Profile: Artur ChilingarovArtur Chilingarov is deputy chair of the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, and a leading member of the pro-presidential United Russia party, but at heart he is an explorer and scientist—one with the political and business connections within Russia to raise money for costly expeditions. He has traveled on atomic icebreakers and helicopters to the polar regions, led research teams adrift on ice, and already reached another ocean floor, the Arctic's, 2 years ago. In doing the latter, Chilingarov confirmed his status as a Russian hero, literally, and set off an international furor over Moscow's claimed rights to the region and its potential oil reserves that still echoes today.


The combination of ultrasound echo images with digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) method has resulted in a two-dimensional, two-component velocity field measurement technique appropriate for opaque flow conditions including blood flow in clinical applications. Advanced PIV processing algorithms including an iterative scheme and window of offsetting were used to increase spatial resolution. The optimum concentration of the ultrasound contrast agent used for seeding was explored. Velocity validation tests in fully developed laminar pipe flow and pulsatile flow showed good agreement with both optical PIV measurements and the known analytic solution. These studies indicate that echo PIV is a promising technique for the non-invasive measurement of velocity profiles and shear stress.


Cultural geography proposes an apparently innovative project but it actually raises a dual epistemological issue. First of all, is it a new field inside geography or a school of thought that contends to redesign the overall geography's disciplinary layout ? The perspective of a 'cultural geography' encompasses and endorses the ambiguity of the word 'culture' in contemporary social sciences. Secondly, 'culture' is predominantly used as a weak version of 'society', namely in English-speaking literature. Cultural geographers address societies but do not explicitly admit it. Have cultural geographers built fresh tools to explore the spatial dimension of these societies ? The answer to this question is not easy to give, even though the 'cultural turn' has certainly helped social sciences to move forward in the understanding of social worlds. Two topics, which might seem peripheral, eventually turn up to be essential to enlighten the rationale of these hesitations. The first one, theoretical, is related to the possibility of a paradigm for social sciences that would pass over the concept of society. The second one can be seen as a practical output of the former. It affects the use of academic discourses that pretend fond 'multiculturalism' on scientific arguments to legitimate communalism and reject a 'society of individuals'.


Genetic determinants of lactose fermentation, proteolytic activity and bacteriocin production in the strains L. lactis subsp. lactis MPL114, L. lactis subsp. cremoris MPC112 and L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis MPD166 were studied. As a result of mutation and genetic transfer studies, it was determined that all of these characters were encoded by the 65.4 kb plasmid in L. lactis subsp. cremoris MPC112. Lactose fermentation and proteolytic activity were encoded by the 68.0 kb plasmid and bacteriocin production was encoded by the 12.4 kb plasmid in L. lactis subsp. lactis MPL114. Lactose fermentation, proteolytic activity and bacteriocin production in L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar. diacetylactis MPD166 strain were found to be responsible for the 61.0 kb, 14.2 and 9.0 kb plasmids respectively.


This study dealt with the validation of rights-based indicators for MillenniumDevelopment Goals localization in the municipalities of Narvacan, Sinait, Sta.Catalina, and Bantay in Ilocos Sur. It is in response to the call of institutionalizingrights-based approach for MDG development planning and governance. Itlooked into the indicators' availability, relevance, measurability, and feasibility andthe extent of availability of data in the LGUs. The respondents were the MunicipalSocial Welfare and Development officers, rural health officers, Municipal Planningand Development coordinators and the Municipal Local Government officers. Indeveloping the data gathering instrument, educators, researchers, statisticians,human rights advocates, stakeholders and the Commission on Human Rightsof Region I were involved. Results show that only a few of the indicators werehighly available; almost all were relevant and had good level of measurability.Only MDG 3 was highly feasible. Most had no sufficient data available exceptfor MDG 2- Achieve Universal Primary Education, MDG 3- Promote GenderEquality, and MDG 4- Reduce Child Mortality. These findings can be used inthe mainstreaming of human rights in the development of plans, projects andprograms especially in the monitoring and evaluation of development. Keywords: Social Science, rights-based indicators, Millennium Development Goals,localization, descriptive design, Philippines


A non-noble-metal hybrid catalyst (Ni2P/NPC-P), composed of N,P-doped porous carbon decorated with surface P-enriched Ni2P nanoparticles, is developed to address the urgent challenges associated with mass production of clean hydrogen fuel. The synthesis features one-pot pyrolysis of inexpensive fluid catalytic cracking slurry, graphitic carbon nitride, and inorganic salts, followed by a feasible surface phosphidation process. As a non-noble metal catalyst, Ni2P/NPC-P demonstrates excellent performance in hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline electrolytes with a low overpotential of 73 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 (η10) and a small Tafel slope of 56 mV dec-1, meanwhile exhibits durability with no significant η10 change after 2000 catalytic cycles. Theoretical calculation reveals that the negatively charged P-enriched surface accelerated the rate-determining transformation and desorption of OH*. In overall water splitting, the electrocatalyst achieves a low η10 of 1.633 V, promising its potential in the cost-effective mass production of hydrogen fuel.


Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation has shown great promise in treating a vast spectrum of hereditary blood cell diseases and acquired disorders that affect hematopoietic and other tissues (1). However, allogeneic HSC transplantation (HSCT) is severely limited by the availability of matched donors and potential immunologic complications. Therefore, safe, efficient, and precise genome editing in autologous HSCs has become the "holy grail" of the field and stands as the paradigm of stem cell engineering.


PURPOSE
To analyze anatomic and clinical results and factors predictive of outcome in treatment of basilar tip aneurysms with Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
During 6 years, 55 unselected consecutive saccular aneurysms in 53 patients (mean age, 47 years) were treated with GDC occlusion. Forty-one (75%) aneurysms were ruptured (Hunt-Hess and Fisher grades were assigned in patients); 14 (25%), unruptured. Clinical and angiographic evaluations were performed 6 months after treatment and during follow-up (mean follow-up, 2 years). Multivariate analysis was used to determine factors predictive of outcome.

RESULTS
GDC occlusion was a success in 52 (95%) aneurysms, a failure in two (4%), and not attempted in one (2%). Occlusion at final follow-up, evaluated in 44 aneurysms, was complete in 34 (77%), near complete in four (9%), and incomplete in six (14%). At 6-12 months, mean aneurysmal occlusion rate significantly worsened because of revascularization (P <.001) but improved at final follow-up because of reembolization in 10 aneurysms (P =.009); it remained stable (P =.351) between initial and final follow-up. Multivariate binary logistic regression indicated that before treatment started, aneurysmal neck size was the only independent predictor of initial occlusion rate (P =.002) and revascularization (P =.004). After the initial procedure, sac size and initial occlusion rate were independent predictors of revascularization (P =.004 and.008, respectively), irrespective of neck size. Occlusion rate at 6-12-month follow-up was the only independent predictor of that at final follow-up (P =.021), regardless of shape of aneurysm. Overall morbidity was 2% (one of 51); mortality, 6% (three of 51). Mortality correlated significantly with Hunt-Hess grade 4 at admission (P =.003) and incidence of vasospasm (P =.058).

CONCLUSION
GDC occlusion proved to be a safe effective therapeutic alternative to surgery in patients with ruptured or unruptured basilar tip aneurysms. Morphologic and clinical factors were respectively identified as predictors of the optimal anatomic and clinical outcomes.


Abstract Introduction : Contemporary patients' expectations for a nurse do not only concern medical knowledge and practical skills, but also a proper moral attitude, commitment, courteousness and professionalism. The present study is an attempt to present personality traits of a nurse from the point of view of patients' expectations based on Murray's theory of needs. The aim of this study was to analyse the image of a "perfect" and "bad" nurse in the opinion of hospitalized patients in the context of their own needs. Materials and methods : The study included a group of 250 patients hospitalized in various departments. The Adjective Check List (ACL) was used to carry out the assessment. Results : The study has shown that patients clearly expect that a nurse should have a need for order – with a mean of 60.36 ±7.58 and a need of endurance – with a mean of 59.13 ±6.61. Conclusions : Patients explicitly differentiate the characteristics of a "perfect" nurse.


Scientific workflow (SWF) is considered as a way to automate the decision making with a compilation of known sequences of actions for routine procedure. Current scientific workflow systems lack abilities, in the one hand, in capturing the "context" of the case of the scientific workflow, and, in the other hand, in delivering the real-time assistance to help the user make effective decisions. We propose a context-based framework to improve decision making in SWF. This framework allows making context explicit and realizing the contextualization of the workflows stored in the SWF repository. We use Contextual Graphs (CxGs) as formalism for representing uniformly all the ingredients of a decision-making process in a SWF, so that scientists can customize information and formalize their research and strategies. An example drawn from an application in virtual screening is given to illustrate the potentiality of our context-based framework. Finally, we conclude that a context-based formalism such as CxGs is the key element to enhance decision-making support in SWF systems.


I use STIS spectrophotometry to test the published sensitivity curves P (λ) and calculate the zero points ZPP for three optical photometry systems: Tycho2 BTVT, Stromgren uvby, and Johnson UBV . The analysis includes the new recalibration of grating/aperture corrections, vignetting, and charge transfer inefficiency effects produced by the STIS group and considers the consequences of both random and systematic uncertainties. For Tycho-2 BT and VT, Stromgren v, b, and y, and Johnson B and V , I find that the published sensitivity curves are consistent with the available photometry and spectrophotometry and I provide new values for the associated zero points. The situation is different for the Stromgren u and the Johnson U filters. There I find that the published sensitivity curves yield results that are inconsistent with the available photometry and spectrophotometry, likely caused by an incorrect treatment of atmospheric effects in the short-wavelength end. I reanalyze the data to produce new average sensitivity curves for those two filters and new values for ZPc1 and ZPU−B. The new computation of synthetic U − B and B − V colors uses a single B sensitivity curve, which eliminates the previous unphysical existence of different definitions for each color.


A focused ion beam (FIB) system coupled to a scanning electron microscope, including a new helium‐cooled stage and electrical feedthroughs, has been put into operation. It allows real‐time electron imaging during FIB machining while the sample is maintained at a minimum temperature of 25 K by continuous‐flow helium cooling. Simultaneously, electrical characteristics can be monitored, recorded, and stored. Experimental results on high‐critical‐temperature superconducting thin films are given, exhibiting the evolution of the device's response during the FIB‐induced modifications. Two structures were realized at liquid‐nitrogen temperature: a low‐noise microbolometric sensor and a short‐channel superconducting quantum interference device‐like structure in YBaCuO material exhibiting a behavior of coherent vortex flow, micromachined by FIB. These experiments demonstrate the possibility of a precise in situ control of the critical current of micro‐ and nanobridges.


The encapsulation of Ni-rich cathode materials (LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2) for lithium ion batteries in reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets is introduced to improve electrochemical performances. Using (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane, the active materials are completely wrapped with several rGO layers of ∼2 nm thickness. By virtue of the great electrical conductivity of graphene, the rGO-coated cathode materials exhibit much enhanced electrochemical performances of cycling property and rate capability. In addition, it is shown that the structural degradation of the active materials, which is from the rhombohedral layered structure (R3̅m) to the spinel (Fd3̅m) or rock-salt phase (Fm3̅m), is significantly reduced as well as delayed due to the protection of the active materials in the rGO layers from direct contact with electrolytes and the consequent suppression of side reactions.


Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are among the most popular and the best performing classification algorithms. Various approaches have been proposed to reduce the high computation and memory cost when training and predicting based on large-scale datasets with kernel SVMs. A popular one is the linearization framework, which successfully builds a bridge between the $L_1$-loss kernel SVM and the $L_1$-loss linear SVM. For linear SVMs, very recently, a semismooth Newton's method is proposed. It is shown to be very competitive and have low computational cost. Consequently, a natural question is whether it is possible to develop a fast semismooth Newton's algorithm for kernel SVMs. Motivated by this question and the idea in linearization framework, in this paper, we focus on the $L_2$-loss kernel SVM and propose a semismooth Newton's method based linearization and approximation approach for it. The main idea of this approach is to first set up an equivalent linear SVM, then apply the Nystr\"om method to approximate the kernel matrix, based on which a reduced linear SVM is obtained. Finally, the fast semismooth Newton's method is employed to solve the reduced linear SVM. We also provide some theoretical analyses on the approximation of the kernel matrix. The advantage of the proposed approach is that it maintains low computational cost and keeps a fast convergence rate. Results of extensive numerical experiments verify the efficiency of the proposed approach in terms of both predicting accuracy and speed.


Introduction: Mother's own milk improves health outcomes in infants of all gestational ages. Although pump-dependent mothers of extremely premature infants are at risk of insufficient milk production, whether mother's milk production is impacted by gestational age and pump dependency in mothers of more mature critically ill infants is unknown. Purpose: To determine whether there is a relationship between gestational age, milk production, and time to secretory activation in mothers delivering a critically ill infant. Methods: A convenience sample of 136 pump-dependent mothers whose infants were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit was enrolled between 2013 and 2016 as part of a quality improvement project. Group 1 (early preterm) delivered infants at 30 to 33 weeks of gestation (n = 41), group 2 (late preterm) 34 to 36 weeks (n = 48), and group 3 (term) 37 weeks and more (n = 47). Milk volume on days 1 to 7 was measured by weighing each vial of expressed milk and compared using general linear mixed-model analysis. Time to the onset of secretory activation was compared using censored regression analysis. Results: Main effect for gestational age controlling for day was statistically significant (P = .0234). The early preterm group produced more milk over the 7-day study than the term (P = .01) and late preterm (P = .02) groups. The early preterm group achieved secretory activation earlier than the late preterm group (adjusted P = .039). Implications for Practice: Pump-dependent mothers of all infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit may be at risk of inadequate milk production and delayed secretory activation and may therefore benefit from early milk production monitoring and lactation support. Implications for Research: Further studies should examine targeted interventions to increase milk production in pump-dependent mothers.


India is launching a new assault against an age-old scourge: leprosy. Its weapon is a moderately effective vaccine created in the early 1990s and then shelved when drug treatment proved successful. Introduction of the vaccine, which contains a killed mycobacterium—a distant relative of the leprosy organism—began early last month in the state of Gujarat in western India, and it will soon be deployed in Bihar state, in the east. The goal is to break the chain of transmission of the debilitating disease, which stubbornly persists in India despite the availability of a drug regimen that can cure it. But some critics, citing the vaccine9s modest efficacy in early trials, see it as a costly distraction from the more urgent task of identifying and treating cases as early as possible.


This is a report of a de novo design study that aimed to identify novel structures capable of inhibiting the human immune deficiency virus (HIV-1) protease ligand binding pocket (HIV-1 PR_LBP). Baseline information regarding ligand binding modality and affinity was obtained through analysis of the pdb crystallographic depositions describing the HIV-1 PR enzyme complexed with small molecule inhibitors currently available on the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Molecular visualisation and modelling was carried out using SYBYL ® 1.1, and in silico predicted ligand binding affinity (LBA) was quantified using XSCORE_V1.3. The de novo design phase of the study was based on the utilisation of the bound coordinates of Lopinavir. This particular HIV-1 protease (HIV-1 PR) inhibitor was selected as a template owing to its superior in vivo activity and unique binding modality. Based on literature derived data, the cyclic urea moiety of Lopinavir was retained as a seed fragment, overlaid onto its counterpart moiety and planted into the HIV-1 PR_LBP with growth being allowed according to defined parameters utilising the genetic algorithm embedded in the GROW module of LIGBUILDER ® V1.2. The result was the identification of 200 de novo designed structures with a predicted in silico ligand binding affinity (LBA) (pKd) ranging between 9.63 and 10.00. A smaller cohort (n = 35) was also Lipinski rule of 5 complaint. The implication of this study consequently is that this series of novel structures may be compiled into a library that may be of utility in high throughput screening (HTS) processes and future iterative optimisation.


The main aim of this paper is to compare relationship between growth of average monthly wages and growth of labour productivity in South Bohemia region and in the Czech Republic. Economic theory tells that the growth of wages should be bigger than growth of labour productivity. When we compare the index ratio growth of average real wages and labour productivity, we have found out that the labour productivity grows faster than real wages. There is no demand-pull effect on inflation. The sectors manufacturing and agriculture have main contribution for growth of labour productivity. This trend is caused by modernization of machinery equipment and by the shortage of free human resources in the labour market. On the contrary, the wages at the sector of services grows more than labour productivity.


Abstract This 5-year retrospective study aimed to investigate whether early surgical management improves outcomes in patients presenting with a tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA). Patient characteristics, investigation results and treatment outcomes were compared. 50 women were diagnosed with a TOA during the study period. Nineteen (38.0%) were treated with antibiotics (medical group) and thirty one (62.0%) were treated surgically on admission (early surgical group). The early surgical group was associated with a high success rate of 96.8% and the lowest risk of readmission within 12 months (16.1%). There was no significant difference in the length of stay between the early surgical and the successful medical group. Impact Statement What is already known on this subject? Tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA) is an inflammatory mass that forms most commonly as a complication of untreated pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Traditionally, TOAs are treated first with broad-spectrum intra-venous antibiotics, with surgical intervention considered after 72 h. It is not known whether early surgical intervention would be beneficial to patient outcomes compared to traditional management. What do the results of this study add? In this study, we have demonstrated a high success rate with early surgical management. Readmission rate was lowest in the early surgical group compared to the medical and late surgical group. This suggests that early surgical intervention may be beneficial, compared to the standard management of trialling antibiotics and then proceeding to surgery 72 h later. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Our study suggests that early surgery may be beneficial in the management of TOAs. Although we were unable to demonstrate statistical significance, our data suggest that it would be worthwhile to investigate white blood cell (WBC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) further as a potential predictor for failure of medical management. In the future, more studies comparing early surgical management with medical and late surgical management could inform clinicians of the best mode of treatment for these patients.


The lost-foam casting process using expanded polystyrene foam pattern allows more complex and detailed passages to be cast directly into the part. The advantages of the lost-foam casting process involve, forms complex internal and external shapes without cores, reduces part mass with near net-shape capability, eliminates parting lines, and reduces machining operation and costs, Complex shapes with various sizes castings were produced in this technique in the foundry of the State Company for Electrical Industrials to evaluate the process. Successful complete castings were made. Many experimental works were done to further complements about fluidity parameter dealing with lost-foam casting process. Empirical linear and non-linear formulas were obtained from those experimental works to find the minimum temperature for pouring molten metal. Aluminum alloys were the material of choice for this work, due to the best combination of mechanical properties and castability, but the performance requirements and manufacturability issues will drive the choice of a specific aluminum that was aluminum-silicon alloy, which were used in this work. The macroscopic properties of the alloy depend strongly on the microstructure. Therefore, photomicrographs of microstructures of various castings with different foam pattern densities were done and made comparisons with common sand castings. Mechanical tests were conducted on the castings which produced by the common sand casting and the lost-foam casting processes. These tests include tensile, hardness, and impact. Because of using the expandable polystyrene as a pattern that gave, more gasses in the cavity of the mold during casting, so the mechanical tests show some differences between the two processes.


Swine were inoculated once with the attenuated HT- strain of porcine parvovirus. Several months later they were challenged by oral inoculation with a field strain of the virus to examine an ability to prevent infection. After challenge inoculation unimmunized control swine exhibited an increase in antibody titer, viremia, and virus discharge. The virus was recovered from many organs. The swine preinoculated with the attenuated HT- strain, however, manifested none of these symptoms and were negative for virus recovery from any organ.


This paper presents the Direct Power Control of Three-Phase Matrix Converters (DPC-MC) operating as Unified Power Flow Controllers (UPFC). Since matrix converters allow direct AC/AC power conversion without intermediate energy storage link, the resulting UPFC has reduced volume and cost, together with higher reliability. Theoretical principles of DPC-MC method are established based on an UPFC model, together with a new direct power control approach based on sliding mode control techniques. As a result, active and reactive power can be directly controlled by selection of an appropriate switching state of matrix converter. This new direct power control approach associated to matrix converters technology guarantees decoupled active and reactive power control, zero error tracking, fast response times and timely control actions. Simulation results show good performance of the proposed system.


This paper considers the problem of simultaneously assigning real-time tasks and resources to a distributed system, taking into account the execution, communication, and resource-contention costs. We assume that multiprocessor priority-ceiling protocol is used to synchronize the access to shared resources, and each processor schedules the tasks assigned to it using the rate-monotonic scheduling algorithm. The assignment is subject to the constraint that the tasks are schedulable after the assignment. This problem is known to be computationally intractable. We formulate the problem using an assignment graph and describe an efficient heuristic algorithm, which is based on clustering and graph bisection, to find an assignment. Experimental results indicate that the assignment algorithm is effective


Introduction: APO866 is a new anti-tumor compound found to inhibit nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT), an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of NAD. The compound has anti-tumor effect in several pre-clinical tumor models and is currently in several clinical phase II studies. 3′-deoxy-3′-[18F]fluorothymidine (FLT) is a tracer used to assess cell proliferation in vivo. The aim of the study was to evaluate if FLT positron emission tomography (PET) may be used to monitor early anti-proliferative effects of APO866. Methods: In vivo uptake of FLT in human ovary cancer xenografts in mice (A2780) was studied at various time points after APO866 treatment (15 mg/kg ip twice daily for 7 days) was initiated. Baseline FLT scans were made before either APO866 (n=10 tumors) or vehicle (n=6 tumors) was injected and repeated after 24 hours (2 treatments), 48 hours (4 treatments) and 7 days (14 treatments). Tumor volume was followed with computed tomography (CT) during the experiment. FLT uptake was quantified using small animal PET/CT. One hour after iv injection of 10 MBq FLT, static PET scans were performed for 10 minutes and region of interests (ROIs) covering whole tumors were defined on PET/CT images for calculation of standard uptake values (SUV). Comparison within treatment groups was performed using paired t-tests and between control and APO866 groups with unpaired t-tests. All p-values were corrected for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni algorithm. P Results: Tumors treated with APO866 had volumes that were 122% (24h), 129 % (48h) and 88% (day 7) relative to baseline volumes day 0. In the control group tumor volumes were 123% (24h), 150% (48h) and 318% (day 7) relative to baseline volumes day 0. Tumor volume between groups were significantly different at day 7 (P=0.006). APO866 treatment caused significant decrease in uptake of FLT at 24 hours (−23%; P Conclusions: APO866 treatment caused a significant decrease in FLT uptake 24 and 48 hours after injection of first dose. The early reductions in tumor cell proliferation preceded decrease in tumor volume on day 7. Our data indicate that FLT PET is promising for early non-invasive assessment of APO866 anti-tumor effects. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5220.


Via the similarity transformation method, we obtain an approximate vortex solution to the generalized (2+1)-dimensional nonlinear Schrodinger equation with space-dependent diffraction, nonlinearity and gain/loss coefficients. Under certain parametric conditions, we investigate the propagation dynamics of self-similar vortex solitons in optical media.


The energetic properties of a paired quantum Hall state at Landau level filling $\nu=2$ are investigated using variational Monte Carlo techniques. Pairing is found to be energetically favorable in small magnetic fields because it introduces correlations between up and down spins that are absent in the traditional $\nu=2$ state. We find that pairing survives extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit.


Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease and several distinct subtypes exist based on differential gene expression patterns. Molecular apocrine tumors were recently identified as an additional subgroup, characterised as ERα- AR+, but with an expression profile that resembles ERα+ luminal breast cancer. Previously, we mapped global AR binding events in a cell line model of molecular apocrine breast cancer (termed MDA-MB-453 cells) using ChIP-seq. Our results suggested that these tumours are driven by AR through its interaction with critical ER cis-regulatory elements, resulting in a transcriptional programme reminiscent of ER-mediated transcription in luminal breast cancers. Additionally, we found that AR binding is a near-perfect subset of FoxA1 binding regions, a level of concordance never previously seen with a Nuclear Receptor. By silencing FoxA1 using specific siRNA, we observe dramatic changes in the gene expression profile of the cells (730 genes are differentially expressed) including many of the signature molecular apocrine genes. Furthermore, silencing of FoxA1 in these breast cancer cells results in altered AR binding to the chromatin (lost, conserved and de novo binding events are found) as has been previously seen in the prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP. We are investigating this phenomenon further using proteomics to discover new AR interacting proteins and histone mark ChIP-seq to understand the proteins and epigenetic events that may mediate the reprogrammed AR binding in the absence of FoxA1. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2922. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2922


Two cases of psychotic illness in association with the karyotype triple X showed specific diagnostic and management problems as well as obstetric complications, EEG abnormalities, and lack of a family history of psychiatric disorder. Routine karyotyping during the investigation of psychosis is becoming relevant to psychiatric practice as research reports increasingly feature genetic and chromosome anomalies in association with schizophrenic psychoses. British Journal of Psychiatry (1992), 160, 554–557


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the issue of knowledge transfer in the context of international asymmetric alliances. The objective is mainly to identify the barriers that can impede the knowledge transfer between asymmetric partners and to analyze the solutions adopted to overcome these barriers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a qualitative study involving six cases of asymmetric alliances between Tunisian small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) and European multinational corporations (MNCs).

Findings

The results of this research highlight a set of obstacles related to the context of asymmetric alliance itself and the nature of knowledge transferred by partners. The study emphasizes the importance of translation using artefacts by both partners and proximity with its geographical, organizational and technological dimensions to overcome these obstacles.

Research limitations/implications

The investigation of knowledge transfer in asymmetric alliances was based on the role played by only three proximity dimensions (geographical, organizational and technological), while other factors, such as institutional, social and cultural issues, were not considered. Indeed, future research may take these variables into account in studying solutions to overcome knowledge-transfer barriers in asymmetric alliances.

Practical implications

The paper calls the attention of asymmetric alliance managers to the importance of translation to perform work processes, facilitate knowledge transfer and overcome linguistic barriers. Managers should use virtual artefacts to reduce the constraints resulting from their geographical remoteness and to strengthen cooperation. Further, reinforcing geographical, organizational and technological proximity between partners involved in an international alliance is essential to facilitate knowledge transfer, essentially of tacit knowledge, and to accelerate innovation.

Originality/value

This study emphasizes the importance of the simultaneous role of artefacts, translation and proximity in overcoming obstacles related to the asymmetric alliance itself and the nature of knowledge transferred by partners. The results shed light on the issue of knowledge generation in asymmetric alliances.


In this paper, a memory efficient partially parallel decoder architecture suited for high rate quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check codes using (modified) min-sum decoding algorithm is proposed. In general, more than thirty percent of memory can be saved over conventional partially parallel decoder architectures. To reduce the computation delay of check-node processing unit, an efficient architecture based on variants of rank order filter is presented. The optimized partially parallel decoder architecture can linearly increase the decoding throughput with small hardware overhead. Consequently, the proposed approach facilitates the applications of LDPC codes in area/power sensitive high speed communication systems


Industrial societies have evolved under the influence of a political-economic reward system and a technological revolution that literally views the environment as infinite in its waste absorbing capabilities, if not in resource producing capability as well. As such they are not ecologically feasible in the long term. It is precisely their inconsistencies with the laws of material and energy balance under the pressures of an expanding human population that are generating the environmental crisis. The thesis of this paper is that man, as a dominating species on the surface of the earth, must learn to engineer the developments of industry, agriculture, and human habitats, giving explicit consideration to the effects of these developments on the environment. Environmental components are viewed as conceptually similar to industrial production processes, having many possible alternative uses. Since alternative uses are often mutually exclusive, the choice of use is critical. Some of the ecological and sociological considerations implicit in the problems of choice are demonstrated herein along with some of the problems of economic regulation.


In domotic scenarios, where ubiquitous computing pervades housing, the capability to effectually discover, integrate and coordinate different devices with diverse implementation details, communication protocols, and functionalities is a central aspect. Basing on a layered domotic architecture for smart embedded devices which builds on the paradigm of Service Oriented Computing, in this paper we focus on the pervasive layer and the requirements it has to fulfill, so as to realize a high degree of automation and serve the needs of the higher application levels of the architecture. We show how a discovery framework can take care of new devices independently of their protocols through the use of proxies. Because with the development of home network and service applications, different protocols and transmission modes are proposed. There are more digital devices and home appliances which compliance to the protocols. The proposed protocols are different and they are typically unable to interconnect with each other. We design and implement a middleware framework for smart homes to integrate protocols which are popular such as UPnP on OSGi framework and collaborating Zigbee and Bluetooth to converge various service oriented applications. Additionally, with the well-developed Zigbee and Bluetooth technology, majority of devices has been developed to support these technologies, we propose two new base drivers to integrate diverse devices communication protocol on our platform. The availability of standardized service type descriptions can further assist towards automating the tasks of integration and coordination through intelligent algorithms. From the technical point of view, the implementation builds on the OSGi/UPnP standards. An experimental setup for testing the discovery plugins for Bluetooth and ZigBee devices, along with an evaluation of the performance of the Bluetooth proxy verify that the proposed solution is a viable and effective one.


Expanded polystyrene (EPS) concrete is commonly used as the core material of commercial sandwich panels (CSPs). It is environmentally friendly and lightweight but has poor strength. Adding fibers can improve the microstructure of EPS concrete and reduce the weakening effect of EPS beads on the mechanical properties of concrete. An orthogonal experimental design (OED) was used in this paper to analyze the influence of length and content of polypropylene fiber (PF), glass fiber (GF), and carbon fiber (CF) on the physical and mechanical properties and micromorphology of EPS concrete. Among them, CFs have the most apparent impact on concrete and produce the most significant improvements in all properties. According to the requirements of the flexural performance of CSPs, the splitting tensile strength was taken as the optimization index, and the predicted optimal combination (OC) of EPS concrete with fibers was selected. The variations in the material properties, mechanical properties, and microstructure with age were analyzed. The results show that with increasing age, the dry density, compressive strength, and splitting tensile strength of concrete are markedly improved relative to those of the CSP core material and the control case (CC), and even the degree of hydration is improved.


Long-term treatment of hypertensive disorders with hydralazine has resulted in some patients developing hepatitis and lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune syndrome. The concentration of hydralazine required to cause 50% cytotoxicity in 2 h (LC(50)) toward isolated rat hepatocytes was found to be 8 mM. Cytotoxicity was delayed by the P450 inhibitor, 1-aminobenzotriazole, suggesting that P450 catalyzed the formation of toxic metabolites from hydralazine. No hydralazine-induced oxidative stress was apparent as there was little effect on hepatocyte lipid peroxidation, protein carbonyl formation, intracellular H(2)O(2), or hepatocyte GSH levels and no effect of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) on cytotoxicity. Drug-induced hepatotoxicity in vivo has often been attributed to infiltrating inflammatory cells, for example, neutrophils or resident Kupffer cells whose NADPH oxidase generates H(2)O(2), when activated. The effect of a nontoxic continuous infusion of H(2)O(2) on hydralazine cytotoxicity was investigated. It was found that H(2)O(2) increased hepatocyte susceptibility to hydralazine 4-fold (LC(50), 2 mM). Cytotoxicity was still prevented by the P450 inhibitor but now involved some oxidative stress as shown by increased protein carbonyls, endogenous H(2)O(2), and GSH oxidation. Lipid peroxidation was not increased, and cytotoxicity was not inhibited by BHA. Cytotoxicity, however, was inhibited by 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidene-1-oxyl (TEMPOL), a ROS scavenger. Because neutrophils or Kupffer cells release myeloperoxidase on activation, the effect of adding peroxidase to the hepatocytes exposed to H(2)O(2) on hydralazine cytotoxicity was investigated. It was found that peroxidase/H(2)O(2) increased hepatocyte susceptibility to hydralazine 80-fold (LC 50, 0.1 mM). Furthermore, cytotoxicity occurred following extensive oxidative stress that included lipid peroxidation, and cytotoxicity that was now prevented by the antioxidant BHA. These results indicate that three cytotoxic pathways exist for hydralazine: a P450-catalyzed pathway not involving oxidative stress, a P450/H(2)O(2)-catalyzed oxidative stress-mediated cytotoxic pathway not involving lipid peroxidation, and a peroxidase/H(2)O(2)-catalyzed lipid peroxidation-mediated cytotoxic pathway.


Background Hypercalcemia during flares of sarcoidosis is reported to occur with a 5-10% incidence. The underlying mechanism is thought to involve high circulating concentrations of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, produced by 1α-hydroxylation of vitamin D within sarcoid granulomas. Granulomatous production of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTH-rp), important in humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy, may also play a role in abnormal calcium metabolism. We report a case of sarcoidosis that presented with significant hypercalcemia and simultaneous elevation of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and PTH-rp. Case Presentation A 39-year-old woman, with recently diagnosed Graves' disease, was admitted to our hospital with palpitations, fatigue, nausea, and abdominal pain. On admission, she had hypercalcemia (15.2 mg/dL), renal insufficiency (creatinine 1.5 mg/dL), and uncontrolled hyperthyroxinemia (TSH 0.1 uIU/mL, FT4 5.6 ng/dL, and TT3 483 ng/dL). The initial serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 was inappropriately within the normal range (43 pg/mL), while intact PTH was appropriately suppressed (< 6 pg/mL) and PTH-rp elevated (11.6 pmol/L). Computed tomograms showed symmetric bilateral hylar adenopathy with diffuse interstitial lung disease and no evidence of malignancy. Transbronchial lung biopsy showed noncaseating granulomas, compatible with sarcoidosis. Treatment with saline infusion and prednisone 40 mg daily alleviated the hypercalcemia and renal insufficiency. Methimazole and beta-blockers were initiated for treatment of Graves' disease. Prednisone therapy was tapered to 10 mg/day and 1 month later, both the serum calcium, intact PTH, and TSH normalized while the PTH-rp was undetectable. The 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 level was 47 pg/mL. Discussions: Corticosteroids are particularly effective for treating hypercalcemia in sarcoidosis because they inhibit the 1α-hydroxylase in macrophages, with a subsequent effect on vitamin D metabolism and decreases in gastrointestinal calcium absorption. Corticosteroids also bind to cytokine promoter regions in the macrophage nucleus, down-regulating IL-2 and IFN-γ expression and resulting in reduced PTH-rp production by macrophages. This case demonstrates several important physiological factors contributing to the onset of hypercalcemia, including that a patient with active sarcoid can have both a PTH-independent (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) and PTH-dependent (PTH-rp) process. In this patient, corticosteroids rapidly restored normocalcemia by decreasing PTH-rp but had no effect in reducing the 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3.


The purpose of this thesis is to examine knowledge production around globalisation and politics in Attac Sweden. As a part of the global justice movement that emerged in the 1990s, the organisation Attac Sweden related to a larger process. Attac Sweden was also central in debates about globalisation in the Swedish political context around the years 2000 and 2001. This study is based both on ethnographic data, such as observations and interviews with active members of Attac Sweden, and archival data from the organisation such as internal documents.

The chapters of this study cover the emergence of the organisation in France as well as the development in the Swedish political context. In particular, the general critique against neoliberal globalisation and the possible solutions that Attac lobbies for are examined. These general ideas were also brought forward by Attac in Sweden. An initial phase of public interest was, however, followed by decline. The ethnographic chapters examine Attac Sweden's way of organising and of acting politically on global issues.

Being part of a larger movement has shaped the way that Attac Sweden has chosen to organise and how political action has been negotiated. In the organisational structure of Attac Sweden this has meant that ideas of participatory democracy have been elaborated. The activists interviewed also reflected on the difficulties in translating global political issues into local concerns, and put forward knowledge and popular education as both part of a struggle and as part of a participatory democratic ideal. In conclusion, knowledge and democracy are related to a wider civil society debate.


Objective: High frequency stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) dramatically decreases motor disability in patients with Parkinson"s disease (PD), but has been reported to aggravate apathy. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of STN stimulation on motivation and reward sensitivity in a consecutive series of PD patients. Methods: Apathy and reward sensitivity (Apathy Scale, Stimulus-Reward Learning, Reversal, Extinction, and Gambling tasks) were assessed in 18 PD patients treated by bilateral STN stimulation ("on" and "off" conditions) compared with 23 matched patients undergoing long term treatment with levodopa ("on" and "off" conditions). Results: Apathy decreased under both STN stimulation and levodopa treatment, whereas explicit and implicit stimulus reward learning was unchanged. Conclusions: Bilateral STN stimulation in PD patients does not necessarily have a negative effect on motivation and reward sensitivity and can even improve apathy provided patients have been appropriately selected for neurosurgery.


All tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by the intracellular accumulation of abnormal forms of tau protein in neurons and glial cells, which negatively affect microtubule stability. Under physiological conditions, tubulin-associated unit (Tau) protein is intrinsically disordered, almost without secondary structure, and is not prone to aggregation. In AD, it assembles, and forms paired helical filaments (PHFs) that further build-up neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Aggregates are composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein that is more prone to aggregation. The pathology of AD is also linked to disturbed copper homeostasis, which promotes oxidative stress (OS). Copper imbalance is widely observed in AD patients. Deregulated copper ions may initiate and exacerbate tau hyperphosphorylation and formation of β-sheet-rich tau fibrils that ultimately contribute to synaptic failure, neuronal death, and cognitive decline observed in AD patients. The present review summarizes factors affecting the process of tau aggregation, conformational changes of small peptide sequences in the microtubule-binding domain required for these motifs to act as seeding sites in aggregation, and the role of copper in OS induction, tau hyperphosphorylation and tau assembly. A better understanding of the various factors that affect tau aggregation under OS conditions may reveal new targets and novel pharmacological approaches for the therapy of AD.


This paper proposes an approach and a mediator architecture for adaptively matching export schemas of database Web services. Differently from traditional mediator approaches, the mediated schema is constructed from the mappings adaptively elicited from user query responses. That is, query results are postprocessed to identify reliable mappings and to build the mediated schema on the fly. The approach is illustrated with two case studies from rather different application domains.


During a 21-month period, we observed an outbreak of severe systemic infections due to multiresistant Salmonella typhimurium among 66 children in the in-patient Department of Paediatrics of Kigali, Rwanda. These infections were more likely to occur in subjects who had stayed for a long time in the hospital for severe illness and/or malnutrition. The children usually presented first with mild to moderate diarrhoea and fever. Later, sever pulmonary involvement was often noted (rales: 58%; respiratory distress: 42%). Moreover, there were four cases of abscess, three arthritis and one meningitis. Of the 66 children, 48 were treated with cefotaxime. The fatality-rate among this group was 10.4%. The fatality-rate among the 18 other untreated patients was 77.9%, suggesting a high efficiency of cefotaxime against these strains of multiresistant Salm. typhimurium.


Abstract. A large number of studies have shown that equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) occur mainly after sunset, and they usually drift eastward. However, in this paper, an unusual EPB event was simultaneously observed by an all-sky imager and the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) network in southern China, during the recovery phase of geomagnetic storm happened on 6–8 November 2015. Observations from both techniques show that the EPBs appeared near dawn. Interestingly, the observational results show that the EPBs continued to develop after sunrise, and disappeared about one hour after sunrise. The development stage of EPBs lasted for at least about 3 hours. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the evolution of EPBs developing around sunrise was observed by an all-sky imager and the GNSS network. Our observation showed that the EPBs drifted westward, which was different from the usually eastward drifts of post-sunset EPBs. The simulation from TIE-GCM model suggest that the westward drift of EPBs should be related to the enhanced westward winds at storm time. Besides, break and recombination processes of EPBs were observed by the all-sky imager in the event. Associated with the development of EPBs, increasing in the ionospheric F region peak height was also observed near sunrise, and we suggest the enhance upward vertical plasma drift during geomagnetic storm plays a major role in triggering the EPBs near sunrise.


Blood pressure is one of the most important and frequent risk factors for cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality; however, it is largely uncontrolled in the population. Inhibition of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system provides beneficial effects in the hypertensive population. Association of low-dosed diuretics in drug combinations with renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system-blocking agents allows maximum benefit from potassium depletion and control of the compensatory increase in renin secretion, thus increasing the efficacy and safety of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system blockers. Irbesartan is a potent and selective angiotensin II subtype 1 receptor antagonist indicated for use in patients with hypertension, including those with Type 2 diabetes mellitus and nephropathy. Once-daily irbesartan administration provides 24-h control of blood pressure. In patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension, irbesartan was as effective as enalapril, atenolol and amlodipine, and more effective than losartan and valsartan (but not olmesartan), in terms of absolute reduction in blood pressure and response rate. Irbesartan also induced regression of left ventricular hypertrophy. Moreover, irbesartan 300 mg/day exerted a significant renoprotective effect in hypertensive Type 2 diabetics. The relative risk of doubling of serum creatinine was significantly lower with irbesartan than with amlodipine or placebo. It was also found to be effective in nondiabetic nephropaties. Furthermore, irbesartan has peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonistic effects in in vitro studies and also demonstrated beneficial effects on inflammatory markers of atherosclerosis and endothelial function. The overall incidence of adverse events is similar to that of placebo. A fixed-dose combination of hydrochlorothiazide and irbesartan show additive antihypertensive effects in a dose-dependent manner up to hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg and irbesartan 300 mg, with high tolerability in diverse patient groups. Effects of combination on end-organ protection must be evaluated by broad-spectrum studies. Ongoing trials with irbesartan and its combination with diuretics may provide necessary data to interpret the value of this association among others.


SUMMARY
The 29th Annual Scientific Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology was held 24–28 September 2017 in Sydney, Australia. The conference theme was "Healthy Places, Healthy People—Where Are the Connections?" The focus of this year's conference was the recognition that there are many different places (the natural environment, the built environment, and the social environment) and many different people (the young, the old, the disadvantaged, and the marginalized), and that the connections between them may be physical, psychological, social, or political.


Abstract Calving from tidewater glaciers and ice shelves accounts for around half the mass loss from both polar ice sheets, yet the process is not well represented in prognostic models of ice dynamics. Benn and others proposed a calving criterion appropriate for both grounded and floating glacier tongues or ice shelves, based on the penetration depth of transverse crevasses near the calving front, computed using Nye's formula. The criterion is readily incorporated into glacier and ice-sheet models, but has not been fully validated with observations. We apply a three-dimensional extension of Benn and others' criterion, incorporated into a full-Stokes model of glacier dynamics, to estimate the current position of the calving front of Johnsons Glacier, Antarctica. We find that two improvements to the original model are necessary to accurately reproduce the observed calving front: (1) computation of the tensile deviatoric stress opening the crevasse using the full-stress solution and (2) consideration of such a tensile stress as a function of depth. Our modelling results also suggest that Johnsons Glacier has a polythermal structure, rather than the temperate structure suggested by earlier studies.


The study of African American agency is usually focused on the antebellum period, exploring the ways by which slaves in the American South found ways to resist the slave system. Taking its cue from Walter Johnson's work on rethinking agency in the antebellum South, this essay will for the first time extend Johnson's analysis to the postbellum period. It argues that a study of black Democrats after Reconstruction makes us reconsider what we mean by African American agency in the postbellum South. It will look at how African American support for the Democratic Party varied across the South: assessing the reasons why some black men were conservative and how they embraced the politics of white Democrats, and how the majority of black men and women opposed their political choices. The degree of opposition shown toward black Democrats, and the forceful counterargument articulated by black Republicans, reveals how southern black Democrats were an important feature of African American political culture in this period, demonstrating in turn the remarkable vitality of black politics more generally in the post-Reconstruction South.


Embodiments of the present disclosure may include, for example, a transmission device comprising a transmitter for conveying the data to generate a first electromagnetic wave having at least one carrier frequency and wavelength of the corresponding. Coupler, the first electromagnetic wave is coupled to the transmission medium having at least one inner portion surrounded by a dielectric material, the dielectric material has an outer surface and a corresponding outer peripheral, first electromagnetic wave to the transmission medium bonds, via at least one guided wave mode may include a non-fundamental mode to form a derived second electromagnetic wave is to propagate along the outer surface of the dielectric material, at least one carrier frequency micro There the wave or millimeter-wave frequency band is less than the outer periphery of at least one wavelength of the corresponding transmission medium. Other embodiments are also disclosed. .The 20


Amirullah et al, 2019. Effectiveness Test of Some Colours Trap on Fruit Fly Population Bactrocera SP. (Diptera: Tephritidae) at Red Chili Plants. pp. 482-487. The aim of this research was to know the effectiveness some colors trap on fruit fly population Bactrocera SP. (Diptera:Tephritidae) at red chili plants. This research was conducted during one period planted from December 2017 until January 2018. Location of research implemented in land the optimization at POLBANGTAN Manokwari in Manokwari West Papua Province. The kind of research was an experimental using a randomized block design (RAK) with 5 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments used are P = Treatment control with a modified trap without color, P1= Treatment with a modified trap yellow color, P2= Treatment with a modified trap red color, P3= Treatment with a modified trap blue color, P4= Treatment with a modified trap green color. The results showed that trap with yellow color can capture most fruit fly population equal to 46 tails and the lowest is red color trap equal to 14 tails. So the best treatment is the fruit fly trap with a modification yellow.


Eustachian valve (EV), a remnant of the right valve of sinus venosus in the right atrium can be puzzling. Often it is confused with Chiari network or atrial adhesions and is reported with unusual complications. We report a case of large EV impeding cannulation of inferior vena cava (IVC) during aortic valve replacement. Transesophageal echocardiography diagnosed the presence of large EV and warned of the difficulty with IVC cannulation and helped preparedness for an alternative plan during surgery.


The concept of brain death refers to the irreversible loss of brain function which includes the brain stem. The diagnosis of brain death is a controversial issue among Muslim scholars and medical experts because it involves the pronouncement of death of a patient whose heart is still beating with the assistance of a ventilator (breathing apparatus). Many countries recognise brain death as true death. However, there are religious scholars and medical experts who disagree with the concept of brain death because they believe that the soul still exists in one's body although the brain has been diagnosed as dead. From their point of view, the heartbeat shows that the soul is still present in the body. From the perspective of Islam, a person is considered dead when there is separation between the soul and body. This paper will discuss the arguments pertaining to the soul which have been used in rejecting the concept and diagnosis of brain death.


A new method of packing the rectangles is proposed with applications to integrated circuit (IC) layout design. A special work-sheet, called the bounded-sliceline grid, is introduced. It consists of special segments that dissect the plane into rooms to which binary relations "right-of" and "above" are associated such that any two rooms are uniquely in either relation. A packing is obtained through an assignment of the modules into the rooms followed by a compaction procedure. Changing the assignments by swapping the contents of two rooms, a simulated annealing strategy is implemented to search for a good packing. Empirical results show that hundreds of rectangles are packed with a quite good quality in area efficiency. A wide adaptability is demonstrated specific to IC layout design. Ideas to handle a multilayer, nonrectangular chips with L-shaped modules are suggested.


The wood material for violin bows from the pernambuco tree (Caesalpina echinata) has large individual variations in the density. For high quality bows, the higher densities are preferred, but since pernambuco is rather rare and expensive, it is of interest to investigate if it is possible to compensate for density variations in the wood material, at the same time as important qualities of the bow are unchanged. In this study, numerical optimization is used to recover the static and dynamic properties of a reference bow, on a bow with 10% lower density. The structural calculations of the bows are made with a umerical model in the finite element program ANSYS, which in its is coupled to an external, gradient based optimiztion routine. The automatic optimization process is performed with a routine called the Method of Moving Asymptotes (MMA).


ABSTRACT. This study intends to assess, by ion‐exchange chromatography of free amino acid levels of peripheral blood plasma, the amino acid absorption of severely growth retarded infants with protracted diarrhoea, during the initial period of rehabilitation. Eleven infants from a very low socio‐economic group of a developing country, with nutritional marasmic growth retardation and prolonged diarrhoea, were treated for a period of 10 days with a commercially available free amino acid–glucose diet (Vivonex®, Pfrimmer Co., Erlangen, Germany). Excessive hyperprolinaemia characterized the plasma aminogram before treatment. After initial rehabilitation with this diet, the plasma analyses showed very low branch‐chained and cystine levels, and marginally high alanine, glycine, and proline levels. It seemed that the free amino acids could not be absorbed quickly enough to meet with the high supply of glucose. Furthermore, this investigation supports the assumption that cystine is an essential amino acid in malnourished infants. In spite of normal or high human growth hormone levels, somatomedin was not detectable in pooled samples from these severely growth retarded infants.


Timely repair is essential to maximizing outcomes in patients with traumatic rib injuries, whether in the presence or absence of flail chest (FC) or existing as single or multiple rib fractures (MRF), due to its high morbidity and mortality rate. This review focuses primarily on the plating system as an effective surgical approach to stabilizing these injuries. Literature was surveyed using the Google Scholar, PLOS One, and PubMed search engines between August 2021 and April 2022. A total of 34 articles were included herein, and primary and secondary outcomes were assessed. The primary outcomes of interest were intensive care unit length-of-stay (ICU LOS), hospital length-of-stay (HLOS), ventilatory requirements, and mortality rate. The secondary outcomes of interest were postoperative pain level and postoperative complications. The majority of the studies included herein reported lower ICU LOS, HLOS, and ventilation requirements in surgical patients when compared to conservatively managed patients. However, variables such as the presence or absence of FC also impacted outcomes in certain studies. Mortality rate and postoperative pain were largely underreported in the selected studies, but limited data from these studies suggest that these outcomes tend to be lower in surgical patients compared to those treated conservatively. When present, postoperative complications were often less severe amongst surgical patients compared to conservatively managed patients. Results further suggest that surgical repair is associated with lower pain severity as early as 72 hours postop. Likewise, findings suggest that early rib fracture stabilization is superior to late stabilization and often yields a sooner return to a baseline health status. Few studies report little to no statistical difference in primary and secondary outcomes between operative and conservative treatment. However, there is greater evidence that suggests the contrary, with better short-term and potential for better long-term outcomes in patients who undergo rib fixation.


Among other concerns, safeguarding the supply chains of raw materials is an important task for industrial companies. Therefore, not surprisingly, the number of scientific publications concerning the evaluation of resource criticality has increased in recent years. However, it was noticed that currently published methodologies are too complex to be applied by industrial companies on a daily basis. For this reason, the need to develop a methodology that would allow not only assessing resource criticality, but could also be integrated into widely applied methodological frameworks as an additional driver to improve resource efficiency was identified. Geostrategic supply risk and economic importance were chosen as key indicators to analyze and assess relative resource criticality. The developed methodology was field tested by applying it to a resource‐intensive nitrogen fertilizer production company. Five scenarios for resource efficiency improvements, consisting of cleaner production and industrial symbiosis measures, were investigated. If all the proposed measures were implemented, consumption of natural gas would decrease by 3.552 million cubic meters per year (0.3% of the total consumption). However, not all identified measures contribute to a reduction of the overall criticality of resources for the production company. Nevertheless, the integration of criticality assessments into the widely applied methodologies for development and implementation of resource efficiency innovations is a valuable addition and should be included in the analysis for sustainable innovations and development.


In this paper, we study the estimation and inference problems for parameters when the data set is obtained by combining data from dierent sources. In the case where we want to estimate the means of random variables in our data set, we consider the set of estimators that are linear combinations of certain sample averages, and nd that one estimator, dened to be the Adjusted estimator, that achieves the smallest possible asymptotic variance among all estimators in this set. In particular, the Adjusted estimator has smaller asymptotic variance than two commonly used estimators, the Short estimator and the Long estimator for the mean. Based on this result, we study inference problems in moment inequality models. We implement GMS procedure with three constructions of the sample moments: the Short, the Long and the Adjusted sample moments. We show that the resulting three GMS tests control asymptotic sizes. Based on local power analysis and simulations, we recommend using GMS with the Adjusted sample moments for better power.


Abstract Snakes previously referred to Dendrophidion vinitor from southern Mexico to eastern Panama comprise three sibling species primarily distinguishable by substantial differences in hemipenial morphology and some subtle aspects of color pattern. Dendrophidion vinitor Smith is here restricted to populations from southern Mexico to Belize. Dendrophidion apharocybe new species is distributed from Honduras to Panama, primarily on the Atlantic versant. Dendrophidion crybelum new species is known from middle elevations of the Río Coto Brus valley in southwestern Costa Rica (Pacific versant). Hemipenes of D. vinitor and D. apharocybe are similar in overall shape (short, bulbous) but the former has a highly ornate apex with membranous ridges and an unusual apical boss, whereas D. apharocybe has a largely nude apex strongly inclined toward the sulcate side. Dendrophidion crybelum has an elongate cylindrical hemipenis with a large number of spines. In general, these species are not distinguishable by standard scutellation characters. Hemipenial and other characters suggest that these species are a monophyletic group within Dendrophidion and have the following relationships: (vinitor (apharocybe, crybelum)). Some aspects of the systematics and biogeography of Dendrophidion are discussed. Divergence among the three species is associated with two geological features important to speciation in Middle America, the northern Motagua–Polochíc fault zone (Guatemala–Belize) and the southern Cordillera Talamanca (Costa Rica–Panama).


We consider the Cauchy problem for a strongly coupled semi-linear heat equations with some kind of nonlinearity in multi-dimensional space ℝN. We see under some conditions on the exponents and on the dimension N, that the existence and uniqueness of time-global solutions for small data and their asymptotic behaviors are obtained. This observation will be applied to the corresponding system of the damped wave equations in low dimensional space.


We have previously reported a diurnal variation in brain cytoplasmic estrogen receptors in female rats in the absence of circulating estrogens. In this report we characterize this diurnal rhythm. Levels of cytoplasmic estrogen receptors are greater during light periods than during dark periods in the hypothalamus and in the preoptic area of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. A similar diurnal variation in cytoplasmic receptor content is also found in the brains of female hamsters, but no light-dark differences are seen in the brains of castrated male rats. β-Adrenergic blockade, which inhibits pineal function, had a marginal effect on receptor concentration during the dark. However, pinealectomy did not alter light-dark differences in receptor concentration. The behavioral consequences of the diurnal fluctuations in levels of cytoplasmic estrogen receptors were investigated. Seven different estrogen regimens were administered to OVX female rats at light and dark time points; progesterone was injected 5 h before behavioral testing. Six estrogen paradigms providing comparable hormonal stimuli in the light and dark failed to induce diurnal differences in sexual receptivity. One estrogen regimen consisting of a Silastic capsule of unesterified estradiol in oil followed 24 h later by a pulse of estradiol induced higher levels of sexual receptivity when treatment began during dark periods than during light periods. In parallel experiments nuclear estrogen receptor levels were measured by exchange assay 4 h after Silastic capsules were implanted. Higher levels of nuclear receptors were found during dark periods compared to light periods. Light-dark differences in nuclear translocation of receptors and behavioral sensitivity to estrogen are probably a consequence of light-dark differences in release of estradiol from Silastics resulting in light-dark differences in serum estradiol. Since these serum levels of hormone are quite low (less than 3 pg/ml), the effectiveness of the Silastic-pulse paradigm suggests the importance of small early changes of estradiol levels during the estrous cycle and supports a two-phase mechanism of estrogen action. Saturating doses of estradiol produce similar levels of brain nuclear estrogen receptors whether administered at light or dark time points. Thus, cytoplasmic estrogen receptor content is not indicative of the functional effectiveness of the receptors.


Real focus happens inside the camera's lens element. The sharpening features in Photoshop CS3 exaggerate the contrast along edges in a photograph to transform a well-focused image into an outstanding image. In Photoshop CS3 Sharpening Images, Deke McClelland teaches a host of sharpening and noise reduction techniques, including using filters such as Unsharp Mask, Smart Sharpen, High Pass, and Reduce Noise. The training teaches the essentials of sharpening, including what it does, why it s important, and how the filters function. Plus, the training covers Deke s recommended best practices, including the four distinct varieties of sharpening, which can be used independently or in combination with each other. Photoshop CS3 Sharpening Images is about how to transform images from looking good to looking their absolute best. Exercise files accompany the course.


Prize Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 9, 1996.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


This phenomenological study investigated educators' lived experiences of teaching online in higher institutions in Malaysia. Data, which was generated through semi-structured interviews with 20 lecturers from three universities in the country, was analysed based on the thematic analysis approach guided by the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK)-self-efficacy framework. The findings revealed that after a year of teaching online, the potential of technology has been acknowledged by the educators after some trials and constraints were addressed. The domains related to Technology Content Knowledge (TCK), Technology Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), and TPACK were evident in the findings. However, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was not given emphasis, hence this manuscript argues that educators need to be constantly reminded of the significance of PCK. The findings discussed in this manuscript can be a helpful guide for educators when there is a need for them to teach online.


Aims Personality characteristics are linked to nicotine dependence (ND). It remains unclear whether these factors differ across African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) male and female smokers. This study was aimed to determine the relationship between personality traits and smoking status, as well as the degree of ND, in AA and EA male and female samples. Methods A total of 5,040 participants (AA: N = 3,737, female = 54.31%; EA: N = 1,313, female = 64.51%) were included in this study, with 2,474 smokers and 2,566 non-smokers. The measures used in this study included five dimensions of personality by the NEO-personality inventory-revised (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness), Fagerström test for ND, and drive subscale of the ND Syndrome Scale (NDSS). Results In the AA sample, neuroticism was significantly associated with a higher risk of smoking [odds ratio (OR) = 1.057; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.032, 1.083; p < 0.0001], and conscientiousness was significantly associated with decreased risk of smoking (OR = 0.936; 95% CI 0.912, 0.961; p < 0.0001). In the EA sample, higher neuroticism was associated with increased risk of being a current smoker (OR = 1.058; 95% CI 1.013, 1.104; p = 0.0105). Furthermore, we found that a lower level of neuroticism and higher level of conscientiousness were associated with the severity of ND in both the AA and EA samples and a broader range of personality factors were involved in predicting the severity of ND in the AA samples. However, no differential association was detected between male and female smokers of both AA and EA samples. Conclusion There exist differential relationships between personality traits and the severity of ND in the AA and EA samples.


The arithmetic Fourier transform (AFT) is an important Fourier analysis technique. Since AFT algorithms require lots of non-uniform samples, zero-order interpolation is used for implementing AFT, but this method can produce significant errors. To reduce the errors, over-sampling is needed, meaning the sampling rate should be a number of times the Nyquist rate. The over-sampling problem is the main drawback of AFT. In this paper a new method for implementing AFT with no need for over-sampling is presented. This method gains nearly the same effect as the method using over-sampling, so it makes it possible for us to implement AFT with sampling at the Nyquist rate.


As a result of B-B mixing, associated production of B-B pairs yields like-sign lepton pairs when both B s decay semileptonically. Formulas are given for the CP-violating charge asymmetry of these like-sign pairs. It is argued that previous calculations based on quark diagrams are unreliable and that the asymmetry might be considerably larger. It is concluded that a reasonable estimate of the asymmetry lies between 10 ' and 10, but neither the sign nor the magnitude can be reliably calculated.


Many have had high expectations for the impact of computing education on societal development. By and large, these expectations have not been realized. It has become evident that several factors such as learning environment have tremendous influence in the quality of teaching students receive and the extent of attention they pay to lessons in school. This implies that schools with ill-equipped environments hardly put in the best in their students especially in the area of computing. This scenario has been among the primary reasons for low productivity of students in computing. To this effect, this study investigated the influence of the learning environment on students' productivity in computing. Three research questions were formulated and one hypothesis was tested. The study employed the survey design. The sample comprised of one hundred and fifty (150) respondents randomly drawn from the Department of Computer Science and Computer Education, University of Benin. Researchers' self-developed environmental questionnaire (SMQ) was used to elicit information from the respondents. Data collected was analyzed using mean rating and standard deviation while t-test was used to test the hypothesis for significance at 0.05. The results of our data analysis revealed that the learning environment is very important for better output in academic pursuits. Based on these findings, some relevant recommendations were made.


We have investigated the effects of Shimotsu-to, a traditional Chinese herbal prescription (Kampo medicine), on ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced cell damage and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) release in cultured Swiss 3T3 cells to examine the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Shimotsu-to. Short-term UV irradiation significantly induced cell damage and stimulated PGE2 release in Swiss 3T3 cells cultured for 4 h. The UV-radiation-induced cell damage and the stimulation of PGE2 release were significantly suppressed by the treatment with Shimotsu-to. Among the single crude drug components of Shimotsu-to, Rehmanniae Radix showed significant protective effects against UV-radiation-induced cell damage and PGE2 release. Other synthetic anti-inflammatory agents, such as dexamethasone, dipotassium glycyrrhizinate and allantoin also protected against UV-induced cell damage and inhibited PGE2 release in cultured Swiss 3T3 cells. These results suggest that the anti-inflammatory mechanism of Shimotsu-to against UV-irradiated erythema (acute skin inflammation) in guinea pigs in vivo may be mediated by the inhibition of PGE2 release from cutaneous target cells.


The survey deals with elliptic curves which are implemented in the OpenSSL 1.1.1d software library. The objective of this work is to highlight the elliptic curves which comply with the Russian national digital signature standard, namely the GOST R 34.10–2012. For this reason the paper focuses on the OpenSSL elliptic curves over a finite field of a prime order and provides the results of testing those curves for compliance with the GOST R 34.10–2012 requirements. Two cases are observed. The first case covers a complete set of restrictions imposed on elliptic curves parameters, whereas the second one differs in that a restriction on a bit length of a number of points on the curve is omitted. For both cases the paper presents tables which list the curves tested along with corresponding match marks. In order to conduct tests the Wolfram Mathematica computing system was employed, and the Wolfram language source code is given in the appendices. Note, that the paper does not address to a rationale of the requirements of the standard nor does it focus on the parameters generation issues. Keywords— elliptic curve, Russian digital signature standard, GOST, GOST R 34.10–2012, OpenSSL


Background Rituximab is effective for SLE in open label series however level of clinical response varies and was not superior to standard of care in randomised trials. We previously showed that clinical response was associated with the depth of initial B cell depletion and relapse was associated with early plasmablast repopulation [1]. Objectives To validate B cell depletion as a predictor of response to rituximab in SLE as a basis to develop more effective B cell targeted therapy. Methods The published discovery cohort included 38 renal and extra-renal lupus patients. A validation cohort of 46 new patients was recruited. All patients received an initial cycle of 2 infusions of 1000mg rituximab, each preceded by 100mg methylprednisolone. Rituximab was repeated on clinical relapse. Concomitant therapy with cyclophosphamide was not used. Oral immunosuppressants were continued if used at baseline. Oral prednisolone doses varied. B cell depletion using a protocol optimized to detect low numbers of B cell subsets and plasmablasts was measured at baseline, after both infusions of rituximab (6 weeks) and at early B cell repopulation (6 months). Complete depletion was defined as total B cell count <0.0001x109/L Results Depletion and response data were available for 84/100 patients. Overall complete depletion rate was 54%. Cohort Depletion Non response Response p Discovery (n=38) Incomplete 7/22 (32%) 15/22 (68%) 0.012 Complete 0/16 (0%) 16/16 (100%) Validation (n=46) Incomplete 6/17 (35%) 11/17 (65%) 0.014 Complete 2/29 (7%) 27/29 (93%) Combined (n=84) Incomplete 13/39 (33%) 26/39 (67%) 0.001 Complete 2/45 (4%) 43/45 (96%) Incomplete depletion was predicted at baseline by low complement C4 (p=0.044) but not baseline BILAG score or immunosuppressant use. In original cohort there was a significant association between plasmablast repopulation (>0.0008x109/L) and time to relapse <18 months (p=0.024). Follow up for relapse was limited to 22/36 responders in the validation cohort at the time of analysis, with a trend to the same association (p=0.119). Conclusions We have validated depth of B cell depletion as a predictor of response to rituximab in SLE. Clinical trials using more intensive rituximab treatment regimens, or alternative CD20 molecules are likely to increase clinical response rates to B cell depletion in clinical trials. B cell subsets should be monitored in the routine care of SLE patients receiving rituximab and repeat infusions considered if early depletion is incomplete or plasmablast repopulation is detected at 6 months. References Vital EM et al. A&R 2012. Disclosure of Interest M. Y. Md Yusof: None declared, D. Shaw: None declared, A. Rawstron: None declared, P. Emery Grant/research support from: Abbott, BMS, Pfizer, MSD and Roche., Consultant for: BMS, Abbott, Pfizer, MSD, Novartis, Roche and UCB, E. M. Vital: None declared


Aim: To see the effect of abdominal exercises in the recovery of diastasis recti in post natal females. Methodology: A Quasi Experimental study design was used to enroll 40 participants from OPD of Gynecology and Obstetrics from a Tertiary Care Hospital Lahore between ages ranged from 18 to 30 years. Using purposive sampling all postpartum females having diastasis of rectus abdominis muscles with inter recti distance more than 2 fingers width were enrolled. All the study participants received abdominal muscle exercises program for 30 min a day in 8 week program. inter recti distance was measured by using two finger palpation method. All the pre intervention and post intervention data were recorded into a short structured proforma.Results were considered significant for p value ≤ 0.05. Results: 40 participants were selected in this study with an age from 18- 30 years. The inter recti distance was significantly reduced as p value was ≤ 0.05 for both (above umbilicus and below umbilicus) groups. Conclusion: It was observed that abdominal exercises helped in the recovery of diastasis and reduced the separation between the muscles in postpartum women. It also enlightens the importance of the prescription of physiotherapy in reduction of post partum complications. Keywords: Abdominal Exercises, Diastasis Recti, Pregnancy, Postnatal period,


Organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) was compounded with Hydrogenated Nitrile-Butadiene Rubber (HNBR)(50% epoxidation) to prepare nanocomposites by melt mixing method. The nanometer scales of organoclays in rubber matrix were determined by X-ray diffraction testing, the exfoliated/intercalated structures of OMMT in HNBR were confirmed by transmission elector microscopy. The increases in tensile module and strength of HNBR/OMMT nanocomposites vulcanizaters were caused by the better interactions between rubber macromolecule chains and organoclay layers. The air-aging properties of nanocomposites enhanced by the increasing content of OMMT, which was leaded by the barrier characterize of nanodisperse OMMT layers. DMA test showed that the Tgs of HNBR/OMMT shifted to a higher temperature, as verified by the crosslinking density determination.


Infidelity is an often cited problem for couples seeking therapy, but the research literature to date is very limited on couple therapy outcomes when infidelity is a problem. The current study is a secondary analysis of a community-based sample of couple therapy in Germany and Austria. Outcomes for 145 couples who reported infidelity as a problem in their relationship were compared with 385 couples who sought therapy for other reasons. Analyses based on hierarchical linear modeling revealed that infidelity couples were significantly more distressed and reported more depressive symptoms at the start of therapy but continued improving through the end of therapy and to 6 months posttherapy. At the follow-up assessment, infidelity couples were not statistically distinguishable from non-infidelity couples, replicating previous research. Sexual dissatisfaction did not depend on infidelity status. Although there was substantial missing data, sensitivity analyses suggested that the primary findings were not due to missing data. The current findings based on a large community sample replicated previous work from an efficacy trial and show generally optimistic results for couples in which there has been an affair.


The urban transit system is considered the backbone of any society as it heavily depends on economic progress. The railway transit system is crucial for any urban transit system. Based on this notion, the present research explores the industrial agglomeration in China's prefecture-level and cities from 2010 to 2020. The research analyses the processes of urban rail transit building, industrial agglomeration, and labor agglomeration due to the railway's transit network development. The findings are summarized in three main points; first, the agglomeration of the labor force is positively affected by the construction of urban rail transit infrastructure. Secondly, the development of railways infrastructure stimulates the agglomeration of manufacturing industries in and near urban population centers leading to the development of services industries. Third, the development and integration of railways networks with other transportation networks also optimize the allocation of capital in these areas as well. In the present research Preacher and Hayes, Behavior research methods, 2008, 40 (3), 879–891 methodology has been applied to determine the relationship between the development of railways transit system and concentration of industries, by taking into account the mediating effects of labor agglomeration. The development of railways network tends to bring economic and industrial development to these regions resulting in overall social development.


ITO/Ni/ITO thin films were deposited on the PET by RF magnetron sputtering. Dependance of the process parameters such as deposition pressure, positions of Ni layer, on the transmittance, reflectance and sheet resistance of ITO/Ni/ITO film were investigated. When the Ni layer is placed at the center of ITO and deposition pressure is low, ITO/Ni/ITO films showed better optical and electrical properties. At these conditions, the transmittance, reflectance and sheet resistance of the ITO film were 90%, 0.38% and 185 Ω/□, respectively.


In this work, using a dual functional DNA-linker-DNA (DLD) probe, a new concept of a symmetric signal amplification (SSA) reaction is introduced to simultaneously analyze miRNAs. By coupling the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technology with symmetric amplification modes, this flexible biosensing system exhibits high sensitivity and specificity.


The description of soil moisture dynamics is a challenging problem for the hydrological community, as it is governed by complex interactions between climate, soil and vegetation. Recent research has achieved significant advances in the description of temporal dynamics of soil water balance through the use of a stochastic differential equation proposed by Laio et al. ( 2001 ). The assumptions of the Laio et al. model simplify the mathematical form of the soil water loss functions and the infiltration process. In particular, runoff occurs only for saturation excess, the probability distribution function (PDF) of which is well‐represented by a simple expression, but the model does not consider the limited infiltration capacity of soil. In the present work, we extend the soil moisture model to include limitations on soil infiltration capacity with the aim of understanding the impact of varying infiltration processes on the soil water balance and vegetation stress. A comparison between the two models (the original version and the modified one) is carried out via numerical simulations. The limited infiltration capacity influences the soil moisture PDF by reducing its mean and variance. Major changes in the PDFs are found for climates characterized by storms of short duration and high rainfall intensity, as well as in humid climates and in cases where soils have moderate permeability (e.g. loam and clay soils). In the case of limited infiltration capacity, modifications to the dynamics of soil moisture generally lead to higher amounts of vegetation water stress. An investigation of the role of soil texture on vegetation water stress demonstrates that loam soil provides the most favorable condition for plant‐growth under arid and semi‐arid conditions, while vegetation may benefit from the presence of more permeable soils (e.g. loamy sand) in humid climates. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The first reported case of clinically significant congenital Factor VII deficiency in association with the 13q deletion syndrome is presented. It illustrates the importance of knowledge of the specific genes involved in gross deletion syndromes and adds to the current clinical experience of this rare disease. Am. J. Hematol. 71:232–233, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract The paper discusses the intensifying functions of some lexical units derived from adverbs in a cross-linguistic Polish-Slovak perspective. The expression of intensification in Polish and Slovak has not been widely explored, which is why the present paper aims to point out a few aspects of this phenomenon in two closely related Slavic languages, which may contribute to help fill this gap. Intensification is without doubt a very interesting, pervasive and complex phenomenon in linguistics and is understood here as the process of quantitative change of a feature, activity or state. That change refers to the increase and decrease in intensity of a feature/activity/state according to an approved canon. The components of the category of intensification are therefore both, intensifying and deintensifying. Therefore, it is also postulated that a class of intensifiers/deintensifiers should be distinguished as means of intensification/deintensification. Intensifiers have also been a long fruitful topic of investigation in sociolinguistic research: on one hand intensification systems are unstable and tend to change rapidly in any speech community and on the other, the use of intensifiers tends to vary across demographic categories, especially age and gender. Intensification can also be researched due to 'delexicalization', which is defined as the reduction of the independent lexical contents of a word, or group of words, so that it comes to fulfil a particular function – the original meaning of the word is gradually lost as it evolves into a marker of intensification. The paper aims also to show that the more delexicalized an intensifier becomes, the more it will lose its lexical restrictions and increase in frequency. Through frequency of use and over time, intensifiers tend to lose their intensifying force and the renewal process occurs. This process promotes other adverbs, be they newly created adverbs or already existing ones, to the rank of intensifiers – it seems that the class of intensifiers may be an open class. The undertaken analysis has shown that there are a number of aspects which can be considered while describing intensifiers.


We present Chirpy Cardinal, an open-domain social chatbot. Aiming to be both informative and conversational, our bot chats with users in an authentic, emotionally intelligent way. By integrating controlled neural generation with scaffolded, hand-written dialogue, we let both the user and bot take turns driving the conversation, producing an engaging and socially fluent experience. Deployed in the fourth iteration of the Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge, Chirpy Cardinal handled thousands of conversations per day, placing second out of nine bots with an average user rating of 3.58/5.


This paper examines how increased drought frequency impacts water management in arid region, namely the Edwards Aquifer (EA) region of Texas. Specifically, we examine effects on the municipal, industrial, and agricultural water use; land allocation; endangered species supporting springflows and welfare. We find that increases in drought frequency causes agriculture to reduce irrigation moving land into grassland for livestock with a net income loss. This also increases water transfer from irrigation uses to municipal and industrial uses. Additionally, we find that regional springflows and well elevation will decline under more frequent drought condition, which implicates the importance of pumping limits and/or minimum springflow limits. Such developments have ecological implications and the springflows support endangered species and a switch from irrigated land use to grasslands would affect the regional ecological mix.


The problem of decentralized output-feedback tracking with disturbance attenuation is addressed for a new class of large-scale and minimum-phase nonlinear systems. Common assumptions like matching and growth conditions are not required for the underlying decentralized system with a diagonal structure. A novel observer-based decentralized controller design is presented. The proposed decentralized output-feedback laws achieve asymptotic tracking and internal Lagrange stability when the disturbance inputs disappear, and guarantee external stability in the presence of disturbance inputs. These external stability properties include Sontag's ISS and iISS conditions and standard /spl Lscr//sub 2/-gain property.


Application of Geo-Informatic technology in land tenure and land use on the economic crop area, to create sustainable land, access to the area, and produce sustainable food for the demand of its people in the community. The research objectives are to 1) apply Geo-Informatic Technology on land ownership and agricultural land use (cash crops) in the research area, 2) create GIS database on land ownership and land use, 3) create database of an online Geoinformation system on land tenure and land use. The results of this study reveal that, first; the study area is on high slope, mountains and valleys. The land is mainly in the forest zone which was included in the Forest Act 1941 and National Conserved Forest 1964. Residents gained the rights to exploit the land passed down from their ancestors. The practice was recognized by communities. The land was suitable for cultivating a wide variety of economic crops that was the main income of the family. At present the local residents keep expanding the land to grow cash crops. Second; creating a database of the geographic information system consisted of the area range, announcement from the Interior Ministry, interpretation of satellite images, transportation routes, waterways, plots of land with a title deed available at the provincial land office. Most pieces of land without a title deed are located in the forest and national reserve areas. Data were created from a field study and a land zone determined by a GPS. Last; an online Geo-Informatic System can show the information of land tenure and land use of each economic crop. Satellite data with high resolution which could be updated and checked on the online Geo-Informatic System simultaneously. Keywords—Geo-Informatic Technology, Land Tenure, Online Geo-Informatic System, Land Use of cash crops.