In this paper, we propose new core nodes based stable ad-hoc routing scheme using synchronizations, as a critical factor of optimal routing path selection and its management, for stable and robust routing in large-scale wireless mobile ad-hoc networks. First, we proposed an ad-hoc network model including the concepts of hub and bridge node, spatial, time and mobility synchronization. Next, we proposed optimal core nodes based stable routing protocols using these network models. For the optimal core routing path selection, we derived a mathematical formulation using reconstructed core network topology. The performance of the proposed routing algorithm is evaluated in comparison with legacy ad-hoc routing algorithms such as DSR and CBRP with respect to average throughput, average normalized control overhead and average end-to-end delay jitter. The performance evaluation results show that our routing protocol has better performance than DSR and CBRP in large scale ad hoc networks.


Cyanobacterial crust formation has attracted attention for stabilizing erosion-susceptible soils in desert regions. However, limited information exists on its application in waste impoundments such as mine tailings. Identifying suitable inoculants with the ability to develop biocrusts in the more toxic conditions of mine tailings represents a challenge for exploiting this biotechnology for such applications. In this study, the performance of two nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (Anabaena sp. and Nostoc muscorum), individually and as a consortium, in creating biocrusts over gold mine tailings were investigated under sterile and non-sterile conditions. The results showed that Anabaena sp. and the co-inoculation of the species promoted higher synthesis of chlorophyll-a and total EPS compared to N. muscorum. The inoculated strains also exhibited different responses in the amount of the EPS fractions. The less soluble and more condensed tightly bound EPS represented a higher fraction of total EPS with co-inoculation and N. muscorum. With respect to wind erosion resistance and compressive strength of the biocrusts generated, co-inoculation showed better performance, followed by N. muscorum, while Anabaena sp. appeared to be less effective. The presence of indigenous microbial community within the tailings influenced the biostabilization performance of Anabaena sp., while the influence was insignificant under co-inoculation and N. muscorum. Overall, inoculating the cyanobacteria in a mixture with complementary traits (higher chlorophyll-a synthesis and total EPS secretion of Anabaena sp. vs. higher TB-EPS fraction and filamentous growth of N. muscorum) presented an effective strategy in the development of a resistant biocrust against wind erosion. With this inoculation strategy, the beneficial effects of the individual strains on biocrust formation could be combined, thus a comparatively stronger structure could be formed. Besides chlorophyll-a content, factors such as cyanobacteria morphology and EPS fractions would contribute to the biostabilization process. The results also suggested that sterilization of the tailings would influence the performance of cyanobacteria depending on the inoculant. Thus, the response of inoculants to other microbial communities should be considered prior to field-scale application.


Ceria (CeO2) nanoparticles have been widely studied for numerous applications, but only a few recent studies have investigated their potential applications in medicine. Moreover, there have been almost no studies focusing on their possible antibacterial properties, despite the fact that such nanoparticles may reduce reactive oxygen species. In this study, we coated CeO2 nanoparticles with dextran or polyacrylic acid (PAA) because of their enhanced biocompatibility properties, minimized toxicity, and reduced clearance by the immune system. For the first time, the coated CeO2 nanoparticles were tested in bacterial assays involving Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the most significant bacteria responsible for infecting numerous medical devices. The results showed that CeO2 nanoparticles with either coating significantly inhibited the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by up to 55.14%, after 24 hours compared with controls (no particles). The inhibition of bacterial growth was concentration dependent. In summary, this study revealed, for the first time, that the characterized dextran- and PAA-coated CeO2 nanoparticles could be potential novel materials for numerous antibacterial applications.


The concept of middle linearity for isotopes of Abelian groups is introduced. If a quasigroup is one-sided linear then two of its parastrophes are left linear, two right linear and two are middle linear. The corresponding formula is given. Relations for the corresponding varieties and identities are established. Involutional one-sided central quasigroups are characterized.


This study aims to reveal the attitudes and beliefs of English teachers about reflective teaching by using a technique called diary keeping. It also focuses on the effects of keeping diaries on teachers' self-reflection and tries to bring the contributions it can provide teachers' reflective teaching skills into the results of this study. It has been presumed that teachers will benefit the most in this process with this technique that allows them to look at their own practices closely through an introspective, mirror-like experience. For this study, the data were collected from four English teachers. Diaries were used as the instrument of this study. Pre-diary questions were also asked teachers to identify the level of awareness on the topic. The data were analyzed qualitatively by using content analysis. It is found out that teachers have used this technique both as a source and as a tool. They have used it as a source of awareness, self-evaluation, and preparation for further lessons and as a tool to analyze student needs, detect the same types of activities and uncover the problems. As a result of this study, diaries have been suggested for further educational practices and current English teachers as they lead one of the best ways the teachers can be reflective, give themselves effective feedback and advance their teaching skills.


In this paper an algorithm to find a similarity close to a proximity or tolerance relation R is given. The obtained similarity is closer to R than its transitive closure or any transitive opening of R.


A way to improve the effectiveness in e-learning is to offer the personalized approach to the learner. Adaptive e-learning system needs to use different strategies and technologies to predict and recommend the most likely preferred options for further learning material. This can be achieved by recommending and adapting the appearance of hyperlinks or simply by recommending actions and recourses. This paper presents an idea for integration of such recommender system into existing web-based Java tutoring system in order to provide various adaptive programming courses.


Abstract A growing policy emphasis on measurement and outcomes has led to cultures of performativity, which are transforming what educators do and how they feel about themselves in relation to their work. While most analysis of performativity in education has focused on schools, this article investigates parallel developments in youth work. Youth work is a practice of informal education, in which young people learn and develop through activities, conversation and association. Its evaluation and monitoring have changed over the past two decades, as funding has become tied to targets and measureable outcomes. This article focuses on the English context, where government and third sector organisations are promoting a 'youth impact agenda', encouraging organisations to predefine and measure their outcomes. Drawing on data from interviews and focus groups with youth workers, the article argues that the current emphasis on impact risks further marginalising youth work at a time when this practice is already suffering from extensive spending cuts. The article concludes that we need to re-think the purposes and processes of evaluation and accountability - in youth work and beyond – in ways that genuinely value the perspectives of young people and grassroots practitioners.


Background and Objectives: Bacillus probiotics have been recently considered in biotechnological researches, and food additives. The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of Bacillus subtilis probiotics (PY79 and ATCC 6633) and their metabolites on Salmonella Typhimurium in Caco-2 cells. Materials and Methods: Cytotoxicity of B. subtilis ATCC 6633 crude supernatant (CS) was evaluated by 3-(4,5 dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. S. Typhimurium invasion assay was performed in the presence of the probiotics. Cell viability, apoptosis, and necrosis were evaluated in presence of S. Typhimurium, B. subtilis strains, and CS (4%, 8%) using flow cytometry. Results: Results showed a significant reduction in the invasive ability of S. Typhimurium to Caco-2 cells by employing B. subtilis probiotics, and CS (p < 0.05). The less invasion was indicated in B. subtilis PY79 and Salmonella co-cultural group. Furthermore, the cell survival rates, and apoptosis/necrosis were respectively increased and decreased in co-culture groups (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Hence, it seems that B. subtilis strains could be suggested as beneficial candidates to overcome the invasion and cytotoxicity of Salmonella on the intestinal cells. However, additional in vivo models are suggested to validate our results.


The distributed naming problem, assigning unique names to the nodes in a distributed system, is a fundamental task. This problem is nontrivial, especially when the amount of memory available for the task is low, and when requirements for fault-tolerance are added. The considered distributed communication model is population protocols. In this model, a priori anonymous and indistinguishable mobile nodes (called agents), communicate in pairs and in an asynchronous manner (according to a fairness condition). Fault-tolerance is addressed through self-stabilization, in terms of arbitrary initialization of agents. This work comprises a comprehensive study of the necessary and sufficient state space conditions for naming. The problem is studied under various combinations of model assumptions: weak or global fairness, arbitrary or uniform initialization of agents, existence or absence of a distinguishable agent (arbitrarily initialized or not), possibility of breaking symmetry in pair-wise interactions (symmetric or asymmetric transitions). For each possible combination of these assumptions, either an impossibility is proven or the necessary exact number of states (per mobile agent) is determined and an appropriate space-optimal naming protocol is presented. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Distributed algorithms


Manufacturing industry faces several challenges when manufacturing complex shaped components. One such challenge is holding complex shaped components. For such instances, various dedicated fixturing methods are used, reducing the flexibility and increasing the initial cost in manufacturing. Pin type fixturing methods are the dominating method of fixturing for complex shaped components. But the point loading from pin type fixturing methods can lead to surface damage reducing the quality of the product. So various methods have been introduced to reduce the negative effects from point loading. Granular jamming is one such method that has been of recent interest. The fixturing force granular jamming materials can provide depends on various factors including membrane properties. This research paper describes how the fixturing force provided by granular jammed pin type method vary on the thickness of the granular jamming membrane and how negative pressure variation affect the fixturing force from granular jamming. The membrane in this study is made out of latex using simple dipping techniques. According to the results of experiments carried out, fixturing force increases with increase of thickness in jamming membrane and when negative pressure is increased. Further, a novel configuration to increase fixturing force with a tubular membrane mounted on two pins was experimented. Experiments revealed that higher fixturing force can be obtained through such a novel configuration.


Dinaciclib is a small molecule cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor with the potential to treat multiple cancers. To better understand its cytotoxic action in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), we evaluated dinaciclib therapeutic effects in the transgenic mouse model (LSL-KrasG12D/+ ; LSL-Trp53R172H/+ ; Pdx-1-Cre mice; KPC mice). Tumor growth and microenvironment were dynamically monitored by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Dinaciclib therapy significantly delayed tumor progression (P < 0.001) and prolonged survival (P = 0.007) in KPC mice. In vitro assays showed that dinaciclib exerted antiproliferative effects on PDAC cells by increasing surface calreticulin expression and release of ATP. Dinaciclib treatment inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in KPC tumor as assessed by Ki67 and cleaved caspase 3, respectively. Particularly, the tumor infiltrating CD8+ T cells were increased after dinaciclib treatment in KPC mice. Additionally, the mean apparent diffusion coefficient values of KPC tumor calculated from diffusion weighted MR images were significantly lower after dinaciclib treatment (P = 0.033). These finding suggest that dinaciclib as a single agent can inhibit tumor growth and improve the overall survival in KPC mice.


Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between stress, role conflict and quality of life among graduate students in nursing. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. After IRB approval, the data were collected using structured questionnaires from the 98 graduate students in nursing. The data were collected from September 10 to November 30, 2018. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression by using SPSS 25.0 statistical program. Results: Nursing graduate students were experiencing more stress on their facing task than the interpersonal dimension of stress, and had the greatest difficulty in playing the role of their families due to their work and school responsibilities. Stress and role conflict of nursing graduate students were negatively correlated with quality of life. There was a significant positive correlation between stress and role conflict. The variables affecting the quality of life of nursing graduate students were identified by stress and working status. Conclusions: To improve the quality of life for nursing graduate students, it is necessary to help balance the roles between work, school, and family through appropriate stress management.


CONTEXT
Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), a tumor of the parafollicular C cells of the gland, comprises 3-5% of all malignant thyroid neoplasms. Calcitonin, a polypeptidic hormone secreted by the neoplastic cells, is considered a very sensitive and specific MTC tumor marker. Patients with MTC usually present elevated serum calcitonin levels, which correlate with tumor burden and prognosis.

OBJECTIVES
To describe a case of advanced MTC with normal serum calcitonin and review the literature on this subject.

DESIGN
A case study was performed.

INTERVENTION
There were no interventions.

PATIENTS
A case of advanced MTC with normal serum calcitonin was studied.

RESULTS
Serum calcitonin was measured by two distinct assays, a chemiluminescent immunometric and an in-house two-site monoclonal antibody-based immunofluorometric assay. To rule out a "hook effect," or posttranslational modifications of calcitonin molecule, serum dilutions and tumor immunohistochemistry for calcitonin with the same antibodies used for serum calcitonin measurements were performed. Serum calcitonin levels were within the normal range in both assays, whereas the tumor stained strongly positive for calcitonin. These findings suggest that the tumor was able to produce but not to secrete the calcitonin protein. Five other cases of advanced MTC with normal serum calcitonin levels had been previously reported.

CONCLUSIONS
We present an unusual case of advanced MTC with normal serum calcitonin levels. Awareness of MTC cases presenting with normal serum calcitonin levels is important in clinical practice and is particularly relevant to centers that use this test for screening.


Background: Activating mutations of BRAF (50%) or NRAS (25%) are present in over 75% of patients with metastatic melanoma. Inhibitors of BRAF or MEK have been shown to improve survival in patients with specific BRAF-mutations, whereas inhibitors of MEK are associated with responses in over 20% of patients with NRAS mutations. ERK1/2 are serine-threonine kinases downstream of NRAS and BRAF in the MAPK pathway. Ulixertinib is a potent, selective, reversible, ATP-competitive ERK1/2 inhibitor that has demonstrated anti-proliferative effects in cells has been shown to reduce tumor growth and induce tumor regression in BRAF- and RAS-mutant xenograft models. Methods: Fifty-two patients with metastatic melanoma were enrolled to either the dose escalation (8) or expansion (44) portions of this study (NCT01781429). The dose escalation phase enrolled a total of 27 patients (10-900 mg, BID) and established the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) of 600 mg, BID. In cohort expansion, BRAF-mutant melanoma patients without or with prior BRAF/MEK inhibitor therapy, and NRAS-mutant melanoma patients not treated with BRAF /MEK inhibitors were enrolled at the RP2D. Best response was determined by RECIST1.1. Results: Overall, of the evaluable melanoma patients with BRAF mutations treated in this study (24), 4 had a partial response (PR, [17%]). Among the 8 melanoma patients treated in dose escalation, 6 had BRAFV600 mutations and 3 of these 6 had a partial response (PR), including one patient with PR who was not previously treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitor (all others were). In the expansion phase, only one melanoma patient was enrolled that had not previously received BRAF or MEK inhibitor and had a best response to therapy of stable disease (SD) that lasted over four months. For the 21 melanoma patients enrolled that had prior BRAF/MEK inhibitor therapy, including 20 with BRAFV600 mutation and 1 with a BRAF fusion, 15 were evaluable for response. Of these, 1 had a PR (7%), 6 SD, and 8 with progressive disease (PD). In the NRAS mutant melanoma cohort of 22 patients, including Q61 (17) or G13 (3) or unspecified mutations (2), 17 were evaluable for response; 2 PR (12%), 6 SD, and 9 PD. The most common treatment related adverse events (AEs) were diarrhea (54%), rash (46%), fatigue (42%), nausea (40%), and dermatitis acneiform (31%). 26 treatment-related Grade 3 events occurred in 21 patients, with acneiform rash (3), maculopapular rash (3), diarrhea (3), anemia (3), and fatigue (2) being the only events occurring multiple times. No treatment related grade 4 or 5 events occurred. Conclusions: Ulixertinib was well tolerated and associated with activity in patients with metastatic melanoma with either a BRAF mutation, in both the BRAF/MEK inhibitor treatment naive and refractory setting, or NRAS mutation. Further studies, either as single-agent or in combination, to determine the clinical utility of ulixertinib in cancer patients are ongoing. Citation Format: Ryan J. Sullivan, Filip Janku, Bob T. Li, Deborah Wong, Jeffrey Sosman, Vicki Keedy, Elizabeth Buchbinder, Anthony Tolcher, Anna Varghese, David M. Hyman, Keith T. Flaherty, Antoni Ribas, Richard Carvajal, Andrea Wang-Gillam, Harriet Kluger, Manish Patel, Peter Langecker, Mary Varterasian, Dean Welsch, Jeffrey Infante. Activity of the ERK1/2 inhibitor ulixertinib (BVD-523) in patients with BRAF and NRAS mutant melanoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr CT003. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-CT003


Economic analysis of nitrogen fertilizer in corn crop under no- tillage in succession to cover crops in Red Latosol. Nitrogen is the most absorbed nutrient and also the most expensive in corn crop production. This study was conducted at the Experimental Farm of Unesp/Feis, located in Selviria, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. One objective was to evaluate, in economic terms, the best rate and time of N application, as urea, in corn crop grown under no-tillage in succession to sunnhemp, millet and fallow ground. The study also aimed to quantify the contribution of N from green manure equivalent to N from urea fertilizer. The experiment was designed in randomized complete blocks, with 24 treatments and four replications in an incomplete factorial, 3 x 3 x 2 + 6, three N rates: 80, 130 and 180 kg N ha -1 ; three preceding cover crops: sunnhemp, millet and fallow ground; two N application time: stage four leaves or eight leaves; and six additional treatments (three without N application and three that received 30 kg N ha -1 at seeding). The corn crop in succession to sunnhemp and the application of N in the four leaves stage in succession to millet and fallow ground soil promoted larger physical and economical grains yield.


The great demand for energy consumption in large urban centers allows the development of alternative forms of energy production. Wind energy is a promising alternative to this growing demand. Higher demand for electrical vehicles and strict standers for fossil fuel combine with the intelligent grid, enabling small wind turbines as a solution. Small wind turbines are used in small farms and homes to become energy neutral. In other words, the same amount of energy consumed is produced by wind or solar. However, small wind turbines are only economically attractive when implementation and maintenance costs are low.


This case study of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) organization in New Orleans focuses on the lack of participation in the CSA market by the local residents despite its intentions, and how various constituencies diagnose the causes of the disengagement. Interview and ethnographic observation data indicate a general consensus on the economic constraints, but some non-resident supporters of the organization attributed the issue to lack of knowledge about the food system or the benefits of local food consumption. The residents, on the other hand, pointed to spatial and sociocultural barriers that made the market and its location less accessible to them, including the produce selection and purchase options, convenience of access to the market, and the race-related historical and spatial context of the market's location. These findings suggest that the food access concerns of the food justice movement may be more easily addressed than the food sovereignty concerns. Food as a unique resource poses an additional challenge for the movement to construct an effective food justice frame.


Extensive work in humans using magneto- and electroencephalography strongly suggests that decreased oscillatory α-activity (8–14 Hz) facilitates processing in a given region, whereas increased α-activity serves to actively suppress irrelevant or interfering processing. However, little work has been done to understand how α-activity is linked to neuronal firing. Here, we simultaneously recorded local field potentials and spikes from somatosensory, premotor, and motor regions while a trained monkey performed a vibrotactile discrimination task. In the local field potentials we observed strong activity in the α-band, which decreased in the sensorimotor regions during the discrimination task. This α-power decrease predicted better discrimination performance. Furthermore, the α-oscillations demonstrated a rhythmic relation with the spiking, such that firing was highest at the trough of the α-cycle. Firing rates increased with a decrease in α-power. These findings suggest that α-oscillations exercise a strong inhibitory influence on both spike timing and firing rate. Thus, the pulsed inhibition by α-oscillations plays an important functional role in the extended sensorimotor system.


Abstract Although Bothrops insularis is critically endangered, there is no estimate of its population size based on field quantifications. Here we provide the first estimate of its population size based on plot surveys conducted at the Queimada Grande Island. We distributed 26 quadrat plots regularly in a trail that crosses the island. Plots were sampled twice in 2002. Of the 26 plots we sampled, 21 were located in forests and five in grassy areas. For the first survey, mean estimates of population size for plots located in forests and grassy areas were 2134.3 and 224.0 snakes, and the Percentage Relative Precision for these estimates were 38.6% and 277.6%, respectively. For the second survey, no snakes were found in grassy areas, whereas the mean estimate of population size for plots located in forests was 1304.3 snakes and the Percentage Relative Precision for these estimates was 93.7%. Although suffering from relatively low precision, our best estimate of population size in B. insularis is around the lower end of the guesses found in the literature (2000–4000 individuals for the entire island). Furthermore, based on encounter rates obtained in a non-systematic way in the last 12 years, we have the impression that the density of B. insularis decreased in this period and we have evidence for the illegal removal of snakes from the island in the last few years. Our results suggest the urgent need of enforcement to restrain the illegal removal of snakes from the island and of a monitoring program to track future changes in the population size of B. insularis.


BACKGROUND: Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is well known for its beneficial effects on human health. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of EVOO substitution for backfat on qualities of pork patty to avoid high consumption of animal-originated fat, because it is closely related to development of cardiovascular disease and obesity. RESULT: Water-holding capacity was higher in control (lean pork + 10% backfat) and T3 (lean pork + 5% backfat + 5% EVOO + 0.5% isolated soy protein + 0.5% carrageenan + 0.5% maltodextrin) than T1 (lean pork + 5% backfat + 5% EVOO + 0.5% isolated soy protein) and T2 (lean pork + 5% backfat + 5% EVOO + 0.5% isolated soy protein + 0.5% carrageenan). Hardness was higher in EVOO substitution for backfat patty samples than control. In sensory evaluation, the control was significantly higher in overall acceptability compared with EVOO substitution for backfat pork patty samples. CONCLUSION: The physical properties of pork patty made by EVOO substitution for backfat were stable as a commercial pork patty (control). However, sensory evaluation scores were higher in control compared to EVOO-substituted pork patty samples.  2008 Society of Chemical Industry


1D or 2D neutron imaging detectors with individual wire or strip readout using discriminators have the advantage of being able to treat several neutron impacts partially overlapping in time, hence reducing global dead time. A single neutron impact usually gives rise to several discriminator signals. In this paper, we introduce an information-theoretical definition of image resolution. Two point-like spots of neutron impacts with a given distance between them act as a source of information (each neutron hit belongs to one spot or the other), and the detector plus signal treatment is regarded as an imperfect communication channel that transmits this information. The maximal mutual information obtained from this channel as a function of the distance between the spots allows to define a calibration-independent measure of resolution. We then apply this measure to quantify the power of resolution of different algorithms treating these individual discriminator signals which can be implemented in firmware. The method is then applied to different detectors existing at the ILL. Center-of-gravity methods usually improve the resolution over best-wire algorithms which are the standard way of treating these signals.


Inexpensive and flexible sensors are being designed as inkjet-printed circuits (iPCs) to solve a dynamic range of conditional issues in the biomedical, environmental, civil and industrial fields. The combination of print pattern, material choice and layering structure give iPCs a robust platform for developing products not attainable with printed circuit boards (PCBs). In this paper, a fully printed pressure sensing array was created as a multipurpose device useful for pressure mapping applications; specifically for monitoring and mapping the gait of physically compromised hospital patients. The printed array of gate-less field effect transistors utilizes aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) as the semiconducting layer due to its piezoelectric properties. Testing shows single nodes in the array detect various levels of pressure, while the entire array acts as a pressure gradient map, depending on the circuit containment method. This paper is concluded with a discussion of testing and research for future applications.


All who practice otolaryngology and endoscopy are constantly confronted with the problem of extracting foreign bodies from the food and air passages of patients. Usually the patient is a child, for, as is known, children seem to be born with the innate desire and ability to introduce foreign bodies of all types into their ears, noses, and throats; and many of these foreign bodies find their way into the air and food passages. It is a well-known fact that most objects which will enter the gastrointestinal tract without harm through normal channels will also pass from it through natural channels without harm. This fact, however, does not always hold true, as anyone practicing medicine knows, for many foreign bodies which enter without harm do not pass, and it is this latter type with which this article is concerned. Equen1has stated that until very recently a physician faced with


We define two new flexible families of continuous distributions to fit real data by compoun-ding the Marshall-Olkin class and the power series distribution. These families are very competitive to the popular beta and Kumaraswamy generators. Their densities have linear representations of exponentiated densities. In fact, as the main properties of thirty five exponentiated distributions are well-known, we can easily obtain several properties of about three hundred fifty distributions using the references of this article and five special cases of the power series distribution. We provide a package implemented in R software that shows numerically the precision of one of the linear representations. This package is useful to calculate numerical values for some statistical measurements of the generated distributions. We estimate the parameters by maximum likelihood. We define a regression based on one of the two families. The usefulness of a generated distribution and the associated regression is proved empirically.


This issue on religious music underscores our commitment to publishing wideranging and interdisciplinary articles. On the cover's listing of contents there is an obvious lacuna: there is no article on contemporary liturgical music. Unfortunately, one of the most popular American Catholic composers became ill during the writing of his contribution, precluding the completion of his article. We are grateful to the contributors to this issue. Robert R. Grimes, S.J., is Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center. He has a Ph.D. in music. Roberto S. Goizueta is the Margaret O'Brien Flatley Chair in Catholic Theology at Boston College. John Haines holds a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto. He is professor of music and medieval studies. Justus George Lawler has been consulting editor of our journal for three decades. His article in this issue is twenty-five percent longer than the article in the Harvard Theological Review which he is critiquing. For anyone concerned about the seemingly disproportionate length, we quote from his previous contribution to this journal, "Justus Denied in Massachusetts" (Spring, 2012): "It takes more space and time to refute a lie than it does to tell one; even as with more serious violations, it takes far less time to commit than to convict." Amy K. Lewkowicz is a doctoral candidate at the Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. Ramón Luzárraga is lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies and theologian in residence at the University of Dayton. Rubén Rosario Rodriguez is associate professor of systematic theology in the Department of Theological Studies, St. Louis University. Sandra Yocum is associate professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Dayton. She is also the president of the College Theology Society and author of Joining the Revolution: The College Theology Society, 1954–2004. I am very pleased to announce that Father David J. Endres will succeed me as editor of the U.S. Catholic Historian beginning with the winter issue, and I will become an associate editor. He has been assistant editor since 2003. He is assistant professor of church history and historical theology at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary of the West in Cincinnati. He is a fine scholar; his second book, a history of Franciscan parish life in America, will be published next year.


Transboundary Water from Afghanistan: Climate Change, and Land-Use Implications brings together diverse factual material on the physical geography and political, cultural, and economic implications of Southwest Asian transboundary water resources. It is the outgrowth of long-term deep knowledge and experience gained by the authors, as well as the material developed from a series of new workshops funded by the Lounsbery Foundation and other granting agencies. Afghanistan and Pakistan have high altitude mountains providing vital water supplies that are highly contentious necessities much threatened by climate change, human land-use variation, and political manipulation, which can be managed in new ways that are in need of comprehensive discussions and negotiations between all the riparian nations of the Indus watershed (Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan). This book provides a description of the basic topographic configuration of the Kabul River tributary to the Indus river, together will all its tributaries that flow back and forth across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the basic elements that are involved with the hydrological cycle and its derivatives in the high mountains of the Hindu Kush and Himalaya.Synthesizes information on the physical geography and political, cultural, and economic implications of Southwest Asian transboundary water resourcesOffers a basic topographic description of the Indus River watershedProvides local water management information not easily available for remote and contentious border areasDelivers access to the newest thinking from chief personnel on both sides of the contentious borderFeatures material developed from a series of new workshops funded by the Lounsbery Foundation and other granting agencies


The authors identify program characteristics most predictive of cost in 13 residential treatment facilities for emotionally disturbed children and discuss how easily obtainable quantitative information can be used to decide resource allocation.


Abstract. We strategically placed spatially distributed sensors to provide
representative measures of changes in snowpack and subsurface water storage,
plus the fluxes affecting these stores, in a set of nested headwater
catchments. The high temporal frequency and distributed coverage make the
resulting data appropriate for process studies of snow accumulation and melt,
infiltration, evapotranspiration, catchment water balance, (bio)geochemistry,
and other critical-zone processes. We present 8 years of hourly
snow-depth, soil-moisture, and soil-temperature data, as well as 14 years of
quarter-hourly streamflow and meteorological data that detail water-balance
processes at Providence Creek, the upper part of which is at the current
50 % rain versus snow transition of the southern Sierra Nevada,
California. Providence Creek is the long-term study cooperatively run by the
Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (SSCZO) and the USDA Forest Service
Pacific Southwest Research Station's Kings River Experimental Watersheds (KREW). The
4.6 km2 montane Providence Creek catchment spans the current lower
rain–snow transition elevation of 1500–2100 m. Two meteorological stations
bracket the high and low elevations of the catchment, measuring air
temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, precipitation, wind speed
and direction, and snow depth, and at the higher station, snow water
equivalent. Paired flumes at three subcatchments and a V-notch weir at the
integrating catchment measure quarter-hourly streamflow. Measurements of
meteorological and streamflow data began in 2002. Between 2008 and 2010, 50
sensor nodes were added to measure distributed snow depth, air temperature,
soil temperature, and soil moisture within the top 1 m below the surface.
These sensor nodes were installed to capture the lateral differences of
aspect and canopy coverage. Data are available at hourly and daily intervals
by water year (1 October–30 September) in nonproprietary formats from
online data repositories. Data for the Southern Sierra Critical Zone
Observatory distributed snow and soil datasets are at
https://doi.org/10.6071/Z7WC73. Kings River Experimental Watersheds
meteorological data are available from
https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2018-0028 and stream-discharge data are
available from https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2017-0037.


Abstract Aedes aegypti is associated with the transmission of numerous human and animal diseases, such as yellow fever, dengue fever, chikungunya, and more recently Zika virus. Emerging insecticide resistance has created a need to develop new mosquitocidal agents for effective control operations. A series of benzothiazole-piperidine derivatives (1-24) were investigated for their larvicidal and adulticidal effects on Ae. aegypti It was observed that compounds 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11 and 13 showed notable larvicidal activity. Furthermore, compounds 6 and 10 showed promising adulticidal activity. Based on the mosquitocidal properties of these compounds, docking studies were also carried out in the active site of the AeSCP2 enzyme to explore any insights into further in vitro enzyme studies. Docking results indicated that all these active compounds showed reasonable interactions with critical residues in the active site of this enzyme. This outcome suggested that these compounds might show their larvicidal and adulticidal effects via the inhibition of AeSCP2. According to in vitro and in silico studies, compounds 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 13 stand out as candidates for further studies.


Introduction : Gestational diabetes is the most common medical disorder during pregnancy that result in maternal and neonatal complications.this study was to evaluate the BMI demographic variables in pregnant women with gestational diabetes were performed. Methodology : In this cross-sectional study of 363 pregnant women who had 24 to 28 week of gestation referred to Zabol health centers And history of diabetes before pregnancy, termination of pregnancy before 24 weeks administration of drugs effecting glucose metabolism such as steroids and patients who have chronic liver disease, glandular and connective tissue disorders were studied. Information on the objectives of the study were collected using a questionnaire. Results : 17 cases or 4/7 percent Of all subjects, were diagnosed with gestational diabetes Among the risk factors surveyed maternal age, body mass index with increased risk of gestational diabetes (p <0/05) . there was no statistically significant relationship Between occupation, education level with gestational diabetes. Conclusion : High and low maternal age and BMI can contribute to complications of pregnancy, Thus pregnancy in women with older age and abnormal weight should be considered as a high-risk pregnancy Special care in order to prevent the occurrence of this complication.


Two experiments were conducted to examine the responses of weaned pigs to inoculation with tachyzoites of the temperature-sensitive mutant (TS-4) of Toxoplasma gondii. Experiment 1 was done to examine the safety of the TS-4 mutant in weaned pigs given a single inoculation. No clinical sign was observed in 2 pigs inoculated subcutaneously (s.c.) (group 1) or 4 pigs inoculated intravenously (group 2) with 5 x 10(5) tachyzoites. No lesion was observed in the tissues of pigs in group 1; 3 of 4 pigs in group 2 had focal areas of gliosis and lymphocytic perivascular infiltrates in their brains. One pig also had focal areas of lymphocytic infiltrates in hepatic portal triads. No stage of T. gondii was observed in the tissues of these pigs. The TS-4 mutant was not isolated in mouse bioassay from the tissues of the 6 pigs in experiment 1. Experiment 2 was done to determine if 2 inoculations s.c. with TS-4 tachyzoites would protect pigs against inoculation orally with T. gondii oocysts. Pigs were inoculated s.c. with 5 x 10(5) TS-4 tachyzoites (4 pigs, group 3) or Hanks' balanced salt solution (4 pigs, group 4) on days 0 and 14 postinoculation (PI) and orally challenged with 1 x 10(5) oocysts of the GT-1 isolate of T. gondii 30 days PI. Clinical response to oocyst inoculation was more severe in pigs in group 4. Rectal temperatures of pigs in group 3 were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than pigs in group 4 on days 3, 4, and 9 following inoculation with oocysts.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In this paper the relationships between the alternative machining paths and flatness deviations of the aluminum plate part, were presented. The flatness tolerance of the main surface of the plate part has crucial meaning due to the assembly requirement of piezoelectric elements on the radiator. The aluminum bodies under investigation are the base part of the radiators with crimped feathers for the train industry. The surface of the aluminum plate part was milled using three different milling strategies: along of longer or shorter side of workpiece and at an angle
of 45°. The aluminum bodies were machined on milling centre ecoMILL 70 DMG MORI. The flatness deviation
measurements were carried out on the Coordinated Measuring Machine Altera 7.5.5 Nikon Metrology NV.
These measurements were made during the manufacturing process of the radiator, namely after machining,
however, before the process crimping of feathers. The results that were obtained enables the validation
of assumed milling path strategies in connection of the subsequent machining and assembly processes.


Simulation-based testing is critical for ensuring safety of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are enabled by deep learning techniques which require a large quantity of data. With simulation testing, we can create rare events for testing and training of autonomous vehicles. Procedural generation of roads and modeling of driving behaviors in an easily extendable architecture ensures that we are able to create rare scenarios at scale with minimal artistic burden. In this paper, we present CruzWay, a system that both supports and creates these scenarios. With CruzWay, we are able to procedurally generate town sized road networks or road intersections. CruzWay supports generation of road meshes as well as navigation meshes from SUMO road network files. CruzWay can generate cars as well as pedestrians run by behavior trees (BTs) in this environment. The self-contained, modular nature of BTs in combination with procedural roads allows us to create a large number of scenarios.


Lifestyle interventions are effective for prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) but are generally resource intensive and prohibitively expensive to scale-up for wider public health benefit. Social support provided by lay people (peer support) is an alternative low-cost approach to facilitate self-management of lifestyle behaviours, but the effect of peer support on health outcomes is not clear. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effect of peer support on CVD risk. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO: CRD42014006291. PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL were systematically searched to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) addressing the effect of peer support on CVD events or CVD risk factors including, obesity, markers of diabetes risk, blood pressure and lipid levels, in adults > 18 years. Data extraction and assessment of bias were performed by two independent reviewers and data were pooled using a random-effects meta-analysis. Twenty-six RCTs were included in the review and almost half of studies were conducted in ethnic minority or low income groups. None of the included trials reported CVD events as an outcome. Peer support showed significant improvements in glycaemic control (HbA1c −0·22 % [95 % CI −0·40, −0·04] P = 0·02) and obesity (BMI −0·83 kg/m [95 % CI −1·58, −0·07], P = 0·03) in comparison to control, with evidence of significant heterogeneity across studies (I = 49 %, and 59 % respectively) and funnel plot asymmetry. There was no significant effect of peer support on blood pressure (systolic blood pressure −0·90 [95 % CI, −3·05, 1·24]). Most RCTs (n =18, 69 %) were graded as high risk of bias particularly in selection, performance and attrition bias. No consistent pattern of effect was found for delivery of peer support (group, peer mentor, web/online, telephone/texting) in individual studies. Despite some evidence supporting a beneficial effect of peer support for established cardiovascular risk factors, trials were heterogeneous and most were of poor methodological quality, which limits the ability to draw firm conclusions. There is a need for further well-designed RCTs to evaluate the effect and sustainability of peer support on cardiovascular disease risk.


Automation of farm activities can transform agricultural domain from being manual and static to intelligent and dynamic leading to higher production with lesser human supervision. This paper proposes an automated irrigation system which monitors and maintains the desired soil moisture content via automatic watering. Microcontroller ATMEGA328P on arduino uno platform is used to implement the control unit. The setup uses soil moisture sensors which measure the exact moisture level in soil. This value enables the system to use appropriate quantity of water which avoids over/under irrigation. IOT is used to keep the farmers updated about the status of sprinklers. Information from the sensors is regularly updated on a webpage using GSM-GPRS SIM900A modem through which a farmer can check whether the water sprinklers are ON/OFF at any given time. Also, the sensor readings are transmitted to a Thing speak channel to generate graphs for analysis.


Abstract Purpose This paper presents the ARQUIGRAFIA project, an open, public and nonprofit, continuous growth web collaborative environment dedicated to Brazilian architectural photographic images. Design/methodology/approach The ARQUIGRAFIA project promotes the active and collaborative participation among its institutional users (GLAMs, NGOs, laboratories and research groups) and private users (students, professionals, professors, researchers), both can create an account and share their digitized iconographic collections in the same Web environment by uploading their files, indexing, georeferencing and assigning a Creative Commons license. Findings The development of users interactions by means of semantic differentials impressions recording on visible plastic-spatial aspects of the architectures in synthetic infographics, as well as by the retrieval of images through an advanced system search based on those impressions parameters. By gamification means, the system often invites users to review images' in order to improve images' data accuracy. The pilot project named Open Air Museum that allows users to add audio descriptions to images in situ. An interface for users' digital curatorship will be soon available. Research limitations The ARQUIGRAFIA's multidisciplinary team gathering professors-researchers, graduate and undergraduate students from the Architecture and Urbanism, Design, Information Science, Computer Science faculties of the University of São Paulo, demands continuous financial resources for grants, for contracting third party services, for the participation in scientific events in Brazil and abroad, and for equipment. Since 2016, significant budget cuts in the University of São Paulo own research funds and in Brazilian federal scientific agencies can compromise the continuity of this project. Practical implications The open source template called +GRAFIA that can freely help other areas of knowledge to build their own visual Web collaborative environments. Originality/value The collaborative nature of the ARQUIGRAFIA distinguishes it from institutional image databases on the internet, precisely because it involves a heterogeneous network of collaborators.


Successful sexual reproduction often relies on the ability of plants to recognize self- or genetically-related pollen and prevent pollen tube growth soon after germination in order to avoid self-fertilization. Angiosperms have developed different reproductive barriers, one of the most extended being self-incompatibility (SI). With SI, pistils are able to reject self or genetically-related pollen thus promoting genetic variability. There are basically two distinct systems of SI: gametophytic (GSI) and sporophytic (SSI) based on their different molecular and genetic control mechanisms. In both types of SI, programmed cell death (PCD) has been found to play an important role in the rejection of self-incompatible pollen. Although reactive oxygen species (ROS) were initially recognized as toxic metabolic products, in recent years, a new role for ROS has become apparent: the control and regulation of biological processes such as growth, development, response to biotic and abiotic environmental stimuli, and PCD. Together with ROS, nitric oxide (NO) has become recognized as a key regulator of PCD. PCD is an important mechanism for the controlled elimination of targeted cells in both animals and plants. The major focus of this review is to discuss how ROS and NO control male-female cross-talk during fertilization in order to trigger PCD in self-incompatible pollen, providing a highly effective way to prevent self-fertilization.


Background: During the Syrian civil war, casualties were treated on-site and only later transferred to foreign medical centers. Significant number needed abdominal re-operation. Our aim is to present our approach to abdominal trauma casualties who survived the on-site surgery and needed abdominal reoperation abroad.Methods: Medical data from all medical records were retrospectively analyzed. Each patient underwent total body computerized tomography on arrival, revealing diverse multi-organ trauma. We divided the casualty population involving abdominal trauma into 4 sub-groups according to the location of abdominal surgical intervention, focusing on missed injuries and post-operative complications in the re-laparotomy sub-group. Results: By July 2018, 236 casualties suffering abdominal trauma (among 1331 trauma casualties) had been admitted to our hospital. Life-saving abdominal interventions had been done in 138 subjects in Syria before arrival to our medical center. Seventy-nine underwent abdominal surgery in Israel, of whom, 46 (33.3%) needed abdominal re-laparotomy. Indications for re-exploration included severe peritoneal inflammation, neglected abdominal foreign bodies, hemodynamic instability and intestinal fistula. Mortality occurred in 37/236 patients, with abdominal trauma as the main cause of fatality in 10 of them (4.2%), usually following urgent re-laparotomy. Conclusions: Clinical presentation of the Syrian casualties following emergency medical care outside our borders, and the fact that re-operation was not done by the same team responsible for the initial abdominal intervention posed major diagnostic challenges and necessitated increased suspicion and changes in our medical approach.


With the development of technogenic civilization, various anthropogenic factors (ionizing radiation, toxic substances, etc.) affect virtually all living organisms, and often this effect is negative. The current state of affairs on many poultry farms is that they have a negative impact on the surrounding biosphere due to harmful emissions. This is due to the accumulation of litter. The purpose of the study was to investigate the microclimate parameters in the poultry house with the addition of various reagents and zeolite in the belt conveyors of cage batteries. It was proposed to add adsorbents (zeolite) and chemical reagents (phosphogypsum, superphosphate, and aluminium chloride and iron sulphate) directly onto the litter removal belt conveyors of cage batteries. It was found that application of zeolite onto the conveyor belt in an amount of 600 g/m2 reduces the content of ammonia in the premises by 1.6 times on the first day of accumulation of litter, and by 1.25 times on the seventh day, not exceeding during all seven days of maximum allowable concentrations. However, within all seven days of litter accumulation, a difference in this indicator with control was statistically significant (P<0.001). The reduction of ammonia emissions was less significant when applying a dose of zeolite of 300 g/m2 conveyor belt: by 1.6 times on the first day of accumulation of litter, and from the fifth day the difference with control was statistically significant. The application of phosphogypsum onto the conveyor belt in the amount of 600 g/m2 provided a reduction of ammonia emission by 2.1-1.1 times, 300 g/m2-by 1.8 times on the first day of accumulation of litter. Since the fifth the day, the difference in control was statistically significant. The application of superphosphate onto the litter removal conveyor belts reduced the ammonia content in the poultry house in almost the same extent as when applying phosphogypsum. The effective time of this reagent was also close in importance. Aluminium chloride and ferrous sulphate were used in smaller doses than other absorbents and reagents, but on the initial five days of litter accumulation, they provided a relatively significant reduction in the ammonia content of the air in the poultry house: ferrous sulphate at a dose of 200 g/m2 of the conveyor belt area - by 2.0-1.2 times, aluminium chloride - by 4.0-1.5 times. Anyway, the efficacy of these reagents in the last days of litter accumulation was considerably decreased. The use of aluminium chloride and ferrous sulphate in doze of 100 g/m2 for the conveyor belt provided a proper reduction of indoor ammonia content only for the initial tree-four days.
Key words: Microclimate; Poultry litter; Zeolite; Reagent; Ammonia emission


The Notch signaling pathway has been found to play an important role in multiple human cancers by regulating transcriptional programs. However, the mechanism by which Notch drives target gene transcription is still elusive. In our previous study, we have identified and characterized a novel Notch activation complex kinase, NACK, which acts as a Notch transcriptional co-activator and an essential regulator of Notch-mediated tumorigenesis and development. In this regard, NACK could become a putative drug target in anti-cancer therapies. The lack of three-dimensional (3D) structure of NACK hinders the designing of potential drug inhibitors. Therefore, computational methods are adopted to elucidate the structural and functional features of NACK, which further aid in designing new NACK inhibitors. Molecule docking (Glide) is utilized to obtain potential hit inhibitors for NACK, which will be validated using in-vitro and in-vivo assays. This will open avenues for the development of new therapies for Notch-dependent cancers. Citation Format: Xiaoxia Zhu, Zhiqiang Wang, Ke Jin, Luisana Astudillo, Wen Zhou, Jinshui Chen, Peter Buchwald, Stephan C. Schurer, Anthony J. Capobianco. Discovery of novel anti-cancer therapeutic agents for Notch activation complex kinase (NACK) targeting the Notch pathway. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Targeting the Vulnerabilities of Cancer; May 16-19, 2016; Miami, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2017;23(1_Suppl):Abstract nr A33.


PURPOSE
To characterize with magnetization transfer imaging the pathologic substrate of the nonspecific periventricular hyperintense white matter changes seen on T2-weighted images of elderly patients.

METHODS
Twenty-one elderly patients with periventricular hyperintense white matter on T2-weighted MR images and eleven control subjects were studied using MT technique. Magnetization transfer ratios (MTRs) were calculated for the periventricular hyperintense white matter and normal-appearing white matter. These MTRs were correlated with histopathologic changes that have previously been reported as well as with established MTRs for other lesions.

RESULTS
The MTRs (mean, 35.2; SD, 1.2) in the periventricular hyperintense white matter are lower than those in the normal white matter of the patient (mean, 40.8; SD, 1.4) and control (mean, 41.3; SD, 1.8) groups. These MTRs are much higher than those of demyelinating lesions but are similar to those of experimental lesions with just edema.

CONCLUSION
Because MTR may reflect to some extent histopathologic changes and thus provide more specificity than conventional pulse sequences, the main pathologic substrate accounting for the lower MTR in periventricular hyperintense white matter is probably the increased water content in reactive astrocytes.


Jurassic rocks, with a stratigraphic thickness close to 400 m, have been cored in 172 wells in an area of over 8,000 sq km. These rocks are quite important because they are the only rocks in Mexico of this age that produce petroleum. A lithostratigraphic study did not explain the nature of the reservoir, the time-stratigraphic method was used to comprehend the lithofacies changes, which occur at the stage level. Stratigraphic study based on analysis of cores from the western Sierra Madre Oriental established nine zones of ammonites: Wagnericeras, Kepplerites, Reineckeia, Discosphinctes, Ataxioceras, Idoceras, Virgataxioceras, Mazapilites, and Suarites (Bathonian-Tithonian). Pelecypods also were present in the cores. The common occurrence of the same fossils in other characteristic beds, which have been identified by radioactive well logs, permits their used as time-stratigraphic markers. These data were used to make subsurface structural and isopach maps. In the northwestern Poza Rica area the Middle Jurassic transgression began during the Bathonian. Later it advanced to the central, east, and west parts, and the covered area is characterized by distinct transgressive lithofacies. The last phase of the transgression was in the early Tithonian in the southeast part of the trend, and calcarenites were formed which now produce hydrocarbons (San Andres). In northwestern Poza Rica, the San Andres calcarenitic member is within the uppermost part of the lower Kimeridgian stage. The reservoirs are stratigraphic and structural traps. On the southeast the San Andres calcarenitic member can be subdivided at the stratigraphic level in the lower Tithonian; this fact is related to the occurrence of oil or salt water. End_of_Article - Last_Page 772------------


The development of Jakarta since 1965, were guided by a structured plan that are "Jakarta Master Plan 1965—1985" and "Jakarta 2005". Implementation of projects by either central goverment or local goverment in Indonesia, use a uniform system. We have 18 sectors of development project, including agriculture regional development, industry, comunications, which comprises also sectors such as land comunications and tourism. Transportation up to now are goverment functions. Provision of transportation infrastructure become either Central or Local Goverment tasks. Since the real development of an area or a city are carried out and finance by the limited budget of goverment are spend on provision of infrastructures as so that create a favourable climate for the people to develop and build their activities.  Land use development is subject to provision of infrastructures. On the other hand, activities created by land use development, needed more infrastructures, and all are an unending process. In Jakarta such kind of process were surely happened but interaction between land use development policies and development of transportation, in many cases, are influenced heavily by political will of the goverment, consistency of policies such as planning policies and others non intangable factors.  A policy on land use development of ribbon development for example (which were much preffered by the investors) are quite different with a centralized centre of activities. These policies reflect on the provision and development of transportation infrastructures. lncosistancy in such land use development policies will give a different impact on the capacity of the provided infrastructures. And that happened time to time with so many reasons. But more importants are that both policies should be integrated and in actualimplementation should be given with neccesary tools for implementation. Without the necessary tools, such as planning regulation, land use determination, taxation, regulation on land etc., that a different impact on the whole development can be expected.


EDITOR'S NOTES (Daniel Teodorescu).1. An Introduction to GIS: Concepts, Tools, Data Sources, and Types of Analysis (Daniel D. Jardine, Daniel Teodorescu) This chapter presents an overview of the GIS concepts, tools, sources of data, types of analysis, and potential applications in institutional research.2. Applications of GIS in Admissions and Targeting Recruiting Efforts (Victor J. Mora) A major strategic planning issue for college and university admissions is the development of inquiries that will, when turned into admitted students, fulfill stated institutional goals with respect to quality, quantity, and diversity. This chapter describes how GIS can be used to develop effective recruitment strategies.3. Mapping Data on Enrolled Students (Manuel Granados) This chapter discusses how institutional researchers can use GIS to examine the spatial component of enrollment data.4. Integrating GIS into the Survey Research Process (David Roy Blough) GIS can add value to several stages of survey research: research design, data analysis, and reporting. This chapter illustrates such use with examples from surveys of the market for higher education.5. Building a GIS Database for Space and Facilities Management (Nicolas A. Valcik, Patricia Huesca-Dorantes) GIS can serve as an effective tool for space planning and facilities management. This chapter describes the implementation of an integrated GIS for facilities management at a public university. The project focused on integrating utilities, spatial, and relational information as well as distributing this information over an intranet.6. Developing Enterprise GIS for University Administration: Organizational and Strategic Considerations (B. Grant McCormick) This chapter discusses the organizational challenges associated with implementing a campuswide administrative GIS. The chapter highlights opportunities as well as difficulties in using GIS in higher education administration.7. Using GIS in Alumni Giving and Institutional Advancement (Daniel D. Jardine) This chapter illustrates potential uses of GIS tools in presenting and analyzing donor information and assisting fundraising campaigns.8. Bringing GIS Analysis to Institutional Research: Resources for Practitioners (Daniel Teodorescu) The chapter presents key resources for those who want to learn more about GIS technology. The discussion includes information about GIS books, software packages, data sources, and training options.INDEX.


In this paper, we design joint information beam-forming and jamming beamforming to guarantee both transmit security and receive security for a full duplex base station (FD-BS). Specifically, we aim to maximize the secret transmit rate while constrain the secret receive rate to be greater than a predefined bound. We convert the original non-convex problem into a new sequence of subproblems where the semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation can be applied to efficiently find the optimal solutions. We strictly prove that such a relaxation does not change the optimality for these subproblems. Then the global optimal solutions of the original non-convex problem can be obtained via a one-dimensional search. Simulation results are provided to verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.


The Choice of rice varieties by farmers and consumers and the rate at which farmers in Ebonyi state go for new rice varieties at the expense of indigenous varieties have become a source of worry to scientists in Nigeria. We assessed the cooking quality and physico-chemical characteristics of 15 selected indigenous and five newly introduced hybrid rice varieties grown in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Significant variation (P<0.05) was detected among the 20 rice varieties for all the traits evaluated. The results showed that all the five newly introduced hybrid rice varieties do not swell appreciably during cooking. The grains of Cv."China" had the highest elongation values of 3.2 ± 0.00 mm. "E4197" has the best physical appearance but easily dissolves in water during cooking. Most of the physico-chemical characteristic such as amylose, amylopectin, gel consistency and gelatinization temperature were significantly correlated (positively or negatively) with some of the cooking quality traits (elongation during cooking, solids in cooking water and optimum cooking time), indicating that efforts aimed at selecting rice varieties with improved cooking quality traits would warrant a consideration of the physico-chemical attributes of the rice grain. The overall cooking quality and physico-chemical attributes of some of the indigenous rice varieties were even relatively better than the newly introduced hybrid varieties. Farmers should, therefore, be critical in accepting new varieties that may not be comparably outstanding in cooking quality and physico-chemical characteristics, in order to preserve the integrity of the all-cherished indigenous rice varieties of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.


Aspirin is effective in reducing vascular outcomes in patients with atherosclerosis: a relative risk reduction of about 30% for stroke, 22% for stroke and death and 15% for vascular mortality. It is p


We present an integrative framework for classifying drug response: CAncer Drug Response nEtworks (CADREs). We built CADREs for drugs with differential sensitivity profiles in cancer cell lines by integrating baseline copy number, gene expression, and drug sensitivity data for the cell lines. The nodes in the network are drugs and the edges are weighted according to the number of shared copy number variations, differentially expressed genes, and dysregulated pathways present in sensitive cell lines at baseline. These baseline features were mapped into pathways to generate a Pathway CADRE, and were also integrated into a differential gene expression and copy number Feature CADRE. CADREs were built for breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancers individually and combined to assess shared and unique features of drug sensitivity. Analyzing CADRE clusters associated multiple gene features and pathways with sensitivity to frontline therapies used in combination in these cancers. We identified four clusters of breast cancer drugs whose effectiveness is driven by a shared core of pathways. Compounds that were used in combination in clinical trials tended to not share an edge or are completely disconnected in networks. Specifically, ten such drug pairs in our breast CADREs have been found to work in combination in breast cancer and an additional five have been used in combination in other cancers, representing opportunities for repositioning these combinations in breast cancer. Examining highly interconnected CADRE nodes gave us an understanding for compounds that might work best together. Citation Format: Douglas Brubaker, Elena Svenson, Smith Kai, Maya Monroe, Christopher Ryu, Goutham Narla, Mark R. Chance, Gurkan Bebek. Cancer drug response networks built for comparative cancer pharmacogenomics identifies combination therapies for repositioning. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Computational and Systems Biology of Cancer; Feb 8-11 2015; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(22 Suppl 2):Abstract nr B1-43.


Due to a higher share of power production from renewable sources with high short-term variation, hydro systems must more often operate closer to their components' physical limits. To simulate system behaviour, a hydropower system simulator must therefore include most physical details. We present a simulator for hydropower investment analysis that combines a medium-term production planning model based on stochastic dual dynamic programming principles with a detailed and deterministic short-term hydro scheduling model. To reduce computation times, the system description for the short-term model may include only a snipped subset of the plants and reservoirs without deteriorating the results. The simulator is verified in a case study where an investment decision has been analysed for a Norwegian hydropower producer. The combination of medium-term optimization and short-term, detailed simulation is a useful decision support tool and provides both economic results and detailed physical information about the system behaviour.


Objectives To study the correlation between the putative cancer stem cell (CSC) markers aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1), cluster of differentiation 44 (CD44), sex-determining region Y-box 2 (SOX2), and octamer-binding protein 4 (OCT4) and human papilloma virus (HPV) infection using p16, the surrogate marker of HPV in oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) and normal mucosa. Methods Five sections each from 40 histopathologically diagnosed cases of different grades of OED and 10 cases of normal oral mucosa without dysplasia were immunohistochemically stained with p16, ALDH1, CD44, SOX2, and OCT4, respectively. Results Expression of ALDH1 and SOX2 was significantly increased in OED cases, whereas CD44 and OCT4 expression was increased in normal mucosa. P16-positive OED cases showed upregulation of ALDH1 and OCT4 expression as compared to p16-negative cases, while CD44 and SOX2 expression was downregulated in p16-positive OED cases; however, the results were not statistically significant. Conclusion The present study indicated a suggestive link between p16 and cancer stem cell marker expression in HPV-associated OED, and that p16 has a significant role in CSC progression in OED. This is the first study to evaluate the expression of putative CSC markers in HPV-associated OED. However, low study numbers are a potential limiting factor in this study.


Immigration increases the income of native capital more than it reduces the income of native labor, although the transfer of income from labor to capital is a much bigger effect. Free trade often does this too. Even aside from possible negative externalities and public finance costs to natives, however, immigration is different because if the aggregate production function has diminishing returns to private capital and labor the conclusion of increased overall income can easily be reversed. Such a production function is plausible because public capital — government capital and social capital — is unpriced and fixed, with immigrant labor receiving a portion of its benefit. Thus, even aside from fiscal effects and social externalities, whether the total income of natives rises or falls with immigration is open to doubt.


Secondary metabolites produced by plants have been known to have a variety of biological activities including antioxidants that serve to ward off oxidant compounds and free radicals. The roots of merung (Coptosapelta tomentosa) has been known to have strong activity as an antioxidant while antioxidant activity in the stem is not yet known to date.  This research aims to determine the secondary metabolites that have antioxidant activity on the root extracts and the stem of the vines qualitatively. The root extract and the stem of the merung plant are extracted with a methanol solvent using the maceration method. Antioxidant activity and identification of secondary metabolites are carried out qualitatively by the method of autography using the 2.2-Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl compound (DPPH) and some reagents of the secondary metabolite. Antioxidant activity of the merung root extract is on spot with RF 0.08 and 0.66. Spot with the RF 0.66 shows the brown color when reacted FeCl3, fluorescent yellow in UV rays 254 and 366 nm after reacted AlCl3 and red when reacted with KOH. The antioxidant activity of the merung stem extracts is at Rf 0.16, 0.33, 0.58, 0.66, and 0.75. Spot with the Rf 0.16 shows the color of brown when reacted FeCl3 and fluorescent blue in UV rays 254 and 366 nm after reacted AlCl3. Secondary metabolites that have antioxidant activity on root extracts and stems are suspected to be derivative phenolic compounds derived from flavonoid compounds.


The Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSP) is an extension of Job Shop Scheduling (JSP), which is closer to reality, allowing an operation of a given job to be processed by alternative machines. Considering that for some industries it is relevant to consider for more than one objective, the FJSP is treated in this study in a multiobjective way whit the following criteria: the last processing time of the last operation, called makespan, and the total tardiness. Therefore, it is proposed an algorithm based on the Clustering Search (CS) metaheuristic to generate solutions, and thus produce a set of non-dominated solutions in order to obtain the Pareto frontier, providing to decision maker a set of quality solutions. To evaluate the CS, we proposed a set of instances considering due dates for the jobs, to enable analysis of the bi-objective FJSP (BOFJSP). The CS results were competitive when compared to the literature, generating several non-dominated solutions.


This paper presents the Bayes Fisher information measures, defined by the expected Fisher information under a distribution for the parameter, for the arithmetic, geometric, and generalized mixtures of two probability density functions. The Fisher information of the arithmetic mixture about the mixing parameter is related to chi-square divergence, Shannon entropy, and the Jensen–Shannon divergence. The Bayes Fisher measures of the three mixture models are related to the Kullback–Leibler, Jeffreys, Jensen–Shannon, Rényi, and Tsallis divergences. These measures indicate that the farther away are the components from each other, the more informative are data about the mixing parameter. We also unify three different relative entropy derivations of the geometric mixture scattered in statistics and physics literatures. Extensions of two of the formulations to the minimization of Tsallis divergence give the generalized mixture as the solution.


Up to date, many surgical techniques have been described for biliary reconstruction. The aim of this study is to try a new surgical technique for biliary reconstruction and also to show whether intraoperative fluorescent molecular imaging (IFMI) is effective to evaluate the perfusion of the new biliary conduit. Two adult pigs were operated. Cholecystectomy and removal of the extrahepatic biliary tract were performed by robotic surgery. A duodenal conduit was created from the duodenum by open surgery. The distal end of the conduit was sutured to portohepatis by end-to-end anastomosis. The perfusion of the conduit was evaluated by photo-dynamic eye. Although the viability of both of the duodenal conduits were macroscopically evaluated as normal, it was screened by IFMI that the middle and distal parts of the conduit were not well-vascularized and that only the base portion of the conduit had sufficient blood supply. As a result, IFMI is a good intraoperative diagnostic tool for showing tissue viability. This new technique may not be used for biliary reconstruction as described here. However, the development of alternative techniques to increase the viability of the conduit may enable the use of this technique successfully.


A randomized therapeutic trial of three induction regimens for patients with lymphosarcoma and reticulum-cell sarcoma was conducted by the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) (formerly Acute Leukemia Group B.) Addition of streptonigrin, but not cyclophosphamide, to the combination of vincristine and prednisone improved the complete remission rate achieved after a 42-day induction program. The duration of the subsequent remission and survival was not influenced by the induction combination assigned. Remission maintenance with cyclophosphamide was superior to maintenance with methotrexate. The results of this study are compared with others in which advantages for three or four drug treatment regimens have been reported.


Whether polygyny is harmful for women and their children is a long-standing question in anthropology. Few studies, however, have explored whether the effect of polygyny varies for women of different wife order, and whether there are different outcomesfor theirsons and daughters.Becausemales havehigherreproductive variance, especially when they are allowed to take multiple wives, parents may have higher fi tness returns from investing in sons over daughters in polygynous households. Moreover, previous studies have found that fi rst wives and their children are advantaged over monogamous and second order wives (who marry into unions later). Here we test the predictions that children of fi rst wives will have an advantage over children to monogamous or second wives, and that sex-biased investment will be strongest among fi rst wives. Using data from the ArsiOromoofEthiopia(n~6200children)wetestwhetherassociationswithmother'swifeorderextendbeyond childhood into adulthood by examining simultaneously child survival, education and age at marriage. We fi nd that polygynous fi rst wives have no child survival disadvantage, fi rst wives' sons bene fi t in terms of longer edu-cationanddaughtershaveanearlierageatmarriagethandaughtersofmonogamouswomen.Secondwiveshave lower child survival than monogamous women, but surviving children experience advantages in later life outcomes, particularly marriage. These fi ndings challenge the view that polygynous women are always doing the ' best of a bad job ' . Rather, our results suggest that via their surviving sons and daughters there may be long-term bene fi ts for some polygynous women. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).


Although only four fragments of Pherecrates' Agathoi survive, it is still possible,
albeit with caution, to imagine that the play was aimed at degenerate aristocrats,
to whom the title of the play would refer. To try to prove this, I propose a new, detailed
exegesis of three of the four surviving fragments of the play.


An Au-Si eutectic wafer-level bonding process was developed for low-temperature vacuum packaging of MEMS devices. Using Au-Si eutectic bonding, devices were encapsulated by bonding a silicon cap wafer to a device wafer. Micromachined Pirani vacuum sensors were encapsulated in order to characterize the packaged pressures. These packages had cavity dimensions of 2.3×2.3 mm with a depth of 90 µm. Yields of 84.6% and 94.1% were achieved in packages with bond ring widths of 100 and 150 µm. With the use of getters and a pre-bond outgassing step, pressures from ≪3.7 to 23.3 mTorr were achieved. Furthermore, pressures were shown to remain stable to within ±2.5 mTorr for over 4 years of testing.


The introduction of virtual reality (VR) has made it possible to implement memory enhancement techniques such as the method of loci in a virtual setting (virtual memory palace). The studies into the virtual memory palace (VMP) have provided beneficial insight into how the memory palace can be applied to virtual environments (VEs). Moreover, these showcase the improvement in retention of the individuals after using the VMP. This thesis investigates whether a VE inspired by memory enhancement techniques can be used as a learning tool to teach employees at ING about GDPR compliances (specifically data privacy compliances). This study explored which memory enhancement techniques can be applied to the VE and how they affect the memory process. To implement this study, we performed experiments on 23 participants out of which 12 were master students (with no prior knowledge of data privacy compliances) and 11 were ING employees. The experiment involved using the designed VE, performing one test and answering one questionnaire. The test was designed to check whether the participants were able to mark the location of the information found in the VE. The questionnaire was designed to test how the participants applied the information they saw in the VE. Our results show that both the ING employees and the master students showed similar performance on the second questionnaire and shared similar preference on using the VE as a daily tool for learning. The performance in the first test wasn't 100% conclusive as some participants with low scores in the first questionnaire performed better in the second questionnaire. Using this VE, we were able to teach the participants some data privacy compliances. This thesis lays a foundation for applying VEs inspired by memory enhancement techniques in daily life situations.


Thermal methods, and particularly steam injection, are currently recognized as the most promising for the efficient recovery of heavy oil. Despite significant progress, however, important technical issues remain open. Specifically, still inadequate is our knowledge of the complex interaction between porous media and the various fluids of thermal recovery (steam, water, heavy oil, gases, and chemicals). While, the interplay of heat transfer and fluid flow with pore- and macro-scale heterogeneity is largely unexplored. The objectives of this contract are to continue previous work and to carry out new fundamental studies in the following areas of interest to thermal recovery: displacement and flow properties of fluids involving phase change (condensation-evaporation) in porous media; flow properties of mobility control fluids (such as foam); and the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on thermal recovery. The specific projects are motivated by and address the need to improve heavy oil recovery from typical reservoirs as well as less conventional fractured reservoirs producing from vertical or horizontal wells. Accomplishments for this period are presented.


A circuit based on the current feedback operational amplifier was constructed to accomplish on-line ohmic drop compensation in ultra_fast cyclic voltammetry. Firstly, its characteristics were confirmed experimentally on dummy cells. Then the reduction of anthracene in acetonitrile, a classical test example with very fast electron-trahsfer kinetics, was examined to prove them too. The results showed that this circuit could afford excellent ohmic drop compensation so that the undistorted voltammograms up to 2.2 MV·s^-1 scan rate can be recorded, and 2.5 MV·s^-1 if 5% error is tolerated.


Despite extensive evidence of the restorative effects of nature, the potential vitalizing effects of connecting with nature are yet understudied, particularly in higher education settings. University students face high levels of stress and anxiety, and may benefit from nature-based interventions that enhance positive states such as vitality. Using preliminary data from a pilot randomized controlled study with qualitative interviews, we explored the psychological experiences associated with a brief walk either in nature or an urban environment in a sample of 13 university students. The qualitative thematic analysis revealed that walking in nature was a more energizing and vitalizing experience than the urban walk. The nature walk was also found to have both affective and cognitive enhancing effects on participants. Our study highlights the usefulness of exploring subjective psychological experiences of interacting with nature, as well as supporting its restorative potential. Implications for further research and interventions are discussed.


Artistic style transfer aims at migrating the style from an example image to a content image. Currently, optimization-based methods have achieved great stylization quality, but expensive time cost restricts their practical applications. Meanwhile, feed-forward methods still fail to synthesize complex style, especially when holistic global and local patterns exist. Inspired by the common painting process of drawing a draft and revising the details, we introduce a novel feed-forward method named Laplacian Pyramid Network (LapStyle). LapStyle first transfers global style patterns in low-resolution via a Drafting Network. It then revises the local details in high-resolution via a Revision Network, which hallucinates a residual image according to the draft and the image textures extracted by Laplacian filtering. Higher resolution details can be easily generated by stacking Revision Networks with multiple Laplacian pyramid levels. The final stylized image is obtained by aggregating outputs of all pyramid levels. Experiments demonstrate that our method can synthesize high quality stylized images in real time, where holistic style patterns are properly transferred.


Dry and cold winter seasons result in very dry indoor conditions and have historically contributed to severe fires in the high and dense representation of wooden homes in Norway. The fire in Lærdalsøyri, January 2014, is a devastating reminder of town fires still posing a threat to a modern society. In order to reduce conflagration probability and consequences, it is necessary to have an accurate estimate of the current and near future fire risk to take proper planning precautions. Cloud computing services providing access to weather data in the form of measurements and forecasts, combined with recent developments in fire risk modelling, may enable smart and fine-grained fire risk prediction services. The main contribution of this study is implementation and experimental validation of a wooden home predictive fire risk indication model, as well as outlining a wooden home fire risk concept. The wooden home fire risk model focuses on the first house catching fire (indoors) in a potential conflagration event. Such a fire would be critical to intervene prior to the fire developing exterior flames and embers post flashover, and thus high likelihood of fire spread. The implemented model exploits cloud-provided weather measurements and forecasts, to predict the current- and near future fire risk at given geographical locations. It computes the indoor wooden fuel moisture content of houses that may catch fire, using measured and forecasted outdoor temperature and relative humidity, and estimates the time to flashover. The latter is found through an empirical relation with the fuel moisture content, and can be used as an indication of the fire risk, beyond the modelled single house. The model implementation was integrated into a micro-service based software system and experimentally validated at selected geographical locations, relying on weather data provided by the RESTful API's of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. The validation took place by applying the model to predefined cases, with an outcome known from observations or theory. The first part is a general evaluation of the outputs, considering three historical fires. Then, seasonal changes and natural climate variations were considered. Our evaluation demonstrates the ability to provide trustworthy and accurate fire risk indications using a combination of recorded weather data and forecasts. Further, our cloud- and micro-service based software system implementation is efficient with respect to data storage and computation time. Finally, the novel fire risk concept is demonstrated for a selected city, based on model output. It successfully depicts the implications following reduced indoor humidity by utilizing location specific fire risk contours.


Nonselective chemical vapor deposition of tungsten films on silicon and silicon dioxide substrates by remote-plasma excited argon and hydrogen gaseous mixtures at substrate temperatures below 350° C was achieved. The growth rate shows an almost linear relationship with the hydrogen partial pressure above 0.6 Torr, but depends slightly on the argon partial pressure. The hydrogen partial pressure also influences the resistivity of the deposited films. The sufficient supply of the excited hydrogen improves growth rate and film properties.


We present spatial variations of the CO J=2-1/1-0 line ratio in M83 using Total Power array data from ALMA. While the intensities of these two lines correlate tightly, the ratio varies over the disk, with a disk average ratio of 0.69, and shows the galactic center and a two-arm spiral pattern. It is high (>0.7) in regions of high molecular gas surface density, but ranges from low to high ratios in regions of low surface density. The ratio correlates well with the spatial distributions and intensities of FUV and IR emissions, with FUV being the best correlated. It also correlates better with the ratio of IR intensities (70/350mic), a proxy for dust temperature, than with the IR intensities. Taken together, these results suggest either a direct or indirect link between the dust heating by the interstellar radiation field and the condition of GMCs, even though no efficient mechanism is known for a thermal coupling of dust and bulk gas in GMCs.


In the present case of a 9-year-old girl with prominent swelling in the mental and facial regions after trauma, repeated magnetic resonance (MR) examinations were performed to evaluate areas of incision, because the swelling became worse and more prominent despite intravenous antibiotic treatment. However, there was no evidence of respiratory tract impingement or deformation, including obliteration, on MR imaging. Therefore, surgical treatment involving an incision because of facial region swelling was cancelled, and the intravenous antibiotic therapy was continued. To prevent misdiagnosis and over-treatment of young children with inflammation of the oral and maxillofacial regions, dentists, including pediatric dentists, should be aware of the clinical usefulness of MR examinations. In particular, MR examinations are non-invasive for young children, because there is no X-ray exposure, and they can be used repetitively. At the same time, the present case demonstrated that it is very difficult to understand and predict changes in the inflammation process associated with children's facial trauma.


In experiments on 4000 noninbred and CBA mice the influence of the injections of alpha-, beta- and gamma-globusin, IgG and IgM, obtained from the sera of hemostimulated and intact mice, on the intestinal microflora after irradiation has been studied. The experiments have revealed that 3 subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injections of 1 mg per mouse, made 2, 24 and 48 hours after the irradiation of the animals with gamma-rays in a dose of 700 r, considerably reduce the intensity of the accumulation of opportunistic bacteria in the small and large intestines, commonly occurring in irradiated animals. A decrease in the number of lactobacteria is less pronounced. The preparations of globulin and IgG obtained from hemostimulated mice, i.e. enriched with normal tissue antibodies, have proved to be most effective.


The acute haemodynamic effects of prenalterol, a selective adrenergic beta-I-receptor agonist were studied in eight patients with coronary heart disease. Prenalterol was administered intravenously in four increasing doses to a cumulative dose of 5.6 mg. Fifteen minutes after the last dose of prenalterol two doses of the selective adrenergic beta-I-receptor antagonist metoprolol were administered intravenously to a cumulative dose of 17-5 mg. Ten minutes after each dose cardiac output, heart rate, arterial blood pressure, pulmonary artery pressure, systolic time intervals and forearm blood flow were determined. Haemodynamic effects of prenalterol: cardiac index and heart rate increased maximally by 38% and 39% respectively. Stroke index was increased by 6-9% after the first and second dose. Mean blood pressure was increased by 9.8 mmHg. Total peripheral resistance index was reduced by 19%. The mean pulmonary artery pressure decreased by 3.8 mmHg and pulmonary resistance index was reduced by 48%. Systolic time intervals were all reduced significantly after the second dose, which reflected the positive inotropic effects of prenalterol. Forearm blood flow increased by 29% and forearm vascular resistance was decreased by 20%. Haemodynamic effects of metoprolol: the haemodynamic changes induced by prenalterol were stepwise counteracted by metoprolol. After the second dose all the haemodynamic variables had returned to the control levels. It is concluded that prenalterol possesses a considerable positive inotropic as well as positive chronotropic effect on the myocardium. Both the chronotropic and inotropic effect of prenalterol was counteracted by metoprolol.


This paper describes Olex, a novel method for the automatic induction of rule-based text classifiers. Olex supports a hypothesis language of the form "if T1 or hellip or Tn occurs in document d, and none of T1+n,... Tn+m occurs in d, then classify d under category c," where each Ti is a conjunction of terms. The proposed method is simple and elegant. Despite this, the results of a systematic experimentation performed on the REUTERS-21578, the OHSUMED, and the ODP data collections show that Olex provides classifiers that are accurate, compact, and comprehensible. A comparative analysis conducted against some of the most well-known learning algorithms (namely, Naive Bayes, Ripper, C4.5, SVM, and Linear Logistic Regression) demonstrates that it is more than competitive in terms of both predictive accuracy and efficiency.


We report the DC and RF performance of InAlN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors with AlGaN back barrier grown on SiC substrates. These presented results confirm the high performance that is reachable by InAlN-based technology. The InAlN/GaN HEMT sample showed a high 2DEG mobility of 1550 cm2/(Vs) at a 2DEG density of 1.7 × 1013 cm−2. DC and RF measurements were performed on the unpassivated device with 0.2 μm "T" gate. The maximum drain current density at VGS = 2 V is close to 1.05 A/mm in a reproducible way. The reduction in gate leakage current helps to increase the frequency performance of AlGaN back barrier devices. The power gain cut-off frequency of a transistor with an AlGaN back barrier is 105 GHz, which is much higher than that of the device without an AlGaN back barrier at the same gate length. These results indicate InAlN/GaN HEMT is a promising candidate for millimeter-wave application.


Simple Summary Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ECSWT) is widely used in sport and companion animals to treat disorders affecting muscles, joints, and bones. Using a shockwave generator, a probe is applied to the skin over the affected area. Typically, there are one to three treatment sessions at 1- to 3-week intervals. The scientific basis for the treatment has been queried. This systematic review evaluated the scientific literature on shockwave therapy used in horses, dogs, and cats. The review revealed that only weak scientific evidence exists for favourable effects in conditions affecting bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles in horses and dogs. No scientific article on the use of shockwave therapy in cats was available. Reasons for the weak scientific evidence were that studies were few, most involved only a small number of animals, many had methodological problems, or, when favourable results were reported, they were not replicated in independent studies. Thus, in sport and companion animals, the scientific evidence for the clinical effects of ECSWT in horses, dogs, and cats is limited. For a few indications, notably short-term pain relief, ligament ailments, and osteoarthritis, some results appear promising, warranting further exploration in high-quality studies. Abstract Background: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ECSWT) is increasingly used to treat different types of musculoskeletal conditions in sport and companion animals. To explore the scientific basis for the treatment, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on ECSWT used in horses, dogs, and cats. Methods: Relevant articles published in 1980–2020 were identified from three major databases. Each article was assessed for risk of bias. Results: The review identified 27 relevant articles on the effects of ECSWT in horses, nine in dogs, but none in cats. Typically, ECSWT involved one to three treatment sessions at 1- to 3-week intervals. We identified studies on bone mass and bone healing, wound healing, navicular disease, ligament injury, desmitis, sesamoiditis, tendon injury, osteoarthritis, and short-term analgesic effects. Common to all indications was that the scientific evidence was very limited. For each separate indication, there were relatively few studies, many of which had methodological flaws. Where favorable results were reported, they were usually not replicated in independent studies. A few encouraging results were found. Conclusions: In sport and companion animals, the scientific evidence for clinical effects of ECSWT in horses, dogs, and cats is limited. For some applications, notably short-term pain relief, ligament ailments, and osteoarthritis, the results seem promising and warrant further exploration in high-quality studies.