residues; however, the underlying reaction mechanisms of elementary steps have remained hypothetical. Here, a kinetic and thermodynamic single-step analysis in conjunction with X-ray crystallographic studies of PDC from Zymomonas mobilis implicates active site residue Glu473 (located on the re-face of the ThDP thiazolium nucleus) in facilitating both decarboxylation of 2-lactyl-ThDP and protonation of the 2-hydroxyethyl-ThDP carbanion/enamine intermediate. Variants carrying either an isofunctional (Glu473Asp) or isosteric (Glu473Gln) substitution exhibit a residual catalytic activity of less than 0.1% but accumulate different intermediates at the steady state. Whereas the predecarboxylation intermediate 2-lactyl-ThDP is accumulated in Glu473Asp because of a 3000-fold slower decarboxylation compared to that of the wild-type enzyme, Glu473Gln is not impaired in decarboxylation but generates a long-lived 2-hydroxyethyl-ThDP carbanion/enamine postdecarboxylation intermediate. CD spectroscopic analysis of the protonic and tautomeric equilibria of the cocatalytic aminopyrimidine part of ThDP indicates that an acidic residue is required at position 473 for proper substrate binding. Wild-type PDC and the Glu473Asp variant bind the substrate analogue acetylphosphinate with the same affinity, implying a similar stabilization of the predecarboxylation intermediate analogue on the enzyme, whereas Glu473Gln fails to bind the analogue. The X-ray crystallographic structure of 2-lactyl-ThDP trapped in the decarboxylation-deficient variant Glu473Asp reveals a common stereochemistry of the intermediate C2α stereocenter; however, the scissile C2α-C(carboxylate) bond deviates by ∼25-30° from the perpendicular "maximum overlap" orientation relative to the thiazolium ring plane as commonly observed in ThDP enzymes. Because a reactant-state stabilization of the predecarboxylation intermediate can be excluded to account for the slower decarboxylation, the data suggest a strong stereoelectronic effect for the transition state of decarboxylation as supported by additional DFT studies on models. To the best of our knowledge, this is a very rare example in which the magnitude of a stereoelectronic effect could be experimentally estimated for an enzymatic system. Given that variant Glu473Gln is not decarboxylation-deficient, electrostatic stress can be excluded as a driving force for decarboxylation. The apparent dual function of Glu473 further suggests that decarboxylation and protonation of the incipient carbanion are committed and presumably proceed in the same transition state.


alpha-Synuclein (alphaS) is a presynaptic terminal protein that is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). We have used NMR spectroscopy to characterize the conformational properties of alphaS in solution as a free monomer and when bound to lipid vesicles and lipid-mimetic detergent micelles. Free wild-type alphaS is largely unfolded in solution, but exhibits a region with a preference for helical conformations that may be important in the aggregation of alphaS into fibrils. The N-terminal region of alphaS binds to synthetic lipid vesicles and detergent micelles in vitro and adopts a highly helical conformation, consistent with predictions based on sequence analysis. The C-terminal part of the protein does not associate with either vesicles or micelles, remaining free and unfolded. These results suggest that one function of alphaS may be to tether as of yet unidentified partners to lipid surfaces via interactions with its C-terminal tail.


Long-term gastrostomy is a predictable intervention to ameliorate the effects offeeding and swallowing difficulties among children with severe spastic cerebral palsy. The evidence evaluating the efficacy and implications of the available gastrostomy devices in common use has focused primarily on the operative phase, ignoring the long-term effects that may be critical from a nurse's orfamily caregiver's point of view. In this study, the authors describe a sample of children with gastrostomy, comparing skin-level and tube devices on measures of nutritional outcome, complications, and caregiver satisfaction. In contrast to manufacturer's claims about the superiority of skin-level devices, the results presented here reveal few differences between the devices. The authors conclude, therefore, that device selection should be determined by individualized comprehensive assessment of the child andfamily circumstances.


Experimental application of a recently developed opto-tactile sensor in object surface texture pattern recognition using soft computational techniques has been successfully demonstrated in this article. Design and working principles of a number of optical type sensors have been illustrated and explained. Using the opto-tactile sensor multiple surface texture patterns of a number of objects like a carpet, stone, rough sheet metal, paper carton and a table surface have been captured and saved in MATLAB environment. The captured data have been adopted to soft computational techniques like support vector machine (SVM) technique, decision tree (DT) C4.5 algorithm, and naive Bayes (NB) algorithm for their learning. Testing with unknown surfaces using these techniques shows promising results at this stage and demonstrates its potential industrial use with further development. Results suggest that the methodology and procedures presented here are well suited for applications in intelligent robotic grasping.


This study examines the ways in which drama in the reign of William III interacted with the rhetorical and cultural conditions and contentions of the Glorious Revolution in England. By viewing the Revolution more as a cultural instead of a political event, I argue that the vocabulary, theory, and ideology formulated by the polemics of the Revolution in forms such as speeches, pamphlets, broadsides, glassware, and paintings provided a rhetorical repertoire for post-revolutionary drama and enabled multiple opportunities for interpretation in texts. Furthermore, the rhetoric and discourse formed by those polemics testified to the socio-economic changes that were not only identified but also debated and shaped by plays. In this light, I suggest that while we can read drama in relation to its historical and cultural contexts, we should not assign it a secondary and passive role. Instead, drama actively shaped and commented on the literary and social cultures in post-Revolution times by participating in the Revolution's debates relevant to the everyday life of the 1690s. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I examines the transmission of Revolution rhetoric from the above-named polemics to the literary arena and their levels of usage. Part II focuses on two interrelated linguistic cultures created by the supporters of William III and James II: the languages of triumphalism and deliverance in Chapter II, and the languages of lamentation and hope in Chapter III. Part III examines gender and economy in a socio-economic perspective. Chapter IV examines the questions of gender and domestic authority in drama and post-revolutionary society raised by the Revolution's invention, Dual Monarchism, in which William III (husband) and Mary II (wife) shared regal authority. Chapter V shows how drama reacted to the social and economic changes engendered by the Nine Years' War, a major consequence of the Revolution.


The behaviour and nervous activity of rats which had been made to grow fast by a super-abundance of food in the first week or two of life were compared with the same characteristics in litter-mates which had been suckled in large litters, and gained weight much more slowly. The rapidly growing animals were more active and inquisitive at each chronological age than their slow-growing litter-mates, and they appeared to profit more by previous experience, which indicates that they learned more quickly. It is suggested that nutritional variables may underlie some of the correlations which have been found by others to exist between physical and mental development at similar chronological ages in children. It is also possible that children today, who are admittedly growing faster than they did 50 years ago, should be expected to display a correspondingly greater mental activity and ability to learn.


A consumer's emotional response to a product is influenced by cognitive processes, such as memories associated with use of the product and expectations of its performance. Here, we propose a cognitive neural model of Expectology, called PEAM (Prediction - Experience - Appraisal - Memory), as a novel tool that considers consumers' emotional responses in order to aid in product design. The PEAM model divides cognitive processes associated with product use into 4 phases: prediction, experience, appraisal, and memory. We examined the spatiotemporal changes in brain activity associated with product evaluation and memory during the prediction phase, by obtaining electroencephalograms (EEGs). EEGs of 10 healthy participants with normal or corrected-to-normal vision were recorded while they viewed images of products as well as when they provided a preference rating for each product. Our results revealed significantly increased neural activity in the gamma frequency in the temporal areas, the brain regions where declarative memory is stored, and in the prefrontal area for products that were rated as preferable. Our data suggest that memory is used for product evaluation in the prediction phase. These findings also suggest that activity in these specific brain areas are reliable predictors for product evaluation.


Post-translational modifications (PTMs) occurring in proteins determine their functions and regulations. Proteomic tools are available to identify PTMs and have proved invaluable to expanding the inventory of these tools of nature that hold the keys to biological processes. Cysteine (Cys), the least abundant (1–2%) of amino acid residues, are unique in that they play key roles in maintaining stability of protein structure, participating in active sites of enzymes, regulating protein function and binding to metals, among others. Cys residues are major targets of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are important mediators and modulators of various biological processes. It is therefore necessary to identify the Cys-containing ROS target proteins, as well as the sites and species of their PTMs. Cutting edge proteomic tools which have helped identify the PTMs at reactive Cys residues, have also revealed that Cys residues are modified in numerous ways. These modifications include formation of disulfide, thiosulfinate and thiosulfonate, oxidation to sulfenic, sulfinic, sulfonic acids and thiosulfonic acid, transformation to dehydroalanine (DHA) and serine, palmitoylation and farnesylation, formation of chemical adducts with glutathione, 4-hydroxynonenal and 15-deoxy PGJ2, and various other chemicals. We present here, a review of relevant ROS biology, possible chemical reactions of Cys residues and details of the proteomic strategies employed for rapid, efficient and sensitive identification of diverse and novel PTMs involving reactive Cys residues of redox-sensitive proteins. We propose a new name, "ROSics," for the science which describes the principles of mode of action of ROS at molecular levels. © 2014 The Authors. Mass Spectrometry Reviews Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Rapid Commun. Mass Spec Rev 34:184–208, 2015.


UNLABELLED
Although FDG is an excellent PET tumor imaging agent, residual tracer activity in normal structures such as blood vessels and the liver can impair the detection of small or modestly tracer-avid tumors. Since tumors generally have a continuous influx of FDG over time while normal tissues generally show tracer efflux, we produced and optimized correlation-coefficient constrained influx-constant "parametric" images to maximize tumor visualization but minimize background and artifacts for FDG-PET cancer imaging.

METHODS
Influx-constant image sets were generated in 17 patients with various cancers for a range of correlation-coefficient constraint values. Quantitative evaluation of the parametric PET images was performed.

RESULTS
Image noise was reduced 70% (mean) with no loss of tumor signal for r > or = 0.90 constraint versus no constraint. Higher (0.95-0.99) constraints improved tumor-to-normal ratios but resulted in some loss of tumor signal. Mild constraints (0-0.85) produced more background artifacts than higher constraints, though all correlation constraints improved tumor-to-normal ratios over the single 50-60-min acquisition frame.

CONCLUSION
Correlation-coefficient filtered parametric imaging, especially with an r-value constraint of > or = 0.90, enhances tumor-to-normal contrast for FDG-PET and appears promising for improving lesion detectability.


Objectives To describe an outbreak of infectious syphilis in rural North Wales and the control measures implemented. Methods Following reports of an increase of syphilis in North Wales, a multidisciplinary Outbreak Control Team (OCT) was established. A multilevel prevention and control response was initiated, including: active case surveillance, partner notification and treatment, sexual network analysis, awareness raising with professionals and affected communities, point-of-care syphilis testing at a sauna and a health promotion campaign targeting users of men who have sex with men (MSM) social network mobile phone applications (apps). Results Four cases of infectious syphilis were diagnosed in clinics in North Wales per 100 000 population in 2013 compared with a mean of one case per 100 000 in the preceding decade. Diagnosed cases peaked in January 2014, declining in the first half of 2014. Initial cases were clustered in the westerly rural counties of North Wales and were predominantly white men, self-reporting as MSM (median age: 34 years, range: 17–61). Point-of-care testing at a sauna did not identity further new infections, suggesting that the cluster was relatively focused and had probably been detected early. The use of apps to find sexual partners was a feature of the network affected. A health promotion campaign, initiated by the OCT, targeting men using MSM apps reached 92% of the 755 men messaged. Conclusions The outbreak was successfully controlled. However, it is difficult to determine which of the interventions implemented were most effective. Future outbreaks should be used as an opportunity to evaluate interventions using apps.


The mobility and bioavailability of As and Sb in relation to soil-biota transfer were evaluated at a former Sb mining and smelting site (Glendinning, SW Scotland, UK). The study specifically assessed the accumulation of As and Sb in different environmental components (soil, plants and earthworms) across mining area to estimate risk factors for the biota. Total concentrations and fractions of As and Sb in soils were determined. The latter using both a single solute and a non-specific stepwise sequential extraction (CISED) method. Mineralogical information was gathered from XRD and SEM analysis used to identify element distribution patterns. Pseudo-total (aqua-regia) levels of As and Sb in the soils varied between 50–17,400 mg kg− 1 and 10–1,200 mg kg− 1, respectively. Both elements are predominantly associated with Fe (or Al) oxides/hydroxides, by adsorption around silicate grains, representing a potentially bioavailable fraction. Antimony was also associated with sulphide phases. The highest values of As and Sb in biota were recorded in the earthworms (960 mg kg−1 and 27 mg kg− 1, respectively). Bioconcentration factors for both elements were below 1 and the highest for earthworms. Total and leached As levels in soils and biota were positively and significantly correlated, but only for Sb in earthworms and grass. Bioavailability of As in the biota, was shown to be limited by pH. In spite of the considerably high As and Sb contents of the soil the plant contamination remained comparably low, but still exceeded background values.


Purpose of review Optimal duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after coronary revascularization, in particular after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation, is a matter of ongoing debate. Recent findings First generation of DES, as compared with bare metal stents (BMS), reduce restenosis rates but increase very late stent thrombosis rates, thus requiring a prolonged course of DAPT. As a consequence, patients with high thrombotic and/or bleeding risk: have been systematically excluded from randomized trials comparing DES versus BMS; remain 'uncertain' DES candidates; should preferentially undergo BMS implantation at the time of percutaneous coronary intervention instead of DES. The Zotarolimus-eluting Endeavor Sprint Stent in Uncertain DES Candidates (ZEUS) trial is the first randomized study that demonstrated the superiority of the Zotarolimus-eluting Endeavor Sprint versus BMS in uncertain DES candidates who followed a personalized DAPT duration, which was tailored to patients's, not stent's, characteristics. Summary The results of the ZEUS trial may support a paradigm shift in our current understanding of the most proper use of DES in practice and should trigger further research in patients at high bleeding or thrombotic risk, who have been so far largely deprived of the potential benefit provided by DES.


Based on the data from a telephone survey of 868 Macao residents conducted in Macao with 330 Internet users and 538 non-users, this paper examines the characteristics of the users and non-users in terms of their demographics, assessments on media credibility, family functioning, media use, and perceived values of the Internet. Drawing from the literature of diffusion, expectancy-value and media substitution theories, it investigates the relations between Internet use and its potential predictors. The results confirmed the conclusions of previous adoption studies that Internet users were more likely to be male, younger, better educated and with higher monthly household income than non-users. The study also found that demographic variables such as education, sex and income, as well as doing exercise were the significant predictors of Internet use. However, no traditional mass media use variables and perceived values of the Internet were found to be significant predictors.


A method of estimating range flow (space displacement vector field) on nonrigid as well as rigid objects from a sequence of range images is described. This method can directly estimate the deformable motion parameters by solving a system of linear equations that are obtained from substituting a linear transformation of nonrigid objects expressed by the Jacobian matrix into motion constraints based on an extension of the conventional scheme used in intensity image sequences. The range flow is directly computed by substituting these estimated motion parameters into the linear transformation. The algorithm is supported by experimental estimations of range flow on a sheet of paper, a piece of cloth, human skin, and a rubber balloon being inflated, using real range image sequences acquired by a video rate range camera. >


BACKGROUND
Human serum adiponectin exists in 3 multimer forms: high molecular weight (HMW), middle molecular weight, and low molecular weight (LMW), with some of the latter bound to albumin (Alb)-LMW. Some studies have suggested that adiponectin crosses the blood-brain barrier and plays a central role in energy homeostasis.

METHODS
To determine cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) adiponectin at extremely low concentrations, we modified the protocol of the ELISA system used to assay serum adiponectin. The 3 multimers of adiponectin were measured separately by pretreating CSF with 2 proteases. We measured the CSF adiponectin concentrations in anonymous human samples (n = 19). The molecular sizes of adiponectin in CSF pretreated with proteases or untreated were determined by use of native PAGE and immunoblotting.

RESULTS
The ELISA system measured adiponectin in the range of 1.0-167 microg/L. The between-assay imprecision estimates (CVs) were 6%-17% for the 3 forms. The mean total CSF adiponectin concentration (7.2 microg/L) was approximately 1/1000 of the mean concentration in serum. Unlike serum adiponectin, the LMW and Alb-LMW forms predominated in all of the CSF samples. Immunoblotting analysis revealed that most LMW forms were bound to Alb, although the HMW form was detected in some samples.

CONCLUSIONS
The modified ELISA system measures the 3 multimers separately and is sufficiently sensitive to measure adiponectin in CSF.


Investing time, energy, and money in a usability test pays off when the data you collect answer your questions. Who makes sure usability tests meet their information-gathering goals? The project manager, who has to be ready to solve the many problems that inevitably arise. The paper assumes the reader has taken a course on usability methods or has conducted a usability test with the assistance of a professional in the field. >


We discuss a method of producing computer assisted proofs of almost everywhere strong convergence of the d-dimensional Gauss algorithm. This algorithm is equivalent to Brun's algorithm and to the modified Iacobi-Perron algorithm considered by Podsypanin and Schweiger. In this paper we focus on the reduction of the problem to a finite number of calculations. These calculations have been carried out for the three-dimensional algorithm and the results, which prove almost everywhere strong convergence, will be published separately.


Changes in water, sodium and potassium excretion were studied after injection of oxytocin, vasopressin and aldosterone. Normally hydrated and overloaded rats were used. Oxytocin, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mu increased sodium and potassium output. The sodium retaining activity of 0.5 and 1.0 µg of aldosterone was abolished when used in combination with 2.5 and 5.0 mu oxytocin. The antidiuretic effect of 0.5–5.0 mu vasopressin was accompanied by an increase in sodium excretion; change in potassium excretion occurred only in the 2nd hour after the injection. Suitable doses of vasopressin were also able to counteract the effect of aldosterone on sodium retention.


The burden of disease associated with cardiac surgery in preterm and low birth weight infants is increasing. This retrospective study aimed to compare the mortality and morbidity of cardiac surgery in low birth weight and preterm infants with that of a case-matched normal population. This was a single-center audit of cardiac surgery interventions at a tertiary pediatric center in Melbourne, Australia. Subjects underwent intervention in the first 3 months of life and were preterm (<37 weeks' gestation) or <2500 g at birth. Subjects were case-matched with 2 controls of term gestation and appropriate birth weight with the same primary diagnosis and intervention. Principal outcomes were mortality and complications in the 6 months following intervention. A total of 513 participants were included for analysis in the 13-year study period. There was an increased risk of mortality (odds ratio 6.26; 95% confidence interval (3.19, 12.3)) and rate of complications (odds ratio 2.29; 95% confidence interval (1.38, 3.78)) in low birth weight and premature infants compared with the control population. Patients who did not survive were more likely to have required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (relative risk [RR] 6.6, P < 0.001), developed postoperative sepsis (RR 2.6, P = 0.012), and undergone unplanned reintervention (RR 2.3, P < 0.001) compared with survivors. Preterm and low birth weight patients had twice the RR of developing complications and 6 times the risk of mortality in the 6 months following cardiac intervention compared with a matched population. Observed trends suggest delaying surgery in clinically stable infants beyond 35 weeks corrected gestational age and 2500-g weight may result in improved survival.


CKD is highly prevalent and costly in individuals with diabetes. Clinicians need to have a tool for early identification and prediction of incident CKD in individuals with diabetes. This study aimed to predict incident CKD among individuals with diabetes. A time-varying Cox model was derived from the ACCORD clinical trial data to predict the risk of incident CKD, defined as eGFR<60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or UACR>30 mg/g lasting for 3 months. A list of candidate variables was chosen based on literature reviews and experts' consultation, including demographic characteristics, physical exam, laboratory, medical history, drug use, and healthcare utilization. Predictors were selected from candidate variables using a stepwise algorithm. Data were split into training and validation set. Model performance was evaluated by Brier score (BS) and C statistics. Confidence intervals (CI) was calculated using a bootstrap method. Decomposition analysis was conducted to assess the predictor contribution. External validation was performed on patient-level data of HARMONY Outcome clinical trial. A total of 6,006 diabetes patients free of CKD at baseline were used for model development, with a median follow-up of 3 years and 2,257 new onset CKD events. The CKD risk model identified age at T2D diagnosed, smoking status, BMI, HDL, VLDL, ALT, eGFR, UACR, hypoglycemia event, retinopathy event, CHF event, CHD history, antihyperlipidemic drug use, antihypertensive drug use, and hospitalization. The model demonstrated good discrimination (C-statistics 0.828 [95% CI 0.812-0.845]) and calibration (BS 0.0552 [95% CI 0.0474-0.0593]) performance. UACR, eGFR, and CHF event were the top 3 factors that contributed most to the prediction. A total of 8,221 patients free of CKD was selected from HARMONY Outcome trial with 1,288 CKD events and median follow-up of 2 years. The model demonstrated acceptable discrimination (C-statistics: 0.772 [95% CI 0.767-0.805]) and calibration (BS: 0.0504 [95% CI 0.0477-0.0531]) in external data. A risk prediction of incident CKD among T2D patients was developed and validated for use in decision support of CKD prevention.

 Y. Lin: None. H. Shao: Board Member; BRAVO4HEALTH, LLC. A. H. Anderson: None. V. Fonseca: Consultant; Abbott, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Bayer AG, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Research Support; Fractyl Health, Inc., Jaguar Gene Therapy, Stock/Shareholder; Abbott, Amgen Inc., BRAVO4Health, Mellitus Health. V. Batuman: None. L. Shi: None.


Abstract The aim of the study was the recognition of profile structure and main physical properties of humus-rich endogley soils, which form muddy-alluvial habitats, and soils appearing together with them in a catena developed in the Upper Narew Valley near Sura¿. Plant communities growing on these soils were also recognized. Typological development of the analysed soils is clearly connected with microrelief of flood terrace, water conditions and vegetation cover. The most moisture positions taken by humus-rich endogley soils are overgrown by Glycerietum maximae community. Typic czernozemic alluvial and mucky-like soils with Phalaridetum arundinaceae community are found slightly higher. In the highest and the most dried parts of the analysed terrain mucky soils overgrown by plant community with domination of Alopecurus pratensis appears. Due to lower ash content physical properties of humus-rich endogley soils and peaty-like deposits considerably distinguish from properties of the other soils and deposits founded on the study area.


Hypermutable or mutator microorganisms are those that have an increased spontaneous mutation rate as a result of defects in DNA repair or error avoidance systems. Over the last two decades, several studies have provided strong evidence for a relevant role of mutators in the evolution of natural bacterial populations, particularly in the field of infectious diseases. Among them, chronic respiratory infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients was the first natural environment to reveal the high prevalence and important role of mutators. A remarkable positive selection of mutators during the course of the chronic infection has been reported, mainly as a result of the emergence of DNA mismatch repair system (mutS, mutL or mutU)-deficient mutants, although strains defective in the GO system (mutM, mutY and mutT) have also been observed. High frequencies of mutators have also been noted among other pathogens in the CF setting, particularly Staphylococcus aureus and Haemophilus influenzae. Enhanced antimicrobial resistance development is the most thoroughly studied consequence of mutators in CF and other chronic infections, although recent studies show that mutators may additionally have important effects on the evolution of virulence, genetic adaptation to the airways of CF patients, persistence of colonization, transmissibility, and perhaps lung function decline. Further prospective clinical studies are nevertheless still needed for an in-depth evaluation of the impact of mutators on disease progression and outcome.


We introduce a novel framework for automatic capturing of human portraits. The framework allows the robot to follow a person to the desired location using a Person Re-identification model. When composing is activated, the robot attempts to adjust its position to form the view that can best match the given template image, and finally takes a photograph. A template image can be predicted dynamically using an off-the-shelf photo evaluation model by the framework, or selected manually from a pre-defined set by the user. The template matching-based view adjustment is driven by a deep reinforcement learning network. Our framework lies on top of the Robot Operating System (ROS). The framework is designed to be modular so that all the models can be flexibly replaced based on needs. We show our framework on a variety of examples. In particular, we tested it in three indoor scenes and used it to take 20 photos of each scene: ten for the pre-defined template, ten for the dynamically generated ones. The average number of adjustment was $11.20$ for pre-defined templates and $12.76$ for dynamically generated ones; the average time spent was $22.11$ and $24.10$ seconds respectively.