A different quantum cryptography key distribution way based on the orthogonal states is presented in the system, instead of using two sources [Phys. Rev. Lett. 75 (1995) 1239], only one source and one channel are needed to produce two orthogonal states by modulating phase. It is very easy to realize this method in practice.


Objectives: To evaluate the utility of sequential measurement of the uterine artery (UtA) resistances in both the 11–14 weeks scan (1T) and the 19–22 weeks scan (2T) for the prediction of preeclampsia (PE) in a high-risk population. Methods: Prospective observational study of 155 singleton pregnancies at high risk for PE (at least having one major risk factor: prior PE, chronic hypertension, pregestational diabetes mellitus, chronic renal disease, BMI > 30, autoimmune disorders or thrombophilia). Pregnancies with abnormal karyotype or incomplete outcome were excluded. Measurement of mean UtA pulsatility index (UtA-PI) was performed at 1T and 2T and statistical comparisons were established between unaffected gestations and those who developed either late PE (gestational age at delivery ≥ 34 weeks) or early PE (< 34 weeks). Results: Late PE developed in 21 (13.5%) pregnancies and early PE in six (3.9%). No severe complications were noticed in the late PE group, while two cases of abruption and one case of intrauterine death occurred in the early PE group. 90th centile of the mean UtA-PI in the 1T and 2T were 2.25 and 1.50, respectively. Using these cut-off values, the detection rates of late and early PE in the 1T were 14.3% and 17.0%, respectively, and in the 2T were 19.0% and 66.7%, respectively. Noteworthy, 6/9 (67%) pregnancies with mean UtA-PI > 1.8 in the 2T developed PE (2 late, 4 early) (OR 13.9; 95% CI 3.2–59.8), and 5/14 (36%) pregnancies with mean UtA-PI in the 2T > mean UtA-PI in the 1T developed PE (2 late, 3 early) (OR 8.2; 95% CI 2.1–33.0). Conclusions: When applied to high-risk women, UtA Doppler screening proved to be ineffective for the prediction of late PE and showed a modest performance for the prediction of early PE, especially in the 1T. However, very high UtA resistances in the 2T as well as the increase of the UtA resistances between 1T and 2T are associated with a highly increased risk of developing PE in high-risk women. OP09.04 Maternal ophthalmic artery Doppler: novel parameter to predict early-onset pre-eclampsia in the first trimester of pregnancy


An investigation of large tintinnids was carried out during the Arctic-Antarctic cruise aboard the S/V "Croatian Tern" in the period from 1994 to 1997. Samples were collected at 33 stations by vertical tows with a Nansen net with a 53 µm mesh size in the Mediterranean Sea, North Atlantic, Labrador Sea, Baffin Bay, the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering Seas, East North Pacific, South Pacific, South East Pacific, Scotia Sea, and South West Atlantic. A total of 47 species of tintinnids were found, with the greatest diversity in the Tropical areas of the Pacific, Arctic and Subarctic. A very high total abundance was registered in the Bering Sea of 247,393 ind.m-3 and in the South-eastern Pacific of 66,211 ind.m-3. The dominant species in the northern areas was Ptychocylis obtusa and in the southern areas Eutintinnus rugosus.


All countries, regions and institutions are ultimately built on a degree of consensus, on a collective commitment to a concept, belief or value system. This consensus is continuously rephrased and reinvented through a narrative of cohesion and challenged by expressions of discontent and discord. The history of the Low Countries is characterised by both a striving for consensus and eruptions of discord, both internally and from external challenges. This interdisciplinary volume explores consensus and discord in a Low Countries context along broad cultural, linguistic and historical lines. Disciplines represented include early-modern and contemporary history; art history; film; literature; and translation scholars from both the Low Countries and beyond.


We explore whether global observed properties, specifically half-light radii, mean surface brightness, and integrated stellar kinematics, suffice to unambiguously differentiate galaxies from star clusters, which presumably formed differently and lack dark matter halos. We find that star clusters lie on the galaxy scaling relationship referred to as the fundamental manifold (FM), on the extension of a sequence of compact galaxies, and so conclude that there is no simple way to differentiate star clusters from ultracompact galaxies. By extending the validity of the FM over a larger range of parameter space and a wider set of objects, we demonstrate that the physics that constrains the resulting baryon and dark matter distributions in stellar systems is more general than previously appreciated. The generality of the FM implies (1) that the stellar spatial distribution and kinematics of one type of stellar system do not arise solely from a process particular to that set of systems, such as violent relaxation for elliptical galaxies, but are instead the result of an interplay of all processes responsible for the generic settling of baryons in gravitational potential wells, (2) that the physics of how baryons settle is independent of whether the system is embedded within a dark matter halo, and (3) that peculiar initial conditions at formation or stochastic events during evolution do not ultimately disturb the overall regularity of baryonic settling. We also utilize the relatively simple nature of star clusters to relate deviations from the FM to the age of the stellar population and find that stellar population models systematically and significantly overpredict the mass-to-light ratios of old, metal-rich clusters. We present an empirical calibration of stellar population mass-to-light ratios with age and color. Finally, we use the FM to estimate velocity dispersions for the low surface brightness, outer halo clusters that lack such measurements.


Abstract:The resilient character of Christopher Beeston is demonstrated during the struggles to erect and consolidate his playhouse. The proofs can be glimpsed in surviving documents analysed in this article including, for example, London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) MJ/SB/R/002, p.344. This records the arrest of the bricklayer digging the playhouse's foundations. Foundations denote a new playhouse built; other documents, however, relating to the building, record a theatre connected to an arena for fighting cocks. Yet another document records a conversion. These texts will be discussed to examine a confusing progression of understanding about the playhouse, leading scholars and those interested in reconstruction along diverse ways. Throughout all these pieces of evidence the determination of Beeston in the effort to build and succeed with the erection of his indoor venue, not far from Queen Anna's new residence in the Strand, is obvious. On a day less than a year after the building of the playhouse in Drury Lane, however, interruptions of another kind struck. On Shrove Tuesday 1617, according to reports, between 3,000 and 4,000 people rioted in at least two different parts of London. These included Drury Lane and the riot affected its theatre which was nearly destroyed. According to legal documents, some of those arrested (which never went into the 1000s) were women. Despite the arrest of the builder digging the Cockpit's foundations, legal challenges to its erection, and a riot, Beeston persevered and, ultimately, triumphed. The work of those engaged in pinpointing the Cockpit-Phoenix during the twentieth to twenty-first century will also be alluded to such as that of Graham F. Barlow, tracing plots of ground in the Drury Lane area. The question of the extent of the "success" of these kinds of effort remains, however, a subject for debate.


RBF controller based on fuzzy neural network model is given in this paper, which applies field data to model the control object, and then uses the model to adjust the parameters of gauss basis function in RBF controller, such as the central value, the width, and the weights from hidden layer to output layer. In addition, the controller is applied to control the bed temperature of CFB boilers. By comparison with the traditional PID controllers, the simulation result shows that the given controller has shorter response time and better tracking performance.


Micro metal forming has an application potential in different industrial fields. Flexible tool-assisted sheet metal forming at micro scale is among the forming techniques that have increasingly attracted wide attention of researchers. This forming process is a suitable technique for producing micro components because of its inexpensive process, high quality products and relatively high production rate. This study presents a novel micro deep drawing technique through using floating ring as an assistant die with flexible pad as a main die. The floating ring designed with specified geometry is located between the process workpiece and the rubber pad. The function of the floating ring in this work is to produce SS304 micro cups with profile radius precision as required as possible. The finite element simulations are accomplished using the commercial code Abaqus/Standard. In order to verify the simulation models, micro deep drawing experiments are carried out using a special set up developed specifically to meet the requirements of the simulations. The results revealed that the proposed technique is feasible to be adopted for producing micro cups with remarkable application capability in miniaturization technology.


ABSTRACT I have published a number of books and articles, reflecting on my own personal lived experience with dementia. This article aims to encourage the church to see people with dementia like me as having a continuing sense of being an embodied self in relationship with God and with others. It is written in the form of a letter, or epistle, giving an insider's viewpoint of dementia, to which the church can respond. I am still part of God's good creation, and our common vulnerability before the divine draws us together in the church. I may not be able to take an active part in worship, but I can still receive the gifts of God's love and grace. The article suggests ways in which the church can offer people with dementia love, hospitality, welcome and a sense of belonging. It also indicates how the church can relate to people with dementia, despite our communication problems, and be alongside us in the present moment. We need the church to hold our story faithfully and to challenge the discourses of loss in dementia, taking care to use appropriate language. Suggestions are made as to how to reach out to people with dementia in pastoral care and ministry, assisting us to find a sense of meaning in the present moment. The conclusion is that I am who I am before God, included alongside others in the church, held in grace to the loving Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Purpose: Patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have a poor prognosis and targeted therapies are lacking. Recent studies performed on patients tumors showed and increased activity of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway in TNBC. PI3K pathway is critical for cell growth, survival, and angiogenesis. Everolimus is a mTOR inhibitor recently showed to increase survival of patients with metastatic luminal breast cancer. The objectives of this work were to analyze the PI3K activation status in a large cohort of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) of TNBC and to investigate the therapeutic potential of mTOR inhibition.

Experimental procedures: this study included a panel of 32 TNBC PDX models previously described (Marangoni et al 2007). Expression of AKT, P-AKT, P-mTOR, S6, P-S6, P-4EBP1, PTEN and INPP4B was analyzed by WB and IHC. Mutations of PIK3CA (exons 9 and 20), PIK3R1 (exons 11-15), and AKT1 (exon 4) were detected by sequencing of cDNA fragments obtained by RT-PCR amplification. The efficacy of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus was investigated in vivo on 10 PDX models with different expressions and mutational status of PI3K markers.

Results: INPP4B protein expression was lost in 56% of tumors (n=18) and expressed at low levels in 31% of models, while only 2 models displayed a marked expression. PTEN expression was lost in 78% of tumors. Thirteen PDX models (40%) displayed a concomitant loss of both INPP4B and PTEN proteins. In 67% of tumors, the ratio between phosphorylated and unphosphorylated AKT was greater than 1. S6 was found to be phosphorylated in the great majority of tumors. PI3KCA and AKT1 genes were mutated only in 1 and 2 tumors, respectively. On the 10 PDX models treated with everolimus, 6 models responded to treatment with a tumor growth inhibition (TGI) comprised between 60% and 80%. Four models were classified as resistant or low responder (TGI<50%). Preliminary analysis of treated tumors from 6 models indicates increased level of P-AKT (feedback loop) to occur only in responder models, while inhibition of S6 phosphorylation occurred in treated tumors from both responder and resistant models. Finally, expression of INPP4B or PTEN alone did not predict for tumor response, while a P-AKT/AKT ratio greater than 1 predicted response to everolimus (p<0.05, Fisher's exact test).

Conclusions: the majority of TNBC PDX models showed loss of PTEN or INPP4B proteins or both, associated with activation of PI3K pathway. Preliminary results obtained from 10 PDX models indicate that mTOR targeting resulted in tumor growth inhibition in several models with AKT phosphorylation. Additional TNBC models will be tested in order to search for robust predictive biomarkers. This large panel of characterized PDX of TNBC models represents a clinical relevant tool to investigate the activity of PI3K-AKT-mTOR inhibitors and identify predictive biomarkers.

Citation Format: Elisabetta Marangoni, Rana Hatem, Rania El Botty, Ludmilla De Plater, Dalila Labiod, Sophie Vacher, Sophie Chateau-Joubert, Ivan Bieche. Activation of PI3-kinase pathway and tumor response to everolimus in patient-derived xenografts of triple-negative breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4499. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4499


The goal of the paper is to present a distributed scheme to resolving a single path routing problem in multidomain networks. The global problem is formulated as a mixed-integer program (MIP) and approached by means of branch-and-price (B&P). Problems associated with a B&P tree nodes are decomposed using the Dantzig-Wolfe method to a set of domain subproblems coordinated by a single master problem. The presented scheme applies a novel formulation of a domain subproblem that in general results in very tight bounds on the problem represented by a B&P node and hence leads to faster completion of the B&P algorithm. The issue of implementing such a scheme as a distributed network-wide process which could be run in the control plane of the multi-domain network is considered. Correctness of the scheme is verified experimentally and results of preliminary numerical tests are presented.


It has already been reported (1) that a cystine derivative in which the sulphur was surely in a state of partial but unknown oxidation retarded proliferative growth in Obelia colonies (2). Since that time cystine disulphoxide, another partially oxidized derivative, has been prepared, of known structure and high purity (3). This has been tested as to its effect on growth by the same methods and the results analyzed in the same manner as previously described (1, 4, 5, 6).

The stock solution was made by dissolving 0.05 gram disulphoxide in 200 c.c. of fresh sea water and then bringing this to the pH of the solvent by addition of the requisite amount of N/10 NaOH. Aliquots gave 1 × 10−6, 2 × 10−6, and 5 × 10−6 sulphur as disulphoxide in the test cultures.

Each of five workers did one experiment at the two higher, and two experiments at the lower concentration—a total of twenty experiments. Since separation according to concentration was not necessary, the data are condensed in one table. This represents the combination of the consistency by experiment data, as given in Table II of a previous paper in this Journal (6), and the consistency by developmental activity expression by concentration as given by data similar to those of Table III of the same report. Here, Table I gives this condensation together with record of the number of colonies, hydranths, and gonophores used. This is all that is necessary and is sufficient for interpretation.


Males can overcome female resistance to mating either by using luring behaviour or through sexual coercion. We studied mating behaviour in two sexually cannibalistic camel-spider species Galeodes caspius subfuscus (Galeodidae) and Gluvia dorsalis (Desiidae), to determine the presence of luring and/or coercive traits. Several behavioural features demonstrate coercive mating in the two species: (1) males used strength or fast movement to grab a female; (2) males prevented female counter-attack and escape; (3) males injured the female during coercive copulations; (4) females struggled to interrupt mating. The mode of mating differed considerably. In Galeodes, but not in Gluvia, males induced an immobile state in females. Despite the presence of coercive mating that caused injuries to females, Galeodes males also engaged in courtship behaviours before copulation (stroking with pedipalps) and during copulation (stroking and tapping). The occurrence of pre-copulatory courtship in coercively mating males has not been reported before. In Gluvia, coercive traits suggest that forced copulation is the exclusive mating strategy. Coercive mating strategies in camel-spiders may have evolved as an anti-predation strategy, as sexual cannibalism occurred in c. 40% of all sexual interactions.


As the demand of reconfigurable devices increases, the possibility of
exploiting the interstage matching network in a two-stage amplifier to provide center
frequency tuning capability is explored. While placement of tuning elements at the
input and/or output matching network has some disadvantages, placement of tuning
elements in the interstage absorbs the lossy components characteristics into useful
attributes. The circuit design methodology includes graphical method to determine
the bandpass topology that achieves high Q-contour on the Smith chart thus result in
narrow bandwidth. T-section and π-section topologies are used to match reactive
terminations provided by the first and second amplifier stages. The design
methodology also includes utilization of interstage mismatch loss that decreases as
increasing frequency to compensate for amplifier gain roll-off and equalize the gain
at different tuning states.
In prototype realization, three design configurations are discussed in this
thesis: 1) a discrete design for operation between 0.1 – 0.9 GHz with the total layout
area of 7.5 mm x 12.5 mm, 2) a partial monolithic design (Quasi-MMIC) for
operation between 0.9 – 2.4 GHz that is 25 times smaller layout area compared to the
discrete design, and 3) a conceptual design of integrated monolithic reconfigurable
PA for operation between 0.9 – 2.4 GHz that is 130 times smaller layout area
compared to the discrete design. One variant of the fabricated reconfigurable PA
offers advantage of 4-states center frequency tuning from 1.37 GHz to 1.95 GHz
with gain of 21.5 dB (+ 0.7 dB).
The feasibility of interstage matching network as tuning elements in
reconfigurable power amplifier has been explored. The input and output matching
networks are fixed while the interstage impedances are varied using electronic
switching (discrete SP4T and GaAs FET switches). The discrete design is suited for
the operation at low frequency (fo < 1GHz), while monolithic implementation of the
tunable interstage matching network is required for higher frequency operation due
to size limitation and parasitic effects. The reconfigurable PA using MMIC tuner was
designed at higher frequency to possibly cover GSM, CDMA, Bluetooth, and
WiMAX frequency (0.9 – 2.4 GHz).


Although proximal humeral fractures are common injuries, there is no generally accepted strategy as to how unstable and displaced two- to four-part fractures should be managed. Surgical therapy is in a conflicting situation between the requirement for anatomical fracture reduction and stable fixation, on the one hand, and the necessity for minimal intraoperative damage to the soft tissue and arterial vascularization of the humeral head in order to avoid avascular necrosis on the other. Whereas minimally invasive procedures using closed or percutaneous reduction and fixation techniques are advantageous for protection of the arterial blood supply of the proximal humerus, plate fixation provides superior fixation stability. Plate fixation seems to be associated with a reduced risk of avascular necrosis when indirect reduction techniques are used. Poor results in the operative management of humeral head fractures are often seen in association with malunion. There is therefore a tendency towards the use of implants with angular stability in order to reduce the risk for secondary loss of reduction during functional after treatment. Innovative new plates and intramedullary nails that provide superior stability of fixation of the humeral head fragment have been actually introduced into clinical practice. Together with the specific patient and fracture characteristics, the final result of operative management, however, remains mainly related to the knowledge and operative skills of the trauma or orthopaedic surgeon who deals with these proximal humeral fractures.


Recently, since the interest with well-being has been getting higher than ever, people want reliable source of information related with health and medical treatment. Because of the characteristics of information related with medical care, there have been difficulties to find the information from books, television and internet surfing, for treating disease. Misinformation that can be obtained when considering dangerous situations or side effects, the role of the e-Health system is becoming more important. The objective of this study is an analysis of correlation and effect among patient`s information need, e-Health system use and system outcome. To achieve the object of this study, e-Health system had been given to patients of breast cancer in Wisconsin and Detroit for 16 weeks. As a result, 282 sample was gathered and modified to meet purpose of the study. As a result, the information needs of patients due to the performance of the e-Health systems and shown to affect even the perception of patients` emotional and physical health and social support.


Herbal medicines are promising choice over synthetic drugs. Costus pictus is commonly known as Spiral ginger' 'Step ladder' or 'Insulin plant as its leaves are proved to produce antidiabetic effects. In present study callus culture of Costus pictus was initiated from the leaf explants. The leaf and callus extract of Costus pictus in four different solvents viz ethanol, acetone, aqueous and ethyl acetate were assess for their possible effect on glucose diffusion across the dialysis membrane, a model system for glucose diffusion across the gastrointestinal tract. The ethyl acetate leaf and callus extract significantly decreased glucose movement as compared to other extract. Another approach to prevent diabetes is to control the abnormal postprandial increase of blood glucose level. This can be achieved by the inhibition of carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzymes like α-amylase and α-glucosidase. In present study the satisfactory inhibitory effect on α-amylase extracts from fresh Solanum tuberosum and α-glucosidase extracted from Sorghum vulgare seeds was investigated. The leaf and callus extract of Costus pictus in four different solvents viz ethanol, acetone, aqueous and ethyl acetate studied in vitro shows good inhibitory activity on these enzymes. Higher α-amylase inhibitory effect of about 77.53% was shown by callus extract in ethyl acetate and leaf extract in ethanol. In case of α-glucosidase ethanol callus extract showed highest inhibitory effect of about 86.94 %. The results of this study may be useful to find out the mode of action of this leaf and callus extracts of Costus pictus as α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibitors and to know the possible mechanism for antidiabetic activity.


The new KBP Radio and Television Code is a product of many minds and years of painstaking debate, collaboration, consultation, and revision. The process was long and tedious. This paper documents this process and more importantly, summarizes the major changes made in the Code. The methods used for this paper include interviews with key KBP figures involved in the revision of the Codes, including the participation of this author, a member of the KBP Standards Authority who has been actively involved in the process of crafting the new codes since 2000. Several documents also served as key sources for analyzing the old and new codes, as well as in tracing the history of how and who crafted the broadcast codes as we know them today.


ABSTRACT Background There are challenges in sustaining person-centered care in aged care settings. Key related issues of concern such as quality of life among the older people in long-term care hospitals and interactions with nursing staff have been described previously. Purpose This study was designed to explore the factors affecting quality of life among older people living in long-term care hospitals in South Korea. Methods Older adult patients (N = 202) in three long-term care hospitals completed measures of cognitive functions, depression, care dependency, and interactions between nurse and patient and a quality-of-life assessment tool. Univariate analyses were used to examine the relationships among these variables, and a multiple linear regression analysis was used to explore the extent to which these variables predicted quality of life in these patients. Results The significant factors associated with quality of life were found to be cognitive functions (r = .373, p < .001), care dependency (r = .350, p < .001), and depression (r = −.504, p < .001). The regression model with depression and care dependency as predictor variables accounted for 25.7% of the variance in quality of life. Conclusions/Implications for Practice The correlation found in this study between quality of life and depression and care dependency provides additional evidentiary support for developing and applying nursing interventions that reduce depression and care dependency in older adult populations.


We consider the geometrical engineering constructions for the $N=1$ supersymmetric QCD vacua recently proposed by Giveon and Kutasov. After 1 T-duality, the geometries with wrapped D5 branes become $N=1$ brane configurations with NS branes and D4 branes. The field theories encoded by the geometries contain extra massive adjoint fields for the flavor group. After performing a flop, the geometries contain branes, antibranes and branes wrapped on nonholomorphic cycles. The various tachyon condensations between pairs of wrapped D5 branes and anti-D5 branes together with deformations of the cycles give rise to a variety of supersymmetric and metastable nonsupersymmetric vacua.


Spike sorting is the gold standard algorithm to detect and classify neural spikes in extracellular electrophysiological data. The classical spike sorting algorithm is, however, not scalable to process thousands of neurons, and not fast enough to be applied on real time. Alternatively other algorithms have been implemented that are not only scalable to thousands of neurons but also faster in the classification task. In this work we focus on one of these algorithms: the Bayes Optimal Template Matching (BOTM). The BOTM presents the advantage of using a template matching procedure to solve, at the same time, the spike detection and classification. Within the BOTM algorithm we need to compute the noise covariance matrix. This matrix contains spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal noise correlations among the electrodes used for recording the data, and it is important since its inverse works as a spatio-temporal whitening transformation. However, the matrix becomes too large to be computed or handled when large number of electrodes are used. In this work we focused on how to compute the noise covariance matrix when large number of electrodes are used for recording. First we separated its structure in two simpler matrices: one containing the spatial noise correlations, and one containing the temporal noise correlations among electrodes. We computed their inverses and applied three different whitening: spatial whitening, temporal whitening, and spatial and temporal whitening, one after each other. We evaluated the BOTM's performance under the different whitening approaches. Additionally, we took into account a new covariance matrix containing signal correlations, i.e. considering the whole signal, and not only the noise when computing correlations among the electrodes. We also evaluated the BOTM's performance for the signal covariance matrix. We were able to demonstrate that the spatio-temporal noise covariance matrix can be split in two simpler matrices: a spatial noise covariance matrix and a temporal noise covariance matrix. And that their inverses work as a spatial and as a temporal whitening transformations respectively. We also discuss about a problem we found within the toy data created for our measures: high-frequency components on inserted footprints. This problem can affect not only the BOTM algorithm, but also any other template matching based algorithm used. Finally, we concluded that the BOTM could not need any whitening transformation thanks to the redundancy on the recorded data when a large number of electrodes is used.


We propose a new method, called 3-D image warping-based depth video compression (IW-DVC), for fast and efficient compression of depth images captured by mobile RGB-D sensors. The emergence of low-cost RGB-D sensors has created opportunities to find new solutions for a number of computer vision and networked robotics problems, such as 3-D map building, immersive telepresence, or remote sensing. However, efficient transmission and storage of depth data still presents a challenging task to the research community in these applications. Image/video compression has been comprehensively studied and several methods have already been developed. However, these methods result in unacceptably suboptimal outcomes when applied to the depth images. We have designed the IW-DVC method to exploit the special properties of the depth data to achieve a high compression ratio while preserving the quality of the captured depth images. Our solution combines the egomotion estimation and 3-D image warping techniques and includes a lossless coding scheme that is capable of adapting to depth data with a high dynamic range. IW-DVC operates at a high speed, suitable for real-time applications, and is able to attain an enhanced motion compensation accuracy compared with the conventional approaches. In addition, it removes the existing redundant information between the depth frames to further increase compression efficiency. Our experiments show that IW-DVC attains a very high performance yielding significant compression ratios without sacrificing image quality.


Effective tools to monitor SARS-CoV-2 transmission and humoral immune responses are highly needed. Protective humoral immunity involves neutralizing antibodies and will be a hallmark for the evaluation of a vaccine response efficacy. Here we present a sensitive, fast and simple neutralization ELISA method to determine the levels of antibody-mediated virus neutralization. We can show that it is strongly correlated with the more elaborate plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) (ρ = 0.9231, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, we present pre-clinical vaccine models using recombinant receptor binding domain (RBD) and full-length spike antigen as immunogens showing a profound antibody neutralization capacity that exceeds the highest neutralization titers from convalescent individuals. Using a panel of novel high-affinity murine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) we also show that majority of the RBD-raised mAbs have inhibitory properties while only a few of the spike-raised mAbs do. In conclusion, the ELISA-based viral neutralization test offers a time- and cost-effective alternative to the PRNT. The immunization results indicate that vaccine strategies focused only on the RBD region may have major advantages over those based on the full spike sequence.


Despite its relatively small size, the private school sector plays a prominent role in British society. This paper focuses on the changing wage returns to private education in Britain using the British Household Panel Survey and the two mature birth cohort studies, the National Child Development Study (NCDS) and the British Cohort Study (BCS). From a theoretical perspective, the pay premium for private school pupils is expected to have increased, following a period of modernisation during the late 1960s and 1970s and the subsequent decades in which real school fees rose substantially. Using a range of estimation techniques we present consistent evidence in line with the hypothesis that the premium increased significantly between earlier and later cohorts, especially for women for whom the premium was small and insignificant in earlier cohorts. Quantile regressions also indicate that there was no significant premium in the lower quantiles of the residual distribution. The achievement of good academic qualifications is the main route through which a high return to private school attendance is obtained in the later cohorts. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the idea that the private school sector has been successful in transforming its ability to generate the academic outputs that are most in demand in the modern economy.


Ecofriendly or Green synthesis of metal nanoparticles has become an important branch of nanotechnology and there is an increasing commercial demand for nanoparticles due to their wide applications. In the present study, we report an eco-friendly and economical way for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using leaf extract Azadirachta indica. The plant properly known as 'neem' belongs to the family Meliaceae. For the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) using the leaf extract of Azadirachta indica as a reducing agent from 1 mM silver nitrate (AgNO3) has been investigated. The resulting SNPs are characterized using UV–Vis, TEM. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized within 24 hours of incubation period and synthesized SNPs showed an absorption peak at around 400 nm in the UV-visible spectrum. The morphological study of Silver nanoparticles using TEM suggests that the nanoparticles are spherical in shape with a diameter around 50-nm. This route is rapid, simple without any hazardous chemicals as reducing or stabilizing agents and economical to synthesized SNPs.


In this research present the digital image compression using by Karhunen-Loève Transform (KLT), by convert a color digital image to a gray square digital image, then select the no. of eigen values and eigen vectors that can reconstruct the image, that be very near to the original image. And then calculate compression ratio and a high result reach it, after applied fidelity criteria on image produce from compression represented by (PSNR, MSE, correlation coefficient and compression ratio), and using a matlab language programming for execute this research.


In order to evaluate the selectivity for specific cations in ion-exchange of zeolites, we calculate the ion-exchange isotherms in various zeolites using Monte Carlo simulation techniques. The calculation results agree well with experiments. Furthermore, we examine the dependence of the cation selectivity on the Si/Al ratio and find that the Cs selectivity initially increases with the Si/Al ratio but saturates above a certain value. These results reveal that the selectivity for Cs is enhanced cooperatively by the microporous structure and the Si/Al ratio of the zeolite framework. The present simulation scheme is promising in selecting useful materials for Cs decontamination in waste treatments.


Landslide susceptibility is a contemporary method for delineation of landslide hazard zones and holistically mitigating the future landslides risks for planning and decision-making. The significance of this study is that it would be the first instance when the 'geon' model will be attempted to delineate landslide susceptibility map (LSM) for the complex lesser Himalayan topography as a contemporary LSM technique. This study adopted the per-pixel-based ensemble approaches through modified frequency ratio (MFR) and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) and compared it with the 'geons' (object-based) aggregation method to produce an LSM for the lesser Himalayan Kalsi-Chakrata road corridor. For the landslide susceptibility models, 14 landslide conditioning factors were carefully chosen; namely, slope, slope aspect, elevation, lithology, rainfall, seismicity, normalized differential vegetation index, stream power index, land use/land cover, soil, topographical wetness index, and proximity to drainage, road, and fault. The inventory data for the past landslides were derived from preceding satellite images, intensive field surveys, and validation surveys. These inventory data were divided into training and test datasets following the commonly accepted 70:30 ratio. The GIS-based statistical techniques were adopted to establish the correlation between landslide training sites and conditioning factors. To determine the accuracy of the model output, the LSMs accuracy was validated through statistical methods of receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and relative landslide density index (R-index). The accuracy results indicate that the object-based geon methods produced higher accuracy (geon FAHP: 0.934; geon MFR: 0.910) over the per-pixel approaches (FAHP: 0.887; MFR: 0.841). The results noticeably showed that the geon method constructs significant regional units for future mitigation strategies and development. The present study may significantly benefit the decision-makers and regional planners in selecting the appropriate risk mitigation procedures at a local scale to counter the potential damages and losses from landslides in the area.


The experiential learning process is a relevant method used to enhance understanding of the field and the critical thinking skills of learners. Futher more, technological developments improve students ' learning needs. In this case, learners are required to be able to learn and work dynamically by combining the concept of critical thinking and the way of life as demand for the 21st century. Therefore, dynamic learning and the ability to improve the cognitive and collaborative abilities of learners in their interactions with the environment and all changes are indispensable. This research aims to spread the educational game quiz Assistance to create fun and dynamic learning for students. In addition, developed media is expected to improve cognitive ability and critical thinking learners, especially in higher education. The development of this educational game is done in the economic field so that the material to be presented is a basic course of economics faculty. To measure the success of this game-based learning, researchers used 100 samples from three majors (development economics, management, and accounting). This method of analysis uses the method of gain-scores, where the learning outcomes of experimental Group with learning game treatment and control group learning outcomes are examined and analyzed to determine their effectiveness. Results from analyses showed that use of game- based learning is highly effective for improving learning outcomes.
Keywords: Technology, educational game, game based learning, gamification Learning.


Experiments are described in which a high-current electron accelerator is used to generate, by Al wire explosion, super-high-density (Ne=5*1022 cm-3), high-temperature (Te approximately=400 eV) plasmas. The X-ray emission characteristics of the plasma are analysed.


Electric power engineering education is facing a crisis. There is significant decline in enrolments in power courses at many universities. If this trend continues, the power industry will face shortage of trained engineering personnel. This paper explains how students are introduced to the basic concepts in power engineering in the early part of their academic program. Specifically, a course on numerical analysis is used to expose the students to various challenges in power system analysis and operation.


There are close affinities between the anti-Edomite oracle in Malachi 1:2-5 and Malachi's condemnation of mixed marriages in 2:10-16. Following the demonstration of these connections, this paper suggests that intermarriage is the consequence of the people's conviction that they are rejected by God. After the destruction of the Temple, the people felt that they were rejected as the chosen people. This feeling is reflected in the anti-Edomite oracle. Because they felt that they were no longer the chosen nation, the people felt that the distinction between them and other nations was no longer relevant. This paper posits the view that the people of Yehud adopted a humanistic ideology of equality between peoples that enabled intermarriage with foreign women. Malachi refuted these ideologies and conduct by claiming that Israel was still the chosen people, and that the ideology justifying relationships with foreign women should be abandoned.


Gene silencing, demethylation, translocations and amplifications crucially contribute to the growth potential and aggressiveness of malignant tumors. This has led to the development of compounds specifically targeting such alterations. Although parts of these compounds have led to an impressive improvement in relapse free survival such as trastuzumab in breast cancer treatment, a considerable part of patients carrying the alteration will not respond to this targeted treatment. Therefore, in addition to defining the subpopulation of patients with a high probability of responding to the targeted therapy only immediate control of the response to treatment will ultimately improve outcome.Epithelial tumor cells circulating in peripheral blood are easily accessible and have been shown to reflect the response of the tumor to therapy. They can, therefore, be used to monitor the effect of therapy.Here we report on the application of therapy monitoring using CETCs during adjuvant trastuzumab treatment and the consequences which may be deduced from these observations for individualized therapy.30 patients with either IHC3+ or FISH confirmed Her2/neu positive breast cancer were prospectively analysed for the number of CETC before therapy, before each new cycle of chemotherapy and during maintenance therapy with trastuzumab.1ml of blood was drawn into EDTA vials, red blood cells lysed and the white blood cell pellet stained with FITC-labelled anti-Epcam. Green fluorescent cells were detected by image analysis and dead cells excluded due to red PI fluorescence.Most patients showed the typical response of high risk patients upon chemotherapy with an initial decrease in cell numbers followed by a rapid reincrease still during chemotherapy. The subsequent maintenance therapy with trastuzumab led to a stabilization or a decrease in CETC numbers in 89% of patients all of which are in sustained complete remission whereas all of the 11% patients with increasing CETCs have suffered relapse. Thus CETC monitoring allowed an excellent discrimination of patients at risk of relapse also during trastuzumab treatment.To further investigate the reason for treatment failure in the patients with increasing CETCs the cells were additionally analysed for their status of Her2/neu amplification during treatment. At the end of chemotherapy cells with a low number of Her2/neu amplificates comprised between 80 and 100% whereas cells with more than 10 signals comprised between 0 and 20%. During the subsequent therapy with trastuzumab the fraction of cells with more than 10 signals continuously increased to between 50 and 60%. This indicates that in these patients trastuzumab was not capable of eliminating the cells with a high Her2/neu amplification probably because the concentration of trastuzumab is not sufficient to eliminate these cells. With regard to the high probability with which a relapse must be expected in these patients a trial using higher trastuzumab doses seems warranted in patients with increasing CETC during the conventional trastuzumab treatment. Alternatively lapatinib might be an option. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 2088.


Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive disorder with an incidence of 1/6,000–1/10,000 and is the leading fatal disease among infants. Previously, there was no effective treatment for SMA. The first effective drug, nusinersen, was approved by the US FDA in December 2016, providing hope to SMA patients worldwide. The drug was introduced in the European Union in 2017 and China in 2019 and has so far saved the lives of several patients in most parts of the world. Nusinersen are fixed sequence antisense oligonucleotides with special chemical modifications. The development of nusinersen progressed through major scientific discoveries in medicine, genetics, biology, and other disciplines, wherein several scientists have made substantial contributions. In this article, we will briefly describe the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies of SMA, summarize the timeline of important scientific findings during the development of nusinersen in a detailed, scientific, and objective manner, and finally discuss the implications of the development of nusinersen for SMA research.


Information systems used by platform trials should handle changes that are not predefined. Unfortunately, the technical architecture of most existing clinical data management systems (CDMS) do not support changes to be incorporated into an ongoing trial. Adaptive clinical trials need advanced architectural solutions setup to enable biomarker stratification and enrichment strategy necessary for the adaptive clinical trial operation. This short paper presents the microservices-based architecture solution that is used to run and support the adaptive RECORDS-Trial.


AIM
To analyse the influence of H2 O2 on pulp repair through osteocalcin and osteopontin immunolabelling and in cellular defence by using the antireactive oxygen species (ROS) antibody.

METHODOLOGY
The maxillary molars of 50 rats were treated with 35% H2 O2 (Ble groups) or placebo gel (control groups). At 0 h and 2, 7, 15 and 30 days (n = 10 hemimaxillae), the rats were killed and pulp tissue was evaluated using inflammation and immunolabelling scores (osteocalcin/osteopontin); ROS-positive cells were counted. Paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used (P < 0.05).

RESULTS
The Ble group had necrosis in the coronal pulp at 0 h and in the occlusal third of the coronal pulp at 2 days; at 7, 15 and 30 days, no inflammation was noted similar to the controls (P > 0.05). Osteocalcin was absent in the Ble at 0 h, moderate at 2 days and increased thereafter, differing from the controls at all two periods (P < 0.05). Osteopontin was higher principally at 7 and 15 days in Ble groups, but differing with control groups from 2 days after bleaching (P < 0.05). The Ble group had more ROS-positive cells in the pulp at 7 and 15 days (P < 0.05). Tertiary dentine was observed at 7 days, increasing thereafter (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Post-bleaching pulp repair was associated with increased osteocalcin over time. Osteopontin also participated in this process, and anti-ROS was involved in cellular defence against H2 O2 .


Block tridiagonal systems of linear equations arise in a wide variety of scientific and engineering applications. Recursive doubling algorithm is a well-known prefix computation-based numerical algorithm that requires O(M3(N/P + log P)) work to compute the solution of a block tridiagonal system with N block rows and block size M on F processors. In real-world applications, solutions of tridiagonal systems are most often sought with multiple, often hundreds and thousands, of different right hand sides but with the same tridiagonal matrix. Here, we show that a recursive doubling algorithm is sub-optimal when computing solutions of block tridiagonal systems with multiple right hand sides and present a novel algorithm, called the accelerated recursive doubling algorithm, that delivers O(R) improvement when solving block tridiagonal systems with R distinct right hand sides. Since R is typically ~102 - 104, this improvement translates to very significant speedups in practice. Detailed complexity analyses of the new algorithm with empirical confirmation of runtime improvements are presented. To the best of our knowledge, this algorithm has not been reported before in the literature.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate a method for measuring the differential modal group delay (DMGD) of a few-mode fiber using a Fourier domain mode-locked laser (FDML). We use the fast frequency-swept, wavelength-tunable output of the FDML in order to perform time domain measurements of interference of the modes, which is further postprocessed to extract the DMGD. We demonstrate the measurement of DMGD for a commercial two-mode fiber over the C-band. This method is not limited by the magnitude of DMGD or the number of modes and is minimally affected by time-dependent polarization and mode fluctuations, environmental noise, and spectral resolution of instruments.


Yunandar, Effendi H, Widiatmaka, Setiawan Y. 2020. Plankton biodiversity in various typologies of inundation in Paminggir peatland, South Kalimantan, Indonesia on dry season. Biodiversitas 21: 1012-1019. The aim of the study was to analyze the typology of inundation areas and plankton biodiversity in Paminggir peatland, South Borneo, Indonesia. Typology of inundation was determined by image processing and spatial analysis using supervised classification method from Landsat 1994, 2014, 2019. Plankton biodiversity was determined using purposive sampling in detected inundation from spatial analysis. Some environmental factors like temperature, Ph and DO were also analyzed. Confirmation of the results of spatial analysis of peatland typology made from overall accuracy and Kappa informed 88.48% and 0.8. The typology of permanent inundation decreased by 30% from 1994 to 2019 during the dry period from June to August of the total study area of 43275,584 hectares due to sedimentation, land conversion for settlement, and increase in water weeds. Inundation criteria with duration throughout the year were was categorized as permanent, whereas temporary inundation was tentative even in certain dry season. Plankton index biodiversity in permanent inundation was more varied compared to temporary inundation. Phytoplankton from the freshwater Chrysophyta group was more dominant, while zooplankton from the Nauplius group, which were the natural food for fish larvae always presented in the typology of permanent inundation.


Variable-rate application has great potential to reduce variability and increase yield by spatially optimizing agricultural inputs. In cotton, plant growth regulators (PGRs) control excessive growth and provide suitable plant height for harvest operations. This study evaluates the effect of variable-rate PGR application compared to constant-rate application to reduce yield spatial variability and increase yield. The variable-rate approach was carried out in 2020 based on zonal applications defined by clustering analysis using soil electrical conductivity, vegetation indexes, and yield maps. Application doses and timings were determined by integrating plant height measurements for the whole field in 2019 and by zone in 2020. To compare the two procedures, cultivar and plant populations were kept constant; fertilization and accumulated rain were similar in both seasons. A reduction in yield spatial variability due to the zonal application was observed, with yield coefficient of variation (CV) decreasing from 18% in 2019 to 12% in 2020. Spatial and temporal analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index satellite images showed higher CV values in 2019 (constant-rate) reaching 30% at the end of the season, whereas in 2020 (variable-rate) CV was constant (approximately 10%). Cotton yield increased from 3.5 to 4.3 t ha-1 between 2019 and 2020, which can be partially attributed to the variable-rate approach. The variable-rate approach based on application zones and plant height measurements was a viable strategy for reducing yield spatial variability and likely increasing yield in a highly variable cotton field.


Although the view that Thai peasants are almost all owner-cultivators is com!nonly accepted, I demonstrate the fact that in the Chaophraya Delta at least nearly half the peasants are tenants or part-owners. I also suggest that the tendency for owner-cultivators to become tenant-cultivators is increasing remarkably. In the course of discussion the emphasis is placed upon the socio-economic function of landownership in the development of Thai society on the grounds that the clarification of the land system is indispensable for a dynamic analysis of social change in Thailand.


Resilience thinking has been roundly critiqued for not accounting for the political – and inherently power-laden – structures that shape decision-making. In light of the range of critiques as well as the increasing global momentum around resilience thinking, this paper develops the concept of 'Negotiated Resilience.' The concept highlights processes of negotiation to situate, ground, and operationalize 'resilience.' The concept puts particular accent on the procedural orientation of resilience – it is not something that 'exists' and that we can uniformly define, rather it is a process that requires engagement with diverse actors and interests, both in specific places and across scales. Negotiation also inevitably entails contestation and an ongoing consideration of diverse options and trade-offs. We suggest that when considering the inherent complexities of resilience, we would do better to explicitly theorize, analyze, and speak to these negotiations.


Devices that can convert sunlight energy to electrical energy with photovoltaic effect process made of semiconductors are better known as solar cells. Photovoltaic (PV) or better known as solar power plant (PLTS) is also concerned with several factors to maximize solar energy into electrical energy such as the influence of weather, humidity, temperature of solar cell position and wind direction contained on the surface of solar cells. In this study, this solar cell (photovoltaic) was diagnosed as poly-crystalline during sunny and cloudy weather conditions. The results obtained by the test showed the influence of temperature from the surface of solar cells on the value of output power. Maximum power (Pout) at 11.40 WIB with a slope angle of 35° and a temperature of 47.6°C with an output power value of 100.562 Watt. So it can be said that the temperature is influenced by the intensity of solar radiation that will make the power (Pout) increase, the condition of the poly-crystalline solar module will work optimally at a temperature of about 35 °C - 50 ° C measured on the surface of solar cells.


Three solvents (OXSOL 10, monochlorotoluene or mixed isomers of 1- chloro-2-methyl benzene and 1-chloro-4-methyl benzene; OXSOL 100, parachlorobenzotrifluoride or 1-chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl) benzene; and OXSOL 2000, benzotrifluoride or trifluoromethyl benzene) produced by Occidental Chemical Corporation (Niagara Falls, NY) were considered as candidates for SKC, Inc.'s on-going diffusive sampler validation program. The 575-series diffusive sampler contains coconut-shell charcoal (575-001) or Anasorb 747 (575-002). Both samplers were used in this study. Desorption efficiency was tested at loadings equivalent to eight-hour time-weighted average (TWA) exposures to 0.01-2 times the Occidental Chemical Corporation in-house limit values (respectively: 50 ppm, 25 ppm, and 100 ppm,. All results met the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) criteria of > 75 percent, and, except for the lower loadings of parachlorobenzotrifluoride, the results were in the range of 90-110 percent. The calculated uptake rates were verified for different periods of exposure, up to eight hours, and found to be within 5 percent of the calculated for all three compounds on both samplers. A detailed comparison of the results from different time periods indicated no significant reverse diffusion effects for any combination of sampler and analyte. Samplers exposed to standard atmospheres of each compound were stored for three weeks at ambient temperatures and reanalyzed with results between 94 and 107 percent of expected. Based on full validation of samplers for the lower homologue (benzene), the bi-level theory of sample validation as endorsed by international validation protocols establishes this as a complete validation of the featured samplers for sampling vapors of these chemicals in air.


Machine learning and deep learning in particular has advanced tremendously on perceptual tasks in recent years. However, it remains vulnerable against adversarial perturbations of the input that have been crafted specifically to fool the system while being quasi-imperceptible to a human. In this work, we propose to augment deep neural networks with a small "detector" subnetwork which is trained on the binary classification task of distinguishing genuine data from data containing adversarial perturbations. Our method is orthogonal to prior work on addressing adversarial perturbations, which has mostly focused on making the classification network itself more robust. We show empirically that adversarial perturbations can be detected surprisingly well even though they are quasi-imperceptible to humans. Moreover, while the detectors have been trained to detect only a specific adversary, they generalize to similar and weaker adversaries. In addition, we propose an adversarial attack that fools both the classifier and the detector and a novel training procedure for the detector that counteracts this attack.


It is explicitly shown that there exist physical states (normalized to 1) in which the Robertson-Schrödinger and Heisenberg uncertainty relations are invalid , namely, the mean values of the physical operators are infinite. Consequently , these relations cannot imply a general physical principle. The explanation by the theory of functional analysis is given : for these states even the definition of the uncertainty notion through the dispersion notion in the probability theory is irrelevant


This paper focuses on an unusual Pre-Hispanic burial, 11-12th century cal AD, from Fuerteventura Island. The pattern of injuries of the skeletal remains, together with the grave's features suggest exceptional circumstances of death and funerary treatment differing from those commonly observed elsewhere among the indigenous population of the Canary Archipelago. The study first uses forensic anthropology techniques to characterise the individual's injuries before turning to archaeological and ethno-historical records of the indigenous populations to identify the potential scenarios explaining the fatal injuries. The nature of the peri-mortem lesions, especially those to the head, is consistent with an intention to kill. This case provides an opportunity to analyze the mechanisms of violence in a society with strong environmental limitations and conditions of isolation, as well as to deepen the concept of justice in ancient times.


We investigated some important plasma antenna parameters, such as the transmission characteristics of a microwave propagating along the cylindrical symmetric plasma antenna, dispersion relations, radiation pattern and gain. By analyzing the dielectric constant of the tube material, the outer and inner radius, the density of the plasma and the collision frequency, we found that to minimize the attenuation of wave propagation along the plasma antenna, one should increase the density of the plasma, decrease the collision frequency, increase the radius of the plasma, increase the thickness of tube,and decrease the dielectric constant. We also calculated the radiation pattern of the plasma antenna and the change of gain under different conditions. These results are useful for the design of plasma antenna.


Radial and transverse strain seismometers using 6.1-m Invar rods were installed 457, 914, and 1524 m from ground zero on a nuclear detonation at the Nevada Test Site. The detonation, Hutch, took place in alluvium at a depth of 548 m and gave a body-wave magnitude of 5.4 ± 0.2. Dynamic and quasi-static strain data were recorded along with triaxial accelerations at the 914-m location.
 The dynamic data show large strains (2 × 10-3 and considerable shear-wave activity related to the subsurface structure. Decay with range, corrected for the inelastic region, shows dependence of peak amplitudes of about R-3, but influence of the alluvium is present. The quasi-static data show large strain steps (> 10-4) at the two nearer stations and considerable dependence on alluvium depth. The strain decay with time is not consistent with that observed on Benham, and, at 914 m, appears to be a permanent step, similar to that observed on the Jorum event.


A problem modeling Hall effect in a semiconductor film from an electrode of arbitrary shape is considered, which is a skew-derivative problem. Boundary Galerkin method for solving the
problem in Sobolev spaces is developed firstly. The solution is represented in the form of the combined angular potential and single-layer potential. The final integral equations do not contain hypersingular integrals. Uniqueness and existence of the solution to the equations are proved. The weakly singular and Cauchy singular integral arising in these equations can be computed directly by truncated series of Chebyshev polynomials with their weighting function without approximation. The numerical simulation showing the high accuracy of the scheme is presented.


Aerospace engineering students frequently encounter difficulty in their upper division courses because the course material is not only advanced but strongly specific to aerospace technical details, compared to the general engineering content of the lower division courses. Consequently students must learn many concepts and analysis techniques which are new to them. The objective of the work described in this paper is to improve student understanding and mastery and retention of specific technical theories, concepts, and methods as defined by specific ABET outcomes. The approach is to develop a series of Khan Academy style videos which are specific to aerospace engineering topics which students historically find challenging to understand and master.


Osteoporosis and fragility fractures have emerged as major public health concerns in an aging population. However, measuring age-related changes in bone density using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry has limited personalized risk assessment due to susceptibility to interference from various factors. In this study, we propose an innovative statistical model of bone pixel distribution in fine-segmented computed tomography (CT) images, along with a novel approach to measuring bone density based on CT values of bone pixels. Our findings indicate that bone density exhibits a linear decline with age during adulthood between the ages of 39 and 80, with the rate of decline being approximately 1.6 times faster in women than in men. This contradicts the widely accepted notion that bone density starts declining in women at menopause and in men at around 50 years of age. The linearity of age-related changes provides further insights into the dynamics of the aging human body. Consequently, our findings suggest that the definition of osteoporosis by the World Health Organization should be revised to the standard deviation of age-based bone density. Furthermore, these results open up new avenues for research in bone health care and clinical investigation of osteoporosis.


Maleylacetoacetate isomerase (MAAI), a key enzyme in the metabolic degradation of phenylalanine and tyrosine, catalyzes the glutathione-dependent isomerization of maleylacetoacetate to fumarylacetoacetate. Deficiencies in enzymes along the degradation pathway lead to serious diseases including phenylketonuria, alkaptonuria, and the fatal disease, hereditary tyrosinemia type I. The structure of MAAI might prove useful in the design of inhibitors that could be used in the clinical management of the latter disease. Here we report the crystal structure of human MAAI at 1.9 A resolution in complex with glutathione and a sulfate ion which mimics substrate binding. The enzyme has previously been shown to belong to the zeta class of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) superfamily based on limited sequence similarity. The structure of MAAI shows that it does adopt the GST canonical fold but with a number of functionally important differences. The structure provides insights into the molecular bases of the remarkable array of different reactions the enzyme is capable of performing including isomerization, oxygenation, dehalogenation, peroxidation, and transferase activity.


During the past decade, the treatment of choice for chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) has been a contentious issue. Whether revascularisation, either percutaneous or surgical, or optimal medical therapy, offers better prognosis in terms of mortality, MI, and symptom relief, has yet to be confirmed. The long-awaited and recently published International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches (ISCHEMIA) trial randomised more than 5,000 patients into a revascularisation plus optimal medical therapy group and an optimal medical therapy alone group. The authors analyse the trial, with particular emphasis on the incidence of MI. They propose a patient-centred approach to incorporate the results of the ISCHEMIA trial into daily practice and determine the best treatment strategy for patients with CCS.


Perlite having rich reserves in Turkey is basic industrial raw materials in line with sustainable development objectives. In recent years due to the thermal insulation properties expanded perlite has attracted the attention of researchers. It is started to use in some construction areas. Binder material is used to shape in the manufacture of refractory bricks. Desired material was baked at high temperature. In this study, perlite between 75-600 µm particle size was subjected to heat treatment at different temperatures and investigated to use in refractory construction materials production. Perlite grains clinging to each other engage a smooth shape. Gypsum is used as an activator in different proportions to achieve this. The samples were subjected to heat treatment at 1050-1200 oC for 30 minutes. In the 5% gypsum mixture highest compressive strength at 1150 ° C was calculated as 47 MPa. Unit volume weight is considered as 1.95 g/cm3, water absorption by weight is determined as 0.30%. Superficial abrasion loss was determined to be 20 mm. Degree of porosity is calculated as 15%. Compactness was found to be 85%. Furthermore in the results of experiment of freezing of the obtained products was not found any damage or any strength loss.


Let FFn be a family of subgroups of EnX which is closed under taking subgroups and conjugates. Such a family has a classifying space, BYFn, and we showed in an earlier paper that a cormpatible choice of TFn for each n gives a simplicial monoid JJn BTF,, which group completes to an infinite loop space. In this paper we define a filtration of the associated spectrum whose filtration quotients, given an extra condition on the families, can be identified in terms of the classifying spaces of the families of subgroups that were chosen. This gives a way to go from group theoretic data about the families to homotopy theoretic information about the associated spectrum. We calculate two examples. The first is related to elementary abelian p-groups, and the second gives a new expression for the desuspension of Sp""' (SO)/Spm--I (SO) as a suspension spectrum.


Submitted for the MAR08 Meeting of The American Physical Society Self assembled silicon nanowire Schottky junction assisted by collagen1 DIDIER STIEVENARD, IEMN DptISEN, BILLEL SAHLI, IEMN-Dpt ISEN, YANNICK COFFINIER, RABAH BOUKHERROUB, IRI FRE2963, OLEG MELNYK, IBL UMR8525, IEMN DPTISEN TEAM, IRI TEAM, IBL TEAM — We present results on self assembled silicon nanowire Schottky junction assisted by collagen fibrous. The collagen is the principle protein of connective human tissues. It presents the double interest to be a low cost biological material with the possibility to be combed as the DNA molecule. First, the collagen was combed on OTS modified surface with gold electrodes. Second, silicon nanowires were grown on silicon substrate by CVD of silane gas (SiH4) at high temperature (500 ̊C) using a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process and gold particles as catalysts. In order to increase electrostatic interaction between the collagen and the nanowires, these latters were chemically modified by mercaptopropylmethoxysilane (MPTS), then chemically oxidized. Therefore, the nanowires were transferred from their substrate into water and a drop of it deposited on the surface. Nanowires are only bound to collagen and in particular, in electrode gaps. The formation of spontaneous Schotkty junction is demonstrated by current-voltage characteristics. 1This work was supported by DGA, under contract REI 0534048. Didier Stievenard IEMN DptISEN Date submitted: 16 Nov 2007 Electronic form version 1.4


Background: Very little prospective randomized experimental research exists on the use of simulation as a teaching method, and no studies have compared the two strategies of using the HPS™ and a CD-ROM. In addition, no researchers have investigated the effects of simulation on various levels of cognition, specifically lower-level and higher-level cognition or critical thinking. Objectives: A prospective pretest-posttest experimental mixed design (within and between) was used to determine if there were statistically significant differences in HPS™ and CD-ROM educational strategies in lower-level, higher-level cognition and critical thinking. Results: A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (RMANOVA) with LSD post-hoc tests were used to analyze the data. There were no significant differences between the HPS™ and CD-ROM groups on lower-level cognition scores. The HPS™ group did significantly better than the CD-ROM group on higher-level cognition and critical thinking scores. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the choice of teaching strategies for lower-level cognition does not make a statistically significant difference in outcome. However, the HPS™ is superior to using CD-ROM and should be considered as the choice in teaching.


Abstract:
 Berger, F. & Türk., R 2015. The amphibious lichen flora of the alpine headwater community "Lackenböden" in Dösental (Mallnitz, Carinthia, Austria). — Herzogia 28: 348–358. A characteristic and species-rich freshwater lichen community (39 lichen species and 4 lichenicolous ascomycetes) was found in a spring-fed brook of the Lackenböden. Leptogium rivale, Henrica melaspora, Thelidium pertusatii and Verrucaria csernaensis are new to the lichen flora of Austria; Bacidina egenula, Hydropunctaria scabra and Scoliciosporum compactum are new to the lichen flora of Carinthia, as well as the lichenicolous fungi Endococcus fusiger, Endococcus verrucosus, Neocoleroa inundata and Stigmidium rivulorum. The investigated locality should get a special status of a Special Protection Area in the National Park "Hohe Tauern" for its almost undisturbed biota, and the influence of trampling and manuring effects of cattle should be reduced as a priority.


This article describes the IFS-AER aerosol module used operationally in the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) cycle 45R1, operated by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in the framework of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services (CAMS). We describe the different parameterizations for aerosol sources, sinks and its chemical production in IFS-AER, as well as how the aerosols are integrated in the larger atmospheric composition forecasting 5 system. The focus is on the entire 45R1 code-base, including some components that are not used operationally, in which case this will be clearly specified. This paper is an update to the Morcrette et al. (2009) article that described aerosol forecasts at ECMWF, using the cycle 32R2 of the IFS. Between cycles 32R2 and 45R1, a number of source and sink processes have been reviewed and/or added, increasing notably the complexity of IFS-AER. A greater integration with the tropospheric chemistry scheme of the IFS has been achieved, for the sulphur cycle as well as for nitrate production. Two new species, nitrate and 10 ammonium, have also been included in the forecasting system. Global budgets and aerosol optical depth (AOD) fields are shown, as well as an evaluation of the simulated Particulate Matter (PM) and AOD against observations, showing an increase in skill from cycle 40R2, used in the CAMS interim Reanalysis (CAMSiRA), to cycle 45R1.


We demonstrate a spectrally broadband and efficient technique for collecting emission from a single InAs quantum dot directly into a standard single mode optical fiber. In this approach, an optical fiber taper waveguide is placed in contact with a suspended GaAs nanophotonic waveguide with embedded quantum dots, forming a broadband directional coupler with standard optical fiber input and output. Efficient photoluminescence collection over a wavelength range of tens of nanometers is demonstrated, and a maximum collection efficiency of 6% (corresponding single photon rate of 3.0 MHz) into a single mode optical fiber is estimated for a single quantum dot exciton.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) complications have contributed significantly toward poor survival of cancer patients worldwide. These complications that result in myocardial and vascular damage lead to long-term multisystemic disorders. In some patient cohorts, the progression from acute to symptomatic CVD state may be accelerated due to exacerbation of underlying comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. In such situations, cardio-oncologists are often left with a clinical predicament in finding the optimal therapeutic balance to minimize cardiovascular risks and maximize the benefits in treating cancer. Hence, prognostically there is an urgent need for cost-effective, rapid, sensitive and patient-specific screening platform to allow risk-adapted decision making to prevent cancer therapy related cardiotoxicity. In recent years, momentous progress has been made toward the successful derivation of human cardiovascular cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This technology has not only provided deeper mechanistic insights into basic cardiovascular biology but has also seamlessly integrated within the drug screening and discovery programs for early efficacy and safety evaluation. In this review, we discuss how iPSC-derived cardiovascular cells have been utilized for testing oncotherapeutics to pre-determine patient predisposition to cardiovascular toxicity. Lastly, we highlight the convergence of tissue engineering technologies and precision medicine that can enable patient-specific cardiotoxicity prognosis and treatment on a multi-organ level.


Industrial plant and particularly new electric power plant are important emission sources generally surrounding large, medium and small cities. Energy forecasts indicate that the growing demand for electricity will require the construction of more electric power plant that uses different fuels. In Spain, the growing electricity demand has been met with natural gas fuelled combined cycle electric power plant. While the air quality impact associated with the newer technologies is relatively lower when compared to older technologies, modern EU Air Quality legislation requires the control of air quality impact in real-time and forecasting mode. An operational real-time forecasting decision support system system has been developed and implemented in Spain on a 4-unit (400 MW per unit) combined cycle electric power plant, which is located in the surrounding area of Madrid Community (Spain). The system is based on the MM5-CMAQEMIMO models system. The MM5 model is widely used all over the world and was developed by PSU/NCAR (USA). The CMAQ model is the so-called Community Multiscale Air Quality Modelling System developed by USEPA. EMIMO is an anthropogenic and biogenic air emissions model, which produces hourly emissions per pollutant per square kilometre. The system is implemented in an 8-node PIV3, 4 GHz Dell computer cluster to minimize computation time. The system covers three model domains: 405 x 405 km with 9 km spatial resolution; 81 x 99 km with 3 km spatial resolution; and 24 x 24 km with 1 km spatial resolution. The three domains have 23 vertical layers up to 100 mb. The system runs on a daily basis and forecasts up to 72 hours. The system runs all the scenarios needed to obtain the air quality impact of each of the 4-units for every grid cell, hour and air pollutant simulated. The estimated electric power plant emissions are produced on a weekly basis and provided on-line to the modelling system. Changes to expected emissions for the electric power plant are introduced automatically in the modelling system on a daily basis. The system is accessed over the Internet by the environmental authorities and company managers on a daily basis. The system produces alerts every day according to the results of the model. Any decision related to possible shut-down for a limited period of time of the different power plant units , where the EU Directive limits may have been exceeded, is taken by environmental authorities in real-time. The system prototype was part of the EUREKA project TEAP (A tool to evaluate the air quality impact on industrial plant) (20012003). The same approach can be used for any other industrial plant and also for any emission source apportionment such as traffic over specific sections of the model domain or even specific pollutants over certain areas in the model domain.


Objective: Explore the perceptions, attitudes and experiences of pharmacists relating to the up-scheduling of low dose codeine containing analgesics and the impact on pharmacy practice. Methods: A mixed design method was used consisting of an anonymous online questionnaire survey to quantitatively capture broad pre-scheduling change perceptions paired with a series of in-depth post-scheduling semi-structured interviews to provide a qualitative picture of the impact of codeine up-scheduling on pharmacy practice in Australia. Results: A total of 191 pharmacists completed the quantitative survey and 10 participated in the in-depth interview. The majority of respondents supported the decision to up-schedule over-the-counter combination products containing codeine to some degree. Three main themes emerged from the data: pharmacists' perceptions of the codeine up-scheduling decision, preparing for the up-schedule and impact of the up-schedule on pharmacy practice. Pharmacists were concerned about the impact of up-scheduling on the pharmacy business, patient access to pain relief and the diminishment of their professional role. Conclusions: There were diverse perceptions, preparedness and impact on practice regarding the up-scheduling of low dose codeine products. Further research should be conducted to gauge if and how these perceptions have changed over time and to identify whether pain is being managed more effectively post codeine up-scheduling.


Although cryopreservation of human bone marrow has become very common in modern medicine, the knowledge on the effects of this procedure on hemopoietic cells is still limited. We herein have investigated whether the process of concentrating of human bone marrow to its buffy coat, the exposure to the cryoprotectant dimethyl sulfoide (DMSO), and/or the rate of controlled freezing/thawing procedures modifies the flow cytometric analysis of human bone marrow cells. We found that both the exposure of marrow cells to DMSO and/or the freezing procedure significantly modifies both the relative proportions of hemopoietic cell subsets and the intensity of expression of certain surface antigens. Thus, percentages of cells expressing CD7, CD13, CD33 and CD34, were found to be lower in both cryopreserved buffy coat and buffy coat merely exposed to DMSO, in comparison to those in untreated coat samples. Moreover, the intensity of the surface expression of CD33 decreased in cells exposed to DMSO, and further in cryopreserved samples. By contrast, the intensity of the CD19 antigen was higher in the last groups of samples than in the buffy coat or the unfractionated human bone marrow. Our present results suggest that flow‐cytometric analysis of cryopreserved human bone marrow cells is not fully equivalent to that corresponding to fresh bone marrow or its fractionated buffy coat.


Autopsies on 1,150 men and 290 women following violent death were analyzed to clarify etiology of atherosclerotic lesions. Soft lesions were noted in coronary arteries in persons less than age 10 and increasingly to age 30, without significant differences between sexes. Hard lesions with more accelerated growth appeared later in life; women between ages 20 and 45 had a significant lesser amount than men. The left anterior descending coronary artery was most affected by atherosclerosis among men over age 35. High socioeconomic status, obesity, and intellectual work showed a significant association with hard atherosclerotic lesions. Neither alcohol nor smoking seemed related to atherosclerosis.


Nowadays, people operate avatars in the metaverse to engage in social activity. While technology is making human society better, the bullying and harassment that occurs on the internet are still unresolved. Bullying is caused by a variety of influences, including psychological and environmental factors. Previous research has shown that the appearance of bullying victims is a cause of bullying. In the future, the appearance of the avatar could cause others to act aggressively. To prevent bullying in the metaverse, we create strong-impression and weak-impression avatars and investigate their association with the presumption of bullying. In this study, the presumption of bullying means that the participants answer whether an avatar is a victim or a perpetrator of bullying. The research method is described below.Participants: The participants were Forty-five graduate students (M = 24.49, SD = 4.48, Forty males, Four females, and one other).Avatars: Four avatars with a weak impression (e.g., fat/introverted) and Four avatars with a strong impression (e.g., good figure/extroverted) were created by VRoid Studio. We will describe the avatar images used in the experiment in the AHFE paper. Materials and procedure: Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) from 1 to 10 (10-point scale) was used as the evaluation method. The survey items are as follows. (1) The impression of avatars (weak impression to strong impression). (2) The attractiveness of avatars (unattractive to attractive). (3) The presumption of bullying (I think this avatar is: victim to perpetrator). Participants were asked to respond to each avatar and survey items using Google Forms. This study was approved by the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology's life science committee.Results: We hypothesized that the impression of avatars and the attractiveness of avatars were related to the presumption of bullying. Then, A multilevel analysis was performed. The model is as follows. [bullying~1+ impression+ attractiveness+ (1|avatars)]. Singular fit results were obtained when participants were included in random effects. Therefore, there would be little difference between participants. R² = .52. The fixed effect omnibus tests are: The impression of avatars (p <. 001), The attractiveness of avatars (p = .575). The results have shown that the impression of avatars has a significant effect on the presumption of bullying.Discussion: The results of this study have shown that the avatars perceived as weak by the participants tend to be presumed the victim of bullying. It shows that people have the physical stereotype of the victim about avatars. Stereotypes do not cause bullying immediately. However, people in the metaverse should avoid using a weak impression avatar to protect themselves from potential harm. The multilevel analysis has shown that the attractiveness of avatars had no significant effect on the presumption of bullying. Participants who are attracted to a particular avatar may have psychological resistance to identifying that avatar as a victim or perpetrator. This study shows that designers should be careful not to subconsciously build the weak impressions into avatars.


ABSTRACT The fusion of multicomponent reactions and polymer chemistry allows the synthesis of polymeric materials that contain special classes of molecules that are otherwise difficult to produce. In this study, a locally available nonwoven fabric composed of pineapple fibers and polylactic acid (piñatex) was modified by radiation-induced graft polymerization (RIGP) of vanillin methacrylate, a lignin-derived monomer. RIGP yielded organic hybrids made from a natural, renewable, and biodegradable substrate, and surface aldehyde groups from vanillin. The grafted fabric was prepared by gamma pre-irradiation at 50 kGy, exhibiting an increasing degree of grafting with increasing reaction time and monomer concentration. Post-polymerization modification carried out using Kabachnik-Fields three-component reaction (KF3CR) enabled the immobilization of amine and phosphite moieties on the fabric. FTIR, SEM-EDS and XPS analysis of 8 amine and phosphite combinations showed the presence of the corresponding elements and functional groups, indicating successful surface functionalization through RIGP-KF3CR. All modified natural fibers-based fabrics displayed enhanced thermal stability without obvious radiation degradation effects. Synthesized natural fibers contain α-aminophosphonate pendants which may be useful in the selective adsorption and recovery of industry valuable metals.


Membrane separation processes tender a capable option for energy-demanding separation processes. Nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are among the most explored, with a latent use in the chemical industry. In this study, four commercial membranes (NF90, NF270, BW30, and XLE) were investigated for their applicability based on the key structural performance characteristics in the recycling of Pd-based catalysts from Heck coupling post-reaction mixture. Pure water and organic solvent permeabilities, uncharged solute permeability, swelling, and catalyst rejection studies of the membranes were conducted as well as the morphological characterization using Fourier transform infrared, field emission gun scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Characterization results showed trends consistent with the manufactures' specifications. Pure water and organic solvent fluxes generally followed the trend NF270 > NF90 > BW30 > XLE, with the solvent choice playing a major role in the separation process. Pd(PPh3)2Cl2 was well rejected by almost all membranes in 2-propanol; however, XLE rejects Pd(OAc)2 better at high pressure in acetonitrile. Our study, therefore, revealed that the separation and reuse of the two catalysts by NF90 at 10 bar resulted in 97% and 49% product yields with 52% and 10% catalyst retention for Pd(OAc)2 while Pd(PPh3)2Cl2. gave 87% and 6% yields with 58% and 36% catalyst retention in the first and second cycles, respectively. Considering, the influence of membrane–solute interactions in Pd-catalyst rejection, a careful selection of the polymeric membrane and solvent, a satisfactory separation, and recovery can be achieved.


Increased interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) production is implicated in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in animal models. Although previous studies showed that HCC patients had higher serum IL‐6 level at the time of diagnosis, it is unclear if the cytokine contributes to the development of HCC or is just a reaction to cancer. To address this question, we performed a nested case‐control study. Consecutive chronic hepatitis B patients were recruited from 1997 to 2000 and followed till 2008. Profiling of 27 cytokines, chemokines and growth factors was performed at baseline, date of peak alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level and the last visit. Thirty‐seven patients developed HCC at a median follow‐up of 62 months (interquartile range: 41–110). Serum IL‐6 was higher in patients with HCC than controls both during peak ALT and at the last visit (both p = 0.02). Patients with IL‐6 above 7 pg/ml during peak ALT had increased risk of HCC or death (adjusted hazard ratio 3.0; 95% confidence interval 1.2, 7.8; p = 0.02). The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of this cutoff to predict future HCC development were 70%, 73%, 72% and 71%, respectively. Combination of IL‐6 and AFP improved the sensitivity in diagnosing HCC or predicting future HCC development. In conclusion, high serum IL‐6 level predates the development of HCC in chronic hepatitis B patients, and has moderate accuracy in predicting future cancer. This may assist clinicians in selecting high‐risk patients for HCC surveillance program. © 2009 UICC


The spread spectrum acquisition and tracking performance for the Shuttle S -band and Ku -band communication links are analyzed and compared to test results. The S -band link requirements are more severe than those of the Ku -band links, hence, different despreader designs were developed for the two systems. The S -band despreader acquires pseudonoise code lock by examining all possible code phases in half chip steps while the Ku -band despreader acquires pseudonoise code lock by continuously sweeping a tau-jitter loop. Both despreaders employ a tau-jitter loop for code tracking. The code tracking performance is computed for the tau-jitter loop and compared to that of the more complex delay lock loop.


1. In resolution WHA56.7, on the Pan African tsetse and trypanosomiasis eradication campaign, the Health Assembly called attention to the severe health problems caused by human African trypanosomiasis and the significant impairment of socioeconomic development that has followed the resurgence of the disease in both human beings and livestock. It also recognized that eradication of the tsetse fly vector was the only effective, long-term solution in fighting the disease. The DirectorGeneral was requested to report on progress made in implementing the resolution to the Executive Board at its 113th session and to the Fifty-seventh World Health Assembly.


Previous experience in Cambridge in the management of liver trauma has led to the evolution of a protocol for surgical intervention to secure control of haemorrhage from the injured liver. We report 80 cases of liver trauma including 12 who were initially managed non‐operatively; three of these subsequently required operation. Of the 80, all but five suffered blunt abdominal trauma. Perihepatic packing was used to manage 29 patients, of whom 21 were initially treated elsewhere before being transferred to Cambridge. Six of these required a hemihepatectomy at subsequent exploration. Of the 39 patients who underwent urgent laparotomy and definitive surgery, 11 (28 per cent) died; only three out of 29 (10 per cent) died after initial packing. Only one death from hepatic complications occurred after packing and subsequent transfer.


We used 16s rDNA sequences to identify novel species of cyanobacteria beneath translucent quartz pebbles in the desert pavement on an alluvial piedmont of the Coxcomb Mountains in the southern Mojave Desert, California, USA. Transmission of light, as measured with an integrating sphere, was about 0.08% beneath the thickest pieces of quartz (25 mm) harboring these hypolithic autotrophs. The photosynthetic rate ranged from 0.1 to 1.0 p(mol-m-2.s-1 in the linear range of its response to light (PAR of 0-50 Rpmol.m-2.s-1), over which the apparent quantum-use efficiency was 0.019. Light-saturated rates of 1.7-2.7 (pmol.m-2.s-1 were recorded at light intensities of 200-400 sPmol-m-2.s-1 The hypolithic community had an upper thermal tolerance of >90'C in laboratory condi- tions. The quartz pebbles confer a modest greenhouse effect that may be important for photosynthetic activity during cool, wet, wintertime periods that prevail in the Mojave Desert.


Although, current technology enables an inexpensive massive production of sensors, it raises numerous challenges on the protocols needed to interact with these sensors efficiently. Several techniques have been proposed to address each of these challenges individually (i.e. localization, clustering, routing, aggregation ... etc). Instead of solving each of these problems individually facing the same common challenges with each problem, we propose to construct what we call a network skeleton that is constructed immediately after network deployment and provides a topology that makes the network more tractable. The skeleton provides sensors with coarse localization information that enables them to associate their sensory data with the geographic location in which the data was measured. Moreover, it promotes a geographic routing scheme that simplifies data communication across the network through skeleton sensors. By hypothetically tiling the deployment area using identical hexagons, the construction algorithm clusters sensors based on their locations into hexagons. Skeleton sensors are chosen to be the closest sensors to the centers of these hexagons. Simulation results show that the accuracy of the proposed protocol to establish the skeleton is sufficient to make the approach applicable for most WSN applications.


Introduction While the igneous rocks of the Boston basin have been the subject of considerable investigation and discussion, the volcanics of the limited portion of the basin drained by the Neponset river have received little attention. No petrographic study has been made of these volcanics. Recently Professor W. O. Crosby afforded the writer an opportunity to visit this district and to collect specimens, and further encouraged a more detailed study of the material collected. The general geology of the region has been investigated by Professor Crosby and is quite aside from the purpose of this paper. A brief sketch of the results of the investigation,* so far as they have appeared, may not, however, be out of place. Structure of the Region The prevailing rock is a conglomerate and the prevailing structure is anticlinal. Along the northern margin of the belt the conglomerate dips to the north under a slate, . . .


The relative paucity of receptors for the commonly used adenovirus serotype 5 in many cancer types undermines the efficacy of Ad5-based approach for cancer gene therapy. We have previously shown that coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) is expressed at decreased levels in several primary head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines established from tumor samples and that retargeting adenoviral infection to the CD46 receptor using the Ad5/35 hybrid virus results in highly efficient transfection of these cells. We sought to examine the effect of this retargeting in the context of the conditionally replicating adenovirus (CRAD) approach. By subjecting the viral E1A gene under the regulation of human telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter we produced Ad5/35-TERT, a transductionally targeted CRAD. The anti-tumor efficacy of this virus was tested in two primary HNSCC cell lines, chosen to represent high (55.2%) and low (3.2%) CAR expression levels. In vitro experiments demonstrated that Ad5/35-TERT is significantly more effective in killing primary HNSCC cells than the non-targeted Ad5-TERT. The difference between the two viruses was clearly more pronounced in HNSCC cells with low CAR expression. In an in vivo experiment using a subcutaneous HNSCC mouse model Ad5/35-TERT was more effective than Ad5-TERT in both high- and low-CAR HNSCC cells. These results demonstrate that enhanced transfection by hybrid virus strategy results in an increased anti-tumor efficacy when using CRADs. The effect is especially distinctive in target cells with low CAR expression.


Localization is a critical problem in the research of intelligent vehicles. Traditional vision based methods suffer from reliable problems in outdoor environment, especially in complicated urban areas. This paper proposes a novel approach to localize the position of a vehicle with respect to a global map, based on the texture of the ground where the vehicle moves. Images of the ground texture are obtained from a camera viewing downward fixed on the bottom of the vehicle. Thus, the vehicle actuates like a big optical mouse. Global localization is achieved by map matching using ICP (iterative closest point) algorithm. M-estimator is applied in the ICP algorithm to improve the robustness to noises. Odometry data and UKF (unscented Kalman filter) are utilized to address the local minimum problem in ICP and to improve the accuracy. Experimental results with both synthetic and real data prove the reliability and high accuracy of the proposed approach.


This paper reports a radial-contour-mode micromechanical disk resonator for radio frequency applications. This disk resonator with a gold plated layer as the electrodes, was prepared on a silicon-on-insulator wafer, which is supported by an anchor on another silicon wafer through Au-Au thermo-compression bonding. The gap between the disk and the surrounding gold electrodes is 100 nm. The radius of the disk is 20 μm and the thickness is 4.5 μm. In results, the resonator shows a resonant frequency of 143 MHz and a quality factor of 5600 in vacuum.