In order to overcome the high computational complexity of beamlet tree-structure algorithm, the paper proposes an improved algorithm and applies it to pavement crack detection, thereby; solving the problem of pavement crack detection which has the disadvantages of poor noise immunity and inaccurate test results. First, the pavement crack image is rectified by multiplicative factors to eliminate the influence of non-uniform background illumination. Then, the image is transferred to the binary image by Otsu's threshold segmentation algorithm. At last, based on discrete Beamlet transform and integrating multi-scale tree structure of beamlet itself, extract pavement crack from the binary image by using the beamlet tree-structured algorithm, which change a "bottom to top" strategy to look for the optimal value of objective function into a "top to bottom" searching process. Therefore, the proposed method reduces calculation complexity and time. Experimental results show that the proposed method can quickly extract crack from the complex pavement background and noises. Moreover, it keeps the continuity of the crack as well.

 Key words: Beamlet transform, tree-structured algorithm, Otsu algorithm, crack detection.


The unbinding and adhesion of bunches of fluid membranes, interacting via attractive intermolecular forces, are considered. On the basis of scaling arguments it is argued that the nature of the unbinding transition should depend on both the number of membranes involved and the ratios of their rigidities. The results of extensive Monte Carlo simulations of three fluid membranes are presented. The data show that the unbinding of three membranes proceeds differently from the previously studied case of two membranes. At the transition the various length scales are found to diverge as power laws with exponents depending on the ratio of rigidities of the membranes. The conclusions drawn from the simulations are in qualitative agreement with the scaling picture.


A novel technique for transmission of information through visible light communication (VLC) is developed in this study. A lightemitting diode is used as the light source at the transmitting side to send the encrypted information. At the receiving side, a light sensor, OPT-101, is used to receive the light signals that carry the encrypted information.(e Arduino Due microcontroller board is used for digital signal processing at both the transmitting and receiving sides. Furthermore, to prevent the transmitted message from being intercepted, two chaotic systems, a master and a slave, with a synchronization controller are designed to obtain the transmitted audio signals.(e design enables not only a VLC systemwith the light transmission path as a straight line (so that data cannot be stolen) but also the encryption of the audio signals with the chaotic system (Rössler system) to enhance data transmission security. (e effectiveness of this system is then experimentally verified.


When a bank is burdened with Non Performing Loans, an underinvestment problem may arise. Banking Authorities often take the initiative to segregate these Non Performing Loans into a Bad Bank (BB), so that the remaining part of the bank, the Good Bank, finds it profitable to make new loans. These BBs typically involve an injection of public funds. We propose a different type of bank break up that does not require any government subsidy. The idea is to give to the bank's shareholders the option to create a BB on their own, and finance it ex-ante by requiring the bank to issue a bail-inable bond that is drawn down when the option is exercised. No tax payer money is involved. Such a restructuring differs from the bail-in regimes in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive in the EU and the Dodd-Frank Act in the USA in that it recognizes to the bank's shareholders the information rents that result from their private information on the bank's legacy loans.


Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) techniques are widely used in many ubiquitous applications. The most important usage of RFID techniques is to read the tags within a reader's interrogation area such that the objects attached with those tags can be identified. In real practice, it is common that a tag is physically in the interrogation range, but cannot be read by the reader, due to the multipath effect and other interference. This phenomenon, namely the hidden tag problem, is a big challenge to achieve high identification rate. To address this problem, most prior works depend on empirical or measurement-based methods to tune the transmission power for readers. Such a case-by-case solution is impractical for generic implementation. In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally explore the reasons why hidden tag problem occurs. To alleviate its impact, we propose a unified and measurable model, PAL, to formulate this problem and its impact. Different from previous works, our solution is generic and fully compatible with existing EPC C1G2 protocol. The analysis and measurement based on our model can help to design and deploy RFID systems with high identification rate.


Langmuir turbulence excited by electron flows in solar wind plasmas is studied on the basis of numerical simulations. In particular, nonlinear wave decay processes involving ion-sound (IS) waves are considered in order to understand their dependence on external long-wavelength plasma density fluctuations. In the presence of inhomogeneities, it is shown that the decay processes are localized in space and, due to the differences between the group velocities of Langmuir and IS waves, their duration is limited so that a full nonlinear saturation cannot be achieved. The reflection and the scattering of Langmuir wave packets on the ambient and randomly varying density fluctuations lead to crucial effects impacting the development of the IS wave spectrum. Notably, beatings between forward propagating Langmuir waves and reflected ones result in the parametric generation of waves of noticeable amplitudes and in the amplification of IS waves. These processes, repeated at different space locations, form a series of cascades of wave energy transfer, similar to those studied in the frame of weak turbulence theory. The dynamics of such a cascading mechanism and its influence on the acceleration of the most energetic part of the electron beam are studied. Finally, the role of the decay processes in the shaping of the profiles of the Langmuir wave packets is discussed, and the waveforms calculated are compared with those observed recently on board the spacecraft Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory and WIND.


LD (laser diode) transceivers are very effective in reducing optical subscriber systems cost because they act as transmitters and receivers. This paper proposes a new transceiver switching circuit configuration, and two techniques for suppressing and canceling the discharge current effect of laser diodes. The new techniques, including mounting substrate optimization such as high-isolation and low parasitic capacitance, yield a high-performance LD transceiver module with the minimum average receiving optical power level of -37.0 dBm and a wide dynamic range of up to 25 dB for burst mode optical input at 29.0 Mb/s.


Single event transients (SETs) have become increasingly problematic for both combinational and sequential VLSI circuits in the deep submicron technology (DSM). This is due to continuously decreasing feature sizes, lower supply voltages and higher operating frequencies. Many critical applications such as biomedical, space and military electronics as well as several mainstream computing applications demand reliable circuit functionality. Therefore, the circuits used in these application must be tolerant to SEU/SET events and therefore, these circuits are designed using circuit hardening approaches. Hardening by design techniques based on increasing the amount of charge representing the bit and redundancy techniques have been used over the years. In this paper, we present a novel design strategy to reduce the impact of radiation-induced single event transients (SET) on combinational logic circuits. This design style achieves SET mitigation by using C element and strengthening the sensitive output node. In order to check the accuracy of our proposal, we compare it with others techniques for hardening radiation at the transistor level against a single event transient. Simulation results show that the proposed method has a good soft error tolerance capability as well as better noise immunity.


Existing beamforming arrays suffer from the size and cost of the RF front-end and digital back-end components. In this paper, a novel hybrid beamforming configuration for wideband receivers is introduced. The design replaces phase shifters and local oscillators (LO) with cross mixing antenna elements to maximize diversity gain. In this paper, an analytical model of the cross mixing beamformer (CMB) is first presented. Simulations are carried out showing that a maximum diversity gain can be achieved with the CMB approach. Two prototypes were implemented using 2 × 1 and 4 × 2 element arrays and tested at 2.31 GHz. Measured results show that CMB achieves coherent signal combining and can preserve the phase delay information needed for hybrid beamforming setups.


High-modulus RAE carbon fibres were placed in a resin matrix on an aluminium backing and strained. The behaviour near breaks in the fibres was examined. If the interface was weak the broken fibre ends slid back in their holes in the resin and the load in the fibre was transferred by friction at the interface over a distance of about 12 mm. The mean frictional shear force was about 6 MN m−2 (800 lbf in−2). There was little interaction between adjacent fibres in small bundles, and three-dimensional composites broke in a fibrous manner. If the interface was strong the load was transferred from broken fibres mainly elastically over a distance of about 130 μm. In bundles of a few fibres a crack in one spread to the others, and three-dimensional composites broke in a brittle manner.


We examined innate immune responses to the intracellular bacterium Rhodococcus equi and show that infection of macrophages with intact bacteria induced the rapid translocation of NF-κB and the production of a variety of proinflammatory mediators, including TNF, IL-12, and NO. Macrophages from mice deficient in MyD88 failed to translocate NF-KB and produced virtually no cytokines in response to R. equi infection, implicating a TLR pathway. TLR4 was not involved in this response, because C3H/HeJ macrophages were fully capable of responding to R. equi infection, and because RAW-264 cells transfected with a dominant negative form of TLR4 responded normally to infection by R. equi. A central role for TLR2 was identified. A TLR2 reporter cell was activated by R. equi, and RAW-264 cells transfected with a dominant negative TLR2 exhibited markedly reduced cytokine responses to R. equi. Moreover, macrophages from TLR2−/− mice exhibited diminished cytokine responses to R. equi. The role of the surface-localized R. equi lipoprotein VapA (virulence-associated protein A), in TLR2 activation was examined. Purified rVapA activated a TLR2-specific reporter cell, and it induced the maturation of dendritic cells and the production of cytokines from macrophages. Importantly, TLR2−/−-deficient but not TLR4−/−-deficient mice were found to be compromised in their ability to clear a challenge with virulent R. equi. We conclude that the efficient activation of innate immunity by R. equi may account for the relative lack of virulence of this organism in immunocompetent adults.


Schelling argues that the Kantian transcendental apparatus lacks the ability to systematically ground itself. He insists that one must account for the prior emergence of experiential reality in addition to delineating this reality's structure once constituted, and he presents his genetic model of epistemological subjectivity as a supplement completing the Kantian edifice. Although he never finally arrives at a satisfactory system of his own, Schelling repeatedly attempts, in various ways, to strike a productive compromise between transcendental and historico-genetic approaches to subjectivity. Given that contemporary thinkers are still wrangling with the problem of how to adjudicate between those who make claims regarding the existence of invariant features of subjectivity and those who reject the notion that there are non-empirical, ahistorical constants defining human cognition, Schelling's struggle with these same issues promises to furnish today's readers with instructive lessons about the potentials and pitfalls of the endeavor to resolve this impasse.


In mobile radio systems, antenna diversity is used to combat fading and reduce the impact of cochannel interference. In this paper, we analyze the performance of L-branch equal-gain combining receivers over correlated nonidentically distributed Nakagami-m fading channels, in the presence of multiple identical cochannel interferers and additive white Gaussian noise. The performance criterion considered is the average output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, which is obtained in closed form for both independent and correlative fading. Due to the simple form of the derived expressions, they readily allow numerical evaluation for cases of practical interest.


Note: This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming Handbook of Cluster Analysis, Hennig et al. (2015). For definitions of basic clustering methods and some further methodology, other chapters of the Handbook are referred to. To read this version of the paper without the Handbook, some knowledge of cluster analysis methodology is required. The aim of this chapter is to provide a framework for all the decisions that are required when carrying out a cluster analysis in practice. A general attitude to clustering is outlined, which connects these decisions closely to the clustering aims in a given application. From this point of view, the chapter then discusses aspects of data processing such as the choice of the representation of the objects to be clustered, dissimilarity design, transformation and standardization of variables. Regarding the choice of the clustering method, it is explored how different methods correspond to different clustering aims. Then an overview of benchmarking studies comparing different clustering methods is given, as well as an outline of theoretical approaches to characterize desiderata for clustering by axioms. Finally, aspects of cluster validation, i.e., the assessment of the quality of a clustering in a given dataset, are discussed, including finding an appropriate number of clusters, testing homogeneity, internal and external cluster validation, assessing clustering stability and data visualization.


In the 21 st century, Rheumatic fever (RF) and Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are neglected diseases of marginalized communities. Globally, RHD remains the most-common cardiovascular disease in young people aged <25 years. Although RF and RHD have been almost eradicated in areas with established economies, migration from low-income to high-income settings might be responsible for a new burden of RHD in high-income countries. Globally, the prevalence of rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) has declined sharply but, in developing countries, RF is still aleading cause of heart disease and, consequently, death in children and young adults. In 2005, it was estimated that over 2.4 million children aged 5-14 years were having RHD globally and 79% of all these cases were from lessdeveloped countries. Cardiovasc. j. 2018; 10(2): 206-211


ABSTRACT This work presents an alternative methodology for monitoring flight performance during airline operations using the available inboard instrumentation system. This method tries to reduce the disadvantages of the traditional specific range monitoring technique where instrumentation noise and cruise stabilisation conditions affect the quality of the performance monitoring results. The proposed method consists of using an unscented Kalman filter for aircraft performance identification using Newton's flight dynamic equations in the body X, Y and Z axis. The use of the filtering technique reduces the effect of instrumentation and process noise, enhancing the reliability of the performance results. Besides the better quality of the monitoring process, using the proposed technique, additional results that are not possible to predict with the specific range method are identified during the filtering process. An example of these possible filtered results that show the advantages of this proposed methodology are the aircraft fuel flow offsets, as predicted in the specific range method, but also other important aircraft performance parameters as the aircraft lift and drag coefficients (CL and CD), sideslip angle (β) and wind speeds, giving the operator a deeper understanding of its aircraft operational status and the possibility to link the operational monitoring results to aircraft maintenance scheduling. This work brings a cruise stabilisation example where the selected performance monitoring parameters such as fuel flow factors, lift and drag bias, winds and sideslip angle are identified using only the inboard instrumentation such as the GPS/inertial sensors, a calibrated anemometric system and the angle-of-attack vanes relating each flight condition to a specific aircraft performance monitoring result. The results show that the proposed method captures the performance parameters by the use of the Kalman filter without the need of a strict stabilisation phase as it is recommended in the traditional specific range method, giving operators better flexibility when analysing and monitoring fleet performance.


Background: L-asparaginase is an anti-neoplastic agent used in the chemotherapy of lymphoblastic leukemia. Nowadays, this enzyme is derived from bacterial sources. The objective of this study was isolation and molecular identification of L- asparaginase producing bacteria from marine environment in Persian Gulf.

Methods: 53 marine bacteria were isolated from sediment and seawater samples obtained from Persian Gulf in Hor- mozgan, Iran. The isolated strains were screened for L- asparaginase activity. Production of L-asparaginase was car- ried out in medium M9. Based on the enzyme activity among 20 strains producing L-asparaginase, 4 isolates with high L- asparaginase activity were selected and identified base on nucleotide sequence of 16S rRNA gene.

Results: 4 bacteria isolated were identified as Pseudomonas strains and four strains of Bacillus sp. andPseudomonas sp.(PG01) showed the highest productivity of 1.6 IU, and Bacillus sp. (PG04) showed least productivity of 0.67 IU.

Conclusion: This study revealed that bacteria isolated from Persian Gulf may be potential source of enzyme L- asparaginase and Pseudomonas sp. …


Solar photo Voltaic (SPV) systems based grid interfacing systems involve two stage power conversions. This conversion requires Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) based boost converter that can supply a constant DC link voltage with a SPV as its input as the first stage. The second stage conversion involves a three-level Voltage Source Converter (VSC) that serving as PV inverter which feed power from the boost converter to the grid. To meet the grid requirements the voltage at the Common Point of Interconnection (CPI), the voltage of the inverter must be made equal to the voltage of CPI. This can be done adjusting DC link voltage of stage one of the converter. This can be achieved by using anadaptive feed forward Proportional and integral Controller (PI). The advantage of this controller is that it improves dynamic response, reduces the switching losses and provides robust response under grid voltage variations. The performance of the system is verified with the help of MATLAB based simulation studies and the case studies are presented.


Renal involvement is well described in patients with mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (MCLNS), or Kawasaki disease and is manifested by mild azotemia, hematuria, pyuria or cylinduria, and more often, proteinuria. Renal morphology during the acute stages of the illness has never been reported. In this paper we describe the renal histopathologic changes in a child with MCLNS. The glomerular histopathologic findings suggest immune complex damage to the kidney as a possible mechanism of nephrotoxicity in MCLNS. Presence of kidney lesions, which speak in favor of the injurious role of immune complexes in MLCNS may be relevant to the understanding of the pathogenesis of the vascular lesions that are characteristic of this disease.


Amorphous, hydrolytically degradable, multi-phase block copolymer networks were obtained by photocrosslinking. The macrodimethacrylate precursors were prepared by ring-opening polymerisation (ROP). The aim of this investigation to tailor the materials' elasticity in the temporary shape could be achieved. Stress-controlled, cyclic thermomechanical tensile experiments showed the materials' excellent shape-memory properties with strain recovery rates up to 99 %. The presented amorphous, biodegradable polymer network system with shape-memory presents a new generation of multi-functional biomaterials enabling applications in keyhole surgery or controlled drug release.


An increasing awareness of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as preventable causes of cardiac failure among large numbers of patients surviving cancer has contributed to the development of cardiooncology as a subspecialty. Perhaps the most important driver has been that the aging of the population undergoing cancer therapy has provided an increasing number of patients at risk for the development of heart failure. Cardio-oncology has many unresolved questions. In this article the 6 most important unresolved issues requiring additional research are discussed: (1) the frequency of overt heart failure as a manifestation of cardiotoxicity; (2) the optimal diagnostic approach to cardiotoxicity in the context of large numbers of patients requiring repeated testing; (3) the need for better risk prediction; (4) alternatives to the use of ejection fraction as the cornerstone of evaluation; (5) definition of the best strategy for protection; and (6) the need for evidence-based algorithms to guide late follow-up. When this evidence base is mature, we will have a better understanding of the magnitude of the problem of cardiotoxicity, who best to screen (and how), who justifies the use of cardioprotective therapy, and how all at-risk patients should be followed over the decades following cancer therapy.


The research paper deals with the formation of new scientific solutions concerning evaluation of the development of the agroindustrial complex, its role in ensuring sustainable development of the national economy, identifying problems and developing ways to solve them in the current conditions of the functioning of agrarian production in the countries of Eastern Europe. The research emphasizes the key importance of agrarian production to ensure the food and economic security of Eastern European countries. It has been revealed that the agroindustrial complex plays a significant role in the countries of Eastern Europe, especially as concerns Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania. There are problems with the formation of effective state support of agrarian production in the countries selected for study, especially as regards the countries of Eastern Europe, which are not members of the European Union. The methodology for assessing the development of the agroindustrial complex in Eastern European countries was developed and proposed for use, as well as calculations on its basis were made, which allowed to divide all countries of this region into three groups: countries - outsiders (Ukraine, Moldova, Russia); countries, where the development of agrarian industry is of concern (Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria); countries that need to improve the agrarian sector of the national economy (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland). A complex of agrarian production problems was identified for each of the Eastern European countries, and the key ways of their elimination were proposed, which are aimed at: reforming the market of agricultural land; stimulating the development of farms; increasing efficiency of state support of agrarian production; intensification of development and introduction of innovations in the agrarian sector; the transformation of the structure of the agro commodities market, including the optimization of their export and import.


ULSTER BRANCH. AT a meeting held on January 30th, Dr. ST. GEORGE in the chair, Mr. FULLERTON read notes of a case of severe gastric pain due to extensive perigastric adhesions successfully treated by gastro-enterostomy, and showed the patient. Dr. DARLING (Lurgan) read notes of a case of suppuration of the frontal sinus, and showed an enormous mass of polypi removed from the greatly dilated nasal cavity as well as from the frontal cells. Dr. CECIL SBAW showed a series of patients suffering from perforating wounds of the eyeball, and made some remarks on the comparative risks of sympathetic ophthalmia supervening in the different cases, and on the prognosis as regarded vision. Two of his cases had recovered from apparently almost hopeless wounds of the globe, and he urged the desirability of giving these cases every chance and not enucleating the eye in too great a hurry. Dr. LAWLESS (Armagh) described a case of dislocation of the humerus in a lunatic, which was mistaken for a fracture of the surgical neck, and showed the specimen. Mr. HANNA showed an improved Sachs's lamp, and demonstrated its use. Sir JOHN BYERS read a short communication on the indications for emptying the uterus for the pernicious vomiting of pregnancy. He said of the cases of vomiting of pregnancy that might be called severe or pernicious there were two types: First, the neurotic or hysterical, to which special attention had been drawn in 1890 by Kaltenbach; and secondly, what was now styled the toxaemic, in reference to which Matthews Duncan in 1879 made a very happy suggestion in thinking that some of them were examples of the early stage of acute yellow atrophy of the liver. Recent views seemed to indicate that there were marked pathological changes in the liver in these cases, entirely absent in the neurotic type; and he wished to bring before the members of the Branch a clinical test which might distinguish these cases, which he first saw pointed out by Professor Whitridge Williams of the Johns Hopkins University. It was the marked increase in the percentage of nitrogen put out as ammonia compared with the total nitrogen of the urine, so that instead of being, say, from 3 to 5 per cent. as normal, it might rise to 16, 32, or 45 per cent. Sir John Byers advised that in all cases of severe vomiting of pregnancy the urine should be examined, and if the ammonia coefficient remained normal (say 3 to 5 per cent.) then no interference was necessary, while if the amount of nitrogen put out as ammonia rose to 10 per cent., it was wiser to empty the uterus. The paper was discussed by Drs. CALWELL and DARLING.


This paper presents building one-parameter motion by complex numbers on a
time scale. Firstly, we assumed that E and E′ were moving in a fixed
time scale complex plane and {0, e1,e2} and {0', e'1,e'2}  were their orthonormal frames, respectively. By
using complex numbers, we investigated the delta calculus equations of the motion
on T. Secondly, we gave
the velocities and their union rule on the time scale. Finally, by using the delta-derivative,
we got interesting results and theorems for the instantaneous rotation pole and
the pole curves (trajectory). In kinematics, investigating one-parameter motion
by complex numbers is important for simplifying motion calculation. In this study,
our aim is to obtain an equation of motion by using complex numbers on the time
scale.


When assessing the risk and hazard of a non-pharmaceutical compound, the first step is determining acute toxicity, including toxicity following inhalation. Inhalation is a major exposure route for humans, and the respiratory epithelium is the first tissue that inhaled substances directly interact with. Acute inhalation toxicity testing for regulatory purposes is currently performed only in rats and/or mice according to OECD TG403, TG436, and TG433 test guidelines. Such tests are biased by the differences in the respiratory tract architecture and function across species, making it difficult to draw conclusions on the potential hazard of inhaled compounds in humans. Research efforts have been therefore focused on developing alternative, human-relevant models, with emphasis on the creation of advanced In vitro models. To date, there is no In vitro model that has been accepted by regulatory agencies as a stand-alone replacement for inhalation toxicity testing in animals. Here, we provide a brief introduction to current OECD test guidelines for acute inhalation toxicity, the interspecies differences affecting the predictive value of such tests, and the current regulatory efforts to advance alternative approaches to animal-based inhalation toxicity studies. We then list the steps that should allow overcoming the current challenges in validating In vitro alternatives for the successful replacement of animal-based inhalation toxicity studies. These steps are inclusive and descriptive, and should be detailed when adopting in house-produced 3D cell models for inhalation tests. Hence, we provide a checklist of key parameters that should be reported in any future scientific publications for reproducibility and transparency.


Polarization is one of the inherent characteristics. Because the surface of the target structure, internal structure, and the angle of incident light are different, the earth's surface and any target in atmosphere under optical interaction process will have their own characteristic nature of polarization. Polarimetric characteristics of radiation energy from the targets are used in polarization remote sensing detection as detective information. Polarization remote sensing detection can get the seven-dimensional information of targets in complicated backgrounds, detect well-resolved outline of targets and low-reflectance region of objectives, and resolve the problems of atmospheric detection and identification camouflage detection which the traditional remote sensing detection can not solve, having good foreground in applications. This paper introduces the development of polarization information in the remote sensing detection from the following four aspects. The rationale of polarization remote sensing detection is the base of polarization remote sensing detection, so it is firstly introduced. Secondly, the present researches on equipments that are used in polarization remote sensing detection are particularly and completely expatiated. Thirdly, the present exploration of theoretical simulation of polarization remote sensing detection is well detailed. Finally, the authors present the applications research home and abroad of the polarization remote sensing detection technique in the fields of remote sensing, atmospheric sounding, sea surface and underwater detection, biology and medical diagnosis, astronomical observation and military, summing up the current problems in polarization remote sensing detection. The development trend of polarization remote sensing detection technology in the future is pointed out in order to provide a reference for similar studies.


Silicates represent a broad group of industrially important ceramic materials. The only silicate that is widely used for plasma spraying is zirconium silicate. Other silicates are generally not used, although they can offer interesting application properties. This paper presents results with other silicates: synthetic wollastonite, stoichiometric mullite, cordierite, and steatite. The input materials were produced in selected sizes from ceramic in industrial quality and applied with the water-stabilized plasma spray system PAL160 to form free-standing panels. The morphology of the microstructure, the thermal expansion, the bulk and filling densities, the open and closed porosity, the phase, and the chemical changes were evaluated. Paper includes a German-language abstract.


In order to model uncertainties and achieve the required reliability, Reliability Based Design Optimization (RBDO) has evolved as a dominant design tool. Many methods have been introduced in solving the RBDO problem. However, the computational expense associated with the probabilistic constraint evaluation still limits the applicability of the RBDO to practical engineering problems. In this paper, a Two-Level Approximation method (TLA) is proposed. At the first level, a reduced second order approximation is used for better optimization solution; at the second level a linear approximation is used for faster reliability assessment. The optimal solution is obtained interatively. The proposed method is tested on certain numerical examples, and results obtained are compared to evaluate the cost-effectiveness.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


This study examines the place of new media in the maintance of Burmese diasporic identities. Political oppression in Burma, the experience of exile and the importance of opposition movements in the borderlands make the Burmese diaspora a unique and complex group. This study uses tapoetethakot, an indigenous Karen research methodology, to explore aspects of new media use and identity among a group of Burmese refugees in Auckland, New Zealand. Common among all participants was a twin desire to share stories of suffering and to have that pain recognised. Participants in this project try to maintain their language and cultural practices, with the intent of returning to a democratic Burma in the future. New media supports this, by providing participants with access to opposition news reports of human rights abuses and suffering; through making cultural and linguistic artifacts accessible, and through providing an easy means of communication with friends and family in Burma and the borderlands.


The system introduced in the paper estimates the 3D position of a human's head and face by using the depth from focus method. First the system locates the human's head and face by using motion detection, Hough transform and a statistical color model. Then by changing pan, tilt and zoom of camera we put the face in the center of the camera's field of view. Then we use information from focusing the ring of an autofocus camera to measure the distance between the human face and the camera. By having information about the absolute position of the camera and its pan and tilt angles we can compute the absolute position of the person in the room. In the case of a person with small motions, this system measures distance with less than a 10 cm error. The measurable distance range is from 90 cm up to 340 cm.


The study investigates the impact of debt securities issuance on the equity market behavior of the issuers. Event study results reveal that overall debt securities issuers experience an increase in equity return and a decrease in systematic risk, while total risk remains unchanged. The further examination of the 100 debt securities issuing companies finds significant differences between hybrid and non-hybrid debt securities issues. Hybrid debt securities experience a significant increase in equity return, decline in systematic risk and increase in total risk. Non-hybrid debt securities issues, however, are found to have no impact on equity market behavior The findings of the study imply that the general decline in systematic risk for debt securities issuing companies could motivate the issuance of debt securities, particularly the hybrid type, and thus improve market liquidity. Further non-hybrid debt securities may not be the appropriate alternative for sending a market signal as no impact on market behavior is found following the issuance.


As in numerous other places all over the world, unconventional instruments have come to the fore in Hungary since 2010 in fiscal policy and since 2013 in the monetary space. Changes in public finances have revealed the need for the writing of a scientific taxonomy to support practical mechanisms and its inclusion in the university curriculum. The main framework of a scientific taxonomy of Hungarian public finances, a taxonomy placed in a Hungarian historical and in an international context, is given in Public Finances and the Study of the General Government, Volume I, while a more detailed study of public finances, including financial and governmental management, taxation and control, is given in the volume entitled Fiscal Policy and the Management of Public Finances. Below is a review of these extremely significant books and the scientific taxonomy they reveal.


To analyze the clinical features of AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS) patients in Xinjiang Autonomous Region and the impact of CD4 (+)T lymphocyte count, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and systemic chemotherapy on the prognosis. The clinical information of 80 AIDS-KS patients admitted in Sixth People's Hospital of Xinjiang Autonomous Region from January 2008 to August 2014 was retrospectively reviewed. Population characteristics, extent of lesions, KS progress, CD4 (+)T lymphocyte count, combined opportunistic infections, treatment and prognosis of these patients were analyzed. The 80 patients were divided into five groups according to treatment methods, including HAART, HAART + chemotherapy, chemotherapy + HAART, chemotherapy, and untreated groups. The efficacy and prognosis of the five groups were compared. Among the 80 patients, 74 (92.50%) patients were Uygur. The average age was 39.5±9.9 years and male-to-female ratio was 3:1. The median of baseline CD4 (+)T lymphocyte count was 152.5 cells/μL and the interquartile was 233.25 cells/μL. CD4 (+)T lymphocyte counts were significantly increased after treatment in HAART, HAART + chemotherapy, and chemotherapy + HAART groups (P < 0.05). CD4 (+)T lymphocyte count in chemotherapy groups was significantly reduced after treatment (P < 0.05). The untreated group had the highest mortality rate (33.3%). In HAART group, KS-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory response syndrome (KS-IRIS) appeared in 45.5% cases and 2 death cases were caused by KS-IRIS. In Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the incidence of AIDS-KS is high in young Uygur male people. HAART followed by chemotherapy has ideal efficacy, reduces the incidence of KS-IRIS and improves the prognosis.


Performance of distant-talking speech recognizers in real noisy environments can be increased using a microphone array. In this work we propose an N-best extension of the Limabeam algorithm, which is a likelihood-based adaptive lter -and-sum beamformer. We show that this algorithm can be used to optimize the noisy acoustic features using in parallel the N-best hypothesized transcriptions generated at a rst recognition step. The parallel and independent optimizations increase the likelihood of minimal word error rate hypotheses and the resulting N-best hypotheses list is automatically re-ranked. Results show improvements over delay-and-sum beamforming and Unsupervised Limabeam on a real database with considerable amount of noise and limited reverberation.


It seems established that infinitives used in declarative infinitive clauses (DeclarInfCl) convey relative temporality in Classical Greek, with the aorist infinitive referring to anteriority, the present infinitive to simultaneity, and the future infinitive to posteriority. In Hellenistic/Roman Greek and in Early Byzantine Greek, by comparison, DeclarInfCl do not display the same variety of infinitive forms. These periods appear to avoid the aorist infinitive while manifesting a very common use of perfect infinitives and stative present infinitives in DeclarInfCl. These tendencies stand in a complex relation to other developments in the post-Classical period. This paper accounts for what appears to be the decline of the aorist infinitive in DeclarInfCl, claiming that this phenomenon is most likely related to the perfect infinitive adopting the function of conveying anteriority in DeclarInfCl.


textabstractCutting advertising budgets has traditionally been a popular reaction by companies around the globe when faced with a slacking economy. Still, anecdotal evidence suggests the presence of considerable cross-country variability in the cyclical sensitivity of advertising expenditures. We conduct a systematic investigation into the cyclical sensitivity of advertising expenditures in 37 countries across all continents, covering up to 25 years and four key media: magazines, newspapers, radio and television.
While our findings confirm that advertising moves in the same direction as the general economic activity, we also show that advertising is considerably more sensitive to business-cycle fluctuations than the economy as a whole, with an average co-movement elasticity of 1.4. Interestingly, advertising's cyclical dependence is systematically related to the cultural context in which companies operate. Advertising behaves less cyclically in countries high on long-term orientation and power distance, while advertising is more cyclical in countries high on uncertainty avoidance. Further, advertising is more sensitive to the business cycle in countries characterized by significant stock-market pressure and few foreign-owned multinationals. These results have important strategic implications for both global advertisers and their ad agencies.


A ten-year-old miniature Dachshund dog was presented for chronic paroxysmal sneezing and unilateral nasal discharge. Extraction of the maxillary right fourth premolar tooth had been performed 2-weeks prior to the onset of clinical signs. Multiple diagnostic modalities were used to confirm the diagnosis and determine that the etiology was a nasally displaced mesiopalatal tooth root. A limited lateral rhinotomy was performed to remove the root. Postoperative examination 1-month following surgery indicated resolution of the clinical signs and uncomplicated healing of the surgery site. Oral examination indicated normal healing of the surgery site with continued absence of clinical signs 6-months after treatment.


Palliative care concerns care of those who are dying and when cure is no longer an option. The nurse´s job is then to support the patient and to give care of good qualitive so that the patient will experience optimal quality of life. The aim of this literature review was to describe how the nurse can prepare herself/himself for the meeting with both the patient and close ones also to describe a nurse´s need of support and education. Nine studies have been used as a foundation for this literature review. Four headlines have been crystallized out of the result, a) the view of death b) the impact of the meeting c) the importance of support d) the importance of preparation and education. The nurse experiences uncertainty in the meeting with the dying patient and his/her close ones and wishes both more support as well as more education. To sum up, this literature review can develope questions in the different units. These questions can then contribute to the developement of support and education, especially within areas that cares for dying patients.


Delayed Detached-Eddy Simulation was conducted to investigate surface pressure coefficient distribution and surface pressure fluctuation over an ONERA 70-degree delta wing at a high angle of attack. Time-averaged surface pressure distribution is directly affected by the primary vortices, whereas the pressure fluctuation is influenced by the unsteady fluctuating boundary layer over the surface. And pressure coefficient, velocity, pressure fluctuation, and turbulent kinetic energy were analyzed along the vortex core in order to investigate the process of vortex breakdown. Consequently, strong pressure fluctuations were found where the vortex breakdown was occurred at x~620 mm. The turbulent kinetic energy abruptly increased and followed after the vortex breakdown.


A survey of small-size contractors in Jeju was conducted to investigate college graduate's CAD (computer aided design) competence. Most of small-size contractors use CAD softwares to review and update drawings submitted from an architect. This research analyzed the curriculum of the architectural engineering in several national universities. The CAD classes have 4 or 6 hours per week and use AutoCAD primarily. This research proposes that a CAD class needs at least 6 hours per week, 2D drawing is the main theme in the curriculum, and exercises to make 3D models are also included in the CAD class. The improved methods, Internet cafe and real time feedbacks using a smartphone, to evaluate the reports and exercise results are necessary.


Protection of intellectual property and sensitive data on customers pose significant challenges in the current economy. The institutional setting for cybersecurity differs tremendously by country. In China, the government plays a central role in overseeing cybersecurity. In the US, however, cybersecurity protection has been primarily left up to individual companies, with regulations focused more on disclosure of cyber events rather than on their prevention. This paper explores differences in qualitative disclosures reflecting cybersecurity awareness between Chinese firms that cross-list in the US and their US domestic counterparts. We argue that the Chinese firms frame disclosures based upon the context of the Chinese institutional setting. Consistent with the strong regulatory framework in China externalizing cybersecurity and thus reducing the need to disclose individual company cybersecurity awareness, we find that Chinese firms have lower levels of cybersecurity disclosure. Market valuation of this qualitative disclosure is higher for Chinese cross-listed firms than for US firms, suggesting that the market favorably views Chinese firm disclosures that communicate a greater level of internalized cybersecurity awareness. To further explore the effect of institutional setting on market valuation of cybersecurity awareness, we perform an event study for the time period surrounding arrest of Huawei's CFO. This event potentially challenged the effectiveness of Chinese cybersecurity policies since cybersecurity weaknesses at the company were highlighted. We find a negative stock market reaction to the event, but only for Chinese companies. Our results thus provide evidence that the market's view of company cybersecurity awareness is sensitive to changes in perceptions of the company's institutional setting.


Ecosystem management can contribute to climate change mitigation by storing carbon and reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Ecosystem management can also help people adapt to climate variations: e.g., forests regulate microclimate and water, and mangroves buffer climatic impacts in coastal areas. Nature-based solutions have been integrated into climate change policies in many countries in Latin America. For example, new approaches, such as climate-smart landscapes, have been proposed and tested for addressing the multiple challenges of adaptation and mitigation and the tradeoffs between them through ecosystem management. Although there is some evidence that nature-based solutions are increasingly being incorporated in national policies, knowledge is missing on how they have been conceptualized and how paradigms have evolved. Scholars in the Transformative Adaptation Research Alliance have proposed a framework for analyzing nature-based adaptation based on three pillars: adaptation services (contribution of current and future ecosystems to adaptation); value, rules and knowledge (adaptation decision contexts that enable transformational change), and adaptation pathways (metaphor of the journeys of social-ecological systems into uncertain futures). We extend this framework (originally focusing on adaptation) to nature-based solutions and apply it for studying the evolution of climate policies in several Latin America countries, through the review of national policy documents (e.g. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans), which inform about national priorities, concepts and perspectives regarding adaptation and mitigation. With content analysis methods, we identify key attributes of the conceptualization and operationalization of nature-based solutions, including knowledge on the role of ecosystem services, values and decision-making contexts that enable or constrain transformation, and mechanisms for implementing transformative pathways. The analysis leads to a typology of framings of nature-based solutions and highlights how framings have evolved over time in policy. (Resume d'auteur)


ABSTRACT Protein synthesis is initiated universally with the amino acid methionine. In Escherichia coli, studies with anticodon sequence mutants of the initiator methionine tRNA have shown that protein synthesis can be initiated with several other amino acids. In eukaryotic systems, however, a yeast initiator tRNA aminoacylated with isoleucine was found to be inactive in initiation in mammalian cell extracts. This finding raised the question of whether methionine is the only amino acid capable of initiation of protein synthesis in eukaryotes. In this work, we studied the activities, in initiation, of four different anticodon sequence mutants of human initiator tRNA in mammalian COS1 cells, using reporter genes carrying mutations in the initiation codon that are complementary to the tRNA anticodons. The mutant tRNAs used are aminoacylated with glutamine, methionine, and valine. Our results show that in the presence of the corresponding mutant initiator tRNAs, AGG and GUC can initiate protein synthesis in COS1 cells with methionine and valine, respectively. CAG initiates protein synthesis with glutamine but extremely poorly, whereas UAG could not be used to initiate protein synthesis with glutamine. We discuss the potential applications of the mutant initiator tRNA-dependent initiation of protein synthesis with codons other than AUG for studying the many interesting aspects of protein synthesis initiation in mammalian cells.


In this review we propose to compare the results obtained from roentgen therapy in a group of 125 cases of proved primary bronchiogenic carcinoma with another group of 125 proved cases in which neither roentgen therapy nor any other form of therapy was employed. Considered here, a proved case will be regarded as one in which tissue from the tumor on microscopic examination has shown the presence of carcinoma. In all cases in our study there was microscopic confirmation of the clinical diagnosis. This point is important, because we know from experience that to make a differential diagnosis between primary carcinoma of the bronchus and other types of pulmonary lesions is often difficult. Although roentgenologic examination of the thorax is of the utmost importance in the diagnosis of this condition, it is well known that considerable inaccuracy exists in precise differentiation between primary carcinoma and other lesions by this method.


The effect of electric dipole-dipole interaction on localized phonons is studied. It is shown that localized states are destroyed however weak the interaction is. Instead of localized excitations critical modes are conjectured.


The ability to continuously monitor workload in a real-world environment would have important implications for the offline design of human machine interfaces as well as the real-time improvement of interaction between humans and machines. We explored the usefulness of features derived from electroencephalography (EEG) spectra, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) hemoglobin concentration, and their combination, under data acquisition and processing conditions that could be applied to real-time usage. We simultaneously recorded from eight EEG and three NIRS channels during different workload conditions of the N-back task (N = 0, 1, 2). EEG and NIRS data were classified independently, and in combination. EEG could be used to reliably classify workload condition for most subjects and NIRS for half of them. NIRS tended to contribute to classification accuracy when combined with EEG in some subjects. We discuss implications and future directions.


Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of national economies and especially of the food industry, which in Ireland is made up of over 90 % SMEs. These foods related SMEs have very similar structures, usually containing a small or medium boiler, ovens, chillers, heat exchangers and an extended water network. Another common characteristic is the low energy efficiency due not only to the relatively small size of equipment but also to the non optimisation of the heat network and substantial waste heat and effluent emissions. Therefore, it is an excellent environment to apply system analysis, process integration and optimisation methods, waste heat recovery and waste emission reduction technology with expected high economic and environmental impacts. In this paper the opportunities for energy efficiency improvement with the example of a medium-sized company which produces sliced cooked meats are presented. For this purpose a complex analysis of the heat network is carried out using guided redesign of the technology based on Process Integration, improving the internal heat exchange in order to increase and consequently to minimise the exit exergy (available useful heat) reducing the energy supply. Additionally the application of an advanced technology for boiler flue gas low grade heat recovery with preliminary humidification of the combustion air using waste heat is proposed. As a result an overall efficiency improvement of 20-25 % (respectively less fuel consumption and carbon emission reduction), about 68 % water consumption and effluent reduction and up to 3.8 times less NOx gas emissions is estimated.


In the Belle II experiment, a data sample of 50 ab$^{-1}$ will be collected. The Belle II computing system is expected to manage the processing of massive raw data, production of copious simulation as well as many concurrent user analysis jobs. We adopted the distributed computing model to realize it. In this contribution, the overview and highlights of the Belle II computing system and activity of KMI are presented.


Indonesia is big country which has biggest Muslim in the world so that dakwah activity is really strategic. Da'wah activities can not be avoided from press. the most well known da'i in public are Abdullah Gymnastiar. This research was objected to describe the grammatical cohesion in their dakwah rhetoric. The procedure to analyze the data were as follow: (1) making into order the data that corresponds the problem answered; (2) Making into units the data based on its order according to the possibilities of category characteristics relation; (3) the interpreting the data score based on the problem that will be answered; (4) the evaluating the range of feasibility and completeness of data related to the problem stretch. The research result covered reference, substitution, elliptics, and conjunction.


OBJECTIVES
RBC alloantibodies can lead to ABO grouping discrepancies unrelated to A or B antigens or antibodies posing challenges in the blood bank testing. Routine blood bank testing and flow cytometry were used to immunophenotype reagent cells and elucidate the cause of ABO discrepancies in two patients.

METHODS
ABO discrepancy was identified in two patients after transfusion with several units of RBCs. For both patients, the pretransfusion type and screen demonstrated blood group A. Eight and 16 days later, both patients showed an apparent antibody to reagent group A cells, which prompted additional study with patients' samples and flow cytometric testing of commercial reagent cells.

RESULTS
In both patients' specimens, posttransfusion evaluation demonstrated an emerging antibody to the Kell antigen (K). The RBCs of both patients typed negative for K, and both were transfused with K-positive RBCs. Flow cytometric analysis of reagent RBCs demonstrated that five of seven lot numbers were positive for K.

CONCLUSIONS
Emerging anti-K antibody led to agglutination of the K-positive reagent A1 cells, highlighting the importance of considering RBC alloantibodies and the composition of reagent cells when interpreting cases with an apparent ABO grouping discrepancy.


INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 UNTHINKABLE DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL CHANGE IN ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACIES PART I PARTIES IN THE ELECTORATE CHAPTER 2 THE DECLINE OF PARTY IDENTIFICATIONS CHAPTER 3 THE CONSEQUENCES OF PARTISAN DEALIGNMENT CHAPTER 4 THE DECLINE OF PARTY MOBILIZATION PART II PARTIES AS POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS CHAPTER 5 PARTIES WITHOUT MEMBERS? PARTY ORGANIZATION IN A CHANGING ELECTORAL ENVIRONMENT CHAPTER 6 POLITICAL PARTIES AS CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATIONS CHAPTER 7 FROM SOCIAL INTEGRATION TO ELECTORAL CONTESTATION: THE CHANGING DISTRIBUTION OF POWER WITHIN POLITICAL PARTIES PART III PARTIES IN GOVERNMENT CHAPTER 8 PARTIES IN LEGISLATURE: TWO COMPETING EXPLANATIONS CHAPTER 9 PARTIES AT THE CORE OF GOVERNMENT CHAPTER 10 FROM PLATFORM DECLARATIONS TO POLICY OUTCOMES: CHANGING PARTY PROFILES AND PARTISAN INFLUENCE OVER POLICY CHAPTER 11 ON THE PRIMACY OF PARTY IN GOVERNMENT: WHY LEGISLATIVE PARTIES CAN SURVIVE PARTY DECLINE IN THE ELECTORATE CONCLUSION CHAPTER 12 PARTISAN CHANGE AND THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS


We obtain an exact linearly polarized vector solitary solution for the amplification of an optical pulse with a time width short compared with both population and polarization decay time. This dissipative soliton results from the balance between the gain from inverted resonant two-level atoms and the linear loss of the host material. We suppose that the excited state of the active centers is degenerate on the projection of the angular momentum, with a symmetric state of inversion. Quite remarkably, we find that after the passing of the pulse, the atomic medium does not return to the ground state, and a finite Zeeman coherence is generated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the stability of vector π solitons with an arbitrary state of elliptical polarization in the presence of both linear birefringence and group-velocity dispersion of the host material.


Inculcating a safety focused mindset is an important part of an engineering education, as highlighted by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board curriculum requirement to cover occupational health and safety. Despite the importance of covering safety related material, many university faculty are hesitant to cover elements of safety management due to unfamiliarity with the material. In response, Minerva Safety Management Education has developed teaching module slide sets covering a wide range of safety management topics that are freely available for instructors to use in their classes. In this paper, we report on the next phase of module deployment: the transformation of a slide set into an electronically facilitated, self-contained, independent learning module. This new format includes narrated lessons and automatic grading of comprehension tests. The format removes the time burden from instructors and teaching assistants, while enabling students to absorb the material at their own pace outside of class instructional hours. The module is designed to be compatible with existing learning management systems and easily incorporated into existing course websites. We report student feedback on this new format and share findings applicable to the development and conversion of future self-contained electronic learning modules.


An analysis method of an electrometric amplifier using two pumped low-reverse-current silicon diodes is described. First, a mathematical model representing the i(v) characteristic near the zero, where the surface effects are the most important, is proposed. Then, from this general model, both input resistance and amplifier-sensitivity coefficients are calculated.


Children learn to make meanings in communities of practice through interaction with more experienced others. Young children's strategies for and attitudes to learning are determined by the sociocultural contexts in which they practise those strategies, including learning how to draw within the distinct cultures of home and school.

Evidence of meaning making — 2 and 3D representations involving drawing, modelling and play with objects — was collected over one month periods in the Autumns of 98, 99 and 00 from seven young children in home and as they settled into new pre–school and school settings in the North of England. The evidence of the seven children's meaning making, recorded by photographs and scrap books of their representations, was used as a stimulus in dialogues to elicit parents' and practitioners' beliefs about the value and significance of different modes meaning making, including drawing in the contexts of home and school. Their conversations were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Evidence from the perspectives of parents, practitioners and the children was triangulated with evidence of contextual features for learning around the children's drawings.

Episodes from analysis of the data sets will be used to illustrate how the children were inducted into the conventions of 'school' drawing whilst often retaining a distinct personal drawing agenda at home. Implications will be drawn for the status and function of drawing in the education of young children in formal and informal learning contexts.


Fifteen sylviid and 9 turdid species inhabited a study site within a Mediterranean scrub in Israel: one yearlong resident species of each family, 1 sylviid and 3 turdid winter residents and 18 transients. Variations in bird abundance followed those of their resources' abundance such that the greatest biomass of Sylviidae occurred in spring, of Turdidae in winter, and the lowest biomass for both occurred in summer. Disparity between spring and autumn in total biomass of both groups associated with similarity between these seasons in each group's diversity, the strong temporal segregation between closely similar species and between migrants and closely similar residents at the time of young-feeding, and the low overall temporal overlap between species in spring, accentuated amongst morphologically similar species and partly resulting from the species' geographical segregation in Africa, all bring about ecological segregation in spring. In autumn resource levels and the site's location with regard to both distance from origin and desert-crossing, make it unattractive to migrants, which are then either spaced out more than in spring or skip the springutilized stopover sites.


Right ventricular hypertrophy in elastase-induced emphysema in the System hamster was assessed by either the weight of the right ventricle as a fraction of body-weight or by the ratio of the weight of the right to the left ventricle. Right ventricular hypertrophy accompanies elastase-induced emphysema and is more severe in hamsters injected with elastase while fed a diet containing 0.5% beta-aminopropionitrile (BAPN), a combination that causes more severe emphysema. Measurements of arterial blood oxygen pressures showed that emphysematous animals were hypoxemic. Treatment of emphysematous animals with 35% O2 either during the development of right ventricular hypertrophy or after it had developed produced measurable amelioration of the hypertrophy in those groups with the more severe emphysema (elastase plus BAPN diet) but did not completely prevent it. The oxygen had no effect on the severity of the emphysema measured morphometrically. These results indicate that the cor pulmonale in elastase-induced emphysema is probably multifactorial, but hypoxia appears to be one of the major factors.


Bleomycin in the presence of iron(II) degrades DNA to form a thiobarbituric acid-reactive product. This has been made the basis of a specific assay method for 'free' iron in biological fluids. Human synovial fluid, human cerebrospinal fluid and rat pleural-exudate fluid were found to contain micromolar concentrations of 'free' iron, which would be sufficient to allow formation of the hydroxyl radical from superoxide and hydrogen peroxide generated in vivo. This assay method does not detect iron bound to transport proteins or to enzymes.


Isolated perfused rabbit mesenteric blood vessels selectively metabolized arachidonic acid to prostacyclin (prostaglandin I2). However, the less lipid soluble prostaglandin endoperoxide (PGH2) administered exogenously was not metabolized by vascular prostacyclin synthetase but was partially degraded to prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Peptide stimulation (e.g., angiotensin II, bradykinin) resulted in formation of both PGI2 and PGE2 from endogenous arachidonic acid. Denuding the blood vessels of their endothelial layer by perfusion with hypotonic fluid did not affect the metabolism of arachidonic acid or the response to peptide stimulation. suggesting that the cyclooxygenase, prostacyclin synthetase, and angiotensin II receptors are present and functional in the subendothelial smooth muscle cells of the vessel walls. In contrast, exogenous PGH2 either escaped completely unmetabolized or was converted to both PGI2 and PGE2 in the presence of vascular injury induced by hypotonic fluid.


Objective: to assess the prevalence and risk factors of arterial hypertension (AH) in young and middle-aged patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Subjects and methods. Two hundred and twenty-two patients with RA (34% with early RA) who had no concomitant symptoms of cardiovascular disease were examined. Their mean age was 47±9.7 years (15% were males); 60% of the patients were seropositive for rheumatoid factor (RF); a mean DAS 28 score was 5.77±1.1; a mean HAQ-DI score, 1.58±0.7. Logistic regression models were used to study associations between AH and risk factors adjusting for age and sex. Results. AH was found in 153 (69.4%) patients with RA (55% with early RA). Elevated blood pressure was first documented in 56.3% patients after RA onset. Age (odds ratio [OR] 2.06; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.51—2.81), RF seropositivity (OR = 3.05; 95% CI 1.67—5.57), abdominal obesity (OR = 3.82, 95% CI 1.89—7.71), body mass index (BMI) (OR = 1.15; 95% CI 1.07—1.24), and long-term prednisolone use (OR = 1.17; 95% CI 1.03—1.33) were associated with AH in RA. In early RA, RF seropositivity (OR = 4.62; 95% CI 1.67—12.82), RF titer (OR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.04—1.96), DAS 28 swollen joints (OR = 1.14; 95% CI 1.03—1.27), DAS 28 (OR = 1.64, 95% CI 1.001—2.67), HAQ-DI (OR = 3.14, 95% CI 1.19—8.25) and BMI (OR = 1.14; 95% CI 1.01 — 1.29) were associated with AH. Conclusion. AH is very common in patients with RA, including those with early RA. In more than half of cases, AH develops in the presence of RA and associated with traditional risk factors, RF, and long-term prednisolone intake. The contribution of RA characteristics to the development of AH is more apparent in early RA. The findings suggest that there is a need for the early diagnosis and effective treatment of AH in RA with adequate RA activity control.


In large plants with high primary fault levels, the whole plant must be considered as forming the ground grid for the return of primary fault current. The internal impedance of the equivalent ground grid must be taken into account in grid potential rise calculations, as grid potentials transferred from one area of the plant may cause hazardous touch potentials at other locations. Field measurements and computer analyses to calculate the distribution of grid potential rise in a large grounding system are presented.


ABSTRACT Villages are a relatively new, consumer-directed model that brings together older adults in a community who have a mutual interest in aging in place. These membership organizations provide social and civic engagement opportunities, volunteer provided support services, and referral to vetted community providers to achieve their primary goals of promoting independence and preventing undesired relocations. This cross sectional survey of 1,753 active Village members from 28 Villages across the US measured members' perceived impacts in the areas of social connection, civic engagement, service access, health and well-being, and ability to age in place. Results showed that involvement in the Village was a key factor associated with greater perceived impacts. Over half of members perceive that the Village has improved their sense of connection to others and their feeling that they have someone to count on. Though younger members in better health were more likely to perceive impacts in social connections, results suggest older women, living alone with some disability may be the most likely to experience improved health, quality of life, and mobility. The implications for social work practice are discussed.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality globally, and a major contributor to disability. There exist several well-established CVD risk factors, many of which are used in clinical practice. Nonetheless, these risk factors do not fully explain why certain individuals develop CVD. Several additional risk factors for CVD have been proposed which deserve to be examined further in prospective studies. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of wellestablished and promising risk factors for CVD. In study I, we estimated the additive and non-additive genetic components contributing to variation in established CVD biomarkers. We could show that all of the traits were to some extent influenced by genetics, and that many of them were under the influence of nonadditive genetic effects. In study II, we examined how variation in anti-PC levels and Lp-PLA2 activity is explained by genetic and environmental effects and how these effects are shared with other established CVD biomarkers. Both of these traits were found to be affected by genetic and environmental effects, Lp-PLA2 activity was moderately correlated with several of the other biomarkers while anti-PC appeared to be regulated independently of more established CVD biomarkers. In study III, we investigated whether clinical depression and use of antidepressants are associated with CVD outcome. Further, we examined if the associations were more specific for CHD or ischemic stroke. Depression was found to be a possible risk factor for the development of CVD, more specifically stroke. In study IV, we investigated if individuals with any record of clinical depression or selfreported depressive symptoms had an increased risk for incident stroke after adjusting for a range of stroke risk factors. The association between depression and stroke could not be accounted for by traditional stroke risk factors. In conclusion, CVD is a highly complex disorder affected by a multitude of risk factors, which in themselves are influenced by both our genetic make-up and environmental exposure. Although there exist well-established CVD risk factors useful in CVD risk assessment, novel CVD risk factors should be more thoroughly investigated in future studies. Such studies might not only add information that would be useful in CVD risk stratification, they could also enhance our biological understanding of this complex disorder. ISBN 978-91-7549-112-7


In the cognitivistic paradigm, intelligence was viewed as algorithmic, an approach that has lead to many impressive results and applications. However, this view turned out to be too limited: If we are to understand natural forms of intelligence, embodiment must be taken into account. In this paper we explore the implications of embodiment by providing a number of case studies. One concept that we will investigate is "ecological balance", i.e. the interplay of morphology, materials, and neural processing. We develop a method of how this can be systematically investigated using artificial evolution and morphogenesis.


Purpose Clinical treatment of knee osteoarthritis has gained great interest, and numerous clinical studies have been reported. Few studies have described the detailed characterizations of clinical trials on knee osteoarthritis. This study is to identify, visualize, and characterize the clinical trials in knee osteoarthritis research. Design and Methods Articles published in recent two decades were extracted from the Web of Science core collection database using a query based on MeSH terms and topics of knee osteoarthritis and clinical trial. Basic characteristics of publications were analyzed based on the publication year, authors, institutions, counties, and keywords covered in the article. CiteSpace and VOS viewer were used for data visualization. The data were retrieved on May 28, 2022. Results A total of 1972 trials on knee osteoarthritis were identified. The number of publications has experienced rapid growth in the past two decades. America, England, and China had strong contributions in publication. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and American Journal of Sports Medicine were highly cited and bellwether journals. Clustering mapping of the collaborative network, co-citation, and co-occurrence analyses showed that the research hotspots are mainly focused on disease-modifying medications, intra-articular injections, physical therapy for symptom control, lifestyle intervention, Chinese medicine treatment, and knee replacement. Conclusion Clinical treatments of knee OA are evolving. Pharmacologic therapy, intra-articular therapy, nonpharmacologic therapy including exercise or diet, self-management programs, Chinese medicine treatment, and knee replacement were highly represented in clinical trials of knee OA. Adjustment of combination therapy may be the next study focus in the future.


The three‐dimensional fabrication of optical waveguides has gained increasing interest in recent years to establish interconnections between electrical components on a very small scale where copper circuits encounter severe limitations. In this work the application of optically clear, organically modified porous silica monoliths and thin films as a host material for polymeric waveguides to be inscribed into the solid host structure by two‐photon‐induced photopolymerization is investigated. Porosity is generated using a lyotropic liquid crystalline surfactant/solvent system as a template for the solid silica material obtained by a sol–gel transition of a liquid precursor. In order to reduce the brittleness of the purely inorganic material, organic–inorganic co‐precursor molecules that contain poly(ethylene glycol) chains are synthesized and added to the mixture, which successfully suppresses macroscopic cracking and leads to flexible thin films. The structure of the thus‐obtained porous organic–inorganic hybrid material is investigated by atomic force microscopy. It is shown that the modified material is suitable for infiltration with photocurable monomers and functional polymeric waveguides can be inscribed by selective two‐photon‐induced photopolymerization.


Although bevacizumab has several adverse effects, pneumothorax is rare. This is the first case of initial treatment using an Endobronchial Watanabe Spigot (EWS) for pneumothorax after bevacizumab-containing chemotherapy. A 56-year-old woman with recurrent breast cancer was treated with bevacizumab. Pneumothorax occurred 6 days after the last administration of bevacizumab. The pneumothorax failed to resolve after the chest tube drainage. This was because the bronchopleural fistula formed at the site of the subpleural metastatic lesion. Patient was in need of a surgical repair of the bronchopleural fistula, which could not be carried out due to the recent bevacizumab administration. After the insertion of the EWS, the air leak stopped immediately. A lobectomy was successfully performed for the recurrent pneumothorax and for the resection of the metastatic lung lesion; at a most appropriate duration since the chemotherapy. EWS is useful as the initial palliation of pneumothorax after the treatment with medication causing delayed wound healing.


The balance between detoxification and toxicity is linked to enzymes of the drug metabolism Phase I (cytochrome P450 or oxidoreductases) and phase II conjugating enzymes (such as the UGTs). After the reduction of quinones, the product of the reaction, the quinols—if not conjugated—re-oxidizes spontaneously to form the substrate quinone with the concomitant production of the toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS). Herein, we documented the modulation of the toxicity of the quinone menadione on a genetically modified neuroblastoma model cell line that expresses both the quinone oxidoreductase 2 (NQO2, E.C. 220.127.116.11) alone or together with the conjugation enzyme UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT1A6, E.C. 220.127.116.11), one of the two UGT isoenzymes capable to conjugate menadione. As previously shown, NQO2 enzymatic activity is concomitant to massive ROS production, as previously shown. The quantification of ROS produced by the menadione metabolism was probed by electron-paramagnetic resonance (EPR) on cell homogenates, while the production of superoxide was measured by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) on intact cells. In addition, the dysregulation of the redox homeostasis upon the cell exposure to menadione was studied by fluorescence measurements. Both EPR and LCMS studies confirmed a significant increase in the ROS production in the NQO2 overexpressing cells due to the fast reduction of quinone into quinol that can re-oxidize to form superoxide radicals. However, the effect of NQO2 inhibition was drastically different between cells overexpressing only NQO2 vs. both NQO2 and UGT. Whereas NQO2 inhibition decreases the amount of superoxide in the first case by decreasing the amount of quinol formed, it increased the toxicity of menadione in the cells co-expressing both enzymes. Moreover, for the cells co-expressing QR2 and UGT the homeostasis dysregulation was lower in presence of menadione than for the its counterpart expressing only QR2. Those results confirmed that the cooperation of the two enzymes plays a fundamental role during the cells' detoxification process. The fluorescence measurements of the variation of redox homeostasis of each cell line and the detection of a glucuronide form of menadiol in the cells co-expressing NQO2 and UGT1A6 enzymes further confirmed our findings.


Introduction. An approach to the development of the organizational-technological model of the life cycle of a medical facility building is presented. Buildings of medical organizations have a number of features in the design, construction and operation. The buildings of nuclear medicine are subject to particularly high requirements of radiation and fire safety. Materials and methods. To organize the design, construction and maintenance of medical buildings, it is advisable to create and develop an organizational and technological model of the medical building life cycle. Such model was created by the author in the form of a business processes sequence. Confirmation of the effectiveness of the model is carried out with the help of multi-criteria expert evaluation. Results. To solve this problem, it is proposed a number of changes in the order of the investment project carrying. A new element is the Preliminary justification of the requirements for the health facility. It should become a mandatory document when obtaining a town-planning plan of the ground area, which is in Russia a de facto permission to design. It is also proposed to prepare technical requirements of three levels. The first level requirements are used for pre-design stage procedures. The requirements of the second level are included in the medical and technical design assignment. The requirements of the third level are applied to the detailed design, as well as to the construction and maintenance of the facility. Requirements are included in the requirement system and must be checked at key stages of the project. At the preliminary project phase, it is also advisable to make a technical and economic calculation with the justification of the main technical solutions and technical and economic indicators. This document should also include a project management plan. New elements are included in organizational and technological models of different stages of the object life cycle. Conclusions. On the basis of the developed model, it is proposed to make adjustments to the normative guideline used in the construction management. For example, it is necessary to make mandatory documents of the pre-design stage. These works have to be paid by investor therefore the standard of design cost has to be increased.


Clostridium difficile is a major nosocomial pathogen and a causative agent of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis. PCR analysis of the toxin A and B genes of this bacterium has revealed 20 variant types (toxinotypes I-XX), many of which can cause human disease. Strains comprising the 15 toxin A-positive, toxin B-positive toxinotypes are not usually differentiated from non-variant strains by routine laboratories that do not utilize PCR tests. Consequently, the toxins from these variant strains have not been investigated thoroughly. The present studies revealed that toxin A-positive (A+B+) strains representing 12 variant toxinotypes all express considerably lower levels of toxin A and are less cytotoxic in vitro than non-variant strain VPI 10463. Truncated forms of toxin A were detected by immunoblotting in toxinotype VI and VII strains and these toxins were differentiated from each other and from toxin A of the non-variant strain. A further novel finding was the ability of toxin A-positive (A+B+) strains of toxinotypes IX, XIV and XV to exhibit an alternative Clostridium sordellii-like cytopathic effect on Vero cells, characterized by marked cell clumping. A rapid and simple method for toxin A removal from culture filtrates was developed. This enabled confirmation that the abnormal cytotoxicity observed for these strains is due to an altered toxin B, as has been found in toxin A-negative (A-B+) strains. These findings indicate the potential for differentiation of certain toxin A-positive (A+B+) toxinotypes without the need for PCR techniques.


Porsuk Stream Basin is a significant aquatic habitat located in the middle of the Aegean and Central Anatolian Regions of Turkey. Similar to may aquatic habitats, it is exposed to intensive agricultural, domestic, and industrial pollution. The aim of this study was to determine the toxic element levels in Porsuk Stream Basin sediment and evaluate the detected data using a multi-statistical technique. For this purpose, sediment samples were collected from 18 stations selected on the basin (three of them located on Porsuk Dam Lake) in summer 2015, and zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, nickel, and chromium accumulations in sediment samples were determined. All the detected data were compared with the consensus-based threshold effect concentrations (TEC), and factor analysis (FA) also was applied to detected data in order to evaluate the contamination grades in the basin. According to detected data, although Cu, Pb, and Cd concentrations were detected below the limit values, Zn, Cr, and Ni concentrations exceeded the limit values in general. According to results of FA, 3 factors – industrial, agricultural, and lead – explained 81.56% of the total variance.


Abstract:  Incontinentia pigmenti (IP) is an X‐linked dominant disorder of ectodermal structures affecting the skin, hair, teeth, eyes, and central nervous system. The four classic cutaneous stages of the disorder are well known to pediatric dermatologists. However, ocular and neurologic sequelae represent the major morbidity in IP. The two patients reported here highlight some of the potential ocular manifestations of IP and emphasize the importance of early ophthalmologic assessment in this condition.


Objective To assess the efficiency of the carbon nanoparticles (CNs) in lymph node identification and parathyroid gland protection during thyroidectomy. Methods A systematic literature search for relevant literatures published up to December 2018 in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library was performed. Both English and Chinese literatures were retrieved and analyzed. Randomized controlled trials or nonrandomized controlled trials on the use of CNs during thyroidectomy were enrolled in this study. The primary outcomes included the number of lymph nodes harvesed, rate of lymph nodes involvement, and the rates of accidental parathyroidectomy, hypoparathyroidism, and hypocalcemia. Weighted mean differences (WMDs), odds ratios (ORs) and risk differences (RDs) were calculated for the dichotomous outcome variables. Between-study heterogeneity was tested using the Q tests and the I2 statistics. All analyses were performed using Review Manager (version 5.3.5). Results 25 studies comprising 3266 patients were included in this analysis. The total number of lymph nodes harvested in the groups of carbon nanoparticles was significant higher than that in the control groups (WMD, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.40 to 3.32; P <0.01). Administrating carbon nanoparticles was associated with a lower incidence of accidental parathyroid gland removal (OR = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.23 to 0.40, P <0.01) and lower rates of both postoperative transient hypoparathyroidism (OR =0.46, 95% CI = 0.33 to 0.64, P <0.01) and transient hypocalcemia (OR =0.55, 95% CI = 0.09 to 3.43, P =0.52). There was no significant difference of identified lymph node metastatic rates between the patients with and without use of carbon nanoparticles. Subgroup analyses indicated that the application of CNs in thyroid cancer reoperation also decreased the rate of transient hypoparathyroidism (OR =0.20, 95% CI = 0.36 to 0.04, P =0.01) and the possibility of accidental parathyroid glands removal (OR = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.73, P<0.05). Conclusions The application of CNs for thyroidectomy results in higher number of lymph node harvested and better parathyroid gland protection during initial surgery and reoperation for thyroid cancer.


Deregulated or enhanced calcium ion (Ca2+) influx across an unstable sarcolemma has been proposed to directly affect cardiac hypertrophic remodelling, vascular proliferative diseases and degenerative muscle disorders. Aberrant intracellular handling is partly due to a defect in Sarcoplasmic Reticulum (SR) function. Decreased Ca2+ uptake in cardiac, vascular and skeletal myocytes is associated with a decrease in the expression and activity of the fast sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA2a or SERCA1a isoforms). SERCA2a gene transfer was successfully used in heart failure; this approach holds further therapeutic promises in vascular proliferative diseases and dystrophin-deficient muscular diseases. The growing family of human SERCA isoforms comprises at least 14 mRNA and proteins with different functional characteristics and cell-specific expression. This review focuses on the biological role and therapeutic potential of different isoforms of SERCA in the physiology and pathology of cardiac, vascular and skeletal muscle cells.


To the Editor: Dr Rosenheck and colleagues 1 found no difference in the effectiveness of olanzapine and haloperidol, when given with benztropine mesylate, for controlling psychotic symptoms among schizophrenic patients with severe, chronic dysfunction. These results cannot be interpreted, however, without additional data on the patients' treatment history. We assume that all patients had been receiving some antipsychotic treatment prior to enrollment; the fact that they were eligible for this study indicates that they had responded poorly to that previous treatment. When this study was conducted, most patients in the Veterans Affairs system who were prescribed an atypical antipsychotic were receiving olanzapine (51.3%) or risperidone (46.1%). 2 Thus, many of these patients had already failed to respond to at least 1 of these 2 atypical agents and would not be expected to experience a meaningful benefit from olanzapine. 3


Terminal electron accepting processes (TEAPs) control the fate of elements in anoxic environments. This study focuses on thermodynamic regulation of H2-dependent TEAPs. H2-dependent methanogenesis and sulfate reduction operate near free energy thresholds (ΔGc) and can be inhibited by changes in thermodynamic conditions, whereas more 'potent' TEAPs occur far from their energy thresholds and lower H2 concentrations to levels that exclude other TEAPs. Metabolic free energy thresholds depend on microbial physiology and occur when the energy conserved byATP generation approaches the thermodynamic driving force. A model analysis for peat-sand mixtures suggests that acetoclastic methanogenesis can be inhibited by CH4 and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) accumulation, lowering the free energy (ΔGr) toward an energy threshold (ΔGc), which was identified by inverse modeling near 25 kJ mol-1. Inhibition was sensitive to ΔGc and acetate concentrations, so that ΔGc ± 5 kJ mol-1 and a range of 1 to 100 μmol L-1 acetate lead to strongly differing steady state CH4 concentrations in the model results.


In this paper, we address the problem of separating individual speech signals from videos using audio-visual neural processing. Most conventional approaches utilize frame-wise matching criteria to extract shared information between co-occurring audio and video. Thus, their performance heavily depends on the accuracy of audio-visual synchronization and the effectiveness of their representations. To overcome the frame discontinuity problem between two modalities due to transmission delay mismatch or jitter, we propose a cross-modal affinity network (CaffNet) that learns global correspondence as well as locally-varying affinities between audio and visual streams. Given that the global term provides stability over a temporal sequence at the utterance-level, this resolves the label permutation problem characterized by inconsistent assignments. By extending the proposed cross-modal affinity on the complex network, we further improve the separation performance in the complex spectral domain. Experimental results verify that the proposed methods outperform conventional ones on various datasets, demonstrating their advantages in real-world scenarios.


The purpose of this study was to assess reasons for and prevalence of supplement use among varsity athletes and nonvarsity athlete students (controls) at a Canadian university. A questionnaire, distributed to 247 varsity athletes and 204 controls, included variables regarding sports participation, supplements used, reasons for usage, perceived effects, and areas of interest about supplements. Response rates were 85.5% among varsity athletes and 44.6% among controls. Supplements were used by 98.6% of varsity athletes and 94.3% of controls. Varsity men most often reported using sports drinks, and used these (and carbohydrate gels, protein powder, and creatine) more than varsity women. Caffeine products were most often reported by other groups. Health professionals and the Internet were the most reported information sources, while friends most often recommended supplements. Many subjects indicated knowing little about supplements and wanting to learn more. Results indicate a need for nutrition education among both varsity athletes and university students.


Abstract : This report presents calculations to explore the use of depolarization of scattered light as a discriminator of biological particles in an aerosol. The discrete dipole approximation was used to model appropriate shapes of several different types of particles. To model an ensemble of spores, we used experimental parameters appropriate to Bacillus cereus. For this case, two different but related assumptions for particle shapes are shown to give different and distinguishable graphs for the depolarization, D, as a function of wavelength and scattering angle. The use of two different length distributions to simulate scattering from two different strains of Escherichia coli gave rise to distinguishable graphs for D for the two strains. Here, the same shape (hemispherically-capped cylinder) as well as the same value for other parameters (i.e., width and refractive index) was assumed for the two strains. In the preceding calculations, we averaged over random orientations and size distributions based on experimental measurements for a real aerosol. The calculated results predict that D would provide some identification of aerosols made up largely of single biological particles. Calculations were also performed for small clusters made up of several spherical spores.


Type 2 diabetes mellitus is caused by insulin resistance and β cell failure. Pioglitazone and other thiazolidinediones are the antidiabetic agents that increase insulin sensitivity, reduce blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels, inhibit adipose-tissue lipolysis, decrease microalbuminuria, inhibit inflammation, decrease blood pressure and reduce adverse cardiovascular risk. The objective of this review was systematic evaluation of the effect of pioglitazone on mortality and cardiovascular events in the patients with diabetes mellitus. In the analysis were included randomized, controlled studies after systematic literature search in electronic databases. Risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated, using the random effect model. Statistical heterogeneity across all the studies was tested with the I2 statistics. Pioglitazone was associated with statistically significant reduction in non-fatal coronary events (defined as myocardial infarction, unstable angina or coronary revascularization): RR 0.62, 95% CI (0.43, 0.89), but significant heterogeneity was found (p=0.00, I2=80%). Mortality rate was not significantly different between pioglitazone users and non-users (RR 0.87, 95% CI (0.62, 1.23). Overall risk for non-fatal heart failure was slightly increased (RR 1.31, 95% CI (1.17, 1.47)). No significant heterogeneity was found for any of these analysis (I2=47%, p=0.06 and I2=10%, p=0.35). Pioglitazone is and should remain an important agent within the modern management of type 2 diabetic patients, especially in those at elevated cardiovascular risk.


There is a considerable number of bacterial species capable of emitting light. All of them share the same gene cluster, namely the lux operon. Despite this similarity, these bacteria show extreme variations in characteristics like growth behavior, intensity of light emission or regulation of bioluminescence. The method presented here is a newly developed assay that combines recording of cell growth and bioluminescent light emission intensity over time utilizing a plate reader. The resulting growth and light emission characteristics can be linked to important features of the respective bacterial strain, such as quorum sensing regulation. The cultivation of a range of bioluminescent bacteria requires a specific medium (e.g., artificial sea water medium) and defined temperatures. The easy to handle, non-bioluminescent standard-research bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), on the other hand, can be cultivated inexpensively in high quantities in laboratory scale. Exploiting E. coli by introducing a plasmid containing the whole lux operon can simplify experimental conditions and additionally opens up many possibilities for future applications. The expression of all lux genes utilizing an E. coli expression strain was achieved by construction of an expression plasmid via Gibson cloning and insertion of four fragments containing seven lux genes and three rib genes of the lux-rib operon into a pET28a vector. E. coli based lux gene expression can be induced and controlled via Isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranosid (IPTG) addition resulting in bioluminescent E. coli cells. The advantages of this system are to avoid quorum sensing regulation restrictions and complex medium compositions along with non-standard growth conditions, such as defined temperatures. This system enables analysis of lux genes and their interplay, by the exclusion of the respective gene from the lux operon, or even addition of novel genes, exchanging the luxAB genes from one bacterial strain by another, or analyzing protein complexes, such as luxCDE.


To avoid the BP (Back-Propagation) Network's disadvantages of low training speed, prone to trapping in a local optimum and poor capability of global search, this paper establishes the model of key based on generic algorithm with the research on the key shape, by optimizing the initialized weights and threshold of neural network with GA. After the test of the program complied by MATLAB language and the comparison with pure BP algorithm, the results show that the methods suggested by this paper improve both the accuracy of predicting and the rate of convergence.


This study is systematic review of the research, focused on all possible pathways involved in calcium (Ca2+) regulation in order to utilize them in the control and remediation of Alzheimer's disease (AD), because Ca2+ plays important role in pathogenesis of AD. Electronic databases, Science Direct and PubMed/Medline, for relevant publications between 2000April 2017, were searched. Ca2+ ions are very important in cell signaling in body, specially the neuronal signaling. Many pathways are involved in normal neuronal Ca2+ signaling. AD is one of the most commonly known neurodegenerative disorders, causing dementia and some other neuropathological signs in mostly elderly people reaching a rate of 44 million until now. Depending upon certain possibilities, many hypothesis were proposed related to AD; out of which, one is Ca2+ hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, disturbance in Ca2+ signaling pathway due to certain reasons, such as accumulation of beta-amyloid proteins, ER stress, cytochrome c activation etc., causes AD. Due to less clinical research, only few FDAapproved pharmaceuticals are available for treatment of AD. Reviewed studies suggest that Ca2+ channel blocker and initiator may play an important role in cure of AD.


Cu-Zn-S (CZS) films were deposited by the spray pyrolysis method. As-deposited CZS film showed a low crystallinity. The resistivity of CZS film with Cu/(Cu+Zn) ratio of 50% is around 10-2Ω﹒cm. The CZS film elements using spray Cu-Zn (=1:1) solution with thiourea was confirmed as Cu:Zn:Sn=2:2:3 by ICP-MS and EDX. The band gap of CZS films was varied in the range of 1.8 - 3.5 ev when the Cu/(Cu+Zn)ratio was increased from 0 to 67%; CZS film with Cu/(Cu+Zn)ratio of 50 % showed an wide band gap of 2 eV. The photovoltaic characteristics were confirmed with cell structure of . The best cell was observed at the CZS films with Cu/(Cu+Zn)ratio of 50%; these cells depicted a conversion efficiency of 1.7%.