Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are common in athletes. Techniques and methods of treatment for these injuries continue to vary among surgeons. Thirty National Basketball Association (NBA) team physicians were surveyed during the NBA Pre-Draft Combine. Survey questions involved current and previous practice methods of primary and revision ACL reconstruction, including technique, graft choice, rehabilitation, and treatment of combined ACL and medial collateral ligament injuries. Descriptive parametric statistics, Fisher exact test, and logistic regression were used, and significance was set at α = 0.05. All 30 team physicians completed the survey. Eighty-seven percent indicated they use autograft (81% bone-patellar tendon-bone) for primary ACL reconstruction in NBA athletes, and 43% indicated they use autograft for revision cases. Fourteen surgeons (47%) indicated they use an anteromedial portal (AMP) for femoral tunnel drilling, whereas 5 years earlier only 4 (13%) used this technique. There was a significant (P = .009) positive correlation between fewer years in practice and AMP use. NBA team physicians' use of an AMP for femoral tunnel drilling has increased over the past 5 years.


Development of fuel cell (FC) and hydrogen metal-hydride storage (MH) technologies continuously demonstrate higher efficiency rates and higher safety, as hydrogen is stored at low pressures of about 2 bar in a bounded state. A combination of a FC/MH system with an electrolyser, powered with a renewable source, allows creation of an almost fully autonomous power system, which could potentially replace a diesel-generator as a back-up power supply. However, the system must be extended with an electro-chemical battery to start-up the FC and compensate the electric load when FC fails to deliver the necessary power. Present paper delivers the results of experimental and theoretical investigation of a hybrid energy system, including a proton exchange membrane (PEM) FC, MH- accumulator and an electro-chemical battery, development methodology for such systems and the modelling of different battery types, using hardware-in-the-loop approach. The economic efficiency of the proposed solution is discussed using an example of power supply of a real town of Batamai in Russia.


Abstract To optimize the efficiency of bioremediation, treatability studies are needed to understand the fate of pollutants and environmental conditions under which microorganism growth is promoted and efficient degradation of these pollutants result. This article presents a recommended procedure which may achieve these goals. Results and treatability comparisons for candidate compounds including carbon tetrachloride (CT), methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE) and hexachlorobutadiene (HCBD) are presented and discussed. Culture redox potential (ORP) which is an indicator or free electron activity of a system appeared to have a significant impact on CT biodegradation. Optimum biodegradation of CT by Pseudomonas cepacia was observed between −100 and −200 mv. Under the optimum environmental conditions established during the batch-scale biotransformation study, 98 to 99.9% of CT and 70% of MTBE introduced into the continuous fixed-biofilm reactor were degraded. The biphasic model simulating biodegradation of CT and MTBE provided an excellent correlation in the fixed-biofilm study and was simple to apply as compared with other models.


Methane gas is a colorless and suffocating gas. We described the first case of methane gas intoxication in which the patient showed lethal myocardial injury. A 45-year-old man was presented to our hospital with unconsciousness after an accidental exposure to methane gas for 3 hours. On admission, serum troponin I was mild elevated. The initial electrocardiogram (ECG) showed sinus tachycardia. After 3 days, ECG showed diffuse elevation of the ST segment, and the patient developed refractory ventricular fibrillation (VF) and cardiac pump failure and died. However, coronary artery angiography showed that there was no occlusion. Therefore, it is possible that ischemic changes on the later ECG can predict in-hospital adverse cardiovascular events for methane gas intoxication.


The combination of γ-ray spectroscopy and charged-particle spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the study of nuclear reactions with beams of nuclei far from stability. This paper presents a new silicon detector array, SHARC, the Silicon Highly-segmented Array for Reactions and Coulex. The array is used at the radioactive-ion-beam facility at TRIUMF (Canada), in conjunction with the TIGRESS γ-ray spectrometer, and is built from custom Si-strip detectors utilising a fully digital readout. SHARC has more than 50% efficiency, approximately 1000-strip segmentation, angular resolutions of Δθ ≈ 1.3 deg and Δϕ ≈ 3.5 deg, 25–30 keV energy resolution, and thresholds of 200 keV for up to 25 MeV particles. SHARC is now complete, and the experimental program in nuclear astrophysics and nuclear structure has commenced.


RFID today is the popular wireless induction system. Each RFID tag in RFID system is given a unique ID (UID). The RFID tag with memory also records the on demand information. When an independent RFID tag approaches the RFID antenna, the induction between tag and antenna happens. The information and content recorded in the tag is transmitted to the RFID antenna and translated into the computational data. Following up the data translation, the tag recognition can be completed and related applications are provided. Due to the popularity of RFID, many applications based on the local or small area were proposed. According to the short-distance wireless signal, the RFID tag users can be monitored within the specific area. In other words, the RFID systems are generally used to be the hardware identification in many applications. Most of these applications are based on the indoor environments or be a tiny area service and independent of the existed system. Some of the RFID systems were proposed to be used in hospital or health care (Munoz et at., 2003). Each patient is given and equipped the designed RFID tag. In addition, each patient should always wear every time and everywhere. Therefore, all the patients' current location and conditions are monitored by the hospital. Some entrance guard systems are also based on RFID system. The RFID ticket or RFID card [5-7, 12] (Pala & Inanc, 2007) is used to identify that a user is legal or not. In addition, since the RFID tag can be used as the identification, it means that the applications which adopt software encryption as the identifications to protect the intellectual property of the applications or files can also use the RFID tag. Some researches presented that the embedding RFID can be plugged into a small device such as handheld host [1]. The handheld device users can plug in the SD or CF interface of RFID reader card. Hence, the users can scan and induct the RFID tag everywhere. Since the RFID systems are popular and ripe for distinguishing treatment of individual target [8,9], the unique characteristic or identification of RFID can be the solution of intellectual property protection. Many researches proposed the possible way to protect the intellectual property, products, or applications. In some applications [10], the RFID chips are embedded in the cap of bottle. The medicine or other objects can be differentiated between fake and true (Jian et at., 2009). However, there are many RFID related products. To manage the RFID information from different RFID products and the communication with different applications will be the important issue.


Background Global literature suggests women often have higher sexual risks under the influence of alcohol abuse. However, data are limited from vulnerable population such as the female sex workers (FSW) in developing countries. The current study aims to fill out the literature gap by examining the association between alcohol abuse and sexual victimisation among FSWs in China. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1022 FSWs who were recruited through community outreach from nine different types of entertainment establishments in Guangxi, China. The FSWs completed a self-administered survey on their demographic, information, alcohol use/abuse behaviours (AUDIT), and sexual victimisation experience. Multivariate regression was employed to assess the relationship between alcohol abuse and sexual victimisation. Results FSWs who were younger, less educated, never married, and working in an alcohol-serving establishment were more likely to have higher risks of alcohol abuse (p<0.05). FSWs who were at higher risks of alcohol abuse reported significantly higher sexual victimisation experience (p<0.001). Multivariate models indicated significant relationships between alcohol abuse and sexual victimisation experience while controlling for potential demographic confounders, such as having been made drunk by client (aOR=1.10, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.16), "having been stripped off (aOR=1.07, 95% CI 1.02, 1.13)", "having been taking advantages (aOR=1.08,95% CI=1.05 to 1.12)", "having been asked for extra demands (aOR=1.08, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.11)", and "having been sexually assaulted (aOR=1.08, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.13)". Conclusion Alcohol abuse was prevalent and associated with sexual victimisation experience among FSWs in China. Culturally appropriate interventions are urgently needed to reduce alcohol use related sexual risks among this vulnerable population.


ABSTRACT
Introduction: Liver cirrhosis of is a common problem faced by physicians in worldwide and is also responsible for 11th most common cause of death globally. Data regarding prevalence of esophageal varices and other upper gastrointestinal changed in patients with liver cirrhosis is scare in Nepal. So this study was done to find out clinical profile and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy findings of patients presenting with liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational hospital based study conducted in the department of internal medicine and endoscopy unit of the Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhairahawa, Nepal. The study was done from 21 February 2019 to 20 November 2019 in the patients presented with liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension. The upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was done in all cases. The data was collected using the predesigned pro-forma.
Results: Total 89 patients with liver cirrhosis were enrolled with mean age of 51.84±12.26 years and male : female ratio of 3.68 : 1. As per Child Pugh classification (CTP) 45 patients (51%) were in Class C, 33 patients (37%) were in Class B and 11 patients (12%) were in Class A. Esophageal Varies were present in 51 (57.3%) patients. According to Westaby classification grade I esophageal varices were seen in 17 (19,1%), grade II esophageal varices were seen in 26 (29.2%), grade III esophageal varices were in 8 (8.9%) patients. Portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) were seen in 64 (71%) patients.
Conclusions: The prevalence of esophageal varices in cirrhotics was 57% whereas PHG was seen in 71 % patients.


"Estonia's environment and nature are special," the Estonian scholar observed, as we sipped coffee in a dingy cafe in Tallinn.(1) "But to them," he said, lowering his voice, and nodding slightly toward a table of Russian-speakers, "it means nothing. To a Russian, the environment is a 100-meter square area around him and his home. He does not care ... no, it's more simple -- he is not aware of my country's environment." This bitter remark reminded me of questions I began asking months earlier about the roots of environmental conflict in Estonia. What are the origins of Estonian and Russian-speakers' differing attitudes toward the environment? How do these different attitudes fuel conflict? Environmental devastation in the former Soviet Union and the nations of Eastern and Central Europe has been profiled in American and European newspapers, magazines, scholarly publications and books.(2) However, the vast majority of written material glosses over the historical roots of contemporary environmental conflict. This paper considers the foundations of recent discord over environmental problems in Estonia. Historical evidence reveals that such conflict is older, more perplexing, and more enduring than recent popular accounts suggest. Two forms of environmental conflict exist in Estonia -- cultural and political. The first form of conflict is rooted in Estonian and Russian-speaking peoples, traditions, customs and behavior. Cultural conflict over the environment in Estonia has not been widely discussed on television news programs, nor in newspapers nor academic journals. It is largely unidirectional -- an anger that smolders inside ethnic Estonians, and is closely linked to other social grievances and prejudices Estonians bear against the Russophones in their midst. Political environmental conflict is more conspicuous than cultural environmental conflict. Ecopolitical conflict pits citizens against the state in a battle over natural resources and the welfare of nature. it is spontaneous, destabilizing, and in the late 1989s, helped ignite a revolution against Soviet Russia. Cultural and political conflict are not mutually exclusive. They inform one another, feed on one another. Estonian opinions about the environment are shaped by cultural perceptions of nature, but also by political changes. However, cultural discord is older, rooted in the divergent values, mores, and traditions of two peoples. Different attitudes toward nature and different ways of using natural resources are the stuff of Russian and Estonian culture rather than Soviet and Estonian politics. THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICT Estonia is a Baltic Sea nation of 1.6 million people. Slightly more than sixty percent of the population is ethnic Estonian, speaking a language of Finno-Ugric origin. One-third of the remaining population is ethnic Russian with the balance composed of small numbers of Ukrainians, Belorussians, Finns, Germans, Poles, Tartars, other Central Asian minorities and Jews.(3) Virtually all ethnic Estonians interviewed for this project insisted that "Russians (or Russian-speakers) and Estonians have different attitudes toward nature and the Estonian environment." Most striking, however, were confirmations of this notion by Russian-speakers: almost all affirmed that Russian-speakers are generally less concerned about the condition of natural resources in Estonia and that the two peoples do not share the same attitudes toward nature. So many interviewees mentioned culture as the basis for environmental conflict in Estonia that I am convinced that the phenomenon exists. However, the origins of this conflict are poorly documented. My inquiry commenced with archival materials dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, after the period of Swedish regional hegemony. Three aspects of post-feudal agrarian history are germane to a discussion of cultural differences between ethnic Estonians and Russophones: 1) the social impact of the German manorial system in Estonia versus the Russian manorial system in Russia; 2) traditional religious and educational differences between Estonians and Russians, and 3) Estonian vs. …


In many situations of power system restoration or emergency control load flow, often dynamic load flow, results are needed at a time scale which makes regular load flow computations impractical. In this paper a low order dynamic model is introduced which retains fully detailed and precise representation of the critical components (such as strong backbone lines like EHV or weak tie lines) where the interest is focused and reduces the detail of representation of other parts of the system gradually with their distance from the spotlighted sections where details are needed. The result is a low order and hence very fast computation with not only detailed but also quite precise results for those parts of the system which are critical. This approach is very flexible, it can be used to compute tie line load and frequency swings on an interconnection of areas or static loads on the tie lines of such a system affecting third parties in a power trading situation. It can be used to compute precisely and fast the EHV system loads or any combinations of such elements. The operator is quite free to choose what should be represented in precise detail.


The objective of this paper is to analyze the influence of industry characteristics on the localization and urbanization agglomeration patterns of new firm location. To this end, we analyze the location decisions of new manufacturing firms in Spain. First, for a 3-digit level, we identify for each industry which type of agglomeration economies –localization or urbanizationexplain new firm's location. And second, using the coefficients obtained in these estimations for both agglomeration economies, we analyse which industry characteristics are the sources that explain differences in the strength of these economies. We focus on industry characteristics related to the three microfoundations of agglomeration that have been most prominent in the theoretical literature: labor market pooling, input sharing and knowledge spillovers. Our results point out that for industries with high influence of localization economies on their location patterns what matters is the labour market pooling mechanism. For the industries with higher effect of urbanization economies on their location patterns, knowledge spillovers and output sharing are the sources of agglomeration. The dependence of natural resources affects negatively the incidence of urbanization agglomeration economies on firm location.


Sir .—We read with interest the article by Berezin et al 1 in the March 1989 issue of AJDC wherein they reported their experience with cow's milk or soy protein—induced colitis in 22 infants. In all 19 of 22 patients who received the protein hydrolysate formula Nutramigen (Bristol-Meyers Inc, USPNG, Evansville, Ind), rectal bleeding ceased. We describe an infant who developed symptoms of allergic colitis while receiving Nutramigen and on repeated challenge with Nutramigen but not with other hypoallergenic feeding. Patient Report .—A 2-month-old white male with bloody diarrhea for 7 days was referred to the pediatric gastroenterology outpatient service of the Schneider Children's Hospital of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY, for evaluation in April 1989. He was born without complications, the 3050-g fullterm product of a normal spontaneous vaginal delivery. Initially, the infant was placed on a cow's milk formula but was changed to


This paper introduces a novel Gaussian process (GP) classification method that combines advantages of global and local GP approximators through a two-layer hierarchical model. The upper layer consists of a global sparse GP to coarsely model the entire dataset. The lower layer is a mixture of GP experts which uses local information to learn a fine-grained model. A variational inference algorithm is developed for simultaneous learning of the global GP, the experts and the gating network. Stochastic optimization can be employed for large-scale problems. Experiments on benchmark binary classification datasets demonstrate the advantages of the method in terms of scalability and classification accuracy.


The objective of this study was to investigate the association between physical fitness and body mass index categories (obesity, OB; overweight, OW; normal-weight, NW; and underweight, UW) in prepubertal children. Anthropometric and physical fitness characteristics were collected from a convenience sample of 30472 Italian schoolchildren (6–11 years old). Six field-based tests were used: Léger, agility shuttle, long jump, frontal throw of the basketball, Sit & Reach and standing balance. Significant differences were found in the anthropometric characteristics, physical fitness and weight status prevalence between girls and boys (p<0.05) and, except for flexibility, by age class (p<0.05). Obese children performed worse than their NW counterparts in aerobic capacity (p<0.001), agility (p<0.001), muscular power of the lower limb (p<0.001) and balance (p<0.001). Conversely, children with obesity showed greater upper limb power than NW children (p<0.001). The discrepancy in physical fitness between OB and NW children increased in older girls (flexibility, p = 0.002; muscular power of the lower and upper limb, p = 0.002 and p = 0.005) and boys (aerobic capacity, p = 0.009; agility, p = 0.006; standing balance, p = 0.019; muscular power of the lower and upper limb, p<0.001 and p = 0.011) compared to their younger counterparts. On the other hand, UW children performed worse than NW children mainly in terms of muscular power of the arms (p<0.001). Additionally, there was an increasing disparity in the frontal throw test scores of UW and NW girls (p = 0.003) and boys (p = 0.011) in older children compared to younger children. In conclusion, the effect of body mass index on children's physical fitness intensifies with age. OB and OW negatively affect aerobic capacity, agility, lower limb power and balance but positively affect upper limb power. UW negatively affects upper limb power. This study underscores the importance of preventing childhood OW, OB, and UW in early life to promote children's health and proper fitness development.


Abstract. We investigated the phylogeny and taxonomy of the Prenolepis genus‐group, a clade of ants we define within the subfamily Formicinae comprising the genera Euprenolepis, Nylanderia, gen. rev., Paraparatrechina, gen. rev. & stat. nov., Paratrechina, Prenolepis and Pseudolasius. We inferred a phylogeny of the Prenolepis genus‐group using DNA sequence data from five genes (CAD, EF1αF1, EF1αF2, wingless and COI) sampled from 50 taxa. Based on the results of this phylogeny the taxonomy of the Prenolepis genus‐group was re‐examined. Paratrechina (broad sense) species segregated into three distinct, robust clades. Paratrechina longicornis represents a distinct lineage, a result consistent with morphological evidence; because this is the type species for the genus, Paratrechina is redefined as a monotypic genus. Two formerly synonymized subgenera, Nylanderia and Paraparatrechina, are raised to generic status in order to provide names for the other two clades. The majority of taxa formerly placed in Paratrechina, 133 species and subspecies, are transferred to Nylanderia, and 28 species and subspecies are transferred to Paraparatrechina. In addition, two species are transferred from Pseudolasius to Paraparatrechina and one species of Pseudolasius is transferred to Nylanderia. A morphological diagnosis for the worker caste of all six genera is provided, with a discussion of the morphological characters used to define each genus. Two genera, Prenolepis and Pseudolasius, were not recovered as monophyletic by the molecular data, and the implications of this result are discussed. A worker‐based key to the genera of the Prenolepis genus‐group is provided.


BACKGROUND
Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (RAAA) is a highly mortal entity. In recent years, the role of seasonality has been proposed in the incidence of RAAA. In this study, we sought possible correlations between monthly atmospheric pressures and the number of patients admitted with RAAA.

METHODS
Twenty-four patients who were admitted to our Trauma and Emergency Surgery Department with a diagnosis of RAAA from January 1995 to May 2003 were retrospectively evaluated. Data were collected from patient records, admission charts, hospital death certificate registry, and operating-room records. Only patients whose diagnosis of RAAA was confirmed during surgery were included. Atmospheric pressure records of Istanbul for individual months covering the study period were obtained from the Meteorology Office. The incidences of RAAA and the mean monthly atmospheric pressures were compared.

RESULTS
Most of the patients were admitted in winter months. Admissions culminated in January with six patients, at which time the mean atmospheric pressure was 765.5 mmHg. There were no admissions in May, during which the mean atmospheric pressure was 760.8 mmHg. The distribution of monthly admissions for RAAA was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The mean atmospheric pressures tended to run a higher course before the months in which increased admissions were seen.

CONCLUSION
Our findings do not corroborate the presence of a relationship between the incidence of RAAA and the atmospheric pressure.


Conserved domains e.g. nucleotide binding site (NBS) were found in several cloned plant disease resistance genes. Based on the NBS domain, resistance gene analogs (RGAs) have been isolated previously and were used as probes to screen a soybean (Glycine max L Merr.) cDNA library. A full-length cDNA, KR3, was obtained by screening the library and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) method. Sequence analysis revealed that the cDNA is 2 353 bp in length and the open reading frame (ORF) codes for a polypeptide of 636 amino acids with a Toll-Interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) and a NBS domain. Sequence alignment showed that it was similar to N gene of tobacco. The phylogenetic tree analysis of R proteins with NBS from higher plants was performed. The KR3 gene has low copies in soybean genome and its expression was induced by exogenous salicylic acid (SA).


In the world, the demand for quality and safe grain products is increasing. The need to preserve wheat in the event of a natural disaster requires the study of optimal storage times of grain without degrading technological indexes. The purpose of the work was to study the dynamics of technological properties of winter wheat grown after peas, clover, corn for silage and the industrial, ecological, biological growing systems during 1, 3, and 5 years of storage in the conditions of the ordinary granary. The absence of significant differences in the technological parameters of the grain of wheat grown at industrial and ecological systems, but significantly lower indicators at a biological growing system was found. The highest hectolitre weight obtained when wheat grain was grown after corn for silage, and vitreousness – after the clover. Significantly higher biochemical parameters of grain and alveographic properties of flour were for the cultivation of wheat after peas, which provided additional accumulation of protein substances. There are no significant changes in the indicator of hectolitre weight during the grain storage. Other indicators increased significantly after 1 year of storage (on average by 10 – 30%). For further storage, vitreousness growth was insignificant. After 5 years of storage, the falling number significantly increased (on 21% compared to the initial values and on 7% – after 3 years of storage). The content of protein, gluten in the grain, and alveographic properties of flour significantly decreased after 5 years of storage. The possibility of obtaining grain of wheat with high technological parameters for a more safe ecological growing system was established. It was also confirmed to need for grain storage up to 1 year to improve quality indicators and it was established that it safely stored for 3 years.


In this paper, safety based smart car parking guidance system has been designed and implemented using global system for mobile communications (GSM) technology and zigbee technology. It assists the drivers to overcome parking problems that usually occur in the urban areas, like time being wasted in looking for an available parking lot and keep on circling until they find a vacant parking spot. This system includes three modules: First, monitoring module; the drivers check on their mobile phones for an available parking spot in real time before arriving using short message service (SMS) without having to go online. Second, guidance module; an approach was suggested to determine the nearest vacant parking spots within the parking lot. This approach depends on the location of the vacant parking spot to the parking lot entrance, exite and pedestrian exit location. Third, safety module; the aim of designing this module is to provide a real time system capable of monitoring sudden events in the parking lot. In case of any emergency, the drivers will be alerted automatically through SMS.


Admission control is a fundamental mechanism for the provisioning of quality of services in multiservice networks. The control of multi-scaling traffic demands specially designed mechanism given its highly bursty nature, especially at small time scales. In this paper, a greedy policy for the admission control of multi-scaling traffic is introduced. This policy accepts flows into the network according to a decreasing order of revenue. It is shown that results produced by this new policy are close to the one produced by an optimum policy.


We demonstrate that the changes in the elastic properties of the FeAs systems, as seen in our resonant ultrasound spectroscopy data, can be naturally understood in terms of fluctuations of emerging nematic degrees of freedom. Both the softening of the lattice in the normal, tetragonal phase as well as its hardening in the superconducting phase are consistently described by our model. Our results confirm the view that structural order is induced by magnetic fluctuations.


This study focused on the relationship between the occurrence of specific Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) basic scale profile patterns and the frequency of endorsement of three items related, in varying degrees, to suicide ideation (MMPI-A Items 177, 283, and 399). The research sample consisted of adolescents (n = 348) with diagnoses of depression, conduct disorder, and other psychiatric disorders. Significant relationships were found for the overall MMPI-A basic scale profile, several MMPI-A single scale high points, and specific two-point codetype groupings. Findings revealed higher basic clinical scale profiles for those adolescents endorsing suicidal ideation. Further results revealed lower frequencies of item endorsement for spike 4 and spike 9 profiles, and higher item endorsement frequencies for Scale 2, Scale 8, and for the two-point codetypes of 4-8/8-4, 8-919-8 and 6-8/8-6. Issues are discussed related to the clinical usefulness and limitations of the MMPI-A in the assessment and prediction of suicidal ideation and behavior in adolescents.


For the establishment of reference doses in mammography it is important to apply a dosimetric model relevant for risk assessment. Differences in dosimetric methods applied in mammography are related to the dosemeters used, e.g. thermoluminescent detectors and ionisation chambers, and the dosimetric quantities determined, i.e. entrance surface air kerma, entrance surface dose or average glandular dose. The exposure parameters influencing absorbed dose due to mammography include the X ray tube assembly, i.e. anode material, filtration and tube voltage; the exposure conditions, e.g. antiscatter grid, automatic exposure control and magnification; and characteristics of the film-screen combination including film processing and film density. The female breasts examined can be represented, on average, by a phantom or by a representative sample of patients. Reference values established in various protocols for entrance surface air kerma, entrance surface dose and average glandular dose are presented and discussed.


We study combinatorial optimization problems in which a set of distributed agents must achieve a global objective using only local information. Papadimitriou and Yannakakis [Proceedings of the 25th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 1993, pp. 121--129] initiated the study of such problems in a framework where distributed decision-makers must generate feasible solutions to positive linear programs with information only about local constraints. We extend their model by allowing these distributed decision-makers to perform local communication to acquire information over time and then explore the tradeoff between the amount of communication and the quality of the solution to the linear program that the decision-makers can obtain.
Our main result is a distributed algorithm that obtains a $(1 + \epsilon)$ approximation to the optimal linear programming solution while using only a polylogarithmic number of rounds of local communication. This algorithm offers a significant improvement over the logarithmic approximation ratio previously obtained by Awerbuch and Azar [Proceedings of the 35th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1994, pp. 240--249] for this problem while providing a comparable running time. Our results apply directly to the application of network flow control, an application in which distributed routers must quickly choose how to allocate bandwidth to connections using only local information to achieve global objectives. The sequential version of our algorithm is faster and considerably simpler than the best known approximation algorithms capable of achieving a $(1 + \epsilon)$ approximation ratio for positive linear programming.


Various valved conduits and stent-mounted valves are used for right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) valve replacement in patients with congenital heart disease. When using prosthetic materials however, these grafts are susceptible to bacterial infections and various host responses. Identification of bacterial and host factors that play a vital role in endovascular adherence of microorganisms is of importance to better understand the pathophysiology of the onset of infections such as infective endocarditis (IE) and to develop preventive strategies. Therefore, the development of competent models to investigate bacterial adhesion under physiological shear conditions is necessary. Here, we describe the use of a newly designed in vitro perfusion chamber based on parallel plates that allows the study of bacterial adherence to different components of graft tissues such as exposed extracellular matrix, endothelial cells and inert areas. This method combined with colony-forming unit (CFU) counting is adequate to evaluate the propensity of graft materials towards bacterial adhesion under flow. Further on, the flow chamber system might be used to investigate the role of blood components in bacterial adhesion under shear conditions. We demonstrated that the source of tissue, their surface morphology and bacterial species specificity are not the major determining factors in bacterial adherence to graft tissues by using our in-house designed in vitro perfusion model.


This work focuses on the downlink of a single-cell multi-user (MU) system in which a base station (BS) equipped with M antennas communicates with K single-antenna users through a large intelligent surface (LIS) installed in the line-of-sight (LoS) of the BS. LIS is envisioned to offer unprecedented massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) like gains by utilizing N passive reflecting elements that induce phase shifts on the impinging electromagnetic waves to smartly reconfigure the signal propagation. We study the minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) achieved by the optimal linear precoder (OLP), that maximizes the minimum SINR subject to a given power constraint for any given LIS phase matrix, for the cases where the LoS channel matrix between the BS and the LIS is of rank-one and of full-rank. In the former scenario, the minimum SINR is bounded by a quantity that goes to zero with K > 1. For the high-rank scenario, we develop accurate deterministic approximations for the parameters of the asymptotically OLP, which are then utilized to optimize the LIS phase matrix. Simulation results show that the LIS-assisted system can offer Massive MIMO like gains with a much fewer number of active antennas, thereby significantly reducing the energy consumption at the BS.


Purpose of review To characterize patterns of disease progression in the designation of progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF), including their relative prevalence and subsequent prognostic significance, in patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD), including key patient sub-groups. Recent findings In recent large clinical cohorts, PPF criteria suited to early PPF identification, based on their prevalence and short time to progression, include a relative forced vital capacity (FVC) decline exceeding 10% and various combinations of lower thresholds for FVC decline, symptomatic worsening and serial progression of fibrosis on imaging. Amongst numerous candidate PPF criteria, these progression patterns may have the greatest prognostic significance based on subsequent mortality, although there are conflicting data based on subsequent FVC progression. The prevalence of patterns of progression is similar across major diagnostic sub-groups with the striking exception of patients with underlying inflammatory myopathy. Summary Based on prevalence and the prognostic significance of PPF criteria, and the need for early identification of disease progression, recent published data in large clinical cohorts provide support for the use of the INBUILD PPF criteria. The patterns of disease progression used to designate PPF in a recent multinational guideline are mostly not based on data in previous and subsequent real-world cohorts.


Aims: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine disorder affecting 5 -10% of women and is a major cause of anovulatory infertility. Prevalence varies among population based on genetic and environmental factors. Etiology of PCOS remains unknown but hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance have both been associated with PCOS. The aim of this study was to measure levels of Homocysteine and other biochemical parameters in women diagnosed with PCOS attending Gulf Medical College Hospital & Research Centre (GMCHRC), Ajman, UAE. Methods: Young women, aged between 18 and 35 years of age, diagnosed with PCOS (N =37), not on any treatment, attending GMCHRC were included in the study. Biochemical parameters were measured using standard procedures. Laboratory normal reference ranges were used for comparison. Results: 54 % of the women with PCOS were overweight or obese according to the Body mass index (BMI) and 51% had a waist circumference >88cm. Fasting and postprandial Glucose and Insulin levels and HOMA-IR were within the normal reference range indicating that no Insulin resistance was seen in these women. 40% of the women had a serum total Cholesterol level above 200 mg/dL, while Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol was above and High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was lower than the desirable value. Serum Triacylglycerol was within the normal reference range. Serum Testosterone, Estradiol, Prolactin Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) and Plasma Homocysteine level were found to be within the normal reference ranges. Homocysteine levels correlated with Testosterone, total Cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels. Conclusions: BMI was high in 54% of the women. No Insulin resistance was seen in these patients. Hormone levels and Homocysteine were within normal reference ranges. Dyslipidermia was observed. These findings differ from reports in literature where Insulin resistance, Hyperandrogenism and high Homocysteine levels have been associated with PCOS. NJOG 2011 Nov-Dec; 6 (2): 7-10 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njog.v6i2.6748


ABSTRACT In order to radiocarbon (14C) date a building, several components of the mortar could be used, such as the mortar binder, the lime lumps, the charcoal particles and shell fragments eventually present among the aggregates. In particular, the mortar binder requires a purification treatment in order to separate it from other sources of carbon, which could change the 14C signature of the binder invalidating the dating process. Here, we present the application of the Cryo2Sonic method to 14C dating of the ancient building structures unearthed during excavation at the Padua Cathedral complex. The dated samples were pretreated by using Cryo2Sonic method and the improved Cryo2Sonic version 2.0, recently developed by introducing additional steps such as centrifugation of the mortar suspension and gravimetric sedimentation of the binder fractions. The Cryo2Sonic version 2.0 relies heavily on the characterization of the mortar and of the purified binder fractions, allowing the isolation of a reliable 14C datable mortar fraction. Through this new method, the 14C dating of different ancient structures excavated next to the Padua Cathedral allow to identify the first religious complex of the city of Padua (3rd–4th centuries AD).


In this study, we examine the impacts of retail promotions and flu/cold incidences on the demand for orange juice using weekly Nielsen grocery orange juice sales statistics and the flu/cold incidences reported by Surveillance Data Inc. The cross-section time-series pooling technique proposed by Parks was used to estimate the demand parameters. Results show that flu/cold incidences increased the effectiveness of retail promotions on the demand for orange juice.


Aims/Objectives/Background This study aims to understand how emergency physicians work sustainably in an increasingly challenging environment in the context of a retention crisis across all grades of emergency physician. Senior clinicians provide better care in the emergency department; performing fewer unnecessary investigations, receiving fewer complaints and making fewer errors. Seniority is dependent on retention. Exodus from training and consultant grades is expensive. The problems of staffing an emergency department has not been previously addressed by focusing on how those who work in them manage to do so. Methods/Design Ethnography conducted at a UK emergency department for 12-weeks, totalling nearly 200-hours of observation. A second site was planned but not possible due to COVID-19. Interviews with emergency physicians of all grades from the two initially planned sites, with doctors who have left emergency medicine, and with individuals working for stakeholder organisations. 40 interviews in total, averaging 45 minutes. Systematic scoping review of the relevant academic and policy literature. Reflexive thematic analysis of the ethnographic field notes, interview transcripts and literature. Results/Conclusions Emergency physicians are active in managing their working day to mitigate the labour and environment. These actions have multiple overlapping motives but are demonstrably forms of retention work. They utilise objects and the environment in creative ways (materialities), for example completing paperwork in the resuscitation room because it is calm and air-conditioned. They utilise humour in a primarily self-deprecating manner and prioritise education as a means of valuing other staff and creating variety in their workday. Emergency physicians describe teamwork as vital to retention, but this is disparate and developed over long periods of time and therefore better described as community. The principle sustainability strategies employed limit exposure to shop floor working. This is achieved through less-than-full-time working and portfolio careers. These strategies predate policy which describes them in terms of flexible working.


We demonstrate a high-performance selection device by utilizing the concept of crested oxide barrier to suppress the sneak current in bipolar resistive memory arrays. Using a TaO(x)/TiO(2)/TaO(x) structure, high current density over 10(7) A cm(-2) and excellent nonlinear characteristics up to 10(4) were successfully demonstrated. On the basis of the defect chemistry and SIMS depth profile result, we found that some Ta atoms gradually diffused into TiO(2) film, and consequently, the energy band of the TiO(2) film was symmetrically bent at the top and bottom TaO(x)/TiO(2) interfaces and modified as a crested oxide barrier. Furthermore, the one selector-one resistor device exhibited significant suppression of the leakage current, indicating excellent selector characteristics.


Detection of mumps virus in the milk of a mother with epidemic parotitis at the time of delivery is of clinical interest, as this virus, to my knowledge, has not been hitherto isolated from this source. Mastitis is rarely listed among the manifestations of mumps. As described below, mumps virus was also detected in the milk of a lactating monkey in whom infection had been artificially induced. REPORT OF A CASE E. M., a 23 year old Negro woman, was admitted to the hospital 1 on May 2, 1950, for parotitis of two days' duration. She had bilateral swelling and edema in the parotid areas. Mumps had developed in two of her children in the preceding three weeks. Shortly after arrival, the patient was delivered of a full term, normal infant. A sample of milk was obtained three days later at the onset of lactation, when the mother's breasts were


The "strange attractor like" precursor, calculated from the Earth's oscillating electric field registered at PYR and HIO monitoring sites located in Greece, is studied in the domain of T = 14 days. It is assumed that the generating precursory signals focal mechanism is triggered by the corresponding M1 (moon declination) tidal wave. The obtained results from the analysis of eight (8) cases of large (Ms>6.0R) EQs that occurred from March 18th, 2006 to November 17th, 2008 suggest the validity of the method. Moreover, it is found that the specific methodology applied for T = 14 days behaves very closely to the same one when applied for T = 1 day even though there is a resolution decrease in the calculated predictive time window for the occurrence of the oncoming large EQ. It is speculated that this type of precursor, once it is present in one distinct oscillating component of the seismic precursory generated electric field, then, most probably, it is present in most of its other oscillating components. The latter suggests the investigation of the preseismic precursory electric field at its longer wavelengths i.e. components triggered by the Ssa (6 months, moon declination) oscillating components. The large value of the obtained success rate (predicted EQs / total no. of large EQs) suggests its use as a time prediction tool in the domain of the "short-term prediction".


Martin Wiedmann PhD in food science, presents in his lecture on the transformation of pathogens present in food and the behavior of the diseases they produce.


Mollusks are intermediate hosts of Angiostrongylus vasorum, which is a parasite with zoonotic potential for which canids are the definitive host. In this study, 180 specimens of Achatina fulica that had been experimentally infected with 1,000 L1 of A. vasorum were finely chopped to evaluate four tissue digestion techniques: 1% potassium hydroxide (group I); 3% hydrochloric acid (group II); 1% hydrochloric acid and pepsin (group III) with procedures at 37 oC in a double boiler; and Baermann at 42 °C (group IV). On the first, eighth and thirtieth days after infection, L1, L2 and L3 were obtained, and 240 L3 recovered from group III were offered to a dog. The results were the following: group I: 59% L1, 7% L2, 13% L3; group II: 31% L1, 13% L2, 27% L3; group III: 23% L1, 22% L2, 30% L3; and group IV: 0.3% L1, 0.02% L2, 5% L3. Live larvae were observed in group III: 15.5% L1, 8.22% L3; group II: 9.8% L3; and group IV: 100% L1, L2 and L3. Larvae were detected 56 days after the dog became infected. All larvae stages of A. vasorum were recovered and identified through the techniques evaluated, thus confirming the potential of A. fulica as an intermediate host of the nematode.


A movement towards integrated behavioral health (IBH) in primary care continues to grow, among an accumulating evidence base for its effectiveness for improving care. However, healthcare organizations struggle to navigate where to target their limited resources for improving integration. We evaluated a cross-model framework of IBH core processes and structures. We used a mixed-methods approach for evaluation of the framework, which included (a) an evaluation survey of national experts and stakeholders, (b) crosswalks with common IBH measures, and (c) a real-world usability test. Five core IBH principles, mapping to 25 processes, and nine clinic structures were defined. Survey responses from 29 IBH domain and policy experts and stakeholders resulted in uniformly high ratings of importance and variable levels of feasibility for measurement, particularly with respect to electronic health record (EHR) systems. A real-world usability test resulted in good uptake and use of the framework across a state-wide effort. An IBH Cross-Model Framework of core principles, processes, and structures generated good acceptability and showed good real-world utility in a state-wide effort to improve IBH across disparate levels of integration in diverse primary care settings. Findings identify feasible areas of measurement, particularly with EHR systems. Next steps include testing the relationship between the individual framework components and patient outcomes to help guide clinics towards prioritizing efforts focused on improving integration.


INTRODUCTION: The impact of fecal immunochemical test (FIT)-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening on disease incidence and mortality is affected by participation, which might be influenced by ease of use of the FIT. We compared the participation rates and ease of use of 2 different FITs in a CRC screening program. METHODS: There were two study designs within the Dutch CRC screening program. In a paired cohort study, all invitees received 2 FITs (OC-Sensor, Eiken, Japan, and FOB-Gold, Sentinel, Italy) and were asked to sample both from the same stool. Ease of use of both FITs was evaluated by a questionnaire. In a randomized controlled trial, invitees were randomly allocated to receive one of the 2 FITs to compare participation and analyzability. RESULTS: Of 42,179 invitees in the paired cohort study, 21,078 (50%) completed 2 tests and 20,727 (98%) returned the questionnaire. FOB-Gold was reported significantly easier to use. More participants preferred FOB-Gold (36%) than OC-Sensor (5%), yet most had no preference (59%; P < 0.001). In the randomized trial, 936 of 1,923 invitees (48.7%) returned the FOB-Gold and 940 of 1,923 invitees (48.9%) returned the OC-Sensor, a difference of −0.2% (confidence interval, −3.4% to 3.0%), well within the pre-specified 5% noninferiority margin (P = 0.001). Only one FOB-Gold (0.1%) and 4 OC-Sensors (0.4%) were not analyzable (P = 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: Although FOB-Gold was significantly but marginally considered easier to use than OC-Sensor, the number of analyzable tests and the participation rates in organized CRC screening are not affected when either of the FITs is implemented as a primary screening test.


Besides its role in blood clotting, fibrinogen exerts a poorly understood anticoagulant function by binding thrombin and modulating its activity. In particular, the γA/γ′ fibrinogen isoform binds with high affinity to thrombin exosite II through the anionic carboxyl‐terminal end of the γ′ chain. This interaction down‐regulates thrombin‐mediated factor VIII (FVIII) activation, but its effect on FV activation is unknown.


This book is about methods — methods used in understanding the message of the New Testament. But contrary to what one would expect of a textbook on methodology, this book pays scant attention to the historical critical paradigm. It rather focuses on the so-called synchronic methods which deal with the final text of the New Testament. There is one exception though, namely redaction criticism, seemingly because the latter represents a "hybrid" approach consisting of diachronic and synchronic moments; it starts out studying the sources or prehistory of the text, but in doing so it also exposes its final features.


This document summarizes research studies on Automated Highway System (AHS) benefits and impacts. These summaries will be used as background for assessing the benefits and impacts of AHS system configurations, as part of the FHWA Precursor Systems Analysis program. The document is divided into two chapters, first covering completed reports, and second covering interim findings presented at the PSA workshop held in Washington, D.C. in April 1994.


The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has renewed attention to aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs). Dental-care workers are at high risk of contamination by SARS-CoV-2. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of standard saliva ejectors and natural ventilation in reducing particulate matter (PM) concentration during different routine dental procedures in the pandemic period. The DustTrak monitor was used to measure PM1, PM2.5, PM10, and breathable (<4 microns) total dust during 14 procedures performed with and without the presence of natural ventilation in a dental unit. Moreover, measurements were performed near the practitioners or near the standard saliva ejectors during the different procedures. In the latter condition, reduced levels of PM10 were recorded (82.40 ± 9.65 μg/m3 vs. 50.52 ± 0.23 μg/m3). Moreover, higher levels of PM (53.95 ± 2.29 μg/m3 vs. 27.85 ± 0.14 μg/m3) were produced when the dental unit's windows were open. At the same time, the total level of PM were higher during scaling than during other procedures (data suggest not to adopt natural ventilation—both window and door opened—during dental procedures). It was also demonstrated that the use of standard saliva ejectors can considerably reduce the total released amount of PM10.


We have studied the effects of prostacyclin (PGI2) infusions in two different types of angina pectoris, i.e. effort and spontaneous angina. Contrary to sublingual nitroglycerin, intravenous infusions of PGI2 at a dose of 5 or 10 ng/kg/min offered no protection against effort anginal attacks precipitated by atrial pacing. On the other hand, in recurrent attacks of spontaneous angina at rest, infusion of PGI2 at a dose of 5 ng/kg/min led to sustained and long-lasting improvement as manifested by reduction of both anginal attacks and nitroglycerin intake. Different pathogenic mechanisms underlying the two types of angina studied could explain the results obtained. Prostacyclin might be of threapeutic interest in attacks of angina pectoris precipitated by redution of oxygen delivery to the myocardium rather than increased oxygen demand.


The real interest rate at which US firms borrow funds to finance their investment and other expenses has two striking features. It is low when GDP is high (and vice versa) and it is an inverted leading indicator of real economic activity. Low interest rates today forecast future booms in GDP, consumption, investment, and employment. This Rue de la Banque shows that inherent to such correlations is a redistribution channel through which resources typically flow from lending entities to borrowing firms during expansions. Such a redistribution channel is driven by expectations about future levels of the borrowing cost, which accounts for a large share of the volatility of output, investment and other macroeconomic variables during business cycles.


Hearing in elderly people was investigated in an epidemiological longitudinal study (H70) encompassing a cohort representative of an urban Swedish population born in 1901-02. The participants in the study were followed audiometrically over a 20-year period from 70 to 90 years of age. This study focused on hearing and its decline during the later time span in which the participants were tested at the age of 85, 88 and 90 years. The results revealed that hearing loss in advanced age progressed only slightly in both men and women. The annual hearing threshold decline was about twice as large in the eighth decade of life as compared with the ninth. Hearing function was similar in the respondents tested at the out-patient clinic and in those tested at home. There were no consistent indications that survivors to a great age showed better hearing at entry to the study at 70 years of age. Some gender differences were found and are discussed.


Does interacting with others contribute to human capital accumulation? We try to answer this question by using a novel panel dataset on European inventors matched to their employers. Our panel data comes from the European Patent Offices since the 1980s and contains information on inventors, their employers, and their patents. More interactions are very strongly correlated with higher subsequent productivities of inventors, as measured by their number and quality of patents. Using variation in labor market regulations and flexibility across sectors, countries and time as instruments, we document a causal link between interactions and productivity or human capital accumulation of inventors.


STUDY DESIGN
To test for rare genetic mutations, a cohort of patients with unexplained early onset scoliosis (EOS) was screened using high-density microarray genotyping. A cohort of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) was similarly screened, and the results were compared.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
Patients with scoliosis in infancy or early childhood (EOS) are at high risk for progressive deformity and associated problems including respiratory compromise. EOS is frequently associated with genetic disorders, but many patients present with non-specific clinical features and without an associated diagnosis. We hypothesized that EOS in these patients may be caused by rare genetic mutations detectable by next-generation genomic methods.

METHODS
We ascertained 24 patients with unexplained EOS from pediatric orthopedic clinics. We genotyped them, along with 39 connecting family members, using the Illumina OmniExpress-12 v1.0 beadchip. Resulting genotypes were analyzed for chromosomal changes, specifically copy number variation (CNV) and absence of heterozygosity (AOH). We screened 482 AIS patients and 744 healthy controls, which were similarly genotyped with the same beadchip, for chromosomal changes identified in the EOS cohort.

RESULTS
Copy number variation (CNV) and absence of heterozygosity (AOH) analyses revealed a genetic diagnosis of chromosome 15q24 microdeletion syndrome in one patient, and maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 14 in a second patient. Prior genetic testing and clinical evaluations had been negative in both cases. A large novel chromosome 10 deletion was likely causal in a third EOS patient. These mutations identified in the EOS patients were absent in AIS patients and controls, and thus not associated with AIS or found in asymptomatic individuals.

CONCLUSIONS
Our data underscore the utility of updated genetic evaluations including high-density microarray-based genotyping and other "next-generation" methods in patients with unexplained EOS, even where prior genetic studies were negative. These data also suggest the intriguing possibility that other mutations detectable by whole genome sequencing, as well as epigenetic effects, await discovery in the EOS population.


While the relationship between canopy temperature and plant water status is well established, canopy temperature as a means of controlling crop irrigation has been limited in production applications due to the cost and complexity of temperature monitoring. A new low-cost infrared thermometry system, coupled with the BIOTIC irrigation protocol of the USDA/ARS allows for a biologically-based, simple, reliable and affordable approach to crop irrigation that is well suited to production agriculture. Beyond meeting the crop's water "needs", this system has shown promise for an ability to actively manipulate the water status of the crop to achieve desirable outcomes (e.g. product quality and water savings) that results in water-management derived improvements in the profitability of agricultural systems. Results from field level studies of full irrigation and managed deficits will be presented.


Two kinds of ABC-type miktoarm star copolymers, poly(α-methylstyrene)-poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(ethoxyethyl glycidylether) (PMS-PEO-PEEGE) and poly(α-methylstyrene)-poly(ethylene oxide)-polyglycidol (PMS-PEO-PG), were synthesized via a combination of anionic polymerization with ring-opening polymerization. Firstly, The poly(α-methyl styryl lithium) (PMS-Li+) was capped by EEGE to form the functionalized poly(α-methylstyrene) with both an active ω-hydroxyl group and an ω'-ethoxyethyl-protected hydroxyl group. Secondly, the PMS-b-PEO block copolymers, star(PMS-PEO-PEEGE) and star(PMS-PEO-PG) copolymers were obtained by the ring-opening polymerization of EO and EEGE via the variation of the functional end group, respectively. Finally, the ethoxyethyl group on the PEEGE arm was hydrolyzed. The obtained miktoarm star copolymers and intermediates were characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC).


Reduction in the effective volume of circulating blood in traumatic shock results in varying degrees of anoxia of the different structures of the body. The nervous system is probably more sensitive than other tissues to a deficit of oxygen and it is likely that irreversible changes take place there first. Many studies have been performed in recent years on metabolism and blood flow in the kidneys, the liver and other organs in shock. The brain has not received sufficient attention in this regard because of difficulties connected with methods for determining the cerebral blood flow and for collecting cerebral venous blood. These difficulties are to a considerable extent anatomic, in that the arterial blood is supplied to the brain through a number of different vessels. In the dog and the cat the external carotid arteries supply a considerable part of the total. As emphasized by Dumke and Schmidt, 1 the


ABSTRACT Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease which, in addition to affecting motor and cognitive functions, may involve language disorders. Despite the importance of speech and language disorders in the quality of life of patients, there are only a few studies about language and speech production difficulties in MS. The aim of this research is to describe the limitation patterns of speech and temporal characteristics of the suprasegmental level in two SPMS cases related to various types of spontaneous speech tasks. We assumed the change of the cognitive load has a greater effect on spontaneous speech in MS patients than in controls. Two SPMS patients, and two sex-, age- and education matched healthy controls were studied. We applied verbal fluency tests (phonemic, episodic, semantic, verb), digit span test, non-word repetition test, Corsi Block Tapping Test, Stroop Colour and Word Test, and Trail Making Test. Token Test was used to measure speech comprehension. The four speech tasks required relatively different degrees of cognitive effort: (a) spontaneous narrative about own life; (b) event description; (c) picture description; (d) narrative recall. Our results show that there are differences between MS patients and controls: MS patients produced slower speech and articulation rate, and they had more and longer pauses in every speech task. Speech tasks and the degree of the cognitive load had a greater effect on MS patients than on control speakers.


The 2015 Israeli general elections provide rare intellectual stimuli to trace and characterize some of the larger sociopolitical stances in Israeli society. Since Israeli politics has undergone many changes over the last decades, a focus on electoral moment unpacks the issues and general perception regarding geopolitics (i.e. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and the domestic health of the country (i.e. sociopolitical reforms and policy-developments). This paper aims at analyzing the three main dimensions, which were emphasized during the electoral campaign and the turnout, while it connects them with what we may refer to as the Israeli political "state of mind".


Research conducted into the refugee experience appears largely focused on women and child
populations (Mutesi, 2009; Jaji, 2009; Judge, 2010) and clinical samples. There is limited
research exploring the experiences of non-clinical populations of young adult Kosovar-
Albanian1 men in the UK. The aim of this paper has been therefore, to examine how this group
of men have made the transition from adolescence into manhood, the discourses they draw
upon regarding adaptation, its impact on their identity construction, and implications of these
discursive resources in terms of opportunities for action. Data was analysed from a social
constructionist perspective using Focauldian Discourse Analysis. Semi-structured interviews
were conducted with 10 young adult Kosovar-Albanian men aged between 18-25 years old.
Analysis indicated that participants displayed a strong sense of self-determination as they
integrated into the UK's multi-cultural society, whilst simultaneously resisting negative
dominant discourses. As a result, alternative discourses emerged which positioned them as
'achievers' who worked hard to 'fit in', by being 'good citizens'. The importance of alternative
models of support, such as community-based interventions was raised. Furthermore, this paper
has emphasised the negative effects of labelling and is calling for a shift in these social
perceptions which are directed towards young refugee men, who are in danger of being
marginalised. The implications for clinical practice are also presented.
1 Kosovo is the most common spelling (official version) for this region. Kosovo is the Serb version of the name and
the culturally correct version is Kosova. Kosovar-Albanian is the term that I have used throughout this study to
distinguish the Albanians who originate from Kosova. Until now the term 'Kosovan' has been used to describe
people from Kosova.


Ab initio density functional theory (DFT) has been used to investigate the thermal properties of the CuBr0.5Cl0.5 alloys over a wide range of temperature. Using the quasiharmonic approximation (QHA) for the some physical quantities of interest such as heat capacity at constant volume and entropy are calculated and discussed. The theoretical results show good agreement with the available experimental data for CuBr and CuCl. The present results show that symmetric and asymmetric structure of CuBr0.5Cl0.5 have a good agreement with the calculatingly value for heat capacity.


In order to investigate the presence of Carnation etched ring virus (CERV), samples of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus), Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) and weed plants showing symptoms from greenhouses of Khorasan Razavi and Northern Khorasan provinces were collected in autumn 2009. Polyclonal antiserum was used in order to detection of CERV by Double- antibody sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Results showed that 54 samples (including carnation and Sweet william) out of 250 infected by this virus. In order to propagate the virus, we inoculated it on the indicator plants Saponaria vaccaria cv. Pink beauty, Silen armeria and Dianthus caryophyllus cv.Joker. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was carried out using specific primers for coat protein and movement protein genes of CERV. Two fragments of ~1500 bp and ~1000 bp for coat protein and movement protein were amplified by PCR, respectively.This is the first report of occurrence of CERV in greenhouses of Khorasan Razavi and Northern Khorasan provinces


Objective: To investigate effect of Bimatoprost (BimP) on growth of reconstructed hair follicles in recipient nude mice. Methods: Primary epidermal and dermal cells were isolated from newborn C57BL/6J mice (1-day-old) skins, and the reconstructed hair follicles was implanted in the dorsal skin of Balb/c-nu nude mice using a silicon chamber protocol, then, the 18 nude mice were randomly divided into control group, BimP group and minoxidil group, with 6 mice in each group. After 2 weeks, topical treatment was applied to the grafted area of the nude mice by 2% minoxidil 100 μl, 0.03% BimP 100 μl and saline 100 μl, respectively, once daily for 2 weeks. At day 14 after treatment, the mice were euthanized to measure the length of dorsal hair, and the number and hair cycle of the reconstructed follicles was observed histologically. The total mRNA and proteins expression of Wnt3a, LEF1, β-catenin and Frizzled7 were determined by qPCR and Western Blotting. The distribution and expression of β-catenin in the reconstructed follicles was detected by immunofluorescence staining. Results: As compared to the control group, the BimP group had thicker and longer hair [(0.57±0.07) vs (0.36±0.05) cm, P<0.01], no significant difference was seen between the BimP and minoxidil group. The mRNA expression levels of Wnt3a (2.73±0.17 vs 1.00±0.14, P<0.01)、LEF1(1.71±0.12 vs 1.00±0.19, P<0.01)、β-catenin (2.37±0.21vs 1.00±0.11, P<0.01) and Frizzled7 (2.62±0.15vs 1.00±0.18, P<0.01) were significantly increased in BimP group compared with the control group. Western Blotting showed the same results, the protein expression levels of Wnt3a (1.44±0.21vs 1.00±0.13, P<0.05)、LEF1 (1.36±0.15 vs 1.00±0.09, P<0.05)、β-catenin (1.60±0.13 vs 1.00±0.16, P<0.01) and Frizzled7 (1.52±0.15 vs 1.00±0.21, P<0.05) in BimP group were higher than those in control group, and the difference was statistically significant. Immunofluorescence staining showed that β-catenin was strongly expressed in hair bulb cells and sebaceous gland cells of reconstructed hair follicles in BimP group and minoxidil group, whereas barely seen in the control group. Conclusion: BimP directly promotes growth of reconstructed hair follicles in mice by activating canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.


Increased inflammatory activity is known to accompany aging. Single nucleotide polymorphisms of inflammatory mediator genes might therefore affect the aging process. Relation of eight SNPs (tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-alpha] -1031 T/C, interleukin-10 [IL-10] -819 T/C, IL-1beta -511 C/T, IL-6 -634 C/G, IL-18 -607 A/C, transforming growth factor-beta [TGF-beta] +869 C/T, matrix metalloproteinase-1 [MMP-1] -1607 1G/2G, and MMP-3 -1171 5A/6A) with age or gender was evaluated in 500 Japanese persons (mean age: 56.7 years old, range: 19-100) by the chi-square test. There was a significant association of IL-10 -819 T/C with age (p =.0026). The association remained significant after multivariate logistic regression analysis (odds ratio for an age interval for 1 year, 1.009; 95% CI, 1.002-1.016). Furthermore, the genotype distribution of IL-10 -819 T/C was completely consistent with that of -592 A/C. These data suggest that IL-10 -819 T/C and -592 A/C may be a promising candidate for an aging-related gene in a Japanese population.


Stylosanthes (Leguminosae) comprises about 50 species being some of them with great economic importance. Some species are widely used as forages, to recover degraded areas due to its adaptability to low fertility soils and nitrogen fixing capacity as well as a green fertilizer. The genus is distributed in tropical and subtropicals areas. Brazil is considered the larger diversity center, with great inter and intraspecific variation. Breeding studies have increased, however, the taxonomic situation of the group remains unsettled and controversial. The occurrence of polyploidy, hybrids and many additional synonyms reinforce the importance to add new information about the genus. Cytogenetic data are scarce, even considering as an important tool to give relevant information about the genome. Here we describe, for the first time, karyotypic aspects and the DNA content of diploid species (S. grandifolia, S. gracilis, S. hipocampoides, S. acuminata and four varieties of S. guianensis) by using molecular cytogenetic techniques (CMA/DAPI banding and in situ hybridization) and flow cytometry. Seeds germination was induced by temperature variation (18° to 40°C) and growth hormones (CEPA 0.1mM) in a germination chamber. Meristematic roots were used to slides preparation. Chromosomes were stained with CMA/DAPI for banding patterns analysis and ribosomal 5S, 45S rDNA sites were mapped by in situ hybridization technique. To estimate the DNA content, Pisum sativum were used as a reference standard. The chromosomal morphometry showed a symmetrical karyotype with few variations among the species. The number of CG rich regions ranged from 2 to 4. Regarding 5S and 45S rDNA, two sites were observed in most species, excepting in S. acuminata, in which four 45S markers were identified. DNA content estimation was about 2.50pg in all species. These new data constitutes an important contribution in the study of evolutionary history of the group, opening new possibilities for future comparisons among genomes of different Stylosanthes species and also being of great value for breeding programs of species with economic importance.


One of the factors that generate lack of students' writing competence is the teaching methods used by the lecturer which is less desirable by the students. Micro learning comes as one of the alternatives to deliver the knowledge to the students which became the focus of this study on seeing the significance of the strategy in improving students' ability to write English text. This is an experimental research involving 64 participants which was done in Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Barat (UM Sumbar). The population of this study consisted of 124 students distributed across 4 classes. The sample selection was done using cluster random sampling, which resulted in one class being assigned as the experimental group and another class as the control group The data was gained by determining whether students have improved their writing scores (through writing rubric) by implementing micro teaching through pre-test and post-test. The researchers look for Lectura: Jurnal Pendidikan, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2023 237 the statistical t-value with a significance level of <0.05. Furthermore, the researchers conduct further analysis through descriptive analysis using SPSS 24. The results of this research were obtained through a t-test with a significance level of 5% (0.05), yielding an observed t-value of 2.975, while the critical t-value was 2.306. These findings indicate that students' achievement in writing texts improved. Therefore, it can be concluded that micro-learning is an effective instructional method for enhancing the writing skills of English Education students at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sumatera Barat.


This paper presents an investigation into the potential and limitations of an ETV system for the determination of total mercury, present as different species, in organic solution. The thermal and chemical stability of four mercury species in an electrothermal vaporiser, ETV, coupled to an inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS) mass spectrometer was investigated when samples of hydrocarbon products were introduced. Calibration by the method of isotope dilution was tested with an isotopically enriched standard of mercury diethyldithiocarbamate, 201HgDDTC, in toluene. Sulfur-containing compounds, different palladium solutions and gold metals were investigated for use as matrix modifiers. A combination of Pd(NO3)2 in propanol with stabilising additives applied as a permanent modifier (A. Asheim, poster presentation, 3rd European Furnace Symposium, Prague, 1998) and thionyl chloride injected with each sample gave the most effective stabilisation of mercury species and reproducible signals with a relative standard deviation of 3% for 5 µg l−1 HgCl2. The recoveries, by isotope dilution, of HgCl2 and CH3HgCl in natural gas condensates ranged between 100 and 115%, while for Hg0 and (CH3)2Hg only 48–65% was recovered with optimised conditions. Losses of the latter two species occurred on drying of the sample in the furnace prior to heating to the pyrolysis temperature. Systematic errors in total mercury determination were, therefore, found to occur for samples containing Hg0 or (CH3)2Hg, even with isotope dilution calibration. The detection limit, based on 3s of 10 replicate measurements of the 202Hg+ signal for toluene spiked with 6 µg l−1 201HgDDTC, was 0.19 µg l−1.


Summary Traditional approaches to definitions of nosocomial infections and their prophylaxis focus on time cut-offs and non-antibiotic manoeuvres. In general, the time cut-off of 48 h has been applied to distinguish community and hospital infection from ICU infection, and hand washing has been the cornerstone of conventional policies for the prevention of ICU infections occurring after 48 h. In contrast, the philosophy of antibiotic prophylaxis using selective decontamination of the digestive tract is based on the criterion of the carrier state of a limited range of potential pathogens that are involved in three different types of infection: endogenous infections, both primary and secondary, and exogenous infections. Most infections are of primary endogenous development due to micro-organisms carried in the admission flora and are controlled by parenteral cefotaxime administered immediately on admission. The aim of polymyxin E/tobramycin/amphotericin B applied topically in the throat and gut is to prevent secondary endogenous infections due to micro-organisms acquired on the unit, and generally occurring after 7 days. Exogenous infections caused by micro-organisms not previously carried can occur at any time during the stay on the unit and only high standards of hygiene are able to prevent them. The most extensive meta-analysis reports data on 5727 patients enrolled in 33 randomized trials and indicates a significant reduction of both infections (OR"0.35; 95% CI"0.29}0.41) and total mortality (OR"0.80; 95% CI"0.69}0.93). There are no randomized trials available which show that rigid implementation of hand washing reduces morbidity or mortality. The aim of this review is to help readers distinguish between what is evidence-based, and what is still largely opinionbased.


Cancer is a deadly disease that has long plagued humans and has become more prevalent in recent years. The common treatment modalities for this disease have always faced many problems and complications, and this has led to the discovery of strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The use of magnetic nanoparticles in the past two decades has had a significant impact on this. One of the objectives of the present study is to introduce the special properties of these nanoparticles and how they are structured to load and transport drugs to tumors. In this study, iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles with 6 nm sizes were coated with hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) and folic acid (FA). The functionalized nanoparticles (10–20 nm) were less likely to aggregate compared to non-functionalized nanoparticles. HPG@Fe3O4 and FA@HPG@Fe3O4 nanoparticles were compared in drug loading procedures with curcumin. HPG@Fe3O4 and FA@HPG@Fe3O4 nanoparticles' maximal drug-loading capacities were determined to be 82 and 88%, respectively. HeLa cells and mouse L929 fibroblasts treated with nanoparticles took up more FA@HPG@Fe3O4 nanoparticles than HPG@Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The FA@HPG@Fe3O4 nanoparticles produced in the current investigation have potential as anticancer drug delivery systems. For the purpose of diagnosis, incubation of HeLa cells with nanoparticles decreased MRI signal enhancement's percentage and the largest alteration was observed after incubation with FA@HPG@Fe3O4 nanoparticles.


The lifetimes of 12 yrast and yrare states in the odd‐odd nucleus 72Br were measured via the recoil distance Doppler shift technique and the reactions 58Ni(16O,pn) at 53 MeV beam energy. The negative parity states are grouped into two rotational bands with in‐band E2 strengths of 50–100 Wu. Although having similar collective E2 strengths, the positive parity yrast spectrum up to spin 9+ is dominated by the πg9/2 I=9.


The larger trading nations have been the main users of the WTO Dispute Settlement system during its first four years of existence (1995-1998). This has prompted a debate about whether the DS system is biased against smaller and poorer countries, for example, because of a lack of legal capacities and retaliatory power. This paper shows that a simple model in which countries bring disputes proportionally to the diversity and value of exports explains fairly well the dispute pattern. Differences in legal capacities appear to play some role, while 'power' considerations do not seem to matter.


A warm air treatment is a non-toxic method to eradicate all stages of stored product insects or insects interfering with food hygiene and human health. The heating units reach temperatures of 50° to 60°C inside the buildings and rooms everywhere and are maintained during a sufficient period of time. This temperatures are never exceeded otherwise damage due to heat may occur to the building and the machinery. Our machines work only with warm air instead of heat, together with a constant air turnover and electronic regulation. The system was developed to be used in the flour milling industry and similar production facilities. In these environments the hazard caused by combustible dust has to be considered. The unit was constructed to satisfy the classification ex II 3 D according to the ATEX 100 which means it may be operated in the Zone 22 (areas containing conductive dusts). Treatments can be done in rooms as well as in whole buildings.


: Fault diagnosis of gearbox is very important for the security and reliability of the equipment. In actual working conditions, multiple faults usually occur in a gearbox. However, the multi-fault diagnosis in gearboxes is a challengeable problem because the signal measured from the gearbox with multiple faults is complex and non-stationary. Particularly, the weaker fault feature signal is generally submerged by the stronger one and background noise. In order to avoid missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis of multi-faults in a gearbox, a novel method called resonance-based signal sparse decomposition (RSSD) with comb filter (CF), namely the RSSD-CF method, is proposed in this paper. The RSSD-CF method is based on the RSSD method which can nonlinearly decompose the vibrational signal of the gearbox with multiple faults into the high resonance component and the low resonance component. To obtain good separation results, the stepwise optimization strategy is applied to the adaptive selection of the optimal decomposition parameters in the RSSD method. In RSSD-CF method, the collected signal is firstly separated into the high and the low resonance components through using the RSSD method with the optimal decomposition parameters. And then, both of the high and the low resonance components are demodulated with the Hilbert transform and the fault information can be found in Hilbert envelop spectra. Finally, CF is constructed to extract the weaker fault feature signal from resonance components and exclude the interference components. The effectiveness of the RSSD-CF method is evaluated by using two experimental cases in this paper. The results confirm the advantage of the proposed method over the traditional RSSD method and the wavelet decomposition for multi-fault diagnosis in gearboxes.


The learning objectives, curriculum content, and assessment standards for distributed medical education programs must be aligned across the health care systems and community contexts in which their students train. In this article, the authors describe their experiences at Monash University implementing a distributed medical education program at metropolitan, regional, and rural Australian sites and an offshore Malaysian site, using four different implementation models. Standardizing learning objectives, curriculum content, and assessment standards across all sites while allowing for site-specific implementation models created challenges for educational alignment. At the same time, this diversity created opportunities to customize the curriculum to fit a variety of settings and for innovations that have enriched the educational system as a whole. Developing these distributed medical education programs required a detailed review of Monash's learning objectives and curriculum content and their relevance to the four different sites. It also required a review of assessment methods to ensure an identical and equitable system of assessment for students at all sites. It additionally demanded changes to the systems of governance and the management of the educational program away from a centrally constructed and mandated curriculum to more collaborative approaches to curriculum design and implementation involving discipline leaders at multiple sites. Distributed medical education programs, like that at Monash, in which cohorts of students undertake the same curriculum in different contexts, provide potentially powerful research platforms to compare different pedagogical approaches to medical education and the impact of context on learning outcomes.


A survey was undertaken of the use of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) in Spain. 45.7% of emergency departments use NIV. The average time it has been in use is 4 years. Public hospitals use NIV more frequently (89.5%) as well as teaching hospitals (78.1%). Emergency physicians are the professionals who most frequently use NIV (68.8%). High flux continuous positive airway pressure (58.4%) and facial masks (63.5%) are most commonly used. Only 18.9% of hospitals have quality registration in NIV and 35.6% have protocols for using NIV. The method is underused by technicians working in hospital emergency services and there is a lack of uniform protocols with other departments involved.


We develop a Bayesian approach for monitoring and graphically exploring a process mean and informing decisions related to process adjustment. We assume a rather general model, in which the observations are represented as a process mean plus a random error term. In contrast to previous work on Bayesian methods for monitoring a mean, we allow any Markov model for the mean. This includes a mean that wanders slowly, that is constant over periods of time with occasional random jumps or combinations thereof. The approach also allows for any distribution for the random errors, although we focus on the normal error case. We use numerical integration to update relevant posterior distributions (e.g., for the current mean or for future observations), as each new observation is obtained, in a computationally inexpensive manner. Using an example from automobile body assembly, we illustrate how the approach can inform decisions regarding whether to adjust a process. Supplementary Materials for this article, including code for implementing the charts, are available online on the journal web site.


Background and Aims
An altitudinal gradient of leaf wettability is often observed between and within species. To understand its functional significance, positional variation of leaf surfaces within plants should be taken into account. In rosette-forming plants, rosette leaves are near the ground and their adaxial surfaces are exposed, whereas cauline leaves are lifted from the ground throughout the reproductive season, and their abaxial surfaces are more exposed. Here, we investigated leaf wettability of cauline and rosette leaves of Arabidopsis halleri subsp. gemmifera growing in contrasting montane habitats along an altitudinal gradient at Mt Ibuki, Japan.

Methods
We conducted field investigations and a growth chamber experiment to determine whether field-observed variation in leaf wettability was caused by genetic differentiation. We further performed gene expression analysis of a wax-related gene, i.e. AhgCER1, a homologue of A. thaliana ECERIFERUM1 (CER1) that may be involved in differentiation of leaf wettability.

Key Results
We found cauline-leaf specific genetic differentiation in leaf wettability between contrasting montane habitats. Cauline leaves of semi-alpine plants, especially on abaxial surfaces, were non-wettable. Cauline leaves of low-altitudinal understorey plants were wettable, and rosette leaves were also wettable in both habitats. AhgCER1 expression corresponded to observed leaf wettability patterns.

Conclusions
Low wettability of cauline leaves is hypothesized to keep exposed surfaces dry when they are wrapping flowering buds in early spring, and presumably protects flowering buds from frost damage. The genetic system that controls wax content, specifically for cauline leaves, should be involved in the observed genetic differentiation, and AhgCER1 control is a strong candidate for the underlying genetic mechanism.


Soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) is a widely used subspacebased
classification technique for spectral data analysis. The principal component
(PC) subspace is built for each class separately through principal components analysis
(PCA). The squared orthogonal distance (OD2) between the test sample and the
class subspace of each class, and the squared score distance (SD2) between the projection
of the test sample to the class subspace and the centre of the class subspace,
are usually used in the classification rule of SIMCA to classify the test sample.
Although it is commonly used to classify high-dimensional spectral data,
SIMCA suffers from several drawbacks and some misleading calculations in literature.
First, modelling classes separately makes the discriminative between-class
information neglected. Second, the literature of SIMCA fail to explore the potential
benefit of using geometric convex class models, whose superior classification
performance has been demonstrated in face recognition. Third, based on our experiments
on several real datasets, calculating OD2 using the formulae in a highlycited
SIMCA paper (De Maesschalck et al., 1999) results in worse classification
performance than using those in the original SIMCA paper (Wold, 1976) for some
high-dimensional data and provides misleading classification results. Fourth, the
distance metrics used in the classification rule of SIMCA are predetermined, which
are not adapted to different data.
Hence the research objectives of my PhD work are to reinforce SIMCA from
the following four perspectives: O1) to make its feature space more discriminative;
O2) to use geometric convex models as class models in SIMCA for spectral data
classification and to study the classification mechanism of classification using different class models; O3) to investigate the equality and inequality of the calculations
of OD2 in De Maesschalck et al. (1999) and Wold (1976) for low-dimensional and
high-dimensional scenarios; and O4) to make its distance metric adaptively learned
from data. In this thesis, we present four contributions to achieve the above four
objectives, respectively:
First, to achieve O1), we propose to first project the original data to a more
discriminative subspace before applying SIMCA. To build such discriminative subspace,
we propose the discriminatively ordered subspace (DOS) method, which
selects the eigenvectors of the generating matrix with high discriminative ability
between classes to span DOS. A paper of this work, "Building a discriminatively
ordered subspace on the generating matrix to classify high-dimensional spectral
data", has been recently published by the journal of "Information Sciences".
Second, to achieve O2), we use the geometric convex models, convex hull and
convex cone, as class models in SIMCA to classify spectral data. We study the dual
of classification methods using three class models: the PC subspace, convex hull
and convex cone, to investigate their classification mechanism. We provide theoretical
results of the dual analysis, establish a separating hyperplane classification
(SHC) framework and provide a new data exploration scheme to analyse the properties
of a dataset and why such properties make one or more of the methods suitable
for the data.
Third, to achieve O3), we compare the calculations of OD2 in De Maesschalck
et al. (1999) and Wold (1976). We show that the corresponding formulae in the two
papers are equivalent, only when the training data of one class have more samples
than features. When the training data of one class have more features than samples
(i.e. high-dimensional), the formulae in De Maesschalck et al. (1999) are not precise
and affect the classification results. Hence we suggest to use the formulae in Wold
(1976) to calculate OD2, to get correct classification results of SIMCA for highdimensional
data.
Fourth, to achieve O4), we learn the distance metrics in SIMCA based on the
derivation of a general formulation of the classification rules used in literature. We define the general formulation as the distance metric from a sample to a class subspace.
We propose the method of learning distance to subspace to learn this distance
metric by making the samples to be closer to their correct class subspaces while be
farther away from their wrong class subspaces.
Lastly, at the end of this thesis we append two pieces of work on hyperspectral
image analysis. First, the joint paper with Mr Mingzhi Dong and Dr Jing-Hao Xue,
"Spectral Nonlocal Restoration of Hyperspectral Images with Low-Rank Property",
has been published by the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations
and Remote Sensing. Second, the joint paper with Dr Fei Zhou and Dr
Jing-Hao Xue, "MvSSIM: A Quality Assessment Index for Hyperspectral Images",
has been in revision for Neurocomputing. As these two papers do not focus on the
research objectives of this thesis, they are appended as some additional work during
my PhD study.


We review the volume Rethinking Gramsci, insisting on its merits on the grounds of the ample range of perspectives and themes touched upon from the rich work of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. We discuss the different parts in which the book is divided, around specific topics concerning Gramsci's work. The multifaceted nature of Gramsci's work stands out through the different subjects treated in each part: among them, the relationship between politics and culture; his use of the notions of the subaltern, common sense, and hegemony; his contributions to political theory; his philosophical perspective; and the peculiar materiality of his prison writings.


How to best characterize cognitive development? The claim put forward in this article is that development is the improvement of a kind of coordination among a variety of factors. To determine the development of coordination in a cognitive task, children between 4 and 12 years of age and adults participated in a time estimation task: They had to press a button every time they thought a short time interval had passed. The resulting data series of estimated time intervals was then subjected to a set of fractal analyses to quantify coordination in terms of its degree of "rigidity" (very highly integrated) vs. "looseness" (poorly integrated). Results show a developmental trajectory toward pink-noise patterns, suggesting that cognitive development progresses from a very loose, poorly integrated coordination of factors toward a pattern that expresses more integration, perhaps due to an optimization of constraints, that allows for a more stable coordination.


This paper argues that recent proposals to sharply distinguish between language description and comparison are
 ill-conceived for two reasons. First, comparison is unavoidable and hence an integral part of description. Second, the proposals
 for a strict separation are based on an unrealistic and anachronistic conception of descriptive categories, assuming that these
 can be defined in purely distributional terms. Here it is shown that description and comparison make use of, and struggle with,
 the same kind of empirical evidence; namely, crosslinguistically identifiable properties of grammatical formatives and
 constructions. If descriptive categories and crosslinguistic comparative concepts did not share such properties, language
 comparison would be devoid of empirical content. Hence claims that they are ontologically different do not stand up to further
 scrutiny. In short, said recent proposals portray language description and comparison in too-simplistic terms. They ignore, or at
 least downplay, most of the complexities involved in both descriptive and comparative projects, many of which in fact result from
 the inseparability of description and comparison.


In testing, people normally use the "golden model" to judge the correctness of the tested unit. However, in some cases the golden model is difficult to produce, and in some cases the outputs do not need to exactly match the golden model to be considered correct. Metamorphic testing was first introduced to software testing to target such problems in software. In this paper, we will explore the idea of applying metamorphic testing to hardware fault-tolerance. We discuss implementing it using two methods: hardware redundancy and time redundancy. During our case study, we will compare those implementations with a Double Modular Redundancy (DMR) implementation due to their similar functionalities, and discuss the differences in performance, area and fault detection. In addition, we will look at the disadvantages of metamorphic testing in hardware such as single-point of failure, and its inability to give a rational judgment of the correct output if the test fails. Last, we will discuss possible solutions to overcome those disadvantages.


The objectives of this experiment were to assess effects of animal age and castration on activities of calpain I, calpain II, and calpastatin in sheep skeletal muscle. Ten newborn male lambs (2.9 kg), six weaned wethers (23.2 kg), six weaned rams (22.2 kg), six market wethers (55.4 kg), and six market rams (60.2 kg) were slaughtered and samples of biceps femoris were taken for assay of calpain I (micromolar calcium-dependent proteinase), calpain II (millimolar calcium-dependent proteinase), and calpastatin. Preweaning weight gain was similar for rams and wethers; however, postweaning ram growth exceeded (P less than .05) that of wethers. Ram biceps femoris weights at market were greater than those of wethers (P less than .05). Irrespective of age or gender, activity of calpain II was two- to threefold greater than that of calpain I. Muscle calpastatin activity was severa fold higher than calpain I and II activities. Activities of calpains and calpastatin declined (P less than .05) between birth and weaning. A portion of these losses were due to a dilution effect caused by accumulation of muscle proteins. Neonatal attenuation of calpain activities may underlie age-related attenuation of fractional rates of muscle protein degradation. Although ram muscle growth exceeded that of wethers, no differences (P greater than .05) in activities of muscle calpains or calpastatin were detected between these two groups at weaning or at market weight. Hence, castration did not influence lamb muscle growth by altering muscle calpain or calpastatin activities.